Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Vote-diddily-ote

I just heard some commentator-head on CNN, talking at Wolf, I think, in their mid-term election redecorated news bunker or whatever it is... Referring to Representative Don Sherwood, he imparted the following words of wisdom, a highly insightful analysis of political strategery...

"What you don't want to do is start off your campaign with an ad with you admitting to cheating on your wife, but denying that you ever beat that woman. That's not what you want to do..."

Man, I *know* the world is far from the best possible, thanks in large part to the great steward of the environment currently sitting in the White House and his team of very special interests, but it sure makes for some magickal inappropriate absurdist laughs, no?

F'in F'd the F up!

Rock the vote, tip the vote over!~

Keep on keepin on~

Monday, November 06, 2006

HEROES: meanwhile...

I've been watching the show on a replayTV delayed schedule, and having to watch the Friday SciFi rebroadcast, cuz the Monday night airtime conflicts with... ummm... this other show I watch...

What show? Well, y'know, what's that really good show that's on Monday nights? That one. Yeah, it's on at the same time, so I had to choose... What's that? You don't know which show I mean? errr... umm...

PRISON BREAK, allright? THERE! I said it! PRISON BREAK!

Yeah, Brett Ratner crapped on the X-MEN franchise, but he manages to cobble together some pretty entertaining televisional candy. The transitions to commercials are really crappy now compared to previous seasons'—you're seeing like cornfields and street intersections and suburban tracts instead of the pipes and tunnels and wetwalls of Fox River, not nearly as cool. Regardless, check it out if you've got some Monday nighttime to kill, preferably with some idiot who's already watching it. =)

Anyhow, HEROES!

Being a hack of a comic book type fanboy, I was a bit annoyed with the show after the first three episodes. I totally dig what the show wants to do, but felt that it was way too clunky. Having Mohinder's voice open the show just screamed UNBREAKABLE to me, too. I got over it soon enough, but, well, do you see how that's kind of annoying? The Nikki storyline w all the mirrors was probably most annoying. Well, that, and Mohinder (apparently) not getting that his dad's lady friend is a mole for Father Knows Best.

When Nikki found the other bodies in the desert, I thought one of them was DL—I think there was a shot of a ring and she seemed to recognize it—and that she had killed him. Then I thought it was DL who had the power, and someone else kiled him, and that he somehow jumped into Nikki to take revenge and hide out. Right up until I saw her "switch over" and go back and get freaky with the future Congressman "Prophet" Petrilli.

A couple episodes ago, tho, the show totally won me over. It was when Nikki was coerced by mobster Linderman into making a sex tape with the flying candidate. I swung over to committing to enjoying HEROES when Petrilli went high altitude on Father Knows Best and his telepathic bouncer and then zipped away. That was pretty kickass. =)

The skidding to a landing by the diner in the desert was pretty good, too.

I'm a little annoyed that the half DNA or RNA string keeps showing up everywhere. At first I kind of liked it, scribbled, or tattooed, but it showed up in the pool when the telepathic detective first manifests. The only way I'll be okay with that is if Hiro's been doing more time travelling to go back in time and give everyone some hints, to prep them for their team-up, give them a subconscious visual to key in on, perhaps even rally around as a team.

Maybe it's a subconscious trigger?

I really like that DL *does* have a power, which totally sets Micah up to be a young supertype, a Tinkerer or Mechanic. I also dig that he took out Nikki, because her Enchantress problem would surely be an issue with a team of do-gooders. All she could be is someone who volunteers for a suicide mission, to "hold the line" somewhere, or take someone else's bullet. That it happened in the episodes about evolution being about survival, and not good and evil, not bad.

Also, DL is just a thief, and not a killer. So he's got the potential to be a good guy. A step up from his schizo wife.

Wishful thinking that she's passed tense, I'm sure. Can't kill off the internet stripper so early in the series, right? And only half of her is chaotic. The other half is a single mom trying her darnedest to raise her kid, right? So, she'll recover from whatever DL did to her by phasing into her abdomen (kinky, no?) and then have to let her dark side take control to find him and their son.

Micah's no dummy. How much does he know about his two moms?

I *do* like seeing the show execute on the DOOM PATROLy superhuman idea of a secondary personality with its own super-abilities. In its kickass surrealist hero days, the PATROL had a superheroine with... I forget how many, but a LOT, of personalities, each with his or her own power. Genius.

The close call/not quite crossovers are all getting pretty annoying. Teases, y'know? And that Hiro's the only one who seems po-mo enough to get that they're in a comic book, and are OF comic books. I mean, Peter as much as SAYS so out loud to the painter when he's placing the paintings in order—"like a comic book!" But they just ignore it. And painter neglects to mention that he actually writes and draws 9TH WONDER...?

*sigh*

Frack. I'm talking myself into being annoyed with the show again.

The time travelling with Hiro is Good. And I love Hiro's direct references to comic books and comic book tradition. I'll allow the choice of character name. It amuses me enough.

I originally thought that Syler (is that how it's spelled? What a crappy name : P) was Father Knows Best. That he must be a newly developed "homo superior" who hooked up with Mohinder's dad early in his research and theorizing and discovered that his particular abilities could be augmented by assimilating (eating, processing, bathing in, taking) the lives of other metahumans. So, he's been using Mohinder's dad's research and map to hunt them down and cut open their heads and extract their brains.

Once I saw Father Knows Best teamed up with another meta, his telepathic enforcer, I felt like the Syler thing broke down. Syler wouldn't be working with anyone else. Or at least, no one would agree to work with Syler, knowing what he was doing. So Father has got to be something else. Maybe government. Maybe associated with some drug company that created a supplement or pain killer or something for pregnant mothers in the 60s that was taken off the shelves due to some wacked out side effects. Turns out that the children of mothers who took this whatever-it-is have a very high chance of developing zany powers. (See SCANNERS =)

And Father is tracking them down. Catalogging them? Researching? Maybe putting together a network of agents to call on for the government? Maybe policing them? I don't know. Will have to see more still. Thing is, he openly plays the menacing guy with some of hits meta-marks.

Maybe he can make duplicates of himself.

How freaking annoying is it that Peter keeps saying he can fly? He's a mimic, not a flyer. Dumbass!

*sigh*

Again with the annoying...

When I started rambling, I really did like the show.

I'm so confused.

Keep on keepin on~

Remind Your World: Vote Tomorrow!

For info on registration and polling locations, check out Election Impact. (The locator should be good for locations by zip code anywhere in the 50 states.)

Thanks to Camstar for keeping me on my political toes. =)

Keep on keepin on~

Living With War—Neil Young

The image link will take you to YooGle. It's available in Quicktime from the Neil Young site as well.

Also, have a look at "Because Of Iraq..."

Thanks to BUSHFLASH for doing the online legwork. Go there to check out Eric's consisently thought-provoking and insightful words and pictures...

Jersey represent!

Keep on rockin in the free world~

Saturday, November 04, 2006

tussin' along at home...

Robitussin (aka CVS's Tussin)... Gotta love it.

Especially if you walk home at 2 in the morning in what was reportedly 35 degrees and then cough yourself awake repeatedly a few hours after you crash. I think I shall have to take a bottle with me to the movies tonight when I go back for more PUSHER fun.

Because of my serial hacking, I ended up bailing on a friend's short film shoot. I was gonna be a gaffer type I guess, y'know—tote that film barge, lift that film bail, or whatnot... I really didn't have anything else "on deck" so the morning sorta slipped away wrapped up in bed, dosed with tussin, and flipping thru comic books.

I spent a chunk of the afternoon looking up TV repair places, but the most favorable-looking candidates are all out of business, or at least, have changed their frickin phone numbers. Stupid internetz. Can anyone recommend a repair shop or service? This is not a speciality HD/flat screen/plasma/projection TV (there were a couple services that specialized in house calls, but only on the level of "home theater" equipment, bleah). It's just a large tube, with a flat (not curved) surface. I tried calling Philips's help line, which according to their website was supposed to be operating today, but got a message I'd have to call back during their regular weekday hours. I was hoping to get some leads by getting the names of local authorized Philips service whatchamacallits...

Not to be.

Once I got myself consistently vertical (I could look up repair info online from the futon w the laptop, and the phone is cordless =), I pretty much puttered around the homestead all day... Assembling some organizer-type Target purchases and moving my stuff around... half-assedly, but making baby steps progresswise in the whole settling-in campaign. I put together my Ikea boxy shelf thing in my room last weekend (or was it two weekends ago?), but haven't yet populated it. That's coming along now...

Slowly...

Bleah. Allright, mostly I've been wrapped in a blanket in front of one screen or another watching my stories, nyeah : P

Big Saturday. Hoo-ah!

Keep on keepin on~

check out the PUSHER films@the Brattle!

Just got home from seeing the first film—PUSHER—and it is frickin kick@ss non-stop drug dealing underworld harshness! *With* some snappy dealer-buddy dialogue. *And* it happens in Copenhagen, with subtitles! So it'll feel like culture! =)
This film plays again at 1pm Saturday, and the second and third PUSHERs play as late shows Saturday (2 & 3) and Sunday (just 3). Check them out if you can. I imagine they'll each work just fine as standalone rollercoasters thru hell. Don't miss big screen opportunity to see this Danish Tony Soprano-meets-Tom Sizemore drug-dealing nogoodnik try to get himself out of the worst kind of jam...

Fun!

Check out the trailer and the Brattle schedule and get thee to the theater!

Y'know, unless you've got, like, something, y'know, real and human going on...~

Keep on keepin on~