Skate Love

I thought about writing a (lengthier) post about how I've rediscovered my love of figure skating this year, but for now I'll just leave it with this routine, which I'm totally in love with.

LOVE.

Ta-Dah!

It may never happen again. I'm enjoying the achievement while it lasts.

A Classic Film Interlude

Today I put on That's Entertainment to watch while I sorted clothes and folded laundry. I love That's Entertainment for both its collection of clips from MGM musicals and its 1974-set framing narrative. It was made at the perfect time - the studio era was effectively over, as illustrated by the general disrepair of MGM's backlot in the narrator scenes, but that era was still recent enough that stars like Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire were still around to act as the film's tour guides. The numbers chosen for That's Entertainment - Astaire's coatrack dance from Royal Wedding, the cast-of-hundreds numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley, the selections from Esther Williams' water-based musicals - somehow make today's movies feel so flat and unimaginative. Sure, you can create whole worlds with a computer, but the tactile realities of old-school song and dance just feel more impressive to me.

"Good Morning" doesn't appear in That's Entertainment - it's in the sequel - but it still illustrates what to me is so unique and essential about classic musicals. The quality of the dance is simply unmatched today; you can see the hard work involved in making it appear easy. To me, the moment at the end when all three come up and over the couch in perfect unison is transcendent.

Speaking of classic film, a few days ago I made a film-related impulse purchase on Etsy. Definitely excited to share once it arrives...

Valentine's Day Playlist

Around Valentine's Day every year, I get this impulse to comb my music collection and construct a multitude of playlists. Bouncy, poppy love songs, crazy desperate breakup songs - romance is a fruitful topic for musicians and lyricists. This year, I hit on a previously unrealized subgenre that is actually ideal for the holiday: show tunes. Musicals are one place where wearing one's emotions on their sleeve is a necessity, and some fabulous love songs have been created for them. Here are some of my favorites:

A couple of years ago, I watched a documentary on Broadway musicals where they discussed Oscar Hammerstein's skill with what they described as the "speculative love song" - it allows the writers to place a love song for the romantic leads in the first act by talking about it as non-real. (I don't know, I thought it was interesting.) Anyway, here's some of my favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein selections.

"If I Loved You" from Carousel

"People Will Say We're in Love" from Oklahoma

"Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" from Cinderella

"Ten Minutes Ago" from Cinderella

Let's just take a moment to bask in the very concept of a musical created specifically for television. The original version, from the 1950s and starring Julie Andrews, was filmed live. Live! A live original musical on television! When the fairy godmother gives Cinderella her new gown for the ball, they just sort of pushed Julie Andrews out of camera range and changed her clothes super-fast! It just makes Glee seem like they're not really trying very hard, doesn't it? The sixties version (with Leslie Ann Warren, up top) is the one I watched to death as a kid before misplacing the tape, the nineties version (with Brandy) resurrected the show in my mind, and the fifties version is the one for which I have the soundtrack. Really, I love all three because of songs like these.

"Make Believe" from Show Boat

This is actually Jerome Kern, not Richard Rodgers, but it still fits the whole Hammerstein speculative song thing. Oh, Show Boat. So deeply problematic, so academically intruiging.

And from other writers and shows:

"One Boy" from Bye Bye Birdie

Hugo is kind of a lame character (that whole super-chaste kiss sequence in the middle of this scene cracks me up), but I love how Bobby Rydell's voice sounds in this song. It makes early-sixties conformity sound so appealing.

"Someone is Waiting" from Company

Having had groups of close male friends, the whole conceit of wishing to pick and choose everyone's best parts to create someone ideal is so terribly spot-on.

"I Can Hear the Bells" from Hairspray

Hairspray always manages to have just the right amount of edge and humor in its songs, which acts as a buffer against what can be saccharine about them.

"Tonight" from West Side Story

Just so wonderfully swoon-y. I love "Somewhere," too, but this is my favorite.

Baking: 1-2-3-4 Cake

So I baked this cake on Sunday, and had plans to frost it and bring it in so my friends in my program could enjoy it, but I cannot for the life of me find the energy within me to find and execute a decent frosting recipe. The ones I've made before have felt really work intensive and by the time I'm home and have anywhere approaching enough time to work on it, I just feel like I'd rather take a nap instead. I'd also rather not use frosting out of a can for sharing with others. However, I wanted to discuss the cake anyway, since the recipe came from an interesting place. Maybe I'll still bring it in, maybe I'll just keep it to practice decorating techniques on (and to eat, of course).

One of the cooler things about going to an old school is that you can find some neat old books in the library just wandering through the stacks. (Also, old magazines, but that's another story entirely.) One day I came across The Ebony Cookbook from 1962:

In case you had any doubts that this came from the sixties, here's the endpaper:

And the photo accompanying the "Desserts" chapter:

I liked the idea of baking something from the cookbook as a sort of Black History Month celebration. It's a sort of artifact of the intra-United States Black diaspora; Ebony readers sent in recipes to construct a compendium of African-American foods. There's a chapter specifically devoted to "Creole Dishes," which culminates in a recipe for Stewed Turtle. Where does one even find turtle meat these days?

So I decided to make the "Old-Fashioned 1-2-3-4 Cake." I used my new turn-crank handled sifter for the first time! It's a pretty basic yellow cake; the name comes from the ingredients:

One cup of butter

Two cups of sugar

Three cups of flour (I used cake flour, which is superfine. Sifting it can end up leaving a fine layer of powder all over the kitchen, which makes me feel like I'm in Debi Mazar's apartment in Goodfellas.)

Four eggs

I love the concept of the name corresponding with the recipe; for me, it conjures an image of passage from one generation to the next as a means of teaching kids to remember the recipe easily. Here's the finished product on Sunday:

And still unfrosted today:

If I end up doing something fancy decoration-wise, I'll post that too. Otherwise, I'll just move on to Valentine's Day stuff (I got a heart-shaped cake pan! I'm excited!)

Mood Music XXVII

For some reason, I feel like Gold Diggers of 2010 is a remake I could get behind.

Mood Music XXVI

I'm bummed to hear the news about Fall Out Boy breaking up, but crazy thrilled about the accompanying news of Patrick Stump putting out a solo album.

Patrick Stump from Patrick Stump on Vimeo.

I've mused on my love of Stump's voice before, but this looks like an entirely new level of awesomeness. (And if I may be permitted a detour into shallowness, he looks good, too.) He's worked as a producer on some of my favorite non-FOB Decaydance albums (The Hush Sound's Like Vines and The Cab's Whisper War) and I can't wait to see how this endeavor shakes out.

Best of the 00s: Odds and Ends

In reading all the various final season retrospectives on Lost, I realized that I had forgotten yet another favorite music moment, this one from the show's second season premiere.

By now, it's become old hat that Lost's writers end their seasons with insane cliffhangers then pick up the next in a completely different place; in fact, the season three and five openers also begin with new or previously unstudied characters waking up and selecting music. This may have been the most shocking simply due to the novelty of it all - the then-unfamiliar retro Dharma aesthetic paired with the show's flashback structure up until that point made the setting maddeningly oblique up until that final pan up the hatch. Frankly, I don't think I'll ever stop being creeped out by the progression of daily chores culminating in the shot in the arm. The music is perfect, too; I sought out "Make Your Own Kind of Music" soon after this originally aired - Cass Elliot's voice makes the song somehow less silly than it could be with a more soprano singer - and the way Michael Giacchino's always haunting score comes in after the explosion is eerie as ever.

The first four minutes of Tuesday's premiere have apparently leaked online, but watching the opening moments of the other premieres makes it seem more than likely that no substantive information would be available to spoiler-seekers anyway. Personally, I'd like to think that Lindelof and Cuse have another retro track in store, but that's just me.

Books Read: January 2010

Let's try this again!

January 2: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I can't believe it's taken me this long to read Jane Eyre - it's been sitting on the bookshelf taunting me for years and this winter break afforded me the time and inclination to give it a go. However many years ago it was that the movie Becoming Jane came out, a New York Times article observed that Austen fans and Bronte fans are different, because Austen situations that could plausibly happen to you with minor time period adjustments and Bronte situations are so off-the-wall insane that they would never happen to anyone. This is all true, and while it won't replace Pride and Prejudice in my estimation, I still enjoyed Jane Eyre's drama. After reading the Twilight series, I had forgotten what it was like to enjoy a narrator's presence.

January 14: Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

I first picked this book up after seeing its movie adaptation over the summer, but lapsed in reading when the school year began. I was compelled to return to the book after reading some of the press surrounding Powell's second book, Cleaving, particularly Powell's own posts on the DoubleX blog. (Slate being one of the few things I feel legit about reading while I'm at work.) I was intrigued in particular by Powell addressing a statement Amy Adams made regarding Cleaving's account of infidelity; namely that Adams had reacted by saying that "her" Julie Powell wouldn't have cheated on her husband. The differences between books and film adaptations are always interesting to parse; in this case, Powell's personality was dramatically flattened in the transition from "real life" to the screen. Film Julie seems to have a lot more in common with the other wide-eyed characters Adams has played in the years since Junebug that she does with the endearingly sarcastic woman who comes through in the written Julie and Julia. As someone who's recently tried to embrace cooking and baking with a small kitchen and a middling electric stove of wavering temperature, I couldn't help but identify with the ups and downs of Powell's quest. I can understand why Nora Ephron focused more on the vibrant personality and well-known persona of Julia Child in the film, but it would have been nice to see more of, say, Powell's love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or her hilariously expressed crush on David Strathairn.

Quoted

"Undoubtedly, though, what I'm really getting at is this: Since the bridegroom's permanent retirement from the scene, I haven't been able to think of anybody whom I'd care to send out to look for horses in his stead."

-J.D. Salinger

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters

When I got home from work and saw that Salinger died, the above quote popped into my head; it's always stuck with me as a simple invocation of the fundamental irreplaceability of a singular human presence in one's life. Maybe I'll say more later, for now I'll just leave it there.

Legal TV

Don't watch this clip if you ever want to watch Damages unspoiled, but this is one of the best "previously on..." segments I've ever seen.

In just two minutes, this collection of snippets from the past two seasons which opened last night's season premiere managed to evoke all the show's complexity and darkness. The segment's closing reel of the show's major character deaths to date served as the perfect climax - I hope Lost does something similar in opening their season next week, especially if the timeline does reset.

I've been thinking about Damages recently not only because of the new season starting, but also in relation to the premiere of The Deep End last week. Deep End gets compared to Grey's Anatomy frequently, but it shares a lot with Damages in claiming to depict a sort of high-flying, moneyed legal world. The difference is that The Deep End seems to function in a black-and-white universe - money grubbing sharks BAD! pro bono work GOOD! (I mean, obviously pro bono work is good, but pretending that a big fancy law firm wouldn't love the good press that can come out of devoting some hours to philanthropy is just dumb) - while Damages has carved a unique niche within the often rote law-firm-set television subgenre by taking a shark character and making her the champion of the "little guy" in representing class-action plaintiffs. The writers of Damages have created a wonderfully nuanced show by residing solely in grey areas, and the people who make The Deep End could learn a thing or two from them going forward.

Mood Music XXV

Velvet Goldmine is one of those movies where I always forget how much I like it until I'm watching it again. No director has quite the same flair for era-evocation as Todd Haynes. So, recently I caught this on TV and decided that I needed to stop dithering and just buy the soundtrack. And now I kind of can't stop listening to it...

Best of the 00s: Hiatus

Okay, so clearly I should have just started the whole "Best of the 00s" thing in the summer when I started making my lists rather than waiting until November and accruing this insane backlog of posts while simultaneously facing the end-of-semester writing crush. Long story short, I need to focus my writing energies on my thesis no matter how much I'd rather be committing hundreds of words to pop culture minutiae. Posting the Showrunner list without commentary was so personally unsatisfactory that I'll probably just add here and there to the lists I've got and post them whenever they're done. (The fact that I'd rather write so much about television than, say, myths of national origin highlights the fundamental flaw of my thesis. I'm planning to do something about that in looking ahead to comps.) So here are the "Best of the 00s" lists in the pipeline:

Best Romantic Chemistry

Best Season Finales

Best Series Finales

My Favorite Albums

My Favorite Movies

Favorite Actors and Actresses

I'm torn about whether or not to do master lists of Best Comedies and Dramas from television - you can probably guess what they are just from level of recurrence across all the various posts. I'd also like to return in the future to some ongoing themes from the past - I never did finish my favorite book-to-movie adaptations (there are two more posts there) and I'd really like to pick up the Musicalfest thread again (the recent uptick in Gerard Butler's popularity prompted me to recently rewatch The Phantom of the Opera - what a deeply weird story that is). Anyway, it'll probably just be miscellaneous brief posts until I metaphorically wrestle my thesis to the ground. Believe me, I'd rather be doing this.

Mood Music XXIV

The Dear John trailer/commercials so thoroughly wedged this song in my head that last night I finally reached the saturation point where I go "WHAT IS THIS SONG? WHO SINGS IT? I MUST OWN IT NOW." (This happens frequently with me, and is just one of the many reasons I am an ideal media consumer.)

Best of the 00s: One Season Wonders and Other Short-Lived Shows

Freaks and Geeks (NBC, 1999-2000)

Looking back at the decade, I see Freaks and Geeks as a formative show in my media consumer evolution. It was the first show that I loved that wasn't watched by very many people, and the first I watched that was cancelled mid-season. I was a thirteen-year-old eighth grader and I couldn't believe that no one around me was embracing this show I found so amazing. Its cancellation was also the first time that I really thought about the relationship between networks and viewers - I briefly considered boycotting NBC, but realized that the absence of one Nielsen-box-free tween wasn't going to make a bit of difference. Finally, the complete series was also the first DVD box set I bought on my own. I *may* have raised the box over my head and done a celebratory dance in the store - maybe.

Undeclared (Fox, 2001-2002)

Undeclared has never quite received as much press as Freaks and Geeks within the Judd Apatow pantheon, but it deserves to be recognized for a take on college life that was funny and authentic. Jay Baruchel's gangly geekiness may never be better served.

Wonderfalls (Fox, 2004)

One of Bryan Fuller's imaginative spotlights in the decade's TV landscape, Wonderfalls is distinguished by a delightfully cynical heroine - twenty-something slacker Jaye remains rare among young women as depicted on television - and a uniquely quirky concept - Jaye hears what may or may not be the voice of God advising her through inanimate objects.

Reunion (Fox, 2005-2006)

As much flak as Fox gets for quickly canceling underperforming shows, they probably showed the most willingness to give oddball shows a chance of any of the networks over the past decade. Case in point - Reunion. The show was probably too overstuffed, concept-wise, featuring a murder mystery revolving around six high school friends with each episode taking place in a different year beginning in the mid-eighties. In the early episodes, at least, it was just clever enough to be innovative, drawing out the present-day character introductions to gradually sculpt the mystery and featuring some fantastically soapy twists. As cheesy as it could sometimes be, it deserved a full season.

The Black Donnellys (NBC, 2007)

The Black Donnellys may have been better in theory than in execution - the show's mythologizing of the early years of four brothers who it was implied would become well-known criminals always made the show's future seem more interesting than its present. It wasn't helped by the fact that shows on cable had the freedom to display the kind of violence necessary to driving home to consequences of living in a criminal world. Still, it was probably the best that could be done with a modern gangster show on a major network.

Swingtown (CBS, 2008)

When critics talk about Swingtown, they often remark that the show might have been better served had it been picked up by a cable network rather than notoriously stodgy CBS. To me this implies that the show's problem was insufficient salaciousness, but it was always more about the emotional fallout of testing a marriage's sexual boundaries than the act itself. It was pretty much doomed from the start - airing on Friday nights during the summer (remember when there used to be original programming on Saturday nights? That feels like another age entirely) - but the show's central six actors - Jack Davenport, Molly Parker, Josh Hopkins, Miriam Shor, Grant Show, and Lana Parilla - made the material vibrantly heartfelt.

Kings (NBC, 2009)

To return to the previous point, it's easy to see how Kings might have been served by being a cable property rather than a network one, particularly with NBC's fraught relationship with scripted dramas over the past few years. Kings displayed the kind of ambition that is rarely seen in any new shows, modernizing the Biblical story of Saul and David and mixing in grandiose Shakespearean overtones, featuring riveting performances by Ian McShane and Sebastian Stan. All the episodes are on Hulu - I highly recommend it.

Joan of Arcadia (CBS, 2003-2005)

Recently (I want to say New Years Eve or Day) I got sucked into watching a mini-marathon of Joan of Arcadia on SyFy with my sister and mother. I'd forgotten what a warm show JoA was; the "God speaks to teen girl" premise could have been much cheesier than it was - instead it exemplified the best of what "family" television can be. Plus, any show where you can nickname a recurring character "Hot God" definitely merits inclusion on a best-of list.

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, 2007-2009)

I don't talk about it very often, but I love soaps. The unabashed embrace of melodrama and sense of freedom from conventional narratives often creates thrillingly outlandish TV. In its first season, DSM embraced the ethos of classic primetime soaps like Dallas and Dynasty, particularly aided by great family chemistry among the actors playing the self-absorbed, moneyed Darlings. The show tried to do too much in its post-writers-strike second season, but there was a brief moment when it seemed like it could start a true 80s revival.

Pushing Daisies (ABC, 2007-2009)

Pushing Daisies presented such a vibrant visual world, any attempt at verbal description feels automatically insufficient. Like Bryan Fuller's other shows, Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me, Daisies was so unique that it was almost shocking that it ever made it to air. The show's murder mystery structure kept its bright, inventive universe from veering too far into twee-ness and the central quartet of Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth and Chi McBride were uniformly excellent.

Life (NBC, 2007-2009)

With better ratings, Life should have made Damian Lewis the next Hugh Laurie - that is, a Brit playing a quirky American in a semi-procedural show. I can't say I quite recall how Life's twisty conspiracy ultimately ended, but it offered just enough of a twist on the average cop show to be engaging.

Dollhouse (Fox, 2009-2010)

Sure, Dollhouse hasn't quite ended yet, but it still qualifies with only two thirteen-episode seasons. Dollhouse was a slow starter - Fox executive interference is credited for emphasizing procedural repetition in the early episodes. As the first season came to an end, particularly in the DVD-only finale "Epitaph One," the writers began to explore the darker implications of the show's central identity-wiping technology and made it one of televisions most uniquely compelling hours.