weekend watch: bored to death

photo via hbo.com

programming note for this weekend: bored to death premieres on sunday, september 20, at 9:30 pm. the series stars jason schwartzman, zach galifianakis, and ted danson...but look forward to appearances by parker posey (love her, party girl), heather burns (am i allowed to still love her from you've got mail?), kristen wiig, oliver platt (am i still allowed to love him from the west wing?), and olivia thirlby.

friend, film snob, and commissioner of the only fantasy league i belong to (premier league football...do they kick you out for being so consistently in last place?)--richard short--is guest- starring in the first episode as "vincent."

if you are like me and are HBO-free, you can download the episode (gratis!) on itunes.

here is a link to the official site...

enjoy!

see a fine actor: richard short, on fringe

who's on the fringe?

i tried watching it when it first premiered, and it was a bit too spy/sci-fi convoluted for me to stay invested in, but...i've got my dvr set and i'm going to watch tomorrow night's episode live, to see my friend, the fine actor (and co-blogger of film snobs), richard short.

he's going to get his spine ripped out, apparently.

gory good fun!

it airs at 9pm on FOX....

good friday

nadal and federer. 2006 monte carlo open final. april 23, 2006.

photo by pascal guyot, for getty. via http://montecarlo.masters-series.com.

i am in a special kind of heaven this morning: tennis channel is gearing up for the 2009 monte carlo rolex masters event (which kicks on this sunday, april 12) by airing the "classic finals" from the last few years. it's a friday fed v. nadal fest.

i don't have the kind of memory that will make this anything but suspenseful from point to point (obviously i know the final outcome)--when i tuned in at 9am, i had no idea if the match was going 3 sets or 5. it's becoming clearer.

i am wishing i had the time to sit and really take this in, but there is stuff to be done on this good friday.

i like it as a soundtrack, though.
if you're interested in "playing" it too, here's the day's tv schedule.

winter a-go-go

i've got the day off today! woo hoo!

whenever i have a day off, pretty much the first thing i'll do is flick on the tv and see what's on tap on TCM. if i'm lucky, it's film noir day or myrna loy's birthday or they will program an entire day of melodramas from the 40s and 50s.

today, my little feet hit the cold floor at right around the usual time (8:30) and i tip-toed over to the tube, hit # 82 on the remote, and saw that "winter a-go-go" was on.

crap.

i'd never heard of it.

the tv guide said something about 1965, richard benedict, and kids at a ski lodge.

clearly it's b-movie day.

drat.

i just wasn't in the mood!

not 3 seconds later, they're heavy into a dance number, a dude and a bunch gals in very tight, very colorful pants, sweeping, dusting, shimmying and shaking their pretty asses around this "ski lodge." (they were the cleaning crew.) go-go dancing with brooms and dust rags! so silly. and so MY LIFE.

(put some music on, and i am a dancing fool. true story. and consequently, it takes me twice as long to get anything done--cook, clean, get dressed for work, wrap christmas presents, paint my apartment. i just can't help it.)

anyway, the next few minutes of the film were fairly awful, so off went the tv and my own dance party started up.

and it's gonna go on all day, while i bake a bermudian rum cake, and some other sweet treats for tomorrow's new year's party. we'll see how long the neighbors can put up with prince.

a note or two about the film:

tag line: "ski buffs and ski babes on the go-go in the snow-snow." wow.

it features beverly adams, who made uncredited appearances in a couple of elvis movies (roustabout and girl happy -- a fave! shelley fabares, so cute), and married vidal sasson...she's BEVERLY SASSOON!!!( "ooh la la sassoon!")

the film also starred william wellman, jr., who seems to have built a fairly successful tv career, and whose dad directed carole lombard in "nothing sacred," her only color film appearance...

no more funny business!

rafa puts an ice bag on his head in the heat during his match against viktor troicki of serbia at the us open tennis tournament on august 30, 2008, nyc. photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images via tennis.com

day 8 of the us open will be day 1 of live tennis for me. and i am not messing around.

i spent the day waiting for them to post the order of play (cheers! nadal plays querrey at around 1pm!), catching up on some of the better us open reports in the ny times (favorite line: Tipsarevic, who appears as if he could be the love child of Salma Hayek and Sam Waterston, is a voracious reader who regularly quotes the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky...) and napping (because tomorrow is going to be good, long day).

i also had a little 3-way going here at the apt: i had the tv broadcast (on cbs and usa), usopen radio, AND live scoring on usopen.com going simultaneously for a good part of the afternoon.

this may seem like overkill, but tv tennis commentary for this grand slam being what it is, desperate times call for serious plan-bs and -cs. i couldn't bear tracy austin as a player (the pinafores, the bounce-bounce-bouncing on her tippy-toes, the nervous hand-blowing) and i'm even less enamored of her as a commentator. her voice is as tense as she used to appear on court, and she is far more defensive in the booth. between her, and mary carillo (channeling ann curry--why does everything have to be oh-so dramatic? ) and the joyless jim courier, i had no choice but to hit the mute button on the tv, and tune into the radio broadcast on the site. (way back in june, when i was trying to protect myself from martina navratilova's endless, ruinous monotone wimbledon commentary, i figured out that i could, thanks to dvr, properly sync radio wimbledon with the live tv broadcast. and that allowed me to enjoy andrew cotter, and virginia wade's poetic style (“ivanovic is this beautiful statuesque figure of a player, but she is being beaten below the knees…that net is taunting her today…it spared her against dechy") and the refreshing, uninhibited enthusiasm of andrew castle, and john lloyd, and others. there was one line, so insightful and apt, i'll never forget it: "nadal is very much like the tide, isn't he, he just keeps coming at you." i will have to find my notes to see who came up with that one...)

and yet, even as i was happy to have the us open radio broadcast available, it still didn't solve the matter of all the compelling matches that weren't being covered, on tv OR on the radio. explain how we were made to suffer through yet another listless lindsay davenport match on friday night, when robredo was playing safin, and moya was playing tsonga? and today, no robredo v. tsonga? and those are just the matches i took special interest in. there were many other hard fought, top-flight tennis battles for avid tennis fans. thankfully, those of us who wanted a little more could indulge in more ways than one.

mad men and a funny lady

tomorrow, one or more of my friends at work is going to ask me what i did this weekend.
and when i tell them about my sunday, and the fact that i spent nearly every hour of it inside my little apartment, i will feel not a hint of embarrassment.

why?

it's a very humid 91 degrees out.
and
there's a MAD MEN MARATHON on AMC.
why leave home?

it's impossible to escape the buzz and the acclaim (16 emmy nominations...), so don't bother.
don't try to resist it.
just hunker down with the complete season 1 dvd set.
try to pick the top 5 of 500 lines worth repeating, if only for the kick of letting them slip from your lips...(that sandwich is making me sad...i bet daily friendship with that bottle attracts more people to advertising than any salary you could dream of...)
let all of the sexy, stylish intrigue waft over you like a million smoke rings...
and let the smell of it stick to you until season 2 premieres next sunday, at 10pm.

photo via http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/

***

a couple of years ago, at a get together with my younger cousins, i very reluctantly joined them to watch the dvd of best friends. i cringed through the first several scenes, until anna faris delivered the line, "god, i want to lick your skin off." i almost spit up my coca-cola. she plays a britney-jessica-ashley "musician" type with the kind of ridiculous gusto a role like that deserves. ever since then, she's been on my list of favorite funny ladies (with judy greer).

behold, she's featured in this week's nytimes sunday magazine, with several other "funny faces."

love her. she's like a super-hot nellie oleson? in any case, super hot.

anna faris photographed by ruven afanador

one last (but certainly not least) thing: ms. faris is wearing a ring (left hand, 4th finger) by philip crangi, an amazing jewelry designer that my sister has studied with. she's always spoken glowingly of him, and i've become a huge fan...

you may have seen him featured in a recent gap ad , or heard that he's been collaborating with vera wang for a line of jewelry for her spring 2008 and (upcoming) fall 2008 collections.

the nytimes photo doesn't allow you to appreciate his work (understatement of the day?), so check out some of his designs at barneys....and of course, on his website, philipcrangi.com.

coverage to dream about

nadal (via peter bodo's blog post, the oxymoron: nadal v. connors, 1/17/07)...

these are boon times for tennis fans. not only has the quality of the tennis at the "happy slam" been spectacular (on the men's side alone, baghdatis d. safin; hewitt d. baghdatis; federer d. tipsarevic, tsonga d. gasquet), we've actually had an opportunity to see the matches LIVE.

espn/espn2's been offering three windows for live viewing--during the first week, there was morning, prime time and overnight coverage--plus "encores" of select match-ups in the afternoons.

the programming was smart to boot: in previous years, programmers seemed to forsake quality match-ups for "americans only" broadcasts (agassi, roddick, blake, the williams sisters) or alternately, the "sharapova show," with repeats of those same matches played ad nauseam--and i do mean nauseam--until the final rounds of the tourney.

this year espn finally lived up to the "worldwide" part of it's moniker. it seems the only programming blip so far was a decision to show the williams sisters' playing early round doubles, instead of showing nalbandian--considered a serious threat coming into the open--who was locked in more contentious singles match.

not that we have been--or should be--denied the opportunity to see roddick, blake, serena and venus williams, and maria sharapova, or federer or henin or nadal, for that matter, but with the expanded live coverage on espn (and more live and taped programming on tennis channel), viewers have been able to witness the depth and quality on both the men's and women's sides, from tour veterans and up and coming players from all over the world, which is a real treat for tennis fans, and which may actually help dedicate new ones.

and let's acknowledge the yeoman work of chris fowler and the team of commentators-- cliff drysdale (a favorite), mary carillo, mary joe fernandez, patrick mcenroe, darren cahill (love him, too), martina navratilova, justin gimelstob, bud collins, among others. "cliffy" and mary jo remarked that fowler had been on air for something on the order of 17 hours and 35 minutes. that's a lot of rallying, replays and in-studio banter to have to deal with. say what you will about the commentators' style and some of the things that escape their lips--which bloggers and their enthusiastic readers (like me) have lauded or criticized without reservation--but they've helped deliver some great tennis moments. we can't take their role in this for granted. as wise man/writer-editor-blogger extraordinaire, steve tignor reminds us, there were times when live coverage of the australian open didn't exist, except in our dreams...

if you don't get espn or tennis channel, or you just can't get enough-- even with the unprecedented tv coverage--check out steve tignor's "concrete elbow" blogs, which live on the tennis.com and espn sites, and peter bodo's tennis world blog. the "action" is just as lively! i will devote another whole post to tignor's stuff, as basically anything he writes becomes one of my personal must-reads. but i owe a particular debt to bodo for his intriguing analysis of nadal v. connors this week, and the unbelieveable photo of nadal (above).

dreamy, indeed.

worth waiting for...and watching

in what i'd consider a rather ho-hum skating season (devoid of compelling storylines, save the resurgence of johnny weir, and full of sloppy, mediocre long programs, esp. in the singles and pairs), there is a bright spot. two, actually--the canadian ice dancers, tessa virtue and scott moir. this skate is too spectacular not to post.

though a very young team, they’re already earning whispered comparisons to torvill and dean. and it might be apt—the expressiveness and musicality, the speed and strength, the flow and simple, elegant lines that belie the intricacy of their choreography--reminiscent, yes, of torvill and dean. while most "modern" skating has taken a terrible turn toward high-speed contortionism and often graceless exhibitionism, virtue and moir remind us just how stunning figure skating can be, and what ice dancers should aspire to. their skating makes "sense" --no abstract melodrama here. no need to “sell” a routine with facial expressiveness. it's pure, skillful dance on ice.

the music--michel legrand’s “i will wait for you,” from the umbrellas of cherbourg soundtrack--is an impeccable choice for their style. they give that hauntingly lovely composition its due. the entry to and execution of their rotational lift (at around 4:13 on this video) is breathtaking, as is their soaring lift, perfectly timed to the score (here, at 4:31).