at least it's not triple h
Now Playing: goo goo dolls - gutterflower

on the comic strip front, i'm over brevity and am enjoying the new dog eat doug comic (in addition to my usual daily comics: boondocks, calvin & hobbes, for better or worse, frazz, get fuzzy and pearls before swine)

on the tv front, i'm over masters of horror. though the last couple were at least somewhat entertaining (unlike that post apocalyptic one, which bored me to sleeping), they still just weren't good, a bit predictable with bad dialogue, not to mention it's just plain stupid to keep driving when you can't see (has no writer heard of brakes?) or to keep fucking the deformed girl after she ate your cat, your neighbor and that circus guy you sent to kidnap her. odd sidenote (on the latest "chocolate" one, not that deformed girl "jenifer" one): when did henry thomas turn into lyle lovett? i mean, there were the same mannerisms and facial tics and it was very weird

and threshhold* is gone, invasion will probably go away soon, to be replaced by the rest of the final season of alias, but surface is still on? what's up with that? my tv schedule for the week is shrinking, with rome done for now, the aforementioned threshold* cancelled (and invasion probably on its way out), night stalker gone, and nip/tuck with only a few weeks to go. for this week (monday 11/28 to sunday 12/4... yeah, i'm going by the monday to sunday week like the new tv guide even though it annoys me), i've only got 9 shows (all dramas) and one of those is a soapnet airing of pasadena which i won't even be watching (i'm waiting until i've got them all), and prison break was the fall finale). so, 8 shows in 7 days. i've done better than that in one sunday night in recent months (think back to when deadwood and carnivale were both on)

at least those shows that are left are good. for the record, they are:

• prison break - done till march, but good while it lasted
• house - really great the last couple episodes, building on the characters and ongoing plots almost more than dealing with the case of the week, more medical homicide than medical law & order
• nip/tuck - going strong, adding new subplots this late in the game is really working for it. fucked up characters doing fucked up things. this show will be missed... and that is not me hoping there will be another season.
• lost - deliberately moving forward (in time and in the overall plot) very slowly, but adding some great backstory and details, even when they don't seem to apply. if only the audience could stop demanding that every backstory reveal a new awe inspiring addition to the "plot"
• veronica mars - great new season, building on the mysteries of season one, tackling multiple ongoing plots for the new one, the bus crash, the mayoral race, the culture war, veronica getting in over her head, duncan obsessing over coma girl, sheriff lamb being almost nice, weedman being helpful, logan getting even more fucked up
• invasion - gradually building its pace to something that should be able to keep its audience interested, but maybe just in time to get the axe to make room for the end of alias (as much as that makes no sense), adding intriguing details with nary an explanation but still satisfying
• pasadena - just taping this one to catch up later
• grey's anatomy - getting better and better, with the new dr shepard and meredith getting over the old (somewhat) and everyone else getting more depth and more subplots, even the asshole, hell, especially the asshole
• sleeper cell - here's to hoping this one will be good, cause that's like four episodes next week, another six or so (ten hours in all but i'm not sure of the whole schedule yet) in the next. bugs me though that it's set in los angeles. despite the paranoid freaks, the so-called terrorists have no reason to attack los angeles, even if we are the root of some of the surface evils of the american empire. it's what's under that surface that matters to the "terrorists", hence attacking business and military targets a few years back. of course, you set this show in new york or washington, folks would probably get all offended (well, more than some probably will anyway, that is)

and, i saw rent over the weekend, and as i figured, the good parts were great and the bad parts were ok. problem is, i figured out, they treated the adaptation like a musical as opposed to an opera. the operative definition for a musical being a regular ol drama in which occasionally folks start singing, the stage version of rent being more a 99% singing, few bits of talking. now, i kinda liked how some of the sung bits became dialogue, same as phantom of the opera did it last year, but adding a whole conversation about commitment and then making up that party afterward was just odd (though it did make for a great line at the end of take me or leave me that otherwise wouldn't have been there)

other problems worth noting:

• if you don't know what azt is, if you're a bit dumb to "get it", you really are never told roger's dying (keep in mind, the "virus" of one song glory could just be a metaphor), the movie skipping out on the darker bits like roger's girlfriend having killed herself instead of just dying
• maureen should not have been asking the violent folks to stop. the stage version makes like maureen absolutely loves the notion that she started a riot. while the film starts to use its scope (and extras) to get a real riot going, it fizzles in that and moves on to the life cafe
• nice to see roger going to santa fe, but makes for an expectation of something actually HAPPENING there, which nothing does, on the stage or in the film. he goes, he comes back. the epiphany is almost a sidenote

positives:

• mimi's out tonight i thought wouldn't work as a stage performance (as in, her singing while on the stage at the catscratch) but it worked well staged that way, especially with the end being her going home alone
• without you worked well as played over angel's death, tying it to more than just mimi and roger
• staging roger on the balcony, mimi below, with his friends behind her was great
• putting collin's reprise of i'll cover you in the church was a nice touch, as was putting the fight following in the cemetery. great use of setting in the film all around (just watch the burning of eviction notices during the song rent), even if they did try to shy away from the music a bit much
• and finally, great use of special effects in a film that otherwise didn't need them, with the life support group members disappearing

and, i've been playing some sudoku (trend follower that i am) and reading and thoroughly enjoying concrete: depths (rebel that i am) and haven't been writing enough. that is all

* that word bugs me, threshold... threshhold. it seems the double h should be proper, but it looks like crap, and i really don't feel like looking it up to see for sure my favored version, with one h) is right, cause then how would i complain? you know?