DANCING WITH THE STARS

I love watching TV. Sitcoms, games shows, reality shows… I love them all. Recently, I was invited to go to a taping of DANCING WITH THE STARS and guess what? Watching T.V. shows live is even more FABULOUS than watching them on your couch!

I don’t really follow DANCING WITH THE STARS religiously, but I was excited when my friend Zoe asked me to join her to the taping. She’s friend with David Allen Greer (known for In Living Color, DAG and most recently Chocolate News on Comedy Central), who was one of the competing celebrity dancers, so we got VIP tickets.

We arrived at CBS studios and were ushered into our seats, FRONT ROW! The show began with a group dance. My feet started tapping and soon I was bopping in my seat. It’s so different to watch live. I was completely drawn into each of the contestant’s anxiety before they danced, anger when they messed up or excitement when they got it right.

My heart melted as Chuck Wicks and Julianne Hough (real life boyfriend and girlfriend) stared into each other’s eyes as they swept across the floor with the Viennese Waltz (like a real life Barbie and Ken). I screamed with delight as Gilles Marini performed a passionate and flawless Paso Doble with no shirt covering his hot body (They should just give Gilles the trophy now! He is so good!). I crossed my fingers and hoped David Allen Greer and Steve-O (the nights bottom two) would do well, but alas they only did ok. The last dancer, Lil Kim sashayed across the floor looking more Disney princess than a rap artist and the hosts bid the audience farewell.

DANCING WITH THE STARS is FABULOUS and watching it live was even more of a delight than I would have imagined. Now I have to figure out a way to become a big enough star to be a contestant (OOOooo… That would be so fun!!)

PS. Sorry for the delay in blog posts. I seemed to have gotten behind in my real work (and a girls gotta pay the bills). New video blog coming next week!!

FRUIT

Lately, I’ve been really loving FRUIT! It’s a bit strange because I’m not usually drawn to sweet stuff. I would prefer a bag of Doritos to a cookie any day and for sure I would choose veggies over FRUIT, but that’s all changed recently!

I was shopping on Melrose with my friend Jill and we came upon a Mexican-fruit stand. Though I’ve seen them everywhere, I’ve never tried it. I was starving, so I thought I would give it a go! The nice lady chopped up mangos, oranges, pineapples, watermelon and cucumber and slid it into a bag. Then, she squeezed fresh lime over it, added a dab of salt and a sprinkle of chile pepper. I gave her $5 (a bargain for a huge bag of fresh fruit) and she handed me a fork and a napkin. I dove right in and my taste buds were tickled by the mix of sweet fruit with salty and spicy flavors. I was hooked! (A bit of advice: Don’t eat the whole bag at once… like I did! I had the worst stomachache that night). Those stands are all over LA and now whenever I need a snack I know where to stop (I only eat half now and save the rest in Tupper-ware for a healthy snack later). Mexican-fruit stands are FABULOUS!

FRUIT is great for you and recently I decided to do a 3-day FRUIT fast. A FRUIT fast is a great way to cleanse and detoxify the body. A while back I tried the Master Cleanse (see June 25th, 2008 blog). It was traumatic and I didn’t last long enough to get the full effects. A FRUIT fast is much gentler and so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Sunday, I went to the Farmer’s Market to stock up on all sorts of fruits. I bought oranges, apples, nectarines, pineapples, watermelon and berries. Fruits are filled with enzymes that do almost all the work of digestion, allowing the pancreas a much-needed rest. Fruit sugars as well as the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, are carried by the bloodstream and delivered to the cells in the body. The fibers that are left behind in the colon are moist and cleansing, softening and removing years of impacted bad stuff (which I have a lot of with all the Big Macs and Cheesy Gordita Crunches I consume).

Monday morning, I started my fast. I ate throughout the day a variety of the FRUIT. I ate 2 apples, 1 orange, 2 nectarines and a whole bunch of berries, pineapple and watermelon. I also drank herbal tea in the morning and Senna Leaf laxative tea at night.

A FRUIT fast is easier than other fasts because you are constantly chewing. I never felt hungry because I was fooling my body into thinking I was eating, plus the Fruit tastes great (at first). At the end of day one, I felt good and not hungry at all and I slept well, though I had to get up a couple times to pee (FRUIT has a lot of water in it).

Day two, I woke with a grumbling in my belly, but I was still energetic and vibrant (On the master cleanse I was tired and totally out of it). I ate again an apple, oranges, a nectarine, pineapple and tons of berries. In the late afternoon is when my head and emotions started to kick in. It wasn’t that I was hungry, but I couldn’t stop thinking about bagels, bacon, coffee and wine and cheese. My body has become accustomed to diet of shitty foods, so the FRUIT was way less satisfying.

I realized that I was definitely cravings cheese far more from emotional attachments than hunger, but this is were it started to get hard. Supposedly fat, sugar and salt cravings will subside in a few days, but by late morning of day 3, my emotional cravings got the best of me and I chowed down on a salad.

The next morning, I brought coffee, regular food and wine back into my diet. I did leave out cheese and red meat (which I miss drastically) … at least for now.

I think I did ok on the FRUIT Fast and my body definitely ended in a healthy state. Even though I ended my FRUIT fast cursing all FRUIT… I remember that Mexican-fruit stand and I am reminded that FRUIT is FABULOUS!

TV SHOW SERIES

I love to watch TV! I could spend hours and hours sitting mesmerized by sitcoms, reality shows and dramas, but lately I have been feeling like there’s more important things I should be doing with my time. So instead of tuning in every evening, I have found other ways to keep up with my favorite shows.

Instead of locking myself on the couch every night at primetime, I watch full seasons at a time on DIRECT TV, HULU.COM and on occasion ITUNES. Watching full seasons at a time with no commercial interruptions is FABULOUS!

DIRECT TV is the easiest option to catch up on shows. I just plug in 001 on my cable box and I’m taken directly to some of the best shows on TV (HBO and Showtime are FABULOUS)! One of my favorites is Showtime’s CALIFORNICATION. Not only is this dark comedy set right in my neighborhood, it is witty and smart. The cast is excellent, especially David Duchovny as Hank Moody, a writer in the midst of a mid-life crisis.

I’ve also gotten hooked on HBO’s BIG LOVE, a drama about a family in Utah who practice polygamy under a fictional fundamentalist Mormon sect. BIG LOVE stars Bill Paxton, Chloë Sevigny (who is awesome), Jeanne Tripplehorn (who’s such a great actress that she makes polygamy some how seem relatable), Ginnifer Goodwin (who is my favorite) and many more extremely talented actors. BIG LOVE is an edge of the seat drama that leaves you unsettled and uncomfortable at every turn, yet it is still totally addictive.

New to HBO and also on my list of shows is UNITED STATES OF TARA, created by Diablo Cody (writer of the movie JUNO). Starring Toni Collette as Tara, a wife and mother with dissociative identity disorder (DID) who decides to take a break from her medication to discover the cause of her disorder. Her alternate personalities (wild and flirty 16-year-old T, fifties housewife Alice, male, loud, beer-drinking Vietnam vet Buck) emerge through out the show creating an entertaining and touching, dark comedy.

Another FABULOUS way to catch up on shows is HULU.COM. HULU.COM is a website where you have access to clips and full-length episodes from more than 1,000 current primetime TV shows as well as movies. Watching is totally free and you don’t have to download any new software (and it’s legal)! With limited commercial interruptions, you can catch up on your computer (or if you have a lap top… on the go).

I watched the whole first season of THE STARTER WIFE on the plane to New York (you can NOW get the internet on some flights)! THE STARTER WIFE is a comedy about life after divorce. Debra Messing plays Molly Kagan, the ex-wife of a Hollywood entertainment mogul who finds a fabulous independent life after divorce. The mini-series was laugh out loud funny and though I didn’t love season 2 as much, it is still worth tuning in.

I also always catch up on HEROES (one of my favorite shows ever)! I am not usually a fan of science fiction, but HEROES hooked me in from the first season. HEROES intertwines stories of ordinary people who inexplicably develop superhuman abilities and then try to save the world. It reminds me somewhat of a comic book come to life.

Sometimes if I miss an episode of a show that I love and I can’t find it on DIRECT TV or HULU, I download it on ITUNES. I try not to do it too often because it can get expensive (each episode is between $1.99 and $2.99).

Recently, I was looking for SAMANTHA WHO? but I couldn’t find it anywhere so I downloaded the whole first season on ITUNES. I had heard good things about the show, which won an Emmy Award. The show centers around Samantha Newly (Christina Applegate), a vice president of a real estate firm who develops retrograde amnesia after a hit and run accident. When she wakes from her coma, she realizes that she had been selfish and unlikable before her accident, and then she sets out to become a better person. It’s a light and funny show and I have a huge crush on the actor Barry Watson!

Catching up on TV shows by the full season without commercial interruptions is FABULOUS! Which show should I watch next?

SKIING IN ASPEN

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!

TWILIGHT

I admit it! I’m hooked! TWILIGHT is FABULOUS!

I was initially hesitant to read TWILIGHT. Though I do love a good book, I’m not really a huge fan of vampire stories. Recently though, I was seeking a nice long book on tape for my drive to Aspen (I road trip with the dogs in tow). A book on tape can really make the time fly by and with 13 hours (each way) ahead of me, I needed something light, entertaining and loooooooooong.

After much contemplation, I decided on TWILIGHT. I downloaded it from itunes (Book two as well called New Moon) and burned the 20 some odd CDs (Boy, is that book long). I stuck them in the CD changer to check that they worked and I was instantly swept up into this dark romance.

The series is about a teenage girl, Bella Swan who falls in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen, when she moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father. TWILIGHT puts a twist on standard vampire stories by focusing on love (and who doesn’t love a good love story).

Aimed at young adults (who are most likely female), the writing is light and bit cheesy but definitely captivating and a fun read. I was drawn in and instantly a fan. I have already started book two and I watched the movie the minute I got home.

I was excited to see the movie adaptation. I knew what the actors that played Bella and Edward looked like, but it’s always cool to see how the other characters are represented in film and how they differ from the picture you created in your head while reading. I thought the movie remained very true to the novel, even though it seemed a bit squished and rushed at times and a little bit campy. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and look forward to the next installment.

I think it is best to read TWILIGHT before watching the film though because so much more goes on in the book and watching the story unfold in your head is much more thrilling.

I realize that I am a bit late to jump on the band wagon, but boy am I glad I decided to take the leap because TWILIGHT is FABULOUS!