(US) Summer TV

Here are a couple of shows to tide you over while you're waiting for the new seasons of House/Heroes/BSG/all of the above. Download away.

Burn Notice

You'll watch because of the premise, you'll stay for the chemistry (acting and actual). Spy gets cut off and is stuck without money or legal contacts in Miami. Reconnects with his estranged mom and takes odd jobs to pony up enough cash to find out who burned him. Has two sidekicks: an on-off girlfriend who used to be an IRA bomber, and a retired CIA buddy who drinks a lot and collects sugar mommies.

Cool use of voice-overs and subtitles, especially when explaining surveillance techniques and spy protocol. It also gives the show a "MacGyver" vibe, which extends to the jerry-rigging and improvisation using hardware tools. But Michael Westen is an anti-Mac in that he's itching to get back in the game. He also doesn't have the do-gooding, tree-hugging, anti-gun image of Angus, preferring, instead, to wheel and deal and put one over the bad guys.

Jeffrey Donovan is not dashing like Bond but has this insincere smile that never fails to crack me up. Gabrielle Anwar is still hot and (unlike, say, Jennifer Garner) projects enough edge and moxie to make for a believable covert operative. And Bruce Campbell is Bruce Campbell.

Best viewed as a marathon, with friends and food.

Mad Men

The show costs 2.5 million per episode, most of which is spent on production design (for which it'll probably win an Emmy). It's set in Madison Avenue in 1960, the "golden era" of advertising where people smoked all the time, blacks were waiters and doormen, and women were housewives, secretaries, or mistresses.

The main storyline is a bit too soap opera-ish for me but the B plots are cool. In the first two episodes the structure of an ad agency is explained by copywriter hitting on a secretary, the idea behind the Lucky Strike "It's Toasted" slogan is shown, and the basic concepts of psychology and consumer research (taken for granted now, revolutionary for that time) is discussed.

The cast is a bit big but the first few episodes introduce us to everyone. Best viewed in installments.

Book love

I agree with Cathy Babao-Guballa when she says in today's Inquirer that book-loving parents raise book-loving kids. You can't expect to raise a child who reads if you yourself can't find the time to. It's a matter of giving kids an idea of what it means to be grown-up. It's the reason we're given toy cars to drive and oven sets to bake plastic cookies in. It's all about kids aping what their parents do.

Of course there are exceptions. I had parents who valued education but weren't exactly voracious readers outside school. Yet my brother and I became speed-reading bookworms before the fourth grade. In our case it was a matter of skill and serendipity. We learned how to read even before school and found the task easy and enjoyable.

I remember holding back in nursery when the teacher asked the class to read aloud the words on the board. While half the class can barely keep up, I was already past the "reading aloud" stage, discovering that you can read more books if you just used your eyes.

From 2nd grade onwards (when we were allowed to take out library books) I finished the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew collections in one quarter, devouring them at a rate of one per day. This was after classes. Lunchtime was spent reading comicbooks. We followed the Wolfman/Perez "Teen Titans," "Batman and the Outsiders," and "Crisis on Infinite Earths." The latter taught me to appreciate complex plotting, although I wouldn't realize it until college.

Then there was the time when the television broke down. We were at a low point financially so our parents had TV repair way below the list of priorities. I read random encyclopedia articles in between fiction.* Books were becoming an addiction especially since we discovered the National Bookstore bargain bin. To kids with indiscriminate taste and less than P50 to spend, a shelf full of P10 books was heaven.

College was Xerox heaven. Lit majors had to read an insane amount of stuff and since this was before fair use was strictly enforced by the university we just photocopied everything assigned. There was a cool copy shop that cut and bound the copies just like real books, which just made it more appealing.

My reading habits changed a bit after getting a PDA in 2000. This meant I could store dozens of books in my pocket and read them whenever I was waiting in line or eating alone. This led to my multiple book thing, which persists to this day. I'm usually in the middle of two books in my Palm ( one fiction and one non fiction), a comic series on my laptop, a book in the office (usually work-related), two more at home, and one in my bag.

So I guess it's pretty safe to say that I'll beget kids who read a lot.

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*I still do. I've recently started reading a couple of random Wikipedia articles everyday.

A new blog

I have a new blog called Business for Creatives that I put up to respond to questions my students and other people in the creative services (graphic and web designers, illustrators, photographers, etc.) keep asking regarding putting up and managing their own businesses. I think being part of a pretty successful creative business startup plus having a graduate degree in business qualifies me to do this (I can discuss both theory and practice).

Plus, it seems I'm the first one in.

There are a lot of blogs, websites, and books about the topic but most of them have a US or European perspective. There's nothing out there specifically for Filipino creatives.

There's a book or regular print column in there sometime in the future but for now there's the blog. So please check it out, ask questions, and give suggestions for future topics. I aim to post a new article every Monday, supplemented by interesting links and comments throughout the week.

Currently up there are tips on pricing, an interesting link on spam filtered words, and a case of possible trademark infringement.

Thank goodness for MP3 players

So I'm in Cubao doing some shopping and checking out the National Bookstore Superbranch sale. I got a great deal on some graphic novels and a few other titles I've been waiting to go on sale. It's afternoon and the usual coffeeshops are full. I wanted to sit down and write a bit so I wander and find an Italian cafe called “Volare” at Araneta Coliseum. The place serves a decent (if scant) Americano and a delicious mango cake. But the real killer was the in-house music.

Yes, they have ALL versions of “Volare.”

From Tony Bennett and Frankie Valli to various instrumental arrangements to a house mix to a frakking punk rock version. It might be worth the time to check it out just to be aware how many covers there are in existence.

Kabahan na ba tayo?

Teenage girl rushed to hospital after coffee overdose. [The Guardian via jessicarulestheuniverse]

And here I was hoping to get me one of these:

Fighting rain

Generally speaking, the way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.
-- Miyamoto Musashi

When a warrior goes to battle he must consider himself already dead in order to fulfill his mission. The idea is to not be preoccupied with preserving your life, thus focusing you on the goal at hand regardless whether it results in your death or not.

When caught in a thunderstorm you must consider yourself already wet. Your shoes, your clothes, your face will be drenched despite your best efforts. The sooner you accept that outside of a full boots-raincoat-plastic pants get up, any kind of rain wear will not stand up to buckets of water falling from the sky buffeted by winds, the easier it will be for you to negotiate a path through said winds.

The goal is to navigate. Aspiring to dryness at the destination is folly and may even prevent you from your goal.

It sucks to be me

If you haven't heard Avenue Q yet, here's a good sampler from the Tony awards. I'm selling tickets to the September 14 show. See the sidebar for details.

Philippine Cast:
Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut - Rachel Alejandro
Gary Coleman - Aiza Seguerra
Christmas Eve - Frenchie Dy
Princeton and Rod - Felix Rivera
Brian - Rick Everley
Trekkie Monster, Nicky and others - Joel Trinidad
Mrs. Thistletwat and others - Teenee Chan

No goths in sight

Gasp! The Cure in concert in Hong Kong with no goths in sight. The Grateful dead and Phish always get hippies, while metalheads and punks remain so even after growing up. Is the goth lifestyle something you outgrow? Or are they just nonexistent in Hong Kong?

Eh ano'ng tawag sa ginawa mo?

And the "Do as I say, not as I do" award goes to...

Found this along the length of Concepcion Aguila street and Mendiola. I'm not sure if the irony of their info dissemination campaign was lost on the barangay council. At least the "Post No Bill" signs on walls are generally painted on.

More leaked pilots

"Bionic Woman" is a remake of the old series starring Lindsay Wagner, which was a spinoff of the "Six-Million Dollar Man." Just putting that out there before some young'un compares this to Alias, Dark Angel, Jake 2.0, and other newer shows that probably count the original among its influences

That said the Pilot was weak and will probably be re-shot / re-edited. The characters, however, are promising. From Jamie Sommers to her scheming boyfriend to the first bionic woman, there will be secrets and backstabbing galore. Nanotechnology is involved, together with angst, which make for an interesting mix. Think Alias with more powerful ass kicking.


* * * * *

"Pushing Daisies" is simply charming. Shot with a bright filter and employing a narrator that wouldn't be out of place in a Disney cartoon, the show centers around a guy who can bring people back to life with his touch. Instead of playing it serious like "Tru Calling" or "Ghost Whisperer," the show instead is a romantic comedy. Like Tim Burton with a less damaged childhood. Or a sunnier Neil Gaiman. Or Amelie as a man.

These are not the...

...whores you're looking for. Move right along.

Stormtrooper Nerd-Tease

See more like this on kontraband.com

Would've been better if she wasn't in the same weight class as Jabba.

Rejecting fame

The weekend when Neil Gaiman was here a couple of years ago I was hanging out with some friends at Greenhills Promenade, where he was scheduled for a book signing. They asked me what the long lines at Fully Booked were for and I told them Gaiman was coming over. I also said I had an invite to the writers' forum the following day so I was in no hurry to see him.

They asked, "Neil who?"

My brow wrinkled slightly and I replied "The author. Sandman, American Gods, Coraline."

Their eyes were still blank.

My surprise was partly from the fact that Gaiman is not an Alan Moore or Warren Ellis (popular comic book writers) but a guy who has crossed over to writing TV shows (Neverwhere, Babylon 5), movies, and bestselling novels. But of course what should I expect from people who think Paolo Coelho is "deep" and "The Da Vinci Code" is good? (Oh, they didn't say that out loud but literate half who read this blog know the type well enough.)

Anyway, it just amused me to find out the Nail Gaiman consciously avoided becoming famous preferring, instead, to maintain his cult status. I think he will, despite Stardust the movie. The actors who are being interviewed on TV don't even mention him at all. Which means he'll belong to us comic book cultists, academics, and literary geeks a bit longer.

Charles Simic - Poet Laureate

Coolness, Simic is the latest US poet laureate. [Link to NYTimes]

My favorite work of his is still this one, which I got from a lecture by Marj Evasco. It's included in some of my literature midterm exams.

Miracle Glass Co.

Heavy mirror carried

Across the street,

I bow to you

And to everything that appears in you.,

Momentarily

And never again the same way:

This street with its pink sky,

Row of gray tenements.

A lone dog,

Children on rollerskates,

Woman buying flowers,

Someone looking lost.

In you, mirror framed in gold

And carried across the street

By someone I can’t even see,

To whom, too, I bow.

Midterm question: who do the last two lines refer to? (Clue: two words, check the title)

I don't have Asperger's, I'm just smarter than y'all

In an episode of "House," Wilson and Cuddy speculate that House suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of autism. Of course they're wrong, House is just arrogant the same way your kid doesn't have ADD, he's just makulit, and your grandma doesn't have OCD, she's just plain fussy.


Take this test to see if you're slightly autistic or just plain rude. (Link via Pharyngula)

Bittorrent is your friend

Finally the US networks get it. The internet is your friend. Or, more accurately, it can be if you know how to use it properly.

Pilot episodes for new television series have been leaked onto the intertubes by their networks / production companies in order to generate advanced buzz. (The copies are too high-quality to be bootlegs) The idea is to get people talking about the proposed shows way before they're to be shown. And it works, just look what I wrote.

* * * * *

I've downloaded most of them but have seen only the "Sarah Connor Chronicles," which is set somewhere between the second and third Terminator films.

Starring Lena Headey of "300," Thomas Dekker of "Heroes," and Summer Glau of "Firefly," the pilot features explosions and a gunfight five minutes in, more explosions after that, and a scene involving the three of them naked in the middle of a highway that manages not to be gratuitous (time travel is involved). And these aren't regular TV budget action scenes, they're full-on cinematic explosions. They're gonna pour money into this one to grab an audience, which is fine by me.

The story is set up well enough, with minimal plot holes and a lot of elements that could be improved as the series goes on. My suggestions: keep the leads, replace the Terminators, and have a decent story editor. Continuity's going to be a bitch for a series involving time travel. Oh well, here's looking forward to January 2008.