The Emmy nominations will be offered up tomorrow morning. As per tradition, I carve out some room at my little corner of the digital world to weigh on those series that I consider to be the best of episodic storytelling … Continue reading Top Ten Television, 2016-2017 season
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. I would be overjoyed … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Sniglets
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. I can’t claim that I stuck through Portlandia through it’s entire run — including the pending final season — but I have tremendous affection for the comedy series co-stewarded by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. Although I didn’t have intimate knowledge of the scruffy metropolitan area it satirized when the program launched, I recognized a generational identity within the comedy. My swath of the … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Portlandia, “The Dream of the Nineties”
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too.. As I recall it, the first time I ever encountered Eddie Izzard’s name was in a piece at the online magazine Salon, when online magazines were still the height of novelty. The comedy performances touted in the article were still devilishly hard to come by, so I simply filed the name away, deeply intrigued by the excited celebration of a comic mind that approached … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Eddie Izzard, “Cake or Death?”
This space has gathered dust the past few days. It was the unexpected result of a toppling series of dominoes related to a recent move and the colossal ineptitude of a certain multinational corporation. It especially pains me that I missed yesterday’s College Countdown post, but circumstances were largely beyond my control. Since my mind and spirit are still weary (in part because of yet one more service technician curveball hurled right at my noggin earlier today), I’m giving myself one more day of trembling stasis. Content returns tomorrow with a movie review of a big ol’ blockbuster. Whatever could … Continue reading Programming Note
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too.. I spend my days writing about the latest surgical tools and medical advances. When my weary mind drifts, I invariably land on this sketch from the late, great Mr. Show. “Leeches suck out the sick inside of you that witches put there.” Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Laughing Matters” tag. Continue reading Laughing Matters: Mr. Show, “The Limits of Science”
This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. There are times when participating in the The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM may call upon an individual to consume media they might otherwise avoid — or perhaps to which they’d be entirely oblivious. Those ventures might include the woolier reaches of television scheduled pitched at those craving entertainment after a hard week of middle school. Usually, … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: North Oconomowoc Ocelots
This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. While The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM is dominated by the kind of topics that would be immediately recognizable and comfortable to anyone who has spent time conjuring up answers at the quiz night at their favorite purveyor of adult beverages, there are a few peculiarities. For instance, I’m not sure how many other major trivia battles … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Zeke and Luther
This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. Those with long memories know just how dramatically The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM changed about twenty years ago. Once the internet made its seismic shift from a tool exclusively for the tech-savvy to the depository for seemingly every last bit of information ever, it became far trickier for the writers of our beloved annual trivia … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Debra Winger
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. “She’s the smartest person in the world, general. I think we ought to listen to her.” I love this with an intensity I’ll never be able to truly convey. Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Laughing Matters” tag. Continue reading Laughing Matters: The Max Fischer Players
Coffee for Two 