i needed you more when you wanted us less
I came home and watched the Tour tonight, fueling up for some hardcore spectating by eating Ranjit's Mexican food. The stage was decent, but not as exciting as yesterday's; Alexandre Vinokurov from Khazakhstan won the stage, but Armstrong retained the yellow jersey. Hopefully I will get to watch again tomorrow, although I have quite a bit of work to do.
After the Tour, I came upstairs and caught up on some emails while watching TV. They're showing 'Rock Star' on the Star World channel; I'm super excited about this, because I read about it in the New York Times and was sad that I was missing out on what promises to be one of the better reality shows in recent memory. And by 'better' I mean 'actually decent', not 'fabulously terrible' like 'The Surreal Life' on VH1. If you haven't heard, the premise is that the band INXS is looking for a lead singer to replace the dude who died awhile back, and they're doing it with the help of Dave Navarro and an American Idol-style competition. Judging by the performances tonight, though, this is much better than 'American Idol', mostly because the performers are more hard-core rockers than whiny pop babies. I will have to make an effort to navigate the strange and constantly-changing world of Indian television stations and schedules so that I can see it again in the future.
During commercial breaks, I discovered that Star World is also airing 'Invasion Iowa', William Shatner's rather mean show about the town of Riverside, Iowa. Essentially, the town has built its entire tourism industry around the fact that Captain Kirk will be born there in the future, and so William Shatner comes to Riverside and tells the townspeople that he's going to film a movie and wants them to be extras. I read someplace that he ended up feeling horribly guilty about the whole deal because the townspeople were so friendly. But hey, Riverside got some major publicity out of the deal--if anyone wants to make a reality show about round barns, I have an ideal location for you. You can also stay in my brother's room while you're filming, I"m sure he wouldn't mind.
After 'Rock Star', the randomest of shows came on--'JAG'!! I would only have been happier if it had been 'Walker, Texas Ranger'. I hadn't seen this episode before (to be expected, since I stopped watching when I went to college, and so have only seen the Christmas episodes and anything playing during my infrequent summer visits home); it was the one where all of the actors are recast as characters on a hospital ship during the battle of Iwo Jima. I'm guessing that they did it because people were waiting forever for Rabb and Mackenzie to finally get together, and this was the only way they could do it without ruining the overall storyline. Of course, in this episode, they kiss, and five seconds later the Japanese attacked the ship and Mackenzie got killed. But, the kiss itself was v. satisfying. Maybe this betrays the depths of my middle-Americaness--but I can't help it. I like just about anything with hot people and explosions, and 'JAG' provides both of those key elements.
Okay, I should probably go to bed, since I have to be in the office at eight tomorrow morning. The weekend cannot come fast enough!
After the Tour, I came upstairs and caught up on some emails while watching TV. They're showing 'Rock Star' on the Star World channel; I'm super excited about this, because I read about it in the New York Times and was sad that I was missing out on what promises to be one of the better reality shows in recent memory. And by 'better' I mean 'actually decent', not 'fabulously terrible' like 'The Surreal Life' on VH1. If you haven't heard, the premise is that the band INXS is looking for a lead singer to replace the dude who died awhile back, and they're doing it with the help of Dave Navarro and an American Idol-style competition. Judging by the performances tonight, though, this is much better than 'American Idol', mostly because the performers are more hard-core rockers than whiny pop babies. I will have to make an effort to navigate the strange and constantly-changing world of Indian television stations and schedules so that I can see it again in the future.
During commercial breaks, I discovered that Star World is also airing 'Invasion Iowa', William Shatner's rather mean show about the town of Riverside, Iowa. Essentially, the town has built its entire tourism industry around the fact that Captain Kirk will be born there in the future, and so William Shatner comes to Riverside and tells the townspeople that he's going to film a movie and wants them to be extras. I read someplace that he ended up feeling horribly guilty about the whole deal because the townspeople were so friendly. But hey, Riverside got some major publicity out of the deal--if anyone wants to make a reality show about round barns, I have an ideal location for you. You can also stay in my brother's room while you're filming, I"m sure he wouldn't mind.
After 'Rock Star', the randomest of shows came on--'JAG'!! I would only have been happier if it had been 'Walker, Texas Ranger'. I hadn't seen this episode before (to be expected, since I stopped watching when I went to college, and so have only seen the Christmas episodes and anything playing during my infrequent summer visits home); it was the one where all of the actors are recast as characters on a hospital ship during the battle of Iwo Jima. I'm guessing that they did it because people were waiting forever for Rabb and Mackenzie to finally get together, and this was the only way they could do it without ruining the overall storyline. Of course, in this episode, they kiss, and five seconds later the Japanese attacked the ship and Mackenzie got killed. But, the kiss itself was v. satisfying. Maybe this betrays the depths of my middle-Americaness--but I can't help it. I like just about anything with hot people and explosions, and 'JAG' provides both of those key elements.
Okay, I should probably go to bed, since I have to be in the office at eight tomorrow morning. The weekend cannot come fast enough!
posted by Sara @ 10:29 AM
4 Comments:
At 1:32 PM,
Anonymous said…
Regarding Shatner's exploitation of Riverside, Iowa... From what I understand, there was money involved; but, that only added insult to injury. The townsfolks tried their best to go with the joke; but, it was easy to see they were very disappointed that the "publicity" they were getting was more along the lines of "we're idiots who were duped by a celebrity" rather than "we're terrific people and this is a great place to live/visit." Riverside's annual Trek Fest was a few weeks ago. Other than the usual newspaper photo of a kid staring at a Klingon, there wasn't much said about it.
On the other hand, a reality show about round barns? Do you really want outsiders to see what life is like in Allerton??? I mean, round barns and the navel/quarter trick only go so far with today's sophisticated reality TV viewing audience...
At 3:43 PM,
Anonymous said…
I dont know if the film crew would want to stay in the brother's room since I was told today out of the mouths of the little ones "It is a disaster! It is worse then our rooms put together!" Maybe the film crew shouldn't come until after the brother returns to college.
At 11:35 PM,
Anonymous said…
I would like to point out that the clutter upstairs is just a clever ploy to keep unwanted guests from thinking they can spend the night. And in my own defense, it is very hard to keep a place clean when I'm not home all day long to keep house. Since I was out working when the infringement of my privacy took place, I'm unable to recall inviting anyone into my room, however as I understand it, 6 years of being 1,800 miles (or even half a world) away from a place does nothing to limit someone's ability to give others permission to traipse through my room. Who knew?
I've booby trapped my room and stairway, so in the future, it might be wise for children to visit their local library instead of my bedroom. They are more than welcome to use Sara's car to drive themselves to the library, because I feel it is well within my rights to give them permission to do so.
At 8:31 AM,
Anonymous said…
Two things. First of all, INXS is a ridiculously famous band, and Michael Hutchins death was widely commiserated. Paula Yates was all sad too.
Second, JAG is much better than Walker Texas Ranger, though both are excellent shows. End.
-Can Sar (not logged in cause at work)
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