Jude's Thursday Dish: Your Weekly Serving of Pop Culture Scoop

We were out of town over the weekend and I've been swamped with getting the August/September Utah Family issue ready. So, now is the time for me to take a real breather, and get back into the POP CULTURE SCOOP!


1. Forget the new Twilight book, what I'm excited about is the next Harry Potter movie. "Half-Blood Prince" is my favorite book in the series. This teaser trailer is AWESOME (and the young Tom Riddle is played by Ralph Fiennes' actual nephew!).

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince/

2. I've been listening to the "Mamma Mia" soundtrack and on second thought, I think my review of it was a little harsh. The songs are making think back on the movie a little more fondly. Even the corny stuff is seeming for campy now, which makes it all the more fun. The movie still had serious problems, but it was probably better than I gave it credit for.

3. So, we don't have cable. We've got Tivo, Clearplay and Netflix, but for some reason, I can't bring myself to pay for cable. This weekend in PC, we watched a LOT of cable. Well, channel surfed is more like it. Really, there's so many channels and nothing good on.


Katie has seen a couple of the tween Disney channel shows, mostly at my mom's, but not much. She convinced me to check out a "Suite Life of Zack and Cody" DVD at the library a couple of weeks ago. After this weekend, she is Disney Channel HOOKED! They were having a "Hannah Montana" marathon before the 3D concert, so that's all that was on. That show bugs. The only good part was hearing Katie try to explain to John that Miley and Hannah are the same person. He was so confused. I finally butt in and said, "It's like Clark Kent and Superman -- Miley is Clark Kent and Hannah Montana is Superman" (or is that vice versa?). Speak Geek and John will totally clue in! Anyway, Katie was allowed to pick out one thing at the KB Toy Outlet when we shopped and I had to talk her out of buying a Hannah Montana poster. So it begins.

As for me, I watched a lot of TLC, HGTV and Style. Man, it gave me a complex -- my house and I need a makeover! And, I watched a lot of E! I even watched some of "The Girls Next Door" with that Playboy bunny and her hideous laugh. The network bigwigs are evil geniuses; those shows are really addicting! I really can't get cable now.

4. In PC, Doug and Becky brought up the "Flight of the Conchords." I've been hearing about this series from a lot of people (Stephanie W. being the number one fan). We finally got to watch an episode and it was hilarious. I'm going to bump it up on our Netflix list.

5. Back to Twilight. Am I really missing out? I'm not really a big reader - I used to be, but I think all that reading in college soured me. Plus, I feel like I'm reading something all the time for work that sitting down with a book just feels like...well, work. I love Entertainment Weekly, but that doesn't count. When I do read, I like to read self help books. I'll re-read Jane Austen books. Sometimes I'll indulge and read an Eloisa James, Julia Quinn or Lisa Kleypas book. Loved the Bridget Jones duo. I like reading kid's classics with Katie. Can't STAND books like "The Work and the Glory." Anyway, I'm kind of feeling like it's highschool and I'm not part of the cool clique because I know nothing about the Twilight series. I think what turned me off was when one of my YW was STROKING the book at an activity. Plus, I'm not sure I want to commit to a whole other series and movie franschise. Some mainstream stuff I'll totally embrace (Harry Potter) and others, I avoid because I think it's too cliche. But, as you can tell, I change my mind easily (hence wanting to see "The Dark Knight" now). I'm taking all persuasive arguments in the comments below!

Much shorter than last week, but that's probably a good thing. There hasn't been really any good celebrity stuff going on and I've been out of the loop. Until next time!