Boomstick in the Morning

Emmy Awards

I’m going to be cool and live blog some of this. I’ve been know to achieve near perfection on my Oscar predictions. These tend to be less predictable so my success rate probably won’t be as great here. Plus, I expect this to be a little bit better than usual since Neil Patrick Harris = awesome. I don’t know if I’ll keep up with this throughout the night, it depends on if the show keeps my interest.

I always tell myself I should aboslutely hate awards shows, and I sort of do. But I can’t stay away from them. I’ll probably just be editing this post throughout the night. BOOM

Edit 8:10 PM: Let me note first here that my predictions are on who I think will win, not who I think should win. I’ll note sometimes if I simply like something else better personally.

Edit 8:12: PM: I don’t know, maybe Jane Krakowski. for supporting actress in a comedy? No clue on this one really.

And I’m wrong. Gahh. 0 for 1. To my credit I said I had no idea.

Edit 8:17 PM: I think it might be Best Actor in a Comedy next? I think that’ll be Alec Baldwin. The Emmy people seem to be obsessed with 30 Rock. I really need to catch up with that show. So mark Alec down as my official prediction there. Supporting Actor in a Comedy… let’s go with NPH. What a cool guy. Also, I’m getting sort of bored already. I will try to keep up.

Edit 8:22 PM: I won’t predict writing categories. Why? Because there can be like 5 nominees for one show. As just evidenced by 30 Rock, whom all the writing awards were for. I wouldn’t even be making an educated guess there.

Edit 8:27 PM: I hate Two and a Half Men so much. Jon Cryer, you are no NPH. NPH rocks you in everything you do. I don’t know, maybe Jon Cryer is ok but Two and a Half Men is just painful despite being a gigantic ratings hit. Also, John Hodman might be the best part of the show so far. His color commentary is hilarious. But anyway, Two and a Half Men, ewww. 0 for 2 so far. I only got three wrong during the Oscars this year. These are just a different beast.

Edit 8:35 PM: JT out for Best Actress in a Comedy… let’s say Tina Fey. Like I said, they love 30 Rock.

Edit 8:36 PM: I think that qualifies as an upset. Did not expect Toni Collette. 0 for 3. I’m sucking at this so bad. I should probably stop while I’m ahead. But I know the point where I stop blogging will be the point where I start getting all of my predictions right.

Edit 8:41 PM: Justin Timberlake makes the second Kanye reference of the night. Anybody want to start an over/under on how many times the Kanye thing is alluded to tonight? I mean, it is the first possible awards show to do this at. I’m going to say Kanye is brought up two or three more times. Also, TV show comedy writers seem so awesome. I totally want to be one someday. Dream career for real.

Edit 8:50 PM: Awec Bawdwin… let’s see…

Edit 8:51 PM: Finally I get one. BOOM BOOM BOOM

Edit 8:59 PM: Does anybody care about hosts of reality shows? Maybe the Amazing Race guy or something. I don’t care.

Edit 9:00 PM: I was gonna diss Jeff Probst but he just quoted Joseph Campbell. And Joseph Campbell is one of the greatest people ever, so I’m down with that. The last few nights I’ve been listening to Bill Moyers’ interviews with Joseph Campbell on my IPod as I go to bed. It always keeps me up because it’s so damn interesting.

Edit 9:06 PM: The Amazing Race has never lost this category so I guess maybe it’s a safe bet? Also Tracy Morgan is awesome. Also, it’s a crime that the truly awesome reality shows (Wife Swap and Trading Spouses) don’t get nominated here. The “Bacon is Good for Me” kid has to be a million times better than ANYTHING on any of these shows. Also, as I typed that the Amazing Race won. I’m like one in six or something terrible right now. It’s going to be interesting when all the inevitable Mad Men love starts later. Also, from now on I’ll only be checking in when something interesting happens. I’d keep up the prediction game if I was any good at it. But now that I can’t impress you guys with my useless award show prediction skills I see no point in it. Because being really good at predicting the Oscars is how to get girls, right?

Edit 9:15 PM: One of the mini series acting winners makes a Kanye West reference. Bring that count up to three.

Edit 10:04 PM: “Motherlover” from SNL was obviously only nominated for musical number because they didn’t have the balls to nominate “Jizz in My Pants”. Nominating Jizz would’ve given me infinite respect for the Emmy people. It would’ve won but instead we get the people who wrote the opening song for the Academy Awards. BS.

Edit 10:20 PM: Michael Emerson finally got a much deserved Emmy. Benjamin Linus= one of the best characters of all time. The crazy thing is I would’ve been just as happy if Aaron Paul won this award too.

Edit 10:24 PM: Aww man the In Memoriam thing ALWAYS gets me. And this time they’re just going full out and getting Sarah MacLachlan to sing “I Will Remember You”.

I’ve been neglecting this through laziness. Perhaps I’m too lazy for the world of blogging but I decided now was a good time to post a few nuggets of information.

The King of the Hill series finale was on Sunday. The most sincere show on television has finally ended, after an awesome run. I wanted to cry but I didn’t. But the final scene definitely was really touching. Seriously, I love the characters on this show. A lot.
PAVEMENT IS REUNITING!!! They’re going to be doing a 2010 World Tour. As soon as tickets go on sale I’m snatching them. This has been the most talked about reunion in indie rock since the Pixies got back together and it’s going to be damn good. I’m listening to Pavement as I write this out of all my excitement. There are few albums where I get as excited at hearing every single song as Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.
The Office starts again tonight! If I’m not lazy expect some sort of impressions right here on Boomstick in the Morning.
I’ve been published! The letter to Brad Lidge that you saw here first on Boomstick in the Morning was in Tuesday’s edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I sent it on a lark hoping it might be published, and alas it has been. I didn’t even know it was in the paper until I received a few emails about it. One email I got was from people that sat behind me at a game last week. I told them I might have a letter about the Phillies in the paper so they looked out for it, and when they saw my email address with the letter they decided to write. Another email I got was from a lady that asked if I was related to the “Eli that used to work at Center City Cadillac”. That Eli happens to have been my great grandfather. I thought that was pretty cool. I also got a few other nice emails. One guy said he never replied to a letter to the editor from the paper but just wanted to tell me how clever he thought my letter was. Awesome.
The Shield is starting to get really good. I know I’m a few years behind on this but I wanted to catch up on one of those “great” shows that I’d never seen before. I just finished the first season last night and the finale was excellent. But I have no clue when I’ll have time to watch the next six seasons.
If somebody ever invents a device that allows you to devour books at five times the normal speed or something, I’ll be the first one in line. I have literally five unfinished books sitting next to me. Three of them I bought just recently for some reason. Oh well, I guess if anything they’ll make nice shelf decorations back at school.
Speaking of school, I’m going to be back there really soon and I’m excited. Funny college stories will surely be posted here on Boomstick in the Morning.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

I feel like a fool. I’ve been hyping up Camera Obscura’s new album all year and only recently have I discovered that their album from just before this one is even better. “Let’s Get Out of This Country” is a damn good song.

Sorry to the several of you reading this. I’ve been in DC for several days watching the Phillies take on the Nationals but I am now back home and ready to do more blogging.

To Brad

Dearest Brad: That’s a picture of us at our happiest moment. We had a pretty good thing going last season, didn’t we? I guess you’ve noticed too that things have been different lately. You’ve been going through some sort of rough patch and I’ve tried to stand by you, but things just aren’t the same. I told myself I’d give this time, but now I have to say what I’ve been dreading… I think we should spend some time apart. This just isn’t working out for you, or for me. Don’t think this means I hate you… I hope we can still be friends despite this. All the good times between us still live on in our memories and I’ll always treasure the time we spent together. Maybe someday we can both grow and mature, then maybe we can try this again. But for now I’d like to test the waters with somebody new. You know how at the end of Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart still loved Ingrid Bergman but chose to let her go, reminding her that they’d “always have Paris”? Well Brad, we’ll always have 2008. This will never change that.

I’m sorry,

Charlie Manuel

Pop Culture Awesomeness: Three Wolf Moon

By now you’re probably all familiar with the pictured shirt, dubbed “Three Wolf Moon”. It’s received almost 2000 reviews on Amazon (many of them hilarious). Proving just how awesome the internet is, LA Weekly reports that coming soon we will be treated to Three Wolf Moon: The Book. Seriously. The company that makes the shirts is looking to publish this book, and juding by chapter titles (“The Wolf Shirt and Baldness,” “The Wolf Shirt and Massage Therapy” and “The Wolf Shirt and Your Love Life”) it looks to be in the same vein as the reviews on Amazon. I’ll be picking up the book since I (proudly yet ironically) own the shirt. While I was on a family trip in New York I wandered into a store that just happened to be selling the shirt, and seizing the opportunity I purchased it. The best part is that there were actually other people in the store buying Three Wolf Moon and other cheesy animal/dragon shirts unironically. But Three Wolf Moon just keeps getting bigger… the article also reports that Three Wolf Moon will feature in an upcoming episode of The Office. Businesses are taking note: “…Amazon talked about “Three Wolf Moon” for over three minutes (!) at their last 30 minute shareholders meeting.” We truly must be living in the best of all possible worlds when Three Wolf Moon is 10% of the discussion at a shareholders meeting for a huge company.

Eight months through 2009 I still think Camera Obscura’s My Maudlin Career is probably the best album of the year. Probably. This is a great performance of one of the best songs off the album. I have to admit, though, these guys look kind of bored.

There’s a movie adaptation of Finnegans Wake! I’ve only watched parts of it but it’s definitely pretty cool. The scene of “the fall” around the three minute mark is especially interesting. I can just be happy knowing the fact that this was even made. As for my own journey through reading The Wake, it goes slowly but surely. It’s an incredible read, but there just isn’t any way to speed through it. Secondary sources are pretty much a must unless you’re Joyce himself.

I’d love to see somebody tackle adapting the “Circe” episode of Ulysses for the stage or screen. I think it could be a really cool play, but maybe impossible to actually pull off. Speaking of Joyce plays, I need to read Exiles. It’s the only work of his that I haven’t even looked at and since it’s a play I could probably get through it a little more quickly, at least compared to The Wake. Man, I don’t know when I’ll ever get around to finishing that book. I was going to set a goal of finishing it up before school begins (in less than a month) but that would be near suicide, plus would probably completely hamper my enjoyment of it. I think I’m just going to read a few pages at a time whenver I feel the urge. It could take a year or more to finish that way, but whatever. That actually seems like the right thing to do. My mind seems to get cloudy whenver I read for too long. When I read in small bits it’s easier to pick up the poetry of tiny sections. Good stuff, my friends.

Genre Spotting: Deconstructionist Romantic Comedy

I watched I Love You, Man for the second time tonight. All summer I’ve been telling people this was the funniest movie of the year. The Hangover was funny (I wasn’t as impressed with it as a lot of other people seemed to be) and will no doubt be remembered as the big comedy hit of the year, but I Love You, Man just worked for me. But this second time around, in addition to its funniness, I realized that this was one really clever, and occasionally brilliant movie. It’s a sendup of romantic comedies so perfectly executed that I could only think to dub it a “deconstructionist romantic comedy” (lol, pretentious). The screenwriters really must’ve just taken the outline of your typical romantic comedy (something like a catalyst, failed dates, the first meeting, falling in love, conflict/breakup, period of loneliness, makeup/resolution) and decided they wanted to put a twist on it. The concept of a guy with no close friends needing to go on “man dates” to find a best man for his wedding is certainly one way to put a twist on that formula.

This is what gives the movie that extra kick. Not only are the jokes and situations hilarious, but the parodying of the genre makes us laugh even when the movie isn’t explicity making a joke. The reactions of Pete’s (the always awesome Paul Rudd) friends and family when they find out he’s been getting close with another guy make you laugh not because the actors are trying to be funny, but because they’re the exact kind of reactions we’d imagine the characters having in the traditional boy-meets-girl romantic comedy. The way the movie takes something the audience knows and replaces the normal elements is just as funny as the jokes themselves. The final wedding scene (spoilers obviously) replaces a normal rom-com situation, such as a last minute declaration of love or a late arrival by the bride, with the best man arriving to the wedding to basically declare his love for his friend. This all may seem obvious but since it plays so close to the rom-com outline, can we actually call this movie a romantic comedy? For all intents and purposes, it is a comedy about love of sorts, except about the love not between a man and a woman but the love between two friends. It takes those elements of the romantic comedy and rebuilds them into something different, in a way that’s funny and interesting.

I mean, it’s not the first movie like this. Annie Hall would be the perfect example of a deconstructionist romance. More recently an example would be (500) Days of Summer. It contains all the classic elements but mixes them up. We start with the breakup and we’re given a unique perspective by seeing all of the little moments that make up a relationship, largely out of order, rather than just a simple linear story. Other than just being well written, these movies put a nice spin on a tired genre.

So, hell, I’d not only call I Love You, Man the best comedy of the year, I’d call it the best romantic comedy of the year.

This was on Digg today. It’s the very reason I love watching crap like Wife Swap. This little kid has got some serious ‘tude and it makes for fantastic viewing. I think I might go on a Wife Swap and Trading Spouses viewing spree before school begins again. Better yet, it would be awesome to just have nights at school where a big group gets together and watches them because this kind of thing is just too funny not to share.

God, I start a blog and all I write about so far is crappy TV. Something more intelligent will come soon, I promise!

Wasting Time With Bad TV

Dating... IN THE DARK

The other night when I was bored at around two in the morning I made my way on to Hulu to see if there was anything worth watching. Against all my better instincts I decided to give the new reality show, Dating in the Dark, a shot. Three girls and three guys spend a week or so in a house and go on dates in total darkness. Then at the end of their time in the house they choose which person they’d like to see. When the girls and guys are revealed to each other, both people have to be totally silent. Finally, they choose if they’d like to meet with each other again. The show is everything that’s wrong with reality television, yet I was thoroughly engrossed for the duration.

After investing an hour of my time into this show I just needed to know if any of the couples stayed together. I was upset to see that the nerdy girl and the suave British dude are no longer a unit. But this information was difficult to come by. ABC should keep their site updated to tell me what happens to these people after the show. I just wasted an hour watching it, the least they could do is follow up on it for me.

I could be wasting time watching better television. I recently watched the first few episodes of The Shield since I’ve heard good things about it for years. I’ve enjoyed it so far but there are some flaws that I just can’t let go… the first episode ended with a scene that would otherwise be fantastic if it didn’t play Kid Rock’s “Bawitdaba” throughout its entirety. That’s just hard to forgive.