But its Just the Price I Pay, Destiny is Calling Me, Open Up My Eager Butt

To start off, I'm gonna give five of my patented TV Takes and that is all I will say about TV for the time being.

1) The O.C. is one of the best shows on television. If you read my blog and don't watch the O.C. you have no excuse. You should almost be banned from existence. Last year's season finale was incredible and challenges the season 3 finale of the West Wing for best use of Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah in a Prime Time program (not quite as cool as the award for the Most Gratuious Use of the Word Belgium in a Serious Screenplay, but still). This year's finale may not have been quite as emotional a moment as Seth sailing off into the Newport sunset, but the use of music was fantastic. Seriously, I know there are people who think this show is just a teen drama, but its closer to a Buffy without the fantasmatic aspects. The characters are extraordinarily well developed, the lines are well written, and its often beautifully shot. Pick up the DVDs over the summer and catch up for season 3.

2) Tom is the first person to win Survivor as the dominant bastard from day 1 onwards since Richard Hatch. To some extent I don't even think that Richard Hatch should count since he didn't just follow the strategy, he invented the basic strategy that defines the game. I was amazed that no one hatched anything even bordering on a succesful plot to evict Tom, though they did have only two chances considering he won 5 of 7 individual immunities. Thats freaking ridiciulous, but it marked an incredible season of the program

3) Fucking ANTM. If you went to a restaurant and ordered a cheeseburger four times and one time they gave you a cheeseburger, but the other three times they gave you an ass-sandwich, I assume you would stop going to that particular Wendys, irregardless of the paradox implied by the fact that the customer, even when s/he wishes to be wrong, is in fact, always right. Nonetheless, despite a season which featured very late developing characters (Christina, Brittany and Kahlen all became pretty sweet) and yet another ass-sandwich of an ending (Naima, I mean, come on, she was about 1/2 as cute as Kahlen and rocked less at prolly half the photos not to mention that she did not do better at the final show) I am sure I will be back next fall hella excited for Tyra-mail.

4) The CSI finale directed by Tarentino did not disappoint. It was a good immitation of CSI in the general direction of the plot, but was much eerier, if I can use that word. There were some things that made it very clear that it was designed by someone who doesn't normally write for CSI: not only was there a much greater outpouring of emotion (both by Grissom and Nick himself) but the show invoked three of the continuing plot points that would normally only appear one per episode and each only a couple times per season (Grissom's entymology, his growing deafness, and Catherine's relation with her father Sam Braun). There were also some great Tarentio moments, like Nick and Warrick's emminently Pulp Fiction conversation, the Dukes of Hazard board game and the incredible amouts of camera movement which is routinely absent in the confined space of the crime lab. It was enjoyable.

5) This summer has some truly awful reality shows lined up. There has never, in the history of time, been an idea for a program as bad as the idea behind Dancing With the Stars. The wo/man responsible should be fired, tarred and feathered, fed to wolves, and buried beneath the pool. I'm cheering for Jay Peterman.

Alright, with that out of the way I can mention a couple other things that we've done over the last week or so. The Friday before last we headed out to the classic Holland Tulip Festival in somewhat nearby Holland, NY. I was totally down for a good old fashioned small town carnival, Leprechaun Days style, and it didn't disappoint. We got there around 8 or so, just as the joint was heating up. There is no question that this town is much smaller than even the Rose that is Mount and even further away from anything resembling a metro area. The town couldn't have had more than a couple thousand people and most of the families were out in full force. It wasn't a huge thing, certainly, half dozen rides, half dozen food booths, and a beer tent. I generally don't go on rides at local carnicals, operating on the assumption that if it could kill me if it broke, and it could very well break. I do, however, eat like the extemely f/phat dude that I am.. We had corn dogs (which were all messed up in these parts, more like waffle dogs, they were still tasy, but not pronto-pup like) and fresh cut fries (state fair booth by the diving-exhibition area style) and cotton candy and a caramel apple (both state fair sweet treats style) and a uniquely Western NY concept (I think) called "Fried Dough", which is really just an elephant ear with a stupid name. I love carnival food.

Since it wouldn't be a small town carnival without the beer tent, we went over, since I can't resist a cold one in the beautiful spring air. Beer is pretty cheap in this part of the world and since they were only serving Labatts and Michelob light, I figured it would be 3 or so bucks for a pint. Nope, it was a buck fitty. I had three Michelobs for less than 5 dollars. I don't believe I have ever paid less for a beer. I don't think I've ever even gotten two for ones for less than 3 bucks. Insane. I got a double Tanqueray and tonic in Alexandria for 2 dollars and I think thats as close as it gets.

We had a pretty mellow week after that until Wednesday afternoon. It was then that I got an email from Rick Cohen over at the Tranist Drive-In theater. I am not a Star Wars guy, I don't have any paraphenalia, and I have only seen the movies a couple times max each. Regardless, Katie and I were bored, so we decided it would be worth checking out Fever Pitch at 9:00 and Star Wars at midnight. Not only did we have no problem getting in, since the whole drive-in was only about 1/2 full, but we had a pretty good spot and a chance to enjoy the sunset. We went over there at 8, but pretty much could have waited until 11:30 had we had any idea that no one would go. Katie was all uncomfortable and felt like a geek, which is in general understandable when one is at Star Wars on opening night, but less so when one regularly participates in intercollegiate debate. The movie was definatively the best of the first three, though the dialogue remained every bit as horrible, arguably even worse. Natalie Portman is to science-fiction fantasy film what a wood chipper is to green beans. I have no idea how people can find the good-v. evil motifs of this movie enjoyable when the descriptions and explanations of it are this horrible, but the battles, both space and light-saber wise were hella cool. The Yoda fight was way better than it was in epsiode 2. I was pleased overall, a fun outing.

Final thing to mention, the Buffalo Botaical Gardens which we visited on Saturday, is in some ways very cool and in others hella weird. Katie posted pictures if you wanted to see them. High notes: wicked cool collection of orchids and a ginormous blue agave. Weird ones: dinosaurs made out of plants in a room that was filled with steam, all prehistoric rainforest style and a wicked large plant sale.

Hippo is busy playing with her new pink feather boa toy, but she adds a final meow and reminds you to look out for her upcoming single "Meow Meow Purr" a fantastic cover of 1-2 Step.

Peace,

MB-K