the good news: hbo's family tree, the bad news: merely 8 episodes

if you think you know me very well and you don't know that i am unabashedly obsessed with christopher guest, i have news for you:

you probably don't actually know me very well.

spinal tap, waiting for guffman, best in show, a mighty wind, for your consideration.  i consider these movies basic litmus tests of whether or not you have a good sense of humor.  if you like them, i probably like you.  if you don't.  well, i'm not saying i don't like you, but i'm also not saying i don't judge you harshly and think less of you for it.

so when i discovered, due to the majestic partnership between hbo and amazon prime, that christopher guest was directing/writing/acting in an original tv series, i kind of felt like somebody had told me that hogwarts and narnia were real and also every day from here on out was going to be a combo between christmas and my birthday.

of course all of this elation was tempered by the quick discovery that, despite critical praise, my new favorite television show, family tree, had been canceled after 8 episodes due to lack of viewership.

fortunately, the series coheres and concludes pretty successfully, if heart-wrenchingly early.  the chadwick family blows the bluths out of the water (this coming from a pretty diehard arrested development fan).  it's nearly enough to inspire me to take to the digital streets with a #revivefamilytree campaign, but as i'm skeptical about the viral-potential of a change.org petition for a show nobody watched (a show i would have paid so much money to watch if i'd ever once heard about it prior to it's cancellation) i suppose i'll just blog about it in hopes others can get a chance to laugh at luba and monk.  

family tree is free on amazon prime.

words of others

this is a muffin.  it has nothing to do with this blog post, but gee whiz it was tasty.

yesterday was #MSWL on twitter and i'm really on a roll with my draft right now. (mswl means "manuscript wishlist," by the way.  it is a twitter mass hashtag-fest where literary agents describe what they would like to see in their query inbox... writer geek stuff etc).

as a result i'm going to be letting other people do the talking today.  apologies in advance for this quiet blogging week (there's a good chance i won't be posting friday as we'll be driving to virginia for feasting and partying of epic wedding proportions... how can you not be insanely stoked to see two people who have already spent a decade together get married?  personally i think everyone should have an emily and colin in their life.  it's a freaking testament to the modern concept of soul mates, public shout out, you crazy kids).

"people love to be thoughtful at the very end of a tragedy because that’s the precise moment when nothing more is required of them." - gladstone

"What I see is a good man, m’lady. And they’re not like buses: there won’t be another one along in ten minutes." - anna [downton abbey]

"Deviation from social conformity is increasingly seen to be something in need of a pill." - giles fraser

"i chose a half-measure when i should have gone all the way.  i'll never make that mistake again." - mike [breaking bad]

"The vanity of existence is revealed in the whole form existence assumes: in the infiniteness of time and space contrasted with the finiteness of the individual in both; in the fleeting present as the sole form in which actuality exists; in the contingency and relativity of all things; in continual becoming without being; in continual desire without satisfaction; in the continual frustration of striving of which life consists." - arthur schopenhauer
word count: 27,239

it's friday friday gotta get down on friday

why are you wondering which seat you can take?  just call shotgun like everyone else.

hello weekend!  i see you outside the window of my office there.  i can't wait to hang out with you in a few hours!

i am now residing in a preposterously humid basement with a broken ping pong table.  bert has come out of hiding twice so far, but i'm not optimistic for his psychological future.  that said, it's a really good feeling to have step one of the move complete.  steps 2 and 3 will be taking place this weekend with a uhaul for furniture and lots of cleaning products.

it is also worth noting that i am finally emotionally prepared to take the plunge and watch the third season of dowton abbey.  i caught on to the awesomeness of downton around the time PBS started airing season 2 here in the states.  naturally i binge watched the first season on netflix in 48 hours, and then immediately began scouring putlocker and sockshare for the second season.  however, when season 3 came out (in the UK that is, there was no way i was waiting until 2013), i watched the first episode and realized i could not deal with a week-long wait for the next piece of drama.  thus, i wrapped up my obsession in a neat little box, and saved it for later, allowing myself to gorge on nonstop marathons of merlin, shameless, and legend of the seeker.  

however, since i can't find easy access to deadwood on netflix or amazon prime, i think it may be time to dust off the box and find out what on earth happens before matthew crawley gets hit by a train.

yes i read spoilers.

i totally flipped to the end of every harry potter book before i finished them.

i live dangerously.

hope everyone has a spectacular weekend!

word count: 14,562

PS snape kills dumbledore.

happy fourth of july from the fifth of july

hope everybody had a lovely holiday!!!

this independence day was a big one because my sister got engaged!!  i'm sure this will not be the last you hear about sarah's upcoming wedding since it will be in ann arbor.  i'm insanely excited to start taste testing curry for the menu... mahkni now please?? steve and i are so excited for sarah and dave, and we are all too stoked to get this big crazy intercultural showdown on the road.  woohoo!  (and how gorgeous is that ring / cliff he proposed at?  well done dave!)

my wardrobe is lacking in the extreme patriotism / clean laundry department so steve dressed festively enough for the both of us and we went for another float down the river to celebrate our raging freedom.  you might recall that i am distantly related to alexander hamilton and one of the original pilgrims so i'm about as american as they come, but since we owe the brits a great deal, i shall honor yesterday with a list of things i have learned about americans from watching british television.

1.  americans are extremely comfortable with guns.

it is almost humorous to watch how gingerly, carefully, and fearfully characters in british television handle firearms (unless of course they are villains).  i say almost humorous, but then i remember that there are more than forty times the number of gun related deaths in america than there are in britain and it feels like the joke might be on us.

2.  americans find cigarette smoking rather taboo.

which is great for cancer avoidance... not so great for that whole freedom thing we're always talking about.

3.  americans don't like normal looking people.

it is essential to be generically hot to be on american television.  your next best bet is to be a unique looking older man (we still really like steve buscemi).

more from the weekend

here are a few more photos from our excursion to grand rapids last weekend.  there is a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the sculpture park where i naturally demanded we stop for a photo shoot.  i also took a couple pictures of the sky from our drive out because those clouds were doing some lovely lovely things!

they let you hold weddings in front of this waterfall.  just sayin'.

this sculpture is normally a water feature, but it was dry when we were there. sad steve.

the two photos above were taken in the glass enclosed tropical conservatory.  in the spring there are butterflies galore in the conservatory, but we must have just missed them.

it has been madly stressful over here the past few days between steve's new job, and varying obligations.  tonight we're catching up with an old college friend at pacific rim for restaurant week and hopefully we will have time to watch another episode of our new tv show addiction shameless (the UK version).

ok but seriously consider this my endorsement for at least the first season of the show.  it's hilarious, depressing, and includes a 25 year old, frequently naked, james mcavoy.  netflix it.

happy thursday everyone!