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.

You Got It

My earlier post "Unresolved" just got two spam comments, which I've deleted, from a user named, cleverly, "123," whom I've reported to Blogger as a spammer. I'm really hoping this isn't the start of another spamming spree. Maybe it's time to turn the word verification on again. . .I really don't want to go to having comments moderated & approved before posting, as I prefer true discourse, even when it disagrees with me. We'll see, I guess.

Season 8 of American Idol is off to it's usual start: truly decent slash good vocalists presented within an abyss of really exceptionally bad vocalists. It amazes me that after so many years we still see so many horrific singers show for these try-outs. See, I know I'm not a great singer, and have Rock Band as my outlet, where, at worst, I annoy my neighbours and not all of America. And I get the ones who obviously know they don't have it, but show up anyway for their 30 seconds of fame (really, who has time for fifteen minutes anymore?), but the rest, the awful ones who come off so devastated. . .are people really that non-self-aware? I cry.

Scrubs spoiled: J.D. and Eliot are together again. Surprise, surprise. Otherwise, it's been ok. Not the pure fantastic joy it once was, but better than the last two seasons. . .so far. I hold out hope. One of the new doctors is an extremely blunt and slightly cold no-nonsense type named Denise. I chuckle.

Sing My Best

Yesterday was kind of a bad day.

It started off with me in a bad mood, followed into an argument with Denise, continued into more of a bad mood, entered into a lackluster evening and ended with another argument with Denise.

The next one of my kids to drop a "tomorrow I need blank for school" bomb on me at bedtime again is going to be grounded the entire summer.

So, American Idol was pretty boring last night. A lot pretty boring. And Veronica Mars ended. It was such an unsatisfying ending too, with literally everything still left in the air, in the unknown. At the same time, it was somewhat fitting to end that way: the underdog vs. the world with no clue as to what the future holds. I miss it already.

Lost ends its season tonight. I'm praying for Charlie, as he and Hurley are the best things about the show, character-wise. But as my hopes consistently die on tv, I'll miss you Charlie.

Friday I'm disconnecting the cable and being done with it all entirely. There's so much more I should probably also be done with.

I'm thinking, a lot, of beginning to write my memoirs. Thoughts? It's not as if my impending MA in English is going to be good for anything.

I did however get an email this morning that made me very happy. But due to non disclosure agreements I can't share any of it with you. Sorry.

Champagne From a Paper Cup

And this shall be the post of happiness. . .

Yesterday was my final final of the semester, for my poetry forms class (wherein we did almost zero poetry form study and too much "writers saying the same things, i.e. not much, about writing" reading--I mean, when discussion on every book went exactly the same, it was an obvious exercise in pointlessness). We met in the secret room on campus, shared food and beverage and read aloud our Ars Poetica final projects. The final went on an hour longer than it was supposed to, but still proved to be my favorite class session of the semester.

For the first time in like four or five semesters, I finished grading papers (barring any further late papers, like the one that trickled in this a.m.) on time (and before finishing my own finals, even). It feels nice to finally meet a deadline on this.

I expect to now get flamed by some people, except Aimee, but just how refreshing is it that Melinda Doolittle got voted off the island last night on American Idol? I will happily give you that she was definitely the most talented vocally this season, but man was she the queen of picking boring songs to sing boringly. And the faux modesty? Blech. I'm still surprised my man Blake made it this far and fully expect Jordin will beat him come next week

We midwifed again today and got to hear mystery child #4's heartbeat. Sounds good. Some things are still a little up in the air. Maybe.

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: