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*laughs* Oh, win! Bryan Fuller said at Comic Con that a musical episode of Pushing Daisies is “inevitable.” For a cast that includes Kristin Chenoweth and Ellen Greene? Yes please! :D

I’ve now seen the pilots of Pushing Daisies, Chuck, and Reaper. All three were lots of fun! I feel good about this new fall season. Half of the shows I watched last year were canceled (Veronica Mars, Drive, Studio 60, and you know The Dresden Files was canceled even though they haven’t made a formal announcement), so I have some nice openings in my schedule!

Chuck was delightfully geeky and has Adam Baldwin, but Jake 2.0 did it better. I’ll probably watch the next couple episodes, but the pilot didn’t really grab me. I’ll probably pass on it.

Reaper was absolutely hilarious, and I look forward to seeing if the next batch of episodes can match the pilot’s evil brilliance when they aren’t directed by Kevin Smith. Could go either way.

Pushing Daisies was a treat. I understand the network was looking for a show with a fairy tale sensibility and an Amelie flavor, and I’d say they succeeded. It could run the risk of becoming too cloying and cutesy, but I’ll trust in Bryan Fuller’s genius to keep it from stepping over the line. Oh, Bryan Fuller! My heart beats! You co-gave me Wonderfalls and Heroes, and for that you win my eternal gratitude and love.

For those curious, I’m currently watching Burn Notice and Flight of the Conchords. If you’re not watching FotC, boy are you missing out! All my coworkers are obsessed with it, so sometimes I forget that other people aren’t as crazy about it as we are. It follows the adventures of a folk duo from New Zealand as they seek to achieve fame and success in New York City, and it’s pretty much the funniest thing ever. Every episode is chock-full of musical interludes, for example: The Humans Are Dead and It’s Business Time. Also John Hodgman cameoed in a recent episode! Waaaatch iiiiiiiit.

And finally, Japan brings us Human Tetris.

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I posted pictures from the Union Square Book 7 Release in my LJ here! Spoiler-free!

And can someone please link me to the “spoilery” New York Times article? I want to read it and decide for myself.

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Last night I went to see Vienna Teng and Christina Courtin in concert. Too awesome! Vienna Teng is quite possibly my favourite artist at the moment, and I was positively gleeful last week to see her name on Union Hall’s website when I was browsing for info on the Jonathan Coulton concert. Union Hall is a small, intimate venue in Brooklyn, and its casual and slightly offbeat atmosphere would make it just the kind of hangout I’d frequent if I lived closer. I’m so happy to have discovered it!

Vienna was wonderful and charismatic in person, and to my delight, she played just about all of my favourite songs. I was sitting a little too close to the speakers for comfort and as a result had to listen with a finger on one ear, but I guess that’s what happens when you get out of work at 7, the doors open at 7:30, and it takes about 45 minutes to get there. I still had a fantastic time! She opened with “Blue Caravan,” a song that has particular significance to me as my roommate choreographed to it last spring. And at the request of me and another random guy in the back, she played my favourite song of hers, “The Tower,” performing it solo for the first time. Fabulous!

I was particularly impressed with Vienna’s percussionist, who was totally hardcore. It was so awesome to see how many bizarre instruments he played and added to the mix. Said instruments included a glockenspiel, a tambourine that he STOMPED on, an ordinary plastic box (which he also sat on), and a weird sci-fi looking thing I’ve never encountered before that resembled a metal sphere with spikes, played with a bow.

After Vienna Teng finished, I spontaneously decided to stay for the other act, even though it was getting late. I’m so glad I did! I’d never heard of Christina Courtin before, but I totally fell in love with her. She seemed so HAPPY when she sang! She performed barefoot, and she gave the impression that she was singing with her whole body, dancing around totally without pretense or self-consciousness. My favourite part was when she sang a cover of The Beatles’ “Honey Pie.” She was so freaking adorable! I am totally gay for her. XD Here she is on YouTube, singing one of the songs she also sang last night.

Three cheers for living in New York!

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Let it be known throughout the land that Kat gives the best hugs in the entire history of the universe.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

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So. Scans of the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have reached the internet. If anyone so much as HINTS that any character so much as SNEEZES in this book, I will disembowel them with a pair of gardening shears.

THIS JOURNAL IS SPOILER-FREE AND WILL REMAIN SO UNTIL THE 27th, A WEEK AFTER THE BOOK IS RELEASED. If any spoilers are posted in the comments, I will track the offender’s IP, hunt them down, and rip off their nose with my teeth and EAT IT. With OREGANO. If you wish to link to a post/article/whatever that has spoilers in the comments, please CLEARLY MARK IT so!

In the meantime, delight in the fact that fans can get a portion of the book read aloud by JK Rowling at the time its released in Britain. That’s 5+ hours in advance for us colonials! Heidi has the scoop in her LJ.

And speaking of the book, I dreamed that one of my computer science professors from Penn was heading an effort to get the entire book scanned and OCRed, and he’d gotten all but chapters 2-5 by the time I heard about it. I had to decide whether or not to start reading the book early, but I woke up before I made up my mind.

I’m not sure what I’d do if actually confronted with this situation in my waking life. I’d definitely be tempted to start reading it early, as I desperately don’t want to be spoiled, but I also want to be able to experience the excitement and the joy with all my fellow Potter fans as the hours tick away on Friday night. Of course, I realized a few days afterward that I narrowly avoided getting spoiled at the book 6 release party. One of the jackasses who cruised bookstores in his car shouting “SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE” was at the bookstore I went to! It was only because I was one of the first in line (thanks to my costume) that I missed him. Now that I’m going to be at a major New York bookstore, I feel the stakes are significantly higher…

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My god, do I have some flashing neon sign above my head saying “CRAZY PEOPLE, TALK TO ME!”

So this woman randomly approaches me and asks me if I speak Spanish. I told her no. She then proceeded to sit down next to me and tell me about this masterpiece poem she wrote this afternoon, blathering for like fifteen minutes before RECITING THE ENTIRE POEM IN SPANISH FROM MEMORY, looking at me as if she expected me to tell her how much it had moved me and how it is truly the masterpiece she lauded it to be.

I made comments like “I wish I knew Spanish” and “I don’t know Spanish, but it sounds beautiful to my ear,” but SHE KEPT TALKING. Then she continued to talk, telling me about this poetry recitation club she belonged to and her experience with awful New York hospitals, then recited ANOTHER POEM IN SPANISH. All in all, she must have talked to me for thirty minutes. I need to figure out a polite way of telling people “GO AWAY.”

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Just got back from Harry Potter. FANTASTIC! And now, one week and one hour until I get the last Harry Potter book!

Though much closer ahead: KAT COMES TO NEW YORK ON SUNDAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!