tv

Eat up!

Scott Tobias nails exactly the thing I loved most about Top Chef Masters, and certainly about the season finale:

But with all due respect to those who shrugged off Top Chef Masters as a dull facsimile of the real thing, I think tonight’s hour was a great argument in the show’s favor. It was, simply, a pure example of the sensual wonders of food—the rich and evocative flavors, the feelings and memories a wonderful meal can coax out of those who cook it and those who eat it, and the sheer aesthetic artistry that the best of the best are capable of putting on display. For me, watching the finale of Top Chef Masters was like an extended version of the “big night” sequence in Big Night. At one point in the judging, Jay Rayner suggests they just stop using their words and criticize using guttural “mmmmm” sounds instead. It was that good.

If I’m ever back in Chicago, I think I may just have to make a point of eating at Rick Bayless‘ Topolobampo.

Friday various

  • I think it’s great that Monty Python is being honored for outstanding contribution to film and television, and I hope some or all of the show is recorded and made available. But I can still remember when Python reunions were rare events, and a little part of me kind of misses that. That said, when I read the award ceremony would be held in New York, I absolutely did wonder about the possibility of getting tickets. (Unlikely, I know, and probably just as well. That’s the evening of my sister’s wedding rehearsal — which, as a groomsman and her brother, I should probably attend.)

  • Speaking of comedy reunions, the Kids in the Hall are get back together again…for a murder mystery miniseries? It sounds interesting if nothing else.

  • Remaking Yellow Submarine? In “that creepy 3-D motion-capture technology” used in The Polar Express and Beowulf? Okay, Robert Zemeckis needs to be stopped.

  • So you say you’ve never read Bradley Denton’s award-winning SF novel Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede, and you’d like to do so before the movie version comes out? Well, Mr. or Ms. Hypothetical-Type-Person, you’re in luck: Denton is making a free, Creative-Commons-licensed copy available at his website. (And at ManyBooks.net.) It’s been years since I read the book, but I remember being pleasantly surprised at the time. I think it’s time I re-read it.

  • And finally, ladies and gentlemen, the Batman fish. Whatever happened to the gilled crusader? [via]

Wednesday various

  • Molly Ringwald remembers John Hughes:

    Eventually, though, I felt that I needed to work with other people as well. I wanted to grow up, something I felt (rightly or wrongly) I couldn’t do while working with John. Sometimes I wonder if that was what he found so unforgivable. We were like the Darling children when they made the decision to leave Neverland. And John was Peter Pan, warning us that if we left we could never come back. And, true to his word, not only were we unable to return, but he went one step further. He did away with Neverland itself.

  • The Daily Show Is Now Hiring Real Reporters. I think this has less to do with a desire for verisimilitude at The Daily Show, or a blurring of the lines between real and fake news, and more to do with somebody over at the show just finding Radosh smart and funny. The piece he says first caught their interest, after all, is amusing, and it does a good job of laying out the absurdity of the political situation. The Daily Show is best at providing commentary and context. Millions of Americans may get their news from John Stewart, but I don’t think this signals their intention of doing independent, investigative reporting. I could be wrong, though. [via]

  • The first rule of Write Club… John C. Wright’s rules for writers are as good as any I’ve ever read. [via]

  • I love these lesser-known editing and proofreading marks and plan to use them at every opportunity I get. [via]

  • And finally, while everybody’s making a big deal about this upcoming Sesame Street Mad Men parody, it really hasn’t struck me as so far outside their norm. After all, if Sesame Street can parody Desperate Housewives and Law & Order, why not this?No, what I found oddly compelling was a bit from this report on the parody plans:

    The panel was introduced with a clip with President Barack Obama, saying, “This video is brought to you by the number 40.” Along with TBS’ George Lopez talk show, this is the second program featured at press tour that’s nabbed an intro clip from the president leading some critics to say, “enough already.”

    I can see the President introducing Sesame Street — it’s an educational institution — but George Lopez’s talk show? Surely the Commander in Chief has better things to do with his time.

    What I do find interesting about the Sesame Street parodies, overall, is that the show has increasingly skewed younger, aiming more squarely at pre-schoolers than in its earlier days. (One could argue this started with Elmo, but it was all but inevitable as more edutainment options became available outside Seasame Street.) Yet these parodies skew way beyond pre-school. The show is courting two very different audiences, while increasingly widening the gap between them.

Friday various

  • It’s the obvious joke, but you couldn’t pay me to watch Fox News. I’m dubious about the efficacy of any pay wall, much less one proposed by Rupert Murdoch. Heck, I was disturbed enough to learn that Bill O’Reilly was the recent Career Day Keynoter at my old high school. (He’s also an alum.) [via]
  • Aw man. First Farrago’s Wainscot and now Jim Baen’s Universe. Sometimes, it can seem like not a day without another short fiction marketplace closing. Honestly, the main thing that keeps Kaleidotrope running (beyond my own enjoyment at putting it together) is me turning a blind eye to exactly how much each issue costs me. (It’s a couple hundred dollars, let’s say that. And that’s even though I pay my writers next to nothing.) Sad to see these two markets close.
  • Still, here’s some good news: Scott Westerfeld’s terrific YA novel Uglies is now available as a free e-book. And non-US readers needn’t worry: though publisher asks for a US zipcode, as Westerfeld says, that’s really just five numbers.
  • Generally, I like Richard Corliss (or have never really seen any reason to dislike him, in the few times I’ve run across his work), but he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about in his criticism of Netflix.
  • And finally, although I can’t be at Worldcon, John Scalzi explains the Hugos.