One entry a month isn't a bad goal, is it?
So. Here's what's been going on.
1. It's now January 22 and the Dry January Experiment, Part Deux, is going quite well. For those of you who don't know, last year I attempted to stay away from "the drink" for a whole month, and failed utterly. I believe I made it to January 13 or so. What can I say? I was stressed and unhappy about several things around this time last year. Anyway, the fact that I couldn't make it a whole month without resorting to alcohol bothered me more than I'd wanted to admit, so this year I'm trying again. And it's much easier this time around. First of all, I have absolutely no money, so my nightly glass of wine (I'd say my average is about 7-10 total drinks per week, depending on how much partying I do per weekend) isn't really feasible. Secondly, I've rediscovered the joys of all those nonalcoholic drinks I used to enjoy: apple cider, diet pepsi, grapefruit juice, and smoothies (NOT non-alcoholic beer, though - apparently some of them are good, but O'Doul's is just BLAND. Boo, Anheuser-Busch! If you're going to give me an NA beer, at least make it flavorful!). Of course, the price of this experiment is that I've been spending a lot less time with my friends. But you can't have everything. I'll see them during "Binge February".
2. I haven't been a complete hermit, though. Seems like I constantly meet new people lately. They keep asking me what I do, and I must say that I take quite the perverse pleasure in informing them that I don't have a job. Truth is, I keep very busy with temping, freelancing and the like, but.... Well, it takes too long to get into all that.
3. I've taken to flipping out my hair. Guys seem to love the flippage - I've had more men hit on me this week than I have in months. Interesting.
4. I seem to have accepted the fact that there's no baseball at the moment. I don't even miss the Cardinals right now! OK, I did watch the clip of the Pujols Game Five Homer yet again today, but that hardly counts as going through withdrawal.
All that, of course, is vaguely interesting, I suppose, but that isn't really what's going on. My life can be summed up in one word: TELEVISION. Since I consider angua9 to be more or less an authority on all matters (except, of course, baseball team preferences), I took notice when she started raving about this TV show called House. I decided to give it a chance.
(Oh, wait a second. As long as I'm going crazy with the parentheses in this post, I'll toss in a whole parenthetical paragraph. Just for good measure, you know? Anyway, I'd never even HEARD of House until Angua mentioned it on her LJ. This is odd not because I keep tabs on TV shows (I don't at all) but because I spent nearly the entire month of October watching baseball on Fox. There must have been dozens of promos. Dozens! But apparently my baseball tunnel-vision is such that I didn't notice a single one of 'em. Odd.)
On to my point: Man, oh man. I haven't enjoyed a TV show this much since I first discovered Alias. I was trying to explain it to a friend, and settled on the following: Well, it's a medical mystery show. It wouldn't really be that much more interesting to me than CSI, except Hugh Laurie's performance vaults it into a whole different category of fabulous appointment television. What's interesting is that few of the other elements of the show (weekly medical mystery, secondary character development) come close to the perfect characterization and portrayal of House himself. Sexy, brilliant, crippled, charismatic... I think it's safe to say that I like my House almost as much as House himself likes his Vicodin.
So, last week, spin1978 picked his five favorite episodes. I haven't been tagged, but I'm going to be a copycat and do the same nevertheless:
1. Three Stories. I'm not sure that they'll ever match this one. It'll probably always be my favorite, the one that made me jump from highly enjoying House to becoming downright addicted. Similar episodes from some other favorite TV shows: Almost Thirty Years from Alias, Man, This Joint Is Jumping from Homefront, Cigarettes And Alcohol And Rollerblading from Father Ted, The Kipper and the Corpse from Fawlty Towers, A Trip to the Dentist from Veronica Mars, and My Screwup from Scrubs. I don't want to go into the details of just what happens in Three Stories, because if you haven't seen it, it's better not to know anything in advance. But seriously - you want to know why people like House? Watch this one.
2. Pilot. People keep saying House got better as it went along. True. But this was a great start. The kindergarten teacher is my favorite Patient-Of-The-Week of 'em all. (So far.) I'm not quite sure why she appeals to me so much. She's sweet; she's lonely; her case introduces us beautifully to the show's Complicated Case Formula. Possibly I just like her because she seems to be just as fascinated by the elusive Dr. House as we do. And the scene when she finally meets him is brilliantly acted on both sides, as well. And I haven't even started on the concise, clever introductions to Wilson and Cuddy. I just don't get tired of this one.
3. Of Babies and Bathwater. I liked the deviation from the formula in this one, and the characterization was even better. Not only was the pregnant patient Naomi another great fusion of writing and performance, but we got lots of great moments for Cuddy and Wilson, too. I actually watched this one before seeing the other Vogler episodes, so I can't say that seeing the back of him mattered much to me, but it certainly made for a satisfying finish.
4. The Mistake. There was very little I didn't like about this one. Yet again, it differs from the norm. I actually quite enjoy the weekly "No Diagnosis till 9:47" formula - the Aha! moments are so rewarding. But I certainly appreciate the show even better when said formula is subverted, as it is in this episode. We get great House-Stacy interaction (so sue me, I like House with Stacy), incredible continuity, a nice focus on Chase (my request: episodes about Cuddy or Wilson, please!) and did I mention it's hilarious? I can't decide which of House's cracks is funnier: "I'm gay!", or the bit about the glories of foursomes. Or "Fusan!" I'd contextualize, but it's all in the peformance, so why bother?
5. Detox. I'd say something here along the lines of "Will we ever get a performance from Hugh Laurie that tops this one?" but puh-leaze. The man's top-rate every damn week. This one's just the proverbial Oscar clip. I really like the way the Houselings treat House in this episode, too - with almost a condescension towards his addiction and frustration at his screwups. Not at all the norm; I hope they'll play with these relationships even more. (Well, as long as House doesn't date Cameron again. Ew.) And then the whole thing's topped off by brilliant acting by Robert Sean Leonard and Hugh Laurie in the penultimate scene. I guess I'm happiest when House is at his most miserable!
Wow, I'm pretty sure this is my all-time longest LJ post. Apologies for the wordiness!
1. It's now January 22 and the Dry January Experiment, Part Deux, is going quite well. For those of you who don't know, last year I attempted to stay away from "the drink" for a whole month, and failed utterly. I believe I made it to January 13 or so. What can I say? I was stressed and unhappy about several things around this time last year. Anyway, the fact that I couldn't make it a whole month without resorting to alcohol bothered me more than I'd wanted to admit, so this year I'm trying again. And it's much easier this time around. First of all, I have absolutely no money, so my nightly glass of wine (I'd say my average is about 7-10 total drinks per week, depending on how much partying I do per weekend) isn't really feasible. Secondly, I've rediscovered the joys of all those nonalcoholic drinks I used to enjoy: apple cider, diet pepsi, grapefruit juice, and smoothies (NOT non-alcoholic beer, though - apparently some of them are good, but O'Doul's is just BLAND. Boo, Anheuser-Busch! If you're going to give me an NA beer, at least make it flavorful!). Of course, the price of this experiment is that I've been spending a lot less time with my friends. But you can't have everything. I'll see them during "Binge February".
2. I haven't been a complete hermit, though. Seems like I constantly meet new people lately. They keep asking me what I do, and I must say that I take quite the perverse pleasure in informing them that I don't have a job. Truth is, I keep very busy with temping, freelancing and the like, but.... Well, it takes too long to get into all that.
3. I've taken to flipping out my hair. Guys seem to love the flippage - I've had more men hit on me this week than I have in months. Interesting.
4. I seem to have accepted the fact that there's no baseball at the moment. I don't even miss the Cardinals right now! OK, I did watch the clip of the Pujols Game Five Homer yet again today, but that hardly counts as going through withdrawal.
All that, of course, is vaguely interesting, I suppose, but that isn't really what's going on. My life can be summed up in one word: TELEVISION. Since I consider angua9 to be more or less an authority on all matters (except, of course, baseball team preferences), I took notice when she started raving about this TV show called House. I decided to give it a chance.
(Oh, wait a second. As long as I'm going crazy with the parentheses in this post, I'll toss in a whole parenthetical paragraph. Just for good measure, you know? Anyway, I'd never even HEARD of House until Angua mentioned it on her LJ. This is odd not because I keep tabs on TV shows (I don't at all) but because I spent nearly the entire month of October watching baseball on Fox. There must have been dozens of promos. Dozens! But apparently my baseball tunnel-vision is such that I didn't notice a single one of 'em. Odd.)
On to my point: Man, oh man. I haven't enjoyed a TV show this much since I first discovered Alias. I was trying to explain it to a friend, and settled on the following: Well, it's a medical mystery show. It wouldn't really be that much more interesting to me than CSI, except Hugh Laurie's performance vaults it into a whole different category of fabulous appointment television. What's interesting is that few of the other elements of the show (weekly medical mystery, secondary character development) come close to the perfect characterization and portrayal of House himself. Sexy, brilliant, crippled, charismatic... I think it's safe to say that I like my House almost as much as House himself likes his Vicodin.
So, last week, spin1978 picked his five favorite episodes. I haven't been tagged, but I'm going to be a copycat and do the same nevertheless:
1. Three Stories. I'm not sure that they'll ever match this one. It'll probably always be my favorite, the one that made me jump from highly enjoying House to becoming downright addicted. Similar episodes from some other favorite TV shows: Almost Thirty Years from Alias, Man, This Joint Is Jumping from Homefront, Cigarettes And Alcohol And Rollerblading from Father Ted, The Kipper and the Corpse from Fawlty Towers, A Trip to the Dentist from Veronica Mars, and My Screwup from Scrubs. I don't want to go into the details of just what happens in Three Stories, because if you haven't seen it, it's better not to know anything in advance. But seriously - you want to know why people like House? Watch this one.
2. Pilot. People keep saying House got better as it went along. True. But this was a great start. The kindergarten teacher is my favorite Patient-Of-The-Week of 'em all. (So far.) I'm not quite sure why she appeals to me so much. She's sweet; she's lonely; her case introduces us beautifully to the show's Complicated Case Formula. Possibly I just like her because she seems to be just as fascinated by the elusive Dr. House as we do. And the scene when she finally meets him is brilliantly acted on both sides, as well. And I haven't even started on the concise, clever introductions to Wilson and Cuddy. I just don't get tired of this one.
3. Of Babies and Bathwater. I liked the deviation from the formula in this one, and the characterization was even better. Not only was the pregnant patient Naomi another great fusion of writing and performance, but we got lots of great moments for Cuddy and Wilson, too. I actually watched this one before seeing the other Vogler episodes, so I can't say that seeing the back of him mattered much to me, but it certainly made for a satisfying finish.
4. The Mistake. There was very little I didn't like about this one. Yet again, it differs from the norm. I actually quite enjoy the weekly "No Diagnosis till 9:47" formula - the Aha! moments are so rewarding. But I certainly appreciate the show even better when said formula is subverted, as it is in this episode. We get great House-Stacy interaction (so sue me, I like House with Stacy), incredible continuity, a nice focus on Chase (my request: episodes about Cuddy or Wilson, please!) and did I mention it's hilarious? I can't decide which of House's cracks is funnier: "I'm gay!", or the bit about the glories of foursomes. Or "Fusan!" I'd contextualize, but it's all in the peformance, so why bother?
5. Detox. I'd say something here along the lines of "Will we ever get a performance from Hugh Laurie that tops this one?" but puh-leaze. The man's top-rate every damn week. This one's just the proverbial Oscar clip. I really like the way the Houselings treat House in this episode, too - with almost a condescension towards his addiction and frustration at his screwups. Not at all the norm; I hope they'll play with these relationships even more. (Well, as long as House doesn't date Cameron again. Ew.) And then the whole thing's topped off by brilliant acting by Robert Sean Leonard and Hugh Laurie in the penultimate scene. I guess I'm happiest when House is at his most miserable!
Wow, I'm pretty sure this is my all-time longest LJ post. Apologies for the wordiness!