Happy Thursday everyone!
I like Thursdays. At some point a long time ago some executive decided it would be the BEST night to put all my favorite type shows and for some reason, Thursday has been endeared to me forever. Except now-with the invention of DVR, I can watch all of those shows, so I love it even more. Especially since they moved Bones to Thursday night opposite Ugly Betty, and I just fell in love with Bones, thanks to Pam.
Speaking of television-I’m going to take a moment to rant about my love hate relationship with American Idol.
I started watching American Idol (henceforth known as AI in this entry) because Pam made me. Like most TV shows, she taped it and then we watched it and I fell in love with this guy named Chris Daughtry. Long story short, Chris got kicked off somewhere along the line and some stupid not as good other person won. (But the world remembers Chris so I was RIGHT) and I was CRUSHED. I stopped watching then and there. Then last year, when Seth and I were bored in Sioux Falls (as we often were) AI came on again, and this time, they were going to Omaha-so of course we had to watch. First of all, AI made a TRAVESTY of Omaha. They made us look like backward hee-haws. They kept flying over this “cornfield” (Seth says it was a soy bean field-and he used to farm, so I trust him) and finding these STRANGE STRANGE people. People with no friends, people who are down right CRAZY. But there was a shining light-David Cook. He sang Bon Jovi and I was all MELTY. And all over again, I loved AI. And then, oh then! He WON. OF course I voted like 80 billion times from every phone I had. But he won and I was SO SO happy.
So this year I sit down to watch AI again. But I’m not like most people in America. I HATE the audition shows. Hate them. I’m so embarrassed for people. I don’t understand. Do you have no friends, no family,who hates you enough to have you do this to yourself? I watch this show to see good talented singers, not goofballs in hot pants and a tube top. Or people insist they are SO good and everyone tells them so and they get up there and sing like a mountain goat. I hate it. I usually fast forward thru 95% of this part of the show.
Also you should know I religiously watch a show called “The Soup” on E! every Friday night. It’s basically a stand up comedian (Joel McHale) making fun of everything on TV. And it’s hilarious, and it makes me feel better about myself that I’m actually not the only person in America who watches this much tv. Joel McHale has a vendetta against Ryan Seacrest (the host of AI). So this week I am VERY excited to watch The Soup because THIS week on American Idol-Ryan tried to high five a blind guy. No really, he did. And Seth and I just looked at each other and he went-“The Soup is going to be SO good this week!” and I went-“I know I can’t wait-Joel is going to TEAR him a new one!” Here is a video that The Soup already has up on their website of the high-fiving!
I like Thursdays. At some point a long time ago some executive decided it would be the BEST night to put all my favorite type shows and for some reason, Thursday has been endeared to me forever. Except now-with the invention of DVR, I can watch all of those shows, so I love it even more. Especially since they moved Bones to Thursday night opposite Ugly Betty, and I just fell in love with Bones, thanks to Pam.
Speaking of television-I’m going to take a moment to rant about my love hate relationship with American Idol.
I started watching American Idol (henceforth known as AI in this entry) because Pam made me. Like most TV shows, she taped it and then we watched it and I fell in love with this guy named Chris Daughtry. Long story short, Chris got kicked off somewhere along the line and some stupid not as good other person won. (But the world remembers Chris so I was RIGHT) and I was CRUSHED. I stopped watching then and there. Then last year, when Seth and I were bored in Sioux Falls (as we often were) AI came on again, and this time, they were going to Omaha-so of course we had to watch. First of all, AI made a TRAVESTY of Omaha. They made us look like backward hee-haws. They kept flying over this “cornfield” (Seth says it was a soy bean field-and he used to farm, so I trust him) and finding these STRANGE STRANGE people. People with no friends, people who are down right CRAZY. But there was a shining light-David Cook. He sang Bon Jovi and I was all MELTY. And all over again, I loved AI. And then, oh then! He WON. OF course I voted like 80 billion times from every phone I had. But he won and I was SO SO happy.
So this year I sit down to watch AI again. But I’m not like most people in America. I HATE the audition shows. Hate them. I’m so embarrassed for people. I don’t understand. Do you have no friends, no family,who hates you enough to have you do this to yourself? I watch this show to see good talented singers, not goofballs in hot pants and a tube top. Or people insist they are SO good and everyone tells them so and they get up there and sing like a mountain goat. I hate it. I usually fast forward thru 95% of this part of the show.
Also you should know I religiously watch a show called “The Soup” on E! every Friday night. It’s basically a stand up comedian (Joel McHale) making fun of everything on TV. And it’s hilarious, and it makes me feel better about myself that I’m actually not the only person in America who watches this much tv. Joel McHale has a vendetta against Ryan Seacrest (the host of AI). So this week I am VERY excited to watch The Soup because THIS week on American Idol-Ryan tried to high five a blind guy. No really, he did. And Seth and I just looked at each other and he went-“The Soup is going to be SO good this week!” and I went-“I know I can’t wait-Joel is going to TEAR him a new one!” Here is a video that The Soup already has up on their website of the high-fiving!
A word about this blind guy-he was really really good. He is one of the people I WATCH this part of the show for. Show more people like him. Please. But here’s where I disconnect. DOES THE BLIND GUY HAVE NO FRIENDS?? No one who could have bothered to BRUSH this dudes hair before he came on national television. I get it-your blind, your arty, you like to dance-even though HOW you learned to dance is beyond me. But, really 30 people who screamed when he came out with his golden ticket, really dude who lead him around like a guide dog-none of you couldn’t brush this guys hair? REALLY?
(Ryan Seacrest high-fiving the blind guy who doesn't own a hairbrush or real friends...)
And once again-AI does another INJUSTICE to Nebraska. The producers must have stood outside and went-“EVERYONE FROM NEBRASKA-STAND OVER HERE” and then went thru one by one and picked out the most hideous people-one who I think was “touched” and let them go before the judges panel. Those were the only ones from Nebraska. In the interviews-they made sure to say-“HI! My name is CLEATUS and I’m from NORFOLK NEBRASKA and this here is a medal that I won in ELEMENTRY SCHOOL for being the BEST SINGER-and I taped a fortune from a fortune cookie ON THE BACK OF THE MEDAL and it says-something, I’m not sure the writin’s real tiny, but I can’t wait to prove my momma wrong because she says I’m not a singer but I’ll show her.” And then he goes out there and sings like someone repeatedly stepped on his throat as a child, which you probably assume was his MOTHER considering she is obviously EVIL and UNSUPPORTIVE to let her MENTALLY-ILL son go to Kansas City from NEBRASKA (Don’t for get-he was from NEBRASKA!-AI sure won't let you forget!) and make an ass out of himself on national television. That is how Nebraska is once again portrayed. Thanks American Idol…really, thanks..
And that’s my love/hate relationship with American Idol. Check back in 8 weeks when I have fallen in love with someone and demand you watch and vote for them and then when they get kicked off blame it on you and proclaim that I’m never watching this stupid show again. Although…I like the new judge…and there was a guy last night who was a music teacher whose wife died that made me cry...
You want to see me get REALLY crazy? Wait until “So you think you can dance” starts this summer. BEST.SHOW.EVER. No question. But we will come to that.
So moving on and merging to the left…
I (and my mother) have picked the first book for the “Heavy Baggage Book Club”! Oh wait, did I not tell you it has a name now? Oh it does. That’s it. There it is. “Heavy Baggage Book Club” I was going to throw the word “blog” in there too, but I couldn’t make it fit and sound okay. Anyway. Yay for witty names!
But the book! The book I am going to be reading and you can be reading too is “The Reader” by Bernhard Schlink.
(Book cover from Amazon.com)
If you are reading it let me know, and I will give you a heads up when I am done so I can collect the reviews. Don’t worry, I still need to get the book from my mom, so we will give you a month to read it if you want. Bonus! This is the book that spawned a movie starring Kate Winslet (who I love, love, love)-in which last Sunday, she won a Golden Globe for-her first ever. So you could just watch the movie and tell me what you think if you are uber lazy like that. And I’m going to try and drag someone to the movie after I read it, so if you up for that, holla! Here is Amazon.com’s synopsis of the book:
“Originally published in Switzerland, and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading, and shame in postwar Germany. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her, and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past, and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: What should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable.... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"
The Reader, which won the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, wrestles with many more demons in its few, remarkably lucid pages. What does it mean to love those people--parents, grandparents, even lovers--who committed the worst atrocities the world has ever known? And is any atonement possible through literature? Schlink's prose is clean and pared down, stripped of unnecessary imagery, dialogue, and excess in any form. What remains is an austerely beautiful narrative of the attempt to breach the gap between Germany's pre- and postwar generations, between the guilty and the innocent, and between words and silence.”
Let me know if you’re in for this round of the “Heavy Baggage Book Club”!!
Well I think that is all I have for this morning. Maybe I will peruse the net and find something awesome to blog about or someone and I will have a witty conversation that I simply must blog. But I’m sure I’ll be back later today! Or maybe one of my guest bloggers will be on! Who knows? I think I’m changing their name. They are going to be my Baggage Bloggers-because they are part of my baggage, in a good way. :-)
Leave your love and comments below!!
Have a wonderful day!
Carrie
“Originally published in Switzerland, and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading, and shame in postwar Germany. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her, and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past, and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: What should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable.... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"
The Reader, which won the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, wrestles with many more demons in its few, remarkably lucid pages. What does it mean to love those people--parents, grandparents, even lovers--who committed the worst atrocities the world has ever known? And is any atonement possible through literature? Schlink's prose is clean and pared down, stripped of unnecessary imagery, dialogue, and excess in any form. What remains is an austerely beautiful narrative of the attempt to breach the gap between Germany's pre- and postwar generations, between the guilty and the innocent, and between words and silence.”
Let me know if you’re in for this round of the “Heavy Baggage Book Club”!!
Well I think that is all I have for this morning. Maybe I will peruse the net and find something awesome to blog about or someone and I will have a witty conversation that I simply must blog. But I’m sure I’ll be back later today! Or maybe one of my guest bloggers will be on! Who knows? I think I’m changing their name. They are going to be my Baggage Bloggers-because they are part of my baggage, in a good way. :-)
Leave your love and comments below!!
Have a wonderful day!
Carrie
Greetings. I decided to use a pseudonym on this blog-bet you can't guess who this is. Actually this was my name when I was an exchange student in Mexico---so anyway-I wanted to comment about The Reader. It is excellent. What is weird though is that they put Kate Winslet on the cover! I haven't seen the book since they did that to it.
ReplyDeleteI just can't bring myself to watch AI-but I love playing it on Playstation! Pam T and I rock-I've even unlocked costumes-although it was a shark and subsequently, nobody, to my knowledge has worn it! Ciao (oh wait, it should be Adios)