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Saturday, February 04, 2006 ( 2/04/2006 06:11:00 PM ) Bill S. I LIKE BOTH THEME SONGS, ACTUALLY – A decent self-reflexive joke from this week's Monk: our hero, feeling the financial pinch because the San Fran P.D. hasn't called him in as a consultant on a recent homicide, has been weakly pressuring Captain Leland Stottlemeyer to be put on retainer. At story's end, Stottlemeyer reveals that he has permission to put Monk on contract – to work on sixteen homicides over the next two years. What about the next year? Monk worriedly asks. We'll see, the police captain tells him. It's the show's best in-joke since an earlier ep made winking indirect reference to the season two shift (from light acoustic rag to broader, fully orchestrated Randy Newman ragtime) in opening theme songs . . . # | Friday, February 03, 2006 ( 2/03/2006 02:07:00 PM ) Bill S. ALWAYS REMEMBER – Okay, just one more . . .  # | ( 2/03/2006 06:31:00 AM ) Bill S. "JUST TO HAVE SOME COMPANY/TO SHARE A CUP OF TEA WITH ME!" - Meet Kyan, the latest member of the OakHaus menagerie. A labrador/golden retriever mix, the pup was born on the day after Thanksgiving and came into our home last weekend. It's our hope to train him as an assistance dog to help with Becky's mobility difficulties, but for now he's mainly just bein' a puppy.  # | Thursday, February 02, 2006 ( 2/02/2006 11:29:00 AM ) Bill S. BLOGROLLIN' – A hectic day at work, but I wanted to note a couple additions to the blogroll I've made over lunch. From Aaron Neathery, I was recently directed to John McElwee's Greenbriar Picture Shows, which appears to primarily focus on promo and publicity material from the studio days of Hollywood. I was immediately won over a series of stills from Boris Karloff at Home. (Particularly like the shot of the horror great holding his dogs in his arms.) From John's blog, I was also encouraged to add Tim Lucas' Video Watchblog into the mix, especially once I noted that Tim has his own list of Masters of Horror entries rated from bottom to top appended to his review of "Haeckel's Tale" – plus a big ugly pic of John Lydon posted on the occasion of the old sod's fiftieth birthday. Now that's some truly Scary Shit . . . # | Wednesday, February 01, 2006 ( 2/01/2006 06:54:00 AM ) Bill S. WHAT I WATCHED IN PLACE OF THE SOTU ADDRESS – Supernatural (A killer truck! – in a lotta ways, this series is turning more into a WB gloss on The Night Stalker than the dead-and-buried official remake) and The Shield (This really is starting to feel like the show's last season, with Vic taking off the gloves and acting the out-and-out villain). Will probably scan the transcript of Bush's address in the next day, but I've really gotten to the point where I actively can't watch or listen to the man for more than a sound byte. I had a similar problem with Clinton but for different reasons: where Bill was so obviously in love with the sound of his own voice that he usually spoke long past my short attention span, Bush's half panicky/half condescending iteration of broad-stroke talking points both unnerve and irritate me as a listener. Some Chief Executives have the gift (think Reagan) for conveying the message that they're in control of everything even when (again, think Reagan) they're not. Though he's gotten incrementally better at standing up and delivering his message, Bush does not have that knack. Even with the sound off, watching Bush speechify makes me nervous about the state of the union in ways I know are unintended . . . # | Tuesday, January 31, 2006 ( 1/31/2006 01:03:00 PM ) Bill S. IT'S NATIONAL GORILLA SUIT DAY! – So let's savor this underlit moment from Barry Mahon's classic, The Beast That Killed Women!  # | ( 1/31/2006 11:24:00 AM ) Bill S. KINGDOM COMING – I read today at Heidi's Place that Century Comics is planning on printing a four trade reprint of Jack Katz's The First Kingdom, one of the first great independent comics series. I was a fan of Katz's book when it first came out in the seventies – wrote the inner cover issue-by-issue synopses for the Bud Plant floppies, in fact – but it's been years since I've pulled out those books and re-read 'em. Perhaps I should do some digging and see how they hold up . . . # | ( 1/31/2006 10:38:00 AM ) Bill S. THIRTEEN MINUS ONE – So Showtime's Masters of Horror has finished its first season, one episode lighter. While the end results have garnered mixed reactions from many horror fans, I generally enjoyed this collection of low-budget mini-horror-flix, if only for the way it seemingly brought guys like Joe Dante back to their Corman-y roots. I know I've touched on individual episodes already, but let's do a quick full run-down of Season One, shall we?
# | ( 1/31/2006 06:07:00 AM ) Bill S. ALWAYS REMEMBER –  # | Monday, January 30, 2006 ( 1/30/2006 09:26:00 PM ) Bill S. WHY YOU CAN'T ALWAYS COUNT ON POP CULTURE TO MAKE YOUR POLITICAL POINTS FOR YOU – So I read on Roy Edroso's site that one of the regulars at NRO's The Corner is please to see Kiefer Sutherland get acknowledged by SAG for his work on 24 because it suggests Hollywood might be "finally catching up on the war on terror." And I watch tonight's ep and see that one of this season's villains – indeed, the man responsible for the death of stalwart President Palmer – turns out to be a neocon prsidential adviser who wants to fabricate a war with oil rich Asian countries by shipping nerve case to that region and making it look as if they have Weapons of Mass Destruction. Hey, Cornerites, are you sure you wanna hang your political power points on this twisty piece of teevee pulp? # | Sunday, January 29, 2006 ( 1/29/2006 11:22:00 AM ) Bill S. KNEE DEEP IN THE HOOPLA – An apt moment in this week's Love Monkey that most pop nerds'll doubtless relate to: in it, Tom Cavanagh's lovestruck A&R man is told his current obsession's Top Five Songs. First four offerings meet with his approval (when she mentions Dylan's "Visions of Johanna," he happily mentally notes that it's not an overplayed Dylan song). But when Julia gets to her fifth, it turns out to be Jefferson Starship's execrable "We Built This City." Which just goes to show that no matter how in tune you may feel you are with the Object of Your Attraction, there'll always be at least one song or group where you'll significantly diverge . . . Sharp use of the Magic Numbers' "Morning Eleven" in the ice-skating scene, incidentally. # | ( 1/29/2006 09:21:00 AM ) Bill S. SHOWTIME WIMPS OUT – Gotta admit I was initially confused to read in Entertainment Weekly that this week's airing of "Haeckel's Tale" was Masters of Horror's season finale. According to the Showtime site, thirteen episodes are supposed to be aired, of which "Tale" is only number twelve – with Takashi Miike's "Imprint" still unaccounted for. Still, listening to an end credits voiceover telling us that new eps of the show will be coming next fall sure gave the impression that the series' first season was over. So what's the story? Digging a bit on the Internet, I learned that "Imprint" is, in fact, not going to be aired on the show – the offering apparently being deemed too "intense" for MoH. This act of namby-pambyism will doubtless will pique horror junkies' curiosity about the film 'til its Anchor Bay DVD release next fall. So how transgressive do you have to be to get kept off a series that (in the case of "Haeckel's Tale") is willing to give you a sex scene 'tween a naked young woman and a rotting zombie, anyway? And am I the only MoH viewer getting vibes of John Carpenter's "Cigarette Burns" on this? # | |
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