All Entries Tagged With: "Men in Trees"

Goodbye, Men in Trees.

The Ben Arthur song Tattoo was featured on ABC’s (now canceled) Men in Trees in the episode Wander/Lust. Have a listen to jog your memory. He’s brilliant. Although, it’s another song of his that I am absolutley in LOVE with, you see. With the cancellation/loss of this show, and others (like Angel, Veronica Mars, Firefly), this song seems kinda perfect. I just have one loose end, excuse me….

Dear Men in Trees,

I didn’t give you much of a chance. You see, our schedules never quite added up right. As flimsy excuses go, I know that’s a weak one. Honestly, when I saw you - I was interested. I thought you looked like someone I knew in high school but never had classes with so I never bothered to talk to. Now that you’re gone, maybe we can reconcile over Netflix. I know this letter might seem like the yearbook message that Ben Covington left to Felicity Porter (Felicity) but I will not be following you to college across the country. That’s just now how I roll. But I’ll look for your DVDs, I really do promise. I know the Gossip Girl season one DVD comes out like, tomorrow, but you come first for me.

XO,

Jessica Rae

Ben Arthur - Keep Me Around:

Keep me around
My whole life long
And when I’m gone
Don’t you bury my bones
Keep me around

Knit a sweater from my hair
String a necklace of teeth
Or just lean me there
On the backporch where
I can feel the breeze

Chorus

It’s not that I’m jealous
I’d jut make a lovely stand for umbrellas
And you can toss your keys
Into the caps of my knees
When you come back from town

Chorus

Pickle my fingers in liquor
Leave them roll in a drawer
And you can hang your clothes
From hooks made of my toes
On the back of the door

Cool Stuff on the Internet, ‘Cause Boy Am I Obsessed:

1. This website: DownForEveryoneOrJustMe. It lets you find out, well, if a certain website is down for everyone or just you and your computer/connection! Huzzah. Technology is great.

2. PassiveAgressiveNotes.com

3. ThePioneerWomanCooks.com I’ve never made Risotto but with this recipe I might have to try making it for myself.

4. The AChairFantastic blog is very cool. (No, I’m not only partial to sofa’s!) I especially love the post here about Aiveen Daly chairs.

5. Alright, this isn’t just online, but the book Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox by Victoria Finlay looks amazing.

Color: A Natural History of the Palette (Same book?) / Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox

Jewels: A Secret History

Also I wanted to mention that Sofachip has a brand new layout (blue!) and a new header (I made it, praise me!) and all that, so go check it out…now? Tada! We are the same site, we just got some Botox! You’ll want to note that you can now search through every tag we have. So if you are on a page about Gilmore Girls but you’d like to go look at posts about Bones you can easily find them all.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Gracie’s Choice Sparks the Heart and Head (Kristen Bell Delivered in this True Story)

Admit it - the idea of a Lifetime movie makes you cringe. You want to laugh at anyone who watches them. More than that, you want to laugh, then mock, and feel superior. Well, I’m going to admit that I just finished watching the Lifetime original movie Gracie’s Choice. And you know what? I fear no mockers. (I have it on pretty good authority that you’ve watched TV show episodes of a certain ‘Warrior Princess’ known as Xena.)

I sought this Lifetime DVD out because it stars one of my favorite actresses, Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Heroes). Bell acts in this wonderfully, as does Anne Heche (Men in Trees). But that is the last you’ll hear about them in this review. I could gush at how cute Kristen is (believe me, I could!) but I’m going to focus and simply share with you why I loved this story.

It is based on a true story of a teenage girl who lives with several step-siblings and takes care of them in lieu of a mom. They actually do have a mom, however she’s not winning any mom-of-the-year awards (I don’t think Michael Scott of The Office would even give her a Dundie award). She’s selfish, drug-addicted, and needless to say, rather unreliable when it comes to anything, ever. This forces the children (including Gracie) to fend for themselves and endure horrible living conditions that don’t contain any actual home, let alone a daily supply of food (it’s enough to make me grateful for the times I’ve had to eat cardboard masquerading as Ramen). And that’s only the beginning of the list.

Gracie’s Choice allowed me to step into Gracie’s troubled and worn shoes (as though I were reading a small, sacred diary found under a mattress) and see life from her particular vantage point. It’s not hard to connect with Gracie’s character because she experiences trials that many of us have felt an angle of (for instance: loneliness). Once I connected, I was swept into the story as though it were unfolding in real time before my eyes. I was a witness.

Too often we forget how other people live, because we don’t want to deal with it, or we never see it around us. We believe that our problems are the greatest. It’s just…how we are. Maybe instinct? Maybe because we’re caught up (often justifiably) in our own worlds and lives. (Believe me, when you start to worry about everything wrong with the world you end up curled in the fetal position, listening to Sarah McLachalan CDs for days. The best cure for this is to have a best friend who will bring you Arrested Development DVDs, force-feed you Sesame Chicken, and remind you that there are still good things in this world, and also - no one expects you to fix everything that is wrong in it. …Unless you have really judgmental parents. Then maybe you need to date someone with a motorcycle and quit Med school to become a mime.)

While watching (as well as after the fact) I felt a sense of ‘if Gracie can manage so much, surely I must at least be able to (insert a painfully small task that needs doing in my life)’ in the sort of way that sounds magnificently hokey (I know) but really makes me feel empowered (*Wonder Woman stance /Buffy pose*) to do things in my life that I have been too lazy or fearful of attempting.

I’m going to use the ‘I’ word now. Inspiration. We (as a society) pull that word out a lot. But is that a bad thing? Does it possibly mean that there are simply plenty of reasons for us to cite someone as an inspiration? I think that’s actually a good thing.

The downside here is that the word ‘inspriation’ loses meaning with more use. But it never makes one inspiration any less than it is. In my instance, she may not have inspired me (right now) to do something as large as what she did (I’m still working on cooking pancakes that don’t burn). Nonetheless her story affected my life. And I’m just one person. Who knows what her story may inspire you to do

The other biggest pull this story has is the way it talks about family. This is a touchy subject for me. Which, actually made it all the more relevant for me to view and reflect upon. As you might expect, this story does end happily - and I found myself in the sort of teary-eyed, smiley, sort of way that you appreciate more than you may want to admit.

Buy Gracie’s Choice - under $5.00

Popularity: 26% [?]

What TV Shows Got Canceled for Fall 2008?

The networks cancel shows, that’s how we get new ones. It’s the circle of life, without any cute lions. Some of the shows that are canceled will shock us - our mouths contorting curiously as we say ‘huh?’ Others make us glad, smiling with the smug satisfaction we won’t have to accidentally stumble upon them on TV. Still there are others, ones that leave us grieving the loss (Veronica Mars and Angel - here’s lookin’ at you-z). Hopefully none of your favorites were dropped. I’ve compiled some information on shows that are now gone, or soon will be.

Popularity: 60% [?]