Smart and Appalling

MENSA, that society of geniuses (Sharon Stone's a member in case you didn't know) who are so smart they have an acronym that makes no sense to my puny little brain have released a list of what they determine to be the smartest shows of all time
Top ten smartest shows of all time (in no particular order):

1. M*A*S*H
2. Cosmos (with Carl Sagan)
3. CSI
4. House
5. West Wing
6. Boston Legal
7. All in the Family
8. Frasier
9. Mad About You
10. Jeopardy

I'm assuming this is only an American list because the Brits had a game show called Masterminds which is wicked hahd. Also isn't Boston Legal just The Practice but with older stars and more zoomy camera work? Also The Simpsons I guess doesn't fit into their criteria but that is an incredibly intelligent show
Anyway
Almost coincidentally or by some divine stroke Entertainment Weekly has released a list of their own, of the most appalling shows in TV History, and with the exception of Kid Nation, which may have been the smartest show ever (remember that time they chose religious books over like go carts?) this list could be deemed the dumbest shows ever. In countdown order

Moment of Truth
Jail
Kid Nation
Britney and Kevin: Chaotic / Hey Paula!
The Anna Nicole Smith Show
The Swan / I Want a Famous Face
Temptation Island
Cheaters
Flavor of Love, Flavor of Love 2, Flavor of Love 3, I Love New York, and I Love New York 2
Keeping Up With the Kardashians / The Bad Girls Club
Shows centered around the concept of ''millionaires''
Wife Swap / Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy
Chains of Love
Big Brother / The Real World
The Simple Life
My Super Sweet 16
MTV's Entire Programming Slate
The Littlest Groom / Age of Love
The Bachelor
The Jerry Springer Show

(from Defamer)
The Littlest Groom? What's that? I'm assuming a little person is involved which probably makes it horrible and exploitive.
Of course we shouldn't be surprised that there are far far more appalling and dumb shows on TV than smart ones, after all we're Americans! We're dumb and we're not only proud of it, we're hostile to book learnin'
From The NY Times
"Joining the circle of curmudgeons this season is Eric G. Wilson, whose “Against Happiness” warns that the “American obsession with happiness” could “well lead to a sudden extinction of the creative impulse, that could result in an extermination as horrible as those foreshadowed byglobal warming and environmental crisis and nuclear proliferation.”

Hmm,did anyone else see Idiocracy? because that's a smart movie...and it seems like that's where we're headed

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Notes on a Dominican Cock Fight

Here is video of the Pedro Martinez cock fight with (the horrible, cruel and vile) Juan Marichal and when I saw it I was quite shocked by how clean and professional and official it looked, with the ads on the wall and like the turf. Usualyy when I think of animal fighting rings, especially with my American mindset I think of grainy footage in like basements or out in the middle of nowhere.

Pedro Martinez y Marichal en pelea de gallos
by paginafea

Birds kind of disgust me, I don't know why. Anyway even though it’s brutal, cruel, barbaric and offensive I don’t think too much will come out of this- once again it is legal and a huge cultural activity in the Dominican (would someone be attacked for going to a bullfight in Spain?) secondly they’re chickens and everyone loves chickens…as food. And though no one knows it or wants to admit it this is probably less cruel then what the vast majority of the billions of chickens in the US deal with- at least here they get a chance to live, if they win. Thirdly people in Boston will probably be quite Pro-Pedro considering how he helped them win their first World Series in 86 years and finally no chickens are cute, no matter what Taylor and her mean girls thought, though I agree that ugly chickens deserve to die


god I forgot how fabulous Taylor was!)
(via Deadspin)
Ps if you haven’t read it here is Clifford Geertz’s classic “Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight” it’s an amazing read though it was pretty successfully torn apart, in my opinion by Vincent Crapanzano (i wrote a term paper on Crapanzano so I am a little partial)

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Kid Nation: Had a Reunion?!

The Kids from Bonanaza City had a reunion and I just heard about it yesterday night through Defamer
It wasn't like a made for TV reunion like Flava of Love but it seems like an actual reunion perhaps at the CBS studios with like dinner and a chance for the kids to see each other again (which kinda makes all their whining about "never seeing their friends again" seem silly) but anyway here is a slide show of pictures from that day set to Radio Disney-esque music

And why am I not surprised to see Michael wearing a “Free Tibet” shirt and Laurel in that pants suit.
I miss those kids- could this possibly be made into a Seven-Up type thing? I want to see how these kids turn out.

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It Had to Happen

About the only thing Bush had going for him was during his reign that nothing had decided "to peace out" or secede from America.
Well, not anymore. The Lakotas have seceded from the Union.
Seriously.
It's the 1860s all over again.
From the AP article (originally found on Wonkette)

The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free -- provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said.

The treaties signed with the United States are merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists say on their website.

The treaties have been "repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," the reborn freedom movement says.

Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said.

"This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution," which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.

"It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent," said Means.

The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence -- an overt play on the title of the United States' Declaration of Independence from England.

Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row," Means said.

One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples -- despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.

"We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children," Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.

The US "annexation" of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people," said Means.

Oppression at the hands of the US government has taken its toll on the Lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies -- less than 44 years -- in the world.

Lakota teen suicides are 150 percent above the norm for the United States; infant mortality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website.

"Our people want to live, not just survive or crawl and be mascots," said Young.

"We are not trying to embarrass the United States. We are here to continue the struggle for our children and grandchildren," she said, predicting that the battle would not be won in her lifetime.

Lakota Nation-like Kid Nation but with real booze. And a better National Anthem. Plus cooler flags (see above and below)
I'm glad the Lakota are taking this step (if I do have to renounce my citizenship I'm glad I have somewhere closer to move than Canada) but one has to wonder what took them so long- I mean I would have called for revolution and secession after like the first 10 broken treaties.

But on top of everything else, it has to be pointed out that the country is actually breaking apart under Bush.(GWeeB: taking the US out of USA since 2007) I know it could've happened but I thought California would be first.
Can everyone just admit that he's our worst president ever. (William Henry Harrison may have only lasted 30 days, but at least he didn't fuck up anything) Well, at least now all those "Bush/Lincoln" comparisons have some basis in fact

viva lakota.

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Kid Nation-Pour Out A Little For Bonanza City

Seems so long ago and oh how the kids grew up so quickly. But now it's over. And surprisingly Bonanza City was not burned to the ground (which I assumed would happen, if not sometime during the 40 days, then as everyone was leaving town.)

This episode started with a beautiful riot where the kids basically stripped everything out of the stores and were walking around with crates of like gumballs (it was awesome)and I wanted to tell Zach when he was bemoaning everything that it's not stealing, it's looting. I'm still not sure how much I like Zach; he was mature and responsible but to me it seemed more "self righteous" and annoying than the maturity of others. He did deserve a gold star (though I really thought he had won one earlier.) So the next day they cleaned up the town and everyone seemed to actually help out (i feel i would have had a wicked Squishee hang over.)

I think one of my favorite parts of the episode was when (i think her name was) Savnnah wanted to sleep with the Yellow Girls and they all said okay then they sent Kelsey to tell her that "we're your friends and we'll always be BFFs but its our last night and we just wanted to spend it with us Yellow Girls" and then Savannah went nuts and Taylor and I forgot her blond friends name were so bitchy. It was fabulous, though I'm glad Migle was there to make Savannah feel better because rejection is never cool.

Anyway the challenge didn't seem too tough, though I was confused as to why three separate groups didn't start a respective project at the same time, though I guess tag teaming it and having them wait to go station to station made it more successful (did anyone else notice the conciliatoriness of Zach by mentioning that Taylor made the right decision by getting the microwaves.

but a quick question, if they hadn't completed their challenge would they not have been able to see their parents? because that would've been cruel
I kinda felt that at the Bonanza Bonanza(?) the parents would be coming but when they came running over that hill (reminiscent of Gandalf coming at first light in The Two Towers,or not) and the kids came rushing towards them, Michael running ahead of them all-aww I started to cry, a little. It was just so sweet ans so genuine.
Then the kids showed them around and I think it was Jared who made his dad a Bonanza Bomb and I really wonder how many parents who saw that thought "my god these kids are going to be drunks."
and Migle, a girl who I'm not sure had ever been on camera before like last week, and who looked a lot more "mature" than everyone else there came through when it counted the most and won the last $50,000 gold star. It was sweet as the council basically said she was the Most Improved and she did seem really sweet, even if I'm still not sure how to pronounce her name.She's going to be beautiful when she grows up.Anyway at the final scene where everyone was hugging it didn't seem like the kids were as tearful as I felt they would be, so that was disappointing. (because children crying is amusing, of course)

That must've been the best summer vacation ever. I kinda wonder how these kids are doing at school, like if they're mini celebrities or still shunned but I hope them all the best, even Taylor who somehow managed not to get fragged.

and now to sum up my feelings (since I was like the only adult who loved a show that was first in the coveted 2-11 demo) a song from before any of those kids were born.

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Kid Nation-I Want Alex

I kinda really want to kidnap him. I mean he's soooo cute,he wears those shaded glasses, has that one big tooth in the front of his mouth, talks about things like futures and carbon dating, is half asian,totally confused everyone when he recieved his star, is so adorable and soo small I just want to hug him and hold him (and maybe transport him in a duffel bag)

I''m really glad they had an episode that focused on him- he's always been one of my favorites. But you know what was weird was that they are still spotlighting kids that you've never seen before, like Migle who I'm sure is a great girl and all (despite the unfortunateness of her name and the fact I don't know how to pronounce) but I would think at this point the producers would just dance with the ones who brung 'em. Though to be honest if I sent my kid away to be on some controversial reality show and then didn't have my kid seen on camera or talked to even once I would be quite pissed, so I think the producers may either release a dvd of deleted children, or maybe even better to have a compilation for each family of footage that focuses on their kid.
I was also absolutely shocked that Sophia actually was a kid last night and was swayed by the mob for the immediate enjoyment of the hot air balloons over the plaque (the one that choked up my absolute favorite Laurel) though I feel like the plaque will be left there anyway- I mean CBS already made it and why would they want to lug it back.

Not gonna lie before last night's episode I was really smelling a dramatic redemptive arc where Taylor who had been so vilified, justifiably so, would at the end change her ways and impress the council so much where she would get one of the last gold stars, and it could happen though that seems quite unlikely for the last episode, especially considering the number of good quiet kids who haven't gotten a gold star (but of course haven't really added much to the awesome wtfness of the show) I hope everyone in the town gets some type of gold star, even if it's smaller, just to have something to show. It seems only right.

Oh and speaking of gold stars everyone should hold onto them- gold is always rising in value. (I learned that from Alex- he's soooo cute.)

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Who Knew Tools Could Scab Over?

"Hi, I'm Carson Daly and I'm still a huge tool"


yes, I know he's not a member of the Guild but still. Solidarity, yo.



(and on the polar opposite of cool, on Kid Nation I really love Sophia- I feel like she is much more of an adult than I am. And I wanna be in the Green District. Guess what I'm watching right now.)

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A Damn Fine Idea

I wish I had thought of it first. Oh well.
Tim over at Tim's Take, in honor of sweeps week, created a post in" an attempt to spike [his] web traffic." And so in an attempt to boost my traffic here's (a blatant instance of mooching) a list of keywords associated with his post

• cute kittens video
• jessica alba beach photo
• hot girls bikini
• baby sleepy picture
• pandas
• (baby pandas)
• train wreck youtube (we are a nation of homer simpsons. when buildings collapses.)
• happy baby picture
• building implosion videotape
• jenn sterger fsu cowgirls
• shark attack

Just for kicks: caca spaniel, golden reliever (you should really be watching How I Met Your Mother)

and from my own personal experience : ben's brother stuttering, dentyne ice commercial, kid nation taylor (and for old times sake- megan richter missing raped)

Ah i can feel people coming and then leaving immediately because of disappointment, already. Awesome.

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Kid Nation-Who (the f*ck) is Guylan?

A few years back, I guess it was sophomore year, still stinging from the fact that Arnold whatever was my governor and that, hope against hope ,GWeeB had been re-elected I was thinking about starting a club-Duke Students United Against Democracy, or DSUAD (pronounced dissuade) to give other angry students a place to think up alternatives. Actually no, I didn't have a course of action for the club I just liked the name, so it was a good thing I got lazy (or drunk) and never actually called a meeting because with all of the leftists and people dissatisfied with democracy on a college campus I probably would have ended up with a lot of people there, just sitting around. With nothing to discuss besides our motto, which would probably have been that great Homer Simpson quote "When will people learn? Democracy doesn't work!"

I said all that because after last night's episode of Kid Nation I'm not sure I like it anymore. I had really forgotten how obnoxious kids can be at times. And Olivia was such a b-i-t-c-h. I can see her in a few years totally being a mean girl. So this episode was all about democracy and electing new council members. I was kind of worried that kids on the Greens (easily my favorite group) would decide to run against Laurel for no other reason than they had an opportunity, and that team is loaded with leaders, but quite happily they all recognized she's the best of the Council members and so she ran unopposed. She was the only one however. As expected Zach ran against Taylor and as much as I thought I liked that kid he kind of annoyed me this episode, not because I love Taylor but rather he was being so political- like practicing his speech and strategizing about needing to get a girl vote from Taylor and going up to hold out votes and telling them he's not asking them to vote for him, even though he was (i think he said Iif you want to vote for Taylor because she wakes you up late that's fine). The one thing I can say about Taylor is she didn't play that game- either she's so oblivious or has such high self esteem or she just doesn't care what people thought about her but her strategy was simply to have her girlfriends draw up posters with overlong slogans (Vote For Taylor, She's Not a Failure something something.) that ended with the hated phrase Deal With It which alienated as many voters as it may have won with her obvious "staying of the course." Anjay, the leader who's just kind of "there" is an easily frustrated and stressed kid, and Olivia decided to run against him. She told him while Anjay was doing something and refused to look at her, with like his back turned and she said something like " Hi Anjay I wanted you to know I'm running against you" in that kind of protobitchy lilt that junior high girls can affect. I think she decided to run against him because he woke her up to go do work. I'm not sure. The whole rest of the episode Anjay was just frazzled and so nervous and at one point while cooking someone asked him about Olivia a conversation which he immediately cut short with "Don't talk to me about Olivia while I'm holding [this knife]." I was certain he would lose- he projected no confidence.
But the just bizarre subplot of the episode was Guylan, a kid I had never seen or maybe just never noticed, deciding to run against Mike for the Reds. Mike was shocked because he didn't see any leadership qualites in Guylan (who at first I wasn't sure was a girl or a boy) a kid who had been homeschooled and decided just to run because he wanted to be a leader and was not, as he told Mike during a conversation frail and fragile. His campaign speech was less than inspiring.
When the posters were hung Markelle from the Reds read Taylor's and then tore it down and hopped up and down on it with a pogo stick. I kept wondering where the hell they got pogo sticks from, if I had missed that challenge but I couldn't remember. A crowd of kids were trying to get him to stop it including Anjay who pleaded for him to stop it saying something along the lines of "is this what bonanza city has become? tearing down people's posters? that's what happens in the real world-we don't want the real world!" it was well said, but it didn't stop Markelle from ripping the poster into pieces which lead the maker of the poster, one of the younger kids, a blonde white girl from getting into the face of Markelle, a bigger black kid (who I was really scared was going to hit the girl), and it was at that moment when I felt Dr. King's dream had finally been realized, when a black boy could disrespect a white girl and not get lynched. He was quite lucky Bonannza City isn't the real world. So she went crying to her cabin and Grege played big brother, which impressed Taylor.
Anyway the challenge was to hit pinatas to find pictures of US presidents, which the team leader would have to put in chronological order. Yellow won because Zach studied his presidents (which did not impress Kelsey who opined that just because someone is smart doesn't mean they make a good leader. Look at George Bush) Taylor knew who is president now but didn't know who came immediately before him, which I laughed at but then realized she was like 3 when Bill Clinton left office. Green came in a close second because they screwed up the order (and some of these were quite hard with like those obscure 19th century presidents that I'm not sure if I could have gotten them.) I think Blue was cooks and Red, workers (though I may be reversing that) but they all did it in enough time to win the reward. And this part was brilliant. The choices were a "presidential barbeque" with like cheesburgers and hot dogs or dental hygiene equipment. The kids when they saw the barbeque were literally salivating and had to hold each other back from rushing it with excitement. They were animals. But the council did the "responsible" thing and got the toothbrushes even though Anjay and Mike wanted the meat to appease their teams who looked very very pissed when the results were announced (a comment overheard in the crowd : "i'm a man I need meat.") Guylan, in his wealth of experience said to the camera "if i was on that council, i would have gotten the meat" to which I said out loud "how?" was he going to do it by force or what?
So I guess the Town meeting came next and the first order of business was the gold star which they gave to Greg who got quite emotional because it would allow him to go to college which he didn't think he could've done before because he had saved no money for college (to which I tried to remember if at 15 I had any money or was even thinking about college.) Then came the election. Anjay somehow won with a few votes to spare, which shocked me. And he tried to give a conciliatory acceptance speech where he applauded Olivia for her campaign and promised to listen to her more (as she chirped back: No you won't.) The Red vote was next and this is when I stopped liking the show. The adult read the ballots off one by one, Survivor style, and after the first vote for Mike everyone else on the Reds voted for Guylan and as each vote was read off Mike started crying more and more and it was so sad as his head fell into his hands. (and I know it is a tv show and they have to do it onscreen and in public for drama but that is so humiliating for a kid to see that no one likes you.) But I was trying to think, as Mike asked the crowd what he had done wrong and I couldn't think of anything. I always thought he was the second best council member- he tried hard and really seemed to want to lead and his district was usually in the upper ranks of their society. I feel so bad for Mike- there was nothing more he could have done or anything he could have done to change minds. I guess the kids just wanted a change and so they voted en masse for Guylan, who I decided is the Barack Obama of Bonanza City a young, unproven, inexperienced candidate who just represents something different. And I'm glad that he's gaining confidence and becoming a leader and developing as a person but...(his acceptance comment to camera was something like "I'm going to take the problems of this city and kick their butts.)
The Yellow vote was a lot closer than I had thought. I assumed that Zach would rout but Taylor's girl bloc actually delivered and it was tied with one vote to go, which went to Zach and was delivered by the girl he approached on the street. As he won he went to the front and thrust his fist in the air and shouted Viva la Revolucion! and I just rolled my eyes. It was just kind of a moment of "really? really? is that what this is? how old are you?"
At was at this point I vowed to never watch again. Though of course I'll forget all about that unpleasantness next week (until I have to see Guylan as a Council member. I am a horribly sore loser.)

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Kid Nation- Taylor's So Gonna Get Fragged

in case you didn't know:Frag is a term from the Vietnam War, used primarily by U.S. military personnel, most commonly meaning to assassinate an unpopular officer of one's own fighting unit, often by means of a fragmentation grenade (hence the term). A hand grenade was often used because it would not leave any fingerprints, and because a ballistics test could not be done (as it could to match a bullet with a firearm). A fragging victim could also be killed by intentional friendly fire during combat. In either case, the death would be blamed on the enemy, and, due to the dead man's unpopularity, it was assumed no one would contradict the story.
Fragging most often involved the murder of a commanding officer (C.O.) or a senior noncommissioned officer perceived as unpopular, harsh, or inept. If a C.O. was incompetent, fragging the officer was considered a means to the end of self preservation for the men serving under him.

I think it's a sign of addiction when I speed through a dinner at a nice restaurant in order to get home so I won't miss too much of a show. Well, let it be said I'm addicted to Kid Nation. I got home about 15 minutes into the hour and all the kids seemed to be having an interfaith religious service and it was so remarkable, Pharoah (wow, outstanding name) started crying when Zach started a Hebrew prayer and Pharoah was so overcome he said something like " even if you're Christian or non christian or jewish we're all worshipping the same god." As the bible says "from the mouth of babes" and these kids would totally have solved a lot of the problems in the middle east. Such a simple solution too; take all of their kids and put them in a deserted town and order them to figure it out and create a society.
Then Anjay was worshipping at a little altar he made when some of the other kids came to him, and it was so cute Kelsey was like "Anjay what's Hinduism" and he explained enough and before they cut away Kelsey was cleansing herself with fire ( I really should now that term- I studied Hinduism pretty intensively less than a year ago)
Then they do the challenge thing and Green sucks again and become the workers again and no one is happy because Taylor and the Yellows are the cooks again, which mean if there is food it will probably be inedible but more likely than not Green will have to step up and cook as well. But the challenge decision was between a mini golf course and "holy books" and I was shocked shocked shocked that the kids picked the "holy books." (though over the end credits the kids were playing golf, so I don't know)
Zach at one point to the camera said something along the lines of " if we don't make the right choices this town won't survive like in the 1880s" though I was certain he was going to say "this town won't survive like Sodom and Gommorah." These kids are so much more mature than I am. They then went and started studying them and comparing the Torah to the Pentateuch (one of the kids actually knew that word; bizarre)
So as Yellow was supposed to be cooking there was only Zack and someone else in the kitchen and the dishes were filthy which lead Zach to round up volunteers from all Colors to help him, which a lot did after trying to weasel out of it no one wants to look that selfish and uncaring on t.v.. No one that is except for Taylor, and is it wrong to say a 9 year old girl is the best villian on T.V? Laurel and Morgan went to confront Taylor because she wasn't working, so they went to the saloon and found her taking "shots" and called her out and an embarrassment and said she needed to do something because, as Laurel said "she's pissing everyone off" (and here's my prudish maternal mind; I was shocked she said pissed- I didn't remember me saying something at that age until I realized I cursed like a sailor and that Laurel is from Massacusetts) to which she replied along the lines of "fine let us be embarrassments." Then at the Town meeting everyone was still beating up on her and Taylor didn't care which shocked the host into saying "Taylor either you have the thickest skin or you're not listening" and then she got into an argument where she was yelling about if they thought she'd been tough they hadn't seen anything yet. It was chaos and I really thought she would be lynched or at least impeached, on the spot. I am a horrible person, the person I love to hate the most is a 9 year old.

But my absolute favorite story on this episode was this kid I had never seen on the show Cody and he was crying over a letter that his girlfriend wrote him before he left. He then, and this makes me laugh just to remember it, walked to the saloon because he "just needed a root beer so [he] could forget about her" and he was so distraught that his friend Campbell took him to look at cows, to get his mind off of it. The kid is 9! What the hell do you do with your girlfriend when you're 9? I tried to remember me back then and all I remember is holding hands, a kiss on the cheek and people punching kids they liked in the arms (memories) And then at Town Meeting he said he wanted to go home and this was so sad he was crying so heavily and said he missed his family but he was sad to leave Bonanza City because he'd never see his friends there again and as he was leaving Campbell started bawling and Morgan had to comfort him and he was so sad when he said "he was my best friend." It broke my heart. And then he went to the saloon and took shots in sorrow.
I don't think there's any show that's more emotional or touching than Kid Nation, I mean kids rarely lie especially about their emotions and you have to be a monster to see a kid crying with homesickness and not worry about them and want to hug them and take care of them. I mean now when T.V. adults cry it'll just seem fake. These kids are real, yo.

but seriously is this how these kids view "grown ups" and the way they deal with their problems, by drinking and taking shots? and do they see us taking shots to celebrate as well? because i'm not sure if that's a good thing and these kids when they actually get closer to alcohol this behavior won't be the healthiest. It seems like a poor idea to put shot glasses there now, but it is bloody hilarious.

Morgan won the gold star- she actually seems like she will grow up to be a nurturing and good person.
Next week are elections, instead of mutiny which I was certain would happen if they kept the same Town Council the whole time (as they should) but there's no way Taylor wins- she may not want to even run, I say Zach does. From Blue, I don't know- the only ones I know from that side are Alex and Mallory who are both so adorable. In red Mike did a good enough job (though he holds grudges- he still refuses to believe Greg is working for the good of the town and not just for the gold star. What does Greg have to do?) though DK could run against him. And Green is so hard because Laurel is the best Council Member but Sofia and Morgan are green as well, as well as Michael; though I don't think they'll run though they'd all be amazing.

(and I don't actually know all of their names- I've been checking the Kid Nation bio site)

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Your Simply Amazing Stuck in My Head Song of the Day

In honor of Radiohead who today in an interstellar burst came back to save the universe today's Your Simply Amazing Stuck in My Head Song of The Day is Airbag by Radiohead. About the song from Green Plastic:
Thom in Select: "Has an airbag saved my life? Nah...but I tell you something, every time you have a near accident, instead of just sighing and carrying on, you should pull over, get out of the car and run down the street screaming, 'I'm BACK! I'm ALIVE! My life has started again today!'. In fact, you should do that every time you get out of a car. We're just riding on those things - we're not really in control of them."

Ed: "It's about the wonderful, positive emotion you feel when you've just failed to have an accident; when you just miss someone and realise how close it was and stop the car and just feel this incredible elation. There's something joyous about it- life suddenly seems more precious."

In the next world war
in a jack knifed juggernaut,
I am born again.

In the neon sign,
scrolling up and down,
I am born again.

In an interstellar burst,
I am back to save the universe.

In a deep deep sleep,
of the innocent,
I am born again.

In a fast German car,
I'm amazed that I survived,
an airbag saved my life.

In an interstellar burst,
I am back to save the universe.

In an interstellar burst,
I am back to save the universe.

In an interstellar burst,
I am back to save the universe.

Radiohead- Airbag [download] you should already own OK Computer or else we're not friends anymore
Christopher O'Riley- Airbag [download] buy True Love Waits: O'Riley Plays Radiohead
The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead- Airbag [download] buy Strung Out on OK Computer

ok this'll be my last Radiohead post for a while. maaaaybe.
( p.s kid nation is so amazing. maybe the best show on t.v.)

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Ephemeral Desires: Things that are too cool/trendy for me*

but I want to see or experience

• I would love for a country that speaks of high ideals to actually stand up for those ideals when they are under attack and not shrink because of need of resources. In this case India, as the world's most populous democracy to speak out in some way against the anti-democratic junta(fun word) in Burma.
• I kind of never want to be a mother of a kid who is allergic to almost every food except for chicken, carrots, grapes, potatoes and apples. That would be miserable. Must suck to be the kid as well.
• If I could have witnessed the first Reverse Marathon that happened in Buenos Aires, I first would have been confused, then amused, then bored by waiting for like 3 hours, then happy I witnessed the whole thing and was a part of history. I, however, would not want to run it. Backpedaling is tiring.
• Two Harvard grads, classmates of the Zuckerberg overlord, have sold an idea for a book that is a satirical look at Facebook, to be called (ta dah!) The Facebook Book, for about $50,000. I mean good luck with it but I wouldn't quit my day job- who know thinks of the MySpace: The Movie creators.
• Plans are well underway for a musical based on the life of spree killer Andrew Cunanan called "Most Wanted". I don't know how excited I am about that but if they can pull it off and make it as "socially relevant" as they mean to it should be amazing. I am quite looking forward to Point Break Live! where the " starring role of Keanu will be selected at random from the audience each night, and will read their entire script off of cue-cards. This method manages to capture the rawness of a Keanu Reeves performance." And it's now playing in L.A. Awesome. I fully agree with Homer Simpson in such matters.
• I've never been too much of a science fiction fan (I'm still in the closest) but I am really really looking forward to the release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut, which has been extensively remastered and is the "definitive director's cut." It's being released at the Ziegfield in New York and the Landmark in L.A. and in a 5 disc dvd set in December. I like presents... Other movies I want to see:
• Sigur Ros is releasing a documentary Heima about "a series of free, mostly unannounced concerts in their native Iceland," This will totally be the chillest most frozenly beautiful thing ever. Almost indescribable in a language other than Hopelandic.
• Javier Bardem and Christian Bale, with director Joe Carnahan are planning an adaption of Mark Bowden's amazing book Killing Pablo. I can't hide my enthusaism and excitement-this will make "Medellin" look like a kindergarten production. It should already be nominated for the 2010 Best Picture Oscar. And Pablo Escobar, even though he was hunted down, yada yada, the fact his cartel was making 30 billion, with a b, dollars a year kind of makes it worth it.
• I've enjoyed, in some way, everything that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have ever done together. Combining them with a tale of a murderous butcher made me want to see it before the trailer for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was released.
• And this one is for the queer cultural anthropologist/religion major in me, but the documentary For The Bible Tells Me So that explores the intersection between faith and sexuality and the struggle between them is totally up my alley.
• I think it would be really cool to meet my "Googleganger" or some one you discover by goggling that has the same name as you, but their lives don't seem too sordid or exciting. And I think they're all European (one's Scottish if that's a difference.)
• As I mentioned Blade Runner earlier, this article kind of relates about how "social robots" are now entering the home. I don't want to see this continue. Am I the only one who thinks we should stop this now? The only one that sees the danger? People, did we not learn the lessons of every movie with a robot in the last 30 years, that robots will eventually enslave us and lead to a dystopia verging on Apocalypse? Well every robot movie besides Short Circuit (I heart Johnny 5, but Fisher Stevens in his Indian "blackface" is hard to watch."
• In other news, there is such a thing as being too different, like getting an eye tattoo. It is so not my thing but if it's your thing I won't judge. In fact I think I'll encourage it, after all who will get more stares, someone with blue eyes, or a chick with an adam's apple? I <3>
• The Onion has set the date for an Apple Backlash occurring on the 21st of March in the year 2008. I think I might be okay with that, Apple is really trendy now it's kind of becoming the Big Brother type dominant force that I retreated away from (Microsoft) when I first got a Mac. Of course all that will change if on March 20th Steve Jobs releases something new and shiny for me to lust after.
• Speaking of backlashes, I must admit when I first heard the suggestion from Harper's Magazine about a general strike on Election Day November 6, 2007 to protest and signal being fed up with the Bush Administration and standing untied against everything they have done, I was confused because I really didn't think there was an Election this year. It took me like 3 days to stop thinking it was a mistake on their part and just google. In case you hadn't noticed I despise being wrong. But now that I know it's legit I am definitely in- general strikes are sooo european.
• And a few show I wanna see
• They say that Hollyoaks is like Gossip Girl but trashier (in a classy way.) I think I had seen it a few times on BBC America but I didn't watch because the name turned me off (sounds like a garden show or a show about a retirement village) but now that I know what it's about I wanna sample it. I mean have you seen Footballer's Wives? OMG.
• Speaking of good trashy fun, I first heard about "America's Most Smartest Model", but I thought it was a joke, a parody of ANTM and Beauty and the Geek. Apparently I was wrong once again. I'll probably watch an episode or two, but after awhile those shows make me feel kinda bad for laughing at people and I feel dirty and like I wasted an hour of my life.
• A show that never wastes any of my time is Kid Nation, and last night was the best episode yet. I tried watching Pulling Daisies but Bonanza City drew me back. Taylor has my new alltime favorite catch phrase "Deal With It" which she yelled repeatedly, a little kid played chicken with a giant bull, Alex [a cute asian kid from D.C] said something like "Greg and Blaine are mean and curse a lot but in the challenges they're good] which was a lot cuter than that seemed because his hair was mussed and he had his glasses off, there was a sand storm where the outhouses were knocked over, Mallory the cutest 9 year old shop keeper won the gold star on her birthday and called her parents and told them she and her sister would stay there the whole time. Oh and at town meeting the kids were calling for a re-election and ganged up on Taylor and told her she was horrible and made her cry (which made me feel bad for her) and two seconds later she was happy again. Ah, amazing. I love that show way too much. And so should you all. Both Best Week Ever and Defamer agree with me (with video evidence of excellence.) And Gregg is kind of growing on me and I no longer think he'll beat his wife.

yuppers. I think those'll tide me over for week.

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Your Stuck in my Head Song(s) of the Day

Maybe it's a Wednesday thing but again today I've had three very different songs swirling around and melding together in my head. I know PJ Harvey's Rid of Me got in there because of this post, and The Coral's Simon Diamond may have crept in when I was researching and discovered the 84 karat diamond. Incubus' Megalomaniac? I'm not sure- either I had thoughts of world domination, thought of GWeeB or maybe just had the preceding two songs form and stick together and remind me of it. Who knows.
Either way enjoy Your Stuck in My Head Song(s) of the Day,

Simon Diamond by The Coral
(the video is far from the best but hopefully you get a feel)

The Coral-Simon Diamond (mp3)

Incubus- Megalomanic (you can watch the official video here- damn no embedding by request)

Incubus-Megalomanic (mp3)

and PJ Harvey's Rid of Me

PJ Harvey-Rid of Me (mp3)

And speaking of getting rid of me, tomorrow I actually have to do quite a few things other than this blog so I'm not sure how erratically timed my postings are going to be. But we'll see. And Happy Thursday in advance.
Ok I gotta go and try to watch Kid Nation and Pushing Daisies at the same time.

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Kid Nation- Now With 11% Fewer Chickens

I seriously think I love Kid Nation too much. But it is seriously the best show even though I've stopped watching and waiting for the class struggle. Last night they were basically advised to kill some chickens for "protein"-that was the buzzword of last night and at one point a small group of them barricaded themselves in a chicken coop to prevent it. Hunger and the want of the masses won out and they didn't show the actual axe falling but they showed the chickens flapping postmortem, which if I was a kid would really have freaked me out.
I feel really bad for the green team because most of the kids I like are in that gang ( teams have mascots, gangs only have colors) Laurel, Sophia and Mike. And for the second week in a row they got stuck cleaning outhouses and drawing frozen water all the while having to cook because the Yellows are too lazy (which isn't going over well and pretty soon I'm predicting a death in Bonaza city. jk)
And I'm not excusing it or saying it's right but for the first time I could conceivably understand why those young teachers have affairs with their kids. Michael is such a leader and so grounded and so good hearted, with such a nice smile I kind of got a crush on him (or more exactly him in a few years when he's legal.) But you can tell that kid is going to go far, while Greg who was upset about not winning the gold star and vowed revenge, who's worked as a butcher and at laying down pipe all while dealing with anger issues, he's either going to be a serial killer that has a dungeon, a blue collar wife beater, or, what the hey, incredibly successful (you can't root against kids- it just wouldn't be okay)

I had intended this post to be about other shows I watched last night when i was too lazy and tired to move from bed and so....
9 o'clock was one of those times when I really missed my dvr. Dvr is one of those inventions where if you never had it you don't really understand what you're missing but once you've had it and then have to return to watching only one thing-it is simply tragic. I tried to watch "private practice" (I'm not sure if it is supposed to be capitalized but since it's based in L.A. I feel that they felt lowercase lent a cachet of chill and a relaxed vibe) because I love Kate Walsh and Addison (which is a fabulous name) and I dug it for like the first bit but then it just got kind of boring- I think the sub plot of having someone count tiles might have added to that feeling. But it does have Jonathan from LAWKI , which was seriously the best show ever, so that is amazing! Hopefully it will pick up because at a certain point last year Addison was the only one I didn't hate on Grey's Anatomy. But during watching this I was also flipping back to Gossip Girl, which is kind of growing on me, and Bionic Woman, that I wasn't to excited about originally.
Maybe it's because I don't have that nostalgia of 70s scifi shows and the word Bionic just seems kind of dumb and outdated but I didn't know why exactly they were remaking it. I'll save my full judgment until I watch it online (thank god for that) but it looked pretty cool- the only parts I didn't like were when she was running and it looked really fake and CG and the Terminator vision bit I could do without. One part that stuck with me was when she was running in the woods a girl in a car saw her and told her mother that this woman was running as fast as the car at which point her mom admonished her to stop reading so much and the kid responded "I just thought it was cool" which seemed to me a strange kind of insertion of feminist thought that "girls can run fast too" that I would hope girls of her age would already accept and not think extraordinary and that hopefully she would be involved in some sport as well. But I don't know, people are raised differently as so maybe it was cool to her* and maybe that inspired some little girl in a more traditional locale to aspire and dream, which would be the best of things.. It did kind of remind me of Jessica Alba's Dark Angel though, which means I'll probably watch at least a few more times.

And finally at 10 was Dirty Sexy Money and I must say I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did. It has that kind of trashy voyeuristic feel of looking in at the failings and dysfunctionality of rich familys but also with a mystery, and other unforeseen revelations and the feeling that eventually the goodhearted lawyer and his nice perfect life will be corrupted by the hands of the wealthy. It has an amazing cast too-Peter Krause has always been a bit of a favorite, back to Sports Night and Donald Sutherland seems perfect for his part; he has that same look of perhaps malevolent mischief in his eyes and smile he did back when he was in the Dirty Dozen, and I enjoy Adam (i think it's Adam) Baldwin because he has that thing that all less famous siblings have where they kind of look like their star sibling, but not quite. Plus while pondering whether to run for senate he's having a secret affair with a transsexual. Speaking of, I didn't know Candis Cayne's voice was so profundo, though I guess the layout of the entrance hall where she spoke may have encouraged echoes-either way she still has a body to die for. I enjoyed the whole thing so much that I think I put it as a favorite tv show on facebook while I was watching last night- definitely a first for a first episode.

Ok and that was way longer than I had planned but whatevs ::shrugs shoulders::


(just a question- the original Bionic Woman came out in the 70s right? So I'm assuming it came about as a result of 2nd wave feminist activities and the notion that women could be ever bit as heroic as men? but did she only get this equality and empowerment after she was augmented and stopped being "purely human and a woman" and become more than that and partly bionic? Would that imply that ordinary women who didn't have however many millions of dollars worth of government technology implanted, were not possible of achieving a state of such equality? But I'm just rambling and I was just thinking out loud with no real evidence)

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Kid Nation- Not Yet Lord of the Flies

So last night when I was lying in bed, shivering from the unexpected cold and thinking about...whatever, I began to watch America's Next Top Model- I think at this point it's just habit.(I may give up on it and just catch it on the inevitable marathon(s). But anyway I hadn't planned on watching Kid Nation but I turned it on and I could not look away. It was just so fascinating and I think the whole time my jaw was dropped as it progressed. You can see the personality and type of people that the kids will have when they grow up, like Michael will be quite a hit with the ladies, Laurel will be like a teacher/social worker, Greg is soon to be a frat boy type and Sofia will be a hippie, for just a few.

They divided the kids into color coded groups which I was sure was going to create some type of gang warfare. Some of the kids are so mature and seem like real people and preternaturally responsible, like Laurel looking after the smaller kids and making sure they're doing okay, and cooking ( I'm relieved to see they actually give them food otherwise there could be a stick sharpened on both ends) that I really wondered if I was their age how would I react in such a situation. I went away to camp but never for 40 days and never without supervision like they are (minus the host and I'm sure scores of production staff and child safety activist.)

There are like 8 year olds which seemed too young and I of course worried (especially when the young kids are crying by themselves in a corner, for home)- I think the kids minimum age could be 10 and that would be fine. I don't understand though why they allowed 15 year olds- they're just so much bigger and most teenagers are assholes (it's a fact) and either will want to look after the kidsI guess each week they give a kid a real gold star which is worth $20,000 which is a helluva prize, and allow any kids who want to go home to do so (Jimmy left this week and he was so adorable.)

They divided the kids into 4 classes, workers/cooks/merchants/upperclass with the upper class making 4 times as much as the workers (twice as much as the cooks, etc) so I really am expecting and hoping for the eventual class struggle (that must result from such inequality) and for the workers of kid nation to unite. Y'know, in the coming Glorious Socialist Revolution Of course I worry about the potential disgusting exploitation of it by certain people or pedophiles watching it too intently because they all are basically pre-pubescent, and there was a random challenge where they had to pump colored water and it was soaking their clothing, which seemed, just a bit inappropriate.
I just hope that they keep the kids safe before the show devolves into an Off the Grid experience

Though that would be incredibly entertaining.

And I watched Gossip Girl last night and though I don't think I care about the characters, the omniscient narrator who implies further mystery and has future revelations in her voice totally sucked me in, kinda like Desperate Housewives. I'll probably end up watching it, and of course hating myself.

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