Jeff Keezel's Place

Treading Water

2007-03-21T23:52:00.000-05:00

News has not been great. Viral buggies tough - won't give up the fight. I'm in this sort of purgatory, taking all these pills, giving them blood for labs every week, and nothing seems to change.

I don't know how I got to this point. I used to see people who look like me and I know I said, "Don't let me get to that point - pull the plug!" But there's been no plug to pull. Just a series of events that kept putting me back in the hospital through December - and here I am.

160 pounds, thin, limp hair, tubes coming out of my body. I'm weak, unsteady on my feet, unmotivated.

I've got to put on weight. They want me eating 2500 - 3000 calories a day but it's really hard. My stomach fills up so quickly. I never know how something is going to taste. I've burned out on the few things I could eat for the past month or so because I was eating them all the time.

Boo Hoo - I'm such a whiner...

Still alive...

2007-02-06T13:37:00.000-05:00

Tough times - battling infection - trying to get on the transplant list. Side-effects of one of the antibiotics basically paralyzed me.

Lost lots of weight - down to low 160s.

Hardest times of my life. Dragging the family down. Everyone thought I was a goner in January but I pulled through.

Trying to eat and put on strength and weight. But my fave foods have just tasted like cardboard in my mouth. That is starting to ease up - been enjoying more things every couple days lately.

I can say I've been through the MCV meatgrinder and have lived to tell the tale. But, as they say, "They're a mess, but they're the best."

Ginia Hospital

2006-11-20T15:28:00.000-05:00

Impending Apocalypse Warning Sign #247

2006-11-15T12:27:00.000-05:00

Richmond's venerable New York Deli has been remodeled into a yuppie, fern bar. There are exactly nine sandwiches on the new menu - three of them are burgers. Pathetic...

Long week...

2006-11-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

Been through a mess of tests and procedures including a cardiac catheterization.

It was a long, long week, very hard to get through and I'm slowly coming back to life...

Attack of the wide-screen TV

2006-11-03T14:34:00.000-05:00

So they threw everything including the kitchen sink at me yesterday and I was AWESOME! 12 HOURS OF ORGANIZATIONAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EXCELLENCE! For those that don't know, I work as an old-school A/V Guy. Been one since about 1969...

Anyway, I had to move this big honking wide-screen tv from a basement lounge up to a first floor dining room - and I have under 30 minutes to do this before I have to be at the outdoor presentation where I am running sound. It's a big 72 inch Toshiba. So I'm rolling this monster down the hall, I get to the elevator, push the button, the door opens obediently, I step into the elevator and start to pull the tv in.

The thing gets in there, bumps against the back wall and about seven inches is hanging out onto the floor. Say what? How did that happen? I brought the thing down there in this elevator - maybe I just don't have it all the way in? (Stage one: denial.) So I roll it out a bit, then roll it back in and...same thing...seven inches too long.

A little panic is now starting to set in. I don't have much time, and this thing has to be taken upstairs. Now how did we get it down here? Did we turn it?

So I shove it back out a ways, then, while turning it, I hump the thing back in there. And YES, it is going to make the turn, and YES, it is going to fit. And I get it in and the elevator door slides closed with a soft wooosh - and it slowly dawns on me that I'm BEHIND the tv and the elevator buttons are in front of the tv and the door is closed and the elevator is sitting patiently awaiting a command.

I go to the end of the tv and there's no way I'm fitting around it. And as the panic slowly starts to increase, I start having really brilliant ideas - "Maybe there's more space on the other end..." Um, no. But I'm freaking out by now, trying to work my leg around this big tv to hit the elevator button but to no avail.

So there's nothing left to do, I get my foot up onto one of the railings in there and shove myself up on top of the tv, terrified it is going to crash over into the wall. And with all my might, and all my stretch, from the top of the tv I can just barely reach the button for the first floor, I press it, and the elevator glides smoothly up from the basement.

Sometimes it's hard being an A/V zen master...

Estevez is back - with juice

2006-10-31T11:52:00.000-05:00

After a decade's vacation for all things Hollywood, Emilio Estevez returns - as a critically lauded director:

Emilio Estevez's terrific movie, Bobby, got a standing ovation last night at its premiere sponsored by the Times of London for the London Film Festival.

Estevez looked mildly shocked on stage as a full Odeon theatre, with guests including likely future prime minister of England Gordon Brown, honored him for his work on this outstanding film.

Bobby, as I told you some weeks ago, is a Robert Altman-like story of many different characters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 4, 1968, as Kennedy makes his way there to celebrate winning the California primary.

Estevez's next stop with Bobby is the American Film Institute on Nov. 1, where the movie gets it's Los Angeles premiere. But paparazzi be warned — Charlie Sheen is not coming. "He says he has to memorize his lines for Two and A Half Men," Emilio says, rolling his eyes.

Source

His place in Hollywood history has always been assured with his performance as Otto in Repo Man...

But it's great to see him working again...

Only a matter of time

2006-10-31T11:45:00.000-05:00

When I saw that Studio 60 wasn't on last night I assumed the worst. Today FoxNEWS.com gleefully reports the show is done, finished. NBC ordered the final three eps it was contractually obligated to do so but there is no chance they will be made. Heroes is clobbering them.

There is one winner to come out of Studio 60, however: Matthew Perry. In this show he's proven himself to be a star on his own separate from "Friends." His comedic timing and ability to ad lib, toss off lines, and give restrained physical reactions is what keeps Studio 60 even remotely interesting. We can only be hopeful that someone comes up with a great new show for him quickly—but a comedy that's funny, not a drama that isn't.

Source

Well, I guess that puts me at three for four. Is Shark still on...?

Prediction - BORAT

2006-10-31T08:08:00.000-05:00

This is getting a lot of hype and I admit it looks pretty funny but I'm thinking it's a bit subtle for the true MONSTER audience. I'm thinking it will open big with the college crowd but then go down pretty fast. Not bad really - how much did it cost to make this thing - $1.38? So that's good.

So for the prediction we won't say it'll be a goat - just a fuzzy little monster...

I need a new look

2006-10-30T12:54:00.000-05:00

I'm 51 this year - 52 in February - 52 gray stone steps up to the box. I can't dress like a Mod Sub anymore...

And I sure can't dress like these fashion plates extolling the hip new middle age look at some fashion show...

That's always the problem - you are drawn to the fashions that were big when you were having a lot of fun in your life - the period when you started to actually "move" away from home and start discovering things about yourself rather than just defining yourself as opposed to your parents. But you can't wear that stuff at 50.

Orvis has that middle age look down...

But I can't quite give up the black and go totally into a brown and green color palette. I'd love to bring the color black with me from the punk days and build a wardrobe around it. Orvis has half a dozen black items and that's it. There's more at places like Old Navy and Urban Outfitters but those clothes are cut for younger bodies. When is some boomer gonna come out with a line of clothes that are rock and roll flavored but cut for a little bulkier physic? Big money to be made there...

Thank You St. Louis!

2006-10-30T11:56:00.000-05:00

What with the speedy wrap-up of the fall classic, the Fox Network is now poised to resume the regular broad-cast schdule. And this means new episodes of...

House! Starts Tuesday nite, at original time, 9pm. Be there or be square.

Still alive

2006-10-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the inactivity here. I'm slowly coming back from the gall stone procedure and while I've been to work everyday I'm still pretty tired and mentally blah. And now today it's raining at about 50 degrees - weather ideally suited for one thing:

Have a nice weekend y'all.

MediBlog - Stoned

2006-10-23T12:11:00.000-05:00

So you might remember me mentioning having a wicked stomach bug about two weeks ago. Well, darn bug refused to die - and then I started to turn yellow...

Add severe jaundice to my list of symptoms and now you're maybe looking at...Acute Liver Failure. So we were getting a little freaked out as the days progressed. But, by Friday morning while dozing in the MRI tube, they noticed a stone had escaped my gall bladder and was blocking the bile duct down there. That afternoon they went down through my throat, removed the bugger and I've been feeling fine.

Though I'm still awfully yellow...

Mortification of the Flesh

2006-10-23T11:20:00.000-05:00

This has been a punishing few months for our pals out there in Vegas doing the CSI thing. The producers have been methodically beating and shooting the snot out of the cast...

The finale of last season featured a two-part episode in which legendary tough-guy Detective Jim Brash was gunned down by some half-wit suspect...

But they let him live...

Don't let the frumpy lab coat and haphazard pony tail fool you. We usually see Catherine Willows on the job dressed like this...

Queen of the flashlight evidence search. We also know about her past as a pole dancer, her "old Vegas" daddy, her lousy ex-husband who had the decency to die or something a couple years ago - and we also know that she lives her life like a 22 year old party girl...

So they drugged and raped her and left her in some sleazy, sweaty motel room to collect her own evidence. But WAIT, she wasn't raped, she was merely drugged, carried to the motel, disrobed, and had a bad Polaroid made. Whew, raping a main character was pretty risky. So they gave her a reprieve...

...and gunned down her corrupt father, "old-Vegas" Sam Braun.

And now poor, old Greg. CSI's resident alt-rock geek boy, sporting a mad variety of spiked hair displays over the years, the character has clawed his way out of the doldrums of the lab to the exalted field officer position. Just two weeks ago, Greg combed his hair down, put on a real suit, and took his case to court where his evidence won the day. He was so excited he kept the suit on, he liked the suit.

So they had a gang of disaffected, souless teenagers beat him to within an inch of his life.

The most recent episode let the stars off the hook but continued in the punishment theme. The murder involved someone crucifying a woman on a wooden cross and hanging her up in the rafters over a statue of Jesus in the chancel of a Catholic church - her blood dripping down creating a false stigmata on the statue. Yeah! And in the end, she turned out to be the temptation who had lured the parish priest away from ministry - he was going to quit the church to be with her. The priest didn't kill her - it was Big Hombre, used car dealer supreme...their mutual best friend...who had also been sleeping with her...and she was pregnant with his baby.

And they say television is immoral. Who's next?

Freedom Toast

2006-10-19T08:16:00.000-05:00

French toast fracas in Mechanicsville Shoney's

A Mechanicsville woman was attacked at a local breakfast buffet by another customer. It happened at the Shoney's restaurant off Mechanicsville Turnpike, with the fight starting in the buffet line.

Deputies say a pregnant woman who was waiting for French toast made a remark to Donnella Haywood-Gregory, 59, about where the line started. The two then exchanged words. The confrontation turned violent when deputies say Haywood-Gregory started to strangle a friend sitting with the pregnant woman.

The friend was rescued by other patrons, including a 10-year-old boy, and did need medical attention. Haywood-Gregory was arrested for assault and battery. She will be arraigned in court Thursday morning.

Source

Blogging Lite...

2006-10-18T11:57:00.000-05:00

Not feeling well. Stomach bug was not a stomach bug, symptoms continue. Labs back tomorrow...

Au Revoir

2006-10-16T07:25:00.000-05:00

Wolcott has penned a nice farewell to CBGBs...

Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell may have been Lewis & Clark of the Lower East Side, discovering and claiming CBGB's for the future punk poets of America as Hilly Kristal gave the shrug that changed history, but it was Patti Smith who made everything possible--Patti who was CBGB's first star and benediction spirit, Patti who channeled the nomadic nerve of Rimbaud and Isabelle Eberhardt, the bop prosody of the Beats, and the monochromatic drive of the Velvets through her scrawny frame and expressive, air-sculpting fingers.

I went to CBs in 1978 - saw The Dead Boys...

Opening act was Screamin' Mad George and The Mad. I was still wearing Levis cords and had the long, long hair so I stood out quite a bit. But there was no attitude, no hassle. Everyone was nice and there for the music. Sid Viscious was in the crowd - probably with Nancy. Late in the evening I came across Joey Ramone at the bar and we chatted for a bit. More Wolcott...

As Jim Farber points out in his Daily News au revoir today (and I appreciate the kind mention), even in its punk heyday CBGB's never drew that large a swarm: "Though every national publication (save Field & Stream) glowed about the bands here, you'd see the same 200 freaks there every week."

And the number of freaks would shrink to a smaller corps of hardies as the evening wore on--a Sunday night second set by Television or the Heads might hold only fifty or sixty of us enthralled. I tended to hang at the back, taking the wide view, but for the second set I'd stand nearer the stage, not wanting to miss a thing. I think I'd knew even then that I'd never be that close to anything that phenomenal again, and that nothing else the night had to offer could compare.

Try this Dead Boys DVD...

for a nice documentation of a typical nite at the "hole-in-the-wall" bar. Be sure to check out the extras for the Steel Tips performance that opened the show.

Anyone remember what the OMFUG stands for?

UPDATE: "Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers"

Oh, Rob...

2006-10-13T07:20:00.000-05:00

It seems there are a lot of intelligent people who cannot "understand" Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The biggest hang-up seems to be that we don't get to see much of "the show" each week - the late-nite sketch comedy show that our characters create and perform in each week. This seems to drive people crazy. Why do a show backstage at a television network if you're not going to see the program they are producing?

Recently there has been whining about some slapstick moments in the recent episode and there are constant comparisons to West Wing and how WW was best when important things were happening like threat of war or republicans taking over congress and scuttling Bartlett's agenda, etc. etc.

Look - this isn't West Wing - should Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip do a show where everyone is distracted by the threat of a terrorist attack in LA? If you were a real Insufferable Television Snob you'd recognize the source of the show immediately...

Hmmm, let's take a look at this television classic. Main character Rob is married to Laura and he works as...wait for it...a televison writer for a sketch comedy tv show: The Alan Brady Show. Now each week we get to see Rob at work with his fellow writers working on The Alan Brady Show, dealing with the star and the quirks of television programming, and cracking wise about their personal lives...

And each week we get to see Rob at home dealing with his personal life...

And here's a couple shockers: there was plenty of slapstick comedy and HOW MUCH DID WE EVER SEE OF THE ALAN BRADY SHOW?

Enough already. Studio 60 is fine, it is entertaining and enjoyable. Is it perfect, no, but it's new. My only beef is that Sorkin seems to forget that Danny and Matt are the Rob and Laura of Studio 60...

Wetting the bed

2006-10-13T06:38:00.000-05:00

Which of the following news organizations are covering this story from the appropriate angle?

The Independent Online: Terror from the Skies

CNN: High Rise Horror

ABC News: A Nation on Edge

Entertainment Tonight: Yankees fans mourn the loss of pitcher Cory Lidle, killed in a small plane crash.

Why do you watch your favorite shows?

2006-10-12T11:57:00.000-05:00

According to this article on all the highly praised new shows getting the axe, people watch shows with characters they want to be with...

"When it comes to television, viewers are looking for characters they want to be with," argues Tim Brooks, co author of The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. "You are inviting people into your home and you want to like them . . . You look at Smith and say, `I don't want to be with him.' Studio 60 is on another planet. It's too slick, too us vs. you."

THEY ARE TV CHARACTERS - THEY ARE FICTIONAL - THEY ARE NOT REAL - THEY ARE ON THE TELEVISION SCREEN - THEY ARE NOT IN YOUR HOME - THEY ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS.

I kinda thought the idea was for the character to be interesting - not my new BFF...

The question is quite revealing

2006-10-12T11:02:00.000-05:00

Good Morning America made big deal about this book and particularly this specific question from the book. I realize that the writers are going for a touch of humor in their scientific answers to all sorts of questions. But this question and GMA's week-long flogging of it reveals a heck of a lot about our current culture.

And I think we'll let Richard Pryor from back in the day lay it out: (edited for family viewing)

A man knows he's done a good job making love because the woman will go to sleep. She will go out! If you finish making love and she wants to talk about nuclear physics then you got more love-making to do...

Someone needs to send a copy of this book to Good Morning America...

Stop it!

2006-10-11T13:55:00.000-05:00

Lately I've noticed a lot of folks driving vehicles like this in same manner as they might drive a vehicle like this...

Okay, no amount of aggressive driving is going to transform your Mommy Van into a Corvette - got it? IT'S A MOMMY VAN! Get over it. Seriously, just stop it...

I think I gots the e. coli

2006-10-10T12:03:00.000-05:00

I've had this wicked stomach bug since Friday just tearing me up. That's at least two days past when these things usually clear up. Just miserable...

I sure can pick 'em

2006-10-09T17:43:00.000-05:00

Two of the new shows I'm watching are already in trouble...

Ray Liotta's caper show - Smith - has been yanked from the schedule. No one is using the "C" word...yet.

NBC is moving Kidnapped to the Sunday nite dead zone. Sigh...

MediBlog - End of an Era

2006-10-06T07:41:00.000-05:00

I was first diagnosed with liver disease two years ago - it was discovered purely by chance during a minor procedure. My problems with my liver stem from two unrelated issues. I spent about nine months working on the first one - then 48 weeks taking a ton of medicine for the second problem. These medicines have certain side-effects such as flu-like symptons, loss of energy, thinning of hair (!)...

Anyway, it's over - I took my last dosages of all this stuff this past week. This afternoon I go down, have my labs drawn, and get looked over by the specialist. Then we keep our fingers crossed that everything has been straightened up.

I got nuthin'

2006-10-05T11:47:00.000-05:00

Doomed

2006-10-04T13:10:00.000-05:00

Middle school students who watch TV or play video games during the week do worse in school than those who don't, a new study finds, but weekend viewing and gaming doesn't affect school performance much.

"On weekdays, the more they watched, the worse they did," said study co-author Dr. Iman Sharif of Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, N.Y. "They could watch a lot on weekends and it didn't seem to correlate with doing worse in school."

Children whose parents allowed them to watch R-rated movies also did worse in class, and for boys, that effect was especially strong.

The findings are based on a survey of 4,500 students in 15 New Hampshire and Vermont middle schools. The study appears in the October issue of Pediatrics.

Oh my gosh. How did they do this study?

The study didn't look at grades or test scores, relying instead on students' own rating of their performance from "excellent" to "below average."

Heh? They didn't look at grades or test scores...?

"This study should hammer home to parents that this is really serious,"

Source

We really mean it now, this is SERIOUS! We're not kidding this time! You darn parents really need to listen to US! We are NOT fooling around...

Sigh - I can't believe they didn't bother to actually check the grades and test scores but merely asked the kids, "So, how you doin' in school?"

All this study does is demonstrate a RELATIONSHIP between poor school performance and heavy television viewing - it does NOT demonstrate a CAUSE. Which is the problem with all these studies.

If we accept their data about how the kids are actually doing in school, then they have failed to show whether it is the television viewing itself or perhaps the attitudes of the parents in those different homes. Did one group of parents spend more time checking up on homework and monitoring test scores?

Is it something in the personality of the heavy watchers that leads them to so much viewing and such boredom at school? Is there something going on developmentally that leads boys in the one category to do poorer than girls?

They really can't answer any of these questions. All they are ever going to be able to prove is a relationship. And that is because they have no way to come up with a control group - that would be a group of kids where everything is the same except they've never seen tv. Now where the heck are you going to find a group of kids like that?

UPDATE: In looking over this study a little more, I realize that I responded a bit too quickly. If we accept that the one group of kids - weekday watchers and gamers - did more poorly than weekend only watchers and gamers, then what that basically proves is that the content of the media is irrelevant. The issue is how much time the kid is spending with media during the week.

In other words, if the kid is spending more time on homework and studying, then that kid will do better - no matter what media or videogames he/she will be playing on the weekends.

So no more skapegoating Marilyn Manson and Grand Theft Auto and Faces of Death. Just keep the enjoyment of these fine entertianments to the weekend and your kid will do just fine.

Stop it!

2006-10-04T08:09:00.000-05:00

This business where a guitar player cups his pic and moves his hand up to the base of the neck and taps the strings for a groovy lead effect has to stop...

This is Tim Renwick - guest guitarist for Pink Floyd on the Pulse DVD. But it doesn't matter who the guitar player is or what kind of guitar it is, this always sounds the same.

Don't do this anymore. Control yourself. Seriously, stop it...

We've luved him for years

2006-10-04T08:08:00.000-05:00

Yep - that's Dane Cook as The Waffler in everyone's fave superhero movie: Mystery Men. The Kids and I watch it at least once a year...

Hat tip to Stinkerbelle and Austin.

Hard to be snarky today

2006-10-03T10:39:00.000-05:00

This Amish school shooting story is just too deflating. Such young kids. Yeah, I know the problem of school violence isn't actually as pervasive as the media makes it appear. But just in the last week or so...

A drifter terrorizing a Colorado school kills a fleeing teen girl, then himself. A deranged ex-student invades a high school in North Carolina, wounding two after first killing his father. A gunman looking for an old girlfriend bursts into a Vermont elementary school and kills a teacher. And then came Monday's shooting.

Source

Just sad, sad, sad...

Excellent

2006-10-02T11:50:00.000-05:00

Grisly murders, disturbing visions and flashbacks, Robson Green. Yeah, new season of Wire in the Blood starts tonight, BBC America, 9p. Replays at midnight.

Creepy

2006-10-02T11:47:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else find this commercial as disturbing as I do?

When you think about how many actors may have lost fingers doing this thing - well - it's just horrible...

The most realistic show on television?

2006-10-02T08:54:00.000-05:00

So, the Insufferable Television Snobs are trying to say that House has Jumped the Shark. They claim that the show has become "unrealistic." HAH, I say, HAH! Here's a shot from last week's wonderful episode of House...

Unbelievably realistic! Totally realistic! What, you don't see what I'm talking about? Well, compare to this shot from last week's Shark...

Still don't see it. All you A/V Guys out there see it, don't you? Here's what I'm talking about...

See, there is actually a cord coming out of the Polycom VoiceStation there on the table. This is realistic. The VoiceStation is just a fancy telephone and it needs a cord to function. Over on Shark, their VoiceStation apparently works without power and recieves signals telepathically...

So, it has become as clear as the Polycom on your conference table that Insufferable Television Snobs may be complaining about realism, their actual beef is that House is becoming popular. And they hate that. Because they are the type of self-loathing losers who wouldn't join a club that would welcome them as members.

And yes, that's Zeljko Ivanek right there on Shark - who played Assistant State's Attorney Ed Danvers on my beloved Homicide. Life is good.

Mystery Guest

2006-10-02T08:48:00.000-05:00

The central plot of last week's Jericho involved two escaped convicts disguised as local cops...

This is one of the convicts. Isn't that Steven Pasquale - who plays Shaun Garrity on Rescue Me?

This can't be a good thing

2006-09-28T12:31:00.000-05:00

A new CD features Ray Charles singing with the Count Basie orchestra. The only problem is they never recorded together...

I assumed that it was some classic collaboration from the 1960s I'd never heard about. A couple of weeks later I came across the press release and discovered that Charles and Basie had never recorded together. They both toured Europe around the same time, some of the recorded gigs ended up in the same boxes. It was the tantalising juxtaposition of the two names that set A&R man John Burk thinking when he found the tapes. The sound of Charles's backing band was not good enough for release, he claims, but the vocals and keyboards were.

So Burk hit on the idea of using modern technology to replace the band with the Count Basie Orchestra - a marriage made in digital heaven. It's a weird idea... maybe a desperate one. And yet... it sounds pretty good. Despite knowing it's the result of long hours hunched over a computer, it actually sounds like Ray Charles ad libbing and emoting with a powerful jazz band at his elbows. Except that it didn't happen. This is a new (and extreme) example of what I once termed "bluescreen jazz"

Source

I guess if they could make Fred Astaire dance with a vacuum cleaner...

Woof

2006-09-28T08:35:00.000-05:00

The MPAA introduces its latest agents of movie pirate doom: Lucky and Flo, the two cutest, DVD-sniffing black Labs you've ever seen! The pups can't distinguish between pirated and legitimate disks, and can also be thrown off the trail by traffickers clever enough to pack dummy boxes full of frisbees in the same shipment as their contraband product.

Source

Nice try ye scruvy dogs!

Stop it!

2006-09-27T10:45:00.000-05:00

No more computer-animated animal cartoons. Seriously, just stop it.

DiCaprio's Top Ten

2006-09-27T10:20:00.000-05:00

1. The Bicycle Thieves

2. Taxi Driver

3. Lawrence of Arabia

4. 8 1/2

5. Third Man

6. Yojimbo

7. Manhattan

8. Sunset Boulevard

9. The Shining

10. East of Eden

Source

Oh no, they're not obvious enough. Not at all. Dick, did you hear that?

Rule Britannia

2006-09-27T09:57:00.000-05:00

British Film Institute Makes its Archive Available Online

The first forays into film by directors including Tony and Ridley Scott and Stephen Frears are to be made available for download, as the British Film Institute puts its massive archive online.

For a charge of a few pounds, works that are rarely seen as well as more famous movie releases such as Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract will be made accessible to fans.

There are 230,000 films, short films and documentaries in the National Film and Television Archive which the BFI administers, in addition to 675,000 television programmes.

Source

The only downside is that budget constraints are going to make it slow-going. Only 35 titles will be available to start...

Tortured Surfaces

2006-09-27T08:07:00.000-05:00

BFF Tim Bullard has updated his website with new pieces. I've updated the link over there under "Pals" so pay him a visit and enjoy his wonderful work...

Get This - NOW

2006-09-26T11:54:00.000-05:00

So what is this? This is the 30th anniversary edition of Horses. And what's so great about the 30th anniversary edition? Well, yes, the recording has been remixed and remastered. But note that the name is Horses/Horses...

That's because there is a second CD in there - a live concert CD recorded in London just last year - of Patti and the boys doing the entire Horses album on-stage. The boys include Lenny Kaye (guitar), Jay Dee Daugherty (drums), Tony Shanahan (bass), Tom Verlaine (guitar) and featuring Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Gloria and Free Money will pin your ears back. Land will burn your freakin' hair off...

Oh boy, can't you show me nuthin' but surrender?

whatskeezelwatching2nite

2006-09-26T11:44:00.000-05:00

House: Fox Network at 8p

Smith: CBS at 10p

The bigger the better...

Premiere Week Wrapup - part 2

2006-09-26T06:44:00.000-05:00

Shark: In classic braindead fashion, the network didn't even bother to publicize that the opening ep of James Woods' new legal show was directed by Spike Lee. What the heck were they thinking? The show was great - Woods was dynamite, surrounding cast was good enough. Jeri Ryan didn't have much to do but maybe they'll write her in more as things progress.

Spike actually got Jimmie to tear up on-screen! Yes, I know, Bette Davis said that all you need to do to cry on-screen was pluck a nose hair. What's noteworthy about it is that Woods didn't just laugh in Spike's face at the idea. CBS, Thursdays at 10p, following CSI...

...which BTW, ended its first of two parts season opener with a one-two gut-punch. In a mind-twisting intercutting of two scenes we are introduced to the work of a new, sadistic, freako killer along with the shocking and sad and not totally unexpected destination to Willow's long-running ride on the Hellbound Train. Girl, you are not 22 years old anymore...but God help the perp - in an unbelievably nervy performance, Marg Helgenberger shows us in no uncertain terms Willow's iron will - the one thing that has saved her from her spotty judgement.

Say again?

2006-09-25T12:45:00.000-05:00

I open my mouth and stuff comes out. It's really neato!

It was bad enough when the only black family they could find to include in the Family Edition of Amazing Race was named...Black...but last nite, host Phil actually asked Sarah - an amputee since childhood - how she felt about being in the second "leg" of the race.

Being the trooper she is - Iron Man champion, etc. etc. - she pretty much ignored the gaff and commented about the grueling day that was behind her. Also, she's pretty much had it with her "recently dating" partner so I'm thinking she was preoccupied with figuring out how to ditch the jerk and still be eligible for the race...

Noted in passing...Waffles

2006-09-25T11:18:00.000-05:00

Waffles was the beloved cat of the proprietor of the political/comedy site, The Poor Man Institute. Waffles was attacked by a stray dog last week and had been in a coma for several days...

Waffles appreciates the extremely generous offers to pay for his vet bills, but every veterinarian in town takes one look at Waffles and insists on working pro bono. That’s how it works when you are the Most Charming Cat Ever.

...Waffles went to sleep last night. The injuries to his brain were too extensive. He was one year and three months old. He was a very, very good boy, and I was proud to have known him.

Source

Monday Random Ten

2006-09-25T08:34:00.000-05:00

Lipstick Vogue - Elvis Costello

Baby, I Love You - Aretha Franklin

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl - Taj Mahal

A Rolling Stone - Grace Jones

Live and Learn - Joe Public

New Age - Velvet Underground

Prince of Darkness - John Carpenter

3/5s of a Mile in Ten Seconds (Live) - Jefferson Airplane

Caught in a Dream - Alice Cooper

UPDATE: You know, I picked this particular graphic because the Velvet Underground song is about Shelley Winters and even mentions her kissing Mitchum. But once I posted the graphic and the list of songs - chosen randomly by iPod Party Shuffle - it freaked me out how all of them fit - except maybe the Jefferson Airplane...

UPDATE 2: Whoa - here's some lyrics from the Airplane song:

do away with people blowing my mind
do away with people wasting my precious time
take me to a simple place
where I can easily see my face
baby, baby I can see that you're fine
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do

do away with people laughing at my hair
do away with people climbing on my precious prayers
take me to a circus tent
where I can easily pay my rent
and all the other freaks can share my cares
know I love you baby, yes I do
know I love you baby, yes I do

Party Shuffle is definitely working overtime today!

Premiere Week Wrapup - part 1

2006-09-23T08:59:00.000-05:00

Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip: Behind the scenes at a fading Saturday Nite Live type of show on a fictional network. Opens with the producer of the show doing a Peter Finch meltdown live on the air. While Network went for amusement and entertainment with their meltdown, Sorkin stages this as intense and troubling - Judd Hirsch pinning our ears back with his pent-up rage. Overall Studio 60 is very entertaining, classic Sorkin, large cast bouncing off each other and generating sparks. NBC, Mondays at 10p.

House: There has some suggestion that House has jumped the shark - particularly with the alien abduction episode. Total nonsense foisted by Insufferable Television Snobs because the show is catching on to a wider audience - they hate it when that happens. Fox, Tuesdays - still at 8p for now...

The Unit: Lotsa GI Joe testosterone on display here. I get tired of the super macho depiction of American fighting men as if that's the only type of male personality that can do this type of work. I think our experience in World War II puts that particular fantasy to rest.

Interestingly, in the years after WWII the military researched how the troops did under fire - discovering that only a small percentage of them actually engaged when under fire on the battlefield. There was a conscious decision to change basic training and recruitment to bring in and develop a more gruntish type of soldier just in time for Vietnam. It continues today. We can all see how well that has worked for us...

Smith: Good stuff - not fall-down great, but pretty good. Opened with the climax of the caper, flash-back one hour to the start of the caper, then flash-back three weeks to the planning of the caper to get a chance to meet all the characters. Then we get the entire caper, uncut with all the details. As rumored, the caper was great, the production values are pretty good but a little too much "enhancing the action" with shaky hand-held camera. Virginia Madsen - Liotta's wife - is just so suspicious of him but this criminal mastermind who can smell trouble coming from a mile away doesn't pick up on her frowny faces and cold kisses. Like I said - good, but not great. CBS, Tuesdays at 10p.

Jericho: Haven't watched it yet - stay tuned...

Kidnapped: Oh baby, this was great, very good. Highly recommended. To correct my earlier overview, the story does NOT take place in real time like 24, but this will be the one case for the season. They basically covered the first day on the first ep. Jeremy Sisto runs a shadowy busiess of retrieving rich kidnap victims without the distractions of worrying about catching and prosecuting the kidnappers - killing them if provoked is good enough as far as he is concerned. He really wants to keep the FBI out of the picture but of course that doesn't happen. Again, very highly recommended. NBC, Wednesdays at 10p.

Shark: Haven't watched it yet - stay tuned...

Watch more TV...

I got nuthin'

2006-09-22T13:42:00.000-05:00

Have a good weekend...thekeez

Noted in passing...Sven Nykvist

2006-09-21T13:06:00.000-05:00

Someone once said that in the process of filmmaking "if the film is the baby, the director the mother, the screenwriter the father, then the cinematographer is the midwife." The Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist, who has died aged 83, helped bring about the birth of a number of masterpieces, most of them by Ingmar Bergman, his most intimate collaborator.

For many years, Nykvist and Bergman resisted colour, considering it a source of superficial beauty. In 1964 Bergman responded to the critical reaction to his "morbid" films by making a farce, Now About These Women, in colour to bring out the prettiness of the ornate sets and flamboyant 1920s costumes. But neither man was satisfied with the result, citing its lack of atmosphere and excessive lighting.

It was back to stunning black-and-white with the powerful close-ups in Persona (1966) and the haunting images of Hour of the Wolf (1967), before embarking on their second colour film, A Passion (1969), which used more muted tones. But it was with Cries and Whispers (1972) - for which Nykvist won an Academy Award - that the real breakthrough came.

In the 1970s Nykvist took advantage of the easing of union regulations in the US which allowed Europeans to work in the American film industry, and by the mid-80s he was filming more in Hollywood than elsewhere. He shot four films for Bergman-lover Woody Allen, the best being Crimes and Misdemeanours (1989), although Nykvist was unhappy with Allen's need for a "dark look". As Nykvist said, "the actors' faces look like tomatoes!"

Other American films which benefited from his skills were Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (1978), Bob Rafelson's The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Phil Kaufmann's The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) and fellow Swede Lasse Hallstrom's What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).

Source

Thursday Nite Tube

2006-09-21T06:37:00.000-05:00

CSI new season opener - CBS, 9p. John Mayer appears performing two new songs. Did I see Stokes sportin' the Kojak look in the tv spot last nite?

Shark grand premiere - CBS, 10p.

NBC releases the hounds - new season openers for My Name is Earl, 8p / The Office, 8:30pm / ER, 10p. Joining the ER cast this season - (drum roll) - John Stamos...

Part 2 of the American Masters Warhol doc runs on PBS, 9p.

TNT is running both volumes of Kill Bill back to back starting at 9p. So after they edit the language and the gore the whole deal should last about 24 minutes...

Wednesday Nite Tube - Update

2006-09-20T12:51:00.000-05:00

Whoa! Forgive me for not including this earlier in the post below. PBS premieres the first of a two-part American Masters on the man himself - Andy Warhol - 9 to 11p.

And here's one of my few "Brush with Greatness" stories: The first time I went to NYC was in the late 70s. I had a friend living up there who agreed to put me up and serve as tour guide. Arrived in the afternoon, got settled in, then we went out and about for a first taste. We went through Gramercy Park - you know, the park with the cast iron fence Woody Allen runs through at the end of Manhattan, the park that is used in just about every movie that gets shot in NYC - came across a film crew and saw Lee Strasberg in a production van getting his make-up applied for a scene.

We went through the park and within a minute we were upon Max's Kansas City. And as cliche as it possibly could be, there was Andy Warhol standing in front of Max's, a stack of the latest Interviews under his arm, waiting for his ride. We approached, said hello, he was very open and friendly, and gave us each a copy of the new mag hot off the press.

And there you go...

Wednesday Nite Tube

2006-09-20T09:44:00.000-05:00

CBS launches Jericho at 8p. From the CBS website...

Jericho is a drama about what happens when a nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly appears on the horizon, plunging the residents of a small, peaceful Kansas town into chaos, leaving them completely isolated and wondering if they're the only Americans left alive. Fear of the unknown propels Jericho into social, psychological and physical mayhem when all communication and power is shut down. The town starts to come apart at the seams as terror, anger and confusion bring out the very worst in some residents.

Hmmm, is it me or does that sound familiar...

What Not to Wear at 9p on BBC America...

There was buzz that Trinny and Suzanne were going to be replaced but there is no evidence to support that on the web site. Unfortunately, the BBC America web site is designed in such a thick-headed way you can't find out what season or episode is running tonight. And do avoid the miserable American version that runs on TLC...

Most buzz-worthy premiere tonite is Kidnapped, 10p on NBC...

Just Released on DVD

2006-09-19T08:03:00.000-05:00

10th and Wolf: A man returns home to Philadelphia to find his brother and cousin have become mobsters.

They live in Philly - what did he expect?

Hard Candy: A man in his 30s gets more than he bargained for when he picks up a teenager in a coffee shop.

Yeah - he gets featured on the latest Dateline NBC.

The Proposition: A violent, gritty Australian Western penned by rock legend Nick Cave.

Rock legend Nick who?

Stay Alive: A group of friends play a video game inspired by the 17th century noblewoman called The Blood Countess. Soon, they start being murdered in ways that mirror the murders in the game.

Starring Frankie Muniz!

Sheesh! You know, I have been seriously considering cancelling my "DVD-rental-in-the-mail-thing" and shifting that money to the monthly fee for a dual tuner DVR. There's lotsa good stuff on TV these days if you can just keep up with it and find it when it's on. The DVR makes that much, much easier...

Tuesday Nite Tube

2006-09-19T07:12:00.000-05:00

New House tonite - runs early again at 8p...

Former President Palmer cranks up The Unit for tonight's season premiere. Didn't watch this last year but reviews were very good. 9p on CBS - leading in to...

Ray Liotta's new show, Smith premieres at 10p on CBS...

Get a life.

2006-09-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

An exhibition by headline-grabbing UK artist Banksy has been criticised for including a live painted elephant.

The animal, called Tai, was covered in pink and gold paint and placed in a mocked-up house to represent how world poverty is widely ignored.

Officials from the Los Angeles Animal Services Department told the Associated Press they would never again issue permits for such a "frivolous" purpose.

The elephant's owner said the dye was non-toxic and welfare was paramount.

Ed Boks, head of Animal Services in Los Angeles, said: "I think it sends a very wrong message that abusing animals is not only OK, it's an art form.

"We find it no longer acceptable to dye baby chicks at Easter, but it's OK to dye an elephant."

Source

It's clearly time to start abusing folks like Ed Boks...

Zappa Lives

2006-09-18T11:01:00.001-05:00

Thirteen years after his death, there seems to be a struggle going on for the soul of Frank Zappa. The composer-bandleader-guitarist continues to inspire re-interpretations by all manner of performers, from rock, jazz and classical musicians. But who are the true keepers of the flame? Are they rockers such as the Muffin Men or the Grandmothers or contemporary bands like Ensemble Modern and the Britten Sinfonia? Or his own family, with the "heir-tight" Zappa Plays Zappa project.

For the moment, the big bands are ahead; in recent months we've had Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (Cuneiform) by the New York-based Ed Palermo Big Band, and Frank Zappa's Hot Licks (and Funny Smells) (Provocateur) by Colin Towns and the NDR Big Band.

On the Towns album, recorded live at the Moers festival, the German radio band adds both orchestral pomp and self-deprecating humour to tunes such as Be-Bop Tango and King Kong. The US band has a crisper, brasher sound, with a confident, distinctly American drive in the rhythm section, but the keyboards are a tad cheesy (check out Dwarf Nebula).

Meanwhile, in the classical corner, last week's Late Junction featured an extended-techniques adaptation of Zappa's How Could I Be Such a Fool (from Cruising With Ruben & the Jets) performed by violinist Alexei Algui and pianist Dietmar Bonnen. David Greenberg and David McGuinness with Concerto Caledonia, who play the music of "18th century Scotland and elsewhere", put Zappa's Echidna's Arf (of You) alongside psalms and hymns for baroque violin and harpsichord. Zappa repertoire turns up everywhere, from the distinctly underwhelming Banned From Utopia to the Gotan Project, whose version of Chunga's Revenge was played to death several years ago as the interstitial "sting" at the BBC World Music Awards.

Source

I don't listen to a lot of FZ anymore. I can say I still like most of the recordings from the early Mothers up through the Roxy/Elsewhere band and era. The later bands were souless technicians. They were as close as you could get to human synclaviers...

...which delighted Frank to no end. He didn't want the humanity of the players to get in the way of the notes. But the latter day bands did a lot of snappy tunes that had no real personality. The early bands were packed with personality and the music benefitted from it.

As for this...

Dweezil and Ahmet should be taken out and shot.

MediBlog - Latest

2006-09-18T10:34:00.000-05:00

Surgeon: Incision healing well - come back in a month.

Lung Guy: Chest sounds okay - we'll take a CT Scan in a month and see if there's any pneumonia left in there.

Who Cares?

2006-09-18T07:03:00.000-05:00

There were several times this week that I had an opportunity to watch an ep of Carnivale season 2. But I never really felt like it. This morning I put the discs in the mail to return them.

Carnivale seems to have fallen prey to X-Files disease - and after only one season. If you remember, X-Files had that dual plotting going on - there were the weekly stories, strange mysteries and creatures and events, usually unrelated to other episodes. But you also had the "big story" - the alien invasion story that would pop up every few eps. A continuing plot line, connected to past episodes and referencing them.

The trap X-Files fell into was their attempt to keep the "big story" so vague. While it was amusing for the first couple years to watch a "big story" episode and marvel at how you ended up knowing even less than when you started, that was an awfully big challenge for the writers and when they had painted themselves into an insane corner, there was no getting out of it with any grace or style.

Carnivale had the same dual plotting going on. There were the individual Twilight Zonish episodes concerning life on the road with a carnival in the 1940s. Some of these were very, very good. You also had that "big story" of good vs. evil in the guise of Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin. The problem is that Season 2 opens with everything focused on the big story. And in the end, who cares? I mean, where can they go with this ultimate struggle? It doesn't matter who eventually triumphs because it is so obviously a fiction that you just can't get too wrapped up in it.

And hey, Ben Hawkins has Ruthie the snake charmer throwing herself at him and he just blankly keeps turning away. This guy is going to turn his back on Adrienne Barbeau?

Here Comes Some New Stuff!

2006-09-15T07:08:00.000-05:00

TONIGHT: No series premiere tonight but two new Stargates on SciFi...

MONDAY: NBC launches its new Aaron Sorkin creation - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I'd describe it but the NBC website is such a murky mess I couldn't get anything to come up about it. Looks like a "behind the scenes of a tv show" tv show. Sorta like what Sorkin did on...Sports Night. Good cast, though. 10p

TUESDAY: CBS premieres Smith with Ray Liotta as a criminal mastermind living an undercover yuppie life in suburbia. Not even his wife knows what he's up to. Early buzz sez the acting is great and the capers are top notch. 10p

WEDNESDAY: CBS fires up Jericho - small town residents witness a nuclear mushroom cloud in the distance and are thrown into turmoil fearing they're the only folks left alive - on the planet. Sounds more like a movie or mini-series plot rather than an on-going tv show but hey, might be fun watching them struggle to keep it going. 8p

Also on Wednesday, NBC tries to take us with Kidnapped - basically it's Without a Trace done in real time - 24 style. Cast includes Delroy Lindon, Timothy Hutton, Dana Delany and Jeremy Sisto - yeah! Billy Chenowith from Six Feet Under. 10p

THURSDAY: CBS - James Woods - Jeri Ryan - legal drama - Shark - okay, I'll give it a try. And yes, I'm pretty sure that's Melissa Leo guest starring in the opening ep. 10p.

Marianne

2006-09-15T06:34:00.000-05:00

Marianne Faithfull diagnosed with breast cancer...

The 59-year-old singer has rescheduled a world tour, which was due to kick-off next month, until next year.

"The disease has been quickly discovered by doctors in France," said her publicist. "The prognosis for a return to full health is excellent."

"I have absolute faith and confidence in my fantastic medical team and of course I will be well again, if not better than ever," said Faithfull in a statement. "Next year's tour, I want to assure fans, will be one big celebration."

Source

When was the last time you listened to Broken English? I bought it from iTunes a couple months back (very cheap) and it's as good as it ever was. Drag it out and give it a spin, you won't be disappointed...

Oh, Yessssss!

2006-09-14T09:54:00.000-05:00

"I like to be called governor or the boss," growls Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in the first episode of Prime Suspect, "I don't like Ma'am, I'm not the bloody Queen."

Fifteen years after she starred in the television drama, Helen Mirren certainly is the governor - thanks, ironically, to playing more than one monarch. On Saturday Mirren was named best female actor at the Venice film festival for her performance as Elizabeth II, in the title role of Stephen Frear's film The Queen. The Venetian prize - a rare honour for British performers - followed a US award last month when Mirren won an Emmy for her portrayal of Elizabeth I.

The seventh edition of Prime Suspect, [is] to appear on British screens next month...

Source

Thursday Nite Tube

2006-09-14T06:46:00.000-05:00

BBC America launches a new crime drama - Murder City - tonite at 9p. Read all about it here...

CSI double feature on CBS starting at 9p - the final two eps from last season. Could the new season premiere be far behind?

On Brad Garrett's new show - 'til Death - his wife offers him sex in exchange for new patio furniture. Now that's quality programming...

NBC premieres The Office and ER (who knew it was still on?) NEXT week. You'll have to settle for reruns tonite...

Patti Rocks London

2006-09-13T13:26:00.000-05:00

"I'm not the ironic type," said Patti Smith at one point during the first...concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night, and she wasn't joking. She may be almost skittish in the anecdotes she tells between songs, but once the music strikes up the 59-year-old singer - still imposingly willowy with her mop of long silver hair - becomes a Serious Artist, tackling huge issues head-on with almost alarming sincerity.

Source

And there's a live track download at that link...

Yesssssss!

2006-09-13T11:33:00.000-05:00

In a surprise move..., HBO will announce today that it is renewing its Peabody Award-winning drama, The Wire, for a fifth season.

The Baltimore-based series about urban America began its fourth season Sunday night, greeted by a crush of critical acclaim, including an "appreciation" on The New York Times' editorial page calling the series "the closest that moving pictures have come so far to the depth and nuance of the novel."

Source

Clearly HBO been educated, yo...

Wednesday Nite Tube

2006-09-13T06:54:00.000-05:00

Dunno why the networks are taking so long in rolling out the new product but such is life. Tonight is particularly dead - new shows and not. About the best I can come up is TNT running four eps of Without a Trace back to back - starting at 7p...

High culture fans may want to tune in to PBS for a Beethoven/Mozart program at 8p. The New York Philharmonic presents Symphony #3 - Eroica - one of Ludwig Van's more popular works. But they're also doing the Egmont Overture. An earlier piece by the big guy, a bit clunky by some standards but you'll have a great time swingin' your air baton to it...

Tuesday Nite Tube

2006-09-12T12:29:00.000-05:00

Heads up - House will run at 8p again this week instead of the usual 9p...

If you only have the standard HBO - you can catch a replay of The Wire tonight at 11:30p...

Tonight! Tonight!

2006-09-11T11:53:00.000-05:00

Season finale of Life on Mars, 10p, BBC America...

Premiere of The Wire replays at 9p on HBO 2 East and midnight on HBO 2 West...

SciFi runs three episodes of Dark Angel. I've never gotten into it but always heard it was pretty good...

My bad - forgot to mention that a new season of Inspector Lynley Mysteries started Sunday nite on PBS. We were taping Midsomer Murders on cable and missed it. We have a second PBS channel that runs things off schedule and it will replay last nite's ep on Wednesday at 8p...

Hola!

2006-09-11T11:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday. Taped The Wire but haven't watched it yet. The new Stargates weren't bad - but they keep getting all maudlin about Vala wanting to "belong" to something "bigger than herself", blah, blah, blah. Enough already.

The alternate universe/evil twin plot of Stargate: Atlantis was a little better than it might have been. It wasn't an evil McKay but a "cool" McKay that everyone in our reality (except McKay) really liked. Amusing, but hardly necessary. The show actually featured McKay's sister and spent the opening twenty minutes or so with an entertaining and amusing exploration of their sibling rivalries and shattered family history. They could have stayed on that arc for the whole show and done just fine.

Started watching season two of Carnivale...

Season two continues the high quality acting and production started in season one. But in their attempt to tweak it up and make the larger story clearer, I dunno, they went a bit off the rails. They're trying to make things genuinely apocalyptic but for my money they're going a bit too blatant and obvious. But, it's only two episodes so we'll see where it goes...

Sheesh...!

2006-09-08T09:54:00.000-05:00

Go ahead and just shoot me. I neglected to mention that the fourth season of The Wire premieres this Sunday nite at 10pm!

It's gonna be great!

This weekend! This weekend!

2006-09-08T03:13:00.000-05:00

Things are not looking very good for the weekend. CBS and Fantasy Network have nothing new to offer. But FOX premieres two new shows Friday nite: Brad Garrett's sitcom: 'til Death which pretty much looks DOA to me.

"Hey, I won an Emmy! Now I can have any lame show I want!"

They follow the former Raymond fave with Happy Hour - a stunningly original idea involving six young adults - three guys, three gals, (all white) - who negotiate the tricky waters of love and happiness in their young adult years. Did I mention that they hang out in a coffee bar? No wait, they don't. They hang out in a bar - slurping down cheap drinks and free peanuts...during happy hour...get it?

They're not only drunks, they're cheap drunks...

NBC has got nuthin.' Though they are running a Law & Order: CI Saturday nite at 10pm and it does feature Eames and Goren...

SciFi gives us two new Stargate episodes tonight. On SG1, Vala is kidnapped and tortured, blah, blah, blah. Claudia Black has been steadily moving into the spotlight on SG1...

For a couple weeks, they were turning her into a goody-two shoes but they backed off that and have returned her to her snarky, resourceful self.

Stargate: Atlantis goes for the evil twin / alternate universe plot - McKay being the one who is twinned...

Oh yes, I almost forgot. Saturday nite we get a SciFi original movie: Sasquatch Mountain! Here's the link - you can check it out on your own...

SSSSSsssss.........

2006-09-06T13:17:00.000-05:00

Alright - your box office prognosticator has discovered the true source of divine movie mojo knowledge and is now coming back from a sad, sad, .200 average. It was right here that I predicted that Snakes on a Plane would be a goat - that it wouldn't be the box office monster the buzz suggested...

Three weeks in release and Snakes has dropped to #15, with a total domestic gross of 31 mil. Don't get me wrong, that's a respectable showing - probably five to six times what it would have made if the project had gone ahead as a straight horror movie sans Samuel Jackson. Camping it up was a good and profitable idea. But it don't make it a monster...

It does bring my average back up to a respectable .333!

Tonight! Tonight!

2006-09-06T12:59:00.000-05:00

Actually, there's really not much new on tonight. The best choices seem to be the US Open on USA...

or the Without a Trace marathon on TNT...

I dunno, the choice seems pretty easy. No more Agassi at the Open...

...and you know you don't want this guy coming after you...

So...

2006-09-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

What do we think about Cameron's new bangs?

MediBlog - Triple Word Score

2006-09-06T06:45:00.000-05:00

About an hour after posting yesterday I got word about my lung - I have pneumonia - I do NOT have lung cancer.

Moral of the story: Never let a liver guy read a chest x-ray.

Tonight! Tonight!

2006-09-05T11:56:00.000-05:00

Season three of House premieres tonight at 8pm - REPEAT - 8pm, on FOX network.

FOX is using House to give their new FBI hostage negotiator show, Standoff a hot lead-in. Standoff premieres at 9pm. Hey, it stars Ron Livingston from Office Space...

Be there or be square...

MediBlog - Say What?

2006-09-05T09:10:00.000-05:00

Okay - so I go see the surgeon Tuesday, August 22 and received the news posted here. Discussions with docs are interesting. You're sitting there, listening, trying to read between the techno-babble lines and keep up with what's being said. And then the doc says something like...

DOC: "If we move on this and act aggressively we can lengthen your life expectancy from three months to two years. And that's a quality of life - not life in a nursing home with tubes running in and out of you..."

Now, when you hear a statement like that, your brain immediately ceases following the trail of the discussion and says something like...

MY BRAIN: "Did he just say three months? Three months? Was he talking about me directly or was he just giving me a fer'instance - numbers out of a hat..."

So I'm mulling this over while he is going on and on and then he abruptly comes to:

DOC: "Okay, any questions? Good. Gotta go. The folks around here will get you set up..."

ME: "Um, when you said three months to two years, were you speaking hypothetically, pulling numbers from a hat or were you speaking about me specifically?"

DOC: "I was speaking of you specifically, if we don't move on this right now you'll be dead in three months..."

ME: "!"

So I drifted through the rest of the day getting set up for surgery the following morning. Here was the plan: open me up over top of the liver...

...eyeball the three tumors: two small, one large. Remove the two small with a procedure called Ablation...

...basically they burn the material out with a sort of ultrasound wand.

Depending on the location of one of these small tumors, they might remove it with Resection - cutting out a whole chunk of the liver.

The best approach for the third, large tumor will be determined once inside. They know it's on the back of the liver...

...in the vacinity of the two major blood vessels that feed the liver making it impossible to determine if the tumor has its own blood supply - which would be bad. Also, with me running way low on my platelets, the danger posed by accidentally puncturing one of those major blood vessels is pretty high.

Okay, long story short - they go in. Of the two "smaller" tumors, one can't be found at all while the other is so small it can't possibly be cancerous. They start battling it out with the insurance company about what to do on the third bit. They do a needle biopsy - three very small samples of the tumor are taken out and schlepped into the freezer. This material will be put under the microscope as soon as it's frozen and they can slice it. It's a fast and dirty biopsy. They also have to take a fourth, larger sample and let that one be biopsied in a more elaborate (read longer wait for results...) biopsy. Surprise - according to the quicky biopsies, the large lesion isn't cancerous as well. So - out it comes via ablation.

What with the back and forth of my amazing, disappearing tumors and my insurance people tracking and at least once overruling the doc, I'm in the OR from about 10am to 3:30pm. And baby, I'm hurtin' when they get me out of there. I'm moaning and groaning and they're like:

NURSE: "On a scale of one to ten, how much pain are you experiencing?"

ME: "TEN, TWELVE, TWENTY SEVEN, MOAN, MOAN, MOAN..."

They take me to a room and hook me all up with various and sundry electronic monitoring devices as well as an IV with a liquid dilaudid push button thing. At this point I've had nothing to eat or drink for 15 and a half hours. I'm finally allowed some ice water - which hits me like the greatest, coolest, wettest water I've ever tasted - just wonderful.

T tells me there's no cancer in my liver. I sort of hear this but don't really take it in because by now I've been hitting that dilaudid button non-stop and I'm high as a rat. Even so, I manage to remember that I have to have a pee as soon as I can or they're gonna catheter my guy...

I manage to squeeze out some liquid - much to the relief of the night nurse. (I'm thinking this catheter thing is as embarrassing for them as it is for the patient.) I'm waking up every hour but in between I'm getting some real sleep and Thursday morning I'm feeling pretty good.

They take away my beloved push button and start me on dilaudid #4 pills...

...once every four hours. The pill version is courser, and it's got me feeling a little nauseous. But T and I take a walk. They've gotten a lot of the monitoring stuff off me so I can get in and out of bed without calling a nurse. A physical therapist comes by - asks me to stand on one foot, stuff like that. She sez I'm looking pretty good.

Then the lung guy comes in. He's not convinced at all that the spot on my lung is cancerous. He says it looks a lot more like a bacterial or viral infection. But he wants me to stay over so the next day they can run a tv camera with a cutting blade up my nose and into my lung to gather some cells, grow them up in a petri dish and run a biopsy and find out for sure what's going on in there. So that means...no eating or drinking after midnight.

I nibble at lunch - and throw it all up an hour later...

NURSE: "Are you vomiting?"

ME: "HHHHHUUUUURRRRRLLLLL!!!!!"

Same with dinner.

I am given a roommate who is in really bad shape. He sounds like he's breathing under water. Staff are coming in and out every 30 minutes doing stuff with him ALL NIGHT LONG. Needless to say I get no rest that night - or food and water.

Friday is sketchy. I'm exhausted, miserable. Lips are chapped and shredded. I've bitten up the inside of my mouth. The lung team take me away - give me something to "relax me" and then go get their little cells from my lung. I'm back in my room late Friday morning. I've had no solid food since Tuesday at midnight. T and I work overtime to shake out the cobwebs so I can get the heck out of there. And we're home Friday afternoon.

I'm back at work today. But hardly at 100%. The fourth biopsy on the large lesion in my liver has confirmed the others - no cancer in the liver. We'll get word about the lung biopsy early next week. If that proves to be non-cancerous, then I get fast tracked for a liver transplant which will head off this liver cancer all together.

Thanks for everyone who pulled for me. Thanks to those who offered encouraging words. I wasn't posting but I was reading. I'm clearly in a much better place than I was three, four weeks ago. Now we wait for word about my lung...

Viola! My Scar!

2006-09-04T02:27:00.000-05:00

What...too much? Well, if it was good enough for Lyndon...

MediBlog - In a nutshell...

2006-08-22T22:25:00.000-05:00

It's Tuesday nite, about 11:20. Today I met with a liver surgeon - I have two to three cancerous tumors on my liver and a suspicious spot on my lung.

Tomorrow they take me in and work on the liver. It should just be an overnite stay.

After a couple, three weeks to recover, they'll take me back in to biopsy the place on my lung.

Needless to say, blogging will be sporadic over the next few days but will try to update this weekend. Also, we had planned a vacation in New York City for next week and I'm hoping to be strong enough to do it. I need it, and so do the fam.

Happy Birthday

2006-08-21T12:37:00.000-05:00

Carrie Ann Moss!

I had no idea...

2006-08-21T11:46:00.000-05:00

I had given up reading the Sunday comics because they had gotten singularly vapid and just not funny. But apparently, there's been some exciting developments in a couple of the classic strips that has the internet tubes all a flutter.

Of course I'm talking about Mary Worth's stalker: Aldo Kelrast...

OK, we admit it.

We haven't read Mary Worth in 30 years, either. UNTIL NOW.

Mary's got a stalker!

He looks like Captain Kangaroo. And he's the talk of the comics world.

Mary Worth, the comic strip your grandma used to love, suddenly is red-hot.

Is it because an extreme makeover took away her wrinkles and the junk in her trunk, turning a frumpy widow into a saucy senior? Or is it the holy-cow story line, which has her being hounded by a Captain Kangaroo look-alike who may have offed his wife?

Whatever the case, Mary Worth, a strip about the original desperate housewife, is on fire. Thousands of people have taken to the Internet to analyze and debate her every move — something unheard of for a comic from the dinosaur age.

Source

The Comics Curmudgeon is the go-to source for all things Mary and Aldo and comics in general. You won't be disappointed...

"You're mine, Mary, MINE!!!! BWAA-HAA-HAAAAAAAA!"

Miami Mice

2006-08-21T08:54:00.000-05:00

Time to admit the truth that my MONSTER prediction for Miami Vice was wrong, wrong, wrong. The darn thing isn't even in the top ten anymore. This puts me at 1 in 5...

Chocolate Worshippers

2006-08-19T08:58:00.000-05:00

Workers at Angiano's gourmet chocolate company, Bodega Chocolates, discovered under a vat a 2-inch-tall column of chocolate drippings that they believe bears a striking resemblance to the Virgin Mary.

Since the discovery Monday, Angiano's employees have spent much of their time hovering over the tiny figure, praying and placing rose petals and candles around it.
Source

Or, it's a bird...

Naturally Rude

2006-08-19T08:29:00.000-05:00

RIVERTON, Utah (AP) -- A vent cover on the side of a house looks like it might be a rude hand gesture. Then again, it might be a cactus, abstract art-style. It depends if you're the owner or a neighbor.

"This kind of shows the attitude that we've been dealing with all along," said neighbor Stan Torgersen, who sees it as a hand giving the finger, visible from all his back windows.

The acrimony began last fall, when Darren Wood's hill lot was excavated. Torgersen was worried that the excavation might damage his foundation, so he and another neighbor asked the city to intervene.

Riverton officials ordered a soil test, something Wood said had been done by the previous owner. A new exam, [Wood] said, would delay the project by four months and cost him $3,000.

More recently, the Torgersens and another neighbor complained to the city that the home exceeded the height allowed by code. "We used to have a view of the mountains," Janet Torgersen told The Salt Lake Tribune. "He didn't have to take everyone's view."

Wood conceded the house might be over the limit by a little more than a foot. But once the house is finished, and the soil and landscaping laid out, he believes it will be within regulations.

Plus, he added, the city approved the house plan.

"I think the bottom line is harassment," Wood said of his neighbors' grievances. "They will find another issue to complain about."

Source

People in California can't tell the difference between the Virgin Mary and a bird, people in Utah can't tell the difference between a cactus and a bird.

Uh, oh...

2006-08-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

I haven’t had this much fun watching a movie since Ash Williams stood with a shotgun in one hand and a chainsaw in the other, beckoning: “Gimme some sugar, baby.” Folks, Snakes on a Plane is every bit of god-awful fantastic that the hype portends. And I say this not as a movie critic, but as an enthusiast of so-bad-it’s-good.

I consider the Final Destination series one of my favorite trilogies of all time; The Skulls is a minor classic, and nary anything can compare to the joy that was Cool as Ice. But Snakes on a Plane beats them all, hands down, fists balled, and middle finger to the sky. It absolutely kills.

Source

Man, am I really looking at 1 in 6?

In the news...

2006-08-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

CHINA BANS FOREIGN CARTOONS - Beginning Sept. 1, regulators will bar foreign cartoons from TV from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in an effort to protect China's struggling animation studios, news reports said Sunday. The move allows the Monkey King and his Chinese pals to get the top TV viewing hours to themselves...

---

STARGATE SG1 BROADCASTS 200th EPISODE TONIGHT - with a self-parodying, post-modern, deconstructed episode in which the meta-version of the show itself is once again referenced in the show within a show Wormhole Xtreme which in this case is trying to do a feature film of itself. Hilarity ensues...

(And it don't hurt if you bring back Richard Dean Anderson for a guest slot.)

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CBS TO OFFER FREE DOWNLOADS OF PRIMETIME SHOWS - Seven series will be offered for "next-day" download including the CSI franchises and Survivor - and yes they will be free. Downloads will be available through the CBS site innertube...

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BONO PLACES A NOTE IN BILLBOARD FOR TONY BENNETT

Tony,

Trying to sing with you was a humbling, if not humiliating experience. You're like A HOUSE YOU CAN'T BREAK INTO, at least not by force. You can run at the door, but the doors are locked ... you can bang on the windows ... I got into the HOUSE OF BENNETT, but only as the cat burglar ... looking to steal a place in this incredible legacy.

I've had the pleasure of singing with you, AND FOR YOU ... I broke in through the bathroom window, up a drainpipe ... I'm not leaving

Bono

"I'm not worthy!"

Friday Random Ten

2006-08-18T08:53:00.000-05:00

Space Oddity - David Bowie

Sandstorm - Peter Gabriel

Last Orders Please - Faces

Disappointment - Cranberries

Home - Smash Mouth

I'm Too Sexy - Right Said Fred

Cantina Band - Star Wars Soundtrack

What Is and What Should Never Be - Led Zeppelin

Planet Claire - B-52's

Public Servant - U.K. Subs

Feta

2006-08-17T13:00:00.000-05:00

Apparently, in a recent poll, Brits found these...

...(daddy long legs) scarier than these...

Even when they are on a plane...

Spike!

2006-08-17T12:39:00.000-05:00

Spike Lee's documentary about the devastation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina premiered Wednesday evening at the New Orleans Arena before an audience of thousands of victims of the disaster.

The four-hour documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, is both a heart-rending story and as angry as anything Lee has made in his 20-year career.

Lee, maker of racially charged films such as Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X, crafts the story of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that followed without appearing on film. Instead, he lets the people of New Orleans tell the tale of neglect and abandonment by those who should have been in charge.

Source

Spike's film will premiere on HBO in two installments: parts 1 & 2 on Monday, August 21 @ 9pm / parts 3 & 4 on Tuesday, August 22 @ 9pm. HBO will also run all four parts back to back on Tuesday, August 28, 8pm to midnight.

Say again?

2006-08-17T11:57:00.000-05:00

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Six friends spruced up in fake blood and tattered clothing were arrested in downtown Minneapolis on suspicion of toting "simulated weapons of mass destruction."

Simulated weapons of mass destruction...?

Police said the group were allegedly carrying bags with wires sticking out, making it look like a bomb, while meandering and dancing to music as part of a "zombie dance party" Saturday night.

One group member said the "weapons" were actually backpacks modified to carry a homemade stereos and were jailed without reason. None of the six adults and one juvenile arrested have been charged.

Source

There's always one guy or gal who is just too cool to do the whole dress-up thing and they ultimately ruin it for everyone else - making us all feel stupid...

Homicide Watch

2006-08-16T11:50:00.000-05:00

Watched Spike Lee's Inside Man this weekend - great flick! Just a rousing, suspenseful entertainment, a classic New York movie where even the smallest characters are real, firmly rooted in their New York environment. Early in the film we are treated to an appearance by Peter Gerety who played Homicide detective Stu Gharty...

And featured more prominently in Inside Man, was James Ransom - Ziggy from season 2 of HBO's The Wire.

Monster or Goat?

2006-08-16T11:06:00.000-05:00

It's an internet phenom, a marketing juggernaught, an unabashedly silly return to the glories of the 50's B-movie. And it has Samuel Jackson. But will Snakes on a Plane rule or drool?

We've seen pretty conclusively that my predictive powers are absurdly bad, with my perfect score of 1 for 1 rapidly declining to 1 for 4. And Miami Vice is going to make it 1 for 5! So this prediction is critical.

And here it is:

Oh yeah, that Bruno Kirby...

2006-08-16T09:46:00.000-05:00

LOS ANGELES Aug 16, 2006 (AP)— Bruno Kirby, a veteran character actor known for playing the best friend in two of Billy Crystal's biggest comedies When Harry Met Sally and City Slickers, has died. He was 57.

Kirby died Monday in Los Angeles from complications related to leukemia, his wife Lynn Sellers said in a statement Tuesday. He had been recently diagnosed with the disease.

Source

Kirby appeared in dozens of motion pictures and television programs - usually cast as the definitive New Yorker...

He appeared in my beloved Homicide: Life on the Street - as The Gas Man. Kirby also directed a fan fave episode of H:LotS - Heartbeat - in which Munch and Howard...

...go up against a murderer with an obsession with Edgar Allen Poe.

But maybe his most unforgettable role was in the Al Pacino starring, feel-good movie of 1980: Cruising...

Internet Movie Database credits Kirby as the "man greasing up his fist in a club."

(Major shout-out to TBogg...)

Kronk Konks Prop Cop

2006-08-15T14:33:00.000-05:00

Some of you may remember Peter Berg in his turn as Dr. Billy Kronk on Chicago Hope. Berg has gone on to directing feature films...

Berg's first feature film directorial outing - Very Bad Things - concerned a bachelor party in which the hired hooker is accidentally killed in the drunken mayhem...

A crew member was killed on the set of The Kingdom, a high-profile Hollywood production starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner.

Assistant propmaster Nick Papac, 25, died on Saturday after he crashed his all-terrain vehicle on a motorway in Mesa, near Phoenix, Arizona. The road had been closed to the public to allow The Kingdom's crew to film. Shooting had ended when the accident occurred.

Papac crashed his golfcart-like vehicle into an SUV that carried the film's director, Peter Berg. Papac was airlifted to hospital, where he died a few hours later from severe head injuries. No one else was injured in the crash.

Source

Berg is seen here in this dramatic reenactment, airlifting the Assistant propmaster into the emergency room in Phoenix...

Poked, prodded, injected, inspected, imaged and scanned...

2006-08-15T13:06:00.000-05:00

So it was a lower GI ultrasound about four weeks ago, followed by an MRI about three weeks ago - I had to do the MRI twice, the machine fouled up on the first set - and then today it was a CT Scan and a Bone Scan.

Should have all info in the next 24 to 48 hours. See the surgeon next week on Tuesday...

At long last...

2006-08-14T14:21:00.000-05:00

Sunday, September 10 marks the return of HBO's awesome and epic Baltimore cop series, The Wire. A direct descendant of my beloved Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire has delivered three seasons of television excellence.

Season one focused on the drug trade in the city's dreaded high-rise housing projects. Season two shifted attention to the city docks, and the working men who get caught up in the illegal smuggling trade.

Season three went back to the drug neighborhoods, as the trade moved out into the city following the demolition of the high-rises. Season four looks to go into the public schools.

While being a dense, well plotted, ensemble police procedural, The Wire charts the long and steady demise of middle class, blue collar America. It barely survived being renewed for a fourth season - we're lucky to be getting it.

Mike!

2006-08-14T12:28:00.000-05:00

Daytime talk show king, Mike Douglas passed this weekend - he was 81. Don't know about you, but Mike's show was a fixture in my house in the 60s. Mike's easy-going, convivial personality made the show as untreatening as could be. You could expect the typical, Hollywood celebrities and personalities...

Of course, there would always be a jump in anticipation if Totie Fields were appearing...

But sprinkled in with the standard Hollywood guests were folks like Alice Cooper, seen here with Mike and Peter Falk...

As middle-America enjoyed the lively banter of celebrities, they were getting to know the icons of the counter-culture on the same, friendly level.

The rest is - as they say - history.

Rock on, Mike. Rock on...

Ouch!

2006-08-14T10:37:00.000-05:00

Coming out of a five-day opening weekend, World Trade Center sits dejected at third place behind the NASCAR spoof Talladega Nights and bad-boy-makes-good dance flick Step Up. WTC did only $19,000,000 for the weekend, and a total of $27,000,000 for the five-day opening...

Uncle! My prediction was MONSTER. I blew it...

Sorry...

2006-08-11T08:46:00.000-05:00

A thousand apologies for the lite posting. I've got some medical stuff taking up my free time at the moment - tests, doctors, meetings with surgeons, etc. I'll fill in the details when I have some...

Friday Random Ten

2006-08-11T08:42:00.000-05:00

You're Not from Brighton - Fatboy Slim

Jungle Love - Steve Miller Band

Pressure Drop - The Specials

Any Other Name - American Beauty Soundtrack

Memory - Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack

Brass in Pocket - Pretenders

Salt of the Earth - Rolling Stones

Blue Suede Shoes - Carl Perkins

Sixty Years On - Elton John

Two Hearts Beat as One - U2

What's my beef?

2006-08-08T13:47:00.000-05:00

Who does the cataloging for the Yellow Pages? Are they drunk?

I was trying to find out about the different options for trash collection in my neighborhood. Guess where I found the commercial trash collection companies listed in the Yellow Pages?

TRASH? No way...

WASTE? Nice try, but wrong again...

REFUSE? Nah...

RECYCLING? Nope...

CURBSIDE? Nonsense...

DISPOSAL? Not even close...

Bottom line - I couldn't find it in the Yellow Pages - and that's my beef!