The Equalizer

Finally, the TV show The Equalizer is coming to DVD! I am so excited about this (no, really!)! Okay, enough with the exclamation marks (but I'm really excited about this). JamesEdward Woodward plays the titular character, a man seeking to make restitution for lives taken and evils done by helping others who are having trouble. Slum lords, bullies, loan sharks, etc., should all beware The Equalizer.

As much as I idolize Superman (bear with me), I recognize that he is a fictional character . I will never be able to fly except in a plane or by jumping off a tall building, cliff, or other large object. In the immortal words of The Tick, "Gravity is a harsh mistress." I'll never have x-ray vision no matter what the ads in comic books claim. No, the most I can do is kind of look like him (or one depiction of him, anyway) if I lose ## pounds and start working out fairly hard.

The Equalizer is also a fictional character, a much more realistic one, however. I would love to have his connections, money, and force of will in order to do the types of things he did in the show. The average person needs a champion, someone who will stand up for them, someone who will defend them and protect them. This is something I feel like I could manage. And I've actually prayed about this. God's response to me is that I do have that power available to me: it's called "prayer".

And really, who better to know what's needed in any particular case? The best I can do is seek vengeance and be punitive and retributive. But God can speak to the hearts of all involved, touching them where they need it the most, bringing true healing and freedom. Eventually, even Pharaoh let the Hebrew people go. Sure, he regretted his decision, changed his mind, and paid for it with his life, but that was his choice.

Really, how exciting is that? We have the power of God available to us to accomplish things and help improve people's lives. Not that we make things happen according to our whims, but opening our hearts to the truth of God's desires can change us from the inside out and maybe lead us to become part of the solution rather than running away in hopes the problem(s) will just disappear.

Continued Assault

Why are we hearing every nuance of Britney Spears' inability to provide even merely competent parenting to her two sons? "Normal" people would have had their kids yanked by now. And Paris Hilton? I'm glad she's not going to Rwanda (or maybe she is). But she was someone in Europe for some fashion show. And maybe Lindsay Lohan is actually cleaning up her life. I hope she is.

But this is not news. In fact, very much of what's shown on "legitimate news" shows is actually news. It's histrionics designed to turn one's focus away from "real" news. No, we're constantly being assaulted by these immaterial stories as though they matter. If only I could figure out how to convince the powers that be that these things are truly unimportant to the public at large, and the harping/hyping of these irrelevancies drags the reporting source down to that level or lower.

To Record or Not To Record, How do you do both at once?

I likes my Saturday morning cartoons. I likes 'em a lot. But not enough to actually get up and watch them. Oh no, there's sleep and stuff. So I record them. Silly, I know, but all in all, not a bad vice to have.

I've also discovered that I can't record multiple tapes worth of shows. I never get to watching them. That's why, as discussed in a previous post, I limit the shows I watch and tend not to watch the serial shows, even as good as they might be (I'm not looking at you 24, Lost, Prison Break). All that to say I have one tape I use for recording cartoons, House, Bones, Pushing Daisies, and Life. And I don't set VCR to record weekly, just one week at a time. I don't know why.

Two weeks ago, I recorded cartoons from Fox rather than CW (Fox has horrible cartoons, and I'm sad that they're going to do the programming for The CW starting fall 2008 or 2009 — I guess my Saturday mornings will be completely free). So I didn't have to watch all of those. Bones and House were preempted by baseball, so all of my shows were a miss last week.

This afternoon, I watched Pushing Daisies (I really really like this show), and two minutes into watching Life, my cartoons started. Apparently I had rewound to watch Life at one point, fallen asleep, and didn't fast forward to record the cartoons.

My life is so hard (as my mother is fond of reminding me).

Sci-Fi Geekiness

I took a little quiz (I'm sure the link is down below somewhere). I really would have liked to be on Babylon 5, but I don't think I'm distrustful of the government enough, nor do I really believe in psychics. (And yes, I know these are all made-up shows, that none of it is real. But if I could chose...)

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Moya (Farscape) You are surrounded by muppets. But that is okay because they are your friends and have shown many times that they can be trusted. Now if only you could stop being bothered about wormholes. Moya (Farscape) 94% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 81% Serenity (Firefly) 75% Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) 69% SG-1 (Stargate) 63% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 63% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 50% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 50% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 44% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 44% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 38% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 31% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 25%

Cinema Paradiso

Another stunning Italian masterpiece. I need to stop watching these Italian films because invariably they make me cry. (Yes, I'll admit it.) Except for Fellini films—I just don't get them at all. (Yes, I'll admit that, too.)

The version I saw was the Director's Cut, meaning it was 174 minutes (that's nearly 3 hours) rather than 123 minutes as stated on the sleeve. Imagine my surprise when the movie didn't seem about to conclude at 118 minutes. I mean, there must be several minutes of credits at the end, right? And there were several minutes of credits at the real end of the movie. Kind of a funny thing: in film where bits have been snipped due to damage or censorship (prominent in this movie), you know how the film just kind of jumps? well, the credits were done this way, too. You'd be reading along and then Bam! (sorry, Emeril)

I really liked the first two hours of the movie. The first hour was about the main character, Toto, and his relationship to the Cinema Paradiso, the local theater. Or, more correctly, his relationship to Alfredo, the theater's projectionist. The kid playing Toto (short for Salvatore—I didn't make it up; I'm just telling you) is absolutely adorable and does a great job. I thought it odd that he looks like he's six but then talks about now being in fifth or sixth grade (which means he's about 11 or 12).

The next hour was about a teenaged Toto and his continued relationship with Alfredo and his budding romance with Elena. Alas, it's not to be. Very Romeo & Juliet with out the death part. Except for Alfredo. But don't worry, you find out Alfredo died in the first few minutes of the movie. The next two hours (the first two) are then a flashback to all that Alfredo meant to Toto growing up. And how important movies were/are to him, too.

The third hour was a little less intriguing. Toto sees a young girl who is the spitting image of Elena and follows her. It sounds creepy but never sinks into creepiness, even when imminent. I'll just say in conclusion for the third act, that once something is over, it should be over without you trying to make it something it's not or can't be (this statement is relative to the story, not the movie). I guess with the greatness of the first two hours, the mediocrity of the third hour is a real letdown.

Watching

Previous post was started this past weekend, and I just decided to finish it up rather quickly. Yahoo! sucks; that's all there is to it.

Exhaustion set in and took its toll. I stayed home from work. So I caught up on my taped shows (Pushing Daisies and Life—I love both of them). Then I watched a Netflix movie, Swimming Upstream. It's a pretty good movie based on a true story about an Australian swimmer named Tony Fingleton and the battle he has with his dad. His dad was a total 100% jerk, and that's being very kind. Very kind indeed.

Watching Velvet Goldmine again, after several years since the last viewing, primarily because I now know Christian Bale is in it (along with Ewan MaGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers). I gave it 3 stars before; I wonder if my opinion will change?

Musicmatch Jukebox versus Yahoo!

For years, I've used Musicmatch Jukebox (MMJB) for my main listening pleasure. I even paid(!) for an upgraded version to be able to rip my CDs at higher rates, burn better, etc. Yahoo! bought MMJB in 2004 in order to become a major player in the music market. And that was the beginning of the end.

To be fair, the features of MMJB were amped up. If you paid for it, that is.

Long story made short: Yahoo! has now ended the life of MMJB and thinks MMJB users should be quite happy to use Yahoo! jukebox. Everything I've read says this program is worse than even the free version of MMJB. And they're slowly killing off capabilities of MMJB (because they can't force you to delete it), abilities like doing auto-CD lookup when you insert a disc so you don't have to type in all the information. Who would find that useful?

Why kill a good thing? It does nothing to win people over. And I certainly don't want to pay for trash programming. Grrrr!!!!!

Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)

I finished watching Spirited Away last night. It's one of the most amazing movies I've ever seen. I might even have to say it's better than Akira, and I never thought that would happen.

Basic Story: Chihiro is moving to a new house with her parents. Her dad takes a detour. Eventually, they find themselves at what appears to be an abandoned carnival. Except there's plenty of cooked food, which the parents start gobbling. After many plates, they turn into pigs. Chihiro did not eat any of the food, but she cannot leave, either, and certainly not without her parents. She eventually winds up an indentured servant to the "owner" of the establishment in order to eventually free her parents from the curse. She meets some unbelievable characters along the way and has some wild adventures. Wackiness, tenderness, morality, and just plain fun are all very much in evidence throughout the film.

How can I explain how great this movie is? On Netflix, I rated it 5 stars because I couldn't rate it higher. Stunning animation; great, fleshed-out characters; jaw-dropping ideas. There is nothing wasted in this movie. In one scene, Chihiro is putting on her shoes just like a 10-year-old girl would. Considering that Chihiro is supposed to be a 10-year-old girl, that actually works. Her running down the stairs (with no handrail) on the outside of the building reminds me of some very serious "dreams" I've had.

What a great movie!

One more before the month ends

Thought I would post again to get one more post in September. Which doesn't really matter, but hey, three posts in a one-week period should be a record for me. Maybe not, but of late, it's pretty good.

I'm watching Spirited Away right now. Well, not right this minute. I'm watching the ABC lineup of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters. It is premier night, after all.

There's so much I could watch on TV of late. I don't know that it's ever been as good as it is now (over the past 5 years), and I'm talking about broadcast TV: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and CW, not Showtime, HBO, etc. To give credit where due, however, HBO & Showtime really started this trend of making decent shows worth watching. The networks took notice that decent writing, complex stories, etc. were drawing people. Even though the Networks do have limits imposed upon them as to language and certain adult situations (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), they took these lessons to heart and started making shows people really wanted to see rather shows that people watched by default.

The downside, of course, is that some shows don't find their audience because there is so much good stuff from which to choose. Ten years ago, these canceled shows would have been top 10 for sure (for the most part — there are still turkeys that come out, but by and large less so now than a decade ago). Two shows I'm thinking of in particular are Invasion and Night Stalker. Well, I liked them, anyway. Ten years ago, I'm fairly confident they would have been five-season shows for sure (lasting five years).

For the current season, I'm most looking forward to Pushing Daisies on ABC on Wednesday nights. It starts this next Wednesday. The premise: this guy, Ned, has a gift of being able to bring people (and creatures) back from the dead. He makes a living using this gift to bring back murder victims, find out who killed them, and collect the reward money. Not bad work if you can find it.

With great power, however, comes a great curse: Ned's second touch sends the person back to the Great Beyond (perhaps permanently, I suppose; otherwise, there's no tension to hold one's interest). One of the people he resurrects is a young lady with whom he comes to hold great affection; the feeling is mutual. And they can never hold hands, kiss, or have any physical contact whatsoever. Otherwise, it's curtains for her.

What a great premise! I hope this show makes it. I think it provides a great deal to explore. At least, I can think of a bit they could do. Fortunately, in this day and age, even if it gets canceled after 13 shows, it most assuredly will be released on DVD (just a little cynical there), and one can always wonder what could have been.

Another show (on NBC) that looks intriguing is Life (I watched the premier free on Amazon Unbox video service). Premise: a cop is (wrongly) convicted of murder (framed, even), serves 12 years, and is then freed. As part of his deal, he receives an untold amount of money and is made a detective. I hope this show makes it, too, but I have my doubts. The main guy is far too eccentric to make a connection to a wide audience (or even a sustainable narrow one) methinks. It's a shame because the very last scene really changes what the show has made itself out to be so far (for motivation and purpose).

If I watched everything I wanted to, this would be my list:

Will Watch	ABC	CBS
House Bones Life Extreme Makeover HE Desparate Housewives Brothers & Sisters Cops	Carpoolers Lost Ugly Betty Women's Murder Club	CSI CSI: Miami. CSI: New York Big Bang Theory Criminal Minds Jericho Kid Nation NCIS Numb3rs Without A Trace
NBC	Fox	CW
Heroes Bionic Woman Journeyman The Office My Name is Earl	24 Prison Break Back to You K-Ville New Amsterdam	Smallville Supernatural

Life could be full. Or overcrowded.

Random Thoughts

So much of the time, I don't write here because I think of great things to write about but never at a time that I can write about them. It seems like a laptop and a trip on the bus could solve some of that since driving to/from work are the usual times I come up with ideas. I tried keeping a tape recorder around, but it scared the thoughts right out of my mind.

Hey, James Blunt just climbed on top of the piano during his performance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live". That suddenly made a somewhat uninteresting song ("1973"?) more palatable. [And, hey, I don't dislike the James, but this song on first listen doesn't do much for me, even live.]

I've thought of many story ideas and conversation snippets; I'm sorry I've forgotten the vast majority of them. Though none of them are as interesting as the idea I read in a Swamp Thing comic (or maybe Sandman) about trees that lure people into their thick to torture them (or something — it's been a few years since I read that particularly story.)

And now, I've forgotten about everything else I was going to write here, even if just a sentence or two.

Meow. Mrow. What's that, Clark? mmrowww laptop? Oh, laptop!

Every November, there is an endeavor undertaken by an increasing number of people. The endeavor is National Novel Writing Month. I'd like to write a novel one day, but motivation escapes me. Oh yeah, an idea, too. Well, I still have lots of ideas that I do remember, but making a whole novel out of some/most of them doesn't seem to plausible at this point. I really think I'd like to have a laptop, too; I could take the bus to work and write for about 30-45 minutes a day, and I could go anywhere and write.

How lame and lascivious: On the next "Inside Edition", are cheerleaders purposefully used to distract the opposing team's players?