Tag: Television

Dancing in the Dark

I’m not great with anniversaries.

I don’t mean my own wedding anniversary. I’m pretty good at remembering its date, including year, from which I can then figure out how many years it’s been.

But, like, work ones. I’m always amazed at people who can rattle off exactly how long they’ve been at a company. I had a big anniversary at work recently, so I’m good there for a bit, but I’ll forget the exact number soon enough. Just as I’m not sure how many years at I’ve lived at my current house, what year my car is, or how old the dress I wore yesterday is.

I was wearing a dress because we went out ballroom dancing. We were seated with a couple who have been dancing only a couple years longer than we have, and so we were trying to remember how long ago we had all started.

Of course, I was no help, but nobody was having much luck, until Jean had a flash of inspiration.

“How long ago was My So-Called Life on TV?”, he asked.

“20 years.” . (Why did I know that? Because I looked it up recently, when writing my Jared Leto blog post.) “But what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?”

Then I remembered: “Dancing in the Dark”.

No, not the Bruce Springsteen song. Episode 2, Season 1 of My So-Called Life, entitled “Dancing in the Dark.”. The one where Angela’s parents, Patty and Graham, try ballroom dance classes to “reconnect”. Only, they just end up arguing.

Patty and Graham ballroom dancing
Patty and Graham at dance class

Upon seeing that episode, Jean opined that he would most definitely be more open-minded to the whole dancing thing than Graham had been. Cut to a few weeks later, and Fred Astaire Studio called offering free ballroom dance lessons. Jean then felt obliged to agree and try it out. That’s how—and when—we started. ‘94.

I don’t know what’s weirder: That we were inspired by a TV show that made ballroom dance class look like no fun at all, or that Jean is the one who remembered that connection, when I am the one who was  particularly devoted to that show.

But now, I am happy to have now recollected that bit of information.

Unlike that 20 year thing… Knowing that is not making me particularly happy at all. Shouldn’t we better dancers than we are, having done it so long? But then again, we did have that break from dancing… Not just a few months or anything; we went years without taking dance classes, at one point.

In fact, how long was that break? And when was it? A seven year break, five years ago? A five-year break, seven years ago?

It’s hopeless. I can’t remember.

 

 

 

RIP Collage Video

I’m so old that my first exercise video was not even audio-visual: It was sound-only. An LP.

And it was ridiculous. Of course, the instructor (you may have heard of her—Jane Fonda?) tried to clearly explain what moves to do, but that just didn’t always work. What some of the moves were meant to be remain a mystery to me to this day. (But no, I don’t still have the album…)

So the advent of exercise classes on VHS home tapes were a clear improvement. Not all the moves were easy to do, but at least you could always tell what they were.

Exercise video coversAnd as is true in general, the exercise DVDs were an improvement over those. No more rewinding and fast-forwarding. More content could be put on each disk. Easier to pick and choose to do partial or combination workouts.

I love working out to videos. Nothing’s more convenient, you never have to worry about the weather, and unless you’re buying a crazy number of them, it’s way cheaper than a gym memberships. You get something of the illusion of working out with someone else, and even that illusion is more motivating than working out on your own. And the variety available—aerobics, strength, flexibility, or a combination of all. Short, long, or in between. Dancey or athletic. Easy-going, intermediate, or tough.

Whatever your mood today: There’s a home workout for that.

And so it really pains me to see Collage Video go out of business. They sold nothing but fitness videos (along with a few fitness accessories). And they did it better than anyone else.

They broke down each video by all the factors that home fitness die-hards care about: instructor, length, level, workout type, body part focus. They included video samples so you could assess whether a new instructor or style seemed appealing. They had fantastic forums and review comments. They rated the videos themselves, highlighting some as favorites.

But ultimately, they could not battle the price pressure from the likes of Amazon, nor the general decline in the DVD format.

So when I decided I could use some more workouts with a lower-body focus, I did what I always do: I picked up the latest Collage Video catalog and picked out about five that I thought would do.

Only now I cannot order them from the Collage Video website.

Amazon? It had exactly one of them in stock. OK, so I probably didn’t need all five, but I wanted at least one more. I went a-huntin’, and finally located a site that offered one of them as a download. I can burn that to DVD or play it from the computer (which is connected to my TV), so that’s fine. Only, I needed this rubber band thingie for that workout. Collage would have sent it to me with the DVD. With the download… Not so much. So more research for that, resulting in a trip to Walmart to purchase that.

Walmart!

I’m not sure this is progress. I know streaming is the thing now, but the best option there seems to be Gaiam TV, at $10 (US) a month. Not a crazy price, but then, I don’t think I was spending $120+ yearly on exercise videos before…

Jordan Catalano does good

Not sure how many people are just learning about Jared Leto now that he’s scooping up every acting award going for his role as Rayon in Dallas Buyer’s Club, but he’s been at least semi-famous for a while.

Woman on street of New York: Are you someone famous?

Jared Leto: Sort of.

— Scene from “Artifact”

He first drew my attention back in 1994 (20 years ago!) for his role as Jordan Catalano, object of Angela Chase’s obsession, in the wonderful ABC series My So-Called Life. And who can blame her—or me? Look at this guy:

Jordan Catalano

Jared himself is embarrassed by his work on this series, feeling that while the show was great, he was not. (He therefore did not participate in the DVD release of this series, which is a shame, since most everyone else involved did.)

I think he’s being overly harsh on himself, as I can’t imagine anyone else playing than the part better. From just the script, you’d get a beautiful but shallow dim bulb whose only interest was cars, guitars, and sex. From the acting, you read considerably more going on below the surface: a sensitivity, an intelligence. And you needed that more. Angela Chase intense interest had to be justified by more than just a pretty face.

You’re asking a *man* [to Graham, Brad]—sorry, sorry—to describe someone when I’m sitting here? Here’s what he’s like—fairly—out of it, not unintelligent. Sort of um—stray puppy, you know the type you’re always trying to ease their pain. He may even be a halfway decent person, but let me tell you—*trouble*. *Way* too gorgeous.

— Hallie Lowenthal describes Jordan Catalano to Patty, Angela’s mom

If you’ve never seen the series, you should rectify that, but it was low-rated and lasted only one season.

After that, Jared made movies. And at first, I made some effort to track them down, but the ones he starred in often had limited release, making them hard to get hold of back then (Prefontaine, The Last of the High Kinds, both pretty decent once I did see them), and his parts in movies that were distributed were often tiny (How to Make an American Quilt, Thin Red Line, each featuring him for maybe 5 minutes? His Fight Club role wasn’t huge, either.)

And then there were those movies I was just too wimpy to go see,  afraid I’d find them too disturbing: Requiem for a Dream, Chapter 27, American Psycho…

Around 1998, he formed a band with his big brother and some other musicians: 30 Seconds to Mars. With their second album, they achieve significant success, which has only continued. But that’s no thanks to me. I was happy to have someone lend me one of their albums, but I just don’t like it all that much. I don’t think their music is terrible or anything, but it doesn’t really speak to me, either.

So the whole Dallas Buyer’s Club thing has been nice for “reuniting” with this artist. He has a good-size part in it; despite the AIDS theme, the movie is not that depressing or disturbing; it’s been successful and well-distributed; and I really liked it. Yes, he plays a woman in it (a very attractive woman), but he’s very much a man in the extensive publicity he’s done around it and while scooping up all those acting awards. At 42, he looks like this:

Jared Leto

That’s some great moisturizer he’s using to stay looking so young and gorgeous. But his Oscar speech also demonstrated great depth, integrity, and warmth. Appears Jordan Catalano really is “not unintelligent” and a “halfway decent person”.

Wouldn’t have guessed Jared Leto for the first MSCL alum to win an Oscar.

— Someone on Twitter

I’ve been following Jared on Twitter, despite that fact that he’s clearly not doing his own tweeting (and whoever is might want to tone down the triple exclamation points and all caps that made him sound like a 16-year-old fangirl). But it contains some useful links on what’s doing, and through that, I’ve learned about his award-winning documentary, Artifact.

It’s currently discounted to a 99-cent rental on iTunes, so I watched it last weekend. Directed by Leto under the name Bartholomew Cubbins, it was originally intended to just cover the making of 30 Seconds to Mars’s new album, but became something else when the band entered into a dispute with their record company. The specifics of the band being sued for $30 million for breach of contract are unusual, but bands fighting for better deals from their labels is not. And this documentary focuses more on that.

So, you don’t need to be a 30 Seconds to Mars fan to enjoy it; in fact, there isn’t that much of their music in the film. But I’d say you do have to be a fan of rock music in general, particularly one who may wonder why bands always seem to be getting ripped off by their record companies. And this documentary suggests: Because that’s their business model. Like, it’s routine that labels charge for “packaging” and “breakage” on sales of digital copies of music! The various reductions on artist’ take means they can earn nothing, or even be indebted, even after selling millions of copies of an album.

And why do artists keep signing with labels? Because of the difficulty of coming up with an alternative model, at least for artists that want more than limited, cult success.

30 Seconds to Mars is still with a record company. How they got there, without paying $30 million, makes for some interesting viewing.

Chopped Canada (or what to do with that freeze-dried shrimp)

I’ve written before—though not for a while—about how I’m not a big Food Network fan, despite liking to cook, and being known to occasionally watch TV.

But I have been somewhat taken with Chopped Canada. I’d seen the American version a few times and found that somewhat interesting, so checked out the Canadian version.

The first episode was fantastic because one competing chef was clearly an unlikable ass, and he ended up going mano a mano with a woman—a cooking school teacher rather than restaurant chef—who at first had seemed hopeless out of her element. (The other two contestants were also men, but of less striking temperament.)

And, satisfyingly, the nice woman won. Deservedly. In the end, she made a better three-course meal.

Although the remaining episodes haven’t had such vibrant personalities, I’ve been continuing to find it entertainment. But I can’t kid myself that it’s any kind of useful.

Because in real life, you are never handed four random food items, some of which are barely food (strawberry drink powder, processed cheese slices, macaroni deli slices?), and told that in exactly 20 minutes (or 30 or 60—depends on the round), you have to turn it into an appealing appetizer, main, or dessert, complete with lovely plating. Just doesn’t come up.

However, in a recent episode, where the ingredients were not so much bizarre in themselves as just not seeming to belong together in one dish, two of the items that had to be used were freeze-dried shrimp and dark chocolate. One of the chefs, having made something lovely with the other two ingredients in that round, seemed at a bit of a loss what to do with these ones. So although he seemed quite dubious himself, he just melted the chocolate, and tossed the shrimp in there, and served that on the side.

Of course, the judges were a bit dubious, too. Yet to a man, and woman, they declared the freeze-dried shrimp in dark chocolate to be absolutely delicious.

So there’s my one takeaway from this show so far: Apparently, some day, I need to get me some freeze-dried shrimp and chocolate-coat them. (If anyone out there is brave enough to try this before me, do let me know how it goes…)

Shrimp ... but you wouldn't know it was the same as you make it at home - for the taste :)

Un-chocolate-coated shrimp…

Netflix is for TV shows

My Netflix account remained sorely underused for a long time.

I was generally unimpressed with the selection of movies. Tunneling through to the US site helped—great to finally see Cabin in the Woods, which was a pretty clever, deconstructionist take on the horror genre, and fun to see Roger Daltrey play a gay man (albeit with no love scenes) in Like It Is—but overall, I’d still rather go to the Princess.

I’d be watching maybe one show a month on Netflix? So even though it’s only $8 a month, it still wasn’t great value for me.

So I was quite surprised the other day to discover that, somehow, I had watched every single episode of The IT Crowd on Netflix. That’s 4 seasons, folks. Now, it’s British show, so the seasons are much shorter than with American shows.

But still. I’ve clearly stepped up my Netflix usage. And it’s not because of the movies; it’s the TV shows.

The IT Crowd is hardly essential viewing. But it generally makes me laugh, sometimes quite a bit. So watching just one more episode was often appealing.

Orange is the New BlackI’m also finding the Netflix original series Orange is the New Black rather addictive. And Jean likes it too, which is a bonus. It focuses on a middle-class, white (race is very prominent in this series) woman who is sentenced to a year in prison after a youthful indiscretion catches up with her. It’s not Oz (in fact, that’s a direct quote from the series), thank God, in that it doesn’t have that intensity and violence. It’s much funnier. But it still makes it clear, lest I had any doubt, that I never want to go prison.

Most episodes end with Piper facing some new, unexpected dilemma in this very odd world (based on an actual memoir, by the way), so you really want to know what’s going to happen next. And it’s Netflix, so all episodes are available for… whenever.

As are all episodes of Friday Night Lights, and Louis, and House of Cards, and Derek, and Mad Men and… Yeah. With no commercials, and no download time. How TV should be?

So many screens and not much to watch

We did all our Boxing Day shopping online. We wanted a new big-screen TV for the downstairs TV room; many were on sale for Boxing Day; and you can get the same prices online as at the store. And you can often put in your order even before December 26. And they’ll bring it to you! Talking about this, though, I learned:

  1. A number of people remain nervous about purchasing big-ticket items online.
  2. Said nervousness is now completely foreign to me, as “online” has become my main “store” of choice for so many things.

There is a downside to it, though, in the lack of complete instant gratification. Delivery is fast, but not instantaneous. And with the TV, there was some confusion over the credit card to use, and it took a little longer than usual to arrive. Meantime, the other pieces we realized we needed to make the new TV “go” showed up: The new receiver with its six HDMI ports (versus the zero HDMI on the old one); the HDMI cables themselves; the TV mounting rack. All sitting around rather useless without a TV to pull it all together.

But hey, now they’re one big happy family. And that HDMI thing really does simplify the connections: the receiver, TV, PVR, recordable DVD, international DVD, and computer, all linked to one another in pretty short order. Where the old way, it always seemed to turn into a full-day project. Now we just have to consolidate remotes, because we’re currently juggling six of them!

Our downstairs rooms is pretty big, so we went with a 55′ screen, and I think it looks gorgeous. I thought my old receiver was actually pretty good, lack of HDMI notwithstanding, but this new one is definitely bringing out the bass in a way I hadn’t heard before (from the exact same speakers). Both DVDs can now properly render DTS and other high-quality sound streams. (Neither is BluRay—we had to leave our BluRay upstairs, where it doubles as the receiver for that TV—but that’s minor.)

And finally, finally, it’s easy to project anything from the computer onto a TV screen.

So the only issue is—there just isn’t a lot of good stuff to watch, is there? Admittedly, on TV, there was the Christmas rerun break, and now things are starting again—Big Bang, Daily Show, The Mentalist, etc And I recently discovered I have FX Canada (when did Rogers give me that?), and Louis is a pretty good show. But I haven’t been passionate about a television program in quite some time. It seems like everything really good is on HBO, which I’m just not paying for. The only new network series we really got into, The Last Resort, has been cancelled (though does seem to have a new episode tonight, but not sure how many more).

And web viewing? It’s a bit of an exercise in frustration if you’re Canadian, isn’t it? The networks have stuff, but it’s pretty limited. The American and UK stuff is blocked in Canada, unless you do some VPN shenanigans. iTunes has stuff, but it’s kind of expensive. You can actually find a surprising amount of stuff on YouTube (whole movies and shows), but the picture quality is often not that great, and you get the period “freezing”. We will be trying Netflix, finally, but we all know the Canadian selection and picture quality is more limited.

And I also know I have some sort of data cap with Rogers. That hasn’t been issue up to now, but how much web content can I watch until it is?

I may just have to turn to my (if I do say so myself) excellent collection of personal DVDs. Buffy marathon, anyone?

Genies vs. Oscars

I skipped watching the Oscars this year, but I did watch The Genies, which give out awards for Canadian films. What made the Genies a better bet for me:

  • Show was just 1 hour long, vs. whatever crazy length the Oscar show is. They do this by not covering all the categories on air; just the interesting ones. Hello. That’s reason enough all by itself.
  • It’s not preceded by tons of other Canadian movie award shows, so I had no idea who would win. With the Oscars, thanks to the Golden Globes, the SAG, the Director’s Guild, etc. you pretty much knew who’d be clutching the trophies.
  • I’d seen 3 of the 5 nominated Genie movies, vs. only 5 out of 10 of the Oscar ones. So percentage-wise, higher. (I realize that’s unusual.)
  • Musical performances that weren’t lame, because, as far as I could tell, they had nothing to do with movies. But they were by Canadian performers.

So there you be.

I was totally thrilled to see the young actress from M. Lazhar win the Best Supporting Actress award, as she was really was amazing in the role. And gave quite a delightful acceptance speech.

And it’s alway fun to see Viggo Mortenson, winner of Best Supporting Actor for A Dangerous Method, who was also very charming in his acceptance  speech.

For Best Picture, though, I have to see that I was really pulling for Cafe de Flore. Monsieur Lazhar won, and I can’t really complain about that, as it was quite a fine film, and it gave the director a chance to give the Oscar speech he couldn’t. But Cafe de Flore spoke to me in a more compelling way. At least Vanessa Paradis was recognized for her work as the lead of that film.

Jordis Unga

If there are any other Rock Star: INXS fans out there: Jordis Unga, who started out really strong on that show, then kind of fell apart in the later stages, made quite the splash on the last episode of The Voice. Her energetic performance of McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” had three judges fighting over her, and she ended up on Team Blake.

Rock Star and The Voice had similar qualities that made me prefer them over Idol (which I don’t watch now—but I did see a few seasons of the Canadian one):

  • No hopelessly delusional, bad-singer contestants. If they’re on air, they’re at least pretty good.
  • Many ages represented, not just kids.
  • An appreciation for a variety of voices and a focus on developing their own style, not on being able to sing everything.
  • The judges get a say in who stays and who goes. (The people aren’t always right.)

The Voice‘s blind audition format also means that you end up with a wider variety of looks, and they cover a broader range of music than rock. Both shows had fairly insipid hosts, but you can fast-forward them. (Or, with PVR you can.) It remains difficult to warm to Christina Aguilera, she of the always over-tight tops and strangely mannered air, but the other judges are cool. And at least Christina really can sing.

Anyway, I’m really happy to see Jordis again, and hope with greater maturity, she can hold it together better this time. The video is of probably her best performance on Rock Star, singing Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World”:

The L.A. Complex

Three episodes in, I remain fairly impressed with The L.A. Complex, a new show about a group of young Canadians (actually, I’m not sure if they’re all supposed to be Canadian) in Los Angeles, most of them living at the Lux, all trying to make it big. Which as I write it, sounds a little lame. But it works because the scripts are fairly smart and engaging, not sugar-coating the gargantuan tasks these people face in trying to become, or stay, successful.

It’s a bit of a soap, with the cast intersecting and hooking up in various combinations. That makes it kinds of sexy and fun. There is a fair bit of humour as well, as the aspiring actors, dancers, or comedians do not always lead lives of dignity. But there’s a real core of sadness underlying it, too, because these people’s lives are kind of miserable.

Abby Vargas is a young, pretty Canadian who can sing, and possibly can even act. But six months after moving to L.A., her biggest role is as dead hooker, in body bag. She is broke. She lived in her car until it broke down; now she’s crashing with Nick (more on him later) and having to take the bus everywhere.

Connor Lake looks as though he, at least, has it made. He’s been cast in a lead role in a big medical drama, and has moved out of The Lux for more luxurious digs. But he’s having trouble keeping up with all the lines, and the producers are insisting he see an acting coach. He’s trying to anesthetize with sex, drugs, and most recently, self-mutilation.

Raquel Westbrook used to be big. Everyone remembers her from that cult show 12 years ago, which had the terrible time slot and so was cancelled after one season. She knows everyone, but at this point, she’s reduced to trying out for dead hooker roles, and losing those to younger actresses. (Because 32 is so old!) It’s making her a little edgy, and she’s drinking too much. All her hopes are now pinned on a great script she read by a couple of unknowns.

Nick Wagner works at a coffee shop by day to pay the bills, and tries his act out at comedy clubs by night. So far, he’s bombing, both professionally and personally. He’s the guy every girl wants “as a friend”, and he’s low on funds. I was thinking that of all characters, he’s the one who really should pack it in, but last episode he finally hit on a comedy groove, based on mocking himself.

Tariq Muhammad expected to make music during his internship at a record company, but mostly he’s been running errands and washing cars. That is, until he secretly sent Usher some “beats” that proved he had talent. He’s now assigned to work with tough rap star Kaldrick King, and things are going well—they’ve really hit it off. If only they weren’t both in the closet, and wanting to stay there…

Alicia Lowe is a dancer who works hard at her craft. But so far it’s close but no cigar at signing up for a tour. To pay the bills, she works as an exotic dancer. (This means she has fewer money troubles than most of the cast.) Her latest gambit is to make a sex tape with a former movie star, in the hopes of gaining fame, Paris Hilton-style. Previews of the next episode indicate that’s not going to work out so well.

So that’s our merry crew. If you’re at all intrigued, you can catch up with all episodes online, and new episodes play Tuesdays at 9:00 (hey, that’s now–I love my PVR) on Much Music.

Update on Fall TV

A couple months in, thought it was time to report back on Fall TV prospects.

Best new show remains CBC’s Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays

Although I was also right that nobody is watching it; the ratings are dire. Even though they actually have moved it to Tuesdays, right after the very popular Rick Mercer and 22 Minutes. So I’m not counting on any more seasons, which is unfortunate. But at least CBC has indeed pledged to run all of this season’s episodes.

(By the way, this is no Lost; I don’t think it would be difficult to pick this series up even if you haven’t been watching from the start.)

Cast-drive new shows: Secret Circle and New Girl are in (for now); Ringers is out

One thing I can say about Secret Circle is, they aren’t afraid of casting women. The witches’ circle has four girls and two guys—one of whom (spoiler alert!) died. The adult characters feature quite a few women as well.

The show continues to be nothing more than a teenage witch show; most definitely not developing into Buffy. And sadly, the delicious Gale Harold is playing a “Dad” whose character is unable to get any (so far, only the teenagers get any). But still, it’s engaging enough, for what it is.

… Whereas the second episode of Ringers was so ridiculously awful, we had to drop it. Like, immediately.

But New Girl, we’re sticking with for now. It’s not Big Bang Theory funny yet, but amusing enough.

And I’m pleased that most sexist of the fall outings—Playboy Club and Charlie’s Angels—are already history.

Returning shows: One disappointment; two wins

The Mentalist followed up their completely awesome season finale with the lamest possible season opener: (Spoiler alert) Jayne was purely acquitted of the murder he clearly committed, then concluded that it wasn’t Red John he killed after.

So the finale that seemed to change everything, actually changed nothing. Bah.

But Big Bang Theory picked up nicely where it left off (good that they showed two episodes to start, though, as the first wasn’t quite as strong) and I continue to be really impressed by the mad figure skating skills of the hockey players on Battle of the Blades. Having a woman hockey player in the mix has been a great addition.

Returning shows on the bubble

My recorded episodes of Glee sat unwatched for so long the PVR decided to deleting some itself, along with my request to tape any future ones. (Seriously; it did.) But I did catch a few before they were permanently snatched.

And they actually weren’t terrible. I still don’t think the character of Sue is working, but others seem to have had some reparation, and the dropped characters… Haven’t really been missed. So I may try a few more episodes, PVR willing.

As for Bones, that starts tonight, and is set to record, but I’m still basically dreading it.