Triscribe

Category: Brooklyn

  • Aloha, “Lost”

    Re: the “Lost” series finale – I’m still digesting it.  There is so much to be said and yet maybe nothing needs to be said; I could just leave it to the sublime, but really, “Lost” is a show that activates discussion and thought.

    On a sidenote: I thought ABC overdid it with the commercials; rendering the series finale into a 2 1/2 hours just for commercials?!  Come on!  I can’t begrudge the network for wanting to profit from the event, but they really got excessive.

    My initial reaction to the series finale was of some kind of emotional resolution.  I felt a little teary over seeing Jack seeming to be at peace, with Vincent the dog by his side at the end.  After all that turmoil, perhaps it was a satisfactory ending to realize that the Sideways Universe is a waiting area before the loved ones get be together again to the next life or the next world or whatnot (fitting to whatever belief system one has) and that our castaways were able to find their own resolutions and reunite.

    Not that I quite enjoyed the Jimmy Kimmel post-series finale show (some of the Q&A from that audience left much to be desired and the skits of alternate endings weren’t that funny to me), but I liked Kimmel’s title of “Aloha,” as I thought that the phrase “aloha” best summed up the series finale – as a phrase known to be both “Hello” and “goodbye.”

    But, ok, aloha…now what?  Good luck and farewell and welcome to the next thing, as Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Sun, Sayid, Locke, Hurley – and even returning old friends like Boone, Shannon, Charlie, and Claire – move forward.  Is that all?

    I ultimately realize what a head-twister (not to mention heart-rending) the finale was.  The “real” universe – well, the island is saved and Jack can let go and … death is death; life is life; and what happens, happens; c’est la vie; love is the answer; and humans are… human.

    Was the series about science or faith, or both?  Was it about having free will or power – do we have choices or none at all?  Or was it all of the above?  (For instance, Jack chose to step up and succeed Jacob, and Jacob wanted to give the candidates a choice, which he did not have, because of his crazy adopted mom.  Meanwhile, Hurley didn’t want to be the successor, but it wasn’t like he had a choice; it wasn’t as if Jack, as human as he was, was going to give the job to Ben either.  And, perhaps only Hurley would be so compassionate and willing to ask Ben for help and to be his “Number Two,” I suppose!).

    Is it okay or not okay not to have all the answers to the plots?  I probably would have preferred more balance between characters and plots during this last season, and wished we had more time to deal with the implications (or even to have given Eloise, Charles Widmore, Daniel Faraday, Charlotte, Desmond and Penny more time to resolve their stories, and I could have lived without the head-scratching stuff – like the senseless deaths of Ilana and Widmore’s staff) – but I’m actually more okay with not having all the answers or all the mysteries resolved.  (I survived many other series finales and I’m okay – really).

    As someone who hasn’t been a rabid fan, speaking as a television viewer who wants good tv, I still stand by what I have said about the season premiere of the last season of “Lost”: I want something entertaining and with some kind of heart.  I would hope that the writers would care about their characters, and I think Cuse and Lindelof did care (at least, I felt that they did in this series finale).  While I cannot quite feel “happy” in the kind of ending that there was – that all roads leads to a life’s end, and boy is that sad or what? – it is an ending and we watched the characters seem okay with that – if not happy to be together again, even if it was in the afterlife, and that of itself is actually uplifting (there’s always hope, in some fashion).

    Am I making any sense?  Did the ending of “Lost” make sense?  Maybe not for everybody, not even for me (if I keep thinking about it, and I probably should stop that already!).  I’m relieved that Jack is at peace, even if he never really got to be a real dad to a son (in the alternate universe, he did get to be what he missed out on – where he did resolve his losses, even with his own father – but is it really the same?  Hmm.  Not sure.).  I’m sorry that Jack’s son was never “real.”  (well, he was real enough to Sideways Jack).  I’m pleased that Sawyer and Juliet are back together, even if it might have taken Sawyer awhile to get there.  And, even Kate made her peace with Jack and Claire (in both universes).  But, the ones who were left behind – Sun and Jin’s daughter; Aaron; Walt; Jack’s son who never existed – well, does the Island leave a legacy to them?  To anyone?

    The series finale isn’t perfect for not quite answering questions to the plots, but it captured the essence of the show, which made me feel okay and almost wanting to revisit it all over again.  Was it sad?  To me, yes, but it did not feel completely wrong or inappropriate to me.  There was a subtlety that left my imagination going; it seems to me that the discussion on “Lost” will never end, even if the series itself is over.

    “Lost” as a series reminds me of something a college professor of mine once said about the great books we read – along the lines that if it makes an impact on us, that if it makes us think or react however way – that is the power of reading a great book.  I think “Lost” as a series has been something really moving and it worked for me.  It’s not perfect, but it made me care.

    Great acting from Matthew Fox, Michael Emerson, and Terry O’Quinn; even kudos to the rest of the cast – they held everything together.

    Aloha, “Lost.”  See you in the next life.

    Update:

    I posted a shorter, less rambling version of this on comments on David Bianculli’s blog TV Worth Watching (which is a great blog, by the way, and I liked and agreed with Bianculli’s thoughts about the series finale).

    Other posts on the series finale that I’ve taken particular notice: Time’s James Poniewozik with his Lost Watch series finale post; Poniewozik’s post on links to others’ posts; Alan Sepinwall’s thoughts; and the amazingly in-depth posts (part 1 AND part 2!) by Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff “Doc” Jensen.

  • Catching Up

    Sorry to have fallen behind; life and other things occurred.

    Like… Arizona passing odd laws: like their anti-illegal immigration law (still not sure how the law enforcement goes about stopping to identify who’s illegal without causing a whole host of other problems and not to mention where Arizona’s going to get the money to enforce their law and the litigation involved; granted, there is a whole context as to why Arizonan state gov’t decided to pass the law, there had to be a better way to do it without irritating people) and their law to end ethnic studies (primarily out of fear the ethnic studies is about producing anti-Americans).

    I’m no immigration law expert, but from what I scanned of the Arizona law is that it leaves much to be desired, since it leave room for abuse and then, if law enforcement can’t or won’t enforce it, some civilian can sue the municipality or state for not enforcing the law – more room for abuse.

    As for the ethnic studies issue, speaking as someone who has taken one or two ethnic studies courses back in college:

    (a) Arizona really is freaking crazy about that issue (apologies to Arizonans out there, but seriously!).

    (b) I’d suggest that their governor and legislators take an ethnic studies class and figure out that ethnic studies do not teach people to be anti-American; if anything, it’s about understanding how complex our country is; it’s also not about “segregating” people either (and if anything…, maybe encouraging each other to take classes that aren’t about our own cultures and moving beyond what we think we know might improve race relations – or even a lack thereof – in this country); good grief.

    (c) (insert eye roll here).

    I’ll step off my soap box now.

    The news of Justice John Paul Stevens’ retirement and the selection of his replacement took a lot of attention.

    (a) There was, of course, coverage on who was Stevens and his legacy (see Adam Liptak’s article from the NY Times).

    (b) There were articles about the folks on the short list and even a last minute addition to the short list (I liked this article in the NY Times about Judge Sidney Thomas of Montana, appellate judge of the 9th Circuit; he seemed refreshingly different – empathetic, smart, and not from the usual parts of the country).

    In the end, President Obama has selected US Solicitor General Elena Kagan; we might have a fourth woman on the US Supreme Court – quite something to think about.

    Of course, all the criticism came right away, from all sides.  Frankly, the one argument that I have found most hypocritical is the one on how Kagan’s lack of judicial experience is a lacking.  Let’s not forget that, before 1972, a lot of US Supreme Court justices had no prior judicial experience – and that the last one in that category was the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

    Plus, Kagan’s not exactly comparable to Harriet Miers, President George W. Bush’s original pick to replace Justice O’Connor.  (I’m not exactly saying that a Harvard Law graduate is better than anyone else; it’s just that the former Harvard Law dean might have more thoughts on constitutional law issues than a corporate lawyer like Miers was).

    Strangely, though – with the selection of Kagan, four out of the five boroughs of NYC might be represented on the Supreme Court.  I doubt that this is what most people had in mind as “diversity,” but it is funny to think that NJ has more representation on the Court before Staten Island will (in the form of Alito and even NJ-born Scalia).  See the article by James Barron of the NY Times on this subject.  The Daily News had some article on the subject of Staten Island feeling left out, but I’m not going to make suggestions.

    The sad news that NBC is canceling “Law and Order,” so that now, it only ties “Gunsmoke” as longest running tv drama.  Articles include:

    (a)  Its effect on NYC economy is considered by the NY Times; Daily News also covered how the acting community had built resumes via L&O.

    (b) Some tv criticism: Daily News’ David Hinckley talks about how L&O covered the basics.  NY Times’ Alessandra Stanley just had her own observations.

    Personally, I think NBC has to figure out how to fill the 10pm-11pm time slot and they’re not going to have any good transition without L&O, which – with its current cast – was a lot more entertaining than its still-extant spinoffs L&O: SVU and L&O: Criminal Intent.  NBC couldn’t even plan a cancellation with enough advancement to let L&O have a proper series finale?  Come on!

    Plus, many questions!  Are we really going to lose the most entertaining legal crew in the form of DA McCoy, Exec. ADA Cutter, and ADA Rubirosa?  Will Cutter ever realize he can only go so far with his kooky legal ethics?  Will we ever get a closing argument from Cutter or Rubirosa?  What will we do without McCoy as the DA who wonders what is he getting into with the DA thing?

    And, what about Detective Lupo?  Is he still taking night classes at Triscribe’s alma mater law school?  Is he ever going to graduate?

    Good read in the NY Times:

    Really good stuff from Michael Kimmelman on who “owns” art? Of the fight for art is for nationalist or political purposes, does the art really matter for the “owner”?  ex., the dispute between Greece and Great Britain over the Elgin Marble (or, to Greece, simply the Parthenon marble, more or less stolen from Greece).  Isn’t it about giving people the opportunity to see the art?  I especially liked how Kimmelman closed the article: “We’re all custodians of global culture for posterity…. Neither today’s Greeks nor Britons own the Parthenon marbles, really.”

    Recent museum visiting:

    at the Morgan Museum and Library; saw the Magna Carta, the basis of the concepts of rule of law and basic rights like right to trials and juries. (The Magna Carta is staying in town due to delays in shipping it back to England because of the Icelandic volcano ash cloud).

    Recent play viewing:

    Watched the roving Shakespeare at Columbia University: King’s Crown Shakespeare Troupe did “Measure for Measure.”  Cool stuff; the college kids were so talented.  Plus, the play’s about how a bad law can cause serious problems.

    Recent television viewing:

    “Hamlet” on “Great Performances” on PBS – David Tennant (the 10th Doctor of “Doctor Who”) as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart (Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) as Claudius.  “Great Performances” website has the capability of letting the viewer watching the movie on-line temporarily; check it out while you can!

    “Lost” — the road to the series finale is paved with much confusion.  I can live with some mysteries left as mysteries, but that last episode – where the back story of Jacob and the Man in Black is somewhat revealed – was strange and left wanting.

    Plus, finally got to watch an episode of “Justified” on FX.  Entertaining.  Very Leonard Elmore.  Much violence.  But, strong acting and writing.  And, the lead actor, Timothy Olyphant – it doesn’t hurt that he’s easy on the eyes.

    APA Heritage Month continues:

    Tammy Duckworth, on Washington Post’s website, on leadership.  (hat tip to Angry Asian Man blog).  I liked this quote from Duckworth, currently US Assistant Secretary of  Veterans Affairs and an Iraq War veteran (link to transcript):

    Being a leader is identifying who you are, bringing your strengths, but also identifying the strengths of the people that you’re working with and really building on that and pulling together a team. And just forgetting about what other people are saying about how you should be and how you’re supposed to be, just bring your own strengths to it.

    Another hat tip to Angry Asian Man blog: Virginia Tech’s Ed Wang has been drafted by the Buffalo Bills, making him the NFL’s first Chinese American.

    Last, but not least, another hat tip to Angry Asian Man blog (but I’ll also say that I got an e-mail from NAPABA about this too): NAPABA wanted people to reach out to the Senate about the confirmation proceedings on Goodwin Liu’s appointment to the 9th Circuit appellate court.

    As with Kagan, the opposition’s trying to argue that Liu’s lack of judicial experience is some kind of concern and how his academic writings somehow are problematic of how he’d be as a judge.  I don’t think either argument works, and hope that we’ll have a second Asian American at the appellate level soon, without the politics driving people batty.

  • Because We’re Lawyers and APA’s – Good News!

    Hooray: Judge Denny Chin has been finally confirmed for the 2nd Circuit!  (and in an article on the Chin news, it’s also reported that Loretta Lynch was also confirmed as US Attorney for Eastern District of NY (for a 2nd time)).

    NAPABA has a press release on the news; wow, Chin’s the first APA appellate judge outside the 9th Circuit.

    David Lat of Above the Law also on the news.

    Plus: Really great stuff in Washington Post’s website by Dr. Jim Young Kim, president of Dartmouth, on leadership, identity, and having skills so you can actually do things and give back.  We’re living in interesting times, even if progress still takes time to get there.

  • Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are still dead.

    Beginning of the month, on 4/2/10: I saw a roving “Hamlet” at the World Financial Center (going on from 4/1/10 to 4/18/10)  – great stuff!  Presented by the New York Classical Theatre.

    (for anyone interested, Columbia University’s own King’s Crown Shakespeare Troupe is going to do a roving “Measure for Measure” on campus, April 29-May 1, 2010 – free and fun, if you’re going to be up at Morningside Hts; got to put in a plug for Alma Mater).

    And, in other areas of the arts: I did get to see the “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” – quite a movie (here’s the link to what I think is the official movie site).  Graphic on the sex, rape, and violence – but quite a movie.  Plus, gets the point very much across that Sweden is not just the land of Ikea and happy sunny people.

    Plus, back in March (March 19, 2010, to be exact), I had enjoyed the Victorian photo-collage exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – “Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage” was great stuff – small, intimate, but vivid.  As noted in the art review in the NY Times by Roberta Smith, it’s remarkable about what the women in the 19th Century did, influenced by their society and their culture – making art out of little photographs and other media; taking into consideration their views of the domestic sphere, humor, and popular culture for that time (Lewis Carroll’s weird stuff of the Alice adventures came from somewhere; Charles Darwin did have an impact; the British Royalty was no small stuff).  Smith notes:

    “Playing With Pictures” refreshes your appreciation of the essential fuzziness of art history and of the collective, even osmotic nature of invention. It suggests that women’s art history (a phrase I’m not entirely comfortable with, but never mind) is still only just beginning to be examined and understood. [….] In all fairness, “Playing With Pictures” includes the work of one man and also a French woman, but in the main it demonstrates how upper-class English women — some of whom knew one another — introduced cutout photographs into the albums of watercolors, sketches and writing that had long been an approved female leisure activity.

    The NY Times’ website included a slideshow as a sample.  Really enjoyable.  At the Metropolitan Museum of Art until May 9, 2010.

    So, in this edition of “Sunday Routine” in the NY Times, Moby doesn’t quite go into what he does on a Sunday. But, he sounds cool anyway, talking about tea and pancakes and stuff.  Meanwhile, Vanessa Williams (who was on the touching  series finale of “Ugly Betty” – the whole cast being sweet and moving forward) talked about her Sunday, doing brunch and  her Sunday matinee on Broadway (Sondheim, of course).  WNBC’s Gabe Pressman – still working in his 80’s, even if on blog format – talking about he takes it easy on Sundays.

    I watched the second half of the “Ugly Betty” series finale, and remembered how I liked the show and the characters’ good humor (before the more pointless storylines got in the way).  I liked that they left the ending open – that at the least, Betty moved on to a more exciting future, while letting us wonder if she and Daniel really did hit it off (as more than just friends).

    Have to catch this week’s episode of “Lost” – but otherwise, all lost by how crazy this last season has been.   Television Without Pity did a nifty little feature about a universe where “Lost” never happens and the cast has to do other projects. Basically, Terry O’Quinn got to continue his pre-Lost career of character roles, Matthew Fox somehow lands some other hit, and Ian Somerholder still gets on that Vampire diaries show. Oh well.

    Plus, because it’s April, usually something weird happens at a college campus (usually a protest) – so this seems like something different at Alma Mater: a silent sit-in of Low Library (an administrative building, not a real library, besides housing old archives), to reclaim space, for a mere 30 minutes:

    The students were part of what organizers called a sound-installation flash mob. The idea of the event, entitled “Everything Listens,” was to reclaim the library as a space of contemplation.

    “We’re trying to reawaken Low because it has been dead as a library for 75 years,” one of the organizers, Jess K. Smith, said shortly beforehand. “We’re going to make the trek backwards with books in hand.”

    For 30 minutes, the dozens of students read their books and listened to the downloaded composition.

    Then, one and two at a time, they rose to their feet and slowly left the building.

    Weird.  And, strangely cool to me, for some reason.

    The news about Conan O’Brien going to TBS in the fall – well, I wish Conan the best of luck, even if my reaction was: TBS? Then again, the analysis (such as by tv critic Alan Sepinwall) was quite correct – FOX would have had a hard time getting affiliates on board, when they are making better money with Seinfeld and Simpsons reruns (well, that’s the case in NYC area FOX anyway).

    So, this will have to be as the arts post for the time being.  More in the next post, covering other topics.

  • Happy Passover, Happy Easter, Happy Spring – 2010

    Nice weather.

    The Muppets with an Easter video – the bunnies sing anyway.

    Washington D.C.’s cherry blossom festival!  (Associated Press’ raw video)

    Interesting profile of Butler U’s president, Bobby Fong – an American-born Chinese American, who grew up loving baseball – and now has a Final Two men’s basketball team in the NCAA championship (hat tip from Asian Angry Man).

    Ok, seriously – who had Butler going all the way like this on their brackets?

    I did have Duke, but I didn’t have them as the final champion.  No, I had Syracuse, so I’m clearly no prognosticator.

  • March Madness 2010

    So, half my NCAA Men’s basketball brackets are gone.

    But, so cool that Cornell’s still in it!  Ivy League is represented!  So, of course, all kinds of coverage is done about this: how those Cornell kids live in Ithaca, how their Shining Moment is hopefully lifting spirits at the university, which has had an awful lot of tragedy (dealing with suicides this past academic year) and – of course, how academically bright they are (something other than Duke and Stanford, for goodness sake!).  Plus, sounds like they’re getting real excited at Ithaca.  Big Red had a great weekend.

    So, I’ll root for them.  Do well, Big Red.  Not like my Alma Mater’s going to be in the tourney anytime soon.

    The passing of actor Robert Culp.

  • Stuff

    This past weekend’s storm was just nasty and the recovery’s not been easy.

    Remembering the legacy of Andrew Haswell Green, 19th Century urban planner who helped make the modern 5-borough city possible.

    NYC’s ex-health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, now CDC’s director; love him or hate him for making us cut back on transfat and salt, he’s making big changes at CDC (and bringing NYC aspects with him).

    Peeps in the ABA Journal – it’s that time of year again…

    The passing of Merlin Olsen.  I remembered he was one of the cast on “Little House on the Prairie,” and he was also a football commentator, and then it was awhile when I learned that he was a pro football player – Hall of Famer?!- that’s quite a life.

    The passing of Peter Graves.  He’ll be missed, but at least we’ll always have his oeuvre — yeah, he was Capt. Oveur in the Airplane! movies, but he’ll especially be remembered as Jim Phelps of Mission Impossible.

  • Oscars 2010

    At the moment, watching the Oscars on my non-cable, digital-ready tv – which was always the plan anyway, sort of – but became the reality once ABC Disney pulled the plug off its station on Cablevision.

    When I visit my cable tv, it is strange to see no ABC.  Kind of amazed that someone (namely, ABC – specifically WABC) found a way to look more evil than Cablevision (who needs to find a better business model than negotiating with each of the networks and  stations like this and then facing the debacle of losing a station or network) and that ABC got the guts to pull this off on Oscar night.

    Frankly, I dislike both Cablevision (who is still evil anyway as it is for many reasons, namely having owners who are not smart about their other products – the teams of Madison Square Garden) and ABC (well, still, I’d give them credit, they’re negotiating dirty and didn’t hold their breath about how they pulled it off, like FOX did with the college bowl games back in January).  It’s all about negotiating dirty.  Whether either side would get what they wanted from this – who knows.

    Oh – update (as of 8:55pm) – ABC has a crawl that alerted that they just came to an agreement in principle with Cablevision and are back on Cablevision households.  I checked my cable tv and that is indeed the case.  I’m sticking with my non-cable tv, thanks anyway; I don’t trust it when cable companies and others control the tv, really.

    Movie weekend otherwise – saw “The Hurt Locker” on Saturday – great movie!; Jeremy Renner was excellent; and the movie leaves you thoughtful about war.

    Saw Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” today.  3D glasses atop of my own glasses is kind of irritating with an initial headache; otherwise, it was an okay movie; visually appealing but kind of puzzling with the story.

    Although in all honesty, Alice on Syfy was just as visually exciting and creepy, but had less of the weird British stuff.  Both Alices did a whole female empowerment thing, but I kept wondering if Tim Burton’s Alice could be a little less wan (so pale and hesitant, although that’s more the character than the actress) and why did she have to be so young when she originally went to Wonderland in the first place?

    Plus, Tim Burton’s Alice movie was a little slow in some parts and I kept wanting more tension than just “Alice, you must fill your destiny” (really?  is that all?).  Tim Burton’s Cheshire Cat was creepy and helpful simultaneously.  Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter wasn’t nearly as mad-insane as just mad about oppression by the vile Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter was funny and creepy).

    Enjoy Oscars night!

  • Goodbye, Vancouver 2010

    Well, the end of the Olympics.  Kudos for Canada’s men’s hockey team for winning gold.  Kudos to Team USA for putting the effort to try to beat Team Canada.

    Although, this meant that President Obama owed Prime Minister Harper a case of Molson’s beer for losing the friendly bet.  Oh well.

    The pictures on tv of Canadians in Vancouver taking to the streets in celebration over the hockey victory was great tv to see.  Seems like all of Canada is happy (Montrealers taking to the streets of downtown!).

    Kudos to Vancouver for the effort in making a memorable Olympics, even if it was a little snow-deprived.

    The Closing Ceremony was odd – yes, it was nice to see the clown help “fix” the missing fourth column of the Olympic cauldron.  Nice to see William Shatner, doing a whole patriotic thing (as NY Times’ live blog noted, by reporter Ian Austen, “Shatner’s opening line ‘I’m Bill and I’m proud to be a Canadian” is a riff on an exceptionally popular beer commercial from several years ago” – so cool that I wasn’t the only one who caught it!  Yes, it was a funny twist of a very popular Molson’s commercial – one of which I remembered actually did get aired in the States; see below).  Catherine O’Hara and the curling thing was funny.  Michael J. Fox – kudos!

    But, parts of the closing ceremony was way over the top – the Michael Buble’s Maple Leaf Forever, the inflatable Monties, and beavers.  The giant table hockey figures with gold medals – now that was terrific.  But, really, the whole thing was total Canadian camp.

    The handover to Sochi 2014 was a bit surreal.  I won’t enter the whole arena of international political intrigue, but sometimes, with the Olympics’ attempts at being about goodwill and sports, the whole patriotism/nationalism thing can be a bit grating on the nerves.  At least the Russian salute to Sochi felt a little (a) abstract and (b) heavy-handed at the same time.  Yeah, we know you weren’t happy with your medal standings and you’re a little peeved that the world doesn’t fear/admire you like it was during the Cold War, but get over it.  Can’t you be like the Canadians and be nice?  (well, except for hockey, which as Newsweek’s Mark Starr notes, Canada really did needed it more).

    Neil Young’s singing his song, while the torch was turned off (both the one inside the stadium and the one outside) – that was poignant.  Strangely, that was the same song he sang on Conan O’Brien’s last “Tonight Show.”

    On a tangent, kind of twisted that, during the Olympics, NBC otherwise promoted the return of Jay Leno, as if Conan never happened.

    John Furlong, chief executive of the Vancouver Games, had a nice speech, praising Vancouver and Canada for the efforts; but, his attempt at the French portion of his speech was on the range of not good French (and I’m not saying my French is any good, but he could’ve been a little careful about it).  Otherwise, I liked how he was sensitive about acknowledging the tragedies and triumphs of this Olympics.

    The rest of the closing ceremony was pretty much a hit or miss for me; unless one is a fan of the music, it really was to entertain the crowd at BC Place, rather than for the tv audience.   The big negative was NBC’s shifting to Jerry Seinfeld’s new show at 10:30pm.  Yes, it was made clear in the promos and the tv guides that this would happen, but that it actually DID happen was disgusting.  Bob Costas telling us viewers to come back at 11:30pm and then shifting to Seinfeld’s new show just like that?  Ugh!  Graceless, NBC!  Absolutely graceless!

    Then by the time we return to the closing ceremony at 11:30pm, the whole time delay was what it was; but the Times’ live blog made it clear that the ceremony actually ended at 11:07 EST.  So, NBC – you blew it.  You could have made up for your showing of the Olympics (which was nice with the hockey game live, as was the 50K men’s cross country skiing live, but not so nice for lots of other things) – but you chose not to.  Granted, you probably have some kind of contractual obligation to Seinfeld to air his show, but sticking it in the middle of the last night of Olympics – so not cool, NBC.  So not cool.

    And then you stick in a reminder to watch for London 2012.  Okay, sure – but couldn’t you have waited until the end of the show to stick in the reminder?  This was still the Winter Olympics and they just did the handoff to Sochi!  Have a little consideration!

    I’ve come to the realization that the NBC coverage was most irritating because the Olympics was actually on our continent.  Then again, I don’t remember being very pleased with how either Salt Lake City or even Atlanta was covered so… oh well.  At least, it’d be nice to just have a time stamp for when what occurred, if you’re going to do things on tape/time delay.  Just a little nice, just for the sake of, say, accuracy on tv.

    I’ll check more of the reactions/analyses during the next day or two; no doubt, there are reactions…

    Oh, and yes, this is the Molson commercial (I’m pretty sure that the actor in this commercial is the actor from the series “Strange Days at Blake Holsey High,” the tween/teen sci-fi series that had aired on NBC and otherwise on Discovery kids channel – Canadian-made, I think, since most of the cast was Canadian).   (checked imdb.com, Jeffery Douglas, who played Professor Z, in the boarding school setting of the series, and the user comments seem to confirm that he is Joe of the Molson commercial.  And, yes, he is Canadian).   Oh, and William Shatner did do his own mock up of the Molson commercial – but he says he drinks Labatt (oops).

    I’d like to embed these odd videos, but will have to figure that out another time.

  • Olympian TV

    I’m probably watching too much or too little Olympics; or, rather, like everyone else, grumbling about why NBC’s coverage is so… schizophrenic (yeah, I know, it’s to get that casual viewer; but must you keep switching from ski jump to snowboarding and then back to figure skating in a three hour stretch?  The last 10 seconds of the USA v. Canada men’s hockey game on Sunday night, while MSNBC had to show the whole thing?  Could you put a little time stamp – like “This occurred at 12:30pm PST” so that I can figure out that this was not live tv and still feel okay about it?).

    Watching the women’s figure skating short program round was pretty cool.  South Korea’s Kim Yu-Na taking the lead with her James Bond mix; that was a performance of energy and athleticism.  Plus a whole country putting tons of pressure on her.

    But, the real powerful watch was Canada’s Joannie Rochette, as she skated despite (or inspired by?) the passing of her mother only two days previously.  The whole audience was trying to keep her going, and I admit that I felt teary watching her.   Scott Hamilton, US champion/analyst, was all emotional in his voicing that this was not about points.  Just reading the NY Times article about it made me feel sad again.  Plus, Mike Starr of Newsweek is right: the appropriate word to describe what Rochette had was “fortitude.”

    Seriously, I’d hate to judge the skaters – how do you do it when the human element is involved?  Grief, strength, the weight of nations on their shoulders?  It really isn’t just points or what trick you pull off.

    Spoilers about this latest episode of “Lost” – turn away if you don’t want to see my comments… So, I still managed to catch “Lost” – Jack and his daddy issues!  Alternate Jack kind of trying to resolve his daddy issues, with a heretofore unseen son (!) (who’s the mother?  Well, I’d say maybe the ex-wife was Jack’s ex from the main universe, but who knows?  Is it even important to know?).  Plus, I kind of like the portrayal of the sideways alternate universe lives of alternate John Locke and alternate Jack.  Not caring for the alternate Kate (who still seems like a crazy) or even alternate Claire.  Meanwhile, main universe Claire is creepy crazy.

    I’m still not sure how much I want answers from “Lost,” but I think I’ll accept a resolution of some kind.  Seeing alternate Jack having hope – that was nice.  If main universe Jack can get something positive – well, it’d be nice to see; whether we viewers will actually get to see it – that’s another story.

    Did catch a few minutes of Craig Ferguson’s interview of Stephen Fry – without an audience!  How cool; it was kind of like a funnier, wittier Charlie Rose (without the roundtable).  Reactions by critics (Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly; David Bianculli of Television Worth Watching; and Dana Stevens of Slate)  are that this was great tv and that maybe Craig should do it once in awhile to keep things cool on network late night tv.  I sure agree!

    Oh, and great post by Ken Tucker about that Old Spice commercial: how it got made and how that actor in the Old Spice commercial ought to be on more tv.