Guilty Pleasures.
Last night at The Meltdown, the topic was “guilty pleasures”, and after Jonah and Kumail talked about their own guilty pleasures, they opened it up to the audience. It was a beautiful, confessional outpouring (Bad Girls Club! Conservative talk radio!), and it inspired me to make a list of all my guilty pleasures.
- Sweet Valley High/Sweet Valley Middle School books (Yes, I bought the reboot, Sweet Valley Confidential, and yes, I loved it)
- Marshmallows (it’s amazing how many you can get in your mouth)
- The movie 300
- America’s Next Top Model, anytime it is on
- When I can’t sleep, I’ll use my Blackberry to read the most horrific news stories possible. Murder, torture, just the worst stuff. Usually that paralyzes me into passing out again, and then the next day I tell Kumail about all of them, which causes him to call me a “Bad News Bear”
- The soundtrack to Lost Boys
- Crime reports in my neighborhood
- Imitation crab meat
These are mine, what are yours?
American Horror Story.
I’m fairly discerning when it comes to the television I watch, and extra discerning when it comes to horror. It’s my jam. So please listen to me when I unequivocally, absolutely insist that you should be watching American Horror Story on FX.
I feel the need to tell you to watch this show because I hated the ad campaign for it “ooooh, a gimp touching a pregnant woman, how freeeeeaky!”, proclaimed it to be terrible, and therefore avoided it at all costs. But after some cajoling from a friend, I watched the pilot, and I realized that they marketed it all wrong:
American Horror Story is the cheesiest, frothiest soap opera on earth, put in a sack with disturbing imagery, amazingly insane dialogue, and some blood and gore.
And who doesn’t love that?
Here’s the story in a nutshell- a family of three heads cross country to escape two tragedies that nearly ripped them apart (a miscarriage and affair, and I’m not spoiling anything), and they move into a house where murders have happened. Add on the most spectacular twisted, aging, Southern belle character (Jessica Lange), her Down Syndrome-affected daughter, and a maid that shapeshifts, and you know basically all you need to know. For now.
There are genuine moments of fear, genuine gross out moments, some gratuitous masturbation scenes, and some very real emotional turmoil happening within the family. Plus a creeping sense of wanting to know what the FUCK is going on in this bizarro Los Angeles the show inhabits. Even though the world doesn’t feel real, it feels fleshed out enough that I feel comfortable visiting it. It reminds me of my childhood watching Twin Peaks with my Mom, and how we’d just stare at each other at the end of each episode and wish it was next week already. It may not be sophisticated as Twin Peaks, it may stuff a million tricks into each episode, and some of the dialogue may feel insanely written, but that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I can enjoy cheap entertainment. What matters to me is that I have high fived while several times while watching it, and that when it’s over, I want it to begin again.
(Small note: Kudos to the show creators for not making the “disturbed young man” character into a goth kid in all black and trench coats. He’s fantastic just the way he is, and much creepier for not looking so obviously creepy.)
Gynomite’s Reading Room!
New York Times has a parenting blog called Motherlode. Huffington Post (who I work for and love) just made a parenting blog called Parentlode, rendering the cleverness of the original blog useless and confusing everyone. Also, NYT is suing them. Come on guys, Parentlode? That makes negative sense.
What the Victoria’s Secret Angels do to get physically ready for their annual fashion show. Holy shit.
Here’s an interesting post at LA Times about the double-edged sword of having a sitcom built around babies, because in truth, parenting is boring to watch. And stressful.
ONTD collected some of the worst cover songs on earth. George Michael’s cover of True Faith is one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever heard.
A mom in England is recreating iconic movie scenes with her infant son Arthur. Go get charmed.
John Creese is the best at looking at things scornfully. Via The High Definite.
This is an email I just got.
Lionsgate will be releasing Season Three of Tyler Perry’s award winning comedy series Meet the Browns to DVD on November 22nd, along with the DVD/Blu-ray Debut of Perry’s first ever holiday play Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas (The Play)! 2011 NAACP Image Award winner David Mann stars in the show along with his wife Tamela along with Tyler Perry veterans Lamman Rucker, Denise Boutte and Juanita Jennings. The show follows the Brown family as they run “Brown Meadows” – a retirement home that started as a complete misunderstanding – and deal with the trials, tribulations and laughter that comes with it.
Please let me know if you’re interested in checking out a copy for coverage, or if you’d like an interview, and I’ll be happy to arrange.
Gynomite’s Reading Room!
I love love love this collection of movie posters that shows just how unoriginal we can be. My favorite is Tiny People On the Beach, Giant Heads in the Clouds.
A brand new Indoor Kids is up! Go listen to Kumail and I talk to Steve Heisler about skipping from SNES to XBox 360!
I love Rich (of FourFour), I love his ANTM recaps, and I especially love his take on Internet sensations after this week’s episode:
I’m so fucking bored with Internet sensations. If pop culture is largely shit, Internet sensations are flies on dung. If pop culture isn’t largely shit, Internet sensations are flies on dung.
Read more of his rant here.
Jenny Fine is a) the star of the amazing Nathan Barnatt video that I love so much, b) a NerdMelt Intern, and c) an amazing illustrator. I had been posting her comics that relate to NerdMelt on NerdMeltLA.com, but I was scrolling through the rest of them, and I love them. I love them so much. Please check out the comic below and see many more at JFineOriginal.
Cosplay.
Video taken at Comikaze Expo by me, but inspired by Mo, Dominic, and Ricky as we stood in line for tacos.
Pictures from my life.
Me being threatened by Pyramid Head at Comikaze Expo!
From @jackydanshow- that’s me on the top as a zombie!
Gynomite’s Reading Room!
You can be part of Dark Knight Rises, from the comfort of your own home!
Oh jesus this is genius from xoJane about women in comic books. What’s So Sexy About a Broken Spine?
Stupid women- we can’t even drink water correctly! From Hairpin.
Scott Thompson of Kids in the Hall on gay bullying: grow a pair.
The most common professions of people in romantic comedies- Screen Junkies.
I thought vampires weren’t supposed to age? Spike from Buffy, over at Buzzfeed.
Good lord, this Stephen Malkmus video is dark.
Also, it stars my pal DC Pierson, who I will smack next time I see him for not telling me about this IMMEDIATELY.
I’ll be at Comikaze Expo this weekend if you want to see my face!
If you live in LA and have a yen to see me behind a table talking about things, I’m going to be in two panels at this weekend’s Comikaze Expo!
