Month: January 2004

Cabin fever must be kicking in, sooner or later.

“Joan of Arcadia” from this past Friday was quite good, with a nice mix of laughs and sadness. Kevin, Joan’s wheelchair user brother, is slowly moving on with his life. The writers did a nice job of wrapping up the Joan and Adam storyline. Joan’s father, the ex-Police Chief Girardi, got to lose his job unceremoniously (he’s a hero for exposing the corruption in the government of Arcadia; but the dissolution of the government meant no more city police department for him) and so he’s offered to be the under sheriff in charge; but declines the offer to be head of the detectives, now “Detective Girardi” – but isn’t that a demotion? Why not Lieutenant or Sergeant? I know, I know, it’s only tv.

Yesterday’s figure skating was awesome. Johnny Weir is the new U.S. men’s figure skating champion; is it a passing of the baton, when Michael Weiss is still around (yet none of the men did the elusive quad). Michelle Kwan is re-crowned the U.S. women’s champion; an amazing performance. Dick Buttons, ABC’s color commentator (and former multiple champion himself) got very enthusiastic and warm about the performance – his commentating was itself an amusing thing to watch/hear.

New episode of “Alias” tonight! Will Sydney finally remember what she did during her two missing years?

NFL playoffs continue with its drama – personally, I don’t get a kick on watching football players and their coaches and fans overcoming frigid temperatures. Was it merely a display of machismo when these football players walked on the field of Massachusetts (3 degrees, I believe, at night), with short sleeves? How smart was that?

What has been amusing with the NFL: the commercials promoting the NFL playoffs, wherein actor Don Cheadle is Big NFL Fan who’s telling the tv viewer that there is absolutely nothing bigger than the NFL playoffs. Cheadle’s enthusiasm is infectious (he is a good actor, after all, and maybe he really is a football fan): in one ad, here he is doing a run against a real running back and saying, “Yeah, I can run” (no, actually, you can’t, but it’s all for good); then, here he is running around in fake snow (with the fan on screen blowing the fake snow), demonstrating the drama of recreating playoffs games of yore in snow; and there he is, showing the glorious ring in his hand, what these players are all battling for. Hmm. Yeah, Cheadle’s making me want to watch the playoffs (well, no, I haven’t watched them with great attention, but I know they’re happening at least).

I’m still on-line? I must find something decently productive to do soon.

I’ve found out about these while checking websites – looked odd/amusing:
– “Which Star Trek captain are you?”

– “Which Lord of the Rings character… are you?”

More Mars stuff, on the NASA official website. The Martian terrain is eerie.

This week’s Entertainment Weekly – silly Jessica Simpson and no-less-silly Nick Lachey on the cover. At what point do we stop referring to them as mere newlyweds? They’ve been married to each other for awhile now (most certainly a lifetime long in comparison to Britney Spears’ quickie marriage). Inside the magazine – great article on Sean Astin, the actor who played Sam on “Lord of the Rings” – a balance of humor and information (I forgot that he played “Rudy”). Astin should really get nominated for an Oscar for his work as Sam.

In NYC: The newsradio awakens me on a Saturday morning to say that it’s 3 degrees Farhenheit, with a windchill (or, as 1010 WINS news says, “Real Feel”) of minus 30 degrees (!!!). What the heck kind of winter is this? It has also been distressing reading in the newspaper about people in the city with apartment buildings with no heat or hot water – one building’s indoor temperature was 46 degrees. That is unquestionably inhumane, under these conditions.

Tonight is football or figure skating on tv. Take your pick (or poison). Not like the teams I like are on, so I’d go with figure skating myself. But, the weather here is perfect for those Green Bay folks – go Green Bay! (Brett Favre has been downright inspirational lately, even if he personally may not feel very inspired due to his dad’s passing away) (and, yeah, well, leave me alone about the Giants and Jets; my siblings and I have been snickering about Coughlin’s inaugural speech as the Giants’ new head coach – is it a requirement to be an amusing talking head to lead NY teams? At any rate, the real team to be moaning about in NY right now is the Knicks…)

Speaking of the Knicks, MSG folks have given broadcasting rights to NYC’s local Cantonese radio station (home games only). Interesting to hear a baseketball game in Cantonese. Yao Ming may or may not have been a big draw for MSG; seeing Jeff Van Gundy and Patrick Ewing on the Dallas side _with Yao Ming_ – now that was stunning. The Knicks falling down like that against them – even with the returning Brooklyn ex-high school star Stephon Marbury – well, one is going to have to run out of words about that.