Television

Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

Marvin the Martian
Marvin the Martian
Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator: Nothing about this really, I was just trying to remember the name of it. Because I’ve been reading my friend Lori’s chronicle of experiences with her Vagus Nerve Stimulator (electronic device that helps prevent epileptic siezures) and I was thinking that the VNS sounded like some sort of Ray Gun. Then I started wondering if Lori hadn’t made a joke like that a while back, and I just didn’t remember it. Hmmm.

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Tipping the Velvet

If you haven’t read the book, you should. It’s delicious. But short of that, catch the three-part mini-series on BBCAmerica, starting Friday, May 23rd at 10 p.m. I’m buying a new video tape just for the occasion. I have the DVD now.

“A lavish tale of life and lesbian love in 19th-century London. Nan Astley (Rachael Stirling) falls in love with captivating performer, Kitty Butler (Keeley Hawes). They move to London and begin a romance, but Kitty has a terrible secret.”

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You Were Watching What?

So I’m reading my friend Lori’s website, and she has this post about the Amber Alert System:

So, i’m watching the sunday night repeat of The Practice on channel 6 and the tv goes freaky – buzzing and making weird noises…then at the top of the screen there’s an announcement about a Civil Alert for all of Indiana from 12:00 till 5:00am – what the hell? A little while later, there’s a box in the corner that says it’s an Amber Alert – go to the Indy Star website – nothing…go to the Channel 6 website nothing… you’d think the damned channel that announces something like this would have the info on their website!!! So i track down the Amber Alert page – apparently there’s something happening in Gary, Indiana…

And the first thing that popped into my head was that maybe the problem wasn’t the Amber Alert system at all. Maybe the buzzing and weird noises were happening because the TV was objecting to Lori watching “The Practice” on a Sunday night, when “The Sopranos” and “Six Feet Under” are on. I didn’t even realize that “The Practice” was still on TV. Hollywood really must be out of ideas.

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Number of Times Buffy Has Saved The World

Six, according the USA Today. Actually, that’s only in season enders. She also saved the world in midseason, in episodes “Innocence”, “The Zeppo” and “Doomed”. And technically last season, it wasn’t Buffy that saved the world, but Xander, and Giles. So she’s saved in eight times, so far. I’m guessing number 9 is coming in the next couple of weeks.

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I Love Television

There are tons of people I know who say things like “I never watch TV.” I’m not one of those. I watch TV. A lot. Usually while doing other things, like laundry, reading, working on the house… but I watch TV. I love TV. Well, the good shows, anyway. Because of the harsh winter this year, I’ve been watching a lot of the WISH-TV’s Local Weather Service, which is 24 hour channel of local weather. This is much cooler than the weather channel because I don’t have to hear about what the weather is like in California, or Texas. It’s all about Indianapolis, all the time. I’ve also been tuning into the morning news to get the weather report, which I never did before. Mostly the local news is pretty lame.

Before I started watching all the weather, I was watching practically every home improvement show on cable TV. For a while there, HGTV was on at my house all day Saturdays and Sundays. But lately I’ve started getting a bit irritated at these shows, because they never seem to have the small niggling problems & screw-ups that I have when doing home improvement projects. And they can do the same thing I’m doing in about 1/4 the time it takes me, which is really a pain. And they never have to figure shit out, either. That’s really annoying.

So, anyway, if you like TV as much as I do, you might like this website: Teevee.org. It’s regular people who write reviews of their favorite TV shows, and of TV viewing in general. It’s much fun.

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It’s a Minstrel Show, Folks.

My friend Lori posted some thoughts on the new season of Queer As Folk, and this caught my eye:

interesting – the showtime website has a question in the FAQ – “Which of the cast members are gay in real life?” Showtime’s answer: “Some of the actors are gay, and some of them are straight.” – not mentioning who’s who….i found a larry king interview with the cast, and it turns out only two of em, Randy Harrison and Peter Paige are truly fags…just seems a bit strange that there’s this huge queer show and only 2 of em are really gay… not good strange, not bad strange, just strange….

Here’s my two cents: it’s bad strange. I challenge you to go to any restaurant in Califor-ni-ay and not have your food served by a gay actor. There are thousands of them out there, if not hundreds of thousands. So it’s not just strange that 98% of all gay characters on TV and in the movies are played by straight actors, while the gay actors wait tables. It’s happening because of discrimination, for the same reason that Amos and Andy used to have black characters played by white people in black face. Because people aren’t comfortable knowing the the guy playing the gay role is actually gay. But it’s okay if it’s all pretend.

Case in point: Several years ago, Spin City has a gay male character kiss a straight male character as a joke. It got huge laughs, and played in prime time with no objections. That same night, Ellen Degeneres’ character kissed a straight female character as a joke. It did not get huge laughs. It was pushed back to a later time slot, and it got a parental advisory warning. What was the difference between the two? On Ellen, the actor playing the part was gay. On Spin City, the actor playing the gay character was straight.

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