Jericho returns

I haven't written about TV this year. Work has been so busy I have barely had time to watch nay much less write the kind of critique and opinion you expect of me. However, since Jericho returned to the air tonight, I wanted to tell you about it in the hopes you will watch all 7 episodes and keep it going into 2009.

Jericho is a different kind of show. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic America that is trying to put itself back together, two towns in Kansas went to war last season. The last word spoken in the last episode of last season was Skeet Ulrich, captain of the Jericho, KA town militia shouting, "NUTS!" into a field radio to the captain of the evil New Bern, KS town militia who were attacking them.

Then CBS cancelled the show.

The battle would never take place.

New Bern would never receive their due for the evil they perpetrated on beacon of hope Jericho.

Then the fans got involved. The people were sick and tired of imaginative, well written and well acted shows getting decimated before they got a chance to take root. Fan sites sprung up everywhere and CBS was sieged with e-mails and calls demanding Jericho be picked up for a second season. CBS' response, unsurprisingly, was that they appreciated the fans passion, but we could go collectively jump in a lake.

Did the fans of Jericho give up? Nuts to that!!

The fans of Jericho began shipping peanuts in massive quantities to CBS headquarters in New York City. Box after box, pound after pound of peanuts bombed CBS HQ until finally, the programming executives relented and ordered a limited run for 2008. That run premiered tonight and in the opening scene, as one of the Jericho's citizens recovered from the battle in a hospital, he ate shelled peanuts, as an homage to the power of the fans and the power of the internet.

Jericho is the best TV show most of you have never seen. It is uniquely crafted covering the micro and macro views of what America could become following a catastrophe. I highly recommend it.

No 1 of Consequence

More problems with TV in the UK

I know I have complained a bit about TV in the UK. I promise this will be the last time. (Probably lying right there, but we can always hope) I am watching Aaron Sorkin's brilliant movie, A Few Good Men currently which is a welcome respite from the dreck they have shown the rest of the time I have been here. However, the editing is so awful it is really shocking. In the US, movies on regular TV are edited with at least a modicum of respect for pacing. They try and insert station/commercial breaks at natural pauses in the story. Here in jolly old England, they are completely clueless. They inset breaks mid conversation. Anyone who is a devotee of Aaron Sorkin knows his dialogue has a certain pace and cadence to it and to chop it up like celery is a crime. I really want to go home.

No 1 of Consequence

Civility

I just read this article by Joe Klein. It interestingly details how he was slightly misled by a politician only to be completely lambasted by left wing bloggers. The politician called to tell him the misleading statement was unintentional and apologized. He printed the apology and got crushed again by the writers carrying the banners of the left.

I am absolutely a left leaning guy. Some would say I lean so far left I am actually laying down. They might be right. :-) My point in this little foray back into the political is that the inability to argue points with civility is what prevents progress. If someone is hateful, spiteful and vindictive is drags down their entire cause.

I fall into it sometimes, as do most people. I freely admit that the mention of Ann Coulter causes me to lose all ability to reason. Overall though, I try and keep an open mind.

Raising the level of debate in this nation is important. We have to ask more of ourselves and our countrymen. We have to focus our eyes on what is important and definitely learn to separate the things that aren't from the national stage. Publicly eviscerating people for making minor errors doesn't help anything or anyone.

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Some notes from the UK

- TV here sucks. It just out and out blows. I was stuck watching reruns of Bones last night and felt like it was almost a good show because I was that bored.

- I don't sleep well here. It is hard to be super productive when I am dog tired a lot of the time.

- My brother calls my international cell phone to talk about fantasy baseball. I love that.

- I found out that significant time in Geneva is going to be in my future. I am note sure how I feel about this. Of course it means I will probably hit platinum medallion status on Delta.

- I really like the guys I am working with here. This consulting bunch is fantastic. They are a LOT of fun to work with and while I don't enjoy being away from my family that much, it could be a whole lot worse than it is.

- The UK is so damned expensive I can't even begin to tell you. The US needs to get the dollar back under control and they need to do it very badly.

- I found yesterday I have a new boss... sort of, maybe two new bosses, it still hasn't fleshed out and I am not really thrilled about it.

- There is a 99% chance that I am going to start doing podcasts. I just need to figure out if I can record using my Skype headset and Polycom Communicator.

No 1 of Consequence

Some new stuff that I am watching and reading and listening to

What am I watching?


I am a TV guy. I enjoy shutting my brain down for a few hours a night after long days at work where I am forced to make about ten thousand decisions. Also, work has not been nearly as much fun as it was when I started with this company so TV in the evenings is my escape. There are three new shows I have been watching this year with great enjoyment and I wanted to share them with the three people who still read this blog regularly.


The first one is Dexter on Showtime. Michael C. Hall, plays a forensic blood spatter specialist who moonlights as a serial killer. He only kills evil people, which is explained through a series of flashbacks. It is well written and unique. The uniqueness of it is what I find really compelling. An original idea is SO rare these days, so when I find one I really treasure it. I want to really give Showtime some credit. It took them awhile to get their act together, but they have stepped it up. Sleeper Cell was amazing last year and they are bringing it back. Weeds makes me laugh out loud every week. Brotherhood, which I have not seen is on my must rent list as soon as it comes out on DVD. They have really tried to pick up the gauntlet that HBO has thrown down over the last few years.



Of course, being the Aaron Sorkin devotee you all know my to be, I am watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip diligently. The writing is as good as ever, but I find myself not embracing Studio 60 the way I loved Sportsnight or revered The West Wing. I think a lot of it has to do with something that the Annoyed guy and I discussed awhile back. He postulated that the show, unless it was a mega hit would not be around for long because the cost to produce would be absolutely staggering. I could find no fault with this argument and I think that has been nagging in the back of my mind through each episode and knowing I could lose the show at any moments has really prevented me from loving it.




Lastly and perhaps most guiltily Heroes has made it on to the MUST SEE agenda. I grew up a comic geek and this show is literally and figuratively a comic book come to life. It isn't star studded like Studio 60 and it isn't socially important like The Wire. However, it is as well written a show as I have seen in my lifetime. It is mysterious and thoughtful. It is as unique an idea as Dexter is in its own way and I am finding it absolutely enjoyable.

That's some of what I am watching. What are you watching?

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What am I reading?

I just wanted to call out a couple of new blogs I have been reading religiously and share them with you.

1. Is everybody crazy, or is it just me? A thoughtfully written toe dip into the blogosphere by No Wife of Consequence. In her first three posts she has lamented about our adopted home state of Georgia and its marked lack of Italians, called me a retard because of my lack of musical knowledge, and bashed the US government for banning online poker. Stay tuned, it is only going to get better.

2. From the neck up - Another well written jump into the e-journaling medium by the better half of the esteemed author of People Places and Things that tend to Annoy me . She is honest and smart, two of the key ingredients of a good blog. Definitely check her out.

3. Why don't we get drunk and blog? The guy is funny. There is no getting around it. He also posts often, which more than I can say for myself these days. I have made him a twice daily check in because I usually laugh each time I pop on over there.

I terms of my literary pursuits, I don't usually have a lot of time to read. However, the last business book I read, Blue Ocean Strategy is the best thing I have read in a long time. It is uniquely presented with real world examples of marketing success. I am not in the marketing field, but anyone with even a passing interest in business will appreciate it's cerebral insights and case studies.

What are you reading?

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What am I listening to aside from Sirius Satellite Radio?

I am not one to write much about music, save for how little I know about it or how I don't have as much an apreciation for it as a lot of people I know. However, after reading about this Israeli rapper named Subliminal, I asked NoWife to download a bunch of his stuff onto my MP3 player. My ability to speak Hebrew has atrophied to the point where I can barely understand a word here or there, but there is no mistaking the guy is talented. I have absolutely enjoyed listening to his stuff over the last couple of weeks. Check out his website. It is hip hop mixed with this middle eastern sitar flavor and I think it is awesome. The website has two tracks embedded in it. You can get a sample, just by navigating over there. There is some bad language in English, so I wouldn't do it at work or around children.

What are you listening to?

No 1 of Consequence

The king of TV is dead.

Aaron Spelling has passed away. Read this article if you are interested in a synopsis of his many accomplishments and successes, building a television empire and becoming one of the richest men in America from scratch through hard work and creativity. The man contributed to society entertaining literally billions of people around the globe.

When I was in college Beverly Hills 90210 and later Melrose Place became event television. The campus was a ghost town for two hours every Wednesday night and 15,000+ televisions were tuned in to these shows in a 10 square block area in Philadelphia.

He produced over 200+ movies and shows for various networks & studios employing thousands of people and creating billions in revenue.

May he rest in peace.

No 1 of Consequence

Do you watch poker on TV?

After my morbid post earlier I decided to lighten things up a bit.

I watch poker on TV and I like to play, both live and on the internet. Tonight on GSN, formerly the Game Show Network I watched a different kind of poker. They launched their second season of High Stakes Poker. High Stakes is a different kind of poker TV show because all the players are professionals and they have to buy in with at least $100,000 of their own money. Also, it is a live game, not a tournament, which totally changes the mentality at the table. It also lends itself to kind of crazy stuff. When players are all in they will sometimes cut wacky side deals, like running the river card twice to give a player with virtually no chance of winning the hand double the chance to draw out and earn a split pot. Also, a lot of the niceties you find on the tournament poker shows is gone from this game. All the players know each other and some of their personal issues bleed right over onto the table. It is compelling and at times there is serious money on the table. Pots routinely contain $50,000 and many times there is as much cash in the pot as there are chips. As someone who plays for .10 cents at a time it is amazing to watch these guys bluff $10 or $20 grand into a pot and shrug if they lose.

9:00 PM Mondays on GSN. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. Try it once, you might like it. Besides, it is the summer, what else are you going to watch on Mondays at 9:00?

No 1 of Consequence

Cruise: Wacky? Yes. Legitimate action hero? Also, yes.

Mission Impossible III :

I just got back from the movies. Guess what I saw? I know Tom Cruise is a bit of a lunatic and has a tendency to make a spectacle of himself when not on the movie screen, but I have to tell you, this movie is incredibly enjoyable. For the third movie in the series I was sufficiently impressed. The action sequences were excellently choreographed and there was just enough story to keep the whole premise plausible. Since J.J. Abrams wrote it (also the writer of Lost and Alias) there were sufficient turns and some mystery. Definitely a fine way to spend a 95 degree afternoon.

No 1 of Consequence

Intelligent Design vs. Evolution

Intelligent Design vs. Evolution

aka

(Creationism) vs. Evolution

aka

The Constitution vs. The Christian Right

Or as Bill O’Reilly would have you believe;

The Secular Progressive Elitist Press vs. All good Reasonable Christian Peoples

Can I get an Oy Vey!

Today a judge in Pennsylvania ruled that teaching creationism would violate the Constitutional separation of church and State. Well duh! Of course it violates the separation of church and State. I am a person of faith. I believe in a higher power, G-d, something greater than ourselves. I also believe in an evolving global/universal ecology based on Einstein and Darwin’s theories. I believe scientific theories should be taught in schools. I believe that religious theories should be taught in the home or in church/synagogue/mosque etc. Or, if you want your children to be taught both sides in school, send them to private religious schools. I have no problem with both sides of coin being taught in religious schools, but religion has no place in democratic/representative government or public education.

They say, “No1!!! You can’t do that!! That’s not possible!!! How can you do that it goes against both theories?!? You heretic!!”

I say, “Bite me… Or, you can listen to what I have to say and either agree or disagree with me.”

Let’s briefly (extremely briefly) define both theories for the purposes of the hypothesis I lay before you.

Creationism, Judeo-Christian origin, as told in the Old Testament, Genesis, G-d created the heaven and the Earth and on the seventh day he rested.

Big Bang/Evolution, infinitely dense singularity in space explodes into an expanding universe. As our sun and earth cool organisms evolve out of some primordial ooze, leading to multi-celled organisms, leading to, leading to, leading to…

Clear? No? Well, me either, but let me try and reconcile the two for you without going into Talmudic commentary or the Vatican Archives.

You have to lose all presumption of the divine. What does this mean? It means you have to reject the possibility that you can understand G-d’s time table versus human perception. If you have a literal interpretation of the bible I just lost you. However, if you don’t, if you think that human understanding is greater now than it has ever been you have to accept the fact that biblical texts may not mean exactly what they did to those who lived when they were written. If the bible was revealed to Moses on Sinai is it reasonable to postulate that G-d, while giving an explanation of things, spoke generically and relatively simply to Moses? I think it is. Is reasonable to presume that we have a true understanding of time as G-d understands? I don’t think so. Therefore, the seven day creation period described in Genesis could very well have taken millions of years as humans understand them. That fits Big Bang/Evolution into Creationism.

Let me see if I can get the scientists to a place where they have to admit that some things are beyond scientific understanding. The Big Bang postulates that an infinitely dense singularity of space and matter exploded at a finite point in time to create our expanding universe as we know it today. My question to you is this; Where did that infinitely dense singularity come from? The answer, obviously, is you don’t know. I don’t know, no one knows where it came from. Therefore, you cannot reject the existence of G-d or a higher intelligence that created that singularity. That my friends, fits Creationism into Big Bang/Evolution.

For those who take the bible word for word literally. I give you the words of the great Aaron Sorkin, from an episode of the West Wing:

President Bartlet (sarcastically): I like how you call homosexuality an abombination.
Jenna Jacobs: I don't say homosexuality is an abomination, Mr. President, the Bible does.
President Bartlet: Yes, it does. Leviticus.
Jenna Jacobs: 18:22.
President Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I have you here. I'm interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown sophmore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of Staff Leo McGarry insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police? Here's one that's really important because we've got a lot of sports fans in this town: touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? "Think about that, will you? Oh, and one last thing. You may have mistaken this for your meeting of the ignorant tight-asses club, but in this building when the President stands no one sits."

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Can’t we agree at this point that literal interpretations of the bible lead to unreasonable behavior by today’s standards and it is only through reason and acceptance of more than one idea that we will have a comprehensive understanding of one another and further advance as a global society?

No matter what you believe though, The Constitution is clear that church and state shall be separate entities and no religious ideology shall be imposed by government institution. Debates like that belong in homes, in the news, in places of worship and here, in the blogosphere, where all minds can be free to express their ideas and be heard.

No1ofConsequence