Favourite TV shows from 2019, plus deeper look into the past decade

Digging up this one that was drafted back in July - no way I can deliver on its title, but after the Golden Globes, there’s a few clear additions.  The original title was “ Emmy triggered thoughts and reviews of favourite TV shows EVER”.

The 2019 Emmy Award nominations were announced this week and I was pleased to see a few of my favourite get nominations (and pleased more were nominated for Golden Globes).  I also used it to consider the nominations are tips for future viewing and in fact for that very reason, I watched a few episodes of Schitts Creek while having dinner.  Funny, but not Modern Family funny (and now enjoying something a little similar and a recommendation from my daughter - Life in Pieces).

This also gives me a chance to comment on the state of TV in 2019 (and 2020) - if we can actually call it TV these days (Wikipedia appears to include "television signals...via the internet").  I believe that when TV was first introduced, as long as you had a TV set and were in the vicinity and range of the over-the-air signal, then you could watch a TV program.  Today, that is a very different situation and only 1 of the 8 nominations for best drama series is on "regular" TV.  All the others require the viewer to pay for a premium channel and in some cases, may not be able to see the show at all if the channel is exclusive to the US market.  I believe that even though you may not have access to a particular channel, most, if not all, shows should be available for purchase via iTunes or your favourite video purchase platform.

Although I do watch quite a lot of TV (and movies), I perhaps watch only half of the nominated shows.

So without further ado, may I have the envelop please - favourite PJMixer shows this past year that are also nominated for an Emmy (and some for a Golden Globe):

• Bandersnatch (Netflix, Black Mirror TV movie) - a new interactive TV experience that's worth the setup
• Bodyguard (Netflix) - intense and surprising
• Fleabag (Prime Video) - incredibly funny and edgy, but also deeper than you'd think
• Ozark (Netflix) - not one likable character, but you're kind of still rooting for them, especially Ruth
• Russian Doll (Netflix) - mind bending fun with great soundtrack
• The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - yes, too much Trump, but so well written
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video) - superb writing, pacing and cast

Favourite PJMixer shows this year that are not nominated for an Emmy or are just older/newer shows that may not qualify

• The Umbrella Academy - lots of wacky superhero fun with a killer soundtrack
• Formula 1 - Drive to Survive (Netflix) - supposedly making new F1 fans in the US - super, alternate video content, amazing sound, but most importantly, great behind the scenes stories of the drivers, the team, the history.  And yes, they’re finishing up season 2 for the 2019 F1 season.

Adding newer ones since this was first drafted...

• The Morning Show (Apple TV+) - massive cast delivers the goods, modern story and complex characters
• For All Mankind (Apple TV+) - fun alternative history space action drama

Where does one start with best TV shows EVER, maybe let’s narrow this down to the past decade.  Of the shows above, I think it’s include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, especially since it’s one I share with my wife.  Others that shouldn’t really need much explanation:

• Breaking Bad (2008-2013) - some work to get into it, but once onboard I loved the ride.
• Mad Men (2007-2015) - yes, awkward at times, but superb period piece with gobs of style and humour
• Black Mirror (since 2011) - the one some people still haven’t heard of - highly recommended creations of never future tech mostly going wrong, some episodes much better than others - please do NOT watch season 1 episode 1 first
• Downtown Abbey (2010-2015) - say no more
• Modern Family (since 2009) - keeps my laughing (with my daughter)
• House (2004-2012) - so much to love, but mostly the complexity of House
• Entourage (2004-2011) - guilty pleasure

Stay tuned on this one as I’m sure I’ll think of a few others as soon as I turn in for the night.

I did find an older post that includes some of the above with even older shows too - Television.

Thoughts of the day - morning of Monday December 4th, 2017: Big Bangs and hypotheses; U2 and Economics

Inputs:

1. Reading Dan Brown's Origin - not finished yet, but hitting climax on futurist hypotheses reminding me of Yuval Noah Harari's Home Deus.
2. U2's performance of American Soul on Saturday Night Live.
3. Make Me Smart podcast - episode 41 - Do you hear the people sing.  So much to understand, but what to do with the new smarts?

Ideas:

1. Building on a Flickr group title as the basis of what I'm trying to say - The World Through My Eyes.
2. Using the Red Pill / Blue Pill concept from The Matrix - do you want to continue to live in this fake world, or do you want to know the truth?
3. What percentage of people who watch The Big Bang Theory believe in the big bang?

Is sports the best reality TV ?

Disclaimer: I'm not a real fan of reality TV.  I watch the occasional music competition or food contest, but for the most part I don't like the fabricated games and exploited stories.

So, I've been known to say on many occasions that the best kind of reality TV is sports.  In my opinion, you can't get any better than the unpredictability of a live sports event and as the commentators often say - the scriptwriters have a field day - what with all the off-field backstory mixed with the on-field rivalries, battles, campaigns and super-human achievements.

But recently I've been looking at this from a different perspective.  I think my original claim is accurate, but only if you're an neutral observer or your team (player) wins.  But what happens when your team loses ? 

I watch a lot of sport and invest many hours watching playoffs, "big" games and global sporting events where many times the result is of no real consequence to me.  I simply enjoy a tight-fought competition from world class athletes. 

I hope I can say, that everyone has experienced the euphoria of their team winning - what a natural high when your team makes a great play, scores, wins the game or comes out on top of a season-long campaign.  That's why we watch our favourites compete on TV (or in person), many fans like me invest a huge amount of time watching our favourites and some of us have lots of favourites across different sports.  I live in Toronto and we're lucky to have a large number of professional sports teams, but it can consume a large amount of time!

But what a difference when your favourites have a poor game, fall inches or seconds short of a major victory, can't seem to stop a downhill slide, don't live up to their potential, appear disrespectful or your loyalty or make you so angry you could throw something at that expensive plat screen 50" television.  That's just a awful feeling and it can often stay with you for hours or perhaps even longer, just ask a Maple Leafs hockey fan or England soccer fan. 

So there's the rub, be careful what you ask for.  So if you want the emotional rollercoaster ride of sports to either simply witness the finest of athletic ability, or invest your time and emotions in a favourite for a chance at glorious euphoria - be wary that it could bring some true sorrow to your life.  Who really wants to take a chance at adding more misery to their lives? Well, I only hypothesize that the longer lasting effects of the thrill of victory is worth the short-lived agonies of defeat*.

*taken from the famous introductory words of ABC's The Wide World of Sports

Quotes from the last week

From Felix J. Palma's The Map of Time, page 585 - "...sometimes the best way to find out what we want is to chose what we do not want".

From Fox's new TV Series Alcatraz, Episode 8 on the difference between spirituality and religion - "Spirituality is for those seeking understanding. Religion is for those seeking reward.”

Mysterious noises

When I got home from my late night ultimate game last night (this morning), I went downstairs for a snack and to wind down.  I noticed a high pitched buzzing went I entered the family room and then tried to find the remote to watch a little TV.  Our universal remote was not in its usual spot and its screen was blank - the (rechargeable) batteries were run down.  So I fished around for various remotes and did a manual power on for a few components.  I grabbed the universal remote as I wanted to recharge its batteries, but the buzzing noise was getting very annoying so I started to walk around trying to isolate the mysterious sound.  The noise sounded a little like one of the pot lights ready to blow.  But no, that wasn't it.  I wandered over to the downstairs bathroom and the noise seemed to be a little louder.  I opened the utility closet door in the bathroom and thought the sound was coming from the natural gas pipe.  I walked back into the family room and also checked the gas fireplace, the noise was there too.  I checked in the furnace room and the noise was there too.  But I still couldn't isolate it.  I put the remote down and did another check, but the mystery continued.  A went back to the family room and went over to the TV and audio components and bent down a little to see if I could hear any better.  Sure enough, the noise was coming from the universal remote, the batteries were run down enough so they couldn't power the screen, but apparently not enough to cause the remote to emit an annoying high pitched buzzing sound.

So I get back to my TV show, last week's episode of Fringe.  The mystery involves some metamorphic, mutated humans and the agents track down a lead to a small town called Edina.  When the arrive in Edina, all the agents hear a weird humming sound.  I won't spoil the source of the humming, but I thought the coincidence was comical considering my earlier adventure and the look on Walter's face.

Gladwell goes Private

I'm really enjoying Malcolm Gladwell's new collection of articles - What the Dog Saw.  The article I was reading today discusses the invention of The Pill and more interesting the mistake the inventor made.  In true Gladwell big brain thinking style, the article delves deep into related fields, in this case, cancer.  He also talks about the circular design of The Pill's case and it's significance.


I pop downstairs in the evening and catch a few minutes of one of my wife's favourite TV shows - Private Practice.  There's a scene where one of the doctor's slyly hands the familiar looking, circular Pill case to a Jewish lady for medical and perhaps contraceptive reasons.


Haven't thought about The Pill for a long time and there it is "popping out" twice in one day. 

Rogers (8300HD) PVR Extender

I feel I'm pretty up to date on technology. When I bought my HD TV about 2 years ago, I also started my love/hate relationship with my Rogers PVR. Note that in Canada we seem to use the acronym PVR (personal video recorder), whereas in the US I they use the term DVR (digital video recorder). We like to use "PVR" as we also have another component we call a DVR. It was our first hard drive recorder and we still use it regularly for overflow recording and archiving to DVD. It's a Pioneer DVR-633H-S. It did well, with std def, but the hard drive got messed up a few years back so we can't set it for timed recording any more, Pioneer do have newer versions, but I'm still bitter about their service, but that's another story.

Rogers use the Explorer 8300HD from Cisco (prev. Scientific Atlanta) which is widely used in North America. It's been around for years, seems to job relatively well, but I've never been happy with its very limited 160 GB capacity. That sounds like a lot of space, but not when you're hooked on HD. It's supposed to get 20 hours of HD programming, but from our experience it's more like 10 hours. We know this primarily because available disk space decreases by 10% for every one hour of HD programming we record.

With the convenience of daily and weekly programming, timeshifting and two tuners, our PVR is used very regularly and we have a constant struggle to keep free space available.

A little while ago, Bell introduced support for external hard drive extensions for its PVR. It allows you to connect any hard drive via USB to increase hard drive space, however I believe the solution required you to manually copy/move items from the onboard hard drive to the external unit (not sure if that's still the case). My wife wrote about Bell's External Storage for PVR last August and it's still one of her most read postings.

In the last month, Rogers have finally caught up. However, they are doing it a little differently. Their PVR Extender is a 500GB Seagate external drive which is connected to the PVR using a sSATA connection. This type of connection is more unusual than USB, but isn't rocket science. Consequently you can purchase your own cheaper hard drive instead of paying for the Rogers drive for $200. A quick look around shows you can get a 1.5TB Seagate eSATA hard drive at Tiger Direct for $250. All you need is a cable. I actually have a 500GB Seagate drive with the eSATA connector but it's loaded with a lot of my techie work stuff (e.g. massive VMware images), but I'll probably buy a new large one when I get approval from the HomeCFO. The other option is to use an internal hard drive and eSATA compatible enclosure, probably even cheaper. See this digital home forum for some more info on the options.

The other thing to watch out for is that the eSATA connection between the PVR and the external hard drive is rather sensitive. I've had a few chats with a very friendly and helpful chap at Future Sop that has tried this himself and by reading a few extra pieces online, there is definitely an issue if you disconnect the eSATA cable once the initial formatting has been done (local encryption key restrictions possibly). I'm not certain if there's still an issue when the units are completely powered down. As for brown outs and power cuts, I believe if they're connected, everything will continue to work ok. As for current recordings, I'm not certain if they'll still be available since the PVR begins to use the drive with the most amount of space once it recognizes the external drive. More testing and comments to hopefully come later.

If you google a little, you'll see that the discussion on extending the 8300 has been going on for some time. If I'd found this info earlier I probably would have jumped on this a while back, but like so many tech decisions, waiting a little sometimes helps. In this case, you can now easily buy 1.5 TB hard drives for very reasonable cost. That is almost 10x the capacity of the current PVR - now we're talking, bring on nightly HD recordings of The Hour and saving HDNet concerts and TMN HD movies for a little longer.

Lunchtime connections and commentary

• I'm tracking the Kaka mega football transfer story, FIFA player of the year in 2007 may be on his way to Man City from AC Milan for a staggering transfer fee ($200M) and salary (1M/week). He's good, but really, come on, is he (or anyone) really worth that kind of money ? [from Kaka story I spotted the reference to the Time 100 list - nice to see some global sports inclusion in the American mag list].
• Also on the list is Alex Rigopulos & Eran Egozy. These are not names that most people recognize, but they run Harmonix, the originator of Guitar Hero and now developers of Rock Band. I think the article in the Time 100 piece is a great take on the secondary power of these new music games - I believe they can and will actually lengthen the lifespan of classic rock, and music from many other decades and genres. I think that Kids (and parents) are getting a new (or renewed) passion for great old music and making sure rock 'n roll will never die. Since getting Guitar Hero and now Rock Band, my son has a great appreciation for classics such as Cream, The Stones and Cheap Trick, as well as rarer finds (Eric Johnson), punk (Sex Pistols), new wave (Talking Heads) and alternative (Beck).
• Steven Van Zandt. He wrote the piece above and his name is instantly familiar. BUT, I didn't know the guitarist with Springsteen was one and the same slick haired Silvio from The Sopranos. I always saw the name in the credits and thought I should know him, but dough-head me never connected the two. Well, he does look radically different in his two roles.
  

Watching, reading and listening updates

I've seen some very good movies of late at home: Into the Wild, Iron Man and Awake. There should be something there for everyone, well maybe not my kids or my wife !

• Awake - Great thriller, but it was over a bit too quickly (how often do you say that?). As someone else had reviewed - a little Hitchcock like. Synopsis doesn't really tell the whole story. 4/5.
• Iron Man - Lots of fun, especially with Downey Jr. hamming it up. Robot cool. Interesting BD live quizzes and bonus features on BD too ! 4/5.
• Into the Wild - Great movie mixing good pacing, fantastic acting, beautiful cinematography and thought provoking storytelling. 4/5.

I'm not a big reader, but the one I'm enjoying at the moment is Lovely Bones. It's a bit of a chic lit book, but I really like the premise of the story. I just found out that the movie version is in post-production for release in 2009.

There are a few new angles on music I've been thinking about. Maybe it's my middle age, but the gentle sounds of Daniel Lanois, Beth Rowley, and Neil Diamond are getting more attention, especially in quieter times (and I seem to need more of those these days). I've been listening a little to CBC Radio 2 in the morning. And even enjoying the odd country track, like Dolly Parton's Jolene.









Still on the music thing, and back to my normal channel, the new Kaiser Chiefs is really catchy, looking forward to seeing them next week !

And finishing up with some TV. Apart from my faves like Top Gear (old episodes), House and Entourage, I just watched the premiere of another quirky HBO show last night called Summer Heights High. The Australian show stars and is written, and produced by the very talented Chris Lilley. Immediately funny and it brings back that familiar awkward feeling from The Office.

Television

With a new season of television shows upon us, I thought it would be a good time for a few lists. But before diving into the itemizing and annotating my favourites, perhaps I'll take time to reflect on the medium.

When I was growing up, after kids TV (Tiswas, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlett), it seemed that my regular TV viewing was variety shows (It's a knockout, Top of the Pops) of some kind, which still haven't gone away and to some degree are ancestors to today's reality shows.

For me, there is a fine balance between the strict serial drama and the casual evening sitcom or the event driven drama. With the strict serial drama (e.g. Lost) the viewer is almost forced to watch every single episode and will be lost if the first or last episodes are missed. With the sitcom (e.g Seinfeld) or event drama (e.g. House) , no worries, jump right in and enjoy the show (although some characters and relationships develop over the season).

Current:

House - a good use for the term becrutchedy, new season starting next week.
Entourage - fun guy stuff, fanastic soundtrack, new season started this week
Top Gear - fab cars, funny hosts, years behind but still loving it

Memorable older TV shows:

The Sopranos - T was arguably one of the most complex TV characers of all time
Dead Like Me - very clever premise and story lines
The Office (UK version) - can you say awkward
Twin Peaks - super serial silliness, great mystery but went very weird in the end
The Young Ones - Brit lad humour that still pops up when some of me mates get together

Blackadder - linguistic comedy at it's best, Shakespeare would have loved it

Seinfeld - the best American TV comedy of all time, a ife time of plots and quotes

Notables:

Durham County - briliant Canadian and local drama
Dexter - redefining protagonist, Michael C. Hall creates lots of polite after dinner conversation
Six Feet Under - making death entertaining, Michael C, Hall again

Messy is cool

I saw this American Express print ad this weekend and thought what a great photo ! For some reason this shot appealed to me as a photographer, a techie, and someone struggling with organization. And also because of Tina Fey, it somehow says Hey, it's cool to be messy, what's the big huff ? And I like that.

What I'm trying to tackle these days is organizing my life, the things in it, how much time I spend with its things, and perhaps indirectly hoping to see the forest. But images like this and realities in my life suggest that the natural state of affairs naturally returns to a state of chaos. The tidy and paperless office; the empty inbox; fully indexed and categorized music, movies and photos; a budget; and knowing what things you have to do this week, are all either mirages of an organized life or examples of unstable equilibriums. And there is art and beauty in chaos, you just have to look a little harder and change your point of view.

If you're not familiar with Tina Fey, she came from Saturday Night Live and produces, writes and stars in 30 Rock.

The pic came from geeksugar.

Tough Love

I've been watching top chef, Gordon Ramsey lambaste (nice word choice eh?) failing chefs and restaurateurs in the UK TV show Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares for quite a while now. The appeal of the show is something between watching a train wreck mixed with The Office. Mostly, a painful show of blunt honesty and criticism, but with a pinch of heart felt joy, generous portions of humour, a few tablespoons of oh-my-god-can-you-believe-that and all that vigorously mixed with a genuine passion for food.

The results of his efforts in the show are mostly positive, but on occasion his victims just can't take the heat and abandon their kitchens. Would you be able to take a good dose of harsh criticism ? And I'm not talking just about your efforts in the kitchen, but in all aspects of your life. Come on, Mr.fancy pants, PJMixer, you can do better than that you lazy bastard !

I think I could take it. I'm not very confident in saying that the loved ones around me could take it though. For example, as my son gets older and his attitudes appear to be a little ahead of the other aspects of his adolescent maturity, I'm trying to balance the tough love with the right amount of empathy for a 21st century Dad.

I think it comes down to knowing the right time to apply tough love to the situation. In the TV show, Ramsey steps in when things are at their most dire and the business is about to fail. And most of all, he is allowed to let loose when he has been invited to do so. It is just a little harder to make that call with respect to your own life and the lives of the loved ones around you. And rarely do people really want to get a full strength dose of what, may be in fact, be something that's good for them !

(The nicer side of Mr. Ramsey.)

Investing in bad reviews and negativity

Most people don't waste their time reading or listening to bad reviews. But perhaps they are missing something ? What about writing a bad review, don't you owe it to the world to tell them how bad a movie or book really is ? The added benefit of reading or writing a review is the truly the entertainment factor. You have the sheer pleasure of conjuring up whole new ensembles of words and phrases to make your negative points, humour takes on a whole new angle, and cruelty, cynicism and sarcasm are your best friends. And for the reader, well, there seems to be much greater prose found in negative reviews that the positive ones. You also see and hear some of this highly entertaining work with comedians, they just love to rant about people, places and situations. Perhaps we should call it "complaining for fun" and use it ourselves to vent a little without it bringing too much negativity into our lives.

A person close to me recommended The History Boys the other day. I watched it a few nights ago and although it was completely horrid and I found myself drawn more to it's negative online reviews than the typical rave reviews that all sound the same. See http://imdb.com/title/tt0464049/usercomments and then filter it by "best" or "hated it" (like this) - you be the judge - what's a more entertaining read ? BTW a good review site for all kinds of multi-media is Metacritic.

For what it's worth, my review on Facebook was "A pretty uncomfortable experience. Decent acting and soundtrack. I was lost in a lot of the dialog - maybe I should have paid more attention in English Lit". I gave it a 2.5 out of 5. Maybe I should watch some really bad ones to practice this new found art form !

Yeah, I just came up with that #3

You know when you have a brilliant, spontaneous and deep comment about life and your spouse says "did you just come up with that ?", and you say "yeah", well I had one a few nights ago.

We're watching Grey's Anatomy (well, Suzanne is watching, I'm searching for any signs of humour, good acting or an actress I can fantasize about). At the end, there is of course, the obligatory sad scene, either: family member dies; ex-lover doesn't return sentiment; best friends realize they're special, etc. So I observe and comment - "why do you think women enjoy being sad ? Is it similar to the reason that men like being scared watching a horror movie ?" Yes, I know I'm being stereotypical and I'm big enough a man to say I enjoy a good cry now and again and I know a few great ladies who'll watch a horror movie with the lads (thanks Caro). I believe adrenalin is released in times of fright and that gives you a good high. Is there similar chemicals for tears of sadness. Is the attraction more in line with thinking that you life is just so beautiful (with your great bloke), but you have to be reminded now and again what hardship other women have to go through.

Now, the kicker and a big difference between these emotions we artificially subject 0urselves to is...wait for it...we have a better chance of getting lucky when we go up to bed after a good cry. Forget that after being scared out of our pants - it's dark and a little chilly in the bedroom when you go up, a hand reaches over a softly touches your leg - "argh, get away from me, you scared the bejesus out of me !".

No, you didn't miss #1 and #2, I just forget to the write them down. Don't worry I'll have more, I'm sure.

Re: adrenalin, (from Wikipedia), epinephrine (adrenalin) is used as a drug to treat cardiac arrest. This is kind of funny, since we usually feel like we're having a heart attack when we watch a good horror flick. It's saving your life !

'T'

I watched the final episode of the Sopranos last night. I gave it 15 minutes before trying to find some explanation on the web of what I'd just watched.

Thanks to the show's popularity, it's fertile ground for commentary on the people and the world, and good writers willing to dissect every episode, there is some great final reviews this morning.

Last night I was disappointed with the ending. But after reading a few reviews, I feel a lot better now.

Spoilers within:

CNN - 'Sopranos' last episode leaves much up in the air (they summed up my thoughts quite well during the last scene!)

Toronto Star - Sopranos ending that no one saw coming

Bloomberg - Hapless Phil Gets Whacked, Sopranos Share a Final Family Meal

Cheers Queen Vic - may I amuse you ?

Raising a glass for Victoria Day here in Canada - the first of our good weather long weekends (well deserved I must say).

Just a few tidbits of entertainments stuff for the week.

Best new music find: the new Manic Street Preachers' album, fantastic single "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" with Nina Persson of The Cardigans, is on short rotation and lyrically embedded in short term RAM. Anthem worthy, rock sensibilities, and a little Robbie vocal-like.

Latest album that keeps getting better after every listen: Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare, 'nuff said. Note that all their lyrics are on the official web site.

Best ending for a TV series: Sopranos ? (not yet, still a few episodes away, but building...). Life on Mars ! I wanted to write some thoughts on the final episode but didn't want to be a spoiler (even thought of burying it with an old date stamp to avoid an accidental glance for regular readers). Let's just say that I think the ending was well done and enough for some analysis over beers. I hope I haven't set expectation too high !

New TV still awaiting the vote: Durham County and The Riches. I think Durham County is leading this one. Both shows provide some real intensity and darker sides of society. And interestingly both have some "life frightening" teenager stuff. On screen dramatic content featuring pre-teen and teenager angles is starting to grab my attention with two kids closing in on this much anticipated "joyous" time of life.

On a similar theme, best DVD rental of late: Deja vu. If you're a fan of movies tackling the elements of the time dimension, you'll love this one. Apart from a mind blowing story, there's also great stunt and fx work and of course superb acting from Washington.

Sports: Capt'n Canada Steve Nash out of the NBA playoffs but VC killers Cavs now top fave for PJ; Sens finally have a chance at Stanley awaiting Ducks or Wings (M&D losing sleep and finger nails with every game); Toronto FC still entertaining but suffered a disappointing loss on Saturday; FA Cup rather disappointing, but I'm looking forward to the Champion's League final on Wednesday (conflicting with new ulty season starting on Wed too).

Brits and Bobs in Spring

Movies

An Inconvenient Truth
Great, important movie, well delivered, beautifully filmed. The evidence is very clear. No one should argue with the answer. Hot current event rating. Canadian government warning of massive recession (Times Colonist) if we are to meet Kyoto levels versus saving the planet and economic side benefits (Suzuki).

The Matador
Brilliant movie that I missed first and second time around. Lots of layers and perfect timing.

Hot Fuzz
Much anticipated new film from Simon Pegg. I don't think I can wait for this one, solo outing this weekend perhaps. Repeat laughs of the brill Shaun of the Dead.

Music

Back to basics. I'm noticing that there's lots of new music that is doing a pretty good job of putting a fresh coat of third millennium paint on some classic music genres. Some examples: Fratellis (including a T-Rex redo on the Hot Fuzz soundtrack); Christina Aguilera (belting out some 50's big band-like tunes); and pyschedlic era apers like Joss Stone; The Shins, Magic Numbers and and James Morrison. And yes, all of these are on regular rotation and come recommended.

Can't wait for factor: Arctic Monkeys. Next week I think.

Electronic sounds of note: DJ Champion and the new LCD Soundsystem.

Is it me or are the lead singers for the Brit bands sounding more like the guy from the pub than a mid-western neutral sha-la-la voice of the past ? Some examples: The Twang, The Arctic Monkeys, and The Kooks.

For tracks from all these artists, a few surprises, current rotation and some guilty pleasures listen to Replanting the Seeds on tunes by PJMixer.

TV

A good manageable amount of decent TV on these days. New series of Sopranos and Entourage are the big highlights, new finds of 30 Rock, Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares and The Hour are wonderful and crowd favourites like House rock on. Some catching up to do on Like on Mars.

Sports

Too early in the NHL playoffs right now for me, but will stock up on beer for later rounds. NBA playoffs start tomorrow for my Raptor lads against sulky Vince Carter. UEFA Champions League semis coming up soon and new home town MLS team Toronto FC off to a tough start (although they just grabbed a few new players, including Danny Dichio). (Quiet mention here that watching all the sports action at home has jumped up a few notches on the entertainment index since I finally got my fab HD TV). Thoughts of golf beginning to take up brain cache.


Weather

Look like spring finally has arrived (he says over the cacophony of birds chirping in the background).