Love Me Some Drama

The hour long television Drama has been fascinating T.V. Fans for years.  Do we like the intrigue, the character development, the complex plots or, perhaps all of the above?  These are my top 7. 

1.        The West Wing:  This show is so well done, so well-acted, and really I could spend years writing about its magic!

2.       Lost:  It is so well done that if you begin watching it you can’t stop.  For me, it became like an addiction and like an addiction it took over my life.  However, unlike an addiction, it is a time that I look back on fondly.

3.       The Good Wife:  This show is a continual surprise.  Each week it gets better, stronger, and more interesting.  Beginning with a fairly common cultural event, that of a political wife, standing by her man, over these years it has become so much more.

4.       Boston Legal:  This show started out a little dark, taking over for the Practice but, along the way it got to be known for the issues that it took on and the fine acting of an all-star cast. 

5.       24:  This show had some amazing action mixed with a complex and fascinating plot!

6.       NCIS:  This show gets better each year and I’m pretty sure that you can watch it 24 hours a day on one channel or another.

7.       Mad Men:  The award winning drama continues to thrill audiences.  This fine acted, peek into the life of the 1960s, shares both, popular and critical recognition.  Who knew that life on Madison Avenue was so intriguing?

A post to make up for the lack of one on Friday.

My Name's Vanessa & I Love Pop Music

For a while in college I tried to hide my love of pop music, even mocking my hall mates and sorority sisters love of Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake.  However, in Grad school I could not stop myself from downloading little gems like Tipsy and the latest from Rihanna.  Then, after moving to Oxford and starting my job at Miami, I was the biggest fan of Gaga and Katie Perry that you would want to meet.  Or, not want to meet, depending on your personal preferences…  Now, at the age of 30, I am completely out of the closet.  I love Pop Music and I don’t care who knows.  Below are 7 pop songs that I could listen to on repeat forever. 

1.        Umbrella

2.       My Love

3.       California Girls

4.       Just Dance

5.       Single Ladies

6.       Cry Me a River

7.       Lady Marmalade

Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all and sometimes it is just best to be untruthful.  Here are a few examples.

1.        When your best friend asks you if you like the name that she has picked out for her child. 

2.       When you are already out and someone asks if you like their clothes.

3.       When you are eating/drinking something that has already been per clamed as someone’s favorite…

4.       When you first see a newly painted car/room/house and you do not like the color.

5.       When you truly think that someone’s child is unattractive.

6.       When someone goes to the trouble of making you dinner and you do not like it.

7.       When your friends or family expend a lot of energy doing, buying, or creating something and the end product is not to your liking.

The Words of Life

Putting your philosophy of life into a sentence or fraise appears to be all the rage.  The following are my attempts at boiling my point of view down into a few words.

Life is beauty, beauty is life.

“Pop the bubbly, life is lovely!!” (This was my senior quote in the year book and also comes from one of my favorite Will Smith songs)

Smile, eat, drink, and be merry.

The meaning of life; friends, family, and fun!

Dogs teach us how to live.

There are two kinds of people…  (Those who know me well have heard this from me on a number of ocasions. “those who dance on tables and those who don’t” “those who use maltiple ! and those who use only one !” etc)

Coffee is the life blood of creativity.

Hello Holiday

The best times of the year are different for many of us, some like the tradition and American pride that comes with the fourth of July, while some revel in the drunken debauchery of St. Patrick’s Day.  Still others see their favorite holiday come but, once every four years, on a leap year.  Here is a list of my personal faves!

1.        Christmas:  I know, how cliché, right?  I love it for many reasons, for the friends family and food of course but, also; for the merry spirit that just seems to emanate from every person that you meet, for the feeling that you get when you see how much a friend really appreciates a gift that you have given them, for the cheerful music, for the parties, baked goods, and presents, and of course for the church services, interjected with their own special magic. 

2.        My Birthday:  Not a national holiday, I realize but, my birthday has become very important to me over the years.  it is at the end of August and as a kid I did not like this fact as, my friends always forgot it, I got things like school clothes and school supplies, and on some years I got to share the first day of school with my birthday.  However, when I entered  college this all turned around, my friends always made my birthday into a big event and since the age of 18 I have enjoyed many memorable celebrations!

3.       Thanksgiving:  I never realized how much I enjoyed this family meal until I did not celebrate it with my family one year.  The year away, while fun in its own right, was just not the same. 

4.       The Fourth of July:  Smack dab, in the middle of summer, many fun times have been had this weekend; weddings and visits, trips, and getting my first dog.

5.       Labor Day:  This weekend takes place right near my birthday! 

6.       MLK Day:  A day of national service.  Sign me up.  If only it was in October when the weather was nice. 

7.       Mother’s Day:  I’m not a Mom but, I have one and her birthday and Mother’s Day fall on the same weekend.  Nice time to celebrate!

Top 7

David Letterman has made the top ten list a famed part of our culture.  Welcome to Vanessa’s top 7 lists.  I have a few stocked up, some are funny and some serious.  They are solely my thoughts or opinions on 7 of the best, worst, funniest, or other type of designation, of a category. 

Why 7, you may ask....  To quote Tom Riddle, “isn’t 7 the most magical number?” Although, beyond that, I have always liked the number seven.  It is not to many, not too few.  There are 7 dwarves, 7 deadly sins, 7 rimes with heaven, really I could go on…

So the first list is to name my top 7 Disney villains.  Really, that is what I’ve chosen for my first list.  Why, because it is random and fun and their songs and lines are some of the best in the movies.

1.        Ursula: She is just so amazingly wicked.  She has one of the best songs in the movie and when she transforms herself into a human, her name is Vanessa.  Enough said!

2.       Maleficent: She is simply evil, from her curse on the baby princess, to the fact that she can transform into a dragon.  She is bad ass!

3.       Jafar: He is classy and dapper nasty.  This is a tuff look to put together but, he does it with grace and with a parrot on his shoulder as a sidekick/accessory. He personifies cool.

4.       Shenzi:  Why didn’t I pick Scar, you may ask...  My answer is that he is too evil.  I mean, to kill  his own brother, in cold blood.  I cannot condone that kind of behavior.  I instead turn to one of Scar’s killers and really the hyena’s musical number makes it clear that Shenzi, the hyena voiced by the terrific   Whoopi Goldberg is the brains of the operation. 

5.       Gaston:  He’s “roughly the size of a barge.” 

6.       The cats from Lady and the Tramp: How cool are they?  They are almost as wicked as Ursula and have an amazing musical number.  Plus dogs are always getting blamed for the nasty things that cats do.  Thank you for seeing this, writers of Lady and the Tramp.

7.       The evil queen from Snow White:  She is crafty and resourceful.  Evil but, there are usually reasons for such appalling behavior.