Diary of an adult runaway

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Celebrity spotting in the hood

On the Montmartrobus, doing the ultra-glamorous (i.e., hauling the washing home from the laundrette) when I saw this guy walking down rue Lepic with his shopping:

His hair was longer, but I didn't doubt for a second he's the guy playing Hamri Al-Hassad on 24--his eyes are really distinctive. Then I IMDB'd him, and discovered he was the yummy prince in Syriana, not to mention some doctor on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (which I have never in my life watched, so, you know...) Kinda nice to put a name to the face, because I often see people around that I know are actors (French) but I don't know where I've seen them.

Of course, none of them are anywhere near as glamorous as the mob I dined with on Friday night. A good time was had by all. So were margaritas and cheeseburgers. Of 7 people, 6 opted for the cheeseburger. And at 25E for a really good 3-course meal, The Frog & Rosbif at Bercy Village is the place to go for value for your money. Keep an eye out for Michael Moore's Sicko. Pat and some other American expats were shouted to dinner by MM so he could film them about their experiences with the French health system compared to the US. Stuns me that 45 million people in the US are without healthcare, while I pay an average of (after rebate) 1.5E for my prescriptions and 6E for my osteopath sessions.

Speaking of, energy levels are higher, things are starting to feel better. Though the doc made me stop using anti-inflammatories (that's the French spelling--how do I spell it in English? I've forgotten!) while I started on the T3 but the leg is killing me in the morning so I'm going to be hitting her up for a script come tomorrow. Come Monday. Huh. I keep running into Jimmy Buffet songs. Friday night was (naturally) Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise. I think that officially means I'm sun-deprived, though it's been getting better the past few days. Still, we have almost a month before spring starts and anything can happen...

First tears of American Idol Season 6 for me, when Lakisha Jones performed And I Am Telling You the other night. What a huge talent this woman has, and such a humble soul. Same with Melinda Doolittle. I'm thinking the white girls should watch out, because it's Lakisha, Melinda, Stephanie, Jordin and Sabrina for me so far. After the other night's performance, the boys aren't rating much of a mention--though weirdly I was thinking it was about time someone attempted Keep The Faith, then they announced Jon Bon Jovi was going to be one of the celebrity coaches. Margaritas all 'round!!

Labels: 24, American Idol, blogger meet-up, Montmartrobus

Posted by Gabrielle at 2/25/2007 09:22:00 PM | Permalink | 3 of y'all said... | links to this post

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Death to Meredith--please!

Kiwifruit has been discussing the state of TV, which led me to thinking about it. After months and months of bemoaning the state of French cable (what was that you said, Helen, about me not being much of a complainer?!), I worked out torrents, and there's been no looking back. Now I get to complain about TV shows in English, and so away I go.

Grey's Anatomy. I would like to kill Meredith. Luckily, I won't have to get off my ass and do it because she's doing it herself. I don't think I've seen such a pile of shite as the last 2 episodes. They get sent out to a major emergency with the bosses saying they didn't know what the problem was, just to build up tension for us the viewer? As if you'd do that. Your staff should be prepared for what they might face. There's no payoff in something like that. You want suspense? Watch the E.R. episode when Carter and Lucy are stabbed and we're waiting and waiting for someone to find them. That's suspense. Then we have Alex sloping around like an idiot, Izzy gazing pathetically at the person whose life she's supposed to be saving, and the interns have to give lists of the injured (to bit part actors who couldn't even convince themselves they were devastated)? Surely there's actually an admin person who handles that, thus freeing interns to, you know, save lives. And then Meredith gets knocked into the water and drowns for no apparent reason? Doesn't bump her head and even resurfaces and looks pathetically at the camera with the voice over saying "I'm disappearing." What the hell? Was that some existentialist reference to how she's "ordinary" because of her mother's illness? And what was the shot of her sneakers for--is that some kind of nod to Jeff Buckley? I believe we can count this as the moment GA jumped the shark. Too bad it didn't eat her. Only good thing? Seeing Denny and that cute bomb guy who got blown up last season. Oh, and Mark. Love him. I want to like this show, I so desperately do, and I love the Seattle shots, but really...

ER. Having just said watch this show for suspense done the right way, I have a question for the writers: do you seriously, seriously, seriously expect me to believe that big, strong, able-bodied sober Luka could not get away from a drunken, one-good-arm Curtis? At least 10 times over? Because that truly was pathetic. The Luka I love would call Abby--or better yet, the cops--on his cell phone and leave it on so they could hear what was happening and know where they were. The Luka I love would have taken this guy down himself. Yes, ok, so he's got a gun but he'd also been drinking and was slow off the mark. Really bad. And how come Ben suddenly disappeared?

24. I know I had a complaint about it. Can't remember. Oh, yeah! Peter MacNicol. Drives me nuts. Did the same in Ally McBeal, though his schtick worked in Numb3rs. And what is it about 24 that I go along with the things they do for suspense that I know can't happen, such as just happening to have a satellite positioned above a random intersection, a satellite so powerful that you could probably tell the time on someone's watch? I guess it's because 1. they use Apple computers for a lot of the stuff so hey, you know it's possible ;-) and 2. they actually kill their characters. No sentimentality (or nian nian, as my French prof taught me the other day) there--if it's good for the plot, they'll do it.

American Idol. Um, actually? Nothing to complain about! I continue to love, love, love this show. Love Simon and the other judges, love the spirit of the contestants, loved that guy who--to save face--yells at Randy "Don't make me come back there and kick your ass!", hate it when one bad note signals the end to all their hard work. I just love that they get up there and sing their hearts out and put themselves on the line--even some of the stinkers. So happy, though, that Antonella's best friend didn't make it through. What a preachy piece of work she was. That whole finger-raised "You know why? Because God likes good people." After she'd so blatantly lied! But hey, how come that blonde bluesy chick from Denver didn't make it through? She rocked!

Anyway, in preparation for the future hours I intend to spend in front of the iMac, I just got another pattern off eBay and I think I'll start her before the other one, just because I love the green. And then I'll have something to look at when Meredith (who will, sigh, no doubt be resuscitated) does her annoying fish mouth thing. Hey, just because I complained about it doesn't mean I'm going to stop watching! (At least until Rescue Me and Dexter and Weeds are back.)

;-)

Labels: 24, American Idol, cross-stitching, ER, Grey's Anatomy

Posted by Gabrielle at 2/21/2007 01:32:00 PM | Permalink | 11 of y'all said... | links to this post

Thursday, January 25, 2007

People I wish would write

Not to me, though they could, if they so pleased. But I was watching a 2002 episode of Inside The Actor's Studio with Johnny Depp, and when he was asked what other profession he'd like to try, he said writing. Which I thought would be a good idea and led me to thinking about other people whose writing I'd love to read. This list should come as no surprise to anyone who frequents this blog.

1. Robert Redford--I've already read and loved some of his writing (especially the foreword to The Great Margarita Book) but I'm sure there's more he could say.

2. George Clooney--come on, George, put that journalism degree to some good use!

3. Jackson Browne--he writes the most amazing lyrics I've ever heard and his New York Times Op Ed piece was no slouching matter, either, so let's get to it.

4. Matt Damon & Ben Affleck--over on her blog, Amra was talking about loving this movie and it made me wish they'd sit down and do another one. Completely loved this script.

Yes, I am aware my list is composed only of men. No idea why. Although I'm a girlie girl and firmly believe that we've got it going on, I find a lot of my inspiration comes from men. Is it because men tend to cut right to it? (As a whole--I know men who don't and plenty of women who do.) Such as tonight. An acting student asked Johnny Depp for advice in getting started and he said, "Keep moving forward and don't give a shit what anyone thinks. Just keep moving forward and do what you have to do for you."

Or is it because I'm consistently trying to work them out? You know what? I don't care. These men, what they do and what they stand for, interest me, and so I'm interested in their words. Now if they would just indulge me.

In snow news, sorry, it didn't stick around long enough to get photos, but here are some from last year, to give you an idea:

No snow today. Not that I'm going outside to check. Apparently, it's -3C, feels like -9. I'm all loaded up on anti-inflamatories and painkillers and arrets de travail (doctor's certificates) so I can stay in my jammies. I've got work to do but yesterday I snuggled up with the cats and watched Grey's Anatomy (excellent episode, George & Cristina have redeemed themselves in my eyes, I love Addison even more, and seriously, Mark? Yum), 24 (Poor Jack! What a bunch of turds his own family is! Loving that his brother is being played by ER's Romano, the perfect jerk, and that one of my fave bad cops, Scott William Winters from Dexter and NYPD Blue, is the hard ass FBI guy), and The Dog Whisperer. I have the biggest crush on Cesar and I'm not really a small dog person, we had German Shepards when I was growing up, but I adore that little chihuahua. And Daddy the pit bull. I've always thought pit bulls got a bum rap, that a lot of the time the problems stemmed from people, and Daddy is proof of that.