(Almost) Twenty Years

So, I was digging through old notebooks and papers tonight in preparation for a two-day film class I signed up for this Friday and Saturday. The class is about Hitchcock, and I know I had at one point during my many years of cinema studies written a paper comparing "Rear Window" to reality TV, and was hoping I could plagiarize myself and maybe use some of it for a paper for this class. Alas, I couldn't find the paper, but I did find an old notebook that included a lot of notes about Hitchcock films.

Because, you see, I had already taken this class four years ago.

Son...of...a...BITCH!

My 20 year college degree plan is proving to be a foolish one.

Oh well. I already took the day off work. Maybe I'll go to an actual movie theater instead.

Seven Years

I don't really have anything to say about 9/11 that hasn't been said before. It still fills me with sadness, and with each passing year of the Bush administration, more and more rage. But I want to make sure people know about a pretty amazing looking documentary that will be airing on the History Channel tonight at 9pm. It's called "102 Minutes That Changed America." Here's a preview.



[via B-Side Blog]

I Just Want to Tell You How I'm Feeling

I knew the minute those blue and green screens popped up behind McCain during his RNC speech that people were going to have a field day with it. And this is my favorite so far.



And for those who don't get the joke, ::cough:: my parents ::cough, read this.

Je T'aime Marjorie

I didn't have time to link to this yesterday, but I put up a new, brief reality TV locals post up on SFist. ANTM is back!

The Fall of TV: Fringe

This year I just couldn't find the time nor the energy to do a really comprehensive look at all the season and series premieres that are headed our way like a freight train, so instead I'll just try to highlight the shows I think are worth a gander on the day of their premieres. For kicks!

Tonight's big show is "Fringe," which comes from J.J. Abrams. He's got a pretty good track record so far, with "Felicity," "Alias," and, of course, "Lost." However, I'm a bit worried about this one. While the title brings to mind a show about the joys and horrors of a particular kind of hairstyle, the trailer just make it seem like an "X-Files" rehash. I've also heard mixed things about the screening they had down at Comic-Con. Nonetheless, it's got a season pass on my old TiVo, and aside from Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse," which still doesn't have a firm premiere date, (probably sometime in January), it's the only new show this season that I'm even slightly excited about. It premieres at 8pm tonight on Fox, and then moves to 9pm next week. Here's the trailer.

It's Keats!

This week's Tube Tops is not up on the SFGate Culture Blog!

I can not tell you how much I am loving San Francisco's fog right now. Whenever Labor Day comes around, I always get this excitement for the end of summer and the beginning of fall, and always seem to forget that, duh, San Francisco summer, weather-wise, basically STARTS around Labor Day and lasts until a little before Halloween. So I will savor as many foggy days as I can get these coming weeks!

*Gulp*

Yikes. That was a big one. But at least it was short.

(That's what she said.)

Also, I'm sitting at home in a halter dress not fit for public view and the first thing I thought when the quake hit was "Crap! I can't run out of here looking like this! I sure hope this isn't big enough to lead to a need to leave my apartment!"

Which is why, when you live in San Francisco, you should always be presentable. Even in bed. No sleeping in the nude!

Si mignon il m'incite à vouloir mourir

I'm so glad those dumb Summer Olympics are over so we can start focusing on the 2010 Winter Olympics and their insanely cute mascots.

Seriously, this video has got to be the cutest goddamn thing I have ever seen.



Yeah, I'll even watch curling if it means one of those little guys is running around the bottom of the screen the entire time!

How Stupid Do You Think I Am?

I have a brief post up on SFist about the mayor's wife and "Mad Men."

Oh, you know you want to check it out!

Here She Comes, In Her Palanquin

God, "Mad Men" is just...so....good. It gives me chills every week. But that said, if you watched yesterday's show and thought to yourself at the beginning of the episode, "Say, that doesn't sound like a song from the '60s," you're quite right. It wasn't. It was "Infanta" by The Decemberists. I have mixed feelings about them using it. On the one hand, it's a great song, and it does sound a bit like a British Invasion band, right down to the singer's fake English accent. But on the other hand, it's a bit jarring, and does take you out of the show's time frame. And I'm not quite sure how the song's lyrics really play into the episode's themes...

Judge for yourself. Here are the lyrics, followed by a live version of the song. You tell me what it has to do with the show...

Here she comes in her palanquin
on the back of an elephant
on a bed made of linen and sequins and silk
all astride on her father's line
with the king and his concubines
and her nurse with her pitchers of liquors and milk
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

Among five score pachyderm
each canopied and passengered
sit the duke and the duchess' luscious young girls
within sight of the baroness
seething spite for this lithe largesse
by her side sits the baron
her barrenness barbs her
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

A phalanx on camelback
thirty ranks on a forward tack
followed close, their shiny bright standards a-waving
while behind in their coach-and-fours
ride the wives of the king of Moors
And the veiled young virgin, the prince's betrothed
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

And as she sits upon her place
her innocence laid on her face
from all atop the parapets blow a multitude of coronets
melodies rhapsodical and fair
and all our hearts afire
the sky ablaze with cannon fire
we all raise our voices to the air
to the air...

And above all this folderol
on a bed made of chaparral
she is laid, a coronal placed on her brow
and the babe, all in slumber dreams
of a place filled with quiet streams
and the lake where her cradle was pulled from the water
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta



Now, after watching this bit of behind-the-scenes "Mad Men" video, I can kind of see the relationship between the song and the episode's themes, but it still seems like a bit of a stretch to me...BTW, DON'T watch this clip until you've watched the episode...