Category: TV

Sunny! Breezy! Pleasant!

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Nice day so far. We slept in until about 10:00 (following yet another delicious, spur-of-the-moment dinner at Fieramosca last night), had a bit of breakfast and watched last night’s episode of Battlestar Galactica (gripping! exciting! sing-songy!) on the couch. The morning’s rain cleared off shortly after that, and off we went.

And whooooooeee, is it ever nice out there. Sunny and warm, but with a nice breeze too. We had lunch on the patio at the Jason George (well; I had lunch; Nellie’d already eaten her leftover pasta) and it almost got a little too warm. Also: when is smoking going to be banned on patios in Toronto? Whenever it is, it can’t come soon enough.

After lunch we walked along Front Street to Staples to pick up a filing cabinet (the one we ordered earlier in the week having been canceled for lack of stock). We checked out the eee PC laptop (tiny! adorable! sufficient!) that I want to get, but didn’t buy one, just getting a small desk/cabinet combo for Nellie. We brought that home and went back out to enjoy the day a bit more. Now Nellie’s happily putting together her new furniture and looking forward to dinner. See, I made the mistake of reading out the new beers on tap at C’est What (courtesy of Bartowel news) and once she heard “Church-Key Cranberry Wheat” her mind was made up.

[tags]fieramosca, battlestar galactica, jason george, staples, eee pc, c’est what, bartowel, church key cranberry wheat[/tags]

"nothing is happening! its so boring"

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From Torontoist: Vanity’s Fair. I don’t know David Topping (though LinkedIn keeps telling me I should) but anyone who starts a story this way must be a decent guy:

Canada’s talented children have gone unexploited for far too long, an injustice that Universal Music has finally seen fit to remedy.

According to Hollywood Reporter, the label has “joined the search for Canada’s version of Miley Cyrus,” and, with YTV, has created a new TV talent competition called The Instant Star, designed for children 15 and under. The winner gets a record contract, fame, and, presumably, a shot at pubescence.

I, for one, feel that Canada could really do without a Miley Cyrus. Hannah Montana, though…we need us one of those.

I’d like to say that was the most disturbing TV-related thing I saw/read today, but…well, WIVB (a CBS affiliate in Buffalo, NY) pretty much wins. Poor Nellie just wanted to watch How I Met Your Mother, but WIVB was busy showing 2.5 hours of some wackadoo with a pistol sitting on a bridge. I was amazed to hear that families had come from all around town, sitting on the grass, waiting to see said wackadoo shoot someone (or be shot himself). It was also entertaining to read the [ahem] coverage on their website, rife as it was with spelling errors (click the image on the right for more detail) and amateurish reporting. To wit: “Apparently, one of the police sharp shooters took a shot of the gentleman and police have pulled the guy from the vehicle.”

What was really disturbing was the breathless excitement of the reporters. I’ve never gotten this fascination the American news media has with any kind of criminal possessed of a license and set of keys. If this guy had never gotten in a car, had instead just hung out on his front lawn with a .38, no one would notice. OK, well, the cops might notice, but the news media wouldn’t have choppers circling overhead while Burt the janitor updates the web site. However, because this guy gets in a car, news anchors instantly go from six to midnight as visions of white Broncos dance in their heads. In no time at all, Janitor Burt had created a banner ad pointing to live streaming video of the standoff and a Google Map showing the location. He’d also uploaded a pile of amateur pictures and opened up the comments, which range from “this is absolutely ridiculous, this guy is charging his phone. if i miss How I met your Mother I am going to be super pissed at this guy” to “Shoot the white trash in the croch”.

What’s the emoticon for “the human race is doomed” again?

[tags]torontoist, the instant star, miley cyrus, wivb buffalo, how i met your mother[/tags]

BluBlockers anyone?

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I’ve gotten a couple of hits from people Googling whether President Roslin’s character was wearing a Q-Ray bracelet on Battlestar Galactica last week. Yes, kids, I saw it too. Not sure what the significance is; maybe they’re pointing out that even fictional humans on TV can be duped by marketing and superstition.

[tags]q-ray bracelet, president roslin, battlestar galactica, bsg[/tags]

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit

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From the Quill & Quire’s blog: Mommy’s New Rack.

In the latest sign of the impending apocalypse, ABC News has posted a story about a new children’s book called My Beautiful Mommy, written by the Florida-based plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Salzhauer. The book is an attempt to explain (and to justify) plastic surgery to children.

My soul…it weeps.

“Why are you going to look different?” asks the daughter of her mother in the car ride back from the doctor’s office.

“Not just different, my dear — prettier!” exclaims the mother.

On the outside, maybe.

Actually, not even then. The wonder that is high definition has made it very clear which actors and actresses have had work done, and it just never looks good. Latest exhibit: Mary McDonnell, who’s acquired a Joker-grade rictus for season four of BSG.

[tags]plastic surgery, mary mcdonnell[/tags]

Would that I could still eat smoked meat

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It’s a very Montreal day: St. Urbain bagels for breakfast, the Canadiens game on TV tonight. Of course, that could be any Saturday, but it’s even better during the playoffs.

.:.

While I sit here and catch up on news and such from the past two days, I’ve been poking through my music inbox and seeing what’s what. I’m a little disappointed in the newest Black Keys disc Attack and Release. Part of what I loved about their previous albums was the lo-fi fuzzy blues; the new one is more advanced musically, but less interesting to me.The new R.E.M. isn’t great, but at least it has some crunch. I don’t mind it so far. (metacritic: black keys | r.e.m.)

Recently it’s stopped making sense to me that the album format even really exists anymore. Albums were really only a convenient format under which to release music; they were just groupings of singles before becoming ends unto themselves. Now that the album is no longer necessary, it’s only a matter of time before the increasing popularity of iTunes, etc. makes the album format irrelevant and we just consume individual songs, like we did 60 years ago.

.:.

We watched the season premiere of 30 Rock. Very funny. My love for Tina Fey (Girlfriend du jour!) is really getting quite alarming. It’s distressing, to be honest with you.

[tags]st-urbain bagels, montreal canadiens, black keys, r.e.m., itunes, 30 rock, tina fey[/tags]

Get your finger off the comm button

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Big sports night tonight: the Habs close out the season against the Leafs. The Raptors try to reverse their recent slide. Toronto FC is hoping to score a goal. And the Final Four semifinals are played, giving me at least an indication of whether I’ll have a 50-50 shot at some pool money come Monday evening.

The NHL sprint into the playoffs is high drama; Washington’s playing just to get in (and I hope they do) while Montreal’s playing for top spot in the conference. Depending on how they do tonight and how Pittsburgh does tomorrow, Montreal will end up against either Philadelphia or Ottawa in the first round; obviously I’d prefer Philly; though the Canadians have throttled the Sens in their last two matchups, Ottawa seems like a more dangerous opponent.

Not that I’ll be able to pay a lot of attention tonight. I have a marketing assignment to write.

[UPDATE: the Habs beat the Leafs, finish first in the east and will play the Bruins in the first round, which is good, since Montreal was 8-0 against them this year. The Washington Capitals won and they’re in…in fact, they’re 3rd in the conference. Stupid southeast division. The Raptors continue to suck it hard. Ditto Toronto FC. Kansas won but UCLA lost, meaning I’m out of the money, but Nellie still has a shot at 2nd if Kansas wins.]

.:.

Battlestar Galactica started off pretty strong in last night’s season kickoff (I think Nellie was right when she said they blew their special effects budget in the first ten minutes) but drifted a little. I’m so very tired of Baltar.

[tags]nhl playoffs, montreal canadiens, toronto raptors, toronto fc, battlestar galactica[/tags]

Stuff I like. 'Cause I'm a white people.

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  • My new mouse
  • The Montreal Canadiens clinching their division for the first time since 1991-92 after pounding the Sens 3-0
  • BSG returning this Friday
  • Tomorrow’s forecast: 10° and sunny
  • The new, not-quite-released-yet Constantines album Kensington Heights
  • Income tax returns

[tags]logitech wireless mouse, montreal canadiens, ottawa senators, battlestar galactica, spring, constantines, kensington heights, income tax return[/tags]

Bratterscained

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Sorry I haven’t been writing much. Normally my brain is spinning with so much delicious wit, razor-sharp criticism and profound innovation that I find I need to spill some of it onto the blog, but lately I find I have only two modes: “work” and “recover from work.” I’m glad it’s a long weekend; I may yet be able to reclaim one of the other settings on that dial.

.:.

And how will I do that? By watching hour upon hour of college basketball, interrupted only by sleep and rich food. Yes, it’s March Madness time and while I haven’t been able to give it the attention I’d like, I’m still doing pretty well in my pool, so there’s that. In between games: dinner with M2 at beerbistro on Thursday (which I think made me sick in some weird way) and dinner tonight at Tutti Matti with CBGB.

.:.

Also in between games we’ve been trying to clear off the PVR. We have it down to about 50% now, having watched two movies and an episode of Extras. We waited a long time to watch the second season — not on purpose, we just never got around to it — and so far the episodes have been fairly funny, but this episode with Daniel Radcliffe killed me. Not because of Radcliffe (though it was pretty funny to watch Harry Potter throw a rubber at James Bond’s wife’s head) but because of a scene between Stephen Merchant and Warwick Davis. That might’ve been the funniest 60 seconds I’ve seen on TV in months.

Anyway, the two movies we watched were Bobby (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a terribly dull movie about a terribly interesting man, and Beowulf & Grendel (imdb | rotten tomatoes), not the recent rotoscoped film with Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie, but the one with Gerard Butler and Sarah Polley. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that good either. As much as I love Sarah Polley, she seemed out of place here.

[tags]march madness, beerbistro, tutti matti, extras, ricky gervais, daniel radcliffe, harry potter, stephen merchant, warwick davis, bobby, beowulf, grendel, sarah polley[/tags]

All 4 ratings

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Oh god. No. Please, please no.

The popular 1990s TV series Beverly Hills 90210 — the numbers refer to the wealthy enclave’s zip code — may be getting a spinoff. The CW network is said to be developing a contemporary spinoff of Aaron Spelling’s teen soap, which starred Canada’s Jason Priestly and Shannen Doherty as Minnesota teens who move into L.A.’s richest community.

The rumour is that Rob Thomas — creator of the excellent (at first, anyway) series Veronica Mars — is supposed to direct. Culturally speaking, I’d say this is the rough equivalent of Weezer covering the debut album by Color Me Badd.

[tags]beverly hills 90210, rob thomas, veronica mars, weezer, color me badd[/tags]

"Because, brother, when you were good, you were the best we had."

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The Wire is dead. Long live The Wire.

I agree with the critics who say it was the best show on television during its run. Each of the first four seasons was the best show I’ve seen related to whatever topic they were portraying that year: police, blue collar workers, politics, schools.

If you haven’t watched it, I beg you to go rent season 1; by the time you finish watching season 4 the final season should be available on DVD.

.:.

So while my toe does appear to be broken — or at least really badly sprained, ’cause it’s the color of an angry plum right now — it’s more or less stopped hurting. I might actually try running on it tomorrow or Wednesday if I can get it into my new shoes without hurting.

.:.

If you have ten minutes and thirty-five seconds to spare, I recommend downloading and listening to “Ghost Blues” by Ladyhawk.

[tags]the wire, broken toe, saucony running shoes, ladyhawk, ghost blues[/tags]