In 2011 I published a story on this site called “The interloper”. In it, a teenaged girl named Jessie falls in love with her best friend Sarah. They eventually break up when Sarah can no longer take the pressure of being queer in high school. Sarah gives Jessie a box of the notes they’ve exchanged […]
Archive for the ‘Television’ category
Tom Lehrer: for The Electric Company and otherwise
Those of you who grew up in the USA in the 70s and had a television more than likely know some of these songs: A decent number of these are permanently burned into my mental harddrive and have been recovered, over the last few years, as Charlie and I have made our way through DVD […]
Weekend recs
The IT Crowd, written by Graham Linehan 2006-2010 The humor in British TV series The IT Crowd is both ridiculous and exceedingly clever. Richard Ayoade and co-star Chris O’Dowd play incurably dorky computer techs Roy and Moss, managed by computer illiterate Jen (Katherine Parkinson), working in the IT department of a huge multinational corporation. Ayoade […]
Weekend recs
Turn Around Bright Eyes, by Rob Sheffield (2013) Part memoir of sweetness and falling in love, part musing meditation on the cultural relevance of ubergods like Rod Stewart and Neil Diamond, part spelunking exploration of the shimmering psyche of why we Must Sing Karaoke. Nobody remembers every second of pop culture and every conversation he […]
Weekend recs
Orange is the New Black (2013- ) Series in the age of Netflix are designed for binge watching, and Orange, about a Smith grad who goes to federal prison, is a prime example. Season I is thirteen episodes and everyone you know has already watched the whole thing, so you might as well power through. The […]
Weekend recs
Orphan Black (BBC America) Want to know why unknown Tatiana Maslany beat out Claire Danes, Vera Farmiga, and Elisabeth Moss this week at the Critics’ Choice Awards? Then beg, borrow, or steal your way to Orphan Black, Season One. Sarah discovers a doppelganger committing suicide by subway. Identity theft leads down a rabbit hole of […]
Brief thoughts on An American Family
Watch Revisit the Loud Family on PBS. See more from An American Family. Today in my Age of Warhol class we talked about the PBS series An American Family (1973), generally regarded as the original reality TV program, which followed the Loud family of Santa Barbara, CA, for seven months in 1971 as it slowly […]
Pretty songs to get you through your winter crushes
So here it is: the second half of mixmas 2012. This is a much more easy-going set of songs. These songs, unlike part one, don't demand running shoes and gas pedals and hurtling velocity. They feel comfortable in a living room. Or on a brisk walk with a hat and gloves. Or with a glass […]
Playlist for Jerry Nelson (1934-2012)
Sometime in the mid 1960s the young puppeteer Jerry Nelson met Jim Henson. They worked together on a couple projects in the late 60s, including a cheeky version of Cinderella that Henson produced for TV, featuring a Muppet he still referred to, in those days, as “Kermit, the frog”: an appositive, with comma and lower-case […]
