Pop-cabulary

I realized earlier today that when I said used one of my favorite made up words that my friends and I use to describe things in pop culture, or life in a pop culture context. So here's a quick index of some of those words:

Jimandpam- verb When a TV couple isn't even on again off again, simply will they or won't they. Derived from The Office, who went 4 seasons Jimandpamming us all over the place, with Jim and Pam.

Used in a sentence:
"I'm getting fed up with Glee and how they keep jimandpamming Will and Emma."

Entering OTH Territory - verb, meaning when a show leaves behind all pretenses of being grounded in reality, or at all original. Derived from the way One Tree Hill did around the middle of season 2, when Nathan had that dream where he and Lucas switched places.

Used in a sentence:
"When Liz Lemmon dumped Matt Damon on the plane 30 Rock totally entered OTH Territory."

McLaren's - noun, any bar that is located underneath a residence. Derived from the bar where they hang out on How I Met Your Mother, which is located under Ted's apartment.

Used in a sentence:
"Remember when Katie had that apartment in Hoboken and we went to McLaren's?"

Character Separation Disorder (CSD) - noun, A difficult personality disorder in which a pop culture addict cannot separate an actor from the iconic roles they have played. Derived from something that I do frequently, also when my brother suggested that Martin Sheen could get elected president, because people in this country are that stupid and oblivious.

Used in a sentence:
-My favorite part of He's Just Not That Into You is when Rachel Greene marries Holden McNeil. It's so nice that he's not a neurotic paleontologist, and she's not a lesbian.
-The thing is, in that example, you're not suffering from CSD, that's just how lazy the characterization in that movie was.

The Jacob - noun, the third, usually more awesome tip of a love triangle who for some reason the main person in the triangle doesn't choose. Derived from Twilight, and Bella Swann's inexcusable stupidity of choosing Edward Cullen over Jacob Black, particularly in the movie versions, where she is choosing Robert Pattinson over Taylor Lautner and it makes no sense at all what so ever

Used in a sentence:
In this whole forced, QuinnFinnRachel triangle Rachel is totally the Jacob. But in the PuckQuinnFinn triangle, it's Puck and in the FinnRachelJesse triangle, it's Jesse. (Glee works well for this one, because like Twilight, it's protagonists are really stupid and whine a lot.)

Those are a few examples, any others?

Awesome Sauce

So in the most insanely random twist of a wedding since Naley got hitched in 2004, (I didn't even watch One Tree Hill back then, and I remember going, "WHAT?") last night on Parks and Recreation, April and Andy surprised everyone by throwing a dinner party that it turned out was actually their wedding.

Parks and Recreation in general snuck up on me, I hated the first few episodes, but often watched anyway, because of its time slot, and then somewhere in the middle of the second season I realized that I liked it, and then about three episodes into this season, I realized I loved it. What I love the most is the way it manages to wear its heart on its sleeve, and be completely hilarious at the same time in a way that few shows are able to do. Actually the only example I can come up with is The Cosby Show.

I particularly love the April and Andy relationship, and I'm thrilled that they've decided not to "Jimandpam" (a verb coined by my friend Katie, meaning "keep us waiting on a couple") them around for ever, and instead have created a "stable super couple" in the model of well, Naley, also Turk and Carla from Scrubs and Monica and Chandler from Friends.

The wedding made me cry, including the pair's character perfect vows:

April: I guess, I hate most things. But I never really seemed to hate you. So I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Is that cool?

Andy: I vow to protect you from dangers. I don't care if I have to fight an ultimate fighter, or a bear, or him...I would take him down. I'm getting mad right now from thinking about it.

Also, it pushed the Leslie/Ben flirting? forward, thank God, they're adorable, some killer Ron Swanson one liners, and Chris brought a vegetable loaf instead of a cake. So there's that.

Everything in Life is Only for Now

I've talked a few times about my profound personal growth over the past year. And as a result of that growth, certain things have changed in my perception...Usually when that happens, at least as it relates to me and the pop culture that I enjoy, something that I previously loved, I realize that I don't, or something that I used to hate, I realize that I love. Rarely does this shift go from loving something to loving it even more.

But in the case of the musical Avenue Q, it definitely grew from love to well, absolute love.

I came across Avenue Q at first when I was 16, it opened on Broadway, won the Tony for Best New Musical, (Something I considered a grave injustice at the time, I full to the brim with Wicked love) and my parents took us kids to see it.

I found the show hilarious. If you don't know the premise, the idea was to create an "Adult Sesame Street," that is to use a mixture of puppets and real people to deal with difficult issues facing young adults, like lack of direction, romantic relationships, sexual identity, etc. The show features hilarious songs including, "It Sucks To Me," "The Internet is For Porn," "If You Were Gay," and "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist." It also has a few more contemplative pieces, like "There's a Fine, Fine Line," "What Do You Do With a BA in English?", and the finale, "For Now."

A few months ago I listened to the Avenue Q Original Cast Album again, and I was kind of amazed by a few things. All of a sudden, the stuff they were talking about wasn't just funny...it was real. It was exactly what I was going through. When Princeton muses that he "can't pay the bills yet, cuz I have no skills yet," I realized, dear God, when they hand me my diploma, that'll be me. Kate Monster reaches desperately for affection, only to realize there's more to love than that.

And especially the finale, "For Now," hits me differently now than it did then. At 16, the thought just made me sad. The friends, feelings and well, life, that was around me was going to fade? That somehow seemed, wrong, and terrible. Now though, the thought that every situation is only "for now" is comforting. Crappy entry level jobs, depressing poorly lit college apartments, the lonely single girl thing....this is all temporary. It will give way to a different stage of life. Who knows what that will be, that's not the point. As the song says, "Maybe you'll never find your purpose, lots of people don't..." but that doesn't mean that we're alone.

Monte Carlo

So, I just checked out the trailer for the new Selena Gomez movie Monte Carlo....

Yeah, um, more importantly its Leighton Meister's new movie. It seems like a threadbare plot, but the fashion looks awesome (I expect no less of Leighton) and it's funny because we all know that Blair Waldorf is obsessed with Audrey Hepburn, and Audrey's breakthrough role was in a film called Monte Carlo Baby.

Just something I found funny, and the movie looks cute, and I keep waiting for the rest of the world to understand how much BETTER Leighton is than Blake Lively. It is Leighton who should be making out with Ryan Reynolds in a super hero blockbuster, Leighton who should be a Chanel style ambassador. But for some reason no one but me and my friend Katherine, and possibly my mother and sister, understand this. It seems that life has imitated GG that way...Blake gets all the attention.

Here's the trailer:



PS. CORY MONTEITH, and he appears to have some kind of Texas accent.

As we stumble along...

Two years ago my best friend Katie and I conducted a little experiment. That experiment was called Tom Foolery Theatre. It's a self founded community theater group. We've done two musicals two summers in a row and we're getting geared up for our third...The Drowsy Chaperone.

In addition to putting on shows, we're a charitable organization. All of our proceeds go to groups outside of our own. Our first year it went to Guardian Angel Parish, and last year to The Rose Foundation of Haiti. Check out more about them here:

http://www.rosefoundationofhaiti.org/

This year we're going back to The Rose Foundation. They're an awesome group and Haiti still needs a lot of help. But that's not what this post is about. At least not directly. This post is about how now we're selling tee shirts on Cafe Press to raise that extra bit of cash we need to get this summer's show off the ground.

The shirt's simple, it features our logo and a quick little tag line based on something my dad said once. "Tom Foolery Theatre: Exceeding Low Expectations Since 2009" See, because we never expected this to work, when it worked spectacularly well, everyone was blown away.

Anyway, get a shirt, and help us out!

Alert The Media

Last night I checked out the remake of Arthur, starring Russell Brand in the title role. The original is one of those movies that is so intertwined with my childhood and my general consciousness that I don't remember when I saw it for the first time. (Others like this include The Indiana Jones movies, The Star Wars Trilogy, Field of Dreams) And I've been charmed by Brand, due to his appearances on Conan and SNL, and his marriage to Katy Perry and the way they relate to each other, plus Helen Mirren is fantastic, so I had middling hopes that I'd at least enjoy myself.

I laughed a lot, and the movie definitely has a lot of heart. It has it's own story to tell, and tells it in a different way, so it feels a little bit more like Ocean's 11 in the remake way, rather than something like Sabrina.

However, unlike Ocean's 11, it doesn't actually improve upon the original. A preachy soul searching ending kills a lot of the fun. For Dudley Moore and Liza Minelli, having each other in the end was enough, bu Russell Brand and the adorable Greta Gerwig, they must be self actualized as well. (She becomes a children's book author, and he joins AA and stops running around New York in a top hat!)

The movie still has a lot of quotable moments, and I didn't mention Jennifer Garner, who does a good job of updating the role of Susan, Arthur's socialite fiance, (instead of a dippy social climbing ice queen, she's a tough as nails corporate ladder climbing ice queen), but I somehow doubt that in thirty years there will be grown ups who quote this movie to their children when they announce that they're going to use the potty.

Nothing makes you quit announcing that faster than ten adults saying in a snooty British accent, "I'll alert the media!" And then laughing for ten minutes.

To Scott with Love

So, as the TV season starts into its final push, I'm getting ready for the end of The Office...

OK, the show's not actually ending, really. But what's the point of watching once Michael Scott, played by Steve Carrell makes his exit?

Granted maybe I'm not the most reliable. I am the person who still watched Scrubs after Zach Braff left and actually thought it was decent. (It was a dark time in my life, OK? And Dave Franco is really, really cute! And the Denise/Drew love story made me smile) And sure, as long as they don't make the same mistake Scrubs did and make the office about all new characters, except say, Jim and Ryan, who become supporting players and for some reason Pam and Kelly aren't even mentioned, it might be OK.

But for now, let us recall some of our favorite Michael Scott moments:

1. Threat Level Midnight: A running joke throughout the show, this season we finally saw Michael's action masterpiece, Threat Level Midnight, the story of Michael Scarn's defeat of the evil Goldface. Aside from the turdtastic movie itself, the fun here was getting to see some of the old minor characters return. Roy as a hostage, Karen as a bachelorette in a bar. Jan as a lounge singer, Pam's mom as a sexy nurse. Plus Andy's role as a bartender is actually a tour de force Ed Helms performance.

2.Prison Mike: When the Stamford people were still around (except Andy, obviously) it turned out one of them was an ex con. So to acclimate the group Michael performed an improv character, "Prison Mike" who stated that the worst thing about prison was "the dementors, they were always flying around and you couldn't be happy!" (Thanks to Mary for that one)

3. "Engaged Ain't Married": I always like it when Michael gets emotional, and in the episode Booze Cruise, when he encourages Jim to go for it with Pam, despite Pam's already being engaged is super sweet.

4. The Client: Another great thing they do on The Office is show why Michael was promoted, he is a buffoon, but he's also an amazing salesman. We see that when he scmoozes Tim Meadows over margaritas and a fried onion. Brilliant storyline.

5. "Snip Snap": The Dinner Party episode is one of my all time favorites. And Michael's freak out over the multiple vasectomies, and the general awkwardness of the entire episode is great. In fact the whole Michael and Jan relationship was such a hilarious disaster, it's hard not to crack up.

So those are my favorites, what are some of your guys'?