I found my coffee, but I need more. I’ll take it in a vat, please. (S1E1)

Before I delve into updates on Gilmore Girls Soundtrack, I want to get to the point of this whole thing: Gilmore Girls. Yesterday Melissa McCarthy announced (finally!) that she will indeed be reprising her role as Sookie St. James in the revival of, arguably, the greatest show of all time. I did a happy dance and cried a little bit (as I’m sure the rest of you did) when I first watched the footage from the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

When I heard that Melissa McCarthy was going to be on Ellen, I couldn’t help but hope that an announcement like this was coming. Why, you ask? Well, Ellen films on the same Backlot (Warner Brothers) that acts as the outdoor set of Stars Hollow… They are a brief walk away from one another, so why couldn’t Amy Sherman-Palladino write a quick little part for her and have her come over to film for a few hours while she was on the lot?

Cut to yesterday. All of the crazy internet fans wishes came true. The dream has been realized, the (sound) stage has been set and all the stars (hollow) have aligned.

All this excitement got me in a nostalgic mood, going back to find my favorite Sookie moments throughout the original seven seasons of the show, including this amazing opening scene to the season 2 finale:

Even the character of Sookie St. James has such a strong soundtrack for her character arc. This scene alone includes 5 references to her musical tastes and teaches us that she’s more about the feel of the music than the tone of the lyrics.

Sookie thinks the melody of “I Can’t Get Started” is beautiful and can’t understand why Rory and Lorelai think it’s so depressing. “It’s Ella!” she insists. Her tastes are reinforced when Lorelai looks through cds of Sookie’s back up suggestions: “Hey Jude” by The Beatles, “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks, “Cats in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin, and “Don’t Cry Out Loud” by Melissa Manchester. Clearly, Sookie has a very distinct love of these somber and sometimes weepy melodies without any regard to the message in the lyrics and how they may impact the mood of the song to a casual listener.

For me, these kinds of moments are why I believe Gilmore Girls is a truly excellent piece of television history (and hopefully and excellent piece of Netflix’s future history).

My mom has similar music taste to Sookie, showcasing her preference for a beautiful melody over happy lyrics for the purpose of a wedding in the same way Melissa McCarthy’s character does in Season 2, Episode 22.

My brother is getting married this summer, and our mom selected a violin arrangement of “Hallelujah” for the mother-son dance. While I agree, it is a beautiful song—and violins are always a gorgeous sound at a wedding—when you add such an emotional song to an already emotional moment, you pretty much guarantee uncontrollable crying. I’m hoping I can hold back my blubbering long enough that the photographer doesn’t catch me with my mouth open turing into a puddle of sobs. “Crying a little, but not blubbering. That’s what we meant when we said no crying. No blubbering.” (S3E22)

As for my brother and his wonderful fiancée, I know their wedding will be just as adorable as Sookie and Jackson’s. I just hope they don’t have as much trouble putting together their playlist.

“I can’t get started” is a perfect segue into a brief update about Gilmore Girls Soundtrack. I’ve been working behind the scenes pretty intensively since I started my instagram account 2 months ago, preparing to launch a podcast about the music of Stars Hollow.

It turns out producing a good podcast (with accompanying blog) is a whole lot of work.

Not that I assumed it would be easy, it’s just there are a lot more things to take into account than I initially realized. This hasn’t deterred me, and I’ve actually really loved all the things I’ve been learning and doing to get ready for the first episode to launch. I’ve been doing extensive research, studying up on the history of the music in the show and making lots of notes on full printed transcripts from season 1.

My mom has taught me (much like Lorelai taught Rory) to find things I am passionate about and pursue them whole-heartedly. She always wants me to be learning, growing and sharing my passions with others. I’m working diligently to get the loose-ends tied up in the next few weeks so I can release the pilot episode of Gilmore Girls Soundtrack (the podcast). At the very least, I know I’ll have at least one listener: my mom.

“Thank you, Mom: you are my guidepost for everything.”(S3E22)

You can follow along over on soundcloud to be the first to know when the pilot episode is live and like the facebook page for notifications when new blogs are posted!

Until then, you can continue enjoying the (nearly) Complete Soundtrack on Spotify: