Roger Ebert’s Last Words, con’t, commenting on the Esquire article (linked) and photo of him. “Resentment is allowing someone to live rent-free in a room in your head.”
Lady Gaga or Johnny Weir? “Can you tell the difference between the pop princess’ outrageous outfits and the Olympic skating star’s flamboyant costumes without seeing their poker faces?” You Olympics watchers who see figure skating only once every four years have no idea…
And SamuraiFrog has three recent pieces worthy of mention, about Kermit the Frog and friend,Christina Hendricks – no, I’ve never seen Mad Men, either – and a particular Super Bowl ad which also annoyed me. (Should note that, on the latter two pieces, his language is coarser than mine.)
This next section is graphic.
Western New York Legacy web site, www.wnylegacy.org, is freely available online, and contains thousands of digital images, documents, letters, maps, books, slides, and other items reflecting the rich cultural heritage of Western New York
Busy month coming. Black History Month at church, and I’m doing two adult ed sessions. One will be helping to hone my presentation at the Underground Railroad Conference in Troy, NY at the end of the month. *** The one weekend I won’t be doing BHM stuff, I’ll probably be here. *** Finally gave blood on January 18. I was scheduled to donate two or three times before that, but just didn’t feel up to it. The four months between donations is the longest I’ve gone since I had to pass for a year when I got rabies shots. The weird thing is that twice in a row, I got reminder cards about my donation six to eight days AFTER I was scheduled to donate; unhelpful AND a waste of money. *** I was in the home office. There was this thin book that was falling off the shelf. Turned out to be The Connoisseur’s Guide to the Contemporary Horror Film by the late Chas Balun, an item I hadn’t thought about in years. When I was working at this comic book store called FantaCo, we sold many, many copies of the item. I went over to Steve Bissette’s site to let him know about this, and wouldn’t you know, but that he had just written about Chas and that very booklet! How odd. *** ABC-TV is plugging this new show called The Deep End, about some young lawyers. The voiceover says, “From the network that brought you Grey’s Anatomy”, as though network affiliation is a reason to watch the show. Yet it DOES remind me of Grey’s in that there’s a guy under water; Meredith Grey practically drown a couple seasons ago. I shan’t be watching; hey I got 85% of my DVR capacity used up.
This reminds me of a poster SamuraiFrog wrote about, the text of which was “from the studio that brought you THE PROPOSAL.” as though anyone would go to a film for that reason. Goofy. *** This incredible machine was “built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa. Amazingly, 97% of the machines components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft, Iowa. *** A resource guide re Haiti. *** Anyone know the shelf life for amoxicillin capsules? Wayne John wanted to know. *** Another SF-found piece, on gay marriage, a satire. *** Thom Wade reminds me why I’m not a Mormon *** The Brand Identity Guru says The Bachelor and Bachelorette Brands Can’t Be More Racist. I don’t watch, but I’d be interested in the thoughts of those who do. *** Was Jack Benny in the movie Casablanca? Mark Evanier doesn’t think so, but he’s not sure. *** What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2010 under the law that existed until 1978 . . . Works from 1953. *** Hard to find music and movies. *** Salon finally figured out the joy of the Kennedy Center Honors. See also Kennedy Center Honorees at the White House. *** Scholar Ladies a video response to Single Ladies by Beyonce. *** Finally, the wife is trying to keep the daughter away from aspartame, the stuff in Equal and the other little blue packets, at least in the US, at least it is most of the time. And the stuff shows up in the darnedest places, such as packaged fruit cups one sends the daughter to school with. But I’ve discovered that the DelMonte fruit cups, e.g., uses sucralose, the substance in Splenda and the other items in the yellow packet. Anyone aware of health issues for children with sucralose?
Jaquandor was kind enough to bestow upon me a “Kreative Blogger” award of some sort.
I feel a certain obligation to pass these kinds of things along, based on the theory that, back in the olden days when I started blogging, some 4.7 years ago, it made the blogisphere – dare I say it? – FUN. Blogging should be fun, even if one’s venting one’s spleen to do so.
You’re supposed to reveal seven things about yourself. Of course, the problem with that I’m almost out of stuff to “reveal” that 1) I didn’t reveal before, 2) require more than a line or two, or 3) I’m not planning to reveal at this point, or quite possibly, ever. No guarantees that the list below might not have bumped into the first category:
1. I receive an irrational amount of pleasure when I delete one piece of spam in Gmail and it says I’ll be deleting “the one conversation”, or “both conversations” when I delete two, as opposed to those programs that will delete “all 1 conversations”, or some such.
2. I once got a B in art in 7th grade. My parents were at a loss as to how I did so well. This explains almost everything you need to know about me and doing art.
3. I once almost flew with someone who was traveling on someone else’s ticket. He got detained by airport security and the police for about seven hours until he showed his security clearance. This, BTW, was before 9/11.
4. I have no tattoos. I’m not opposed at this point, but 1) it would keep me from donating blood for a while and 2) my wife would hate it. Then there’s the pain and permanence thing, but those are secondary.
5. At least twice, I took jobs because of affairs of the heart. Neither was worth it; the jobs weren’t, that is, but the affairs of the heart were.
6. I tape sporting events then watch them later, going through lots of machinations (no news watching/reading or e-mail/Facebook/Twitter). Sometimes it works (Jets/Bengals, Eagles/Cowboys Saturday games I watched on Sunday; Packers/Cardinals Sunday game I finished Tuesday morning); sometimes not (the Patriots loss on the front cover of Monday’s Wall Street Journal).
7. I’m allergic to penicillin and Naprocyn, have been for years, yet I’m too lazy to get one of those tags. But we have one for my daughter with her peanut allergy.
Then I’m supposed to pass the award along. That’s a bit tougher. I’d have considered Jaquandor’s Byzantium Shores. I’d also have picked SamuraiFrog’s Electronic Cerebrectomy, except he gave the award to Jaquandor and that’s a bit too circular for me. Then there are the bums gentlemen who stopped blogging in the last year, who I used to follow.
Still, there’s:
1. Arthur @AmeriNZ – your usual, everyday blog of a gay man from Illinois who moved to New Zealand for love. OK, there’s a LOT more to it: talk about politics, comparative US/NZ culture and whatever enters his fertile mind. He also has a couple podcasts, one on politics, the other, more general.
2. Coverville – the blog is primarily a support mechanism for Brian Ibbott’s great podcast “featuring unusual covers of pop, rock and country songs by new and established performers.” But in the last year or so, he’s added a song rating system to the site. Also, he and his listeners have found some nifty videos of covers that he’s posted.
3. Progressive Ruin: Unfortunately, I gotta give props to Mike Sterling, even though he’s a cheater pants, not just for his persistence – I think he posted 364 days last year – but for some of his regular features, such as his deconstruction of the absurd items Diamond comics catalog, and especially Sluggo Saturdays. Still his obsession with the comic creature Swamp Thing is…disturbing.
4. And speaking of Swamp Thing, its best renderer, IMHO, my buddy Steve Bissette posts his Myrant, a mix of digital comics, comics & film history, political tirades and more.
5. Scott’s Scooter Chronicles is about music, books, beer, and hockey. Truth is that I’m not a big fan of the latter two, but he even makes those interesting. It’s also about his two young sons and being unemployed in America. SOMEONE GIVE THIS MAN A JOB!
6. Anthony Velez’s The Dark Glass is a series of theological musings. Sometimes I don’t understand, but he always explains it, or tries to.
7. Gordon at Blog This, Pal! is mostly a pop culture (comics/TV/movies) blog. He knows more about Doctor Who and Kids in the Hall than anyone has a right to. I happen to particularly enjoy those too-rare glimpses of his personal side (his mom, St. Louis vs. Chicago). He also has a podcast that he’s rethinking. He knows I’d always vote for keeping the music, but really, he should do what brings him joy.
A television meme (with various comments throughout), via SamuraiFrog. I realized that the programs of my childhood I was pretty indiscriminate. Only had two or three choices at the time.
My Rules: – Star (*) all of the following TV shows which you’ve ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime. – Italicize a show if you’re positive you’ve seen every episode of it.
*24 I watched the whole first season. Then the second season’s premiere episode was quite shocking, but still watched good parts of it. But by Season 3, I’d given up on it, largely for political reasons. I can’t help but think that some of those Blackwater-type thugs justified their moral code based on Jack Bauer.
7th Heaven Maybe saw five minutes.
ALF Never saw except in passing; looked stupid, but I could be wrong.
*Alias Watched the whole first season, then found out about some time shift thing between seasons. Saw the first episode of the next season, said what the… and bailed.
American Gothic
America’s Next Top Model
Angel May have seen one episode. It was all right.
*Arrested Development I tried to watch the first season, just couldn’t get into it. Then, nagged by others, notably Gordon, watched the premiere of the second season and was hooked and watched until the end. STILL haven’t seen much of the first season, though…
Babylon 5
Batman: The Animated Series It looks good, but haven’t found the time.
*Battlestar Galactica (the old one) It was goofy.
Battlestar Galactica (the new one) I haven’t seen the new one at all. I figure it’s far better than the original but I’m not really that invested.
Baywatch Never a full episode.
Beverly Hills 90210 (original) I was in a laundromat once and actually saw an entire episode of this and Melrose Place. I survived.
*Bewitched Probably saw all the Dick York episodes, certainly all the ones in black and white. I loved this show early on, but somewhere it lost me. Don’t know know if it was the introduction of Tabitha, the introduction of color, or the introduction of Dick Sargeant as Darrin that made it lose its lustre.
*Bonanza My sister had a HUGE crush on Michael Landon. We often went to the neighbor next door to my grandmother to watch it, because they had color TV in 1962, while we didn’t get one until 1969. Probably watched for a half dozen seasons.
Bones
*Bosom Buddies People I knew really liked it, but it never caught on with me.
*Boston Legal I was a big fan of The Practice. In a cost-cutting move, the show canned half the cast in the last season, which essentially became an extended pilot for Boston Legal, as it introduced Denny Crane (William Shatner) and Alan Shore (James Spader). As a result, I didn’t bother with Boston Legal. Yet I caught it either late in the first or early in the second season, and pretty much watched it from that point until the end. Will have to catch that first season on DVD someday.
*Boy Meets World This is a really bad show, but somehow I got stuck watching it; don’t remember why.
*Brothers And Sisters I got hooked because of Sally Field.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Think I caught a Very Special Episode with music or something. It was OK.
Californication
Chappelle’s Show
*Charlie’s Angels I was living in Charlotte, NC with my parents at the time of the first season. It was on. Dopey.
Charmed
Cheers One of my favorite shows ever, though it took me forever to warm up to Rebecca.
Chuck
Clarissa Explains it All
*Columbo Watched this a LOT. It was in some weird rotation on NBC. Don’t know if I saw every episode, but it doesn’t matter, because they were all pretty much the same.
*Commander in Chief This show started off really strong the first half dozen episodes. Got a new show runner and never really regained its footing until very near the end.
*Crossing Jordan I watched it for most of the first season, but lost interest.
CSI Wrote about my one and only time watching this here.
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm I’d probably watch this if I had HBO.
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
DaVinci’s Inquest I don’t even know what this is.
Dawson’s Creek I saw the last episode.
Dead Like Me
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
*Designing Women It was on Monday nights on CBS between something I watched (Newhart) and something else I watched (Cagney & Lacey). It was harmless.
Desperate Housewives Surprised that I’ve never seen this even for 10 minutes.
Dexter
*Dharma & Greg I can’t believe how dumb this show got after a while. And I think I was invested early because of this.
*Different Strokes Usually when someone else turned on the TV; I never turned on the set to watch it.
*Doctor Who Mostly the guy with the long scarf.
*Dragnet Both the 1950s version, which I saw as a kid, and the late 1960s version with Harry Morgan which I thought was high camp. Probably saw most, if not all of the latter series.
*Due South Liked the first season, but lost interest.
*ER I watched it for probably seven seasons but slowly started giving up on it, somewhere between the point when Dr. Romano lost his arm to a helicopter and the point that the helicopter fell on him. Watched the last episode.
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond I saw one episode. It was OK.
*Facts of Life Like Different Strokes, when someone else controlled the remote.
*Family Guy Don’t love it.
Farscape
*Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
*Frasier Very fond, though there was an arc when Frasier was unemployed that just never worked. *Freaks & Geeks Found this show a quarter of the way through and became a religious convert. May have seen all the episodes eventually, but not sure.
*Friends This show I always had a like/hate thing. Couldn’t tell Chandler and Joey apart the first season. Hated the monkey stories. But then I’d see something I liked. Probably saw about 30% of the shows.
Fringe
Futurama Saw this once or twice. Thought it was fine but never pursued it further.
*Get Smart Funny until Max and 99 got hitched.
Gilligan’s Island When I was a kid, thought it was greatly entertaining, what can I say? Still has a solid theme song. Oh, Mary Ann.
Gilmore Girls Found this late in the first season, then caught the reruns. Loved the core relationship: Rory-Lorelai-Emily. Loved the townspeople. especially loved Mrs. Kim, when she developed as a character. Sure, the show would get off track – Rory’s refrain with Dean, e.g. I never believed. But I watched all seven seasons, and we even have Season 1 on DVD, albeit unwatched. The subject of one of my earliest posts, and undoubtedly others.
Gossip Girl
*Grey’s Anatomy Sometimes I don’t know why, but there is always a character or two to root for.
Grange Hill Don’t know what this is.
Growing Pains Not once.
*Gunsmoke This was on from 1955-1975. When it was on Saturday night and ran for an hour (1961-1967), probably watched every week if I were home, but when it moved to Monday, probably only a dozen or so episodes.
*Happy Days I discovered this pretty much post-Chuck. Watched it until it jumped the shark, which really made the Fonz a bit of a pussycat.
Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
Heroes Was mildly tempted, but never succumbed. Now I’m glad.
*Home Improvement Never of my own volition.
Homicide: Life on the Street I loved this show.
House Maybe one episode. Found it irritating.
*I Dream of Jeannie This was the epitome of sex when I was 12. Again, ruined by the engagement and marriage to Major Nelson. Always liked Bill Daily here,; he played ROGER Healey.
*I Love Lucy It was on ALL OF THE TIME. I MUST have seen every episode.
Invader Zim
Invasion
Hell’s Kitchen
JAG
Jackass
*Joey Waited for it to get good; never happened.
Kim Possible
*Knight Rider In passing the TV.
Knight Rider: 2008
*Kung Fu Quite fond.
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
La Femme Nikita Saw the movie, but never felt compelled.
LA Law
*Laverne and Shirley Usually, but not always, after watching Happy Days.
*Law and Order Pretty much from when Lenny Briscoe started, or maybe an episode or two earlier, until when he left.
*Law and Order: SVU Sordid little show I end up seeing when I’m in a hotel away from home. It seems to be ALWAYS on.
*Law and Order: CI Probably three episodes.
Leverage
Little House on the Prairie Never saw a full episode ever.
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Watched, and liked the first season, but it started grating on me; probably gave up on it.
Lost Seen five minutes. It’s less Lost per se and more the fear of commitment.
Lost in Space High camp.
*M*A*S*H Watched the first eight seasons TWICE, but the last three only once. Should have ended when Radar went home and they started repeating. (And we won’t mention the messy chronology at all.)
MacGyver Did I ever see a full episode of this?
*Malcolm in the Middle Wasn’t watching much on Sunday night by this point.
Married…With Children Saw once all the way through. Hated.
McLeod’s Daughters Don’t know.
Melrose Place One ep in the laundromat.
*Miami Vice Watched probably a couple seasons of it before I lost interest.
*Mission: Impossible watched the first ramping up season with Steven Hill as the leader, the excellent next couple seasons with the perfect set of Peter Graves, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, then the latter, lesser years, with Leonard Nimoy and Lesley Ann Warren replacing Landau and Bain. Maybe it was the acting too, but the writing definitely suffered in those later years.
*Mod Squad What can I say?
Monk
*Mork & Mindy LOVED the first season, but by the time Jonathan Winters was hatched, I’d already long given up.
Murphy Brown I used to love this show.
My Life As A Dog
*My Three Sons It was on forever.
*My Two Dads
Mythbusters
NCIS
Ned Bigby’s Declassified School Survival Guide
Nip/Tuck
Numb3rs
One Tree Hill
Oz I will probably see this someday.
*Perry Mason Watched it for years at every opportunity; made me want to be a lawyer, until I got to college and found that I didn’t have much of a capacity for law. One of the best theme songs, ever, and the extended end theme is even better.
Power Rangers
Press Gang
Prison Break
*Private Practice The cast deserves better.
Privileged
Profiler
Project Runway
Psych
*Pushing Daisies Lamented loss.
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)
ReGenesis
*Remington Steele Have little recollection of this show, actually.
Rescue Me
Road Rules
ROME
*Roseanne Watched it from the beginning until near the end, when I had to bail.
Roswell
Sanctuary
*Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
*Scrubs A very inconsistent show which seemed to finally finally find its footing in the seventh and final NBC season, only to actually improve with its first season on ABC. But I fear the new show will be like AfterMASH.
Seaquest DSV
*Seinfeld Loved this show in the very beginning, really started being annoyed by it by Susan’s death, and by the last season, had all but abandoned it. Did see the disappointing last episode.
*Sex and the City Never saw it at all on HBO, but watched the entire (edited) series on TBS. Liked it. Didn’t love it, but enjoyed it on its own terms.
Six Feet Under Another HBO show I’ll have to see someday.
Slings and Arrows
Smallville Don’t know why I never actually watched this.
So Weird
South of Nowhere
*South Park Not my thing, though occasionally funny.
*Spongebob Squarepants Watched maybe a season religiously before the child was born. Go figure. St. Elsewhere Possibly my favorite all-time show. I loved the first season when I got a review copy of the DVDs.
Star Trek But not in the first run.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Felt compelled to watch, maybe to make up for muffing watching the original series.
*Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
*Starsky & Hutch
*Superman Watch countless episodes with George Reeves.
Supernatural
Surface
*Survivor Watched the whole first season, which was interesting. The second season was dull. I started watching just the first and last shows for about six seasons, but now not even that.
Taxi Loved Taxi.
Teen Titans
*That 70’s Show
That’s So Raven
The 4400
*The Addams Family Probably in first run.
The Amazing Race
*The Andy Griffith Show Watched it for years.
The A-Team
*The Avengers
*The Beverly Hillbillies Watched it far longer than I should have. Did you know that about a half dozen of the regular season shows of this program are in the Top 50 all-time most watched programs?
The Big Bang Theory
*The Brady Bunch Never saw it in first run, though came across a few episodes subsequently.
*The Cosby Show Loved how the theme changed in most seasons. I think when Raven showed up is when I left.
*The Daily Show Never saw it until Jon Stewart was hosting. See more online than on TV.
The Dead Zone
*The Dick Van Dyke Show Probably my all time favorite comedy.
*The Flintstones
*The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Wow, did this show get grating, or what?
*The Golden Girls
*The Honeymooners
*The Jeffersons
*The Jetsons
The L Word
*The Love Boat
The Magnificent Seven
*The Mary Tyler Moore Show Must see TV.
*The Monkees
*The Munsters
*The Office (US)
The Powerpuff Girls
The Pretender
*The Real World I watched the first three or four seasons.
*The Shield
*The Simpsons Watched nine full seasons, have watched only a handful of shows since.
*The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos The last five minutes.
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
*The Twilight Zone I’m referring to the original, not the 1980s version, which I also saw some segments. I was constitutionally required.
*The Waltons In the spring of 1975, I watched this every week; I was depressed.
*The West Wing Watched first few seasons. then it got too unfocused and I quit it. But I DID watch the campaign between the Alda and Smitts candidates.
*The Wonder Years Probably until the last year or so.
The X-Files Watched one two-part episode.
Third Watch Saw parts of an episode or two.
*Three’s Company Usually someone else had it on.
*Twin Peaks Tried to watch, but bailed about halfway through the first season.
Twitch City
Unfabulous
Ugly Betty
Veronica Mars
Weeds
*Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
*Will and Grace Very irregularly. Gene Wilder was on a couple of them, and I watched them specifically for that reason.
Ken Levine had an interesting post about ranting. He ranted about Christmas decorations in September, sports seasons that gpo on too long and the like.
I suppose I’ve ranted now and then in the comments sections of other people’s blogs. I know that at least on one occasion recently, I got rather incensed that a letter writer suggested that the blogger was being racist, essentially because the blogger saw some of the reaction to Barack Obama as being racist. I felt the need to defend the blogger, though I knew the blogger didn’t need any defending from me. But I was SO incensed that I was compelled to anyway. My little rant here, I guess, is small potatoes. My wife is a big fan of figure skating. During the fall and winter, there are six Grand Prix events that take place across the world. Apparently, though, according to this site, the only event that will be televised this season is the Skate America, and for that, only the Ladies Free Skate. No short programs, no men’s, pairs or dance. The U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be shown in January, but in the season leading up to an Olympic year, one wants more opportunities to gauge the skaters from other countries as well as the American contingent.
Meanwhile, NBC IS showing what I frankly consider junk events such as Halloween on Ice Starring Mannheim Steamroller or Musselman’s Brian Boitano Skating Spectacular. These are exhibitions, not real competitive skating. And while I don’t care personally, I think the coverage of he sport does it a disservice. It’d be like showing pre-season games and the All-Star Game without showing the regular season competition. Of course, the fact that the junk events are scheduled so often may be a reflection of the ratings, in which case I suppose the skating viewers may be to blame as well.
Oh, know what else is bugging me? The fact that when i type the words men’s, women’s, or children’s in Blogger and elsewhere, they are underlined in red as though they are misspelled. Sure I can ignore it, but why is it indicated as incorrect in the first place?
ROG
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