One of my new, unfortunate hobbies is watching television. First off, I now officially own a television. Sorta. Last year for New Year’s Even, I asked my brother to bring a television so we could watch the ball drop. We never got the TV to work, and we never watched the ball drop, but the TV never left my house. For the longest time it was in the closet of my guest bedroom, but I pulled it out to watch games 3 and 4 of the World Series. Go Sox. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite put it away, and I ended up watching television last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then I discovered that you can watch ALL major network shows online, for free, whenever you want. So after getting sorta interested in a handful of shows, I went back and watched another 4 or 5 episodes online. Here’s a quick review of the shows I may or may not be following (hopefully not, I don’t want watching TV getting in the way of my reading schedule). In order, more or less, of when they come on.
Chuck (Monday, 7pm, NBC)- This is, I believe, one of the many vaguely Office-inspired nerd-as-hero shows that’s on the air this season. Yep, nerds are cool again. The first episode of this show was pretty fun, and the characters are all pretty likable, except for the super geeky sidekick, who makes me cringe in nearly every scene. Honestly, the more I think about it, I can’t come up with any reason why I think its particularly good. It’s just kinda funny.
Heroes (Monday, 8pm, NBC)- Second season. I like this show for two reasons. One, because my father likes it. He’s not a super tv geek, so his being interested in a show enough to actually make plans to watch it told me it must be interesting.  Two, it’s cool how there’s not always a clear good guy/bad guy set-up. I’ve only seen a handful of episodes, but I think there are way more shades of gray than you usually find in television.
Journeyman (Monday, 9pm, NBC)- Actually, this show is also kind of annoying. Nearly all the characters are annoying, and the relationship between the main character, his ex-fiance, his current wife, and his brother (who used to date his wife) is off-putting. It’s like a weird version of Quantum Leap, except with no Scott Bakula. That’s a big, big problem. Also, Scott Bakula has excellent taste in refrigerators. Ask me why.
Pushing Daisies (Wednesday, I don’t know, I’m not sure, maybe ABC? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s ABC.) Awesome. Super cool, over the top sets, interesting characters, interesting plot. Light-hearted, sweet dead people, and… it’s awesome. Again, no solid reason why, but it’s cool. It’s just so fun to watch, there’s so much going on visually. Also, there was a scene last week or the week before where two of the characters are singing “Birdhouse in Your Soul”, which is a good sign. And the lead actress is very, very far from being the least beautiful woman ever.
Life (Wednesday, I don’t know, NBC)- This show actually kinda sucks. The main character is a cop who just got out of jail after being set up by other cops, and now he’s trying to figure out who framed him, all the while trying to solve crimes with a very weak Zen-theme to his crime fighting The first episode made a big deal of his Zen-ness, but they kinda forget about it. The main character is funny, and pretty likeable, but he’s a weird cross between Monk and the dude from Law & Order: Criminal Intent. There’s too much going on, and not enough of it is good. I get the feeling they’re focus-grouping every episode and then reworking the next week’s show all the time, so you get all sorts of themes pop up and then disappear, only to reappear in a different way. Also, his partner is an ex-alcoholic/sexoholic/drug-user, his old partner looked like Bernard Kerik, and his money-manager is an ex-white collar criminal. Too much going on.
So far, the best thing about this is what I believe was an allusion to Infinite Jest. For those who haven’t read Infinite Jest, good for you, just know that it talks a lot about AA and alcoholics/drug-users. There’s a fairly important scene in the book where members of a halfway home for recovering alcoholics have to go outside to move their cars for alternate side parking. When all the residents are outside, some crazy stuff happens and the book moves along. Anyhow, in the last episode of Life, the characters are at an AA meeting, and in the background the head of the AA chapter can be heard saying “Remember, next week there’s alternate side parking,” but only barely audible. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think there’s no reason to have this off-camera character say this other than a tiny little nod to IJ. Of course, I saw a guy with blue face paint in Studio 60 and I thought it was an allusion to Tobias in Arrested Development.
Final TV Note: In this week’s ER, which I also watched because I ALWAYS watch tv on Thursdays, Ann Veal from AD was featured, as well as Mary Tate from Studio 60.  Well, not really Anne and Mary, but the actresses who played them. Television. Man.
Two things. First, congratulations to Pete and Katy for winning Tracy‘s first (annual?) virtual pumpkin carving contest.  To be clear, the contest is virtual, not the pumpking carving. Perhaps it should be called a “Pumpkin Carving Virtual Contest”? The pictures are pretty good, though I think Katy’s pumpkin, which is the skull face, looks better in person. She used a white pumpkin, so looked about as close to a real skull as a pumpkin can.
In other news, my niece is still the best, as evidenced by this “chill’n with me pumpkin shot” photo.
Andrew Sullivan recently published an essay on the Obama candidacy in the Atlantic. I support Obama, and I’ve always had a difficult time explaining why, even though it seems to me such an obvious choice. Sullivan, I think, has helped me understand why I face that dilemma. Policy-wise, there’s not a whole lot different from what any of the Democratic candidates are offering, and they don’t even differ all that much from the Republican candidates, Kucinich and Paul notwithstanding. Sullivan suggests that its not an election about policy, but more about symbolism, and discusses why that’s not only not a bad thing, but why it’s crucial.
The past 7 years especially, and to a lesser extent the past 40 years, we have been constantly forced to choose between false choices: Tough on Terror or Hate America? God-fearing Christian or God-hating sinner? Tax-and-spend socialist or responsible conservative? In many ways, Obama forces the realization that these really are false choices while other candidates seem to reinforce them. Sullivan pins this divide as a part of a Babyboomer tradition with roots in Vietnam that shapes the debate still today. As the first post-Boomer candidate (along with Colbert), Obama represents a way out. I don’t know much about the effect of Vietnam and Babyboomers, so I can’t really make a judgement, but I have experienced the either/or demonization over the past decade and do see Obama as the best solution. A few quotes…
On terrorism/US-Mideast Relations:
Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.
On faith:
His faith—at once real and measured, hot and cool—lives at the center of the American religious experience. It is a modern, intellectual Christianity. “I didn’t have an epiphany,†he explained to me.
…
To be able to express this kind of religious conviction without disturbing or alienating the growing phalanx of secular voters, especially on the left, is quite an achievement. As he said in 2006, “Faith doesn’t mean that you don’t have doubts.†To deploy the rhetoric of Evangelicalism while eschewing its occasional anti-intellectualism and hubristic certainty is as rare as it is exhilarating.
On race:
The paradox of his candidacy is that, as potentially the first African American president in a country founded on slavery, he has taken pains to downplay the racial catharsis his candidacy implies. He knows race is important, and yet he knows that it turns destructive if it becomes the only important thing. In this he again subverts a Boomer paradigm, of black victimology or black conservatism.
So that’s all I got. Really interesting way to frame both the current candidates and the current political landscape. Read it, dude.
The 2007 Weblog Awards have begun. Obviously, that’s not something thats very important to me, but three of my favorite blogs are up for it.
First, the Moderate Voice is a (mostly) political group blog. It’s really grown a lot in the last couple years since my sister first turned me on to it. It’s one of the few political blogs that I read, and I’ve always enjoyed the relative evenhandedness that its bloggers bring to most issues. Discussion on the site is surprisingly civil, generally speaking. After reading TMV for awhile, you forget that most of the blogosphere is populated by crazies. Unfortunately, there’s no longer a category for best moderate blog, but please vote for TMV for Best 251-500.
Next up, I’m voting for Acephalous for Best 2501-3500. Acephalous is, I guess, an academic blogger? Always a good read, even when it’s a little dense and a lot academic.
The Debate Link is my choice for Best 5001-6750.  I’ve linked to his posts several times. He’s a co-blogger at TMV. He’s pretty far to the left of me, for sure, but always has good arguments and consistently high quality writing.
Other than that, I don’t feel very strongly, though I do recommend xkcd for best comic, stereogum for best music blog, and McSweeney’s for best literature blog.  Remember, you can vote every 24 hours, so bookmark this post and vote daily!
This is the first installment of what is likely going to be a non-existent series of posts with my stellar t-shirt ideas. Don’t try to steal this.
So it looks like Sara will be staying with me for one more week. We’ve found a pretty good prospective adopter for her. She’ll come over on Monday and see how they get along, and if all goes well will come back on Friday to pick her up and take her to her forever home. I’m sure the woman will love Sara, so it looks like that’s what’s going to happen. Anyhow, here are a handful of pictures of Sara.
This is what I look like now. The mustache is two weeks old tomorrow.
She still has a person name, but apparently it doesn’t have an H. That’s good to know.
Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I haven’t written anythign substantial in more than a month. That’s not going to change just yet, though I do have something to say about Updike’s Rabbit series, my month in music, and some fun gardening pictures to add. Maybe next week. In the meantime, something tiny…
I noticed this a couple weeks ago, but neglected to mention it. It’s not that funny, but… oh well. Anyhow, looks like a internet comic fight:
From xkcd.com
And from Toothpaste for Dinner…
toothpastefordinner.com
Again, in unrelated news, the new George Lewis Jr. record is for sale.