Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Crony Jobs - Choice government careers for the taking. No experience necessary.
Recent graduate looking for work? Maybe you'll find something here that you might like.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Movies In Your Future
I love movie trailers. I know that that love comes from that time when there was no Internet or Entertainment Weekly, when the only news a person could get about movies was on the streets or movie trailers. Somewhere along the line, I'd come to believe that movie trailers were actually that, "trailers," something run after the movie to clear the theater between showings. While I've found nothing that disagrees with that believe I did find this little bit of expansion on the subject at Chasing the Frog, which, despite the name is a site devoted to "research[ing] the origins of some of the most popular (and not so popular) Hollywood films."
All that serves as introduction to a couple of previews for movies to be on the look out for. First, is Good Night, and Good Luck. I'm looking forward to this movie if only because it might introduce people under the age of forty (or those older who have no idea of where television news came from and how far it has fallen) to Edward R. Murrow. The only interaction I've ever had with a Murrow broadcast was third-hand: Seeing clips of "Harvest of Shame"; hearing about "Murrow's Boys"; and, to me most importantly, as Joseph Wershba wrote, "When this nation was drowning in cowardice and demagoguery, it was Murrow who hurled the spear at the terror," by showing the nation Joseph McCarthy tactics for the bullying they were.
The second trailer is for The Producers. I really enjoyed this show when I saw it on stage and I'm hoping that it transfers just as famously to film. Mel Brooks won the Oscar in 1968 for his screenplay for the original, non-musical version of The Producers and there would be some nice symmetry if the musical version became this generation's My Fair Lady with regards to Oscar wins. One interesting thing about the trailer for the musical version is that it feels a lot like the trailer for the original for the 1968 film (albeit with a little naughtier language). I don't know if that is good or bad, just interesting and I wonder if the trailer for the United States (the link is for the British trailer) will be the same.
History of the Movie Trailer: The first movie preview played in 1912 at Rye Beach, New York. "One of the concessions hung up a white sheet and showed the serial The Adventures of Kathlyn. At the end of the reel Kathlyn was thrown in the lion's den. After this 'trailed' a piece of film asking Does she escape the lion's pit? See next week's thrilling chapter!" (Los Angeles Times, 1966).From Classic Movie Trailers at CTF. (That link will also allow you access to a number of movie trailers from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz.)
The first studio to officially release movie trailers was Paramount in 1916, but initially only for their most anticipated films.
All that serves as introduction to a couple of previews for movies to be on the look out for. First, is Good Night, and Good Luck. I'm looking forward to this movie if only because it might introduce people under the age of forty (or those older who have no idea of where television news came from and how far it has fallen) to Edward R. Murrow. The only interaction I've ever had with a Murrow broadcast was third-hand: Seeing clips of "Harvest of Shame"; hearing about "Murrow's Boys"; and, to me most importantly, as Joseph Wershba wrote, "When this nation was drowning in cowardice and demagoguery, it was Murrow who hurled the spear at the terror," by showing the nation Joseph McCarthy tactics for the bullying they were.
The second trailer is for The Producers. I really enjoyed this show when I saw it on stage and I'm hoping that it transfers just as famously to film. Mel Brooks won the Oscar in 1968 for his screenplay for the original, non-musical version of The Producers and there would be some nice symmetry if the musical version became this generation's My Fair Lady with regards to Oscar wins. One interesting thing about the trailer for the musical version is that it feels a lot like the trailer for the original for the 1968 film (albeit with a little naughtier language). I don't know if that is good or bad, just interesting and I wonder if the trailer for the United States (the link is for the British trailer) will be the same.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him | progresive.org
Maybe Prison Break is on to something with the Sevcret Service.
I'm not saying anything, but given a choice between freedom of expression and the right to bear arms, which do you think the framers would have put more stock in? Considering that they fought a revolution against an armed enemy, I would say freedom of expression, myself.
What was the last thing of any value to come out of the southeastern United States?
Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him | progresive.org
I'm not saying anything, but given a choice between freedom of expression and the right to bear arms, which do you think the framers would have put more stock in? Considering that they fought a revolution against an armed enemy, I would say freedom of expression, myself.
What was the last thing of any value to come out of the southeastern United States?
Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him | progresive.org
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Trying to Catch Up
Yeah, I know I promised to post more often. Trust me, I want to post more often for myself, to help me get on something that vaguely resembles a schedule and to get over this incredible writer's block that I've come up against since January. However, between looking for a job and studying for the patent bar (which I still haven't started doing with any depth yet; it isn't like the exam isn't five weeks away or anything).
(1) I don't think I can make suggestions as to what to watch for the new season like I semi-promised. One show, Head Cases, has already been cancelled, so who knows what can happen between typing each "e" in "between." However, now that most shows have premiered, I can, at least, tell you what I have made an effort to watch:
Monday
Prison Break. To be honest, I don't care that much about the characters, the sub-plots, or the caper itself. However, I am curious to see how the show can continue after this season, so I hang around semi-watching it, so that I'll basically know who's who come the final episode.
Wednesday
Invasion. I was incredibly underwhelmed by the first episode; it had too much of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel for me to find it interesting. However, I'm hearing good things about the show, so I'll give the episode tonight a chance. If the sheriff telegraphs his alliance at any moment as he did in the first episode, I'm done.
Thursday
Everyone Hates Chris. Enjoyable enough, but I just find it difficult to find a half hour for sitcoms.
I don't watch it, but I need to chime and spread the word that no one should watch Night Stalker. This has as little to do with the original Night Stalker as the Will Smith abomination Wild, Wild West had to do with Robert Conrad's The Wild, Wild West. Had ABC and the person it tapped to bring back Night Stalker actually thought about it, they would have seen that the best way to present this show to a modern audience, would have been to present a mystery that draws in the audience. Start the series off almost like a newspaper drama, with little suggestion of the supernatural. Like in the original movie, start the first episode off with the audience seeing the first victim being killed, but Kolchak doesn't know about that. Once a bigger name, Kolchak is now covering city council meetings and house fires, often without a by-line. He longs to be back on top again, but is his own worst enemy. Finally, the third or fourth episode, Kolchak notices that girls have been disappearing, girls have been dying, but no one sees a connection: In Las Vegas, women come and go and die. Finally, at about episode eleven, Kolchak admits that the killer may be a vampire and that leads into the second half of the season when Kolchak finds he is going to have to do some awful things to stop a monster no one else believes could exist.
For this to work, a truer Kolchak should have been cast. I've read suggestions of William H. Macy in the part and I can't disagree. You need someone haggard and kind of worn down by life, not someone who poses well. Avoid Night Stalker, though the first chance you get, rent the original The Night Stalker, turn off the lights, and be pleasantly surprised to find that you will be scared.
Friday
Threshold has not been treated kindly by the critics, though not as harshly as Surface. I kind of enjoy Threshold and I like the characters. In some ways, it is more like The Invaders than Invasion is and it is a lot more fun in its melodramatic way. Besides, where else can you get to see Roc, the mother for Spy Kids, and Data all in the same scene?
(2) The Muppets and Jim Henson have been in the news more than you may have realized. Jerry Juhl, head writer of many a Muppet project for twenty-six years, just died on Sept. 28. Jim Henson died fifteen years ago and over at the all-things-Disney-news-and-opinon site, http://www.jimhillmedia.com/, Chris Barry writes, in a two-part article, here and here about public memorial service for Jim Henson and the television retrospective that Henson Productions put together. I have always liked the Muppets, but I never liked the Muppets in the way that I like comic books or sloppy joes (or the way I used to like candy corn until the ten pounds of candy corn incident). However, I there are places in both articles that choke me up and I think that speaks to the love people did have for Jim Henson.
(3) More happily, 2005 is the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of the Muppets to the world and as part of the celebration, the U.S. Post Office have issued a set of Muppet Stamps. Go by some today and make paying bills easier.
(1) I don't think I can make suggestions as to what to watch for the new season like I semi-promised. One show, Head Cases, has already been cancelled, so who knows what can happen between typing each "e" in "between." However, now that most shows have premiered, I can, at least, tell you what I have made an effort to watch:
Monday
Prison Break. To be honest, I don't care that much about the characters, the sub-plots, or the caper itself. However, I am curious to see how the show can continue after this season, so I hang around semi-watching it, so that I'll basically know who's who come the final episode.
Wednesday
Invasion. I was incredibly underwhelmed by the first episode; it had too much of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel for me to find it interesting. However, I'm hearing good things about the show, so I'll give the episode tonight a chance. If the sheriff telegraphs his alliance at any moment as he did in the first episode, I'm done.
Thursday
Everyone Hates Chris. Enjoyable enough, but I just find it difficult to find a half hour for sitcoms.
I don't watch it, but I need to chime and spread the word that no one should watch Night Stalker. This has as little to do with the original Night Stalker as the Will Smith abomination Wild, Wild West had to do with Robert Conrad's The Wild, Wild West. Had ABC and the person it tapped to bring back Night Stalker actually thought about it, they would have seen that the best way to present this show to a modern audience, would have been to present a mystery that draws in the audience. Start the series off almost like a newspaper drama, with little suggestion of the supernatural. Like in the original movie, start the first episode off with the audience seeing the first victim being killed, but Kolchak doesn't know about that. Once a bigger name, Kolchak is now covering city council meetings and house fires, often without a by-line. He longs to be back on top again, but is his own worst enemy. Finally, the third or fourth episode, Kolchak notices that girls have been disappearing, girls have been dying, but no one sees a connection: In Las Vegas, women come and go and die. Finally, at about episode eleven, Kolchak admits that the killer may be a vampire and that leads into the second half of the season when Kolchak finds he is going to have to do some awful things to stop a monster no one else believes could exist.
For this to work, a truer Kolchak should have been cast. I've read suggestions of William H. Macy in the part and I can't disagree. You need someone haggard and kind of worn down by life, not someone who poses well. Avoid Night Stalker, though the first chance you get, rent the original The Night Stalker, turn off the lights, and be pleasantly surprised to find that you will be scared.
Friday
Threshold has not been treated kindly by the critics, though not as harshly as Surface. I kind of enjoy Threshold and I like the characters. In some ways, it is more like The Invaders than Invasion is and it is a lot more fun in its melodramatic way. Besides, where else can you get to see Roc, the mother for Spy Kids, and Data all in the same scene?
(2) The Muppets and Jim Henson have been in the news more than you may have realized. Jerry Juhl, head writer of many a Muppet project for twenty-six years, just died on Sept. 28. Jim Henson died fifteen years ago and over at the all-things-Disney-news-and-opinon site, http://www.jimhillmedia.com/, Chris Barry writes, in a two-part article, here and here about public memorial service for Jim Henson and the television retrospective that Henson Productions put together. I have always liked the Muppets, but I never liked the Muppets in the way that I like comic books or sloppy joes (or the way I used to like candy corn until the ten pounds of candy corn incident). However, I there are places in both articles that choke me up and I think that speaks to the love people did have for Jim Henson.
(3) More happily, 2005 is the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of the Muppets to the world and as part of the celebration, the U.S. Post Office have issued a set of Muppet Stamps. Go by some today and make paying bills easier.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Television: What I Watch
Admitting that in my description of this blog, I leave some wiggle room regarding what I write about, I still haven't written about popular culture lately. The other day, the Fishmonger asked for guidance regarding the new television season, so I'm going to use that as my excuse to get back to the things I want to write about and, right now, need to write about (mainly to avoid doing things that would help my professional life get out of its stagnant condition).
Returning to the Monger's request, I will admit to having some talent in predicting what my wife will like, even if she is hesitant to listen to my suggestions. Last season, my suggestions to her were Desperate Housewives and Lost and she liked them a lot, though I think she enjoys Lost more. What was different compared to other years is that in the past the shows I suggest don’t last past the first year. That those two became the hits of last season was as much as surprise to me as it was to ABC. (With Housewives, for instance, the initial order was only for thirteen episodes. Apparently, ABC intended to return Alias to its Sunday night timeslot in January, assuming that Housewives would have sunk by its final episode. However, it exploded in its slot and by October, ABC was putting in an order for the full season.)
Here's how I want to work this. To get a better understanding of my tastes, I'm going to list the television shows that I make a special effort to watch. Along the way, I’ll also have some comments about each. After seeing what I enjoy is on common ground with the programs you like, then proceed to the next post where I'll be talking about the new television season and the shows I’m willing to take a chance on.
I. Daily Programs.
Where I live it is possible to watch reruns of The Simpsons seven days a week. And I do. I don’t watch them slavishly; considering I don’t go to work, I miss them more times than not; but if the show and I are in the same place at the same time, I’ll watch it.
If I just want “background television,” that is, something that I find generally non-offensive that I don’t need to give my full attention to or that won’t be forced to have change the channel in a few minutes, by default choice is G4. I know that I am out of its key demographic, which I gather to be males between the ages of 12 and 25, but I find the video-game related shows like X-Play, Filter, and Electric Playground to be the video equivalent of comfort food. The channel that is G4 grew from a merger between it and what used to be TechTV which focused on computers and technology in general. Within a year, almost all the TechTV shows were cancelled or transformed, except for X-Play. Within the last few weeks, however, one of the TechTV shows has returned, albeit via Canada, Call for Help. The purpose of the show is to help people with computer problems, provide quick lessons on topics from creating web pages or choosing a HDTV, and to present the semi-latest cutting edge technology news or innovation. G4 even has a show that presents the history or biography of certain video games, game developers, game consoles, etc. titled Icons.
We recently took the plunge and got the premium package for our cable; through some magic that only cable providers can work, our cable bill decreased by over thirty dollars (as part of a limited time promotion) while we gained forty-four channels (none of them IFC). Since then, I’ve tried to catch up on two HBO series that have been praised since they went on the air, Entourage and Deadwood. Entourage has been called a male Sex and the City, which isn’t a bad description, though where New York was the fifth member of Sex’s clique, Hollywood and its unique lifestyle is the fifth member here. One of the four is in his first major motion and he has brought his two closest friends and his brother with him from the east coast, creating the title grouping.
Deadwood is not the kind of Western I would choose to watch just because it is a Western. I don’t want realism in my Westerns, I want Maverick, The Wild, Wild West (the good television version), or The Magnificent Seven. Watching the dead be fed to the hogs; looking and listening to a Calamity Jane who the inverse of Doris Day’s interpretation of the character; seeing mud so thick that it covers the tops of boots are not what I want. Despite all that and more (the language of the show is probably as coarse as any in The Aristocrats), I like this show. It is neither overbearing in its attempt toward realism nor overbearing depressing about the situations the characters find themselves in. Credit goes to the creator, David Milch, who learned his craft with shows like Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue; even though he now a venue to pushes the boundaries, he never forgets he is producing television. Deadwood is always accessible.
II. Monday.
I’ll admit that I enjoy 24. If you pay too much attention to it, 24 can break down logically, but as a contained unit, most any individual episode presents some of the tensest television I’ve ever seen. You just never know what the hell Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is going to do in service of his country. Off the top of my head, he has decapitated a captive enemy agent, broken into the Chinese embassy to kidnap a Chinese national who had given U.S. secrets to terrorists, and chopped off the hand of his partner to save the man’s life. In the real world, there are things Bauer has done that are over the edge and deserving of punishment, but in the context of the show and its universe, I’ll give him pass, if only because he is being cosmically punished; I don’t think he’ll ever know real happiness. Still, a damn fine popcorn show.
One of my favorite shows is The American Experience. It is a rare episode that I won’t watch and even if I choose not to watch one when it is first run, I’ll eventually give in and watch it when it is re-run. A series of documentaries, the range of topics covered has been incredible. Sample topics include the Trial of the Scotsboro Boys; a seven-part, fourteen-hour history of New York City; the birth, life, and decline of Coney Island; the carving of the Mt. Rushmore Memorial; the building of the Golden Gate Bridge; the Scopes monkey trial; and an examination of game show scandal of the 1950s. The biographies the show has presented include Houdini, John Nash, Seabiscuit, Hawaii’s last queen, Duke Ellington, Malcolm X, and every president from F.D.R. to Reagan. PBS will also present documentaries under “The American Experience” umbrella that were created independently like the works of Ken Burns.
The American Experience returns this week with a special Wednesday episode, “Fatal Flood.” At first thought, it would appear that it episode deals with the events of Katrina, however, it will tell the story of an earlier flood yet still speaks to issues we are now confronting today. As described: <blockquote> In the spring of 1927, after weeks of incessant rains, the Mississippi River went on a rampage from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, inundating hundreds of towns, killing as many as a thousand people and leaving a million homeless. In Greenville, Mississippi, efforts to contain the river pitted the majority black population against an aristocratic plantation family, the Percys—and the Percys against themselves. A dramatic story of greed, power and race during one of America's greatest natural disasters.</blockquote> And it is for exactly that reason that I love history in general and the stories that The American Experience tells in general.
III. Tuesday.
Gilmore Girls. Do I have to say more?
III. Wednesday.
I didn’t know what to expect when I watched Lost for the first time and after we saw that one guy get sucked into the still spinning turbine, I didn’t myself have any. To be honest, I’m not too hooked into the individual characters as individuals, I’m not necessarily championing for the death of any. My hook into the show has been the mystery of the island. However, I have enjoyed the flashback sequences wherein the back stories of the primary characters are fleshed out. The flashbacks were a smart move on J.J. Abrams part because it allows the audience a break from the exteriors of the island, it slowly adds subtext to the actions and motivations of the characters, and, maybe most importantly, throws off the audience’s time sense. Each episode takes place in one day, so we’ve only seen twenty-four days in their lives since the crash, so things like Hurley not appearing to lose weight aren’t that big a deal yet.
I watched most of the episodes of Veronica Mars last year. I liked it, but I didn’t like it as if it were the resurrected Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, which is how UPN wanted me to like it. Despite the horrible things Buffy has to go through as the Slayer, she still found time to experience high school and I could sympathize with what she and the Scoobies were going through. To me, Veronica always came off less a teen-age girl and more of an adult. The season-long mystery was relatively tight and the episodes dealing primarily with it were the more enjoyable ones for me. Maybe this year either Veronica will occasionally act like a teenager or the show will have magically jumped three years so that the character will be at the right level of maturity for her actions.
IV. Thursday.
Maverick was one of those legendary shows that I never thought I’d see. It was on a local channel in Milwaukee in the early 1980s, but between work and school I never had a chance to watch it. In the move that lost me access to the Independent Film Channel, our cable company gave us Goodlife TV, which soon transformed itself into American Life Television. The channel is really like Nick at Nite for senior citizens as its evening schedule is stocked completely with once popular television shows from the Time Warner library that I don’t think have been in broad syndication for maybe fifteen years. Among Girl from U.N.C.L.E, F Troop, Surfside Six, and My Favorite Martian reruns, every Thursday, Maverick is rerun. I have to admit that the show deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon over the years and well deserved to win the only Emmy Award presented in the category of "Best Western",
Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown. I don’t like to gamble, I am not to keen on playing cards, occasionally a celebrity is too needy for attention for my taste, yet, I like this show. Go figure.
V. Friday.
Basically, a full genre night with SciFi Channel. In preparation for Serenity, I start the night off by watching Firefly, the show I still wish Enterprise had been. Next, Stargate SG-1, a show I passed by when it was in syndication, but last year I started watching and wished I’d started years ago. Finally, Battlestar Galactica, which, damn it, is really, really good. The first episode of the first full season just won a Hugo Award; did anyone ever think the sentence “Battlestar Galactica was nominated for and won a Hugo Award” would be a honest statement? In fact, I think it may have done itself a disservice by using the “Battlestar” name; while the basic premise of the series is the same as the original 1978-79 series, in execution the show is so different from the original, that I didn’t watch the mini-series when it aired. However, the buzz was so positive for the mini that when the show went to full series, I started watching.
It took a little bit of work to get into the universe the producers had created, as it was much deeper than the one of the original. For instance, the humans are polytheistic, while the Cylons are monotheistic. Ron Moore, the producer behind the series, has equated the his Galactica to the film, Das Boot and it has the same claustrophobic intensity. Unlike the original, where you knew the humans were going to survive, the feeling I have is that their complete extermination is a foregone conclusion and that the survivors are going through the motions of trying survive even as death approaches because that is what humans do. In that respect, the series reminds me of Nevil Shute’s excellent novel, On the Beach, in which the last surviving humans in Australia live out their days as normally as possible even as the radioactive fallout from a decimated atomic war in the northern hemisphere slowly moves into the southern where it will kill them.
If you are considering getting into the show, don’t worry about joining late. If you feel a need to catch up before you join in watching, SciFi has very complete synopses for aired episodes on its Website and makes episodes available for streaming. There are also podcasts for each episode recorded by Ron Moore available that are DVD commentary tracks without the DVD or studio production. However, a recent episode, “Final Cut,” might be an easier way to go. In the episode, a reporter is given unlimited access to the Galactica’s crew for a story on what is going on in the wake of the fleet’s problems. As we follow the reporter filming the story, we are re/introduced the Galactica’s crew and their dynamics. However, best of all, when the final product is shown, the freaking incredible theme from the original series plays in the background. Choked me up.
VI. Saturday.
Justice League Unlimited (Cartoon Network). For my money, possibly the single-best translation of a comic book property to another medium that doesn’t feature Tobey Maguire. The show is probably the last one we’ll see that connects to the DC animated universe begun in 1992 with Batman: The Animated Series. In fact, in the final episode of season recently concluded this past spring, the producers thought it was the end and created a Batman-centric episode that tied up lose ends from JLU, Batman, and the Batman spin-off, Batman Beyond. To complete truly the circle, the final shot showed the protagonist flying off duplicated the first shot of Batman. But I digress.
Apart from the generally excellent writing and character design, the latter based on Bruce Timm’s work (an example of the style art these shows can be seen in the picture of the JL), the key element that makes JLU great is that it can, and often has, use every available super-hero character in the DC Universe. Oh, and the heroes are actually heroic, a rare occurrence in many of DC’s super-hero comic books. Oh, and this season, which starts on September 17, three words describe the Big Bad: “Legion.” “Of.” “Doom.”
VI. Sunday.
Simple enough night: The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. The first is still among the funniest shows around and I’ll never understand the hatred and disdain people have for the second. I can’t think of any funnier sentence I heard all summer than, “And now we play the waiting game.” I can explain if asked, but if might lose something in context. The episode, “A Fish Out of Water,” will be rerun soon enough either on FOX or Cartoon Network. When it does, watch it, and see if you don’t agree. As for American Dad, it is improving, but I think that no matter how good it may become, it will never be given its proper credit, as it will always be perceived as nothing more than a reworking of Family Guy.
Rome airs on HBO I like it, but I am not wild about it and that is more my fault than the show’s. Since the early nineties, I’ve been a fan author Lindsay Davis’s creation, “finder” Marcus Didio Falco, who has appeared in a number of mystery novels set in Rome during the first century A.D. Because Davis has done her research so well, the life of the common Roman is less of an eye-opener to me. Still, I always enjoy the melodrama of politicians scheming for power (too Lucas just never understood that, but I digress) and even though you know the eventual fate of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Mark Antony, Cato, et al., going along for this ride is less strenuous than reading Suetonius. Rome has already been renewed for a second season and I’ll be back for it.
After all these years, South Park, too, is still funny and still doing well. Trey Parker and Matt Stone just signed a contract to produce shows through 2008. South Park is was another show that I avoided at first, but I started watching it after South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was released. I think it was the simple message, “What Would Brian Boitano Do?”, that made me reconsider my opinion of the television show.
A show that I think has snuck past the radar of the general public is Robot Chicken on Cartoon Network’s [adult swim] Sunday block. Created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, the fifteen-minute show is nothing more than two or three satirical skits interspersed with black-out gags. What separates this show from others is that it uses stop-motion animated action figures as actors, so there are many riffs on popular culture and its icons. For instance, “Two Kirks, a Khan, and a Pizza Place”; Optimus Prime develops prostate cancer; “Behind the Music: Electric Mayhem”; In “You Got Robo-Served,” Voltron finds himself having to save his cred in an old-school dance off; and the gang from Scooby-Doo stops at a “haunted camp” and meets Don Knotts, and find the “ghost” to really be one Jason Voorhies.
Also, as Seth Green is the new Kevin Bacon, each episode has voice work done by his friends, famous and semi-famous. In the Scooby-Doo parody, for instance, the cast of the live action movies did the voices for the gang; Sarah Michelle Gellar has done the show five times, once reprising her role of Buffy. Others who have provided voices include Phyllis Diller, Mark Hamill (once as Luke Skywalker), Burt Reynolds, and Scarlett Johansson. If you aren’t in the age demographic of 12-24 to whom this show appeals, you are missing out a real buried treasure and should give it a chance.
Next up, the new season.
Returning to the Monger's request, I will admit to having some talent in predicting what my wife will like, even if she is hesitant to listen to my suggestions. Last season, my suggestions to her were Desperate Housewives and Lost and she liked them a lot, though I think she enjoys Lost more. What was different compared to other years is that in the past the shows I suggest don’t last past the first year. That those two became the hits of last season was as much as surprise to me as it was to ABC. (With Housewives, for instance, the initial order was only for thirteen episodes. Apparently, ABC intended to return Alias to its Sunday night timeslot in January, assuming that Housewives would have sunk by its final episode. However, it exploded in its slot and by October, ABC was putting in an order for the full season.)
Here's how I want to work this. To get a better understanding of my tastes, I'm going to list the television shows that I make a special effort to watch. Along the way, I’ll also have some comments about each. After seeing what I enjoy is on common ground with the programs you like, then proceed to the next post where I'll be talking about the new television season and the shows I’m willing to take a chance on.
| G4 Programming | Entourage |
| Deadwood | Rome |
| 24 | The American Experience |
| Gilmore Girls | Lost |
| Veronica Mars | Maverick |
| Celebrity Poker | Firefly |
| Stargate SG-1 | Battlestar Galactica |
| Justice Leage Unlimited | The Simpsons |
| Family Guy | American Dad |
| South Park | Robot Chicken |
I. Daily Programs.
Where I live it is possible to watch reruns of The Simpsons seven days a week. And I do. I don’t watch them slavishly; considering I don’t go to work, I miss them more times than not; but if the show and I are in the same place at the same time, I’ll watch it.
If I just want “background television,” that is, something that I find generally non-offensive that I don’t need to give my full attention to or that won’t be forced to have change the channel in a few minutes, by default choice is G4. I know that I am out of its key demographic, which I gather to be males between the ages of 12 and 25, but I find the video-game related shows like X-Play, Filter, and Electric Playground to be the video equivalent of comfort food. The channel that is G4 grew from a merger between it and what used to be TechTV which focused on computers and technology in general. Within a year, almost all the TechTV shows were cancelled or transformed, except for X-Play. Within the last few weeks, however, one of the TechTV shows has returned, albeit via Canada, Call for Help. The purpose of the show is to help people with computer problems, provide quick lessons on topics from creating web pages or choosing a HDTV, and to present the semi-latest cutting edge technology news or innovation. G4 even has a show that presents the history or biography of certain video games, game developers, game consoles, etc. titled Icons.
We recently took the plunge and got the premium package for our cable; through some magic that only cable providers can work, our cable bill decreased by over thirty dollars (as part of a limited time promotion) while we gained forty-four channels (none of them IFC). Since then, I’ve tried to catch up on two HBO series that have been praised since they went on the air, Entourage and Deadwood. Entourage has been called a male Sex and the City, which isn’t a bad description, though where New York was the fifth member of Sex’s clique, Hollywood and its unique lifestyle is the fifth member here. One of the four is in his first major motion and he has brought his two closest friends and his brother with him from the east coast, creating the title grouping.
Deadwood is not the kind of Western I would choose to watch just because it is a Western. I don’t want realism in my Westerns, I want Maverick, The Wild, Wild West (the good television version), or The Magnificent Seven. Watching the dead be fed to the hogs; looking and listening to a Calamity Jane who the inverse of Doris Day’s interpretation of the character; seeing mud so thick that it covers the tops of boots are not what I want. Despite all that and more (the language of the show is probably as coarse as any in The Aristocrats), I like this show. It is neither overbearing in its attempt toward realism nor overbearing depressing about the situations the characters find themselves in. Credit goes to the creator, David Milch, who learned his craft with shows like Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue; even though he now a venue to pushes the boundaries, he never forgets he is producing television. Deadwood is always accessible.
II. Monday.
I’ll admit that I enjoy 24. If you pay too much attention to it, 24 can break down logically, but as a contained unit, most any individual episode presents some of the tensest television I’ve ever seen. You just never know what the hell Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is going to do in service of his country. Off the top of my head, he has decapitated a captive enemy agent, broken into the Chinese embassy to kidnap a Chinese national who had given U.S. secrets to terrorists, and chopped off the hand of his partner to save the man’s life. In the real world, there are things Bauer has done that are over the edge and deserving of punishment, but in the context of the show and its universe, I’ll give him pass, if only because he is being cosmically punished; I don’t think he’ll ever know real happiness. Still, a damn fine popcorn show.
One of my favorite shows is The American Experience. It is a rare episode that I won’t watch and even if I choose not to watch one when it is first run, I’ll eventually give in and watch it when it is re-run. A series of documentaries, the range of topics covered has been incredible. Sample topics include the Trial of the Scotsboro Boys; a seven-part, fourteen-hour history of New York City; the birth, life, and decline of Coney Island; the carving of the Mt. Rushmore Memorial; the building of the Golden Gate Bridge; the Scopes monkey trial; and an examination of game show scandal of the 1950s. The biographies the show has presented include Houdini, John Nash, Seabiscuit, Hawaii’s last queen, Duke Ellington, Malcolm X, and every president from F.D.R. to Reagan. PBS will also present documentaries under “The American Experience” umbrella that were created independently like the works of Ken Burns.
The American Experience returns this week with a special Wednesday episode, “Fatal Flood.” At first thought, it would appear that it episode deals with the events of Katrina, however, it will tell the story of an earlier flood yet still speaks to issues we are now confronting today. As described: <blockquote> In the spring of 1927, after weeks of incessant rains, the Mississippi River went on a rampage from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, inundating hundreds of towns, killing as many as a thousand people and leaving a million homeless. In Greenville, Mississippi, efforts to contain the river pitted the majority black population against an aristocratic plantation family, the Percys—and the Percys against themselves. A dramatic story of greed, power and race during one of America's greatest natural disasters.</blockquote> And it is for exactly that reason that I love history in general and the stories that The American Experience tells in general.
III. Tuesday.
Gilmore Girls. Do I have to say more?
III. Wednesday.
I didn’t know what to expect when I watched Lost for the first time and after we saw that one guy get sucked into the still spinning turbine, I didn’t myself have any. To be honest, I’m not too hooked into the individual characters as individuals, I’m not necessarily championing for the death of any. My hook into the show has been the mystery of the island. However, I have enjoyed the flashback sequences wherein the back stories of the primary characters are fleshed out. The flashbacks were a smart move on J.J. Abrams part because it allows the audience a break from the exteriors of the island, it slowly adds subtext to the actions and motivations of the characters, and, maybe most importantly, throws off the audience’s time sense. Each episode takes place in one day, so we’ve only seen twenty-four days in their lives since the crash, so things like Hurley not appearing to lose weight aren’t that big a deal yet.
I watched most of the episodes of Veronica Mars last year. I liked it, but I didn’t like it as if it were the resurrected Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, which is how UPN wanted me to like it. Despite the horrible things Buffy has to go through as the Slayer, she still found time to experience high school and I could sympathize with what she and the Scoobies were going through. To me, Veronica always came off less a teen-age girl and more of an adult. The season-long mystery was relatively tight and the episodes dealing primarily with it were the more enjoyable ones for me. Maybe this year either Veronica will occasionally act like a teenager or the show will have magically jumped three years so that the character will be at the right level of maturity for her actions.
IV. Thursday.
Maverick was one of those legendary shows that I never thought I’d see. It was on a local channel in Milwaukee in the early 1980s, but between work and school I never had a chance to watch it. In the move that lost me access to the Independent Film Channel, our cable company gave us Goodlife TV, which soon transformed itself into American Life Television. The channel is really like Nick at Nite for senior citizens as its evening schedule is stocked completely with once popular television shows from the Time Warner library that I don’t think have been in broad syndication for maybe fifteen years. Among Girl from U.N.C.L.E, F Troop, Surfside Six, and My Favorite Martian reruns, every Thursday, Maverick is rerun. I have to admit that the show deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon over the years and well deserved to win the only Emmy Award presented in the category of "Best Western",
Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown. I don’t like to gamble, I am not to keen on playing cards, occasionally a celebrity is too needy for attention for my taste, yet, I like this show. Go figure.
V. Friday.
Basically, a full genre night with SciFi Channel. In preparation for Serenity, I start the night off by watching Firefly, the show I still wish Enterprise had been. Next, Stargate SG-1, a show I passed by when it was in syndication, but last year I started watching and wished I’d started years ago. Finally, Battlestar Galactica, which, damn it, is really, really good. The first episode of the first full season just won a Hugo Award; did anyone ever think the sentence “Battlestar Galactica was nominated for and won a Hugo Award” would be a honest statement? In fact, I think it may have done itself a disservice by using the “Battlestar” name; while the basic premise of the series is the same as the original 1978-79 series, in execution the show is so different from the original, that I didn’t watch the mini-series when it aired. However, the buzz was so positive for the mini that when the show went to full series, I started watching.
It took a little bit of work to get into the universe the producers had created, as it was much deeper than the one of the original. For instance, the humans are polytheistic, while the Cylons are monotheistic. Ron Moore, the producer behind the series, has equated the his Galactica to the film, Das Boot and it has the same claustrophobic intensity. Unlike the original, where you knew the humans were going to survive, the feeling I have is that their complete extermination is a foregone conclusion and that the survivors are going through the motions of trying survive even as death approaches because that is what humans do. In that respect, the series reminds me of Nevil Shute’s excellent novel, On the Beach, in which the last surviving humans in Australia live out their days as normally as possible even as the radioactive fallout from a decimated atomic war in the northern hemisphere slowly moves into the southern where it will kill them.
If you are considering getting into the show, don’t worry about joining late. If you feel a need to catch up before you join in watching, SciFi has very complete synopses for aired episodes on its Website and makes episodes available for streaming. There are also podcasts for each episode recorded by Ron Moore available that are DVD commentary tracks without the DVD or studio production. However, a recent episode, “Final Cut,” might be an easier way to go. In the episode, a reporter is given unlimited access to the Galactica’s crew for a story on what is going on in the wake of the fleet’s problems. As we follow the reporter filming the story, we are re/introduced the Galactica’s crew and their dynamics. However, best of all, when the final product is shown, the freaking incredible theme from the original series plays in the background. Choked me up.
VI. Saturday.
Justice League Unlimited (Cartoon Network). For my money, possibly the single-best translation of a comic book property to another medium that doesn’t feature Tobey Maguire. The show is probably the last one we’ll see that connects to the DC animated universe begun in 1992 with Batman: The Animated Series. In fact, in the final episode of season recently concluded this past spring, the producers thought it was the end and created a Batman-centric episode that tied up lose ends from JLU, Batman, and the Batman spin-off, Batman Beyond. To complete truly the circle, the final shot showed the protagonist flying off duplicated the first shot of Batman. But I digress.Apart from the generally excellent writing and character design, the latter based on Bruce Timm’s work (an example of the style art these shows can be seen in the picture of the JL), the key element that makes JLU great is that it can, and often has, use every available super-hero character in the DC Universe. Oh, and the heroes are actually heroic, a rare occurrence in many of DC’s super-hero comic books. Oh, and this season, which starts on September 17, three words describe the Big Bad: “Legion.” “Of.” “Doom.”
VI. Sunday.
Simple enough night: The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. The first is still among the funniest shows around and I’ll never understand the hatred and disdain people have for the second. I can’t think of any funnier sentence I heard all summer than, “And now we play the waiting game.” I can explain if asked, but if might lose something in context. The episode, “A Fish Out of Water,” will be rerun soon enough either on FOX or Cartoon Network. When it does, watch it, and see if you don’t agree. As for American Dad, it is improving, but I think that no matter how good it may become, it will never be given its proper credit, as it will always be perceived as nothing more than a reworking of Family Guy.
Rome airs on HBO I like it, but I am not wild about it and that is more my fault than the show’s. Since the early nineties, I’ve been a fan author Lindsay Davis’s creation, “finder” Marcus Didio Falco, who has appeared in a number of mystery novels set in Rome during the first century A.D. Because Davis has done her research so well, the life of the common Roman is less of an eye-opener to me. Still, I always enjoy the melodrama of politicians scheming for power (too Lucas just never understood that, but I digress) and even though you know the eventual fate of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Mark Antony, Cato, et al., going along for this ride is less strenuous than reading Suetonius. Rome has already been renewed for a second season and I’ll be back for it.
After all these years, South Park, too, is still funny and still doing well. Trey Parker and Matt Stone just signed a contract to produce shows through 2008. South Park is was another show that I avoided at first, but I started watching it after South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was released. I think it was the simple message, “What Would Brian Boitano Do?”, that made me reconsider my opinion of the television show.
A show that I think has snuck past the radar of the general public is Robot Chicken on Cartoon Network’s [adult swim] Sunday block. Created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, the fifteen-minute show is nothing more than two or three satirical skits interspersed with black-out gags. What separates this show from others is that it uses stop-motion animated action figures as actors, so there are many riffs on popular culture and its icons. For instance, “Two Kirks, a Khan, and a Pizza Place”; Optimus Prime develops prostate cancer; “Behind the Music: Electric Mayhem”; In “You Got Robo-Served,” Voltron finds himself having to save his cred in an old-school dance off; and the gang from Scooby-Doo stops at a “haunted camp” and meets Don Knotts, and find the “ghost” to really be one Jason Voorhies.
Also, as Seth Green is the new Kevin Bacon, each episode has voice work done by his friends, famous and semi-famous. In the Scooby-Doo parody, for instance, the cast of the live action movies did the voices for the gang; Sarah Michelle Gellar has done the show five times, once reprising her role of Buffy. Others who have provided voices include Phyllis Diller, Mark Hamill (once as Luke Skywalker), Burt Reynolds, and Scarlett Johansson. If you aren’t in the age demographic of 12-24 to whom this show appeals, you are missing out a real buried treasure and should give it a chance.
Next up, the new season.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
A Little Levity, As Such
On the Al Franken Show blog, the "Finding or Looting" game was posted by Eric Hananoki. The questions are based on photos posted on Wikipedia, so if you need help answering, click on this link. If you take the
quiz, the answers may be found here.
1. When Oprah Winfrey ____ a dollar lying on the street, she gave it to a homeless man.
2. Of the 10,000 people arrested in conjunction with the 1992 Los Angeles riots, about 44% were Hispanic. 42% were African-American ____-ers, while 9% were white ____-ers.
3. Following the death of Emperor Valentinian III in 455, the Vandals invaded and extensively ____ the city of Rome.
4. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, chair of the Appropriations Committee, ____ $230 million in taxpayer money to pay for a bridge to an essentially uninhabited island in Alaska.
5. Tiger Woods ____ four golf balls from the rough at St. Andrews.
6. In his novel The Human Stain, Phillip Roth writes about a classics professor who passes as a white man but turns out to be black. Some have said Roth ____ the novel on the real-life story of New York Times book critic Anatole Broyard.
7. On its way into Baghdad in the spring of 2003, Achmed Chalabi’s militia indulged in some ____-ing.
8. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell through a brick through the window of a Circuit City and ____ a sixty-inch plasma TV.
quiz, the answers may be found here.
1. When Oprah Winfrey ____ a dollar lying on the street, she gave it to a homeless man.
2. Of the 10,000 people arrested in conjunction with the 1992 Los Angeles riots, about 44% were Hispanic. 42% were African-American ____-ers, while 9% were white ____-ers.
3. Following the death of Emperor Valentinian III in 455, the Vandals invaded and extensively ____ the city of Rome.
4. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, chair of the Appropriations Committee, ____ $230 million in taxpayer money to pay for a bridge to an essentially uninhabited island in Alaska.
5. Tiger Woods ____ four golf balls from the rough at St. Andrews.
6. In his novel The Human Stain, Phillip Roth writes about a classics professor who passes as a white man but turns out to be black. Some have said Roth ____ the novel on the real-life story of New York Times book critic Anatole Broyard.
7. On its way into Baghdad in the spring of 2003, Achmed Chalabi’s militia indulged in some ____-ing.
8. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell through a brick through the window of a Circuit City and ____ a sixty-inch plasma TV.
As Long as I'm Still Talking about Katrina
(1) The Daily Show came back swinging from vacation on September 6. Click here to watch Jon Stewart's opinions on the Katrina response and here to watch "Beleaguered Bush," as TDS correspondent Ed Helms provides a report on how the Bush Administration swung into action to save the most important think of all, their reputation. (Thanks to Mark Evanier and his consistently excellent site, News from Me, for TDS links.)
(2) One of the things Jon Stewart mentions is something that I think we've all been seeing this last week: Reporters have found a use for their backbones again. When reporters on the scene on FOX News are shouting down O'Reilly and Hannity, preventing them from spinning the situation into a less-than-complete representation, you have to believe that the truth can't be hidden as easily as it was with regard to weapons of mass destruction, Iraq, and Osama Ben Laden. There's no chance to "guide" public opinion by putting out messages of fear, wrapping the U.S. flag around themselves while holding crosses, isn't going to placate any but the simple, the core of Bush followers who see the world in black and white. There is no enemy, real or imagined, that can be used to create divisions within the populace thereby distracting us from the real problems created by the Administration. Well, technically, that pesky old Mother Nature is the enemy, but apart from relaxing and/or not renewing EPA regulations, the Administration can't do much more to beat her down than they are.
However, you have to give Bush credit, because he's trying his best to use the ritual that served him well in 2001 and declaring a national day of prayer and rememberance on September 16. In this story, you'll read that Dick Cheney was released from his hermetically sealed chamber and went to visit the region (not New Orleans itself, because a person with a heart condition has to avoid infection); God bless him, he stayed on message and promised that taxes wouldn't be raised. Makes sense, considering this is the only time in all of history that taxes have ever been cut when a nation is at war.
(3) Of all the reporters and commentators finding it within themselves to present the story that is happening as opposed to the story the government wants to be presented, the comments of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann have been found to be the most pointed. He is sarcastic and angry and makes no pretense of hiding his emotions with regard to the loss of life. Here's commentary Olbermann made on September 5 after Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security referred to the "city of Louisiana." Where others would use such a mistake as fodder for mockery, Olbermann uses it as a starting point for exposing the attitude of the Administration. If you don't want to watch the video, a transcript can be here found at Olbermann's "Bloggermann" blog. You may have to scroll down to the September 5 entry, but read the September 8 entry before you do as Olbermann presents further examples of fracturing within the party line over the response from Washington.
(4) Continuing with Olbermann for a little more, Boing Boing, of which my friend, the Fishmonger recently said, "More and more, all good things, if not from [G]oogle, are from boingboing," offered this comment from Olbermann:
(5) Something that isn't being discussed yet, is the long-term affect Katrina will have on the national economy. Forget about the increase in gas prices, the people displaced by the storm will have to work eventually. I've heard rumbles, but nothing from someone in government, of the federal government funding a modern version of the Works Progress Administration that would allow the people displaced to help rebuild the destroyed areas themselves; think of Katrina as an inverse of the dust bowl during the Depression. Roosevelt helped people regain their self-worth by creating jobs through the WPA were none existed; there is an obvious need for a workforce to eventually rebuild the area, so why not recruit from within so to speak? It worked before, so why not again. As long as Haliburton isn't involved; they've already have the contract to repair military bases hit by the storm, so they have their share. Let the people have some, too.
(6) And these people will need as much help as possible. As this story explains, the new bankruptcy laws that will take effect under Bush will not allow them to declare bankruptcy as easily, something hurricane victims almost always need to do if they are going to reclaim their lives. There is some hope for these people, though. In the House of Representatives, John Conyers (D-WI) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) are introducing a bill to exempt the people affected by Katrina from the new law. If you believe that these people need some kind of a break, call your Congressperson at 1-800-959-2780 and him/her that you support the Conyers-Nadler bill.
(2) One of the things Jon Stewart mentions is something that I think we've all been seeing this last week: Reporters have found a use for their backbones again. When reporters on the scene on FOX News are shouting down O'Reilly and Hannity, preventing them from spinning the situation into a less-than-complete representation, you have to believe that the truth can't be hidden as easily as it was with regard to weapons of mass destruction, Iraq, and Osama Ben Laden. There's no chance to "guide" public opinion by putting out messages of fear, wrapping the U.S. flag around themselves while holding crosses, isn't going to placate any but the simple, the core of Bush followers who see the world in black and white. There is no enemy, real or imagined, that can be used to create divisions within the populace thereby distracting us from the real problems created by the Administration. Well, technically, that pesky old Mother Nature is the enemy, but apart from relaxing and/or not renewing EPA regulations, the Administration can't do much more to beat her down than they are.
However, you have to give Bush credit, because he's trying his best to use the ritual that served him well in 2001 and declaring a national day of prayer and rememberance on September 16. In this story, you'll read that Dick Cheney was released from his hermetically sealed chamber and went to visit the region (not New Orleans itself, because a person with a heart condition has to avoid infection); God bless him, he stayed on message and promised that taxes wouldn't be raised. Makes sense, considering this is the only time in all of history that taxes have ever been cut when a nation is at war.
(3) Of all the reporters and commentators finding it within themselves to present the story that is happening as opposed to the story the government wants to be presented, the comments of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann have been found to be the most pointed. He is sarcastic and angry and makes no pretense of hiding his emotions with regard to the loss of life. Here's commentary Olbermann made on September 5 after Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security referred to the "city of Louisiana." Where others would use such a mistake as fodder for mockery, Olbermann uses it as a starting point for exposing the attitude of the Administration. If you don't want to watch the video, a transcript can be here found at Olbermann's "Bloggermann" blog. You may have to scroll down to the September 5 entry, but read the September 8 entry before you do as Olbermann presents further examples of fracturing within the party line over the response from Washington.
(4) Continuing with Olbermann for a little more, Boing Boing, of which my friend, the Fishmonger recently said, "More and more, all good things, if not from [G]oogle, are from boingboing," offered this comment from Olbermann:
[M]ost chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.All that was just to lead in to this piece from September 1 edition of The Washington Post, "Extraordinary Problems, Difficult Solutions." Congress authorized 51.8 billion dollars (at this point, it would have killed them just round it to fifty-nine billion), but keep in mind this statement, buried five paragraphs into the article, from a senior policy analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency:
"There is not enough money in the gross national product of the United States to dispose of the amount of hazardous material in the area."This article, from the British newspaper, The Independent describes the kind of hazards the standing water is going to create. Keep all of that in mind when you hear statements about rapid rebuilding of New Orleans.
(5) Something that isn't being discussed yet, is the long-term affect Katrina will have on the national economy. Forget about the increase in gas prices, the people displaced by the storm will have to work eventually. I've heard rumbles, but nothing from someone in government, of the federal government funding a modern version of the Works Progress Administration that would allow the people displaced to help rebuild the destroyed areas themselves; think of Katrina as an inverse of the dust bowl during the Depression. Roosevelt helped people regain their self-worth by creating jobs through the WPA were none existed; there is an obvious need for a workforce to eventually rebuild the area, so why not recruit from within so to speak? It worked before, so why not again. As long as Haliburton isn't involved; they've already have the contract to repair military bases hit by the storm, so they have their share. Let the people have some, too.
(6) And these people will need as much help as possible. As this story explains, the new bankruptcy laws that will take effect under Bush will not allow them to declare bankruptcy as easily, something hurricane victims almost always need to do if they are going to reclaim their lives. There is some hope for these people, though. In the House of Representatives, John Conyers (D-WI) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) are introducing a bill to exempt the people affected by Katrina from the new law. If you believe that these people need some kind of a break, call your Congressperson at 1-800-959-2780 and him/her that you support the Conyers-Nadler bill.
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