Archive for the 'Television' Category

Published on October 11, 2008 in ..The Dude, Music, Sports and Television. 1 Comment

Random thoughts for a random Saturday in a random October of a random life.

Went to Bardovan in Poughkeepsie last night and was struck by the people sitting there listening to live guitar driven music like it was performance art. A packed house full of people sat there for 2 hours not reacting to music they paid a decent amount to hear live. No bobbing their head to the beat. no foot tapping. Nothing. But after each song they erupted into raucus applause and cheering. Now I didn’t like the music at all and even I was bouncing my leg a bit. Mostly I wanted to nap or run from how obnoxiously loud the music was.

And that’s another issue I have: The idea that louder = better. Screw nuance or subtlety. Just blow their ears out and they’ll think they’re hearing some good shit. Dazzle them with a sound system and they wont notice how mediocre the music is. THis is a widespread issue even on CD’s which are being produced to play louder. IT’s some of the stupidest shite to happen to music since people started treating Country music as a legitimite art form worthy of a separate awards show.

The performer in question was Susan Tedeschi and her band. Sort of a blues-Bonnie Raitt type of sound. Raitt is perhaps not coincidentally playing the same venue this Sunday night. Thank god I won’t have to sit through that overrated crap. I want twang in my lemonade not my music. But the impression I got from the room last night was of a bunch of uptight elitist hippies wanting to be seen out and about doing cultural things and pretending to like a marginal talent because its Woodstock hippie cool to take notice and support fringe stuff. That’s fine if you really like it. But if you really it like shouldn’t you move to the music instead of sitting there studying the stage like you’re watching a Fellini movie?

I even smelled a few people with Patchuli on them. Most of them men I think. Now as much as I find aspects of the Patchuli smelling experience deplorable and everything it stands for dubious I am prone to want to have sex with a woman wearing it. THis is one of my burdens and or fetishes. Due to a couple of women in my past I want to both vomit at the smell and fornicate. Perhaps simultaneously. Judge me if you must. But a man wearing it just makes me want to beat the living crap out of him until the coppery silver smell of his own blood overwhelms and purifies the stench he has so liberally applied to his flesh. And I do mean liberal in a couple of ways here.

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mOre on music: I think Metallica putting out a decent new album is making me revert to an 80′s-early 90′s version of myself. I’m dressing in black, being angry more, wanting to be unemployed just hanging out improving my body and mind on my own time, and am less attractive to women then ever.

See now that I think about it whatever fortune I had with women (and I did have some surprisingly pretty attractive women’s attentions considering my lack of looks, physical prowess or money for a bit from my late 20′s to mid to late 30′s) seems to have coincided with Metallica sucking somewhat. Now just in time for me being ignored and shunned all over again Metallica is back with a pretty good album. In my opinion their first of that decade to 12 year period in question where pretty girls occasionally talked to me rather than spit upon me.

Problem is I doubt they’ll make good albums until I’m 80 or whatever.

But Death magnetic is good. It’s not AJFA or MOP good. Or even Black Album. But it kicks some ass and has some riffage that grabs you by the throat and chokes you refusing to let go until you change your evil ways. THere’s some decent impotent middle class white boy rage venting possibilities on it and perhaps that’s why I’m wanting to revert to the impotent middle class white boy of my misspent youth.

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Red Sox take game 1 in Tampa. Still think Rays have an edge if it’s a long series. I think if it goes 6-7 they win. If the Sox are going to win this thing I think it has to happen in 4-5 and end at Fenway. THat remains highly unlikely. But sweet babseball jesus do I enjoy watching Boston play. Thank mythology there’s an American League with a team I’ve always dug and does everything a large market team should do for me to hide out from the Mets in and around.

And speaking of the Mutts no one should be untouchable. I wold trade anyone in the right deal. I would start with Jose Reyes the most overrated player in the game. I’ve never taken to him and his clownish antics. i think he’s a stupid player, incapable of learning, and a showboating loser. If I could get a top line arm for him I’m there. I’ll drive the punk to his new city.

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Giants looking good but not really tested yet. Even if they take that step back I thought they would and still think will get exposed later this season due to the losses they’ve sustained this is a solid bunch with decent youth and this could be fun to be around for a few years. And they already stole a Super Bowl championship early in the game.

Good times.

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THis just in: Sarah Palin vomited about a quart of semen since identified as belonging to long dead Pilgrims.

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Some of McCain’s decent side finally came out Friday when he tried putting an end to his supporters hate filled and ignorant ramblings about Obama. I almost felt sorry for JM when he had to cut off this illiterate white woman that could barely form a sentence about being scared of an Arab President. You know deep down he hates these people as much as he ever did. But he sold his soul to them and has had to live with the legacy of a dumbed down electorate and the fear mongering tactics of his party. He’s in league with the devil and he knows it. That’s worse than Bush who really has no fucking clue.

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SPeaking of which I want to see W. I’m not a huge Oliver Stone fan. He’s an ok director who takes things too far quite often. BUt I want to sit in a theater with liberals and watch as they get as tribal as right wingers at a church rally pretending what they’re watching is reality instead of just something that makes them comfortable. It’s stupid shit but it may be fun stupid shit and it’s always good to remind myself of how liberals are just as full of it at times.

Though far less judging from the evidence.

I don’t like the fact that Stone apparently puts a lot of Iraq on Bush’s daddy issues. i think that minimilizes the conspiracy and long standing ideological agenda that was at play there and Dick Cheney’s part in it. One only has to read the PNAC policy paper from the 90′s of which Cheney was an author to know why Iraq happened.

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And if it weren’t for Iraq maybe we could use some of that uncountable money to help out the economic crisis. I’ve myself lost 2-3 thousand so far. THis is partly my fault for letting my money sit in a system I didn’t believe in. I’ve wondered aloud how we could sustain our economy when it’s built on invisible money and credit. Debt being the number one industry in America couldn’t be a good thing could it? People buying shit they can’t afford can’t be smart can it? It’s got to blow doesn’t it? And yet I left it in there hoping I was just ignorant about economics. Which I am. So maybe the experts really know something I don’t and that’s why they trust the system.

Well they did know more. But it’s not why they trusted the system. THey were towing a party line and burying their heads in the sand.

But this isn’t all about Republicans and Democrats or Wall Street corruption. I wish Obama had the guts to put some of the blame where it belongs. And that’s on the spoiled brats making up the American people. We have a sense of entitlement here. Americans believe they deserve it all and deserve it now. Whether they can afford it or not. So just charge it. Buy a house because you deserve it and its an american birthright to own a home. Someone will will give you a loan and then you’ll win the lottery or god will provide or whatever.

Didn’t work. All debts come due and if you don’t do the math and show your work you’re going to fail. That’s why I haven’t brought a house these past years when everyone was buying and telling me I had to because it’s a great investment. THose numbers never added up. Equity never added up. now many of those popel are facing foreclosure or are going to get bailed out by my losses and future tax dollars. They’re just as much to blame as the CEO’s and predatory lenders.

But entitlement means never having to say you’re sorry.

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Come on admit it. No matter what the polls say part of you thinks the Republicans will fix the election and steal it again.

Not that I trust polling at this time of the election year. How much of a cross representation are they? And do they really take into account electoral college votes rather than popular votes. A broad survey of American might just say a certain percentage of idiots is favoring one idiot over another idiot by whatever percentage points. But if those percentages are not affixed to individual states electoral counts what does it matter?

And didn’t Kerry and Gore lead at this time also?

PLease Barack stop telling me this is the most important election of our time. You guys said that in 04 and choked on it like the Mets in September. 04 was bigger. Much bigger. Just deal with it America. Retrospectively 2000 was bigger than both 04 and 08 combined though we couldn’t know just how much at the time. But 04 was bigger at the time and retrospectively. I wanted that one so bad I could taste it. I know Kerry would lose despite the polling but it was close enough I allowed myself to hope. And i wanted it bad and was commensurately disappointed when it didn’t happen.

I’m not going there now. McCain would not be as bad as Bush. That’s more bullshit Obama rhetoric and he knows it. He is far less full of it than McCain but let’s stop making him out to be Truth & Justice incarnate. The scary thing is a potential Palin presidency if McCain can’t make it through 4-8 years. That could be a catastrophe. That’s what Democrats should be talking about because it remains the single biggest difference between two candidates that aren’t half as different as they are making themselves out to be.

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And pragmatism.

Look it up. Read your history.

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A guy who actually writes for the Wall Street Journal actually said taxes are un-american and that the country was built on not paying them. He mentioned the Boston Tea PArty. The Wall Street Journal!

Dude, the slogan was not “No taxation!” It was “No taxation without representation!” THey didn’t have an issue with being taxed. They had an issue with being taxed by a sovereign across an ocean without and say or freedoms. Once we formed our own nation the founding dudes installed taxes. Washington even killed some americans for not wanting to pay them.

Seriously someone who writes for the WSJ should know this shit. BUt right wing ideology real does seem to make people stupid and put some amazing ass big blinders on.

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TV:

I loved Pushing Daisies last year but it’s kind of boring me now. It hurts me to say this. THe show needs an arc. Some internal mythology beyond the one note touch the dead thing. Bring back Pee Wee Herman.

Heroes is some of the stupidest stuff on the tv. Show makes no sense. Just from an internal logic angle. None. I can’t watch it anymore. I wish people would watch Mad Men more so I can talk about it.

Jack Bauer is coming. Look busy.

I think Galactica airs the next minute of their final season this week. I hear next weeks minute really rocks! I can’t wait until 2034 when all the minutes have aired.

Did I mention sci fi channel sucks?

MSNBC is sometimes like Fox Left OF The Dial. Can’t someone on tv let people form their own opinions? I like having an outlet like them sometimes but I hate seeing some good folks there like Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow carry on like ideology is strictly a GOP invention and that having the same stable of cheerleaders on board constitutes a broad spectrum or reportage.

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I want a t shirt that says I’m voting for “That one,” with a picture of Obama.

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Seriously, how may Republicans do you think have masturbated over shagging Palin? She is literally their wet dream come true. Surface gloss, dirty underneath the librarian cover with a the all-off stain remover of Jesus to make it ok, stupid enough to believe whatever they suggest, would probably let them call her, “mommy,” nice boobies, and a predilection for skull fucking.

Ok I sort of made up that last one. As far as I know. But the rest rings too true and I’m sure many a GOP bedsheet has needed extra laundering the past 6 weeks.

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Published on August 16, 2008 in ..The Dude, Films, Humor, Television and Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: your mother.

In order of most important? Alphabetical? Funniest?

No.

The following thoughts are listed in the order most likely to save the world.

Begin:

Two fairly hyped comedies have come out the past week. Both were pretty well reviewed as these things go. I speak of Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder. I’ve seen them both. And I have to say if, as has been put forth by writers of greater acclaim than I (meaning they were acclaimed at all), these are the funniest movies of the past year, I think it is no wonder I don’t laugh much anymore.

THis should probably make me feel good. I was worried my life had stripped me of whatever receptivity to humor as well as ability to engender laughter I had. But maybe it’s not me. Maybe there just really isn’t anything all that funny out there. If this is the apex than Sweet Bloody Christ-Stick we’re an unfunny people.

I guess it’s possible the worried about decaying of my own sense of humor and wit could be responsible for not thinking these movies are brilliant comedies. But I still think I have some review chops and good instincts left over even if I lack the hope, meaning, and purpose that used to drive them. And these aren’t great movies. And judging by the crowds I saw them with I wasn’t the only one not prostrate with guffaws.

And if you’ve ever been prostrated by a case of the guffaws you know what a bittersweet affliction this can be.

Now neither of these flicks was horrid. Pineapple Express is a stoner comedy from the Freaks And Geeks alumni associated with Judd Apatow. It’s in that vain. Apatow’s movie’s themselves have been acclaimed as the great comedies of our time. THis generation’s John Hughes.

If so I weep for the future.

That’s a line from a Hughes movie by the way. If 10 people read this maybe 3 will have known that. If they are under 30 probably none of them will.

But who cares? Life moves on. Moves pretty fast even. Fine. But still if these movies are someday looked at as the Breakfast Clubs or Ferris Bueller’s of their time I gotta think we’re missing something and great comedy may now only be found on You Tube and Fox News.

And perhaps at the Country Music Awards.

Seriously, just the idea it. Awards for the best Country music!

Shit that’s funny stuff.

Anyhow, Apatow’s Superbad was very well thought of last year along with Knocked Up. Both were ok. Really, really ok. But Knocked Up was pretty boring upon a second viewing on cable recently and Superbad rarely prostrated me. It was a mostly guffawless experience even if a modestly pleasant one. It’s pleasantness I suspect was mostly due to Michael Cera who kicks all kinds of ass and who deserves to fuck every starlet in Hollywood starting with Megan Fox who he should impregnate and then force to give the baby up to Angelina Jolie in return for Cera letting Jolie fuck him too.

Speaking of him, Juno even got an Oscar bid. Solid movie. Labeled a comedy. But again, not especially a prostrating experience. Same goes of those I watched it with in a theater in Rheinbeck. And if anyone knows comedy it’s the 6 figure salaried folks of Rhinebeck god damn it! I mean their Hannaford is so freaking clean and stately it’s got to be some kind wry ironic joke. These are a gifted people. And yet there was just appreciative chuckles.

Chuckles i say.

But I heard Juno talked of as a Say Anything for this generation. And I could kind of see that. But I still couldn’t help thinking this is sad. Say Anything wasn’t hilarious but it’s eternally quotable. Will youngsters today be quoting Juno 20 years from now? Probably not. They’ll have their work cut out for them just keeping track of all Michael Cera’s love children as they start coming of age and impregnating starlets at an exponential rate that future mathematicians will have to come up with a formula to track. This formula will feature the critical equation MC= S x F squared where MC is Michael Cera and S and F starlets and fucking that Cera has done.

Squared.

And at a velocity to be determined by his mass at the time.

If you know what I mean.

Anyway, back to recent well received comedies. I saw the first Harold And Kumar movie recently. Netflixed it.

With all these recent comedy viewings of mine you can probably tell by now that I have been pretty desperate to find something to laugh about here. And laugh I did. Occasionally. And decidedly without prostration.

When the fuck is someone going to do something to my prostrating needs!?

But the White Castle movie was still pretty damn formulaic and the humor nothing all that special. And yet it, along with the aforementioned comedies are highly thought of. At least for their time. So that’s why I wonder if we’re in unfunny times and if that’s contributing to my inability to form a smile.

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Anyway I will touch on the Tropic Thunder controversy and say that protesters, and this includes my old agency UG-ARC (as I found out tonight from a friend who works there), are really a bunch of whiny ass liberals without any sense of humor.

Now this may sound hypocritical in light of the previous passages of this post as well as my own ill formed attempts at humor in said post. But these people haven’t even seen the movie. It’s really not taking shots at retarded people. It’s making fun of Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, and all the other pretty boy actors who turn in sugar coated version of the mentally retarded that have little to do with reality. But of course ours is a culture that deals in reality the way a cat deals with a mouse: pounce on it, kill it, consume the evidence and call it a meal.

Or something more analogous.

People don’t want truth and Hollywood is glad to not give it to them.

But some of these self involved do gooders want to sway people from seeing a movie because they’re more liberal about retarded people now than about free speech. The Simple Jack and whole “full retard,” segment was one of the few truly funny and observant aspects of the movie and these idiots want it removed!

So is all me or are we dispossessing ourselves of real humor? Did Carlin take it with him? Fuck even he wasn’t always that funny. But he prostrated me at times and damn it what more can a man ask of another?

Back to retarded people: I frakking work with these people. Manage a program of 10 of them. I truly care for some of these guys. Have affection for them even. And the “full retard,” segment with Robert Downey Jr and Ben Stiller rang true and was damn straight on funny. Also echoed things I’ve said about Hollywood depictions of the mentally disabled.

And let me just say this now that I bring him up: Robert Downey Jr is the most watchable actor in film. Bar none. He rocks. Without him this movie would have been a total waste of time. The other great moment came with his “For 400 hundred years,” speech to the other black actor, an actor probably destined to be known as that other black actor despite being the only black actor. This in itself is a bit of genius that redeems a movie that needed more funny and less blowing things up.

Speaking of good parts. Pineapple Express’s crucifixion joint was pretty funny. So was “Fuck Jeff Goldblum.” A few other things as well, but this still wasn’t as good as an episode of Freaks And Geeks of which this could have been a mini reunion of with just the two freaks Rogen and Franco getting together and possibly not remembering that they hung out together in school and had a band before one became a seller of weed and the other a process server who smokes a lot of it.

But is was ok. And that seems to be good enough today. I’m ok, you’re ok, we’re all ok. But I don’t feel ok and though I’m not prepared to blame this on Seth Rogen or Ben Stiller, or even that Kumar fellow who was a terrorist on 24, I am serving notice.

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Journey taught us how to love. Indeed how to believe. And what have we given them? Nothing.

I think this is wrong and I intend to do something about it. Sometime in the future you’ll be hearing more from me about the Journey Fund. It’s a non profit set up I’m creating to give back.

To Journey.

I’m hoping to pass out donation baskets at concerts and then move on to movie theaters. Hopefully we’ll even get a big advertising spot somewhere in Fenway Park.

Because it’s about time.

For god’s sake they had to regroup, make another album with new material, and go on tour. Without Steve Perry!

And the new guy sounds just like him!

This a tantamount to the pagan worship of other gods and false idols. Thou shalt not worship other Steve Perry’s. It has been written. Or should have been. At least on a bathroom stall somewhere or something. The movie can’t go on and on and on without Perry. He wrote the fucking movie!

Clearly these are musicians in need for they have resorted to desperate measures that may doom us all.

So when the collection basket comes around won’t you please welcome it with open arms before we go our separate ways?

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Been watching 2nd season Boondocks and it’s seriously fucking with my mind. I’m walking around talking about stacking my paper, my hoes, and having to fight very big urges to greet people at work with, “what up my nigger?” I don’t want to be one of these appropriators of black culture that the show itself as well as RDJ sort of make fun of in Tropic Thunder. But god damn it’s cool like a motherfucker up in here!

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Speaking of tv there are some new shows I’ve discovered a bit late in the game but have caught up on or am catching up on. One is Mad Men. Pretty heavy look at the world of the early 60′s to this point and the insides of a Madison Ave advertising agency and the people who work there. THe show is that kind of show where you may not want to watch because it sounds boring but when you start watching you can’t stop. It’s riveting the way a peep hole is riveting. It’s like listening in on the lives of real people you sort of wish you were but who wish they weren’t.

Entourage. About to start it’s 5th season next month I’ve been catching up. After initially watching most of season 1 a year or so back and not getting into it all that much I’ve become a bit addicted to it during the run of watching seasons 2-4. Really fun show with a nice whiff of realism. And Jeremy Piven is the man as Ari. Ari should be Michael Cera’s agent and help sign him to lucrative deals to fuck and impregnate starlets. Because that’s what Michael Cera needs to do and Ari would understand this and get it done.

The Wire. Still on the first season. Really well written as far as realistic dialog and situations. It does seem a bit pretentious in its disdain for conventional drama at times. I mean, I want a little entertainment value. if I didn’t I’d go try and become a Baltimore cop.

I do see why it got such critical acclaim though and appreciate it for those reasons. But I can also see why no one watched it and it didn’t get nominated for any Emmys. But I’m still early in to it and if there is one person out there who reads this and decides to wait to get into it until after The Dude has passed final judgement, i will try to not let you down.

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And back to the greatness of Robert Downey Jr. In a recent interview he had the following to say about The Dark Knight:

“My whole thing is that that I saw ‘The Dark Knight’. I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved ‘The Prestige’ but didn’t understand ‘The Dark Knight’. Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so f–king smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ You know what? F-ck DC comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from.”

Agree or disagree this guy is awesome and should have lots of babies. IF he were a woman he would be a perfect genetic incubator for Michael Cera DNA. But he, at the last, is a man. And a magnificent one who must merely stand side by side with Cera as sexual avatars of our humorless age.

Published on March 29, 2008 in ..The Dude, Films, Literature and Television. 0 Comments

There’s some stuff I’ve liked a lot lately and think others should like a lot too.

On TV
The HBO series John Adams.

It’s a 7 parter. 3 have aired. I’ve seen 2 so far with the 3rd waiting for me on the greatest invention since electricity was harnessed. The show looks great. It does a great job of feeling like a real 18th Century colonial/revolutionary America. You can really just slip into the time period surrounded by vivid architectural imagery, clothing, and an overall sense of newness, growth, and quaintness that must have been such an intoxicating mix to those who were part of the grand venture that was this burgeoning English colony as it erupted into an independent country and power.

That venture brings to mind what many still think of as the American experiment. And the idea of that, or rather maybe even the Idea of America in the Platonic sense is something I feel vibrating through the shows words, images, and music. Already it has had its moments to stir the emotions and make one proud, or at least feel lucky to be connected to such a project. You can feel the import of the decisions made at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The ethical principle Adams defends during the trial of the soldiers accused in the so called Boston Massacre is brought to life and in some moments vividly captures the best of what we would like to believe we are.

There are moments during the first 2 parts when i wish I was a politician so i could fight more closely for some of these principles that were amongst the strongest and noblest of our foundations. This gets stirring enough that a higher principle is evoked, a brighter passion stoked, and a desire to see the great experiment to a worthy future awakened. Surely I’d want to also kick out those weakest hypocrisies also so much a part of the experiment. Because of course there those dark elements in the American soul and character. Some are touched on here and some are not. Even in some of the nobler and most complete portraits of the period I don’t get that sense of yet another war or revolution that is more about the middle to upper classes clamoring for even more rather than the lowest classes. And yet it’s often those lower classes paying the price as far as blood shed and lives lost.

While men like Adams seem to have a real concern for the less fortunate lives they are inevitably sending to their deaths for this fight I’m not sure there was ever that practical awareness of the aristocratic divide that continues to widen in this country. But there was a balance in that there was a George Washington on the front lines even if he wasn’t put in positions of most danger and there were generally agreements regarding the shooting of officers. But there was still a much higher ethic and nobility to a man like him and a sense of being much more deserving to preside over a nation. Those ideals he possessed and that people around him in positions of power recognized and rewarded are that much more accentuated and blown up in the face of the chickenhawk pieces of shit sending others to die for them in this country now.

There were noble elements to the revolution and noble men with grand ideas and evolved sensibilities even if they weren’t aware of some of their own hypocrisy. Not that all of them weren’t though. For instance the slave hypocrisy was something they were aware of. There’s a scene in part 2 when Jefferson shows Ben Franklin and Adams his first draft of the Declaration and though it is apparent all 3 men want this eloquent document to stand as a voice for humanity rather than just the free colonies they know it is not an argument that can be won in that time and place. Basically it came down to one battle at a time. Whether they could have fought harder and still presided over independence from Britain and a successful growth of the American economy and helped avoid the Civil War a century later is debatable.

We also get a good look at Ben Franklin. At least in part 2. Hopefully more to come. He figures in something else I’m going to recommend in this post. To me he’s a quintessential American figure. I love his sense of humor, his pragmatism, his skepticism, and many other qualities that made him who he was and helped shape America more than the religion he scoffed at and which so many today try to fool people into thinking this country was founded upon.

There’s a scene in part 2 where Adams is trying to get his vote on declaring independence and he asks Franklin if he ever says what’s on his mind. BF says something to the effect that he’s very much against doing that and that people thinking out loud is a habit much responsible for most of mankind’s misery.

I really get and relate to that. BF was a guy who could read things including his own powerlessness to effect some of those things. But he knew how to maneuver within the framework of the way things were or were going. This doesn’t mean he went with the prevailing winds. He was a rationalist who clearly believed in the scientific approach and derided the ignorance and superstition around him but he knew change came in stages and he made practical and considered decisions. He was the kind of man who looked at the evidence and made a decision based on those circumstances rather than wedding himself to any school of thought, political faction, religion, or group.

I kind of see him and Mark Twain as the best of pre 20th Century America and though I see them as quintessentially American I take liberties in doing so since unfortunately their way of seeing the world and examining it is not exactly the norm in this country. But their inspiration and influence is still there. Despite everything we still may be the funniest, most satirically advanced, and maybe even the most practical country in history. The Ben Franklin’s are the foundation of that even as they battled against some of those other scarier traits instilled in us by racists and the Puritans.

And watching this series combined with other historical pieces I’ve seen and things I’ve read I’m starting to believe the key to these generations, the qualities that separate them from ourselves and our own leaders, was the wigs.

I always wondered why everyone wore them and I think I know. They conferred super mental powers. What if they equalized everyone physically so that the mental could operate unencumbered worrying about how they looked. Let’s face it, most of us are almost always aware of how we look and at least a little conscious of how we are being perceived physically by others around us at any given moment. It takes a lot of mental energy and focus away from us. But those generation from our Founding Fathers going back to England and France of the Baroque fixed it so everyone in a non physical job category had the same hair. No one had to sit there in a meeting thinking “how does my hair look.” It looked like the guy next to him with the bad wig. And since everyone looks kind of bad with a bad wig who cared? They could concentrate on founding democratic systems and cool stuff like that.

Brilliant deduction on my part?

Or brilliant observation on my part?

You make the call.

Anyway, John Adams. Watch it. First 3 are on On Demand so those with cable have no excuse.

Jericho.
It’s over now. The final show ever though there are rumors of a possible sci fi channel pick up. Pretty satisfying ending though certainly with room for more if they have an opportunity. Basically the next segment would detail the next American Civil War as a new history is carved out with guys like Hawkins and Jake being our Adams and Washington’s.

I stand by the shows realism even there are many who feel it was silly and preposterous at times. THis show was so much a reality I can see this country facing someday. They had to rush somethings at the end that could have stood a more reasonable and lengthy set up like the way they got that nuke to the Texas faction. And though the involvement of Ravenwood, a Blackwater type private fighting force wreaks of reality to me, I think the person they ultimately gave responsibility to for the original country wide attacks doing it as an anti Ravenwood/corporate government move was a stretch. But that was part of what felt rushed. I’m not sure they would have gone there in such a tidy way if they had a certain future.

The frightening thing is that he was right in that a Ravenwood and their Government lackies don’t have to effect such drastic changes to remake America in their image. They’re already doing it slowly but surely. And while blowing it all up from within didn’t stop them it might be all that’s left if things keep going the way they are and if there’s anyone left in such a position who wants to change things.

But I thought it was kind of stupid of this nuclear scientist guy to think Ravenwood and their political faction would be weakened by such chaos. They would and did thrive. IF you really think about it and the Blackwater’s and Halliburton’s continue to become a private DOD, FEMA, police force, etc what happens when opportunity overseas dries up?

American Idol:
I’m not so much talking about the show itself as far as something I’m high on right now or recommending. Rather there’s one guy on it who actually kicks some solid ass. David Cook. He’s done 2 or 4 covers I’d actually put on a disc and listen to again. His “Hello,” “Eleonor Rigby,” and “Billie Jean,” were really frakking good. Very unique and original. And he plays some guitar which is always nice to see with someone trying to pass themselves off as a musician as most of these Idol mariah Carey/Whitney Houston want to be losers try and do.

Books
The Last Withfinder by James Morrow.

I love James Morrow.

Few know who he is even within the sci fi community even though what he does has been mostly categorized as satirical sci fi. Copies of his books are hard to find in book stores. But he kicks ass. He has a new book called The Philosopher’s Apprentice out which i did see at Barnes & Noble the other day. But I’m here to talk about his previous book which I just read after it his paperback.

Morrow has always been great at satire and thoughtful philosophic/theological humor but shows in TLW that he can do historical fiction just as well. Even with my expectations for a Morrow book being dashed as I read on and realized I wasn’t meant to laugh as much as in previous works, by about 100 pages in I started to revel in the book’s prose and purpose just as thoroughly as I’ve reveled in Morrow’s previous works of satire.

The story takes place in late 17th and early 18th century England and America with a stopover on a Carribean island and includes a heavy presence of the aforementioned Ben Franklin. Morrow does a nice job mixing Franklin in a major way that could actually coincide with known real events in the mans younger years though obviously don’t really represent real events. The main character is Jennet and we follow her throughout her life as she goes on a licaraesque journey through a time that represents a sort of nexus from superstition to rationality and enlightenment. Her fight to end witchtrials and the killing of mostly women accused of witches is the crux of the book. Morrow makes an interesting choice to have the story narrated by another book. It is Newton’s Principia Mathematica that takes us on Jennet’s journey and the device leads to some nice interludes dealing with the importance of books and the evolution of thought.

A great thing about Morrow is that he has a clear purpose in writing his books. While you might suggest that every author has one as well, I can’t say that they link a greater purpose with an interesting narrative in a syncretic fashion very often or very well. And with TLW I felt a clear a sense of meaning. This is a book with a purpose. And for a book with the conceit of being written by another book and making much of the evolutionary growth and connection of books, much like blocks of DNA in a sort of natural selection of thought, saying this one is worthy progeny of the best qualities and purposes of earlier works is probably the best compliment I can give it.

But i must also add that besides its themes Morrow deserves a lot of credit for utilizing a writing style that was a departure for him. Not only does he get away with it but he created a flowing narrative that was not only readable and more epic and rollicking than past works, he did so in what I found to be an addictive manner. The language and style he uses was compulsively readable in its ability to be direct, to invoke the era, and to find a poetic groove that was neither too arch, nor too trite for the subject matter.

One of the best books I’ve read in years.

For anyone interested in his more satirical works check out Only Begotten Daughter about Jesus sister, the daughter of god living in Atlantic City in the modern era.

The Godhead Trilogy starting with Towing Jehovah.

And, This Is The Way The World Ends.

I need to reread all of them and check out the couple of his books I haven’t read plus the new one though I want to spread out new Morrow since it’s rare. So i may wait on The Philosopher’s Apprentice for a bit.

Movies
Into The Wild

First off, though most know the basic story this is based on and there might be some who don’t. For those this is a spoiler. i will tell you how it ends.

I was skeptical heading into this. I wanted to see it when it was out in theaters but didn’t go out of my way because I thought Sean Penn, who directed it, and Eddie Vedder, as much as I love him, who did the music, to take part in a version of the Chris McCandless story I figured to be too one sided and sanctimonius. Sure If I knew anyone who was willing to do see it I would still have gone but though going to movies alone has become a regular staple in my dotage I generally avoid it unless it’s something i really want to see.
So I Netflixed it. And I’m here to say I was wrong. Not only was I wrong but some of the media and internet opinions I’d come across indicating it was indeed too biased were wrong. I had read much of the book written about Chris and found him naive, arrogant, a bit stupid, and frankly full of shit. I sympathized with aspects of his character but I thought he went too far and took himself too seriously.
But to my surprise Penn made an even handed movie that mixed youthful passion and idealism with it’s attendent arrogance and naivete. I don’t think it accounted for its leads lack of preparedness quite enough and an opportunity for a wonderfully symbolic paen to it was neglected at the end in a final shot that could have given us a piece of information Penn left out. That info being that Chris died pretty close to a waystation that he’d have known was there if he bothered to bring a map.
But not only is this the best looking movie I’ve seen in a while, but I think overall Penn did a good job creating a sympathetic character many of us can relate to at one time in our lives but one that has a mental journey as well as a physical one and in so traveling discovers some truths about life and society. And they’re not always the truths I expected. They may not even have been the truths Chris himself found before his end. There were writings of his found but Penn does take some liberties in interpreting some things and imagining exactly where Chris was at at the end. But as a movie character traveling within a narrative with begenning, middle and end, he takes a satisfying journey even though it winds up where anyone with a little information going in knew it was going to end up.

The Assasination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford.
I think i’m the only person who thinks Casey Affleck should have won best supporting actor over Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men. But I really do. Bardem’s performance was good but overated. I’ve seen similar portraits of stoic evil before. But Ben’s little brother creates a portrait of cloying opportunism, jealousy, cowardice, and false humility that was really unique and masterly portrayed.

And the move, though maybe a little overlong was generally riveting and interesting. Like Into The Wild it was also a great looking movie. There Will Be Blood and No Country For old Men got a lot of hype for how epic in scope they were with portraits of large and grand vistas. Indeed they were cinematically good looking movies though neither stood out in that regard to me. Into The Wild and TAOJJBTCRF did stand out. These are both beautiful lookoing movies that had much more more breadth of viual scope to them.

While NCFOM may have been the most interesting movie overall last year the 2 mentioned above may have been better. I thought they were certainly better than the other movies nominated for best film.

Mr Brooks.
Not getting into too much. But a good little film noir flick with Kevin Costner playing a stalwart community icon who likes to watch couples have sex and then kill them. not a great movie but a much better one than i expected.

Baseball:
It’s back. Mets open Monday.
Yes they will ost probably be dissapointing. I think Willie is fired by mid season. Probably before the end of June.
But it’s comforting to know there will be meaningful Baseball games going on almost every day until the end of OCtober.

Obama:
I’ve been over the reasons in prior posts so i’m not going into all that makes him one of the Best Things Ever. But he just keeps on rising above and having a great response to whatever Hillary throws his way. Meanwhile Team Entitlement, which is what I call Hillary’s campaign now, continues to look pathetic and desparate. Last week Hillary got exposed in her embellishing of that Bosnia visit even though the contradictory evidence was right there on tape. Then she tried to play it off as sleep deprivation. Which brought to mind her 3 a.m. phone call campaign that took voted from Obama in Texas. If she starts getting facts wrong and losing her mind when she’s sleepy is she the person we want getting up for that late night call with the fate of the world hanging in the balance?

And then there was her constant contradictions as she continues to tear her opponent down, even to the point of praising McCain over him and then when she’s asked about polls indicating these tactics would hurt whoever wins an is sending some democrats to McCain she begs people not to make that mistake. Then the next day her and Bill are right back out there putting her and McCain on a different playing field than Obama.

She sucks and Obama keeps rocking. Relative to her suckage Barack Obama just becomes so much more The Best Thing Ever.

Manhattan:
Spent a day there Tuesday at and around MSG. even though i was working and seriously stressed out I am in awe of that City. Being thee at night is like being in the middle of an epic production. It’s almost unreal.
And girls in hockey jerseys and baseball caps are The Best Thing Ever.

It is unfortunate that I can’t live there or date any of these girls.
But I can still appreciate their BTE-ness.

Published on March 18, 2008 in ..The Dude and Television. 0 Comments

Lost cheated last week.

I caught on to the Jin flashback within the Sun forward pretty early on. At least I was pretty sure of it. But I also thought to myself, “self, if this is a flashback and nothing really relevant happens to Jin within it, nothing that pertains to the island or Jin’s character in a major way and it turns out they’re doing this merely to play with our head and divert us to make the episode better and more surprising than it really was, than damn it self that’ll be a case of shenannigans and I’m going to have to call them on it.”

So here we are.

There was just no reason to show a Jin flashback there. He’s getting a Panda for Mr Paik’s client? Who cares. It’s not relevant. It’s a cheat to hide Jin’s death or stranding from us until the end of the episode. I think you have to maintain an internal logic and consistency within this whole flashback/ flash-forward thing in order for it to work. And they violated that internal consistency. They broke the rules. They sort of did it with a dead Naomi flashback earlier this season but that was minor and some part of her might have been alive and aware (and by the way where was her body when the copter landed), but they went too far this time. For one we don’t gracefully fwooop into his flashbacks. He’s not even on screen before and after some of them. THis violates the established rule of Lost’s version of the dissolve or wipe that leads into a back or forward flash.

There were even times they went directly from a Sun flash forward into a Jin flashback.

THis is perhaps one of the 10 most heinous wrongs committed in the history of civilization. It’s real wrong. I’d rank it somewhere between the Holocaust and Pam Ewing’s dream.

George Herbert and Barbara Bush having sex and procreating is number 1.

Now I get that Lost is playing with time and our perception of it. Within that context lies the only way to rationalize the atrocity they committed last Thursday. THere are many pasts. futures, and now even presents existing in a very real and vivid way to us the audience and probably to the characters as well.

And it was a sad reveal at the end. I had that “No not Chewy,” moment and issued salty discharge as they probably wanted me to. It’s that damn sad piano thing they play at those moments. Of course upon reflection a few minutes after the show I realized this didn’t mean Jin was dead. Just dead to her and the rest of the world. He could be back on the island. The grave said 9-22-04 for a date of death. So his death is part of the official story encompassing everyone else on that plane’s “death.”

I do have to say that if he is alive Sun’s kind of a bitch going along with things and not actively raising a ruckus to get him back. And actually having a commemorative grave to visit and talk to him seems more likely a scenario if he’s dead. But there just wasn’t enough info to be sure one way or the other.

Unfortunately we are all too aware that someone dies next week. This could be Jin. But I think killing him 2 weeks in a row is just engaging in too many shenanigans and I trust them not to do that. I’d say Claire and Desmond are the 2 most likely to go. I think I wrote about my reasons on des after the The Constant episode. And he appears to be featured in this weeks episode which will be centered around the freighter and Michael/Kevin.

If this happens it may be too much to bear. I’m far more ready to let Claire go. Have Kurtz take her out because she doesn’t want to drink anymore of the Kool-Aid served up in Camp Lockedown, Hurley scream “You suck dude,” grab Aaron and take him to KAte’s to be psychotically raised by Princess Headgames herself. I’ll be ok with that. I’ll mourn Claire in my own way. And I will move on.

If it’s Desmond I will have to reevaluate a lot of things about myself. And Lost.

I suppose I can’t rule out a Bernard, Rose, or Sawyer death. Sawyer being the least likely though he may be primed since he’s in his Han Solo in Return Of The Jedi neutered stage that’s just so wonderful to watch.

And I’m guessing Michael will be a flashback. Guess it could go either way. But we really need to know where he’s been lately, not where he’s going just yet.

Back to last week.

I’m guessing Jin lives.

The show still wasn’t bad. It just felt like they cheated and went for the emotion a bit dishonestly. And they didn’t even pull it off that well because it was pretty apparent something was up in his flashbacks between the old cell phone and the over the top contrivance of him suposedly trying to get to Sun in time even as we see of no contact between the two.

Now if they pulled this off while staying consistent to the back/forward conceit and finding a way to do jin’s fb’s separate from Sun’s FF’s and while haveing them both in the same place at all times so we could look back and see that the dissolve/wipe fwoop device could have been from either perspective, we would have been on our way to greatness. If they then could have had a major reveal that’s true to itself in Jin’s fb then we would be at greatness. But the only reveal was that he’s in the past just 2 months married. It’s only import is to the viewer as a sort of “gotcha,” rather than having an import to the story as well. Not sure what they could have done. Not saying we have to see Jin meeting with Dharma agents in 2000 and finding out he’s in on things. But maybe having Charles Widmore involved with Paik and having Jin stumble onto something he doesn’t get the import of but we do knowing who Widmore is.

Something like that would have sealed the deal.

As it was it was a cheat.

Still a decent episode that wrought some nice emotion and caused me to feel some of the pathos and emotion I was supposed to feel. So kudos there.

They just cheated to get it.

Don’t do it again. It reeks of desperation getting too caught up in the largesse and novely of the new bac/forward flash dynamic.

Published on March 5, 2008 in ..The Dude and Television. 0 Comments

Hiccup:

I need to sing some praises for Jericho before I move onto Lost.

Jericho rocks.

It’s only back for 7 episodes and then we’ll have to wait and see. I don’t know how the ratings have been. But the show really resonates to me. I can so see this happening. I love Lost. It’s my favorite show. But it’s all bullshit of course. It’s fantasy mixed with enough science and philosophy to satisfy the intellectual side of myself and make it ok to enter into a world where nothing plausible really happens. And they do it with style, good acting, cinematic scope, and solid writing most of the time.

But Jericho feels like a possible slice of the future. To be brief Jericho is a town in Kansas holding it together after myriad nuclear explosions across America have overturned our government and social systems. Even before we got some answers as to the origins of these attacks last season if felt like this is how small pockets of America would have to survive. Border wars over precious resources with towns that used to exist as a bitter high school football rivalry become life and death struggles. Little bits of intrigue from outside slip in and out of town. People are forced to reinvent themselves or be reduced to some pre civilized state.

And though we had hints last year it’s now pretty apparent that not only did forces within our government set up North Korea and Iran to appear to be the culprits they are backed by mercenary Blackwood type operations, in this case Ravenwood, who are using the ensuing chaos to implement their political objectives. Basically they are overturning the constitution and rewriting U.S. history. A new President has been chosen and the seat of power is in Wyoming which is trying to defeat the Texas based rival to power who may or may not know the truth about the attacks. All while the privatized military we see developing for real in our world is instituted and given power to do whatever they want. And of course turn a huge profit.

Just all feels very real and plausible to me. I would bet a fortune there are forces in our own government that have at least contemplated something like this. I think Dick Cheney has wet dreams about it.
So props to Jericho and CBS for putting it on, bringing it back, and letting them imply the things they’ve implied.

Lost: Desmond is going to die.
I fear this after last week.
I’m concerned about him being on that freighter with Sayyid but most probably not back in the world with Sayyid and the others that get back. I wonder if they gave us that nice Des/Penny moment so that we would have some culmination to our desire to see them reunited cause it feels so good. An actual physical reunion may now seem anticlimactic if we get it. So maybe this is what we’re going to get and they want to raise the stakes with Desmondo’s death. It may be the thing that sets Sayyid off on his course of revenge.
I think I’d rather kill Jack than desmond at this point. I still have Jack love but Desmond is the man. He’s that wild card that’s shaken things up since he was introduced. And Penny would be sad and i don’t want to make Penny sad.
As for his time travel, if they had to go there I like the way they did it. Even if it’s still probably ridiculous. Now I’ve never been a big fan of the time travel. Never brought it as being plausible. There’s always paradoxes and it never makes sense. The whole idea of a body being able to do that just doesn’t work on any level I can imagine. But they added a twist with the idea of consciousness traveling. This avoids some paradoxes and with the memory issues it seems to develop it can explain those gaps and sudden insights like Des had as he walked away from Penny’s apt and Farraday had when he searched his journal.
Of course I still don’t necessarily believe consciousness is anything more than the sum total of the physical brains operations. But I can divorce myself from that supposition and enter into enough disbelief to allow for at least that much in a world of mind reading smoke monster security systems that can take any shape, free floating cabins with invisible occupants, and the antithesis of nerd-dom having a myriad of pop cultural references at this disposal all the time as Sawyer does.
This last episode seemed to disprove my theory that the island is 3 years behind the rest of the world. There are time dilations of some sort. One was 31 minutes. Another was the better part of a day with the helicopter. But Penny was apparently on xmas eve and the calender on the freighter was 2004. Plus Kate’s mother’s comments the week before regarding her cancer.
This all seems to be hinting at time as a entirely separate mathematical/time theory. The Minkowski reference for one thing. The real Minkowsky, a math guy or something, posed the possibility that Einstein’s theories worked with time as a 4th dimension apart from the other 3. Farraday’s journal has references to imaginary space and real space and was filled with equations. Numbers have been a part of the show and it would be neat if the numbers factored into this some how.
I don’t think it’s the answer but I’m often put into the mindset of of black holes. It seems there is an event horizon somewhere off island. The sub had to pass through it which is why they knocked Juliet out, the copter went through it, Desmond, and maybe 815. It’s not only on the island because the hydra St island is inside of it and easy to pass to and from. Also the copter had to be a few miles out before they hit that storm. And I have heard of associations between electromagnetism as a barrier for lab created molecule sized black holes. Makes me wonder if turning the failsafe let this barrier drop and the powers of the hole are expanding as well as its event horizon. Thus the reason why Des was saving the world. And Black Holes have time dilation issues starting at their event horizon.
But of course inside a black hole there wouldn’t be a pretty island with relatively ideal weather. If the event horizon had expanded that far beyond the island everything inside should be annihilated and dark.
And it doesn’t appear that the island is stationary. That would explain North compass settings and high tide being off as well as Dharma Polar Bears in Tunisia. Maybe the whole thing is like Jacob’s cabin.
But one question I have is how this is being explained to the media and people after the rescue. The faked wreckage was found off the coast of Bali in the Indian Ocean. At Kate’s trial her lawyer confirmed that they were on a South Pacific island. How is that being reconciled by everyone? And wouldn’t the media be all over finding this island and going there to do on sight reports about where the famous castaways were?
Hopefully this will get a good explanation and isn’t another writing screw up.
Like the defense going before the prosecution during Kate’s trial.
And they’re going to have to explain why they didn’t want to remand her into custody because she’s such a flight risk until then despite the fact that she’s apparently been running around raising Aaron and living in a nice big house for a year or two.
And once again, Sayyid rocks, Has always rocked, And always will rock. His flash forward confirmed this last part.
I think Miles is in the coffin.
Apparently we’re finding out whoever it is this season.
Michael and Walt have got to be in flash forwards. Nothing else will work.
Hurley let himself be Scooby Doo’d by driving around in that van so much. He was in the mindset.
I think Jack will know Claire is his sister and it will be a reason he doesn’t want to see the little monster.
Charlotte is getting hotter to me.
When Farraday arrived he said, “I’m Daniel Farraday and i’m hear to rescue you.” An e mail gal pal pointed out to me that this may have been a Luke Skywalker reference. I should have caught that. Sawyer would have.
Could Desmond’s jewelry shop woman be in the same time travel situation as Des, Farraday, and Minkowski?
Did Desmond alter anything? When did Penny get a copy of their photo? Was she still at the stadium? Why would she if all there was was the scene at the door of her apt when he tells her he will call in 8 years and then the call. Seems as if there was always still contact in between. She tracked him to the stadium. He wrote those letters in military jail. She put that letter in his copy of Our Mutual Friend. What happens to all those moments now? They don’t work as well in the context of The Constant though I suppose his memory issues could have played with things and contributed to Penelope’s confusion regarding his feelings and her motivation in tracking him down at the stadium.

New South Park next week!
This is always a good thing.

Galactica soon. But apparently not the full 20 episodes. Do i care? Should I care? I don’t know yet.

If they keep telling us this is the strongest American idol field ever do you think we’ll start believing it?

Because they do.

It’s like they’re overcompensating.

Still i like that Cook guy with the guitar. His Lionel Richie take last night was cool. I’d listen to that again. But mostly these people have no taste in 80′s music. Fuck, they were born in the 80′s. That’s obscene. Fuck them and their birth certificates. I want to touch that one girl that does impressions though.
Musically I mean.
I want to touch her with song.
Before I fuck her.

No, no, no I would never have sex with her. Ok, the reverse is actually what I mean. But there’s no call for language like that. She is not an object I want to fuck. She is a girl I want to touch and penetrate in ways that under most circumstances would be considered rude.

Anyway she’ll probably be gone tomorrow and so will our love. Such as it is.

The Oscars mostly sucked again by the way. What I saw of them. Believe it or not I thought Casey Affleck should have won for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. Good movie too. Bardem was good In No Country For Old Men but I think his performance has been overrated. I think Affleck’s cloying and cunning Ford took a lot more subtlety to play well than yet another stoic and scary impenetrable villain. Seriously, it’s been done and done well. I don’t get the adoration over this version. He was good. The movie was good if not great. But seriously i think I’ve seen evil twins played as darkly on All My Children. And that’s not bad. Soaps have some very good actors. But quit acting like this Chigur character is some novel concept in evil.

The writer of Juno is kind of hot.
Anyone with me on this?
I still think she thinks she’s really clever though.
I like clever and sexy but taking your Oscar to bed and parading it around isn’t sexy and if you do so it should be taken away from you, melted down, and the proceeds given to some poor person.
Actually all the clothes and jewels these people parade around in should be taken and given to charity. It’s obscene. Some of these people are walking down the red carpet with more money on their bodies than most people make in a year. Maybe years. And I’m sure most are liberal types who talk about the poor, the homeless etc, or at least support their causes. And yet they flaunt their destitution in their faces in the form of designer dresses and priceless glamor bling. You would think we might be beyond the trappings of royalty and having them parade around in those trappings like the signs of divinity they often thought their wealth to be. But that’s how much most of these Hollywood liberals really care. Not enough to not elevate themselves to a higher level or find anything insulting in wearing chains, bracelets, and earings that could feed a family for a long time while millions of children don’t have basic health care.
Yeah it’s not their job to necessarily do anything about it. Some of them really do get involved. They can wear whatever they want. It’s America. It’s a free market and capitalist country. I still wouldn’t be able to do it though and i don’t want to hear them crying about the less benign aspects of that American system that allows them to parade around in such gaudy and disposable wealth. Don’t get on stage and say bring our boys home. Because they’re fighting for you. Not for democracy. Not for freedom or justice. They are fighting to keep the rich richer and the poor poorer and the starlets wearing all those millions on their bosoms are benefiting. If Diderot were alive today he might say he wouldn’t be happy until the last actress has been strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Published on February 8, 2008 in ..The Dude and Television. 2 Comments

Episode 4.2 tonight.

Flashback is back. Twist is we get them from a bunch of different people who no one cares about and who seem to have no clue how to coordinate a rescue/invasion. No it wasn’t Operation Freedom and we didn’t get Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfeld flashbacks to when they first tortured kittens or gave the Devil head. It was the semi-mysterious freight team we first hear of on the Farscapian transmitter.

Miles and Farraday are our two main newbies. The former speaks to dead people with the aid of a contraption right out of Ghostbusters ectoplasm catcher thingie Bill Murray used to come, see, and kick supernatural ass. The other is a physicist bringing a more intellectual and slightly jittery sensibility to the proceedings. Throw in The Lawnmower Man and a hot English chick who was supposed to be played by Kristin Bell who opted to weigh down Heroes sinking ship instead, and you have the team formed by the same Matthew Abaddon who came to see Hurley in his future confinement last week. I guess Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd are too old to revise their Ghostbuster roles but they would have fit in to a couple of these pretty smoothly.

If Lost was at the normal 22 episodes, or maybe even the promised straight 16 these first two eps would be fine. As it is, with such a dearth of newness for so long, only 6 more promised anytime for months, maybe even another year, the early season is a bit lacking. With such a premium on every new episode I want more than they’ve delivered. It hasn’t been bad. It’s just not worth these kinds of absences and the expectations they build. If the strike doesn’t end soon and they can’t muster up some more episodes quickly on the heels of these Lost is going to lose some people. And maybe some relevance as well.

There’s also this sense of getting answers but not necessarily the coolest possible ones. It seems like that while were introducing a guy who talks to dead people in the midst of a monster island that miraculously heals, along with assorted other unscientific whackiness, we can handle answers that depart from the mundane. But finding out the wreckage and the bodies Naomi thwumped us with last season was really just faked, is a bit disappointing.

But it’s pretty much confirmed after tonight.

Here’s my take on how that transpired.

A fake 815 was planted and the hint is that Ben is the one behind it. Fahey’s character spotted the fake Pilot. Then from the fact that this leads the “rescuers,” to the island and the awareness that there might be real 815 survivors there, (Naomi flashback), I have to surmise that the missing link there is the recognition that the wreckage was faked to divert people from said island.

The question then becomes how Abaddon and his team knew planting a fake was meant to keep people from searching too close to home. Clearly the link between fake 815 and the mission on the island is established. Somewhere in between, these people knew Ben and his people did the faking and were the only ones with motivation and perhaps resources to keep people away from the island.

My guess is that they are Dharma and seeking revenge for the Purge. And that since Naomi had the pic of Des and Penny it may have been her search that had its breakthrough when the hatch blew that provided assistance. That and some other kind of found evidence. Or maybe Abaddon just knew that Ben and the Hostiles were the only ones capable of such an undertaking and with any reason to do so anywhere near the south pacific.

Makes me wonder more if Ben is alligned with powers beyond Mittelos. Like Widmore. Or does Mittelos really have enough resources alone to come up with a jumbo jet, make it up to resemble another one, sink it, and plant 350 bodies?

None of that means they wouldn’t be perfectly fine with rescuing the 815ers. Seems Ben is the only one in danger and that’s the point I was making last week when they came up with this either/or plot device. Having people choose Jack or Locke based on the idea that they are going to be rescued or killed was a contrivance. Just as tonight Miles not telling Farraday (not his real name by the way) about Naomi’s code until they are on the island and then doing it expositorially was a contrivance. And kind of bad writing.

Not to imply there’s not good stuff. It’s Lost. They’ve earned my loyalty and some benefits of the doubt despite also earning real skepticism about just what they’re doing and where they are going.

Tonights plusses were the Polar Bear bones in Tunisa question. And the bears Dharma collar. Can’t guess what that’s about right now other than the possibility that Dharma did some of their wacky experiments in the desert before finding Fantasy Island. Or maybe, and this is just hitting me, but maybe it’s all about orientation. Last week I mentioned all the arctic and canada references including Hurley’s picture from 4.1. What if Polar Bears were being used because they have some kind of innate Northward orientation that at one time helped point towards the island or offset its anomalous signals? And on island were used to give some other kind of directionality because as we know from Sayid in season 1 his compass showed North being a bit off of where it should have been and tides are not normal on the island.

Ok, now this is making less sense as I go back and read this but I’m leaving it in. Need to give it more thought. But there’s obviously some magnetic anomaly there. That’s certainly something the polar ice caps could play into. And with the island being hard to find since it exists somehow differently in space-time (maybe), a Polar Bears internal compass might somehow be a tool used by Dharma in some way.

Back to 4.2

Where the frak was Desmond today?

He just suddenly up and form his own third group apart from Locke and Jack? Like the Ron Paul of the island rescue season?

Damnit he’s only going to take votes away from Jack!

Another indicator of the “rescuers,” intentions, efforts to find the island, and foreknowledge of the islands properties was Charlotte when she fell into the water. I think she clearly had a sense of awe that she was finally immersed in the island she’d heard so much about.

And she did this hotly.

Which is nice.

Ben really does his homework by the way.

What cabin? And why the look when Hurley questioned the direction? Did I miss something or is it more of the obsessive secretiveness most of the major characters horde like secret-junkies stocking up for a secret-less future?

Did Vincent really choose Locke’s camp? Or did he just get dragged along?

Because I trust Vincent’s discernment. Dogs can sense when shit is not right. He knows more about the island than anyone. I think him and Smokey chase field mice together.

And judge souls.

Plus dog spelled backwards is not Jacob and neither is smokey spelled backwards.

Coincidence?

Smoke monster can however be made into an anagram for “more mets k’s,” provided we leave an e and o out and imagine Johan Santana’s acquisition this week is somehow tied into the show. And perhaps the island’s strange magnetic properties somehow have a negating effect on extra vowels.

Genius?

Personally I think it could be a Dharma test to see how much disappointment Mets fans can take.

Speaking of smokey does it not feel awkward at this point when characters actually ask questions we would have asked ages ago? Like Locke asking Ben what the monster is. Seems to me this should have come up back around the 2nd minute Locke had a gun on Ben in his bedroom in Othersville. It is nice to hear some common sense. But it seems in reaction to our getting all pissy about it on the world wide web and not organic to the progression of the show or real human beings.

But these people are not real and we must not forget that. They are representations. Locke represents all the assholes who do whatever they want, not caring what the effects are on others as long as they themselves are happy and use their disability as an excuse to make others miserable.

And believe a lot of stuff.

Kate represents the female reproductive agenda and its tendency to present itself in any situation which sometimes causes women to shimmy seductively up tree trunks to stimulate the males arousal.

Sayid is coolness that is too cool to know he’s cool or care who else is considered cool around him. And it tortures him. His coolness that is. He’s so cool it hurts him. And so he tortured others to try and help them be as cool as him. Unfortunately outside Iraq the kindness of this is lost in translation.

Jack is almost as self-explanatory as Locke. Only Jack kicks Locke-ian ass because the only reason he is starting to lose it is because he is so good and rational. He is however in an entirely irrational situation. This causes a clash. One I dare say of Hamlet-esque proportions. And with all the same daddy issues as the great Prince. Only Jack is more decisive. If he were in a castle though he’d be wandering around dark corridors making speeches to himself. The island doesn’t allow for such contemplation. There’s no time for doubt. Perhaps there’s no time at all. It demands action and wont let him deal in mind-flesh or duty-desire duality complexes. Jack must act and does so based on real world empiricism. The empiricism that would serve him well in reality is both a strength and weakness in that it grounds him but also makes him solemn in the realization that all the world is suffering. So Jack is at war with the real world from which he also seeks escape. Alcohol is a means to that end. But so is the island. The island is the fiction of the fanboy or intellectual retreat of the learned and if Jack were in the real world he’d be fine escaping into it. But within the means of escape he cannot apply his rationality without disrupting his whole motivation for needing to escape it. It is in the island’s conceit of fiction in which his frailty lies. So Jack’s weakness is really not his own but the fake reality created for us and by us. Fiction is a lie and within it Jack is a tragic figure trapped in a place where he doesn’t belong but cannot do without. Consequently he has no chance to succeed with an audiences expectations and warring needs. Therefore his failures are really our failures and anybody who likes Locke more than Jack is with Al-Qaida and destroying America.

Oh yeah and Jack wants to be Roger Linus so he can be a Work Man and fix things.

That’s enough representations for now.

And Sawyer’s Colonel Kurtz line gets my award for best line of the night and best Sawyer-ism of the season so far. Surprised it took 4 seasons and a hundred or so days for him to come up with it. But he’s had a rough time of things and has been reading many of the classics so I’ll cut him slack.

Another thought on the cabin line by Hurley. This idea was sparked from someone else online. They suggested Locke’s reaction was because he didn’t know Hurley saw the cabin and Locke realized in that moment that Hurley might have a gift too.

I found that interesting and slapped myself for not thinking of it. I assumed Hurley mentioned it before telling him about Charlie. But maybe not. This would also mean Locke was not in the cabin. It wasn’t his eye. Maybe the eye was the same as last season. Meaning Jacob’s himself. Jacob appearing to Hurley would then be of some import since apparently he doesn’t appear to just anyone and one has to summoned to Jacob’s according to Ben.

This gives Hurley a certain power and mystique as well. One that could either impress Locke or make him as jealous as Ben is of Locke.

The show also violated a chief conceit in allowing a flashback for a dead character. Naomi. Either that or it was an Abaddon flashback which still violates a conceit in that they’ve never given someone not present on the island a flashback. This felt a little wrong. Not Nikki and Paolo wrong. But wrong.

Also important that Locke acknowledged that Walt was older when he appeared to him. Seemed kind of an inside joke as the monster question was , but it still is cannonized now that he has spoken it. I think this is another indication that we’re heading for an out of time scenario here. I wonder if Charlotte’s asking Claire about the baby being born on island is part of that. Maybe were headed for an episode 8 finale that confirms all this. Like Charlotte finding out the baby was actually not conceived on the island as well and then wondering how she has a 3 month old baby she conceived 2 or 3 years ago.

Just a guess, not a spoiler. But it feels right.

As for the fake bodies: Did it seem the Dharma pit Ben shot Locke near and the latter fell into didn’t have a lot of bodies in it? And why was it an open mass grave? Could the Others have dug it up recently to supply Mittelos or Widmore or whoever with bodies for the fake crash site?

Admittedly i don’t remember if the bodies in the grave had advanced to a more skeletal stage of decomposition. If so that would negate this theory. But considering the very real possibility that things age slower on island due to time anomalies maybe they decompose slower and could be made up to look as if they were on the bottom of the ocean for a couple of months, maybe a lot longer depending on what the time scale difference is off-island.

Anyway I think it’s apparent I’m thinking about this too much, possible dreaming as well since I woke up with the last few paragraphs on my mind after not having any of those ideas when I wrote the rest last night. Except for the cabin part. Can’t believe I didn’t see that. Hurley didn’t tell Locke he was the cabin. Interesting and maybe part of the reason hurley told Jack he shouldn’t have gone with Locke?

And by the way the NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS ARE SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!

Never get tired of remembering that.

18 and done baby.

18 and done.

Published on February 2, 2008 in ..The Dude and Television. 0 Comments

On Lost.

Ok, decent start to things. Not a great episode but certainly a worthy opener. Loved it being Hurley-centric. And future-centric. But I hate seeing Jack continue to become so irrational and violent. I don’t want him to turn into the bad guy of this story. And more and more it’s feeling that way. Though there was hope near the end. That last flash-forward is what saved it for me. When Hurley and Jack are playing Horse. Before that things were spiraling towards a Jack is off the hook and responsible for everything bad kind of feel. But Hurley telling Jack he should have gone with him and not Locke adds a curious twist to that possible plot point.

Looked like Christian Shepherd at Jacob’s. But he didn’t look animated. Maybe just his body which obviously has to be somewhere on the island. But why bring it there? And was that Locke inside with him? Makes sense that Locke would go back there to build on his connection and seek advice and protection first hand after upping Ben.

And is that why the bullets were gone from Locke’s gun when Jack shot him? Does Jacob have issues with bullets as well as apparently with batteries? Maybe Locke emptied his gun there to appease Jacob?

But Jack pulling that trigger was both awesome and fucked-up. I would think Jack would more likely want to bring Locke and Ben back to civilization upon rescue and make then stand trial for their crimes. Because both really deserve to. Although who has legal jurisdiction on an unseeable island that might exist outside of time?

Favorite line was Rose saying, “I’m not going with that man,” despite her not wanting to leave the island. That and Ben remarking about Naomi having to get a lot of firewood.

But something about the episode felt…off though. The look, the dialog, the pace, all of it seemed less epic than I’m accustomed to with Lost. And is it just me or did a lot of the actors look noticeably different? Maybe it’s haircuts and weight gain or loss in the interim. But that day to day continuity felt lost. There was also some bad writing to serve the plot. Stuff like Naomi and her double trails as she’s dying. Or everyone seeing Charlie’s warning as an either or situation. Why does the freighter party have to be there for them or there to destroy them? Why can’t they be there for another reason and still help out when they learn there are people stranded there? Seems like the rational response. Guess everyone’s been hanging out with Jack and Locke too long.

Why is Desmond going with Jack?

Rose advocating Claire giving it up for Charlie was a tiny bit creepy even if we didn’t know he was dead.

How does Sawyer get scared of a fight all of a sudden and not make an attempt to keep Kate with him?

Is Charlie Cylon 6 to Hurley’s Baltar? Did the other inmate really see him or did Hurley imagine the inmate as well?

Any significance to Hurley’s drawing of an eskimo and igloo? The arctic motif has been here before with the polar bear, Penny’s monitoring station, and even allusions to various Others work up around Canada.

Where was Cheech?

Or was he Chong?

Could Jack’s breakdown have something to do with finding out Claire is his sister but finding out too late after leaving her behind? Or worse?

Could it be Penelope is really the one that rescues them now that a transmission got through to her?

Nice job when Desmond started moving in to tell Claire about Charlie. I was saying to myself, “no, Hurley’s got to tell her,” and then Hurley moves in and says he’ll do it. Hurley snapped after hearing about what happened in the Looking Glass station. Very emotional scene with Claire though I thought it took away from the moment when we get dead Charlie showing up in FF right when Hurley is telling Claire what happened. Minimized the gravity of it just a bit for me.

I’d also liked to have gotten more Jack reaction to Charlie’s death.

Hated the ending. Who stands there forever after a a long awaited rescuer drops in and asks if you’re Jack? You yell, “Yes!” Oh Happy day!” Some fucking response. Just standing there dramatically doesn’t make it dramatic. Not the moment to end on.

But it’s great that they’re doing this flash forward dynamic full tilt and not backing down from the set up at the end of last year. Too bad we’re probably only getting 8 episodes for a while. Who knows how long the next wait will be. You got to wonder how much waiting and delays the show can withstand.

Boom!

Published on November 11, 2007 in ..The Dude and Television. 4 Comments

Entertainment Updates.

24 is now officially delayed.

Lost is getting closer to being so as well. They’ve done 8 episodes with the 8th ending in a cliffhanger that Jorge Garcia has said was one of the biggest surprises he’s seen on the show. So this could be used as a season ending cliffhanger if we get no more Lost due to the strike. Does that mean we get extra the next season? Will they alter things and only do 40 more eps instead of the 48 scheduled?

They probably don’t know yet and like some things on the island they’re probably making it up as they go. But we’ve waited long enough for more Lost and there is such mediocre crap all over the tv. I’m Indiana Jonesing for more of the show and really hope the strike ends soon without the writers having to cave.

As for other tv.

Bionic Woman update:

I’m done with that one.

Chuck:

Done.

Journeyman:

Watching while I do other stuff.

Pushing Daisies:

Still trying to make out with this show.

No complaints.

Heroes:

Still watching because I’m dysfunctional and hard up.

Who didn’t see the ending coming last week with Kensie being Adam the big bad of the season?

Tim Kring has actually apologized for this season so far.

I don’t know if I should give him another chance. It’ll probably only hurt me again and the relationship was never that great to begin with.

But man what a sweet ass.

I didn’t mention South Park last time.

That was an unforgivable mistake seeing as it’s probably the show I look forward to most the past 6 weeks. The new season has been very solid with the Kyle Sucks Cartman’s Balls/Imaginationland Trilogy quickly becoming the stuff of lore and legend. They’re releasing a DVD of it with expanded footage. I think this means new stuff added not that they stretched the tape so everyone looks bigger.

Last week was a great parody of the whole guitar hero phenomenon. Nice touches with all Colorado’s celebs, unplugged guitar hero, Stan’s dad’s real playing falling on death ears and going heavy on the Kansas and other 80′s music. “I was soaring ever hiiiYA.” Even while making fun of the whole thing you get the impression Trey and Matt probably played the hell out of this game.

You never catch the dragon man.

You never catch the dragon.

Fag.

Friday night Lights:

Still holding strong. Aaron Pierce got rid of the evidence for his son. I think Landry will be ok. I want him to be.

Family Guy is getting kind of killed for the big 100th episode and killing of Lois. I thought it was a usually solid effort. Don’t get the fuss. It concludes tonight as Lois tries to kill her baby.

They should have saved this kind of thing for the holidays.

Saw Across The Universe last night. I started off loving the damn thing but by the middle I was wondering where it all went wrong. Early on there was a real emotional core to the use of the songs and the actors using them. Opening on Jude, a bit of a McCartney lookalike on the beach plaintively singing Norwegian Wood’s “Is there anybody going to listen to my story, all about the girl who came to stay,” and fading into that, “giiiiirl,” part reverberated. You could feel that “girl,” and everyone whoever made you crazy.

Also clicking early was the lesbian cheerleader’s darker take on I want To Hold Your Hand. I actually liked that better than the original. That pulsing bass and unrequited longing gave that tune an aspect I’d never thought of. Turned it into a far darker song.

There were a few other nice choices of music integrated into the storyline as in the She’s So Heavy/I Want You deal with Max and the Army. SOme clever stuff there. The Statue Of Liberty idea was a good one to fit the tune. But after a while it just felt like too mcuh music being forced into places and storylines they don’t really belong in.

Music has a way of conveying emotions, memories and thoughts in a brusque and economical manner that words can not. I think this movie was going for that while cutting back a bit on some dialogue and character development points. I guess that’s the point of any musical really. But by the end of this I was a bit exhausted by it all and wishing a story that better fit some of the songs had been written.

That’s the advantage of making the music after the story as most musicals do. Something like Grease works so well for that reason. I thought Joss Whedon’s Once More With Feeling ep of Buffy did that remarkably well. Songs that fit and advance the story while staying true to character. Not easy. Usually not worth the risk since musicals are kind of gay. But it worked really well in the last 2 examples.

Not as well in this movie.

And for a movie set largely in Manhattan it was also missing some city flavor as well.

The actors were solid though and that includes their singing. Especially the lead, Jude. His marching through Liverpool to reclaim his girl in America while everyone sang the coda of Hey Jude was another nice moment that fit pretty well. For a 2 hour plus movie though it needs quite a few more of them to live up to it’s early potential and become the feel good, heartwarming movie I wanted it to be and that early on I thought it could it be.

I’m rereading Red Mars right now. It’s part 1 of a trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. I originally read it in the 90′s and never finished the series. I want to do that now since I feel it was a pretty epic and complete work that deserves my time and effort. It’s probably the best received of any space colonization novel. It’s got a nice blend of technology and the human elements of such an undertaking that include the inevitable politics, sociological and psychological issues, soap operas, and mystery. Like with the Neil Stephenson Baroque Cycle I’m two thirds through and mentioned in my last post, it’s the kind of sci fi trilogy you’ll like if you get a little tuned off by magic, aliens, time travel or other more fantastical aspects of the genre.

Nothing wrong with those books. But I’m at a point in my life where I need to escape but I need to do so in a realm that still feels as if it could be real.

Though I did reread some of the expanded Gunslinger last night. Trying to decide if I want to dive into the whole series or not. Part of me wants to but I also feel like despite only having read the first 2 many, many years ago I know what this is about and where it’s going. I’ve also heard the final book was big disappointment.

Maybe Bob or in the unlikely event anyone who has read them and also is reading this can actually operate the comment section below, can correct me if I’m wrong; but between having heard that King himself and some of his characters from other books appear later in the series I’ve developed an interpretation of what this is about and even how it ends. I don’t want to know how it ends if I’m wrong. But if I’m right I do want to know and save myself the trouble.

BUt it seems to me with the iconic opening line of the first book in which the man in black flees across the desert pursued by the gunslinger, or something much like that, we are meant to cycle through and return to the moment. And with Roland feeling a sense of disconnect on that first page, as if he was looking into the world from outside, it seems he’s just appeared there in that world that has moved on. So what I’m thinking is that basically we’re talking about a South Park like Imagination Land. King’s characters being there could mean it just takes place within king’s mythical world or oeuvre. But I think King himself appearing later makes this more personal.

I think this is about the world of the mind, in particular King’s mind, populated by fictional characters that have become part of our landscape as well. And that time is having it’s way with that world while it still remains on some level, blah, blah, blah.

What I’m getting at is that I think the 7th book ends with the first lines of The Gunslinger and that basically reaching The Dark Tower is just some kind of metaphor for King’s personal growth, completing these books after his accident, and that it’s some journey not the destination parable that ends where it begins and leaves the reader back at the start with a sense of the author’s motivations and the importance of fiction for fiction’s sake.

Or something.

So stop me if I’m right because I don’t need to read that.

Or if the last book is really as bad and disappointing as many make it out to be.

But I’d also appreciate correcting if I’m way off here. I don’t want to know how I’m off. Just that I’m off and by how much.

THank you for your support in this matter.

Published on November 7, 2007 in ..The Dude, Television and The Ill-Literates. 0 Comments

TV and movie blurbs from the cyber ghetto.

There’s a writers strike on and it will effect your favorite show soon. The Office will be one of the first hit because the cast is refusing to cross the picket line.

Another reason to love their cast.

Hollywood needs to give them what they want. They deserve a larger cut of all the new media. Good actors and producers are a lot easier to find than good writers. It all starts there unless we’re going to just become a media of reality shows.

And as far as I;m concerned watching a reality show right now is akin to crossing a picket line. So go watch The Amazing Race you scabs.

Strike shouldn’t effect Heroes much because I don’t think the Manatees writing this crap are in the writers guild.

The actors who have to act this stuff should be protesting.

So on to the tv itself and we may as well start there.

I am almost done with Heroes.

Watching this show reminds me of the inertia of a bad relationship. Heroes is like a girl you date because she’s pretty. For a while the shortcomings and superficiality of things are buried under the gloss and novelty. But as time goes on you get bored and realize there is no substance to the relationship. I had hints last year but didn’t want to believe. I was lonely and she was there and looked good in a pair of jeans. But I can’t hide from the fact the relationship is a shallow one and the sex is now empty.

This kind of girl can be very popular. Look at the ratings. But judging from the internet a good deal of the many who have been in her pants are coming to the similar conclusion that there’s not much in there. Not enough to warrant how empty her head is and how little she ever changes.

Pushing Daisies I’d date though. Right here right now. But I’d be scared it was too good to last and probably sabotage things.

It’s the best new show of the season in my humble.

It’s whimsical, silly, heartwarming, sweet, arresting, well played, and visually beautiful. The novelty could wear off and I’m leery that this thing won’t hold up though. ABC recently ordered a full season while at the same time cutting it’s budget. So a dysfunctional relationship metaphor may be developing for me here as well.

But though the show can be overly cute, the way they present it with a fable like quality just really makes it ok for me. It’s kind of like The Princess Bride mixed with Edward Scissorhands without the evil Tim Burton making things too pretentious and mixing in an element of creepy ego and misunderstood genius.

Ned and Chuck have that enforced distance of Depp and Ryder in that movie and the look of things invokes many Burton movies. But no one is pretending that there’s more beneath the surface here. There is but it’s more naturalistic and sweet. Like Princess Bride. It’s a fable for fable’s sake.

The frustration between Chuck and Ned is palpable. And the acting is quite good. Chuck is possessed of that rare combo of hotness, cuteness, adorable-ness and approachability that most of us geeks want in a woman but will probably never have. She really has something going on. She’s the biggest reason I’d sate the show if I could date a show. All the supporting players, mainly 4, all have something very endearing about them. Emerson’s asides in reaction to the cuteness going on around him are usually amusing, Olive, even when singing Hopelessly Devoted To You has that wild card edge but is likable and kind, and Chuck’s Aunts are sympathetic quirky old maids.

There really is no bad guy or overarching story though. And the mystery of the week thing as Ned raises the dead to find out who killed them may get old. They still manage to do it in a fairly fun way and its rather incidental nature works. But in the long run they may have to come with some more substance or Buffyverse type thread to the season.

But the show is just plain old charming so far and even when being sentimental it works and leaves me holding back the eye sprayage.
______

Chuck, the TV show.

Again, no overarching story. Seems like the same story every week. Getting old very quick.
_______

Journeyman is actually the best thing on NBC’s sci fi oriented slate this season. The acting is really good and despite being bogged down by the Quantum leap like story of the week as Dan saves somebody in 70′s, 80′s, and 90′s era S.F., the show is starting to incorporate some ongoing storyline threads and mythology.

But it’s still take it or leave it.
__________

The Office is still awesome. JIm and Pam are together and I like everything about that. For those who need relationship conflict we have the far more strange triangle of Dwight, Angela, and Andy which nevertheless has had some touching moments. This show is just so subtle and untraditional, but it makes with the funny nevertheless. And it is still doing so this season even with the hour long episodes the first month. Good to see the ratings have actually gotten better on this show.

___________

Bionic Woman. Can take it or leave it. Not as bad as some make it out to be. But I wouldn’t embark on a quest to get it back if it disappeared tomorrow. They should have let her use her regular accent. For the episode she used it playing an English transfer student I was so turned on I thought I would have a bionic episode in my pants. And I wasn’t bored every second Katee Sackhoff was not on screen which has sometimes been the case.

Speaking of Katee word is Galactica is being pushed back to April now. And that we might get only 10 of the final 20 episodes with the other 10 sometime in 09.

This is perhaps one of the shittiest things perpetrated on the American public in the past decade that Dick Cheney had nothing to do with.

Or did he?

___________

Friday Night Nights. Still good but not as good as last year. Recent events conspiring to get Taylor back to Dillon felt like a predictable cop out.

THe murder thing with Landry and Tyra isn’t a direction I would have gone in. Although Aaron Pierce may have to cover things up for his son and it’s always good when Aaron Pierce has to get involved. But Landry seems smart enough to have just taken his chance with the police. The guy had stalked her and tried to rape her in the past. Even though he was walking away Landry probably would have gotten off the hook. I know they needed something to weld her to him since, as even his own father Aaron Pierce knew, there was no way a guy like Landry was getting a girl like Tyra. But it still just added a little too much soap opera to a show pleasantly above that genres normal convections.

But her playing that look in the mirror card after Aaron pierce got all “I know what’s going on and you better stay away from my boy who has never lied to me before,” was pretty sad right after Landry had his Football moment.

And Lyla going all born again actually rings pretty true. Especially in a small Texas town. And after her transgressions it’s not a stretch that she’d retreat to some easy salvation giving her that sense of superiority at a time she was feeling her most inferior. And Tim sort of ambivalently following her into it, mostly even if unconsciously, to get back in her pants, isn’t hard to imagine having happened in such circles a million times.

Jesus freak or not lyla remains one of the hottest women on the tv right now.

And Aaron Pierce is doing a tremendous job posing as a small town cop and father while waiting for Jack Bauer to need his help stopping terrorists.

________

The 24 trailer.
despite last season I’m getting a little pumped. Part of that is being ready to say goodbye to Heroes and start a new relationship in that time slot. Like returning to an old girlfriend you had some really good times with but though you’re still friends, you just drifted apart because she got a little weird there for a while last year when her dad became one of the leaders of a terrorist plot to blow up stuff in L.A. and you found out that her brother was behind all the troubles you had with her the prior year.

And then that little hotty showed up on NBC and you went for it. But now that’s almost over and the old girlfriend really was fun and is promising to get her shit worked out. And she’s hanging with your old bud Tony Almeda again and says he’s acting really different and she’s not like into him or anything but as friends we can all hang out again while she and I have all those benefits and all that.

Am i pushing tv-dating metaphors too hard?

Can you tell I haven’t had a date in a while?

Well now due to the strike 24 will not start second week in January as planned.

So I may have to pleasure myself with my own Jack Sack and Magic Hoody for a while longer.

Anyway, started Netflixing Deadwood.

After 3 shows I got to say this is really, really good. Just a few minutes into ep 2 I felt like these characters had been so well established and defined that I’d seen a dozen episodes. And the 2nd ep was just riveting. Really well acted, written, and made. What was HBO thinking? It kind of sucks knowing Swaringen is still alive as of the end of it’s third and final season. I have such a need to watch this guy suffer now. And man does he pour on the evil well. That is one scary son of a bitch.

And in an entirely plausible way which is rare.

There were rumors about wrapping things up with a couple of movies on HBO. But right now that’s going nowhere. Hopefully that will change.

____________

Saw Idiocracy on the cable the other night. Mike Judge made it. It’s live action satire borrowing a bit from Futurama. Luke Wilson is the most average guy in America and gets put into hybernation for a year that turns into 500 years. Due to idiots tendency to breed more than smart people with careers when he wakes up America is really stupid and he’s a genius in comparison.

It was enjoyable. If I had paid to go into a theater and see it would I have liked it as much? Not sure. But if you have the chance to catch it do so. Your host Angry Bob who though he resides in the more upscale part of this cyber neighborhood, is someone who i think would appreciate the movie.

________

Saw American Gangster.

Was it just me or did Ridley Scott try and throw some Godfather references in there? Or were they just blatant ripoffs for a new and cinematically uneducated audience he was going for with this urban gangasta forerunner of much modern hip hop music, attire, and attitude?

The are thing Denzel did when he was pissed about them shooting at his wife. His walk. There was something Pacino-esque there. The way Michel seemed to develop a primal strut as the first movie went on and he became more of a killer and family man and less the college boy. Denzel seemed to have that walk from the beginning of this movie. I wonder if that was calculated or if I was just imagining things.

But it was good. Not great.

Where was he going with that Crowe speech about Lucas representing progress to the old guard Italian mob? Progress?

Really?

Change yes. Most definitely he represented a change they were not comfortable with for many reasons in addition to his race.

Although Ridley Scott doesn’t shy away from the bloodily ruined lives in Lucas’s wake. He’s glamorized to a point but it’s not quite Superfly. But in the end I’m not sure this story was that interesting to warrant a 2+ hour movie. It was worthwhile. And the authentic little 70′s era NY City touches were enjoyable for me. Even seeing those paper cups with the little wing handles on them that used to be so prevalent was pretty cool. They’re so ugly now. Most of it was. But Scott did a pretty good job capturing that feel even if he may have cut corners on the facts as some have reported but I admittedly haven’t bothered to research.
___
Done with book 2 of Neil Stephenson’s Baroque Trilogy, The Confusion. Completing this series and wrapping a decent portion of my head around it has become my life’s work. I actually read the first book Quicksilver and it’s 900+ pages twice. They were a year or so apart though. I needed a refresher before going into part 2. I’m reading other books around them. Or at least parts of other books. But I will finish this thing.

Mainly because it’s good. It fulfills my geeky need for sci fi escapist trilogies while still not insulting me with implausibility. It’s really dense stuff capturing so much of what was going on in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. There’s really history there mixed with fictional characters and situations that elaborate on and draw meaning from the events that were going on. Those events included a changeover in financial systems from being land based to a more liquid commerce and credit based monetary system. The roots of our own capitalism and free market are there mixed with attendant philosophical dilemmas rooted in the conflict between Isaac Newton and Willfred Leibnitz. Part of that was the argument over calculus and who invented it. But it’s also about determinism vs free will and the mechanistic natural philosophy of the Royal Society and the Alchemy Newton clung to in order to try and continue to incorporate some magic, or hand of god in his science.

And that’s not even mentioning the 3 main characters, Daniel Waterhouse, Jack Shaftoe, and Eliza. All are interesting and smoothly interwoven into this world that includes Louis XIV’s court, the fluctuations in England’s monarchy as Charles becomes William Of Orange and the Dutch takeover after the Restoration, Barbary pirates, Solomon’s gold, and the seeds of the enlightenment being planted by real historical figures such as Huygens, Robert Hooke, and the aforementioned Newton and Leibnitz.

Really amazing stuff. I’m quite impressed with Stephenson now though there are times you really have to battle through and wonder if there could have been some more editing. But dragging things in spots isn’t without some value as it creates atmosphere and really imbibes of the period and made me feel a bit of what it was like to live in that world.

Spoiler Alert:

And the ending setting up an unforseen conflict and battle of wits between our own picaresque vagabond hero Jack vs Isaac Newton now in charge of the Royal Mint, was really pleasing.
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Published on November 2, 2007 in ..The Dude, Literature, Sports and Television. 0 Comments

Some sports items from the cyber ghetto.

Joe Torre is ok but is this Yankee-Dodger thing really worthy of the superlatives and hype?

Every NY news outlet has covered every aspect of this, especially his departure from NY like the deaths of Lady Di and insert dead Kennedy name here.

Torre was just as much of a Yankee shill as the next guy at times over the years like when he backed Roger Clemens defense for throwing the bat at Piazza in game 1 of the World Series in 2000. He actually wanted us to believe he believed that juiced up herpes encrusted Baseball whore Clemens actually thought it was the ball he was throwing at Piazza for christ’s sake. And now him and other brown nosing Yankee madia shills like Mike Francessa are carrying on about Torre masterminding an enormous rebuilding of the team the past 2 years. They integrated 2 or 3 young pitchers into the mix this year. That’s not rebuilding. You don’t rebuild with a $200 million payroll full of All Stars. Give the Yanks credit for drafting guys like Joba and Hughes from a low drafting position. Part of that is having the money to go out of slot but I wish the mets had the smarts to do that. But Torre had little to do with that and it does not constitute some drastic overhaul of the roster and master rebuilding project.

I like Torre and think he did the right thing. But stop martyring the guy. He has not suffered grievance wounds. He is not Baseball’s Jesus and contrary to media opinion he is not one of the top 10 human beings to have ever walked upright.

And now thinking he brings some magical managerial acumen to L.A. is silly. Where was the magic when he managed the Mets, Braves, and Cards with average or below average payrolls? IF Arod goes with him and they get a starter they’ll be scary good. Might now be better than the Mets irregardless. But Torre, as with his Yankee days, hasn’t got that much to do with it.

He was lucky here and he’s getting lucky again now because the Dodgers do have some good young talent. Even with Arod this is a team with enough there and enough chips to move to be prime players for a while.

But the enforced resignation of their manager Grady Little seems very much in reaction to Torre’s availability. So Torre took part in manipulating for a job that another man held even while Torre talked to the Dodgers. Then after Torre accepts, Little announces he was planning on resignation? Sounds like they allowed him to save face. And Torre played the game and did this to a decent guy. He campaigned behind the scenes to take another mans job. There is strong reason to believe Little wasn’t going anywhere unless Torre or maybe Girardi was coming in. It’s considered pretty classless to lobby for someone else’s job. In my opinion it stinks as bad as anything the Yanks did to him. And yet not one media person has questioned this scenario. So trained are they to accept all things Torre and smell his shit and inhale deeply its redolent aroma.
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Seems as if MLB in conjunction with some of those whacky-ass Christians is sending mislabeled or dud team clothes to African people in need. What this means is that when stuff like championship hats and T’s get printed for a team that loses and the teams can’t sell them, they give them to poor Ghanaians. This includes division champ shirts. What this means is that there are people in Africa walking around with Mets 2007 Eastern Division Champs T shirts and hats and quite possibly believing them to be representing reality. A reality much different than ours. A reality in which the Mets did not suffer an historic and ignominious choke that let a piece of garbage team like the Phillies become the actual nL east champs before succumbing in 3 straight to a lousy Colorado team full of born agains. A team who will find out something about real Baseball in the World Series against Boston. (I wrote that before the Series started by the way and kept it in to show my genius. Actually it shows how obvious it was that the Mets are pathetic for not even getting into the playoffs as part of such an inferior league).

All the nL incompetence only exemplifies how putrid the Mets are. I mean not only couldn’t they even make the playoffs (as predicted by yours truly I might add), but they had to choke like motherfuckers in a display of incompetence, gutlessness, and stupidity virtually unmatched in Baseball history to not make those playoffs.

But in Ghana they are the Eastern champs.

And Christians continue to perpetuate lies and fantasies.

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I expect Manning and Brady to battle out mano a mano this Sunday, the 2 of them flying high above the field and having at each other the way Peter and Sylar should have last May. I know this will happen because the media is always right when they hype these things up like this. It’s never disappointing.

Disappointing like a motherfucker.

Go Colts!

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2 championships in 4 years for the Red Sox and yet we still have gravity and linear time. THe earth has not opened up.

This may be because of the anti curse of Alex Rodriguez. When he almost went to Boston before the 04 season but wound up with the Yanks, something happened. Reverse the curse. The curse of Payrod was born. And it was best symbolized in game 6 of the alcs as the yanks were undergoing an historic collapse of their own blowing a 3 zip lead to their archrivals. Gayrod tried to slap the ball out of Bronson Arroyo’s glove running down the 1st baseline. It was truly a moment. Seeing him with his hand open and bent so gaily in its little girl posture was revelatory.

And now he is gone seeking a 10 year deal worth around $30 million a year. And the Sox win again.

This will probably help the Yanks. Wherever Arod has gone bad things generally happen and when he leaves teams traditionally get better. Jon Stewart said it to David Wright on The daily Show the other night while asking Wright if he’d switch positions for His Gayness. He said his karma is bad and he infects teams in a bad way. Called him the Dick Cheney of Baseball.

The Mets could have had him 6 years ago. They passed because they thought his demands for things like a personal tent, plane, offices, etc were selfish and that he was a 24 and 1 type of guy on a team. So now that he’s 32 and most likely headed into his non prime years we’re going to talk to his agent.

Typical Mets.

Welcome to Losersville Arod. You’ll fit right in here.

But odds are he’ll go West. NY is too much for this guy. He needs California Baseball to pursue his records in. That’s all he really cares about anyway. Announcing his departure during the final game of the World Series was another indicator of what this guy is all about. Himself. MLB chastised him for that. He upstaged the WS. A big no-no in Baseball. But that’s Arod and his agent Scott Boras.

Detroit and Florida could be wild cards here. He’s from Florida. Big surprise there being flat, glossy, artificial and without personality as he is. Detroit might not be close enough to celebrities for him. God knows it’s not for Torre who could only go to LA with NY out of the picture. That guy needs star approval to bask in like a dog needs to be pet.

Arod is damn good. But 10 years? And how much do the stats make up for his blatantly insincere and phony personality? He’s karmically challenged like a motherfucker.

But after the choke the Mets do need to start making some bold moves and there’s no pitching out there they can get. Getting him would put them in the national spotlight and consciousness in a way they haven’t really been. That’s a place only Boston and the Yanks have really occupied. And breaking Bonds HR record at out new stadium some day as he’s capable of doing at this point would help give Citifield an identity apart from the mostly crappy I.D. Shea has. And whatever his faults he’s no Barry Bonds. There wold be a lot more goodwill surrounding his chase of the record. It would likely be much more celebrated if only because it removes Bonds from the top. There would be a more auspicious air about the whole thing that the Mets have never been a part of.

But who cares if you don’t win and committing that much payroll to one guy is never a good way to go about winning championships. If you do you got to be prepared to go somewhere in between Red Sox-Yankee levels of payroll and fuck the rules like they do. i’m not sure I want the Mets to do that but i also don’t want to watch them become more and more obsolete again.

So though I lean away from Slappy McSlappicuddy I’m not ruling it out as something I’d do. But I would be more inclined towards it if he were the one switching positions and not Wright. Wright will get killed at 2nd. He doesn’t have the body type to play there and turn the deuce. Arod at 1st eventually is the only way I see things working out and I don’t think that’s going to happen.

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