“OK, It’s Alright With Me,” Eric Hutchinson. Reasons I enjoy this: 1. It is catchy. 2. Eric Hutchinson looks exactly nothing like I pictured (come on, the dude is practically Doctor Who). 3. The lyrics are audibly comprehensible and put on-screen using fancy graphics, saving me the effort of looking them up.
The Honda Odyssey ahead of me in the left lane yesterday, with the vanity plate reading ILIAD. Niiice.
In Persuasion Nation, George Saunders. Haven’t finished this yet, to be truthful, but the only story left in the collection –– “Commcomm” –– is one I read a few years ago and dug. The rest of the book follows up on “Commcomm”‘s promise, fulfilling the weird/poignant/satirically consumerist expectations I started it out with. Favorites: “Jon,” “Bohemians,” “My Flamboyant Grandson,” “My Amendment,” “The Red Bow.”
2009 MacBook software. I don’t care if loving Apple computers makes me an elitist. Have you seen the updates for GarageBand?
The Sims 3. Shocker, I know.
College friends. Visited school for a couple days this week and hung out with certain people I regularly only see from September to early May. Didn’t do much, but who needed to? We didn’t.
Lady Gaga. Whenever I hear one of her songs, I realize that I’ve heard it before (not knowing it was hers) and already have the chorus memorized. I swear to God that I’d been hearing her all semester in London, but Wikipedia claims The Fame wasn’t released there until a month after I left –– so it only makes sense that I would have heard “Just Dance” when in the UK, when I remember dancing to “Poker Face” and “LoveGame” in Piccadilly clubs. Could she possibly be so catchy as to provoke memory alteration?
Tabitha and Napoleon. This entry could easily be titled “Lyrical hip-hop” instead, except for the fact that I’ve seen lyrical hip-hop routines before that felt a bit flat. Tabitha and Napoleon, however, do not choregraph those. This husband and wife team usually have a story behind their routines (see: Philip and Jeanine acting a couple who can’t sleep until they make up, last season’s Joshua and Katee as a deploying soldier and his fearful significant other). Their eyes for detail are insane. Look at that final move into cuddling in the former performance, the movement when Katee’s stomach caves as if she can’t breathe at the 0:27 mark.*
Adam Shankman. Another person involved with So You Think You Can Dance that I want to hang out with. Director, producer, part-time dancing show judge –– he laughs, he tears up occasionally, he throws up his hands and says things like “That was UN-FREAKING-REAL, you guys!” in total earnest. (Adam Shankman also falls into the category of Intelligent, Somewhat Fey Middle-Aged Men I Want to be Friends With.)
*Note: This will likely be the first of many SYTYCD entries listed as Super Great. I effin’ love that show.
Heather and Rachel Have Feelings 