Cylons, Matthew Perry and Christopher Nolan.

I tried this already with Arrested Development and nothing good came of that. Previously on this blog, a friend of mine recommended The Wire and I've since seconded that recommendation. But now I'm going to try and put my stamp of approval on another series, one that many of you will no doubt ignore out of hand because of its genre.

Of course, I'm talking about Battlestar Galactica, airing every Friday at 9PM on the Sci Fi Channel. You're going to say, "But, Murph, I haven't been watching it since the beginning, so, I won't know what's going on." To that I say, "Suck it up and deal." If it's good, it's good, right?

In fact, this reasoning is troublesome to me. Surely, you can listen to a band without ever having heard them before and like one of their songs. Most of the time, if the song really knocks your socks off, don't you want to go and seek out other songs by the group? With the way DVDs are quickly released after each season, renting a couple of discs or even outright purchasing season sets is yet another way to invalidate the excuse that you can't catch up to a show.

But, again I say, if it's good, it's good, right?

I had never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer when I sat down to watch it in between classes some 4 years ago now. By then, the show was ending its 6th season on primetime, but it was already rerunning previous episodes on FX -- in two hour blocks, no less. I saw what was probably episode 16 of season five and I got hooked. I made sure to watch those episodes every day and then, of course, the DVDs when I could, and I caught up in no time. But not knowing the totality of the series prior to episode 16 of season 5 did not diminish my enjoyment of episode 16, nor any preceding or following it.

Similarly, my girlfriend and I have a standing Tuesday night date where we watch my stories: House, Veronica Mars and Boston Legal. She's getting in to Veronica Mars, even though she doesn't know these characters at all. But the show's good enough that she's keen to keep watching. A friend of the blog has also started to watch House regularly and has gone so far as to call and ask questions about the show to fill in the blanks.

So, when I say that Battlestar Galactica is a show you should TiVo or otherwise watch, please don't use the excuse that there's too much there for you to catch up on. Enjoy the ride, because it is an emotional, disturbing, thrilling drama that deserves its critical acclaim as well as your attention. Fridays at 9PM on Sci Fi.

Now, Aaron Sorkin's latest series, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip does not receive the Awkward Phrasing Stamp O'Pproval on account of its sanctimony, condescension, and near-total lack of humor.

By now you probably know that Studio 60 is about the behind-the-scenes of a Saturday Night Live-type show. But wait, there's more to it! Matthew Perry plays Matt Albie, a writer with a knack for being The Greatest Writer Humanity Has Ever Known, who nonetheless must toil away writing seemingly every sketch for a late night comedy show because his best friend and business partner Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford) tested positive for cocaine use and now he can't get insured to direct their movie. Ultimately, the show is as pointless, long-winded and unnecessarily complicated as the description I just wrote.

Then again, The West Wing is a tough act to follow. Still, it's hard not to see Aaron Sorkin pulling a Charlie Kaufman a la Adaptation here and writing himself into his own TV series, where he and his real-life biz partner Tommy Schlamme are wunderkinds, savants, or just flat out Gods Amongst Men in the TV world.

But when the dramatic stakes are significantly lower (than, say, the Presidency) and the characters are flat and muddled when it comes to point of view, it's hard to care about this show. I really expected to enjoy Studio 60. But I don't, and I don't expect you to, either.

And, finally, I must state publicly that I am a yooge fan of director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins). His new film The Prestige opened today. I will be seeing this sucker in short order, but let me just say that it's going to rock. I don't need to see a review, I don't need the word of mouth, I just know it's going to be a great movie that will catch you off guard. I am recommending it based on nothing other than I love the way this guy creates a mood with his movies. He creates mystery, dramatic tension and he genuinely gets great performances out of his actors. He also strives for a more realistic movie world, and that realistic style is what I appreciate the most. The more we can recognize the world on screen, the more likely we are to suspend disbelief where necessary and get swept up in the drama. Movie audiences are far more intelligent than those of twenty years ago. A more sophisticated storytelling dynamic is necessary simply because of the volumes of films that have been produced over time.

Go see The Prestige, TiVo Battlestar Galactica and read a book at 10PM on Monday nights. Oh, and have a great weekend!

Johnny On The Frakkin' Spot

He’s the guy who’s always there when you least expect him to be. He’s the guy who’s always there when you don’t want him to be. He’s the guy who’s always there even after he said he wouldn’t be. He’s frakking Johnny On-The-Spot.

And he’s not even the good kind of on-the-spot. His presence is never timely or necessary. He shows up, shits on people’s joy and leaves. Scheduling your life around this Johnny On-The-Spot is next to impossible. He’s that good at sucking.

Say his daily routine involves waking up at 8 and leaving just before 9AM. I plan my morning to not coincide with his and I awake at 7AM to get a jump start on my day. When I wake up, he’s already in the bathroom, just starting his 35 minute routine in there. The 100+ consecutive days prior to this one where he wasn’t up at this hour matters not, for he is Johnny On-The-Spot. And how about when I come home that night, well ahead of his usual midnight return? There he is, already parked for the night. This requires us swapping out our cars so that he can get out in the morning. That means talking to Johnny On-The-Spot.

What could be worse than living with Johnny On-The-Spot? Talking to Johnny On-The-Spot. You see, JOTS has no social skills. His conversation style lacks panache, eloquence and relevance; he is boring. On top of that, the only time JOTS wants to talk is when he wants to order me around.

“Um, could I talk to you for a second?” is his usual broacher.

Whenever I am approached by Johnny On-The-Spot with this conversation initiater, it is for one of three, or possibly all these, reasons:

• He wants the bathroom cleaned.
• I am being inconsiderate by not properly disposing of/filing the mail that he has brought into the apartment yet failed to sort on his own.
• I am being inconsiderate by not ending all sounds from my room upon his return home in the evenings.

Johnny On-The-Spot will always approach me when I least expect it. If I’ve already cleaned the bathroom, he finds a stray hair that he feels warrants a re-cleaning; whenever he performs an apartment chore, his is the definitive method of accomplishment and it cannot be questioned or otherwise critiqued; his disturbingly low bass voice that wakes me up in the mornings and sometimes keeps me up at night is an acceptable register to vibrate through the apartment; my tenor is not.

I don’t know where Johnny On-The-Spot comes from. I don’t know why he’s the way he is and I don’t care. All I know is that Johnny On-The-Spot is a pain in the ass. He sucks to live with, he sucks to share a wall with, and he just sucks overall.

If there’s a Johnny On-The-Spot in your life, tell me about it in the comments section below.

*****

Something that sucks nearly as bad as JOTS is losing any of your senses. In my case, I’ve lost my senses of taste and smell. I can’t stand it. They’ve slowly been coming back the past day or so, but my smelling power is limited to recognizing there’s a smell around me, but I can’t specifically identify it. It’s an odd feeling to lose your senses. I know I’m not the first, but it’s the first time I’ve ever lost these particular senses. Even when I’ve had sinus problems before, I’ve still been able to smell and taste a little.

My girlfriend says she loses these senses regularly (when she’s sick). Not me. Of course, I fear that there has been permanent damage. Tell me I’m wrong. It’s been 5 days now. Sucks.

*****

I will apologize again for the infrequent posts to the blog. There’s honestly not much that’s riling me up enough to write and my brain has become inundated with TV credits thanks to my new job. Maybe I’ll discuss the job in more detail on Friday. Then again, maybe not.

The Changing Days and the… Not So Changing Days

One of my best friends gave birth to her first child over the weekend. She is the first of my friends to reproduce and I couldn’t be happier for her and her husband. Nevertheless, the baby’s birth is a harbinger of this slow crawl towards old age.

I’m 25 now and, while that’s not really very old at all, it still amazes me how long I’ve lived. 15 simultaneously feels long ago and not so long ago; 30 seems far away but near. I’m on the old side of being young, I think, but I’m not in one of those depressed moods where I think my best days are behind me and I’m useless.

It’s just that I’m not a guy who handles change well. I’m slow to adapt. But it’s time I face the facts now: I’m getting old and there’s nothing that will stop it. Life is precious, too, and I don’t want to waste it. I feel like these past three years have definitely been filled with more waste than use, but that’s probably just my internal critic making an overly critical judgment.

When I think about how life is changing for me and everyone I love, it simply amazes me. This is life. Living. Doing what everybody before us has done before, in some fashion specific to their time, place and experience. People get married, have a family, have their ups and downs personally and professionally, grow old, die.

I’ve seen my friends get married, now have kids. Childhood friends move away to start new lives. Erratic personalities simmer down and, eventually, settle down. Even I have succumbed to calming down. I don’t get as anxious as I used to, I don’t overthink every moment of my life. I’m a little more comfortable with myself and where I’m at. Maybe it’s just mitochondrial malaise or hormonal fatigue, but I am calmer.

This post is more of a ramble because I’m a shitastically bad writer these days. I haven’t even tried to keep the skill sharp lately (not that it was sharp before), so, forgive the vagueness of my specifics and the meandering nature of the thesis.

Life changes and we’re powerless to stop it. That’s what used to get me so worked up. It’s why I was so averse to change: I couldn’t control it. What’s with this incessant need to control the world around me, though? Is it symptomatic of short people? Maybe the explanation lies in my inability to play baseball well. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Rest assured, though, that my want of control is in the past. I’m beginning to appreciate change. It’s a slow turn to appreciate, but it’s happening. The beautiful baby in the arms of one of my best friends certainly went a long way in helping to affect that change. There’s something about my friend now that seems utterly different and yet she’s still the same woman she was before; only now she has a baby. So, maybe change is a series of events, like plot turns in a story, that we build up as something bigger through our emotions. In this case, my pure joy elevates my friend’s motherhood to monumental change.

My ex-girlfriend’s emotional instability, however, elevates her recent unstable behavior to disturbing change. Nice transition, right?

Basically, Ms. Ex-Girlfriend attempted to solicit the sympathy of visitors to her website and my personal attention by posting my Current Girlfriend’s e-mail address and blog address to her own (Ex-girlfriend’s) guestbook. And that personal information was left in addition to a nasty message that teased my Ex for not being able to keep me in her life. Also, the phrase “he’s my man now” was employed. Suffice it to say, several angry e-mails from my Ex’s rabid community of page visitors were quickly sent to my Current Girlfriend, some of them grasping the English language, but most aiming to be cruel.

Obviously, Current Girlfriend had to make some changes to the way she conducts her on-line life, and that’s a shame. It sucks that classless fools would target an innocent person whose only crime is being involved with me (fair warning to the rest of you). But when you’re a small, petty person, your options become extremely limited when you feel as though you deserve a second chance. My Ex and I have been separated for over a year now, and in no uncertain terms am I even remotely interested in having anything to do with her from this point on. She had her second, third and fourth chances.

Now I am a happy man involved with a wonderful woman.

The surprising part of all this was when I stopped to consider whether or not Ex was capable of pulling some stunt like this. I didn’t have to consider it, really, because I just knew it to be true. I just knew that she could do it. I knew that she would take the time to research and discover my Current Girlfriend’s e-mail address and then craft a message that would demean a complete stranger (Current Girlfriend) while maximizing the pity and attention she could receive from others.

So even though life changes around us and to us (that doesn’t make sense: life doesn’t change to us; but, you get what I’m sayin’, right?), the essence of what life is and what/who we are maybe doesn’t. Perhaps certain life experiences/changes affect significant change in our behavior/personality/emotions, but I think these times are profound, like perhaps the birth of a child. Or getting married. Or the death of someone close to us.

I’m sorry for the godawful hokum and psychobabble. I have reread this post and I’ve found it to be almost completely unnecessary. This is frosh philosophy. There’s no excuse for my lack of insight, creativity or emphasis; let’s just consider this Spring Training and I’m a pitcher reporting for my first camp. I suck because I suck. But maybe after a few weeks of practice, some simulated games, I might be able to get my velocity back. Maybe.

P.S. Comments below are always appreciated.

P.P.S. The Killers’ new album, Sam’s Town, isn’t amazing, fantastic, great, good or terrible. It’s somewhere between those last two.