A Couple of Things II

A couple of things (and I'll actually address two things this time, unlike this previous post — I kept recalling for about three days afterwords what the second thing was, but never when I was in a position to write about it. Oh, wait, I think I did a voice recording of what that thing is; I'll have to get my mp3 player out and check it out. I'll post it soon. I also plan a glowing review of said mp3 player sometime soon, too. Maybe this weekend.)

Item the First: I just read that the band Delirious? has disbanded, or will disband at the end of 2009. They have long been a cornerstone of (decent) modern Christian music, not catering to the lowest common denominator like a certain three-named Christian singer. They had their misses, but they had more than their share of hits.

Item the Second: I thought I had posted about the TV show previously, but a Google site search produced no results. So, let me mention Burn Notice, a show found on the USA Network (Burn Notice site).

A brief synopsis: Michael Westen, a spy for the United States, receives a "burn notice" while on a covert op (aren't spies always on covert ops? bad writing on my part). Essentially, he is fired and no longer has any backing — he's on his own. He gets beaten up, gets on a plane, passes out, and wakes up in Miami, his home town. The FBI is watching him, and he can't leave the city. There are worse places to be stuck, I'm sure, but his mom is there, his mom with whom he does not get along very well. His non-girlfriend, Fi (short for Fiona), and long-time acquaintance/fellow former spy, Sam, are also hanging around. He takes up odd jobs helping people out of tight jams (a la The Equalizer) but with a much more light-hearted spin.

I watched the first seven episodes online a few weeks ago (I didn't realize they were available when the show premiered last year) and then ordered the season one DVD. I watched the remaining four episodes last night (three regular hour-long episodes and a double episode season finale). What a great show! My jaw nearly broke from some of the stuff that happened in the finale, totally unexpected.

Now, I can keep up with season two online (since I don't have cable or satellite).

It's really nice to have a smartly-written show that doesn't cater to lowest common denominator (I detect a pattern here) pablum. It's all fantasy, but it's realistic. The characters are real and pretty much stay true to their setup, but they also evolve grow over the course of the season. Great scenery, nice stories, and decent plots all serve up a tasty dish.