Forecast: Always Sunny!

Watch "Always Sunny in Philadelphia"

For those of you not yet schooled in the only one true comedic hour that lives in your television set each Thursday at 10PM on FX, start watching now.

OK, you don't have time you say. Nonsense, you can add it to your queue, Tivo it or what have you. But if you really want to be cool, then pull up a stool to be part of the most offbeat, black comedy, strange hilarious awesomeness that is Paddy's Pub.

I debate with my husband each week on who's the best. I still stand by Mac. Greg calls Charlie. But Dee and Dennis also rock.

Any show that has the guts to create story lines that involve smoking crack to get on welfare for easy money or charging money to let people see a pee stain of the Virgin Mary is, well, da bomb in my book!

Some tend to think I'm partial since it's a Philly show and all. Perhaps it just means I get the title a little more than most. Some think we Philadelphians are known for having a gloomier outlook on life. To that I say we too look at the world through rose colored glasses, we're just not blind to its thorns.

Too Cool or Not Too Cool...

I'm not sure that I'm buying in to the fossil fuel inspired trends for fall. Oil-slick black fabrics, glossy satins, lustrous silks, and patent leathers hit the runways hard recently. That's all fine and good for the martini-imbibing, starvation crowd of fashion houses, but please - let us picture how this will apply to the masses.

Is it edgy or is it tawdry early 80's redux?

The Pirate Who Liked to Read

My friends, do yourselves a favor and read - if not the entire series than at least one of - Gideon Dafoe's "Pirates in an Adventure With..."

I have read ..."With Ahab" and "with the Scientist". Both gems. These are quick reads, and worth the sacrifice of the latest "Hills" or "Real Housewives" episodes.

Mr. Dafoe fashions his pirate characters after sassy, clueless, rogue types that are both ahead of their time and swarthy creatures all at once. You will be laughing so hard you'll be crying. In "Ahab", the author has them sailing to Vegas to become performers to help raise money for a new ship. No mind that Vegas is not actually near a body of water.

It's not so much the plots themselves, but the language and dialogue that will have you in stitches.

None of the pirates have actual names. They are called "Pirate with the Scarf" "the Albino Pirate" and "The Pirate with the Wooden Leg".

My personal favorite is the Pirate Captain who fancies glazed hams and his glossy beard. Never a buccaneer there was.

Read at least one. These pirates are so cool they put Jack Sparrow to shame, then flick his eye patch back on his face and beat him with their wooden legs!

Engulfed and In Love

My amour for David Sedaris continues to deepen with his latest "When You Are Engulfed in Flames."

A standard for any hipster's library, the Sedaris series never disappoints. I will say however, that compared to "Corduroy", which I enjoyed but felt was more on the sentimental side, he's back in his snarkiest of forms in "Flames".

My favorite of this collection is "That's Amore", a tale of Helen, a woman so bitter crotchety and hardened, that she's absolutely lovable in her repulsiveness. She's a member of a group of old timers who's slowly passing on and at some point, they just won't make 'em like her anymore. Cigarette in one hand, whiskey glass in the other, cursing their last days on earth.

It's hard to think people like her grew up in a time without blogs, red states and blue states, and "No Smoking" signs. Not that I'm saying that's bad necessarily. It's just sad in a way that those characters with a very pointed/cut-thru-the-bull view of the world will soon be extinct.

She reminds me of my grandmother who's charms I never fully appreciated 'til it was almost too late. She always scared me with her rough smoker's voice and gruff language when I was little. But as I got older, I got her more.

She wore a house coat and curlers, smoked Luckies - no filters, and cursed like a sailor. She also made us pull over once lost in NYC to pick up a 6-pack so at least she could drink while we were driving around lost.

Anyway, David makes me laugh, cry and think in every book I read of his. He's someone I want to be friends with, yet would never want to know because God only knows what I'd end up reading about myself.

Must See TV

The following is my list of top movies you must rent - and view in full - to consider yourself truly cool. Some pix are obvious, some perhaps not. But if you want a crash course in cool movies, this is it. These are in no particular order, because it's too hard to rank them as they are cool and great in very different ways.

Amelie
Ma Vie En Rose
Krzysztof Kieslowski's trilogy: Red, White and Blue (3 different movies but I'm counting as one)
Cinema Paradiso
Donnie Darko
American Beauty
The Cook, The Wife, the Thief and His lover
Virgin Suicides
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
The Third Man
Mommy Dearest (made for TV but still counts in my book)
Smoke & Blue in The Face (I'll count as one, they are sort of sequels)
The Out of Towners - the original with Jack Lemmon
The Station Agent
Pan's Labyrinth
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
Raising Arizona
and anything by John Hughes

Get your queues filled now people! Any thoughts on additions?

World Music

What do you get when you take Michael Stipe, Speech (that guy from Arrested Development), 2 British DJ's, a Mac laptop and an airplane? 1 Giant Leap.

While not brand spanking new, this collection makes my forever cool list not only because the music itself is a fascinating blend of world beat, rap, mystical lyrics and basically some jammin' tunes, but also because of how it was conceived and produced.

Two guys took a laptop, a map, and an airplane then traveled all over the world to places fairly secluded, like deep into the jungles of Africa and high up to the mountain tops of Tibet. And without a plan would seek out the village's musicians/singers. They would lay down beats, or singing or spoken word or native instrumentation, then go to another country and do the same thing. At the end, they put all of it together in various forms to make one song.

So for example, "The Way You Dream" has Michael Stipe singing with a woman from India, drum beats from Africa and so on. And the song wasn't written as one. And they didn't record in studio at the same time. And it all goes together in one kick ass tune.

They had no budget and would just ask for donations along the way and just pick their next stop randomly.

A brave, big undertaking. The goal was to show that the world is truly connected through music and that we as a race are all so similar despite our vast differences. That together, our disparate voices and sounds all harmonize with each other to create a united voice.

1 Giant Leap is not only an album worth hearing but also a documentary worth seeing. Buying it is recommended since that is the only way these guys made any money off the gig. If nothing else, you gotta admire these lads for their spontaneity.

1 Giant Leap truly is "world music".

Plastic Fantastic

See "Lars and the Real Girl.

"When you hear about a movie that involves a delusional guy and a plastic sex doll, there are certain expectations that come to mind. Like it will be creepy and pornographic. Or it will be zany Zucker Brothers style - perhaps even starring Jim Carrey. But in the hands of a smart screenplay writer, a gifted director and the amazing Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl" is a thoughtful, touching, funny, sentimental and - dare I say -the feel good movie of the year.

Other than "The Notebook", which I refuse to watch, I have see every Ryan Gosling flick. And I am nothing short of completely enamored by him. He is one of the most gifted actors of our time, if not ever.

The only downside to "Lars" is that Greg and I find it hard to believe a town with such heart exists anywhere. Perhaps we are just too cynical. But the fact that this place and those people existing in someone's mind, if nowhere else, is truly inspiring.