Tracy Flick lives on in Glee

One of my favorite dark comedic movies from the 90s is Election with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. I haven't quite seen its match in comedic style until now. Not only has the style been resurrected, but the lead high school female character is a lot like Tracy Flick, Reese Witherspoon's unforgettable character in Election. Fast-paced wit and charm interlaced with deliciously smart musical snippets can be found in the new Fox show Glee. There were scenes in the pilot that could've been pulled directly from Election. For example, how about Rachel Berry storming down the school hallway pumping her arms while intensely fluttering voices are playing in the background... to her fake crying in the principal's office making accusations against the former glee club advisor to get him fired. I thought back to the very determined Tracy Flick running for school president and how she would let nothing stand in her way. Rachel Berry on Glee is determined to be a star using the glee club as her platform. The creator of Glee even eludes to the movie Election when asked to what he compares his movie. Oh, yes. I'll be watching this show religiously come fall. I even downloaded the highly-ranked-on-iTunes cover of Don't Stop Believin'.

From what I've heard, there is a lot of good music and guests coming our way. Kristin Chenoweth plays "an alcoholic high school dropout"; Josh Groban guests as himself and plays an "ignorant a-hole"; and Debra Monk and Victor Garber play Will Schuester's parents." One difference between Rachel Berry and Tracy Flick that I like was shown in the pilot: Rachel actually has a heart and does get her feelings hurt at times. I mean, how couldn't she have a heart with that gut-wrenching performance of Les Miserables' On My Own for her glee club audition?! That gave me chills.

On to American Idol. Yes, I'm not finished with Idol just yet! For those who either initially disliked Danny Gokey or eventually disliked him, I found some hilarious, tension-releasing, South-Park-and-LOTR-infused commentary videos on EW by Michael Slezak and Kristin Baldwin:
Danny Gokey's exit recap video - Part 1
Danny Gokey's exit recap video - Part 2
Idolatry 5/10 - Part 2
I love the South Park graphic! If you don't have time to watch these in full, just watch the beginnings of the first and third video links. I found myself completely agreeing (and laughing along) with pretty much everything they were saying. Then if you have time, check out the video series of Allison Iraheta's exit interview. Obviously, Michael Slezak adored her as much as I did.

Something else to mention before I stop talking AI is that Danny Gokey did it again... As if some people didn't already feel enough disdain for the poor guy, he screwed up on CNN's Larry King Live with Ryan Seacrest last night. Every single other contestant on the show were considerate and gracious in their comments concerning Kris and Adam. Until Danny spoke, the other contestants were reiterating in solidarity what Kris and Adam have been saying in all their interviews. Then Danny comes along and says that he thought Kris would win and gave reasons behind why Adam didn't. Arrogant SOB. Adam and Kris were sitting right there. Granted, Danny had said these same things in an earlier live blog and Ryan Seacrest was bringing it up on LKL to see what Danny had to say for a second time in front of the two finalists. The other contestants could've eaten him alive with their eyes when he was opening his big mouth to Ryan. Danny, you do realize that you'll be going on tour with these people for the summer, don't you?! Ugh. As a David Cook fan, I'm still miffed that he sang Hello on the Finale Results Show. He didn't do that badly actually, but I'm sure all David Cook fans like myself had daggers in their eyes and collectively gasped when Danny started singing that song. Danny rant finished. Check.

Did anyone watch SYTYCD? I got all teary when the blond-haired girl who lives with her grandparents auditioned and made it. Just beautiful. I also liked the girl from the Bronx who has rheumatoid arthritis. Such talent coming from people who have odds stacked against them in life!

In Curly Girl news, I found the book at a smaller branch of my local library. I took Marie with me to get that and the Sensational Knitted Socks book, which happened to be only one aisle away from the CG book. (BTW, I've already finished the CG book -- fast read.) We also got her some books and DVDs, then walked across a grassy field to the playground at Thompson Park. She enjoyed that it was just us without Ian. When Ian is with us, I can't help Marie climb on things since he's always trying to run away and explore. I got to climb on everything with her, and she loved that. Then later when we got home, I read to her all about honeybees and snakes from her library books. We're talking in-depth books here, and she had lots of questions. My favorite was, "Are there any snakes that would eat me?" Her eyes were huge when she saw the page that showed a snake swallowing its prey.

Looks like I might be doing most if not all of the driving next week to Raleigh: Jared tripped and broke his arm today. Poor thing was trying to run to get the phone (it was me calling) and got a loop of his shoelace caught on his cymbal stand. He went to an urgent care and got an x-ray done, after which they put his arm in a hard splint.

Knitting News
Not much, other than I'm at the armhole of the front side of Wright. My sportweight socks are coming along slowly. I was lucky to find the yarn for those from last year's Knitters Connection goodie bag of one-skein yarns from Knitters Mercantile. Actually, I also found that I still have three differently-colored sample skeins of CotLin (my purchase from when CotLin first came out) and a super bulky skein of black alpaca yarn (from the Knitters Connection goodie bag). Other than that though, my modest stash consists of only leftovers. I'll be thinking about what to use those skeins of CotLin for while finishing my current projects. I'll probably make a Sheldon with my leftovers of turquoise and orchid Shine (unless it's the wrong weight of Shine -- haven't checked the pattern yet) that I used to make last year's mermaid outfit for Marie.