America's Finest City

Okay. Maybe it's not always paradise.

Best Of The Watchword: Red's Picks

This Friday marks the one year anniversary of Gingers is the Watchword (I know. I can't believe we made it either). To celebrate, all four of our lovely contributors (yes, even Dave) will grace you with a list of their top 5 favorite GitW posts from the past year. I get to go first because I am the most bossy. Enjoy:

Things I Learned at Comic Con by Liz - One of my all time favorite posts because it was the first time we had, like, insider information. I love insider information! Makes me feel like such an insider. Also, Liz is a hugely talented writer and every time she posts it's sure to be hilarious.

The Radiohead Covers by Garney - I had a hard time choosing my favorite Radiohead cover, so I've linked you to all of them. Garney calling me to sing as other people is one of the highlights of my life.

Happy Singles Awareness Day by Red - Sadly, this collection of 100 or so words is, in my opinion, the funniest thing I've ever written.

Forgotten Classics by Garney - Garney knows more about movies than anyone ever (take that Scorsese). This post is an excellent example of an email conversation between Garney and myself turning into a great blog post, rife with discussion possibilities. EW needs to hire us both. Bring some credibility to that rag.

Who is Your Blogger Crush? by Red - Crushes are a hot topic for me, as I'm sure you've noticed. This post in particular is near and dear to my heart because it got me free drinks one very fun night this summer and really, isn't that the reason we all started blogging in the first place? For free drinks?

Honorable Mentions (aka cheating): Last Walk in the Garden by Liz and Red (because it was a great good-bye to The Wire), Leprechaun? In a Tree? by Dave (because Dave is the YouTube king!) and Sweet Persephone's Pomegranate Seeds by Liz (because nothing has ever made me laugh harder).

My vote for Song of the Summer 2008

Well, I've tallied my ballot, and I'm going with "American Boy" by Estelle (featuring Kanye West) as my favorite jam this season.

There are a lot of things the Brits do better than us, and now it seems we can add "lighthearted, impossibly catchy pop song released between Memorial and Labor Day" to the list. May God help our star spangled souls.

Summer Reading

I'm a bit concerned you all think I watch too much television and am some moron who never reads (and by "concerned" I mean "pretending to care for the sake of introduction"). In case you haven't heard, reading is very important and I do it all the time. So, here are some books to read this summer because really, friends, we all need to read something other than blogs all the time (yeah, I said it. What?):

The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard - Retired police detective Gus Landor is called to West Point Military Academy to investigate the suspicious death of a cadet. He is assisted by a young Edgar Allen Poe (who, apparently, actually attended West Point) who may or may not be a suspect in the murder. Lot's of twists and turns and a fantastic narrator make this a quick, exciting summer read.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - Set in bizzaro 1984 England, Thursday Next is a literary agent who keeps literary characters and books in line. When the third most wanted man in the world crosses her path, Thursday must chase him around London and eventually into Jane Eyre. Insanely inventive, it's literary sci-fi...which even just sounds cool (okay, it doesn't sound cool at all, but it is. I swear).

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving - Forget the craptastic film version (Simon Birch) and meet one of Irving's finest creations in Owen Meany. No one quite captures New England like John Irving and, after The World According to Garp (another good summer read), this is his best work.

There you go. As always, I'd love any summer reading suggestions you may have...

Summa Summa Summa Tiiiiime!

Summer officially arrived over the weekend; time for barbecues, beach parties and easy livin’. (And not falling asleep until 2:30 a.m. because you’re studio apartment traps heat like a female prison). Good times!

Summer isn’t complete without a good song, of course. Every year now it seems the media types are trying to find “The Song of the Summer [fill in year].” I don’t know what the song of the summer is this year (or any year) but here are a few songs I personally love listening to while I’m sipping lemonade and contracting skin cancer.

Girl by Beck: Maybe it’s because he’s from sunny Los Angeles, but Beck’s written a surprising number of good summer songs. This one’s got a bouncy little beat and light melody that make a great ring tone, in addition to poolside accompaniment.

Crazy in Love by Beyonce: Even if you’re not a closet Destiny’s Child fan like me, you cannot f*ck with this song. Bursting with energy, great to drive and dance to, big horns, bigger beat, exactly what you want for the soundtrack to the “fun season.”

Badfish by Sublime: In high school, Sublime was great because everyone liked them – the rocker kids, the rap kids … I guess that’s about all we had in my high school. Diversity wasn't really our thing. As I’ve grown older, I’ve grown to dislike most of their music (in large part because I moved SoCal where they’re still floggin’ this horse long after it died) but I heard Badfish at a party recently, and the big acoustic guitar, bouncy ska rhythm and lyrics about getting literally and figuratively stuck still hold up. Very good for drinking to.

Ain’t nothin’ but G Thang by Dr. Dre and Snoop: I’m the first one to admit I know very little about the rap, and I actually didn’t like this song when it came out. But now when it comes on at a party, everything feels a’ight. It’s also great for driving. Especially if you have hydraulics, which I’m looking into for my Corolla.

Take me Out by Franz Ferdinand: They play this song a lot at Red Sox games, which might be why I associate it with summer. But it’s also great to drive and dance to. It might be a little oddball for this list, but then again, so am I.

OK, your turn!