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1.Spent a portion of the morning wandering about on the top of the roof of one of the buildings at work, with about ten contractors, determining where to put a huge air conditioning unit for a data center. Lovely day too. Sometimes, I do love my job. It's fun to wander about a roof discussing how to pull an air-conditioner on top of it. Actually, I'm being serious here, not sarcastic at all.
2. Sports: In other news, was watching the World Cup Soccer Match on Saturday. Boring. It was the English vs. US game - the most exciting bit was when the poor English goalie screwed up royally and let the Americans score. They discussed it the entire game. Because nothing else happened. Apparently this NEVER happens in the World Cup. It was an amateur mistake - that no one makes at that level. Really feel sorry for the poor guy. The American Commentators at half-time stated that if they were this guy, they just wouldn't go home. If he'd been from the US, no big. We aren't that into it over here, but over there? Sort of the equivalent of Eli Manning or Derek Jeter well, screwing up. Spoke to Dadster during it - and he's become enamored of this new pitcher for the Washington Nationals - who apparently has a fastball that clocks at 100 miles per hour or something like that. Young guy, just a few years out of high school and has so far pitched a no-hitter. Have to be honest - baseball is more interesting to watch than soccer and football - because more happens, you watch the strategy. You see the pitches. Soccer like football - you spend most of the game watching people wander about and then run about.
Few scores are made. Was a lot more fun to play actually. Basketball is more fun to watch. Soccer and hockey? More fun to play. That said - the US vs. England game was hyped up mainly because of the BP vs. US bit. Apparently England has quite a bit to lose financially in both jobs and stock pension plans if BP goes under (actually so do a lot of Americans), while the US is facing the worst ecological disaster in history - four states have been impacted. And there are worries about a good portion of the Southeastern Coastline. All this tells me? CARS ARE EVIL! OIL IS EVIL!!! Me hate both. And am very happy my life's work consists of working for a non-oil fueled commuter rail-road, and abating oil spills, etc from the island.
As far as Sports Dramas go - the best is Friday Night Lights - love that show. This season is by far the best. It's focusing more on the team dynamics, and race/class issues than the previous seasons did. The previous seasons were a bit more soapy actually.
3. Was watching the commentary to Jeremiah Crichton (possibly the worst Farscape ever) last night - on Farscape DVDs. Best commentary ever! It's entitled when bad things happen to good shows? And they start off by saying how this sort of happens with tv series, sooner or later you'll do an episode that just stinks. Listening to the commentary reminded me of a couple of things:
* A comment by Paul Schrader during a radio interview - where Schrader who started out as a film critic and later became a screenwriter and director - states that you have to turn off the inner critic in order to write. He compared the roles to mortician or pregnant woman. When you write something or direct - you are creating, giving birth and worrying over it's birth, when you critique something - you are tearing it apart, dissecting it, giving a post-morteum in some cases. If you bring the mortician into the birthing room - you kill the baby, it never gets born.
*Commentary on Whedon and his works by the fandom (no one in particular, mean this generally). I think fans have the unfortunate tendency to put the object of their devotion on a pedestal. Adore and worship. Idealize. Forgetting that the individual or series is human and flawed. That this person does screw up and often, like all of us. And like all of us has some really ugly warts here and there. Whedon like all writers and directors has done a few stinkers. Alfred Hitchcock certainly did - there's a film starring Shirly Mclain that got panned. Also, Steve Spielgberg was blasted for a few of his films, 1941 and Always come to mind. And yes, as in all things, there were folks out there who adored those films. Whedon likewise doesn't always hit gold, actually like most of us, when he does it is miraculous and rare. But not only do fans expect this, a few seem incapable of handling any criticism of the writer or his works. Personally? I like critiquing good writers - I learn from their mistakes, and from their successes. As far as Whedon's S8 goes? I think it's too early to know for certain - but I'm only saying that because I had similar issues with the Astonishing X-men during its at times seemingly endless run. Gave up on it too, at one point. The Danger room arc gave the Twilight Arc a run for its money and even Whedon admitted it was ill-advised (although I will state Whedon at his worst, is better than Meltzer on any day of the week. Meltzer wrote Buffy like he would a Superman comic book and it just does not work. The man has no sense of nuance and is far too literal to be trusted with the Buffy verse.). Also it too took forever, because Whedon kept taking off to write a tv series or movie in the middle of if, leaving readers hanging for six-eight months. He must have been pulling in good numbers or Marvel would have kicked him to the curb at some point. That said, the last arc of X-men or rather the last two arcs, Torn and the one after it - were great stuff. Whedon requires lots and lots of patience, unfortunately. He's a choppy plotter, horrific at pacing, has a short attention span and jumps to other things in the middle of it, loves horror noir, tends to hire uneven talent, and is often self-indulgent, and not to mention far too obsessed with sexual violence for his own good. But, if you can handle those bits...no problem. Personally? Depends on my mood.
2. Sports: In other news, was watching the World Cup Soccer Match on Saturday. Boring. It was the English vs. US game - the most exciting bit was when the poor English goalie screwed up royally and let the Americans score. They discussed it the entire game. Because nothing else happened. Apparently this NEVER happens in the World Cup. It was an amateur mistake - that no one makes at that level. Really feel sorry for the poor guy. The American Commentators at half-time stated that if they were this guy, they just wouldn't go home. If he'd been from the US, no big. We aren't that into it over here, but over there? Sort of the equivalent of Eli Manning or Derek Jeter well, screwing up. Spoke to Dadster during it - and he's become enamored of this new pitcher for the Washington Nationals - who apparently has a fastball that clocks at 100 miles per hour or something like that. Young guy, just a few years out of high school and has so far pitched a no-hitter. Have to be honest - baseball is more interesting to watch than soccer and football - because more happens, you watch the strategy. You see the pitches. Soccer like football - you spend most of the game watching people wander about and then run about.
Few scores are made. Was a lot more fun to play actually. Basketball is more fun to watch. Soccer and hockey? More fun to play. That said - the US vs. England game was hyped up mainly because of the BP vs. US bit. Apparently England has quite a bit to lose financially in both jobs and stock pension plans if BP goes under (actually so do a lot of Americans), while the US is facing the worst ecological disaster in history - four states have been impacted. And there are worries about a good portion of the Southeastern Coastline. All this tells me? CARS ARE EVIL! OIL IS EVIL!!! Me hate both. And am very happy my life's work consists of working for a non-oil fueled commuter rail-road, and abating oil spills, etc from the island.
As far as Sports Dramas go - the best is Friday Night Lights - love that show. This season is by far the best. It's focusing more on the team dynamics, and race/class issues than the previous seasons did. The previous seasons were a bit more soapy actually.
3. Was watching the commentary to Jeremiah Crichton (possibly the worst Farscape ever) last night - on Farscape DVDs. Best commentary ever! It's entitled when bad things happen to good shows? And they start off by saying how this sort of happens with tv series, sooner or later you'll do an episode that just stinks. Listening to the commentary reminded me of a couple of things:
* A comment by Paul Schrader during a radio interview - where Schrader who started out as a film critic and later became a screenwriter and director - states that you have to turn off the inner critic in order to write. He compared the roles to mortician or pregnant woman. When you write something or direct - you are creating, giving birth and worrying over it's birth, when you critique something - you are tearing it apart, dissecting it, giving a post-morteum in some cases. If you bring the mortician into the birthing room - you kill the baby, it never gets born.
*Commentary on Whedon and his works by the fandom (no one in particular, mean this generally). I think fans have the unfortunate tendency to put the object of their devotion on a pedestal. Adore and worship. Idealize. Forgetting that the individual or series is human and flawed. That this person does screw up and often, like all of us. And like all of us has some really ugly warts here and there. Whedon like all writers and directors has done a few stinkers. Alfred Hitchcock certainly did - there's a film starring Shirly Mclain that got panned. Also, Steve Spielgberg was blasted for a few of his films, 1941 and Always come to mind. And yes, as in all things, there were folks out there who adored those films. Whedon likewise doesn't always hit gold, actually like most of us, when he does it is miraculous and rare. But not only do fans expect this, a few seem incapable of handling any criticism of the writer or his works. Personally? I like critiquing good writers - I learn from their mistakes, and from their successes. As far as Whedon's S8 goes? I think it's too early to know for certain - but I'm only saying that because I had similar issues with the Astonishing X-men during its at times seemingly endless run. Gave up on it too, at one point. The Danger room arc gave the Twilight Arc a run for its money and even Whedon admitted it was ill-advised (although I will state Whedon at his worst, is better than Meltzer on any day of the week. Meltzer wrote Buffy like he would a Superman comic book and it just does not work. The man has no sense of nuance and is far too literal to be trusted with the Buffy verse.). Also it too took forever, because Whedon kept taking off to write a tv series or movie in the middle of if, leaving readers hanging for six-eight months. He must have been pulling in good numbers or Marvel would have kicked him to the curb at some point. That said, the last arc of X-men or rather the last two arcs, Torn and the one after it - were great stuff. Whedon requires lots and lots of patience, unfortunately. He's a choppy plotter, horrific at pacing, has a short attention span and jumps to other things in the middle of it, loves horror noir, tends to hire uneven talent, and is often self-indulgent, and not to mention far too obsessed with sexual violence for his own good. But, if you can handle those bits...no problem. Personally? Depends on my mood.
