Dia de los Muertos. Day of the Dead. Not exactly Christmas, Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July but this was a holiday episode. I don’t claim to know much about the Day of the Dead but it was nice how this episode revolved around shows of affection (sometimes public) and how they have a good ripple effect. This was sort of one of those “awww” sweet Modern Family episodes, I say sort of because I was left wanting more. I actually didn’t believe the episode was finished when Phil had his reaction to the open can of paint. For the record Google couldn’t help me find the clinical term for an open can of paint phobia, any of y’all know what they call that?

Most importantly- Cam revealed that gays don’t high five. This makes me sad. I want everyone to be able to enjoy the high five no matter their sexual orientation. Also this-

Kiss Worthy Moment Official List:

Buying a shirt.

Finding jalapeno stuffed olives.

Making the light on Maple.

Every time you see a VW “Kiss Buggy.”

Almost getting a turkey (bowling).

As if that weren’t enough Cam also gave us a hilarious physical comedy gag (as seen above) when he turned to kiss Mitchell, Mitchell moved away from the attempted kiss and Cam fell over the couch and onto the floor. I don’t know what this show would do without Cam and Phil, easily two of the top ten funniest characters currently on television. Luke gets honorable mention.

What did you think of tonights episode? How do you feel about PDA?

Almost everyone performed a Britney Spears song while under the influence of nitrous oxide dispensed by John Stamos, D.D.S. Dr. Carl, Emma’s new boyfriend. I can’t get beyond this story from “Britney/Brittany” so I’ll rely on all of you to remind me of anything else that happened this week on Glee.

Dr. Carl should have his license revoked. Seriously, he flirts with high school students more than he flirts with his own girlfriend. Side note- shouldn’t there be another, more popular term, for the significant other of an adult? I vote we limit the terms “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” to high school and college relationships. Did I mention that Dr. Carl administers nitrous oxide to just about anyone, whether or not it is medically necessary? I hate that John Stamos’ cameo has been ruined for me because he plays a complete creep!

And Rachel’s teeth turned completely blue after chewing a disclosing tablet? Yuck! I mean, she’s still pretty and I like that she flosses her teeth a minimum 5-6 times a day (my dad is a dentist) but maybe a little Sonicare wouldn’t be such an unwelcome addition to her inbetween classes routine?.

I’d like to see Santana not so trashy. I did not care for Brittany’s mean girl act. I agree with Dr. Carl that Will needs to be wearing a Night Guard, I imagine both Emma and Sue would also benefit from said dental appliance. Maybe the biggest reason I didn’t enjoy this week’s episode, other than Britney overload, was the minimal use of Jane Lynch. Jane Lynch is the oil this machine needs to run like… you know

Is anyone entertained by the, mostly forced, relationship drama between Rachel and Finn? Or Will and Emma? I can’t figure out where I want this show to go. Where do you see these stories going?

It would seem that brothers Joel & Ethan Coen can’t miss and this year they’re going to win more Oscars with their film True Grit. They have always made good movies, from Raising Arizona to Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink to The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty. The Academy Award winning No Country For Old Men and now True Grit. The cast led by newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, starring Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Barry Pepper and Josh Brolin. Take one look at this trailer and your plans for Christmas day 2010 will be in ink- see True Grit then open the rest of my presents.

What do you think? Have you read the book written by Charles Portis? What did you think of the original adaptation starring John Wayne?

#1, 2, and 3 biggest problem I have with Community (and Glee) is their distasteful meta-awareness. Specifically Community and Abed are standing on the wrong side of that line, not sure how much longer I can watch this. What’re your thoughts on this subject?

Season two of the third (yes, I’m calling Glee a comedy!) best new comedy on network television last year started out by putting everything in its right place. Jeff is not interested in Annie (I don’t know why I thought their kiss at the end of last season meant anything! Was anyone else fooled??) and Britta is still a sad, sad girl. Other than the fact that Troy moved in with Pierce, nothing else has changed since the end of season one. Unless you consider student Chang a big change. I kinda do. Especially if the teaser at the end of “Anthropology 101″ means anything, Chang as an equal part of the group… seems like we dealt with the threat idea of a new member last season and resolved that the group loves the group just the way it is. False drama! False drama! Chang ain’t no thang! What is happening with Jeph/Britta/Annie?!? Can someone please shed some light on this situation? In the past I was fine with the loveless loser (Ed, Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother) but Jeff is not a loveless loser and I shutter at the thought that Jeff being in a real relationship would reunion this program. Would it? Is Community just a place for unhappy people?

I want Jeff, Annie and Britta to convert to the Church of Latter Day Saints so they can all marry each other. This would actually make me happy. I can’t imagine Jeff without either of these girls! Please share you Community thoughts and observations!

A few quotes for the road (no, I’m not quoting Pierce. I’ve got principles.)-

“Men are monsters who crave young flesh” Jeff so perfectly (did the writers steal this line?) encapsulated the entire Twilight series. or saga. whatevs

“Anyone object to us being referred to as donuts? No one?”

“Have you ever seen a cat penis?”

“I’m on the clock for another hour if you want me to do some Batman lines.”

“what the Maku-Maku call dirt roaded.” Which reminds me- I’m expecting to see Betty White as a guest performer at my six year old niece’s talent show. Please, please leave me be with my Golden Girls. Don’t ruin the memories.

Finally I do have to say that the writers got something perfect, epiphany perfect, when they gave Jeff those lines about respect. Respect is not natural, much like love, and we need it (both) if we’re going to make surviving worthwhile.

MODERN FAMILY WON A TON OF EMMYS! I believe that covers the first five minutes of episode one season two. Okay, maybe I prefer a little more humility than the silver screen has to offer. I was happy to see the good people at Modern Family open the new season with their bread and butter- Ty Burrell.

“You know what? You can insult a lot of things about me- my hair, my voice, my balance-board exercises but don’t insult my selling. That crosses a line. What line? Oh you don’t see it? That’s cuz I just sold it.”

Followed by Cameron reading celebrity gossip (I don’t know what “Bio” magazine is and I’m unwilling to Google it to find out.) to Lilly because he will snap if he has to read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” one more time.

And finally Manny preparing for the arrival of “just a friend” to study “the life cycle of silkworms.” I never want to know how old the actor playing Manny is because I’m afraid it would ruin the greatest comedic performance of this century (see that? I stole that from Criss Angel. Greatest magician of this century, my foot!) but seriously I could watch Manny get eaten alive by the anxiety he’s  having over the impending arrival of a girl he’s interested in until pigs fly.

In the end Phil and Claire have to let go of the car they spent their glory days in, going to parades grand marshaled by Angela Lansbury. “Good times, she wrote.” Mitchell has to give up his dream of being handy around the house as the eminent danger he puts everyone in will eventually give Cameron a heart attack or at the very least make him a very uninspiring disabled person. Gloria gets a glimpse of her future, practically present, of becoming a Colombian tradition- the clingy mother. Manny is a ladies man, also a Colombian tradition, and eventually Gloria will learn to accept this fact or die when Manny gets married which happens to be the leading cause of death among Colombian mothers (their son’s getting married). I’m rambling like a Phil so you must be entertained! You’re not? How about some quotes-

“until someone can figure out how to keep a wormhole from collapsing in on itself, that’s just a pipe dream.”

“Where is Mitchell? He’s not supposed to be unsupervised!”

“When you’re around tools, Honey, it’s dangerous for me, for you, for our roses.”

“Do you think that the town of Brigadoon just magically appear?”

“Yes” is the correct answer to the question in that last quote. What I really want to know is what y’all thought of this episode? Was this your first time to see Modern Family or were you there for season one? What makes this show stand out from Glee and Community?

Rachel turns on survival mode with the arrival of a new foreign exchange student who can belt out Lady Gaga like, well, Lady Gaga. Finn was kicked off the football team. Will, and New Directions, learn that their third place finish last year did not earn them any cool points as they are still the butt of every joke told in the halls and classrooms of McKinley High  “And that’s what you missed on Glee.”

I really wish that the first episode of a new season didn’t feel the need to spell out everything that happened in the previous season. Glee accomplished this task terribly with a jump cut crazed fake news report starring that blogger Jacob(he is a student, right?) and the members of New Directions. I like it better when my favorite television program doesn’t wink at me.

Anyway Glee did gracefully get back into the swing of things pretty quickly. Finn and Rachel are dating and doing their best to act like an old married couple, I say “act” because you could hear them reading the dialogue for their fight. I mentioned Finn got kicked off the football team, that’s because coach Tanaka had a nervous breakdown and his replacement, a woman, doesn’t like Finn’s attitude. Specifically Finn plastering glee club flyers in the boy’s locker room and trying to get coach Beiste (it’s French) to give Artie a spot on the football roster. Artie (and Finn) thought he could be a cannonball, coach Beiste thought Artie could be a public relations nightmare so Finn’s off the team and problem is supposedly solved (though not really cuz Artie could still try out for the team and there’s nothing coach Beiste could do about that but I’m not here to split hairs.) Rachel is Rachel and although she acts plenty confident she’s as insecure as a vault with a chain lock. By the end of the episode Rachel’s greatest fear transfers to Carmel High to be the new lead for Vocal Adrenaline, talk about conflict resolution/foreshadowing. Finn tells us he’s a nobody because he’s not on the football team, so I guess we’ll keep believing that until he triumphantly regains his roster spot and starting position because he’s too pretty not to be popular (and he told us that he won’t be popular if he’s not on the football team, promise.).

Sadly without a bun in the oven Quinn seems like a fringe character, unless she finds some new drama (this is high school) to catch our attention (Finn better keep his guard up).

Coach Beiste. I’ll be honest- I thought coach Tanaka had a sex change. Well he didn’t and coach Beiste is here, presumably, to stay. Beiste and Sue are either blood sisters or perfect enemies, I can’t figure out which one. Oddly Sue and Will team up for much of the episode to give the budget hogging Beiste a hard time but as we all saw it coming from a mile away- Will couldn’t be that mean and apologized to coach Beiste. Will is a nice guy that’s why I like Sue.

Sue is why I’m still here. So without further ado, quotes from Sue-

“Think your kids can manage life without their daddy?”

“First of all female football coach like a male nurse- sin against nature.”

“You’ll deafen them with the sound of your stretch marks rubbing together.”

Now it’s time for the quote of the season, can’t believe I’m saying this, from Rachel-

“YOU LIKE ME SING. YOU LIKE ME SING VERY MUCH.”

What’d you think this episode? What do you think of the new additions to the cast? Did Lea Michele have those wonderful bangs last season?

No this isn’t a motel review, this is my list of my favorite Western Films ever. Below you’ll find their posters along with a reason or two of why I like the film or what makes said movie worth watching again and again. When starting a list of the best (IMO) Westerns of all time you can start with one of two actors- John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. I’m going to start with John Wayne in the epic directed by John Ford- The Searchers. You can’t go wrong with John Wayne crossing the United States in search of justice.

Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award winning Unforgiven, like manygreat Westerns, boasts an all-star cast including three Oscar winners Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Eastwood himself as well as Oscar nominated Richard Harris. This film, for me, marks the beginning of Eastwood- the great director.

In my life Tombstone is to Westerns what Tommy Boy is to comedies and Terminator 2 is to science fiction. One of the first films I ever purchased with my own money. One of the first live action films I could quote without missing a beat. It also marked the first time the thought crossed my mind, “mustaches are cool and Sam Elliot has the best mustache I’ve ever seen.”

The next three films also hold a special place in my memories. I grew up in a family that didn’t really watch movies so when we did it was a rather memorable event and when my parents actually enjoyed a movie… well, that was “the bee’s knees.” Based on my experience every filmmaker should try to make a movie for adults but safe enough for children as well. That said, ¡Three Amigos! and The Shakiest Gun in the West were two films that my parents watched, with the kids, and laughed at. They also introduced me to the greatness of Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Don Knotts. Then there was the film that my best friend’s family considered one of their favorites- Blazing Saddles. Again, the wild West is a great place for comedy especially in the hands of Jew from Brooklyn.

In recent years the Western has seen a dramatic drop off from popularity at the local megaplex but a few instant classics have made it to the projector room, the Australian Western The Proposition is one of those films. Again, again if this cast doesn’t make you wanna watch this movie before your next meal then I don’t know what will. The Proposition stars Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, John Hurt, Emily Watson and was written for the screen by Nick Cave.

Clint Eastwood spits on a dog in The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Once Upon a Time in the West is just one of the many tremendous contributions to the genre made by Sergio Leone. Every aspect of this film is perfect. I’m not using hyperbole. The cast-  Bronson, Robards, Fonda and the beautiful Claudia Cardinale. The visuals, thanks to Leone, and score composed by Ennio Morricone. Watch this movie and just try to refute my claim.

I know many would say Rio Bravo was better but I saw El Dorado first. And I like the name nickname “Mississippi.”

Eastwood, Leone, and Morricone started the sub-genre “Spaghetti Western” with one of the greatest movies of all time- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. If you haven’t seen this movie, see it now.

I would have thought seeing the spoof (Three Amigos) of a film first would have ruined the viewing of the film being spoofed but The Magnificent Seven is that good. Also I have to mention another Western that didn’t make this list but still holds a place in my heart (yeah, I said that) The White Buffalo (it’s a bison) starring The Magnificent Seven‘s Charles Bronson. If you watch The White Buffalo then you’ll know why I love the film and why I couldn’t put it on this list.

The other modern classic along side The Proposition is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. This film gave me hope that the genre had not all but been forgotten by Hollywood.

You know you’re watching a Western when a moral decision is at the heart of the story. Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly star in High Noon, I need not say more.

Finally Paul Newman and Robert Redford star in what I call a disco-Western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Interested? I thought you would be- let me know what you think after you’ve seen it.

I have to mention There Will Be Blood which for some reason unknown to me I have trouble calling a Western. Am I wrong? What are some of your favorite Westerns?

Last week I asked if 1965 would bring about ”business as usual” to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, this week we got a resounding “yes” in “The Rejected.”

We start things off with a conference call between Don, Roger and Lee Garner Junior. You see Junior is unsettled by a few new restrictions placed, apparently by his own lawyers, on Lucky Strike advertising including “no more smoking teenagers.” How progressive. (Have I mentioned that I can’t help but want to smoke every time that I watch an episode of Mad Men?) During said conference call Don juggles Junior on the telephone, Peggy and Faye at his desk , and drinks at his bar with the ease of a well seasoned circus clown (but five thousand times less creepy).

Good ol’ Pete gets the news that Pond’s has squeezed his Clearasil account out of SCDP because of a perceived conflict of interest and Pete must deliver the news to his father-in-law. Expectantly Pete protests but Lane explains that the Pond’s account (around $2 million) will be much more profitable than Clearasil. In a failed attempt to break the news to the father of his bride, Pete learns that Trudy is pregnant. Tom, Trudy’s dad, feels terrible for leaking the news (Trudy had a few excuses as to why she hadn’t told Pete yet) but Pete’s too happy to care who the messenger was and will talk Clearasil on another day. When that day finally arrived Pete laid it all out and Tom delivered the new 6 million dollar advertising deal with Vicks Chemical, Clearasil’s parent company. In a big week for Pete he also mends bridges with Kenny, thanks and no thanks to Harry. Kenny has Mountain Dew and hopes to do to the Dew and parent company Pepsi what Pete did to Clearasil.

Back at the office, in the elevator, Peggy meets a photo editor from LIFE magazine who shares her apparent taste in nude photography. One thing leads to another and Joyce, the photo editor, makes a pass at Peggy in a hipster underground club (or was it an art gallery?) and Peggy has to explain that she’s got a boyfriend. He’s a renter. Of course Peggy find out about Pete’s big news (the baby, not Vicks) and she put on a happy face, congratulating Pete.

During a focus group for Pond’s moderated by Dr. Faye, with an “E”, Allison finally breaks under the pressure of wearing a happy face and storms out of the office. Her former position will be temporarily filled by the elderly Mrs. Blankenship until Joan can find a worthy replacement. Dr. Faye finds that in the end women still just want to get married and that that is the angle SCDP should take with Pond’s. Don doesn’t care what the focus group revealed because he wants to inform the target of their desires not react to old wants and feed old desires. Doesn’t seem that Don cares two cents about Dr. Faye’s work, so how long do you think she has at SCDP?

What’s going to happen with sweet Peggy?

Are we going to be seeing more of Kenny or Mountain Dew Pepsi?

“Did you get pears?”