Author Archives: Rob MacD

Well, it was bound to happen. Obviously, a few months ago, all the pipes and plumbing in our bathroom got together and planned this. First it’ll be the toilet that goes. The bathroom sink and its pipes, having been replaced a mere year or two ago, decided it’d be obvious if they went again. Now, the final bit of bathroom plumbing has decided to malfunction and depart. So, today, we have new taps and shower, plus new pipes leading to the taps and shower.
To get to the pipes, our interim plumber (the much appreciated Cecil has put his back out and was unable to attend to our needs) had to go in from the bathroom closet. That means the wall in the closet had to be, um, removed. That means that everything in the closet had to be removed.
The closet in question has probably seven shelves, and is as deep as a standard tub is wide. Pretty deep, for a closet, I think. Over the 10+ years of living here, we’ve begun using less and less of the back areas of those shelves. Lately, in fact, I’d guess we only use the front 6 inches of those shelves. That’s not to say the rest of the area is empty. Quite the opposite, in fact. All the shelves are piled deep with all sorts and manner of bathroom and non-bathroom items. Many of which have not been seen for years.
One of those objects was a pill bottle that contained some of Cameron’s baby hair. Much lighter than it is now. I found it interesting how my wife was quite struck by the memories that this bottle of hair elicited, yet my reaction was (perhaps typical of the male of the species) more along the lines of “Erp.”
The difference must have something to do with the fact that she has a vagina

For those, like me, who are a fan of both, Johnny Depp will be on The Actor’s Studio tonight on Bravo.

Film actors must just salivate at the opportunity to act in a Coen brothers movie. Tom Hanks looks wonderfully funny. The movie looks very promising.

Film actors must just salivate at the opportunity to act in a Coen brothers movie. Tom Hanks looks wonderfully funny. The movie looks very promising.

Here’s a link to the MoveOn dot org Voter Fund 30 second television commercial that CBS won’t allow to be aired during the Super Bowl.

Be careful, though. You might see something that makes you think just a bit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s Oscar time in Blogland, and everyone’s got a post or two about the nominations.

But here’s one that I bet is different. See, I’m very much looking forward to seeing (I’m assuming they’ll perform) Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara perform “A Kiss At the End of the Rainbow” as Mickey and Mitch.

That got me thinking:

What five artists would you really like to see perform at next year’s Oscars?

Here’s mine, off the top of my head (artists are real, songs and movie titles, obviously made up):

Rufus Wainwright singing “Babelfish” from the movie “Fountain Lake”
Dwight Yoakam singing “Texas-Size Hole” from the movie “The Appellate”
Liz Phair singing “Guy Homme” from the movie “Augmented” or singing “Augmented” from the movie “Guy Homme”
XTC singing “Beat Up” (from their new album) from the movie “Stone-Dead Churchill”
Tom Waits singing “Hambourg Whore in the Land of Gin and Tonic” from the movie “Uncle Auntie”

I’m sure if I gave it more thought, I’d come up with a better list, but I think the above five performers would make a kick-ass Oscar telecast.

I’d also love to see the movie Stone-Dead Churchill, especially if XTC was involved It’d be the hit smash, hot new movie import from Britain’s newly discovered Tarantino. Also, I expect Uncle Auntie would be good. Maybe it’s a Robert Altman comedy. Guy Homme must be some sort of period piece, maybe Guy is a french foreign legionairre? Renee Zellwegger would star as the squinting Monsieur Homme. The Appellate sounds like some southern legal drams bullshit starring Cruise and Paltrow. Fountain Lake would be a psychological thriller starring Harrison Ford and Nicole Kidman as husband and wife. Yes, husband and wife.

I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. I’ve been enjoying it more and more each season as it’s run on The Movie Network. Sad to say, however, that last season (I believe the series’ third) may have been the high-water mark. Specifically, the episode where Larry David talks to rapper Krazee Eyez Killa and laments the effort and hard work required in orally pleasing females. To me, that one scene, in a very funny season of very funny scenes, is the definition of comedy.

The first four episodes of this season have seemed progressively more forced and false. While still very funny and still some of the best comedy on television this year, it seems the show has fallen into the trap of having David’s character *dictate* the wackiness of a scene or episode, rather than allowing his character to *discover* the wackiness. In the past, Larry David would stumble into his troubles. Now it seems as if he’s seeking trouble out. It’s a subtle difference, and one that I’m sure I’ve not explained well enough, yet I’m not going to bother or bore you all with trying to explain further.

I’m not giving up on the show. Not by any means. It, combined with back to back reruns of The Sopranos, makes Tuesday night the only night of television I currently look forward to.

I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. I’ve been enjoying it more and more each season as it’s run on The Movie Network. Sad to say, however, that last season (I believe the series’ third) may have been the high-water mark. Specifically, the episode where Larry David talks to rapper Krazee Eyez Killa and laments the effort and hard work required in orally pleasing females. To me, that one scene, in a very funny season of very funny scenes, is the definition of comedy.

The first four episodes of this season have seemed progressively more forced and false. While still very funny and still some of the best comedy on television this year, it seems the show has fallen into the trap of having David’s character *dictate* the wackiness of a scene or episode, rather than allowing his character to *discover* the wackiness. In the past, Larry David would stumble into his troubles. Now it seems as if he’s seeking trouble out. It’s a subtle difference, and one that I’m sure I’ve not explained well enough, yet I’m not going to bother or bore you all with trying to explain further.

I’m not giving up on the show. Not by any means. It, combined with back to back reruns of The Sopranos, makes Tuesday night the only night of television I currently look forward to.

For those of you who are planning on producing an action movie, here is my handy-dandy list of do’s and don’ts: (please feel free to add your own)

My action movie:
– Will have bad guys who can shoot weapons as accurately as the good guys.
– Will not have any scene where the hero, or anybody, must frantically download or upload something. Also, I will not attempt to build tension, or waste screen time, by showing somebody typing information on a keyboard.
– Will not show a woman sitting in bed, with the sheet pulled up over her breasts. Also, when a woman turns over in bed, or reaches for something, the sheet will not move with her, as if it’s taped to her breasts.
– Will have vehicles that conform to modern-day physics and laws of gravity. When a flying-through-the-air car lands hard, damage will occur. If the damage is serious enough, the car will stop running.
– Will have a bad guy who is not compelled to divulge his plan/genius to the trapped and/or defeated hero. If the hero gets caught, he will most likely die.
– Will have bad-guy-lackeys who are capable of free-thought. That is to say, not all bad-guy-lackeys will be willing to die for whatever the bad guy cause is.
– Will have characters who are indeed dead when the other characters believe they’re dead.
– May have vehicles crashing into other ‘civilian’ vehicles, into glass buildings, and even into fruit stands. But my movie will give such incidents real weight and repercussions. Having the Lieutenant yelling at the yahoos responsible is not enough.
– Will have characters who are at least as smart as the people in the audience. If we can figure something out, given the same information, so can the characters.
– Will not have a character who is near retirement.

Okay, so apparently there’s a popular, well-known, well-established restaurant in Philadelphia called “Chink’s Restaurant” and it’s one of the best places in the city of brotherly love for Philly cheese steaks. It’s been in business under the same name since the mid-1940’s. Its original owner was a guy nicknamed ‘Chink’. He was non-Asian. Over the years, it’s changed owners several times, is no longer associated with the family of the original ‘Chink’, yet has continued to build a solid reputation with the name.

Last year, a woman (non-Asian) who lives in Philadelphia yet had never heard of Chink’s, suddenly became aware of the establishment. She became deeply offended by the degrading racial connotations of the name, to the point that she is now trying to get the ‘Chink’ removed from the establishement’s name.

To me, this is an interesting problem. On the one hand, the name-recognition that Chink’s has built for itself over 60+ years of business is invaluable. To force them to forfeit that name would undoubtedly cost them some business. On the other hand, there’s no doubt that the name could be offensive to some people.

Should the current owners be forced to change the name of their business?