Between this past year’s movie releases and the network prime time lineups, I feel absolutely zero sympathy for the striking Writers’ Guild. Seriously, when was the last time any of the movie studios or networks managed to come out with a season full of fresh, original concepts?
Well over half of the movies we’ve seen in the last year are simply reworked versions of flicks from my childhood or sequels to movies we intentionally skipped before.
And on television? It’s one reality show after another: Surivivor, American Idol, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and now… American Gladiator, which both qualifies as something out of my childhood and a reality show, too.
Which kind of makes me wonder just why on earth there’s a writer’s strike in the first place. Do they even HAVE writers in Hollywood anymore?
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
In case you’re wondering, my internet connection has been very spotty thanks to the 1/2-inch of ice clinging on just about every outdoor surface after last night’s storm. (My cell phone signal’s been almost as bad, too, or I’d have Twittered.) Yes, I took pictures for you. I’ll try to post them tomorrow. It’s beautiful out there, with all the bare tree limbs sheathed in ice and glittering like socialites wearing their finest diamonds and silk.
Meanwhile, we’ve got more freezing rain falling, and if the sounds of the fire- and police-sirens are any indication, we’ve got an abundance of idiots trying to drive in this mess. As I mentioned before, these idiots who don’t see that the roads are coated with ice also apparently can’t see the weather report on their freakin’ TV screens.
But at least my heater is fixed. For that, I’m grateful, and so are my twin ice cutters.
So I figure now is a good time to play Word Fugue, just in case tomorrow is more of the same. If you’ve never played along before, here are the rules:
1. I start it off with a word.
2. You look at the most recently posted comment.
3. You leave ONE word that comes to mind upon reading the most recent comment. (No chit chat, got it?!)
4. You may play as many times as you like, but you may not use the same word twice.
5. The game continues for 7 days until comments are closed.
The “The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is on Fire” Caption Contest ended last week but due to power cord problems I wasn’t able to post the winners on time. Might as well do that now so we can get on with this week’s contest, right? So here are your winning entries:
First place: Brian with “…and once I start lobbying, my pile of money will be this high and this wide.”
Second place: WG with “Okay, okay, I got a joke for you guys….How is a Congressman like a really good book? They both have lots of bent-over pages! Get it? But seriously, folks….”
Honorable mention: Kevin with “Please, please no applause. Throw small bills only. Thank you.”
While I was offline with power cord problems (and therefore unable to delete the comment in time), Anne at LifePundit tagged me with a “Seven Random Facts About Me” meme.
Really, when it comes to memes, I don’t know why we call it “tagging”. It feels more like being ambushed, especially when you read a cheery little “Hi, you’ve been tagged!” comment before finishing your first cup of coffee. But I like Anne, so I figure I’ll play along. Here goes:
2. The toenails on my right foot are red right now, but the toenails on my left foot are bare. Although the last time I sat down to paint my toenails was Monday, I just noticed this.
3. My Sleep Number is 45.
4. I need another cup of coffee.
5. I have to pee.
6. There is a sign by my doorbell that reads “NO drop ins. NO solicitors.” Not one damn person every pays attention to it, so now when someone drops by I now open the door, point to the sign, and slam the door in their face. I don’t feel guilty about this at all.
7. My favorite number is 5.
Now I’m supposed to tag other bloggers whom I barely know, which means I get to randomly annoy relative strangers. Now that is something I don’t mind doing in the least bit, so here’s the list:
Believe it or not, I’d never seen Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas until this past weekend. Now that I have, I realize I’ve been missing out for years on what is, in my mind, a musical masterpiece by one of the greatest artists of our age, Danny Elfman.
Oddly enough, despite having been a fan of Oingo Boingo ever since a friend gave me the cassette version of Dead Man’s Party, I didn’t recognize Elfman’s voice. Instead, I sat transfixed by the stop motion animation and the dark, twisted images born from Tim Burton’s brain.
Why haven’t I seen this before?!
I bobbed my head along to the chant rhythm of “This is Halloween” but didn’t truly sit up and pay attention to the movie until Jack began singing “What’s This?”
Now, I’ve long enjoyed musicals. Ever since catching my very first one — with Hope, Crosby and the Andrews Sisters — I’ve been a fan of the genre, never once bothered by the way that perfect strangers can, within seconds of meeting each other, sing a flawless duet backed by an entire city block full of people harmonizing (and often dancing) along.
But I had never heard a musical in which a character’s singing was actually as good as, if not better than, the voice acting. Until Nightmare. I watched it the entire way through, then immediately rewound the movie and watched it again.
Oh, the story line was a bit too dark and twisted for my son, who is now worried that Santa will get kidnapped and thus Christmas will be canceled, but I now have a new holiday favorite.
It was midway through my third viewing of Nightmare that I started thinking about the first time I’d heard of Elfman’s former band, Oingo Boingo. I seemed to remember that my older sister had just sat me down to listen to an album she’d bought by some woman named Tina Turner — a purchase which my mother would’ve had a fit if she’d known since she considered Tina’s dancing and leg-baring to be far too risqué for us kids.
A few minutes searching confirmed that I somehow haven’t completely blocked out all memories of my childhood. Because I was right: I’d seen Oingo Boingo once before… on the Gong Show.
Sure, they were “weird” by 1978’s standards, and yet nearly three decades later they sound utterly modern.
Wow, I didn’t realize it’s been so long since we played Word Fugue, that addictive word association game that proves how twisted we Venomites can be.
If you’ve never played along before, here are the rules:
1. I start it off with a word.
2. You look at the most recently posted comment.
3. You leave ONE word that comes to mind upon reading the most recent comment. (No chit chat, got it?!)
4. You may play as many times as you like, but you may not use the same word twice.
5. The game continues for 7 days until comments are closed.
Yes, I know I never got around to posting the winners of last Friday’s Caption Contest, mostly because I’ve been miserable all week long with this cold (flu?) that just won’t quit.
So let me just say that you’re ALL winners in my mind. Feel better? Good. Now, everybody join hands and sing Kumbaya. Then, when you’re done, take a shot at captioning this one.
I haven’t been blogging about politics much lately, mostly because I don’t feel particularly excited about any of the candidates. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been having fun at their expense. Why, seldom does a weekend go by here at EV without one of them being the subject of a Caption Contest. That’s not the only way I’ve been playing around in politics lately, though.
In fact, I’m getting a bit addicted to WhiteHouseCountdown.com, a non-partisan community game site that pits the Presidential candidates against each other as they raise “funds” earned when folks play. Say, for instance, I decide to play “Destination White House” — where you navigate your candidate across America, picking up bags of gold on the way without letting your foes get you. If you win, your “funds” go to your candidate’s overall score.
I’ve picked Guilliani as my guy, so the points I score playing the games — which are called “Countdown Bucks” — get included in his score as “funds” raised. Don’t know who you’re supporting? That doesn’t mean you can’t still play, too: just use their candidate maker.
The thing is, with 364 days left to go until the election, the players who signed up as Democrats have raised more than twice the “Countdown Bucks” as their Republican counterparts. In my opinion, that’s not right. (Then again, it could also reflect that the Dems have a lot more free time on their hands.)
First, do no evil:
Google’s promise long ago.
Then they made money.
Are you still licking your wounds after being thrashed by Google yesterday?
Here’s a fun way to cheer up and win free flowers!
That’s right: Electric Venom and the folks at Flora2000 - Premium Flowers Worlwide have teamed up to bring you this contest, with the lucky winner getting a prize of $80 in free flowers delivered anywhere in the United States WORLD!
Send roses to your roommate, or to me. How about an iris for someone in Israel, or for me? Snapdragons for someone in Saigon, or for me? You could order gardenias for your grandma in Greece, or for me. How about an azalea for your auntie in Aruba, or for me? Maybe you’d rather have a bouquet delivered down the hall to your boss, or to Kansas just for me? Well, as you can see, the possibilities are limitless! And, no, you don’t have to send them to me.
How do you get in on the action? The rules are simple:
1. Write a haiku about Google. Love ‘em, hate ‘em, it doesn’t matter: just make sure you stick with the format.
2. Leave your haiku in the comment section along with a valid email address so I can contact you if you’re the winner. (Your email will not be shared with anyone else.)
3. Enter as often as you like, but only ONE entry per comment.
4. The winner will be announced Monday sometime before midnight (Central U.S. time.)
For people who don’t watch all that much television, we have far too many TVs in our house. There’s one in our family room, another in the kitchen, a third in our bedroom and a fourth upstairs in the guest room (although it’s not hooked up to cable). We have two others that are in our storage room where they’ve been for three years now… you know, just in case all four of the others break down. Both of those are so small I’d need a new eye prescription to watch them.
With the exception of our family room TV, the sets are all close to 10 years old. Our bedroom set is actually quite a bit older than that, having been one of the few things my husband’s ex-wife didn’t get in their divorce. No doubt that explains his attachment to the massive, heat-emitting thing despite its flickering screen.
Unfortunately for VH, that bedroom TV set is on its last legs. Yesterday, it started flickering and humming. This morning it stopped displaying images altogether, remaining completely black even though the audio is fine.
It’s time for a new one, but I’m overwhelmed by all of the choices these days. Should we get a direct view TV or a flat-panel one? LCD or plasma? Would we hang it on the wall or get a plasma stand, or would I have to allow my husband to finally retrieve that gargantuan entertainment set I banished to our storage room? Should we look into rear- or front-projection? Do we go with HDTV capable or HDTV ready, and since when did “capable” and “ready” stop meaning the same thing?
Is it just me, or does it seem to you like these are an awful lot of choices to make just so I can complain that there’s nothing good to watch on TV?
Since it’s finally sunny outside after several days of rain, I’m feeling too cooped up to stay inside blogging this morning. So let’s play Word Fugue instead.
If you’ve never played along before, here are the rules:
1. I start it off with a word.
2. You look at the most recently posted comment.
3. You leave ONE word that comes to mind upon reading the most recent comment. (No chit chat, got it?!)
4. You may play as many times as you like, but you may not use the same word twice.
5. The game continues for 7 days until comments are closed.
Honorable Mention: PJ with “”You wanna see greenhouse gases? PULL MY FINGER!”
Meanwhile, I’d like to take this moment to praise Congress for bucking the trend and not awarding Al Gore the Congressional Medal of Honor. An Emmy, an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize are more than enough. I mean that.
Thanks to everyone who played along. Look for another Caption Contest this Friday!
.
Subscribe