Bringing Party Favors to Hell

I stopped at Panera this morning for coffee and some kind of nummy breakfasty thing, and this was in the parking lot:

Looks like The Doctor finally fixed that Chameleon Circuit. ;D Good job choosing a Prius. In this area they're as ubiquitous as a Police Box was in England 40 years ago.

I'm finally on the mend after two weeks of bronchitis. Not the way I really wanted to spend the holidays! I've spent the last two weeks basically hibernating, feeling sorry for myself, and watching a lot of No Reservations on the Travel Channel, lots of true crime shows, and various other stuff like that History Channel "Nostradamus 2012" program Sunday night which should have been titled "Prophecy for the Gullible." Geez. It was really annoying. Kidunit and I rented a few DVDs over the weekend and watched Wall-E, The Golden Compass, and Wanted. Wanted was pretty much an exercise in pretty, stylized violence-- I didn't like it much. I was also very disappointed in The Golden Compass -- granted it would have been very hard to really do justice to the novel, but I found it choppy and overly expository, and also everything after they got to the North was really dark and hard to see. I think they were trying too hard to keep the Catholic Church from boycotting them. I doubt they'll do another in the series. Wall-E, however, was a delight. We both loved it. I also have to say I am loving Leverage. If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend it. I don't find it slashy (darn it) but it's a fun show.

Found an excellent new-to-us Thai place in town, they make the best drunken noodles I've ever had, and their spring rolls were so amazingly fresh they practically exploded flavor in my mouth when I took a bite. And their dipping sauce didn't taste like watered down peanut butter, either. To top it off, their mango sticky rice was fabulous. Must learn how to make it their way. Mmmmmm. It's also reasonably priced. The location's a bit eh... it's in a stripmall across from 29th Street, but the food's definitely worth it. (If you're local and want to try it, it's Chy Thai.)

Watched the new Top Chef. There are two chefs from Boulder in it this season, Hosea (bald/Amish beard) who did pretty well in the first ep, and Melissa (blonde, bad haircut) who didn't fare as well but is still in the running. It'll be fun to watch and see how the locals fare. There's also a guy named Jeff from Miami who's a dead ringer for Jesse Spencer (Chase from House). The resemblance is amazing, more so on the show than in the still photo. I can already tell I am not going to be liking either of the two European guys. There's ego, and then there's ego.

bluster came for a visit last week! Much fun was had, including a fantabulous Great Big Sea show at the Paramount. We were in the 8th row on the aisle and couldn't have had better seats. Before the show I was worried that the Paramount, being a large venue with actual seats, would repress the usual audience participation but fortunately that was not the case. The by'z were as 'on' as they get, and the audience was great, and a wonderful time was had by all. We came out half-deaf, completely hoarse, sweat-soaked and bone tired. Exactly how one should come out of a GBS concert. Though really, 'concert' is a misnomer. It's more of an interactive experience. ;D

The next night we'd gone to dinner at the closest Outback Steakhouse and on the way home saw the oddest thing... at the light, a large motorcycle was pulled off onto the sidewalk along with its trailer... a full size actual coffin. Not a fake Halloween-style coffin but a real, honest-to-goodness coffin, kind of silvery with chrome fittings. It definitely caused a few double-takes. On Saturday we went to Denver to see ardent_muses and her handsome and well-behaved Sheltie. bluster and ardent_muses showed me what NASCAR is like. I can now read the SGA "Fireball" AU and understand what's going on. I can't say I'm ever going to be a NASCAR fan but it wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. I had to laugh when I was the only one paying enough attention to the race to be able to tell them what they'd missed when they were busy fannishly squeeing over various drivers and crew-chiefs. And yes, bluster, Bootie is a cutie.

Watched House last night.... wow. That had to be the slashiest damned ep ever of a show that is often pretty slashy. ( Read more... )

Still liking Fringe, and pretty much all my usual shows, though my Bones love is kind of waning. They are really off their stride this season, and I am getting awfully tired of the Intern Shuffle. I wish they would just do whatever lame thing they're going to do to get Zach back and get it over with. Still haven't found a show I can really feel "fannish" about, though. ::sigh::

Okay, well. How shall I put this... ( Read more... )

In other RL news, I've seen this several places now so I chose this site's edition kind of at random: a view of Sarah Palin from someone who's known her a while. (Warning: if you're pro-Palin you probably wanna skip it.)

So right after seeing this week's Eureka and finding out some information that makes me think a certain event that happened during the ep might be more permanent than I had presumed, I find out that they're cancelling Stargate: Atlantis.

Not. Happy. Right. Now. :(

Every time I watch The Middleman, I get at least one unexpected guffaw and usually a whole lot more. Tonight's were, in no particular order. "Story of O!", "Agents Alexander Scott & Kelly Robinson," and "Just a canceled television show, I don't expect you'll get the reference." Heeee! A few eps ago the "Hear that noise? It's Simone de Beauvoir rolling in her grave." had me ROFL.

Seriously, if you're not watching it, you should be. The first episode wasn't so good, so I hope any of you who didn't tune back in after that one will give it a second chance. I don't think you'll be sorry.

eta: a couple of reviews in case you want more substance to the rec:
http://www.newsarama.com/tv/060816-MiddlmanReview.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/arts/television/23man.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

I've always liked Tom Colicchio on Top Chef- he has always seemed down to earth and intelligent. And after reading his finale blog for this season, "A Woman's Place" I'm even more impressed. Here's a quote from the blog entry: The bottom line is our society does not yet provide women in the workplace with the type of social supports, like high-quality subsidized child care or extended parental leave, that allows them to fully go for it, and the impact this has on the scope and depth of a career is profound.

Yes, it is. Still. Despite the idiot commenter 'Rob' who said Are we still in the Sixties???? Please, please, please, give this womens movement thing a rest.

Yeah, 'Rob', I'm still a feminist. And not ashamed to say so. And the Sixties aren't that far away.

Sentiments etc. ( cut for your protection. )

I stopped watching Smallville somewhere around the middle of season three, but have recently watched a few of the latest eps, and something is just driving me crazy. Who is that woman playing Lex's minion with the glasses? I've never managed to catch her character's name but I have checked the IMDB for Smallville and couldn't spot anyone who looked like her, and I've looked on the WB site and didn't find her, and she looks SO familiar. (Actually, she looks a lot like Tina Fay but I'm pretty sure it's not.) Someone on my flist must know who she is. Right? :::looks at flist hopefully:::

From the IMDB Studio Briefing today:

Jericho, the CBS television series that was canceled because of low ratings, then revived following protests from fans, then canceled again because of low ratings, may be revived a second time, the New York Times reported today (Monday). The newspaper said that CBS may follow NBC's recent example with Friday Night Lights in which it sold the DirecTV satellite service the right to air the series before it goes on network TV. The Times said that CBS is considering a similar option in negotiations with cable provider Comcast. Meanwhile, although DirecTV executives have expressed confidence that the Friday Night Lights deal could drive new subscribers to their service, some analysts are expressing skepticism about its ability to do so and forecasting that the DirecTV episodes will wind up being pirated on the Internet.

Hmm.... I'll believe it when I see it.

Just in case you were trying to actually watch the show, in its infinite wisdom TPTB have decided to schedule an episode on Thursday (check local listings for time), And then next week, to confuse us further, it apparently moves to its 'real' timeslot on Monday (check local listings for time).

Gee, anyone would think a) this is Fox and b) they want the show to fail...

Oh, wait...

(Seriously, I haven't seen scheduling this bad since Space: Above & Beyond.)

Just a reminder to the people on my flist who said they were interested in New Amsterdam (which looks to be vaguely Highlanderesque...) it starts Tuesday night 3/4/08 on Fox. 9E/8C/M time.