Once more, with feeling

Normally, when it comes to Fridays, I prescribe to The Cure's days-of-the-week opus.  According to Robert Smith and co, Monday's blue, Tuesday's grey and Wednesday's too and Thursday, he doesn't care about you, but when it's Friday, he's love. On most occasions, I totally concur with this declaration of love for all things Friday. I mean, think about it, it's the start of the weekend and you've still got that hope that the next three days will turn out to be the time of your life. You're jaded but it's a sort of ignorance that is blissful in context (perhaps, that's where the phrase came from?).  Fridays also seem so far away from those happiness corrupting Mondays so no matter how bad your week has gone, you can't help but think that for at least this one night, things will be peachy keen.

Although I love to love the first day of the weekend, I am finding it hard to feel fond for this particular Friday. I'm being way melodramatic but hey, I just watched two episodes of MSCL and every time I hang out with Angela, Rickie, Rayanne and that infamously invisible Tino character, I can't help but be uber introspective and angsty. If I had my own Jordan Catalano though, perhaps I could kick this habit. This is a heads up to anyone who’s got an extra blue-eyed pretty boy with a penchant for leaning and who finds that it hurts to look at things on their hands. I'll take him over for you. Free of charge.

(I'VE GOT A FEVER AND THE ONLY PRESCRIPTION IS MORE CATALANO. STAT.)

Anywhos, so you must be wondering what it is about this Friday that's driving me to have delusions about mass produced Jared Leto characters. The answer is simple: nothing. Now, I know that seems stupid but I don't mean it as in like not a thing is bothering me, because quite frankly, why would I be writing this blog about something as boring as that? What I mean, is it's the fact that I am literally doing nothing that’s driving me cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Over the course of this week, I had visions of capping off what was an extremely busy and stressful week (First TV assignment! Pop Lit mid-term! Early morning work shifts! Thanksgiving dinner!  Driving Instructors with short-term memory loss!) with some a warm bag of radioactive popcorn and some T.L.C. (totally loverly cinema). However, right now I remain at home in my living room staring into my computer screen. Can you say lame and a half?

I know my ranting is slightly juvenile, but seriously, I haven’t really been out for the past few weeks. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen a movie for a full two weeks! That might sound ridiculoso to you but being the certifiable movie addict I am, I usually hit up the Cineplex at least once a week. To give you some sort of perspective, going full weeks without one movie going experience for me is the equivalent of depriving a pack-a-day smoker of their nicotine fix. I’m serious. It’s that bad.

I would stay and write on but I have just found the one thing that might curb my T.L.C. craving. I’ll give you a hint.  It involves some very creepy crabs, Alec Baldwin, Winona and that “Day-O” song. Perhaps there’s still IS room for love on this lame excuse for a Friday.

“Sometimes someone says something really small and it just fits into this empty place in your heart" - the eternally wise Angela Chase

Miriam Toews is a god.

I'm just about done reading her latest - The Flying Troutmans - (I started yesterday) and I think I'm head-over-heels for it. I forget how much her words move me. She may not be speaking but I would have to say that Miss Chase's amazing observation from above pretty much echos my feelings towards her written words. They fill the empty spaces in my heart - even the ones I didn't know needed to be filled.

For instance, I really love this one passage on page 121. She's describing Logan, one of the novel's main characters, a 15-year-old rebel with many a cause. In the passage she writes:

 "He looked away towards Saturn, or farther up, maybe towards some satellite that only he could see. I liked the silver and gold specks. They softened him up. He looked like a sweet, kind of gay, raver alien waiting  for his crew to take him back to space, to some benevolent planet that   partied hard but happily. I left him to pine and sparkle in the moonlight."

Somehow she manages to be funny as hell and still make my extremities melt into mush simultaneously. I mean, "I left him to pine in sparkle in the moonlight"? From anyone else it might seem cheesy but somehow, she makes it seem irresistibly bittersweet like a left over piece of dark chocolate before bed.

Speaking of bed, I should go to one and catch some much-needed zzzz. But before I go, I leave you with this great little quote Logan carves in the dashboard in the book. I don't know about you but this one speaks to me on too many levels to even count.

"Who needs actions when you've got words?" - Kurt Cobain

To paraphrase a phrase that Angelika and Rickie love so much, there’s something about that question that’s so beautiful it hurts to even think about it.

mood: cheerful

music: I'm in Love With a Girl - Gavin DeGraw

I know, I know. What is this lip gloss doing on the wall of a makeup phobic nerd? Well, somehow Tarte has managed to put the nerd back into beauty products by naming their double-ended lip glosses by pop culture couples of the past. I've only bought one thing from Sephora in the past, and it was one of these glosses - the "Danny and Sandy" one. The names of the glosses range from everything from classics like "Romeo and Juliet" and "Adam Eve" to more recent campy staples like "Johnny and Baby" (Dirty Dancing), "Samantha and Jake" (Sixteen Candles) and "Zack and Kelly" (Saved by the Bell). While those were pretty awesome to begin with, I think I may have found the best one of all, well at least in my humble opinion. It's part of Lips Ahoy collection, and it's called, "Angela and Jordan" after "MSCL"'s famous on-and-off duo. 

I'm not gonna lie, I pretty much died when I read that this existed. The other couples in the package are also pretty cool - "Allie and Noah" (The Notebook), "Annie and Sam" (Annie Hall) and "Cherry and Dallas" (The Outsiders baby!) - but this one takes the cake. Just when I think that I'm the only one who loves the adventures of Angelika and her flannel shirt rocking friends, I stumble upon something like this and realize that the world is good again. My only real complaint about this fab product is that the colours are off. Where is the crimson glow? 

Even with the lack of Angela's signature colour, I still want it more than life.  I can't guarantee this, but if this lip gloss is anywhere near as amazing as I assume that it is, you will most definitely have "a time" while wearing it. Or at least feel like you should be dancing to Buffalo Tom in your room while dreaming of the day when your own Jordan Catalano will pull up in his very own "Red" and serenade you using his guitar and his dreamy blue eyes. J

http://tartecosmetics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=lipsahoy&Category_Code=L

mood: sleepy

music: Late at Night - Buffalo Tom

Last night, I cracked open my most prized possession and indulged in some serious teen angst. In other words, I watched my absolute favourite show of all time - "My So-Called Life". More specifically, I watched the episode when Rayanne "ums" Jordan Catalano (cause you can't just say Jordan. It's like a crime, or something) - a.k,a.  "Betrayal". I  can't say this is my favourite episode - that honour is belongs to "Life of Brian" and it's amazing non-Night at the Roxbury "What is Love" dance sequence between Rickie and Delia- but it's definitely up there. The episode opens with Angelika herself dancing around her room to the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun" out of joy for suddenly being "so over Jordan Catalano". That moment in itself is classic "MSCL". It's so real that you can't help but be enthralled by it. 

The episode continues to please as it moves onto to the big storyline: the unravelling of Rayanne and Angela's friendship. There are some random subplots including Patty's first encounter with Graham's shady business partner and Angela and Rickie's dispute over new artsy boy Corey but, in my humble opinion, the real magic of the episode comes at the end. Rayanne and Angela are forced to do a scene together from "Our Town", the play that Rayanne has just landed a part in. The lines hit so close to home it's completely heart wrenching. Here's the transcript of the moment, complete with my personal interjections.

Rayanne:  "I can't go on, it goes so fast, we don't have time to look at one another.  I didn't realize.  So all that was going on, and...we never noticed. Take me back. Back to the hill, to my grave.  But first, wait!  One last Look.  Goodbye.  Goodbye, world.  Goodbye, Grover's Corners. 
Momma and Poppa.  Goodbye to clocks ticking.  Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?  Every every minute?"

Abyssinia : "No.  Saints and poets, maybe they do so."

[Oh look, it's that girl who helped Angela with her math midterm way back in “Self Esteem” before she ditched class for some hot and heavy handholding action with – who else – Jordan Catalano. Rando]

Rayanne: "I'm ready to go back."

[Here come the waterworks..]

Angela: [holding back tears] "Were you happy?"
 
Rayanne: "No... I should have listened to you... But that's all human beings are, just blind people."

Thud. I just fainted due to being overwhelmed by greatness.  I can't help but choke up at this part even though I've seen this episode too many times to count. It's moments like this that make me wonder what the execs at ABC were smoking when they decided to cancel this show. We'll never know whether Angela and Rayanne ever became good friends again or if Angela ever really got over Jordan (Damn you "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" and your veiled ending!) but there's no doubt that this show will never cease to be amazing. 

*Note: thanks to www.mscl.com for the quotes!