Letters to Holly

Thursday, September 21

Nothing Says 'Anniversary' Like Tacos

I just had the yen for tacos and cooked them last night. I found a taco seasoning pack in the grocery store, read the ingredients, ignored the chemicals, and recreated it in the kitchen. I last made Mesxican food ... hm, maybe last year. It was a full spread of vague food wraps that I named ' fajitarritos.' Your Sister passed on salsa verde which isn't like her at all. She's past the cold but is now socked by allergies. Speaking of cold, it suddenly is. We had random frost last night and fall has fallen quickly. I'm ready for it. I look forward to wearing layers and driving on leaf-strewn streets. We caught a little bit of a junior varity game, but hunger and the cold drove us inside.

Moving Picture of the Day

The trailer for 300, an adaptation of Frank Miller's account of the Battle of Thermopylae. It looks JUST like the comic in the way Sin City mirrored the print version. It's a cold, macho story built on honor and military discipline. And gallons of blood. I look forward to seeing the film mainly because it employs so much of the green-screen CGI technique used in Sin City. Whereas Lucas employed the virtual studio to provide backgrounds, the new breed seem to use it for something akin to animation, tweaking physics to punch up action scenes. The majority of the trailer music is from Nine Inch Nails, so it gets a grinning thumbs up from me.

Wednesday, September 20

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"

Aaron Sorkin, the guy behind "SportsNight" and "West Wing," has a new hourlong show on NBC based around a fictional network's version of "Saturday Night Live." After the show's producer has a meltdown over a network-yanked sketch, two former show performers are brought back to revamp the show and bring some quality back to the network. It's a nice premise, and allows Sorkin to return to his better backstage "SportsNight" moments when the fictional producers and stars were fighting their network (while at the same time Sorkin was fighting with ABC over scheduling and format).

If you know either of his earlier shows, you'll notice a lot of familiar faces. The "West Wing" alums include CJ Craig's reporter fling, Leo's daughter and girlfriend lawyer, the male GOP White House lawyer, and Josh Lyman. Felicity Huffman cameos as herself, and she starred in "SportsNight." The pace and movement of the show scream Sorkin, and the pilot epsiode looks like it cost a kabillion dollars.

Just as in "West Wing," the first episode concerns a conflict with Christian activists. Whereas Josh faced heat for publicly slamming Christian lobbyists, here a sketch about "Crazy Christians" sparks all the turmoil. Shockingly, "Sunset" takes an explicit swing at Pat Robertson's 700 Club. But the move parallels the debate on the fake show. It suggests "Sunset" will do what the characters hope to with their show: Stand up for biting commentary and face the easily offended with stiff backs. If this is true, this could become the most talked-about show on network TV. Already, "Sunset" has the daring to attack its network's faded-glory comedy show and the network's blessing to do so.

Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford play the hotshot creators returning to the show, and they hit the ground running. Perry's character is whacked out on painkillers (mirroring Perry's own addiction), and both, like their characters, are coming back to a style of TV they departed. They were both on "West Wing" and know how to work with the scripts. They are the heart of the show along with Amanda Peet as the network president gambling on their comeback. There are even former "Saturday Night Live" people playing faux "Saturday Night Live" people.

The cast, so far, has no holes that I can see, and the hour breezed by in a hurry. And the show already has the curious task of presenting a funny fake show that's one meta-level removed from the viewers. I wanna see if the characters can do it, but that's just one of many reasons why I'm watching "Sunset."

If there's on standout so far, it's Perry. He's in full bloom here, playing someone much different than Chandler. I hope Bradley gets the same chance to distance himself from Josh.

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Monday, September 18

Nine and a Half Miles

That's what I ran within three days on Thursday and Saturday. I hit a groove and discovered I could run much easier and longer if I just slowed the pace a bit. My ankles are a little sore, but the pain disappears when I run. I measured a two-mile distance away from the house, and now I know I can run there and back to reach 4 miles, a good measure beyond the 5K distance. Now I just need a costume, something that won't hinder the run. I also discovered the percussion in Green Day's "Holiday" matches my stride pace perfectly; I can use my iPod to keep my run rate. I now can run 5.5 miles in an hour. No one is more shocked than I.

We watched Brevard trounce Asheville High 17-0 Friday night. Your Sis continues to battle a cold and did very little. I started inking the Star Wars drawings in the workshop. We managed to polish off the "Mad About You" TiFaux episodes, freeing up almost 40% of our allotted memory.

We saw Kathy and Travis' baby, Anna Claire, last night. She's a lean baby -- no pudginess after six days -- and she looks like an intelligent kid.

Picture of the Day
Asheville High's scrawny fan contingent Friday night. Guess they knew they were gonna lose.


In the News
The Pope is a moron. Imagine if Bush told a Polish joke. How well do you think that would go over? Well, magnify that by ten, and you have the Pope quoting a Byzantine emperor to insult Muslims. The newest spin on it is the debate as to how the Pope could make a mistake if he's infallible.

+ + +

When asked about going into Pakistan to find Bin Laden, Bush said this: "Pakistan is a sovereign nation. In order for us to send thousands of troops into a sovereign nation, we've got to be invited by the government of Pakistan." Wow.


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