Somedays I really hate doing stuff on the web.

I just wrote this great post all about how I just watched the premiere of the new show Heroes over at Yahoo TV and how much I LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVEDLOVEDLOVED it, and then I saw this thingy at the end labled "tags" and so I clicked on the innocuous looking "?" button and whoops! There goes the whole entry.

So, rather than posting the whole damn thing again, lemme just say that if you like well done, CHARACTER-driven drama, ever wishes you could have superpowers and either have or are willing to make a hole in your schedule Monday nights at 9/8 Central, this is something you NEED to see.

Understand, with the advent of DVRs/TiVo, I've become virtually unable to watch any TV show at the time it's broadcast.  I tape so much that I often end up watching stuff I've taped while taping more stuff - but this show is so good I plan to make it real "appointment TV" and watch it when it actually airs - I don't want to wait a minute longer than I have to to see it.

Some of what I love the most about it:

* Yeah, it's "sci-fi" and will probalby be something of an "action-adventure" show in the long run, but, at least in the premiere, what special effects there were were used sparingly and subtly.  These people have powers and abilities, but the makers of the show have found ways to show what they do without having to use a dazzling array of graphic effects - stuff just ... happens.  I'm sure a lot of that has to do with TV show budgets as compared to movie budgets - who cares - they do it quite well, and it helps the story stay more focused on the characters themselves rather than what they can do.

* The charactes are believable, real people, and there people you can care about.  Hiro (what a great name for a character in this show) is wonderful!  My favourite exchange in the whole episode is when one of his co-workers asks him "Why do you want to be different" and he responds "Why do you want to be the same" - beautiful, isn't it?  And such a perfect summary of one of the biggest sources of conflict in the world.

* This show has been written about all over the net.  NBC has put out who knows how many promos for it, and their website has about 15 or 20 I watched just tonight. I've read just about everything I could find, and watched all the clips I could find, and even with all that, by the end of the show, I discovered that not everything in this jewel had been "spoiled" yet.  There were a few things that I didn't even come close to guessing might happen, which was great!

* It's by Tim Kring, who also does Crossing Jordan.  Now, CJ isn't a perfect show - there have been some serious stumbles along the way (Dad, the "long-lost" brother and mom's murder mystery anyone?), but through it all, Tim has stayed not only true to the characters, but he's also developed them in very organic ways.  Jordan is still a rebel who is terrified of commitment, but she's started thinking more before breaking rules - having discovered that they can have some benefits - and she's becoming more willing to risk trusting someone enough to let herself fall in love.  Lily was a kinda scatter-brained, shy, wallflowery receptionist when the show started who's grown into a woman to be reckoned with when she believes she's in the right, who still remains happily outside the mainstream, but can "blend in" more when necessary, and who has worked hard to become a strong, tender grief counselor who can truly make a difference in people's lives.  Macy has gone from veritable Rock of Gibralter Who Is Never Wrong to a flawed man, realizing he has been a less than ideal father and looking at himself from the doldrums of middle-age wondering if he likes at all what he sees.  Yet when I go back and watch seasons 1 episodes, I don't feel like I'm stepping into a room full of strangers - the essence of what each character was to start with is still there, but you can also see how each involved into who they are now.

* Kring is also able to phase out elements of a show that aren't working without disrupting the show itself.  When Crossing Jordan first came on the air, it's central "conceit" was that Jordan solved crimes largely by taking the evidence she found during her autopsy and forensic investigations and then "play-acting" the crime with her father.  One would play perp and other vic and by submerging themselves in the act of the crime, they could determine who of their suspects had done it. Sometime around the end of the 2nd season, Kring either decided that the "gimmick" wasn't working or the fact that Ken Howard was leaving made it necessary to drop that element, but either way, it stopped being a feature of the show.  The thing was, even though I watch CJ regularly - and watch a lot of the A&E repeats - it wasn't until an episode last season when Jordan and two of her friend did a similar re-enactment that I realized they hadn't being doing them for a while.  It took me almost *3* seasons to realize that the element of the show that was supposed to have been what "set it apart" from other crime-drama shows wasn't being used anymore.  And I hadn't noticed it because by the time it went away, it was really just an "oh yeah, we're doing this thing now" bit to the story - the focus of the story had become the characters themselves, and it didn't need "gimmicks" to keep the show interesting any more.  Given that "Heroes" is character-driven from the start, and that they're not going with a bunch of special effects out of the gate, its giving it a great foundation

Well,I'd say that's kind of a nutshell view of my thoughts right now, but that's more like a freaking coconut tree (I have issues with brevity, though, y'know)

At any rate - here's the point of this whole post:


Watch HEROES Monday Night at 9pm/8pm Central on NBC - it'll be worth it!

In August, I posted a note that I'd been kind of sick and the doctor was sending me to the hospital. I've been home for a week now, though I think the insurance company sent me home WAY too early. The problem was a pressure ulcer on my leg and it's not nearly healed - and we're having a hell of a time keeping the wound dressings on it. In the hospital, I was in bed almost all the time so it didn't have that much of a chance to come loose, but here at home, it's so different - and I'm really worried that it will get infected again. Oh, and I've apparently dislocated my right wrist - and was supposed to see an orthopedic surgeon about it, but because the insurance company sent me home so early, I never got to - and now I'm back in the situation I was in before the hospital, where I don't have any reasonable way to get to the doctor's office (they had to take me to the hospital and bring me home by ambulance - it's a long story, but I've been homebound for about 7 years now...) At least I can still type ok - I just can't grip or lift anything with my right hand Enough about that, though... I'm sure what EVERYONE wants to know is my opinion on the Rockstar:INXS finale, eh? LOL! Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway :P I hated JD. I mean I wanted him off the show from the first episode. Then something weird happened. The first time he took the stage with INXS - when he and Marty were doing their last "audition" performances - everything just clicked. I still think JD's a jerk and that they should watch him pretty closely, but DAMN! He and the band have incredible chemistry on-stage and it SHOWS. Watching him sing one of their old songs, it just felt like that was how it had always been. It sure took long enough, but he finally made a convert of me. Mig's STILL cuter, though, and I'd have loved to see him win, but JD really does fit with the band well. Since I didn't have much to do in the hospital, I got to watch a bunch of new shows, and have picked up a few - Bones (very nice to see David Boreanaz doing something other than just brooding all the time!), Commander in Chief (not sure why I like it, but I do), Criminal Minds, Close to Home and - Gods forgive me - Martha Stewart's Apprentice. I tried E-Ring, Kitchen Confidential and Supernatural, but they just didn't grab me or keep my attention. Anyway, that's about it for now -- it's good to be back, and I'm looking foward to trying to catch up with everyone. Thanks to those of you who sent me notes while I was gone - I really appreciated that!!

Just wanted to let y'all know I won't be around for at least a few days, maybe longer. For those who don't know, I've been rather sick lately and my doctor is admitting me to the hopsital tomorrow morning. This scares the hell out of me, because I HATE hospitals, so if any of you have any higher beings you can call on for support, I'd much appreciate it! I'll see you when I get back.

Over on the forum, HappyYellowBall said that Ty should get to do the encore this week. I started my review by responding to that comment: He should, that was beautiful! I also liked how he directed the verse about good friend who are their and friends who have been lost to the other Rockers... that was a nice little touch. He had me choking up a bit on that one. I canNOT believe what JD did to "Crazy". Oh BLECH! It was simply AWFUL. And something I've noticed - he may say he wants to be the lead singer for INXS, but when he rearranges a song, it almost always comes out fairly trip-hoppy, and INXS may cover a variety of styles, but they're NOT a trip-hop band. That really seems to be where his interest lies, though, and what he should be doing. The sooner he can get off the show, the sooner he can find the trip-hop outfit that's right for him! Likewise with Brandon - I like him a lot better than I like JD, but he's not right for INXS - he needs to front a sweet Southern blues-rock boogie band. He'd be great at that! I've never been much of a fan of Suzi's, but I really did like her rendition of "Losing My Religion" - I liked the harder edge, and that she still kept some quieter moments. I was really impressed with it (and I love the original version quite a bit!) "Layla" is a tough song to cover, and Jordis didn't do as well with it as she could have. The song has so much angst to it that it needs to have a much looser feel than she gave it - more room for the emotions to come out. She's been so good otherwise, though, that - unless she proves otherwise - I'd tend to think it was just a mismatch of singer and song more than anything else. And I have to give Marty props - he ACTUALLY managed to NOT look demonic for once, and I really enjoyed his performance. I don't care for the song he was doing, but I didn't mind sitting through his singing it, which is actually a bit of an accomplishment :) Deanna was obviously having a lot of fun, but I've got to agree with the guys - it'd be nice to hear her do something she doesn't belt full force. And I think it's interesting that twice, now, the guys have told Jessica they'd like to see more of her personality or more feeling in the song and she's said she's doing the best she can. That doesn't bode well for her. Since I've managed to cover everyone else, might as well mention MiG - he was pretty much, well, MiG :) He did ok with the song, but nothing spectacular. It sounded just like the record. I like him, but this was just a very routine-type performance. He can do a LOT better. (Note: this is a duplicate of the entry below - I put the wrong code in to one of my links and ended up making the whole article a link - and for some reason, I can't get at the "Edit Message" button, so I couldn't just fix it. Of course, this ALSO means I can't delete it :/ If anyone has suggestions on how I can make it go away, I'd be much obliged!)

JD should be severely hurt for what he just did to "Crazy"! Oh, blech!!!!!!!!!

Over in the forum, there was a post about the new bad guys with the signet rings. Someone suggested they might - in true Stephen King fashion - be working for The Devil. I'm cross posting this to my blog because it's one I wanted to save, just so sometime later I can check back and see if I'm even close in my guessing :) IIRC, the guys with the signet rings aren't in the book or movie. I'd be VERY surprised if the show had them working for the devil, since it does't seem to get into THAT particular aspect of metaphysics much. Even when things seems to be some kind of "sign from God" (i.e. "Instinct" when all the animals went nuts), there's eventually a mundane explaination for it (the dam breaking). Even Johnny's gift has a fairly mundane explaination - his brain is rechanneling it's processes through a seldom-used part that gives him this extraordinary ability to see other things. So for them to suddenly bring in "agents of the devil" would just be too weird. Now, I'm not saying that religion or religious belief doesn't play any part in what they're doing. There really ARE people who feel that it's their purpose in life to help usher in Armegeddon so that they can bring about Jesus' reigh on earth and rule at his side with absolute power (or something like that - I'm not really sure I've ever totally understood their point on that one). There are even some who believe that many of the neo-cons who have wanted to attack Iraq since LONG before 9/11 share those beliefs and that by attacking Iraq, they're starting to put their plan in motion, though I have to admit that's a bit too tin-foily for me. At any rate, it's possible that these "signet ring guys" are of this same mindset and are hoping to use Stilson and Gene's lusts for power to stand as figureheads in pushing their plans through. If that's the case, then these guys may not actually be working for an actual manifestation of Satan, but would be motivated by their own twisted religious beliefs. I'm really curious to see where they go with this. It's certainly has some resonance for our world today where the twisting of religious belief (and not just Christianity, but others as well, such as Islam) is an everyday occurance with the goal of obtaining and maintaining power over as many people as possible. I also love the fact that they've stuck with the storyline, even if they're changing it quite a bit from the book itself. The "must stop Stilson" storyline was THE main focus of the book, and while they're taking interestng turns with it (maily to help stretch it out longer), it's nice to see that they're not ignoring the story from the book all together they way some shows based off a book do. I think I'd get tired of it if we got more than 3 or 4 episodes a season of it, but the way they're pacing it out is nice, and they're doing a great job with it. There's definatley some serious tension going on, and Sean Patrick Flannery is mondo-creepy - perfect for the Stilson role!

I mentioned the other day that Sabaka isn't the brightest light... today was a perfect example of it. Everyone in our neighborhood has one of those little sheds you can use for lawn equipment storage in their back yard, and today our next door neighbor decided it was time to paint theirs. Tasha, like any normal dog, decided to alert us to this unusual behaviour and barked. And barked. And barked. Until we brought her in. Sabaka, on the other hand, found the process fascinating, apparently, as he just plopped himself down right next to the fence and stared at them for about an hour or so. Yes, my dog was basically watching paint dry, and was mesmerized by it.

My private message counter isn't working, so I just now, tonight, discovered I'd gotten a couple. Sorry if you hadn't heard back from me - I wasn't meaning to be unfriendly or anything! I was looking at a bug list and it said that sometimes the counter is off, so I figured I'd check just to be sure, even though it's never budged from "0" and there they were. Yeesh! Rockstar was fun tonight. I was glad Jordis got the encore - she does SUCH a beautiful job with "The Man Who Sold the World". Brandon, Ty and Tara were the bottom 3. I was a bit surprised about Brandon - I though he'd done pretty good with his song, and was, IMO, better than JD at the very least, but oh well. He was funny, though - you could tell he was scared constipated. He just went totally all out on his performance and got a bit over the top in places - plus the song was just too low for him. But he did ok. Ty just rocked. He was fantastic. His performance of "Everlong" wasn't that great, but I think that was more of a fluke than anything. It was a song he didn't know, and it wasn't in a good range for him. If he'd had a "normal" amount of time to put together a performance (such as if he were actually doing a concert with the band), he would have had a lot more time to learn the song and to either get his voice able to handle the range of the song or to rekey the song to better fit his voice. Tonight's performance of INXS's "Kick", though, was a nice reminder of how good he can be. And then there's Tara. She seems like such a nice woman, and she has a decent voice, but just not for this kind of music. When I hear her sing, I hear echoes of Shania Twain and Faith Hill - that kind of light pop-country. I think a lot of it is just how she pronounces her words, but whatever the cause, she just doesn't sound "rock". Tonight was her 3rd time in the bottom three, and so it wasn't much of a shock when she got cut. I'm finding myself more and more torn between Jordis and MiG. Jordis EASILY has the best voice, and I think she could do a great job for INXS, but I think she could go so far on her own, too. MiG could probably do ok on his own, but he just has more of a "lead singer" vibe to him. His rendition of "We Will Rock You" was great - and dammitall, he's kinda cute, you know? I really hate when that's a factor, but there it is. Oh dear - veering off on a tangent here (which, be warned, I'm prone to do) they're showing a REALLY old Wham U.K. (yes, Wham U.K. is how it's listed) video with an extremely young George Michael in it... kinda scary, really. He looks about 15.

Just cuz I gotta show 'em off :) These are my "kids" This is Piper, the youngest of our brood. She's about 7 now... and yes, she was named after the character on Charmed (who's STILL my favourite on the show!) :D This one is Sabaka - his name is the Russian word for "dog". He's probably the SWEETEST creature I've ever met, and extremely gentle. He's almost 10 now, and I've never seen him snap at or try to bite anyone except in play, and even then, he never does it hard enough to cause any kind of hurt. He's also one of the DUMBEST creatures I've ever met - if there's, like, an electrical cord crossing a doorway, he doesn't realize he can step over it to get into the other room and just waits for you to move it before he'll go through. ::sigh:: But I love him to pieces - he's a wonderful companion! Here's Tasha, our eldest. She's really sweet, too, but much, much smarter than Sabaka is. She's very good about looking out for him, though - hehe. She's a totaly "Daddy's Girl", though, so I don't get to play with her as much as I might otherwise :( And last, but by no means least, is Acyl, my very first kitty. She passed away last year at 16, but had a good long run with us. I still miss her, though :(

Oh cool! It does! :)