Simmering Hope

I just can’t stop thinking how stupid some people really are. Not necessarily because they swallow the whole ‘reality tv’ crap without chewing it but because they are so much involved in other people’s so-called romance.
Even more, they talk about the participants in that uber stupid show ‘The Bachelor’- add to this The Bachelorette, which is even more ridiculous… if possible- by nicknames. A quick reminder who’s who:
Jason Mesnick- a single dad from around Seattle who was rejected by DeAnna Pappas- and don’t even start me on this silly whiny bimbo- was picked up by ABC to be the next bachelor and was given a chance to find romance and a new life partner.
Melissa and Molly are the final candidates. Who they are or what they do is irrelevant; both seem to be shallow and more in search of their 15 minutes of fame. I mean saying that Melissa was cheerleader is sufficient.

Fans of this show – and you can find them either on ABC’s website or at Fans of Reality TV – call the participants ‘Jay’ and ‘Mel’… enough to see red in front of your eyes.
Why get so much invested in something so obviously fake?

Now the fans are angry at the thought that the producers of the show may have manipulated them and scripted the whole story. Hello!!! It’s a show, it’s supposed to get good rating and how can you get something like that? By creating conflict, controversy, illusions. Giving ‘clues’ and ‘screecaps’ to be dissected and analyzed by women obsessed with finding who is the chosen one, way before anybody else.

Geez! I tried watching the show, I admit that. But I managed to go through about 15 minutes of the first episode and then I switched the channel to CNN. Eventually I watched a few more minutes, here and there, enough to pick only ONE girl I liked: Jillian. Not because she is Canadian, but because she was not only smart and pretty, but she had substance. I was truly happy that she was let go by Jason, who deserves exactly the type of girls he picked as finalists.

Arcg!! I have just remembered another ridiculous season: the one with Matt- the London based ex-banker or whatever- working- at- a- bank and the blonde bimbo, the daughter of Lorenzo Lamas. What a bunch of crap that one was. Anybody with a pea-sized brain could have figured out pretty much right off the bat how phoney the story was.

As a conclusion ‘The Bachelor/Bachelorette’ is the most lame reality show on tv and I hope it would get axed and replaced with something more intelligent.

Update: After a pretty boring show, the winners-as I remember right now- are:
Kate Winslet- best actress
Penelope Cruz- best supporting actress
Sean Penn- best actor
Heath Ledger- best supporting actor
Slumdog Millionaire- best movie
Departure- foreign language film

Forget all about recession. At least for one evening of glamorous dresses, flawless make-ups and heavy exposure. Today is the Oscar night.
Actually it will start early in the afternoon with a ‘Red Carpet’ preview. Celebrities are going to be shown descending from limousines, with a big smile on their faces and ready to be grabbed by reporters and asked questions such as ‘What are you wearing’ and the lucky designer’s name will be captured by our perked ears.

Who is going to win this year? Would it be Kate Winslet? I root for her, so I definitely would like to hear her acceptance speech.

According to a list leaked by the net and showed by Daily Mail, she is going to win.
But check the list for yourself.
It seems to be real.

The first piece of news is about … the Olympics. What else?

I am not going to talk about the lavish opening ceremony, other than to mention that it took seven years to master the choreography and it cost about $40 billion.

Interesting are the other aspects surrounding this year Summer Olympic Games. After the terrorist attack happened last week, an extra 100,000 security and police troops have been deployed to Beijing and Tiananmen Square was closed off.
An Air China flight bound for Beijing from Tokyo was forced to turn back after an Olympic-related bomb threat was received.
Buddhist monks continue to protest wherever they can along with exiled Tibetans. It’s an understatement to say that they are unhappy with the Chinese ruling.
Pollution remains a key concern for the Games and on the morning of the opening ceremony, fog obscured the Beijing skyline. Naturally, the official point of view is that people confuse ‘haze’ with ‘pollution’ Yeah, right.
I wonder if the food prepared for athletes is coming from irradiated seeds or not.
Some time ago, Chinese scientists boasted about the huge size of the crops made with seeds irradiated in space, assuring at the same time that they are not going to be used to feed the Olympians. But what about the rest of the people?

In any way, the Olympic Games are very important to the Chinese officials. They are to show that China emerged from being a poor country, occupied in the past by Western power players and Japan and morphed into a power to be taken into account.
The idealistic image has been unfortunately tarnished by some events, like the resignation of Steven Spielberg as artistic director of the Olympic Games in February, over Chinese relation with Sudan.
Following month, March, has been plagued by riots and demonstrations in Tibetan areas culminating with angry reception of the Olympic torch in many international capitals.

The oil control proxy war
While China is busy hosting the Olympic Games, Russia is busy staging a war with Georgia.

What if the problem actually is related to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline? The pipeline feeds Caspian oil to the West, without passing into Russian territory (hence no Russian control… at least not directly; some terrorist acts only)

It looks like there are some forces trying to control the oil reserve in Central Asia. Russia wants the pipeline to go through Russia (duh!), the USA wants to go through Georgia and Turkey and Iran wants to see it go through … Iran (where else??)
Coincidentally or not, the Americans have sent a huge naval task-force to the Persian Gulf to blockade Iran. Throw into the equation another player: Israel, and remember the recent reports of a massive IAF exercise over the Mediterranean.

For some time now, Georgia has been fighting separatists with ties to Russia in order to regain control of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which voted for independence in 2006, in unofficial referendum. The separatist administration in South Ossetia has been trying to gain formal independence since breaking away in a civil war in the 1990s.
The majority of its 70,000 population are ethnically distinct from Georgians, speaking a dialect related to Farsi. The Ossetians claim that they have been forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet Rule.
Now, South Ossetians want to join up with their ethnic cousins in North Ossetia, which is an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation.

In April 2008, Russia steps up ties with the other Georgian’s breakaway republic, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in retaliation to NATO’s position of allowing Georgia to join the alliance at some point.

In July Russia admitted flying jets over South Ossetia to ‘cool hot heads in Tbilisi’ and at the same time Georgia and Russia accused each other of military build-up.

August 8, 2008 marks the start of heavy fighting between Georgia and Russia.
Photo of Georgian shells fired at separatist rebels in South Ossetia, August 8, 2008

Hundreds of fighters from Russia and Abkhazia were reportedly heading to aid the separatist troops.
Some people believe that Georgia’s president tries to draw NATO into the conflict, but chances are that it’s not going to happen. After trying to avoid a military conflict with Russia for so many years, would NATO be foolish to get into one at this point?

Let’s move on to a more serious and much anticipated issue: Angelina Jolie’s newborns
Here are some pictures of the happy family. Shiloh is a sweetheart and I must admit that the twins are beautiful. Considering that Hello! Magazine paid $11 million for the first pictures, they should have better been gorgeous.
Jolie Pitt Twins

Shiloh and one baby

Jolie Pitt family

Angelina, Shiloh and the newborns

What a slap on Jennifer Lopez’s face! Her twins were worth only half the money.

Now if you want to see a picture of Nicole Kidman’s baby… there is only a very fuzzy one not worth uploading. I guess it’s just a typical baby, looking like her father (as per Nicole’s statements) with a reddish blond hair.

While drinking my morning coffee I was reading the 2008 Emmy’s nominations. The ceremony will be sometimes in September. Two dramas caught my attention: Mad Men and Damages. Why? Because I never heard about them.
Luckily for me, CTV is giving me the chance to watch the first season of Mad Men on line, which I am going to do maybe this evening.

I like Lee Pace in Pushing Daisies, I could not care less about the rest of the comedy actors or shows and definitely I am not interested in lead or supporting actresses in a comedy series. I guess I would take lots of washroom time during the ceremony. Maybe finish dinner, do the dishes, sort the wash-loads, etc when the boring categories are up.
Different story when we talk about drama series. I love Holly Hunter in Saving Grace, I like Kyra Sedgwick in The Closer. Mariska should be let go… really, I am already tired of her. Hmmm… I still have to find ‘Damages’ someplace, since it’s got nominations for lead actress (Glenn Close) and supporting actor (2 nominations actually). Yeah, I know, just because it’s been nominated should not mean too much. But hey, Saving Grace and The Closer are really good shows, so maybe this time they got it right.

I would like to see Burn Notice getting a nomination. And why not? Why is Monk so much better? Tony Shalhoub should join Mariska Hargitay and take a hike.

Outstanding Comedy Series
• 30 Rock
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Entourage
• The Office
• Two and a Half Men
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series
• Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
• Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies
• Tony Shalhoub, Monk
• Steve Carell, The Office
• Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series
• Tina Fey, 30 Rock
• Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
• America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
• Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series
• Kevin Dillon, Entourage
• Jeremy Piven, Entourage
• Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
• Rainn Wilson, The Office
• Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series
• Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
• Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
• Jean Smart, Samantha Who?
• Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
• Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty
Outstanding Drama Series
• Mad Men
• Boston Legal
• Damages
• House
• Dexter
• Lost
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series
• James Spader, Boston Legal
• Jon Hamm, Mad Men
• Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
• Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
• Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series
• Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
• Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
• Glenn Close, Damages
• Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series
• Michael Emerson, Lost
• William Shatner, Boston Legal
• John Slattery, Mad Men
• Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
• Ted Danson, Damages
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series
• Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
• Candice Bergen, Boston Legal
• Sandra Oh, Grey’s Anatomy
• Chandra Wilson, Grey’s Anatomy
• Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
Outstanding Reality-competition Program
• Project Runway
• Top Chef
• The Amazing Race
• American Idol
• Dancing With The Stars

I am still upset with CBS cancellation of “Moonlight” and I decided to become more loyal to Fox, especially now that they have cancelled “New Amsterdam”. Somehow that show was not appealing to me. I found myself bothered by almost every character.

Actually let’s see first what shows have been cancelled from the 2008-2009 schedule :
- Back to you, Canterbury’s Law, K-Ville, Nashville, New Amsterdam, The Next Great American Band

And now, what is in store for us:

Sunday
The OT, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, American Dad
Monday
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break
Tuesday
House, Fringe (new serie, description follows)
Wednesday
Bones, ‘Til Death, Do not disturb (possible name change)
Thursday
The Moment of Truth, Kitchen Nightmares
Friday
Are you smarter than a 5th grader?, Don’t forget your lyrics
Saturday
Cops, America’s most wanted, MADtv, Talkshow with Spike Feresten

Something about the newcomer ‘Fringe’, from the Fox’s website:
‘From J.J. Abrams (”Lost”), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind “Star Trek,” “Mission: Impossible III” and “Alias,” comes a new drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality.
When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent OLIVIA DUNHAM (newcomer Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent JOHN SCOTT (Mark Valley, “Boston Legal”), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to DR. WALTER BISHOP (John Noble, “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: he’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son PETER (Joshua Jackson, “Dawson’s Creek”) in to help.
When Olivia’s investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive NINA SHARP (Blair Brown, “Altered States”), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI Agents PHILLIP BROYLES (Lance Reddick, “The Wire”), CHARLIE FRANCIS (Kirk Acevedo, “Oz”) and ASTRID FARNSWORTH (Jasika Nicole, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.
FRINGE is directed by Emmy Award-winning Alex Graves (”The West Wing”) and produced by Warner Bros. Television and Bad Robot Productions.”

Speculation is that “Fringe” will land in tandem with “Prison Break” on Mondays, moving ‘Sarah Connor’ on Wednesday.