Barely a month after a astronauts on space mission/reality show pilot was aired on Fox and failed, even with BSG’s Ronald D. Moore as a co-writer, ABC has started their own astronauts on space mission/reality show, Defying Gravity. Even knowing it was pitched as “Grey’s Anatomy in space”, I gave it a shot, and didn’t regret it. The reviews I’ve seen aren’t very favorable, but I thought it was a good mix of scifi and soapiness (although the ABC thing about playing pop music during a montage is odd). It stars Ron Livingston, and it’s a good role for him. You can watch the first two eps online, then new ones will air on Sundays.
Month: August 2009
Indian, Tori and a picnic
Friday night I made fajitas and guacamole, then we jumped on computers, though Jill was in bed soon (she fell asleep on the couch).
Saturday I got up and spent some time on the elliptical machine (watching old V), then set up the tent outside to air it out since it was sunny. I made breakfast then read some papers and watched TV. In the late afternoon we headed into DC, ending up at Rasika right on time for our reservation.
For some reason, even though we both enjoy Indian food, we’ve never been to the place acclaimed as the best Indian food around. And I had to agree, it was very good. The Palak Chaat (crispy spinach) to start was very good, and the Lamb Gucchi Korma was tasty, if a bit too mushroomy for my tastes. Jill enjoyed her Tandoori Chicken and Baigan Bharta, and the cocktails we got (Goan Sunset for me, gin with cilantro and strawberry and a mango cosmo for her were excellent).
Afterwards we took Metro back to Farragut Square, where we stopped and bought some shoes at CitySports (more about them later). Then Jill wanted to stop for a coffee, but we were running late, and walked down to Constitution Hall. We had box seats, and there are five seats in each box, seated first come first serve. We did get there first by just over a minute, so we had the best seats in my favorite box in Constitution Hall (stage right, just past the first exit). Opening band One eskimO was pretty good.
But we (and everyone else) were there for Tori, and her performance was pretty fabulous. “Cornflake Girl” was welcome as usual, but it was only one of four songs from “Under The Pink”, including my first “Space Dog” and only my second “Pretty Good Year” (and Jill’s first). The new songs from Abnormally Attracted to Sin were good, especially “Fast Horse”. Jill was pretty happy about “Hotel” and I loved finally hearing “Carbon” and “Bouncing Off Clouds”.
Today we slept in. We’d hatched a ridiculous plan about getting up to see Harry Potter at 9AM to fit it in, but shot that down before going to bed. We did still make it over to Jill’s company picnic, at the other J.R.’s, and that was fun. I had a lot to do at home, including cleaning tarps and going for a run, but honestly spent a lot of time watching TV shows and concerts on the DVR because at one point I noticed it was 96% full. Too many shows I hadn’t caught up on, as well as new concerts from today, but I’ve got a handle on it now.