surreality television

Utterly bizarre. First Nicole wins America's Next Top Model. Nicole! Bland, sweet, dimwitted, boring-with-a-capital-NORTH-DAKOTA Nicole over edgy, cool, model-in-a-bottle Nik. In six months of course I won't remember any of this but for now I feel disgruntled, not because I was invested in the show as much as because I like calling the winners and I called Nik several weeks ago. Bah.

THEN one of my bosses from work made a guest appearance on a different reality show, one of the ones I don't watch. Of course I made an exception for the occasion. My boss had about 10 seconds of screentime and one line of dialogue but he'd brought branded materials that I deal with all day, every day, and it was a trip seeing the name of the my company splashed across the screen. I'll admit it: I squealed.

End of the TV season! Wow. Everything's winding down. Only nine more workdays before the Entertainment Industry shuts its doors for winter break. For sure Mr. Ben & I will go to the Adirondacks for New Years again, meet up with a whole bunch of like-minded people, and for sure I could use the relaxation. Writing frantically has been my most reliable stress-reliever recently but mountain air, silence, trees twisting upwards like staircases ... That could probably help too. Especially in conjunction with some good drinking and some good people.

O 2006. I haven't given you too much thought before now. Let's hope you're the year wherein control of Congress changes hands again, great humanitarians get what they deserve, various elements of my life continues to stabilize, and a movie finally knocks my socks off again. Seriously, what have you LOVED this year? My top movies so far, Me, You, and Everyone We Know, the Squid and the Whale, Capote, Pride and Prejudice, and Good Night, and Good Luck, put together don't generate as much excitement in my bosom as Eternal Sunshine did, lo these many months ago. I'm not overly optimistic about the late in the game possibilities either. What, 2005, are you going to gesture meaningfully at King Kong and grunt? Hint darkly of Munich?

Well, we'll see, I guess. Maybe those studly gay cowboys will move me in a way I've never been moved before. (Recite with me now, spinmeisters: it's not about butt-love, it's about love-love. Everyone can relate!) But I know I'm not alone in my underwhelmedness.