when i look back on those neon nights
the leather seat, the passage rite
i feel the heat, i see the light
from miss atomic bomb
making out, we’ve got the radio on
you’re gonna miss me when i’m gone, you’re gonna miss me when i’m gone
the killers :: miss atomic bomb

Last year I made a wish list of stuff I wanted for Christmas, this year I am making a list of stuff I already have but highly recommend for those of you looking for gift ideas this holiday season.  Yay for the spirit of giving!! (See, I’m growing as a person! Also, mom, if you’re reading this, I want cash and Starbucks gift cards but mostly cash.) If I was Oprah, these would be included in my favorite things. (For the record? If I was Oprah, I’d also give you a boat, a trip to Wilmington NC in the autumn, and a twenty-minute conversation with Matt Davis about sex, energy, and aliens.)

Voluspa ceramic candles. Here is how I know I’m not a real grown up: Sometimes I can’t afford food, and also sometimes I spend $30 on a candle. I can hear my mother lecturing me about my spending habits now, but whatever. These ceramic candles smell amazing, last ages, and just look really pretty on a shelf or a dresser. My favorites are the Macaron and Suede Blanco scents. Macaron fills the room with the smell of pastries, but it’s not sickly sweet or too strongly vanilla-scented, which can sometimes be stifling. Suede Blanco has a masculine cologne scent. Basically, it makes your room smell like a really hot sophisticated guy just left, probably on his way to go buy you something fancy. The ceramic candles are really pretty, and once they’re burned down the jars still look nice and are multi-functional. (This is how I justify the expense.) You can use them for pens or makeup brushes or whatever. Plus, when I am trying to make the last twelve dollars in my bank account last until payday, I can still feel fancy burning one of these. Read the rest of this entry »

After I voted yesterday, I got a latte, got in my car, and started to cry. Most people who know me well consider me to be oversensitive; I don’t think I am, but I am prone to emotional collapse at inopportune moments, and this was one of them. I cried because I was an introverted doormat of a kid, and I’m quite proud that I’ve grown into a person who has spent the last few months raising my voice for the things that are important to me. I cried because I was relieved and a little terrified. I cried because I wanted to call my mom and talk to her about voting, because she used to take me to the polling stations when I was little (I’m pretty sure she was the one who voted for Ross Perot!) and I couldn’t call her because she’s in Guatemala. I cried because I really wanted to call my dad and tell him how angry and disappointed I am that he, a man with three daughters and a stepdaughter, voted for Romney, who doesn’t support Lilly Ledbetter. Read the rest of this entry »

can i say
i wish that this weather
would never leave
counting crows :: miami

Every year, I fly to NYC for the TV network Upfronts. Upfronts week is when the four major broadcast networks (and their underappreciated adopted misunderstood step-sister who was raised by wolves, The CW) present their upcoming fall programming to the advertisers. It’s about selling their product to the people who buy it, so the networks put on quite a show — they throw big parties, they host red carpets, they make Joshua Jackson take like a zillion pictures with strangers, it’s a whole thing. And it’s a lot of work, a lot of early mornings and late nights and ruining your favorite shoes in the inevitable rain.

It’s simultaneously the best and worst part of my job. Like, don’t get me wrong, it’s super fun, but this year it all made me so tired that when I left NYC, I paid $35 extra to check my carry-on because the thought of actually carrying it on was too exhausting to even imagine.

Anyway, the point of all of those words is this: Upfronts make me tired. But when I get home to LA, TV networks reward my hard work by sending me pilots. I’ve now watched pretty much all the pilots from all the major networks. (I skipped ones I knew I wouldn’t like, like ABC’s “The Neighbors,” a sitcom about extraterrestrials in New Jersey, and CBS’s “Made in Jersey,” a drama about a girl from Jersey who decides to be a big fancy Manhattan lawyer which is just a WILD concept because nobody ever comes to Manhattan from New Jersey because Manhattan is just so glamorous and edgy and blah blah blah not interested. This makes me sound like I hate New Jersey, but I don’t. I totally watch “Jersey Shore.”)

We’re not allowed to actually review the shows yet because some of them may undergo changes by the time they air in the fall, and also because posting reviews now does the networks very little good, promotion-wise. If you run in certain social media circles, you’ve probably seen TV reporters tweeting about the shows, but not saying much of anything substantial. We’re not trying to torture you guys by keeping the goods to ourselves, we’re just not allowed to review right now. It’s sort of an unspoken deal with the networks — if they give us screeners, we’ll adhere to their embargo.

Having seen most of the screeners, I’ve decided which ones I’ll be watching next season, and I figured I’d put together a little schedule — not only for my own peace of mind, but because a lot of you guys share my TV tastes or, for some bizarre reason, trust my TV tastes. Read the rest of this entry »

Almost all of my favorite books fall into the YA category. A psychiatrist (or psychologist? whichever one is allowed to give you drugs) once told me I watch TV and read books aimed at teenagers because I was emotionally damaged at 15 and I subconsciously try to regress to my adolescent state. It’s likely that this is true. It’s more likely that YA books are just really good and that shrink can suck it.

“The Fault in Our Stars” is a really good book. I mean, it might not be for everyone, but it was totally for me. It’s a little overwrought and angsty and very teenagery, so… I don’t know, if you were emotionally damaged as a teenager, you’ll probably love it! And c’mon, who wasn’t emotionally damaged as a teenager.

I don’t know why they don’t put my review-blurbs on book jackets. I’m book-selling gold.

Anyway, I’m not really ready to write a full-on review, because I’m better at talking about books than writing about them, but I wanted to share some snippets with you guys. John Green’s prose is really melodic to me. Every time I read one of his books I want to get his words tattooed all over my body. (I also feel this way about Richard Siken poems, Lucksmiths lyrics, and select quotes from “Life as a House,” but hiding all that ink from my grandparents would just take way too much creativity, so I don’t.)

So, since I can’t get tattooed and I no longer have a physics notebook to write quotes in the margins of, I decided to put my five favorite quotes here. These may be slightly spoilery, but I don’t think they are, I think they’ll just make you want to read the book more. Read the rest of this entry »

I admit it: I spend basically every waking hour on Twitter. It’s the first thing I check in the morning, it’s the last thing I do before I go to bed, it’s how I pass the time while I’m standing in line at the grocery store.

Thus, I am familiar with the AOT (asshole on Twitter) and have developed an excellent strategy for handling them. I am now going to share this innovative, earth-shattering AOT Elimination Strategy with you. You can thank me later.

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I do not like New Year’s Eve. It’s a completely arbitrary holiday — congratulations, universe, you will now spend the next six weeks writing down the wrong date on all of your contracts, checks, and correspondence. Other than that, nothing will change. So why, in God’s name, do we all get dressed up in sequins and drink champagne and act like the thing that happens at midnight is going to be some big surprise that you absolutely can not DVR? Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t want this post to come off like I don’t like Christmas time, because I do like Christmas time. I love being around my family and I love the cold weather and I love the traveling and I love all the giving (and receiving!) and the general togetherness. But there are moments when all of that stuff is really hard, too. Expectations are high and memories are strong, and there’s no time like Christmas to highlight everything in your life that is changing outside of your control. Read the rest of this entry »

Question: At what point are you too old for Christmas morning to be an embarrassment of riches?

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