Category Archives: television

The Summer Doldrums

The doldrums in television viewing, that is. There’s not a lot new going onto our Tivo these days. We had an odd hiccup with our DirecTivo last week where a couple of shows that were on our season pass list didn’t get recorded. One of these was Pirate Master, which I’d been really wavering about. We decided that since we missed the episode and really didn’t care, that was a good indication that we could delete the season pass. I read through the episode recap and even the recap was boring, so I think was made the right decision. Creature Comforts is, I suppose, every bit as good as the original UK version, but given that that had limited appeal to me (it’s a cute novelty, but wears thin after that), I’ve pretty much lost interest. Deadliest Catch is ending its season this week, and the After the Catch specials, while occasionally interesting, have gotten a bit meandering. I think a single two-hour special would have been better than four one-hour episodes. And heck, takaza even took Rescue Me off the season pass list when he got partway into the season premiere and found he didn’t really care what went on.

So what’s left? Well, we still are whittling our way (slowly) through Season 2 Doctor Who. We seems to be accumulating a surprising number of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations as well. Coming up soon, we have Eureka premiering on July 10 (Dan enjoyed the first season, and I suppose I can check out the second season, assuming they can keep Matt Frewer from chewing the scenery), Burn Notice on June 28 (interesting premise AND Bruce Campbell – that’s enough for me to check it out), the third season of Doctor starts July 6 on Sci-Fi, and of course the last three episodes of Drive are getting burned off on July 4th.

All in all, this seems a good time to read some books 🙂

Oh, and finally: a cool random SFW link: They’re Made Out of Meat, a short film based on a short story by Terry Bisson. For cable geeks out there, it’s notable because it stars Ben Bailey, host of Cash Cab.

Thursday linky-links!

Not too much going on this week; I’m still slogging through our MP3 library, culling out the duplicates. I’m through the J’s now, and probably have another 1,500 files or so to go. I went ahead and popped for the $20 license for MediaMonkey because the library synchronization features are quite useful, though I just wish it had a free plug-in to play over Airtunes. I may look into something like Airfoil for that, though, since it’d be nice to have something that works on all applications.

That aside, I’ve come across some interesting links to pass along. On a side note, I’ve started using del.icio.us to mark stuff that interests me. Feel free to add me to your network!

The Webby Awards have been announced, which is always a neat way to find new and interesting sites.

The above list led me to Truthdig (“Digging beneath the headlines”), which led to an utterly fascinating article that provides a thumbnail history of the Shias, the Sunnis, and the Wahhabis, which provides context for the present-day struggle for Iraq. The article is written by Scott Ritter, formerly a U. N. weapons inspector in Iraq.

We’ve recently started watching Deadliest Catch. The show has really impressed me, not so much because Alaskan crab fishing is so fascinating, but because the producers have done an amazing job in constructing a compelling narrative. I was pretty bummed to see that Captain Sig Hansen was actually in this area for an appearance (right near the MFF hotel, actually!) and we missed it. (Though I have to admit my favorite captain is Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie. He strikes me as the kind of guy it would be a hoot to go out drinking with.)

We’re looking to finally put the smoker that Dan got last year to use this weekend. In poking around on the web, I found The Virtual Weber Bullet, a great site with good information on grilling and smoking (the Weber Bullet is a nickname for a popular smoker/grill). We’re thinking about smoking some pork this weekend, and they have an extremely useful article on pork selection, preparation, cooking, and serving.

Funny, now I’m hungry…

Hump Day Musings

Not a whole lot going on this week, and it’s really quite nice. With our Heroes on hiatus that has left us free to watch other good stuff like The Dresden Files (which, though technically set in Chicago, is actually shot in Toronto. Not quite as bad as Vancouver, which “looks like Boston, California”), and accumulated low-priority animation shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. Tonight I think we’re going to check out the second episode of BBC America’s Robin Hood and the premiere of FX’s The Riches, which got rave reviews (and the idea of Eddie Izzard maintaining a strict American accent amuses me to no end).

Thanks to everyone who responded to yesterday’s call for help at AC. I’ll be in touch with you soon, trust me. We also need to have a little sit-down with roho to discuss the feasibility of point-of-sale software for Artists Alley; this is probably something for implementation in future years. Something like that could really streamline payout, but as has been noted in the past, what is it worth to knock twenty minutes off a 45-minute process that we do three times each year?

Yesterday’s weather was fabulous, just with the high just a hair over 70 and breezy. I opened up all the windows and aired the place out (and discovered a missing screen on one of the windows in the master bedroom). Relaxing in the living room with the breeze blowing was just lovely. Of course, because it’s Illinois in March, the weather today has taken a turn for the icky, with the temperature crashing down into the 30’s by tonight and a chance of rain and snow.

Finally, in case anyone missed it, the fursuit photos that nymphara took at Midwest FurFest are now available online. If you want a high-quality copy of any of the pcitures, just drop takaza a line.

Consumer Whoredom!

Well, I said we were gonna do it and we did it – we now have a shiny new washer, a shiny new dryer, and a shiny new TV. Yeah, High Definition would have been nice, but considering that the cost of HD only starts with the TV – then you have the extra fees for the satellite, the tuner, the extra-spiffy DVR – we decided we can wait a little while. The best part? They all get delivered and installed on Sunday! (barring any snowstorms, of course)

Television Made Me Stupid

This past weekend was pretty good, actually. I declared on Friday that, dammit, we were going out for dinner. After a year of driving past L. Woods Restaurant on Lincoln in Lincolnwood (right by the dreaded Purple Hotel), we agreed that it was time to check it out. Now, I’ll admit I had some trepidation – the place always seems packed, and it was a Friday night. A quick check on Metromix showed that the entrees were in the $8-15 range, and that it was a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant (a local chain of restaurants that are pretty much excellent in quality). Takaza phoned and we were told that they took call-ahead seating (i.e. put your name on the list before you get there) so we were off!

We were seated immediately, but the menu…well, $8-15 isn’t quite accurate. I’d say $15-30 is more like it. Not awful, but not what we were looking to spend, either. Fortunately, they had a small section (“The Lighter Menu”) that was essentially their lunch menu for dinner – $10 or so entrees. Hmm, that might work. Dan had the bacon cheeseburger, and I opted for the beef brisket sandwich. Both were OK, but the mashed potatoes that came with mine were excellent, and worth coming back for. The real draw that will bring us back are two things: Sprecher sodas on tap (root beer, cream soda, and orange cream soda), and cooked-to-order desserts. We got the large apple strudel ($12, serves 4) that was divine. I’d also like to try their “Ooey-Gooey Chocolate Cake”. I’m also intrigued by their “Supper Club” menu for six, which is $28 per person for a whole lot of food! (Granted, as Linnaeus points out, for $28 per person you could go to Sal e Carvao or Fogo de Chao, too…).

Saturday was pretty mellow; Dan had to work and I took care of some Midwest FurFest-related stuff, then attempted to take his car over to the nearest Currency Exchange to get new plates. I had the bright idea that I’d avoid the lines at the DMV by taking care of it there, but I didn’t account for the extra $45 they wanted to charge in service fees, on top of the $78 for new plates (they also expected to sell me a new title, but I’m not certain that’s necessary. More research needed on that). So that idea got aborted. That evening, Paul and I had the bright idea that socializing would be good so we went over to LAFF bowling (Dan was smart and stayed home). You know, there’s not much to say; we went, we bowled, we left. There may have been stuff that went on with the rest of the group, I have no clue. We pretty much just stuck to our lane and drank beer 🙂 My bowling was awful, though, and between knee and back problems I dropped out after two games.

On Sunday siriuswolfstar came over early and he and I drove the circuit around Woodfield Mall to collect the last of the information for the MFF Restaurant Guide. His help was very much appreciated! The MFF staff meeting went well and was quite productive. Dinner at Fuddruckers afterwards was quite tasty, and the conversation was quite entertaining and informative.

Not a lot happened yesterday – went to work, did laundry, and we watched the latest Monster House, which I swear is getting more and more stupid (“Let’s see how badly we can bitch up these poor saps’ house!”). Since Paul and I have read Anthony Bourdain‘s excellent book of the same title, we also decided to watch the premiere of Kitchen Confidential on Fox. We made it through about 18 minutes of it before we turned it off and deleted it from the TiVo. Yeah, it was that bad. Think all the stupid parts of “Hell’s Kitchen” meets “Sex and the City” with a dash of every stock sitcom character you’ve ever seen, with awful, self-conscious dialogue.

I’ll be coming in at 6 AM for the rest of the week to make up for the afternoon I’m taking off on Thursday (to be detailed in a later entry). And on Wednesday, Dan and I are going to an eye doctor that woodychitwn recommended so I can get both new glasses (my current ones are five years old and scratched all to hell) and finally get some prescription safety glasses. Hopefully the doctor will be as cute as advertised 🙂 And now, back to that aforementioned work!