floss power!

Factors putting a smile on my face tonight:

• My cell might finally get reconfigured so that I can work at the computer without putting my back to the door.
  
• Lisa took me out for a pitcher and a bitcher last night.
  
• Another reason I like Gmail better than Hotmail: I can not only read Gmail on my Treo (and customize the view), I can reply to and send messages. And view my contacts and tags. That's cool.
  
• My collector's edition of the complete animated Star Trek series arrived yesterday. WOO! YEAH! I'm just about to go watch the one where Spock travels back in time to save his younger self from death in the desert so his older self can survive to go back and save his younger self. Good geekin' times.
  
• It occurred to me that I would like to see Rockapella appear on The Colbert Report. Hot, right? But then I thought of the Kinsey Sicks, and really, that would be better x 10.
  
• It's getting single-digit cold here, finally. But the Subarushi has heated seats.
  
• I got a clean bill of oral health and excessive compliments from the dentist yesterday morning. I went in with teeth so clean, the picking a scraping took far less time than usual. Floss, kids! It pays off.
  
• Ben & Jerry await.
  

Me betcha!

My Thanksgiving turkey trot to Phoenix was terrific. CNE is even cuter than ever, and her parents aren't bad, either. They whipped up a feast fit for royalty, which we devoured barefoot on their patio in the afternoon warmth. "Alice's Restaurant" came on the outdoor stereo about the time we sat down to begin our meal, and Arlo Guthrie was still rambling away when I went back for seconds.


My niece, now just over two years old, has begun to speak in short but complete sentences. Examples:

"Mom! Mom! Kim SILLY!" Did I mention she's very observant?

(Repeating after silly me) "Rock on, Daddee!" Daddy takes direction well. He continued to rock.

And my favorite:

Me: "We should teach her to be a proper Minnesotan even though she lives so far from her Midwestern roots. Jocelyn, can you say 'You betcha'?"

Jocelyn: "Me betcha!"

We've also become the peek-a-boo/hide and seek co-champions of the Southwest. And in that photo, she's blowing me a kiss. It landed right on my heart. Pow. Leaving town was tough. Fortunately, they're all coming to visit me next month for X-mess. Whee!

We didn't just hang around the house, though. We also visited these fine feathered friends at an ostrich farm south of Phoenix. Thank goodness we didn't cook one of these monsters for dinner! One week's worth of leftovers is enough, even when you have the right recipes.

Sister-san and I also got a bit of shopping done, some of it supervised by CNE and some not. And we visited the high-tech college theater over which Chef Jeff presides as technical director and instructor. He showed me some NASA-esque light and sound control boards, plus enough audio and video hookups to keep every backstage area connected with a performance in progress. Not to mention the smaller recital space/recording studio, the digital music studio, the scene shop, green rooms, prop areas, and the special humidity-controlled storage room for the nine-foot Steinway piano.

I would have gotten lost if CNE had not been there to herd us all in her Daddy's wake, urging, "C'mon, Kim! C'mon, guys!" I think she has a future as a tour guide.

The only downer of the weekend was my flight home yesterday getting delayed about eight hours, which got me home a lot more tired, hungry, and behind in household chores than I'd expected to be. But the cats gave me a warm greeting (Thanks, Nicole!) and there was Ben & Jerry's waiting in the freezer, so I'm going to be fine.

NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS

From now on, please address all e-mail to

Jugglernaut1@gmail.com

Hotmail has flipped me off for the last time.

buy fly ms. american pie

Gone to eat turkey in the sun. Will awaken from post-feast nap around Monday.

Can I get Jim Creeggan's phone number?

The Barenaked Ladies concert last night rocked beyond reason. You should have come with me. I told you it would be cool.

a sense of Sunday

There are some people I'd like to e-mail today, but the Hotmail server is playing hard to get. I may have to break down and pick up the phone.

Tonight I see BNL live. WOO! Apparently I'm getting a free seat upgrade, too, from up in the nosebleeds to down on the floor. Double WOO! Not sure how I scored that, but I suspect moving my single behind was an easy way to fill in a one-seat gap. Let's hear it for flying solo!

I saw Casino Royale, the new James Bond movie, on Friday. Doube-OMG! BEST! BOND! EVER!!

Daniel Craig's Bond seems to be more brawn than brains. He sweats. He bleeds. He lusts, loves, loses. He's befuddled by the idea of a tailored tuxedo. He screws up monumentally, not just once but several times. He does not care how you prepare his martini.

This particular chapter in the saga shows us Bond as a newly promoted 00 agent, still very rough around the edges and not yet grown into the suave, sardonic groove Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan typify. Craig's Bond is very physical, almost animal, from the dirty grace of his running and fighting to his feral growls under duress. No need to guess what kind of shape he's in, either; the camera takes ample advantage of his sculpted physique, from the swimming scenes to a nude one. (Need more emphasis on physicality? One scene even takes place in a Body Works exhibit.)

Bond's boss M refers to him as a blunt instrument early on. But watching his transformation from diamond in the rough to sparkling jewel in Her Majesty's crown is more like watching a sword being forged: he's folded in upon himself and pounded mercilessly until there's nothing left but keen sharpness. And there's no doubt that he's a weapon in M's hands.

Now that we've seen where James Bond comes from, I really want to see where he's going next.

the people’s sexiest man alive

Henceforth, I shall refer to my blog as a glob. I encourage everyone else to do the same.

Now, on to business.

People magazine has named George Clooney the sexiest man alive again. *YAWN.* While I agree Clooney isn’t gross or anything, I believe the talent pool is a whole lot bigger than just him and that Pitt guy. So here’s my list. Let me hear yours.

1. Adam Baldwin — Jayne Cobb in Firefly/Serenity. Larger and better looking than all his brothers combined.
   
2. Pierce Brosnan — Remington Steele, James Bond, and other tasty roles too numerous to mention
   
3. Santiago Cabarera — Isaac Mendez on Heroes. You shouldn’t want him. But you do.
   
4. Stephen Colbert — host, The Colbert Report. Smart and funny is definitely sexy. Colbert is Salon.com’s pick as this year’s winner.
   
5. Daniel Craig — the new James Bond. Shake me! Stir me!
   
6. Richard Dawson — OK, not really, but I’m trying to cheer Kt up.
   
7. Nathan Fillion — Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly/Serenity. Go, Captain Tightpants!
   
8. Hugh Jackman — most recently Angier in The Prestige. Hugh can saw me in half any time.
   
9. Daniel Dae Kim — Jin on Lost. You’ve seen him in smaller roles in a dozen other shows and films. It’s time for Daniel to take center stage.
   
10. Ewan McGregor — he acts, he sings, he dances, he has an accent. What’s not to love? Besides those unfortunate Star Wars prequels he was in?
    
11. Michael Moschen — juggler, performance artist. This guy can do more with three balls than most men can do with two. Er . . . Gen X-ers may remember him as the crystal ball guy in Labyrinth; he currently appears in ads for Motorola phones.
    
12. Aidan Quinn — most recently Rev. Daniel Webster on the short-lived TV series The Book of Daniel. I’ve just always liked him.
    
13. Sendhil Ramamurthy — Mohinder Suresh on Heroes. Plays a smart guy on TV, so he must be smart in real life, right?
    
14. Sendhil Ramamurthy — Mohinder Suresh on Heroes. Listed twice because he’s that hot.
    
15. Jon Stewart — host, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Like I said, smart and funny is definitely sexy. Stewart/Colbert ’08!
    
16. Jeff Thacher — vocal percussionist, Rockapella. Just think what he can do with those lips!
    
17. Denzel Washington — He just keeps getting better, and he was pretty fine to begin with.
    
18. Wil Wheaton — Although best known as Wesley Crusher on ST:TNG, Wil has grown up to be a damn fine writer and is still a very good, if underemployed, actor. Brains and writing chops win out over screen time.
    
19. Bruce Willis — half a vote for when he’s playing comedic roles
    

Wow, am I biased toward brunettes or what?

OK, your turn.

election reflections

A couple thoughts on the recent midterm elections:

• Yay democracy!
  
• Stephen Colbert rocks even more than I'd thought before. Did you see him on his 11/08/06 show belting out "The Star Spangled Banner" a cappella with John Hall? Stephen is a comic genius, a lifelong sci-fi fan, AND he sings a cappella. Time to add him and BFF Jon Stewart to the Banjo Sexy list and its sequel, Banjo Sexy II: Electric Boogaloo.
  
• Blogging is officially passé.
  

media rant du jour

Today I yap on about Lost and Heroes. And there will be spoilers. Oh yes. There will be spoilers.




Are you ready?





Last night’s Lost mini-finale, not to put too fine a point on it (say I’m the only bee in your bonnet), bit the wax tadpole. Chomped down hard. Backed up and started to sprint, in fact, in preparation for jumping a Dharma-tattooed shark. Here’s how:

• Kate, in her flashback, loved and left a guy. Um, DUH? That fact that she ditched Nathan Fillion, aka Captain Tightpants, just confirms my suspicion that for a smart girl, she’s a flaming idiot.
  
• Just in case you didn’t catch on to the fact that Action Kate is a fish out of water in a wifely role, she was WEARING AN APRON, which as everyone knows is a sure sign of domestication. It could only be a matter of time before she cast off that bond of servitude to return to her carefree, liberated life . . . of running from a federal marshal whose scrutiny influenced her every move. Ooh, the irony, right?
  
• Kate used Sawyer for some hot, grimy, closed-circuit-videoed jungle lovin’. Again, um, DUH? That’s been coming since the first time he called her Freckles. And she wouldn’t say she loved him? Once more with the DUH. Sawyer always wants what he doesn’t or can’t have. By implying that he doesn’t have her completely, she’s manipulated him the rest of the way into her back pocket. She thinks.
  
• Sawyer, after one night with Super Kate, appeared ready to kneel and be killed, suggesting that his spirit has, at long last, after weeks of gratuitous beatings, been broken. His defeat got Kate all riled, so now she’s the rest of the way in his thrall, right? Please tell me he doesn’t truly believe it, that wily James Ford has one more trick up his tattered sleeve.
  
• Jack pulled a House and decided to pervert his Hippocratic oath for personal gain. Did anybody NOT see him being a selfish enough asshole to do this? Or at least to manipulate people into believing he did this?
  
• Just before the operation, Benry casually revealed a connection to the elusive Alex. Hint: We’re supposed to be curious enough about that to tune back in come February.
  
• As they scrubbed up for surgery, Juliet murmured something about being very good at following orders. Dude, you know she’s just trying to lure Jack into some hot, grimy, closed-circuit-vidoed lovin' in the fish tank. The Other side of the island(s) is really just one big porn studio.
  

Enough soap opera consummation and conflict already! I’m much more curious about what the rest of the crew is up to — solving the mystery of the island and all that. There is some real live supernatural stuff going down over there. The interesting people are over there: Hurley, Desmond, Locke, Rose and Bernard, Sun and Jin, Claire and Aaron. Time to turn our attention back to them.

---

I also watched episode 2 of Heroes last night. It was intriguing enough to make me want more. The story is shaping up nicely, what with the paranormal abilities and time travel and shadowy conspirators and looming nuclear disaster and all. And I really like a couple of the characters already, most notably Hiro.

I will say this, though: The casting director for this show clearly has a cast-one-get-one-free coupon at the Heroin Chic Boutique. I’m not shocked that the actual heroin addict character looks like a heroin addict, but must his girlfriend also look like she’s been strung out for years? Or the blonde femme fatale? Or the politician’s sad-eyed brother? I’m OK with the Indian geneticist; I think he’s just a slim guy who grew up on a non-American diet.

But the girl who lives next door? OH MY GOD, she looks like an ALIEN with a HUGE, BULBOUS, WALLEYED HEAD perched on the BODY OF A MALNOURISHED CHILD. Seriously, that ain’t right. Her appearance goes way beyond “gamine” into “grotesque.” Disturbing. Distracting.

To be fair, though, there are plenty of healthy-looking women and men in the show as well — including the cheerleader, who looks buff rather than Buffy. There’s a strong female cop, plus a beefy (but not sitcom fat/dumb) male cop, the totally ripped politician, and pudgy Hiro. Lots to like. Lots to like.

Summary: More Heroes, less Sexual Fantasy Island.

I voted. Did you?

hoping the clue train circles back around

I got up and out of the house early this morning so I could go vote before work — and drove straight to the office on autopilot. Didn't even realize what I'd done until a coworker came in with her "I voted" sticker on proud display. D'OH! Looks like I'm having democracy for lunch.

Hey, has anybody been watching Heroes? After reading a couple gushy reviews, I downloaded and watched the series pilot last night. It looks intriguing enough, in an X-Men/X-Files/Mutant X/Kyle XY/The 4400 sort of way, for me to try a second episode. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Bonus points for anyone who can tell me in which two of the series mentioned above Nicholas Lea plays an important role.

The Prestige is the shiznit

The Prestige is the shiznit. How intricate and mind-blowing is it? Hugh Jackman’s bare torso is the least of the things that will make you go, “Ooh!” This movie has it all: twists, layers, deceptions, obsessions, and David freakin’ Bowie as Nikola Tesla. There are easily half a dozen mad geniuses in this story, and the ending — the ending! — well, it’s magic, and to give it away would be a crime.

The magic is almost incidental to this story; character is the heart of it. In fact, the secrets behind the key illusions are given away freely, carelessly, onscreen. They’re trifles dwarfed by the secrets of human hearts and minds.

I knew and worked with a magician at one time, and while he was quite the crowd pleaser, he was also as full of emotional sleights and disappearances as the magicians in the movie. That’s one of many things this film gets spot-on.

ah, the prestige

Thanks to multiple, noisy malfunctions by the self-scooping cat box, I was up early this morning. Ridiculously early for a weekend. So early that I beat the post-church senior citizen crowd to Perkins, scarfed down a high-impact breakfast instead of brunch, ran some other errands and got my homestead chores done by noon. NOON, people!

Those chores included a final pass over the yard with the mighty mulcher. After a week of temps in the 30s, this weekend has brought high 50s and even some low 60s, so working outside was a pleasure. Such a pleasure, in fact, that I broke a longstanding personal rule and wrote a poem about it.

Ode to Toro
It shreds the leaves
whilst cutting grass.
The mulching mower
saves my ass.

*bows*

Thank you. Thank you. No, no, you're too kind. Thank you.

And now I'm off to see a matinee of Batman vs. Wolverine, a.k.a. The Prestige. I heard a rumor that Hugh Jackman's abs make a guest appearance. I'm planning to wear my glasses.

After that, who knows?

Behold -- the only source of heat in my cubicle

TVjeebies

Last night was my TV night. I kicked things off with the concluding episodes of the Sci Fi Channel’s time-twisting miniseries 5ive Days to Midnight. Good show. Kept me guessing. There was actual acting in it, a refreshing change from . . . almost everything else out there. Plus, the little girl looks EXACTLY like Drew Barrymore. Netflick it if you get a chance.

And speaking of things that are not refreshing, I tuned in to watch last night’s Lost in realtime because I knew a second-tier character was going to get killed off, and I didn’t want to wait for the download to find out which one. Unfortunately, it was one of the truly interesting people on the island — so you know right away (spoiler alert) it wasn’t Jack, Kate or Charlie. And I had already predicted whose X-rays bore the lethal tumor, so that big revelation was neither.

I gotta tell ya, this show is testing my patience. In the beginning, it was a character-driven drama with some action and some very clever mystery thrown in. That’s what got me hooked. Now action scenes and rat-a-tat-tat plot twists have taken center stage, and character development comes from the valiant efforts of a few actors to squeeze some in between sweaty sprints through the jungle. Lostvivor, anyone? Or The Young and the Lost? Days of Our Stinky, Unshaven Lives?

Oh, and enough with the Sawyer torture already. That is SO X-Files fanfic.

Anyway, I capped off the evening in bed with my two favorite guys, Jon and Stephen. I’m slightly less apathetic about politics for the first time in my life thanks to these “fake” newscasters. But I’ll let you in on a little secret here: the only thing fake about their news is the people they report on. Stewart/Colbert ’08! WOO!

Switching gears: My breakfast cookies arrived earlier this week, which has sent me into an ecstasy of trans-fat-free, complex carb consumption. You want these. Trust me. Go to Erin Baker’s Wholesome Baked Goods and order a dozen (or more!) assorted cookies now! Or zero in on your favorite flavor. The peanut butter & jelly cookie is a longtime fave of mine, but the new ginger & molasses and pumpkin offerings are climbing the ranks as well. I won’t have to prepare my own breakfast for the next month and a half. These cookies are proof of God’s love.