Six Feet Under : NATE'S DEAD

Nathaniel Samuel Fisher, Jr.
1965-2005

But first on "Ecotone" we have a guy on a valley trail getting mauled to death by a cougar.
After Nate collapsed he is whisked away in an ambulance to the hospital Maggie calls David first and ask him to call Brenda which he does.
Claire has dinner with her co-worker and finds out he rightfully supports the war in Iraq she starts freaking out calling him a Redneck Blogger Pig, then interrupted by the David's phone call both of them get to the hospital.
While at the hospital the doctors confuse Maggie with Mrs. Fisher. We learn that Nate has gotten a new AVM(ateriovenous malformations) and must be operated on.
Ruth doesn't do Hiram and walks out, he gets upset and suggest next time to be a sport and rub one out for fun. She leaves and imagines shooting all her ex-lovers on the trail. She meets some Asians and breaks their calm but on the bus ride home they give her some love advice.
After successful surgery Nate dumps Brenda.
David and Keith's younger kid acts-up in the hospital and David finds out it's because he has bad memories of his mom going in and out for drug overdoses.
Rico and Vanessa air out more feelings on their road to healing.
Nate's roommate is Chuck an elderly Buddhist is cool and turns up the TV while David and Nate relax, seeing the bird images on TV Nate dreams of an alternate-beach-bum David and going to the beach. While running into the ocean Nate joins his father forever. Back in the waking world David sees Nate flatline and we see...

Nathaniel Samuel Fisher, Jr.
1965-2005

During next weeks preview we see everyone preparing for the funeral and Brenda not sure what Nate wanted for his funeral. TiVo has next weeks episode listed as Nate challenges Brenda. but seeing how they often talk to the dead on this show it means little.
Great episode but I was hoping Ruth would get mauled by a cougar.

TV Guide: July 31-Aug 6

Don't be fooled although it doesn't say collectors issue there are two covers for this week's TV Guide. The one I have has Ultimate Guide Law & Order on it with Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay on the cover. I believe the other has Danica Patrick on it and says Danica Manica. For Danica fans there is a 3-page article about her and the Firestone Indy 400. For Law & Order fans there is a 7-page article including A-Z facts and a quiz.
Meloni and Hargitay both agree an on screen hook up is a bad idea. Off-screen however the have been on vacation together with their husbands and wives, they also joke of doing it twice just to get over the tension. They admit healthy competition between the other Law & Orders even though SVU(Special Victims Unit) is number one in the ratings. They're bound to do two more years and Hargitay thinks she is destined for comedy. When asked if they'd hook up in the last episode Meloni says no and Hargitay says she wants at least one make out scene before it's over.
Some L&O(Law & Order) facts...

1. All the shows combined sans commercials are 432.75 hours long.
2. Guardian ad litem is the chile rep. for those court scenes.
3. "Jorge, Sunday in the Park With" the only L&O episodes never to be re-aired on NBC. Because the Puerto Rican community would be offended, hmmm NBC, shade of Seinfeld.
4. "Life Choice" an episode involving abortions and bombing wasn't re-aired until 11 years later and cost NBC $800,000 in ads.
5. John Munch played by Richard Belzer was on 3 different networks playing the same character, this show X-files and The Beat on UPN.
6. Matt Damon played a off-screen voice in L&O CI(Criminal Intent).
7. L&O will beat Gunsmoke as the longest running drama in 2010.
8. Steve Zirnkilton the voice over in the beginning of SVU and CI.
9. More fun facts in this issue.
   

Good things to read inside:

• People still complaining about Kelly Monaco's win.
• Ashley Judd visits Africa for AIDS and VH1.
• Chappelle Show is done according to Charlie Murphy who is holding out for the DVD.
• LL Cool J will be dying on House.
• A tour of the Lost locales.
• They Jeered Big Brother 6, rightfully so.
• They renewed The Closer.
• Gary Cole on Wanted on TNT.
• J. Simpson in Dukes of Hazzard and the Stars and Bars debate.
  

Don't worry Clay Aiken fans I don't see any TV Guide Gay Aiken references this issue.

Sci-Fi Friday: July 29

Stargate SG-1:
The conclusion to last week's conclusion has Dr. Jackson and Vala confronting the Ancients weird uncles the Ori. The Ori are ascended Ancients who believe that they must share the secrets of the universe and total obedience. Before being burned alive again Vala and Jackson get disconnected to the their borrowed bodies and the real inhabitants are burned instead.
We meet Louis Gossett Jr. as Gerak an hard nosed leader of the Jaffa who wants non-human help for his people.
O'Neill makes an appearence in the final mintue to lift up Mitchell's spirit.

Stargate Atlantis:
After going on a greenhouse planet the team discovers a dead Wraith. This leads to them hunting two runners, one is good ole Ford and the other a new guy named Tyr Anasazi Donnon Rex. Ford now has a personality, we see it when him and cowardly McKay walk around in search of other team members who were kidnapped by Rex.
Rex is a "runner" who is being hunted by the Wraith. He has a tracker in his back and they convince the doc to take it out in cold blood.
After a little nuttiness from Ford he gets in a fight with Dex it was a draw. Lt. Col. Sheppard shot Ford but that did nothing and he jumped into the Wraith's version of a transporter beam and was gone.

Battlestar Galactica:
Dr. Baltar overcomes his cowardness to be a hero in those episode after saving a soldier from another and taking charge after all his soldiers are put in a bad position.
Madam President is still in lock up and slightly mad but still spins the media enough to become a self-proclaimed prophet.

Firefly:
The naked chick is Simon's sister who is government property and altered in an unknown way.(If you've seen the movie trailer a hint of what she really is was given. Meanwhile they all are frozen in fear when a Reaver ship shows up, Reavers are cannibal nomadic humans from space.

Brat Camp: Faked

Not fixed like Kelly Monaco's win on Dancing With Stars but not true to the timeline.
This episode of ABC's Brat Camp starts off on day 21, 17 days until Christmas. They are doing their ritual of the morning they gather the camping equipment and fold it up neatly within 5-minutes. The brats had yet to succeed until today they finished with 30 seconds to spare.
Soon their happiness ended as cold rain started making the snow on the ground wet, heavy and muddy. Lexie, the only person with any real problems, is wallowing in the mud and the fake-Indian staff tries to motivate her. During her one-on-one with the shrink she admits she doesn't believe she's worthy of praise or love, after being molested by a family friend.
While all this was happening Nick 14, Seattle,WA had a small spot on his face like always.
Now they are all blindfolded and led to Smith Rock a beautiful cliff over looking a river valley. They are told they are going to repel down the side of the mini-cliff but will not be forced to do so. Jada, the best, quickly volunteers to go repel first and after 1,000 "Oh my God" she safely makes it to the bottom. Lauren is next and so on until little Derek. Derek had nervous energy at the top pacing back and forth, but when he is strapped in the harness the boy freezes admitting he's scared. Although the staff tried everything short of forcing him, which they would of if it wasn't for the cameras, Derek quits. Lexie is up and freaks out she crys for a while and gets down the cliff crying all the way, showing some courage since she fears everything.
While all this was happening Nick 14, Seattle,WA had a huge red and crusty spot on his face that seemed to be partially covered in ointment.
Lauren 17, Davis,CA is breaking down because December is the time of year her father died when she was 11 years old. Her father was buried on Christmas Eve andshe is constantly here his voice in her head as she asks god why. This is the reason she claims to to drugs to get the voices out of her head.
Next it is day 25 and the brats must learn primitive fire using a bow and wooden drill to light dry brush. Isaiah 17, Winton,CA and the white-jock-fake-Indian that calls himself "Fire Shaper" are getting on each others nerve. Isaiah is a fire bug and as one likes to burn things so he's put in charge of the fire. They all learn the techniques of bow-rilling and the first to make fire....Isaiah.
The rest follow suit except for Nick.
While all this was happening Nick 14, Seattle,WA had a small spot on his face that seemed to be slightly dirty.
Nick is dyslexic but more than that he's also stupid not knowing how to multiply 5 and 3 to get 15. Since he's dyslexic and with a weak mother he has not been forced to learn, making him dumber than your average dyslexic. He also pulled a knife on his nerdy twin brother. Jada on the other hand finds him cute and loves his pinchable cheeks and also finds him stupid. After everyone laughs at his stupidity the staff encourages him not to give up on making fire. While the first sparks of Nicks fire start you notice a bright red injury to his cheek.
The next the campers do is receive beads of honor for what they accomplished, Lexie got one for conquering her fear of heights and Nick got one for not giving up. More bead s may be given in future episodes.

Now Nick's cheek coloring must of happened during the middle of the fire making because when they stared he did not have and when they finished during the beading he also didn't have it. It could have been dirt or an injury but it is clear that it jumped around every commercial break meaning the timeline wasn't kept. Now that I noticed it I look for it throughout future episodes.

I'm Tivo Late

Thanks to TiVo I just watched The 4400 and The Dead Zone if it wasn't for TiVo I'd have to suffer through these shows at 100 degrees, 100 percent humidity and their thin plots.
The 4400:
Sherilyn Fenn played a returnee from October 1999 with the ability to grow killer spores from her hands when she is stressed. She is also mentally unstable. Everyone around her dies including birds. When confronted by Agent Tom and Diane she starts to spore-out and while Tom is trying to calm her down Diane shoots her dead.
Maia feeling used by her new aunt sets her up on a sports bet. Her new aunt bets a family ring and realizes she crushed Maia's spirit when yelling at her.
Kyle remembers everything about his blackouts and shooting Collier, meanwhile the Agency is closing in on the shooter.
The official website says that Lily was introducing daughters to each other carefully and slowly but I don't recall any of this I guess they're pushing it back.

The Dead Zone:
The funniest part was the first scene where Johnny Smith enters a bar walking arm in arm with Sarah Bannerman's as her husband Walt is behind them watching.
This copy of Eddie and the Cruisers has Sarah forcing Johnny to help find Darren Foldes, a young rocker, find his dead dad. Foldes is played by Ben Foster who made a return on Six Feet Under on the same night. Even his one of the not-so-dead-dad's most famous song is called Six Feet Under. Smith as usual makes everything alright by reuniting the lost family.

I don't like all the fact that the 4400 is becoming a freak of the week show. Almost half of the "featured" 4400's have died and they even mentioned some not featured have died. Why would people from the future put people back in time if they're going to die within the first year. Not to mention that the past can't be changed, but that's just the engineer in me making sense of TV.

On The Dead Zone they have dropped the secret society and doomsday storyline, most likely only until the season finale episodes. It's kinda of boring when they do regular episodes.

Six Feet Under

"Singing For Our Lives" was the name of this season defining episode of Six Feet Under. All of the characters get to a calm and happy stage of their lives, except for Nate. A planned expansion of Fishers and Diaz gets stalled because of three opposing opinions. Nate wants eco-friendly green funerals, David wants a crematorium and Rico wants another Spanish speaker.
After sneaking into their foster brats school play last week the older brat pulls a knife on Keith he removes all sharp objects and becomes more patient and understanding. Keith learns that the reason the older kid is acting up is because he is sure that the home is only temporary. During a plastic knife dinner everyone is calm and growing close.
While Rico talks to dead people the dead Mexican tells him to drop hie Puerto Rican wife and get a Mexican because the very subservient and easily controlled not strong like Real Hispanics. Rico goes back home to confront Vanessa and she finally breaks down and say she loves him but may never get over the affair. So they laugh and go out for dinner.
Ruth finds Hiram(Ed Begley Jr.) after a four year absence and they get it on.
Claire takes office guy to an art exhibit and meets everyone from her past and feels fine after seeing how no one has grown and her ex Russell(Ben Foster) is still a psycho who goes nuts in the gallery.
Nate, Nate, Nate he forces Brenda to go to the Quaker church and leaves her high and dry while he sleeps with Maggie, George's daughter, very religious of her. After the deed he has an attack and faints. No next week episode preview and all TiVo says is "Nate brings the family together", kind of cryptic.
HBO, the writers or whomever all have really started to pull it the show together.

Into The West: Ep 6

Back to non-Clay TV. This was the final episode of Into The West a six-part twelve hour mini-series from executive producer Steven Spielberg. It tells of an epic journey of to familes over nearly a century. The Wheelers a kind family of european decent and a band of Lakota tribes people.
In this episode we start in 1889 the reservations given to the Indians is being split up and settled by whites. Clara is still teaching at an Indian school outside of the reservation. Abe Wheeler who played a big part in the last two episodes is not seen or heard of, I thought he may have died during Custer's Last Stand along with his brother but what really happened to him is unknown. But during Jacob Jr.'s funeral he may have made peace with his family.
When Jacob Wheeler arrives at Clara and Robert Wheelers home he tells them that there are Wheelers scattered all over the west. He only seems concerned about finding his daughter Margaret Light Shines.
George/Voices That Carry is grown up and finds his brother who spent time playing an Indian in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.
A Piaute called Wovoka/Jack Wilson spreads the word of the Ghost Dance, a spiritual dance that will lead to the end of white rule and unite all Native tribes.
Margaret Light Shines eventually finds her parents and gets a camera by trading a "Ghost Shirt" to a reporter. She starts taking pictures of the reservation through her eyes.
White officials panic and order up 1,000 troops to contain the ghost dancers. After some small conflicts with the troops that lead do the death of Sitting Bull many of the Indians hide out in the Badlands. After some time a truce is declared with the troops and they are escorted to Wounded Knee. While turning over their guns an argument between the Indians and the overzealous troops lead to a complete massacre of the Indians at Wounded Knee. There was no need for troops to kill women and children yet they did. The reporter who saw this started crying while viewing the corpses left on the fields. Margaret Light Shines uses her camera to take pictures of the horror and mass graves. During the burials Loved By The Buffalo is taking lockets of hair while a white guy is selling the bodies for two dollars apiece.
Years later we see Clara newly pregnant and Jacob Wheeler telling the story of the two families to the next generation, at the same time Loved By The Buffalo is doing the same to his people.
Fade to black.
A DVD will be available on October 4, 2005 and the book of the same name authored by Max McCoy is available through the Peguin Group, probably many other places too.

TV Guide: July 24-30

Another "collector's covers" which this time no one really wants luckily it's only 2 different covers. It features Clay Aiken with the title Clay Opens Up, an obvious pun on his alleged homosexuality. The accompanying four-page article is full of innuendo. At one point his mother is quoted saying that she just leaves her son alone and reminds him that she did get married until her thirties. Even the graphics of his name C-L-A-Y seem to spell out G-A-Y, not there's anything wrong with that. Aiken also talks about his fear of crowds, open spaces and fans, called "Claymates". His album got pushed back to next year and he dislikes L.A., well at least he has one redeeming quality he hates L.A..


Update 1: To the guys and gals at http://www.clayversity.org/forums/
I 'm glad you love Clay Aiken but it is not outrageous to ask why TV Guide, who obsessed with Hollywood stars and the people their dating, avoided asking if Aiken was with anyone and whether that person he wants to spend his life with is a man or woman.
If I'm wrong or glanced over something feel free to comment and I will correct if it is warranted.
For you fans TV Guide is having a sweepstakes to meet Clay Aiken in NJ, I've entered other TV Guide Contest and never won but they are legit, good luck...
http://online.tvguide.com/sweepstakes/clay/

Update 2:My warped opinion aside 43dudleyvillas at http://www.clayversity.org/forums/ made my point that TV Guide wrote and phrased the article in such a way to confuse his sexuality I'm fine with him anyway, it's just the slanted article was funny. And yes I love to backpedal.
Update 3:Here's what my skewed vision saw...

Good things to read inside:

• A couple of nice write-ups about The Closer, I have yet to watch it.
• James Cameron is still obsessed with Titanic.
• TLC not replacing Lisa but looking to fill a gap.
• A fashion tribute to Katie Holmes.
• Will Estes follow-up.
• The 12 Wildest Celebrity Meltdowns Ever!
• Summer recipes guide 8-pages.
• Michelle Trachtenberg in a Lifetime movie.
• They might cancel Guiding Light after 53 years.
• Shiri Appleby in Pizza My Heart a Romeo & Juliet spin.
• And puppy plates.

Breaking News: Out of TVGuide.com James Marsters Spike on Angel and Buffy will play Brainiac/Milton Fine on six episodes of Smallville.

Sci-Fi Friday: July 22

Stargate SG-1:
In the conclusion to last week's Indiana Jones caper Teal'C and Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell are about to get squished if the don't solve a child's puzzle and Vala still connected with Dr. Daniel Jackson has to solve an equally easy puzzle. No surprise they solve the puzzles and get Mitchell gets the sword out of the stone and has to do a military commercial.He battles a virtual knight and defeats him. After everyone else leaves and a stolen coin is returned a huge treasure is revealed lots of gold and jewelery, that Vala can't have, and one Ancient device.
Teal'C returns to his Jaffa friends and finds out that he lost the election to head his people.
Back at Stargate Command Dr. Jackson and Vala use stones from a previous episode to turn the device on and are mental transported to a rural village somewhere. They learn this place may be another Ancient legacy planet. Trying to fit in falied for Vala and she gets burned alive for heresy, but out of nowhere a pale man waves his staff and brings her charred corpse back to life. They walk away with him shaken and to be continued next week.
Lexa Doig(wife of Michael Shanks) makes her first appearance this season as a doctor with a history involving Gen. Hank Landry(Beau Bridges)....ew creepy.

Stargate Atlantis:
Some of the senior crew is returning from Earth in a 18 day trip on the Daedalus. Suddenly a deadly accident with a crew member results in an investigation. While investigating another guy gets sucked into the vacuum of space. They soon find out that the ship has been infected with a Wraith computer virus. The virus wants to bring the ship to the enemy and is intelligent enough to kill everyone on board. Two attempts to shut the ship fails to purge the virus because the virus is hiding on a fighter ship left outside. Of course they stop the virus by blowing up the wayward fighter.
Throughout the episode we get flashbacks of their time on Earth and see Dr. Weir getting dumped.

Battlestar Galactica:
Not as strong as last week which was action packed. The two Galactica crews stranded on two different planets have some down time.
Starbuck finds her apartment and winds down with that guy Helo. We learn she is an artist, poor and her fathers plays piano.
Dr. Baltar is having dreams of Adama drowning babies and another crew member has to put to sleep.
On the ship itself the Cylon boarding party has to make their way to a specific location on the ship and start killing everyone between them. The ship is also infected with a virus and it's all dark and scary. Eventually the Cylons are blown apart and no main character dies. Kind of a weak episode I fell asleep through the middle.

Firefly:
It's on now one hour before Stargate SG-1 part 1 of the pilot episode was shown setting up the characters and the secret cargo, a hot naked girl.

Brat Camp: part 3

Another two episode airing of ABC channels primetime version of Brat Camp the first was a repeat of last week. The second hour long episode was new. While not as tense as last week when they were rounded up it was still interesting.
At the beginning we see that the kids are planning escape routes. Jada finds that a prohibited hill leads to a highway with cars that pass regularly, these dumb kids should know you can't get lost in America. After sharing this news with her camp mates they all tell of hearing cars. The stupidly named counselors get together to prevent an escape they agree never to leave any of the brats alone, especially Frank.
Isaiah, 17, Winton,CA was the center for this episode he is a wannabe-tough-guy-punk, he claims to get into fight with "jocks" but most likely he is getting beaten up. His mom is raising him alone after getting divorced and like other weak parents is scared of him. He's also a fire bug and next week they get to play with fire.
Lauren, 17, Davis,CA gets a flirty with Isaiah because her daddy died and she is drawn to bad boys. The fake-Indian counselors quickly separate them and emphasize there will be no hooking up while in camp.
They still are forced to wake up with a strict regimen and today the went to a several mile hike up mountain. During the hike Derek the falsely diagonsed hyperactive kid kept falling. Then a snowstorm hit and my girl Jada called it a blizzard and claimed they all were going to die. Derek still falling as fast as the temperature was helped by Frank. Frank the psycho said he helped out the little kid because as a gang member that's what they did for him, "You help out the little ones because thats what gangs do" said Frank. Hmmm, last gang I saw in New York killed a kid for an iPod that wasn't even his.
Two of the camp staff were replaced by two new ones a guy named Fire bird and a woman named Glitter Bunny, I may be wrong about the names don't quote me. The annoying fake spirit names is really getting on my nerves.
The kids did make it to camp and the storm was no big deal. They did send letters to their parents all of them whined and complained, some even said they were sorry, but Jada's was the best saying that "my hair is falling out, the feed us until we throw up and I can't write anymore because my hand is broken." God she is great. The parents get a more accurate report from the camp staff each week by phone.

Sci-Fi Sunday?

The USA network has proven it can compete with the Sci-Fi channel on nerd domination for the night. Sunday night is one of the few nights in summer that is crammed full of same-time-shows. I watch Six Feet Under, Family Guy and The 4400 all at 9p.m., then The Dead Zone.

The 4400:
A departure from their standard three plot episode. This episode focused solely on Agent Thomas "Tom" Baldwin of the new federal division agency of Homeland Security called NTAC (National Threat Assessment Command) it's purpose is to keep track of The 4400.

Agent Baldwin wake's up to a happy son and a hug, feeling on top of world he goes to work and receives greetings as if he just came back from a long absence. While talking about The 4400 to his partner Diana she calls him crazy and wonders what he was talking about. After coming home to a surprise party he also finds a surprise new wife. He can't convince anyone that this world is not real even though he sees flashes of a black door and doctors behind them experimenting.
He learns that he's not alone in his delusion his wife Alana also remembers the other world and tries to help him. A month passes and he has found no proof of the old world and grows closer to Alana. His family and friends are doing great and Collier isn't dead(although he's not seen) instead he's governor, Maia is a grandmother, Richard died in WWII and creepy baby Isabelle doesn't exist.
8 years pass and he has accepted his new life and fell in love with his wife. Suddenly he sees the black door again and this time goes through. The other side has his wife on the medical table explain what is going on. The lab is where the future people brought the 4400 to alter them including Alana, she has the power to create alternate realities without her will. She was purposely given this power to fall in love with Tom Baldwin and ground him. She gave him "Something to live for in the trials that you will soon face" is what the future people told him.
Yes, this is just like the Star Trek episode where Picard mentally lived a lifetime on a dying planet and got a free flute.
He tells his ignorant wife of what happened and she wishes away a chair into the corn field. Eventually they tell their fake family that they are going on vacation as she erases their reality. When Tom gets back to the real world he has not even been gone one second. He sees Alana and she remembers everything too and they walk off together into the sunset.

The whole storyline further proved my point that the entire family was chosen for a reason not just the young ones. Shawn is one of them, Tom is one of us and Kyle is something else.

The Dead Zone:
Also slightly different format this episode is narrated like a fairy tale. An autistic boy travels to Johnny Smiths house to save his father. The boys father is a cop convicted of drug theiving and murder and was sentenced to death. When Johnny searches the boys memories he sees the night of the murder and some M&M commercials. It finally gets proven that a bunch of bad cops set him up including one guy named Boris CUJO, c'mon people more subtle Stephen King references. The father is freed from prison and gets a little hand touching action from his son.
This episode is better then last week's and even better then I make it sound.

Sidenote:Those great USA commercials continue with some from Monk I haven't seen before.

Six Feet Under

"The Silence", Nate is continuing to be cold towards Brenda while at the same time growing closer to Maggie, George's daughter. After Brenda gets a scare that her unborn child mat have Down Syndrome or another genetic disease Nate wants her to get a second test and flush it. " You don't think I wanted to abort you & Billy" was Brenda's mother response to Nate's feelings. Eventually Nate and Brenda continued fighting while Maggie got in the middle becoming closer to Nate.
David and Keith became closer to their two foster kids.
Claire found someone interesting to keep her occupied at work, it's a scuzzy guy.
Ruth is finally getting what she deserves. After trying to keep busy by going to cultural events she gets invited to a party. She brings over some potato salad even after being told not to, and makes a fool of herself. It was a classy party and Ruth was out place, after telling her one friend to leave her alone she flushes the salad down the toilet and leaves. George calls Ruth and tells her he's getting remarried.
Another Dead Like Me connection, after last week's clone storyline for Claire, this time Cynthia Stevenson played George's fiancee. Ruth barged in her office and told her about ever crazy thing George did bringing the fiancee to tears. "Do I look like a crazy person?" Ruth asked "A little" replied the fiancee. Ruth said she did this to save another woman from her pain but George just thought she was being petty and jealous.
Vanessa and Rico are like two cold fish.

Sci-Fi Friday

Stargate SG-1:
It started with Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell, played by former Farscape star Ben Browder, having flashbacks about his big air fire-fight over Antarctica during the end of season 7. He was badly injured and lost many friends that day. Now that he is fully recovered, physically at least, he is reassigned to SG-1. He get all fanboy crazy when he gets their but is fantasy is dashed as he learns everyone has left to do other things. Gen. Jack O'Neill retired, Lt. Col. Samantha Carter was reassigned to Area 51, Dr. Daniel Jackson left for some other dumb reason and Teal'C is off world commanding the Jaffa.
All of the characters make an appearance in this episode although Carter only appears in flashbacks.
Another new character is the new head of Stargate Command Gen. Hank Landry, played by Beau Bridges. Bridges seems uncomfortable in the role he was good in Into The West recently but he is awkward in this role. Browder gets some quotes in that are straight out of Farscape yet he is very comfortable in his role.
He gets more comfortable after the plot of the episode is revealed. The plot is that Vala a former Goa'uld host and current sexpot, she did Dr. Jackson is the running joke, comes to talk about a treasure buried on Earth. To convince Jackson to hunt with her she slap on ancient handcuff bracelets to herself and Jackson the will kill them if they separate. Teal'c rejoins them as they search for the treasure. The hunt leads them to Merlin of King Arthur fame who maybe an Ancient and the team gets trapped in an Indiana Jones type puzzle room complete with resizable ceilings. We are cliff hung until next week to see if they get squished.

Stargate Atlantis:
They spent more on the special effects budget then SG-1. As the Wraith close in on Atlantis the Army comes in and with Asgard help and they blow-up many big ships. This doesn't stop the Wraith the keep showering Atlantis with missiles, very pretty. Eventually the decide to do an old Star Trek trick of blowing up a bomb outside the shields and cloaking the base. They do it and it works because apparently the Wraith have never heard of recovery or sifting through debris, nope they just scratch themselves and leave.
Meanwhile Lt. Aiden Ford aka the black guy was half eaten buy a Wraith and emerged with superhuman powers and an attitude. He flees his post and Atlantis setting the stage for new character next week Ronan Dex, who looks like Tyr from Andromeda. You probably refer to him as the new black guy because as everyone knows science fiction writers can't write for two black men in one show.
Mitch Pileggi of X-Files fame joins the cast as Col. Steven Caldwell the commander of the shiny new ship the Daedalus. He also seems at home on the show.
Dr. Rodney "Coward" McKay is really getting on my nerves I hope they shoot him.

Battlestar Galactica:
The best of all of them, the best special effects and the best story line.
After Commander Adama was shot by Cylon hottie Lt. Sharon Valerii everything gets worse. The Cylons start an attack so the entire fleet jumps to the next quadrant of space but Adama's ship is separated from the rest because of a wi-fi mishap.
Now under command of Col. Saul Tigh they are confused but after a nifty praise-Adama-speech they head back to the Cylons to track the lost fleet. They succeed with no loses but a strange new Cylon ship crashes in them and we see those red Cylons pouring out the back boarding the Galactica.
On Caprica Cylon hottie Lt. Sharon Valerii(the pregnant one) is trying not to get killed by lady Starbuck and distracts them long enough to steal the Cylon ship and blast off to places unknown.
Meanwhile Dr. Gaius Baltar is marooned on a hostile planet dreaming of Cylon half-breeds and nursing an injury. His team is annoyed with him and the Galactica crew don't miss him either.

These shows tend to be very cliche. They type cast everyone on the show as the computer geek or the black guy or the hottie or the cowardly doctor. Battlestar Galactica does better in that department but only slightly. I see a bright future for Battlestar Galactica but if Stargate Atlantis doesn't resolve the Lt. Ford storyline I doubt it will last another season. Write multilayered characters ignore their skin color and stop making the black man so angry and humorless. I've yet to see the new character in Atlantis but hopefully he can crack a joke.

Into The West: Episode 5

This is the second to last episode of the TNT channel six-part mini-series Into The West. If you have been following so far it follows the lives of two families over several generations. The Wheelers and one particular Lakota tribe.
At this time several Indian tribes were sent to the Black Hills and given the land in a treaty because it was sacred to them. As the whites move in they start taking the land because it is fertile, with support from the army they start pushing the natives even further off. It is clear the settlers only want death for the tribes people. While trampling over "the wheel", a sacred almost church like place, the soldiers find gold. The Black Hills legally given to the tribe is now the battle ground for the white man gold fever and the Native Americans trying to survive.
Gen. Custer was to meet with the Lakota to drive them off the land but his arrogant ways led him into a trap by the Lakota and the rest was history. Angry by the attack there came a renewed effort to eliminate the Indian way of life. The government could not find Crazy Horse or Sitting Bull and all Indians were declared prisoners of war.
To eliminate the Indian way of life they started schools under the guise to teach the tribes the white mans world, instead it was to break the Indian spirit and eliminate everything they believed in. Clara Wheeler and her husband go to the school to teach but their good ways clash with the military objectives and eventually leave. While at the school a young Lakota renamed George fights the establishment but with a few words of encouragement from the Wheelers he learns he must fight from within.
Margaret Light Shines also becomes a teacher but to the tribes children in the camps. She teaches both ways of life in an effort to continue the legacy.
With one more episode next week things do not look good for the remaining Lakota.

TV Guide July 17-23

Three "collectors covers" about the 25 Awesome Sports Moments Of The Last 15 Years are here. One has Lance Armstrong, as the No. 1 moment and his six winning years at the Tour de France. The second cover and moment is when Tiger Woods won the Augusta National. The third is when Michael Jordan hit his last shot in 1998. A nine page article inside detailing all of what TV Guide considered the best sports moment. None of which I consider all that great and no Yankee moments.

Good things to read inside:

• "Shark Week" fake-hype and Firefly starts this week.
• Several angry letters about Kelly Ripa's comment about calling herself "stout" during the June 19-25 TV Guide diet issue, she was 5'4" and 128lbs.
• A preview of The '70s House house, Dawn on this show looks just like Linda Cardellini.
• 
  

• Fox's new show The War at Home will premiere on 9/11, the shows staff hates the timing.
• A rush of the Veronica Mars DVD made it skimpy on extras and will still come out late.
• The show on ABC Welcome to the Neighborhood was canceled because it violated the fair housing act and exposed the secret racism of the average Christian white family. If they reclassify this as a documentary not a contest it probably will air.
• A list of Nancy Grace ignorant guesses.
• Pauly Shore's new show.
• John Stamos' revived series.
• Bob Newhart is going to be an American Master.
• They cheered Ashton Kutcher on his renewal of Beauty and The Geek.
• Isaiah Washington's angry rant takes on Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger and his "...happy as hell." role on Grey's Anatomy.
• Mariel Hemingway tours Cuba for TVF.
• Venus and Serena: For Real a six week reality show.

Two other items of note:
A Brat Camp exclusive things I already suspected but is now confirmed.

1. It's easier then boot camp.
2. It cost $12,000-$20,000 per brat.
3. They can drag the kid directly from their bedroom at home.
4. Those damn earth names, those undeserving brats will get animal spirit names and no one on the show is from a Native American tribe.
   
5. The food taste bad.
6. The kids are not hardcore, the camp doesn't accept addicts or gang members, only brats.
7. Most kids later go to boarding schools, confirming my original weak parents theory.
8. No talking to the camera crew.
9. The producers also made Scared Straight.
10. ABC didn't choose the kids the camp did.
    

America's Top Model will hold open casting calls in NYC Aug. 6, 10am-5pm at Macy's Herald Square.

Don't forget tonight starts all the Sci-Fi shows Stargate SG-1,etc. And Into The West continues and Monk is out there somewhere.

Welcome My Newest Blog

I've started another blog site dedicated to coin collecting and pricing, it's called Coined For Money. I'm not an expert and I still consider myself an amateur collector but I know enough to answer general questions about prices and values. I do own many books on coins and since recently learning to read they have become very informative. Why spend any money on books when I own them?
I started the site because I could never find reliable values of coins the Web, even less on Blogs. I don't sell anything so no pressure and I do have a couple thousand coins in my collection so I know which ones are worth little and which worth more than gold. Many friends of mine would think they found some great coin because it was a hundred years old. They were disappointed to find out that coin would only sell for a dollar, while a certain coin from 1982 can go for hundreds.
According to surveys at least 90% of people put coins aside as "special", " not for use" money. I hope you visit, share your experience and participate in the hobby of coin collecting.

http://coinedformoney.blogspot.com/

Brat Camp

Yes I hate reality shows too, but I always watch the first season before they get overrun by Hollywood- starlet-wannabes. I skipped the reunion special of Beauty and The Geek because I saw a the Jimmy Kimmel interview of Richard and confirmed my predictions that he wasn't going to win but he would be famous by default and the winners would never be seen from again. It was fixed.
Brat Camp features a bunch of whiners with weak parents who are growing up to be dangerous savages. This show went on and proved my theory that I've had for years, the worst thing you can do for a child is adoption, yes even worse then abortion.
Half of these kids were either adopted or permanently missing a parent. Four of the kids stood out the most. A kid with ADHD/ADD(fake disorders), a spoiled girl who lies, a troubled girl with history and an angry future killer.
Starting with the future killer Frank, 15, Sacramento he is one of those punks you meet who's always on the edge of beating up anyone smaller than him. Everyone on the show finds him creepy and the fake-Indian counselors are eyeing him like a hawk.
Next Derek, 14, Little Rock the smallest and youngest with the "disorder" he "can't sit still" according to his parents/guardians yet five minutes into a nature walk and he's exhausted also during forced wake-up he can barely move. Hmm, no sign of ADHD/ADD after one day of discipline fascinating.
Next up Lexie, 17, St Helena the one that has real problems at first the show was skirting the issue but it was obvious that she was molested. Eventually during letter reading time she said how she was violated by a horse owner. Like other survivors of abuse she wrongly blames herself while the people really to blame are the pervert and her parents who hand over a budding girl to a man for hours at a time.
And my personal favorite Jada, 15, Boston who answered the question Where does a brat crap in the wilderness? She's a compulsive liar and slutty and gets high, yes she's near perfect. Within minutes of going to the campsite she was crying and begging to go home. Everyone in the show hates her attitude and being the only one with none abandonment issues she is predicted to be the easiest to break.
The premise is to keep these kids tired and hungry 60 miles away from any town and every once in a while have a psychologist analyze them without all the energy to talkback. The first thing they did was learn a strict wake-up routine and then they hiked with 40lb backpacks. They get rocks to carry as punishment for cursing, nice, arm Frank with light weapons. The humor in the show is awkward especially around Lexie. But when someone crapped in the brush they circled it bowed their heads and waited for the "Dooker" to admit the truth, it was Jada and she told one truth so far.
I'm disappointed in ABC for dropping the "choosing neighbors" show because of conservative pressure this show sits well with the right wing agenda. They only other thing about the show that bothers me are the Camp staffs ridiculous names, if they were really Native American the names would have meaning but they're not so the head staffer Glacier Wolf Can Something, I think, sounds like an idiot. I hope at the end the kids don't all get a spirit name. It's more disrespectful then crapping in the bush.

To Blog Or Not To Blog(Soaps)

As a kid I watched those daytimes soap operas , not because I wanted to, because we only had one television and I had no say on what to watch. So for years I've grown to know these characters and storylines. Later on when I'm sick or injured at home, not working or in class I would watch daytime TV and all those reruns and talk shows were bad. Instead I would leave the soaps on for background noise. Eventually the story lines of General Hospital and As The World Turns became interesting and I started to watch them again. But as soon as I got a life I would stop, this went on for years.
Then I bought a TiVo and I heard about this Passions show that was outrages and a lesbian kiss on All My Children so I programed TiVo to season pass these shows so I wouldn't miss the juicy parts. Well Passions sucked and Bianca's lesbian kiss was crap. The side-effect though is that TiVo started recording As The World Turns and I got into the storyline.
Now there are two soaps that I have Seasoned Passed, All My Children and As The World Turns.
I probably won't write about these because there exist huge obsessive fan sites. Although I have to say All My Children is long drawn out and annoying while As The World Turns is quick and well written they also have Michael Landon's daughter on their cast. I could never give a detailed view of each episode and I think TV Guides' 6 sentence summary is great.
A warning to all those parents who watch soaps keep your kids away or they will become addicts in the future..."I learned it by watching you".

Madonna Got My Letter

Wait I never wrote her and I don't even like her anymore but she must have sent me this...




I can get a red string and start Kabbalahing you.
I've never signed up for any Kabbalah related material and keep off the cult mailing list ever since I was uninvited to the comet-sneaker party in California. It's nice though to see Hollywood is not forgetting the little people. Tom Cruise never sent me a Scientology invite.

Last Person in America to Watch It

I just watched Fahrenheit 9/11 for the first time. I saw no shocking revelations and the few facts in the "documentary" I knew the week after 9/11. As a documentary fan I quickly realized this was a commentary not a documentary. I read the 9/11 Commission Report and found that a great read. It was thorough without being biased. Michael Moore became unbearable to watch after TV Nation was canceled and this film doesn't help. Friends said that some parts made them cry, well it was more uncomfortable then sad. Moore should have renamed this movie The Reasons I Hate Bush. While most of the reasons are valid the film is nothing to talk about.
Yes, I'm the last person in America, maybe the civilized world, to see this but if I could get my 2hrs 5mins back I would. Boring.

The 4400

Lily and Richard are making a happy home with Jordan Collier as their billionaire babysitter. dirty diapers are the least of Colliers problems as Maia gets a vision of Colliers death.
They further clarify that Maia has premonitions and impressions, or something to that effect. Her premonitions are never wrong and unchangeable. Collier visits Maia and confirms shes no fraud, he also gave her a PSP(PlayStation Portable).
After saying no to the agents help Collier agrees to let them help after stopping one nut job from shooting him. Collier seeks guidance from the seemingly evil baby Isabelle and she shows him what he wants to see, a vision of him as an old man being honored.
Lily's daughter Heidi finds out about her real mama and goes for a visit Isabelle gets all cranky and cries. a day or two later Lily gets word that Heidi's spleen exploded mysteriously. Bad baby, no, don't you dare.
Collier goes to the meet-up of the 4400 and gets shot to death. He tells Shawn that "she[Isabelle] lies". Shawn the second in command tries to heal him but fails although he's caught on film. During the funeral Shawn assumes leadership and Collier disappears, remember we never saw Colliers gift or know if baby Isabelle is bad.
What we do learn is that the shooter is Agent Toms' son Kyle. His blackouts are explained by him gathering and getting rid of sniper rifles. Kyle as you recall is the human-walkie-talkie of the future people. If he's anything like French Stewart on 3rd Rock From The Sun he is being used,through the radio in his head, to carryout missions that threaten the future.
There was also a sub-plot involving Shawn and a hot drug addict that is now cleaned up and has new underthing.

On a sidenote:
The new USA channel commercials are great. My favorite is the one with a cat meeting dozens of horrible deaths and at the end we see Johnny Smith(The Dead Zone) petting the cat and saying I need to get a dog.
Two involve Maia Rutledge(The 4400) first in a hospital telling the sex of pregnant women babies. The other has her biking with a boy to a stadium having him hold out his glove and then he catches a ball hit out of the park.
There was another with Johnny Smith grab a mailman's hand and yelling then going just kidding.
I think there were more but I can't remember.
Update: I remember another commercial the one with Maia gathering bugs in a jar and then the power goes out and all these jars full of fireflies light up the house.

The Dead Zone

Um, Johnny, an artist, his daughter, a rock to the head and everyone is fine at the end. I'm sorry I fell asleep through most of it but it seemed dull.

Family Guy was funny, Stewies' rant that featured the Simpsons was funny.

Also I have to remind myself to see Fahrenheit 9/11 to see what the fuss was about, it was on Showtime tonight at 8:00pm but I missed it. It's on again tomorrow at 8:00pm.

Six Feet Under, Not Dead Yet

The big death that people have been blogging about for this episode,The Rainbow Of Her Reasons, never really happened, I think. Ruths' sister friend went hiking and stumbled to her death. While Nate had his first woman appear in the funeral home as a corpse. They were together when he was 15 and she was 32, he bonded with crazy Billy over this. So unless they are saving the major deaths for the finale I see nothing bad here.
On other fronts Keith and David continue to struggle with the two foster brats, those animals destroyed a brand new gaming console.
George figured out that Ruth was dumping him and told her he still loves her. Ruth said oh well at least I have my friends and went on a day trip with them. But wait her friends were only joking about joining a commune and laugh in her face, good.
Ruth and Claire aired out their laundry and said they didn't hate each other. This is good because broke Claire decide to imitate George of Dead Like Me and got an office job where she is the funky outsider who does great work. She also received bad news on her art grant and got dissed by her auntie who pushed her into the arts.
Vanessa asked Fedirco to move back in.

Into The West

Loved By The Buffalo is out surveying the lands and finds only remnants of tribes and no people. He sees that the white man's slaughter is still going on despite a peace treaty. Clara Wheeler(Rachael Leigh Cook) met up with long lost relatives who rudely welcomed her after she announced she's now an orphan. She has grown tougher but slowly gets her dream boutique up and running. The rest of the family sinks into pimping and general meanness over money.
Meanwhile photographer Ethan Biggs, played by Daniel Gillies real life husband of Rachael Leigh Cook( aka lucky guy), and his wife Margret Light Shines are confronted with the ugly hatred of the Indians after the restless army comes into town. After the Cheyenne attack their carriage he is saved by his magical photoshop abilities and they become "guests" of the tribe. The army breaks a promise to not make war with the Cheyenne and soon kills most of them including Biggs, they even shoot a tot crying over his moms' corpse. Light Shines then goes with the remain Cheyenne and leaves the Lakota and white nations behind.
Abe Wheeler meets up with some Chinese rail workers and start dynamiting mountains away.
Jacob Wheeler Jr. meets up with and frees his sister,Light Shines, from a military prison and they realize that the railroad and the Natives can not co-exist.
The whites call for the extermination of "the savages" as the transcontinental railroad is spiked finished.
Two more episodes of Into The West as Custer and Wounded Knee loom ahead.

TV Guide July 10-16

Bloody hell, it's another "collectors edition" four-cover set. A dedication to the Sci-Fi channels' Friday night line-up. The covers feature 2 actors of either Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 or one of each called Sci-Fi Returning Favorites. Matt Roush reviews Battlestar Galactica and finds it violently fun. He also tells of the new cast members to Stargate SG-1, Ben Browder and Claudia Black of Farscape fame and Beau Bridges recently in Into The West. There is an amazing 9 page article on all the going ons of "Sci-Fi Friday", which I didn't read because I want to be surprised when the episodes premiere. A few thing did pop out, Lexa Doig wife of Michael Shanks joins the cast of Stargate SG-1 and Lou Gossett Jr. as a Jaffa. Stargate Atlantis gets more Wraithy. Lucy Lawless joins the Battlestar Galactica cast as a reporter.

Good things to read inside:

• They have pictures of the first official Lost convention that took place in the Burbank Airport Hilton where "Losers" "Losties" got to have a Q&A with producers, don't fret they will have 5 more over the next18 months.
• Mariska Hargitay is not pregnant but she's trying.
• Wonder Showzen an MTV2 pupppet show.
• Into The West had 15,000 extras and one of the largest cast of Native Americans ever, and yes the white man did mistreat them, again.
• Sci-Fi will air Firefly, all episodes starting July 22. Serenity is out in theaters in September, do the math.
• A six-page summer horoscope? And then after that your regular horoscopes.
• Farhrenheit 9/11 on Showtime
• Reality Round-up:Hogan Knows Best, Brat Camp, MLB All-Star Game
  

I understand that with todays modern technology that printing multiple covers is easier and cheaper than ever but calling them "special" or as TV Guide does on page 3 the "Complete box set" with a number to order right below is just wring and inaccurate. It would be funny that if in forty years the sell for thousands of dollars butI doubt it.
On the advertising front I've noticed that their ads are now featuring lots of new sweets that I don't see in the markets. Wonka Cakes, Gummi LifeSavers, etc. maybe my local markets just suck.

London Attacked TV to Blame

------Cowards I'm Still Not Afraid, -------
------You Won't Change Me -------

London, England was the setting for a highly coordinated series of bombings during rush-hour today. This sad day followed a jubilant celebration Londoners had yesterday when they received the Olympics.
The only ones to blame for the attack are the Muslim terrorist themselves and anyone who helped them pull-off this attack. Their inspiration though was quite obvious, TV.
Imagine that your a terrorist sleeper cell and on July 6 you watch television and you see the happy screaming faces of British citizens as they get the news about hosting the 2012 Olympics. This is enough to push their demented minds over the edge.
All terrorist, Islamic and Fascist, hate that other people are happy. It is not about foriegn policy or invading armies. They want us dead or panicked and when we're not the get angry. See the beautiful happy faces of those Londoners made them angry beyond reason. They would have probably taken the Chunnel and bombed Paris if they won the Olympics.
The only city that could have prevented these attacks would be New York, or any American city. The news said that the U.K. had to deal with direct bombings for the last 60 years and they still can't prevent bombings.

Back to the Basics

On tonight's Nightline Christina Applegate, John Lithgow and Jeff Goldblum got together to speak about why Broadway is more successful than the film industry. John Lithgow basically said that the quality of the movies are down and television is being flooded with reality-tv. Christina Applegate did say how when she hurt her foot her producers shut down the show, proving that it's the celebrity factor that is bring the money to Broadway. Jeff Goldblum also said that the quality of Broadway has improved. Remember that Denzel Washington and Billy Crystal also have big roles on Broadway. The stage has been said to be the one form of entertainment that will never die. And judging by the slump in the box office and ever lower ratings of TV maybe quality does count, not just big names.
Nightline also found out why New York City lost the Olympic bid. According to the IOC they want a city to improve conditions for the poor and England has a greater rate of poverty and made a cool video showing how they're going to demolish the slums and make parks. They also showed England's old Olympic village which is now crap housing. Greece and other recent Olympic cities are in huge debt and there venue are now poor preforming public venues or just sitting there empty.

Beauty and The Geek and Others

Beauty and The Geek:
This was the sort of final episode and it was a perfectly choreographed nail biter. After Chuck tried to teach Richard to calm down they prepared for a question show down. Richard correctly predicted that the question would be personal and made a side bet with his Beauty to make out with her if they win, actually it was her idea. When Chuck and Caitilin started the 10 personal questions contest they were strong and confident. They ended up getting 8 right.Then Richard and Mindi were up and quickly got two wrong(add suspense here) they proceeded to get the next 8 right. Now tied both teams had to go into a one on one questioning until someone got theirs wrong. They went into triple overtime until Richard guessed badly and lost. Chuck and Caitilin got $125,000 each. The show is not over, like The Real World they will have an upcoming Beauty and The Geek:The Aftermath where they will reunite the cast and finally answer is Richard for real.

The Inside:
There were two episodes as the show is being rushed off the air. The first episode was kinda dull so I'll skip it just saying that it was bring the group closer in their daily rituals.
The second episode showed how the good boy scout Special Agent Paul Ryan joined the agency. It also had him at home with his happy pregnant wife. Paul Ryan's first Agency case resurfaced when someone started cutting out hearts. Allegations of tampering with evidence came up and the guilty killer was freed. This upset Agent Ryan especially when his boss Virgil was the tamperer. While trying to scare the killer he gets the call that his wife was hurt he is about to kill the bad guy when he is informed that his wife was in an accident not hurt by the baddie. The second heart-ripper comes in to kill the first and everything goes bad. At the end Ryan lost his baby and the first killer lost his woman and Virgil confesses and lost his job being replaced by Tuvix(Tom Wright).

House:
Keeping it brief, House has a boy with conflicting symptoms and figures out his lying father is to blame because he gave the boy Lepersy after the kid contracted Anthrax. There was a side story involving Dr. Chase and his dying father.

Six Feet Under:
The Fishers have mellowed a bit except for Ruth who hates Claires for some unknown reason. David and Keith had there bio-baby dreams dashed and will adopt two troubled kids instead. Nate and Brenda agreed to tell Maya of her real mommy.

New York Olympics 2016

The IOC(International Olympic Committee) gave the games to the city of London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was there to give a happy ending to all the IOC judges. New York only had mayor Bloomberg and Senator Clinton. Outside Rockefeller Center the disappointment came early when the second of the five finalist to be eliminated was announced, it was New York with only 16 votes in favor. Moscow was first and Madrid came next. But the future is not all gloom the 2016 Olympic bid seems stronger.
Now while some blame Bloomberg administration I don't think that is true at all. When he lost the West Side Stadium he quickly got two alternatives. I think they should highlighted the fact that these other countries are unreliable. Now in Paris during a heat wave recently over 10,000 people died that doesn't bode well for a summer Olympic. Moscow had little resources to transform the city. Madrid continues to deal with terrorism from the Muslim and the Basques.
To counter all those points New York had a huge power outage during one of the hottest days of the year and not one person died and there was no looting and for that day crime actually went down. We in New York may not all have resources but the richest people in the city would have contributed if money was an issue. While we are the biggest target in the world we haven't been attacked since September 11^th while Madrid who has 30 years of being attacked still can't keep there citizen safe.
So all that is left is London while small and crowded so is NYC. In my eye the thing that pushed it over the edge for London was Tony Blair was there in person and the current vibe of the world is to hate America.


The good news today though is that the Mets and the Yankees got new stadiums construction will start for the Mets stadium next year.






Another piece of good news out today was that Lil' Kim will be going to prison for a year and a day for lying.


Here are the official results:
Results of the vote:


Round 1
London: 22
Paris: 21
Madrid: 20
New York: 19
Moscow: 15

Round 2
Madrid: 32
London: 27
Paris: 25
New York: 16

Round 3
London: 39
Paris: 33
Madrid: 31

Round 4
London: 54
Paris: 50

Covering NBC's Fireworks Coverage

Blue, Red and White! No not the American flag I'm talking about the order of Mariah Carey shrinking wardrobe changes. The first half of the broadcast was in HDTV whether you owned a HDTV set or not. I guess no one noticed the black frame's ever surrounding all the commercials during the broadcast. After the fireworks were over the screen went back to normal. Al Roker hosted in half a suit and some baseball cap.

Donald Trump tried to intro the fireworks but instead just pitched his crappy show.
This was one of the worst televised 4^th of July coverages ever. Only one musical act no speeches and no mini-history moments. NBC really dropped the ball. I'm not sure how much control Macy's had over the coverage but I remember just last year and all the previous years the show was longer and had more speakers. I TiVo'd The show and unless TiVo made a mistake it was only an hour long.

Happy 4th of July

It's the 229^th birthday for our great and wonderful country. While celebrating let's remember the history. Do not forget all those who fought to make this country great and those who still fight to make us better. Be safe I know fireworks are fun but I can't make them work on my blog imagine the problems with real ones. A good Independence day wish goes out to the 50 states and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the rest of the U.S. territories. Go out and celebrate in style.

Alternative Channels

No I don't mean the new Logo station which debuted this week in a fairly low key way. I tried watching it after the countdown and the official launch show came on. The first show was basically describing the channels content I got bored and changed, I haven't checked back since.
The real alternative channel I was talking about The Outdoor Channel a channel dedicated to mostly to hunting less to outdoor adventures. They also have lots of racing and off-roading programs. There were two shows that I watched and loved because it brought out the true American in me.
Prospecting America has Perry Massie using different techniques to find gold, the episode I saw had him using a metal detector. It was fascinating since my dream was to retire at 35 and search beaches and old barns for buried treasures ever since I first saw The Goonies and heard of Indiana Jones.
Gold Fever was the second show it also had a couple of Massie's Tom and his young daughter. They dove into creeks and came up with gold nuggets. At the end of the show Tom got a little preachy on how activists are trying to deprive people of the joy of prospecting. While he made a very valid point and I would love to prospect if only a few people do this it's fine but if there is a modern day "gold rush" his community would be destroyed.
I like the symmetry of these two channels while most people who love the Outdoor Channel would find Logo repulsive so would the Logo fans about hunting and skinning on the Outdoor Channel.
A tag I'm just testing Outdoor channel

When rainbows and gold collide.

A True Spin City

Remember Carter's "ugly" dog in Spin City well he was adorable compared to this one.
Santa Barbara, California hosted this year's World's Ugliest Dog Contest. While chihuahuas and other small short haired dogs are not the prettiest animals ever they don't hold a candle to this 14-year-old pedigreed Chinese crested. The Sonoma-Marin Fair contest had this ringer in it for the last three years. Oh don't worry about next year because the dog seems to be dying of every known ailment.
To make Californians even stranger the dog has become a cult icon.

Click on Carter's dog if you forgot what Carter looked like.

Here is the full Url on the Yahoo story with links to the Santa Barbara paper you'll need a membership to view the full article.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050701/ap_on_fe_st/world_s_ugliest_dog

TV Guide July 3-9

This weeks collector edition covers feature the five stars of The Fantastic Four. My issue came with Chris Evans as The Human Torch, I guess Jessica Alba was a one in five chance. There is a five page article chronicling the history of the Fantastic Four. It started in 1961 when Stan Lee wrote a team of astronauts altered to become superheroes, illustrated by Jack Kirby. Lee wrote this in response to DC Comics unleashing Justice League of America. The article also goes on the set with Michael Chiklis and tells of the original Fantastic Four movie made in 1994 that was never released but floats around on the internet. Cartoon Network is airing a Fantastic Four marathon on Saturday & Sunday, 7/2 &7/3, 8pm-12amET. The talk a little on both cartoons the the 1967-70 ABC version and the 1994-95 syndicated version now out on DVD.

Good things to read inside:

• Veronica Mars is getting two new actresses to tweak the show and make Mars herself sexier.
• Cody Kasch the troubled kid from Desperate Housewives is playing the same on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
• A nice article on all the show cloning on the next season, Martha Stewart's version of The Apprentice, Jennifer Love Hewitt's version of Medium and on and on.
• Keri Russell had a crush on Gordon from Sesame Street
• The new Big Brother house
• David & Keith get a foster son on Six Feet Under
• Nauseating Purple cupcakes------------------------------->
• Rick Schroder
• The Surreal Life