"I think it was Abby...something."

In honor of the Halloween holiday, I give you some of my favorites scenes from one of my favorite movies, "Young Frankenstein":

Today's Tweets

Via @simonpegg - Awesome monster-slayer Velma fan art

Via @thefutoncritic - Live at the Paley Center True Blood Panel

Via @geektyrant - Theatrical trailer for James Cameron's Avatar (much better than the teaser trailer!)

Cliff Lee is one cool customer.

Phillies' pitcher Cliff Lee shut down the Yankees last night, pitching all 9 innings and barely breaking a sweat. And it wasn't only his pitching arm that was on fire - check out these catches he made:

Like I said, cool customer.

Drive Thru Reviews

I watched a bunch of 2-year-old movies when I was home sick yesterday.

Waitress - Sweet, quirky romantic comedy that I really enjoyed, starring Kerri Russell and my boy Nathan Fillion. Sad footnote: Adrienne Shelley, who wrote, directed and co-starred in the film, was murdered before it was released.

Death At A Funeral - I haven't been so disappointed in a movie in a very long time. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I have a healthy appreciation for British humor, but this movie? Not funny. I actually almost turned it off halfway through, and I NEVER do that.

Dan In Real Life - Another family/romantic comedy, no new ground covered here, but very enjoyable. I think Juliette Binoche as the love interest helped to elevate things, and of course I love Steve Carrell.

Today's Tweets

Via @GeekTyrant - Trailer for Shutter Island GAH!

Via @glark - Well, when ya put it that way...

Via @fuggirls - If this is true, I will be personally ashamed for all involved.

"It's nothing til you don't got one."

For those of you who have been following along, Nathan Fillion has finally revealed (Twittered) what the 'Firefly' easter egg was on Monday's episode of 'Castle':

1. How did the catalyzer come to my possesion? I got it the same way Mal would. I stole it.about 15 hours ago from Tweetie
2. Look closely, when Mal comes out the door- under the gun, under the boat, just to the right. It's a nothin' part, till ya need one.about 15 hours ago from Tweetie
3. It looks like @andreajean915 found the Easter Egg. Haven't checked everyone's guess but she's the first. It was... the CATALYZER. BSTL.

You can read more about the catalyzer here and here. Man, you can find just about anything on this here internet, cantcha?

Oh, and there is NO WAY I would have ever found it!

Awareness Fail

Captain Tightpants is back!

Hot! Last night's episode was awesome.

Random Photo Fun with Lily

Lily, originally uploaded by gina64.

Ricky Gervais "in" Kenya.

From Comic Relief 2007 Red Nose Day.

Today's Tweets

Via @ebertchicago - 'Crash' director Haggis Denounces Scientology after 35 years (must read!)

Via @popcandy - Arrested Development movie is 'still on'

Via @cracked - 'The Last Supper' made out of Rubik's Cubes

Today's Tweets

@vanityfairmag - First official portrait of the First Family, by Annie Liebovitz

Via @ebertchicago - The dog that had kittens for lunch

Via @moryan - Trailer for AMC's The Prisoner

A war is coming.

As if Fringe wasn't already one of the coolest shows on TV, now Trent Reznor and NIN are doing their ep promos for them:



I was NOT a happy girl when it was pre-empted last night. I had to watch FlashForward, for God's sake! (more on that later)

Modern Family

Modern Family is the first new comedy I have watched in, oh God, years. No, wait, I started watching the Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton show "Back To You", which, well, that didn't end so well, did it?

Anyway, Modern Family...Great show! It's like if Arrested Development and The Office had a baby. A baby that is more politically correct, granted, and definitely less batshit crazy than the Bluths (something I miss), but MF owes a great debt to both of those shows.

My favorite character: Little 11-yr-old Manny, the wise-beyond-his-years, coffee-drinking, ultra-sensitive, most mature character on the show, is the step-son of the Pritchett patriarch Jay. The actor who plays him is perfect.

Honorable mention for favorite: Cam. Watch him here, in the football getup:



My least favorite right now: Phil. While he seemed to have a moment or two of normalcy last night, overall he's a bit too buffoonish for me. And pretty annoying.

That's the only complaint I have, though. You should check it out!

Today's Tweets

Via @soleilani - Brilliant Balloon Boy costume

Via @sepinwall - AV Club interview with Bronson Pinchot - Seriously, amazing interview. Read it.

Via @EWPopWatch - A hedgehog dressed as a vampire.

Hey, Adam Jasinski: You just won Big Brother! What are you going to do with all that money?

"I'm going to buy $500,000 worth of Oxy so I can become a major drug dealer!"

Pretty soon they're going to have to build a special jail just for all the busted reality TV stars.

It's Huluween time!

Time for Hulu to gather all of their scary stuff into one place, stuff like "Night of the Living Dead", and the "Psycho" shower scene, and B-movies like "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" and, of course, clips like this:



Enjoy!

The best show you're not watching.

Sons of Anarchy. Tuesday nights at 10:00 on fX. I'm just sayin'.

Today's Tweets

Via @bbcentertain - U2's concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California on Sunday will be streamed live YouTube

Via @The_AV_Club - Drum Master with Anvil

Via @ebertchicago - The Ten Most Egregious Fox News Distortions

Keep your eyes on the skies.

"Beginning Friday, ABC will launch an expensive skywriting campaign to promote the November 3 premiere of V. To draw people’s gaze upwards, just as the series’ spacecraft does in the sci-fi opener, the network is enlisting skywriters to draw gigantic V’s over 26 U.S. landmarks. "

I think it is safe to say that we won't be seeing anything here in CT, but I bet my NY or Boston area friends stand a good chance of spotting one!

(thanks, movieline!)

Today's Tweets

I'm going to start a new feature here today, called Today's Tweets, which will feature items of interest from people that I follow on Twitter. I will not be including memorable quotes or funny exchanges between people like @simonpegg and @nickfrost, nor will I be highlighting all the weird shit @dannydevito says, as funny as it may be. If you want to know, follow them. This will just be a list of links to interesting websites, news articles, entertainment news, opinion pieces...whatever strikes my fancy and that I think will interest you.

This will not be a daily feature - anyone who comes here knows there is no way I would follow-through on that! - but you can expect it to appear quite frequently.

So, for today:

Via @feliciaday - A letter from Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol.

Via @vanityfairmag - "Deep inside the Kate Gosselin insanity

Fabulous.

A Collection of Pre-1930 Awkward Family Photos

In case you've never seen it, here's the orginal Awkward Family Photos.

Hours of fun!

TV Talk: FlashForward and Fringe

I've come to a decision regarding FlashForward: I will continue to watch it, hopefully for at least the entire season, but I will not make any special effort to watch it on the same night it airs anymore. I thought last night's episode was one of the worst yet, and I thought the acting was terrible, particularly from Agent Noh, Agent Mark and the blonde terrorist lady. I thought all of the big, confrontational scenes - the trailer park, the blonde terrorist conference room scenes and even the pre-surgery/Addison's disease scene - were WAY overacted. These people are not bad actors, so I blame the writing. It felt really corny, and I think it's because the actors were trying to make something out of nothing.

Anyway, I will DVR it but I won't be losing any sleep trying to stay up to watch it on a Thursday night. Maybe catch it on the weekend.

Fringe, on the other hand, just gets better and better! Anyone else think of the X-Files episodes "Sleepless" and "Folie a Deux" last night? And there were so many layers to the dream/nightmare theme: the main MOW plot, obviously; The bowling alley guy (forget his name) made a remark that Olivia’s life was a nightmare right now; and Peter’s nightmares about (I assume) Walter taking him from the other world, etc. Good stuff.

A good friend of mine told me this morning that while she doesn't watch Fringe, she knows people who do and they have told her that it is an XF rip-off. I told her that I don’t think it’s a rip-off at all. There’s a fine line between rip-off and homage, and I think Fringe is securely on the side of homage. It is definitely a descendant of the XF, but it is also very different in its overall sensibility. It’s not as scary as XF was (overall), and there isn't that patent pervasive XF paranoia, but at the same time it’s a bit crazier since they’ve sort of dropped the skepticism and just accepted the whole parallel universe thing and are running with it now. I can be really hyper-critical about shows (see: FlashForward, above), and I had a big problem with Fringe in its first half season, but I think it is very good right now.

What do you get when two very funny men sit down for a talk?

A surprisingly boring interview.

I guess I took a little break.

White Memorial trail, originally uploaded by gina64.

I didn't mean to, but the next thing I knew it was 6 days since I had last blogged anything, so I guess I took a little break. Heh.

My 3-day weekend was nice, even though I ate WAY too much. There was a Garlic Festival on Sunday, and that was fun. I baked an apple pie. And I took a short hike on the trails at White Memorial, too. Mostly, though, I took care of some long-neglected chores around the house. I even washed my curtains.

Expect things to pick up around here very soon. In the meantime, some photos from Sunday.

A little kid was set on fire by other little kids. WTF?

Two more boys face judge on charges in burning of Deerfield 15-year-old:

"Two 15-year-old boys appeared in court this morning on charges they set a Deerfield Beach boy on fire because of what authorities said was a squabble involving a video game and a bicycle.

Steven Sheldon and Jesus Mendez, both 15, are charged with aggravated battery.

Mendez, who authorities say took a lighter from his pocket and flicked it at a teen drenched in rubbing alcohol Monday, is also charged with attempted second-degree murder.

Three other boys -- Denver Colorado Jarvis, 15, and his 13-year-old brother Jeremy; and Matthew Bent, 15 -- appeared in court Tuesday and are charged with aggravated battery.

The 15-year-old victim, Michael Brewer, is in critical condition at University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Burn Center.

I'd love to see what their parents are like.

Why don't I like this show more?

After watching the third episode of ABC's FlashForward last night, I am no closer to loving it than I was before. There's good stuff here, but I'm afraid it's being squandered somehow. Perhaps my own expectations are getting in the way, and this is not the show I thought I would be seeing? Or perhaps the people behind the show are trying to do too much? Whatever the reason, I think they are missing the mark.

There are things I really liked about the episode, and there are things I really didn't like.

What I liked:

*Janis Hawk, the smart, outspoken FBI agent is now officially my favorite character. If Herr Geyer was correct, she is a lesbian (and if the previews showing her kissing a girl are to be believed, he is correct), and it would be awesome to have a gay character as a lead on a network show (I can't think of any others, can you?). Also, if she is gay, her flash forward of being pregnant becomes that much more interesting.

*I'm sorry, I know he's a vile Nazi, but the man who played Geyer stole every scene he was in. I hope we see him again.

*The images of the dying crows were very powerful. So was that tower thing at the end.

*Courtney B. Vance rocked the eulogy, especially the lone tear at the end.

*Great cast additions last night: Kim Dickens (Deadwood, LOST) and Gina Torres (Angel, Firefly, Alias) are both AWESOME. I do wish they had something better to do than be wives of the main male characters, though. Perhaps they will. I haven't lost all hope!

What I didn't like:

*OK, so you can get a warrant, exhume a coffin, test the DNA of the remains, all in a period of 24 hours? (Actually, less, since Aaron was sitting at the bar for hours before he told his ex the results of the DNA test.) And all of this when the world is falling apart? That's a priority? I'm sorry, Aaron, but I don't think so.

*And if I'm not mistaken, the entire Germany trip lasted only a day, too. Right.

*While they worked last week, the comedic moments in last night's episode were jarring to me. I felt like this one should have had a darker feel to it, especially because of the Nazi storyline.

*Along a similar vein, the scale of the storytelling still feels wrong to me. It feels wrong that they all seem to be returning to life as usual and daily routines already. Maybe they should have limited the scope of the event to just LA. Hopefully as time passes and we get further from the actual blackout, I won't have the same problem.

*Does this show feel abnormally repetitious to anyone else? I mean, OK, I get it, THE WORLD HAS CHANGED. Why don't you try showing it to us instead of saying it over and over? And how many times do we have to see Olivia's flashforward?

*One more thing: Want to know why Charlie said "D. Gibbons is a bad man", Mark? Just ASK HER.

Whew. Alright, I feel a little better for getting that off my chest.

Here's to hoping this show gets better, because I really do want to like it.

Is he a modern day "Jess James without all the murders"?

Police suspect 'Barefoot Burglar' is stealing, crashing planes.

The man that police call the prime suspect does not have a pilot's license. But he does have a Facebook fan club, which compares him to Jesse James "without the murders" and exhorts: "Fly, Colt, Fly."

Although he is only 18, Colton Harris-Moore has been on authorities' radar for years.

Obviously what he's doing is wrong, and he should be punished for it, but I cannot deny that there's a part of me that finds his story romantic, in an adventurous, rebellious sort of way. It's a bid old "f*ck you" to the establishment, and who doesn't occasionally wish they could do the same thing?

I just hope he doesn't end up hurting someone in the end.

It's October in New England, and you know what that means...

IMGP0594, originally uploaded by gina64.

...it's time to wander around a Revolutionary War-era cemetery and take creepy pictures of the gravestones!

Drive Thru Reviews: Multi-Media Edition

Role Models - Really funny and actually kind of sweet. The kids are the best part. And Jane Lynch, of course.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - I know, I know! There was nothing else on and we were being lazy and...there's no excuse, I know. Bad movie, don't bother.

Lush Life by Richard Price - A book about a mugging gone wrong in the Lower East Side and how that incident affects the people involved. Great characters, great dialogue, and it ended better than I thought it would. Best book I have read in a while.

I watched the second episode of ABC's Modern Family last night, and liked it better than the first.

TV Talk: Last Night

FlashForward - I really, really like the idea of this show, but I'm finding that the execution is a little off. I'm in it for the season, definitely - I have way too much experience with complex and mysterious TV arcs and way-out concepts to give up so early! - I just wished I liked it a little bit more. I have identified one issue I have with the show: Joseph Fiennes. He manages to suck the life out of every scene he is in, I swear. And that's not so good, considering he's the lead. Also not so good: the focus on his wife's vision and the "other man". Don't they have WAY more important things to deal with - like a hospital full of trauma patients and a world-wide catastrophe - more important than whether or not she's going to end up cheating on him? She's an ER doctor and he's an FBI agent heading the investigation into the cause of the worldwide blackout and it's only been 3 days since it happened. In reality, they probably wouldn't even have seen each other yet, let alone gone home every night or visited each other's offices DURING THE DAY. Shouldn't these 2 be working?

Fringe - I thought Fringe had another strong outing last night. The bomber story was suspenseful, and there were some great character moments (especially the quieter lab scenes between Walter and Astrid). The only weak part was the trip to Baghdad. Peter is a tough sell as a badass, for me, and that guy forgave him awfully quickly, don't you think?

So I hear David Letterman's been in the news? (You can read about it here - sorry, CBS removed the video from YouTube so I can't embed Dave's, um, announcement here). My opinion: It's pretty crummy of him to cheat on his girlfriend, but he gets high marks from me for standing up to the extortionist and coming clean on national TV. He'd never make it as a politician, that's for damn sure!

Lilypants

09-20-2009 027, originally uploaded by gina64.

More baby pictures.

It's going to be a LONG year.

My little brother Tommy, who is a police officer, began a year-long police mission in Afghanistan today. He just completed 2 weeks of training in Virginia, then flew out last night to Dubai. Next stop: Kabul, where he will undergo further training before getting sent to, well, wherever it is they'll be sending him. He'll be working with Afghan police forces, mentoring and training and assisting them as they learn how the police in a democratic society operates.

Of course, as soon as he told us this summer that he was doing this, things in Afghanistan blew up, both literally and figuratively. I'll be praying every day for his safe return - next October 1.

I'm very proud of him, but I would gladly sacrifice the next year of my life if I could jump ahead to 10/1/2010 and have him back home, safe and in one piece.