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algHere is my question for the day: Do you have a recipe for mandelbrot? Or k'mish bread? I want to make some, but I do not want to just get a bloodless recipe off some website. I want, like, someone's grandma's grandma's recipe. I want it to taste like the mandelbrot of my childhood, not like the crap at the goyish grocery store. (The Jewish bakery where we used to get our pastries back in the 80s no longer exists, and my own grandma is not the baking type.) If you don't want to post what I hope is your secret family recipe in the comments, feel free to email it to me! annagenoese at gmail dot com.
On to the TV meme!
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Umm... I hate with the fire of a thousand suns many characters on television. Some of those characters are designed to be hated (or maybe I am just cranky), but some of those characters are super beloved by other people. I think, though, that I am going to go with a character who I totally love but who also really gets on my nerves.
Angela Chase.
(click to embiggen)
Oh, Angela. Her life is so hard. She's steeped in privilege, solidly middle class, has two loving parents and a bratty sister, lives in a "nice" part of Pittsburgh in a great house, has a sweet best friend, and the dorky guy who lives next door has a crush on her. So, of course, when Rayanne Graff -- bad girl extraordinaire! -- tells her that her hair is holding her back... she dyes it. Crimson glow. and thus starts off My So-Called Life
, a whirlwind of voiceover-narrated adventures of a fifteen/sixteen year old girl who gets pimples and has a crush on a boy who practically doesn't know she's alive (and when he gives her a note, she learns that he can't spell her name). She skips geometry to make out, alienates most of the people around her by being self-absorbed, and, at the end, even though she knows that Jordan Catalano -- who tried to pressure her into sex, ignored her in front of his friends, and treated her pretty shabbily, as "too cool" seventeen year old boys are wont to do -- didn't really write the beautiful love note (actually penned by the dorky boy next door), she goes off with him anyway.
She is so so so so annoying. And yet even now I can sympathize with her. Part of that is the writing of the show -- it's really stellar. Part of that is that when the show was airing, I was around that age, and could relate to a lot of the stuff the teenagers were going through (although admittedly I really relate most to the trapped, unhappy, compromising parents). Sex and making out and coming out and drinking and drugs and parties and clothing.
(In drama class, we had to perform thirty second "monologues" at one point, and instead of picking one from some play, I performed Angela's monologue from what is known by fans as "the boiler room episode" -- in which Angela and Jordan make out all the time in the school's boiler room, but he doesn't want to hold her hand in public or talk to her in front of his friends. She lolls around on her couch, watching tv, and has a voiceover about how awful her life is and how she has a geometry test and how the Sixty Minutes clock makes her feel like her life is ticking away. I dressed up in my best overalls, brought in the television remote, and channeled all my teen angst into, "There's something about Sunday night that really makes you want to kill yourself." A+ from my drama teacher!)
Anyway, the thing that I hated -- and still hate -- about Angela is that she has it so easy. The right answer is always within her grasp. She will sometimes do the wrong thing, and know that she is doing the wrong thing, and then whine about how nothing is the way she wants it to be. Sometimes I can really relate to that, even now. And sometimes, even when I was fourteen, I wanted to shake her and yell, "Grow the hell up!" right in her face.
I'm not really selling this show to you, am I? But I still love it. I know a lot of people who loved it when they were teenagers -- and a lot of people who loved it even though they weren't teenagers when they first saw it. I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone, but I do definitely recommend it, if it's the kind of thing you like. It deals with some heavy stuff (sometimes heavy-handedly) -- like gay bashing, adoption, drug abuse, alcoholism, peer pressure. It has some really great highlights -- the episode narrated by Angela's younger sister; Jordan's dyslexia; Rayanne's mom (played by the totally freaking amazing Patti D'Arbanville-Quinn); the queer coding and coming out of one main character and one secondary character...
And, honestly, as annoying as Angela is, she's also great. And that's definitely part of what makes her so annoying!
If you're in the US, it looks like Hulu has all 19 episodes of My So-Called Life available for streaming. Do yourself a favor and watch them in order.
Other days...
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
On to the TV meme!
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Umm... I hate with the fire of a thousand suns many characters on television. Some of those characters are designed to be hated (or maybe I am just cranky), but some of those characters are super beloved by other people. I think, though, that I am going to go with a character who I totally love but who also really gets on my nerves.
Angela Chase.
(click to embiggen)
Oh, Angela. Her life is so hard. She's steeped in privilege, solidly middle class, has two loving parents and a bratty sister, lives in a "nice" part of Pittsburgh in a great house, has a sweet best friend, and the dorky guy who lives next door has a crush on her. So, of course, when Rayanne Graff -- bad girl extraordinaire! -- tells her that her hair is holding her back... she dyes it. Crimson glow. and thus starts off My So-Called Life
, a whirlwind of voiceover-narrated adventures of a fifteen/sixteen year old girl who gets pimples and has a crush on a boy who practically doesn't know she's alive (and when he gives her a note, she learns that he can't spell her name). She skips geometry to make out, alienates most of the people around her by being self-absorbed, and, at the end, even though she knows that Jordan Catalano -- who tried to pressure her into sex, ignored her in front of his friends, and treated her pretty shabbily, as "too cool" seventeen year old boys are wont to do -- didn't really write the beautiful love note (actually penned by the dorky boy next door), she goes off with him anyway.She is so so so so annoying. And yet even now I can sympathize with her. Part of that is the writing of the show -- it's really stellar. Part of that is that when the show was airing, I was around that age, and could relate to a lot of the stuff the teenagers were going through (although admittedly I really relate most to the trapped, unhappy, compromising parents). Sex and making out and coming out and drinking and drugs and parties and clothing.
(In drama class, we had to perform thirty second "monologues" at one point, and instead of picking one from some play, I performed Angela's monologue from what is known by fans as "the boiler room episode" -- in which Angela and Jordan make out all the time in the school's boiler room, but he doesn't want to hold her hand in public or talk to her in front of his friends. She lolls around on her couch, watching tv, and has a voiceover about how awful her life is and how she has a geometry test and how the Sixty Minutes clock makes her feel like her life is ticking away. I dressed up in my best overalls, brought in the television remote, and channeled all my teen angst into, "There's something about Sunday night that really makes you want to kill yourself." A+ from my drama teacher!)
Anyway, the thing that I hated -- and still hate -- about Angela is that she has it so easy. The right answer is always within her grasp. She will sometimes do the wrong thing, and know that she is doing the wrong thing, and then whine about how nothing is the way she wants it to be. Sometimes I can really relate to that, even now. And sometimes, even when I was fourteen, I wanted to shake her and yell, "Grow the hell up!" right in her face.
I'm not really selling this show to you, am I? But I still love it. I know a lot of people who loved it when they were teenagers -- and a lot of people who loved it even though they weren't teenagers when they first saw it. I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone, but I do definitely recommend it, if it's the kind of thing you like. It deals with some heavy stuff (sometimes heavy-handedly) -- like gay bashing, adoption, drug abuse, alcoholism, peer pressure. It has some really great highlights -- the episode narrated by Angela's younger sister; Jordan's dyslexia; Rayanne's mom (played by the totally freaking amazing Patti D'Arbanville-Quinn); the queer coding and coming out of one main character and one secondary character...
And, honestly, as annoying as Angela is, she's also great. And that's definitely part of what makes her so annoying!
If you're in the US, it looks like Hulu has all 19 episodes of My So-Called Life available for streaming. Do yourself a favor and watch them in order.
Other days...
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death