Reality redux

Some comments to close out the week…

1) So I caught an episode of Survivor: Race War (or whatever they’ve decided to call it) tonight and it’s an interesting mix of contestants. I think the whole “tribes based on race” has been blown out of proportion given that no one cared when it was men vs. women or young vs. old. And in two weeks they’ll combine tribes anyway and it won’t matter at all. Not sure if I’ll watch much this season as I’ve missed the past couple after being an addict for many years. But, I might have to stay tuned as long as the girl whose occupation is shown as “Roller Girl” is still on the show. If only to see if they explain what the career path is for a Roller Girl.

2) CSI was a very weird episode tonight. We had a half hour advertisement for Cirque du Soleil (new advertising slogan: Come for the magic, stay for the possibility of a corpse being discovered during the show.) We ended with Danny Bonaduce shot and slumped over a table with a diorama of Danny Bonaduce shot and slumped over a table in the background, which was pretty freaky. And for some reason we had an impromptu John Mayer concert in between. What worries me is that the show is entering the phase where it just starts torturing the characters (Katherine tonight, a few others in the past). It’s a crutch that writers use when you run out of ideas, you just make the characters lives as miserable as possible for the artificial drama that it causes.

3) I am so bummed that I missed The Biggest Loser last night. I appreciate any game show where there is a distinct possibility that you might see a contestant keel over from a heart attack at any moment. This coming from a guy who admits that most of the blood in his veins has been replaced by Crisco and Jim Beam.

4) Didn’t mention the awesome opening promo on Studio 60, in which Judd Hirsch (playing a Lorne Michaels type) goes on the air live in the middle of a sketch to talk about how unfunny the show is and how horrible television has gotten. Using phrases like, “Television today is pornography but it’s not even good pornography. We’re one step above snuff films” and “We have shows like “Eat rats for money” and “Who wants to sleep with my sister?”” It was probably the most accurate description of the state of television, media, and modern pop culture today. I know that most of what I do here is write about pop culture and my job basically revolves around exploiting my knowledge of it but it still is so lowbrow now that it is disturbing. I mean, how can you write about Paris Hilton and not feel dirty afterwards?

5) Saw a few bands on Tuesday and one followed an official rule of rock bands: If a woman is in a rock band she is only allowed to play the bass. This is set in stone for every college rock band: Smashing Pumpkins, Poster Children, The Pixies, and about a dozen other bands. Hell, even in a band like L7 it sounds like everyone is playing a bass. One of my favorite quotes (from Juliana Hatfield) is that it is physically impossible for a woman to play a guitar solo. The only one who can is Bonnie Raitt and she doesn’t count because she was taught by blues legends while growing up.

6) There are a handful of exceptions to the rule. Kate Schellenbach by all rights should have been the drummer for the Beastie Boys. And Sleater-Kinney play all of their instruments, though they are a great example of the fact that you do not need to know how to technically play your instruments or sing on key to be a successful rock band. That’s not a knock on the band, they are awesome and I’ve been listening to their disc all week. It’s just the punk rock paradigm of with enough attitude you can be successful.