Inspired by the awesome Lisa Hirsch to start blogging again, I thought that re-starting this here blog up on the first day of the baseball season would be appropriate.
Much has happened since I last posted here:
* LOST, after four seasons of being totally awesome, turned out to confirm the haters view that the two idiot hacks running things, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, really didn't know what the hell they were doing. They swore for years that the show had nothing to do with time travel or purgatory, so of course season five was all about time travel and season six was about purgatory. Worst of all, Lindelof's favorite character and the focus of season six, Jack, turned out to be a) the least interesting character on the show who was b) acted by the worst actor on the show. Season six was an insult to all of us obsessives and this brutal smackdown by Fishbisquit had me nodding in agreement so much that I almost got neck strain. May Lindelof and Cuse not be allowed near even a cable access show ever again.
* The glow from the Angels 2002 World Series win is definitely over, the prime example being a horrible 2008 postseason wherein they had the best record in baseball but ended up with them being swept in the first round by those pieces of human excrement the Red Sox. With Garrett Anderson and Scot Shields now gone, there are no players remaining from the 2002 team. Mark Trumbo sure is hot, though, I hope he can hit major league pitching. A 4-2 win today over the Royals is a nice start to the 2011 season.
* I've really gotten in to hockey again, the Kings totally not sucking for the last two years being a big factor. I still love the Canucks, who tonight clinched the best regular season record with an efficient 3-1 win over the Kings, but they're in Vancouver, I'm in Los Angeles, the Kings play 10 minutes from here. Yes, I'm cheating on my favorite hockey team since 1972 with the local floozie, I think I'll have to drink myself silly this weekend to deal with it.
* In a scenario I never thought would happen, I only had to travel 15 minutes down 6th Street to see a production of a Franz Schreker opera. The Los Angeles Opera mounted a wonderful production of the incredible Die Gezeichneten, despite apparently having a budget of about $2.87 to do so. Sadly, a trip to Germany and Austria in February of this year was marred by the cancellation by Oper Bonn four days before the performance of the reason I went, Schreker's Irrelohe. I still almost break in to tears thinking about it.
The ineptness of the management of the LAO continues to rankle, as they gambled the house money on a Ring cycle that no one was really clamoring for (except maybe board members who thought it would bring some prestige), cost a fortune, was a nightmare to stage and didn't draw anywhere near the audiences it needed to break even. They then start a Benjamin Britten cycle in anticipation of the great English opera composer's centenary in 2013 but they insist on doing two of his chamber operas, The Turn of the Screw and Albert Herring, in the airport hanger that is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. No way will they have the guts to do Gloriana or Death in Venice.
* TV has been phenomenal for me in the last three years, with The Amazing Race; Being Human (both the awesome UK and the excellent new US version); a great new Doctor replacing the really tired emo schtick of David Tennant; Glee and its fascinating gay storyline; V, a remake of an 80's sci-fi show that has gotten better as its gone along; the intriguing The Event and the wildly uneven but it-coulda-been-a-contender LOST clone FlashForward providing much moron machine entertainment. I still avoid most cop, doctor and murder porn shows like the Ebola virus and for some reason I've never been interested in faves like MadMen, Breaking Bad or Big Love, so I don't end up watching much TV.
* The Orion Nebula, Tarantula Nebula, the Seven Sisters, the Crab Nebula, Eta Carinae and so many other wonderful cosmic sights continue to amaze and delight this astronomy geek.
* The less said about politics, the better. I've made a pact with myself that I'll avoid that topic here, it only leads to tears.
I hope to be a regular blogger, I just have to have the mindset that short posts often v. epics every 3 years is the way to go.
Much has happened since I last posted here:
* LOST, after four seasons of being totally awesome, turned out to confirm the haters view that the two idiot hacks running things, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, really didn't know what the hell they were doing. They swore for years that the show had nothing to do with time travel or purgatory, so of course season five was all about time travel and season six was about purgatory. Worst of all, Lindelof's favorite character and the focus of season six, Jack, turned out to be a) the least interesting character on the show who was b) acted by the worst actor on the show. Season six was an insult to all of us obsessives and this brutal smackdown by Fishbisquit had me nodding in agreement so much that I almost got neck strain. May Lindelof and Cuse not be allowed near even a cable access show ever again.
* The glow from the Angels 2002 World Series win is definitely over, the prime example being a horrible 2008 postseason wherein they had the best record in baseball but ended up with them being swept in the first round by those pieces of human excrement the Red Sox. With Garrett Anderson and Scot Shields now gone, there are no players remaining from the 2002 team. Mark Trumbo sure is hot, though, I hope he can hit major league pitching. A 4-2 win today over the Royals is a nice start to the 2011 season.
* I've really gotten in to hockey again, the Kings totally not sucking for the last two years being a big factor. I still love the Canucks, who tonight clinched the best regular season record with an efficient 3-1 win over the Kings, but they're in Vancouver, I'm in Los Angeles, the Kings play 10 minutes from here. Yes, I'm cheating on my favorite hockey team since 1972 with the local floozie, I think I'll have to drink myself silly this weekend to deal with it.
* In a scenario I never thought would happen, I only had to travel 15 minutes down 6th Street to see a production of a Franz Schreker opera. The Los Angeles Opera mounted a wonderful production of the incredible Die Gezeichneten, despite apparently having a budget of about $2.87 to do so. Sadly, a trip to Germany and Austria in February of this year was marred by the cancellation by Oper Bonn four days before the performance of the reason I went, Schreker's Irrelohe. I still almost break in to tears thinking about it.
The ineptness of the management of the LAO continues to rankle, as they gambled the house money on a Ring cycle that no one was really clamoring for (except maybe board members who thought it would bring some prestige), cost a fortune, was a nightmare to stage and didn't draw anywhere near the audiences it needed to break even. They then start a Benjamin Britten cycle in anticipation of the great English opera composer's centenary in 2013 but they insist on doing two of his chamber operas, The Turn of the Screw and Albert Herring, in the airport hanger that is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. No way will they have the guts to do Gloriana or Death in Venice.
* TV has been phenomenal for me in the last three years, with The Amazing Race; Being Human (both the awesome UK and the excellent new US version); a great new Doctor replacing the really tired emo schtick of David Tennant; Glee and its fascinating gay storyline; V, a remake of an 80's sci-fi show that has gotten better as its gone along; the intriguing The Event and the wildly uneven but it-coulda-been-a-contender LOST clone FlashForward providing much moron machine entertainment. I still avoid most cop, doctor and murder porn shows like the Ebola virus and for some reason I've never been interested in faves like MadMen, Breaking Bad or Big Love, so I don't end up watching much TV.
* The Orion Nebula, Tarantula Nebula, the Seven Sisters, the Crab Nebula, Eta Carinae and so many other wonderful cosmic sights continue to amaze and delight this astronomy geek.
* The less said about politics, the better. I've made a pact with myself that I'll avoid that topic here, it only leads to tears.
I hope to be a regular blogger, I just have to have the mindset that short posts often v. epics every 3 years is the way to go.
