Johnny versus Jimmy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Johnny Carson.                                                           Jimmy Fallon.

The Tonight Show.  The longest running talk show in television history.  It has been hosted by some pretty impressive people.  I want to talk about the two best, in my opinion.

Johnny Carson was a legendary icon in entertainment.  He was a very talented man, and loved to play characters and do magic tricks.  He revolutionized late night television, and entertained insomniacs and late night people for decades.  I remember my mother and father watching him every night before bed, even though they had to get up early for work.  Their day just couldn’t end without Johnny.  There were no DVR’s back then, you had to watch in real time, and all the commercials too, lol.

Many people do not know that Johnny was very shy and retiring in his personal life.  He did not like to socialize, and stayed out of the public eye.  Being in millions of people’s living rooms every night was more than enough for him.

Now onto Jimmy.  What can I say?  I think that Jimmy is one of the most talented people on the planet.  He can sing, he can dance, he is handsome, he is funny, he is mostly Irish, he has a beautiful wife, 2 adorable kiddies, he has a GOLDEN RETRIEVER…..he is my kind of guy!  And everybody else’s too, based on his ratings.

I loved him on SNL, he could NEVER keep a straight face, lol.  I loved him in Fever Pitch with Drew Barrymore, I love him with Justin Timberlake doing their history of rap, and HashTags, I love him doing his spot-on imitations of Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and other hit artists.  I love his skits.  I love his hosting (MTV, Emmys etc.)  I love everything about him.  Well, except for Ewwww.  Jimmy dressed as a teenage girl with braces is kinda scary.

I think the man has more talent in his little fingers than most people do in their entire careers.  He is the ultimate all-around entertainer.  (JT is another one like Jimmy).

Both Johnny and Jimmy were/are incredible on Late Night.  They were/are the best of their generation.  I have to give the nod to Jimmy though, in terms of overall talent.

Who is YOUR favorite?  Why?  I’d like to hear it!

 

 

 

Guns….to have or have not

No guns allowed.  That’s right.  No. guns. allowed.

These signs are posted everywhere now, it seems, especially since the passing of the concealed carry law here in Illinois.  Every gun crazy person is now sporting a gun hidden in a pocket of their new expensive “conceal” clothing.  A whole new market has opened up.

 

 

 

 

There are whole clothing lines, from lingerie to outerwear, just for gun toting.

 

 

The whole subject of guns is a hotbed of controversy.  I myself would prefer that guns were not hidden.  You got a gun, show it, so we know you are a big shot and “armed and dangerous”.  Don’t stick it in your underwear and accidently shoot your frank and beans off.

Speaking of which, there are a significant number of gun fanatics I know that suffer from small penis syndrome.  You know the type.  Mucho macho hard talking show off gun toters.  They can’t WAIT to be a vigilante and save people from a possible criminal.  They’ll shoot at the first sign of trouble.

But guess what?  You can’t bring your gun anywhere anymore.  The signs are up.  No guns allowed, in church, school, bars, restaurants, hotels, casinos, grocery stores, retail stores…..so hey Mr. Macho, where ya gonna carry that gun?  Most likely you’ll have to leave it in the car.

Which leads me to an interesting story.  I was seeing a guy who had a huge case of small penis syndrome.  The first time he came to visit me I did not know he was a gun fanatic.  The next morning I looked outside and saw that he had left his car door open overnight.  He ran out like a flash, and was relieved to find that his GUN was still in the backseat.  I was livid.  My brother’s kids live yards away from my house, and what if they found the gun?  That’s what happens.  Kids find guns, and then kids die.  Anyway, I told him I did not want to be around guns but he continued to bring them (yes, multiple ones) and carry them into places even if they had a sign.  He was totally belligerent about the whole thing, and was one of the final nails in his coffin when I broke up with him.

And the whole Bambi thing.  Hunting.  How can you look a wild, free, beautiful animal in the eye and then shoot and kill it?  I just don’t get it.  My ex-boss shot a deer across the street in the woods, and then proceeded to hack it up in front of the office windows.  All. day. long.  I hope one day a deer will attack him, like in those crazy videos.  He deserves it.  And much worse.  So, let’s move along.

I am not TOTALLY against guns.  They have their place.  I myself have a FOID card, and like to go to the shooting range.  If I ever NEED to shoot, I want to know how.  When the Zombie virus hits, I want to use a gun, not a knife or sword and get their blood and guts all over me.  Unless I can be badass, like Michonne.

In the meantime though, I am not going to carry around my gun, looking for trouble. (George Zimmerman anyone?)  Most people I ask about why they carry guns say they would rather have it if they need it, then not have it and be sorry or dead.  And that if you pass a law and take away all the guns, the only guys that will have one will be the criminals.  Probably true somewhat.  But the stats show that most gun ownership results in higher gun-related accidents, homicide and suicide rates in the home.  I’m sure the NRA would dispute these stats.  But anyway.

It is a Catch-22 indeed.  What are your thoughts on gun?

 

What a week!

What a whirlwind of a week!  Busy, busy, with year-end work and taxes etc.  But more importantly, busy with FUN activities!

It started out with Fat Tuesday.  Good food, good friends, good fun!  NOT good for the diet.

Then on Thursday, I went to see Kingsman.  It was a rollicking good time!  Really enjoyed the movie!  But again, popcorn NOT good for the diet.

Then my guy came over and installed a new cat door in my bedroom door.  Now I can close the door against noise from visitors and not be woken up all night long.

Then it was 3rd Friday.  Went to Steitz’s for fish fry.  Great food, great friends, great fun!  Again, NOT good for the diet.

Finally, Saturday came, along with what I having been waiting for!  2Cellos concert downtown!  It was an unbelievable day from start to finish, except for the train home.  Went with my awesome friend Nancy, did a bit of sight seeing at the Bean and the skating rink, then a tasty dinner at Park Grill.  Again, NOT good for my diet, lol.  On to the venue, and 2Cellos!  Met some Cello Girls before the concert started, and then the most unbelievable musical experience of my life!  Got to chat with more Cello Girls after the show, but was not able to do the meet and greet because of the long line, and we had to catch the last train home.  But even without that, it was still an incredible day!  I could not sleep at all that night.

On Sunday, I tried to nap a bit before I attended an Oscar party at my friend’s house.  Great food, great drinks (I tried a Moscow Mule and liked it!), and prizes for ballot winners!  I even won the grand prize, a nice trophy and 2 movie passes!  Most importantly, the great friends.

Speaking of the Oscar party, they really need to take a page from the Golden Globes.  The Globes start and end on time, and all the while the nominees are eating and drinking and having fun, which can lead to some of the best acceptance speeches!  They only present the most popular awards.  And even though some of the categories at the Oscars are VERY important, they tend to drag the show out to wayyyyyyyyyyyyy over 3 hours.  Come on Oscars, people have to get up for work in the morning!  Maybe they should move it Saturday nights if they are going to CONSISTENTLY run long.

On Monday morning, I felt like I was beat with rubber hoses, so I went to swim class to stretch out the muscles in the pool.  I had done a lot of walking and standing and dancing on Saturday, so I had some aches and pains.  The water felt wonderful, and I ran around the pool for about an hour.  Later that day, I did feel some leg cramping etc., but a banana and a Propel took care of that!

Today, Tuesday, I feel pretty damn good.  Will go to Walmart for my weekly shopping and walk the store for about an hour for my daily exercise.

All in all, a GREAT week!  Thanks to all my wonderful friends for some awesome good times!

 

Iron Thrones and Dragons or Kilts and Stone Circles

Game of Thrones.  Outlander.  Two shows that have taken their audiences by storm.  Very different styles but equally compelling.

Both are about family, love, relationships.  And war.  Always war.  So much of our history is about war.

Game of Thrones has more of surrealistic feel, what with the dragons and all.  Outlander is based on a lot of Scottish history. Being of Great Britain descent myself, I find the history (and the accents!) very interesting.

I have read both set of books.  Very big books.  Lots of reading, have kept me entertained off and on for the past year or so.  I am actually not quite done with the Outlander series since I was wait listed for over 2 months on book 5.  (None of the other books in the series were wait listed, just this one.  Did everybody just read book 5???).  Anyway, I highly recommend both series of books, but I will say that Outlander is more repetitive than Game of Thrones.  I will also say that I am glad I saw a few episodes of each first before I started reading, so I could picture the characters.  I honestly don’t think I would have made it through Outlander without picturing Sam Heughan in my mind, lol.

Both have been on hiatus, for far too long in my opinion!  Both are starting up soon, and I can’t wait.

If I had to pick which show I like best, it would be a toss up right now.  I like Game of Thrones for all the character development and new and exciting places they go to.  Never a dull moment, as they jump around from Kings Landing to The Wall to Dorne this season.  I like Outlander because of the love story between Jamie and Claire, which transcends time.  And of course my favorite actor, Sam Heughan, who is one hot Ginger!

Which show do YOU like best?  Why?  I would love to hear your comments!

 

The Gronk

For those of you who live on the moon, The Gronk (Rob Gronkowski) is a football player who was instrumental in the New England Patriots Superbowl win.  He is an awesome football player, obviously.  With a touch of humor.  A LOT of humor.

He reminds me of a old boyfriend who was also larger than life.  The kind of guy who isn’t afraid to have a little fun with life.

He’s got that shit eatin’ grin that says he knows he’s too cool for school.  He is just too cute, and a bad boy to boot!

He also reminds me of one of my favorite actors, Nathan Fillion (Castle).  And a little bit of Ashton Kutcher.  Can’t go wrong with those two!

Anyway, party on Garth, you deserve it, great game, bet we will be seeing a lot more of you!  (Hope so!)

 

Dibs

Per Wikipedia, calling “dibs” is the American English  term, also known as “Bags” in the Australia and New Zealand, and as “Bagsies” in UK and Ireland, for an informal convention where one declares a first claim to something to which no one else has a clearly recognized right. Such a declaration is often recognized in certain cultures, or sub-cultures, as a means to avoid arguments over relatively trivial issues although can be considered quite rude at some points.

The dibs declaration can only be negated if the caller is challenged and defeated in a fistfight.

The term ‘Bags’ in much of the English world outside of the US comes from the schoolyard practice of placing ones bag on a chair, bench or other location, thus reserving the seat for you or your group of friends.  Or in the case of Chicago, the unwritten rule of plastic chairs or other items set in the street to save the spot for your car, especially in winter.

Ah yes, winter in Chicago.  We’ve have over 20 inches of snow the past few days, with more on the way.  This picture shows what can happen when you shovel for days to get your car out in the city, and then someone else parks there.  I think you can see the car antennae sticking out.  We spent 3 hours digging out that spot, we have no problem spending 6 hours burying your car if you park there comes along, and parks in YOUR space.

The side streets are the orphans of the city plows, and must wait until the main roads are sparkling clean before they make a pass down the center of the street, burying the cars even more.  The road is usually like a washboard then, because of the underlying melting snow/ice that has hardened into concrete.  It takes HOURS of intensive labor to dig your car out after 2 feet of snow.  Therefore, people mark their territory when they have their spot cleaned out.

They use whatever old furniture they have laying around, typically chairs.  Some people like to get creative and class it up a bit.

But you better make sure you put out enough furniture to save a big enough spot, otherwise this will happen.

My heart does go out to those in the city.  I guess I am lucky to have my big garage and remote auto start out here in the country.

 

He’s got the lips, but does he have the moves like Jagger?

Bruce Jenner.  Olympic Athlete.  Gold medal x one.  Husband x three.  Father x six.  Step Father x four.  Reality TV star.  Lately, tabloid fodder.

I’ve always liked Bruce Jenner.  God he was hot.  A fine figure of a man.  His son Brody looks just like him back in the day.   But over the years I started to feel sorry for Bruce living with all those Kardashians, lol.  I would imagine it could get a little overwhelming.  He started going downhill in my eyes.  Too much plastic surgery, horrid nose jobs.

I appears now that the rumors are true.  His own mother has confirmed that Bruce is transitioning into a woman, and also that Diane Sawyer has scooped an interview to be shown in May.

I am not going to post a picture of him in recent days with the long hair, nail polish, breasts, lip injections etc. out of respect for him.  The pictures were all obviously taken without his consent, by paparazzi, who I think are the devil’s spawn and responsible for the death of Princess Diana.  But I digress.

I will say that I am puzzled by people who have been married, had children, etc., and then decide to change, in a drastic way.  I wonder if they have always felt that way, and that maybe it is just easier to make that change now, than in the past.  Brings up the old question of nature versus nurture.

I guess I am lucky that I have never felt any way other than what most consider “normal” and that there aren’t any taboos against it.  I cannot imagine how hard it would be to go against conventional norms.  You have to be a very strong person.

I do know one VERY popular blogger who made the claim that he was “something other than straight”.  He basically came out as bisexual, which caused his blog to explode and go viral over and over again and win himself many, many new followers.  Several months later, he took it back.  It was like, joke’s on you, it served my purpose to get the publicity, so haha.

Not cool.  Not funny.  Not a thing to joke about to people who may be going through something similar.   I still read this blogger’s posts, to see what other outrageous lengths he goes to so as to attract new followers, but I don’t respect him for doing it.

So Bruce baby, do what you gotta do.  I don’t think you are right or wrong.  If this is what will make you happy, go for it.  It won’t be easy, especially with your previous history of fame and fortune.  So even though it’s easier to “come out” nowadays, you are also under more of a microscope due to social media and the frickin’ paparazzi.  Go ahead and pucker those Mick lips.  Practice your dance moves.  Go have fun.

Good luck Bruce.  You will need it so you aren’t eaten alive.

Take my money, please!

I came late to the Parenthood party so I called up my expensive Xfinity On Demand to do some catching up.  I saw this season, but missed the first five.

Imagine my delight when I saw all first five seasons listed!  Quickly I punched up Season One.  Imagine my dismay when I saw they wanted an additional $10.99.  Per Season.  For Network TV.  NBC.

When did the LOCAL channels start ripping us off?  Is it not enough that the cable companies charge us exorbitant fees to watch digital “expanded” cable so we can watch channels like FX or Nat Geo?  And then charge us extra for Premium channels?  And then charge us extra for “faster” internet?  The monthly cable bill has turned into a car payment for crikey sake!

FX pissed me off first.  You can’t watch shit on FX.  They will release a few episodes of a show when the new season starts, but not a whole season.  Nope.  And even trying to watch it online, it checks first to see if you pay for it with your cable subscription.  AMC is bad too.

Then you have to have the premium channels, to watch Game of Thrones on HBO, Outlander on Starz, The Knick on Cinemax, Homeland and The Affair on Showtime.  Crikey.  It used to be that I was happy with just HBO, I was glad they were the only real Premium channel to have good shows.  Now they ALL do!

I tried Netflix on my Roku box.  Is it just me, or is everything really old, and you can’t find anything unless you know EXACTLY what you are looking for?  I gave it up.

Sometimes I will pay for a movie on Amazon or iTunes on my Roku.  Sometimes I will pay for a movie On Demand.  Which seems like a shame, seeing as how I have 4 premium movie channels I am paying for.

I keep saying I’m going to cut the cord.  I keep looking for the perfect alternative.  I haven’t found it yet, and I’m pissed.  I know SOME channels are going to allow subscription to their channel only, like HBO and CBS.  But by the time you add all the channels you want on a one-by-one basis, it becomes cost prohibitive.  And unfortunately I do NOT want to wait until the shows come out on DVD or Netflix or whatever.  I will wait a day or two, but no more than that.

I need to stop this madness.  If you have any suggestions for me, let me know!

Childless

I was just thinking this morning about children.  More specifically, I was realizing how many of my friends are childless, along with myself.

Contrary to popular belief, I love children. My nieces and nephews have always been so dear to me, and I love them like my own.  I am SO lucky that my brother and sister live so close to me, and I get to see the kids so frequently.  I remember when my great niece Brianna was born, and I rushed home after work every day to just hold her, and feed her, and look into her beautiful eyes.  I remember thinking that as she looked around from the safety of my arms that she was going to be an adventurer.  She was planning just what she was going to do as soon as she was mobile.  I remember holding her as she discovered her hand, and was amazed by it.  I saw her first crawl, her first steps, her first words.  The transformation of kids is truly a miracle.  At almost 6 years old, she is bright and smart and stubborn and strong and going to rule the world!  Her vocabulary alone is unbelievable.  We read, we play games, we play with the Husky…she is on the move all day.  She wants to be a vet or doctor when she grows up, and she is perfect for it.  At the age of 3 and 4 she was changing my bloody bandages from my infected hip multiple times a day, and loving it.  She is now practicing her amputations and tumor removal techniques on me and the animals, thanks to Dr. Pol from Nat Geo Wild, lol.

I have SEVEN great nieces/nephews now, unbelievable.  They are so damn cute and smart and growing up way too fast.

Unfortunately, having my own child just wasn’t in the cards for me.  In my first marriage I had a miscarriage at a very early stage.  I also was very career oriented and had a very high stress job.  In my second marriage, I had 3 stepchildren, and I felt that my choice of having children was taken away from me.  We both had to work to afford the alimony and child support and day care and school and braces and health insurance etc.  If I had a child, I wanted to be able to stay at home for at least a year or two, and that wasn’t going to happen on just my husband’s salary.  About half his income went out the door every month to his ex-wife, which didn’t leave enough to start a second family with me.  I eventually ended up being a horrible stepmom because of horrible circumstances with my ex and his ex-wife.  I never got any of the advantages of being a mom, just all the shit.  I tried so hard, but then I gave up. It is my biggest regret in life that I didn’t overcome all the obstacles put in front of me during that time.  I failed.

If I had to do it all over again, would I have had a child?  I’m still not sure.  How about you?  Would you make the same decision again?  Child or no child?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

The British are coming! The British are coming!

Yes they are, and they are currently in a theatre house near you.

Now, I certainly have nothing but admiration for the British, as I am almost all Brit heritage myself, but imagine my surprise when I noticed that most of the cast of Selma is British and so is the Screenplay writer!  Last time I checked, Martin Luther King, Jr. was American born and raised.  Have we no American actors to portray him?  I think we do.  I think we have plenty.

With that said, there are MANY British actors in American movies lately.  And Australian.  Oh and British includes England, Irish and Scotland :)

Alex Pettyfer, Theo James, Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy, Luke Evans, Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Orlando Bloom, Jude Law, Joshua Bowman, Kit Harrington, Idris Elba, Nicholas Hoult, Andrew Garfield, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Sam Heughan (my 3 favorite Scots!), Christian Bale, Daniel Craig, Andrew Lincoln, Clive Owen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Radcliffe, to name just a few Brits.

Onto the Aussies…Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Hugh Jackman, Chris Hemsworth, Liam Hemsworth, Cate Blanchette, Sam Worthington, Geoffrey Rush, Jesse Spencer, Mel Gibson….

Ok my fingers are tired, I could go on and on.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE all these actors!  And they all can speak perfect American!  lol  It’s so funny when you see an actor in a movie or TV show, and then you see an interview with them, and they are speaking the Queen’s English, and you never realized they weren’t American!

Now, if they are getting parts in American movies, than obviously they are better than the American actors that also audition, right?  I guess so.  But when you make a movie about an AMERICAN icon such as Martin Luther King Jr., I just think that maybe an AMERICAN should play him.

I mean, maybe we should have Meryl Streep play Queen Elizabeth rather than Helen Mirren.  Hmmm, not a good comparison, Meryl Streep can play ANYTHING, lol.  But you get my drift.

I know that being an actor means you can take on any persona and play it perfectly. But sometimes you just need home grown.

Of course, it also seems weird to me that in this day and age, we have straight actors playing gay parts, and gay actors playing straight parts.  We have enough of both of them, so why not let them play what comes natural to them?  I am a straight woman, and even if I was an actress, I would not be comfortable playing a gay woman.  I want my love scenes with a man dammit!  A perfect example of this is Matt Bomer.  Everybody was clamoring for him to play Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey.  Yes, Matt is quite stunning in many ways, but he is first and foremost a gay man who is married to Simon Halls and has 3 children.  I myself wanted Ian Somerhalder, who is the most gorgeous man in the world to play Christian, but Jamie Dornan (Irish!) was chosen.  After seeing the promos, he will do just fine.  Jamie is straight, and gorgeous, and has those liquid eyes.  You know, those eyes you just melt into.  I believe I have spoken about liquid eyes in previous posts….

Okay, back to business.  Actors are actors and movies are movies, and we need one for the other.  But I feel we shouldn’t stray or stretch out further than actually needed to fill these roles.  I personally feel that an actor is more comfortable playing something closer to his actual real persona.  After Sons of Anarchy was over (boo hoo) I saw an interview with Charlie Hunnam who played Jax.  He is British, and he said it took him the whole first season to get comfortable with speaking with proper accent, and he really didn’t get into his role until the second season.  See what I mean?  Imagine having to speak a totally different type of jargon/accent etc., all the time, every word.  Gets tiring. Jolly good and all that other rot.  Throw another shrimp on the barbie.

Crikey, I can’t even understand the accents in our own U.S. of A. sometimes.  I go down south and I have no idea what people are saying, lol.  I don’t think they do either sometimes!  So many dialects, just in our own country!  It’s unbelievable how many different ways you can speak English!

So, carry on mate, don’t mean to be cheeky, off to bed I go before I lose the plot!