UHF

Now that the first week of new tv has passed, I'll share my thoughts on some of it.

Last night I find myself watching the start of The Amazing Race (a reality show that Adj put me on, and I put Denise on) live as it was recording (LIVE? What was I thinking? In this land of DVRs I never watch live tv anymore). I figured it'd be a nice cap to the night and I could be in bed at nine for my 4am shift. Then 9pm rolls around and the show's still going. Why, oh why did I miss that the season premiere was two hours? As I mentioned in my previous post, OCD qualities require I finish (I would have literally tossed and turned in bed longer than one more hour if I'd gone to bed vowing to watch the rest tomorrow) and so I was up 'til 10 watching tv instead. Anyway. So far the gay brothers entertain me most (especially as they are so very flaming and think they aren't, which plays into a strategy of theirs I can't wait to see play out or backfire), so I'm pushing for them, but the father/son duo with the pink haired son are a close second.

House. Just wow, I didn't think this show could get more boring to me and this Houseified mock up of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest so totally proved me wrong. It was nice to see Franka Potente in any role again. The second time in a week something made me really want to watch Lola Rennt (aka Run Lola Run) again (oddly, not so much that first Bourne movie).

Blink and you'll miss it, but Ray Park is now on Heroes as one of this season's potential villains and in that rare beast for him--a speaking role! I enjoyed his martial artist, dervish style speedster (duh, my speedster weakness shows, I know) just enough to make me think that Heroes is trying to convince me it can be good again. I'm not quite holding my breath yet. This is the first time I've liked every new character to be introduced, even if the old cast grow more and more stale (kill some of them off for real already).

Dollhouse is by far the biggest favorite of my returning shows thus far. I continue to love the way it so effortlessly delves into the grayest areas of morality: this time out with Ballard cashing in his morals about the Dollhouse in order to use the Dollhouse to his own needs, and Langton wanting to establish a romantic relationship with Whiskey, knowing she is just another Active. But more than anything else, what I really loved in the premiere is the interplay between Whiskey and Topher, and how this interplay began to seriously explore questions of existentialism that perhaps only this show ever can. I'm left with so much more thoughts on questions of identity construction and the existence of soul after watching this episode, and I am appreciative. People who gave up on this show 3-4 episodes in and declare it Whedon's worst really are idiots at a fundamental level and I'm not afraid of insulting them so. My only gripes--that Echo's own moments of self-awareness weren't as poignant as Whiskey's, and My Darling Wesley's fake English accent has gone missing now that he's playing a U.S. Senator (shut up, logic plays nothing into this last point).

Survivor: Samoa, and it's repeat strategic oustings of the better, "dangerous" cast members is proving more compelling to me than this show has since before the addition of silly things like Exile Island and hidden immunity idols. That Russell character is definitely one of those love-to-hate players and is driving the show in ways I haven't seen since Richard Hatch.

Fringe. I'm having more difficulty jumping back into loving this. It's a process. More Pacey and less blond chick. And much much more Walter. Denise and I were both commenting on how much more we prefer the "monster of the week" style episodes over the "mythology" episodes--just like X-Files. This led me to wishing Duchovny and Anderson someday make a guest appearance as rival FBI agents to our regular cast, as a tongue-in-cheek homage.

New shows that haven't lost me after the first episode: Community, Modern Family and Cougar Town (Cougar really surprises me; I gave it a shot only due to its being created by Bill Lawrence, you know the guy who created my favorite American comedy, Scrubs, but I really expected my dislike of Courtney Cox' post-Friends work, including her time on Scrubs, had me expecting I would probably hate this. Instead, of the three comedies listed here, it's the one I like the absolute best). I also have definitely fallen in love with Flash Forward already and want much more, even if its gimmick seems impossible to sustain multi-seasonally, like Prisonbreak. New shows that have lost me after episode one: (sorry Ian Somerhader), The Vampire DiariesEastwick, and. . .something else, but it had to have been so dull I really can't grasp at its title at the moment.


What shows am I missing? And who else is antsy for the start of the V remake?

I think Dollhouse and Flash Forward are going to do a lot of work, good work, at distracting me from waiting 'til February for the beginning of the last season of Lost.

Hey There Delilah

The latest Advocate had an interview with Jason Adams from mynewplaidpants.blogspot.com. It's a fun little pop-culturecentric blog, so long as you really dig on Jake Gyllenhall. . .anyway, in order to test a statement of his: Anne Hathaway see-through top, Gerard Butler's abs, Jake Gyllenhall in spandex. He says these three things have dominated searches that lead to his site in recent memory. Sorry ye poor duped newbies, if you actually came here looking for one or any of these things, you probably won't find them (but who knows what near-nude starlets can be found in the archives?). I know that back in the days when this blog used to be called "Naked Blue Jeans" I used to get a lot of traffic from searches for "Evan Farmer Naked." Hundreds each week, all because my name, this blog's then name and Denise's family background, when typed together, somehow make people salivate (I've seen Evan Farmer, not naked, and he doesn't seem like he's all that). Anyway, ye poor duped, if you arrived here due to such a search, please say hi--I want to start a running tally of how frequently someone falls in here looking for something they don't find.

Tomorrow is Denise's first ultrasound to check on things. Wish her luck and shit. Also, Travis isn't bouncing back from his surgery as quick as I want so send good thoughts his way via Shel's blog over to your right. Chris is no longer top of his class (the horror) but still doing well--if you're one of those who've been writing him, keep at it.

Scott at Fantasy Game Garage tells me that Paul is Heroclick cheating on me. The bastard.

Today it's 33.89 degrees in temperature and the heat is excruciatingly uncomfortable already. I sincerely hope I'll have the opportunity to spend most of this summer immersed in the pool, as if this is a sign of things to come, I'll be melting.

50 Book Challenge #12: Cooling Time by C.D. Wright. Another book of poets on poetry for my Poetry Forms and Function class. At this point, I'm really burnt out on these books and am just ready for the semester to end next week (though, as I now have papers to grade, this week will never end). All I can say about this book right now is that it was more engaging and more entertaining than her husband, Forrest Gander's book--though that book was important to me for all of its translation discussion.

Speaking of translation, I still haven't gotten the results from my foreign language exam. I hope that's a good thing.

Paul Rudd on Veronica Mars tonight (yeah, how old can he get and still work the "college aged" character type?): it's like chocolate and peanut butter. So good, but not good for me. Still, we all love our Veronica Mars out here in somewhere trees grow California.

Pride redux: yesterday, completely uncoached, Lash complained about inconsistencies within Spider-man 3. What a great kid. Can you explain why Green Goblin's bombs vaporize some people and not others? Didn't think so. Also in comicbook nerdiness and Lash news, I got him to try the first Runaways trade and he's now devoured the first three (all I have). The kid is loving this book, especially Princess Powerful/Bruiser. It's always nice when your kid has good taste. No Sith lover here.

For ADJ:

The Sun Always Shines on TV

The Sci-Fi Channel had a Tales From the Darkside marathon yesterday morning, which I DVR'd. I watched one episod with the kids where this mother who nags her kids about all the things that will happen to them if they do this or don't do that gets a magic necklace that starts making her statements come true. She ends up accidentally turning herself into a pillar of salt. The kids really dug that.

Last night I got Shortbus from Netflix. You might remember the controversy surrounding it for having the actors actually have sex in the story rather than simulate it--of course "mainstream" films in Europe have done this for over a decade; they're just also incredibly depressing. This was a very sex-positive story of a handful of peoples' journeys through relationships and sexual discovery. It wasn't really at all titillating, but it was very good. Definitely not one to watch with the kids.

Also got Confetti, a Britcom about three couples in competing weddings: musicals, tennis and naturalist (the winning wedding theme would get a house). It has the actors who play Daisy and Brian from Spaced and a bunch of actors from this other show I used to watch but can't remember the name of. "Daisy's" wedding theme was 1920s/30s musicals, except neither she nor her fiancee could sing or dance...

Four stars and three stars respectively.

Reading Rainbow

50 Book Challenge #4: Raw Recruits by various writers. I'd been feeling a need for a little titillation. But this anthology of military themed erotica just proved monotonous and lame. Is there no good erotica? Book #5 is done as well, but I won't review it here yet--I have to review it for class on Wednesday and I'll post that review here then.

Now I don't normally watch the Academy Awards (not gay enough), but I DVR'd last night's event because some morbid thing in me had to know if that awful Little Miss Sunshine would walk away with a bunch of awards (it only got Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin, deservedly, and Best Original Screenplay, which given its competition seemed a bit much). Aside from Arkin's performance, the only bit of this movie worth watching is the talent show sequence in the last few minutes of the film.

On the home front, I seem unable to completely shake this cold I've had the past few weeks. Sigh. Aeia got sick Friday night, but she's fine now (I think it was just the food). Rael is becoming more and more of a boy and less and less of a baby each day. His comprehension of language seems further advanced than it was with Lash and Aeia, which is a trip, but he's still proving more stubborn than Aeia ever was, which is a lot of` stubbornness.

While we were HeroClixing at the comic shop on Saturday, a homeless man, using the store's awning for shelter from the rain, possibly overdosed and definitely died in front of the store. Thankfully the kids didn't see it happen and I've kept them from finding out about it. I'm so much keener on sheltering them now.