I never really watched Magnum, P.I. when it first aired. I was a bit too young and didn't find Tom Selleck all that attractive. But over the years, I've seen Selleck in other things and he always comes off as a decent, fun, likable guy in interviews, so I decided to give Magnum a shot since the first season's up on Hulu.
It's your typical 1980's action show. It's not a great show, but for mindless escapism, it's worthwhile. My main problem is that Magnum himself is such a jerk. Okay, he gets the job done and will be there in a jam, but he also acts about 12-years old most of the time. He has no respect for others' properties, expects his friends to drop everything when he needs help, and is a constant moocher. For a good looking guy running around in short shorts, he's just not attractive. I'm hoping he grows up a bit in future seasons if they become available.
My other quibble is with Higgins. He's supposed to be an ex-British officer which John Hillerman does a good job portraying, but he's also supposed to have served in WWII. Hillerman just does not look old enough for that part.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Alexander Hamilton
This video is brilliant--a Broadway writer rapping about Alexander Hamilton. Thanks to Mental_Floss for pointing it out.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
WWII in HD
If there is ever a time to be thankful one does not have HD TV it is while watching History Channel's WWII in HD. Brains, blood, and bloated corpses are bad enough when viewed on my Tivo's medium quality setting.
The show's gimmick is never before seen color footage of WWII, or more precisely the US forces in WWII. It follows the lives of 12 people throughout the war and provides facts through captioning. Gary Sinise narrates. I wish he'd do more narration work since he's quite good at it. There's a nice balance between the European and Pacific theaters. They also show the effects of war on civilians. The footage of the suicides of the Japanese civilians on Saipan was quite moving. They thought the US soldiers would rape and pillage and torture so massive amounts of them killed themselves. Horrible stuff, but it can't hurt to show people how awful war can be, even in service of a good cause.
The show's gimmick is never before seen color footage of WWII, or more precisely the US forces in WWII. It follows the lives of 12 people throughout the war and provides facts through captioning. Gary Sinise narrates. I wish he'd do more narration work since he's quite good at it. There's a nice balance between the European and Pacific theaters. They also show the effects of war on civilians. The footage of the suicides of the Japanese civilians on Saipan was quite moving. They thought the US soldiers would rape and pillage and torture so massive amounts of them killed themselves. Horrible stuff, but it can't hurt to show people how awful war can be, even in service of a good cause.
Finished Projects
First we have Mirabilia's Lady of the Mist. The frame was an old one my sister gave me that I painted gold. I try to frame my projects in gold frames since metallics go with anything and it gives a cohesive look.
Next we have Pa's Fiddle. My parents visited the farm Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband lived on for most of their adult lives and bought me this kit as a souvenir. The packaging calls it a bookmark. It's 4" tall and 13" wide which is larger than a paperback book. I think I'll have to frame it.
Finally is Mirabilia's 2009 cherub. It's one of her free designs. I didn't have any of the beads the pattern called for, but I wasn't going to buy them just for a small project. I substituted fuchsia beads where it called for orange. I think it works.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Ancients Behaving Badly
Ancients Behaving Badly is one of the History Channel's newer shows. They pick a historical figure and try to analyze how bad a person he was. It's a decidedly mixed show.
On the plus side, they give nice overviews of the subjects. It's good to know that most of the truly horrific things about Caligula were written long after his death. With no contemporary sources, it's possible he wasn't quite the nutter he's thought to have been. If the show would stick to facts, it would be a decent show. However, at least once in each show I've seen I've had to fight the urge to scream at the TV.
The episode on Caligula talked a little about his father, Germanicus. I believe that he was probably murdered. The show first has a doctor look at the historical record and use a few sentences to prove Germanicus died of arsenic poisoning. A few minutes later, the show states Tiberius killed Germanicus. Quite a leap from possible murder to "there's the killer".
The show also errs in holding ancients to modern standards. Attila the Hun impaled his enemies and maybe had his brother killed. Julius Caesar crucified people and allowed thousands of civilians to die in a siege. Except at that time it was expected that when one conquered he would rape and pillage and kill. You gave your enemies horrible deaths so that others would look at the rotting corpses and decide it was better to not be your enemy. You killed the children so they wouldn't grow up to seek revenge. Had Caesar allows the civilians to escape from the siege of Alesia he would have not only made life better for the besieged by relieving them of mouths to feed but he'd have been seen as a weakling by his men. Destroying thousands was the norm for conquerors and was not a sign of psychotic tendencies.
The last five minutes of each show trys to rank each tyrant on a scale of evil. I find such rankings a bit silly. Ask most people who the worst person of the 20th century was and they'll say Hitler. Mao Zedong and Stalin both had higher body counts. Pol Pot offed a quarter of his country's population. Evil is evil. Who's to say this one was worse than that one especially when dealing with ancient figures where many historical sources no longer exist.
On the plus side, they give nice overviews of the subjects. It's good to know that most of the truly horrific things about Caligula were written long after his death. With no contemporary sources, it's possible he wasn't quite the nutter he's thought to have been. If the show would stick to facts, it would be a decent show. However, at least once in each show I've seen I've had to fight the urge to scream at the TV.
The episode on Caligula talked a little about his father, Germanicus. I believe that he was probably murdered. The show first has a doctor look at the historical record and use a few sentences to prove Germanicus died of arsenic poisoning. A few minutes later, the show states Tiberius killed Germanicus. Quite a leap from possible murder to "there's the killer".
The show also errs in holding ancients to modern standards. Attila the Hun impaled his enemies and maybe had his brother killed. Julius Caesar crucified people and allowed thousands of civilians to die in a siege. Except at that time it was expected that when one conquered he would rape and pillage and kill. You gave your enemies horrible deaths so that others would look at the rotting corpses and decide it was better to not be your enemy. You killed the children so they wouldn't grow up to seek revenge. Had Caesar allows the civilians to escape from the siege of Alesia he would have not only made life better for the besieged by relieving them of mouths to feed but he'd have been seen as a weakling by his men. Destroying thousands was the norm for conquerors and was not a sign of psychotic tendencies.
The last five minutes of each show trys to rank each tyrant on a scale of evil. I find such rankings a bit silly. Ask most people who the worst person of the 20th century was and they'll say Hitler. Mao Zedong and Stalin both had higher body counts. Pol Pot offed a quarter of his country's population. Evil is evil. Who's to say this one was worse than that one especially when dealing with ancient figures where many historical sources no longer exist.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Bless This House
Just finished another cross stitch project. This came from the same pattern book as the gazebo and Noah's Ark pictures I've done before (don't have a picture of the ark available). Like those, the color scheme of this was supposed to be mainly oranges and yellows. I couldn't abide doing another picture in those colors, so I decided to go with pinks and greys instead.
The pictures a little distorted from how I photographed it. I used variegated floss for the greens and browns since I still have tons of that to use up. Now I have a bunch of little projects to do before I figure out what my next big one will be.
The pictures a little distorted from how I photographed it. I used variegated floss for the greens and browns since I still have tons of that to use up. Now I have a bunch of little projects to do before I figure out what my next big one will be.
Friday, November 6, 2009
V
I avoided watching V when it first aired in 1983. Thanks to the pissing contest between Reagan and whatever soon to be dead geezer running the Soviet Union, I had enough free floating anxiety in my life from the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation to want to add to it the fear of lizard people from outer space (I fret about ridiculous things at times). But I am on vacation thins week, and thanks to SyFy's reairing of the original series, I've finally seen what everyone was talking about 25 years ago.
V started out as a miniseries followed by another miniseries (V: The Final Battle) and then a 19 episode series. Aliens arrive promising peace and hope then create a fascist state so they can steal our resources and use people as food. The two miniseries were surprisingly good. Well paced, interesting characters, decent special effects (although when the effects were bad, they were really bad). I could have done without the Holocaust survivor practically hitting one over the had with Nazi analogies, but then I overestimate peoples knowledge of history and ability to see that for themselves. I also have issues with Resistance fighters who turn into collaborators n order to save their families. I know it's human nature, but villains lie and if one is going to be in resistance one needs to realize anyone captured should be considered as dead.
V: The Series was a mess. The miniseries ended with the aliens being beaten back form Earth, but in the series they return. Low budget means the obvious reuse of effects from the miniseries (they always fly over the same patch of forest). The plot lines go spinning off in a bunch of tangents. Most the aliens on the ship appear human, while some walk around looking like their true lizard selves (pick one, please, and stick with it). There's a Christmas episode ripping off the scene from Casablanca of dueling nationalist songs. Then two aliens named Charles and Diana get married. Awful.
The showing of the old show was in honor of the new version of V that started on ABC this week. The new show started out a bit slow for my tastes, but things picked up by the end of the hour. Again the aliens arrive promising great things, only this time they already have sleeper cells embedded on Earth stirring things up before their arrival. Instead of a Nazi analogy, they're going with a terrorist one. Before the arrival, there's already a resistance forming of people who've figured out the aliens are lizards and there's already traitors in the sleeper cell ranks. So they're moving things along at a nice clip. The series is set to run for 13-episodes and I hope they don't try to stretch it too far. I'm a firm believer in limited runs for some shows. Better to go out with a season or two of greatness than stick around to have everyone say "remember when that show was good?".
V started out as a miniseries followed by another miniseries (V: The Final Battle) and then a 19 episode series. Aliens arrive promising peace and hope then create a fascist state so they can steal our resources and use people as food. The two miniseries were surprisingly good. Well paced, interesting characters, decent special effects (although when the effects were bad, they were really bad). I could have done without the Holocaust survivor practically hitting one over the had with Nazi analogies, but then I overestimate peoples knowledge of history and ability to see that for themselves. I also have issues with Resistance fighters who turn into collaborators n order to save their families. I know it's human nature, but villains lie and if one is going to be in resistance one needs to realize anyone captured should be considered as dead.
V: The Series was a mess. The miniseries ended with the aliens being beaten back form Earth, but in the series they return. Low budget means the obvious reuse of effects from the miniseries (they always fly over the same patch of forest). The plot lines go spinning off in a bunch of tangents. Most the aliens on the ship appear human, while some walk around looking like their true lizard selves (pick one, please, and stick with it). There's a Christmas episode ripping off the scene from Casablanca of dueling nationalist songs. Then two aliens named Charles and Diana get married. Awful.
The showing of the old show was in honor of the new version of V that started on ABC this week. The new show started out a bit slow for my tastes, but things picked up by the end of the hour. Again the aliens arrive promising great things, only this time they already have sleeper cells embedded on Earth stirring things up before their arrival. Instead of a Nazi analogy, they're going with a terrorist one. Before the arrival, there's already a resistance forming of people who've figured out the aliens are lizards and there's already traitors in the sleeper cell ranks. So they're moving things along at a nice clip. The series is set to run for 13-episodes and I hope they don't try to stretch it too far. I'm a firm believer in limited runs for some shows. Better to go out with a season or two of greatness than stick around to have everyone say "remember when that show was good?".
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