Procrastination Strikes Again: Office Style

Although I'm at the library and supposed to be working on my Newsworthiness paper, I thought I'd take some time to blog about the next TV show I've decided to tackle: The Office (US version, although I do plan on at least testing out the UK version).

For the longest time, I couldn't stand The Office. I didn't see what other people saw in it and I just didn't find it funny. Then, over winter break (during which I apparently was nothing but bored--see my HIMYM obsession) I caught some of Season 2 on TBS with my boyfriend. It must have been a really funny episode, because I kind of fell in love with it.

When I came back to college, my roommate told me that all of the Office was available on Netflix's Instant Watch. So last night, I finally got to watching some of the episodes. I even rewatched the episode that originally made me fall in love with it: "The Fire".

This is the episode that first made me love Dwight's character. I just found the image of him exaggerating how bad the fire was by crawling on the floor with the fire extinguisher very funny because there was only a tiny bit of smoke coming from the office's kitchen. Also, his attempts to win back Michael's affections were very amusing. Dwight (the boss's "pet") only loses his affection after Michael learns that the temp, Ryan Howard (I always think Phillies when I hear his name--I can't help it) went to business school. He begins to admire him on such a creepy level that only he could. What I love most about this episode is at the end, when Dwight discovers Ryan is responsible for the fire, and then Michael and Dwight sing "Ryan started the fire" (to the tune of Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire") for the rest of the episode. Once again, Dwight is the boss's "pet" he always aspires to be.

It also surprised me to learn that the guy who plays the temp, BJ Novak, wrote this episode. I think he did an excellent job, and it definitely makes him respect him more. I'm definitely going to be watching much more of the office in the future.

What episode(s) made you fall in love with your favorite TV show?

(also, please vote in the poll so I know what TV shows I should be posting about more often!)

Osama Bin Laden Likes "Glee"

Who knew, right?

While searching for a topic to do a newsworthiness assignment on my "Writing for Journalism" class, I came across this wonderful article on NewsArse, a UK spoof news and satire website, about how Bin Laden accidentally recorded himself singing along to "Don't Stop Believing" and declaring his love for Glee.

The article says,

"Then, as the tape comes to the conclusion, the stop button is not completely depressed and Bin Laden announces his love for new FOX TV series ‘Glee’ which is playing in the background, before singing along to the hit track from the show, “Don’t Stop Believin’”.

Also quoted in the article is a US security spokesperson who mentions why the actual recording may have ended up recorded over this:

“It sounds like he might have taped over an old Al Qaeda karaoke night. Money is obviously tight, and so they’re recycling, I suppose we should applaud them for that.”

If anything, this article certainly brightened my day. But how do you feel that Osama Bin Laden also likes one of the hottest TV shows?

I know I may have found just the topic for my newsworthiness paper. EDIT: It appears that only the satire site that I found this on is reporting this. I thought it would make a good unusualness story, but I guess not. I'll keep checking back though for the next couple hours just to make sure. For now, the Haiti Telethon seems like a good topic.


Source article and source for image: Osama Bin Laden accidentally records himself singing along to TV show Glee

American High

Recently in my Teens and Tweens class we were told to watch the movie "American Teen". While I was on the IMDB, I found that many of the people who saw the movie thought the TV series "American High" was better. Here's the post I made at my class blog:


While I was reading about American Teen on IMDB after viewing it, a lot of the members discussing the movie thought that it was a rip-off of the PBS series called American High that ran from 1999-2000. Like American Teen, American High followed 14 Illinois high school students who were mostly Seniors (instead of just 4). Also, the director gave each student their own camera to record video diaries as well as shoot some of their live on their own, which allows for a lot more interesting footage and a more documentary feel than the cartoons sometimes presented in American Teen. I was wondering if anybody had seen the show or are at least interested in it. On this blog (http://tenpast.blogspot.com/2009/04/american-high.html) , a person who recorded all 13 episodes on videotape has posted some clips of some of the episodes.

In addition to getting more coverage because of being a TV series instead a single, 2 hour long movie, the students seem to be less stereotypical than those presented in American Teen (although the students chosen turned out to have more depth, originally they were presented to us as simple stereotypical characters: the jock, the geek, the homecoming queen, and the artsy girl). Take for instance, the blog's description of Pablo:

"Born in Ecuador and moved with his mother to the U.S. when he was young. His mother's been divorced twice, and he lives with her and his young half-sister. A talented writer, poet, and photographer, he's also well-known amongst school administrators for his frequent troublemaking and drug involvement. In a surprising turn of events, near the end of the series, he considers enlisting in the Marines instead of going to college next year."

The beginning of the first episode also portrays Morgan as a teenager who believes that teenagers should act truly reckless, just like we discussed in class as being mentioned in the article we read.



So what do you think of the show based on the clips on the blog? Would you want to see more? Do you think it's better, more realistic portrayal than American Teen?

HIMYM Recap: "Jenkins"

This episode was interesting, even if some of it was kind of predictable. While Marshall and Lily are certainly my favorite pair on the show, I didn't really enjoy the whole "Jenkins" story line. I wasn't surprised that Marshall didn't think he was the "reacher" but instead was the "settler" in the relationship or that he would then go try and use Jenkins to try and make Lily jealous.

The storyline I enjoyed most was that the college students used Robin's morning news show as a drinking game. At first I thought it was a little reaching to say that college students were still up then, but then I realized that night when I was up w between 4 and 5 in the morning that in fact, yes, there actually is news on at 4 in the morning. I also like that Robin chose to get back at them (even if it meant risking her career--although this is the TV world. She's certainly done stupid things before and still kept her job).

I though Neil Patrick Harris did an okay job at directing this episode, although I was disappointed at the lack of Barney in it. I think Barney really makes the show what it is and his character can always make me laugh.

In other news, my 4th season DVD of HIMYM should be arriving shortly so I should be able to watch and review that soon.

What have you been watching on TV this week?

Ahh, the Golden Globes.

I love Award shows. But sometimes I hate how much work I have to put into them. 2 hours of preshow (my favorite, I love watching the fashion) and at least 3 hours for a mere 25 Awards.

I thought Ricky Gervais was an okay host. There's really not a whole lot to hosting these days, there's not a whole lot to do with all the awards going on. It did, however, make me want to see the UK version of the Office.



It really surprised me that there is only 12 episodes.

Also, I've really wanted to see Mad Men. I've been interested in it ever since my Journalism teacher mentioned it in class and I may just have to since it won.

Award-wise, I was really disappointed Jane Lynch didn't win (I was sad Lea Michele didn't, but Lynch not winning came as a shock), but happy Glee won for best Comedy/Musical series.

Also, I was sad NPH didn't win, but that's life.

On another note, I'm really excited for Lauren Graham's new television show, Parenthood. Although it's not something I'd normally watch, I love Lauren Graham (and anything Gilmore girls). Also, Lauren Graham looked awesome on the red carpet: (via Lauren-online.net)

She's looking really good at 42 and I loved her dress.

So what TV show did you want to win at the Globes?

Quinn Fabray Braids Part 2!

I'm back with some pictures of my hair sporting the famous Quinn Fabray braids!

Also, here is a video I made demonstrating how to do the braids yourself!:



I'm off to watch some glee because this post has inspired me.

What other types of posts would you guys like to see that are TV related?

Something A little Different: Quinn Fabray Braids: Part 1

Make sure you check out part 2 with my own tutorial on how to do the braids here

I realize this is a TV blog, but one of my other favorite things is hair and beauty. So today I'm bringing you a post about Quinn Fabray's aka Dianna Agron's hair.

Agron plays the pregnant cheerleader, Quinn Fabray, on the hit TV series GLEE. Although Fabray starts out as a ponytail-wearing, bitchy cheerleader, once head coach Sue Sylvester (played by the wonderful Jane Lynch) kicks her off the squad, Fabray becomes much calmer and begins to let her hair down. One of my favorite of her hairstyles, of course, is the side braid look. In the episode entitled Mattresses (as seen in the the picture) and in this song, Papa Don't Preach:




If you want to do the braids yourself, here is a decent tutorial on the side braid:


and here is even a more basic tutorial if you don't know how to french braid:




I'll be back later with a part 2 with pictures of my own hair with Quinn Fabray braids!