Somewhere, Somehow, Somebody Must Have Kicked You Around Some - Back in LA - TOM PETTY - and MORE

Well I am back in Tinseltown, with nary a moment to catch my breath ...

Back to work today, but feeling like my head is a bit clearer after being at home in CT for the last 5 days. To recap:

My brief time back in Bloomfield was a nice getaway, although it was pretty packed seeing as how there was much synagogue-attending and family get-togethers due to the two days and two nights of Rosh Hashana. While I got home Wednesday night tired and somewhat out of it, Thursday I caught up on sleep, then witnessed first-hand progress in action as my parents and I dined at Bloomfield's all-new Ruby Tuesdays. Yes, a Ruby Tuesdays. For a Los Angelino or even a resident of Burbank, where chain restaurants are plentiful, this is surely no biggie. But in Bloomfield, the dining options are very slim, with barely a decent restaurant in sight, necessitating a drive into neighboring towns like West Hartford, Simsbury, or Manchester in order to sample the fares of such family-style staples as Bertuccis, the Olive Garden, 99, Chilis, et al. So to have a fully-functioning (though of course, not-quite bustling) Ruby Tuesdays, mere minutes from our house, is quite a big deal in its own way. Anyways ... we ate at the new Ruby's, then I met up with my BU pal and current political maven Stephanie P. at another staple of New England dining - Friendly's - home of all manner of ice cream sundaes and other guilty-pleasure type stuff. Me and Stephanie caught up over triple-scooped ice cream, and then I returned home (fill in the gaps of this little getaway with copious amounts of channel-surfing and playstation-playing - in fact, I finally defeated God of War!). Friday, after some afternoon shopping, my brother came home from his "studies" at BU via bus, just in time for Shabbat / Rosh Hashana dinner. My grandparents (Zayde and Grandma to us), my uncle Michael and his new wife Laura, me, my brother, my parents, and my cousin Abby partook in plentiful food and drink, and then did it again the next night on Saturday.

Saturday and Sunday mornings were spent at Beth Hillel synagogue in Bloomfield, where the stalwarts all greeted me and wished me hearty "shana tovahs." We had a new Rabbi at Beth Hillel, who I mostly enjoyed and think will help to bolster the flailing congregation a bit. Still, those services, largely comprised of sitting and standing for long periods as a cantor chants an endless collection of prayers in Hebrew, can be a bit of an ordeal to sit through. By the time you get home, all you want to do is go back to sleep and take a nap. And Saturday, that's what I did. Sunday though my dad and I drove with my brother up to Boston, BU specifically, to return Matt to his lowly two-person, one-room dorm. Pretty close quarters to share with someone else, but I will admit that talking with Matt and his roommate Warren made me miss the more fun aspects of dorm-livin', namely staying up until crazy hours watching bad movies. But don't worry, before Matt left I took time to administer a number of soul-crushing videogame drubbings. Unfortunately, time and the gloomy weather didn't permit us to play any basketball, but I felt confident that, had we played, I would have kicked Matt's ass, even if my recent losing record might indicate otherwise.

In Boston, our visit was pretty brief but it did include a long-desired dinner at New England pizza chain Bertuccis. Being back at the BU campus, even if just for a few hours, was cool - hopefully sometime soon I'll get to visit Boston (and NYC as well) for a more extended stay. The three of us also paid a visit to my other grandmother Norma, who lives outside of Boston in Newton.

Monday I flew in from CT to Burbank, which basically took all day from 2:30 pm ET to 7 pm PT. I got home, unpacked, watched some tube, and was done for the night. And now here I am, back in LA.

BOOK REVIEW:

- With so much time on the plane going to and from CT, I had plenty of time to catch up on my reading. With so many different things occupying my time here, I've had a tough time getting much real novel-reading accomplished. So, oddly, for the last two years or so (maybe more ...? three years ...?), I've been reading an amazing, Pullitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Chabon - THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY. But the odd part is, I've read it almost entirely on plane rides to and from CT. It's not that I didn't like the book - in fact, I loved it - I just for whatever reason reserved reading it for plane rides, and since the book weighs in at a hefty and somewhat dense 650 pages, that amounted to a lot of plane rides (not to mention a lot of re-reading, in order to remind myself what had gone before). But now, FINALLY, having finished the book, I can proclaim Kavalier and Clay one of the great modern novels - a true Great American Novel. With its vivid and funny and tragic vision of World War II-era America, centered around two pioneering cousins who, as teens, create a popular comic book character called The Escapist, Kavalier and Clay is an amazing blurring of history and fiction, a sweeping epic that examines the golden age of comic books, prejudice, antisemitism, the holocaust, life, and love. This is an amazing work by Michael Chabon. For me, as a Jew, a lover of World War II-era cultural history, and of comics, this one covered a number of my interests. But really, the book isn't so much about any of those things as it is about the broader themes of escape, freedom, and the American dream. When I finally finished it, it felt like an epic, years-long journey had been completed (though I am now eager to finally check out some of the numerous spin-off material that the book has generated). I could probably write a half dozen essays about the themes and merits of Chabon's work, but for now, I'll just call it highly, highly recommended. My Grade: A +

TV STUFF:

- Last night's PRISON BREAK ... um, wow. I keep finding each new ep endlessly entertaining, and yet each ep seems to be getting more and more into the realm of the totally ridiculous and absurd. Many scenes here were pure head-scratchers, from the crazy guy's encounter with the blond old woman to T-Bag's seduction of and rejection by a desperate housewife ... the show is riding a fine line between funny-cheesy and bad-cheesy. For now I'll say that I'm liking it and don't mind Prison Break being so completely over-the-top and B-movie-ish. I mean, what the hell, it's not like it was ever Citizen Kane in the first place. And the total openness and unpredictablity of the plot is making the whole thing a very fun ride. My Grade: B

- Have not yet watched the 2nd ep of STUDIO 60 ... have heard good things though I am both sensing and feeling a slight weariness with the gravity that is placed by Sorkin on the goings on of a fictional sketch comedy TV show. If only the real SNL felt the same sense of social obligation and bar-setting comedy.

- Finally, NBC's HEROES debuted last night on NBC. This is another tough one for me to write about, as I have all kinds of biases and anti-biases when it comes to this one. I won't grade it, but I will say that I think the pilot stood out among a sea of less-than riveting new fall shows, and even if it had a number of flaws in writing, casting, and acting, I think this is one of the few shows out there that even hints at the same kind of epic mythology or sweeping potential that something like Lost has. The problem is that Lost's extended pilot allowed for the establishment of a number of juicy mysteries -- Heroes' one-hour intro feels very incomplete, and it seems clear that we won't really know what we're dealing with from a plot-standpoint for another few episodes. So far, the characters have been introduced, but there's no villain, no driving force behind the premise, barely any hints at what is to come other than the way-too-vague threat of some kind of nuclear disaster. I think a lot of people like me are seeing a ton of potential in this show, but like a fresh out-of high school NBA draftee, this is a project that might take a while to show that its got game. But that being said, I don't think I'm alone in thinking that the Japanese guy is far and away the coolest thing about the show - have him interact with the other principal characters ASAP.

- Have yet to watch Sunday's Simpsons. Did see FAMILY GUY, which I thought was a big improvement over the last two weeks but still only okay. While it was funny at first to have everyone hate Meg, the joke has really gotten old lately and its just mean-spirited to the point of annoyance. Also, how many Goonies references can one show have? Ugh! I hate the notion that just having an ironic 80's reference on screen is supposedly instantly hilarious. You still need to have a joke! Otherwise, funnier than last week's by far, and some of the Wal-Mart parodies were pretty good. My grade: B -

- Gilmore Girls premieres tonight on the CW. I've heard very mixed reviews but I'm cautiously optimistic, as I think some of the show's diehard fans are way too determined to hate anything that doesn't have the Palladino blessing. I'll wait and see how they write themselves out of the hole they got into last season, with Rory and Lorelia each showing tendencies that were way too quasi-EVIL for such a usually-warm-hearted show.

- I thought Thursday's premiere of THE OFFICE was pretty good. Some of the jokes related to Oscar's outing got funnier and funnier the more I thought about them ("That's what she, or HE, said."), but I am still down on the show's newfound tendency to work doubletime to tug at our emotions a la a more standard sitcom. I know a number of people like the newly-soapy Office, but to me it just feels pandering and false. I think there is a ton of potential though in bringing Jim to a new setting, just please keep him as an everyman and don't make him into some meta-aware sap who mopes around all the time. And more Dwight, please - the look on his face as Michael kissed Oscar was comedic gold. My grade: B+

- I also thought the premiere of MY NAME IS EARL was pretty good. I wonder if many kids watch this show, because it's kind of shaping into a great comedy for older kids, the kind of thing more typical of FOX. Jamie Pressley, amazingly, does a legitimately great job on this show and the premiere was a real showcase for her. I still wish the writing were sharper and the situations more clever, but Earl at least seems to be a comedy that now has a very strong indentity. My Grade: B+

TOM PETTY .. Tonight!

- Well, tonight is a big one. Though I'm still kind of out of it from my trip to CT, there's no rest for those about to ROCK. Because tonight, live, at the Hollywood Bowl, it's TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS and THE STROKES. Yep, last time I saw Tom the opening act was the classic-rock stylings of the Black Crowes, yet this time it's the nu-wave modern rock of The Strokes, a band I've been a pretty big fan of since they debuted while I was in college and were hyped up as the next big thing. This should be an INSANE show. Plus, normally I am rooting for a classic rocker like Petty to stick to his hits (and last time I saw him, he did, thankfully avoiding much material from The Last DJ album), but this go-round, Petty has just released a great new album in Highway Companion, and I would love to hear of my favorite songs off of the new disc live, like Down South or Big Weekend. Also, this is my first time going to the Hollywood Bowl, and I've heard it's a great venue. And, it's close, so hopefully I won't get home too late so as not to be completely wiped out for the work day tommorow. In any case, it should be good stuff, and you can bet I'll give a full report tommorow. In the meantime, just know that for whatever reason I've had "American Girl" in my head for like two months now, and I'm dyin' for a live rendition that will rock my socks off.

"Oh yeah! All right! Take it easy baby! Make it last Make it last ALL NIGHT! She was ... an American Girl!"

Yes, this will be awesome.

So I'm back in LA and ready to rock. Check back soon for the report.