October Media Consumption: TV, Internet, Music & Books

TV
Mad Men is over (the season finale was like finishing a really good book and wishing I hadn't read it yet so that I could read it again for the first time) and Project Runway is over (yay that Leanne won, too bad she didn't wash her hair for the whole Fashion Week). I'm still watching HIMYM, House, The Office, Life and Fringe. Life has lived up to the quality of last year in one episode so far. Fringe is becoming the same show over and over - a scientist has created a human weapon and the team needs to read minds to find out what's going on. I still love the father/son stuff on that show, but I really don't care if I miss it on Tuesdays. (But then it's nice to find the recording on Friday when nothing is on.) So, on to new (old) stuff.

30 Rock, Thursdays on NBC. As I said, Tina Fey is the funniest, smartest woman on television right now. Since I still miss Arrested Development, I love seeing a show that is so embedded with little jokes that I end up rewinding because I was laughing too hard the first time through to catch everything. Honestly, I would be afraid to meet Alec Baldwin in person (he's so puffy right now - what's that about?) but he is also HILARIOUS. I love the way Fey's character, Liz Lemon, handles her writing staff on the show. I get the feeling I'm seeing what really goes on during a working session with a writing team like that. Maybe you've been in a meeting like that - where one guy (always a guy) thinks he's really funny (he's not - but on the show he is because it's not happening to me) and wastes everyone's time, or another guy starts a "what if" dialogue that will go no where... and wastes everyone's time. Man. I really don't miss working in an office. Anyway, if you're not watching this show, you're missing out on a laugh workout. (Frank, next to Kenneth on the right, wears a few different hats in each show. I saw an interview with him - he makes them himself and he chooses what they say. The picture is too small, but that hat says, "Speling Expirt.")

Freaks & Geeks (on DVD, original show 1999). Melissa and I are kindred spirits when it comes to media. We've ended up in love with the same books, TV, and movies quite often. When she recommends anything to me, I watch it, read it or eat it immediately. A few weeks ago she let me borrow her DVD box set of the only season of Freaks & Geeks. The show takes place in 1980 (shout out) and most of the people on it are famous now. They are in high school and it's the kind of school I remember (mostly from grade school watching the high school kids in Oakley). The freshman boys look like freshman boys. It's not so much the setting that has me hooked, but it is the funny. All the experiences are familiar, every character is perfectly nailed (even the teachers aren't just caricatures - hey look, it's Biff from "Back to the Future" as the P.E. teacher) and it is funny, funny, funny. And sometimes heartbreaking.

Internet
I've added a few new sites to my sidebar. The first I'll mention is Design Mom. I can't remember how I found this one, but her style is inspiring and I've enjoyed looking at her latest projects. My friend, Lisa, started a blog, Simply Announce It, to sell her handmade cards. Before you get too busy to think about it, check out her Christmas cards - she does beautiful work.

I've also been enjoying The Old Red Barn and Modern Pieces Custom Quilts. I always want to start a project this time of year and those two sites are extremely inspiring.

Music
For as long as I can remember, I've had a song in my head. I didn't know the name of this song, but I would find myself humming it when I was doing something that makes me happy. I knew it was a song from an opera that my Dad used to practice a lot when I was in junior high and high school. Finally, I was at my parents' house last month and the tune came in my head. I went right over to the piano and played part of it for my Mom. Mystery solved! It's from La Traviata and it's called "Di Provenza, Il Mar, Il Suol." I downloaded it the other day - it's not the same when Dad's not singing it, but what a beautiful, poignant, lovely (more adjectives here) piece of music.

Books
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. I finished a book this month! Cheers to David Sedaris and his sadistic, morbid mind. I smiled a lot, chuckled several times, and twice I was laughing so hard that my eyes filled with tears and I couldn't speak (to explain to Brian why I was laughing). It's not a book I'd recommend to anyone else, but it was a nice break from my usual.

I caught the last few minutes of a History channel documentary on Abraham Lincoln. I've always been fascinated by Abe and I've already read Lincoln by Gore Vidal, but that was so many years ago. So, I'm reading it again.