TV

Edit: Found a video of Teller talking on YouTube. It isn't the fact that he talks that strikes me so strangely, it's the heavy Philly accent. ;-)

A 2-hour special about Harry Houdini was replayed on the History Channel recently, and while the show itself was very informative (the first adult biography I read was on Houdini and I've been a 'fan' ever since) the thing I was most struck by was that one of the interviewees was Teller - you know, the (usually) silent one from Penn & Teller. But in this case he was heard (and at some length!) but not seen - his face was left in shadow. It's funny how such a simple thing as that can be unnerving. I see that Wikipedia even has a list of occurrences when Teller has spoken in public. Heheh.

Don't you just love a good showbiz gimmick? :-)

With TiVo, like so many things in my life, the tendancy is to spend more time on the hunt - searching for new shows and fine-tuning Wish Lists - than actually viewing what's been recorded. I finally got around to watching the latest Masterpiece Theatre Jane Eyre today. I'm sure I've seen at least 2-3 movie versions of Jane Eyre in my time but this was the first that I would consider romantic, the first to make me feel anything other than oh god, why did she pick him?. I don't know how accurate this adaptation was, but I'll find out soon: I just put a hold on the Bronte book at the library. :-) As an added bonus, after watching this, I shouldn't be confusing Toby Stephens (Mr. Rochester) with Dobby (i.e. Toby Jones) anymore! LOL.

A look at the Masterpiece Theatre schedule shows that Dracula with Marc Warren (Hustle, Doctor Who) is on tomorrow. I'm not sure I'll be able to get past the odd casting on that one. Then a replay of Prime Suspect 6 (PS7 was the best thing on TV last year - period), a best-of special, a replay of Kidnapped (not the best but at least Paul McGann gets a small role), and then... Wind in the Willows! Lots of good people in that one: Bob Hoskins, Matt Lucus, Mark Gatiss, etc. And I still have last week's episode, Billie Piper in The Ruby in the Smoke, left to watch. I am loving this season of MT. :-)

Edit: The CNN article is better and has a photo of the "device": an LCD depicting Ignignot doing an "obscene gesture" (AKA flipping the finger). Boston put into a panic because of moon people - it's like War of the Worlds!

This article doesn't explain much but somehow a promotion for the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie (whose gross title I won't type out, despite my usual affection for the show) was misinterpreted as a terrorist threat in Boston. WTF?!!

Oh, and the last Harry Potter book has been scheduled for July 21 (the day after my birthday!) With HP movie 5 being released earlier in the month, July is going to rock even with Pirates of the Caribbean abandoning its usual early July release for the greener pastures of May.

Your Slanguage Profile

Aussie Slang: 50% British Slang: 50% Canadian Slang: 50% Prison Slang: 50% Southern Slang: 25% Victorian Slang: 25%

Yesterday I saw a garbage skip and found myself wondering, is 'skip' an American word? British? Aussie? After all the overseas TV/movies/books I've consumed, I honestly don't know anymore. :-)

Cable status: still down. There is some confusion whether the payment was mailed or delivered in person. Heaven help us is it's the former. Last night I watched The Class and Heros, two shows I would have never chosen otherwise. I laughed a few times at The Class but, god, what a stupid show. Heros has me intrigued. I might keep watching.

They forgot to pay the bill! No word whether it'll be back up this weekend. Without it we can just barely get ABC, CBS and PBS. Very fuzzy picture. Meanwhile, I've got ~20 hours of stuff left on the TiVo, plus Beyond the Fringe and the Doctor Who series 2 bonus disc that I managed to eek* out from Netflix, so I'm weathering the storm nicely. Mom is distressed about missing Days of Our Lives, but IMO, they've been treading water for weeks now. I really doubt we're missing much.

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* Life in Netflixland is not happy. I mailed 3 DVDs back on Tuesday. Not one has been checked in by today (Friday). That is completely unacceptable.

Cable has been out since yesterday afternoon. While that would be annoying in any case, it seems doubly so now because TiVo - brave, valiant TiVo - keeps on trying to record as usual. It's not that it's stupid; it recognizes that there isn't a signal. But still it tries, just in case: the little red LCD on the front of the unit lights up and the To Do list acquires a growing list marked "not recorded." Eventually I had to leave the room to avoid its accusatory gaze.

Now I just have to figure out who to complain to. The price of cable is included in the rent, so I can't figure if I should contact the landlord or Time Warner directly. I'm a bit wary of doing the latter in case our connection isn't entirely legal. I wouldn't put it past that bunch to steal cable, though they did once say something about a rent increase because of higher cable rates (like most things they talk about - like building a patio or creating a path to our door that isn't made of mud - it was never brought up again) so I guess we'd be ok. In any case, I've resigned myself to the likelihood that Must See TV will be missed tonight. Here's hoping it'll be back up before the last repeat of the Mythbusters pirate episode airs!

It looks like a fingerprint smudge (there’s another on the opposite edge), but it’s actually a disc defect that goes all the way through the second layer. It’ll play up to the scene in Tia Dalma's shack, then the DVD player freaks out. Bah! Hopefully I’ll finally get to see it Friday.

On the bright side, tomorrow's Doctor Who episode has Shirley Henderson (AKA Moaning Myrtle) and Peter Kay! After such a crackin' start, I’ve been mostly disappointed with the second series. The Cybermen were a bore. Mark Gatiss’s Idiot's Lantern had a good premise, but the ending felt slapped on. Ditto for the Impossible Planet. "The show's running short - just have David Tennant make faces at the Devil for ten minutes. That’ll fill the gaps!"

Other than complaining about TV and DVDs, not a lot has been happened around here. I still haven’t gotten the new computer fitted so I can abandon the old. Part of the difficulty is that I’ll trying to start on the right foot with a firewall, anti-virus software, and Windows Update up-to-date. Now I remember why I gave up on all that - it takes hours and hours to download all the new updates on dial-up. The anti-virus updates alone were 30 MB (~3 hours) and it wanted to download even more last night. Windows Update had 48 critical updates - another 35+ MB. If I don’t get DSL soon, I shall pull my hair out.

But all that extra ROM is super nice. I’ve started toying around with copying backing up DVDs. My first attempt at ripping to mpeg2 (for eventual SVCD) looked beautiful but sadly came out soundless. I need to do some more tinkering. :)