Daily Show and Philsophy – A Quick Review

[ Sleepy Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Holding my sleeping son ]

While I enjoyed this book, it was far from a perfect read.

One of ongoing series of pop culture philosophy books, suffers from the same problem as its bretheren, While it is an engaging read at times, some of the contributors make but the barest of links between the subject and the philosophy they are linking to it. For laywomen like me (and laymen too) this means that they are too many articles that are a slog to read rather enlightening,

Some of the authors have also made the mistake of not altering their writing style to fit a mass audience, making this work, at times, seem like a scholarly journal. Finally, the editor has forgotten that while academic journals and essay collections frequently have more than one article avout a specific subject, those written for the rest of us avoid it like the plague. Doing it means that the reader gets bogged down in repetition, which leads to boredome and disengagement.

Emmys – Part 2

[ Happy Mood: Happy ]
[ Watching Colbert Report Currently: Watching Colbert Report ]
A reminder, this is from a piece I wrote for teh website, but for a bunch of complicated reasons will not appear there. I have not followed the results from the Creative Arts Emmies, nor am I following the big show tonight.

Outstanding Makeup For A Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic)

    * Grey’s Anatomy
    * Little Britain USA
    * Mad Men
    * Nip/Tuck
    * Pushing Daisies

As much as I want Emmy to rain its golden goodness on Pushing Daisies, Mad Men’s getting this one. Full red lips from the fifties have capture the academy’s heart.

Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Original Dramatic Score)

    * Castle
    * Ghost Whisperer
    * Legend Of The Seeker
    * The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
    * The Simpsons • Gone Maggie Gone
    * 24

Legend of the Seeker got a nod? Really? Oh, it’s Jo DoLuca. You remember him. Yeah, he did Xena. He’s not going to win though. Neither are Jennifer Love Hewitt’s breasts. It should go to Castle, but that’s not going to happen either. Nope – this one will go to No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Why? Cause Emmy doesn’t really care about this category, but they do recognize the name HBO.

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series

    *Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory
    *Jemaine Clement as Jemaine from Flight Of The Conchords
    *Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk from Monk
    *Steve Carell as Michael Scott from The Office
    *Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock
    *Charlie Sheen as Charlie Harper from Two And A Half Men

OK, the nerd fave here is Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper. The reality is it’s going to Alec Baldwin, the poor man’s William Shatner.

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series

    * Bryan Cranston as Walter White from Breaking Bad
    * Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan from Dexter
    * Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House from House
    * Gabriel Byrne as Paul from In Treatment
    * Jon Hamm as Don Draper from Mad Men
    * Simon Baker as Patrick Jane from The Mentalist

My first reaction to this category was “What the hell is Simon Baker doing getting a nod?” Cause I love the man’s hair as much as the next girl, but this was not a dramatic tour de force. The Emmy should go to Michael C. Hall, but there are some Emmy heavyweights in this category. Hugh Laurie is a pernnial fave because his American accent is better than most of the Academy members. And then there is the Mad Men candidate who will win.

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series

    * William Shatner as Denny Crane from Boston Legal
    * Christian Clemenson as Jerry Espenson from Boston Legal
    * Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad
    * William Hurt as Daniel Purcell from Damages
    * Michael Emerson as Ben Linus from Lost
    * John Slattery as Roger Sterling from Mad Men

As much as I would love Michael Emerson to win this, but its either going to the Shat or the guy from Mad Men, trust me.

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie

    * Ken Howard as Phelan Beale from Grey Gardens
    * Len Cariou as Franklin D. Roosevelt from Into The Storm
    * Bob Newhart as Judson from The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
    * Tom Courtenay as Mr. Dorrit from Little Dorrit
    * Andy Serkis as Rigaud from Little Dorrit

Geeks actually have a chance with this category, if you consider the Librarian genre. And how could you not give an Emmy to Bob Newhart? That’s like not leaving cookies for Santa Claus. Of course, the Emmys are also in love with PBS and anyone who plays a president.

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series

    * Kristin Chenoweth as Olive Snook from Pushing Daisies
    * Amy Poehler as Various Characters from Saturday Night Live
    * Kristen Wiig as Various Characters from Saturday Night Live
    * Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney from 30 Rock
    * Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater from Ugly Betty
    * Elizabeth Perkins as Celia Hodes from Weeds

Please, please, please, please, please Academy, given Kristin Chenoweth the Emmy. Please!!!! Don’t do the obvious and give it to Jane Krakowski for her work in 30 Rock. Be brave Emmy, give it to Kristin and I’ll be your best friend, I promise.

Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series

    * Edward Asner as Abraham Klein in CSI: NY
    * Ted Danson as Arthur Frobisher in Damages
    * Jimmy Smits as Miguel Prado in Dexter
    * Ernest Borgnine as Paul Manning in ER
    * Michael J. Fox as Dwight in Rescue Me

Ed Asner and Ted Danson both have lots of Emmys, so they don’t need this one. And as much as I would love to see Jimmy Smits in a tux accepting this award, it’s going to Michael J. Fox as an appology for Rush Limbagh claiming that he “exagerated” how bad Parkinson’s was when Fox testified in front of Congress. Although, it is time for the Emmys to recognize Borgnine’s work in Airwolf.

Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series

    * Christine Baranski as Beverly Hofstadter in The Big Bang Theory
    * Gena Rowlands as Marge in Monk
    * Betty White as Crazy Witch Lady in My Name Is Earl
    * Tina Fey as Governor Sarah Palin (Spoof) in Saturday Night Live
    * Jennifer Aniston as Claire in 30 Rock
    * Elaine Stritch as Colleen Donaghy in 30 Rock

We all know that the lefties in Hollywood are giving this award to Tina Fey in her role as Sarah Palin. So save your prayers and wishes for Big Bang Theory for another category.

Outstanding Drama Series

    * Big Love
    * Breaking Bad
    * Damages
    * Dexter
    * House
    * Lost
    * Mad Men

Breaking Bad, Dexter and Lost!!! Which to choose? None, it’s going to Mad Men. Trust me.

Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Animated Programs

    * Disney’s Phineas And Ferb
    * SpongeBob SquarePants

Do I care? No. Let’s go SpongeBob.

Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Programs

    * Battlestar Galactica: The Face Of The Enemy
    * Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Super Bowl Halftime Show
    * The Daily Show: The Daily Show Correspondents On Jon Stewart
    * Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
    * 30 Rock’s Kenneth the Web Page

How dare they pit Dr. Horrible vs BSG? Dr. Horrible should get it, but it may go to Bruce.

Outstanding Children’s Program

    * Hannah Montana
    * iCarly
    * Wizards Of Waverly Place

Again, do I care? No. Not even enough to give you my guess on the results.

Outstanding Sound Editing For A Series

    * Battlestar Galactica
    * CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
    * Smallville
    * Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
    * 24

Holy crap! Hit the sound editing category and suddenly Emmy cares about us. We have a 60% chance at the award, but there are still going to find a way to give it to 24 – mark my words.

Outstanding Sound Editing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special

    * The Courageous Heart Of Irena Sendler (Hallmark Hall Of Fame Presentation)
    * Generation Kill
    * Into The Storm
    * The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
    * Taking Chance
    * 24: Redemption

Forget your dreams of seeing “Emmy Award Winning” on the DVD box of the Librarian, this one is going to Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler. Cause Hallmark Hall of Fame = Emmy nod.

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)

    * Battlestar Galactica
    * Boston Legal
    * House
    * Lost
    *24

We can’t have a category for Comedies and another one for Drama? We have to share? Stingy Emmys. Most likely to go to BSG, although House might steal this.

Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series

    * Battlestar Galactica
    * Fringe
    * Ghost Whisperer
    * Heroes
    * Sanctuary

Yeah! A category where the award has to go to a genre show, unless Emmy figures out a way to give this one to Mad Men too.

Outstanding Stunt Coordination

    * Burn Notice
    * Chuck
    * Criminal Minds
    * My Name Is Earl
    * 24

My heart wants this to go to Chuck, but I know that Emmys will give this to 24. Cause they know things blow up in that show.

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

    * Lost • The Incident
    * Mad Men • A Night To Remember
    * Mad Men • Six Month Leave
    * Mad Men • The Jet Set
    * Mad Men • Meditations In An Emergency

Hmmmmmmmmm. Who thinks Lost is going to win in this category? Hands up! You are fools. It is going to Mad Men. That has already been determined. The Lost nomination is to throw off the conspiracy theorists.

My Emmy Predictions – Part 1

[ Happy Mood: Happy ]
[ Watching The Colbert Report Currently: Watching The Colbert Report ]
This was originally supposed to be an article for the main site, but for a variety of reasons it will not be appearing there, so I thought I would share it here.

*****

So the Emmy Nominations came out a while back, and we here at RevolutionSF wanted to see how the genre shows did. Yeah we know it was a while ago, but have you seen the number of nominations per category? It tooks us this long to read through the 69 pages of nominations. And yeah, we know that the Creative Arts Emmys (the boring ones we don’t want to see on TV) have already been given out, but we haven’t looked at the results those. We promise.

Outstanding Voice-Over Performance

    * Ron Rifkin, Narrator from American Masters • Jerome Robbins: Something To Dance About • PBS
    * Seth MacFarlane as Peter Griffin • Family Guy
    Seth Green as Robot Chicken Nerd, Bob Goldstein, Ponda Baba, Anakin Skywalker, Imperial Officer • Robot Chicken
    * Hank Azaria as Moe Syzlak • The Simpsons
    Harry Shearer as Mr. Burns, Smithers, Kent Brockman, Lenny • The Simpsons
    * Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson • The Simpsons

Five nods in this category. Strangely enough two are for guys named Seth and three for the Simpsons, but the official RevolutionSF prediction is that it’s going to Ron Rifkin, cause Emmy loves PBS.

Outstanding Animated Program (for programming less than one hour)

    * American Dad
    * Robot Chicken
    * The Simpsons
    * South Park

Apparently the Emmys could only find four animated series out of the billions to nominate in this category. Take that Bakura! Should win: Robot Chicken, but the academy has never heard of them. Will Win: Simpsons. They have presented, so the academy knows who they are.

Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or more)

    * Afro Samurai: Resurrection
    * Destination Imagination (Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends)

There are two animated shows in this category. RevSF predicts one of them will win.

Outstanding Art Direction For A Multi-Camera Series

    * The Big Bang Theory
    * Hell’s Kitchen
    * How I Met Your Mother
    * The New Adventures Of Old Christine
    * Saturday Night Live

Art Directiors are in charge of how a show looks. So this Emmy is about how pretty the show looks. Geekdom’s only hope in this category is the Big Bang Theory. Unfortunately, How I Met Your Mother is going to win. Of course it would be awesome if Hell’s Kitchen won just so Ramsay could swear on stage.

Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-Camera Series

    * Bones
    * Heroes
    * Mad Men
    * Pushing Daisies
    * True Blood
    * The Tudors

Broad spectrum of nerd shows here. If there is any justice in the world, Pushing Daisies will win. It was a beautiful show. Nothing else on TV ooked like it. As a bonus, they could print “Emmy Award Winning Series” on the DVD box. But I know that my nerdly hopes and aspirations will be shattered by Mad Men. This show takes place in the 1950s, the beginning of the golden age of TV, a time that many Emmy voters wish we were in now.

Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series

    * Damages
    * Friday Night Lights
    * Mad Men
    * True Blood
    * The Tudors

We can pray all we want for True Blood to win this in honour of letting us see Anna Paquin do naughty things, but once again, this is going to Mad Men.

Outstanding Cinematography For A One Hour Series

    * Breaking Bad
    * CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
    * Life On Mars
    * Mad Men
    * The Tudors

Two nerd possibilities here in Breaking Bad and Life on Mars, but you see the Mad Men in there. Yup. You guessed it.

Outstanding Costumes For A Series

    * Mad Men
    * The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
    * Pushing Daisies
    * The Tudors
    * Ugly Betty

It will not sruprise you that I want Pushing Daisies to win this. The costumes were amazing, and there was nothing else like it on TV. But what will surprise you is my prediction that the Tudors will win. This costume drama will probably win in the costume category, especially for the ensembles that King Henry rips off his wide assortment of paramours. They look very pretty on the floor.

Outstanding Costumes For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special

    * Grey Gardens
    * House Of Saddam
    * Into The Storm
    * The Librarian: Curse Of The Judas Chalice
    * Little Dorrit

There is a slim chance that the Emmies will recognize the Indiana Jones rip-off starring Noah Wilie. A slim chance, but a chance none-the-less.

Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series

    * Battlestar Galactica
    * Boston Legal
    * Damages
    * ER
    * Mad Men

Finally, a stunningly worthy geek candidate for the Emmy, BSG. Too bad it’s up against the last seasons of both Boston Legal and ER. Not to mention those pesky Mad Men. Not going to happen, BSG.

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series

    * Battlestar Galactica
    * Breaking Bad
    * Lost
    * Mad Men
    * 24

Whoooohooooooo, three chances, four if you count 24. This might be the one category in which BSG gets an Emmy. Think of it as a pity Emmy.

Outstanding Hairstyling For A Single-Camera Series

    * Desperate Housewives
    * Mad Men
    * Pushing Daisies
    * Tracey Ullman’s State Of The Union
    * The Tudors

I wonder who watches TV and thinks to themselves, “Man, that’s good hair!” Apparently the Emmys, cause they have a category dedicated to hair. Our one hope is Pushings Daisies, but I think the bored Emmy voter (who cares about this category as much as I do) is just going to check off the beloved Mad Men and move on.

Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media – Fiction

    * The Dharma Initiative
    * The Office Digital Experience
    * The 30 Rock Digital Experience

This Emmy might actually go to one of us. That’s right, I am calling it for Dharma and Lost. Write it down!

Outstanding Main Title Design

    * Lie To Me
    * Storymakers
    * Taking Chance
    * True Blood
    * United States Of Tara

What an interesting category. The main title sequence is a dying breed. Pared down to its barest bones in the interest of cramming in as much story as possible. Of course that’s because more time has been given over to ads, but shhh. The naked vampire show has a hope here, it does have cool titles.

Is This the Same Book?

[ Sleepy Mood: Sleepy ]
When I recently came home from the library, I noticed that three of the books looked eerily familiar.

I am sensing a trend in Fanatasy cover art immerging here. Off-center figures in cloaks, that are slightly cropped because of cover placement. Keep an eye out for them!