The view from my office.

The view from my office., originally uploaded by gina64.

It's too nice a day to be cooped up in here. (craptastic cameraphone shot)

TV Talk

Are you watching Sons of Anarchy? It's really a pretty good show. I like the way the story is building at a slow-burn, as they gradually weave all of the threads together. Gemma is still my favorite character, and last week's episode, which featured her prominently, was probably my favorite so far:



If you're interested in SOA and want to catch up, you can find the first 5 episodes at Hulu.

I'm still hanging in there with Fringe. It hasn't come together for me in the way that SOA has, but there are enough worthwhile moments in each episode and story elements in place to keep me coming back. John Noble as Walter Bishop continues to shine. Walter doing the sock-shock thing to Peter this week made me laugh out loud.



The first 5 episodes of Fringe are also up at Hulu.

I haven't watched Life On Mars yet, but I DVR'd both episodes and I hope to watch them this weekend. I'm also behind on Pushing Daisies, which I hope to remedy tonight.

Poll

I know I said I wouldn't get too political here, but I feel compelled to hear your opinion on this.

poll by twiigs.com

Photos I took on Sunday.

10-12-2008 002, originally uploaded by gina64.

Heroes: Episode 3.05

Angels and Monsters

Maybe it's because I've accepted that the show isn't what it once was - and perhaps that it never really was what it once was - and my expectations for it are lower now, or maybe last night's episode was actually pretty good, or maybe it's because Peter was in a drug-induced coma; whatever the reason, I enjoyed it.

For me, the show is usually at its best when things get dark and creepy, and there was some seriously dark shit last night: Peter trying to kill his mother, the Vortex man killing himself (or making himself disappear), Mohinder's nest of victims, HRG's old ruthlessness, the Puppet Master's spaghetti-eating-forced-makeout scene, and Mrs. P's bloody vision of Nathan, Tracy and Peter's murders and her paralysis at the hands of Mr. P were all high points of the episode. I'm sick of hearing these people whine about their abilities and it's fun to see them actually use them, even if it's for nefarious purposes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: When they give the heavy-lifting acting jobs to the better actors - e.g., HRG, Mrs. P, Nathan - the entertainment level rises to point where the writing inconsistencies don't matter a whit to me.

That's not to say I didn't have issues with certain aspects of the episode. Mohinder's story has now shifted from being what could be called a ripoff of The Fly to something resembling the movie Aliens. If some little monster Baby Mohinder pops out of the chests of Maya and the other cocooned people, I'm outta here!

Speaking of Mohinder, what is he supposed to be turning into? The soundtrack plays what I thought was rattlesnake-ish noises during his scenes, but he seems to be acting more like a bug or spider.

I'm not sure what to say about Hiro killing Ando.   It pisses me off because it seems unnecessary and completely out of character.  Hiro has pledged to not go back in time anymore because it causes so many problems, so how does he get out of this one?

One other issue I have is with the formula, and it's a big one: Supposedly, there was only one hand-written copy of the formula in existence, right?  Nothing on a computer?  Considering Nathan and Tracy's probable ages, the formula was used 30 - 40 years ago, which would be some time in the 70s, so maybe this evil high-tech superhero company didn't have computers in the 70s.  Mhm.  Even if I buy that, why in the WORLD would they keep the only hand-written copy when it could be so easily destroyed?

See, now I've gone and started thinking too much and it's seriously harshing my Heroes buzz. You can't do that with this show anymore, or you'll make yourself crazy.

How did you like the episode?

Clown Car Flips in Arizona!

Lily went pumpkin shopping on Saturday! And she took the job very seriously.

Scary pumpkin face, originally uploaded by gina64.

DKNY

DKNY, originally uploaded by gina64.

Bye-bye, Opus. ACK!

I heard on NPR the other night that Berkley Breathed is retiring (again), and though I haven't read an Opus or Bloom County comic in many, many moons, the news made me so sad!  Bloom County, along with The Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes, was part of a triumviarate of comics that I thought were so brilliant way back in the 80s.  It had a sweetness and childlike innocence (and silliness), even as it skewered politics and pop culture, and I loved it so much.

I wonder if I still have my Bloom County collection books tucked away somewhere...

TV Talk: New shows premiering, Old shows returning

Just a heads-up post:

CSI returns tonight at 9:00 on CBS and from the previews it looks like Warrick is not dead!  At least not yet.  I guess it all hinges on how well Dourdan did in rehab.

ABC's Life on Mars premieres tonight and I am really excited about it.  I had heard good stuff about the BBC show and lately I've been hearing good reviews about this one.  It's on at 10:00 PM.

Also premiering at 10:00 PM (on CBS) is Eleventh Hour, another BBC revamp.  I've not been hearing such great things about this one so I may end up skipping it, despite the yummy Rufus Sewell.

Enjoy!

Heroes: Episode 3.04

I Am Become Death

Fun Fact: Upon witnessing the first test of a nuclear bomb(Trinity), Oppenheimer was reminded of a line from Hindu scripture: I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

So, am I the only one not feeling the love anymore? I have not ranted here about all the ways that I think this show is losing it and just adding new heroes so we don't notice that they're doing the same freaking story arc every season, or about the stupidity of the characters -- wait, maybe I did talk about that a little - but all of that has certainly been on my mind.  My point is I am not enjoying this show nearly as much as I used to. At all.  I'm trying to keep an open mind, so I'm going to give this recap thing one more shot.  If the show pisses me off again next week, I'm done.  I'll still watch and will occasionally post about something I might find notable in an episode, or if the writers actually come up with something good, but these recaps are a lot of work and, well, the thrill is just about gone.

This episode was all over the place, so we'll break it up into Present and Future.  Here we go:

Present

Mohinder is still molting and the power injection he gave himself is also making him more aggressive, which scares Maya away.  Yay!  He then takes his aggression out on an upstairs neighbor who beats his wife by beating the crap out of him.  He realizes that giving himself that injection was probably a mistake.  Oh, you think?

Parkman is still in Africa.  His cute African friend sets him up with some psychic goop and a set of headphones (huh?) and he gets Isaac-y white eyes and sees his future.  He's living with Daphne (married?) in that same nasty-ass NY apartment with Molly and a baby that I assume is theirs.  But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Dr. Zimmerman tells Tracy that she is one of a set of identical triplets - Nikki, Tracy and Barbara (?) - who were given powers via DNA manipulation by order of a nameless Company.  It has a name, but I bet the Haitian made Dr. Z forget.  Tracy is distraught when she returns to DC and tries to call the police and turn herself in for the murder of the (Greatest American) reporter but she's so upset she freezes the phone.  Meanwhile, Nathan is setting up his new office in DC while Linderman's ghost hovers around nagging him about his "path" to the Presidency.  Tracy comes to Nathan's office to tender her resignation, says she "can't do this anymore" and leaves.  Linderman tells Nathan that he has to save her, that it's all a part of his path.  So as Tracy is about to jump to her death from a bridge, Nathan swoops in and catches her.  Later (at his apartment?), Tracy shows her icy powers to Nathan who is all Hell Yeah and they kiss.  I like these two kids together, they have great chemistry.

OK, now for the FUTURE.

This is going to get ugly.

Future Peter (FP) teleports with Present Peter (PP) from the bank job to 4 years hence.  FP tells PP that he needs to fix the future because he (FP) is too dumb to travel back in time and fix it without royally screwing the timeline.  Well, at least he can recognize his faults.  FP says that in this future everyone has powers because someone invented a formula that would bestow powers on anyone who wanted them.  Why is that bad?  He wasn't clear on that, I don't think.  Something about people causing earthquakes or something.

Allow me to digress a bit here and say that you know how Milo V. is at best a mediocre actor even when he has other, better actors to play against?  Imagine how bad he is in this scene where has to act with himself.  GAH!

FP tells PP he has to find Sylar, whose power will help him to see how forces in the past work together to create the future and how he can prevent it.  Just then Claire shows up and shoots FP, who dies because The Haitian is there suppressing his healing ability.  PP gets away.

He goes to Mohinder's lab to get Sylar's location.  Mohinder's all monster-y and hiding under a hoodie in the shadows.  And he makes a funny rattlesnake-ish sound.  He tells PP he can find Sylar at the Bennett house in Costa Verde.

Evil Claire, together with Daphne and Knox, are after Peter.  Daphne convinces Matt to let her use Molly to find Peter.

Peter goes to the Costa Verde house and finds Sylar - who now calls himself Gabriel, his given name - has set up house there.  And he has a son!  Named Noah!  And there isn't a Bennett in sight.  Peter wants his power but Gabriel tells him that with the knowledge of how things work also comes the hunger for other people's power.  Peter ultimately convinces him to give him his power anyway.  Then Claire, Daphne and Knox show up and there's a fight and little Noah gets killed.  Gabriel goes nuclear, literally, destroying all of Costa Verde and over 200,000 people.  Except, inexplicably, Claire, Peter, Knox and Daphne all survive.  Claire holds Peter prisoner in a morgue, with The Haitian in the room to keep Peter from using his powers.

[Oops - my friend Holly pointed out to me that I forgot an important scene.  Daphne did survive the blast, but only long enough to return injured to Matt and Molly and the baby in the NY apartment.  She tried to run away from the blast, but she was "too slow" and the blast caught her from behind.  She falls into Matt's arms and dies, just like in the African's painting.  Thanks for keeping me honest, Hol!] 

Nathan is President in this future, and Tracy is his First Lady (and she wears some amazing sunglasses!).  As Claire is about to torture and kill Peter, Nathan shows up.  He tells everyone, including The Haitian, to leave the room. Nathan tells Peter that because of the bad things being caused by everyone having powers he has had to create a special army of power-possessing people.  This gets Peter all riled up and he loses control and tries to tin-can Nathan.  He stops himself before he kills Nathan, however, and teleports out of there.

Finally, BACK IN THE PRESENT.

Hiro and Ando are being held in a cell on Level 2 of the Company.  I'd have to assume that The Haitian is nearby, otherwise they would be able to teleport out of there instead of trying to escape through the A/C vent.  My assumption is proven correct when The Haitian catches them trying to escape and brings them to Mrs. P.  In an admittedly awesome scene, Mrs. P tells Hiro and Ando that she needs their help to fix the mess they made with the formula and they possess the key to the problem.  Cut to Hiro and Ando digging up a grave.  They open the coffin and there's Adam, who Hiro buried alive last season.  He opens his eyes and says, "Hiro, you son of a b--!"

Simon Pegg:

Geek or Great?

I was just saying the other day that he would totally make my List (similar to the Freebie List, but without there being cheating of any kind because there isn't anyone for me to cheat on. It's more like a list of celebrities I would sleep with if I could. So, completely different than the Freebie List).

I'd say Geek *and* Great. Sometimes, funny is sexy.

Gordon Gekko Approves.

Lawmakers steamed over ritzy AIG retreat after bailout: Days after it got a federal bailout, American International Group Inc. spent $440,000 on a posh California retreat for its executives, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings, according to lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown.


Robert Willumstad, former CEO of AIG, testifies before the U.S. House in Washington on Tuesday.

AIG sent its executives to the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles, California, even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy.

The resort tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees, according to invoices the resort turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

OUTRAGEOUS.

I could have gone my entire life without seeing Mr. Spok in drag.

Spok in drag., originally uploaded by gina64.

Washington Square Triumphal Arch

Washington Square Triumphal Arch, originally uploaded by gina64.

I was so happy we got to go to Washington Square Park during this visit and I was looking forward to shooting the arch. Unfortunately, the area around the arch and the fountain was fenced off for construction and I could only shoot from this side. The sun was behind the arch and it was difficult to get anything but a dark silhouette, but I liked this one.

For all you Intervention fans...

Don't let the kiddies watch!

See more Kristin Chenoweth videos at Funny or Die

Lorne Michaels needs to call McCain and thank him personally for choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Chibi

I'm back from my NY trip!

Accomplice: The Village was a good time, although not as good as Accomplice: NY, I think. The NY show felt more like a scavenger hunt/puzzle, and that made it more fun. The Village version was still enjoyable, though, and I would recommend both shows to anyone looking for a fun way to see the city.

We ate at some great restaurants, too (alas, not Chibi's):

Gatsby's on Friday night, where we had some yummy pub food and the Guinness was well-poured.

We ate breakfast at the Prince Street Cafe both mornings. We all loved the place.

And for dinner on Saturday night we went to Sakura Sushi & Thai, another restaurant I would recommend (if you like sushi and thai food). My steamed thai dumplings and New York roll (with tempura shrimp) were both delicious and the staff is very nice.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of money! But I also took a lot of pictures. Here are a couple more from the weekend. I'll have more in a few days...

TV Talk: Reminder

The second season of Pushing Daisies begins tonight on ABC at 8:00!

I also wanted to mention that Fringe has gotten progressively better with each passing week. Last night's episode was their best so far. The tone and story were both consistent and the characters were well-written. John Noble as Walter is still the breakout star, but Olivia is becoming more likable and like a real person and they're all becoming characters you can begin to care about. And I loved the creepy Observer guy! I think I saw him in the train station last week's episode. If you haven't seen the show yet but want to see what I'm going on about, you can find the first three episodes at Hulu.

Fasten your seatbelts.

It's going to be a bumpy ride on Wall Street again today, as the bailout plan goes to a vote in the Senate.

poll by twiigs.com