Reading Into the Past- Don't Do It

   I was feeling nostalgic for the books of my youth because of this terrible Winter, and I reached for the dark and mysterious California Diaries serious from the Babysitters Club. I chose the first (Dawn's book) about 8th grade life in Southern California. For those of you trying to remember who Dawn is, she is the earthy hippie babysitter who moved to Stoneybrook, Connecticut with her mom and younger brother Jeff. After becoming friends with shy Mary Anne, Dawn and MA discovered their parents used to date in high school and dawn's divorcee mom and Mary Anne's widower father rekindled their romance and re-married each other. Dawn, like her brother before her, got tired of all the snow (who can blame her) and moved back to Cali to live with her dad and his new wife, Carol.

   These California kids were a lot more "real" than those Baby Sitters. Dawn, Sunny, Maggie, Duckie and Amelia (and not Jill, she was a stick in the mud). These kids go to high school parties, they kiss people, they drink beer, and they cover their parents' secrets. In its purest essence, it was everything me and my 4th and 5th grade friends imaged 8th grade would be (in out 90210 world). Each book is written a diary entry, and I found Dawn's diary extremely whiny for a thirteen-year- old girl (THIRTEEN! YOU'RE THIRTEEN?)- The European Guy to Stacey in The Babysitters Club Movie.

(Paraphrased from the entries) ...Wah, we have to go school with the older hgih schoool kids, I'm so nervous. Wah, my stepmom is having a baby, and my dad won't lvoe me as much. Wah, we're thinking of sneaking out to a high school party and I'm so scared, plus my best friend is having a wild streak"....

   That being said, Dawn was never my favorite baby sitter (respect the boss lady), but she was supposed to be one of the more open minded sitter girls, and when she got into hanging out with the West Coast kids, she was even more of a baby than Mallory.

How to Solve a Murder -Viola Davis Style

     One of the best new shows this season, hands-down, is ABC's How to Get Away with Murder. This past Thursday, we finally got the answer to the season-long question: who killed sorority girl Lila? Now new questions have popped up and we're left waiting until the next season to figure our : "Will the Keating 5 get away with murder?" and "Who let Rebecca go?"

     Oscar winner Viola Davis leads the cast as Annalise Keating, a tough talking defense attorney and twisted mother figure to her scrappy band of first year law students. Wes, Laurel, Connor, Mikela and Asher. Despite the lessons they learn in class, these kids could not be more clueless about how to work the legal system. In their weekly cases, Annalise relies on associate Bonnie (Liza Weil, yes Paris Gellar from Gilmore Girls) and investigator Frank (Charlie Weber) to get things to go her way and to helo her clients. Due to some very complicated circumstances, Wes ends up killing Annalise's husband, Professor Sam Keating. Sam was having an affair with coed Lila, who was pregnant at the time she drowned in a campus water tower.

     My money was definitely on Sam as the murderer, although her football star boyfriend, Annalise and a shady drug dealer friend Rebecca were all equally likely suspects.  Through current events, flashbacks to the nights of Sam's and Lila's murders, we unravel a story that leaves everyone with blood on their hands. Wes only struck Sam because he was wrestling Rebecca (who became involved with Wes) for a flash drive that might prove he was guilty of the murder. The other students helped to dispose of Sam's body (minus Asher, who is so self-serving, he didn't even realize he was left out of the biggest cover-up in town). Unfortunately, Asher's trophy was the murder weapon, and Bonnie was hit on by Sam before he died, which made Annalise so disappointed in her character, they were barely speaking.

     So where does that leave us? Four of the law students must barely be passing their classes because they're covering up murders as often as they're defending the people accused of them.... and Oliver, Connor's boyfriend is one computer hacking away from going to jail for life. Annalise can finally be with her secret lover, Detective Nate Lahey, because Sam is dead. It looks like Nate might be hauled into the precinct for the murder of Sam, despite his innocence in the matter.

     As for Lila's murder, Sam instructed Frank to "take care of", a.k.a. murder Lila. Nobody knows Frank was the murderer because he is creepy, but a very convincing liar. This case may remain unsolved.  Annalise realized her students killed Sam, and in flashbacks, she told Wes what to do to cover it up, and she was really okay with her husband being murdered (a blessing in disguise?). Rebecca became so disturbed by the whole set of events (and she also takes a lot of drugs), she planned to go to the police and tell them everything. Then  the students tied her up in Annalise's basement. Before we knew it, someone let her escape.. of was she murdered to ensure her silence? In a final thought, what does "eggs 911" mean from Rebecca's last text? Who was she contacting?

The Oddest Couple

   Last week, CBS re-launched The Odd Couple. I'm not exactly sure why they did this, but based on the success of Hawaii 5-0, I guess any old show stands a chance these days if it can get some buzz going. Before the show started, I was excited about watching it. Now that I've seen the first episode, I'm not sure it will be holding my interest.

   It's a take as old as time. Two divorced college buddies that are as different as night and day end up living together and navigating the world through their differences in personality. Matthew Perry (Chandler) plays grumpy drinking Oscar and Thomas Lenin is likable as the completely neurotic and on the edge of a nervous breakdown Oscar. Felix is messy and he likes sports, while Oscar is a total neat freak that enjoys opera, arts and cooking. They make the acquaintance of two sisters that live in their apartment building, played by Leslie Bibb (Casey) and Lindsay Sloane (Emily) {it's important to note here as part of the WB network's two stars to a new project rule, both actresses were on the WB, Bibb in popular and Sloane in Sabrina the Teenage Witch}. The opening scenes followed the play version very closely, but with some 21st century upgrades  (lots of TV's, Laptops, cell phones...).

   As much as I like both actors, and enjoy their scenes in the movie 17 Again, it felt like a community theater production put to a laugh track. Only time will tell if it makes it to another season.

MLK Skiing Weekend

     One of the greatest new shows of the season is ABC's Black-ish. Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross (Diana's daughter) lead the show as parents Dre (Andre) and Bow (Rainbow), who are only content when they try to leave their kids with a positive affirmation of black culture. Living in the hood and moving up to a predominately white suburban L.A. neighborhood causes many issues for Dre. Bow, as a child of hippie parents, often tries to split the middle between Dre's hood logic and the Joneses they now keep up with, and often comes up short.

Ski Jail

      How will the family learn more about the rich culture and heritage of America, they're ditching all of the educational programs and going to a ski lodge. Dre and Bow take two cars up to the lodge. While Bow, her two daughters and son Jack enjoy sing-alongs in their car, Dre causes drama. Dre and his buddy Charlie fight injustice on their drive to the ski lodge, or so they tell themselves. They get pulled over, and in an attempt to prove to Junior and his white friend, Dre yells at a police officer and insisting this happened only because they're black. Later at the ski lodge, Dre ends up in "Ski jail" for calling the clerk racist when trying to book massages. 

Oh My Mraz!

#JasonandJane

     Rarely would I call attending a concert a trans-formative experience,  but I definitely just had one. I just saw Jason Mraz last night, and I really saw him! The show was in a small intimate venue with his all-female opening act/backup band Raining Jane. I've seen Mraz before, at open air venues in the summer, at Madison Square Garden, and next week I'll also see him at Radio City Music Hall. Nothing will top this show!

Stories with Mraz

    My friend and I attended the show at Lehman College in the Bronx as part of Mraz's 5 Boroughs tour. He is playing all 5 boroughs in the next two weeks and the significance of this is that large scale artists play many different venues on Manhattan and even some in Brooklyn, but they rarely appear in the Bronx, Queens (aside from Citi Field) or Staten Island. Our seats were 13th row, center, about 15-20 feet from the man himself, and the acoustics were unreal! Jason's voice was so pure, and he was able to connect with the audience in such a natural way. He told stories, including a great one about how he came to write "The Dynamo of Volition." It was part of an online songwriting group  challenge Mraz regularly participates in, and his phrase for the week was "Blind Man's Bike," and the rest was history.

See my video below of Jason singing duet "Lucky" with four lovely females!