I decided I don't want to be one of those people who always introduces their blogs by calling out what day it is. Yes, it's Friday. But am I going to open with a big spiel about how awesome it is that it's Friday? No, no I'm not.
- Okay, so is it just me or is Facebook getting totally out of control? I mean, I was never too up in arms when they introduced the news feed, but I guess it's just the combo of constantly being force-fed everyone else's status updates and useless crap, and the huge influx of random people joining Facebook that is making it totally insane of late. In the last few weeks, I've gotten friend requests from about 8 people I've either never met or have never talked to more than once. My philosophy is this - if you are going to facebook-friend (yes, that's a verb now) someone you've never met, at LEAST send an accompanying message explaining what your deal is, to assure me you're not some random spambot.
All of the recent facebook-related absurdity came to a head last night, when I received a friend request from ... HYGIENA of Who Wants to Be a Superhero fame. Now, don't get me wrong, I am both honored and surprised that a reality TV star on one of the few reality shows I've ever watched, who I've never met before in my life save the time I walked by her booth at WizardWorld, would decide to add me as a facebook friend. Seriously, it was kind of cool. I mean, the woman was a superhero christened by Stan Lee himself. But, you have to admit, when Hygiena is friending you on facebook, it has to be looked at as something of a jump-the-shark moment for the site, if ever there was one. I mean, good lord, I remember when it was me, a few of my college pals, and nobody over 22 had a clue what this facebook thing was. Ahhh ... those were the days.
So here are my conclusions, or "takeaways" as people seem fond of saying in the corporate world: a.) Facebook is not freakin' linked in. If we've never even met before, then AT LEAST do the courtesy of introducing yourself and explaining why on god's green earth you want me listed among your online buddies. If you're a reality-TV superhero, you are excepted. b.) Yes, it's still very scary that people not of the "Facebook generation" are now so prevalent on freaking facebook. But geez, if your picture is a corporate ID photo or something, I don't think I can be your friend. And finally, c.) for you young'uns out there, I'm not saying that you should become lame and boring just because your boss is now probably on facebook ... but come on, THINK. Do you really want the entire world to know what Desperate Housewive you're most sexually compatible with or whatever? You do? Welllll okay then.
- Man, I've yet to have a chance to bid farewell to the man, myth, and icon CHARLTON HESTON. Now, like many, I have not been a fan of the man's politics since I began to realize that he was a right-wing gun-rights advocate. But also like many, I grew up with Heston's movies and came to know him as one of the first real "movie stars" that I recognized and could pick out in a movie. Of course, this was largely because, pretty much every year as a kid attending Solomon Schechter Day School, we'd like clockwork be shown The Ten Commandments every year around Passover time. I always really enjoyed the movie though, even if it was ridiculously long and we rarely got to watch the whole thing, in large part because of Heston's innate awesomeness as Moses. The guy just seemed like he was some real-life pulp novel character come to life - larger than life in every way, with that unmistakeable line delivery that gave all of his dialogue an epic weight. Suffice it to say, long before Jack Bauer had a virtual trademark on the term "gravitas," Heston was the very definition of the word. Few actor's today could pull off the type of "man's man" roles that Heston regularly brought to life, from Planet of the Apes to Soylent Green to Ben Hur, from El Cid to Touch of Evil to The Omega Man, Heston was, in his prime, the definitive alpha male, the go-to guy when you needed a Last Man on Earth, and a man who truly made you believe that he was hearing the voice of God himself. And who can forget his classic cameo in Wayne's World II? Can't we get a better actor, indeed. So while some may remember him as the guy who wanted us to pry that gun from his cold dead hands, the film fan in me is simply sad that one of the greats has passed away. So get your stinkin' paws off me, you damn dirty ape, as I separate the man from the politics for a moment and pay tribute to a big-screen icon.
- Now, as much as I do want to separate the great actor from the controversial politics that later became his trademark, one can't help but think of the ongoing gun control debate in the wake of Mr. Heston's passing. Partly, the issue is also on my mind thanks to a great editorial written by Stephen King in last week's Entertainment Weekly. The main thrust of King's op-ed? That while it's easy to point fingers at the media and the entertainment industry, and critique their roles in real-life tragedies like last year's horrific incident at Virginia Tech, the fact remains: that psycho would NEVER have been able to harm anyone without the aid of a gun. I know, thank you Mr. Obvious, but it's a valid point nonetheless, and worth stating because the NRA crowd tends to blame every conceivable factor OTHER than the guns as contributing to violence. Newsflash: society will ALWAYS have its share of psychopaths - why are we giving them the means to go on mass murder killing sprees?
To read the whole article by the Master of Horror, click below:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20188502,00.html
TV STUFF:
- So last night was huge for fans of good TV. THE OFFICE and 30 ROCK were back, baby. 30 Rock was the TV show that, you may recall, I named as the #1 show of 2007. The comedy was on an absolute tear prior to the Writer's Strike, with its second season leaps and bounds ahead of its first. Some episodes had such nonstop laughter that there was barely time to recover from one joke to take in the next. The Office, meanwhile, had just begun to regain its footing prior to the strike. The season began on somewhat shaky ground, with a string of hour-long episodes that seemed to spread the comedy too thin. However, just prior the Strike the show seemed to take a darker turn, really ramping up the awkwardness level and starting to really get into the warped psyches of Michael and Jan. As I'll get to, last night's ep picked up right where we left off - namely, in a dark and very disturbing place ...
THE OFFICE:
- Wow, last night's ep was the epitomy of strange and disturbing, playing out like a warped version of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? than an episode of a network sitcom. While there weren't a ton of big, laugh-out-loud moments, this was nonetheless a somewhat brilliantly conceived episode, depicting what truly seemed to be the dinner party from hell. As Michael finally convinces Jim and Pam to attend a dinner at he and Jan's house, it's clear that we are about to go down the rabbit hole, so to speak. Overall, this was a funny, tragi-comic ep that really took a turn to the darkside, with Jan fully outed as a complete psycho-bitch and Michael as a whipped lapdog stuck in the relationship from hell. Dwight and Andy gave a few moments of levity / comic relief, but man, there was a whole lot of awkwardness otherwise. I hope that the show doesn't get too entrenched in giving us a weekly mind$#%^ in place of more typical workplace-derived comedy, but as a standalone ep that played like some crazed theater of the absurd play in the mode of Edward Albee, this was indeed something you don't see every day on TV.
My Grade: A -
30 ROCK:
- My expectations and hopes for 30 Rock had been astronimically high going in to last night's return episode, but that was tempered, by necessity, by the fact that I knew that on Day 1 after the Strike, there was no way 30 Rock was going to be quite as good as I wanted it to be gresh out of the gates. So I went into last night's ep with an odd mix of optimism and skepticim. What did I think after having watched the episode? Well, this was a decent installment of 30 Rock, but certainly not at the same level as the instant-classics that made me declare the show the Best of 2007. Firstly, some of the key ingredients to the show's success were either missing or under-represented. Tracy Morgan stole the show whenever he was given a line last night. His uncharacteristic call for everyone to calm down near episode's end was hilarious - unfortunately it was one of only a few lines for Tracy on the night. And where was Jenna? Jane K's loopy starlet has increasingly become one of 30 Rock's highpoints, so she was very conspicuous by her absence. Overall, I think the main plot as well as the subplots just felt a little bland. While Tina Fey's attempts to hide her negative comments towards Jack (that he was a "grade-A moron") produced a few funny moments (loved the little cutaway that compared Liz Lemon to Cathy of comic-strip fame - aaak!), overall it didn't feel substantial enough to anchor an episode. Unfortunately, the two subplots didn't hold up all that well either. The CONCEPT of MILF Island is so inherently funny that it didn't need any truly stellar jokes to make it comedic ... but ... it wouldn't have hurt either. So while I was chomping at the bit to see how 30 Rock would portray this hilarious concept, it surprisingly turned out to be kind of just a blah Survivor parody rather than something totally absurd and hilarious as I had hoped. Next up, there was a lame, ripped-from-The Simpsons subplot of Frank getting his hand stuck in a vending machine ... I mean, seriously? The 30 Rock I know would never resort to such a pedestrian and been-done B-plot. So yeah, all in all there WERE some funny lines - Tracy, Kenneth, and Liz all delivered a few classics. But plot-wise, this was not a 30 Rock for the ages, indicating that it may yet take a few episodes for the show to once again get back into its "Best Show On TV" groove.
My Grade: B -
- Finally, it's almost time for the NBA PLAYOFFS! While things in the East will likely be a snooze-fest until the conference finals, the West is set to explode from the outset this year with teams like Dallas at the bottom of the brackets who are themselves legit championship contenders. Last night, I took in a little NBA action in glorious HD, and man was it crystal clear. Now, as for who should get the MVP award, my pick is KEVIN GARNETT. Here's my reasoning -- KG got traded to the Celtics, and their team had the single biggest turnaround in league history, most of it thanks to the efforts of the Big Ticket. While Kobe is definitely a legit candidate, let's not forget that for the first part of the season, the Lakers were not that great. If anything, the addition of Pau Gasol triggered greater consistency from Kobe, renewed Lamar Odom's energy, and reignited the team as a whole. Kobe was a constant, but was he the IMPACT player of the year? Nope. Now - Chris Paul's numbers are huge, and he is also surely a legit MVP candidate ... but again I think you can look at the way the Hornets play, who their supporting cast is, and look at Paul as more of the bigest cog in that wheel rather than the lynchpin. Meanwhile, KG goes to a new team, turns around the whole franchise, and is putting up huge numbers to boot. The Celtics are THE team in the NBA this season, and KG is their franchise player. This is why he should be considered MVP.
- Okay, I'm out - have a great weekend and ... oh my god, I was wrong. It was earth, all along. Yes they've finally made a monkey - yes they've finally made a monkey - well they've finally made a monkey out of me-eeeeeeeeeee.
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