A Cold Saturday

I am ridiculously behind the Battlestar Galactica bandwagon (I tried, I really did, to get on it; but my access to SciFi channel’s ridiculously hampered and I have yet to get the dvds, if they’re out there already). The last episodes begins, and even the Times is writing up on it; any word on who the last Cylon is? …

The passing of American painter Andrew Wyeth. I find it fascinating that he was both admired and doubted, as the art writer Richard Lacayo of Time notes as does Larry Rohter in the NY Times.

The passing of John Mortimer, British barrister and writer of “Rumpole of the Bailey.” An appreciation of Mortimer by NY Times’ Charles McGrath.

TGIF

The passing of Patrick McGoohan, best known for his role as Number Six of “The Prisoner,” and his famous line, “I am not a number!” Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker has commentary, as does David Bianculli. I recommend watching “The Simpsons” episode where they parodied “The Prisoner” – and Homer Simpson’s stealing Number Six’s raft.

My past link on “The Prisoner” – here.

The passing of Ricardo Montalban – best known for his roles as Khan in Star Trek (the creepy “Space Seed” episode, and, of course, “Khaaan!” as Kirk says in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”), and Mr. Roarke of “Fantasy Island” (no, Mr. Roarke was not always a nice man). It’s nice to think about Montalban, who helped to bring some diversity in the media at a time when there probably wasn’t much of it; as the NY Times obituary that I linked noted:

Though Mr. Roarke became Mr. Montalbán’s signature role, it was a mere bump in the timeline of a career that spanned decades, media and genres. Mr. Montalbán embodied stereotypes, fought them and transcended them in his years in show business. His entire reputation, both as smooth Latin seducer and parodist of a smooth Latin seducer, was capsulized in a television advertisement from the mid-1970s in which he served as pitchman for the Cordoba, a luxury car being introduced by Chrysler. He purred over the automobile’s assets, including the seats, upholstered, he said, in “soft, Corinthian leather,” a phrase that became a campy giggle-inducer, especially after it became known that there is no such thing as Corinthian leather, from Corinth or anywhere else: the description was just a marketing invention.

Plus, interesting commentary on Entertainment Weekly’s website on Montalban as Khan.

Anyway, I think it was kind of funny that two guys associated with weird islands passed away so close in time like this; plus, “Lost” is coming back, so… hmm… more weird islands and existentialist and mind-blowing entertainment coming our way.

Plus, from James Poniewozik on Time.com – his observations on McGoohan (apparently, AMC was in the works to do a remake of “The Prisoner”), Montalban, and the “Lost” connection (well, he’s gearing up for the return of “Lost”).

Sudden news arose (Miracle on the Hudson, indeed; thank goodness about that the airplane crash-landed in the water without fatalities), but I’ll note that NYS will have a new chief judge – Governor Paterson has appointed Justice Lippman to succeed Chief Judge Kaye on the Court of Appeals. NY state of mind, indeed.

Stuff

Still can’t believe that it’s 2009. NY Times’ A.O. Scott on “The Apartment,” a New Year’s in New York kind of movie, with a touch of darkness but a touch of hope. There’s a lot of darkness out there, so it’s kind of hard to stay hopeful.

There are plenty of reasons why the US ex-presidents and current president don’t quite talk to each other all that much; still, it can’t be a bad idea.

Neil deGrasse Tyson – the man who (via the NY Times, possibly) got the general population heated up about whether Pluto is a planetmay be asked by the Obama administration to head NASA (wow!); until then, he’s still host of Nova ScienceNow.

Speaking of the up-coming Obama administration, the Republicans in the Senate are apparently a little too eager about asking US Attorney General nominee Eric Holder about clients that he had while he’s been a Big Firm lawyer. So, doing work in the private sector gets one scrutiny (not to say one can’t do conflicts checks, because that is the point), but doesn’t this kind of discourages people from going into the public sector/public interest? So Holder made money; nothing says that he can’t do the job of US Attorney General. I hope the Republicans can do their end of the hearings correctly.

I only read one Nelson de Mille book; but the profile about him in the NY Times was fascinating and confirms how he got all that realism into his books (research and life experience).

NYC bloggers who blog about NYC. Hmm. Can be kind of crazy, I guess.

I don’t poke around Entertainment Weekly’s website all that much (it’s kind of kooky over there, not gleaming pretty like the hard copy magazine), so it wasn’t until Time’s James Poniewozik reported on his blog did I learn about Ken Tucker’s Watching TV blog on EW.com; Tucker’s blog seems pretty cool. I’m kind of unsure of what to expect for 2009 tv, but he raises interesting stuff.

Ken Tucker on Neil Patrick Harris on Saturday Night Live last night. I only caught the opening monologue. Legen-wait for it-dary. Silly me for not watching the rest of the show (when they got the Today show skit, I couldn’t watch; Kathy Lee Gifford mimicry, no matter how dead-on, didn’t grab me).

I thought the video below was cute: Harry Bellafante v. Animal, in a drumming competition of sorts. Bellafante’s enthusiasm was great and Animal… well, he’s quite the Muppet.