• When Trent, Mikey, Rob, & Sue Were Our Heroes

    Sadly, all this cold has sapped my brain of writing inspirations. So yet another link for you. This is a good one, though. Grantland offers up the oral history of all oral histories: an insiders’ tale of the making of the movie Swingers. It’s great, although not nearly long enough for extreme devotees of the flick. Still, plenty of great…

  • American(s) Music

    Note: I’ll kick off my look back at the music of 2013 later this week. Here’s an appetizer about music in, but not of, 2013. I forget what the motivation was, but for some reason last night I decided to check and see when season two of The Americans was supposed to start. Unofficially, I found early February. Which is…

  • Spy Vs. Spy

    Last month I shared the list of TV shows I have been watching this year. As I kind of expected, there has been a big change in how I rank those shows. I finally got all caught up on “The Americans” and it is now the show I look forward to and enjoy the most each week. Since it’s still…

  • What I’m Watching

    I’ve meant to get to my rankings of this year’s TV shows for awhile. But a DVR snafu forced me to wait to see the second episode of “The Americans” until this past weekend. With that finally knocked out, though, I can get to it. Keep in mind, I watch approximately five shows, so making the top five isn’t necessarily…

  • Bond: Pierce Takes Over

    Bond is back! After a long, long break, I finally dove into Pierce Brosnan’s first turn as Bond, GoldenEye, Tuesday night. Strangely, as I got deeper and deeper into the flick, I realized that I had never seen the entire movie. I’ve seen the beginning many times, and parts of the rest, but there were parts I’m sure I never…

  • Back To Glendale

    Thursday night is going to be big. After three months off air, Community returns! It’s such a big deal even The New York Times has a story about the show’s return in today’s edition. It remains unlikely, though, that “Community” will suddenly wade into the mainstream in search of more traditional viewers. Coming episodes revolve around a collegewide pillow fight…

  • They Grow Up

    Here’s the problem with your kids being fans of teen stars: the stars grow up. Monday I’m at the grocery story, doing my thing. As I waited to check out, I took my usual glance at the register magazine stands. I chuckled at the tabloid headlines. I rolled my eyes at how often Jen and Angelina still make the covers.…

  • Bond: The Dalton Years

    I suppose it says volumes of the Timothy Dalton era that it’s taken me nearly three months to watch his two movies. In my defense the holidays, and the Christmas movie season, were right in the middle of that stretch. And the copy of The Living Daylights our library has is scratched so badly the disk does not play after…

  • Bond

    There are times in every man’s life when he must undertake a specific challenge: watch all the Bond movies. Some men are even more ambitious, endeavoring to read all the Bond novels as well. Friends, it is time for me to climb this mountain. This is not my first attempt at Mt. Bond. I believe it was the summer of…

  • What To Watch

    I remember the good old days, when September meant a new round of TV shows to be excited about. There would be a bevy of new comedies, some action shows (Air Wolf, The A Team), and maybe a drama that interested me. By November I likely would have only stuck with a couple of them, but for a TV freak…