Amber & Epic Stories

Some days, I miss Veronica Mars.



Maybe there's just not enough sassy girl detective in my life these days.  Kate Beckett comes close, but her hair isn't nearly as flippy.

Or, maybe I miss teen romances that span years and continents--lives ruined, bloodshed-- and summer break.  They don't write songs about the ones that come easy.

P.S. I snost and lost, too.

Amber & Too Much Hulu

Try this for a deep, dark secret: the great Associate Publisher, Kevin?  He doesn't exist.  I invented him.

Follow: I always loved publishing, so I studied, and apprenticed, and put my name on an office.  But absolutely nobody knocked down my door.  A female circulation director seemed so... feminine.  So I invented a superior.  A decidedly tall superior.

Suddenly there were cases around the block. It was working like a charm... until the day he walked in, with his brown eyes and mysterious past.  And before I knew it, he assumed My Boss's identity.

Now I do the reporting, and he sits in on long management team conference calls.  It's a dangerous way to live, but as long as people buy the magazine, I can get the job done.  We never mix business with pleasure.  Well, almost never.

I don't even know his real name!

Amber & The More the Spookier

Bat Dots!I have to say they are pretty darn tasty, although a sweet orange flavor isn't very scary. (I'm not sure what a scary flavor would be... and please don't bring up those gross flavors of Harry Potter jelly beans.) And see how the little Bat Dot Guy has a blood orange slice for a mouth so it is fruit juice, not blood, dripping on the box?

They do look kind of scary, though.
Kind of like, well, bat droppings.

Amber & Seasonal Spooky Delights

Kevin's love of, and lack of self control pertaining to, Dots is one of his Distinguishing Characteristic Properties. He has eaten them for longer than I have known him, and often remarks on the freshness or the particular gumminess of each batch. He is a Dot connoisseur.

Yesterday, he partook of a new seasonal offering, the Ghost Dot, which you can read about in greater detail here.Essentially, it's a spooky green dot in some mysterious unnamed flavor. (Although the web buzz seems to be that maybe each one is a different flavor.)


For the forthcoming holiday season, Dots also come in blood orange Bat Dots and Candy Corn Dots. I can't wait for Kevin to try them all. I think he liked the Ghost Dots on account of how he ate the whole box.

Amber & Memorializing

In addition to remembering our fallen heroes, I am also remembering how much I love Berlin.



Ah, the days when men were prettier, shoulder pads were huge, and gangsters had hearts of gold.

Amber & Remakes

Imagine my surprise this morning when, on the way out of the Bedford Park subway station, I noticed next to the ad for this product which involuntary caught my eye (for obvious reasons)...

...an ad for this.

That's right: Shannon Dougherty has stolen my movie name, a crime almost on par with stealing a baby name. It was bad enough when Lita Ford stole it for her song, but to name your cheesy soon-to-video action move after the "definitive, apocalyptic, nihilistic, science-fiction film noir of all time" is really cheap and unnecessary. Can't you think of your own movie name? And I love gay spies, but come on!

How could you hope to compete or rob prestige from this?

Amber & The Dude

Tiggy and I watched The Big Lebowski for the first time this weekend, and I was really impressed. It's definitely the best Coen brothers film I've seen. (Tiggy slept through most of it.)

Jimmy pointed out that the film is a retelling of The Big Sleep, which is both a favorite detective novel and noir film. It's a brilliant observation and a really imaginative retelling. With bowling.