Pearl Jam!

Hi!

Well, I was just reading Chad's post and I figured that I had a bit of time to kill right now and what better way to spend it than to write a quick post on our blog (on which I have written so little!).

I am not one to purchase CDs in general. It's not that I download music either, it's just that I'm usually content to either listen to what music I already have or to just have the radio on (yes, among other things I am a top 40 kind of gal). For a long time now, I have enjoyed Pearl Jam and get really into their music whenever I hear it on the radio, but have never gotten around to buying any of their albums. We were at Best Buy the other day and I happened to see one for 9 bucks, so I bought it. After listening to it, I finally understood something that I could never truly comprehend before. I just simply wanted (and still want) to own every single Pearly Jam album in existence! Maybe I'm just weird, but I don't often get too excited about new things coming out by an author or artist or actor, etc. that I really like and I figure that at some point I may get it, but if I don't, I'm not going to be upset or probably think twice about it. But this Pearl Jam CD, Vs. (their second), I really just love it so much and it's not even just that the music itself is so good, but it reminds as to how much their other earlier music kicks ass and how much I want to listen to that, too. I don't know a lot of their music that hasn't been on the radio, but I'm excited to find out about it.

Would anyone have a suggestion on what they think is their best album/the one that I should pick up next?

Question #4!... and a little bit extra!

Yay for lunchtime posts (and posts in general, I guess, hehe)!

Question #4 of Chad's series of 5 questions to me was: If you had to listen to one song (and only one song) for the rest of your life, which song would it be?

Chad and I actually talked about this question pretty soon after he sent me an e-mail listing them. For my song, I chose Mr. Jones by The Counting Crows. This song is my 'happy' song. I keep this cd in my car and whenever I'm in an angry or upset or sad mood, I play this song and belt out the lyrics and everything seems to just disapear. I have had this cd since it was released and I'm still amazed that not once have I found it annoying or boring in anyway, so I take that as a good sign as well.

I also wanted to say that Lady Gaga music is getting to annoy the heck out of me. I teach group fitness classes at Goodlife and also attend these classes quite frequently, and while Lady Gaga songs do have a good beat for that type of stuff, her music seems so bland and boring to me that I would be okay if I never heard another song by her again. So... I wouldn't pick one of her songs to listen to for the rest of my life, or the rest of the day...

I hate to end this on a sour note but I don't have anything else to say right now. Hmmmmm... I'm reading Canadian Wildlife and Cosmo magazines right now, both of which I find interesting and entertaining for obviously very different reasons. I would pick CW over Cosmo 100% any day. I just find the stories and 'advice' they have in there... it's just so ridiculous (that just made me think of Balki from Perfect Strangers)!

Okay, well that ends it for today! Have a great one!

Nip/Tuck

So, we just finished watching Babylon 5 (this has to do with one of the questions that Chad asked me) and started watching Nip/Tuck which is a show that I started watching when it first came out and have only seen random episodes since season 1. As absurd of a show as it is, I became hooked on it immediately. Perhaps sensory overload? Perhaps my tendancy to latch onto characters easily? Perhaps for the only reason that it's hard to look away from something that's so twisted? In any case, I loved it and so I recently bought season 1 on DVD. We've only watched the first two episodes, but it's not quite what I remembered it to be. I still like it, but I think I've become more sensitive to things because I find it a lot more intense and not as much enjoyable/mindless as I remember it being. In any case, I'm looking forward to watching more episodes and seeing whether it just takes a little more time to get in to it, or whether I may be putting buying other seasons on hold.

Question #3!!

Wow, so I didn't actually realise how long it's been since I've written anything on here until I looked on here and saw how many posts Chad had made! So, now that I again have some time, I thought that I would continue to answer Chad's questions to me!

So, here is question number 3: Thinking back, what movie that we saw together in the theatre have you liked the best?

Hmmmmm, well, have gone to see a number of movies, I think more so closer to when we first got together, and with my awful awful memory I'm sure that I'm missing movies that we saw together (yes, even if I loved them, there's a really good chance I forgot about them!) but one for sure that I liked a lot was the Batman movie. I don't have to say why, everyone pretty much knows why it was really good. I would say that Batman is tied with Inglorious Bastards. I loved this movie quite a bit and even just recently bought it at Blockbuster. I love Blockbuster sales.

There have also been some movies that I was suprised that I liked/didn't like. I was really holding out for The X-Files movies... I am a crazy fan, or at least use to be crazy and now I just know stuff about it, and I tried really hard to like this movie, I really did. It was simply just aweful. It was like a really badly organised episode that was trying to cram in every aspect of Mulder and Scully's character they could and a lot of aspects from the show as well, in a way that was really obvious and just really bad. Perhaps my excitement for this movie hyped it up a little, but it's one that I don't have any interest in owning because I know I may watch it once and then probably never again.

On the other hand, I am totally not a fan of the what I call 'stupid comedy' movies (a.k.a. comedies). I'm not sure why. I think it's because I have a really dry sense of humour and more vulgar/slapstick stuff just really doesn't work for me. But, I found that I actually liked the majority of Pineapple Express. It was pretty funny and cute at times, but then the plot went all weird and crazy at and it lost some of it's appeal. I think Chad has similar views about this movie, too.

So, ya! There we have it! Thanks for reading and enjoy your day!

Chad's question number 2

Yes, it's that time again! And, it's not really suprising that at least one of his questions would have to do with wrestling :p

What's been your favourite wrestling match and/or story so far?

Well, I actually have a HORRIBLE memory in general, but especially when it comes to something that even now I haven't really really gotten in to. I more just watch it with Chad as a way to spend time together and we have fun making fun of people and getting excited when something cool happens. So, to figure out what my favourite match or story has been so far I thought would be kind of difficult, if only because I don't remember most of them. Then I though, well, the ones that I do remember must either be because I liked them a lot or because they were really stupid, of which I can easily discern the two. So... based off of my memory, here are a few of my favs!

1. Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker at Wrestlemania in 2009 (I forget which one that was, but since everyone seemed to like that match, I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about). We watched that one together at a bar down the street and I think it was the most fun I've ever had with wrestling. The bar was pretty packed (unlike other PPV nights) and I got so caught up in the quality and suspense that match had. I still remember how I felt during that match even if I don't really remember most of what happened. I won't say that the whole feud is my favourite, but that match itself is definitely at the top of my list.

2. The Macho Man and the Ultimate Warrior: only because of the hilarious promos the two of those guys give!!!

3. Shawn Michaels and JBL. At the time, I HATED this story because I couldn't see why Shawn Michaels would be such a wimp and willingly be under someone like JBL. But I see now that that was a smart thing and it also was able to bring out emotion in me. It brought out the ass that JBL is and set up a good retirement story for him. I think that the timing of this story and how well played out it all was was really just perfect and only upon reflecting on it do I think that it was really good.

4. This new Kane/The Undertaker thing. I guess it's a little too premature to list this one, but I'm really really looking forward to seeing what happens with this and I'm glad that they're using Kane in a scary but not too stupidly monster-like way.

So You Think You Can Dance

Hello again!

As you may or may not know, I really enjoy watching American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. SYTYCD just had it's first voting show last night, which I taped and watched this morning. I haven't really watched any of the show up until now, which is typically what I do for American Idol, but not for SYTYCD because even though they may not all be the best dancers, you typically get really good dancers in the auditions and future tryouts.

This year the producers of SYTYCD have decided to change the format of the competition (side note: this word always makes me think of Kozlov saying 'I demand better competition!'... and then I chuckle to myself...) where instead of each of the contestants being paired up with each other, as seen in previous seasons, there are fewer contestants (11 vs. the usual 20-24) and each are paired with a different 'all-star' dancer who has been on the show before and are known for the style of dance they will be dancing in. At first, I didn't like this idea mainly because I thought I would spend most of the time watching the all-stars that I know from different seasons and not really care about the contestants. However, I didn't find this to be the case at all. I also was worried from the competition's perspective that the all-stars would make all of the dancers look so good that it would be difficult to determine who was actually a better dancer. After thinking about it, I don't think that was the case either. In fact, as the show neared the end, it became more obvious as to which contestants were able to step up to their all-star's level (all of which were absolutely fantastic and the show did a great job at picking them!) and which contestants were being dragged along for the ride.

My favourite routine was by far the third dance of the night which was a hip-hop routine choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon and was danced by all-star Comfort and contestant Jose. It was so amazing and well done that I think I watched it over about 10 times in full and just the opening sequence another 10 at least.

All in all, I really like this new set up of the show and I think that it makes the quality of the dancing on the show much higher. While I didn't watch any of the judges comments (I really only like watching the dancing parts of the show), I don't think there was a single flop routine the entire night!

So, if you're a fan of the show, or dancing, at all, I would check it out this season for sure!

Chad's question number 1

Hi everyone!

I am in a strange state of waiting around this morning with nothing to do at work, so I figured why not make more of a presence on this blog!

In an effort to stimulate discussion on here, Chad has written me 5 questions, all of which I will attempt to answer throughout the week (or maybe 2... we'll see!).

Question #1: While you haven't read a lot of it yet, how does the book Pride and Prejudice match up against the various film and TV adaptations you've seen? What's been your favourite version to date?

Just to give you a little bit of background info, I have been a big fan of Pride and Prejudice for a few years now, since my old roommate showed me the BBC series version. Since then, I have watched many BBC versions of Jane Austen novels and have loved most of them. For Christmas this past year, Chad bought me a book of several Jane Austen novels and the first one that I started reading was Pride and Prejudice because it is the one that I know the best and my favourite. I also own the newer blockbuster version of Pride and Prejudice.

I would say that by far I like the BBC series version the best, even compared to the novel. I think this is because in the movie, you really get to see all of the grandiose sets and costumes that you really don't get much description of in the novel. However, I do really enjoy reading the book after seeing the movies because it gives me a bit more to base the imagry off of. One thing I really do like about the book is the description of subtle details in people's body language and tone of voice, etc. that you can easily miss in the movies or just aren't included, as it is a very long story. Definately the movie with Keira Knightley is my least favourite. I just don't think that she is a good choice for the role and the whole thing was just too Hollywood and too condensed to get the same feel from it as the novel originally intended. Though, I don't necessarily think that remakes of movies need to reflect the original, it's just hard not to notice it in a story that you love so much and when it's almost impossible not to compare it to the novel or the BBC version.

Question #2 to come shortly! Well, probably tomorrow :)

Michelle

Eminem Feat. Pink - Won't back down

I am a fan of pop music in general, mainly because these songs are catchy and fun to listen to when driving. Yesterday, two new Eminem singles were released; one featuring Pink and one featuring Rhianna. Now, I really like Eminem and I think he is a genius when it comes to writing and producing music and when I heard that his latest record was filled with new styles that he doesn't often explore and that 'we've never heard before', I was pretty excited. This morning while driving during work, my friend and I heard the last minute or so of the featuring Pink song called Won't Back Down. In short, I have never been so disappointed by an Eminem song in my entire life! Yes, he is definitely not for everyone, but when there is so much hype about a song, and this particular song has two of your favourite artists singing you tend to get your hopes up. I just got back from work and I immediately went to youtube to find this song to listen to it in its entirety, hoping that it would be better than my first impression. It was, just a little, though. I think it's not as much the lyrics or vocals as it is the accompaniment. I don't think I like the rock/rap type hybrid music so much and I think it is really distracting. I'm guessing that if this is the case, I'll get use to it after they over play the song for a couple of weeks and I'll end up really liking it.

I also just finished listening to the featuring Rhianna song called Love The Way You Lie while writing the above. I actually really really like this one and it feels more like the Eminem that I like. It's also pretty close to Airplanes which is a B.O.B. single that just took off like crazy featuring Eminem and Hayley Williams. It's not the softer feel that makes it more enjoyable to the ear, and writing of course is always top notch, but I really think it again has to do with the music and the fact that a softer R&B/rock feel contrasts a lot better with the heavier rap beat vs. a harder rock mix in Won't Back Down which just doesn't really seem to work too well for me.

Anyway, those are just my first impressions and we'll see what happens over the coming weeks when Eminem floods the airwaves.

Why the girly shows?

Well, I actually thought about writing this post last weekend when we (Chad) started our blog.

To give you a bit of context, I absolutely LOVE, and I mean really LOVE, watching all those shows on TLC, slice, the home network, etc. that focus on weddings, dating, home buying/decorating, cake decorating and baking shows, parenting, pet training, and the like. These types of shows are obviously catered to women, but just because they are, doesn't mean that they should necessarily be put down as being brainless and ditsy shows. I often feel like I have to defend myself and the shows (why I don't say I like them just because I do and be done with it is beyond me...) and I just wanted to share a bit of why I love them so much and how I decide which of these shows to watch and which to skip over... and yes, they really aren't all the same! :)

I think it's true that a lot of these shows have the cattiness and drama in them that is appealing to a lot of women, though, to me, I'm not a fan of at all and it's actually this aspect that makes me less likely to like a show. For example, I don't watch any of the Desperate Housewives of... series because all that you can really get out of those shows is drama.

What I do like about a lot of these shows is that they challenge me to think about ideas for things for the future and actually teach me about things that I will inevitably have to learn about in the future, but still make this information fun and easy to understand so that I can actually take something away from it. For example, I like At the end of my leash because, while the drama in that show can get really annoying at times, I like learning about the basic techniques of dog training and issues that may come up that I had never thought about before.

And no, I am definitely not a snob or against anyone who likes watching these types of shows purely for enjoyment. I am really just deep down a girly girl who loves learning about all of these homely-type topics and thinking about how I could apply the concepts of these shows to my own life. Suprisingly enough, I enjoy the weekly evening dramas as my kick-back and relax kind of shows (supported by the constant falling asleep during them... well, them and wrestling!) and I look to these shows as the more 'intellectually stimulating' shows. I'll just say that I'm happy that Chad and Tim usually do their podcasting on Friday nights when the plethora of wedding and wedding dress shows are on so that I may watch and enjoy them without hearing the faintest of faint groans coming from...well... somewhere :p

A welcome post!

Hi everyone!

This is my welcome and first official blogging post!

I'm really excited to get started in sharing my thoughts and opinions on all of the wonderful (and not so wonderful to some) shows, movies, and music that I watch and listen to! Even though Chad and I do watch a lot of things together, I have a sneaking suspicion that we will be discussing very different things. We also tend to have pretty different opinions on what we watch, so perhaps some 'interesting' discussions may arise, too!

I hope you enjoy reading our blog! :D