Chain of Lakes tour

A light-hearted video tour of my beloved chain of lakes . . . Never mind the sort of annoying framing; enjoy the scenery. :)

Aliens in America

In my frustration over the dwindling selection of decent silly TV shows to watch, with the writers' strike and ABC's frequent rerunning of previously aired episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who, and Big Shots, in an act of desperation, I went over to CW to see what I might be able to find. (Since I continue to refuse to pay for cable just to get the basic channels, believing it is criminal to charge me to be the depository of advertisements for corporations wishing to cultivate new desires in me, I'm limited to what is available streaming over the internet.) And I've become surprisingly charmed by a new show there called Aliens in America.

The premise: A kind-hearted Pakistani teenage orphan named Raja lands in the middle of Wisconsin, to a stereotypical American Midwestern household: The mother lovingly smothers the family, the bumbling father (played by delightful Scott Patterson, Luke Danes in Gilmore Girls) navigates the baffling world of being the sole breadwinner through various jobs and moneymaking projects such as raising llamas in the backyard, the older daughter wakes up one day to find she is one of the hottest girls in school, and the younger son seems so interminably relegated to geekdom, the parents try to treat his status with the social equivalent of electroshock therapy by taking in a foreign exchange student. They imagine the fantasy exchange student will whisk their son straight to the category of most popular boy in school as he trots across the football field, his blond locks blowing in the breeze as the muscles ripple all along his tall Nordic frame.

Instead, they get Raja, and much hilarity ensues. At its heart, it's a very lighthearted and silly comedy, and it surfs along on the waves of various caricatures of American and Pakistani culture. Raja, naturally, wears kurta pajama and a head covering, prays to Mecca five times a day, avoids immodest talk and images, and speaks English with a heavy South Asian accent. But relying on these stereotyped caricatures, the show pokes fun, most of all, at the Midwesterners who can't seem to stop calling Raja Roger, assuming he is a terrorist, mistaking him for a Mexican or persons of any number of other nationalities, and expecting him to speak alternately for all Muslims, all people of color, or anyone who isn't from Wisconsin. In the process, there's just a hint of political critique embedded in the fun (though I also wish, like the folks at Vulture, that it weren't always at the expense of Midwesterners). Along the way, there are lots of quirky moments that keep you guessing.

Although I'm not sure how long I'd follow it if I had Lost and Battlestar Gallactica back in the spectrum, I have to say, I'm enjoying it for now.

Mom, my first issue of Martha Stewart Living has arrived, with "all the comforts of home". :) Thank you so much. It's nice study-break reading.

I totally covet the high-tech/old-fashioned kitchen on the cover, though I would substitute warm, sunny yellow on the walls and red or blue accents in place of the pale yellow ones.

All this makes me think, though. I finally share the opinion that Martha is rather retchingly bourgeois. Of course, it would be swell to have a hydraulic lift in a linen cupboard that carries a hidden flat-television screen upwards to watch the Daily Show before bed and then tucks it away under a piece of wood that is seamlessly integrated into the surface of the furniture when you're finished with Jon Stewart. But give me a break. Who has that kind of money and space, besides Emily and Richard Gilmore?* Really. Seriously. It's too much.

No wonder everyone thinks Americans are crazy, and we are spending all our money on consumer goods made in China, and making our houses bigger and bigger all the time to make room for all these things. "In my house, all the juices, fruit and vegetable, have to be FRESHLY SQUEEZED." And in mine, Martha, I'll accept nothing less for cream for my coffee than the milk fresh from the bosoms of my ladies in waiting, which they provide right after polishing my silverware, and right before getting on their hands and knees to scrub my grout with a baby toothbrush.

Oh, oh, and you know what else? Her cat is named Vivaldi. Are you serious!? It almost makes me want to get a cat to name it Poulenc or Shostakovic. But that would be cruel, and having an ironically named pet is almost as bad in my book as getting an ironic haircut.

Still, though, I love the gift, Mommy, and I will happily take her magazine with me into the bath, to manufacture desire. You know I need something to get pedantic about sometimes.

*I just made my way through season 6 again, and it made me remember how good The Gilmore Girls was before Amy Sherman-Palladino and husband Daniel left for greener pastures. (What a shocker. The network was withholding a decent contract to them. Seriously, isn't this case-in-point about the importance of good writing to good television. Things went south SO fast when they left.)

Tony Kushner documentary airing on PBS Wednesday

Hey (American) folks with TVs, there's a new documentary about the astonishingly wonderful playwright Tony Kushner, Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, that is airing tonight on PBS. He talked on NPR's Talk of the Nation about it today.

It's times like these I wonder if it wouldn't be worth it to foot the cable bill. And then there are the rest of the days of the month . . . :)

Outstanding Television Journalism of Livingston County

All the most exciting events of Livingston County.

Now, don't you wish you lived in such a cosmopolitan locale.