A few years ago, my wife and I watched "Kill Bill" in a movie theater. I remember being essentially entertained my the movie, but I also remember feeling unsettled by the whole experience. After seeing the first movie, I figured that I "might as well" see "volume 2", but there wasn't much urgency. I found "Volume 2" on TV the other day, and I recorded it. (We watched it last night after the kids were sleeping.) I really liked "Volume 2". It was interesting, excit...
Click here for my latest article These audition shows are really hard to write about! Tonight's show was entertaining enough, but it didn't leave as much of an impression as other shows have. The main "news" of the show was that Paula and Randy had pestered Simon enough after two days, that Simon left before the end of auditions. (I really don't understand why Randy and Paula were going after Simon so harshly. It was really unwarranted.) One singer could possibly ...
Click here for my latest article The third audition episode was held in North Carolina, home of Clay Aiken and Fantasia Barrino. It was a fun two-hour episode. (The shows are really heavy on the commercials this year, aren't they? I started watching twenty minutes after the show had started, and was already at "real time" by just a little after the second hour started.) Not so many memorable things from tonight's show, besides one contestant: Kelly Pickler . ...
On Friday night I received a telemarketing call from my cable company. Instead of instantly hanging up, I actually listened. Apparently my promotional rate was expiring, but the cable company was willing to give me everything that I already have for one year, plus HBO and Cinemax, plus the Starz movie pack, for what would be $8 less than they had intended to charge me once my promotional rate ends. Nice. So now I have access to all sorts of movie channels. I suppose I ...
Click here for my latest article Once again, my wife and I were on survival mode. We're still sick, but I think that each of us is noticably better. We both went to the doctor today, and we both heard that we're dealing with viruses. (Going to the doctor, one is always hopeful that it'll be something bacteriological, so at least something can be done about it. Anyway, we have a few medicines to help deal with symptoms, and we're gradually getting better. Tonight's American Idol audit...
Click here for my latest article. Welcome back for what seems to be another exciting year of American Idol. Visit my website to read capsules and commentary. (The website seems to heat-up once the competition does...) Sadly today, my wife and I are both battling colds. I ended up watching the show myself, interrupted by bouts of coughing. Needless to say, I will probably enjoy this show more the second time I watch it. So considering my basic state-of-health...
Today my wife, my kids, and I were out shopping. During our outing, I had to refer to a yellow pages at a gas station. Fortunately I was able to find the entry of the store which I had been looking for. (Ironically -but not related to this article- the address in the book was wrong) This experience reminded me of something that I have seen in movies. Often, one will see a character refer to a phone book at some point in a movie or TV show. Once that person ...
So I am at home, helping my younger son stay sleeping. I am watching a show called "Rock Fest" on the VH1 Classics channel. The show starts with videos by: Queen, Alice Cooper, and Ozzy Osbourne. (followed by Ted Nugent and ZZ Top...) The seventeen-year-old within me is super-excited about this trifecta (without commercial interruption.) But there I sit with a baby, enjoying what I would have REALLY liked fifteen years ago. (Except then they wouldn't play those thre...
Yesterday a package arrived in the mail from my mother in-law from Japan. She sent us the last three episodes of the Japanese weekly late-night show, "Ainori." Wickpedia Link The biggest event of 2005's final show would be the end of the three-year "Hide saga". This one young man, Hide (prononced "hid-day"), has spent the past three years (through 14 different countries) in the love wagon, in search of true love. In these three years, Hide has been invited to return to ...
One of the channels on my television is VH1 Classics. As the name implies, they play older videos. The Classics channel is great. Lots of videos, not a lot of speaking, and the commercials are very infrequent. It is a very enjoyable way to watch music videos. Lately I have noticed a slight growth in the all-talk and talk-intensive types of shows. There is a program called "Hanging With..." which is a half interview/ half video show. I also saw a show w...
Just as I was winding down for the evening, I caught the early-middle part of the 1978 movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. The movie caught my attention, and I ended up watching it to the end. (I even scheduled it on my DVR for the next time they play it on the Sundance Channel.) I remember the first time that I started watching the movie. I was a teenager, and the movie was on Saturday afternoon TV. I gave the movie...
Have you heard of this recent push -by some activist groups- to have the FCC require that cable and satellite companies offer their channels on an a la carte basis? The theory goes that if people only pay for the channels they watch, they'll save money. Also by selecting channels, people could supposedly limit "objectionable" material coming into their homes. (Who is it that is so appalled by the content on commercial basic cable anyways? If that stuff is too racy fo...
The last time the rock group Queen came to our market (as far as I know) was in 1981. Since I was only nine at the time, I couldn't really go to see them in concert. (I don't think that I was all that interested at the time either.) Once I started listening to recorded music, one of the bands that I have really wanted to see live is Queen. Of course that opportunity was sadly taken away from me in 1991, Since Freddie Mercury died, there had been rumors about the band ref...
Every once-in-a-while, a prime time television show on PBS actually seems entertaining. (I usually catch them late-night for the British shows.) Of course those seemingly "entertaining" shows always seem to coincide with pledge week. Anyway, this time the "interesting" show was a retrospective on "Fawlty Towers". Anyone watch that? The show was mildly entertaining, but it was mostly devoid of substance. They showed clips from the limited number of shows in the series, and the played co...
I enjoy listening to "media people" talking about television. Those are my favorite segments on radio shows. Two of the shows that have been generating the most buzz on these shows are HBO's "Curb your enthusiasm", and "Da Ali G Show". Now we don't subscribe to any of the premium channels at our house, so I had never been able to watch these shows. (I am waiting until I have access to the DVDs.) This weekend however, we were treated to one of those "preview w...