a broken lull.

KIDNAPPED (NBC Wednesdays 10PM)

okay. i don't get the glowing reviews for this show. i mean, i'm not watching it based on word of mouth; i'm curious because it looked like it could be an interesting show with a spectacular cast. but it's quickly becoming obvious that it's just poorly-written. there's not a lot of content there, and tv show glossiness takes over way too many scenes. it's asking us to go over a lot obstacles in order to enjoy the ride. ooh, and there's the rebel cop who's teaching us all about the dark world of internet slang!! lol. come the fuck on... :) also, what kind of cell phone captures blurry movies that can be zoomed into pure clarity? and anyone catch that fucking huge Bubba Shrimp Co. storefront the crew made sure to make a pan of --for 10 fucking seconds!-- in Times Square as two characters were talking about ...something? not to mention that the white family around which the story revolves is incredibly unappealing. thank god the kids are believable. there's just a lot of nonsense thrown into it and not enough gritty, real world content. maybe i was expecting something different (a cross between Homicide and 24, maybe?). at least, there is one thing the show has going for it, something that's gonna get me to watch for a few more weeks -- outstanding casting. Jeremy Sisto (when not suddenly asked to be all thorn and lost in thought because the episode's ending) is really charming and is pulling off the 'lead' in this series. Delroy Lindo is always a lot of fun. Olivia Thirlby, who plays Aubrey Cain, just stole the second episode with her natural demeanor. damn, i can't find info on the guy who played Kenneth in the second episode. everytime he came on-screen i had a feeling i'd seen him in other stuff but i have no idea where. anyway. he did a spectacular job. (btw, boo to evil middle management guys who work their devious plans out of their sloppy unfurnished apartments. it wasn't even scary when 24 did it so what made you think we'd care to hate your guys?)

7:07 PM

THIS JUST IN!! minutes before the puck was about to drop on their last pre-season game, the Montreal Canadiens announced they'd traded centre Mike Ribeiro for D Janne Niinimaa!! Ribeiro was beyond sloppy last season. he was also centering the Kovalev line. that's not one we like to see messed with. Gainey finally did it! not only that but he got a us big D in return and created a spot up front for (hopefully) Andrei Kostitsyn. the Habs forums are on fire ! :) Bob works in mysterious ways :)

lol. i gotta say - i'm loving my man Ryan's new rap :)

Posted by Anonymous | 5:13 PM |

wow. NBC's Kidnapped has got some pretentious writing & directing, doesn't it? (and don't get me started on their pretend-french either. you could easily tell they were faking knowing french. those lines were read of a script - badly so.) i like Jeremy Sisto, and believe he'll be able to pull this off, and what's to say about Delroy Lindo? awesome actor. loved his performance. but what crap they are asked to do ! don't get me wrong, i enjoyed parts of it, but as a whole the season premiere was a whole lotta pretentious (even down to the 24-style logo animation at the beginning). way too slick for its own good right now. ps. if you've missed this episode and wanna see it for yourself, NBC has set it all up for you on the show's site.

Posted by Anonymous | 12:59 PM |

just like that. with its second show, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip is the first new show to make the jump into my regular tv schedule. i can see it going places now. excellent, excellent show. (also got my first goosebumps of the series (the butter line). always a great sign.)

2:08 PM

... and now it's Six Degrees who just made the list :) with only one episode.

Posted by Anonymous | 12:34 PM |

oh my god. this will make you so happy.

in other news - we just got Gondry's much-anticipated La science des rêves ! after being sad about it being a french version/dub, i was floored to discover that it actually was a french film. yay for us! also on board for this weekend - Jackass Number Two :D (i am not kidding. so happy.)

i agree with the departures but my question is this - whether it's a lack of talent or just criminally bad writing, why is Maya Rudolph still hanging onto SNL?

Posted by Anonymous | 12:37 PM |

need one last bit of extra crunchy Big Brother: All-Stars before leaving summer behind (oh, and Chill Town Mountain is funny too)?

Posted by Anonymous | 1:07 PM |

do yourself a favor and go get iTunes 7. it's just a beautiful little program now. (it makes me want to listen to music on my computer even though it's not the best app for it (WinAmp is my choice.) and there are only a couple of bugs on this release(!). that's quite an accomplishment, sir Apple.

biggest one - static on playback (iTunes, not iPod)?
find QuickTime: Preferences > Audio > Size: select 16 bit (instead of 24)

my only caveats (only two) are that the beautiful CoverFlow can't be applied to music on my iPod. see, i don't keep my music on my computer. it's a waste of space if i have it on ym iPod, isn't it? but i guess iPod Agent will be useful for this task if i wanna listen to music like this. my second caveat: you can only download album covers through the iTunes store *!for music you've encoded with iTunes!*. now, as with playback, iTunes is not the best program for encoding either (EAC+Lame), so this sucks for me. i guess it's back to searching for my album covers. no biggie. the covers thing is too cool :)

10:35PM

STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP (AARON SORKIN with THOMAS SCHLAMME, 2006)

i have faith the cast and writers will start getting their bearings within a few episodes. the performers looks a bit inexperienced; but Aaron Sorkin projects take balls - i'm sure the cast of Sports Night had a rough first couple of episodes. the difference with this show, though, is that, although it's looking like an amalgam of Network, Saturday Night Live (i have no choice but to have blind faith that Sorkin and Schlamme know what they're doing with this setting. here's hoping they have a plan), and The West Wing, they already look like they're ahead, only a couple of episodes from already getting it right and running with it. that's what i'm hoping this show does. and actually, quite surprisingly, out of the whole cast, Matthew Perry looks like the veteran here, displaying a apparent ease with the material. Amanda Peet, on the other, whom i love, is strangely uninspiring as the new boss taking full charge of this show - for now. that might also be the mystery around her character. after all, this is only the first episode. there's no use judging a series right out of the gate. with that being said (there are a few surprises (a certain Nate comes to mind) and two great song choices, not a bad start), i guess this is a promising debut. let's hope that, after it's set the ground rules up, they do something creative and interesting with this show.

Posted by Anonymous | 7:53 PM |

the Fall 06 TV Season is finally/already upon us with its selection of crappy shows (do they seriously believe most of these are strong enough to last years?), but there seems to be a higher number of good ones this year. here's what my VCR's gonna be looking at while i take a couple of weeks to weed through this season's crop of new shows:

Sunday
CBS THE AMAZING RACE 10 | 8:30PM | 90-minute Season Premiere
FOX FAMILY GUY | 9PM
CTV STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP | 10PM | Monday nights at 10 on NBC

Monday
CBS THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE | 9:30PM

Tuesday-Friday
CTV THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART | 12:05AM
CTV THE COLBERT REPORT | 12:35AM

Tuesday
CBS THE UNIT | 9PM

Wednesday
ABC THE NINE | 10PM | Premieres October 4th

Thursday
CBS SURVIVOR: COOK ISLANDS | 8PM
ABC UGLY BETTY | 8PM | Premieres September 28th
ABC SIX DEGREES | 10PM | Premieres September 21st

is there anything else worth checking out? what about KIDNAPPED? i'm not sure about it.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:14 AM |

BB7 | atrocious chubby-chub-chub hellspawn/waste of sperm Mike Boogie won the $500,000 prize last night (no idea why they didn't give them a million - it's All-Stars, CBS!). i wanted Erika to win but i guess Master Will's powers tranfers onto you when he's not there to collect his cheque. the jury did get some good digs in (including having Alisson tell Erika Boogie didn't even fancy her - awesome. Mike got found out on live television sitting alone in the Big Brother house with the ho in question. awesome) but not as much as i wanted to. i wanted Mike to cry on live tv. that is all. now we can all go back to our normal lives :) good news is, we'll finally have a fresh batch of houseguests come next July.

here we go. the author of today's shooting spree at Montreal's Dawson College (1 dead, 19 injured, some of whom are in critial condition), Kimveer Gill, had a blog/online identity ("had", because he was gunned down by police in a shootout). the media didn't need anything more than his writings and pictures to paint another lazy portrait of a social misfit - Natural Born Killers, Ozzy Osbourne, dark clothing, and fantasies of dying in a hail of bullets like Romeo and Juliet(?). thanks for not making an effort. let the media circus (sadly) begin again.
RIP.

btw, i was floored when i heard the news of gunshots being heard at the college this afternoon. sadly, it is different when it happens in your own backyard. i spent the evening in a weird daze at work. i couldn't put my finger on it. i felt sad for the students who were going through this horrific ordeal. my sympathies to everyone affected by this tragedy.

Posted by Anonymous | 12:16 PM |

shit. Basement Jaxx released another album? damn.
also, go get your Justin fix. 10 out of the 13 songs have been produced by Timbaland. the first half is strong, but the second one lags with some weak balladry. and Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton's Knives Don't Have Your Back -- anyone heard? is it worth getting? thanks. oh, and TV On The Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain is out in North America this morning. i guess it's back to good music for a while, uh?

Posted by Anonymous | 10:19 AM |

so the new TV On The Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain, has 3 extra tracks for the north american release??? count me in. i mean, i was in already, even during this money-saving year, but that's fucking awesome news.

that is all. enjoy the rest of your day.
i shall try to watch a movie. (for the first time in a month or two;) damn you, Big Brother feeds!! told ya it would take over my summer.)

btw, since i can't post comments on every that picked this story up (on a slow news day, apparently; that interview's 2-3 years old now), will you please chill the fuck out about Ben and the 'interview girl'? Affleck wasn't molesting her. they've known each other for years and that was their thing. he came on to promote his films and they had chemistry. he flirted with her pretty overtly but it was a show. they had fun. you can't tell from the interview but her show's more about film than the glamour of its industry, but she always lost it with Ben. she got all giggly for half an hour and it was fun to watch :) end of rant. let's move on, shall we? thanks.

Posted by Anonymous | 6:20 PM |

BB7 | blah...

track down the Housecalls with Will.
much more entertaining and fullfilling than this dreck of a Final Two.

ps. i wanna see Erika win (obviously - the other option is unthinkable; plus, she decimated Chilltown). but i also wanna see Boogie cry in shock again and be bitter on national television because 'one of these bitches' took his money away from him :) that would make this Final Two worthwhile for me. and the Jury going off on Boogie during questioning.

the NHL season is quickly coming upon us (the rookie camp started in Toronto this week). i, for one, am extremely excited for hockey to start again, but also because we, the Montreal Canadiens, have made some HUGE improvements over last year's already tasty group. they also made sure to leave one spot open for a rookie this year. we have a bunch of really talented players, but hopes are for Mikhail Grabovsky (who, from what i understand, was finally cleared to be eligible to play in the NHL this season) to make the team. just check out the penalty shot at 0:50.

Posted by Anonymous | 3:16 AM |

BB7 | okay. i just watched tuesday's show and i must say, even though i was 85% sure Janelle would make the move, Boogie's expression (and subsequent asshole fuming) after the vote was PRICELESS and worth the whole 40 minutes on its own. as was Will's apparent shock while talking to Julie. he was nervous under all that calm demeanour. moving on. i haven't caught the feeds since monday night so i might just be blindly talking against events here but - arguments against Erika making a scumbag move:

1. everyone in the Jury would instantly hate her, thus voting for Boogie on top of his/Will's amazing strategy.
2. if she is to only get 2nd place anyway, why make everyone hate you for it? why not be the hero who turned the game around?

again, she might have flat out said she'd take Boogie by now, but my instincts tell me she's smarter than that and was honest with Janelle when she made the deal with Janelle. there's no reason why she'd go back to Boogie.

ps. hilarious Georgie fan video.
psionicdotnu*

pps. i hope no one runs over Erika's mother.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:43 AM |

BB7 | i'm almost over BB right now. this is just disheartening, to see Janelle get so much power and be in the highest position yet make the stupidest moves possible, thanks to Mr. Will Kirby. her mind's gone. it's been warped. she still has one great play to make this week, and has about four days left to make her decision. but she has to realize that she needs to do it on her own. letting Will chaperon her is *not* a good idea. Erika needs to move her ass and tell her Will has been playing her all along. thankfully, i do think she is the person who'll do it.
i'm praying for that to happen. (praying.)

forgot to mention, i bought my first cd's of the past two months(!) this friday:) i used to buy cd's every week. i guess i had/still have some catching up to do with my collection. having a backlog like that, especially since i'm trying to save my money this year, is a good thing. so i'm only buying the necessary stuff. onwards:

Posted by Anonymous | 3:15 PM |

uhh........ i want this. my birthday's in october. thanks.

Posted by Anonymous | 12:41 AM |