You know what’s weird? Turning on MSNBC just before Countdown comes on, during the last few minutes of Hardball, and seeing a guy you went to law school with talking to Chris Matthews. Actually, “went to law school with” doesn’t go anywhere near far enough – there are plenty of people I went to law school with I never spoke with or knew personally. So let’s make that seeing a guy you went to law school with, a guy who was in your accelerated program class, a guy you went out drinking with fairly regularly, a guy who quarterbacked the flag football team you played on, a guy who came up with the idea of going to your ex-girlfriend’s house the night you broke up and demanding that she give the flowers you gave her to try to smooth things over back or at least reimburse you the cost of the flowers and was convincing enough about it that a bunch of you got in a car to go over and do it before deciding it was a bad idea after all, to see that guy, who is now, apparently, a fairly famous Democratic consultant, talking with Chris Matthews. That’s weird.
Cross-posted at Corn'O'Copia.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
You Know What's Weird
Saturday, March 10, 2007
The Plot Of Every Single Episode Of According To Jim
1. Jim is confronted with a situation that makes him uncomfortable, usually because it is threatening to his masculinity/status as head of household.
2. Jim has to take part in situation.
3. Allegedly hilarious hijinks ensue.
4. Jim begrudgingly accepts situation in a manner that will be forgotten by the time the next episode airs.
5. Somewhere, John Belushi silently weeps.
Monday, March 5, 2007
“Shows We Miss” and “Done Too Soon”
We’re going to be starting up a couple more recurring features here. I wanted to set up a couple of them, because while they seem self-explanatory, they also seem identical. But they aren’t. There’s a very key difference between them.
“Shows We Miss” will be a discussion of shows no longer airing that we miss watching. “Done Too Soon” can best be described as a subset of “Shows We Miss” but with the added factor that, as far as we are concerned, the show ended before it’s time. Here’s a couple of examples.
I miss The X-Files. It was one of my favorite shows. I started watching near the end of the first season, and continued watching through to the bitter end. But while I miss The X-Files, I would be hard pressed to make the argument that it ended before it’s time. If anything, The X-Files lasted much longer than it should have lasted. Or take a show like Buffy, another show I miss but which I think ended perfectly. On the other hand, there’s Angel, a show that could have easily gone on a couple more years.
So there you have it – “Shows We Miss” and “Done Too Soon”. Two more recurring features, coming to you from DTV.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Idol - Top Ten Women
Well, it was really nice of the women to come out and suck so badly this week, thus taking some pressure off the men.
Gina Glocksen – Alone You, Gina Glocksen, are no Carrie Underwood.
Alaina Alexander – Not Ready To Make Nice Wow. Just wow. Incredibly bad.
LaKisha Jones – Midnight Train To Georgia One of my very favorite songs, ever since I was a kid. When it was new. Did I mention I was old? Anyway, a favorite song, but an incredibly lackluster performance.
Melinda Doolittle – My Funny Valentine Remember how Constantine was on the verge of running away with Season Four after his version of this and Bohemian Rhapsody? If only he had sung more songs like this, or at least as well as he sung this. It would also be nice if Melinda had sung this as well as Constantine sang it. But she didn’t. It’s probably the best performance of the night, but that’s not saying much.
Antonella Barba – Because You Loved Me Well, as the events of the past week has shown, singing is nowhere near the best thing she does with her mouth.
Jordin Sparks – Reflections Wake me when it gets interesting.
Stephanie Edwards – Dangerously In Love Still not interesting.
Leslie Hunt – Feeling Good I didn’t enjoy this song last night when AJ did it. I don’t enjoy it now, either.
Haley Scarnato – Queen Of The Night More like handmaid of the night.
Sabrina Sloan – All The Man That I Need Well, at least the night ended on a boring note. No reason to change things this far into it.
Save Leslie!
It's actually too late to "save" Leslie. The votes are in and if she's going home, she's going home. But I would like to write about why I think we need her in the competition.
There are excellent female singers in the competition this year. Melinda, in particular, shined last night with My Funny Valentine. Then there's LaKisha (I hate a capital letter in the middle of a first name. Ugh.) who is clearly a frontrunner, but like I said last week she could run out of steam before the season ends. I like Gina and Jordin as well. Sabrina and Stephanie can belt the songs, too. But here's the thing - no one is coming across as unique. We've seen great belters before. One just won an Academy award. We've seen the punk chick before. Remember Nikki from season one? And then there's the cannon fodder we get every season. This season it's Amy-Antonella-Alaina attempting songs that are way out of their league.
Leslie is different. Her voice is unique. It's not a powerhouse, but it has a great tone. And she's willing to choose different sorts of songs, like this week's Feeling Good by Nina Simone and Micheal Buble. I had never heard of it, but it was catchy and interesting and so unlike anyone else's choices. Throw a little scatting in the middle and you have the makings of a really interesting contestant. I'm anxious to see what she might do next week.
However, I am terribly afraid we won't get the chance to find out. And that would be a real shame.
