Look with your eyes, not with your hands.


Such a minute fraction of this life do we live: so much is sleep, tooth-brushing, waiting for mail, for metamorphosis, for those sudden moments of incandescence: unexpected, but once one knows them, one can live life in the light of their past and the hope of their future.



A grad student muses on her life, film, friends, politics, reality televizzle, and music.

 
Awesome

It's a good Friday. Granted I had to get up early and teach (and I would have enjoyed sleeping in because the blanket-weather has fallen hard on Madison), but it's been good despite that. I had a wise-cracking day in the office with some of my Vilas cohorts and a big Chipotle burrito for sustenance. I don't think I've given Chipotle the proper shout-out on my blog. But so far, it's the best Midwestern-chain (it's probably other places, I heard a humor that the chain is owned by McDonald's) but it's the best $5 burrito in town and it is very close to my office. You get your money's worth with this bullet, just don't try the house margarita, it's gross, and even though it's cheap, it's still gross. After I feasted, I came home, stripped down into my underwear and napped. I've been putzing ever since and will soon go back to campus for another film in the Dorothy Arzner series and then off to a filmy housewarming party for my friends Tom and Jordis.

I made time for the "Must See TV" last night. Granted I might have to give up my shows when I am in the throngs of the academic life, but for now, I can give myself a Thursday night luxury. I ended up taping the CBS shows and watching the NBC line-up with two girlfriends. Survivor is off to a good start. It seems that on the last few seasons, one tribe always emerges as clearly more organized, more coherent, and all-around-better than the other. This might be evidence of the genius of editing - whereby some puppetmaster does a skillful job of pinning one team's strengths against the other's apparent weaknesses. Since the Drake team clearly holds the upperhand in this game, count on a twist that jumbles the teams up and unlevels the playing field soon. I realized last night that I missed the boat on Fantasy Survivor on the CBS website. I did really well last season, I am bummed that I didn't think to start again. Being two weeks behind, I can't really start now and have a respectable finish. Over all, I think this season needs some jumbling though - one team is doing well and conflicts aren't apparent yet and the other is so miserably crappy, no one cares enough to strategize. This week, Osten was making a case for himself to get kicked off - who does that? And sorry, that stupid girl from the Amazon doesn't count. This week, the Morgan tribe is just so pathetic people just don't care enough to be there (and it's only Day 6, Island time). Next week looks to have a little more conflict, but I still predict Drake victories unless the teams are mixed up.

I caught Will and Grace last night, but I don't follow it closely enough to care. ER was a little disappointing for a season opener. I am a fan of the new med student (the Indian / British actress from Bend it like Beckham) and I think her and Gallant could have a very nice little romance this season. They both seem like the straight arrows on the show, no real drama around them and aside from rookie mistakes, they don't seem the type to get into drugs or cause other major problems with the personnel balance in the ER. I'd like to see a regular old fashioned Doctor / Doctor relationship unfold on that show. I am more excited for next week's show when Carter returns to the Congo in search of Luka (sp?). I think ER, almost better than any other show on tv these days, does an exceptional job of "on-location" shooting. The episodes have a dramatic, cinematic quality and I think they are artfully done. I am thinking here of the flashbacks of Luka's family in Bosnia (this is going back a few years, but it is one of the best episodes of any show I've seen in that many years). I also think Mark Greene's last episode in Hawaii was touching. This week's show brought us back to Chicago and showed off some new looks (namely, facial hair is very in this season - in the ER and with CSI) but I am more interested to get back to the Africa plotline and find out what's going on with Luka.

Anyway, time to iron a shirt, wash my face, and go and be a social creature.
posted by lmjasinski at 6:50 PM