Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

Chuggnutt!

Category: TV

  • Iron Chef America

    I’m really digging Food Network‘s new Iron Chef America series. It’s just a lot of fun to watch, and at a more accessible time than the original Iron Chef (9pm versus 11pm).

  • The messed up world of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

    So, re-watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with the kids this last week, made me realize just how long it had been since I’d last seen this special: not long enough.

    It’s been 40 years since it came out, and this might be blasphemy to say, but it really hasn’t aged well. The animation is terrible! And what a weird-ass story.

    And disturbing. The Island of Misfit Toys was weird enough, but get a load of the talking gun. Or the way Yukon Cornelius licks his pick-axe to check for gold. Or Santa—I get the feeling this version of Santa Claus would have no problem dining on venison.

    But the worst of all is how they deal with the Abominable Snow Monster. What I thought I remembered was that he was only mean because he had a bad tooth, and Hermie the Dental Elf fixed it for him. No! No, what really happens is Hermie pulls every one of his teeth out with pliers and then they all try to kill the newly-defanged Snow Monster. Holy shit!

    I think I preferred my nostalgic version. At least it was messed up in a good way.

  • Jeopardy

    So Ken Jennings finally gave up the ghost on Jeopardy today. Actually, to those of us who already knew about the rumors flying around the net and even listened to yesterday’s spoiler audio clip from the show, it’s no surprise. Of course, everybody will be—is!—speculating on whether he threw the game on purpose (out of boredom) or genuinely lost.

    My own thoughts at first were in the threw-the-game camp, but after seeing the show I’m on the fence. It seemed like an obvious Final Jeopardy question to miss, so maybe his loss was a little bit of both factors? Only Ken Jennings knows for sure.

    Is it just me, or is that Wikipedia page on Jennings that I linked to above totally insane in the amount of detail it has? Good lord, people need to get a life.

    Myself included.

    One last note, though. I should be on Jeopardy. I would totally kick ass. Especially against the kids!

  • When Z21 reporters leave the nest

    Warning: this post has no redeemable value, other than how it points to my potential for being a cyberstalker. And, it amuses me.

    So anyway, one of the fun things about living in Central Oregon is watching the Z21 news (or NewsChannel 21, or whatever the hell they’re calling it these days) and, well, making fun of the on-air talent, especially the ones that are just starting out.

    See, our little local station here is pretty much bottom of the rung, as I understand it, for journalists who want to have a career on television. They typically get hired right out of college and Z21 becomes the training ground within which they learn the trade and work like dogs so that they can move up the ladder. And when a Z21 reporter gets their wings, they leave Z21 and pop up somewhere else, like Eugene.

    Maybe you see where I’m going with this. At any rate, Libby Beaubien, one of said newscasters, recently disappeared from the news and I figured she’d moved on. Yep. She surfaced on KESQ News Channel 3 in Palm Springs, California, under the name Elizabeth Beaubien. Seems like it’s a good move, though I wonder if the name “Libby” was too colloquial for the station. Anyway, the part of this that amuses me the most is comparing the KESQ highly-staged, over-colored photo with this much more down-to-earth candid one:

    Libby sporting some cash in her bra at the bike parade
    (Found via kasey and TextAmerica.)

    Hey, it’s all good. Just remember though, folks, the internet sees and remembers all.

  • Hawaii

    Just watching the new show “Hawaii” this evening (taped since I was out last night), and I was just thinking how cool it would be if the show did a crossover with “Magnum, P.I.”

    There’s a couple of memes you probably never thought I’d hit you with.

  • Iron Chef

    Every now and again I catch the beginning of Iron Chef on Food Network, and man, that is one weird show. The original Japanese version, anyway; I haven’t seen Iron Chef America.

  • Alton Brown

    My favorite show on Food Network is Good Eats—it’s entertaining, informative, and quirky, all due to its host/creator, Alton Brown. So after reading the story on Alton Brown in this month’s Wired, I figured it was high time to blog some links.

    So, in addition to his site, which I linked to above, it’s interesting to note that he has a blog.

  • Map of Springfield

    Too cool: The Map of Springfield. You know, Springfield from The Simpsons. Amazing amount of effort going into this.

    Via Slashdot.

  • Blog & Order

    Notable: Tonight’s episode of Law & Order: SVU marks the first time I’ve heard the term “blog” used on a TV show. Not just used, it was central to the plot.

  • Weak 24

    Maybe it’s just me, but I think this season of “24” is really weak, especially after last season. I thought this at the beginning of the season, and after Sunday night’s episode (and tonight’s follow-up), this weakness was just reiterated for me in spades.

    It just really smacks of bad writing, bad plotting. Jack Bauer had to kill his boss? WTF? Sloppy, poorly thought out, poorly executed (no pun intended). If it’s simply for shock value, as my wife suggested, then I think it’s really bad writing.

    But then again, it’s hard to follow up last season: they offered up Ass-Kicking Jack, Sacrifice-Himself-to-Save-the-World Jack, and Return-from-the-Dead Jack. This season? Junkie Jack, Desperately-Undercover Jack, and Cold-Blooded-Murder Jack.

    It’s almost as lame as me writing about how lame it is.