September 2008 Archives

As with many of the dvd collections I watch after the kids go to bed and I happen to have a little free time to watch, I found the highly acclaimed HBO series, Six Feet Under, after it had already gone to dvd. Of course, the benefit to this is not having to wait until the next season begins. I can watch an episode a night, or week, or whatever. No cliffhangers keep me in suspense or hold me hostage wating for the next release in the steady stream of never-ending drama.

If you haven't already added Six Feet Under to your must-see-list I highly encourage you to stop waiting and do it immediately. You're missing out if you don't.

In a nutshell, the Fisher Family, who happen to run a funeral home in Southern California must finally face the reality they deal with on a daily basis. Only this time it hits close to home when Nathaniel Fisher ( Richard Jenkins ) is killed in a car accident on his way to pick up his eldest son, Nate ( Peter Krause ) who is on his way home for a visit. While at the airport, Nate happens to meet Brenda Chenowith ( Rachel Griffiths ) and they have a brief, but satisfying, sexual encounter. However, their relationship grows over time. While Nate may have found a way to escape home, the thought of being a funeral director and any other responsibilites to the family, he decides to stay and help run the family business. Nate eventually finds a steady relationship with Brenda and her psycho family including her brother Billy ( Jeremy Sisto ), a manic-depressive and his manipulative mother. That is until and old flame, Lisa ( Lili Taylor ), reveals she's pregnant. The two marry but her death will haunt him for years to come.

Nate's brother, David ( Michael C. Hall ), is the son who has taken the responsibility of running the funeral home with his father. He's also gay, but hasn't really come out of the closet yet. This causes quite a few realtionship problems with his lover, Keith ( Matthew St. Patrick ). Keith wants him to come out and believes that David must do it to show that he isn't ashamed of Keith. Drama ensues.

Additionally, there's Claire ( Lauren Ambrose ), Nate and David's agnst-ridden sister who seems to have her own set of problems with finding the right guy. Lover after lover come and go as do her interests and passions.

Last, but not least by any means, there is Ruth ( Frances Conroy ). She's the epitome of motherhood. The support system, the loyal wife, the mom who seems to be moddled after June Cleaver. But upon her husband's death she soon finds she needs more out of life. She too tries to find love in the arms a few men and ultimately marries George Sibley ( James Cromwell ). However, James has his own psychological problems. Finding that he is yet another person she must care for, her faith in the relationship flounders.

Of course, I haven't revealed everything here. There's quite a bit more to the storyline and an outstanding cast of characters of which I've only mentioned a few. However, you'll find each episode keeps you wondering what will happen next. What else could possibly test these people even more?

Now, if you've already watched the series I'm sure you have a favorite character. Personally, I tend to waver between Claire and Nate. I'm not sure which I enjoy more than the other.

Have a favorite episode or something you'd like to share?

I imagine that, like myself, most people are watching the progress of this huge bailout request by Paulson and Bernanke that is creating a huge debate right now. Judging by what I personally am reading, the common thread appears to be that people are not reacting favorably to the idea.

I've read quite a few articles from quite a few sources today.

The common responses tend to be:

• People don't believe the taxpayers should be responsible for the failures that brought us to this point.
• People object to writing a "blank check" for one person to cash and spend as he sees fit without oversight or responsibility.
• People believe the money will, in a sense, reward the behavior that caused this trouble.
• People believe the money is only going to help the wealthiest people and shaft those who are struggling.

How most of this whole, big, huge, ginormous problem came to be is outlined in this illuminating article at Kiplingers. It's a great read and I learned quite a bit I didn't already know.

The one thing about this whole mess that really bugs me is when I read comments that are really negative towards the home-buyers facing the whole mess of foreclosure. For example, when I read something like:

It's people buying houses they couldn't afford in the first place that got us into this mess.

Well, who does? Most people don't do that. And I find it difficult to believe that the vast majority of people did do that. That's not saying that no one does, but still . . . How many people buy homes expecting they will be laid off? How many people buy homes expecting they or someone they love will suffer a debilitating illness?

Personally, I'm not in favor of the bailout. I don't understand why the companies in danger were allowed to get so large that their failure would also mean the collapse of our economic system without some kind of government intervention at the taxpayer's expense.

Anyway, just my two cents for the day. Feel free to chip in your's . . .

With a slight spring in my step I walked to the curb to cross the street and go back to work. Every so often, I run across ( well not literally run, but you get the idea ) the street to the gas station to buy a pop or something at lunch.

As I stood in line my eyes wandered the registers and I spotted the lottery signs. The current Powerball jackpot is up to $176 million dollars. If by chance you should happen to live for another 20 years, of course, you could get that on a payment plan and take the whole thing. The other option is to take a lump sum which is $89 million ( before taxes ).

I found it funny as I crossed the street that I was already beginning to figure out how to spend it. Let's see - finish paying off the student loans, pay off the rest of my car, set up trust funds for the kids . . . but then I caught myself.

Oh my god!! Was I too late? Did I already jinx it? You're just supposed to put the ticket in your pocket and forget it about until the numbers get called. Then as you find out a day later, through the newspaper or television or radio, that, "Hey those numbers sound familiar? Those are the numbers that I had on my . . ."

Then, as you frantically comb through a pile of dirty laundry searching for it . . . your GOLDEN TICKET . . . you praise whomever might possibly be responsible for this moment of fortune to shine upon your life.

I don't usually buy lottery tickets. Go ahead, call me an idiot for falling for the "poor tax" that suckers in people like me. The lure of the sweet side of life beckoned and I answered the call. What can I say? Momentary weakness? Boredom? The faint glimmer of hope in a life filled with drudgery?

By virtue of the fact I have gone on to post this, my chances are null. The odds are insurmountably stacked against me. I'll be lucky if even one number comes up. But really I should have known this before I bought the ticket.

If luck were a disease, I have a natural immunity.

One of the feeds that I subscribe to is Wired Magazine. I saw this article about the kid that hacked Palin's email account at Yahoo! and just kind of shook my head in disgust.

I, in no way, condone what this kid did. Personally, if he was my kid, I would most likely eliminate the possibility of him ever using a computer, watching television, playing video games, or anything remotely related to enjoyment for a long, long, long time. But as it stands he will most likely be charged with a crime and put on display as an example and deterrent for the whole world to see.

Should it really be that way? My argument is not that he didn't break the law or only broke it a little bit and therefore deserves no punishment. If someone broke into my email account I would most certainly be furious.

What intrigued me the most were some of the comments I read:

This "hacker" deserves to spend a whole lot of time in jail. Here's hoping the Feds catch his a** soon.

and

"poor kid"?? really? do you live in bizzaro world? he broke in to someone's private email account, then posted the information to a hacker forum. her privacy is violated and you support the "poor kid."

disagree with her politics. but the hacker violated several laws and should receive a lengthy jail sentence.

Seems to me people get a little outraged over stuff like this. And rightly so, as I said I'd be furious. But a lengthy jail sentence?

Why aren't people demanding something else? Like a little more security put in place to protect from this kind of stuff happening. Why was it so easy to break into her email account? It seems all that was needed to reset her password was the answer to few questions that were easily found by a few Google searches. Do you really consider your email account private if all you have to do is answer a few very common and simple questions to reset your password?

Where is the outrage when an unprotected wireless network exposes millions or records of customer data? Where is the outrage when unprotected laptops are stolen and people's credit is destroyed?

Where is the outrage when our phone calls and email are subject eavesdropping by our own government?

Did you really think your Yahoo! email account was secure in the first place?

Seems to me that people are all to eager to throw a college student in prison, but I don't hear anyone asking questions about the security in place that should have prevented the breach.

Have an opinion? Feel free to weigh in . . .

I never really got into Jericho while it was actually on tv. As a matter of fact back when it started I predicted that it wouldn't last. However, after watching both seasons back to back I've come to the determination that it wasn't that bad of a show.

In a nut shell, Jake Green ( Skeet Ulrich ), is on his way home to see the family in Jericho, KS after being gone for several years. Little does the unsuspecting town know that within a few hours 25 American cities will be destroyed by a rogue band of terrorists using nuclear truck bombs. The closest one that affects Jericho is detonated in Denver, CO.

The town loses its head briefly, but the strong leadership of Jake's father, Johnston ( Gerald McRaney ), pulls them together. Meanwhile, life goes on as struggles with generating power, finding food, keeping their town secure from threats and medical emergencies continually test them.

The town has no knowledge of the fact that the terrorist plot to destroy the US was not an external threat from Iran and North Korea as the media ( once up and running again ) tells them, but it was homegrown. After the attacks the government is split into three splinters each fighting for control. The remnants of the past government is centered in Ohio. Texas and Cheyenne represent powers that would like to take control. However, only Robert Hawkins ( Lenny James ), a CIA agent who had infiltrated the terrorist group and has one of the nuclear devices meant to go off, knows the truth. The same terrorist group that planned the attack is centered in Cheyenne and trying to take control of the country. What's even worse is that once the dust settles, the military under orders from Cheyenne, is trying to put the country back together using private contractors ( a group of mercenaries known as Ravenwood ) under the guidance of J & R, a corporation. But the new government is nothing more than a corrupt department of J & R with evil intentions that soon become known to the citizens of Jericho.

It doesn't take much imagination to substitute a few names here and there and wonder if this could really happen here. Substituting KBR ( Halliburton ) for J & R and Blackwater for Ravenwood, a person could actually ask the question and come up with their own answer.

Tonight I'm watching the final episode which happens to be the alternate ending. The one that was broadcast on tv was just a little too feel good for my taste. Looking back, I do kind of wish that there was one more season because I'd like to have seen the series drawn out more with a story or two developed around a couple of the other characters.

What say you, Jericho fans?

Somewhere over the ocean, in mid-flight through a turbulent thunderstorm, a passenger in obvious distress takes out what appears to be some sort of device to give himself an injection. Could it be a drug to help him relax? Could it be for an allergy?

I guess not. After he takes it not only him, but all the people on the plane dissolve into a horrific pile of goo leaving only their skeletal remains behind.

After isolating the plane on the ground the lovely ( pic to the left ) Agent Olivia Dunham ( Anna Torv ) is the FBI agent tasked to solve the crime - well, she and her lover, John Scott. They track down the source of the plot to a storage facility where John is contaminated by an explosion and left in a comatose and gooey, translucent state.

Meanwhile, back at FBI HQ, the fearless Agent Dunham, through a grueling process of search queries uncovers the fact that an imprisoned scientist, Dr. William Bishop ( John Noble ) was doing research in exactly this area. Translucent skin, liquefied human bodies, the kind of stuff the CIA masturbates to, you know. Since the good doctor can only be accessed if an immediate family member accompanies a visitor, the agent enlists Peter Bishop ( Joshua Jackson ), the doctor's reluctant son.

After a quick flight to Iraq to pick him up it's back to the good ol' USA to set up the lab in Harvard, get a cow, drop some acid, isolate Agent Dunham in a sensory deprivation chamber in her underwear ( yeah baby ) so she can get into John's dreams and see the face of the bad guy and solve the mystery - thereby saving John Scott and the world in one fell swipe. Well, strike that - John has to die because he turns out to be a bad guy and it's one great big conspiracy to destroy the whole world. Therefore, the mad scientist, his son and Agent Dunham must team up to save the world from utter destruction under the guidance of Agent Dunham's foe Phillip Broyles ( Lance Reddick ).

Sound a little far fetched? Well aside from Agent Dunham in her underwear, that is. She really did - and it was cool, and she was hot.

Yes it did kind of require that the viewer go ahead and just believe. But here's the thing . . . as a person who loved the X-Files, I'm okay with letting these little leaps of faith get in the way of giant, gaping logic holes. I'll let them slide with a simple request:

More scenes with Anna Torv in her underwear and a little more focus on making the story just a tad bit more believable. We need a good replacement for the X-Files and this could be it.

The chemistry between the characters is pretty good and the premise of the series could keep me watching - as long as the writers can create more compelling storylines with a little more attention to detail.

Will this one last? Let me know how you feel about Fringe . . .

Who says it isn't every teenage boy's fantasy to have a robot? A girl robot.

Well perhaps if that robot's mission is to wipe you off the face of the Earth it might change your mind. The second season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles started this week with a bang.

Some glitch in the system caused Cameron ( Summer Glau ) to suddenly turn on John Connor ( Thomas Dekker ). As most Terminator fans would agree, once a Terminator has its sights set on you, your number is up. That's that. End game.

With Cameron in hot pursuit ( and in bad need of facial reconstruction to which she aptly responds with a staple gun ) of John and Sarah Connor ( Lena Headey ), the two find sanctuary in a small church. But Cameron eventually follows the blood trail left by an injured John. John and Sarah must escape to a waiting warehouse where they trap Cameron between two trucks. John is able to reluctantly pull the chip from Cameron's head even as she pleads with him to stop and professes her love for him.

Ahhhh. Isn't that sweet? She loves him. The terminating, death-stalking robot loves him. Get a grip, John.

Meanwhile, Agent James Ellison ( Richard T. Jones ) is spared from his untimely demise in the face of the mass extinction of his FBI response team at the hands of the bad terminator, Cromartie ( Garret Dillahunt ).

Lastly, now that Catherine Weaver ( Shirley Manson ), the new head of ZeiraCorp has The Turk what's going to happen? Most likely anything she wants. She just happens to be a T-1001.

This series is a favorite of mine and I'll continue to be a rabid fan as long as Fox continues to put it on the air.

Have any thoughts about where it's going to go in the next episode? Leave a comment and share . . .

Sunday the new series, Trueblood, started on HBO and I tuned in to watch it.

The basic premise of the show is that vampires have "come out of the coffin" since they can now get their minimum daily requirement of synthetic blood from any store that happens to carry it. They no longer need to go romping through the hillsides to find young, hot women to bite in the neck. As a result little towns everywhere are beginning to struggle with the thought that their populations will soon suffer an onslaught of legions of vampires who now want to mesh with mainstream society.

The star of the show ( and shown to the left ) is Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, the local tavern waitress. She's not your average girl. She happens to be able to hear everyone's ( except vampires' ) thoughts. This ability comes in handy when costar and vampire ( Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton ) is being setup by a couple of rednecks who want to drain his blood and sell it on the black market. She saves him from his unexpected fate and the two seem to be made for each other.

But Sookie's life is not without turmoil. Her friends ( Rutina Wesley as sassy, Tara Thornton and Sam Trammell as Sookie's employer, Sam Merlotte ) aren't sure how they feel about vampires - but they do know that they believe she ( and their backwoods, Louisiana town ) may be better off without them. Furthermore, Sookie's brother ( Ryan Kwanten as Jason Stackhouse ) is the primary suspect in a murder investigation.

As with any HBO series, there's no shortage of sex, skin, language and violence. Given the sultry and seductive nature of vampire legends, I expect that episodes to come will probably get better and better. And the first episode left no doubt. Within 30 minutes of the first episode the viewer gets a glimpse into the perverted sex life of at least two characters. Thankfully the kids weren't in the room.

Vampires have never really been my thing, but I believe the story could just as easily be setup with INSERT SCORNED CLASS OF PEOPLE HERE. For example, "We dont want those GAYS|NON-WHITES|OTHER RELIGIONS people in our little, podunk Louisiana community." But, as with many new vampire stories, there is apt to be new spins on the vampire traditions and legends that will assist in creating compelling stories.

The bottom line: HBO has already had no problem hooking me as a regular viewer with such hits as The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Deadwood. I expect that Trueblood will be no exception to the rule.

How about you? Is Trueblood going to be a must-see?

Although I've tried to stay away from any political discourse for quite a while, I've been reading John W. Dean's, Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush lately.

As you might guess it delves into the shroud of secrecy that has pretty much defined the administration over the last eight years. While it isn't written to be a tirade against Bush and Cheney - as many books written about the Bush administration tend to be - it's more of a comparison between the Nixon administration and our current one in all matters of the insatiable desire for secrecy and power.

Some people may suggest I read this type of stuff because it's just so cool and trendy to bash Bush and his cronies right now. Well, that's not the case. Unless you've been hidden under a rock for the last year or so, you just might be aware of the fact that we have this little election coming up. We're going to choose the people we want to run the show for the next four to eight years and I'd like to know what's been going on behind the curtain - better yet, I'd like to know what's been going on behind the curtain that more mainstream outlets either won't report or are too afraid to report, or choose to report things like Britney Spears' at the VMA instead.

Educate yourself. Read something. Don't expect major news outlets to tell you everything you need to know. They only report things that will give them ratings and they don't go into the details that really make the difference.

Because I enjoyed this book so much I just had to share a very small section of it - one little taste per day over the next week or so. In case you're curious, it is from Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush pp 103-104:

You might be a Neocon if:

You agree with Trotsky's idea of a permanent revolution.