Windowseat Weblog by Laurel Krahn

updated Nov 5 @ 1pm CT by Laurel Krahn laurel@windowseat.org ICQ: 509473 AIM: lakrahn Home TV Picks TV Portal MN Portal previous Oct 18 - 31 Oct 11 - 17 Sept 27 - Oct 10 Sept 20-26 Sept 13-19 Sept 7-12 Sept 1-6 More . . . now playing Resolutions Nate Bucklin awake John Wesley Harding Fat City Shawn Colvin Maurice and I The Flash Girls Thornhill Moxy Früvous to read queue Dragon Steven Brust Ender's Shadow Orson Scott Card Mind Changer James White must see movies (as in, I've seen 'em, I love 'em, you should see 'em too) The Iron Giant American Beauty places to go Minn-stf events 2/25 - KitH 4/21-23 - Minicon shop amazon.com Bibliofind emerchandise ikea Land's End Levenger Lush Restoration Hardware weblogs YAWL whim & vinegar unobserved utterances The Stuffed Dog Screenshot Robot Wisdom Rebecca's Pocket rc3.org peterme Obscure Store nubbin NowThis More Like This MISCmedia metascene Memepool Medley Looka! lemonyellow kottke.org jjg.net Honeyguide haddock hack the planet genehack flutterby dandot.com Camworld Bradlands Anita's LOL more . . . journals James Lileks Michael Rawdon Al Roker / archive columns Jon Carroll Roger Ebert Michael Finley James Lileks other daily stuff AICN Ditherati HLotSLinks HNN NewsDroid /. Word a Day	November 1 - 5
	"And I know I've got the whole world at my feet In my window seat" -- John Wesley Harding
	Joyce Millman voices the thoughts of many: Adventures in NBC programming: You have an acclaimed drama with a loyal following but low ratings. Let's say this drama is called "Homicide: Life on the Street." You cancel "Homicide," because it doesn't "fit" with the chick show ("Providence") that leads off your Friday schedule and gets big ratings. In its place, you slot Cold Feet, a dog of a romantic comedy-drama that bores critics to tears and drives off viewers in record numbers. "Cold Feet" ends up getting lower ratings than "Homicide," which, by the way, you are inviting back to the network as a sweeps-period TV movie. You cancel "Cold Feet" and slot Law & Order reruns (10 p.m. Fri., NBC) in its place. You now have no 10 p.m. Friday show, you have alienated your "Homicide" viewers, who will forever distrust you, and your whole theory about women wanting to watch "Providence" clones all night on Fridays is shot to hell. So, um, why was "Homicide" canceled? Thanks to everyone who wrote with Mac recommendations, etc. Wow! Most response I've ever received to anything here, really. Anyway, will be writing up some of the stuff here sometime soon. And will send some email replies, too. Just swamped this week. Darn dayjob. I mean, good dayjob. Well, you know what I mean. What is now the club known as First Avenue, was once a bus station. A fine look at it from James Lileks. Argh! I've now read it in enough places that it must be true-- ABC is pulling both Sports Night and It's like, you know . . . from their schedule during November sweeps. ARGH! Idiots. Time to fire off some email again, I guess. Lisa Schmeiser on Must Munch TV: Munch as Phoebe's new, older boyfriend on Friends; Munch as the cop with whom Nina becomes hopelessly fixated after Finch's tragicomic murder on Just Shoot Me; Munch as a disgruntled tourist on Providence; I like picturing some of these. Read the rest, follow the link. "If I had a giant squid, I'd give it a cell phone." -- Bruce Schneier It's hard to believe that I've been publishing my weblog for a year now. Well, close to it. I forget the exact date that Windowseat Weblog debuted, but I know it was early-mid November. The first page that I archived is circa Nov 14 and I figured, just for kicks, rather than merely linking to it-- I'd republish that content here. Interesting to note that I'm still quoting the same gaggle of usual suspects. Yes, this is a way to get content up with little work on my part, too. I find it eerie how appropriate it all still is. The more things change, the more . . . I'll have some new stuff soon, too. Last year's links (in honor of the 1 year anniversary of this weblog): Jon Katz at slashdot.org on Jesse Ventura and the Net: Jesse Ventura and his "geek squad" have given the Internet its first election victory, and politics might not (we can only hope) ever be the same. Today's teevee.org piece reveals the results of their Dead Pool (for this season's new crop of TV shows). Phillip Michael's opening bit re Hamlet of all things is simply fabulous: "This quarry cries on havoc. O proud Death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast struck." --Hamlet, V, ii No offense to Shakespeare, who knew how to put a sentence together all pretty-like, but when he wrote those lines in "Hamlet," he wouldn't have known from a quarry that cried on havoc, even if it strode up to him and kicked him square in the first folio. Oh sure, when Fortinbras utters that line to cap off the three hours of shits and giggles that is "Hamlet," four people are lying dead on the stage, two more have been executed off-stage, some broad has thrown herself into a river a couple of scenes back and her old man winds up shishkebabbed on the whim of a spooked-out Dane. That's a hell of a lot of mayhem, especially for something that's not a Simpson-Bruckheimer production. But stack that pile of bodies from the last scene of "Hamlet" up against the wreckage of the 1998 Fall TV season, and it makes the Bard's work look like a church picnic. An especially bloody and calamity-filled church picnic, sure, but a church picnic, nevertheless. Ah Joyce Millman, how do I love thee. Well, at least I appreciate her wry look at TV, particularly at the once incredible show Homicide: Life on the Street. Now a very pale shadow of it's former self. She previews tonight's episode in today's blue glow @ salon.com: Homicide: Life on the Street (10 p.m. Fri., NBC) begins a two-parter in which the squad pursues a killer all the way to Miami. Unfortunately, when they get there, they realize that Crockett and Tubbs don't work there anymore. James Lileks of the Minneapolis Star Tribune gets it right re Friday the 13th in today's Backfence column [link expired so I removed it]: Whenever I get into a building that doesn't have a 13th floor, I get irritated -- it means the structure was built by superstitious people. What's more, stupid superstitious people -- if you name the 13th floor 14, it's still the 13th floor. Which means that all the bad things would still happen, so eventually 14 would become an unlucky number, too. So in 50 years it will be bad luck to have a 13th and a 14th floor, and the numbers will skip from 12 to 15. But then bad things will happen on 15, since it's now the 13th floor. Eventually every number above 12 will be unlucky. In a hundred years you'll be on floor 12, and get a message to see the boss on floor 1,234, and you'll think: Might as well just take the stairs -- it's only one flight. There are only two more episodes of Babylon 5 to go now. A few months back, I read a review of the final five episodes of the show. A powerful review, that went to great lengths not to spoil the episodes. Went back and reread the review today, it's still grand. Even if you don't watch the show, it's a nice essay about how something like a TV show can move people and bring people together. I know the reviewer, Glen Oliver, got some grief over his review. No spoilers, no detailed review. More about his feelings watching the show, watching these episodes, and after seeing the episodes. Of course, that's why I love this review. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Anyway. Here's the review and here's just one of the bits I like: When you walk away from the final five episodes, you won’t be thinking about how cool the SA 23 Mitchell-Hyundyne Starfury is. You’ll be thinking about what a nice person Doctor Franklin is, about how that Lochley chick really is pretty cool after all, about how much John Sheridan has grown-up since the first time we saw him. You’ll be thinking about how cast and characters of BABYLON 5 are more than just faces on a TV screen - to the viewer and to each other - and you’ll contemplate how special that factor really is. KTCA's AdWatch page has RealVideo of all of the TV ad's from the race Jesse won (i.e. the race to be Minnesota's new governor). The startribune.com caption contest is very, very cool. You should enter the contest. I hadn't checked out the pictures and winners in a while, gave it a look today. Some good stuff. James Lileks (again) on things Microsoft in this weekend's bleat: I won't mind when Microsoft software controls my automobile, because then when the car just sits inert and tells me it can't find the right driver, it will make a certain sense. [this particular bleat isn't archived near as I can tell, but here's a similar rant/story from Lileks]
<- Previous log Home / Why a Web Log? / The Usual Sources / Archive / Mailing Lists / TV Picks Got suggestions? Comments? Let me know what you think would improve this page. Don't hesitate, just write. I read all feedback and do my best to respond with, at the very least, a thank you. This page created and maintained by Laurel Krahn who can be reached via email to laurel@windowseat.org. If you'd like to email or snail mail Laurel cool stuff (for this weblog or not), she'd love that. Copyright ©1999 Laurel Krahn unless otherwise noted. May not be redistributed without permission.