April 19th, 2009
I find the interactions between people fascinating. Who speaks to whom, who ignores whom. How the reaction of someone can change completely depending on who they're interacting with. Often it matters very little the content of what's been said, but the biases that people bring with them to the conversation. He was a dick to me when I first met him, so even if he has just said the most profound thing I've heard all day, it's not going to affect me as much as if someone else had said it.
This is the sort of thing I think about: how can one adjust what they're saying, the way they're saying it, the style, the syntax, in order to reach their audience. Over concentration on this has perhaps lent my personality a bit of a chameleon quality: it shifts depending on whom I speak to. I'd like to think though that the basic message of what I say doesn't change, however, just the form that I deliver it in.
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February 27th, 2009
Adam Carolla, former co-host of Loveline, was removed from the airwaves last Friday when his morning talk show was replaced. I've never been a fan of morning radio that doesn't consist exclusively of songs I can rock out to, but there was something different about his show. It was addictive, amusing, and sometimes even moving. Adam Carolla brought the same interest in the intricacies of the English language, and his propensity to rant--often with great hilarity--on nearly any subject as he displayed during his time at Loveline, and coupled these attributes with a more grown-up sensibility. Gone were segments like the infamous Lightning Rounds (something I personally couldn't stand). Sadly, I only found the Adam Carolla Show several months before its cancellation, but in those several months it became a major part of my rather meager podcast rotation.
Happily, after his cancellation on Friday, he's started his own podcast, which you can find here. It isn't as focused as his radio show was, but that's to be expected: it's only him, his friend, and whatever guests he can talk into coming on the "show." If you were a fan of Loveline, or of the Man Show, or of any of the myriad other productions he was a part of, give it a listen. His brand of humor isn't for everyone, but for those who enjoy what he does, there are very few who are any better.
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August 23rd, 2008
...and ready to fight spam-bots!
Over the last two weeks or so it appears that my site has been discovered by spammers. I haven't so much as touched my PHP text, but it still was a relatively easy task to institute a bare minimum of anti-spam feature goodness in my comment form. Hopefully, despite its simplicity, it will keep out all but the most determined sellers of viagra and penis-embiggening juice...
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May 13th, 2008
Ever since my dad and his wife headed home after their visit to Japan I haven't had the drive to pick back up any of my studies. The fact that the weather has taken a turn for the worst this last week hasn't helped things any either. Still, there's something a bit magical about curling up with a good book or a movie while the rain plays out a staccato rhythm on your windows. In that spirit I'd like to share three things I've recently become caught up in.
Internet Comedy Radio
I'm sure many of you know this, but if you have iTunes on your computer, you have a quick and easy access to a variety of Internet radio stations. Since I'm far too much of a fuddy duddy to know what all the young hep cats are listening to on their boom boxes, I tend to avoid stations which deal solely in music and focus instead on those which offer comedy broadcasts. My current favorite is
Social Crime Radio which broadcasts a selection of standup from both the recent and venerated greats. Comedians like Robin Williams, Dean Cook (who apparently has built up quite a base of people who hate his guts), Patton Oswalt, and Bill Cosby, among others.
The only thing I can fault Social Crime with is the frequency of repeated standup acts. Since they broadcast entire acts, when Bobcat Goldthwait comes on for the umpteenth time, that's basically a 40 or so minute block of time which you'd best spend on some other pursuit.
One of the things I really like about listening to Internet comedy radio is that it's exposed me to comedians I never got much of a chance to listen to before. I've gained a new respect for the likes of Chris Rock and George Carlin, and had my faith in Lewis Black reaffirmed.
Scrubs
What a great show! The first season of
Scrubs aired just before I left for Japan some six years ago. I think I got to watch about half of the season before it was time to hop a jet plane for this land of dancing, sushi-making robot geishas. A friend of mine just recently turned me on to a site for watching streaming videos of each episodes and I've taken up where I left off six years ago in catching up with the episodes I've missed. Although I know the one absolute certainty regarding American TV is that the creative juice behind the shows starts to dwindle after the first or second season(
Deadwood being the sole exception I'm aware of), I'm enjoying the ride so far.
There's something very cute and whimsical about this show, and although each episode is required by federally mandated law to have some sort of moral where our hero learns a Valuable Life Lesson, Scrubs is able to avoid the usual vomit-inducing aftereffects by never taking itself too seriously. And by having a heart. The relationship between Turk and JD is, I believe, central to the show, and made all the more real by the fact that these two seem to generally be friends offscreen as well as on. Which is why I wasn't surprised to learn that Zach Braff (the actor who plays JD) and Donald Faison (Turk) are friends in real life as well.
Blade of the Immortal
I read several of the English translations to this comic series when I was in college and always told myself I'd pick it back up again in the future. Although I've been in Japan six years now, I somehow never found the time or the motivation to get back into this series. Until recently that is.
More than just the artwork, which is very good, however, it's the depth of the story and the characterization which makes reading
Blade of the Immortal such a treat. None of the characters are treated in black and white, and all have their own reasons for what they do. The story centers around a young girl (16, I think she is) named Rin whose parents are murdered by Anotsu Kagehisa and his followers, and details her quest for revenge. Realizing she can't defeat Anotsu, a master swordsman, by herself, she employs a cynical, world-weary and foul-talking bodyguard, Manji who has his own penance to undergo.
One of the highlights of this series for me so far has been when Rin realizes the men she and Manji are killing in the name of vengeance have families and friends, people who will miss them when they're gone. And that by avenging the deaths of her parents, she'll be putting others through the same ordeal she herself has undergone. Definitely not your average fare.
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