I have two reality shows to talk about tonight and both are from the BBC. It is interesting to note that I am now so burned out on American reality shows that I have to turn to other countries to get my fix. This is especially true for the Next Top Model series where I am a huge fan of the Australian version for two reasons: 1) no Tyra Banks and 2) beautiful women with cool accents. Anyway, here are two shows that give the British take on things.
The first is one that I haven’t actually seen but read about today. Now we have all seen the shows where they take a normal family and act as if they transported them back in time to colonial days or Victorian England. The typical “take away all their luxuries and make them live life the way people used to.” Well, this show follows that exact same concept except they send them back to 1970. Yep, back to life forty years ago.
Apparently this makes for absolutely amazing television. The family has to learn how to cook now that they have no prepared meals or microwaves and a rather low end stove. Because it is Britain they have no central heating as apparently only a quarter of the homes did back in that time. No computer or cell phones so one of the kids had to leave a note for his parents by using a typewriter. And best of all, they are forced to wear seventies fashions. Every day or so they advance a year and gain new technologies such as Pong.
I so want to see this show because it really hits a point that I have tried to make here so many times: I have no idea what it would be like growing up in today’s world. It was life without the internet, no cable to start and then only in the living room, black and white set in the bedroom, one phone line for the house (awesome when there are seven people in the house) and hair metal was all the rage. It must seem quaint compared to things today. The thing is I am not that old. There shouldn’t be that much of a leap but there certainly is. I went to college with a typewriter and left with a computer. It really was a changing of eras.
The other show is one that Kim and I watched in Iceland. We didn’t watch much TV when we were over there because a) the entire point of the trip was to get out and do things and b) we only had like five channels and one was in Icelandic. Anyway, the BBC had a show called World’s Strictest Parents and this show was rather stunning. The concept again is simple. Take two teenagers who are performing badly at school and acting rudely at home and send them to another home for a week and have the “adoptive” parents treat them as their own and show them life under more strict conditions. Kind of like Wife Swap for Kids with a bit of SuperNanny added in.
Again, doesn’t sound like much on the surface until you realize where they sent them. These kids were sent from England to Jamaica. And we are not talking resort Jamaica here; this is the horrible poverty side of Jamaica. In the next week’s episode the kids were going to Ghana. It is just the ultimate in culture shock. These kids from rather privileged first world backgrounds are sent to the third world to interact with adults who are hard on them because that is the only way they can survive. You learn respect when you literally have to kill the chicken that will be your dinner that night. Usually on these shows the kids say that they are changed but you don’t think they really believe it but here they are just awestruck by what they have seen and how blessed their lives really are. It was really fascinating.
Oh well, off to watch my tape of Real Chance of Love Season 2.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
I "like as a friend" New York
More vacation stories…
It probably seems extremely odd that I had been to Iceland before I ever visited New York. True, I flew out of New York to get there but time spent at JFK really doesn’t count as visiting the city. I just never had a reason or much of a desire to visit the city. I always claim that it is part of my Chicago bias. I grew up in a big city that is the best place in the world so I never saw any reason to go to New York, which from my understanding was just a more crowded and less polite version of Chicago.
But it was time for me to go to the big city and I have to say that I was rather impressed especially given what it took for us to get there. We decided to take an airport shuttle van to our hotel, which was a major mistake as a) it took us an hour and a half to actually get to the hotel and b) we were packed in like sardines to the point that we had to breathe in unison. You really don’t want to have your first impression of the city be mainly “get me out of this freaking van.”
We did make it to our hotel in Times Square and I have to admit that it was quite a sight. Outside of a few parts of London I don’t think that I had ever seen anything quite like it. The sheer mass of humanity was stunning. My years in KC and Delaware have really hidden me from the density of a true big city. New York just has people everywhere. Chicago has an unbelievable amount of wide open spaces in comparison. Also, things just move fast. There is that natural sense of everyone needing to go somewhere quickly. None of this meandering stuff.
We only had one day in the city so we mainly did some touristy stuff. Had breakfast at a deli so I could have a real New York bagel, which tasted surprisingly like every other bagel I have ever had. Toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was awesome though I have to admit that I am not a big fan of the Dutch Masters. I just prefer the Impressionists; it is just more my style. We did a lot of shopping at places like the M&M store (yes, they have their own store) and the largest Swatch store in the US. We even saw a play because that is what you do when you are in New York.
I will have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by my time there. I would have no problem going back and exploring the city some more and let’s face it; it’s not like I even scratched the surface on things to do there. I don’t think that I could actually live there because I like my wide open spaces. It’s not that I have to live out in the middle of Montana but I like having at least a modicum of personal space. True, there is everything that you could ever want to experience in that city except for the possibility of peace and quiet. Good food though and really smart cabbies. Got to hand it to any town with good cab drivers.
It probably seems extremely odd that I had been to Iceland before I ever visited New York. True, I flew out of New York to get there but time spent at JFK really doesn’t count as visiting the city. I just never had a reason or much of a desire to visit the city. I always claim that it is part of my Chicago bias. I grew up in a big city that is the best place in the world so I never saw any reason to go to New York, which from my understanding was just a more crowded and less polite version of Chicago.
But it was time for me to go to the big city and I have to say that I was rather impressed especially given what it took for us to get there. We decided to take an airport shuttle van to our hotel, which was a major mistake as a) it took us an hour and a half to actually get to the hotel and b) we were packed in like sardines to the point that we had to breathe in unison. You really don’t want to have your first impression of the city be mainly “get me out of this freaking van.”
We did make it to our hotel in Times Square and I have to admit that it was quite a sight. Outside of a few parts of London I don’t think that I had ever seen anything quite like it. The sheer mass of humanity was stunning. My years in KC and Delaware have really hidden me from the density of a true big city. New York just has people everywhere. Chicago has an unbelievable amount of wide open spaces in comparison. Also, things just move fast. There is that natural sense of everyone needing to go somewhere quickly. None of this meandering stuff.
We only had one day in the city so we mainly did some touristy stuff. Had breakfast at a deli so I could have a real New York bagel, which tasted surprisingly like every other bagel I have ever had. Toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was awesome though I have to admit that I am not a big fan of the Dutch Masters. I just prefer the Impressionists; it is just more my style. We did a lot of shopping at places like the M&M store (yes, they have their own store) and the largest Swatch store in the US. We even saw a play because that is what you do when you are in New York.
I will have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by my time there. I would have no problem going back and exploring the city some more and let’s face it; it’s not like I even scratched the surface on things to do there. I don’t think that I could actually live there because I like my wide open spaces. It’s not that I have to live out in the middle of Montana but I like having at least a modicum of personal space. True, there is everything that you could ever want to experience in that city except for the possibility of peace and quiet. Good food though and really smart cabbies. Got to hand it to any town with good cab drivers.
Monday, September 28, 2009
I think I had this date before...
Some random thoughts based on comments and other moments of my life.
1) One of the wonders of having Wii Fit is that you tend to weigh yourself on a daily basis. This really does make you want to do anything and everything possible to lose weight just so you won’t have the computerized voice say “You’re overweight” every single day. Well, on Saturday I weighed myself and discovered that I had lost two pounds, which was a bit of a surprise given that I really didn’t exercise or do much of anything from when I weighed myself the day before. In fact, I realized that the only thing that I did do was get a haircut. As a result I have now decided that the foundation of my weight loss program is going to be full body waxing.
2) It shouldn’t surprise anyone that I was well aware that I could get a Ric Flair branded scratch off lottery ticket. Remember, I am the guy who was working on getting a mortgage through Ric Flair Finance. I mean, he had the patented Figure Four process! What could possibly go wrong, other than a complete meltdown of the financial system due to the fact that people were getting home loans from a pro wrestler who felt that feathered boas were a great addition to his ring gear. Sigh. It is sad that his sixteen world title reigns are matched by a nearly equal number of divorces leaving him unable to keep up with his limo riding, jet plane flying lifestyle.
3) Also, I’m not sure if I can consider the Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff as my least favorite tag team of all time. Sure, we all hated the Sheik but Volkoff was hated only because he was vaguely Russian though you always had the feeling that he was really from Detroit. Personally, I hated Ivan and Nikita Koloff more even though Ivan was from Canada and Nikita was from South Carolina.
4) I will grant the point that Kitchen Nightmares is the best Gordon Ramsay show but only if we are discussing the British version. That show should be required viewing for anyone thinking of opening a restaurant or even running their own business. The American version is so staged that it barely counts as reality television. And I still like Hell’s Kitchen as a guilty pleasure and the only cooking show on tv that gives an indication of what actually takes place in a restaurant kitchen.
5) How can anyone rank Wallowitz over Kuthrapali? True, Wallowitz broke out the Green Lantern belt buckle tonight but Kuthrapali brings it week after week. I am still a bit torn on the Penny and Leonard relationship. I want Leonard to get the girl because, well, I am a sucker for those sorts of things. The problem is there really isn’t anywhere for the story to go with them together. The four guys and Penny is funny. Leonard and Penny with Sheldon and the other two is really awkward.
6) I really liked How I Met Your Mother tonight. It at least showed that Ted has matured a little over the years (dude, you should have called her back.) It does show that Ted has set his standards so unbelievably high that you can’t imagine him getting anyone that fits his ideal. Ooh, she has cats I’ll never speak to her again. Just seems a little too judgmental. Also, weird in how they didn’t pay off the Barney and Robin arguing in the strip club. They built up tension and it didn’t go anywhere. Still Barney is awesome no matter what the setting.
1) One of the wonders of having Wii Fit is that you tend to weigh yourself on a daily basis. This really does make you want to do anything and everything possible to lose weight just so you won’t have the computerized voice say “You’re overweight” every single day. Well, on Saturday I weighed myself and discovered that I had lost two pounds, which was a bit of a surprise given that I really didn’t exercise or do much of anything from when I weighed myself the day before. In fact, I realized that the only thing that I did do was get a haircut. As a result I have now decided that the foundation of my weight loss program is going to be full body waxing.
2) It shouldn’t surprise anyone that I was well aware that I could get a Ric Flair branded scratch off lottery ticket. Remember, I am the guy who was working on getting a mortgage through Ric Flair Finance. I mean, he had the patented Figure Four process! What could possibly go wrong, other than a complete meltdown of the financial system due to the fact that people were getting home loans from a pro wrestler who felt that feathered boas were a great addition to his ring gear. Sigh. It is sad that his sixteen world title reigns are matched by a nearly equal number of divorces leaving him unable to keep up with his limo riding, jet plane flying lifestyle.
3) Also, I’m not sure if I can consider the Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff as my least favorite tag team of all time. Sure, we all hated the Sheik but Volkoff was hated only because he was vaguely Russian though you always had the feeling that he was really from Detroit. Personally, I hated Ivan and Nikita Koloff more even though Ivan was from Canada and Nikita was from South Carolina.
4) I will grant the point that Kitchen Nightmares is the best Gordon Ramsay show but only if we are discussing the British version. That show should be required viewing for anyone thinking of opening a restaurant or even running their own business. The American version is so staged that it barely counts as reality television. And I still like Hell’s Kitchen as a guilty pleasure and the only cooking show on tv that gives an indication of what actually takes place in a restaurant kitchen.
5) How can anyone rank Wallowitz over Kuthrapali? True, Wallowitz broke out the Green Lantern belt buckle tonight but Kuthrapali brings it week after week. I am still a bit torn on the Penny and Leonard relationship. I want Leonard to get the girl because, well, I am a sucker for those sorts of things. The problem is there really isn’t anywhere for the story to go with them together. The four guys and Penny is funny. Leonard and Penny with Sheldon and the other two is really awkward.
6) I really liked How I Met Your Mother tonight. It at least showed that Ted has matured a little over the years (dude, you should have called her back.) It does show that Ted has set his standards so unbelievably high that you can’t imagine him getting anyone that fits his ideal. Ooh, she has cats I’ll never speak to her again. Just seems a little too judgmental. Also, weird in how they didn’t pay off the Barney and Robin arguing in the strip club. They built up tension and it didn’t go anywhere. Still Barney is awesome no matter what the setting.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
More Iceland travel notes
Some things I discovered in Iceland that were totally unexpected…
1) Apparently the entire country is not a frozen wasteland. Given the name Iceland you expect the type of place where Superman would construct his fortress of solitude. Instead, it seemed to be more attuned to Swamp Thing as every available surface was covered with moss and lichen. It was rather pretty but given that it was in the seventies at times we seemed to be at a loss as to where all the ice was.
2) If you have ever traveled to European capitals you realize that every other building you see is actually older than the United States. That is not the case in Reykjavík as the city was basically built in the past 100 years. For some reason instead of making all of these nice, quaint buildings they decided to take pages from the old Soviet design manual. Lots of corrugated steel and squat, drab concrete structures. Part of the is necessity in a country where it is always rainy, windy and cold but it does take a little bit of joy out of the place.
3) While the majority of Icelanders speak English (enough so that we never had any issue in making our way through any situation) the primary language is Icelandic, which hasn’t changed from the Viking era. Apparently, the language has been so constant that the average person can grab a thousand year old manuscript and understand it completely. Compare that to English where it is difficult to read a 400 year old Shakespeare play much less Chaucer or Beowulf. I don’t think it is possible to read Beowulf in Old English without years of training. Anyway, Icelandic is such a foreign sounding language that not only is it impossible to understand any words but it makes all of the speakers sound like elves.
4) Because much of the island is volcanic and filled with hot springs the hot water is piped in from the hot springs themselves, which means that the water has a wonderful tinge of sulfur to it. You know that the water in the shower had warmed up when it began to smell like rotten eggs. It did wake you up in the morning; I will give it that praise.
5) Before it sounds like I am ripping too much on the water I have to say that the bottled water from the glacial springs is the best water you would ever taste in your life. The ice cube I had from an actual 12,000 year old glacier may be one of the best things that I have ever tasted. So it isn’t all bad.
6) This is more of a comment on Europe in general. I have no idea why no matter what country I travel to, no matter how good the hotel is, that they have absolutely no idea how to design a shower. I can accept the fact that I am taller than the average European so I have to stoop to get clean. But for some reason all of the showers are designed with about 12 unlabeled knobs and the shower head in the absolute worst spot imaginable. It is always fun to be dealing with jet lag and trying to reverse engineer plumbing.
7) Kim and I were there for just under a week, traveled around about half the island, and probably went through at least two thirds of the inhabited portions of the place. In that entire time we saw only two black people on the entire island. It got to be really disconcerting after awhile. We saw more tourists from mainland China.
8) Speaking of other tourists I have to tell this story. As part of one of the organized tours we took we were given the opportunity to look at a geothermal power plant. Kim had no desire to look at it and stayed in the bus reading a book. I may have had even less desire to see it because I have spent a good portion of my adult life looking at power plants and had little desire to watch a utility powerpoint presentation that I wasn’t being paid to sit through. What amazed me is how all of the other people on the tour were going up to the windows and taking pictures of the generators and the plant design. Trust me, it is my job and it is not that interesting.
9) They are really, really big on hot dogs. I have no idea why that is the case and as I discussed a few days ago they seem to be an acquired taste. It just seems to be like the most random food for them to be into. I just assumed that their entire diet consisted of fish. Oh, and don’t eat the dried fish unless you ate the fish food you gave your goldfish as a kid.
10) You have to love a country where the kids go out to the clubs at five in the evening and don’t come home until the next morning. That is dedication for you.
Best of 120 Minutes: Have to go with the Sugarcubes tonight. It’s Iceland’s number three export. And for the record, we did not stay at the Hotel Bjork though we went past it.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) The Raconteurs “Consolers of the Lonely”
2) Scott Miller and the Commonwealth “Upside Downside”
3) Robbie Fulks “Country Love Songs”
4) Neko Case “Blacklisted”
5) The Tragically Hip “Live Between Us”
1) Apparently the entire country is not a frozen wasteland. Given the name Iceland you expect the type of place where Superman would construct his fortress of solitude. Instead, it seemed to be more attuned to Swamp Thing as every available surface was covered with moss and lichen. It was rather pretty but given that it was in the seventies at times we seemed to be at a loss as to where all the ice was.
2) If you have ever traveled to European capitals you realize that every other building you see is actually older than the United States. That is not the case in Reykjavík as the city was basically built in the past 100 years. For some reason instead of making all of these nice, quaint buildings they decided to take pages from the old Soviet design manual. Lots of corrugated steel and squat, drab concrete structures. Part of the is necessity in a country where it is always rainy, windy and cold but it does take a little bit of joy out of the place.
3) While the majority of Icelanders speak English (enough so that we never had any issue in making our way through any situation) the primary language is Icelandic, which hasn’t changed from the Viking era. Apparently, the language has been so constant that the average person can grab a thousand year old manuscript and understand it completely. Compare that to English where it is difficult to read a 400 year old Shakespeare play much less Chaucer or Beowulf. I don’t think it is possible to read Beowulf in Old English without years of training. Anyway, Icelandic is such a foreign sounding language that not only is it impossible to understand any words but it makes all of the speakers sound like elves.
4) Because much of the island is volcanic and filled with hot springs the hot water is piped in from the hot springs themselves, which means that the water has a wonderful tinge of sulfur to it. You know that the water in the shower had warmed up when it began to smell like rotten eggs. It did wake you up in the morning; I will give it that praise.
5) Before it sounds like I am ripping too much on the water I have to say that the bottled water from the glacial springs is the best water you would ever taste in your life. The ice cube I had from an actual 12,000 year old glacier may be one of the best things that I have ever tasted. So it isn’t all bad.
6) This is more of a comment on Europe in general. I have no idea why no matter what country I travel to, no matter how good the hotel is, that they have absolutely no idea how to design a shower. I can accept the fact that I am taller than the average European so I have to stoop to get clean. But for some reason all of the showers are designed with about 12 unlabeled knobs and the shower head in the absolute worst spot imaginable. It is always fun to be dealing with jet lag and trying to reverse engineer plumbing.
7) Kim and I were there for just under a week, traveled around about half the island, and probably went through at least two thirds of the inhabited portions of the place. In that entire time we saw only two black people on the entire island. It got to be really disconcerting after awhile. We saw more tourists from mainland China.
8) Speaking of other tourists I have to tell this story. As part of one of the organized tours we took we were given the opportunity to look at a geothermal power plant. Kim had no desire to look at it and stayed in the bus reading a book. I may have had even less desire to see it because I have spent a good portion of my adult life looking at power plants and had little desire to watch a utility powerpoint presentation that I wasn’t being paid to sit through. What amazed me is how all of the other people on the tour were going up to the windows and taking pictures of the generators and the plant design. Trust me, it is my job and it is not that interesting.
9) They are really, really big on hot dogs. I have no idea why that is the case and as I discussed a few days ago they seem to be an acquired taste. It just seems to be like the most random food for them to be into. I just assumed that their entire diet consisted of fish. Oh, and don’t eat the dried fish unless you ate the fish food you gave your goldfish as a kid.
10) You have to love a country where the kids go out to the clubs at five in the evening and don’t come home until the next morning. That is dedication for you.
Best of 120 Minutes: Have to go with the Sugarcubes tonight. It’s Iceland’s number three export. And for the record, we did not stay at the Hotel Bjork though we went past it.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) The Raconteurs “Consolers of the Lonely”
2) Scott Miller and the Commonwealth “Upside Downside”
3) Robbie Fulks “Country Love Songs”
4) Neko Case “Blacklisted”
5) The Tragically Hip “Live Between Us”
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Now what is left to see in South Bend?
I have some sad news to report. The College Football Hall of Fame is relocating from South Bend to Atlanta. This means, well, it means absolutely nothing to most of you. Heck, all of you unless you actually happen to work there. Mainly it means that those in the South Bend region will no longer have to put up with constant commercials on how they should visit the museum. That and expect a significant reduction in the number of former Notre Dame players inducted into the hall as that was one of the ways they insured a large crowd during the ceremony. It was actually a rather nice museum though and I’ve been at both the South Bend and Kings Island incarnations.
Oh, and best sign seen at the Pittsburgh G-20 protests. “Obama: Put Arrested Development back on the air.” See, that is what we need more of in this country. I am sick and tired of people having reasoned debates about topics like health care and international conflicts. I demand presidential action regarding television sitcoms. It might be the only thing that all of us as a nation could agree upon.
Since I was out of country for the past few weeks I am a bit out of touch with several of my favorite shows. I have finally caught up with Hell’s Kitchen as they are now at the portion of the show where the only contestants left are the ones who can actually cook. Of all the reality shows on the air this one is the most fake (even though the people I know who work on the show swear to me that it is on the up and up.) More than anything about half of the contestants would have absolutely no right working in a top restaurant much less being a head chef so the first few months of the show revolve around Gordon Ramsay swearing at people who can’t cook. It is entertaining but not entirely exciting. I am still a few episodes behind on Top Chef where this season’s cast is a lot more talented than the last but that actually takes out a bit of the drama. There is such a defined top group that we are just waiting to get to the final four or five so that they can all fight it out. Plus, Vegas just doesn’t serve up as many fun food opportunities as the other cities did.
How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory had their season premieres this week. Interesting that the more I read about HIMYM online the more people refer to Ted as a bit of a douche, which to be honest is pretty true. During the first season you cheered for the guy, in the second season you were glad that he was happy with Robin but since then he has grown insufferable. That doesn’t even take into account that he is telling his kids all about all the women he slept with before he met their mother. The show is basically a vehicle for Barney and as long as he breaks out the tuxedo I am still a fan of the show.
Big Bang Theory is at a strange point in its development. The show has become entirely about Sheldon, which is great because he is the best character. Except that the conceit behind the show was that it was about Leonard and Penny as a couple and to be honest, no one really cares. The chemistry just isn’t there and we aren’t as invested in the character as we should be. It will be interesting to see where they take the plot lines this season.
Oh, and best sign seen at the Pittsburgh G-20 protests. “Obama: Put Arrested Development back on the air.” See, that is what we need more of in this country. I am sick and tired of people having reasoned debates about topics like health care and international conflicts. I demand presidential action regarding television sitcoms. It might be the only thing that all of us as a nation could agree upon.
Since I was out of country for the past few weeks I am a bit out of touch with several of my favorite shows. I have finally caught up with Hell’s Kitchen as they are now at the portion of the show where the only contestants left are the ones who can actually cook. Of all the reality shows on the air this one is the most fake (even though the people I know who work on the show swear to me that it is on the up and up.) More than anything about half of the contestants would have absolutely no right working in a top restaurant much less being a head chef so the first few months of the show revolve around Gordon Ramsay swearing at people who can’t cook. It is entertaining but not entirely exciting. I am still a few episodes behind on Top Chef where this season’s cast is a lot more talented than the last but that actually takes out a bit of the drama. There is such a defined top group that we are just waiting to get to the final four or five so that they can all fight it out. Plus, Vegas just doesn’t serve up as many fun food opportunities as the other cities did.
How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory had their season premieres this week. Interesting that the more I read about HIMYM online the more people refer to Ted as a bit of a douche, which to be honest is pretty true. During the first season you cheered for the guy, in the second season you were glad that he was happy with Robin but since then he has grown insufferable. That doesn’t even take into account that he is telling his kids all about all the women he slept with before he met their mother. The show is basically a vehicle for Barney and as long as he breaks out the tuxedo I am still a fan of the show.
Big Bang Theory is at a strange point in its development. The show has become entirely about Sheldon, which is great because he is the best character. Except that the conceit behind the show was that it was about Leonard and Penny as a couple and to be honest, no one really cares. The chemistry just isn’t there and we aren’t as invested in the character as we should be. It will be interesting to see where they take the plot lines this season.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Manufactured nostalgia
Interesting question posed to me in the comments last night. So we are faced with an A Team movie, a remake of Red Dawn, a remake of Melrose Place and every other show includes at least one vampire. Has Hollywood run out of ideas? And more importantly, how much nostalgia can be mined until it becomes meaningless.
Let’s start with the remakes of classic franchises. Seemingly every show from my youth (except for Alf for some reason) has been made into a feature film. Transformers, GI Joe, Brady Bunch, Speed Racer, Lost in Space, Flintstones, if you can name it they have probably made a movie of it. Even worse are the relaunches of television series with Melrose Place, Knight Rider, and 90210 all being prime examples. This is a phenomena that needs some further analysis.
First off, one of the reasons that Hollywood is sold on remakes is that it takes zero marketing dollars to tell people what the show is about. I have seen no commercials or adds about the new Melrose Place series but I can describe in perfect detail what the typical plot line will entail. Compare that to a show like Flash Forward, which I still don’t quite understand and I have read up on it. It is cheap and lazy to create remakes but that is what Hollywood thinks that people want.
That is another aspect of it. Remakes offer no intellectual challenge to the viewer. Now I have no problem with brain dead entertainment. I still watch pro wrestling for the sheer fact that I have no need to think while watching it. But remakes take even the most minimal requirements of attention to detail on a new show and throws them out the window. The viewer doesn’t have to pay attention to what is going on because they already know the story. We don’t need to think as to why there are giant robots on earth. The good guys are Autobots and the bad guys are Decepticons. Everyone knows this.
But if you pay attention you’ll notice that remake shows never last as long as you would think. The shows get cancelled, the movies make less money and all in all they are less successful each and every time. That is because Hollywood has completely misjudged the idea of nostalgia. I am not nostalgic for the shows of my youth. I’m nostalgic for my youth. Yes, I remember sitting on the couch watching the A Team as a ten year old and you know what I want: to go back to being a ten year old without a care in the world. My longing isn’t for a show featuring Vietnam vets who were unjustly prosecuted and now work as underground enforcers. All I want is to be a kid again. We enjoy the memories of the shows for who we were then; not for the shows themselves. And remaking the shows only causes a brief return to those moments and then we are thrust back into our boring, everyday lives.
Is Hollywood out of ideas? That seems to imply that they had any to begin with. I think they have a strong feeling that the average consumer is an idiot and they produce their products appropriately. If you hate the fact that mass media is treating you like a moron you know what you do? Ignore mass media. There is a whole lot of great art being made out there if you take the time to look. We all have hundreds of cable channels at our disposal and broadband lines capable of bringing us nearly anything that was ever made. Find what you like and tell Hollywood to take a hike. Enough people do that and they will get the message.
Let’s start with the remakes of classic franchises. Seemingly every show from my youth (except for Alf for some reason) has been made into a feature film. Transformers, GI Joe, Brady Bunch, Speed Racer, Lost in Space, Flintstones, if you can name it they have probably made a movie of it. Even worse are the relaunches of television series with Melrose Place, Knight Rider, and 90210 all being prime examples. This is a phenomena that needs some further analysis.
First off, one of the reasons that Hollywood is sold on remakes is that it takes zero marketing dollars to tell people what the show is about. I have seen no commercials or adds about the new Melrose Place series but I can describe in perfect detail what the typical plot line will entail. Compare that to a show like Flash Forward, which I still don’t quite understand and I have read up on it. It is cheap and lazy to create remakes but that is what Hollywood thinks that people want.
That is another aspect of it. Remakes offer no intellectual challenge to the viewer. Now I have no problem with brain dead entertainment. I still watch pro wrestling for the sheer fact that I have no need to think while watching it. But remakes take even the most minimal requirements of attention to detail on a new show and throws them out the window. The viewer doesn’t have to pay attention to what is going on because they already know the story. We don’t need to think as to why there are giant robots on earth. The good guys are Autobots and the bad guys are Decepticons. Everyone knows this.
But if you pay attention you’ll notice that remake shows never last as long as you would think. The shows get cancelled, the movies make less money and all in all they are less successful each and every time. That is because Hollywood has completely misjudged the idea of nostalgia. I am not nostalgic for the shows of my youth. I’m nostalgic for my youth. Yes, I remember sitting on the couch watching the A Team as a ten year old and you know what I want: to go back to being a ten year old without a care in the world. My longing isn’t for a show featuring Vietnam vets who were unjustly prosecuted and now work as underground enforcers. All I want is to be a kid again. We enjoy the memories of the shows for who we were then; not for the shows themselves. And remaking the shows only causes a brief return to those moments and then we are thrust back into our boring, everyday lives.
Is Hollywood out of ideas? That seems to imply that they had any to begin with. I think they have a strong feeling that the average consumer is an idiot and they produce their products appropriately. If you hate the fact that mass media is treating you like a moron you know what you do? Ignore mass media. There is a whole lot of great art being made out there if you take the time to look. We all have hundreds of cable channels at our disposal and broadband lines capable of bringing us nearly anything that was ever made. Find what you like and tell Hollywood to take a hike. Enough people do that and they will get the message.
Monday, September 21, 2009
What's for dinner
Some thoughts about Icelandic food…
1) Our first dinner in Iceland was Domino’s Pizza. Now some people would claim that this really breaks the spirit of traveling overseas. I respond with the following. A) I had another one of my medical misadventures on the plane (I owe Kim everything in the world for helping me through it) and neither of us were in an adventurous mood, B) jet lag killed any desire for us to leave our hotel room and C) it was the best Domino’s Pizza I have had in my entire life. Seriously, it was freaking awesome.
2) We went on a number of bus tours, which meant pre-arranged stops at tourist locations for lunch. At one we were requested to try the meat soup, which I must admit was quite tasty. However, you have to question any soup that is simply defined as being flavored by meat. Could be beef, could be lamb, could be some other small creature, you can never be quite sure.
3) As is the case with most of Europe in Iceland there is this unnerving tendency to serve every sandwich with some sort of unnamed sauce. In England everything comes lathered with butter whereas in Iceland it appears that Thousand Island dressing is the condiment of choice. This led to Kim’s continual request that our meals come as listed on the menu and not with some sort of mystery attachment.
4) Per Kim (since I never tried it) the Icelandic Brie was just off the charts good. I personally found the Icelandic hot dog to be quite good while Kim did not enjoy it in the least. It is a natural casing dog much like the Bohemian hot dogs I had as a kid and came with a mustard sauce that was quite like a remoulade. Personally, I just like the fact that I went all the way to Iceland to have a hot dog.
5) At one point we had dinner in a Mexican restaurant in which I ordered a fish and chips and Kim ordered a chicken sandwich. This made perfect sense at the time. I believe it was because they wanted thirty bucks for fajitas.
6) One of the best things we did was have dinner at a tapas restaurant (recommended by Canadians who while we can fault their health care they are good at finding places for dinner). This let us try a number of Icelandic delicacies as well as give me a chance to try a few things I had never had before like escargot. We had puffin, the national bird and mascot, which was kind of oily and gamy and not that great. Monkfish was also quite good but the star of the night was the minke whale. Yes, I tried whale and it was delicious. Like a cross between tuna and a really good steak. That and a few other dishes made it one of my best meals ever.
7) Yes, you can complain that we dined on several cute creatures, especially when you include our lamb lunch the next day that was just exquisite. I would just like to state that on our whale / bird watching expedition we saw neither whales nor puffins so we felt like they owed us for not being there. And the lamb was just too good to pass up.
8) Next to our hotel was this bakery that we passed every day but only ate at on our last day. Which was a mistake because they had this cinnamon roll covered with fudge that would make you end your diet in a second. I’m not a big pastry type person but this was pretty amazing. Inexpensive as well, which was a great change of pace.
9) At one point Kim ordered a hamburger that came with a fried egg on top of the bun. You know that you have spent a long time travelling when that seems to be a perfectly normal way to serve a hamburger.
10) If I learned one thing from our trip it is this: you can never go wrong when you order the lobster feast.
1) Our first dinner in Iceland was Domino’s Pizza. Now some people would claim that this really breaks the spirit of traveling overseas. I respond with the following. A) I had another one of my medical misadventures on the plane (I owe Kim everything in the world for helping me through it) and neither of us were in an adventurous mood, B) jet lag killed any desire for us to leave our hotel room and C) it was the best Domino’s Pizza I have had in my entire life. Seriously, it was freaking awesome.
2) We went on a number of bus tours, which meant pre-arranged stops at tourist locations for lunch. At one we were requested to try the meat soup, which I must admit was quite tasty. However, you have to question any soup that is simply defined as being flavored by meat. Could be beef, could be lamb, could be some other small creature, you can never be quite sure.
3) As is the case with most of Europe in Iceland there is this unnerving tendency to serve every sandwich with some sort of unnamed sauce. In England everything comes lathered with butter whereas in Iceland it appears that Thousand Island dressing is the condiment of choice. This led to Kim’s continual request that our meals come as listed on the menu and not with some sort of mystery attachment.
4) Per Kim (since I never tried it) the Icelandic Brie was just off the charts good. I personally found the Icelandic hot dog to be quite good while Kim did not enjoy it in the least. It is a natural casing dog much like the Bohemian hot dogs I had as a kid and came with a mustard sauce that was quite like a remoulade. Personally, I just like the fact that I went all the way to Iceland to have a hot dog.
5) At one point we had dinner in a Mexican restaurant in which I ordered a fish and chips and Kim ordered a chicken sandwich. This made perfect sense at the time. I believe it was because they wanted thirty bucks for fajitas.
6) One of the best things we did was have dinner at a tapas restaurant (recommended by Canadians who while we can fault their health care they are good at finding places for dinner). This let us try a number of Icelandic delicacies as well as give me a chance to try a few things I had never had before like escargot. We had puffin, the national bird and mascot, which was kind of oily and gamy and not that great. Monkfish was also quite good but the star of the night was the minke whale. Yes, I tried whale and it was delicious. Like a cross between tuna and a really good steak. That and a few other dishes made it one of my best meals ever.
7) Yes, you can complain that we dined on several cute creatures, especially when you include our lamb lunch the next day that was just exquisite. I would just like to state that on our whale / bird watching expedition we saw neither whales nor puffins so we felt like they owed us for not being there. And the lamb was just too good to pass up.
8) Next to our hotel was this bakery that we passed every day but only ate at on our last day. Which was a mistake because they had this cinnamon roll covered with fudge that would make you end your diet in a second. I’m not a big pastry type person but this was pretty amazing. Inexpensive as well, which was a great change of pace.
9) At one point Kim ordered a hamburger that came with a fried egg on top of the bun. You know that you have spent a long time travelling when that seems to be a perfectly normal way to serve a hamburger.
10) If I learned one thing from our trip it is this: you can never go wrong when you order the lobster feast.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
And I'm back...
Did you miss me? Was my wit and panache longed for in the midst of cyberspace? Did anyone actually notice that I had stopped writing for two weeks?
Anyway, as I said I went on sabbatical which is really a fancy way of saying I finally took a vacation. In fact this was the first time that I took five days off from work that did not involve volunteering in New Orleans in almost a decade. It has been that long since I have had a real vacation and that says something and I don’t think it is very good.
So what did I do? Well, Kim and I went to New York to Iceland back to New York to Detroit to South Bend then back to Detroit and finally home. We spent nearly a week in unseasonably warm Iceland where we saw glaciers and icebergs and waterfalls and geysers and a whole lot of gray skies. We also ate amazing food including the best ice cube you will ever taste as well as puffin (they are both cuddly and delicious.) We then went to New York, going from a country of 300,000 people to a city of 8 million. We did the museums and Times Square and saw a play and I had my first experience of life in New York. Then it was on to South Bend for the Notre Dame game and reunions with some old friends.
Obviously I have a thousand stories to tell and I will be sharing them over the next few weeks. Right now I just want to say that I am back safe and sound though the jet lag has finally caught up to me. Travelling the world via early morning flights starts to drain you once you reach your mid thirties. So, I am going to thankfully sleep in my own bed right now and get ready to go back to work in the morning. More stories to follow.
But what do you mean Tali won More to Love while I was gone? Why in the world did Luke choose her? I really have to disagree with his logic there. Mandy was robbed.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) Death Cab for Cutie “Transatlanticism”
2) Tommy Malone “Soul Heavy”
3) Damien Rice “Live from Fingerprints Warts and All”
4) Various Artists “Bloodshot Records Sampler 2001”
5) Rufus Wainwright “Release the Stars”
Anyway, as I said I went on sabbatical which is really a fancy way of saying I finally took a vacation. In fact this was the first time that I took five days off from work that did not involve volunteering in New Orleans in almost a decade. It has been that long since I have had a real vacation and that says something and I don’t think it is very good.
So what did I do? Well, Kim and I went to New York to Iceland back to New York to Detroit to South Bend then back to Detroit and finally home. We spent nearly a week in unseasonably warm Iceland where we saw glaciers and icebergs and waterfalls and geysers and a whole lot of gray skies. We also ate amazing food including the best ice cube you will ever taste as well as puffin (they are both cuddly and delicious.) We then went to New York, going from a country of 300,000 people to a city of 8 million. We did the museums and Times Square and saw a play and I had my first experience of life in New York. Then it was on to South Bend for the Notre Dame game and reunions with some old friends.
Obviously I have a thousand stories to tell and I will be sharing them over the next few weeks. Right now I just want to say that I am back safe and sound though the jet lag has finally caught up to me. Travelling the world via early morning flights starts to drain you once you reach your mid thirties. So, I am going to thankfully sleep in my own bed right now and get ready to go back to work in the morning. More stories to follow.
But what do you mean Tali won More to Love while I was gone? Why in the world did Luke choose her? I really have to disagree with his logic there. Mandy was robbed.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) Death Cab for Cutie “Transatlanticism”
2) Tommy Malone “Soul Heavy”
3) Damien Rice “Live from Fingerprints Warts and All”
4) Various Artists “Bloodshot Records Sampler 2001”
5) Rufus Wainwright “Release the Stars”
Thursday, September 03, 2009
I'm a ninja, it's my birthday
Well, in roughly an hour and a half I will turn 36 and will now be on the late portion of my mid thirties. To think of what has happened to me over the past year is astounding. Comparing where I was a year ago to where I am now is just mind boggling. I would never have expected any of this to happen.
Last year on my birthday I was packing up my apartment in Kansas City and moving to Delaware. After five possibly misspent years out on the Great Plains I was moving to the east coast where I knew absolutely no one. Seriously, I did not know a single person within a hundred miles of my new home. I was returning to a company I had worked for in the past but was faced with the fear that maybe after seven years away I had forgotten everything I had learned on the first go around. I was saying goodbye to the familiar and hello to a complete blank slate. Incredibly, it worked out in the best way possible.
I didn’t feel that way at first. I still don’t feel that I am an east coast guy and I will never understand the whole idea of going to the shore on weekends. Wilmington is a small city and everything seems to be a drive for me whether it is to go to a bar or a grocery store or to an area of actual culture. But I love my apartment and I have gotten used to the area. It might not feel like home just yet but it feels pretty nice.
My job is going exactly the way that I hoped that it would. It is tough to explain just how at home I am talking about power lines and how energy flows. I know it sounds like the most boring thing in the world and I am sure to most people it actually is but I just love the fact that I can model every power line in the country and figure out what will happen next. Plus, I jumped back into the industry at the perfect time as everything is up in the air again. Having gone from a company I didn’t particularly like to this is a wonderful change of pace.
But obviously the biggest moment of the past year is the one I never would have predicted no matter how much I tried. I never even fancied the thought that Kim and I would get back in touch and decide to start dating. It would have been a dream on the level of winning the lottery; it seemed that unlikely. Yet today here I am dating the woman of my dreams and happier than I have ever been. Every day I remind myself that I am the luckiest guy on the planet.
All I can say is for the first time my life is precisely where I want it to be. I have the best girlfriend ever, a job that excites me and a wonderful family. Things aren’t perfect but of course they never are. I wish I knew people out here who I didn’t work with or had a regular trivia game to play or was fifteen pounds lighter but those are all things that I can address. I do miss my friends in KC and sometimes wish I was on my way to the Brick on a Friday night to unwind but sometimes you have to move to grow. That is what this year has been all about. I am looking forward to my birthday tomorrow for all the possibilities the next year holds. After this one I feel that anything is possible.
On that note I have something to announce. As my regular readers have probably noticed the posts have been a little lacking at times recently with the occasional skipped entry. For lack of a better term, I’ve been busy with my real life and am tired as a result. I still love to write but over the past few months sitting down at the laptop and writing a page of material has grown a little tougher. So, after some thought I have decided that after four years and ten months, 1,253 posts and probably around 800,000 words I am due for a little break so I am taking a two week sabbatical. I guess that would be more of a hiatus than a sabbatical but either way I just want to take some time to recharge my creative batteries and take care of some other projects. I’m not going to stop blogging or change from the five posts a week schedule or anything. Just taking a little time off to celebrate one hell of a year.
As always, thanks to everyone who does read my thoughts from my corner of the world. See you all in two weeks. Take it away Josh…
Last year on my birthday I was packing up my apartment in Kansas City and moving to Delaware. After five possibly misspent years out on the Great Plains I was moving to the east coast where I knew absolutely no one. Seriously, I did not know a single person within a hundred miles of my new home. I was returning to a company I had worked for in the past but was faced with the fear that maybe after seven years away I had forgotten everything I had learned on the first go around. I was saying goodbye to the familiar and hello to a complete blank slate. Incredibly, it worked out in the best way possible.
I didn’t feel that way at first. I still don’t feel that I am an east coast guy and I will never understand the whole idea of going to the shore on weekends. Wilmington is a small city and everything seems to be a drive for me whether it is to go to a bar or a grocery store or to an area of actual culture. But I love my apartment and I have gotten used to the area. It might not feel like home just yet but it feels pretty nice.
My job is going exactly the way that I hoped that it would. It is tough to explain just how at home I am talking about power lines and how energy flows. I know it sounds like the most boring thing in the world and I am sure to most people it actually is but I just love the fact that I can model every power line in the country and figure out what will happen next. Plus, I jumped back into the industry at the perfect time as everything is up in the air again. Having gone from a company I didn’t particularly like to this is a wonderful change of pace.
But obviously the biggest moment of the past year is the one I never would have predicted no matter how much I tried. I never even fancied the thought that Kim and I would get back in touch and decide to start dating. It would have been a dream on the level of winning the lottery; it seemed that unlikely. Yet today here I am dating the woman of my dreams and happier than I have ever been. Every day I remind myself that I am the luckiest guy on the planet.
All I can say is for the first time my life is precisely where I want it to be. I have the best girlfriend ever, a job that excites me and a wonderful family. Things aren’t perfect but of course they never are. I wish I knew people out here who I didn’t work with or had a regular trivia game to play or was fifteen pounds lighter but those are all things that I can address. I do miss my friends in KC and sometimes wish I was on my way to the Brick on a Friday night to unwind but sometimes you have to move to grow. That is what this year has been all about. I am looking forward to my birthday tomorrow for all the possibilities the next year holds. After this one I feel that anything is possible.
On that note I have something to announce. As my regular readers have probably noticed the posts have been a little lacking at times recently with the occasional skipped entry. For lack of a better term, I’ve been busy with my real life and am tired as a result. I still love to write but over the past few months sitting down at the laptop and writing a page of material has grown a little tougher. So, after some thought I have decided that after four years and ten months, 1,253 posts and probably around 800,000 words I am due for a little break so I am taking a two week sabbatical. I guess that would be more of a hiatus than a sabbatical but either way I just want to take some time to recharge my creative batteries and take care of some other projects. I’m not going to stop blogging or change from the five posts a week schedule or anything. Just taking a little time off to celebrate one hell of a year.
As always, thanks to everyone who does read my thoughts from my corner of the world. See you all in two weeks. Take it away Josh…
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Saturdays are the best days
With college football starting up tomorrow I thought that I would take a look at the games on tap for this weekend and give my expert commentary. I’d even put my money behind my picks except that the courts have banned Delaware’s experiment with sports gambling, which is sad because it was one of the few reasons to live in Delaware. The only reason, actually.
Oregon vs. Boise State: I recommend watching this game in black and white. Partially because it will provide a nice, old timey feel to the game but mainly because a stadium that will feature a team in orange playing a team in neon green and yellow on blue turf is not something that should be watched with the naked eye. I think the color scheme will cause high definition sets to explode. If Boise State wins they get to play in a BCS bowl; if they lose, well, they remain in Idaho.
Utah vs. Utah State: It’s the battle of the Beehive State, such named because…ok, even I don’t know that one. I assume it involves bees. Winner gets domain over all of Utah or at least the portions not owned by the Mormon church which are naturally controlled by BYU.
Central Arkansas vs. Hawaii: The game is at Hawaii which means some guy who accepted a scholarship to Central Arkansas has scored a free trip to Honolulu for this game. Meanwhile, my engineering career at Illinois featured two trips to Chicago for conferences and that is about it. I knew I should have spent more time in the weight room instead of the lab.
Illinois vs. Missourah: It is the Braggin Rights challenge. This is a traditional rivalry game for the Illini, which is interesting because I have no idea what our feud is with Missouri. Outside of the people in the southern part of the state who have some St. Louis envy we consider Missouri to be the home of Branson and not much else. Having lived there for five years I can confirm that once you get past Yakov Smirnoff’s theater in Branson there really isn’t anything else of importance in the entire state. I’m hoping for an Illinois win out of spite more than anything.
Texas vs. Louisiana Monroe: Nice to see the Longhorns starting the season off with a major challenge. When I can’t tell you where Louisiana Monroe is it is a sign that their team is probably not a major contender.
Florida vs. Charleston Southern: My predicted line for Tim Tebow: 280 yards passing, 63 yards rushing, 4 TDs (3 pass, 1 run), and 5 lepers cured. I am so pissed that it was raining in May and I couldn’t get my picture taken in front of the Promise speech that they carved into the stadium wall already. First time I have ever heard of a monument to a college player who was still playing.
(One of my favorite lines ever. The Virginia basketball coach once said of a Duke benchwarmer, “If we had a guy like Taymon Domzalski on our team we would build a statue of him.” To which I replied, “Yes, and he would be fouling Thomas Jefferson.”)
Alabama vs. Virginia Tech: Wow, this should be a great game for the opening weekend. You always have to love southern football games. Huge crowds, an acceptable level of rowdiness and extremely well organized fans. Also, several guys named Bobby Joe will be on the field and we need more of that in sports.
Miami vs. Florida State: Miami wins after Florida State misses a field goal. Or after the NCAA suspends three quarters of the Seminoles team in the first half. Or they just start removing wins from Bowden’s record during the game. Man I hate Florida State.
Oregon vs. Boise State: I recommend watching this game in black and white. Partially because it will provide a nice, old timey feel to the game but mainly because a stadium that will feature a team in orange playing a team in neon green and yellow on blue turf is not something that should be watched with the naked eye. I think the color scheme will cause high definition sets to explode. If Boise State wins they get to play in a BCS bowl; if they lose, well, they remain in Idaho.
Utah vs. Utah State: It’s the battle of the Beehive State, such named because…ok, even I don’t know that one. I assume it involves bees. Winner gets domain over all of Utah or at least the portions not owned by the Mormon church which are naturally controlled by BYU.
Central Arkansas vs. Hawaii: The game is at Hawaii which means some guy who accepted a scholarship to Central Arkansas has scored a free trip to Honolulu for this game. Meanwhile, my engineering career at Illinois featured two trips to Chicago for conferences and that is about it. I knew I should have spent more time in the weight room instead of the lab.
Illinois vs. Missourah: It is the Braggin Rights challenge. This is a traditional rivalry game for the Illini, which is interesting because I have no idea what our feud is with Missouri. Outside of the people in the southern part of the state who have some St. Louis envy we consider Missouri to be the home of Branson and not much else. Having lived there for five years I can confirm that once you get past Yakov Smirnoff’s theater in Branson there really isn’t anything else of importance in the entire state. I’m hoping for an Illinois win out of spite more than anything.
Texas vs. Louisiana Monroe: Nice to see the Longhorns starting the season off with a major challenge. When I can’t tell you where Louisiana Monroe is it is a sign that their team is probably not a major contender.
Florida vs. Charleston Southern: My predicted line for Tim Tebow: 280 yards passing, 63 yards rushing, 4 TDs (3 pass, 1 run), and 5 lepers cured. I am so pissed that it was raining in May and I couldn’t get my picture taken in front of the Promise speech that they carved into the stadium wall already. First time I have ever heard of a monument to a college player who was still playing.
(One of my favorite lines ever. The Virginia basketball coach once said of a Duke benchwarmer, “If we had a guy like Taymon Domzalski on our team we would build a statue of him.” To which I replied, “Yes, and he would be fouling Thomas Jefferson.”)
Alabama vs. Virginia Tech: Wow, this should be a great game for the opening weekend. You always have to love southern football games. Huge crowds, an acceptable level of rowdiness and extremely well organized fans. Also, several guys named Bobby Joe will be on the field and we need more of that in sports.
Miami vs. Florida State: Miami wins after Florida State misses a field goal. Or after the NCAA suspends three quarters of the Seminoles team in the first half. Or they just start removing wins from Bowden’s record during the game. Man I hate Florida State.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Mickey Meets Magneto
Sorry I forgot to post last night. I was busy working on my spec script for “Wolverine Meets Goofy” for the Disney-Marvel merger. It has some wonderful dialogue like
Goofy: “Gosh golly Logan, Donald is going to be really upset when he finds out you decapitated Scrooge McDuck.”
Wolverine: “He has to learn his lesson. You fund Doctor Doom’s plan to rule the world and you end up one dead duck.”
Hey, at least Goofy makes sense as a mutant. Otherwise we are forced to deal with that age old question as to what Goofy is. He can’t be a dog because Pluto is a dog and he doesn’t talk so what the hell does that make Goofy? And why does no one have an issue with Donald Duck wearing a sailor suit sans pants and hanging out with his similarly pantsless “nephews?” Am I the only one who sees the symbolism there?
Obviously, like Doctor Octopus I am a bit up in arms at the moment over this whole merger. If I was a Marvel stockholder I would be celebrating like mad because they make out like bandits in this deal. As someone who enjoys comic books though, and who has seen how Disney has pretty much destroyed ESPN, I do fear what this might result in. I am guessing a Jonas brother as Captain America or Miley Cyrus as Scarlett Witch. It will be interesting to see just how much interplay there is between the two brands. A little would be wonderful; too much would be disastrous.
Here is something that I will talk about more as this week goes on. I have lived in Delaware for a year now. Yes, tomorrow will be one year in my new job and a year since I packed up everything that I own in Kansas City and made my way east. Heck, I am a year removed from being a trivia maven having somewhat retired from that scene. It has been quite a year if I should say so myself. But more on that later.
Goofy: “Gosh golly Logan, Donald is going to be really upset when he finds out you decapitated Scrooge McDuck.”
Wolverine: “He has to learn his lesson. You fund Doctor Doom’s plan to rule the world and you end up one dead duck.”
Hey, at least Goofy makes sense as a mutant. Otherwise we are forced to deal with that age old question as to what Goofy is. He can’t be a dog because Pluto is a dog and he doesn’t talk so what the hell does that make Goofy? And why does no one have an issue with Donald Duck wearing a sailor suit sans pants and hanging out with his similarly pantsless “nephews?” Am I the only one who sees the symbolism there?
Obviously, like Doctor Octopus I am a bit up in arms at the moment over this whole merger. If I was a Marvel stockholder I would be celebrating like mad because they make out like bandits in this deal. As someone who enjoys comic books though, and who has seen how Disney has pretty much destroyed ESPN, I do fear what this might result in. I am guessing a Jonas brother as Captain America or Miley Cyrus as Scarlett Witch. It will be interesting to see just how much interplay there is between the two brands. A little would be wonderful; too much would be disastrous.
Here is something that I will talk about more as this week goes on. I have lived in Delaware for a year now. Yes, tomorrow will be one year in my new job and a year since I packed up everything that I own in Kansas City and made my way east. Heck, I am a year removed from being a trivia maven having somewhat retired from that scene. It has been quite a year if I should say so myself. But more on that later.
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