The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
It’s Official: My Car is Old
To be specific, she is seven years and two months old. She is starting to hassle me. A few weeks ago, I had her brake roters replaced. It was something of a triumph because I thought I felt something funny while braking, I was pretty sure I knew what it was and I picked the right time to stop fooling around and take her in. It cost a few hundred dollars, and seemed like a perfectly appropriate expense for a car her age.
Last week, my Service Engine light went on. I had no idea what the problem was. I saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. I rushed her to the garage. The next morning, they plugged her in and checked her little microchip. She said that she needed a new gas cap. Seriously.
This past week, the ignition has been locking up. I sat sweltering in the car for several minutes with a colleague that I was taking to the airport trying to get it to work. Something similar happened a year or so ago, and the solution was to start using the spare key.
I really should have made a new spare key.
It’s ok, though. Apparently the dealer can make me a new one from scratch. Or six. I just have to take in my registration and prove my identity.
Here’s what’s funny. You’d think with a seven year old car acting up, I would start thinking about changing the time table – getting a new car sooner rather than later. But it turns out, I am more attached to this car than I was when she was brand new. When I sniffled all the way home because I had left my Blazer behind.
I love my old car.
30 Day TV Meme – Day 09
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0792169182&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 09 – Best scene ever
I can think of a few that I will watch over and over again. Darth_kittius blogged about The Cosby Show the other day, which reminded me that I really love the grandparents’ anniversary – and when they all get up to lip sync is a great, great scene.
There is a scene in Season 4 of M*A*S*H when Radar gifts Colonel Potter with a rescued horse. Loved that. There was the part of the musical ep on Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Spike sings. Swoon. But I was having a hard time coming up with a new one to discuss, so I took a look at my DVD collection and it jumped right out at me:
The best scene of any show I have ever seen on television was Linus’ speech in A Charlie Brown Christmas. I know you have all heard this story before, but the point stands:
Before my brother Scott was married, he went to school and did the stuff to become a Catholic. Late one night, he came into my bedroom with a scowl on his face. He pointed to the open Bible in his hand and declared, “This is not what Linus said.” I knew instantly what he was talking about. I looked at the book and said that he was reading the wrong Bible – he should go find the King James version. He did so, and felt much better. Then he asked how a heathen like me would know such a thing.
Because I am literate.
Anyway. It crushed Scott’s little heart that Linus might have misquoted, because that scene was so big a deal. It is the moment of clarity designed to make us all shut up and think for one minute during the silly season. And made all the more poignant coming from the philosopher that carries around a stupid blanket.
30 Day TV Meme – Day 08
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000NDEXK2&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 08 – A show everyone should watch
I am going to stifle my urge to preach about Masterpiece Theatre and the freaking news. I really have to mix it up and not say The West Wing, even though it might teach people something (good) about Washington. There is nothing on the air right now that I find vital. To consider the all time greats…well, it is hard to pick one show. What I would like people to appreciate is innovation. Everyone is talking about Lost right now, and that is a great example of a show that took big risks to do something different and it paid off in a big way. They fooled around with the very formula of the television drama. The show that I suggest started the trend is 24.
I’ve been griping about 24 a lot lately, as the Decline and Fall has been tragic. But that show re-imagined the way a story could be told. The way an audience might get to know and care about its characters. In its prime, I couldn’t watch a marathon session because the tension was too much too take at one time. I used to scream at the television like it was a football game.
Robert Bianco, the TV critic at USA Today said, “But there has never been a show quite like the “real-time”-driven 24 —or a character quite like the tortured, torturing Jack Bauer, a world-savior superhero beautifully layered with real-world emotions by Kiefer Sutherland. And odds are we’ll never see their likes again. An idea can be endlessly copied, but it can be original only once.”
I think everyone should watch the first season of 24.
30 Day Meme – Day 07
Day 07 – Least favorite episode of your favorite t.v show
It is hard to pick one episode, but I can pick a storyline. The West Wing crossed the line, in my opinion, when the youngest of President Bartlet’s daughters was kidnapped by..terrorists of some kind. The terror was compounded by the drama of the President stepping down (temporarily) because he could not be an effective leader blahblahblah. The drama became ridiculous because the Vice President had resigned in disgrace not long before, so the Republican Speaker of the House became President.
John Goodman notwithstanding, it was a horrible experience.
Oh, and the Decline and Fall of Toby Ziegler sucked, too.
The Pumice Stone
Like halfhttp://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000NO58SW&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr the women in Chicagoland this weekend, I got a pedicure this morning. I only mention it because because the nail tech gave me some advice that I thought, for better or for worse, I should pass on. Guys, you might want to move along now…
Anyway. She asked if I used a “razor” on my feet. It was confused for a second, then realized she was asking if I used a callus remover on the soles of my feet. You know, to remove dead skin. I confirmed that I do. It’s just faster than exfoliating, ok?
She said she thinks that it just exacerbates the build up of dead skin, and it is much better to use a pumice stone or salt scrub. (Do you believe that Amazon sells these? I am never going to have to take a product picture again.) I can’t imagine why this would be true, unless it is that if you remove the dead skin without moisturizing, the new layer of skin is just going to dry out faster. Anyway, I think I might have to try this, since the last nail tech wasn’t crazy.
30 Day Meme – Day 06
Day 06 – Favorite episode of your favorite t.v show
Sorry – I need to pick two. The weird amazing thing about The West Wing was that the best shows were when something horrible had happened. The second season opened with the aftermath of an assassination attempt. While the characters (and the audience) are sitting around waiting to find out if the President and the Deputy Chief of Staff are going to live or die, they flash back to President’s Bartlet’s campaign. We see who knew whom beforehand and who brought whom onboard and what Bartlet was like before he was President. It was beautiful.
The second season ended with a character death, and the President announcing whether he was going to run for re-election. After the funeral, there is a scene where he clears the building – the National Cathedral – so that he can yell at God. In Latin, even. I remember when I picked up the DVDs and saw the ep again, I actually got on the Internet to find out what he said.
Oh, hell. Just watch it yourself:
Student Microloans
I was watching that episode of Community that utter_scoundrel recommended on hulu.com and saw a commercial for vittana.org. It said that a young woman in Peru could pursue her dream with a college education if she had the $700 for tuition. I looked it up and found an article from 2009 in the New York Times:
“It uses a model similar to that of Kiva.org, a nonprofit organization that funnels loans to individual borrowers through microfinance institutions. The method is to solicit individual lenders for money that will back loans to young adults seeking college educations.”
So I went to Vittana’s website. And while the organization’s partners are a bit more faith-based than the groups that I generally support, they seem to have their act together. I can contribute to that.
P.S. Community was pretty funny. But that Chevy Chase character…
30 Day TV Meme – Day 05
Day 05 – A show you hate
I despise reality T.V. And yes, I have watched enough of it to know. I watched the first season of Survivor. It was an interesting sociological experiment, but the contestants’ behavior made me squirm and I was pained to see Richard the Manipulative win.
I watched some of Beauty and the Geek. It seemed to be making a point. It seemed to have some heart. But I stil spent the better part of each episode cringing.
I watched the first of the High School Reunion shows. It was my graduating class from a school in my area. Terrible.
But my worst disdain is reserved for America’s Next Top Model. It seems to be less about becoming a model and more about creating high drama among The Beautiful People.
Reality TV rewards bad behavior and I can’t stand it.
Just Shaking my Head
A couple of weeks ago, a friend was telling a story about her classroom. She teaches English to …I think 6th graders. She asked them to write Thank You letters to a group that had donated a whole bunch of books to their reading library. When she saw the results, she was so upset, she made them start over and write letters that suggested she taught them something this year.
Apparently, many wrote the letters in text speak.
So I was not entirely surprised to see an article in the Trib entitled, “No LOL for College Professors”. My favorite part:
“”Despite the fact that I happen to be perfectly capable of reading any incoherent drivel you may send to my (e-mail) inbox directly from your phone keypad, ‘wut up ya I cnt make it 2 clss lol’ is insanely unprofessional,” reads the syllabus of Alejo Enriquez, an instructor at California State University-East Bay.”
Seeing it Live
Weekend Assignment #319: The Play’s The Thing.
Nowadays we get most of our comedy and drama from television, from movies and even from internet downloads. Perhaps we sometimes forget that all of these evolved from a much older art form, the stage play. Do you ever attend plays, musicals or operas? Why or why not?
Extra Credit: Have you ever seen anything by Shakespeare performed live?
I do, and I am weird about it. In a “I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like” way. I subscribe with The Writers’ Theatre, which is a small group in suburban Chicago. I love them because they have this great mix of presenting classics and totally new shows. I don’t love every show (in fact, don’t click on my last couple of reviews, because I didn’t enjoy them. They weren’t bad. I’m just cranky. And I don’t like Streetcar.) but even when that happens, I appreciate their ingenuity.
I don’t go to any other theatres. I can’t think of the last…Shakespeare on the Green? Steppenwolf? I seriously don’t remember. It might have been when my grandfather took me to the opera. That was awesome. I don’t go more often partly because I would have to schlep into the city. Partly because it is expensive. Mostly I am just satisfied with The Writers’ Theatre.
I have seen more Shakespeare on stage than any other genre. (Is Shakespeare a genre?) The most recent was As You Like It and before that was Othello. Both at Writers’ Theatre. In fact, I first discovered the place when my then-boyfriend and I were trying to find something to do for Valentine’s Day. We were looking in the paper and one or the other of us spotted Richard II. That was not a typo. Richard 2. Whotheheckever heard of that being produced? We were there.
The Next Dark Age 