Blame Aaron Sorkin.Not only did he raise the benchmark for hour-long dramatic television, but he clearly raised our expectations for political discourse. As a result, Commander in Chief has paled by comparison to his once brilliant West Wing. Rod Lurie, who created the series, got it off to a nice, taut start but then floundered […]
Growing up, I got to see many concerts and pride myself on having seen most of the major rock and roll acts of the 1970s and 1980s. Among the bands I saw the most often was the Blue Öyster Cult, which, as revealed previously, features my uncle, Eric Bloom.The last time I saw them play […]
Yesterday was a nice day.Spent the morning working on a short story and then took the train to the city in time for a weekly lunch I haven’t attended in months. I got to see a lot of colleagues I normally only see on line and was treated to lunch by Aaron Rosenberg (a swell […]
What should have been a 45-minute minute meeting dragged to almost twice that length last night. The RTM met last night with one of the lightest agendas I’ve seen. My guess, entering the room, was that the length of the meeting would be entirely determined by the First Selectman’s State of the Town address.Ken Flatto’s […]
When the Mets first got Kris Benson from the Pittsburgh Pirates, I applauded the deal thinking he’d rise to the occasion of pitching in New York. Instead, last year he pitched 10-8 with a 4.13 ERA and wasn’t overly impressive. Mets GM Omar Minaya seemed to have lost confidence in Benson and spent November and […]
Faithful readers know that over the summer I became a charter member of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. One of the interesting things that has happened since the organization’s founding is that I have a greater understand of the depth of contempt many contemporaries have for the category. It’s considered beneath their notice […]
Every so often, someone suggests something and I find myself entering some wide, varied world I knew nothing about. The first time that happened was when we were told about Odyssey of the Mind as something that would be good for Katie. We had a few wonderful years with that.Things like fencing and ballroom dancing […]
Haven’t seen all the movies I want but with luck I’ll catch most before they leave the big screen. In fact, according to Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 25 movies I have to see before the Academy Awards I’m way behind, having seen just about a third. We get out when we can and last […]
It’s been an interesting few days.First of all, the number of comments people have posted both here and elsewhere has floored me (and Deb). And they’re still coming as I see my old pal Priest and Johanna Draper over at ComicsWorthReading (a nifty review and commentary site) just put stuff up.KC Carlson pointed out to […]
For a number of reasons, I’ve avoided talking about the news but now that it’s out on the web and other people are talking, I figured the time has come.On Friday, around 3:30, I was called into my boss’s office and was fired. He didn’t explain why but had the HR folk hand me papers […]
2006 seems to be off to a good start.We welcomed the New Year and promptly went to sleep. Our Open House, at least 10 years old, remains popular for those who attend but this year we had our lowest turn out yet. The door opened at 2 and the first guest walked in at 2:40, […]
Well, the year didn’t quite wind down as I expected.Much of the day was spent running errands and getting the house ready for the Open House today. Around 3, Deb settled down to watch figure skating on the DVR when trouble began. Apparently, our two-month old DVR hard drive crashed. I pointed out the customer […]