Cops?

I'm not sure if I've just missed it all of these years...but it seems that most cops on TV recently need the help of a civilian or multiple civilians to solve crimes.

Bones - Forensic Anthropologist from Smithsonian like place (and staff)

Castle - Crime novel writer

Monk - Former detective

Psych - fake psychic & friend

Mentalist - former fake psychic

Fringe - Former (and currently crazy) scientist & son

Chuck - Super Cute Geek Squad employee

Medium - real psychic (with super cute husband)

Numb3rs - mathematician (that killed Lucy and stabbed Carter in a former life)

The Forgotten - volunteers searching for missing people

White Collar - well-coiffed former criminal & sidekick Stanford

And those are just the TV shows who's premise I'm familiar with. Is this a commentary on our society? Do we find the police so incompetent that the only people capable of helping them are completely untrained individuals? Or are these civilians like the companion in Doctor Who, a surrogate for the audience...someone we can identify with?

Cause I've got to say the only one I actually identify with is Shawn Spencer...not because I've got amazing skills of observation (which I don't)...but because I usually get most of his 80s references and make many...not as well written...80s references myself.

Oh puh-leez!

2 things made me roll my eyes in disbelief tonight.

First, I've never really thought about Katie Holmes. I knew of her, of course. I never watched Dawson's Creek, but those Pacey and Joey commercials were ubiquetous (though I still don't know which one was Joey and which was Pacey). And then when Tom Cruise went crazy she was the cause...or he has always been crazy and everyone finally noticed. Jury's still out. But Cat Deeley has been promoting her appearance on SYTYCD for what seems like 3 seasons now. Katie Holmes did a fine enough job on Eli Stone, so I was mildly interested to see what dance she would do with the Season 5 team. I figured it would be Broadway-something-or-other cause she did some show on Broadway and if I recall correctly the Eli Stone number was Broadway-ish, no?

How disappointing was that "performance?" She wasn't actually on the show. She taped a segment with Cat and then they ran film of her routine. I know I'm new to SYTYCD, but has that ever happened before? A canned performance like that, I mean besides the musical guests on Thursday nights that may or may not be lip syncing? I was looking more for something similar to last season when both Mary and Nigel danced with contestants or guests...on the stage...before the live studio audience. It was a let down and a complete waste of SYTYCD time. I would have rather seen The Door or one of the other Emmy nominated dances.

What I did like, however, was her skirt. I'm a sucker for pleats. And patent leather, which doesn't apply here, but still.

Second, the local news had a segment about a "Top Secret" Starbucks. They teasted it during SYTYCD so I recorded the news. I had visions of a VIP Starbucks that only people with a Black Card could get into or something super interesting like that. Gold plated coffee collars, beluga caviar in the pastry display, or Juan Valdez as barista. But no...turns out Starbucks is opening a new shop in Seattle under a different name...15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. And the people on the news were all up in arms that Starbucks is being so secretive. Saying the new shop was copying decor from neighboring stores, deceiving people being generally angry about the whole thing. I was amazed it was a news story. I mean, couldn't they have found something about Michael Jackson...that would have been more interesting...and I think I already know all I want to know about MJ. So a huge company is trying to diversify? Who cares? They already have a bit...it's called Seattle's Best Coffee. I don't understand why everyone is acting as if they've been betrayed or are so angry about it. Not just the people on the street interviews, but the anchors were even offended and the reporter confronted the Starbucks employees in such an accusatory manner that one would have thought they were serving baby penguins on the menu. Seriously?

Best thing I saw on TV tonight? Sean Puffy P. Diddy John Combs trying to explain what Malaria is "If you get Malaria it's not really good." and if it can be cured "We gotta get the nets." Go to MalariaNoMore.org or .com. Totally a HomeStarRunner moment. "It's dot com."

Top Gear

I've found a wonderful British show that I completely love. A few weeks ago I was up late working and whatever show I was watching on my Comcast DVR ended and the box switched over to whatever channel I was watching before, which turned out to be BBC America. I just let the TV play for noise while I continued working on the lappy and found myself laughing quite often.

Top Gear is the name of the show and it is about cars. Now I like a nice car as much as anybody else, I imagine, but I'm not so much into cars that I'd actually watch a show about them. But this show is hilarious. The three presenters crack me up. And the thing that got me laughing so hard and loud I thought my neighbors were going to come upstairs and ask me to be quiet was this bit with Mark Wahlberg. I've since learned that the show has a segment called Star in a Reasonably Priced Car where they have a star drive around their test track in a reasonably priced car as they are timed then ranked against all other stars that drove the test track in that same reasonably priced car.

The segment is about 10 minutes long, but the bit that got me hooked on the show as right around the 5:45 mark. (Be forewarned: there is beeped out swearing and a bit of off color humor, so if you'd like to skip that, just queue it up to the 5:45 mark and watch for about a minute.)

"We attend different churches"...I thought that was Marky Mark's way of saying: Come on you git, not all famous people know each other. And then when he busted out with: "I'm at the one with Jesus baby." Oh my gosh! That was so politically incorrect and absolutely hilarious.

Which apparently is what the show is all about. Their race from Switzerland to Northern England on one tank of gas was a hoot that I didn't think they could top...then this weekend I saw them race across Botswana. Not only did they show the beautiful sunsets but they then showed two of the presenters putting a cows head into the trunk of one of the other presenters so he'd have to endure flies bothering him during his entire drive. It's just useless drivel really, but it certainly is entertaining. I wonder if it would be possible to find an Oliver of my very own.

I should never have doubted you Taush

Tausha has been trying to get me to watch So You Think You Can Dance since the second season. I resisted until almost the end of last season, only because Taush was visiting me and I'd recorded the show for her to watch while she was here. I sat down and watched it with her and totally loved it. Joshua and Katee were my favorites. But I loved most all of the dancers I saw and there were so many excellent dances...

I again resisted, this time because there was no way it could compare to how wonderful last season was. Boy was I wrong...again! I'm a few episodes behind and have just watched the Top 20 dance episode and just adored it. There is no other show on TV that makes me smile throughout and finds me clapping at what I'm seeing. Not only that but there is some fantastic music on this show. And I learn something when I watch. This week? Pas de deux. I couldn't dance my way out of a paper bag and these people make dancing look so effortless. It is such a joy to watch this show. Hooray for it being on TV!

White Trash like me...

I've upgraded both my TV and my DVR to HD...there are many things I like about the HD and the HD DVR (the picture size and quality, for two) and there are things I don't like about it (the DVR is difficult to program for one).  But I think my favorite thing is that after over 5 hours of on and off trouble shooting my remotes and DVR with and without the help of Comcast, I turned to my old friend the Internet and after searching through forum after forum I found that the problem was that my TV has a sensor in it that detects the light in the room and adjusts the picture quality which interferes somehow with the ability for my particular HD DVR model to receive the infrared signal from the remote.  The fix?

Place an empty CD case in front of the HD DVR's IR receiver.  And since I'm not exactly sure where that is, I've just placed it in front of the entire thing.  If that's not White Trash, I'm not sure what is.  

The amazing thing is...it totally works.  The remote now controls the HD DVR, where as without the CD case there, it won't.  Amazing.

Thanks the Internet.

Lee is my Joseph!

For the past few weeks I've been rather invested in the Any Dream Will Do series on BBC America.  I don't really watch American Idol, but these shows that are casting stunts for Broadway/West End shows I totally watch.  Because I love Broadway musicals.  Especially Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Such a great show.  In fact, I knew that once I started watching the show I would need to listen to my Joseph CD... but I couldn't find it anywhere.  So before I watched the first episode I had to order a new CD from amazon.  I then listened to it non-stop for weeks.  

And watched every episode of Any Dream will Do every week.  Debbie was watching it as well, so we'd discuss it.  In fact, on the way to McCall over Memorial Day weekend, we discussed it so much in the car that Lynda watched it the next week.  Which was the week I found out...

Andrew Lloyd Webber kept saving one of the singers, Lewis.  He was consistently getting the least amount of votes from the British public, and yet Andrew kept saving him EVERY week.  And finally, last week, I'd had enough.  I thought Lewis looked like too much like Barbie and sang too much like me (from the top of my throat, no real depth to my voice) to be Joseph.  I decided that though the show was happening in the UK, there had to be a way for me to vote online or via text message or something.  Lewis was NOT going to be my Joseph.  I preferred Lee, but Keith would do as well.  Just not Lewis.  I was very serious about it.  

A quick search of the Internet revealed that even though I was completely invested in this show, anticipating it every Sunday, anxious for the singers each week and crying with them when they cried (except for Lewis, because he cried ALL. THE. TIME.) and very serious about finding a way to vote for Lee, it didn't really matter.  Because the show originally aired in the UK in 2007.  Lee had indeed won, he was not only my Joseph, but apparently most of the voter's Joseph as well.  Not only that, he had already completed his West End contract as Joseph and had recently married won of the judges from Any Dream Will Do.  

I thought the knowledge of who had won would have tainted my viewing of the last episode tonight.  But it didn't.  Debbie called me to tell me that Lee had won when I had just begun watching the episode and I almost chided her for telling me who had won since I hadn't gotten there yet.  When I remembered that I already knew.  So kudos to BBC for making me forget what I thought I knew and drawing me in again for one last week of Joseph.

Yay Lee! 

I want my TV

No disrespect to President Obama, but the biggest change I've seen since he's taken office is that he is constantly on my TV.  At first I was understanding that every time I turned on the TV or even looked at the TV he was on it...what with it being the first 100 days and all.  It was mostly the news anyway, so I could just not watch the news on TV or fast forward through the coverage of him signing yet another bill with 16 different pens.  

But now...now he's on my Primetime TV and pushing my TV shows to later times or different days which then messes with my recording schedule.  

If I wanted to see a man this often I'd be married.