"Top Gun."

(There is supposed to be an embedded video up there, but it isn't working. Boo. But you can watch it here, and have a laugh!)

I miss you, Big Gay Sketch Show.

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How to pick a career.

"I think what first drew me to acting was when I looked in the mirror, and I said, 'Wow, I am just like everybody else. I am like every other girl. Let me go into a business that is all about beauty and blending in, and my career will be amazing. How can I make the most money, the most stability, the least amount of rejection? Acting. Boom.'"

- Julie Goldman

It's funny when you see her delivery on the TV, but I can't find the video clip. Boo Logo.
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Pigeon-holed

I have been watching and loving Beautiful People. It's a BBC series about a fey, young British lad, his eccentric family, and his sassy, black best friend. The problem is that instead of airing on ABC Family, the show airs on Logo . . . because it has a few gay people in it? The show is about a boy and his family, yet it comes on Logo on Tuesdays at 10 pm, followed by Queer as Folk. Which is like having Gilmore Girls followed by Secret Diary of a Call Girl. They're both about straight women, right?

In conclusion, if you have Logo or BBC 2, watch Beautiful People. It's funny!

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How sad is my Thursday night

without 30 Rock and The Office? I can't even find a good show on Logo. I have seen every episode of Rick and Steve, The Big Gay Sketch Show and Exes and Ohs at least twice. They really need fundage for some new original programming.

My new favorite show

. . . on Logo: Exes and Ohs. It's funny, and the main character is an overanalyzer like I am. Also, Heather Matarazzo plays an delusional aspiring singer/songwriter who calls herself "Crutch." That's reason enough to watch this 30-minute dramedy series.

However, as Sarah Warn said on After Ellen seven months ago, "what's up with a cast of all white women?" Sheryl Lee Ralph, of Dreamgirls and the last season of Designing Women fame, did play the minister in the pilot episode, but all of the main characters and most of the other supporters are white. Harumph. I can't find a suitable role model anywhere. I guess I've still got Tyra. Oy vey.

I took a walk this morning,

and it was the Best Walk Ever! Readers of the female persuasion, you should go on a walk, too.

The group of people I walked with was made up of so many fabulous women at different points in their careers. During the reception that followed, I got to talk with talented individuals whom I had never expected to encounter, and whose work I never realized how much I appreciated until it wasn't there anymore. The coolest thing about the entire affair was how comfortable I felt. I was accepted by everyone, by women who have done so much with their lives already. And many of those successful women were impressed by me and my goals. I wasn't worried about what my face looked like or what clothes I was wearing. I felt so supported and empowered and connected. These are people who understand what I stand for and know how far we still have to go as women together.

After all of that positivity this morning, conversely this evening I've been watching And You Don't Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop, a miniseries on VH1. After four hours of footage that included the LL Cool J, Run DMC, The Beastie Boys, and rises and fall of Tupac and Biggie, one guy finally mentioned "The whole misogyny thing", and pointed out that "[hip-hop is] so accommodating of different styles and different points of view...except for women." Ice-T then excused the industry's oppression and degradation of women by calling it a "back-and-forth", ongoing "battle of the sexes", stating that rappers like Foxy Brown and Lil Kim represent "Do me" feminism.

You know what I love? When men making millions of dollars off of hip hop--an industry now fully entrenched in the hate, mockery and subjugation of girls and women--try to inform me about feminism. Additionally, the entire contribution of women in the hip hop community was relegated to ten of the final 20 minutes of this five-hour special. Those ten minutes included commercials. Also, during this entire special, only one woman was featured as a talking head. One. I couldn't tell you how many men there were featured during those five hours, it was that many.

As I watched the special this evening, and as I listened to Steve Harvey talking to Smokey Robinson on the radio this morning, I realized how much of our culture is dominated by people who decided to say something and were given the power to do so. Not necessarily something important. Just something. Many of these people are men with absolutely nothing of value to say. I'm not talking about Mr. Harvey or Mr. Robinson in particular. I'm talking about fools like Nelly and Lil Jon, whose songs and videos degrade themselves and the women "hired" to gyrate in them. Hired is in quotation marks because I learned from another hip-hop special on VH1 that these women are often not paid for their appearances. Instead of getting much deserved residuals any time the video airs, they get harassed and abused for free. Now that's America. And how are Nelly and Lil Jon degrading themselves? Well, Nelly grew up in a middle-class suburb, and Lil Jon apparently has a bachelors degree. Yet they perpetuate this ghetto fabulous lifestyle acting like they have no sense. What is that about?

Ooh, so now I'm watching a commercial for Ben Stiller's The Heartbreak Kid which looks like a movie about Ben marrying a blond woman who is way too young and way too good-looking for him. He seems not to have known anything about his trophy wife before he married her, and now it turns out that she's crazy. And the movie wants us to feel sorry for him . . . why? I don't get it. Maybe he shouldn't have married some skinny blond woman half his age before he got to know her. Idiot.

I can't wait to see that other movie coming about that young, funny, driven college-educated woman who likes to talk about current events with her friends . . . Oh, that's not a movie? . . . I meant the TV show. . . No TV show either? Then I guess I'll go watch some more gay men on Logo. :(

Nope, there is obviously no problem with the representation of women in American media. You win, irwin.

That's all for now.

Separate But Equal

After watching most of the Visible Vote 08: A Presidential Forum on Logo last night, I have now chosen my candidate: Dennis Kucinich. I don't care that some say he looks like "a cross between a hobbit and mole" and that he's "soooo left that he’ll never get nominated." He is indeed "idealistic and amazing," which is more than I can say for the other candidates, aside from Mike Gravel. They had the gall to show up to the LGBT forum, tried to convince the room that civil unions were just as good as straight marriages, and then got defensive when the queer moderators challenged their bigoted beliefs. Senator Obama had the nerve to bring up his miscegenating parents as proof of his understanding of fighting for equality, then got all mad when Jonathan Capehart from the Washington Post asked him, "how can you run as a candidate of change when your stance is decidedly old-school?" I haven't watched the Hillary part yet, so I can't comment on her.

So far, here is my second favorite part of the forum, 18 minutes of love and hope:

Kucinich at HRC Logo Dem Forum



Did you hear what he had to say about health care? Yep, that's right. Coverage for all.

My first favorite part of the Logo special? The gratuitous shots of NPH in the audience. This week I've been watching Season One of Doogie Howser, M.D., courtesy of N.S.B. If I had watched the show when in first came out in 1989, I would have been so in love with Neil Patrick Harris. The only thing stopping me from watching his latest series, How I Met Your Mother, is . . . the rest of the show. I don't need anymore white male focused heteronormative fantasy shoved down my throat. Hence, I will not be seeing Superbad (shocker!) no matter how much Dustin and Dan will probably love it and anything else Apatow pulls out of his tuchis, and no matter how cute Michael Cera totally is.

I did like NPH in Stark Raving Mad, though. What, you don't remember that NBC show with the former child star all grown up and doing something wacky? With his lookalike brothers?

Having A Wonderfalls Weekend

I have been watching Wonderfalls all day. I woke up this morning and discovered the 13-hour Wonderfalls Windfall marathon on Logo. The theme song's sucky, but I really like the show. It reminded me of Dead Like Me, probably because the same person created both shows. And Heroes, which my friends say I should watch. But I've already missed the first 18 episodes. I didn't want to start watching last year because Milo Ventimiglia is a show-killer. And The Bedford Diaries sucked.

I don't know who the main stars are, but Tracie Thoms of Rent fame is the token black best friend, and Jewel Staite (best known to me from Flash Forward, but others know her from Firefly/Serenity) plays the cute bartender's wife who blew the bellboy on their honeymoon. Ew. That cute bartender needs to move on, no matter how much I like Jewel Staite. She needs to get a good project. The Tribe is not acceptable.

I'm guessing it's on Logo because the sister comes out as a lesbian in the first episode, then dates the UPS guy's ex-wife throughout the rest of the series. Or because the co-creators are both gay. I don't know. I'm just disappointed it doesn't seem to be coming on the Logo schedule again after today. Boo. :(

That is all for now.

Stuff that I Can't Stop Talking About: The Prep Edition.

Last weekend, during my trip to Albuquerque to visit my mother at one of her many nursing conferences, I read Prep, a novel by Curtis Sittenfeld. I certainly had a lot to say when I got to the end of the book, especially after perusing the "Reader's Guide," which included "A Conversation with Curtis Sittenfeld" and a list of ten "Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion." I'm guessing the Guide was less an insult to the reader's intelligence and more a opportunity for Ms. Sittenfeld to avoid invitations to speak at someone's book club.

I don't have the energy to repeat the caustic prose about Prep that I launched at any of my friends and associates who would listen to me this week. I like to call my interpretation of the book the Studio 60 effect. No, Aaron Sorkin was not involved. I mean that I was affected by the hype surrounding the book and the author before I actually read the material. I had owned the book for over a year, but I never had time to read it. But during that period, I did have time to read other shorter writings in the challenging world of Fiction Written by Women Authors. And, oh, what I learned about Curtis Sittenfeld.

Cutting to the chase, here is "Sophie's Choices", Ms. Sittenfeld's review of Melissa Bank's book The Wonder Spot:

"To suggest that another woman's ostensibly literary novel is chick lit feels catty, not unlike calling another woman a slut -- doesn't the term basically bring down all of us? And yet, with ''The Wonder Spot,'' it's hard to resist. A chronicle of the search for personal equilibrium and Mr. Right, Melissa Bank's novel is highly readable, sometimes funny and entirely unchallenging; you're not one iota smarter after finishing it. I'm as resistant as anyone else to the assumption that because a book's author is female and because that book's protagonist is a woman who actually cares about her own romantic future, the book must fall into the chick-lit genre. So it's not that I find Bank's topic lightweight; it's that Bank writes about it in a lightweight way."

The rest of the review only gets better from there. (Is better the right word?)

Here is how Jennifer Weiner, a prolific writer of "chick lit" (I hate that moniker even more than "chick flick") responded on her blog:

"...Curtis Sittenfeld’s quote-unquote review of THE WONDER SPOT – a nastier-than-it-needed-to-be takedown in which the book is dismissed as lightweight, inconsequential fluff -- is less about the book, or its author, than it is about Sittenfeld’s anxiety about how her own work has been perceived.

"Think about it. Sittenfeld's young, she’s educated (Stanford and that obligatory Iowa MFA), she taught English at St. Albans, published in all the right places (Salon, The New York Times) and was reviewed and profiled, or both, in all of them as well.

"But when her book went out into the world, was it perceived as high-minded literature, a la the Jonathans (Franzen, Safran Foer), or sparkling satire a la the Toms (Perrotta, Wolfe?)

"It was not."

Now that one definitely only gets better from there. I LOLed repeatedly.

My condensed take on the book? It was really long. The main character complained in her head a lot, but never did anything to change what she didn't like about her world. I like the It-Girl series better, even with its insidious brand-name dropping.

Additional stuff I can't stop talking about:

The Pajiba review of Black Snake Moan, by Dustin Rowles. What happened to the Christina of The Ice Storm and Now and Then? I miss her.

But White Possum Scream looks like a can't miss!

The last two episodes of 30 Rock: Capturing Obama before he strikes again? Osama in 2008? Oh, Jenna. And then came "The Source Awards." Wait till I tell Tupac about this.

I'd never had any interest in CSI:Miami until I spotted this series of clips on Defamer in which David Caruso displays his acting ability by repeated putting on a pair of sunglasses. I then watched the original seven-minute clip show of David Caruso's ridiculous cold open one-liners. Wow. Mr. Caruso is something. He actually made Jim Carrey look funny.

I tried to watch an episode of the show when I was in Albuquerque, beleaguered by the dearth of programming called hotel cable. But I couldn't get through more than 20 minutes of bad dialogue. So I won't be doing that again. Sorry, Rory Cochrane.

I have found yet another show on Logo that I enjoy: First Comes Love. From the website:

"Hosted by stand-up comedian Elvira Kurt and wedding planner extraordinaire, Fern Cohen, this series challenges about-to-be-married gay and lesbian couples to fulfill a long-held wish to have the wedding of their dreams. How will they express their love for each other? Will it be old-fashioned wedding bells or a brand new sense of style and tradition? Find out on First Comes Love."

Elvira Kurt makes me laugh. I saw her Comedy Central Presents special, and I was so thankful that my Mummy didn't raise me like hers did. My mother never crocheted me a back-to-school outfit. I would have pitched a fit if she had tried.

Note to readers of my blog (all three of you): Feel free to leave comments; I like discussion. Also, if you notice any typos, or have any questions about my grammar or syntax, please let me know. Thank you!

What I'm Watching This Presidents' Day.

This morning I'm watching the Black Men Revealed marathon on TV One. "Why He Won't Go to Church" is on right now. Next up is "Head to Toe: Turn Ons and Turn Offs." Earlier I watched part of "Black Male Mythology" featuring Martin from The Cosby Show, who believes his straight marriage should be valued more than any gay or lesbian marriage. Hmph. Then, as I was rotating my laundry, I watched most of "When White is Right," with this fool named Ocean, who prefers dating white women because they're easy, and doesn't like dating black women because they won't put up with his crap. However he doesn't like when black women date white men because he doesn't like the image he has in his head of them having sex.

I'm liking the show, and I'm wondering why this type of conversation isn't being shown most other networks. Not just a show displaying coherent black men, but coherent people having rich discussions about cultural topics. I don't hear about anything like this on CNN or, god forbid, Fox News.

Also, I've been watching LOGO, now that it's part of my cable package. I revisited Can't Get A Date this weekend. Of course, LOGO only shows the gay and lesbian episodes, so I may never get to see the lost straight episodes since VH1 isn't showing it anymore. Harumph.

As I was perusing the LOGO website, I came across Laughing Matters More, "a reality-based romp with four of the hottest lesbian comics working today." Why Kathleen Madigan isn't involved, I don't know. But anyway. Why can't Comedy Central have more women comedians featured like this? Or even, different comedians in general? I do enjoy some Comedy Central, but much as I love reruns of Chappelle's Show, I don't need anymore regurgitated incarnations of Dane Cook or Carlos Mencia. They really need to change it up and diversify their product to keep up with the demographics of our American society. If Comedy Central is leaving me behind, (or is it the other way around?) then I know other people like me are looking for other entertainment outlets as well. And demanding that YouTube take down clips of Crank Yankers and The Daily Show is not going to take care of the problem.