Spontaneous Musings

1)So far I adore the new tv series Smash - this week's episode was better than last week's. ( Smash review, vague spoilers, also referencing tonight's Glee, which wasn't quite as good. )

2) There's another mid-season replacement that I'm excited about - Jason Issacs (you know him as Draco Malfoy's Dad in the Harry Potter films) portrays a man who's split his consciousness in two - and isn't sure which world is real. He has had a car crash with his wife and son. In one reality his wife survives. In the other his son survives. He closes his eyes and he is in the other reality. He doesn't know which reality is real. He's a detective. So it is episodic in that sense, with a mystery to solve each week but the catch is - the man is living two lives and is aware of both. What innovative idea. It's called AWAKE and premiers in March. Definitely one to watch out for.

3)In personal news?( Read more... )

4) Mark Watches...I'm still reading, but close to giving up. ( my issues with Mark Watches )

5) After downloading both Adelle 's album 21 and Florence and The Machine's Lung's last night and listening to them at work today, came to the conclusion that Florence and The Machine is a lot more interesting and was robbed. Adelle got old fast. She has three good songs on her album, Somebody to Love, Rolling in the Deep and Rumor has it. But everything else feels repetitive. Reminds me a lot of Amy Whinehouse and Christina Aguilerra vocally - that deep multi-layered voice. Lady Gaga's voice is similar. Goes up and down the scales, yet tends to be a deep alto. I love altos and bass, not a fan of high soprano. Meanwhile...Paul McCartney's Wings Greatest Hits is also quite good, diverse and not repetitive. It doesn't sound the same. My hunt for a perfect mix is music that does not sound the same.

Florence and the Machine does remind me a great deal of The Cranberries though sound wise, has that same psuedo British/Irish Gaillic sound, not that they are, really have no idea, but they have that lyrical feel...and the lyrics haunt in the same way. Not a bad thing, I rather liked the Cranberries.

( my weird eclectic music tastes )

Quickly, assuming I can write anything quickly on this thing, but bed does beckon. I think I put it off, because I dread work tomorrow. Not always. Just at the moment.

*Glee - season finale was rather good in places, the focus on the Rachel Berry and Finn romance still isn't working that well. And how they wrapped up a few plot-lines did not make much sense.

( spoilerish )


House - season finale.

While last year's House season finale blew me away, I loved it. This year's was the polar opposite. Actually the whole season was a bit lack-lustre in the writing department. Several episodes either jumped the shark or came very close to it. Doris Egan? Who knew your departure after last year's season's finale would have this big an effect. Egan was co-executive producer and show-runner last year, she left to do other things. And boy did we notice.

Each episode leading up to the finale, with the possible exception of the episode that focused solely on Amber Tamblyn's character - Master's departure, was increasingly uneven and jarring.
Culminating in an angst ridden finale that ...while it made sense to a degree, was difficult to watch and at times cringe-worthy. Kudos to Hugh Laurie, Robert Scean Leonard and the gal who plays Cuddy for making it mildly watchable. If it weren't for Hugh Laurie - I'd have given up on the series five episodes ago.

( spoilers )

Should make dinner soon. Have several things taping via DVR tonight...amongst them, yes, The Lady Gaga Monster Ball Concert in Madison Square Garden on HBO - it should be noted that the only other concert I taped and watched in recent memory was Madonna's Truth or Dare. Okay maybe not the only one. There's been other's I'm sure. Not a huge fan of going to concerts - find them noisy, overly crowded and not conducive to hearing let alone appreciating the actual music. There are exceptions. The best concert that I've ever been to - was in Wembley Stadium outside London, England in 1987, with Peter Gabriel - we had to stay seated, that is until surprise, surprise, out of the blue Kate Bush appeared and sang the last five numbers with Gabriel as an encore duet. Everyone stood up in unison, roared and light matches and Gabriel threw himself into the crowd and they caught him. Was quite the moment. Far and away better than the Pink Floyd reunion tour in 1988 at Denver Stadium. Or Aimee Mann's concert in NY. I wish I saw U2 at Red Rocks in 1986, but oh well. I like live music, I am just allergic to huge crowds, cheap beer (literally unless gluten free - I think Rolling Rock (which was all the rage, because we hated Coors) may have done me in), stadium food (see beer), and smoke.. and background noise and bad stereo feedback. This may explain why I hate fan conventions and avoid them like the plague.


But enuf of that. To the interesting stuff, before I race off to make myself something to eat. Sigh, I feel like I'm always eating. This would explain the expanding waistline, wouldn't it?

1. Glee - sigh. Hmmm...apparently they can only create one great episode a month or maybe every two months? This week's was sloppily written. On all counts. Bad bad episode. ( vague spoilers )

Noticed the widely variant reviews on Harry Potter in the press...and once again am reminded that a constant regarding entertainment or expressions of art is that no matter how much you love it - someone out there, possibly a very close friend or relative - hates it with a blinding passion or is highly critical of it. And if you're really lucky, doesn't know why. If they do know why...run, don't walk, away from that conversation. But do not under any circumstances engage or listen to the reasons - not if you want to stay friends or continue to enjoy whatever it is they are ripping apart. And trust me, no tv writer, comic book writer, movie, book, tv show, fictional character, piece of music, or painting is worth losing a friend over or anyone for that matter. Of course the opposite rings true as well...no matter how much you hate something, some one out there, possibly a very close friend or relative loves it with a passion. Debating these things is a waste of time or so I've discovered. And while it's all good and swell to say that we must be tolerant of others views like the mature adults that we are and...it's easy to live up to.. until you read or listen to a really bad review of something you've fallen madly and somewhat irrationally in love with, or read a glowing review of something that you want to rip to shreds because it makes you see red just thinking about it. Rational thought? It left the building some time ago, even if you or rather in this case, I, refuse to acknowledge it. ;-)

Speaking of...apparently me and roz_k are the only ones on lj (that I'm aware of) that enjoyed last night's Glee? Okay. I admittedly don't expect that much from it. Certainly not a dance or music or song expert. My talents lie in other areas. I just want cheery and mindless entertainment, that occasionally makes me laugh, as well as smile, and it delivers. But I did not know that Ryan Murphy wrote and produced Popular - you remember Popular, right? It was the other snarky teen high school series that was on the WB along with Buffy. Their idol was Gwenyth Paltrow. (I know, odd. But I don't mind Gwenyth Paltrow all that much.. ) What charms me about Glee is the wicked satire combined with the gleeful musical numbers. I was entertained. Although will admit that the last number was a bit too busy. And Nowadays....lacked the panache. Plus, so not a fan of Seal. But hey - Conjunction, Conjunction, What's Your Function! And Make them Laugh....hee.

Watching...Raising Hope which is an amusing working class comedy that is a bit more like My Name is Earl than Roseanne. Absurdist humor as opposed to snark or slapstick.

Grey's Anatomy - last week was quite good. ( vague spoilers )

Nothing else all that memorable to report. Or rather there is, but I doubt you watch it. ;-)

Came home from work with a horrifically bad back ache, neck ache, and sick headache, promptly used ice packs, heating pads, and aleve to stop it. Didn't really recede until I took the aleve.
Also did a little watercoloring on my new picture. My current goal is to put together a children's book for my neice - possibly in time for her birthday, since I doubt I'll make Xmas. Have two more to do..plus have to write the script.

The DVD player finally died. Or at least I think it died. I tried playing two different netflix discs and got a Disc Error. Then put in two discs that I own and don't care about (Chicago and Bride and Prejudice) which also came up with disc error. This means new DVD player. Great. Just what I want to do. And getting it out from under the DVR box (which is huge) and plugging in a new one - nightmare. What I would give to have a techy friend and/or relative who lived nearby to help me with this. But my techy friends do not live within shooting distance of me. ME? Not techy. I think watching Big Love killed it. I'd blame Farscape - but I was able to watch quite a bit after Farscape, including all of Dexter. No, it was definitely Big Love. Oh well, it was close to eight years old - these things don't last long. Time was - we could fix them, now, not so much. Have to buy a new one. We live in a throw-away society. Nothing is built to last. Because people are busy making something cooler and less durable to take its place. I do have time to do it - am taking Monday off as a personal day, and I get election day off - to vote. I don't want to vote - for two reasons - a) don't like anyone. and b) every time I vote they call me for jury duty.

Although the governor race this year is certainly entertaining: we have "the rent is 2 damn high" party - with a guy running on it who doesn't have to pay any rent and has no idea how much his rent actually is, Kristen Davis - the madame who provided Eliot Spitzer - the former governor with his prostitutes (she decided that she knew more about running a business than Spitzer or his successor David Patterson did), Carl Palladino (the Tea Party Candidate - who is certifiable and literally pissed off everyone except well other people in the Tea Party, the Tea Party is starting to remind me of the John Birch Society), and Andrew Cumo who is running on two tickets, if he loses on one, he can always win on the other. There are others, but those are the highlights.

Watching Modern Family - which made me laugh - even though what happened was technically speaking cringeworthy in the embarrassment department. Taping Project Runway - which flist already spoiled me on. (Guys if you want to rant about a tv show, be careful of spoiling those of us who haven't seen it yet.) So as a result, am sort of ambivalent. I've been more or less ambivalent all season long because none of the designers strike me as remotely talented or worth
watching and clearly coached to play up the drama. (I liked Gretchen and Sarah for making fun of that aspect - Sarah- "this show is just about torturing designers." Gretchen - "all about the Drama". Sigh. Yes to both. What happened to the interesting art? This stuff looks like something I'd see out a home economics class.) This show lost its credibility three seasons ago. I probably won't watch it after this season. It's become more emotionally manipulative reality tv show and less artistic how-to contest, I prefer the latter, the former bores and grates on my nerves. And yes, people it is totally scripted and edited. (They have writers, they just don't pay them benefits.)

Television highlights this week, or rather tv shows that I actually watched and entertained me were: (it should be noted that I have not watched Supernatural, Caprica, Nikita, Terriers (which will probably join Caprica soon in the too brilliant for tv, thus canceled prematurely category),
Luther, and the Event yet.)

* Glee - ( spoilers )

* Raising Hope - still enjoying this odd little show, that has a lot of heart wrapped into a witty package. The cast is highly appealing.

*Grey's Anatomy - ( for spoilers and a bit regarding the writing out of the lesbian couples on tv shows )

* Vampire Diaries - say what you will about this show, it is definitely the fastest paced tv show on at the moment. It's bizarre. The show is written like Passions, dialogue lifted out of a bad Harlequin novel (which I've read - I don't critique things I haven't read myself), and soapy as all get out at times, but man, does it move. You are never bored ...okay maybe during Elena and Stefan's scenes, but they don't last that long...get up to go to the bathroom, come back, and you are back to the action. Also it is highly entertaining and fun. Like cotton candy or crack. (People were comparing True Blood to crack or cotton candy, uh, no, that's Vampire Diaries. You can't write meta on Vampire Diaries - okay, I take that back - yes you can, you can write meta on anything, but Vampire Diaries is unlikely to be discussed by critics and scholars...while True Blood already is. Don't believe me? I can find links. The Satire of the Christian Right alone is
fodder for a meta. But True Blood is on HBO - it can do that. Vampire Diaries is on the CW - it can't. Plus True Blood is aimed at the 25-45 audience, Vampire is aimed at the 12-25 year old audience, big difference. (I say this knowing full well that I am much older than the tween audience to which the show is aimed at.) That said? True Blood is poorly paced. At least the two seasons I watched were. Slow. I was very bored during some of those orgy scenes. Alan Ball could learn a thing or two from Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec regarding pacing. Just saying.

( very very vague spoilers )

*The Good Wife - the best political drama on tv. Actually I think it may well be the best drama on commericial tv at the moment. Top-notch cast. You can't get better than this cast for a network tv series. (Note I'm ignoring premium channel shows like HBO's Boardwalk Empire or Clash of Thrones.) And the layers upon layers, in depth character stories, and how each case reflects bits and pieces of those characters... brilliant. It also does a marvelous job of depicting what it is like to be female in this world and the games we have to play each day. Gender politics big time.

And topical in it's legal cases. It's not a procedural. The legal cases are mainly there for exploration of characters or defining characters - much like House. Except this show is better written than House. There's a lot more going on here. And the acting is so subtle, yet so..on target.

Love this show to pieces. But no brain power to analyze it or fully review it.

* Caprica Cancellation - which did not surprise me, but did annoy me.

I haven't watched Caprica yet, but part of me doesn't want to - now that I know it's being cancelled. Why torture myself? I'm not surprised it's being cancelled. I sort of thought it would most likely not make it last year - when it got abruptly pulled during the May Sweeps period.
It was an expensive series to make. You can tell that just by looking at it. Also, it was being marketed to a very small nitch audience. And the nitch audience doesn't tend to like well shows like Caprica. There's a reason why a category exists entitled "Brilliant But Cancelled" or "Too Brilliant for TV". That list contains a lot of quirky sci-fi shows - all with high production values, quality actors, and intelligent scripts. Here's a brief list: American Gothic, Now and Again, Earth 2, Space Above and Beyond, (that show about a Restaurant at the End of the Universe starring Robert Englund...which was anthology horror and serialized - sort of Rod Serling on steriods), Tru Calling, Firefly, Wonderfalls, (the one about the guy who lived in a card-board box and was a CEO and was really dark...with Adrian Psdar??), Dollhouse, and Farscape. They all got axed just as they were starting to get interesting. Always annoys me. What's the point in watching a tv show, investing in it, when you don't get to see the entire story? And the writers haven't been given time to show all of it? If you are going to cancel the thing - at least give them enough time to wrap it up appropriately. Will state that Dollhouse sort of got that opportunity.
Farscape like Firefly - got a two hour movie to conclude itself.

At any rate, it is annoying. And sort of makes me resent tv shows like Star Gate - which seem to go on forever...with interchangable characters and spin-offs. If Star Gate can have 10 seasons, why can't Farscape, Firefly, Caprica, Dollhouse, and American Gothic have at least five?
It's not fair!! (whines like a two year old and stomps off to bed.)

Realized today that the reason I was falling asleep at work was because the air was stale and too warm, when it hissed to life and got cooler, I woke up. Before then, was coaxing self awake with decafe green tea. I can't do caffeine.

Finished editing church newsletter - am debating going to a march on October 23 in Staten Island to protest the hate crimes that have been occurring down there against immigrants. There's been quite a few of late - specifically against Mexican immigrants. But I don't like protest marches, I don't believe they do anything particularly, except well annoy folks. Writing campaigns, dinners,
and other things seem to be more effective. But am admittedly on the fence....

Rather enjoyed Glee this week. But I also adore a good satire And am a sucker for musicals. Plus Glee is the most realistic depiction of the high school experience and midwestern suburbia that I've seen. It's at times a "mean" and "spot-on" satire of middle American suburbian life and the "high school" experience. ( spoilers )

Also enjoyed No Ordinary Family. It's a nice super-hero family dramedy. ( spoiler )

Off to watch Caprica and something else. Possibly the Good Wife. Haven't decided yet.
Momster's coaxing me into trying Wallender II - she does not understand that I have too many tv shows as it is.