category: I heart TV

Was Jessie with him?

January 6th, 2009 @ 11:07 pm | Comments (1)
Filed: Celebrities, I heart TV, Philly | Tags: ,

To quote Legally Blonde: The Musical, “OhMyGod you guys!” Slater, aka Mario Lopez, was in Philly yesterday and he ate lunch directly below my office.

The trials and tribulations of the gang at Bayside High were a huge part of my adolescence. Every Saturday morning, I cheered Slater delivered Mrs. B’s baby, was so-so-so scared when Jessie got hooked on energy pills, and (spoiler alert!) cried when Kelly and Zack got married. I was thisclose to meeting a childhood crush - had I gone out during lunch, I might have run into him on the street.

The article that recounts Lopez’s time in Philly raises a few questions:

  • I haven’t worked out in WEEKS! For I am a lazy, lazy slacker. But when i do workout, I prefer the climated controlled environment of the gym. It’s just too dang cold outside to run - it makes my nose and lungs hurt. Do you run outside in the old (or heat - who wants to sweat MORE?)?
  • Have you conquered the Art Museum steps? I’ve lived here for two years and haven’t yet. Boo! Must put that on my list of things to do in 2009.
  • Is Buddakan all it’s cracked up to be?
  • Can the 10! Show afford the Four Seasons? If so, how do I become a guest? And will they pay for me to spend the night 6 miles from my house? (Especially when I live within a mile of the studio.)
  • Who do you think is going to be in the Super Bowl this year? Do you care?
  • And most importantly: Zack, Slater or Screech?

WWYD?

October 20th, 2008 @ 8:54 pm | Comments (12)
Filed: I heart TV, Philly | Tags: , , ,

Let’s say you’re waiting for your bus so you can go home after a long day of work and a tepid book club. You pull out your favorite, root beer-flavored lip gloss (and wonder why you’re still wearing flavored lip gloss at 27), uncap it, and promptly drop it on a dirty Philadelphia sidewalk, applicator down. What would you do?

  1. Pick it up, wipe it off with a semi-clean tissue and continue with your lip gloss applying.
  2. Retrieve it from the sidewalk, for you are not a litterbug, and promptly deposit it in the nearby trash can.
  3. Use it as-is. You’re not a germaphobe!
  4. Shove it back in your purse until you can poll the internet.

Earlier in the evening I attended my first book club meeting and it was… eh.

The book was not so good. I’m not a waster and I firmly believe in getting my money’s worth. Make a new meal that doesn’t meet my culinary expectations? Still going to eat it for lunch the next three days. Bought a shirt that wasn’t so awesome outside the store? I’m still going to wear it. So when I found this book painful from the first essay, I forced myself to power through until the end. But it’s still $20 I’ll never get back. (And that’s why I heart the library.)

A couple months ago I read Naked and loved it. It was hilarious! I LOLed several time, which earned me strange looks from my fellow bus riders. His stories were witty and it made me envious of his childhood adventures. These essays sometimes made me go, “Hmmm,” but never, “Hahaha.” And some of them were downright disgusting, like when he discusses his partner lancing a boil on his backside.

Maybe I’ll hold a contest; anyone want the newest David Sedaris book? Tell me your favorite book in the comments. I’ll pick a winner at noon on Friday.

I don’t know if the horribleness hindered our discussion or whether these women are just not very chatty. We dissed the book for a few minutes and then sat there looking at each other. I’ll give it one more shot and then reevaluate.

HIMYM is on… the night can only improve! Will Ted and Stella get married? I’m sure hilarity will ensue.

Blogher?

September 16th, 2008 @ 4:13 pm | Comments (1)
Filed: Bloginess, I heart TV, My glamourous life | Tags: ,

I’ve been working on a Web site update at work about blogs, which made me think about my own. Stay tuned tomorrow, I’ll be liveblogging from the Martha Stewart Show!

It’s our Blogging Show, and Martha is one-on-one with some of the Internet’s most prolific and popular bloggers! First, famous celebrity tracker Perez Hilton is here with the top five tips every aspiring blogger needs to hear. Then, meet two interesting food bloggers, Matt Armendariz, of mattbites.com, and Deb Perelman from Smitten Kitchen. Plus, as the road to the White House heats up, Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin join Martha for an inside look at covering the presidential election on Politico. And Margaret Roach tells Martha how she used her green thumb to grow her popular blog, A Way to Garden.

I’m hoping Deb shares yummy treats! Have you ever been in the live studio audience of a TV show? It’s been on my “bucket list” for a long time. I’m so excited!

Also, is anyone going to the BlogHer Outreach Tour in D.C.? I’m thinking about it - it sounds like a lot of fun! Unfortunately, I just saw four other cities were cancelled.

Fireworks are my favorite

July 6th, 2008 @ 12:12 pm | Comments (0)
Filed: I heart TV, Philly | Tags: , , ,

To commemorate the birthday of our great nation, four-fifths of my family came to visit me in the City of Brotherly love.

We drank Canadian beer*, saw John Legend sing, watched fireworks (not quite over the Art Museum) in the rain, walked a LOT with complaining, rode the Ducks, missed a bus by a second, ate Philly cheese steaks** and watched the entire first disc of How I Met Your Mother, Season One***. It was a great weekend but conversation kept circling back to the one who wasn’t there****.

We had a lot of fun and I learned a lot about my city like that one of the Three Stooges was from South Street and on Tuesday at noon I can see someone read the Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall. Also? Philly residents hate the Ducks.

But the most important lesson was learned on the 32 bus: If you beep your horn first, you can totally run red lights.

How was your Fourth of July?

___________________________________________________

*How’s that for patriotism?

**Delicious bread, crappy service.

***You need to watch this show if you haven’t seen it. The PomFam wanted to steal my roommate’s DVDs to take home. Let\’s Go to the Mall

****Like the proverbial elephant in the room, I can’t ignore that she chose her new boyfriend over her son and family. I still don’t know how to get her the help I think she needs but I guess that’s the key: I THINK she needs it, she doesn’t.

Everybody Dies Famous In a Small Town

July 2nd, 2008 @ 3:00 pm | Comments (0)
Filed: Gone Country, I heart TV, My glamourous life | Tags:

I’ve had my five minutes of fame on my hometown news station.

http://www.wgal.com/video/16715458/

PS-Great song by Miranda Lambert!

Secret Lives of Dairy Cows

July 1st, 2008 @ 5:18 pm | Comments (0)
Filed: Cows, I heart TV | Tags: , ,

The rooster crowed awfully early for me this morning, taking me back to my dairy farm upbringing. I’m super excited about the TV segments that a local TV station filmed this morning, necessitating my 4:30 a.m. wake up call. Learn all you’ve ever wanted to know about the “Secret Lives of Dairy Cows.”

PR pros are always worried about how an interview will turn out, but I’m really pleased with the way Holly conducted these segments. I hope you enjoy - and learn a thing or two about dairy farming!

In Which I Confess to Watching Bad Reality TV

June 9th, 2008 @ 7:58 pm | Comments (0)
Filed: Gone Country, I heart TV | Tags:

I’m caught between a rock and a hard place tonight: The Bachelorette or Nashville Star?

It used to be what set me apart from the rest of my family, my very vocal dislike of country music. That, combined with a bad attitude, was my form of rebellion during the rough teen years. (I know, other kids do drugs and get knocked up. I hate country music.)

While my mom was schlepping my sisters to the JCC for Friday night country line dancing, I was sitting at home, doing I can’t really remember what. But I certainly was NOT listening to country music, much less dancing along.

But then I had to take country line dancing during gym class and… I kind of really liked it. So I started listening to more George Strait and less Green Day. Today I’m 100 percent country.

I haven’t been dedicated to Nashville Star in the past, partly because of no cable, but I recall it was on at a weird time. Now that it’s on NBC I can watch it! BUT! I’m invested in The Bachelorette. Who will receive the final rose? Will there be a proposal? Why does Deanna break down tonight? However, the king of the country line dance, Mr. Billy Ray Cyrus, is hosting Nashville Star. The two shows overlap by an hour.

That’s right. While other people are struggling to put food on the table or maintain the roof that protects that table from the elements, my biggest concern is which reality TV show I should watch. I’ll shut up now.

Silly Rabbit (Ears)

May 25th, 2008 @ 6:21 pm | Comments (0)
Filed: I heart TV | Tags:

In the year and a half that I’ve lived in Philadelphia, I’ve been subsisting on entertainment caught from the skies by a set of rabbit ears that lives above the moving picture box. I’ve saved roughly $900 and I don’t think I’ve missed too much by not having cable. (Although there was that funny moment at work why my coworkers were talking about a commercial they saw on some cable station and I chimed in, “That’s so funny! Wish I could have seen it but I DON’T HAVE CABLE!” Maybe you had to be there.) Internet makes watching cable programming easier, as does Netflix - and with Netflix there’s no waiting for next week or next season to wrap up those pesky cliffhangers.

I’m not usually one to be all down with big government, but this transition to digital TV seems to be very poorly executed. In case you’re living in blissful oblivion, you have until Feb. 17, 2009, to beg, borrow or steal a way to receive a digital signal if you don’t have cable. There’s a coupon for which you can apply to make a converter box affordable, you can buy a new digital-equipped TV or you can get cable.

My roommate hooked up a converter box on our living room TV this afternoon and while the picture is clearer and we get a few new digital channels, we no longer get ABC or MYPHL. NBC and CBS phase in and out of service. We can’t figure out how to get the channels to work. The Web site doesn’t really provide many answers, contrary to its name.

As it stands now, DTV sucks. Hopefully we’ll be able to figure this out by Feb. 17. Or maybe we just need to break down and get cable. I hear it has funny commercials.

There’s a Tear…

March 19th, 2008 @ 7:52 pm | Comments (0)
Filed: I heart TV | Tags:

I don’t define myself as a reality TV fan. But as I sit here watching America’s Next Top Model, reflecting on last night’s The Biggest Loser, I might need to review that assessment.

Did anyone else get a tear in his or her eye last night when Tim Gunn dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief on TBL? One of the brothers started sobbing when his wife surprised him at the runway show and Timmy got a little teary. It was sweet.

Not so sweet? Tyra just called out one of the ANTM contestants for not shaving her pits. Someone shouldn’t be throwing stones.

There’s a Tear…

March 19th, 2008 @ 7:52 pm | Comments (8)
Filed: I heart TV | Tags:

I don’t define myself as a reality TV fan. But as I sit here watching America’s Next Top Model, reflecting on last night’s The Biggest Loser, I might need to review that assessment.

Did anyone else get a tear in his or her eye last night when Tim Gunn dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief on TBL? One of the brothers started sobbing when his wife surprised him at the runway show and Timmy got a little teary. It was sweet.

Not so sweet? Tyra just called out one of the ANTM contestants for not shaving her pits. Someone shouldn’t be throwing stones.

9021-Oh Heck Yes

March 13th, 2008 @ 6:19 pm | Comments (0)
Filed: I heart TV | Tags:

To this day, whenever I mention that I have an new interest, you can bet your biscuit that everything associated with that interest will appear in my Christmas present pile. My mom, bless her, tends to go a little overboard because she loves us and wants us to be happy and surrounded by the things in which we express an minor interest. One year it was NKOTB, another sunflowers. More recently stars, but unfortunately I’m still waiting for a new Canon lens.

At an age probably completely inappropriate for the drama that unfolded, I fell in love with Beverly Hills, 90210. I never missed an episode and developed a deep crush on Dylan McKay. (I love you, Luke Perry!) I had a Brandon sweatshirt (she didn’t always get things right), a beach towel (I think it’s still floating around, somewhere) and a calendar/poster that graced my wood-paneled walls for YEARS.

Let’s not tell her I might become addicted to the spinoff. People might point and laugh at the 26-year-old in a 90210: The New Class sweatshirt.

On Notice: NBC and maybe CBS

February 27th, 2008 @ 9:02 pm | Comments (0)
Filed: I heart TV | Tags: ,

Before moving to the City of Brotherly Love, I lived in a northern Virginia suburb for two years. Like Philadelphia, I moved to the city not knowing anyone. I worked for a small company in a small building and was the youngest employee until they hired a 19-year-old receptionist. Friendships were hard to forge because of the transient nature of the area.

About six months after I moved to Virginia, a sorority sister was hired as a teacher and moved within 45 minutes of me. We started getting together a couple of times a week for dinner, but that got expensive, especially when we just received our first “real” jobs and had to pay northern Virginia rents. Eventually we decided to do dinner and a TV show, alternating weeks at each others’ houses. The show? Las Vegas.

Every Monday we would push our culinary skills to the limit and test out new recipes and always included dessert.  NBC moved Las Vegas to Fridays after the first year, so we chose to “Suit up!” with the awesome How I Met Your Mother the following fall. Then the opportunity to advance my career moved me to Philly so our dinner and a TV show nights came to a decidedly non-awesome end.

When I read these articles, I might have shed a tear. Please help save these shows! I find them immeasurably more entertaining than most of the reality and game shows on television these days.  You can slap bet on it!

PS-Check out Barney’s Blog. You won’t be sorry!