What I’m listening to: John Mayer’s Any Given Thursday

I can’t help it. I’m addicted to TV shows on DVD.

I don’t have cable. I’ve always seen it as an unnecessary expense, I never had it growing up, so I don’t really know what I’m missing. But I kept hearing about all these great shows on the WB or UPN that I should see.

So this weekend I had Friday off, and needed to paint the Christmas decorations for the women’s Christmas banquet at church. I knew I’d be inside all day (which is not a bad idea the day after Thanksgiving. I get crabby when I shop this time of year. And I love to shop.) Anyway, so rented the first couple of discs of Veronica Mars

I’ve noticed that since TV shows are released on DVDs now, it’s getting harder and harder for me to get into the show I currect make a point to watch during the week. There aren’t many – The Amazing Race, Grey’s Anatomy and Alias. I used to be faithful Joan of Arcadia to until the idiot known as Les Moonves decided a show about ghosts speaking to an underdressed, over-exposed Tiger Beat star would be better to reach the target teenage audience.

Joan was a great show. The only show on my list I really hated to miss. Though it lost direction in season 2, I still loved the characters and the idea that God would use someone like the character of Joan as a vehicle was his larger plan. What I loved about Joan was the idea that God is in the little things as much as the big things. That sometimes you don’t see his affects until much later, but you will always be better off if you do what he says. The one show on TV that actually said something important. That portrayed God is a positive light, that didn’t make me squeek that once again, Hollywood hates all Christians and makes us come across as psychos.

That being said, there isn’t much on TV now that I care about. I own the Felicity DVDs ( I actually discovered the show after it’s cancellation – which wouldn’t have mattered to me, as it was on the WB) and have enjoyed them. Next, I’m shipping them to Hungary to my friend Shannon who wants to get everyone over there hooked. I also have recently gotten into Gilmore Girls (I blame Shannon – she first mentioned the show to me, I went and rented it, and cannot stop loving the obscure pop culture references. Amy Sherman-Palladino is my hero. So is Keiko Agena).

So I liked Veronica Mars. It’s kinda of like Alias meets Pretty in Pink. Kristen Bell is very likable. It has some funny moments, and it has an overarching story line of Veronica’s dad’s investigation of who killed the best friend (very a la Twin Peaks but much less creepy.) The underdog (Veronica) who once was part of the A-List crowd, suddenly becomes their biggest enemy. And later in the season, their biggest fear. It’s rather satisfying. Oh, and Logan? Adorable.

What I’m listening to: Caedmon’s Call’s Share the Well

Completely fascinating. Intensely shocking. Progressively moving. And I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. (That hasn’t happened to me since American Beauty) Crash

is not what I expected. But I go into most movies with very little because most of what I’ve seen in the last few years has lowered said expectation level. However, I’d heard the film was powerful. I loved Million Dollar Baby

– which earned every award it won – and Crash was also written by Paul Haggis, so I picked it up after work tonight expecting to see a good movie, but not like this.

I was taken on a journey through a day in the lives of 15 or so different characters. Some I hated, some I loved. All I ended up caring about. So much so I found myself tracing the reason a person behaved a certain way back to the character that first encoutered them. It’s Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia without the quirky sense of humor. And it has a better purpose.

This movie is about race. About the stereo-types we are pre-disposed of, and how we know they are pre-disposed, unjustified, but we believe them anyway. Actually we don’t even believe them. We just feel them. And this movie makes us ask why.

Michael Pena’s performance is enduring. Matt Dillion’s is powerful. Thandie Newton’s is amazing. Don Cheadle is cold yet heartbreaking. Everything about this movie means something. It has a point. Not just to shock you (which the language and dialogue is clearly meant to do) but to help us understand one another. The Cameron character said it best “You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.”

Go rent it. What I say about it will never do it justice.