My Week in Review

I've thought about blogging all week, and I'm just now getting around to it. So, here's my regular blog post--a week in the making and on steroids, featuring the highlights from my week, blog-worthy or no.

Sunday, November 14th
Dewberry Farm: This place had all the essentials: a corn maze, rides, farm animals, singing robot-puppet chickens, and of course, pig races. I've never been to Disneyland or Disney World, but I imagine that Dewberry Farm is as close as I'll ever want to get.

Soylent Green: I gave the regular HBO shows a miss, and decided to watch the 1973 classic film, Soylent Green. I have to say that knowing Soylent Green is "PEOPLE!" going into the film made Charlton Heston's final line a little anti-climactic, but the film itself was quite enjoyable, and the environmental message still resonates. Heston overacted appropriately, and Edward G. Robinson's performance was fantastic, but all that probably goes without saying.


Monday, November 15th
Pappas Bar-B-Q: Some friends from work and I go to Pappas Bar-B-Q and chow down on turkey baked potatoes every Monday night 'cause we're downtown, workin' the same late shift. If you've never had a baked potato with turkey from Pappas, you've never had a baked potato with turkey...I mean, maybe you've never had a baked potato with turkey anyway, but even if you had, oh...never mind....

Gilmore Girls: I record Gilmore Girls on ABC Family every weekday (that is, when there's not a Harry Potter marathon to shorten the week by a day or two--so basically, every other week). On this day, I got to watch one of my all-time favorite episodes: "They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They?" In this episode Lorelai convinces Rory to compete with her in the annual Stars Hollow Dance Marathon, which Lorelai always loses to Kirk. You may think it's weird or kind of random...or even a little geeky...that I'm bringing up Gilmore Girls, but I'm not as geeky as whoever put this info on the Interwebs, not to mention all the weird YouTube tributes (yes folks, you read that correctly--I said TRIBUTES...to this ONE EPISODE) I had to sift through to find this one little, poorly-recorded (yet funny), 20-second excerpt:

Tuesday, November 16th
Monkey See: I subscribe to NPR's Monkey See blog, and I can tell you, if you're looking for a pop culture aggregator, LOOK NO FURTHER. This is the blog I aspire to have. Anywho, take a look at this little video tidbit, featured on this day:

Glee Gets a Substitute: She was a substitute for another guy. She looked pretty tall, but her heels were high. The simple things you see are all complicated. She looks pretty young, but she's just back-dated. For all the Gleeks out there, I am--of course, referring to Gwyneth Paltrow's guest appearance as a substitute teacher on Glee, through speak-sing typing. This week's episode more than made up for last week's "meh". I love it when Glee does mash-ups and the final Singin' in the Rain/Umbrella number--albeit a bit more Rihanna than Gene Kelly--was GENIUS!


Wednesday, November 17th
Blues at the River Oaks Theatre: I had a rare opportunity to attend a screening of Blues, a feature-length drama directed by Brandon Sonnier, who just happens to be the son of a work colleague. This film was SO AMAZING, I can't say enough good things about it! Martin Scorsese once said (and, I'm paraphrasing here) that one of the marks of a good film is that you leave the theater feeling changed, having learned something true. I think that feeling is apropos to my response after seeing this film; I spent the rest of the night talking with my friends about it. For anyone who's interested, the DVD dropped yesterday; click here to see the trailer, which doesn't even begin to do it justice.


Thursday, November 18th
Pearl of China by Anchee Min: I finished this book today, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It was beautiful but not quite what I was expecting. From the information about it, I was led to believe that the book was historical fiction about Pearl S. Buck's life, but it seemed to be more about the coming-of-age of her friend Willow Yee and how she was influenced by the time she spent in her childhood with Pearl S. Buck. I was surprised by how affected I was by Min's negative view of China after the Boxer Rebellion, not that I would have expected life in China to be all rainbows and unicorns. I just never knew it was that bad. All in all, it was beautifully written, but it would have been better (for me) if the description of the book were more explicit about the POV. I'd give it three-and-a-half stars out of five.

People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive (SMA): Congrats to Ryan Reynolds! On second thought, Mom, I don't think you have seen any of his work, unless you were present while I was watching Definitely, Maybe for the umpteenth time and yelling at the incorrect attribution of Charlotte Brontë's poem "Evening Solace" as part of the text of Jane Eyre (for the umpteenth time). You might have been there...one of those times.

So, I was really looking forward to this year's installment of SMA, mostly because it's the 25th anniversary, and I was hoping for an in-depth retrospective. Well, I got a retrospective, but I wouldn't call it in-depth. Still, it was very interesting to see 25 years broken down into categories...especially when focusing on the SMAs who are either no longer sexy (Nick Nolte and Mel Gibson) or no longer alive (JFK Jr. and Patrick Swayze). Unpleasant and morbid, yes? I can't wait for the issue when one of the SMAs is no longer a man. I wonder how they'll cover it....


Friday, November 19th & Saturday, November 20th
Harry Potter x 2: So, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 twice last week--once on Friday and once on Saturday, and I will admit it: I giggled at the sight of Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour...both times. He just makes the funniest faces and to be honest, I have the same reaction to his portrayal of Viktor the vampire in the Underworld trilogy--he's supposed to be all authoritative and terrifying, but I just can't muster the fear.


And now, here is a comprehensive list of the tags I couldn't use for this post because they exceed the ridiculous 200-character limit:

Anchee Min, Bill Nighy, Blues, books, Brandon Sonnier, Charlton Heston, Charlotte Brontë, corn mazes, dance marathons, Dewberry Farm, Disney theme park substitutes, Edward G. Robinson, films, geeky fans, Gene Kelly, Gilmore Girls, Glee, Gleeky fans, Gwyneth Paltrow, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JFK Jr, magazines, Martin Scorsese, Mel Gibson, Monkey See, music, Nick Nolte, NPR, Pappas Bar-B-Q, Patrick Swayze, Pearl of China, People Magazine, pig races, pop culture, quotes wrongly attributed to Jane Eyre in movies starring Ryan Reynolds, Rihanna, River Oaks Theatre, robot chickens, Ryan Reynolds, Sexiest Man Alive, Soylent Green, The Who, turkey baked potatoes, TV