Lobotomy

"3 lbs," the CBS drama about brain surgery, looks to be another Tuesday night at 10pm casualty for the network. (It also falls into the "new shows with a number in their titles getting the boot" trend.) Can't say I'm that broken up about it. The only thing that kept me tuned was the hopes that they'd eventually get to an episode where someone had the same kind of tumor I had.

In other news, a British series called "Afterlife" premieres on BBC America tonight, and it sounds intriguing enough to give a look.

You Can Watch the First Six Episodes of "Heroes" (Just for One Day)

Marathon alert! The Sci-Fi channel is running the first six episodes of "Heroes," the show you hate to love, tonight, starting at 6pm. Of course, the show has aired 10 episodes so far, so you'll have to find some other way to see those other four...

Sheesh, Linus, Do We Have to Talk About Religion? It's Christmas!

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" is airing tonight (Tuesday!) at 8pm on ABC, but in case you forgot to set those TiVos, just can't make it home to watch it, or just plain can't wait until then, you can watch it all right here, right now!

The Nein

"The Nine" is joining "Six Degrees" in limbo land as ABC has pulled it from broadcast until further notice.

I guess the network just can't stand shows that have numbers in their titles.

Is It Normal For the Post-Thanksgiving Nap to Last a Whole Day?

'Cause I think I might need to go back to bed soon.

In other news, my weekly reality TV locals post is now up on SFist!

The Return of Brian Atene

It's the real deal this time, and it's almost as bizarre as his original video. [via Boing Boing]

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm not sure if I'll be doing any blogging tomorrow, so in case I don't here's an early "Happy Thanksgiving!" from me. It's a short film from the 1950s, that's earnest and only slightly amusing.

Man, how I wish it was accompanied by commentary from the MST3K lads. In fact, I miss those guys a lot, especially around Thanksgiving. I remember when Comedy Central used to air 24 hours of "MST3K" episodes as a Thanksgiving "turkey" marathon. Those were the days...

Who's a Big Birthday Boy Today?

Oh, yes you are!

Check out the trailer to the David Fincher "Zodiac" movie. I'm seeing the hell out of this one when it's released.

No, It's Not a Trick

It's an illusion!

"Arrested Development" is now available online, for free and stuff.

Well, the first five episodes are. And you need to have Internet Explorer. And Windows Media Player. And Flash.

OK. Maybe it is a trick

Great. Now I've Got No Excuse to Stay at Home on a Friday Night

Apparently, starting January 21st, "Battlestar Galactica" will be moving to Sunday nights at 10. There's no new episode this week, but it'll be back next Friday with the first of three episodes that will air before it goes on break until January 21st.

So, that means there won't be anything worth watching on Friday nights, unless some midseason replacement series premieres in January. Oh well. At least they didn't move it to Thursdays. I think my head (and my TiVo) would have exploded if they put another damn show I want to watch on that night.

The Long Goodbye

RIP Robert Altman.

He made movies I loved, and movies I didn't. But he always made movies I wanted to see.

Right now, I feel bad for my dad, because he was one of Altman's biggest fans. Sorry, Pa!

So Our Accident...Is Not an Accident At All

If anyone wonders why I don't watch "CSI: Miami," you need only look at this compilation of cheesy line readings from David Caruso to understand why. Awesome. [via PopWatch ]

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire...Right?

Yesterday I was on Potrero Hill, driving towards the 280 on-ramp, when I saw a huge plume of black smoke pouring out of a building close to downtown. It soon turned to white smoke, but it looked like it had been burning for a while as the skyline had a haze of smoke about it.

Today I tried to look up, on various news sites and search engines, something about the fire, and I could find nothing about a fire in downtown San Francisco on Saturday, November 18th. What the hell?

Oh Yeah, Here, That Thing

My SFist post on reality TV locals is up. A little late...

What?...What the fu--?...Is She German?

In high school I developed a fascination with Edie Sedgwick and the whole Andy Warhol Factory thing. So I was a little excited at the prospects of an Edie Sedgwick movie (the idea of which has been floating around for years. I remember when Molly Ringwald was going to star as Edie).

But this trailer has me very worried. What's up with Sienna Miller's accent? Edie had one of those weird New England accents, but I don't remember it sounding like this.

In 2-D!

In case you haven't seen the latest trailer for the "Simpsons" movie...

Speaking of Which, Where's "30 Rock"?

Well, it's moved to Thursday nights, with a 40 minute episode airing tonight at 9:20pm. Next Thursday there's a two-hour (TWO HOURS?) episode of "Deal or No Deal," because people can't be expected to actually have to think after eating five pounds of turkey, but "30 Rock" will be back the following week, along with "Scrubs," woo!

Separated From "Six Degrees"

If you're wondering where the hell "Six Degrees" went, it's been pulled from Thursday nights. They say it it'll come back in January, and I hope so. Again, I can't defend liking the show; it really wasn't about much of anything. But I liked the characters, and I liked seeing New York in a series again (instead of Canada or Hollywood pretending to be New York).

"Men In Trees" will move from Fridays to "Six"'s Thursdays at 10pm slot beginning November 30th. Which means there will now be only one show on Friday nights worth watching. (I am speaking, of course, about "Battlestar Galactica.")

Which "Law and Order" Will Turn It Into an Episode?

It was a little bit of hell not having any Internet access while on vacation. I ended up missing stories like how actress and director Adrienne Shelley was found dead in an apparent suicide that turned out to be murder. Freaky. And incredibly sad. She starred in one of my favorite indie movies of the '90s, Hal Hartley's "Trust." Go rent it.

I'll never complain about noise again.

And Another Thing

The residual effects of vacation are still hanging on. I woke up with a sore throat, a swollen lip, and a neck so stiff I could barely move it. Add to that the fact that the mosquito bites I suffered while in Louisiana seem to be getting worse. I've got huge red welts all over my legs. It's really gruesome. West Nile?

Did I mention I decided to upgrade to first class for my flight home? First time for first class, and it was pretty sweet. I don't think it was really worth the cost--although I'm not sure what would make it worth the cost. Maybe food that was actually good and not just mediocre and free? And I suppose if I were still a hard-drinking girl, the free cocktails might make it worth it. As it was it was still awful nice, what with the warm nuts (dirty!), hot hand towels, and freshly-baked cookies. Didn't really help with my fear of flying, although I did have moments of thinking, "Well, if we crash, at least I'll have plenty of leg room when it happens."

In completely unrelated news, there's a new series premiering on CBS tonight called "3 lbs" and it sounds a lot like "House" but set in the field of brain surgery. Stanley Tucci is House. Being that I've actually had brain surgery in my lifetime, I'll admit to having some interest in the show. CBS sent me a copy of the pilot along with a squishy brain, but vacation came along and I never got a chance to watch it. I appreciate the brain, though.

It's Time For the Vacation Photos!

My Louisiana photos are up! Go to the Flickr photoset to view them and read all about our trip.

A lot of the photos would probably look better after a little trip to the Photoshop, but if I did that, I wouldn't have gotten them up until after Christmas. Oh well!

Man. I'm still tired. I need a vacation to recover from my vacation!

Sho Nuff

I'm back!

And I'm pooped. The trip was great. And sad. Sad and great. Great because I loved seeing New Orleans again; I really love that town. Also great was finally meeting my three Louisiana cousins, and seeing my grandmother, uncle, and aunt again.

And it was sad because New Orleans really is just a shell of a city right now. Sure, the French Quarter and the Garden District are still pretty much the same, but drive out of it and you'll see house after house abandoned, stores shut down, and neighborhoods devastated. It's truly heartbreaking.

I have stories to tell, and many, many photos to show (and will most likely relegate the stories to their accompanying photos on Flickr. I'll tell ya when!) but for now I have a LOT of work, email, blogs, cat petting and, most importantly, television to catch up on. It's good to be home!

Am I On Vacation Yet?

This time tomorrow I should be in New Orleans, stuffing my face with a mufaletta, or a po' boy, or something else delicious and completely bad for me. Whatever I'm eating, I won't be at work, and won't be there for a whole week, and that's just plain awesome.

I can't say I'm not a little worried about the trip (airplane flight notwithstanding) especially when I realize hurricane season isn't officially over yet. And after reading articles about how some people in the city have gone so nuts that they're killing and cooking each other, (I shit you not). New Orleans has always been a dangerous city, and that certainly hasn't changed after Katrina.

But I think once I set foot in the French Quarter, and smell the unmistakable stench of booze, puke, and horse manure, all those worries will drift away. With the help of a mint julep or two.

Meanwhile, I had to board Tori today, and that was heartbreaking. She was so sad! I wish there was some kind of kitty spa I could take her to instead, but she's such a skittish cat, I don't think she'd really enjoy that either. I can't wait to leave, because the apartment is very lonely without her!

Last night I had a horrible night of waiting for MUNI. I waited 45 minutes for the 27 Bryant to take me home. There were no cabs to be had, and normally I would have just trekked up the hill, but my feet were killing me. To top it off, some guy kept passing out below me. Weird! I was standing above the Powell Street station, listening to my iPod, next to some newspaper stands, and I moved my foot, and felt something that hadn't been there previously. So I looked down and I saw that I had just kicked some guy in the head. He didn't seem to mind, as he just kind of readjusted himself.

So I moved over to another bunch of newspaper stands, and looked down at the Powell Street Station plaza. Sitting on the stairs was a young couple. The girl was obviously completely blotto, and the guy was doing his best to comfort her. She alternately pushed him away and leaned into him--when she wasn't puking, that is. So of course I had to break out the camera and film it!



I was doing that for a few seconds when I felt something brush against my feet again, so I looked down, and there was the passed-out-guy again! He had gotten up from his spot, moved over to my corner and passed out again. The hell??

All that was entertaining and everything, but it was getting close to 11 and all I wanted was to get the hell home. So I ended up having to take the Powell cable car up the hill, and narrowly dodged a flying panini some asshole decided to throw at the cable car full of tourists. And then we had to wait five minutes as one of those groups of totally annoying rollerbladers blocked the street. Gah!

Needless to say, I need a vacation. I'm hoping the hotel will have some free wifi, in which case I will do my best to post some photos and stories during the week. If not, I'm sure you'll hear all about it when I get back!

Jericho Is Ridiculous

The only thing I can think of accounting for the success of "Jericho" is it must be playing big in the heartland. It's set there, and seems to offer glimpses of those good old-fashioned family values we're always told exist there (and only there). You know, like having the whole town gather together to help the local farmer harvest his corn before it rots. Because if he doesn't harvest his corn, then he won't have a crop to sell...to...uh. Who exactly? They're cut off from the rest of the country because of a SERIES OF NUCLEAR BLASTS.

And this week, the whole town is carving pumpkins, decorating their houses, and dressing their kids up for Halloween. What the hell? Is this supposed to be some illustration of the amazing perseverance of the American spirit? Because to me it just illustrates America's amazing ability to stick its head in the ground and not acknowledge that the world is falling apart around them.

I'm sure you're asking why I keep watching. And I don't really know. Most of the time it's just kind of on in the background as I'm working. And when I start with a show, I have an annoying habit of seeing it to its bitter end.

Round 'em Up!

This week's reality TV round-up is now up on SFist.

And yeah, the look of SFist has changed. For the record, I know it kind of looks like ass right now, but I'm hoping they iron out the kinks soon enough...

Perhaps the Rest of the "Lost" Cast Should Rely on Chauffeurs From Now On

Don't read this if you haven't watched the latest episode of "Lost" yet.

So, another Tailie with a moving violation bites the dust. I can't say I like it. What was the point of introducing the Tailies last season? To have more characters to kill off? And who's left now? Bernard? And we haven't seen him all season, have we?

Anyway, here's some explanation for the killing off of Mr. Eko. As tends to be the case, it had more to do with the desires of the actor, and less to do with the needs of the plot. I'm sad to see him go, because I thought he was one of the most interesting characters on the show, and personally, I didn't think his send-off was that great. First, it began with a hackneyed flashback of a flashback (which is, I think, a first for the show, and totally annoying because it was obviously put there for new or lazy viewers, which is something this show has managed to avoid doing in the past). And the new flashback stuff didn't tell us anything we didn't already know about Eko. Yeah, he had unresolved issues with his brother and his former life as a druglord. But didn't he already deal with that when he found the plane last season? The whole thing was redundant and unnecessary. And the smoke monster still makes no sense.

As for the whole Ben tumor thing. Again, what's so hard about just coming out and asking Jack to perform the surgery in the first place? They need to start telling us WHY the others insist on using coercion and torture to get what they want, because as it is now, it's confusing and just ends up being stupid.

Ben: I am going to break you down until you give in and perform this surgery!

Jack: Dude. I'll do it. No need for any torture.

Ben: NO! You have to WANT to save my life.

Jack: If you break down my free will, and coerce me into saving your life, how is that really me WANTING to do it?

Ben: Shut it! Juliet! Bring the tazer.

Next week better kick ass. That's all I'm saying.

Found!

Good news! My parents' car was found in Oakland. Seems to be in good shape, too.

I bet the thief drove around for a day with the windshield wipers going, realized he didn't know how to get them to turn off, and just ditched the car in frustration. (The secret involves jamming a pen under the windshield wiper knob. I guess it pays not to get those kinds of things fixed!)

"Kidnapped" Kidnapped!

Looks like NBC is giving up completely on "Kidnapped" as they have now pulled it from it's Saturday night graveyard. It will be replaced by "Law & Order" reruns (just what we need more of!).

I don't get it. They cut the show to 13 episodes, which are presumably already shot, and now they won't give the (admittedly few) viewers who stuck around the chance to see them? No one watches TV on Saturday nights (or so they tell us) so what have they got to lose by airing the rest of the show? I don't think viewers are now going to flock to the channel on Saturday nights because "L&O" is on.

I wasn't even that big a fan of the show, but it annoys me to no end when they air just enough episodes of a show to get you hooked, and then yank it away from you. Cancel after two or three, that's fine, but "Kidnapped" was what? Almost half-way done? Now I may never know who the hell kidnapped that kid and if he'll be able to cover-up the hole he dug through his mattress to retrieve that cell phone (that I actually have no idea how he got). Oh well. Maybe they'll put the missing eps online. Or DVD.