*Things crazy hectic at work... *A team I coach had many practices for Regionals and was one freaking point out of 280 from going to Nationals... *Watching some crazy Olympic hoodoo, still trying to learn the rules of Curling... *Politics, ugh, Pres. Obama...still need to get on your game, man, come on! *Shutter Island, if you read the book, you should like the movie. Great opening weekend, so I guess moving it out of the Fall was smart, but I wish the actors had some Academy chances... *Discovered a new author that I think is fantastic --more later--but he won't replace Robert B. Parker in my heart. *Beatles: Rock Band, 'nuff said.
Well that's an attempt to explain where I have been ... I hope to keep up better in the coming months.
So the Hall of Fame announced that Andre Dawson will be going in with an Expos hat on his plaque instead of a Cubs cap. To this, Cubs fans, I say to you--so freakin' what. I'll let you in on a little secret--immediately under the pseudo bust with the famous cap will be an engraved listing of all the teams Andre played on, and the Cubs will be there. Nowadays, players move around so much does it really matter what cap is shown on the Hall of Fame plaque? So few players make the Hall, let's just be happy one of our favs is finally being recognized. Does it make sense for the cap to have the logo of a team that no longer exists? Marketingwise, no. Still, the Hawk played almost twice as many seasons in Montreal than he did in Chi-town. The weekend after he was inducted I had the pleasure of having a baseball signed by Andre at a prescheduled event. The fact that his Hall of Fame cap is from Montreal doesn't make that any less awesome to me.
Okay, kids, time for a mad dash to the finish as this 10 eps 10 years thing has been as delayed as a new Bendis issue of Powers (that’s for you, SPM).
2006 How I Met Your Mother: The Slap Bet November 20, 2006
More great eps from The Wire, The Shield and BSG this year, but for pure entertainment purposes, How I Met Your Mother hits the list for ’06 with the series’ classic ep: The slap bet. The episode is a perfect example of the Hitchcockian theory that it’s the suspense of potential violence that will actually kill ya….as NPH’s Barney waits for the slaps to the face that he knows are coming…sometime…anytime…. (Available clip is a music video, but you get the point)
2007
Lost Through The Looking Glass May 23, 2007
Spoiler Alert: This is the one that took the show and turned it freakin’ upside down. One sentence: “We have to go back, Kate!” and suddenly the viewer realizes that instead of one of the Losties patented flashbacks, we’ve suddenly jumped forward—some crazy stuff has no doubt occurred and some of these guys actually did get off the island, the why and how and what the heck waiting for the next year’s reveal.
2008
Tie: The Shield Family Meeting November 25, 2008 The Wire -30- March 9, 2008
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t pick between the final episodes of two of the best in tv, I’d argue, ever. I can’t even describe ‘em properly. Just watch the shows. WATCH THEM on a dvd player near you.
2009 The Office, Niagara, October 8, 2009
Well this one shouldn’t be a surprise, as in an earlier post I went with The Office’s “Niagara” as the show that, maybe wasn’t the best of the year, but made me laugh as hard as anything I can remember. Now just the word “Twins” makes me giggle a bit.
So there ya have it, it took awhile, but there’s my list of 10 great television episodes from 2000 to 2009. Go watch ‘em, you’ll be glad you did.
The Doc's a big supporter, and understandably you have a lot on your plate, but, still...
YOUR PARTY LOST TED KENNEDY's SEAT!!! TED FREAKING KENNEDY's SEAT!!!!
This is deserving of a very, very long rant. Nevertheless, I have to do some actual work, so more ranting will come later. But GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME, please!
No one understands how your Health Care Bill is actually going to help provide Health Care. The voters are scared. They have no jobs. They have no health care. We still have troops in Iraq and we still have Prisoners in Guantanamo. Promises of change were made (you think?) AND WE AIN'T SEEING IT.
You were masterful in the campaign at getting out your message. YOU HAVE DROPPED THE BALL. GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME, sir, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.
While booing Jack Clark yesterday, he of the 350 some honest home runs and honest opinions about the game of baseball and the use of performance enhancers, and cheering your chemically induced overgrown self deluded cheater* (look, the guy even lied in a milk ad, I mean come on) did you ever stop to think whether this is the best guy for YOUR team? That is what it is supposed to be about, right? Winning? That's what I hear from Cards fans, we love winning. So, you hire a guy with a lifetime .263 batting average, who has admitted that his best years involved 10 years of product use, who has never been a hitting coach before to take care of the batters on a team that by all rights should be in competition again this year for the playoffs if not the World Series. Is this the best hitting coach available for your team out of everyone out there who has been a hitting coach? Or is this Tony LaRussa's personal Big Mac redemption plan at the expense of the best interests of the team? Certainly, the presence of this man isn't going to be a year long distraction--the media will no doubt honor his desire to make one half assed apology and let it go, right? This won't come up in every city around the league over and over again all year long, it just can't...right? Idiots.
*as a Cub fan, I fully admit to having and having cheered in the past for one of these, too.
So it's taken me most of January to just get up to 2005 on my 10 episodes list--cut me some slack, I'm going through a whole decade here, 'natch
So here's one that may be in the running for fav. of the dec, not just this particular year. The reboot of BSG ended in 2009, but this episode, the very first one after the opening mini-series, still stands as one of the most entertaining hour this fantastic series offered during its run. The plot: nearly all of the human race having been wiped out just a short time past, the human survivors ("in a ragtag fugitive fleet," of course) are followed by their attackers and for some damn reason the bastard Cylon "toasters" show up every 33 minutes on the dot to do some mo' killing. The mounting tension as an exhausted group of pilots attempt to continually defend a fleet on the verge of collapse before it can even get started on its journey is combined with a ballsy ending makes for a hell of a start to the series and puts the fearless viewer on notice that a hell of a ride is underway.
This year was a tough call for my 10/10 decision. Lost premiered with a fantastic pilot in September and a great episode with Locke's backstory called "Walkabout." The Wire had a great season (every season was great, of course) that I don't want to spoil cuz at least one reader hasn't seen yet!. Then, I thought, the finale of Angel was great, representative Joss stuff.
Still, in looking back at eps from 2004 that I saw at the time they aired the one that made me go "daaaaaaaaamn" viscerally was the Sopranos "Long Term Parking." This clip above gives you a little flavor of the excruciating extended tension that the episode gave us. You know what's coming, you don't want to watch, yet...you do anyway. That's good TV.
American Red Cross: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999
Clinton Foundation: provide immediate relief and long-term support to earthquake survivors. Text "HAITI" to 20222 and $10 will be donated to relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.
Most hospitals are destroyed or not functional Visit Doctors Without Borders if that's your thing: www.doctorswithoutborders.org
There are obviously many, many other agency looking for help. I'd go with an established one to be on the safe side but choose your preference. According to news reports, they aren't seeking traveling volunteers (too risky) or for you to send supplies (too chaotic) but any donation you can make will get to those trained in disaster relief, so do what you can. (And in the meantime if you want to boycott those like Rush and Pat that want to turn this into a racial/political issue, that would be cool, too).
Ahead of its time, predictive of the economic meltdown and corporate crazyness that marked the end of the 00's, and just damn, damn, damn funny, Arrested Development was hands down, funniest comedy of the decade (30 Rock you came so very close). If you haven't picked up the DVD's (regularly on sale at Target for $14 or so) then I scoff at you. That is right--I scoff. I can't think of a bad episode over its unfortunately shortened three year run (same old Fox story, multiple time slots, failure to market, etc., etc.) The show premiered in '03 and episode two: "Top Banana" is as good as any to recognize! Check out pre-Superbad Michael Cera stealing the show constantly. And, keep in mind, there's always money in a banana stand.
"Let them know, under no certain circumstances, will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions." Rep. Michele Backmann (R-MN, also bat shit crazy), a pro-lifer who kinda doesn't understand irony.
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