Oh My - Middle Eastern Simpsons

Best Week Ever had a very disturbing post earlier this week.

"The Simpsons are going to the Middle East! Except their names will be the Shamshoons:

The Simpsons fans in the Middle East
reacted with skepticism when MBC, an Arabic satellite channel,
announced it would begin showing culturally modified, Arabic-dubbed
versions of the iconic animated show. The Arabic dialogue laid over
existing shows is actually fairly faithful to the original script.
Nothing seems censored, but episodes such as those featuring Homer's
gay roommate or the visit to the Duff brewery are unlikely to be chosen
for translation. And many of the more American inside jokes are simply
glossed over.

Ned Flanders, the devout Christian
neighbor, is now merely annoying -- with no hint of religion. And
needless to say, the relationship between Mr. Burns and his assistant,
Smithers -- make that Salmawy -- has become strictly professional.

Some other changes:

Bald, chubby underachiever Omar
Shamshoon works each day at the local nuclear power plant owned by
vulture-like millionaire Mahrooey Bey. Every evening, Omar comes home
to a family that includes his blue-haired wife, Mona, hyper-smart
daughter, Beesa, and troublemaking son, Badr.

Now that’s winning hearts and minds."

Link from Best Week Ever

Who thought this was a good idea????

Damn You, Kristin Chenoweth!

I've wanted to go see "Wicked" since it opened.  Unfortunately with school and everything, I haven't gotten to see it yet.  And I generally don't like to listen to Musical Cast Recordings without having first seeing the musical.  But I was listening to NPR the other day in the car and they were playing "Popular" from Wicked.

Any followers of musical theater will know that Kristin Chenoweth plays Glinda in "Wicked".  "Popular" is a song in which Glinda (the villain in "Wicked") very obnoxiously makes over Elphaba (aka the Wicked Witch).

And anyone who has ever been in the room with me when Kristin Chenoweth has been on tv knows that she annoys the crap out of me.  Yes, she has a good voice.  An awesome voice, actually.  But she is so over the top treacly!  It makes me want to gag whenever I see her.  She pretty much ruined what could have been a good version of The Music Man (with Matthew Broderick) and one of the 4th of July shows on the Mall.  And then she had to show up on the West Wing.  Puke.

When I heard "Popular" on the radio, I realized what was wrong.  Kristin Chenoweth, you were born to play the villain.  No one wants to see you play Marian the Librarian.  And I actually like you as a villain.  You are great as the person everyone loves to hate.

Does this mean I might actually have to say I like Kristin Chenoweth now?

I'm Going to Kansas City, Kansas City Here I Come

Just found out I'm going to Kansas City for work in a few weeks.  Good barbeque, here I come. 

Last year on this project the most exciting place I went to was Buffalo...in March.  Unfortunately, I had the opportunity to go to Wyoming this year too, but it conflicted with my class.  Bah!

It's just a one two three four, five six seven eight nine - wooooooooooooooooo!

Sometimes Go Back to What You Love

On a whim, I was listening to "Beatles for Sale" the other day and I realized how much I really like that album.  It had never been one of my favorites in high school or college, but it's really a pretty awesome album.  Even Ringo sounds good on "Honey Don't" (more than I can say for later Ringo efforts).  I'm still not a huge fan of "I'll Follow the Sun", but there are some really rockin' tracks on this album.  I should add it to my driving playlist. 

Ugh - back to school

This week marks my first week of classes.  Boo-hiss.  Back to actually doing schoolwork on the weekends.

Silver Spring

We've been spending more and more time in Silver Spring recently.  Tonight we went to see Syriana at the Majestic and had dinner at the ever popular Macaroni Grill.  We spent some time in between walking around downtown Silver Spring, which has gotten to be really a pretty awesome weekend destination (way better than downtown Rockville - I don't even remember the last time we went to the Rockville Regal).  The only real downside is the lack of an easy way to get there on Metro (build the purple line already!). 

If I get into (and go to) UMD perhaps we will end up with a Silver Spring address. 

This is hilarious! WW recipe cards from the 1970's

Just read through these if you need a laugh.  I was actually laughing so hard it hurt while looking at these. 

http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html

Just for the record, I do WW now and believe me, their current recipes are a lot less disturbing.  A lot.

RiRa and Munich

Went to RiRa for dinner last night - any place that has Boddington's on tap is alright by me.  They had a really extensive menu and the food we got (crab dip and shepherd's pie) was good.  The atmosphere was the best part I thought.  I noticed they have pub quiz on Tuesday nights...

Then we wandered over to Gifford's for ice cream, which was good as always, though sort of ridiculous since it felt like it was about 20 degrees outside.

Finally we headed to the Bethesda Row Theatre (next door to Gifford's) to see Munich.  The theatre was surprisingly full for a Monday night.  I have to say, I really liked this movie.  It was a little long, but not gratuitously so, like King Kong was imho.  Definitely much better than a lot of Steven Spielberg's more recent works.

The New World

Jeff and I just got back from the DC premier of The New World at AFI Silver.  It's currently scheduled for wide release 1/20, but that is the third date that has been mentioned (previously was supposed to open in November, then 1/13, now 1/20).  It has been playing in NY/LA since right after Christmas. 

First of all, let me say that this is definitely no action movie.  I was a little afraid Jeff wouldn't like it as we were watching it, but he claims he did.  Maybe I can convince him to start going to see chick flicks like Pride and Prejudice with me now.  After all, he did go see The Family Stone with me and my mom.  ;)  Be warned that it is a very artsy movie - it almost reminded me of a foreign film at times.  Nonetheless (or perhaps because of), I really enjoyed the movie a lot.  The cinematography was just beautiful, and it actually made me wish that the American frontier still existed (that sounds so cheesy, I know).  For the hard core trivia fans out there, this is also the first movie in 9 years to shoot on 65mm film for non-effects shots.  A shiny nickle to anyone who knows what the last movie (released in 1996) was.

In terms of acting, I usually don't like Colin Farrell, but he wasn't bad in this movie (how is that for a ringing endorsement).  K'Orianka Kiltcher (Pocahontas) was amazing.  And I just recently found out that she is like 15, which blows me away.

I also liked the score (by James Horner) though Jeff gave it a thumbs down for "hurting his ears".  LOL

Indebleu Part II

No Mom, this isn't about you.  ;)

Some friends and I went to Indebleu last night for Restaurant Week.  This time around, I was more impressed with the food (mushroom dosa appetizer, cassoulet entree, and mint ice cream sundae for dessert) and less impressed with the service (we had a rather long wait between our appetizers and our entrees and we only got 2 pieces of naan).  I was really impressed with their drink menu.  One of my friends had a blackberry mojito which was really good and I had a "miniskirt" made with raspberry vodka, watermelon pucker, midori, and sour mix.  It tasted just like a jolly rancher.

What a Dilemma

Yesterday I found out that two of my favorite bands (Belle and Sebastian and The New Pornographers) are going to be touring together in March.  They are going to play two shows at my favorite DC concert venue.  And tickets are only $35 each.  Belle and Sebastian rarely tour in the US.  I was drooling and planning to try to buy tickets to both shows which will probably both sell out in minutes or less (no joke - the club capacity is only 1200 people).

Then today I realized that the first show was on Oscar night.  Jeff and I had plans to go to the AFI Silver Oscar party.  And Jon Stewart is hosting the Oscars so they might actually be entertaining this year.

Damn - what to do???

Roadtrip to Yellowstone

Jeff and I have decided that our big summer vacation this year will be a roadtrip.  Tentatively, we plan to drive to Yellowstone and back.  We already have a few ideas of places both new to us (like the Rock 'n' Roll HOF) and familiar (like Wall Drug) to visit, but I'd love to hear suggestions of other places.  Right now we plan to drive DC-Cleveland-Chicago then out on Rt. 20, through SD on I-90, and rejoin Rt. 20 in WY.  Jeff would like to drive through the UP of Michigan and down through the mitten and across Ontario to Niagara Falls on the way back, but  I don't know if that is going to work into our schedule.  At any rate if you know of any things we should see or good places to eat, definitely let us know.

Our first cut list of things to see:

• RNR HOF



• Adler Planetarium and Museum of Science and Industry



• Galena, IL



• Field of Dreams film site



• The Corn Palace



• Badlands NP



• Wall Drug



• Deadwood



• Mount Rushmore/Crazy Horse/Custer State Park



• Devil's Tower NM



• Independence Rock/Oregon Trail sites



• Yellowstone NP