PSA: Startling conversation in the marketplace -- though I guess we are a consumer-democratic nation.

Here's something I found while looking over the Amazon review of my pastor's most recent and only book (about which I have no opinion, having not [yet] read it): A conversation about what to do if your child declares herself an atheist.

Interesting, but exhausting stuff.

New word: Music-cool

adj. a person or media presentation (i.e. movie, TV show, powerpoint presentation) that displays a musical knowledge and comprehension of songs and artists that are just about to "break out," especially in the cutting-edge genre of its time (i.e. grunge rock in early 90s; indie pop/rock in the late 00s); music-cool people can lay claim to "discovering" at least one group in said genre before anyone they know, and evangelizing said group to others.

PSA: Grey's Anatomy will make you music-cool.

I've been rewatching Grey's Anatomy, which I used to view as "appointment television" with my roommates in DC three and four years ago, recently. I've had a significantly different reaction to the show the second time around.

For one thing, watching all the episodes in a row without commercials makes me feel less annoyed at Meredith Grey, who, unlike her predecessing whiny sisters (think Ally McBeal and Grace from Will and Grace), actually has a lot of trauma in her life, stuff that justifies the whining.

For another, since 2006, I've become infinitely more music-cool. And it turns out that Grey's Anatomy has been music-cool all along. Admittedly, some of the indie music they play is still middling -- Snow Patrol is addictive, but more like crack than wheat crackers and hummus; Bird and the Bee have that one awesome song, but the rest seem just okay -- but when in the middle of season 4 I said to myself "well, they haven't played The National yet," they did...and a song that I wouldn't really have expected -- a kind of obscure, appropriate song.

The show has its share of treacle, but then so does the indie music scene (see again: Snow Patrol).

Now I'm waiting for Animal Collective and Matt & Kim. They're probably in there somewhere in season 5, or about to go up in season 6.

Confessions XLIII

I bought 8 boxes of cereal at Target over the last 2 days.

I did this even though I don't need cereal, and with the intent to give 3 boxes of it -- maybe 4 -- to P.C. because I already had like 7 boxes of it at home. I did it to get 2 $5 gift cards to Target so I can buy DVDs in the future and not feel like I'm a spendthrift.

I fully expect to sit in front of the giant TV P.C. bought himself for hours at a time after these purchases, watching those DVDs while eating generic Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Mini-Wheats until I'm fat and lethargic.

PSQ: Half-hour comedies

Would anyone recommend a half-hour comedy available on DVD to follow Arrested Development when P.C. and I inevitably finish watching season 3?

I've heard Pushing Daisies is good, and I've seen a few episodes of Better Off Ted, which is pretty funny and also continues the Portia de Rossi kick of AD.


*Here's a partial list of shows (I)we've watched, so you can avoid repeating recommendations and get a sense of our tastes:

30 Rock
Big Bang Theory
Scrubs
The Office (American)
Weeds

Local Trivia, flood edition: Charles overflows

P.C. and I walked up past the Charles in Waltham on Tuesday, enjoying the awesome post-deluge weather that hit during the weekend and ended on Monday night with some kind of weird hail. As we often do, we took the "river walk" that runs along the river toward Moody Street, which is one of the two streets with stuff on it in Waltham.

We were greeted by two kids on bikes riding in the opposite direction, advising us not to continue. When we continued anyway, we ended up walking on the grass between the flooded river path and the also-flooded parking lot on the other side -- until we reached the gate between path and parking, which dipped lower and had several inches of water over it, and between us and the other side of the grass median.

We turned around and approached Moody Street from another direction, and when we got to the dam, there were gawkers staring into the water. Like any good rubberneckers, we went to see what it was about: the river hadn't overflowed up onto the street, but the overflow basin had overflowed into what appeared to be the yard of a former mill; the wooden bridge now connected to a small island on the mill-side of the river, which explained why it was all cones and "caution" tape on the dry side.

There were Caterpillars and sand bags, police and a news van. It was fun to see -- or at least more fun than the fried water heater and furnace in my apartment basement that left the house without heat or hot water for two days.

Having to wash your hair in a bucket seems more justified when you're staring at an overflowing dam, is all I'm saying.

PSA: Dangerous Assignment old-tyme radio

Hey, guys -- here's a taste of what my 1950s TV project/independent study has dug up: old-tyme samples of the radio show that preceded the 1951 television show of the same name, Dangerous Assignment.

You'll learn a bit about the genre and radio show here (as well as getting a sample episode), but if you just want to cut to the action, this is a better bet.

It's no This American Life, but then again, white people were different in the 1950s. Enjoy!

Local Trivia: Another annoying thing about Brandeis University

The default search engine is "bing."

Local Trivia: Conferenced and cancelled

Well, I read my "Offline" paper -- or a 7-pg version of it (I know, you're thinking "why didn't you post THAT version here??" Suck it up) -- at the Cultural Production conference yesterday. It went pretty well, though I had to read fast and the discussant asked each panelist a question relating to how our projects would work in conjunction with various James Cameron films...and my comparison film, he said, should be Titanic. Considering the question, I think I acquitted myself well.

Unfortunately, by the time I went on, about half the people I knew at the conference had left, and I was an hour late for work.

Even more unfortunately, this is probably the last CP conference for Brandeis, which has decided, bizarrely and opaquely, to end the Cultural Production program. The most frustrating aspect of the process is that despite our protests -- well-written, well-spoken protests that were supposed to go to the heart of what they objected to in continuing CP (which is a money-making program, by the way, cut by a committee designed to cut costs at the university) -- the committee, provost, and other decision-makers simply and continually averred that there were "other reasons" and "hidden costs" to the program that they then refused to name.

It's enough to make a girl think in terms of conspiracy theory -- like how maybe these decision-makers are still upset at the protests over selling off art from the Rose Art Museum on campus, which was another hasty and opaque decision made by committee last year.

Perhaps the "hidden costs" of continuing a profit-earning Cultural Production program is the price of the art they'd be able to sell from the museum if people like us weren't there to stop them.

Personally, even in the midst of the conference-high, I feel insulted by the decision and by the apparent lack of concern and respect shown in not giving us real details on why our program should be expunged. I am going into debt to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars for this degree, paid to a university that not only doesn't value my education, but doesn't care enough to tell me why it doesn't care.

We were instructed, in our protesting and letters, not to make threatening remarks that wouldn't help us with the committee, remarks like "I will blacken the name of Brandeis with everyone I talk to for the next forty years," or "this is a stupid decision made by stupid people" or "are you on crack? Seriously, are you?"

Well, nothing will help us with the committee now, and so nothing will help the committee, administrative decision-makers, and provost's office with my wrath. This was a stupid decision, made by people I hope were on drugs, and I will be responding to every future "please give us money" alumn call with "sorry, you already took my money, and I am never giving you more."

PSA: Things that are insufficient, but still better than nothing.

1-ply toilet paper

Shoddy tent-building skills

Airplane blankets

Bathroom stall doors that leave 1" gaps on both sides

Kids' scissors

The current health care bill

PSA: War narrative for the 21st century

This is a very well-written article about how narratives, and war narratives in particular, can shape our experiences and memories...tangentially.

Basically, it's one of many perspectives from people coming back from war.

For another one, try Christopher Hedges' War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, or listen to the fictional Man in the Dark by Paul Auster (though beware the PAs) -- in addition to all the classics from Red Badge of Courage to All's Quiet on the Western Front.

Local Trivia: Thanks for letting me off the hook, guys.

An evangelical church near Waterbury, CT, has occasionally had sign messages posted on its church events sign that cause me evangelical concern -- thanks usually to their strange syntax, I find myself wondering if Jesus is telling me to go back to evangelical church.

Today, driving past, I observed a sign that snapped me out of the thrall leftover from previous signs: "We still believe in the the pledge of allegiance to God to country to our flag."

Since I know from all biblical evidence that Jesus didn't come to urge us to "pledge" to "our flag" as U.S. citizens -- and least of all during Lent (I mean, surely there are other things this church could be focusing on during this season??) -- this sign effectively relieved me of all concern that I should pay attention to this church's signs.

Thanks, evangelicals, for outing yourselves once again.

PSA: Aliens have good taste.

According to NPR on Monday, the Brits are beginning to get fed up with people using Freedom of Information laws there to get copies of reports of UFO sightings. The government feels it's a waste of money and time, and it has perhaps been part of the reason UFO sightings have gone up recently -- UFO sighters being, likely, highly suggestible people.

As a result, the Brits are now going to shred documentation of UFO reports 30 days after they're first reported.

That seems reasonable enough to me; I mean, if there really are aliens, and if they're interested in a hostile takeover (which is the only possibility that really could worry us), what good will govt. documentation of the impending attack do us? No good.

More important than all of this, I think, is the possibility that extraterrestrial life really IS visiting the UK more often than other places. Daytrip to earth? Hey, let's go see Bath! Or the Cotswolds! Let's go see that quaint walled-in city that defended itself against the Welsh!

I think the aliens and I might get along pretty well.

Local Trivia: Treasure, ho?

Observed: A pole sticking up from the iced-over lake on the side of the Mass Pike, near the 395 exit, with a pirate flag affixed to its top...as though a pirate ship had sunk and then been lost beneath the ice with only the mast showing.