@TubularTV Guide to 2010 Fall TV

It's that time of year again, critters. Old favorites and war horses return, and new offerings are flung howler monkey-like onto the nearest wall in hopes that something might stick.

The fall season kicks off in earnest this week, and with so many options, a little planning is in order. Therese at Tubular has once again prepared a comprehensive guide to help chart the way.

Last year I was most excited for V and Flash Forward.  Sadly, Flash Forward turned out to be a flash in the pan (see what I did there)?  V let me down when it came to the lizard baby, but I'll be back for Juliet and the inspired casting choice for Anna's mother.  Nostalgia bait - you're doing it right.  I lost track of Fringe early in Season 1, but T tells me it's the best sci-fi show on TV, so I'm going to give it a go and see if I can keep up.  I might revisit Life Unexpected if I think about it.  I enjoyed the pilot, but I quickly grew weary of Baze and Cate.  I am looking forward to the big CW cross over event though.

It looks like Monday is going to be my night for new shows.  I've heard good things about Lone Star, and it features my tee-vee girlfriend, the delightful Adrianne Palicki.  It's going head-to-head with The Event, which will either be this year's Lost ... or Flash Forward.  I'm thinking the former in real time, and the latter I'll watch online.  Naturally the trifecta of Oahu, Boomer, and the Mayor of Waikiki, Daniel Dae Kim, will have me watching the Hawaii 5-0 reboot.

Of course I am already delighted with The Vampire Diaries' second season, and am giddy with anticipation for Supernatural's return.

And as Boone as my witness, I will get TVD Season 1 recapped and caught up.

Hey, what's today date? 9-02-10 ... OMG it's #90210!

I am indebted to @TinaCharlesTV for pointing this fact out to me.   Who can forget the very special episodes, the drama, the tantrums, the unfortunate fashion, the hair?

Ahh, memories ...

NUH NUH NUH NUH, NUH NUH NUH-NUH

*punch punch*



Looking back, Brenda was kind of awesome.  TEAM BRENDA!



DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES!



You guys, you're upsetting the puppy!



And the number one, all time greatest 90210 moment ... Kelly's choice

Schrodinger's #LOST: The final chat

So, whatdya think of the finale?  The last 10 minutes felt a little Battlestar to me, but overall I was very satisfied, because it was all about the characters' journeys.  That's always been the heart of the show.  The mysteries and the time travel and the polar bears - those were just devices to tell an amazing, complex, emotional story about connection and community.

Come celebrate all of those things in the very last LOST chat over at Tubular.  1:00 pm Eastern time.   So much of the fun of LOST has been discussing and rehashing and obsessing, and I've done most of that with my fellow commenters at Tubular.  I'm going to miss my community like crazy, but I'll meet you all later at the church.

There are lots of ways LOST could have ended.  Would anyone have been any happier if Darlton had taken my brother's suggestions?

• Lost finale prediction...Sawyer flies away on a helicopter and sees jack has spelled "goodbye" in rocks on the ground.
• Lost finale prediction #2: Patrick Duffy walks out of the light tunnel wearing a towel and drying his hair.
• I think it's pretty obvious that Jack is going to win the million bucks at the end.  No way any of the other survivors would vote for Locke.  He's a dick.
• Lost finale prediction #3: Desmond wakes up and Suzanne Pleshette is next to him in the pool.
• Lost finale prediction #4: Locke makes it to the boat but runs it aground on the no brains atoll.
• Lost finale prediction #5: Sawyer and Juliet make out in the Ewok village while badly CGI-ed ghosts of Jack, Locke and Yoda look on approvingly.

#musicmonday: You've been Teen Roll'd

via cupcakes and mace

Vampires don't sparkle. Ever.

Save us Buffy.  Save us from sparkly emo vampires that waste their immortality with high school and watch us while we sleep.

British Friday, Part of the Third: NONSTICK! Edition

Gordon Ramsay swears at you via Eat Me Daily. NSFW, obviously.

Mmm ... this cheese is delicious!

Where a wolf? There a wolf.

Werewolves. Ur doin it wrong.



Werewolves. Ur doin it right.



Even still ... TEAM JACOB!!

Let's go to work

io9 Triviagasm: 10 Greatest Science Fiction TV Show Endings Ever

I found the BSG finale totally satisfying - I don't even mind the "angels among us" twist.

And speaking of Angel, I would add this to the list. Gunn totally survives, irregardless of what Ilyria says.

I wish to do more violence.



And this is called "The Wanton Folly of me Mum"!

How the other half lives

Spring Fashion 2009 - Inside Life at a Male-Model Apartment -- New York Magazine

Photo: Cass Bird

Via Jezebel

The Toy and Action Figure Museum

Or, as my brother and I like to call it, Mom and Dad's basement

Gallery: Giant Midwest Mecca of Nerditude in Oklahoma


Wired via Neatorama

I don't wanna wait ... oops, wrong team drama

So, even though I've blogged about it before ... and I pretty much know all the characters and salient plots points ... I don't watch One Tree Hill.

I don't.

BUT. When one happens to be in Wilmington, NC anyway visiting dear friends, and the opportunity presents itself to take the EUE Screen Gems studio tour and see where the show is filmed .. well.   One goes.

Sadly, this was the only shot I could take on the tour, as the CW doesn't want fans giving anything away.

But we did get to see the high school set including Haley's classroom and the locker room (with poor dead Q's locker *sniff*), Brooke's house (which included a tutorial on product placement from our tour guide), Peyton's office and recording studio, and Nathan and Haley's house. As to the last one, seriously y'all. Nevermind the fact of what 22 year old couple with a 5 year old kid has a house with a pool (and a crazy stalker nanny), what 22 year old couple with a 5 year old kid has a house that nicely decorated? There wasn't a futon or stick of Ikea furniture to be seen. Way to help me suspend my disbelief, SHOW.

Not that I watch. Or have started watching again, so that I can say to myself, "Hey! I was there!"  Because that hasn't happened.

And when one is already in Wilmington, and has a friend who's willing to humour one, one might drive around to see the exterior locations.  Places such as:

Clothes over Bros, formerly Brooke's clothing boutique, before she was attacked and the store trashed, and she decided that maybe her mom, Victoria, had a hand in it and decided to hell with it and gave control of the company back to Mommy Dearest so she could raise a teenage runaway and learn valuable life lessons.

It appears to have also once been Karen's Cafe, the business run by Lucas' mom (toe pick!) before she married Andy the hot Kiwi college professor and had poor dead Keith's baby and they moved away and left the show because parents - when they're not evol Dan - just get in the way in these teen-ish dramas.

UPDATED TO ADD: One thing that we really, truly didn't do was knock on the door of "Peyton's House" and bother the nice family that lives there.


And then we cruised over to the Battleship North Carolina ... and the River Courts.  Scene of many a brooding, dramatic moment where someone, usually Lucas or Nathan, learn an important life lesson.

And we may have also driven over to this warehouse where my friend Dan's ship has a storage space ... but more importantly, it's the exterior of Tric, the all ages nightclub that Karen and Peyton opened and out of which Peyton now runs her music label Red Bedroom Records.

This last picture has nothing to do with One Tree Hill, but it is a delicacy to which I do look forward when I'm in NC. Mmmm ... Cheerwine. Or, as my brother likes to call it, god's own sweat.

 

Team Jacob!

Can you feel it yet? The sensation of the continent tilting as every Twilighter in the country converges on Vancouver for a chance to breath the same air as Robert Pattinson.

New Moon: New Moon Casting Call Launches Tween Exodus To Vancouver

Pop it like its hot

Popping Up Your Collar - WSJ.com

I'm not sure why one would turn to the Wall Street Journal for sartorial advice, but that's where S.G. of Philadelphia went for guidance on whether or not to pop a collar.

He claims that women he knows "say that it looks more stylish that way".

S.G., I'm pretty sure they're just messing with you.  They are not your friends.

Also, this advice?  Wrong.  Just wrong:

So guys, there's nothing foppish about turning up the collar on leather jackets, coats and some shirts. Check yourself out in the mirror from all angles to experiment with ways to pop up that collar ever so slightly, so that it looks stylish and not too studied.

Because it doesn't address the fact that in addition to looking stylish and unstudied, you will also look like a massive douche.

via Jezebel

Holy Cow! The Winter Classic at Wrigley Field

credit: Getty Images photo by Jamie Squire

Sadly, the Blackhawks lost to Detroit 6-4.  Damn goat.

The Chicago Tribune has complete coverage, for the hockey minded among you.

An open letter to Sports Illustrated

Dear SI,

This?  This right here?  This is how you do a Michael Phelps cover.

credit: Mark Seliger

Kisses,

wax|wendy

GOLDEN BOY: MICHAEL PHELPS: GQ Features on men.style.com

Warning! You are entering a Dune zone! Warning!

I love cartoons and animation. In case you were wondering.  

Childhood Saturday mornings were spent worshipping at the altar of The Bugs Bunny / Road Runner Show.  Every day after school my brother and I would watch Tom and Jerry and Scooby Doo ... and GI Joe, and Transformers, and Speed Racer, and Star Blazers, and Voltron, and Thundercats, and dear lord, even He-Man.

And then Pixar came along to show us what animation can really do.  That the "cartoon" format can be used to tell amazing, honest, real stories.

Monsters, Inc. is probably my favorite.  In part, I think, because it has a similar vibe to the best of the classic Warner Bros. and MGM/Tex Avery cartoons. 

And then there's Ratatouille, which can't really be ranked, because it's just a whole 'nother beast.  imho.

It happens at the 2:30 mark.  In 30 seconds of animation, the film's creators manage to convey the very essence of a sublime meal.  

The other thing I love about Pixar is that they choose voice talent based on who can best serve the character.  So instead of hearing Will Smith play a fish, or Bruce Willis play a raccoon, or Jack Black play a panda ... you just hear the character.

Brad Bird, who directed Ratatouille, cast Patton Oswalt to play Remy the Rat because he felt he could convey real passion about food and cooking.  Never heard of him?  Doesn't matter.  He was the right guy for the job, and that's what mattered.

How did Brad Bird know?  Two words - the Black Angus Steak bit

And then?  Then there's the failure pile.  In a sadness bowl.

If you've actually read this far, and I haven't completely driven you off the deck, check out this Fresh Air interview from 2007 with Brad Bird and Patton Oswalt.  

You've been Macy'd

From zenmonkeyblake via Defamer.

My eyes! My eyes!

I don't watch One Tree Hill. Seriously, I don't. SHUT UP STOP JUDGING ME!! But apparently, James Vanderbeek will be guest starring on tonight's episode.

Oh, James.

Let's review what the other Dawson's kids are up to, shall we? Michelle Williams? Oscar nominated actress. Katie Holmes? Got married, had a kid, lives quietly in LA. Pacey? Starring in a JJ Abrams show.

Dawson, you might seriously want to think about getting a new agent. Like, now.