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.

The Madness of Mad Men

It is hard for me to put into words how much some television shows affect me. I have always been prone to emotional reactions to television and movies and music and rainbows and the wind blowing and rain and dogs and cats and really doing anything. But that is not what we are going to be talking about right now. We are going to be talking about how the television show Mad Men rips me open and leaves me broken and bleeding on the floor. It has at time left me giddy with laughter and left me speechless in astonishment or sick with dread and it has left me weeping. The season finale of last night did just that. The image of Don with his children looking at the derelict whorehouse that he grew up in left me a complete mess.

Both Sides Now - Judy Collins

Right now even listening to this song again is making me cry. This whole season and the last season of Mad Men has been heart and gut wrenching for me. I am sure that part of it is that I am seeing it through the lens of my own divorce as well as me being the same age as Don and that is affecting me as well. It seems silly I suppose and may even seem more silly if you are not a viewer of the show and are not identifying so heavily with the main character.

This is me...that is all I can really say without spoiling things. You can say what you want about this show. But I like it and the feelings that it causes me to feel is one of the reasons  why I think it is amazing. 

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. 

Tuesday

Good morning folks. I hope you had a good day yesterday. I did not do a whole lot. One thing I did do was look into lowering the cost of my cable/internet bill. Now there were a few ways that I could do it. I could cancel one or two things and lower the price by $10 or so a month. Or I could lose Showtime(not a problem) and add Starz and a land line. Thus saving close to $40 a month. "Excuse me!"

I am adding a service that I do not need because I have a cell phone and that is going to drop my cost despite the fact that I am never going to use it and in fact I will never have a phone hooked up to the phone line. I was a little surprised, in fact, as I write this I have the internet and the cable but I have not even called and activated the phone. I have the correct modem for when and if I ever get a land line but I do not think that is ever going to happen.

On a plus side. Comcast was easy to deal with both on the phone and in person despite the ludicrous nature of the deal involved. So that was a good thing. It is interesting for me to note that I have seen Comcast evolve from a company that was extremely hard to deal with, to a company that due to the competition basically that the Internet and satellite television represents has become pretty accommodating. I really enjoyed their High Definition television signal during the World Cup. The quality of the picture was incredible. I am looking forward to the beginning of American Football to see if the picture is a nice.

Well that is all for today. I am thinking about heading out to Cascade Gateway park and playing a little disc golf. Catch you later.

2-23-2010 (Tuesday)

Good morning folks. It is Tuesday morning and the rain has returned to Oregon. I do not mind the rain. It smells nice outside and is kind of refreshing. I think though that after about 3 or 4 days of it I will be back to wondering where the sun is and when is spring going to return. I like living in Oregon. I even like living in the Willamette Valley despite the months of gloom that can settle over us. When the Valley is in the middle of the rainy season it can get seriously gray and gloomy. But, once spring comes and we move into the summer Oregon becomes a really beautiful place to live. I am basically less then two hours away from the ocean or the mountains and when the weather is nice both places can really be nice. But I didn't come hear to lobby for Oregon.

I wanted to go back and touch on what I wrote about yesterday on how I agreed in part with what Glenn Beck said at the CPAC speech. But I also had to mention something he said that I felt didn't make any sense. He was doing his usual talking about how Communists and Socialists became Progressives because that let them be sneaky. He mentioned how things had gone from Revolution to Evolution and the change had allowed for the newly named Progressives to sneak in and undermine the foundation of America. Now I have heard him say this kind of thing before and he, I think, really does believe it. But at one point during his speech he was talking about how he was not a smart man and how he didn't go to college. But what he did do was go to the library because there the books are free. His exact phrase was

"I went to the library -- the books are free."

That kind of threw me for a loop. The biggest reason being that...BOOKS AT THE LIBRARY ARE NOT FREE!!!!! I pay taxes and part of my tax dollars go to fund the library in my town. Now maybe Glenn went to some hippy dippy socialist library where everyone who takes a book can leave a book and there is no librarian but I doubt it. What I found surprising about what Beck said was that libraries are basically communist institutions. They are funded out of the tax roles and anyone who wants to can get books there. I believe the first public library in the country was actually created by progressives who felt that everyone deserved equal access to books.

It just struck me as so typical of all of the talking heads on television be it Olberman or Beck or Limbaugh or Maddow they seem to speak without thinking. The basic idea of following a logical chain to it's conclusion seems to have escaped them. The saddest thing for me is that they make millions and millions of dollars doing this and most viewers just lap it up. They buy their books and listen to their radio shows and watch the television with out taking the time to do any critical thinking on their own.

These people depend on us to be angry but not on us to pay attention to the bigger picture. So lets all take a moment and really think about some of what these people tell us. They are all employees for big companies they wouldn't be working for these companies if they didn't agree with what goes on there. Keep that in mind when watch these shows. Look into where these companies do business and what products they make and sell. I do not think this will hurt us what this will do is make us better listeners and make us more aware of what we are being told. This goes for both sides of every issue. Think before you react. Take a moment and decide if what you are being told actually makes any sense.

This will benefit all of us in the long term.

'New Rainbow Rockford Files'

I have just discovered the plot line for the new 'Rockford Files'. By discover I mean that I just came up with the amazing idea.

So this is the whole deal. It seems that in the future, due to California's liberal definition of marriage, Jim and Angel are finally able to bring their relationship out of the shadows. After the two hour very special wedding episode the happy couple adopt three young boys. These young boys form the nucleus for the 'New Rainbow Rockford Files' you see one is Asian, the other Hispanic and the other African American. It is a can't miss and I think I see an Emmy in the future.

Monday, Dec 28, 2009

Good morning everybody, I hope you all had a good Christmas weekend and that the rest of the week is a good one. I know people are not done traveling around for the year so I hope the roads stay clear and everyone is safe for the rest of the time.

I normally do not address entertainment news on this blog. I have another one that I do not write on anymore where I tried to cover stuff like that back when I was unemployed. Needless to say now that I am working full time it is hard for me to be active on this one everyday though I try my hardest to keep it up. But, back to the matter at hand, I heard this morning on the radio that Hollywood is planning on remaking 'The Rockford Files' and I just do not know what to think. Well I know what my first reaction is and that is "How dare they?" In fact I was a little surprised at the intensity of my response.

In this particular case if I am understanding what I heard correctly they are remaking this as another television show. I think I would almost prefer a movie better. I enjoyed the film versions of both 'Starsky and Hutch' as well as 'The Brady Bunch'. But those were both played pretty heavy for the ironical comedy value and I do not see 'Rockford Files' making that work. Though my friends who also grew up with and love the show can get each other laughing pretty good talking about the show and bringing up things we remember about it. For me, one of the things I remember the most is an particular episode where some kind of tough guy was chasing Jim down and he ran into a bathroom. Now it was pretty common for Rockford to get knocked out or beaten up. That seemed to be a running joke on the show. But, in this case, Jim had a trick up his sleeve. He spread some liquid soap on the floor and then took roll of coins out of his pocket. Well the hoodlum came in and as he slipped on the soap Jim just cold-cocked him. The roll of coins blew up and Jim took off. I remember laughing and I still laugh thinking about it.

I think a main reason why the idea of a remake bothers me is that other then John Wayne there is not another actor that I enjoy watching like James Garner. I love him in the old 'Mavrick' series as well as his work in 'Support Your Local Sheriff'. I almost forgot to mention 'The Great Escape'. I think it is because as a child every time I turned on the television it felt like he was there. He is one of the last remaining old time actors and I think in some way George Clooney reminds me of him. I think they are different kinds of actors but they both have a certain likability.

Well my post took a strange turn today but that happens sometimes. I hope you all enjoyed a little trip down memory lane. If you get a chance this week watch a film or television show with James Garner. You will not regret it. Do not watch 'Tank' you will regret that but watch a different one.