Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Speak like a child

Out of all the things that have happened in the past year or three, there has been a single thing that made me feel like a real adult, made me realize I'm on the brink of being a "grown-up". Not getting my first paycheck, not starting college, not signing the lease for my first place, but driving around downtown Milwaukee. In the driver's seat, looking at the gigantic buildings and navigating the sprawling intersections, something I had only experienced from the backseat of a mini-van in the past. I'm not sure what that says about me.

Roommate the Second is working through a bout with what, if I had to make a guess, is probably typhoid. I fear that I may be the next to feel Disease's withered claw grasp my throat.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Put your pants on, and you're ready!

Autumn is the only season worth having. Summer's hot and gross, winter's cold and hard to drive in, and spring's wet and might as well not be a season. In the middle, you have the calm, reasonable fall. Temperature is no longer a check on fashion, and all the best TV shows start up. Leaves are pretty and I don't have to rake them. We don't need fans going through the house because we're too cheap to switch on the air conditioner.

Sergei Eisenstein, best known for his film Battleship Potemkin (1925) also made this other movie called Strike (1925) which is also way effed-up. It promotes collectivism and utilizes the "Soviet montage" method, but it also has a shot of workers being massacred intercut with a cow being butchered. Like, it's struggling and its brains are oozing out and everything. Subtlety is not Eisenstein's forte, but for the time it was all revolutionary. Classical Film Criticism is looking to be the standout class of the semester.

House tonight was amazing (but then, it always is (sorry, is my fanaticism showing?)) Taub's leaving, which sucks, because he is THE MAN. And oh my god, House cooking with Wilson is one of the standout scenes so far, if only for the ball jokes.

Castle appears to be bringing its A-game for the second season, because both episodes so far have been great. And did that one suspect with the ankle thing look like a coked-up Alan Rickman? And Nathan Fillion put on this dreamy awesome smug grin towards the end that cracked me up.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Thoughts on the Heroes premiere - IN REAL TIME.

Hey kids! Watching the premiere of Heroes Volume 5: Redemption? Be sure to print this note out so you can have my thoughts while watching it! It's like Mystery Science Theater 3000, but with more cursing!


1:20 - So the new villains are the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Except one is an old guy and their leader is the guy who sells weed in the back alley.

3:30 - We just buried our friend and vowed vengeance. Now, let's go to the carnival.

4:50 -
Amy: What do your parents do?
Claire: My mom breeds championship dogs and my dad hunts down and kills mutants. I mean, shit, uh, he does government work. Yeah, that's guaranteed to raise no eyebrows.

7:05 - What? Yes you have! You've never ever expressed attraction to Hiro's sister ever.

10:00 - So Peter is Beast now. Huh.

10:52 - Does the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies work on Heroes or something? That's surprisingly well-planned product placement.

11:26 - Claire's under attack! Bet it's a dream sequence!

11:27 - Called it.

13:10 - Would you just look at all the rapport these two have! I feel like I already know guy-who's-friends-with-Peter.

13:35 - OMG Kitty

15:40 - "Plan?! What plan?!" Finally, Bennet says what the viewers have been thinking for the last two seasons.

17:00 - That far shot of Bennet drowning in his car cracked me up for some reason.

17:30 - Jeez, Danko, you could have hit Bennet when you shot the window out! Trained professional my ass.

27:30 - What? Your plan's not working Angela? The plan where Sylar kills your son, Nathan, then you make Matt use his erratic (at best) powers to make Sylar, a psychopath who can steal other people's powers, believe that he's Nathan? That plan? That brilliant plan? Because let me tell you, I am filled with shock and disbelief to find that this isn't playing out the way you thought it would!

28:40 -
Mr. Bennet: Hi, I was just talking to your roommate.
Claire: Cool. So what kept you?
Mr. Bennet: Tracy tried to kill me again. I mean, shit, uh, car trouble. Yeah, that's guaranteed to raise no eyebrows.

31:05 - She can show the future through the tattoos on her body? Cool, but I think it's just an excuse to have a topless lady on screen.

31:40 - Oh it's Samuel's power. Yeah, it's an excuse to have a topless lady on screen.

35:50 - OMG OMG The Haitian's back! Holy shit! He's doing the thing! OMG OMG

36:20 - OMG OMG Peter has the exact same ring tone I have!

38:20 - Called it. Danko's dead.

40:40 - Taking bets. Gretchen's power is the ability to play Guitar Hero REALLY WELL.

48:10 - Sylar set up shop in Matt's head? That's actually kinda cool.

49:50 - Oh this is just pathetic, Mr. Bennet. It's the saddest I've ever seen you.

53:00 - I'm being shown an ad for condoms. I'm watching Heroes for God's sake, I don't think I'm in your target audience.

58:40 - OH SNAP, Ando's macking on Hiro's sister!

1:01:15 - lol, Matt's being an asshole.

1:04:15 - He's way fast. No joke. And awesome with knives for reals.

1:08:23 - (Regarding Peter and Knife-Guy's fight) Bahaha this is retarded.

1:08:40 - Ray Park should fire his agent - he's been getting his ass kicked all night in this show.

1:11:10 - OMG this girl used "defenestrated" in a sentence. That's my kind of gal.

1:13:37 - I'm looking at my notes for this section and all it really says is "I <3 Sylar" over and over again.

1:14:40 - OMG Sylar just gave the best :o face. I need a screencap, stat!

1:16:30 -
Sylar: OMG He's lying, totally lying. Look at his lying face, he's such a liar liar pants on fire, nose as long as a telephone wire.
Matt: Shut up!

1:16:55 - Come on, bro! All the cool kids are using their horrific mind control powers! Don't be a square!

1:17:05 - Come on, you're really worried about the goddamn water guy screwing your wife? Really? For serious?

1:19:10 - Someone fire Ali Larter already.



And that's that.

And in case the guy who tried to sell me his home-recorded rap CDs on my way home from the sandwich place is reading this, you seriously need to get a better publicist. You've been reduced to begging on the streets. Judging by the CD cover, you've got a decent graphic design artist working for you, so the rest of your marketing team needs to step up.

When I was like, 14, someone told me I was good at writing and I believed them, so here we are.

I've kinda been wanting to get back into the blogging thing for awhile, and now that a fair amount has changed since where I last left off (for instance, my taste in design), it seemed appropriate timing. We'll see if I get bored of it or not.

Hypnotiq is the least offensive of the alcohol I've sampled since gaining my powers. That is to say, it tastes merely like cough syrup as opposed to poison. But I imagine poison is an acquired taste. I was hardly inebriated by it, but that's because Roommate the First and The Grecian were hoarding it. And I guess someone had to keep the two of them out of trouble as we wandered the streets of East Side Milwaukee at midnight.

This of course, led to Hot Dogs. Perfectly natural. I had this chili cheese hot dog, because I make poor decisions about my health, and DAMNIT I'm enjoying this fast metabolism thing while it lasts. The Grecian ordered something called the "Dogfather" which really tickled me at the time. Again, drinking.

Worked in music again. Pretty dull stuff. Person over the phone wanted to know if we had a CD. The only details he could provide was that it was a collection of German dancing music circa 1600. Dude, the sets of People Who Are German, Dances, and Things That Happened in the Seventeenth Century are all pretty effing huge, and I assure you, the intersection of these sets is no less vast. So maybe google it and get back to me.

But you really came here for my thoughts on television.

OMG House came back! With probably the best remake of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest I've seen! House was being House and I didn't have to deal with Thirteen! Bring on next week! Also, I guess Cameron is leaving. I'm not exactly grieving this loss here, since she was way more hot as a brunette hasn't done anything of import for a while.

Castle was fun, and more people should probably be watching it. Heroes was Heroes as has been established.

I just realized that this blogger template kinda looks like the current FOX packaging.

I caught the premiere for Flashforward, which turned out to be fun, but I'm still worried that it'll turn into a Lost clone. And I'm not all that big a fan of Lost. I'm picturing the screening of the first episode to the ABC execs and they're all, "Damnit Goyer, Lost had a polar bear, and Desperate Housewives had the thing with the ostrich, find yourself a kangaroo or something or else its your ass!"

Roommate the First has a strange girl in his room and I'm resisting all urges to pry. And oh my god, he just closed the door to his room literally as I AM TYPING THIS.