Grey's Anatomy 10/23/08

Did anyone see Grey's last night? It was pretty good. Not harrowing and hair-pull inducing like the premiere, but a good Grey's episode. To really get heart rates going they should've focused less on Grey and Derek and more on the piggy back surgery potentially failing. The way it almost came apart was just not dramatic enough. Last season I kind of fell off because it wasn't holding my interest anymore and I think that's because they strayed away from a lot of the sardonic humor that made the show interesting for me. I feel like it was more focused on drama b/w Grey and Derek, Bambi and Callie, etc etc. At least that's what it felt like to me.

Last night's episode reminded me of why I love the show with of one scene: the one where the residents are eating lunch and they've got the interns all lined up in front of them while they pick and choose which ones they want and which ones to give to Bambi (I cannot think of his name to save my life right now). Basically, Christina is taking notes and they are talking within earshot of these interns about them without censorship. Grey's sister is like "we're right here, we can hear you" and of course they ignore her and keep deliberating. Yang even yells at an awkward, doe-eyed intern just for putting his tray down when his arms start to get tired, in the vein of the old comedically anal Christina Yang instead of the more recent grindingly anal Christina Yang. The scene was evocative of the old ironic humor that put Grey's where it was a couple of seasons ago (i.e. before the writer's strike): an Emmy award-winning comedy cum drama at the top of America's network television lineups. It's the kind of scene that is worthy of its own YouTube or Hulu submission with 6-figure hits and a 5-star rating and it's been a while since Grey's had one of those I'm sure.

While it wasn't perfect—Grey and Derek still had some meaningless disagreement taking up 10-15 minutes of air time in all. Izzy still wasn't funny and hasn't been for a while now (isn't Katherine Heigl a comedy actress? Helloooooo?). Callie and the ugly heart surgeon are still having a go at this lesbian thing that's failing horribly as an attempt to keep viewers, and Karev….sigh….the bad boy image is looking a bit….forced. Hell, even the scene I loved could've done without Grey Jr.'s input (no need to have her point out the irony in the scene. We get it)--*ahem* while it wasn't perfect, I watched and will tune in again next week. Until then, Heroes and premium cable series will have all my attention.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Albums!!!!

So…lately I'm finding it hard to please myself. As far music tastes go that is. I've been noticing more and more that I don't buy/download full albums except for rare occasions. And even that is just so I can pick and choose the songs I want to put them on my iPod and then I never ever listen to that album again. I buy most of my music a la carte; a track here, a track there--all different artists, and more importantly, all different types of genres. I have no idea how to build coherent playlists out of the hodgepodge of tracks in my iTunes library.

I remember reading years ago when iTunes became popular that this is how music was going to be consumed in the very near future and I'm experiencing it first hand. This is probably the very reason why music sales are down the past few years not piracy! Back in the day the only singles you could buy a la carte were officially released. So you had to cart around a whole CD or (God forbid) cassette (what's that?!) with just one song on it; maybe a few remixes on the B side. Now every track is available for consumption as its own little piece of that artist's catalogue, if you want it, it's yours. I actually find it hard to justify the old model of putting out a 10-15 track album every few years when faced with the new ways music is being consumed. Look at Billboard: on the singles-plotting charts platinum diamonds and gold circles decorate way more singles than do their full-length counterparts on the album charts. Ringtones, singles….we don't need no stinkin' albums!