One of My Favorite Things

It's teeny and it's tiny, but I'm excited anyway. I've been published in the "staff favorites" section of Venuszine.com! It's almost as though I'm "staff".

http://venuszine.com/art_and_culture/staff_favorites


It's a blurb on one of my very favorite shows, Paranormal State on A&E.

On May 14th they'll be publishing another of my favorites -- and I'll write another exhuberant post with the link.

Baby steppin'
Erin

I Didn't Realize John Cusack Was In This Until I Did a Google Image Search

Random tidbit:

I imagine that everyone has certain "comfort places" that they can mentally go when they need to calm the hell down during an anxiety attack, or perhaps fall asleep when insomnia comes knocking. My mom says that she thinks of bike riding down the Cape. Brian probably envisions himself either swimming--or in front of his xbox doing battle with thirteen year old boys in a cyber-WWII universe. I really, truly don't know why, but I always think about being in my parents house, eating a grilled cheese sandwich and watching this:



For some reason this movie represents all that is the safety of childhood to me. Which is bizarre because it's about a little girl having to make a cross country trip by herself and there's a wolf involved. The Anne of Green Gables mini series can also do the trick.

Raised on TV, for real,
Erin

Free Time Makes Me List

I don't know what to do with the free time I have today.

Things I Did Today:
-Shower
-Folding laundry
-Vacuuming
-Watching Bob Lobel report from the marathon.
-Realizing I'll never run a marathon
-Purchasing/ingesting egg sandwich
-Thinking about doing work
-Deciding not to do work and just go in early tomorrow
-Checking email/facebook/myspace/whyamislavetosocialnetworkingsites?
-Sitting by the ocean trying to be alone with myself without stimulation. Getting up five minutes later because it's colder than I thought it would be.
-Monolouging internally : What am I Supposed to Be Doing With My Life?
-Shaking fist at God
-Sweeping
-Popping popcorn
-Putting on The Fellowship of the Ring
-List-blogging

What did YOU do with your Patriots Day?

Masterpiecey

I assume that I'll probably wake up in about fifteen minutes or so. I don't know why, but I've been in a haze all morning so far. The train ride in felt like a dream. A bumpy, uncomfortable dream.

Sunday night TV is usually a pretty depressing thing. I don't know why they put the worst shows on the night where most of the public really needs a pick-me-up. But last night I found a hidden jewel that might just cure the Sunday TV Blues for good -- Masterpiece Theater.


(Monsterpiece Theater narrated by Alaister Cookie)

I've never read E.M.Forster's A Room With A View but the PBS adaptation was absolutely a treat. It followed a kind of break neck speed, so I'm going to read the actual book to fill in the blanks, but it was lovely for what it was. Essentially, I'm going to love any story whose heroine is named Lucy Honeychurch, seriously E.M.? Yes. Seriously.



So I sat on my couch with a glass of cheap wine and cried at the ephemeral nature of living and love while Brian played xbox. Because, essentially, that's how we live.

More coffee.
Erin

Chronicle: A Love Story

Okay. Enough nonsense, let's get serious. I love Chronicle.



I was shocked recently to find out that some of my respected peers don't even know what Chronicle is -- that they've never taken a long and winding drive with Peter Mehegan down a main street or back road in his old Chevy. They've never enjoyed the effortless, sincere banter between Mary Richardson and Anthony Everett. They've never given themselves over for a half hour to learn, in HD, about coastal Maine, or Rhode Island's best B&Bs. To those deprived friends, I apologize on behalf of the universe.



You're probably like, "wow, Erin's being weirdly douchey and sarcastic". I assure you, I'm not. There's literally nothing I would rather watch on TV than a good Chronicle. Granted sometimes they miss the mark in an effort to be too current events-centric or political, but when they get it right, boy, do they get it right.

As you may or may not know, I spent a long period of time in the craziest, most stressful teaching job that's ever happened. Coming home at night and watching Chronicle made me feel at peace for a half hour the way nothing else could. I just love the show. Tons.

Yesterday I was informed that Chronicle was going to be filming our show at Improv Asylum. I lost my mind. I literally started shaking. We've performed in front of all kinds of crowds, but this made me really nervous! I desperately wanted to rush up to whichever reporter was there and beg for an internship. Would I give up my paying job to make coffee for Mary Richardson? Stupid question. Yes.


Unfortunately, Mary wasn't there, and neither was Anthony. The reporter in attendance left quickly after the show, so I missed the boat completely. But we had a half decent show, and maybe it will be a good segment.

Chronicle, if you're listening, I love you. I want to write for you. I want to travel to Gloucester to report on what's become of the fishing industry. Call me.

Love,
Erin

Highlighting Hard Left

My new blog on BostonNOW! Go to the entertainment page and check it out WITH video.
Thanks Robert and Taylor!


Hard Left Production’s big break came when they were able to make it look as though a Nintendo Wii controller was lodged in Taylor’s eye. Hard Left, comprised of Robert Woo and Taylor Newhall, was capitalizing on the Wii safety backlash wherein folks began reporting that the console’s controllers could fly out of hands and cause damage to person and property. Hard Left posted their sketch on Youtube.com under the simple title “Wii Accident”, and started a sensation. Before long they’d received over a million hits, and an endless string of comments debating whether the accident was real.

“The very thought that people think that it could be real is ridiculous to me,”says Woo, but adds, “It has 1.6 million views, has been linked on CNN.com, and was even played in the background of an official Nintendo video they played at a game expo,”…I guess a little controversy can go a long way.

Taylor Newhall and Robert Woo are truly members of Generation Y… Y as in “Youtube”, that is. Ever since Saturday Night Live’s Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg started rapping about The Chronicles of Narnia in 2005, something amazing has happened in the world of comedy – it’s gone viral. Hard Left Productions has been able to ride this wave skillfully with their hilariously unique concepts and humor that runs from the super-witty (their “Writer’s Strike” sketch features writers with blank picket signs) to the totally absurd.

Since the fall of 2006, Newhall and Woo have tried to shoot one sketch every month and credit most of their ideas to “beer…and improv”. Both work at Improv Boston and met while doing a two person improv show with the now defunct Tribe Theater. When asked how they came up with the name Hard Left, Woo says, “We noticed that our ideas always ended with an abrupt left turn at the end of each sketch, so we wanted Left Turn Productions. That was already taken, so we chose Hard Left.”

With mounting momentum and an ever growing online fan base, Hard Left Productions is definitely one to watch. And as for the Wii controller lodged in Taylor’s eye…Robert explains, “Taylor was a trooper. He has a glass eye due to a childhood fishing accident. So he removed it and we placed the Wiimote gingerly into the eye socket. We added some fake blood and there you have it.” I guess some tricks of the trade are meant to stay secret.

You can find all their work at http://www.youtube.com/user/HardLeftProd

Playlist

itunes is a dangerous, wonderful beast. Left to my own devices last night while Brian was at Improv Asylum and I had just returned home from dinner at the Texas Roadhouse (where Allergy Brian can never go because of the peanut crusted floor)I turned to itunes for entertainment. It's absolutely magical how long I can spend listening to 20 second cuts of various music. It always happens that I come dangerously close to purchasing some entire that I may or may not like in the morning, only to back away at the last second.

I'm not going to lie, I logged on in the first place to get the Hannah Montana song. Listen, as a young woman who spends a good portion of her life listening to Elliot Smith and Belle and Sebastian, and other such credible artists, I feel absolutely confident in my musical tastes and I proclaim that the Miley Cyrus single was purchased without irony and listened to many times on the way to work this morning. It. Was. Awesome.

The entire purchased playlist:

"I Can't Wait To See You Again" -- Miley Cyrus
"Say It to Me Now" -- The Frames
"Lay Me Down" -- The Frames
"Suzanne" -- Weezer
"No Air" (Non-ironic)-- Jordan Sparks & Chris Brown
"The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" -- Weezer
"Perfect Situation" -- Weezer

TADA!

We're doing a "photo shoot" today for Improv Asylum to create our new advertisements. I wish I got a haircut. My look now is more "hopelessness in the workplace" than "sassy hip comic actress"



My hair is telling me to get back to work, and just give up generally.

BYE!

Expired

I decided to drive to work today. One of the primary reasons I made this decision is because I wanted to be on time and get to my office in a relatively hassle-free manner. When I pulled up to the toll booth and paid a State Trooper stood in front of my car and waved me over (across three busy lanes) to the curb where he told me he wanted to "talk" to me. It should be stated that I'm petrified of most authority, at least uniformed, but even through my nervousness a quiet rage boiled. I knew what he was doing -- he was standing at the tolls looking for people with expired inspection stickers, and he found me. Yes, I should have gotten a new sticker, but during rush hour, really??



Twenty minutes later he let me go with a warning, which was nice of him. I've never ever been pulled over by a cop before and maybe my clean record had something to do with his mercy. I was profoundly late to work.

The whole time I was thinking...'blogging it'.