The Vintage Reader

I'm really disappointed in TV this week. First off, several of my favorite shows have been cancelled, including new shows Jericho, Raines, and The Class and old favorites Veronica Mars and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Gilmore Girls is gone too, but it was way past time for it to go, so I'm not sorry about that. Since they knew it was going away, it actually had a real series finale, unlike the others. I'm not sure I've EVER seen anything that felt less like a series finale than the last episode of Veronica Mars.

I've been disappointed by season/series finales before, but usually it's because I'm not ready for the show to go away, like Now and Again, which ended with Michael and Lisa and Heather on the run. I like to think that Lisa finally believed the crazy story that her dead husband's brain, previously living in John Goodman's body, had somehow been transplanted into hunky Eric Close, and that the three of them managed to set up a new life in a small town somewhere and were never heard from again, except for 13 or 14 weeks every year when they have a scare because the government gets a lead on its very expensive runaway science experiment and comes after them, and at some point they have to decide whether to pack up and run or stay and fight. Boy, I loved that show.

But anyway. I don't really mind it that Veronica Mars is over; it hasn't been the same since she started college, and I always hate it when the main character goes off to a local college that hasn't been mentioned before (although there had been a story line that involved the college in an earlier season, so at least it wasn't like UC Sunnydale, which just appeared one day and everyone accepted that it had always been there--kind of like Buffy's sister Dawn) and all the rest of the characters do stupid things like turning down scholarships to schools that people have actually heard of to go there too, so they all stay together in the same town. I mean, come on: wouldn't Mac have gone to Stanford? Didn't Wallace actually get offered a basketball scholarship to another school (my memory is hazy on that one)? Veronica not being able to afford to go anywhere else was believable because they had set it up that way from the beginning, but all her friends too? Even Weevil gets hired on at the university, thanks to Veronica. But really, the plots have just been kind of lame this season, with too much focus on relationships and too little on the meat of this series, which is Veronica's incredible mystery-solving ability, so I wasn't all THAT sorry to see it go. But as a series finale, or even a season finale, that one was just not up to snuff.

And I'm not even going to get into how much I hated the ending of CI, with Logan seeing his dead neighbor who might have turned into a girlfriend (but we know she wouldn't have, because Logan is destined to be alone). There was a show about a detective who saw murder victims and talked to them. It was called Raines, and it was good. Snappy dialogue, pretty good mystery plotting, and you just can't go wrong with Jeff Goldblum if you're looking for quirky, disturbed, and determinedly gloomy. Of course it was cancelled, because TV SUCKS ROCKS.

I don't think any of my new favorites deserved to be cancelled. All three of them had really good writing and good casts. One was a science fiction thriller, one was a police drama, and one was a traditional sitcom, but what they had in common was that they were all pretty smart. It took a while for The Class to really hit its stride that way--some of the early episodes wandered a lot, and some of the episodes later in the season were a little uneven too--but I think it would have gelled, especially since they seemed to be paring down the cast and making the dialogue smarter.

Despite TV sucking rocks, this has been an exceptionally good season, compared to the last few years. Some smart new shows made it on the air and lasted an entire season, and that's a good thing. Ugly Betty and 30 Rock have both been renewed, as well as How I Met Your Mother, so that's good news for smart, well-written shows. And I spent too much time this season watching TV anyway, so maybe this is for the best.

One of my favorite local events, the annual AAUW book sale, is next week (although it doesn't say that on the web site, for some reason). Mark your calendars now! I highly recommend going on the last day, when paperbacks are crazy cheap. The first year I went I'm pretty sure they were 10 for a dollar as closing time approached on Sunday.

Of course, selection varies from year to year. I nearly always get a lot of great craft and DIY books from the 50s and 60s, and there are always TONS of cookbooks. Not much science fiction and fantasy, unfortunately, and it gets picked over pretty quickly.

So clear off a couple of shelves, grab your checkbook, and go. Oh, and purchases are tax deductible. How cool is that?

So I was at the mall last week, and I spotted a store that had darling baby furniture and stuff. Adorable little chairs and tables. Fabulous baby clothes hanging in cute displays. I rolled the stroller on in and Vintage Toddler and I took a look around. To my disappointment, none of the clothes came in an 18 month size, but that was okay, because frankly, they were a little frilly and girly--even the boys' clothes. I was heading for the little tables and chairs when I noticed that the sales clerk was wearing surgical scrubs. Cute ones, like a pediatric nurse, but scrubs, nonetheless. Then I noticed that she was sitting in a sea of Plexiglas newborn cribs. And each one had a tiny face peeking out of a bundle of flannel. I made a quick retreat.

I thought for a while that I had stepped out of the mall and into the Twilight Zone, but actually, I was just in the creepiest store in the mall.

[EDIT: Eeeeewwwww! Be sure to click on "The Experience" so you can see the little girl in the hospital gown, apparently playing "postpartum mommy." So did they PROVIDE the gown, or did she bring it with her? And wouldn't you think that since she had to fill out an application to get one of the little monsters, she was ADOPTING it, like a Cabbage Patch Doll? So why is she wearing a hospital gown, anyway?]

I'm on this whole mid-century modern kick right now, which led me to Kerry Beary's awfully cute Atomic Age cats (and other stuff). However, I must NOT buy any more prints until I get the Shag print and the Marcellino poster framed. Must. Not.

I know, I know, I've linked to this before, but after reading the sad news about the closing of Bell's I just had to go take a virtual ride on The Phantasmagoria again.

The Bell's web site does mention the possibility of reopening in a new location, and I heard a rumor a couple of years ago that it might move to the new riverfront development in Jenks, which would actually be pretty cool. Perhaps by the time Vintage Toddler is tall enough he can, after all, ride the Phantasmagoria.

I don't know why I'm so upset about something that's happening in a town 1000 miles away from where I live; I guess it's just middle-aged nostalgia kicking in. I spent a lot of time at Bell's when I was growing up, particularly during my high school years. Of course, one of the things the people who live around Bell's complain about all the time is the large number of high schoolers who hang out at Bell's...like they didn't hang out there when they were in high school too. Grumble grumble grr. It just seems like a lot of things that made my growing-up years fun are going away. The Metro Diner is a parking lot. Now Bell's will be too. Why does Tulsa need so many parking lots, anyway?

If you're a Netflix member, you can watch a ton of movies online, free, as part of your membership. There are so many of my favorites in the "Classics" category that I can't even list them all, but here's a sample:

• Giant
• Cabaret
• Rebel Without a Cause
• Desk Set
• Casablanca
• North by Northwest
• Chinatown

There are also lots of great vintage horror flicks, and the science fiction selection is nothing to sneeze at either. Go check it out. It's the "Watch Now" tab. Go!

Image copyright 2004 by Molly Ives Brower. If you want to use it, please ask me. I'll probably let you.

The lights are off at Bell's. Permanently. And nobody told me.

If you wear about a size 8 and have a sincere desire to sweep some palooka off his feet, you must have this dress. Bid quickly: the auction ends on the 24th.

You'll also want a good tailor, if you're planning on actually wearing it. All those side seams and 50-year-old silk or rayon? Wow. It might be easier just to put it on a rolling mannequin and walk down the street with it. Be sure to take some kind of flat-bed wagon to collect all the poor saps who knock themselves silly walking into utility poles as you pass by. (I'm picturing that scene from Major Dad when Gunny gets a red dress and a matching balloon and skips down the sidewalk in high heels, stunning several hunky young military types into abject slavering adoration. Please tell me I'm not the only one who remembers that.

And also, thinking of Gerald McRaney, how much does it SUCK that a) they killed him off in Jericho; and b) then they killed off Jericho! TV sucks rocks!!!!! At least How I Met Your Mother has been renewed.)

I just sat on the phone through TWO voice jail menus before the system told me that "all lines are busy" and hung up on me, so I had to call back. Just to get a question about a $6.15 charge on my credit card answered.

What ever happened to calling up a company and getting a PERSON on the other end? Someone who, while maybe not being able to assist you directly, could at least transfer you (hopefully) to someone who could? Everyone I know is frustrated by voice jail. Nobody actually considers it a good thing, except perhaps the companies who are saving $46K a year by not hiring a couple of receptionists. And there's nothing we can do about it, and no way to get away from it. To my mind, it's a bigger nuisance than spam, because at least you can filter the spam.

But hey, why should anyone listen to me? I'm just a consumer.