Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Meatgrimage

Today I headed to Baylor for what I thought was a productive and instructive meeting. Liked the guy I met there, and I think its going to be good working with the dance-less folks of Waco.

Apparently there's an unwritten rule that lunch is involved in these trips, which is great for me. I get a little annoyed when I've traveled in the past and my boss, etc... decides we don't need to eat because they're on some crazy diet of water and carrot sticks or something. Not going to be a problem with this bunch as we headed to Waco's "Jasper's", a side-road BBQ joint that had all you can eat ribs for $9. Plus, Dublin Dr. Pepper, which I tasted for the first time. And, yes, Dublin Dr. Pepper is completely different and much, much better than regular Dr. Pepper (Dublin uses Imperial Cane Sugar rather than corn syrup). So I can confirm that legend.

Jasper's wasn't screwing around with its portions. Despite the "all you can eat" promise, I ate three ribs and was done. Maybe because I was still reeling from Monday's lunch and then winding up at Threadgill's for dinner.

It turns out that the meat at City Meat MArket in Giddings is supplied by a friend's meat company. I'm going to look into whether or not I can get a map of the place Mikey's company supplies meat to, and see if that isn't one way for this to play out.

Also, Jason and I are already talking about a short trip to Elgin for sausage.

Sadly, I am bypassing food and friends on Saturday. Juan and Letty e-mailed me to see about hitting Snow's BBQ in Lexington on Saturday. Now, here's the weird part:

Snow's was recently voted "best BBQ in Texas" by Texas Monthly, a publication that doesn't screw around when it comes to food. Especially Texas cuisine. But... supposedly they sell out of their meat by 10:00 or so on Saturdays. Which means you have to BE THERE before 9:00 to get a meal.

I love BBQ, but getting up at 7:00 to eat BBQ at 9:00 on a Saturday somehow robs the Meatgrimage of its joy.

Terminator

The Fox Terminator TV show (The Sarah Connor Chronicles) must not be doing very well in ratings. I hear its being shuttled off to Fridays.

I've been enjoying the heck out Terminator. As much as I dig sci-fi, I don't jump on too many sci-fi TV shows. Stuff like the Stargate franchise doesn't do anything for me, or the semi-popular "Highlander" series from the 90's. I think it helps that the Terminator premise is deceptively straightforward. Robots from the future are trying to kill John Connor.

Now you've inserted time travel, plus re-programmed robots, which all hangs from the central conceit of the first two terminator movies.

What really helps is that the rest of the world around our band of un-merry adventurers is very set in reality. Whenever a robot does start shooting, its not as if the populace is aware of what's going on, or would come to the logical conclusion that there are killer robots on the prowl.

Anyhow, I'm a little sad that the show is being moved to the death zone that is Friday night on Fox. But perhaps two really good seasons of a show is infinitely better than the bizarre, slow death spiral that we've seen out of "Smallville" (a show I quit watching for years, but came back to watching to revel in the badness).

Big Bang Theory

The show has taken a decidedly better turn this season, and I liked it last season. The decision not to further pursue the "it's a sitcom" romantic path of Leonard and Penny has been hugely helpful, and its given Kaley Cuoco a much wider range to play with instead of "pleasantly unaware of Leonard's affections".

Anyway, kudos to Jim and the cast of BBT.

One disturbing trend. It seems Jim is becoming a bit of an item of lust for nerd girls on the internet. See the comments on this post at Lady, That's My Skull.

Edit: The Office I should note that I have recently officially quit watching "The Office". As noted above, I do not find the "will-they-or-won't-they" romantic entanglements of sitcoms interesting or funny. They always stink of the suits forcing their way into the process. The Office has managed to drag the concept out, painfully, for several seasons. I was pleased they'd resolved the issue to some extent, and had hopes they were finally just going to @#$%ing move on with it. Last weeks episode proved that was not so.

I feel guilty, because Jamie and I really don't have that many shows we watch together, and The Office has long been one we can agree upon. That is no longer so. Worse yet, I lack the ability to just sit in the room on a laptop and quietly ignore a show. I must make comment upon it, which detracts from Jamie's enjoyment.

Anyway, we have a DVR. I guess we'll put it to use.

10 comments:

Michael Corley said...

I will have to check out Sarah Conner Chronicles, as I too love TV sci-fi but so rarely find one to enjoy.

I've stuck with Smallville, not out of loyalty, but strangly because of Netflix. Even the errant episode means nothing when they are all flowing at you like water.

I think it's finally coming to a close, as it should be. They said from the get go the moment he dons the tights is the last show.

tachyonshuggy said...

re: BBQ: Keora and I made a trip out to City Market in Lulilng a few weeks ago. Highly recommend it.

mcsteans said...

I love Terminator, and honestly can't believe it's not getting more viewers. Last night's episode was fantastic.

Meredith said...

Jim would probably laugh at the 'lust' comment...and actually Julie may laugh harder at it. And if I were a guessing woman with regard to the comments on that blog, I'd say a large. And if you sent it to his managers or the show's producers they may be kooky enough to have him wear it. Jim would appreciate the 'fan mail' at the very least.

Anonymous said...

They still can't dance at Baylor? Jeez. You are WRONG about the Office. I don't think they concentrate very much on the romance stuff personally. I think it's relegated to about 15-20% of the show. 80% pure awkwardness. It's Andy's character that still cracks me up.

The League said...

Luling is reasonable... Hmmm... it shall be on the list.

I hadn't thought too much about just sending a shirt directly TO Jim via the studio mail. That might actually work (I just hate to put a shirt in Ms. Parsons' hands and ask her to get Jim to wear it on TV).

I do think they've been able to dance at Baylor since around 1995. i am sure it was just like "Footloose" when those kids finally were given an opportunity to get their groove on.

As per The Office: It's not that the show is consumed by the Pam and Jim thing, it's that when it DOES happen, it feels like the show just slams on the brakes and derails all of the parts I do like for the part I feel is sitcom hackery. In many ways, it breaks the fourth wall for me, like abig neon sign saying "Boy, when will these two EVER get a break?"

For as unnatural as some of the stuff on the show is (and it is growing increasingly cartoonish), it just feels silly at this point. I had thought The Office a smarter show than this. I can't help that the protracted storyline has made me dread Pam and Jim scenes.

Simon MacDonald said...

Sarah Conner Chronicles is surprisingly good. Sad to hear it is being moved to Friday night. The night that TV shows go to die. This is also bad news for Dollhouse as it will also premier on Friday night on FOX's new SFX Friday.

Anonymous said...

Glad you got to enjoy Dublin Dr Pepper.

They sell 20 oz. bottles of it at pretty much every gas station between SA and Houston, but not in town. Woe is me!

J.S. said...

Hey- X-Files got its start on Friday nights on Fox, so miracles can happen...
I'm honestly not that suprised that Terminator: Sarah Connor isn't doing that well. Although it's a sci fi show, it's much more about plot and character development than about ray guns, spaceships, and monsters (I mean, the show has robots, but most of the time even the robots walk around just looking like everyone else- a big part of the tension and plotline on the show is understanding that a much darker reality lies beneath the surface of an apparently happy go lucky world, but the show really kind of relies on the audience to develop an understanding of what it's like to live in a doomed world by drawing inferences from the reactions and actions of the characters- which is asking a lot from a FOX audience). Somehow the really good serial dramas always seem to need to show up on cable as opposed to network TV in order to make a go of it (and even then it's dicey- I'm still pissed off that Deadwood was cut down in its prime). Cable seems more willing to allow shows to finish out the run of their story arcs, even when the shows aren't immediately profitable (I read somewhere that the ratings for the Wire weren't so great, but HBO had faith in the show, so they stuck with it, and now they've done really well on the back end with DVD sales as the show got more popularity through word of mouth after its initial release).
Anyway, I hope the show can still find an audience. Every time I see one of these shows fail that actually has some thought behind it, it just makes me want to cancel my cable subscription again and give up on TV.

The League said...

I will miss Summer Glau and the joy I take in watching her beat up robots, etc...