The Booty of My Soul Wants It Some Pop

I don't really care about music. Let me put that out there right from the start. I'm a book person. A movie person. I don't own an iPod (my 587kb shuffle I got as a gift hardly counts), I don't have an iTunes account, I own about 50 CDs and almost all of them are from college or before. I listen to NPR a lot. I skip the music section in my Entertainment Weekly.

But something weird has happened to me in the last 8 months. I have found a reborn delight in pop music. Top 40 music. Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, some dude called Tiao Cruz, Rhianna, even Brittney. I seem to like it all. When I don't have NPR on in the car, I have on Kiss108 and when Ryan does the AT40 on Sunday morning, I'm actually interested in which song is number 1. It's like it is 1985 again and I'm 12 and we're begging Mom and Dad to let us stay in the car until the announce the number 1 before we go into 12 o'clock mass. Or we're rushing out from quarter of 11 mass so we can hear the last 5 or so. Back then, though, of course, it was Casey Kasem making the big announcement.

It all began last February, during the planning for the international symposium that my institute at Tufts does each year. I was still new in my job and was learning trial by fire. My days were 8-10 hours of pure hell, sometimes with both my landline and cell each on an ear and emailing at the same time. There were seemingly hundreds of students in and out of my office all at once. So I turned to Gaga. I created a station on my Pandora called "Poker Face" and rocked to pop to calm my soul. Prior to that, my Pandora stations ranged from Jack Johnson to Ben Harper to Michael Franti to Tori Amos. Not really pop stuff.

And now I'm lost in it. I love it. I know a lot of the songs by heart. (This is partly because Kiss108 tends to play the same songs over and over and over ad nauseum.) I actually enjoy them. I got all excited when I saw the video for Willow Smith's single "Whip My Hair." I sometimes feel like going clubbing.

I'll admit. I don't know all the artists' names. And I don't know from whence they came. I don't really care, actually. I just dig the beat and dig the songs. My Katy Perry Pandora station keeps me going all day long. Flo Rida makes me smile, even if I have to look up what applebottom jeans are. Jason DeRulo makes me want to keep riding solo and be proud of it. Kelly Clarkson is the bomb. Gaga - oh, Gaga how I love thee. Katy - you go girl. Marry Russell Brand in India with your crazy blue hair self. Bruno Mars, yeah, you stole the title "Just the Way You Are" from Billy Joel, but your version is also kick ass, so you're forgiven. And all the cool pairings! Rhianna and Eminem, Katy Perry featuring Snoop, Elton John and the Gaga. So great.

So, there you go. I have no idea what's happened to me. And my taste. But the booty of my soul wants it some pop. So I'm going to go with it. And maybe actually go clubbing one of these weekends.

Television Worth Watching

I am known as someone who does things the whole way. Obsessively, perhaps, but never entering the psychotic. I get into things and I do them and talk about them incessantly. I tend to leave things behind just as easily once something is over or the next best thing comes along. In any case, television is something I'm a little obsessive about. The television I watch I get a little passionate about. I lure others into watching shows I like. I talk about shows with other fans as if the characters are not only real, but our buds. I've done this for as long as I can remember. (My real relationship with television didn't begin until college, because my mother regulated our television viewing so stringently, even through high school, that anything prior to 1991, I've heard of, but don't have an intimate relationship with, unless I caught up through syndication, which I did with some things.)

For your reading pleasure, and perhaps viewing pleasure, here are my current obsessions and recommendations for television worth watching. In this age of Hulu and Netflix, I've managed to watch entire seasons in a weekend and entire series in a month or so. You, perhaps, might space it out some more: up to you! For the record, this isn't in any order of preference or best to worst. All of these I've deemed worth my time over the long haul, so they are all good!

Dexter, Showtime, Seasons 1-4 available on Netflix, Season 5 currently airing, twelve 52-minute episodes per season
This show, about a vigilante serial-killer blood-spatter expert is brilliant. It is well written, well acted, the scenarios are not so crazy that you can't buy them. The supporting cast members are great and the seasons are awesome in that each episode has elements that stand alone, but there is a story line that follows through the entire season as well. You will love a serial killer and cheer him on.

Grey's Anatomy, ABC, Seasons 1 - 6 available on Netflix, Season 7 currently airing, between 15-24 42-minute episodes per season
I have watched every episode of Grey's Anatomy in order the week they aired. I have cared about Meredith, Cristina, Alex, Izzie, George, Derek, Chief, and Bailey since the start. I have cared for Lexi, Mark, Callie, Arizona, Owen, Tedy and the others as they have joined. I have mourned deaths, wondered how someone would survive, cheered successes and cried with characters. I feel as though I could walk into Seattle Grace and know what everyone was talking about. Some say this show jumped the shark a while back, but I either don't care or don't believe it. I'm sticking here until this show ends.

The Amazing Race, CBS, Seasons 1-9 available on Netflix, Season 10 currently airing, twelve 42- minute episodes per season
The only reality show worth watching, TAR doesn't have any downtime for anyone to be a poser of any kind. The tasks and pace and exhaustion level requires people to be themselves, good or bad. The locations are great, the tasks are always culturally related, and watching 24 Americans make their way around the world is always good fun. As a traveller, nothing is better than this!

Breaking Bad, USA, Seasons 1 & 2 available on Netflix, Season 3 just finished and coming to Netflix, Season 4 slated, 7 eps Season 1, 13 after that
The lead actors in this amazing show keep winning awards. Walter is a high school chemistry teacher who is way too smart for his job and trying endlessly to make ends meet for his family (a wife, a disabled teenager and a new baby). His DEA agent brother in law introduces him to meth, and he finds an ex-student Jesse and begins cooking the best meth Albuquerque has ever seen. A tangled web of lies, crazy violence, some pretty dodgy characters and some edgy storylines ensue. I never knew I'd know so much about meth. Just this morning, there was a story on NPR about CVS being in trouble for selling too much Sudafed to repeat customers, and I knew why that was a problem before they even said that it was a major ingredient in meth! See what TV can teach you?

Friday Night Lights, DirectTV and NBC, Seasons 1-4 available on Netflix, Season 5 to air on NBC next spring, 22 42-minute eps Season 1, 13-15 thereafter
This show is about three things: football, Texas and Jesus. And I could care less about all three of those things (except that my sister lives in TX, but that aside...). People recommended this show to me for years and I laughed them off. And then I watched the pilot one night in a fit of boredom and I was hooked. On the pilot. This show is also about kids, and struggles, and marriage, and trust and love and hardship and selflessness. I have cried during approximately half the episodes and I sobbed (sobbed!) during one. I feel as though I know these people and I want to move to Dillon, TX and hang with them for a while. I miss characters who have moved on, and I"m worried about the fate of others as I await the final season to be available, because alas, season 5 is it for this beauty of a gem of a show.

Modern Family, ABC, Season 1 available on Netflix, Season 2 currently airing, 24 23-minute eps per season
Winning the Emmy for best comedy in their freshman year as well as an acting award for Cam, this show is hilarious and poignant at the same time. Everyone I know loves this show. No more need be said.

30 Rock, NBC, Season 1-4 available on Netflix, Season 5 currently airing, 22 23-minute eps per season
Tina Fey is genius. Alec Baldwin is brilliant. The rest of them are amazing. This show is esoteric, weird, hilarious, and just plain fun. Rumor has it Alec is leaving after this season and we'll see what happens after that, because Tina is no where near the end of her career and I can't wait to see what else she cooks up as we grow old together. Liz Lemons of the world unite!

The Office, NBC, Seasons 1-6 available on Netflix, Season 7 currently airing, 22 23-minute eps per season
The funniest shit on TV. Hands down. And when Steve Carrell leaves after this season, the rest of this ensemble cast will hold their own and whatever new person joins them will likely be hazed to hell and back, all for our pleasure.

United States of Tara, Showtime, Season 1 available on Netflix, Season 2 finished airing July, coming to Netflix soon, Season 3 in the works, 12 30-minute eps per season
Toni Collette is Tara, a suburban housewife with two kids, a husband, and bunch of other personalities. John Corbett is in this (I have been in love with him since his Northern Exposure days) pretty great series about how the family and Tara herself handles multiple personality disorder. Since I've only seen Season 1 so far, I can't completely vie for this one, but my roommate and I both loved it and I watched the entire of Season 1 twice, so there you go.

Big Love, HBO, Season 1-3 available on Netflix, Season 4 coming soon to Netflix, Season 5 in the works, 10ish 58-minute eps per season
I wrote an entire post about this. Check it out here. I'm anxiously awaiting the next season of this to come out so I can rejoin this interesting family.

Glee, Fox, Season 1 available on Netflix, Season 2 currently airing, 22 42-minute eps per season
Everyone loves Glee. It's fun, campy, important, and fun. It has a kid in a wheelchair, a gay kid, geeks, cute boys, pretty girls, pregnant teens, unconfident adults, mean people, and diversity. And singing. The singing is pretty great. It's broken all kinds of records and is totally worth watching.

Family Guy, Fox, Seasons 1-8 available on Netflix, Season 9 (I think) currently airing, lots of 24-minute eps per season plus a few bonus 2-hour specials
I know I already said that The Office is the funniest shit on TV, so I obviously can't say that again. So I will say this is the funniest offensive perverse shit on TV. For me, this sits on the right side of the line that SouthPark sits on the wrong side of. I love every gross joke, every reference, and every time my mouth drops open and I yell out, alone in my room, OH MY GOD! I can never believe what they get away with on this show and I can never get enough. Peter, Lois, Meg, Brian, Stewie and Chris are awesome. I hope Seth keeps making this for a long time coming.

Parks & Recreation, NBC, Seasons 1 & 2 available on Netflix, Season 3 airing (not sure when it's starting), 22 24-minute eps per season
The first season of this show was only okay. Season 2 was awesome. It really found its footing, Aziz Ansari really got funny and Amy Poehler really sat into Leslie Knope and made her the bumbling small town bureaucrat we all love. The side stories are funny, the small town feel is great, and Leslie is just an idiot, but a funny, sincere, loving idiot. Rob Lowe is staying on for Season 3, so we'll see how this rolls out.

The Middle, ABC, Season 1 available on Netflix, Season 2 currently airing, 22 24-minute eps per season
I was told that this is hilarious recently and just started watching in Season 2. I will likely never see Season 1, since its a sitcom and I probably won't bother. But it is great! Patricia Heaton, the mom from Raymond is the mom and the janitor from Scrubs is the dad. They have three idiot kids. Seriously - idiots. They live in the middle of the U.S., hence the name. Mom and Dad have never lived anywhere else and are trying their best to raise their three kids amongst no money, jobs they hate, and regular day to day craziness. It's the perfect show for a bad-economy US.

Woah. And to think I keep up with all of this, plus I read about a book or so a week. Remember that I don't have cable in the house, so I don't have access to stuff like HGTV and then waste hours watching Curb that House or whatever that stuff is called. I don't get pulled into Barefoot Contessa and watch her cook for an hour. I only watch stuff I mean to be watching. There's some perks to being single, too. Tons of disposable time. No kids or partner to care for. I don't even own my house, so I barely have to take care of myself, let alone anything else. Lots of time to experience media!

Happy watching!

Friday 5 - MOMENTOS

One of my favorite topics. I used to be a keeper of many mementos. Less so now, in my old age and after about 20 moves in 10 years. One of my craziest memories about mementos is that I had a basket with a top of all the things that meant something to me in high school under my desk. It had everything from notes from boys to cards from people to rocks from the beach to dried rose petals. To a 17-year-old girl, it was the basket of dreams, hope, belonging, love and future. One morning, in a huff because he was pissed he had to do the chore, my brother, eleven at the time, emptied the entire thing into the garbage and threw it all out, mistaking it, in his rage, as my trash basket. Admittedly, my trash basket was also a basket, but obviously had no cover and was bigger. I didn't find out until after school, and it being trash pickup day, we were unable to recover any of it. I was a raving maniac for a while. And then I got over it.

Okay, today's Friday 5: MEMENTOS

Do you still have your senior yearbook? Where is it?

Yup. On my bookshelf. It was missing for a number of years and then magically reappeared, I have no clue how. I've actually pulled it out recently in this age of Facebook when people friend me and their profile photo is of their kids and I can't even remember what they look like or who they even are. (Why, by the way, are those people friending me?) I was the Business Editor of my book (why? no clue. why?) and it is GORGEOUS. Granted, it's 1991 gorgeous, but still. It's got a suedey/velvety cover and gold embossing and a cut out on the endpaper and the theme is Greek-God-inspired. It's pretty awesome. And so, yes, I keep it.

What souvenir did you bring back from your last trip?

I travel a lot. And I have rituals now of what I get as mementos. 1. Always a flag of that country. In little fabric version, if possible. Like the kind you get a the 4th of July parade. If I can't get fabric, I get a patch or sticker as a last resort. 2. A keychain that is relevant to that country and it goes on my great travel carabiner of keychains. 3. A piece of locally made or locally inspired (or better, both) jewelry. I have some amazing pieces I've collected over the years made by people in cities, villages, art communities, and more. To truly answer this question my last trip was to Peru. I got a little fabric flag (which took FOREVER to find) of both Peru and of Cusco (which is a rainbow like the pride flag although they are not fond of this likening)), a little porter shoe keychain, and a very cool coca leaf set in silver pendant and as a bonus, some earrings in Lima made from dyed seeds for the equivalent of about a dollar.

What visible signs are there of your most recent injury?

I am always covered in bruises. At any given moment I have anywhere from 1 to 10 of them. Mostly on my shins. I bruise very easily and always have. Now that I ride my bike a lot, I get them on my shins all the time just from a tap of the pedal.

What’s the neatest wedding favor you’ve ever seen?

Huh. I have to think on this. Mostly they are lame, right? I guess something interactive is best. Like the one wedding that had a photo booth and you got a strip of four little photos and a little stand up frame. That was good (thanks Matt & Danielle). My friends Sara and Chris actually made, themselves, strawberry rhubarb jam and jarred it up for everyone. They ruined the first batch and had to completely start over. That was pretty cool. My sister and her husband made CDs for everyone of music they care about with little recorded intros. However, burning 400 of those puppies sucked. And they were still doing it, on three computers, the night before the wedding. Insanity.

What do you do with playbills and movie-ticket stubs?

Keep them in a little pile of crap on top of my desk for a while and then I throw them out because why the hell am I keeping them? I do, however, keep all the tickets to museums from trips, bus tickets, maps of cities, subway tokens and tickets, little stirrers from coffeeshops, and the like in this cool journal book made entirely of envelopes that my friend Kathleen gave me. There's an envelope for each trip and I stuff all the stuff in there and I have no idea why I keep any of it either. Maybe if someone visits Cusco soon, I can give them al my tips and hints by going through that envelope.

HAPPY LONG WEEKEND!

Friday 5 - New Month!

(My own photo, taken in VT last winter.)

This week's Friday 5 is DROPS.

What was the last thing you dropped on the kitchen floor?

Food. Onion pieces, specifically. I am a very messy cooker, trained by an even messier cooker, my mother. I routinely drop food all over the floor when I'm cooking. Then I have to clean it all up afterwards. Which I'm not very good at either. Sometimes I find old pieces of whatever when I'm sweeping two weeks later. I know: gross.

What cough drops do you like, and do they work very well?

I usually buy those natural ones, store brand. Cough drops are expensive! I like ones with menthol in them, because I don't really use cough drops very often but it's nice to get a clear nose to go with my soothed throat.

Who was the last person you dropped off somewhere?

Um.....it's been a while, which is weird. So I'm turning this around. I picked up my roommate from the airport on Saturday when she landed from Stockholm via London after a two week business trip. Then I dropped her off at home, but that doesn't work because I live there too so I went inside with her.

When were you ever dropped like a bad habit?

Never that I know of. I would rather this read "Who have you ever dropped like a bad habit?" And so, I shall answer that question. Almost 2 years ago, I found out an ex-lover/friend had cheated on me all along and had lied to me for over a year. I called him up, told him I found out, read him the riot act, hung up and I have never spoken to him ever again. We have mutual friends, so I've been aware of some of his comings/goings since then, and he actual emailed me about 11 months after everything went down, and I ignored/deleted that. He can still bite me. Bad habits be damned.

What are your favorite kind of raindrops?

Absolutely none. I hate the rain. Anyone who knows me knows I hate the rain. I hate getting wet when I don't mean it. (I even hate being wet a little even when I do mean it.) This is only in this decade. I think it's because for 2 years when I was living in Thailand and teaching diving, I was wet all the time. Wet bathing suit, wet clothes, hot and sweaty weather. And my skin hated it. So now I've developed a psychological reaction to it. There have been days when I have had to walk to the T in the rain and am almost crying by the time I get there because I'm getting so wet and I hate it so much. I know: crazy.

HAPPY FRIDAY! RABBIT, RABBIT!