The Calhoun Tribune

Abandonblog

2009-10-09T19:27:00.001-04:00

Big news! After many years and posts here on Blogger, I am officially moving on over to Wordpress. calhountribune.wordpress.com is my new home! i'm still setting up the extra pages, jazzy links, et cetera and so on, but all my existing posts are over there and that's where all the new posts will be from now on! Update your bookmarks, change your RSS feeds, and rejoice!

Spotted: Dan de Fleurette

2009-10-05T22:33:00.000-04:00

Best part of this episode? Forget Tyra and Hilary Duff. For me it was Jenny Humphrey reading The Torn Skirt by Rebecca Godfrey. One of my favorite books of all time. This book made me lose my mind in the best way possible, and J would love it. (I know, I know, it was hardly visible, but it was there.)

To recap: Eric VDW dyed his hair; the GG creators continue to push their love for the Mets with Olivia Burke in a vintage Mets T (Dorota, Nate, and Cyrus's mother are also fans); and Scott was (mercifully) barely in the episode.

Highlight Reel!

Blair not realizing the Masters of the Universe Society was all about He-Man.
Rufus's impression of Lily!
The perfectly styled Jenny knock-off girls at Constance.
The Return of Lily! And finally someone mentions that most people, Serena, go to college to find themself. And! that most people don't even know who they are!
"By the way, sandals are not shoes."
The evil publicist calling Serena a "diva whisperer."
Two words: Tyra's.hair.
"Szybko!" Blair scolding Dorota and in Polish!
Anyone else get creeped out when Chuck sized up Jenny? Yup. Still creepy.
The Chuck Pep Talk to Blair was the most hilariously self-centered speech I have ever heard. And it totally made sense.

Next week: "Rufus Getting Married" — Georgina returns and tries to eff things up! Exciting!

And if you don't mind slightly spoilery photos: here's a still of Blair and Chuck from an upcoming episode (the one after next week's, "Enough About Eve"): Leighton Meester couldn't look more stunning or like Bette Davis. Aaaamazing.

Very Cherry Mystery Solved

2009-10-05T20:19:00.000-04:00

I knew Erica's dress looked familiar! The cherry-print dress that Erica Strange wore in the season 2 premiere of Being Erica is none other than Nanette Lepore's Very Cherry dress! Which Blair Waldorf wore waaay back in "Southern Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (as per page 318 of my book!). Makes sense that the clothes on Being Erica this season look way better and they're taking fashion cues from the best-dressed show on television.

Fashion mystery solved! Too bad I still can't afford to buy this beauty.

Gossip Girl Gets Fierce

2009-10-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

In honour of tomorrow's Gossip Girl Goes Hollywood episode — guest stars Hilary Duff and Tyra Banks make their debuts in "Dan de Fleurette" — let's revisit some highlights of H.Duff's and TyTy's careers:

Hilary's "Reach Out," a remake of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," was both sacrilegious and awesome. It's the only song of hers I've ever properly liked and the video? A declaration that she's no longer Lizzie McGuire.

Of course, if I'm at karaoke, the Duff song I'm signing up is "So Yesterday." (I'm just a bird that's already flown away!)

Remember when Tyra was in John Singleton's Higher Learning? Girl can act, even if her performances on America's Next Top Model go so far over the top that the very fabric of the universe is altered. Here's hoping she can rein it in and recollect how to act on non-modeling TV shows. Like the good old days when she was Jackie on Fresh Prince! The last four seconds of this clip are genius:

Both Tyra and Hilary play star actresses on Gossip Girl (Ursula Nyquist and Olivia Burke) whose film Fleur — check the website — brings the Gossip Gang together for some Hollywood glitz. And it looks like Dan Humphrey is totes done hooking up with Georgina! After the jump, three preview clips of tomorrow's ep and TyTy talks about working with "Miss Serena"!

Chuck and Jenny talk about the Queendom of Constance (and C makes a Great Gatsby reference!)

Serena has a job? And Tyra's hair is out.of.control.

Dan shares his knowledge with Olivia over coffee

And Tyra talks about her character and her love for Gossip Girl!

I love Tyra. You know on your Twitter profile how you can list your location? Hers is FIERCELAND. I am soooo changing mine.

Spotted: The Lost Boy

2009-09-28T22:37:00.000-04:00

How glad am I that the secret society Blair wanted to join turned out to be an elaborate Georgina Sparks ruse? And not something as misdirected as Chuck's Eyes Wide Shut plot line last season. Thank the Gossip Gods.

Just to keep things straight: G tricked Blair and Chuck into bidding for the same photograph in an effort (to drive B bananas); B and C tricked S into thinking Carter was a washed-up philanderer (for her own good); Georgina tricked Dan into thinking she wasn't evil (cause she has totes loved him since she was Sarah); Scott tricked Rufus and family into thinking he was the brother of Rufly love child and not the actual love child himself, and also convinced Truth Is My Religion Vanessa into keeping a big-ass secret from her pseudo family. Which Georgina overheard. Bree has some big secret with Carter. And we finally find out what happened That Night In Santorini! Mr. van der Woodsen was going to get remarried, and Serena and Carter were stealing boats. Awesome.

And Jenny? She was back. She had, like, one line. And she ate a blueberry. Poor TayMom.

Was it just me or was Gossip Girl's narration kinda off this episode? Her auction analogies were weak, and they just went on and on like an auctioneer calling bid after bid . . . (sorry.)

What I did like were all the millions of hilarious moments & one liners:

Serena & Vanessa, in unison, to Dan: "Please tell me it was Blair not Georgina"/"Georgina not Blair"
Carter's love for white fluffy robes
B describing Georgina as a "nympho with a sock fetish"
this exchange between Chuck and Blair: "I came to apologize." "So apologize." "That was it."
On an otherwise Dorota-less episode, Chuck's line nearly made up for it: "Dorota's counterintelligence isn't what it used to be."
Serena's sassy little hip move/look when Chuck and Blair realize she's bought the Patrick McMullan. When she's showing someone who's boss, it's effing entertaining. More Queen S please!
Georgina's desktop background: OMJC. Her and Dan at last week's roof party. Hilarious.

Usually my favorite outfits go to B, but I adored Serena's bedazzled vest (a.k.a. Matthew Williamson's antique beaded vest) in the last scene. And while B's dress at Sotheby's was beyond the thunderdome beauteous, her braids were too tight and severe for me. Perfect for B when she's all wound up, pissed off, and in the Bassian desert, but not her best look.

Overall, not a bad episode, not the best episode ever. I hope we see a little less of Scott next week. There's just nothing interesting about that guy: he's a little creepy, sure, but he's sooo boring.

And Chuck putting all his money into buying that hotel? Hope that works out for him. A poverty-stricken Chuck Bass is not a plot line I'd like to explore.

Next week: Tyra! Hilary Duff!

Monday Edition: Gossip Girl Round-Up!

2009-09-28T12:39:00.001-04:00

It was a very exciting week for me over on Twitter, where Zuzanna Swadkowski (a.k.a. Dorota) @replied me and Gossip Girl fashion blog You Know You Love Fashion! (We were talking about Dorota's wardrobe, naturally.)

Californication season 3 premiered last night, and next week's episode includes Ed Westwick as a "gay, creative writing student who has a crush on Hank and he wants to know what Hank thinks of his writing" (EW's Californication preview here). Cannot wait.

New York Mag has a charming video of Sebastian Stan giving acting lessons to kids and NY reporters here; their recap of "The Freshmen" is here, and the recap of the comments is here.

TayMom has a new(ish) official website: TheRealTaylorMomsen.com

Mere hours til "The Lost Boy," but if you can't wait, here are the two preview scenes from the CW, Carter & Serena followed by Blair & Chuck:

TV OD

2009-09-27T15:30:00.002-04:00

On Friday I realized that I've only missed one day of work since January because I was sick! I've missed days for other reasons, but still! I'm soooo healthy. Cut to: three hours later and I'm feeling poorly. Being sick sucks: I've canceled some excellent weekend plans (house party, brunching, Word on the Streeting, working...oh that part is OK). The upside is I've caught up on soooo much TV.

The two-hour season premiere of House was, as expected, epic. Even if you don't watch the show, you should watch this ep; it stands alone like an excellent TV movie starring the super fox Hugh Laurie. I'll keep PVRing House this season, even though there's no way the season can be as awesome as its premiere.

I'm still watching Melrose Place, three episodes in, but frankly the only thing that's keeping me is the promise of Heather Locklear returning as Amanda Woodward. Really the only character I like on the show is Ella, the publicist, and she's nearly a carbon copy of Amanda Woodward. Was Ashley Simpson-W a reasonably talented actress on 7th Heaven? Because her one move on this show is widening her eyes and staring, creating a signature expression of coy and creepy. And all the whodunnit flashbacks to Sydney are more clunky than mysterious. (Wait, why do I keep watching this?) At least it's miles better than the already-canceled The Beautiful Life: TBL (or as I like to call it, TBL: TBL). That was so utterly unwatchable.

90210 is — cannot believe I'm about to say this — watchable this season. The Bev Hills Beach Club is back, the guys (when they're not trying out for the surf team) are lying to their ladyloves, the girls are dealing with their broken hearts and ex-boyfriends, and the principal (Annie & Dixon's poppa) is on the road to a love affair with Kelly Taylor! Two unfortunate things from this week's episode: Dixon picks up a woman who's way older than him (Sasha; she's fierce) and the actress decided to play the role by grinning non-stop. I mean, non-stop. It was tres annoying to watch. The second: the writers keep making these poor kids say, "sext." As in, "text + sex" to refer to the cell phone picture that was sent around of Annie fooling around with the senior. A picture. No text.

Now for the new shows that I absolutely adore: Glee and The Vampire Diaries. Glee is the most accurately named TV show in history: watching it I am filled with delight, a perma-grin on my face; I just want to watch more and more; I wish these characters were real. Kurt's "Single Ladies" performance this week was inspired. So glad it was picked up for a full season. Vampire Diaries is a whole other kind of awesome: an angsty, scary mashup of Dawson's Creek and the Scream movies (both previous Kevin Williamson projects, as we all know). As much as I like Nina Dobrev as Elena, my favorite character so far is Ian Somerhalder's evil vamp Damon. He's having so much effing fun; he's hot and hilarious. An excellent combination. I just ordered the first in the book series the show was based on (they're supposed to be pretty crap); will let you know what I think once I've read it.

The season premiere of Being Erica did not disappoint. After season 1 was all about Erica figuring out her own past, it looks like this season will shift some of the focus onto the mysteries of how she time travels, and the "psychiatrists" who help people sort out their pasts. Erica spent a good portion of the episode wearing a beautiful cherry-print dress. If Erica and I had one more thing in common — owning that dress — that would be A-OK with me.

What else am I watching? The Office, Parks and Recreation, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Next Top Model, Dollhouse, and (best of all) Gossip Girl. I think that's it. Anything awesome that I should be watching?

Spotted: The Freshmen

2009-09-21T23:03:00.005-04:00

Me before tonight's episode of Gossip Girl: wah, I have a headache; must call the wahmbulance.

Me after tonight's ep of Gossip Girl: ::giant grin::

Just like last season it's the second episode of the season that really makes the show feel like it's kicked into high gear. It was all about heading to college (and that meant no Little J, or Eric, whatsoever). Blair and Serena were having some serious difficulty correctly reading situations — S being a total cow to Chuck, and B being a total cow to . . . the entire NYU student body.

I'm enjoying the Georgina plotline that started with her return last year: Is She Evil Or Isn't She? (I also love her piles and piles of necklaces.) She's all sweet and apologetic to Dan and Vanessa in the bookstore . . . as she holds a copy of Machiavelli's The Prince. She warns Dan about B using him to gain entry to the slammin' party, but hours earlier called Blair a loser and had that evil triumphant glint in her evil eye. Whaddaya think? I think evil. I think we have a long con on our hands. And another one with Scott. Vanessa does not like being lied to (see: Georgina, season 1) and when she finds out Scott is the love child of Rufly? Ruh roh.

Nobody wants a wasabi facial. Some of my favorite moments:

"I'm not paranoid. I'm right," says B to G outside of McNally Robinson**! Joyous screentime for awesome indie bookstore!
Necklace party! I adored G's chains (in the pic above), but also her snake necklace. And B was wearing her Tiffany key again. (this is really exciting for me because I was wearing my Tiffany key while watching. mine doesn't have diamonds, but it counts, right?)
"Thank you for the waffles." Chuck Bass having a frank talk about Serena with Rufus Humphrey? Over waffles? Oh, why was that off-screen?
Favorite music moment by a long shot — "Good Girls Go Bad" (Cobra Starship featuring our very own Leighton Meester) as Dan and Blair arrive at the party. Effing po-mo hilarity.
Blair being asked her opinion on Battlestar Galactica vs. TNG. Love when TV worlds collide.
"Time to find a new bad habit." I am seriously in love with Carter Baizen. Dan and Serena never really did it for me, but Carter and Serena? Love, love, love. More smooching please.
Best of all: Blair snuggling into bed with Chuck.

The Nate/Bree love-in didn't really bug me, but it didn't do much for the episode. Nate's cute, Bree's not annoying, so we've at least got that (and random LL Bean masturbation jokes). Now that N & Bree are out of the closet, so to speak, I wonder if they'll integrate that plotline into the rest of the characters, so it's less disjointed.

But more importantly: have we ever seen Blair's hair in a braid before? Super cute side braid, B. The dress (Co-operative Designs sweater dress) looks like it ain't available anymore. Sad, 'cause it's killer and also: not that expensive. And this just excites me as a lifelong Spice Girls fan: the red dress B was wearing for her first day of class is from the Victoria Beckham collection.

May-jah.

** So you may be thinking, "It's not called McNally Robinson. Calhoun is nuts." In Canada, where the bookstores originated, it's called McNally Robinson; in NYC, you are right, it's actually called McNally Jackson. But in my heart, and thus on my blog, it's Robinson. Not sure if the ownership is different (run by Mr. Jackson, perhaps?), but the store is awesome on both sides of the border.
***Next week: "The Lost Boy"

Being Being Erica

2009-09-21T10:04:00.006-04:00

Being Erica's Erica Strange is a 30-something woman living in Toronto, working as an editor at a publishing house. She went to Victoria College at U of T where she studied English, quoted Britney lyrics, and danced to the Spice Girls. Her dad — that guy in the glasses in the photo — and her mom split up when she was in her teens; one time, in anger, she called her mother a Nazi. Unlucky in love Erica has some girlfriends who are "more established" in their lives — married, home-owners, babies on the way — and sometimes she just can't relate or feels like the wacky wildcard still-a-kid friend.

Replace my name with Erica's and "Nazi" with "Hitler" but keep the rest of the details the same (my dad plays the role of Rabbi Gary Strange, her pops) — yup, Being Erica is basically my life but with time travel. (Erica's psychiatrist, Dr. Tom, has the unexplained ability to send her back in time to revisit important/regretful moments in her past.)

Erin Karpluk, who plays Erica, is crazy charming and a big part of what makes this show so excellent. It's funny, smart, totally sappy when it needs to be, and unpredictably entertaining. If you missed season 1, it comes out on DVD on Tuesday; Canadians can stream the episodes online at CBC.ca.

Season 2 premieres tomorrow at 9 on CBC. The show airs on SoapNet in the States.

Sunday Edition: Gossip Girl Round-Up!

2009-09-20T14:29:00.001-04:00

In an effort to give you devoted Tribune readers some regular features, I've decided to implement an end of week Gossip news round-up -- cast interviews, links to excellent recaps, et cetera and so on.

I wish that Ed Westwick's Gossip Girl contract had included a "No Hideous Tattoos" clause. The poor misguided guy has a handful of tattoos already, fine, but this week he got not one but two absurdly ugly abominations.
The CW is back to their "Gossip Guide" promos (last season we learned important vocab like "blairanoid" and "ment-whore") with Sexperimentation.
The latest installment of Eric Daman's Gossip Girl Style is for Vanessa. He says "tribal patterns" about 100 times, but! note also that serpentine necklaces and bracelets are very of the moment. (Good news for me, because when I was in NYC taking photos for the book back in June I picked up a cheap but awesome snake bracelet. Haven't worn it yet, but must seize the fashion moment.)
The Daily Intel Reality Index was back this week with "Wild Gossip Girls Can't Be Broken."
Zuzanna "Dorota" Szadkowski is interviewed by Rolling Stone's GG-loving Peter Travers (and by ABC news)!

Spotted: Reversals of Fortune

2009-09-15T21:12:00.006-04:00

New season! New haircuts (some more successful than others . . . I'm looking at your pseudo-dreads, Vanessa) and new couples. "Reversals of Fortune" reminded me of season 2's premiere -- it feels like we're catching up with our besties after a summer apart, but the show won't really feel like it's in full swing until next week when they go back to school.

Besides her sketchy hair at the van der Bilt Foundation Polo Match, Vanessa was way more entertaining than usual. To wit, “I thought you hated intellectual property theft” (thinking D's wallet is a knockoff), "Even Frodo eventually gave into the power of the ring," (on D's new love for the high life), and on Chuck and Blair probably attending the polo game “. . . if the murder/suicide I predicted hasn’t happened yet.” That said, I'm not too keen on the idea of spending a lot of screen time on Vanessa's budding romance with Totally Creepy & A Bit Too Short Scott. Who stares at a birth certificate in the middle of a café? Only Creepy Scott.

What about the other new love interests, Bree Buckley and Carter Baizen? I'm feeling tepid about Bree; I like Joanna Garcia (thought she was charming on Privileged) but another secret relationship for Nate? Really?

A secret relationship between Carter and Serena? Totally fine by me. Please keep him around. I don't know why I adore his character (and Sebastian Stan) so much. But I truly do. And Carter definitely gave us sparks of "I'm actually a good person beneath this bad-boy exterior" in this episode . . . a ploy that's worked exceedingly well for resident reformed sexpot Chuck Bass. (Can boys be sexpots? Chuck Bass can.)

Blair and Chuck are still as captivating as before their ILYs... The seduce & destroy game is, of course, ludicrous, but I loved it. Blair's reaction to the first blondie telling her she's crazy -- that little nod? Hilarious. "I'm not Chuck Bass without you"? Swoon. And the final role-playing scene was genius. "Waiter!"

I didn't get right away that Lily wasn't around because she was off taking care of dying CeCe, and I'm still not 100% on who will be living where this season, but holy cripes the characters are basically like one giant family now: SIX kids. Between Lily and Rufus, there's Serena, Eric, Chuck, Jenny, Dan, and Scott. (Plus Serena and Blair are like sisters...)

I'm excited about this season: high school's over for most of the characters and their lives have been flipped-turned upside down. The "poor" Humphreys are no longer slumming it in their beautiful, huge, waterside Brooklyn loft but have moved uptown now that Rufus and Lily are engaged. Blair, former queen of the high school, is headed downtown to NYU where no one cares about her Upper East Side status and (horror!) no one appreciates a good headband. Serena's desperate for her father's attention and trying to get it by sleeping with Carter Baizen and stealing horses. (You know the usual.) The writers have definitely freshened things up for freshman year, and I think they just might survive the jump from high school to college.

And on a book-related note, there are some fun photos from my launch last night up on Torontoist, along with a little article 'bout the book. Hope to have more photos to show y'all, along with more details on the games, prizes, and cupcakes...

Next week: "The Freshmen"!

(screencaps from meesters.tumblr.com, which is a completely awesome gossip girl tumblr)

And we're back!

2009-09-15T00:45:00.004-04:00

I'm just home from the launch for my book, Spotted: Your One and Only Unofficial Guide to Gossip Girl, which is out and available and in stores and all that jazz. The party was super fun and there were more people wearing headbands with bows than should be legal. Amazing. Thank you all! I was as happy as TaySwiftie before Kanye ruined everything.

I'll do my full episode post tomorrow when I get a chance to watch the show for real, but let me just say: I am so glad to have the Gossip Girl kids back. And Chuck and Blair? Awesome.

Also: Jenny Cupcakes? Totally hilarious AND delicious. (And from Babycake, in case you need cupcakes made with Taylor Momsen's face on them. Or, you know, your own face.)

One More Day, One Day More

2009-09-13T09:00:00.000-04:00

In the 36 hours between now and the premiere of Gossip Girl, I shall be making some last-minute preparations for my launch (you should come!) and curbing my excitement by watching some of these excellent cast interviews...

Leighton Meester on Letterman
Ed Westwick on Jimmy Fallon
Jessica Szohr interviews Ed Westwick (super cute), Leighton Meester, and Penn Badgley
Mini interviews from the CW with Jessica, Blake Lively, Taylor Momsen, Chace Crawford, Sebastian Stan (Carter "Super Hot" Baizen), Connor Paolo, Chris Riggi (Rufly Love Child Scott)
Eric Daman on Queen J's style evolution in season 3

And if that's not enough GG, I'd suggest hitting Talking Gossip, Gossip Girl Insider, FuckYeahUpperEastSiders, Meesterbate, or you can catch up on the Gossip Girl cast getting Fugged. My personal fave is the recent TayMom outfit -- performing at the Teen Vogue party in her knickers.

Ah! Of great importance: Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester are up for an Emmy -- a viewer-voted Emmy for Best Breakthrough Performance. Vote here, every day.

My 90210pinions: To New Beginnings!

2009-09-09T18:15:00.000-04:00

Well named episode, writers of 90210. "To New Beginnings!" marked a (yup) new beginning for the series, in my estimation; there was something inherently more watchable about this episode than any of the awkwardly not-cool episodes that came before it last season.

The clothes were noticeably less awful, the Beverly Hills Beach Club was a major setting (as soon as they said, "cabana" I swooned), and there was considerably less Annie screen time! What untold joys!

We start with all the kids wrapping up summer school, punishment for getting caught drinking at Naomi's party. 'Cause you know when the LAPD finds teenagers drinking, they sentence everyone at the party to summer school.

Naomi (even though I think she's ludicrous, she just might be my favorite) is seeing an older man and Adrianna is "done with drama -- on camera and off." (that means no sex.) The three girls make fun of an OLD person (played by the actress who was the lady detective from season 1 of Angel; she was born in 1973 — the horror) and they celebrate just being regular super-hot super-rich designer-bikini clad teenagers.

Why is this less awful than last season? Less Annie! Just as that realization dawned on me, she's back. (For some reason the not-Walsh family moved out of the mansion? To make them more relatable? I dunno.) Annie's SUPER grumpy because she maybe-killed a guy.

Moving along — enter new hot tennis guy. Naomi shamelessly flirts with him (some line about playing with balls. sigh.) and then her face contorts (win!) when she finds out that he used to date Adrianna. (this means Naomi can't sleep with him. see: rules of girlfriends.)

There are a whole bunch of boring conversations: Annie & Dixon fight, the older married man and Naomi talk about their non-relationship, Naomi tells Annie to stay the hell away from her (she thinks Annie slept with Liam, but she so didn't). Distraught, Annie gets totally loaded and hooks up with a senior. In a CABANA. I wonder if this will end badly.

Party at the Beach Club! Remember before things got really tragic at Scott's birthday party on the original 90210, and the gang was all dancing in the living room? And it was super fun? Right. So the cast of new 90210 tried on a little choreography. Good lord -- do not make this people dance ever again. Ever again.

Ruh roh: ex-boyfriend tennis guy ("Teddy") and Adrianna do some sexy dancing to "their song," while her boyfriend watches on, still a sad virgin. Don't worry, Virgin Boyfriend, Silver is about to interrupt with this gem: "Hey Teddy. Thanks a lot. You just ruined my. whole. life."

It's not even worth explaining why; she's over it by the next scene.

The return to West Bev! The triad of girls greet with a face-press hug. Is this the new thing? I am going to try to face-press hug my friends and see how it goes. It's certainly the best way to ensure that no girl loses a second of screen time with her face turned away from the camera for an old-fashioned hug.

Big reveal: Naomi is so desperate for a new man because she's not over Liam. Her friends had NO idea. Why didn't she tell them? Sigh. Even I knew that and I don't even know who this Liam person is. Oh, no wait, there he is -- he's brooding by the lockers. Naomi makes a face and stalks off.

Cut to some B-boy dancing in the parking lot -- those suckers have nothing on David Silver. (You're so precious to me.) Naomi's totally awful first day back at school gets turned right around when she snags a cell phone pic (Blair Waldorf style) from that nasty senior who Annie maybe-slept with. A photo of the principal's daughter naked! That means Annie will be tormented in future episodes! And no one knows her dark secret! (Except maybe the Teddy guy? I didn't follow that bit.) This could get fun to watch!

Because there weren't enough long loving shots of Silver, Naomi, and Adrianna (who is super pretty, let's be honest, in a Megan Fox–ish way), the episode ends with a slow-mo Mean Girls "the hallway is my catwalk" shot. And even though that sounds super lame, it totally works.

Overall: B-.

Good Thing I Have a PVR

2009-09-07T07:55:00.010-04:00

Only one more week to Gossip Girl (and my book launch! you should come), and in the meantime we could talk about some of those other TV shows.

[But if you want to read a little interview between Ausiello and actor Neal Bledsoe (whose GG character has been much talked about in regards to his I-won't-spoil-it-but-you-probs-already-know scene) it's here and it's charming.]

I'm confused about whether or not to watch the return of 90210. As you faithful readers know, I really really did not enjoy that parade of lame last season, but the series has that new showrunner on a mission. Will she be able to improve Shanae Grimes acting ability? Doubtful. Will she be able to control AnnaLynne McCord's overacting ability? Impossible. I may tune in (tomorrow, Tuesday, at 8pm on the CW) for curiosity's sake.

Might as well start early, as I will be in front of my telly at 9pm to watch the CW's reboot of Melrose Place. The original Melrose was too much campy soapy fun not to watch, and this one seems to have recaptured the glory. It's a season-long murder mystery! It's got Ashley Simpson! And Michael Mancini's son!

I finally watched the pilot episode of Glee (this Wednesday at 9pm on Fox). Even after hearing months of hype about this awesome charming show, Glee was awesome. And charming. The episode ended and I just wanted to watch another right away. (Lucky for me I waited so long to see it; you poor people who watched it in the spring and had to wait this long.)

So You Think You Can Dance season 6 premieres right before Glee. Up in Canada, our version of SYTYCD is on right now. Before it started, I wondered if I would suffer SYTYCD fatigue — watching season 5, then Canada's season 2, and not be into season 6. Turned out the judges and host on our version are just way too annoying for words, and I've given up on SYTYCD Canada. When I watch the U.S. version, all I want is the ability to vote. Now I have it and I am squandering it. But seriously Jean-Marc is an excellent choreographer, terrible judge. And Leah Miller doesn't have 1/100th of Cat Deeley's charm. Don't get me started on Tré. So welcome back American SYTYCD. It hasn't been long, but your inferior cousin made me miss you.

Not sure about The Beautiful Life (Wed. Sept 16, 9pm on the CW), but I'll probably watch the pilot episode just to see Mischa Barton play a disgruntled supermodel. I'm also going to give The Vampire Diaries a shot (this Thursday, 8pm on the CW), but I ain't expecting much.

I'm an intermittent watcher when it comes to House (Mon Sept 21, 8pm on Fox), but the premise for season 6 looks awesome: House has checked himself into a mental institute.

Yesterday I finally finished watching season 1 of Dollhouse (Fri. Sept 25, 9pm on Fox), that show that took 9 episodes to get interesting.... The best episode of the season is the one that wasn't aired (it's on the DVDs and on iTunes). Things get trippy and apocalyptic and awesome in episode 13. Not sure if season 2 will pick up there or where we left Echo/Caroline in ep12, but I have finally seen the Joss Whedon Potential in this show. (There was something very Angel about the last episodes of season 1.)

As for those hyped super sci/fi dramas — Flash Forward, V, whatever else — I think I'm going to sit them out. Wait and see which one's the must-see series and pick it up late. I have too many teen-centric shows to watch! No time for aliens or time travel! (Until Lost season 6, of course.)

What have I forgotten? Anything awesome you'll be watching that I have totes missed? (Not including the return of The Office and 30 Rock. D'of course, we'll be watching.) More season premiere dates here!

Book Report: L.A. Candy

2009-09-02T07:02:00.001-04:00

Me and some of the ECDubs girls pooled our change and bought a copy of Lauren Conrad's L.A. Candy; we all wanted to read it but no one wanted to be the person who bought a copy of L.A. Candy. I was last on the list to read it ('cause, you know, I was busy plowing through 1,200 pages of Stephenie Meyer) and let me tell you this: I didn't think I would like it. But I did.

LC's book is pretty much what you'd expect: a story of a girl plucked from obscurity to reality-tv stardom and the friends and boyfriends along the way. What I didn't expect was for the book to be so anti-celebrity culture. Sure, she gets glammed up and goes to the hottest clubs, but she's totally uncomfortable in the spotlight. The Lauren character discovers everyone is a big old faker; gossip magazines are full of lies; friendships and romances go awry; the reality of these shows is revealed to be scripted.

It's not a great book, or even a good book, but for this kind of YA fiction it totally stands up. And for a book written by someone who is only being published because she was on The Hills, it's surprisingly honest and kinda depressing. Two thumbs up! (You can read an excerpt here.)

If You Can't Wait for Gossip Girl

2009-09-01T18:42:00.003-04:00

My official stance on spoilers is I don't like them. I'd rather watch an episode with no knowledge whatsoever of what's about to happen, to get the full intended effect. But I find it really hard not to look at spoilery on-set photos, or watch preview clips, or read Ausiello. . . .

Here's Eric Daman talking style for season 3, focusing on Serena (not spoilery)

And Eric D on Ms. Blair Waldorf:

And there are five sneak previews of season 3's premiere "Reversals of Fortune" on Gossip Girl Insider.

Launch Party!

2009-08-27T09:48:00.006-04:00

Party time!

I am pleased as punch to invite y'all to my book launch party. What better way to celebrate a book about Gossip Girl than by watching the season 3 premiere as a Gossip Girl Gang? So the party's on the eve of the premiere, and there will be snacks and books and games and prizes. I have some funny game ideas brewing . . . think "New Haven Can Wait."

The details:

Monday September 14
8:00 p.m.
(the show starts at 9)

The Queen and Beaver Public House
35 Elm Street, Toronto, Second Floor
(facebook invite page here)

Hope y'all can make it! And if you're not a Torontonian, you might want to consider flying into town JUST for my party.

For those of you who mysteriously do not like or watch Gossip Girl (for shame), there is an outside patio area, and a downstairs bar, where you can hang out with the other haters while the show is on. (You know I still love you.)

My Sister Is Funny

2009-08-22T10:37:00.003-04:00

Watch out Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics! My sister made me a very special birthday edition of Dinosaur Comics and it really makes me laff and laff.

There it is! You may have to give it a clicky-click so it is giant and legible.

Talking Gossip After Dark Podcast!

2009-08-19T22:21:00.004-04:00

Guess what y'all? I had the pleasure of chatting with Angela and Missy from Talking Gossip the other day, for this week's podcast! You can subscribe in iTunes or listen from their site — Episode #50: Good Girls Go Bad It was a lot of fun talking to Gossip Girl Super Fans about writing Spotted, and about why I heart GG so very much. (Of course, listening to myself talk? Less fun! I am a rambler and my sentence structure is wacky!)

The toughest question they asked me was who my favorite character on the show is. I had to think really, really hard about that one...

Ah wait! No, I didn't -- easy!
(the picspam comes from this post, which is out of control Leighton awesome overload.)

Les News

2009-08-16T09:13:00.004-04:00

It kinda hurts to look at them, doesn't it? Leighton Meester & Ed Westwick got their Goth on for an upcoming issue of Elle, and it's now my desktop image. How will I get any work done? Who cares. They are hott. (That's an HQ version; click on it & it can be on your desktop too!)

It's an exciting time in the Gossipverse: this tuesday (my b-day!) the season 2 DVDs come out and my book is already shipping from the Amazons (.com and .ca).

I'm generally anti-spoiler but I haven't been able to NOT look at the gorgeous on-set pictures popping up — I think everyone's better looking this season. I like Dan's new hair. I like Jenny's super extensions. I like Chuck's tan. And it feels like there are even more guest stars: Tyra, Hilary Duff, and Sonic Youth! (Remember the cover of "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" that played at Jenny's guerrilla fashion show last season? That was Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth, with Jemina Pearl — a cover just for Gossip Girl.)

The other night I dreamed that I watched the premiere of season 3. I don't remember what happened in the dream version, but I do remember that there was no Lily and Rufus, no Vanessa (but Dan said he wasn't speaking to her), and no Jenny. I think that may have something to do with the lack of WTF promos for those characters. My favorite is this Blair/Dan one:

(The next line, in my head, after D touches her, Blair says, "Only my boyfriend gets to touch my hair.")

And we've booked a date for the launch party of my book: Monday September 14! I'll post the details soon, but the general game plan: cocktails & snacks & general merriment followed by the premiere of season 3! So save the date, Torontonians.

The Unanswered Question from the Twilight Saga

2009-08-15T10:18:00.004-04:00

After resisting for many years, I've caved to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, and have read all but Breaking Dawn. I'm well on my way from mocking the series to earnest enjoyment of it. I'm not there yet -- I still yell "You're so stupid" to the books even though I can't put them down.

There's a scene in Eclipse (so far my favorite) where Jacob cuts himself in Bella's kitchen and Bella goes on a tear cleaning up any trace of his blood (except on the knife..."You're so stupid!") so Edward won't freak the frak out when he returns to the Swan residence. It forced me to confront the question that was lurking in the back of my mind since the first book: if Edward is overcome by the scent of Bella, if she is his own personal brand of heroin, and they spend every possible second together and he sleeps over at Bella's, like, all the time — what happens when Bella gets her period?

Luckily Jen K, of The Keepin' It Real Book Club, knows Beth. And Beth doesn't just ask the questions; she takes it upon herself to answer them.

Twilight: The Lost Chapter
Bella groaned and rolled over in her bed. The bright sun streaking across her room had woken her earlier than she’d intended to rise. The brightness in the room told her it was going to be an exceptionally sunny day in the usually gloomy town of Forks. Bella curled up, sinking deeper into her bed, enjoying the warm cocoon of pillows and sheets, thinking of what she would do with this unexpected day of sunshine. As her mind raced over possibilities, she thought “Maybe Edward and I can go out on a picnic!”

The thought of a picnic with Edward, his skin shimmering in the sunlight, was enough to rouse Bella. As she sprung up in her bed, however, she doubled over in pain, wincing as she felt the tightness in her lower abdomen.

“Ugh, no, no, no,” she muttered to herself, folding her arms across her waist. Bella recognized the pain as the cramping which accompanied the onset of her monthly courses. Her eyes darted to the calendar tacked to her wall, and a quick calculation of dates confirmed that she was indeed due for her period.

Head hung, Bella rose from her bed, sighing heavily. She hated this stretch of time, this painful, but necessary separation from Edward. During her monthly time, Bella and Edward were forced to refrain from seeing each other. In fact, Bella was unable to see any of the members of Edward’s family during this week of her month.

Seeing as Edward and his entire family were vampires, it was impossible for them to be near her while she menstruated. Her blood was intoxicating to them, particularly to Edward, and when she menstruated it was extremely imprudent for her to be in their company. In addition to the danger raised by the temptation of the blood in the menses she shed, her body’s scent was apparently heightened during this time of her cycle, making her all the more appetizing to them.

Initially, when it was realized that Bella’s period was a significant issue in their physical relationship, Bella experimented with suppressing her menstruation, first taking birth control pills throughout the entire month, never giving her body a chance to cleanse itself. Bella, however, was clumsy and often dropped the pills, losing them under her bed, so she quickly switched to the shot. While Bella initially delighted in skipping her menses, Edward told her that her scent changed with the manipulation of her hormones, so she put an end to the birth control regiment. She couldn’t bear the thought of Edward’s primal attraction to her being tampered with.

Out of bed, Bella left her room, heading downstairs to the telephone, needing to inform Edward of the onset of her courses. As she passed the front door, she glanced out and saw that Charlie’s cruiser was already gone for the day, most likely he was out fishing, she thought. Bella leaned heavily against the wall the phone was fixed to, and unhooked it from the receiver. She cradled the phone between her shoulder and ear and quickly punched in Edward’s number, miserably resting her head against the cool wall.

The phone rang hollowly a few times, then Edward picked up, his voice purring her name before she even said hello, “Bella, dearest, how are you this fine morning?”

“Edward, I’ve started my period,” she offered desolately.

A cold pause met her announcement.

“It’s the right date, I just… forgot to look at my calendar this week, I guess,” she apologized.

“It’s fine, Bella, really. I can take this time to hunt with my family,” Edward said, quickly recovering his composure.

Bella smiled to herself. Her boyfriend’s consideration and control never failed to impress her. The only time the tremendous age difference between them was evident was when Edward remained infinitely patient with the inconveniences brought on by her human condition. He was so perfect, excelling at everything, and she was just an awkward teenage girl who happened to have a delicious blood scent. As she said goodbye to him and hung up the phone, she thanked whatever fate there was that brought this smoldering vampire to her.

Why Buy It When You Can WIN It!

2009-08-12T10:31:00.001-04:00

The lovely folks over at Talking Gossip After Dark are running a bunch of contests to celebrate their one year anniversary and this week's prize is my book! And it's signed by the author! Head over here to enter to win!

Gossip Girl Season 3 promo!

2009-08-10T07:36:00.002-04:00

Is it possible that this impossibly good-looking cast got better looking? Blair's little nod at the end is hilarious. I am officially excited.

(via Talking Gossip After Dark)

Party like a mad man

2009-08-09T08:11:00.004-04:00

What are you guys doing on Wednesday? You should come to the launch for Jesse McLean's new book -- Kings of Madison Avenue: The Unofficial Guide to Mad Men!

Pictured at left is what I will be wearing, and yes, if Joan Holloway could see me, she would give me that same withering glance, the glance that says, Nice try, but no.

	Wednesday, August 12, 2009
	7:00pm - 11:00pm

McNally Robinson Toronto at the Shops of Don Mills
Author Jesse McLean and Globe & Mail TV critic John Doyle discuss the impact of the popular AMC series Mad Men.
(all the details on the facebook invite page)

Who Hearts Gossip Girl?

2009-07-29T20:13:00.003-04:00

Talking Gossip After Dark is turning one, and they want to celebrate by giving out PRIZES! Find out more here.

And sometime in August, I'll be joining the TGAD folks on a podcast episode. Fun times TK!

xoxo

Spotted: Map of Gossip Girl Locations

2009-07-25T12:40:00.003-04:00

One part of the episode guides in Spotted is a locations listing — where your favorite Gossip Girl scenes were filmed. When I went to New York to take photos of the locations for the book, I put together a Google Map so I'd know where I needed to go. And now it all its glory — cleaned up and details added — the map is here for ya. It's not a full list yet, but I'll keep adding locations from seasons 1 and 2, and once season 3 starts (yay!) I'll add those ones too.

View Gossip Girl Locations! in a larger map
A little legend: RED for locations that appear across seasons; GREEN for season 1; BLUE for season 2; and PINK for season 3.

Erin's Round-Up - Inaugural Edition

2009-07-24T07:13:00.006-04:00

i have a friend named Erin — actually I have multiple friends named Erin, but this one in particular doesn't have a blog or twitter, but finds a lot of excellent, absurd things on the Internets and in real life, and takes lovely photographs, and is otherwise wondrous. So I've decided to compile her genius and repurpose it for my OWN blog. (How does that sound, Erin?) Here is the first edition of what will hopefully be semi-regular posts of the stuff I've pilfered from her emails to me.

Time to Get Excited!!
A musical theatre version of the The Notebook is in the works!!

Two Fun Facts and One Sad Shortcoming from sTori Telling, the 5 hour and 20 minute AUDIOBOOK version, read by Tori Spelling
1. Her parents were CRAZY. They would buy and plant fake seashells at the beach so she’d find beautiful ones instead of the regular ones.
2. Did you know that Luke Perry used to call Tori Spelling “camel” because of the length of her eyelashes?
3. Sadly, Troop Beverly Hills was given no more than ONE SENTENCE. Devastating! I was really hoping for a first hand account of working with Shelley Long.

An Actual Post on the IMdB Message Board for Abigail Breslin

she's a great young talent; I just hope she doesn't fall into the child actor thinking; "well, hollywood is unpredictable so better go to college for something to fall back on..." College is a waste of time! she's got a great career ahead of her! I'd hate to see her lost for four years, that's how people forget about you

To celebrate the first "Erin's Round-Up" — let us eat cake!

(500) Movies of Summer

2009-07-21T07:56:00.000-04:00

it's glorious summer time, and that means I am overcome with the desire to sit in movie theaters. maybes it's the stink of the garbage strike, or just the promise of 2 hours of stress-free entertainment, but i just want to see everything that comes out. (note: my "everything" doesn't include G-Force.) From best to worst, what I've seen so far...

(500) Days of Summer
If I had to use one word only to describe this one, it would be charming. The soundtrack is genius; it's a movie clearly made by someone who loves movies (the French film spoof was tres funny); and Zooey Deschanel is just the dreamiest. I got the issue of Self with her on the cover (and let's be honest, the cover shot is not traditional; she looks kind of like a normal human being, in awesome clothes). Read her story on 31 things to do during summer; her soup recipe ends with "Serve in bowls. (This is important; soup should not be served on a plate!)" How's that for a movie review? A soup joke.

The Proposal I know, right? But seriously this is the perfect romantic comedy. It is exactly what you expect, with the right amount of chemistry, right number of obstacles, and right background color and characters (Alaska, book publishing, Betty White). I did not want it to end.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince People seem to like this movie? I didn't really. Because it's more of a stepping stone (through a dark lake in a cave) to the 7th and final installment of the story, there's no real epic battle scene, and those are my favorite parts of Harry Potters. The love story between Ron and Hermione successfully stayed away from being nagging & annoying, as it was in the book. But overall, I rate this film a "meh." (Sorry!) And the one thing that I know was intentional and artistic, but drove me crazy, was the decision to keep the focus clear on characters' faces in close-up but fuzz out the rest of them. Draco's shoulder: fuzzy; his face: clear. Or in long shots, the characters would be out of focus, having some epic conversation with the actors likely trying very hard to emote, but you couldn't see their expressions. All you could see in focus was some architectural detail of Hogwarts. A beautiful building, but...

My Sister's Keeper Why? Why did I see this movie? My advice is if you do see this movie, try to start crying right away. Otherwise, like me, you will feel like you've held it together pretty well, only to break down into uncontrollable sobs — literally uncontrollable — and have to think hard about silly things Cameron Diaz has done in other movies to calm down. And one should never have to think of her in that Mary movie ever hever again.

Land of the Lost Coulda been good! But it was not. I think, objectively speaking, even if my dad was not my dad, I would have thought him the best and funniest character in the whole thing. (And you can watch him talk 'bout it here, after Anna Friel around 1:30.)

Away We Go This movie may have ruined John Krasinski for me.

Brüno This movie was worse than a movie that may have ruined John Krasinski for me. I enjoyed Borat; I felt sick afterward, but I had laughed and couldn't believe some of things people did and said. This one? Lame, dumb, obvious, and juvenile. Really and truly stupid. I kept trying to think how this was somehow excellent social commentary, that there was some clever point he was making by simulating sex over and over and over again. But guess what? Nope. It's just the same "shocking" joke again and again. Which, frankly, is not shocking at all. This film gets a chorus of boooooos from me.

And for the rest of the summer: Star Trek (I still haven't seen it...eep), The Ugly Truth (I know, I don't want to see it, but I know I will), Fifty Dead Men Walking, Adam, Julie & Julia (!), Bandslam, District 9, Time Traveler's Wife...

Two Awesome Things

2009-07-12T12:25:00.000-04:00

From caltrib

(thank you Jameson!)

randominiums

2009-07-08T18:46:00.004-04:00

trying not to
walk across the street to the movie theatre to see My Sister's Keeper tonight & all by myself. bad idea, right? oh man...i am in the mood for a cry festival of cheeztastic proportion! it's probably because i'm...

reading

New Moon. yes. as in Twilight book #2. i got to the much-discussed part where the passage of time spent without Edward is marked by pages empty but for the name of the month. oh so glorious. no one knows pain like Bella. no one.
the other YA series I got into recently was Generation Dead by Daniel Waters -- loved the first book. the second was less than stellar...and had a really really bad cover.
up soon on the reading list are books written by women I've worked with: Emily Schultz's Heaven Is Small and Lauren Kirshner's Where We Have to Go
the manuscript of Nikki Stafford's Finding Lost — Season 5 book!

listening to

the Buffy "once more with feeling" soundtrack in preparation for this friday when i will see this
the trio of albums i bought on the same day & listen to back to back to back to back: The Kills' Midnight Boom, Yeah Yeah Yeah's It's Blitz, and Bat for Lashes' Two Suns

waiting for
So You Think You Can Dance to start...

annoyed by
milk going sour before its due date. seriously, argggh. (don't cry over spoiled milk.)

excited that
I will hold my book in my hands in a few short weeks. Oh man. I am scared and a little unbelieving that I actually got it done and it wasn't in crazy-language. Did I tell you this? When I was in the final days before handing in season 1, I was worried in my crazy-overworked state that I had somehow lost my mind and written the whole manuscript in what looked like proper English to me, but was actually gobbledy-gook. And I'd give it to my editor and she'd be like, Um, I think the file is corrupt and/or you are mentally unsound.

but that didn't happen. I totally wrote Spotted in English. Mostly. A few made-up words.

the final countdown

2009-07-01T08:11:00.001-04:00

My book is written! And it goes to the printer this week! I sorta cannot believe it? It will be very cool to hold it in my hands. If I have the strength to hold it. It was supposed to be a 240 page book, sized the same as Cecily von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl books. But then somebody (me) kept typing and typing and typing and now it's 360 pages and a little bit bigger in trim size. Whoopsy! It's not my fault that there's just so much crammed into each episode of Gossip Girl, right?

so the very last things to do are:

get an author photo...
Normally this would've been done months ago, but I needed the time to practice smiling with my eyes and being ugly-pretty, not pretty-pretty or ugly-ugly. (Must make Tyra proud.) In the meantime, I've been using this photo. And no, that's not a fabulous Valentino headband I'm wearing, but a ribbon from a Christmas present. Someone told me I look like I'm 4 years old in this pic ("but in the best way"). So today I'm getting a proper photo taken with the genius Lee Weston! I will try to follow the guidelines outlined here in 10 Ways to Take a Bad Author Photo (it gets funnier as you read thru it). Wish me luck! I am feeling a bit nervy about the whole thing.

Proofread the cover!
Just yesterday we got the "best proof" of the cover -- a high resolution output of what the cover should actually look like when it prints. So we check the text, and make sure nothing fell off the cover (sometimes a layer hides behind another and an author's name disappears. if it goes to print like that, it's what we call a "disaster"), and then we revel in its glory. Or, well, that's what I do for this one! I love the colors and the skyline. The cover designer is Dave Gee, who's done some amazing covers for ECW and other publishing houses. Sometimes he blogs about them! And when he sent this mock-up to my editor he signed his email "Dave (OM)G." So ya. He's the best.

Dance Break!

("Good Girls Go Bad," featuring our Leighton Meester)

write some stinkin captions
Who knew that the one thing I would have the most trouble with would be captions? i have about 5 left to write — and seriously should be doing those now and not blogging. Especially since the typesetter/designer Melissa (who's waiting for them) and Jen the Editrix will know I'm playing on the internets instead. Oops. (Promise to have 'em done by 9?) If/when I ever write another book, I am going to think about captions a little earlier, before I'm completely and utterly burnt out. Actually let's blame this on Melissa — she added in dummy captions and they are just so charming that I don't want to replace them!

happy canada day!

psychic snaps

2009-06-28T11:45:00.007-04:00

thursday night i was talking to my pals and we somehow got on the topic of Ginger Snaps, the excellent 2000 horror movie about werewolves, a girl named Ginger (Katherine Isabelle) and her sister Brigitte (Emily Perkins). (It's an awesome movie; there's a less awesome sequel and prequel too.) Some of the people who worked on the film had worked with my sister on another movie (Jerry & Tom) and when, at the last minute, the Ginger Snaps folks needed someone to play a girl in a 1970s cheesy werewolf horror movie (Ginger and Brigitte rent it to understand what the eff is going on), my phone rang! They told me I wouldn't have much to do, a couple of lines, and I'd scream when the werewolf attacked me. Not being an actress at all, at all, at all, I was super nervous. I remember getting ready to go to set, being in the shower trying out my scream -- "Ah." -- it was totally lame.

Anyway, they dolled me up with bad 70s hair & makeup & a skanky outfit. My character was hanging out with a priest (who had a shotgun) wandering the werewolf-infested neighbourhood at night. My line? "Oh Father, I'm so scared." Thankfully the movie-within-the-movie is supposed to be cheesy so my bad acting? Totally perfect! But then when the guy with a werewolf head and claws was attacking me I was actually scared and my screaming was way better than in the shower! Scary times having that monster inches from your face! And, after we were done filming, I had to scream just into the boom microphone with everyone -- including Katherine Isabelle and Emily Perkins -- standing around watching me. Which made me super nervy and scared, again resulting in excellent screaming. In the movie, there's about 1 second of my mini movie shown (it starts at about 4:45 below), but they sent me a tape of the full thing, which is languishing in VHS somewhere at my mum's.

That was the start, pinnacle, and end of my career as a horror-movie actress. Go out at the top! That's my philosophy.

But we were wondering: whatever happened to Katherine Isabelle? I (accidentally) watched Another Cinderella Story yesterday -- the 'sequel' to the Hilary Duff movie, but this one stars Selena Gomez as the Cinderella character. And her two evil stepsisters? Katherine Isabelle and Emily Perkins. Hilarious! Whoever cast the Cinderella movie (which was shot in Canada) must have been a fan of the Ginger Snaps series. How fun is it for those two girls to play sisters in FOUR movies? They were superb.

my dad likes to say that he has psychic powers. one morning he'll think of a friend he hasn't seen in 20 years; that afternoon he'll run into him on College Street. (he was recently discouraged though, after reading the Wikipedia entry on psychic powers and finding out that scientists have been unable to document it.) Maybes I am psychic too!

bucc

2009-06-19T07:51:00.004-04:00

had my cup of coffee, read this morning's dinosaur comic, and i'm ready to go to a day of P.D. at Harbourfront Centre. I envision the day as: more coffee, hellos to folks i rarely see who work in the book publishing realm, and then listening to experts talk and making notes! I think it will be a very pleasant Friday. (also, yes, yes, very educational.)

let me tell you that i'm doing pretty darn well in the EW Predictify So You Think You Can Dance game. by pretty darn well, i mean i'm ranked 92nd or something. ahem. i felt bad last night when i had a flash of joy at guessing correctly that Max would be off the show. Cause the poor guy is standing there, dreams crushed, and I'm at home saying, I knew it! :( (I thought Caitlin shoulda gone home instead of Ashley, despite A's terrible solo.) But anyway back to how I'm excellent at the game: I am beating AdamBVary, whoever that is (maybe an EW person I should know about) and AMERICA (as an averaged whole). does that makes up for my complete lack of dancing?

my favorite dancers are Jason (i think) and Kayla. yours?

JTLYK

2009-06-11T07:17:00.001-04:00

i am sooooo close to finished with my book. and i have soooo many blog posts waiting in my head. i miss you, calhoun tribune. be back sooooo soon.

xoxo

Spotted: The Goodbye Gossip Girl

2009-05-18T21:02:00.000-04:00

Goodbye, Gossip Girl! Season finale: two thumbs up for me. There were certain things I didn't like (the pointlessness of the plot to discover Gossip Girl's secret identity and the lameness of the Gossip Girl blast sent out during commencement -- srsly who cares?) but oh man, overall, I just sat on the couch beaming with joy (and a little bit of pride) as our Upper East Siders graduated.

Thank you, writers, clarifying that Serena does indeed tell Blair what Chuck tells her. I had been wondering about that.
Serena and Blair are rushing into the waiting car while paparazzi take S's photo and Blair turns around and poses for a second. So-oh-oh hilarious.
Hilarious moment #2: Eric bowed after Queen Blair brushes past him and Jenny (after she insults Penelope's hideous you-can-see-it-from-space scarf).
Why did Serena wear a long flowy blue dress to a commencement ceremony where all the boys would be wearing long flowy blue robes?
Congratulations, Don!
Both Eleanor and Lily look stunning in this ep. well played, Gossip Moms!
Wait, wait. Serena doesn't have to wear the graduation cap? She just pins the little tassle thing in her hair? She always looks great but this...this was a mistake.

Penelope: Oh! Soup dumplings!
Not so sure it was wise of Nate to tell Grandpa Vanderbilt about his Gigolo Days with Duchess Catherine. (Also notice how N said she was married "at the time"? the Duke totally divorced her.)
Boo on Dan for telling Serena they won't be friends after high school. (Even if you think that, D, you don't tell someone that. geeeez.)
The "Jonathan Is Gossip Girl" fake-out was kind of annoying but I was mainly happy he had dialogue. Some of the Gossip Girl tips he intercepted are funny ("Ron Weasley. What an effing dork" and "Nate Archibald has a little...") and some not so funny ("Chuck Bass thinks he killed his mother" and "Serena van der Woodsen hasn't spoken to her dad in years")

If the Humphreys are hard up for cash, would Dan really be living in the dorms at NYU next year? Wouldn't he just commute like regular people?
"What is that, a bag of weed?" I said to my roommate. Yes. Lily totally stole Chuck's pot. Awesome awesome.
The scene between Blair and Eleanor completely broke my heart. Remember back in the pilot (so long ago Eleanor was played by a different actress) when Blair and Eleanor had a chat as B got ready for a party? And now...sigh...they understand each other and Eleanor isn't such an evil cow and Blair is actually telling her mother about her life. Loved this moment.

Drunk Nelly Yuki dancing. Drunk Nelly Yuki nearly admitting to Dan that she loves him. (And earlier at the VDW, when she smelled that piece of meat before eating it. And later when she has that beautiful yellow bow in her nearly-a-beehive hair.)
Chuck Bass walks into Nate's grad party in a suit like he's at a board meeting. He's been over high school for years. Brills.
J: Blair, I have to talk to you. Gossip Girl knows.
B: Ominous. But ill timed.
Another B striptease! So "Victor/Victrola." Thank you for bringing back the memories of the first time Chuck and Blair hooked up.
Of the gossip bombs dropped, I had completely forgotten about Jenny's bra-only photo shoot and Nate's heroic rescue. Oh memories.
Didn't Jenny know about Dan sleeping with Ms. Carr? She was the one shuttling correspondence between them...
All I have to say is thank the Gossip Gods that Chuck slept with Vanessa. It made Blair's sleeping with Jack Bass less unforgiveable. The Dregs of Dumbo for a Usurping Uncle.
"You pretend not to be like us, but you are. To the bone." Yes yes thank you Blair Waldorf.
An Emmy for Leighton Meester, please and fanks. For those tears when Chuck doesn't say "I love you" back.
Rufus's proposal using an old Lincoln Hawk wristband for a ring was completely charming. As was Lily reminiscing about the time he sang "How Will I Know" to her.
K, maybe I am old, but I had no idea what Dan was talking about when he said he "loopt'd" Serena. And now that I do? So not participating.
[Blair walks in The Oak Room]
N: Oh my god.
D: Oh, that makes sense.
[Jenny enters]
N: Wait! They're a team!
A waffle maker for the van der Woodsen penthouse. Aw.
haha Dan calling Chuck Bass a close-talker.
"Haven't you ever heard of a foreign queen?" Blair and Jenny taking down the Mean Girls! Blair totally uses Cyrus's catchphrase — "Not enough" — when she makes Emma shoo over for Queen J.
Tammy, just for you...

High fives to the writers for sticking with the "One Week Later" coda they used at the end of season 1. I like Gossip Girl traditions. I also like Nate and Dan making jokes about boffing older women ... as long as they're hot. Those two have so much in common. So Nate and V are off to the Eastern Bloc to backpack, Serena was planning to go everywhere but now may end up on a mission with Carter Baizen (love), and Blair and Chuck...
Love, love, love. This moment was so worth the wait and the build-up and all the heartache. Chuck with presents and peonies . . . it was totally perfect.

my favorite outfit of the episode was Blair's for Nate's grad party. the dress is Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti, modified for the show and totally unavailable. I would also happily have Serena's leather hoodie (Mike & Chris Eliseo), in the scene where she runs into Carter. (More fashion info here!)
and my favorite music moment was without a doubt the last song for Chuck and Blair: "Season of Love" by Shiny Toy Guns. (all the songs are listed at Music from Gossip Girl.)

the Setup for Season 3
Where will our Gossip kids be when August 31st rolls around and season 3 premieres?

Attending NYU: Dan, Vanessa, Blair, Georgina (!)
Lonely at Columbia: Nate
Lonelier in Providence: Serena at Brown
Back at Constance: now reigning Queen Bee Jenny, Eric, and transfer-student Emma
Planning a Wedding: Lily and Rufus
Stalking his Blood Family while Lying to his Adopted Family: Scott (also attending NYU)
No plans: Chuck -- will he be running Bass Industries? did he even apply to colleges?

The plotline I'm most excited about for season 3 is learning about The Mysterious Mr. van der Woodsen. OH MAN. I'm nervous about how things are gonna be next season -- our GGers at different schools, J still in high school, new characters cropping up. It's like an era is ending and the future lies ahead of us — so full of promise but also full of potential disaster . . . just like the end of high school.

what did y'all think? are your hearts full of joy? only 11 weeks til more GG!

NYC fotos?

2009-05-16T14:41:00.003-04:00

hey y'all, quick favor to ask you, my friends on the Internet. I'm looking for some photos of Gossip Girl locations for my book -- and life got in the way of me getting down to NYC and taking them myself. Drop me a note if you're in the city or have any photos of New York... crissycalhoun [at] gmail [dot] com. Looking for stuff like The Met, the Palace Hotel, the outside of the Waldorfs (1136 Fifth Ave), Wollman Rink in Central Park... thanks! and thanks to Nikki for asking on her blog too! xoxo

Spotted: Valley Girls

2009-05-12T07:48:00.005-04:00

first things first: Blair's prom dress (marchesa, spr2008) is beyond-the-thunderdome beauteous. it's perfect for her character and Leighton looks stunning it in. totally over-the-top for prom, but what else would Blair Waldorf wear? Serena's $19,000 Christian Dior pink dress is perfect for her (but not really my thing). But both girls look better than the models did wearing them. I was a bit confused about how Jenny magically made Serena a dress in one day, but then caught on to the fact that she prolly just went to the vdW and picked up the dress Serena was already planning on wearing before she got into a "war of attrition" with her mother. 'Cause that makes sense. (I can be quite simple.)

There is so very much to dissect and discuss about the spin-off and its potential and how hard it is to think of our elegant Lily van der Woodsen as a fast-talking Valley Girl with Brittany Snow's face so I'm going to post again later on all the Valley Girls issues. For now...

a highlight reel:

Blair's stare of death to Lily when she shows up at jail
Serena to Lily: "I would rather give my kids up for adoption than end up like you. Oh wait, you did that." As Eric (and I) would say, "Zing!"
Just enough Dorota to make the episode: "This body bag. Corpse not pretty."
Love that Chuck's Prom Sabotage involved buying up all the peonies in Manhattan. (And he's right; B's dress would've been too busy with a corsage.)
Grandma Cece may be toxic but was on her game this episode, with her Lily's-going-to-murder-me jokes and nary a gin & tonic (hold the tonic) in sight.
Cedric is still kicking it on Dan's bookshelf. Happy to see him but not happy to see Dan in his boxer shorts. Please don't ever open a scene on his feet again. Creeeepy.
"Is this the moment when you fall in love with me?" -- it was annoying when Little Lily said it, but super charming when the Bad Boy Owen said it.
B: Prom queen is for lame suburban schools and the teen comedies set in them.
Points for enthusiasm but Dan and Serena should not be allowed to dance.
B: This is my moment. I own prom.

As happy as I was that Nate and Blair broke up, I feel like they deserved a better ending than that fizzled-out scene where Blair just suddenly realizes she's dunzo as they slowdance to Fountains of Wayne "Prom Theme." But really who I am to complain when Chuck Bass used his powers of sabotage and trickery to create Blair's perfect prom night? My question: does Serena tell Blair about all the heartbreakingly selfless things Chuck says and does? Because in reality, a BFF would go straight to Blair and tell her (after last episode) that Chuck just said he doesn't love her because he thinks he can't make her happy. Is Serena bound to some half-sister vow of secrecy that overrides a bestie-must-tell-all vow?

Remember how awesome Rufus was at the end of season 1? Singing "Everytime" and hooking up with Lily on her wedding night? This season has been a slow and steady Rufus Fail. And I don't see him turning around in the next episode. :(

The finale is next week and it's graduation. Zomg. By the looks of the preview, Jenny has a plotline, Gossip Girl drops one more gigantic secret (i have a guess of what it's about...), Chuck and Blair are back playing the "Say you love me" game, and the smart bet is we'll meet the Not-Dead Secret Love Child of Lily and Rufus. I really hope Serena's plan to take down Gossip Girl is as half-baked as all her other plans. The show doesn't work without Gossip Girl, so there's no chance of S catching her and of course, there's no one that could have seen everything GG has seen, even with the most elaborate network of spies. ID'ing Gossip Girl would be a giant jump over a giant shark.

Will post the promo (which featured the awesomesauce song "Zero" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) when a super fan uploads it! Until then, let's all stare at our favorite sister-friends looking beauteous. S and B do besties best.

**oh wait, here it is. also! Georgina Sparks AND Carter Baizen are back. yes yes yes. I heart those two.

Spotted: The Wrath of Con

2009-05-04T21:06:00.007-04:00

I am flummoxed by the amount of awesome in the episode I don't know where to start. Having seen the "Serena gets arrested" photos on the internets a super long time ago, how happy was I that it was Lily behind it and not the Ponzi scheme? TWIST!

Eric hasn't been around in AGES but when he does show up, he is still All Knowing and Insightful, warning Rufus of Lily's ability to morph into Cece. And lo and behold... As much as I like happy Rufus+Lily, this wrench in their true love is wonderful and perfect for near season end. Serena in jail leads perfectly into a trip down memory lane about how once upon the '80s, Lily found herself in a spot of trouble too. I'm still a bit pissy to lose a proper episode of Gossip Girl to the spin-off but two thumbs up for the set-up.

And while Jenny still doesn't have a proper plotline of her own (where is Wes?), her Lily distraction technique was too incroyable for words. Rambling through the true-love-never-dies Bella/Edward story at a mile a minute was genius. Oh Little J, how many times have you read the Twilight saga?

We should probably write a proper thank-you note to the writers for the epic Chuck & Blair scene they gave us this episode. When that one tear escaped and Blair quickly wiped it away? When eavesdropping Serena asked Chuck why he did that and Mister Chuck said, Because I love her and I can't make her happy... Too heartbreaking for words. Love, love, love.

Other favorite moments:

The $267 cab ride
C: The pregnancy ruse. Cliched but effective.
The heavenly chorus when Georgina enters S's bedroom after B says it would take an Act of God. Ha!
D: Serena asked me not to say anything.
L: That's my least favorite sentence.
Blair's reaction when Georgina touches her arm.
C: She's a faux-cialite. [srsly i have no idea how to spell that one.]
The Blair/Georgina stuff was awesome. "That's a Carrie Underwood song, not a life choice." and B on Poppy: "She's so evil she makes the old Georgina look like the new Georgina!"
The last scene at the cop station with Chuck talking to his P.I., Nate trying to use the Vanderbilt name, and Blair making an appeal to the officers, while Serena gets her mug shots done wearing an awesome (and quintessentially S) dress.
I love how reliant Serena is on Chuck. He totally is her brother. I also love the shoes she was wearing that you can kinda see a bit of in the pic.
Georgina on Poppy's trail. Love when the evil powers are used to bring down greater evil. (See season 1 Blair v. Georgina)

Next week: "Valley Girls." If the flashback sucks, at least we'll get a performance from No Doubt.

Catching Up on Gossip Girl

2009-05-02T09:46:00.005-04:00

OMJC, I miss blogging about my beloved Gossip Girl and we only have three episodes left in the season -- Monday's "The Wrath of Con," the flashback episode "Valley Girls" and the finale "The Goodbye Gossip Girl." Georgina is back, Poppy is not only annoying but EVIL, and college plans are going awry left, right and center. Nate's going to Columbia, Blair's with her ironic facial hair classmates at NYU, Dan can't afford Yale, and Serena may be effed after this Gabriel con plot plays out.

I'll be back to normal blogging this week but let's just remember a few glory moments from "Seder Anything" and "Southern Gentlemen Prefer Blondes":

Chuck hooking up with a synchronized swimmer after his "boho barista detour"
"I was wandering the Bassian desert and now I've reached the Vanderbilt promise land." Oh Blair Waldorf.
Serena not understanding the concept of legal marriage. This girl takes dimness to a new level (at least) once a season.
Dan the cater waiter at a seder
Chuck's apology to Jenny. Absolutely heartbreaking and heartfelt and oh my god I love them both.
Chuck's apology to Jenny to "Runaway" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I truly loved this moment.
Blair saying the subway is full of mole men and middle class professionals
Vanessa and Dan's "I Never" bonding session
Blair's spying beret
the V.D.Dubs

And if you haven't watched it yet, find out the story behind Dorota's love for Vanya on Chasing Dorota here. Until Monday, my darling GGers.

seder anything or seder nothing

2009-04-20T22:27:00.003-04:00

missed Gossip Girl -- sorry guys, i will post on it once i get a chance to watch what was no doubt glorious. or you guys can write the reaction for me in the comments... hmm. i like option 2. xoxo

oh hai

2009-04-13T23:09:00.003-04:00

dear blog,
i haven't forgotten you. please be patient with me. i'll be back soon.
xoxo

p.s. in the meantime, i've been retumbling glorious things at calhoun.tumblr.com and tweeting quite a bit over there at the Tweeter Stop Cafe. what? dk. i'm sleepy and bleary eyed and need to turn off my BFF aka my computer.

k, night.

90210pinions: Life's a Drag and Silver's Bananas

2009-04-05T08:03:00.019-04:00

Just the other day, me and a pal were discussing how new 90210 had new characters and plotlines and how we have NO idea what's going on and it makes me kinda want to tune in again. but I swore off it! ack. luckily Craig is back with his second guest blog, updating me and you and everyone we know about the loves and the mental breakdowns of the Bev Hills kidlets.

The love triangle between Ethan, Annie, and Rhonda is as uninteresting as it ever was, so I won't spend much time on it. {who the heck is Rhonda? oh man, i am rooting for her.} Suffice to say it's a rocky relationship. Ethan has been pouting over Annie's behaviour for a few episodes now, yet he managed to make a decision to tell Rhonda that whatever connection they shared should be ignored as he plans to work things out with Annie. Which is too bad, cause it's kinda funny to watch Annie get all bitchy and starting cat-fights with Rhonda, but onto the next topic...

Silver has now turned into a sex-crazed exhibitionist, and her personality disorder is as hot as ever: sex in the media room and other public spaces, along with getting a tattoo with Dixon's name written above her waist.
Silver has developed a new passion for filmmaking!

She decides to make her first feature about her obsessed love of Dixon. She films them having sex in the kitchen of the Peach Pit, while reciting some of her poetry, as voiceover in the film. {Wait, what-what-what? This sounds incredibad and awesome!}

Dixon’s response to Silver’s film is less than favorable, as he storms out of the theater and goes home. Silver follows him home, and crying that she has no idea why he would be mad; her film was only meant to express how much she loves him. When Dixon shouts back at Silver, “You have no boundaries!” it hits me:

We finally have a new Brandon Walsh.

And yeah, if it's not totally clear by now... Silver is totally insane and breaking down. But like I said, it's all still very hot.

So now that we have our new Brandon Walsh, where’s our new Dylan McKay?

After 16 episodes of mundane trivial drama, they’ve finally dialed up some danger (or at least excitement) in the show. The former waiter turned student, who’s been the subject of Naomi’s wet dreams (literally). Naomi corners him after school and pleads with him to take her "wherever he's going." While still showing disinterest and bitterness, he warns her that it’s definitely not her scene and that it’s going to be dangerous, but takes her anyway. Meet our new wannabe Dylan McKay.

Both are self-proclaimed geniuses in pursuit of alternative education and enlightenment, but let us not forget that the original Dylan McKay was not a big fan of drag racing. We can’t forget back in Season 3, in the episode "The Game is Chicken," where Dylan bravely interrupts Steve’s reckless behaviour playing chicken with a mean roadster, by driving his own car between them as they were driving at each other at top speed.Oh right… I’m supposed to be writing about the new 90210. {oh how I miss Dylan McKay and his beautiful old school Porsche.} I suppose I’m not doing my job properly if I keep going back to talking about how great the old one was. But I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t going to put this episode on the second I’m done writing this blog. C'mon, in the old 90210 they were wearing helmets in that drag racing scene, that's pretty endearing!

Wait, what am I saying?... Even though Liam may have "edge," before I acknowledge him as the new Dylan McKay, the writers need to make him less of a dick. Dylan wouldn't endanger any friends of his for mindless thrill-seeking.
The episode ends with a complete meltdown for Silver. She blames Teacher Ryan for Dixon's response to her film and also for Dixon telling Silver to stay away from him. So she breaks into Ryan's home, breaks a bunch of stuff, and threatens to kill him if he doesn't make it all right.

Hot.

Spotted: Remains of the J

2009-03-30T21:04:00.008-04:00

what up, Gossip Girl enthusiasts! I am writing this yesterday and right now I'm at the Katy Perry concert; thankfully Canada gets Gossip Girl one day early (on account of good behavior). now since I'm also in the final throes of book-writing before my Tuesday deadline (zomg), let's keep things simple and use the old Bullet Points of Awesomeness style. (apologies ahead of time for typos, missed words, wacky formatting! i've had a lot of caffeine. zipzipzip!)

Blair hiding behind the shrubbery like Scooby Doo
Nate's password has been "soccer" since the 5th grade
So many kinds of jam!
"I do my cardio at night"
"If it was a reality show, I'd vote you off" Zing!
what was with the weird digital snow in Brooklyn?
Blair taking the bottle of '96 champagne
So much Dorota! A whole Polish doorman who hearts Dorota enough to read Ann Coulter (important to know your enemy)
Jenny liked her social grave.
Dan carried the chili. (Remember when he carried the garment bag?)
There is no denying that Jenny Humphrey's hair looked better than Serena van der Woodsen's for this entire episode. Don't even try, Jenny Haters and Serena Defenders. For that reason alone, Serena needed to leave town.
Points to the writers for bringing back the Savannah/Svetlana moment! I'm going to have to see if what the same dude both times...
"Only my boyfriend gets to touch my hair."
Nate and Blair and the ducks!
Chuck and Vanessa and the... let's not rhyme that. As soon as V showed up in a purple dress, there was no way they were not hooking-up. Chuck lives for purple. The Ed/Jessica chemistry was way more evident than the Leighton/Chace. No sparks!
Dan's #1 fan is his half-brother! (Which I may have yelled at the TV about 10 minutes before it happened!) Scott is also a wannabe writer who reads the New Yorker. AW.
But: two thumbs down for Poppy. Stop letting her talk so much. I did a quiz on CosmoGirl.com (what? are nearly 30-yr-olds not supposed to?) about friends vs. frenemies, and Poppy is definitely a frenemy. Exhibits all the telltale signs.

this episode and the last one felt old-school and I'm lurving it. more please and thanks! oh but actually we are going to have to wait...til April 20th when the final 5 ~~cylons~~ episodes begin and run straight through til May 18th.

Spotted: The Grandfather

2009-03-23T21:03:00.003-04:00

Yes, yes, yes. Excellent ending! excellent Blair-Nate, Blair-Chuck moments! Dan was funny! "Do you think the Humphreys have a crest? Something Jenny can stitch on to one of my cardigans?" And he was injured. twice. It's like the writers know what we need to see. Serena's glee at slapping Dan was brills. And she looks lovely in that blue. Keep putting her in blue, Eric Daman. But maybe run a brush through her hair every once in a while, K?

OK! So once again Jenny had zero plot of her own and mainly just spent her time online shopping, ordering pizza, and advising people on their more interesting lives (She's just like ME!). If I was Jenny and Vanessa was going to some Vanderbilt Fancytown Country House Party aka the Family Hoodoo, my head would probably explode with jealousy because you know she still has the hots for Nate and she still has the hots for fancy parties. I felt for Vanessa this episode (who wants to watch people play touch football? yawnsauce) but she did her spazzy thing again where she spazzed on Nate for not telling her about the internship and not choosing summer in the Eastern Bloc over it. For the level-headed, no-drama character, she freaks out. But then her big cry festival at the end made me think maybes she does love him and maybe I shouldn't be so happy about Blair asking Nate to stay with her.

the whole Rufus/Lily plot was of course absurd but don't people do weird shit like this in real life? i think they do. i've had to talk pals down after "disaster written all over it" moments like these. (i, of course, never do anything weird at all.) Lily is hilars when she's snippy with Rufus and I liked her white-framed glasses. But Slash? Ew. My mum quite rightly compared his appearance to that of a donkey's ass.

"What's this? Good cop, Bass cop?" oh Carter Baizen, are you just proto–Chuck Bass? I think I was wrong to judge you in season one! it was the poncho; it blinded me. too bads he got shipped off to Dubai already. i hope they bring him back next season. (he can sleep with Vanessa. Or Jenny. She'll have to have another love interest sometime.) also: love how Serena came back into town at the beginning of season 1 with multiple giant life-altering secrets: sex with nate, "killed" a guy, and "that night" in santorini with carter. what else did bad serena do? yowza.

I loved New Miss Blair and her slightly destructive rampage — stealing sunglasses, boffing Carter — and then deciding to throw her whole book of life in the fire . . . calling out society ladies on their misdeeds, spilling secrets, and toying with Chuck. "Maybe I should head up to the roof and make it a little more dramatic."

I love how in the movies & tv, rich people ALWAYS have so many rooms that one is never used and is perfect for a quiet conversation about the emptiness of privilege. There's nothing I adore more than Blair and Chuck, but I am 100% behind this Blair and Nate hook-up. It destroys the Nate/Vanessa happy-boring-town and makes Chuck upset which means he will be cruel which means he will be sooooooooo entertaining. Yessy yes. New Talks-a-Lot Nate made B feel safe first, Chucky!

my other fabbity-fave thing was how Blair was wearing the housecoat from last season! the one she lent to Serena! the one she wore the morning of the masked ball! outfit recycling on the Upper East Side: everything old can be new again!

so so, what did you guys think? better than last week's zaniness?

next week: "Remains of the J" — Jenny Humphrey turns 16 and S throws her a b-day bash . . .

Spotted: Lily's Lists

2009-03-23T21:01:00.006-04:00

behold screen caps of Lily van der Woodsen's Yellow Pages of Lurve from "The Grandfater." A list of all the men she's slept with (unless "Lindsey Hall" is a woman and I'd like to think so).

Beyond the fictional characters — Rufus, Bart Bass, Claus and Klaus — there are the rock stars: Slash and Trent Reznor.

But the rest? It seems the prop department on Gossip Girl is having a bit of a laugh. The names are mostly crew guys!, some of whom grace the Gossip Girl set (i didn't check 'em all). But Randy Manion, locations manager; Ben Noble, electrician; Chris Nelson, leadman.

I love it.

The one name I don't see? Mr. "I'm a mystery and it looks like I'll be saved for season 3" van der Woodsen. Maybe Lil hadn't added him to the second page yet? Maybe Rufus didn't notice his conspicuous absence from the page of lurvers Lil gave him? Maybe it's all a little SUSPICIOUS.

Spotted: Dorota mówi język Polski

2009-03-23T20:59:00.004-04:00

Remember when Dorota had more screen time, more lines, and more fans than Little Jenny Humphrey? (I still love you, Raccoon Eyes. Always have, always will.)

I bet you were wondering what the frak Dorota said to Chuck when he tried to bribe her.

WONDER NO LONGER.

The wonderful (and more Polish than her name suggests) Jeannette has done us the favour of translating:

Dorota: How much?! (Polish) Have you lost your mind, you little shit... I work for Miss Blair and not for you.... What did you think you were going to do... buy me?!?

Then Serena kindly steps in

let me just tell you

2009-03-22T21:24:00.006-04:00

hi monkeys! i am in the very final hours of a week off work. i am thinking about things such as alarm clocks and clean clothes and where is my MetroPass. i also just watched "The Grandfather," so I'm thinking about our Gossip Girl characters but when am i not. i am always thinking about them. or britney. or you.

my first deadline for my guide to Gossip Girl is rapidly approaching! that makes this whole book thing seem much more of a reality. that, and the world of e-commerce. the listings went up at the Amazons and the Chapters/Indigo (but not with the cover yet) so if you want to add me to your wishlist you totes can! My favorite part of the Amazon thing is if you search for "Crissy Calhoun" two things come up: my book (yes!) and a book called The Developers which contains this tidbit of glory: "He spun around, praying it wasn't her. But it was. Crissy Calhoun, perhaps the most annoying and most intelligent slut at Moxee ..."

yes yes yes. Could there be anything better than that? sigh. no.

on the new episode of Gossip Girl, Carter Baizen (Sebastian Stan) is once again gracing us with his presence -- we last saw him touching the knee of a down-on-her-luck Blair Cornelia Waldorf. as we know, those two are a real-life couple and i kinda love how many couples there are on the Gossip Girl set. I mean, why not? But is Chace Crawford the only single one? and Taylor Momsen but she is a youngun.

anyways, i watched the two hour premiere of Kings this past week, and let me tell you (a) i liked it, (b) will it go in the spot where Battlestar once was? (i don't mean in terms of being a Top Five Show of All Time show but in filling the now vacant "alternate universe deals with important questions and is sorta manly" department of my viewing habits), and (c) Sebastian Stan, who plays the son to the King, was jaw-droppingly good in it.

He's a bit of a Chuck Bass type — has an iconic father who's impossible to please, so he parties and always has ladies on his arm. But one scene in particular just got me. He and Leighton Meester are like this super-tv-acting-power couple. Nice work, kidlets. (And there's another cute dude on Kings, the blond one there with Sebastian. fyi.) I shall keep watching it!

Gossip Girl Sexy Ice Cream Eating Contest

2009-03-18T16:05:00.001-04:00

Blair and Serena, or Rufus?

Spotted: The Age of Dissonance

2009-03-16T21:02:00.005-04:00

welcome back Gossip Girl! If only, back in September, you had warned us that your season would be split in thirds, we could have anticipated these long dreary absences and made due as we did with Lost season 3. Less grumbling, more understanding. But you're back now and that's all that matters. (if you give us one more week without a new episode...)

The Age of Dissonance
First let's say cheerio to those unwelcome ladies who have now taken their leave: good riddance Miss Iowa, the easily corrupted Rachel Carr whose handwriting is like that of a fifth grader, but cheers for permanently messing Dan up by crushing his youthful optimism; and farewell to Elle the Mystery Girl who was more interested in the wallet in Chuck's pants than anything else.

Elle, I hated your plotline, I resent you for taking Chuck from Blair, if only for a few episodes, and I hope and pray to the Gossip Gods we've seen the last of the those dumb secret tattoos. As if all these high-society dudes have giant tattoos where everyone would see them everyday. I realize that you can't have Carter Baizen mooning Chuck Bass to reveal he too has the secret tattoo of the Super Secret Society!, but was there no other way? It's also un petit peu ridiculous that Mr. Campbell couldn't have told Chuck to go to the Eastview Hotel but instead sends him a traceable message. Nice touch, tho, to have the meeting place at the Eastview Hotel cuz in the Gossipverse that's where dudes get killed! (i'm using serena's very loose definition of the word "kill." you only die if you yourself snort the drugs that you yourself brought.)

Onto the play, which Chuck misses out on. A stroke of genius, that "acute stage fright" doctor's note.

The cast of characters of the Constance Billard–St. Jude's production of The Age of Innocence: Serena as May, the pretty socialite who follows the rules with perfection and grace but suspects her fiance, the dashing but questioning Newland Archer (as played by Dan), may have eyes for her cousin, the returned and disgraced Countess Ellen Olenska (Blair). And right she is; Newland and Olenska are in lurve but it can never be... Nelly Yuki dons spectacles and a fat suit to play Mrs. Manson Mingott, the matriarch of the family, granny to May and Ellen, who has a stroke when Beaufort (Nate) is revealed to be an embezzler. Oh and Penelope's the maid.

Giving proper credit to your literary predecessors is a classy thing to do and Gossip Girl owes a great heaping pile of thanks to the genius of Edith Wharton. I loved the awkwardness of the performance and how at least four people in the audience were playing on their cell phones during the show. Loved Nate's freakout and Charles Isherwood's interpretation of it and the poor tortured stage manager. Dorota holding up the extensions to see how they'd look on her. The director being so impossibly pretentious but just cute enough that we can see why Serena thinks he's hot. The Vanessa-as-Cyrano thing was kinda fun and led me to have fleeting hope that the end was nigh for V and N. And Serena: actually funny! It was pretty ludicrous!

Speaking of ludicrous... oh Blair, honey, you've lost your effing mind. Again. I love Blair on a rampage, and the stakes are pretty high (since Yale = her life plan since infancy), but holy mother of Gossip Girl. Blair hears the harsh truth when no one wants to play her games. Nelly Yuki shuts her down: "People aren't jealous of you. They hate you." And Serena doesn't believe Blair didn't send the blast: "Bottom line is betrayal is in your nature." The turn at the end of the episode worked for me -- Blair's rage redirected at herself, and her revenge on Ms Carr being simply for her to live with her actions. It's about time Blair felt remorseful.

But hooking up with Carter Baizen? A surefire path to feeling additional remorse. Turn back while you still can. I know it's fun to make out with your real-life boyfriend on TV, Leighton, but for Blair's sake, don't do it! Go make a cameo on Kings or something.

Now from ludicrous to mortifying: when Rufus found that note. when Rufus went to Rachel's apartment and she had candles lit? I thought I was going to fall right off the couch and die of secondary embarrassment. That is the worst. The dad of the guy you're all prettied up to have sexy times with comes to your house cuz you're doing it with a teenager. Oh god. Wait, was this the writers way of telling us that lusting after Chuck and Nate and Dan is somehow inappropriate for someone a few years older than them? No? Good. (There are a lot of hot pictures of Ed Westwick here.)

Sidebar question: What do I have to do to have hair like Blair Waldorf? I'm in the thick of writing Spotted: Your One and Only Unofficial Guide to Gossip Girl and that means I am watching a lot of GG and sometimes, instead of being focused on the task at hand, I find myself thinking about Leighton's hair and if it looks Blair Waldorf–good on her days off and what her recently debuted bangs will mean for Blair. I've only just come to terms with the slightly lighter brown of her hair this season (and it's episode 18). Also: Jenny's hair. Are you haters OK with it yet? Or is it still just me who thinks she looks cool?

So what's Blair going to do now that she ain't going to Yale? Is there still a chance for regular acceptance with the rest of the plebs? Or is this phase one in the Everyone Goes to the Same College Which Happens to Be on the Upper East Side plot?

Next week: "The Grandfather."

PonPontyPantyPontypool

2009-03-16T07:00:00.003-04:00

way back in das olden days, i wondered if since I'd met Julie Wilson, the brains behind Seen Reading, that meant I could never hever be seen reading! Well, through the power of COMPUTERS, I've been heard reading. (And I am no Grant Mazzy.)

Up on over at Seen Reading you can listen to me read the first page of Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess. yes, Pontypool as in that Bruce McDonald film creeping its way into cinemas and giving you the creepouts and the chuckles in the same breath.

Britney.com is having a fan-fiction contest...

2009-03-12T12:57:00.006-04:00

And my friend Erin can write the perfect Brit-Fan-Fic outline in one second:

Britney is in a fairy costume. (win)

Britney is in the woods. (win)

Britney is on a swing in the woods. (double win)

Darkness begins to fall.

Thunder can be heard in the distance. (uh oh)

The woods are not friendly now! Creepers of the natural (or supernatural) variety abound.

Britney is trapped! (by literal and metaphorical monsters)

Britney hears a sound. Is it the laughter of small children? (yes)

Britney follows the sound and comes upon two small children in the woods.

She takes their hands and they lead her into a clearing and onto a path.

The storm dies down. The sun comes out.

Britney and the children walk away together, into the sunny future (win/win/win – as one Michael Scott would say)

(p.s. the video for "if you seek amy" is up on britneyspears.com)

me and Amber Benson would get along just fine

2009-03-01T08:22:00.004-05:00

OMGossip Girl Promo

2009-02-26T07:23:00.002-05:00

Best way to start your Gossip Girl day

Spotted: What to Do on Mondays Until GG Returns

2009-02-21T16:01:00.001-05:00

we still have three Mondays left before a new Gossip Girl episode airs. here's what you should watch to fill the void. Well, part of the void. Visit your local video store (do people still do that?) and pick up:

Paranoid Park Taylor Momsen is Littler J in this 2007 Gus van Sant film. Or you could rent the Grinch movie...

Drive-Thru This one's a twofer! Leighton Meester and Penn Badgley (what a pair of weird names) are in this goofy horror movie. Warning: creepy clown content is high.

Son of Rambow There's not a lot of Ed Westwick, but this movie is a real charmer and when you do get scenes with Ed, he's all Britishy.

The Covenant Chace Crawford plus Sebastian Stan (Carter Baizen, who's coming back to the Upper East Side this season) with the added bonus of Friday Night Lights' Taylor Kitsch, my #1 tru lurve. Does the plot really matter? No, it does not.

More? OK: the Sisterpants movies for Blake L, Band of Brothers for Matthew S, John Tucker Must Die for Penn with terrible hair, The Haunting of Molly Hartley to see Chace play a dumbed-down version of Nate, and Melrose Place to relive the glory with Kelly Rutherford.

But the best replacement for new episodes of Gossip Girl is watching The O.C. while simultaneously reading the Gossip Girl novels. You won't know the difference. Just kidding, Gossip Girl. I'm just pissy cuz I miss you...

Food Blog!

2009-02-17T19:06:00.000-05:00

sometimes i like to tell my sister that my blog is a food blog. that (extra)creeps her out for some reason. and today it's true!

i have a generous friend who had an extra slow cooker. she gave it to me. yesterday i looked up a recipe, bought the ingredients (a bit of a challenge cuz yesterday? a holiday. grozzery stores closed.), and this morning, before a sip of coffee, i stuck them in the cooker and turned it on! 10 hours til suppertime!

what i made was a variation of Chicken Casablanca, chosen mainly because there was nothing gross in it and I like alliteration. lucky for me i had rice leftover from my Japanese take-out lunch so i had nothing to do but eat when i got home. my apartment smelled awesome. my dinner was hot and ready. you guys, i am over the moon about this. I recommend that anyone who likes food and doesn't have a personal chef should pick one up.

in other food bloggery news, i am going to try the Self Challenge. What is the Self Challenge, you ask? I do not really know but it starts on Thursday! I bought the issue with Jenna Fischer on the cover, and read about the pre-prep for the challenge (make playlists, buy sneakers, predict your "i can't exercise" excuses and prepare to battle them). The Challenge has something to do with exercising and eating right for a while? Three months? Anywayz, I am giving it a try! I need someone to tell me what to do with myself. Left to my own devices, I pig out and laze about. XKCD has a comic that accurately represents my adulthood:

Forget you, bacon. I'm turning this beat around. Maybe I'll tell you about it! Maybe if I don't quit on Day 2!

and a final item of business: remember back when I told you about trying the DoubleTubes mascara? well, here's a coupon should you wish to try that stuff yourself.

Why Are You So Blairanoid?

2009-02-14T18:42:00.001-05:00

excellent new gossip girl promo:

Master Gossip Girl's Speak of the Week! This installment: Lesson #39 - Blairanoid.

Master Gossip Girl's upcoming "Speak of the Week"! This installment: Lesson #56 - Ment-Whore.

valentine

2009-02-14T07:00:00.002-05:00

love love, Money, booze
I'd swap 'em all to be
with youse

Love Love
me Bob.

(1963, Bob Dylan to Suze Rotolo)

Guest Blogger: 90210pinions Returns [exclamation point]

2009-02-09T18:40:00.011-05:00

Hello and welcome to a brand new day here at the Calhoun Tribune! For the first time, we have a GUEST BLOGGER! Craig Irving still watches New 90210 and has kindly volunteered (after I pressured him) to update us on the most annoying teen drama that ever was. Spoiler alert: Dr. Pepper still getting major play.

I'm not usually a hater, but you can't just call a show "90210" and get away with it. If your program is "based upon an original idea by Darren Star," you're going to be subjected to a little scrutiny. You can't say these kids are from West Beverly and...okay fine, I'm getting a little carried away. At first I didn't think I could write this article, because even after 15 episodes I still can't remember these damn kids' names. My Chief Editor is probably going to have to fill in some blanks and compensate for my mistakes. [Ed. note: Names, schmames. You can call them Annoying, Spazzy, and More Annoying.]

I still wonder how a show from 2008 can possibly be less edgy and have less drama than its predecessor from 18 years ago. I'll refrain from treading down the path of comparisons however, since all things should be judged on their own merit. So let me start judging...

90210pinions (episode 14 & 15 mash-up)
These kids are completely out of control and it's clear they're either going to hurt themselves, or hurt someone else. Adriana now drives around recklessly by drinking too much coffee. She's pregnant, you know, and this caffeine habit has to stop now. I'm going to bullet point a few things, to bring us all up to speed.

Ty is the father of Adrianna's child... they hooked up in rehab.
Teacher Ryan is back from South Dakota and is brooding. He's been pushed too far, and been under-appreciated for too long.
CW doesn't want to pay Joe E. Tata anymore to say the odd line at the Peach Pit. (Look, I realize it's a novelty, and only one that a select few will appreciate — but I want it. You're calling this 90210, so you owe it to us. We deserve Joe E. Tata.)
I still have blind delusions that when the episode airs that Jason Priestley directed, that it's going to change *everything* as we know it.

Navid and Dixon are mourning over their lost loves. A frustrated Navid, in an effort to understand women better, turns to a book on the art of pick up called The Creed. Which they're obviously ripping on Neil Strauss' book The Game: it's black and bible-like with gold pages. After Navid makes an embarrassing attempt at charming a girl by insulting her, Dixon's lesbian friend gives Navid some incredible advice: JUST BE YOURSELF. It's quite ground-breaking.

Of course, this works like a charm. Moments later, Navid is at a party. Y'know one of those outdoor house parties where semi-famous indie bands play, but everyone is indifferent and no one watches them. He decides to approach a girl with his buddies.

Navid tells this girl how un-cool he is, how he plays World of Warcraft, and that the girl should definitely lower her expectations if she's going to continue talking to him... and wouldn't you know it, this girl is allllllllll over him. She's even a 7th level Mage. Serendipity!

Dixon broke up with Silver because she has intimacy problems, and she wouldn't reciprocate his "I love you" while they were building sand castles. [Ed. note: YES! I hate those two together.] She can't tolerate being vulnerable, and he knows she can't meet his emotional needs. Frankly, here's my biggest problem: Dixon has too much self-respect to be 16 years old. I didn't even have that level of self-respect at 25.
After Silver's public freak-out when she shows up randomly at a party, she and Dixon finally confront their issue on the street. In moments, they have a complete emotional break-through, express their undying love, and get back together. [Ed. note: Crap! I hate those two together.]

...If that wasn't enough of an emotional ringer to put us all through, did I mention that Annie lost the lead part of Cleopatra to Adrianna for the school play?

Okay, seriously. One more thing has to be said: Ty's Moustache. It's really terrible. I know kids can't grow moustaches easily (and most shouldn't try), but we know damn well Ty's not 16 years old. There's no excuse for this.
Now, I know the original 90210 pilot had valet, and other ridiculous riches that you wouldn't find at a school (even in Beverly Hills), but am I the only one that finds this completely ridiculous? Not only have I never been to a high school that offered live televised broadcasting by the students, with seemingly no regulations...

...but isn't it just a *little* unnecessary to have an entire hallway full of LCD TVs no more than 6 feet apart from each other?

what will happen tomorrow night in the Bev Hills? "Of Heartbreaks and Hotels" is the Valentine's Day episode; Aimee Teegarden (a.k.a. FNL's Julie Taylor) is back as Rhonda and Naomi is living at a hotel? I miss her.

i'm the macaroni with cheese

2009-02-08T08:53:00.004-05:00

i've had this song in my head for DAYS! take hits from the eighties (ya ya) but do it sound so crazy.

tonight is the Grammys! i am scared that i am accidentally going to watch the whole thing and then 7 hours will have been taken from me. but i would like to see Katy Perry and Miley/Swiftie perform, and Kanye and hmm, maybe that's it. and since you're dying to know: if I was in charge, here's who would win the categories I care about.

Record Of The Year Paper Planes, M.I.A.
Album Of The Year Anyone but Coldplay
Song Of The Year Chasing Pavements, Adele (but this is a pretty thin category!)
Best New Artist Jazmine Sullivan (based on a quick YouTube listen)
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance I Kissed a Girl, Katy Perry
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Closer, Ne-Yo (by process of elimation and this is the only one I can sing in my head AND there was a SYTYCD routine to it!)
Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals Apologize, OneRepublic
Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals yuck x 5
Best Dance Recording Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger, Daft Punk
Best Electronic/Dance Album Robyn, Robyn (or Cyndi Lauper. As long as there is a Y in the winner's first name.)
Best Rap Solo Performance Paris, Toyko, Lupe Fiasco
Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group Swagga Like Us, Jay-Z & T.I. Featuring Kanye West & Lil Wayne
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration Superstar, Lupe Fiasco ft. Matthew Santos
Best Rap Song Superstar, Lupe Fiasco ft. Matthew Santos
Best Rap Album The Cool, Lupe Fiasco
Best Score Soundtrack Album The Dark Knight, James Newton Howard & Hans Zimmer, composers
Best Song Written For Motion Picture Walk Hard, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical Rick Rubin (yes, mainly because I'm editing a book on him right now)

p.s. i bet my downstairs neighbours have a lot of opinions on the Grammys since they love music so much they blast it really loud all the time. like at 8:30 this morning and 11:30 the other night. also: they listen to crappy music! roasted!

Spotted: Carrnal Knowledge

2009-02-02T21:51:00.007-05:00

Watching the first third of this episode, I was like, oh pretty good, excellent Dorota coverage, and then. and then. Dan Humphrey. Dan HUMPhrey. ZOMG: DAN HUMPHREY. I know we all knew it was gonna happen but still: exciting times! Of course, Dan would only have an illicit affair with the teacher once he is single and she isn't a teacher at his school but whatevs.

First let's forget that it's implausible that both Serena and Dan would know where Rachel "Commie Cornhusker" Carr lives.

Now let's remember some of the highlights, shall we!

Blair's speech to the troops: This. Is. Constance.
Hazel: Thank you, Jesus. Blair: No, thank you, Blair.
Points to Vanessa for "The Chuck Bass version of Narnia?" but why was she wearing green neon pants?
Remember when Dan dissed Jenny's raccoon eye makeup and said she looked like one of the Incredibles? Was I the only person in the universe who thought Jenny looked cool? Oh man. I was.
Forget the Eyes Wide Shut sex-party secret society mystery. What the frak were Nate and Vanessa laughing about so crazily when they were playing the piano? Srsly. All those people do is get along and make out. Argh.
How incredibly tall is Serena compared to Ms Carr? it was like My Giant.
Chuck's double-jointed masseuse makes "the kama sutra feel new again." haaaaa.
Note: Blair loves Damages. And 11th hour exculpatory evidence.
Blair IS eerily prophetic! But also: a liar.
Serena needs a bigger umbrella.

Some wardrobe details stolen from InStyle.com Blair's at-school outfit: H&M coat, BGN skirt and Robert Clergerie shoes (pictured in yellow. look how effing cute they are.) and bag. Serena in her schooly garb: James Perse blouse and sweater, her uniform skirt, Hue tights and Diane von Furstenberg boots and carrying a Nuti bag.

now an important QUESTION: Why is Chuck all crazy in love with this new Elle girl? WHY? I know Blair was all, "Have your peonies back, Bass; it's over." But he loves Blair. Blair is the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, not new skeezy high-class escort/nanny girl. I boo her and her thin lips.

Also: now that she's gone missing, are we ramping up to an end of season murder investigation? Prime suspect: Chuck Bass?

As always, kids, I will post next week's trailer after some dedicated GG fan uploads it to youtube. (thanks, keener!) Until then, some new, some old Gossip Girl cast—related items to keep us sated until the next episode:

Ed Westwick's Teen Vogue shoot
Taylor Momsen's Nike ad (I don't think I ever posted this on me blog, just on Twitter?)
Chace Crawford in Leona Lewis's video for "I Will Be"
Leighton Meester singing "Bette Davis Eyes," whether or not this is actually her I like to think it is her. Mostly cause this song is genius;
a kinda boring interview with Blake Lively post-Golden Globes;
and an oldie but a punny one for Penn: his VoteForChange.org video with Shawn Pyfrom.

**Update: so APPARENTLY we aren't getting a new episode until either March 2 or March 9! But that episode is called "Blair Waldorf's Day Off." Which bodes well. I'm hoping she sings Twist & Shout on a parade float and someone kicks an expensive car through a glass wall into a ravine. (schedule info from Gossip Girl Insider, there's some spoilery plot details on that link so watch out!)

Dan Humphrey Is the New Pacey Witter

2009-01-27T11:56:00.004-05:00

promo for the next episode of Gossip Girl, "Carrnal Knowledge"! Harold Waldorf to the rescue!

extended promo!

I Need Something Good to Happen

2009-01-24T08:40:00.004-05:00

so last night was my first time watching new episodes of Friday Night Lights and Battlestar Galactica back to back. And it's weird. Bad weird.

I loved last night's episode of Friday Night Lights (for you DirecTV folks, it was the one where Matt gets his emancipation papers signed, Riggins eats raw pigeon, and Tyra vies for school president). I know these are fictional characters, but goddamn they make me cry like they're real: Coach Taylor working so hard for Smash because he needs something good to happen; Smash so scared but striving to be the player he used to be; Matt Saracen: grandson of the year taking out his frustrations on cardboard boxes; and Tyra dressed down by Tammy.

And then thirty seconds after FNL ends — I'm still filled with mad love for the characters and how they fight and fight for what they believe in, and for love, and for the love of the game — I'm in the apocalyptic future(past) with a messy Galactica (people, don't litter in your spaceship), a president who's given up, and stupid Gaita ruining everything. It was so depressing and kind of . . . boring. Of the four seasons of BSG, there have been maybe two episodes I didn't like. And now: three. The direction this (half)season is going feels all wrong especially as it's the end of the series. Was it a mistake to already find Earth and have it be a total fail? Maybe. The tone of last night's episode felt appropriate for the depths of Bush's America. Guys, that's so last week. Things have never been easy for my beloved Battlesmash Galacticar characters, but it feels like they've lost the fight in 'em. Like the promise of a peaceful Human-Cylon future has been lost. Cmon BSG, I need something good to happen.

Press Conference!

2009-01-21T09:18:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the first Calhoun Tribune interview! I saw this post over at All the Wine's excellent blog and now, zomg, it's time for me to answer 5 questions.

if you want me to ask you 5 questions:
1. leave me a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I'll email you five questions, of my determination not yours!
3. You update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

And we begin:
1. Let's get straight to it. Marry, boff, kill: Chuck Bass, Dan Humphrey, Nate Archibald (based on the characters).
No hesitation, I know my answer — marry Nate Archibald, boff Chuck Bass, and kill Dan Humphrey. (Sorry, Serena!)

As our dear Blair Waldorf found out two weeks ago, Chuck Bass says "wife" like it's the worst word in the world. He ain't the marrying kind. He's the boffing kind. Our dear Natie is used to the Love of his Life boffing Chuck Bass, so he won't mind. (BTW, I assume the boffing is a life-long thing, like marriage?) Nate has figured out his daddy issues (for the most part), is all about being honest and stuff, and is totally hot. I can marry him NO PROBLEM despite his opera hair. That is what I will bring to the relationship: advice about his hair. So, sorry, Dan Humphrey, there's no room for you. Lonely Boy is just a little too judgey and reminds me a little too much of an ex–love interest for boffing. Off with your head, D.

2. How would you describe your personal style?
Um, um. Right now my personal style is a little bit boring -- I live in blue jeans. Usually a pretty ordinary outfit with just a touch of flair, like something neon or some bit of jewelry so I don't bore myself to bits. I love boots and dark eye-makeup and messy wavy hair. The 'minimal effort in, for maximum results' type of style.

In the past year (totally because of a deadly combo of Gossip Girl and Mad Men and my friend Claire), I'm way more into wearing skirts and dresses and colorful tights and actually thinking about what I'm wearing. I'm turning into a downmarket mashup of all the Gossip Girl girls: B + S + V + J = CCalhoun.

3. What's your favorite thing about living in Toronto?
With the exception of three months in L.A., I've never lived anywhere farther than half an hour from Toronto. I don't know what living anywhere else is like: my entire home and my people (minus the ex-pats) and my work are all here. But that sorta has nothing to do with Toronto itself. I like the seemingly endless possibilities of Toronto: neighbourhoods, scenes, people, festivals, parks and the islands and beaches, we get all four seasons, and there are three really good brunch spots within a three minute walk from my house. the St Lawrence Market. And when Geri Halliwell left the Spice Girls, our then-mayor wrote her a letter asking her to reconsider.

4.You've won a walk-on role on your favorite television show and you get to suggest the new character you play. Which show and what type of character?
AH! What is my favourite TV show? Gossip Girl, Battlestar Galactica, Friday Night Lights? I'm ruling out any show not still on the air. And since BSG has already finished filming and all I talk about is Gossip Girl, let's go with Friday Night Lights! I am Coach Taylor's niece who comes to Dillon to visit (which means I get to hang out with Tammy, Julie, and Coach Taylor, and go to a game) and maybe, just maybe, I befriend Tim Riggins (didn't see that coming, did you?). He totally falls for me, but then I have to leave town. So sad. But maybe I'll be back? You never know.

5. If you left the webs tomorrow, what would you want your Internet eulogy to say?
Crissy Calhoun, ~~chief~~ only blogger at the Calhoun Tribune, departed the Internets today. Launching the Tribune in October 2004 for a readership of two, Calhoun was an inconsistent poster who never quite figured out how to make photos go where she wanted them on Blogger. Her love for Twitter, the Fail Blog and Dinosaur Comics was not enough to keep her in this realm. The Tribune will continue on without her, in the trusty hands of AnnaLynne McCord.

the United States of Obama

2009-01-20T19:34:00.002-05:00

I am very glad Obama is the president of the U.S. of A.
When I listen to Obama speak, I want to be a better person.
I have written this bit of today's speech on a post-it note and put it on my wall (not joking):

"There is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task."
Obama is really impossibly good-looking.

Spotted: You've Got Yale

2009-01-19T22:11:00.004-05:00

Before watching this episode, I was pretty excited for an honest-to-goodness school plot line. With a teacher! In the school! I forget sometimes that Gossip Girl is a show about teenagers who are (mostly) in their senior year of high school with ordinary concerns like college, in addition to the reading of wills, dilemmas regarding shared half-siblings, pseudo murders, and the day-to-day machinations of B's minions.

Welcome to new character Rachel Carr (Laura Breckenridge), a new teacher at Constance who doesn't play by the — well, by Blair's rules. I wonder if she and Dan are going to develop any romantic feelings for each other! I wonder as he makes her a cappuccino and ignores Serena's call.

So it was Yale Day at Constance/St. Jude's. Yale or Bust. For Blair, it was Bust then Yale then Bust. Dan got in; Serena got in but turned it — and Dan's dreams of four years together at college — down; Nelly Yuki did not get in (but she did get a 2360 on her SATs, which is a really good score, right Americans?). Blair and Chuck shared almost no screen time this eve — oh man, remember that hilarious moment of B scurrying across the opera house lobby while Chuck sips champagne, oblivious — and I think that was a smart detour by the writers. Give us a time out from the constant Chuck/Blair ups and downs. But then bring them right back, okay?

I love Funny Dan and was so happy to see him for, like, half of this episode. He managed to get some brillo lines in, in what was a pretty effing funny episode. Some magical moments:

Dorota, Harold Waldorf and Roman in their Yale outfits and Yale themed breakfast.
"Death by Dorota"
"Does Ms. Carr have Benjamin Button Syndrome?" (so timely!)
Eric's reminder to the PDA-heavy Rufus and Lily that his "bedroom is below yours"
Blair comparing Dan's excitement to get into Yale to a cafeteria lady who's won the lottery.

"Witch hunts are my Valium, Serena." GOLD!
"Second semester seniors get a free pass, like pregnant ladies or 14-year-old Chinese gymnasts."
Chuck's plots to take down Jack Bass: buy anthrax with his credit card, put him on Megan's List, use (two) transvestite hookers who owe Chuck a favor, put coke in his gym bag and "#26."
Eric's overly excited opera lesson for Rufus.
"Cancel the Nelly Yuki Project."
The double date of R, L, D, and S goes from "Family Ties to Faulkner" in one drink.

What this episode was seriously lacking, in my opinion: plaid. more plaid plz. [Plaid hug!]

Also let's talk about how Chuck's opera hair looked super hot, while Nate's opera hair looked sooooooooo bad. Crazy bad. Rufus shouldn't worry about his picture in the Post, and Nate should just thank his lucky stars it wasn't a photo of him.

But in all seriousity, the Chuck and Lily plot line was heartbreaking+warming. As cruel as Chuck was to her, I think he was right to suggest she could exercise a little more tact, and think of others — her children and Chuck — before, um, parading her mistress around. I am beyond happy and touched that C is now legally guarded by Lily, and that he's moving back in to the suite. Sigh.

Jack Bass — considerably less hot in this episode. Yup. It's like you take all the bad parts of Chuck Bass and let them fester in Australia for years and years, you end up with Jack. Remember when Chuck was the one attacking women, not recognizing something was wrong and helping? I'm sure the role reversal is not lost on Chuck, nor was the fact that the answer to his problem lay in trusting Lily, not in illegal and juvenile pranks. (That said: more juvenile pranks plz! Another Nairtini!)

The attack in the powder room was really scary — I don't think it helps that Kelly Rutherford is visibly pregnant and that Desmond Harrington plays crazy-high-violent really well. I don't like the fact that this is the third attack we've seen on Gossip Girl (Serena, Jenny, Lily, each one more violent than the previous) and no one's ever reported it or pressed charges. It's settled with a punch in the face or a kick in the balls. That's a start but . . . cmon. Consequences.

Some questions as we move forward:

What happened to Headmistress Queller? Was that the same actress but with bad hair?
Why did the Yale secretary have such a weird accent? LOL party. I think it was the same actress who was choking and snorting next to V at the opera.
Was this "where do we sit at the opera" plot the first indication of trouble afoot in N/V land?
How did Serena's boobs NOT fall out of that opera dress?
Is Dan really going to have a love affair with the teacher? That's so Pacey Witter circa 1998.
Blair watches Gilmore Girls? Never thought that my dad and Blair Waldorf would have something in common.
Did anyone understand what Dan was talking about when he said he wanted to put his dad and Serena's mom in a box? That was eXtreme rambling.

No new episode next week (wah) but it's always worth the wait. And besides, I have so much writing to do! That book just refuses to write itself.

Promo for 2.17 coming soon... (my youtube search came up with this. rick-rolling is old, people.)

**OH i forgot another bit of hilarity but the Waffles+Falafels post reminded me: refresh. refresh. refresh.

Lily of the Valley

2009-01-17T10:04:00.005-05:00

so the Gossip Girl spin-off concept has finally been figured out (and confirmed by show creators) — a teenage Lily Rhodes (aka Lily vdW-Bass) living in California with her sister Carol (the aunt who Eric supposedly went to stay with in Miami when really he was at the Ostroff Center). From Josh Schwartz (E! Online):

As for the just-announced Gossip Girl spinoff, which centers around a young Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford), Schwartz reveals: "I'm writing it right now with Stephanie [Savage] as we speak. We're being very, very careful that nothing we do will feel like we are biting off from the Gossip Girl original."

So will a young Rufus appear? "Not at first," Schwartz tells me. "He's not one of our characters. Maybe at some point, if the show is lucky enough to run for several seasons, it will come up, but it's just really about Lily and her sister Carol, Serena's Aunt Carol, who's sort of this free spirit, a wannabe actress who's living in this house in the valley. Her experience on the other side as someone without money going to public school, having to make a whole new group of friends, being cast out from the world that she knew."

The spinoff will be presented as a flashback in the penultimate episode of the current season of Gossip Girl, which airs May 11. Schwartz says none of the roles have been cast yet.

So what about the No. 1 fan question: What will happen with Chuck and Blair? "You don't actually want to know the answer to that. The fun is in the journey."

Interesting... I'm a little sad to lose one of our GG episodes to the spin-off premiere but also: I adore Lily and think this concept could work. I have faith that Josh & Stephanie would keep it from being a Grand Super Cheez '80s Party, where there's no substance and just a bunch of goofy neon leggings and big hair.

Yay or nay to the GG spin-off concept?

Oh man I am late for work

2009-01-15T08:28:00.007-05:00

My roommate doesn't read my blog (good to know in case I want to reveal anything and not get in trouble!) so on Tuesday night I had the pleasure of telling him: Guess what I'm not watching this week or ever? Privileged or Nine Oh. And with Battlestar Galactica starting up again, and Lost, I think the Season of Forbes has arrived. (He did sit through an episode of Hannah Montana — and laughed once — so don't think I won't continue to subject him to what he deems crap telly.)

"Uh oh, is it war?" asks Dorota. In this Monday's episode of Gossip Girl, the writers remember that these characters go to school and don't always loiter in the courtyard and hallways. They go INTO the school and to classes. I think the only time we've ever seen the girls in class was gym, when B and S had a field hockey throwdown. Other than that? No time in class or with teachers (unless they are in big troubles with Headmistress Queller). The "You've Got Yale" promo is here:

And the Gossip Girls are Cover Girls this month, with Blake Lively on Vogue, Leighton Meester on Teen Vogue, and Taylor Momsen on CosmoGirl's Prom issue. Poor Leighton; this cover sux. AlltheWine twittered this link to Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick on The Views the other day. If those hosts call the show Gossip GirlS one more time...

ALSO I will have the cover for my book REALLY soon! I love it beaucoup and I hope you guys do too.

** Nikki sent me this link to a story about the Gossip Girl spinoff -- rumor is that it'll be about Lily in the '80s. ZOMG, potentially awesome and potentially hilarious.

Spotted: Gone With the Will

2009-01-12T22:28:00.001-05:00

Dear Chuck,

You are a disappointment. Why do you wear so much purple?

Yours,
Bart Bass

If you are ever invited to a brunch at the Palace Hotel, hosted by or celebrating a man named Bass, do not go. A life-altering secret will be revealed, you will storm out of the brunch, and the reserved eclairs will go uneaten. Double tragedy.

So we didn't quite find out what happened betwixt Blair and Jack on New Year's Eve, but something skeevy, as S would say. I thought we would find out, since in the promo there was that clip of Chuck saying, "She wouldn't touch you," and Jack saying, "Why don't you ask her about it?" Maybe that is for next week? Je ne sais pas.

Jack Bass: the worst uncle since Claudius. The sad thing is it seems that Chuck and Jack actually get along quite well together. (Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not seems. sorry.) Uncle Jack makes an excellent villain with his creepy faces and — what was he eating at the end? A bowl of chocolate pudding? Something rich and absurd. That cursed morality clause. Always getting me kicked off the helm of companies I am too young and inexperienced to run.

I loved the Humphrey/van der Woodsen plot this week! The UES Brady Bunch were all charming and honest without being treacly. And Jenny's brunch outfit was marvy, in my humble opinion (see below, Barneys CO-OP turtleneck and Temperley London jumper). Way better than that weird navy zip dress Serena was wearing when she talked to V at the gallery. I'm glad the shared half-sibling won't keep Dan and Serena apart. It's creepy but not toooo creepy.

It's getting pretty damn obvious that Kelly Rutherford is pregnant, despite her attempts to hold a magazine in front of her belly. that's OK! As long as Rufus and Lily hold hands and help each other through this, I am happy! Make some waffles, Rufus, Lily's eating for two!

Now all we need is a boyfriend for Jenny, or an additional best friend, or a hobby that doesn't turn into an all-out obsessive career, and the family will be golden.

Let's talk about how mean the Mean Girls were this week. WTF Nelly Yuki? WTF Penelope LameFace? As mean as Blair ever was, she had boundaries to her evilness. You don't out Eric without his permission, and you definitely don't reveal to the world that Lily vdW and Rufus have a secret love child that Dan knows about but Serena doesn't. Penelope, Nelly and the Dumb One don't have anything against S, do they?

ALSO: since when do people celebrate two month anniversaries, Nate and Vanessa? That said, V looked super pretty this episode, and I'm glad Nate's back to being a friend to Chuck, and to Dan. Love the return of mini Serena and her girls. What did she say to Vanessa? "Talk about failing upwards." Genius. Also I would like a bag of candy plz and fanks.

Whaddaya think about the Half-Bro being not-dead-dead? So the adopted parents lost their biological son in the sailing accident, decided to tell Rufly it was Andrew the Adopted Son so the richies wouldn't steal their only remaining son? That is the type of shenanigans that will get you in trouble, Stranger Parents. If Andrew is anything like his siblings, he'll be snooping around and scrolling through missed calls. Watch out.

So what happens next? Feels like a lot of plots are kinda wrapped up or just backburner simmering. Oh why don't we get the promos after the episodes in Canada? I shall go and troll YouTube.**Crappy quality here.

My Crush with Eyeliner

2009-01-10T09:44:00.000-05:00

Good Morning, Internet. Where have I left my coffee? Found it. Today's mug is A Room of One's Own, which I bought in Oxford with Claz in April. That was a brilliant day. Look! I am in a boat and we are punting down the River Cherwell. And today it is wintery and there haven't been any trips down any rivers for quite some time, and Clairey is in England and I am here.

But on the bright side: free makeup. Tammy blogged about her great lash experience, which reminded me I've been meaning to do the same. A marketing company sent me some mascara to try out — L'Oreal Double Extend Beauty Tubes. It's fancy double-ended mascara where one side is white stuff and the other is the regular black stuff. I am a drugstore mascara wearer, usually Great Lash since once a magazine told me that is the best of the cheapies. (I believe everything that I read.)

But recently my Great Lash experience has been more like Spikey Stumpy Clumpy Lash, so I am a prime candidate for a revolution in mascara. And Double Extend is pretty good.... It's novelty-time fun to put on the white and then the black, and I have enough time in the morning for the extra 2 seconds that takes. And it does make your eyelashes crazy long. Mainly because you're putting a coat of crap on your eyelashes for the black to stick to. Like temporary false eyelashes.

Then it came time to wash that stuff off. I didn't read the instructions, so when giant lash-like things came falling off my face, I thought my eyelashes were in the sink washing down the drain. Panic. But those were the fake-false-eyelashes. A little bit creepy.

The other thing, which is more my problem than the product's prob, is that the next morning — if you happen to not wash off your makeup before bed and expect it to be wearable the next day, for brunch at least — my eyelashes look like I spent the night gluing giant spider's legs to my eyes. So if you see me looking like a witch with spider eyes, know that is yesterday's mascara. So yesterday. (Also I have a coupon for 5 bucks off the kinda pricey Double Tubes if you are interested! Holla at me: crissy calhoun gmail. You can figure my email out, I bet.)

The bonus round makeup story was in addition to the mascara, i got this 4-pack eyeshadow for a smokey eye look (which is my i-don't-know-what-to-do-let's-go-with-the-usual look) and a liquid eyeliner. I normally use eyeliner that smudges down my face after a half hour and this liquid stuff lasts like 48 hours! My eyeliner this morning: looks effing perfect. I am ready for my spider-legs and perfect liner close-up, thank you.

When I wake up in my makeup, it's too early for that dress.

at work, i am proofreading Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Music (Greg Prato). you guys, this book is insanely good. I was probably 12 when my bro first got a nirvana cassette tape, and i guess if you had to label my early high school style it was grungey. but i have never been full-on into a music scene, so there's so much i am learning about these bands i liked then (and still like, as i listen to those albums again), and bands i didn't know at all: mother love bone, the melvins, tad. Grunge Is Dead is all interviews — the people who were there making the music or working at Sub Pop — and there's this quote from a band guy (don't remember who) talking about touring and having no money. So when he was hungry, he would chug a root beer and then jump up and down cause that would fill you up. classic. the book is also really tragic when you get to the stories about Andy Wood and Layne Staley, and you're reading their best friends and brothers and girlfriends and mothers talk about losing them to drug overdoses. y'all are going to have to wait til April to read this book, but if there are any typos in it, it'll be all my fault. when a book is this good, it's hard to concentrate on the job at hand.

And While I'm At It

2009-01-07T19:27:00.004-05:00

My roommate will rejoice: not only am i giving up on 90210, entirely, cold turkey, but I am also dropping Privileged.

I actually don't mind the Baker Twins or Megan or the Hot Billionaire Next Door or the Marco the Chef, but it is just so tiresome all piled together. Pointless and meandering without excellent quips (or outfits) to make the vacuity bearable.

90210 and Privileged really couldn't bear the comparison when I popped in season 2 of Friday Night Lights last night. Holy Dillon Panthers, that show is marvelous. I love Tammy and Coach Taylor, of course Riggins, and Smash. And that Minka Kelly's face reminds me just a little bit of Leighton Meester. So I have to like her character Lyla for that reason alone.

Season 3 of Friday Night Lights starts next Friday. night. (lights. ach.) the same night as Battlesmash Galacticar! TV OVERLOAD.

And the Thunder Rolls...

2009-01-07T13:32:00.002-05:00

Extended "Gone with the Will" promo. Zut alors, what will Jack Bass do to his nephew?

Gossip Cast talks about their first concert. Nate Archibald WINS.

Find more videos like this on Gossip Girl Music

my 90210pinions: Hello, Goodbye, Amen

2009-01-06T21:02:00.001-05:00

Oh this show sux. I did not miss it while it was gone, but I did forget how crappy it truly is. This episode didn't feature quite enough Naomi to be hilarious, just enough to be annoying.

Annie and Naomi battle to be best half-sister to new brother Sean. I hope Dan and Serena and Jenny and Eric don't have a half-brother bestie battle on Gossip Girl. oh wait they never would, that idea sux.

In class, we learn about INTUITION seeing without eyeballs.

Brenda has some mysterious ailment and is ALONE and also: crying. Silver is jealous of Dixon's new friend who is a hot girl. Audrina wants to invite Brenda to Rehab Times; Kelly agrees to call her. Oooooh.

Pictionary at the Wilson house! And also: Dr. Pepper. Sean sneaks out to take a secret phone call. You know what is scarier than having an imposter brother living in your house? Having Annie "Shanae Grimes" Wilson sneak up on you and be all, HEY BRO. She is such a big tattletale. And Sean is a big old liar; he says his adopted daddy was a gambler and killed himself to protect his son. DOUBT IT. It seems that Annie's INTUITION is telling her something is up. My intuition is telling me that Shenae Grimes is a terrible actor, especially when she has to have "sneaking suspicions."

Excellent Dialogue
Kelly: She sees you as a mother figure.
Brenda: I didn't ask for that.

Christina the Hot Cheerleader tries to talk music with Dixon while ensuring the Dr. Pepper logos get excellent coverage in every shot. Well done!

Silver is a total bitchface, making fun of the custodian and the cheerleader on her blog. But then Dixon totes lies to her. I see a relationship fail on its way!

Why is Naomi hanging out with her half-bro like he's her bf? I love that we required a flashback, within a half hour of an hour long show, to explain that Annie has a hunch that something is not right. When we had already been told that 100 times. Holy crapfestival.

Rehab is EASY! Adrianna is all better. And she makes Brenda realize the error of her ways. What: HIV scare! rehab is hard. HIV scare over! pregnancy ftw! another show too scared to say abortion?

Dixon goes to a black bev hills party, which includes such guests Dr. Dre and Kobe Bryant and Denzel Washington. Ahem. Phewf, Hot Girl Christina is a Lesbian (part-time). Break-up Fail. I was really ready for Silver and Dixon to be dunzo. Yawn. And now Dixon is singing Amazing Grace. Of course he is. Meanwhile Sean vaguely threatens Annie. YAWN.

Brenda can't have kids. Hmm, if only there was a baby someone didn't want.

Paternity test requested. Sean is gone. Family fail. Also logic fail on Naomi's part: how is it Annie's fault that her dumb mom gave the kid $200,000?

oh man this show is not even so-bad-it's-good anymore. I think I am officially dunzo with New 90210. maybe i'll watch the season finale and try to figure out what happened between this episode and the end of the season. that sounds like more fun than watching the show.

Goodbye. F is for Fail. :(

Spotted: In the Realm of the Basses

2009-01-05T21:23:00.006-05:00

How broodingly awesomely awesome is Chuck Bass? The answer is impossibly. Even when he made that weird I'm-stoned-and-dead-inside face. He's so over the top that he's come back down, around the bottom, and landed right where he should be. Absurd and perfect.

This episode, like most Gossip Girl premieres, couldn't live up to my expectations but there was much I adored about it. Both ~~Little J~~ Jenny and Blair realize how over social climbing/Mean Girlism they are. And Blair realizes high school cattiness lasts a lifetime. Really, it does. It's people of all ages who can be crap, not just teenagers.

Rufus was the grumpiest we have EVER seen him, nary a homecooked meal for the children, but five minutes alone with Lily softens him. Aw. And now they are on their journey of Dickensian (thank you, Meester Chuck) proportions.

We learned that hash is a softer high, that Dan is not above internet stalking Serena, that Serena prefers MySpace to Facebook, and that Jenny understands that S is 9 levels hotter than her brother. We also learned that Chuck's uncle Jack? Kinda hott. And kinda a bad ass.

When Dan and Serena decide to be Dan-and-Serena and they kiss, did you notice how freakily pale and creepy Dan's hand was? The hand that went to clutch S's head. Shudder. It was a bit Edward Cullen minus the sexy vampire part. Let's have a minute to rejoice the Aaron Rose arc coming to an end. I fear we may see him again one day since he's B's step-brother, but hopefully only in an awkward moment at graduation or something.

And speaking of old characters making their return, Ms Georgina "Sold My Show Pony for Cocaine" Sparks is set to make a return to the Upper East Side sometime near the end of this season. I was hoping she would be the Rufly love child, but now that child is a boy. Hmm. Maybe Georgie is also secretly a boy? That way Dan would have fooled around with his half-sibling and a dude. An excellent idea! I should totally write scripts for GG.

Where were Nate and Vanessa this ep? Making out and being morally superior? You'd think Nate would take some interest in Chuck's downward spiral. Or at least show up for the party at Victrola.
Will Dan be able to keep the secret of their half-sib from Serena?
What the eff was Blair talking about to Uncle Jack -- Chuck can't know about New Year's Eve? WTF, B?
How will the subplots be filled if the girls aren't going to torture each other anymore? (I've heard rumors of plotlines that have to do with actual school stuff -- like classes and extracurriculars. Wha?)
Will Derota go to university with Miss Blair? The show cannot survive without her.

Oh and in backstory-fill-in news, the CW Gossip Girl blog had a lame post about how Eric spent Christmas in Montreal (woot!) with his boyfriend Jonathan. So in the previous ep, Lily wasn't going to ditch her son for the holidays to be with Rufus. Eric had plans. Apparently.

And another week to wait... let's watch that "Dear Gossip Girl" video again and again til then.

**update: promo for next week which i have not yet even watched because i am at work.

Dear Gossip Girl

2009-01-05T18:53:00.002-05:00

this will get you five minutes closer to tonight's episode and ALSO SO EFFING FUNNY. i am in love with these dudes. if Gossip Girl won't date them, I will.

("Dear Gossip Girl," Southern Mothers ft. Matt Pearson)

A Christmisfit's Guide to Holiday Movies

2008-12-26T10:40:00.004-05:00

Yes Man
Exactly what you expect, but with fewer weird Jim Carrey faces. It's pretty sweet, very predictable, and Zooey Deschanel gets to sing and be kooky and you fall in love with her. Well, I did. (Again.)

Doubt
Doubt is about doubt. I know this because of the opening scene, and the final scene, and many scenes in between, where that was made explicit. Bring a sweater to the movie theatre: nuns often sit outside on blustery days in this movie and it makes you feel very chilly for them. It's not a bad movie, but there sure is a lot of acting and talking and more acting.

Seven Pounds
If you want to see Will Smith cry, this is the movie for you! If you are spending Christmas Eve by yourself and think, "Hey, I'll just pop over to the Rainbow and catch a movie," this is *maybe* not the movie for you. It is designed to make you cry. Also of note: nice images of a field and an ocean front home and a jellyfish. And sometimes Will Smith is handsome.

Valkyrie
A movie as good as its trailer. I saw the Valkyrie trailer and thought, "Holy fuck, awesome trailer. I will never see that movie, but well done, editor types." Then it turned out to be my Christmas Day movie and guess what! It is a good movie. A great story and so tense. But if you're like me, halfway through a Hitler-assassination-plot sequence, try not to think, "This movie should have been called Mission Impossible: 4." It takes a minute to get back into the story after that funny.

I also plan on seeing the Curious Button movie over the break (and maybe even Gran Torino!) so stay tuned. But don't stay tuned for me seeing Marley & Me. I refuse to see a movie starring a Golden Retriever and the two actors who most look like Golden Retrievers. Nope!

Hapslappy Boxing Day!

More! The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Notebook + Forrest Gump = Benjamin Button. I like tug boats and the Mississippi and in this movie, there is a tug boat on the Mississippi. Also it is undeniable that Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are beautiful people. It is also undeniable that this movie is LONG. It feels like the story is told in real time, so it's about 80 years long. (Luckily the audiences both ages and reverse-ages with Brad and Cate, so you walk out of the theatre the same age you went in.)

but i think i'll miss this one this year

2008-12-25T10:20:00.001-05:00

Spice Girls Chrimbo Song! Annoying but also: awesome. So raise up that cup of Christmas cheer.

do i have your attention?

2008-12-20T11:58:00.000-05:00

new Gossip Girl promo:

Spotted: O Chuck Bass, Where Art Thou?

2008-12-09T19:41:00.002-05:00

There are about 17 million brilliant moments in this episode, which all together left me heavy-hearted watching our Upper East Siders try so hard to be there for each other and to follow their hearts: Chuck and Blair, Blair and Chuck; Chuck hurting mourning Eric; Rufus telling Lily that he'll wait six months, six years...; Jenny offering to make Eleanor's wedding outfit in order to make amends; Dan thwarted as he tries to make the grand gesture for Serena, but is too late; Blair turning to Cyrus for comfort (and turning Jewish); Derota a bridesmaid at Eleanor's wedding; Mister Chuck broken and sitting on B's bed; B waking up alone and with that letter...

RIP Bart Bass?
How did Bart Bass die? Is Bart Bass actually, factually dead? There was an "accident"; that's about all we know. In the previous ep, we saw him in the limo with his PI, headed over to the Snowflake Ball to confront Lily not just about her new dalliance with her ex-lover but also about why she was in that hospital in France. This week we see the PI is alive and well and selling secrets so he must have got out of the car before the accident. Since Dylan McKay's father could rise from the dead (he faked his death to escape the FBI? the mob? I'm fuzzy on the details), I'm a wee bit suspicious that we didn't see the casket or the internment... Of course, if the city of New York is "rocked" by billionaire Bartholomew's death (as the newspaper headline declared), then let's accept this as fact . . . for now.

"Was it a boy or a girl?"
These van der Woodsen women sure have their secrets. Let's hope that Lily's "love child" secret doesn't turn out the same way Serena's "I killed someone" secret did, or we'll find out in the end that Lily held someone else's baby once and pretended it was Rufus's. I think we can safely rule out either Serena or Eric being the love child. The timeline just doesn't work for Eric. And if it was Serena, then Lily would have watched on as her daughter committed incest and the Dan/Serena love saga would come to a crashing, creepy halt better suited to a V.C. Andrews novel than a CW teen drama. We can also safely rule out the possibility that Lily had an abortion; you don't need to go away to have one, having one isn't a pay-obscene-amounts-of-money-to-keep-the-truth-from-coming-out scandal, she wouldn't know the gender of the fetus, and there's no chance Rufus Humphrey would have reacted the way he did. Which leaves us with a new member of the Gossip Girl family, perhaps soon to arrive on the Upper East Side (assuming the kid is alive). Welcome, Rufly. (I'll put my money on it being a boy, with the episode title's inspiration, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, being a tip off.)

The only good thing to come out of Grandma Ceci meddling in her daughter's life again is that now poor Eric won't have to spend Christmas alone. Seriously, Lily? Not only did she fail to mention baby Rufly to his father, she forgets about Eric — the boy who just lost his stepfather, his stepbrother, whose sister is off to South America, and who tried to commit suicide a short year ago. Were we to assume Eric was happily spending Christmas with Ceci, having gin toddies all the livelong day? Poor Eric. At least Jonathan showed up.

"I carried the ~~watermelon~~ garment bag."
S and E, two fellow Gossip Girl watchers at work, took issue with Serena going to Buenos Aires with Aaron even though she seems to be clearly in love with Dan. Why does she have to be with someone? they wonder. I felt similarly last season when Lily — clearly in love with Rufus but unable to be with him because of her daughter's eternal love for his son — chose to marry Bart. If you know for sure you're in love with someone else, don't marry a guy just to be with someone. And maybe Serena's learned from her mother? But I think Serena *does* like Aaron, and since (she thinks) she can't be with Dan, she would rather try to make it work with A than give up on love entirely. Oh. I can finally empathize with Lily's decision to marry Bart.

Take a Deep Breath. And Hold It.
I have watched this preview about 17 times already. Remember this morning when I was all, "Oh I don't mind waiting until next year for new Gossip Girl"? Times have changed. Next episode we meet Uncle Jack Bass; Dan and Serena are together at the Humphrey loft for some reason (love reasons??); Blair is at loose ends without Chuck; and Chuck is at looser ends without his father. What's with the ring box that S is opening? And what is with the dancing girls? Are we back at the Victrola? AH! I cannot wait.

Luckily there is so much to talk about in "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?" that we can keep our minds busy until January 5th. Favorite moments? Best funeral outfit? Did Jenny forget to put on her pants because she was so sad for Eleanor and Eric? Is B a masochist to love a narcissist like C? Was Grandma Ceci really trying to help Lily and Rufus eventually be together or is she sabotaging them again?

*update* a lot of fun times happening over in the world of Twitter!

Spotted: Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?

2008-12-09T08:01:00.004-05:00

"I carried the garment bag."

good morning Upper East Siders. my full post on this episode -- which i thought was beyond excellent -- will come later tonight. i just wanted to put down a few of my reactions as i sip my morning mega c vitamin water...

last night's Gossip Girl was written by Stephanie Savage, genius, and you can tell the difference. It was so tight, with so many echoes of moments from Gossip Girl gone by -- Rufus singing "Everytime," a key scene in Grand Central, Chuck's penchant for twins, Blair finally being able to say those three words...

And the tone of the episode was a perfect mix of pathos and a touch of signature GG wit, set in the first five minutes with breakfast at the van der Woodsens (formerly Bass) household and then at the Waldorfs (both matriarchs admiring the photo of Bart and the necessity of sending a thank you note to the photo editor -- genius). A great episode to end the first half of the season on. I have so much to ruminate on, that I won't mind waiting til January for the next installment.

Anywaysy, read Daily Intel today and I'll post more tonight!
xoxo

one Lively, but not the other

2008-12-05T07:58:00.006-05:00

i was extra specially excited for last night's episode of 30 Rock, because Liz Lemon is my girl (my dad always says, You're just like Liz Lemon. and I say, Thanks!...um wait...), but also rumor had it that Blake Lively and Leighton Meister were appearing on the show in a flashback to Liz in high school. But Liz was the mean girl, not our Constance Billard kids. Then in the present day high school reunion scene, Blake's character would be played by her real-life older sister (also an actress) Robyn. that info turned out to be only half true. so apologies to any Gossip Girl fans who I urged to watch last night's ep of 30 Rock (Tammy). while there was no Blake or Leighton, it was still full of comedy gold tho! and the Vanity Fair profile of Tina Fey is vair interessant, if a little obsessed over the fact that she wasn't always skinny.

If you want to be motivated to shop at the Gap, the CW has kindly posted the portraits of Serena that are in the current Aaron Rose exhibition. Also when I was thinking about Dan Humphrey (as one does), I realized how uncomfortable and awful it would be to have your dad's gallery exhibiting your ex-gf's new bf's art, especially when it consisted entirely of "artistic" glamor shots of her.

Finally: Monday's episode of Gossip Girl is the last of 2008. Gulp. Weeks without GG are coming. And that means this next episode will likely be a big old cliffhanger. What is Lily's secret? What could it be that is so disgusting to Chuck Bass? (Or maybe that comment in the preview has to do with how she's already moving on with Rufus before Bart is cold in his grave? My brain just went all Hamlet-y: the funeral baked meats/Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables...)

oh man i should probably go to work as it's real Friday and not proto Saturday.

best brit video ever?

2008-12-04T22:26:00.001-05:00

glorious.

my 90210pinions: That Which We Destroy

2008-12-02T19:16:00.013-05:00

I don't think there was a new New Nine Oh this week, but I did finally watch the last New Nine Oh: "That Which We Destroy." And it picked up right where we left off, with the arrival of the new son in the middle of Annie and Naomi's epic battle.

The new son has the Wilson nose and is one of those patriotic Americans, as Granny Wilson calls him. He's proud to serve his country and so on and so forth. The only slightly funny thing about this whole opening sequence of course belongs to Granny Wilson. She gets Dixon to figure out how old she has to tell people she was when she had Principal Wilson in order for him to have had a son at age 18 who is now 25 years old. The answer: 11. "A little unseemly."

Kelly gives Naomi and Annie the "friends are more important than guys" talk using a metaphor: girlfriends are like plants, and guys are cut flowers. I think this scene was supposed to be funny? Judging by the girls' expressions, it may have smelled funny. I wonder if this whole friendship talk will come into play later when Brenda returns...

Silver continues to make poor wardrobe choices. Silver live blogs lunch. This whole cafeteria lunch business: a total Mean Girls rip off. Annie shows Ethan her bitchy side and he loses his appetite. The lead "blended" girl needs help with her phone, and we, the audience, learn that the real message behind this episode is not about being true to oneself or the importance of friendship and family. The real impetus behind this episode: product placement.
Brenda returns! And I presume is playing Lady MacBeth. Of course she is. And she can recognize an office plant when she sees one.

Granny Wilson tells Momma Wilson a nice story about Jean-Luc and the Chihuahua. Actually a useful, if predictable, little fable.

Naomi is so sexy when she's having a panic attack, according to that guy who keeps showing up and doesn't like game-playing. It's hard making new friends, eh Naomi?

Dixon doesn't care about destroying Bel Air on the lacrosse field because his dad is ignoring him and only paying attention to the new bio-son. The whole coach and disgruntled/distracted player dynamic is making me miss Friday Night Lights in a major way.

Yikes on Silver's two hairdo joke when Annie puts on a skirt that's too short. Really? Non, merci. Stop trying to be risqué, 90210. And don't make Annie take her shirt off all casually, just so viewers at home can see her in her bra. Especially not in the "be yourself" scene.

At the lacrosse game, Audrina mysteriously barfs after smelling a hot dog. And I smell a teen pregnancy plot line. It also smells bad.

Quel surprise. Dixon is playing poorly and New Son is meddling in the business of lacrosse and father/son dynamics. Back off, New Son. New Cheerleader Love Interest sees what is really going on with Dixon while Silver is reading a book, listening to her iPod, and playing with her Rubik's cube. Dixon storms off the field and Coach/Principal/Poppa Wilson confronts him. Finally, Dixon gets a real scene! And is able to raise some good points! Well done. We have been waiting for 12 episodes for a solid father-and-adopted-son conversation and we got it. In the locker room during the big game, no less.

And! Annie finally says something we can all agree on: "I'm not cool." She decides not to be mean anymore. I have not decided that. So, here's some classic Shenae Grimes acting faces:

Oh, I am meaner than Naomi. [Sidebar story: I went to the Geminis last Friday (Cdn Emmys) and Shenae was there to present an award and was up for the people's choice for hottest Canadian on the telly. And she didn't win. As soon as the show went to commercial, she got in the biggest huff and stomp spaz attack, grabbed her leopard-print fur jacket and her little entourage and stomped out of there. It was pretty hilariously spazzy. She made all the faces pictured above and then some.]

I am kind of waiting for the New Son to turn into a total weirdo freakshow and be, like, the Emily Valentine of the show and stalk the Wilsons or something. That would be great. But anyway... Brenda slept with Ryan. Shocker. Don't put the big reveal of the last minute in the promo for the episode, CW.

Now the Wilsons + Sean are all happy times and huggy times. Oh no, wait... Sean is alone and he is raising one eyebrow and making a phone call that could be entirely innocent or entirely diabolical! I vote for diabolical.

The end. Another episode in this pitiful saga comes to a close. Let's hope this Sean kid starts effing shit up!