Bodybuilding Blog Entry #1: Phase 2 Begins...

This past summer, my brother finally convinced me to tag along to this event they call "The Superbowl of Volleyball." Not only is it one of the higher caliber volleyball tournaments you're likely to see -- it also happens to take place at a nudist colony. And, yes, the competitors, and spectators, are all nude. What's more, unlike the majority of nudist activities, the participants in this tournament are young, sexy, and fit. People at the utter peak of physical prowess. Well, gee, something about my flabby ass rubbing elbows (does an ass have elbows??) with an interminable, objectively inarguable pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses made me want to get in shape myself.

When I was a teenager and my metabolism was at its lightning peak, I unfortunately had a lot of teen crap to work through and I didn't have the luxury of working out. But as an adult now, it occurs to me most glaringly that I fully possess: 1) the time to work out, 2) the resources required to work out, and 3) the energy and physical ability to work out. The one and only variable is whether I have the dedication to succeed at bodybuilding. And, heck, that's the only variable I actually have any control over. So when I looked at it that way, it became clear that I owe it to myself to start sculpting my frame, because literally all I needed was the resolve to do it.

The Superbowl of Volleyball is an annual, family friendly event held by the White Thorn Lodge.

But it wasn't until this girl, who honestly I've liked for a couple years now; she started showing some interest in me and that provided the incomparable stimulus to really kick my exercise into high gear. It's essentially what carried me through that difficult period between a short-term habit and a long-term one, it carried me from the 3 or 4 week marker to the 'two months and counting' bench post. Ultimately, things with the lady didn't pan out the way I would have hoped. But...... realistically speaking, the gift of sustainable fitness is probably more valuable than whatever longer term relationship we would have had anyway (no matter how awesome it would have been, and owing to the fact that the vast majority of relationships don't ultimately result in marriage/lifemating.)

Looking back at some finite dates, I've been doing serious exercising for about 3 and a half months already. And to my great chagrin, it's really worked. I haven't gained much muscle, but I've slimmed down. In September I was at an unsavory 36-inch waist. Today I'm down to 30 and I'm fitting in pants from when I was 20 years old! There's pretty much nothing I'd rather have on my body than a flat stomach. And getting to this point was pretty easy, honestly. I guess I just had the dedication this time. I'm someone with a 'sweet tooth' ten miles wide, so all I really had to do to lose this weight was 1) cut out 99% of my illustrious intake of candy & sweets, 2) exercise 4 or 5 days a week (starting at about a half hour per, increasing to 1 & 1/2), and 3) skip a few meals a week (not in an anorexic way, more like "do I need that second helping of pizza at 10am after I just ate at 5am?") 

Magneto's like 80 years old and he could win Mr. Universe!

Phase Two

Now that I've lost the weight and slimmed down, the complicated part begins. I've tried this stuff before and I've never been able to build muscle, because I don't know anything about bodybuilding. Things like diet, what kind of exercises to do in what configuration, I've always just winged those and as a result I've never been successful. But I got a handy little book, in fact it's considered the Bible of bodybuilding, it's Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. It's an enormous book and I'm working my way through it but I've already been able to gleam some essential facts on what kind of diet to create and how to maximize the results of my workouts.

One thing I'm going to have to do now, is eat a lot. I appear to be relatively "ectomorphic" despite certain problems with my waistline, which means to build muscle I'm going to have to pack on the calories. Ideally these will be good calories, from lean protein, vegetables and whole grains. But even so, I'm very afraid that instead of bulking up, I'm just going to bulk out and lose all the training I've done over the last three & a half months. I want to keep my flat stomach!! I'm terrified of what this phase 2 will hold. But... in the end... I can take solace in the fact that -- yeah, it wasn't that hard to lose the weight to begin with. If I fail to sculpt the haughty physique of a comic book hero (or in my case, villain), I can always go back, redo what I've done up to this current point, and at least I can be legitimately thin.

We shall see. And I'll get back to you when the results are in.

As a final aside: If you're wondering why Entry #1 starts with Phase 2, well, it's easy to get a lot of enthusiasm for something, for a short period of time. It's easy to tell yourself "I'm gonna train hard and get in shape," for a day, or a week. It's hard to say that and actually do something about it, it's even harder to keep doing something about it for months. In my experience, the kind of projects where your first step is to start a blog, aren't the kind of projects you're going to follow through with. Unless of course your goal is blogging itself, it's generally more effective to put that effort and mind power into starting the project and then leaving the blog until after you've made some serious progress. It's also a lot less embarrassing to start from a place of proven dedication, rather than gushing about a dream project and then falling flat on your face in the execution. I've done the latter so many times, I figured I'd err on the side of caution this time.

They have this thing called "Thinspiration" to inspire people on a diet. But what do you call it when you're being inspired to lift? Rippedspiration?

Taylor Swift's Ironic Path to Being Taken Seriously

If you've been living under a rock, Taylor Swift has finally made the switch from her archetypal vague mix of country, soft-rock, folk, pop-rock and bubblegum pop. Now she's playing real bubblegum dance pop, with bouncing edm beats and carefree lyrics, like Katy Perry or Lady Gaga.

Taylor Swift's organic pop style is the main thing that drew me to her initially. The soft-verse/loud-chorus dynamic of You Belong With Me was a picturesque and spot-on reiteration of the proud tradition typified in rock music by Led Zeppelin and Nirvana. Up until very recently, all her songs boasted a rich, full, live-sounding rock band behind them with drums, bass, and many guitars. Today's indie and modern rock sounds more like U2 and Yes than it does like my favorite rock artists: countrified crooners Neil Young and Tom Petty. But Taylor's music shares many of the qualities I adored about the music I grew up on from Petty & Neil: folksy organic instrumentations, straight-forward honest lyrics about life & love, and catchy verse/chorus structure. Tom Petty actually writes more love songs than Taylor.

Pop Theory

That being said, I love dance pop very much. And I was thrilled that Taylor finally changed up her style. I love her first four records, but I'm someone who craves varity. Besides, let's face it, she's been playing the same style for at least 3 records, but the first of that ilk is still by far the best: 2009's Fearless. It was time for her to change her style, she's done all she can in the old format right now. When she comes back to organic pop in the future, it'll be fresh and she'll be better equipped to make it really awesome.

When Red came out in 2012, it was supposed to be her transformation into pop. But instead, all the songs were the same as before. A couple of them had some electronic elements thrown on top, but listen closely to I Knew You Were Trouble -- hear that rhythm guitar holding the song together? Even her forays into dance pop still sounded like she wrote them in her bedroom on an acoustic guitar. So when the first single for her 2014 album came out, and it was real, EDM-pumping dance pop, I was thrilled. I'm really glad that Taylor is capable of doing different styles of music, and I'm excited to hear what she's going to do with this one. If nothing else, this will be her best dance pop album to date (since it's her only one), and that's worth more to me than just being her second, third, or fourth best pop-rock album.

A lot of fans aren't happy about the new direction. These are people who've been growing up with Taylor and wanting her to go in a more mature direction with her music. To a Taylor fan, going from deep songs like Ronan and All Too Well, to the bubblegum pop of Shake It Off, is a step down. But as a more critical connisseur of modern pop, I think I see the hidden agenda behind the switch. Don't get me wrong -- the primary reason Taylor is moving to dance pop is so she can fulfill her prophecy as the Stallion Who Mounts the World and finally conquer all four corners of the globe. Every new record thus far has seen a huge jump in her popularity and now her style will be the most accessible of all; she's going to be bigger than Jesus. But there's another advantage to making that switch. In the long-term, Taylor may finally get the respect she deserves.

Pop Hierarchy

One thing that has always annoyed me is how bubblegum dance-pop artists like Lady Gaga are touted as 'legitimate pop artisans' whereas Taylor Swift, who writes much more of her own music, plays much more of her own instrumentations, and writes equally-if-not-more complex lyrics, has roundly been written-off as a children's fad by the mainstream pop press. Even when they're praising her business ingenuity or inescapable popularity, it's done with an implied asterisk of "she's popular because little kids like her." Obviously, all branches of Top 40 have a huge youth audience. But there's an understanding that EDM, R&B-tinged artists like Gaga, Bruno Mars or Rihanna skew more into the teens, 20s, and adult contemporary audiences, while Taylor is placed closer to the children's market with the likes of Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber.

As time has gone on, and Taylor's enduring popularity has proven steadfast, pop critics have slowly warmed up to her charms. Even so, she doesn't get credit for playing organic music like Adele, and she still doesn't get credit for crafting her style like Gaga. Presumably this is because Taylor comes from a country background. Will switching to pop change her perception? Yes, but not that much. She's still being touted as an extra-fluffy form of bubblegum. Thus far she's not winning over critics merely by matching beats with Gaga and Britney.

The real secret comes in when Taylor inevitably makes her switch back to a more acoustic, more organic, more live-band style. This may not come for many years. She has to go on her Napoleonic reign of conquest first. It could be five, ten, twenty years until she abandons bubblegum. But it is utterly, incontrovertibly, incorruptibly inevitable that eventually Taylor will go back to writing songs on acoustic guitar in her bedroom, like has been so instrumental to her throughout most of her life. When she's getting older, you can absolutely guarantee that Taylor will have a home studio and she'll take her guitar in their to pen lush, introspective records about life and the autumn of youth.

New Beginning

A lot of fans wanted Taylor to get more mature, instead of going pop. But the thing is, it wouldn't have made the impact it deserves. If she got more acoustic, more organic, more introspective right now, the media en masse would see it as nothing but more of her teenage diary entry songwriting style. However, after becoming a pop artist, when she does go back to her organic style and her confessional lyrics, finally it will be seen in the proper context. She'll be praised for writing all her own songs (like she did on Speak Now, to little fanfare), and critics will marvel at the sparse, haunting instrumentations. What's more, after playing dance pop, Taylor will naturally be inclined to be especially deep, especially complex, especially rich and organic. Because eventually she'll want to turn away from her new pop style, just as much as she wanted to turn away from her old style. And that's one reason why all Taylor fans should be happy about this change. Even if you're not keen on the style itself, this is part of a larger arc that is going to turn out in Taylor's favor, in many meaningful ways.

The Descent

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS **SPOILERS**

I love creature features, because I love creatures. But at least nine times out of ten, they're very poorly scripted and the special effects are even worse. SyFy Channel and The Asylum have made the problem five times worse by taking that z-grade shlock and mass-producing it on some kind of monthly basis.

The Descent is widely considered one of the best creature feature films. In fact, outside of Jaws, it may well be the most critically-acclaimed creature film in the horror genre. The film's director, Neil Marshall, went on to direct one of Game of Thrones' biggest episodes.

Genre Perfection

I first watched The Descent a few years ago on recommendation. But horror films can rely as much on your incidental mood as they can on anything else, in order for them to be effective. I enjoyed The Descent and I could tell it was a well made film, but it was also like the fifth film I had watched that night and I just wasn't really in the mood for the kind of film it turned out to be. I knew someday I'd have to go back and give it a proper view. Then, for whatever reason, a couple weeks ago I was struck with the insatiable urge to watch The Descent. And I'm happy to say, it was every bit as good as I had been expecting. I'm now pleased to rank it among the best of horror, especially for being so good in a subgenre that sadly is so poor.

It's a clever and well-built film throughout. A movie where the monsters are the only obstacle can sometimes be too simplistic or bland. A lot of monster movies remedy this by putting in some asinine human angle, where bad humans are leading the rest of the group to the slaughter. Rather than following that cliche', The Descent fills the gaps by depicting the myriad treacheries of spelunking. The monsters don't even show up for probably 45 minutes, maybe even an hour, and it works out perfectly. It's claustrophobic, nerve-wracking, and a little bit beautiful to endure these daring cave adventures, especially knowing that they've entered an unknown, uncharted cave. These kinds of innate, physical horrors are vastly underused in a horror genre overripe with far too many knife-wielding maniacs and two-bit hauntings. That makes The Descent not only a godsend to the creature feature category, but also an indispensable classic for man vs. nature horror as well.

Horror Magic

My favorite thing about the horror genre isn't the fear, it's the wonder. Within the context of this dark mayhem you often find kernels of true awe and amazement: moments where that which is imaginary feels truly real. I don't know what it is about horror that makes this so much more effective to me than it is in feel-good fantasy films like, say, The Waterhorse. Maybe it's the scarcity and rarity of it, or an inherent cynicism that tells me fantasy elements which try to kill you are more realistic than fantasy elements which want to hug you. Or maybe I just find horror films more immersive, and in my immersed state I'm more open to being moved by fantasy elements. But whatever the reason why, dark films like The Blair Witch Project, Pan's Labyrinth, and Trick 'r Treat illicit in me that same sense of soaring spectacle that is more unanimously experienced in films like Jurassic Park and E.T.

The Descent also boasts one of the best scenes of this "horror-magic." The group's way back has been blocked, and they're travelling deeper into the Earth with limited resources on the slim hope that they might find a way back above ground. They don't know if they will even live to survive the day. But travelling down through this uncharted, undiscovered cave, they find prehistoric cave paintings. There's this brief, spare moment of utter transcendence where it dawns upon them they're the first people to see these paintings in at least a hundred years (since the last set of doomed explorers), possibly tens of thousands. They want to stop and stare, but can't waste the battery power on their equipment. This scene is as magic as anything from Spielberg.

Regarding the Ending

The version I watched featured the U.S. theatrical ending, where our protagonist escapes the cave and drives off into the sunset. On Youtube I watched the "Unrated" ending, which is really just the U.K. theatrical ending. The U.K. ending is this really gorgeous scene, where Sarah's escape was merely a hallucination. Still in the cave and facing imminent death, she hallucinates the familiar vision of her daughter and her birthday cake, and she gets this completely amazing, twisted smile on her face.

I'm torn on which ending I prefer, because I really love them both. The U.K. ending is grim and beautiful and dark. But I honestly think the U.S. ending hit me harder, believe it or not. Killing off the final character at the end of a horror film is such a common finale. It's terribly depressing in the sense that they go through all this suffering in the hopes that they will survive, and then the audience's hope is dashed. But on the other hand, killing them at the end is a sort of catharsis where -- in a certain sense, all the horrors the audience has endured, are released into the ether. You kill the character, the ordeal is over. Watching Sarah submit to death in the U.K. ending left me less disturbed than seeing her survive in the U.S. version because I imagined her having to survive with all that brutal baggage. It was like her suffering had only just begun. But both endings are great and impactful in their unique way.

Is This Real Life?

I had read on the internet that some people believe the monsters in the film are imaginary, so that was the thought constantly dominating my mind during this viewing. I was dilligently on the look out for clues to corroborate or contradict that theory.

For a while, it looks pretty plausible that the crawlers could have been imaginary. We have it clearly stated before entering the cave that auditory and visual hallucinations can be side-effects of hardcore spelunking. We find the mutilated deer which plants the image in the people's minds that there could be some kind of monster predator in the area. Finally, we have the cave paintings which incite thoughts of primitive, potentially monstrous humanoids. Then we have the fact that Sarah doesn't eat lunch with the rest of the group. Hunger and dehydration can greatly contribute to these types of hallucinations.

So it seemed like a pretty good base for som imaginary monsters. In the dark, dripping water can sound like a creature, rocks on the ground can feel like bones. Sarah is the first one who sees them. Paranoia and mass-hysteria can ensue when someone says they see something. That's perfectly natural. Point your flashlight at the wall and say "there it is, the monster!" It's no surprise that the rest of the group thinks they see it, too. That's how their first encounter with the crawlers goes.

Problem is, that first encounter is the only one you can explain away with hallucinations. After that, every member of the group gets extremely physical with these creatures. There are not just a few but countless scenes of physical brawls with these monsters that can't be equated to paranoid delusions. If the battles were even a little bit toned down, I could start to buy the hallucination angle. But they're so very physical. By the end we have Juno and Sarah fighting them virtually in unison. It just strikes me as unlikely.

In order to go along with the theory that Sarah is imagining things and she kills everyone, you have to throw out the entire film. You have to accept that nothing we see in the film is even remotely what happened -- Sarah kills everyone and *after* the fact, her damaged mind composes this broad fantasy to protect her from the truth. That's a perfectly valid interpretation if you choose to use it, but I prefer to believe that what the audience sees can at least connect to what really happened.

I further find the theory of Sarah killing everyone to be highly unworkable because the one person who Sarah actually has reason to kill -- the one person who actually DID let one of the group die, and the person who slept with Sarah's husband -- Sarah doesn't kill Juno, she merely maims her and leaves her to the crawlers. You expect me to believe Sarah was ruthless on everyone else but took mercy on the only person she had motive to hate? Doesn't make sense. Besides, if there are no crawlers, Juno could still crawl her way out of the cave (hypothetically).

Ultimately, here's my take. The idea of the crawlers being imaginary is something that Neil Marshall himself has mentioned as a possibility they were working with. But ultimately it's not the angle they went with. You could tweak the film and make a really awesome movie where the crawlers are imaginary. But the way the film is in its original state: no, I don't think they were hallucinations.

The Perfect Summer Playlists

Over the last two summers I've been working to put together the ultimate summer playlists. For many people summer means parties and beaches but for me it means 24 hours of warm weather, which leads to lots of walking and lots of quality time in the deep night. A lot of great reminiscence and only the occasional party. Here are the best of my summer albums.


"Summer Evening"

This is a playlist for those 9, 10, 11pm nights on that long asphalt road going to a movie or a get-together or whatever. It brings back all those memories of coming home from concerts, going out to a houseparty at Leah's, going to the bar to meet my friends from work, even The Coffee Den's live shows and my long rides to Cleveland to see a band. It's full of a bittersweet longing, a lingering memory of pasts that were beautiful and chaotic but which are gone. The songs are of a much more humid, summer atmosphere than the other playlists and they dwell on lost loves, missed opportunities, and some mischevieous opportunities we *miss* indulging in.  

1. Highway Don't Care (feat. Taylor Swift) -- Tim McGraw
2. Run Fast -- The Julie Ruin
3. Fate to Fatal -- The Breeders
4. All Too Well -- Taylor Swift
5. Long Hot Summer Night -- Jimi Hendrix Experience
6. The Whole Night -- Ani Difranco
7. Where Is The Highway Tonight? -- Neil Young
8. Night Moves -- Bob Seger
9. The River -- Bruce Springsteen
10. Lover of the Bayou -- Mudcrutch
11. Because the Night -- Patti Smith
12. Put Your Lights On -- Santana feat. Everlast
13. Good Enough -- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
14. Don't Let Me Be Lonely -- The Band Perry

"Piano Melancholy"

Here was have a collection solely of sparce, tortured, maudlin piano ballads. This material haunts me with two unrelated caches of disparate emotions. One would be my history as a shy 13, 14, 15 year old; lost, errant summers spent wandering the streets, staring into space, and dozing off to Adult Swim. The other cache would be who I am today, self-assured and in control of my own little world, although it's a world with its own shadows of doubt. The music is very sad, but this playlist is mostly fun; more projection than introspection. It's like a vacation into another world, back into the sultry summers of two different youths (my actual physical youth, and my spiritual youth as I discovered the brave new world of adulthood).

1. Summer in the City -- Regina Spektor
2. City -- Sara Bareilles
3. Parting Gift -- Fiona Apple
4. Somedays -- Regina Spektor
5. Summer's Almost Gone [Demo] -- The Doors
6. Cathedrals -- Joan Osborne
7. For the Love of a Daughter -- Demi Lovato
8. Chemo Limo -- Regina Spektor
9. Gravity -- Sara Bareilles
10. Forever & Always [Piano Version] -- Taylor Swift
11. The Last Time (feat. Gary Lightfoot) -- Taylor Swift
12. Wake Up Time -- Tom Petty

"Darkkpop"

With the undulating strains of EDM (electronic dance music) becoming more and more prevelant within pop songwriting over each passing year, it's only natural that we've been getting more of these dark little gems: slick, hypnotic slowjams that ooze with the living, breathing energy of club life at its most enigmatic. Full of subtle shade and hedonistic excess, these midnight melodies epitomize the cool delerium of a 3am rave. This disc vividly reminds me of my past forays into drunken party culture as a teen, including my wild, aching memories of Penn State nightlife. It also reminds me of a lot of sweet, moonlit late night drives to Wal-Mart for lunchables.

I added two moodpieces per disc: one by Burial, renowned as the premiere architecht of atmospheric EDM today, and one by NON, charmingly haunting tunes from innovative 1970s noise music pioneer Boyd Rice. 

Volume One

1. Dark Paradise -- Lana Del Rey
2. Young Blood -- Bea Miller
3. Leave Me Alone -- Natalie Imbruglia
4. Here's 2 Us -- Victoria Justice
5. Dark Horse -- Katy Perry
6. Near Dark -- Burial
7. Drive -- Miley Cyrus
8. This Is How We Do -- Katy Perry
9. All That Matters -- Kesha
10. There Was Never a Moment When Evil Was Real -- NON
11. Hands in the Air -- Miley Cyrus
12. Lightspeed -- Dev
13. Neon Lights -- Demi Lovato
14. Summertime Sadness -- Lana Del Rey

Volume Two

1. We Can't Stop -- Miley Cyrus
2. Video Games -- Lana Del Rey
3. Ghost -- Katy Perry
4. Ghost -- Little Boots
5. Untitled -- Burial
6. Oh Me, Oh My -- Imogen Heap & Frou Frou
7. Face of Love -- Miranda Cosgrove
8. sticks + stones -- Nicola Roberts
9. Smoke -- Natalie Imbruglia
10. On My Own -- Miley Cyrus
11. Rise -- Non
12. Mathematics -- Little Boots
13. Breathe -- Dev
14. Do My Thang -- Miley Cyrus
15. This Is What Makes Us Girls -- Lana Del Rey

"Distilled Essence; Supreme Midnight"

Alright, here's the true beauty. The creme de la creme of darkness incarnate. The night has a very special power, an immutable emotion to it. Just stepping out into the darkness fills me with awe, instills me with a thousand hopes and dreams, memories of glory and adventure. These are the songs that invoke those memories best. All the gloomy, ethereal, transcendental odes to shade that exemplify the grandeur of night at its best.

1. Pulse -- Ani DiFranco
2. Supernatural Radio -- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
3. Full Grown Boy -- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
4. No Title -- Ten Years After
5. Wake Up -- Mad Season
6. Benighted -- Opeth
7. Electric Feel -- Katy Perry
8. Untouchable -- Taylor Swift
9. Long Gone Day -- Mad Season
10. Naked Glass -- Hotchacha
11. The She -- The Breeders
12. Darkness Darkness -- Robert Plant
13. Sins of My Youth -- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
14. The Trip to Pirate's Cover -- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

And here's a final collection of great summer tunes, kind of a hodgepodge of material that didn't find a home elsewhere.

"Summer Nights"

1. Mary Jane's Last Dance -- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
2. Long Nights -- Eddie Vedder
3. Marry the Night -- Adam Lambert
4. Jesus' Death -- Burzum
5. Shadow People -- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
6. All Night Long -- Demi Lovato
7. White Nights -- Oh Land
8. Sort of Delilah -- Anna Nalick
9. On A Night Like This -- Bob Dylan & The Band
10. No Ceiling -- Eddie Vedder
11. End of the Night [demo] -- The Doors
12. Bitchin' Summer -- Avril Lavigne
13. Waitin' For The Night -- The Runaways
14. Open All Night -- Bruce Springsteen

As a final aside, songs from Neil Young's album Sleeps With Angels, the ultimate midnight jam in itself, are excluded from these playlists since that whole album is counted among my summer set alongside these collections, as are other Neil-centric collections.

Faking It!

So MTV has been getting pretty darn good at this TV thing lately, it seems. Not a huge surprise, while they did invent reality tv, which I've never been especially fond of, they also had some of the best shows of my youth like Daria and Aeon Flux (and Undressed -- at least when I was eleven years old!)

So they came out with this show called Faking It, which I found out about completely randomly on youtube. I was curious, but skeptical. Luckily it showed up for free on Amazon Prime so I gave it a shot.

First episode, I still had some trepidation. I was like... There has to be some catch, something more to this. I mean if this is really a show about two straight girls pretending to be gay... then this is not something I'm going to be watching.

But, of course, in the last second of the first episode you find out one of the fakers, weeelll, she might be having a pretty easy time faking it.

And it pretty much gets better each episode. It feels a little like MTV's other hit romance romp, Awkward. Faking It isn't as funny or clever as Awkward, but I'd have to say that the characters on Faking It are a lot more sympathetic. Jenna on Awkward is just a straight up bad-ass. Everyone around her is crazy as fuck and that gets her into 'awkward' situations, but she herself isn't awkward. She's smart and collected and basically ready to take on all comers. So I mean, I root for her but I don't exactly relate to her -- I'm nowhere near as cool as she is.

Faking It gives us characters that are a little more flawed and a little more down to Earth. I mean, I'm not as cool as Amy either. But she's more conflicted. And even the evil popular girl -- confounded by her inability to lord over the school because of the school's inverse social structure that puts outcasts on top and barbies at the bottom -- even she ends up being pretty sympathetic.

I thoroughly enjoyed Awkward's first two or three seasons but the premise has run thin for me with all the constant back and forth between Guy A, Guy B, or Guy C. Faking It hopefully has a better plan for us. But even if it only lasts 18 episodes, it'll be a whirlwind knockout of a show. I'm curious where they intend to go with this set-up and I'm hoping it turns out to be a classic best-friend romance, we haven't seen that in a long time. At least not on TV.

I'm up to episode 6 of a disturbingly short 8 episode season, and #6 was the best so far. I mean, in most cases the whole threesome concept is thrown into a TV show as a lowest common denominator appeal to male fantasy. But gosh, the version in Faking It was fiendishly nerve-wracking in such a unique way. Imagine you're pretending to be in a relationship with your best friend who you are secretly in love with, and you're tasked with, um... pretending to have sex with this friend but you really want to have sex with her so you have to... pretend to pretend to have sex with her? That's an Oscar-worthy performance if you can pull that one off!

So, way to go MTV. I'm looking forward to finishing this season and I can't wait for next season of Faking It. I also can't wait for Finding Carter's season to end so I can watch that. But I still can't get into Teen Wolf. It's like a not-as-good version of The Vampire Diaries which I already gave up on in the third season. But I'm sure there's something great about it which I'm just not seeing.

New Series: Finding Carter

Escalation. We wear kevlar, they use armor-piercing rounds.

As you know if you read my blog, Switched at Birth roundly raised the bar on what kind of depth is required to compete in the world of good teen drama. The formerly ubiquitous 'rich teens behaving badly' motif has been replaced by sexy vampires and sexy werewolves. So to keep apt against such flashy aesthetics, grounded teen dramas had to fight back with the only recourse left to them: conceptual depth. Switched At Birth brought us all the dependable necessities of young love and parental showdowns, but with a complex family life and a unique cast of characters.

Earlier this week, MTV debuted a program which invites instant parallels to Switched at Birth. They both bring to life an extremely unique familial situation where a child is torn between more than one set of parents.

MTV's Finding Carter introduces us to a girl who was kidnapped as a young toddler, and then raised as her own by the kidnapper. At age 16, young Carter (real name: Linden) finds out everything she remembers about her entire life is a lie. In one fell swoop her entire world is taken from her, her "mother" is on the run from the law, and she's thrust against her will into a family of strangers. Now she struggles with her burgeoning feelings for her biological family, while refusing to let go of her love for the woman that raised her.

This is the kind of scenario that I, as a TV fan, dream of witnessing. A direct correlation where one great show inspires another. So far, Finding Carter seems to effortlessly walk that thin line where the influence is obvious, but the new material is genuine and legitimate without even the slightest hint of rehash.

Those first two episodes of Finding Carter were so fucking fantastic, almost 'next-level' shit. It fills my eternal soul with anguish that I can't watch the whole first season right now. This week to week thing, damn you terrestrial TV and your outdated, 1950s ways. Why couldn't this have been a Netflix series? If I want to watch this show properly, I'll have to wait until the season is done before I can watch the next episode!

While you can't possibly compare 2 great episodes to 40 great episodes fairly, I haven't rolled out the possibility that Finding Carter could be even better than Switched at Birth. And in any case, if this proliferation goes any further, we'll have undoubtedly entered the golden age of teen dramas. There have been so many amazing shows that have come before, but this new class of teen drama brings in a quantifiably more complex emotional dynamic that is highly difficult to usurp.

Editorial: The Myth of the Dying Album

Taylor Swift recently penned a fairly insightful article for the Wall Street Journal about the state of the music industry. In it she brushes on the oft-recited mantra that the era of the album format is over, and singles will become the primary purveyance of music like it was before the late-1960s.

Taylor didn't fall for the common deceit herself, but most people do. I was a kid when Napster exploded and ever since then every pundit, blogger, and professional music commentator has told you one thing with absolute certainty: the album format is on its way out. In fact they don't even limit it to a future event, commentators almost uniformly have the gall to declare that "many modern artists no longer release albums, and only release singles or EPs." This concept has become so ubiquitously spoken of that it's become an urban fact. Journalists who would otherwise be criticized for reporting blatant falsehoods can get away with erecting a tombstone for the album because everyone believes it's true. You don't have to take my word for it, I encourage you to google "death of album" or what you'd like and see for yourself. You don't have to look very far, you'll find the exact same sentiment everywhere.

Won't Get Fooled Again

Funny thing is, they've been saying that for 15 years and um... the album format is as imperishable  as ever. Are CD sales down? Of course, digital is now the primary music medium. Are music sales down? Yes, they are. But is the album gone? Has the album format suffered any blow what-so-ever?

Good God, no. The album hasn't taken the slightest hit. Music may be raking in less dough but that's a separate issue -- has the album format been replaced by singles? Not at all, and it never will. Do people still release singles? Of course they do. Uh, they released singles in the 70s, 80s, and 90s as well. And just like in the early 90s, the **ONLY** artists who release singles instead of albums today are DJs and electronic dance artists.

Show me one single popular, legitimate modern pop, rock, or rap artist in the mainstream that releases singles and doesn't release albums, and I'll give you $100. You can't do it because it simply doesn't exist. No legitimate music act today would solely release singles without ever producing albums because it doesn't make financial sense. Pundits thought they were clever when they projected the death of the album format but they forgot to look at the logistics of it.

Business As Usual

Music is a business. And business is why none of us living today will ever see a world without the album. Releasing singles without albums makes less money than releasing albums does. Here are the five primary reasons why:

1) Revenue. Albums make more money than singles. A $15 album with a hit single makes a lot more money than a $2 hit single alone. Is the industry trying to make money? Then the album format stays.


2) Repertoire. When a fan buys an album, they are spending money on tertiary tracks (album "deep cuts") that the vast majority of fans wouldn't deem worthy of purchase in a singles-only market. So basically the album format allows the industry to make money off of otherwise unsellable material. Every fan has their favorite deep cuts but every fan also has their least favorite deep cuts, and few fans would be willing to pay $2 for the deep cuts they aren't fond of, in a singles-only climate. Albums will always be a lucrative investment for acts with large fanbases and so they will always be produced by any major-name act.


3) Advertising. Advertising is quintessential to the industry's strategy for selling artists. Producing one album every two years allows labels to meticulously devise a massive media blitz and pour the vast majority of their advertising budget into just one release. On the other hand, releasing nothing but singles requires the money to be spread out evenly among each individual single. That means labels would have to spend several times as much money, so each single can have the same push an album would have, or else the artist isn't going to stand a chance. And a reminder, singles make less money than albums do because they cost less (and albums themselves include singles). What's better business: spending less money on a bigger return, or spending more money on a smaller return? No savvy record label CEO will ever accept an album-less strategy.


4) Setlists. In the digital age, touring has become the primary source of income for many artists. The album format is crucial to the tour schedule. If an artist only releases singles, what goes on the setlist? A singles-only market means few to no deep cuts to flesh out a setlist. Older established artists might have enough material for a live show, but a new act needs to release albums in order to build a setlist. Even if you release a new song every single month, it'll take a year and a half to have even a rudimentary concert setlist. And then what are you going to do, have the same setlist every tour, except for a new single here or there? Albums are essential to produce a workable tour, and since touring has become the focus for most acts, albums will never cease to exist.


5) Unpredictability. Try as many have, from CEOs and pundits to scientists in labs, it's still impossible to predict what will become a hit, and what will flop. History is riddled with examples of filler tracks that almost didn't even make it onto the album -- Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer, The Who's Pinball Wizard -- which end up becoming the band's all time biggest hit. And that trend continues to this day, often times tracks slated as singles are sidetracked for album cuts that ended up becoming unexpectedly popular -- like Kesha's C'mon from a couple years ago. This is doubly true for new and breaking artists, nobody expected Smells Like Teen Spirit to conquer America, and nobody thought Taylor Swift would break into the pop market with Love Story.

In fact, one advantage of the digital age is that big artists now have their entire albums chart on the singles chart. And that's why deep cuts need to be produced. You can write two dozen songs and you can guess which ones might be popular, but you can never be sure. That's why the album format is in fact essential to the existence of singles, the album format is what allows artists and producers to hedge their bets. A singles-only climate would be filled with far, far greater rates of failure -- and these would be enormous financial disasters because (as above) the singles-only market requires more money to be spent per single.

Fan Connection

So, as you clearly see, albums will continue to be produced by every major record label and every major recording act until the end of time, or until they can beam music directly into our brains with lasers. But, you might ask, what if fans simply stop buying albums? Won't the industry be forced to change?

Fans aren't going to stop buying albums because it's a better deal to buy 15 tracks for $10 than it is to buy 5 tracks for $2 each.  The digital format empowers people who in the 90s might have had to buy 15 bad songs to get the 1 song they like, today they can just buy that one individual song. So the industry loses money in the short term, off of that particular demographic. Yet they're gaining money from the large group of people who would never have spent $15 for one good song, but will gladly spend $2 for that song. And the secret trick is, once you buy one song, that builds brand loyalty and you become much more likley to buy a second, and a third, and before you know it you're spending the $10 to get the 15 tracks, even though you only know for sure that you like 5 of the tracks.

Albums make the proliferation of material much more feasible for fans -- even if packaged together, an iTunes "album" of all hit singles would cost significantly more than a traditional album of 3 or 4 singles and a ten deep cuts. That proliferation of material is important to develop a personal bond with the fanbase. Fans feel like they "get to know" an artist by listening to both their singles and the myriad other tracks on a record. Singles alone present a much colder, less personal experience for the fan, and so fans will always continue to buy albums.

In short, don't let the apocalyptic pundits fool you. They're been wrong for fifteen fucking years and they still say the end is nigh. Not even the best cult-leaders get away with being wrong this many times with their doom & gloom prophecies. So rejoice, fellow lovers of the album, because the continued existence of the album is as assured as the greed of humanity itself. When a day comes when people no longer want to make as much money as possible, only then can the album format die out. Only then.

Thirty Days of PRIDE

While pride is important every month, June is the month we single out for the biggest gay pride events to commemorate the world-changing Stonewall Riots on June 28th, 1969, which began the modern Gay Rights Movement as we know it. Similar to my 31 Days of Halloween, I wanted to put together some special TV programming for a great LGBT Pride Month.

Blue represents hour long dramas, green represents half-hour sitcoms and dramas, purple represents reality shows and red is used for special programming slots.


Weekday Lineup
---------------------

5am: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
6: Dawson's Creek
7: Dawson's Creek
8: Glee
9: Glee
10: Will & Grace
10.30: Ellen
11: Ellen
11.30: The Ellen Degeneres Show (talk show)

Noon: - Movie Slot C - "Related"
2pm: The L Word
3: The L Word
4: The L Word
5: Degrassi
5.30: Degrassi
6: - Documentary Slot -
8: - Movie Slot A - "Premium"
10: Queer As Folk (US)
11: Queer As Folk (US)

Midnight: Chozen
12.30am: Chozen
1: - Movie Slot B - "General"
3: - Music Slot -


Weekend Lineup
---------------------

2.30am: Exes & Ohs

3: Smash

4: Work Out in the Zone

5: Xena Warrior Princess

6: - Movie Slot B - "General"

8: - Documentary Slot - 

10: Lip Service

11: In The Flesh

Noon: Coming Out Stories

12.30: Vicious

1pm: - Movie Slot B - "General"

3: South of Nowhere

3.30: South of Nowhere

4: Sugar Rush

4.30: Sugar Rush

5: - Movie Slot C - "Related"

7: - TV Slot - "Special Episodes"

8: Hit & Miss (Sat) / Orange is the New Black (Sun)

9: Pretty Little Liars (Sat) / Tipping the Velvet (Sun)

10: - Movie Slot A - "Premium"

Saturday Only:

Midnight: Hot Gay Comics

1am: DTLA

1.30: Rick and Steve

2: Big Gay Sketch Show

Sunday Only:

Midnight: - Musical Theater Slot - (2 & 1/2 hrs) 

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Documentary Slot 

----------------------

- 2 hour slot -

-30 entries necessary -

Short-lengthed programs have been paired to better fill the slot, signified with an /+/

--

I Am Divine

Let's Get Frank

Fish Out of Water

Outrage

Live Free or Die

Small Town Gay Bar

For The Bible Tells Me So

Out Late

Blood on the Flat Trac

Celluloid Closet

Fabulous: The Story of Queer Cinema

I Can't Marry You /+/ Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement

Jihad For Love

Lavender Limelight Lesbians in Film /+/ Sole Journey

The Mormon Proposition

Out in the Open

Stonewall Uprising

Training Rules + Fatherhood Dreams

Inspired: Voices Against Prop 8

(A) Sexual

Brother Outsider: Life of Bayard Rustin

Saint of 9/11

Before Stonewall

After Stonewall

Call Me Kuchu

Family Values: An American Tragedy /+/ Mr. Angel

Bridegroom + Dangerous Living

Off and Running

Making Grace

We Were Here

Music Slot 

----------------------

- two hour slot -

- 21 entries necessary -

Entries accumulating less than 120 minutes are to be embellished with music videos from the wide world of LGBT performers.

Tegan & Sara: Get Along

Tegan & Sara: It's Not Fun, Don't Do It!

Wish Me Away: Chely Wright

Adam Lambert: Glam Nation Live

To Russia... With Elton

Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras

K.D. Lang: Live in London with the BBC Orchestra

Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid

Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest

Queen: Live at Wembley Stadium

Backstreet Boys: Homecoming Live in Orlando

A Night Out with the Backstreet Boys

Hit So Hard

Rise Above: The Tribe 8 Documentary

Left Lane: On The Road with Folk Poet Alix Olson

Radical Harmonies

Glee: The Movie

Lady Gaga Presents The Monster Ball Tour at Madison Square Garden

Indigo Girls: Live at the Roxxy

Indigo Girls:: Live at te Fillmore

Indigo Girls: Live at the Uptown Lounge

Movie Slot A "Premium"

----------------------

- 2 hour slot -

-10 entries necessary -

These ten exemplary films are to be featured three times each of the course of the month, for this year.

Gods and Monsters

The Normal Heart

We Are The Best

Fucking Amal 

Brokeback Mountain

Cloudburst

Hannah Free

Boys Don't Cry

If These Walls Could Talk 2

Whip It

Movie Slot B "General"

----------------------

- 2 hour slot -

-39 entries necessary -

Reaching For the Moon

A Marine Story

Circumstance

Personal Best

All Over Me

Geography Club

My Summer Of Love

The Truth About Jane

Kissing Jessica Stein

All Over Me

But I'm a Cheerleader

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Fabulous Stains

Weekend

Pariah

The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love

A Perfect Family

Longhorns

North Sea Texas

Jack & Diane

Imagine Me & You

Blue is the Warmest Color

The Kids are Alright

Concussion

Keep The Lights On

Kiss Me

Mosquito y Mari

Water Lilies

Heavenly Creatures

Lost & Delirious

The Guest House

Bloomington

Cracks

The World Unseen

Molly's Girl

The Gymnast

She-Monkeys

Jamie and Jesse Are Not Together

Flowers for Bobby

Girls' View

Movie Slot C "Related"

----------------------

- 2 hour slot -

-30 entries necessary -

These films feature one or more of the following: gay directors, gay actors, gay supporting characters, or subtle LGBT themes.

American Beauty

The Night Listener

Pitch Perfect

The Runaways

Nell

The Accused

The Brave One

V for Vendetta
X-Men

X2: X-Men United

X-Men: The Last Stand

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Emile

Asylum

Neverwas

Apt Pupil

Juno

Mouth to Mouth

Hard Candy

An American Crime

Ghost Cat

Mean Girls

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed

Scream

Kinsey

Poison Ivy

Frozen

Divergent

ParaNorman

TV Slot "Special Episodes"

------------------------

- 1 hour slot -

- 9 entries necessary -

These are episodes of classic TV shows which feature LGBT characters or themes. Half-hour programs have been paired up to fill the slot.

- The Simpsons s8e15 "Homer's Phobia" /// All in the Family s1e5 "Judging Books by Covers" 

- Married With Children s7e15 "Heels on Wheels" /// Two and a Half Men s11e1 "Nangnagnangnang"

- Roseanne s9e10 "Home is Where the Afghan Is" /// Roseanne s9e11 "Mothers and Other Strangers"

- Shake It Up s2e7 "Double Pegasus It Up" /// Good Luck Charlie s4e19 "Down a Tree"

- Fraiser s11e3 "The Doctor is Out" /// Frasier s2e3 "The Matchmaker"

- South Park s11e2 "Cartman Sucks" /// The Boondocks s2e13 "The Story of Gangstalicious Part 2"

- American Dad s3e4 "Lincoln Lover" /// American Dad s4e7 "Surro-Gate"

- House of Cards s1e8 "Chapter Eight"

- Seinfeld s4e17 "The Outing" /// Seinfeld s6e16 "The Beard"

Musical Theater Slot

----------------------

- 2 & 1/2 hour slot -

- 4 entries necessary -

Avenue Q

Les Miserables: The 25th Anniversary Concert

Rent: Live on Broadway

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

A Long-Belated Review: Sleeps With Angels

After a period of bizarre experiments in the 1980s, Neil Young had a veritable renaissance in the 1990s. He found himself on the very cutting edge of the grunge explosion, and became the honorary guru of the alternative rock era. He achieved this, largely, by getting back to his roots and courting the styles he had become famous for in the 70s: lucid hard rock albums like Ragged Glory (1990), and sentimental folk such as Harvest Moon (1992). For his next disc, Neil attempted to channel a different style: the grim mentality of his "ditch trilogy," which ruminated on the heroin overdose of original Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten in 1970. With the untimely death of Kurt Cobain halfway through the creation of Sleeps With Angels, the project became imbued with unfortunate new resonance.

There has never been a more archetypal late-night record made, than Neil Young & Crazy Horse's 1994 album: the dark, ponderous Sleeps With Angels. It's the epitome of cool, the very essence of a midnight drive or a glass of wine on the porch at 4am. A full moon beach seance. A huddled mass of close friends waxing philosophic as dawn breaks. It's such a relentlessly shadowy album that it actually seems pretty ridiculous to listen to it during the day -- unless, of course, you're obsessively lost in yearning for those late nights long past.

The Crazy Horse format of rancorous guitars is subdued here into an almost neo-jazz sloppy precision. Vocals are given strictly in hushed tones and ominous background chants. The guitars become fuzz-ridden laments, as if slowly disseminating from a small amp in the far corner of an after-hours dive bar while the architect of said sound, a man in a trenchcoat and a top hot, is bent over his instrument with his face obscured, coming down off some long-stale high -- and he's the only person in the bar but you. It's an album seeping with shards of reality, but still firmly ensconced in the dewey gleam of preternatural warmth. Like an LSD hangover.

Like Neil's other 90s records, the lyrics present the worldview of a contented, happily wisened middle-aged man. But Sleeps With Angels is additionally haunted by the spectres of those who could not be saved. Neil's seen his share of destruction in his time, and on this record his ascension to maturity is made bittersweet by what could have been, had his fallen friends been able to achieve the same peace of mind.

It's not a wholly flawless record. There's some major filler. And a small studio performance called The Complex Sessions which Neil and the Horse did shortly after releasing the album, captures all the same hushed aesthetics while actually improving upon some of the initial arrangements.

But where it autonomously excels, is in sheer atmosphere. There's a lot of atmospheric music out there, and a lot of music that invokes the feeling of nighttime adventure. But there's no album that transports me so decisively into that world than Sleeps With Angels. It's a genuine marvel and, to me, an invaluable resource. It's one of Neil Young's greatest accomplishments, even if it's not one of his top 5 greatest records, when judged song for song.

Switched at Birth

As a kid I enjoyed the golden age of The WB, with the incomparable Dawson's Creek, the eternally endearing Gilmore Girls, and occasionally, when it wasn't too imposing, a little 7th Heaven. You could call it 'family entertainment' but it was aimed primarily at moody teenagers, and to a pre-teen like me, it seemed astoundingly mature. The height of adulthood. I was enthralled.

Today, The WB is gone. Its formal successor is The CW, but the programming on that network errs almost exclusively towards the supernatural end of the WB/UPN spectrum. Shows such as The Vampire Diaries and The Originals are quite good, but you don't see the same down to Earth, daily life sensibilities that informed the WB's best work.

Another channel has stepped in to pick up where the WB left off, a channel that for years subsisted on syndicating programs including Dawson's Creek and Gilmore Girls. It's almost strange to imagine a TV network operating with such a clear logical, linear progression (since market turmoil tends to necessitate more haphazard evolutions), but all those years spent accentuating the WB's best must have given them a rather keen understanding of the classic WB mentality.

ABC Family has become the true, irrevocable heir to the WB aesthetic. They're hit and miss like every network is, but if you're looking for the quirky homeliness and the warm-hearted sentimentality of old WB, ABC Family is your destination. And so far their best show is Switched at Birth, the story of two girls and their two families, who didn't discover that a baby switch had occurred until 16 years after the fact. It is an astoundingly well done show, that never ceases to yield at a very high quality. It has to be the best family drama since Gilmore Girls.

Genuinely Unique

I'm about to go on a minor rant, but the best way to explain Switched at Birth's strengths is to contrast it with one of ABC Family's lesser shows. You have no idea how much I was looking forward to the debut of The Fosters. Adoption AND LGBT themes? These are specifically my two most sought-after story aspects for family dramas.

But the show didn't turn out so great. The Fosters tries *so damn hard* to be diverse and innovative. But unfortunately what you get with The Fosters is most of the same characters and plots you've already watched on other TV shows. Trust me, there's absolutely nothing I am more desperate for than a great LGBT show on ABC Family. But The Fosters panders more so than emotes, and the barriers it purports to break have largely been breached before. If it opens even one set of eyes to the validity of gay adoption then that's a service rendered to the whole human race. But is it a good, well-written drama show, on an entertainment level? No, it's merely decent.

Switched at Birth, on the other hand, makes being unique in a sea of TV copycats appear virtually effortless. Sure we've dealt with certain themes before, like class warfare and student protest. But we're treated to these themes in new ways thanks to this nuanced premise. The titular switched at birth angle gives us a far more innately introspective and intimately conflicted look at the discrepancy between social classes than similar family drama treatments.

Allow me to elaborate. Our two girls from opposite socioeconomic backgrounds struggle not just with their understanding of conflicting social ideologies and the revelation of class warfare, as many coming of age stories address; they also struggle with how these two opposed ideologies are simultaneously inherent to who they are, due to the girls' dual nature between their birth parents and the parents who raised them. This issue is usually dealt with as a simple arc, from ignorance to understanding. But for Switched at Birth, our protagonists are adamant about retaining both aspects of their self.

Furthermore, the recurring emphasis on deaf culture and deaf issues gives a voice to a group that has almost no representation in mainstream media. And the framing of the classic 'student sit-in' plotline through the lens of deaf students trying to save their one haven from the world of the hearing majority, allows the show to raise awareness about a defining moment in deaf history which most viewers are not going to be familiar with (the Deaf President Now protests at Gallaudet University), as well as bringing in a bit of new depth to the old formula.

Keeps Me Guessing

Yes, I'd certainly be lying if I said Switch at Birth doesn't tread on *any* ground we haven't seen plenty of times before. Like nearly all works in television and film, it rests on some old standards when need be. But the special thing about Switched at Birth is that even when they're redoing a classic standard, they still keep me on my toes.

For example in one storyline, one daughter befriends a political activist who is opposed to her father's work as a state Senator. And of course, she accidentally reveals sensitive information the senator hiding from the public. We know how this goes, right? The boyfriend is going to release the information, after a fight or a breakup, or because the political stakes are too high. But, no, Switched at Birth doesn't go that route. They actually don't make that into a plot thread at all, the Senator himself makes the information public later in that same episode, under no duress or conflict.

Not every trope is subverted here, but there are just enough subversions to make sure the audience can't confidently predict the plotlines, because you don't know when they're going to go the traditional route, and when they're not.

Switched at Birth has impressed me virtually with every new episode. I'd say it's definitively proven itself as the third best family-drama, behind Dawson's Creek and Gilmore Girls. But Switched at Birth isn't over yet, could it get even better? I wouldn't be surprised.

Best episode so far? The alternate reality episode where they had found out about the switch much sooner. Daphne the altruist became a spoiled socialite growing up rich instead of seeing poverty up close, while wild child Bay became a shy bookworm, internalizing her artistic side after having to live in Daphne's shadow. It was heartbreaking, it was illuminating, it was clever as hell and it was fucking awesome. What's next?