big screen or just nocturnal

or stress, of course... nocturnal definitely... big tv, working tv is more like it.... there's nothing on but reruns that i have seen before, but at least i like the characters... all my imaginary friends (not all my children) in the later night reruns of evening dramas... ncis... house.... bones... and recently, burn notice... the late night line-up (when family guy and futurama and craig ferguson isn't calling me away from the life-death dramas... a few other odds and ends, but there's just too much nocturn and not enough sleep-need to get me to stay in bed alone for a whole night...

the big screen hd is nice too...

choices...

choices... there could be a lot more of these background tv entries, but sometimes i don't type what i am glancing up at... understating the obvious can get boring even for brilliant word-addicts, ya know?... sarcasm?...

tonight, after some more bad sciu-fi, i looked around the channels... there's top favorite sweet eye candy (milla j) and unrelenting perseverance (fsvorite qualities) of resident evil... practical philofophy of forrest gump... cute psych... has never been as good as the original snl... the first round of the nba playoffs... a few dozen other movies... food, comedy, history, science, or cartoon channel fare... many dozens of other channels... is it obvious that i lose interest in tv rather easily?...

random channel switching might occur between typing...

sci-fi channel fail

maybe the sci-fi channel is right, maybe the average or mass of sci-fi (or syfy) viewers have adhd, or very low iqs, or at the very least a very limited attention span and minimal standards... that may be why the sci-fi, or syfy channel programmers can get away with putting on so many b horror films and wrestling, as if some who is into science fiction is obviously into crappy horror films and the scripted macho homo-erotic wrestling soap opera... if they only knew that the horror and wrestling just turns off the real science fiction mind that craves intellectual (as in scientific) creativity... science fiction, get it?...

what's worse is a true horror film fan laughs at the stupidity of the syfy channel as they edit out most of the really horrible horror scenes that most blood and gore horror fans are horror fans for, to see (or dare themselves to watch)... so there are the two main segments of the syfy audience that the brilliant syfy marketers are trying to reach, turned off... and as for wrestling fans, well, divide the market even further...

what the true science fiction fan wants most is another science fiction channel that actually produces and shows science fiction... imagine bringing bradbury, asimov, and heinlein to life... imagine turning the classic stories of these guys into visual productions today... or these guys... there are so many more... even sprinkling in some fantasy if only to prove the true fans know the difference...

of course there is a fair measure, maybe a good measure of false harrah in the sci-fi literature... plenty of sappy soap opera drama and bad writing, i mean, just because an author has a genuine wish to explore the unknown and create a new world, a new idea, a science fiction story, does not mean the author can...

but at least we can stop pretending blatant horror (which sometimes has storylines so banal that they make porn writers seem creative) and wrestling stories (which is basically softcore porn for every sexual orientation and alternative lifestyle with even less storyline) are in any way appealing to the true science fiction fan...

then again, there is the star wars generation (oh, did i open up the can?)...

lol :)

classless whores

jay leno
nancy grace
WKMG Orlando
CNN
and of course, everything FOX

jay just couldn't wait to stick it to casey anthony, using her to try to be clever, something he so rarely is even with the tonight show writers (though i think the best left not long after johnny retired)... and when the audience sat there silently he did not show any respect or find a clue, he asked if his mike was working, the oldest most pathetic bit of desperation a comic grasps at to bully an audience into applauding after he repeats it... so typical of an insensitive egomaniac... or a republican...

who the fuck is nancy grace?... she comes off as a clown faced know-it-all who epitomizes the adage if you can't do, you critique and represents the worst whoring of the legal profession... she will say anything to get an audience and panders to the lowest ignorance and fear-based hatred in insecure people... she is a master baiter, a masturbating her audience of melodrama junkies with finger-pointing and table turning arguments so typical of the religious right culture that has god to defend them so they don't have to be held accountable for their gross irresponsibility and hypocrisy... the only reason i even heard of her is as one more self-righteous angry nobody waging her tail chasing the casey anthony bandwagon...

my dog makes more sense...

and then we come to the right wing media, the fair and balanced news corporations, which, whether we acknowledge it or not, includes CNN cuz, well, have you ever seen what ted turner does to movies?... control freaks think they know what everybody else needs and their blatent patronization of the stupidity so many wear as a badge of honor... fat jobless irrational pathetic people with obviously no lives to live of their own chanting appeal outside of the courthouse and the news media soaks it up... irresponsible parents bringing their children to the spot the decaying skeleton corpse of a child was found, innocent children exposed to the news media wondering what the depressing emo-circus is about, the emotional abuse carved into their helpless mindless faces...

and everyone except the judge and jury so certain she is guilty... everyone except the unbiased people who actually saw the evidence that the state, in all it's arrogant cockiness, presented... everyone except those who actually know acts astonished that those who actually weighed the evidence without emotion of the lynch mob mentality americans so dearly love could possibly come to a fair verdict...

and now, the news media will milk the aftermath, the tragedy... the noble fourth estate will haunt the mother who lost her daughter and the parents and anyone who dares consider that the evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that there was reasonable doubt that she did it... americans addicted to watching other people's pain and suffering, maybe that's why we kill so many women and children all over the world every day, we are junkies for the pain, the tragedy, the suffering victims... so addicted are we that we must create victims just to find villains to hate...

pathetic human waste...

four stars?

home early from softball and looking for something to watch on tv, finding nothing but a sci-fi movie called children of men that the tv gave four stars and maybe i missed something good in the first 20 minutes that would change my mind, but watching the second 20 minutes i am wondering how this film could get four stars, unless it's on a scale to ten stars...

so predictable, so cheesy (church music when the man cries after the girl dies, holy obvious trust the hero moment, really, i mean, rather than actually using dialogue, storyline, and actions, but then, that is the delusional blind faith culture we live in so why bother with imagination, logic, reasoning, rational thought, and intelligence, after all)... the british accents are so think the dialogue is wasted in many places, but then, that is the british way quite often... halfway through all i see is a sadly poorly put together film)... on to something else...

the voice perhaps... christina is not at her best, sounds out of shape... ceelo sounded surprisingly good... blake is country, nothing spectacular, but the formula is obvious try to attract a crossover audience, what else can be said... the issue for me is that the judges are singers, artists, talent that have professional coaches and trainers and managers and agents and engineers to make them sound even better, so really, are they the right people, the experts at developing talent?... the best music producers do not perform because their talent is building a team that creates the package that is the artist...

apparently the producers did their job (and the real work) cuz the singers are already screened and the judges have been coached to play their parts in yet another staged reality show... but there may be some excellent voices to listen to if the scripted drama and judges egos don't get in the way...

meanwhile, backgroun tv is doing it's job, at least minimally, giving me a distraction to clear my mind and focus my mind on meaningless banter so i can either relax and nod off or drift into my own world of rhymes and babble and the fun of being me...

what's that about the egos? :)

ncaa championship?

wow, i couldn't keep my eyes on the tv even when i tried and i thought i'd want to watch the ncaa men's chamionship game but i've never seen such a poorly played chamionship game in any sport... 18% shooting for the game and that was with a big spurt in the forth quarter... through most of the game they had no (zero) points in the paint and were shooting under 10%... they went 1 for 20 shots from 2 point range before they hit their second 2 point shot in the second half... and they were leading 22-19 at halftime on a last second prayer three pointer... i feel sad for the butler team... heck of a night to have your worst game of the season, maybe ever...

and conneticutt was hardly any better... 53-41 final in a national championship?... pathetic... maybe this is the most mediocre ncaa bastketball year ever, or at least in a very long time... embarrasing all around... a number 8 team and a number 3 team in the championship and neither played like they belonged there...

wish it was not so...

little interest of late

house was in the background for the last few hours as i started unpacking the kitchen stuff, but since there's not enough room for even half of our stuff, we'll have to decide what goes into storage when jackson has time to sort through the non-food stuff with me...

and i flip through the channels as i sit down and look up and see a favorite face (nicole deboer) in a really bad movie (unfortunately, she's done a whole lot of really bad movies, which slides her down the list of libbo fantasies, but there is so little interest in tv in my head tonight that it's ok...

on the old movies station there is the wizard of oz followed by gone with the wind (and i wonder if casablanca will be on to make it a 1939 movie trilogy) and hundreds of other stations offer hundreds of other video fair, but interest is not there, so i'll just leave it on in the background while eating the sandwich jackson brought home for me and so it goes, ya know?...

she was never high on libbo's list, but heidi klum's on-camera personality is adorable in that show with kids... her on-camera personality reminds me a little of kelly ripa... they over-do it at times, but they both do cute really well... in the nackground, of course :)

youtube

i must admit that lately, youtube has been stiff (no pun or double entendre intended, i mean, youtube is not tube8, after all... what?) competition for the tv in recent months and you can get a bit of a taste for what i mean in the new links blog if you have the time (all we need are a few hundred hours in each day and a few hundred more years in each life, aye?)... even as i considered all the shows i might want to watch if i am home in front of the tv, the computer sits right next to the chair and often shares my attention and more often lately replaces the tv after prime time (thought there is still a bit of a draw for some celebs on letterman and craig, well, if he was on earlier i'd watch regularly, but many nights when i am awake past prime time {which is most}, youtube has me turning the tv off, especially past 2:07am (and that's what i learned on the show tonight, craig)...

snarf :)

fascinated, no doubt

while i am watching tv with half an eye and listening with half an ear and even watching with almost both eyes and listening with both ears more often than i have in a long time because my roommate enjoys tv and i enjoy watching with someone (but we both often are somewhere else on the computers or on the phone during even the shows we both enjoy just the same), i a still only sitting in front of the tv for an hour at most before 11pm and catching up on the shows on the (if i can find time) list when i stay up past midnight and find them on the on-demand channels... i do watch more since re-installing cable, so i'll make a note to myself to find time to come here to relate whatever the tv might inspire in me cuz that's what this blog is about and it exists to continue, not to end in forgotten obscurity... i mean, in case anybody other than me wondered, aye? (smirk snicker nyuk narf)...

watching, not much

though the tv is on a lot, i am not watching much except to glance up and sort of follow the re-runs listed in catching up on the revised lists on the left... though this week i caught the first new episodes of eureka and warehouse 13 and will probably catch those in first run cuz they are on at least a half dozen times a week and in free on-demand... i don't stay awake for craig as much, but can find him on youtube... wonder if he is on free on-demand too... actually, i am watching/listening to audio and video on youtube a lot more than on tv... anyway, since you are so fascinated by my tv viewing habits (is your name neilson?), i've revised the lists on the right and continue reporting just for you... and for me too, posterity, and the one, but until they get here it's just for you :)

lost interest

principle too... in idol, that is... i mean, surely i knew the audience was seriously skewed and had no appreciation of talent or personality or, go figure, vocal ability, but still, they could have gone with pretty boys with better voices this year... the best voices went early in the top twelve, except for crystal who ran circles around lee head to head last night and tonight... it is sad and even pathetic to see such an undeserving winner, i mean, is it is really a talent contest...

it is not though, it's a middle america white bread teenage cirl bland fest... last hyear was obvious, this year even more obvious... when the girls stopped splitting their vote between lee and casey, crystal didn't have a chance... meanwhile, lee will sell a little to the artistically uneducated who don't mind stiff clones who wouldn't win most neighborhood bar karaoke contests, i mean, it was fitting joe cocker showed up... they probably couldn't get the boss out to sing for his bland imitator...

so the idol season was disappointing right up to the end... i wouldn't pay to see the top twelve with lee as the lead, just as i felt the best talent last year was not given the win either... middle america votes for the bland, which makes the show disappointing for anyone who thinks the most talented singer-performer should win...

might be time to return to forgetting to turn the tv on :)

take it to the limit one more time

that's what 24 seems to be gearing up to do... won't be surprised to see waterboarding and all sorts of tortures before the end... they can justify it with some logic like exposing the american people to the reality of what our government does in our name under the guise of protecting us might wake people up to the inhumanity we allow and support and cheer on while simultaneously condemning others for doing the same...

just watch the news with your mind open if you need more proof...

besides, it's fox, so they've got to made the bleeding heart liberals look bad, pathetic, even corrupt... will jack shake them all up by the end of the show?... will the show shake all of us up?... what sort of surprise is in store?...

yawn, pass the chocolate :)

idol boys

ok, ellen is getting on my nerves... how many times will she use the words adorable and great and think she can get away with it just by following it with her dumb grin (and i adore her, mind you)... but she is adding so little to the show beyond the i'm just a goofy fan bit and occasional silly amusing lines... and cara does little more... the judges are the most annoying and boring part of the show... and that's the impression the first five minutes gave me...

first contestant?... oh, was there one?... yeah, the bruce springsteen clone will probably do well, especially if he chooses the right songs because he has that good old american grittiness and sincerity in his voice... like many of the third or fourth place finishers have had in previous years... maybe even a second placer, aye?...

ok, so lee is americana and moves on to next week... and number to, alex, too stiff and performing and not in the song... he might not make it... and the stupid intellectual pit bull war between ryan and simon is juvenile and the slurpy flirtation between cara and simon is too put on and the atmosphere is losing authenticity and drowning out the voices... and poor randy, his dawg schtick used to be annoying, but i almost miss it because it was more authentic than the soft soap he's peddling now... the absence of paula and her emotional connection with the idol dream and the contestants is becoming more evident with each show...

and tim does a decent job with halleluya, but no roof is being blown off... he moves on in my book though... andrew sanitized christina's genie in a bottle and is did not work for me at all... and the brevity of the performances is also killing the show... they should have stayed with two hours and let the singers sing whole songs... the show is not about the music, it's about the judge's soap opera antics and quips and way too little music... the judges are disappointed a lot this year, and this idol viewer is very disappointed in the judges and production... was it paula that kept the emphasis on the performance of the singers?... or is the transparency of the egocentric judging finaly showing through... or both...

casey has what it takes to be in the top three... he has a style that takes over a song, a genuine performance quality that is uniquely his which is what a star is about, becoming part of the song and give it your mark... not great, but he'll move on... and the judges remain annoyingly innocuous... aaron has something like clay aikin did, a nerdy nebishy surprising quality that will probably keep him in it, but he's not a favorite for me... but the judges are reading way too much into things, especially cara... two women trying to do what paula did and they fail miserably... and all four judges are contradicting themselves so much week to week, it's making their input into the show, which is the majority of face time, meaningless... they are so not giving me the impression that they have any credibility in judging singers or performers... maybe because none of them are (turn on the sarcasm sign)...

it's sad that most of my impressions of the show are about the judges, not about the eight singers... but that's what is most wrong with idol season nine... the spotlight is turned in the wrong direction...

toddrick trying to do freddy mercury was sad... good karaoke version of the somebody to love, but it did not win me over... for me, he's got to be gone next week, but the theatrical quality of the song might get him more votes than others who gave lackluster performances tonight... all in all, the girls impress me much more than the guys, but that's not saying too much this year as a day later, in spite of enjoying a few of them a lot last night, i am not remembering any of the girls as must see again performances...

michael has grown on me... i want him to do well... not impressed with the song at all, but that's just taste... the voice and performance, however, definitely got my attention... he moves on for sure no matter what the judges might say... and after listening to the judges all i come away with is how self-serving and put on they are... and cara is so getting on my nerves way more than ellen did at the start of the show...

so michael leads, casey second, lee third, tim, aaron, alex bunched behind them and the other two are gone for me... so who cares, aye? :)

caprica

as i watched another episode of caprica, the prequel series to battlestar gallactica i remembered why i did not watch battlestar after catching a few random episodes... on a subconscious level the series turned me off at first glance for a number of reasons... war does not appeal to me at all... i have not sat through star wars, for instance... i've seen bits of some of the nine films, but the whole buck rogers war genre of sci-fi turns me off (i only glanced at buck rogers as well)...

so why did i choose to pay for the downloads of caprica a few weeks ago?... impulse, yes... the same impulse that leads me to occasionally glance up and get into smallville and that seventies show and dollhouse (though dollhouse had the dual appeal of a mystery and/or intriguing premise like the dead zone and dead like me and heroes, maybe) and even dawson's creek, simply, a pretty face... though caprica's pretty face is not in the same league as others, maybe smallville, which i seldom actually choose to watch... caprica offers an intriguing premise and possibilities, though i sense it will not live up to the possibilities i see in it because, after all, humans are creating it and it will most likely reinforce all the stupid human beliefs in the end...

give me some heinlein or sci-fi that actually challenges human beliefs and that i will want to see, probably go out of my way to see, even... and after seven or so episodes the grating aspects of battlestar are starting to reach a repetition that is challenging to ignore... the moronic use of the word frack, for instance... i mean, fucking frack this and frack that and even substituting frack for shit and other words... the lack of creativity (and guts) is a purtid stench in the script and the puritanical language fear is nauseating to my ears...

and then there are other ignorance fears and prejudices played upon to what the writers must believe is either an ignorance audience or an audience who wants to see human superstitions and prejudices and fears played out by other races, maybe in that insecure human desire to validate their own fears and prejudices... like a train wreck or a plane crasj attracts an audience... and yet, i want to see if the possible enlightened outcome might be where the writers are going (that is so very rare in human literature and arts)... so i download the episodes...

then the next irritant shows itself, the ultra-slow pacing of the story as draggin on and on as any soap opera ever was... i will further alienate most of my human audience by stating that i feel the only way i could actually watch a soap opera day after day is if i was severely retarded... at least... i have yet to see one, and i have tried watching for stretches of time in this life, that does not move so slowly that is is utterly predictable and overall, asks so little of the brain outside of sit and watch in a vegetative state...

meanwhile, the commercial for the news just urged me to watch to see the opening of python humping season... yes, tv news, python humping, the news... the founders of the fourth estate would no doubt be proud...

anyway, back to caprica, i'm tired of talking about it at the moment (awwww, what a let down, aye?)... there's more, but perhaps now we see why, at least for me in this life, tv is little more than background noise...

idol not

the worst idol show i've watched in a long time, maybe since the beginning (though i've not watched more than half the shows i think... some talent, some potential, but the performances were boring and karaoke... still worse, the judges were boring... that show misses paula and the cutsie kara begging to be liked and the carefree ellen’s flippant irreverence does not make up for the lack of knowledge of being in the contestant’s shoes… ellen is is a comedienne and I love her for many reasons, but she is not a musical judge and the show needs a singer-performer on that panel…

the show lacks an authentic performer judge… a performing artist who knows the experience of trying to make it as a singer and dancer and performer … can I emphasize there must be a legitimate musical performer on the judges table enough?… I truly didn’t think I’d miss her often cheesy comments and sometimes weepy personality as much as I do, but she had the dream in her eyes and that is missing now… her artistic musical focus cut through the music business advice that the boys give (and often give well)… she found words to reach the dream of being the star, the winner, with the feeling of the singer’s personality…

and I’ve got to wonder if a lack of paula is part of the reason the first show bombed as it did because it were her energy that was missing from the show and that same energy was missing from every one of the contestants… alas, there is a whole lot of work to be done and maybe that’s why simon might not be calling this his last year cuz he is smart enough to know what does not work…

2/24/10 update... the boys weren't much better, if at all, and the judges banter was worse... maybe i'll tune in again when they get to the final four or so... they've pretty much lost me for this season...

Defined

(CURRENTLY ON TOP) the shows i try to find time to watch regularly cuz i enjoy them enough to want to watch them regularly, as if this one needed explaining... i don't get to watch anything regularly and seldom to i feel compelled to try, but i know what i like...

(IF I CAN FIND TIME) used to be SORTA WATCHING and are the shows i enjoy watching or my roommate enjoys (asterisks) so it's on if we're home (maybe one of these days i'll separate this list into two or three lists cuz that's what this is about, after all, making lists)... i've not scheduled myself to be home to watch a specific tv show in years, but these are as close as i am at the moment to wanting to and if i shared life with someone who also wanted to, we might make a date to watch these and others...

IF THEY RETURN are shows that are gone as in no new episodes, but if they returned they'd be on the list above so they rate a bit higher than the shows on the lists below this one... the main difference between this list and the lists above is that these are mostly reruns while the ones above are still in production, i think...

CONSIDERING (NOT WATCHED) are shows i might enjoy based on genre, theme, word-of-mouth, or whatever, but i have not found myself in front of a tv when they were on...

RERUNS (WHEN THERE"S TIME) are the shows i will choose over other shows if i am in the mood to watch, or at least listen to and glance up at, tv (most of the time i turn the tv when i am home alone and in the mood for more than music, mostly just to have some audio-visual stimulus in the space while reading something online or writing or cooking, eating, cleaning, playing, or some other activity and now and then something attracts my attention to watch a show...

RERUNS (OCCASIONALLY) are the shows i will choose to watch before the RE-RANS but after the list of RERUNS above this list, partially cuz there are so many shows and therefore, so many lists (or something like that)... I'll usually pay less attention to these than the ones above, more than the ones below, and so on...

RE-RANS are the shows i will chose after the RERUNS primarily because i've seen most of them more than once, but in some cases cuz i simply like the shows lsted in RERUNS better... and once again, I'll usually pay less attention to these than those above, etcetera...

HAVE WATCHED are the shows i have watched at one time or another in this life, however given the choice, i would probably choose one of the shows on the RERUNS lists or RE-RANS list over these, or maybe they are just old shows i've seen in reruns so much over the years that i've seen enough for the moment (until memory fades further into the dim light of forgetfulness as it so conveniently does when i want to watch something i love but don't want to remember it all so i can enjoy it's magical experience all over again, thought that usually happens with movies much more than tv and i may digress, aye?), though some are not that special, or something like that... no really, i absolutely loved some of these shows the first time around and still do if i find them (and someday maybe i'll divide them up and maybe even make a all-time favorites list from a gazillion to one if anybody is ever really that interested to share that experience)...