January 2004 Archives
What is the deal with all of the "really funny and really bad" auditions from American Idol being people who were born in different countries. It's really strange to me that being foreign is still funny. In our country that is so diverse the largest TV show there is finds their comic relief from people from Cyprus, Albania, and Iran. Not that cool.
The gorgeous movie Winged Migration will be screened Monday, January 12th at the Warm Glow Vibe Zone. This is a beautiful film. I have seen it multiple times, and it moved me in different ways every viewing. It will be screened three times: 5pm, 8pm, and 11pm. The film is about 90 minutes, and will be followed by the approx. 60 minute making of feature which is also amazing. There will (most likely) be cokes available for 50 cents and maybe popcorn as well. Come enjoy these images which are such a brilliant example of what film and video can be.
There will be a showing on the new series The Apprentice at the Warm Glow Vibe Zone on Sunday, January 11th at 6pm. The Apprentice is a business reality show starring Donald Trump. Contestants will be competing in various business related challenges and each week someone will be fired by Mr. Trump. The winner gets a job as something like an Executive VP of one of Trump's many companies. The reviews for the show have been positive.
Also, being shown with The Apprentice will be an episode of MTV Cribs touring the house of Russell and Kimora Simmons, which is very impressive. Come on over, should be fun.
Being mostly trapped in doors for 5 days meant a lot of the boob tube, and what my friends whom I was trapped with and I mostly watched was very mild reality shows. We found that the really light fare felt good, and kept the spirits high while the stir crazy demons tried to mess with us. The wonderful late afternoon/early evening one two punch of Switched and Knock First on ABC Family is really nice. So mild. Not much to either show, but well produced, just interesting enough, and never that crummy. Wow, ringing endorsement.
We also did mega marathons of both Curb Your Enthusiasm (which just started its new season, but I haven't watched the new episode yet) and Mr. Show (which is so hit or miss, alternating between painfully smart and funny to just bland and weak). Curb is what it is. You will either like it or hate it. I find it to be the show that feels like real life and the real life stuff that can drive you crazy.
On January 1, Comedy Central just lost all of their rights to their Saturday Night Live reruns (to E!, Entertainment Television), which is a pretty big deal for that network because they used them for multiple hours everyday for many many years. Over a 4 day span near Christmas they hosted a Top 100 episodes ever countdown, which I thought was a really classy way for them to end their relationship with that show (they could have just sorta let it fade away without any sort of fanfare). To fill the void they purchased rerun rights to Mad TV. Now, let me state that I have never been a fan of Mad TV, but I turned it on today thinking "Let me give it a shot." It was awful; terrible; some of the worst comedy my eyes have ever witnessed. I like Comedy Central as a network, but I hope they don't show that garbage too much.
Spot the marginalized minorities!
My two big finds for the week are Airline and The Real World San Diego. Airline is a really fun little reality show about working in the Airline industry. Maybe it's just me, but I find dealing with rough customers, and other sorta workaday problems to be fascinating to watch. The Real World San Diego premier episode was trashy and exploitive and very entertaining. Seems like a good cast with lots of terribl(y)e things to watch coming up.
The space at 5802 N. Kerby Ave in Portland, Oregon, also known as my home, will now be called The Warm Glow Vibe Zone and used for showings of television and other video images deemed interesting, thought provoking, or extremely entertaining. The space is still a home, which works in building comfort in the viewer, but the purpose of these showings will be to try to create a new way for television to be viewed. The ideal would be to use the programs or images to try to learn about ourselves, human nature, art, our surroundings, the world, or anything else really. We will try to create a space where TV isn't just a time filler where you feel assaulted by invasive commercials or predictable programming.
The programs and images will be shown via DVD or recorded programming using a Digital Video Recorder (Replay TV) to weed out commercials or certain special times we will have the opportunity to watch live events (Super Bowl, Presidential Elections, etc.). We hope to add vitality to, or just highlight the existence vitality of television and other images by creating a venue of open minded intelligence and small simple changes to format(no commercials, possibility of discussion).
Keep your eye on this space for announcements and check the right sidebar for the next showing. There will be a dry run through tonight with a showing of Mr. Show Season 3.
While in the mountains bogged down under 6+ FEET of snow and with many sick family members I came to realize that its really fun to watch Trading Spaces with my mom, equally as fun to get my dad real into watching poker shows (world poker tour, world series of poker), and watching cartoons with nephews makes you feel alive.
In some idle moments scanning the channels I cam across HGTV's show Dream House, and quickly realized that I knew the house that this show I had never seen before was about. The house is in Portland right next to my friend Zac's house, and everytime I am near there I make the driver of the car drive by and I yell "POMO HOUSE." It's interesting to look at but it sticks out like a sore thumb in an unassuming neighborhood. It's over designed and over everythinged, but I am constantly drawn to it. So, it was really a kick to realize that it was overdone probably because it was the focus of an entire season (10 episodes) of a design television show. Very funny. Go check it out.(3227 N. Michigan Ave).