The Talented Winfrey Family's H.P. Lovecraft Book Club: February/March

I hope you guys weren't wondering what happened to The Talented Winfrey Family H.P. Lovecraft Book Club. It still exists--it will always exist, even if only in my mind (but probably not in Alex's). We've just kind of relaxed it a little. That's what you call it when you wait until the month is more than half over to pick a book, and then one of you can't even find a copy, right? Sure.
This month's selection was chosen by Lexie: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I think the real question is Do Androids Have Electric Dreams? But I'm not the Philip K. Dick here, I don't make the rules/write the titles. This month's selection will more than likely be extending into next month, so you should read along with us. Do you like Science Fiction? Do you like the movie Blade Runner starring Mr. Harrison Ford? Then you will probably like this book! I imagined that you answered yes to those questions, obviously.
Mama Winfrey is in a real book club, i.e. one that doesn't just include her family members. The theme of the book club is Strong Women and they meet once monthly to drink coffee and chat. Mama Winfrey said most of the women there only read inspirational fiction and don't like the club's selections. Oftentimes, Mama Winfrey doesn't have time to read the book or else she just doesn't feel like it (Pride & Prejudice), so she just drinks the coffee. This month they're reading Mrs. Dalloway and I don't anticipate it going well. She tried to get me to join, but I informed her that I'm already in a prestigious book club and I just don't have time for two in my life. And anyway I only read inspirational fiction.
Basically the best picture:

Somebody's Crush

H. has a big crush on Alison Brie, a.k.a. Annie on Community, and who can blame him? Apparently, the show's creators originally wanted Annie to be Asian, but when they couldn't find any Asian actresses that fit the part they went with Alison Brie. Well, sorry Asian ladies, but your loss is our gain. Here's an A.V. Club interview with her. She talks about one of my favorite plot lines, the Annie-Jeff sexual tension!

Another Embarrassing Thing

I've always really loved Jimmy Fallon. There. I said it. My friends and I used to watch SNL in high school (I was just as big of a nerd then) and totally swoon over him. Of course, I loved that he always cracked up in his sketches, even though sketch comedy fans mostly hate him for that. And while celebrity impressions are a slightly hacky, 80s, Dave Coulier type of thing, that doesn't change the fact that his impressions are ridiculously accurate. I made my then-boyfriend take me to see Fever Pitch on opening weekend (!). Even though I don't deliberately stay up to watch his late-night show (because I am an adult now! An adult with responsibilities!), I've enjoyed what I've seen. So I just don't understand why everyone hates him so much.
At some point in our youth, Alex bought me Jimmy Fallon's CD, which was a strange combination of comedy songs and stand-up. I listened to that CD constantly, and we still quote certain lines from it regularly, but what stuck with me the most was the song "Idiot Boyfriend." This is another one of those jams, like "My Boo," that is always, ALWAYS in my head.

Rewatching this for the first time since high school, it BLEW MY MIND that Zooey Deschanel was in it. Crazy.

Greatest American Hero

So things have been busy, okay? Sheesh. Maybe I'm not working on a pilot, but I have been burning the old midnight oil (watching Bridezilla marathons while making baby shower gifts, obviously).
Anyway. I realized that even though Alex and I posted our favorite TV theme songs a long time ago, there were so many we forgot! Or really just this one. I know nothing about this show, but it looks...pretty...great (awful).

True story: Before I could drive, I had to ride the bus to school, and our bus driver reliably listened to soft-rock hit factory Mix 106 (yes, it has haunted me my entire life). She never, ever, ever changed the station. Except once, when the theme to Greatest American Hero started playing. She even tried to turn back once, found out the song was still playing, and switched away yet again. TV themes are apparently like poison to bus drivers.

An Apology.

This blog has been lame lately. I don't know what Kerry's excuse is, but I've been trying to squeeze out the pilot episode of my show. In the meantime, here is a video that will never stop being funny.

Ever.

This is really funny

There's not much to say about this. The Conversation is one of my favorite movies, and this is funny.

Lady Comedy

I found a new hero and her name is Julie Klausner. I plan on making a post about her book, which I read this weekend, but until then...here's this video. I couldn't handle how hard I laughed at this. Other things I couldn't handle: how pretty Julie Klausner is, how much I wish I had hair exactly like hers, how beautiful that dress looks.

Also (can you tell I fell down the rabbit hole, here?) I found this really wonderful essay JK wrote on Hannah and Her Sisters. I've watched this movie multiple times and never once thought about how shitty Woody Allen was being to Mia. Quoth Julie: "Because the cruelty of using poor, fabulous Michael Caine to say what you can’t, in public, to your partner once she is out of character, exceeds the terrain of narcissism and bleeds into some kind of gruesome art. Making this movie to talk to Mia about her adoption hobby, her selflessness, and her general wishy-washiness was a poisonous simulacrum—like talking through one of your Barbies during playtime with your sister. And nobody should learn they’re adopted from Skipper."

Sleater-Kinney

There's no real topical reason for posting this, just that this song's been stuck in my head, and working all day in an office kind of feels like this video sometimes. I spend a great deal of time around that type of envelope, so I'm just gonna g'head and make some wings out of them. And, of course, Carrie Brownstein is one of my biggest heroes. I really don't think Alex will like this song.

Big Ass Story

It's been a crazy couple of days here at The Talented Winfrey Family. I don't want to say that I dramatically affected someone's life, but maybe I did? Let's get down to business.

I'm in the process of trying to get a new camera, and one that I've considered purchasing is the Canon XHA1. My research led me to this video, which a man took to test his new HD camera.

XHA1 Test video HD Success! from Mike None on Vimeo.

When I saw this, I immediately thought, "good bloggin' material." But then I thought, "You know what? More than our one reader deserves to see this." So, I sent it to Videogum. For some reason I forgot to post it here. A-duh, right? The next day, when I checked Videogum, I saw this, which was pretty exciting. I mean, it wasn't my first time getting a tip on Videogum (it was my second) but it's still pretty cool. After a few days, I got back on Videogum, and I saw this. My mind was blown away. Jimmy Fallon saw the video on Videogum and got the kids to come on his show! Whoah! I had to check myself. I'm responsible for those kids getting on TV. It's so weird! First, it's weird to think that Jimmy Fallon watched a video that I found. Second, those kids were on TV! A few days ago they were just the subjects of their dad's camera test, and now they're little Fallon Stars!

I emailed the man who posted the video originally and told him who I was and congratulated him and his sons, and he responded very quickly. "WOW! thank you very much! Anytime your in Brooklyn, contact me and We will take you to diner! The experience was so much fun. Im sending the clips all around with the hope of keeping this going. Not get much back now but you never know."

I may have to take him up on that. Good luck little children. Don't stop dancing.

This is a thing that exists

You remember that song from junior high school, I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You?* The video I'm posting makes me think of that, because I really do think I dreamed it into life. It's Harry Dean Stanton giving a speech at an AFI Jack Nicholson tribute. Just when you think it couldn't get any better, Harry Dean and Art Garfunkel sing a duet. All the while, Candace Bergen looks on, no doubt thinking, "I can't believe I was in Carnal Knowledge with that bozo." Anyway, Harry Dean is the best, as always. He's definitely my favorite actor. I wish so much that I could've lived in that house with him and Jack Nicholson, but honestly I just don't think there would've been enough plaid shirts and boots to go around.


*I'd never actually watched that Savage Garden video until now. All I can say is whoa. My friend Dan told me once that his older sister used to listen to Savage Garden constantly in the car, and he was always convinced the lead singer was gay. Then a few years ago, he read in a magazine that he'd married his boyfriend. Maybe it's intuition, some things you just don't question.

"And yes I am totally against segregation."

This is old, but still very funny:One-star Amazon reviews of classic books.

Don't ask

How I found this video is not important. What is important is pretending it's a dance video instead of a workout video.

Something Embarrassing

Usher (or Ursher, as some people refer to him) is, in my opinion, exactly as famous as he should be. He has a nice voice, but that's about all it is. "Nice." Silky smooth, but not really anything earth-shattering. Yet I actually like (okay, love) every Usher song I've ever heard. The man is incapable of releasing anything less than a jam. Even "Yeah," which annoyed me with its ubiquity way back in 2004, is still pretty solid.
That being said, here's something embarrassing. Do you remember the Usher/Alicia Keys collaboration "My Boo"? What's that? You don't? How could you forget a white-hot collab between two musical superstars? Probably because it wasn't very good. This song is pretty awful, but it is ALWAYS stuck in my head. I'm not really exaggerating. There's a constant voice that drones, "I don't know about y'all, but I know 'bout us," in the back of my head as I go about my daily tasks. And you'd be surprised how often the word "Boo" is brought up in normal conversation, once again bringing the haunting (ha) melody back to me. Enjoy.

Workout Jams

So, you guys been workin' out? I have. I've got this great new gym called My Parents' Basement. The plus sides: it's about five minutes from my place, there's no membership fee, and there has literally never been a line the entire time I've been going. The down sides: there are only three machines and they're all shoved into this weird little room with the water heater. I bring this up because NPR has a playlist of workout songs! I guess it's good, and the article itself made me laugh, but it doesn't hold a candle to my own personal workout jams. Obviously (obviously!) the best workout playlist is DJ DONNA SUMMER and ONLY DJ Donna Summer.

The Internet

The internet's pretty cool, because you can find stuff on it that you didn't used to be able to find. I learned that at college. Anyway, these are two cool websites that I'm glad exist. This first one is just movie title stills sorted by decade. It's really fun to look at. This other website is called The Art of the Title Sequence and it is really awesome. It's great because you can watch the sequences, and there are also interviews with the people who created them. They also have a really great variety of films. Check them out!

Presented Without Comment

Just a cool thing

Abandoned houses both fascinate and terrify me. Enjoy.

This is Great!

It's great when, after a long day of work, you can come home to something as wholeheartedly wonderful as this: an interview with Bill Watterson. This is a short interview, sure, but I'm so glad that Bill Watterson sounds like a nice, regular guy. I mean, I'm glad he's not a real Gallagher about it. Also, I (of course) admire his devotion to Ohio.

Pepper Ann, Pepper Ann

We (or at least, I) loved Pepper Ann when we were kids. I think I was a smidge too old for this when it came out, but I didn't care. I love that Pepper Ann was such a strong, independent lady, and that the show was mostly female-focused. It really hasn't been that long since Pepper Ann was on, but this feels like another era. Also, duh, Luke's sister from Gilmore Girls did Pepper Ann's voice. But you knew that already.

A youtube user put it best: "MAN I MISS DA DAMN 90s."

Just some butt plug humor.

This sketch was pretty solid. Don't watch it if you're offended by butt plugs (Yeah right! If you're reading our blog, you love butt plugs).