Oh, that trailer.

I can’t help it. It does it for me. Sorry. Sorry I’m not sorry.

Something else I wrote about Fifty Shades Of Grey. And something Dave Barry wrote about Fifty Shades Of Grey.

I like coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoons. Herbal tea. I never drink traditional morning breakfast PG Tips kind of tea (or Barrys tea, which is compulsory to have in the house if you are married to an Irishman, even though he has never touched the stuff). I used to, for hangovers, but if I am hungover these days I need an IV drip and a defibrillator just to get out of bed.

ANYWAY.

So, yes, I like tea. I am a shocking hoarder of teas, as though some kind of teapocalypse is coming, and a total tea snob. So when a lovely woman named Lindsey, who started a tiny tea company called Blackbird Tea Co, asked if I’d like to try some of her new teas, I said hell yes. (Actually, I said ‘yes please’, because I’m quite polite like that.) It’s amazing. Go find it. x

I love Luc Besson movies.

I can’t remember if I’ve posted about Bachelorette before, and I’m too lazy to check. Plus if I enter my name plus anything into Google then I might see something mean someone wrote, so I like to self-blinker. Like an old horse.

ANYWAY.

The point is, Bachelorette is one of my favorite movies ever. I’ve watched it over and over again (which is saying a lot these days, because I have a list of new things I want to watch as long as my johnson), and every time I get something new out of it and laugh my ass off. It’s just brilliant.

Some people vehemently dislike it. My sister and I had a ‘are you SERIOUS?’ ‘are YOU serious?’ discussion about it when I told her it was my favorite movie. The stuff she doesn’t like – some of the mean girl stuff at the start, the wedding speech by Adam Scott about banging Lizzy Caplan, instead about you know, the couple actually getting married – I kind of understand. But I STILL love it for a million reasons: the blowjob speech, the Isla Fisher character (best lines: ‘but I’m giving you what you want…’ and ‘you guys had an abortion without me?’), the way Kiki Dunst saves the day at the end, the dialogue, the relationships…. I love it. I would watch it right this second if I could. (NB Right this second I am actually lying on the playmat typing this while Ned thinks about crawling and drools.)

Next, For A Good Time Call… This movie is a classic romantic comedy, beat for beat, but it’s about platonic friendship between girls. By now, you KNOW how much that would ice my cake. I’m all about the womyn. (That was an ironic womyn.) (Probably.) Anyway. It’s very very funny.

I like television.

This isn’t a huge surprise. Firstly, I’m alive. And secondly, I’m a writer with a baby and a toddler. I mean, the days of being out partying till the AM are, if not over, then at least on ‘pause’ for a while. And thirdly, television has never been better. (I am sure someone says that every year, starting the year after television was invented, but never mind.)

Inevitably, I have a lot of favorite shows. You can read more about them here and here and here. And these are my favorite shows right now.

 The Americans.

Love this show. Love him. Love her. Love the writing. Love the fashion. Love the fighting. Love the whole thing.

Incidentally, this show is the first that I’m aware of to show a 69 between the lead characters. Yes! Seriously! A 69! I know! Makes Don Draper’s little fingerbang back in season two look fairly benign, right?

I think I understand why the writers chose a 69. The scene involves their teenage daughter walking in on them having make-up sex. And yes, in 1982, it would be shocking for a teenage girl to see her parents having plain old sex, in fact, it would be shocking for a teenage girl in 2014, and actually, I walked in on my roommate having sex when I was 23 and I’m still scarred… BUT, it’s not shocking for a 2014 audience. We’re too jaded. We’d be like, oh, sex, well, good for them. And a plain old blowjob would be too predictable for the audience too, really, and imply a power dynamic that isn’t true to the characters (she is the tough cold one; he is the warmer one: he gives, she takes). The 69 was both a shocking and impressive choice for absolutely everyone. Well done, writers.

Moone Boy.

Truly original and hilarious sitcom about a boy with an imaginary friend. It’s set in Ireland in 1989/1990. It’s so funny. Just so funny.

By the way, by husband grew up in Cork in Ireland, and this is basically his childhood. If you watch one, watch the World Cup one. Season Two, episode One.

Trophy Wife.

Such a bad title. (Can we stop having titles with WIFE in? Like seriously. The Paris Wife, The Good Wife, American Wife, A Reliable Wife, The Wife, on and on and on, and yet is there anything called The Husband? Is there fuck.)

But. Way funnier than you think it is. Watch the Halloween one just to see the teenage boy dress up as Ellen DeGeneres.

VEEP.

If you only watch one, watch Season Three, Episode Two. Hilarious. Smart. Sharp. And includes the line “Maybe I should just say, get the government out of my fucking snatch.”

Which, let’s face it, is a tshirt.

True Detective 

I almost don’t know whether I should recommend you watch this this show or not.

Is this one of the best shows I have ever seen? Yes.

Was it scary enough to give me palpitations, insomnia and a perma-nausea not felt since pregnancy? Yes.

Do I have mild PTSD just from watching it? Again, yes.

And yet… it was amazing. Exhilarating. I went back night after night for more, even though it made me feel sick all day thinking about it. Maybe I was addicted to the rush of the sheer horror of it. I am now SO SCARED of Louisiana. Seriously. So. Scared.

Matthew McConaughey kills it. And it has a six-minute tracking shot that will blow your mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_HuFuKiq8U

So, every year, more or less on our anniversary, Fox and I head back to the place in downtown Manhattan where we got married, give a passerby our camera and ask them to take our photo.

Now that we’ve done it four times, I think we can call it a THING. (We skipped 2011 as we hadn’t move to NYC yet. It was a long way to go for a thing that wasn’t even a thing yet, to paraphrase Sixteen Candles.)

2010 – Gem and Fox

2012 – Gem, Fox and Errol (eight months)

2013 (Gem, Fox and Errol, 1year8months)

2014 (Gem, Fox, Errol, nearly 3, and Ned, nearly 6m)

These photos make me insanely happy. (I know. I’m so square.) Babies, man. They might just catch on.

Not usually my bag but this is pretty damn great.

Well THIS is amazing.

I slip an OK GO reference into every book I write. I know. It’s totally lame and annoying. What can I say? I like that damn band. (Actually, note to self: is it in LOVE & CHAOS? I should check. Well, obviously I’m not going to check. I can’t read my own book, it’s horrific, like watching a video of yourself walking naked: all I see are flaws. If anyone out there can tell me if there is an OK GO reference in it, please do. Or just ignore me and go about your day. That’s fine too. I need to find somewhere to hide it in the third book in the Brooklyn Girls series, which is called THE WILD ONE. Yah. Good title huh? Okay I need to end this parentheses already. No you hang up first. No you! YOU! Okay. Going now. Seriously. For serious.)