Six Months of Meaningful Media

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It seems like just yesterday, I was blogging my anti-resolutions for 2008.  Six months and one rock concert later, here are the tunes, tomes, tv shows, and two movies that entertained me.

Books

         

                  

Some of these (i.e., The Pilliars of the Earth and John Adams) took longer to read than the others, but they were all worth the time.  On a 5-star system, I rate them as follows:

1. Pillars of the Earth **** ½- I liked it, but not the constant pillaging.
2. Becoming Jane Austen *****- This one is perfect for serious Jane Austenites…like me.
3. John Adams **** ¾- Among other things, this book made me grateful for antibiotics, mosquito spray, and vaccinations.
4. Three Nights in August **** ¼- I read this book in an effort to understand the madness that is my husband’s obsession with the Cardinals.  It helped…a little.
5. Love the One You’re With ****-  Good, but not quite as good as her Something Borrowed and Something Blue set.

Television

            

Greek is my new guilty pleasure.  At first glance, it might seem like an odd pick for me.  After all, my college days are a thing of the past, and I never even entered a sorority house, let alone joined one.  For me, this show transcends age and lavaliers.  I like it because it transports me to a time when my biggest concern was choosing turkey or ham for my Subway sandwich.  The dialogue is witty, the characters are well-developed, and it doesn’t tackle (and solve, in one miraculous hour) serious matters such as eating disorders, self-mutilation, or homelessness (this is a big peeve of mine…think Beverly Hills 90210 or Seventh Heaven). 

Music

  

I discovered Marié Digby on, of all place, an episode of Greek.  I love every song on this CD, especially one called Spell.  Every time I hear it, I picture it as a song being played at my daughter’s wedding someday.  The strange thing is, my 3-yr. old daughter has decided that this is her favorite song and requests that I play it repeatedly.  I’m fascinated by her interest in it because it’s kind of slow-moving and it doesn’t feature any bells or whistles.   The fact that she likes it too, makes me even mushier about it.  You can see Digby performing it here live.  [According to the YouTube people, Spell was featured on Smallville.  Apparently, I'm not the only person who likes it.]

Sara Bareilles is a different story.  I only like one song on her CD, Love Song, but I like it enough to play it over and over again.

Movies

                   

I anxiously awaited the release of Sex and the City in theaters.  I watched Oprah and read 63 pages of SATC in Entertainment Weekly to prepare.  And then the unthinkable happened.  The only remaining showing of the movie on Hilton Head island was cancelled due to film malfunction.  Thankfully, I had Forgetting Sarah Marshall to ease my pain and was able to enjoy SATC the next night.  By enjoy, I mean sit mesmerized for all 2 hours and 25 minutes of it, leaving only at the insistence of the cleaning crew.

DVD

              

We don’t see movies in the theater very often, so we get pretty excited when they make it to DVD.  Thankfully, that doesn’t take very long nowadays.  I judge a movie on its ability to keep me awake for 2 hours straight.  Based on this criterion, these movies were winners for me.  Oh, and if it can make me cry (like all 4 of these did), bonus points.

Commercial

I love this commercial for the Discovery Channel.  The World Is Just Awesome.

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Tags: Books, Fa-la-la-la-la, Movies, TV