Monthly Sidebar Update

Hey, I'm finally copping to it in the post title: my sidebar updates have slipped from weekly to monthly, and there's no point in pretending otherwise. What a shame. Welp, let's get to it while it's still monthly!

This week's month's Object of My Affection is Laura Silverman, sister of comedian Sarah Silverman. Really, I could've put Sarah up there instead; I dig her thoroughly. But then Dorian would've burned my blog to the ground. He hates Sarah Silverman as much as I hate diet soda. (That's a lot!) Laura appears with Sarah on The Sarah Silverman Program, as Sarah Silverman's sister, Laura Silverman. Big stretch. I first became familiar with her as Dr. Katz's acerbic receptionist on the fantastic animated series, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist; her character was named... Laura. Hmm, kind of a Tony Danza thing going on there. (Trivia question: on how many sitcoms did Tony play a character named Tony? Answer: FOUR.) I think she's funny and lovely, and she looks even hotter with the red hair she's got on TSSP.

Reading: as I mentioned in the last post, I have finally finished Quicksilver, Book 1 of Neal Stephenson's epic Baroque Cycle, and have moved on to Book 2, The Confusion. It opens with the return of an excellent character I thought had died in the first book, so I'm pretty psyched right off the bat. Hope I can get through this one by... let's say Thanksgiving. Don't want to set any unrealistic goals here. (In which case I should probably say Thanksgiving 2008.)

Watching: I've been doing a lot of stalling and lazing about lately, instead of a mountain of work I really should be doing. Quicksilver helped with that procrastinating immensely. As have my DVDs of Arrested Development. I haven't watched them for quite a while, and I'm glad to find they're as unbelievably funny as I remembered. Watching them all in a row, I've been picking up on things I didn't notice the first or even third time through, subtle foreshadowing and running gags (such as the throwaway line, "two strikes, you're out") that helped make this series such a richly rewarding comedic gem. There are a few worthy sitcoms on the air right now -- most notably The Office and 30 Rock (and I'm also greatly enjoying 30 Rock's temporary timeslot filler, Andy Barker P.I.) -- but none of them quite fill the void left by Arrested's cancellation. If you don't own these DVDs, Amazon has the complete series for sale right now at the ridiculously low price of $54.99. That's 50% off! And I don't even get a commission from that link! I just want you to buy some TV brilliance at a great price while you can. You won't regret it! (Not a guarantee.)

Listening: Ken Lowery and I had a bit of back and forth in the comments two posts ago about the band, the Refreshments. I think they're fantastic, and I consider their first album, Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy, one of my favorite albums ever. So since then, of course, I've been on a Refreshments listening marathon. Which doesn't take all that much time, really; they only released two albums. But I've been listening to them a lot. Hope you give 'em a chance, Ken!

Hating: Carlos Mencia. Again. SamuraiFrog (not his real name) (I assume) alerted me to Mencia's latest crime against comedy: the notorious joke thief has stolen a joke from Bill Cosby. And not just some obscure, run of the mill Cosby joke -- no, he decided to steal from one of the most watched and beloved comedy films of all time, Bill Cosby: Himself. Click the link below Mencia's picture over on the sidebar, and watch the You Tube comparison between Cosby and Mencia, and try to tell me that's not blatant, brazen joke theft. Beware when you click: you may accidentally read some comments from Mencia's idiotic, bootlicking defenders, with pearls of wisdom along the lines of "It made me laugh, so who gets hurt" (uh, the people he steals from, you assholes) and "Joe Rogan's a fag."

Lyric of the Week (well, that's what it still says on the sidebar, anyway) is from Kim Richey's "A Place Called Home," a simple, beautiful, and achingly longing song. Devoted Whedonites will recognize the tune immediately, and associate it (as I do) with a particular moment of televisual tragedy: this is the song that plays at the end of the episode of Angel in which Fred suddenly and heartbreakingly dies. This song is particularly poignant to me these days. I'm getting ready for a big move (which is what I've been procrastinating about), in which I'll be leaving the town I've always thought of as home -- though it hasn't really been my home since I was 18 years old; even spending the last few years back here hasn't made it feel like my home again. Frankly, I don't know where my home is. Moving away from here will hopefully get me one step closer to finding it. Is that too hippie-dippie? Oh well. Peace!