As it should be

Emmy Nominations as they should be, according to me.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA
Boardwalk Empire
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
Mad Men

The Walking Dead

I have nothing against Dexter really, I just never got into it personally. However, one of my absolute favorite shows of the year was AMC"s The Walking Dead. They make a zombie apocalypse seem less fantastical and more probable.

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)
Kathy Bates (Harry’s Law)Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order: SVU)
Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights)
Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)
Mireille Enos (The Killing)

Anna Torv (Fringe)

Anna Torv, arguably the weakest of the trio of leads on Fringe, still had an incredibly strong year playing two sides of a parallel universe.  And although Kathy Bates is an accomplished and respected actress, Harry's Law is just silly.

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights)
Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
Hugh Laurie (House)Timothy Olyphant (Justified)
John Noble (Fringe)

It is CRIMINAL that John Noble has not been acknowledged by the Emmy's for his work on Fringe. His portrayal of Walter's bumbling brilliance and, alternately, Walternate's steely reserve and vengeance make him an obvious choice. Well, to those that know good tv. 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
John Slattery (Mad Men)
Josh Charles (The Good Wife)
Andre Braugher (Men of a Certain Age)
Walton Goggins (Justified)
Alan Cumming (The Good Wife)
Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)

I have no beef with any of these men and think this category is a strong one. I will say, however, that Peter Dinklage was absolutely hysterical, brilliant, and endearing in Game of Thrones, and as a long time fan (The Station Agent anyone?) I will be rooting for him.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Christina Hendricks (Mad Men)
Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife)
Christine Baranski (The Good Wife)
Margo Martindale (Justified)
Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire)
Michelle Forbes (The Killing)

Again, I have no strong feelings in this category except for the fact that Archie Panjabi MUST WIN again, if only for this scene (do yourself a favor and turn up the volume. To 11.):

OUTSTANDING COMEDY
The Big Bang Theory
The OfficeParks and Recreation
Modern Family
Glee30 Rock

Community

Archer

How I Met Your Mother

Oooookay. Here is where the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and I part ways, become adversaries, get into a food fights, etc. etc. etc. I have a lovely place in my heart for The Office, and although it is still a quality show, there are others that are now doing it better. I know that it is shocking to see Glee crossed out my list, of all people, but it was a weak year for a show that started off strongly. They still do many things well, but building a seasonal arc is not one of them, something I consider somewhat essential to the type of show Glee has set itself up to be.

Community is simply one of the funniest shows on tv. Period. If you actually watch it there is no way you will argue with me. 

I recently discovered Archer and have only watched the first season, which was so outrageously inappropriate and hysterical. It's streaming instantly on Netflix so watch it while you can for free! (Don't get me started - that's a whole other blog post)

And I'll admit that How I Met Your Mother is a sentimental pick for me because I just love it. They've had stronger seasons than this last one, but I admire the steps they're taking to grow the characters and add a little depth to an entertaining show.

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly)
Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Martha Plimpton (Raising Hope)
Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
Laura Linney (The C Word)

LOVE Melissa McCarthy. Loved her as Sookie in Gilmore Girls, loved her playing so against type in Bridesmaids that it blew my mind, but do not love this show. Beyond finding it somewhat insulting to larger people, it's just not funny.

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Louis C.K. (Louie)
Steve Carell (The Office)
Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory)Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)
Matt LeBlanc (Episodes)

Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation)

Garrett Dillahunt (Raising Hope)

Joel McHale (Community)

I know, trust me, I know. Steve Carrell created one of the most noxious, yet lovable characters in The Office's Michael Scott, but I think this nomination is for the run of the series, not the past year. Sentimental fools!

I have nothing against Johnny Galecki or Matt LeBlanc, I just don't think they're as good as my other picks. 

Joel McHale anchors the  cast of Community with a wry smile and effortless style. And Garrett Dillahunt is a pleasant surprise as the slightly dim, yet gentle Burt.

And then there's Nick Offerman aka RON FUCKING SWANSON. He can do no wrong. There aren't words to describe him, just this:

Oh, and this:

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Chris Colfer (Glee)
Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men)Eric Stronestreet (Modern Family)
Ty Burrell (Modern Family)
Ed O’Neil (Modern Family)
Aziz Ansari (Parks and Recreation)

Danny Pudi (Community)

I promise no more Parks and Rec videos after this one. 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Jane Lynch (Glee)
Betty White (Hot in Cleveland)
Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)Julie Bowen (Modern Family)
Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)
Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live)
Judy Greer (Archer)

Busy Phillips (Cougar Town)

 I realize that Betty White is a national treasure and all, but really? Hot in Cleveland?

I know many of you are wondering who the hell is Judy Greer? You know her. You just don't know that you know her. Blogworld, meet Judy Greer:

Right? I know, she's been in everything, including voicing one of the characters on Archer. Her delivery is HYSTERICAL. The entire show is hysterical, but she's my favorite.

 

And Busy Phillips on the seriously underrated show Cougar Town is just a vision of air-headed bubblegum. Her clothes alone deserve an award.

OUTSTANDING REALITY SHOW COMPETITION
Project Runway
American Idol
The Amazing Race
So You Think You Can Dance
Dancing with the Stars

Yay So You Think You Can Dance! Booo Dancing with the Stars. And can we please just put American Idol out of it's misery?

OUTSTANDING VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Conan
Real Time with Bill Maher
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

No Letterman, No Leno and instead Conan and Jimmy Fallon?! Yes Emmy's, YES! You got something right. Thank God.

A roller coaster ride of emotions

Emmy Nominations are out! It's no secret that I love TV. I know, I know. I should read more, be more active, play a sport. To that I retort: I read more than the average bear, I AM active, and I don't play team sports to the benefit of potential teammates. I just also make time to watch a disturbing amount of tv. 

Now, I watch my fair share of shit programming (i.e., most all of ABC Family's original programming - don't judge, Make It or Break It is horrendously amazing), but I also champion some truly excellent television shows as well (i.e. Parks and Recreation, Community, The Walking Dead, Friday Night Lights, the list goes on). Therefore, I'm always naively optimistic that these incredible shows will get recognized by the Emmy's, often considered THE awards show for television (although I would argue it's headed the Academy Awards route of being considered stodgy, predictable, and antiquated). The nominations are out for this year's broadcast, and, per usual, I am sent on a roller coaster ride of yays! and seriously?!'s and OMGWTF's. I still need to process my feelings about the following nominations and will provide my commentary and my own fantasy nominee list later today. Stay tuned readers.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA
Boardwalk Empire
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
Mad Men

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)
Kathy Bates (Harry’s Law)
Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order: SVU)
Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights)
Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)
Mireille Enos (The Killing)

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights)
Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
Hugh Laurie (House)
Timothy Olyphant (Justified)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
John Slattery (Mad Men)
Josh Charles (The Good Wife)
Andre Braugher (Men of a Certain Age)
Walton Goggins (Justified)
Alan Cumming (The Good Wife)
Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Christina Hendricks (Mad Men)
Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife)
Christine Baranski (The Good Wife)
Margo Martindale (Justified)
Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire)
Michelle Forbes (The Killing)

OUTSTANDING COMEDY
The Big Bang Theory
The Office
Parks and Recreation
Modern Family
Glee
30 Rock

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly)
Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Martha Plimpton (Raising Hope)
Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
Laura Linney (The C Word)

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Louis C.K. (Louie)
Steve Carell (The Office)
Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory)
Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)
Matt LeBlanc (Episodes)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Chris Colfer (Glee)
Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men)
Eric Stronestreet (Modern Family)
Ty Burrell (Modern Family)
Ed O’Neil (Modern Family)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Jane Lynch (Glee)
Betty White (Hot in Cleveland)
Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)
Julie Bowen (Modern Family)
Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)
Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live)

OUTSTANDING REALITY SHOW COMPETITION
Project Runway
American Idol
The Amazing Race
So You Think You Can Dance
Dancing with the Stars

OUTSTANDING VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Conan
Real Time with Bill Maher
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

See the full list of Emmy nominations here. 

Community Standards

This week is a monumental moment in the life of 2834 Bloomfield Lane. The one and only Stefanie Mancuso moved in today! A few weeks ago we had our first annual roommate conference and created our very own set of community standards. For those unaware, at the beginning of every fall semester, students in the residence halls at UNCW create a set of standards to hold each other to and describe how they want to design their living space. For better or worse, here are our community standards.


1. Don't be loud as shit early in the morning, late at night, or during naptime.

2. Don't let the dish mountain grow to the size of Everest.

3. Always lock the door no matter how nice the trespassers/solicitors/homeless guys are (just kidding moms, no homeless guys here - yet).

4. Temperature during sleepy-time should be sub-freezing.

5. Do not erase DVR'd shows until confirming with the other, or Adrienne has watched Glee.

6. Don't ask Stefanie 800 questions upon arrival or departure of the house.

7. Don't speak to other until she has been conscious for at least 45 minutes.

8. No lounging in your unmentionables and making kissy faces at the other's gentleman caller. (As suggested by Cosmo).

9. Either text, call, email, facebook message, or tweet the other before borrowing an item of clothing.
Addendum: do not borrow Stef's rain jacket ever. Under any circumstances.

10. Place the mail in the respective baskets. That's what we bought them for - to be annoyingly organized.

11. No tomato sauce out of jars. Ever.

12. In the event of an issue with the other: be direct, confrontational if necessary, and by all means, use profanity.


We reserve the right to add to these standards and most likely will, to great comedic effect. Special thanks to Lindsey, Adrienne, Katie, Justin, and Jemilia who have all offered to mediate any roommate conflicts. I think we have it under control, but just in case we'll provide you all with an emergency pager that you can rotate just like the duty phone. I know you miss the pager. Dearly.

Fun with words: Part Weirdness

My good friend Grace got me into this amazing website called Pinterest. It's basically a virtual pinboard where you can collect images, recipes, ideas, etc. Check it out. If you love it, let me know and I'll "invite" you. Yeah, I'm a pretty big deal over there. :)

Anywho, part of what I love about Pinterest is all of the quotes and fun typography to play with. I've posted some of these before (here and here), but these are the latest!

If only, oh, if only.

Always a true story.

Stupid Belle with her stupid awesome hair. 

Use a comma, save a grandpa.

Stef moves in in 4 days! With two people sharing a smallish space, I feel like this is applicable.

Which parts, you ask? Well, if you don't know then I'm not going to tell you. Ha!

Do it! For real. If you need suggestions, I'm happy to oblige.

Fun fact: I have a playlist on my iPod that only includes songs with my name in the title. The title of the playlist is Narcissus. Heh.

I am seriously going to start doing this. Seriously.

One of my all-time favorites. Still looking for compatible weirdness, but I know it's out there somewhere....

Gyrating biker: best cure for stage fright EVER.

I had the unexpected pleasure of knocking another goal off of my non-bucket list a couple of weeks ago. My friend Mike is in a new band called Decade Four and he offered to help me with #9 - Sing live with a band - no karaoke - in front of actual people. I gladly accepted and told him that I would happily sing with his band under the conditions that I can rehearse with the band at least once. Although I've been singing my entire life, I get major stage fright and I've found that the best way to beat it is large amounts of Jack Daniels and as much preparation as possible, in that order. As their debut rolls around, I realize that we've never had this rehearsal and assume that I will not be singing at this one. I'm ok with this as I was not really ready and, at the time, was taking a brief hiatus from my good friend Jack, his cousin Smirnoff, and their great great grandmother, Chardonnay. That family tree does not lead one to make wise decisions, and by one I mean me. 


Anywho, as I'm talking with the band's drummer, he's all like, "So, you're singing with us tonight!" And I'm like, "NO." He just laughs. I do not. I confirm with Mike that I am indeed not singing. Although he encourages me to, he reluctantly agrees to the suggestion that I sing at their second gig. 


So I relax and enjoy the charm of Chuckie D's, a divey biker bar off of Oleander and the location of Decade Four's first gig. It is a truly special place with an even more special clientele. We found this gem hanging on one of the posts:

It's amazing many of us got served at all, seeing as how we fit several of the criteria sober.

Obviously I wore my most girly, ruffly dress to such an establishment. Could I have tried harder to blend? Sure, but what fun is that?

So we're having a good time, listening to the band, which is excellent, by the way, and all of the sudden I hear Mike say to me, through the microphone, "Sarah, you sure you don't want to sing this one?" I adamantly yell out, "YES. I'M SURE." As crowds tend to do, they turned on me. What's a girl to do when a motley mix of friends, colleagues, and bikers start chanting your name? You suck it up and sing a song. 

I may be smiling, but I'm also devising ways to murder Mike and make it look like an accident. 

Was "Give Me One Reason" by Tracy Chapman about three keys too low for my mid-range voice? Yes. Could anyone actually hear me? Probably not, as the vocals seriously needed to be raised and balanced with the instrumental (Dad the sound engineer knows what I'm talking about). Was I nervous as shit? Hell yes. Luckily for me, one of the bikers decided this was the time to do some solo gyrating on the dance floor, providing a third cure for stage fright.

Although I literally could have killed Mike, or at least caused a temporary injury, I am glad that I did it. My only regret is knowing that I can do better than that. So, although it's crossed off the list, I may just have to indulge my small, but growing biker fanbase with a repeat performance one day....

There's a reason video killed the radio star

If this child mysteriously goes missing, you know where to look.

This makes me happier than a 40% off sale at Ann Taylor Loft.

Sidda should be so skilled.

Ok Go + toast + stop motion animation = coolest music video ever

Cats talking. Haha.

Annie Oakley Can Suck It

Another item knocked off my bucket list that we're not calling a bucket list! Actually, I took care of this particular item a few weeks ago. For some reason, I've been wanting to learn how to shoot a gun, just because I never have and they kind of scare the crap out of me. I seem to be on a kick of doing things that scare the crap out of me, but more on that later.

Anywho, my friend Adam recently asked me to be a reference for his gun permit, which I just thought was hysterical. I got a call from the sheriff (for real) and they asked me shockingly few questions about Adam's mental stability and violent tendencies. I resisted the urge to answer facetiously and he secured the permit for his newly purchased pistol. Just before Adam left us here in Wilmington for grad school, we went to the local shooting range, Shooter's Choice, and he taught me how to shoot! Rule #1: Always treat a gun like it's loaded. Took me a while to remember that one, but no worries, we were very safe. It was a blast (pun only quasi-intended), but sadly we did not take any pictures that day. I think I was too terrified and forgot. Guns are scary! However, in lieu of photos of my first shooting experience, I provide you with an amalgamation of awkward/weird/just plain funny photos of the two of us, which seem to be the only kind we take.

I had such a great time the first time around that I knew I could not keep this to myself. Luckily, Shooter's Choice has a Ladies Night every Monday, which is just too good a deal to pass up. Jenn, Stefanie and I took advantage of the $20 charge for instruction, lane and gun rental and ammo last night. I highly recommend this to any ladies in town that are looking for something a bit out of the ordinary. I have to say, I enjoy shooting a lot more than I originally expected. The first time around, I was scared to death. Guns are powerful and oh hey, they can kill you. But I think it's important to know how they work and have a healthy fear of their power. Also, it is one hell of a stress reliever. Here are a few choice photos from last night.

My gun and ammo - this gun kind of sucked. It kept jamming. Luckily, I am a pro.

Showing off our super pretty pink and purple targets. 

Some have commented on why my target has less holes - that's because I'M A PRO, as previously mentioned, and I kept shooting through that little yellow circle aka THE BULLSEYE.

Not sure what's up with Stef in this pic. Maybe she's just acknowledging my extreme prowess at the range.

Also, for those of you aware of, familiar with, or obsessed with 4square as I clearly am, I am now the mayor of Shooter's Choice. HA! 

I also knocked another item off my list Saturday night, although it was unplanned and I felt woefully unprepared. As soon as I get the accompanying photos from Stef and Kara I'll fill you in. Till then, I'll leave you in suspense....