"Can We Talk About...?" 'Glee'

If you haven't heard about Glee then you've been living under a rock.

I'm sorry to be harsh, but it's true.

Honestly, I can't believe that it has taken me this long to write about since I've probably watched the Sneak Peek Premiere episode about 10 times since it aired. Not kidding. And it's also currently sharing the throne with several other television series that are my favorites even though only one episode has aired thus far.

It aired on May 19th after the American Idol season finale and the rest of the season will continue on Fox "in the fall". The only reason I'm using quotes there is because I don't know the exact date in the fall it will be starting up. Personally, I hope that Fox's version of "in the fall" means "next monday" but I'm pretty sure that's what they call "wishful thinking".

Anyway, you've been reading this and you're probably thinking, "Laura, get to the point. Why should I watch this show? Why is it so apparently awesome?" Well, let me lay it out for you.

1) It's Not High School Musical
Whatever you think Glee might be, it's not. And I know lots of people who think it's going to be like High School Musical. But in those movies, characters have been known to break into song for absolutely no reason. With this show there's a reason for the music: the Glee Club. Also, the music in Glee is about 10 kajillion times better than HSM. In the premiere alone: 'Respect', 'Rehab' and 'Don't Stop Believing'. And believe me, I can't stop listening to the show's version of 'Don't Stop Believing'. It's incredible. Which brings me to my next point...

2) A Talented Cast
Most of the cast in HSM are marginally talented (kind of. Personally I think nails being scratched on a black board is preferable to Vanessa Hudgen's so-called singing) but the cast of Glee is WAY WAY talented. When you listen to the show's reditions of the songs mentioned above, that's the cast singing. There's no stand-ins or lipsynching to another singer's voice. Nope. That's their singing. Lea Michele, who plays Rachel Berry, has the most gorgeous voice of the cast (IMHO). She was in my favorite musical, Spring Awakening, as the lead Wendla and in the show she sings a song from Les Mis called 'On My Own' and it literally has given me chills every time I have watched the premiere episode.

3) Interesting Characters
OK, sure. You've got two of the high school standards: The Betchy Cheerleader and the Cool Quarterback. But they're with a twist. The Betchy Cheerleader is also the president of the Celibacy Club and the Cool Quarterback wants to sing and can play the drums. But there's also the cast of misfits that is the Glee club; Emma Pillsbury, the teacher who's a germiphobe but also has a huge crush on Will Schuester, (the lead adult) who's the spanish teacher but really wants to turn the Glee club around. The cheerleading coach, Sue, is coniving and enjoys the fame that the Cheerios (that's the name of the cheerleading team) have brought upon her. My personal favorite is Will's wife, Terry, who I am pretty sure is ligimately crazy.

4) A Good Message
I'm going to get cheesy for a moment, so prepare yourself. The message that this show is sending (so far) seems to be a pretty good one. It's all about being true to who you are instead of what other people expect you to be. Like Rachel says to Finn (who's the Quarterback, by the way) "You need to stop caring what other people think of it. You're better than all of them." The show is about fighting and working for your dream and what you believe in. And when they sing 'Don't Stop Believing' at the end of the episode, it's a really frigging uplifting moment.

Is that still not enough to convince you? Watch this:



Have I got your attention now?

Now, hurry over to Hulu and give it a watch. Of course, if you're not in the States, you'll need to find some other means to do so. Please? I'll mean a lot to me. Thank you.

xoxo

I am not a Trekkie, but...

...the new Star Trek movie was really freaking good. It was one of those movies that I had been anticipating for a really long time because of the trailer and I was not disappointed by its awesomeness. I kind of can't wait to go watch it again.

There were several reasons why I liked this movie, but I'm just going to mention the two that everyone seems to be talking about (with good reason) before moving on to why I, personally, loved this movie.

The awesome young crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

First, is the cast. J.J. Abrams picked a stellar cast that just meshed together so well. Chris Pine did a fantastic job playing the young badass Kirk and Zachary Quinto was a great Spock. I don't think I've seen greater facial control in an actor, ever.

Second, I was never bored. There was a fight scene right from the get go, and the pace never slowed up, so there was always something to think about in every single scene. I don't think my mind deviated from the story line at all because it couldn't. The amount of action never let it.
However, the real reason I loved this movie so much is not because of the cast or the writing. It was the effects. This movie reminded me why I want to be a special effects artist.

There's this one part, that can be seen in the trailer, where a planet consumes itself and it's probably the coolest effect in the whole movie. It's definitely the part where I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing as I took in visual effects marvel before me on the screen, then when it was done, the breathing started again with a whispered, "fucking cool".

See, told you it was really fucking cool.

Yesterday, I wasn't watching a movie. I was actually in space. On the USS Enterprise. Where there were laser gun fights, and black holes and a planet consumed itself before my very eyes. Forget the whole "suspension of disbelief" thing. Disbelief was crumpled into a ball, set on fire, then thrown out a window 40 stories up into the ocean where it sunk to the bottom where it will never be heard from ever again.

Live long and prosper, my friends.

Nicole, out.

do you dailybooth? i do.

as you may know by now, I really like any sort of site that lets you socialize and (essentially) pimp yourself out to other people (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Et cetera). Recently, I really like dailybooth.com. The homepage of the site explains it best: "Your picture, your face, every day for years. Beautiful, right? Not only that, get your own gorgeous widgets and fleet of social features - free." So you take a picture of yourself every day (or, since I usually forget, ALMOST everyday) for a year and then you can see your evolution. Cool, right? And then you can follow your favorite people (for me, YouTubers).

Here's my widget. I suggest that you check out this social site. It's pretty cool.

Just a Thought...

The following occurred to me while watching "Return of the Jedi" just now.


I'm just sayin'.

The person who made this is ACTUALLY A GENIUS.
Too bad it wasn't me who made it.
And I also don't know the person who made it.
Major LULz.

the four point oh continues?

that's right folks. I PWN all with all the A's that appeared on my grade report.

Including the incredible A+ that was marked beside the class "Career Preparation" which I was certain I was going to have to repeat. But I guess not.

But I know that marks mean nothing in the "real working world". But whatever. It still pleases me.

On another note: Pat and Chelsea got me the most AMAZING gift EVER. Pictured below.

Happy holidays!

sometimes I show some level of artistic talent...

Doodles :)


Listening to:
Time is Running Out - Muse

absolutely LEGENDARY

i am constantly under the impression that more people should be watching CBS's How I Met Your Mother, which quite simply is the best sitcom on television that has a laugh track.

Not only does Bob effing Saget provide the voice over for the main character Ted, but Neil Patrick Harris is one of the principal characters on the show. Also, this show has great potential to provide popular culture with sweet catch phrases that trumps the likes of "YOU'RE FIRED!" and "That's hot!"

I was upset by the fact that not many people I know have been watching it, so I recruited my sister into watching it, who in turn recruited her boyfriend into watching it. And recently, some of my friends have started watching it too. So at least I don't feel so lonely anymore when I say things like "LEGENDARY" or "Haaaave you met Ted?"

My favorite episode, by far, has been the Slap Bet episode in which Barney and Marshall make a bet and the wager is that the winner gets to slap the loser as hard as they possibly can.

As I said, this show has great potential to have an effect on popular culture.

I wouldn't go as far to call this show a "cult hit", but I don't know many people who watch this show despite the fact that it's currently in it's fourth season of being on the air.

Another really cool thing that show does is it draws you into the world of the show by making things that they mention actually exist. Such as the following websites that are mentioned in a couple of the episodes:

http://tedmosbyisajerk.com/
http://guyforceshiswifetodressinagarbagebagforthenextthreeyears.com/
http://marshallandlilyselltheirstuff.com/

If you haven't watched it, you probably should. That is, if you're a fan of good television and good comedy. It's awesome, legendary and you don't even have to suit up to go and watch it.


Also see the fan-blog:
http://have-you-met-ted.com/

EDIT:
My friend Amanda reminded me of another thing that makes the show so incredible. They brought back the HIGH FIVE. And not just your general high five. The specialty high fives - my favorite among them being the Freeze Frame Five. How can you go wrong with a show where the characters are giving each other high fives all the time? Answer: You can't.

three reasons why you should watch NBC's The Office (if you aren't already)

If you're not watching the new season of NBC's The Office, why the heck not? And don't say it's because it's on at the same time as Grey's Anatomy on ABC. I mean, sure, they may have McDreamy but do they have John Krasinski -- the best looking and funniest normal guy on television? I don't think so.

So if you're wishy washy about wanting to watch The Office, here's three reasons why you should run to your local video store and rent the first three seasons of the most awesome show on television.

1. Michael Scott
I honestly can't think of a more awkward, funny character on television. Sometimes he's just so awkward that it's painful to watch. But Michael Scott is just so genuinely a goofball even though he screws up and tries to hard that it's just hard to dislike this character. You can tell that he really likes his staff and he just wants to be friends with these people, even if they don't want to be friends with him.
Steve Carell is such a talented actor and comedian that he very successfully pulls off this goofy character. You have to give him massive props for staying in character so well and not cracking up from half the lines that Michael has (though if you watch the blooper reel on the DVD for season 4, you'll see that he does crack up a lot. But you can't really help it sometimes). Steve just has this irresistable charm that he brings to the screen and to his character that it would honestly be a shame if you missed his performance.

2. Pam and Jim
The most talked about aspect of the show is the "will-they-won't-they" storyline between Pam and Jim. And honestly, it was this storyline about how they like each other but can't do anything about it that got me hooked on the show.
Add that to the fact that both actors are very good looking and John Krasinski and Jenna Fisher just make such an adorable pair on screen that it's very hard to look away.
John does a fabulous job playing the supposed slacker who constantly plays pranks on his office-mate, Dwight (stapler suspended in jell-o, anyone?) and finds the things his boss does to be both humous and exasperating.
Jenna is fantastic playing the office receptionist who is constantly looked down upon by her boss Michael, who doesn't really believe that she's a member of the office team so much as a good looking personal assistant at times.
The chemistry that John and Jenna have on the screen is explosive and if the characters were real people, I would love to be friends with them. Hell, I'd love to be friends with the real people who portray them anyway because both the characters and the actors just seem to be such smart, cool people.

3. Dwight and Angela
Rainn Wilson is amazing. I can't even begin to tell you how amazing Dwight is because ... words can't even describe.
(*** And this is where I got tired and just wanted to finish writing this so that I could go have a nap. I'll edit this part later ***)
Actually, yes, they can. And there's four of them: Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.
And his relationship with Angela is the weirdest thing ever. Talk about strange couples.

NOW GO WATCH THE OFFICE! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??!!!!>!

what a skeeze

Oh yeah, I haven't posted my review about WALL•E yet. I should get on that. But basically my feelings on it are along the lines of "HOLY CRAP IT'S AWESOME WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS GO WATCH WALL•E RIGHT NOW GO!"

WALL•E is TONIGHT!

M-O (short for "Microbe-Obliterator", seen on the left) is my favorite little robot (after WALL•E, of course) because he's so OCD with cleanliness that it's awesome.

You know what's sad? The fact that I couldn't fall asleep last night because I'm just that excited to watch WALL•E at midnight tonight. It's like I'm 5 years old again and it's Christmas eve. For me, the day that PIXAR movies premiere is pretty much like a religious holiday. Only it's not like I worship PIXAR daily or have a shrine in my room dedicated to the company (I don't. Really. The shrine in my room is for Harry Potter. Please THIS POST for more details). It's just that I look forward to their movies with as much enthusiasm as a 7 year-old looks forward to Santa coming on December 25th.

However, unlike Christmas where the presents are all surprises, I've been spoiled for my PIXAR holiday present for the last few months because I've read and watched anything and everything about WALL•E that I could get my grubby little hands on. Not that I really care or actually FEEL spoiled at all. If anything, everything I've read and watched has just served to make me more excited for this movie.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank all my friends for being so understanding of my WALL•E obsession and still loving me despite all my annoying PIXAR talk. You'll only have to bear it for a little while longer - at least until WALL•E leaves theaters and then again when it comes time for it to be released on DVD.

PS: Go buy your copy of the WALL•E soundtrack from iTunes right now. It's so awesome! I'm listening to it right now. I love the themes for WALL•E and M-O the best.