Cutting the Cable: my version

It got to the point where I had to cut my costs. The cost of everything going up and a change in taxes making my paycheck a little smaller-I'm gonna go ahead and say "thanks a lot Osama...Obama"-I just had to find a way to reduce my monthly costs. Not being able to source ammo consistently has been an ersatz cost control, but I don't like it. I looked at what was going out every month, and there were two areas I could reduce: power consumption and cable TV. Turning off lights and not turning them on until they were required and shutting down the computer regularly made a huge difference in the power bill, and turning off cable TV while keeping cable internet cut $75 out of my cable bill.

I looked around a bit for alternatives, and found a way to get rid of cable TV without going batty: I bought a Roku 3. In order to use it, I also needed to get a router, which I found on Amazon as a factory refurb for about $50 with shippin'. The Roku 3 cost me $89, and shipped for free. I had a little trouble getting the disc for the router to work correctly, but I got that squared away by literally unplugging everything in the chain and plugging it in one step at a time following the boot disc directions. After that, setting up the whole thing was cake.

Using the Roku is really easy, too. Its well thought out and intuitive. That info is all over the net, so I'm not gonna rehash it again. Instead I'll run down how I typically use it.

I've tried pretty much all the premium services (Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime) and keep finding that I keep going back to Netflix. I either didn't use them enough-as with Hulu Plus, although I may try again sometime soon-or just didn't get to see what I wanted, as with Amazon. They have the most content, but much of what I want to see on that channel is a paid show. That's no big deal for the convenience, but I don't wanna pay $79 a year and then have to pay a few bucks per on top of that to watch a movie or show. So, in order to reduce my costs the most, I stick to Netflix and manage to keep myself occupied with finding movies I haven't seen and some older shows I dig, like Battlestar Gallactica and Miami Vice. There's a ton they don't have, but I'm debating changing my account to get DVD's as well. At this point, though, the desire is keep costs low, so its the one service I'm using now.

I can still watch some shows streamed on their producer's website as well, such as Defiance, and regular TV programming on hulu.com. I tried to run a VGA splitter so I could send that signal to my TV as well as my monitor, but for whatever reason, the splitter isn't working, with the TV saying that signal isn't supported. My computer is pretty old, so I only have a single VGA out on it; only one monitor output. I think the right solution will be a video card that has two outputs, but again, the idea was to keep costs low, so for now I watch on my 'puter. At least I have a decent sized monitor.

To get local stations, I got a tip from a buddy of mine: after I took out the cable converter box and returned it, I took the cable that was going into said box and plugged it directly into my TV. I went to the antenna set up on my TV, set it to "cable", and searched. I came up with 38 channels, about 20 of which are visible. I get all my local programming, and in fact I'm watching the Spurs get a third quarter lead going against the Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals now. I miss out on some sports that are on TNT and ESPN, but the national stuff I still get. Oddly, I still get The Food Network, too. I'd trade that for FX or Fox Sports, but overall, I'm pretty satisfied with what I've got.

My boss said a couple months ago that he was sure that cable TV was on it's way out. With all the stuff that's available on the Roku-there's a lot on there I couldn't care less about, but some 20 channels have caught my attention so far-I can see cable TV going away and having all programming come over the net. At the time I wasn't so sure, but now I can see it happen. The programming will have to catch up; you're gonna have to be able to get all those channels online, and they're not all there yet. Once that happens, though, it'll be on like Donkey Kong, because the cost of programming will drop dramatically, and commercials will still be commercials. If the costs of the commercials doesn't drop significantly as well, then there won't be more of them than there already are. Honestly, I don't much care about commercials; if having a couple breaks during the show mean I don't have to pay out that $75 for cable TV, I'm OK with it. For what I'm saving, I'm pretty dang happy with the decision to dump cable TV.

T.A.L.L.

I've been pondering of late, which is typically a good way to come to some unusual conclusions and topics. Sometimes it's crucially important stuff, like what to do with all the Obama threads on the forum, what is CAG using, or the frequent topic: entertainment.

Pondering entertainment brings one to consider those that entertain. Most are celebrities, because that comes with the territory. Being high profile means that a lot of people know your name-they think they know you, but do they? I don't think so-and know what you look like. While parts of that suck, parts are easy to let go to your head. We see it all the time. Lookit Lindsay Lohan.

LiLo has pretty much trashed her career with her excessive lifestyle. Apparently, movie makers just don't want to put up with it, regardless of how willing she is to get naked. Its such a shame, too. The girl has talent. She might be able to make a comeback if she can get it together. I hope she does, because she does have talent.

Somebody asked Bill Murray once what it was like to be rich and famous. He thought for a moment, and said "why don't you try just being rich, and see if that doesn't do it for ya". I'm thinking he really knows the what's up. LiLo was getting rich, I guess, but being famous seems to have been the downfall.

There are plenty of hot young actresses in Whollyweird these days. Lots of them come and go, but there are a few that seem to be able to handle the rise and avoid the fall. They're the ones I hope have long, long careers and make tons and tons of money. To that end, I think I'm gonna start a series. The first two on the list are two of my faves:
Anne Hathaway


and Jordana Brewster


They are the first of the Anti-Lindsay Lohans. Yeah, I have a thing for brown eyed brunettes. lol!

Tropic Thunder: a comedy that's actually funny!

My schedule didn't match up to see Tropic Thunder in the theater, which I regret now. I watched it on DVD this evening with homeboy and shooting partner Paul J. The interesting part of the experience was that the film was a Whollyweird comedy, and yet we were both actually laughing! I'd have never thought that possible if I hadn't seen it muh damn se'f.

I'm usually lukewarm on Ben Stiller. His movies can be quite funny, but more often he falls into the "cute" catagory for me, such as with Night at the Museum. Unfortunately, they're gonna do a Night at the Museum II. He was great as White Goodman in Dodge Ball, but that wasn't a Ben Stiller movie as much as it was a Vince Vaughn vee-hickle. In Tropic Thunder, though, he was outstanding.  There were times that I forgot that he was Ben Stiller and I believed he was Tugg Speedman. With some actors, that's easy to do; Robert Downey Jr. should be up for an Oscar for his performance as Jeff Lazarus, "I know what dude I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude! ".

The best part by far, though, was the parody of Whollyweird as a Whole. The drug addict, the agents, the deal makers, the Method actors, the consultants, and more, all skewered. While America was laughing hysterically, there were plenty of folks in The Biz squirming in their seats. After the flick, Paul and I were laughing at various lines that were added to the Chrystal Method's "That's the Name of the Game" ride out credits song, and we agreed that it seemed hard to believe that this movie got made. I still marvel that somebody green lighted a movie that made fun of what they do. For that reason alone, this one's worth seeing.

There's a lot of profanity in this flick, which is kinda typical for a comedy these days. I guess a lot of people find swearing funny; I'm not really one of those. This is still a funny movie, and I really do wish I'd seen it on the big screen with the digital sound system. Woulda been fun!

Cormac McCarthy is...different.

Today I finished my latest fiction read: "The Road", by Cormac McCarthy. This is the same gentleman who wrote "No Country for Old Men", and about ten other books. I've only read the two mentioned here. If nothing else, he's different.

I don't want to go too much into the plot in case either of the people who read my blog want to read it for themselves. I would like to point out two characteristics of "The Road" that are unusual, though: as in "No Country", and I suspect all of his novels, McCarthy doesn't use much punctuation besides paragraph breaks and periods. No quotation marks, inconsistent use of apostrophes and commas, and not much in the way of avoiding choppy sentence structure. Its all very unusual. The other factor I will comment on shortly.

At first, I wondered if there was something wrong with him, and I wondered if perhaps he was...how shall I put it...kind of trendy as the new author to read. But then I'd come across a passage that was so brilliantly, beautifully written that I knew he was not a fool, but instead was writing exactly how he wished it to be read. "The Road" is the tale of a father and son who have no one else in the world besides each other. Of this, McCarthy writes "They were each other's world entire". The elegant simplicity of that passage is striking to me. While McCarthy does create uneven and perhaps even rough passages, I've come to realize what it is he's sculpting with them; it is both the simple and literal, and the expansive and complex. Therein lies the genius.

I was most of the way through this book before I realized that I had been given neither of the main character's names. They are both the everyman of the story, and yet, they're both completely developed, totally realized personifications. As I read, the pictures I imagined were of very definite individuals. And yet, they were referred to only as the man, the boy, the father, the son. The same method is described in the handful of other characters in the book.

While I have no doubt that some will abhor this book, and McCarthy's other writings, for its unique, quirky constitution, those that can grasp the larger significance will find his peculiar method of word-smithing refreshing, powerful, and thought provoking. For a writer, no larger praise can be given.

Wednesday isn't comin' fast enough!

I should be asleep right now, but MNF just ended, with the Vikes squeaking one out against Nawlins. All I'm thinking about right now is getting out of here for a while. I'm off to San Diego-the mostly sane part of California, being a military town-to visit friends and family. This is my holiday visit, since airfare in December is ridiculous, and I gotta squirrel away pennies for SHOT in January.

I'm gonna be hangin' out with my bro Josh, and I'll be gettin' together with my brothers from Lightfighter. I'm very much looking forward to this, even though it means not going to the range for a couple Saturdays. It'll be worth it to get some real Messican taco shop grub, and real, fresh seafood.

And, in case you're considering stealing my guns while I'm away, they'll be staying with friends who also have guns...and know how to use 'em, big time. :)

What's so hard about making a good show?

I'm flabbergasted at how quickly shows come and go on TV these days. Smith, which had a ginormous push before it went to air, only lasted something like five episodes. It had Ray Liota in it, and a pretty interesting story line. Its gone. There have been shows that were on and off TV so fast that I never saw them. Its amazing. It probably also explains why there's so much junk on TV. Ya can't spend that much money on a show and not have it hit, which explains the continual march of new reality shows (which are nothing of the sort) that get run out every time its the season for new shows.

I miss some programs that should have lasted and didn't. The problem is, in some cases, that the producers of said shows are too PC to take any criticism, even if the show was a great big fat hit. Case in point: Combat Missions. The only "reality" show I ever watched, and I never missed an episode. I watched the re-runs. If it was on, I was in front of the TV for it. The premise was to get martial professionals from several different jobs and have them compete. There were Special Forces, SeALs, Marine Force Recon, big city SWAT dudes, and even a guy from the CIA's Operations Directorate. They had tactical problems to solve, were given time to formulate a plan, and then the teams would execute the plan. At the time, it was a great big fat hit for USA Networks, and the producer of Slurvivor, Mark What'sisface. However, since 9/11, ol' Mark seems to think that nobody wants to see this kind of stuff. Oh, how wrong you are, Mark. It could be the feel good story hit of the year; hell, the decade. But he's afraid to do it again, and instead we're stuck with Dancing with the Has-Beens, and American Idle, and controversies about Mangina's (or whatever his name is) hair.

I was thinking recently about some of my favorite shows that aren't with us anymore. Sadly, there aren't that many that were just great and didn't catch on. There were a few:
The first season of Soldier of Fortune, Inc. That show was great. Actual weapons handling, actual tactics used, strong characters for the most part, and decent story lines. What it lacked was a sizable enough budget to pull it off as it shoulda been. It couldn't find an audience because of its weird time slots, and they screwed it all up in the second season. The concept was awesome, though. Even in the second season, with Dennis Rodman on the show, I never missed one. Firefly was obviously ahead of its time, and there are still a heck of a lot of viewers out there that want it back. That the movie ever got made speaks volumes regarding its popularity.

There is no new Miami Vice. There is no new Tour of Duty. There is no new SWAT, although they made a mildly entertaining movie loosely based on the characters from the series. I guess the bottom line is that its just to expensive to give the people what they want. By all means, lets run another cheap piece of crap "reality" show out there. Who cares if nobody is watching Big Brother. Its cheap. We'll keep making them.

Is this just a conspiracy to keep action off of TV?

Two Movies to Recommend

Let's get this out of the way up front: I'm old. I turned 40 a few weeks ago. My alleged formative, great years-according to the radio and TV, anyway-were in the mid to late '80s. Truth be told, I'm more than happy to have moved beyond the high school years. They were not my best or even favorite years. I've had a heck of a lot more fun since then. That being said, that period of time did much to formulate and solidify my beliefs, ethics and convictions. Being born in the 60's pretty much means that you're a child of the70's and '80's, and the events of those decades were very, very influential. Which brings us to the "why" of the recommendation for seeing these movies.

The first of them is simple nostalgia, really. The Lords of Dogtown is simply an accounting of the groundbreaking that happened because of the Z-Boys. The story is more about the interpersonal relationships of that bunch, but the movie is so well done that I can't help but get that feeling of "the good takes place during my growing up years. Being a California kid when skateboards came out meant that my life revolved around skating (and BMX, but there's no movie to recommend about that) and all things related to it. LODTol' days". It extends even as far as the background music. There's a song by Budgie (Crash Course in Brain Surgery, released in '71) that went on to be covered by Metallica. Its all a wonderful snapshot of a very unusual time in America. There was still a little bit of that youthful innocence while the ways of the world were portrayed as well. The best and worst of the time is in there. Its a pretty doggone accurate account, even for a fictional story, of that time in history.

The interesting thing is that while it could be about the changes in technology, it remains to be about the people involved. All the changes in the scene are documented, but they're not the most important thing. The people are.

If, after seeing this flick, you wish to get a documentary account of the story, Stacy Peralta made great film called "Dogtown and Z Boys". He was there, so the documentary is as much a recollection of his youth as an accounting of the personalities and the times. Both of these flicks are really worth watching, especially if you're from that time...or your dad was.

The other film of note is called Miracle. It stars Jack Burton...I mean....Wyatt Earp...I mean...Kurt Russell. This is the story of the '80 Olympic Hockey Team that won the gold medal, beating the Soviets who were the best team in the world at the time. The best thing about this particular movie is that very few of the actors are ones anyone's ever seen before. They're not stars, but the performances are awesome. The players look like players. Even Kurt Russell, who looks very little like Herb Brooks facially, goes above and beyond in this performance. His was the type of portrayal that should be honored with academy awards, instead of the latest guy playing a drunk again.

One of the most telling things to happen in this film happens after the Christmas party as Herb is on his way home. They play a bit of the State of the Nation speech by then-president Carter. The section of the speech they used perfectly desribes the feeling of America at that time. We were looking for something to latch onto to make us feel good about being Americans again. The Carter administration inhereted some ugly problems (remember, there was still fallout from Watergate at that time), and created some more of their own. America needed something to get that feeling of national pride again. This team happened along at the right time, and handed the world one of the most amazing shockers of all time. This film does a great job of explaining why it was so important. On top of that, the actors look like hockey players, rather than actors playing hockey players and not looking like they belong there.

Both of these movies are snap shots of periods in time that could easily be depicted as different from what it really was. The way I remember it (yeah, I know) is how they showed it. Kudos, not to mention the endorsement of a blog writer that hardly anyone reads, to those that made this great films.

Gone Already?

I was discussing the current shows on TV with some friends recently. We found an unfortunate trend: it does no good to get involved in a show anymore. A program gets cancelled so fast that there's no time to decide if its worth getting hooked. I was starting to get into 3 lbs, and its cancelled already. There was a huge buzz and push for Smith, and it lasted for, what, five or six weeks? If a show doesn't hit right away-and I mean in the first airing and a couple weeks after-its gone, replaced with another stupid game show or "reality" TV.

I'm not sure what it is people want to watch these days. Many of the people I work with (its a unique demographic: they're all older married ladies with grand kids) are big fans of shows like Dancing with the Stars. They really care about who won. Apparently, they're rather representative of what people want to see these days.

Now, I can't quite figure out if that's because people really prefer those shows, or a few of them have become hits and the studios find them less expensive and easy to produce, and now its all they're making so we're stuck with 'em. When Survivor was introduced, it was unique, and drew a lot of viewers because of it. Now, they've done just about everything they can do with it, and in my mind it jumped the shark a couple seasons ago. I don't think it'll go away anytime soon though, because its relatively cheap to make and can still draw enough of an audience to sell advertising on it. I can't stand any of the alleged "reality" shows. They're vapid and intellectually vacant. They're not funny, and they're not compelling. They're not comedy, drama or action. I fear that we're stuck with 'em because the low production cost makes them irresistible to the networks. That's the reason game shows have made a resurgence. If it wasn't for the dramatic music, nobody would care about which case the contestant picked.

The other sad aspect of TV shows these days is that the high cost has pretty well killed off originality. 3 Lbs was another medical show. Smith was a cop drama from the opposite direction that people apparently didn't like. Jericho is kind of a version of The Day After that was released 20 years ago. Of the new crop, its unfortunately the best of the bunch.

I guess the bottom line is that until we demand more of the networks, this is what we get. It would appear that there's some of this going on now. A perusal of one of the forums I am a member of revealed this topic as a top five list. Most of those members responding didn't list network shows in most of their lists. A few did, and they were generally the same shows: Jericho, The Unit, and...uh...I guess that was about it. The rest were cable shows. Oddly, or perhaps not, is that most of those shows were semi-reality shows, like Miami Ink and American Chopper. The rest were premium channel shows, like the Sopranos and the like.

It would appear that network TV shows are going the way of the newspaper...or perhaps more accurately, network TV news. There are a fraction of the news shows now than there were several years ago. The reason for that is that more news is available faster on the Intarweb. Could it be that there's going to be yet another revolution that will have us watching our little monitors instead of our large TV's? That will be interesting to see.

These are a few of my favorite things

Somehow I've become known for my negative opinions on things like movies, guns, music, fake boobs, and various other things. I think I've figured out why that is. If something sucks, I'll say so in a nanosecond. Generally, if I like it, I won't talk about it all that much. There's just so much worthless crap in the world that I don't have enough time to comment on everything good that counteracts the garbage.

That being the case, I thought it might be fun to list some of my favorites, rather than all that stuff that I dislike. Now, this list is totally variable. My favorites are always subject to change, and the lists may vary in length, as well. I should also admit that I infuriate some liberal tree hugger with my opinions. They're dual purpose like that, which I appreciate. These may be in numerical order, but chances are they're not exactly in a set order. I may explain why I love 'em, I may not. Several of these are timeless enough to not require explanation.
Favorite Movies, Comedies:

1. Caddyshack. One of the two movies that changed my life...or at least my sense of humor
2. Stripes. This is the other one
3. Ghostbusters. Are you seeing a trend here yet?
4. Strange Brew
5. Team America: World Police

Favorite Movies, Action:

1. Pirates of the Carribean. Might as well make this all of them, even if the last one's not out yet.
2. Heat. This one's worth watching just for the epic gunfight outside the bank
3. The Ghost and The Darkness. The only movie to give me the same tingly sensation that bear hunting did.
4. Bad Boys II. A lot of profanity, but such a well constructed buddy flick that I can't help but love it
5. The Buccaneer. I wish this one was released on DVD. Its one of the greatest pirate/freedom type flicks of all time. I love this movie!
6. Traffic. Had some goofy parts to it, but unlike Syriana, it made some sense and managed to tie the ends up pretty cleanly.
7. Gladiator. It has epicality.
8. 13th Warrior. I'm not generally an Antonio Banderas fan, but he was good in this one. This is one of those movies that I throw in to watch over and over again when nothing else sounds good.
   

Movies, western:

1. Rio Bravo. Its John Wayne. All John Wayne movies rule.
   
2. El Dorado. Essentially the same story as Rio Bravo, but I still dig it the most. John Wayne for president, post humously.
3. Silverado. The best blending of comedy and drama in just about any genre. It both trancends and defines the western.
4. Tombstone. This movie caused an epic road trip to the town. Good times.

Movies, Sci Fi/Horror:

1. The Fifth Element. I love this movie. Its got everything, including Milla.
2. I, Robot. Between the effects and the story, its pretty engrossing. enjoyable fun.
3. Serenity. I'm not a huge fan of the series; I didn't see most of it. The movie's good fun, though, and the dialogue is unique.
4. Underworld. Stylish, and with Kate Beckinsale in leather. Don't get no better...except with a sequel
5. Underworld The Sequel.
6. Shaun of the Dead. I'm not a huge zombie movie fan, but this one's unique and funny.
7. Predator. So much to love about this flick, it can't be listed here. Just not enough space. Get to de choppah!
   

Movies, War:

1. In Harm's Way. This star-studded epic really does deserve a top spot
2. Three Kings. Sort of a war movie. Wierd and quirky.
3. Band of Brothers. A series rather than one film, but its awesome.
   
4. Blackhawk Down. Not a documentary, but a decent representation, according to those who were there, of the events in Somalia.
5. The Patriot. Good flick to make you feel good about being an American.
6. Master and Commander. Sort of a war movie, but different enough to earn a spot.
7. Hamburger Hill. Good performances from several actors that you know now but probably didn't know then.

Others:

1. The Quiet Man. John Wayne in Scotland as an American getting back to his roots. Quite good.
2. Braveheart. Long, but entertaining
3. Blade series. Sort of horror, but mostly action. Entertaining.
4. Hollow Man. The effects are amazing.
   
5. Hatari. Yeah, its another Duke epic, but even with the love story and song(they always did that back in the day) its a great story.
   
6. The well known Steven Segal movies of the 80's and 90's (Marked for Death, Under Siege, etc). They're my guilty pleasure.
7. Miracle. I remember this when it was happening. Its such a perfect snapshot of that time in history. Go rent or buy it, its great
8. Lords of Dogtown, and Dogtown and Z-Boys. These both document events that happened in my youth. In a way, I was a part of this history, although not with them.
9. Riding Giants. Another Stacy Peralta documentary. I learned a lot from this movie, and it was very entertaining. I didn't ever surf (I was heavy into Boogie Boards and body surfing, but never surfed, oddly enough) but this one kept me all the way through.
   

Favorite bands: I'm not gonna bother to break 'em out by style, I'm just gonna list 'em.

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers. They still bring the funk, even when Flea isn't slapping.
2. Demon Hunter. Really heavy, but musical
3. Old Van Halen: never got tired of it. Everything they did with DLR was pretty great. Everything else was not worth owning
4. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: Really funky jazz, with an unusual mix of instrumentation.
5. Mighty Mighty Bosstones. How can ya not like a band that has a song called "Haji"?
6. U2 up until Rattle and Hum. Their facination with heroin references turned me off, but I love all the stuff before this.
7. Stevie Ray Vaughn. He left us too soon.
8. Living Colour. No better description than "unique".
9. Parliament Funkadelic: Just started getting back into this band. They bring the funk, but keep it ultra smooth.
   
10. Testament. Underrated, and fantastic. Far better than their contemporaries
11. Anthrax with John Bush. I know a lotta people like the old stuff, but they weren't anywhere near as good with Joey Belladonna. Armored Saint was a great band because of Bush.
12. Evanesence. There's something both soaring and haunting about Amy Lee's voice, and the band can keep up with her. I think I have a secret crush on the hot goth-ish chick.
    

There's a lot more, but I suspect you've been bored with this for a little while already. ;)

Karma strikes again! The hits just keep on comin'!

Oh, man, I'm gettin' a good chuckle out of this. First, Supernova picks the wrong guy, then we find out they picked the wrong name! Somehow, a band that's been around for about a decade claims to have copyrighted the name, and managed to get an injunction against the New 'Nova. I don't really know how they managed to pull that off, since this is hardly the first time more than one band has had a name. I guess Jill Gioia was right: everything in rock has already been done. Including picking the wrong singer! LOL!

Oops!

Supernova just picked the wrong guy. Congrats on picking the worst possible option, fellas. Almost a shame that a band with such potential will only record one record, have it sell...not platinum...certainly not gold, even...it'll sell wood. Balsa wood. 300,000 copies, max. I hope its utter failure of picking a front man. Remember, the public also picked Jesse Camp as a VJ...for a season. Good thing you guys have made money in the past, cuz this one ain't gonna make ya diddly squat.

A Cultural Phenomenon

I have a confession to make. I've been watching Rockstar:Supernova all season long. Its intriguing for some reason. Its not like I love the music. They covered plenty of songs that I hated. I can't help it; I'm really picky about what music I like. Ask my friends how long the list of "that song sucks ass" tunes is. The more I think about it, the more I think its about competition.

I've been to traffic court a few times in my life. After the first one, which I lost in a close decision (perhaps I'll tell that story another time. It may be useful for the edification of the driving body politik) I came to be able to tell within the first minute or two if the person before the judge had any chance of winning their case. Most don't, but that's beside the point. Its a form of competition. Just like I called last year's winner with INXS (a band I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of) in the first couple weeks, I tried to do the same thing this year.

This year's a bit different, though. They've already cut loose one of my favorites, Storm Large. My opinions haven't changed much so far; I'm down with Magni and Toby to front this band...although they don't rate me linking anything to them the way Storm does. What can I say? She's tall, hot, and talented as all get out. She rocks. When her record comes out, I'm all over it. Storm is DA BOMB DIGGITY!

The bottom line is this, though: if Lukas Rossi wins this thing, I'm not buying the Supernova record. I'm not gonna go see 'em. I'm not gonna watch the videos. I'm not gonna have anything to do with them. The bottom line, I suppose, is that regardless of who wins, I don't care as long as its not Lukas. I hate the sound of his voice. His haircut is irritating. His penchant for making is so damn emo I can't stand it. He not only doesn't fit with this band, he needs to front some band of adolencent cutters with "the world is hard on me and I'm gonna cry" songs. He needs a job working the night shift in a Stop and Rob store, or to be intimately familiar with the words "Would you like an apple pie with that?" Maybe in a Dead or Alive cover band. That might work. If he wins, there's something seriously wrong with people in this world.

I'm hackin' on Lukas because I don't think he fits this band, and life is mostly about competition, which means a good part of it is about rooting, too. I wish the best to all the competitors, but I gotta have things to root for and against, don't I?

what's entertainment coming to?

I've been noticing lately that much of what's out there-and popular-to entertain me is...crap. There's a dearth of originality on all forms of media: film, music, television. How is it we can have 400 channels of cable and nothing worth watching? How can hundreds of millions...nay, billions, of dollars be spent with so little to show for it?

I spend what seems like a lot of time with the TV on. The thing is, most of the time, I'm on my computer with my back to it. I could just as easily have a radio on...except that radio is really bland these days, too. I've heard a couple of songs from the new Dixie Chicklets record. In addition to holding a nice, big fat grudge against them for their anti-American comments, I found it to be the same old tired stuff. Oddly, their record sales are down something like 30% according to some sources, but they still have a top ten disc that's apparently gone platinum.

I watch three shows with regularity, not counting sports. I've been watching Rock Star for a couple seasons now, and I'm not exactly sure why it facinates me so much. I guess because its competition, which I like, and because it rocks from time to time. If they pick Lukas, though, I'm not buying that disc. I'm also a regular watcher of The Unit, even though the errors in that show drive me absolutely nuts. The best thing on TV is The Ultimate Fighter, and the other UFC shows like Fight Night and Unleashed. Its pretty real, and its competition. Other than sports that I watch religiously (baseball isn't a sport, and its at least 150 games too long in season), that's what there is on TV.

The Blockbuster movies of the summer are pretty damn tame these days. I've seen two of the three that have been of any interest over the past several months. The Pirates sequel was what the middle film of a trilogy always is: a transition movie that sort of stands on its own, but really only works in terms of the whole story. The other, Miami Vice, was enjoyable, but mostly because I was a huge, huge fan of the TV show. I might have liked it a little better if they'd used Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. The only other flick I'm interested in is a classic B-movie comedy, Beerfest. Being a B-movie, though, means that I gotta see it on a matinee to be worth the price.

Is that the reason? Is that why there's so much of the same out there these days? Is it simply because cost has gotten so high that the companies that find, green light, and sell this stuff are trying to go with the "sure thing"? That would explain the boring sameness that we are forced to endure. There are a few "new" shows out there that are doing new and interesting things, but few of them appeal to me. Its also a shame that so many of them end up listed on Brilliant But Cancelled.

A while back, though, Joss Whedon was allowed to make a movie out of his TV series Firefly. In case you haven't seen it, the movie is called Serenity. That project gave me hope, but its been a while ago that it was made. I think I may be hoping against hope that something will come along that will take up all the time that following the trainwrecks of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears careers. Help....please?

My new guilty pleasure

One of the members on one of the several forums that I moderate on turned me on to my latest guilty pleasure. There's a comic strip called Over The Hedge that is making my grinceps sore these days. Mainly, its these two crazy redneck flamingos that are just killin' me. To whit, one piece of evidence:


Style and panache. One must be awed by their creativity in entertainment. They're...birds after my own heart. Were they human, they'd be renaissance mans...er...men. Mens. Renaissance Dudes. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I quit reading the paper quite a while ago. Didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to read the same stuff on paper that I could read on the intarweb without additional monetary investment. What's the point of spending more than a dollar on a Sunday paper when most of it is ads that get thrown away? At least I can close pop-up ads, and I have a couple pop-up stoppers that quash that stuff before it even gets started. Perhaps the newspaper needs to get away from the politicking and get back to the reporting. Like when Fletch was still working for the papers. That was a real reporter.

Check out Over the Hedge here. The cool thing about this site is that you can sign up to have comics delivered to your e-mail, although if you want more than one, it costs ya. I chose OTH, but since I have more than one e-mail address, I may need OPUS, too....

Missing

I've been watching the VH1 series of "The Eleventy Billion Greatest Acts of Hard Rock"...or something like that. Makes me wonder two things: what happened to MTV that VH1 took over as the hard rockin' station, and who's deciding this list? Its hard to believe that the channel that was supposed to be the alternative to MTV for 30-something parents has become the last bastion of rock on basic cable. I can't count Fuse in on that because I don't get that channel. More's the pity; Juliya is not only extremely knowedgible, she's three kinds of hot, too.

I've pretty much been a dirt head all my music-listening life. I'm not an expert on Hard Rock, but I certainly know it when I hear it. The list was allegedly amalgamated from the responses of professional musicians. I gotta call BS on that.

Meatloaf is hard rock? No. The artwork was...the songs aren't. Husker Du? Also not hard rock. Punk? Probably; alternative to probably more accurate. Alternative in this case meaning "not very good". Alternative to good music, I guess.

They ranked Bad Brains above Primus. What-the-hell-ever. I saw both of those bands opening for Living Colour. LC can blow a lotta bands clean off the stage. Primus not only held their own, they were completely memorable and seeing them live made me a fan. Seeing Bad Brains live made me an anti-fan.

These compilation list shows are interesting, but it makes me wonder what people are hearing when they listen to music. Some of this stuff is obviously crap, and it still makes the list. How do we know its crap? It didn't sell. That's not to say that only good bands sell; there's more than ample evidence to show that idea as false. But over time, if the public isn't buying it, its because it sucks. Or they don't get it.

I guess I don't get it. I must be out of touch. I have heard scant little that's worth listening to these days, much less plunking down hard earned cash to get the CD. One of the contestants that got voted off of Rockstar Supernova made the comment that everything's already been done in rock. She got voted out, but I think she may have been right. I'm listening to the same CD's I've had for a very long time, with few exceptions. Once a year, if I'm lucky, I'm finding something I wanna hear that's new. Everything else is stuff that's a few years old now.

What's new that I'm into? Demon Hunter. They just released their third record last year, and I'm trying to wear that CD out. At least they rock. I'm gonna go back and listen Sailing the Seas of Cheese now.

SOAP

I realized this weekend that Snakes on a Plane is a movie that I have no desire to see. The Intarweb buzz for this movie has been outrageous. For the life of me, I can't figure out why. Sure, Sammy Jackson is a good actor. Is he great? Well.....no. Is he good enough to carry a movie like this? Welllllll...no. Mark my words: this movie is gonna suck.
How can I feel so strongly about that when the movie doesn't even come out until tomorrow? From the trailers, Jackson's charcter is pretty weak. He plays a cop of some sort, probably a sky marshall. Yay, another cop on a plane. That's pretty unoriginal. The protagonists are snakes? Yeah, that worked great in such films as "Slither" and "Anaconda". You have both of those in your first line DVD collection, right? OK, six of you do. What about everyone else? Yeah, that's what I thought. "Anaconda" had Kari Wuhrer and JLo's big ass in it, and it still couldn't be saved.
The Intarweb has this wierd underground popularity thing that this flick has tapped into. Its sort of the "Pirates vs Ninja" thing, but with a movie. What effect will that have? It'll probably cause the movie to debut at #1, knocking another movie I have no desire to see out of that spot, and then it'll disappear soon after. If they'd have made the snakes look real, it may have had a chance...but it doesn't. Try to at least see it on a matinee if you have to see it. At least that way you'll be out slightly less money.

Classic monologue for the day

"So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas."
"A what?"
"A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace...bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one...big hitter, the Lama...long..into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-lagunga. So we finish eighteen, and he's gonna stiff me. And I say,'Hey, Lama! Hey, how about a little something...yuh know...for the effort..yuh know.' And he says, 'Oh, there won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive...total consiousness.' So I got that goin' for me...which is nice." -Karl Spackler, Assistant Greenskeeper (they say that doesn't mean anything, being assistant greenskeeper), Bushwood Country Club.

Lies, Damn lies, and MySpace

If MySpace ever had any value (I don't know if it ever did; I found about it on TV. They said its where teenage girls go to get hooked up with sexual predators...or something like that) that value is totally used up now. I just checked out the MS page of a girl I work with. I bookmarked it with "comedy" in the title of said bookmark.
This lead to an interesting discussion on the topic of human psyche yesterday at work. Hey, I can't always be doing what I'm supposed to do, can I? At any rate, its become common knowledge that this kid we work with has an MS account, because she tells lots of people about it. That's a separate issue that will be discussed later. Here's where this gets interesting.
She claimed her height was 5'7". I think she may be fudging that, but we'll give her the benefit of the doubt. However, she claims her body type is "average". Ummmm...yeah, as long as "average" means "shaped like a barrel". She weighs at least 200 lbs, and probably a lot more. That's definately where the fudging comes in...along with cakes, ice cream, bacon triple cheeseburgers...and diet Cokes. She claims a religeous faith, but according to her MS friends, she sparks up the chiba and drinks to excess.
I bring all this up partly for comedic purposes, but also to illustrate the discussion of yesterday. She's hardly the only one. If anything, I'd be surprised to find out anyone on MS had a truthful, honest account. The question becomes, then, is she lying to attract someone that couldn't attract before, or is that how she sees herself?
Remember "Collateral" with Jamie Foxx and that short guy that jumps on couches on TV? The cabbie always made it sound like he was working towards his dream goal. It turned out that he was doing nothing of the kind. That would seem to be more the case with the majority of people in the world. So many people have dreams that they could reach with some work, but either through fear, lack of confidence, or lack of desire, they don't even try. Yet, they'll talk about it as if they do, or have, or are actively working on it.
What is it about people that they just can't be honest, with themselves or anyone else? What drives them to have to lie about themselves? Or do they really believe their "cover story"?
Because I work in the tactical gear industry, I run into people on a fairly regular basis who claim to be what they're not. One kid I heard about came back from the Army on leave, and told his dad that he was the was the youngest kid to graduate "Special Forces Sniper School", and that he was with 10th SFG. Dad got all chuffed and contacted the newspapers, who sent a reporter to write a story on this kid. The article got published. One of the members of the forum I am an admin on found it, and posted a link. Now, this particular forum is mostly .mil and LE types, who don't take kindly to people claiming stuff they haven't done. This kid went home to a weekend with the family, and came back to work to find out that members of our forum had used their contacts in the service to let the kid's platoon leader, sergeant major, and company commander know what he allowed to happen. He claimed to be something he wasn't, and ended up with a maxed field grade Article 15, and had to write a formal letter of apology to 10th Group. I heard that his extra duty (45 days of it) consisted of being given to 10th Group to do whatever they wanted to with him, but I can't confirm it. I suspect he ended up polishing things that were never polished before. All that because he couldn't be truthful with himself, his family, or a reporter. He still had three years to do in the Army. One forum member described it like this: "remember having that dream where you show up at work with no pants? That's his life for the next three years."
I know a guy who claims to have been a Ranger. Except that he called the obstacle course at Camp Darby the "Queen Darby" (its real name is the Darby Queen). That fact, on top of many others, got called. Then he had to backtrack and lie some more to cover it. In the end, he lost all credibility with the people that he was trying to build credibility with. Oops.
Why is it people feel the need to do that? I don't understand. I won't claim that I've never lied, but I've tried to always be the person I appeared to be. I'm a low speed, high drag nobody with a pretty cool job that I got because I had developed some useful skills that were needed by my employer. In my job, I get to meet a lot of people who are bona fide heroes, badasses, straight up shoot-you-in-the-face killers, and would be celebrities if what they did for a living was celebrated in the press. Its no wonder so many people want to be them, but its also no wonder that so few can be. Those same "can't be's" are the same ones that "wannabe" and "claimtabe". For the life of me, I can't understand why. If you wanna be one of them, then go do what they did to get where they are. If you can't, be honest with yourself and say "I can't". If everyone could do it, everyone would do it. There are more jobs than I can count that make the world work everyday. If they didn't need to be done, they wouldn't be paid.
I guess what I'm getting at is that if you're not happy where you are, do something about it. This is America. Opportunity is there, and so is copious amounts of help. If you don't wanna do it, then don't. Just don't claim that you did. All that happens in the end is that you lose a whole lot more than you were willing to bet, and gain a whole lot less than you wanted to win. Its too high a price to die unhappy because you spent your life as a lie.