Some Will Win, Some Will Lose

Now that I've made my semi-educated guesses regarding the Golden Globe Award film nominations, it's on to my area of more expertise - television. Yay!

Best Television Series - Drama: Disclaimer - I'm about three seasons behind on Dexter and House, and one season behind on True Blood. That being said, I don't think any of them really stood a chance anyway, except maybe True Blood. From what I've heard, while all three were both wonderful in their earlier seasons, and continue to be great, none is as good as it was in their respective first seasons. And none could compare to the remaining two nominees. Although, let me just tell you how weird it is to explain to someone why you like the show Big Love so much. "Yeah, it's great! What's it about, you ask? Um...polygamy." Yeah, it goes over well. But it is tremendous, and this past season (which I just finished watching, courtesy of Netflix) was one of the best. That being said, I think Mad Men is the one to beat in this category. And for good reason - the show wins awards left and right, and is showing no signs of slowing down. The show essentially revamped throughout the season, and rather than jumping the shark, it seems to have come through even stronger. That, and Jon Hamm is dreamy :-)

Best Actor in a Drama Series: Jon Hamm. See above - Mad Men wins awards like it's its job, and this part was made for him. The rest of them (Simon Baker, Michael C. Hall, the fabulous Hugh Laurie, and Bill Paxton) can't compare.

Best Actress in a Drama Series: If ever there was a year for January Jones, I think this is it. That being said, I'll be surprised if she wins against any of the difficult competition: Glenn Close, Julianna Marguiles, Anna Paquin, and Kyra Sedgwick. My limited knowledge of any of the actresses' shows except for Mad Men and True Blood makes it difficult to choose, but based on history, I'm tentatively going with Glenn Close.

Best Television Series - Comedy: I think this is the year that 30 Rock is going down. Not that it should - it's one of the greatest shows on television right now - it just has the misfortune to be getting to be the old, unexpected answer in a category with two bright, shiny new toys in it. I still don't know why the ancient Entourage was nominated over something like How I Met Your Mother, but it's here to be ignored, so let's ignore it. You know how I love The Office, but this season, while great, was nothing compared to its competitors. Which brings us to the real contenders - the aforementioned 30 Rock and new toys Glee and Modern Family. 30 Rock is getting old. Not worse, just old. And the Golden Globes have always been good for recognizing fresh, new shows. Which leaves us Glee and Modern Family. All season long, I've been trying to get people to watch both shows, which is made all the more difficult by the fact that they air at the same time. But now that Glee is on hiatus, it is the time for all of you to listen to me and start watching Modern Family. When have I ever steered you wrong? And once you've done that, you will agree with the following statement: Despite the fact that Glee is an original, beautifully crafted masterpiece, and I love it and am counting the days until it returns in April, I want Modern Family to win. I'm not saying it's better, I'm just saying that it is equally deserving and would benefit far more from the win. OK, I said it. I'm going to lock my door to protect myself from the hordes of Gleeks coming to kill me. But seriously, go watch an episode and tell me you don't find it delightful.

Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical: I want to marry Matthew Morrison and have his babies. And if Glee is to win an acting award this year, I think it will be his. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's Alec Baldwin (over my future husband Morrison, Steve Carell, David Duchovny, and Thomas Jane) again this year. I never thought I'd love Alec Baldwin, but there you go.

Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical: Have you guys seen United States of Tara? Because it's pretty darn awesome. And Toni Collette makes it that way. Of the other four nominees (Courteney Cox, Lea Michele, Edie Falco, and Tina Fey), I think she has the best chance. To be fair, I haven't seen Edie Falco's show yet, and I've heard that she's great, so she probably stands a pretty good chance as well. But my money's on Toni Collette.

Supporting Actor and Actress: I hate how the HFPA organizes their supporting actor categories - all actors and actresses in television programs, whether comedy, musical, drama, miniseries, whatever, get grouped together into these two categories. This leads to stupid things, like Chloe Sevigny and Jane Lynch vying for the same award for their performances in Big Love and Glee, respectively. Or Michael Emerson versus Neil Patrick Harris versus John Lithgow in Lost, How I Met Your Mother, and Dexter, for vastly different performances. Between the differences in each performance and the fact that I've seen very few of the nominated miniseries and TV movies, choosing is rather difficult. So I'm picking who I want to win - Jane Lynch and Neil Patrick Harris. And I'd be happy with Chloe Sevigny or Michael Emerson as backup choices.

So there you go - watch tonight! See how well I guessed! And be happy for my coworkers that tomorrow is a federal holiday, and they won't have to listen to me recap the entire show for the better part of the morning!

Take A Holiday From the Neighborhood

This past weekend Tricia and I went to visit Sara, Josh, and Penny in New Jersey. After an eventful drive through Delaware and up the Jersey Turnpike, we arrived, and were greeted by the welcoming committee.

Much to Penny's dismay, we immediately set out on our first quest. We had tried to order tickets on the internet to see the revival of Hair, but had no such luck, so we decided to try the TKTS line.

I had only ever been to the TKTS place in Times Square, which is an absolute mob scene. The one at the South Street Seaport was like a dream come true - the line was short, it didn't smell like tourist, and best of all, they had what we wanted:

We made it to the window fairly quickly, and easily got our tickets for the next day, which were better seats than the ones we had looked at on the internet.

We were very excited!Next, we wandered over to an outdoor restaurant to get drinks,

and then we went shopping.

We also saw one of the most horrifying things I have seen in awhile - the return of the Grow-A-Frog kit, on sale for an exorbitant sum of money at Brookstone.

Apparently they dress them up in fancy tanks and sell them without appropriate warnings, such as "These little bastards won't die," or "Don't put two in the same tank or they will eat each other."

We went back to Jersey City for dinner at a really good Mexican restaurant Sara and Josh liked, and then retired to their house for an evening of playing with Penny. She was very excited to have visitors.

Sara also told us that it was our job to drink the last leftover bottle of wine from their wedding. We were happy to oblige.

Eventually, though, everyone got tired and was ready for bed.

Saturday morning, we set out bright and early into the city.They post very useful information in the New York transit system.

After a short walk, we reached NBC Studios, one of the happiest places on earth.

We waited in line for the tour to start,

taking the last few pictures we were allowed to before going in.

The tour was super cool - we got to see Jimmy Fallon's studio, the SNL studio, and where they film Nightly News with Brian Williams, among other things. There was also a rather annoying group of moms on the tour who had dragged their pre-teen daughters with them, and felt the need to point out every single thing to them, no matter how obvious, or how little the kids cared. However, there were no super cute but inadvertenly offensive NBC pages on this tour like the last one - our tour group had two pages, Matt and Kristin, and there were no elderly people with eyepatches or middle aged couples with bad taste in Tonight Show hosts for them to accidentally insult. Sadly, there were no celebrity-sightings, so we had to settle for a giant wall of NBC stars instead.

After the tour, we went to the basement of the building for lunch.

and then back up to the NBC Experience Store. This store was full of awesome stuff - I got a Dunder Mifflin badge holder, a Dunder Mifflin tote bag, a coffee mug, a Friday Night Lights shirt, and a couple of birthday/Christmas presents for later this year. Sara got the most awesome onesie for the baby, too, among other things. And I saw a Seinfeld shirt that I really wanted, but they didn't have it in my size, sadly.

I also saw my favorite kind of bird - an NBC peacock.Next, we walked over to Times Square and Broadway to see Hair. This was one of the few Times Square pictures that turned out well - there were many, many people in my way for most of them.We also saw Michael Scott's favorite New York pizza joint.

While we were standing in the monstrous line to get into the theater, Sara posed with the Statue of Liberty (not the real one).

Finally, we reached the theater door:The show was fantastic - I've wanted to see Hair since I saw the episode of Head of the Class where they wanted that to be their class play, but the school wouldn't let them because of the nudity and subject matter. Fictitious 80s high schools can be so picky. And it was great - very well done, even though most of the understudies were on for this performance. And the best part was, our tickets were in the hippie-free zone. The actors spent a fair amount of time running through the audience, but we were far enough from any aisles that we were untouchable, and we liked it that way.

After the play, we stopped at a hotel gift shop so Tricia could get band-aids for her shoe bites, and I could buy inappropriate postcards to send to Kathy to hang on her classroom wall.

We also saw what may very well be my mother's dream come true. Don't tell her that they probably don't just play Law and Order reruns all day.

We also passed a restaurant that is owned by some Food Network person I wasn't familiar with,

and we took a detour to the Ann Taylor Loft by the subway on a hunt for pretty dresses.

When we got back to Jersey City, Sara changed into her super cool new shirt, and we set out for dinner.

We went to a very good Italian place in Hoboken (of which there were many...it was pretty much the first one we came across), near where Josh rightfully earned himself the title of Parallel Parking King. Even I was impressed, and I can parallel park anywhere.

After dinner, we wandered over to a park by the river to see the city at night.

By then, it was getting late, so we headed home so we could get up early the next day and Tricia and I could beat the beach traffic. Which we did (yay for the Pennsylvania Turnpike instead of 95 through Delaware!), but not until after Sara and Josh cooked us bacon. I love bacon. And I love Sara and Josh and Penny for entertaining us all weekend!

**Gold star to whoever gets the title quote first...it's not that difficult, someone must know it!***

I'm One Of the Drunk Ones!

As you all well know, May is one of my favorite months of the year. Pretty weather, the pool opens (the pool I pay for, not the pool that pays me), and also, the end of the TV season. You wouldn't think this would excite me - after all, it means no new network primetime shows of value until at least September - but season finales are usually pretty awesome. This year was no different - 30 Rock, which is easily one of the greatest network shows on air right now, closed their season with a music video. A fantastic music video, which Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) has organized to try to find a kidney donor for his father, Milton Green (Alan Alda). While it's pretty funny in its own right, one can not truly understand its awesomeness unless they have seen its inspiration. Note the death look that Paul Simon gives Kenny Rogers (not Michael McDonald, as I had stupidly originally written), the Lionel Richie thumbs up, and the generally stoned look that a sweatshirted Diana Ross wears throughout the video:



Now that you have been enlightened, I give you.....Kidney Now!