Don’t think I’ve mentioned this here yet, but I started working for an amazing company in February called Emma. They are a permission based email marketing company based here in Nashville, and they are probably the coolest thing going. If you need a way to reach folks by email, let me know.

Anyway, Emma is sponsoring an Arbor Day campaign called “Vote For Trees.” It’s a simple concept: go to this website, and vote for trees. For every vote cast, Emma will donate a seedling to be planted, up to 5,000 trees. Plus, you can learn everything about trees that you were always afraid to ask (are they dangerous?) and learn some awesome tree facts as well (they can’t balance your checkbook).

The site is hilarious, and it’s a quick and easy way to do something good for our environment. Please take a second and click this link so you can vote! And if you’re a fellow blogger, please feel free to post about this. Let’s see how fast we can get to 5,000 trees!

PS-Be sure you get your thank you email, it’s almost the best part.

Hi! Hello, woefully underused blog!

Tonight, at the 12 South Arts Venue, Improv Nashville is performing a comedy improv show as a part of Laughing Stock 2007, a benefit for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital. St. Jude is a hospital that does very great things, and is dear to me because of my brother John, who was a patient there when we were children.

So, come! All proceeds from the show go to benefit St. Jude. Tickets are 12 dollars and can be purchased in advance from Improv Nashville’s fancy new online ticketing system! The show starts at 8 PM.

If you bring two extra dollars, you can purchase a delicious cupcake, as I will be distributing megatons of cupcakery at the show. All cupcake dollars earned will also go to Saint Jude. Tonight’s flavor: Devil’s Food!

love, celine

So I haven’t given a 24 update in a couple of weeks, and that’s mainly because I’m pretty disappointed with the direction the show is taking. I feel like the wheels came off somewhere around the 12th hour, and I’m not sure they’re going to be able to recover at this point. So instead of talking about the episode, I’m going to talk about general things that are ruining the 24 experience at this point.

1. More Jack, Please - I don’t think we’ve ever had a time on 24 that the show was less about Jack than it is right now. Last night we saw Jack for about 2 minutes at the beginning, and then he was completely absent until the 2nd half of the show, where he basically sat in surveillance for the rest of the show. We had one very small Jack moment (when he shot that guy in the head), but for the most part, he’s been relegated to a bit part. This is made even worse by the lack of other longterm characters. If the story was focusing on Tony and Michelle, I might be into it. But I just don’t care about Nadia and Milo. At all.
2. Dropped storylines - 24 seems intent on dropping major plotlines this season over and over again. First it was that guy they put into the internment camp that got beaten up for spying on those guys (remember him?). Next it was the Logan story. Now it’s the Ben Folds lookalike story. That guy was causing Doyle all kinds of grief last week, and now he’s not mentioned at all. I have a feeling that he will show up again (and hopefully Logan will too), but I think we’ve seen the last of our Muslim friend.
3. Improbable plot points and unrealistic moves by the characters - Do we even need to talk about the President waking up for a coma in a matter of seconds? How about him launching a nuke right after he risked his life to make sure we wouldn’t launch a nuke? Doesn’t make any sense. And why is he taking adrenaline again? How does that relate to being in a coma? Here’s the official 24 site’s research on adrenaline. Notice how it doesn’t mention anything about treating guys that just came out of a coma. Honestly, Tom Lennox has been the only new character that has seemed believable to me at all. The VP is far too warmongering to the point that he’s really a parody (of a certain president perhaps?). Mike Doyle is still a caricature at this point. Morris’ story seems to be played out (turns out he’s not really an alkie anymore). Bleh.
4. Not using the good characters they have - Jack, Karen Hayes, Bill Buchanan, Chloe, and Jack…all of them have been squeezed out by the flood of new characters they’ve brought on to replace everyone they killed off last year. Unfortunately, the new characters are falling flat (see above), and it just makes us miss the veterans even more.

So is the season salvageable? I don’t really see how it’s possible at this point, but I’ll keep watching, of course. Don’t get me wrong, I still think 24 is the best thing on television these days (that I watch anyway), and my complaints are made in that context. It’s just been so great for so long, it’s disappointing to see such a poor season from them.

What do you guys think?

I just want to get this out of the way. I’m open for debate on this point, but I’m willing to go out on a limb here and now and say that “Blades Of Glory” has usurped “Anchorman” as the best of the Will Farrell canon. I know there are a few “Old School” believers out there as well, but I think that after this one, the argument is settled. “Blades” takes the prize.

I’m not going to ruin the movie by rehashing it here, but I will defend my choice. Firstly, there are a ton of quotable lines here, the true hallmark of any great Ferrell movie. Maybe not quite as many as “Anchorman,” but it makes up for that with the visual comedy. You haven’t really lived until you’ve seen Heder and Ferrell ice dancing together. The skating scenes alone are worth the price of admission.

But the real reason I think this is better than “Anchorman” is simple: This movie actually has a semi-believable (albeit thin and slightly contrived) plot. Not that men skating in pairs skating is all that believable, but it at least develops the story well enough that you can get involved with it. I’ve always felt like “Anchorman” contained a ton of funny scenes but very little actual story. Not that you need a story to make a hilarious movie, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Anyway, I say go see it, form your own opinion, and then tell me what an idiot I am. But I’m standing by my choice. “Blades Of Glory” is Will’s best to date. Be sure to check out Chazz Michael Michaels’ myspace, which contains such gems as his favorite movie: “Universal Soldier (Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren in the same movie? It happened!).”