Tuesday, September 19, 2006

late evening

Good TV, Cheesy TV, and Expected To Be Good TV

Okay, I’ve spent enough time being oddly vindictive, so now I’m going to talk about my first true love, television.  Leigh-Ann and I had to make an agreement to not get involved in too many new tv shows, as we also have lots of returning favorites.  Tonight, we watched two of the four we were allowing ourselves - “The Class”, which reunites members of a third grade class for a party; and, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”, which is basically a behind-the-scenes look at a show like Saturday Night Live.  We liked them both, a lot.  In fact, if there had been two episodes available from each show, we would’ve plowed right through those two.  “The Class” is a bit odd, a bit funny, a bit sad, a bit nostalgic (I’ve had contact with two friends from elementary school in the last month), and quite addictive.  “Studio 60” is the new Matthew Perry show.  I loved the writing - it’s smart, it’s serious, it’s funny.  The Amanda Peet character, as the new head of the network, is awesome.  I hope they keep her character the same as in the first episode - calm, cool, collected, and smart.  It’s nice to have a female boss on a show who isn’t a bitch.  The other two new shows we’ve allowed ourselves haven’t aired yet - “30 Rock”, the Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin show; and, “Ugly Betty”, that seems to be some worldwide phenomena.  They’ve both gotten excellent reviews and I’m really looking forward to them.

Now for the cheese - omigawd, have you seen any of “Celebrity Duets”?  It’s the ultimate in reality cheese.  Semi-famous people (Jai from Queer Eye, Hal Sparks from Queer as Folk, Lucy Lawless, Carly Patterson (Olympic gymnast and terrible singer), Cheech Marin (nice funny dude with a lousy voice)) pair up with current and has-beeny singers for duets.  Wynonna sounds great.  Jefferey Osbourne sounds great.  Dionne Warwick sounded like she’d been smoking some dope backstage.  The big surprise for me - Dennis DeYoung from Styx was pretty awesome.  Beware, this show definitely requires TiVoing because fastforwarding through the dull parts is a necessity.  Oh, and the judges are Marie Osmond (okay, although a bit snarky), Little Richard (totally wacked out, but funny) and David Foster, who is surprisingly nice and fairly constructive, but he so needs to shave that old drunk man stubble.  He doesn’t look drunk or dirty, but the stubble is icky on him.

More reality - the new “controversial” Survivor isn’t the least bit controversial, but I enjoyed the first episode a whole lot more than I’ve enjoyed most first episodes of Survivor.  It’s easier to tell people apart, and the Asian guys are totally hot.  Also, they voted off the most annoying person (so far) on show first.  That almost never happens.

Nip/Tuck has returned and is just as warped as it’s always been.  Still, mighty compelling tv.  Sean and Julia having fits about having a “handicapped” child is incredibly stupid.  It’s not as though the kid is going to have brain damage.  The baby will have Ectrodactyly, which affects the child’s hands & feet - anecdotally known as lobster claws.  As lousy as it is, it’s not the big deal that Sean & Julia are annoyingly making it.  Bree Walker made a guest appearance on the show and you know what looked gross about her?  Not her hands, but her face.  She has gross plastic surgery face.  Weird balloony lips and a bad facelift.  When will women realize that unless you’re Angelina Jolie and you naturally have those lips, they just make you look like a circus freak.  Plastic surgeons should refuse to do that to people, or they should be sued for malpractice.

“Weeds" has been pretty fabulous this season.  Fewer problems with the annoying Botwin boys, the cool DEA agent, etc.  My only complaint is that Celia is more mean, less funny this season.  If they can fix that, I’m pretty happy with how the season is going.

Whoo hoo, and Veronica Mars is coming back soon.  If there’s any show you watch this season, make it Veronica Mars.  Or, The Amazing Race.  I love that show.  Vicarious travel is just the kind of travel I like.

See, isn’t that better than me whining about a hockey player who has retired?  My apologies for that, it won’t happen again, although I’m not deleting it either.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

late at night

Storm Large - Supernova Doesn’t Deserve You

If any of you were watching Rock Star: Supernova tonight, you’ll have seen the tragedy of them kicking off the coolest contestant they’ve had in their two seasons.  Storm is smart, funny, nice, kicks all kinds of musical butt, and well, is kind of hot.  Her original song last night was awesome.  Dilana has turned into an emotional whiny self-absorbed train wreck and it was SO time for her to crawl away.  You know, crawl, because of that “torn calf muscle” that required being carried on the stage last night and crutches today, but somehow magically allowed her big “rocker” kick in the air tonight.  I call bullshit on the injury.  It was more, “Me, me, me, poor me, woe is me, no one wants this like me, I’m nothing without me, let’s talk about me and how my trash talking others hurt me, me, me, me, me.” Dilana, you’ve gone from front runner to, well, crap.  Cheap Trick is “punk rock”?  In what alternate universe?  What a miserable mess she made of “I Want You to Want Me”, and of course notice that it was about “ME ME ME”.  Gah, I hate her. 

The show is pretty much dead to me now.  I wouldn’t pay to see any of those left on the show.  I love the house band, but not fronted by the runners up.  I think Magni is a talented nice guy, but a mostly boring performer.  Lukas seems to be a one trick pony.  Toby (classy, dedicating his performance to Steve Irwin) should win, but I’m still not interested in seeing Supernova.  What I would LOVE to see is a Storm Large concert, with Zayra Alvarez opening.  Two real performers, and two totally smart (and hot, heh) chicks.  Maybe Liz Phair could book a show with them - she always picks interesting acts to tour with her.  I hope they’ll both play in Vegas someday, but if not, I’m willing to travel to Portland to see Storm...and I’ve NEVER been willing to travel more than thirty minutes to see anyone perform.

Monday, August 14, 2006

late at night

That’s Right, You’re On Notice!

Friday, June 23, 2006

late evening

R.I.P, Aaron Spelling

My childhood was extra happy thanks to “Starsky and Hutch”, “Charlie’s Angels” (I’m sure that show made me gay), “The Love Boat”, “Fantasy Island”, “Hotel”; and later on, “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place”.  Super great awesome cheesy tv.  Junk the whole family could enjoy together.

Friday, June 02, 2006

lunch time

I Never Ever Thought I Could Dance

So You Think You Can Dance is back for a second season, and I must admit that I’m even more hooked this season than I was last season.  I swear I didn’t mean to watch, but oooooh, the delicious snark.  Ooooh, the bad dancing.  Ooooh, the vomiting during an audtion.  Ooooh, the Orthodox Jew who, while actually being a very good dancer, smashed his face into the floor during his audition.  And best of all, Lauren Sanchez has been replaced by Cat Deeley.  Lauren Sanchez seemed like a very nice person, but Cat Deeley is F-U-N, fun!  And cute.  Fun & cute.

Another SYTYCD second season bonus - someone has obviously made Ballroom Mary Murphy take speech lessons.  She’s still harsh to listen to, but she’s SO much easier on the ears this season.  Mia Michaels, whom I loathed at first last season, has grown on me, but I wish she was less sloppy.  She’s kind of cute in a hippy dippy modern dancer kind of way, but she’s so sloppy.  She’s overweight, but I don’t care about that, it’s the sloppiness that bugs me.  It makes her look kind of like she’d smell badly.  My nose is very sensitive, even if it means imagining that someone on tv is stinky.

One thing I don’t like about this season is that the judges seem meaner.  There’s no reason to rip apart the nice people.  So their dancing isn’t good enough to get them on the show, that doesn’t mean their dreams need to be destroyed.  There are enough jerks auditioning, so they can direct their nastiness at them, not the innocent dork who just loves to dance.  Oh well, soon enough the auditions will be over and the competition will start.  The bad dancers will be gone and we’ll be able to snark on bad attitudes.  Yay!

I LOVED Sophia Wang...and they were just totally mean to her.  Watch Sophia and tell me that you love her too.