Hey Lebron,

Stick this in your pipe and smoke it:



Man, do I love a good buzzer beater. Especially when it comes by way of a rookie and results in a Jazz victory over the Cavs. I love you, Sundiata Gaines. And Mike too, for making me stay up late to watch this game. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Another one bites the dust

Back when my blog was just a “notes” section on my facebook profile, I wrote this post about my inability to deal with the transformation of the Holladay neighborhood in which I grew up. Well friends, today I have yet another tragedy to report. On January 31, Eat-A-Burger will be closing its doors. Forever.

This means no more teriyaki chicken sandwiches piled high with veggies. No more spicy fries served with the world’s best fry sauce. No more diet coke accented with a fresh lime. No more meals brought out on a tray with complimentary Andes mints. No more mocking the skankiness of the notoriously easy-on-the-eyes employees. No more picking songs on the jukebox while sitting on a ‘50s-era barstool and admiring the photos of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley adorning the walls.

Honestly, it’s bad enough that most culinary vestiges of my junior high days have closed (Little Caesars, TGI Fridays, the world’s first Barbacoa), but this news comes as quite the blow. Not only because it means that Holladay is losing one of its most distinctive local establishments, but because I have a hunch that my older sister might become quite a miserable person to deal with once she is deprived of her beloved teriyaki chicken sandwiches. I will survive this loss somehow, but Helen? Pray for her.

Overrated

You know that feeling when everyone else is in on a secret or joke and you aren’t? And it kind of sucks? Well, sometimes I feel that way about trends/pop culture/whatever random thing everyone is loving at the moment. It’s not that I hate these things, I would just like to know why everyone loves them with such a fiery passion:

Zooey Deschanel
Although I like her clothes and style, Zooey has never really blown me away as an actress (except in 500 days of Summer, but was that role really all that challenging?), and her singing voice either sounds like a cheap imitation of Patsy Cline or a canary being strangled. So I really don’t understand why everyone is ready to crown her Queen of the Indie Scene, especially in light of the fact that she participated in the suckfest that was Yes Man.

Cupcakes
At the rate they’re popping up, there are soon going to be more cupcake shops than gas stations in Salt Lake. Maybe it’s because I am not overly fond of rich buttercream frosting, but I’ve never been impressed with a cupcake from any of these establishments (Mini’s, So Cupcake, etc.). Plus I don’t see the point in paying three bucks for something that you can make (and often with better results, I might add) at home. If I’m looking to splurge at a bakery, chances are I’m buying an éclair or one of those chocolate hedgehogs from Gourmandise.

Owl City
I think the reason that I’m not on board with this latest musical sensation (listen here) is that it’s such a shameless Postal Service rip-off. And I never liked Postal Service that much to begin with. I also find it confusing when solo artists go by something other than their given name. It feels weird referring to Badly Drawn Boy or Iron and Wine as a “him” and not a “them.” Something about it just ain’t right.

Now just in case you are thinking that I am a crotchety old hag determined to rag on everything that is beloved by the general population, here is my list of popular things that deserve all the hype:

Taylor Swift
Dude. I don’t even like country music, but I love T Swift oh so very much. Just watching this brings joy to my soul:



Frozen Yogurt
Used to be that I could only get my frozen yogurt fix at Maverik, and even then it was just a plain cone. But now, thanks to the recent demand for the stuff, I have my choice of Yogurt Stop-like establishments that provide all the sugary goodness I could possibly want, or, if I’m feeling healthy and saddled with an excess amount of money, I can stop into Red Mango or Spoon Me for a “real” frozen yogurt and fruit concoction. God bless capitalism.

The Hunger Games
I am usually pretty wary of novels written for the adolescent set, especially if they happen to be the books that Everyone Is Talking About (a certain vampire series comes to mind), but Hunger Games actually lived up to the hype. It was entertaining, well written, and everything a good light read should be. I highly recommend it.