Halloween 2008 – got in the subway in the morning; saw people in their costumes already. Some teenagers in the clown face of The Joker, a la Heath Ledger’s portrayal in “The Dark Knight.” A woman dressed as the Gecko of the Geico commercials (seriously weird). Some guy looking like a daisy. When I got home, passing the trick-or-treaters, I watched some of the Village’s annual Halloween parade and kept wondering where were those folks along the parade. Ah NYC in Halloween.
Sad but true – I watched a zombie movie on Halloween. And, yes, it was silly. “Resident Evil” was really ridiculous. Some creepy moments, but mostly ridiculous. The ending, predictably, didn’t end well for humanity. For a good zombie movie, watch “Shaun of the Dead.” Really.
Holiday time — sigh, I miss the Peanuts specials, as even Slate’s Dana Stevens observes their specialness.
Now that it’s November, it’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and like last year, as already noted, I’m at it again. This is going to be a tough slog in trying to write this story that’s not quite working already.
At the moment that I’m writing this post, I’m watching C-SPAN’s “America and the Courts,” doing a preview of the upcoming oral arguments of “FCC v. Fox Television” indecency language cases at the US Supreme Court. The complicated mess (which I’m finding disturbing just because there are some instances where no one expects the fleeting cursing and FCC should know better than to get crazed about that; versus… well, this is FOX, after all…) does make for some amusing tv – the attorney Carter Phillips used some unbleeped F-bombs and the s-word in the interview and it reminded me that surely it’s going to make for a real fun oral arguments (Carter Phillips is apparently going to do it at the oral arguments) and C-SPAN’s trying to see if they can air it… (seriously? Cool!).
My past fondness for “West Wing” (and its sad but brilliant last season) was recalled when I read this NY Times’ article about how the whole McCain v. Obama campaign is awfully reminiscent to that Vinick v. Santos campaign of the “West Wing” universe. Considering that the season was developed/made around the time that this country became aware of Obama, and McCain’s been around the block for awhile, perhaps it’s no surprise that their natures become inspirations for the characters on “West Wing.” And, that was a really good last season of West Wing (despite some flaws) – it made me love the show again. Plus, Alan Alda – a real life Democrat – played an honorable moderate Republican; the parallels of Jimmy Smits’ character and Obama… whoa…
Speaking of last seasons, considering that it’s likely the last season of “ER” (for real now!), I actually watched most of “ER” this Halloween’s Eve. Decent episode; very watchable.
In light of the coming Election (don’t forget to vote!), PBS posted a fun video on YouTube: Mr. McFeely (he’s still around?!) demonstrates how to use the touch screen voting machine – and he had weird hypothetical votes (Barney Rubble for president? Betty Boop for Attorney General? Robert DeNiro – a Republican? And Mr. McFeely’s write in vote was for… Cher?! Mr. Rogers would shake his head in shame… (no, really, this was funny!). Enjoy!