I Speak With the Tongue of a Thousand White-Hot Lies!

So, last night's Glee ...

I didn't hate it.

Okay, seriously, there is no way on earth that I could hate an episode that opens with a Blaine voiceover and continues through Darren Criss dressed as a "don't sue us" version of Robin and then on into him wearing a wizard costume. (We all know that I started liking Blaine when he started becoming a weirdo.) Between that and the popcorn during the Skype date, and I think Blaine has completely assimilated into McKinley.*

I also had to come to grips with the fact that I am a dirty old woman, because Kurt in that scarf and boots outfit, Sam in the suit, and Blaine in that coat during the party ... um. (Fans self.)

There was a parallel I found kind of interesting, structure-wise. Remember how, in season 2, the race for Prom Queen was a major subplot, and then in season 3 they wrapped that same plot up in, like, one episode? In season 3, the class president race went on forever, and this season ... done in one. So what's going to be the long, drawn-out plot for this season?

I love the idea of Kurt's horizons expanding (and it's interesting to me, because Rachel is still on the same track as she was in high school, down to the boy drama--I think in some ways, Kurt's moving into the adult world first out of any of the rest of the kids we're currently seeing. I'd love to see him talking to Mercedes, who was supposed to be going out to California and starting a job, too). I like that someone finally pointed out to him that, a. dreams can change and it's okay if they do, and b. he's talented in more than one area. I also loved how he sounded with Sarah Jessica Parker. Make them sing more! Wait, make Blaine, Kurt, and Isabelle sing together!

On that note: more Blaine and Sam as friends! The nice thing about Glee's erratic characterizations/continuity: I really wasn't fond of Sam last season, but I might end up liking him a lot this season. Beyond the time he spends in a suit, that is.

The overall theme I keep seeing is people leaving "home" and negotiating their lives away from the familiar, but also how the people who are left behind negotiate being left. And while I can see why Brittany and Blaine** feel adrift, Will Schuester, you schmuck, you're a teacher. Kids graduate, you moron, and you have to focus on the kids you have right there with you. I feel that Will's character is consistent in that if it makes me think you are the worst teacher ever, that's what he's going to do.

All of that said ... holy cats, there was one decent song out of that entire episode, and it sure wasn't "Celebrity Skin." Who the hell came up with the idea to cover Hole? I had high hopes for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," but it really didn't work for me. (Oddly, like "Womanizer" last week, I liked it when I heard it online ahead of time, but then in the episode it didn't thrill me at all.)

Also, there were some eye-bleedingly ugly outfits in this episode. Dear god, why did they put Kurt in that weird painted suit? What was Brittany wearing during the debate?

Why the hell do I care about Rachel and her two boys at the same time thing ... for the fifth or sixth time? Can she get a new storyline?

My current theory is that Finn will become the substitute/replacement glee coach (and that'll be hilarious in a number of ways), and then discover some sort of affinity for teaching.






*Now we need to assimilate Marley and Jake so they can stop being a normal CW teen romance show that's been shoehorned into Glee

**So how many of the things that Brittany wants is Blaine going to get?

Well, hi! I have stuff to write about! (Ack, it's April, what can I say?)

Baking!

So tonight I made caramel. I tried last night and wound up burning it, so today I tried again, and my husband has been devouring it. I AM MIGHTY!

It's supposed to be used to make frosting, so that will likely be my next step. Then I may try the chocolate cupcakes it's meant to be paired with--I feel confident after the crazy science experiment that was the caramel, and may be willing to attempt to make something chocolate from scratch, though I have not always had the best results in the past.

Books!

I've been trying and failing to read lately, but The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe has managed to settle my crazy, end-of-semester brain down. It reminds me of Life As We Knew It, but (so far) without being so depressing you want to kill yourself after reading it. This is not to say Life As We Knew It was bad--just harrowing.

Glee!

I actually liked the disco episode a lot more than I thought I would. It was cute, set stuff up, and for the very first time I actually got to hear the lyrics to "You Should Be Dancing." Um. Wow.

As for last night's episode, let me direct you to a .gif set of what is my favorite scene from Glee, ever: here.* (spoilery, maybe.)

I love the variety of what the hell did you do?! that is aimed at Kurt. I also love it because they've apparently adopted Blaine--they know how snotty and rude Kurt can be, and now he has apparently cheated on the adorable puppy he brought them! Dude, even Will is wondering what the hell is going on.

Plus, how many of these people have cheated on each other? It's awesome.

Anyway. Poor Blaine. I thought Darren Criss did a really nice job with the lost, sad, broken thing. And between him, and Dianna Agron's face during "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," well, angst! Kurt's number made me happy--plus Mike's glance at Blaine was hilarious (Mike Chang is easily swayed by performance). I love watching Brittany dance. Still not sure what I think of Dreadlocks Dude, but he's not as annoying as Rory, and at least he has a plotline.

Oh, and my second favorite scene in the episode: Puck and the guys in the locker room, with the shot glasses. ("Why does mine say 'Drink 'til She's Cute'?") I love Puck. I miss Puck. I'm glad he's getting some story in the next episode, and I'm glad it apparently does not involve sleeping with a damn teacher.

All that said, I felt like the texting thing was a little artificial. I mean, there's a lot of organic stress there, with Kurt's impending departure for NYC. And all the stuff they were complaining about--Blaine pulling away, Kurt being self-centered, neither of them talking, and all of that sort of feeding the cycle--are things that could have precipitated a blow-up (much like the fight they had at the bar, back in the day, which I think worked really well). However, it likely would not have fit the song they wanted Blaine to sing, and if they had not used the texting/cheating story, I would not have had my favorite scene ever ... and so I guess I will have to roll my eyes and go with it.

Ugh, Will.

Oh, and apparently Kurt is singing "Not the Boy Next Door" for his audition piece, and I'm really looking forward to it.


Everything Else

This time next week, we'll be at Disney! I have made plans, maps, and am excited.


*yes, I have a Tumblr now. And if you want to follow me, feel free, but mostly it's cat .gifs and pictures, because the Zweeble loves the cute kittens, and this gives me a nice place to put them as I find them.

So, Glee.

I'm not even going to discuss the Michael Jackson episode. Guys, call the cops, call the headmasters, or give me a legitimate reason beyond just taking the moral high road for not using that tape. Two seconds, there, writers, and a throwaway line about this not being the first tine Sebastian's dad got him off the hook for something violent, and we're good. Yeesh. Some of the music was good ("Bad" was surprisingly cool; "Scream" was awesome, if slightly problematic), some of it was blah--in what universe do you serenade someone with a song written for a rat? Glee-verse, apparently--and the story fell apart at the end.

Still, Kurt got his NYADA letter! And Burt wanted to know which one of them got to tell Blaine!

I liked the Ricky Martin episode, overall, though it made me squirm a lot. You know, I've been saying for a while that Will is a horrible teacher--he's way too personally involved with his students, he plays favorites, and so on--but somehow in my pick-and-choose style of watching this show, I missed any reference to the fact that he's actually not good at teaching. And what kind of godawful high school is this, when the Spanish teacher can't speak Spanish?*

Anyway, I really loved "I'm Sexy and I Know It." Because, hello Kurt's face! Actually, the past few episodes, I have spent a lot of time marvelling at Chris Colfer's facial expressions (from the wide-eyed, Hello, nurse!, reaction to Ricky Martin to the "that's my boyfriend" smile as Blaine was singing "Love Shack" this week).

I kind of want Sue to have a baby, because Sue Sylvester + pregnancy hormones = awesome crazy.

But the episode that has really gotten me thinking was this past week's Valentine's episode.

First of all, Rachel's dads. I adore Jeff Goldblum. He and Brian Stokes Mitchell were really good. There was some hilariously stereotypical dialogue there, but the delivery--as usual with Jeff Goldblum--was anything but. So, well acted.

Wow, you can really tell where Rachel got that I-Have-To-Manipulate-Every-Situation thing, can't you? Because I guarantee that Burt didn't come up with the plan to let Finn sleep over to break them up. But the hilarious thing, to me, was that they know their daughter. They know that even though she's nearly an adult and has a boyfriend, she's still a particular girly girl who thinks boys are smelly and icky with the bodily functions and the sweat and stuff. They knew that as soon as Finn wanted to use her perfect bathroom, or the minute he disrupted her evening routine, problems would arise.

This engagement train wreck has me watching the Rachel/Finn storyline a lot more than I usually do. Though I don't know why someone isn't telling them to just be engaged for a while, rather than getting married right away.

Santana would, of course, kiss Brittany in the hallway and take on anyone who told her not to. Rock on, Santana. Also, go Mercedes with your integrity! Start acting like a man, Sam, and maybe you can get her back. And new dreadlocked Christian guy needs to have a scene or two with Puck--well, Puck's mohawk, anyway. Also, has Rory ever sung anything besides a ballad?

Of course, all of that leads to what I've really been thinking about ... Kurt and Karofsky.

I figured, since Kurt assumed the admirer was Blaine, that is wouldn't be. And I realized who was in the gorilla suit when the gorilla came into Breadstix. (I loved, "Wait, you think you love me?")

Oh, Dave. I don't have the rabid hatred others seem to have for you--possibly because of my pick-and-choose watching of the show, possibly because of your obvious self-hatred--but dude. Did you miss the boy Kurt was dancing with at the bar?

Kurt was right--Karofsky isn't in love with him. I'm sure he has a crush the size of Montana--Kurt is his age, he's out, he's really coming into his own (seriously, in the past few episodes. we've watched Kurt getting more comfortable in his own skin; it's been really cool). I can see Karofsky, in his super-confused, internalized homophobic mind seeing Kurt as his savior (savior in the same way that a lot of pop music and movies/TV make finding a boyfriend/girlfriend into being saved from your problems and pain).

My reaction was made of three things: 1. They've actually been making Blaine a character, with quirks and issues, and so I like him more now, and like him with Kurt.

2. The idea of getting together with someone who bullied you is severely problematic to me. In a real-world sense, yes, people deserve second chances, absolutely, but that doesn't mean dating them as a reward for changing. However, it wouldn't be the first time a show used that kind of storyline, and outsized reality and all that ...

3. This is actually my biggest issue with Karofsky wanting to be with Kurt: Dave's not out at school. He's not planning on coming out. The best he could do was "maybe next year ...." Kurt is out, and if he decided to be in a relationship with Dave he'd have to pretend that they weren't together whenever they saw someone from his school--which, judging by the end of that scene, would be most of the time they were in public. And that's not fair. (It's not fair that Kurt and Blaine can't be all Rachel-and-Finn whenever they go out, either, but there's a difference between no-PDA and pretend-we-aren't-together.) Now, if they'd wanted to break my heart, Karofsky would have told Kurt that he'd be willing to come out at school for Kurt. Because clearly that would be huge for him.

Apparently Karofsky is back for another episode or so; I like watching the actors together, I like Karofsky's storyline (though they don't have room to explore it as much as I'd like to see), so I'm hoping for some Dave/Blaine mutual jealousy and maybe for Kurt and Dave to become tentative friends.

Can I tell you how much I liked watching Kurt and Blaine during "Love Shack"? They were comfortable and relaxed and being goofy together. So were Brittany and Santana. Really, all of the kids, but those four are the ones who don't get to be as relaxed and silly all the time, and you don't realize it until moments like that. Glee is really good at those small moments.

So, yeah. I'm on a run of watching Glee, but we'll see how long it lasts. I've been enjoying it lately.


*This actually made me really think about Glee's tone: it's clearly an outsized, heightened reality, with some seriously broad satire going on. Thus the monolingual Spanish teacher, Sue's tantrums that span scenes that aren't hers, Rachel's nighttime routine, and so on. But it also has lovely, natural scenes--Burt and Kurt's heart-to-hearts spring to mind--and sometimes they mesh really well, and sometimes they make each other problematic. For me, anyway.

NETFLIX HAS ARCHIE'S FUNHOUSE! I need to remember this.

Today I got my mother's and grandmother's gifts finished--yay!--did a lot of laundry, paid bills, and started a story. It's not much of a start, but it's something.

Glee's Xmas special was entirely schizophrenic ... I have no idea exactly what I think of it. Loved Jane Lynch, as always. Perhaps my favorite thing about her scene with Artie, Kurt, and Blaine was Blaine's reactions--first "wtf?" and then, after being called "young Burt Reynolds," wtf morphing to flattered. Cracked me up.

The PBS Christmas special was awesome, and made me wish doggiesushi was here to watch it with me. They had that goofy celebrity Christmas special tone down. It made me a little nostalgic--John and I were such weird kids, and we'd have known how to do that tone, too.

Actually, I realized the other day--watching Santana hugging Finn made me realize it--what it is that keeps drawing me back to this show. I did theater in high school, and Glee reminds me of it. Being in each other's business, being friends and also competing with each other, sometimes hating each other until one awesome performance together made everything okay again, and the wide variety of outsiders we all were. In addition to the other stuff the show does right, it really understands that dynamic.

No, I am not sitting around figuring out who among my high school friends was Puck. Or Rachel.

Okay, fine, I could, but I'm not going there.

I have started reading Seanean Maguire's October Daye books, and the first one was pretty good. I'm working on The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemsin, which is really good. The first two books in the trilogy were really good, too.

I'm trying out Spotify, but I'm not sure what I'm doing with it. Or what I'm supposed to do with it. But I have more hope for this than I do for Turntable.fm. I also adopted the Facebook Timeline thingie, and it actually looks cool.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get some decent writing done. We shall see. I have to pack for the parents' house, too.

1. John Lithgow's memoir Drama: An Actor's Education. You can pretty much hear him as you read; it's awesome.

2. Amanda Palmer's "Ukulele Anthem."

3. Blaine and Kurt from last week's Glee. The rest of the episode was kind of meh, but those two were awesome.

4. The school photos of the Zweeble.

5. Also, his new Perry the Platypus hat. It's one of those knit things with earflaps and braids. OH MY GOD AWESOME.

6. The fact that my parents bought it for him, which just makes it better.

7. My cloche hat from Target that was on sale for $5.

8. John and Tiffany's wedding photos, which actually made a bad day last week improve when they popped up on Facebook.

9. The Walking Dead, which, while not my favorite show, is sparking lots of conversation between the husband and I. (We're edging more toward early-Torchwood-esque commentary than Doctor Who, though.)

10. Looking over this list, apparently the word "awesome." (Okay, I need a new word.)

Scott and I have now watched approximately 20 minutes of the Terra Nova premiere and have asked about ten questions. Our main concerns right now are ( totally spoilery )

Oy. That was some painful dialogue. And holy cats, could we hit one more cliche?

I'm trying to decide if I want to finish In Cold Blood and then read one of my new library books, or if I'm burned out on nonfiction after And Furthermore by Judi Dench and need fiction first.

I put In Cold Blood aside originally because I had to finish Mortality Bridge and get it back to the library--someone else had requested it, so I couldn't renew it. Well, Mortality Bridge is violent and gory, and frankly I couldn't quite face In Cold Blood after that, so Dame Judi it was.

So I am torn between wanting to finish the damn book and feeling like, "Not another non-fiction book ... !"

I think I may watch TV instead, tonight.

That whole "sharing Unity" thing with the Delvians ... hello, Quantum Leap effects!

Had a nice day with the parents yesterday. I showed Dad how to do some stuff on the iBook, and Scott attempted to troubleshoot my mother's slow-ass computer. The Zweeble ran around like a nut until we took him to the park.

The park we went to is across a little foot-bridge from my old elementary school. When I was a kid, the P.E. teachers would bring us over there to use the baseball field, and there used to be a big open space (now it has shuffleboard courts) where we'd play Red Rover and such. The equipment at the playground is all "new" (as in, not the stuff I remember using--and good on that, as I was playing there about 33 years ago--but not really new stuff, either) and rearranged, but as I told my mother, the weird thing about my hometown isn't the stuff that's changed--it's all the stuff that hasn't changed. The elementary school looks basically the same. The foot-bridge is still there. The baseball field and the stands are still there.

They are, however, rebuilding my high school. The new gym looks enormous. The building that I can only assume is the cafeteria is also gigantic. Soon the school will not be dwarfed by the auditorium. It's a little weird, but that school was not only my high school, nigh 20 years ago, it was my mother's junior high school, nigh another 20 years ago. It's probably due for an upgrade.

Then we went back to the parents' and had dinner, and played with the Zweeble, who found my mother's yoga mat and proceeded to spread it out and do "yoga poses." The idea of holding a pose does not occur to my child; most of his yoga poses involve jumping and spinning. Like most 4-year-olds, he is insanely flexible, and my mother, Scott, and I pretty much proved we're not 4 anymore. :)

Z. has been very clingy lately, probably because I've been out of the house a lot this week for work, so I spent most of the day hanging out with him. I didn't expect him to stay the night with his grandparents, but he decided to without any fanfare. So Scott and I came home without him. I played with Vignette, texted people randomly, and we got the makings for some sort of hot pepper and bacon infused vodka that has to steep for a week before Scott can make Bloody Marys with it.

And then, between Doctor Who and streaming Veronica Mars, I gorged on TV until 2:30am.

Today I need to empty the dishwasher, do some laundry, and do some work. And shower. I might shower first. Scott is watching a French zombie movie. Ah, Netflix, you evil creation ...

1. My aunt and grandmother sent the Zweeble a Godzilla action figure. Thus, I have spent half an hour today watching bits of old Godzilla movies on YouTube. Then Scott got home and started streaming the Godzilla cartoon via Netflix.

1a. Okay, this cartoon is ridiculously bad. I mean, worse than you remember, unless you watched it yesterday. The writing, the animation, and now Godzilla is locked in mortal combat with a subterranean lizard and the only way to describe the position he's in is "compromising."

1b. In the movie "Godzilla vs. King Kong," the 50s B-movie generic scientist explains that while King Kong has a brain ten times larger than a regular ape's brain, Godzilla's brain is the size of a nut. I know dinosaurs are supposed to have had tiny brains, but really? Thirty stories high and the brain wouldn't be maybe baseball-sized?

2. I'm reading The Name of the Wind, which is pretty good so far.

3. I'm still wrapping my head around the idea of my retired Dad.

4. I need to remember to order a new octopus necklace. My old one got wet and the photo wound up peeling a bit, noticeably. I have to say, people really tend to notice that necklace. I get lots of comments and questions about it.

5. I'm caught up on comics and only have three books on the Unread Stack o' Shame. Clearly it's time to watch movies and start streaming season 2 of Veronica Mars. And actually play some of these video games I've been ignoring. I still don't have any new music I'm psyched about, which makes me sad.

6. Godzilla has quite the booty, man.

7. I need some Scott-time.