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| bartist |
 Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 11:29 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| Finally watching the entire run of Mad Men. I watched a couple eps a few years ago and wasn't grabbed by it. Now, I'm baffled by that reaction. And now understand why my sigboth, when we were watching "The One I Love," said something like, Elizabeth Moss is a terrific actress (she has seen the entire Mad Men series). I don't know if there's a technical term for it, but hers is what I would call a point-of-access role on the show. What I mean is, most of us don't live in NYC or have jobs in advertizing (or had them in the 60s), so she provides a helpful perspective at the start of the series by being the newbie from somewhere else. Anyway, terrific show, glad I finally made it to the party. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 9:56 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| R.I.P. Patrick MacNee, at 92. I was just watching him last night on "The Avengers." But I fell asleep because Diana Rigg wasn't in it. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 5:37 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| That's a good reason to fall asleep. Avent watched in decades, bt there were eps where he had another partner weren't there. Last sighted Patrick as Sir Dennis Eaton-Hogg. My parents hated most television, strictly limited viewing by the younguns, but The Avengers they actively approved of, which really says something. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 12:42 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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I can't read anything about the cast of Mad Men online apparently, as I hit a real spoiler by accident. Looked at cast list to see what else Ms. Jones (Betty) had done and some idiot gives a different last name for the character before they give Draper or her birth name. Well, THANKS asshole! Not too hard, even if you don't read the entry, to figure that out. I don't understand why that wouldn't merit a big spoiler alert. Wiki seems to omit them quite often.
It was amusing to learn that Roger's wife is played by his actual wife, Talia Balsam. If Ms. Sterling ends up with a different last name, that won't be quite as big a spoiler. Poor Mona. (Am finished with S.2 as of this posting) |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 10:37 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Is anyone watching "Mr. Robot"? The first episode was intriguing, with a main character who is a weird quiet hacker with a touch of autism, it seems; Mr. Robot, however, is Christian Slater, a "disruptive" designer of havoc who wants to bring down corporations. The second episode was confusing, as some characters did things we didn't expect (whose side are they on anyway?), and last night was the third episode; I started doing a crossword during a commercial and after a while I realized I didn't know what the hell was going on. A woman I work with says she's going to have to watch all three episodes again, and maybe I will too. I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth the time. But I do like Elliot, the weird hacker. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 10:33 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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"Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!" was a disappointment. The destruction of Washington, DC was a promising start, but the longer the show went on, the thinner the plot became and the less interest I managed to maintain. The roller coaster supplied a pretty good scene--maybe that's why they used the Universal theme park instead of Disney World, but it's more likely that if they asked Disney, the reply was Oh hell no! And besides Universal, the Xfinity product placements were very annoying. I did enjoy the Today Show hosts, and a few of the political types in the DC segments (who managed not to get eaten by the falling sharks), but mostly the characters were the usual caring-family-in-peril stereotypes, including Bo Derek (still ridiculously gorgeous) and David Hasselhoff. And where do you go after "Sharks in Space"? Europe, I suppose. If Sharknado 4 goes to London, I guess I'll watch.
Oh yeah, I also hated the way they dropped in commercials at weird times--one was so much like the movie that it took a few seconds for me to realize that it wasn't going to involve sharks. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 7:52 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| Snarknado 3!? This menace must be stopped! The sequels, I mean. LOL-ing at "Europe, I suppose." I gather that, despite the appearance of Bo, you don't give it a "10." |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 9:38 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| There will almost certainly be a Sharknado 4, because one of the teenage daughters of the hero was hit by a falling shark at the last minute and the gimmick was that viewers should let them know whether she lives or dies, and the result will be seen in number 4. I have a feeling that the overwhelming vote will be to knock her off, and the series with her. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:28 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Was anyone here watching "Mr. Robot"? Last night was its season finale, which was both exciting and confusing. Which pretty much describes the whole season, in fact. If it weren't for a co-worker who is enthralled by it and loves to discuss every detail, I probably would have given up on it by the third episode, but it does have its murky fascination. And there are some interesting characters. And I guess I'll watch next season--at least, the first episode. I just wonder whether Christian Slater will show up next season, considering his amorphous role. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:36 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| Haven't seen Mr. Robot, but domo arigato for making me aware of it. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:44 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| I wasn't wildly impressed by Colbert last night, but I see why people like him. Admittedly, the format of a debut, with all the audience ovations, the thanking of one's forebears, the meta jokes on surviving in a time slot, tend to limit any hope of a genuine talk show. And, for reasons of some internal bias of mine, I have never much liked George Clooney as a talk show guest. I like the notion of him showing up and then the existential comedy (why am I here? what do we have to talk about?) routine following from that, but somehow it all felt canned and kind of dull. I didn't stick around for Jeb Bush. As for his promise to do 300 nights of Trump jokes, that will instantly lose audience like me. I am so deeply sick of Trump already, so painfully aware that Trump is the low-hanging fruit for political satirists everywhere to pluck, that I can't imagine ever wanting to hear more. Is it official, am I now a curmudgeon? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:53 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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You're a curmudgeon. But so am I, about some things. But not about Stephen Colbert, whom I adore. I loved the show, loved the national anthem opening, loved the fact that the audience chanted "Stephen, Stephen, Stephen" as they did when he did the Report, loved his Oreo-chomping Trump routine, loved his kidding with Clooney, loved his sharp dodging with Bush, loved his band, loved it all. Looks like I'll be staying up late again. (If you want a genuine talk show, there's always Charlie Rose.)
Did I mention that Colbert is also from South Carolina? People like him (and me) don't stay there, though. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:14 pm |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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| I saw the second half of Colbert's show and enjoyed it. Oreos and all. |
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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 9:13 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Last night, Elon Musk was Colbert's guest, and he stunned Stephen by saying that he thinks we can have humans on Mars within three years. But humans can't live on Mars, Stephen reminded him. And Musk said that we can change the planet to be habitable--we'll have to live under domes for a while, but we can warm it up (fast way, nuclear explosions at the poles; slow way, carbon emissions like we're doing on Earth), and then do whatever it takes to make it support human life. Now, that's a guy who thinks big (which I guess is how he got to be a multibillionaire). And he's also a guy who follows through. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:50 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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Terraforming Mars, as the wonks call it, is not a new idea, and has been bandied about between Mars buffs for decades. If Musk is behind it, though, I feel we are much closer to actually starting such a process.
The only catch is that we might have to live under domes always, because Mars doesn't have a strong enough magnetic field to divert the high-energy particles from the sun and so it will always have more ionizing radiation hitting the surface. Earth is a whole big string of happy accidents to make complex multicellular life possible. And dark chocolate, the real miracle. |
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