Archive for tv
January 25, 2009 at 7:14 pm · Filed under moon (rachel), peter, tv
We finally convinced Peter to work on his German dialog, which is 60% of his final. (Tomorrow is the last day of finals, which were pushed back a few days due to dangerous windchills, school cancellation, blah blah blah.) Moon is helping him, because of course hers is done, despite the fact that she would have an A in the class even if she skipped the final. Because that’s how she rolls.
Anyway, I thought I’d remove myself from the situation because I know if I’m sitting there I will interject unwanted comments, and my deep desire for Peter to pass his classes will emit desperation rays and distract everyone from the task at hand.
This has been a busy weekend. Moon and Pete had master class at Good ‘n Loud yesterday, which was a wild ride of difficult music including Rush’s YYZ. (For some reason, my mind shuts down when I speak that song title. I’ve called it XYZ, XYY and XXY. Hey, there aren’t any lyrics, so it could be about chromosome abnormalities.)
I’ve been knitting as usual and have already finished some new projects. Now I’m back to working on my Cassidy. The back and front panels are done, and I’ve started the first sleeve. At this rate, I won’t finish until spring, but that might be okay. The yarn is kind of an in-between weight.
In other news, I convinced the family to get AT&T U-verse, which means we have (1) DVR, and (2) way more channels than ever before. The DVR thing is way, way better than having to use videotape. And it’s been a culture shock getting used to watching quality programming such as The Colbert Report whenever we’d like. Remember when I eschewed television as opiate for the masses? And was proud that I’d never seen an episode of Friends? Yeah. I kind of think TV is awesome now.
January 2, 2009 at 4:51 pm · Filed under tv
We’re all doing much better, thanks. Also, as of last night the kids and I are completely caught up with Lost. Which means we can watch new episodes with everyone else, yay. My mind is still kind of reeling from the finale, but fortunately there are some cool and helpful special features on the DVD set. (A collection of the flash-forwards in order, for one.)
I haven’t been back to the pool yet, but I’m thinking about going tomorrow. One must be sure to be virus-free before sharing fluid space with others.
October 20, 2008 at 10:47 am · Filed under tv
Dance fans, we saw the SYTYCD tour performance in Green Bay on Saturday, and it was (imagine my sing-song voice) fabulous! We found out there was a meet-and-greet outside after the performance, so we stood and waited and got to meet everyone except Courtney. Moon collected autographs on her program, and got Mark and Gev to sign the 8x10s she had bought. Wait … I had bought. It was my money.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun, even Peter, who insisted on mocking the cold by taking off his hoodie and standing around in his shorts and t-shirt. At least it wasn’t January.
I didn’t sleep very well in the hotel bed, but I’m recovering. Happy Monday.
September 30, 2008 at 8:36 am · Filed under friends, heroes, shopping
- This shirt made me smile this morning, and it also made me think of Jodi.
- Kim sold a greeting card to Jonah Hill. She lives in LA now, so opportunities to rub shoulders with celebrities happen far more often than they do in Madison. (And needless to say, more often than they would in Somonauk, IL.) Her creations are available to us little people, too!
- Heroes last night was all kinds of awesome. I’m even willing to overlook some of last week’s continuity problems because sort-of-good Sylar rocks so very hard. Plus, Mama Petrelli “feeding” her child? Deliciously evil!
- I don’t want to speak too soon, but I think the dizziness that has plagued me for the past two weeks is subsiding.
- Flock is really slow lately. I’ve been using Chrome, and I love that it doesn’t crash like Firefox does, but I miss all the extensions. I hope Google hurries up and (a) releases a Mac version of Chrome, (b) creates an email checker.
July 20, 2008 at 7:25 pm · Filed under idol
Here’s the whole photo set. I only uploaded the better pictures. Moon took lots of concert photos, but our seats were not good enough for them to come out very well. I’ve learned not to reserve floor seats unless they’re right in front. Now I know!
July 19, 2008 at 8:37 am · Filed under idol
So, I was going to try to post every day all month, since July’s topic is FOOD. And I love food. But somewhere along the line, I lost my momentum. But I have two announcements today:
1. Dark Knight rocks.
2. American Idol concert tonight. Woo!
That is all.
May 21, 2008 at 8:39 pm · Filed under idol
There were so many awesome things tonight about American Idol (I’ll selectively forget the cheesy things, okay?) that I had to write a few of them down.
- The SYTYCD dancers. It was almost as fun as seeing the top 12 idols on stage again. How excited are we about the new season? (Answer: A substantial amount.)
- Michael Johns and Carly Smithson’s duet. I just wish he had been wearing a cravat.
- Getting to see and hear David Hernandez and Amanda Overmyer. I can’t imagine that big group numbers are Amanda’s thing, but I wish she were going to be on the tour anyway.
- “You are my brother.” Cheesy, but good. Marching band style.
- The dual Guitar Hero commercials, which made me do a double-take. The first time, because it took me a minute to realize Hey! That’s David Cook! The second time, because I expected DC again.
- The fact that both Davids are extraordinarily talented, and I would have been cool with either of them winning. Sure, DC was my favorite, but I really thought DA was going to win.
- The Cook family. I’ve been thinking for a week that Andrew reminds me of someone. Now I know: Dwight Schrute’s cousin Moze. (David as Dwight, I guess.) Seriously, the Cooks seem pretty cool.
- ZZ Top. On American Idol.
On the other hand, The Love Guru? Cringe-inducing. And Paula’s cleavage? Scary.
That’s all. I’m psyched for the tour. I’m such a nerd.
May 16, 2008 at 7:10 am · Filed under idol
During our Mother’s Day visit to my parents’ house, the topic of conversation naturally turned to American Idol. Why? Because they know we’re watching, and we’ll be buying tickets to the tour. (So right! I already bought the tickets during the pre-sale! Secret word: POPTARTS.)
“Who’s your favorite?” asked my dad.
“We’ve been David Cook fans pretty much all along,” I said, adding charitably, “although I think all the top 3 are very talented.” I figured they probably really, really liked cute little David Archuleta.
“Oh, David Cook is definitely the best,” Dad answered. “He’s a rock star.”
This, coming from my 80-year-old father, made me smile. Talent is talent.
February 22, 2008 at 9:44 am · Filed under idol
“Paint that door and that knob and go for it.” – Paula Abdul
I am so totally going to start using that.
December 3, 2007 at 9:28 pm · Filed under heroes
Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But … I have to admit it was still a pretty great episode.
Now I’ll be able to go to choir practice on Monday nights. I promised I’d be in chime choir during the holidays. I’m also going to dust off my clarinet, believe it or not.
November 8, 2007 at 4:53 pm · Filed under idol, moon (rachel)
All four of us have been dead tired today, but the SYTYCD show was well worth the extra fatigue. First of all, dinner at Mader’s was most excellent (and not overly filling, because SpiritMan and I split an entree). We all chose filet mignon, and we shared a crab cake appetizer and two desserts (cherry strudel and a rich chocolate fudgy cake thingy). Our show tickets were outstanding. Moon took some terrific photos, and the dancing was every bit as good as I expected it to be.
The only down side was that a weekday concert meant we had to hightail it out of Milwaukee without trying to find the tour bus. We just didn’t have the extra hour or so to spare waiting around. As it was, we didn’t get home until 12:30 a.m. Moon still had her contacts in, Turbo wanted to sleep, and they were both borderline crabby.
Moon and I succumbed to the tour swag, though. I have to say, the merchandise was wayyy improved over last year’s. Especially the cute silhouette t-shirts of each of the top four. I bought Moon the Neil shirt and photos of both Neil and Danny, and we also picked up a show program. I’m hoping to post photos if she cooperates.
Next year, I hope they schedule Milwaukee for a weekend date.
November 6, 2007 at 10:21 pm · Filed under idol
We’re all excited because we have tickets for the So You Think You Can Dance tour stop at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee tomorrow evening. I’m taking Moon out of school early so we’ll have time for dinner at Mader’s beforehand.
What could be cooler?
May 21, 2007 at 7:56 am · Filed under heroes
Coolest Flickr group ever. Now I’m going to want to do my own self-portrait, I just know it. Hmm, what’s my superpower?
March 28, 2007 at 3:28 pm · Filed under idol
Ugh, Television Without Pity has been acting up all day, and I’m going through withdrawal because I can’t see what they wrote about last night’s American Idol.
So here are my way-important thoughts on the subject.
KiKi: Great voice, but needs to mix things up a bit or she’s going to get boring.
Chris S.: I loved him during auditions, but I’m not as impressed with how he’s done since Hollywood. And he seems kind of insincere. Plus, he shouldn’t let his stylists put so much fro-taming goop in his hair. Next he’ll be using Jeri-Curl.
Haley: Blech. I had hoped she’d be gone by now.
Gina: Wow, her performance was spectacular. She’s sort of a hometown girl (by way of Naperville, a few hours from here) so I’ve been rooting for her all along. She cried a lot when Leslie Hunt left, which made me like her even more.
Sanjaya: What can I say? He entertains me. I don’t think he expected to still be in the competition at this point, and has decided to throw caution to the wind. The competition won’t be quite as interesting when he’s gone. I’m glad he made it to the top 10. (Because you know I’ll be seeing the concert.)
Phil: Has improved quite a bit, in my opinion. I liked last night’s hat a lot better than some of his previous styling choices, too.
Jordin: I really, really like her. Hope she’ll be sticking around for a while.
Blake: Is kind of my favorite to win the whole thing. The judges haven’t praised him enough — he’s been good every week.
Melinda: The best voice in the competition, but I’m having a hard time picturing what her CD sales will be like. I do think she’s awesome and would love to hang out with her and her Gayles.
Chris R.: He’s cute, and sings pretty well. Sometimes his nasally ways annoy me, though. He reminds me of BIL #2, so I can’t help but like him.
I know. I’m not snarky enough.
Did you see the “Sanjaya”‘ sighting on SNL? Here you go.
February 2, 2007 at 7:41 pm · Filed under idol
My pal Terry asked me about the current American Idol season, and guess what? I’ve been watching. I missed a few of the tryouts (convention, etc.) but I still have a few early favorites.
Fave #1: Sundance Head, who auditioned in Memphis. Awesome voice, awesome presence. Just a cool guy. I hope he goes far.
Fave #2: Chris Sligh. He looks kind of goofy, which totally added to his charm when he turned out to be sharp and funny. And a good singer.
Fave #3: Sean Michel, who looks a bit like Jesus.
I don’t have any favorite female singers yet. A lot of them seem very similar to one another. I’m pretty psyched for Hollywood Week, though. Always an interesting time.
September 24, 2006 at 5:24 pm · Filed under family, idol
As avid fans of talent-based reality shows (i.e. American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Hell’s Kitchen), we were quick to buy tickets when we heard that SYTYCD was going on tour. They stopped in Milwaukee last night, and it was a fantastic performance. I enjoyed it even more than the Idols concert in August. For one thing, the venue was smaller — Milwaukee Theatre — and more intimate.
Afterwards, as you might have guessed, we stuck around to try and meet the dancers. We were greatly rewarded for our patience, because every one of them came out to greet the fans and sign autographs. (The lovely Donyelle posed with MoonChild, as you can see here.) Moon had created a custom ‘Team Tranji’ hat and Dmitry t-shirt to wear, and was thrilled to get them signed. She was also able to get her program autographed by nearly all the other finalists, too.
You can see the other photos here. If you’re at all familiar with the show, it’s worth taking a look.
P.S. That Dmitry, he’s the same age as my nephew. And he’s like solid muscle. Arms like rope, or tree trunks, or something.
August 19, 2006 at 5:33 pm · Filed under idol, movies
The Idols concert was a week ago today. One thing I will say is that this year’s finalists are way better live than last year’s were. A few of them … Lisa Tucker and Ace Young, for instance … were actually more entertaining at the concert than they were on the show. Which I thought was impressive. We also learned that Chris Daughtry is incredibly popular in Milwaukee. The souvenir stands all sold out of his photo — although Moon was able to pick up pictures of Bucky and Ace, along with their buttons. (She bought Chris and Elliott buttons, too. The Elliott photos they were selling weren’t hot enough or something.)
Although we waited around afterwards to see if we could get an autograph or anything, the performers didn’t come out for meet-and-greet. We did get to see the bus off, though.
That’s Taylor Hicks, taking pictures of the crowd. Peter’s claim to fame is that he took off running after the bus (the only person who did, actually), and after about a half block, Taylor noticed him and pointed him out to the others. He waved Peter on, as if he needed encouragement. (From the other end of the block, I was screaming at him to stop. Because I could just imagine him turning a corner and getting confused in downtown Milwaukee at 11 pm on a Saturday.)
Anyway, we enjoyed our night at the Hyatt, which reminded me that I’m working on a project which will involve both the Hyatt and the Hilton. I’m self-employed, but I can’t seem to get away from work.
Now, today, we saw the aforementioned movie. It was massive kitschy fun. I’m not a movie reviewer, though, so I’ll just send you over to an interesting story about real snakes on a real plane. (You may have to sit through an ad to see it, but it’s pretty painless.)
May 24, 2006 at 8:34 pm · Filed under idol
Yay, my guy won! Best. Finale. Ever. The performance show wasn’t so outstanding, but they did a fabulous job with the group songs, guest artists (well, maybe not Meat Loaf) and surprises.
Right before the show started, our county had a tornado warning. Peter and I decided to stick it out upstairs — after all, someone needed to hit the “record” button on the VCR at 7 p.m. (No Tivo for us, thanks. No cable, either.) The sky was freaky, and we had hail, but we also didn’t miss a single second of Idol. So there.
Now we’re counting the days until the Idol tour comes to Milwaukee. We already ordered our tickets — the concert is on Pete’s birthday, which ought to be fun. I’m hoping we can get another autograph this year.
April 20, 2006 at 10:54 am · Filed under idol, knit/crochet, shopping
One.
My family long-ago dubbed me Queen of All Purses, so it’s no surprise that I can’t stop thinking about this:
I know I already have two awesome knitting bags, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up the search for the PERFECT bag. When I saw the Namaste collection, the most difficult decision was which one to order. Truth be told, a messenger bag seems to be the best fit. I love the way traditional purse/bags look, but I keep going back to the diagonal-over-the-shoulder thing.
If I like the new bag as much I think I will, the Lady B will be going back — or on eBay.
Two.
I thought I was addicted to American Idol last season, but that was when I only loved one or two of the top 10, and not nearly all of them. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are nail-bitingly nervewracking at our house. Moon has lost two of her favorites in a row (the aforementioned Bucky, and now Ace), and she’s crossing her fingers and toes that Elliott won’t be next.
We’re Yaminions. (Although I’ve been pulling for Taylor Hicks from the start, and not just because he looks like he could be my age. He’s entertaining enough to be parodied on SNL, ya know.)
Moon’s already bugging me about buying tour tickets. And in case you didn’t think I was geeky enough, I’ve crocheted a beanie for Ace.
April 12, 2006 at 9:08 am · Filed under idol, knit/crochet, spiritual
Just a quick update. First, the Everyday Goddess Conference was a fabulous way to spend a weekend. I met some awesome new friends (hi Jodie!) and my two teen roomies (Moon and Nicole) seemed to have a great time.
Second, I now have a shop at Etsy. It’s http://aine.etsy.com. Rakka was my inspiration … her shop is here. Now I can make stuff without having to worry about where to put it all!
Third, guess who Moon’s pulling for in this year’s American Idol? None other than Bucky Covington. Yep, my speed metal girl now appreciates (gasp) country.
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