So we had a Burn Notice Season Three marathon on Friday and we yelled “HOLY COW!” at the screen more than once. We also yelled “DANG!” more than once because this was, apparently, the “broken ankle” season. Everybody broke their danged ankles. Shudder. We had queued up the last episode when we looked at each other and said “HOLY CRAP! YOU KNOW HOW THESE THINGS END!!!” and we got in the car to borrow Season Four from whom we borrowed Season Three… AND HE DIDN’T HAVE IT!!!! AUGH!!!!! So we went to the entertainmart and picked a used copy up for 20% off. Black Friday isn’t so bad if you do it at 8:45PM. There was parking, elbow room, and the shopping experience was downright pleasant.
Oh, and I also saw Expendables 2 and it can be summed up with the following: the villian’s name was villain. Or maybe the villain’s name was villian. Anyway, one of those. That was as subtle as the movie got. It was awesome. I hope Expendables 3 has Stephen Segal as the bad guy.
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
Reading the 33 1/3 book on “Bee Thousand” (say it out loud and see if it reminds you of any famous guitarists).
Finally watched “Prometheus”. Awful.
Tonight is TV night at Chez Glyph. Homeland (usually good), Dexter (usually dumb), and Walking Dead (can go either way, really).
i like those books, at least the ones i’ve read. surprisingly, the celine dion one is also pretty good despite appearing, on its face, to be a har har farce.
The Bee Thousand one is a little bit uneven (maybe appropriate, given the subject) but weirdly validating in exploring what makes it so great. And it is inspiring yet another obsessive GbV/Pollard binge (not uncommon for me).
Some of the book’s insights are really good and new to me – actually, there are some bits on nostalgia and reuse/recombination in art, which made me think of Simon Reynolds, which in turn prompted me to look online and see if he had ever written anything on GbV back in the day – which he did, but I am sorry to say he got it so, so, so very wrong (his review of “Under the Bushes, Under the Stars” fundamentally misunderstands what GbV is about by comparing them to Oasis, complaining about their hyper-prolific nature, and missing the underlying ever-present melancholy, among other things) 🙁
Some other insights in the book are ones I have had myself, and tried to articulate to people (probably while in my cups, and unsuccessfully). One in particular had to do with the totality of the “dream domain” that Pollard has created over the years – the fact that if you can successfully “get it”, and get into his headspace, you can sort of see an entire other world the way he does, despite the fact he is using a very nonlinear route to communicate emotions and ideas.
Anyway, if you like the album/band at all, or even just the book series, I’d recommend it.
Besides what Jaybird said about Burn Notice, I’ve watching the Gilmore Girls (up to Season 5), and reading lots of Sandman and some miscellaneous other stuff. Started Morrison’s Supergods today, and Sherwood Smith’s Revenant Eve last night.
There was an instance of a completely ridiculous rule during Thursday’s Lions-Texans game. A Houston runner was tackled and was down at his own 26, but. when the play wasn’t whistled dead, he got up and ran another 74 yards for a “touchdown”. The Lions coach threw the challenge flag to have the play reviewed. Seems OK so far, yes?
But it turns out that
1. All scoring plays are now reviewed.
2. It’s against the rules to throw the challenge flag in two situations:
A. The play is not reviewable (e.g. you can’t challenge pass interference, because that’s a judgment call)
B. The play is going to be reviewed anyway.
This was a case of 2B. So the Lions coach had broken the rules, and because it’s such a serious infraction (unsportsmanlike nagging?) it warrants a double penalty:
P1. 15 yards (Not just five yards like offsides, but the big one, like when you knock someone to the ground after the play is over, so he’s not expecting it or protecting himself), and
P2. Now the refs won’t review the play, no matter how ridiculously they blew the call.
So, because the Lions coach told the refs to do their job when they were going to anyway, the “touchdown” counted, and Houston kicked off from the 50 instead of their 35. Naturally, this was the difference in the game, with Detroit losing in overtime.
Picture the same situation in baseball: A runner is tagged out running from third to home, but the call isn’t made and he scores. The manager of the defending team runs out to argue. The home plate umpire tells him “I was going to ask the other umpires for help, but now I’m not!” Then he awards the runner on first third base, because the manager was being such a big meanie. That’s not going to happen between now and when the sun explodes. Yet another reason the baseball is better than football.
Frankly, this is at least as egregious as the “catching the guy who caught the ball is a touchdown” play in the Green Bay vs Seattle game.
Agreed, but you can’t blame this one on the refs. It’s how the rule is written. Actually, the replacement refs might have screwed up and done something logical instead.
This is why I prefer Pro Wrestling.
When the refs do something absolutely asinine, I know that it’s going somewhere.
Yeah, we were watching that and were kinda confused.
Kinda crappy hand to be dealt, but them’s the rules. Might get the rules changed, might not.
I can bet no other coach will throw the review flag in those circumstances though. 🙂
OTOH, I can’t believe the number of Detroit players standing around assuming the play was over. My high school football days are long, long behind me but I vaguely recall there being a bit of a focus on it not being over until the whistle was blown.
I watched that game with my father. He explained the situation to me. I thought it was hilarious.
Just finished season 1 of Eureka. Will probably start on season 2 sometime today.
Reading Philip K. Dick’s _Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep_. The movie makes so much more sense now.
I liked Eureka. I only saw season one though. I liked the spinoff, wharehouse 13. But only a little because it got kinda old after a while. Warehouse felt a little repetitive.
Let me just say that Burn Notice is awesome.
I just finished Season 6 of Psych. Now I’m going to watch Season 4 of Damages (if you haven’t see any of Damages, Seasons 1 and 3 are awesome).
Maribou is also addicted to Psych. I love the show too… it’s just that she is capable of doing three things at once. My brain, being little, only allows me to do two things at once. (And neither of those things can involve watching television because, seriously, that stuff just grabs my attention and holds it.)
My brain…only allows me to do two things at once
See if you can make sense of the dueling vocal/melody lines in “People Are Leaving” – it’s the 3rd track in this very short medley (5.5 min.) – if you get too impatient, it starts at around the 3:00 mark.
It almost sounds like he had two sad songs he couldn’t decide between, so he sang them both at the same time.
I’m trying to figure out if that works or not.
It does.
Glad to help! 😉
I watch one show at a time, and I watch an episode every evening (I watch another show with my son on the weekends — right now we’re watching Eureka, as we’ve finished the last episode of Warehouse 13 on Netflix). I find it’s a nice way of not doing anything at all, which I think is the point of television shows.
I second the sentiment on Burn Notice. On the subject of USA, I endorse White Collar as well. One of these days I may get around to Covert Affairs. Anyone seen it? USA knows what they’re doing.
I started White Collar a few weeks ago. I’m having trouble getting into it, I’m only on episode 5 or 6.
It took me to the end of the first season (or was it halfseason? 10 eps or so). If you’re not into it by then, it may not be for you.
I hope Expendables 3 has Stephen Segal as the bad guy.
Dude.
Dooooooooooood. You just BLEW my MIND.
There’s a part of me that thinks that there ought to have been a “super bad guy” genre.
Van Damme had *SO* much fun chewing the scenery as The Evil Villain that it made me think about how he should do another movie like that. “But he died.” “Who cares?”
He could just walk around for the entire movie reprising his role from Hard to Kill (“Has anybody seen Ritchie?” BLAM! PUNCH!) and it would totes work.
My Harry Dresden book was waiting on the front stoop when I got home last night!
Sadly, I’ve not yet been able to crack it. Maybe tonight!
I don’t expect to get it until at least a few days into December, so if we can delay the discussion post on it for a week or more that would be ideal.
My knowledge of the book is limited to the following: “It’s really good. Wait, you don’t want to know anything about it.”
I took it with me to work. YOU TOLD ME TO. 😀
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I finished up this book on a CIA guy we had with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on Monday. I’m about to finish this book, the Seal guy’s account of the killing of Bin Laden. Both are interesting. The former from a more human standpoint, the latter for a more technical one.
Jaybird Signal!
A friend of mine says Reza Kahlili is as bogus as Curveball was during the run-up to the War on Iraq. There’s a reason the CIA let him write this book: none of it’s true — but they wish it was. Just enough to give the Revolutionary Guards enough to worry about traitors in their ranks.
I thought the portrayal of the CIA in the book was… not remarkably flattering.
If I were CIA, I would do everything I possibly could to make sure that all of my appearances in the media, any media, were downright Inspector Clouseau-esque.
Yeah, but the Bay of Pigs went too far.
Play the long game.
(No politics.)
CIA director: The beggar was the lookout man for the Commies.
CIA analyst: That is impossible. How can a blind man be a lookout?
CIA director: How can an idiot be a CIA analyst?!
CIA analyst: Well, it’s quite simple really, all he has to do is enlist…
(“Return of the Pink Panther” was a favorite as a kid. “Revenge…” is pretty good too).
Is the planes arriving too late because they fished up the time zones politics?
“But that’s a priceless Steinway!!!”
“Not any more…”
I’m on season 3 of Supernatural. In a text conversation a typo and autocorrect have renamed the main characters Dream and Spam. Season one was questionable, but the story really picked up in season two, I think.
Supernatural is a sort of…I don’t know if I’d call it a “guilty” pleasure, but it’s definitely like a long-form B-movie for me (this may sound like damning with faint praise, but a good B-movie can be a thing of beauty). I sometimes watch with one eye while surfing the web, something I can’t/won’t do with a truly A-level (for me) show.
Jensen Ackles (Dean) turns into a pretty good actor (particularly comedic) over the course of the series, though the actor who plays Sam never gets much better.
The effects are generally top-notch, and actually scary sometimes, and in later seasons the series actually gets sort of ambitious, nicking (IMO) a few ideas from some of the better-regarded Vertigo comics. It isn’t always quite able to fully & satisfyingly follow through on those ideas (the series lacks the strong authorial control of a, say, Whedon) but there is still some strong work to be found (and the Ben Edlund-of-“The Tick”-fame -penned ones are usually a hoot – they have done quite a few comedy and parody eps that are pretty dang funny).
Anyway, a pretty fun show that I am sort of surprised isn’t better known. It seems like it could have been a hit (though I guess it’s been successful enough to run as long as it has).