My latest obsessions

I have a habit of finding things within pop culture and becoming rather obsessed. Previous victims have included "Jon & Kate Plus 8," profiles written in Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, and the movie "Walk the Line," which prompted a separate obsession with Johnny Cash and June Carter.

There've been a couple new obsessions lately.

*"Grey Gardens": This began after Drew Barrymore won the Golden Globe and SAG Award for best actress in a miniseries. I've had trouble getting through the HBO movie, but after a friend sent me video clips of the documentary the movie was based on, I was hooked. "Grey Gardens" is based on Jackie Kennedy's aunt and cousin, who started out as rich socialites in New York but ended up living in isolation and squalor in the Hamptons. Grey Gardens was the name of their house, which would later be filled with dozens of cats, their poop and pee, cat food cans, raccoons, filth and just stuff. The mother and daughter had this sick dependent relationship that could only be summed up as cuckoola. What's my obsession you ask? I don't know. It may have something to do with their accents. A cross between a cockney/Boston/New England sound.

Visit http://www.life.com/image/78828047/in-gallery/24971/the-real-women-of-grey-gardens to see what I'm talking about.


*"Glee": This one only surfaced in the past couple days. Obsessed is putting it lightly. I started seeing articles about this show choir show before it began airing on Fox in the fall. It was the "It" show this season. Friends would tell me I HAD to watch it, but these were the same jamokes who watched "American Idol," "So You Think You Can Dance" and other jazz hand shows. So I didn't pay much attention. It stated getting nominated for awards, and I hate to be out of the loop when watching awards shows, so I set my DVR to record some reruns. AMAZING. It has just the right balance of show tune and contemporary music and a compelling storyline. There isn't an unlikeable character, and the musical numbers absolutely give me chills. I watched the mid-season finale last night and when Rachel sang "Rain on My Parade," I had to watch it four times. Then dowload the song to my iPod. And five others.

Rachel's performance. Tell me you're not downloading this Streisand classic after.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj54q_fgk7I

*NPR: Or, National Public Radio to you cool people. I started listening more religiously when I was actually ON the radio. I was invited to be on a local NPR radio show to talk about education and, since I couldn't hear it live, was searching the Web site to find an archive of it. As a rule I hate how I sound on TV and the radio, but I wanted to see if I sounded as much like an idiot as I felt when I was talking. I actually didn't, so that was good. Anyway, when I was listening to the show, I was taken aback by how soooooooothing it was. Low voices, smacking lips, articulate words (until my nasal Chicago voice came in). It drew me in. When I lived in North Carolina, the school superintendent had his own TV show on public access where he interviewed people within the school district. The premise was mind-numbingly boring. But anyone you talked to who flipped by it on the TV was hooked. It had soft lighting and the superintendent's lips smacked when he talked, leaving a little bit of spittle on his lips. Add a Southern accent and you're done for. That's what NPR is to me.