I’m tired, but for a reason (I think…)

It’s 11:53 pm and for some reason I can’t sleep, so I decided that I’d write an entry letting you all know that I’m having trouble sleeping tonight.  It might have something to do with the fact that both the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins won tonight, giving both teams a very good shot at advancing into the next round of each of their respective playoffs.  It’s been really funny being a New England sports fan lately, because on any given evening (like tonight) you could have the Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox playing at the same time.  I’d like to thank the people who invented 1) the remote control, allowing me to flip and watch the Celtics and Bruins at the same time.  And I’d also like to thank the person who invented the DVR, because I was able to tape Dancing with the Stars, and not miss a minute of my reality tv addiction.  OK, I’m going to try and go to bed.  Maybe not.  Letterman has Alec Baldwin on.  He’s always good on Letterman.  I may not sleep for days if this sports thing continues.  Or if Letterman keeps getting good guests.

PBS

I just love PBS.  Seriously.  From my childhood and Sesame Street to today and The Vicar of Dibley.  PBS rocks.  Right now I’m watching a PBS/BBC version of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (made in 2007.)  It is one of the best versions of the book that I’ve watched.  I’m totally wrapped up in it.

It’s too bad that good television is on PBS or the BBC.  With all of the cable channels, you’d think that someone would put good TV on all the time.  If I have to watch more channels that have wrestling or cooking shows (nothing against the cooking shows, but do we really need 20 channels of them?)  I’m also sick of the judge shows.  Judge Judy, Judge David, Judge Alex…blah, blah, blah.  Why are we suing each other over the dumbest stuff, and do we really need all of these paternity tests.  That’s a pretty sad statement about our society when we have to go on TV to find out if the father that we’ve known for 30 years is really our biological father.

OK I’m off on a tangent.  Back to PBS.  If you have kids and watch PBS Kids  in the morning.  Watch for Miss Lori who comes between four popular PBS KIDS programs: Curious George, Sid the Science Kid, Super Why! and Clifford.  I went to high school with Lori and she’s an amazing individual.  Score another for PBS.

Enough on the merits of PBS.  I’m back to watching Oliver Twist.  And if you have any ideas of how I can now get the Sesame Street song “C is for Cookie” out of my head, please let me know.

OJ and Justice

Yes, I have demeaned myself by watching truTv this afternoon to see if OJ was going to get the maximum sentence for his little robbery in Las Vegas a year ago.  I gotta tell you that the minimum of what 7 1/2 years is not enough if you ask me, especially since he wrote a book entitled If I Did It.  And don’t give me the garbage about this trial having nothing to do with the murder trial 13 years ago.

If he wasn’t found guilty in the civil trial, he never would have had to ask his family and friends to hide his memorabilia from the Goldmans, so that they could begin to collect on their settlement.  OJ was trying to skirt the law by hiding assets, he wanted his stuff back, and he broke the law in trying to get the stuff back.

So what have we learned.

1) Don’t murder your spouse.  That’s just wrong!

2) Things are just stuff.  They’re not worth breaking the law for.  You can always get more stuff.

3) If you think that you are God and that the world revolves around you, eventually the world collapses, because your shoulders aren’t strong enough to hold up the world.

4) If you are patient enough, justice comes.  Not vengeance.  Justice

And now you may clap.

Go Keith Olbermann!!!

Last night Keith Olbermann talked about life, liberty and most of all love.   He was referring to the passing of Proposition 8 In California, which denies the chance to gay and lesbian people in California to get legally married.  Keith Olbermann talks with such caring and compassion about the rights of ALL people.  I began to cry about halfway through this commentary.  Because I have friends in California who got married on October 18th, 2008 and now the state of California is saying that their marriage might not be valid, simply because both of them were born with XY chromosomes, making them both male.  I don’t understand how wanting to be equal under the law is a bad thing, especially since, if you’re going to get Biblical with me, Jesus said the next greatest law (after loving God) is loving your neighbor.

Living in Massachusetts, I have had the privilege to attend the wedding, the legal wedding, of a lesbian couple that I absolutely adore.  I helped out with decorating the venue and with the centerpieces on the tables (which were picnic baskets filled with goodies.)  To me, this was exactly what I had done so many times before for heterosexual couples weddings that I was involved in, that I didn’t see any difference between the weddings.  And I still don’t.   I cried at the end of the wedding, just like I did before, and just like I have since.  To me, it really was just another wedding.  Even though I do know that there was something very special about it.

To me, it’s all about love.  We need more of it today.  So to Jason and Chris, as I said before, no matter what proposition 8 says, you’ll always be married in my eyes!  I love you guys!  

This post is dedicated to all of my friends who are fighting in the struggle for equality for people of all gender identities.  Straight, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, it’s the process that’s important, and we all need to keep on fighting until everyone gets the same rights.   For those of us who are straight, I leave you with the thought that I have on a button that I wear “Straight, but not narrow”

(Thanks to Krista for showing me the video in the first place!)

The Muppets Return!

I was with Addie yesterday.  We were watching the Disney channel and all of a sudden the Muppets appeared on the television.  It was so cool!  I loved the Muppet Show as a kid.  It seems that Disney has a new show for this generation starring the Muppets and the new, hot teen favorites (actors from Hannah Montana, Camp Rock, etc.)  The new show is called Studio DC Almost Live.  Yesterday’s episode featured an actress from Camp Rock, singing one of the songs from the movie.  The funny part was that the song is a duet (sung with this female singer, Demi Lavato, and Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers), and one of the Muppets had to sing Joe Jonas’s part.  They ended up having Beaker do the duet.  For those of you who don’t remember who Beaker is, he works with the scientist Dr. Honeydew, and only talks in high squeeks with the word “Meep.”  So his part of the song is done in “meep, meep, meep”  I have to say that I liked Beeker’s version much more than the real duet!.  Check out Beeker and the Muppets here: Muppets And here’s the Camp Rock version: Camp Rock Hope you enjoy all of this!  (and thanks to the blogger for correcting Beaker’s speech for me )

The “seven dirty words”

Growing up in Milwaukee, and having the pseudo Aunts and Uncles that I had (lawyers, politicians, professors, you know those educated kind of people who had stuffy day jobs, but really knew how to party on the weekends.  Just to clarify, nothing illegal ever happened.  My parents and their friends were great role models!  )  Growing up  knowing that George Carlin (who just died) was arrested at Summerfest in Milwaukee in the early 1970’s for “disturbing the peace” when he said the “seven dirty words that you can’t say on television.”  Now this infamous arrest was widely talked about in later years with quite amusement, but I have to say that I never really asked what the seven dirty words were.  Until today, when the news programs reminded me of Carlin’s arrest in Milwaukee and the “words.”  So I googled George Carlin, and “seven dirty words you can’t say on television.”  and wouldn’t you know that Wikipedia actually lists the words.  I’m not going to post them here, nor am I going to post a link, but I have just told you how to find the words.  I thought carefully about this and because I teach my Sunday School kids the 10 Commandments, and the kids decided years ago that the commandment that says “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God” (NRSV) also means in today’s times that we should not swear.  I am not going to swear, so find the dirty words yourself, and George Carlin rest in peace and thanks for the laughs!

Watching tv at my parents kitchen table

I’ve been ruminating on the death of journalist Tim Russert.  He died on Friday at the Washington D.C. studios of NBC at the age of 58 of a heart attack.  It was so weird when I heard the news.  I was at my parents home, watching the news at my parents kitchen table.  When I got back to my own home, I thought about all of the news that I had watched in my parents kitchen.  I watched plane 2 hit the World trade Center and then I watched the Trade Center Towers collapse on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.  I watched the 2004 election when Al Gore became the president that never was.  I watched countless Boston Red Sox baseball games at that kitchen table. (Baseball games that have led to 2 World Series troophies in the past couple of years, I’d like to add.)  I guess I never thought about how I associate places with memories before.

InTurn 3 over :(

Well, my favorite reality show of the Spring came to an end this evening, InTurn 3.  It’s the web based show about finding an actor for a 13-week contract role on As The World Turns.  My favorite actress, Nell, won the contract, so I’m pretty excited to see what kind of role the show will develop for her.  I think that As The World Turns has some really good story lines going on right now so I’ll definitely keep watching.  I know pretty pathetic when I get excited over a soap opera story line!

Hooked on Reality TV (ok Reality Internet)

I don’t really like reality TV (okay, I’m lying, I love reality TV.  I’m a huge Big Brother fan, and Dancing With the Stars, and Top Chef, but not really American Idol.)  Anyway, for the third season, I’m hooked on the Internet reality show produced by the soap opera As The World Turns, InTurn.  The premise is that 10 wanna be soap actors compete in acting competitions for a 13 week contract role on As The World Turns.  It’s really interesting.  This past week the “contestants” had to memorize a monologue and as they performed for the judges distractions like silly string, itching powder, dance music and fog were thrown at them to see how 1) they memorize 2) they take the direction of “be prepared” and 3) perform under difficult situations.  This is acting at its best I think.  (I’m also biased, I’ve been watching As The World Turns since I was in utero.  My Great-Grandmother Parrish began watching the show when it FIRST began, and got my mom hooked as a teenager.  Then when my grandmother retired, she began watching the show too, so that makes me a 4th generation ATWT fan.  So now that ATWT has moved into cyberspace, I go too!  

Oprah goes Jonas Brothers

I really don’t watch Oprah much, but I was flipping through the channels yesterday and the ad for yesterday’s show showed that one of her guests was going to be the “hot” boy band The Jonas Brothers.  So I decided to watch the show.  Now, we all know that I am way past the age of going ga-ga over boy bands, but there is something different about the Jonas Brothers.  I first found out who they were when I took Addie (who’s almost 8 now!) to see “The Hannah Montana Movie” (in 3-D at the Providence Place Mall!)  That was an experience.  A theater full of teens and tweens screaming and singing with the songs.  Adddie loved the movie and was singing along with all of the kids.  It was so funny!  So after the movie, the Jonas brothers became “our boyfriends.”  Every time they’d come on the radio, Addie would shush me and then sing along with their hit “When you look me in the eyes.”  When I got so sick with the pneumonia, I couldn’t spend time with Addie, so she’d call me on the phone, and if I was sleeping, she’d leave the message on my answering machine with her singing “When you look me in the eyes…”  That always cheered me up!  So I watched the Jonas Brothers on Oprah, and they are such good role models for the young kids, I’m really glad that Addie is excited about them and their music.  For all of us old farts here’s the youtube link to the Jonas Brothers