six feet under

Thanks to Pipocas I am now addicted to Six Feet Under.

She lent me the first series a couple of weeks ago, which I devoured pretty quickly. Then I picked up series 2 when we met for lunch yesterday (and did another dvd/book swap) at Casa Roman - missed a couple of good photo ops for the tapas blog that I’m still kicking myself about .

Also inadvertently spoiled a couple of upcoming surprises in the series by glancing through that Wiki link. But after getting through a slightly drunken post-lunch recuperation English class yesterday evening I made some Orville’s (hey - new popcorn mule coming in on Sunday!) and watched a couple of episodes. Does anyone else like this series as much as Pipocas and I do?

[Note to self: do not schedule classes after lunches with Pipocas]

top 25 tv put downs

From this BBC News article, here is a list of the top 25 put-downs in TV history, as chosen by the Radio Times magazine.

I think there must be lots of much better ones, though I did especially like Carla’s and Patsy’s . . .

Can you think of any others?

things I miss…

I came across this old post from last year on Letters Home the other day. Oh how I wish everyone had a ‘recent comments’ widget for people just passing through or for when I’m just having a quick look around a few blogs without using my feedreader. In fact, I probably would have just read the comment to this post on my feedreader without clicking on the post itself. But seeing it on ian’s sidebar I clicked on the comment and saw the original post. Anyhoodle … it was all about things ian misses from the places he used to live after having moved on to somewhere else.

Like ian, I’ve lived in a few different places since leaving my birthplace Winnipeg, Canada (aka Winterpeg) at age 25. Since then I’ve lived in Toronto, Bristol in England, and Salamanca & Seville in Spain. Here is my list of things I miss …

the wire

Have just started watching series one … it’s very good!

The Wire was recommended awhile back and last week I saw the first series DVD on Amazon for a good price, so I decided to try it out. Very impressed. I love the grittiness of it, that the actors all look like real people … and I totally l-u-r-v-e the groovy cool soundtrack.

Compared to Anne Tyler’s Baltimore, it’s quite unrecognisable.

house series 4

~ note to nursemyra … this is my idea of eyecandy ~

The first episode of the fourth series was on TV last night and it was fabulous. The writing is as sharp as ever and I didn’t actually miss the three characters that ‘resigned’ at the end of last season. In fact, I think they had probably run their course and a shake-up like this was what the series needed for it to stay fresh.

Funny how hearing the theme music come on made me realise how much I’d been missing this programme. I got all nostalgic, especially as it was my first foray back into television watching last February, after about 15 years.

No spoilers please!

 

chapter and verse

I’ve spoken here before about my West Wing addiction…

Have recently finished all seven series and am now rewatching them to use as a teaching tool with a couple of my students, which means I have to come up with questions for each episode. Today I got up to episode 3 in series 2 and loved this scene so much I wanted to use it on a debate forum on h2g2 … and hey, there it was on Youtube. And now here it is for you.

the west wing

The latest television series addiction at casa az.

But before we go any further … no spoilers please! Nog and I are about half-way through season two at the moment.

What I was mainly curious about was what US citizens think of it - though all opinions are welcome, of course. I know it won tons of Emmys, mostly for the writing (which I think is fabulous), but how did people feel about seeing the president and government presented in that way? I mean, having an intelligent, caring and principled president and a support staff that seemed to know their elbows from their arseholes. Too pie in the sky, as in … it ain’t never gonna happen? Or what?

bullfighting

No death in the afternoon: state TV axes bullfights

I have very mixed feelings about bullfighting. I’ve never gone to one, though part of me is tempted by the traditional ‘ambientation’. But I don’t think I’d do well watching the ritual slaying because the only time I ever saw one on television I burst into tears.

On the other hand, I would feel hypocritical denouncing bullfighting since I eat meat. And although I try to buy free range as much as possible I know that animals raised on factory farms suffer much worse and much longer than the bull in the ring. The basic life story of a fighting toro is that it is lives like a king for 3-5 years with plenty of fresh air, good food and exercise, then puts up a fifteen-minute fight for its life and is killed relatively quickly. And as far as I know, afterwards the meat is usually sold to be eaten.

I think not showing the fights on TV in the afternoons is probably a good thing, though as the article says, it’s only being banned by the state television - the regional public broadcasters will continue showing them. But although I personally find bullfighting distasteful I can’t bring myself to say it should be banned altogether.

What do you think?

 

instant herpes!

This ad drives me mental. Check it out.

In the Spanish version the woman actually kisses the guy when he walks in!

easy rider

. . . will be on the movie channel at 6.30!

Nog doesn’t remember if he’s seen it - I’ve seen it but can barely remember it. Though we’re both curious to see if something so ‘hip and groovy man’ has managed to age well.

Now if only we had some