Midweek Channel 3 adventures

Dead Air Live: I got the impression from its website that this show has been around a while, and has a lot of people involved. I think the subject matter changes from week to week? This particular one featured a "storyteller" (he had his own fabric storytelling backdrop with his name on it) talking about this one fishing trip he and his buddy went on and there were mosquitos and they fell down and etc. The studio audience wholly comprised two admirably patient ~12-year-old girls. Mildly igry and not interesting. (You and I probably get stories all the time out of our friends that are far more gripping than this.) I turned it off.

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TNT Talkabout Live: Comedy call-in show. Husband-and-wife hosts sit in the HOT Set and pass the time bullshitting with the cameraman and screeching at each other over which button to press or announcement to read next.

I can successfully identify where the humor is supposed to be. They're about as funny as your coworkers' friends. Uh ohhh, the guy is also one of the people behind "F'N Card Night", so I already know how that's gonna go.

The running gag is a picture from one of those "worst album covers" websites of some 1972 people. The theme of tonight's episode is jokes. They're mostly schoolyaaaahd shockers (lots of Michael Jackson), and the ones people call in with are even worse, so I'm bailing on this one too. (Also, the callers frightened me.) (Granted, if I was actually was watching it live, I'd be tempted to call in with a joke myself...)

Style note: the opening credits montage runs rather longer than it probably should, using up all ~3 minutes of the old Madness song they use as a theme.

Their website claims that they are "the #1 rated show" on SCAT (I do note that people actually were calling them, unlike poor Joey Daytona on Monday), and furthermore that everything and everyone else on SCAT is "holier-than-thou" and "pathetic".

I shall take special pleasure in crushing them.

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Reeling: the Movie Review Show: From our friends over at Malden Access Television. Whoever cued up the tape did a crappy job, and we were treated to the episode-number splash screen followed by several seconds of calibration color bars and that magic EEEEEEEEE tone. Wow, that's terrible, and probably scared off any curious potential audiencers who weren't watching it for science like I am.

Another husband-and-wife team, but they are mellow and intelligent, far more pleasant to listen to than the hosts of the last show. Actually, the show is pretty good, and makes use of the local angle by reviewing obscure and independent things currently screening at the Brattle and the Kendall, as well as a current blockbuster or two. I think I'll actually add this show to my regular TV schedule... the first "hit" this week, for me.

I would edit it a little tighter, though. When they show clips, they just let each run at its own pace for a minute or two. I have to say that I like the "Ebert & Roeper" style of summarizing a movie with a tight montage of key (but non-spoiler) scenes as the hosts' voiceovers fill in with contextual help.

Feline TMI ahead

Well, she's been here a month now, I haven't heard from her "mom" except for that one uncertain ping (more than two weeks ago), and the other person she once lived with won't talk to me. So it's high time I took her to a vet. I know a lot of you have favorites in the area... now's a good time for a shout-out.

Mostly, this would be just a check-up and a status report; though "mom" told me of her health, I think I'd best get a professional opinion first-source. She seems very healthy, which is good. (Still no barf or litterbox misuse, which is great.) The only thing at all off-balance is that her butt is visibly (and smellily) poopy, more than I think a kitty-cat's normally is. Not horribly so, but enough to kind of gross me out given her predilection for sitting on every surface in the house (including Y.T.). I hope that can be fixed with a change of diet or something... I've been feeding her from the bag of Kitten Chow I happened to have on-hand when she arrived. (She is not a kitten.)