Guess this fits the Halloween thing: Hurricane Sandy’s just about here, still early yet, and it’s creepy. Stay safe!
Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning the World Series 2012! (big yay for ex-Mets Marco Scutaro and Angel Pagan).
Since I’m catching up my triscribe posts, let’s just say that seeing the new Barclays Center takes some getting used to. Traffic patterns still look strange and could be smoother (from my non-driver perspective). Brooklyn Nets? Hmm. I’m of the generation that rooted for the Knicks.
And, then this news about the Islanders coming to Brooklyn in 2014 or 2015? While it’s nice that the Islanders want to get in on the fun at Barclay Center and Brooklyn is the far end of the “island,” and they remain in NYS, (a) there’s still no hockey season in 2012, so do something about that, NHL, and (b) I’m still planning to root for the NY Rangers (if this season ever starts already).
Let’s go, NY Giants! What a season so far! (and with the real refs back for some time now).
Let’s not be bored: some more Gangnam Style! Here’s a link to Gangnam Style with Robots!
A Gangnam Style mashup with that other song of 2012, Call Me Maybe (h/t: Generasian’s tumblr, at http://generasian.tumblr.com/day/2012/09/21)
To distract myself from one of the presidential debates this month, I watched this Gangnam Style parody of… Vanilla Ice and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It almost amazed me. Vanilla Ice? Really?
Here’s a laugh: the side-by-side Obama and Romney parodies of “Gangnam Style.” http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/03/mitt-romney-vs-barack-obama-whose-gangnam-style-parody-video-is-better/
I’ve really scaled back with my tv viewing, and still think that the nuttiest reality tv is the presidential/vice presidential debates. While the results of Election 2012 remains to be seen, I suppose I should appreciate that the debates gave some food for thought. For instance:
All the Big Bird jokes reminded people about PBS, the jokes about the military reminded people (somewhat?) about the budget questions relating to the military, and let’s not forget the women (to paraphrase Abigail Adams, when she wrote to her husband John when he went to assist with the writing of the US Constitution).
The parodies of Joe Biden v. Paul Ryan in their one VP debate were too easy to target.
The endless sports analogies during the debates.
Realizing that the best way to talk about foreign policy is to… not talk about foreign policy.
The quibbles and the talking heads, the drinking games and bingo games – and the hypocrisy… (well, perhaps I shouldn’t make my politics too obvious).
Oh, and let’s not forget about the economy, and war, and how the world will go to hell in a handbasket. We seemed to have forgotten about climate change, but I guess we can only expect so much from the presidential candidates.
What’s among the really shocking: that the federal subsidy to PBS is the equivalence of SIX HOURS of what the Pentagon spends. I think this is about perspective, Mr. Romney. I think – to Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama – we need to grasp a lot about perspective. Just saying…
Random historical thing to note, from Slate: Nathaniel Hawthorne was a Whig Party hack, who helped his friend, US President Franklin Pierce. Really? Fun fact: Barbara Bush, and thus former President George W. Bush, is distantly related to Franklin Pierce. Presidential stuff can be fun! (even when, in reality, it’s not).
And in the category of “Well, who knew?” Turns out that White House Honey Ale is a pretty good beer, according to Brooklyn Brewery’s brewmaster Garrett Oliver and the NY Times liquor critic Eric Asimov.
Other fun facts: Sesame Street fun facts! (from the Atlantic). I knew about Oscar being once orange, but I had no idea that Giancarlo Esposito used to be a recurring character on Sesame Street as Big Bird’s camp counselor back in the early 1980’s.
Check out Cookie Monster and Grover in their movie parodies, over at Entertainment Weekly!
2012 appears to be a year of anniversaries: ex., 25th anniversary of “The Princess Bride” (check out the great interview on NPR’s All Things Considered with Mandy Patinkin, of the famous line: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” – Mandy Patinkin, “The Princess Bride.”)
In time for the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, back in September, my sister and I caught the Star Trek Mixtape at the Paley Center, in time for the 25th anniversary of Next Generation. They aired the “Inner Light” episode at the end, a total Patrick Stewart classic (the “I should have been nominated for an Emmy for this particular effort” – quite a thing to watch after the end of the Next Generation run and realizing what a character Picard was/is).
The episode also reminded me of this great video on YouTube, for the 40th ann’y of Trek, which used the song from that episode and clips to make you love Trek all over again (previously posted somewhere here on triscribe; see below the embedded item). Also, check out a list of what consists of TNG’s legacy (h/t: Time.com). Enjoy!
Which reminds me… I will start feeling sad with tv series leaving us soon (Fringe is in its last season and it’s been an upheaval of dystopic sadness; and when will “Community” be back, so we can say goodbye; NBC is unfair!)… Back to the hurricane…