The title says it all. I went to a country bar tonight. A small part of me died. I mean, I didn't do any line dancing, and someone else was buying my drinks, but still... I feel a bit dirty.
At least I didn't ride the mechanical bull. (this time... I was really drunk, and there was peer pressure, it's not my fault!)
Friday, December 21, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
First Blood
Well, I'm sure it only took this long because of the writer's strike, but apparently Journeyman will be the first casualty of the 2007 Fall TV season among the shows I like. I'm really disappointed because it is a really well done show - however, it apparently hasn't been taking advantage of the coveted Heroes lead-in as well as the NBC execs wanted.
I don't get it. Why kill a quality show like Journeyman, when that slot killed TWO very high profile NBC shows last year? Both Studio 60 and the Sunset Strip and The Black Donnellys failed miserably at 10pm Monday after Heroes last year, despite being two of the most heavily hyped shows in recent TV history. Maybe people just don't like to watch TV at 10 p.m. on Mondays, NBC. I know that conventional TV wisdom says that a popular show with a loyal audience will help the ratings of the show that comes on after that, but let's stop and think about that with respect to Heroes and Journeyman.
First of all, Heroes is a show that appeals to young, geeky demographic... exactly the same demographic that has flocked, en masse, to the DVR. In the age of the DVR that we've begun to enter, does lead-in really mean anything? I think pretty much everyone I know that watches Heroes has a DVR or get it through "alternate" means. Most people watch Heroes the night it airs or soon thereafter to avoid spoilers, but still... how many of those people actually watch it live? A lot less than the TV execs probably think. I may only time-shift by about 20 minutes so I can fast forward through all the commercials on my Tivo, but that means that I'm not actually tuned in to NBC live to see what's on after it.
Second, Heroes is an adrenaline show. It's a show that, when it is at its best, hits the ground running starting from a previous episode's cliffhanger, accelerates the action, and drops another cliffhanger right at the end. It's exhausting, action-packed TV watching, and I usually wrap up my Monday TV with it so I can digest it all. After the mile-a-minute action, I'm sometimes just not ready for another serious hour-long drama.
Third, while on the face of it, Journeyman may look like a good fit following Heroes, with its sci-fi theme of time travel and X-files style slow unwrapping of a larger picture, weaving with interesting weekly stories. However, the tone is all wrong... I've already talked about how Heroes appeals to a young geek (and probably male) audience. Journeyman isn't like that. At its heart, Journeyman is a romance and family drama tinged with some sci-fi, as opposed to, say, Chuck, which is another geek adventure show tinged with some romance and family drama. Chuck is a great fit for Heroes. Journeyman, not so much.
The good news in all this is that NBC is happy with Life, which I consider one of the best shows on television. Great concept, great acting, great characters, and an engaging overall story arc, with bonus points for giving Damien Lewis another high profile show. He was fantastic as Dick Winters in Band of Brothers and I'm glad to see him continue to do well. Do yourself a favor and find the first couple of episodes on the intergoogle and give them a watch... they're a great introduction to Charlie Crews, and Charlie is what the makes the show tick.
I don't get it. Why kill a quality show like Journeyman, when that slot killed TWO very high profile NBC shows last year? Both Studio 60 and the Sunset Strip and The Black Donnellys failed miserably at 10pm Monday after Heroes last year, despite being two of the most heavily hyped shows in recent TV history. Maybe people just don't like to watch TV at 10 p.m. on Mondays, NBC. I know that conventional TV wisdom says that a popular show with a loyal audience will help the ratings of the show that comes on after that, but let's stop and think about that with respect to Heroes and Journeyman.
First of all, Heroes is a show that appeals to young, geeky demographic... exactly the same demographic that has flocked, en masse, to the DVR. In the age of the DVR that we've begun to enter, does lead-in really mean anything? I think pretty much everyone I know that watches Heroes has a DVR or get it through "alternate" means. Most people watch Heroes the night it airs or soon thereafter to avoid spoilers, but still... how many of those people actually watch it live? A lot less than the TV execs probably think. I may only time-shift by about 20 minutes so I can fast forward through all the commercials on my Tivo, but that means that I'm not actually tuned in to NBC live to see what's on after it.
Second, Heroes is an adrenaline show. It's a show that, when it is at its best, hits the ground running starting from a previous episode's cliffhanger, accelerates the action, and drops another cliffhanger right at the end. It's exhausting, action-packed TV watching, and I usually wrap up my Monday TV with it so I can digest it all. After the mile-a-minute action, I'm sometimes just not ready for another serious hour-long drama.
Third, while on the face of it, Journeyman may look like a good fit following Heroes, with its sci-fi theme of time travel and X-files style slow unwrapping of a larger picture, weaving with interesting weekly stories. However, the tone is all wrong... I've already talked about how Heroes appeals to a young geek (and probably male) audience. Journeyman isn't like that. At its heart, Journeyman is a romance and family drama tinged with some sci-fi, as opposed to, say, Chuck, which is another geek adventure show tinged with some romance and family drama. Chuck is a great fit for Heroes. Journeyman, not so much.
The good news in all this is that NBC is happy with Life, which I consider one of the best shows on television. Great concept, great acting, great characters, and an engaging overall story arc, with bonus points for giving Damien Lewis another high profile show. He was fantastic as Dick Winters in Band of Brothers and I'm glad to see him continue to do well. Do yourself a favor and find the first couple of episodes on the intergoogle and give them a watch... they're a great introduction to Charlie Crews, and Charlie is what the makes the show tick.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
The Black Lotus
There's an awesome bar just down the street from my house called The Black Lotus. It's a microbrewery that has some awesome beer and a great atmosphere. They even make their own wine, and also have an extensive coffee and tea menu if you're not looking for alcohol. It's pretty much my favorite bar right now and I even go there by myself for a few drinks and dinner occasionally. It's at the corner of Livernois and 14 Mile Road in Clawson, so if you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it. The food selection is uninspired but they do have free popcorn and they let you order food from the Green Lantern, whose food is good enough it deserves its own post one day.
But that's not what this post is really about.
What this post is about is this: What is the deal with guys who don't like sports and them bragging about it? I overheard a guy trying to pick up a woman at the bar this evening, and part of his spiel was that he doesn't know anything about sports an instead he's dedicated that portion of his brain to learning about women and how to please them. I mean... really? That's your "go-to" pickup line? "I don't like sports so that makes me better at satisfying my lady friends?" I'm not exactly Mr. Pickup Artist myself, but that just strikes me as a pretty poor effort.
But that's not what this post is really about.
What this post is about is this: What is the deal with guys who don't like sports and them bragging about it? I overheard a guy trying to pick up a woman at the bar this evening, and part of his spiel was that he doesn't know anything about sports an instead he's dedicated that portion of his brain to learning about women and how to please them. I mean... really? That's your "go-to" pickup line? "I don't like sports so that makes me better at satisfying my lady friends?" I'm not exactly Mr. Pickup Artist myself, but that just strikes me as a pretty poor effort.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
hmmm....
Apparently, posts don't jump straight from my brain, fully formed, onto this 'blog' thing. Someone really needs to work on that. Then again, when neural interfaces to the internet are finally created, I firmly believe that society as we know it will cease to exist.
I'm really becoming an old man. It's Tuesday night, at 10 minutes after 11pm, and I'm totally ready to go to bed. When did I get old? I wasn't like this last week, even. Maybe it was all the driving I did the last few days... probably 7 hours in the car between yesterday and today. I like my new job, and I appreciate that I need to do a lot of running around to appease our client, but it's very frustrating to spend all that time in the car only to figure out that it wasn't your company's fault that a car was misbehaving. And I'm sure later in the week we'll hear how disappointed they are that we're behind in our testing.
Oh that brings up an point. I'm going to be very vague about my job on the blog. Exactly how vague will likely depend on my mood. Most of the time will be like the paragraph above: vague enough that I feel better having ranted a bit while not feeling like it could come back to haunt me, but also vague enough that it is completely uninteresting to anyone besides myself.
I've been meaning to put up a big long TV post but I think I'm in mourning. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself now that more and more shows are going into reruns due to the writer's strike. In the meantime, make due with a cool little story about two of the few surviving puppets from the famous Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Christmas special.
I'm really becoming an old man. It's Tuesday night, at 10 minutes after 11pm, and I'm totally ready to go to bed. When did I get old? I wasn't like this last week, even. Maybe it was all the driving I did the last few days... probably 7 hours in the car between yesterday and today. I like my new job, and I appreciate that I need to do a lot of running around to appease our client, but it's very frustrating to spend all that time in the car only to figure out that it wasn't your company's fault that a car was misbehaving. And I'm sure later in the week we'll hear how disappointed they are that we're behind in our testing.
Oh that brings up an point. I'm going to be very vague about my job on the blog. Exactly how vague will likely depend on my mood. Most of the time will be like the paragraph above: vague enough that I feel better having ranted a bit while not feeling like it could come back to haunt me, but also vague enough that it is completely uninteresting to anyone besides myself.
I've been meaning to put up a big long TV post but I think I'm in mourning. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself now that more and more shows are going into reruns due to the writer's strike. In the meantime, make due with a cool little story about two of the few surviving puppets from the famous Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Christmas special.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Credit where credit is due
I've been meaning to start a blog for over 3 weeks now. The only problem is that I had no idea what to name it. I'm horrible at names. After weeks of agonizing over it, listening to my favorite music, thinking back to my favorite books, and generally having a horrible time of it, I picked up a Metro Times yesterday to read while I ate dinner and got inspiration from my horoscope.
Yes, that's right; I was inspired by the astrology section of Detroit's Weekly Alternative. I'm not sure whether I should be embarrassed or proud. Time will tell, I guess.
Time will also tell how good an idea this blog thing is. I think it'll work out just fine because I'm just self absorbed enough to believe that people will read or care about what I write here. Then again, I'm self-conscious enough to stop writing when I think that nobody actually is reading or caring what I right.
For the sake of posterity, here is my horoscope (I'm a Scorpio):
Yes, that's right; I was inspired by the astrology section of Detroit's Weekly Alternative. I'm not sure whether I should be embarrassed or proud. Time will tell, I guess.
Time will also tell how good an idea this blog thing is. I think it'll work out just fine because I'm just self absorbed enough to believe that people will read or care about what I write here. Then again, I'm self-conscious enough to stop writing when I think that nobody actually is reading or caring what I right.
For the sake of posterity, here is my horoscope (I'm a Scorpio):
A while back I asked my readers, "What conditions would you need in your world in order to feel you were living in paradise?" I'll report to you how one Scorpio responded, since it's very apropos to your immediate future. "My utopia," wrote Sandra Boyd of Vancouver, "would require me to be desired, loved, and satiated amidst messy order and cockeyed perfection." I urge you to create that exact set of conditions, Scorpio. Get out there and cultivate the funny logic, wild discipline, and chaotic organization that will help ensure you'll be fiercely adored.Much like Sandra Boyd of Vancouver (who must take astrology a lot more seriously than I do, to be writing letters to the astrologist) I am seeking a sort of cockeyed perfection. Everyone has a perfect life in mind for themselves, but I think mine is a little bit "off" compared to everyone else's. Which is really just a way for me to say that I consider myself to be very strange.
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