Blog A Go-Go

In which it is time

For the greatest of all gladiatorial showdowns, where competitors will pit themselves against one another in the quest for ultimate glory. It's PUPPY BOWL! So settle in with some guacamole and beer and cheer for your favorite--and don't forget kitty halftime! (Puppy Bowl is airing on Animal Planet from 3-5pm Eastern on Sunday.)

In which I admit to watching reality television

Oh, yes, I do. I'm not proud of it, and I try to excuse it by claiming to watch only the more high-brow shows. (Pause here for snickering.) But the truth is, I like to watch people trying to better themselves. I want to see good people succeed and the whining asspumpkins sent home on a walk of shame. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way and the whining asspumpkins sometimes win and we have to watch them for a week and a half on the talk show circuit before they fall off the radar of public opinion. And isn't it interesting that odious people who are being themselves are far more vile than any villain we fiction writers could create? I needed a Silkwood scrubdown everytime I watched Puck...

But finally, there is a show that GUARANTEES someone good will win because that is the entire premise. "True Beauty" premiered this week, and the idea is simple: it's a contest for the best-looking person in America. What they aren't telling the contestants is that they're not just judging their external beauty, but it's about character as well. LOVE IT. Finally, a reality show that embraces the idea that nice matters. (Of course, one could argue that it isn't very nice to trick people by putting them on a reality show and not telling them the whole premise, but that's some ethical hair-splitting that we won't get into right now.) Check your local ABC listings for air times.

In which it's time for Masterpiece!

MASTERPIECE Classic returns for a new season tonight with the premiere of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Some of the best television I've seen in the past few years has been on PBS, so I'm thrilled that the new season is starting. I will confess I'm not the world's most enthusiastic Thomas Hardy fan--my tastes lean a little more toward Austen, Gaskell, and the Brontes--but the new production looks delicious. And since the next two productions are adaptations of Wuthering Heights and Sense and Sensibility, I'm REALLY not complaining. After that the season heads into a pretty hefty dose of Dickens, but since I adore Matthew Macfadyen, I'll probably get sucked into those as well. (My senior seminar paper for the English part of my degree was on Little Dorrit, a book I loathed pretty thoroughly. We called that seminar "Dickens 'til You Die" and that was not too much of an exaggeration.) You can preview clips, sign up for the newsletter, and get all sorts of other goodies at MASTERPIECE Classic. Check your local listings for times and enjoy!

In which I am in bed

Honestly. Night before last I stood up too quickly and it felt as if someone had jammed a hot wire into my lower back. Things just sort of seized up. Thank goodness for heating pads, a comfortable bed, and my darling mother's supply of Skelaxin. (I blame the lack of yoga. I haven't been in two months, and I think the things that a twenty-year old body will forgive you for, a forty-year old body will hold against you.) I'm sure a little time off my feet will do the trick, and I already have an appointment with Chiropractor on Monday--I'm sure he'll finish sorting me out. Anyway, I've piled myself up in bed with DVDs and a stack of books, including the very delightful Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief. If you haven't read it, DO. It's a retro read, in the very best way. It reminds me of Agatha Christie or Ngaio Marsh. (There is also a superb version on Librivox if you'd rather listen to it on your ipod. The quality of Librivox recordings is highly variable, but this is one of the best I've found.)

On a sorrowful note, I am extremely bitter that "Pushing Daisies" is being cancelled. (Only five more episodes, *sob*.) I don't remember seeing a show that quirky or original in a very long time, and the casting was just brilliant. So, I'm wondering, what are your favorite shows, wonderful things I might have missed?  

And in completely unrelated news, today is the feast day of the Virgen de Guadalupe. I have a strange affinity for Mary which I cannot explain. I'm not Catholic, but I've always been drawn to the Virgin Mary, particularly the Virgen de Guadalupe. There's something immensely comforting about her, and one of my most-loved pieces of jewelry is a small image of her I bought at a museum in San Antonio. I was preparing to move to Virginia the next month and I wanted something to keep with me always to remind me of home. I have worn that medallion during the most stressful, difficult times since then, and I find myself rubbing it between my fingers, almost like a talisman. Somehow it feels like I'm tapping into all of that lovely, calm, maternal energy when I do. So, for those of you marking the day, I hope it's a special one.

In which my router is still rebelling

Yes, the router still hates us, my car is flashing the "Check Engine" light at me--in spite of being serviced for just that problem two weeks ago, and I found a FIFTH set of stitches on the poor dog. Actually, I think it's rather efficient getting so many bits of nastiness at one time. All of these things should be tidied away in a few days and none are totally dire. And best of all, the husband comes home today! Between you and me, I cannot WAIT. (BTW, my router troubles mean I've had extremely limited internet service, so I am barely keeping up just with posting entries right now. I have SO appreciated the comments and the lovely e-mails! Many thanks.)

Yesterday I finally got around to watching "The Rape of Europa", and if you haven't seen it, DO. It's available on DVD and my PBS station has been airing it. It is a documentary film, based on the book of the same name by Lynn H. Nicholas, about the Nazi looting of European art treasures during WWII. It is extremely informative without being the least bit dry. I was riveted from start to finish, and I have to say, I found it very moving. If war is humanity at our worst, then surely art is us at our best, and it seems a triumph that so many of the looted pieces have found their way back to their rightful owners.

Many of the masterpieces are STILL missing, possibly destroyed, possibly circulating in the underworld, and if you are intrigued by the lost works, be sure to grab a copy of Simon Houpt's Museum of the Missing. My copy is an ARC, so the plates are B&W, but even without color plates, it's a fascinating book. Houpt makes the argument that the most splendid and compelling museum in the world is that which comprises the pieces which are missing, some taken during museum heists, some looted during times of war. He touches on everything from the Isabella Stewart Gardner theft to Napoleon's rampage across Europe and the looting of the Baghdad museums during the Iraqi invasion. (And this book coupled with Nicholas' book and a copy of the DVD would make a fabulous holiday gift for anyone interested in art...)

In which I am grossed out and entertained

I used to be a tremendous BBCAmerica addict, but I let that lapse when they started playing lots of violent and dramatic police shows and eleven million reruns of "Changing Rooms". But now I am back, thanks to "You Are What You Eat" and "How Clean Is Your House?" They are both reality shows of the trainwreck variety and I am powerless to look away. The first one chronicles makeovers on people who routinely eat their body weight in fried foods and are forced to try holistic nutrition. (My favorite was the woman who had to have a friend write "turnip" on her root vegetable so she would know what it was.)  The second stars a pair of masochistic housecleaners who brave the horrors of houses so filthy I can't believe they aren't just burned down and built afresh. (I flinch every time they sniff something on that show because I don't even like imagining how bad it is.)

But even though I watch them for the ghastly entertainment value, I have found that they are creeping into my day to day life. My shopping basket last week was full of fresh fruit, corn, snow peas, granola, peppermint tea, avocado, green leafies, and nuts. And I also bought a pumice stone and new scrubbing brushes to tackle the mineral deposits in the bathroom. (I adore the fact that we live on a well, but the plumbing can take a beating if you aren't very careful. We have a few patches that we started working on when we moved in and haven't managed to budge. I am extremely reluctant to use muriatic acid, so I'm hoping a combination of Coke and pumice might do the trick!)

In which I confess

I am rather glad the Olympics are over. I have watched devotedly, but at two and a half weeks, it's a bit much. My biggest gripe is that NBC is broadcasting on eleventy-jillion networks, yet it feels like we're seeing fewer events than when ABC covered it on one channel. I may be foggy on this, but I seem to remember as a kid that ABC pre-empted EVERYTHING to show the Olympics. You could turn on the TV in the middle of the night and see the Bulgarian shotputters warming up. (And I really miss Jim McKay. His "up close and personal" features used to just kill me.) NBC was showing soaps and re-runs of Maury Povich. Hugely disappointing.

Don't get me wrong--I'm thrilled that our athletes did so well and I loved seeing as much as I did. But I have to say, my favorite events were not the marquee sports that packed the stadiums and the water cube. I LOVED the rowing events--particularly flatwater canoe, the cycling road races--which OUGHT to have been shown in their entirety, the equestrian events--see rant about road race, and the freestyle wrestling, which I've never watched before but found absolutely mesmerizing. (And water polo. I LOVE water polo in unholy ways.) Ah, well. Time to get back to work. Until Vancouver!

In which I anticipate a guilty pleasure

Well, I'm not sure how guilty a pleasure it was since the miniseries The Starter Wife was nominated for ten Emmys, but I always felt like I should be watching it while wearing my nightgown and eating Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia straight out of the carton. There were times when I absolutely HOWLED at the screen, but it was a very tasty diversion from reality--a beach vacation for the mind, which we all need from time to time. Imagine my delight at finding out that it is becoming an actual series on USA! (This reminds me that I need to get the original miniseries on my ipod. It is PERFECT escapist travel entertainment. I might even be able to face a transatlantic flight again...) Check out the feature on the USA website; it will have to sustain me until the series premiere in October: http://www.usanetwork.com/series/starterwife/thescene/overview_s2.html 

In which you might want to set your tivo

Josh Bernstein is back with a new series on Discovery. (You might remember him from The History Channel's Digging for the Truth.) The new series is called Into the Unknown, although they might just as well have called it Miscellaneous Stuff Josh is Interested in Because it's a Little Random. The first several episodes cover everything from life on Mars to escalating elephant attacks in Africa to the lifestyles of the Roman gladiators and mummification in Papua New Guinea. Fine by me. I thoroughly enjoyed his first series, and since some of these topics can be a little dry if they aren't presented well, it's nice to have a host who will throw himself off a mountain or drink a gourd full of hallucinogens for my edification. Into the Unknown premieres on the Discovery Channel on August 18, but you can check out the website here: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/josh-bernstein/josh-bernstein.html 

In which there is a new Samantha Brown series

I have mad Samantha Brown love. She's goofy and fun, and I think she'd be one of the best chicks EVER to take on a girls' weekend. She carries her own bag, never complains, and is equally happy to get up at sunrise for a hike or sleep in and hit the best stores--the perfect galpal. Anyway, she has a new series debuting tonight on the Travel Channel--"Samantha Brown: Great Weekends". (I have also seen it listed as "Passport to Great Weekends".) Tonight's episodes highlight Vegas and Austin, and the first airs at 10pm ET, but check your listings. Me, I've got the tivo set because I'm still in Houston. Or I'm stranded in Hartsfield saying very nasty things about the Atlanta airport. Either way, Samantha will be waiting when I get back.