January 8

A few months back, my girlfriend and I started watching the Sopranos series from the beginning. She hadn’t seen a lick of it, but I had seen the first three seasons on DVD. It’s pretty good stuff, as I am sure most of you know, and of course I love being with my girlfriend, so I didn’t mind sitting down to watch it all again. Not to mention the see-it-again-for-the-first-time benefit. You know, that fun feeling you get when you watch something you know and enjoy with someone who has not seen it before. I love that. It’s especially effective for Blue Man Group.

But I digress…

The dawn of 2003 finds us midway through the third season. Such a violent year! Were passed the rape, the hooker getting beat up, and that golf club to the head already. The most fun we’ve had so far is this scene where Furio and Tony go to get Dr. Kennedy to stop ignoring Uncle Jun. They find him on the golf course and bully him like school kids. Furio is awesome in this scene. Here is a character whom we have seen shoot people in the knee just for starters! And now he is saying “You got a bee on your hat.” and slapping a guy over his head. What a show, what a show.

I have also seen a few movies, though nothing yet in the theaters. I was very happy to get the Back to the Future Trilogy for Christmas (funny story, my sister and I got it for each other without knowing! Does that make us close? Or just similarly shallow?) I watched 2 with glee on Christmas eve with my friend Todd. I think 2 is one of the best sequels ever. I LOVE what they do with recreating the scene where he wanders dazed through Hill Valley Town Square just like he did in the first one, but this time it is in the future. Right down to the cars whizzing by him as he crosses the street. This is great filmmaking. Hokey, but wholly satisfying. Then there is the multiple rolls playing. You know, the act Eddie Murphy rode way too far? Well, sadly the same thing happens here. Somewhere in the middle of 2 it gets old and believe me it stays old right through to the end of 3. So much so that I fell asleep while watching 3 just yesterday. Still, it makes you think. If they can squeeze so much out of a movie like Back to the Future, The Matrix sequels should be incredible right? Right? Right.

Til next week…

January 15

Monsters Inc. is an absolutely brilliant film. To truly appreciate it, you must see it several times. You must be patient. Its staggering completeness will floor you once you allow yourself to see it. Only your own skepticism stands in the way. To try and list the strong qualities of this film would be futile. It would take me a lifetime to write them down completely, and even if I finished, it would take you a lifetime to read it. Since none of us are going to live two lifetimes (or even one and a half) I will leave it at this: Go rent and watch Monsters Inc. now.

It's time to reveal something about this column. When it was announced, the assertion was made that new editions would be released on Wednesdays because the first of the year was a Wednesday. This is only partly true. The real reason for the big day being Wednesday is television. I used to be a serious TV watcher. In my youth, I didn't care about much else. In college, I remained very dedicated to my TV but a change was taking place. I was becoming more selective about my shows. This trend would continue until I arrived in my present condition. These days, there are only two programs I watch with regularity on television. Even that is not the real truth since one of those shows is really just an appetizer. If NBC saw fit to move it to another night, they may win a larger overall audience, but they would certainly lose this viewer.

Ed was as fun as always this last week. Ed is such a sweet show. It's postured and typical and certainly not an important piece of television, but it's nice and isn't that enough? Every show doesn't have to be All In The Family. Until now, the best thing this show had going for it was the best TV couple chemistry since Moonlighting, and some other fun characters. Actually, there is a lot of Moonlighting in this show, which is probably why I like it. Isn't that weird bowling alley helper Shirly just like Mrs. Depesto? Isn't Phil just Bert's younger brother? The answers are yes. Now however, we see the tables turning and Ed gets to have some fun while Carol watches. She could sure dish out the "you need to be happy for me". Can she take it? Sure she can. Watch it now 'cause some episode down the line they will get married, and then the show will suck.

And then we have the wonderful, the glorious, the transcendent, The West Wing. Goddamit but this show rules ass. Ass bows down to this show and lets it walk by. Ass calls to make sure this show got home ok. To quote myself, "If I could fuck a show, I might fuck this one." Watching my one, my only, my West Wing is like watching the Patriots win another Super Bowl every week. It's always going to be a good game, and they always, always win. Do yourself a favor. Turn it on.

Other things I saw this last week include a few more episodes of the Sopranos (look out Jackie Jr., season's almost over). A little bit of Greg Proops stand-up hour (it sucked, like most stand-up). And finally, an episode of Trigger Happy TV. Have you seen this British version of Andy Kaufman and Tom Green? Generally, I don't dig humor that preys on unknowing victims, but this guy's stuff is pretty funny. One that I will call to your attention is the following: He goes to a poetry bar, stack of papers in hand. He is introduced and takes the mic announcing that he has never read live before but is really excited about this piece he just wrote called 5 Million. Then he begins to read: "One, two, three, four, five, six seven, EIGHT NINE TEN, eleven, twelve thirteen-fourteen, fif……..teen…you get the picture. They cut back to it a few times and you should have heard the audience after he was only at like, 180 or something. For all I know this guy has been on for years and is old news, but I liked it. What can I say?

January 22

Sorry I am late. Circumstances conspired to make it impossible to get this done on time. A left behind computer here, a change of plans there, and one flat tire make for a smelly castmate at rehearsal, and a late column for you, my loyal reader(s). My apologies…

What a week of watching things! I felt like my old self. Everywhere I turned, there was something wonderful to see, and boy did I see it all. Allow me to relate them to you.

I started the week with my favorite (and only) regular night of TV. Ed and The West Wing. Ed saw more development of this new “Frankie” girl who wanted to be, and now is, Ed’s “partner” wink, wink. Carol is getting jealous and continuing to be painfully stupid. I have this theory that I like to live by that goes a little something like this: Whenever you think you know why it is someone did or said something, remember, you are always, AL-ways, wrong. Carol sure lives by this theory, but instead of benefiting from it, as I like to think I have, she somehow manages to victimize herself in the process. What a dink. YOU LOVE HIM. Do something about it. I did, and it worked for me…

Incidentally, the girl playing Frankie apparently was on the short-lived (I think?) show called Sportsnight, as was the new replacement for Rob Lowe on The West Wing. I never saw this show, but I have heard wonderful things about it from people I trust (J-Bro). Anybody got a few episodes on tape? I promise to write about em if you let me see em.

Last weeks West Wing was one of the ones I like to label as “Wet Wings”, since it made me cry. This is not uncommon. Hey, I cry every time I watch Rocky II. Seriously. Anywho, C.J. and her Dad were the focus of this episode and it was a doozy. You see, he is suffering from Alzheimer’s and she went home for a reunion and had to deal with him and he had to deal with her and it was just heart wrenching. Really. To answer some critics (Sara!) yes, the show does get a bit heavy handed at times. A prime example of this is when C.J. first shows up at her father’s house. First, Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue is playing on the record player. The moment your mind catches this fact, one of them (I can’t recall which) remarks about how he is feeling, wait for it…“kind of blue”. To top it all off, he is wearing a blue freakin shirt. Hey Aaron, you had us at hello.

We finished the third season of the Sopranos this past weekend. There is a hole in our lives that we are eagerly looking to fill. Anyone with a good chronological archive of season 4 (the one that just finished a few weeks ago) is encouraged to lend away.

While an episode of The West Wing leaves me wanting more within just 5 minutes, the 5 minutes I saw of Dharma and Greg were enough to last me til my first social security check. Enough said.

Happily, what was on next, as I waited for my dinner to cook, made up for it, and then some. It was the retrospective part of the last episode of Seinfeld. The montage of behind the scenes footage at the end was just phenomenal. Doesn’t matter how many times I have seen a particular episode of that show, it always makes me want to watch to the end, and it always makes me want to see another episode afterwards. Good job, Jerry.

I had a nice time watching Michael Jordan and his team beat the Orlando Magic, but then, I would enjoy anyone’s team beating the Orlando Magic. I used to watch a lot of basketball and we all know what Michel used to do. It is good to see him still out there, because someday, lots of us won’t know what he used to do. One day, lots of people might think that Shaq or T-Mac or LeBron is the best player who ever stepped on a basketball court, bar none. Today, we are smarter than that. Today we know for a fact that no one will ever top MJ. If you notice he is going to be on, try to catch him, one last time. See if your heart doesn’t flutter whenever he gets the ball. He’s 39, he is an owner playing pickup ball at the professional level. And when he has the ball you still can’t wait to see what he is going to do next. Ahhhh, Air.

Congrats to my young, but maturing Tar Heels for beating a solid UConn team. Keep it up Matt, you’re doing fine. Just beat Dook.

Watched the first Harry Potter with my girlfriend. She hadn’t seen it yet(see previous column) and we had fun watching it and then playing with the DVD extras. Not as good as Lord Of The Rings, but a solid, entertaining film.

After the movie, and dinner, we got caught in a late night TV binge that was tough to get out of. Two episodes of The Anna Nicole Show and one StarDates featuring Tootie from Facts Of Life later, we finally broke out of it. Man, those shows sure can catch you when you aren’t looking.

We ventured out the next day and saw Chicago. GREAT MOVIE. Go see it! What a blast. You know, I think all this threat of war might be what is bringing back the popularity of the musical. They are wonderful escapism, full of sparkle and adventure and fantastic people doing fantastic things. I loved Moulin Rouge and I love Chicago.

That night, we saw many of the performers from Chicago receive awards at the Golden Globes (John, you were robbed!). It was neat to have their work so fresh in our heads as we listened to their speeches. Must have been a blast to work on.

Finally, just last night (Tuesday), I saw a play. I saw The Exonerated at the Wilbur Theater downtown. This was storytelling in its most pure form. 10 actors, including Brian Denehey, Marlo Thomas, and my friend Jim Bracchita, sitting on stage telling the story of 6 real people who survived being arrested for, convicted for, and sentenced to death for, crimes they did not commit. What an amazing amount of damage was done to these folks. Impossible to account for all of it. Impossible. My thanks, congratulations, and most sincere best wishes to all the folks involved in that project.

Type with ya next week…

January 29

Morning folks, here’s what I got for ya:

First, as you may have noticed, a new name! It came to me the moment I woke up this morning. It was positively eerie. My first thought was, “Gee, I hope it isn’t too close to 10 am because I still have to write my column CALLED THE VIEWFINDER for Bruce. Hey, what the… It isn’t called the Viewfinder. At least not yet. Not that I know of. But, well, it does have a nice ring to it. I’ll go look it up to see what it really means, if anything.” Dictionary.com’s second definition listed for “Viewfinder” sealed the deal:

Viewfinder; n : helps to find the target of interest

Works for me. On to the shows

Ed was nice for two reasons this week. The writing was a step above what it usually is. Especially with the judge doing to Ed exactly what he was defending Carol for. Then of course we had Molly finally dealing with what happened to her all those years ago (apparently her character has NEVER been anything but annoying) and trying to help a young kid avoid going through the same thing. To be honest, Molly’s character was written very differently this episode. She was much stronger and more quick and witty than in the past and really quite funny. Normally I groan when she is on screen, knowing that it means at least 10 minutes of wasted airtime that could have gone to Cheswyck (MORE CHESWYK NBC, PLEEEEEEASE) or even Phil. If Molly keeps this up, the show just got way better.

The second reason was Biff Tannen! I finally saw him playing something other than Biff Tannen! Although, the role was the present day father of a nerd, who was, in his own day, a big…wait for it…bully. Yeah. Good casting though.

I had one nice bender of TV this past week and here is what it was made of. The first thing was the best. Clone High. Delightful! Seems like this is a new series in the wildly out of control animated category. Everyone complains about how Reality TV has gone crazy with too many different series to keep straight, but it occurs to me, no one ever said boo about it when every network (after like 9 YEARS) got sick of the Simpsons having all the fun and came out with 6 or 7 animated series of their own in the course of about one year. Or, wait a minute, what about sitcoms? No one ever says, “Jeez, the networks really have gone nuts with these sit-coms. There are 4 or 5 different ones on every night of the week! How do they expect us to keep all the characters straight?”

But I digress…

Clone High finds teenage clones of our most famous and revered world leaders attending high school at the same time and going through all the things high schoolers will, but colored (obviously) by their already-known-to-us tendencies. Example: Kennedy (JF, not RF) is a womanizer. Get the picture? Honestly, in my opinion it is a great concept for a show and the writing is solid and fun. It’s a little slapstick and wacky, but has good energy and heart. In the episode I saw were JFK, Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, and Ghandi. Ghandi is great, he is used like Klinger or our friend Phil from Ed. Try to catch it this week, Kennedy and Lincoln are running for class president, and they are going to debate. See? Great idea!

I saw one hour of the Real World, Las Vegas. Man I used to love the Real World. My interest peeked with the Boston edition (they were living just down the street and around the corner from me during college. They were fun to look for during filming and even more fun to watch with friends in the dorm room. But this Vegas stuff is rough. Maybe it is me, but these people seem awfully dumb. I couldn’t watch these folks be given a free ride in a great place and still manage to feel miserable by hooking up with each other. At least not for more than one hour ;)

Finally, one episode of the Osbournes. I haven’t seen this show a lot, so the thing that is still with me about it is how calm, and steady Sharon can be in such an absolute madhouse filled with loony tunes and dogs. I want to know more about her. How long have they been together? How did she get a guy like Ozzie (not that there could possibly be anyone ELSE like Ozzie) so wrapped around her finger. He goes around devoid of rational thought unless she is nearby and then he is able to think and reason like the rest of us. It’s astonishing. Kind of like how clearly you could hear him on that Superbowl ad. Surreal.

And then we have the Superbowl. This was an old-fashioned one. Like back when I was younger and the AFC seemed to have no hope (outside of Scott Norwood) of winning a championship E-V-E-R. The nice thing about this is that it only cements the idea that last years Superbowl was, and will remain, the greatest Superbowl ever. Right down to Halftime with U2. Last year was kick ass from start to glorious, transcendent finish. This years was nice, until kickoff. Yawn. I have a review of all the commercials I liked though. Click here if you want it.

On to the movies, only one of which I saw in its entirety. X-Men. This had been recommended to me, and someone at my girlfriends house owns it, so we gave it a shot. I can say that we will probably see X-Men 2 when it comes out, but not because we loved the first one. Mostly because the first one left so many strings untied at the end, it is impossible not to want to see the second one hoping that they won’t go ahead and milk us in the same way for a third. I am sorry, but for folk who aren’t already fans of the comic book characters, the movie was pretty thin. The best thing about it for me was the interplay between Jean-Luc and Gandolf. But really, it just made me want to see Jean-Luc and Gandolf really fight instead of just the actors playing them. Now THAT would be a film.

It is, I believe, a commonly held notion that Start Trek II is the best Star Trek film and there is hardly a need for any of the others, including that newer Next Gen films. After catching 15 or 20 minutes of both III and IV this past weekend on the New TNN (which has been the New TNN ever since I noticed there WAS a TNN, great ads though) I think they have a lot of merit, and should not be overlooked. The scene where the Enterprise finally comes home to port and all the folks are astonished to see the old girl, AND the scene where they steal her back to go look for Spock are phenomenal examples of moviemaking. I think the best thing about Star Trek has always been the way it upkeeps the ideals and protocols of old wooden ships and the Navy even though it is hundreds of years in the future. That is sci-fi at it’s best. Taking present day (or past) facts, and projecting them into the future. Not to mention, the cast does a great job with the comedic stuff in these films. They are good, and they are also able to have fun with each other. Like Spock inhabiting McCoy even though they like each other less than any other pairing possibly could. It’s good stuff.

All this fantasy was easily balanced off by just the first hour of the film Cradle Will Rock. Not The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, but Cradle Will Rock. This film is unbelievable. The cast list alone will knock you down twice. Put it this way; Vanessa Redgrave is in it. So is Jack Black. Get my drift? When you watch this film, have a notebook handy, and maybe an old history textbook if you’ve got one. You’re gonna have some questions. There are a lot of things flying around on that screen, sometimes too many, really. But don’t let that stop you because this film has the ability to make you nostalgic for a time you were never a part of. That right there, my friends, is magic.