Get this man his own show

Okay, granted this is a serious news item about a narrowly-averted serious crime, but check out the victim’s brother in this video:

Dude, we’re talking reality TV star. 🙂

Read Full Post »

Eh, what’s up, birthday rabbit?

Happy birthday to Bugs Bunny! Seventy years old and still as smart-alecky as ever. Starpulse has a good article. I have the six-volume Warner Bros. Golden Collection of Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies; it’s one of my treasured possessions. Being the studio’s premier cartoon character, Bugs features or guest stars in most (or at least a plurality) of the cartoons in the set. Many are classics, but my all-time favorite is probably What’s Opera, Doc?

Warners had many great characters in its cartoon stable, but Bugs is probably the most well-known. Brash, confident, clever, and always ready with a wisecrack, Bugs I think appealed to so many be because he, like the Marx Brothers before him, stood for the “average Joe” who could square off with bullies, bureaucrats, and the self-important jerks who annoy us on an otherwise pleasant day. Bugs does those things we’d like to do, but can’t. And so they have a timeless quality that keeps them meaningful to us, long after many of the other cartoons have been forgotten by all but collectors.

Hmm. I think a cartoon film-festival is in order tonight. As Bugs would say, “Maestro! Music, please!“

Read Full Post »

Never pet without gloves

This porcupine has a serious identity crisis, as it thinks it’s a puppy:

Well, pooh. The owners seem to have pulled the video.

Read Full Post »

Rizzoli and Isles

Last Monday I caught the second episode of the new “Rizzoli & Isles,” from TNT. According to the hype, this show:

…follows Boston detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles, complete opposites and good friends who solve crimes and bust some of Boston’s most notorious criminals. Growing up at opposite ends of the economic spectrum, the two remain strikingly different from one another in many ways.

Get it? This is a groundbreaking cop show about a hardnosed Italian-American female cop in Boston and her uber-smart female forensic scientist buddy, who has trouble relating to people. And, of course, they’re both hawt. (In case you missed it, that should be read with a note of cynicism and sarcasm.) The cop, Jane Rizzoli, is played by Angie Harmon (who really is hot and thankfully a good actress) and Isles, the scientist, by Sasha Alexander.

The show was developed from a series of popular novels, and the premier last week earned great ratings. I’m sorry I missed it, because the episode I saw was utterly cliche and formulaic, from the plot through the characters and their relationships. Isles, the scientist, is clearly an attempt to copy the popularity of Bones. (Hmm… If that means Angie Harmon’s character will parallel Bones’ “Seeley Booth” and fall for her, that could be promising… Never mind.) Character interaction involved standard sharp and witty banter among cops with the woman showing she can dish it out as well as take it. Woot! How original!

The plot was a let-down, too. At first it looks as if the Boston Strangler has returned and that the police in the 60s nailed the wrong guy. Naturally, BPD doesn’t want to hear it and Rizzoli has to go against her bosses to get to the truth. (Oooh! That’s never been done before!) Finally, they arrest a guy who did time with Albert DeSalvo (the real Strangler) and the case looks solved. Only…

You guessed it: a retired cop who was on the original investigation and was sure DeSalvo didn’t do it framed the ex-con whom the BPD arrested, because the retired cop was sure the ex-con did it and wanted to “close the case before dying.” So, he went around strangling the modern victims, planting the evidence.

Yes, another “rogue retired cop” story. Something that’s been done dozens of times in the last decade, and with no variation on the theme. What a missed opportunity; it would have been so much more interesting had they turned the killer into, for example, a sociopathic copycat who then becomes Rizzoli’s nemesis for a season or two. Instead, it looks like the writers mailed it in.

In spite of this disappointing first encounter with Rizzoli and Isles, I’ll follow their adventures for another couple of episodes to see if they improve. This is a good cast that deserves better, but I didn’t see much of promise here.

Read Full Post »

Can we go back to the Moon, please?

I mean, it’s got water, after all.

Read Full Post »

The Whisperer in my blog…

I love the horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft, loosely set in a 1920s America in which the nihilist mood induced by the horrors of the First World War is applied to the universe as a whole. Uncaring gods, aliens to whom Man is less than an insect, ancient histories stretching back millions of years, secret cults and their sanity-blasting secrets, a hopeless, meaningless, doomed world… Good times! 🙂  And, as you can see in the sidebar, one of my favorite roleplaying games is one based on Lovecratft’s works, Call of Cthulhu*. So you can bet your sweet shoggoth that I’m looking forward to this:

This is from the same group that did the wonderful Call of Cthulhu silent movie, so I have great hope that The Whisperer in Darkness will be just as good or better.

(via Moe Lane)

*(Seriously. You wouldn’t think a game in such a world would be fun, but it is!)

Read Full Post »