I’ve been watching your show on the TV, Law and Order, for something like seven or eight years now. And I have to admit, I’ve been a fan of the show for a long time. Lately, though, I’ve been…unfulfilled. I feel like I need something more. Something different.
When we started out, it was heavenly…a new, exciting relationship; constantly changing locations, witty dialog. There was a crackle in the air. Your stories seduced me with their complexity; you told them with verve and urban grit. When you took off your police badge and put on your shiny lawyer’s suit, you sweet-talked me into a guilty verdict, every time. And I switched off the TV at ten, happy and complete.
Something happened along the way, though—you began to change. OK, I really didn’t care much for Paul Sorvino. He was a nice guy, but I didn’t really care to follow him around New York City all night. You had that Ken dude, who was cool, and of course Jerry Orbach, in the top five of Guys I’d Most Like To Catch A Drink With Sometime; There was that first DA dude with the buggy eyes that got booted off the show for Sam Waterston with the raspy throat and bouncy head thing. And, of course, the DA Babes—Jill Hennessey, now in that atrocious CSI ripoff show; Angie Harmon, who left to marry some football player and who hasn’t been seen since; the J. Crew model chick who married Richard Gere (Richard frickin’ Gere), and now the blonde.
The revolving door aside, the people all really sit secondary to the storylines, which, while being Ripped From The Headlines, are mostly a blur to me these days. I crack a beer at ten, and by the time I’ve hit the 3/4 mark, Sam and the DA Babe have the case and have been handed the first big plot twist. Jerry and Jesse are nowhere to be seen, and I gotta say, they are the reason I watch the show.
The point is, those exotic urban locales are looking all the same to me. The storylines blur into each other. Even though you’ve robbed pretty much every real-life true crime story for a plot, they all blend together by about the second commercial break. And don’t even get me started on the fact that you have an old episode of the show running on every major cable channel at every hour of the day.
You’re clever, though. You knew I was getting bored, so you put a new, shiny show in front of me—SVU. And I have to give you props—you didn’t create a drastically inferior spinoff with an unwatchable star. That Oz guy is cool, but his eyes are a little too psycho for me, and that Mariska chick is trying too hard to be a hardass. You did get me with the inspired pairing of Ice-T and The Belz together; if you want a great show, put them together in their own gritty cop drama. But this show is much the same in pacing and layout, with a lot more sermonizing thrown in. I almost feel like I’m at the tail end of the last M.A.S.H. season where Alan Alda got waaaay too preachy.
You then figured it would be cool to throw me another bone—you got the Criminal Intent on Sunday night going with that spooky D’Onofrio guy, and heck, I thought, I watched him blow his head off on the toilet. This might be good. But as I watched it, I realized, This guy plays an intelligent, but strangely creepy detective. And I can’t shake the fact that I think he’s intelligent and strangely creepy in real life. And that kind of spooked me out. His partner is cool, though—that’s the first woman you’ve cast who I actually believe could whup my ass. Courtney B. Vance could smooth-talk a tiger out of its stripes, which is why he makes a great lawyer and why I don’t ever believe he’d be a D.A.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m looking for alternatives to your shows these days. Wednesday is no longer a lock, although I have absolutely no idea what goes up against L&O; SVU is for when we’re home on a Friday and don’t give a shit, and Criminal Intent is at least mildly interesting while being a little creepy before bedtime. So thanks for the memories, John Dick; maybe we’ll see each other again, on Court TV, or Lifetime, or TNT, or…
Which is more disturbing—this music video, or the fact that Crispin Glover is still getting work in Hollywood? (via Todd)
Over time, I’ve noticed that the screen on my Pismo has gotten looser, to the point where there’s about 1/2″ of play at the top of the case. I did some reading online to find some fixes for the problem, and it appears that other folks with older machines have had the problem before me. There are some links to parts dealers, but it looks like the issue will be at least a $180 problem to fix (est. pricing on left and right clutch assemblies.)
Doing research on codecs and video playback, I found dvdrhelp.com this morning, which is a very comprehensive and informative guide to all things video, be it DVD or PC-playback. (And no, I’m not telling you what awesome movie I just got an *ahem* copy of.)
I read, as most other folks have, about Salon being on shaky financial footings, to the point where they are pleading for more subscriptions to pay their rent. I was a longtime reader of the magazine, and as with other folks who have weighed in on the subject, I enjoyed their early lead in the online journalism market. Two years ago their reporting was on time, interesting, deeply researched, and often very balanced. With the dissolution of venture capital, their features became smaller and their focus became fuzzy. Last fall I stopped visiting every day, preferring to scan the ‘recently’ headlines once a week, and rarely found a reason to dive into the site. (This was roughly about the time Garrison Keillor quit writing Mr. Blue.) Did I buy a subscription? No. I considered it, but at that time, the range and quality of articles had decreased to the point where I didn’t care to buy into it. Do I regret the decision? Partly, because without my subscription, and those of the other internet heads who were weaned on the free teat of the early Web, it may have had a chance. Raise a candle, tip your flag, and dip your hat to another vessel of the New Economy as it sinks off into the western horizon.
Behind the Curve Dept., Report No. 317: Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is an interesting, challenging, intriguing album that deserves more than one listen. I like it more as I hear it more.
I was able to get a lot of work done for the 9-5 and re-hang the bathroom door, so I’m feeling pretty good. I have more lumber to buy as well as some new drill bits to replace the missing ones, but the woodwork is shaping up. I can’t wait to be done, because the whole house is filled with dust.
Found via Macintouch this morning: A reader replaced his LCD with a $200 replacement from eBay. Good to know- this might be one of those sites I cache permanently for archive’s sake.
Oh, and: Dude needs some serious psychiatric evaluation. What a freakshow. Here’s the simple facts: If he was not a bazillionaire, somebody would have taken those kids away from him a long time ago. I feel so bad for them.
Last night I found myself in front of the TV, trying to decide between a slew of bad programming choices, when my remote happened upon a Frontline report on the Gulf War. Now, I like PBS, but the Maryland equivalent of Public Broadcasting used to equate to a guy with an aluminum foil antenna powered by his car battery. Somewhere in the last six months they upped the juice on the transmitter and I can finally see the Antiques Roadshow, as opposed to listening to it through a squall of white fuzz.
What was interesting was that it had been produced sometime after the war and sometime before the current administration (the site says 1996), so the viewpoints were not skewed in any noticable way towards the current situation. At the time, I was still in college, and without cable TV, so most of the coverage was new to me. The timeline of events and behind-the-scenes information was fascinating. When the program was over at midnight, they left it off at the beginning of the ground war, with much still to cover. I’m definitely tuning in tonight for the next chapter.
Nate let me borrow his copy of Buckaroo Banzai, which when it was released was the most bizarre, original, and entertaining movies I had ever seen. I taped it off HBO and re-watched it a number of times, but this was the first I’ve ever seen it widescreen, with any more information besides what was on the tape. Looking around IMDB, i found out that the director also wrote the screenplay for another favorite goofy movie of mine, Big Trouble In Little China (based on the intended sequel for BB, …Against the World Crime League), and later, Home for The Holidays (set in Baltimore.) The DVD is fun and provides a lot of insight into the making of the movie, but stubbornly holds on to one conceit: the commentary by the writer and director blather on about the title character as if he actually exists—I’d much rather hear about the making of the movie and all the silly stories behind the scenes. There is so much within this movie to see; I’d love to hear from the property master and his stories about how the sets were created. I’d also love to hear from some of the actors about filming it. Other than that, the disc has plenty of good stuff, as well as a very clean transfer—it’s worlds better than the muddy VHS copy I made in 1986.
I’ve been reading with interest some of the discussion among the Mozilla literati about Safari, its advantages, disadvantages, and how it affects the Mozilla project. Interesting, to say the least, because some of these guys I’ve heard of for years.
I have a few thoughts about Trading Spaces, the show on TLC about neighbors who trade houses and redecorate a room simultaneously with the help of bitchy interior designers.
Anyone who signs up for this show is a moron. Every decent piece of furniture you own will be destroyed. Anything you specifically request will be ignored and anything you detest will be exploited. Your room will be painted in some single hideous color.
This show is a great barometer for how your neighbors feel about you. They will ask you to appear on the show because they hate you and they want to help destroy your house.
There is life after college for annoying sorority girls. They become hosts/designers on shows like this.
Apparently some intelligent folks in Boston decided to beat up Moby on his way out of a nightclub this past week. Yes, that’s right, Moby the original gangsta. I heard this news and shook my head—Moby is about 5 foot nothing, weighs less than I do, and is a pacifist vegan. Who is so threatened by Moby that they have to knock him around? It makes me think of those two upstanding citizens who beat up the Royals’ first-base coach in Chicago this past year.
Here’s the next in a series of test runs for the story idea. I have a lot of things I’d like to figure out with the lighting and cutting before I start cranking these out, but it’s a good start.
Here’s the sketch I was working on yesterday.
Nate gave me a copy of the movie Spriggan, which is some beautiful freaking anime. I haven’t made it to the end yet, but the story is pretty good so far…
I love my laptop. The entirety of Baltimore is encased in ice today, and our power here at work has blooped out twice already. My PowerBook just hums along quietly, waiting for its network connection to come back online.
backyard progress, lakewood avenue, 10.27
I burned a ton of CD’s last night in an attempt to get backed up files off all the various machines laying around the house. Let it not be said I am a careless person—I think I now have about four backups of the freelance work I did back in the Greycube days. Speaking of, I’ll be getting a final-final payout from Greycube this week from Dan; with that, the enterprise will officially be over.
I heard this on NPR a few weeks ago and was fascinated, now I’m finally linking to the story. NPR has done a fantastic job of programming, and it’s nice to see their site is not a bastard stepchild.
BMWFilms sent me a notice that Hostage, their first in the 2002 series of movies, has been released; It’s directed by John Woo and it’s very good. As much as I like the backstory beginning, I love the original car focus of the first series—I realize they are advertising their whole line of cars, but I don’t think the Driver would be tooling around in a Z4 convertible. The 7-series was a much better choice of vehicle. It’s also good to see they have lots of hidden features like last year.