Announcing the Media Carnivores Podcast
So here’s a really fun new project! Seattle author Brent Hartinger and I are starting a podcast called “Media Carnivores.” The first episode is online or you can subscribe directly from iTunes. There’s a Twitter feed for the episodes too. So what are “media carnivores?” Brent and I coined this term, so we get to decide! Media carnivores devour media–books, movies, television, plays. Everything. This podcast is our chance to talk about it. Not just about the shows we’re watching. But about what it all means. About where media is heading, as best as we can guess it. Sometimes that means talking about our Read more…
Where will House of Cards Season 3 leave us?
[Warning, this blog post is full of spoilers for House of Cards, not to mention The Player, All About Eve, Breaking Bad, and The Great Gatsby. Proceed with caution] House of Cards is great television. Season 1 is better than Season 2, I thought, but both seasons are very good. The drama is excellent, even if the show’s reading of politics is a little absurd. But that’s like complaining that Lost didn’t show what it was really like to crash on a tropical island. If you’ve watched the show (and again, this is your last chance to avoid spoilers) Read more…
These Things I Have Watched
Downton Abbey. It's on PBS. I didn't intend to get hooked on a British show about a rich English estate just before WWI, but I did. Good stuff. Think Gosford Park, without the murder mystery, where servants and the family get equal screen time. Hall Pass. This was a pretty good movie about men behaving badly. It was funny, though some jokes thudded. But it avoided what could have been egregious mistakes. One of its best qualities was its focus on the women. From the previews, it looked like it would all be Owen Wilson and Jason Sudekis, but Jenna Read more…
Speaking of good questions … here’s some really good unanswered questions from Lost.
via collegehumor.com Anyone want to take a stab?
The Problem with Lost’s Last Season. BEWARE. Loaded With Spoilers.
So … Lost. I was disappointed last season, but I told myself, the writers know where they're going, and we'll see a spectacular last season. Yes, the writers knew where they were going. But this season has been really disappointing. Lots of spoilers below. If you haven't seen it, and don't want to know, don't read. If you haven't seen it, and do want to know, be prepared to go "what?!" a lot. Intellectually, I like the Sliding Doors style look at the characters. But there's a lot of flaws with it. Let's take Sawyer as our best example. Sawyer is Read more…
Quick wrap-up
I'm happy to say that my first meeting was a great success! I've been appointed to two committees, both rather close to my passion. The first committee is the Zoo Liaison Committee. My first job was at the Zoo, and I have had many good times there, from Zoolights to sleepovers in the aquarium (as a kid) to a wonderful homecoming dinner my senior year in high school by the shark tank. The second committee is the Capital Improvement Committee, which deals with the improvements from the 2005 capital bond. This will be very interesting, because 2005 was the year Read more…
Scattered thoughts: The Arts
I've been negligent on posting here as well. MusicJust discovered the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album. What an odd combination of musicians! And with a pretty great result. I've been listening to their cover of Gone Gone Gone by the Everly Brothers. Here's the Everly Brothers performing it. It's a really fun pop song, though in this case the highlight is definitely the dancers. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35YKLemYPtM?wmode=transparent] TelevisionMary's been watching Weeds and whenever I drop in for a few episodes I've really liked it. I've been interested in Glee and FlashForward but have decided to save both for DVD. The only TV Read more…
TV’s back!
After a summer cable hiatus, Mary and I have re-hooked up our cable. Originally, we’d cut cable out to save money, and we watched shows via DVD, Hulu, and iTunes. But we found a good compromise. By switching to Click (something I’d planned on doing anyway) we were able to get cheaper Internet and pay Click about $12/month for broadcast channels over cable. This works perfectly. Our monthly costs won’t rise, and we can watch The Office (which was great tonight, by the way!), Lost, How I Met Your Mother, Saturday Night Live (the only show we couldn’t watch in Read more…
Freaks and Geeks, all 18 episodes worth …
Mary and I finished the complete series of Freaks and Geeks this weekend. Unfortunately, that means we're only talking about 18 episodes, since no one watched the show when it was on 9 years ago. But I really really enjoyed it. And I laughed virtually non-stop. The characters, like the characters on The Wire, were strong enough that I thought of them as real people, independent from the show. Here's a couple short clips, one from the first episode, and another from one of the last. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVSm8T-uXrw?wmode=transparent] [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUMf_iQQpcA?wmode=transparent] I'll miss this show.
^