Gilbert and George

. . . kind of. I just mentioned Gilbert and George the other day, and then saw this spot-on South Park interpretation by Helen Bucknail. I really admire South Park for having something smart to say even when I fundamentally disagree with their larger politics. Plus the South Park movie is kind of a masterpiece. And it turns out I really admire Helen Bucknail also for a such a simple fun interpretation.

I Voted.

The Indiana primary is coming up, and my absentee ballot is on its way.

Watchtower Galactica

*SPOILERS* from last year. Stephan and I finished watching season 3 of Battlestar and fucking LOVED it. I had heard bad shit about last season and I can't fathom why. The only bad episode--the boxing one--wasn't nearly as bad as the prostitution ring episode from season 2. The extended Iraq metaphor was so good and so sophisticated--no wonder all these war movies fail. And the cylon reveal was the most absurd and trippy thing--so much so that I now have a newfound appreciation for absurd and trippy. I don't like trippy! Until now. Now I want all the trippy shit I can get my hands on. I can't wait to start watching the new season. It's waiting on my Tivo. I can't wait.

Lip Gloss Plus+

Somehow, when you combine this Burt's Bees chapstick and this unidentified Target lip gloss, your lips get all tingly and nice. I highly recommend the combo.

Sense and Sensibility

I loved the new Masterpiece Theater Sense and Sensibility. The internet kind of demands I compare this version to the Ang Lee version. So comparatively, I actually kind of enjoyed low-key Marianne Dashwood. I realize that Kate Winslet was funnier and perhaps more faithful to the book, but she was also exhausting. Sometimes, I just can't be exhausted by television. And the woman who played Elinor, aka Hattie Morahan, was great. The best part though, was that she sounded just like Emma Thompson. What a nice tribute to the Ang Lee/Emma Thompson version--casting someone who made her own stamp, was great, but still evoked Thompson. I'm sad the whole Jane Austen series is done, but looking forward to watching the Room with a View on my tivo.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Somehow, in all my years of watching Nick at Nite, I never watched the Mary Tyler Moore Show. I liked MTM in the Dick Van Dyke show, but eh, I didn't love that show anyway. Since then I realized that MTM is right up my alley--workplace and gender and relationship politics in the 70s. It even shows up in one of my favorite academic books, To Have and To Hold. Anyway, they've now invented Hulu, and today I watched the first episode of the show. I Loved it. First, there was this great interview scene where MTM and Ed Asner go back and forth about inappropriate questions during an interview--more screwball than sitcom. And there's an equally hilarious later scene where Ed Asner shows up at MTM's apartment drunk, which tickled me when it didn't go the direction I thought it was going to. The moral of the story is that MTM is pretty irresistible, and Ed Asner fucking rocks. Those two alone will keep me around.

I don't have a great feel yet for the rest of the cast. The other guys at the office barely got scenes, and MTM's friends are still a bit non-descript. Well MTM and Rhoda aren't even friends yet, but I know from Romy and Michele's High School Reunion that they become friends. I'm hoping they're as great as the other characters, but even if they're not, it's still all worth it. And guess what? the clothes kind of rock too. Go watch it on Hulu!

San Francisco 2008

We've made yet another trip to San Francisco since the birth of this blog. That is crazy. My blog is two trips to SF old. I can't believe it. Anyway, this was a very nice trip indeed. I bought a lot of different types of paper--postcards, notepads, stickers, and vintage Hollywood tobacco cards. Stephan bought us some very awesome toys. I saw a lot of my family and heard some pretty great stories. But the best part was seeing two things we hadn't seen yet in our other trips: Muir Woods and the De Young Art Museum. Muir was absolutely beautiful. I saw a stump with a timeline it ala Vertigo, and I got to stand in a tree like Winnie the Pooh. It was also a gorgeous day, which had been few and far between in Chicago. And I fucking love big trees. I'm so glad we went.

And De Young may be my favorite art museum of the moment, despite the fact that its holdings aren't actually that strong--no Picasso or whatever makes a museum topnotch. I don't know, there probably was, but the parts I liked were: 1) an amazing Gilbert and George show. I formerly didn't like Gilbert and George because they got in a fight with my prof from London (who referred to me as 'that little Jewish girl') about whether it was cool to tour the East End or not. Now I love them because their colors are amazing, their scale is awesome, their politics are intriguing, and they were really really gay even in the 70s which must have been horrifying for a lot of people. Plus they got in a fight with my prof in London, which now seems endearing. 2) There was some indie rock rocking girl band playing while we looked at all the art. 3)They organized the art by genre. So there were landscapes from 1740 next to landscapes from 2006, which I think gives you a much different sense of change over time than a museum that organizes by chronology. Similarly, in the Africa section, there was a section of animal masks next to a section of woman masks, etc. Awesome. 4) In the gift shop, I met an IU alumni who knew my friend Max via my IU alumni credit card. We followed that up by a trip to an amazing Burmese restaurant. Ginger lemonade is great as is Burmese food in general and mango pudding. Well now we're back to reality which is a shame, because writing a dissertation is a silly thing to do. But at least it is a bit easier with the break.

The pics are my parents in Muir Woods, Stephan at the De Young observatory tower, some pipes painted as mushrooms, and me as Winnie the Pooh.