January 15, 2007
Jack's back and he's...........
A Vampire!
OK, he looks kind of like a monk in this picture, but trust me he’s a vampire.
Did everybody see him totally bite his captor in the neck in the first 1/2hour of FOX's crazy-mega-4 hour-season premier last night??!. (If not, then this article will provide a recap and a quick laugh) That was so crazy! The second it happened my cuz and I both yelled "LOST BOYS!" at the top of our lungs and then dissolved in a heap. Good thing I was taping it because we were laughing so hysterically we fully missed the next scene.
Unfortunately, that was the high point of the eppy for me. Sure, I expected Jack to be free from the Chinese, clean shaven, and kicking ass in LA by minute 3 - but after that the rest of the premier was rather sluggish. Plus, here's a note to the writers: President Wayne is irritating. Make him evil, make him good, make him whatever you want but please people don't make him wishy-washy and insecure, because it’s really boring!
In other vampire news, there's actually talk of a sequel.
Posted by lk at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
Watch your back, Curtis! You could be next!
The spring killing, uh I mean CLEANING, on “24” continues! According to the NYT this awful trend (killing off popular cast members) “has become an increasingly widespread plot device as television dramas compete for loyal viewers.” Pretty good article but it has one glaring omission, not a mention of the demise of poor MV.
Posted by lk at 08:35 AM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2006
Dumb Blond Bond?
My cuz likes to poke fun at my fan girl crush on actor Daniel Craig. She couldn’t sit through The Mother and had no interest in Enduring Love, but she did request Layer Cake from Netflix. She admits she liked the gangster flick OK, but she just doesn’t get what I see in that “dorky British boy”. When Craig was named the new “younger, edgier Bond” and cast in the upcoming Casino Royale, she almost busted a gut laughing. Her exact words: “He is NOT James Bond!” still ring in my ears. Well, last night she was all too pleased to storm into my room with this sad tale. My British boy can act but I guess he’s too slow (or stupid?) to dodge a punch.
I still think he's cute, though.
Posted by lk at 11:39 AM | Comments (1)
September 29, 2005
A few things “on view” this evening
Tonight's the night!
That's right kids, after a long, hot, rumor-filled summer Alias is back with extra big belly JGarner and two young (totally unnecessary) new agents in tow! Let's hope tonight’s premier is better than last night's eppi of LOST. YAWN! JJ, you are officially on notice. Do the right thing tonight and no one gets hurt.
OK, OK, I realize most of you may not be as interested in JJBC and the fate of Michael Vartan as I am. So if you MUST do something cultural and you live in NYC, you should probably check this out tonight. If you are in LA (and prefer art to the spy life), go see Basquiat. It’s a great show and MOCA is open late tonight. On the other hand, if you reside in the city by the bay, go to SFMOMA. They are also open late tonight and there’s tons of new stuff to see. Robert Adams and Edgar Arceneaux would be my picks.
Enjoy!
Posted by lk at 08:26 AM | Comments (2)
September 26, 2005
Marty looks at Dylan
Subterranean Homesick Blues, 1965
One American master looks at another, tonight on PBS ...
Posted by lk at 08:50 PM | Comments (9)
September 23, 2005
Breaking News: Gandhi meets Dickens on the set of Rosmary's Baby!
Well, not really. But that's what I was thinking when I first heard that Roman Ploanski was remaking Oliver Twist co-staring Ben Kingsley.
Don’t ask me why, but I am totally excited to see Polanski’s Oliver Twist! I have always liked this story. I swear I’ve probably seen every version the BBC/PBS/Hollywood have ever produced... Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but before the next week is out I will be giving the Arclight my hard earned dolla-dolla!
Posted by lk at 11:04 AM | Comments (1)
August 04, 2005
Will I still be around in 2046? Ummmm, Let's just talk about the movie ...
I am so excited to see this movie! In The Mood For Love was so wonderful, the epitome of “gangsty chinema” ( that’s gorgeous-angsty cinema for the uninitiated) and this is supposed to be something of a sequel ... but not quite, I think. 2046 has been on the festival circuit for a bit but now it's finally showing somewhere I can actually get to. I have tried (for months now) to avoid reviews but I just looked at the LA Weekly online and happened to glance at the first paragraph. I fear I will have to break this week's budget and see it on Saturday. Hopefully a matinee price ticket won't sting too badly.
Posted by lk at 09:26 AM | Comments (1)
July 24, 2005
Waitin' on the netflix
The ep that has launched 1,000 theories …
And the show that just might save me this summer …
HBO's The Wire is a gritty show about cops and dealers set in Baltimore. It's also my new fave show and the one that's going to keep me busy for the next few months as I try to keep myself unspoiled in the aliasverse.
My apologies to The Dickwolf but my old favorite, Law and Order, just ain't what it used to be. The L&O is totally off balance now that that the “law” part has two goodfellas sorting out the crimes. The cops are too similar. Plus I keep thinking Tony Soprano is going to bust in any minute and blow Christopher's scam. Surely he is just "playing" a cop - workin' some angle. Chris may be workin' it but it's not working for me. My advice, Dick: "Switch it up!"
But back to the Wire … the situations are grim, the writing is sharp, the plot is Dickensian in the extreme and it’s full of morally grey characters. Oh and the acting is fucking excellent! Who would have thought that I would end up loving Wendell Pierce (the actor that made me cringe in “Waiting to Exhale”) and Clarke Peters? These two put Fontana and Falco to shame. Plus, now I get plenty of Michael K. Williams. Who knew that before he was Roberts he was a total drug dealing badass, and gay?! The lingo on The Wire is another treat. “Natural police”, “suction”, "the parley"… this is good stuff and examples will soon appear in the “top 5 words” category.
I don’t know why I didn’t take to The Wire when it first aired. It probably had to do with the slow pace and the fact that it takes a few eppies before you can understand what the hell everyone is saying. Between the Baltimore accents and the lingo, man, you really have to pay attention. You can't even be folding your laundry while you watch this - you need to be focused! Don’t get me wrong, I like the way the story and the characters slowly come into view. I guess it was just hard for me to keep momentum back then. But now with Netflix (a.k.a. the best $18 I spend a month) I can watch when I want. I can even take them two or three at a time, which seems to work better for me and my erratic sleep patterns.
So if you're like me and missed this one when it first came out of the box, start on the DVDs! It's really an excellent show!
Note to spyfans:
I’ve got plenty to say about JJ and the re-vaughnification of the aliasverse. My head is full of THEORIES folks, but I'm going to TRY to keep it under control. So, if you want to read my ramblings about the show just look for:
Posted by lk at 09:44 AM | Comments (3)
May 31, 2005
TV Times (late 80s edition)
*
*Tomorrow I PROMISE to write something meaningful about art but I just had a crap day and TV talk is about all I can muster right now.
Moonlighting (S1&2) came out on DVD today. OK, maybe this is not the be all/end all for anyone who actually has a life, but come on, even if it did go out with a whimper instead of a bang it was the coolest detective show on TV in the late 80s.
I have to admit that I am a complete and total crazy when it comes to cops/robbers/spies and detective shows. I loved, loved, loved Rockford Files when I was a kid. I still try to watch the reruns on KDOC to catch glimpses of 70s LA (it looks kind of washed out but still cool). Other fab examples of the genre include, I Spy, It Takes a Thief (this was something my mom turned me on to in reruns when I was little. Robert Wagner when he was still cute!), Columbo, Hill Street Blues, Simon and Simon, Spencer For Hire, NYPDBlue, Prime Suspect and, of course, Law and Order (original recipe only – no SUVs or CIs, PLEASE).
So, yea, Moonlighting. Loved the fast talk, loved the Motown. The silly sexual tension was fun for the first two years. Hated the eps that focused on Herbert and Agnes, the lame attempts to hide Cybil’s pregnancy (JJ and Jennifer you are officially on notice. Come up with something believable!), and well, I was disappointed in everything after Dave and Maddie ACTUALLY got together – but it was fun while it lasted. Also, I think the first time I ever heard the words bitch and bastard on prime time network was Moonlighting but that’s probably not something I should be touting…
Unfortunately, I can’t afford to go down memory lane with this DVD right now. Maybe by the end of the summer I can do some ebaying.
Posted by lk at 10:41 PM | Comments (3)
May 19, 2005
tv times ...
Wherein Kitty muses on dreams, mirages, descents and rescues, and then questions the sanity of the powers that be (otherwise known as the writers) of the Alias-verse.
Well let's just get this out of the way at the beginning:
WHAT THE HELL!
Right. Now I can proceed. I just had to get that off my chest because I still don't know why the writers have a) shoved the stupid Weiss/Nadia pairing (aka WADIA) down our throats all season, then b) proceeded to give Dix and Chase a torrid affair - OFF SCREEN and then c) give us about 45 minutes of a good ep spread across two bloody hours, so that d) we only have a one hour season finale next week while all the other shows get two hours. And by "all the other shows", I really only mean 24 and LOST, since that's all I watch on network these days. AGAAAAAAH!
So now that the complaining is almost finished, I will say that I enjoyed some of what went on last night. I did laugh out loud a few times at the whole Vaughn asking Jack's permission sequence and also the rough sex comment fully audible on comms (HA!). It was fun to see Lena Olin again. Of course she looked fabulous and I really enjoyed the scene where she and Jack have that slow dance on what looked like the set of the Titanic... Also loved, loved, loved the secret stairwell smooch between our favorite - though never seen - interoffice romance (Dixon and Director Chase)! But come on, I can't be the only die hard fan who is having just a little bit of trouble buying this stuff!? Clifford, The Big Red Ball, hovering over some Russian city? The whole stupid third Derevko Sister plot (I do love Sonia and she does look terrific, but I think her story line is La La La Lame). Also, after waiting half the season for more Angela, we finally get her all over this ep but there is no real understanding of what or who her character IS.
OK. Now the complaining is really over. Now comes the musing.
The last three weeks this show has been all over the map. Some good stuff but also lots weird stuff, non-continuity and gore. Which begs the question: If this was season 4, what on earth do they have in store for us next season when JG is all preggers and we are thrust into the never-never-land of Thursday nights when no one will be watching except, well, me.
YIKES.
PS I still miss Roberts. They should never have killed him off.
Posted by lk at 10:30 PM | Comments (1)
May 11, 2005
Should she quit her day job?
Tonight we find out if Jennifer Garner has been paying attention to what goes on BEHIND the camera for the last 4yrs. Did she pick up any cool directing tricks from JJ and Ken Olin? I hope so.
I also hope that SpyDaddy and Syd get to have a heart to heart. After all the crazy hallucinations and gross hand-digging and syringes, I think it's time for Jack to be in a scene where he simply has a normal conversation with someone whose, like, you know, really there! Will we get a little more Arvin Cloane? Will we see even a glimpse of Angela!!?? Some online sources say more Sark is on the way, but WHEN? So many promises have been made this season but I'm still waiting.
Don't get me wrong,the last 2 weeks have yielded some fun moments, as for example, the emergence of Pimp-DaddyDix. I used to love Dixon's understated wardrobe but lately he's been sporting some really Huggy Bear like spyduds. I am glad he is getting more to do on missions, but seriously, some of these outfits? Hi-Larious. And what's up with the continuity? Didn't Vaughn shoot Dix a few weeks ago? And Dixon kind of saw it was him when V (stupidly) pulled up his mask! It seemed like there would be a little tension between those two or there would be unresolved questions for the APOers about V going rogue. But we got nothing!
Well, let me just calm down with all my questions… If you need proper recapping (or just a good chuckle), check Erin's latest.
Posted by lk at 03:55 PM | Comments (2)
May 07, 2005
Alias cast members (and former cast members) in new shows
AliasMedia tells me that Anna, Willage, Agent Sean AND the former Mr. Jennifer Garner will all have new shows this fall. I particularly liked the blurb on Scott Foley's poorly named series The Unit "... starring Amy Acker and Scott Foley as members of a special forces unit, is considered a shoo-in, and something of a male Alias, or Malias, if you will. The former missus will be so proud". Guess Alias Media likes a portmanteau word just as much a Kitty does.
Posted by lk at 05:35 PM | Comments (0)
April 30, 2005
top 5 names
top 5 names for Mr. Arvin Sloane:
1. Homegrown Sloane
2. Sloane, Original Recipe
3. Uncle Inappropriate
4. Sloane 1.0
5. Capt. Crackers
top 5 names for the "Other" Mr. Sloane:
1. Arvin Clone
2. The Unbeknown Sloane
3. Flyblown Sloane
4. Sloane 2.0
5. Sly of The Family Sloane (thanks, NK)
More on "A Clean Conscience" later ...
Posted by lk at 10:12 AM | Comments (1)
April 23, 2005
tv times
Hi, I'm Syd. Fly Me!
Hi, I'm Arvin. I'm Batshit Crazy!
Well, if you missed this week's Alias, you missed the best (and ironically also the worst) ep of the season so far! Email me and I'll get you a tape because, this one? Not to be missed! Funny, bazaar, and filled with questions! Sloane's whole story was stellar and I loved all the S1-3 shout outs, but Good Lord, team APO are the WORST. SPIES. EVER! Why, oh why, did they give Roberts the REAL coil!!!!
Last week's "Another Mr. Sloane" provided much for spyfans to love, and also hate. I thoroughly enjoyed the many, many shout-outs to previous seasons. And there were even a few instances where I fell out of bed laughing when it seemed the writers had lifted jokes and jargon straight from the TWoP forums (Arvin Cloane, anyone?)! We got to see Michelle Forbes standing in for Christian Slater's kidnapped scientist a la S2, as well as another huge warehouse with a new and CGI improved Red Ball of Death (think Taipei only brighter). Also on tap was a hilarious installation of artifacts on view at the New Museum of Rambaldi Art – a.k.a. the DSR. These scenes were funny. On the flip side, a good deal of the ep was genuinely tense and quite creepy. For example, seeing Jack come this close to putting a bullet in Sloan's brain, in an eerily deserted (yet cavernous) bathroom, and the last 5 minutes when Arvin beats a fellow to death with a metal rod! These scenes were scary. Ron Rifkin’s final close-up is like something out of The Shining!
But I still have so many questions... Who on earth is Jacqueline? Does Jack believe he killed Irina, or is he just trying to make everyone ELSE think that he killed her? And the big one, are the two Sloane's in league with each other, and if so, what's their plan? And if not, which one is crazier?!!
Can't wait till Wed when apparently our stoic SpyDaddy starts to shed his radioactive skin! EEWWW!
P.S. I miss Roberts.
Posted by lk at 12:10 PM | Comments (2)
April 19, 2005
palias report
OK, so I didn't write anything about last Wednesday's totally delicious ep because I got swamped with work late in the week. Also, I am really, really trying to curb my total obsession with this show (I swear, it's like I revert to a 9th grader when I get on this topic). BUT, then I decided "Who Cares! I likes, what I likes". Plus, someone actually ASKED me about it... I'm totally late for an appointment right now, but I will post a Vaughn-lovin' recap later today!
Life IS a Cabaret...
If you missed last week, you missed some fun stuff. I know a lot of folks in the nerd spyfan community thought that the DaddyVaughn story moved too slowly and didn't have enough of a pay off - but I enjoyed it. The Boy Scout finally broke with protocol for his own reasons (not for Sydney's). Also, I found his irrational obsession with his father's death kind of endearing in an odd way. I guess I could relate to it and so I was willing to go along with this storyline, even if the business with the needle in the library was a bit much. For me the payoff was seeing the growing desperation of MV's character. It also gave him way more screen time than last year. So, YEA for that! Plus, last week Vaughn got to go all MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, speak French AND hang out with that cute blackmailer, Roberts! I could have dealt with maybe one more ep of rogue behavior or counter missions with him and Syd, but all in all "Pandora" was cool.
In other news - Isabella was back and being her mysterious an gorgeous self, there are now 2 Mr. Sloane's and I have to keep vigil for poor Jack who is completely radioactive (but being extremely stoic about it).......If you are still reading (and still interested), go read Erin's recap at TWoP - her description of "Arvin Clone" is Hi-larious! I actually think Joel Grey is sooooooooo creepy but perfect for this role.
Promos for tomorrow's ep look good, too! I mean, anytime you see Jack holding a gun to Arvin's head in the MEN'S ROOM, well...........
Posted by lk at 10:30 AM | Comments (2)
April 10, 2005
George vs. Kevin
...Or Jowl versus Specs...
For the last few weeks my movie pals have been all a buzz over the upcoming release of Revenge of the Sith - mostly emailing me to make fun of all the fan boy idiocy cropping up or to deride George's non-stop merchandising machine. But while they only have to wait till May to see this latest Star Wars pic (so that they can make fun of it even more), I have to sit tight for at least 9 months before I get the only sequel I care about. That's right, kids - Clerks 2 is in the works and I can't wait!
The original Clerks had me simultaneously laughing my ass off and crying my eyes out! * And when I got the Clerks X dvd last fall, I just ate up all the extras with a spoon! Funny, funny stuff. I only hope Kevin has gotten all the Jersey Girl gooeyness out of his system. Can he go back to his roots without embarrassing himself (unlike George)? ....It may be a while before I can answer that question definitively but I'll be there with bells on to see what has become of the Quick Stop. By the by, Kevin's "My Boring-Ass Life" blog is pretty funny, but I guess it goes without saying that you gotta be a big fan to find it at all interesting...
* (Over the years Toastkitten has had her share of totally crap retail jobs. She's never worked at a convenience store but retail is retail. Dealing with the public as a sales clerk is at best surreal and at worst ... HELL).
Posted by lk at 04:21 PM | Comments (4)
April 09, 2005
Informal poll:
Would you inject yourself with -God knows what - to find out the truth about someone you loved but thought was dead????
(I probably would, but I'd also probably mess it up because my hands would be so shaky and I'd be so freakin' scared! Hate Needles. Just Hate 'Em!)
Posted by lk at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2005
tv times
"Braids, fishnets ... it's pretty spectacular!"
A description of Toastkitten's sultry Friday night attire? Sadly, no. But this week's installment of Alias almost makes up for the fact that my real life was kind of a mess this week... My life (no not the one where I'm shacked up with lovely Michael Vartan in a mid-century modern beach pad, and have designer clothes and many exotic wigs in my closet, my real life), is still kind of in flux. What with working on a bunch of different freelance gigs and shlepping around town on the bus etc. (plus I still can't quite afford the hair I want) let's just say this wasn't my best week. At least I was treated to a stellar show on Wednesday night! SpyDaddies were scheming, Vaughn was injecting himself with an unknown substance in order to get the poop on Vaughn Père, and Marshall hugged Sloane in a fit of emotion! All that AND a minimum of Nadia! I couldn't have asked for a better mid-week pick me up. Loved It! Best ep of the season so far! Can't wait to see Vaughn go rogue. What will happen to poor Jack? What is Sloane's endgame? Will Syd ever say "I love You " to Vaughn, or Will Weiss finally come out of the closet and beat her to the punch? So many possibilities...
As far a my super geeky spy-fan websites are concerned, we are now done with stand alone episodes. No more villain-of-the-week. Thank God. In the next two months we can can expect full tilt continuity, story arcs, Derevko sisters and possibly Rambaldi. My friend from up North doubts that we will see a complete return to form this season, but at least JJ has one more turn at bat to make it right....
Posted by lk at 10:07 PM | Comments (4)
March 17, 2005
TV Times
OK, so last night's installment of L/Alias was disappointing, to say the least. LOST was a repeat - AGAIN - and Alias, well... Let's just say that watching Syd drag around some oafish civilian in faux Salzburg, while trying to disable a deadly toy helicopter, really made me question my allegiance to JJ. I should have known the whole thing was doomed when she showed up in the first scene with a ridiculous fake nose a reddish hair! Seriously, she looked like some freakish cross between Julia Roberts (whom I loathe) and Nicole Kidman from The Hours! Fun to see Jack and Vaughn having individual story lines, but in general, Kitty was not impressed. Let's hope next week we get more on evil Daddy Vaughn and more flirting between Dix and Angela... Meh, meh, meh. Check out Erin's recaplet if you want the full blow by blow, or if you just need a laugh - like I did after this dismal ep.
Needless to say, by 10 pm I was in no mood for L&O's investigation of two college students who were participants in a secret testing program on a new anti-depressant - and who subsequently committed suicide because of the drugs! Man, talk about depressing!
Posted by lk at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2005
Brother from Another Series
Chung!
Chung!
That's right, tonight is a big TV night for Toastkitten. First we have LOST and Alias, or what I like to call JJBC (J.J. Abrams meets ABC TV) and then we switch to the Dick Wolf Network (NBC) for a little L&O!
Now while I have been a loyal fan of the Law and Order since the beginning, I have to admit that lately the show has only been a shadow if its former self. I mean let's face it; Farina is a good actor but come on! Fontana is no Briscoe, if you know what I mean, and I think that you do....
But tonight I am excited. Guest staring on this ep, entitled The Brotherhood, is none other than Giancarlo Esposito - the totally underrated actor who was so great on Homicide. Giancarlo was also a member of the Spike Lee Players back in the day (remember "Buggin Out" from Do The Right Thing?!). Also guesting tonight is Candice Bergen. She is cast as "the case's valiant judge"! Candie gets points from me, too. Not so much for Murphy Brown, as for a little known movie called Rich and Famous (1981), which I LOVED. That's right, obscure 80s movies are another one of my guilty pleasures. We'll talk more about that another time. Now it's time to get ready for a full night of TV DRAMA!
Posted by lk at 05:56 PM | Comments (5)
Brother from Another Series
Chung!
Chung!
That's right, tonight is a big TV night for Toastkitten. First we have LOST and Alias, or what I like to call JJBC (J.J. Abrams meets ABC TV) and then we switch to the Dick Wolf Network (NBC) for a little L&O!
Now while I have been a loyal fan of the Law and Order since the beginning, I have to admit that lately the show has only been a shadow if its former self. I mean let's face it; Farina is a good actor but come on! Fontana is no Briscoe, if you know what I mean, and I think that you do....
But tonight I am excited. Guest staring on this ep, entitled The Brotherhood, is none other than Giancarlo Esposito - the totally underrated actor who was so great on Homicide. Giancarlo was also a member of the Spike Lee Players back in the day (remember "Buggin Out" from Do The Right Thing?!). Also guesting tonight is Candice Bergen. She is cast as "the case's valiant judge"! Candie gets points from me, too. Not so much for Murphy Brown, as for a little known movie called Rich and Famous (1981), which I LOVED. That's right, obscure 80s movies are another one of my guilty pleasures. We'll talk more about that another time. Now it's time to get ready for a full night of TV DRAMA!
Posted by lk at 05:56 PM | Comments (5)
March 08, 2005
We Are Happy to Serve You
If you watch Law and Order on any kind of regular basis you'll see coffee being enjoyed from one of these ubiquitous Greek-themed coffee cups. They're paper and just might remind you of Brad in a skirt (always a delight):
Anywho, New York artist George Skelcher seized on this design for a one-of-a-kind coin purse. It won't hold coffee but definitely accomodates two bits. The proceeds benefit NYC's homeless. There's some intriguing irony wrapped up in there somewhere. And maybe Brad too.
Snag one here: NYC Coffee Cup Coin Purse
Posted by at 12:28 AM | Comments (1)
March 06, 2005
On the way...
Can you guess how Law and Order and New York City greek coffee cups relate to a delightful change purse? Coming Soon.
Posted by at 02:06 PM | Comments (2)