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Here's what you need to know: Allison and Rachael are former college roommates and self-professed pop culture junkies. Unfortunately, there's no trivia competition for us to enter where we might use our magnificent collective pop culture knowledge, so we've decided to be bloggeurs. Here at Currently Obsessed With, you can expect to read all about the our fixations on the mundane, inane, and sometimes profane aspects of the world we live in. Consider this blog a a loving tribute to the things that entertain us when we're bored.
contributors
Allison
I am a lover of all things Top 40, pop culture, Jimmy Fallon, inappropriate (especially jokes) and policy related. If that doesn’t take up enough of my time I’m also on my way to becoming a Social Studies teacher and couldn’t be more excited!
Rachael
The facts are these: I'm 22 and my main aspiration is to be a grad student. My favorite activity is laughing and anything in the pursuit thereof. I like the internet, postmodernism, and countless other ridiculous things. Sometimes, I don't make sense.
required reading
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CURRENT OBBSESSION: “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys.
What’s not to love about this song? Even Pitchfork can’t say nuthin about this song.
In all honesty, at this writing, I have not read the lyrics to this song, but song is so beautiful that I don’t even care if they are singing the phonebook!
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CURRENTLY OBSESSED WITH: Gossip Girl -The Book Series
Serena returns after being expelled from boarding school sending the popular Gossip Girl website into a tizzy, that’s where the similarities between the t.v. and book series basically end. Instead of trying to humanize the characters or make them relatable Cecily von Ziegesar’s books capitalize on the absurdity surrounding the importance of a group of over-privileged and under-supervised New York teens. Serena’s chased by a rockstar who writes songs about her after their first meeting, Blair is dangerously close to being denied from Yale after laying a big kiss on the interviewer, Dan the angsty poet whose only caloric intake is coffee and cigarettes dumps Serena for shaved head, black clothing wearing, filmmaker Vanessa and Chuck Bass is still well, Chuck Bass in all of his sexual, dandy and hated self; typical right? The thing about the show is you can’t stop watching because you, just like the rest of Constance Billard, are waiting to see what new escapades or hookups could possibly happen next. In my opinion this is where the book series excels over the t.v. adaptation. Gossip Girl is not a narrator, she (or he since the identity is unknown) is a bystander who knows no more and no less than the info and email the school girls and boys give up. Instead you the reader are actually privy to more details than GG making the experience of getting to her (his) portion of the book that much more satisfying because you get to challenge GG at her(his) own little game.
If you’re into the t.v. series at all the books are a must to check out. A short and easy read that will make you laugh.
-Al
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“Jon Bovi on Weekend Update,” 4/11/09
Since the election last November, SNL writers and producers have been leaning a lot on new-ish cast member Kristen Wiig, indulgently featuring her in almost every sketch. The line for too much Wiig was Gilly, a sociopathic, but ‘lovable’ character which functions on the sole basis of Wiig’s ability to look and act adorable. The line has been crossed and I have to say, I have Kristen Wiig fatigue.
That said (and without getting into my beef with Lonely Island), I think a lot of other really great impressions/characters/sketches get overlooked because everyone is ooh-ing and aah-ing over Wiig and one of those is JON BOVI, a Bon Jovi “opposite band” which made their second appearance on Weekend Update last night. These guys, portrayed by personal faves Will Forte and Jason Sudekis, are hilaaaar, ok? I mean, watch Will Forte’s face the whole time—that guy is going for it 100%! My favorite is the end when they do the opposite of Eye of the Tiger: It’s the nuts of the tiger, it’s the ennuii of the fight….
We haven’t had a good SNL movie recently, and I’m not gonna lie, I think these guys and their story would be pretty funny. On second thought, maybe the days of good mockrockumentaries are behind us….
Quote reblogged from fuckyeahtheoc
Our noses grazed. And it was like the most sexually charged nose-graze in the history of nose grazes. It’s essentially nose-humping, is what it is.
Seth Cohen (via fuckyeahtheoc)
Currently obsessed with The OC? Nay. ALWAYS obsessed with The OC. Some people grew up on 90210; we grew up on The OC.
Make sure to visit fuckyeahtheoc for some Seth Cohen adorkability, drunken Marissa, and more tv nostalgia from The OC.
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Don’t Touch Me by 3OH!3
I should hate this song and I think this band has a stupid name, but um… they had me at “Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips.”
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I will NOT make muffins! Muffins are for people who don’t have the nads to order cake for breakfast!
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CURRENT OBSESSION: kitchen confidential
If I’m being completely honest with myself and with you, Internet, I watched this show (after discovering its entire first season on Hulu) for two reasons, besides the basic reasoning that Sunday night TV sucks.
Number one: my brother is a culinary student so by proxy, I have a mild fascination with all things culinary. Number two: Bradley Cooper. He has occasional bouts of doucheface and for some reason I occasionally confuse him with Bear Grylls in my head, but I’ve been a little bit infatuated with Bradley Cooper since his February appearance on SNL. While the episode is probably forgettable to most SNL fans, Cooper’s evident enthusiasm was endearing and I thought that he was one of those rare hosts who seemed completely in his element performing alongside the cast.
But if I came to Kitchen Confidential with only a silly crush on a sorta-famous actor and a mild interest in culinary culture, I stuck around for the show’s stellar cast and up-tempo storytelling. The writers do not spend very much time letting the story stew and instead set up the premise that Jack Bourdain is a renowned chef recovering from a bad reputation; out of the blue, he gets an offer to take over as head chef at a “nice, really nice” downtown restaurant called Nolita (Frank Langella aka Nixon plays the intimidating financier). Jack assembles his rag-tag team of chefs in a mere matter of minutes (in TV time) and by the end of the pilot episode he is declared the premiere chef in New York City by the top restaraunt critic in town. See what I mean about up-tempo? The rest of the episodes follow suit by introducing a major conflict early-on and resolving it within 22 minutes. Very satisfying storytelling in contrast to the tendency that some shows have and that is to let the story slow-boil by concentrating on the minutiae of characters’ lives and teasing us with tiny morsels of meaning each episode but never letting us see what is actually happening until it’s all already happened. THIS SHOW IS NOT LIKE THAT and, while some may criticize it for that, I appreciate it for that reason.
Oh and that stellar cast? Immediately, I recognized Nicholas Brendan from Buffy as a scheming, fast-talking, not-as-cool-as-he-is-in-his-own-mind pastry chef and John Francis Daley as a comically nervous new chef from Freaks & Geeks. And then there’s my favorite: Steven the not-so-ethical, but always charming “kitchen magician” who can make anything happen played by Welsh actor, Owain Yeoman.
The show is inspired by chef, writer, and world traveller Anthony Bourdain’s book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2001) his expose/memoir of working in the NYC restaurant biz. The TV show retains some of the edge that Bourdain is known for, but Cooper’s portrayal of Jack Bourdain is notably more sanitized and more sober than the actual Anthony Bourdain. Cooper said, “I think of my Bourdain not as the dark, jaded guy in the book, but rather a Bourdain like Sam Malone in Cheers: the guy everyone revolves around, the semi-sane guy in a crazy place.” I certainly get the Sam Malone-ness, but if it’s any consolation for the other Anthony Bourdain fans out there, I think quite a bit of him is preserved in Yeoman’s Steven who is certainly not sober and hardly clean.
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CURRENT OBSESSION: gratuitous tackiness
There is nobody who embraces all that is tacky and gratuitous better than Lady Gaga. While many are inclined to brush her off for crime against fashion—which include (but are not limited to) incessant pantslessness, flesh-toned body suits, donning oversized geometric baubles, and the infamous hair bow—I am fascinated by her. I can’t help but wonder: is this chick for real or what? That is to say, there’s a certain sense of intrigue derived from watching Lady Gaga. Rich from FourFour says it perfectly:
…I know I’m watching a highly evolved pop star, someone who puts as much time and craft into existing as she does creating music and performing and tongue-in-cheek bantering. It’s clear that she’s in the youth of her stardom — there’s a sense of abandon often found in those who aren’t yet mature enough to realize that they’re mortal. At the same time, I wonder if it isn’t a social experiment, a way to test just how much the obviously rapt masses will tolerate.
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Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans for bringing some much needed spirit back to the D!
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