The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Blog Talk Radio
Rich Weiner, the Executive Director at the Refuge, was the guest on Blog Talk Radio:
30 Day TV Meme – Day 21
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000BOH986&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 21 – Favorite ship
My favorite ship comes from the first time I remember hearing the term: The X-Files.
The whole sexual-tension-between-partners thing is as old as television and it is rather rare to see it done well (See: Moonlighting). I seem to recall Hunter and McCall hooking up once, but they quite rightly gave that concept the smackdown. Some shows flirt with it – Hawkeye and Margaret on M*A*S*H, Toby and CJ on The West Wing – without taking it to the next level. (I am not a fan of Josh and Donna. I dug CJ and Danny, though.)
What made Mulder and Scully so great was that by the time they reached the point of acknowledging the multiple layers of their relationship (Read as: when Mulder moved in to kiss her already), the meta-plot picked up some serious speed. They hit the pause button. And Duchovny’s absence/Mulder’s disappearance kept it there. By the time the series was over, it was all just “Yeah. They ended up together.” I was fine with it.
Admittedly, there was some pretty clumsy stuff. Scully’s pregnancy was just lame, I think. And remember that one in Season..6, I think?…where they were undercover in suburbia? There was no point to it other than teasing the shippers.
All the same, this was the first show where I watched the characters every week and took their temperature with every word.
The Book Sale Formerly Known as Brandeis – 2010
This morning, I headed over to Old Orchard Shopping Mall in Skokie to hit the Little City Book Sale. This was the second full day of the sale, which was a change in strategy for me. The past couple of years, I have attended on the second Saturday, which is “half price” day. The second Sunday, when they are really trying to clear the place out, can be hazardous to life and limb. But the second-to-last day can be done.
This year, though, I really just wanted to avoid the crowds. Also, I wondered if attending on the second day might net any great finds. When I attend these big sales, I am generally looking for good history books and what I would call “modern classics” – Roth, Didion, and now Doctorow. The thing I have been totally unable to find, and refuse to pay retail is John Updike’s Rabbit Run. Primarily because my sense of what used books should cost is no longer reasonable, I didn’t expect to be buying too much today.
Ha.
Right when I walked in the door, I saw the two enormous children’s book tables. Unusual for this sale, but I had read the other day that Scholastic donated a whole bunch of new books to the cause. I grabbed a 4-pack of Junie B. Jones books for Alex – $2.00 – and scurried away. Must stay ahead of the crowd.
Fiction. It was at the Literature tables that I determined to write a list of Book Sale Laws – to be posted later. Preview: Leaving your cart in the middle of the aisle while you move on to the endcap yapping on your cell phone is not acceptable. Here, I picked up so many that I broke my “No more than you can carry with your own two hands” rule and put them in my reusable bag.
I was across from two twentysomethings talking about American Wife, the novel based on Laura Bush’s life. One asked the other to keep a lookout for it. The other said, “OK. It will have to be a hardcover, because it just came out.” I opened my mouth to say that I had seen at least two trade paperback copies on the table behind them, but thought it would sound snotty, rather than helpful. They’d find it.
As I was looking through the Presidents section of the history table, I was next to a lady taking so long that I swung over to the other side to get around. Her friend caught up with her from down the table and said, “Oh, check out all the Presidents books!” The response: “Oh, I’m not interested in the Presidents.” And she still didn’t move on.
In the Mystery section, I found the Nelson DeMille that my mother once had, donated to the library because she wasn’t going to read it, then asked for again. At least that was a paperback. Then in the history section I bought the official One I Have Already: Garry Wills book about Lincoln and Gettysburg.
I swear, it happens to me every year.
That was about when a lady near me picked up her cell phone and said, “Yeah, it’s getting crowded now.” I looked up and saw that it was. High-tailed it out.
For myself, I found two Roths, two Doctorows, a Bob Greene I had never seen before and Studs Turkel’s Chicago. The final take was 13 books (four in the kiddie box set) for $16.00. I was very pleased.
Now, about those rules…
30 Day TV Meme – Day 20
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0016Q6CQI&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 20 – Favorite kiss
The one that jumps out at me is Buffy and Spike in the muscial episode, Once More with Feeling.
He had acquired a soul of some sort, become a bit of a hero against his will and been feeling rather squishy toward Buffy for awhile. She had come back from the dead feeling really empty and alone and felt slightly less horrid when in his company.
The episode was meant to bring several plotlines to a head: Willow’s manipulations of Tara, Xander and Anya’s…relationship issues, Giles coming to the realization that it was time to let go. And Buffy spitting out the painful truth – they hadn’t done her any favors by bringing her back from the dead.
At the end of the episode, when it was all out there and the audience was feeling all yucky and depressed, suddenly Buffy up and kisses him. And it’s all…Whooooaaa! Yeah!!!! You go!!!!
Which I don’t normally do when the smoochies start. I guess that is what makes it the best.
30 Day TV Meme – Day 19
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0001M3MY8&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 19 – Best t.v show cast
The honest answer is The West Wing, but in the interest of saying something new, I’ll go with ER.
It stopped being Must See TV after Clooney left and I was a really sporadic viewer after Juliana Margulies followed him. And I can tell you the exact moment when I was done: Dr. Romano lost his arm.
I liked Dr. Romano a lot.
But the nature of the show allowed for characters to move on and off the canvas with relative ease and there were so many, many good actors that came and went. Anthony Edwards made me forget Goose inside of five minutes, he so inhabited Dr. Greene. Eriq LaSalle, William H. Macy, Alex Kingston..it goes on forever. What suprises me about ER is that they didn’t create 15 spin offs as characters moved on. Before its time, I guess.
A Dollar Per Week
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B001BZ47G6&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrWeekend Assignment #321: Where’s Your Buggy Whip?
We sometimes hear the expression, “XXX has gone the way of the buggy whip.” In other words, technology and society have moved on, and something that was once commonplace barely exists anymore because it’s no longer needed. Do you still have something in your home that has become essentially useless? If so, why do you still have it? If not, when did you get rid of it?
Extra Credit: Have you ever worked in an industry that has gone the way of the buggy whip, or is in danger of doing so?
I still subscribe to the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune. You know, a real newspaper printed on…newsprint. Back in the day, I read it every Sunday. Spread it out on the family room floor and went through it section by section. During the week, I would just read it online. But on Sunday, I read the paper. I remember how ticked I was when they moved the Book Section to the Saturday edition. Anyway, when I was finished, I used it to line the cage of Kiwi the Grey.
Well. I haven’t read the paper in over two years – since I went back to school. I didn’t go back to it when I finished school, but I sometimes pull out the bag with the coupons. Which I could do online, also. Even lining the cage with newspaper became cumbersome, so I am buying cage liner from the rescue where I volunteer.
So I still pay for the Sunday paper every week and I cannot make myself cancel it. I feel like it is my duty as a citizen to support the Trib. I’m sure I’ll get over it someday. Like when they make me pay to read it online.
30 Day TV Meme – Day 18
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000000OG9&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 18 – Favorite title sequence
Well, I always really liked that one from North and South. And I loved the ones from The West Wing that looked all official portrait-y and presidential and stuff. Sesame Street had the best theme song (oh, but Dallas. And Angel.) But for the honest to goodness watched-the-title-every week for 10 years…
it was 90210.
No. Wait!!
I am such a flake. My true favorite is Hank Williams jr. doing Monday Night Football. I love the MNF song. I love the action shots. The only thing it is missing these days is Madden.
How long until football season?
30 Day TV Meme – Day 17
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0002MFGDC&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 17 – Favorite mini series
If we establish that documentaries don’t count, I have three. There was V, but I couldn’t recommend that to anyone today. There was Stephen King’s It
I can tell you why in two words: Patrick Swayze. But let me elaborate. Patrick Swayze at West Point.
Really, though. The cast alone could sell this thing. And how many of them ended up coupled? Jonathan Frakes and Genie Francis. James Read and Wendy Kilbourne. Kirstie Alley and Parker Stevenson (ok, that was North & South, Book II). Lesley Anne Down and…her husband. I don’t think he was an actor, though.
The first book was the pre-Civil War story of two families – one a Pennsylvania manufacturer of…something and the other a South Carolina planter of…something. Their sons meet at the Point, become best friends and go off to the Mexican War. I will have to watch it again, but in my mind (at age 10 or 11) it was very sympathetic to both families and did a good job of making the political personal.
The bad guys were terrifying. David Carradine. Mean as Kill Bill with none of the charm. Philip Casnoff played the horrid, horrid Elkanah Bent. So well that when he pops up in a guest role somewhere, I will scream “AHH! Elkanah Bent!”
I promise you, I am not the only one.
North and South was just the right novel for that period – the 1980’s heyday of the traditional network miniseries. I’d say it was the perfect specimen, but I haven’t seen The Winds of War 
30 Day TV Meme – Day 16
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B00280LZAE&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 16 – Your guilty pleasure show.
I presume this means “current” and for that I am going back to True Blood. If we were talking “all-time”, it would be something in the soap opera genre. Like General Hospital.
I have had a thing for vampires since I was 14 and first read Interview. You know The Vampire Diaries, the TV show? I read those books in high school, too. I mostly outgrew it when my gaming days were over and I wouldn’t touch Twilight with a 10 foot pole.
This, though. Sooo much fun. Sort of soapy, sort of thriller-y, supernatural element and a heroine I only half hate.
I am not proud of this.
Maile
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1419696726&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrThree weeks ago, Maile, a friend from high school, posted a rather cryptic Facebook update. Then a rather shocking link: an Amber Alert on her son, Max. He was last seen with his dad, Conrad, on his way to school that Friday morning. She was afraid that Conrad was suicidal, but didn’t believe that he would hurt Max. Nonetheless, they were missing. She asked us to spread the word.
It went out like wildfire. We all posted it in our updates and those of us that have blogs posted there, also. Within a few hours, we had word. Her Facebook update read:
thanks to all. they are dead.
Their car was found at the bottom of a ravine.
Of course, there are no words. We all know there are no words. But Maile is a writer. Certainly at heart and sometimes by trade – the link to the left is the book she wrote a couple of years ago. So the first time I “spoke” to her, it was to offer condolences. Pretty weak since I hadn’t met her husband or her son. I haven’t seen her since high school. In the second note, I said that I enjoyed the stories about Max on her blog and I hoped she would keep writing.
She didn’t need me to tell her.
She has been posting nearly every day. It is raw and honest and vivid and heartbreaking. Like the day before the interment, she said:
“…Like I’m heading toward a terrible, long-lasting catharsis, like I’m falling off a cliff and it’s such a long way down I can look down and think, “Wow . . . this is really going to hurt.” And I’m stuck in that terrifying freefall, but it’s slow, a slow fall every day. Just a little further down, a little closer to the bottom, a little worse. And while everyone tells me how brave I am, the fear accompanying the part of me spiraling downhill grows each day.”
Maile’s blog feels a bit like reading The Year of Magical Thinking 
Maile felt, feels, all sorts of people reaching out to her. Some, like Lara, physically going to be with her. Some, like me, on the WiFi and cheering her on every day. She made this observation:
“We lose touch with people so easily when things are the status quo. When they’re shaken up, it’s like a jar of jelly beans, and suddenly I’m right up next to someone that I wasn’t close to at all before.”
I don’t know how long it takes. I don’t think she will ever be, or should ever be the same again. But I know this person, this lady writing her way through it, impresses the hell out of me and I am proud to know her.
So why am I telling you this? First, because it’s been sitting in my head for three weeks. Second, because I think you should read this blog. But also, I wanted to write down before God and my mother that Facebook can do some profound things. When you ask it nicely. (Now go fix your Privacy Settings.)
The Next Dark Age 