“We love you drunk Ted.”

i am becoming more and more obsessed with bones.

and i think i have a crush on david boreanaz. like officially.

I stayed up far later than I should have but I really wanted to watch Jimmy’s show on tv and see how it seems in it’s original context. I have watched clips online, but I have been interested to see how the whole thing goes.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Maybe it’s because I spent ages 15 to 19 crushing on him while he was on SNL that I was so easily amused and even sort of charmed, but I thought that the show was good. With any show like that, it needs to evolve and grow, but I think Jimmy is a capable enough host and will wear the part more naturally as time goes on.

Anyway, just wanted to leave my two-sense before heading off to babysit for a few hours.

Specifically: South Park, Family Guy, American Dad, The Simpsons. I never got into South Park, even though it’s been on since I was 11 (over ten years now…). I liked Family Guy when all my guy friends in college liked it, but by my junior year it started feeling played out—especially with everyone quoting it left and right. American Dad (and the pending Cleveland spin-off, I expect) is downright annoying. And, I used to watch The Simpsons on a daily basis, but I just can’t tolerate it anymore.

I’m not sure if it’s the bright colors or the unpleasant sounds and voices on the shows, but they just make me hostile. You’d think I’d appreciate the cultural commentary these shows provide, but I feel like they’re so contrived. It’s the same old song with all of the aforementioned shows: poke holes in the mainstream. Ultimately they try way too hard to be subversive and I think it defeats the purpose. Then again, I haven’t given two minutes of my time to any of those shows in years. (I did appreciate the Scientology South Park episode.)

I don’t mind Futurama. I’m not big on Adult Swim, but Robot Chicken is pretty good along with Aquateen Hungerforce too.

While I hated Spongebob Squarepants from the minute it first came on when I was maybe 12 or 13, I actually don’t mind it now. It’s one of Nick’s better shows, I think. It’s a lot smarter of a show than I gave it credit for as a teenager.

I catch myself watching Disney childrens’ programming (much better than Nick’s—and with fewer toy commercials too) once in awhile, but I am really just interested in that particular genre of television in general.

So there it is. And, I’m not the only one who feels this way; my brother hates cartoons too.

Watching this show on MTV tonight.

Features five reporters with varied physical and mental disabilities travelling the country. When I first started watching I was so taken aback—I thought, is this for real? Is MTV making a joke out of these people?

I was so confused that I untucked myself from bed and googled the show and found out that it is for real—not an intended exploitation of people with disabilities, but perhaps an attempt to move disability from being a taboo to being accepted.

The front page of the site linked here reminds us that humor is an important part of living with a disability—living in general!—so it is okay to laugh at some of the material.

I’m torn. Is that a caveat that just makes us feel better for laughing at disabled people? I mean, really, it could just be marketing. Or is it stated in earnest?

I’ve got some more thoughts on this, but I want to watch more of the show before I make more commentary.

retuta:

I secretly like it when Simon rips the blind guy to shreds in American Idol.

Well, Scott shouldn’t even be on the show in the first place. His spot in the top 36 was a total ratings grab and after that he was overhyped in his group. His performances thus far have been disconnected and misguided. He’s certainly talented and skilled, but his performances feel recited and unexciting.

The worst of it is that people eat it right up because they’re so impressed that someone can learn music and play piano without seeing. I feel like there is a morbid fascination on his disability and people seem to think that it is such a struggle to be musical at that degree without sight. But let’s stop for a minute and think—does Elton John stare at his hands when he plays? Does he read sheet music during his performances? What about other famous piano players—Billy Joel, Carol King, even Matt Giraud! Scott McIntyre isn’t doing anything different than anyone else in his field is expected to do. Paula Abdul’s constant praise sort of epitomizes what I imagine is the majority opinion about Scott—these people are always impressed at least and blown away at best. The bar is set high based simply on the novelty of his blindness.

Simon is perhaps more cynical than the other judges, but he is really the voice of reason and objectivity. He’s not “ripping into” Scott—he is simply telling him the truth. And the truth is that Scott is at a stage in the competition where he can no longer compete.

meesters:

I guess you and dad would be movin’ on up
the upper east side, to a dee-lux aparment,
in the sky high-high-high.

We all knew it was only a matter of time before we heard The Jeffersons’ theme on Gossip Girl.

I’m sort of annoyed with American Idol right now. I like a lot of this year’s contestants, but the judges are really grinding my gears with their contradictory messages.

There’s a bigger focus on “artistry” this year than I’ve noticed in more recent seasons and I think a lot of that has to do with David Cook and his tendency to borrow arrangements or create his own arrangements of songs. This way, regardless of the theme, the song always fit his style, his sound rather than him conforming to the theme. That’s sort of the challenge with themes—do you make the theme fit you or does the theme eat you up and spit you out? Cook most definitely raised the bar for this year’s Idols, so, as you might expect, the judges are very concerned with the contestants “making the song their own” and sort of crafting their identity as ~artists~. The judges seem to be hinting—both subtley and not-so subtley—that the contestants should strive for “artistry,” Kara Dioguardi’s term, by tweaking song arrangements or even boldly rearranging songs. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this recommendation, but I do have a problem with the demand for “artistry.”

Let’s remember, the broader purpose of the show is to find a pop performer with the most viability as a brand which can then be marketed and sold. The point of branding is to invoke a mass audience and hold their attention while crafting a very specific identity. So, for the likes of Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell, that means that Matt Giraud is only allowed to perform riff-y, jazz-y r&b piano tunes; Allison Iraheta can only do these rock-y power ballads (though she has yet to slip up); and Anoop Desai can only do smooth slow jamz-y ballads, and so on and so forth. The contestants have already been branded by the show and any performance contrary to the brand is labeled “self-indulgent.”

What really frosts my cookies is the judges’ “you chose the wrong song” lament and ensuing recommendations of what might have better. At the very least, these can be taken as naggy I-told-you-so’s, but what they really mean is that the contestant has failed to perform their assigned niche sound with their own choice. If the contestants’ own personal preferences hold them back from achieving a sense of real artistry in their performances, how are they supposed to achieve any sense of artistry?

My point is that I think it is ridiculous for a show like American Idol to demand artistry out of the contestants when they really want the contestants to hawk some pretend “artistry” from within their assigned niche. There’s no room for real artistry, just “artistry” a la David Cook.

But alas, I will keep watching and probably keep griping about how the show is a sham. I can’t stay away!

Ok wait, final thought: isn’t art, by it’s very nature, self-indulgent?

When the fifth season of Project Runway was airing, I had just finished college and moved home. Today, Bravo is apparently airing a marathon of the season and besides the general sense of holy shit, I can’t believe it’s been so long, I’m really struck by how endearing Suede is.

When it first aired, I was all about Kenley. Despite her unpleasant attitude, I really liked her style and design aesthetic. Kenley’s drama kind of ate up the last handful of episodes and Suede’s sort of wide-eyed optimistic attitude got lost in the mix.

His attitue is just so refreshing when you’ve got the battle of Leanne and Korto vs Kenley going on. Even with his way of talking about himself in the third person, he is just so nice the whole time, doesn’t pick on anyone, and just worries about his own work. Granted, he was not where the drama was on the show, but watching this again, I want to know more about Suede and what his story is. He’s sort of an underrated character it seems like now.

Southland is the story of how Ryan Atwood grew up and became a tough but lovable cop.

Guess who’s going to work for the Obama administration….