TV

Pat Sajak and the world of conservative game show hosts…

Interesting, though brief, article by Daniel D’Addario for Salon.com regarding Pat Sajak, host of the still popular Wheel of Fortune, who recently made some rather …provocative… twitter posts regarding -of all things!- Global Warming and his apparent lack of concern regarding the same:

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/20/pat-sajaks-vicious-climate-change-denial-and-the-world-of-conservative-game-show-hosts/

I wasn’t too surprised to see Mr. Sajak’s comments, though they were so over the top I can’t help but wonder if he maybe regrets them now.  I was aware that he was a hard right conservative, though I don’t recall where I first read that.  I was a little more surprised to read that several other game show hosts are also very conservative in their ideology.

A strange coincidence?

Not according to Mr. D’Addario, who examines Mr. Sajak’s twitter posts and notes how several other popular (and not quite as popular) game show hosts also share a right leaning.

A number of years ago, probably going on twenty or more, The Wheel of Fortune was in town and somehow I obtained a pair of tickets to see the filming.  I was never, ever, a fan of the show but I was curious to see the process.  So, my wife to be and I headed out to the studio and, along with a large-ish crowd took our seats and watched the “magic”.

The “magic”, it turned out, was rather dull, if only because the crew really had the show, and all it involved with it, so completely nailed down.  In some ways, you couldn’t help but admire the cold efficiency of the routine.  Nonetheless, I missed the lack of any spontaneous reactions from anyone but the show’s winners.  Every word uttered by Pat Sajak appeared scripted, every smile and movement well rehearsed.  As much money as he is/was surely making off the show, I wondered if I could work on something that stripped me down to, basically, a marionette.

The staff, crew, and contestants filmed several episodes in a row, stopping in real time for “commercial breaks” -and using that time to relax or unwind- and at the “end” of the episodes everyone on the stage disappeared, only to reappear a few minutes later when filming was about to resume with a change of clothing obviously designed to give the appearance, when the shows were eventually aired, that an actual day had passed between episodes when it obviously hadn’t.

I don’t know how many episodes were filmed in a row as we were so bored with the proceedings that we left after the “second” episode was finished, but it would not surprise me in the least if at the end of that day and after perhaps not much more than three or four hours of taping they had a week’s worth of episodes.

Hollywood magic.

Gotta love it.

Music

In an ’80’s music kinda mood?

Check this link out, from Salon.com, featuring 80 great ’80’s “one-hit” wonders:

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/19/80-great-80s-one-hit-wonders-because-sometimes-only-safety-dance-and-tainted-love-will-do/

After seeing the list, I know what some of you may be thinking as it certainly entered my mind: Some of the mentioned bands/artists were hardly “one-hit” wonders.  While it is true some of them charted perhaps one “big” hit within the US, they may have had great success outside our country.  So, bear in mind this list is rather US-centric.

Having said that, its an interesting list and features some really good (and some I’d rather forget! 😉 )1980’s tunes.

Naturally, it makes me want to add a few of my own.

I won’t adhere to the “one-hit” wonder notion, rather mention bands/artists that to me were mostly about one really great song, even if they charted with others.

Let’s begin with Red Rider’s Lunatic Fringe.  The band had other songs that charted both in the US and outside and singer Tom Cochrane had a big solo hit with Life is a Highway, but this song, to me, was their best, most famous work:

Next up, Aldo Nova’s Fantasy.  Cheesy, cheesy, CHEESY video, but I always liked the song.  Once again, Aldo Nova had a few other songs that charted, but it is Fantasy that I remember him best for.

I lived in Canada briefly in the mid-1980’s and I really enjoyed Parachute Club’s Feet of the Moon.  Parachute Club’s success was almost entirely limited to their home country and they charted a little higher there with the song Rise Up, but to me, this was their most memorable song:

Golden Earring has been around forever (they first formed in 1961!!!!) and are best known in the US for the excellent 1973 mega-hit Radar Love, but nearly a decade later in 1982 they had a second memorably big US hit with the moody, thrilling Twilight Zone…

Man, I could go on, but the hour is getting late and I’ve got work to do.  Perhaps I’ll revisit this list and provide a few more (not quite) one-hit wonders of the 1980’s!

Books/Literature

Different strokes…

As the saying goes, not everyone loves the literary classics.  Some may downright hate them.

Here then is a list of 16 Hilarious Negative Amazon Reviews for Classic Books:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/15/amazon-reviews_n_4935607.html

The first entry is the one I found the most amusing, a review of William Shakespeare’s Othello, which I present below in its entirety:

Me doth not thinkift I understandifth this tale 
★ ★ 
Shakespeare was a real cool person for his time. Unfortunately, his plays are not a real cool thing to read for my time. It is English and I speak English. I just don’t happen to speak Old English. Which is really ironic because I am old and speaking English. If you read slowly and put your thinking cap on, you will get the gist of what the story is about. Or! You can just purchase Cliff notes, etc. This story is exciting and full of action………..I Think? 

“Which is ironic because I am old and speaking English”?!?!

If that had you laughing, then by all means check out the other 15 entries.  Guaranteed to at least give you a smile! 😉

TV

2014 cancelled TV shows…

…a handy-dandy list, complete with pictures!

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/12/showbiz/gallery/canceled-tv-shows/index.html

It’s a sad annual event for many, the death of TV shows.  Sad, of course, for the performers/creators/writers/directors, as their source of employment -and therefore livelihood- is lost, and sad for those who may have found something to like in one or more of the listed shows, and hoped for their continuation.

Of the later, alas, there were unfortunately too few.

Looking over this year’s list, there were very few shows I actively watched and plenty I saw one or two episodes (or less).  Trophy Wife intrigued me as I’ve always enjoyed actress Malin Ackerman, but what little I saw of the show didn’t do all that much for me.  Hostages and Crisis both looked intriguing, but it appears I’m still a little burnt out by 24 type shows (I’ve skipped the new mini-series) and wound up giving those shows a pass.  Surviving Jack, the one episode I saw of it, was hilarious and featured some truly memorable lines.  At one point in the episode I saw Chris Meloni, the star of the show, said something along the lines of “children are parasites that nature has conditioned us to love” and just I about fell on the floor laughing.  Having said that, it was somewhat difficult seeing Mr. Meloni in a comedic role.  Perhaps I’ve gotten too accustomed to seeing him in Law and Order.

There were two prominent sci-fi shows, Intelligence and Almost Human, that I watched and was not terribly surprised to see on the list of cancellations.  Intelligence began reasonably well, an updating, to my mind, of The Six Million Dollar Man, minus the superhuman strength.  The problem with the show was that it was so damn bland and never was all that gripping.  After seeing three or four episodes, I gave up on it.

Almost Human, on the other hand, was intriguing enough for me to watch every episode of its abbreviated run.  Having said that, the show had its share of problems.  Michael Ealy’s robotic Dorian was at times more annoying than interesting and as much as I’m a fan of Karl Urban (and I’m a REALLY big fan of his work), I felt his character on the show slipped into the cliched “grumpy old partner” mode a little too much for my taste.  Still, there was enough there to make this the one show I will if not miss, at least regret not seeing more of.

Finally, perhaps the one cancelled show that will have its fans the most upset is Community.  Unlike many of the other shows in the list, this one lasted five seasons.  I’ve watched several episodes of the show during its run and will be the first to admit it had some very, very clever writing…but despite that, Community never drew me in enough to follow on a regular basis.  Different strokes and all.

And so we wind up another TV season.  What gems (and misses) can we expect in the next?!

Stay tuned!

Music

Natalie Merchant

Growing up, the music of 10,000 Maniacs never appealed to me all that much.  I was aware of their songs, even liked several of them, but never enough to go out and buy their albums.   Nonetheless, in and around 1995 I somehow heard, and became intrigued, with Natalie Merchant, by then an ex-member of 10,000 Maniacs, and her solo debut album Tigerlily.  Specifically, I absolutely loved the song Carnival.

I’ve followed Ms. Merchant ever since, buying each solo album she’s released.  Incredibly, she just released a new album, the self-titled Natalie Mercant, which features her first new songs in 14 years (how time flies!), and I’m looking forward to buying it.  I then noted the following interview with her in Salon…

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/12/natalie-merchant-when-i-talk-to-friends-who-have-creative-lives-and-children-we-commiserate-about-all-the-time-we-wasted-in-our-youth/

…and after reading it, was surprised by some of the vitriol found in the comments section afterwards.

A couple of examples: “Get over yourself” and “What a self involved, pretentious mommie-whiner”

An admission:  More often than not I love reading comments to articles.  Whether news, gossip, opinion, the comments sections can often be as entertaining, if not more so, than the articles that inspired them.  And often the more vulgar the comments are, especially if the vulgarity is creative, the funnier I find them.

In this case, however, I found some of these negative posts rather…depressing.

I can completely understand someone not liking Natalie Merchant’s music.  I’ve often noted how big a fan of David Bowie’s music I am yet my kids barely tolerate his works (they’re especially bewildered of my love for The Smashing Pumpkins.  They feel Billy Corgan’s voice is the absolute worst voice in music ever!).

Still, my kids’ reaction is to the music, not the person behind it.

The interview with Ms. Merchant, I felt, was interesting and illuminating.  She is asked questions and offers her opinions, which –surprise!– is what interviews do.

Why the personally directed vitriol?

To be fair, this wasn’t everyone’s reaction.  Some people fell into fawning territory, which in some ways can be just as extreme.

Ah well, I suppose it is what it is.  If you enjoy Natalie Merchant’s music, give the interview a read.  It is, at least to me, interesting -and short!- enough to give it a whirl.

Movies

Spione (1928) a (ridiculously) belated review

One of my all time favorite films is the Fritz Lang directed, Thea Von Harbou written 1927 sci-fi film Metropolis.  This film was incredibly influential in so many ways, including serving as a visual inspiration to designs in Star Wars and Blade Runner.

Incredibly, director Lang and von Harbou would follow that very influential film with a film that is THE great-grand daddy of all spy films, Spione (aka Spies).  If you want to see what is essentially a James Bond film made over thirty years before the release of Dr. No, look no further, for Spione features such by now familiar spy tropes as…a dashing, handsome hero known by his number rather than name (in this case, 326 versus 007), a villainous head of a vast criminal enterprise confined to a wheelchair, seductive femme fatales -one of which falls for our hero!-, world peril, secret documents, hidden listening devices, disappearing ink, globe trotting (to a degree) adventure, an extended chase scene, and, of course, danger danger danger!

Having said that, those looking forward to a proto-James Bond film should also realize this is a very old film and there will be things about it modern audiences will no doubt have trouble understanding and/or appreciating.  The acting, for example, is at times quite overwrought.  This is not an uncommon element in silent films, as emotions had to be conveyed without actual dialogue.

The story itself features a McGuffin at the central of its plot, and this McGuffin, unfortunately, winds up being not as well thought out as it could have been.  Basically, the Japanese and the Germans are working on some kind of treaty and the movie’s villain wants to get his hands on the signed paper before it leaves Germany, thus provoking war…or something.  The movie gives the impression there is only one copy of this treaty heading out, and for a treaty the movie conveys as being so important, that seems rather absurd.  You would think multiple copies of this treaty would exist and the fellows signing it would keep in touch with their respective superiors via some other form of communication instead of relying on getting that one copy of the treaty to their homeland safely.

Still, if you can look past these elements and appreciate the film as the time capsule it is, you will have plenty to admire.  Again, the most astounding things present in this film are the James Bondian elements.  One comes away from this wondering just how familiar author and creator of James Bond Ian Fleming and the makers of the Bond films were with Spione.

But they weren’t the only ones!

Remember this scene, from Blade Runner?

Starting from roughly the 1:38 mark, where Sebastian “finds” Pris, this scene is strikingly similar to one in Spione, where during a rainstorm the sympathetic Japanese agent Masimoto (who is in charge of the treaty our villain wants to get his hands on) “finds” a soaking woman at a doorway who he feels sympathy for and, like Sebastian, takes in…only to be betrayed by her later on.

So, if you’re in the mood for a prototypical James Bond film, give Spione a whirl.  While parts of it may be dated and the story may be a little absurd, you will nonetheless be astonished by how many elements of this film found their way to modern spy features.

Highly recommended.

General

Phineas Gage…

Linked below is an absolutely fascinating article by Sam Kean for Slate magazine regarding Phineas Gage, easily neuroscience’s “most famous” patient.  Even those with a passing knowledge of issues regarding brain trauma have likely at least heard of Mr. Gage.  Back in 1848, Mr. Gage had an injury which was as gruesome as it was bizarre, involving an iron rod blasted by gunpowder and hurled through his jaw and out the top of his head.

This injury was only the first part of Mr. Gage’s tale.  What followed were stories of a changed man, one who was significantly different versus the man he was before the accident.  A man who went from being “normal” to, following his traumatic brain injury, disheveled, foul mouthed, “animalistic”…

But was he?  As with many things, has myth supplanted reality?

The article below offers a fascinating look at just how much is real and how much is myth regarding Mr. Gage post-accident life, and if you’re not familiar with Mr. Gage’s story, you will find it an incredible read:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health-and-science/science/2014/05/phineas-gage-neuroscience-case-true-story-of-famous-frontal-lobe-patient.html

Count me in on one of those who bought into the myth.  Sometimes I can’t help but wonder why we engage in mythical storytelling when reality is sometimes even more fascinating.  The idea that Mr. Gage could return to a somewhat normal life following this incredible brain trauma is even more interesting than the “animalistic” changed life he supposedly had.

Fascinating, fascinating stuff.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, the 5/6/14 update

Corrosive MACN & Coming Soon

A little over a month ago, on 4/3, I gave my latest update on my latest Corrosive Knights book. At the time, I was done with the book’s sixth draft and felt there was a little more work to be done, particularly in the book’s climax (you can read the brief post here).

Well, as of today I’m done with the seventh draft of the book and plan to jump right into draft #8 tomorrow.

I feel this will be the final draft.

The problems I found in the book’s climax were for the most part dealt with, while the relatively minor grammatical problems in the first 3/4ths of the book were also resolved.

The seventh draft’s final count?  97,871 words, 193 pages at 10 point, single spaced.

In the last post, I guesstimated another two months before the book was done.  While I may not hit the exact deadline, my opinion hasn’t changed all that much: A little over a month has passed since that prediction and I feel there’s about another month of work left before the book is ready to be released.

Hopefully, the next update will include not only include the novel’s title, but the cover art as well.

Won’t be long now! 😉

Movies

Agency (1980) a (ridiculously) belated review

So I was wandering around Costco the other day and, in looking over the depressingly smaller and smaller DVD/BluRay section, I find this…

100 “Awesomely” Cheesy Movies?  I turn the box around and take a closer look at its contents.  I’m somewhat leery -yet fascinated by- these mega movie collections.  True, the quality of the films presented tend to be…less…both in terms of the movie’s actual transfer and, for the most part, the movies themselves.

Still, I give those contents a look and, at $15.99 for the collection, figured even if I did buy it without recognizing any of the films, I was bound to find something interesting.  As it turned out, I recognized several of the films in this grouping, which included for the most part forgotten films from the 1970’s and 80’s.

Foremost on the list was Agency, a 1980 film featuring one of my favorite actors of all time (and in the “bad guy” role, natch!), Robert Mitchum.  Even more curious, the film starred the Six Million Dollar Man himself, Lee Majors!  (A bit of trivia: Lee Majors and Robert Mitchum would appear in the 1988 Bill Murray film Scrooged, though they did not share any screen time together.  Lee Major’s cameo appearance is a hoot and I present it below, though the sound quality of the clip is quite bad).

I bought the collection, headed home, put the disc featuring Agency into my DVD player and…nothing.  The screen was a blank.  I ejected the DVD and tried again.  Same result.  A third time.  Nothing.

I tried another, different disc from the collection, worried that perhaps the entire collection was unplayable on my DVD system.  It played fine.  And by fine I mean the movie(s) played.  The images were grainy as hell and the sound was borderline abysmal, but I’ve endured worse.

Anyway, I took the Agency DVD to another player in another part of my house and gave it a try there.  For whatever reason, it worked there.

Whew.

Considering I bought this set mainly to see this one film, it would have been a shame that this one particular disc would prove defective!

Anyway, the film starts and, yes, the images remain consistent with what I saw on the other disk, that is to say pretty poor and the sound isn’t all that great.  Yet it was good enough to watch the film, even if it appears that at least in the first half a censor erased the swear words.  Curiously, in the later half of the film we hear Mr. Majors utter a few choice PG lines…perhaps the censor fell asleep after the first half of the film!?

Agency is a curious bird of a film, a thriller whose makers appeared squeamish about giving us too many thrills and a plot that, let’s face it, anyone in the audience would have figured out far ahead of the protagonist.

Lee Majors is Philip Morgan, a creative director at an advertising agency.  He has a girlfriend, Brenda Wilcox (played by the lovely Valerie Perrine, who for the most part is wasted in her role) and a neurotic co-worker and Jewish friend named Sam Goldstein (Saul Rubinek in one of his very early roles…weird to see him so young when you’re accustomed to seeing him in Warehouse 13!).

A new boss, Ted Quinn (Robert Mitchum, natch) has bought out the agency and strange things are afoot.  Goldstein tells his friend Morgan that many employees, many more than should, are quitting the agency.  This doesn’t bother Morgan as much as being told by Goldstein that Quinn has started a “secret” project without informing him.  Given that Morgan is the head of the creative division of this agency, it is understandable he feels like he’s being eased out of his job.

After meeting with Quinn, however, the new owner allays Morgan’s fears by being seemingly very upfront and telling him the only reason Morgan wasn’t given a head’s up is because the project just came into the agency and the company behind them wants to keep it hush-hush.  Morgan is gracefully allowed to oversee this no longer secret -to him anyway- project and all appears well…

…until Morgan is asked to take an overnight trip with Quinn for another company and Goldstein tries to dissuade him from going, telling him he’s “figured it out”.

I know, I know.  Scintillating stuff, right?

When Morgan returns from his trip, he can’t reach him friend and, after breaking into his apartment, finds Goldstein dead in the refrigerator.  It was at this point one would have thought the tension would increase.

One would be wrong.

As I mentioned before, the makers of the film seemed to be squeamish with the whole “tension” idea and when Morgan is subsequently in grave mortal danger viewers are given reason to think things aren’t quite as dangerous as they appear.  For instance, the two thugs meant to either kill him or his girl wind up appearing clownish at times.  Further, Lee Majors has a curiously mellow way of dealing with the danger presented, often lighten tension with farcical statements.  So, instead of ratcheting up the suspense as the movie hurls to its climax ala, say, The Parallax View or Seven Days in May or All The President’s Men (political thrillers all), the film’s climax gets watered down considerably.  Worse, Robert Mitchum, the main reason I wanted to see the film, is given very little in the end to do here.  His big reveal is interesting (if obvious) yet he never comes across as the heavy I expected, at least compared to his wonderful dark turn in the original 1962 version of Cape Fear.

In the end, I can’t recommend Agency to anyone other than a person like me, one who enjoys seeing obscure Robert Mitchum or Lee Majors films.  There is a reason, after all, this film is as obscure as it is…

If you remain curious to see the film, here it is in its entirety, courtesy of YouTube.  The copy presented there looks suspiciously like the one I saw!

General

Self-driving cars…

…are they something we can expect to see in our near future?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/04/28/google-self-driving-car-safety-first-with-city-streets-bicyclists-pedestrians.html

Based on the above article and others I’ve read, the answer would seem to be a resounding “yes”.

I know there are those who enjoy driving and loathe the idea of giving up on doing so, but the reality is that there are probably even more people out there who would love to allow their cars to drive them to and from work each day and give them that time to read the paper or check their emails or make themselves up, etc. etc. and not have to burn a half-hour plus (and in some cases many more pluses) in the act of actually driving through rush hour gridlock.

And because we’re dealing with a computer driver, if many -if not most- vehicles on the highway wind up being self-driving cars, then I suspect that rush hour traffic will become lessened.  No rubbernecking, fewer crashes.

While one can certainly envision perils (bad software, a defective scanner, etc) how is this not a good thing?

One day soon…

The Blog of E. R. Torre