You know, the big drawback to going out all these days is my disincentive to brush my teeth.  Sure, I have plenty of time after I get home to do that, but I'm tired and there are other things I need to do.  For example, I got home from gorging myself at the Kickoff To Summer At The (Minnesota State) Fair, and I had to buy chocolates online, then I had to watch intently the last episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and then I had to blog post, so now I'm too tired and I have to go to bed!  When will I ever have the time to brush my teeth?

CBS Is Cancelling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

That is some bullshit.  Don't care how it's expensive to produce a late-night show.  This is political.  CBS and Paramount are in the middle of closing a merger deal, and they Trump's blessing.  Moreover, the bigwigs with Paramount (CBS's parent company) have caved to Trump before in settling a lawsuit he filed against them for, of all things, a 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris he didn't like.  He has no goddamn standing suing a television show that he wasn't on, and CBS gave him money anyway.

This goes beyond a shakedown, or even kissing the ass.  People want this merger to go through, Trump says he wants Colbert gone, and they say OK.  Simple as that, and you won't make me believe otherwise.

Yeah, we don't live in a free country anymore.  Fuck all this.

Late Night Talk Shows Are Back. And I'm Not Ready

So with the WGA (the writers') strike over, late-night talk shows can come back ... even though I wonder how they are going to put on shows since, talk shows are filled with interviews with actors from SAG-AFTRA, the actors' union that is still on strike.  And aren't all the talk show hosts part of SAG-AFTRA, too?  Are they allowed to even come back?

Well, I guess they are, and new shows begin tonight/Monday after about five months dark.  Honestly, I don't know how to adjust to watching them again.  Yes, I blog posted about missing these talk shows.  But like I think I have also blog posted, I whine about a change, but then I finally get used to the change, and so once it changes back I whine about it changing from what I am used to.  Same here.  I liked turning off the TV after seeing the weather forecast and doomscrolling through Twitter/X until I got my fill.  I'm going to be curious enough to tune in and see whether the talk shows are going to be back to normal or if there are still going to be some elements of the genre missing because of the continuing strike.  But I think I will prefer to be on my computer at around, oh, 11 o'clock, at least for now.  And then, soon, I'll look forward to turning my eyes away from my laptop and cellphone and watching some TV instead.  But, as with all things, it'll take a while for me to adjust.

Missing Late Night

The strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) starting around May 2, so it's currently about six weeks old.  The broadcast season (I have one streaming service, but I usually don't watch shows on it, only sports) was able to wind down without incident because all the episodes for all the shows I watch were, obviously, in the can for May Sweeps.  And since I usually watch sports, of course they're not affected by the writers strike.  With the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals now all done, well, there really isn't much for me to watch on anything resembling television (and I didn't really care about the Stanley Cup Finals this Year because fuck them both).  Sure, there's baseball and soccer and the Men's College World Series, but the summer is a relative dead period for sports.

As such, there isn't a whole lot of reason for me to watch TV this time of year, so in that case, the writers strike isn't affecting me much.  What is on television right now also has been fully produced and cut, so the strike isn't affecting what I want to watch on TV right now, which is, well, nothing.  People in the know speculate that the studios, whom the writers are demanding pay them more, won't go back to the negotiating table until they begin running out of content.  The thinking is that they run out, at a minimum, 90 days into the strike, which is about how long the last WGA strike, stretching from the end of 2007 into the early part of 2008, lasted.

That's a hell of a long time, but like I said, at least it's happening in the summer, when there isn't much scripted television I would want to watch anyway.  With one notable exception: Late-night TV.  I love watching Colbert and Kimmel and, well, Corden until he ended the show in April (and I don't think anyone's saying this, but I think he ended The Late Late Show then because he anticipated the writers strike).  It is scripted, but the writers on the shows have to come up with something new four days a week.  Add in interviews with people who entertain or inform me, and it's a great way for me to spend my night.

I miss it, and even moreso now that the WGA strike has lasted this long.  It is, in fact, very strange to not have seen any new late-night shows for so long.  They're topical, and a lot of stuff has happened and is happening.  The writers of these shows would be riffing on them like nobody's business.  I mean, come on, they would have had a field day regarding the indictment of Donald Trump.  And I would have tuned in.  But I'm not.  (Aside: What are the talk show hosts doing?  And how are they feeling?  They must feel totally isolated because they're not riffing on the news, and haven't for the past month and a half.)

That means that, starting around now, with the exception of the news, I don't think our TV sets are going to have much of a workout.  There have been a couple reality shows I have wanted to try out, but since I seldom turn it on much now, I usually forget.  I might remember if I could rely on new, fresh content on after the late local news.  But since there isn't, I probably won't remember.  And sadly, there might not be fresh content for some time.  And so this feeling of disconnection from both entertainment and the pulse of the news will, I'm afraid, continue.

Things Fall Apart, A Three-Part Series -- Part II: Can A Remote Control Just Conk Out?

Yeah, it happened a couple weeks ago, I think?  I wanted to turn on my TV, which is between five and ten years old but doesn't seem to have any problems with it, and I couldn't do it with my remote.  I thought the batteries finally ran out, but I switched them and it still didn't work.  Which made me believe that, after years of no trouble, my remote control just crapped out, utterly and immediately.

In an example of how Amazon has warped all our perceptions when it comes to shopping, going online to buy a replacement remote was my first instinct ... not remembering that Target or Wal-Mart might have them, I don't have to wait for it to be delivered, and it might be cheaper.  But the one I saw at Wal-Mart ... well, it might be a pipe dream, but they are not the exact same remote control I have.  I don't think the ones available have all the buttons in all the places my original equipment remote have them in.  And, this is cosmetic, but my original has "SAMSUNG" written on the bottom, and the one I saw.  (I also went to Target but they didn't have a remote in my brand ... and come to think of it, I have not gone to Best Buy, although maybe I should have.)  So I bought a remote which has a picture of an exact replica of my OEM remote, and I bought that, knowing full well it might just be the same close-but-not-quite remote I saw at Wal-Mart.  I'll take that chance.  And so I ordered it, like, more than a week ago.

Amazon says the remote won't come until early February at the earliest.  Really?  You can't find a Samsung Original Equipment Manufacturer remote control in any of your warehouses in the States?  You have to get it from South Korea ... or have it made in South Korea, and then get it sent by, apparently, cargo ship and then Pony Express?

I don't know if this is a concurrent development or if it's just coincidence, but for the past couple weeks I cannot get Channel 4, the local CBS affiliate.  I tried scanning (this was just before my remote conked out), and it still didn't come in.  Weird.  So I have had to go out to the dining room TV whenever I wanted to watch Colbert or AFC NFL Games.  I can't wait for this remote control to arrive, and then I need to figure out how to get all my channels on my television set.

You Late-Night Hosts Should Still Be At Home

I'm a huge fan of late night, and late-night talk shows were hit by the lockdown caused by the pandemic in a way no other genre on television has to go through.  Their raison d'etre (I know I spelled that wrong, but I don't know all the French diacritical marks I need to put in that word) is being the last word, so to speak, for the events that happened the day of, so they have to do live shows, like, 250 days of the year.  Also, they do it in front of a live audience because it's been that way since Steve Allen pioneered the genre at The Dawn Of The Age Of Television.  Large crowds have essentially been banned until there is a vaccine for the coronavirus, and yet the virus itself is newsworthy enough that shutting down talk shows until there is a vaccine kind of feels like shutting down a television station.  So for late night, the show must go on.

In a different format, of course.  I think there was, like, one day -- and I think you know That Day, even though for the life of me I cannot remember the exact date of That Day -- where all the talk shows went on, business as usual, except for the hastily-decreed ban on audiences, so they were doing their shows in cavernous studios because there was no one there to cheer the next guest and laugh at the host's jokes.  After That Day, governments got scared shitless over the virus and shut down all television productions not deemed essential (so, essentially, TV stations and that's it).  So if I recall correctly (and again I'm kind of shocked I don't remember what happened five months ago), there were a couple weeks where there were no new episodes of late night.  And that suuuuuucked.

But again, those shows can't just shut down for however long it takes until there's a vaccine.  (Well, maybe Lilly Singh; she's been in reruns for months, and since the show just started, I swear they've re-aired every single episode they've made at least three times during this pandemic.)  So they found a way to come back and do new shows: They were doing them at home.

And that is weird.  Well, was.  Seeing Fallon, Colbert, Kimmel, Corden and Myers set up ad hoc studios from a room in their houses (even though I know someone from the production potentially broke emergency orders and helped them set up lighting, camera and audio because, let's face it, hosts don't know how to do that shit) felt like a huge invasion of privacy.  But I had to shove aside my principles because it's a damn pandemic, and who cares if they're doing shows from home?  And by golly, I grew to like having a behind-the-scenes peek at these hosts' private lives.  In particular I love the way Jimmy Fallon showcased his two rambunctious daughters whenever he enlisted their help for Thank You Notes, and I loved the Tuesday feature where he and his wife walked around the neighborhood and answered viewer questions.  It was a nice and fun way to show the hosts are still trying to entertain America.

Then, as of a month ago, things changed again.  Under pressure from a public in the conniption fits of caution fatigue, governments decided it was OK for larger work environments to reopen with stricter protocols in place to fight transmission of the virus.  Fallon was the first to drive back to work and do shows from his studio, even though there still is no audience and they reconfigured the set (whether it was done to accommodate a setting with no crowds or if it was already planned, I don't know).  A couple weeks ago Colbert and Corden did the same.  Myers is still doing his shows from home.  Kimmel just decided to take a vacation for the rest of the summer; guests hosts have been filling in, doing shows from a set that apparently is an abandoned mansion with, I'm guessing, a skeleton crew.

And I say this as someone who regularly criticizes things for being different until I get used to it, but I find the current setup with shows back in studios to be jarring.  There should be people in the audience, but there are none.  So why are you back in the studio?  The audience is a very important part of a live-to-tape show, and especially talk shows.  You don't have instant feedback, you might as well be taping a drama in a closed set.  Also, remember that all this time the late-night hosts have been doing interviews with guests via videoconference calls.  The hosts are at the studio, but the guests can't be.  So, once again, why are you back in the studio?  If the guests are doing interviews from home, the hosts might as well do the same.  I understand getting stir crazy and putting a firm boundary between work and home, but it seems like such a waste of time and fossil fuels to drive to a studio to do a talk show when it doesn't feel at all like a talk show.  Hell, I kind of feel sorry for the behind-the-scenes people who have had to schlep back to work when talk shows decided to go back to their venues.

Anyway, I'm glad there are new shows to watch, period.  And maybe, someday soon, there will be a vaccine so everybody can go pack the studios and late night shows can be late night shows again.  And all this awkwardness will be a faded memory.

My Entertainment And Their Damn Summer Vacations

Yeah, I guess I should have blog posted this two weeks ago.  Tonight/Friday is the last day in the last two weeks I will be without my full allotment of entertainment.  To wit:

• I listen to The Matt McNeil Show on AM 950, the local -- one of the only local -- progressive talk radio stations in the country.  I like this guy; I agree with most of what he says.  Anyway, he was on vacation for two weeks, and then I heard him live last Thursday, and then on Monday it was a re-run ... I don't understand his schedule, but I assume he took two-ish weeks off.  And I think he's back by now.
• Stephanie Miller was gone for one week two weeks ago!  Fortunately, her "mooks" filled in for her that week, so I was still up on the latest political news and liberal interpretation that week.  Single members of that team took staggered week-long vacations after that, so even though Mama has been down a member last and this week, she and the show were still live.  Thank Buddha!
• Now, late night.  Colbert, Fallon, Corden and Meyers have taken two weeks (last and this week) off.  I appreciate the free time I don't spend watching them on TV, but it nonetheless has created a hole in my life.  Now, Kimmel has filled it ... sorta.  Jimmy Kimmel's schedule has always been different from the other late-night guests.  The show took two weeks off, but it was the weeks two weeks ago and last week.  Moreover, Kimmel himself is taking the entire summer off.  (What, does he want to spend more time with the family he's been quarantining with the past four months?)  There have been new episodes on his show this week, thank God.  But it's with guest hosts -- Anthony Anderson Monday and Tuesday, Billy Eichner Wednesday and Thursday.  The show continues with guest hosts, but new eps, presumably for the rest of the summer.

It's inevitable that these vacations come around Independence Day, and it happens every year.  But this entertainment desert still sucks, and so I'm glad all's back to normal (pretty much) Monday.

You Know What? I Think Martin Freeman Is An Asshole

I guess I need to vent my rage over what happened in Charlottesville by spraying my hose at another person.  But when I saw what I saw last night, I kind of want to talk about it.




You know Martin Freeman, actor?  Bilbo Baggins, he's on Fargo, he is Watson on PBS' Sherlock?  I think he's an asshole.  I kind of knew that in 2014, when an in-depth piece about him was done in Entertainment Weekly in conjunction with his stint in Fargo.  This guy, who seemed to be a diffident Englishman on TV came off as, well, as a defensive prick.  It's kind of eye-opening how odd of a mensch he was in this story, and you should read it.




That perception of him was reinforced on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night.  I stayed up to watch Anthony Scarramucci at the beginning of the show and Liam Gallagher at the end.  But in the middle was guest Bob Odenkirk, who was appearing for Better Call Saul.  Colbert asked him how Odenkirk, who made his bones as a comic actor, has changed his approach in acting now that he's a dramatic one.  He eventually said that one of the main differences is that you cannot suggest how your fellow actor should do a scene in a drama the way you can recommend a line to your co-star in a comedy.  He learned that the hard way from Freeman (who he says are now friends ... OK) on the set of Fargo.  When Odenkirk said that Freeman should do something different in a scene they're about to shoot, Freeman stared at him, burned his sight through him and said, quietly and thus menacingly: "Don't ever do that again."


I wasn't there on the set, obviously.  But if any actor did that to me, just for suggesting something, that asshole would be dead to me.  So all you people who are fanboying and fangirling over Freeman, you people are starfuckers.  I see right through him.  I see the real him.  He's an asshole, and thus unworthy of my respect.


Will see him in The Black Panther, though.

Politicize The Shit Out Of This

I had a take on the mass shooting.  But then I saw Colbert, and now I have a different and better take.

But first -- so yeah, another mass shooting.  This one of a Congressman.  This time, however, it's a Republican, and that totally changes things.

I mean that seriously.  Ever since Trump's been elec ... no, wait, ever since Obama was elected, most politically-based and hate-based shootings and mass shootings were perpetrated on minorities, namely Muslims.  This is the first time I can remember where the victim -- and possibly the target victim -- was a Republican.  Those last two sentences may seem not to have any relation with each other.  You know goddamn well they have everything to do with each other.

Steve Scalise is in critical condition, but also in stable condition, so he'll live.  Credit goes out to the capitol police, trained shooters who murdered this white domestic terrorist ... who, believe it or not, happens to be a Democrat, and is in fact a Bernie Bro who snapped when Trump and the Republicans swept into power in November (with the help of Russia and voter suppression).  He wasn't the only one.  This James Hodgkinson fellow railed against the rich for years ... and he isn't the only one.  Besides his long history of running afoul of the law (including dragging his foster daughter around ... dude sounds like a Republican), he actually was thinking the same way many of us have been thinking.

Well, thinking -- we didn't actually purchase a gun and use it.  But hey, he was a hunter and avid gun owner.  Also, he was in Virginia, known to have the most lax gun purchasing laws in the United States (and that's saying something).  And Hodgkinson has in the past scorned Scalise in the past ... who, and it has to be said, received an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association.

Easy access to weapons, made law by the Republican party.  And one mentally ill nut decides to use that easy access against one of their own.  Seriously, what the fuck did you expect?

---

I don't want to downplay what happened to Scalise.  But everyone there is going to live.  Meanwhile, a few hours after that shooting on a ball field, on the other side of the country, in a UPS facility in San Francisco, a disgruntled ex-employee bursts in and murders three workers before killing himself.  Charlie Pierce said it one way, but I'll go a step further: This is much more important than what happened to Scalise and his staff because people in the UPS facility were killed.  Innocent people, not just because of a guy who decided to kill but, more importantly, because that killer had an accessible way to make good and commit to the ultimate act of violence.  But it'll be forever forgotten because it happened on the same day a Representative got shot.

I rely -- maybe even demur -- to Pierce a lot.  But he's right.  Why is one person getting shot more "valued" than another?  Is it because he was elected to office?  If you lose your life, that seems a very flimsy difference.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the three people murdered by that human in San Francisco.

---

I was having trouble formulating my thoughts on this, but then I saw Colbert (and later Meyers) talk about unity and bipartisanship and coming together, and this stupid baseball game that's supposed to happen today  between two parties, one of which has gridlocked the federal government for decades now.  Bullshit.

This shooting of Steve Scalise is the result of a deadly cocktail of Republicans expanding gun rights to suck the NRA's dick for money, then Republicans fomenting race wars to induce white people to buy more guns.  The chickens came home to roost.

The left-wide media ombundsman Mediaite put out a list of the worst left-wing tweets reacting to the shooting.  That came after they published a list of the worst coming from the right.  I'm looking at this list.  Most of the tweets are talking about how Scalise is a whore for the NRA and I'm going, what's so crazy about that?  I don't see any of those tweeters going nuts.  They're just pointing out irony, or the fact that a gun nut Representative got shot for advocating the easy gun laws he has dedicated his political career to advancing, or reminding people that Scalise spoke at a white supremacist meeting once, easily (and correctly) predicting "thoughts and prayers" go out to the victims, blah-blah-blah.  They're totally right.

Meanwhile, right-wing media and Republicans have flipped their shit over this.  There are conspiracy theories all over the place after the shooting.  Look at this shit from Mediaite: Conservatives are saying that weeks and weeks of hate have resulted in this terrorist attack.  And Republicans are blaming Democrats, Kathy Griffin, the staging of Julius Caesar at Shakespeare In The Park, and Snoop Dogg for this shooting.  What the fuck does Snoop Dogg have to do with this?  And one Republican prick said that the blood is on Democrats' hands.  Man, no one does projecting and blaming the victim like Republicans.

This is the reasoning behind me being disappointed that Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers have decided that this is a time for "unity."  This is no time for unity.  Politicize the shit out of this!  Because that thought leads to looking inward and assessing your own mistakes, and that leads to Both Sides Do It.  Both sides don't do it.  Only one party, the Republican party, wants guns for everyone (including wife beaters and domestic terrorists).  Only one party, the Republican party, has started a media-industrial complex based on bullshit conspiracy theories made up in people's own addled heads.  Only one party, the Republican party, has poisoned the federal government to the point of paralysis.  Only one party, the Republican party, has adherents who have committed terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11.

And now I hear that we should all take a step back and be civil towards one another?  One fucking party started this.  This is the time for those Republicans to be held responsible for these fucking crazy gun laws.  This is the time for them to realize that it's their tax cuts that have created class warfare.  This is the time for those people to start apologizing for starting and exploiting people who believe in conspiracy theories about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and even devote their waking hours to watching a network dedicated to those conspiracy theories.  This is the time of those goddamn Republicans to stop being selfish, arrogant and cruel assholes, and to finally start running the government on all our behalf, not just for theirs and the rich people they want to become.  And it sure as hell no time for a baseball game.

This pause to reflect is just an opening for Republicans to continue doing their worst.  They have all the levers of federal government and, if you haven't been paying attention, the Senate is crafting a bill repealing Obamacare in secret while the House is giddily stripping financial protection for consumers by killing Dodd-Frank.  And there's still the Russia investigation going on -- that seems to be more important than a guy who's going to live, isn't it?  But the Republicans are going to clutch their pearls and say, "Oh, this is no time for us to hammer at President Trump.  A Congressman has gotten shot!"  And I'm really scared that the Democrats, in the name of peace, are going to roll over, like they usually do, and that will allow Republicans to get away with treason and fuck the middle class -- guys like James Hodgkinson -- all over again.

I've got to be honest.  Unless Scalise or the staff members who've been shot have their lives severely affected by this I'm going to save my sympathies.  Instead, my sympathies go to the families of the 13 kids killed at Columbine, or the 32 killed at Virginia Tech, or the 49 killed in Orlando, or the 26 killed, most of them young children, in Newtown.  My sympathies do not go out to a man in power whose beliefs and actions allow this to happen.

But because I have to go along to get along: Thoughts and prayers and blah-blah-blah.

"Nightmare"

You know, when I woke up this morning, I was so glad that I had this "nightmare."  First of all, having such vivid dreams meant that I had a deep sleep overnight, which is something I haven't done often.  Also though, this wasn't a really bad nightmare, so it wasn't as if I was waking up in a cold sweat and breathing heavily.  Unfortunately, I remembered all the details about this dream immediately after I woke up, but those memories faded very quickly as every second ticked by.  Not minute -- second.  As soon as I decided I wanted to remember it, I couldn't remember it.  Does that make any sense?  That always happens with nightmares, doesn't it?

So I put in my Notes in my iPhone what I remember.  Which is, I think, this: Current late-night host James Corden and former late-night host (and loudmouth) Morton Downey, Jr. plus another guy I completely forgot as soon as I was totally awake accompanied me around after I left a dry cleaners.  For what, I forget.

What does this mean?  Well, I am using these new dry cleaning place for a few things.  It's something I've never done before; I go to the office tower where my psychiatrist's office is, go to this locker, and I leave these clothing items that I need cleaned in this locker.  A few days later the drycleaners returns it to the locker, where I can pick it up at any time.  (There's an added wrinkle to this.  One of my items is a long coat Father gave me.  The guy contacted me and said that they could repair the lining for $40.  I said, What the hell.)

Corden?  I like the guy, and I watch him, moreso than Seth Meyers, his rival on NBC.  Downey?  Couldn't stop watching him when he had his show.  But why am I dreaming about these guys?  And together?  And with me stopping at the dry cleaners?  Hell if I know.

Three Days

Realized that I have not showered in three days.  Did it Monday night but decided that meant I could skip Tuesday.  Then Wednesday night I was watching the last Letterman, and I was too stunned that I was watching history to do anything else besides watch TV.

Sprinkled throughout that was My Father's surprise of a cruise.  They're taking off for Europe, again, and so I've had to help him map out what to do while the ship is at port.  The bright side is that he seems genuinely thankful for my help.  He's been quite nice to me, in fact.  But that meant that as soon as I got home Tuesday and Wednesday night I immediately needed to show My Father where exactly he needs to go and what types of public transportation he'll need to use.  That took about a half-hour each night.  Probably would've watched Letterman (got home around 10:30 both nights), but I ostensibly would've had time to shower after his shows.  Just got too tired, and once midnight rolled around I saw my daily blog post as a priority and so I did that (and surfed on the Internet) before conking off.

So now it's been three days and counting, and I even I think I stink.  Oh, who am I kidding -- if my parents weren't here, and if I didn't think they've noticed that I haven't showered in three days, I'd stay away from the shower as long as they're gone.  I think they've either been too busy or too happy with me "pleasing" them to pipe up.  Nevertheless, I should go take a shower now.

Early Evenings To Bed Costs Me On Mafia Wars

For the past several days I have been so tired after getting home from work that I have conked off very early in the evening, around 8:30.  While I am OK with listening to my body when it needs to shut down, it does throw my schedule off.  In particular, I would like to be able to stay up and watch the late-night TV talk shows, especially Letterman since he'll be good in several months.

It also prevents me from getting onto Facebook, and then onto Mafia Wars (yes, I still play it) and make sure I pick up my Daily Take before the game's new day starts, which is 2 in the morning Central Time.  They track how many days in a row you pick up the Daily Take, and there is supposed to be this big prize if you pick it up for a whole week.  Actually, I don't know if the prize at the end of seven days is much better than any of the previous six days, but I honestly felt a sense of accomplishment.  The little screen is gold, not black, and I felt proud enough of my consistency and dedication that, despite so many of my Facebook friends warning me not to invite them to play games, I at least Share My Take with them, even though I know of only one other person who still actively plays Mafia Wars.

Well, for the first time in many weeks, if not months, I missed a day, and that means I have to start all over again.  Fell asleep at 8:30 listening to both the Mild and the Goofer women's basketball teams on the radio losing (and they both did; both teams are good, but neither could afford a defeat the way each of their seasons are shaping up).  Woke up at a quarter to 2 and I had a fleeting thought that maybe I should get on and do the Daily Take on Mafia Wars.  But I truly thought that I had already done that.  Why?  Unlike recently, I actually had to stay up Monday night because the damn washing machine (with the long underwear I ruined with fabric softener) broke down to the point where I disassembled the whole thing and cleaned out the pump or the motor or whatever the fuck it is, I don't remember.  (ETA at 4:22 a.m. of the same day that I looked up a blog post where I fixed it before and it is indeed the pump.)  I did stay up to watch late-night TV.  But I woke up just a little before I had to head off to work.

A further complication happened after I got home from work today when the Internet started to go on the fritz.  (What's with all these electronic appliances breaking down?  Is it the cold?)  And then Mother wanted my help downloading some Groupon thing, which I'll have to get to tonight.  By the time I was done with all of that I was pooped.  That's when I fell asleep.

So now I've had to start over in Mafia Wars.  I'm awake, even though I should be up in a few hours.  And the Internet is still starting-and-stopping.  Masturbation was good while I did it, but now I am both bored and anxious, which is a very bad combination.

My TV Broke

Oh, yeah ... forgot I haven't mentioned this till now.  My television set broke last Saturday afternoon.

So I got home that day (the morning after My Fucking Father yelled at me for "disrespecting" him) and I wanted to just march into my bed and hide.  I plopped onto my bed and turned on the TV, switching to Channel 4 and the basketball game between, I think, host Florida and LSU.  Tired of the fighting, I laid down and closed my eyes, hoping to maybe get a quick nap before dinner.

When I try to pass out I turn the sound down low, quiet enough for me to fade into unconsciousness, but loud enough to hear the game in case I can't but still don't want to open my eyes.  As I was doing that and the TV was doing its thing, I hear a sudden loud screeching noise coming from the TV.  At first I thought the broadcast was experiencing some technical difficulties.  But as the screech didn't dissipate after several seconds, I had to open my eyes and turn (without my glasses on) to the TV.

Then, I saw the screen go black, from the top of the screen to almost halfway.  It was as if a black curtain was being lowered down my TV screen.  Also, the TV may have turned black and white.  Regardless, as the black slowly cascaded down the screen, the TV abruptly turned itself off.  No screen, no red power light, no nuthin'.  And when I tried turning it back on, with both my remote and then the power button on the set, I too got nuttin'.  It's not just off, dude -- I think it's broken.

My guess is that it's the cathode ray tube.  Something drastic must have blown inside the television.  I would love to get it fixed, but with no old set-top boxes being made, and with the possibility that a repair would cost hundreds (from a repair shop I don't even know exists; where would I find someone who's able to fix and old cathode-ray TV?), shit, this would be the time where I would actually heed My Father's advice and get a new TV.  And, like with the smartphone I got from my uncle over Christmas, I would actually be living in the 21st century.

But am I going to get one yet?  No.  I'm still cash poor.  Looking through Consumer Reports there are a couple good Samsungs I could get for $200 and $260, but both of them are so small I would have to squint from my bed.  There's also a Samsung (or is it an LG?) that's 50" big, which would be more than enough (even overwhelming) but would set me back $650.

I'm holding off on getting a new TV even though it has altered my evening schedule.  At night I would be able to veg out while watching my shows, but now I have to go outside to either the dining room or the living room to watch TV.  I've done a little of that the past few days, but mostly I've either lain in bed in the dark trying to go to sleep early, or in my former bedroom (and current office) on my computer.  I'm missing a lot of shows this way, most notably the late-night talk shows, most notably the first weeks of The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Meyers.  I would like to see how they develop, but I don't have a TV in my room and it'd be too loud for my parents if I tried watching outside of my room.

Ironically enough, however, this problem could be solved.  On Wednesday, just a few days after my television set broke, my parents bought a brand-new humongous TV for the dining room.  That displaces the old TV to the living room, which in turn displaces that old (and non-HDTV) television set to ... Father's computer room.  I guess he'll just sit there when he can't sleep, doesn't want to wake up Mother while watching TV and is too lazy to go upstairs.  Better yet, it could go into my room, which would save me the expense of buying a new television and would make My Fucking Father happy that I'm finally upgrading the technology I have around me.  But I don't think I can go, "Hey, my TV's broken, and since you bought a new TV for the dining room, I figure I could get the old TV from the living room.  How's that?"  That would be the presumptuous entitlement of a soon-to-be-38-year-old who should leave the house permanently.

I guess I'll wait until they notice how many nights I'm outside instead of inside watching TV.

Caught Up On Reality Kings

I am shocked that I haven't caught up on the weekly updates of the five Reality Kings websites in about a month.  Part of it is that I've been working and otherwise too busy to stay up till early Wednesday morning to see the new free web pages.  But the last time I did check the new pages, Tuesday, April 30, four of the five did not update from the week before.  I presume they update on Tuesdays like they always have, but maybe it was some sort of glitch that week.

Wasting my time checking the websites only to find out they didn't update persuaded me not to care so much about checking next Tuesday.  So I didn't, mostly because of work and catching up on sleep.  And one week easily extended to two, then three, then four weeks.  Now that I am inbetween test scoring projects, I have time, and because I wanted to treat myself to some pornski I decided now's the time to catch up.

Goddamn, I didn't think it'd take this long.  Well, I usually love to take a long time to go through porn.  But the Reality Kings sites are, even though they give me pleasure, kind of a chore to go through and write down what page it's up to each week.  Compound that with a month's worth of catching up and, even though the sites featured more than a few hot babes over the past month, I noticed the clock on the bottom right of my computer screen while I was going through them.  And even with starting early because the late-night talk shows all were in reruns, it took, like, at least an hour to be fully caught up.

That meant at least an hour of masturbating.  Once I got over the fact that I was touching myself for over an hour, that was the good part of catching up on the RK sites.  And it was sweet relief to finally be fully caught up and allowing myself to ejaculate ... albeit to something not on RK, specifically this hot flasher on VoyeurWeb.  (Just to let you know, I came to the second picture.  Just something about doing something very ordinary except that you got your tits whipped out.)

Artist To Watch: Lianne La Havas

Anyone have TheCoolTV?  It's just a music video channel, what MTV was while I was growing up and is so not now.  It's one of those "subchannels" that local TV stations can operate now that we've gone from analog to digital.

It's great when you're trying to watch TV and there's nothing on.  Sometimes I get to watch videos from long ago that I haven't seen in years.  Sometimes I finally see a video to a song that I like a lot.  And sometimes I just watch and am transfixed by a someone I have never heard of.

I was said that sometimes in the afternoon of Friday, August 31, TheCoolTV was apparently taken off the air.  The subchannel was operated by the local CW affiliate, which in turn is owned by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the biggest owner of local TV stations in the country.  They are also a bunch of a right-wingnut teabaggers, where they are notorious for airing extreme conservative propaganda specials on their bigger network (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) affiliates nationwide from time to time.

So when I heard the news, I thought that they suddenly took TheCoolTV off the air because they finally had it with the racy material and imagery prevalent on many of the videos that run on the subchannel.  But the reality is less political, and much more reasonable: It looks like the owners of TheCoolTV have not been keeping up with payments to Sinclair for broadcasting the subchannel.

That's too bad.  Like AOL Music about a decade ago, I could switch to TheCoolTV and watch experience music I've never heard before.  And from time to time I could hit paydirt and find someone who blows me away.  One of those artists is Lianne La Havas, an indescribable singer from London.  And I think the music bookers at Late Show With David Letterman have noticed, too: She was the featured musical guest on their Thursday show.

Unfortunately, she played the title track to her latest album, "Is Your Love Big Enough?" instead of the one I saw on TheCoolTV; while the former is good, this is much better -- "Forget":

ETA: The video I saw on TheCoolTV is the upper one.  I think the lower one is a "new official" video cut for Stateside audiences.  La Havas was recommended on Entertainment Weekly for those who like Sade's "Soldier Of Love" (also a great tune and video) more than a month ago and its website had a link to the below vid, and I prefer the other one because I think the one above is trippier.

This ensures that she'll be in the States soon enough.  Hopefully I'll have the foresight to plan to go to her show, and that I'll have the money, the time, and the car to see her concert.

Apparently The Store Is Not Closed, At Least Not Yet, Thank Buddha

Fell asleep shortly after Gabby Sidibe on Kimmel.  I've been out every single night this week and I was tired, so fuck taking a shower.

I think I was unconscious for nine hours.  Late in the sleep, I think, I had this nightmare where, somehow, my sister was back living at home.  She directed me outside to the garage, where my parents are.

Now that I'm trying to remember, I kind of forgot most of it.  Except the last part, where Mother said, "The Store?  Oh, it closed."

That's scary, and yet I'm still confused.  You see, ever since I thought they were closed for good, they have ... gone out.  I think it's to The Store, but I've never found out, although my friend texted that he went to The Store last weekend and, thankfully, not only were they open but they were still selling lottery tickets.

I was afraid that my parents would wake me up when I wanted to sleep late on the weekends, but so far, that hasn't happened.  And I didn't know what was going to happen when my test scorer told me I was furloughed for the week, but I hear them leave the house every morning (albeit a little later than they used to, like 9:30 or 10).

I would say that The Store is open for good, but I really should know better.  I'm just thankful that The Store remains open for now.

Watching NBA Finals Fail

This has been, from all reports, the greatest NBA Finals in a long time.

I haven't seen a single fucking game yet.  And I'm kind of upset.

Obviously the first three games I couldn't see because I was in Italy.  (I'll get to my stories in a bit, I swear.)  But Game 4 was tonight, and I wanted to see for myself how good this series is going.

Well, first of all, I'm still tired.  I went to bed a bit past midnight last night because I still was feeling the jetlag from coming in from Europe Sunday.  I would have stayed up, but Jimmy Kimmel Live apparently was in reruns, at least for its Monday show, but it wasn't, so I turned off my TV and rolled over to my side to see if I just pass out.  And I did.

So I wake up after 6 in the morning, stayed up for an hour, then fell asleep for an hour, then stayed up for good.  Thank God I blogged about something this morning, because I thought I had to rush out and do this.  Anyway, I had to mow because the grass was getting high, even if it is hotter than hell.

(By the way, what the fuck???  I get home and it's the hottest two days we've had in, what, 23 fucking years???  Thank you, Minnesota!  I thought it was hot in Siena, but at least it was a heat [and humidity] I was used to.  But this shit ... man, my car sounded weird because I turned on the air conditioning.  I don't need this shit.)

I could have tried to fall asleep and mow, like, on Thursday.  But I'm trying to appease My Father.  Things are actually good between us after my blow-up on Florence; I'll get to that later.  Mowing the lawn on a hundred-degree day will, or at least should, be appreciated.

I get tired.  It's hot.  I go see Bridesmaids before it leaves theaters.  (By the way, great movie!  Truly a feminine version of an Apatow flick, which is not a surprise because Apatow was a producer.  I often hate Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live for being incredibly obnoxious with her original charactes, but I've seen her a lot in movies, and I like her.  And honestly, she gives a revelatory performance as the lead.  Funny yet very poignant portarying someone with no money and being the maid of honor of a friend who looks like she's growing apart from her.  She could get a Golden Globe Lead Comedic Actress nomination out of this.  Seriously, y'all.  At the very least she should leave SNL, because her career -- dramatic as well as comedic -- will never be hotter.  Go watch it.)  Ice cream at Dairy Queen followed by an mocha icecrema at Dunn Bros. cools me off a little but makes my tummy hurt.  I eat a little stew, then I set down and get ready for Game 4.

But when I turn on my TV the fucking reception doesn't come in for Channel 5, our ABC affliate.  I do all I can to get it to stop pixelating and, well, stopping -- which means moving the antenna around, even putting it on its side -- but I can't get it to work.  I swear, I hate this fucking new digital signal.  With analog I can still watch through snow.  Here, if it's bad enough, it doesn't come through.  Fuck.

Plus, I'm tired.  And hot; the air conditioning was just turned on, so it wasn't getting any colder.  I figure that, like late Monday, I'll just roll over; if I'm still up by the time the game starts, around 8, I'll give it another shot.

So I wake up around 11.  Hey, maybe the Heat blew the Mavericks out.  No; like in Game 2, Dallas trailed in the fourth quarter but came back to win, tonight by 3.

This seems like a hell of a series.  Too bad I haven't seen a single second.

Maybe I'll get a chance for Game 5 this Thursday.  I have to be at a meeting then, so I should be able to stay up to see it, and probably at a place with actual reception. 

I Get Emotional After My Sports Teams Lose

Have I said that before? Well, maybe you could tell by how much I obsess with sports. Another instance of my body chemistry rapidly changing after the end of that glacial turd of a loss by the Los Angeles Minnesota Vikings reaffirms that.

I wanted to stay up, I really did. I didn't even see much of the game; after seeing Tarvaris Jackson fail to move the offense and the once-vaunted Vikings rush defense give up huge runs in the first half, I went from watching that to flipping between it and Skating With The Stars, then watching the Mariah Carey special and going back to the game during breaks (aside: "All I Want For Christmas" -- the new Christmas standard), to watching Hawaii Five-O the whole time. I had no reason to go back; not only were the Vikings not doing anything, besides those big runs, the New York Giants really weren't either. It was an abortion of a game for fans, Vikings', Giants', Lions' and neither all, at Ford Field in Detroit.

So with any mathematical hopes for this club to make the playoff officially gone -- they still had a chance! And Eli Manning loves to throw picks! -- I am officially pooped. It doesn't help that Letterman had the overrated, creepily amoral Ricky Gervais on as a first guest. I wanted to sleep because I got really, really tired after the loss. But Leno did have Mark Wahlberg, and then followed him up with the sexy-as-hell Olivia Wilde. Neither musical act floated my boat, but Fallon and his Christmas sweaters tided me over to Jessica Alba, who looked taller than I remember her.

Kimmel's monologue I now look forward to as much as I do Letterman's, and he didn't disappoint. However, even though I think Rachael Ray's deceptively sexy, I don't cook, so I don't quite care about the book she was plugging. I decided to stop fighting fatigue and called it a night when Kimmel said they were cooking.

Looking back at it, there were enough dead spots on last night's show that maybe I would've hit the hay even if the Vikings won. But I'm still down.