Kat with a K

Morning Coffee (10/29/10)

Happy Friday! This week went... quickly, actually. Huh. Has everyone recovered from The Vampire Diaries last night? Tonight I'll be running a live chat about The Good Guys over at GoodGuysFans.com, so if you're watching, come chat with us!

I'm sure we've all heard about Gawker's ridiculous Christine O'Donnell thing, right? I'm not giving them the satisfaction of linking to it. Leave a comment if you have no idea what I'm talking about and actually want to know. Hah. I was also pretty unhappy with Jezebel's response. But very happy with the dozens of really good Twitter responses. So.

Maureen Johnson has REVEALED SECRETS about her upcoming books. I cannot wait.

The Greek yogurt phenomenon is pretty interesting.

This piece about why Halloween and New Year's are awful is somewhat New York-specific, but I sympathized with it anyway. Oh the pressure!

The Fug Girls Herald TV's Most Unheralded Actors

And the best flow chart in the history of ever: How to Explain the Internet to a Dickensian Street Urchin

Morning Coffee (10/28/10)

Oh, hey, it's Thursday already! That seems to have happened suddenly.

Why would anyone commit voter fraud? and The voter fraud racket is back!

The Marie Claire editor responds. The Internet is unimpressed.

Joe Miller is in trouble for lying about accessing his staff's computers to vote more than once in his own online poll, but as some (forget who, sorry) on Twitter pointed out, the crazy thing is that he didn't manage to just rig his own site.

We know concussions are bad for football players. Now: minor hits: also bad. Great.

Oh, I don't have a link, but if you care, Caprica was cancelled.

Song of the Day: "Sparks Fly"

I'm working on a review of the whole album, but I woke up with this one in my head, so...

Morning Coffee (10/27/10)

Oh, hi! I have a blog! Right! So... here's the deal. NaNoWriMo starts on Monday, so I'm currently trying to get various things squared away before that. During NaNo, blogging will likely be reduced - I'll try to keep up with Morning Coffee (with NaNo updates) and Song of the Day, but no promises about anything else, at least not every day. And then I'll reassess my posting schedule when we get to December. I want to work on writing more longer posts, which probably means fewer shorter posts, and... well, we'll see.

I assume we've all heard about the ridiculous Marie Claire "overweight people are gross and shouldn't be on TV" thing, but if not, here's the original article and here's Jezebel's take.

KITTEN BOMB OF CUTENESS. (Although, really, if there's someone next door who rescues cats - maybe someone was trying to leave them THERE?)

What happened to the Newsweek/Daily Beast merger?

Fox News and gold

Morning Coffee (10/21/10)

Happy Thursday! Today is going to be endless, but it's also my Friday, so I shouldn't complain. Too much.

Oh look! NPR finally got rid of Juan Williams! And that's . . . really the only part of today's news that I feel like mentioning. The rest is depressing and more of the same.

Morning soundtrack: AC/DC, Back in Black

The Stewart/Colbert rally is bad for democracy and the Democrats.

About the much-discussed Glee GQ cover: I pretty much agree with the Fug Girls. I do not agree with all the people blaming Lea Michele personally. And Dianna Agron herself has some interesting thoughts on the subject.

Was The Black Cauldron movie really that bad?

The President is going to be on the Daily Show!

Yes, the use of the name Megan on Mad Men was anachronistic.

Vampire Diaries fans: the CW is developing a new show based on different books by the same author.

Documentary Recommendation: God in America

On Sunday, I found myself completely sucked into the entire six-hour run of PBS's God in America. This sort of thing isn't for everyone, of course, but if you'd at all interested in American history or religious studies or sociology, I highly recommend you check it out. (You can watch it online and find all sorts of accompanying resources here.) It traces the way that religion has played a role in major events of American history from the first interactions between the native peoples and Spanish missionaries all the way through this summer's Koran-burning and "Ground Zero mosque" controversies. The broad outlines, of course, will be familiar to anyone who's been paying attention, but it's presented well and had enough new-to-me information to keep me intrigued. Did you know that Hearst ordered his publications to make Billy Graham into a celebrity as a way to fight Communism, for example? That story was fascinating.

The film has a good mix of expert commentary and reenactments based on primary sources. Stephen Prothero, one of my favorite writers on religious issues, comments throughout, and I have to mention that he's not at all hard to look at. Other names I knew popped up from time to time - Mary Beth Norton, Amy Sullivan. I would have preferred that they give more time to some religious events that were less directly tied to major historical events - the Mormons were only mentioned in passing (perhaps because they did a whole documentary on Mormonism already), and I don't think the Salem Witch Trials came up at all. Still, it was cohesive, informative, and surprisingly watchable.

Song of the Day: "Roll Over Beethoven"

Chuck Berry week continues...

What I Watched Last Night (10/20/10)

Better With You, "Better With Fighting" - So we're doing this "every episode starting with 'Better With'" thing, are we? Sigh. I actually laughed out loud a few times at this episode! I think it's quietly becoming one of my favorite new shows.

Sister Wives, "A Fourth Wife to Be" & "Four Wives and Counting . . ." - Wedding episodes! Man, this is fascinating. I hope there will actually be another season. The women all seem really nice and fun and I kind of think they should just get rid of the guy, but . . .

Private Practice, "Short Cuts" - I'd been sort of putting off watching this show because it's gotten so ridiculous, but of course I enjoyed it. Even when the plots are ridiculous, the emotions and interactions feel very real. And I love the addition of Derek's sister Amelia this season.

Morning Coffee (10/20/10)

Happy Wednesday! Please make sure you saw my post about Spirit Day earlier this morning. It's important. Related good news: military recruiters are, for the moment, accepting gay recruits.

PSA, because I've been getting lots of questions: Yes, Gossip Girl and Glee were both reruns this week. Vampire Diaries is back tomorrow, but Bones and Fringe are off.

Clarence Thomas's wife has asked Anita Hill to apologize. Um, okay. In other news of everyone connected to the Supreme Court being incredibly mature, Alito doesn't want to go to the next State of the Union.

Morning soundtrack: Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More

Christine O'Donnell: Unaware that the separation of church and state is in the Constitution.

Wondering how NBC and MSNBC will be covering Election Night? Wonder no more. (ABC, of course, will be too busy announcing the Skating with the Stars cast during Dancing with the Stars that night.)

The adorable little drummer kid from Love, Actually is all grown up and playing Paul McCartney in Nowhere Boy.

Wear Purple Today!

(I know, a post before Morning Coffee! Shocking! But I wanted to get as many people as possible before they left the house for the day.)

Today, October 20, is GLAAD Spirit Day. Wear purple to show support against bullying of LGBT teens. (There's Twitter and Facebook stuff going on too.) Read more about it here, and if you need help right now, call The Trevor Project or The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Song of the Day: "You Never Can Tell'

What I Watched Last Night (10/19/10)

How I Met Your Mother, "Architect of Destruction" - Oh, show! I've missed you! And with this episode, it felt like you were back to your old self! This was a thoroughly enjoyable episode. The characterization was good and it was funny, and too often this show only hits one or the other of those notes.

NOVA, "Secrets of the Parthenon" - I realized part way through that I'd actually seen this before, but I watched it anyway, because, you know, Greeks! Recommended for anyone interested in ancient Greece or in restoration of historical structures.

Morning Coffee (10/19/10)

Happy Tuesday. How is it almost late October already? Crazy. I am eating my first bowl of Count Chocula for the season, so there's that.

It sounds the like the gubernatorial debate in New York was kind of hilarious. Check out the Rent Is Too Damn High Party. Warning: Their song starts playing when you open the page. But also - HEE.

Less hilarious: Joe Miller (Senate candidate in Alaska) is now having his private security guards "arrest" reporters.

In better news: Counting Crows' Adam Duritz has been watching Supernatural and tweeting about it, and it's pretty awesome.

In "downfall of civilization" news: Outsourced has been picked up for a full season, while Friday Night Lights reruns can't even make it on ABC Family. (Also getting full seasons: The Event and Law and Order: LA. The V order was cut from 13 to 10.)

Gwyneth Goes Country?

I know this is for her new movie, which actually looks fairly decent - Leighton Meester! - but it's still vaguely baffling. I mean, there is clearly some sort of GOOP joke to be made here, right? It's a . . . somewhat inconsistent career vision, it seems. The song itself isn't particular memorable, but it isn't wildly awful, either, so there's that.