Everyone Loves a Parade: 42 Inch Television Liveblogs the Village Halloween Parade

Thanks to the wonderful folks at Time Warner Cable, the first twenty-four minutes of the 35th Annual Village Halloween Parade on NY1 didn't record on my DVR. Please pause for muttered curses.

OK! Undeterred and determined to give you folks what you want, here is my running diary of the final hour of the broadcast. I hope I didn't miss anything good! (That's sarcasm; of course I didn't miss anything good. This is a NY1 broadcast after all.)

8:25: Our master of ceremonies for the evening is John Schiumo, dressed as the Middle Class... beaten, bloody and dying. Get it? Because the backbone of our country is in the crapper. Last year, John got to stay out on the street, which lead to many hilarious technical problems. This year, he's in a studio and joined by costume designer William Ivey Long, which should lead to many hilarious communications problems. In a shocking twist, the theme for tonight's parade is "Ghosts". Very out of the box.

Knocked Up: The Season Two Finale of Mad Men Recapped

It's easy to say Mad Men is the best show on television. It has got all the trimmings of a show worthy of that title--minimal viewers, strong and oblique characters and a sprawling narrative that treats television more like a novel than as a receptacle for Heineken commercials. However, what makes Mad Men so brilliant is the way it effortless reaches its goals. There was nary a difference in quality between the ever-so-perfect first season and this second season, which came to a stirring and silent close last night. Mad Men is so good, it barely seems to break a sweat on its way to glory.

Blair Witch Project: Why Leighton Meester is the Best Gossip Girl

I have been a terrible blogger. I know. If there was a Geneva Convention for bloggers, I'd be in full violation of them. For that, I apologize. However! If you're in need of some awesome 42 Inch Television patter, you should really direct yourself over to The New York Observer, and their newly redesigned online section called "O2". For example, if you trekked over there today, you would have seen my awesome posting about my favorite Gossip Girl, Leighton Meester.

Look! An excerpt!

We know it sounds like faint praise. A votive candle could out-act Blake Lively, and as appealing as most of the other actors and actresses are, none would have made the late Lee Strasberg stand at attention. However, that doesn't mean Ms. Meester is any less impressive.

You can read the rest right here. And you can find all the goodies that The New York Observer has to offer directly to your right. (See that there, it's labeled "The New York Observer". Creative, no?)

Stay tuned for more!

One More Night: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist Reviewed

Roughly halfway through the wildly not wild night that Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings) spend together on the path to preordained love and happiness, Nick offers Norah a Handi Wipe so she can clean her hands after helping a sick friend clean up her vomit. It should be a throwaway moment, overly twee and an easy attempt at awkwardly cute humor for Mr. Cera--the lanky actor says that he had Chinese food a few weeks back and thought to hang on to the wipe as a "just in case" precaution. Instead, it feels like the most romantic thing a person could do for another. That's the type of movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is--slight, trite, contrived, predictable and yet so darn likeable and cute that you can't possibly find a reason to dislike it.

Kym at the Wedding: Rachel Getting Married Reviewed

Everything you've read about Anne Hathaway's performance in Rachel Getting Married, Jonathan Demme's latest film, is spot on. Ms. Hathaway storms headlong into the role of Kym, a recovering addict out of rehab for the weekend to attend her sister's nuptials and the results are fairly spectacular. To call Kym hard to like would be an understatement. She's a whirling dervish of narcissism and self-destruction, and it's to Ms. Hathaway's credit that I never once found her insufferable or unlikeable. The role calls for razor thin precision, and the beautiful actress tows the line incredibly well.