Unraveled

Ali Stroker was the first Glee alum (at least among the younger actors) to win the first Tony, right? I thought Alex was nominated for "Once on This Island," but I was wrong. The older actors ("adults" in Glee) have been nominated/won Tony Awards, pre and probably post Glee.

I think he went into a lot of debt to support his other life. The financial advisor(?) talked about mortgages to the house, depleted retirement accounts, etc.

I cut the cable after I moved so I ended up subscribing to Peacock Premium Plus ($10) for the lack of commercials. There are still commercials, but I'm able to fast forward on the live versions. The replays do seem to skip the commercials automatically. I've heard that they sometimes automatically forward wrong parts and I have encountered that too. The weird thing is that if I want to watch a 2hr+ live program in the middle, it will only buffer the last 2 hours. So if it's a 6 hour program and I'm on hour 4, I can only see hours 2-4. I have to wait for the full replay to see all 6 hours. I will not be renewing my subscription at the end of the month. The other content is not worth it.

Did anyone notice the mug that Jacqueline was holding? It was a Dunder-Mifflin mug from the TV show "The Office." The actress was a memorable multi-season supporting star in there.

I enjoyed this a lot, but I have a much lower bar for anything musical. It reminds me of Andy Samburg's movie, "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping." Both share ridiculously inappropriate songs. I don't think there's anything particularly original in this show from other musician biopic type TV shows/movies. Sara Bareilles is a great songwriter, so I was curious about who wrote the music. It looks like Tina Fey's husband, composer Jeff Richmond, had a hand in many of the songs. However, Sara has the sole writing credit for the last number, "4 Stars." Busy Phillips and Paula Pell were the weaker singers, but have more acting credits than Sara Bareilles and Renée Elise Goldsberry. I was very curious when watching the trailer what happened to the Asian one. I'm glad I waited until I saw everything before I found. At least two of "Mean Girls" musical were in this. The aforementioned Ashley (Gretchen) and Erika Henningsen (Cady) was the young Paula Pell.

It looks like in an ideal, scientific world, only 4 out of 100 women get pregnant. However, realistically, it's more like 22 out of 100. I wouldn't have minded the introduction of "French Letters" (old style condomed) into the mix. There's a lot of oral sex in recently written historical romance novels, but people did not bathe often back then (even the aristocrats).

I've been re-reading the books to compare to the series. I was up to Benedict's book when I binged the series. I should have read Colin's too. I find the the biggest change in the characterization of Nigel Berbooke. In the book, he's a sweet, bumbling idiot. He's in love with Daphne because she's the only woman who's nice to him. In the series, he's basically a predatory rapist. He was willing to compromise Daphne to force a marriage. He knocked up one of his household's staff and sent her away. In the later books (I'm reading Colin's right now), he ends up marrying one of the two older Featheringtons (who aren't that brilliant either).

I think there was something more detail to why the late Duke was so adamant that his heir be perfect. He seemed to apply that the Dukedom was recent. (Or perhaps I heard wrong?) He talked about honor and how all future Dukes must be absolutely perfect. I think it's only been recent that stammering did not mean that you were stupid. So while the Simon's father was an ass, I can see why he thought that his son's stammer meant that he wasn't so intelligent. Heck, even King George VI, had a stammer that he had to overcome. (If anyone remembers "The King's Speech.")

Perhaps this is because the Ireland destination bride was bigger than the sample size? I assume that the pockets wouldn't be in the front as much because the waist would be bigger. I also hope that the waist will be a little lower too with a bigger size dress. I found that this is true in a lot of those type of dresses on this show.

Every team had a walkie talkie, so perhaps the GPS is attached on them. This was my first time viewing this kind of race. I was actually interested in the whole logistics of it all so that article posted above was very interesting! Since there was a huge gap between all of the teams after the first day, it was very interesting to see what choices the team made when they went through each portion during certain times of the day. The team that had to wait on the rocks in the water overnight, while every team was at a checkpoint waiting for the rain to clear up was scary as hell! For those that finished, they showed a fifth person that was waiting for the team to row up and walk the path. Was it the team's "assistant?" I'm not sure what the official term is, but the mother was that role in the American father/two daughter team and waited at some of the checkpoints. I would imagine that it's not an option for those teams in the top that were in contention to medal.

JiHoon's mother was talking more about white lies during the courtship. They didn't have much of a courtship. Deavan got pregnant fairly. He admitted this week that instead of saving money from his part-time jobs, he spent it on nights out (drinking/eating out) with his friends. Wouldn't it take a lot of time to move Armando's daughter permanently/long-term to the U.S.? In terms of being able to register her in schools and such.

I was actually curious and clicked on the link. Current price is $46/night plus taxes. I don't know if this is due to the Coronavirus or not, but it seems pretty cheap. I checked nearby Gangnam area (a wealthy area popularized by a Korean artist, Psy) and the prices are similar currently. I did some googling, and I think the $50/night isn't an outrageous sum, though you might not be in tourist-y areas. I thought Deavan's mom was very rude. The constant cursing, and screaming about driving. Even if JiHoon's parents don't understand much English, they understand tone. City driving is a different beast. Has she never been to New York City or any major city in the U.S.? There is constant lane switching and driving close to other cars.

Absolutely! I remember the books as well. I think that was one of two reasons why Claudia was VP. I think she answered phones during off-times, and she was only the one that had a dedicated phone line.

This is definitely the most accurate adaptation of the book series. Most TV/movie adaptations don't quite measure up, but I think this is a perfect balance. I loved the updates they have chosen to make while not really straying far off the books. Everyone's already brought up the diversity, but I like the others. I found myself liking Dawn more in the series vs the books. TV Dawn wasn't as "CA crunchy stereotype," and I like the updates to her as a modern social justice warrior. The structure of how the baby-sitters club works doesn't really make sense in modern times. Why is a landline phone needed? Why are there only limited times that parents call for babysitting? Why would anyone trust 11-13 year old children to babysit slightly younger children? The camp episodes were great and was a book end to the season. It's interesting how they brought Laine Cummings into the fold. Even though I enjoyed Marc Evan Jackson in "The Good Place," he has a special place in my heart as Raymond Holt's husband, Kevin, in "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."

She also seems to be a jack of all trades lawyer. She handled divorce (for Maddie), will/custody (for those two orphan girls), and business (employee thing with Dana Sue).

The son was paid (more than once?) to take the entrance exam for another student. So I believe he was able to get in, but I don't think their family could afford it. South Korea does not have the income-based financial aid system that US college students have. Scholarships exist, but they are rare. Like many places, South Korea also has a lot of educated adults but not enough white collar entry level jobs. It's fairly difficult to climb up the corporate ladder unless you have nepotism on your side.

Carnegie Mellon has a great music program. According to their website, their acceptance rate for the School of Music is 20%. I can't believe that Taylor got accepted. It doesn't make sense. Even with gifted singers, I assume that ones that get in have actual accomplishments (solos, winning competitions). Harvard has 100% need-based financial aid. If your family makes less than $65,000 a year, you do not have to pay anything. Other ivy league colleges have similar programs as well. I went a private liberal arts college in the early 2000s, and my tuition was covered by financial aid.

Unfortunately a lot of the immigrant scenes are pretty common. The psych teacher who I assume is an immigrant herself disparaging the "bad" immigrants. The whole deportation process. The actress playing Lucia reminds me too much of the actress that played Claudia in the original.

I'm looking to future episodes, but I tend to watch any sort of musical-type shows even when the show is no longer good (*cough*Glee*cough*). I could have sworn I saw both Lauren Graham and Peter Gallagher in "Guys and Dolls," but it turns out they were in different revivals. (Peter Gallagher was a replacement for Sky Masterson in the 90s revival that lasted for 3 years. Lauren Graham was in the very short 2009 revival as Adelaide. I'm looking forward to future guest appearances. This will be a good replacement for the loss of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." Plus Peter Gallagher and his glorious, glorious eyebrows. He made his Broadway debut in 2017 for the revival of "Once on This Island." He performed in the 2018 Tony Awards with the cast. FYI, another Glee Project alumnus who appeared in Glee, Ali Stoker, won Supporting Actress Tony in 2019 for her performance in the Oklahoma revival.

I'm starting to watch A Very Vintage Christmas and the first thing (besides the hat!) is the name of the store, "Very Vintage Antiques." What an odd name. An "antique" generally means an item that is over 100 years old. I think there's some debate about the term "vintage." Personally, I think it's anything over 20 years old. But most definitions say that vintage is definitely anything under 100 years old. So having a very vintage antique can't exist. How can an item that is over 100 years old (clear definition of antique) be called vintage or very vintage?

The Broadway version of "If Only" (a number that does not appear in the original movie) is actually a quartet. Sebastian and King Triton are the other two singers. In musicals, people sing to each other instead of talking or they sing their thoughts like a soliloquy. So Ariel can't talk during the moment, but she still has thoughts. In "If Only," I would think each of the four individuals are thinking aloud.

This was really bad. Including the animated parts makes it look like they didn't have enough money to do the actual musical. There were elaborate costumes, and it looks like they spent a big part of the budget to get wires to get everyone to fly. Maybe they could have done the rolling thing instead so we can see more of the actors live. I was looking forward to "If Only" (Broadway number), but it turned out to be a duet only. Broadway version has Sebastian and King Triton singing too. Most of these live productions do have a problem with microphones and getting the sound balance right. I could barely hear Amber Riley and she is a belter. Graham Phillips had a nice enough voice, but the acting was a little weird and I could barely hear him sing. I like Shaggy's singing of the Sebastian songs, but I think he looked a little robotic in "Under the Sea."

I came for the singing as I'm very familiar with the actors, Megan Hilty and Jessie Mueller. Megan was the superior Marilyn Monroe on the short-lived tv show "Smash." She's also done a lot of Broadway roles including "Wicked" and "9 to 5." Jessie is most well known on Broadway for "Waitress" and "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical." I absolutely love both of their voices. I'm not too familiar with Country music, and I came in only knowing that Patsy Kline and Loretta Lynn were Country singers. I could probably pick out a few of their songs too. But that's about it. I didn't know that Patsy had died so young. It looks like they had only known each for two years.

I honestly thought the eagle was Howard Stern. It sounded like him and the eagle's theatrics matched too. I looked up Dr. Drew's height and he is 6'0." Howard Stern is about 5" taller according to the Google. He was fun to watch even though his singing voice wasn't great. I really want to know who the Fox is. He had a very interesting voice. Is the Flower someone recognizable? Her singing voice sounded fairly distinct.

Apparently, he had been wearing a fat suit. I assume this is his natural body, or at least closer to what he looked like in the beginning.