I've been playing around at the edges of the blog design, adding and dropping widgets, and enjoying the new Pages feature. A purplish button bar now separates the title from the posts; and right now, it has a button marked, "Victory Weighting." Press it, and you'll find a page explaining what Victory Weighting is (an alternative standings scheme for NFL games) and why I think the NFL should adopt it. Last year, I put the Victory Weighted standings in a widget at the bottom of the page. This year, they'll live on a semi-permanent page of their own, and you'll be able to get to it via the purple button bar.
I love, love, love this new feature, and the toolbar widget Google provided to go with it. Thanks, Google! (But no thanks for trying to cut a side deal with Verizon! Bad business, there.)
Enjoying the triumphant beat of a fantasy-football champion!
05 August 2010
03 August 2010
The Ghost-Grey Cat Presents: (7) All Unregistered Aliens
Episode 779: All Unregistered Aliens
First aired: 9 February 1978
Author: Victoria Dann
Play the teaser
This past week saw a Federal judge set aside most of Arizona's infamous SB 1070, one day before it was to take effect. The news reminded me of one of the most unusual episodes from the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.
"All Unregistered Aliens" starts as a hospital drama, but writer Victoria Dann needs only a couple of minutes to steer away from that well-worn path. For one thing, the center of this drama isn't a hospital, but a free clinic in a struggling urban neighborhood now dominated by immigrants and street gangs. Dr. Anne Quiller (voiced by Ann Williams) grew up in the area when it was a little more prosperous, and, for reasons she doesn't quite understand, she has just come back to run the clinic. Her uncle Stefan (Court Benson), proprietor of the local cafe, never left, and she finds herself turning to him for advice on navigating a terrain she no longer recognizes. Apart from an immigration-obsessed cop's efforts to convince her to snitch on her clients, Quiller's life has settled into a comforting, if not entirely comfortable, cadence.
A botched warehouse prank sets triggers the main story. One of the would-be pranksters, a teenager named Cleo, has been shot, and his brother Eli (Earl Hammond) must try to get medical attention. A full-scale hospital isn't an option: it could treat his wounds properly, but it might also expose his status (and Eli's) as an illegal alien. Eager to avoid deportation (effectively a death sentence for them), they go instead to Dr. Quiller's clinic. Without the resources to treat him, she can only leave poor Cleo to die at Eli's side.
Suddenly, Quiller finds herself in a difficult spot. Cleo dies, but his body disappears. The police won't help her; in fact, they think she's hiding Cleo. She must solve the case herself, and that means answering some uncomfortable questions. Who are Cleo and Eli, really? What is their nationality? And why has Quiller herself really returned to her old neighborhood?
The story feels more like a tour than a mystery, but it does exemplify Radio Mystery Theater's willingness on contemporary social issues every now and then. "All Unregistered Aliens" made its debut just ten days after the ultimate midpoint of the RMT run. By then, the series had already addressed not just illegal immigration but also even touchier subjects like race and abortion. RMT certainly didn't do that every night, but it did so more directly than most crime-drama series do today.
Score: 89/100. Not great, but solid, provocative and, for 1978, even innovative.
Why do I call it "innovative?" The reason includes a spoiler, so I'm putting it beyond the fold.
First aired: 9 February 1978
Author: Victoria Dann
Play the teaser
A doctor helps anywhere. What is so special about here? -- Uncle Stefan
This past week saw a Federal judge set aside most of Arizona's infamous SB 1070, one day before it was to take effect. The news reminded me of one of the most unusual episodes from the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.
"All Unregistered Aliens" starts as a hospital drama, but writer Victoria Dann needs only a couple of minutes to steer away from that well-worn path. For one thing, the center of this drama isn't a hospital, but a free clinic in a struggling urban neighborhood now dominated by immigrants and street gangs. Dr. Anne Quiller (voiced by Ann Williams) grew up in the area when it was a little more prosperous, and, for reasons she doesn't quite understand, she has just come back to run the clinic. Her uncle Stefan (Court Benson), proprietor of the local cafe, never left, and she finds herself turning to him for advice on navigating a terrain she no longer recognizes. Apart from an immigration-obsessed cop's efforts to convince her to snitch on her clients, Quiller's life has settled into a comforting, if not entirely comfortable, cadence.
A botched warehouse prank sets triggers the main story. One of the would-be pranksters, a teenager named Cleo, has been shot, and his brother Eli (Earl Hammond) must try to get medical attention. A full-scale hospital isn't an option: it could treat his wounds properly, but it might also expose his status (and Eli's) as an illegal alien. Eager to avoid deportation (effectively a death sentence for them), they go instead to Dr. Quiller's clinic. Without the resources to treat him, she can only leave poor Cleo to die at Eli's side.
Suddenly, Quiller finds herself in a difficult spot. Cleo dies, but his body disappears. The police won't help her; in fact, they think she's hiding Cleo. She must solve the case herself, and that means answering some uncomfortable questions. Who are Cleo and Eli, really? What is their nationality? And why has Quiller herself really returned to her old neighborhood?
The story feels more like a tour than a mystery, but it does exemplify Radio Mystery Theater's willingness on contemporary social issues every now and then. "All Unregistered Aliens" made its debut just ten days after the ultimate midpoint of the RMT run. By then, the series had already addressed not just illegal immigration but also even touchier subjects like race and abortion. RMT certainly didn't do that every night, but it did so more directly than most crime-drama series do today.
Score: 89/100. Not great, but solid, provocative and, for 1978, even innovative.
Why do I call it "innovative?" The reason includes a spoiler, so I'm putting it beyond the fold.
13 July 2010
Adult Swim's summer hits and misses
The World Cup is over? Let the withdrawal begin! Ack!
Near the top of my list of vices is a tendency to watch way too many things on Cartoon Network, especially the late-night Adult Swim section.
Hit: Mary Shelley's Frankenhole is the latest from Dino Stamatopolous, creator Moral Orel, a brilliant sendup of fundamentalist Christianity that died a miserable death, both creatively and in the ratings. Stamatopolous followed it up with SuperJail, a tawdry and violent show that's more typical Adult Swim fare. I hated it, so when Frankenhole started, I avoided it.
[Correction: Stamatopolous had nothing to do with Superjail. Still, given Morel Orel's sad fate, my comment about Frankenhole stands.]
That may have been a mistake. In this show, Dr. Frankenstein didn't stop at creating his famous monster. Among other things, he's discovered gateways to parallel universes. Fool that he is, he's opened them; and, on the basis of the first episode I saw this weekend, considerable hilarity has ensued. I'll stream in the other 10-minute segments that have aired. Hopefully, like the one I've seen, they'll be close in tone to Moral Orel's brilliant first season.
Misses: [as] opened two live-action series this summer, both centered on popular comedians. My feelings about them are not good. Check it Out! with Dr. Steve Brule features John C. Reilly as the pathetic, forlorn host of an early-morning cable-access show. Reilly plays the part too well: Brule needs therapy, not more episodes. Meanwhile, Children's Hospital, Rob Corddry's much-ballyhooed expansion of an Internet series, opened Sunday night. The opener was made for WB online viewing, so I'll give it pass. But it doesn't look promising at this point.
Hit: The Boondocks started its long-awaited third season back in May rather slowly. The season low came with "The Story of Jimmy Rebel," in which the bizarrely racist Uncle Ruckus hooks up with his favorite singer, who writes and performs racist songs. It could've been a funny installment, but the writers went overboard with the songs. From there, the season has improved dramatically, including a brutally funny riff on Tyler Perry. Series creator Aaron McGruder has reportedly declared that this will be the series' last season. If so, that would mark a big loss for Adult Swim.
Miss: Just today, the official Venture Bros. blog confirmed a 12 September start date for new episodes. The same post tells us that Season 4 has now ended. For my favorite Adult Swim show, it's two small pieces of bad news. The original plan was to grant Venture Bros. a 16-episode season 4, split into two parts. The first eight installments aired last winter, and the season was to restart late this spring. Production delays took their toll, pushing the restart back to 22 August, then to the now-official 12 September. At some point recently, Adult Swim and VB creator Jackson Publick decided to re-label the second half of Season 4 as Season 5. There is a Venture Bros. panel at Comic-Con in San Diego, so we should soon hear more on the show's near-term future.
Here's hoping the restart makes its new deadline.
Near the top of my list of vices is a tendency to watch way too many things on Cartoon Network, especially the late-night Adult Swim section.
[Correction: Stamatopolous had nothing to do with Superjail. Still, given Morel Orel's sad fate, my comment about Frankenhole stands.]
That may have been a mistake. In this show, Dr. Frankenstein didn't stop at creating his famous monster. Among other things, he's discovered gateways to parallel universes. Fool that he is, he's opened them; and, on the basis of the first episode I saw this weekend, considerable hilarity has ensued. I'll stream in the other 10-minute segments that have aired. Hopefully, like the one I've seen, they'll be close in tone to Moral Orel's brilliant first season.
Misses: [as] opened two live-action series this summer, both centered on popular comedians. My feelings about them are not good. Check it Out! with Dr. Steve Brule features John C. Reilly as the pathetic, forlorn host of an early-morning cable-access show. Reilly plays the part too well: Brule needs therapy, not more episodes. Meanwhile, Children's Hospital, Rob Corddry's much-ballyhooed expansion of an Internet series, opened Sunday night. The opener was made for WB online viewing, so I'll give it pass. But it doesn't look promising at this point.
Here's hoping the restart makes its new deadline.
11 July 2010
A picture of justice
You know what the best thing about the World Cup is? The best team usually wins the final!
In the NBC photo above, Andres Iniesta is the man in navy blue, celebrating the game-winning goal in extra time of the 2010 World Cup Final. I don't know who the flustered Dutchman is, and frankly, I don't care. At the end of 120 minutes, Spain prevailed, 1-0, over the Netherlands. ¡Viva la Fúria Roja! All hail Spain!
Much will be made of the lack of scoring from the new champions. La Fúria only scored eight goals in their seven matches, and they even opened with a 1-0 loss to the Swiss. They didn't have the best defense in South Africa (that would be Paraguay, Spain's quarterfinal victim), but it was more than good enough to frustrate the field.
As for the Oranje: they have turned out to be world soccer's answer to the Pat Riley Knicks. Let me explain. Back in the 1990s, having taken over the ailing NBA team in New York City, Riley realized that (a) while he had talent, he didn't have enough to overcome the Jordan-Jackson Bulls and (b) Knicks management would never give him enough. His answer? Turn the Knicks into a team so physical, it could just bully its way into the NBA Finals. At that, he succeeded -- but in the process, he literally set the entire Eastern Conference back a decade.
I think that's what happened to Holland this weekend. Seeing no hope of overcoming Spain's superior personnel, Dutch coach Dirk van Marwijk had his players turn violent, collecting yellow cards and pulling crap like the assault at the right. In this picture from ABC, Nigel de Jong delivers a flying kick to the chest of Spain's Xabi Alonso. (I'm not exaggerating; it was a flying kick straight from a martial-arts movie.) For that crime, de Jong got only a yellow card instead of the red that should've been handed him.
The word "crime" pretty much describes the Dutch effort today, including their complaints about the officiating. Excuse me? You guys turn the World Cup final into a bad MMA fight, and then turn around cry about anything? Here's hoping that doesn't fly any higher in the Netherlands that it is anywhere else.
Ian Darke, I take back some of my screed against you yesterday. The real disgrace was the Oranje today. I'm so glad they lost, Scooter can hear me purr.
Much will be made of the lack of scoring from the new champions. La Fúria only scored eight goals in their seven matches, and they even opened with a 1-0 loss to the Swiss. They didn't have the best defense in South Africa (that would be Paraguay, Spain's quarterfinal victim), but it was more than good enough to frustrate the field.
As for the Oranje: they have turned out to be world soccer's answer to the Pat Riley Knicks. Let me explain. Back in the 1990s, having taken over the ailing NBA team in New York City, Riley realized that (a) while he had talent, he didn't have enough to overcome the Jordan-Jackson Bulls and (b) Knicks management would never give him enough. His answer? Turn the Knicks into a team so physical, it could just bully its way into the NBA Finals. At that, he succeeded -- but in the process, he literally set the entire Eastern Conference back a decade.
The word "crime" pretty much describes the Dutch effort today, including their complaints about the officiating. Excuse me? You guys turn the World Cup final into a bad MMA fight, and then turn around cry about anything? Here's hoping that doesn't fly any higher in the Netherlands that it is anywhere else.
Ian Darke, I take back some of my screed against you yesterday. The real disgrace was the Oranje today. I'm so glad they lost, Scooter can hear me purr.
Can we deport Ian Darke already?
At the same time, though, I saw was nothing wrong with African fans constantly showering him with boos, as they did in Satuday's third-place match against Germany. It wasn't as though in the first round, prior to That Hand Ball, a despicable Suárez dive hadn't tricked the referee into ejecting South Africa keeper Itumelng Khune. Hell, that flop would have embarrassed Vlade Divac.
Which brings me to Ian Darke, who covered, among others, the USA World Cup matches for American TV. I found him tolerable to watch until he went off on the South African fans for booing Súarez. "Disgreaceful"? "A lack of understanding of the game"? He meant to insult Africans with teabagger-worthy phrases like those, but all Darke really did was describe himself. Perhaps he should get out of England more. In the rest of the world, singling specific players out for jeering is a time-honored tradition. It's reserved for players who've committed egregious offenses against the home team. (That means you, Chris Pronger, bane of all right-thinking NHL fans.) Whatever else he did, Luis Suárez surely fit that profile. The other fact Darke missed with his proto-colonialist missives was the fact that no human can simultaneously (a) boo Suárez and (b) blow on a damned vuvuzela. That, of course, was a favor for everyone but Darke.
ESPN dramatically improved its World Cup coverage, finally giving the event the respect it deserves. Heck, apart from Darke, it even made it safe to watch English-language soccer telecasts in North America. But while they're washing off all the Gulf Coast oil from the punking they took from LeBron (the Impostor) James this week, perhaps ESPN executives can take a little time to hand Ian Darke a red card.
Obligatory comment on the games: There wasn't a lot to say about the semifinals. The Netherlands' win over Uruguay was no surprise, nor Spain's victory over a German squad that definitely missed Thomas Müller. The real surprise was that, though shut down on Wednesday night, it was der Mannschaft, not the Brazilians, who played the prettiest football of the tournament. (Sure, England and Argentina helped, but still... .)
Regarding tomorrow's final: as the U.S. team constantly allowed fatal early goals, the Netherlands have allowed silly goals late. Spain will see to it that that will undo the Dutch, probably in the 84th minute or so.
04 July 2010
World Cup quarterfinal purring
So Germany blows Argentina halfway back across the Atlantic.
For once, loudmouthed Diego Maradona is at a loss for words.
Purr, purr, purr!
And what'll you know? Spain actually gets out of a quarterfinal stage!
The Tholians Paraguayans made them work, and there was that penalty-kick wackiness.
But finally, La Fúria are through to a luscious semifinal with der Mannschaft.
Purr, purr, purr!
02 July 2010
Shoo, birds! This World Cup is for the kittens!
What? Brazil blew a halftime lead?
Yeah, thanks for nothing, Felipe Melo!
Ghana missed a stoppage-time penalty kick?
Yeah, thanks for nothing, Asemoah Gyan!
(Though you did make up for it in the tiebreaker.)
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