Everybody Lies...

Sometime quite a few afternoons ago, I was flipping through channels when something caught my eye. I'm not entirely sure what caught my eye at first, it had something to do with the tense lighting and music and the presence of the characters on the screen at least I suppose it did. There were doctors in an elevator, one not dressed like a medical professional but more like the cool kid in high school that seemed arrogant and intelligent. There was a young girl, Michelle Tractenberg to be exact, was basically dying and said cool doctor was not allowed near his patient. I was absolutely enthralled when said maverick doctor caught the patient in an elevator in what seemed like a staged coop. He examined the patient for a tick and found it seconds before the patient reached problematically low heart rate. Up until this point I thought that I had found an interesting medical movie, until someone walked into the room and told me it was actually a show. The show was of course, House. From then on I would watch the mini marathons of it on USA, addicted to seating on the edge waiting for who was right and if the life would be saved.

That's how I started watching house, not in any particular order and never regularly. So when I stumbled upon this large block of time I've been handed, House was on the list of shows that I should catch up on. Over the last few days, I have watched the first four seasons (and not season 5 only because Blockbuster did not make it available). Watching House has been like riding a roller coaster having one thrill after another, feeling the anxiety of climbing to plummet, and always knowing you had the same characters around you. It was comforting, yet always new.

 Dissecting the show into why it's such a ride is something entirely different. The first reason I started watching was aesthetic, an impulsive decision based on my visual and emotional response. The particular episode that first intrigued me happened to fall in the timeline of season 2, episode 16: Safe. The middle of the episode, like almost every episode of house, was visually displaying a tension. The show itself is visually pleasing with a balanced amount of close ups to convey proper emotions, to the moving walk and talk shots. The lighting represents everything from the natural aspects of a hospital to the mood of the characters, to the feelings of the patients. Placing the crafting of the technical aspects of the show aside, we boil down to the essence of the ride: story.

Each episode is a story of what? Mystery Disease as the problem, race for the answer as the plot, character development as the details, and ultimately diagnosis/ treatment as the resolution. Each episode is constructed in the same manner, always a patient with unknown disease. Always a patient that lies. Always clues and answers hidden in the details. Does that really keep compelling an audience to keep coming back for six seasons? The episode formula definitely keeps a person entertained for a few episodes, but not six seasons. The story is the entirely story, the focal point being Dr. House himself. A genius, a truly talented doctor with a drug problem and a lack of social skills.

Herein lies the genius of the show, the entire series is about House and his relationships. House is maintained as a character, as a person, as a functioning doctor by his team, his only friend and his boss. The writers/ creators of the show make the audience like Dr. House, the unlikable character by not only making him the main character but by associating him with so many other likable characters. On some level people can associate to this genius, over the top, anti-social doctor. And on many other levels the audience can associate with the over giving best friend (Wilson), the over achieving boss, the emotionally attached (Cameron), the need to pleaser (Chase), and the self- righteous (Foreman). The audience loves how House over analyzes everything, how he solves every case, how he's an ass to everyone, how he gets whatever he wants through manipulation. The essence of the show is how House survives and actually cares about his relationship without ever really showing it or saying it. The creators have established a world and characters so perfectly that it is hard to stay away while the drama unfolds.

I can not wait to see season 5 and I have heard nothing but good things about the season opener last monday. I'm going to stay on this ride, as long as the characters keep pulling their weight.

Wigs are like shirts, which one to wear today?

Before J.J Abrams worked on Lost and made a Star Trek movie. Back when the WB was still the coolest channel around and still existed. A little show called Felicity existed, about a girl with pretty hair that followed a high school crush across the country to a New York University. The plot of that show is not important, what is important is the small secondary character that was only on three episodes named Hannah Bibb. Hannah Bibb was played by a somewhat unknown actress of the time Jennifer Garner. I wonder if during the filming of those three episodes J.J knew he had found his upcoming leading lady.  In 2001, Jennifer Garner appeared in her first but definitely not last wig on the show Alias. 

I had wanted to watch episodes of Alias when it was repeated on TNT, but could never really understanding what was going on. Alias is one of those shows that you must watch from at least some beginning point, every episode is connected to the last ten. Maybe its something that J.J Abrams likes to do, as many of you Lost fans might know. After finding someone that owned all six seasons that I could borrow it from, I started watching.  

These are the things that I learned about the show Alias:
- No one actually dies 
- No one is who they say they are 
- No one is on the side they say they are on 
- Basically 1-3, Everyone lies 
- A good costume for a woman involves a wig 
- A man is apparently unrecognizable and only needs a different set of clothing and sun glasses
- Haing something to trade with the government keeps you out of jail 
- Family is complicated 
- Everyone should learn more than one language 
- Don't trust people who tell you they are working for the CIA and offer you a job 


Generally the show is very good for the first two seasons. Season 3 and 4 start to see a steady decline. And season 5 and 6 leave faithful fans sad and slightly unfulfilled. I found myself annoyed at the lack of secretive spy behaviors after season 2, I thought everyone was being less careful about being discovered. It seemed that the writers lost love for the story they were telling, becoming complacent with the very obsessions that drove the characters. I especially thought it unnecessary to write in the unsavory twist with Vaughn! But I won't spoil it for anyone that hasn't watched it yet.  


Its a good relaxing show, with a little too much strain at the end but the beginning is well worth it. And once you get started you might as well finish. 

Highs of First Love, Lows of Failed Ambition

And you thought you’re family was screwed up, wait until you met the Deans.

From sibling rivalry that leads to a life of crime and aimless wandering, to misfortune that is self-induced. Deaths, killings, unrequited love, duty, poisons, illnesses, page after page the reader finds themselves captivated by the misery of a journey to create and to become.

A few weeks ago I was handed this book, by a close friend, she had bought it on a whim and hadn’t read it yet. Her decision to hand it to me was merely this, it was about family which is a particular favorite topic of mine and I would have it read before she even finished the book she was currently on. This pale yellow book adorned with a sad lonely photograph of what I believe is the Australian bush with its interesting wholes punched into the cover has been weighing down my purse for two weeks. Not that I hold any resentment towards it, in actuality I believe it was some sort of Serendipitous move from the Universe for my friend to deposit this book in my lap. 

A Fraction of the Whole a novel by Steve Toltz is a book begging to be judged by its cover. Its like a joke, some kind of mockery to the reader to be completely unprepared for the story that lies within its pages. I enjoyed the cover, thinking it clever that there were wholes punched into the picture to drive the point of fractions home to the audience. I read the short summary on the back, intriguing enough small snippets of the adventures that were ahead of me in this narrative. But this novel was about so much more than just the journey, the adventure of the Dean family. It is a history of thought, a history of thoughts that inspired, crippled and plagued the characters of the Dean family and in turn bringing the torment to the unsuspecting audience willing to entertain the thoughts.

I am against writing in novels, not since my forced defacing of my own property in high school have I written in books. Instead post-its have become one of my main resources. I use them as book marks and write down interesting points authors make or names of other novels they mention. While reading Toltz novel, I covered several post-it notes and even took to writing down quotes and titles and authors down on whole sheets of paper that were folded into my purse. I was moved to read philosophers by the scores, the words of Henry James, Freud, Chekhov, Fromm echoed in so many of the Jasper and Martin Dean’s conversations that how could I not want to enlighten myself. With my tendency to self-analysis, Steve Toltz’s characters of Martin and Jasper Dean were like lit matches being thrown at nitrogen film.

The novel is divided up untraditional manner, 7 sections that sort of form chapters, divided into roman numerals of smaller sections, each about a different time period and from a different voice. The audience is presented with the main narrator, the protagonist, Jasper Dean, son to Martin Dean and nephew to Terry Dean. The first section is 179 pages, starting with Jasper giving a surface history of himself and moving into a history of his family as presented by his father, Martin. It is a descriptive detail of the first twenty two years of Martin’s life, his thoughts, his actions, his failures, his family, in short everything about him. The second section turns out to be somewhat shorter and focuses mostly on Jasper’s absent mother. The 3^rd section, divided nicely into an almost 5 act play (only its really in 6) details Martin’s descendent into madness from Jasper’s point of view. It’s an incredible ride of thought and understanding taking Martin from madness to compulsive behaviors that manifest into creating a physical state of his thoughts. 

At this point, I felt like I had been part of Martin Dean’s life. It was like he was one of my closest friends, that I was watching slowly verge on complete self-destruction. The excitement of thoughts being put so eloquently onto paper, the idea of self-analysis being such a key component of the movement of this plot line kept me reading even when the ideas that Martin was spouting were so depressing. Naturally enough, this is the point in the novel where you begin to wonder what purpose the main character of Jasper has in this mess of recorded moments. That’s when section 4 reveals to the audience Jasper. We really begin to understand him, following his education and the moments that he believes shaped his young life. Though Jasper’s development was not as through as Martin’s, it was very well plotted out, just as edge of your seat and though provoking.

When section 5, the book was more than half over and was proving to be mentally taxing. It took a lot of thought, to read about these two characters that over-thought every single action or non-action not only about themselves but also about everyone around them. Like I said, incredibly enlightening and a thrilling read but the action was becoming somewhat stall. It seemed there had been all this build up to a point that just hadn’t arrived yet, and that’s when the book became impossible to put down. Steve Toltz must be praised for his ability to draw his audience in, invest them emotionally as much as he did for the first 380 pages of his novel. I not only wanted to know what was happening with Martin and Jasper, I needed to know what was happening to them. In section five the story turns into action, and though thoughts are still vividly present, the characters finally take the world around them and shake it up. I won’t really ruin the climax of this novel for you, but I recommend the read to anyone. Though it is not an easy, or quick read and if you’re going to be carrying it around it really is a weight in your purse it is well worth it. If for nothing else, it gives you some great lines to use as facebook status, away messages and some great suggestions to further reading. 

And Every Shadow Filled Up With Doubt

I was never under the impression that I would like a show about vampires on HBO. Honestly, I never thought I would like anything much to do with vampires. But Twilight had changed my impression, though I would never say that the Twilight series was a saga about vampires so much as it is about young love. So from that vampire story I had jumped to reading Interview with a Vampire, which was awesomely good in the beginning but about 50 some pages before finishing it I had to stop because of just how morbid it got. I have yet to finish it, though I plan to because it was well written. So when friends tried to convince me that True Blood was something I might like, I was a skeptic. After all the show was going to be about vampires and being on HBO I could count on two things: sex and violence.

Just as a overview, True Blood is a show placed in Bon Temps, Lousiana. Bon Temps is french for Good Time and here is the hub of vampires meet humans, trying to integrate. The title is based on the blood substitute for vampires, a step towards joining "normal" human society again. The show opens with the audience meeting Sookie, a telepathic human who is working in a bar in this small southern town. The bar is run by Sam, a secret shape shifter, who is not so secretly in love with Sookie. On the first night of the show Bill, the first vampire to live in Bon Temps (that the humans know of) comes into the bar. A series of events that has Sookie saving Bill, Bill saving Sookie, blood being drank leads us to the forming love relationship of Sookie and Bill. There are several other characters and I just grossly under summarized the beginnings of the show, but it's just to point out the gist.

Don't get me wrong, I like plenty of things on HBO. I was an avid fan of Rome when I discovered it a few months back. I'm excited to see John Adams soon. I watch Entourage occasionally and enjoy it. But I know what kinds of shows they produce, so with the proposed subject material I didn't think it was going to be my thing. I watched the first season in about a week. First I noticed and appreciated was the mere quality in which the show was presented. The production of True Blood is film quality which was shockingly visible after watching Friday Night Lights. Aside from admiring the work of the show, I started having trouble accepting the story. It was not because of its outlandish nature, it is completely acceptable that vampires exist and are part of society (or trying to be). The problem wasn't the idea, it was how the idea was presented during the first few episodes. The concepts felt forced and it seemed a bit like the audience was just pushed into a pool with all their clothing on.

I did not let that deter me from the show, because there was enough going for it to keep me watching. The theme song and title sequence alone was probably worth watching the rest of the show. But the actors played their parts well and the characters were sincerely endearing. So I keep watching, the twist of adding more mythical characters and a very real human were nice. But I must admit that the truly connecting idea of the show for me was that the story could mirror society. The treatment of the outsider,  the social misfits is really what is driving the story from the beginning and that is a powerful narrative to tell.

I also had an issue accepting how fast Sookie falls for Bill. Interestingly I never had a problem with Bella and Edward or Romeo and Juliet, but maybe because those were written words that had their build up over several pages I was satisfied. After discovering the call of the blood (which was assumed, but not explained at first) I came to accept and understand their relationship much better. The first season though not outstanding in my opinion, was a great foundation for what was to come and without it the second season could not have stolen my heart.

The last episode of season 1 is where I finally was truly hooked. It has to be handed to HBO, each episode of  True Blood leaves you wanting more and it just comes down to how interested you are in the action that has been going on. I was interested at this point. I blew through what I had of season 2 (because it is still airing) in a matter of two days, which including the waiting time for the newest episode to even air on HBO. The new relationships presented in season 2 really bring a whole new air to the show. Jessica, a newly formed vampire, gives the Bill and Sookie relationship a layer that you couldn't tell you missed until it existed. She also provides some new blood and spunk to the series. Also the new threat in town is edge of your seat type intriguing but yet holds true to the ideals of the show established society vs. the rest of the world. My personal favorite new character is Godric, a two thousand year old vampire, that really brought in new perspective to the vampire group on the show. The character was enthralling and truly well acted.

The new conflicts of the show are truly well plotted out. New characters are well developed. New actors have great chemistry with the seasoned cast. It has truly come into its own and deserves all the hype it has received. If you haven't checked out season 2 of the series yet, it comes highly recommended. Personally I am on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out if Bill and Sookie can save their town from the ancient created power of Maryann!

Do You Know Julia Wells?

A few months ago a close friend and I went to Disneyland for the night to see the firework show. We stood in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle for about an hour, chatting and drinking coffee waiting to hear the verdict from the firework Gods on if the wind would ruin our evening adventures. We were surrounded by several tourists, but most of the people who stood there for that hour were probably locales. At some point after the third possible cancellation announcement, the gentlemen who had been standing alone and in front of us for the last thirty minutes decided to finally talk to us. He had been starring at us and slightly hovering probably deciding if we were as friendly as we looked? Obviously we were intriguing enough and our friend Jack was a locale annual pass holder who was enchantingly a kindred spirit. I remember a lot of the stories that Jack told us that night, he was a fellow adventurer. Last week I was reminded of one of his stories, Jack being a Disney Fan had stood in line for hours to meet Julie Andrews one morning. He described it as a moment in life to meet Disney Royalty and that it was well worth it. What does this have to do with Julia Wells you ask, well it so happens that Julia and Julie are one in the same. 

Jack was not far from the truth, Julie Andrews is in the ranks of Disney Royalty. I have gotten to see her once as she gave an interview a few feet from me during the opening day Disneyland 50th anniversary ceremonies. She is everything you expect of a woman that played Mary Poppins and Queen Clarrisse Renaldi. She exudes charisma that can only come from her years on the stage and as a performer. Recognizing her as such a key member of the Disney empire, I was intrigued when Amazon led me to Home: A Memoir of My Early Years  By Julie Andrews. What really sold me on the purchase was that it was an audio book actually read by Julie Andrews herself. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I am charmed by not only Andrews singing but her very speech pattern. It was truly a treat to be able to hear in her own voice Julie Andrews story.  

Listening to the novel in my car, I finished the story in about two weeks. It is a fascinating to get Julie Andrews first hand accounts of growing up in England during World War II. She described her learning processes for singing and performing as a child on vaudeville. I was shocked to discover that her name had in fact been Julia Wells, and that it was changed to the name that is famous around the world without her consent. The Wells/ Andrews family history is a series of ups and downs that will keep any audience entertained. The absolute best part of this audio book, aside from Julie's voice, was that intermixed between the chapters of stories there were snips of songs and music. As she spoke about her songs in My Fair Lady, they played a section of it and that something that would have been missed had I just read it on paper. 

I built up quite a bit of anticapation as the story progressed waiting for the moment when Julie Andrews met Walt Disney and started working on Mary Poppins. Though anticlimactic in sorts because it isn't until the last few chapters that Disney enters her world and even then the story ends before filming for the movie started. Though sad that there was no more life accounts from Julie Andrews on those magical moments working with Disney, I wasn't disappointed in the few accounts she did relay. I relished in the details and even the idea that Walt Disney gave her a tour of Disneyland on her first visit there. Not giving much away, for those fans that might want to read/ or hear it for themselves, I will just say that I smiled when Walt Disney when talking about the newly opened Swiss Family Robinson Tree House (Now Tarzan) said, " And they said only God could make trees." 


If you're a fan of autobiographies, of Disney, of Julie Andrews, of New York Broadway, of Vaudeville, of singing, or just of hearing a good story this is for you. But don't miss out, get the audio book!