#EverySimpsonsEver -- Day Six

So you know how I said I've been DVRing some of the episodes during this marathon? As we get to the end of the week the DVR has a lot fewer episodes set to be recorded. That will tell you how the number of episodes in these posts should decline.

At this moment, I'm watching live (although this will actually be posted mid-day, not when I'm typing) and they're showing "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," in which the World Trade Center figures in the plot. After the 9/11 attacks this episode disappeared from syndication for a while.

MUST-SEE!

8/26 12:30 AM ET “Mom and Pop Art” -- Homer's failure to build a barbecue pit leads to his being discovered as a hot new artist.

8/26 3:00 AM ET “Beyond Blunderdome” -- Mel Gibson (as Mel Gibson, before he went all crazy) hires Homer to help him finish his new film, a remake of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

8/26 4:30 AM ET “Treehouse of Horror X” -- One of the more consistently funny Halloween specials. In recent years they haven't been the same. I guess you can say that about the series in general...

8/26 7:30 AM ET “Little Big Mom” -- If for nothing more than the line "Stupid sexy Flanders!"

8/26 9:30 AM ET “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily” -- The death of Maude Flanders.

8/26 10:00 AM ET “Missionary: Impossible” -- Highlighted by the spoofing of PBS, a guest appearance by Betty White and Homer's first time referring to "Jebus."

8/26 1:30 PM ET "Behind the Laughter" -- Genius spoof of VH1's "Behind the Music."

8/26 4:30 PM ET “The Computer Wore Menace Shoes” -- This is really must-see only if you're a fan of "The Prisoner" (series star Patrick McGoohan appears in the episode). Otherwise you may be really put off by it.

8/26 7:00 PM ET “Worst Episode Ever” -- Comic Book Guy has a heart attack and has to stop working at his store for a while.

8/26 8:30 PM ET “New Kids on the Blecch” -- Spoof of boy bands with guest stars 'NSync.

8/26 9:00 PM ET “Hungry, Hungry Homer” -- Homer discovers a plot by the owner of the Springfield Isotopes to move the team to Albuquerque. His hunger-strike song is classic. And now there's an actual minor league baseball team called the Albuquerque Isotopes.

8/26 10:30 PM ET “Trilogy of Error” -- A clever takeoff on the film "Run, Lola, Run" featuring three interconnected tales.

8/26 11:00 PM ET “I’m Goin’ to Praiseland” -- Ned Flanders opens a religious-themed amusement park after finding his late wife's sketch book.

MEH. M-E-H, MEH.

8/26 1:30 AM ET “Monty Can’t Buy Me Love”

8/26 6:00 AM ET “Eight Misbehavin'”

8/26 6:30 AM ET “Take My Wife, Sleaze”

8/26 12:00 PM ET “Kill the Alligator and Run”

8/26 3:00 PM ET “Insane Clown Poppy”

8/26 10:00 PM ET “Simpson Safari”

WHAT THE HELL...New York Daily News

This time I know it's for real...

I thought the Post was the New York City tabloid with the occasionally offensive front page headlines. This week, in its reporting on the death of Robin Williams, it was the New York Daily News hitting new lows.

How utterly tasteless, offensive, repulsive is this? And almost as bad is their internal memo celebrating their success at getting their online articles to the top of search engines, because there's nothing more important than social media buzz.

New York Daily News: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?????

The Sun Sets On Manhattan

I'm going to try and get caught up on posting my photo albums from my various trips. This slideshow has most of the photos from my trip to New York City at the end of July. (I posted pics from my visit to the 9/11 Memorial separately, you may recall.)

I arrived on Sunday afternoon and, after checking into my hotel (Comfort Inn on the Upper West Side -- I got a nice rate but it wasn't so great -- refer to the first picture in the slideshow) I went for a walk and discovered a street festival on Columbus Avenue. After I had a margarita and a huge burrito for dinner (not planned, but it started to rain and the place was right there) I took the subway to Brooklyn, and walked around the riverfront park, eventually arriving at the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Then I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. Some of the pics I took during this time of the skyline are among my favorites of all the pictures I've ever taken.

The 9/11 Memorial

I have a bunch of pictures from my three-night stay in New York City at the end of July. I haven't figured out how exactly I want to present them -- whether in one big album or in smaller ones devoted to each of the places I visited on this trip. But with the arrival of the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it seemed fitting to put the pictures from my visit to the 9/11 Memorial into a separate album. And since I used the Picasa photo service from Google, I'm even able to embed the slideshow.



And since this is the 1,000th post on this blog, it's nice that it's not about a more trivial subject.

Hashtag NBCFAIL

I have so much to write about that I'm backlogged again. Let's see: two movies, my recent trip to New York (seeing Ricky Martin in Evita, seeing the new Yankee Stadium, etc.), I bought some comic books that aren't Simpsons or Futurama, posting my photos and videos from Bastille Day at Eastern State, not to mention the latest crop of Daily News Sexy Singles.

So why am I writing about NBC?

First, they've made me lose interest in the Summer Olympics. Between the chopped-up tape-delayed events, the near-constant athlete profiles and inane features, the mere presence of Ryan Seacrest, the butchering of the Opening Ceremony, their massive hype about having so many events live online (some of the biggest events weren't actually available online and there have been quite a few complaints about screens freezing and lots of buffering -- and besides, I personally don't want to watch sports on a computer, I WANT TO WATCH THEM ON MY HIGH-DEFINITION TELEVISION), and above all, their arrogant insistence that critics of their coverage must be wrong because the TV ratings are so high, when I actually do have the Olympics on, it's mostly just in the background with me barely paying attention.

(By the way, Blogger doesn't let me put a pound sign in a post title, which is why this post isn't called  #NBCFAIL. I think that's a #BloggerFAIL, to be honest. Or a #GoogleFAIL, since they own it.)

But that's not all.

NYC: Yotel, High Line

I make a quick one-day trip to New York City about three weeks ago. I met up with my friend Mark, visiting from Toronto, and we saw a new off-Broadway musical called "Dogfight," which is based on a movie starring River Phoenix (which was not a musical). I recommend it if you're in NYC. Here's a review from the New York Times.

After the show we met up with locals Steve and Pat, had dinner at the restaurant at Mark's hotel and then we all visited the High Line -- the elevated freight railroad tracks turned into a public park. Very cool. (There are people who want to create a similar park in Philly, on a stretch known as the Reading Viaduct. Money and politics and local infighting will probably keep this from happening for a while.) On Sunday I'm going back to NYC and spending three nights (seeing Ricky Martin in "Evita" is my only firm plan right now), and I may visit the High Line again.

I took lots of pictures of the park and the surrounding buildings, some skyline shots, various art installations in the park, etc. I also have some pictures of the hotel -- it's this very futuristic place called Yotel. Among other things, it's got an automated bag storage system just inside the front door.

Robot arm!

Movie Magic

While a movie starring Colin Farrell was shooting a couple of weeks ago, they changed some street signs on Walnut Street. The film, "Dead Man Down," is set in New York...

I know they do this all the time. Films are shot all over the place that are set in New York. Sometimes it's really obvious that it's not really New York, though. It seems to me they shouldn't do this unless New York City is really central to the plot (i.e. a terrorist or alien attack on a specific location). Anyway, love the disclaimer...

Ew York

Since I'm up late I decided to post the pictures I took when I went to New York for a weekend in early March. EDIT TO UPDATE: I posted them to Shutterfly and hoped to have a slideshow embedded into this post but using the code they provided, no slideshow appears. So just click on this link.

The main purposes for the trip: my friend Kurt was auditioning for The Voice on the Saturday of that weekend, so while he auditioned I went to see "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

The trip wasn't exactly a success. It wasn't horrible, but there were a number of problems throughout. It started with Megabus. (That's their sign at left -- hence the title of this post.) We were supposed to leave at 5:30 pm but the bus was quite late -- an hour, at least, as I remember. We stood out in the chilly air and watched while at least two competing buses (Bolt Bus, which is actually owned by Greyhound) arrived, picked up passengers for New York, and went on their way. Once we finally got on our way, the wi-fi on the bus was wonky.

We finally got to our small hotel, which was in Chinatown, and were told that because a regular room wasn't ready that we would get the "penthouse." The elevator doesn't go to the penthouse without your room keycard to unlock it. Our key didn't work. After the staff couldn't get it to work, they decided to put us in a first-floor room for one night. It was freezing with no heat. We went back to the desk, and after another wait  someone got the key to unlock the elevator button for the "penthouse." The elevator opened right up into the room -- there were no other rooms on the floor. It wasn't exactly luxurious but it was larger than a typical room. It also had a fuse box and some other electrical switches and an emergency phone for the fire department and a door to the roof of the building. I had images of maintenance men traipsing through our room or worse. (I took a video; if I get around to posting it I'll update this.

September 11

I'm not going to say much about the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that claimed so many lives. There are many places for you to get every bit of commemoration, analysis, hyperbole, patriotic overkill (I"m looking at you, NFL and Fox), etc. While our nation was briefly united like it hadn't been in a long time, the feeling didn't last and so much has happened since and it's gotten much, much worse. So I'm avoiding as much of the 9/11 anniversary coverage as I can because, even if it's by accident, much of it will be tinged with politics. But I wanted to share some pictures. (Quick note: these are 10 old scans done back then by a friend, which is why they're so small. I may try and find the pictures and re-scan them and any others I took at the time.) I put them in a Flickr set.

A month after the attacks, on Columbus Day weekend, I went to New York. Since Mayor Giuliani asked people to visit and spend money, I heeded the call. That Sunday I watched NFL games at a sports bar with some friends (as it happened, the USA began the war against Afghanistan that day). Earlier that day, I was one of many pathetic gawkers people trying to get as close as allowed to the World Trade Center site. I also took a few pictures of the skyline from the Empire State Building. It's an amazing view. I wish I had gotten to see the view from the Twin Towers while they stood. There's one picture of "The Wall of Hope and Remembrance" outside the now-closed St. Vincent's Hospital, one of the American flags at Rockefeller Plaza, and these two, taken at the West Village firehouse of Squad 18 of the Fire Department of New York. (At the time the firehouse was undergoing renovations so it was closed and the squad operated out of another firehouse.)

The sight of this memorial itself was moving, but when I saw this toy figure left there, perhaps by a child, you can imagine my reaction...

But let's end this on a happier note. In July 2010 Squad 18 went Gaga!

Looking Down On LOVE Park (And Other Pics)

Last month I was at a party for my softball team on the rooftop deck of the building where our team's manager lives. I...well, quite a few of us, actually...took a few photos. I love being in high-rise buildings and looking down upon the area. Whether it's the Empire State Building in New York or the Sears Tower (or whatever it's called now) in Chicago or the CN Tower in Toronto, there's just something special to me about being so far up and viewing the landscape, the buildings, etc. as far as the eye can see. This building isn't quite as high as those... ;-)

LOVE Park from above.

Off in the distance (just above the cathedral's dome) is the Art Museum.

The Voice May Wear Me Out

My friend Kurt is auditioning for season two of "The Voice" tomorrow. The New York auditions (those closest to here) are being held in East Rutherford, New Jersey, at the Izod Center, formerly the Continental Airlines Arena, and originally the Brendan Byrne Arena. (And if you know who Brendan Byrne is, you win...nothing. At least nothing from me.) This place is in the Meadowlands Sports Complex, where the New York Giants and Jets of the NFL will play once the lockout is finally over, and the Izod Center is where the New Jersey Devils and Nets used to play before both teams moved on to the new Prudential Center in Newark.

So, logistically speaking, it's in the middle of nowhere in northern New Jersey.

Kurt had a friend who was driving him tomorrow, until said friend had to cancel because of unexpected work commitments.

Have I mentioned that the Izod Center is in the middle of nowhere?

He has been instructed to arrive at 7 am. The plan is to take a Greyhound bus to New York City and then a New Jersey Transit bus that goes to the Meadowlands. To get there at 7 am or so requires taking the 3:20 am bus from Philadelphia to the Port Authority terminal, and then the first NJT bus on the Meadowlands route, which leaves at 6:50 am. This basically means it is impossible to get any sleep before going on this trip, and my guess is that with the number of people attending, it will be an all-day affair.

And, out of concern for his well-being and because this is a big deal to him, I am going along for the ride.

(Have I mentioned that the Izod Center is in the middle of nowhere? And that today's high temperature was 98, and tomorrow it's expected to hit or go past 100? And that none of the coaches/judges shown above are actually going to be there, I assume, since these are the very first rounds of auditions?)

The next 24 hours or so are going to be interesting, if not torturous. My cell phone is fully charged. Expect Facebook and Twitter updates.

Why I'd Be A Bad Husband

Sure, New York state now has marriage equality after the state's Assembly and GOP-controlled (really? Really!?!) Senate passed legislation to allow same-sex marriages and the bill was signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo last night.

It's a great day, it's annother step in the right direction, and it'll make for a helluva fun Pride parade tomorrow in New York City. But I've learned that I am not good marriage material. Why?

It seems I'm capable of forgetting to acknowledge anniversaries.

Such as the two-year anniversary of the creation of this very blog.

Even though I have a calendar nearby and "blog 2 yrs." is written on the box for the 22nd.

Once again, as the kids say, SMH.

Happy anniversary to me. Thank you for reading. Thank you, New York state, even though clearly I won't be taking advantage of your new law any time soon. (Although perhaps, if you're planning to get married, I can help. A long time ago I went through the process of becoming an ordained minister online. I never did anything with it, but I figure that, as same-sex marriage becomes more and more common, all the other ministers might be too busy and need my help...)

Quick Review: Limitless

Bradley Cooper was definitely the right second choice for "Limitless," much of which was filmed right here (although it takes place in New York). I read the Wikipedia entry for the movie (as I usually do, to refresh my memory about names and places and such when I write these things), and it says that Shia LaBeouf was originally going to star. I don't think that would have worked at all. Cooper plays Eddie Morra, something of a loser. His apartment's a mess, he's barely started on the book that's overdue to be turned into his publisher, and his girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) has just dumped him. Then he runs into the brother of his ex-wife, a drug dealer who offers Eddie a sample of a new drug that's supposed to increase your brain's efficiency to the extreme. Eddie tries it, and it works! He cleans his place and writes a bunch of pages of his book. Problem one: it doesn't last too long, and when Eddie visits his ex-brother-in-law he finds the guy murdered. He finds a stash of the drug and some cash, and remakes his life completely, getting his girl back and making stock transactions that draw the attention of a shady tycoon (Robert DeNiro). Problem two: the drug has side effects, one of which is a lapse in memory, and he may have killed a woman during one such blackout. Problem three: Russian mobsters are after him, as is another mysterious man. It's a little preposterous, and the tacked-on additional ending (the one where Cooper, DeNiro, etc. were reportedly brought back here to film) is even more so. Cooper really shows some range, though, going from down-and-out, confused mess to sharp-witted, borderline arrogant success. The movie's worth it just for that (and one shirtless scene) -- Shia LaBeouf couldn't have pulled this off. My grade: B-minus.