I have no idea where this week has gone.  I have done almost nothing of any merit, unless reading books out in the sun qualifies.  I just wanted to update to say that the server Kistenmacher used to host the sites sucks and they deleted everything, but he has risen to the occasion and fixed everything for us!  He’s easily the best web slave a person could ask for.  We don’t even have to provide him with shelter or food.  (Update: what the fuck is up with those banners? If I’m whoring my site out to someone it’s going to be Google Ads or nothing at all)  Anyway, I’ve been busy enjoying the gifts that my amazing aunt randomly decided to get for me and Taylor.  She got a bunch of DVDs, some chocolates and a few books, and I got:

1.  Finding Serenity: the collection of essays about the greatest sci-fi show ever made.  I got to read part of the book on the road trip to California, and it’s amazing.  The perfect assortment of philosophy, fanfare and speculation.  It’s a must have for fans of the show!

2. Rent by Jonathan Larson: the huge hardcover book about the original Broadway cast of my favorite musical.  The photographs are worth the price alone, but the stories of how Rent evolved and the overall presentation make this one of the best theatre books I’ve ever seen.

3. Citizen Kane: the DVD of my favorite film by Orson Welles.  I’ve been growing more and more obsessed with him this summer, and I can’t wait to hear the audio commentaries of both Roger Ebert and Peter Bogdanovich.

4. The Complete Mr. Arkadin: a massive DVD set chronicling every possible aspect of the Arkadin legend.  This include a novel, radio plays, three versions of the movie and an audio commentary, among other things.  I can’t wait to start watching the special features on this!  By the end of the year I’ll probably own every Orson Welles film out on DVD.  I just wish Criterion would release them all, because the other DVDs are seriously lacking in the transfer and special features.

All in all, she’s way up on my heroes list right now.  There’s nothing like relatives who like to spoil you with gifts.  By the way, thea, I keep my Amazon list updated frequently and take things off when I get them…everything on there now is current.  I’ll try to find some other things to put on there (that aren’t Frank Lloyd Wright books or DVDs that aren’t even out yet).

So I’m still here, just in a near vegetative state.  I get up every once in a while to go make a gyro, but that’s really the extent of my daily exercise.  Tivo really is the greatest invention since the Internet.

My obsession with Firefly has been reignited over the past week. It seems like my obsessions just cycle, with one taking over while another takes the backseat for a while. For example, when I stopped listening to Rent five times a day I began rewatching Firefly with Matt. This was then replaced by Orson Welles movies and documentaries. Last week was Rent-tastic, and now I’m back to Firefly. I just love the show so much that it actually makes me want to hurt Katie for not sharing in the love. I wish there was a way fans could contribute money to continue the series. Sure, there are DVD sales, etc. but I’m talking about something completely different. I want something where fans can donate to an account that would only be used if the second season or movie was greenlighted. This would prove to executives how much support they have and it would be backed up with hard cash instead of unreliable internet polls. This all came about from a Fireflyfans.net poll about how much you would be willing to contribute to continuing the show. Needless to say, I checked the $100 or more per season box. I’ve thought about it before, and the amount of money I would seriously give is borderline irrational.

In a geeky fit of joy, I pre-ordered the Firefly documentary DVD “Done the Impossible” this week. It’s basically a labor of love by hardcore Browncoats, complete with an 80 minute documentary about how it went from a show to a movie, and hours and hours of special features. Almost all of the cast helped with the DVD through interviews and narration.

I’ve also begun watching Battlestar Galactica season 2. Now it’s a great show, and I’m glad it’s getting recognition but I can’t help but feel some spite. The show basically uses the formula that made Firefly great, but to greater acclaim that Firefly ever saw during its run. They stole the shaky cam zooms, the empowered female heroes, the lack of hope, the realistic portrayal of space as a soundless vacuum (with music always playing over the space scenes). The storyline is undoubtedly different (and much more religious) but a great debt is owed to Joss Whedon.

“Why Can’t I Be You” is my new guilty pleasure of summer. The episodes are short, and focus on building self-esteem so it is not quite as brainless as other crap (like Laguna Beach, the Hills or whatever else Brandon is watching this week). My favorite episode is the one where the gay model helps the pizza boy realize how fabulous he really is. The only problem with the show is the host, Nick Zano. To quote from my IMDb board post, “I think the host is a total tool. He condescends to all of the people on the show, as if they should be honored by his talentless presence. The guy makes situations more awkward than they need to be, and makes geeky kids feel like there is something wrong with them because they don’t look like him…MTV, please find a better host who doesn’t make the participants feel like *beep* They’re the ones taking a risk and putting themselves out there…don’t let this jerk knock them back down.” This was met with a badass response from bitchy_br: “You take it too seriosly, how does he make them feel like *beep* He just asks them about themselves and what they want to change and if they did.” Normally I would just have “bitchy” shot for sticking up for Zano and misspelling seriously, but I thought I might instead offer some examples of his degradation. Most of these are obvious to ANYONE who has ever seen five seconds of the show, but some retards can’t pick up on the obvious. Zano always makes inappropriate sexual inuendos, slapping asses, proding people about their sexuality and staring the girls up and down. These are not that bad, however, because they don’t directly take away from these kids’ self-esteem. Zano constantly pokes fun at people’s weaknesses in front of their faces, as if they weren’t standing right next to him. They’re left to stand there foolishly while Zano just smiles and makes another ridiculous joke. He is also far too honest in telling people how much better they look as the “new” them. His comments make the person feel as if there really was something wrong with them before, which is a terrible message to give any of the contestants. For a show about self-esteem, MTV has chosen a cocky, arrogant host who ultimately hurts the show. May he burn in F-list hell.

Are we ever going to have an Unseen Movie Marathon? I still think we should, even if it’s just Brandon, Merbitch and me. It’s already gotten out that my movie is going to be Battle Royale, but I was also thinking about showing A Bronx Tale. This week I realized that the kid who plays ‘C’ at age 9 is Francis Capra, from Veronica Mars! He’s actually amazing in the movie, and I can’t believe I didn’t put the two together earlier. Funny side story; Lillo Brancato, who plays ‘C’ when he’s older is currently in jail facing murder charges for killing an off duty police officer. The kid was plucked off the streets and given the opportunity of a lifetime (by Robert DeNiro, no less!) and he just ends up becoming a drug addicted hack.

No matter how many movies I have to watch or TV shows I have downloaded, I keep putting them aside to watch and re-watch episodes of Scrubs. I also spent most of yesterday watching disc 1 of Arrested Development season one. This brings me to my next topic: I have ranked my top five favorite television shows of all time. This list was made in about ten minutes, and I’m sure it will change a lot over time, but all five shows are incredible. Let’s begin.

5. The Sopranos
This show probably has the best acting of any show on the list. James Gandolfini turns in one of the most nuanced and quietly brutal performances ever seen on television. Many critics have compared his powerful performance to those of Marlon Brando, which is pretty much the best compliment you can give an actor as far as I’m concerned. The storylines for the first five seasons are possibly the best dramatic writing in the history of television. The sixth season was hit or miss, but still better than almost everything put out. Of course, I love anything to do with the mafia, but the show can appeal to almost anybody (*Hint hint* people who claim to be my friends need to start watching this).

4. Seinfeld
This show about nothing that was so much more than that. I purchased the first six seasons on DVD and think it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. The episodes, while occasionally dated, continue to work incredibly well. The laugh track is occasionally annoying, but the show is so good that I’m usually laughing along with it and don’t notice. I’m sure that I will own ever season of this show eventually. I can’t say that for any other show with nine seasons. No other show with nine seasons is worth it, nor are they as consistently good.

3. Arrested Development
Probably the most quotable show on the list. This is Brandon’s favorite TV show and undoubtedly the best thing I have started watching this year. I saw the first episode of the show three years ago with Emily Driskill and thought it was amazing, but never took the initiative to watch the rest until Brandon encouraged everyone. I really had no idea what I was missing. Almost everything about the show is perfect, from the completely immoral characters to the outrageous plotlines. This will probably go down as the most underappreciated show of the 2000s.

2. Firefly
Joss Whedon’s gift to the world. I have an irrational love of Firefly. Actually, it’s completely rational and well-thought out, but the emotion I attach to these 14 episodes is overwhelming. I love everything about the show, and would do just about anything to continue seeing the stories put on screen, in whatever format. I have always said that if I had millions to spare, it would all go towards producing more Firefly. Unfortunately, as time goes on, it looks less and less likely that we will ever see these characters on film again. I can’t believe I’ve only known about this show for seven months! Regardless, I believe Firefly will remain the most influential sci-fi show of our generation. “Out of Gas” is an incredible accomplishment in every way.

1. Scrubs
This is a completely personal choice. This show probably doesn’t have the consistent greatness of Firefly or AD, but it is undoubtedly my favorite. I could watch Scrubs on repeat for the rest of my life and never get bored. The characters are all so rich with detail and the actors really bring them to the next level. I absolutely love every major character, which is rare for a sitcom. Bill Lawrence set out to make a live-action version of the Simpsons in a hospital, and he ended up with something far greater. It is the perfect blend of humor and tragedy, with enough quirkiness to last a lifetime. “My Screwup” is possibly the best 30 minutes of television ever filmed.
Hopefully this will be posted sometime in the next month, but it’s very likely that everything I wrote will be outdated by the time you are reading this.

http://www.scientomogy.info/
This website is pretty hilarious.  Evidently Tom Cruise, true to fashion, is threatening to “sue you in England!” if Paramount shows the “Trapped in the Closet” episode of South Park over there.  In retaliation, this site edited the episode so that it only includes the scenes with Tom Cruise.  Also check out the Andy Dick video, which is hilarious.

I’m trying to decide what was the biggest load of shit in 2005: Scientology or intelligent design?  Let me know what you think.  I’d have to say that, though intelligent design was knocked down entirely by the Supreme Court in December, Scientology took a harder beating this year.  ID never really had a chance to begin with.  Scientology, however, is a rapidly growing “religion”, and the negative publicity that Tom Cruise brought to it over the past year should (hopefully) hurt it in the future.  Not to mention South Park’s brilliant exposé on the history of  Scientology.  If I could, I would give it an Emmy, Academy Award, Golden Globe and SAG award (even though no one really cares about those).  I think it is also worthy of consideration for a special BMA (along with “Lazy Sunday”), but you didn’t hear that from me.

Today I plan to a) go buy a scrapbook to put my pictures of the day in and b) watch Lost and Star Trek.  I’m a loser.

Also, my friend Davide had the greatest story this week.  He went to a Nickel Creek concert up in Scotland and ended up having “Sara, the violinist with an angelic voice, eye-humping me for the last 5 songs.”  After the concert he stuck around and bought her a few drinks, which led to them hanging out all night, getting to know each other and ultimately to some lip-locking action.  Grody’s off hooking up with pseudo-celebrities while I spend my nights in the library.  I’m jealous, to say the least.  Damn you and your jew-fro!

I’ve decided anything that is re-run more than five times in one week cannot be quality television.  It can be entertaining, no doubt, but it is not something that you must see the second it comes out.  I can understand obsessing over shows like Scrubs or Lost that only come on once a week, but shows like Next! and Project Runway will give you approximately 2413523623 chances to see that week’s broadcast.  I know I stand alone on this, because everyone and their mother (literally) watches Project Runway.  I’ve seen a few episodes and it has its moments, but it’s definitely something that could be cut back to thirty minutes without losing too much.  That, and I just don’t care about fashion, or the fact that Daniel is “sooooo hot!”  I swear if I hear that one more time I’m going to repeatedly hit that person until their face is as long as his.  Okay, I’m going to stop writing about Project Runway before it gets even more violent.

Did everyone hear about merbitch?  Probably not, because most of the group is boycotting her.  Anyway, she’s going to begin taking Pictures of the Day, like the copycat that she is.  You could’ve jumped on the bandwagon back in December and actually been cutting edge for once, but no.  Every time you do something after me, it’s like going from prime rib to weird friend of prime rib.

It’s time for student government elections, and my vote is going to the Super Mario Bros.  Katie and I saw the vice-Presidential candidate speak at a UDems meeting the other day and he won us over.  He began by mentioning his parties ongoing battle with the Koopas, before moving on to his campaign promises.  1) a 100 foot statue of Vince Young.  He figures if we melt all of the Confederate statues we should have enough metal.  2) Whataburger.  Agreed.  3) Create a lazy river around campus so students no longer have to walk.  4) whore out the university to corporate greed.  Who wouldn’t want to go to the Dell University of Texas?  I sure as hell would, and that’s why I’m voting for the Super Mario Bros.

“Hermano means brother in Spanish.  As in, heeey hermano.”

Overrated: any Fox executive.  I don’t care what they’re paying you, it’s too much.  They’ve managed to cancel shows like Arrested Development and Firefly while single-handedly running the O.C. into the ground.  There is no excuse, and they’re all on notice.

Arrested.  Development, that is.  The weekend started off with the last two hours of greatness the FOX network will ever see.  This weekend one of the greatest shows of our lifetime came to an end, and a rather closed end.  After watching the final episode, which concluded everything so well (while also mirroring the first episode), I don’t know where they would be able to go if they brought it back on Showtime.  I’m sure they could think of something, and it’d be just as hilarious as always but it would be a challenge.  Unlike everyone in College Station, the Austinites weren’t cool enough to dress up/be creative for the finale.  After it was over, I locked myself in my room and watched season one episodes for the rest of the night.  I have yet to not laugh anytime a) GOB appears on his Segway or b) Buster says, “heeeyy brother.”

That was basically Friday.  No work, nothing productive.  It feels like that has been my motto for the past week, now.  Saturday morning I got an early start at 1:15, and proceeded to sit around my apartment until heading off to La Madeline at 4:00.  I find it funny that they have a “The La Madeline Gift Card”.  Anyone who know anything has learned that la is French for “the” while traveling abroad with their entourage.  Regardless, I called the check out boy ignorant and demanded free bread, which they gave me.  After becoming less cultured from my experience with Freedom cuisine, we headed off to the library for three unproductive hours of eating candy.

I also got my mom to send me some pictures of the kitchen, which looks awesome!  They haven’t done any of the actual kitchen work, but the wall between the kitchen and the living room is completely gone.  I can’t wait to see it in person; my parents tell me it makes the downstairs look huge.

Around 9:00 I went to the girls’ apartment to help stand around while they prepared for the party.  By 9:15 I started drinking, and by 9:45 I was practically drunk.  Some people say it’s a little tasteless to get drunk before breakfast, but I just make some obscene gesture at them and take another jello shot.  I lead a very fulfilling life.  Anyway, I don’t remember much about the party, but I spent a lot of time out on the balcony talking to various people.  One of the kids that came to the party was actually named Rambo.  I thought this was the coolest thing to happen to the world since my birth, and obsessively questioned him about it for at least five minutes before losing interest in favor of another drink.

By 1:00 the party was in full swing.  About thirty-five people were crammed into the girls’ apartment and everyone was having a good time.  That is, until the music stopped and everyone realized that there was a black guy in a police uniform waving a flashlight around.  To me, this man was one of three things: a) one of the strippers we hired  b) one of the Village People, looking to party  or c)  a very angry, very sober police officer.  Fortunately, it was b.  However, it turns out that after the Village People went out of fashion he decided to actually become a cop in order to support his drug habit.  Anyway, the cop (Quincy Jonesy to people that know him well) was very, very pissed off.  He started yelling at everyone and proclaiming the party to be over.  He demanded to know who actually lived in the apartment, and told everyone except for those people to leave.  I would’ve loved to see the look on his face when everyone, including Veronica, Steph and Katie ran out of the apartment.  We all went up to Joanna’s room for fifteen minutes before returning to the girls’ apartment after it was declared to be cop-free.

We didn’t let Quincy Jonesy get us down, however, and the Valentine’s celebration continued with about fifteen true partiers.  There was still a ridiculous amount of alcohol left, and not nearly enough mouths to consume it all.  Unfortunately, I had definitely had enough at that point and decided to stop drinking and go to bed.  After realizing that Joanna’s apartment was not the best place to be staying (roommate + boyfriend visiting + no walls = very awkward), Joanna drove us back to my apartment where we ate Taco C and watched some AD before crashing.

All in all the party, and the weekend, was a great success.  Everyone had fun and no one got arrested.  And that’s the word.

This week was shorter than the list of boys Lea-whats-er-bitch has kissed.  Nothing of interest happened, and I wasn’t able to watch any of my favorite television shows.  I haven’t heard anything about the Scrubs episodes, but I heard Lost was amazing.  I still have to catch up on three weeks of Veronica Mars, and no one cares about the O.C.  The only thing that matters to me right now is the two hour finale of Arrested Development that airs in a few hours.  I hear that the show might not continue, because the creator is unsure whether or not he wants to keep making them.  Let’s all hope that that changes, because I would cry if this is it.  Besides, so many shows have been cancelled in the last five years only to find a huge audience on DVD (Family Guy, Firefly, etc.).  The show would be perfect on Showtime, where the actors would be free to do whatever they like.  If you don’t know if the show would work with swearing, just watch the extended pilot…there’s tons of swearing in it and it’s all hilarious.
I just started watching the three hour Battlestar Galactica mini-series today after school.  It’s much better than I thought it would be, but I really wish they would stop wasting money on sound effects associated with space battles.  When you make a show for nerds, they don’t expect for there to be any sound in space.  Why can’t people just learn from Firefly and create a show that is both realistic and entertaining?  Regardless, the camera work and story in Battlestar Galactica are good enough to keep my interest.  There are a lot of shaky zooms in the space scenes that look like they were pulled directly from Firefly.
Note:  It seems like some of the scenes actually are muted in space, while others are obviously not.  Regardless, it’s unnecessary.
In other, less nerdy news, The Valentine’s party/excuse to get drunk and hook up with strangers is tomorrow at the girls’ apartment.  Hopefully there will be lots of alcohol, because if I’m not plastered I’ll be very annoying and awkward.  Katie and I stole about 100 salsa dishes from Baja Fresh today that will be used to make jello shots.  Speaking of alcohol, how are you, Leahanne (Merbitch)?  Sorry, I just automatically associate you and your favorite substance.

Also, in regards to my new nickname (Miss Independent for those of you who don’t read Brandon’s website), I think it should be Mizz Independent, to add some edge.  I can’t really change my own nickname, though, so it’ll have to be up to Brandon.

Leahanne needs to update her website.  That’s all I’m going to say about that.

I don’t think this is going to get posted until tomorrow, when I can actually edit it and think of something interesting to say.  Actually, that’s a lie, I’m not going to edit anything; I’m just going to add some pictures.

So how does everyone else feel about the Danish cartoon scandal?  As someone who is not religious, it’s hard for me to not be extremely critical of the whole situation.  Once again people are calling for violence and murder as a result of their religious beliefs.  It’s scary, but incidents like this remind me of the huge gap between the fundamentalist Islams and the West.  It’s also scary how Muslims have been attacking governments for the actions of a few individuals.  The Danish government did nothing to offend Muslim countries, yet their embassies are being burned to the ground as a result of a newspaper’s actions.  I can’t help but think what would’ve happened if the cartoons were first published in America.  Frankly, I’m surprised they weren’t.  Regardless, I believe the response is outrageous.  Mohammed was simply a man and much of the Muslim world is worshipping him as an infallible God who cannot be criticized.  Islam is a transcendent, monotheistic religion and this treatment of Mohammed would seem to me to be diverting attention from the One True God.  Anyway, I thought this quotation from Wikipedia was interesting:

Daniel Pipes argues that the pattern of events shows Muslim hypocrisy and supremacism: “…will Westerners accede to a double standard by which Muslims are free to insult Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, while Muhammad, Islam and Muslims enjoy immunity from insults? Muslims routinely publish cartoons far more offensive than the Danish ones… …. …. The deeper issue here, however, is not Muslim hypocrisy but Islamic supremacism.”

I just don’t understand why violence or death is an acceptable punishment for insulting a prophet.  If what I am doing is wrong, then God will judge me so.  We all need to realize that people can believe whatever they want, and if they are wrong or blasphemous then God is the only one with the power to decide this.  As long as you are leading your life in the way you believe is right, there should be no conflict of interest.  Unfortunately, a large section of the religious world (both east and west) seems to disagree.

It’s sad, because I don’t think the Middle East will ever see true democracy or freedom until they are able to accept true freedom of speech, including blasphemous and critical views of their own culture.  The church is so deeply rooted in these countries, however, that it will take generations for such change to occur.  I wonder who the Voltaire of the Middle East is going to be?  I know I’m desperately awaiting his arrival…

I’ll have to keep this short because I have class in a few hours, but I had to write something to introduce the Pictures of the Day segment of my website.  I’ll (hopefully) be updating these pictures every few days, but let me know if you don’t like the format.  I can change it four different ways, so the possibilities are endless.
I hope that some of the nonagon have wandered over to re-check out the site.  There are some pictures from the trip in the Pictures of the Day sections.  You guys should download Hello, though.  It’s a program by Google that allows people to send pictures really easily and I think it’s the easiest way for us to swap pictures.  Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the site (look at the “Facebook” – bottom left of the menu -  to put faces to names if something doesn’t make sense).  I expect some turf wars to commence between the Belgians and the Texans.  Which group does Ryan really like better?  Who knows Ryan more intimately?  Let the trash-talking begin.

Bob Loblaw: “Actually, I was going to stay in my office tonight and work on my law blog.”
Tobias: “Of course – the ‘Bob Loblaw Law Blog.’ Wow. You, sir, are a mouthful.”
Arrested Development and Scrubs are the funniest things to come along in years.  Download/buy/steal/watch them now.