I’m not a huge Debra Messing fan, but at my husband’s insistence, I decided to give “The Starter Wife” a chance tonight. An hour into the “Sex & The City” meets “Desperate Housewives” show, I was semi-hooked. The show is smart, superficial, and funny and more importantly it works. Debra Messing is likable. Much more so than her character in “Will & Grace,” but like that show, “The Starter Wife” features an ensemble cast of four with Judy Davis (as the Samantha-ish character) and two others (including a naive Blonde and a gay guy) rounding out the cast. There’s the “Desperate Housewives” James Denton/Mike working-class love interest named Sam that acts as the mysterious lifeguard courting Debra Messing’s Molly.
So given that it’s on USA and not HBO, the show doesn’t do explicit scenes (so men might be less likely to watch) and the substitution of the word “crotch” for “Australia” is a little irksome, but hey, it’s entertaining.
Bittersweet Thursday night news: “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” aka The Sorkin Show That Could & Would (if it got the chance) is back, but only for a last hurrah before it’s officially pulled. This means another four weeks of bliss before we all must move on and get a new er…show. And if my excitement over Debra Messing is any indication, I suppose anything is possible and/or replaceable.
Hey, she’s a cut and then some above Sarah Silverman anyways.
Idea for post inspired by Boing Boing. Actual link credit: Boston.com. Post-Read Commentary: Priceless.
In a scene reminiscent of the Cartoon Network bomb scare that paralyzed the Boston area in January, police shut down a strip mall yesterday in this small western suburb after employees at a Bank of America branch mistook a botched fax for a bomb threat.
Frustrated shop owners said the branch overreacted to the strange fax, which turned out to be an in-house marketing document sent by the bank’s corporate office.
“The women at the bank should have handled it a little better,” said Nick Markos, owner of Townhouse Pizza and Roast Beef, who estimated that he had lost $1,000 to $1,200 because of the lunch-hour evacuation. “She blew it all out of proportion, and all of us business owners had to pay for it.”
How come it is so difficult for me even as an adult, not to get emotionally attached to items? And now, when it’s almost time to say goodbye to my beloved Sebring, I find myself thinking about the person who will buy it from me, will he or she take good care of the car? Will they be careful when they take the top off? And I feel remorse for all the times I only thought about detailing the car but was too stingy to do so…
So if anyone knows about someone who will give my beloved 2000 Chrysler Sebring blue Convertible, a warm and loving home (preferable in the Massachusetts area but not a must), please let me know.
After the heated scuffle between Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Rosie opted out of “The View” and we’re still mourning the cat-fights and she-power quotient.
Here is a short list of movies I recently watched on DVD with a couple of recommendations.
Blood Diamond(2006): Set in 1999, during the civil war in Sierra Leon. A diamond smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio) teams up with a fisherman (Djimon Sounsou) in a quest for a rare stone, and retrieving the fisherman’s son from the hands of the rebels. This is a great DVD movie, and DiCaprio is doing an excellent job including a wonderful accent.
The Last King Of Scotland (2006): Another Africa movie. Set in the 70’s, a young and naive Scottish Doctor (James McAvoy,) becomes the personal physician of the notorious and vishes leader of the country Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) and as we all know in these cases, it’s easy to get in, but almost impossible to get out. This is a good movie, Forest Whitaker who won an Oscar for this movie is showing us why he won.
The Queen (2006): The movie deals with Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) in the days after the death of Princess Diana, A well done movie, great acting, but if to summarize in one word: Boring.
Pan’s Labyrinth(El laberinto del fauno)(2006): In 1944 fascist Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she’s a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again (imdb). For sure, one of the best movies I have ever seen. This is a must.
So don’t waste any time, run to the next video store and get this movie.
In this week’s Amaldo.Com podcast, I tackle haiku and fail miserably. The good news is this attempt at poetry spawned a very creative poem entitled, Ode To “Lost” Season Two: I Didn’t Want To Get Punk’d Or Bent But I Did.” There are quite a few laughs to be had here, for both viewers and non-viewers. I’m hoping J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof take note of my stellar use of creativity here and hire me on as a writer next season…A girl’s gotta have dreams afterall!
By DJ Scott Register aka Reg of Reg’s Coffeehouse.
Last weekend I spent another wonderful 3 days at the Non-Commvention. This is the last time it will be held in lovely Louisville (Seriously, if you have never spent time in this town, it is a must. Our entire country could learn a thing from Louisville about enjoying life and taking time to stop a sniff the Cabernet.) before it moves to its new permanent home in Philadelphia, PA. The conference will miss Louisville and the Brown Hotel but I’m sure the City Of Brotherly Love will be up to the challenge.
What is the Non-Commvention you ask? Well, I could give you the technical answer but I would rather put it in my own words. Non-Comm is a gathering of people who not only love music as an art form, they love getting excited about it, relishing in it, wallowing in it and turning on as many folks as they can to it. It is a music lover’s paradise. I have made so many new friends over the past few years at NonComm and because we share this love of music, there is always a common bond, always a starting point for conversation and mutual admiration flows freely.
Highlights of my Louisville weekend include but are not limited to:
Ryan Adams dark, strange, eerie, freak show of a set at the Brown Theater: OK, I heard Ryan’s set pissed off a lot of folks. To them I say, get over it.
Vietnam – If this band ever finds a way to go out with My Morning Jacket, I am quitting everything and going on tour. Rock ‘n Roll is alive and well my friends.
Augie March – This Australian band just might make it here in the States. Infectious pop jewels, poetical lyrics and a powerful presentation. I’m pulling for this band.
Dangerbird Records Showcase – The little label that can! Eulogies, Sea Wolf, One AM Radio…if the only band on
this label that you are familiar with is Silversun Pickups, you are missing out. This indie label is home to some of the finest alternative music being made today.
Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles – Hell Yeah!!! If The Replacements had been an Alt-Country-Rock band, this is what they would have sounded like. If you can see this band and not have fun, you might want to check your pulse.
Alison Krauss & Robert Plant – Watching the look on a room full of folks faces when they learned the song they had just heard was a duet by Alison Krauss and former Led Zeppelin lead Robert Plant. This record, due in October, is going to shake up the music world. STUNNING!
And last but not least…
Ingrid Michaelson – The “Grey’s Anatomy” IT girl has the songs and the voice to live up to the hype and the expectations. She’s about to become the voice of the “nerdy chic” set.
We think “nerdy” might be messing with some Amaldo.com coolness quotient, but we’ll mesh with it for now. We’re like Lisa Loeb cat-eye glasses cool like that.
I won free tix to a local radio station’s “Mixed Lounge” with a band out of the U.K. that I’ve been hopelessly hung up on in the past. I even reviewed their debut album, Hopes & Fears and eagerly attended their show in Boston in 2004 when they were first touring the U.S. In case you’re wondering who the band is I’m speaking so mysteriously about it’s Keane. They are British soft-Alt Pop Rock and at yesterday afternoon’s studio they performed four songs in their set and fielded questions from the DJ. I was sitting about 12 ft away from the band’s lead singer, losing a battle with the sweltering heat and humidity that’s currently sweeping over Boston, and in awe of how much he’d changed.
In the three years since they debuted Keane has become the critics’ darling, garnered acclaim in the form of accolades, and enjoyed relatively huge commercial success. They no longer give off the vibe of the pasty band of “brothers” out of England who grew up playing tunes in their parents’ garage and were hungry for success. They’ve arrived. And there’s always some level of self-indulgence when that occurs. Sure the guys are likable and they strike me as a professional “class” act for the most part, but something has seeped into their core. I’m not sure if it’s affected their music so much (although undoubtedly their first album was their best) but it has left its stain on their energy as a group.
Hollywood has gotten to them. The guys still speak with that trademark British/Sussex accent as homage to their roots (and sure works well on the ladies), but everything else about them, from their polished answers at yesterday’s studio interview with the DJ to the clothes they adorn themselves in (Urban Outfitters style) to the fact the lead singer has now shed a significant amount of weight and become bronze, seems like it was manufactured out of some LA music production factory.
I don’t know. Maybe I’ve been influenced by my Classic Rock/Grunge husband and now think that the prerequisite for all great musicians is that they be tortured, riddled with drug abuse, and can’t get their sh*t together. Kurt Cobain anyone?
Walking out of the studio set after the Keane concert, I automatically put on my iPod and started listening to Chris Cornell. I started to wonder if to be a truly great musician (and moreover one that was worthy of me skipping out on work) required an element of cacophony in the form of experimentation. What if what sounds unchartered and perhaps even a little displeasing to my ears initially is me learning how to expand my appreciation for what innovative sound and musical genius is really like. I wished for something else yesterday too. I didn’t need Keane to be egomaniacs like Oasis, but couldn’t they have tried out a new sound/song, and/or played it a little unsafe? Helped redefine a genre all in one Mixed Lounge studio set? A little unlikely I suppose.
But I’m still left lingering with this one unsettling question.
Did Keane’s Hopes & Fears give way to complacency?
Every once in a while you get to watch a bad movie. Now there are categories for bad movies. Some, are just not what you like, or, you simply dislike the genre like I am not so much into Martial art movies and to me these movies are complete bullshit. But, I can still appreciate a well-crafted movie and directors likeAng Lee, or the extraordinary abilities of the lateBruce Lee. And then you have the really bad movies, and no matter which genre they belong to, you are always laughing and crying at the end of the movie. You laugh because the movie was so bad, but you cry because you know you will never get your money back. So here is a list of a few very bad movies I’ve seen at the last couple of years:
Four Brothers- Sorry Mark, you should have turned down the offer to do this thing, no matter how much they offered.
The Holiday- Sooooo boring, and Sooooo long, and the highly acclaimed cast performance was of a pre-school Thanksgiving play caliber.
Last Days Of Disco: Oh my god, how much worse can it get? This movie is so full of itself that when the actors speak, farts come out of their mouths.
And last but not least, the big winner: How To Go On A Date In Queens. And it seems that words are very unnecessary, by far the worst movie I have seen as far as I can remember. I can only feel the pain of Jason Alexander and Ron Perlman for having to take the movie in a desparate hope to keep working.
If you think you have a movie that can top this list let me know, and we will follow up on this note, with a revised list.
What is it about all those unfunny people like Sarah Silverman,Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher, and David Spade? What is the secret of their success? Is it just to be at the right place at the right time? Or is it to be as vulgar as possible and tell as many fart jokes as you can until no one understands how could this filth could come out of a mouth of a nice Jewish girl?
And what about unfunny couples? If to paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld’s (An actual funny man) observation on ugly people: Do unfunny people see each other and think they are hilarious? Do Sarah Silverman and Jjimmy Kimmel pleasure each other by trying their new material out on one another? Do they go to sleep happy and satisfied after he tells her tonight’s monologue and she cracked him with her MTV Movie Awards stuff? Now I know it’s not fair, and that I myself am not funny, but still, it’s not like I got my own show. Well, not yet at least…
I’ve been a little disappointed in season finales as of late. It’s a general rule of thumb that all that anticipation and excitement built around one major event will inevitably fall short of expectation. I can say that after enduring 2-hours of repeatedly asking myself “Huh?” while watching the “Lost” season finale last night that I’ve been humbled into making this particular season finale the exception.
Warning: Don’t read ahead if you you’ve TiVoed and haven’t yet watched. This is a post-analysis of last night’s season finale.
So here’s why I’m still in awe, even 12 hours later:
1) There were no flashbacks in last night’s episode. Rather, we catch a glimpse into life after the island as Jack struggles to come to terms with his own and his desire to go back to the island. In the future, Jack’s become an alcoholic, abuses painkillers, takes trans-Atlantic flights in the hopes that the plane will crash, and he’s still hung up on Kate as his sole connection to the island. We learn that someone (presumably from the island) died and that no one other than Jack bothered to attend the funeral. When Jack confronts Kate on this mysterious person’s passing, her reaction is, “Why would I go?” leaving us all to think that the dead person is Ben and he clearly makes it off the island. In the future, Kate pities Jack, but has moved on leaving Jack behind. There are clear 9-11 allusions going on here as well.
Jack’s fate leaves us with the open-ended question: Were Ben and Locke ultimately right about the island and Jack’s rescue mission being the worst thing for his people? It clearly was the worst decision for Jack.
2) Walt=Jacob? I’m still unclear as to whether or not Walt was an apparition or has some sort of special connection to the island, like Locke. Either way, it would appear that Walt harbors supernatural abilities and his uncanny timing with regards to stopping Locke from committing suicide and getting him to walk again. Is Walt Jacob? More likely, he holds some connection to the island’s force.
3) Charlie dies, but WHY? I’m glad Sayid, Jin, and Bernard survived but I felt Charlie’s death to be superfluous, yet inevitable. On a more existential level, the Charlie dies storyline carries out the fate vs. individualism metaphor carried out throughout the show. After initially objecting to dying, Charlie subscribes to Desmond’s prophetic spells/visions that he must die so that the rest of them be rescued. As being rescued is the objective, Charlie sacrifices himself. But Jack’s fate leaves us to think that perhaps Charlie sacrificing himself was in vain, at least as far as Jack goes. In back-to-the-future flash-forwards, Kate also seemed a little hardened around the edges, but perhaps she too was torn out of obligation to an old friend/former love? and her desire to move on from the experience of the island.
4) Has Sawyer’s experience killing Locke’s father and the man responsible for his mother’s death turned him into a killer? Sawyer killed off Tom in last night’s finale without flinching leaving Juliet and Hurley a bit blown away. (no pun intended) And even Kate commented on Sawyer’s withdrawn behavior post-Locke episode. Will this have a long-term effect on the former con with a heart of gold? Has the island transformed him into a killer with a heart of stone?
5) I’m super glad Locke didn’t die, but still questioning if him killing Jack wouldn’t have made for a better ending to the season finale. We know that Locke represents island/fate and Jack represents rescue/reason and given all this a showdown was necessary. But with everything that lies ahead, the ending leaves you thinking: Maybe Jack would have been better off dead? Of course the beginning flash-forward featuring Jack wanting to jump from the bridge also follows along with this theme.
6) Jack/Sawyer/Juliet/Kate Love Quadrangle: Jack has always loved Kate (he tells her so in the season finale), but she clearly loves Sawyer. In the future episodes, he is not with Kate, but hung up on her in some capacity, even if it is just the island connection. We don’t know about Sawyer and Juliet, but Kate alludes to a “he” waiting for her in the future sequences so perhaps she ended up with Sawyer. I don’t think Jack and Juliet ended up together. Maybe Juliet died, but since he didn’t really love her I guess it’s a non-issue.
That’s if for my AM-after-finale notes. Feel free to add your own comments here. I love to think about this stuff.
On an end note, what I really enjoyed about the way “Lost” ended the season (and the show on a whole) is that it delves a little deeper. For example, it doesn’t leave you thinking life is always preferable to death or to elaborate, that death has to be the end- more that it can act as a portal or perhaps even if it doesn’t function as that, it’s how you spend your time and were able to resolve your issues while you were on “earth” that really mattered. I don’t know if I buy the whole island as time-space continuum theory, but I like that the shows gives a little humanity and breath to this subject. It f*cks a little with societal conventions and ideas about mortality and right/wrong and for that I’ll miss this show dearly over the course of the next 8 mos.
This week was all about endings with all of the bombastic season finales on all networks. So why don’t we try something fresh, and see which movies are premiering this weekend.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End: It seems that there has to be at least one huge box office hit every week. It’s good for the business. This one is the third part of the adventure. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) will save the world.
Bug: Ashley Judd is a waitress who lives in fear of her violent and abusive ex-husband.
The Golden Door: The turn-of-the-century voyage of a poor family from rural Sicily through the “golden door” of Ellis Island and into America.(Yahoo! Movies)
The boxing gloves are officially off. At least according to this season’s “DWTS” finalist Laila Ali who is quitting boxing and in talks to have her own cooking show and go where all drug induced-happy Martha Stewart wannabes have gone before.
I want to follow in the footsteps of Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray. It has always been a dream of mine to have my own show, which could include cooking, fitness and other household components. In fact, I just came out with a fitness/cardio DVD with Sugar Ray Leonard. My show would feature healthy food with fresh ingredients that taste great.
As much as I tried throughout the time this blog has been up and running to avoid mentioning the tedious term American Idol, my morning commute with dozens of local radio stations with only one thing in mind (ratings) were in a constant blabber about the 2 hour special Event. And in the end, all this focus on the the songs the final contestants will sing tonight drew me unwillingly into the commotion. I will never understand this rush after complete mediocrity. All I know is that nobody is going to watch this “Event” in my house, and while my lovely wife devotes herself to a 2 hour Lost, you’re humble servant will watch… South Park.
Here is something new that will no doubt get everybody talking. According to the New York Daily News, Vernon, Oprah Winfrey’s dad is writing a book about his daughter. The mega-celebrity was quoted saying that she laughed when one of her assistants said, “The Daily News is calling. They say they heard your father is writing a book about you.” Oprah replied, “That’s impossible. I can assure them it’s not true.” But then Oprah’s sister said, “I think you should call your father.”
Oprah felt doubly betrayed when her father, after being confronted by Oprah about the book, ‘I meant to tell you I’ve been working on it.”The talk-show host was understandably upset saying of the news, “I won’t say ‘devastated,’ but I was stunned. The last person in the world to be doing a book about me is Vernon Winfrey,” she added. “The last person.”
Yikes. Can we say years and years of family therapy on this one?
Donald Trump is quitting the Apprentice, in some sort of a pathetic attempt to avoid a personal failure and embarrassment in case the show will be canceled. The show started very strong in 2004 (Beth even wrote a book on the first season), but last season’s drop in ratings made NBC decide against including it in their fall lineup. And to all of us out there who dislike the man or the hair, unfortunately, according to Reuters, he is working on a new TV thing, and said that he is “moving on from ‘The Apprentice’ to a major new TV venture.” but will not tell us what it’s about. Who Cares?
The new Steven Spielberg/Mark Burnett reality TV show “On The Lot” debuts tonight. If it sounds like the kind of show that you could imagine James Van Der Beek whispering about amidst nightly platonic pow-wows with Katie Holmes atop his Steve Spielberg poster-plastered room circa “Dawson’s Creek,” you’re not far off.
“On The Lot” which airs tonight at 9 PM on FOX has been described as Youtube meets “American Idol” which we suppose translates to aspiring web video makers auditioning for their chance at director stardom cum Brett Ratner (who is also a judge).
Other judges include Gary Marshall and Carrie Fisher. We’re guessing that barring any alcoholic delusions on Gary’s part, Carrie will be a good shell for the off-kilter Paula. So if Gary is level-headed Randy, that leaves Brett as the egotistical Simon substitute.
Yeah. That about sounds right.
Anyways, here’s an audition video for one of the show’s contestant. If this gal’s any indication, directors are about as self-involved and annoying as we all pretty much knew.
I guess I will be back for Heroes Vol. 2, though judging by the one minute preview, it reminds me of the legendary but too short lived 1966 Time Tunnel.
Season Finale season is almost over, so let’s see what happend on my favorite shows (Lost, Desperate Housewives, Brothers And Sister, Grey’s Anatomy etc. are notmy favorite shows.)
The Office ended with Jim finally asking Pam out while Ryan gets Jan’s job in corporate after she is kicked out and decides to his dismay, to move in with Michael.
My Name Is Earl ends with Earl finding himself in jail after taking the blame for Joy. I like the cast and the idea of this show, but I can’t see them making another good season.
The Simpsons 2 Great episodes last night, to reach 400. Can’t wait for the next 400 episodes.
Family Guy ended with a back-to-the-future episode. Peter travels back in time, and when he comes back, he finds that his actions changed everything and Lois is now married to Quagmire.
It’s almost over, we are almost there but the season will not end before we watch tonight season finale of Heroes and see if all the producers’ promises are kept and the story comes to a resolution. If not, I’ll try to keep my promise, and won’t watch the show when it returns…. Now that’s a threat!
I’m not a huge Debra Messing fan, but at my husband’s insistence, I decided to give “The Starter Wife” a chance tonight. An hour into the “Sex & The City” meets “Desperate Housewives” show, I was semi-hooked. The show is smart, superficial, and funny and more importantly it works. Debra Messing is likable. Much more so than her character in “Will & Grace,” but like that show, “The Starter Wife” features an ensemble cast of four with Judy Davis (as the Samantha-ish character) and two others (including a naive Blonde and a gay guy) rounding out the cast. There’s the “Desperate Housewives” James Denton/Mike working-class love interest named Sam that acts as the mysterious lifeguard courting Debra Messing’s Molly.
How come it is so difficult for me even as an adult, not to get emotionally attached to items? And now, when it’s almost time to say goodbye to my beloved 
Here is a short list of movies I recently watched on DVD with a couple of recommendations.
By DJ Scott Register aka Reg of 
I won free tix to a local radio station’s “Mixed Lounge” with a band out of the U.K. that I’ve been hopelessly hung up on in the past. I even 
Every once in a while you get to watch a bad movie. Now there are categories for bad movies. Some, are just not what you like, or, you simply dislike the genre like I am not so much into Martial art movies and to me these movies are complete bullshit. But, I can still appreciate a well-crafted movie and directors like Ang Lee, or the extraordinary abilities of the late Bruce Lee. And then you have the really bad movies, and no matter which genre they belong to, you are always laughing and crying at the end of the movie. You laugh because the movie was so bad, but you cry because you know you will never get your money back. So here is a list of a few very bad movies I’ve seen at the last couple of years:
What is it about all those unfunny people like 
I’ve been a little disappointed in season finales as of late. It’s a general rule of thumb that all that anticipation and excitement built around one major event will inevitably fall short of expectation. I can say that after enduring 2-hours of repeatedly asking myself “Huh?” while watching the “Lost” season finale last night that I’ve been humbled into making this particular season finale the exception.
The boxing gloves are officially off. At least according to this season’s “DWTS” finalist Laila Ali who is quitting boxing and in talks to have her own cooking show and go where all drug induced-happy Martha Stewart 
Here is something new that will no doubt get everybody talking. According to the 
The new 
