Monday, April 30, 2012
Painter of the Week, 4/30/2012: Paul Gauguin Week
Gauguin, The Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling the Angel)
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
The Onion
Here are the currently featured stories on America's finest new source. It's easy to take The Onion for granted sometimes, but it is so consistently hilarious.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Quote of the Day (5/18/11) (The Tenth Doctor Week Two)
Martha: When you say "last time", was that you and Rose?
The Doctor: [he pauses, somewhat taken aback by the question] Um... Yeah! Yeah, it was, yeah.
Martha: [looking put off] You're taking me to the same planets that you took her?
The Doctor: [surprised, oblivious] What's wrong with that?
Martha: [disappointed, upset] Nothing! [starts to stalk away] 'Cept have you heard of the word "rebound"?
--“Gridlock”
Heard on "The Colbert Report"
Those who do not get Stephen's seal of approval, he warns, received instead his "walrus of condemnation."
Dr. Jeff Frame
My doctoral student Jeff Frame successfully (brilliantly) defended his dissertation today: Reinventing the Reel: The "Omnis" Text in Nonlinear Film Discourses.
Congratulations to Jeff and many thanks to Allen Hibbard and Robert Holtzclaw who served as readers.
I have the honor of hooding him on May 5th.
Congratulations to Jeff and many thanks to Allen Hibbard and Robert Holtzclaw who served as readers.
I have the honor of hooding him on May 5th.
"The Avengers," "General Hospital"
Doctoral student Corine Mathis reports that yesterday (April 25th) on the daytime soap General Hospital the show's resident hacker/geeky character, Spinelli, asks a poster for The Avengers for guidance about his problems, saying "WWTAD?"
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Source for "Hollywood Reporter" Story on Whedon
A Hollywood Reporter story for which I was a source is now online here.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Colbert Reams Doucy
That FOX News single-handedly precipitated an Obama/Romney kerfuffle (over being born with a silver spoon) received little exploration by the MSM.
But Colbert was, in reductio ad absurdum fashion, all over it. Brilliant--and hilarious.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Steve Doocy's Subtext Reporting | ||||
| ||||
"'The Simpsons' Tells Fox to Eat Its Shorts"
Terrific piece by Forrest Wickman on Slate on The Simpsons' long tradition of biting the hand that feeds them.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Ken Tucker on "Veep"
As usual, a discerning critique of the new HBO show, which I wasn't crazy about on first viewing.
TV Drugs Trips
Inspired by Roger and Jane Sterling's LSD-taking on last night's Mad Men ("Far Away Places"), Hollywood Reporter recounts five memorable small screen trips.
Lindelof/Lucas
BREAKING NEWS!!!! Lucas just put Tupac between Yoda and Obi Wan at the end of JEDI.Snap!
— Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) April 16, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Backwards
Just learned that when CBS aired a 20th anniversary tribute to All in the Family in 1991, the network found the material way too controversial.
Isn't cultural supposed to evolve, become more open-minded?
Isn't cultural supposed to evolve, become more open-minded?
Saturday, April 21, 2012
The Opening Crawl from "Letters of Transit"
They came from the future. At first they only watched. Arriving at key moments in human history. We called them OBSERVERS. But in 2015 they stopped watching… and seized control. Citizen uprisings proved bloody and futile. Those who survived became known as “Natives.” In an attempt to show their allegiance, some Native factions became “Loyalists” and were marked by the OBSERVERS. The original FRINGE TEAM fought the invasion, but was quickly defeated. FRINGE DIVISION was allowed to continue at a reduced capacity, but only to police the Natives. The resistance was quickly overcome… or so they thought. (Fringe 4.19)
"Prime-Time Property"
Another Vanity Fair slide show--this one assessing the real estate values of television homes.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Charles Blow on the Danger of Romney
I have no personal gripe with Romney. I don’t believe him to be an evil man. Quite the opposite: he appears to be a loving husband and father. Besides, evil requires conviction, which Romney lacks. But he is a dangerous man. Unprincipled ambition always is. Infinite malleability is its own vice because it’s infinitely corruptible by others of ignoble intentions.
Tip of the hat to Andrew Sullivan.
"Immortals"
Just watched (well, quit half way through) Immortals (starring Mickey Rourke and the next Superman, Henry Cavill), and it's absolutely awful. Close to unwatched.
Felicia Day on "Supernatural"
So the Buffy and Horrible veteran will appear on April 27th--with a sword apparently--in an episode entitled "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo."
Heard on "The Colbert Report"
On Garry Trudeau:
Stephen wants to be on the Time Magazine 100 Most Influential People list as many times as the Dalai Lama:
He never really got to know the inner me [when he was on the show]. Luckily, there is no inner me.
Stephen wants to be on the Time Magazine 100 Most Influential People list as many times as the Dalai Lama:
I am gunning for you Lama. I am going to make you wish you were never reborn.
"Worst Heroic Lead Characters"
The Onion AV Club picks them. Two Whedonverses leads are nominated. (I agree with Adams. Don't agree with VanderWerff.)
Sam Adams
I realize Whedonesque readers will have my head on a stick for this, but Dollhouse felt like a potentially great show hamstrung by the weakness of its lead actor, Eliza Dushku. As Buffy’s badass slayer, Faith, Dushku worked perfectly as a warped mirror image of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s virtuous vamp-staker. But even though Whedon wrote Dollhouse with Dushku in mind, she seemed hopelessly out of her depth as a mutable “doll” required to take on a new identity almost every week. There are successful, even great, television actors who are essentially one-trick ponies: They do one thing, and they do it well. January Jones may be a terrible actress in everything else, but she’s still great on Mad Men. Dollhouse, however, required serious chops, not just to realize the show’s role-playing conceit, but to lure the audience into feeling for characters who were, at least theoretically, blank slates. Enver Gjokaj, Amy Acker, and Alan Tudyk nailed their personae, while Olivia Williams and Harry Lennix gave the show the gravitas needed to ground its potentially toxic premise. Even Fran Kranz, who for most of the two-episode run functioned as an animate dispenser of Whedon’s trademark neologisms, found new depth in his amoral tech geek as the show wound down. Dushku was the weak link, and she stayed that way, no matter how often Dollhouse stripped her down to her skivvies.
I realize Whedonesque readers will have my head on a stick for this, but Dollhouse felt like a potentially great show hamstrung by the weakness of its lead actor, Eliza Dushku. As Buffy’s badass slayer, Faith, Dushku worked perfectly as a warped mirror image of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s virtuous vamp-staker. But even though Whedon wrote Dollhouse with Dushku in mind, she seemed hopelessly out of her depth as a mutable “doll” required to take on a new identity almost every week. There are successful, even great, television actors who are essentially one-trick ponies: They do one thing, and they do it well. January Jones may be a terrible actress in everything else, but she’s still great on Mad Men. Dollhouse, however, required serious chops, not just to realize the show’s role-playing conceit, but to lure the audience into feeling for characters who were, at least theoretically, blank slates. Enver Gjokaj, Amy Acker, and Alan Tudyk nailed their personae, while Olivia Williams and Harry Lennix gave the show the gravitas needed to ground its potentially toxic premise. Even Fran Kranz, who for most of the two-episode run functioned as an animate dispenser of Whedon’s trademark neologisms, found new depth in his amoral tech geek as the show wound down. Dushku was the weak link, and she stayed that way, no matter how often Dollhouse stripped her down to her skivvies.
Todd VanDerWerff
You know what? I didn’t really like Buffy Summers, particularly as Buffy The Vampire Slayer went on. Even when I enjoyed the character, more or less, I enjoyed the people around her a lot more, and by the last season—when she was given lots of dull, repetitive speeches about the nature of leadership and heroism—I was actively hoping the show would go find something else to pay attention to for a while. (That said, the final moment with her in the series finale is quite good.) I respected what Joss Whedon was doing with the character and skewing the traditional hero’s journey through a feminist perspective. But at the same time, I found Sarah Michelle Gellar’s work wildly inconsistent. She’d be brilliant in one episode (“The Gift,” say), then seem like she’d rather be doing just about anything else in the next. Buffy is one of my favorite shows ever made, and saying that when I found the center of the show so often lacking just suggests how good the show actually is.
You know what? I didn’t really like Buffy Summers, particularly as Buffy The Vampire Slayer went on. Even when I enjoyed the character, more or less, I enjoyed the people around her a lot more, and by the last season—when she was given lots of dull, repetitive speeches about the nature of leadership and heroism—I was actively hoping the show would go find something else to pay attention to for a while. (That said, the final moment with her in the series finale is quite good.) I respected what Joss Whedon was doing with the character and skewing the traditional hero’s journey through a feminist perspective. But at the same time, I found Sarah Michelle Gellar’s work wildly inconsistent. She’d be brilliant in one episode (“The Gift,” say), then seem like she’d rather be doing just about anything else in the next. Buffy is one of my favorite shows ever made, and saying that when I found the center of the show so often lacking just suggests how good the show actually is.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
New Whedonverse Companions
Two new tie-in books for this Spring's Whedon films.
I already have the Cabin one and just pre-ordered the Avengers tome.
An exciting time.
Heard on "The Colbert Report"
Do you know what it's like to be Greek and not be able to cook? It's like being French and not knowing how to have afternoon sex.
Arianna Huffington
"The Bland Leading the Bland"
Colbert's characterization of a Romney/Rob Portman ticket.
Stephen finally concluded that the perfect running mate for the Mittster would be his shadow.
Why? Because it would change positions every time Mitt does!
Stephen finally concluded that the perfect running mate for the Mittster would be his shadow.
Why? Because it would change positions every time Mitt does!
"Veep"
I was already looking forward to the new HBO Julia Louis-Dreyfus series before I learned that it was created by Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, The Thick of It).
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Keith Moon
I learned on Wait, Wait this week that London's Olympic organizers tried to book Who drummer Keith Moon for an appearance this summer.Moon died in 1978.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
First "Avengers" Review
First review I have seen (on comicbookmovie.com). A bit amateurish but interesting--and extremely laudatory.
Spoiler warning, of course.
Spoiler warning, of course.
Artist of the Week, 4/17/12: Pieter de Hooch Week
de Hooch, A Mother and a Child with Its Head in Her Lap
Monday, April 16, 2012
"THE FORTY-YEAR ITCH"
Adam Gropnik contemplates (in The New Yorker) the proper temporal distance for popular cultural time machines like Mad Men to achieve prime effect.
Goddard on "The Cabin"
The film's director and co-writer talks to The Daily Beast about his (and Whedon's) horror film.
Artist of the Week, 4/16/12: Pieter de Hooch Week
de Hooch, A Woman Drinking with Two Men, and a Serving Woman
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Heard on "Wait, Wait"
The town will come with 30,000 pages of assembly instructions and an ellen wrench the size of a telephone pole.
Peter Sagal on the news the IKEA will build an entire town
PG-13 vs. R: What's the Difference, Really? - Studio 360
PG-13 vs. R: What's the Difference, Really? - Studio 360
Kurt Anderson talks to Kirby Dick about the absurdities of the movie rating systems.
Kurt Anderson talks to Kirby Dick about the absurdities of the movie rating systems.
Most Annoying TV Characters
EW has the slide show.
Kim Bauer is on the list, of course, as are two Michelle Trachtenberg characters (from Buffy, Gossip Girl).
Kim Bauer is on the list, of course, as are two Michelle Trachtenberg characters (from Buffy, Gossip Girl).
Artist of the Week, 4/15/12: Pieter de Hooch Week
de Hooch, Portrait of a Family in a Courtyard in Delft
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
"Television Creativity"
"The Cabin in the Woods"--Salon Likes It
Andrew O'Hehir offers mostly high praise.
And so does Roger Ebert.
And so does Roger Ebert.
With most genre films, we ask, "Does it work?" In other words, does this horror film scare us? "The Cabin in the Woods" does have some genuine scares, but they're not really the point. This is like a final exam for fanboys.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Artist of the Week, 4/12/12: Pieter de Hooch Week
de Hooch, A Woman with a Baby in Her Lap, and a Small Child
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Artist of the Week, 4/11/12: James Abbott McNeill Whistler Week
Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Artist of the Week, 4/10/12: James Abbott McNeill Whistler Week
Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea
Monday, April 09, 2012
Sunday, April 08, 2012
Artist of the Week, 4/8/12: James Abbott McNeill Whistler Week
Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Artist of the Week, 4/7/12: James Abbott McNeill Whistler Week
Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Gold - St. Mark's Venice
Friday, April 06, 2012
Artist of the Week, 4/6/12: James Abbott McNeill Whistler Week
Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Carver Replaces Gamble on "Supernatural"
So Jeremy Carver returns to Supernatural to replace Sera Gamble as showrunner.Does this mean Carver Edlund will return too?
"Palmolive Attacks Dawn for Coddling Grease"
Hilarious. I would love to have been present at the staff meeting where they came up with this idea. How on earth . . .
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Lindelof, "Prometheus," Prequels
Lost's co-creator contemplates whether the new Alien film is, or is not, a prequel.
The Great "Titanic" Debate
Andrew O'Hehir (against) and Erik Nelson (for) square off on Cameron's re-released blockbuster in Salon.
Monday, April 02, 2012
Harry Crews (1935-2012)
I have written before (here and here) on this blog about Harry Crews, who passed away yesterday in Florida. (That's his Olan Mills photo on the left; his adult self below on the right.)But there's so much more to say about him. Our paths intersected during my days at the University of Florida, 1973-1975, 1976-79, both before and after I received my Ph.D. in 1978.
As a lover of the grotesque, I admired his work, of course: Childhood: Biography of a Place, Feast of Snakes, Car. But the man?
I remember when an office mate enrolled in Harry's creative writing class returned from a session white as a sheet. Harry had shown the class his leg, where his then girlfriend Sharné had carved her name with a knife--including the accent mark!I remember when he collapsed behind me--"Jesus! Jesus!" he yelled--onto the safety island between the Krystal across the street and Anderson Hall.
I remember when, lecturing, completely drunk, to an intro to fiction course in a huge lecture hall, he explained that an "omniscient narrator is somebody who doesn't know what the fuck is going on." Now a full professor in a department that had once denied him admission, he was prone to garbled tirades against other English faculty.
I remembered losing my post-doc when I led a revolt against the continued assignment of a perpetually inebriated, three sheets to the wind, mad man to teach such a course.
Goodbye Harry.
Weight Lost
Had my first physical since 2009. Official loss of weight since then?
Fifty two pounds.
I am a shadow of my former self!
Fifty two pounds.
I am a shadow of my former self!
All My Books
All of them, including the Portuguese versions of the Lost books and the recent Kindle books. Twenty "real" books; twenty eight in all.
Sunday, April 01, 2012
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