Junoverse

Been watching these videos of Jason Bateman and Michael Cera promoting Juno. I love the movie, but seeing the videos really makes me miss Arrested Development!

Sex with Robots

It's been a while since I've mentioned anything about uncanny valley, but Stephen Colbert has instigated the conversation a bit with this interview of David Levy, author of Love and Sex With Robots.

The OC's Bagel Cutter

This evening at my mom's we were sitting around talking when the topic turned to TV. My sister's boyfriend, Luke, admitted that he kind of enjoyed The O.C., having recently watched an entire season on DVD with Carla. For some reason I can't recall I mentioned the bagel cutter a few times and Luke asked me why I was talking about that. Carla was mystified as well. I said something along the lines of...

Well, the father is this Jewish guy from New York and he married a blonde Californian woman, but they love to eat bagels and that represents how he holds on to his roots. Plus everyone's always meeting up first thing in the morning and talking about important things and having a bagel. It's a very unique and pivotal item in their household.

Then Carla got caught up in the discussion and took it one step further, pointing out that the bagel cutter takes this very New York thing and adds a weird Orange County twist - a specially designed contraption, as if they can't just cut a bagel with a knife, like a normal person would.

Luke looked kind of surprised and amused and asked if I had thought about this bagel cutter a lot, or if I had read about it on blogs or something. I said neither, though I was aware that the bagel cutter was a beloved and significant object on the show, I came up with this analysis about it on the fly. I don't know if he believed me.

Flashback: 90210 Weekly Wrapup

Before TelevisionWithoutPity there was the 90210 Weekly Wrapup. I don't think Daniel Drennan official had anything to do with TWoP (which was actually called Mighty Big TV when it first launched), but they definitely were inspired by him and his brilliant, hilarious, sometimes rambling recaps of Beverly Hills 90210. Here's one of their writers that even acknowledged it.

I watched Bev9 until the bitter end, but sometimes it was painfully bad. For the last few seasons, until the middle of the 9th season (when Drennan stopped doing the Wrapup for a while), reading his commentary was more entertaining than watching the actual show.

If you ever liked the show, I recommend reading some of the wrapups, and check out the Wrapup FAQ. Even that's hilarious! And if you find yourself really enjoying Drennan's writing, check out his book, New York Diaries.

The MTV Movie Awards Pre-show Sucks

I intended to watch the MTV Movie Awards the other day, mainly because I think Sarah Silverman is hilarious. I made the mistake of putting on the pre-show beforehand. It was truly awful.

When it wasn't a 30-minute commercial for The Transformers, they were making awkward comments about Lindsay Lohan's latest bout of self-destructive behavior ("We've all heard the rumors."), or awkwardly interviewing Paris Hilton, out there being a professional party-attender one more time before heading off to jail. The only thing that could have made it more awkward would be asking Paris what she thinks of Lindsay's self-desctructive behavior.

I really need to never hear or read anything about Paris Hilton again. I've said that many times before, but seriously, every time I do I just get annoyed. I try not to, I really do.

(After that, I couldn't quite stomach watching the awards show. It's on the DVR. I'll check it out later sometime and probably fast forward through most of it.)