Charles & Camilla
Now Playing: Pink Floyd: 'Fearless'
Topic: Television
[index] [bot]

00:01 Tuesday, 13 December, 2005
Endwell, NY


I went down for a snack just now and my Mom was watching a movie called Charles & Camilla, a story of which I had previously known little, but became interested in from the portrayal in the movie. It turns out that Camilla and Prince Charles had dated for a few years, to the dismay of his parents, and that he'd gone off to war so they'd broken up and she had married someone else. Once married, it was impossible for her to be Queen, because she would need a divorce, which isn't allowed in the Church; the Queen needed to be a proven virgin at marriage. Anyway, Camilla set out to find Charles a wife, and succeeded with Diana when he was 30 and she 19. They dated maybe 6 months before they were married. Camilla had divorced sometime during Charles' and Diana's marriage, so when Diana died, Camilla and Charles were once again free to be together, but there is still debate about her validity, since she did indeed divorce earlier in life. But at least things are now in the their proper order: the two had been in love their entire lives, and are now -- finally -- legitimately together.
Anyway, aside from being an interesting story, I really needed to write to comment on the actress that was chosen to portray Diana. She had an eerie and striking resemblance to the Diana in real life. I was never a big fan of the royal family, and as Diana got more attention I grew to like her less just because of my repulsion with popularity. So when she died it didn't mean particularly much to me, aside from it being sad that anybody would have to die in a tragic manner. But when this actress' face came on the screen, my reaction was surprising to myself, with a chill running down my spine. They did a tremendous job choosing that actress -- whoever she was -- and I can't imagine how hard it would be, being a Briton and needing to play the role of the dead Princess that everyone had loved so much.


[index] [top]

SpringfieldIsForGayLoversOfMarriage.com
Now Playing: Genesis: 'Afterglow'
Topic: Television
[index] [bot]

11:26 Wednesday, 23 February, 2005
Endwell, NY


I just watched the new Simpsons episode from Sunday. It was called "There's Something About Marrying," and the episode has the Simpsons' home-town of Springfield legalizing gay marriage. This is obviously a very controversial topic, and it has been fired up over the past few years. The amazing thing about this episode is that it managed to do a fantastic job of both supporting and refuting both sides of the issue. (We'll just assume here, for the sake of an easier discussion, that there can ever be only two sides to any issue.) Marge Simpson and Revered Lovejoy have it out about Biblical interpretations of same-sex relations, and Homer gets ordained through the Internet, charging $200 per marriage. However, he takes "anyone who's in love can get married" to its furthest extent, arguing that one could marry anything ? whether it exists or not ? if they're willing to pay him. The Simspons writers, as is their talent, manage to make a mockery of both sides of the argument, and, by the end of the episode, everyone thinks his or her side has won. It was amazing.

During the episode, they ran an advertisement made by Springfield to attract gay couples to the town for the sake of tourism. They flashed a web-site on the screen, so I had to go and check it out. There's not much to it, but they have a few still photos from the episode. www.SpringfieldIsForGayLoversOfMarriage.com


[index] [top]

TV Night
Now Playing: IBM: 'the hum of the computer'
Topic: Television
[index] [bot]

01:05 Monday, 14 February, 2005
Endwell, NY


Happy Valentine's Day! ?Guess I should save that for tonight. Well, anyway. I had fun with the kids tonight. Dinner was yummy, and then PaperBoy and Finch went to fellowship. Precocious just watched his shows all evening, but Gumby and I watched the Sumo Veggie Tales and then played the games that came on the DVD. I didn't particularly like the Sumo story, but I loved the St. Patrick story and the silent movie. I played a lot of Backgammon on my cell-phone through all this. Keeps my mind occupied, since most activities don't fully. Mom and Dad came home shortly before the kids left, and JollyGreen, as well. This meant she played Civ all evening, so I was stuck downstairs. So I watched the Dave I'd started while waiting for the kids to show up, then watched the Craig that came after it, and then had had enough of TV. So I got Babel and read for a while until Mom and Dad came back again from playing bridge. I wanted to watch NUMB3RS with them, which I love and am going to miss once I leave. They had gotten Nirchi's for dinner, so I wanted some while it was still fresh. So I watched more Dave while eating, as is my custom. Billy Crystal was on; he's a really great comedian. He's like one of the amazing standards of American comedy. He's like with Richard Pryor and Robin Williams and Bill Cosby. Just fantastic. Anyway, that was cool, and the second guest was this carpenter who'd accidentally shot himself in the head with a nail gun and not realized he had a nail through his skull for six days. Amazing story. The gun had recoiled and knocked him in the face, and he presumed it was the *back* of the gun that had hit him, and the blood in his mouth was just because his teeth had cut through his lips on impact. He saw a dentist ? who said his teeth were all intact and he was fine ? and an eye doctor ? who said the black spot he was seeing was due to concussion ? and went home with ice to try to feel better. A week later when he was still swollen and in pain, he went to the hospital, where they found he had actually shot one of those long nails through his head by way of the gap between his upper lip and his teeth. The nail went through his sinus and was resting against his optical nerves, causing the black spot. They removed it, and he's fine. Truly amazing. He's lucky to have his vision, and he's lucky to be alive.
Anyway, now it's late, so I need to go to bed. I just got an e-mail that EMS will be at 50% off everything starting tomorrow, which is fantastic since I was already planning on going tomorrow for myself, and PaperBoy just asked me to look for a winter jacket for him if I happened to be going any time soon. So it went from one reason to go (for me) to three reasons to go, within a few hours. How great is that? Anyway, sleep. :)


[index] [top]

NUMB3RS
Now Playing: the sound of silence, but not by Simon & Garfunkel
Topic: Television
[index] [bot]

01:58 Saturday, 29 January, 2005
Endwell, NY


Hey,

I just watched the second episode of NUMB3RS. It was excellent. Much better than the first. I liked the first, but it didn't have me hooked. This one did.

?Fidg


--------------------


I can't believe I'm still up. This AngelFire thing has me obsessed. But I'm actually, finally done with it. So that feels good. But I only got five hours of sleep last night, so I could comfortably have gone to bed at, say, 20:00. But I didn't. :) Anyway, I went down at 00:45 to have a snack and needed something to watch, so I found NUMB3RS on the DVR, and got hooked. Now I need to sleep.


[index] [top]