Can you tell my boss is on vacation?

I'm back to posting every day again, lol.

Anyway, interview with FNL's executive producer about the DirecTV deal and what the next two seasons have in store. Warning: If you're like me, and have been saving yourself for the NBC broadcast episodes, this article spoils episodes that haven't aired yet.

LOLs from The Onion: Obama depressed after BSG finale.

An interview with Tamara Taylor about Bones. Important note: Fox will be doubling up episodes (due to all the Obama pre-empting), and will be airing new eps on Wednesdays AND Thursdays for a couple weeks.

Politico thinks that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is really similar to West Wing character Josh Lyman. Well... duh. Josh was based on Emanuel when he worked in the Clinton administration. Any excuse for more Bradley Whitford, though.

I also watch TV

So, while the election is certainly the most important thing happening today, there's also lots of other stuff to mention. (Also, there's nothing to do in work and I'm bored. This is what happens when ever single legislator and their staffers leave town to campaign.)

Let's start with interviews. The showrunners of Bones and How I Met Your Mother both have interviews on where the shows are headed this season. There's also the first part of Christian Kane's interview about his new TV show, Leverage. And someone finally tracked down Jimmy Smits to see how he feels about the whole Obama/Santos comparison.

There's also a new Joss Whedon interview, in which the interviewer seems to be really, really defensive of Buffy and really, really hates the new vampire series True Blood. I'm not entirely sure why, other than "It's not Buffy." Joss, however, is happy to talk about both the Buffy comics and Dollhouse.

And finally, Jenna Fischer's got a new movie.

Leaky kitty

Was a little concerned last night when Chelsea appeared to have a leakage problem, dripping saliva from her mouth. I tried calling the vet, but they were already closed, so I settled for Google, which led me to believe it was probably a a tooth/gum problem. In any case, she was fine this morning, but I called the vet anyway, who said it probably wasn't serious. She probably just scratched her mouth on a bit of food or something. This parenting thing is so nerve-wracking!

In other news, Bradley Whitford is getting a new sitcom, which is awesome since I love him, and was just reminded how much because I was watching election episodes of The West Wing last night. (Shut up, Kelly!) Also WW-related, the New York Times apparently just figured out that this election is similar to the Santos/Vinick election. Dude, where were you back in February?

Jon Hamm is guest-starring on 30 Rock (which I'll probably get around to watching someday).

Dollhouse fans, I think you're being mocked.

I can do other stuff!

Just to prove to Kelly that I do care about things other than politics (and let me just point out that since the primary season ended, I have been very light on the politics, and it's just this one week, so let me have my fun!), here's a whole bunch of TV news to rot your brain. :)

If for some ungodly reason, you haven't been watching Mad Men, you're in luck! AMC is showing a marathon of the season so far, so you have a chance to catch up. Meanwhile, Chuck got a full season pick-up, and Kiefer Sutherland thinks he's paid too much (I'd be happy to take some of it off his hands, if he's that concerned about it).

Aaron Sorkin is making a movie about Facebook, while former West Wing-er Allison Janney is starring in a musical. And they keep getting my hopes up with these rumors about a Red Dwarf movie. Please let it be true!

Monday morning

Well, I hope you all had a good weekend. I went to dinner on Friday with Christi and some med school people, and then went out to Ceolta's with Christi and a LOT of med school people. They just opened up their smoke-free second floor, and it was totally empty, so we just took over and basically had a private party. The music was awful, though - it was like the DJ totally dated us and only played stuff from the early-mid 90s. Seriously, Boyz II Men? Vanilla Ice? That's not even the fun old-school.

Saturday, I saw Christi again (making up for all that time she was studying for boards and wouldn't leave the library), when she and her friends came down to Harrisburg for the Brewer Fest. Christi volunteered to be the designated driver, but they were out of DD tickets, so she couldn't get in. (Yay, Harrisburg, encouraging drunk driving!) So Christi hung out with me while her friends drank beer.

This was Chelsea's first encounter with a stranger (other than my parents, whom she met on the first day, when everything was pretty much terrifying). She did well - she was very friendly and played with Christi on Friday night, but was pretty shy on Saturday. I think it was because it was naptime and she wanted us to leave her alone.

Speaking of Chelsea, I think there must be some kind of "How To Annoy Your Human" handbook that all cats have to read in kitten school or something. She's picking up Patches' habits, and they don't even live together. Patches, in case I haven't mentioned, has developed this charming way of waking my dad up at 4am by swatting everything on his night table onto the floor. Cell phone, glasses, pens, wallet, spare change, you name it, it gets knocked on the floor. Well, now Chelsea is doing the same thing, except I have carpet (my parents have hardwood floors), so it doesn't make as much noise. So I just wake up to a pile of stuff on the floor, while Chelsea proceeds to paw at me. If the swatting stuff doesn't work, she moves on to poking me in the eye with her paw, or tapping my nose. It'd be quite adorable if I didn't want to sleep for another hour.

Anyway, lots of TV stuff today. There's a bizarre clip of Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku on Dollhouse, who appear to be interviewed by the stars of some other show, one of whom is Jerry O'Connell (omg, remember Sliders? I do).

Also, there's a trailer for Christian Kane's new show, Leverage. CK also has a podcast interview from some country radio station, where he plays three new songs. OMG, I love him so much, and I don't even like country music. I would totally marry him if James Marsters were unavailable. :)

This is a little weird - Jack Bauer will be the best-looking 52-year-old ever. 24 is doing another time jump this season, which puts season 7 at 17 years after season 1, where Jack was 35. Yikes.

I've never heard of this show, but I'm glad to see Janel Moloney getting work. She's pretty awesome (and I miss The West Wing!).

No, for real this time

Word on the street is that Clinton will be officially bowing out tomorrow at noon. She met with Obama in D.C. last night, and is starting to squish talk of accepting the V.P. spot. Honestly, I think that's a good idea. Blah blah blah dream ticket and all that, but really - I don't think they work well together.

First of all, despite having very similar platforms, their messages in the primary were totally different, and I don't think Hillary fits well with Obama's "hope and change" pitch that's earned him so much popularity. Plus, as others have mentioned, it will look like Obama surrendered. He got strong-armed into accepting Hillary whether he wanted to or not. And if he can't even take on the Clintons with a clear victory, how can he ever take on the Republicans, let alone foreign heads of state? It makes him look weak. There are plenty of other candidates out there who are strong in the same areas as Clinton, and if he picks a Clinton supporter (Wesley Clark, for example), I think he'll win over most, if not all, of the Hillary vote.

I also think that putting Hillary in the #2 spot is just asking for animosity - you're going to have an ambitious V.P. who's not going to just roll over and do whatever the White House tells her to. Not to mention you'll have Bill in there as a... whatever he is. He may not have power, but he has influence, and I can't see him taking orders, either. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the first couple seasons of The West Wing, and the conflict between President Bartlet and V.P. Hoynes, and you'll see what I mean. You need a good relationship with your V.P. otherwise you'll find the rug yanked out from under you.

I think Hillary has done well in the Senate, and I think she should continue on there. People are throwing around other positions - Cabinet, maybe, or this article in which a delusional NY representative thinks Obama should nominate her for the Supreme Court (what kind of crack are you on, honey?) - and that's okay, too, but I think she flourishes in the Senate.

Where's my 2 hour delay?

Bummer. All that snow last night, and no two hour delay. But hey, if all goes well, I'll be leaving early today so I can catch a 4:30 train to good old New Jersey. I'm going to NYC this weekend to see The Farnsworth Invention, a play by Aaron Sorkin, starring Hank Azaria. Apparently, it's not that good, since it's closing in a week, but you know how I love all things Aaron Sorkin.

Heads up - How I Met Your Mother is moving to 8:30 on Mondays when it returns. I don't know whether that makes it more or less likely to be renewed. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it performs in the new time slot.

I'm really surprised this is the first time I've seen someone compare this year's Presidential election with the last season of The West Wing. I thought it was kinda obvious. There are fundamental details that make for significant differences, but does this sound at all familiar? Republican party unified around a really old experienced centrist candidate. Democratic party split between establishment candidate and young rising star, leading to no clear nominee in the primaries and chaos at the national convention (okay, that last part is just speculation).

On the subject of Obama, I just saw this op-ed by Karl Rove. Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't give consideration to anything he says, because he's evil and slimy and did I mention evil? But he's also one of the smartest men in the Republican party, and the mastermind behind all the Republican election successes of the past decade, and I can guarantee that he will be heavily involved in the negative campaign against whoever the Democratic candidate is. So maybe it's worth paying attention, because if Obama is the candidate, I bet this is the strategy they will use to tear him down. As this op-ed (which happens to explain quite well my reservations about Obama) points out, Clinton is a known quantity - I find it hard to believe there's anything the Republicans could use against her that they haven't already tried. Obama's a blank slate, just waiting for the GOP to define him. And they will.

Catching up on the news

I've been going through all my NY Times and Washington Post emails from the past few days (I didn't really check it over the holiday), and found some interesting articles to share.

First, the true story behind the pardoning of the turkey. (Personally, I find the West Wing episode to be funnier. "Morton, I can't pardon a turkey! If you think I can pardon a turkey, you have got to go back to your school and insist you be better prepared to go out in the world.")

Here's a funny piece on why we don't want a physically fit President. Personally, Mitt Romney sounds crazy. Mini-triathlons with his family? Seriously? Also, this: "Romney has no known vices, except packing the family dog on top of the car during long trips."

Philadelphia mayor-elect Michael Nutter got a nice write-up in the Times. I've always liked the guy, and this comment only made me like him more: “My view is that people also have a civil right not to get shot.” If only we could convince the gun-toting, redneck legislature of that. (For anyone who was paying attention, the Governor's entreaty last week that the legislature consider gun control legislation went over like serving ham at Thanksgiving.) I don't know how Nutter's plans for the city will shake out, but he seems like an intelligent guy, and he's already got plenty of goodwill, just for not being like John Street. Here's hoping he can use it to do some good.

An adventure-cruise ship sank Titanic-style on Friday when it hit an iceberg near Antarctica, leaving the passengers and crew stranded in lifeboats in freezing temperatures and icy water for four hours. *crosses Antarctica off list of cruise destinations* How come it's never the ships in the Caribbean that sink? (Duh. No icebergs. Although, they do, on occasion, hit coral reefs. (Open bar!))

Interesting article on the cost of health care in America, as well as a look at Massachusetts' new insurance mandate. (Fun fact: Mitt Romney won't campaign on his health care achievements because he had to work with Ted Kennedy to do it.) The idea of mandating health insurance is interesting. I know a lot of people complain because it forces people to get insurance even if they can't really afford it, but on the other hand, what about all the other things we require, regardless of cost? Auto insurance, for example. I'm required to have renter's insurance in order to maintain my apartment lease. And the reason for both of those is to prevent exorbitant costs to myself and to other people. Sure, maybe some people (especially young people my age) can risk it without health insurance, expecting that they won't get sick. But when you DO get sick, and you're forced to go to the emergency room because you can't afford a doctor's visit, then it's the taxpayers who pay for it. Why can't we require health insurance, to prevent those exorbitant costs? Obviously, the ultimate goal is to bring down the cost of health care, but as the first article states, there is no simple solution. It's not going to happen right away. But universal health care is a good start.

I'm the coolest girl in school

Good news, people! I officially have a job again! I got a call today from the PA Department of Education - I'm going to be a legislative assistant. Whee!! So now I'm moving into my apartment Presidents Day weekend and starting work Feb. 26th. Isn't that exciting?

So, as promised, here's part 3 of the Joss Whedon interview. Seeing that picture of Buffy and Xander again, I realized that Xander looks like Milo Ventimiglia (with an eyepatch). Anyone else see that? It definitely doesn't look like Nicholas Brendon, that's for sure.

In case you're curious what the Buffy cast is up to now, here's an update. I didn't know Nicky Brendon was an alcoholic, nor did I realize that Tom Lenk was an 8-year-old girl. (Seriously, that video? Frightening. But the big group number at the end was kind of hilarious.)

Has anyone else seen the previews for the Bridge to Terebithia movie and thought, "What the hell? That's not the book I read as a kid!"? Well, I know I'm not the only one, because it's apparently "deliberately misleading" to attract a younger audience. I hate misleading movie ad campaigns. Seriously, I saw those previews and thought, "I don't want to see that movie. They've changed the ENTIRE POINT of the story." But now I realize they didn't, they're just advertising it like they did. That kind of makes me still not want to see it.

Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler from The West Wing) is doing a play in London. I really wish I'd known about it when he was in New Brunswick.

And finally, your daily dose of random... do you sing in the shower?

Brrrrr!

I am FREEZING cold right now. I keep periodically sitting on my hands or putting them on my computer battery (which probably shouldn't get this hot...) just to stay warm. Oh, I'm also wearing layers and layers of clothes and am currently buried under the covers in my bed. Why is it so cold? Don't we have heat?

Anyway, I had a job interview yesterday in Harrisburg. It was for a legislative assistant position at the Department of Education. It sounds like a pretty good job and I think I'd be happy with it, even though my first choice is with the Office of Health Care Reform (so I can do everything Christi says, even though she's too cool to hobble down to the auditorium on her crutches to see the Gov talk about his reform plans). Hopefully I'll hear something soon, since I'm really getting antsy to move (although I kind of like the vacation, minus the not getting paid part).

Speaking of not getting paid, today was my goodbye lunch with Michelle and Anne (even though I stopped working last week, Michelle was away so our lunch got postponed). Sadness. I will miss that office.

Okay, I'm going to post some links and then go back to sitting on my hands.

• This is what happens when you don't watch 24. But now you can buy Jack Bauer's gear. I'm so ordering the gun.
• Tommy Schlamme (West Wing, Studio 60) talks about the walk and talk.
• Kristen Bell wants Sarah Michelle Gellar to guest star, and talks about VM in this interview.
• More on Joss Whedon's Buffy season 8 comic, a blog post about a Once More With Feeling sing-along, and a reminder of why we loved Buffy to begin with.
• For those who missed the first two episodes of The Dresden Files, you can catch them on Sunday (as long as you're not Super Bowling it) starting at 9pm on the SciFi channel.
  

Lots of TV news

I've been super busy the last couple weeks... with Michelle getting married, I'm all alone in holding down the finance fort. Mailing out insane numbers of thank you letters and Christmas party invitations, and trying to put the office into some semblance of order.

BUT... now that I have a moment to breathe (and I'm typing on my supercool new work-issued laptop), I can post a little something. Sadly, it seems like all of my TV shows have gone on hiatus until January, so here's some random TV news to keep us occupied until then.

Joss Whedon has an interview with TV Guide about - you guessed it - the Buffy comic season 8. I have to say, I've never been a comic book fan, but this is getting me excited.

24 is coming back in January, with a bang as usual. In preparation, the season 5 DVD has been released so slacking fans can catch up. The DVD also includes a season 6 prequel, which is now on YouTube. And it looks like Rick Schroder is joining the cast.

The West Wing star Allison Janney is returning to TV with an as-yet-untitled CBS sitcom. Also TWW-related: Kristin Chenowith talks about life, theatre, and how she feels about her ex Aaron Sorkin basing a Studio 60 character on her (not as pissed off as you might think). Also, she may be doing a sitcom with Nathan Lane. OMG, I so want to see that show.

Studio 60 rehash

As predicted, this episode was MILES ahead of the pilot. This, my friends, is the Aaron Sorkin I know and love. The dialogue was witty - I laughed out loud more than once ("It has batteries... It's a clock, don't endow the thing with special powers."). There was more of an actual plot this week, which I thought was lacking from the first episode, making it feel like just a set-up. I thought the characters we focused on were well-developed - although I noticed some were neglected, like Timothy Busfield (what is his name? Cal?), but I liked the insight on D.L. Hughley's character and a little more background on the Matt/Harriet thing. I like seeing little Nate Corddry too. (If you didn't know, he got his start on The Daily Show, where big brother Rob Corddry is one of the main correspondents.)

The only thing I have a problem with is Steven Weber as a cutthroat network executive. In my mind, he's just too goofy to be taken seriously as a bad guy. Maybe I'll get over that eventually. The other thing I can't get over is that Bradley Whitford still feels like he's playing Josh (but WHAT is UP with his hair? It's blonder... and somehow manages to be thinner and yet still just as puffy). I don't really buy him as a drug addict. I do love the interactions between him and Matthew Perry. They have a great chemistry that started on The West Wing.

One final thought... C.J. Cregg would have kept a lid on that press conference MUCH better than Jordan and co. managed, although I did get shades of the White House press room when she was bantering with the press.

To sum up, I thought this episode demonstrated that the show has a lot of promise - moreso than was evident in the pilot. I think Aaron Sorkin will keep turning out the wit and keep making us think, even while he's entertaining us.