Entertainment Roundup

I haven't posted in a while, but have no fear! I am still just as much of a pop-culture consumer as ever. Taking a page from Dancer's book, while admitting I'm a more verbose person, I'm going to give you 50-word reviews of some of my latest entertainment undertakings:


Denis Leary's masterpiece, "Rescue Me," is just as fiery, provocative, funny and compelling in Season 3. His Tommy Gavin is complex and not always likable, still making a mess of his life, but he's never been sexier. Great ensemble and guest stars, plus some of the best writing on tv.


Taking a break from history, I wanted to read something light. Marley & Me is perfect for any animal lover. I am halfway through and already cried twice! It makes me hug Cleo and remember my Marleys: Patty, Bonnie, Mickey, Maggie, Rory and Abigail. I can't imagine life without them.




After a "very long wait" on Netflix, I am starting BBC/Discovery's series "Planet Earth." Wow! Amazing cinematography! Such texture! Using new technologies, the Earth and its inhabitants are seen like never before. Beautiful, brutal, powerful, joyful. Best scenes? Elephants swimming, polar bear cubs, anxious baboons testing the cold water.



"Ocean's 13" = enough hotness to go around. George and Brad are back, Matty has been elevated to full star status. Good move! Great story, amazing cast, jolly good fun. Danny Ocean and his merry men take down Al Pacino. It's funny and sexy as hell. And, the nose plays.

What She Said

I scored a pair of free passes to the premiere of Michael Moore's new flick, Sicko, at the Uptown this week. I've been thinking about it non-stop, as his indictment of the health care industry is really provocative and disturbing.

Sure, Moore is an agitator, he's brash, and he's a propagandist as much as anyone, but I tend to have a very similar viewpoint already so his films really resonate with me. And the media can harp on his trip to Cuba all they want, but his scenes with 9-11 rescue workers finally getting the treatments they need in Havana are incredibly poignant, and there were very few dry eyes in the theater.

Mandy, my date for the evening, has written an excellent review of the film and the whole experience of the evening. Check it out.

Stir the Pot

Oh my. So Michael Bloomberg has left the Republican Party.

Who wants to take bets on whether he'll run as an Independent in '08? And will Hagel be the top of the ticket or the bottom?

Things may have just gotten a lot more interesting. Just a quick glance at the history of 3rd parties gives us an indication of how much they can stir that pot. I'm all for a viable third-party system....in theory... but it better not clear the way for another conservative Republican President!

All that aside, I saw John Edwards speak at 1223 tonight. It helped remind me why he's my favorite candidate. No one uses quite the same rhetoric about how America needs to regain - re-earn- its place as a moral leader for the world. I happen to find it pretty inspiring. Thanks for staying in the race, John. Good to hear that Elizabeth is doing well!

Yo, Adrien!

I have a new summer tv crush. Yippee! I'm totally crushin' on Adrien Sharp, the sweet, personable, wholesome uniform deliveryman who hosts his own local cooking show in Michigan.


This mild-mannered father of 3 is one of the contestants on The Next Food Network Star, and he so outshines the competition in both class and personality. The selection committee ("don't call us judges!") thinks he needs to up his culinary game a bit... but I'll be a one-woman focus group. Put Adrien on The Food Network and repeat him incessantly, like all those other shows, and I will definitely tune in!

For me, one of the best things about summer is the dueling tv chef competitions - so I'll probably write more about TNFNS and Top Chef in the coming weeks. Do you have a favorite???

I've Been Tagged!

Well, I'm not one to back down from a challenge, so since Mandy tagged me, here goes:

8 Random Facts About Me You May Not Already Know

Random Fact #1:

I took piano lessons for 10 years, and Mom and Dad are keeping my mahogany baby grand for me for someday "when I'm an adult" and have a place big enough for a piano. I also played flute for 3 years.

Random Fact #2:

I get a real thrill out of making useful and informative spreadsheets. Mostly for work, but sometimes even for home stuff. I had to take lots of IT classes in grad school, and the only way that's really stayed with me is when I geek out making new formulas and formatting in Excel.

Random Fact #3:

The first political donation I ever made was to Bill Bradley in 2000. I actually got to meet him this year very briefly at a work event. He is SUPER tall!

Random Fact #4:

I have been on 4 continents. My goal is to match my parents, who have actually been on all 7. I've been to North America (duh), Australia, Europe, and Africa.

Random Fact #5:

The only bone I've ever broken is my nose. I was about 4 years old, and I had snuck out of my seat belt and was playing on the floor in the back of the car when suddenly Mom had a fender bender. I hit my nose on the seat in front of me. I don't remember the pain, but I do remember that my mom then rushed to the hospital where my dad was working his shift. Having an Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctor as a dad never served me better! He fixed me up, and now you can't tell my nose was ever broken.

Random Fact #6:

I like vampires. I always have. I like vampire movies, tv shows, and even the occasional vampire fiction. They're mysterious and dangerous, but oh so sexy!

Random Fact #7:

I work in the arts. Over the course of my career, I've worked in 2 museums, 2 theaters, an arts council and a zoo. But my first non-profit job - an unpaid internship - was actually at a jail! I spent a semester working as an intake clerk interviewing prisoners at the Richmond City Jail for a social services organization that provided them help on the outside. On my first day of work, they gave me an orientation packet that included a sheet of instructions on "What to Do In Case of a Jailbreak or Riot." I didn't tell my mom about that until the semester was over!

Random Fact #8:

I've always had animals in my life. Pets have been the usual - dogs and a cat - but when we had the farm, there could often be surprising baby animals staying in the house. We raised a lot of orphan lambs and goats (kids) in the family room, bottle-feeding them and letting them sleep in big refrigerator boxes lined with straw. Back in the 80's, when I was first learning the joy of making mix tapes by putting the external microphone of one tape recorder right next to the external microphone of another, I was often embarrased to give the mix tapes to my friends. Why? Because those little microphones picked up all the sounds of our house -- so in between Glenn Frey and Duran Duran and The Bangles, you could clearly hear the lambs. "The heat is on...... baaaaa baaaaaa baaaaaa....."

There you have it. I'm not going to officially tag anyone, but if other bloggy friends want to offer up their own 8 random facts, I promise to read them!

I Am This Character

I stayed up until 2 am on Tuesday... yes, on a school night! Why? Because I could not put this book down. I kept thinking "I'll just read another chapter...and then another...and then another..." But I could not sleep until I knew how this fantastic book, and its terrifically flawed main character's story, ended.

The Man of My Dreams is the follow-up to Curtis Sittenfeld's debut, Prep, which I loved. So I was excited to pick up this new one, though I had no idea how much this novel would resonate with me.

The book is the story of Hannah Gavener, tracking her life from ages 14 to 28 through her major interactions with men - her father, her crushes, her boyfriends, her friends' boyfriends, the ones that got away the ones she should have let go. This is not a teeny-bop chick-lit story, as Hannah is difficult, and insecure, and judgmental, and bitter, and scared...and ultimately her collected experiences enable her to become a whole person and embrace what the world has to offer.

Like in Prep, Sittenfeld's writing is often devastatingly honest and true. Check out this passage, as Sittenfeld sets up Hannah's quiet social life -- it made me shudder when I read it myself:

...she isn't sorry about her upbringing before the divorce, ...she thinks in a lot of ways it was useful. Being raised in an unstable household makes you understand that the world doesn't exist to accommodate you, which, in Hannah's observation, is something a lot of people struggle to understand well into adulthood. It makes you realize how quickly a situation can shift, how danger really is everywhere. But crises, when they do occur, do not catch you off guard; you have never believed you live under the shelter of some benevolence. And an unstable childhood makes you appreciate calmness and not crave excitement. To spend a Saturday afternoon mopping your kitchen floor while listening to opera on the radio, and to go that night to an Indian restaurant with a friend and be home by nine o'clock - these are enough. They are gifts.

Part of why I could not stop reading this story is because I could relate to everything Hannah went through and all of her hopes and fears -- this was the rare story that invites you to relive your *own* coming of age moments as you follow our heroine's fits and starts. Nearly every stage of Hannah's life echoed some prominent memory I called up from my own past. "Watching" her make the same mistakes I did was strange, because seeing what could almost be your own life pass by on the page can be somewhat unsettling as you revisit all of those "should've" moments from the past. I had several "this is your life" flashes while turning those pages in the wee hours of the morning.

A well-written story, with a believable and familiar main character, that helps you look at your own life in a new way? What more you could you ask for in a good paperback?

Getting to Know Her

Guess what? Over the last few months, I have really been warming up to Hillary Clinton.

John Edwards is still my personal fave, in terms of which of the Dem front-runners best matches my own views on the issues... but I am ready to accept that someone else may be the nominee, and that someone else may be Hillary.

And, frankly, I find it pretty damn exciting to see the first woman who has a real shot at becoming President of the United States. How cool is that?

But people (by "people" I mean talking heads who are paid to blab on cable and write op-eds in the paper) say her biggest flaw is her low likability factor. Somehow, whether it was her more moderate/tough stance on national security or her stiff upper lip during troubles in her marriage, she has this public persona of being somewhat cold and stiff.

In fact, as a follow-up to their piece last week on Barack Obama's love of hoops, the New York Times advised that Hillary needs to take up a sport in order to have more personality. Apparently her own hobbies of Scrabble, gardening, and crossword puzzles aren't sexy enough or relatable... Really, she needs to get in touch with her inner jock in order to be elected? (The rest of the column is fairly interesting, though, on the double standard of images for men vs. women in politics.) Chris Matthews is practically devoting his whole hour to Hillary's likability tonight, and he says Newsweek has a piece on it in the current issue. Apparently, this is going to be the big conversation about Hillary's candidacy.

I admit, in the past I've bought into that cold, remote media image she has. But I saw her speak in a very intimate setting last year, and I had the chance to shake her hand and have a short conversation with her that evening. I was amazed! In person, she is so warm, and personable, and funny...it really turned my perception of her around. (And it made me wonder when "her people" are going to start making that side of her easier to see on a national scale... if you get 50 million voters in a room with her, I think they'd all join her side, but that's just not possible.)

Last week, I went to a kickoff rally for "Club 44" - the campaign's big public fundraising push to make Hillary Clinton the 44th President. She spoke briefly, and it was cool to see her live again even with about 2000 other people. She's pretty good with a crowd, and I think she's getting better. Plus it was very humanizing to see her talk with Caroline Rhea ("The Biggest Loser"), Katherine McPhee, and Babyface Edmonds. (That does sound like the setup to a "walked in the bar" joke, I know.)

Then, last night, I finally saw that Sojourners program on politics & faith that featured the 3 Dem front-runners. (Check out the transcript if you missed it.) Edwards and Obama were both good, and they both said pretty much exactly what I expected of them. But Hillary, the last speaker of the night, was the big surprise for me. She was honest, she was down to earth, she was self-deprecating, and she was FUNNY! Her humor may not be everyone's cup of tea, cuz she seems to have a rather sarcastic bent, but I love it. And, as someone who falls on the agnostic/deist end of the religious spectrum, I really appreciate her bluntness about religion being a very private thing for her and that she doesn't feel the need to wear it on her sleeve. Thank you! What a breath of fresh air for this century...

Ultimately... you know what it is? Hillary reminds me a whole lot of my Mom. They're both from outside Chicago, sort of sound the same, have similar senses of humor, and are only a year apart. And sometimes my Mom's sarcasm and her assertiveness and her rigidity when she believes strongly on something can turn people off, but I know her well enough to know how great she is, and how right she is in her convictions, and how worth it it is to get to know her better. Maybe I'm projecting more than I should, but seeing a bit of my Mom in Hillary just might win me over.

Thrills & Chills

I've been in the mood for cheap, trashy horror flicks lately. It has been a guilty pleasure of mine for years, that I know at least one friend of mine shares. (That would be the friend with whom I actually went to the theater to see Final Destination 3. And we enjoyed it!) I've seen a handful of such movies lately, so I thought I'd give you the rundown:

Black X-Mas - I watched this one at home sick one day, back when I still had OnDemand. It's a remake of a very typical hot, screaming co-eds slasher movie, complete with an escaped-from-the-loony-bin serial killer and his truly dysfunctional family history. There are cheap thrills, sarcastic starlets, and a lot of squeals as they all try to survive being snowed in the sorority house with a psycho. It's definitely a disposable movie, but it helped me pass the time on an otherwise boring day. My grade: C.
Buffyverse Bonus - Three stakes, for co-star and emerging scream queen Michelle Trachtenberg, aka younger sister/key Dawn.

The Hitcher - This was a very enjoyable road-slasher flick. It's another remake, about 2 college kids driving through the desert on the way to Spring Break who end up in a cat-and-mouse game with a psycho killer. Sean Bean plays the psycho with his silent-but-deadly creepy meter turned to 11. Lots of suspense, some gore involving internal organs, the plot's not too ridiculous, and I even jumped a few times. Sophia Bush is fairly likable, and the gorgeous desert scenery totally fits the stark, desolate story. Plus, best use of a Nine Inch Nails song in years. It's not actually a "good" movie, you know, and a lot of people on Netflix say the original is "way better" - but it was exactly what I wanted it to be. My grade: B+.
Buffyverse Bonus - None, as I couldn't recognize anyone....but it does feature WB alum Sophia Bush, and LOTR hottie Bean.

The Return - This movie was a mess. It stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, and the presence of Sam Shepherd as her father made me think it might be better than the average fare. Well, Sam must've needed a paycheck, cuz this movie sucks. SMG plays a small town gal who does something related to trucking and agribusiness sales - not important, and I didn't buy it at all. She had a scary incident as a kid and grew up to be kinda a creepy loner. Once she heads back near her old hometown, she starts having visions of a woman being killed... and so like any bad movie heroine, she decides to investigate herself. This leads to a lot of atmospheric rural-Gothic scenes with old barns and rusty farm equipment. The plot is pretty bad, the acting is not so great, the love interest is ludicrous, and the movie itself is just boring. Skip this one and save yourself 2 hours. My grade: D.
Buffyverse Bonus - Five stakes! Though this movie sucked, it starred the new horror queen, Buffy herself. She still rocks intrinsically, even in crap.

Slither - This is good campy fun. It takes the "it came from outer space" premise and puts all the kooky residents of a small town at risk as some slithering worm-things go on the attack. Lots of good alien-zombie scenes. It totally has some gross-out moments, and I had to look away and cover my ears for one particularly memorable scene in a barn. But, it's all done with tongue firmly placed in cheek, and this is a comedy rather than straight horror with a lot of great one-liners. And, as always, Nathan Fillion is both snarky and hot. My grade: B+.
Buffyverse Bonus - Two stakes, for starring my current heartthrob Fillion, aka Caleb the kicka@@ evil priest from the final season of Buffy. Plus an extra stake for a cameo by Jenna Fischer as yet another put-upon receptionist with big hair!

The Union is Restored

Today, the love affair that has dominated the last three months of my life is drawing to a close. After countless hours of enthrallment, I have finished Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals.

I can not be superlative enough in talking about how much I love this book. It is quite possibly the best I have ever read, all 754 pages of it plus notes. In a massive biography of our 16th President and the members of his Cabinet, Goodwin truly brings you right into the action - sitting alongside the leaders and witnessing the events of America's greatest challenge.


I marveled at learning of Lincoln's renowned sense of humor, I cheered on his surprise nomination at the 1860 convention, I was riveted "witnessing" the evolution of Lincoln's views on emancipation, I empathized with Lee and his crucial decision on which side to support, I grew angry at the ineptitude of Fremont and McClellan, I grieved with Abraham and Mary at the loss of young Willie, I read aloud the words of the Gettysburg Address, I grew frustrated with the various maneuvers and ambitions of Lincoln's political rivals, my eyes welled up with the passage of the 13th Amendment on the floor of the House, and I had to put the book down to overcome my feelings of dread before reading the inevitable last chapter.


After reading Team of Rivals, I have a greater love and appreciation for Lincoln as both the man and the President, and I feel a much deeper understanding of the historical forces and political compromises that both tore our nation asunder and, in restoring the Union, enabled what Lincoln himself called a "new birth of freedom." I truly can not imagine what it must have been like to live through such a tumultuous time period, when so much was at stake and so many people acted so nobly for the greater good of humanity, but reading this book has finally brought the era to life more than any lecture in a high school classroom.

Doris Kearns Goodwin has now solidified her place as my professional hero. I have met her in person and seen her speak on two occasions, and now having finished her masterpiece my admiration for her continues to grow. As a writer, as a storyteller - putting words to paper and making the people and events of history real, and exciting, and emotional - she has no parallel that I've ever seen. I now have on my shelf her volume on Franklin & Eleanor (which won the Pulitzer) and will soon seek out her very personal memoirs of LBJ. And, like so many others, I will eagerly await her next project, a look at Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, and the Progressive Era.


If she was able to both elevate the iconic and mythical nature of Father Abraham and reveal the truly human side of Lincoln the master politician, I can only imagine what she'll do with such a colorful character as TR!

This is Not Hot

I'm sorry, I didn't realize Paris Hilton merited a full day of news coverage. Sure, she's a tabloid queen celebutante, but who cares?

I stayed home sick today, and I've been flipping MSNBC on and off throughout the day... you know, to maybe see some coverage about the immigration bill defeat yesterday, or discussion of Peter Pace's retirement.... but no luck.

This morning, it was all the talking heads could do not to giggle with glee about the ongoing spectacle of Paris's jail sentence, and they kept replaying totally tasteless Leno and Letterman jokes about the house arrest ankle bracelet.

And now, I just turned it back on. They have an "eye in the sky" helicopter following some police car driving around LA. They actually just said they weren't sure if she was in the car or not, but we'd keep following it... sources like TMZ.com are keeping them posted on the ground. Um, TMZ.com is their source? Plus they just announced a programming note -- tonight at 9 pm they are devoting a WHOLE HOUR to the Paris Hilton jail story, led by the network's HEAD of the news department. WHAT?!?

Some of the pundits are trying to make this a legitimate argument about inequities in the US justice system. Fine, I'd take that kind of coverage more seriously if it wasn't interspersed with debates about what label of designer gray sweatsuit Paris was wearing into court today.

Enough. I'm switching back to the Food Network.

Dining Out for Less

It's time for the annual "Cheap Eats" issue of Washingtonian Magazine. Unlike their list of best restaurants, this issue is usually a good guide for me on the kinds of places that I should check out. I still think that in many cases their definition of the word "cheap" is more equivalent to my definition of "moderately-priced" - but it's a pretty good list!

I've already taste-tested several of their picks:

Coppi's Organic - 1414 U Street NW. Organic pizza, which was fairly tasty but not the best I've had. Ella's is still my favorite pizza place, especially for a simple margherita.

Jaleo DC - 480 Seventh St NW. Sangria, sauteed spinach, chorizo, cheese bread. 'Nuff said.

Matchbox - 713 H St NW. One of my favorite places, lines be damned. Mini-burgers and a bistro salad not to be missed! They have viognier on the wine list, and... oh yeah, and rich, greasy, tasty pizza too!

Pizzeria Paradiso - 2029 P St NW. More gourmet pizza, that was pretty tasty. But Ella's is still my fave (at least until I finally try 2 Amys?).

Raku Bethesda - 7240 Woodmont Ave, Bethesda. I've tried this location, but the one in Dupont is more convenient. I like their sushi, and in the winter their noodle dishes hit the spot.

Zaytinya - 701 Ninth St NW. For the first few years I lived here, this was my go-to place for a fancy night out. I don't go as often these days, but I still really like the menu and the ambience of this mezzeteria. (Prettiest bathrooms I've ever seen.) Plus it's where I had the single oddest food experience ever - olive oil ice cream!

But the good thing about this issue is it has given me ideas on lots of new places I really should explore, especially the ones in the District itself. So, I have a new priority list. Anyone want to join me in trying out these cheap eats?

Bar Pilar, 1833 14th St NW
Cafe Divan, 1834 Wisconsin Ave NW
Etete, 1942 Ninth St NW
Malaysia Kopitiam, 1827 M St NW
Moby Dick House of Kabob, 1070 31st St NW
Palena Cafe, 3529 Connecticut Ave NW
Pasta Mia, 1790 Columbia Road NW (Those long lines must mean something!)
2 Amys, 3715 Macomb St NW
Zorba's Cafe, 1612 20th St NW

Calling All LOST Fans

So, if you're like me, you're probably wondering "how in the heck are we going to last until February 2008 with no new LOST episodes????" And then you cower into a corner shaking, not sure how you'll last that long without knowing who's in the coffin, or if Naomi's a bad guy, or if Desmond tells everyone that it's not Penny's boat, or if Ben was right, or where they found a leash for Vincent. Okay, so, maybe you're not like me....

But, there is a plan afoot with the folks over at Lost and Gone Forever and its message boards on how we can spend our time during this extra long hiatus. Sure, we could all spend the next 8 months socializing with real people, or seeing art exhibits, or reading books, or, you know, going outside once in a while... and I'm sure we will find time to fit that in... but we will also be launching "LOST Rewind" - the hiatus experience.

Starting in the next week (I think), this group of LOSTies will begin rewatching all of LOST at the pace of about 2 episodes a week. (See, that's not so crazy!) We'll be discussing the episodes and analyzing them now from the lens of what we know (or think we know) 3 years in. It should be fun, and it'll certainly help pass the time and keep us talking about all those mind-bending LOST themes we love. It should take us up to the December (!!!) release date for the Season 3 DVDs and right up to the Season 4 rollercoaster just in time for my birthday next year.

I know, sometimes y'all may worry about my LOST obsession... but hey, at least I've found a peer group! Come join us, if you're as Island-crazy as me! :-)