My Dogs

I have two dogs, Masso and Pillar. Both are lab mixes and both have a ton of energy and love to run and play and bark and all those things dogs like to do. They also like to get in to the trash. Exhibit A. Masso took a carton of eggs from the trash and destroyed them.

They also like chew things, like, a lot. Pillar in particular gets super upset when left alone and has been known to chew through baby gates, pillows, couches...his chewing knows no limits. So I buy them things to chew on. One of the most successful chew toys are antlers. They are natural and last for freaking ever. Seriously, I bought them Antlers more than two months ago and they are still not even halfway gone. Pretty good investment, IMO. 

So they both, at one point had antlers to chew on, but being the crazy guys they are, the of course want to chew on the same antler at the same time and have been known to tussle over the chewies from time to time. But Masso got smart. When Pillar has an antler he wants, he'll bolt to the window and bark, knowing Pillar will leave the antler to come investigate the disturbance. Masso then leaves the window, where he's been barking at nothing, and head straight to the antler. Pretty dick move, but also pretty awesomely hilarious. Pillar, being the sweet lover he is, just stares at Masso, waiting for his turn with the antler because ultimately they really are best buds.

Politics, Man

Not to get all political, but there has never been a more Fox News-y headline in the history of ever.

*eye roll*

Bye, Bye Bunheads

Bunheads was one of those shows no one watched, but many, many people loved. It aired on ABC Family, sandwiched between comedies about boys raising babies and whatever Pretty Little Liars is about and never really found the audience it deserved. Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, who also created the super wonderful Gilmore Girls, Bunheads was, like SATC, a show by and about women...in this case high school ballerinas and the women they grow up to be.

I loved Bunheads. The crazy, Sherman-Palladino-ized dialogue (with 100 MPH jokes and pop culture references, half of which I didn't get...maybe a quarter of which I didn't get because my pop culter knowledge is very good, thankyouverymuch!) was a particular highlight. It was frank about sex and growing up and what it's like to be a 30 something woman who never quite realized her dreams and learns to make new dreams instead (that last point I can particularly relate to).

I'll miss Bunheads, which was sadly cancelled last week, but wait patiently for the next AS-P joint to find my new "Oy with the poodles already!"

On the Ever Expanding Waistline

Recently, I read this fascinating piece about global weight gain and it's possible causes. Turns out, it may not be as simple as "eat less and exercise more" to lose weight. There are many, many factors involved from chemicals in the water, genetics, environmental causes, even air conditioning.

Author David Berreby starts with the idea that, if poor diet and lack of exercise are the whole stroy, why then are lab animals, who have essentially been fed the same diet and kept in the same general conditions for decades, also gaining weight? It seems there has to be more to the story.

Though long, I would definitely recommend giving his piece a read. Lots of interesting research and theory to be consumed.

Texas Forever, For Now

Typical Coach Face

My husband and I recently finished rewatching all five seasons of Friday Night Lights. Good Lord, that show is outstanding. I still cried at, like, every episode and coveted Connie Britton's hair more than ever.

It was also fun because, after living in Austin for about eight months, I recognized a lot of the shoot locations. Like, the Landing Strip where Mindy works and many, many fights occur is one of the first things you see when you drive up the 183 from the airport coming into town. Very fun spotting that baby. And Ray's BBQ is a place I drove by once. I really got around in Austin.

But more than anything, it made me realize I was wrong about something very important. Once, in another blogging life, I wrote a post that strongly insinuated that Matt Saracen is hotter than Tim Riggins. This is obviously ridiculous. Maybe I was wrong because I was, at the time, recovering from a bad break up with a "bad boy" so I wasn't seeing or thinking clearly...or maybe I let Taylor Kitsch's long, flowing locks (something I am not a fan of on men) sway my feelings...but, c'mon, there is no contest.

That said, Coach Taylor is obviously the real heartthrob of the show. I mean, duh.

Movie Review Haiku: The Wolverine

Hugh fights in Japan

Oftentimes without a shirt

The movie's still lame

The SATC Post

Recently, Emily Nussbaum of the New Yorker wrote an excellent piece about "how Sex and the City lost its good name" i.e. how it went from groundbreaking television to "shameful" guilty pleasure in less than a decade. I agreed with many of her points, mostly because I made some of them years ago (I win!). Most of the blame can be placed on the truly terrible movies, but it still saddens me that SATC is seen in such a poor light (seriously, can we please Eternal Sunshine the movies, especially the sequel, from our brains?!)

One of the main points Nussbaum makes is that no show about or starring women is heralded in the same way we laud praise on The Wire or The Sopranos or Breaking Bad, all shows about and starring men. The only shows that come to mind that are both pretty much universally loved and star exceptional women are Friday Night Lights and Mad Men, but even those, when it comes right down to it, are mostly about men. So sexism is a factor, but then when is it not.

SATC was for women my age a new world of conversation and ideas. Like the women on HBO, my friends and I were dealing with bad boyfriends, guys we hung on to way too long, those we let get away (I love you, Aiden!). We were also figuring out our friendships...learning that fights happen and we get through them, that we're not always gonna like the guy she's dating and that's okay because he probably won't be around long anyway. We saw women on television who were assertive and confident and loving and funny and supportive of one another. It was heartening. I learned a lot about relationships and female friendships and myself by watching SATC, something I should maybe be ashamed of, but I'm not.

The real problem I find watching SATC today (beyond the truly terrible Carrie puns) is not how it's been co-opted and emulated by the Real Whoevers of Whoknowswhere, but the materialism. Watching it now, in the era of Occupy Wall Street and so many people struggling financially, it seems almost tacky for Carrie to strut around in $700 shoes and Samantha to covet a $20,000 handbag. It no longer feels aspirational (if it ever did). It just feels wrong.

But, that said, it's still a shame that the most successful show ever about real female relationships is tarnished and doomed to be remembered mostly for frank talk about sex and popularizing the Cosmo. It's so much more than that. The last line of the show really, perfectly sums up the experience and what SATC was trying to say (and here, I think it's important to note, I think Carrie is talking about all relationships, both platonic and romantic):

Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous. 

SATC is about  relationships...with friends, with lovers, with yourself. It should be remembered for the doors it opened and conversations it started rather than the Dubai desert where it ended up.