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I read this really interesting article today from NY Mag about Gossip Girl. They happen to write my favorite blog recaps about the show, but this is a breakdown on why Gossip Girl is basically one of the most brilliant teen dramas of all time and how it's changing the way we all watch tv.

When it first aired, it got horrible ratings. By all means, it should've done great. With a following of all of us OC fans eager to see Josh Schwartz's next big project, to the millions of teeny boppers who've been reading the GG books (and all of its spin offs). But what happened was that Schwartz tapped into a new generation of TV watchers. Instead of watching the show in its 8 pm time slot, it was the #1 download on iTunes. Thousands viewed it for free on cwtv.com. Serena was hand picked by fans on internet forums before the show had come into fruition. And after the writers strike - the network had parents and prudes with their panties in a wad over the OMFG ads plastered all over cable and the internet. Countless blogs and websites popped up to follow the show, the actors, and everything Gossip related. GG proved that Gossip Girl viewers are too young - too hip - to be held back by traditional Nielsen standards.

Never mind that we aren't all young. I've got dozens of friends in their 20s that eagerly run to their DVRs for Gossip Girl. And what's even more interesting than that, as the article points out, we're all blogging about it, buzzing about the characters, emulating the fashion. We all check the blogs to see the latest leaked photos of the cast on set and can't wait for those webclips CW releases to preview next week's show. Dr Phil ran a special on "real life Gossip Girls" and websites like gossipreport.com got instant traffic as we tried to recreate our own Gossip fantasies. The Gossip Girl fans are plugged in, fashionable, and tech savvy. We've all got our camera phones ready to capture the next bit of gossip.

So Gossip Girl has revolutionized the traditional TV formula. We're watching more online, we're following the actors on the blogs, we're recreating their outfits on a more "beer pockets budget" and we're blogging about it, discussing it in forums, even talking about it at work. Not only has it turned the technological world they all live in into a reality for the rest of us, they've got us all hooked - and it's a guilty pleasure that I can't wait to see return to tv.

Read the full article here.

Okay ya'll! Last night was the official Farmer Wants a Wife season finale! I'm not gonna lie, it snuck up on me and I was glad to have DVR because I was gonna be sad if I missed the wife pickin. Now I put this big picture here so ya'll don't get spoiled if you don't wanna, and the recap is below.



So last night, Matt is down to TWO GIRLS. That means it's time for a wife pickin' and he intends on doin' just that. These girls are absolutely just set on marryin' this guy and I guess I see the appeal. I mean, he's cute in a country sort of way, and I definitely support his use of no shirt throughout the show. I'm a fan of shirtless men, what can I say. It's weird, because Brooke being a Dallas girl could probably find just as good men if she headed east an hour or so, but she's got her heart set on Matt regardless. Then there's Christa. She's from New York City, for crying out loud. Are you trying to tell me she really wants to move to BFE and become a wife? The only thing I figure is that maybe men really ARE that slim pickins in the city and with the death of chivalry, a guy from the country could look mighty good. Or she's really desperate, or trying to get her green card.

Anyway, Matt starts the girls out by giving them "wifely duties" to do. He sends Christa off to pay his tab at the grocery store, take a deer to the taxidermist, pick up a carborator, get some horse feed...and Brooke to pick up live crickets, catfish...order some part or something...basically a bunch of busy work because let's face it, he's really getting himself a slave he can make out with. Christa gets side tracked at the country store and starts counting her chickens before they hatch by asking the clerk if they carry condoms. Brooke gets stuck behind a train and is the last to return home. Of course, there's Matt sitting there with some sandwiches and quite possibly the largest bowl of chips I've ever seen. If he's trying to put them into a sodium coma, mission accomplished. After lunch Matt tells the girls he'll be taking them out on dates - and Brooke only has 30 minutes to get ready.

So she puts on 30 minutes worth of outfits, I think she changed like 8 times, and he takes her four wheeling and picnicing. Charming. Precious. Britney Spears was totally jealous. She wants to tell him she loves him but chickens out, which is amazing because I thought that stupid girls ALWAYS tell guys they love them. Maybe they're suppsed to give it up first. I have no idea. Then Brooke gets dropped off and Matt picks up Christa in a horse and carriage. At this point I'm thinking, well, she's won. Obviously. Brooke gets the country bumpkin date, and Christa gets the Cinderella date? No contest!!

He takes Christa to his house and bow chicka bow wow...shows her his deer head collection. She is not impressed by his dead animals but does like his big...bed. Right. So they have dinner and the porch and at this point I'm thinking...man, if that were me, I'd be missing Taco Bell by now. Then they make out a lot and he takes her home because he's a gentleman and he's also probably worried about getting caught on her weird lip ring thing.

And then comes the final day. The day Farmer Matt picks his wife. The girls are doing wine bongs in the living room when they hear a marching band. This is never a good sign, because that's usually when I realize I've probably had too much wine. But lo and behold, it was a real band and there he was on the porch with the Mayor, ready to make his announcement. He gives some kind words about the girls and then tells them that a crop duster is going to fly over head with one of their names on it. They both look at him like he's an idiot. But that's how I've always dreamed of being proposed to, none of this fairy tale on one knee crap! I want me a plane, dagnabbit!

And after painful and constipated silence, a plane flies overhead that says "MATT HEART BROOKE". Christa craps her pants and Brooke passes out. And at that point I'd had far too much and I decided it was probably time to get a hobby.

So Matt picked Brooke. Weird. I guess that means there's hope for all of us to find love. Or mail order brides.

    Well, despite what my trainer says, I'd like to point out that I'm not the slightest bit athletic. I love going to the gym and all that crap, but I'm not even sure if I can actually run outside. I don't even know why anyone would want to, there's no air-conditioner. Anyway, the point of this is - I don't know why I agreed to play in the "celebrity" softball game for The Buzz this weekend.
   
    I knew I was in trouble when I got an email that said, "Bring your gloves." YOUR gloves? I wasn't even aware that people owned gloves. And I figured, hey, we'll probably just play in a park somewhere or something. Heck no, it was at Dickey Stephens Park before a Travs game! Torture. Pure torture. I think I could've made it through kickball or dodgeball, maybe even soccer. But my softball skills are seriously lacking.

    So I showed up with the wrong handed glove, I'm left handed and I'd bought a glove for my...left hand. Of course it was a pink Disney Princess glove for a 3-5 year old, so it was also a little hard to catch things with. I was sitting in the dugout talking about how I hoped I would get injured so I didn't have to play. The only thing remotely cool about softball is the Girls Next Door socks, which of course I wore (in pink and purple).

    I'm standing on the field before the game even starts, and I hear, "Heads up!" And then a loud THUNK sound. Hmm, what was that, I think to myself. And then I realize my head feels like it's splitting in half. So I do the logical thing and fall over.

    Yes. I got hit in the head with a giant softball. And yes. It hurt.
   
    Interestingly enough, they benched me for the game and brought me about 17 million bags of ice for my head. Which I was grateful for until they started dripping on me. Our team won, though. I said it was probably because I wasn't on it.

    You know what's weird? I've been reading the Secret, and if I'd known I was going to get an instantaneous wish granting, I would've wished for a winning lottery ticket or a unicorn or something, not a softball to the side of my head. Yow.

    Have you ever been on myspace, sending a message or adding some friends and THIS dude popped up?



    DUDE. I have looked at the guys on match dot com, and they look absolutely nothing like this hunk of man meat. What zip code do I need to put in to meet him, again? Whenever I'm lucky enough to get him on my screen, I leave him up for an hour or two and just let him smile at me and pretend like he's really interested, which is more than I can say for most dates I've been on. I learned from downloading the video that his name is Danny. I decided to make it easier for us all to drool all over him by posting him on youtube.

    Danny. If you're reading this, email me. I need a boyfriend.

    I have a serious problem with magazines. The glossy pages, bright colors. The pretty pictures that pop off the page and the bold headlines that draw me in. Doesn't really matter who is on the cover or what's promised inside - I have my favorites that I'll always go back to. Ever since I was a teenager I've been addicted to Cosmopolitan. Mostly because of how deviant it felt to read it. I know I had no need for the "50 hottest sex tips" and "How to keep your man from cheating" at 14, but something about those pages always drew me in. I admit I barely read any of it any more, but that doesn't keep me from renewing my subscription each month.

    I actually subscribe to five magazines. Pathetic, right? They mostly just lay around the house. Sometimes they'll get tagged for outfit ideas or things I want to buy, other times I'll tear out pages and put them on the fridge to remind me not to eat too much ice cream. And with every magazine that arrives I have a ritual. Vogue, Teen Vogue, Cosmo, Lucky, and Shape. I only ordered Teen because I love the little size and it was 2 years for like 10 bucks. Lucky is how I come up with all of my fabulous outfits. Shape is because they always have the best celebrity bikini pictures and I like the whole healthy living/active lifestyle thing (I very recently adopted it myself, back in January). Vogue is the newest of the five, because after seeing SATC I decided perhaps it was time I grew up and appreciated big girl fashion instead of the neon pink hair barettes and leopard print tights that it's little sister boasted.

    Each time I get a new magazine, I flip through every page, cover to cover. I want to see all the pictures and all of the ads, then I start over. Usually after I see everything I take my time reading the confessions or reader mail, checking out the different ways to wear one piece, and see what the beauty picks of the month are. The magazines all get read several times, but why do I feel the need to hold on to them after that? I need to start a big book with all of the things I want to remember from my magazines. I can pull out the pictures and articles I want to save and trash the rest. Or recycle. Either way, I don't need the last years worth of Vogues laying around my house, now do I?

    I don't know what it is about magazines. We're always keen to pick up a couple when we are at the airport. They sit pretty in our bathrooms and on our coffee tables. We watch the Devil Wears Prada and secretly wish we could get caught up in that same glamour world. I've never been so much a newspaper gal. Mostly because there's no color.

    In 1998, a cultural phenomenon occured. The world was introduced to four women just like me and you, only better dressed. Every young woman from that day on had a wide-eyed dream of growing up and moving to New York to become a journalist. Every group of friends was based on who was the Carrie, who was Samantha, who was Charlotte...and did anyone left want to be Miranda? We all struggled with the ups and downs of loving and hating Mr Big at the same time and secretly wishing we had balls like Samantha. Manolo Blahnik became a household name and cosmopolitans were the new "it" drink. And then in 2004, our hearts were broken as we said goodbye to the four and the city. Thanks to boxed DVDs now a younger generation can enjoy the fabulousness.

    But at midnight last night, we said our chanellos to Sex and the City again. Was the movie everything we'd hoped for and more? Was it as magical as we expected?

    The answer is...YES. I had the pleasure of going to a midnight showing of the movie last night. It was so fun. Girls were dressed to the nines, arriving in packs, all a flitter about the night's events. This was monumental. It's like Lord of the Rings, only with fashion instead of hobbits. I read an article earlier that almost 75% of women surveyed said they would see the movie in a group. We're planning on going saturday dressed as our favorite character. Looking around last night, I thought perhaps we should be having a runway show beforehand, I could have easily been in a club rather than a movie theater. Then the first pangs of that piano theme began and the entire theater errupted into cheers. The energy and excitement kept up through the whole night. We laughed together, we cried together, we cheered when things got good. And we all clapped at the end (even if we didn't agree with the story line). It was such a fun experience. Even though New York City seems so far away and different from Little Rock, Arkansas, we all got a taste of it last night. I was practically giddy when it started and I saw the skylines.

    So how was the movie overall? Did the small screen favorite translate to the big screen? I say, yes. We pick up four years after season 6 ended. But don't worry if you haven't seen the show - Carrie brings you up to speed on everything that happened. And from there...we see where the women all are now. I have to say, I really did enjoy this movie experience. I do think it was worth the hype. I think the hype was half of what made it so fun. We've seen spoilers for months now on the fashion, but believe me, those aren't the half of it. If I could have just ONE bone in my body as fabulous as Carrie Bradshaw, I would absolutely die happy. I'm a Carrie, by the way, although as a fellow journalist I know no writers salary would support Dior.
  
    As for the plot, the show really is about relationships. It examines relationships we've all had, and emphasizes the most important one - our friends. No wonder we all started looking for our foursome after the first season we saw. Having a group of friends with that close of a bond is priceless. And the other aspect of the movie is the male relationships. I think there's a relationship for everyone there, too. I think a lot of girls have struggled with a Mr. Big, I think tons of girls were unsure about marrying their best friends. There are plenty of girls who just don't want to settle for one man and plenty of others who could easily live happily ever after. The entire movie is an emotional rollercoaster and I think you identify with your own emotions as they relate to the characters.

    Go this weekend with no expectations except to have a fabulous time. Go if you love fashion, friends, or just Sex and the City. And especially go if you've never even seen an episode. This is the quintessential chick flick of the year, hands down.

    And if you have to go against your own will, maybe this link will help you enjoy it either way
http://www.mollygood.com/sex-and-the-city-the-movie-drinking-game-20080529/

Have you seen Weezer's new video? I'm loving that it's more than just a tribute to you tube super stars, it's actually given them a place in popculture history! Some of everyone's favorite viral video stars are in the video - Tay Zonday, Miss SC, Dramatic chipmunk, Kelly, Chris Crocker...and K Fed?



I don't know if he's a youtuber or just showing off those amazing producer skillz (I spells it with a z for creds, ya'll) but somehow I like seeing him do what he does best in this video - be ugly and douchey.

    I figure I'm allowed to talk about American Idol on here, since Fox16 IS our sister station. Here's the thing. Every year, the contestants go into the final 2 pretty evenly matched. You're like, wow, they could both totally win. Then every year, one of the contestants crashes and burns, leaving a clear path for the winner. Of course the judges were playing favorites last night. They were treating David A like he was the second coming. It'll be nice that he's such a gracious winner and he really does deserve it, but why did everyone write off David C so quickly? I thought his rendition of Collective Soul was amazing.

    And how about those original songs? Those were the best America came up with? FTW. David Cook's song, and I'm terribly sorry if you wrote it...was a monstrosity. It was cheesy and sappy and just awful. It sounded like it should have been sung by Miley Cyrus. Dream big! Do bigger! You can do anything! Not that David A's was any better, but at least it kind of sucked slightly less than Cook's.

    Anyway, I'll be shocked if David Cook wins tonight, they set up Archuletta for the victory so I would expect nothing less. Of course, as my mother pointed out, we'd all rather Cook branch out and make a record seperate from American Idol. He's not exactly bubble gum pop. Blake Lewis didn't win and he was able to create an unbelievable album (that nobody bought, why? you suck!!) because he wasn't under the watchful eyes of AI. Not saying that Jordin Sparks' album wasn't good, because it was. But she was the cookie-cutter Idol mold, she fit the form and made a perfect record for them. Same thing that David A will do. Leave the real artists to do their own thing.

    So we'll see how things turn out. I left this like an hour ago so I seriously just lost my train of thought.