"do you know what today is?"

My mother died seven years ago today. It was Memorial Day.

When I talked to my dad on the phone this evening, he asked, "Do you know what today is?" As if it's something I'm going to forget. Yeah, very unlikely.

let's do the time warp again

Well, I've managed to watch the pilot episode of 90210. Oh my god. The clothes (Kelly wore long, patterned spandex shorts over stretchie pants; the color palette). And the hair! Brandon has a full-on mullet. Funny, I remember Steve growing one, but I wouldn't even call his a pseudo-mullet in this episode.

The ridiculousness of Brenda pretending to be in college to impress 25-year-old Jason (Maxwell Caulfield) and thinking she's in love with him after two dates. And why the hell would he make their second date a double date with his friends?! (And I guess they have to get guys to play several years younger than they actually are when the high schoolers are in their twenties.)

The most absurd thing is the West Beverly Hills Transit bus that shuttles Andrea from home in Van Nuys to school at West Beverly (which, of course, doesn't even exist; Beverly Hills only has one high school and it's called Beverly Hills High). As if Beverly Hills would have a transit system! Let alone the western part of the city. I don't actually get why they gave it a directional name or why they chose West (though almost universally, western parts of American cities are more affluent than their eastern counterparts). And it doesn't even look like a transit bus, it's a coach sort of thing. And then we see that Andrea lives in an old craftsman bungalow off Gramercy Place. Hmmm...sure this isn't West Adams? (I need to consult my Thomas Guide, and I'll get back to you.)

Yeah, I don't think I've seen this episode since it aired 17 years ago. No wonder I was infatuated with this when I was seven.

Though remember, this was a seriously groundbreaking TV show in its day. It helped make Fox a serious network and ushered in an era of entertainment catering to teens. It's the first teen soap, but my whole family watched this show. Even Dad.

retro my way

Today I paid a visit to Best Buy and purchased a spindle of 50 CD-Rs for $7.99 (Sony, not some noname brand either) and a 10-pack of 60-minute cassette tapes for $6.99 (it was a better deal than 5 90-minute tapes). I made a comment to the cashier about buying rapidly disappearing technology, but I don't think he got it. But look at that price discrepancy!

I did this because I made a mix CD for the first time in nearly two years. And I didn't have any CD-Rs, because why would I need them? And I had to buy the tapes so I could tape the mix for the car. (No matter what I do, the damn car adapter won't work anymore; not with a CD player or either of my MP3 players. Very annoying.) Tapes are really hard to come by; they don't even sell high bias ones anymore. Maybe I'm the last person with a tape deck. I shipped mine out only to realize I didn't have any CDs! But now I'm finally making use of it.

So that's my '80s technology story for you.

Then I went to the Central Library to check out DVDs for the long weekend. First I was looking for Angels in America, but couldn't find it. Then I went looking for The Office (the BBC series). Couldn't find that either, but I did find the first season of Beverly Hills 90210. I literally let out a, "Oh my god!" when I saw it. I'm such a dork, but I don't care. I wasn't even embarrassed when I checked out the first three discs (they split it up unfortunately). Oh, baby, I haven't seen 90210 in years. I'm looking forward to it.

And that's my '90s television story for you.

ch-ch-changes / turn and face the strange

L.A. is known as a landscape of rapid change. Sure, it changes, but really no more than anywhere else I've lived. Right? Well, some recent things kind of put this in perspective.

First (well, I'm doing this in reverse order of how this occurred to me, but whatever), I read through some blog links that Sealevel Records is closing at the end of June. This is really distressing. I love their instores. I love the size of the place. I may be the only one, but Amoeba gives me the willies. It's just overwhelming, so I don't like to go there. Now there aren't any independent options.

Next, the Hamburger Hamlet on Hollywood Blvd. closed and soon enough an H&M will be in its place. Why is this a big deal? Especially since I don't even go to Hamburger Hamlet? Because HH only exists in the L.A. and D.C. areas. The first time I came to L.A., about four years ago, long before I ever imagined I'd live here, I took the Metro to Hollywood & Highland 'cause as a tourist you have to go there and see glamorous Hollywood (note: they don't tell Easterners that Hollywood isn't what we think it is...and back then, it was really grungy, really grungy). One of the first things I noticed when I got out of the Metro was the Hamburger Hamlet. Apparently it closed at the beginning of the year (or maybe even earlier), but I hadn't noticed. As a savvy L.A. resident, I never drive that stretch of Hollywood, because it's a surefire traffic jam, thanks to all those clueless tourists. Ah, don't you love how it comes full circle sometimes?

Lastly, and perhaps most personally, on Monday on my drive home I noticed a recently razed lot on Franklin. I looked at it and thought, "Damn, what used to be there?" I looked across the street at the 101 Cafe and realized it was a series of townhouses that had been divided into apartments. I was offered a roommate share in one of them when I first moved here, but I opted for my original place in Silver Lake (still the right decision). It does back onto the 101 freeway, so for my lungs' sake, I really did make the right decision. But damn, had I taken it, I would be homeless. It was just weird. I have no idea when the lot was cleared, but it's probably been more than the two weeks I've now been driving past it on a daily basis. I wonder what's going to go in there. It has a big board boasting of some mixed-used developer. It's not a very big lot. My money's on a depressing strip of Starbucks, Quizno's, and surprise-me-with-another-generic-chain.

C'est la vie.

cherries, mon cheri

It's cherry season, baby! They aren't quite perfect yet, but they're certainly edible (and affordable...$2.99/lb. at Vons). I think I may be in heaven.

It's funny, I absolutely love cherries (my favorite fruit) and they have such a short season. Soon after it goes, I just sort of forget about it. But when it rolls around again and I start to see those luscious dark bulbs I get really excited. And the season is about twice as long (two months rather than one) in L.A. as it is back east. That's a nice perk.

je t'aime, je t'aime, je t'aime

I just got back from Paris, je t'aime. I loved it! I don't want to say too much about the individual films, because I think that would be a major spoiler. There's a beauty to sitting in a theater just watching a slew of shorts unfold in front of you (but it was all nicely tied together). I will say that some directors stuck to their usual themes and others surprisingly branched out.

I cannot explain my affinity for Paris, but how I love it. The film really showcases the variety of Paris, which we don't usually see on screen. Having been there recently, it only seemed more vivid.

I think it's time to watch Before Sunset. I love that their initial walk is a path that Allie and I took. Sure we saw the movie before we had gone there, but that wasn't why we took that walk. It's just a "coincidence" two film lovers can relate memories to.

I'm in such a good mood. And it's not just Paris that's done that for me.

am i the only one who gets caffeine hangovers?

Seriously?

I don't think I actually know anyone else who can't tolerate caffeine. If I have more than one glass of iced tea or caffeinated soda I get a migraine, my heart races, and my eyes feel like they're darting in their sockets. Oh and it makes me hyper. Like hyper above my usual upbeatness. Guess what, good chocolate does this to me too (recently, I discovered the decadant Belgian chocolate pudding from Trader Joe's can induce this if I eat too much).

But what really bugs me more than this, because these symptoms are tolerable, is that if I have caffeine with dinner--not even going overboard--I get a hangover. I'll be able to go to sleep without too much difficulty if I don't consume it too late, but then I'll wake up doped up on caffeine with a racing heart beat. It's freaky as hell. Happened to me this morning. I went to bed at 2:00, woke up around 6:30 and I've been going nuts since then.

Is this sort of like being high on crystal meth?

i take offense

In yesterday's Bible Industry news there was a little blurb on ABC's fall lineup that really iritated me, especially after watching Ugly Betty this evening. Here's the quote:

"In deciding what new programs to take on for the 2007-2008 season, ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said Tuesday that the network had listened to 'a tonal shift in the viewer'-- away from darker, complicated series like Lost and towards lighter fare like Ugly Betty."

Ugly Betty is not light fare. Since when does bullshit alien supernatural crap on some paradise island gone to hell (realize I've never actually seen one episode of Lost and I'm intentionally exaggerating...it's my way, back off) constitute dark and complicated and an unbelievably smart (especially compared to the rest of TV's offerings) show that happens to make you laugh (yo, it's no sit-com, it is a serial comic drama) laden with social messages light fare? What does Lost teach you? Game theory? Didn't we learn this in microeconomics? A show that validates difference, standing up for who you are and what you believe, and actually shows complicated homosexual as well as heterosexual AND transgender individuals AND people of different colors and economic classes... Do I really need to beat this dead horse? And don't tell me it's not dark. It started with a death and the season just ended with one.

Though I have to say I was a bit peeved tonight with Betty's dental hygienist decided that she was so obsessed with romantic comedies (don't snicker) that she was forcing Betty to think she was the female lead in one. To Betty's credit (and the writers!), Betty didn't fall into that trap. She was Betty, she was there for her family at a time of crisis. This show is almost too good.

my favorite spam subject headings

"She will call you big boy."

"This email will make your dick bigger."

"No more floppy dick."

I get an awful lot of penis-enhancing spam. What does this say about our spam culture? Isn't there some way we can exploit female weaknesses and fears?

Maybe all the men are getting spam for diet pills. Oops.

i want some pie

This morning Andrew and I went to see Waitress. Oh it's so good. I cried, I laughed, I wanted to kill Jeremy Sisto. It's nothing original in its overall form, but it's terribly endearing. It leaves you with hope, a smile, and an unbelievable craving for an assortment of pie.

I've now put all of Adrienne Shelly's other written/directed movies in my Netflix queue. I hope they're this quirky and sweet. It's unbelievable what happened to her.

not even worth the price of admission

As I reported yesterday, I went to see Lucky You today for free. It was unbelievably bad. With writing and directing talent behind the screen and recently pretty decent talent in front of it, you just have to wonder what the hell went wrong. It was the most boring shit you can't even imagine. Every damn cliche in the book. Thank god I watched a few episodes of Celebrity Poker Showdown back when it was all the rage or I wouldn't have had a clue what was happening in the movie. And to top it off, there's even a sequence of Eric Bana playing (speed) golf--for a bet, of course! The acting was atrocious, especially Drew Barrymore's performance. And Bana was perhaps a notch above Hulk days, but his hockey hair was too distracting.

Oh and one of the themes was some sort of pathetic attempt to historicize the momentary popularity of professional poker in 2003. Seriously.

The most exciting part of the movie was when some creepy, middle-aged man entered the theater near the end, stood at the door directly behind my seat, and burped a couple of times.

an update

All right, so I sort of went with my plan. I decided to go to Chinatown to buy a parasol (I just can't take the sun anymore), get some take out from a Chinese restaurant that isn't Panda Express (Yang Chow), and hit the Chinatown branch of the library for some DVDs.

I park, and as I'm walking to Yang Chow's I notice that all the elderly people walking around have umbrellas--not one had a pretty parasol that I was hoping to buy. So when I went to a shop and asked about one, the lady opened it for me but told me that the umbrellas she has will block UV light (the parasols are also a lot smaller, perhaps designed for children). So I bought a $5 umbrella instead.

Now I own two umbrellas in a city that almost never sees rain. See, my other one is black, which I think is a bit of a hazard when you're trying to block the sunlight. This one is silver and has a large handle which makes it more practical. Walking around I still felt hotter than hell, but hopefully if I keep with the damn thing my skin will stop itching from all the sun exposure.

I bought Music & Lyrics, and each DVD comes with a voucher for a free ticket to see Lucky You. Earlier I looked into seeing that since it's playing other places besides Arclight, but I thought $8 (the cheapest matinée ticket I could find) was too much for it. Looks like I've got a plan for tomorrow! That's a deal. $15 for a DVD and a movie theater viewing. Kinda like when I went to see Music & Lyrics and got the soundtrack for free.

maybe this is why i procrastinate...

It keeps me busy. It's crazy. Now that I don't have any monkeys on my back (school is done with and I don't start work until Monday), I don't know what to do with myself. I want to go to a movie, but I'm too cheap to go to Arclight, which is the only theater playing anything I want to see (during the day). I could schlep my butt to Santa Monica, but I figure in the end, between parking, gas, and frustration in a hot car (the A/C can only cool you so much when it's 95 degrees and not a cloud in the sky), I'm better off paying $13 anyway ($11 for the movie, $2 to park).

Alternatively, I may just go buy Music & Lyrics and check out movies from the library. I was going to do that anyway, but I guess this means I can just lay here and watch them all. But the whole point was to get out of the apartment!

is this good news?

Oh no! Just as I'm freaking out about writing this paper due tomorrow, I find out I have to write another paper over the summer. I just got confirmation that my abstract has been accepted for the SACRPH conference in October. I was previously brilliant and thought I'd have the paper for this class to use for that conference ('cause it was supposed to be about the same thing). Unfortunately, I've gone astray. I'm going to have to do a lot of work over the summer to shape it up (to take it from some sort of theoretical drivel to a history rooted in some serious research). But you know what, this is good for me. If I can't write this paper over the summer on my own time, I probably have no business being a professor.

This means I get to go to Portland, Maine. Oh how that's going to be a tough journey to make for an extended weekend. Could there be any farther city (within the U.S.) from Los Angeles?

tales from a master procrastinator

The things I do to procrastinate even amaze me now. I so desperately hate to write that I prolong the task, in the process making it infinitely worse than it has to be, until the absolute last minute. It's as if I can't write anything unless I know it's due in a matter of hours.

This morning I've read (in preparation for writing), but interrupted even that task with washing dishes, preparing potatoes and garlic to roast for lunch, and bleaching my set of four 50-cent IKEA drinking glasses.

Yes, you read that last part correctly...Ms. Undomestic and Proud of It is turning into Martha Stewart as the Ph.D. progresses. My friend Nadereh told me that she bleached her glasses and they looked like new again. Do I really care about such a thing? No, but I horribly stained one of them by drinking earl grey tea in it. Bleach one, bleach 'em all.

And, yes, bleaching works.