Intellectual House o' Pancakes Comments Page and Grill

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Sharon - 2007-11-19 14:59:15
Paula, Thanks for the recommendation of The Tibetan Book of Yoga.(Its acronym could almost be a mall snack bar-T.B.O.Y. the Country's Best Yoga)Speaking of TV shows, did you ever catch Flight of the Concords this summer on HBO? two New Zealand bandmates and their manager Murray trying to get gigs in Manhattan. I thought it was brilliant, refreshingly original - kind of a Monkeys for the 21st Century.
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EG - 2007-11-19 15:14:40
I concur about the FOTC. Laugh out loud funny.
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Paula - 2007-11-19 15:18:45
I Netflixed FotC and await it eagerly.
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Crabby Iconoclastic Television Version of Greg - 2007-11-19 15:53:43
Paula, couldn't agree more about Bones. Why are people so taken with these stereotypes. What every happened to Quincy??? What do we get in place of Quincy? We get House. The popularity of this show and the Hugh Laurie character totally eludes me. I don't find "selfish, cruel and rude" the slightest bit sympathetic no matter how many hardships they let on that he may have experienced.
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grigorss - 2007-11-19 15:55:29
Well, with the W.G.A. strike well underway (no end in sight, I might add) -- and a certain-to-occur S.A.G. strike looming in the early part of the upcoming year, I'd say you have no need to worry. This could mean the end of the turgid hour-long TV drama as we know it. That being said, I have to agree with you re; the sorry state of the serial drama form on TV; with the demise of The Sopranos -- and the even more fondly missed Six Feet Under -- there's just not much worth looking at for a full 60 minutes on the tube these days. The one exception that comes to mind being Pushing Daisies; which while sometimes treacly (too "twee" in Paula-speak) -- and not really a drama -- it's still the durned most entertaining thing you'll see on network TV this year.
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EG - 2007-11-19 16:32:34
Good hour-long TV drama - I would suggest Mad Men on AMC, and for those a little other worldly, Battlestar Galactica. But I am afraid, as earlier mentioned, the entire entertainment industry will be on strike in the middle of 2008. So get ready for "From America's highways and byways - Project Tollbooth: The Search for America's Next Great Toll Taker"
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Tim W. - 2007-11-19 21:27:46
"they make a date/refrigerate/while we cremate down here"

I love "'Tain't No Sin..." Do you know who did the original? I only have a Seventies version by the Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra.
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Bina - 2007-11-19 22:31:41
Long ago I attepted to read the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Is "Tibetan Book Of..." a franchise, like the "For Dummies" or "The Idiot's Guide to..." range? I'm waiting for the Tibetan Book of Yogurt. I could read that. Yeah. Mmmm, Yogurt.
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Paula - 2007-11-20 03:56:15
EG: Project Tollbooth: The Search for America's Next Great Toll Taker

Ha!

Tim: I don't think I've ever heard the song, but saw the title years ago on some sheet music and thought it was the greatest song title!

Bina: Ha, also!
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Tim W. - 2007-11-20 14:15:30
Well, then, feast your ears:

http://doubtfulpalace.com/temp/taint_no_sin.mp3
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Paula - 2007-11-20 15:12:50
Oh....YEAH!
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Paula - 2007-11-20 15:29:03
I don't find "selfish, cruel and rude" the slightest bit sympathetic

I am driving this (now probably dull) topic into the ground, but I aim for clarity: it's not the character on Bones that I disliked, I just find it amusing and annoying that when a TV show features a character who is meant to be a bit of an anti-hero, the supposedly difficult qualities that s/he displays are usually not really unappealing at all.

Excellence-striving workaholics, renegade loners, buttoned-up women who just need to learn how to Let Go--these are not truly characters that we feel sorry for or want to change. We ("we" the hypothetical American audience) love and value these qualities. So we get to revel in the characters' supposed flaws while clucking knowingly and saying, "Oh, it's so bad to be that way. I know deep down they are good people"

What I am suggesting is that a true anti-hero would be someone who, for example, might be sloppy in his work, who really doesn't give a shit about his co-workers, who doesn't play by the rules b/c she's a sociopath, who is inappropriate and awkward, etc.

Am I making sense to anyone but myself?
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Miles - 2007-11-21 07:54:17
One of the things I cherish about shows like Homicide or the new-model Battlestar Galactica is that every character has feet of clay and has serious, serious issues that have the potential to fuck up everything - relationships, the job, survival be it their own or that of their fellows - at any given time.
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Paula - 2007-11-21 12:04:37
Miles: That's good to know. One of these days I have to check out the new BG--many folks whose opinions I respect seem to like it.
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