Simpsons - 2 Episodes (Season 7)

What a joyous hour of television!
"Bart Sells His Soul"
This episode perfectly balances Bart's mischievous ways with the sweetness of the Simpson family. The meanderings of the plot line amazes me.
"Lisa Becomes a Vegetarian"
It's not just because the McCartneys guest star, and it's not just because my experiences as a freak child vegetarian in Ohio so closely reflect those of Lisa in this episode that this episode has got to be one of my faves. I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard (especially at the baby amusement park).
Both episodes Rated 1
.

Star Trek Voyager - Flashback

Does anybody else out there think "Shakur" when they hear someone call for the Vulcan "Tuvac"?
I enjoyed how this episode showed another person's perspective of a previous episode - in this case, Star Trek 6. Reminded me of the cooler elements of "Lost". I was also fascinated by the notion of a memory as a virus. (At first, of course, I suspected that the ship chef had slipped a little LDS into Tuvac's drink.) Rated 2.

Bill Maher - 9/23 Episode

I won't bother to rate late-night/ interview or reality tv shows, but I'll make notes. Bill Maher rocks. Guests: Salman Rushdie - you seem to rock, even though I didn't make it through 'The Satanic Verses"). Rob Thomas - I didn't know who you were, and I still don't. Janine Garofolo - Is she sniffing coke? I'll discount the silly-looking tats, and I'll take the babbling brook of her stream of consciousness, but that girl has got way too thin (and she was rubbing her nose a lot, and pouting her lips). Seriously, has she had plastic surgery? She looks like a completely different person. And not in the aging naturally/ gracefully way. It was distracting.

Dead Like Me - 2 Episodes (Season 2)

Two episodes at a time is the most I can handle of "Dead Like Me". With a break inbetween. It's very well-done, and I tend to feel verklempt by the end of each episode. I don't need a video to remind me of the tenuous nature of mortality, but at least this show has enough humor to get me through. (I never could watch "Six Feet Under".) Solid 2/3 for these two episodes.
"Send in the Clown" (Having a daughter, this was almost too much to bear.)
"The Ledger" (If I were the child of divorce, this probably would have been a double-header of tears.)

Rufus Wainwright as Judy Garland in the Hollywood Bowl

I deeply enjoy Rufus' sound and was quite intrigued by the theme of this ambitious production, so I've been looking forward all summer to this concert.
This was the last in a series of Garland tributes, and you'd think that Rufus would have established the vocal ranges and have practiced the heck out of the high notes to make them bright and polished and worthy of Ms. Garland's fabulous memory. ...but... Don't get me wrong - it was quite an enjoyable concert, and the music was grand. There were simply too many episodes of voice cracking and lyric forgetting to meet my expectations. (This is the Hollywood Bowl, not the Knitting Factory.) I also expected more emotion in his voice and performance, but the performance was marred too often by vampy "look - I'm a gay guy performing Judy Garland!" type of sentiment to be as sincere as it ought to have been. Surprisingly, the drag costumes Rufus donned in the encore actually helped the situation. With the costume making the statement, Rufus' performances were freed to be more real.
I'd give this a '4' (better than average) were it not for the amazing performance of "Stormy Weather" by Rufus' sister, Martha Wainwright. There's something in her voice that could possibly grate on me, but her performance was so full of honest emotion that I rather wanted her to continue the concert herself. I also appreciated the surprisingly refreshing appearance of Judy Garland's (not Liza) daughter, Lorna Luft, and by Rufus' mother on piano. The concert is bumped up when judged as a family affair, rated 3.

Northern Exposure - Two Episodes (Season 2)

"All Is Vanity"
The circumcision storyline is hilarious. I don't understand, however, why Fleischman would be shocked at Cicely's handling of death, as there was a death in a previous episode. Nevertheless, I can' t believe I laughed so much at a TV (comedic) drama. (Rated 2)

"What I Did For Love"
O'Connell has visions of Fleischman dying in a plane crash. I enjoy the surreal dream flashbacks.
(Rated 3)

Viewing these two episodes in tandem was kind of spooky, with the former containing a sonnet read at my wedding and the latter featuring our (relatively obscure) first dance song.

Epic Movie

I think I expected more from a cast including Kal Penn, Fred Willard, Crispin Glover, and Kevin McDonald. The movie had a few laughs, but mostly very fleeting, based on impressive makeup/ prop recreations. The pop culture references needed to move much faster and be more cohesive to be effective. The movie in general would have been funnier if it hadn't relied on the same tired joke throughout the movie: Wow, isn't it inappropriate to juxtapose rebellious hip-hop references with a blockbuster family film?! Tumnus' "Cribs" was a great starting point, but it should have moved on from there. Alas. On the bright side, I didn't necessarily feel as though I wasted 80 minutes of my life. I rate this a "5", because the opposite of "good" isn't "bad", it's "neutral"... I'll probably forget this movie in a few months.

Goat Media Review

I wanted to start this blog last month, after finishing Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God". That book was one of the best I have read probably in years, and I decided that I should actually keep track of the media I consume, before my impressions are fogged by time.

(The book's appeal reminded me of "The Sopranos" -- not in any plot points or characters or atmosphere, but in the way that it defies stereotype. Both "shows" took the cache of characters and scenarios that I'm used to encounter in mafia movies and black novels, respectively, and just when I thought they would kick in... they didn't. And not self-consciously so, but freshly so. Beautiful.)

So, this blog will attempt to capture my general impressions. I will try to be brief. I will probably refer to my "9-point" bell-curve scale, which I originated for rating films but can easily transfer:

1) Great Film (Requires at least two viewings to achieve this rating, but I'll probably make exceptions for books, since it's unlikely I'll read a book twice in any reasonable span of time.)
2)Good Movie
3) Enjoyable Flick
4) Better than average
5) Neutral
6)Worse than average
7) Bad
8) Really bad
9) Godawful