Fandom Friday: Guilty TV Pleasures

Happy Friday everyone! 

Time to talk fandom again – this time, let’s get into some guilty TV pleasures!  Come on, now — you know you have them!  You watch them, you love them, you sometimes hate them, and at times, you might even be embarrassed to tell people that you’re watching them!  But hey, we’re just a big bunch of fans here — no judgement from us!  So let’s dish about our TV shows — leave us a comment and tell us about your guilty pleasures!  Anyone watching Jersey Shore?  Reruns of Cops?  Lifetime TV movies?   Let’s talk about it!

So want to know my way of getting a dose of guilty pleasure TV?  I get it all in a weekly dose with The Soup!  If you are not watching The Soup, START watching!  You won’t regret it — it’s LOL-funny and watching The Soup will get you ALL the guilty pleasure you could want in a neat, 30-minute package.  And, there’s Joel McHale, the host!  He’s hilarious — and how dang cute is he?!    Watch this show, and you’ll be all up to date with Jersey Shore, Tyra, all those crazy VH1 reality shows — you get it ALL! 

So give us the dirt — which guilty pleasure stuff do you like to watch?

Friday Fandom Movie Post: Hidden Gems!

Hello and happy Friday!

We thought we’d expand our Fandom Friday posts a bit to include movies!  We’ll be periodically highlighting some movies that are sort of “hidden gems” — movies that might have slipped under the radar but are definitely worth a look!

For starters, today is all about the 2008 Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino.  I hadn’t been paying too much attention to this movie until a dear friend of mine highly recommended it, and I am SO glad that I did see it.  I count Gran Torino as one of my all-time faves now.

If you thought of this movie as a guy thing, about a cranky old man and his beloved car (as I did), think again!  This is a very subtle movie that is just filled with emotional depth.  Watching Clint Eastwood’s character Walt open up in this movie is a beautiful thing, and reminds me that you can find friendship, a sense of community, and maybe even a sense of family, in the most unexpected places. 

I don’t want to say too much about the plot to avoid spoiling anyone — but this movie is SO worth seeing.   And also?  It’s FUNNY.  This movie is SO much  more than it may appear and might really surprise you with its many layers.

The characters Thao and Walt in Gran Torino

And that dear friend of mine who initially recommended the movie to me?  Well that was our very own Tonya, who has this to say about Gran Torino:

I remember first seeing the movie mentioned on Facebook by my sister-in-law. She posted that she’d “seen it.” I remember thinking at that time… “who cares?” About the movie…not her. My point is, I wasn’t immediately impressed with Gran Torino. It wasn’t until the movie came out on pay-per-view that I bothered to give it a chance. And, OMG, was it worth it!!! I was so stunned after watching that movie. I laughed, I got angry, I cried…and mostly I just loved, loved, loved. This was cinematic perfection and knowing that it is Clint Eastwood’s final performance…he could not have chosen more wisely. Eastwood has had a tremendous acting career and he could not have chosen a more fabulous exit. He definitely went out with a bang.
 
About the storyline of the movie, I was incredibly impressed with the racial issues presented. At first, my own politically correct side winced repeatedly when Walt made derogatory comments to the Hmong people. It wasn’t long until I was able to “get over it” and see what really mattered. It’s interesting that despite all of the negative, nasty remarks Walt made, Sue just laughed him off and never took offense. I’ve heard from one of my mentors that one should never be offended. It’s a goal I have definitely not reached in my life yet. But watching Sue made me want to be like her. A Pollyanna in our century. The most amazing part of this show was finding the golden nugget of true friendship that was wrapped in the racial slurs and defenses of Walt. This movie had me laughing and hurting at the truisms of human behavior. That despite ethnical differences and racism we commonly hear about, sometimes we are cruelest to our own.
 
I watched this movie three times in one weekend. The last movie I watched that many times in such a short period of time was Twilight.

So have any of you seen Gran Torino?  Leave us a comment and share your thoughts!  We’d love to know what you thought of it. 

 Have a great weekend, everyone!

Fandom Friday: Music – Blue October

This week’s Fandom Friday discussion topic is music. I chose to highlight and review Blue October’s Approaching Normal album. I love Blue October so fiercely and I am proud to talk about this album because it is my favorite yet! In case you aren’t familiar with Blue October, the band is fronted by Justin Furstenfeld who openly shares his personal plight with mental health issues through his songs. The major difference between this album and the previous ones, is Justin’s sobriety, marriage and daughter. You might almost call it a coming of age project.

The songs are just as emotional and able to soulfully touch the listener as always, but this album also features some upbeat, happier songs that offer encouragement. Justin’s daughter, Blue, serves as his muse for several songs on Approaching—Jump Rope, Blue Skies, and Blue Does. All three songs are written for his daughter. The last one, Blue Does, was more of a personal song Justin sings to his daughter than a song he actually sat down to write. It’s moving to watch Justin talk or sing about his baby daughter. The love is undeniable and it’s so reassuring to see he has found something to ground him. However, even with his new found semi-peace, Justin still has to fight his demons—anxiety and depression. For anyone who has suffered from either and feels like no one understands…this music is for you.

There are actually two versions of the album, a “clean” version and the “explicit” version. Each version has a different track for the final song (#12). The clean version features my personal favorite song, Graceful Dancing. The song is encouraging and full of emotion. The explicit version features the shocker The End. It is extremely emotional and full of…red. That will make sense if you’ve heard the song! Anger, jealousy, and emotional instability rule the day on that one!

If you haven’t taken a listen to the album, I encourage you to do it ASAP! It’s a fantastic album!! I’d love to hear what you think of it and which songs are your favorites or really get to you.

Approaching Normal Tracks:
Weight of the World Say It Dirt Room Been Down My Never Should Be Loved Kangaroo Cry Picking Up Pieces Jump Rope Blue Skies Blue Does The End (explicit) Graceful Dancing (clean)	(visit the official store)

Check Out Some Blue October!

FANDOM Friday ~ Are You GLEE-ful, too?

Happy Friday, Twilighters! Oh, yes – Thank God!  In keeping with the spirit of FANDOM Friday, and sharing other areas of popular culture that we are loving ~ and we are totally digging Glee!  Have you seen it?  I have to admit – I was not at all excited about this show when I heard the concept and even after the previews, I wasn’t thrilled about it.  It sounded like a tv version of what I imagine High School Musical to me!  I was curious and caught the show a few episodes in and I love it!!  OMLV, the voices on these “kids” (ok, so “Puck” is actually 27, but he is so gorgeous, I don’t even mind!)   So – are you watching?  What do you think?  Inquiring Twilighter minds want to know…

The music, which on paper should make me cringe – is AMAZING!  Neil Diamond?  … my grandmother crushes on him!!  But when Puck brings it, it is positively swoon-worthy!  They do a lot of mash-ups (combining songs) which I personally love, and the arrangements are just awesome.   Awe.  Some.   The through-story is really interesting too – and funny!  Did I mention that Jane Lynch is in it?  That alone should get you to at least give it a chance.  She is hysterically funny and is the perfect ‘villain’, so to speak.  If you haven’t watched, we highly recommend it.  If you have, let’s hear what you think! 

Finn and Quinn?  Finn and Rachel?  Oooh… or Rachel and Puck?  Oh – Schuster and Emma.  Schuster’s wife is awful, right?!  Seriously – how cute is Kurt?!  The Beyonce dancing was pure genius, I about died from laughter suffocation during the football game scene!  OMLV – hysterical!  And, on top of all of it is some straight phenomenal musical compositions!  I mentioned Neil Diamond, but they make Journey sound contemporary and then do a Glee version of Kanye West’s Gold Digger that will have you howling with laughter while bopping to the beat.  It just has so many fun aspects – I will even accept that the wrong team won the World Series, just to get my Wednesday nights back so i can get my Glee on!

So, Twilighters – let’s dish…  Were you in Glee Club or the like in your high school?  Did you have any group or team activities that you participated in in HS that this show or post reminds you of?  McKinley also has the Cheerios – thats their name for their cheering team… were you a cheerleader?  Glee does a great job of showing how imprtant it is to feel a part of something, no matter what your place in life.  Let’s hear your thoughts!  And ladies… You are SO welcome: 

    …is it just me, or is he a dead ringer for Robbie Williams?!

FANDOM FRIDAY Presents… the Vampire Diaries!

I don’t know about you, Twilighters, but TGIF!! And that means more Fandom Friday FUN!  Ooh, the alliteration is flowing today…   Let’s just take a moment to absorb the lovely photo over there, shall we?  If nothing else – these vamps are just plain LOVELY! 

As you have probably guessed by now, we are looking at the latest round of “young” vampires on the scene, the Salvatore brothers of the Vampire Diaries series of books by L.J. Smith ~ which of course has morphed into the new TV show.  We here at TwilightTuesday were intrigued by the new show, some of us are downright giddy over it!  Others, not so much.  It became an interesting topic of discussion amongst us, so we thought we would change up FF just a little bit today and ask YOU what you think of the show!  Do you love it?  Or are you lukewarm – maybe hoping it would be something different?  Or do you straight up hate it?!  I have heard all over the internet, each of these opinions and then some, including that it borderlines being a rip-off of Twilight.  There are some seriously passionate opinions about this show out there!  Wow!    So, if you watched…  let’s dish…

Comment Portion:  What did you think?!  Did it live up to your expectations?  Did it let you down?  Let’s hear it!

Craft Portion: Create a project of your choosing, that encompasses what the show is to you.  This can go a million different ways, so think a spell and share with us!  (For posting and Tagging, we will call this TTFF1)

And, just because I *LOVE* this picture…

Yeah, you are SO welcome…

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