[  Mood: Very Sad ]
[  Currently: Reading Dragonsinger ]
So I was catching up on some TV recently and was watching the CSI:NY. Suddently Detective Danny loads his falshlight with batteries. Now this is not a casual action. The camera focuses on the Duracells and the whole plot stops as he puts the batteries in the flashlight. No talking, no shot of Detective Danny’s face, just the batteries and a disembodied hand putting them in the flashlight.

I thought to myself – wow – we have come far.

When I was a kid, comercial products never made it on TV. They were either made in the props department or had stickers covering up the brand names.

Then came the brave new world of product placement. Character A would offer Caracter B a soda and would toss them a Coke.

Then we moved to Character A offering Character B a Coke.

Then we moved to the partner thing that we saw in American Idol, Survivor and Amazing Race. This is where the host would get the joy of pimping products by talking about the Coke Lounge or the T-Mobile phone, etc. Sometimes they would be integrated into the challenges – like the time when they had to search for the Travelocity Gnome in the field on the Amazing Race. Oh Phil, how could you!

But that was Reality TV. CSI:NY is a drama. A step forward, or backward, depending on your point of view.

Clearly Duracell paid for this placement and paid well.

So I found myself asking what’s next? Are we going to cover characters’ clothes with labels like a NASCAR driver? Or will it be like the purebreed dog and horse world where corporate sponsors insert their names into the characters’ name. Sleezer’s Fertility Center‘s Mr. Spock anyone?

I am worried.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[  Currently: Listening to O’Reilly on Advertising ]
So my husband and I have come up with a spin-off of the PVP t-shirt.

(On the front) Han shot first . . .

(On the back)leaving Leah disappointed, yet again.

Sort of a coming and going 3-D experince if you pardon the pun.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Watching Tetes a Claques ]
Back in my seaQuest fandom days, I edited a little satirical paper called "UEO Gazette". We parodied what was happening in the episodes and generally tried to make light of the abismal stuff that was happening to our beloved show.

Among my contributors was the fabulous Nibor, who was obssesed with Mentos. So when I saw an ad for these, I thought of him.

He wanted to be a TV writer and I often wonder what happened to him. We met briefly at QuestieCon, but I think I scared him with the hug I gave him. I am a little on the touchie, feelie side. Nibs, if you are out there, email me. Cause Mentos has made a gum!

[  Mood: Amused ]
[  Currently: Watching Daily Show ]
So I was catching up on my TV (God Bless the PVR – the Canadian TiVo) and I was watching the lovely Colbert Report.

Apparently Marvel has read Steve Rogers’ will and the Captain has left his shield to Colbert, the only other Steven with "balls red, white and blue enough" to follow in his footsteps.

How much do I love that Colbert is a geek?

(How much do I regret that the 1990 Captain America movie is not available on DVD? Not much, but then I am more of a DC girl.)

[  Mood: Neutral ]
[  Currently: Reading Mistral’s Kiss ]
Television Without Pity (TWOP), one of the premier television websites on the web (And Canadian – BTW) has been bought by Bravo. Yes – they of Project Runway and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

For those of you who have never heard of the fabulous TWOP, they are a website that provides snarky, but thorough summaries of some of the best (and worst) TV shows. They do Doctor Who and Battlestar for those of you insist on genre content. They also create and sell limited run T-Shirts based on said TV shows. (The aquisition by Bravo may explain why they are having a massive sell off of said t-shirts. No more vague, almost copyright infringement stuff allowed now that you are owned by the man. I sense a Revolution SF opportunity.)

TWOP partnered with Yahoo! a while back, and two of their writers got to critique the Oscars, but I suspect that went nowhere fast as they got lost in the Yahoo! Entertainment bog.

Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting, co-founders and co-editors of TWOP, also released a book this past year. I own it and have read it and loved it. Full of snark.

What will this mean for TWOP? Well they are saying "nothing will change", but I am leary. Yes, Bravo also owns BrilliantButCancelled.com, but it is still a network. Will they allow the recappers to go after Michael Kors or Tom Colicchio the way they have been doing in the past? Will stars with fragile egos (I am talking to you Trump!) stand by and let a website owned by a network owned by NBC say mean things about them? Time will tell, but I, for one, am worried.

The Internet has lost one more piece of its independence.

[  Mood: Hypnotized ]
[  Currently: Watching Days of Our Lives ]
So now I am catching up on this week’s Patch and Kayla developments. And Steven Nichols and his entrancing one eyed insanity is entrancing.

Now before you pour bleach in your eyes there is a very good case for American Soap Operas to be classified as Genre. People come back from the dead. Babies grown up to be 16 in less than a year, after visiting a mysterious Swiss boarding school. The convoluted conspiracies and plots against characters would make the Lone Gunmen wet their pants with collective glee.

And I must say – this most suspension of disbelief plot I have seen in a while.

You see, Steven "Patch" Johnson died in the 90s, in the arms of his wife Kayla. (SOB!) His body was stolen, it turns out by the DiMeras, a very nasty group of people. They brought him back to life, tortured and brainwashed him. Because why else would you revive someone? Then they let him loose on the world. He had no idea who he was. He became a worker at a hospice. Where he met up with his long lost brother Jack, who was dying of a desease.

Jack returned to Salem (the town where Days is based) to stop the wedding of his ex-wife Jennifer. Patch came along for the ride ostensibly to help the ailing Jack.

At the wedding, was Kayla, who had fled to California and become a doctor, while raising their daughter in less than 10 years into a redheaded temptress of a Nascar Driver. (Oh and the show has convinently forgotten that she married her brother-in-law just before she fled to the West Coast. But I digress.) Imagine her surprise when she sees her dead husband outside the church.

Long story, short. Well not really, but anyways, Patch gets his memory back and he and Kayla are running along tickety boo. Until, the DiMeras return and trigger the hidden psychological programming to make Patch steal Kayla’s ex-sister-in-law’s new husband’s comatose form from the hospital. The DiMeras, it seems, want John (the guy in the coma)’s kidney. Patch has some sense left to know that a the doctor the DiMeras have hired to remove said organ is a butcher, so he convinces his wife, Kayla, to do the surgery. This whole thing ends with Kayla calling 911 as Patch declares he loves her and disappears into the fog.

I’m telling you it is only an alien autopsy away from a really good X-Files episode. And considering how much plastic surgery the guy who plays John Black has had . . .

My argument is this: if Laurel K. Hamilton can classify her stuff as Genre, then so can Corday Productions do with Days of Our Lives.

Thank you. Go about your every day lives.

[  Mood: Embarrased ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio One ]
The husband unit (a fellow geek and seaQuest fan) was looking for something to read recently. I, full-time teacher and part-time librarian, went through the shelves and pulled out a myriad of genre stuff. Because for a man who calls himself a geek, he hasn’t read much in the way of what I call the good stuff.

One of the ones I handed him was Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. He loved it. And I got so into to talking with him about it that I picked it up as soon as he fnished reading it. And tore through it.

He is now on Dragonquest – the second book of the series. I find myself, looking over his shoulder asking when he will be done. I am trying to figure out a way to get ahead of him on the series, without skipping the book. I will take the book when he is sleeping or watching TV and read a few chapters. I will have extra long potty breaks. I have even rejoiced in his illness to get more time to read it.

And I feel guilty about this. I want to discuss the book with him, and see what he thinks about F’Lar, Lessa, Robington, et al. but I can’t get over my impatience in waiting for the book.

There ought to be a support group.