Wow, that was a packed episode.

"That'll be $56.00." I blinked. Hard. "This is for...long-term parking?" "Yes sir. $19.00 a day." The rates had gone up again, I grumbled. But it wasn't like I had any choice left in the matter. Doors had opened 20 minutes ago and I was hoping to catch some of the opening act, if only so I could get a better spot for when Kathleen Edwards took the stage. ( Kathleen Edwards @ the Magic Bag )

I crossposted a slightly different version of this over at DeadOn.

For Valentine’s Day, AOL TV released a list of the best 20 couples in TV history. I agreed with a fair number of them (Gomez and Morticia Adams are an inspired choice), but here are five couples I’d much rather see on that list.

1. Jay Sherman & Alice Tompkins (The Critic) He was a short, bald film critic. She left her philandering, country-singing husband Cyrus (His last album: I’m Being Unfaithful To My Wife, Alice Tompkins. You Heard Me, Alice Tompkins) and moved to New York with her daughter Penny. After a mistaken blast of pepper spray (”Mmm, jalapeno”), they hit it off and quickly became a couple.

2. Fox Mulder & Dana Scully (The X-Files) Too obvious? If you’re still suffering withdrawal symptoms, Booth and Brennan over on Bones are like a methadone Scully and Mulder.

3. Dave Nelson & Lisa Miller (NewsRadio) Bucking the sitcom trend, Dave and Lisa got together in the second episode of the series and stayed that way, on and off, for the next four seasons. They fought constantly, but Lisa being mad at him is what turned Dave on, while arguing is what turned Lisa on (She had to quit the debate team in high school because she was afraid of getting pregnant).

4. Josh Lyman & Donna Moss (The West Wing) What Josh and Donna mean to each other is written all over Janel Moloney’s face in “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part 1? when she learns Josh has been shot. I loved the Charlie/Zoey and Jed/Abbey relationships, but Josh and Donna were always my favorites. I’m glad with the way they wrapped up the series.

5. Dwight Schrute & Angela Martin (The Office) PB&J are already on the AOL list, but Dwight and Angela deserve their notice too. For the most part, their storyline peeked in around the edges. Angela’s perfect Valentine’s Day gift to Dwight, the way Angela’s pinched demeanor excites him, their attempts at secrecy in the office. Pam figured them out almost immediately, but it took Jim another year and a half before he saw them making out in what they thought was an empty Dunder Mifflin. And then there were the words “I am a farmer, Angela.”

New York magazine:

Brenda Hampton [Yes, the 7th Heaven Brenda Hampton] is reportedly shopping a series about a girl who becomes "pregnant after having one uncomfortable sexual encounter with the school's Don Juan, Ricky" and "tries to figure out a way to deal with her dilemma" while "being wooed by the sweet and possibly smitten Ben."

Issues:

1. Brenda Hampton is attempting to get back on TV, just as America has managed to push 7th Heaven out the door with nothing but a bus ticket to Yellowknife.
2. As everyone has already observed, she's shopping a clear Juno ripoff, which has to be pretty embarrassing for her and Diablo Cody. One can only imagine the light touch 7th Heaven brought to social issues applied here.

I found this item after following latropita's link to this other post detailing expectations for what shows will be returning now that the strike is over. Personal highlights: The Office and 30 Rock will be back for 5-10 episodes each, which is a pretty wide range, but whatever. CBS wants 8 more episodes of HIMYM, and the CW will take 5-6 more of Reaper. On the downside, Pushing Daisies sounds like a candidate not to return until next season, but I can live with that now that they have a second season pickup.

In other news, I really want to get outside today. I drove to work today under blue skies and sunshine, which just about never happens in the winter. I love cold, clear winter days like this.

1. Happy birthday, latropita! I hope it was a good one.

2. Lindsay Davenport is so cool. She's 7 months removed from the birth of her son (the questionably-named Jagger) and she was back playing in the Australian open. The other day I watched her win her first-round match against Italy's Sara Errani. Things got a little tougher yesterday, where she lost to Maria Sharapova (blown out in the first set, competitive in the second), but I really liked her in her press conference afterward. She seemed really happy to be there and like she had a great perspective on what she really wanted from her life. Her goal of returning to the top ten within the year is ambitious, but I wouldn't bet against at least seeing her in some finals and semis.

3. C'était un rendez-vous. My brother showed this to me over the weekend. It's a single take, filmed at about 5:30 in the morning through the streets of Paris in the '70's. The car with the camera strapped to the front bumper was a Mercedes 450SEL, but Lelouch overdubbed the sounds of a Ferrari 275 to make it sound faster.

   Snow Patrol used the film for the UK version of their video for "Open Your Eyes".

Michigan 5, Minnesota 1. The hockey team beat the Gophers for the first time since I was a student and I got to play "The Victors" for them. Fantastic.

Tuesday night I went over to the Intersection to see They Might Be Giants for the first time in six years. I've been a casual fan for a long time, the one other show I've seen them play is still in my all-time Top 5 concerts, and the venue is 15 minutes from my apartment. Thus, I was required to attend.

( Concert ramblings, setlist, talking like a wrestler )

By definition, grace is only granted to the unworthy. We were throughly outplayed for much of the game, but Chad Henne stepped up, the offensive line stepped up, and our receivers leaped up and seized victory for another year.

Taken from eirefaerie first.

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today). As usual, bold what you have read, italicize what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. The numbers after each one are the number of LT users who used the tag of that book.

( BOOKS! )

Every time I do one of these I think I'll have more books marked than I actually do. Maybe it's because I've re-read almost all of the ones I've checked off. And I get the sense that The Name of the Rose will be good, but kind of a chore for its first half.

Rilo Kiley
2007-09-17, Royal Oak Music Theatre
With Johnathan Rice and Grand Old Party ( Spectacular Views: 16 pics, 825K )

I tried to write something to go with this, but I think the pictures stand better on their own. These are all from the day of the Michigan-Oregon game.

( A Saturday Tradition )

And happy birthday to spectralbovine, FROM THE FUTURE! It's only fitting that this should go on a post about marching band.

Happy belated birthdays to gymble and omoo. Hope they were good ones!

Memery via beppergirl:

comment and I'll give you a letter. Then with that happy little letter, go choose your favourite songs starting with that letter! put it in your Livejournal and see how many people know your songs!

1. Aimee Mann – Ghost World
   Love this song, off of Bachelor No. 2, and it follows "Deathly", another song I absolutely love. It's a story song about summer after senior year of high school, trying to figure out how to get the rest of your life going.

2. Sleater-Kinney – Get Up
   This song can make me deliriously happy, just remembering singing along at the 9:30 Club last year.

3. Michigan Marching Band – G.Y.B.
   Football season starts next Saturday, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm going to 9 games this year. NINE!

4. Blake Babies – Gimme Some Mirth
   Juliana Hatfield was on an episode of The Adventures of Pete & Pete as a lunch lady.

5. Ben Folds – Give Judy My Notice
   I debated whether to post this version, from Songs For Silverman, or the solo piano version from the Speed Graphic EP. In the end, the harmonies and steel guitar here won me over.

6. The New Pornographers – Go Places
   Carl Newman wrote this about his new wife, Christy Simpson. So he rhymed Christina with "deus ex machina" and had Neko Case sing it.

7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Gold Lion
   Show Your Bones was uneven, but this song rocked.

8. John Doe feat Kathleen Edwards – Golden State
   I can't wait until Kathleen Edwards releases her next album and I *finally* bought X's Los Angeles, so I'm learning a lot more about John Doe there.

9. Supertramp – Goodbye Stranger
   "Listen up, we just got a call from Florida. There's a truck full of politically-correct textbooks that have got to be in the schools of New York in 24 hours. Until those books get here, kids will think that Columbus discovered America, and that Paul Revere was sober. ...The truck you'll be taking has no brakes, no shocks, and a Supertramp tape stuck in the 8-track player. Do I have a volunteer?"
   [Thinks: Nows my chance to fit in] I'll make the run! Do you have another truck?"
   "Yeah, with Leonard Nimoy Sings Supertramp stuck in the tape player."
   "Then I'm off!"

10. The Soviettes – Gotta Decide
    Punk with a dash of pop in it, competing female harmonies, big guitars. Yeah, I'll take it.

MP3's can be found here.

I've been away from here for a while. Well, not just here. Away from everything. This is basically what I've been doing with my life:

And it comes with a soundtrack: Thrushes - Heartbeats