May 2006
This is a list of posts published in May 2006.
Wyy?!?!
Nintendo’s conference is this morning – and this news is about a week old – but worth mentioning. The big N recently announced a name change for its new system (due this fall). The console formerly known as Revolution has been renamed Wii. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover! What’s in a name? I guess those truisms hold water, but Wii just doesn’t do it for me. Revolution sounds like a console – something guaranteed to mix it up and prompt change. Wii puts me in the market for some mineral water. Wii’ll see what they show today.
Sony – PS3
Last night, Sony kicked off the conference by showcasing the PS3. Of all the news, the price tag had to be the biggest bombshell. As industry analysts have speculated for months, the system will launch with a two-tiered pricing structure: $499 for a 20gb HD Model – $599 for a 60gb HD. Between the 6-month delay, the reliance on expensive Blue-Ray DVD technology and now a price structure that absolutely caters to the hard core gamer and leap frogs the mainstream, Sony may be giftwrapping their market share to Microsoft. Nintendo and M$ hold their conferences today.
E3
This week, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (or E3), is being held in Los Angeles. Running from May 10 – 12th, this annual convention is the spot where all the hot new video games are announced. The big news comes early in the week as the big three – Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony – hold pre-show press conferences to unveal their grand plans. I plan to post Asides on all the latest news and will wrap it up with my thoughts in a traditional Blog at the end of the week. First up, Sony and the Playstation 3.
Weekend in the Styx
We’re back.
As I mentioned on Friday, in Colin’s birthday post, Andi and I decided to take the kids north to New Hampshire for a little weekend R & R in honor of our little big man. Our friends, Denise and Mark, have a condo in Thornton, NH (in the Waterville Valley area) with an amazing view of the mountains. It’s times like these – and locales like this – that make you perform a few quick mental calculations to see if you can conceivably jettison the corporate nine-to-five in favor of those oh-so important quality of life pursuits. Unfortunatly, the math never works out in my favor.
But I guess that’s what vacation is all about; a few fleeting reminders of how good life can be – that carrot dangled tantalizingly close to our collective nose. What? Carrot doesn’t do it for ya’? What if I say it s deep-fried in chocolate... Continue reading »
Cinco de Mayo Nino
Happy birthday, Colin.
Today is Colin’s third birthday. For those of you short the Advanced Math degree, I’ve done a little rudimentary arithmetic for you. Take 2006 – subtract the three – carry the one – divide by the coefficient of x and that means he was born sometime around May 5, 782 A.D. Great… maybe he can give me all the true life dirt on The Da Vinci Code.
Seriously though, Colin was born on May 5th, 2003. Some people have a Baby New Year. We had a Cinco De Mayo Baby. The only difference there is the doctor secretly replaces your epidural with 22000 CC’s of Corona. Same diff, really!!! (Somewhere, the fine frat boys of Chug-a-lug House are ringing up medical supply stores everywhere.)
Anyway, it seems so long ago, which is a testament to how old I’m aging and how big ... Continue reading »
Lost – Two for the Road
Well, here we are, May sweeps. It’s a bittersweet time. On the one hand, we get four to five solid eps in a row with no interruption and each show typically pulls out its big guns to close the season/series out in some grand, climactic fashion. On the minus side, 5 weeks from now and we’re stuck Dancing with the Stars, Skating with Celebrities and Breakin’ with Bird Flu. Or we could actually go play outdoors.
Anyway – if you are gonna’ kick start May sweeps, I can’t think of a better way than what Lindelof and Cuse offered up in the final moments of last night’s episode.
1. So Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) gets her second flashback in one season – putting her in the upper echelon of Jack, Kate, Locke, Sawyer and Sayid. Pretty lofty digs for a lowly Tailie who has been bitched about on Internet forums e... Continue reading »
Lost – S.O.S.
This recap is a little late. I apologize but work has preyed upon my brain and I’ve run behind on a number of these. I’m publishing this observation (the ep originally aired three weeks ago) and one on last night’s installment – as well as a couple 24 recaps and I will be fully caught up.
Anyway, onto S.O.S.
1. For the first time, we got some insight into how Rose (an late 50′s African-American woman) came to meet her soul mate, Bernard (an early 60’s Caucasian dentist.) I thought it was a nice touch, early in the season, when Hurley first encountered the oft-discussed but never seen Bernard. If you recall, Rose insisted that Bernard survived the crash, speculating he was with a group of survivors from the tail section, on some othe part of the island. When the Tailies came together with the original Lost... Continue reading »
24 Day 5 2:00 – 3:00 a.m.
This was one of those quieter weeks – granted in the land of 24, a quiet week involves Jack subduing an air marshal, hijacking an airliner and juryrigging the hydraulics to play a little game of Turbulent Chicken with the pilot. So – it was no Gilmore Girls – but we did take a little breather.
On to Hour 20.
1. Hands down – the greatest sequence of this season has to be Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) turning her frown upside down, sweetly petitioning a loutish drunk to grab a seat next to her in the hotel bar, and then tazing the lummox. Twice!!!
2. All that in an episode that saw Bill Buchanon greeting that smarmy Homeland Security stooge Miles with “Get out of my face you little asskisser”.
3. That’s one of the unheralded grace points of this season – the actors have found ways to take characters wh... Continue reading »
24 Day 5 1:00 – 2:00 a.m.
Nostradamus. George Stephanopolous. Mel Kiper. As far as the fine art of prognostication goes, they’re bush league when compared to the great geyser of plot development Mook is able to divine on a weekly basis. He’s already pegged Logan as the Big Bad and called out Evelyn, the First Lady’s aide, as a character of far greater import than her stock Red Shirt status had her previously pegged. With this week’s reveal of rogue CTU staffers Chloe and Bill Buchanon operating covertly from Buchanon’s swinging bachelor pad – a premonition Mook voiced sometime around Groundhog Day – I have now established my good man McG as my main go-to-man for Oscar winners, Powerball Numbers, and the Brangelina baby birth date.
On to Hour 19.
1. We still have no idea what has happened to Agent Pierce (Glenn Moreshower) – the First Lady’s... Continue reading »
24 Day 5 12:00 – 1:00 a.m.
The clock reads midnight and if my tentative grasp on temporal matters holds water, we still have seven hours before the clock strikes 24. With Big Bad Bierko nabbed and the President fingered as the true Man Behind The Curtain, how will they ever fill the following seven hours. Either Bauer is planning on kickstarting Happy Hour a bit early or there are some bumps in the road ahead. I’m betting on the latter – scratch that, I’m praying for the latter – the last thing we need is Super-Sized American Idol and four additional hours of Mendisa talk.
On to Hour 18.
1. So Audrey’s Papa – Defense Secretary Heller (William Devane) – flies into the rescue. After this show’s constant reshuffling of the deck – moving staffers and actors in and out of rotation each season – this year has provided a constant stream of actor... Continue reading »
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