Monday Musings

It is Monday morning and the mental fog is in full effect but with every sip of my coffee I can feel the fog lifting away and that my friends is a good thing. I watched the Grammys last night. Or to be clear I watched part of the Grammys and then I looked for clips online of the performances because, lets be honest, CBS really does suck and they do not know how to put on a decent live show to save their lives. The Grammys are a perfect example of that. They took a music show and rather then just show it live and let people enjoy all of the crazy and the power and emotion that live music can bring they put it on a two hour recorded tape delay on the west coast. Pretty lame CBS, pretty lame. That and boy does LL Cool J suck now. He has become the harmless friendly black man that CBS and old people just love. It makes me weep and long for the days of Chuck D and the anger of Public Enemy. It was a pretty pathetic effort from all concerned except for the bands that were actually performing and  CBS did all they could to mess that up as well.

We Float - PJ Harvey

I love what PJ Harvey does with music. I do not listen to her all of the time but when I do I always am happy that I did.

It isn't that I am surprised that CBS screwed the pooch on this one. They always seem to do it. But I am surprised that they even bother. Maybe they were afraid of competing with Downton Abby or something.

Make You Feel My Love - Adele

This is a beautiful song. Just lovely.

I know that I have been staying away from the typical these things suck all of the time posts but I felt like I had to at least mention the Grammys. I would have been doing a disservice to music in general if I tried to act like what happened last night was okay. Because it was not. It was just bad. But I am over it. What else is going on?

Summer Boy - Lady Gaga

Why was this song not a bigger hit? Odd. It seems to fit right in her style window. Though I could argue that this was written for Gwen Stefani. It sure sounds like it.

I went to the Wizard World Comic Con with my brother in Portland this weekend and it was fun. But it was interesting and far more about popular nerd and geek culture and being an obsessed fan then it was about comic books. I love television and movies but I am not going to pay upwards of $25 to say hello to a celebrity who is not going to remember who I am among the 500 other fans that they met that day. There were lots of people who seemed to love doing it and that is great for them but I just can't get excited about doing that. It is nice to see what those people look like in person as opposed to on the television or the movie screen. But other than that I do not care if they are there. I would much rather just get a book signed by the author or artist who drew it. I think my position is in the minority though.

My Weakness - Moby

Awesome song.

I did enjoy seeing the various cosplayers though. It is always fun to see the different costumes that people wear at such an event. Some people put some real effort into their costumes and others put in less. But that is the nature of things and sometimes ones passion overrides ones ability to actually create the item that they are trying to replicate. That being said. It was still very cool to see and made me wish that I was that passionate about some things in my life. I do not know what that would be though but I suppose how I feel about the Portland Timbers comes pretty close. I do dress up for the matches after all.

I Saw A Man - Johnny Cash

Believer or not, this is a good song..

That is it for today. Time to apply for some more jobs. Maybe I will be able to catch at least an interview, at this point getting an interview at least feels like success. Have a good Monday folks. Give your friends and family a hug and keep on dancing.

I Still Exist

Hey folks, I hope everyone is well and that the holidays treated you okay. I am still alive and functioning, but even though I wasn't working I was having a hard time finding the time to write and my blog posts suffered accordingly. So I am still functioning but most of my writing has been directed toward me making trolling attacks on AV Club and different entertainment websites that are part of the uproxx group of websites.

It isn't that I am a mean spirited troll but these sites allow me to join in discussions about a lot of things that I like in music and books and other things that I use to entertain myself. Though sometimes there are certain things that set off my nerd rage and those things must be responded to and corrected. There is no option. I must do it. I have no real choice in the matter. I am compelled to do it and must respond. The latest thing that I felt compelled to address was a discussion about the creator of 'Two and a Half Men' was a hack of not.

Myself, I come down on the side of he is a colossal hack and it does not matter to me what kind of ratings his shows have had or how many shows he has created. I think all that does is show exactly how popular mediocre television can be with the mouth breathers. 

The Joy of Community

There is a little television show that has been my favorite thing on television for the last three years. Well, this last season it hit a little bit of a road block, in that, CBS decided to move their highly rated and very popular (because people like dumb things) 'Big Bang Theory' to the same time slot so that it could compete directly against 'Community'. This led to a further fall in the ratings and finally the network (NBC) fired the show creator and runner Dan Harmon and then moved the show to Friday nights.

As you can imagine this caused quite a stir among the fan base for the show. I am torn because while I feel a loyalty to Dan Harmon, I also really like the actors that are on the show and I want them to continue working and to continue to enjoy them playing the characters on the show. So I am hoping that the show will continue to be of good quality and enjoyable to me. Also I really should be happy because most shows that I like tend to get canceled within a year or two. I like to think that is because my taste is so refined and of such high quality that the rest of the common people just are not able to handle it.

Really though I am writing this post mainly as an excuse to post a couple of pictures of that cast that I really liked.

This was from an episode where Jeff Winger went undercover as a street Magician a Criss Angel type of character and Britta was his assistant. I found the whole thing highly amusing but what really surprised me was how attractive I found Britta in her costume. I had no idea that her look would work for me like it did. I also thought Jeff looked amazing which left me confused and slightly ashamed but I think that is really just because I was jealous of how he looked and really wish that I pull it off. That would be awesome. 

Have a good week folks. 

Television Thursday

I just finished season 1 of "The Big Bang Theory". I am still not sure if I enjoy it or not. The show will be entering its 5th season next year and has won a few different awards and has been nominated for several as well. I have always been of the opinion that winning awards does not always mean quality and I think that I feel the same way about the show. To be sure there are some very funny bits here and there and I really enjoy the nod to popular nerd culture. But I am not sure if on a consistent basis this actually holds up.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the show the basic premise is this taken from their IMDB page

"Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper are both brilliant physicists working at Cal Tech in Pasadena, California. They are colleagues, best friends and roommates, although in all capacities their relationship is always tested primarily by Sheldon's regimented and non-conventional ways. They are also friends with their Cal Tech colleagues, mechanical engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali. The foursome spend their time working on their individual work projects, playing video games, watching science fiction movies or reading comic books. As they are self-professed nerds, all have little or no luck with "popular" women. When Penny, a pretty woman and an aspiring actress originally from Omaha, moves into the apartment next to Leonard and Sheldon's, Leonard has another aspiration in life, namely to get Penny to be his girlfriend."

The creator of the show is a man named Chuck Lorre who has been mostly responsible for the majority of bad sitcoms on CBS right now. Though he did have a hand in "Roseanne" but that was never a show that I liked all that much. I found her loudness tiresome and not amusing in the least. But his biggest crime is that he created "Two and a Half Men" and in doing gave Charlie Sheen a career resurgence that has since allowed for the epic meltdown we all got the pleasure of experiencing earlier this year. I feel that for this crime alone Chuck Lorre should be flogged and hung from the town clock tower but I digress.

The concepts behind "The Big Bang Theory" (TBBT) are pretty basic and the show is filmed the same way that all sitcoms are filmed. As far as technique goes it could be "Laverne & Shirley" or "My Two Dads" there is nothing groundbreaking about what is going on behind the camera in each episode. The has some slight foreshadowing but the only kind of continuing story arc was the will they or won't they of Penny and Leonard. Believe me they are not Sam and Diane as much as Chuck Lorre would like us to believe they are. The interplay and the pining of Leonard towards Penny is interesting and believable. Who hasn't pined after someone who is out of their league. I realize that we are supposed to accept some fantastic things when watching a television show. But there is no way on Gods green earth that this woman

Is going to date this man

I really think that over the course of the first season Leonard has been releasing some form of gas into Pennys apartment and this is making her more malleable to his advances. There is no other reasonable explanation for them even getting involved. I have an incredible personality and I am good, good friends with many woman who are far out of my league and there is no way that it will be any different. This show does a disservice to poor lonely nerds everywhere (Who, lets be honest, have no where near the amazing personality that I do) in making them think that they could ever date a smoking hot babe like Penny. It is never going to happen. LET THE DREAM DIE NERDS!!!! LET IT DIE!!!

The show is also filmed in front of a live studio audience and I am just not a big fan of that. I do not like being told when to laugh based on the reactions of the audience of the laugh track that is being played. It isn't a horrible show but it isn't an amazing show either. I think that is why it is a success. It thrives in it mediocrity. The audience doesn't have to think. They do not have to feel. They can sit in their stupefied state. They are allowed to just float along without any effort on their part.

So that being said. I do find it something that I can just stare at and listen to while I do other things and let it just wash over me. So if that is what you are looking for then "The Big Bang Theory" is the show for you.