24 is Back! 10 Thoughts on the first 2 hours.

After almost 2 years, 24 is back with a vengeance. The Redemption Teaser was pretty good. A great reminder of how thrilling Jack Bauer can be.

Well my first impressions of the season are:

1. The opening car crash scene was intense. I wonder if they are toning down the violence, because the guy they took in from the car had his daughter in it and she didn't die. Perhaps the writers are going to ease us into bloodshed.

2. I like Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) as a bad guy. I am curious about his endgame. I also like the idea that Jack is really going to be challenged by someone he knows again. Flashbacks, anyone?

3. Did David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) really have a subliminal influence with the election of Barack Obama? If so, did the writer's strike delay of 24 subliminally hurt Hilary Clinton's chances? I really like President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones). She is tough, smart and might a sense of humor that Palmer didn't have.

4. The subplot with her husband investigating the "suicide" of their son is going to some dark place. Beware of the presidential spouse! ( I miss Sherri Palmer!)

5. Janeane Garofolo is a welcome addition to the cast. Her off-beat delivery is going to be a nice addition. I wonder if there will be any scenes with her and Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub). That scene will be tense and funny.

6. I like the way Jack Bauer slides back into threatening his former friends. He almost puts a pen in the eye of a former associate. What a guy.

7. The subplot with the African genocide/political unrest is interesting. I like the way the writers can pull relevant world conflicts into the plot. I also like the how the show is used to make African issues more public.

8. What is the deal with the FBI agent Renee Walker and her boss. He seems obsessed with her. I love the government agency interplay. I am a sap for "rogue agents" going against protocol.

9. I like the move to DC. I'm tired of LA getting all the good action.

10. I wonder if the Justice Department will indict Bauer. I hope the story doesn't just end because he is dragged into another mission.

Tomorrow will be the 2nd 2 hour premiere. I think the show has moved to Wednesdays. That means Wednesday will be the TV night, since Damages also airs that night. I will be blogging about these shows for the season.

Late Night Musings

I am a late-night person. I usually go to bed at about 1:30 AM and rise at 6:30 AM. Funny, I am getting back to my work out regimen and it is making this sleeping pattern really work for me as opposed to going to bed earlier, but I digress.

Staying up late allows my mind to wander and drift. The solitude, the silence and the stillness really gets my river flowing with waves of ideas. Oh yeah, late-nights are full of absurdly bad television programing. The infomercials and very bad movies are a sight to behold. Tonight's bad movie, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.. This movie was terrible. In this multi-platform time in history, an informatio junkie like me will have this bad movie up in the back ground and start the googling, wikipediaing, youtubing and imdbing. This can go on for hours. I learn stupid, awesomely audacious and things that rate of the chart in unintentional comedy. I

I forgot that Ice T was in both Breakin' movies as the MC. Remember this from Breakin'?



And YouTube doesn't stop there! This gem pops up and I am glad that Ice T stuck to rapping, porn and playing a cop on TV.

If I played guitar I'd be....

Jimmy Page. That is a line from The Beastie Boys tune The New Style.
I play guitar and I am partial to Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Vernon Reid, Keith Richards and David Fiuczynski.

I think, though, Jimmy Page is the greatest guitar riff composer of all-time. His riffs exuded power, confidence, whimsical play and a complexity one does not truly understand until the riffs are studied. Chuck Berry, Keith Richards and Pete Townsend are great, but Page is the most prolific. Do believe me? Go to guitar center and listen to how many guitarists mess up, The Ocean, Stairway to Heaven, Misty Mountain Hop, Living Loving Maid, Over the Hills and Far Away, Black Dog...
The rhythm of his riffs fueled early Hip Hop tracks like She's Crafty by the Beastie Boys.

Happy Birthday Jimmy Page.

Celebrating a King and Duke ( a thin and white one at that)....

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes....

In my past, I had this sentiment about Elvis Presley

Elvis was a hero to most

but he never meant shit to me

you see, straight out racist.. the sucker was simple and plain…

-Public Enemy Fight the Power

Actually, he was human and had a great voice and influenced the world. Hell, if the Champ could hang with him, he couldn’t have been that bad of a guy.


If I ever had to be a white guy, I want to be David Bowie. He is the epitome of an artist and a musician. Plus he is married to Iman. How great is that?



Happy Birthday Elvis Presley and David Bowie.

10 Thoughts on the New Damages Season.

I just watched the season opener of Damages and these are my immediate thoughts.

1. This show is so emotionally violent. The characters are just pieces of people and those pieces are rotten. It is like watching the slow destruction of psyches. It is delicious.

2. William Hurt is GREAT. His delivery is so subtle and restrained. His character(Daniel Purcell) is into something deeply disturbing and his past with Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) is probably just as disturbing.

3. Patty Hewes is the best at using information for manipulation. The way she sets up the daughter of one of her friends is awesome. She uses information from her son to do the deed.

4. Patty Hewes seems to be on the verge of a breakdown, but at the end of the episode, she tries to cover her ass with another lie. I like the flashback with Ray Fiske Željko Ivanek. I love her growing drinking habit.

5. Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) is simmering with hate and the initial indication is that it will drive her over the edge. The intro appears to set that up for the season.

6. Love Timothy Olyphant as a squirrelly group therapy participant with an interest in Ellen. Man, he was GREAT in Deadwood and I wish that show was still going on.

7. Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) is brilliant as the beaten down rotten cad. His hospital scenes are great. He survived the shooting, but got a liver transplant. When he thinks his ex-wife is coming to see him, he goes right back to being an asshole. He wants to stage the hospital room for more sympathy.

8. The camera work is so great. The shots of this show give it so much texture, you feel it. When the orderly leads "Mrs Frobisher" to see Arthur, the surprise is real.

9. The foreshadowing is great, subtle and so smart. It is what I love about Mad Men. You see what happens when you get great writing?

10. I like the fact FX and AMC repeat shows right after the original airing. I also dig the sponsorship type advertising. It lets the show flow naturally. Plus the immediate repeat lets helps me think about the show and digest it.

Bonus: This case the Feds are using to set up Patty seems dubious. I think the slow nature of the FBI is grating on Ellen, burning her up like an ulcer.

I will try to do my Top 10 immediate thoughts on Damages every week and on 24.

Damages Returns...

This show is one of my favorite shows from last year. The last episode Episode 12 “Because I Know Patty” gave me a scream out loud "Holy Shit" twist that totally caught me by surprise. If you missed last season, you can catch up with the series with Part One Recap and Part Two Recap. This so is so devilishly delicious, it should be a controled substance.

How Should I Approach "The Man"?

When I drive to work, I usually listen to hip hop. It gets me prepared for the traffic jujitsu I have to perform to get to work. This morning, the soundtrack featured on of my favorite Public Enemy tunes, Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos. The opening lyric, snarled by the great Chuck D is

"I gotta letter from the government the other day.
I open, read it.
It said they were suckers..."

I know writers have been questioning how President Obama will shape the viewpoint of minorities on the government. Here is a great article about it from the New Times by Matt Bai.

As I was driving and doing my best Chuck D impersonation, I notice a little let up in how I rapped that line. The most powerful person in the world is a black man. "The man" is a black man. Protesting will grow a different face in the future.