Shame on You, Emmy Voters!

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As a Television major, I care a lot about the Emmy’s…probably a little too much. Every year I get my hopes up, thinking they’ll actually recognize the best of the best of television. With so much good stuff on television, despite what most people say, there should be little room for crap. Shouldn’t there? 

Yet every year I am beyond disappointed. Yes, sometimes they get it right, awarding low-rated yet amazing shows like Arrested Development and 30 Rock, but most of the time, they just go with big names and past winners, without, it would appear, even WATCHING half of what’s on television.

If they did watch, they would be EMBARRASSED by leaving off such names as Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton for their work on Friday Night Lights (which itself was left of the list to make room for Boston Legal!? Really, Emmy voters? Does David E. Kelley have naked pictures of all of you? Huge checks made out in your name?) If you watched just one episode of FNL and saw the movingly real and honest performances these two people gave, you would be ASHAMED! Ashamed I tell you!

Equally upsetting on the comedy front, of all the CBS comedies, including my personal favorite How I Met Your Mother (Neil Patrick Harris? Jason Segal? How could this NOT be funny!), and others which (I’ve been told) are consistenly funny, Big Bang Theory and New Adventures of Old Christine, you had to go with Two and a Half Men? REALLY Emmy Voters? Are sex and fart jokes that funny? Am I missing something? Is it just because you nominated them last year so to prove you were right then you have to do it again now? Sadly, it also beat out Weeds! WEEDS! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize Charlie Sheen was more interesting than celebrated actress Mary Louise Parker. I must have been mistaken. And you didn’t just give them a nod in the best comedy category, you also had to give them supporting nods as well? Bah! So no room for John Krasinski and Jenna Fisher? No room for Kevin Dillon? Yeah, that makes perfect sense. 

I mean, yes, there are some positives. 30 Rock got a lot of deserved love (as well as every guest star of the season, apparently) as did Pushing Daisies, Dexter, Mad Men, and Lost, but it all just feels like more of the same. Every year the same list gets published and every year I’m disappointed. I won’t even get into past disappointments. (No Lauren Graham? No Kristen Bell? WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE WATCHING!?!) I know it will never change no  matter how many times they change the voting rules. There is too much to watch and too few people who care to really try. I know that. And I know I will still watch, because really, what else do I have to do. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be hurling things at the television while I do it. I mean, James Spader!? Really!?

If you want to see the whole list, check it out here. Maybe you can make sense of it all. Also check out my secret online boyfriend Michael Ausiello’s take. See? I’m not alone, I tell you!

Some thoughts on my way home from dinner…

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As I walked home, I listened to a Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me clip show of sorts, compiling various celebrity interviews from the past year. While playing a quiz game with guest Kevin Clash, they invited Kevin’s alter ego, Elmo of Sesame Street fame, to answer some questions as well. Kevin answered the first question correctly. Elmo, sadly, answered the second question incorrectly. When recapping, the host was careful to say, “The Team of Kevin and Elmo has answered one question right and one question wrong,” as if to not upset three-year-old Elmo for missing a question. I found myself feeling bad for Elmo too. I hoped they would win so Elmo wouldn’t feel he lost the prize for Megan, the listener. Then I worried about myself. I think this says a lot about my attachment to Sesame Street characters…a lot that frightens me. 

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I followed the Hood blimp all the way home, as I live a block away from Fenway Park. I feel guilty for never going to games. I should look into this. I don’t love baseball, but baseball games are a summer past time. Maybe going would lift my mood. I think it would. 

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I had my first pilates class tonight. For a class that takes place almost entirely on your back or in a sitting position, I feel ridiculously tired. I hope this speaks more to the difficulty of the class than to my fitness level. 

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After eating sweet potatoes fries for the third time in a week tonight at Sunset Cantina (the previous two times were frozen from Trader Joe’s), I’ve decided I could live on nothing else. Forever. 

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This is my third post today. New Record!

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I think Jon and Kate Plus 8 makes normal people never want to have children, but for some reason, it makes me want to. Aiden and Leah are just so damn cute! (see below) Little glasses win me over every time. (This thought was more thought while watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 after arriving home.)

Damn you, Television

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So I’m watching Gilmore Girls, and I just can’t take the happy, coupley-ness of this particular season 2 episode. (Rory and Dean back together…Max and Lorelai engaged…cue lonely Amanda vomiting), so I switch the channel to The Royal Tenenbaums, where, right on cue, Luke Wilson attempts suicide. Wonderful. 

I think the television is too accurately capturing my current emotions, and it’s freaking me out. Especially when all this love and suicide comes on the heels of a conversation with my mom about my deepening summer depression. Thanks, television. You were supposed to be my escape. 

And so this isn’t too depressing, I’ll post a picture that has made me laugh way to many times this past week:

I don’t know why it’s so funny….

And now a picture that I think sums of my life of late:

Snowball Effect

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Once I don’t post for a few days, it creates this horrible snowball effect where I feel I either have too much or too little to talk about. I just can’t bring myself to post anything when I feel like way too much has happened to discuss in one coherent post, SO in order to rid myself of this feeling, I will not be writing a coherent post. Here goes:

In the past week I have traveled to:

Ohio: to visit my high school friends and to help my mom pick up a foot board. 

Syracuse: to watch my sister receive her Master’s degree from Newhouse. 

Back to Delaware: for three days, where I have become a bum, watching “Jon and Kate Plus 8″ marathons on TLC. 

In the past week I have seen:

My best high school friends: Liz and Kaitlin, both of whom are probably moving to New York after graduation, making the moving to New York myself thing look much more appealing. 

My grandparents: whom  I haven’t seen all semester. 

My sister: who is now home and yelling at me for sleeping in so late. 

Jillian: who came to stay with me for a day, but then had to endure shopping for kitchen supplies with me. I did take her to see Baby Mama though!

In the past week, I have watched:

Whitney win ANTM!: I cannot BELIEVE she won! This has caused me to have to rethink everything about Tyra and ANTM. I guess they had to let a plus size girl win sometime…

Calvin do a spot on Tyra impression on Greek: “I have two beautiful ladies standing before me. One is a beautiful girl, but has no personality. The other takes gorgeous photos, but is plus sized.” I couldn’t love this show more. 

The showdown of the David’s come to fruition on AI: Thank god for David Cook or I would resent being forced to watch American Idol week after week. 

In the next week I will: be moving back to Boston for the summer. I originally thought I was just going to be living with my little from the sorority, Lynn, but now it looks like Lynn and I get an unknown roommate. I’m sure she’s nice and fine, but I feel that I’m at that point in my college career where I don’t want to live with people I don’t know anymore. I somehow lucked out completely, getting an amazing freshman year roommate, but my sophomore year was effectively killed by the random roommates my friends and I had to deal with. Now, I’ve been living with my friends for a year, and it makes SUCH a difference in how comfortable I feel with my living situation. Even if we don’t get along, at least I know that going in, and I feel like I can talk to them. This is the main reason I didn’t sign up to live in BU housing this summer. That and the lack of microwaves in the apartments. I just have to keep chanting to myself: I won’t prejudge. I won’t prejudge.

I’m also having minor meltdowns about not going back to camp this summer, but that is a whole other post. 

Anyone else have any exciting summer plans?

A Small Rant About The Hills

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Something about The Hills has been bothering me for some time now. I’d talked about it with Jillian and Grace (read: ranted it about it until they yelled at me to shut up because Lo was talking), and then I read the Rolling Stone cover article about them, which articulated my problem with The Hills beautifully. 

Basically, I hate how they never acknowledge The Hills on The Hills. They actively hide who these girls really are and who they have become. Yes, when it started, Lauren was a “small town girl” moving to the big city. She didn’t have any connections, and she wasn’t a huge celebrity. That is no longer the case. The show completely omits aspects of their lives that would be so much more interesting to follow than Lauren’s non date with Steven. I mean, they acted like the biggest thing Lauren did during LA Fashion Week was helping out at a show with People’s Revolution when in actuality, SHE PREMIERED HER OWN LINE! That is a huge deal! But no, The Hills can’t mention that because it was mean Lauren was special, that being the star of her own reality show gave her opportunities no one else would get, and that isn’t what this show is about. This show is about real young people trying to make it in LA. It’s about their ever exciting social lives and entry-level jobs. Please…

I just hate feeling insulted by television. I mean, we can figure out she is getting special treatment when she buys a million dollar home in Hollywood to live in with her friends. I don’t think even her parents would be able to buy her a house that nice. It has a guest house, for Pete’s sake. So why can’t they show why she can afford that home? Why can’t they show Lauren working on her own line, or Heidi (god help us) working on her “music career.” That would be great television! I feel insulted both as a viewer and as a student of the medium of television. (Also insulting, Spencer’s idea of good children’s names: see The Soup for evidence.)

Now, I know this is a stupid subject to rant about. “Just stop watching it!” you’re screaming at your computer. “No one is forcing you to watch the Lauren and Heidi show.” I will concede that this is true, but that brings me to the real thing I hate most about The Hills. I can’t stop watching! I’ve tried. I really have. But it’s just so pretty and weirdly addicting. And all my friends watch it. And now I’ve been to half the places they go to, so it builds my feelings of coolness while it slowly eats away at my soul. Plus, if I didn’t watch it, what would I rant about? 

Things I’m Loving Right Now

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1. The Paper : This show about high school is actually like real high school! Novel idea! I totally knew these kids in high school, and now I’m totally hooked. Plus, the narrator’s name is Amanda. Automatic love.

2. This purse: 

It’s big. It’s purple, and it’s got two different sized straps. What more could I ask for?

3. Michael Ian Black and Ken Marino on Reaper: Two of my favorite random guest starts from old shows (Ed and Veronica Mars respectively) playing a gay demon couple: sold. *

4. Twitter: Seriously. It’s like internet crack. 

5. All of my television shows coming back: The Office, 30 Rock, Gossip Girl, Greek, How I Met Your Mother, Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs…I’m drowning in new episodes of fabulous television. 

6. Cooking my mom’s recipes: I’ve made many friends this week making brisket, cheesy potatoes, and chocolate covered matzo. So delicious. 

7. John Oliver’s rant about the oreo pizza: During his special, John Oliver: Terrifying Times, around the 16 minute mark, he discusses the patriotic nature of the oreo pizza. I laughed to tears. Really, the whole thing is gold. 

*Ah! During the writing of this post, the devil killed my favorite gay demons. Sadness. Stupid devil. Wait! One came back, but is now evil. Still…sadness.

A Glimpse of What’s to Come

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I feel I’ve neglected you, dear blog! This week has been crazy ridiculous. I didn’t even twitter today. *GASP* A giant amazing post is forthcoming, but to give you a taste, it includes not only me going to a taping of “The Soup” (Joel McHale totally talked to me out of ALL the kids in my class. OMGZ FANGIRL SQUEEE….and I loathe myself….) but also Jeremy Piven coming to my friend’s 21st birthday party. For real. Oh, LA…

Oh, and while it’s on my mind, Jim and Pam make me drip loneliness. I literally threw a pillow across the room when he pulled out the ring, both out of a ridiculous amount of excitement for them (Yes, I am that invested in fictional characters), and out of my own self pity. Damn the lack of real Jim’s in the world. Damn.

A Good Start

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This weekend has started surprisingly well, and it hasn’t even technically started yet. At work yesterday, my boss informed me that they again didn’t need me on Friday. Obviously, I took this as an excuse to go out last night, as all of my friends routinely go out on Thursday, while I stay in, watch Lost, and go to bed early in order to get up early for work. Anyway, we ended up, after some wandering around Hollywood Blvd, at CineSpace. At night it’s a club, obviously, but I want to go back earlier in the day slash night, because it’s actually a movie theater where they serve you dinner! Fabulous combination of things, in my opinion. Sadly, though, I found out that the cast of the Office (!!!!) was at a bar a ton of our friends went to, but we decided against. Unbelievable opportunity missed. Me drunk around the cast of The Office may have been a life highlight. 

This morning, sadly, was not fantastic, as I definitely felt every drink I had last night. I stumbled downstairs to do laundry, had enough money on my laundry card to do the wash, and then discovered I had no cash to refill the card with for the dryer. Sadly, I only had a dollar and the stupid laundry machine only takes fives, tens, and twenties. Boo. I then set off on an adventure to find cash that lasted hours, while my clothes sat wet downstairs. Classy. 

Luckily, the journey to find cash took me to Coffee Bean and to the nail salon to get a pedicure. Two activities that are always winners in my life. I finally got change at Urban Outfitters and was able to start my laundry again. Hopefully, it won’t be all gross when I go get it. Maybe my day didn’t go so well after all…but my toe’s look super pretty, so I’m happy. 

OH! And joy of joys that NBC Thursday night comedies are back. I may have teared up from laughing at 30 Rock, and The Office obviously never disappoints. I was surprised at Jim almost abandoning Pam at the party, but I guess that just drives the point home of how terrible this get together was: Jim was willing to abandon the woman he pined away for for years just to get out of there. Tough stuff.

My Life on the Big Screen

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Sadly, I started writing this entry last night, got too tired, then figured I could just write it at work. It is now 1:30, and the only reason I have time to finish it now is because everyone is at lunch watching the How I Met Your Mother  episode with Britney Spears, and I had to escape, having already suffered through Britney acting four times. Of course, they had to watch the newest episode that I haven’t seen while I was making my lunch only to turn on last week’s when I got in the room. Life is truly unfair.

Anyway, to the topic of the post: Last night while watching The Hills, I was excited to see that the girls had returned to LA so I could now obsess over every locale the girls go to, figuring out if I have been there or not. Last night, I did pretty well. Heidi and her nameless co-worker dined at Food Court LA, where we ate for my roommate’s birthday. Audrina, Lauren, and Lo discussed something super important (as everything on that show is) at Lola’s, a bar we went to on our first weekend in LA, and Heidi and the same co-worker walked to Bolthouse, which is a block away from one of my offices! I looked for my car parked on the street in the background, but alas, it wasn’t there. To make up for it, they showed an establishing shot of my apartment complex. I feel like a true Los Angelean (Los Angelesian? Los Angelen? Whatever…), except for that whole never wanting to actually move here thing.

When I thought about my excitement over The Hills, I remembered that only last Friday, I had the same feeling but with good old Boston U. We had a special screening of “21″ for our program, since they filmed the movie on our campus last winter. (No, MIT wouldn’t let them film on their campus. Yes, my best friend saw Kate Bosworth at our gym.) In the movie, I saw Kate Bosworth make eyes at Jim Sturgess beneath the track where I run. I saw Jim Sturgess run into the dorm a block away from my old dorm where I ate lunch almost every day last year. I saw the entire cast strut down the hallway of the College of Arts and Sciences where I myself have strut to class a good number of times. It was kind of odd, because they kept saying it was MIT, when clearly to me it was nothing like MIT. It almost took me out of the story. I got over it, however, because my school was in a movie…and that’s pretty cool.

Alright, well, this post really had no point except to point out that I am closely connected to various sets of both film and television. It also served as a nice break from the constant stream of reading I’ve been doing for the past two days at work. My eyes are blurry from going back and forth between scripts and my computer. Thankfully, my professor is out of town this week, so I’m free after work to do whatever I please, which sadly is probably read, BUT I will read whatever I please! Take that world!

“You Know You Love Me”

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Aaannnd, I’m back. Back to LA. Back to Work. Back to tiredness.

Our journey to San Diego was fabulous. We stayed in my uncle’s beach house, which looks more like an Italian Villa, relaxed on the beach, ate some amazing food, and watched Everyday Italian about 7 times, prompting us to eat our fair share of gelato and Italian food. On Friday, I met up with my parents, who are in town for my cousin’s bar mitzvah, and spent Friday and Saturday with the family. My parents drove me up to LA Saturday, and I showed them all the highlights of my area, even the CVS and Trader Joe’s. Exciting stuff. They were impressed by the sandwiches at Joan’s on Third, though, but really, who isn’t?

Now that I’ve breezed through those four days, I can spend a little time reminiscing about the amazingness that was Saturday night. Jillian and I scored tickets to the Gossip Girl Panel at PaleyFest ’08 back in January. We (or I) decided on the GG event back when few people were confirmed for the Friday Night Lights event and the Pushing Daisies event was already sold out, so GG seemed a good choice. I thought it would be quality, but let me just say that my expectations for the night were exceeded. The panel was hilarious, interesting, and entertaining. The only downside was having to get there early (which did help us score some sweet seats), and the annoying 14-year old girls beside me (who sadly reminded me of myself at all those *Nsync concerts).

The night started with the reveal that the moderator was Tim Stack from Entertainment Weekly – only my favorite magazine of all time. (It made up for missing Michael Ausiello of TV Guide, my favorite television writer, moderating the FNL panel.) Then Josh Schwartz, the inspiration for Seth Cohen and the youngest person to ever create an hour-long drama for network television (only a little something called The O.C. – now the producer behind both Gossip Girl and Chuck) came out to introduce a nice clip reel wrapping up the season thus far. After the clip package, the entire cast and creative team came up on stage. The girls looked beautiful, the boys adorable, and the panel began. Some of the boys seemed to think they were a little too cool for school at the start, but after a while, everyone opened up and had a discussion that was truly entertaining and informative. My favorite parts were probably Blake Lively discussing her mad guitar hero skills, Tim Stack asking about Josh Schwartz’s aversion to parties, and the constant references to a future appearance by a gay, jewish monkey on the show. To read a professional recap, you can go check out The Futon Critic.

After the panel ended with Tim Stack giving the smack down to some obnoxious girls in the audience who asked about the cast’s personal lives (really?), the crowd swarmed the stage for pictures and autographs. I didn’t for a second pretend to be above this practice and ran up as well. Jillian and I were quickly fearful for our lives as we were surrounded with young girls and creepy old paparazzi men with really bad BO. We kept getting close to the actors only to have them walk to another part of the stage. We also realized we didn’t have pens. Our lone goal then became getting a photo. We got the closest to Blake Lively, but the publicists and body guards started rounding everyone up. We saw our chance slipping away so we pushed our way over to the stairs where the cast was heading out. We got Blake Lively’s attention and asked her for a picture. She couldn’t have been nicer! She said absolutely, even as they were pulling her away. I went to take the picture of her and Jillian, when she goes “Do you want to be in the picture too?” I half answered something incoherent as she happily handed my camera to a girl next to us and asked her to take the picture for us. Success! My goal of getting a photo with a celebrity is fulfilled. I’ve also now seen one half of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, as I spotted Alexis Bledel at the doctor’s office.

So that was my first foray into PaleyFest. It only hit me a while later that I was that close to the cast of Gossip Girl. Oh, and Leighton Meester and Blake Lively are completely that beautiful in person. Flawless. Seriously. It’s unfair. I really do love that show more than I should. It’s just so saucy. Tonight is the night of other shows I shouldn’t love so much. It starts out with a little How I Met Your Mother (very acceptable – excellent show), moves into some Greek, (quality but underrated. Seriously. You should watch it), and ends with The Hills (so terrible, but SO addicting. I can’t help myself.) I’m off to prepare!

(To see the rest of my sweet panel pics, go here. Enjoy!)