glowlights

Hooray, a theatre thread! Front row mezzanine, dead center. I will accept no substitutes. :) But yeah, if that's not available I just go with what's available. I don't mind middle orchestra, and if it's a truly great production I'll just sit where I can. Once stood at the Vienna State Opera and don't regret a thing. I don't prefer to sit in box seats (in most theatres) but it is nice sometimes to be with only a few people... people who don't talk during the performance. Of late... I was completely unimpressed with Rapture Blister Burn but suspect it was an issue with the specific (regional) production - because I would hate to think that a contemporary feminist is so derisive and dismissive of SAHMs and was rewarded with a Pulitzer nomination for it. (I'm not a SAHM but was offended nonetheless.) Anyone see the original production? Was Gwen a shrill, birdbrained woman of no consequence? Also, if anyone's going see to Die Meistersinger Von Nurnburg (live, or Live in HD) maybe we could start a support group for the hangover. :)

Then I'm going right with you because Allison Williams dangling back and forth over the gaping maw of a giant crocodile is my idea of great television. Hopefully there will be a spectacular malfunction with the animatronic crocodile. Except I'm really, really pulling for Walken, Borle and O'Hara. Oh and by the way, Ms. Williams, here's how real professionals talk: http://www.broadway.com/buzz/178676/broadway-vets-kelli-ohara-christian-borle-know-you-want-something-to-go-wrong-during-peter-pan-live/

There's just something about reading a screen that makes me zone out. I can't even do basic browsing online without multiple tabs to jump back and forth to. But a real book? I can settle in for hours. Plus there's a joy in opening the pages for the first time. I love to see a big "to read" pile on my shelf, as well as the spines of the ones I've already read lined up in rows - they're like old friends, and like old friends I can return to them again and again. And if I don't enjoy one? Well, then I have something to donate to the local library or thrift shop. I do prefer trade paper over hard cover, though, simply because I like to take books with me and the soft cover is easier (and often lighter) to slip in my bag.

To the bolded part.... why do you believe she could have run the business better without him? As opposed to him running it without her? Just curious. I'm wondering how you propose she take control of running the company and just send John his profits. By what mechanism would she take that directorship back after she already willingly signed it over, let alone "screw John over before he screws her" when he's already terminated her? She signed it over, then he fired her, she's left with the 18% and her lawyer is trying to work out a deal. (Rebecca - what resolution are you hoping for? Would you be happy to sell your 18% and walk away?)

Maybe it's just because I was tired last night, but... this wasn't my favorite ep. The ASL segment seemed rushed (and rather pointless) to make room for Popcorn Lady, and the Popcorn Lady Is Reborn segment had me rolling my eyes. Pretty interesting that her daughter, mother, boyfriend and employees were nowhere to be seen. Pre-popped shelf inventory at $48 per tin? I can go to Target or CVS and get the same thing for way less. At least her mother's mortgage is getting paid. Honestly, it seemed more like a follow-up on an ex-con who wants a gold star because they haven't been caught stealing lately. Although I was pretty entertained by the way Marcus went from zero to fuck you after the ASL guy said "you're late". (Why couldn't we have spent some time at Pirate Land? They have mini-golf! And kayaks!)

I wish they would just show us the original Stack episodes with Stack and then have a faceless narrator give any updates. His unique delivery really made the show, imo.

I don't know the answer so I just liked your comment! :D Seriously: how about you like the comment in question and then just respond to the one part you disagree with? So they know you liked the comment overall but have a quibble with one part of it. ITA it's good to encourage new posters! When I was a total newbie it was nice to have responses and feel welcomed. This place has its disagreements but it's not a closed clique. Refreshing.

That's flat out odd, imo. Messy situation all the way around. Hopefully you can settle via lawyers and find a better work situation down the road.

Yes, it's the Penguin edition. I really enjoyed the first sections concerning the Bishop of Digne! I'm only through Volume 1 (Fantine).

Thank you! I'll check out the Anthelios. I don't mind if it's matte so much as that it's lightweight and I don't feel like I'm covered in goo. I do agree the Josie Maran is over-priced. Good news is that the vial will last a long time. My husband has two little dry spots on his face and this oil seems to help them, so I guess it's good for something...

I guess in a mirror universe there's some person in Nova Scotia who I think is in the States. MADNESS. (glad you're okay and SUPER SUPARRR glad you're recapping! thanks for watching so we don't have to!)

Ha! We watched that, too, and reveled in the sheer 80s awfulness of their clothes and home decor. Didn't notice Peter's misogyny, I admit, because we were too busy laughing our asses off at Eve Plumb's acting stood out as particularly bad. But yeah, it's cheesy nostalgic fun and Florence Henderson can sing the hell out of a Christmas carol. There must be some real interesting discussions around the Cameron Family festivus table, what with Kirk refusing to kiss anyone but his wife, and Candace kissing everything she can get her Christmas lips on. Or does she use stand-ins, too?

Can I ask which of the La Roche Posay line you used and liked? Our doctor recommended that brand. I just (last week) started using Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil Light as an experiment when I ran out of moisturizer. Some people swear by it as a miracle oil but to me it's only so-so and doesn't absorb too well, as opposed to other oils I've used in the past.

I'm reading the Norman Denny translation of Les Miserables - one of the great works I wasn't assigned in school, which means I'm free to enjoy it on my own. :) I very much like what Denny's done with the prose, but the dialogue is a bit meh (to my ear). Anyone have a translation they like better?

I love that Southern tradition, too. It's even better when the children call you "Miss ___" instead of your name alone. Miss Glowlights, would you read me a story? *swoon* WRT butter, I'm also one of those people who prefer to use butter (sparingly) and healthy oils instead of hydrogenated products in daily life, and I still call b.s. on Marcus using "heart health" as an excuse to sell butter-laden white flour biscuits - right next to the butter-cream-laden cupcakes - as opposed to staying true to the original recipe. If they are delicious with shortening (and apparently they were), and that's the locally famous secret recipe at the destination restaurant, then go with it!! Biscuits are a splurge. Am I ranting? Oops. /rant But actually, imo the bigger problem is that biscuits are delicious straight out of the oven and that's how they were served at Schuler's. She wasn't making tray loads days in advance and then reheating them, she was making them in fresh hot batches, which is when biscuits should always always always be served. It would have made more sense to sell the dough that people can bake up and eat just as if they were at Schuler's. Premade, commercially manufactured biscuits in a bag, and not from an authentic recipe? I can get that at Safeway. (Okay, now I'm done ranting. lol) It's a testament to this show that I even bother to put any thought into it... in case Marcus is reading here and thinks I don't love him anymore. Because I do. Love! B-I-l may have got the proverbial bad edit with the plates scene, but if he had been doing any actual work for the cameras to capture then I doubt the plates scene would have made the cut. The family is most likely better off this way, in the long run. Hoping the next episode is more like this one!

HOORAY for a great episode! What a relief from the previous shitfests of financial shenanigans, romantic entanglements, and Dr. Lemonis, Professional Therapist. Loved loved loved that he discouraged franchising. I was immediately afraid that's what he would do but nope, he heard my pleadings through the t.v. set. (Hi, Marcus!) Except I have a quibble about that giant uncovered deck they built - it rains in SC. I agree that switching the biscuit ingredients didn't make a lot of sense. Pretty sure he said shortening, not lard, then went on to say that people use butter now instead of shortening because they're "concerned about heart health". Uh... Marcus? Butter-filled white flour biscuits are not part of a heart healthy diet. Going from Crisco to butter doesn't make a damn bit of difference in that respect. Never mind people who are so concerned about heart health won't be shopping at Crumbs in the first place. And the package says "Born at Schuler's" when we know it's being made by a contract commercial baker. IMO the package is misleading. They would have been better off going with her recipe (with the exception of the self-rising flour) and market them for what they are - decadent lumps of fatty dough. I mean, is that watermelon cake "heart healthy"? C'mon. Must be something about BILs because i have one who's the exact same way with b.s. double talk about marketing, growth and social media, and nothing of substance to show for it except grand delusions of making big bucks. But... what was he doing with those plates?????? Trying to look busy when the cameras showed up? Giant US flag was a great idea. I have high hopes that this will be a happy, successful partnership.

Aw jeez... I'm sorry to hear that. :( I trust your attorney will be able to work something out. (It was stinky of John to remove you from the website -did he even tell you he was going to do that?)

He did say on Twitter that the Skullduggery printer was returned. Too bad he couldn't leave the printer where it was and take the Skullduggery guys in for a trade. :)

Yikes. I hope each professor brought something new to the reading and you weren't just caught in an academic Groundhog Day. I'll give Rowling a try. I did enjoy the first Harry Potter movie - it was light fun.

Hi everyone, I'm a little (a lot!) late to the book club but have enjoyed reading your comments on Slaughterhouse-Five. FWIW, I accepted the time travel and alien abduction as literal (within the logic of the story) upon first reading in high school despite what my teacher asserted, wondered about a mental break or hallucinations on second reading a few years later, and have come back full circle to accepting it as literal. Somehow, explaining it away as hallucinations reduces (in my mind) what Vonnegut was trying express about fatalism and predeterminism, not to mention Schadenfreude, but I'd have to work to put that into words. To answer the discussion topic quoted above, I think both the Dresden bombing and events in the 1960s point toward a loss of innocence with America in particular and democracy in general. Vonnegut talks about struggling with the novel until someone pointed out to him that he and his fellow troops were children, and that's how the characters ought to be written. That dovetails nicely with his horror and disgust with the Dresden bombing - we had been certin that the Americans and its Allies were the good guys, but here was wholesale slaughter against innocents done in the name of democracy and the good guys, and what's worse is the scale of atrocity was not reported. Even Vonnegut didn't know until he began to research at home. So there's a loss of innocence, both the literal loss of innocence of boys sent to war and the more general loss of innocence when you realize your country isn't what you thought it was, or you're no longer certain of the side you're fighting on, or if those sides even exist separately. And of course that's what was going on in the 60s, a national loss of innocence from the post-war Leave It To Beaver, "America the good", stars and stripes and apple pie, greatest generation ever. If post-war America coudl be characterized by the youthful vigor and optimism of adolescence then the 60s were what happens when you go to college and have your eyes opened. This time it was Vietnam and Kennedy (both of them) and Martin Luther King, not WWII, but as Vonnegut would say, "So it goes." There's also a lesson about conformity in there somewhere... What do you guys think? This is a terrific conversation with Vonnegut, for anyone who's interested: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3605/the-art-of-fiction-no-64-kurt-vonnegut

If they didn't consider Anna Kendrick then they're beyond nuts. But then they cast Brian Williams's Daughter so yeah, they're nuts. Good point upthread about performing something this complicated to a prerecorded track. Guess they're counting on that broadcast delay to cover up any major goofs. Anyone know how much of a delay they're using?

Stay safe, peach, we'll wait! (Why the hell did I think you were in Nova Scotia????)

Apparently there were two issues at play: - Twain set the manuscript aside after Huck and Jim missed the Ohio River (is that a spoiler?) because he was now out of the geographical and social realms he was familiar with and had basically written himself into a corner; he picked it up three years later and stalled again right around (iirc) the episode with Colonel Sherburn (sp?); and then picked it up years later and wrote the final chapters all at once, a tacked-on ending to get it over with - Twain's publisher did want Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn to be the same length, which is why the first published versions of the latter omitted what should have been chapter 16; however I don't think the publisher's constraints re: page count had an impact on the quality of the final chapters, that was purely writer's frustration Can I offer an incredibly unpopular opinion? I don't care for Tolkien. And by "don't care for" I mean The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings were the the only assigned reading I ever skipped. This has fed my aversion to J.K. Rowling, another UO. But I adored the Narnia series, does that make up for it?

Does anyone remember The Christmas Star with Ed Asner? It's still shown on Hallmark at Christmas from time to time. Sappy and sweet and kinda cheesy (plus low budget), with a very nice message. Takes you back to the days before every t.v. Christmas movie involved a single woman who needs to get laid. If you haven't seen it, It was written and directed by the same guy who did The Crush, and in Canada it was released as La hotte magique which sounds like a stripper bar, BUT don't let any of that fool you. I can tell you guys one to stay away from: Moonlight and Mistletoe, starring Kirk Cameron's terminally untalented sister, Roseanne Barr's drunk ex-husband, and a deranged Lifetime actress. Kirk Cameron's sister is a successful executive (let that sink in for a minute) who somehow doesn't know you have to read a contract before you sign it and also doesn't know you're entitled to a copy of what you signed. And that's the part of the plot that makes the most sense. i couldn't tell if her father was supposed to be "special" or if that's just how Roseanne Barr's ex-husband speaks when he's drunk. Anyway, it's all downhill from there, until the mind-boggling nonsensical grand resolution involving some inexplicable overnight consumer demand from "Europe" (the whole continent, I suppose). But speaking of hills it was filmed in Vermont so the tiny bits of scenery do help the medicine go down. If you can't help yourself and tune in then I recommend you put it on mute and wait for the sleigh ride scene. My husband's one sentence review: "Was it written by crazy people?" Candace Cameron kisses a guy and the wooden toys aren't wearing clothes, so I'll be complaining to the FCC. Private note to Kirk Cameron's sister: get a voice coach, sweetie.

This show used to be one of my favorites, along with Intervention, and I loved the discussions over at, um, a different site. Glad this forum is here! I have a hoarder-by-association story: My friend's neighbor passed away and she went to give condolences to the widower. She had never been in the house before and was shocked to see it was a hoarder situation. The widower was completely overwhelmed over how to get the house ready for sale - his wife had been the hoarder and he had been living under these conditions. I think this show has taught us how tyrannical hoarders can be. Anyway, my friend offered to help him and he was so grateful. They had filled TWO dumpsters when lo and behold, the man's son arrived and had a full-blown rage attack. How DARE they throw out family treasures? This was his property!!! Tore into my friend until she left. The "treasures"? Grocery store sales flyers from decades ago. Rotting magazines. A million empty margarine and yogurt containers. Basically decades of garbage. So that widower not only had a hoarder wife but a violent-tempered hoarder son. My friend was sick over it. I know we're supposed to feel sorry for hoarders but... some of them are truly awful. Then again, I'm probably enabling hoarders when I list stuff on Freecycle. :)