Monthly Archive for May, 2007

No Whimper Here: Lost Concludes.

Published on May 29, 2007 in ..The Dude and Television. 0 Comments

The finale has aired. I saw it Thursday. It was perhaps the most important 2 hours of TV viewing I’ve done in my life. Bob touched on it below but I must affirm that indeed serialized genre shows are on notice. Lost owns you all and may render all others obsolete.

I had to do an overnight Wednesday at 11 so I couldn’t watch it then despite offers from Brandonicus as well as one to join Bob and his lovely young engenue Kerri. But on the way to work it hit me. But I had to decline in order to serve my fellow man. But at least I had widescreen hi def Lost to console me. And if you haven’t seen widescreen hi def Lost well then you haven’t seen Lost.

But on my way to work around 10:30 I had a revelation. I was thinking Lost and suddenly the tumblers clicked into place. I knew what the twist was and I wanted proof out there that I thought of it before 11 and before I watched it at all since most people I knew were aware of the fact that I was working an overnight. So I pulled over to text Bob in order to have a time signature as proof. It made so much sense. It worked on so many levels and I was surprised I hadn’t thought of it sooner considering how well the idea jibed with previous predictions of mine which had at least in part been proven valid.

So what was my amazing intuitive and intellectual breakthrough? What did I want on the record so badly I risked a car accident as I started typing while still driving which more importantly than possibly ending my life would have cost us overtime at work? What would the reveal at the end of Lost be?

Jack was a Dharma Initiative operative all along.

As Charlie would say, “brilliant.”

And totally wrong.

Although it still could work. But I’m kind of glad. I wasn’t to Jack to be what Jack appears to be. Even if what he is could turn him into a pathetic junkie.

But it did make some sense. Jack was sent there by Dharma to marshal a force against the Others after the Purge so DI can reclaim their territory and resume whatever they were doing. It made sense. Dharma and science equals Jack and reason vs Others and quasi mysticism equated with locke. Everything Jack had done on the island so far still made sense in this light as opposed to the idea of him being an Other a few weeks back, which made none. There were no immediate contradictions I could think of. Jack could still be noble and idealistic within this revelation though with a level of calculation and narrowness added.

But of course after watching it Thursday looking for clues to support this idea through his flashbacks I find out otherwise. I was so sure though that I did see clues pertaining to my idea fix I ignored how they suggested either the show was screwing up its continuity again or was taking place in the future/present. I noticed Jack using a cell phone I didn’t think was around in 2004 or before but wondered if a connection to Dharma might get him access to cutting edge technology. I thought drunken and bereft Jack may have been a stage he was saved from by Dharma coming to him with their utopian, science based mission. I thought it would be Naomi emerging from that car at the airport.

A bit after 11 Brandonicus called me at work. He knew he couldn’t say much because I hadn’t seen it but he had to say what he could. I told him my theory and he dutifully had no reaction. He’s one of the few people on the planet I would trust to say something like that to and know they would be on the ball enough to not give off some tell that I could figure out. It is one of my talents to read people in this way. But I still felt like I had nailed it and he was busting to congratulate me on my insight.

But of course the mess of Jack Shephard we saw is post island Jack and the game changer more to do with the format of the show and the way it tells its tale. I don’t really consider this a major plot jolt we were led to believe we would get so on a level it was disappointing. But it still worked and I was also relieved they didn’t do something more silly than invisible Jacob or smoke monsters.

As for it changing the game from a storytelling point of view we’ll have to wait and see if they go in this direction regularly. We don’t know that it will flash-forward all the time but there is an indication it will do so some more. I lean away from the flash-backing to island from a present off island, theory because if Jack was doing that then how’s he seeing Charlie, Sayyid etc?

And oh poor, poor broken Jack. You can kind of see how he could get that way. He’s an obsessive and addictive personality that geared his perhaps hereditary addictive issues into fixing and saving things and people. In the future he has no where to go with this and when you combine that with guilt and angst issues that his on island actions in the finale may create with whatever we may find out in the next 48 episodes, you get a guy channeling those qualities more in his fathers direction with drugs and alcohol.

Perhaps his split with Kate is over her knowing that it was that obsessiveness and narrow minded focus that enabled him to cross a line when he allowed Sayyid, Bernard, and Jin to die for a phone. I think maybe it was there that Jack’s recent change in attitude noted by other Losties flipped to a whole other level of pathological blindness. He compromised on that damn button but he couldn’t on the lives of those 3 people? I love Jack and what he represents and I can understand him but you got to give up the phone there and hope to find another way off the island. I think everyone would understand even though there is good reason to believe Ben would kill them anyway because Ben’s way with the truth may make him a Fox News hire if he ever looks for work off island.

And who was in the coffin many are asking?

My first guess was Locke. I quickly moved to Ben.

Then i froze the screen on the newspaper blurb and decided it was no one we know. Perhaps one of the 40 odd Losties. Another failed re-acclimation to post island life Jack blames himself for? Apparently there have been more comprehensive screen captures and the paper said something along the lines of either of those 2 examples:

The body of Jeremy Bentham of
New York was found shortly after 4
a.m. in the ___ block of Grand
Avenue.

_d ____, a doorman at The
Towers (luxury apartments?), heard loud
noises coming from Bentham’s loft.
Concerned for Bentham’s safety, he
opened the door and discovered the
body hanging from a beam in the
living room.

And another:

“The body of John Lantham of New York was found shortly after 4 am in the
4300 block of Grand Avenue.

Ted Worden, a doorman at the Tower Lofts complex, heard loud noises coming
from the victim’s loft.

Concerned for tenants’ safety, he entered the loft and found the body
hanging from a beam in the living room.

According to Jaime Ortiz, a police spokesman, the incident was deemed a
suicide after medical tests. Latham (sic) is survived by one teenaged son.

Memorial services will be held at the Hoffs-Drawlar Funeral Home tomorrow
evening.”

If this means anything and it’s someone we know it points to Michael. Teenage son. From N.Y. Funeral home in black area (although if he was living in luxury apt in L.A. and from NYC why be shown at inner city parlor?) I guess it’s possible he changed his name for some reason but then how do they know about Walt?

But I tend to think either they screwed up bad with a meaningless prop or more likely we’ve yet to meet Jeremy Bentham and perhaps never really need to if he’s one of the many background players.

I even got to thinking about Jack playing Nirvana’s In Utero on his way to the funeral home. He was listening to Scentless Apprentice a very unfriendly radio song not likely to be playing on the air. Most likely Jack made a conscious decision to play the 15 or so year old album. Part of it could be Jack on a downward spiral nostalgia kick. I can see him being a grunge fan while in college and med school back in the 90′s and now indulging in the angst and despair in the music once again. Solace in the familiar recall to better times and an appropriate soundtrack to his despair. The album is kind of dark and depressing.

Also Kurt Cobain killed himself just as Jack tried to do and the person he was going to see apparently did. But the album has a lot of fertility imagery both in lyrics and art work. Lots of abortion, semen, parasite stuff which kind of connects with some island themes. And its a symbol of lost hope. I think alot of people are like me and when they hear that album have a bittersweet feeling of something that was a new beginning but also an abrupt end. So maybe that’s why they used it because at that point maybe Jack’s feeling that way about the island.

And then we have Charlie.

I knew it was most likely coming and I didn’t want to see it happpen. But Charlie died a good death. So good a death that I wouldn’t want to undo it. It’s like he reached a pinnacle of coolness and Charlie-ness that could go nowhere else. His Charlie-ness was doomed to explode. He exploded so cooly it hurt me to watch. But it hurt so good, made me want Charlie back so much, that I wouldn’t undo it because the indelibility of the emotion, the imprint of the scene and its meaning, are forged too deeply and full of so much meaning.

And hey he’s not a real person.

I don’t like the forces of pre-determinism winning out over those of free will with all this future sight/destiny stuff. But Lost offers enough that I just have to accept they’re also throwing bones to mysticists, religious, and in this case Calvinists and Mormons.

And it was awesome that we got to see my fair Penelope. And so did Desmond. When she heard Charlie call him I cheered. One of a few cheers during the show along with Hurley and the van, the reveal of the fake gunshots (even though you kind of knew, but I was glad I didn’t have to wait until February to find out for sure), “This is for taking the kid off the raft,” and Rose saying, “If you say live together or die alone I’m going to punch you in your face,” Jack listening to In Utero, and Walt.

But as I said a year ago it’s all about Penny and Des for me. Sure that’s an exaggeration. But I must see them reunited. And for a second they sort of were. At least they knew they were there. She looking and he on an island waiting to be found. And when you have enough money you can find anyone.

And I just really like her face.

And accent.

Also on that paper clipping. It said Man Found Dead. Rather anonymous for a returned castaway don’t you think? Even more so if many are dying. Which could still mean a name change but why this person and not Jack?

And why isn’t Kate in jail? Also a new identity deal of some sort? We’re the public told only certain castaways survived? If so what are they others including Latham covering up or escaping from and why would authorities find whatever Kate knew or did worthy of dismissing a murder charge?

Could some kind of island alternate reality-time changing aspect explain both these things? And can JAck’s future be altered or is the flash-forward as immutable as the flash-back? And in light of Desmond’s second to last one is even the flash-back immutable?

There’s alot more to say but I’ve wasted enough space for the moment. We have until February to ponder more. I may have to buy the first 2 seasons and the 3rd when it comes out later in order to revisit and stay acclimated in the Lost world. Watch 1 or 2 a week until February. And extras. That’s how I feel after the past couple of months and this finale.

Although I still want to know what the hell smoky is and the significance of the numbers before May 2010.

Heroes And 24 End With A Whimper And Not A Bang.

Published on May 23, 2007 in ..The Dude and Television. 0 Comments

Doesn’t mean they weren’t good finales. In the case of Heroes it was the end itself, both of them, that left something to be desired. Particularly the culminating battle which was a let down of heroic proportions. It’s solution had been telegraphed for months. It’s bad-assery hinted at. But in the end we got a watered down version of what should have been.

And in 24′s case we got a good 2 episodes but not the rumored mystery ending. We faded to black on a haggard Jack contemplating past, present, and future and the deeper meanings of the silent countdown. That’s not necessarily bad. But for those looking for a startling surprise character not seen in a long time pulling up in a car and telling Jack to get in because they need to talk as was heavily rumored, they got introspective Jack on the brink of Dawn instead.

But neither show gave people as much as what they expected.

On Heroes:
Comic book school 101, maybe even Drama 101 should teach writers that when you hype up and tease people regarding a showdown between characters this showdown should be somewhat epic and hard fought. Instead we got months of foreshadowing and glimpses of the ass-kicking potential of a Sylar-Jedi Peter showdown and when it happens Peter throws 2-3 mortal punches and then goes nuke.

That class should also tell prospective writers that when a characters power and indestructibility has been played up and viewed from early on then defeating him must be a little harder than an unguarded and open run sword through the gut.

This episode has Shaft in it goddamn it!

Hiro should have brought Simone’s dad back from the past and wheeled him out into Kirby Plaza where he would have done all kinds of schooling on Syler.

And deflowered Claire and tamed Nikki/Jessica in between dustups.

Can you dig it?

John Shaft.

But no.

Parkman getting the bullets in the chest was cool but other than that it was kind of anticlimactic. I even wanted Nikki to get into the act. But no, Peter waves her off and is all, “No sexy freak lipped blonde I may date in 5 years, I can defeat him with my exceptional powers of angst. I will hurl existential bombs of mopiness at him and thereby cause him to want to kill himself.”

“I’ve got this.”

And why couldn’t Peter fly away and explode in space by himself?

Can Peter only channel one power at a time? Is that why he can’t fly off without Nathan’s help?

And did Nikki’s Hulk explosive anger disorder issues transform to Peter? If not why? If they did it would explain why he couldn’t control the radioactive meltdown. But then it would mean he was using 2 powers at the same time wouldn’t it? So why not 3 and fly?

Am I off here or am I the only one getting that?

And in the future episode all the characters at the plaza were alive except DL. How is that possible if the nuke had gone off as it would have whether they were there or not?

And how would shooting him from the angle Claire had have stopped him with his immortal self- healing cheerleading powers? Couldn’t he have just bent over and let them slip something sharp into that base of the skull area until he calmed and the threat was over and then pulled it out later in a safer area?

But back to the fight.

How hard is it to see the obvious death of Syler needed to come from Hiro teleporting right up to Syler with sword already impaled as he appears? It would have shown Hiro’s new mastery and explained how someone of Syler’s powers could be gotten to. And this should have come after Syler has been weakened by a kick ass knock down drag out Jedi master or Neo vs Smith type battle.

Seems like a no brainer.

And then we get Hiro in ancient Japan.

I liked getting that first glimpse of Volume 2. It’s called Generations and hints at that super power family dynasty thing I’m all excited about. But once you go there I need something bigger than an eclipse to send us off into the Heroless Summer.

I mean wow man they had eclipses in the 17th century.

I know there was more going on there with the sword and perhaps an origin story involving Hiro and Kensei. But Hiro can just teleport right on out of there now. So what’s the big whoop?

Hopefully Molly’s worse than bogeyman guy she can’t track will turn out to be foreshadowing some new big bad that will get his comuppence in more dramatic and satisfying fashion than poor Syler who only really wanted to make snow globes fly for his mommy.

On 24:
If you forget some of the lamer elements of the season the past few episodes were pretty good. We even got Buchanan and Jack in the field for the first time. And Boy Kim wasn’t really too pathetic. Hell he even shot his gwampa. And Doyle got blinded and Chloe is knocked up.

These are mostly good things.

But they pale in comparison to the awesomeness of Jack taking stock of all around him. The cipher for this was Audrey’s dad and former Sec of Defense Heller. But when Jack was going all, “I don’t listen to you anymore, you left me to rot in China, I’m only good for killing to you people and I do that really well,” he was talking about the country. The system. Even his own patriotism. They’re all dead to Jack now just like he said his own father was long before he left him to die on the oil rig.

Jack feels nothing.

Jack believes in nothing anymore.

There is only Jack.

And the sack.

As for the lack of surprise long since unseen character showing up at the end there really is no one that would have made much sense. Sure we all long for Soulpatch. But it would have been a stretch.

Naked Mandy?

Come on.

David Palmer?

24 is just not that type of show. For all it’s leaps of reality it doesn’t do characters back from the dead. And he’s still on that lousy CBS show.

Here’s what I was hoping for.

I wanted the Hoody to pull up in a porsche and say, “Get in Jack, we need to talk?” That would have been better than Kim or even Tony. Tony would have been too much of a stretch. The Hoody is magic. Nothing is beyond it’s capability.

Perhaps the Hoody speaking would have demystified it too much. So maybe the hood part of said Hoody could have turned towards Jack from behind the wheel and a moment later it could be Jack heard saying, “What’s that Hoody? We have to talk?”

That’s some must see TV right there let me tell you.

But I was ok with Jack and the ocean. Jack reborn at dawn after emerging from the sea. It’s all good stuff. Supposedly they are going to reboot the show next year and go in different directions. I called the need for that 2 years ago. But I guess sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to get it done. Not that the show was all that bad this year. But the format is played out and there’s no way to keep turning the kaleidoscope without people of getting tired of seeing what basically amounts to the same old thing over and over.

And the final 10 minutes were a nice segue into that if they do it right.

My dream has always been 24 in NYC. Don’t know if that will be part of the change though there is some talk about getting out of L.A. Jack and Manhattan cab drivers. Jack wouldn’t know who to torture first.

There may a whole new cast joining Kiefer next year as well. I have a feeling we may not even get Chloe back. I’d like to see her return. And I’d even be ok with Doyle. Blind field agent Doyle could open up doors for all kinds of mishaps and hijinks.

And you know what?

Bob may kill me for this.

I like Doyle.

There.

I said it.

That reminds me.

When the hell did he and Nadia form such a deep connection?

Did this happen during off screen bathroom breaks?

Were they trading hot text messages all night long?

And what the hell is up with Milo’s brother? Is it just me or did he fucking disappear through Milo’s locker?

Seriously he was standing there in what seemed a closed room, Nadia at the door, and after she turns for a moment he’s gone and she looks like she just got transported to a Joss Whedon show.

What the frak was that?

Anyway, 24 and Heroes are gone for a bit. Longer bit for 24 of course. Lost closes up island tomorrow with the anticipated and crazily rumored final supposedly game changing minutes. Hopefully we’ll get more bang for our end of season buck there because right now it’s The Office winning the contest for best finale and culminating moment and it’s supposed to be the dramas doing that.

I Had A Dream.

Published on May 19, 2007 in ..The Dude, Life and Television. 0 Comments

And it was about Lost.

Specifically about the final moments of the finale.

Actually I had a series of vignettes going on as I slept last night/this morning. Different scenarios for the hyped “game changer,” at the end of this weeks episode titled “Through The Looking Glass.” I got to thinking about possible “we’re through the looking glass here people,” moments the title suggests with the artist formerly known as Brandonicus last night. The combination of that, my slavish devotion to that old time religion known as TV, a discussion about how our jobs as managers are far less important to us than Lost, and my complete and utter lack of a sex life all added up to the grand achievement of my life:

Being able to watch TV while sleeping.

Because that’s what it felt. Sort of a combination of watching it and being there.

Meta Hi Def.

Maybe I’m finally achieving my full potential as a human being. Being able to make TV in my brain even when I’m not watching it.

I don’t remember all the possible game changer moments I dreamed but I know there was a few. The one that stands out is the one where The Looking Glass idea figures literally. It’s not just that title but the fact that last week we had Alex and a white rabbit and the hatch schematics seemed to have the logo of a rabbit. All this was making me think of Alice down the rabbit hole and that through the looking glass moment being put out there and what would constitute one.

The one dream I remember goes something like this:

In the final moments of the episode Charlie enters through some kind of portal on The Looking Glass station. When he emerges he is laying beside Claire in a bed shortly revealed to be in England. Aaron is there as well. The two of them are married. Somehow, I don’t remember how, it is revealed that they are no longer on the island and that somehow Desmond’s time trip has contributed to altering the timeline so that Claire and Charlie were never on the plane yet somehow met.

Now i know this isn’t going to happen. It makes no sense. If Desmond altered anything it should have happened already. There is no magic mirror to walk through on the LG station. At least their better not be. It would be ridiculous for everyone on the island to just forget Claire and Charlie were there.

That’s not my point.

My point is I’m dreaming about TV!

I rarely remember my dreams and when i do they’re usually not vivid. Yet I remembered Lost finale dreams and Charlie through the portal was vivid.

I am both excited and concerned with this development in my life.

But I have always thought the time and reality thing was being played with here. There are far too many clues and suggestions for that not to be the case. From Sawyer reading A Wrinkle In Time, the Mittelos anagram, Desmond’s back to the future/delusion episode, and more. So i’m going to say that the game changer has to be some confirmation of the time angle. Will Penny show up 30 years older with more technology Sayyid doesn’t recognize? Will we find out no one but Ben ages on the island? Will past, present, and future collide in some way that shows us they are fluid within the shows mythology and possibly existing as different possibilities? Like Shrodinger’s Island?

Probably none of the above.

It will probably be disappointing whatever it is.

But I’m stoked about it. And I’m hoping to create new series in my sleep as possible mid season replacements for all the networks but Fox.

And CBS. They canceled Jericho which was getting good and was a very realistic look at the good and bad of a post apocalyptic segment of America.

So no dreams for CBS.

ABC doesn’t deserve my dream content what with their whole Disney relationship but they and NBC have some good shows and will give the contents of my dreams the chance Fox and the sci fi channel probably wouldn’t.

I may give HBO a crack too but they’ll have to give me a free subscription.

I don’t dream for free.

Half Nelson

Published on May 19, 2007 in ..The Dude, Films and Reviews. 1 Comment

Finally got around to seeing this small independent offering that garnered its star Ryan Gossling a best actor nomination at this years Oscars. It’s a strange film that had a strange effect on me as I tried to come to terms with how I felt about these characters. On one level you’re getting a movie dabbling with the trite and cliched Hollywood great white hope as a caucasian teacher diligently tries to reach inner city black kids. On another level it’s about an incorrigible junkie who happens to be that white teacher who’s not all that diligent. And it’s a kid caught between a vaguely creepy relationship with him and the pull of the streets put on her by the far more appealing drug dealer character pulling her into the life that put her brother in prison.

Gossling is Dan Dunn, a rebellious, anti-authoritarian teacher that only briefly suggests the kind of Dead Poets Society captain of young souls before you quickly realize that some of his anti-establishment stance is the weak vestiges of his long since shipwrecked and defeated idealism. Now he’s just bitter, angry, and unable to connect with people. It’s a testimony to how good both the acting and writing is in this movie that you get a sense of these things while being given so little overtly. For instance you only see Dunn’s family once for about 5 minutes and everything from his addiction, to his anger, to his inability to open up come through from the way everyone in his family holds a wine glass constantly, the way his father looks at him and makes light of his job, and his mothers unspoken concern and barely suppressed restraint. His parents are apparently 60′s liberals and we can see in Dunn’s directionless rants about Iraq and the polls showing how people still think there are WMD’s and a connection between Iraq and Al-Quada, how that liberal ideal has become that shipwrecked anger. It’s there in between the lines which reveal the connection to his family and his own inner turmoil.

And all while spending a very short time giving us these clues or examining his behavior.

The subtle way this and more of what is happening in the main characters lives comes across is so understated I think people are going to either just completely not get it or have it really get under their skin and effect them. Count me among the latter. For the former I think they’ll find this a boring and pointless movie. For those like me in the second category this was almost dangerously revealing.

One theme stated early on through Dunn’s history class concerns opposing forces and how conflict changes things. The movie illustrates some of this through video accompanying the kids oral reports about key moments Dunn has them research as punishment for making fun of other classmates. We get a vision of the civil rights movement, gay rights, political activism inspired by union activist Mario Salvo and the U.S. role in that other 9-11 when we helped take out the democratically elected Salvador Allende in Chile to install Pinochet. Dunn has wanted to write a kids book about the dialectic process and how it changes history.

And yet in a movie with a character almost archly obsessed with opposing forces and that Socratic dialectic you’ve got a movie in which neither of the two opposing forces I mentioned pulling at the girl are quite worthy of rooting for.

At least not overtly. There are too many shades of grey here. Neither Gossling or the charismatic dealer are bad. Both are likable. Gossling is also pathetic at times. The dealer misguided and self-serving. But that’s part of the appeal of the movie. It’s partly about growing up. For both main characters, teacher and pupil. And that’s not always a clean or clear cut process. And the movie doesn’t necessarily make it clear how successful either character will be. But they are changed. They go about quietly noticing things and showing those subtle signs of maturity that could easily pass for adaptation or inner strength depending on your way of looking at things.

There’s a point in the movie, I think it’s in the scene with his family, when someone pulls out the Marlo Thomas 70′s staple of growing up, “Free To Be You And Me,” and puts it on the record player. I have vaguely fond memories of listening to that thing and in some small part being shaped by it. I know a lot of people my age do. I recognized the LP album cover as soon as it appeared. I can remember holding it my hands and looking at its now oversized vinyl album cover and studying the lyrics inside.

Maybe it was brought out here to juxtapose the less bright and sweet reality of growing up the movie suggests. Maybe it was there to show how even when you’re a bit older like Gossling in his late 20′s-early 30′s or his parents who probably discovered the feel good kids album of individuality, many of us making up a generation raised by hippies and video games, still playing them, watching Star Wars, and buying more shiny toys like CD’s and DVD players, have a much more amorphous relationship with growing up than is usually presented as normal. Perhaps a crippled one compared to previous generations before the Baby Boomer parents.

Either way i enjoyed its inclusion and how it underscored the more sullen optimism of the movie. Through contradiction that is. As in opposing forces I guess. I’ve always been a fan of that dialectic process and a big believer that it’s at the core of a true democracy. Half Nelson shows how that process isn’t always as clean and black and white as we want it to be.

Ill-literates Still Loves You.

Published on May 14, 2007 in ..The Dude. 0 Comments

But not as much as we love ourselves.

With that in mind and with not much posting going on here lately, i’m going to ramble about assorted events and or minutiae for a bit. I’d like to write a longer, more cohesive essay about something in particular but I just haven’t had that in me lately for various reasons not to be dwelt upon here. So here’s some stuff. Discuss amongst yourselves.

We got some recent confirmation that FOX News viewers are dumb and I’m smart. A recent study gives us the following:

Editor And Publisher

NEW YORK A new survey of 1,502 adults released Sunday by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that despite the mass appeal of the Internet and cable news since a previous poll in 1989, Americans’ knowledge of national affairs has slipped a little. For example, only 69% know that Dick Cheney is vice president, while 74% could identify Dan Quayle in that post in 1989.

Other details are equally eye-opening. Pew judged the levels of knowledgeability (correct answers) among those surveyed and found that those who scored the highest were regular watchers of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and Colbert Report. They tied with regular readers of major newspapers in the top spot — with 54% of them getting 2 out of 3 questions correct. Watchers of the Lehrer News Hour on PBS followed just behind.

Virtually bringing up the rear were regular watchers of Fox News. Only 1 in 3 could answer 2 out of 3 questions correctly. Fox topped only network morning show viewers.

Not that I really think I’m all that brilliant but I do have to admit I think Fox viewers are just too stupid to live. Just the other day they had a debate about whether or not some guy running for President will be hurt by his role on the awesome late 80′s show Wiseguy. He played an anti-semite cum racist con man who toted around a supposedly signed copy of Mein Kampf. What’s funny about this is that they apparently didn’t mention was that it was revealed that the character didn’t believe any of what he preached and got supporters to rally behind. He was a con man who took advantage of weak minded people in various parts of the country by playing on their ignorance and fear using different issues for different people. He only believed in making big scores and taking advantage of people for money pretending to be whatever was convenient.

Get the irony here?

And finding out the actor has been in politics and is running just makes me wonder if it might not be the demagogue and charlatan we should worry about more than the anti-Semite.

Not that we should. But leave it to Fox to blur the lines. It’s probably only a matter of time before they start reporting the events on 24 as facts and cause for national action against the Chinese.

__________

Speaking of 24 and t.v. Boy Kim is in trouble. Just when you thought it was safe to leave a Bauer offspring alone we have to deal with this. But the Chinese invading CTU is kind of cool. Morris is going have to lay it down for Chloe to redeem himself if only in his own mind.

Milo takes a bullet for Nadia who then is allowed to live after the Chinese find out she’s really the person they meant to shoot. And the Chinese don’t immediately kill Jack Bauer when they have him in a defenseless position.

There’s no figuring out these foreign cultures I guess.

Audrey?

Are we done with Audrey?

What was the point?
_____
Lost:

I really thought Ben was going to start talking to that chair in a slightly higher register saying, “Yes mother, Juliet is really a nice girl mother. Do we have to feed her to smokey mother?”

Ben is weird. This is the lesson of season 3.

I still like him.

Can’t say the same abut Jacob.

PLease don’t let him or Richard Halpert, who does not appear to age, be Pirates from the Black Rock or the Vampires Louis and Lestat. Because I get that vibe.

I think we may have to call in the Scooby Gang to solve all this stuff.

And of course we had the announcement that Lost will end in May 2010. They’ll run 16 straight shows starting the next 3 February’s. Mini seasons will supposedly promise maxi entertainment and quality. I hope so but I fear two things.

1. People will lose interest without the show around the bulk of the year, the ratings will slip, and it will be cancelled before that date and or become obsolete.

2. Many of those same people will make like pre shark jumping Fonzy and become cool to the show as it turns more and more into some cross between Buffy, Medium, the old Prisoner, and a well produced sci fi channel show.

Nothing wrong with any of those shows or channel. Well I haven’t ever seen Medium and Jeebus help me I never will. But I’m not sure enough of Lost’s audience realized they were watching that kind of show the first 2 years and once it becomes clear they are they may not want to go for the much delayed ride.

At times I’m not sure I want to. i really like the show but as I get older find it harder and harder to enter into a fantasy world without some basis in reality. It’s pretty apparent now that Lost will offer no plausible scientific explanations for what is going on. But I can still suspend disbelief a bit for parallel-time dilated-electomagnetic influenced wackiness that allows for some strange shit within its remotely scientifically explainable hypothetical world. But if they keep heading towards ghosts and spirits I’m going to feel like calling shennanigans.

But then again I always felt part of the mythos was the battle between reason and mysticism best represented by Jack and Locke. Problem is mysticism is winning right now. Not surprising since reason doesn’t make for exciting tv for most. This is perhaps why people tend to believe in mystical things. It’s just more interesting than the probable reality and it keeps viewers. At least in the real world.

_______

I have weekends off regularly now for the first time in the better part of a decade. Friday’s and Saturday’s that is. Mostly flexible on Sundays I believe. I am largely ambivalent about this. I initially said no. That was for other Quixotic reasons I won’t bore you with anymore than I have already bored anyone who has read this far. But this whole schedule thing just kind of reminds me of how the timing in my life is always a bit off. A few years ago maybe this would have made a difference socially. Now I just wonder if I’ll be able to find enough shopping time during the week to avoid throngs of people teeming in their weekend frenzy of normalized activity.

Cue Eleanor Rigby strings.

________

Spiderman 3.

I have nothing to say really.
___________

I liked The Queen. Quite good really. Really seemed like Elizabeth had quite the stiffy over Diana.

Upper lip that is.

There’s this whole noble stag metaphor thing going on I thought was a bit much but it was a good movie that inspired some genuine emotion intercutting real news footage concerning Diana during the week of her death and the quieter death of the royal tradition. I almost felt sorry for them. Until I remembered that they’ve been living off the country like uber welfare Queens contributing nothing but symbolism for so long.

The real Liz was here last week and Bush told her how good it was to have her back for the first time since her last visit in 1776.

Maybe we need to start giving him credit for being a master satirist. He can’t really be such a twit can he? Geraldo likes him afterall.

_______

Just saw Blood Diamond. Nice movie detailing the repercussions of our lust for diamonds. Unfortunately, as in typical Hollywood fashion, 2 of 3 heroes in this struggle through Africa’s murderous, slave holding, paramilitary nightmare, are pretty white people. I like DiCaprio. I love the Jennifer Connely. But this is more of that Schindler’s Disease. Spielberg makes a movie detailing the heroic and horrible struggle of Jews to survive Nazi persecution and the hero is a German Catholic.

I think Hollywood has little trust in our ability to receive any kind of weighty issue or historical moral tale without pretty white Christians along for the ride. This seems a remnant of some kind of tribal reinforcer. I guess occasionally substituting Denzel Washington in these scenarios is progress.

But at this point he’s still not quite the hero Matthew Broderick is though Civil War came as close as anyone to not making an issue oriented film be about someone other than what most of us identify with.
________

Speaking of Heroes

Super powered family dynasties.

This is the word on where season 2 is headed. Suresh, the Petrelli’s and Nakumura’s seem to figure into this.

I like.

Jessica/Nikki doesn’t necessarliy figure into it.

Me really like.

2 eps to go. Whoever blows up I hope Claire has her cheerleader outfit on when it happens.

Part of me hopes Sylar survives this though I don’t want him slicing Nathan’s head and using the figure of a real President to hide a depraved, sick and twisted agenda of pure evil.

I think we’ve had enough of that in the real White House.
________

Back to diamonds.

I’ve never gotten the fascination with these things. Or jewelry in general. Do people really think they look prettier or cooler with bling? I’ve always found it kind of tacky.

And when Hollywood makes movies like Blood Diamond and then you get stars walking down the Oscars red carpet wearing jewelry and dresses worth more than most people make all year, well it just kind of makes me want to throw up on Joan and Melissa.

I think this lust for ornamentation is kind of disgusting even if it did make people look better. Many of us live like royalty in past centuries. Do we have to make it worse by just pouring on the opulence? It’s all so Baroque. Small people with massive egos trying to shine brighter. I watched Marie Antoinette recently. Pretty good movie if nothing super. But when you look at these pompous idiots and the way they dressed you really get a sense of people trying to make more of themselves than they really are. It’s like piling on layers and layers of frilled vests, fillayed overcoats, wigs, ornate breeches etc is done to present an image of high formality and importance to cover up the emptiness that their culture tries to hide.

Then bloodlines were of great importance in establishing this pretext of nobility and greatness. Now being pretty will do. But is the opulence any less empty?

Throw in the fact that people die for the diamonds and to power the big limos they jump in and out of and you got to think they’re lucky activists aren’t cutting their braceletted wrists off with machetes and dropping IED’s in front of their Hummers.
_________
The Mets.

Looking ok. Braves look better though. Braves appear to be back. When the Braves are good the Mets always fold. And we’re 2-4 against them so far this season. Our pitching has held up but is on thin ice and the long hot season tends to melt thin ice. The predictable injury bug with all our older guys like Alou and El Duque is well under way already. The Braves have had that magical air about them so far and our offense has been a bit overrated as I predicted. Way to streaky. Feast or famine and bullying the weaker pitchers.

Maybe that ideal deal or two can happen in June or July but there doesn’t seem to be quality pitching available and if so the cost will be even more prohibitive that it would have been this past Winter.

And of Jose Reyes gets hurt we are absolutely and utterly done. Chant it with me. Jose, Jose, Jose.

But nice series win over Milwaukee who have been the best team record wise so far this season. They’ll probably get us in Milwaukee later but at least we got the rubber match here with their ace on the hill today.

Next weekend is first of two Subway Series of the year and then the Braves in Atlanta shortly after that.

Next weekend is at Shea. Yanks aren’t looking very good but they are potent and due. They’re also a pretty 8 behind Boston already. Baseball’s biggest mercenary whore Roger Clemens will be back but not for this series. THe Yanks have sold yet a little more of their souls in giving this guy 20 odd million for 4 months of pitching and then breaking long standing team rules in allowing him to not travel with the team and pretty much set his own schedule. For this both they and he deserve a long miserable summer.

THey Yankees continue to be the biggest part of Baseball’s economic problem. The Mets are not innocent but they play within the room and have a team salary comparable with the other top 5-6 teams. The whole system needs overhauling. A hard salary cap is desperately needed. i wonder if adding a floor would get the players to agree.

I don’t know but the Yanks are certainly desperate and out of control and the natural and rightful resting place for Clemens to prostitute himself.

Next weekend will be interesting though and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees start firing on all cylinders coming off West Coast trip and with the Red Sox threatening the unthinkable in Yankee land.

Running away with their division of the past dozen or so years.
________