Speed Shrinking

   My favorite fiction novel that I’ve read this year would have to be Speed Shrinking by Susan Shapiro. Actually, it’s probably one of my favorite books I’ve ever read, period. It’s a fast read that is light, entertaining, and hilarious. A perfect combination. While most fictional books I’ve read involves a character who is mysterious, depressed and misunderstood, it was a nice change to read about someone who is actually a believable adult. 

   The main character, Julia, is just about as likable as a person can be. She’s a New York living, self-help guru, who’s created her fame by telling people how to quit their addictions. While she herself has cut out alcohol, drugs, and bad men, there are two addictions that she struggles in kicking. Sugar and her Therapist. I mean, with a plot like that, how can you not pick up this book?

   I am a firm believer that characters become that much more interesting and lovable when they have therapist. I’m not sure why this is, but this book is no exception in my theory. And the fact that Julia is addicted to her therapist makes me love her even more. Her therapist is  intense, opinionated, yet also kind of good for her, and I found myself having the same struggles with him moving Arizona as she did. Is that sad? In order to beat her addiction to him, Julia really has no other choice but than go “Speed Shrinking,” (hence the title), by seeing eight therapist in only a couple of days. I’m telling you, this book is a must read.

   While on her journey to find a new shrink, Julia also has to find a way to lose the pounds she gained during her mourning period, before her self-help publication date. Yikes! With the struggles of trying to cut her sugar addiction by only eating things in moderation, Julia eventually cuts out sugar completely, which is something her old therapist always recommended. Fear not though, Julia doesn’t find herself running back to him, she uses his advice to kick her addiction to him too. She cuts him our of her life completely.

   If you’re looking for a quick read that will surely leave you in a good mood, I very much recommend this book. It’s interesting, it’s funny, and it’s extremely relatable. It’s by far one of the best books I’ve ever read. 

Tina Fey

   If I had to think of one person who was responsible for my love and excitement for television and film, it would have to be Tina Fey. I don’t know if it’s the fact that she’s an amazing actress, a wonderful writer, or just simply reminds me of myself, but Tina Fey is a huge reason in why I want to work in show business.

    I do have to say that when I had first realized that I wanted to write scripts for a living in high school, comedy wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. In fact, it was the opposite. I wanted to write movies about depression, suicide, and sadness, something that would make people cry and question their own existence. I don’t know what the exact reason was for me changing my mind so drastically over what I wanted to write, but I feel like Tina Fey had something to do with it. One day I woke up and realized I didn’t want to make people sad or depressed, I wanted to make them laugh. 

    I’m not going to lie. The first time I had even heard of Tina Fey was when she was impersonating Sarah Palin on SNL. I had thought she was just another actor on the show and didn’t really pay all that much attention to her. A year or so later I found myself watching 30 rock. The show she not only starred in, but basically brought to life being the creator, writer, and producer. I’m embarrassed to say I wasn’t watching the show because I had found it incredibly entertaining, but because it came on after The Office and I just didn’t really feel like getting off the couch. 

    Overtime, I grew a great love for 30 rock. One, some might call an obsession. It was so witty and wonderful, and being a teenager who didn’t really date ever, I found the character Liz Lemon to be an inspiration. A single 30 something woman with a kick-ass writing job in New York City? What more could a girl want? (Hint: I believe this is one of the many reasons I aspire to be a writer in NYC.)

   With my love for Liz Lemon growing, I found myself searching for what else Tina Fey had done. She just really seemed to get me, and being a teenager girl, that was almost an impossible thing to do. To my surprise she had written Mean Girls. You know, just the most quotable movie of all time. No biggie. She was also the head writer on SNL for a while. Whoops. Remember when I thought she was just another actress on there? Yeah, she had actually already left the show and was asked to come back because of her striking resemblance to Palin. 

    Tina Fey was also the author of a book entitled Bossypants. It’s a tell all of her awkward beginnings as a theatre student to her awkward encounters as a successful career woman. If I wasn’t totally in love with Tina Fey before, I most definitely was after reading her book. She is an incredible woman, filled with incredible stories and ideas. While it breaks my heart that she has no idea who I am, she is a huge part of why I am the way I am. 

Anchorman 2

   Last week I finally saw Anchorman 2. Now, let me point out that I’m not normally a huge fan of stupid humor. I do however, for some reason, very much enjoy the Anchorman movies. Or I just really love the cast. I mean, seriously, talk about a dream cast. This movie was drowning in hilarious celebrities. 

   The plot was of course, stupid and weird, but I mean, that’s kind of why you go to see this kind of movie. You go to seem something stupid and weird that will take your mind of the stressful and awful things going on in your life. That’s the point of comedy. 

   Ron Burgundy is enraged that he gets fired while his wife Veronica Corningstone get’s a promotion to be the lead anchorwoman. Of course, being the man he is, Burgundy makes his wife choose between himself and the job, so naturally, she picks the job. Being alone and no longer an anchor, Burgundy finds himself working at Sea World, in which, he gets fired from as well. 

   Freddie Schapp, an executive from GNN, the world’s first 24 hour news channel, offers Burgundy a once in a lifetime opportunity to get back on the air. After declaring the idea of a 24 hour news station, ridiculous, Burgundy decided to reunite his old team and head out to New York. Even though Champ was selling bats as fried chicken, Brick was dead, and Brian had become an established cat photographer, they left that all behind and headed up to New York with Burgundy.

   Once in New York, the team finds out that they were hired for the graveyard shift, and how essentially, no one would be watching. However, with getting into a fight with the prime time guy, Jack Lime, Burgundy makes a bet in which if the graveyard shift didn’t get more viewers then prime time, he and his team would move back to San Diego. If they won, Jack Lime would have to change his name to Jack Lame. 

   While in real life, we know this is impossible, because even if his presentation of the news was pure gold, most people would be asleep, simply unable to see his perfection. For the sake of film reasons though, Burgundy and his team win the bet and therefor get moved to the prime time slot, and Jack Lime became Jack Lame. In this success, everything starts to really well for Burgundy. The audience loves him and he starts a romance with his young and very pretty boss. So, what could go wrong?

   While ice skating for some event, Jack Lame decided to throw a cord out onto the ice, one that I’m guessing he hoped Burgundy would trip and fall over. Burgundy, however, does more than that. He falls so hard he goes blind, costing him his career, his hot young girlfriend, and his dignity. Naturally this would be the time in which he reconnect with Veronica Corningstone and his son, as well as become an excellent artist and shark owner.

   Fortunately, in today’s day in age, there was a procedure in which to fix his blindness. With his sight in tact, nothing else could hold him back from becoming the anchorman he was born to be. The question is, would his career take the place of his new found relationship with his family? They answer is yes, and Burgundy chose his family over his career, fighting all sorts of news teams on his way (best part of the movie). 

   The story has a happy ending and left me in a great mood. I would definitely recommend seeing this. 

Beautiful Darkness

   I feel like everyone between the ages of 14-25 has probably heard of Beautiful Creatures by Kim Garcia and Margaret Stohl. You know, they one that was made into a movie in 2013, that while it was good, killed the wrong person at the end of the movie, thus completely ruining it? Well, after my nearly half of year grudge over the movie, I decided to read the second book, Beautiful Darkness. 

   If there’s one thing I regret in my high school years, it’s not reading enough. While I was an avid reader in elementary school and now in college, I read maybe two or three books a year in high school. The reason I say that is, it’s extremely hard to read about a burning romance between two sixteen year olds, when you yourself, is a very single, never had a boyfriend, went to prom alone, eighteen year old. So, with that being said, I believe if the book lost a little of the “mushy-gushy, I’m only sixteen, but I know what true love is” bullshit, it would have been a lot more entertaining, as well as about one hundred pages shorter. 

   However, I must give some credit to Kami Garcia and Margaret, for making me like a Fantasy book. I’ve never really been a fan of the supernatural. It’s nothing personal. I’ve just never really found it all that entertaining. In the sixth grade I got halfway through the first Harry Potter book, before finding the whole thing with wizards and magic boring, and moving on to The Clique series by Lisi Harrison. (Sorry Harry Potter fans. Please don’t hate me. I promise to read through the series one day.) I don’t know if I like the Beautiful Creatures series because the majority of the story is told by a mortal, who’s girlfriend happens to have powers, or the fact that my mind is opening up to find more topics interesting. (See Harry Potter fans! There’s still a chance.) Whatever the reason is, the story line is good enough to keep my attention.

   Favorite character you may ask? Probably Link. Being the best friend of a guy who’s dating a light/dark caster, this guy is pretty chill. He’s up for anything, doesn’t really take anything too seriously, and is helplessly in love with Leah’s older sister Ridley, who happens to be a siren. (I’m not good at explaining characters or terms only known in certain series, so you’re just going to have to read the series in order to understand what I’m saying. I strongly suggest you read this series.) 

   I’m not going to lie. I was kind of ready for the book to be over. It’s over 500 pages, and like I said earlier, at least a hundred of them are mushy-gushy crap. So of course, by the time I hit the last paragraph, I was overjoyed. That excitement only lasted a short while though, because as it turns out, the last sentence is a cliff hanger. I now must read Beautiful Chaos. 

Sports with Carson Eckerty

This weekend was the 2nd round of the NFL playoffs. For some it was a stepping stone to the conference finals while for others it was a season ender. The first game of the weekend was between the terrifying Seattle Seahawks and the road wary New Orleans Saints. The game started with neither team being able to put together a drive but the Seahawks finished the 1st quarter with a 6-0 lead on the Saints. The Hawks came out in the second quarter with a fire, with Marshawn Lynch running in a 15 yard touchdown with just 9 seconds off the clock. The Saints on the other hand didn’t get anything going until the 4th quarter when they ran in a touchdown and had a successful 2-point conversion to cut the lead to only 8. But then Marshawn Lynch came back a few drives later and destroyed any chance of a Saints comeback with a 31 yard touchdown. The Seahawks ended up winning 23-15.

The second saturday game was between Tom Brady’s Patriots and Andrew Luck’s Colts. The first quarter was a shootout, with the Patriots LeGarrette Blount putting up 14 on two touchdowns and the Colts putting up 7 with an Andrew Luck touchdown pass to Brazill. In the second the Pats started to pull away by putting up another touchdown while only giving up a field goal and a safety to lead the Colts 21-12 at halftime. The Colts attempted a comeback in the 3rd by bringing the deficit down to only 7, but it was the Pats time to shine in the 4th. Steven Ridley and LeGarrette Blount put up a touchdown each and the defense didn’t give up a thing to the comeback Colts ending their run. The patriots won the game 43-22.

To start out the Sunday games, the 49ers were set to take on the Panthers. The 49ers struck first with 2 field goals in the first leading the Panthers 6-0 at the end of the first. But Cam Newton and the Panthers stormed back with a quick touchdown in the second   and a field goal in the middle of the quarter to jump up  to a 10-6 lead over the 49ers, but Kaepernick came in and threw a touchdown at the end of the quarter to Vernon Davis to lead at the half. The second half was much different, with the 49ers putting up 10 points without giving up a point to win the game 23-10 over the Panthers.

The final game of the weekend was between Peyton Manning’s Broncos and Philip Rivers’ Chargers. The Broncos being heavy favorites going into the game did not disappoint in the 1st half, with Manning throwing 2 touchdowns to lead the Chargers 14-0 at the half. The 3rd quarter didn’t change a thing with Broncos hitting a lone field goal to take a 17-0 lead going into the 4th. The 4th quarter was much different. Philip Rivers came out with a passion to win the game throwing 2 touchdowns and getting the Chargers a field goal, but couldn’t overcome the deficit losing 24-17.

Novelette

   If you haven’t listened to Novelette’s debut album, Everything is Happening Now, then you seriously need to be questioning what you’ve been doing with your life. It’s the ultimate singer-songwriter album, filled with fantastic lyrics and a unique voice. I’ve been following Cara Salimando, who is Novelette, since she released her first EP back in 2010, entitled Dust. She has such a poetic way of saying simple things, and I just can’t get over it. While I love Taylor Swift, I think Novelette could give her a run for her money in the lyrics category. She’s that good.

   Everything is Happening Now, holds a few of her songs from earlier releases, like “Deceive,” “Bookmark,” and “Lost Boys,” as well as holds new material like “Younger Hands” and “Stars.” The new just as good as the old. Catchy beats. Catchy lyrics. Catchy artist. It’s kind of impossible to hate her or her work, with it being as honest and beautiful as it is. 

   My favorite song on the album has to be “Bookmark,” which was one of her older songs from a previous EP. Now if you’re not going to check out Everything is Happening Now, then I feel like you have to at least check out “Bookmark.” I have no idea how this song is so hidden from the mass of the population, because this is probably one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. I even wrote an essay about it for my college English class. It’s that good, I promise. 

   Another song that I really like is “Run Away,” which is one of her newer ones. There’s a very raw and eerie essence “Run Away” gives off. The beat is steady and her voice is soft and almost spooky sounding. The lyrics are, of course, haunting and beautiful as always, contributing to the eerie essence. To be honest, it kind of sounds like a creepy lullaby, which I think is awesome. 

   This album is full of so many wonderful songs, it’s nearly a crime not to check them out. Novelette is extremely talented, and there’s no doubt that she’ll have a bright future in the music industry. Everything is Happening Now, is pure art, filled with poetic thoughts and ideas. I literally aspire to be as creative as her. 

Frances Ha

   One of my favorite films of 2013, was Frances Ha. While it was released in 2012 for film festivals it wasn’t until mid 2013 before it found its way to the public and Netflix, which is where I discovered it in early december. There were so many things that I thought were absolutely brilliant about this picture. Everything from the opening credits to the ending credits were perfect, truly capturing the essence of what it’s like to be a young adult in this world. 

   This film takes place in my favorite place in the world, New York City. It’s about a twenty-seven year old girl named Frances, played by Greta Gerwig, who is an apprentice for a dance company. While Frances does break up with her boyfriend towards the beginning of the film, the entire story is about her “break up” with her best friend Sophie, played by Mickey Sumner. 

   Both friends deal with problems of growing up. Frances’ including not having a steady income and not getting accepted into the dance company, and Sophie’s including getting into a serious relationship and having to move to another country to support her future spouse. This of course puts a great deal of stress on their relationship, but like all good stories, things end up wonderfully for both young women, and everything is all rainbows and butterflies in their friendship.

   I just can’t get over how positive this picture is. Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig wrote the perfect coming of age script. Leaving out all the crap that usually fills the pages. There’s no addictions, no hating one’s self, and no being saved by a boy. This film is really all about Frances, and her dealing with not getting the career she originally wanted, but learning to love the one she got anyway. It’s about her having to let her best friend move on without her, becoming someone else’s roommate and someone else’s right hand man. It’s about her truly growing up, in a healthy way. I absolutely loved this movie.