Favorite Episodes: Fraggle Rock

It would have been Jim Henson's 75th birthday today, which you might already know because of the google doodle. I am a big fan of pretty much everything he did, but especially The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Storyteller, & Fraggle Rock. I found out two things last year that lead to re-watching the whole Fraggle rock series with Chuck: Chuck had not watched much of it (he didn't have cable. I think I watched it in obessively re-runs on TNT since we didn't have HBO, which is where it first aired.) And it was all available streaming on Netflix (still is, if you haven't abandoned ship due to their recent changes.) Even as an adult with no kids I still love the show to pieces. I even remember the lyrics to most of the songs, although I hadn't watched it for years. Here are a few of my favorite episodes, although I'm sure if I watched again this list might change. There were many great episodes!:

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Season 1 Episode 18 - The Minstrels

I basically think Jim Henson is Cantus, the wandering minstrel. He does do the voice. In this episode he helps Red, who is more athletically inclined, find her song.

Season 1 Episode 19 - The Great Radish Famine

For the Knitting Song, in the video above, mainly. The Doozers are just so neat. In later episodes a girl doozer, Cotterpin, wants to be an architect. That plays out over several episodes in season 3.

Season 3 Episode 8 - Believe it or Not
I was so impressed with the ambition of this episode, there's a character that required four or five different, very large puppets in a flooded basement. We watched some extras and the writer of this episode talked about how she thought the script asked too much and they wouldn't be able to do it, but it was a good story so they did it. 

Season 5 Episode 6 - Beyond the Pond

Red, trying to kill off some weeds in her pond, ends up following the roots to find a new kind of fraggle who are dependent on the roots for survival.

Season 5 Episode 13 - Change of Address
The last episode. Everything the last episode of the show needed to be. I didn't really remember it from my childhood viewing so it caught me off guard.

Happy Birthday Jim! 

Portlandia Episode 6: Last One!

Okay, so I'm not a sports fan whatsoever, so I wasn't thrilled to hear the last episode was called baseball. But it was fine, hilarious actually. The Mayor (Kyle McLaughlin) asked Carrie and Fred to put together a team (which he wants to call "the thinkers" so that's more up my alley.) So they ran tryouts like a casting call:

More of this throughout the episode, and the Mayor is always funny. Again, I loved the opening sketch a spoof of political commercials which claimed it was putting unemployed Portland residents to work finishing each others sentences. There was more from the Feminist Bookstore (yay!) and if you've ever wondered why photos of chefs always look so goofy, maybe this sketch has the answer.

But that was the last episode until season two. It would be great if the season is longer than six episodes next year. I'm looking forward to it!

Portlandia Episode Five

Hotels, Film and Music Festivals were the main targets of the show this week. There's only one clip from this episode I've seen around the internet this week, but it features local musicians Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), James Mercer (The Shins) and Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney). And the Deuce obviously has to be something like the Ace Hotels: 

My favorite sketch was actually the very first one of the episode, unfortunately not available anywhere, involving a fight for poster space on a telephone pole. The Blunderbuss Music festival vs. a lost kitty! Yes, finally a sketch with a cat. When we first moved out to Seattle, I remember hearing something about older residents of the Capitol Hill Neighborhood tearing down concert posters because they considered them unsightly. So it seems pretty likely to me. 

Only one more episode (which is going to be about baseball...hmm) but there was news this week that it will be renewed for season 2! Apparently they announced the renewal on Valentine's Day, which, as it happens was also the 152nd anniversary of Portland's statehood. And here's hoping next season they make full episodes available on Hulu or somewhere similar.

Portlandia Episode Four

I really liked the episode this week. Carrie and Fred go looking for the Mayor (Kyle McLaughlin) who has been missing for days. Our actual Mayor, Sam Adams, was in it briefly again too, which makes me smile. Of course I actually missed it the first time and had to rewind because it wasn't a speaking part, it was only a few seconds, during which time I was probably looking at my knitting. No feminist bookstore, but Aubry Plaza was on again, house sitting for the Put a Bird on it Couple (P.S. I have one of the white Ikea vases featured in their home. The Put a bird on it couple has very good taste.):

Prunella Soap of the PDX Etsy team created a Portlandia themed "Put a Bird on it" Treasury! I have to admit I was thinking about doing this myself and wondering if anyone would be offended. Personally I think it was  funny while also believing that things really do look better with birds. Here's a link to the first sketch with the Put a Bird on it couple for a refresher.

I throughly enjoyed the introduction of a hippie bike girl to counter the biker guy. And although I had seen the "Did you read it?" sketch a few times already it's one of my favorites. ("Did you read the thing in Mother Jones about eco-chairs and eco-ways to sit?") And I couldn't help but laugh again at Chuck this morning when he asked me if i had read something yet. Yeah, we do do that. 

Portlandia Episode Three

Well, this is actually the song from the end credits of last week's episode, which on its own is great ("underemployed coffee drinkers," "vegan bakers" & "hippies of endless variations." woot!)  but someone set it to a video of the view from the OHSU Aerial Tram. Yeah, we still need to do that. But now I will surely be singing this song on the way up. I've almost got it memorized.

This week's episode covered a lot of the weird, including dumpster divers, strip clubs (we actually just walked by the one featured on the episode & of course there was a bike out front), & Aimee Mann as Carrie & Fred's Maid. But I liked this clip for the tiny coffee and the dog thing at the end:

Also the biker guy proclaiming everything is over was pretty good. Shell Art is Over! But no feminist bookstore this week. I missed it! Maybe next week.

Portlandia Episode Two

Episode two featured Mayor Sam Adams, although Kyle MacLachlan was actually playing the mayor in this episode. Mayor Sam was popping his head in to provide technical assistance. The Mayor was concerned with making sure Portland did not seem anything like Seattle. It got me thinking, they really are quite different, in spite of all the Pacific Northwest similarities. Unfortunately that particular clip doesn't seem to be available online, however I thought I might as well post the two clips from this week's episode that are available.


More of the feminist bookstore! I love that these were actually filmed at a Feminist bookstore here in Portland, In Other Words, the last volunteer, non-profit feminist bookstore in the U.S. I was also excited about a post on Portlandia's facebook page with a statement from the store director insisting "feminists DO have a sense of humor." This clip also feature Aubrey Plaza, from Parks & Recreation:

The other clip from this week's episode expands on the line from the Dream of the 90s song "In Portland you can just put a bird on something and call it art!" I put off watching this one until the episode aired, so I knew I'd have something to look forward to. It makes me laugh, but I actually really do like things with birds on them a lot! I agree with Carrie's character here, I didn't even see that tote bag until it had a bird on it, and now I think I'd like to get myself one. It's much cuter. They also set up a website for adding birds to other websites: http://www.putabirdonit.com/

It's only a six episode season, which means only 4 more episodes!

Portlandia: Did you watch it?

The first episode of Portlandia premiered last night on IFC. Did you read watch it? I find it pretty interesting to watch anything filmed in a city I'm reasonably familiar with, but the fact that this is a comedy show all about life in Portland makes it extra special. I've already watched the clips countless times, especially the Dream of the 90s song. It seems as incredibly appropriate song to start off the 6 show season. It strikes me to be a return to the kind of comedy shows I remember from the 90s like The State and Kids in the Hall. Maybe that has a little something to do with the fact that Fred Armisen is frequently in drag.

Anyway, the first episode was on Hulu for about a week, but last I checked it was no longer available there. The show actually aired last night on IFC, but since we don't have cable or a TV (we watch on the internet, like so many people do these days) chances are we will be venturing out to the Mission Theater to catch episodes in the future.

For additional viewing I understand this: http://www.thunderant.com/ was a precursor to Portlandia.

Books I read in 2010

Emma Nolan's favorite books »

Just to round things out this is my last 2010 recap. (see photos, knitting and music here and here.) These are the books I managed to read last year, amidst studying for my exams (note the inclusion of two of my awesome study guides here, grumble), moving, etc. The handy widget generated by goodreads.com, which includes the Harry Potter book I finally read and finished last night. It technically shouldn't be a part of this list, but I couldn't figure out a way to exclude it from the widget. Anyway, I've committed myself to doing even better this year by reading at least 25 books! My favorite by far last year was Zeitoun and I enjoyed re-reading Pride & Prejudice, which I am pretty sure I read in high school, but I guess I am old enough now not to quite remember things like that!

Also I should mention our TV favorites. We didn't do a lot of movie watching this year, and most of that was older stuff on Netflix trying to catch up as I suspect will be the case next year. But there was quite a bit of good TV in 2010. My favorites being Boardwalk Empire (yay two golden globes last night!) and Treme (No golden globe nominations even!?! I'm annoyed but not surprised...) Two cancelled shows (both currently available streaming on Netflix): Party Down and Better Off Ted. And 2010 will go down in memory as the year that Chuck admitted that Glee was an entertaining show. He was going to have to watch it with regardless...so I'm glad he's finally enjoying it too.

Chuck's Pot Pie & Vegan MoFo

 

Look what Chuck made us for dinner this week! It lasted us two nights since there were 4 total. He's been very interested in playing with crusted/stuffed baked meals lately. A few weeks ago he made us pasties, pictured below, (and not to be confused with the other kind of pasties.) I think we had been watching something British, in which Cornish Pasties were mentioned, and ever since he's been interested in the idea. Personally, I was a little more excited about the Banoffee Pie I recall being mentioned on one show (The Old Guys, which has a great theme song) and I'd love to try a vegan version sometime soon.  But meanwhile I certainly can't complain about Chuck's experimentation with yummy filled crust dinners. The crust on these was great! I asked him about posting a recipe or something here, but he says he's still experimenting.

Meanwhile it is the Vegan Month of Food (or Vegan Mofo, heehee) which means there are great images of vegan food, recipies and all sorts of yumminess appearing on blogs all over the internet. I'm not doing it this year, though I did a few years ago and it was great fun. One great way I've found to sort through the posts is using google's blog search. But of course the official blog is also a great way to get a round-up of the best posts. Ooh! these cranberry-chocolate tarteletts just caught my eye. Please excuse me while I go make a new bookmarks folder... 

Amy Poehler, tour guide

I highly recommend the above issue of Bust Magazine, mainly for the interview with Amy Poehler. I've been enjoying her show, Parks & Recreation, via hulu since episode one. But the reason it's on my mind today is because I did a few tours at the Robie House today and it brought the interview to mind. When asked what her non-acting dream job would be she said she'd like to be a tour guide. "I could have a little bit of an audience and be an expert and talk about this thing I'm really passionate about and work from, like, noon to four." Well that's pretty much what I did today!

I also really liked her description of her son's personality being like a french new wave film. Anyway, this issues has been out for a little while already, but I think it's still on news stands!

PS I embedded the issue as a widget via Bust. you should be able to view it full screen and zoom in, but probably not quite enough to read a whole article unless you're particularly ambitious. Still, it's fun to play with!

Music I really love

Last night we hung out with my parents, ate at a nice African restaurant (so good, I always eat to much!) and watched an Episode of Elvis Costello's Spectacle featuring She&Him, Jacob Dylan, and Jenny Lewis. So we've spent pretty much the entire day listening to Jenny Lewis & Rilo Kiley.

Tomorrow tickets are going on sale for Leonard Cohen at the Chicago theater. I think I've been listen to his music for as long as I can remember, or over 20 years at least. Probably first started hearing it as a result of the Famous Blue Raincoat Album by Jennifer Warnes. A few years ago a remastered 2oth anniversary version of that was released. So that and the fact that he hasn't done touring for something like 15 years...I really hope we're successful and get tickets when they go on sale tomorrow.

This all feels a wee bit familiar. When we first moved out to Seattle, it was only a few months before we heard that Tom Waits was going to do a rare tour and play there. We were lucky enough to go and of course it was worth it. And we really haven't gotten to go to as many shows as I was hoping to be able to since we got here, so a show like this should make up for that. I can't wait! Of course we don't even have tickets yet...so wish me luck.

Meanwhile, my Dad sent me some links this morning to his concert in Manhattan via NPR's All Songs Considered

So Horrible.

When we got back from Columbus the other night We watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog on Hulu.com. Now, the only reason I had heard of this before is because I was poking around on Alchemy on etsy last week and saw someone requested a Dr. Horrible necklace. I'm still not sure what that would look like, but it did make me do some googling. What I learned from my brief googling was that Dr. Horrible was something new from Joss Whedon, the create of the short-lived but very enjoyable series Firefly. And that was as far as I got with my google investiagation before we left for our trip.

But, we came back and Dr. Horrible was listed as newly added to Hulu. So knowing very little about it, we watched. I didn't even know the full title at the time "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along blog" so when they burst out into song we had a few WTH moments. But considering the start is Neil Patrick Harris...known for talking into the camera on Doogie Howser, M.D. and then taking his career to Broadway to do Rent and some Sondheim..it made sense. Anyway, the songs are well written, the acting and singing is great, it's hilarious and fun. I recommend checking it out!