Stratovania

There was a Sparks concert at the Hollywood Bowl with They Might Be Giants opening, so Beth and I made the trip to Los Angeles (the one in South California, not the one in South Patagonia). Fortunately, we were able to stay with our friend Stephanie, who put us up and put up with us. Her dog Chelsea was also very friendly, and it was nice to have a pet around after losing ours. When we got in on Thursday, after sleeping for a while, we went to a place called Vidiots for a screening of Gigantic, the TMBG documentary. I hadn't actually seen it straight through since when it came out in 2002. It's a little weird, because it kind of skips over most of the nineties in terms of the band's history, or at least feels like it does. Afterwards, director A.J. Schnack was there with Johns Linnnell and Flansburgh to ask some questions.

They mentioned how Mink Car, the album they were making when a lot of the footage was filmed, was kind of a lost album that had apparently gone out of print. It came out on 11 September 2001, and the label that released it went out of business not long afterwards. Flans said something about the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Swatch Watch campaign being the major turning point in the music world, and the Sid and Marty Krofft special with the Brady Bunch kids. And he mentioned The Truth About Cats and Dogs being the median between good and bad movies. I've never seen it, but I do remember thinking Janeane Garofalo was more attractive than Uma Thurman at the time, although that may not still be the case today. They had done a long interview earlier that day, so they didn't take audience questions, but I couldn't think of anything to ask anyway. The next day, we did karaoke. Beth sang Sparks' "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us," I sang Frank Black's "Headache" and the Monkees' "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?", and we both did the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" with the genders switched. I didn't think that it would have been appropriate to do Frank's "Los Angeles" instead. On Saturday, we had brunch with three of Stephanie's friends, who were pretty elegant. I had the berry French Toast.

The place we went had its own hens, and I tried to get some pictures, but they didn't come out that well.

And in the evening, we saw Pee-wee's Big Adventure at the Alamo Drafthouse, the first time I'd seen it on the big screen. They had a replica of Pee-wee's bike in the lobby, so finally it really IS at the Alamo, or at least was for a while.


Sunday was the day of the show, and we had box seats, yet it was still the farthest Beth has been from the stage at a Sparks concert. TMBG opened with "Damn Good Times," which had been in my head before that, as it mentions karaoke.

The trio of horn players joined them for a few songs, including "When Will You Die," in which Linnell worked "the horns" into the lyrics about the band.

That's not the song they're playing here, though.
During the improvisation at the end of "Spy," Linnell did a bit that sounded like it was from a commercial for a record of 1930s music. There were no surprises in the set, but I understand they'd been playing "Authenticity Trip" at recent shows, and that mentions the Hollywood Hills, so it would have made sense in that respect. Of course, it's also pretty obscure, being on an album that I don't think was released to stores. Every show of the Sparks tour has the same setlist, although they cut out two songs this time, specifically "The Toughest Girl in Town" and "Escalator." Stephanie mentioned that they're very strict about curfews at outdoor venues in the area. Interestingly, Russell did do a longer introduction for "We Go Dancing."

The Maels talked about how they'd seen the Beatles play at the Bowl when they were kids. It's interesting that the backing band for Sparks is kind of hidden in the background. Russell does introduce them, but they're not showcased. The Johns give a lot more attention to their band, although they still don't generally participate in the creative process...except on the children's albums, for some reason. A few people left the show early, including the other people in our box and the ones in the next box over. It's an unusual venue in the sense that they let you bring in food. Beth bought some Sparks souvenirs that hadn't been sold at other shows on the tour, plus a TMBG Hollywood sign T-shirt and a Flood tote bag. I got some Flood socks, so now all I need are some Flood pants.


Our original plan was to go to Magic Mountain on Monday, but that's difficult to get to without driving, and I had forgotten to bring my glasses. So we went to Universal Studios instead. I had wanted to see Super Nintendo World, and it does look really cool, but it's very small.

Most of the individual themed areas at the park are pretty small, but especially that one; and there really aren't too many rides in the place. The first thing we rode was the Simpsons Ride, a motion simulator with a narrative about Sideshow Bob trying to kill the family at Krustyland, and then elsewhere in Springfield.

In the line for the ride, TV screens show clips from various episodes, most of them related to amusement parks, plus a few bits recorded specifically for the ride. There do seem to be a surprising number of theme parks in the Springfield area, although Itchy & Scratchy Land is a few days' drive away according to its debut episode. There's a reference to how the Simpsons Ride replaced the Back to the Future one, with Professor Frink going back in time to try to stop Krusty from buying Doc Brown's lab, and Christopher Lloyd did the voice. The Mummy ride is a roller coaster with a lot of stuff to see, and at one point little tentacles grab at your feet, while Jurassic World is a log flume with dinosaurs, and the Transformers ride shakes you around a lot. I thought the voice for Wheelie sounded like Rob Paulsen as Yakko Warner, but apparently it's really Tom Kenney. That one requires glasses, presumably so you can see more than meets the eye. It's funny how many rides there and at the Disney parks have narratives about the ride going wrong. The only ride in the Nintendo area was the Mario Kart one, and it malfunctioned when we were close to getting on, although we did eventually get to ride. It was fun, although rides that are also games can be a little overwhelming. They put a LOT of work into the decorations you see when you're in line, starting with Yoshi's Island stuff and then making its way into Bowser's Castle.

I'd previously seen pictures of the bookshelves, which have many interesting titles. Who knew the Koopa King was that avid of a reader?

There were games in the Nintendo area you could play for an extra fee, mostly geared towards kids, but we didn't participate in that. A lot of Super Nintendo World kind of looked like one of those clocks with a bunch of stuff happening, in that everything moves around in a preset pattern. I wouldn't have minded getting a picture with Princess Peach, but our timing didn't work out. We did, however, get to meet Scooby-Doo, and with hardly any line.

Turns out it was really the guy from the amusement park.
Aren't the Hanna-Barbera characters now owned by Warner Brothers? I'm sure there are all kinds of complex licensing deals involved. The Simpsons are now a Disney property, but that didn't happen until some years after the ride opened. I remember when Scooby was at Kings Dominion in Virginia back in my childhood. We didn't realize that the studio lot tour ended at 8:15, so we missed that, and it was one of the things that interested me the most. I was less excited about the Harry Potter area, as it's hard not to think about J.K. Rowling's bigotry, but we did go on the two rides there. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a virtual reality thing with appearances from many of the actors in the movies, and it was the roughest thing we rode.

The other, Flight of the Hippogriff, is a short roller coaster. For some reason, the train you ride in is made to look like wicker, which is pretty cool. Beth got a T-shirt with a Chain Chomp on it; while I bought some Mario Kart boxers and magnets, and a Bowser keychain. And I got a sunburn on the back of my neck. I understand it's even easier to get burned in Southern California than it is where we live, as there are hardly any clouds. Where's Lakitu when you need him?

We're back home now, but we'll be going to California again soon, as the events we wanted to attend there were too far apart. The next trip is for OzCon, but we'll also try to visit Magic Mountain.

After OzCon and our visit with Stephanie, we checked in at the hotel in Anaheim. It's one of those ones that isn't on Disney property, but has an arrangement with the park, including transportation as part of the price. It also included a breakfast buffet, including a station where a cook made omelettes and waffles.

Even Beth liked it, and she's normally against typical breakfast foods. Driving around the Los Angeles area is kind of fascinating because of how so many entertainment media are based there, so you come across a lot of place names that you've heard in movies and TV, but were largely meaningless to someone growing up in Pennsylvania. We did a lot of freeway driving during the time we were there, and it's too bad they had to destroy Toontown to build that. We also drove by the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank when we went with Stephanie to a coffee shop near there.

Considering how spread out Walt Disney World is, it's kind of fascinating that Disneyland is relatively small, and there's an IHOP right across the street from the entrance with a sign forbidding parking for Disney.


The first thing we rode on at the park was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, although we did the walkthrough of Sleeping Beauty's Castle before that.

A lot of the stuff we were most interested in was in Fantasyland. The Mr. Toad ride is one that seems to get mentioned quite a lot. I remember one Simpsons episode with something called "Mr. Frog's Mild Ride," maybe not a great joke but one that stuck with me.

The ride itself runs along a curving track with scenes from The Wind in the Willows, and ends up in Hell.

I guess that's the moral message, that if you drive recklessly and try to outrun the cops, you'll be eternally damned. Was this ride the inspiration for Grand Theft Auto? Other rides in the area had the same basic theme of riding through scenes from an animated movie.

Snow White's Enchanted Wish, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, and Peter Pan's Flight are all right in there together, although we ended up not riding that last one until Wednesday. They all give some sense of the story while you're waiting in line, and I found it strange that the Snow White one didn't even mention the Queen trying to kill her. The poison apple is part of the ride, but the part with the huntsman is glossed over.

The Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canal Boats are right next to each other, and go past a lot of the same stuff, largely miniature versions of places from movies.

When I first saw Monstro, I figured it must be part of the Pinocchio ride, but it's actually the beginning of the boat ride.

The Matterhorn was another one that's exclusive to Disneyland, and that was fun. The theming reminded me of the Germany section of Busch Gardens in Virginia.

I know the real Matterhorn is in Switzerland, but it's close enough for jazz. Or polka. Or theme parks. Apparently the Yeti on the ride is named Harold, and the one at Expedition Everest in Disney World is Betty. Hmm, that's my dad and Beth's mom.

Next, we rode Alice in Wonderland, and had some dinner at the Red Rose Taverne. Beth had a cheeseburger, and I had pepperoni and cheese flatbread. (Is there really a difference between that and pizza?)

After dinner, we rode Indiana Jones Adventure and Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm not sure why it was necessary to add Jack Sparrow to the ride, but I've only seen the first one of those movies. I liked the film pretty well, but there's something to be said for preserving the original layout. And Johnny Depp is rather problematic these days. Then we unsuccessfully tried to get a spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade. Fortunately, there was another one later that night.

The parade has been running on and off since 1972, and still has the relentlessly cheerful yet somehow a bit unsettling electronic music. They Might Be Giants did a cover of it, and it's so well suited to them.

I noticed that the floats included both Goofy and Dopey driving trains.

Also, there were several that had heroes and villains hanging out together. I saw Colin Ayres at the ice cream shop before the parade; he and a few other OzCon attendees were also visiting the park that day, but I didn't run into anyone else I knew. Our last stop before leaving the park was Tomorrowland, where we rode the Astro Orbiter (okay, that one was actually before the parade), Autopia, and Space Mountain.

I believe I'd first heard of Autopia in the NES game Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, which my family rented once back in the day. Space Mountain was different from the one at Disney World.


Next time, we have a California Adventure!

It looks like the last time I wrote on here was at the end of March, when I mentioned we were going to see the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra. We ended up not doing that, as we weren't feeling well that day. We did go out on the following weekend, on a short trip to Secaucus to walk on the Marsh Trail and eat at the Olive Garden.

They had a strawberry cheesecake, and I brought home a piece of that. Easter was pretty uneventful, although we did watch a few things on the days before it.

And this past weekend, we went to see John Waters in Atlantic City. Beth's Uncle John was originally supposed to go with it, but he didn't feel up to it, so we brought Dorothea instead. Waters' show was much the same as the Christmas one, except obviously without as much of a focus on that holiday. He did mention it, though, as part of his monologue was about reinventing holidays. It was actually his birthday, and we all sang to him after he had finished. We had seats on barstools on the balcony. Before the show, we went to a few souvenir stores on the Boardwalk. I haven't been there in some time, but were the stores always so focused on smoking paraphernalia? They probably were, but vaping wasn't as much of a thing back then. I really don't consider the two particularly different, but this is coming from someone who's never tried either one and doesn't want to. We had trouble finding a place to eat afterwards. Google Maps said a diner was open, but it wasn't. We ended up going to Chickie's & Pete's, which neither of us had been to before. Beth had wanted to try the crab fries, but ended up not ordering them. That place is a lot more expensive than I would have thought. I had a pizza, and they put the sauce on top of the cheese. I think there's some kind of local New York pizza like that as well, but I've never seen the appeal. It's messy enough with the cheese on top. I'll probably end up having my leftovers for dinner tonight. We were also somewhat unhappy with Friendly's the previous night, as they changed their mozzarella sticks to ones that aren't as good. We just found out today that the normal mini mozzarella sticks are unavailable due to supply chain issues. Is there a cheese ship stuck in a canal somewhere? Seriously, I keep thinking I should make a log of where I do and don't like the fried cheese. I've noticed that it tends to be better when the cheese is stretchy and it uses a breadcrumb batter.

Yesterday, we went to Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where the cherry trees are in bloom. It isn't peak season yet, but they were still quite pretty.

And when we stopped at the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden, I saw a few turtles.

There were also koi, but the water was too murky for me to get decent pictures of them. I also got a comment on Instagram about this bush, so I'm sharing that here as well.

When we got home, I played Animal Crossing just long enough to collect the star fragments I'd wished for on Monday. Over the weekend, I finished the Fort Dragonia part of Chrono Cross, which means I'm officially farther along now than I got back when I played it twenty or so years ago. I'll probably write something about that pretty soon. Also on Tuesday, we watched the Simpsons and Bob's Burgers episodes we'd missed on Sunday. The ending of the Simpsons suggests that Kerry Washington's character will continue on as Bart's teacher, but I have no idea if they're going to stick with that. It had looked like they were trying to make Ned Flanders his regular teacher, but he wasn't even in that episode as far as I can remember.

We're finally moved out of our old apartment, but we haven't been able to get a new place yet, so we're staying at an Airbnb. Contrary to the name, it's actually underground. There's an abstract nude on the wall, and two copies of Ozma of Oz on the shelf (the owner's daughter apparently likes fantasy). We don't have everything sorted out yet, but most of our stuff is in storage. Now I just worry that something I'll want is in there and I won't be able to access it. We had help from Beth's mom in packing up our stuff; she's a very hard worker and I don't think we could have done it without her. It's exhausting to just watch her work, though. The cats are staying in New Jersey for the time being. We hadn't taken them in the carriers for a long time, and I don't think they're over it yet. It really does make a person feel like a total creep, but what would have been a better option? Now who can explain that to the cats? I miss having them around; I'm glad I don't have to clean the litterbox for a while, but it's kind of lonely without them.


Last Thursday, Beth and I went to see another Kevin Geeks Out, this time about dance. Included were a lot of clips from dance-related movies, including Step Up 2: The Streets, Stayin' Alive, Grease 2, and Magic Mike XXL. One performer discussed the waltz, and how at the time it was the fun, exciting dance because the neighbors were doing the really complicated madrigal. Another segment defended bitchy dance divas in film, discussing how they're rather unfairly disparaged. Kevin Maher talked about dances related to pop culture that never caught on, including the Lurch (from a novelty single featuring the Addams Family character), the Batusi, and the Urkel. The thing is, I don't know that the last two ever really worked as dances people actually did, but I'd certainly HEARD of them. Maybe that's just because of when I grew up with the Urkel, but the Batusi was referenced in The Simpsons and Pulp Fiction. Maher mentioned the Bartman as one that was successful, presumably in terms of being a novelty dance song based on a popular TV show that made money, not in that the Bartman was ever a hit at dance clubs. Also included was the Bug from Hairspray, which was a real dance in the fifties, but I don't know that it was particularly successful even then. There were also a few clips from commercials and such, including a Hershey's ad from the eighties with break-dancing.

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, but we didn't do much other than ride a bus and eat at KFC. There wasn't any time for cookouts or fireworks, but I can't say I was in the mood for either one anyway. Celebrating the country seems kind of wrong when it's currently showing off all its worst qualities, but that isn't even why. Also, it was way too hot out. Still, it was nice to get the day off from work. I have a ticket to see Solo tomorrow, and on Saturday night I'm going with Beth to see Hereditary. I want to see Ant-Man and the Wasp at some point, but I guess there's no hurry on that one.

bethje and I were supposed to go to the doctor and get our IDs and voter registration switched over to New York, but I got a call a few hours ago saying that the doctor wasn't going to be in today. Since the doctor's office is near the motor vehicle department, we're just going to do them both on Wednesday. It's kind of a shame, as I'd wanted to get them over with, and besides I can't check things out from the library without a New York ID. Speaking of which, I made a brief trip to Secaucus last week to return a book I still had checked out, and it wasn't quite as weird as I thought it would be. I have a thing about places I can no longer go back to, or that if I do they'll be totally different. I have so many dreams about the first house I lived in, the house in Virginia where my grandparents lived for most of my life, and my old college dorm. Seeing as how they're dreams, they're never exactly like they were in real life, but they still awaken melancholy nostalgia in me.

We did finish our taxes, but we still don't have jobs. I talked to a temp agency last week about a records management job at an architectural firm that sounded like something I could do, but the firm filled it without the agency, or at least that's what they told me. It's strange how, when I have a job, I never seem to have enough time to do anything. Then, when I'm unemployed, I spend a lot of time staving off boredom. It's not that there aren't things I COULD be doing, just that I'm not really in the mood. And of course there's always the money issue. I want to try more restaurants in the area, you know? I've been replaying Dragon Quest III a little bit, and have made it to Baharata. I remember the upcoming battle with Kandar being a real challenge for me before. Playing through a game I've already finished, especially a turn-based role-playing one, is sort of like seeing an old friend, the difference being that games don't change like people do. Okay, it's on a different platform (Game Boy instead of NES), so it's a little different. For instance, you can look inside pots and dressers. Still, it's mostly the same, and it's not like there are any significant story points to uncover. In other game news, my Sims 3 has refused to load twice when trying to get my Sims back home from an adventure, and I'm not sure there's anything I can do about that. Since The Sims 4 is out now, I doubt there will be any more Sims 3 patches. Any suggestions for how to fix that problem?


Last night's Simpsons was a little uncomfortable for me in that I've really become sympathetic to the cause of preventing prejudice against overweight people, and I feel that the show just reinforced the idea that being fat is unhealthy. There isn't always a direct correlation there, and even when there is losing the weight isn't necessarily as simple as eating fewer doughnuts and going on a walk occasionally. Not to mention how often I come across people claiming that they're only putting down heavy people because they're worried about their health, which I believe is now known as Concern Trolling. That said, it did seem a little more sympathetic to Homer than some past episodes have been in that respect, and I really liked the first act with Bart and Lisa writing a new town song. So I guess if Hans Moleman was mayor thirty years previously, he isn't really only thirty-one years old?


I also watched the first disc of the first season of Veronica Mars, a recommendation from SamuraiFrog, who has similar tastes to mine and is a major Kristen Bell fan. I like it so far, although I have to wonder if it goes a little too far over the top in terms of how intelligent and competent Veronica is and how much trauma she'd been through. But hey, a lot of really successful characters have been the tragic genius type. It's also interesting how detective stories pretty much always have a bit of the ends justifying the means built in. I have to wonder how much of that is true for real-life private detectives, as you'd think following somebody around and taking pictures of them in compromising situations would pretty much always be immoral, but some degree of this sort of thing might be necessary at times. Sort of like drone strikes, I guess; I don't like the idea that they could be used against innocent people, but it's probably better that Khaddafi was taken out quickly without a land war in Libya. On a lighter note, this disc was next on my queue after John Carter, and I guess if they'd had the same director, the show would have just been called Veronica.

Yesterday, I went into the city to meet Veronica, who was visiting New York. This was the first time we'd met in person, and she was easy to get along with. I'd actually met her on Tumblr, which is perhaps a little unusual. I follow so many people on there, and I haven't the slightest idea as to who most of them are. The few people I do know are mostly ones I already knew from somewhere else, usually blogs. I'm pretty sure I also met Rose on there, though. And Veronica met her fiancé there, so it really is good for something other than sharing pornography and reading how bitchy teenagers hate all their friends. You could say much the same thing about the Internet as a whole, though, couldn't you? Anyway, I just went to the Met with bethje in March, but it's not like you can see the whole place in a single day anyway. I took some new pictures this time around.

If you're a fan of my Simpsons reviews (and I know at least a few of you are), I got a bit off track what with driving on many Sunday evenings, but now I'm caught up and I have a review of the entire season at my WordPress. I've been writing there a lot more often than here, but I'm still keeping this page for more personal stuff. Well, at least I will as long as I still have an audience, but it looks like I still do.

Is there anything else I can say here? Beth and I went to Pizzeria Uno for the first time in a while last week, and I still quite enjoy their shrimp and crab dip. The pizza is also pretty good, but it's definitely more of an acquired taste than pizza generally is. I remember hating it the first time I had it. Now I like it, but I have to avoid eating the outer crusts, because that's too much dough even for me. Also, I had a dream where I was some kind of evil guy who wanted to get back at everyone who hated me. And it was either that dream or another one where there was a kid so bad that his teachers wanted to beat him up. Really disturbing.

I've been spending too much time playing The Sims 3 recently. I guess it's not all that damaging to my life, since I still go to work and fulfill other obligations, but it's kind of a weird feeling when you've been playing for a long time and your eyes are tired of looking at the screen, yet you still don't particularly want to stop. Does that happen to anyone else, or do I have some kind of problem? Anyway, the pre-made neighbors who started out as adults are now dropping like flies, making me wonder why so many of them were created to be pretty much the exact same age. It makes the game pretty morbid, I must say. Are there going to be new people generated to populate the neighborhood, or will any new Sims I make be living in a nearly empty town? I could create my own Sims to fill the gaps, but when I create a character, I usually want to play them. And one thing that this game makes more difficult than the first two is switching between households.

Aside from that, I've started reading The Royal Explorers of Oz, and I have Outsiders from Oz on order. I've actually read rough drafts of both, but not the finished versions with illustrations and all that. I really should try to get one of my own Oz manuscripts published, shouldn't I? I'm just not sure how to go about it.

The most recent Simpsons episode felt really disorganized. Better than last week's, certainly, but with less of a plot. I guess since Bart's affinity for graffiti was established quite early on, they pretty much had to do something with the more modern idea of graffiti as art and social commentary, but no one seemed to be able to make an actual story out of it. Instead, it kept switching back and forth from that to other ideas that could potentially have made decent plots if they'd bothered to develop them, like the opening of Swapper Jack's. And Marge's new bunny was a waste as well, being used for just the one plot point and then a few jokes with the cage. I liked some of the jokes, but the whole thing was a mess overall.

Happy Valentine's Day! I've never been too keen on this so-called holiday, but I think bethje likes it, and I suppose there's really no harm in it. It's just a little ridiculous, when you get down to it. Speaking of which, our anniversary is coming up. It's our fourth, but by Pirates of Penzance logic it'll be our first, as we got married on the twenty-ninth of February. So I'd like to do something special for that, but I'm terrible at planning. Any ideas? (If you really do have any, you might want to send them to me privately, since Beth can read this.)

So, what else? Whitney Houston died this past weekend, and while I can't say I was ever a particular fan of hers, it still came out of nowhere.

Actually, what's weird is that one of the tabloids they carry at my workplace had a cover story about Whitney collapsing, and I guess for once they were actually on to something. I read Margaret Cho's post on the subject (I'm not sure why I've been referencing her posts so much recently, but she really does nail it sometimes), and I think she has a point when she says she's "sick of the superiority people have about drug addiction and problems and how it’s funny and like a ‘trainwreck’ when someone is caught on camera stumbling and mumbling outside of a club and then they die and no one is surprised." I know I've been guilty of this myself; drugs are one subject on which I can be just as judgmental as the fundamentalists I'm constantly criticizing. I'm trying to overcome that, though, as I realize a lot of people turn to drugs because of actual problems in their life. And hey, I know what it's like to be depressed. I have to say that I'm more sympathetic toward the people who do drugs to overcome pain (real or perceived, because on a mental level it's essentially the same anyway) than the ones who just want to be trendy. I'm also quite critical, perhaps overly so, when it comes to smoking. I've seen pictures of Adele smoking, and I can't help but wonder if that's the reason she needed the throat surgery.

And I LIKE Adele; she's cute (not that that should necessarily matter, but she is) and has a good voice, and "Someone Like You" is a really catchy song.

I don't know. I just don't recommend smoking AND trying to make it as a singer. Well, unless you want to be the next Tom Waits, I guess. Anyway, while it appears that no one knows the cause of Whitney's death for sure, it might have been an overdose on prescription medication. Sound familiar? Is there a conspiracy by Hollywood doctors to do in middle-aged celebrities?

Sunday's new Simpsons episode was a mixed bag for me. I liked Bart and Milhouse busting the myths around the school, but the Lisa plot didn't make a whole lot of sense. The kid writes like Hemingway, so Lisa assumes he also treats girls like Hemingway did? How does that follow? Oh, well. It had its moments, and there have certainly been worse episodes as of late. The Family Guy episode was interesting inasmuch as Beth and I have been to a few horror conventions, so we've probably seen the guy who played Michael Myers in Halloween 4 at some point. Since Myers is such a physical role, he's always been played by stunt men. George P. Wilbur, the guy Tom Tucker was supposed to have been, has done stunt work in a lot of movies, some quite high-profile. Actually, I remember Tucker mentioning in an earlier episode that James Woods talked him out of auditioning for the role of Freddy Krueger, so his having played Myers isn't just an isolated joke. I suppose it's TWO loosely connected jokes, unless there have been other references to his acting career that I'm forgetting about.

It's Martin Luther King Day, and even though where I work is still open, I'm not working today. I wonder if it's because they'd have to pay me extra for working on a holiday. I don't know. Unfortunately, when thinking of Dr. King, it's hard not to be reminded how his daughter and niece are blatantly homophobic. People will say that the struggle for gay rights is different from that for racial equality, and yeah, it's not the same. Nobody is demanding that gay people pay a poll tax or drink from different water fountains, although it sounds like Richard Floyd of Tennessee would probably be in favor of such legislation. But the important point is that, even though they're different struggles, they're both important and both about how people shouldn't have different rights because of irrelevant differences. How is the fact that someone has a different sexual orientation hurting you any more than their having a different skin color would?

Okay, I think it's time to take a break from serious subjects for a little while, and talk about cartoons. The idea of Lisa starting a Facebook-like social network for Springfield is a little weird when an earlier episode actually mentioned Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, but the way it played out was all right. Not great, but all right. Nothing earth-shattering in the plot or the humor, but I guess it worked, and the frame story with the trial was a good way to riff on the typical episode structure. I do get a bit annoyed at people making the same point over and over again about how socializing online isn't really the same as socializing in person, though. When you're socially awkward, you take what you can get. I'm not sure why this one ended up running short enough to require the unrelated bit at the end, but on the other hand it was nice to see another one after so long. Was it supposed to be in the style of Edward Gorey or someone else? I'm not quite sure.

I don't have a whole lot to say about the Family Guy episode other than that it really highlighted how much of a jerk Brian can be. I'm sure I've talked before about how it's interesting that Brian has gradually changed from the voice of reason to a character with his own significant flaws. I don't know exactly how that happened, but I think it has a lot to do with the idea that a sentient dog dating human women is acceptable within the confines of the show. If I remember correctly, the early episodes never really got into Brian's love life, and it's when they did that they played up how shallow he could be. Then there's the fact that he's become somewhat of a self-insert for Seth MacFarlane, so maybe there's an element of self-parody involved.

I didn't watch the Napoleon Dynamite cartoon. I wasn't a big fan of the movie anyway, although it certainly had its moments. Really, though, why is Fox trying to squeeze more milk out of that cow at this point? And is there really anything else they can do with the character? Eh, whatever. I've never really watched Allen Gregory either, although I did once have it on in the background while on the computer. I can take or leave The Cleveland Show; I generally watch it when it's on between two other things I was already planning on watching, but otherwise not so much. Regardless, I wish Fox would just stick with a schedule instead of changing it every week. And what happened to Bob's Burgers, anyway? I think I heard something about it coming back in March, but not what time slot it would be in.

As far as things I didn't watch, you can add the Golden Globes to the list. As far as I can tell, the only point of the endless awards shows is to see attractive celebrities in pretty clothes. And sure, I like that as much as the next person, and perhaps more than some, but even that tends to bear out the disconnect between rich people and everyone else. "Here's Female Celebrity X, wearing a dress that she got for free from a company that helped to ruin the American economy by shipping all its jobs overseas." Which is part of why I never buy it when people claim Hollywood is liberal.
( Anyway, behind the cut are some pretty girls in outfits made by job-killing corporations. )

Last night's was the fourth Simpsons episode to take an extended look into a possible future for the characters, the first one being the sixth season "Lisa's Wedding," which took place in the year 2010. I don't think the writers had any idea that the show would still be on then. Anyway, I think this new one tried to cram too much in, and even though the underlying message was decent, I don't think it worked that well. As with some of the earlier future episodes, they did way too many jokes about improbable technology. "Lisa's Wedding" had some of those as well (and hey, it's now 2011, so where are our commercial biplanes and self-aware robots with melting heads?), but it mostly focused on the characters. With the other three, it seemed that the technology gags took precedent. Tonight's episode also had a similar characterization of Bart to the one in "Bart to the Future," which I really didn't like that much. So much of the show suggests that Bart really does have potential to turn his life around, but both of these suggest that in thirty years he's just become more of a loser. Eh, whatever. The stuff with Maggie was kind of cute. The Krusty as Andy Rooney gag was perhaps a bit ill-timed, but not especially so, and I guess that's going to happen when there's a gap between the show being made and aired. I would also imagine that the Sarah Palin bit at the end of American Dad was made before she announced she wasn't going to run in 2012. I liked the American Dad episode, by the way, largely because of how amusingly far-fetched the idea of being excommunicated from every kind of Christianity was. By the way, the service dog Stan shot was named Clancy, which is also the name of one of our dogs. I did watch the Cleveland Show, but as I've never seen Die Hard, I can't say I got most of the jokes. And Family Guy was all right, but I can't really think of anything specific to say about it.

Also, I got this meme from poisonyoulove, so I might as well go ahead with it.

Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you - they might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people (including me) can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

Here are my five:

1. Oz
What makes you think I would be willing to expound upon this topic? :P Seriously, I'm not entirely sure why the Oz books have been my absolute favorites for so long, but it's still the case. It helps that there's a small but active fandom that's still cranking out Oz stories. The quality varies, but some are really good. Did L. Frank Baum have any idea what he had wrought?

2. Mythology
I remember starting to cultivate my interest in mythology, particularly the Greek variety, when I was in elementary school. I recall reading through the entry on the gods in my mom's old Book of Knowledge (published back when it wasn't so much an encyclopedia as a hardcover magazine), and checking out a lot of books on the subject from the library. Obviously it's stuck with me. Many things seem to; I've noticed that I rarely totally lose interest in anything these days, but simply put some things on the back burner from time to time.

3. They Might Be Giants
My favorite band, although I knew of their existence for years before really listening to anything of theirs. It was in college that I first heard a significant amount of their stuff (I lived in an honors dorm, so there were a lot of nerds there), and started buying their albums for myself. It seems that TMBG tends to attract completists who want to hear everything they put out, unless it's just the Internet that attracts such people. And now that their fanbase seems to be averaging out to an increasingly younger crowd, I guess I'm now one of their older fans, although it certainly doesn't feel like it.

4. Politics
I'm not the most politically astute person, but I try to keep at least some tabs on what's going on in the political arena, if only to avoid becoming one of those people who think they're too good to pay attention to current events. I'm obviously on the liberal side of the spectrum, which I'd like to say is because I really care about people, but ultimately it's more or less selfish. I'm not rich, so why would I support politicians who only care about the rich? Mind you, I think that in our country that's largely the case with both major parties, but I'm still a registered Democrat. Lesser of two evils, or something, plus I wouldn't be able to vote in the primaries otherwise.

5. Twitter
I think I first heard about Twitter from 3x1minus1, who's someone with her finger on the pulse of all the new online developments. Well, at least she's much more so than I am, but that's really not saying much. I think what led me to become a pretty regular Twitter user is that it's a good place for one-liners and one-off observations, which I'm generally loath to blog because a one-sentence journal entry seems wrong to me. Yeah, I'm weirdly obsessive-compulsive in that respect. I remember overhearing someone in the break room at work a few days ago talking about how Twitter is just people posting what they had for lunch. My problem with that complaint isn't even so much that there's more to it than that as it is that people wanting to share mundane details is nothing new. It's just that, prior to the Internet, people usually just shared them with anyone who happened to be around, most of whom really didn't care.
With the Internet, it's easier to acquire an audience that might actually take an interest, and when they don't it's easy to just skip the boring parts. I guess Twitter especially, and other social networking sites to a certain extent, is a good substitute for small talk for the socially awkward among us. To me, a lot of the complaints I hear people make about online socialization don't really have anything to do with technology at all, but rather are outgoing people not understanding the rest of us.