390 thoughts on “XUnXShowX31I”

  3. If one could live a thousand years, he might have time to grow rich!”

    page 35, 5th sentence from the start of the third paragraph in “Myths Every Child Should Know”, edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie. published in 1905!

  9. Nomad Scry: re: your last comment in the last discussion thread: LOL! Actually, it wasn’t the pan itself that was undead, but the food in the pan. The pan was just plain dead. Still a funny thought, though.

  18. Back. Not impressed. Went to Walmart. Had 10 items I wanted to get. Walmart was either out of stock or didn’t have the type I wanted on EVERYTHING!!!

    Will have to hit Zellers next.

  19. Good morning. There is something wrong with my head again today. Once again it feels like someone has been smacking me upside my head with a lemon wrapped around a large gold brick. Feh. Staying home and writing today instead of running amok with children.

  23. Morning Pan.
    I am on the mend.

    BTW: Finally watched EP#1 of “Doll House”. Could easily have been called “Dull House”. I was really disappointed with it’s “sameness”.

    There was truly nothing about it that was Whedon-esque (that is to say “remarkable”). There was next to NONE of the clever dialog or interplay between characters that is the hallmark of a Joss Whedon show. The setting was the same and the plot was only a slight curve to so many of “what’s my I.D.” shows that have come before it.

    I will watch the next few episodes because I want to support Joss (heck I’d watch the commercials if he was creating THEM) but so far this one seems like a reputation killer. Generally you throw everything you’ve got at the premiere of your show to catch people’s attention. Let’s hope this wasn’t all they have.

  24. From what I understand, J0e, Fox had Weadon change the first episode quite a bit before they would air it. So if it didn’t have the “Weadon” feel, blame Fox.

  25. I posted as on the FPM forum as well – I’d be interested to see on Hulu or Itunes or someplace the original version of the pilot that Fox wanted changed. Then we could decide which version was better.

    btw – reaction in the forum over there isn’t overwhelming, either and I tend to agree. I’ll give it a few more weeks for sure, but it’s not looking promising. Honestly, I just don’t think Eliza Dushku is a strong enough actress to carry a role like this.

  28. BTW, who big is this brick CJ. Being gold, can you wrestle it away from whomever is beating you? You can eat the lemon and cash in the gold šŸ™‚

  30. I think the size of the gold brick is proportionate to the size of the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster which would have been drank prior to the appearance of the brick.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Galactic_Gargle_Blaster#Pan-Galactic_Gargle_Blaster

    In my case, I experience the same effect if I drink one… one… only one glass of Chardonnay. Wine and I just don’t agree on how I should feel in the morning. I should really just stick with my Captain Morgan and enjoy the next day.

  31. The heavy subject is not Deadpan-related, not Podcast-related. Just a rant that I’d prefer to run on an Unshow.

    And sorry for the unintentional Deadpan-related melodrama. You guys are The Way.

    (and oh yeah – I didn’t see the Doll House)

  33. I really thought I saw “FOX fingerprints” all over the first ep. I won’t spoil, but there was a revelation which was integral to the plot of the episode which I would normally figure would have been saved for later in the season by Joss.

  43. Ditto, as the guy who just made an asscrack joke, I’m not sure if he is talking about us.

    I just can’t resist the low-hanging fruit.

    I’ll even shoot for mid-level fruit from time to time…

  47. Some myths die hard it seems.

    The myth that a human body would explode if a spacesuit is punctured due to the depressurization.

    Outland has lot to answer for.

    ACC was getting this right in the 50’s in Earthlight for goodness sake.

  63. Morning, Deadpan! Yawn . . .

    If you’re on FB, my high school prom date posted a horrible picture of me from 1988. Ruffles! 80s hair! Miami Vice sunglasses! The horror!

  70. Hey all,

    Way behind again on the pan. Been feeling too awful to even listen…

    Looking at what I missed, I could toss a watchmen rant, but I am overruling on the grounds it would, um, be too ranty. šŸ˜›

  71. marlo, I was JUST thinking about you this morning, wondering how you are doing.

    I’d love to read a Watchmen rant written by you. You are way informed on the genre, speaking as one of your blog-readers.

  73. Been having a lot of fun with the “Stimulus Watch” link that Jack posted. Amazed at the number of projects my Mayor had “ready to go” and would have to say that IMHO 95% of the projects are in fact NOT pork. Dollar wise though, one of the biggest chunks of requested money (looks to be maybe 30% of what was requested from my mayor over-all) is for a project that should be coming out of the Defense Department’s budget.
    Seeing as how the Army never has to have a bake sale to raise money … using this money to pay for their improvements would seem like a bit of “budget legerdemain”

    Seriously – if you haven’t given this a look you ought to.
    http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state
    No one knows more about projects in your neighborhood then you do … this is a “Wiki” based site, let the rest of the country know if your local projects are a good thing or a pork project.

  76. Seattle would like $223,758,769 please.
    Including $1,380,000 for “Georgetown Flume Drainage Improvement – Construction of new drainage conveyance system to replace existing”

    Only Seattle-ans would know if that is really needed.

  78. A GOP Season-Ticket-Holder friend of mine has grumbled about the items on that list, asking how they create jobs.
    Anyway.

    Good to see you, Marlo! Sorry your condition has been worse, not better. . .
    Ranty is kinda the point, MD šŸ™‚ Feel free to contribtue, if you’re able. I think we should get all of our ranties in a bunch over Watchmen.

  79. RE: GOP season tic holders
    Meh
    People like that have to have a special set of custom made blinders on to maintain their “It’s all Bad” attitude. The list clearly states how many jobs are being created for each requested project.

    Sure, one project might only employ 15 people … but multiply that by the half million other such requests and now you have employed a LARGE sum of tax payers in a very short order.

  81. Jack (and all) That stimulus watch page you posted, I just checked it out. If you look under Washington and click on Spokane, the top two entries are projects that I personally helped draft, though we turned in our final drafts of those plans last month. And that second entry, the Freya St Bridge, thats the one I often refer to as “the clit bridge.”

    I’m actually really disappointed with that list, there’s no mention of the North-South Coridor which badly needs funding to complete, and the third entry about the Maple/Walnut/Ceder reconstruction… That’s all ready finished! They finished that months ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if the city went over budget and are using the Stimulus to make up for it.

    Come to think of it the Havana and Freya Street bridge projects both went over budget too… Jesus I hope that isn’t what these mayors and governors are doing with this money…

  84. Dub – I hope you made note of that project already being finished on the “Cons” section for that project.

    That’s the sort of “Citizen waving a red flag” thing that this has come down to. Without local input … we as a nation are at the mercy of the “same old thing”.

  86. EssBee: Thanks for the flattery šŸ™‚

    Jack: Yeah, getting worse is kind of a certainty in this situ. And yet, that doesn’t make it easier. Things are devolving past bed-ridden, and I’ve been forced to consider live in care, or at least a nurse on call, but the spousal unit will have none of it.

    Anyway, whine whine blah, as for watchman, the ranting I could do, but I have no experience with skype. And in this body even pretending I could make a live appearance on schedule is just…well, insane šŸ˜›

  105. I just posted a Wil Wheaton talks The Watchmen movie link on the Watchmen page. It’s hilarious if you haven’t read it yet.

    Dr. Manhattan’s Junk as a great band name = classic.

  124. EssBee,

    Stevie Nicks’ sister lives (or at least used to live) in this area and she frequented one of the karaoke bars I used to go to. She looked and sounded so much like her, it was freakish. I kept hoping the real Stevie would show up one day, but she didn’t.

  146. The kids were off from school today for a teacher workday. Since it was just our district, we took advantage of the non-crowds and went out with them to go bowling and play video games. And, we found the most incredible air hockey table – it would serve the puck automatically and at random points would put one or two extra pucks in play. It was also extra wide and sported four paddles.

    Not bad for a Friday.

  147. Joe – while it won’t help me directly, the company I work for has an Infrastructure group that does projects like the ones listed in the stimulus watch page. I would hope they would be able to pickup a few of those if they go through.

    On my side of the fence, we do projects mostly for refineries, chemical, and power plants – none of whom are terribly interested in spending money these days.

  172. I don’t know bout y’all, but I LOVE Friday nights. TV is awesome right now – even though some of you (ahem, marlo and JOe) are hatin’ on Dollhouse already. Yipee!

    On my way home.

  173. EssBee: Dollhouse had none of the awesome I associate with Whedon. The writing was just plain *terrible*. Right from the opening go, Whedonesque is just Whedonesque–the chars, the dialogue, the storylines, the mythos and details in delicious layers and flourishes….but this was just utter crap.There was not one *sentence* I would believe came from Joss.

    Now, that happened on Buffy when one of his under-hacks wrote a suck script, especially a certain Nameless Evil in seasons 6 and 7. Angel’s underlings actually had talent, dammit, and were never under nothing.

    I’m sure you could argue that Firefly had a premiere of suck, but thing was it WASN’T the opening ep. The opening ep is frickin brilliant; Fox just aired it last. But even that aired opener, which was the weakest ep of the whole series, I did not sit through, bored, and think ‘Who the hell wrote this? Misfiring robot monkeys?’

    Dollhouse reeked just nasty of written by the money. You know, the people who should never speak. I was reminded of the network drove bodies flying train wreck that was season 2 of Dark Angel….

  175. I actually bought the album with “Pacman Fever” on vinyl. LOL

    Be careful with those Krokus comments CJ. Mr. JOe isn’t a fan of those midnight maniacs.

  188. Good morning. I can’t believe I have nothing scheduled for today. I think I’ll clean the house and make it presentable for people who might be visiting it tomorrow.

    Jack – I don’ t know how long badass karaoke will be part of our routine. It seems to be losing its luster for some of us.

  191. Re: Doll House

    I look forward to seeing last night’s Ep because Whedon doesn’t do “crap” and I just know that it won’t be. I choose to believe Ep1 was the result of FOX getting hold of his beautiful soufflƃĀ© and throwing it in a blender with some cheese and left over bits from other generic shows to make some sort of “one size fit’s none” casserole.

    So I just know the rest of the season will be great!
    This is what I choose to believe.

  192. I saw last night’s episode of Doll House and it was *much* better than the previous. It had many Whedon’s hallmarks. I wonder if that’s really how he had planned on starting the series before Fox got involved and mucked things up.

  195. Just finished watching Ep 2 of Dollhouse via Hulu. I thought I set up a season pass on the DVR, but apparently had just set the 1st episode.

    Anyway, definitely an improvement over the premiere – and the signs that the imprints are casting permanent shadows on Echo’s memory are promising.

  198. Morning Pan!

    Beautiful sunny Sunday Morning. I have a cat on my lap, making sure I use the computer properly.

    Will be doing some shopping once the stores open.

  205. We have about an hour and 1/2 until take-off.

    No recording will start at this end until my mother-in-law picks up the little people and takes them away for a while.

    I’m also excited about Oscar night! Anyone else partaking in that?

  206. So there are a series of Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercials played up here, where there is an angel and her “man-servant”, Albert. (couldn’t find any on u-tube, though for reference).

    If any of you are familiar with this series of commercials, I have a question… While I can see the angel’s idea of heaven including a “man-servant”, what does it say about Albert if his idea of heaven is being a man-servant?

    Just wondering.

  207. In answer to CJ:

    While my husband and I have seen very few of the nominated movies, we still have a little contest. We’ll print out the ballot and each make our choices of winners. The one who chooses the most correct winners, gets a massage by the loser. More times than not, I seem to win šŸ™‚

  244. Definitely a great gathering. Thanks to Dan and CJ for pulling it altogether.

    It was cool to talk to you guys live. How much longer did y’all go after I dropped out? I’m sure I could have literally gone for hours on this one.

  246. EssBee, you were mentioned multiple times and I think that totally counts as you being there!

    Thank you all for being so great about everything. It worked out well from our end! šŸ™‚

  247. That was a truly great time – – thanks everyone for a smoother-than-anticipated Skype discussion. It’s sometimes impossible to get through a 2-person conversation without constant interruptions – – – – how did we manage so few collisions?
    I certainly wasn’t surprised at how much I enjoyed it, though. You guys rock, I knew it would be a fun time, and a lively discussion. We got about 100 minutes(!) of good material.

    Thanks everyone for your time and your excellent commentary.

    And big thanks again to Dan & Cj for their awesome contributions AND for hosting and recording and engineering the whole thing.

    WNDR, you didn’t miss a Duel, but Amy came up with a great idea for a future DotF tournament theme – – – all Palooza characters.

  251. Just watched Ep#2 Dollhouse

    A MARKED improvement. Hard to believe how consistent FOX can be with the treatment of Joss’ shows.

    I wouldn’t yet want to stack this Ep up against other Whedon shows but EP2 was clearly as good or better then most Network shows. Nice intricate plot weaving and a reemergence of the Whedon “snappy repartee'” dialog.

    Sadly, after that 1st episode … the only people still watching are probably just the Whedon faithful. He had us at “Hello”.
    It’s the “new” audience that he has to capture.

  252. The guest spot from the BSG lawyer Romo Lampkin was a nice touch this week on Dollhouse.

    As for the Oscars – Wall-E didn’t get nominated for best picture, so the whole show is pretty much a farce in my book.

  254. Speaking of BSG –
    For those Katee “Starbuck” Sackhoff fans … she had a major role in the last ep of “Nip/Tuck”. She plays a Doctor who likes to live life dangerously … and that includes her rather aggressive sex life.
    I’ll just let your mind wander with that one.

    Oh, it may be a reoccurring role as well.

  255. Morning Pan!

    Thanks CJ and Dan for being excellent hosts!

    On a side note, I lost our Oscar Pool so tonight my hubby gets a full body rub. Damn, I was looking forward to getting one myself.

  260. Just a quick word to say thanks to all of you. It was a lot of fun and really, Dan did all the technical stuff. I just sat there. šŸ™‚ So he should get the tech credit and Jack, thank you for letting us be a part of it.

    I think everyone’s contributions to the conversation were what made it great so, you know, I’m feeling pretty lucky to have been a part of it. So, thank you, Deadpan.

  263. RE: DollHouse

    Just got an email from my sister. She said that (don’t know where she read this) FOX had made Joss re-shoot the premiere because they thought the original was too dark.

    Stupid FOX.

  274. Oh. Just remembered to add SpeedRacer to my Netflix queue.

    Does anyone here use the Netflix friends feature? I have friends there, but not sure I find it entirely useful.

    Opinions?

  276. I seem to be the Speed Racer film’s lone supporter. . .
    It was an excellent kids’ movie — lots of Spongebob-level humor, amazing visuals, and exciting action sequences, plus some intelligent and deep moments for the adults.

    I really hope the Wachowskis and studios can shrug off the bad reviews and make some sequels.

  277. I’ve been talking to a friend about Watchmen. He also thinks that a younger generation won’t quite understand the fatalism prevalent during the Cold War. It reminded me of something: I was glad back then knowing that I lived near likely target. It would be a quick end.

  283. The Watchmania was awesome, though it reminded me how inadequate I am at unscripted discussion. You people are all great at it though. It was a great time as much as I was able to participate…

  284. Cj, I use the Netflix friends feature. I enjoy lurking and knowing what people are watching.

    ditto, I had the exact same feeling growing up! We used to say in middle school that we’d be the first hit because NORAD is in Colorado Springs.

  285. Reading Watchmen reminded me of why the final episode of the first season Heroes peed me off…really wanted Sylar to be snuffed out and not come back in S2.

    So now to look at some more ink blots…

  287. All the old Sci-Fi books, games, and films made the post-apocalypes look like a hoot. I’d rather have survived nuclear armageddon to patrol the highways with a band of my fellow mutants, fighting for food and gasoline.

  290. I’m suddenly reminded of a game I used to play on an old boyfriend’s C64 called Roadwar 2000. I was obsessed with this game and played it for hours and hours. Then one day he came and took his computer back. The apocalypse was just never the same after that. All I had was a WYSE Terminal with 1200bps dial-up.

    We broke up soon after.

  291. I can recall being in NYC during the 80s and some group had taken it upon themselves to spray paint the outline “shadow” of people on streets and sidewalks.
    It wasn’t dead body “chalk outlines” … it was like the shadows that were left behind in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There were all sizes and you could often tell gender.
    They weren’t “clever” or “cool” or anything that you’d now attribute to guerilla street art … given the time, they were just haunting.
    People tried to pretend they weren’t there, no one talked about them but at intersections where the light would have pedestrians stopped, you could see people silently staring at these things … and for the most part no one would stand on one.
    The worse one for me was what was obviously a women holding the hand of a child.

    It all sounds over dramatic now. I can assure you that at the time … it was not.

  292. Ah reminds of a comic strip from 2000AD, may have been a Future Shock, where a big fight over what looks like a tin of food in a post apocalyptic landscape. After winning the fight, the hero finds it’s a tin of engine oil..

  293. Joe: I remember something like that. I think there was a big event like that in most cities to mark the 40th anniversary of dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

  297. San Antonio was home to three Air Force bases and one Army post. I had no worries about living beyond the first strike. I remember knowing (though I’m sure it was a bogus guess) how many warheads were targeted at me while I was growing up. I remember being grateful in the 90’s that my own kids would not grow up with that hanging over them.

  299. Please explain to me why I can be diagnosed with distinctively low testosterone levels and the only treatment costs about as much as my lyrica… and yet I have a very strong desire to kill somebody.

  300. Well women don’t usually have high testosterone levels and can still kill.

    Morning Pan, I’m hitting the tracks today, going to visit my sister.

  306. If you all remember I had a huge issue with pipes bursting in my front yard and sewage everywhere etc.

    While the entire fiasco did cost me a fortune to fix – I just received my water bill and looks like I’ll be saving about one hundred or so dollars a month now that I’m not dumping water unnecessarily out into my yard. So, that’s good news!

  315. I’ve got tons of hot chocolate. I’ve even got some hazelnut flavoured. I’ve also got marshmallows, whip cream and cinnamon.

  316. Well Pan.

    I’m going home and, since I didn’t seem to have any real takers, then I’ll shovel my walk and drive way.

    I hope you all feel bad when my little fingers freeze off and I have to type messages on the board using my nose.

  317. Well, even if I knew how to use skype, I would have been out of the roundtable on the grounds that I had another massive pain attack and had to inject more burning meds into my thigh in an attempt to stay out of the ER…

    Sad to have missed it, but I’m sure you all were brilliant without me. šŸ™‚

  318. And my brain wants to explode in disgust that any of you are saying glowing things about Dollhouse.

    Not only am I not watching any more of it, Joss lost me *permanently* for any of his future work. Period.

  319. Morning, Deadpan!

    Sorry to hear about the pain, marlo!

    Speaking of Dollhouse and Joss, there is a really interesting interview w/ him about it in the current Rolling Stone. There’s only a portion of the article online, mostly about Dr. Horrible:

    http://tinyurl.com/dblrnl

    I’d recommend any Whedon fans to check out the full-length article in the rag – it was interesting and Joss discussed what FOX did to Dollhouse. He says in the article that he’s done w/ TV. Unlike marlo, I’d watch or read anything Joss touches. I’m a huge fan.

  320. I still think it would be really interesting for the original pilot to be posted on Hulu so that Fox’s version could be judged against Joss’s version.

    But, I doubt Fox has enough confidence to let that happen.

  321. I still consider Joss one of my favourite writers, EssBee, but I won’t support his future projects. I’m not interested. The theme of Dollhouse: let’s base a series on rape fantasy! Yea! was just too disgusting to tolerate.

    I’m baffled and sickened, but it’s only worse that he self-describes as such a feminist. In any case, he’s become one of those writers for me that–for reasons unknown–has utterly lost his mind and / or talent.

  324. I agree with EssBee. I feel the show is about exploitation, not promoting it. The Dollhouse is using people as tools, which is an inherently evil thing to do–*ahem* Ozymandais. We shouldn’t like the people running the Dollhouse. So far, Joss is doing a decent job at conveying exactly that. If he was portraying the Dollhouse as an ideal, then I would have a problem. It would be promoting the ‘rape fantasy’ that MD mentions.

    Fox’s *marketing* of the show, however, is extremely exploitative. It’s downright sleazy in some respects. I really don’t like watching any of their ads or promos for the show. I have the distinct impression that the Fox execs would be visiting the Dollhouse every chance they get. *shudders*

  326. “a show examining exploitation versus an exploitative show.” That’s my take as well, although full disclosure, I thought the first episode was meh and I slept through the second, Teresa said it was pretty good though.

  327. But it’s not just the marketing. From the way it’s written to the way it’s shot, it’s ALL about the awesome of making this chick do anything you want her to, and she’ll like it. Because she doesn’t have a choice.

    It couldn’t be more yuck.

    It’s also horrifying that the found someone who wanted to play that. I do kind of hope that Fox made it something it completely wasn’t, but then I’d expect Joss et al to be shrieking everywhere that they disavowed it.

  328. “It couldnĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢t be more yuck.”

    I think that’s exactly the point. You *shouldn’t* like it. It’s supposed to be creepy. It’s supposed to make you think the Dollhouse is a vile entity.

  330. I agree that the premise is digusting for that exact reason, but my gut tells me it’s supposed be. As a viewer, the more I watch, the more I think how corrupt and immoral the heads of the Doll House are instead of how awesome it would be to have complete control over women. For anyone that thinks along those lines I’m sure there is a gut punch coming up soon. Either that or I totally misjudged Mr. Whedon.

  331. “IĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢m sure there is a gut punch coming up soon. Either that or I totally misjudged Mr. Whedon.”

    I agree. If Whedon does not follow through on illustrating how vile the Dollhouse is, I’ll be extremely disappointed.

  348. CW: Chuck S2E14

    On a more techy note, I have to say I’m impressed with the N+ router that my nephew just bought. My sister’s house has think walls and the old router didn’t perform very well.

  350. A thought.
    If you want to change a people’s way of thinking … standing in front of them telling them that their ideas are wrong and bad and awful, is mostly going to result in them “tuning you out”.
    On the other hand, if you present them with something like “Dollhouse” with a premise that is meant to “seem” titillating and get them hooked – you can slowly and steadily show them just how awful that idea really is.

    You can make a who lot more change from the inside as a “friend” then from the outside as a foe.

    Asdemonstrated by the Neocons, who took away far much more of our freedoms and privacy away than the Soviets ever managed to.

  351. A much lighter thought :
    On March 26, 1895 British chemist Sir William Ramsay treated the mineral cleveite (a variety of uraninite) with mineral acids. Ramsay was looking for argon but, after separating nitrogen and oxygen from the gas liberated by sulfuric acid, he noticed a bright yellow line that matched the D3 line observed in the spectrum of the Sun.

    This made him the first scientist to isolate HELIUM here on earth.

  354. Essbee – perhaps I am šŸ˜‰

    Actually the conceipt is valid for most anything in life. It is far easier to change from within than from without … unless you have a much MUCH bigger gun than the group you want to change. (and even then you can’t be assured the change will “stick”)

  357. So whilst flicking through the making of the Watchmen movie at Waterstones.

    Turns out they cheat on Rorschach’s mask. The actor wears a mask with a slit so he can see as he does a scene. They then use CGI to make mask look complete in post production.

  362. Okay, ignorant U.S. person question:

    When writing contact info, I generally list city, state. E.g.:

    New Orleans, LA

    For Canadian towns, how would I do this? Brampton, ONT?

  365. Admittedly, I’m not likely to even watch a Star Trek episode anymore if it comes on the TV, but now thanks to Dan and CJ, I can relive the memories as they rewatch them for me.

    As awful as a lot of that early TNG was, I wonder if it would stand a chance had it been released in the present. In some ways, I think those early TNG episodes have held up less well than the original Trek.

  373. An independent video friend of mine is looking for me to help him and his co-producers into the world of Vid Podcasting. Neither he nor I are particularly web-savvy, so looking at Libsyn complete with blog templates for starters…

  374. And of course seeing Libsyn in detail has me once again asking myself why I haven’t jumped into the “Really Big Podcast” yet.

    Of course the answer has to do with the incomplete nature of the revised “Really Big Things” which was to be the heart of said podcast.

    Trying to live by the “finish it first” advice espoused by Sigler and Morris…

  379. JB, I have tried to tweak WordPress and I don’t have a clue and I’ve been able to do a little, but not much. It probably depends how much customization you are planning. I’m fairly tech savvy and WordPress made me feel less savvy.

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