Well it looks like 2013 will see one more landmark piece of pop culture come to a close, as tonight will mark the final episode of The Best Show On WFMU with Tom Scharpling.  Now look, I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that I’m one of the show’s longtime die-hard listeners, because I’m not.  I didn’t truly get in to the show until about two months ago, around the time that Scharpling announced that The Best Show would be going off the air on December 17.  But considering these last two months have seen me having a lot of free time on my hands, I can say I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time binging on Best Show Gems as well as tuning in to each new episode live, while also making my way through the extensive 13-year archives of The Best Show. Continue reading →

How about the Homeland last night, right? Pretty gross! Also, pretty exciting. It was nice to see the show get back into observation and interrogation, as that’s what it does best. Seems that after a shaky first few episodes, the real plot has come into focus and the show has basically found its footing again. So have you been avoiding Homeland this season or really down on it this year? Here’s a post for you.

The biggest complaint, at least in the Lemme household, has been the show’s dedication to Dana Brody stories. We got to the point this week where my dad actually booed her appearance on the screen. In a show where everyone else’s plot involves life and death stakes, it’s hard to care about Dana dating a shitty boy, especially since that was last season’s plot for her already. And yeah, I get it, she is there to show us what Carrie and her dad would be like if they weren’t so fucked up, but after being so unpopular last season, I’m amazed the show decided to double down on her like it did. Although, based on this week’s episode, we’re probably not going to be seeing much of her going forward, so… Maybe they just moved all her screen time to the first half of the season? Maybe it’s a mercy?

I don’t know. In the first season, it made sense to spend a lot of time with Dana and Jessica, her mother, because the story was about Brody readapting to life in America. Now the show seems to be squandering an opportunity to show the toll of Brody’s actions, especially since it has thus far just used Jessica as Dana’s mother, not the wife who lost it all, built it all back up, and lost it all again. At least we haven’t had to spend much time with Mr. I’ve-got-my-shit-together Mike.

The second cause for complaints is Carrie’s bipolar disorder and how crazy she’s been acting. This was mostly alleviated a few episodes ago, but the show really seems to hammering in how many problems this lady has, to the point where I almost feel like she could snap at any moment. This week they added even more complexity to her state of mental health, and it just rubs me like a shitty twist, one they really didn’t need. She had enough problems already, leave her alone you jerk writers! I have another problem with this, but I can’t address it without outright spoiling it, so ask me later.

My biggest concern going into the season was Brody’s place in the plot. Namely, that he shouldn’t have one in it. I’ve been really impressed that so far, he actually hasn’t been part of the story at all. They gave us an episode to show what he’s up to, but it was almost entirely separate from everything else going on. It’s a bold choice to have him off on his own island, one that I’m sure will turn into him being crucial to some plan in the latter half of the season, and I’ve been really pleased with it. Especially because it’s meant getting Saul bumped up as the second lead.

We all know Saul is great, the best character on the show (arguably after Virgil). Having him take the lead on the plot they’ve decided to do this season is really smart. If you want to do a story about justifying the existence of the CIA as it was, who better to spearhead that than Saul? Sure, we’ve got the weird machinations of Dar Adal, but watching Saul be in charge has been great. And I think this season’s theme of the human cost of spy work is so far being dealt with extremely well.

The first season about Homeland was a much more subtle, amazing show. The second season was bombastic and riveting, maybe the most exciting show on TV that year. That’s when we all started to worry that the show would just turn into 24, and it kind of has. I’ve noticed most episodes this season have been about 45 minutes long, and the nudity and graphic language has seemed scaled back… The show feels more like a network drama than it should. But damn, the show’s still capable of those moments that make me hurt to know what happens next. Suck it, terrorists!

It’s November now, which means just one thing: Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season is upon us. I mean, sure, there are other things going on too, like elections, Veteran’s Day, and Thanksgiving, but come on, we all know what’s up. In our capitalist, consumerist society, the reach of Christmas is vast. I think that’s part of why January is so depressing, since so much hype, for almost a quarter of the year, is focused on December 25. Anyway, Christmas is a big deal because of presents and Black Fridays is the biggest day of the year for shopping, you know this. If you’re a video gamer, this year will be especially tricky.

The way I see it, you’ve got four options. The first is the smartest, and the one I would recommend to pretty much everybody: Don’t buy a next generation console, wait for games you really want, maybe pick up a 3DS and Pokemon or something. New consoles are big investments, we’re talking low-end iPad money. The smart thing to do is wait until the demand goes down a bit, and a game you really want is out, before buying one. The more you know, the better you’ll be able to spend your money. So that’s one option.

Another is to go out and upgrade or buy a gaming PC. This is the most expensive option, unless you already have an all right computer and just need to do some upgrades. Titanfall, the most hyped next gen game, will be out on PC, just like most of the big third party games this holiday and probably going forward. Building a gaming PC is simpler than it sounds and being able to buy games on Steam, the Humble Bundle, and countless other online retailers means you’ll be able to save a ton on games going forward. But you will have to worry about things like drivers and in-game settings, plus, if you don’t already have them, a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and various cables. But if you’re in the market for a new computer this year, this is the option I’d recommend.

The third option is to buy a PlayStation 4, which comes out November 15. This is the system with the most goodwill, and at $399, it’s $100 cheaper than the Xbox One, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it became the fastest selling system in the early days of this generation. It’s also the most powerful next gen console, and already we’re hearing that games like Call of Duty run in a higher resolution on PS4. It’s still not PC, but the PS4 games will look good for a while. At launch they’ll have the new Killzone, which I’m sure will be pretty good, but not really great, as well Mark Cerny’s Knack, which might just be special. Also, that new Infamous game looks awesome and will be out next year.

On November 22, the Xbox One will be released for $500, which is a lot. But the system does come with a upgraded Kinect, which is capable of doing some pretty cool stuff. That means you get the most out of the box with the Xbone, as long as you believe developers will find interesting uses for Kinect going forward. Someone probably will, right? Also, the Xbone launch lineup is a lot stronger, with exclusives like Dead Rising 3, Crimson Dragon, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Forza 5 all looking at least interesting. Plus Titanfall will be out on Xbone next March, and that sounds like it will blow everything else out of the water unless something goes terribly wrong.

Which path is the right one to go down? The immediate gratification of the Xbone, or the popular, smart bet of the PS4? I really think if you want to have the most fun the Christmas, it’s probably on the Xbone, but after Tintanfall, who knows? The PS4 is more powerful, but it’s not necessarily night and day. The Xbone probably has the better controller, but everyone says the DualShock 4 is a massive improvement over Sony’s previous controllers, so you’d probably be happy either way. $100 is $100, but if motion gaming really takes off down the road, you’ll have to pony up for it on PS4.

I didn’t preorder either console, because that’s a crazy thing to do and the people who do that either have plenty of disposable income or are scum-of-the-earth bastards planning on reselling the system on eBay for a profit. So what are my next gen plans? I’m not going to lineup for a console, because I remember lining up for the Wii. I guess I’ll keep my eyes open, and I’ll be sure to read and watch next gen coverage on sites like Giant Bomb and Polygon. I guess if I had to pick right now, I’d probably go buy a PS4 and take my chances on being able to run Tintanfall on my rapidly aging PC. But man, it’s been a fun year for games and it’s going to be exciting right to the finish.

Lou Reed: 1942-2013

Looking back, it’s kind of weird how linear my musical education as a teenager was.  Take for instance my first exposure to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground.  At that point, I was very strictly dictating the music I was listening to based on the albums that were high on the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest albums list that came out in 2003.  And when you look at the upper part of that list, it’s pretty much pound-for-pound albums that are “classic” in the most impeachable and monolithic way possible. And upon discovering each of these albums, I don’t think I ever questioned their greatness.

However, The Velvet Undergound & Nico was different.  Here was an album that was almost 40 years old when I first heard it, and yet it practically challenged me to question what “great music” is.  I mean the instruments were frequently out of tune, Lou Reed’s lyrics were weird and kinky, he sounded like he was perpetually on drugs, and then the album didn’t even end with some masterful opus, which I had come to expect from most “great albums”.  Instead it ended with seven minutes of pure noise.

I find this eerily coincidental, because this is the exact same effect that Lou Reed’s music had on rock music as a whole.  It challenged people.  It went in radical directions in terms of subject matter, and completely perplexed people who were accustomed to the peace and love of what they perceived to be the counterculture.  And in the process, he basically created what we now see as “cool” or “alternative” or “indie” or whatever you want to call rock music that sits comfortably outside the mainstream.

Of course, this all makes it hard to say anything about Lou Reed that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll just stop trying and say that he was one of the all-time great rock songwriters, and truly a guy that dared to go against the grain and subvert expectations.  Which in this time of mourning, couldn’t help but remind me of the Lou Reed composition “Afters Hours”, which has got to be one of the most weirdly hopeful and optimistic songs about death I’ve ever heard.  So for now, I guess we’ll just have to close the door…

Ray Harryhausen: 1920 – 2013
I’m shocked that I didn’t hear about this earlier. Ray Harryhausen was one of the greatest special effects artists of his time. As one of the top pioneers in stop-motion photography he brought countless fantastical creatures to the screen. From his early years as an assistant to Willis H. O’Brien (the animator behind King Kong) on Mighty Joy Young to his monster laden cult classic Clash of the Titans thirtysomething years later, Harryhausen captured the imaginations of many. I’ll always remember him best for Jason and the Argonauts (1963), a film that Tom Hanks once declared: “The greatest movie ever made.” It’s got Hydras, Harpes, a giant statue monster and who could forget the skeletons? When Todd Armstrong faces off against those bony bad guys set to the music of Bernard Herrmann, I get chills.

It’s disappointing that stop-motion has become somewhat of relic, but in a way that only makes Harryhausen’s work more special. It was a different era where effects work was done not with computers but with one’s bare hands. I have a lot of admiration for the patience and attention to detail Harryhause had. So much so in fact that I’ve decided to do a written Top Ten Tribute post to Harryhausen next week. Be on the look out for “Top Ten Harryhausen Monsters” though it wont be easy picking a winner.

As Colin pointed out in his surprisingly thorough write up of “Landslide,” there haven’t been a lot of posts lately. One of the reasons for that is I’ve been spending my time not playing through a bunch of fun new video games, but instead focusing entirely on the trans-media event (my words, not their’s) that is Defiance. And since it’s a MMORPG and a TV show on the Science Fiction (or “SyFy”) network, I thought maybe you guys have no idea what this is. So I’ll tell you.

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