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Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Wow. What a great made-for-television movie this was, huh? If you haven’t seen the recent two hour special episode of Smallville on The CW entitled, “Absolute Justice,” then you really missed a great show. Before I talk about the show, though, I should tell you that this is one of those nerdy, comic bookish type of entries so if you’re not interested, then maybe you want to come back tomorrow!
I’ve been a fan of Smallville on The CW (formerly The WB Network) for a long time. It’s a fun show that gives the whole superhero genre some credibility, if you ask me (much like the Spider-Man and X-Men movies). This episode was a two hour made-for-television movie that focused on the original Justice Society of America’s (JSA) interaction with a young Superman, The Green Arrow, The Martian Manhunter, and the Watchtower (operated by Chloe Sullivan). The members of the original JSA that were in this episode included The Star-Spangled Kid, Hawkman, Stargirl, and Dr. Fate.
Anyway, the episode starts with Chloe being confronted by The Star-Spangled Kid before he’s killed by Icicle. Chloe, The Green Arrow, and Clark Kent then do some research and find out that The Star-Spangled Kid was one of the members of an old group of Superheroes called the Justice Society of America. This group was led by Hawkman, who gave up on leading the group years ago and appears to take pleasure in criticizing the younger generation of Superheroes (Clark and his buddies).
Hawkman alludes to the DC Comic book universe in the episode by referring to himself and his team as the Golden Age of Superheroes. He then talks about Clark and his team being the Silver Age of Superheroes. If I remember correctly (and I don’t really remember at all), that is the chronology that DC Comics uses in its comic books, too.
What makes the episode interesting is that it lays the groundwork for a lot of future possibilities. For example, the JSA seems to have all of the information on Kent, the Arrow, Sullivan, Aquaman, and a bunch of the younger generation of Superheroes. The writers could spend full seasons detailing the history of the old JSA as well as showing how the remaining members mentor the new generation. Plus, there’s that museum with all of the old Superheroes’ stuff in it – definitely a lot to talk about in that place. I was also intrigued at Tess Mercer’s involvement in this Checkmate group of villains that zeroed in on attacking the JSA as well as the information that Lex Luthor is still alive. There’s a lot of potential here and I hope that the folks at The CW realize that and urge the Smallville writers to explore the background of the JSA in future episodes.
The point of this entry was just to say that for a show in its ninth season, I think that Smallville still has “it” and I hope The CW supports the show and its writers. And if you can get your hands on the Absolute Justice episode, I would suggest giving it a try!
Posted in Book, DVD, Movie, & Media Reviews, Entertainment | No Comments »
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Normally, I wouldn’t post anything about this television show until after it was over and I could offer some type of congratulations to the overall winner. However, I was so happy to see Melissa removed from The Biggest Loser this week that I felt compelled to write something about it on the blog.
If you haven’t watched the show this season, Melissa spent most of her time trying to game the system and then acting like a martyr whenever Jillian and Bob called her out. No one bought any of her shit and it was obvious that she was lying through her teeth. Maybe she thinks that because she’s not so bright that the rest of the world isn’t so bright, but it was as clear as day that she was lying about the fact that she was putting game play above her health.
Anyway, on this week’s show Melissa gained a pound. One of the stipulations was that the person who lost the least percentage of weight this week would immediately go home. Clearly, Melissa lost this week and was sent home.
But before she left, this woman had the audacity to stand up there after she gains a pound (for the second time this season!) and act like she’s some type of inspirational story. Here’s my message to her:
Get over yourself, woman! No one gives a crap about you and your lying bullshit. I don’t know what type of snake oil you think you can sell to the rest of the nation, but it was blatantly obvious that you threw two weigh-ins and you squandered your chance at being this season’s winner. You’re an idiot.
And let this be a lesson to other people out there that might apply to be a contestant on The Biggest Loser – don’t waste your time trying to “play the game.” Instead, thank God that you have the opportunity to lose weight and attack each workout that you have with the trainers.
I was so glad that this woman was kicked off the show. She tried to play the game instead of focusing on her health and her lying, conniving ways came back to bite her in the ass. If there is any justice in this world she won’t win the “at home” competition either.
As for the rest of this season so far, I’ve been enjoying it. I think that the stories of the rest of the contestants are very compelling and I’m really interested in how Migdalia has managed to lose a bunch of weight now that her daughter is no longer on the campus. There’s a lot of emotional issues wrapped up between those two and I think that they need to get that worked out before they can really be healthy.
I liked how they spent the last week at the Olympic Training Facility – that was pretty cool. If I had to choose someone to pull for this season, I guess I would support either the orange, pink, or gray team. Not sure which one of them I like best yet, but they all seem to be really good people. So do the black and yellow teams. It’s still too early to choose who I want to win, I guess.
Posted in Entertainment, Idiots, Morons, & Fools | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Some of you may remember last year when I reviewed a good book called The Red Album of Asbury Park by Alex Austin. Well, for the entire month of February Mr. Austin is going to be interviewed by LibraryThing.com. Here is some additional information:
In its series on “Underappreciated Authors,” The Librarything group Le Salon Litteraire du Peuple pour le Peuple is currently doing a month-long interview (February 1- March 1)with me about my novel The Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed. If the intersection of fiction and music interests you, please drop by. The URL is http://www.librarything.com/topic/82398
I enjoyed The Red Album of Asbury Park and I suggest that you give it a read. At the very least, be sure to check out the interview at the link above.
Posted in Entertainment | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Normally, I write these blog entries a day or two in advance and then have them scheduled to automatically upload at a certain time of the day (usually around 11:30am). However, since there are a few random subjects that I’d like to hit on which don’t necessarily require a separate, standalone entry, I thought that I might create a quick, impromptu entry covering a bunch of random stuff.
To begin, at the beginning of January I began teaching for a well-known online/distance learning-based university. After doing this for about a month I have to admit that I’m not impressed. I thought the online teaching setting would give instructors a great deal of resources to utilize for their students to learn the course content – I was wrong. Or at least I was wrong with respect to the place where I’m teaching. I was handed a syllabus and told that I had to follow it. Then I was told that I had to utilize the online-based discussion forums and online submission tools in order to receive assignments. That wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t both filled with glitches that render their usage impossible. All in all, it makes the instructor (me) feel that I do not have much control over the class and its direction. That’s not a good feeling for an educator.
On top of it all, my pay rate (which is the least of my concerns with this arrangement) is a couple of hundred dollars per student enrolled in the course with an enrollment cap of 15. Not a bad pay rate really except that less than 5 students are enrolled in the course. Whoopie.
Two weeks ago, though, I began teaching a brand new course that I designed. This course is being taught at the local college and it has been good so far. I do have some concerns about the real-world preparedness level of the students in that at least half of the class chooses to not hand in assignments on time. I also have some concerns about the students comprehending the information that I give them in class. For example, one assignment asked students to identify a specific type of organization. We talked about these organizations for over an hour in class and two short reading assignments went in depth about the typical characteristics of these organizations. Again, more than half of the class chose groups that were not even remotely close to what the ones they were supposed to identify.
That’s somewhat troubling for the future workforce…
Hey – Lost is back on ABC tonight, huh? That’s pretty exciting. I’m looking forward to the final season of this show if only because I have to get it out of my mind! Does anyone think that all of the Lost fans out there will be completely satisfied with the “answers” that are given this season? I tend to think that the Lost writers have set themselves up for a catastrophic failure if they don’t answer every single question that is out there about the show. I guess that judgment should be reserved until after the season really gets into the swing of things. All I know is that a lot of people have invested a lot of time into watching that show and they better not blow it.
I will hopefully have some more encouraging news about my student loans coming up in the next few days. You can guess what that might be…
If you keep an eye on the market, then I’m sure that you’ve seen how Sirius XM is blowing up all over the place! For those of us that purchased this stock at a dime or two per share, we’re doing pretty good with our investment at this point. Last I checked, share prices were at 0.94. Not bad making 1000% return on an investment, huh?
And just think – if you listened to almost every big internet stock market website out there you would have sold this stock when it was down to a nickel per share. Talk about being shortsighted! That’s why I do my own research on the stocks that I purchase – the internet stock market sites have an agenda and I’m not interested in their garbage.
Oh, and I’ve been doing pretty well with Ford (which the internet stock market sites said I should have sold a year ago) and Barnes & Nobles (same story). The lesson learned here is to do your own research and trust your gut!
Eddie has been doing a fine job with running TBLWrestling.com. Hits are up an incredible percentage and I’m proud of his efforts. Good work, Eddie! I’ve been running TNAStars.com now for about a month and I’m pleased that it has already achieved some level of success. Both of these sites are hobby sites for Eddie and I and we only spend a few minutes each day putting up some updates. With such reduced involvement, I’m glad to know that the people out there like what we’re doing!
I guess that’s about it. See you tomorrow!
Posted in Entertainment, Random Entries | No Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Way back in December I came across an article on the New York Times website that talked about how one family broke free from the shackles of traditional cable service providers. It really is an interesting story so if you have a few minutes at the office or during the afternoon, you should click on that link and read the piece in its entirety. However, for a very brief summation of what the writer wound up with, here it is in his own words:
I disconnected everything, threw it to the side and canceled the cable months ago. Instead, now I have a Mac Mini, wireless mouse and a Microsoft Xbox hooked up to my television.
The article talks about how the guy had all of these gadgets – a DVD player, a special remote control, the AppleTV service (which was a major bomb), a gaming system, a cable box, etc. You know the drill because chances are that you have some or all of these peripherals (and more). Then the guy broke free of the confines that are put on us by our cable television services and he created his own entertainment center using other distribution formats.
For example, for movies this guy uses a streaming service from Netflix. For television shows he uses Hulu, Boxee, iTunes and Joost. I don’t know how he manages to watch certain cable programming (how does he get FOX News or CNN or HGTV, etc?), but the fact that this guy was able to disconnect from the cable company is impressive.
Think about that in terms of real dollars from your own wallet. My roommates and I spend about $130 each month on cable and internet plus I spend an additional $35 each month on the cable-fueled telephone. That’s $165 each month to the cable company – an absolutely unbelievable $1,980 per year! That’s ludicrous!
Now how much more do you spend on digital distribution services like Netflix or Blockbuster or cable on demand, etc? The costs begin to add up.
I think it’s great that the guy from this article was able to completely disconnect himself from this system. Somewhere in the article he suggests that he’s paying a total of $40 per month now for his internet and Netflix service. Over the course of a year that’s $480 or a savings of $1,500 each year. Each year!
That’s a lot of money! And it’s got me thinking about how I might be able to disconnect from the cable company once I purchase a home of my own one of these days…
Posted in Computers, Internet, & Technology, Entertainment, Money, Jobs, & Finances | No Comments »
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
Jay Leno has done some really, well, interesting things to secure his spot as the host of The Tonight Show. I think we’re all witnessing his strong arm tactics to force NBC into essentially firing Conan O’Brien (the future of late night television, by the way) so that he can resume the position of host of The Tonight Show. Frankly, Hollywood doesn’t like what Jay is doing and I hope that two things happen. First, I hope that Conan goes to FOX so he can go head-to-head with Jay. As time goes on and Jay’s viewers either get sick of his shtick or die off, I think that Conan will absolutely destroy Jay in the ratings. Second, I hope that Conan brings his show back to the New York area.
Anyway, in case you haven’t been watching the Jimmy Kimmel Show, Jimmy has been giving voice to the hate that Hollywood has for what Jay is doing to Conan. In fact, after spending an entire show imitating Leno, Jay invited Jimmy on his show for some stupid segment that he does called 10 at 10. Well, Jimmy took this opportunity to absolutely destroy Jay Leno like so many in Hollywood have wanted to do since this debacle started. Take a look below.
How great is that? Jay doesn’t even know how to respond!
Posted in Entertainment | No Comments »
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