NEW BLOG

I'm moving! I decided, after a short foray into blogging that I wanted to become more specific. So after a little soul searching, I decided that I would make a food blog!

Please join me at my new blog, Student Foodies at http://studentfoodies.blogspot.com

Thanks for visiting here! I will leave this blog up for a while and eventually take it down. Thanks for a great few months and all the visitors. You guys are amazing.

TV: January Updates and American Idol

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great holiday season! Now that I'm back at school, reviews will probably show up for only a few specific shows, but that doesn't mean I won't be posting updates for your convenience, because post-New Year's is the midpoint of the TV SEASON! Before I get right into it, I'm very close to 3000 visits! Thanks again for dropping by, and hope you find the info that you were looking for!

On to the TV...

How I Met Your Mother - Girls vs. Suits TONIGHT! Watch for a musical number directed by Neil Patrick Harris himself to celebrate the show's 100th episode!

The Big Bang Theory - The Psychic Vortex airs TONIGHT!

Accidentally on Purpose - Our Odd Couples airs TONIGHT!

Scrubs - 2 brand new episodes TOMORROW!

Bones - The X in the File airs THIS THURSDAY!

30 Rock - Klaus and Greta airs THIS THURSDAY!

iCarly - there's been some consfusion with what's going on here. Unfortunately, iWas a Pageant Girl was not aired last weekend and will be aired at an unknown date (although Jan 30th has been thrown out there) after iSaved your Life (January 18th).

Grey's Anatomy - Blink airs this THURSDAY. This is a Grey's/Private Practice crossover, so make sure to catch 'Another Second Chance' (Private Practice) this THURSDAY to see the rest of the story!

And finally, American Idol will premier its NINTH season tomorrow at 8! Audition episodes will go all through January on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with guest judges filling in Paula's chair. Once the auditions are over, watch for Ellen Degeneres, who I hope will bring an objective consumer's perspective, and inject the show with some much-needed fun!

Music: The Listening by Lights

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays! The post about this album has been a long time coming.

Lights is one of my favourite musical artists. Her music is interesting, has depth, has a heart and soul, and is always guaranteed to make me smile. If you heard some of those Old Navy commercials last year with the synthy-pop quiet music, then yes, that's her. She's awesome, from Toronto, and is going to be touring with Owl City in the coming year! AND after years of singles, EPs, and random songs, she RELEASED AN ALBUM!

The Listening was released on September 22 (in Canada) and October 6 (in the States) and has almost all of her really famous songs as well as a whole bunch of new ones.

My favourite track by far is the title track 'The Listening'. Her already popular songs 'February Air', 'Last Thing on Your Mind', 'Drive my Soul' and the radio darling 'Saviour' form the backbone of the album. Songs like 'Quiet', 'River' and 'Pretend' are small gems to be heard in absolute peace and quiet.

What is commendable is her ability to put everyday ideas and phrases into music, and get her thoughts across perfectly. Her amazing writing abilities can be heard in 'Lions! and 'Pretend' in particular.

Put on Repeat: The Listening, Saviour
Skip it: Saviour (remix), a bonus track on the album

Some lyrics from 'Pretend':

Remember the times we had soda for wine and we got by on gratitude
The worst they could do to you was check your attitude
Yeah when fights were for fun, we had water in guns
And a place we could call our own
How we lost hold of home I guess I'll never know

It would be nice to start over again
Before we were men
I'd give, I'd bend, let's play pretend

TV: January = New Episodes of Everything

How I Met Your Mother:

Girls vs. Suits (Jan 11)
Jenkins (Jan 18)

iCarly:

iWas a Pageant Girl (Jan 9)
iSaved Your Life (Jan 18)

The Big Bang Theory:

The Psychic Vortex (Jan 11)
The Bozeman Reaction (Jan 18)

30 Rock:

Title Unknown (Jan 14)

Bones:

The X in the File (Jan 14)
The Proof in the Pudding (Jan 21)
The Dentist in the Ditch (Jan 28)

Other TV shows that may interest you (those not in the banner):

Scrubs:

New episodes on: Dec 22, Dec 29, Jan 1, Jan 5, Jan 12, Jan 19 (midseason replacements always get new episodes this time of year!)

Accidentally on Purpose:

Title Unknown (Jan 11)
Title Unknown (Jan 18)

Grey's Anatomy:

Blink (Jan 14)
Title Unknown (Jan 21)

House:

No info yet - check back later!

Gossip Girl:

No new episodes in January.

TV and Movies: Brittany Murphy dies at 32

Brittany Murphy (who rose to stardom in Clueless, and has since appeared and starred in many movies) died yesterday out of a cardiac arrest. She was only 32 and such a talent. Watching her on screen was wonderful, and The Ramen Girl remains one of the fun, obscure, inspirational movies that I love to watch. And I watched Clueless the whole way through a few weeks ago after several years of forgetting how funny that movie is.

She even has a few movies she was currently working on that have yet to come out. Best wishes to her family and to the industry for losing such a great talent too early.

Tourism: Canadian Museum of Civilization - Gatineau

In my (unsuccessful) quest to see all the museums in the city while I was here, I must say that the Museum of Civilization was quite the gem, but not for the reasons one would expect.

First off, I was pretty skeptical of there even being a ‘Museum of Civilization’ for a country so young. What could they possibly have to show as ‘artifacts of civilization’, I wondered. And after going there, I realized that ‘Museum of Civilization’ is a total misnomer. The museum is more like a bunch of smaller museums that don’t really fit anywhere else, all placed under the same building. These ‘sub-museums’ have no real relation to each other, but most are a lot of fun to go through.

I went to this museum with a friend and both of us agreed that the Children’s museum was the most fun out of all the ‘sub-museums’. The museum features a small theatre near the entrance followed by fake shops and areas with famous games (I saw small versions of Battleship, Clue, Monopoly etc) as well as ‘a trip around the world’ by visiting play houses built in the style of whatever country you happen to be passing. We let go of all our ‘grown-up-ness’ and went through all the exhibits, taking pictures in costumes and on motorcycles and in fake little toy houses.

Another fun ‘sub-museum’ was the postal museum, which was just a collection of old stamps, cool mail boxes, and had a temporary exhibit about how the postal service is used in popular culture. There’s even a place to sit and watch clips of movies where post/mail is an important plot point (e.g. You’ve Got Mail, The Notebook).

There’s also a First Nations ‘sub-museum’ with a great hall that we didn’t really get to enjoy because there were chairs and tables along the whole area (looked like a banquet set-up). Finally the Canada sub-museum (not really sure what it’s actually called) where there were huge sets with buildings and ships and stores with (freakishly realistic) mannequins inside. It was like walking through an actual town!

To get there: This museum is also really easy to get to, just take an Ottawa bus to Gatineau (the 8 stops right in front of the museum).

Picture Credit to NRCan. It almost looks like a resort. The building on the right is the archives building, the museum is the building on the left.

TV: iCarly New Episode in January, New Scrubs tonight!

iSaved Your Life will be the next iCarly episode (as far as I know), and will air on January 18th.

A bunch of other shows are now on Christmas hiatus as well (How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Bones, Grey's Anatomy, 30 Rock, Accidentally on Purpose etc) and will be back mid-late January.

There is still a new Scrubs on tonight!