QOTD — page 11

Gentleman, my fapping arm (and shoulder) has been injured. I would appreciate a moment of silence.

What’s your most memorable injury. Funniest, most gruesome, most annoying, all fair game. 

Thank God I never broke any bones (knock on wood) but I was a kid on vacation once, dived into a pool, and sprained my ankle, which made it nearly impossible to get around and a burden to my family as we went around New Hampshire.

This shoulder thing I’m dealing with is the most annoying though, that’s for sure. I have to bat switch, and well, it don’t feel right.

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Blog Otter Award: Dougie for making sense about continuity.

May, 2009. I’m sitting in a crowded movie theater watching my old friends
Captain Kirk and Spock shooting aliens, covered in grease. The kind of
grease John McClane always seems to be covered in at the end of those
cool “Die Hard” movies. The theater is packed. There are girls there.
Girls.

The
audience “ooohs” and “ahhhs”. While having “Star Trek”, the thinking
man’s science fiction franchise, turned into a wham bam action flick
stings, it doesn’t even matter. “Star Trek” is cool. A girl  I know saw
it twice. Twice. Girl. Star Trek. Cool.

But I realize I may be in the minority here. I’m weird about continuity in that I’m all for a reboot or remake that starts fresh, but absolutely abhor anything that sweeps a dangling plot-point under the rug, or has me going “Hey, what about…?” for an entire season.

What are your most hated continuity problems, in wrestling, movies, and TV? What are your favorite ret-cons?

The earliest one I remember being confused by was the Made-for-TV movie “Not Quite Human” where Alan Thicke builds a robot son. The sequels had him building his son again, and the technology they used for robo-heart kept changing. Of course I was a kid so maybe I missed some detail that explained it, but it was the first time I got a sense that sometimes movies and TV shows forget important details until its too late.

Regarding ‘Star Trek’, I’m of two minds. While it sucks we’ll likely never see Kirk or Picard or Data or Sisko or Odo again, it was probably for the best. TV and Film is a business and intellectual, high-minded, ‘lets sit down and talk about this’ kind of entertainment isn’t really financially viable anymore, especially in a Sci-Fi setting where audiences would tend to expect action pew-pew and space battles.

The Plinkett “Star Trek 09” review explains it well.

When it comes to comic books, I’ve avoided diving in due to the sheer amount of bone crushing continuity* in the main universes, so I’ve stuck to side-stories and collected pieces like “The Long Halloween” and such. I will say there was something *really* cool about picking up the first 100 issues or so of  “Ultimate Spider-Man” and discovering the ultimate universe for the first time.
 
Regarding ret-cons, one of my favorite little details in recent years was the quip that
“The Avengers” kept talking to each-other despite not having any
ear-pieces. In Iron Man 3, and then in “Agents of Shield” they make a
point to show these tiny little ear-buds that you can’t see. It’s a cute
little detail I appreciate.

Also I think my favorite thing the WWE did, was when Foley got fired from being the commissioner, they shot footage of him signing like a huge stack of documents, in essence building in a backdoor to literally anything that happened in the next few years. I can’t remember if they used it a lot or not, but it was a cool little way to get around pretty much anything that came up. 

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Blog Otter Award: Your_Favourite_Loser for Dem Legs. DEM LEGS man.

*This is a phrase I read on this very blog, that I have used over and over again in many places. Sorry Scott!

Not sure how many of you have seen the underrated classic “The Huddsucker Proxy” but boy is that movie a treat. The less you know about it, the better. Don’t watch a trailer, don’t read about it, just watch it.

A tagline from that movie is “Ya know, for Kids!” and it got me thinking about the stuff we watch that, as mostly well-adjusted adults, is probably a big below our age range.

What ‘kid’ shows do you enjoy, or think hold up to viewings as an adult?

 

The correct answer to this question is “The Animaniacs”. Simply classic stuff that’s even better the older you are. While I still think Chicken Boo is one of the dumbest thing in the history of dumb things, the rest of the show is great. The songs are catchy and the jokes are still funnier, and in fact funnier now that you can pick up on the number of subtle Hollywood references throughout the show’s run.

“Fairly Odd Parents” is a good one, and still something I’ll click on if it’s on and I’m trying to do something else. Similarly ribald and subversive, it’s a show that’s more ‘for all ages’ versus for only children.

“iCarly” ain’t half bad, either, kind of capturing a zany 50’s sitcom vibe. I had a sister from another mister who turned me on to the show, and while it’s not something I watch myself, I have benevolent feelings toward the show, and its executive producer Dan Schneider, who is one of the few TV producers who can make entertainment that is both family friendly and doesn’t condescend to its audience. 

“The Muppets” are probably my favorite though, with the last movie being eight different kinds of funny, over-the-top, silly, self-referential, and similarly capable of entertaining adults and children alike. Also Chris Cooper raps. You can’t go wrong. give “Man or Muppet” a google and get ready to laugh a bit, first because it’s a silly song, and second because it’s actually pretty relate-able.

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Blog Otter Award: Everyone who mentioned Kurt Vonnegut, because I didn’t. I think for a lot of people he’s sort of the gateway to thinking beyond what we see, if that makes sense, and if you caught onto him at a certain time, namely in highschool or junior high, you were probably a better, and more critically thinking, person for it.

Lets talk about books. I don’t want to stick my face in The Cuch’s area, so we’ll keep this to books that don’t (directly) feature wrestlers. 

What are your favorite books, authors, stories, and genres? Whats your favorite (and least favorite) film adaptation of of a book you really liked, or vice versa? 

 
 Some Picks:

Different Seasons – This collection of Novellas by Stephen King includes “Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption”, “Apt Pupil”, “The Body”, and “The Breathing Method”. The first three stories are absolute knock outs, and the kind of stories you find looking ahead in page numbers to see how much you have left, because you don’t want it to end.

“The Shawshank Redemption” in particular is just stellar, and a wonderful companion to the movie, in one of those rare instances where the differences don’t bug you, and one happily informs the other.

“Apt Pupil” is great, and reading it Sophomore year of high-school I remember being about 9 different kinds of freaked out by the crazy ass shit the characters in that book got into, endlessly fascinated by what crazy thing would happen next. That’s cool because that’s what the book is about, namely, how an obsession with a time period, person, or historical event can be fuel for a poisoned mind to com-bust.

“The Body” went on to be “Stand By Me” which I think I’ve seen about 15 times in 20 minute chunks. The book is really good, and heart breaking, and when I picture it in my minds eye, the locations and people that flood my senses are so real I can almost touch them. Wonderful at capturing a child’s view of the world and sense of adventure, and how everything can seem big and bad and awful, but warm and welcoming at the same time. Secctiooon 8.

The Bachman Books – This includes “Rage”, “The Long Walk”,”Road Work” and “The Running Man” and again, three of the four are really great. “The Long Walk” is such an awesome concept, and “Rage” is a fun little book to read if you’re worried about the kind of shit our Nation’s Youth has to deal with. “The Running Man” is probably closer to being a TV reality than you may think.

Thinner – I like this one, being a fatty. Guy is fat, gets cursed to be thin, gets part of his hand blown off, and in a fun little tid-bit, steals my neighbor’s car. Seriously. It turns out back when that book was written, the main character hits up Bridgewater Massachusetts, and steals a car. My neighbor – relaying this to me at a party a few years ago, mentions that HE got his car stolen, and it was the same make and model as the one in the book.

The Elements of Style – A GREAT book to help you understand a bit of grammar, and one I’ll occasionally slot into my potty reading list for a refresher. Seriously one of the most iconic writing manuals out there.

On Writing – Part autobiography, part manual, and part do’s and dont’s, Stephen King uses examples from his own work to illustrate what he thinks makes good writing. My favorite part about this book is that Stephen King is happy to admit he’s a “First class, second class” writer (in so many words), meaning he’s very literary, but he appeals to a lot of people, and that folks like John Grisham do the same by writing what they know, and cutting off the bullshit. It’s a great read.

Catch Me if You Can – The autobiography the movie is based off of, this is one of my favorite true stories, written by a guy known for lying. While it may have had some ghost-writer help, it doesn’t feel it, and every little detail is wonderful to read and ponder, as the author goes into the details of how exactly he forged so many checks. It has a mostly happy ending too, which is neat.

License to Pawn – This is the book by the cast of “Pawn Stars” that is very obviously ghost written, but still *really* fucking cool, you learn a lot about the history of the cast, AND a ton about the inner-workings of the “Pawn” business, including why pimps always wear gold, and that both Chum and Big Hoss were once addicted to the Meth.

Have a Nice Day – Eh, it’s not bad.

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Blog Otter Award: The Blog Otter Award will return tomorrow, I’m writing this from work! So you all win! yay!

1. Someone explain Nook / Kindle sharing to me. Is it possible for us to share our books with each other without contracting STDS?

2. I review a Mega Man-like game that’s not bad! / I give “Card Hunter” a perfect 10!

Hola Otters, today we’re talking about the most iconic animated television show of all time. Family Guy.

Nah I’m joking. We’re talking about the Flintstones.

Nah I’m joking. We’re talking about Home Movies.

Nah I’m joking. We’re talking about The Simpsons.

What’s your favorite Simpsons Episode? What’s your favorite Simpsons Quote? What’s your favorite Simpsons trivia?  E-mail me a clip and I’ll post it below

It an (unlikely to succeed) attempt to be brief, I’ll put it simply. We are the Simpsons generation. If you are of a certain age, hovering somewhere between the ages of, say, 23-37, The Simpsons ARE a big part of your life, whether or not you’ve noticed it. It’s memes and catchphrases and characters are simply omnipresent. “D’oh”, “Eat My Shorts”, “Hey Everybody!” “Excelllenttt” and about fifty-seven other things have been pulled from The Simpsons and entered our lexicon like a virus, a yellow-skinned laughter virus.

I remember being 8ish years old, home on Halloween because some prisoners escaped from the local prison, and watching the Halloween special where Homer and Mr. Burns get their heads connected on the same body. I remember gaining a fascination for space and science fiction through that time Homer went into space and ate potato chips.

I’m not kidding when I say a young MeekinOnMovies heard the names Paul McCartney, Bob Hope, Albert Brooks, Howard Hughes, Barry White, and countless others through The Simpsons first. I had no clue the musical number from a Fish Called Selma was based on Amadeus. (Before Jobber calls me out, I was 10 at the time).

But more importantly than that, whether intentionally or not, The Simpsons manages to be about us. We all have a little Homer, a little Moe, a litte Bart, a little Lisa, a little Ralph, a little Milhouse in us, and probably know countless Marges, Flanders, Kent Brockmans, and Lenny and Carls. We want to be tough but aren’t, want to be cool but aren’t, want to be smart, but aren’t.

How many of us has felt like Ralph, fawning after the girl we’re perhaps too naive (nieve?) to realize won’t want us back, only to take refuge in their pity. How many of us have been like Homer, confounded by a rapidly changing world, ultimately deciding to ignore whatever the changing tide is in favor of chips, beer, and football? How many of us define a Muppet as not quite a mop, and not quite a puppet? How many of us had a tear in our eye when Bart stole that video-game he really really wanted from the Big Box store, only to be shunned from his Family, allowing him to finally realize the true meaning of Christmas? 

That’s actually my favorite episode, for the record. I was 9 at the time, and with Mortal Kombat mania running wild, but I had a sneaking suspicion I would not be receiving that game for Christmas, and was kinda bummed about it, like any 9 year old boy thirsty for virtual blood would be. That was really the first time a piece of media spoke DIRECTLY to me on a personal level, allowing me to realize that regardless of what I ‘got’ for Christmas, every present came with love. Also I got some kick-ass Thunder Zords and Legos I still have somewhere, so I can’t complain.

That said, with a show that’s been on so long, naturally the question of “It’s not as good as it used to be” creeps up, which is tricky. The syndicated episodes are so burned into our skull, that anything new-ish isn’t going resonate the same way. That said, new episodes aren’t half bad either, as the writers they have on-board actually grew up watching the show, and have it, you guessed it, ingrained in their skull. I’m inviting my buddy David, who is a Simpsons historian (amateur) to the thread to provide some neat tid-bits and trivia.

Anyway, The Simpsons taught us about addiction, love, infidelity, temptation, and loss. It taught us the difference between a joke about race, and a racist joke. It gave us Mr. Smithers, who is the first gay character I can remember, though surely there were ones before him. Like “The Wire” It ultimately communicates / communicated that regardless of what kind of asshole you are, you’re still a person. Can you name one Simpsons character who isn’t sympathetic at all?

Neither can I.

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Blog Otter Award: Eric Griffith for posting an awesome video by a lawyer about the legal process. I watched the whole damn thing.

1. So the take-away from the cops conversation yesterday is that I am a lucky motherfucker. I’ve never had a ‘bad’ run-in with cops, and never see them act in ways that would be considered uncouth. I recognize that isn’t everyone, and that just because I haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Great convo folks!

2. Supplementary Simpsons Material:

The Top 11 Simpsons Episodes of All Time. I generally dislike the Nostalgia Critic’s shtick, but this little retrospective isn’t half-bad, and communicates a little better the things I’m trying to say about the show.

Inside The Actors Studio with the cast of The Simpsons – This is cool, but ultimately you realize that the cast are just the voices, and not writers.

John Swartzwelder is probably the ‘best’ Simpsons writer, and you can point to any of his written episodes and get a near classic almost every time. That link points you to his written episodes.

Couch Gags!

3. I feel “Bob’s Burgers” has kind of nailed down that “Simpsons” vibe of being just-this-hair past realistic in terms of story and plotting. That’s a great show.

Do you trust the police?

As a white guy in suburbia, I really have *thank goodness* no reason to not trust the police, and am generally respectful / appropriately fearful of their presence. Heck, I don’t even smoke <Redacted> on my front porch because I figure it’s just a way to irk an officer who’d rather not be bothered. I’m typically polite, and throw out more Sirs than a bad “Wii Tennis” player whenever I get pulled over (which has happened…once).

At the same time, I understand not everyone is me. So if you’re someone who has had bad run-ins with the 5-0, feel free to share.

Food for thought: The Rampart Division in LA is an absolutely NUTS story if you never heard about it. Essentially this group of rogue cops managed to make money for themselves hand-over-foot, AND keep crime in LA in check at the same time,

Food for thought 2:  Tucker Max of all people wrote this pretty good piece on how to deal with ‘The Fuzz’ it’s pretty insightful

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Blog Otter Award: wnyxmcneal for a joke I didn’t quite get until this morning.

1. Does anyone else think CAPS_LOCK_MAN looks like this guy?

2. Did uh…did one of you go through every single one of my comments yesterday and down vote them? Cause every single one of my comments has a single down vote. I appreciate the effort!

3. I’ve been playing Card Hunter. It’s an online Table-top RPG / CCG kind of thing. It’s totally free and a real blast if you like Final Fantasy Tactics / Warhammer

Conspiracy theories are fun. They let you make sense out of things that otherwise make little, or give reason to otherwise unreasonable actions, and are fun to think about, but I worry when people 100 percent subscribe to a given theory, despite tons of evidence to the contrary.

So, I was piddling through my Youtube Channel yesterday, and noticed that my most popular video (in terms of discussion, not views) is one where I rail against the CGI-ification of the classic kids show “Shining Time Station”.

I…intended this as a joke. A qausi-serious diatribe on how things change, we hate them, and we become just like our parents. It…did not turn out that way. Through 43 comments on the video I found, well, people really fucking care about that show, and really fucking hate the people that took it over. But the comment I came across yesterday, sparked my interest.

A user named “TrainNation” said the following: “i just told off that little prick that did a commentary on this video.
you are completely right, CGI Thomas the tank engine has been ruined by
CGI. iv’e written multiple letters to HIT entertainment (A.K.A the root
of all evil.) you are my idol. Thank you man.”

The unsurprising fact that I am officially someone’s Idol not withstanding, I found this video by someone who may or may not be a baby Sheamus:

Commentary: CGI Ruined Thomas The Tank Engine…MOVIES SUCK NOW!

So, Blog Otters, Who hates you? And why?


Regarding the video directed toward my ‘commentary’ on Thomas The Tank Engine, well, I thought it was hilarious. I crave attention like the rest of you seem to crave sports betting, drugs, and alcohol, so in all honesty I thought it was kind of neat in a ‘hey, I affected someone enough to make them respond back in video’ sort of way.

The other ‘haters’ we seem to all have in common are the folks over at the NPP forums, who I actually get a kick out of. If they get their jollies commenting on folks, who comment on other people’s opinions of wrestling, have at it, I say. And in fact I have made the choice to keep calling you kind folks Blog Otters in honor of unity.

It seems both you, and the NPP folks, really do hate Blog Otters. And call me crazy, call me optimistic, call me a modern day Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Jesus rolled into one well-hung package, but I take pride in knowing my brilliant name for a wrestling community has fostered a solidarity that was not there before. I am a God among men.

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Blog Otter Award: No One! Not a single one of you picked up my reference to the cult-classic “Starship Troopers” in yesterday’s QOTD title. I thought you guys were cool. Well as cool as a bunch of wrestling fans who let me prattle on about whatever I want on a daily basis, could be. <3

1. Serious question: Can you folks tell I’m being half-serious in my above video? I’ve had a long running quandary in my life where I think my sarcasm is so dry it comes off sincere.If this quandary turns out to be true, my whole life, up till this point, is a sham.

2. One thing you may not notice in that video, that I intended, and your ‘sub-conscious’ probably picked up on is the blue-gray color scheme. The poster in the background is blue, so I wore a blue collar. Anytime you video something, try to have one or two colors pop up more than once. It’s really the difference between something looking shitty amateur, and some-what shitty amateur.

3. I think it’s especially wild that I made my video in one take and talked off the top of my head, and that guy went back and meticulously responded to my points.

4. One more highlight from the ‘Thomas The Tank Wars’


‘YOU PRICK. Thomas the tank engine has been something iv’e loved since i
was born. and when something as lovable as Thomas gets tuned, more
people than you think will get pissed off. i admit, i had my doubts
about Thomas as i got older, but my love for him all my life has kept me
from leaving my childhood. Do you have any idea how many people that
were actually mortified at the CGI change. and by the way. who the hell
are you to make this video, GET A DAMN LIFE!!! you think Grown men
watching’  Thomas is sad!?! your like a five year old boy who has nothing better to
do but sit on the computer and rant about peoples personal opinions.
heres an idea, keep yours to yourself because guess what!?! NOBODY GIVE
A FLYING FUCK!! you are the saddest little troll iv’e ever seen in my
life. damn, your just like the new CGI in Thomas YOU MAKE ME FUCKING
SICK!!’

Lets make something. We have editors, producers, sound engineers, doctors, writers, douchebags, and I’m pretty sure Fuj is in MI5. I think between the lot of us we can make something kinda neat. So today’s question of the day, is the following:

What’s your passion project? Something you want to shoot / produce / edit / write that you never have? What is there a specific dearth of on the internet, that you think we could undearth?

I think we should make a pro-wrestling show.  I remember ‘The Hidden Highlights” on 411mania, and think that would be an awesome jumping off point for something, tackling a single match, feud, pay-per-view, or Raw episode, and breaking it down via its artistic merits, or little details we appreciated in the grand scheme of things. Sort of like the Anti-botch-a-mania.

Ideally I’d like to do this with two reviewers per ‘match’ and we can have rotating ‘hosts’ and what not as well. I have editing and Youtube ‘content creating’ experience. I want this to be the most ‘insightful’ wrestling show we can come up with, maybe even hit up Indie shows in our respective areas, “No Reservations”, style, and so on – I want a news-magazine style wrestling show.

Think ‘Entertainment Tonight’ meets ‘Attack of The Show’.

Here’s the kicker – We syndicate the fucker. We’re literally all across the country here at the BOD, if we can bring our completed show, each week, or bi-weekly, to our local, public access TV stations, edited, and ready to go, we have ourselves a nationally televised TV show. Some stations even let you sell advertising, and reach an upwards of 250,000 households.

We need: 

1. Video Editors – I can do this with help.

2. Personalities – Preferably insightful folks who can talk off-the-cuff, but can also write compelling ‘Copy’. Having a high quality webcam or some kind of recording device would be nice, as well. I have a decent camera and love being in front of it, but I’m not sure how we reconcile it with live ‘back and forth’ chat. Perhaps we run our ‘good’ cameras along side a Skype conversation, then sync them up after-the-fact.

3. Graphic Design – I know my way around motion graphics a touch, but if someone has professional talent, that’d be cool, too.4

4. Balls – I can’t promise anything, but the more we want to do this, the closer it will be to a reality.

5. Structure – We need a format, we need to be concise, and we need to stick to it. There’s nothing worse than something boring on youtube, because there’s about 6 billion other things to watch.


Questions: 

1. Money? – Obviously the idea of making money for something like this is part of the endgame, but for now lets call this a passion project.

2. Is this fucking stupid? Probably, but it never hurts to dream.

3. Title? We can crowd-source this, since my “The Blog Otter Wrestling Revue” will likely fall on deaf ears.

4. Kickstarter? – No. If this somehow becomes a real thing with real content and a fanbase, THEN we can hypothetically ask for money for better equipment, show tickets, etc.

5. Copyrighted material. This could be tricky. I imagine if we make contact with the kind folks at TNA, and various indie promotions, they’ll happily give us rights to use their footage, especially if we’re promoting their brand. WWE may be trickier, and if we do go the ‘syndication’ route, we have to be SURE to have all legal clearences. If we stick to Youtube, we can just ask Maffew what the best course of action there, is. 

6. Timeframe – Goals without timeframes are dreams. So lets try and have a solid idea of what we wanna do by…November.

Who’s with me?!

I said a bit ago I was going to make a post about The Sopranos, so
here it is. For the uninformed The Sopranos (and The West Wing) kind of
sort of revolutionized drama and story-telling for television. The West
Wing by being deliberately intelligent and snappy on the ‘vast
wasteland’ of network television, and The Sopranos for being one of the
most subtly intelligent and thought-provoking shows on TV, wrapped in a
mafia drama.

I’ll eventually get the gumption to talk
about the finale, and the themes present in that show, but one of my
favorite little nuances in that show is the concept of “Tony B.”.
Essentially, a “Tony B.” is someone in your life that shares similar
traits to you, personality and outlook wise, but for whatever reason has
gone down a different path.

Shawn has his Marty
Bret has his Owen
Walter White has his Gale

Essentially Tony B. lacked Tony Soprano’s killer instinct, and was doomed for it. Same for Owen, Marty, and Gale.

Who’s
your “Tony B.” Someone in your life you judge yourself against, or see a
lot of yourself in, but find yourself either endlessly jealous, or
endlessly annoyed with?
 

Fuckin’
Erda. Erda was a kid I went to college with who shared so many similar
tastes and thoughts and outlooks that if wrote us both down on paper
we’d probably come off as the same person. Our differences were that
Erda was endlessly confident and incompetent, whereas I was endless
self-conscious and somewhat competent.  As a result Erda would get a lot
of gigs I was interested in, until he made a first or second impression
that kind of soured a professor on the subject. He just did insanely
stupid things like white balance on a yellow wall, or type in a
quasi-condescending tone.

Honestly the difference
between us was the Louis C.K definition of the word ‘f***y”, one of
those people who just consistently have the urge to assert their
intellectual prowess, and their ‘enlightenment’ at the expense of social
aptitude “You’re NOT wrong, you’re just an asshole”. All things I personally worry I do, but try to avoid.
 

Still, it was *insane* to know someone that was
quite a lot like me in almost every sense of the word, at least how I
saw it from within my minds eye. We eventually got into a Facebook
quarrel about ‘online bullying’ and we haven’t talked for several years,
which is A-okay with me.

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Blog Otter Award: Parralax1978 and OfficerFarva for reminding me how great Entourage is. I honestly forgot.

1.
I’m going to add Kirk’s “Bullshit” from the Star Trek reboot as one of
my favorite swears of all time in a movie. Spock spends about 3-4
minutes attempting to explain, how, exactly, the world got ‘rebooted’ in
a logical and somewhat competent way, and Kirk, speaking for audiences,
blurts it out. I love it.

2. Speaking of Entourage, if you ever wanted to take a gander at my terrible fiction writing prowess, click here to read my Entourage Spec,
which takes place and was written before, season 6. It’s not great, and
the formatting may be wonky, but I completely forgot about it.

3. Speaking of Tony B, it looks like I’m going to be writing over PTBN along with Caliber….which speaking of Tony B…

Holy shit is it fun to swear. I left my keys in my car today as I headed into work, and let out a “Fuckin’ A!” about a minute ago, then remembered with fondness that I learned that phrase from the Stephen King book “The Body” which went on to become “Stand By Me”.

Then I started thinking of other naughty words I learned, and where I picked them up. I learned what a ‘cunt’ was from the late Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six in…4th grade.

Thus:

What are your favorite swear words, where did you learn them, and as a bonus, what’s your favorite scene in a TV show or movie featuring a healthy dose of quality profanity?

Actually my all time favorite use of a swear word probably comes from the Graphic Novel “Wanted” which everyone but me seems to hate, which is fine. It kind of does the Matrix / Fight Club thing of giving you a kind of sad sack fella stuck in a cubicle, and throughout the series he grows into a bastard with unbelievable power. I wanted to post the panel but I am absolutely not giving “This is me, fucking you in the ass” a google at work. Whenever I beat someone at a competition when they’ve either cheated or been a poor sport, I toss out the line and feel like a big man.

Close second goes to the infamous “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you’re cool, I’m out” scene from “Half Baked”, which I *actually* think is a reference to something else, as all the other “job quitting” scenes in that movie are parodies, too – specifically Jim Brewer’s is a Jerry Maguire send up.

Star Trek IV gets points (and the thread title) for the hilarious nature of Spock trying to learn to swear.

More recently, I’ve been playing Lunar 2 (which is seriously wonderful), and one of the characters keeps calling everything ‘retarded’. This is funny for a few reasons 1) No game released today would do that shit, and 2) This is a game released in Japan that came to America 3) this character is a former priest. I’ll have more on this game later, but the swearing within it is pretty crazy. 

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Blog Botter Award: Magooie for fighting a snake with concrete, and somehow losing.

 

Hola Blog Botters, after a brief hiatus I return with a question that allows you to embrace your inner geek.

Lets talk about pull lists. As a guy whose never been really ‘into’ comics enough to buy them regularly, I have always found the term ‘pull list’ sort of romantic, the idea that you pick up a series of titles every month because you care about them, and are willing to drop your cash until they piss you off to no end. So lets expand on that ‘pull list’ concept and extend it to all kinds of media.

What’s your current ‘media’ pull list across TV, Music, Movies, Comics, and internet related things?

  
I’ll break mine down into categories


TV
Agents of Shield – The last episode was kind of hokey, but I’m going to keep watching until it gets cancelled or does something silly.

Modern Family – Consistently funny and heartwarming without being too saccharine, it’s got some of the best writing and acting on TV. The key to comedy is making sure that none of the characters know they’re in a comedy, and Modern Family nails it.

Shark Tank – This is my new “Pawn Stars” great stuff, my whole family likes to watch it, and if I had the chance I’d plow through this show in a weekend if were available on demand.

The Newsroom – While not a great show, it’s certainly decent, and as a TV person I enjoy the little details and nuances of seeing super human versions of people I know doing TV-related things.

Music 
Bowling For Soup – Anything they put out, I pick up. Just nabbed their “Lunch. Drunk. Love.” album and it’s exactly what you’d expect from them.

Eminem – He fell off my pull list around the time I heard “FACK” for the first time, but got put back on after Recovery.

Barenaked Ladies – While a lot of their magic has kind of kaputted they still show flashes of brilliance, so I always check out anything they put out.

Graphic Novels

Ultimate Spider-man – I bought the SUPER BIG trade paperback that collected I think the first…24 issues of the series, and kept buying them until they didn’t exist, and that’s really the only way I can make Graphic novels work within my budget. But this series is a riot. Brian Michael Bendis seems to know his shit when he gets to take a character and work it within his own world and context, but I guess he has a habit for dropping the ball when taking over for other people?

Anything Jeph Loeb  – His Superman and Batman work are some of my favorite comic books of all time, especially his Long Halloween stuff. Hush was cool, too.

Internet related

The Blog of Doom – Barring excursions I probably spend more time checking out this blog than I’d care to admit, lets just not tell any pretty girls, kay?

Grantland – Anything Masked Writer / Bill Simmons I absolutely check out. The video game content is a little hit and miss, opting to focus on history instead of feel and what games communicate to a player, but no one’s perfect.

Total Biscuit / Jesse Cox / Alzorath – Just general gaming channels I can stand on the internet.  TB and Cox have a fucking wondering series where they play Terraria and annoy each other to no end, and Cox in particular is one of these guys you can’t help but feel happy for, as he seems like a genuinely happy guy who is pretty amazed that he gets to play games for a living. Alzorath is more a personal choice because he’s the only person on the internet who plays Shadow Era and casts it, so I check that out too.

Zero Punctuation  – Probably one of the first ‘web shows’ I ever watched regularly, and boy is his stuff good, though he can occasionally miss the point of a given game in his quest to be hyper critical, which I do appreciate.

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Blog Botter Award: Scott Keith (you may heard of him) for suggesting Doom Bots as the new title for the guys who frequent the blog. I took his advice, sorta, and we are all now Blog Botters. His award can be found below:

Yes, that’s a robot throwing a concrete block.

1. GTA Online: Give “Meekin’s Mobsters” a Google if you want in on the temporary crew while we set up an official one. Waiting for the kinks to get hammered out before I make a real logo and such.

Howdy Otters (BTW the Blog Otters “crew” for GTA: Online is in the works), but for now lets talk about things we’re good at.

Thus:

What is something you are certain you’re better at than ‘most’ people? 




I’m not a super confident fellah, but I do think I have some skills to pay the bills regarding silly things like Madden Football and general trivia games like You Don’t Know Jack. I’m also hyper competitive about these as well – if someone thinks they’re better then me, I make a point to prove they’re not.

Gamertag: NotMeekin by the by.

Life Hacks. We all have em’, little tricks or gimmicks we have to get a ‘one-up’ on life, and seeing as how we’re all friends here, I think it’s time we share.

What ways do you get a leg up on life? Do you have a rewards program that gives you mad cash back? Some secret coupon scam that yields you free frequent flier miles? Are you a part of a pyramid scheme where you’re on the tippy top / big wide bottom? Do Share!

I have one that I really like, and it’s kind of stupid. I use Bing Rewards like it talked about my mother. Essentially Bing is paying me to use their search engine. Not a lot, but if you’re going to be googling something, might as well run it through Bing first, earn a few points, and in a couple of months you’ll be able to get a gift card or a red box rental or whatever. I figure if someone wants to buy my search, they can have it. Worse case scenario you bounce back to Google for proper results. Yes, that is my referral link above.

Otherwise, switching to E-cigerettes has saved me a fuck ton of money, and I can smoke indoors / sleep at night without coughing, which is boss as all hell. I’ve also found that once you get over the set-up gobbly-gook, Net10 wireless is a great no-contract phone provider if you consider yourself tech savy and able to deal with somewhat incompetent tech support. I pay 50 bucks a month for a gig of data and unlimited everything else, for my crappy iPhone 3Gs.

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Blog Otter Award: Jobber123 for facing the the horrors of Human Resources ‘sensitivity’ training.

Hola Otters, after an understated but satisfying conclusion to Breaking Bad, I got to thinking about various media that are still on, but we’ve had our fill of – but still appreciate.

Thus:

Be it a video game, movie series, or TV show, what media ‘thing’ do you have benevolent feelings toward, but either had your fill of, or are content to let others enjoy?

 

I have a few of these, most notably Dr. Who, which I understand is a good show with good characters, and great whimsy and writing – all things I typically enjoy in a show, but for whatever reason – probably tons of people posting about it on facebook like it’s their job (when they don’t have real jobs), has dissuaded me, even though I have checked out a few episodes. And happily admit it’s well written.

True Blood – I’ve seen…three episodes and if I cared about this kind of thing I’d just hit up my local S&M club for the same results and better pay out. Simply one of these shows I do not get, though I’ve never been a big fan of fantasy elements in ‘realistic’ settings unless it’s in the guise of dudes in spandex fighting evil. Similarly I guess some folks watch shows for their ‘skin’ content, but since, ya know, 1996, I haven’t needed television to provide softcore sexiness.

Dexter – Lost this one after the fourth season, specifically when Dexter had the shovel to the Jigsaw(?) killer’s throat, and because there were…3 episodes left in the season, I knew there had to be some sort of way for the guy to get out of the situation, and he did, and it was stupid. The show was great in the first three seasons when, despite it’s brutal nature, was sort of wholesome in its own bizarre way.
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Blog Otter Award: YankeesHoganTripleHFan for being the first person to reference a Jason Katims produced show on the blog. Yayyyyyy

 

Hola Otters, today concludes our 3-part series on TV series we loved and hated to see go, and how well they went. Today will be a little different, as we’re going to focus on our favorite episodes of shows, that may or may not be the finale.

What is your favorite episode of a TV show, currently airing or not? 


I have a few:

Scrubs – I actually really loved the ABC finale so much that it could have been my favorite had there not be OBVIOUS JD stunt doubles for a variety of shots. My favorite of the series is tough to pin down, but I always liked the one where JD’s Dad died and Dr. Cox has trouble being the mentor he knows he should be.

Roseanne – The one where Roseanne goes over and gets David from his abusive mother always gave me chills – “Well women in glass whore houses shouldn’t throw stones” is up there with “I am the Danger!” in terms of my favorite lines in TV.

The West Wing – While the season 2 finale gets a ton of credit (Two Cathedrals) my favorite series of episodes are probably the season four arc detailing the election, involving Bartlett coming to terms with his…bookish and nerdy nature, and not worrying if people think he’s relatable enough – ultimately challenging his opponent, and the nation, to realize that governing needs as many words as it can get. in the debate episode ‘Game On’.

The Wire – Season 4 finale. Sometimes people get out.

Breaking Bad – I initially thought that “Face/Off” was my favorite, but the thing about Breaking Bad is that it’s actually better ‘in the moment’ so to speak, than it is in pieces. Therefore my favorite episode remains the pilot for how fucking ribald it is.

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Blog Otter Award: All of us, for being a bunch of dorky wrestling fans who happily admit we loves us some Betty, Bea, Rue, and Estelle in their roles of a lifetime.

1. I missed a ton of my favorite show endings yesterday, including Who’s The Boss, Fresh Prince, Sports Night featuring Agent Coulson, and the aforementioned Golden Girls.

2. If you’re having a hard time figuring out WHY the Sopranos is so god damn fucking insane when you think about it, I’m linking you to this insane article that is absolutely worth the read if you loved the show and wanted answers. For the record, while most shows have subtext you can pull out of them, David Chase, the writer and creator of the show, INTENDED to put in all sorts of little details and plot points to write the show. Get some coffee on, it’s a doozy, but worth every minute.

3. If you wanna do Breaking Bad Predictions lets keep them all to one ‘thread’ and reply to that. I have a few, including “Breaking Dad” where Jesse makes off with Brock, and another idea where regardless of whatever happens, Walt eventually ends up like he did in the pilot, no pants and a gun in his hand. He pulls the trigger with the gun to his temple. then *click*, the chamber is empty. Cut to credits.

Hola Otters, after a rousing discussion of the most disappointing series finales, it’s now time to talk about those shows that ended in such deliciously satisfying ways they had weight watchers points.

What are your favorite Series Finales? What Satisfied you most, and why? Are there finales other people hate, but you really like? 





For me:

Scrubs is probably my favorite – just the right amount of fan service, conflict, resolution, sappiness, and the way JD finally gets his hug from Dr. Cox is the best thing in the history of TV, ever. Well, not ever, but it was really freaking good.

The Wire – While the last season’s whole serial killer thing was a little weird, I liked how it essentially showed that despite following these characters for 5 Seasons, life goes on with or without them, hustlers hustle, Police Police, drug addicts take drugs, and no matter who you are, you’re human.

The Shield – Really the penultimate episode is my favorite, where we get a list of every single possible sin Vic committed over the previous seasons, and it is brutal, because it kind of makes us realize just how big of a bastard this guy we’ve been rooting for, is. The finale was pretty good, too, giving us some satisfaction in the Dutch / Claudia department, and a variety of other details that made the whole thing feel satisfying.

The Sopranos: This is a subject worthy of it’s own post. Stand by.

Star Trek TNG: I loved the optimism of the episode, how that sometimes humanity can approach planes of thought that transcend our corporeal existence – but at the same time the episode makes sure to point out that we must cherish that existence.

King of The Hill – Bobby and Hank finally find something they can truly bond over, forever. “I think it’s the last one,” says Bobby, as an in joke to the fact King of The Hill was seemingly always cancelled, then came back.

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Blog Otter Award: CultStatus for a burn so harsh we all traveled back to 1955.

Happy Friday Olog Botters, I figured with this Sunday being the finale of one of the best television shows of the past decade, we could dedicate today, tomorrow, and Sunday, to our favorite and least favorite finales. Today we’re going to tackle our LEAST favorite endings to a given show.

What series finale let you down the most? Did it ruin the rest of the show for you? What did you hate it about? 

My least favorite finale of all time is probably the ending to The West Wing, which was running on fumes by that point following the end of the fifth season. While it created a kind of cool ‘lame duck’ kind of thing, namely President Bartlett being a lame duck President and the show being a lame duck show, I just found the entire ending lacked in reverence and pizzaz, it was just…blah.

Beyond that, I thought that the Roseanne finale, which a lot of people really disliked, was kind of cool, but I could see how the really heavy handed nature of the ending would irk some people after a season that was essentially the Roseanne Barr wish-fullfillment half hour.

Also I kind of guess the ending of Dexter left quite a lot to be desired, as well.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about our favorite finales.

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Blog Otter Award: wnyxmcneal for hating Otters and giving me a reason to post a picture of one. His fluffy adoracoable award can be found below.

Mornin’ Blog Otters, apologies for this late / really early QOTD, hopefully you can find it in your hearts to forgive me.  Someone who won’t be forgiving me however, are the kind folks who recently got a plug, here, in this very ring- erm, blog, for their well-meaning but technically faulty documentary about wrestling fans, that I really took issue with, so I went the brutal honesty route.

Come to find out today, via a deleted Tweet and Facebook message, that I am all the things that are wrong with Chicago and my hyper negativity wasn’t appreciated, saying ultimately that I sounded like one of those genius multibillion dollar entrepreneurs on ‘Shark Tank’, which is really one of the nicest insults I’ve ever received.

So this brings to me a question I’ve had for awhile, especially regarding creative endeavors.

Generally, when asked for an honest opinion, do you sugar coat your criticisms to salve possible hurt feelings, or are you brutally honest? What do you prefer in response? 





For me there are degrees to this. If a little kid shows me a picture of a house, naturally it’s a “wow this is great, Jimmy!”- if someone posts a song on youtube, or writes something on this blog that they’re not being paid for, I’ll tend to have benevolent feelings. Otherwise I generally tend to subscribe to the concept that if you can’t stand the heat, get the F out of the kitchen. When someone writes a spec-script for an original TV show that is very obviously and very desperately trying to be Entourage, I’ll point it out. When someone is asking for the money of complete strangers when they haven’t done any production work themselves, I’ll point it out. A girl I know got 5000 dollars to make a 20 minute, romantic ‘zom-com’ and I thrashed it to pieces simply because I KNEW it wouldn’t materialize, and worse, the person writing it wasn’t a very good writer – but was constantly placated because she was hella sexy – the short film hasn’t seen an update since August.

Ultimately the less serious you take something that I take intensely seriously, the worse I get. If you’re looking for a pat on the back, give the host of Wheel of Fortune a piggy back ride and get back to me when you shot some real footage that doesn’t look like Cinemax porno. As a result I kind of feel like John Goodman in ‘The Big Lebowski” – I’m not wrong, just an asshole.

It’s entirely possible that I’m like this because that’s how I want people to treat my own stuff. While I appreciate being told what’s good about something I’ve worked on, I’d rather people give me negative feedback that doesn’t pull punches. Hell, in high school I had to write a speech for a competition. I read it to a substitute English teacher, and the guy absolutely destroyed it, whereas every other teacher said it was really good. To this day the advice that teacher gave me I bring to the table every time I write something seriously, especially when it comes to transitional phrases to begin paragraphs to keep the flow going.

Actually one of the things I really like about you Blog Otters is that you don’t pull punches. When I went WAY overboard the other day on the ‘Have a Nice Day’ stuff I genuinely appreciated all the feedback / non-feedback that pretty much confirmed what I thought about the post five minutes after posting it – it was way self indulgent and overlong, much like my penis.

So for me, I tend to prefer someone rip me up and down and send me back with my confidence on life-support – determined to prove them wrong next time, than to have that same confidence artificially boosted for fear of hurting my feel goods, only to run head first into a brick wall of reality when push comes to shove.

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Blog Otter Award: NoCash for not sparing my feelings. His award, and a visual depiction of how most Otters likely felt about my last QOTD, can be found below.

2. Hey I reviewed Madden 25!

3.  Because I do feel a little bad here’s a link to the actual Kickstarter.  – They’ve raised almost 400 dollars, which is more money than I’ve made in video production all year long.

4. GTAV has a great line about this kind of thing: “Crowdsourcing: The hot new way to be a bum!”