Thursday, October 01, 2009
Halloween List
It's October!
That means its time for one thing!
Wait, no...
Well, maybe. But that's not where I was headed with this.
RIGHT!!! Halloween.
The point is, it's almost Halloween, and our pal Caffeinated Joe (aka: Wings), has put together a more than complete list of Halloween STUFF.
I suggest you check it out. It's amazingly thorough.
Please do yourself a favor and click over.
But, you know, as long as we're already here, we may as well look around.
It IS the most magical time of the year!
That means its time for one thing!
Wait, no...
Well, maybe. But that's not where I was headed with this.
RIGHT!!! Halloween.
The point is, it's almost Halloween, and our pal Caffeinated Joe (aka: Wings), has put together a more than complete list of Halloween STUFF.
I suggest you check it out. It's amazingly thorough.
Please do yourself a favor and click over.
But, you know, as long as we're already here, we may as well look around.
It IS the most magical time of the year!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Apologies to Nicole
and to a lesser extent, Matt. Who knows what he did, and deserves no apology.
Jamie informs me that my post bemoaning the aspect ratio issue with my TV was "a little mean" and "they're never going to house sit again, you jerk."
So. What was intended to be a little good-natured ribbing for Nicole and Matt didn't wind up that way, and for that, I am greatly sorry.
even this adorable puppy thinks I was sort of a @#$%
I am also to communicate how grateful we are for their assistance, etc...
Anyhow, I was in no way actually upset with either, and feel awful that the post suggested otherwise.
Jamie informs me that my post bemoaning the aspect ratio issue with my TV was "a little mean" and "they're never going to house sit again, you jerk."
So. What was intended to be a little good-natured ribbing for Nicole and Matt didn't wind up that way, and for that, I am greatly sorry.
even this adorable puppy thinks I was sort of a @#$%
I am also to communicate how grateful we are for their assistance, etc...
Anyhow, I was in no way actually upset with either, and feel awful that the post suggested otherwise.
October Creepiness
hey, hey... the gang's all here!
In lieu of an actual post, I'm going to kick off October with something creepier than Michael Meyers in a tutu:
Vintage Halloween stuff
I don't know what it is that makes vintage Christmas classic and endearing but vintage Halloween stuff terrifying, but there you are.
I don't know.
yeah, there's a little kid in blackface in there. Classy.
All my life I've mostly lived in relatively new structures, but when I sleep in a place like, say, the Olema Inn and consider how old the place is, and how many generations have slept in that room, and you look at the vintage light fixture and molding and wonder how many people have stared at that... and then think about all the kids over all the years who trick'or'treated before you ever put on a Chewbacca mask... all those kids who are nowhere to be seen, and in masks that were seemingly made in Hell's Novelty Factory...
Anyway.
Broom. Bike. Whatever.
The League has very specific issues.
Maybe I get a little sad looking at all these pictures, thinking of all these people who lived and had Halloween and trick or treats, and now they're most likely gone, and does anyone know who these people are anymore?
Is it the outdated ideas of the costumes? That its not colorful princesses and ninjas and Buzz Lightyear?
I have no idea. But the sort of static faces of the masks, and a lifetime of horror movies certainly isn't helping.
dang, yo. even if a headless guy with a hatchet was standing at the foot of my bed (my recurring fear when I was in 3rd grade), it would not freak me out as much as if these kids were on my doorstep.
I'm going to go hide under a blanket with a flashlight now.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The League watches: Flash Forward
Meh.
I'm not sure I'm ready to commit to a humorless series in which 9/10ths of the characters have already shown us the bleak future they're headed towards in the next 6 months.
I was also very not impressed by the seeming "check off the boxes" that seemed to fill the episode.
Roguish, drinking law-enforcement guy with a marriage on the rocks? check
Idyllic morning scene to establish the characters, complete with them rising for the day in a massive suburban LA home? check
Doomed sidekick? check (only, we already know that ain't gonna happen)
Creepy kids? check
Overblown disaster scene trying to top pilot of Lost (I expect this will be a new prime-time series standard)? check
There's the mystery of "what happened" which can't be much of a mystery for long as there's a novel out there upon which the series is based. That said: I presume the "why" will be changed, just as the protagonist is no longer a physicist, but an FBI agent.
yeah.
Anyway, the show did have a good hook (everyone passed out for 2 minutes!), with a sort of awkwardly revealed twist (and saw their future. sort of!). But the producers saw to it that the characters started off as generic TV characters, and not particularly interesting ones at that. So knowing where they're headed doesn't actually add a whole lot of appeal.
And, while I'm sticking with ABC's Lost to the bitter end, Jason said it best when he rolled his eyes and began to complain about how common time-travel/ glimpses of the future/ etc... have become in TV these days. Which is interesting, considering what a pain time-travel is in any medium or genre, and how badly its usually executed.
I might also mention (and I'm a little ashamed I know this), but Smallville is basically doing the same thing this season by giving Lois a flashback/ flashforward for the season.
I'm not sure I'm ready to commit to a humorless series in which 9/10ths of the characters have already shown us the bleak future they're headed towards in the next 6 months.
I was also very not impressed by the seeming "check off the boxes" that seemed to fill the episode.
Roguish, drinking law-enforcement guy with a marriage on the rocks? check
Idyllic morning scene to establish the characters, complete with them rising for the day in a massive suburban LA home? check
Doomed sidekick? check (only, we already know that ain't gonna happen)
Creepy kids? check
Overblown disaster scene trying to top pilot of Lost (I expect this will be a new prime-time series standard)? check
There's the mystery of "what happened" which can't be much of a mystery for long as there's a novel out there upon which the series is based. That said: I presume the "why" will be changed, just as the protagonist is no longer a physicist, but an FBI agent.
yeah.
Anyway, the show did have a good hook (everyone passed out for 2 minutes!), with a sort of awkwardly revealed twist (and saw their future. sort of!). But the producers saw to it that the characters started off as generic TV characters, and not particularly interesting ones at that. So knowing where they're headed doesn't actually add a whole lot of appeal.
And, while I'm sticking with ABC's Lost to the bitter end, Jason said it best when he rolled his eyes and began to complain about how common time-travel/ glimpses of the future/ etc... have become in TV these days. Which is interesting, considering what a pain time-travel is in any medium or genre, and how badly its usually executed.
I might also mention (and I'm a little ashamed I know this), but Smallville is basically doing the same thing this season by giving Lois a flashback/ flashforward for the season.
Blame Nicole.
If there's no post this evening, you can blame Matt and Nicole. Mostly Matt. Or Nicole.
As you may know, Matt and Nicole house sat for us this weekend, for which we are enormously grateful. And during that time, they watched some TV.
Over the past three days, and a while this evening, I spent some time trying to figure out what was wrong with my TV. I don't know what those two crazy kids were up to, but they wreaked havoc on the aspect ratio on my TV and seemingly were bouncing it out of its HD-ness.
The biggest problem was that we'd had that problem with the TV when we got it, and I knew I'd stumbled upon the solution a year ago while doing something completely unrelated.
Anyhow, I finally figured it out (the issue was not with the TV or a setting thereupon, but in an option on the cable box remote of all the darned things). And I'm documenting here, so that when it happens again, I can possibly remember what I did and not lose untold hours tearing apart my AV set-up.
(It's a display option in the "settings" on the cable remote, Future Ryan).
So, yes, the Samsung manual was probably better than I thought, and I should not codemn it to a firey, firey fate in manual hell.
As you may know, Matt and Nicole house sat for us this weekend, for which we are enormously grateful. And during that time, they watched some TV.
Over the past three days, and a while this evening, I spent some time trying to figure out what was wrong with my TV. I don't know what those two crazy kids were up to, but they wreaked havoc on the aspect ratio on my TV and seemingly were bouncing it out of its HD-ness.
The biggest problem was that we'd had that problem with the TV when we got it, and I knew I'd stumbled upon the solution a year ago while doing something completely unrelated.
Anyhow, I finally figured it out (the issue was not with the TV or a setting thereupon, but in an option on the cable box remote of all the darned things). And I'm documenting here, so that when it happens again, I can possibly remember what I did and not lose untold hours tearing apart my AV set-up.
(It's a display option in the "settings" on the cable remote, Future Ryan).
So, yes, the Samsung manual was probably better than I thought, and I should not codemn it to a firey, firey fate in manual hell.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Whip It Interview with Shauna C (and Juliette Lewis)
Hey Leaguers. "Whip It" opens Friday at a theater near you! If you're in Austin and want to see the movie this weekend, e-mail me or say something in the comments. We'll have to hit The Alamo downtown.
Anyhow, Shauna C. was interviewed while in Canada for the Toronto Film Festival. Thrill to Shauna smiling politely! Chill to the awkward questioning style of the interviewer! Be dazzled by an interviewer asking the interview subjects to fulfill his sort of odd obsession with Drew Barrymore!
Click here to see the interview.
Anyhow, Shauna C. was interviewed while in Canada for the Toronto Film Festival. Thrill to Shauna smiling politely! Chill to the awkward questioning style of the interviewer! Be dazzled by an interviewer asking the interview subjects to fulfill his sort of odd obsession with Drew Barrymore!
Click here to see the interview.
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