New stuff to watch

Earlier this summer I complained about how bad TV was.  Well now we have a lot of new shows, the fall season, etc.  I watched Heroes and it was pretty OK, though the seeds of decompression have already begun to annoy me.  Anyone want to take a bet on how long they stretch out the amnesia plot line?

I tivo’d the Family Guy Star Wars episode, as well as the new block of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, including the almighty Metalocalpyse premier.  These shows are probably worth the anticipation; I’m hoping to watch them tonight and tomorrow.  It’s a little trickier to view some of my preferred programming with the wee ones running around.

Meanwhile, my brother sent me this Darth parody.  Pretty good use of a simple edit technique and sound effect.

Listen to Mark V.

…read about young Ben Franklin’s true objectives in Electric Current (from the ‘Same Title Different Story’ webcast).  Mark’s entry is the fourth one down.

This is part of our continuing effort at Beemsville to bring you quality podcasting.

Mark, dry satirical madman that he is, has unearthed previously undiscovered telepathic records on Franklin and others.  He writes about it here.

Enjoy!

You must listen to Ben tell you that…

…you must read this on NPR’s All Things Considered.

You must listen!

(Nice photo, Ben Percy)

What does Ben want you to read? The Virginian by Owen Wister.

Props to him for adding a heaping helping of gonads to the ‘You Must Read This’ segement on NPR. Just when I’m set to wince at the sound of yet another snivelsome lit-peddler come on the radio and tell me I should read yet another hopeless meditation on suffering and the joys of malaise, here’s good old Ben, espousing the virtues of one of the granddaddys of Westerns.

This is one of the many reasons Beemsville is proud to announce we are an official blog sponsor of the 2007 Ben Percy Book Tour. Go out and listen to Ben read. Buy one of his books. You’ll thank us for it.

Illini bball gets J-Ho

Football season is ramping up, so let’s talk Illini basketball.

Coach Weber hired former Illini glue-guy and career bench player Jerrance Howard yesterday to fill the recently vacated assistant coaching position. Read all about it. This is a positive move in my opinion: J-Ho is young, positive, and a true Orange & Blue dude.

He’ll need to hit the ground running on the recruiting end, where honestly, we’ve come up short lately. But I’m not one of those guys who think the bball program is in the midst of Ron Turner Act II.  I also think wins and tournaments are more important than the number of stars beside some kid’s name. But no mistake, this will be a pivotal year for Weber and Co. The Big10 will be down, the Illini will be short-handed in the backcourt, but if we can get to 20 wins and make the tournament maybe we can recapture some of that lost momentum.

And maybe sign a few key recruits as well. Go get ‘em Jerrance.

Mean Farmer

No, it’s not Farmer Maggot from The Fellowship, or Farmer MacGregor who ate Peter Rabbit’s pappy, or even the deadeye William Munny from Unforgiven (the meanest pig-farmer ever).

It’s Mean Farmer, Swedish Monster Truck.

Turns out, jazz, Hollywood, and fast food aren’t the only American exports Europeans have come to appreciate. Monster trucks are international and they’re popular abroad. Who knew?

I heard about this on the radio last weekend and it pleased me greatly (audio archive and news story here), even though I’m more a philosophical fan of Monster Truck Rallies than an actual ticket-paying fan. Mean Farmer is just about the greatest name for a monster truck. Game over–don’t even try to top it. And for me, the existence of Mean Farmer ranks near the top of monster truck lore, even above that great scene in Road House wherein Patrick Swayze is too late to save his buddy’s auto dealership from a marauding 4X4 beast.

Photos after the bump…

Playing the Samba Kings

Sunday, the U.S. National Team took on Brazil in Chicago. The U.S. lost 4-2 in an entertaining and hard-fought match. That’s five losses in a row for the U.S. going back to June–although the three games in the Copa America deserve a big fat asterisk due to the depleted squad Bob Bradley called for that tourney–yet I came away from this latest match with some encouragement. Brazil are, player for player, the best in the world, and though our boys let in four, it could’ve been an entirely different game but for some terrible calls by the ref.

This was the same Mexican ref who’s had some other horrible games this year, in both the Gold Cup and the Copa America. The calls went like this:

It’s September 11

…think about it.

• The enemy is still out there, and he wants to hurt us.
• We are stuck in a bitter conflict–we can’t really win, yet the the consequences of losing would be disastrous.
• Both political parties have politicized the situation to ridiculous proportions; we have a crisis of leadership in our government on both sides.

But what about you? Have you done any research, have you tried to understand, or do you just sit there and digest what’s fed to you.

Think about it.

(Regular programming resumes tomorrow.)

Weekend Football Rundown

A lot of football this weekend–both American and the soccer kind.

Friday night we took in my nephew’s high school game, Camp Point Central-Southeastern v. Petersburg-Potra. Jake (about to receive the hand-off above) was the featured back for his Central-SE. He ran hard and caught several passes coming out of the backfield, though there wasn’t much running room. Central lost 36-6, but we still enjoyed the game. One aspect of small school football that’s different these days: they’re not afraid to put it in the air. When I was in school, it was pretty much run, run, run.

The Illini beat Western Illinois 21-0 on Sat. Good for the defense, pitching the shutout, but our offense was less than impressive. Juice looked very similar to last season, that is to say, not good. I didn’t see the progress I was hoping for. We get Syracuse this week, and they don’t seem very good either, but it’s a road game so we’ll see.

Batman and Robin and…

…Jesus? Or is it Obi-Wan.

Kudos to these guys for capturing the convention experience in true geekarific comedy style. Check out all four episodes at youtube.

Review: The Crystal Shard (trade paperback)

By R. A. Salvatore (story), Andrew Dabb (script), Val Semeiks (pencils), Blond (colors)

When I was fifteen or so, I thought The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore was the coolest. So did all the other card-carrying members of the local geek mafia. We traded worn copies of the paperback, discussed the story, created rip-off characters of Drizzt, Bruenor, Wulfgar, and the crew for our own D&D campaigns, and basked in the general sword and sorcery glow.

So when Devil’s Due Publishing started releasing their ‘Legend of Drizzt’ comic books recently, my interest was piqued. It’s part of a mini-trend that’s seen such sci-fi/fantasy authors as George R. R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Robert Silverberg, and Weiss and Hickman of Dragonlance fame lending some of their best-known stories to the sequential art format (mostly through small publishers like Dabel Brothers and Devil’s Due). Even more recently Marvel has jumped in the ring with 800 pound gorilla Stephen King and his Dark Tower/Gunslinger series. It’s an interesting development, and I’ve enjoyed many of the results. Which brings us to the book at hand…