When suckage attacks, counter with awesome.

Jumpin' Jiminey Christmas! It's Wednesday, March 9, 2011, NBC hates me, and this is The Side. I was pretty stoked with NBC, and especially their show, THE CAPE. It's not the greatest show ever, but its really a lot of fun. They had a spiffy "create a villain" contest which I entered, and was really excited about.



But my entry didn't get picked, which kinda sucked, but the one that did get picked looks cool, so I'm alright with that. Then I come to find out that the show is getting canceled. So, they cancel a fun show, but they keep horrible, insulting crap like HARRY'S LAW. Of course they say its about the ratings, but if they showed THE CAPE three times a week like they do HARRY'S LAW then it would probably so a much different story.

SCIENCE!!

Everyone loves to be listened to. So it makes me happy that after bitching that science had stopped being awesome and really started sucking lately, I'm very happy to report that its started turning up some interesting stuff!

For instance, they've found the fossil of a nuclear reactor. That's right it seems that these did occur naturally a long time ago, which is how Fred Flintstone was able to power his TV. The Earth really is a fascinating old gal. All sorts of interesting things go on beneath the surface. Naturally occurring nuclear reactors from before recorded history. It really does sound like crazy science fiction, but there they are. Of course these are completely dormant now as the radioactive materials are long since spent.

This brings to mind a lot of comments people make that are just stupid. "How can Superman be hurt by a rock from his own planet?" Try holding a piece of uranium for a while, and see how you're feeling. "How can marijuana be bad for you? Its natural." You know what has a really killer buzz? Hemlock. Go try it, stoner.

Of course now that we know about these ancient reactors, now we know what really killed the dinosaurs: Pre-historic Geo-Nuclear War! Couldn't be a rock from the sky!

Hey, speaking of rocks from the sky, guess what they found in one? No, not Jimmy Hoffa! They found evidence of alien life! Yep, fossilized bacteria were found in meteorite. Now, these findings are still being poured over like no finding were ever found before, but its looking legit. Fossilized bacteria, and I'm glad they are fossilized as I hear Alpha-Centaurian Flu is an absolute bitch.

So its not a flying saucer or anything like that, but now we have proof of life not of this Earth. This of course has sent quite a few people into a tizzy. It shouldn't really. There's a lot of real estate out there. Somethings got to be out there. And some people are still waiting for them to show up. Of course if they do get close enough to pick up on our broadcasts, I'd expect them to flee are far from this planet as they can. I fully expect that if we do have an alien invasion, like in SKYLINE or this week's BATTLE: LOS ANGELES, that it'll be because the aliens had seen JERSEY SHORE and have a pressing need to vaporize Snooki.

And, of course, there's those people who are determined to make science suck, like the other NASA group saying that the fossils inside the rock from space are from Earth contamination. They're saying that they fossils being from space somehow implies that life on Earth didn't originate here, which is pretty stupid. Some people have some kind of weird notion that life must have originated in only one spot. Its like the notion that life spawning in more than one place is impossible. That's fairly stupid. Ah well, the findings are still being poured over, and we'll see what's up.

MOVIES!!!

Its a movie with Kevin Bacon AND Nathan Fillion!!! Kevin and Nathan! Nathan and Kevin! This is destined to be the greatest movie of all time!! OK, maybe not, it'll probably be more like KICK-ASS if KICK-ASS was funny and enjoyable.

MUSIC!!

Mumford and Sons has been getting a ton of radio airplay around here, especially on the local rock station. I don't think this tune will make their play list, but for whatever reason Dave Matthews did, so we'll see.



That's all for today. More work for me, which is cool since that's what lets me buy some comics. See y'all on the Foxtrot.

The Cape Versus Al Bundy!!

Where's my remote! It's Wednesday, January 12, 2010, I've been watching a lot of TV again, and this is The Side. It's been nice to zone out on with the tube with all the stuff going on in the world. The events surrounding Arizona shooting is going as expected. Fortunately Congresswoman Giffords continues to improve. More stuff keeps coming out showing the shooter Jared Loughner is crazier than fuck all. And then there's the complete assholes wanting to use this as a political hammer to bash Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, and basically anyone who ever had a conservative thought in their head, all the while telling them that they need to tone down their rhetoric.

They've gotten around to the "we need more gun laws" bit. Took all of two hours. Loughner got his gun legally. How could he do that if he was obviously a raving nutball? Don't they do background checks? Of course they do. The problem was this guy had nothing in his background officially to send up a red flag. It sucks, but the answer is catching these guys early. When it seems like someone's off kilter those around him should be contacting authorities instead of just waiting and hoping not to be around when he finally snaps.

Some people think the answer is just make it so nobody has guns, but then only the criminals would. I don't personally own a gun, but I'm all for gun rights. Because sooner or later that zombie apocalypse is gonna hit, and its going to be those pesky hippies that go first. All their pompous tree hugging peacenik crap don't mean squat when the shambling dead are looking to get their nom noms on. Me and the rest of the NWA will be over at HQ, well armed and well stocked with beer.

TELEVISION

Digital television is still lame in comparison to the old analog signal, but to make up for that my television continues to grow new stations at random. Its very weird because there's channels that sometimes come in, but often go to a weird gray screen and lock up the TV for a few moments. Recently its grown a "Live Well" channel which I haven't found much of interest on, but it looks like there's some health shows on. The other new addition is "Antenna TV", and its awesome.

Essentually its a poor man's TV Land showing old TV shows. That including MARRIED WITH CHILDREN every weeknight. Its amazing seeing Ed O'Neil in the show's first season from 1987, especially since he's still doing very well now. There's phones with chords. Oprah is still there, but I'm not sure if its skinny or fat Oprah. David Faustino is just a kid. Christina Applegate isn't quite a full fledged babe yet. And yes, the show is still hilarious.

I did check out a show that I knew about but never watched: Maude. Yep, Deadpool's fixation in all her glory. The episode I caught was just crazy. A guy was choking and the solution from a character who I assume is supposed to know something about medicine quickly instructs another character to get a slice of bread and has the choking victim eat it. That somehow saved him! Bread is magic! And at the crux of the story was an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy in which a young, wise-beyond-her-year character let us know that an abortion is a wonderful, empowering thing. That was pretty stunning. The glowing praise for an abortion. I think I've seen all I need of Maude.

And on the weekend they show the boys. Moe, Larry, Curly, and on occasion Shemp. The Missus before last weekend had never watched The Three Stooges. She's got a weird bias against black and white TV and movies. I'm working on that, and this was a huge step because she loved the Three Stooges.

However she was less than thrilled with our daughter walking around the house saying "Nyuk nyuk nyuk."

NEW SHOW: THE CAPE!!

NBC has rolled out its newest show, THE CAPE. Its about a policeman who is framed for crimes he didn't commit and is thought to have been killed, but is really working to getting his life back and stop those who framed him. To do this he become a mysterious superhero to hide his identity and keep his family safe. Its a fun show, as long as you don't take it too seriously. The special effects are nice. The acting is earnest to the point of almost being campy. Its unapologizing in how weird and far-fetched it is. Its one of those shows that if your are going to enjoy then you're just going to have to go with.

The emotional center of the show is the relationship between our hero Vince Faraday and his son Trip. I felt genuinely bad for the kid. Vince's entire motivation isn't so much revenge as his desire to get his life back so he can be with his wife and son again. The writers aren't overly heavy-handed about it, which is good as this show is meant to be fun.

The weirdness is in the details. The villain is a Lex Luthor type who runs a giant company and has privatized the police force. He also sets himself up with a super villain alter ego known as "Chess". The other villains we meet, Scales and Kain, and similarly over the top. Vince gets is training to be the Cape from bank robbers who who are carnies. His fight training comes at the hands of a really ornery midget, who I like because midgets kicking ass is surprisingly awesome. Vince learns the tricks and techniques of magic and escape artistry surprisingly quick. Then there's the Oracle proxy known as Orwell played by Summer Glau who has made the transition from cute teenager to hottie. All these oddball twists we're expected to buy into wholesale, and its pretty painless to do.

I think the main thing going for this show is our hero is ultimately pretty relate-able. He's a family man going to extraordinary means to get his family back. He gets his butt handed to him quite a bit. They showed two episodes back to back the other night and poor Vince got pretty banged up in both.

Bottom line is the show is alright. Its fun. The fight scenes could use a bit of work from my perspective, but I like to get good looks at technique. So I can say give it a look. I'll likely be following this for a while.

MUSIC!!

This tune was playing when I dropped into Local Heroes the other day.



Rat-a-tat-tat, we're done just like that! See y'all on the Foxtrot!