Funk Up Your Journey: Glee Season 1 Wrap-Up

So, I realized this weekend that I had made pretty much one of the most egregious mistakes ever - I totally left out anything on the season finale of Glee. Furthermore, I didn't talk about the episode from the week before either! What kind of Gleek am I? I am so ashamed...

Before I continue, it's important to note that there are SPOILERS ahead. Notably, there are not only spoilers for these particular episodes but a lot of storylines are wrapped up so there may be spoilers for mid-season episodes as well if you haven't been keeping up. So, this is my obligatory SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Furthermore this post will include a lot of video recap which speaks for itself so I apologize in advance for any lack of a witty rapport.

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To rectify said mistake, I shall now confer upon all of you the fantasticalness that has been the end of the first season of Glee.

Let's start with the Funk episode.



Now, I have to say that I care very little for the funk genre of music. There's something about it that is so horribly 70s that makes me want nothing to do with it. Furthermore, it tends to seem exceptionally fabricated and camp to me (granted, most of the people who grew up with that music would say the same about today's pop music), but it's just the way that I feel personally. Now, that being said, Glee takes it to a place where I can really relate to this style of music. This seems to really be the musical strength of the show. They could sing "Mary had a Little Lamb" and based on the context they would make me love it. There's something to be said for the power of visuals and storytelling and these spill over into the music that the show puts out for our enjoyment.

While the episode's music turns out great, I don't think I necessarily cared for the plot very much. Here's why: the Jesse St. James storyline for whatever reason kind of fell into a black hole and then came back to slap us in the face. In the episode "Bad Reputation," Rachel hurts all of the guys - Finn, Puck, and Jesse - by having them star in the awful, awful video and rendition of Run, Joey, Run but each thinking they were the sole star. At the end of the episode we see Jesse walk out of the choir room, like everyone else, quite hurt. However, this is never really explained to us, but apparently in Funk, we find out that he had actually completely left the glee club, something that was never really flushed out, and I had to comb back through the episodes to piece together an understanding of it. More confusingly, he has moved back to Carmel High to be in Vocal Adrenaline, though he and Rachel had seemingly made up as he helped Shelby get in touch with Rachel. The last we saw Jesse, he had put on the tape of Shelby singing, "I Dreamed a Dream" for Rachel. Yet, now he's completely slighted and back at Vocal Adrenaline? My guess is that this is mostly a function of some scenes that never made it into the final aired versions. Supposedly when the episodes are released outside of iTunes over the summer, they will have extended content, most likely including some scenes that makes this whole void of a storyline much more understandable.

So here we are in Funk, with Jesse and Vocal Adrenaline performing "Another One Bites the Dust" to psych out New Directions. Honestly, compared to past Vocal Adrenaline numbers like "Rehab" and "Mercy," it didn't do much for me. What did do it for me in this episode? Two things. The first is Quinn's solo performance of "It's a Man's World." Now, there's something slightly disturbing about the fact that it include teen mothers who are all very pregnant dancing around the glee club choir room, but that aside, Dianna Agron continues to blow me away. In some of her early songs like, "I Say a Little Prayer" or "You Keep Me Hangin' On" her voice comes across as a little weak or breathy, but here, you can see that the girl has some amazing raw talent and soul. Yes, I have to admit that, like Mercedes, I also was like, "Um, what?" when Quinn announces that she wants to do a funk number, but this totally made me take it back!



Now, the other song that makes me really love this episode and somewhat redeems it's crappy storyline elements is the final number, "Give Up the Funk." Now, when I first saw that this was on the song list for Glee: The Music, Vol. 3, I have to say that I wasn't sure what to think. Basically there were two ways that it could have gone - completely horrible trainwreck or mountain of flaming awesomness. Which way did it go? Definitely the latter.



Also, although you may think it's totally dubbed in, that actually is Chris Colfer (Kurt) at the beginning of the song. He confirmed it on his Twitter page, noting that even the other castmates didn't believe it was him at first. The lines at the end from Jesse and the girl from Vocal Adrenaline bring the episode full circle and give us lots of hope for regionals. That being said, I don't have much else about this episode considering I didn't even like it THAT much, at least compared to the others, so let's move on to the awesomeness that is Journey!



Now there are a couple of things right off the bat that let us know that this isn't going to be the simple tour down the yellow-brick road that we would like it to be. Fresh off of the Cheerios' win at nationals (which Kurt is a part of by the way), Sue Sylvester is asked to be one of the celebrity judges at regionals along with, we later find out, Olivia Newton-John and Josh Groban (who have both had guest spots on Glee in previous episodes), and the Ohio TV anchor who was also a judge at Sectionals. This immediately sends everyone in the Glee club into a panic. How could they possibly even place when Sue, who has spent the entire season trying to sabotage and destroy the glee club, is one of the judges? We would later find out that this was actually the least problematic thing facing them at regionals. First, let's start with the 6 minutes of your life that should always leave you smiling. If it doesn't, you may, in fact, be a jerk. I'm just sayin'.



I don't really know what I can say here. "Faithfully" was actually the first Journey song that I ever fell in love with and I think Finn and Rachel killed it (note: this is right after Finn tells Rachel that he loves her and hopes to have a second chance with her - this is the first story line that gets some closure in this episode). Second, the mash-up of "Any Way You Want It / Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" is now on repeat in my iTunes. Lastly, and I think most importantly, I was surprised that Glee not only brought back but revamped and possibly topped "Don't Stop Believin'" which was kind of the inaugural song for the series and the one that really put it on the map. However, here we see that the song has evolved from the initial 6 voices that made us love it (Rachel, Finn, Artie, Tina, Kurt, and Mercedes) to the entire Glee club, most notably showcasing Puck and Santana. Again, I would just like to point out the fact that it's a total travesty that they hid Naya Rivera's voice under a rock for the majority of the season. It's absolutely amazeballs! Yes, I love Mark Salling's body voice too but hers is one of the show's great gems. At any rate, was like musical closure to see this number to have grown and evolved just like the characters in the glee club had throughout the season and it totally rocked my socks.

The other major number of the episode was Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff) and Vocal Adrenaline performing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Again, like many songs that show up in Glee, I honestly never really cared for "Bohemian Rhapsody" before. I know, I know, that's like some great travesty against music, but it was just never my thing. I would like to say that this performance helped that, and it did a little bit, but it's just hard to cheer on Vocal Adrenaline when we've been groomed to hate them all season. The song overlaps quite nicely with Quinn giving birth; I'd just like to say that the fact that Quinn gives birth in the course of one song is definitely preposterous and while you could say that there's a time difference, the rest of the glee club is shown in the waiting room during the montage, however, I chalk this up to just one of the things that Glee takes a bit of realistic license with and that I have to accept. That being said, you can judge for yourselves (note: This is one of the few songs throughout the season that airs in its entirety and takes up pretty much entire segment of the show):



Now, since I've warned you of SPOILERS! I'll just go ahead and say that unfortunately New Directions doesn't even place at regionals. Vocal Adrenaline takes first place (BOOOOOO!) with Aural Intensity taking second. This leaves us in doubt as to what will happen to the glee club (though given that the show has already been renewed through season 3, it would be ridiculous to think that the club was going to get canned). Ironically, it's Olivia Newton-John and Josh Groban who end up sinking New Directions' chance at winning. Their cynical attitude leads them to choose the big production effects of Vocal Adrenaline over the "rag-tag bunch of misfits" from New Directions. Now, can we say that New Directions truly deserved to win? It's hard to say. Realistically, the glee club is in fact made up of misfits who have been together for less than a year and for the better part of that hated each others' guts. However, their talent is impossible to deny. It could be that they didn't have the stuff to stop the production juggernaut of Vocal Adrenaline but also the cynicism of the judges feeds into most of it. Back to that ironic part. Sue? For everything she did, she ends up letting her integrity as an educator and coach direct her decision though Will will likely forever think that she's a horrible monster who voted against New Directions for the sake of hurting them.





So basically we see that Glee will return to us for another year (actually 2!). We wrap up the major storylines of the season:

1) Finn and Rachel getting together
2) Quinn's pregnancy (and the baby's subsequent adoption by Shelby - awesome!)
3) Will and Emma (I didn't mention this but Will confronts her and wants another chance, though she'll supposedly get together with her dentist)
4) New Directions vs Vocal Adrenaline
5) Sue vs. the world.

All in all, it wasn't the ideal outcome. New Directions didn't place at regionals. But for a storyline perspective, I can't say that it was a bad decision. Let's say that they had won, then what? Where do you go from there if you set the bar that high? Would they then go on to win nationals? That would pretty much kill the premise of the show in two seasons. This way, we can see New Directions start another year with a new-found respective for each other and their craft and continue to bring us joy in music and hyperbolized stereotypes. Loves it! Can't wait for season 2! Until then, stay Gleeky!

A Little Bit of Vanity Never Hurt Anyone

Also, as a much less than 1,000 word blog entry, can we just talk about how awesome I think my glasses are? They kind of make me feel very nerdy chic or a little Clark Kent without the weird alien-from-outer-space-with-preposterous-super-powers-and-a-weakness-for-green-rocks-and-women side. However, while I loved them when I picked them out, I have to say that when I first put them on, I wondered if they said young, hip, indie nerd or middle aged, power lesbian. I'm now leaning more back toward the former.

Before glasses:


With glasses:


With glasses after haircut today:


I have to say that I've always wanted glasses because I thought they made smart people look smarter. I consider myself to be relatively smart, and so deeply desired to have glasses to enhance my intellect possibly to world-dominating proportions. For the longest time, the curse of perfect vision lingered over me. Luckily, grad school has come along and maimed my eyes just enough to spark the use of these lovely little lenses. A good thing? I think so. Thoughts?

iLove the iPad!

As promised, it's now time to talk about Thing 2. If you don't follow me on Twitter, you should (#shamelessplug), but if you do then you probably already knee that Thing 2 which was a bit of a gift to myself as well as a bit of a birthday gift from my parental units is the iPad!


Ok, the picture is slightly creepy, I know. But let's be honest, if you had an iPad you'd be fine being a little creepy with it too!

I have to say that although I know a lot of people see the iPad as simply an overgrown iPhone, this has not been my experience with it all, at least not yet. I think that the iPad can serve a great function in-between the iPhone and the computer. One of the great things that I loved about the iPhone was that it consolidated a lot of things into one place. I could use my phone as an iPod or conversely I was able to use my iPod as a phone. Let me tell you what dudes and dudettes, going from carrying around a phone and an iPod to simply carrying around the iPhone was the best thing to happen in a long time. Pulling out my BlackBerry to tweet or check emails while needing to fast forward to a new song was a hassle and a half. The iPhone was a great way to consolidate those two world. Of course the apps didn't hurt either and flawless integration with my MacBook Pro also won it brownie points, but that's another story.

The iPad serves a similar function. It incorporates some of my favorite features of the iPhone, mostly the apps and such, with some really nice computer power and functionality. Although the iPhone can and does play videos, the iPad really picks up on that and takes it to a new place. The iPad really has a good sized screen for mobile video viewing. It's not huge but it's certainly better proportioned than the iPhone and much better quality thanks to it's power. Also the iPad is much MUCH better for viewing and editing documents than either the iPhone or BlackBerry could have ever hoped to be. It helps that the iPad is naturally about the size of a piece of paper. What better size coulee there be for working on documents?

The keyboard is of course more accessible than the iPhone's though it still isn't the best. As people have said, the touchpad keyboard is great and serves a very specific purpose, but it will never replace the grounded feeling and physical feedback that you get from feeing your fingers fly across raised keys on a real keyboard. Sure, the letters on the touch keyboard are positioned in the same places which obviously is the big thing and while definitely help make it easy to get accustomed to, but you have to kind of believe that you're touching the right place and you only get confirmation from at based on the words that show up. There's very little spatiotemporal reassurance from touching the keys or to know that you've made a mistake.

That aside, the iPad runs like a dream. There aren't really any hang ups and even most of your iPhone apps will work on it. Some of them may not perform optimally and some do crash, but every day hundreds of apps are being added solely for the iPad. Remember, it's less than 3 months old. The iPhone has had years to build up an app base and since most of the apps are written by 3rd parties and not by Apple, it will just take longer for apps to emerge, but they're only limited by the needs of people. If there's an app that people need, it'll probably be made.


The other thing that I really enjoy about the iPad is the book reader. All I can say is that if you're even remotely considering buying a Kindle or, God forbid, a Nook (Barnes and Noble's feeble attempt to get on the ebook gravy train), pass them up and just go straight for the iPad, even if it's just the basic 16GB wi-fi version. By googling the Kindle, the price for it comes up on Amazon as $259. It has wi-fi as well as 3G capability (though these seem to be only to get you to the books) and a PDF reader. Now all of that sounds great right? It's not too terribly expensive and has some neat capabilities (including an interesting text-to-speech feature). However, the Kindle has only a 6" display which as far as I can tell has no backlighting (if I'm wrong about this someone let me know). That alone might not be enough to sink the ship, but there are a couple of other things to keep in mind. Although the Kindle is wi-fi and 3G capable, there's not much that you can do with that functionality except to find books on the go. Before we tackle the other aspects of why it's better to choose an iPad, let's simply start with the ebook functionality of the iPad. Exhibit A:


You see those apps at the top? Those are the iBooks, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble apps respectively. Each of them is free (F-R-E-E, free!) and provides access to the respective book libraries. That's right. All those books that you can buy with the Kindle? You can buy them with the iPad too. This isn't to say that you can't buy most of your books out of the iBook bookstore because you can, but Apple probably hasn't established rites with all of the publishing companies yet to get a hold of all of the copyrighted material necessary to have all of the same ebooks that Amazon does. But with the Kindle app, who cares? Between these three apps, if it exists as an ebook you're going to be able to get it on your iPad. Here's a look at the iBook app:


It's all very simple. You just click the Store button at the top, search for the book you want, purchase it with your iTunes store account, and download. Then once it shows up on your bookshelf you just click to start reading. From there you just tap on the sides of the screen to flip the page, or you can actually drag your finger as though you're flipping a real page, just for the added experience. I would show you a screenshot of the book that I'm reading right now Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Inner Skinnygirl and Free Yourself From a Lifetime of Dieting by the completely awesome Bethenny Frankel, but because of the copyright, I'm really reluctant to do so. I'll see if I can find some reassurance on doing that. Until then, just know that the books read flawlessly, are backlit exceptionally well, and blow the Kindle out of the water.

That alone is almost enough to really justify the iPad over the Kindle. That being said, even the low end iPad starts at $500, almost twice the cost of the Kindle. That might be enough to make some people balk, but remember what it is that you're getting. Really this is a mini computer. Remember all of that talk about consolidation? Here is one of the best ways you could possibly do that. The iPad can serve as a movie viewer, iPod, ebook reader, digital picture frame, surf the internet, has access to thousands of apps, can produce and edit documents with those apps, access and store your calendars and contacts, and so on and so on. The iPad is really only limited by the imagination of those who are making apps. The Kindle is NEVER going to move past being an eReader.

Now will the iPad replace your iPhone or your MacBook Pro? Highly unlikely. But it can definitely supplement them. Yes, having a laptop is great but it's really not all it's cracked up to be in the sense that it's hard to use on the go. Yes, it can GO from one place to another, but using it on the subway is definitely difficult as is trying to use it on a plane if you're not lucky enough to be in First Class since there is zero room. The iPad can work in those environments really well though because of it's size while still having some oomph behind it. If you want to travel but not carry your entire office with you, the iPad might be a good way to go. Like I said, the iPad is only limited by the apps that are made for it. It's up to your imagination to make it work for you, and it can! So in closing, all I can say is that if you're thinking about even maybe potentially considering getting an iPad, go and check it out in the Apple store, you won't be disappointed. They will probably have to reserve you one because they can't keep them in the store before they fly off the shelves. On the bright side, this may help to keep you from impulse buying as you'll have a few days to think it over before you have to pay for it. Now, go enjoy the shiny toy and be super envious of Thing 2 =)


Note: I typed this entire blog post in my iPad using the BlogPress app. It took still roughly 2 hours to do which really isn't substantially longer than I usually take with other posts, though going back and forth from one kind of keyboard to the other sucks donkey balls.

Cooking Under the Watchful Eye of Julia Child

So, once again, I've already failed at keeping up with the blog. The past week has been about trying to get back into the swing of things now that my two week (and somewhat unplanned) vacation is over. That being said, even though I'm no longer on vacation, I've been trying to treat myself to a few things to make my non-work life more bearable/enjoyable/exciting. We'll start with Thing 1 because it'll be easier and quicker and we'll get to Thing 2 tomorrow (and no, it's not the Cat in the Hat).

Thing 1:


That's right. It's Julia Child, bitches. That is, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Vol. 1. And it's not JUST volume 1, oh no. It's the whole box set... BAM!


Didn't see that coming did ya? Well, actually, considering how much I love food (a la the last blog post) it may not be THAT big of a surprise. However, I've always been fairly content to let other people cook for me instead of going to the trouble of cooking for myself. Let's be honest, especially in grad school after working anywhere between an 8 to 12 hour day, an hour train ride each way to school, along with anything I have to do when I get home, who really wants to go through the trouble of prepping and cooking a meal that's mostly just for yourself? It's so much effort for so little payout. Ok, well, if you're cooking Julia Child's food, maybe it's a lot of payout and well worth it, but still, her food is aimed at a target audience of 1950s and 60s housewives as opposed to the poor, working grad student. That being said, all it took was watching Julie & Julia to rekindle a love of cooking which stretched back to my childhood cooking with parents.


Let's be honest, if you didn't like Julie & Julia you may be one of the following: Oscar the Grouch, anorexic, anti-Amy-Adams (how dare you?!), anti-Julia-Child (really? you'd go there?), living under a rock. I didn't include anti-Meryl-Streep because this is mostly a universal contradiction. Mostly Julie & Julia is a feel-good culinary soiree that isn't worth missing. Moreover, it made me, like I'm sure it made many other gays and/or women, run out and rediscover the joy of Julia Child (well about a year later anyway when I finally had the money to afford her books =P). This is not to say that I didn't know something of Julia already. She's shown up in popular culture quite a bit, including a skit on SNL back in the day. Also, once the promotions for the movie started, I had to go out and learn more. It was Julia who taught me how to really make an omelette on YouTube before I moved into my apartment in Boston. Talk about invaluable advice.



I think what makes Julia Child such an icon is not necessarily her recipes or even her unique stature and voice or the fact that she was one of the first real TV chefs. It's really about her no-apologies attitude to cooking. In an age where we have Top Chef, Iron Chef, Bobby Flay on the Food Network 5 hours a day, and have access to more kinds of awesome food than ever, it can be intimidating to step into your own kitchen and think that you can come out with something like Julia or any chef mentioned above could make. But when you go in with an attitude of, "I'm going to make what I think tastes good and it may or may not work out right or perfect but I'll cook with passion" then it's hard to go wrong.

Keeping all of that in mind, I had to try out one of Julia's recipes as soon as I got the book. What did I make you might ask? No, it wasn't the boeuf bourguignon, at least not yet. However, I was inspired by one of the recipes from the movie. So, I went for artichokes with hollandaise sauce along with rosemary, thyme, and garlic roasted red potatoes. This all sounds really fancy and complicated, but it actually wasn't. It did take a while, but that was mostly to allow for boiling the artichokes and just letting the potatoes cook. The actual prep time and time spent over the stove was really minimal.

Now, I don't mean to steal Julie Powell's thunder (note: if you want to take a trip through the Julie/Julia project just be mindful that navigating through it is a bit difficult thanks to its age), though perhaps given some of the criticism she's received over the years from both other bloggers as well as Julia Child herself I might not want her thunder (note: I recommend clicking the links here for some viewpoints on the subject), but I do like food. This will never be a tried and true food blog, but you're going to hear about my cooking and you're going to like it! Ok, maybe you won't like it, but maybe you'll be entertained by it. No? Not entertained by it? Sorry =(.

The nice thing about Julia Child's cookbook is that it really is an all-in-one resource guide for cooking. It's not just about the recipe like so many cookbooks are, but Julia took the time to talk about the things you were cooking with. For instance, there's a full page and a half on the anatomy of artichokes, when they're in season, and the best way to go about preparing them for cooking. This, I think, was part of Julia's quest to make cooking a science that would produce awesome results every time. Sure there was room for some messiness in the execution (don't be afraid to put that omelette back together!) but consistency was ultimately the name of the game. That being said, it's not that hard to boil artichokes once you know how to cut and clean them (thank goodness... they're so intimidating!). Hollandaise on the other hand is an entirely different matter.

It's amazing what you can do with eggs and butter, but they say that the sign of a true chef is in how they handle eggs. Getting eggs to do what you need them to do, especially when heat is involved is not so simple. The problem with eggs is that when you add heat, you can scramble them really quickly if you're not careful. Of course, if you're cooking breakfast, this isn't a problem. However, if you're trying to make an amazing sauce, you don't want it to come out all scrambled. How do you get around this? Well one of the ways is similar to what you do with chocolate by creating a kind of double-boiler. Basically you simmer/boil some water (depending on how hot you need to be) and then place a bowl over the sauce pan so that the heat is indirect. That all sounds well and good, right? RIGHT?! Too bad that eggs are still ridiculously finnicky. The first time I tried, I totally scrambled them and didn't really realize it until I'd started to add the second round of butter to the mix. At that point, I realized it wasn't looking very saucy, but instead it was looking kinda looking like pancake mix or something. So, I tossed it out and started over. The second time around, armed with a whisk, cold butter, and my steely resolve, I whipped those eggs and the butter into a frenzy that resulted in one of the most awesome sauces I've ever tasted. How did I accomplish this feat? Julia.

Will I ever be a chef, much less attain the level of cooking someone like Julia did? Not in a million years. But I don't think that's what the point of the cookbook was ever really about. Sure, we in America tend to think of French cooking as haute cuisine, but for the French, it's simply the way you cook. There's no reason it can't be the same way for us. That means we can make it work for us without having to be gourmet chefs.

The final ingredient to the dish was the potatoes. I have to say I had a bit of an affair here. My rekindled dedication to cooking this past week also led me to another cookbook by another person that I really love - Ina Garten.


Ina's show on the Food Network, Barefoot Contessa is easily one of my favorites. Although I don't think a lot of her food is practical for your everyday person cooking for everyday eating, it all looks so delicious! Last summer I made her seafood stew and it turned out ok, but probably would have been better with practice and fresh seafood (I mean, the woman lives in the Hamptons, how can you compete with that level of freshness when I was cooking in Kentucky at the time?). So I recently bought Barefoot in Paris and I like to think the potatoes that I made from it only mildly cheated on Julia. Julia does have a recipe for potatoes but they're more sauteed in butter which was close to, but not exactly what I was looking for. Instead, I did a play on Ina's herb-roasted new potatoes. The great part? They're SO EASY! I substituted red potatoes for golden new potatoes just because I like them better and used what herbs I had as opposed to the ones called for in the recipe. They were still classic herbs, though (the recipe called for parsley and some other stuff, I just used rosemary, thyme and garlic). Basically all you do is melt some butter in a pan, put in the cleaned potatoes, toss, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. No, really. That's it. Although Ina's recipe says to add the herbs at the end for about 5 minutes, I felt that this really defeated the purpose. I mean, we cook chicken with all of the herbs, why not the potatoes? So I tossed in the rosemary, thyme, and garlic at the beginning (note: putting in the garlic was a risky move as it can burn or overpower pretty easily). The only important thing is to shake the pan as you go to keep the potatoes from burning and sticking.

So, artichokes, hollandaise, and herb-roasted potatoes. How did it turn out you might ask? Well the artichokes were ok. I think I might try artichokes Provencal one day to just amp up the flavor. The hollandaise sauce definitely made the artichokes, but the problem with it is that it's quite rich - after all, it's eggs and butter with a splash of lemon juice and that's it. So the artichokes were pretty good, but the potatoes? Oh. My. God. I will commit that recipe to memory forever and ever because I pretty much had a foodgasm. And here is picture to taunt you with:


While we're on the make-your-mouth-water-with-food-that-I've-cooked train, here's something else that I made a while ago that I'm pretty proud of - Cajun-rubbed tilapia over Cajun-spiced rice with a chickpea salad:




Now that you're all thoroughly hungry (as am I) I shall only wrap up with this: between Julia and Ina, my love for Paris and the French have been rekindled. After all, if they can bring us food like this, then they have cooked their way into my heart. Not to mention the fact that if Paris doesn't touch you're heart, then you're a Grinch. That being said, may you dream of food in the City of Lights.