When Your Town Becomes a TV Set

My local diner. (c)PipPepPop

Sometimes I'm sitting on the couch watching TV and you vaguely think, "Hmm, that  location in a TV show looks familiar..."
Is it deja vu? Is it a rerun? Or more than likely, I've been to this spot IRL. TV shows such as

• Blindspot
• Quantico,
• YOU
• The Sinner
• Billions
•  Forever
•  Law and Order
•  The Blacklist
•  The Good Wife
•  Girls
• Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and even ED (that was back in 2000, but it was the first show) have used my quaint NYC-adjacent suburb for location shoots.

 For the particular location on the left, a 2018  NBC Superbowl preview blew my mind. Not only was the plot of the show familiar (if you've seen Glee), but the locations or Rise were eerily close to home. Literally, they were a five to 10 minute drive from my house. There have been several times over the last few years when I would see the police roping off  my local coffee shop with cameras in the middle of the night or on afternoons after they close. Rise used locations including our local coffee shop, Sparkys.  the power plant, the old village downtown by my mechanic, the old dye factory that now houses a brewery and artist space. Rise is the story of a frustrated English teacher (Josh Radnor) that convinces the popular school quarterback, Robbie, to join the school musical.  This production of Spring Awakening rubs the downtrodden mining community the wrong way.  This town is not as free-wheeling as Beverly Hills in the NEW 90210. It sends shock waves through the athletic community and shakes up the theatre club, run by the touchy Ms. Wolfe (Rosie Perez).
The central romance that begins between Robbie (Damon J Gillespie)  and the waitress wallflower and new leading lady Lillette (Auli'li Cravalho) causes tons of teenage drama, when the group is not dealing with divorce, teen pregnancy, gender and sexual  identity, and alcoholism.



Where does my local diner fit into the story? Lillette and her mom are waitresses at the diner. She and Robbie practice their lines in between serving pancakes coffee. It blows my mind every time I visit the diner because I can''t believe it's been on TV and in movies (see Brad Pitt's 'True Story' movie, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Yes, this is the same place my friends and I would meet for the occasional breakfast in high school! It guess it's out version of  The Max, or The Peach Pit.

The restaurant is small, but there are always about 15 cars parked outside. It's impossible to find a spot at 11 AM on a weekend, so you'll park on the nearby residential street and walk over. There can be a wait, but they turn the tables over quickly. The big banners tied up outside (taken down for filming) congratulate the town on the recent 400th anniversary (back in 2016) and champion the high school's sports teams, promising that all of our all athletes are winners. Across the street, there are two strip malls with a deli, nail salon etc... but the diner looks more isolated.

The narrow, rectangular room has big windows with  puffy curtains next to each of the booths.The walls are adorned with local memorabilia, news clippings, and tributes to victims of 9/11.  Regular patrons help themselves to coffee behind the counter. There are about 20 personal mugs that hang on the wall, mostly for the retiree crowd that holds court in there every morning. Weekends have families coming in from soccer practice or little league, and the juice comes in tine 8 oz. glasses. They only take cash, but there's an ATM in the entrance. Nothing on the menu is over $10.00, even the specials with coffee, eggs and toast. It feels like home, and it is my home.

It's a surreal feeling, seeing my hometown on T.V. It's even worse when your town is shown as a  falling apart town in the heart of former mining country. After talking to other kids that grew up here, we sympathized that our town looked pretty bad. Here are some truths and falsehoods.

• Yes, the power plant in the promo is our power plant. It's by the by the town pool, and it's not really operational anymore. They show alleged that shutting down the wines ruined the town and made everyone poor.  This story is slightly different; shutting down the plant increased the school taxes a ton.
• The abandoned factory where the kids hung out was abandoned, but in  the 1930's when the town stopped being the brick-making capitol of the world. It had been operational since the civil war. It was used to make solider uniforms.  It's been revitalized over the last 15 years and rebuilt after hurricane Sandy damage. The building houses restaurants, artist studios, a brewery, a yoga studio, and some industrial design showrooms.
• The downtown street, called 'the village' and the school front they show do not represent the decor of the whole town. This particular section of town is down by the river and has a few blocks of old, cute (brick) historical buildings. Down the street from the village, from there are high-rise condos and the majority of the houses in the town were built post 1970. The middle school building has been around since the early 1900's and used to  be the only school in town, but we have about 8 schools in the district now.

A Guest Note About GLEE and Fleetwood Mac

My dear pal and loyal blog reader, JavaInducedComa, asked to post about this week's Fleetwood Mac themed GLEE. Sadly, we both have only seen the previews thus far.

Enjoy her thoughts, er, rant!

anyways. i am not a music purist in the slightest. i enjoy covers. but one song that should never ever ever in the history of life be touched is "Go Your Own Way"by Fleetwood Mac. Rachel berry's cover for GLEE is soooooo far off from the true meaning of the song, that it sounds naive and clueless. it is not about teenybopper romance. it's about having your heart torn up by your cheating hussy of a band mate. it's about the pain, the emotional anguish, how one man deals with losing the woman he loves because of her cheating ways. there's so much emotion in that four minutes. especially live. And imagine Stevie Nicks, backing up Lindsey Buckingham, knowing the lyrics are directed at her. So much angst.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE7sGbnbqxk

Further explanation from songfacts.com :

Lindsey Buckingham wrote this as a message to Stevie Nicks. It describes their breakup, with the most obvious line being, "Packing up, shacking up is all you want to do." Stevie insisted she never shacked up with anyone when they were going out, and wanted Lindsey to take out the line, but he refused.
Stevie Nicks told Q magazine June 2009: "It was certainly a message within a song. And not a very nice one at that."

While the Rumours album was being recorded, the marriage of John and Christine McVie (both of them Mac members) was also coming to an end. With two couples breaking up during the sessions, recording could be quite tense. They were also doing lots of drugs at the sessions, making sure there was plenty of Behind The Music material.

also read the full story of the song at fleetwoodmac.net

http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/interpretations/g/goyourownway.htm

Final thought: Ryan Murphy you suck major balls. And are clueless.

Glee is Getting Good!

While GLEE's plotlines as of late have been kinda weird, I am officially a crazy fan of the Warblers! They have a CD coming out!

Not only does all-boy a capella make me jump for joy like a ten year old, but the added bonus is that they dress in those cute suits too.

I had been lukewarm prior to the week beforeValentine's s day episode, when adorable Blaine (Darren Criss) led the warblers in a rousing rendition of Robin Thicke's "When I Get You Alone" in the middle of a GAP.

Dancing on the store counter, singers popping out from behind clothing racks, it was my wildest musical theater dream come true. I have also accepted Blaine as the second most adorable guy on GLEE. I'm still a Puck fan at heart. But, now I'm a Warblers fan, fo sho! It doesn't hurt that Tufts' a capella group is backing them up!

Here are their five best performances:

5. Candles- Hey Monday
Kurt's first big Wablers solo. Beautiful backing. Perfect regional ballad.

4. Raise your Glass- Pink!
So much fun! An energetic song for regionals. Blaine totally makes the "we can always party on our own" line sounds more appealing than Pink.

3. Misery- Maroon 5
Firs of all, I am a huge Maroon 5 fan. This was one of the best songs in a "lets write original music" episode. Plus the rhythmic table banging was hot! And the abrupt opening of the show was also great. Kurt was also miserably lovesick during the song.

2. Animal - Neon Trees
The abandoned warehouse, the screaming girls, the foam party- all added to this song's sexiness. Win! adn Kurt's 'sexy' dancing was adorable hysterical.

1. When I Get You Alone
For the above reasons.

And no matter what anyone says, their version of "Teenage Dream" is creepy. I am also deeply shocked and amazed they did Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills." Weird....

A Note About Silly Love Songs: What GLEE Taught Me About Valentine's Day

When I was watching this week's Valentines Day GLEE Episode (where all of the characters are running around trying to get with someone for Valentine's Day or show their love to their other half), I realized something crucial.

Here is another shocking case of everything we were brought up to believe about relationships as kids has changed. In elementary school and middle school, we're all about giving out valentines, sending candy grams, and showing our friends, classmates, and crushes how much we like them. Once that's over we're either an Santana giving mono to the whole Glee Club to punish them for your being alone, Kurt/Blaine trying to make big declarations of love that get shot down, Quinn pulling a re-return with an ex, or Tina sobbing as we express our feelings of love.

A big shout-out to Puck for singing Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls," although the new object of his affection, Lauren, isn't a totally likable character, it's amusing to watch Mr. Puck chase another girl. For those of us keeping track: Quinn, Santana, Rachel, and Mercedes have all been past conquests.

Thanks to Santana for the classic line: "I went to Jared and picked myself a necklace. Here's the receipt."

Doesn't anyone on this show seem to be concerned about the implication about starting something around Valentine's Day. It's too much pressure, it sends the wrong message too soon, and the only things you can see are romantic comedies about people in your exact situation or bloody horror films. You end up like Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway in Valentine's Day, attending a 4-course lover's meal on your first date.

I'm just saying...

A Note About The Glee Picture Show

On Halloween, (how fitting!) I finally got a chance to watch the much-anticipated Halloween/Rocky Horror themed episode of "GLEE." It's too bad my cable was out during the actual episode airing because of a little event I've taken to calling foxvisiongate (Fox fought with my cable company and pulled programming for a few weeks). Bitterness aside, I really enjoyed the episode. With my long love/hate relationship with GLEE, I have to say this was one of the best episodes of GLEE I've seen in weeks. In a season plagued by unnecessary plots, secondary characters, and pretty boring musical numbers, this one was really a breakthrough.

This episode was great for several reasons. For one thing, the episode was an ensemble piece. It was not all about Rachel or Kurt or Mr. Shue. Everyone really got a chance to shine and to sing (even Ms. Pilsbury, and the love of my life - Mr. John Stamos). The success of the episode was based on each character's performances. For once, Sam didn't act too annoying.

Another thing that was crucial to this episode's success was to balance the musical aspect of the show and the storyline. All too often, shows get caught up in the "school play" aspect, like season 1 of 90210 and the painful episodes-long production of Spring Awakening. There were some nice story lines - the new kid (Sam) trying to use his physique to impress Quinn, Mercedes taking over the lead role (for once), and Mr. Shue trying to impress Emma (and her great rendition of "Touch Me." Plus, we saw the return of the cable news segment "Sue's Corner," where Sue says horribly offensive things in the name of defending small town Ohio. Most importantly, for once, I wasn't repulsed by a Rachel-Finn duet. I enjoyed hearing them sing "Dammit, Janet."

My favorite part was the cast-wide rendition of "Time Warp." It was not only a well-sung and danced number, but it made the viewer enjoy the music. In a season that has been lacking strong cast-driven musical numbers like season 1's "Don't Stop Believing," this episode brought me back to that singular moment when I first fell in love with GLEE.

The one nagging thing about the episode was the final message. I was okay with them cancelling the musical. Then, I was okay with the idea of the kids doing the show "for themselves" and not letting anyone push them around. I was NOT okay with their interpretation of the message of Rocky Horror. This musical is not all about breaking boundaries, like the GLEE folks claimed. The main theme of the musical is about giving yourself over to pleasure, and the multitude of corruption associated with pleasure. Its much more of a moral, or rather, anti-moral message. Rocky Horror is not perpetuating the "stick it to the man" and "believe in yourself" messages that GLEE first perpetuated in the "Funk" episode from last season, and continued to honor in this episode.

A Love Note About Noah Puckerman

WHERE IS PUCK???

After last week's sweet rendition of "Only the Good Die Young," I was thankful Puck was given his due on Glee. But, false alarm, it may have been his swan song. Puck was sent to juve, as most juvenile delinquents are. This brings up the important question: What's happening to Noah
Puckerman. According to imdb.com, Mark Salling is listed for the 2010-2011 season of Glee.

I could not find any news about Salling leaving Glee, other than his second album just coming out (yay!).

On a related note, it was nice to see some of the lesser-sung Glee kids get a chance this week - Mike Chang, Santana, and Quinn - (hasn't sang a stand-along song since she auditioned for Glee club). Strangely, sue Sylvester was not in the episode at all.

A Note About Faith

In a GLEE episode directed the themes of religion and prayer, it was natural to expect songs such as "Losing My Religion" and "What If God was One of Us" (shout-out to the great show that was Joan of Arcadia). And of course there was the delightful version of Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young," sung by Puck (Mark Salling), who has been pretty quiet this season.

But in a crucial mistake, GLEE missed the most important song of all. Any guesses. Well, if the episode is all about faith, it might be a good idea to include a song by George Michael.

Any guesses now? No, not his delightful Wham! classics :Careless Whisper" or Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. Not the sweet songs of "Last Christmas." Not "Freedom" or "Father Figure," although you are guessing closer.

Drum roll please.......

FAITH. Remember Faith? The song was even redone by Limp Bizkit, and is one of the few Fred-Durst songs I can tolerate listening to today. And yes, the verses have little to do with someone being in the hospital, but the central message of the song is "I Gotta Have Faith." Kinda sings to the theme of the show, doesn't it?

A Note About Pregnant Teens on TV

I'm so done with seeing pregnant teens on television, but since I've been reading more glee scoop, I can't help but think of the comical pregnancy of McKinley's former head cheerleader, Quinn Fabray. Here is list of the best pregnant teens on TV:

10. Amy Jurgens (Secret Life) The only reason Shailene Woodley's whiny and obnoxious is on this list is because her hysterics are so dramatic it's to the point of comedy. Next time the drummer in the school band hits on you, follow Nancy Reagan's advice and JUST SAY NO!

9. Adrianna Tate-Duncan (90210) Jessica Lowndes' trampy Beverly Hills teen might be the worst teen mom ever. she was taking tons of drugs during her pregnancy, drinking, and wasn't sure who the daddy was. By the time she got her life together and found sweet Navid, she was considering not giving up the baby for adoption. Looks like she's lost a lot of sleep over not keeping her kid since then. (NOT!)

8. Corey Conway (7th Heaven) Alicia Leigh Willis, known as Courtney from General Hospital, first brought attention to the plight of pregnant teen athletes when she befriended Mary Camden. Plus she married teen father Wilson much later on in the series.

7. Cordelia Chase (Angel) Not only was Cordy pregnant at 18 after a one night stand with a demon, but a few years later she gave birth to one of the ultimate evils and paid the ultimate price, slipping into a coma she never recovered from.

6. Jen Linley (Dawson's Creek) It happened in the five year forward jump of the last episode, but Jen finally completed Gram's worst nightmare, getting pregnant and left by some horrible dirtbag. Of course, BFF Jack was there to step in and help raise the baby.

5. Tess Harding (Roswell) Long before she played pregnant Aussie Claire on lost, Emilie de Ravin was ruining relationships by secluding alien leader (and apparently her husband/alien king from a previous life) Max. One night yielded baby Zan, and finally sent Tess out of Max's life and back to the home planet.

4. Andrea Zuckerman (Beverly Hills 90210) The original teen mom, played by Gabrielle Carteris, was top of the class at West Bev. College came, she got a little irresponsible, and she had to leave the show (and the Bev Hills area) after getting pregnant and married. She ended up divorced :-(

3. Quinn Fabray (Glee) Dianna Aragon's pregnant cheerleader continued to make quippy comebacks until her water broke at regionals. Plus she pitted babydaddy and bad boy Puck against her dumb but sweet boyfriend Finn.

2. Lane Kim (Gilmore Girls) Keiko Agnea's lovable Lane Kim showed that you can be a rock and rolling teen (ok, maybe 21-year old) and still be a parent. It took moving into a house with her bandmates to get Lane to break her mother's tight control over her life. Soon after falling in love with bandmate Zach, three wedding ceremonies and twin baby boys followed.

1. Haley James Scott (One Tree Hill) After a season-long romance with the star of the basketball team,"tutor girl"became "tutor wife" then by graduation she was married "tutor mom". Seven seasons later, she and Nathan are still together and expecting a second child.

A Note About Disturing the Freak Hive

I just finished watching the Lady GAGA Episode of Glee. Here's what I learned.

1. Duets with the parentals should be unique.
Rachel singing the stripped down version of Poker Face with her mom (guest star Idina Menzel) was adorable, and also slightly creepy. Mostly adorable.

2. If you want to scare a football team, dress like Dr. Frank-n-Furter.
That red hower curtain just wan't Finn's color.

3. Stuffed Animal Dresses are a Do
If you sew them on. Major props to Lea Michelle for dancing an entire number in a dress made of stuffed animals.

4. Mike O'Malley is a great actor.
I've loved his part as Kurt's dad. As a fan of Mike since his "Guts" hosting days, it's nice to see him get some meaty materieal.

5. Twilight mania has a place in mainstream televisoin.
Ex 1: group of rabid teen girls wearing team Edward and team Jacob shirts. And Ex 2: Tina scaring the daylights of Principal Figgins.