My recommendation of the week

I do not have cable in my apartment in DC. I never thought I'd be able to survive without it, but it's surprisingly easy with most networks putting their shows online and with my Netflix subscription. And, you know, with that whole usually being too busy to watch television thing since I should be focusing at least 9o to 95% of my energy and attention on law-school-related stuff. Eh. I've taken this cable-free opportunity to catch up on shows I've never seen before but have always wanted to see. Mad Men, for example, has been on my queue for almost three months. Sitting at the top of my queue, in fact, for that entire time. The fact that I have friends who live about two miles away from me, have had it on their queue for much less time than I have, and have still gotten it before me is nothing short of infuriating, and Netflix will be getting a very sternly-worded email from me in the next day or so letting them know what I think of their "long wait." I digress. One of the other TV shows I added to my list is Pushing Daisies, a show I always thought looked cute and quirky. I got the first disk yesterday and watched the first episode, and I absolutely loved it. That's still all I've watched, but I feel confident in recommending it to everyone as the cutest show that has ever been put on television ever. Like, in history. It's funny and colorful and original and so visually stimulating. Kristin Chenoweth is in it, and of course she's adorable. Lee Pace, the lead, is so good-looking that I don't know how Anna Friel's character is going to be able to resist touching him forever.

So, the premise: Pace's character Ned has this special power whereby he can bring a person back to life just by touching them. After one minute, though, another person has to die in that person's place, and if he touches the person he brought back to life a second time, that person will die for good. He teams up with a private investigator (Chi McBride, who I love) to collect reward money for solving murders by bringing victims back to life and asking how they died. He just brings them back for a minute, though, because as I already said, after that someone would have to die in their place. A childhood friend is killed, so he brings her back to find out by whom, but he can't bring himself to touch her again, thereby killing her, so she gets to stay living, but they can't touch ever again or else that's it for her for good.

What I love about it so much is that it's equal parts Tim Burton, Dr. Seuss, and those Walgreen commercials about a town called Perfect that I have always been particularly fond of. So I highly recommend this show, even though I've only watched episode 1. I'm going to watch the second episode as soon as I'm done writing this and if it's shit, I'll retract this entire post.

I want to live in Perfect:

Fun-filled

This last weekend was definitely one of the most, if not the most exciting, weekends I've had since my move to DC. So I thought I'd blog about it!

*On Friday, a friend and I went to the supposedly legendary Hawk n' Dove to watch the presidential debate. Apparently the Hawk n' Dove used to be a place where politicians would go and make back-room deals, but now I couldn't imagine that any of them would step foot in there since there's nothing to really distinguish it from any other bar in the city. It was filled to maximum capacity by the time we got there, but we were lucky enough to be able to find the last two available seats in the place before the debate got under way. I was worried that we wouldn't actually be able to hear anything since everyone was talking at full volume, but as soon as the debate began, everyone became silent. It was kind of eerie. I was amazed. I spent the entire debate distracted by (1) the lines on the bottom of the screen indicating the response from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to everything the candidates were saying; (2) how much make-up everyone was wearing; and (3) the overwhelming desire for Obama to slap that arrogant smile off of McCain's face. My take-aways from the debate: McCain is a name-dropper, and his face would translate almost perfectly into a Wii character.

*Saturday, the same friend and I went to the National Book Festival held on the Mall. It was raining off and on, but that didn't stop us from heading out there to get books neither of us have actually read signed by their authors. See how ominous the sky looks with those dark clouds swirling around the Monument:

First we had Salman Rushdie sign The Satanic Verses, and then Cokie Roberts sign Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation. I have every intention of reading both, but it might be quite some time before I get to Rushdie's. Here is a picture that I hate of myself of my book being signed by Roberts:

*Then on Sunday, the same friend (again) and I went to see Kathy Griffin at the DAR Constitution Hall. We're both fans of her stand-up and of her hilarious reality show My Life on the D-List, so this was quite the thrill. We weren't lucky enough to meet her or to run into any of Team Griffin in the lobby, but the show was so funny that it was OK. She covered everything from her experience at this year's Emmy's to the Lohans to Nancy Grace. If you ever get the chance, I suggest you go see her.

I can't have many more weekends like this or else I won't get any work done. Though I do have some exciting things lined up for the weekends ahead, like a trip to Six Flags (for free!), a wedding, and possibly a trip home.