Shawn Ryan, the creator of my favorite TV show, The Shield, is collaborating with one of my favorite authors, James Ellroy, on a new TV show to air on A&E. The new drama called "The Lead Sheet" features investigators trying to catch the Hillside Strangler, with each episode focusing on a single lead.
I love The Shield for the same reasons I love Ellroy's books - complicated, tightly knit plotlines which are at the same time outrageous and completely believable. This pairing might actually be too good to be true. And it's on A&E, not F/X as was The Shield. I'm curious to see how they will handle the violence and raw issues the show will most likely touch upon.
OK, so until a couple weeks ago, I didn't understand football at all. I didn't understand the mechanics of the game and never really understood why people get so fanatical about it. But I recently moved to Providence (home of the Patriots) from New York, my home town and a city I love dearly, and I now realize that it's really just about pride. It's totally silly and pretty meaningless in the scheme of things, but I was proud to be a Giants fan last night (even when they were down a bunch of points with only minutes to go) and it's mostly because I'm proud to be from New York. Really kind of silly.
It was a very exciting game to watch. And who can't enjoy a tear-filled interview with a wide receiver named Plaxico? That was certainly more entertaining than the ads this year. Overall they were awful, with two great standouts:
And:
So I'm basically a sucker for anthropomorphic animation, and now football as well. Go Giants!
Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs received an email from a male fan professing his "man-crush." Mike proceeds to demonstrate how homophobic he is. Via Joe. My. God.
Lots of strikes going on write now in the streets of NY and LA. Though I am not too sure of the validity of the Broadway stagehands' strike, I do think that the WGA writers have a good reason to strike; they should be compensated for their work published online. Here's a great YouTube video created by the writers of the Daily Show:
Chairman of the FCCKevin J. Martin, has proposed major changes to the current media ownership rules essentially opening up the floodgates for the likes of Rupert Murdoch to own pretty much all the media outlets in a given city. Right now, you cannot own a newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same city. Probably a good thing considering the state of mainstream media at the moment.
One of the things that really piss me off about this is the timetable: he's looking to have the change go into as early as December; not nearly enough time to get a real sense of whether or not this is the right thing to do. I just feel this is so obviously about greed and money and power, that it can't possibly be for the greater good of society. But who cares about society these days anyway?
If you are as nervous about these proposed changes as I am, you can send an email to your congressman asking him/her to hold hearings on the subject. And for your entertainment, play Whack-a-Murdoch here.
Stephen Colbert's running for President. This should be interesting. I think it will be great to have someone in the ring who tells it like it is, but it's a little sad that the presidential elections have become such a circus, and a mockery of what the elections should be.
In celebration of his announcement, let's watch some videos! Since
I don't think Colbert is that funny (with the exception of his InDecision 2008 tagline: Don't F*ck This Up America), I'm posting some oldies but goodies.