As soon as Casey James started singing “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, I actually looked up from the laptop which I have terminally attached to my hip and said aloud, “He isn’t seriously going to do this too?”

But he did. Bret Michaels showed up live on stage to sing his signature song with Casey, and while it was totally wonderful and fabulous… I am worried about him! Yes, I’ll say it. I’m very concerned.

I know. I am a dork of the highest order. But I love Bret Michaels. LOVE HIM. DH knows this and actually feels bad for me when I “worry” over his health. I loved Bret when I was in high school. When I first became diabetic I took solace in the fact that Bret had it too. I watched him win Celebrity Apprentice on Sunday and thought that would be the end of seeing him publicly for awhile.

And then comes American Idol. It wasn’t that the performance wasn’t great, because it was. The crowd loved it. Take a look:

As soon as Casey starts singing people are going, “Is Bret coming out?” which is exactly what I was doing at home.

But seriously, Bret, you need to stay and rest! Rest, my rocker, rest. You are simply too cool and awesome to leave this world early, and to stay here awhile you need to take care of yourself.

What was Idol meant to do? Find talent that normally would not have been discovered. Last night my favorite guy, Lee DeWyze, made it into the top two. The reason I love this guy is not just that his voice is amazing, or that he’s humble and talented, but that before Idol he worked at a paint store! He wasn’t like Carrie Underwood or Kelly Clarkson before him, who had shopped their voices around trying to get a record deal. It was refreshing to see this guy, who couldn’t seem to believe that he was really good enough to be a recording artist, progress each week.

DeWyze’s voice is really amazing, and every song he sang this year felt like something I could hear on the radio. He’s got a very distinct voice and I personally can’t wait to buy his record. It doesn’t even matter if he wins next week, I know that dude is going to get a record deal. How can he not?

Here’s an example of what I mean. He sang “Treat Her Like a Lady” which is a 40-year old song and yet it sounds like it could be on the radio today:

Here he is singing one of my favorites, “The Boxer“:

And finally, one of my favorite songs of all time, the one that can make me cry and stand up and cheer all at the same time, “Hallelujah“:

I didn’t think I’d find a version I liked better than Jeff Buckley’s, but this one comes very close. I also think it’s fitting that Simon Cowell chose this song for judge’s week for Lee, because it could very well launch his career.

I rented the movie, which comes on two disks because it was an HBO miniseries, and could barely finish the first and decided to skip the second. In the movie, Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots meet up for a “secret meeting” (oooh, the intrigue!) except one of the most fascinating things about their rivalry was that they never met in real life. The movie had the times all messed up on when Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou were talking marriage, on when Robert Dudley dies, on when he marries Lettice Knollys (and the fact that she’s the queen’s much-hated look alike cousin is never even discussed.)

I’m all for taking liberties in movies, but this was too much. I mean, I enjoy the Showtime Tudors series (which really makes some leaps) but I wasn’t in the mood for it this time I guess. I think one thing that bothered me was that this had so many British actors in it. When you usually watch a BBC film it’s much more closely related to the facts. I guess they’re a bit more careful with their history than we are.

In this age of instant gratification, we decided to view an episode. A quick search on Netflix got us a random episode from the first season in 1972. It was titled “Botulism.” It really brought back some memories. It was dated and silly, and I loved every minute. Dig the conversation between Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller) and Dixie McCall, R.N. (Julie London):

In looking back, I realized why this show stuck out for me: Randolph Mantooth. He played John Gage (one of the paramedics) and I’ve just loved him ever since. He was just on an episode of Criminal Minds not too long ago.

After that, my husband said there was one episode from Quincy he’s always wanted to see. It also involved botulism. A quick Internet search showed that the particular episode (21) was shown in 1980 during Quincy‘s fifth season and was called “Deadly Arena.” Do you remember Quincy? That great Jack Klugman show? Here’s the opener from Season 5:

I do remember the show but had no idea it actually went on for five seasons! As we watched it, my husband remarked that his dad could not stand Quincy because Jack Klugman never seemed to show his top teeth. He was strictly a bottom teeth actor. (Mark my words, now that I’ve told you this you will never look at Jack Klugman the same.) Besides that, he’s the worst over-actor since William Shatner, and I mean that in an awesomely cheesy way. Everything on Quincy is a crisis. “What do you mean the test results are not in! They MUST. GET. HERE!”

Quincy was definitely the CSI of its day, but the thing that struck me was how much of a swinger he was. Who knew?

As we finished watching these shows (and laughing our fool heads off), I had to wonder: what was it back then with all the botulism?

When I do watch reality TV, these are the shows I enjoy, in no particular order. Some of them are done now, but most of them are still going strong.

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Celebrity Apprentice

I secretly call this show the reality game show for marketing people. I never watched the non-celebrity version, but I can’t imagine it’s as fun as this one is. First of all, they have just the right level of celebrity as contestants. They are anywhere from B-D list in my opinion, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are business minded. For the last two seasons, I wrote episode updates and in doing so got hooked. This year, I get to watch the show without working during it (imagine that!).

This year, I’ve enjoyed rooting for Bret Michaels. Bret is a fellow diabetic and playing for the American Diabetes Association. That’s one thing that is so great about the show. The celebs are passionate because they are playing for charities that are near and dear to their hearts. Here’s a clip of Bret talking about why he wanted to go on the show:

The best part? He raised $100,000 on the very first night for diabetes!

The other cool thing about this show is that the celebs are really involved in some challenging tasks. It isn’t a cakewalk. They work hard, are often denied food and sleep, and you really get to see their true personalities (or perhaps, the worst part of their personalities) come through. Here’s a clip from last year where Joan Rivers and her daughter went off the on the rest of the team because Melissa got fired from Trump:

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Keeping Up With the Kardashians

I didn’t watch this one from the beginning, but caught it while I was in the craft room painting earlier this year. All I needed to see was one episode and I was instantly hooked. First of all, how can you not love that Bruce Jenner is the dad to all this craziness? Their lives are all beyond the normal (especially for someone who doesn’t live in Hollyweird) and it’s very fun to watch. Here’s a promo clip from last season:

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The Real Housewives of New York City

This show is light years away from your average person in anywhere-land, USA, and that’s one reason I like it. Who can relate to this stuff? I first started watching because I noticed Bethenny from Martha Stewart Apprentice was on the show. I liked Bethenny on that show, and find myself rooting for her on this one as well. This season has been one of the craziest ever. Here’s a clip:

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Celebrity Rehab

Here’s my secret desire: to be someone that helps others. I’ve always wanted to be a social worker or some kind of person that sits and holds someone’s hand and helps them get to the next level in life. I’ve experienced a lot in my life, and always wanted to be the type of person that would encourage others to rise above the rotten things life has handed them to make them believe that there is a better way. That they deserve to be happy. That despite the worst childhood and all the negative leftovers that remain into adulthood, you can rise above it all and be free and happy. You can.

When I tell this to my husband, he says that I already do that with writing. I’m not sure about that, but it would be great if he was right. I know for certain that if I was in a traditional social worker role, I would undoubtedly be terrible at it. I would get too emotionally involved to help. That’s one reason I adore Dr. Drew so very much. Let’s face it, he’s smart, dedicated, gorgeous, and with all he’s done to bring addiction to television is a modern day superhero. I think it’s important for people to see what addiction really does to people. Sometimes people really can’t understand how addiction affects their life and maybe by seeing it through the lives of these celebrities they will finally be able to do that.

Here’s Dr. Drew on Ellen talking about this past season of Celebrity Rehab:

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American Idol

This is another one I didn’t watch right from the beginning. I came in around Season 4, but have been glued to the TV every Tuesday and Wednesday night since. Just when you think they can’t find yet another great singer, here comes my favorite Lee Dewyze this year:

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The Singing Bee

This was a short-lived show, but I never missed an episode. Joey Fatone from ‘N Sync fame hosted, and the contestants needed to complete song lyrics in order to win. As you can tell by this clip, singing ability did not matter:

What did matter was knowing the words. I was awesome at this show, and loved the fact that tone-deaf folks like myself got to win on a show about singing.

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Any Cooking Show

Cooking as spectator sport…. who’d a thought? I can’t list just one show because I pretty much watch them all… Top Chef, The Next Food Network Star, Iron Chef, any cake or bake off… you name it. If it has cooking or baking or decorating… I’m probably watching it.

What’s your favorite reality TV show?

It got us thinking about game shows. I’m a huge game show fan, so much so that I actually proposed a “game show blog” to a client a couple years ago. (They said it was “interesting” but declined nonetheless.) It’s one of my “it will never happen” goals to be on a game show one day. Wouldn’t that be a blast?

Many of my favorite game shows are from the 70s. I don’t think it’s a nostalgia thing either, I just really believe that game shows were more hilarious back then. Here are a few of my favorites. See if you agree.

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Match Game

This has to be the all-time best game show ever, and if you watch it, you have to view the 70s version. In fact, I loved that they called it “Match Game 73″ or “Match Game 75.” There was a reason this game was so good. It had a formula. There were three regular players who were Richard Dawson (who later went on to host Family Feud and was also in Hogan’s Heroes), Brett Somers (who was initially brought on at the request of her husband, Jack Klugman) and Charles Nelson Reilly. Gene Rayburn was the host. While this show started in the 60s, the 70s versions are much better because Mark Goodson and Bill Todman took over production.

The remaining three seats were filled by guest stars, always a cute perky young lady in the bottom left, a guy in the top left, and a funny lady in the bottom right. The writing was outstanding, and they did a lot of double entendre. For example, in the clip below, “Have you heard about Charles Nelson Reilly? He got a BLANK while streaking.” The contestant would fill in the blank and try and match the stars.

The other thing that made this funny was that, in true 70s form, the panel was drinking, smoking, and just always messing up. They were having a blast, and it made it fun to watch. To this day, if a Match Game comes on the tube my hubby and I sit and watch.

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1 vs 100

I so wanted to be on this show! 1 vs 100 isn’t on anymore (sigh….) but it still airs in reruns. I would have wanted to be in the mob (of course!) because I think it’s way more fun than being a contestant. The gist of this game, if you’ve never heard of it, is you actually answer questions against a panel of 100 people. You try to knock them off one by one. When you get it right and they get it wrong, they are out. Trouble is, if you get it wrong, the mob members split your cash. If you knock the whole mob out, you get a million bucks. Here’s a clip:

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Identity

Identity was hosted by Penn Jillette (from Penn and Teller fame) and had a very short run. Still, I loved it. I was so good at this game, I would have totally kicked butt if I were on it. Besides that, at the time it ran, I had just found out that my “This I Believe” essay was the second-most popular on the entire NPR website. Second only to Penn Jillette, that is! It stayed that way for years and years, and now, four years later, it’s STILL the fourth-most popular on the site. At the time, every time I would watch this show I’d marvel at the popularity of my essay, because Penn was famous and no one knew (knows) who I am.

Anywho, here’s a clip of Identity if you missed it.

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World Series of Pop Culture

This is the only game show I have ever actually tried to be on. My husband and I are huge geeks, and we know a lot about pop culture. We had a friend who was equally geeky, and we decided to try out for this game. Unfortunately, the questions they asked in the sampler were so darn hard we never made it past the first round! LOL. But it was fun to watch anyways.

Here’s a clip:

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Duel

Duel was another short-lived series, but really clever. It was hosted by Mike Greenberg, who before this show I had only known from the sports world. Contestants had to use a different kind of strategy with this game, but it wasn’t just about knowing the answers.

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Jeopardy

On a daily basis, Jeopardy is the game show I watch the most. I tape it every day, and shout out the answers, all the time pretending I know them all. I tell myself I would kick butt on the show. I doubt I would. Sometimes this show really depends on the categories, though, so if I was on and say the category was “Tudor History,” I’d win it all.

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Grand Slam

I hope they have a few more seasons of Grand Slam, because this show was like watching the two smartest people in the world battle it out. The concept was that they took the biggest winners from tons of different game shows, and had them answer questions from math, verbal, trivia, literature, etc. It had people like Ken Jennings, John Carpenter, Brad Rutter, and Ogi Ogas. The one match with Ogi and Ken Jennings was one of the best I’ve ever seen in my life. Here it is:

Brainiacs rule. Totally.

Like most subjects in life, my opinion seems to fall somewhere in the middle. I admire his work, and there is a part of me that is very sad to hear of his passing. I didn’t know him. Never met him. He wasn’t a driving force in my life. But he wrote words that moved me and more importantly, have stuck with me. For that reason alone, I feel a bit sad for the literary world that he is gone. The funny part of that statement, of course, is that he was a recluse and hadn’t published anything for fifty years. So why will the world miss him? Because he made an impact on a generation of readers, and also because, he was still fighting the good fight. When John David California tried to publish 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye about a 76-year old Holden Caulfield, Salinger fought back. He might have been 90 years old at the time, he might have been absent from the publishing world, but he wasn’t about to take it quietly. I liked that.

Like any recluse, there is a mystery about him which endeared him to many people. Some people have attached their own ideas about what he was like. They idolized him because he wasn’t in our faces showing us what he was really like. It seemed that even one of his children felt like we did. Salinger’s daughter Margaret wrote Dream Catcher: A Memoir, which used her past experience with her dad and passages from his writing to try and understand him. I thought it was interesting that she would use this method to try and tell his life story.

Like a lot of teenagers, I read The Catcher in the Rye in high school, and I was prepared to hate it. Why? Because I’d heard so much hype about it. Funny how sometimes we just want to dislike something simply because so many other people think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. There are so many books and writers that get judged harshly just because a lot of people seem to like them.  For Catcher, I wanted to hate it, but loved it. It was the perfect thing for a wannabe teenage writer who was dealing with a lot of stuff at home. I could relate to the boy who wrote poems on a catcher’s mitt and longed to stay at the edge of the rye and save people from themselves.

One scene in particular, where Holden is watching Phoebe go around the carousel, and he so happy to see her enjoying herself but then she stumbles a bit and he moves forward as if he is going to catch her, but then realizes that sometimes you just have to let people do what they’re gonna go. Oh yes, I understood that very well.

So many of Salinger’s stories have stayed with me. I can still picture the water scene in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” where Seymour Glass is by the water with Sybil. The technical aspects of the story were brilliant, the ending disturbing, and the symbolism magnificent. I read this one late in my teens, and it taught me much more about short story writing than anything I’d learned in school. I can’t help but to think that writing that leaves a mark on you, even thirty years later, is some good stuff!

I fear what will happen now is probably exactly what Salinger feared. His writing, if the rumors of his continued work are true, will be published, devoured, and criticized beyond belief. After all, you can’t follow up a blockbuster (and a legend) and expect it to have the same impact. Still, I think this is where I greatly disagree with Salinger’s life. I want to write, and keep writing, even when people mock me or tell me I’m no good. Writing is how I understand the world, but writing in a vacuum is self-indulgent and meaningless. I don’t want to get so caught up in my own mind that I don’t want to make new friends or even talk to the people who have enjoyed my work.

Still, his choice was to leave it at the books he wrote and publish no more. He must have been satisfied with that decision, and we all need to come to peace with our choices.  In other words, it was the way he chose to live, so who are we to judge?

As a final thought, how about a few lines from Salinger’s work:

“I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.”

Rest in peace, J.D. Salinger.

Scrubs

When Scrubs first premiered I loved it. Loved it! I worked with a woman at the time that “didn’t get it” and I’d sit there and explain the jokes to her. (Which always manages to be downer.) Anywho, a few years ago I lost interest. They had just done as much as thy could with it. This year, however, they have really managed to make it interesting once again. They did something that is very hard to do: bring on new characters while still making the old characters new and interesting. Well done Bill Lawrence and crew!

Fringe

I love J.J. Abrams so I gave Fringe the benefit of the doubt even after it slowed down to the point of being boring. I’m glad I stuck with it, because it’s outSTANDING now! I love the storylines, love the tie-ins of Walter and Peter and Olivia, and especially love the answering of questions they had started. Well done.

Will and Grace

Again, Will and Grace started out so strong, but somewhere in the middle it lost ground. When the producers finally decided to end it, the show became fabulous again. Great guest stars, hilarious stories, and the very best ending for a series I have ever seen in my life.

Seinfeld

Seinfeld is a known for starting out slow (and really stupid) until it became funny (and still stupid, but in a different way.)

Those are my picks. Which shows would you put on the list?

But have you ever sat and counted how many books you read in any given year? I never have, but have come across a few folks that diligently recorded their reading adventures. I have to say, this task amazes me. First, because, when I finish a book I simply want to review it or just be done with it, and second because, I already record so many other parts of my life that I can’t imagine doing it with books. But people do and it’s kind of a cool thing. Especially when you are like the fabulous lady at A Striped Armchair. Her 2009 reading list is truly amazing!

When I saw her post I immediately tried to count the books I had read in December, and already couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t remember how many books I read and when. Sheesh.

I’d considered starting a list of books I’d read for 2010…. but you know I’m never going to keep up with it. But I can tell you about a few books I’ve read in the last few weeks. First is Sue Grafton’s latest U is for Undertow. Can I tell you just how amazed I am at her writing ability? Not only did she develop one of my favorite characters of all time, but every single book in the alphabet mystery series has gotten better and better. Another layer of the character is revealed with each one. The latest is a story that floats back and forth from the 60s to Kinsey (the main character’s) present day, which happens to be 1988. I love that she writes in this year because I’m not a fan of mysteries that use so much technology that solving the whodunit just doesn’t even seem fun. I met Sue Grafton at a book signing once years ago, and it was the first author appearance I had been to that was absolutely packed beyond belief. I think we all waited something like two or three hours, winding our way through a long line in the bookstore. (The only other author I can remember doing that for was Bruce Campbell. And well… he’s Bruce Campbell. So there you go.)

Another book I recently finished is Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. I’d read the first one of these, The Nanny Diaries, and was appalled and outraged at the wealthy people in the book, and loved Nan and her family. About the same is true with the sequel, except Nan is married to Ryan (hottie from book one) and contemplating having children herself. The authors do a great job of writing about the upper crust of society and their family issues.

I also reviewed Robin Maxwell’s new book, O’Juliet for Working Writers. Robin took Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and turned it into a historical novel, which I just loved. She’s one of my favorites and definitely did a fabulous job with O’Juliet. The book comes out next month and I recommend that you all pick it up!

Those are a few I’ve read this year so far (this month!). Which brings me back to my main point. Do you keep track of the books you read? And if so, how many do you read in a year?

I love the writer character on this show immensely. It takes a really special actor to pull off a character like Castle. You can’t overdo it the wrong way (if that makes sense) and Fillion is probably the perfect guy for this job. I’ve watched a handful so far, and I like the whole “writer following a cop around” type schtick. It works. It’s cute. My husband and I laugh out loud at times. But there are also some really great storylines. Castle with his daughter is a good example. I am so happy to see a teenage character on a show that isn’t a rebellious, smart-mouthed, mess. It’s lovely. Yay – writers of Castle. You rawk.

Love the mother played by Susan Sullivan, and Castle’s apartment is pretty groovy too. Whose place is that in real life? I want it.

Besides all that, is it just me or are there a lot of redheads on that show?

I’ve been catching up on these through DVD, which the producers were very smart about getting out there quickly I think. The show is on now so you can watch all of Season 1, get caught up, and dive into Season 2. The show airs Mondays on ABC.