Friday, August 26, 2005

the tv she talks to me...

Ah, the weekend. How I love you ever so much.

Andrew's last week at work is this week. He let me borrow Pearl Jam's greatest hits CD, rearviewmirror. They're one of my favorite bands and this has ALOT of great songs on it, including the highly underrated "Do The Evolution".

So a review of The 40-Year Old Virgin is forthcoming. Suffice it to say it was excellent, one of the best comedies I've seen. It managed to deftly blend raunch with a sweet-natured current. I also got to hang out with Robin and her husband, then play the movie trivia game Scene It?. We also ate pizza and watched Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers. They're both really cool and it was nice to actually have some semblance of a social life. I plan to convert them both into Browncoats. A Firefly marathon is in their future and then Serenity on September 30th. The more Browncoats the better.

Speaking of, at work more people are calling and asking for Firefly so I'm hoping the series is garnering alot more attention. A girl called earlier this week asking if we had the show for rent. She actually gave a co-worker her number for us to call if it came in. It did, she was elated, and sent her boyfriend up promptly to pick it up. It's always checked out now and that's great.

Session416.com

Cool and creepy, huh? This is viral marketing for Serenity. And yes, the gentleman in the video is none other than Joss Whedon himself. He's said that these shorts will tell a story and I can't wait to see where this is going.

The final issue of the Serenity comic will be released on September 7th. I need to put back three dollars. I'll be getting the one with River on the cover.

It's softly raining outside. I should be sleeping soundly. Oh well. We're also supposed to be getting even more rain early next week as Hurricane Katrina passes through our area, hopefully in a weakened state. Speaking of that, my thoughts are with those in South Florida.

Hmmm... what to see this weekend?
Red Eye or The Brothers Grimm? I loves me some Gilliam but Red Eye looks good as well. Decisions, decisions...

I've got new hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 12PM-9PM and I've had some readjusting to do, body time-clock wise. Once again, I should be in bed right now.

Pay day is today. I'm going to try to buy a DVD, maybe a CD (Get Behind Me Satan, The White Stripes latest, is a good idea) see a movie or two, and just relax and enjoy the weekend.

Fiona Apple's new CD Extraordinary Machine will be out October 4th. That's right, Sony got their head out of their ass finally! I was dismayed to here that Jon Brion's production on the album was shelved in favor of someone else but oh well. It'll be nice to hear new stuff from her.

Oh! Nellie McKay has a new CD coming out in October! The 18th, to be exact, and it features a duet with Cyndi Lauper. Also, Nellie will be in Wallace Shawn's new Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera alongside Alan Cumming and Edie Falco! The play will debut in April 2006. Congrats Nellie! You're vastly underexposed and I hope more people discover your awesome talent.

A new episode of Real Time With Bill Maher airs tonight.

The queen of liberal talk, Stephanie Miller, will be on in just a little bit. It's an awesome radio show. She really takes it to the right-wing with a lethal mix of comedy and cold hard facts. Plus, her voice guy Jim Ward is a freakin' genius. From Bush to Pat Robertson, he is amazing at doing dead-on impressions of those wacky neo-cons and various other people in the limelight.

Oh yeah, tonight is a new episode of Battlestar Galactica on SCI FI. It's the final episode before a break. The channel is waiting a few months to air the rest of the season. I know, I know...it's weird. Anyway, I have a few episodes on TiVo to watch anyway...along with It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Starved, and a BUNCH of other stuff.

And then there's this $100 million dollar budgeted epic series that's debuting on HBO Sunday night...



So, yeah...it looks really cool.


Thursday, August 18, 2005

the fourth day is ending...

Well...

www.941thebeat.com

Weird, huh?

For those not in the area, that's the website for Clear Channel's Urban station WQBT-FM (94.1 The Beat) here in Savannah. They're teasing on the air that "changes are coming" on the 22nd. I was hoping that it would be a format flip...perhaps JACK-FM (officially), alternative rock, or progressive talk. However I truly believe that it's simply going to be a renaming of the station with a new morning show out of New York (Star and BucWild). I find this just sad. C'mon! Savannah radio needs to be shaken to its core. I'd love to be proven wrong.

From work I procured AVery Long Engagement and Prozac Nation. I anticipate viewing them. Netflix is sending me the psychological British thriller Enduring Love. I've heard great things.

I must work from 6-10 tomorrow night. Yes, the floor. But we've already been shopped this month so it shouldn't be too bad.

I am more than likely going to see The 40 Year Old Virgin Saturday with a co-worker and her husband. Wow, me with some semblance of a social life! Weird, huh?

TiVo has amassed a bountiful harvest of television nirvana for me to feast upon. There's a whole assortment of goodies from three episodes of Battlestar Galactica to two of Entourage to movies and more. I must get to watching them ASAP.

And now my little commentary...



I state emplicitly that I am a film fan. I love the cinema and all of its charms therein. I must start behaving as such. I must commit myself fully towards this artistic medium. Far too often, I'll just watch television or spend time on here, scanning the depths of the Internet for any and everything I can get, having exhausted my usual haunts. I do this instead of watching a film. It is utterly appalling and I must rectify this, post haste lest I become a shame to my film geek badge. I do solemnly swear to make good on this. Therefore, I WILL view a film this weekend, perhaps two and then post extensive reviews on said titles. Keep your eyes peeled for I am cinema savvy...hear me roar!

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Awwww.....






I love you, TiVo!

I got a haircut today (that one..oh the humor is funny!) and thus feel thirty pounds lighter. I'm also trying something new...a closely-cropped goatee. We'll see if this ends in triumph or abundant failure. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

And in terrifically awesome news, school starts tomorrow for all students in the area. That's right, you snot-nosed brats and know-nothing teens...get your lazy asses BACK in class and stop littering our store with your presence! It'll be so nice to have a moment to complete a task at work on a weekday morning without a pesky child under foot. But watch me have to eat my words and there'll be kids there anyway. I certainly hope not.

Head on over to Daily Kos. There's a really dead-on article about Cindy Sheehan. What a courageous, inspiring, wonderful woman. I sincerely hope that she follows Bush back to D.C. and continues to live camped right outside The White House, day and night. He may be an asshole and not want to open his eyes to the fact that we're losing brave men and women in an endless and needless war, or to meet with the mother of a dead soldier but at least whenever he shuttles to and from the overpriced fundraisers he'll have a female-sized thorn in his side. The longer this plays out, the worse it makes him look. Good.

Bill Maher will be guest-hosting The Majority Report on Air America Radio tomorrow night. I can't wait! The reason for this is Janeane Garofalo is currently in Los Angeles filming a guest spot on The West Wing and Sam Seder and his wife Nicole are celebrating the birth of their daughter, Myla Rae Seder. Congrats to the happy family.

Tim Robbins anti-war play Embedded: Live will have its network television debut next Sunday night at 9PM on sundance channel.

POEM TIME


Frustration

If I had a shiny gun,
I could have a world of fun
Speeding bullets through the brains
Of the folk who give me pains;

Or had I some poison gas,
I could make the moments pass
Bumping off a number of
People whom I do not love.

But I have no lethal weapon-
Thus does Fate our pleasure step on!
So they still are quick and well
Who should be, by rights, in hell.

Dorothy Parker


Inventory

Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.

Dorothy Parker

Friday, August 05, 2005

Savannah, Georgia: Our radio has been "JACK"-ed!!!

Joy 104.7 is dead.

In its place, we now have a clone of the popular new radio phenomenon, "JACK FM" that's been sweeping the nation. By that I mean alot of stations have flipped to this format. The official format name is either "Variety Hits" or "Adult Hits".

More info on this new format can be found at Variety Hits at Wikipedia.

We now have this format in our area. Contemporary Christian station WSGA-FM Joy 104.7 is now "Freedom 104.7".



I personally would have chosen a different name as it and the new logo scream "Country Station". They're using the expected positioner of this format - "We Play What We Want". Nothing jockwise outside of a male voice saying "We're Freedom 104.7 and we're playing what we want." Then, "Stay tuned for more music we like" before commercials. Weather's being done by The Weather Channel and then "Now back to more music we want to hear."


The website is in progress at Freedom1047.com

Here's a recently played song list:

11AM

11:08AM - Duncan Sheik - "Barely Breathing"
11:12AM - L.T.D. - "(Every Time I Turn Around) Back In Love Again"
11:17AM - Madonna - "Vogue"
11:25AM - Eddie Kendricks - "Keep On Truckin'"
11:29AM - Santana f/Rob Thomas - "Smooth"
11:33AM - Love And Rockets - "So Alive"
11:41AM - John Mellencamp - "Small Town"
11:44AM - Fleetwood Mac - "Landslide"
11:48AM - Hootie And The Blowfish - "Only Wanna Be With You"
11:55AM - Prince - "Little Red Corvette"
11:58AM - The Bee Gees - "Nights On Broadway"

12PM

12:03PM - Billy Idol - "Dancing With Myself"
12:06PM - Elton John - "Honky Cat"
12:11PM - dishwalla - "Counting Blue Cars"
12:16PM - Babyface - "My Kinda Girl"

I am unaware of when exactly the station flipped formats. I just noticed this late last night while scanning the radio dial.

"Freedom 104.7" is owned by Tama Broadcasting, Inc.

http://www.tamabroadcasting.com

They also own WSSJ-FM (Smooth Jazz 92.3) and WMZD-FM (Mix 100.1) in this market.

In any case, it's nice to finally get to hear, in this market at least, the newest format that's got everyone talking.

I have to work tomorrow from 2-10. I LOATHE working on the floor and that's just where I'll be. Hopefully we won't get shopped. But this being the first weekend in August, we probably will. My legs and feet are going to be very angry with me. I just hope the time passes quickly which, knowing how things usually go, it most likely won't.

Brunch is ready. Time to while away the hours before I begin my maze-like walk around the store tomorrow.

Remember for all things happening in the wonderful world of Joss Whedon, head on over to WHEDONesque.com. They've got all the scoop on upcoming Serenity goodness. I love that site.

Several fans have gotten together to launch a Serenity/Firefly-themed podcast. It's available every Wednesday at SerenityFirefly.com. Last week's episode featured a great interview with Adam Baldwin; this week has an interview with Gina Torres. A big hand to these Browncoats as they're really good at this.

I picked up "Serenity" #2 Wednesday. I haven't read comics in ages but this are so well-written and really capture the flavor of the 'Verse. I can't wait for issue #3 at the end of the month.

Marc Maron will be on Late Night with Conan O'Brien tonight. He'll be promoting his very awesome Air America Radio show Morning Sedition.

Speaking of politics, Robert Novak, when not being an evil demon, is a big baby. Scroll down at CrooksAndLiars.com. Wow, he almost had to answer pointed questions about his outing of Valerie Plame. What a moron. He's been suspended but needs to be fired.

I should hopefully getting J.T. Petty's directorial debut Soft for Digging and the 1967 Lee Marvin classic Point Blank from Netflix today. I've heard great things of both.

The little hellions go back to school here August 15th. I cannot wait. It's time for peace of mind to pervade the store.

FX has winners on their hand. I watched the premieres of Starved, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and Over There. Talk about extremes! Starved is about people living in New York with various eating disorders. Sunny is about three owners of a new bar in the title city. Both are extremely dark comedies; shocking one minute, amazingly funny the next. Over There is Steven Bochco's new drama series about soldiers in Iraq. It is devastatingly brutal. Check out the shows in-depth at FXNetwork.com.

Monday, August 01, 2005



Bernardo Bertolucci has earned a reputation for being one of Hollywood's most interesting filmmakers. From the now infamous Last Tango In Paris to 1900, The Last Emperor, and Stealing Beauty, Bertolucci has moved effectively from one genre to the next. Some pigeonhole him as being too attached to "controversy" but that's really a moot point. He's able to accurately convey whatever themes he sets out to, and with a style and sophistication lacking in 90% of directors today.


The Dreamers is his latest. It relates to us something from Bertolucci's own life, being in the midst of the political uprisings of Paris in 1968. Based on Gilbert Adair's novel The Holy Innocents (and scripted by Adair), The Dreamers brings us the tale of Matthew, an idealistic American traveling abroad. He just begins to soak up the culture when he meets twins Isabelle (played with a heady verve by Eva Green) and Theo (Louis Garrel). They are protesting the funding loss of the Cinémathèque Française by the government. Matthew is slowly drawn into their intoxicating world of cinema, politics, and sex. But is there a world beyond the one the siblings have made for themselves? The twins devise movie pop quizzes with sexual games as punishment (City Lights and Bande A Part are but a few titles discussed, as clips from the films interject) and all the while Paris seems to quake with dissent on the streets below.



Much has been made of The Dreamers MPAA rating. NC-17. It doesn't get thrown around alot these days. Fox Searchlight decided to buck the trend and release the film as is to theatres. It didn't play that long as most theatre chains won't play NC-17 films. I find the whole thing funny as the sexual content in the film, while graphic and intense, is nothing pornographic. Yes, you see explicit closeups of both male and female genitalia and there is implied sex but the hype is much ado about nothing. It adds a sensual and intoxicating feel to the film, as these young people discover sexuality and film in their own way. (The twins parents are only seen in fleeting glances, dropping off a check before heading off to an undisclosed destination.)

The Dreamers is a romantic and beautiful look at the chrysalis that envelopes two lost souls who seem to be unable to function outside the four walls of their own design. One person tries to help dismantle those walls (Matthew) but it seems that he just adds more bricks. All three actors provide compelling performances and help to construct a very believable environment. You can practically smell the wine and cigarettes oozing off the screen. This is one of the very best movies in a long time.