Saturday, October 31, 2020

COV243D-19: Football-Counter Programming B1G Week 2


It's Halloween and its week 2 of Big 10 football. And there are three days until the 2020 election. (Those things are not ranked in order of importance.) But I'm only here to divert you from one of those things.

Have you every seen the movie "Disturbia"? Its a early 2000s movie starring Shia LaBoeuf. And I have a strong fondness for it. And that is most likely because of the fact that I have long liked Jimmy Stewart's "Rear Window". And Disturbia is just an updated version of that Hitchcock classic. LaBoeuf is playing the teen version of Stewart's L.B. Jefferies. But Shia is undergoing house arrest with an ankle bracelet rather than recovering from a broken leg suffered during a car race photoshoot.

But both characters are obsessed with strange happenings outside their window. LaBoeuf is suspicious of his suburban neighbor (played with always perfect creepiness by David Morse--who has made a living playing dudes who are disturbing and off.)

But this movie is more than just a digital remake of a Hitchcock classic. I was watching the last thirty minutes of it today and I noticed that in the final moments of the movie, as LaBoeuf is trying to save his mom from Morse, and as he is trying to draw the police to the crime scene, he does a few things that echoed other movies.

He jumps in a neighboring pool (from a roof) to break the established boundaries of the ankle bracelet. And the camera gets down at water level with him to be all dramatic. And that reminded me of the pool scene in "Poltergeist". And also, there is a scene where LaBoeuf is holding a pair of hedge clippers. And that made me think of any number of "Friday the 13th" movies. And there is another scene a previous victim of Morse is uncovered. And she is wrapped in plastic. And that made me think of "Twin Peaks".

So, what I'm saying is that Disturbia is a much more layered and nuanced movie that you think it is.

Happy Halloween everyone!

And don't watch football today!

Saturday, October 24, 2020

COV236D-19: Football Counter-Programming B1G Week 1

 It's definitely been a minute (97 days . . . so that calculates to--checks my math . . .139,680 minutes) since I last provided a COVID update. But life has gone on, such as what life constitutes in this very strange year. School proceeds. Work doesn't stop. The days and the minutes just keep piling up. But the unusual elements keep pace.

Some of you may have noticed that it is almost November and there is no post on WWYG?! detailing the Fall TV season. And that is easy to understand for a few reasons. 

First . . . are we even watching TV on the mainstream networks anymore? I know that I barely am. Almost all the shows that I have been watching recently has been streaming shows on new networks. I don't even KNOW if new shows have been started on TV in the last two months. And that is because I haven't even been trying to find out. And it is also because the COVID restrictions have (I guess?) made it harder to gather to work in the TV industry and so the pipeline of new production has decreased. So . . . maybe there is nothing to miss?

But what is definitely still happening is football. And it has been doing so for the last few weeks anyway. At all levels. Middle school, high school, college, professional. Football never quits and you can't stop it. And so, I guess . . . since the B1G is beginning its league-only, shortened season this weekend, I"M BACK with this year's 

FOOTBALL COUNTER-PROGRAMMING: MASKED-UP SEASON


This week's dumb question--When making cracker-based snacks, do you put the cheese, peanut-butter, deli meat, whatever on the TOP side or the UNDER side of the cracker?


You know what I mean, right? There is the fancy, top side of a cracker with the extra browning, the puffed, domed part of the cracker. And then there is the bottom side that is flatter and has a bit less browning.

Do you have a preference? Does it cross your mind as you construct your snack? Maybe this will motivate you to be more worried about presentation in the future. Maybe it will give you a complex and make it so much harder to make hors d'oeuvres for future parties post COVID? (If so, I'm sorry.)

Let me know in the comments how you approach this. Or if this is going to drive you to be more thoughtful about it in the future.