Dramatic AnnieI get a little excited about the things I love…

So, here’s what I’ve been watching on TV lately.

I can’t wait for Mad Men to come back, just can’t wait. In the meantime, AMC has been feeding me the delightfully gritty Hell on Wheels. Yeah, I know everyone loves Breaking Bad, but I like my grit with cowboy hats, so sue me. Anson Mount is sexy!

On the reality TV front, I’m still destroying my mind with Patty Stanger and The Millionaire Matchmaker. I know! I should feel guilty and I do but I just CAN’T stop watching. Slightly classier is Project Runway All-Stars. Even without Tim Gunn, it is great, because the contestants are great. Oh, Austin Scarlett, where have you been all my life? Or at least, the past several years?

On the music front, I’m loving Carolina Chocolate Drops a whole heck of a lot, and The Civil Wars as well. Deep, resonant voices running through me—Adele hasn’t cornered the market on that!

photo credit: Daran KandasamyI went to the movies with Art and saw The Artist. I really loved it. Who would have imagined that I’d be seeing a black and white silent film starring a couple of unkowns? It’s heart-warming and sweet without being treacly. I think it is a movie that really understands spectacle and the theatrical experience. I mean, in order to make silent films, you really have to understand how to convey a lot of information using just visual and musical information. There weren’t really that many title cards either!

Alone I saw Hugo, which was excellent too, but I liked The Artist better. I felt like, The Artist was a movie that told me “”movies are wonderful,”" while Hugo was a movie that told me “”Movies are wonderful and you should think so too.”" Preachy, in other words. It’s hard to watch if you already know that Martin Scorcese is obsessed with old film preservation, because that ends up being the most important thing in Hugo. I mean, the loss of old film is considered, in this movie, equally as tragic as a young boy being orphaned. So there’s that.