SKINS aka Partying with High Schoolers

When I was in high school, I was one of those girls. You know the ones - the popular, over-scheduled, well-rounded girls, not quite of the Mean Girls caliber, but certainly cliquey and self-involved.  And yes, I partied. But I'm pretty sure the parties I went to in high school looked NOTHING like the party depicted in this extended trailer of MTV's new show Skins.

Skins - MTV Shows

Racy, huh? This makes me wonder if this is an accurate depiction of high school parties today. And if it is, well then, shit. I'm never having kids.

Bullet Points

Despite what you may have heard, I have not been in hiding since the disappointing Celtics loss in the NBA finals last Thursday. The days just seem to get away from me so here are a few bullet points as to what's going on...

+Yep, I lost that Celtics-Lakers bet, which means I need Twitter followers to start responding to me or Marisa with what show they think I must suffer through. And we're getting a lunch date on the books so I can endure the pain that will be donning Laker gear for a picture.

+KCRW's recurring series World Music Night at The Hollywood Bowl kicked off this past Sunday, and I was one of the lucky attendees. I went mostly for Brooklyn band Yeasayer, but I'm a huge fan of Tinariwen and Baba Maal as well - yes, folks, I love World Music, and if you've been following this blog you know this is nothing new.

+Yesterday I opened my mailbox to find a letter I had written to myself in April 2001. It was pretty crazy reading something from 9 years ago - and I had to laugh at my sweet worldly intentions - see I wrote it during the second day of a three day solo during a semester I spent in high school living on a farm in Maine (seriously). So it was hardly surprising that one of the items of advice I gave myself was "listen to birdsongs. You know them." Seriously. Truth is - I actually did know them; I spent that semester taking ornithology classes!

+Two weeks ago I went to the book party for the new Bret Easton Ellis novel, Imperial Bedrooms, the much-anticipated sequel to his well-known classic Less Than Zero. The party was exactly what you might expect - at a lovely suite in LA's famed hotel The Chateau Marmont, and I swear to God the DJ just took the soundtrack from American Psycho and pressed play. Celebrity spottings included Rose McGowan and Shannyn Sossamon, and then there was the general crowd of attractive-people-who-look-familiar so maybe there were more.

+I took a pause on writing up recaps of The Hills for The Huffington Post because that show is just so bad. I briefly considered writing them for The Bachelorette, but that show is way too long for me to be interested in recapping. I mean I'm all for making fun of crappy TV, but those 22 minutes on MTV are a lot easier to handle than two hours of awkward dates.

+I've been watching more TV pilots - including the much-buzzed about Lone Star, airing on FOX this fall - definitely a show to check out. The lead actor, James Wolk, is a sort of cross between George Clooney and Kyle Chandler.

+Two bands I've gotten into recently are Grum and Four Tet - check them out.

Happy Summer, by the way! Hopefully regular blogging will resume now that I've emerged from whatever fog my head's been in.

Per Russell Brand, "Britney Spears is the female Jesus Christ!"

Not so sure I agree with the above statement, but I will say this: after struggling through various chunks of the excessive and over-produced (and as usual, underwhelming) VMAs last night, Britney Spears, WELL DONE. I remember watching the trainwreck that was Spears last year, from my grandparents home in Florida, seriously embarassed for Britney, myself, and our country. While similar feelings of embarassment coursed through my veins last night, I was almost *almost* proud of Britney. I still think she's a walking trash bag, a train wreck, and sort of a mess overall, but she's definitely looking better and totally had her shit together last night. GOOD FOR YOU BRITNEY.

Russell Brand: I too am plagued by rats' nests in my hair, and I suggest combing it while using conditioner in the shower. Not sure you shower, but maybe you should. Just a thought.