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TV notes
1. This week's "Two and a Half Men" was notable in that it showed and discussed computers and the Internet in a realistic fashion. For example, characters talked about Googling themselves, and they actually showed a Google search screen. And there were no messages that displayed in a "digital" font one letter at a time with a beep for each letter. This in itself made me happy, but it went on to show a web page that someone made about Charlie Sheen's character called CharlieHarperSucks.com, and sure enough, it's a real website. Some of the things on the web site are read aloud during the show, and they're on the real site too; it also has a post from one of the side characters in the episode talking about an event that happened on the show. And there's a post from "Sysop" with some speculative psychoanalysis; the punchline of this episode was that the person running the website was Rose, the wacky stalker neighbor, who in the previous episode hinted that she was actually a psych student working on a research project and only pretending to be crazy. Anyway, I'm amused and impressed; the only other "fictional" URL that I've seen that actually worked was scrotalsafetycommission.com (from "The Venture Brothers").
2. The "Legend of Earthsea" mini-series was sort of entertaining in a Xena/Hercules way, but feh. I can't say much about what they changed from the books since it's been over 20 years since I read them. I'm pretty sure, though, that not all the characters were simple-minded and unlikable, and that the dialog wasn't insipid. And the added attempts at comedy were just sad (although not as maddening as the dwarf-tossing jokes in LOTR). I just hope Le Guin got a lot of money out of it. ...OH, and, what's the deal with showing spoiler scenes before every commercial? Hello?
3. It was nice to see the Pixies on Letterman, but they seemed enervated, playing "Monkey Goes To Heaven" a bit slower than normal. I'm hoping they're just tired out rather than they all hate each other and just want to finish the tour. Also, Kim Deal looks way cute with short hair.
4. The last scene of last week's "The West Wing" nearly brought me to tears, but the next-week-promo made me burst out laughing. This week's episode was somewhere between surreal and farcical. The main thing saving the outlandish plot device (which I won't mention because I know at least one of you is waiting for Bravo reruns to watch this season) was that it actually seemed possible that whoever's in charge of the show now might actually go through with it.
5. "The Late Late Show" has finally settled on a new host, Craig Ferguson (a.k.a. Mr. Wick from "The Drew Carey Show"). I saw some of his tryout shows, and he was pretty good, but I didn't think they'd actually pick someone with that thick a Scottish accent. I was actually surprised at how good Drew Carey was as a host, but I guess he only did the one show and wasn't in the running. Michael Ian Black (a.k.a. Phil Stubbs from "Ed", Johnny Blue Jeans from "Viva Variety", and one of the many nerdy guys about my age on VH1's "I Love the '80s") is usually pretty funny, but never really seemed comfortable as host, and the TRL guy (forgot his name) did well but was even more bland than Carson Daly. Anyway, I'll probably drop in to watch Ferguson from time to time, but I won't be watching every show like I did with Craig Kilborn.
2. The "Legend of Earthsea" mini-series was sort of entertaining in a Xena/Hercules way, but feh. I can't say much about what they changed from the books since it's been over 20 years since I read them. I'm pretty sure, though, that not all the characters were simple-minded and unlikable, and that the dialog wasn't insipid. And the added attempts at comedy were just sad (although not as maddening as the dwarf-tossing jokes in LOTR). I just hope Le Guin got a lot of money out of it. ...OH, and, what's the deal with showing spoiler scenes before every commercial? Hello?
3. It was nice to see the Pixies on Letterman, but they seemed enervated, playing "Monkey Goes To Heaven" a bit slower than normal. I'm hoping they're just tired out rather than they all hate each other and just want to finish the tour. Also, Kim Deal looks way cute with short hair.
4. The last scene of last week's "The West Wing" nearly brought me to tears, but the next-week-promo made me burst out laughing. This week's episode was somewhere between surreal and farcical. The main thing saving the outlandish plot device (which I won't mention because I know at least one of you is waiting for Bravo reruns to watch this season) was that it actually seemed possible that whoever's in charge of the show now might actually go through with it.
5. "The Late Late Show" has finally settled on a new host, Craig Ferguson (a.k.a. Mr. Wick from "The Drew Carey Show"). I saw some of his tryout shows, and he was pretty good, but I didn't think they'd actually pick someone with that thick a Scottish accent. I was actually surprised at how good Drew Carey was as a host, but I guess he only did the one show and wasn't in the running. Michael Ian Black (a.k.a. Phil Stubbs from "Ed", Johnny Blue Jeans from "Viva Variety", and one of the many nerdy guys about my age on VH1's "I Love the '80s") is usually pretty funny, but never really seemed comfortable as host, and the TRL guy (forgot his name) did well but was even more bland than Carson Daly. Anyway, I'll probably drop in to watch Ferguson from time to time, but I won't be watching every show like I did with Craig Kilborn.
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In case you missed it on Lynn's other blog (http://www.ghostweather.com/blog/2004/12/earthsea-in-clorox-by-ursula-k-le-guin.html), here's Le Guin's take (http://trashotron.com/agony/columns/2004/12-15-04.htm) on the series. Doesn't sound like she got enough money to make it worth it.
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enervate
man, that bugs me.
Re: enervate
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I haven't yet watched the Earthsea stuff but given it is one of my favorite series of all time and given what Le Guin had to say about it (hope that works, the website worked yesterday but not today so linked to a Google cache page) I just can't imagine not hating it. The previous looked horrendous. My LJ icon is after all of Sparrowhawk from this series.
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At least, unlike witht he first LotR movie, I go into this with incredibly low expectations.
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"How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books."
"All they intended was to use the name Earthsea, and some of the scenes from the books, in a generic McMagic movie with a meaningless plot based on sex and violence."
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