Thursday, February 24, 2005

Not nice - apparently

Dear Mr. Le Nasonica,

It has come to my attention via several unnamed (and, shockingly, unknown to you) individuals that I may have been a bit harsh on your blog post.

I would like to go on record as saying that I didn't actually not care for your posting, I was just driving trucks through the holes you left behind. And pointing out that there were several spelling and grammatical errors.

I like your blog, in theory. I'm generally interested in the things you say when we speak in person and should therefore be entertained by what you put into written form as well.

Anyway, this is complete crap as apologies go. But until I can figure this one out, this is the best it's gonna get.

Damn the man,
me

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

More of a rebuttal than a post

I had lots of things to say about how a variety of distractions have kept me from getting to the 8 tapes of shows sitting on top of my bedroom tv but my friend josh nason's most recent blog posting (http://nasonsdeal.blogspot.com/2005/02/hey-oooooooooooooooooooo.html) has forced me to scrap my original plan and proceed directly to bashing his pseudo-intellectualism.

Let's start here. You are in desperate need of an editor (if only to check your spelling and sentence continuity). I will volunteer my services if you would like them (simply e-mail your column to me) or you could simply proofread for your self. I actually got the idea for an editor from This Fish Needs A Bicycle (www.thisfish.com).

Not bad is a perfectly acceptable answer to the Joey Tribbiani classic "How you doin'?" What do you want? A full answer. "Actually Josh, things are pretty crap. I can't seem to figure out why this asshole at work keeps blowing me off every time I ask him how he's doing."

And are you ever really fully recovered mentally (as opposed to mentally fully recovered)? I'd argue no. "I'll take the "con" position, please." And your work gave you an iPod? This is me being really, really, really jealous. Also, just because it's your job title does not mean it gets capitalized everytime you use it. If it proceeds your name as in Director of Ticket Sales Josh Nason, then yes. Otherwise, you're just like the rest of us here in lower-case land.

I would agree that if someone will read the autobiography of Ric Flair (and I can think of only one person), then someone might, eventually, read whatever chum you manage to turn out. Not that I'm saying it'll be bad. Who knows? It could be very good. I have just started "The Informers" by Bret Easton Ellis and am reading at least one book a week for this - hopefully
the last - class I'm taking (so far we've read an oral history of some dude from around Machias, a biography of Ben Franklin and are wading through a guide to writing papers for history classes), I've also scrapped plans to read a few books I checked out of the library and have another book called "Dead Well I May Be" open on the floor by my bed (this one is going particularly slowly). The last really great book I read was called "The River King" by Alice Hoffman.

Of all the descriptive terms I would use to describe "Napoleon (see, I spelled it correctly) Dynamite," over the top is not one of them. Moron-a-thon (meant in the best possible way) is a possible choice. I loved this movie and I don't think you had to be dork-ish to like it. Not that wasn't/am not dork-ish, I'm just saying perhaps you should stop dwelling on your past. I love the part where he laments his lack of skills. And Jon Gries was great and the only person I recognized (even if it was only to go
"Hey, it's that guy) aside from Hilary Duff's sister Haylie and the guy who played Oswald on "The Drew Carey Show," Diedrich Bader (who you might also recognize as the neighbor from "Office Space".

As far as TV marathons are concerned, I recommend NetFlix for your viewing needs in this category. There's no need to shell out the $50-$150 for seasons of these shows when you can get them sent to your house with no late fees. "The Simpsons" - were funny (and still are) but now the jokes are tired retreads and the show is breaking no new ground (including the gay
character). "The Shield" - I just never got into this show. I've heard only good things but it's just not "must-see" in my book. "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - Larry David was the cynical part of "Seinfeld" and watching his own show is simply grating. "The Office" - this I'm a bit intrigued about. I want to see it (at least a lot more than I want to see the sure-to-be-as-lame-as-some-of-Nason's-nicknames-he's-made-up-for-himself American retread coming to the tiny screen soon). But I'm in the middle (actually the beginning) of plowing through the entire series of "Angel" (if only to look at Charisma Carpenter on a regular basis). And I'm also hopelessly addicted to reruns of "Ed" on TBS.

My original thought on the quality Eddie Murphy movie is "The Golden Child" but a quick check of imdb.com (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000552/)...reveals that I'm going to have to go with "Bowfinger" in 1999 but if you didn't like that it would probably be "Boomerang" (even though he wasn't the best part) in 1994 unless you count "BHC3" in 1994.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

It sure has been a while

Okay, I had all this good stuff to get through and now I have to remember what I was saying since my computer froze.

Let's see.

I finally made it to February - at least according to my TV watching. Let me be the last to welcome Lane back to Stars Hollow. She's been missing from Gilmore Girls for a while now. Now, I know this is a particular touchy rant for my favorite on-line columnist, TVGal, but it's necessary to mention. I also want to say hello to Lorelei's new 'do. So curly, bouncy and fun. It made her even cuter, if that's really possible. I also am pleading with network writers to do what they can to make the drama on dramas a little less drama-y. These people will get all bent at the drop of a hat. If someone was that touchy, what would make anyone stick around and care? Take One Tree Hill for instance. As strange as I thought it was when Nathan and Haley got married, I'm rooting for them now and then Haley's sister shows up. This tramp's little secret is that she was Nathan's first. You know, FIRST. Anyway, Haley knows that Nathan was getting around before he hooked up with Haley but she still gets all bent when he tells her. But that's just the beginning. You've got to watch it to believe it. And as trite as the show has become, I'll never give it up. Putting Moira Kelly on TV is never bad. Giving Craig Scheffer a good guy role is a stroke of genius. Letting that douchebag who screwed over Steve Sanders at the KEG house and was such a dick to Kelly Taylor when she rebuffed his advances back on TV might have been a mistake since he seems really one dimensional. And is still a HUGE asshole (at least in character).

Okay. Here's what I read on the AP wire the other day. And it got me thinking. I mean, I like those songs but I'm not sure they're my FAVORITES. But let's see. And let's hear what you think. Write in.

My Top 10 (at least what immediately comes to mind in no particular order - at all)

1. If You Want Blood, You've Got It - AC/DC
2. White Wedding - Billy Idol
3. Your Time Is Gonna Come - Led Zeppelin
4. Whipping Post - The Allman Brothers Band
5. Refugee - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
6. N.I.B. - Black Sabbath
7. Don't Get Me Busted - The Donnas
8. Chinese Rock - The Ramones
9. Midnight Rambler - The Rolling Stones
10. La Grange - ZZ Top

He's not gonna take it.
Dee Snider, Twisted Sister frontman and five-nights-a-week deejay on Philadelphia radio station WMMR-FM, was less than impressed when he heard what listeners of a British radio station decided were the Top 10 rock songs of all time.
The poll by British station Planet Rock got worldwide media coverage.
"It was getting picked up all over the world as gospel," said Snider, who's known almost as much for his onstage profanity as for his music. "I said, "What are we, wood? Why should we have to sit here and be subjected to some arbitrary ... list out of England?" (You can guess what the ellipses were.) "Let's subject them to my arbitrary ... list."
So he did. WMMR conducted an online poll for several months, and came up with a list long on Metallica and AC/DC, with classic rock and grunge mixed in. "It's a little harder, a little edgier," Snider said.

The Planet Rock List:
1. "Stairway To Heaven" Led Zeppelin
2. "Freebird" Lynyrd Skynyrd
3. "Bohemian Rhapsody" Queen
4. "Smoke On The Water" Deep Purple
5. "Paranoid" Black Sabbath
6. "Whole Lotta Love" Led Zeppelin
7. "Hotel California" The Eagles
8. "Rock And Roll" Led Zeppelin
9. "Highway To Hell" AC/DC
10. "All Along The Watchtower" Jimi Hendrix

The Dee Snider list:
1. "Stairway To Heaven" Led Zeppelin
2. "Back In Black" AC/DC
3. "One" Metallica
4. "Freebird" Lynyrd Skynyrd
5. "Sweet Child Of Mine" Guns 'N' Roses
6. "Enter Sandman" Metallica
7. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Nirvana
8. "For Those About To Rock" AC/DC
9. "Bohemian Rhapsody" Queen
10. "Gimme Shelter" The Rolling Stones

For the record, no Twisted Sister songs cracked the WMMR top 10, although "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock" came in at numbers 21 and 22 respectively.
"The fix is in. I'm on the radio every night," Snider said with a laugh. "I wasn't pushing it, but, you know..."

I was surfing blogs the other night found a link to this Web site (http://www.wxplotter.com/ft_nq.php?im). It's hilarious. Apparently I'm only 4% nerd. I would have thought that would be higher.

The other thing I've noticed is that, according to the blogger.com homepage, the rules for commenting have been changed and you no longer have to register to leave comments. Nor do I have to change my preferences to allow you to leave comments as an unregistered user (sorry, Pat & Meaghan - man, if you wanna see a cute baby check out the Woodford South link on the side of this page). So, I'm expecting an enormous amount of commenting especially since I'm sending an e-mail to you all so you'll know I've finally made an entry again.

So, in the words of Ali G, check it, foo'.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program

Let's start with an easy television primer. I'll start with Sunday night and work my through the week. I'll try to only pick one show (and one backup - you know, in case of reruns) per day (no guarantees though).

Sundays: Desperate Housewives - This show is infectious. It started really strong and is only getting better. Granted it's all women and that might turn some people off a little (Why? You might ask. I have no idea).

(Arrested Development is worth your time as well though. Jason Bateman returns to television. That is the good part. If you also like Jeffrey Tambor (twice), David Cross and a host of other either really funny or totally annoying characters, well, that'd be another good part. For me it's the bad part.)

Mondays: Las Vegas - This show is like candy for the eyes and mind. Nikki Cox anyone? I thought so. Molly Sims? Check too. And for the girls it's got Josh Duhamel (you know, that guy from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!). And for all the guy's guys James Caan plays the casino boss. And with more star cameos than you can realistically expect to see in an entire season of television programming this show delivers a fun watch.

(The new Chuck Lorre (Dharma & Greg) comedy 2 And A Half Men is really good too. John Cryer is back and he's playing the straight man to Charlie Sheen. It took me a while to really start laughing at this show but now I do regularly.)

Tuesdays: Gilmore Girls - This show has had a few rough spots (the reading tree?) but as far as solid casts and solid writing go, I pick this for consistently being the best show on television.

(But Veronica Mars runs a very close second and is probably my favorite new show of the season. I'm also a sucker for One Tree Hill if only for the soundtrack but also for the really cute girls. This is the night when I often have to make difficult decisions about what gets taped and what doesn't.)

Wednesdays: Lost - If you're not watching this show, you're missing great television. A plane crashes on a deserted island and 40 something survivors are forced to deal with all its mysteries. And there is a LOT of weird stuff going on.

(I would say Lost narrowly beats out Smallville because it is just that good but everyone knows I love Smallville too. Kristin Kruek is totally hot. And the whole Superman thing is just plain awesome. They squeeze in a lot of foreshadowing and really cool inside jokes as well.)

Thursdays: The O.C. - This one was easy. The most addictive show on television. It's no 90210 but it's good. Peter Gallagher is great too but it's really Adrian Brody that makes the show so great. Rachel Bilson is my favorite girl on television though. She hooked me with the Wonder Woman costume but she really had me at hello.

(I'm starting to really like Joey too though and then, since I can't change the channel with my VCR any longer (damn you cable companies and your stupid little boxes) I can watch E.R. too. And see Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks) and the gang at County General.)

Fridays: Third Watch - I'm not a big cop show fan. I never watched Hill Street Blues, I don't watch NYPD Blue and I can't stand those awful CSI shows but this show keeps me coming back. I'd like to see them get back to their original format of not really focusing on one department (paramedics, police and firefighters) but it's still one of the most watchable shows on television.

(The hard part here is that Fridays also offer some of the best half hour sitcoms of the week. What I Like About You is worth watching if only to see 90210 alum Jenny Garth and I think Grounded For Life with Donal Logue is the funniest comedy on right now. Monk is on Fridays as well. But that's on USA and cable shows don't count toward regular TV watching.)

Saturdays: I don't really tape anything on Saturdays. Big shock I know. But if I did, it'd probably be Cold Case. Mostly because there's nothing else on but also because while it is a police forensics show, being rooted in the past gives it something those other shows lack.

Well, okay. I stuck to my rules (for the most part). And for that I'm happy. I deserve a reward. I think I'll take a nap.

Until next time (where I'll make all new picks, I'm sure), sleep tight.