Paddy's Wanderings

Surfing Quirky Sci-Fi

I have been hunting for a tv set just like that one. It is from 1950 and looks all kinds of sci-fi-ish and although in black & white, would be cool to watch. I think. It is my retro-ness peeking out again. What can I say, I like old things. Put the kidney table in front and a tall glass of something and I would be good to go.

For the past two weeks, I have been sick, super sick. My Doc assures me it is not Capt Tripps(my Doc has a good sense of humor, that is why I go back to him). I only say this in contet because really, you get enough health updates via other social media and the last thing you want to read about is that on a blog.

Being *cough* sick has led me to one of my favorite locations in the castle, in front of ye olde TV and plenty of stuff to watch. So I did, a lot. It was groovy and now that I am better, I can go back to work and have my fave shows back up again.

I know you want to know what I was watching, you are curious. Ok maybe not, but here goes anyways!

Lost:

No silly, not Lost in Space, but Lost, as in that show that was on and everyone hated the ending? Yeah that show. I caught a few stray episodes and was intrigued when it was airing, but somehow... always felt 'lost' in the story. Enter streaming video and voila! we watched the entire series over three weeks. Good thing too. If I had to wait until next week for the next epsiode or over the summer? I would have been really irritated. As it was, we got to watch begining to end and I loved it. Yes, I liked the ending, it made sense to me. Go ahead, yell at me, but it was good tv.

Eureka:

I never get to catch this series as much as I want, enter streaming vid. Picked up some lost episodes and love the show even more now. And.. still irked this is to be the final season starting in Jan. Major ticked off.  Oh Sci-Fi aka SyFy, you know we have a love/hate relationship and you fuel that fire. Either way, how can you not love a quirky show about screwed up uber-geeks in a town where anything can happen and often does? Kudos also to having Max Headroom as your dog catcher.

Warehouse 13:

Who does not want to be a secret agent/archaeologist/paranormal investigator? And... get to play with cool gizmos while tracking bad guys across the globe and recovering mysterious objects? Plus its quirky and funny, enough action to keep it going plus its a mystery! Bonus time.. it looks like its going to be on for awhile too.. crosses appendages.

And that was the two weeks of couch sitting. Lots of TV and lots of meds and it was groovy. Well, not the sick part, that part sucked dinosaur eggs. At least I wasn't bored out of my mind. Even if I was hacking so bad I had to pause playback and got nothing accomplished other than playing zombie on the couch. It was ok.

Tune in next time for...

 

 

Music+Video=Groovy

 

Ok kiddos, time to take a trip in the Wayback Machine. Back in the day, when the world was young, those of us who lived in cable purgatory and could not get MTV, had the next best thing, Friday Night Videos. Now dont get me wrong, I spent many an afternoon in the living rooms of my more fortunate friends abodes. Believe me, I soaked up a lot of music videos that way.

But you know, I couldnt move in and had to leave. So Friday night would roll around, there was a football game and then a dance, then if I put the hammer down in ye olde Firbird, I would make it home for the begining of Friday Night Videos, and it was pure cool.

I even watched when I was off in college cause I got a kick out of the show. Sure, I had MTV, but Friday night would roll around and I would fire up the tube and catch the show. Then I lost track of the show, even though it was on air after Letterman until 2000. Its too bad really, it was a cool show.

I stopped watching MTV and moved on to VH1 cause MTV forget it was a music video network somewhere along the way. Eventually VH1 became.. meh. Now there is Youtube, and its groovy. Tonight is a Friday Night Videos kinda night, which is cool. I gotta few I remember from way back when and I still like em. Enjoy..

 

 

 

 

Abbott & Costello

One of the true great comedy teams of all time were Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. In one of the many weekend movie adventures I had as a wee lad, I discovered these guys, much to my delight. Bud Abbott, one of the most gifted straight men I have ever seen. Lou Costello, goofy sidekick and so funny. What a team.

Heyyyy Aaabbotttt!!! Still cracks me up. These guys did it all. They started in burlesque, moved into radio, then on to movies and Television. I have read that they were the top box office draw of 1942. Not bad, but really, it doesn't matter. What does matter is how funny these guys are and how much they entertained me as a kid and still do to this day as an adult. Their comedy routines are timeless

Classic skit that still cracks me up after all these years. Funny aside, my grandfather was a big baseball fan and he remembered hearing this skit originally on the radio. It was one of his favorites.

Of course, they meet the mummy, one of my all time favorites. Maybe Brendan Fraser should have had these guys to help out? They were pretty good at getting rid of mummies..

They fellas made a ton of movies during WWII and in 1942 they did Buck Privates. This film also featured the Andrew Sisters performing, a hot act back then doing the boogie woogie..

This guys made me laugh when I was kid, chasing mummies and Frankenstein and Dracula, or just being goofy in the army.

Or even arguing who played first, what was the guys name on first? No he played second base..

I don't know ~ Third Base! 

Classic Wanderings, pure fun.

Pop Army

The excitement keeps rolling along folks. I have had the pleasure of writing a couple articles so far for Pop Army. Check it out at this link. The site has news and reviews, celeb stuff. Kinda got it all from the world of entertainment. They live blogged the Emmy Awards. And.. that is just the beginning.

I have been able to do recaps for Leverage. Man I am in heaven here folks. I can dish and gush and get all googly moogly about a TV show I love. This is the good stuff. Of course, now we gotta wait until December for new episodes, but thats cool, there is plenty of TV floatin around that I watch.

This is just the very start and I am excited to be able to tag along with some really talented folks. I love TV and movies and all that so this is the kinda thing I dig. Movie reviews, previews, TV stuff and all that jazz. Should be a whole lot of fun.

Check it out, this week is the True Blood DVD giveaway. I have no doubt that more goodies like that will be coming down the path. This is an exciting time and right at the ground floor of the site starting out. So much coming along, If you would be so kind, take a look, see what you can see. I think you'll like it.

A Little Leverage

Yeppers, those are the folks from Leverage, the television series from TNT. You guessed it, I am a huge fan of the show and I thought I would share. I have always liked Timothy Hutton and I dig his acting. I got to watch the premier way back when, then I missed the first season, due to working second shift. Enter the wonderful world of streaming video...

I devoured all I could, repeatedly. Good actors, good stories and its a con game. I admit the ladies aint hard to look at it either, but that is a small point.. really. The series is smart, current, and has some cool computer hacking and of course, the con game. Did I mention that already?

I loved shows like It takes a Thief and movies like The Hustler. Who can forget the original Ocean's Eleven? I even like the remake and sequels. A TV show that has all that is thumbs up to me. In a long line of con movies and TV shows, Leverage does it for me.

It is nice to know that there are series on television worth watching. Sometimes, you just have to wander with purpose, then you may just fine some good stuff.

Of Myths and Monsters

When I was a wee lad back in the Fashioned Challenged Seventies, one of my favorite televsion shows was in search of. I was totally fascinated by mysteries and the unexplained that I could not wait for the latest episode!

The show was hosted by Leonard Nimoy from 1976 to1982. To my young self, it was Spock showing me all the far out mysteries of the world. This was the original far out TV show and is probably the reason I watch so much History and Discovery Channel today.

But as a kid.. these strange, crazy stories were far out cool. From Martians and Atlantis, to UFO's and Aliens, to Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Whoo hoo! Tallyho! This was super cool stuff! Thirty years ago Leonard Nimoy was ghost hunting! 

Myths, legends, mysterious ancient civilizations, man it had it all. No, I did not forget ESP! You should have known that.. Quirky and cool, what more could you want? Well okay.. the Amityville episode still freaks me out.

What a wonderful world we live in when a person can catch a couple channels worth of programming, every, single, day! just like

in search of...

A Complete Heroine

For those of you who don't know, that is Kahlan Amnell form the TV series Legend of the Seeker. Yes... I am fast becoming a huge fan. Late to the party I know, but I have been watching the episodes and just finished season one. Now I am a big fan and will start season two shortly. To think that the show has been canceled and there will probably never be a season three is.. crap.

Now I am a long time fan of television and I have a real love/hate relationship with it. That started when I was ten and found out that cool SF show I watched, was reruns, and had been canceled for five years! Since my discovery of the weirdness of TV ~ how could you cancel Star Trek, or.. Buck Rogers, or.. the list goes on right? ~ I have been struck numb by network television.

So I don't watch a lot of network TV anymore, I am a cable junky. So I am late to the Seeker party, but man, do I love this show. Of course, it is in the throws of fans trying to keep the show alive, but I know that when I am done with season two, that will be it. It is just the way it is. It is sad too.

Prime time network TV is crap in my opinion, for the most part. Shows that I really like seem only to survive on cable, if they are lucky. This is a good show, worthy of a few more seasons. You may ask why? Well then, I am glad you asked.

The characters, the stories, the production in general, is all very well done. The end product is much better then a lot of other shows on the air right now. But, I understand that the money flows toward reality shows and other stuff that I just don't like. Such is the state of television. And really, a show needs to graduate into a third and fourth season to really get rockin'. Need I give examples?

I never got into the Sword of Truth novels. I will now and I will at least have that. It is still a bummer though.

Oh and why do I like Kahlan? Because I like my heroines just like her. She has the feminine side as well as the tough side. She is complete. Any character that can slice a bad guys throat and stare into their eyes as they collapse is bad to the bone. Any character that can show the depth of emotion from a woman's perspective like the Kahlan character is bad to the bone. Mix those two together and that character rocks, big time. She can weep over the death of a child and turn on a dinar and slice a bad guy down.

That is why I am a fan. Good characters.

Happy Seeking!

Hercules & Xena & Mulder & Dax

I am reliving the 90's, I have no idea why. Well, at least from the perspective of Television, I am doing the 90's gig. Blame it on Netflix and streaming video. Oh and the 70's too!

I have been watching the original Battlestar Galactica and loving every minute of it. This is 1978 SF baby, with lasers and spaceships and funky club scenes. Once I am through that, its on to the new version. I'll admit, I only watched sporadically and always seemed lost. So I am gonna start at the beginning, and do it right. Oh, and also wait impatiently for the new season of Caprica, a show I dig.

In the 90's, Sunday was a big Television day 'round these parts. So thanks to streaming video, I get to reboot that. It started in the afternoon. First up, Hercules:The Legendary Journeys! Sure its campy, goofy stuff, light TV if you will, but I got a kick out of it, and believe I have spent an hour a lot worse then that. Then right after that? Yeah man.. Xena: Warrior Princess. Again, kinda campy TV but still had some good stuff to it. Besides, it was Sunday afternoon, and more often then not, we were done with the week and just sitting around, kicking back.

Sunday night though.. that was the awesome stuff. We kicked off with X-Files, a show we still catch as catch can, but with it streaming.. oh yeah. Then right after was Deep Space Nine. Again we catch it as we can, but now, now we got it coming down the pipe.

So I have been doing a double shot of Hercules/Xena then a double shot of X-Files/DS9. Mix a bit of old school BSG and we are good to go. The Techno-tyke has been in tyke heaven as well. He has been doing a double shot of Bob the Builder and Thomas, The Tank Engine. So we do our housework, I write a bit, and the techno-tyke has our living room looking like Sodor and Bobsland

All is well..

V: The New Series

Working second shift for over five years puts a real cramp in your TV viewing style if you ask me. For the past three weeks I have been like a man dying of thirst in an ocean of sweet ambrosia. Last night, I got all excited because they were going to show the new V series. I gathered my snacks, plopped my butt down and was all set to watch an episode. So far, I had surfed the net, followed as best as I could, but had only been able to catch wee snippets, so I was pumped.

What I got was an hour long recap of the first four episodes which was, at first, disappointing. Then I could not be more thankful, cause I was gonna need a quick rundown of all that happened so far, and that was what I got. Just a taste, a tease, and it got me circling the date and time for the resumption of the series, which I imagine was their whole point. 

Let me state that I was/am a huge fan of the original mini-series and the short lived series and final movie, a big fan. As a matter of fact, when I found the complete original series on DVD I snatched that baby like it was the next best thing to sliced bread, which it is. I was a wet behind the ears nineteen year old in college when the original aired and I loved it then, the story was so captivating. Over the years, my fondness has grown and it is one of those TV shows the better 1/2 and I really like and still watch about every nine months or so.

So when I heard they were going to re-do it, I was excited and skeptical. As usual I was wrong. That brief hour and all the stuff I have found over the past few months has made me a fan already. I'll be tuning into ABC and catching the latest episode of V. The new show is a fresh look at the story with some pretty compelling characters and good plot lines. Well worth wandering into if you ask me.

In the Caprica Zone

Every once in awhile, a Television show will inspire me to give it a go and I am willing to give it a shot. Some shows were a must see before the pilot even aired, for example Star Trek: The Next Generation. But other shows I found interesting enough that I might give it a shot, and then I fell in love with the show, never missed an episode, and eventually bought it on DVD, and so on. Caprica was a maybe.

I was a big fan of the original Battlestar Galactica and I looked forward to the reboot on Syfy, but like so many things, I never got a chance to really watch the show, week to week. So I got haphazard viewing, got lost in the story, and never really got in the groove. It's a shame really, because what I saw, I liked. Then along comes Caprica, a neat twist of a spin off. I was determined to give it a go and as luck would have it, I got a chance to catch it and watched the marathon last weekend, and now I am hooked.

What appeals to me is the cyber punk feel, the play on what is reality, life after physical death. The plot is interesting, the sub-plots maybe even more so. Each new episode brings more questions then answers and I am torn between the search through New Cap City for Tamara Adama and the story of Zoe. I want more of the v-world, it is right up my alley with the 'game' feel and the reality of unreality. With Zoe trapped in the Cylon and her father's search to get her to respond, yeah, that last episode was just awesome.

But Zoe's mother and her messed up, vision laced descent into despair and her growing relationship with the group of the One is intriguing as well. There is so much that can be done with just that story line that I find it almost as intriguing. The plot revolving around the corporate espionage and the battle of rival corps, is kinda been there, done that. But maybe there is more there, we'll have to see.

Overall, the show is good SF and has a really appealing vibe. To me at least, this is the kind of show that I really like to watch on TV. My time in front of the tube is precious, so a show better grab me, make me want to make the time. Caprica does just that.

If you wander over to Syfy, check your local listings, you'll be able to catch an episode, season one is almost done. That makes me want more, a lot more. I am just getting into it and can't get enough. If you watch an episode and you wonder where your at, yeah that will happen, but you can get a feel for the show. Then watch the pilot and the episodes in order and you'll get the whole story, well at least as much as the rest of us have gotten. You may just find yourself hooked, and I don't think that is a bad thing.