Girl Crush: Because Smokes Cigars & Drinks Scotch

During the week Sarah from Cinesnark wrote up a post on Aisha Tyler being the proto Funny/Girl*. Sarah writes about why Aisha Tyler, even though she is talented, funny and beautiful, she never quite took to the mainstream:

My answer was that Aisha Tyler is six feet tall. She smokes cigars and drinks Scotch (and brews her own beer). She tells jokes about scratching her vagina in public—she tells jokes “like a man”. And she did it before the Funny/Girl was recognized as distinct from Funny Girls. She didn’t fit into the small, limited box the industry kept trying to put her in. -Lainey Gossip

Sarah is right on point on it. And it's because Tyler has all of those qualities that I have such a girl crush on her

*read Sarah's take on Funny/Girls from this earlier post

Just Read: Before I Go To Sleep

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
Published: June 2011 (US) HarperCollins

Since I had a little time this weekend to go to the beach, I found this book in the fast read section at the library. It's a debut novel for author S.J. Watson who wrote the novel while working as an audiologist at the National Health Service in England.

The story is about Christine Lucas who suffers from amnesia, both anterograde amnesia (the loss of long-term memory or the inability to form new memories) and retrograde amnesia (not being able to recall pre-existing memories). She wakes up every morning thinking she is in her mid-20's (sometimes younger) even though she is 47 and has no recollection of what has happened during the last 20 years.

Every morning she gets introduced to her husband Ben and learns about the horrible accident that has robbed her of her memory. Each day she receives a phone call from her neurologist Dr. Nash who directs her to a journal that she has been keeping that helps her re-learn what she has been able to remember on previous days. Every night she goes to bed where her mind will erase everything she did that day.

City of Bones - They Are Filming It

 Photo via Just Jared Jr.

A couple of years ago I picked up the first book of The Mortal Instrument series called City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It was entertaining though had its share of problems with the writing. Like some serious plot issues. But the story flowed well enough that you can overlook most of the plot issues while reading it.

I have so far read four in series and a both of the books from the prequel series Infernal Devices. Not as good as the Hunger Games or Divergent series, but entertaining for sure. I might do a review of each book in the series when I decide to re-read them in a couple weeks since it's been so long since when I first whipped though them.

But like I said, they have some plot issues.

The biggest one from what I remember is

***SPOILER ALERT***

********

********

is that Clary falls in love with Jace... WHO IS HER BROTHER.

WHAT?

Yeah. That's what you find out at the end of the book.

How does this work for something they are making into a movie? Oh you hadn't heard they are making City of Bones into a movie? Neither did I until I came across this cast photo via MTV. They are currently shooting in Toronto right now with the movie projected to be out in summer 2013.

Now if you keep reading in the series,

***another SPOILER ALERT***

...you find out that Clary and Jace are not technically blood relatives, but that they both received angel's blood and instead Sebastian is actually her brother. Oh, and Clary makes out with Sebastian in City of Glass (the third book) before getting back together with Jace. Yeah this family is f-cked up.

I have no idea how the script will make sense to someone who hasn't read the series. The ending is just soleft field. And if you have read the series, how does Jamie Campbell Bower get casted as Jace? Who was responsible for this? He's not what I pictured Jace should look like.

 

Photo via Just Jared Jr.

But Lily Collins with that red hair as Clary, yeah I can see it. And Robert Sheehan as Simon....almost seems too hot to be Simon, but I'll roll with that.

Jessica Simpson Is An Everyday Woman

Today Jessica Simpson 'revealed' her post-baby body on Katie and debuted her first Weight Watchers commercial:

Is it weird that she didn't actually say how much weight she lost? Does that come in her next commercial then?

From earlier this week she was quoted in USA Today:

"I didn't realize it (the weight) didn't all come off with the baby," she says.

"I'm not a supermodel. My body is not bouncing back like a supermodel. I'm just your everyday woman who is trying to feel good and be healthy for her daughter, her fiancé and herself."

She's just your everyday woman who (presumably) has a personal chef, trainer, babysitter and a $4 million cheque from Weight Watchers.

Yes, you are like an everyday woman Jessica. At least that's what you are selling right?

Eating Organics: Is it about Nutrition?

Yesterday the New York Times published an article on a meta-analysis done by Stanford University that looked at research on organic and conventional foods.

From the New York Times:

"They concluded that fruits and vegetables labeled organic were, on average, no more nutritious than their conventional counterparts, which tend to be far less expensive. Nor were they any less likely to be contaminated by dangerous bacteria like E. coli. 

The researchers also found no obvious health advantages to organic meats. 

Conventional fruits and vegetables did have more pesticide residue, but the levels were almost always under the allowed safety limits, the scientists said. The Environmental Protection Agency sets the limits at levels that it says do not harm humans."

No shit.

My understanding of why someone would buy organic was never because that organic was more nutritious, but because you didn't want to consume foods with pesticides. I'm not sure how this is a big deal, I thought we all knew this?

Thoughts:

-I do like how it was pointed out that this study conducted wasn't funded by outside financing

-"the levels were almost always under the allowed safety limits" for pesticides. Almost always.

-the article is written like this study is a big deal but it's not really groundbreaking here

Just Read: The Leftovers

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
*spoilers after the jump

I remember reading this NY Times review by Stephen King of The Leftovers about a year ago. As I do with the many books I want to read, I added it to my ever growing book list (a messy google document that I cut and paste things to) and just left it at that. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that Vulture wrote an article that via a Deadline report, that The Leftovers was going to be adapted into a project for HBO. Damon Lindelof (the co-creator of Lost) will team up with the book's writer, Tom Perrotta (he also wrote Little Children and Election) to write the pilot this summer.

So The Leftovers is based on a post-Rapture world. Remember Harold Camping? He was the doomsday prophet that predicted that Jesus would return to Earth on May 21, 2011 and that the world would after five months of fire, brimstone and plague on October 21, 2011.

Obviously that didn't happen. But this book is based on a similar idea of the world after a Rapture. Millions of people disappear for no reason and the story is about the people who are left behind (the leftovers) and how they deal with getting on (or not getting on) with their lives after the event. It opens up three years after the Rapture and takes place for the most part in a small town called Mapleton. It is largely centered around one family, the Garvey family, Kevin, Laurie and their two children, Tom and Jill. Though this family drifts apart it keeps up with each character as they progress over a year or so.

The mother Laurie joins the Guilty Remnant, a cult that stalks people to make them remember the Rapture and basically wait for the end of the world. They give up worldly frivolities and show their acceptance of death by smoking in public.

There's the son Tom, who after being at college can't deal with the stress and joins a hugging cult (a cult that gives out hugs) that turns out to have it's leader take on young teenage brides and eventually get sent to prison. After being feeling taken advantage of, Tom then joins the Barefoot People who believe they should party 24/7 until the end of the world.

And we haven't even gotten started on the dad Kevin or the daughter Jill yet. Or the rest of the residents of Mapleton.