#1 The Wire, #2 Sopranos, #3 Deadwood.
Those are elite shows that reward repeated viewings seemingly without limit, as do Game of Thrones, Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The first half of Season 5 of Breaking Bad was good enough that I went back and rewatched the rest of it, wondering if it was better than I'd remembered. It wasn't. It's a fine show but I doubt I'll watch it again, putting it in roughly the same company as Weeds, Mad Men, Lost, and Dexter. I might rewatch Parks & Rec, Community, Rome, Sherlock and 6 Feet Under, but doubt I'll ever consider them elite. Boardwalk Empire is enjoyable but I don't see it landing in the elite category.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
welcome, neighbor!
About a year ago, my research group moved our operations to a different lab. Our new space has a door that opens directly into adjoining office space. They aren't our offices, but after several weeks without seeing anyone in there, I began using the space when I needed someplace to sit and work on my laptop when I need to leave the lab to afford some privacy to participants in my experiments. I'd just let myself in through the unlocked door and sit in there at a table, leaving no trace of my presence, aside from a hand-written note introducing myself, explaining when and why I let myself in, and asking them to contact me if there was any problem at all. I arrived one day to find the door locked for the first time. I went out through the hallway and spoke to an administration person who happened to be there. She explained that they'd just finished changing the locks on the door in response to security complaints from the "occupants," and that I'd no longer be able to use the space. The hallway door to those offices has a glass window. I check sometimes and have still never seen anyone in there.
The incident is fairly representative of my experience at this particular institution.
The incident is fairly representative of my experience at this particular institution.
Monday, September 03, 2012
Ballin' with The Boss
A big part of being a high profile politician is being a good actor. You have to be able to say all kinds of absurd things with total sincerity. The story here is that Obama is good at acting because he practices, and he's athletic and likes sports so they like to cast him in roles in movies like "Ballin' with The Boss." Naturally, NYT perpetuates the theatre instead of reporting, administering a slobbery tongue bath to the narcissistic asshole they describe.
He preemptively blames his staff for problems by claiming his superiority to them at their jobs. So confident! My favorite part is Obama whining ("in his darker days" ha!) about how he should be judged against the accomplishments of the hypothetical Republican alternative rather than on his own record. Dude is the exact same as them! What, he's pissed off that we don't care that Bush didn't even bother to work hard at the acting while basically doing all the same dirt? Dude pardoned Bush and his accomplices for their crimes and continued and escalated those crimes in between his golf lessons with PGA pros. NYT focuses on the golf. Dude got his Grammy and his 2008 Marketer of the Year. He isn't satisfied with those performance awards and wants voters to give him credit for it too? Seems kinda greedy, dude. NYT ignores that Obama can't go all-out against the Republicans because he's complicit in all of their crimes. So competitive! Bullshit! So cooperative. So compliant.
By the way, here's the plot of Ballin' with The Boss, which won 25 Oscars, 56 Golden Globes and 3 Nobel Peace Prizes. Once upon a time Obama called in a "double tap" drone strike on a bunch of Pakistani "militants," knowing full well the NYT would comply with his directive that all young men killed will be called militants. A few minutes later, while he lectured a very special group of underprivileged teens how anything is possible, the first tap killed 9 members of a wedding party. A few minutes after that, the second tap killed 8 would-be rescuers and 16 survivors of the first attack. A few days later, Obama talked a bunch of shit while slacking off on defense, then demanded the ball on offense, knowing his White House staff league basketball opponents would never risk challenging his drive to the basket. The one time a brash young intern plays tough defense on Obama, the ref calls a highly questionable foul. After the game, Obama teammates laud his accomplishments. He's so smart and talented and his close friend says he tries to do his best!! The next day the intern is fired. About a decade later, 50% of the long forgotten very special underprivileged audience have been killed or incarcerated in the war on drugs, 90% have received inadequate medical care, and the few who made it to post-secondary education are an average of $79,00 in debt with no job prospects. Meanwhile Obama basks in the luxury and prestige of the post-Presidential speaking circuit, collecting unimaginable speaking fees from all his partners who profit from the destruction of the lives of inconsequential losers. Obama plays to win!
He preemptively blames his staff for problems by claiming his superiority to them at their jobs. So confident! My favorite part is Obama whining ("in his darker days" ha!) about how he should be judged against the accomplishments of the hypothetical Republican alternative rather than on his own record. Dude is the exact same as them! What, he's pissed off that we don't care that Bush didn't even bother to work hard at the acting while basically doing all the same dirt? Dude pardoned Bush and his accomplices for their crimes and continued and escalated those crimes in between his golf lessons with PGA pros. NYT focuses on the golf. Dude got his Grammy and his 2008 Marketer of the Year. He isn't satisfied with those performance awards and wants voters to give him credit for it too? Seems kinda greedy, dude. NYT ignores that Obama can't go all-out against the Republicans because he's complicit in all of their crimes. So competitive! Bullshit! So cooperative. So compliant.
By the way, here's the plot of Ballin' with The Boss, which won 25 Oscars, 56 Golden Globes and 3 Nobel Peace Prizes. Once upon a time Obama called in a "double tap" drone strike on a bunch of Pakistani "militants," knowing full well the NYT would comply with his directive that all young men killed will be called militants. A few minutes later, while he lectured a very special group of underprivileged teens how anything is possible, the first tap killed 9 members of a wedding party. A few minutes after that, the second tap killed 8 would-be rescuers and 16 survivors of the first attack. A few days later, Obama talked a bunch of shit while slacking off on defense, then demanded the ball on offense, knowing his White House staff league basketball opponents would never risk challenging his drive to the basket. The one time a brash young intern plays tough defense on Obama, the ref calls a highly questionable foul. After the game, Obama teammates laud his accomplishments. He's so smart and talented and his close friend says he tries to do his best!! The next day the intern is fired. About a decade later, 50% of the long forgotten very special underprivileged audience have been killed or incarcerated in the war on drugs, 90% have received inadequate medical care, and the few who made it to post-secondary education are an average of $79,00 in debt with no job prospects. Meanwhile Obama basks in the luxury and prestige of the post-Presidential speaking circuit, collecting unimaginable speaking fees from all his partners who profit from the destruction of the lives of inconsequential losers. Obama plays to win!
man avoids being anywhere near a mass murderer: controversial?
As a personal strategy for dealing with brutal evil, Chris Floyd often endorses the words of Thoreau: “How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.”
Today Floyd and others highlight Desmond Tutu's embrace of this approach in his shunning of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Tutu refused to speak at a conference at which Blair was paid $238,000 to speak, and asked why African and Asian mass-murdering war criminals are held accountable for their crimes at the international criminal court while Blair and George W. Bush (and the elder Bush and Clinton and Obama and Powell and Cheney and Rice) scamper around the world collecting fat speaking fees, book deals, and peace prizes.
Floyd's other favourite American poet has the answer:
Democracy don’t rule the world
You’d better get that in your head
This world is ruled by violence
But I guess that’s better left unsaid
Today Floyd and others highlight Desmond Tutu's embrace of this approach in his shunning of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Tutu refused to speak at a conference at which Blair was paid $238,000 to speak, and asked why African and Asian mass-murdering war criminals are held accountable for their crimes at the international criminal court while Blair and George W. Bush (and the elder Bush and Clinton and Obama and Powell and Cheney and Rice) scamper around the world collecting fat speaking fees, book deals, and peace prizes.
Floyd's other favourite American poet has the answer:
Democracy don’t rule the world
You’d better get that in your head
This world is ruled by violence
But I guess that’s better left unsaid
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