I just got thanked on the Golden Globes!

Thank you Ian Brennan, co-creator of Glee, for thanking ME and my colleagues while accepting your Golden Globe award for Best Comedy Series.

In a sea of boring acceptance speeches and platitudes, Ian Brennan grabbed the microphone and said:

"I just want to say thank you to public school teachers. You don't get paid like it, but you're doing the most important work in America."

I just got the first season of Glee on DVD and I fell in love with the show because it is not just about a bunch of misfits who sing and dance. I fell in love with it because it is, to me, about a teacher who cares deeply about his job and helps his kids be great.

Why I Love Harry Potter

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There are only 69 days left until the beginning of the end of Harry Potter series. I got a glimpse of this movie poster earlier this week and it made my stomach do somersaults! I am so excited to see how they play out this final chapter on screen, but I also now how bittersweet it is going to be to say goodbye to this wonderful story.

My introduction to Harry Potter came when I was 18 years old and living in Dijon, France with a family that just so happened to have an adorable 8 year old son. It was French brother, Etienne, who first exposed me to the wizarding world of Harry Potter. At 8 years old, Etienne was about the only person I could communicate with in the house and we got along quite well. I hadn't been living with his family for more than a month before he asked me one night after dinner if I would read some Harry Potter to him. I was not too comfortable with my French language skills, but I obliged the little guy mostly 'cos he was so gosh darn cute. He had clearly already read the book before 'cos he helped me pronounce words and names and seemed to really enjoy how I stumbled through it. I have to be honest, I had no idea what I was reading. I just read it to see my little French brother smile. That entire semester abroad I remember seeing Harry Potter merchandise everywhere. The city of Dijon was in full-out Harry Potter mode. I remember seeing action figures and lunch boxes and all kinds of merchandise covered with (what I did not know then to be) golden snitches. Then two weeks before I was scheduled to leave Dijon and return to the states, my family asked me if I wanted them to buy me tickets to see Harry Potter. Apparently the movie would be premiering two days before I left and you had to purchase tickets weeks in advance. I said yes. Once again, not because I was all that interested in the movie or the book that I did not understand, but because it seemed like a fun thing to do and my little French brother was bouncing off the walls with excitement about it.

I remember so vividly the excitement that night as we piled into the family car to drive to the big cinema in the center of the city. Even the older sister, at 16, seemed very excited. And oh the lines! The line wrapped all around the city block. There were French kids, teenagers, adults and families like mine all chattering with excitement. The movie was entirely in French and, even after four months living there, I could understand little. I do remember certain images from the film, but mostly I remember little Etienne who was so excited to see his favorite story come to life on screen he could hardly contain himself.

And that was my first experience with Harry Potter. I didn't know much about the plot lines or characters. I understood little aside from the excitement and enthusiasm it seemed to generate in people of all ages. I would not actually pick up a book to read myself until the summer of 2005 when I finally decided it was time to give them a try. I had, by that time, seen the first film in English and was mildly intrigued. Moments I remembered vaguely from the French theater - like Hagrid breaking down the door, the letters flooding Privet Drive and the ghastly 2 headed Professor Quirrell - suddenly made much more sense when watching it play on HBO in English. I asked for the books one Christmas one year and my parents got me the first four in a box set. That summer of 2005, I finally read all four and went out and bought the fifth book and had a Harry Potter marathon watching all the movies that had been released thus far. I was hooked.

My Harry Potter mania reached an all time high with the release of the 7th book. I ordered it early from the local bookstore and went to an all-night celebration that included peopled dressed in character (as many adults as children), games, food, drinks and a countdown at midnight that I proudly partook in. I never knew I could be so excited for a book and a fiction book at that. In case I haven't made it clear, I am a full-fledged history dork and read almost exclusively non-fiction. The one exception to that rule is the magnificent work of J.K Rowling. I wish I could put my finger on what it is about the books that I enjoy so much. All I know is I picked up the 7th book to reread it this past Friday and, just like back in the summer of 2007, I was unable to put it down. I tore through those pages so fiercely that I didn't go to sleep until 3 AM (and even then I was only able to lay in bed for 5 minutes before I flipped the light back on and read just one more chapter).

I just love these books and these characters so much and, for the life of me, I can't explain why. I don't know what it is about the books that gives them this exalted position on the very top of 5 shelves of military history books, narratives, and historical texts.
I've tried to put it into words before, but what I end up with is a long list of the themes that I think are present within the pages (love, loss, friendship, free will, sacrifice, duty, jealousy). But you don't love a story because of the themes, you love it because of the people! I love the characters Ms. Rowling created. They are terribly imperfect and sometimes I want to smack them, but I love them all the same. I love the world she created that I was able to immerse myself in this weekend. The first time I read book 7 I was so excited to finish I didn't even take a moment to let a lot of what happens in the pages sink in. This weekend I'll admit I shed some tears at Shell Cottage, I laughed out loud at the one liners that still manage to make their way into the most serious of times and I was smiling and giving a triumphant fist pump when the actual castle at Hogwarts, suits of armor, desks, and all, begins to fight back. I've never had a book that makes me turn the pages quite so quickly, that can quite literally have my heart racing for the last 200 pages. I know it sounds trite, but when I read these books I really do forget about the rest of the world. It's not something I have ever experienced with a book before. When I read Harry Potter I want to lose myself. I want feel like my little French brother again.

So I will line up with the masses on November 19 just like I did for the first film, back before I even understood what it was. I'm proud to be a part of this phenomenon. And I'm proud of the fact that I can't quite explain why I love it so much. The greatest loves, after all, can never be explained.

Freaks and Geeks

Has anyone ever heard of this show? I was looking through my family's DVD collection for something funny to watch, not too serious and definitely lacking in romance. I saw this and knew it was perfect. The show is set at a Michigan high school in the 1980's and aired for only one season on NBC back when I was in high school. It is the truest depiction of high school on TV and actually has actors who look their age and look like people I went to high school with. It's like the Wonder Years only less cheezy and much funnier. Nobody finds their one true love in it, there are no passionate declarations of love or conversations that sound like they're from a college textbook. There are some awkward dates and breakups that are painful to watch, but this is not a show about finding your true love in the 10th grade (though I know it does happen for some people). It's a show about the awkwardness and insecurity of high school and not knowing where you belong or what you want or who your friends are. It makes me so angry that this show didn't even make it through the first season. It was such a realist show with such real characters. Not to mention it was a Judd Apatow creation with awesome actors like James Franco, Jason Segel and Seth Rogen. It definitely goes on my top 5 favorite TV shows of all time. I wonder if my family will even notice if I take them with me down to Virginia...

Guilty Pleasure

I just finished a rousing game of Tiger Woods Golf with the boy. I didn't do that badly for someone whose golf experience doesn't really extend past the Chip N' Putt! I was tempted to hone my skills this evening while he studied for an upcoming test, but I opted to veg out on the couch.

I'm currently watching one of my #1 guilty pleasure movies. It's a movie that came out my sophomore year of high school and currently has a 57% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That's really not that bad considering it's really nothing more than just another silly high school drama. Drew Barrymore saves it and Michael Vartan makes for some serious eye candy! Yep, I'm talking about Never Been Kissed. I'm embarrassed to admit I actually went to go see this movie in theaters (along with such other awesome movies as She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You).

The plot is so unbelievable and it's ridiculously silly, but it is just a movie that I always seem to get stuck on once it's on TV! I'd definitely put this and 13 Going on 30 as some of my top silly guilty pleasure movies. I could probably add a ton of movies to that list, to include Pretty Woman and Dirty Dancing, but I'm definitely not as hesitant to admit that I enjoy them as I am this film. I'm a sucker for a happy ending, I can't deny it! There are some really uncomfortably awkward moments in the movie (especially if you were a high school dork like me), but you just have to love Drew Barrymore in the role. No matter what my mood is, this movie will have me smiling by the time the credits roll. (Although it is debatable that that might just be due to looking at Michael Vartan!)



Do you have a favorite guilty pleasure movie? A movie that once you stumble upon you can never quite seem to change the channel? One that makes you smile despite yourself and that you might not admit to many people you enjoy?

Harry Potter > Twilight

So as I was having my lazy evening last night and kicking back with my Chinese, I flipped through the channels only to discover that the first Twilight movie was playing on HBO. I had never seen it and, truthfully speaking, had never really had the desire to. However, in keeping with my lazy evening, once it started I was too lazy to change the channel. I have heard the "Twilight is the new Harry Potter" comparisons, which I always scoffed at, but as I never saw the movies or read the books I felt I couldn't really weigh in on the debate.

So what did I think of the Twilight movie? For starters, I nodded off twice during the first hours and had to rewind my DVR to understand what was going on. I thought the movie was pretty terrible. The acting was horrible, the writing was atrocious and the effects were just awful. I'm sure the books are better, as they almost always are, but you won't see me picking one up to read anytime soon because nothing about that storyline hooked me in at all. The premise of the Twilight stories isn't even all that original to me. Ten years ago, when I was a dorky high schooler I loved the show "Roswell" that was on the WB, which to me is pretty much the same premise as Twilight. A quiet girl falls in love with her biology lab partner, a handsome mysterious outsider at the school, after he saves her life using his supernatural abilities. His family and friends are beautiful outcasts from the school who keep to themselves and are unhappy that he revealed their secret to her. Relationship complications ensue because of his supernatural status and the danger it puts her in. Yada yada yada. There seem to be an awful lot of similarities. I'm not saying Roswell was completely original and the show went downhill pretty fast, but to me Twilight is just a new twist on an age-old story and it's not even told all that well. I'm all for a good love story, but the chemistry in the movie was pretty nonexistent and Robert Pattinson was just downright creepy! There is absolutely no comparison to Harry Potter!

In Harry Potter - both the books and the movies - are very original and have more layers to them than just a girl who can't live without a boy. I'm all for romance like I said, but come on. Even if it just in a movie, hearing the words "I would rather die than live without you" just make me want to vomit. Perhaps the books shed a little more light on this, but Bella doesn't seem to have much of an identity outside of her infatuation with Edward. Not something I really want to see in my heroine. I love all the themes in Harry Potter - friendship, death, loss, free will, prejudice, bigotry, and love in so many different forms. You have parental love, unrequited love, platonic love, sibling love, first loves, crushes. It's not just this over-the-top "I can't live without you" and "we're meant to be together" kind of love. It's characters have substance and depth, which are brought out wonderfully in the books, but that you can see brought to the screen through the wonderful acting of men like Alan Rickman and Michael Gambon. I also love the reality of adolescence as it is depicted in the books over the years. Not everyone is a new girl who automatically makes friends and gets the most handsome guy in school. I'm a tried and true history dork and do not read very much fiction at all, but I love and have reread the HP books.

My last reason for why I think Harry Potter is superior to Twilight (and then I promise I'm done) is because I think it's fanbase stretches far and wide and it has much more reach. I remember being so surprised at my old job at how many teenage boys dug the Harry Potter movies and read the books. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many men who have sat down with the Twilight books or voluntarily gone to see either of the films. Harry Potter is something I can share with my friends, my mom, my kids (when I have them), my students, even my boyfriend.

As I said, I'm sure the books do the Twilight story a lot more justice, but I like the multi-layered story in HP much more than the single story that was presented to me in Twilight. I was hoping the movie would help shed some light on the Twilight craze and why so many of my students still walk around with vampire shirts or binders that have "Team Jacob" written on them, but it did not. If anything it explains why so many of my kids think a boy will solve all their problems and be the answer to everything. Harry Potter wins. Harry Potter always wins!

PS - just a random rant: why weren't vampires this popular when I was in high school and got ridiculed for liking Buffy the Vampire Slayer? (still in my opinion the best show EVER)

Getting Lost....

So I am a huge dork and have always gotten way too into TV shows. I was obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer back in high school (yeah, go ahead and laugh, but I dare you to find a list of the best TV shows of the decade that doesn't have that on it). I love Friends, Sex and the City and old reruns of 90210 and the OC are definitely guilty pleasure of mine. Several years ago, sort of on a whim, I started watching the show Alias. I think it was probably mainly because of Michael Vartan (aka the hot teacher from Never Been Kissed!), but the bottom line is I got sucked into it. So much so that I watched two whole seasons over the course of about..3 days. It was the dead of winter and I did very little aside from eat, shower, use the bathroom and watch Alias. Not my proudest moment (or was it?), but yeah, JJ Abrams hooked me. Unfortunately, all the awesome twists and turns and questions he raised through five seasons never got any answers. All he succeeded in doing was killing off my favorite character, introducing new annoying ones and most importantly not answering ANY real questions about so much that was introduced in the show.

I SWORE when Lost came out that I wouldn't watch it and I listed those exact reasons. I know JJ is not in charge of it anymore, but I still consider it the brainchild of JJ Abrams. So aside from an episode here and there I stayed away from Lost entirely...until last year when those damn preview for the new season (you know the ones with Matthew Fox yelling "we have to go back!") hooked me in. So in a matter of weeks I caught myself up on all the seasons and sat glued to my TV every Wednesday night last year and every Tuesday night this year. But Lost is starting to lose me. Make no mistake, with only 10 episodes left I will certainly keep on watching 'til the end, but I have lost all faith that they will answer so many of the questions that kept me watching for years. Sure the current good vs. evil or dueling gods/whatever the heck Jacob and Smokey McKillsABitch are is interesting and it does give an overall blanket explanation for what's going on, but it makes entire SEASONS worth of questions nothing but filler. The reality is none of the content of this season seems at all relevant to the developing story that attracted so many of us and kept us watching.

Things I DEMAND answers to (but highly doubt I will ever get)
- where is Desmond??? seriously, it is so uncool to introduce this incredible character that everyone loves and then basically ignore him for 2 seasons.
- will Desmond's time traveling ever be explained or do we just accept that he is some super time-traveling man?
- what are Widmore and Eloise all about?
- WAAALLLLLTTTT!!!! Seriously, remember the episode where the bird flew into the window? or when he appeared all dripping wet and speaking backwards to Shannon? Now he is like...18 and 6'0 tall so I doubt we'll see him again.
- why can't babies be born on the island?
- why did Locke see the smoke monster as "beautiful white light" when everyone else sees it black?
- what's the deal with Christian? Sun's father? the fortune teller? Libby?
- what the heck happened when the hatch imploded?
- who were the people in Antarctica when the hatch blew up??
- why did Cindy and the kids get kidnapped?
- why is the statue broken? who broke it? why does it have 4 toes?
- why was Sayid in Australia? (did I miss this?)
- Jack's tattoo?
- random black horse in the woods?
- who did Locke talk to in the cabin?
- how could Christian appear on the freighter way the heck off the island?
- why did Sun, Ben and Frank not flash back to 1977 when the plane crashed?
- what did blowing up the bomb accomplish (since that was the whole focal point of season 5)?
- Adam and Eve?
- why do the others whisper and then appear?
- who was shooting at Sawyer and co. last year in the outrigger?
- what is the deal with Richard?
- who is Ilana and why does she know so much?

The list could go on and on and on...

I honestly don't think many of these will ever be answered. I don't think in the current direction the show is going that there is even a role for most of these questions to get answered. But we watch on.

Are you a Lost fan? What do you think of the new season? Do you really think they will answer all those questions? Do you have any nagging questions?