School Spirits

9 May 2025: Besides a bit of work on my SSAWW paper and some little things on campus, I've been kind of lazy when it comes to work these past two days. And that's okay. One sign of that laziness? I just kind of randomly decided to start a new series on Paramount+, School Spirits. Since yesterday, I've watched the first six episodes and it is fun and smart, with some Veronica Mars and Buffy vibes. 

"Mars vs. Mars"

6 November 2023: Oh my goodness...what a Monday. Got home after 8:00 p.m. after a non-stop day with still so much to do. After a three-hour (!) Senate meeting, I texted Hannah that I felt like I wanted to simultaneously run around the block and go to sleep--that kind of overwhelmed. 

Anyway, got home, did my evening chores, ate dinner, and then sat down to knock a couple more things off my list. My mind was still in that "run or sleep" place. The perfect thing to calm me down/help me focus while working/lift my mood? The "Mars vs. Mars" episode of Veronica Mars. (Slowly doing a rewatch of Season One...) 

Having Veronica Mars Hanrahan and Jo March Hanrahan around also helps. 

Comfort TV...

18 October 2023: For the five days or so, all I want to watch is the first season of Veronica Mars. (Extra Hot Great did a segment about pilot, so that's part of the reason why.) At the end of these long days, when all I want to watch is something very good, very engaging, and very familiar, it is hitting the spot. So it's an episode or an episode and a half or just a half an episode until I head upstairs, take my bath, and then lay down. Then I switch to an Abbott Elementary episode I've watched at least a dozen times and, Lord willing, drift off. 

The disrespect!

5 May 2023: We were so disappointed in the three Jeopardy! contestants who failed to identify Veronica Mars Hanrahan's namesake. 

Content from heaven...

19 July 2019: Not gonna lie...been in a real funk lately. It's been hard. But the Lord must be looking out for me a bit, since some lovely content descended from heaven today...

1) This track from The Highwomen and this piece about them on Rolling Stone. 

2) Veronica Mars, Season 4 dropping a week early.

Won't fix everything, but this helps.

"On Small Talk"

20 September 2018: Almost on cue, I engaged in some hard core (inner) freaking out today over the precise issues I had convinced myself would be okay the day before. In the midst of all that freaking out, little moments of light and peace would find their way through:

• The distraction of the podcasts I listened to as I mowed the lawn on a rather pretty day. 
• The kindness of a colleague who took time out of her day to not only have lunch with me to talk about a big project I am working on (the source of a lot of this anxiety), but gave me great advice and insisted on paying. (I was going to treat her, but she beat me to it.) 
• The panel I attended tonight where WV teachers (including a beloved former student) talked about why they stay in this difficult, amazing, frustrating, wonderful state. What an inspiring group they are.
• The dinner I had with Amy where she let me get right to the point of tears without making a big deal out of it, basically pretending she didn't notice, which was actually what I needed at that moment. 
• The phone call with Jane, which always works for what ails me. Even more impressive on her part since she was dealing with some sad news about a friend.
• The news that Veronica Mars is coming back.
• And this poem...

"I Hear the Bells"

12 March 2018:

"I hear the bells, they are like emeralds, and
Glints in the night, commas and ampersands
Your moony face, so inaccessible
Your inner mind, so inexpressible" --Mike Doughty, "I Hear the Bells"

I have loved this song since I first heard it on Veronica Mars. With its just-barely-controlled-and-then-it's-not-controlled-at-all energy and its youthful exuberance ("let's go make out/up in the balcony" always makes me smile) expressed through a mature voice, it felt like the right song for the first day of Spring Break. Let's just say that some days--including today--I can relate.

"Mars vs. Mars"

7 September 2017: "Nothing. This time I just want you to know what I know." --Veronica to Abel Koontz, in response to his taunting question of what she wanted this time.

I alluded in my last post to having some stuff on my mind that I can't talk too much about (short version: a very good friend is very sick) and this afternoon I really found myself needing a distraction. So I am re-watching a batch of my favorite season one Veronica Mars episodes.

The scene I quoted from above--which comes at the end of "Mars vs. Mars," a great episode with Adam Scott playing a pervert (!)--is terrific because Veronica confronts Koontz for the first time since he threatened to turn her world upside down with his insinuation about her paternity. That confrontation ended with him basking in menacing triumph (he is so creepy) while she dissolved into tears. But here she reveals that she has the upper hand (thanks to her investigation) and it is glorious. I don't want to over-read the symbolism here, but I like the lesson.

"Fidelity"

15 March 2017:

"I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind
All these voices
I hear in my mind
All of these words
I hear in mind
All this music
And it breaks my heart" --Regina Spektor, "Fidelity"

I've been on a song kick with these posts, I know. Blame the relative isolation that Spring Break and snow brings. I am spending lots of time in my own head...never a completely good thing. But, to put it simply, I am not talking with that many people these days. And yes, the posts have also pulled towards the romantic and wistful, but I am who I am and my mind has been preoccupied with such matters lately (for better or worse).

Incidentally, this song will always have a soft place in my heart for a bunch of reasons (including playing in a sweet romantic scene from Veronica Mars). My favorite reason, though, is that I had treated myself to Begin to Hope, the album it appears on, right in the midst of the job search craziness of 2006/2007. And I loved this song. It was in heavy rotation. I remember getting back in my car at the Clarion Hotel in Shepherdstown, heading back down to Richmond after completing my interview at Shepherd. This song came on and I just sang along and smiled. I had a good feeling about that interview. And I was right.

Best headline ever...

21 June 2016: Guess which one I donated to?

Veronica Mars anniversary

10 May 2016: Tuesday's good thing was this fun piece by Joe Reid at decider.com. Humblebrag here, but I was one of the few people who watched every episode of the first season of Veronica Mars as it aired and I was blown away by those episodes--and super frustrated by the "who's at the door?" cliffhanger. Yikes...that was ELEVEN years go. I was still living in Greensboro, getting ready to move to Richmond. I was terrified and sad about leaving the place I had called home for so long. TV was, as always, a welcome distraction.

Viva la Revolution!

Life has been crazy busy and I've really neglected my blog. A lot has been going on (mostly good), so I ought to be doing a better job. So here's a silly return post...

Once a month, I write “Revolution” on my daily to-do list. Every time, it makes me laugh and I feel like a bad-ass. Of course, it is just a reminder to put the flea preventative called Revolution on the cats. Ha. 

Also, more to come on this little girl (named Veronica) who joined the family in early September.

"A long time ago, we used to be friends..."

15 March 2014: Here's a "year of thanks" post I could have predicted on January 1. I saw the Veronica Mars movie yesterday and it was awesome. Even better: I got to see it with Jane, the best bud a person could have. Excellent day!

Wesley and Veronica

Two of my favorite things...

A couple of quick thoughts on the Veronica Mars movie...

1) I was wrong about this thing never happening (as noted in these two blog posts from 2010). Interesting to note that I was also wrong about Arrested Development.

2) I am so happy to have been wrong! Watching the video on the Kickstarter page made me grin from ear to ear.

"Epic" Veronica Mars Clip

SoapNet has been showing two Veronica Mars episodes a day, which makes me so very happy.  Even though I own all the DVDs, I go ahead and DVR them, so I'll always have something to have on in the background as I type or work on stuff that doesn't require total concentration. Earlier this afternoon, I watched "Look Whose Stalking," which includes this "epic" Logan/Veronica scene. I swooned all over again.



Sigh.

And that elevator scene at the end, after Veronica finds Kendall with Logan, is just painful to watch--in a good way. It starts at about 1:45 in the clip you can find here (although the whole clip, a compilation of elevator scenes from the show, is worth watching). What to say? Bell and Dohring kill it--the way you see her overcome with mortification, followed by disgust. His embarrassment and regret over hurting her. Her ultimate decision to look him in the eye as the doors close. Awesome.

I miss this show.

"Angela Chase...and 5 Other Deep TV Teens"

This is a pretty awesome list. Although I only watched one episode of Parenthood and didn't really care for it, I can totally get behind the other characters.

"We need more vampire slayers--just not more Buffy"

You must give this article a read. The comments, too. It's pretty great.

I am surprised that the author (and the comment-leavers) haven't mentioned Veronica Mars, which was, I thought, a great heir to the Buffy tradition.

Yeah, I still miss Veronica Mars. Bad.

This will never happen...

...but it would be so freakin' great if it did. Apparently, Kristen Bell is trying to start a twitter campaign for a Veronica Mars movie. I thought this was a dead idea, but if she's willing to push, I'll get on board. This past weekend, I re-watched the last half of Season Two while grading papers. So very good. I miss you, Veronica!

Even more links...

These are the non-academic variety.

1) On my last trip up the NJ Turnpike, Jane (my awesome road-trip buddy!) and I discussed at length the names of the rest-stops along the way. I still don't get, for instance, why they have a James Fenimore Cooper rest-stop in New Jersey. My favorite name? The Walt Whitman Service Area, of course. Anyway, Gawker takes on the idea of renaming the rest- stops, and it's all kinds of funny.

2) The headline reads, "Veronica Mars Movie Could Still Happen, Arrested Development Perhaps Not." What the heck is the difference between "could still happen" and "perhaps not"? Anyway, I've got a bit of a sad (possible) spoiler alert here: as sad as it is to admit, neither one of these is going to happen folks. We were lucky to get each of these two shows for three awesome seasons. The final stage of grieving is, after all, letting go. Now let's dry our tears as we enjoy our DVDs.

3) Every time someone in my family (usually my dad) sends out a ludicrous conspiracy email, I head to snopes.com, find the de-bunking article, and send it back to him and whoever else he sent that first email to. (Is that obnoxious? I can't help myself.) Anyway, here's a cool profile of the folks behind snopes.com.

4) And finally, cute boys with cats. Yes, please.