Whine & Cheese

Express Lane: Issue 58

Kathy Griffin-Anderson Cooper New Year's Eve: Did she just say...? - I was kinda surprised that they had her back, but I think this reply to a heckler - where I think Kathy genuinely thought she was off-mic - will probably earned her a ban from CNN. (1/1/09)

Ballas Benched By Dancing Injury - I'm glad we didn't have tix to the tour stop in Phoenix on Sunday, would have been VERY disappointed. Mark's groin will just need some rest (biting tongue) and he and band buddy Derek Hough are expected back on the the next season of DWTS starting on March 9th. (12/29/08)

Creator of Usain Bolt's Olympic victory dance shot to death - I am not sure what is more shocking... the murder or that victory dances apparently now have choreographers?! (12/27/08)

Lindsay Davenport Expecting 2nd Baby - Just last week Lindsay announced she was headed to Australia for the first Grand Slam of the year, today word of "this unexpected but exciting surprise" - in other words, whoops! (12/18/08)

HBO, Winfrey's Production Company Reach Deal - Oprah signs a 3-year deal to make movies, documentaries, and series with the cable network. No word yet if the channel will be re-named HBOprah. (12/16/08)

To Kindle Or Not To Kindle

... that is the question.

Last week, I tweeted that I was a bit surprised that Oprah highlighted the Amazon Kindle - a wireless, portable reading device - as one of her new favorite things.  I think O is pretty sincere when it comes to books... and given how much I love books, I was just surprised that she was enthusiastic (and that might be an understatement) above an electronic device that moves away from physical books.  At the time, I said I couldn't imagine making that move myself... but I tweeted that before seeing the show... but after seeing it, I have to say I have been having a semi-serious internal debate of whether to once again drink from the Oprah kool-aid well.   Here are my pros and cons:

Reasons To Get A Kindle

It's a pretty cool gadget

It saves paper / "green"

Reduces household clutter on an item that is rarely ever used again

Most books priced at $9.99 (60%-ish off hardcovers/20%-ish off paperback prices)

Oprah $50 discount (but only for a couple more days!)

Easier to handle (especially vs. bulky hardcovers)

Built-in dictionary look-up / ability to highlight passages

Reading reviews, avid readers and book "lovers" appear to like it

Reasons NOT To Get a Kindle

If it ain't broke, why fix it - cool gadget, but "needed"... ummm, no.

Even with Oprah discount, still costs enough ($300+ w/ discount) to give a pause

First generation product - so likely to improve in the future

No back-lighting - seems like this would have been a no-brainer feature

Can't go to a store and physically see, touch, experience the Kindle - so a bit of blind faith

I LOVE shopping for books.  Heck, after the whole Internet novelty wore off I stopped ordering books from Amazon because I missed going to the bookstore and buying books.

Bookstores seem to be in enough trouble these days - especially independents - so this just seems like another nail in coffin

Well, I had hoped getting these down in print and out of my head would help to clear things up, but I seem to be even more conflicted than before I started the post!  In other words, pretty typical Libra behavior... that ever charming see-saw of not being able to make a decision or else making a rash one!   So we'll see what happens, I probably decide what to do (or not to do) in the next day or so especially given the $50 discount code.

Express Lane: Issue 43

Broadway's 'The Color Purple' Will Close Feb. 24 - The show comes to an end after a 2 1/2 year run... guess Fantasia really was a big box office draw. (1/24/08)

Amazing Race 12's Jen and Nate are Still Together - Well, knock me me over with a feather!  After a post-Race break, the two say things have "never been better" (though that's was a pretty low bar). (1/16/08)

Clinton Chooses Dancing Over Singing - Asked by Tyra Banks what reality show she would prefer to compete on, Clinton chooses 'Dancing With the Stars' - now once I know where Obama and Edwards stand on this issue, I think I will finally be able to make up my mind. (1/15/08)

Oprah Winfrey Getting Her Own TV Network - Perhaps ticked that Ellen Replaced Her As Favorite TV Star the Discovery Health channel will become her OWN... OWN as in Oprah Winfrey Network.  Yes, that's the name... not making this stuff up! (1/15/08)

Woman Who Made Hillary Cry Votes Obama - A pretty funny footnote... ok, I'll give you "emotional moment," but frick sake she didn't cry! (1/9/08)

'Big Brother' Returns to Showtime - Wasn't sure 'After Dark' would return for the first non-summer BB edition... sinc the premium channels are hurting for programming like the networks, but the wildly addictive (and unedited) 3 hour nightly block returns to ShoToo. (1/8/08)

Express Lane: Issue 41

Osmonds Headed to Sin City? / Midler Names Show - Donny and Marie rumored to replace Toni Braxton in a multi-yr headliner gig at the Flamingo... while the Divine Miss M dubs her Caesars production "Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On."  (12/6/07)

Will 'Color Purple' Return to the Screen as a Musical? - Oprah confirms that she's thinking about it, and I think it's a pretty good idea...  of course, would love to see Fantasia get the lead. (12/6/07)

Whatever happened to Melinda Doolittle? - Sadly one of the 'Idol' standouts from last season, Mindy Doo, still does not have a record contract... unlike... ummm... Phil Stacey?  Tragic. (12/4/07)

CBS Sets 'Jericho,' 'Big Brother' Returns - I guess CBS doesn't see an end in sight for the writers' strike.  A lot of new show news and  BBro, the summer's guiltiest pleasure, getting an extra edition and a Feb 12th premiere! (12/3/07)

Ballas injured during DWTS finale; Maks says he's "moving on" - Mark rushed to the hospital with a severe shoulder injury (torn labrum?) and Maks sulks that it may be time to pick up his toys and go home. (11/28/07)

DWTS Champ Calls Off Engagement - Helio may have won the mirror ball trophy, but the wedding is off... and I am quite sure the rumors have just begun! (11/28/07)

Maks says unlike Marie, DwtS cast did not "burden people with our personal issues" - Mel B's partner Maks is never one to mince words.  The truth or just sour grapes?  I'll go with a little bit of both. (11/26/07)

Love In The Time Of Cholera (#32)

Like I need more holiday stress or feel more behind... but here I am three books behind post-wise... I guess I should stop reading so fast... or if I am being more truthful... read longer books so that I have time to catch  up blogging about them.

This latest is yet another Oprah book club selection.  I know I seem robotic at times... running to the bookstore with the masses to the get the latest book I'm told I have to read by the Queen.  Though it probably doesn't seem that way, I am selective.  For instance, earlier this year when she picked The Road that particular book had been on my radar and I was wanting to finally something by Cormac McCarthy, so I did it.

Similarly, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been one of those authors I have been meaning to read for years and years now.  I must have been mad at O when she picked Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude a few years back... so when she selected Love In The Time Of Cholera, especially just ahead of the movie version, I figured what the heck!  (Though the reviews of the movie have been very iffy and, with plenty of alternative entertainment options, we've literally not been out to see a movie in well over a year!)

Here's the very basics (no spoilers!) of the plot... nothing you wouldn't read on the back cover (not that I'm looking, of course!) or in the movie trailer.  As children, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall in love... mostly via love letters and glances from afar... fast-forward several years, Fermina ultimately marries another man... and while Florentino does move on with his life... he never gets over his love for Fermina and waits fifty-one years, nine months, and four days for another shot of love with her!

Ah, the stuff of literary romance ... capital "R" Romance... or else just someone in serious need of a therapist to tell him to get over it!   For me, it was more the former.  Granted I can be a cynic at times, but I did get caught up with it. 

It's not a book to be read quickly. Garcia Marquez's lush prose slows you down, but in a good way.  I only managed to knock it out in under 2 weeks since I read it while Todd was in Asia and had quite a bit of extra "alone" time. 

Originally published in 1985, it very much reads like a "classic."  Although I doubt that high schoolers (maybe college lit classes?) will ever be reading this one in our uber-politically correct/"save the children" world.  As I mentioned, while Florentino pines for his Fermina he is certainly not celibate.  While not graphic, there are many passages revolving around his sexual conquests... or should I say "love making," since the story takes place in a steamy/tropical Caribbean port city (inspired by Cartegna, Columbia where "Gabo" spent part of his youth).

I will likely return to Garcia Marquez... when?  Well, that's the reader's dilemma... so many books, so little time!

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 346 pages (Total Pages: 10556 pages) 

Express Lane: Issue 40

'The Office's' Angela Kinsey Pregnant - No word if her 'Office' namesake will be in the family-way as well, but wouldn't be great fun?! That is, if the Writers' Strike ever ends!  Other trivia: 'Toby' is Kinsey's real-life brother-in-law. (11/21/07)

Super-Californication-Titular-Litigious - The Red Hot Chili Peppers sue Showtime, accusing the network of 'stealing our identity' over the title of the David Duchovny sex-fused dramedy 'Californication.' (11/20/07)

Donny Osmond apologizes to Larry King - Don't think this is in order... didn't LK & Co. still ambush Marie live on the air?  Couldn't they have told her BEFORE the show, that they knew about it and that tabloids were going to break the story. (11/19/07)

Paige Davis returns to 'Trading Spaces' - After being unceremoniously dumped from the show in 2005 -- and likely when most folks stopped watching (I hadn't realized it was still on!) -- Davis and many former designers are coming back to the TLC makeover show. (11/15/07)

Ken Follett is latest Oprah pick - Finally a book selection pick that I've already read!  Though it was years ago, so I don't really remember all that much about it! (11/14/07)

DWTS' Karina Smirnoff Gets Nose Job - Check out Karina's 3-week old 'new' nose when she returns for the season finale on Nov 27th.  (11/13/07)

Sopranos' pork store no more - Satriale's has been whacked, demolished to make room for condos... glad we got to see the Kearny, NJ store front this past summer (you can see my Sopranos pix here). (11/11/07)

Middlesex on O

It feels like I finished Oprah's 2007 summer book club selection, Middlesex, eons ago... ok, slight exaggeration... finished it in July, which seems close enough to an eon... nevertheless, it's finally time for the show devoted to the book and its author, Jeffrey Eugenides.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I heard from a few of you who had already read the book (eons and eons and eons ago!!) and enjoyed it as well... so figured, it was worthy of a quick FYI/public service announcement mention...

The O show devoted to Middlesex and Eugenides will air this Friday, September 21st... set your DVR.

My O e-mail alert (we're very close) also mentioned that there would be "real-life stories from members of the intersex community" as well!

Also, usually good odds that Oprah will have a new book club selection.

My First Recycled Kiva Loan

Pretty cool news... my first Kiva loan was paid back and refunded back to me.

In June, I was one of five Kiva members to lend Maria from Mexico a total of $150.  Maria (pictured below left) was hoping to buy a new taco cart to provide better service to her customers and hoped to pay back the loan in 3 months.  I contributed $25 and, on schedule, the loan was completely repaid on September 15th... and the money refunded to me this past Monday.

I had the option of withdrawing the funds, but had I even missed that $25 in the past 3 months?  Thankfully, no... a decade ago, the answer would have been "yes."  So I was able to take that very same $25 and pass it on to Edith in Paraguay (pictured upper right), who much like Maria is a self-employed businesswoman who also plans to expand her business by adding a hamburger restaurant to her convenience store.

I was lucky enough to find a loan!  Kiva has been experiencing a huge boost of new lenders.  As mentioned in a recent Express Lane item, The Today Show had a feature on the organization... but reached an absolute frenzy thanks to a one-two punch mention in President Clinton's new book Giving and a subsequent appearance on Oprah.  There was so much interest generated that Kiva ran out of loans for several days and the number of available loans is still pretty low compared to when I joined back in June.

To give you an idea of the amount of new lenders... including myself, 30 people contributed towards Edith's loan request of $800.... 21 of the 30 joined Kiva since the beginning of this month!

President Clinton's book is subtitled "How Each Of Us Can Change The World"... and I can't think of a better example of that than Kiva (and I feel compelled to mention my other favorite self-empowerment charity and profiled in Giving as well... Heifer.org). 

Individually it doesn't take much... a dinner for two at Applebees or a quartet of double tall non-fat extra-dry vanilla lattes... and while you are literally lending a helping hand to your fellow (wo)man... selfishly, it's you who gets the "feel good" reward.

Middlesex (#21)

Well, I finally caught up with my reading/blogging backlog.  For most of this year, it seems I have been at least 2 books behind ... but kind of as expected, the trip back East proved to be a bit of vacation from reading as well.  Unless our vacations have a good deal of down time (which is rarely the case), a book tends not to get picked up all that much beyond the plane.  I did read a bit while back at the parents and was able to finish this one on the trip home.   

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is the latest Oprah book club pick and, as previously mentioned, a book that has been collecting dust on my shelves for years. Again, for no good reason as I had only heard good things about it.  I will admit to picking it up a time or two over the years and after a few pages determined I wasn't "in the mood" for it.

... and I will admit that it kind of happened again.  But with blessing of O and a bunch of my W&C peeps who had read the book years ago and was glad to see O finally getting around to it, I figured I had to suck it up and get through it.

Sure enough, it won me over and I started to get what all the fuss was about... though again, I will admit to it not really clicking with me until Cal's ancestors immigrated to the States from Greece.

Although many of you have already read the book (hello DeAnn, Craig, and Jen!), I am not giving much away much away telling you that this book is an epic... a novel about the American Dream, immigration, coming of age, and... a hermaphrodite.  Our protagonist is Cal, who, thanks to some interesting and head-spinning familial relations, starts life off as Calliope.  I'm sure I was not alone in thinking that title of the book was simply a play on words of Cal's gender status, but it also ends up being the town where the Stephanides family calls home... so Middlesex is both the journey and a destination.

All in all, an entertaining and quite fascinating read... quite a bit of funny with a few well-rounded doses of heartbreak as well.  The character of Cal is so utterly convincing it seems that Eugenides is regularly questioned (and at times, physically prodded) about whether this is his own Greek family memoir.  Big in scope and certainly a nice and unique book to get lost in...

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 527 pages (Total Pages: 6389 pages) 

Anoth-O Book

Oprah's book club show airs later today... but I can always count on Amazon to "spoil" her latest pick with an email, this arrived prior to 9 am local time (O airs at 3p)... and Borders, not to be outdone, got off their email just after noon... not that I care, this isn't Lost or The Sopranos after all.

I am pretty happy with her summer selection... because now, in true Pavlovian fashion (must. read. Oprah. book.), it means I will finally read the darn book.

This is one of those books that have been sitting on my shelves and needless to say has gone unread for years... and for no good reason... it won the Pulitzer and I have yet to hear a bad word about it from us regular reading folk. 

Heck, I even have two copies of it!   I believe my mom got it off my Amazon wish list... but I broke the cardinal rule of buying something for myself that was on that list (my memory seems to suggest I saw it at CostCo and the price was just good to pass up)... and now here we are nearly 4 years later!