I'm observing Lent right now. A time of deep reflection and sacrifice. An "extra prayer" if you will (as my political activist priest describes it). So I gave up television for 40 days.
With the exception of one tv show that I am allowing myself to watch online. Why? Because it would be a sin to let this show get cancelled: Friday Night Lights.
<a href="http://www.bestweekever.tv/lightson"><img src="http://www.bestweekever.tv/bwe/images/2008/02/savefnl_ktlo.jpg" alt="Sign BWE.tv's Petition to Save Friday Night Lights! Keep the Lights On!" width="400" height="135" border="0" /></a>
If you're wondering why that song "The Final Countdown" has popped up during sporting events, commercials for video games and elsewhere, well, that means you weren't in on the joke. And you weren't in on the joke because you weren't watching my other favorite now-cancelled show, "Arrested Development"!!!
But I digress. Friday Night Lights has more universal appeal than Arrested Development. I can't remember the last time I've been more emotionally involved in a show. I've fallen in love with almost every one of those boys on FNL. Matt Ceresin is the sweetheart boy I would have fallen head-over-heals in love with when I was a teenager, the first-string quarterback left alone to care for his grandmother. Now that I'm older I would volunteer to have Jason Street's baby (the former star quarterback, now quadriplegic)! Tim Riggins is my bad-boy-hot-sex fantasy (Dillon, Texas' resident Cassanova, who also rescues inebriated girls from tornadoes and sleezeballs). And Landry...well, Landry is cute because his big date dilemma is "Jaws or Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan." Even Smash, whose complete hubris is so battered by reality, I can't help but feel sorry for him. (And for guys that need eye-candy, I have two words for you: Minka Kelly.)
And what can I say about the coach and his wife? They are the center of the entire show and their relationship defies the annoying cliches of tv marriages.
It's an incredibly well-written show. Well-acted as well! We're only in our second season and the drama that has unfolded in these characters lives has placed some heavy demands on these young actors, and they ALWAYS deliver. The show also looks different from other tv dramas because it's filmed differently. To put it vaguely, it doesn't look like a typical tv show.
These characters feel so real, they are so complicated. And they're not overly self-absorbed! thank god!!! I'm so sick of television dramas whose characters' only real problem is their own neuroses. And not only that, they interact with their environment. You get a feeling for Texas, unlike other dramas where the city could pretty much be any city in America.
A long time ago (when it was still on the air) I told a friend that I loved "Arrested Development" and that she should try to catch sometime. After the show was cancelled she ended up watching the dvds and cursing herself for not listening to me earlier. A few months ago I told her about Friday Night Lights and she is now a regular watcher who has remarked, "I haven't seen a single bad episode yet."
Tivo it. DTV-R it. Watch it online (start from Season 1). Buy the dvd. Get hooked.
I have donated a tiny bit of money to the campaign to save this show (part of the campaign involves using the proceeds to buy dvds of Friday Night Lights Season 1 and send them to military personnel overseas, in honor of Ceresin's deployed dad). I will be sending a light bulb to NBC's Ben Silverman, telling him to "Keep the Lights On." I have joined bestweekever's Dillon Panthers Booster Club. I'm blogging in multiple places...
I leave you with a few wise words...
Lord, is “Friday Night Lights” good. In fact, if the season is anything like the pilot, this new drama about high school football could be great — and not just television great, but great in the way of a poem or painting... -New York Times, V. Heffernan
Friday Night Lights airs Friday nights at 9pm on NBC
I'd like to see this close up, just to see if it really is all tape.
You can see more of Mark's work here. If you are in Philidelphia, you can check out his solo show at the Woodmere Art Museum from January 27th to March 8th.
The Library of Congress has a flickr page featuring 3,000 of their photos (out of the 14 million they have), no copyright restrictions.
Who can say "awesome"? Apparently, the LoC.
Holy shit! I just re-read this lame post and figured it was time for a personal yet highly-undetailed Year in Review (because this is, after all, THE INTERNET).
I will skip over the details of the message I got on nye 2007 that completely derailed my manhunt for the year and focus on the cheesehead optimism of "spending all of 2007 taking action to attract the best of everything into my life."
I somehow manage to simultaneously make myself barf and give myself hope when I make statements like that. Inspirational vomiting is my specialty.
So what the hell happened this past year? Well, Manhunt turned into Careerhunt. I left a useless (literally) job to take a contract position that paid much more money but also brought an immense amount of stress and sadness into my life. I met some of the coolest people EVER, who taught me incredible things about graciousness and living out loud. I was reminded that I'm a lucky bitch who has a wonderful family and wonderful college and pre-college friends, without whom I wouldn't have survived the last six months (let alone the last 29 years). I learned that the universe really is on my side.
I switched jobs because I thought it would be an improvement in my career. It was a little bit closer to the kind of work I was doing in San Diego (compared to the work I was doing at Columbia U.), held a little more respect, was a relatively high profile project, and it paid better. The commute was a bitch (a bitch, I tell you!) but it seemed like a small price to pay. The real downside was that I had to give up a salaried position to do this contract job, which meant no more paid vacations or holidays.
Still, I took more vacations in the last six months than I can ever remember. I needed them. I flew to California 4 times in six months. I took a short trip to Philadelphia and to Boston. While in California I flew to San Francisco. I drove to Santa Barbara and LA. It always feels good to listen to npr while driving my car. It's one of the small things I miss.
One of the best presents I got this christmas was a cd called This American Life: Stories of Hope and Fear. There's a funny excerpt in the liner notes:
"Stories of fear on our show begin, always, with simple fears. Then things get complicated. Same as with the hopeful stories. I'm not sure why that is. Sometimes on our staff we joke that when we can't come up with a theme for a show, there's always 'It Turned Out Different From What I Thought,' which not only summarizes the theme of nearly every story on our program, but all human drama and literature besides."
Ain't that the mutha-fuckin' truth. (Sorry to all you members of the No Cussing Club.)
The contract job was completely different from the job they sold during the interview. It had the potential to be a good job...if it had taken place somewhere else. With different people. I can't explain how deep that sadness went or how long it lasted, how disappointing and demoralizing it was. Truth be told, though I've been in new york for over 2 years I hardly remember anything about my life in new york prior to taking this job that only lasted 6 months. I realized it was time to figure out how to make a career change. I was technically offered 3 different offers to continue on the project past the end of my contract, but I have declined. The only good thing is that on my last day I was visited by two of the sponsor's people who said I was "the best coordinator they have" and they "would all miss me."
I'm not going to make any bold predictions for the year ahead. No pithy goals. I'm just going to be thankful to all the friends and family who kept me together, hope to make a living at something fulfilling, and wish the best of everything for everyone I know.
...aaaand for a successful Chargers game tomorrow, and that jacksonville gets squashed tonight (for personal reasons). Go Steelers.
Tenely on Train. WatercolorArtist and New York City Transit track worker Marvin Franklin lost his life in the line of duty on April 29, 2007 while working the night shift as he had for twenty two years. He was fifty five years old. He leaves behind a wife, three children, many friends and a substantial body of artwork - much of it never exhibited before. On view at the New York Transit Museum, in Brooklyn Heights, are drawings, prints and paintings all set in the subway system where he spent much time as both an employee and a commuter. Many of the images depict homeless people. The artist was once homeless himself. After rebuilding his life, he devoted himself to artwork. “Art saved my life,” he said. He produced hundreds of sketches, prints and watercolors showing life in the subway with insight and compassion.
The night shift was 11PM to 7 AM. After work he would get on the F train at Jamaica/179th Street, the end of the line in Queens, sketch book in hand, and draw his fellow passengers all the way to 57th Street in Manhattan where he went to school. For more than a decade he attended school at the Art Students League from 9AM to noon. After school he would get back on the F train and sketch some more on his way home. With twenty two years on the job, he was three years away from retirement. Then he hoped to teach art, exhibit his work to raise awareness about homelessness and sell his artwork to raise money to help people in need.
The exhibition includes five of his sketch books filled with renderings of subway passengers executed in ballpoint pen. People sleeping or reading made the best subjects since they were still. Sometimes his long commute allowed for meticulous renderings. Other times the subject would exit at the next stop with just an outline captured on paper. These sketches provided the source material for paintings and etchings done in the studio. In fifteen examples of his etchings we see his drawings evolve into more refined compositions. In a selection of watercolors in the exhibition he takes the work in a different direction adding a rich color palette to the subject matter. The work captures both the larger picture of the human experience and the smaller details of life, such as second hand shoes that don’t fit. The exhibit concludes with an oil on canvas self portrait.
Subway Series. Etching
Support for the exhibition has been provided by the Transport Workers Union Local 100.
Additional
support was provided by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state
agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
but at least I'm not 30 years old and living like this guy. And I'm willing to bet that he's going to move in with his girlfriend.
I was out with Donna the other night in The Village. For some reason whenever Donna's here we end up in The Village. (Donna, why is that?) I took her to see this really great off-Broadway show that I first saw a few months ago, a show that is all about having something and then losing it, appropriately titled "Gone Missing". I highly recommend it to everyone. It deals with the pleasurable pain that comes along with remembering something beloved, but it never gets too heavy-handed. (Added bonus: Donna knew some of the cast members when they were grad students at UCSD. Extra-added bonus: A very famous Tony Award winning director sat directly in front of me, former director of the La Jolla Playhouse and director of- among other things- "RENT".)
One of my most favorite-st places in the city is right around the corner from the theater and the West 4th cages: Pasticceria Bruno. We headed back to the neighborhood on another night when I thought we might be able to catch a show at The Comedy Cellar nearby, but by the time we got there it was already too late for that.
No matter. In the battle between comedy and chocolate, I'll probably always pick chocolate.
I once took Emma to Pasticceria Bruno where they serve the most delectable, individual-sized desserts ever. Run by Biagio Settepani (one of the ten best pastry chefs in America), Pasticceria Bruno is all about flavorful coffee, yummy gelato (though not as good as L'Arte del Gelato), great cannoli, and beautiful desserts at great prices.
So imagine my huge disappointment when Donna and I got there and found that it had closed down!!! A quick peek at Donna's Iphone revealed that the owners could no longer afford the rising rents in that area and had to close down that location. Luckily the LaGuardia location is still open (Bruno Bakery), though I've never been to that one. With large corporations encroaching on every desirable inch of Manhattan it's not surprising to find small businesses going belly-up. Such sadness!!!! Places like Bruno's are what make the Village feel so...village-y.
It's Halloween in New York City. I spent my first Halloween here by going to the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. That was where I had my first "I'm an Angry New Yorker" moment when I laid down the law with a bunch of strangers in a very public and crowded place, and copped such an attitude that all six of them decided to shutup and take their big, drunk asses elsewhere. They didn't even protest! That was also the first time I saw a young twenty-something girl pick a fight with a grey-haired old lady. Like, seriously, this girl wanted to throw down and she didn't care that there were two cops standing in front of her.
By the look of things, the cops didn't really care either.
After the parade I decided to spare myself the immediate post-parade subway traffic, so I walked around the corner and into Pasticceria Bruno. I had some hot cocoa and tiramisu, and wondered what I should do next as I watched the freakshow pass by the bakery windows.
That was only two years ago. I've spent many rainy afternoons since then nursing cups of hot cocoa, pondering my life and what I should do next, while watching the daily freakshow through those bakery windows.
There's a tiny but delicious, cake-shaped hole in my heart now. The pleasurable pain of remembering something sweet.
RIP, Pasticceria Bruno. Now if Sugar Sweet Sunshine closes down I'm going to be pissed.
