I Am Slow

My friend Miss M yelled at me many times last fall, trying to convince me to watch Gossip Girl. Even some of you wrote in and told me that I was guaranteed to like it, so I should give it a shot. But I was desperately trying not to add any more TV shows to my roster, and after The O.C. went off the air, I didn't want to replace it with another angst-filled teen drama that reminded me of how old I was.

But... wow, there's really nothing on TV in the summer months. Even the late-night talk shows are currently in reruns! And dammit if my Tivo didn't record Gossip Girl as a "Suggestion." How could I fight with the little Tivo man?

So, I watched it. And then I watched another episode. And then I set it up for a season pass so that I can catch up in time for Season 2. To date I've only seen three episodes, and I definitely think it is nowhere near as good as The O.C. (the acting is WAY worse, sorry! Not like either show is Emmy-worthy...), but it is entertaining and fits my criteria of not requiring much energy or thought to process. Lost takes up way too much of my brain power during the normal TV season, so I can't waste energy on anything else that's "deep."

My take on Gossip Girl so far is that I like the Dan guy, but he's a blatant rip-off of Seth (with a little Ryan thrown in) from The O.C. Just as Serena is a blatant rip-off of Marissa (and has an awful voice, to boot). But I do like the sketchy Chuck Bass guy. And I find comic relief in the fact that anyone believes Chace Crawford likes the ladies. AND it's kind of confusing that the mom on The O.C. is also the mom on Gossip Girl, but I guess there are only so many ridiculously skinny and good-looking TV moms to go around.

In the last episode I watched, I realized once again how behind the times I am when I recognized a song that was played during the finale of last season's American Idol. I was like, "Oh yeah, I really liked that song! I have to get it from iTunes!" So I did. I remember how I used to make fun of my Uncle John when he started liking songs months (and sometimes years) after they were at the height of their popularity. And now here I am doing the same thing.

The song is "Apologize" by OneRepublic... here is David Archuleta singing it with them in the finale (the performance ends at 3 minutes 20 seconds). Channeling Simon, I must say that I feel that was David's strongest performance.

To wrap up this "things Erika discovers late in the game" post, last night I was flipping around on TV and came across Kathy Griffin's stand-up routine, "Kathy Griffin is not Nicole Kidman." I knew it had to be old because she was talking about her husband, whom she ended up divorcing a while back. But anyway, I always thought Kathy was totally annoying, but my friend Nerdy P thinks she is hilarious, so I decided to give her a shot. And lo and behold, I was laughing my head off. There is a part where she describes an awards show encounter with Ryan Seacrest that was priceless... I recommend it if you can find it anywhere.

Oh, wait, I found it (yay for YouTube)! It's actually from 2005 (yikes!)... here is the funny clip. The set-up is that she is presenting an award with Ryan Seacrest. The end part where she talks about Nelly (and his posse) is the part I was dying at:



OK, now I'm going to go put on my fanny pack, fire up the old Walkman and go roller-skating!

- e

ETA: I have since been informed by a few peeps that the moms are not played by the same person on GG and The O.C. They are apparently two different Fembots. My bad!