The Representatives

There are a lot of temperamental things in my life, like my involvement in my OWN blogging challenge, but something I count on to be great is Amy Poehler's NBC comedy "Parks and Recreation". I plan to watch it with Jenna and Josephine in real time when we're neighbors next year. Hopefully, it will gross us out less than Big Love.

Around the time Albee Grant was uttering "Round up all the dogs. Poison them", we were realizing that Big Love was not really an Us kind of a show. In contrast, Parks and Rec is the perfect Roz-Jenna-Josephine program, for its empowered female characters, affectionate mockery of the Hoosier state, and consistently hilarious one-liners.

Or so I thought! I'd been talking this show up to Adrian non-stop, which is why I was actually kind of excited when he showed up 6 minutes in to the Season 3 episode "Harvest Fest". I was pretty put out afterward, upon realizing that I had just screened the worst episode of Parks and Rec ever. Did this bad representation of my favorite show badly represent me?

I stressed about this intermittently for about 19 hours, until I went out for breakfast at Village Deli with Adrian today and sat next to -literally- the cutest kid at Y Camp. "Wow!" he said. "I didn't know you were here!"
"Me neither!" I replied gratefully. "But it's good to see you." Dollface's dad and I exchanged smiles, and I returned to my french toast, confident that via this shortstack-munching ambassador, my image had been restored. Thank god it wasn't the kid who kept correcting my gesturing during the Explorer song. That would have been disastrous.

Ok Ok

Been slacking on MY OWN challenge, but on Wednesday GoddessMom reviewed every movie I saw last week. Also, last week was the first week of camp!

I will probably refrain from blogging individual campers, because I am afraid of being reprimanded.

Suffice to say,

they are all very odd.

Can't blog until I make my schedule for tomorrow. One sec.

Second Wednesday Movie Review!!!

I have to act fast, 'Sphere, before Laney comes to take me to the swimming pool.

Administrative matters presiding: an official Rock-on-Roll apology to my bro and fellow June challenge participant ProntoPup, who I just noticed was until now not on my blog roll. That was awkwardly composed. I didn't just wake up and notice that he was all of a sudden on the blog roll. I also didn't just wake up; it's 2 in the afternoon!

Truth be told, I watched almost nothing this week that could be called a movie by modern convention. I could review another music video, or make like Em-Dex and review something from the summer book list (Visit from the Goon Squad = dece but not that satisfying, Golden Gate = poignant and delightful, Death of A Salesman = well, you know). But as the Challenge Coordinator, I sort of feel like I should follow through with the original criterion.

Well, whatever. I will just review Episode 3 of The Bachelorette: Season 7, since judging by the search terms in my stats, that franchise generates all my non-friend traffic. Episode 3 is like a movie in that it is 90+ minutes long and completed scripted. HEY-OOOO!!!

Burn! But seriously. I've long speculated that B and B'ette are among the most manicured "reality" shows, but this season's really taking the cake. The departure of Evil Guy "Bentley" (if that really is your name), rife with self-congratulations on being the first contestant ever who "played everyone", annoyance at "girls who just never stop crying" voiced over images of a tenderly comforted Ashley, and particularly disturbing appeals to his (certifiably real?) five year-old daughter, all but confirms our suspicious that Chris Harrison's dictating more than the final rose each night.

Which sucks! Because it's way more fun to speculate that a show is staged than to know it. This over-the-top intervention has soured the third week of Ashley's journey. Those producers! What liars. Isn't this about finding TRUE love?

Animals

Some people do not put a lot of stock in dreams. Those people are fools.

My reasons for this (beyond a sentimental and probably unfeminist affection for Freud inherited from my brilliant Grandma Rae) include but are not limited to

1. The fact (and this 1 is cool) that GoddessMom and I both have recurring unpleasant dreams about animals in our care that are in an inappropriate situation, like a giant squid stuffed in a fish bowl or a sea lion in a children's pool.
2. Isn't that enough for you people? #TeamDreamGenes.

I can't remember my animal dream last night, but I know it happened because I woke up thinking about it. I was probably asking for it because last night I walked around with Adrian sort of late in a quiet, residential part of Bloomington and we came up with a list of Most Terrifying Animals to Appear from the Shadows in Park Ridge East.

Including but not limited to
-a wolf
-a rhino
-a polar bear
-a panther
-a giant alligator that would crawl towards us and stop two feet ahead, mouth agape.

Watched a lot of Toddlers and Tiaras today

I am remembering that as a preschooler, I wanted to be in beauty pageants and thought they were cool.

I don't know if I mentioned this to anyone or not.

I am wondering, why enter a 2 year-old in a beauty pageant?
But, I'm not tryna judge. There are a lot of ways to raise great kids.

And a lot of ways to be a feminist!
BITCH magazine's 15th anniversary issue has a great feature on Mormon feminism. To Mormon feminists, I say, way to go!

To Pageant Moms, I say, do what you gotta do.

First Wednesday Movie Review

Reviewing movies makes me feel antsy. I bet you all think I am going to review "Bridesmaids", the movie I watched in a theater last week. I bet you think I'm going to talk about the politics of women writing and starring in Judd Apatow movies. I bet you think I'm going to talk about the intersection of comedy, femininity and weight in relation to the somewhat revolutionary, generally empowering and altogether hilarious character Megan, superbly portrayed by Melissa McCarthy (SavvyMom may know her as Sookie St. James from G-Girls). I bet you think I am going to share my own anxieties about someday having a wedding, and whether or not it will be hosted at local science museum WonderLab.

Actually, I am going to review a music video called "Swag City: Population Me".

This video is very great! It features 1 of my brother Quinn's musical projects, Rattle Snake and the Church of Fresh Beets. (Quinn plays bass). I always feel weird writing non-readers' names on my blog, but you can see the credits at the youtube page and will agree that everyone involved in this video deserves kudos. The song itself is great, and I laugh every time I see the rapper who isn't Rattle Snake jettison off into space. I also like it when Quinn is called "Quinntessential".

The wild part is, this vid is going semi-viral. When I started this blog post, it had 1,550 views after being up for less than four days. Half an hour later, it has 1,563 views. There's also an active comment discussion, though Quinn tells me the band knows all participants personally except a handful who've chimed in with slurs. Make no mistake, I'm no fan of slurs of any kind, but I do shake my head in amazement at the amount of circulation they almost assuredly imply. If people you don't know are watching your video and tearing it down, that must be good, right?

Anyway. I've watched it a ton of times.