Watch It: Fall Television

Television has transitioned from standard weekly shows airing September thru May complete with bi-annual sweeps to a rolling year-round affair crowded by both network and cable television.

Despite new season schedules, non-interrupted airings, and the advent of DVR's, Fall Network is still where it's at. But shows are only as successful as viewers so please, I'm begging you (especially you Nielsen Box Owners...you know who you are), to consider the following:

The Show: CW's "Vampire Diairies"
The Plot: LJ Smith's angst laden YA-vampire books come to television
The Sell: Do I really need to sell vampires these days?

The Show: ABC's "V"
The Plot: A remake of the 80's miniseries (I still get chills thinking about the hot alien chick swallowing the rat) about a sinister alien plot to take over the world!
The Sell: Scott Peters (of 4400 fame) is penning the script. Besides, Battlestar is over. What else you got going on?

The Show: CW's "Body Politic"
The Plot: Jason Dohring (V. Mars Alum!) and Brian Austin Greene (he's back - accept it)
The Sell: Ditto

The Show: Fox's "Masterwork"
The Plot: National Treasure + DaVicini Code Meets Television (the network's words, not mine)
The Sell: In these budget crunching times it makes sense that shows would revert to set work not site work. But Masterwork is actually going global and filming in multiple locales - an authenticity few shows can claim.

The Show: NBC's "Day One"
The Plot: Survivors of a global disaster (to which attractive people are somehow immune judging by the cast) rebuild the human race.
The Sell: Buffy's Xander Berkeley is back on television!!

The Show: NBC's "Parenthood"
The Plot: Remember that 80's movie with Steve Martin, my boyfriend Keanu Reeves, and a young Joaquin Phoenix? Yeah, that.
The Sell: Peter Krause acts and Friday Night Light scribes pen!

Win It: The Most Awesomest Book Coming Out Soon

Ellen Oh is hosting a contest to win a copy of Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix.

I'm not one to make baseless claims. I'm a published statistician for frak's sake - I back up my big mouth. So here's why Silver Phoenix is the shiznit:

1. Asian heroine

Really, that should be enough but I'm feeling generous so:

2. China setting

I know, I know, you're sold. But here's one for the road:

3. Hot author.

Shamelessly gratuitous! But she's also really funny and nice and talented (and will be signing her tome in San Francisco on May 9th at Laurel Heights Book Ends, fyi for those who don't win a copy and need to buy one) so I don't feel badly at all about exploiting her good looks.

See It: Britney Spears in Concert

The Princess of Pop hit my hood today (courtesy of Virgin Mobile judging by the gratuitous advertising during the concert) so I grabbed some buddies and some dinner and made my way to the (literal and figurative) circus.


The Buddies:

Kim and Bill.

Guess which one actually wants to be at the Britney concert and which one is just humoring her boyfriend.
Tidbit: Kim is the namesake of my YA manuscript's science-obsessed heroine!




C and JD!

JD's choking down the venue's overpriced dry excuse for a pretzel.






The Dinner:


Greasy spoon breakfast at a local waffle's joint.








The Act:

Circus Tricks + Britney Moves = GOLD!
Throw in:
Hot Wushu Clan.
Antique Furniture Orgy.

And you have the makings of an awesome night. Plus I got to enjoy this golden oldie.

Need It: Security Blanket

Being on vacation makes you miss the stuff you have at home, the stuff you need by your side or you freak out. Your security blanket. Here's mine:

BOOKS!!!!

I needs 'em. Lots of them. This is the unread pile by my bedside. And this isn't even the pile when it's out of control.

There are lots of subpiles within the pile including:

A set of YA ghost stories. My current manuscript is a ghost story so I've sworn them off until I'm further along in submission to avoid plot-envy. This collection keeps growing. I'm excited about getting to read them!

Nonfiction geeky math stuff. I like math. And geeky stuff. This is also where I pile my Brian Greenes and my Malcolm Gladwells.






You ever buy a book, find out its part of a series, buy the series, then find out there's one more? That's what's going on with me and the Nightwatch Series. One to go. Then I'll take a long weekend and bust through these babies.






Good ol' fashioned women's fiction. I also have a pile of Nick Hornsby which I consider wf.







Stuff I read over and over and over again. Basically Twilight and cookbooks. These are the only re-reads vs un-reads in the pile.







While on vacation, I brought three books with me.
- The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (read it, loved it, review pending)
- What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell (read it, loved it, review pending)
- Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (commandeered by husband for random needs)

Once I read the first two, my security blanket was thinning. So I did what any sensible booklover would do. I ran out and bought:
- Evermore by Alyson Noel (finished it)
- The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (reading it)
- If I Stay by Gayle Forman (next on my list)

Luckily, I made it home before another desperate dash to the bookstore. But clearly I have an emotional (yet healthy?) attachment to the written word.

Watch It: Hannah Montana The Movie - with a 4th grader

If you're going to subject yourself to the marketing mayhem of Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana aka Southern Gal with a Secret Celeb Identity, then take a fourth grader with you.

I had the pleasure of watching the film with my brother's adopted "daugther" while he was busy with a restaurant opening (all part of my aforementioned vacation). Thanks to her, I discovered the pros of mining pop culture phenomenons with the help of their target audience.

I've ventured these waters before, alone or with mostly reluctant adults in all three High School Musical films, a live High School Musical performance, plenty of Jonas Brothers crap, Ashley Tisdale's Cinderella-esque movie, that Drew Seely backed Cinderella tween phenomenon (aptly titled Another Cinderella Story) and other stuff I'm not even going to cop to in public.

Given my obsession with the youth market it's surprising that I haven't:
1. been committed or
2. turned to young adult literature earlier in my writing career

For those of you without children, here's how the experience is different:

1. The child will sing along, out loud, without shame, to every single song. Awesome. Honestly. Why be repressed??? This lack of self consciousness is what I'm all about.

2. The child will cry at all the same parts you cry at but previously would have tried to hide. Now, with tangental crying approval, you can just let it out. You know the parts - the whole heartfelt talk with grandma/dad/best friend about fitting in/your dead mom/whatever.

3. You'll get over the creepy underlying message of the movie. That (spoiler time) small towns trump big time development - but only with the help of Hollywood celebrity. That it's okay to be yourself...unless your other self is an uber popular celebrity - then you should go with the celebrity. Really - you'll be sitting there with the fourth grader and you'll realize she isn't taking away those messages the way you are. Because she just wants to sing and look at the clothes. The same way you rewatch all your childhood films and find new references to swearing, drug use and sex that flew by you the first time.

So you chill out and enjoy. Sure, you're a responsible adult but you can also be a silly kid at heart. To steal Hannah's phrase, it's the best of both worlds.

Had One: Fender Bender

In addition to the "dent in my book pile" that I was hoping to get out of this vacation (see prior post), I also now have a dent in my car.

My mother, while backing out of her driveway, ran her crash-proof-superior SUV into my poor, lowly little Prius because she "forgot" I was in town.

I can't even be surprised, because the year before, in this same town, my brother ran his (thankfully weak piece of crap) car out of his driveway and into my car because he "forgot" about it, too. Even though he had been INSIDE my car when I parked it behind his car less than an hour earlier.

The moral of the story - I am utterly forgettable.

Take One: Vacation

I'm off for one blissful week of relaxation!! Well, that's not entirely true. Due to "the economy" I am vacationing in the lakefront community where my family and in-laws live.

This involves

- staying at my mom's place, which she's renovating, so I'll probably end up cleaning or running errands or checking on her friends' taxes (the latter has nothing to do with renovating)

- seeing family including my bro who is launching a sports bar this week so I'll probably also end up food prepping

From their perspective, my mom now feels obligated to ensure I'm fed and my brother has to try to work in sibling time during a critical phase in his business. What a pain in the butt for them, too.

I think we all know family vacations (Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas) are never truly as relaxing as non-family vacations.

But that's not gonna stop me from connecting with a handful of old friends, getting in some casino time with my grandmother-in-law who likes her some gambling, and making a dent in my book pile. Look what's coming with me!

Watch It: Kittens and Puppies

A cornucopia of live streaming adorability.

Productivity be damned.

Update: These were the channels that were live when I was first watching and they'll go up and down during the day, but visit Ustream and search for active channels at any time!

Online video chat by Ustream

Live TV by Ustream

Want It: Vivienne Tam Laptop

There's a time to be frugal and a time to be fashionable and this is the latter.

I've been denying myself this laptop (hells, yeah that's a laptop, people, not a cute clutch) ever since Cat Seto's Shopfriends Blog pimped it on March 3rd. That means I've waited a month, and I still want it so I should get it. Right???

List It: 20 Books That Stick

Growing up, I had hundreds of books (maybe even thousands? back me up, dad) and every time I moved my parents made me donate my newly accumulated gems to charity. Which may explain my deep seated resentment of charity. Kidding. Not. Kind of. No, really.

Anyhoo, I managed to smuggle my favorite books from my past into my present and they cumulatively, along with a few newfound loves, compose that list of books - you know the one - books you'd have to rip from my cold, dead, rigor mortis set fingers. So I thought I'd use that list for this viral blog thing to list 20 book keepers. Take up the torch on your own blogs!

1. Jane Eyre
2. Persuasion
3. Hunger Games
4. Just As Long As We're Together
5. The Trumpet of the Swan
6. Ballet Shoes
7. Ender's Game
8. Say Godnight Gracie
9. The Giver
10. Forever
11. The Lovely Bones
12. The Time Traveller's Wife
13. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
14. Dogs of Babel
15. The Sparrow
16. Heidi
17. The Secret Garden
18. Interpreter of Maladies
19. The Neverending Story
20. The Pilot's Wife

Sure, I've kept countless other books. Dune. Black Like Me. The works of Kafka, Allende, Alice Walker, and Marquez. Shakespeare's collections. HG Wells. Practically every novel written by Anne Tyler, Jodi Picoult and the rest of Anita Shreve's colection. Plenty of Neil Gaiman. Children's classics by Susan Cooper and JK Rowling. The Twilight saga. I love me some books.

But the list of 20 differs because not only do I reread the works, when I first read each story it was like discovering something amazing for the first time. A new voice. A concept. I still get a tingly feeling when I think about these stories.

It's only now, as I study the list, that I realize how many of my favorite stories are children's or YA and I wish I'd known it before!

Download It: You're The Voice

I'm a child of the 80's. I escaped, unscathed, from fan-bangs, doubling up neon socks and tagging white acid-wash jeans. But I'm a sucker for the music. Every synthesized note.

You're The Voice rules whether you can find the original John Farnham recording (damn you, Itunes for not carrying it) or any of its covers (David Foster works in a pinch but Heart's not bad, either).



You won't be able to resist the catchy chorus.

Listen to it in public. Sing along. There's no shame.

Be One: A Sucker

A list of April Fool's Jokes I totally fell for:

1. They greenlit a Veronica Mars movie

2. Drama on the set of Twilight

3. Gmail does my email

4. My business card company goes green

5. My friend Grace is pregnant

What can I tell you - I'm a trusting gal. And I really, really, really want a Veronica Mars movie. Really.