Stream of Consciousness Blogging

*Upstate New York is weird. Temperatures this week are in the 80's. Because it was cold enough to snow just a month ago, it feels like it's over 100 here.

*People who write love songs enjoy referencing Romeo and Juliet. Did these people ever, you know...watch the play??? Romeo and Juliet don't work out too well as couple. Sure, they spout lots of magnificent poetic oratory, but they end up unnecessarily and prematurely dead. Interesting thing, to me anyway, is that the play isn't about the outcome of their relationship. The prologue tells us they're going to die. The point of the story is that it takes the deaths of four teenagers (Mercutio, Tybalt, Romeo, and Juliet, in that order) to convince their families to get over whatever it is they're fighting about. Unlike many of Shakespeare's other tragedies, this one largely plays like one of the romantic comedies, up to the point that people start dying.

*I think one reason Lady Gaga is so popular is that her existence answers the age-old question, what would it be like if Madonna had a child with Elton John?

*Many of President Obama's far-right critics get angry about his religious statements for the same reason his far-left critics ignore them: neither group believes he's telling the truth. Their reactions to President Bush's religious statements were the opposite: each believed he was absolutely truthful in his views about faith.

*President Obama is starting to suffer the same problem with this oil spill that President Bush had with Hurricane Katrina: perceived lack of action. This is something that politicians must deal with, regardless of whether or not they are in a position to actually do anything.

*I actually had dreams about the final episode of LOST the other night. I think my brain was still trying to figure out a way to make sense of that ending. At least the ending was consistent with the overall style of the show. Too many shows, like Quantum Leap, Enterprise, Seinfeld, or even Dollhouse try to do a "big event" ending that ends up being a totally different type of episode that doesn't have the key elements that made us love the show in the first place. The next-to-the-last episode ends up being a better conclusion than the series ending event. I still think every copy of the final Enterprise episode needs to be gathered together and destroyed.

*Shows in the 1960's were shot on film, often 35mm. They were edited on film, with special effects processed on film. Thus, they maintain the high resolution that film provides and when they're cleaned up and released on DVD or Blu-Ray, they look outstanding. (The recent Blu-Ray releases of the original Star Trek are an excellent example.) By comparison, shows from the 80's or 90's like Star Trek: The Next Generation were shot on film, then transferred to video for editing and visual effects work. As a result, the supposedly more advanced TNG looks far less impressive on modern high-definition sets. The image is fuzzier, colors are less vibrant, and the effects just look artificial and over-processed. On the other hand, hi-def makes it much easier to see the make-up lines on Spock's ears.

*Way back when, "superstation" TBS showed nearly every Atlanta Braves game, and a Braves fan like me could watch from virtually anywhere in the country. Now TBS focuses on reruns and cheesy original shows, and baseball coverage is heavily regionalized. I can only watch the Braves if they are on ESPN or playing one of the New York teams. This is all the more disappointing when I think about how last year I could hop on a MARTA train in Atlanta and get seats behind home plate in the upper deck for $8 just about anytime I felt the urge. I'm not suggesting that whoever runs TBS should be whacked in the face with a sock full of marbles. Not at all.

*I just did a spell-check on this blog. The spell-checker highlights "Obama" as a potentially misspelled word. Really??? I think they need to update the blogger software....