What In Tarnation?!?!? In the Classroom

Previously on WIT?!?!?:

• 2002 in TV
• Best and Worst of 2003 II
• Top 10 List 2004: TV
• TV of 2005
• The TV of 2006

The tradition continues and because I know you really want to know what I think… (ahem!) I present my round-up of the TV of 2007. In previous years I have had a top ten list and a bottom five list but I think I will continue the method of simply listing the TV I liked and the TV I didn’t like.

I will retain the little arrow icons that indicate whether the show is on the way up (up arrow ) on the way down (down arrow ) or staying even (sideways arrow ) from last year or the beginning of the year. If I haven’t seen the show (I’m talking to you The Wire) it won’t appear on the list. Let’s go…

Good Stuff

• Heroes - A shaky second season, which I feared. Though they did start to correct those problems in the last couple of episodes of this shortened season.
• The Office - I love, love, love The Office. My concern about the new season was all the promised one hour episodes, which to me don’t pay off like the half hour episodes. This season was all worth it to see Michael Scott drive into a lake. I thought that was the funniest scene this season.
• Drive - I thought this show had promise. I HATE YOU FOX!
• 30 Rock - Brings the funny every week. There isn’t an unfunny person on the cast.
• Boston Legal - This plucky little show that could continues to be one of my favorites. I find it hilarious and thought provoking. Denny being carted into court for tapping his foot too much was funny. And through it all, whether it is “green-friendly” clients, airsoft guns, or mad cow, Denny and Alan are friends to the end.
• Lost and Battlestar Galactica - Both of these series have had very uneven seasons and both of them had blockbuster season finales. 1 more season for BSG and 3 for Lost (depending what happens with this season.)
• Jericho - I thought CBS had pulled you from our hands, just as it was getting good. Well you know what the fans had to say to that? NUTS! Jericho has been given a second chance and CBS has a show ready for mid-season despite the writer’s strike. Sounds like a good deal for everyone. Now that there isn’t anything new on TV, everyone needs to watch it!
• Reality TV - Some of it has been enjoyable. Namely Kid Nation, Kitchen Nightmares, Dirty Jobs and the latest season of Survivor in China was swell. I also enjoyed The Next Great American Band. Despite how much I enjoy it, it still feels second rate. Guess we better get used to it.
• Feasting on Asphalt 2 - I will try to pronounce your name correctly Alton. It is just really hard living so close to Alton, IL.
• High School Musical 2 - Sure it was a misfire on when they released it (a movie about the end of school and summer vacation just as the school is starting) but what can you say, I am a sucker for such things.
• Full Episodes Online - For free. This was the only thing that got me through when my old TiVo died and went to the heaven for our dearly departed PVRs.
• My favorite new series of this season would be Reaper. It is funny and witty and also it is funny.

Bad Stuff

• FOX - I HATE YOU! First Firefly and then Drive.
• Reality Shows - Despite the few I mentioned above, most of it is garbage.
• The Writer’s Strike - I hope they get what they want. Right now I blame it on the studios.
• Full Episodes Online - One problem. Not all show are available to watch online. If I were a network (ahem CBS), I would make sure that if a relatively popular TV show had the possibility of being significatly delayed because of a sporting event that it would be online so people who recorded 45 minutes of 60 Minutes and not Amazing Race could go catch up online. This would be why I haven’t seen the Amazing Race this season.

Your thoughts in the comments.

Class dismissed!

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Now playing: Caedmon’s Call - Sacred
via FoxyTunes

Previously on WIT?!?!?

• 2002 in Movies
• Best and Worst of Movies 2003
• Top 10 3 List: Movies 2004
• The Movies of 2005
• The Movies of 2006

Good Stuff - The movies I really liked this year. Bold title movies are my favorite of the year.

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - With each passing sequel, the kids (or formerly kids) hone their craft. Each movie matures along with the books that they adapt. The movies continue to get the important parts and leave out the bits that didn’t really need to be there, though some of those cuts are painful.
• Bourne Ultimatum - One of the third movies that was successful for me. It keeps the momentum of the first to movies. It has all the elements that have become familiar to Bourne fans but that could also become an issue for future movies. Don’t want to do the same old all over again. Just ask Bond.
• Bridge to Terabitha - A beloved novel and a movie that didn’t hurt the original material.
• Disturbia - I’m a big fan of Hitchcock. I really like Rear Window. Despite the somewhat zany climax of the movie I really like this modern spin of Rear Window.
• 3:10 to Yuma - I’ve only recently grown an appreciation of westerns. I wanted to see how this modern take on the Western keeps up with older fair. Turns out pretty well. I really appreciated the moral muddy ending. Not the ending that I was expecting from a Western at tall.
• No Country for Old Men - I just recently caught this movie over Christmas break. The movie has several things going for it. First and foremost the movie is by the Coen Brothers, makers of one of my favorite movies of all times, Fargo. Not only that, No Country for Old Men returns to some of the same themes of Fargo. In a word, this movie was fantastic! Simply the most suspenseful movie made in a long time. I was feeling uneasy from the first scene. I think the absence of a soundtrack raise the tension to a max. Bonus: not as many F-words as Fargo! Let’s not mention the villain that is creepier than Hannibal Lector. Yes, kids, this would be Uncle W’s favorite movie of the year. Warning: Very violent.
• Amazing Grace
• Children of Men - I don’t remember if this was released this year, but I watched it this year. This would be my second favorite.
• Zodiac - There is a gritty realism to this movie that I really like. The second most suspenseful movie of the year and my third favorite.

Okay Stuff - These were decent movies, just not the best of the year.

• Ratatouille
• The Simpson’s Movie
• I Am Legend
• Spiderman 3 - I decided that it wasn’t as good as number 2.
• Shrek 3
• The Bee Movie
• Blades of Glory
• Shooter
• Surf’s Up
• Hot Fuzz

Despite the good showing of animated movies in last year’s list, this year didn’t quite perform to make it on the top of the list. 5 animated movies on this portion of the list. The curse of the number three rears its ugly head here (though I liked Spiderman 3 much more than most folk.)
Skip It - Buckets of junk. Avoid at all cost.

• 300
• Transformers
• Fantastic Four 2
• American Gangster
• Ghost Rider
• No Reservations
• The Number 23

MIA - Stuff I haven’t seen that I might like. I will edit this as I do.

• National Treasure 2
• Sweeny Todd
• Charlie Wilson’s War
• The Kingdom
• The Seeker: The Dark is Rising

Gasp! Yes, it is new content. I will try to be better.

Class dismissed!

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Now playing: Caedmon’s Call - Love Grows Love
via FoxyTunes

A few literary selections from children’s literature that I have read. Both of the following books are similar in that the illustrations are a big and important component of these books. Yet both have very different styles.

First up is the Invention of Hugo Cabret. Like many children’s books that I have read, this one was suggested by my mother. She showed it to me shortly after I finished the last Harry Potter novel. When I first looked at the book, I thought that she was kidding. As you can see from the picture on the right, this is a hefty book. This is the kind of book that kids would check out of the library just to carry around to impress other kids with the size of the book that they are reading. The book is Harry big. Initially, I wasn’t interested in starting another long, epic novel. Then she said that I could probably read it in an hour or so. That really caught my attention. So I picked it up. Here is the book description from Amazon.com:

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo’s dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

Reading the description, the book sounds like a mishmash of random things. Clock keeper… key… mechanical man… the book also tells quite a bit of film history as well. There is a bunch of things going on in the novel and it the author, Brian Selznick, manages to pull them all together. But what made this 500+ page novel an hour read? Selznick who is also the illustrator uses drawings to tell the story. The novel has relatively short chapters broken up with some very nice and detailed illustrations that would continue the story by showing the action through pictures. It all comes together with very nice effect. The history of film, however, might hender some younger readers and they might need some assistance understanding some of those concepts.

Update: I just discovered that the movie rights for this book have been purchased. Martin Scorsese might direct.

WIT’s rating:

Another book that I recently finished is called Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. This book caught my attention a couple of bookstores and I finally gave in and bought it. The story is told through the diary entries of Greg, a rather small middle schooler as well as some rather whimsical illustrations. There were several moments while reading the book that I was chuckling out loud to myself.

A short description from Publisher’s Weekend:

Middle school student Greg Heffley takes readers through an academic year’s worth of drama. Greg’s mother forces him to keep a diary (”I know what it says on the cover, but when Mom went out to buy this thing I specifically told her to get one that didn’t say ‘diary’ on it”), and in it he loosely recounts each day’s events, interspersed with his comic illustrations. Kinney has a gift for believable preteen dialogue and narration (e.g., “Don’t expect me to be all ‘Dear Diary’ this and ‘Dear Diary’ that”), and the illustrations serve as a hilarious counterpoint to Greg’s often deadpan voice. The hero’s utter obliviousness to his friends and family becomes a running joke. For instance, on Halloween, Greg and his best friend, Rowley, take refuge from some high school boys at Greg’s grandmother’s house; they taunt the bullies, who then T.P. her house. Greg’s journal entry reads, “I do feel a little bad, because it looked like it was gonna take a long time to clean up. But on the bright side, Gramma is retired, so she probably didn’t have anything planned for today anyway.” Kinney ably skewers familiar aspects of junior high life, from dealing with the mysteries of what makes someone popular to the trauma of a “wrestling unit” in gym class. His print debut should keep readers in stitches, eagerly anticipating Greg’s further adventures. Ages 8-13.

After doing some reading on the Internet, I discovered that this book actually started with a webcomic on funbrain.com. You can also read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid blog.

Funny book though there are a few things that parents might want to watch with younger readers. The afore mentioned wrestling unit comes to mind when Greg realizes that while the gym teacher is demonstrating some wrestling moves he feels a draft of wind in the crotchal region. Additionally, Greg is a typical middle schooler and is pretty disrespectful to just about everyone around him.

That said, I think kids will really enjoy the book and they will look forward to the sequel coming out in the beginning of 08 called Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules! I am looking forward to it.

WIT rating:

But remember, you don’t have to take my word for it.

Let me know if you read these books in the comments

Class dismissed!

Remember back awhile when I asked for a tiny little Christmas gift?

Well now they have released The Next Generation as its own box set. The whole series. At the prime cost of $309 at Amazon.com.

I have never understood why in tarnation the Star Trek DVDs are so much more expensive than similar series. I got seven seasons (Well I guess if you want to be real technical about it, six and half) seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for around $150. Up until now, I have not gotten any Star Trek DVD because they were so expensive with the exception of season 7 of Star Trek DS9 which I found for a reduced price on eBay.

Is it too early to ask for a Christmas gift?  :wink:

Class dismissed!

Fall is quickly coming upon us and I for one can’t wait. With the colder temperatures come the new fall TV season. As is the tradition around here, here are the shows that I am looking forward to. I am evidently no longer the demographic that the TV because the list of shows that I think I might be interested in seems to be down this year. This is probably a good thing.

Monday

•  7:00 pm: Chuck (NBC) - Thanks to my TiVo and Amazon Unbox, I have already seen the pilot episode of Chuck. I really enjoyed its sense of humor.
• 8:00 pm: Heroes (NBC)
• 9:00 pm: Journeyman (NBC)

Tuesday

• 8:00 pm: The Reaper (The CW)
• 9:00 pm: Boston Legal (ABC)

Wednesday

• 7:00 pm: Kid Nation (CBS)
• 7:00 pm: Back to You (Fox)
• 8:00 pm: Bionic Woman (NBC) - I have also seen the first episode of BW. Not as good as I expected it to be but I enjoyed seeing Battlestar Galactica alumni. I will give this a couple of weeks.
• 8:00 pm: Kitchen Nightmares (Fox)

Thursday

• 8:00 pm: The Office (NBC)

Friday

• None

Saturday

•  None

Sunday

• None

Wow, slim pickin’s! I wish that Wednesday night would share the love. After viewing tonight’s premiere of Prison Break, I have to say that my interest isn’t very high. It should have ended last season.

I used the recent TV guide for days and times because the schedule listed on EW.com is a little different but I think the the TV Guide and Yahoo is correct.

How do the networks do with me this season:

ABC: 1
CBS:  1
NBC: 5
Fox: 2
The CW:  1

Class dismissed!

High School Musical 2 has taken over. Don’t believe me? Try the most watched show in cable-TV history or the second best album debut this summer. Nothing to shake a stick at. Everywhere I go at school, I can’t seem to get away from Zac Efron’s mug. It is plastered all over lunch boxes, back packs and messenger bags, notebooks, shirts, there seems to be an endless array of Zac Efron merchandise. I have mentioned here before that the original High School Musical is one of my guilty pleasures. So how does this second act stack up to the original?

Let’s take a look a HSM2 song by song. As any musical aficionado worth their salt know, the opening number is vital to the whole show. Most times it is upbeat and introduces the audience to the heroes of the show. The first song of HSM2 fills that role very well. What Time is It? sets the whole plot into motion. The gang is waiting for the final second of the school year to tick off the clock. The bell finally rings and school is out for the summer. The whole gang sings about their plans for summer break:

What time is it?
The time of our lives
Anticipation
What time is it?
Summertime
School’s out, scream and shout!

[Troy and Gabriella]
No more wakin’ up at 6 am
‘Cause now our time is all our own

[Sharpay and Ryan]
Enough already, we’re waiting come on let’s go

It turns out the HMS gang isn’t quite as carefree as the opening song would have us believe. They all want or need money. Troy (Zac) wants money for college, while others want money for a car. Thankfully Troy suddenly gets a call offering him a job at a nearby resort. He manages to get all of his Wildcat buddies a job too. Little does he know that the resort is owned by Sharpy and Ryan’s parents. Troy job offer was offered as a ploy of Sharpy’s to get Troy to pay more attention to her. This is where we enter the portion of the musical that closely resembles the summer job at the resort episodes from Saved by the Bell (Troy and Gabriella = Zack and Kelly).

We jumped forward to Sharpay’s grand entrance at the resort. During her song, Fabulous, the song writers let the audience know that they are going to completely ignore any character development that occurred at the end of High School Musical and reset the character back to her self-centered ways. Maybe even more so that in the first musical.

Sharpay:

I want fabulous,
That is my simple request,
All things fabulous,
Bigger and better and best,
I need something inspiring to help me get along,
I need a little fabulous is that so wrong?

See has of course set her eye on Troy because he is so fabulous. So she sets her plan into motion to woo Troy by offering him a chance to get a scholarship for college. Much to Sharpay’s dismay, the whole Wildcat crew including Troy’s beloved are now working at the resort.

The crew can’t wait to start their jobs until they discover that their new boss is a bit of a kill-joy at Sharpay’s request. Everyone starts whining about how bad their job is in Work This Out, except for Troy who actually has a good attitude about the whole thing.

Troy:
We’ve got to work, work
to work this out
We’ll make things right,
the sun will shine
If we work, work
there’ll be no doubt
We can still save the summer
If we work this out!

Chad:
(Dude, what have you gotten us into?)

Troy:
(Come on, we can totally turn this thing around)

This will be one of the last moments that Troy isn’t whining about something for the duration of the movie. My major concern during this song was that the boss was going to walk back into the kitchen while they are banging on all the pots and pans. I’m sure they wouldn’t last very long with that kind of behavior.

We find out about the resort’s summer talent show. In a reversal of roles from the first movie, Gabriella urges Troy to sing with her in the contest. Our spunky song writer has even worked up a little diddy, You Are the Music in Me, for our love birds, they even memorize the song within seconds of seeing the sheet music.

You know the words
“Once Upon A Time”
Make you listen?
There’s a reason.
When you dream there’s a chance you’ll find
A little laughter
or happy ever after
yeah harmony to the melody
It’s echoing inside my head
A single voice (Single voice)
Above the noise
And like a common thread
Hmm, you’re pulling me
When I hear my favorite song
I know that we belong
Oh, you are the music in me
Yeah it’s living in all of us
And it’s brought us here because
Because you are the music in me

We then speed off to the sports themed number I Don’t Dance. This song gives some of the second string players a chance to shine and gives Ryan some much needed character development. He begins to show that is more that Sharpay’s lap dog. Of course there are people who are reading into the lyrics of this song, which I think is really unwarranted.

(Ryan) Hey,batter,batter, hey battter,batter swing.

(Chad) I’ve go to just do my thing.

(Ryan)Hey,batter,batter, hey batter,batter swing.

I’III show you that it’s one and the same:

Baseball,dancing,same game.

It’s easy:

Step up to the plate, start swingin’.

Finally, Gabby (as I like to call her) finally wises up and realizes that Troy is an idot and has fallen for Sharpay’s games and decides to get the heck out of resort. The result is my favorite song of the show, Gotta Go My Own Way because I think is was kinda gutsy to do a break-up song in the show for tweens. I also enjoy that one of Troy’s responses to Gabby’s points is a selfish, “What am I supposed to do?”

Troy, heartbroken and not completely understanding what it is he did gets the cheesiest song of HSM 1 or 2, Bet on It (though others are calling it a show stopper). Troy prances around the golf course mulling over what he should do. At one point, he jumps into a sand trap, angrily picks up two handfuls of sand and throws it down with great gusto. Now I like part of Troy’s conclusion, that he needs to grow up and do the right thing but he also decides to follow his heart which can lead a person astray in my experience.

I’m not gonna stop, that’s who I am
(Who I am)
I’ll give it all I got, that is my plan
(That’s my plan)
Will I find what I lost?
You know you can
(You know you can)
Bet on it, bet on it
Bet on it, bet on it
Bet on me

Talent show time and again Troy learns a new song in record time. This time it is the rousing Everyday. Nice song but I am still a bit baffled about what faith they are keeping while they are young or what they are celebrating.

[Troy]
Everyday
of our lives,

[Gabriella]
wanna find you there, wanna hold on tight

[Troy]
Gonna run

[Troy and Gabriella]
While we’re young
and keep the faith

[Troy]
Everyday

[Troy and Gabriella]
From right now,
gonna use our voices and scream out loud

[Gabriella]
Take my hand;

[Troy]
together we
will celebrate,

[Gabriella]
celebrate.

Finally everything turns out the way it should be and everyone joins together yet again to celebrate summer vacation with All for One.

Everybody all for one,
A real summer has just begun!
Let’s rock and roll and just let go,
feel the rhythm of the drums
We’re gonna have fun in the sun
Now that all the hard work, work is done!
Everybody, one for all and all for one!
All for one, one!

There is another song that is on the soundtrack and it sounds like it was wise to drop the song from the movie.

HSM2 did everything that HSM1 did so in my book it is yet another guilty pleasure and another

Class dismissed!

As is the tradition, I went to see my one show at St. Louis’s Muny, the nation’s largest outdoor theater. This time I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which I have seen at the Muny once before back in 2002 I believe. I had the added pleasure of taking some of the youth from my church as well. For most of the youth it was their first time to visit the Muny which is always and experience.

This trip certainly not as bad as a few past experiences but it had the potential to get that way. First we left church about thirty minutes later than what I would have liked to have left, but thankfully we got there in plenty of time. The whole group found our seats.

These seats were quite entertaining because we were located directly below one of the four large fans that they use to cool down guest before the show and during intermission. I was thankful because Friday night was quite a warm and steamy St. Louis summer night. I didn’t realize how lucky I was until the first unsuspecting victim tried walking down our aisle with a large bucket of yummy popcorn from the somewhat overpriced concession stand. A down draft would hit the popcorn and send kernels of popped popcorn flying in all directions while the person who had spent their hard earned money frantically trying to contain what few kernels remained in their tub. This happened several times over the course of the evening. My favorite was the young boy, about second grade, and his rather daffy mother. The boy was holding the popcorn and when their popcorn went a flyin’ the mother started yelling at the poor boy. “Stop that right now!” “Why are you doing that?!” The boy was actually doing a better job than most of the adults who were in that situation and it wasn’t his fault at all. The fans where also a hinderance to older more frail people who literally had to hang onto something to get out of the aisle. Then along came four teenage girls wearing these little dresses that hardly covered everything that a dress should cover. They received the surprise of their life with the first big gust of wind came down and caused them to show off even more than what they wanted to show off.  And all that was just the pre-show.

The show started. It was very well executed. Joseph was amazing. The whole show was very similar to the one I saw in 2002. The issue was the weather again. For most of the show there was lightening and thunder off in the distance. I prayed that the rain would stay away, I have had too many experiences with rain at the Muny and I didn’t want to add another one to my list. The storm came closer and closer until it was directly over use. Thunder and lightening were sounding and flashing at the same time. Yet no rain but for the occasional sprinkle. The little lights illuminating the stage were no match for the light show that God was putting on in the sky. The thunder and lightening even coordinated with the lyrics that I used for the title of this post. I could tell that the conductor was even speeding up the music to try and get the whole show in before there was more rain. A standing ovation was given in the middle of the bows as people started hurrying out of the theater to get to their cars.  We got back to the vans without any rain and hit the road home. We got a little turned around while navigating out of Forest Park, which isn’t difficult. But soon we were heading in the correct direction.

The one difference in the show that I noticed from the 2002 show was the 2007 show seemed to make Joseph complicit in his temptation by Potiphar’s wife. In the 2002 show she just chased Joseph around the stage until Potiphar bursts in. In the 2007 version. Joseph seems to give up and and give in to temptation.  Interesting…

It was a good time, a good show, and the changing weather didn’t get me very wet, in fact it had the positive impact of cooling down the temperature.

Later taters!

So now I am done with all seven novels. So how do they all stack up to each other. That is why we have the death match. Starting from my least favorite to my favorite Harry Potter novel. Whose ready for a death match? This entry has no spoilers for the latest novel, can’t say the same for the older novels.

7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first book ranks in as my least favorite of all the novels. It had to start somewhere. You can really see how Rowling has grown as an author over the years and with each passing book. Ultimately, the book’s sunnier outlook just doesn’t stack up with the rest of the darker novels.

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The downfall for this book comes down to Dumbledore’s avoidance of Harry throughout the book. Then there is Harry’s less than pleasant disposition doesn’t make for the funniest trip to Hogwart’s. It does have my second favorite (or hated) villain in it, Delores Umbridge.

5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This book seems to be universally favored among all the Potterheads but I have never really liked it as much as the other novels. The introduction of the Dementors was cool even though they have less and less scary as the series has progressed. Additionally, I never connected with Sirius. As the series went on, I learned to like him even less, especially how he and his friends treated other people. I do like how Voldermort gets a rest in this one.

4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Relationships begin to solidify, annoying elements seen in other novels fade away. One thing that I really liked about this novel was that it was not a self contained story like all the novels previously. Instead the ending was left open, amping up the tension to the final show down. And of course my predictions that I made since I started reading these books came true and it made me feel smart. I like feeling smart.

3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This book was just fun. It really was the turning point in the series, this is the last bit of fun before we get really serious. My favorite thing about the novel is that we get to see the wizarding and magic world outside of England and Hogwarts. Just fun stuff. This was also the first novel that I knew that Rowling wasn’t kidding around and wasn’t going to pull any punches.

2. Harry Potter and The Chambers of Secrets. Though this novel suffers from some of the same problems of the first novel, it still is one of my favorites. The thing that I enjoyed the most about CoS is the time travel plot. I really got caught up with that. I also enjoyed that the villain isn’t really present day Voldermort but Riddle from the past.

And the winner of the death match is…

1. The book that brings everything together. Just what is was supposed to do. I can say that I don’t think there were any slow or annoying parts for me. Some have attacked of the later chapters as being too talking but it kept my attention. I loved finding out how everything went together. This novel proved that Rowling knew what she was doing and stuck to her guns. That is something that I can admire.

Thanks, J.K. Rowling for all the good times. I loved all your books.

Later taters!

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Now playing: Leo Laporte and the TWiTs - TWiT 106: Googleverse
via FoxyTunes