Watching Studio60

I came across some cute photos -so I thought I’d share…

Enjoy - and Thanks to Image.com!

I was “running” around the various Studio 60 web sites trying to find a way to download the New Orleans rendering of “O Holy Night” played at the end of the last episode, and in the process I managed to download iTunes to my laptop. I am now in another world/dimension of music - a place I have never travelled before - and Yes I know I am way behind the vast majority of techno savvy people out there - but forgive me, it takes me a while but I get there eventually. I am now downloading all my CD’s to my laptop, and on my Christmas list is - An iPod - and then - watch out world!!!

And all this because I was completly bowled over by the show’s closing last week and I must have that music. Needless to say I am still looking for a way to get it, but I am persevering and I will succeed, even if I have to go buy a CD.

And don’t forget - the last episode is being repeated on Dec 18th at the regular time. If you missed it the first time around - tune in - you will be truly astounded.

Sorry - I have been away for a couple of days - but I’m back and of course the first thing I did was to Google Studio 60 to catch up.

I am amazed at the number of sites (70,700,000) devoted to this show, and all of them pretty much saying the same thing -
- It’s Going to Be Cancelled
- No it’s not
- It’s too Highbrow, too sophisticated, too intelligent
- It’s Dumb, It’s Boring, It Sucks.

And so the list goes on………….

What I am sure of, is that Studio 60 has to be congratulated for generating so many web sites and for getting so many people to take the time to express their opinions. If for no other reason then that - it deserves it’s place on the airways.

Good News - Studio 60 has received 4 nominations from the 2006 Satellite awards
Matthew and Bradley for Best Actor in A Series, Drama and Sarah and Amanda for Best Actress in a Series, Drama.
The Satellite Awards are awarded by the International Press Academy and are a spin off from the Hollywood Press Association and the Golden Globes.
Winners will be announced on December 17th at a location yet to be determined.

So - Studio 60 is on hiatus until January 8th, which will leave me with little actual show stuff to write about. I will continue to search the internet and magazines for intersting news, but I will also try and write about related stuff - like worthwhile charities that the stars of Studio 60 may be working with, or information on some of the topics touched upon within the shows - such as The Hollywood 10. - So don’t go away, keep watching and reading and I will endeavour to keep it worth your while.

Thank you for being a visitor

Isn’t fate a funny thing. As I mentioned before in this blog, I spent Thanksgiving in New Orelans. I confessed that I wasn’t truly inspired by what I saw and was openly disappointed by the lack of Jazz music heard in the French quarter. But last night on Studio 60, they had an ensemble of New Orleans Jazz musicians playing “Oh Holy Night”, and I was moved to tears. Truly, I was sobbing.

Upon investigation, I have discovered that the musicians featured organized by the Tipitina’s Foundation whihc is rebuilding New Orleans music. The show spotlighted Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews who was amazing.

And now I understand why I didn’t hear the music on the streets of New Orelans - the musicians are in LA! Lets hope they can get home soon and bring New Orleans back to it’s former muscial glory.

Seriously - I ended up crying last night. Now I know I am a big softie and tend to cry at a lot of movies, books and TV shows, but you have to agree that last nigths epsiode was special. So lets recap:

We started off with Danny and Jordon waiting in the hospital for her appointment with the baby doctor. It turns out that the father of her baby is an ex boyfriend who works for the Insurance office of NBS and he was the one who leaked the information about Danny’s slip with the cocaine. His motivation was the opportunity to sleep wth Jordan again. Later on in the show - Danny takes a moment out of the live broadcast to find Jordon and tells her that he is falling in love with her, and she had better get a good head start becuase he is coming after her. As declarations of love go - That was one of the best. Jordon, who had her mouth full, didn’t say a word, but her face told it all. Superb acting from both parties - and I cant wait to see where this goes.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch - Matt is full of Christmas spirit and wants to do a Christmas show. This is a break with tradition, but he is adament and asks the writing team - all three of them - to come up with ideas to pitch. He tells Cal that they need snow, and we hear that there was an earthquake which has isolated the warehouses that hold all the set decorations. Cal comes up with the idea of using shredded coconuts for the snow and proceeds to buy a truck load of coconuts. In trying to open one up he throws it on the writing table and breaks the table - coconut remains in tact, however, and we never find out how they eventually open them up - but we have snow at the end of the show, so obviously they succeed.

Harreit has lunch with and old flame who offers her the part of Anita Pallenberg in an upcoming movie about the Rolling Stones. He also admits that he is trying to date her again. Harriet tells Matt who is totally supportive and tells her she will be perfect in the part and they can work it into the down time from Studio 60. Later on in the show, Matt takes Harriet aside and they kiss - a wonderful touching moment, that causes Harriet to begin her news broadcast with ” Hi, I’m Matt”. Being a little cynical, I wonder if Matt didn’t do it because he knew the old flame was in the audience. Lets hope he really had the best intentions.

In a live news cast from Afghanistan, a solider uses the F word when a RPG explodes 50 feet from himself and the reporter. It got broadcast over the network and affliates and the FCC is causing problems, threatening to fine NBS some collosal sum of money that would effectively shut them down.. After much soul searching and advice from Lawyers and Jordon, Jack tries to offer his resignation to Wilson, who wont accept it, but instead tells Jack that this is the moment he has been waiting for for a long time. He intends to fight the FCC, will not pay a fine, will air the broadcast and will stand his ground.

Tom and Simon manage to inject their negativity towards Christmas into the writers, who struggle to come up with sketches for the show. However we do see some snippets of the final show and the sketch about Santa visiting little children every year - a play on Catching Predators - is hysterical.

More to the point, at the dress rehearsal, Danny finds out that muscians all over LA are calling in sick to give homeless New Orleans muscians, who are sleeping on sofas and unable to get work, an opportunity to get some play time. This will enable them to have money to send home for Christmas. The trombonist we see at dress is phenomenal, and Danny comes up with a plan - only revealed on the actual show. It is a truly inspirational piece of TV. An ensmble of New Orelans Jazz musicians plays “Oh Holy Night” against a back drop of black and white pictures from New Orleans. It is stunning, dramatic and inspired TV. I was sobbing.

When is the next show - we were promised trailers but they never happened.

As I have said previously - today was the annual tree cutting day and I am happy to announce that my tree is beautiful. It sits in the corner of my sitting room, dressed in red and silver, with twinkling lights and it already has 1 present under it. We had a lot of fun and so Christmas has offically come to my home. Next we will start baking and preparing for the actual day itself.
I watched a program yesterday on Christmas Eve traditions around the country. It gave me heart that families are alive and strong and will be together for the holidays.
My heart goes out to the troops in the Middle East, and amid the feasting and festivities, let us remember them and pray for their safe return.

I have just read a very intersting article on Studio 60 and the influence of Aaron’s relationship with Kristin Chenoweth, on the Harriet character and the Matt and Harriet storyline in the show.
I cannot imagine having my heart and soul bared for all on national TV but it appears that that is exactly what is happening to Kristin. She admits to seeing a lot of herself in the Harriet character and some of her relationhip with Aaron parallels the Matt/Harriet relationship.
I guess when you have a realtionship with a screen writer - you need to be careful how much of yourself you expose - or you may end up watching yourself on TV!

In watching the previews for Monday’s show - they make reference to “two Soul Mates” and we see a clip of Harriet and Matt about to kiss. It made me wonder - What exactly is a soul mate and, more to the point, How do you know when you have found yours?
I have been married twice, and both ended in divorce. The first was just a mistake from the get-go but I was young and stupid, and rushed into it, knowing in my heart that it was wrong. The second, I really thought was going to be for ever. We had two sons together but unfortuneately, being faithful wasn’t his strong suit, and I wasn’t prepared to share, so we got divorced. That was 20 years ago, and despite a few serious relationships since, I have never remarried.
So back to my question - What is a soul mate and how do you know when you find yours? Is it a meeting of the minds? the ability to talk about anything and everything? A feeling of safety? of being cared for and protected? All of the above?
If anybody has any ideas - please share. It would be your Christmas gift to me!

So tomorrow is Tree cutting day. This is a relatively new tradition in my family but one that we have borrowed from my younger son’s ex girlfriend’s family and ona we plan to keep . We gather together and travel up into the hills above Santa Cruz to a place called Tobacco Farm -which doesn’t appear to have a web site - and spend many hours finding the perfect trees for each of the families. This year I plan on taking my advocate child for the first time, so I am hoping it willl be a really happy experience for him. God knows - his life has been pitifully short of happy experiences.
But - I would like to tell you a story that truly epitomizes the spirit of Christmas.
When we first moved to this area - 9 years ago, we didn’t have the tree cutting tradition, but instead used a tree lot in town. I had set the budget for the tree, knowing what I had in my bank, but made the mistake of taking younger son with me. A mistake because I always end up spending more then the budget when he is with me. And as expected, the tree he picked was about $20 more then I had allowed for. I wrote out the check and asked the owners not to cash it for another 3 days, which is when my next pay check would be desposited. They agreed and we went home to put up the tree. Imagine my surprise when a couple of days later, the check returned to me in an envelope with a message written across it _ “Have a happy Christmas”. They had sent me back my check and we were given the tree for free. That, in my mind, was a true act of Christmas Spirit and I will be telling that story for a long time.

Having spent the whole day laid up on the sofa suffering with a bad cold, I caught some reruns of Friends - and I lucked upon the one with Julia Roberts and Jean Claude Van Damme. I didn’t start watching Friends until the fourth or fifth season, so occasionally I catch ones I haven’t seen before - and this was one such episode. It was fun to see Chandler being the brunt of the joke for a change but reinforced what a great comedic actor he is. His timing is perfect and his delivery just awesome.
I am so glad we have another series that showcases Matthew Perry’s talent!