Today's Friday Funny is breaking all the rules. There's nothing literary about it (except for the fact that it's a TV sitcom clip, which means someone WROTE the script, which I GUESS makes it's literary... kind of... but I wouldn't make the "TV is Literature" argument in school, kids).
This just seemed like a great way to share my good news with my blog followers... (Who I'm sure mostly follow me on Facebook and Twitter anyway, so you probably already know, but I don't care. I'm too excited and sharing again, anyway).
Last night I got engaged to the most amazing man! (Hey, Rich!)
To celebrate blog-style I'm sharing my most favourite engagement moment in television/movie/literature history: The Engagement of Chandler and Monica from "Friends"
'Twas the night before Christmas... Well, not really. But it's the night before the night before Christmas and that's why this week's Friday Funny is a fun (albeit a bit inappropriate) take on an old classic. Don't share this one with the kids.
When I was little, on Christmas Eve my sisters and I would all squeeze into one bed as my dad read us the story of The Night Before Christmas. It's a memory I will always cherish.
Now that we're all older, Christmas Eve involves a little less storytime, and a little more... indulging in some Christmas "spirits" -- If you know what I mean. By the time we're home from dinner at the grandparent's house we're all feeling warm and fuzzy and we're ready to "settle down for a long winter's nap."
That's why this version resonates with me. And likely why we don't read the story anymore. Enjoy!
Click the image to view the video.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday, and that you get to spend time with family and friends.
At Christmas, one of my most favourite gifts to give is books. I love giving people books! Books with great stories, beautiful books, funny joke-type books. I don't think anything says "I know you" better than a book.
Unfortunately, not everyone thinks books are as great as I do. And I'm sure, more than once, I've given someone a book they've either a) never even opened or b) read and hated. That's thenature of a book. In the end, whether you love it or hate it, is totally subjective. I can't think of one book ever written that the entirepopulation of humans has ever said "this book is AMAZING!" (Can you?)
So, in the spirit of giving gifts not everyone likes, I'm sharing this hilarious video that has taken over my Facebook feed in the last week.
Did you see how many books made it as terrible gifts!? If you didn't, I'll tell you it was 3.
It's nearing Christmas time, so I think it's about time to share "The Grestest Story Ever Told." This is, of course, the Nativity Story, or the story of the birth of Jesus.
But, let's be honest. You've all already heard that story.
So today, I bring to you, a different version. One told by none other than, Twilight's Kristen Stewart. That's right. Friday Funnies just got SUPER literary up in here. The Christmas Story AND Twilight combined? Bring it on, K-Stew.
If you couldn't laugh at the story, let's at least share a laugh at how spot on this impression of Kristen is!
Let's get back to books. Today I have a little nostalgia for you. Remember Reading Rainbow? Well I do. But I bet you won't remember ever seeing these Book Reviews.
Click the image to link to the video on FunnyOrDie.com
What bothers me? Opening weekend of any Twilight movie.
Sure, the buzz and excitement is like no other night at the movies, but it bothers me to listen to teens and pre-teens scream every time Jacob appears shirtless (so like, 75% of the movie).
And it bothers me to hear whispers when the movie strays too far from the book (though this fortunately doesn't happen too often).
And it bothers me when I can't have an empty seat or 10 next to me so I can have the freedom to squeal, sigh, whisper, and spaz out without disturbing the people around me every time something excites me.
Yes, I'm that kind of Twilight fan.
And honestly, I can't wait for the release of Breaking Dawn tonight! Although, I'm not going to see it until Sunday... Maaaaybe Monday. Which is a good thing. It'll likely save a pre-teen from having a bag of popcorn dumped on her head.
To celebrate my excitement I have a Twilight inspired edition of Friday Funnies brought to you by one of my favourite funny guys, Jimmy Fallon.
All kinds of books have found their ways into all kinds of pop culture. This is one of my favourite storylines from one of my favourite TV shows of all time: Friends.
Happy Friday!
*I should probably mention that I don't own the rights to any of this video, nor am I making any money from posting it on this blog.
It's recently become really obvious to me that it is important to laugh. Laugh even when you might not feel like it. A laugh can change everything. One of my favourite quotes is from Victor Hugo:
"Laughter is like sunshine; it chases winter from the human face."
I couldn't agree more. So, I'd like to bring some more laughs to my blog. Today marks the beginning of "Friday Funnies," a series of posts designed to bring you a funny/hilarious bit of comedy to usher in your weekend. Given the nature of my blog I'm going to try to keep these comedic gems in a literary realm, but you'll see that I'm good at pushing the envelope.
It makes sense to start things up with some Shakespearean inspired humour. Hope you enjoy the inaugural Friday Funnies!
Be warned: This review will might make you laugh. But don't worry. It's not because I've suddenly become funny; it's because I make reference to many pieces of Tina Fey's memoir Bossypants which sneakily makes it seem like I've developed a lot more hilariousness. I haven't.
In case you've been living under a rock, or any other such locale where you might never see a TV, magazine, newspaper, movie, billboard, etc. Tina Fey is a comedian (she wouldn't want to be called a comedienne, I don't think), TV/movie actress, writer, producer... (Do you see why I have a hard time believing you don't know who she is?) Bossypants is her little bit of insight into her life, her job, and quite prominently into what it's like to be a woman in her business. Though the book is far from being a preachy fem-Nazi feminist read.
Fey got her start in community theatre and, more importantly, improv. She has written for (and performed on) SNL (That's "Saturday Night Live" for the rock dwellers... To whom I ask: how are you reading this blog right now?), and most recently she has a little "non-hit" show called "30 Rock" which I hear is incredibly funny, (their Emmys would agree), but I've literally never seen an entire episode, so I can't really say for myself. I mention these two "jobs" of hers because although the book is incredibly hilarious, (remember all the inappropriate laughing out loud I did?) it lacks a bit of flow. It's a bit of a mishmash of funny/interesting moments and things from her life, but they aren't necessarily told in chronological order. For a sketch comedy and sitcom writer, though, this would make sense. (Although Fey also wrote "Mean Girls" so it's not like she doesn't know how to tell a story!) Anyway, I'm likely to blame her editor for this. So, moving on.
The big story here is just how funny she is. I read this book lightning quick, mostly because I was laughing, and wanting to laugh more I saw the only route to this was to read more... and more... I spent a lot of time bursting out in laughter over simple word choices. She references feeling like an "asshat," writing "shit nuggets," and a desire for an old director to "go shit in his hat." In a brief discussion of motherhood she references a breast pump as a "Williams-Sonoma Tit Juicer." In this same discussion she also recalls different breast feeding methods. My favourite was: "one I like to call the Bret Michaels, where you kind of lie over the baby and stick your breast in its mouth to wake it up."
I want to be clear that it wasn't all lewd, fart-humour. (Though there is lots of that!) There's a bit of tenderness as she recalls bits about family and friends who helped her along her "journey to celebrity." And she does effectively highlight some of the struggles of being not only a woman in comedy, but a female in a position of power and authority (hence the title: Bossypants).
Recommendation: It's funny. Like, really funny. If you like Tina Fey, you'll love this book. If you're a woman with a sense of humour, you probably will like this book. If you're a man, you might like it, but you'll certainly laugh. So go read it. And then maybe we should all watch "30 Rock."
Up Next: Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Usually when someone tells you more than once to read a book, you probably should read it. Unless of course it's your smelly, kind of awkward 3rd cousin who has been begging you to read "Attack of the Mustard Squirting Zombies Part 74" or something equally as cringe-worthy. Then maybe, use your discretion. But in my case, the recommendation is coming from my equally book-obsessed older sister, so I figure I must be safe. Also, there was a movie made of it (Groan, I know I'm reading too many of these film adapted novels)... PLUS beginning this Saturday, I have 5 consecutive Saturday weddings, so a wedding-themed novel might be a fun way to get more in the spirit. Happy Reading!
Coming back to the blog after a month-long hiatus is a lot more awkward than I thought it would be... There's so much to say but I'm wondering if I'm just standing on the stage of an empty theatre now... Has the audience gone home?
Ah, who cares. I'm not too good to blog for no one... AND I know there's always randoms who happen to cross my page when they're killing time clicking the "next blog" button after they're done reading what they actually logged on to read. (Seriously, try it. When you're done reading mine, of course. It's quite addicting).
So, where have I been the month of July?
The honest-to-goodness-boring truth is that I was teaching summer school English (Gr. 12) and barely keeping my head above water. In between marking and planning super-engaging-spectacular lessons and activities (I try to be a SuperTeacher at times), I was struggling to keep ahead of my students in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. (What kind of English major has never read that novel!? ...This one). After skipping only 1 chapter (Bad Teacher...) I managed okay... Except I was at school for 7am, and by the time I was done teaching, marking, prepping, and reading, it was usually 9pm... Which gave me enough time to veg-out mindlessly in front of the TV for an hour before passing out on the couch and hauling my sorry self to bed in an effort to do it all again the next day. Throw in a few wedding-filled weekends, and I'm still not quite sure where the H July even went?
So, to recap...
Books Read:
1. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (Which I did enjoy despite the fact that it was "Required Reading")
2. The Summer of Us by Holly Chamberlin (Which I did not finish in July but in the early few days of August when school finished. I enjoyed it, but the mid-novel hiatus thanks to summer school kind of affected my enjoyment).
Now, with only one month of summer vacation left before I move 7 hours away from home and must find some kind of sustainable job, I plan to read as much as I can because in a month I won't have a lot of reading time because I'm going to get a great job that eats up a ton of my free time. Next on my list: One Day by David Nicholls... Coming soon to a theatre near you! Because I've prattled on entirely too long for an awkward blog-return, instead of describing it, I'll just post a handy video of the movie trailer. Enjoy!
I hope you have enjoyed my recap of this past month, and also my attempt at putting positive thoughts out into the universe in hopes that they'll come back to me. That's from a book isn't it?
There's a simple answer for why I've been absent from the blog for a couple of weeks...
Wedding Season!
That's right, as June rolled in, so did another wedding season. This year, I have an unprecedented 10 weddings, only 8 of which I can attend, unfortunately.
So, about a week ago, as friends of mine exchanged vows, I began to break in my dancing shoes (and sure, okay, I shed a few tears too), as I geared up for a very busy 3 month-long wedding season like no other! *This is a link for the adult readers.*
I'm just now feeling refreshed enough to take to the blog with a renewed spirit to write and create. I also took to my journal, and to celebrate the party-spirit that accompanies all great weddings, I made a paper chain. You know, those silly paper things you used to make in grade school to decorate for class parties?
Umm... Fun! And what puts you in the mood for a wedding more than fun!? (I guess, love, romance... and hell, even friendship would have been better answers, but I'm going to stick with fun).
Bring it on, wedding season! I'm ready for you! 1 down, 7 to go! (And I can't wait!)
Here's a special musical post brought to you by Wreck This Journal:
I think I've made it clear before that music is a pretty special and important thing where I'm from.
At least, to me.
My past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of musical activity, and I'm excited to share some of it here. Especially since that's largely why I haven't written anything since the double posts on June 6th.
First thing's first: NKOTBSB... That's right. The large and somewhat nonsensical abbreviation for the classic combination of the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys. (They get to share the first B).
Wednesday, June 8th, my concert dreams came true when after 15 years of waiting, I got to see the Backstreet Boys live in concert in Toronto! (Throw in the classic boy man band greatness of the New Kids on the Block, and wow! What a show!) It was a spectacular trip down music-memory lane and truth be told, those guys still have it very much "goin' on." (That's a BSB reference you'll have to look back to the first album to decipher).
Days before the boy band concert I also got my hands on some tickets for the Blink 182/My Chemical Romance show at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto in August. Though I have already seen them once in concert before, I was only 14, and so I am sure that 11 years later it's sure to be a completely different experience ... One I am TOO excited for!
Finally, last night, to bring my musical week to a close, I curled up on the couch to watch the Tony Awards, a celebration of the year on Broadway! (It seems I have a bit of an ecclectic taste with regard to music)... Some presentations blew me away (Hello, Harry PotterDaniel Radcliffe, the ladies from Sister Act, and Andrew Rannells from The Book of Mormon)... And then Mr. Neil Patrick Harris was, of course, fabulous, er, awesome, as the "straight-as-they-come" host for the evening. I'll leave you with an example of what I mean. Enjoy!
"The chapter was closed. And a new one had begun."
Appropriate closing lines from a novel with a nice story, fairly interesting characters, and a little bit of action.
Just like the characters took the opportunity to move on with life in the novel44 Charles Street, I will take this opportunity to move on as well.
Although Danielle Steel has sold millions upon millions of books, her storytelling always seems a little amateur to me. (Example: the leading male says the word "stink" as in "that stinks" more than once, and several mundane facts are repeated several times in the same or similar phrasing). So, I'm happy to be moving on to a new novel by an author I've never read but have heard great things about.
The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry is book 7 in a series about Cotton Malone, a one-time top operative with the US Justice Department. Although I haven't read any of the other books in the series, I'm told that won't affect my enjoyment of the action packed adventures Berry writes for his Malone character.
A synopsis for the novel explains:
"Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone has hunted priceless treasures and confronted ruthless adversaries around the world. Now, a grave threat to the very foundation of our country has summoned him home to America.
When a bold assasination attempt is made against U.S. president Danny Daniels in the heart of Manhattan, Malone risks his life to foil the killing —only to find himself at dangerous odds with the Commonwealth, a secret society of pirates first assembled during the American Revolution.
In their most perilous exploit yet, Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt race across the nation and take to the high seas. Along the way they break a secret cipher originally possessed by Thomas Jefferson, unravel a mystery concocted by Andrew Jackson, and unearth a centuries-old document forged by the Founding Fathers themselves —one squarely rooted within the United States Constitution and powerful enough to make the Commonwealth unstoppable."
Sounds a little DaVinci Code-esque, and I like it!
This morning, while catching up on some tweets, I stumbled across one from Jimmy Fallon: "I'm at Javits Center for BookExpo. I'm signing Thank You Notesbook @ Booth 3620. Come say hi!"
I wish I could, Jimmy. I wish I could.
The fact that I have an unnatural crush on Jimmy Fallon aside, it would just be such a fun event to get to attend. Taking place in NYC, however, it's not exactly something I can just drop in to in the middle of the week. The expo has hundreds of exhibitors, like authors and publishing companies, that you can visit, learn about, get autographs from, and more. Check out the list of exhibitors here.
I'm promoting this event to some degree, I guess, because BookExpo Canada, like so many other Canadian book events, has fallen through the cracks. The event unravelled a few years ago when major Canadian publishers like Random House Canada pulled out to participate solely in BookExpo America which is billed as "North America's Book Exhibition."
Regardless, since it's BookExpo week and there is a spirit of celebrating books in the air, I wanted to share some of that excitement here, even if I can't attend in person.
I saw this commercial on TV the other day and instantly loved it. It celebrates everything I love about books!
(Please disregard the fact that it's advertising a product. I don't own a NOOK (I own a Sony Reader), and I am in no way trying to promote this particular eReader).
Whether you're a book nerd, athlete, musician, artist, sports fan, pop culture guru, video or online gamer, movie nut, outdoor enthusiast, or anything else, we all have one thing in common: we all live on the same planet, Earth. It doesn't matter where on Earth we call home, we're all faced with the same pressing issue every day: What are we going to do to make sure our Earth, our home, can survive for the generations to come?
It's a big question. And it can be overwhelming to think about for even the shortest of seconds. But this Earth Day, I thought I'd bring you some resources (you guessed it, books!) that can simplify this heavy question so you can spend more than a fleeting moment thinking about what you can do to be more "eco-friendly."
I spent a fair amount of time sorting through books and trying to come up with those that get you good information, a bit of entertainment, and have simplified the task of "living green" every day. By clicking the title of each book you will be taken to sites where the book is available for purchase.
Though the environmental issues of today are no laughing matter, I think that a little bit of humour can go a long way. This is a great resource that provides 150 insights on living greener, and it provides humorous anecdotes and images to complement the great ideas. It's so easy to read, VERY inexpensive for 160 pages, and printed on recycled paper with sustainable soy ink. My favourite bit of advice: "Giving to Charity: When you or your family grow out of old clothes/books/furniture/boyfriends, take them to a charity." Click here for a Google Preview of the book.
There are so many great resources out there for encouraging kids to live greener and to guide you in developing eco-friendly classrooms. This is just one from a long list of valuable resources. I chose it primarily for its user-friendly appeal. Each chapter covers a new environmental issue such as water, air, and farming, and is broken down into different sections: What It's All About, Global Picture, For the Classroom, School Projects, Field Trips, Human Health, and Take It Home. Though it is geared more toward elementary classrooms, any creative high school teacher can find applications for their classrooms as well. Click here for a Google Preview of the book.
A New York Times Bestseller, this book has now turned into more of a mini-franchise of books, blogs, vlogs, newsletters, and more. Endorsed by the likes of Julia Roberts and Oprah Winfrey, the series focuses on simple steps toward a greener life. Geared toward women, the original book Gorgeously Green provides green-living tips in areas like fitness, diet, beauty, and home maintenance. Several other books have been added to the series, and for the whole Gorgeously Green experience you should check out the website here: http://www.gorgeouslygreen.com/.
Something for Men? Sorryguys, but in my search I wasn't able to find any resources geared specifically toward you. BUT, if you know of some, please let me know! I'd love to share them here.
Please use the buttons below to share this post on your Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. "Knowledge is Power" and sharing this post with YOUR friends can get the word out about different ways we can help the Earth this Earth Day and every day.
There is no starting slow with this journal. It gets right down to business. Rip up a page!? Really!?
I couldn't even fathom it. Hence the short hiatus from WTJ posts. But who knew tearing pages would be a little like eating Pringles: Once I started [popped] I couldn't stop! I enjoyed the smooth ripping, the tearing sound, and the small little release I got from destroying something. That sounds a little darker than I intend, but with all of the "crap" life throws at you sometimes, it was nice to relieve a little frustration with some constructive destruction. I sound pure evil right now, but I swear it was really more like this ...
