Recent Comments:
Land Rover's ad agency has sick sense of marketing {Autoblog}
Jun 20th 2007 2:32PM Gee, seems Ford is taking one from the GM playbook. Or have we all forgotten the Chevy truck commercials that ran three weeks after 9/11 brandishing the FDNY shield? Or perhaps the several months of incentive campaigns that tried to move steel because it was a "patriotic" response to a terrorist attack.
Having lived in NYC then, I can tell you first hand that this is not a new tactic, but it's just as distasteful.
Lost: Exposé {TV Squad}
Mar 29th 2007 12:48PM Lucas,
A good hour of TV? The Hurley/VW bus episode was great. A lot story advancement? Not really. But it was fun, funny and provide some depth to characters we've invested two years in.
Or the Friday Night Lights episode I watched earlier yesterday. After school special stuff for a plot, but the writing and acting elevated it to something really special.
Girl and boy con rich old man, kill him and steal his money. Money drives them apart. They realize their love right before they die.
Done a million times before, but it can be great if done right. This wasn't in my opinion. It was silly and eye-rollingly over the top.
By the way...when did Nikki become an expert in insects and arachnids? She managed to keep the spiders and butterflies for all this time after Arnst's death? I couldn't keep fireflies alive for more than 24 hours when I was a kid.
Lost: Exposé {TV Squad}
Mar 29th 2007 2:11AM They killed off Poochie in a more satisfying way.
All this episode did was serve to prove how unnecessary these characters were. They die and the deaths in no way move the arc of the story forward. Their absence has no impact on the greater story. The creation of the characters was silly in the first place, and spending an hour fleshing them out only to kill them off, their story still isolated from the main arc, was not "necessary" it was just plain stupid.
Even outside the context of Lost, this wasn't a good hour of TV. It was cliched and lazy and carried very little to raise it above any of 1000 other mediocre hours of TV.
And it's too bad since it seemed Lost was getting its legs back in the last few episodes.
Lost: Stranger in a Strange Land {TV Squad}
Feb 22nd 2007 1:32PM My issue with Lost now is simple -- lack of the question "what?"
Jack has been with The Others for how long? He's bargained and blackmailed and yet he never asks, "what?"
You see people from the plane and you don't ask, "What are you doing here? What's going on?"
Juliet has an emblem burned into her skin and you don't ask, "What does that mean? What is it for?"
They beg you to help Ben again and there's no part of you that wants to say, "Fine, but first tell me what the hell is going on here."
It seems like in an effort to stretch the mystery out over several seasons the writers have simply decided they will no longer write humans anymore. Would any of us if going through this in real life not continually seek that answer to what is going on? Yet consistently throughout this season the characters have conveniently not asked that question at moments when it would be natural. And as a result the characters come across as flat, one-note and shrill.
That's the greatest disappointment. The mystery is fine, and I enjoy the slow reveal, but the characters have been turned into parodies of themselves. That is what is sucking the joy out of the show.
I won't compare it to Heroes. I'll compare it to Friday Night Lights -- a show that has never once failed to surprise and delight with the quality of its writing and character growth. FNL doesn't have the advantage of a slick premise or a built-in mystery, yet despite the banality of its subject (small town football) it regularly delivers greater satisfaction and emotional involvement than Lost.
I want to love this show again, but the problem is more fundamental than slow pacing -- it's lazy writing.
Please don't encourage the hikers {TV Squad}
Feb 21st 2007 6:08PM The weather wasn't inclement when they started.
When they fell they were on their way down the mountain having made the right call -- weather's getting bad so let's turn around and forget about summiting.
It's amazing to me that so many people, you included Joel, feel fine broadcasting your opinion on something without doing even the smallest bit of research.
These were well prepared, intelligent climbers who did all the right things and led rescuers to their location. I'm sorry if you don't like the media sensationalism, but that is not something that the climbers are responsible for.
Please don't encourage the hikers {TV Squad}
Feb 21st 2007 1:19PM Joel,
If you read about this group, or watch most of the coverage, you will learn that they were actually very well prepared and had plotted out a time for the hike when weather was supposed to be clear.
They were saved because of their preparation -- warm clothing, sleeping bags and most importantly a GPS rescue beacon.
Mountain climbing is always a risky proposition but this group actually did everything they were supposed to, aside from falling off a cliff of course.
Ford is not #4, still part of Big 3 {Autoblog}
Feb 2nd 2007 1:54PM #2 -
The U.S. engages in protectionism as well. There are a number of Federal laws limiting foreign ownership in multiple industries. It's not just Japan. Not to mention the (fortunately and finally gone) U.S. steel tariff. We are hardly innocent.
NFL shuts down church's Super Bowl Bash, ratings to blame {Engadget}
Feb 1st 2007 6:29PM aiken,
I really wish that, when people posted articles like this, they'd reas the article before making holier-than-thou statements.
From the article:
"NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league's long-standing policy is to ban "mass out-of-home viewing" of the Super Bowl. An exception is made for sports bars and other businesses that show televised sports as a part of their everyday operations."
Now, the reporter may be paraphrasing there, but it's from the piece, not commenters here.
Spy Shots: Honda Fit growing {Autoblog}
Jan 10th 2007 4:35PM Culot,
You are wrong about the Germans rebadging. Ask some living in London about the Seat Leon, VW Golf, Skoda Octavia -- all viewed as essentially the same vehicles. They differ in important areas, yes, but they are as close to one another as you accuse Acura/Honda being. Toureg, Cayenne, Q7?
You started all this off by making an ignorant blanket statement. I mean no offense by that, but it was. Japan has and does produce some exceptionally "soulful" vehicles by any measure. And the Europeans produce some woefully cold, clinical, joyless transportation on ocassion.
Just admit that you were wrong in generalizing and let's all move on. Then get out there and smaple some vehicles you've flatly dismissed -- you may be surprised.
Spy Shots: Honda Fit growing {Autoblog}
Jan 10th 2007 1:00PM Culat,
Do me a favor, go drive a Fit first then comment. Aside from the almost universally positive reviews of the car, I can tell you from firsthand experience it has a soul. A very different one than the German luxobarges, but a soul nonetheless.
The type of chipper, eager, tossability that once was the sole (pun unintended) domain of VW, until they lost it in the 90s (having recaptured it recently with the GTI). As you point out, the engine isn't the soul. And like the original Rabitt, the Fit's quality is defined by it's performance but rather by its want to be pushed.
Frankly, and CAR agrees with me here in large part, it's got a lot more soul to it than the overly computerized monster than is the M6. Now, the M5, that's a whole other beast.
