Bebemoche blackout continues into eighth day!

ruminations on Rome and Prison Break

So, how about Rome? I LOVED it! HBO and the BBC really have it together! Ancient Greece and Rome are big interests of mine, but most television and movie representations leave me cold so I didn't have high hopes. I did like Gladiator despite its complete and utter deviation from documented history... but then I tend to like Ridley Scott's movies. Troy blew chunks. Chunks. And the recent mini-series on ABC, Empire, spewed chunks. Huge chunks! Part of the problem with depicting history, I think, is that you're dealing with a story which has a set plotline and ending. If you deviate from either (Gladiator, Empire, Troy) then you alienate people with genuine interest in history. With Rome HBO is avoiding this problem by depicting the personal stuff behind the dry (and often boring) facts. They're getting into the social interaction which is the locus of the real drama. It's also the less documented part of history which gives the writers a lot more room to fudge. Besides, the show is just really well thought out with excellent choices in direction. There's a scene where young Octavian is speaking with his mother and a slave girl, bringing in the base of a tripod, accidentally hits Octavian in the foot. Octavian grimaces and without hesitation smacks the girl on the head. It's done in a totally throw-away manner and perfectly illustrates how life in a slave culture dehumanizes everyone. Excellent!

I also saw Prison Break, which didn't wow me but I'm sure that it will be a success. It's gritty and violent so it has that "real" aura. It has all the things that make people think it's "thoughtful," e.g.: race relations, plot twists ad absurdum, conspiracy theory... basically it's like a grad school project on "what will work on American television." I've got to say, though, that the soccer-mom as the head of the conspiracy is hilarious and brilliant! THAT I loved. The only thing is, how are they going to work this out for an entire season?

BTW, Rush Limbaugh said something else idiotic and offensive today. I realize that people watch Rush and Ann and Kellyanne because people like clowns... and by clowns I mean people who get in front of a camera or crowd and say outrageous, excessive things. People like spectacle and that's what these media-hos offer.

ROME!!!

The series begins tonight on HBO! I'm insanely excited! (insert sound of me screaming like the Wild Man of Borneo)

What is wrong with these people?

Some freaky-thinkin' Christians obsessed with homosexuality believe that God is punishing the troops for defending a country which harbors homos. Now, doesn't the commander in chief take full responsibility? And wouldn't God know that our fine president is really the one to blame? I mean, what with the omniscience and all... And why would God stop at the US border? Other countries as well? Like Canada? Or Spain? Why would God care about arbitrary geopolitical boundaries? Why wouldn't God punish the planet for harboring homos? But wait! No, wait... if you believe in God and the Bible and all that, then didn't God create everything? I mean, He's responsible for the whole shebang, right? So isn't He harboring homos? Doesn't that mean that He would punish Himself for harboring homos? I mean, that's just what I get when I take those freaky-thinkin' Christians' line of "reasoning" to its logical conclusion... maybe I'm the freaky-thinkin' one.

And another thing... This happened in Smyrna, Tenn. I've noticed that a lot of cities in the south are named after ancient and modern cities of the Mediterranean, like Smyrna, Memphis, there's a Sardis, a Carthage, a Lebanon... I find that interesting.

What's with the annoying blond girls?

I’m not super political, I just want my country to live up to the ideals that we profess as our own. You know, that stuff about all of us being endowed with inalienable rights... not just those of us who go to a certain church or those of us who think or look a certain way, but all of us. Call me crazy, that’s just me. However, I probably won’t go off on the politics much in this blog, I’ll try to stay somewhat light. In such a vein, I turn to this last week’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher with Asa Hutchinson, Chris Rock, Phyllis Schlafly, etc. Asa Hutchinson was fine. I don’t agree with his politics, but he gives a good interview. His very smooth in expressing himself, a true politician in the good sense of the word. Phyllis Schlafly was one of the two non-panel guests. Ms. Schlafly is one of these women who speak out against feminism, a condition which surprisingly does not cause fuse shortage in the human brain. I mean, if you're a woman and you're against feminism, then shouldn't you take off your shoes, go back to the kitchen and try to make a baby? If you (being a woman) really think that women should not have the same advantages as men, if you think that women shouldn't be taken seriously in the public arena, then, as a woman, you must shut up and live life according to the principles you declare. Susan Faludi pointed out long ago that women such as Ms. Schlafly avail themselves of the benefits of feminist progress while simultaneously fighting against it. Sadly, this incongruity of word and deed is a common affliction of those who make their livelihood in the political arena. Chris Rock was also on, but he didn’t get to say a whole lot... and that’s because there was Ms. "If I say the last word I win" Kellyanne Conway. She is such an idiot apologist for the Bush administration. She's insufferable. She's one of those people who won't budge a bit, even when the falacy of her argument is exposed. She seems to think that whatever comes out of her mouth is true simply by virtue of the fact that she is the one who said it. But what really bothered me was the fact that she always had to have the last word... always. So what recourse did I have other than to be completely catty and notice how she was wearing a completely unflattering outfit that made her look like she was suffering from hepatitis? Also, she needs to eat. I don't want to sound insensitive, but the girl needs a sandwich or something...

Die Brüder Grimm and space trivia

Two things: I just saw the movie "The Brothers Grimm" and would advise one and all to back off and stay far, far away from this catastrophe of a film, it's a utter and complete waste of celluloid. It is one seriously confused film that can't figure out what it wants to be. Truly, it wanders from genre to genre, never actually finding itself. Come to think of it, it's very much like this blog... hmmmm... Still, you should waste no money on this film. The only worthwhile moment is in the Ratskeller of Marbaden when the townspeople are telling the brothers to seek the help of the cursed one. That's a scene worthy of Monty Python or Time Bandits. The movie also has some rather uncomfortable moments which are truly hostile to the French. I suppose that at this moment in time it's been deemed acceptable to abandon the ideal that each person should be judged on their own merits and we can now resort to ethnic and/or national stereotypes to make fun of entire peoples. I mean, it's completely believable and funny to think that someone French would eat the gore of a kitten which has just been thrown into the gears of a torture machine and then comment "Mmm... au point!"

And another thing... I dropped by Scientific American's website (http://www.sciam.com/) and they have a trivia game, the first question of which is: "How much does the Hubble Space Telescope weigh?" The answer they give is: "Hubble weighs about 11,110 kilograms and is roughly the size of a big school bus." Now, I'm not a scientist... but since Hubble's in outer space doesn't that mean that it presently weighs nothing? I mean, weight is relative depending on where a thing is located. Things have different weight on the moon than they do here, than they do on Mars, than they do on Jupiter... etc. etc. Perhaps what Scientific American meant was "If the Hubble Space Telescope were on the Earth how much would it weigh?" You see, I do deal in language, so I can quibble about that.

Why am I hearing about her again?

Why does anybody pay any attention at all to Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh anymore? (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/#a006277) I mean, both are clearly pointless people whose only interesting asset is the rabid fervor with which they express their maniacal and hypocritical opinions. I mean, even if you're a conservative, you have to be embarassed by the huge chasm between the standards by which Limbaugh so harshly judges the rest of the world and the way in which he lives his own life. As for Ann Coulter, she just comes off as a "Heather," spoiled, spiteful, sense of entitlement... She's the type for whom the Oompa Loompas sing a little morality song after something dreadful happens to her in Willy Wonka's factory. (BTW, check this out: http://www.nuclearblender.com/oompa/) Really, she's put out such bad stuff into the world that when it all comes around it going to be like Karmaggedon for her.

the SWEETest CHARITY thing

The boyfriend and I just got back from seeing Sweet Charity and it was fantastic! The half-price tickets were for the frickin' front row, damnit! I mean, we could see Ms. Applegate's unmentionables! (Who'd have thought she'd be a boxers girl?) Seriously, the show was really, really good... like, Hairspray good. She sings well, she can dance... she's just good all over. She came out using this voice for the character and I really expected her to lose it somewhere along the line... but she didn't. The rest of the cast was excellent as well. This one woman in chorus, Joyce Chittick, was hilarious and really made the most of her part(s). It was entirely enjoyable and I would totally recommend it for a good, musical-theater evening.

Before the show the BF and I went to Therapy for drinks and nosh. We walked in and BF was at first pleased. You don't know, getting him to go to a gay bar is a BIG acheivement. Then, he began wondering if it was where old homos go to die. I've only been a couple of times, and that was years ago, but the crowd certainly seems to have changed. Whatever. I only really go out when I go to SF and then it's usually only to the Eagle's beer bust. But I really have lost touch with the "in" gay crowd... not like I was ever "in" but at least I knew where the good clubs/bars were. Now I'm totally clueless. It really hit home when we were in a taxi going down 9th Ave and we passed 14th St., the corner of Hip and Happening... and yes, I'm using that snidely. I was shocked to see that the meat packing district looked like Disneyland! And I was just in Disneyland a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure it was the same scene! Ugh. I've been in New York long enough to develop that annoying "I remember when..." bullshit that I hate hearing from other people. Time to exit... stage left.

TKTS and Cheerios!

This morning I was heading out to the grocery store (we'd run out of Cheerios, a staple... no a necessity, really, who doesn't like Cheerios? They're yummy and healthy and they make you feel all cozy inside!) and decided that I'd stop by TKTS and see if I could buy tickets for Sweet Charity this evening. Christina Applegate's doing it and has apparently invested a lot of her personal stake in it. It's been out for something like a year already but I'd still like to see her in it. I've enjoyed her performances... the few which I've seen... so long as you skip over "Married... With Children"... whatever! I'm not going to think about it too much. The wait in line was about a half hour, which isn't that bad, really... especially since there are so many interesting people who use TKTS... lot's of tourists like Edna and Marvita in from Kansas City, blousey, middle-aged theater queens, oddly styled Europeans, everybody! So I'm going to surprise the boyfriend with the show tonight. He knows we're doing something, I just haven't told him what. Otherwise, I have to spend the day writing and then to the gym... Okay, so the boyfriend just came in and begged me to tell him what we're doing tonight. Turns out, he'd figured it out already which doesn't surprise me. I'll post again this evening with a review of the show.

First Time for Everything!

Yes, it's true. This is the first posting to this blog and you've found it. The kernel post from which all others will flow. No, it's not turtles all the way down!