Emmy Amuse-bouche

Since there's a scheduled blogger outage soon and I know it will take me more than an hour to finish the Emmys blog, I'll have to do that one for Saturday.


I will give you a quick taste, though.

There were many surprises at the Emmys, some good and some bad. The nicest surprise for me, though, was the supporting actor for a drama award. I was sure that William Shatner would win for Boston Legal in part because he's supposed to be good in it and also because Emmy seems to simply adore him. I was hoping that my second pick would win, John Slattery, but I guess you can't win an award for looking amazing in a gray flannel suit. Tension was building as the two unmemorable stars announced the nominees. Then they opened the envelope and one of the presenters said the two most beautiful words known to mankind.

Zeljko Ivanek.

I was so happy because he did so well in Damages and he should be rewarded for bringing that character to life with such skill, depth and thoughtfulness. Part of that is the writing, as it usually is, but Ivanek really stepped up to the plate and hit a home run. So congratulations Mr. Ivanek. I hope this opens up many new doors to you and your zombie face. I mean that in the best way.

Sorry guys.

Okay, so I'm being a real tease about the Emmys post, but I have plans for tonight.

Mom and I are going out to dinner and when I get home, I don't anticipate wanting to write up a long post about the Emmys. So...tomorrow you will all be rewarded with the Emmy post.


I hope you don't think I'm leaving you empty-handed though.

A discussion: on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the tops, how surprising is Clay Aiken's admittance that he is indeed of the homosexual persuasion? First and foremost, good for him for living his life and damning the proverbial torpedoes on this news. He could have waited until he was totally irrelevant, like Dick Chamberlain did.

I was thinking it was as surprising as finding out that Anna Nicole Smith died of a drug overdose. It just seems like one of those "Oh really." moments. Like in Boogie Nights, when one of the porn stars' girl is overdosing on coke, nose bleeding and mouth foaming, and he says "I think I bought some bad coke" and the main porn investor says "Oh really Doctor."

I love that scene.

DJ Khaled

I've always been prone to impulse buys. When I have money sometimes I'll buy something unnecessary. To be clear, most of the stuff I buy is already unnecessary, but these impulses? Even more so. It's never anything big and I refuse to spend beyond my means, but if I see a CD that I think I might like, I'll usually pick it up.

Like last Friday when I picked up DJ Khaled's new album. I should stop right here because calling it "his album" is a bit inaccurate. It seems like all he does, like all the other DJs, is put the songs on the album. He has a good ear for talent. The stars and the newcomers on the album are good. What could go wrong with Kanye, Akon, Rick Ross, The Game, Nas, Jim Jones and more on your album?


Well, I'll tell you. DJ Khaled seems to fancy himself a hype man, feeling the need to scream his name and other hiphop phrases at the beginning of every song. If he wanted to do some kind of skit at the beginning of the album hyping himself, that'd be acceptable. It'd even be expected. But on every track?

Mr. Khaled...I already bought your album. I don't need to be yelled at. Yes, I know you're the #1 hustla or whatever, but I spent my hard earned ten bucks on your CD to hear Kanye and Nas rip shit up, not you hyping yourself and giving shout outs to the nearly irrelevant Terra Squad.


Tomorrow I'm going to be writing about the 2008 Emmys. It might be more entertaining than the actual show.

I'll be taking the rest of the week off because I need to start fresh with posts that I've written before-hand.

Tune in Monday for a new, improved blog.
Next Friday also marks the return of guest blogging. Get excited for a new post by Beth Seavers.

Thank you for your patience.








I will be doing an post about the Emmys on Sunday morning, though. Maybe an Emmy running diary.

The Little British Invasion

Little Britain was a sketch comedy show from Britain and has since been reproduced by the original creators for the US. HBO immediately picked it up and the first season starts soon.

I'm really excited for this show, even though I don't have HBO, because it's one of the funniest sketch shows I've ever seen. Most of the funniest sketch comedy shows I've seen are British.

I've embedded some sketches below, for your pleasure. Some are not safe for work.





I think this show is brilliant because, unlike most sketch shows, it's done by two people. It's rare to find two actors that can play anybody with flair and humor, but David Walliams and Matt Lucas shine. I'm really happy that America will finally see these two funny gentlemen at work. Both Lucas and Walliams have found success outside of Little Britain (Lucas is rumored to be playing Tweedledum and Tweedledee in Burton's Alice in Wonderland, while Walliams was the voice of the bear in Prince Caspian and they are pretty famous in the UK, but they're unknown over here. I especially admire Lucas for committing to the gag even if it means bearing too much or himself (both physically or personally).



So despite the fake stories (thanks Tim Curran) about the "West Hollywood Gay and Lesbian Alliance" (which apparently doesn't even exist) branding the show as obnoxious and offensive, I think everyone should give it a try.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre: September 11th 1.0

Yesterday we remembered the lives lost and affected by the September 11th attacks: the loss was tragic and I'm sure we'll never forget it.


Or will we?

We certainly haven't remembered the Maine! Pearl Harbor seems to be becoming a bit of an after-thought. And nobody even knows what the Gulf of Tonkin incident is (or if it was even real, huh Lyndie?).

There are pros (mutual friendship and trust) and cons (forgetting how reactionary We are) to forgetting.

Hell, the air attacks on 9-11-01 was not even the first attack on Americans by religious zealots.

On September 11th, 1857 a militia of Mormons massacred a wagon trail of Arkansas emigrants, who were heading to San Francisco. The attacks seem to be a result of Brigham Young's (I don't want to hear that he had no idea it was happening.) growing paranoia over an impending scuffle with the US Army. While this paranoia wasn't unfounded by any means, massacring 140 people who were literally just passing through is ridiculous. It's a big, black mark on the Church of Latter Day Saints' record. It's that, blood atonement, and plural marriage (pretty soon they'll be caught up with the rest of Christianity). The Mormons were never attacked by the Army and the Mormons acquiesced to the government's desire to ban plural marriage, so everything turned out okay in the end. Except for those 140 innocents and the remaining 12 children that lost everybody they knew. I'm over-simplifying it, so I urge you to pick up a book about the massacre or read the wikipedia page about it. But don't rent the recent movie based on these events. Just don't. It's horrible.

Crazy Ideas I've Been Thinking About For A Week #1

If the biggest elephant in the political room is partisanship, why not try something to address it? Instead of this endless circle of senate majorities and minorities, wouldn't it be worthwhile discussing some options?


Let's start in the Senate. I have no position of power and my opinions are somewhat ignorant, so I don't feel too bad if this sounds totally naive, because it most likely is. Naive and crazy...like a fox. Wouldn't it be fun, maybe just for a short period, to have voters vote for one Republican and one Democrat Senator, regardless of one's politics? So you're have 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats in the Senate. That leaves out guys like Benedict Lieberman and Bernie Sanders, but both caucused with the Democrats...so...let's just call them Democrats. I have a feeling that Lieberman is only Independent so he could retain his position as Senator. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

Anyway...I know there would be a bit of a logjam for a while, but the result might be really good. Imagine a legislative branch that wasn't about party politics and lobbyists and pandering to bases. Maybe with the small ideologies that keep us, as Americans, apart, like abortion or same-sex marriage, would either cease mattering Federally or trickle down to the State governments, the way they should! Imagine a legislative branch that actually checked and balanced! Maybe politics would stop being about winners and losers and start being about the people. There's too much power in Washington and not enough humility. Politicians are only there because we allow them to be.

I think both Liberals and Conservatives can both agree that after 200+ years of beautiful democracy, something is a little off about our government. I don't think it's the small things that keep both parties and ideals apart: essentially we're all the same. We all want to have happy lives. So why do we continue to settle for politicians that don't seem to care about that?


I just think if we're both forced to vote for a Republican and a Democrat, we'll make our votes really count. Our democracy isn't meant to be a static, unchagning thing. It should evolve with the times and this may be the first step into perfecting it. Or maybe I'm drunk on sleepiness.