4 guys in an alley drinking beer

It can be disconcerting to realize that a show has been going on for years and you never realized it. A few months ago I was flipping around and happened on King of the Hill, a program my brother always spoke highly of. I've seen a few random episodes here and there, but it kind of slipped under my RADAR--to my complete chagrin.

The show is both intelligent and wacky and still there's a soupçon of heart thrown in there too (a surprisingly difficult combination to achieve). I like the writing and the animation. The earlier episodes seem to have more life to them visually. Haven't looked into it, but I'm wondering if they went over to the dark side and the animation is now computer generated.

I like the use of guest stars too. The Simpsons kind of jumped the shark with their use of famous people and the cameos. A few posters on some message boards made the astute comment that on KOTH, the stars aren't generally playing themselves. Well, Chuck Mangione is, but it's gloriously weird and he's almost a regular character. I discovered the dang thing has been on for eons. The sad thing is it wouldn't have mattered. The concept would have turned me off. Some things you need to see to believe. Four redneck guys in Texas drinking beer in the alley don't sound inherently amusing. And yet, on this show, they are.

With familiarity comes inquiry

I've been working on getting into better physical shape. Because of my living space, budget, and the general awfulness of the region's weather, that means my options are rather limited. So when a friend recommended some "walking" DVDs, I jumped on it. I like the workouts and I can see the results.

It's like any other thing in life though. At first, you're busy trying to figure out what you're supposed to be doing so you don't notice all of the small stuff. Then once you get comfortable enough, you begin to pick up on the little things and you wonder.

For instance, does it hurt to smile that way throughout an entire 30 minute workout? Seriously, there are cheerleaders would give their right arm to be able to maintain a permanent grin for that length of time. Then there's that one chick (Tara???) who looks like she's barely moving, while Jody is all energy (even if she keeps losing time). And why do they all pick on the token male? He hasn't lost count once and he's picking up his feet more than half of them.

Yes, I know, I need a life.

Unsung authors

Awhile back, I wrote a review for Postscript to Poison by Dorothy Bowers, an author of whom I had never heard. She was one of those writers who wrote several critically acclaimed, popular mysteries back in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction who then slipped into obscurity. I'm never clear on why that happens. I suppose it's because mysteries fall into an ephemeral genre. Even comparatively recent authors, for example, Emma Lathen, seem to totally forgotten today.

Anyhow, I just obtained another of Dorothy Bowers' books. Shadows Before was as good as the first. They're not overly long, but she makes every character very vivid and the premise is solid. I like the attention to detail. Moreover, I like how well written they are. If only some of today's authors could produce books like these.

Why I'm leery of the Cozy

Warning signs you have a badly written cozy in front of you:

1. There are recipes
2. It's written in the first person
3. It's a series novel and you're still lost by the first ten pages
4. Pets play an all-too prominent role in the story
5. There's so much going on with the cover art, you feel claustrophobic just looking at it
6. The person's reaction on finding the dead body is so casual that it might be the same as discovering they've misplaced a pen
   
7. The author clearly thinks the book is funny when it's not
8. There's less originality in the formula than in a Harlequin romance
9. The title is overly cutesy
10. The author breaks most of the 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction
    

Ha!

So I was at the movies again. This heat is killing me, man. Anyhow, one of the previews was for The Island, a rather slick looking thriller with fancy f/x and the likes of Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, and Sean Bean. Not the type of film that I'm dying to go see, but as the trailer continued, it occurred to me that the story sounds very familiar. Awfully familiar, in fact. Then it hit me.

It's a remake of Parts: The Clonus Horror, a turkey I was introduced to by those good people at Mystery Science Theater: 3000. It's the same darn film. Tarted up, but really, I think we all know that it's going to be like putting lipstick on a pig. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so either.

Too darn hot

I went to the movies twice this past weekend. It wasn’t really what I had planned initially. My goal had been to clean out the closets and repaint the fireplace (former tenants painted the brick white, which I hate, but there’s no way that I’m going to be able to get that off, so a fresh coat of paint is in order). However, the ninety-degree heat meant neither of those things happened.

It’s annoying when you have no money and you go into the theatre with a pass only to be told your choice of films is something you’ve already seen before or a kiddie flick (afternoon + children’s film + cranky kiddies = disastrous viewing experience. So I went to see Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith again.

Some things are just not better the second time around. I admit to enjoying the film when I first saw it. Sure, there were problems -- George needs to learn to either cast all Brits who can make bad lines sound good or learn to write -- but it was the strongest of the three prequels. Ian McDiarmid rocked. The action was taut. There weren’t any dead spots. For what it was, it was good. On second viewing, the good stuff wasn’t quite so good, and the bad parts were worse. I mean, how can you take a guy who looks like a Dick Tracy villain seriously? Also, I believe George Lucas has spent too much time watching Lifetime, because the Anakin/Padme romance is likely some godawful concoction they’d air.

On another note, Batman Begins was hugely enjoyable. The beginning bits with Liam Neeson had me worried, because at this point in the game it’s almost a cliché in action films to have a sequence where the protagonist heads off to some Asian country to train in the marital arts and pick up some kind of Eastern philosophy (suitably dumbed down for the audience). In the end though, it was all good. Nobody camped the film up. Gotham looks like any other depressed good-sized American city. Best of all, the future Commissioner Gordon isn’t the caricature of the old TV show. The action sequences, however, were not too well done. I’m not speaking about the fighting or the performances, but the camera work. I still think the Tim Burton version is the best, but this one is a close second.