Friday, January 30, 2009

Where TV Has Shone This Week, With Quibbles

This has, in my estimation, been one of the best weeks of television in quite a while. Here's why.
  1. The Big Bang Theory gets funnier with every episode. If Sheldon had any more neuroses, they could get group rates. Now, if only the show would lose the patently phony laugh track...
  2. 24 is back on track, both in the sharp, tension filled storytelling and in the gaping plot holes. The former speaks for itself; the latter: well, how are we supposed to believe that the villains would kill the president's son, leave his girlfriend alive and bribed, and then kill her when the president's husband gets the least bit of evidence of their plot? Just how ruthless are these conspirators supposed to be?!
  3. Lost was constantly mind-boggling this week. There is almost no telling exactly when each story strand is taking place, and yet I feel like I'm getting answers. And when we learned that Desmond and Penny name their son Charlie...ah, that's how poignancy should be handled.
  4. Battlestar Galactica has finally thrown off the despondency! I loved Adama and Tigh's Last Stand, and I am greatly anticipating Mr. Gaetta's demise; this is what I've been expecting from the last episodes of this excellent series.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Marley & Me

I've been wanting to see Marley & Me ever since it was released at Christmas. We usually attend weekend matinees, but the last several weeks, we've either had family commitments out of town, or I've had to work. After I had to put in 8 hours last Sunday to back out a database runtime client upgrade that didn't work, instead of the one I was expecting to, I asked Lisa to go to an evening show this week. You can't count on a movie to still be showing in a first run theater much longer than a month these days.

So, what about another family comedy featuring a dumb mutt? Well, if that's what you're expecting of this movie, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Sure, you've got Owen Wilson playing another sad sack looking guy -- as if he could play anything else, with his face. As John Grogan, he's a believable reporter turned columnist, and he's got the inspiration of "the worst dog in the world" in yellow lab Marley.

Marley was a present to his wife Jenny, the runt of his litter, the one that the dog breeder will let go to 2/3 the price of his brothers and sisters. That leads Jenny, who is gorgeously played by Jennifer Anniston, to dub him "Clearance Puppy". The present was suggested by John's friend and professional colleague Sebastian, as a way to shut down her biological clock for a few years, to distract her from wanting a child. And it works, long enough for John to reach the point he's ready to start a family.

In the meantime, Marley is a force of nature. A destructive force. And he remains so through the Grogan family changes: kids, old jobs ended, new homes, new jobs begun. Whatever happens, Marley is a constant.

Until old age catches up to him. Until the vet can't make him better anymore. Until John can tell this well-loved mutt that he is indeed "the greatest dog in the world", and say good bye.

This movie deals with laughter, with high and low points in a marriage, with career triumphs, with regrets that come with choices that cut off other options in life, with bringing new life into the world, with postpartum depression, with loving well and deeply, and with loss. Marley's passing is not quite Old Yeller tragic, but it is heart-rending.

We are left with the final scene of the Grogan family burying Marley in their front yard, with the final words in voiceover from one of the John Grogan's columns: A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his.

Marley & Me touches genuine emotions, genuine family issues. It's a movie with a soul.

Best Line From Last Night's Lost Premier

It was when Hurley told Sayid, "You know, maybe if you ate more comfort food you wouldn't have to go around shooting people."

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

On This Inauguration Day...

...no shot rang out on the National Mall.

...there were no arrests among the 2 million visitors to Washington, DC.

...a lot of people set our new president up to fail. No one can deliver on all the expectations of being a rock star and messiah rolled into one, and he will be blamed for not delivering everything to everyone.

...Barack Obama gave an inaugural speech to all Americans.

...America proved, once again, that the world's oldest social and political revolution still works.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Evolution Of A Playlist

Several months ago, I posted a long piece about my Palm PDA which included my Favorite Songs playlist. Well, while I do truly like every song on that playlist, I've been pondering it seriously. And, a few of the songs just had to be swapped out for others.

Here's the new list. I'm noting which ones are holdovers and sketching why the new ones have been added.
  1. Enya's Watermark is a lovely and restful interlude, which I believe is exactly what she was aiming for.
  2. Bridge Over Troubled Water is a holdover. It's one of my beacons of hope.
  3. The Eagles were always at their best when the song was downbeat, both lyrically and in tempo. After the Thrill is Gone fits the bill on both those counts. Glenn Frey and Don Henley share lead vocals, and the instrumental arrangement, especially the steel guitar, heightens the lonely emotional affect. This is a seriously melancholy song, which really fit me when I was a teenager, and it's now a reminder of who I was, of where my life has taken me.
  4. John Fogerty's Centerfield is a celebration of playing for love of the game.
  5. Tattoos and Scars is about the difference between choosing to mark yourself and accepting that life is going to leave its mark on you, between acting like you have experience and actually having it. Listening to Montgomery Gentry singing "You've been around but you're still green" is an act of grace in and of itself.
  6. When You Come Back Down is a holdover. I'd like to think I'm someone's solid ground.
  7. The Lucky One is an ode to a happy-go-lucky guy, and Alison Krauss' wistful vocal captures the character of the song perfectly...To you, the next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing...
  8. Anything But Mine is a holdover. I never tire of its Hillbilly Rockstar vibe.
  9. Waitin' On A Woman has been my favorite Brad Paisley song for quite a while, because it captures a lot of my relationship with my wife Lisa. Sorry, honey, but remember how the song ends: When it finally comes my time, and I get to the other side, I'll find myself a bench, if they have any. I hope she takes her time, cause I don't mind, waitin' on a woman. Honey, take your time, cause I don't mind, waitin' on a woman. I waited on you, my woman, most of my life, and it's been the most worthwhile thing in the world.
    The video, with Andy Griffith as the old man, is just rich, creamy icing on the cake.
  10. Nothing characterizes the human spirit better than sheer cussed persistence. I know of no other song that captures this like Sugarland's Stand Back Up. It's a gorgeous number, and it means all the more because it's a quiet, simple declaration that the singer will be pushed only so far and not one bit further.
  11. Faint of Heart is a holdover, and it's a master class from Vince Gill and Diana Krall on just how intensely passion can be expressed through restraint.
  12. All of the songs in this list so far are supremely melodic, mid or slow tempo, and while often musically virtuosic, definitely on the quiet side. It seemed appropriate to end a bit more raucously with 38 Special's Wild Eyed Southern Boys.

I Made A 2008 Year-End List!

I follow thriller writer Meg Gardiner's blog regularly, and when she listed her favorite comments of 2008, I made the list twice. And now, she's been nominated for an Edgar award by the Mystery Writers of America, for the US paperback publication of her first novel China Lake.

For you logicians in the audience, I do realize that there is no causal relationship between the two items in the preceding paragraph. Now, please excuse me, as I have to go make sure my rooster crows so, you know, the sun will come up in the morning.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A Sad Day For The Braves

The Red Sox made the official announcement today. They've signed John Smoltz away from the Braves.

It's ridiculous to feel much concern for someone who will make $5 million from Boston this year (at least) instead of $3 million from Atlanta; after all, it was about respect, not money.

Guess what? I believe Smoltz. Not all that long tradition did mean more in baseball than in other sports. Now, the business rules. Player salaries are such that a $10 million contract is reasonable, maybe even a bargain. I can't really comprehend it being a bargain, when a man is going to make more in one year playing a game than I'll make at programming in my entire life, but that's the state of the sport, and I'm a fan.

I'm also a bit of a historian, and my team has let a significant piece of history slip away. The only pitcher in the history of the game who was an elite starter, then an elite closer, and finally an elite starter again. Over 200 wins. More than 150 saves. 3000+ strikeouts. The best postseason record in the game.

More injuries and surgeries than an over 40 pitcher should be able to overcome.

I'm still a Braves partisan, which isn't going to change. I hope, though, that John Smoltz has a phenomenally successful tenure with the Red Sox.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Patrick Swayze

Just what is it, I want to know, about these people with pancreatic cancer?! I just saw Barbara Walters' interview with Patrick Swayze, and my respect for the man has gone through the roof. He has as much zest for life, as tough an attitude, and as deep a love for his family as Randy Pausch, and I've certainly made no secret of my admiration for him.

God bless you, Mr. Swayze. You've given me another reason to throw myself into Relay For Life.