TV. colbert report

i watch the colbert report often. its absolutely hysterical! i love colberts persona as a right wing pundit. the reason i bring up this show is because steven recently had a guest on who had some interesting and insightful things to say. colbert always plays it for laughs, but i was intrigued by what his guest, george will, had to say: "the difference between conservatives and liberals comes down to the basics of freedom and equality. republicans favor freedom and are willing to accept certain inequalities for a free market, democrats favor equality of outcome and are willing to sacrifice certain freedoms for that end."

TV. attack of the show

recently on 'attack of the show' they had a special kevin versus olivia week. the week was filled with fun little games that they played against each other. the played rock paper scissors, ran a maze, raced on rascal scooters, and did tons of other stuff. another part of the week was a bunch of different themes an challenges they had to accomplish. one of the days they did the whole show blindfolded, which would be really tough, considering they usually do the whole show reading from the teleprompter.

one of the shows they did the whole time in fat suits! they often make fun of fat people on the show, and figured that this was their way of apologizing. the great thing was that the fat suits looked really good! with full suits and face make up they looked quite believable. who ever did the make up did an amazing job!

usually they are so skinny, so to see them in the full fat suit and all was quite funny. they played it up the whole show and tried to do break dancing on the floor and everything. these sorts of funny bits are why i still love this show!

(be sure to check out other 'poke it with a stick' contents here!)

TV. cancelled shows

each year they present new shows and do their best to try and hook us on the show. i already watch too much tv, but still, sometimes they get me. but what i am finding out more and more each year is that my viewing habits are quite a bit different than the rest of america. each week i see the top twenty rated shows, and i always find, with rare exception, that i dont watch any of them!

each fall (and now winter) they try and hook me in with their new shows and im sick of it. im not sick of the new shows, thats the problem. i fall for it and watch a couple episodes and get hooked, just like they wanted me to, but then i find that each year all the new shows i started watching get cancelled! argh! the networks have recently started to announce their new schedules for the fall, and i find that so many of the shows left off the list are the ones that i love the most. oh, cruel fate, what have i done to deserve this?

here is a list of the shows i fell for that wont be returning:

carpoolers. i am especially sad to see this one go. they say some shows are unique and need to be given a two episode try, like arrested development or the office. well, this show was one that needed a full season try. at first i didnt care for it and was going to delete it off of my tivo, but then it suddenly started to click and i realized i loved the interplay of the four leads and their life and work together. it was created and written by some of the guys from 'kids in the hall', so if you are familiar with that show you will understand that this show was a little strange at times. jerry oconnell was hilarious, as well as the other guys, especially marmaduke.

cavemen. this show had a lot of bad buzz when it was on, but i actually thought it was a little bit funny. the actual situations the characters got into were lame, but the premise of stereotyping cavemen as a lower class of people really good. it could have really dug into social issues, but too often just reverted to lame sex jokes. too bad, but i wont really miss this one that much.

notes from the underbelly. argh! this show was really fun. it was a pretty basic premise, that of a married couple getting ready for the birth of their first child. the woman who played the lead is really hot, so that made it a lot easier to watch... the best part was the single friends of the main couple- maybe they should build a show around those two instead. hmm...

new amsterdam. this one is about an immortal who has lived for hundreds of years and is now a detective living in new york, kinda like a csi: highlander. in full disclosure, i must admit that ive never actually seen this show. it is one that i saw commericals for and thought was a great premise and was looking forward to seeing it, so i tivoed all eight episodes. there still on there now, but knowing its cancelled i will probably not waste my time and instead just delete them. shoot, i was looking forward to watching them this summer.

back to you. i was never much of a 'fraiser' fan or an 'everybody loves raymond' fan, but for some reason this looked like fun- and it is! the show was hilarious, the writing was witty, the actors were great, and it had a lot of promise to grow into something classic. and really, it had fred willard as a weather man, how could it go wrong?!?

scrubs. this one is a bit different because its not really being cancelled. well, it is being cancelled by nbc, but its being picked up by abc for one last season. so, im not really mad at all about this one, im actually happy because nbc was planning on just killing it. thank you abc!

TV. the indiana primary

last week we here in indiana had a presidential primary for hillary and obama. it was an important primary, but for some reason one of the polling counties took forever to get their results in. it just so happened that that county, lake county, is the very one i live in! oh what fun! for much of the night on tuesday there were news people questioning why my county hadnt turned in results yet, some of them even questioning if there was some wrong doing going on. the highlight to me though, was the mention my county got the next day on the daily show!

GAMES. back on the horse

a while ago i was really obsessed with playing mario galaxy, which i had gotten for christmas this past year. i was eager to play it once i got home from christmas break. i had already put almost 30 hours into it, and was loving it greatly. i brought the wii home and then it happened: the wii broke. nooooo!!! well, let me clarify, it didnt actually break, it still ran quite smoothly. the only problem was that it would not eject the disc that was in it, wii sports. i made the foolish mistake of traveling with it while a game was still inside the system. oops.

for the past two months i have been periodically turning on the wii and pushing eject to no avail. but, with the grace of God, it ejected the disc yesterday! hurrah!!! so last night i finally got to play mario galaxy again- the first time since january 2! and it was glorious...

TV. mad men

after reading so many great review of this amc channel original show, and after it, and its leading man, both won golden globes, i figured i should check it out. over the past several weeks amc has been rebroadcasting the episodes in their original order, so i tivoed them. this past weekend i had a little extra time, so i took the plunge and watched the first three episodes.

first a little background: the show is set in the 1950s and follows the a handful of employees of a new york ad firm. it shows the life and working work of the 'big city' back when women were suppossed to have a roast and a drink ready for their husbands the moment they arrived home from work.

its cool to see the period recreated so perfectly- the offices look perfectly like the retro-futuristic look of the 'modern' 50s, all the cars are huge and wing tiped, and all the men drink like fish and smoke like a chimney. seeing all the characters smoke non stop is such a stark difference from how things are today that its very strange to see. also, its quite jarring to see all these men so openly harass and look down on the women in the office, and show little respect for the wives at home. im sure the rolls are exaggerated, but its still quite strange to see.

so far the storyline has been interesting, watching all the different men deal with the pressures of the job, and trying to deal with their emotions in such a restictive setting. these men arent allowed to show any emotion other than confidence. the ways they deal with whats going on often is the cause of their problems, and often leads to relationships becoming even more distant.

the story is engaging and the perspective on the time period is interesting. it seems they have gained a new viewer.

TV. craigs a citizen!

after a couple years of him joking about it, craig ferguson finally became an american citizen! hes always had jokes like 'i better be careful what i say, they could deport me!' and just a few months ago he challenged everyone to ask their local mayor to accept him as an honorary citizen. he finally took the test, and he passed! last week they showed him at a mass meeting being sworn in, and now he is a full fledged citizen, he can vote and everything!

as a way of celebrating him now being an american, he had on a really cool scottish band called the wicked tinkers. its a cool band made up of guys playing drums, bagpipes, digeridoos, and other strange and fun instruments. they have been on the show once before, they performed on the show as a tribute to his father soon after he passed away. it was really a very moving episode, to be honest. but this time they were there to celebrate! and boy, did they. craig even loosened his tie, grabbed a drum, and joined in! they actually played two songs, and it was a riot! it was fun to see craig genuinely excited and loving it- it was very contagous!

TOYS. hellboy figure

ive been a hellboy fan since about 2001 and have been collecting anything related to him for almost as long. i have half a dozen or more figures, some from the comic, others from the movie. i have all the trade paperbacks of the comics, and the three disc version of the movie, i even have the hardcover 'art of hellboy' book. but recently i came across the coolest hellboy thing ive ever seen: its an 18 inch figure of hellboy. the detail is positively amazing! he has a leather coat, with real working snaps, actual pockets, detailed trinkets hanging from his belt, and even an amazing looking 'samaritan' gun. even the box art is amazing. here are a few more pics of it. its so awesome...

TV. super bowl commercials

i, like many others, watched the super bowl last night. now, im not much of a football fan, but i do enjoy watching every once in a while (and once a year is just about right). the game was fun, it was always close, and for someone who doesnt care who wins, that makes is more enjoyable. mostly though, i watch for the commercials!
here, in no particular order, are my 10 favorite, and my reaction to them:
1. pepsi max- in this one everyone was falling asleep, heads bobbing, while the song 'what is love' played in the background. they become wide awake after taking a sip of pepsi max. kind of funny, but the clincher was when they woke up they kept head bobbing, but this time like the guys from 'night at the roxberry', and then chris katan shows up and is pissed 'aww, come on!' funny!
2. bridgestone tires- a squirrel is in the middle of the road and a car starts coming and he screams, as do all the forrest animals as they watch in terror. the best was a really tiny bug screaming in a really high voice. quite cute.
3. Audi r8- a guy wakes up in his bed and sees a strange dark liquid on his hands, he pulls back his sheets and in his bed is the front end of his jaguar. he screams. a silly take on that 'godfather' scene with the horse head. oh, and the new audi car looks amazing!
4. fed ex- a delivery company uses carrier pigeons instead of other transportation. a guy asks 'how do you ship the big packages?' the camera pulls back to reveal twenty foot pigeons flying around dropping packages and terrorizing the residents of the city. humorous.
5. tide- a guy is being interviewed for a new job, and has a stain on his shirt. the stain starts talking giberish over top of the guy being interviewed. probably my biggest laugh of the night!
6. budweiser- every year they have thier clidsdale horses in a commercial, and this year they show one of them not making the line up and the dalmation telling him hes going to help him train for next year. then we hear 'eye of the tiger' and a rocky-eque training sequence, and the horse getting picked the following year. a smile.
7. iron man- they showed a new preview for the upcoming 'iron man' movie with robert downey jr. now, ever since i saw the first preview a couple months ago i have been giddy as a school girl for this movie! i dont really care for iron man as a comic book character, but for some reason this movie has me geeking out big time! awesome!!!
8. corolla- a guy is put into the car with a sleeping family of badgers and told if he wakes them they will attack him. they they proceed to fire off a cannon near the car. its so quite inside that they dont wake up. then his cell phone rings. oops! kind of funny.
9. sobe life water- a woman starts drinking and all kinds of lizards start dancing. kind of lame, except for the fact that the song playing is michael jacksons 'thriller', and the lizards are doing that cool zombie dance. kudos for the mj nod.
10. amazon.com- justin timberlake gets pulled around to all kinds of crazy places. eventually its shown that a couple girls just downloaded his song and it takes him there. cool effects, but kinda a dumb commercial.

all in all, i would say that the iron man commercial was the best!

TV. golden globes

the golden globes were on last night. usually i get excited for it, i get a bit of a kick out of awards stuff, especially the oscars. but things were a bit different last night than they usually are. due to the writers strike they changed the show alot. they were not able to have any written stuff for the show, and most of the actors and actresses wouldnt have shown up anyway out of solidarity with the writers. so, they were forced to change the show from a fun event with the stars celebrating and drinking too much, into a boring news show where they just announced the nominees and then said who won. boring. it was such a non event that i almost forgot i had even watched it. oh, and they picked some sucky winners. im starting to think that the hollywood foreign press is as lame as everyone says.

this better not happen this year for the oscars, or heads will roll...

GAMES. super mario galaxy

i forgot. im sorry, but i had forgotten. i forgot just how fun video games can really be. i had spent too many nights playing monopoly party on the gamecube, and too many nights playing wii sports. i forgot that a video game can be so immersive and addictively exciting when you really dig into it and let yourself be taken away. im sorry, i wont let it happen again.

for christmas i got super mario galaxy for the wii and figured 'its gotten such good reviews, maybe its worth a try' and boy is it ever! i wasnt much of a fan of the last couple mario games. 'mario 64' didnt do anything for me, and 'mario sunshine' didnt hold my attention, and i think it best if we all just forgot about 'luigis mansion'.

'super mario galaxy' is everything one would hope for in a game. the story is simple, but it leads to such incredible levels and worlds that its so easy to loose yourself in the game.

now, i dont really consider myself a gamer. i am interested in the video game industry and enjoy picking up a controller every now and then, but my attention span for games is usually limited to a half hour. but this one? well, i think over the past four days ive logged in almost 15 hours of game play! the levels are some of the wackiest ive ever seen, the characters are adorable and a blast to control, the enemies are varied and challenging, and the objectives are exciting and interesting. the controls on the wii are some of the most fun and inventive ive ever seen. after about ten seconds it becomes second nature to control that little guy on the screen and jet around on all the different adventures in store. the only draw back from playing so much is the really messed up dreams!

i would talk about it more, but ive got a craving to go play some more! later!

TV. late late show

'hello everybody, and welcome to the late late show, i am your host craig ferguson. its a great day for america...' thats how craig always starts out his show, and tonight was the first time ive heard it in far too long. why? because craigs back on the air!!! ive been waiting eight long weeks for this. along with every other show on tv, it has been affected by the writers strike. now, the strike itself is a good think if it gets the writers more money, but im sick of it and i am glad craigs back on the air. for some reason david letterman got the writers guild to allow writers back to his and craigs show. i dont know how, but im happy.

and tonights episode, let me tell you, was a great one! i knew the strike was coming back in november, and i tried to plan ahead by keeping some episodes in reserves on the tivo for whenever i might need my craig fix. well, that went dry a couple weeks ago, so this is perfect timing for me! tonight craig was in fine form- it was very obvious that he was excited to be back. he was grinning ear to ear the whole monologue and sounded positively giddy the whole time. we was going off on tangents the whole night and making himself laugh just as much as he was making me laugh! there were no guests on the show tonight, rather, they had a bunch of skits to show off the great writing. in one bit he answered a phone call from the governor, but said 'hello?' before he picked up the phone- he started laughing at himself and riffing on it so much that they almost had to scrap the skit because there wasnt going to be enough time!

all i can really say is that im glad hes back on with new shows, i was running out of great jokes i try to pass off as my own material!

GAMES. wii zapper

for christmas i got the wii zapper. its a plastic attachment that you pit the remote and nunchuck into to turn it into a gun style device. its only twenty bucks, and comes with a zelda game. so, i figured id try it out. the game is called 'link's crossbow challenge'. its a fairly basic game, mostly designed just to utilize the zapper attachment. its really quite fun, it involves about 8 levels, each level consisting of three stages. the fun thing about each stage is its variety. now, the game itself is basically a glorified light gun exercise, but it finds many interesting and fun ways to use that premise. the first stage of each level is a target shooting game, basically its like a shooting gallery carnival game. the second stage is a third person shooter where you move around and shoot at the bad guys. the final stage in each level is a first person shooter, which can sometimes be like a duck hunt or lethal enforcer style game. each level is challenging and a lot of fun. a fun aspect of the game is the multiplier for successful hits in a row. if you hit your targets consecutively the point value can jump from 50 to 5000 or more.

it was very fun. i figure a good indicator if its fun level is the fact that a half hour after playing it i wanted to play it again!

THEATER. too much light makes the baby go blind

back when i was in college i was involved in a play called 'nobody move, and nobody gets hurt'. it was a very strange play. we took our idea for the play from a group called the neo-futurists. the basic premise is this: we perform about 40 short plays in 90 minutes. each play is unique- it may be a work of poetry, a monologue, a short drama, or anything else we could think of. the fun twist of the whole thing was that the audience would decide what order we would perform the plays in. we had a clothesline going across the top of the stage and pinned in to it were sheets of paper with the numbers 1-40 written on them. in the audiences playbill would be the titles of all 40 plays. at the end of each short play we would say 'scene', at which point the audience members would yell out the number of what play they wanted to see next. what ever number we heard first would be the next performed.
the play was an astounding success. we quickly sold out each night that we performed, with may people coming to the show multiple times because the order would change the play so much. (for example, if we start off with a silly slapstick play it could influence the mood for when we would get to the more heavy drama plays, and vice versa) we added a couple more shows, but even that wasnt enough to fill the demand. so, about two months later we opened again (with 15 of the 40 plays being new) and performed about 8 more shows to sell out crowds. the show, as strange as this sounds, actually went on tour! at the beginning of the summer our college has a drama group go around to different high schools (who are still in class) and perform, and we were asked to do it that year. unfortunately i backed out at that time, i had summer job commitments and all, but they went on the road and had a great time with a replacement actor.
anyway, the structure for the play was lifted from the neo-futurists who perform in chicago and every weekend they perform their version called 'too much light makes the baby go blind'. ive been living close to chicago for over 4 years now, and i finally went down and saw the original. a couple friends and i went one saturday night and had a great time! part of the fun for me was just reliving my time in college, but it was also cool to see how these professionals work the idea. they were quite a bit more extreme than we were, they would pour water and shoot mustard at each other, and other things that we didnt do (mostly we didnt want to have to worry about the clean up...) it was also cool to talk to my friends who went with about the experience from their fresh perspective- it seemed perfectly normal to me, but they thought it was really strange. and fun.

AUDIO BOOKS. stardust

last weekend aaron gave me a copy of the 'stardust' audio book. i knew it was going to be a tough drive home for me, having not gotten enough sleep the night before, so i figured a book on cd would help keep me awake. well, it worked!

i finally finished it earlier this week, and totally loved it! i was already quite familiar with the story. i had read the book a couple summers ago, and saw the movie in the theater with jeffry lee a couple months ago. but what really got me about this audio book was the power of the spoken word. it is read by neil gaiman himself (hes the author, if you werent aware), which was quite a delight. it always seems cooler when the original author is able to read his own stuff aloud.

the book is more different from the book than i remembered (i know, very poor sentence structure, get over it). when i saw the movie i remembered bits and pieces from the book, and thought they came pretty close to what was written. now, looking back, there were many big changes. but, fortunately, all the changes made sense and would have been really hard to do the book stuff on film. and the movie did do a good job of keeping the spirit of the book.

listening to the book on cd was a lot of fun! i havent listened to a book on cd in a long time, so it was fun to have that experience again. granted, some times its hard to focus on the story and the road, but it was great to hear little clips of the story through out the week as i drove in little ten to fifteen minute bursts. all week ive been looking forward to driving around a bit.

now that ive got the audio book bite, i went out and got my next listen: 'measure of a man' by sidney poitier. ive wanted to read this one for a while, but once i saw that the audio book is read by poitier himself, i figured its a no-lose deal.