Entertainment

Watching the first episode of "Survivor Samoa" last night was bittersweet. Sweet, because my wife and I are huge Survivor fans. We've seen each episode of every season, so naturally we were looking forward to the fresh drama that plays out as twenty contestants try to outwit, outplay, and outlast each other.Bitter, because this was the most disturbing Survivor show I've ever seen. Plenty of jerks, assholes, and liars have competed for the winner's prize of one million dollars. But nobody like Evil Incarnate Russell Hantz. Usually it takes a while for a contestant to warm up to truly despicable behavior.…

My wife and I love "So You Think You Can Dance." It was sad to see the current show come to an end last night with Jeanine's triumph. (How does someone 18 dance so well? Partial answer: she started when she was three.) Being philosophically minded, I enjoy the more profound sub-texts of the show as much as the overt dancing. Now, having just written "profound sub-texts," I guess I've got to come up with some -- since like most bloggers I tend to write first and think afterwards. Wednesday night, for the first time I voted for a couple…

Hey, it's almost August. And the Northwest's record-breaking heat wave is about over. Time to celebrate by sitting on our finally-cool deck and sharing some viral dance videos that brought smiles to the sweaty brows of my wife and me yesterday. Like this title of this video says, this has got to be The Best Wedding Entrance Dance Ever. For sure. Then there's this guy -- who must have watched Beyonce's video of Single Ladies a million times to get his copied moves down so perfectly. To check his work, here's Beyonce's version. Actually, I think the guy is a…

 Today Laurel and I headed to Veneta for a marvelous counterculture celebration, the 2009 Oregon Country Fair. I wished we had an old VW bus to drive there, but had to settle for our Hybrid Highlander (less cool, but not nearly so prone to break down).We hadn't been to the Fair for about fourteen years. It was good to see that the '60's flower power hippie ambience hadn't changed. Except the original flower children, like us, had aged. But as some of my photos show, we're still youthful at heart. Walking to the fair entrance, we encountered some philosophy: "The…

I was so happy Coach (real name, Benjamin Wade) got voted off Survivor Tocantins this week. My wife and I have watched every episode of Survivor over the years. We've seen some real jerks, such as the infamous Jonny Fairplay and Randy Bailey.But I've never screamed so often at the TV, Vote him off! Get rid of him! Don't trust him! My wife and I couldn't stand Coach from the beginning. He's the most irritating sort of person: someone who blabs on and on about how truthful, upright, honest, courageous, and strong he is. I wouldn't be surprised if Coach…

If you're thinking of getting rid of DISH network because it no longer has a favorite local station (like Portland's KATU, in our case), don't hesitate to jump to DirecTV.That's what I decided to do, and after five days of experience with DirecTV -- the installer came last Thursday -- I'm wondering why I didn't dump DISH sooner.Since we have several Qwest services (local line, unlimited long distance, DSL), adding DirecTV shaved another $10 off our bill. It's hard to compare the costs of DISH and DirecTV, given the many programming and receiver options, but it looks like we're going…

Oooh! So cool. Both Obama's inauguration and Ustream's new video player for the iPhone that is streaming live coverage.I just turned on my new iPhone, clicked on the App Store, and downloaded it via a "Ustream" search.On my phone it wants a wi-fi connection. We don't have 3G coverage at our house, so I don't know if it will stream video over 3G.Still, it's neat to be able to watch CNN on both our TV and my iPhone. Now I can go to the bathroom and not miss a live moment of history.Thanks, Ustream.

We here in the United States, who think we're going through tough economic times, need to put Slumdog Millionaire at the top of our movie-watching list.Laurel and I saw it last night at Salem Cinema. Aside from the film's entertainment value (off the charts!) I came away with a fresh appreciation of how good the lifestyle of most Americans is compared with how Indians live in the Mumbai slums.Many scenes are incredibly powerful, showing how children and adults alike live perpetually on the edge of existence, eating meal to meal, not being sure whether the bed they sleep in one…

Sorry, DISH Network, I've changed my mind. Your satellite dish on our roof soon will be replaced by a DirecTV model. On January 1 I was planning to stick with DISH, even though turning off our local ABC affiliate, KATU (Channel 2) was deeply irritating. Watching the 2009 Rose Bowl on a 4.5 inch laptop window wasn't nearly as much fun as seeing it on our new 42 inch LCD television would have been. And we're getting anxious about the new season of "Lost" starting in a few weeks on ABC.Still, I was going to give DISH more time to…

Wow, it sure was fun to watch the Rose Bowl on a 4.5 inch screen this afternoon. That's the only way I could see the game -- via the Internet -- thanks to the hugely frustrating standoff between the DISH satellite TV network and Fisher Communications, which owns several ABC stations in the northwest, including Portland's KATU.Like I said before, curses on both DISH and Fisher. And I know a lot of other DISH subscribers feel the same way.I've asked representatives of both companies to give me the details of this contract dispute. How much was DISH paying previously to…

I'm one of the disgruntled DISH network subscribers who just realized that the Rose Bowl is on ABC today, and our local affiliate (KATU) no longer is on DISH due to a ridiculous contract dispute.After having done some quick Google research on how to see the Rose Bowl for free over the Internet, here's the best option I've come up with. This site has a list of feeds around the world. I tried a few. Not wanting to download additional software I found that this feed opened even on my MacBook. At the moment I'm seeing a live feed of…

Super irritating... to start our nightly recording of local news on Portland's KATU (Channel 2) and find an endless loop of a DISH network notification that we can kiss our ABC subscription goodbye because DISH no longer has an agreement to carry KATU.DISH says it's the greed of Fisher Communications that's at fault.KATU says that DISH network should be willing to pay more for it's programming.Here's what I say: to hell with both of you. DISH network, you canceled without notice a channel that's been included in our package since we signed up with your satellite service. If we knew…

I don't know what this says about me, but I've just spent quite a bit of time burrowing through the Blondie comic strip archive looking for the hottest images of her. For quite a while I've had a thing for Blondie. She's the most curvaceous chick on the mainstream comic pages. She may have had breast implants, given her otherwise svelte shape, but who cares? And I'd prefer that she wear high heels around the house, but her tight skirts help make up for that fantasy lack. I figured that if I Googled "Blondie comic hottie" I'd find lots of…

We're fervent fans of CBS' Survivor. Haven't missed an episode, ever. Not once in sixteen seasons. We put so much time into the show, I like to discern Big Truths in the machinations that go on between the contestants. I'm not a Clinton supporter, but the Fans versus Favorites contest on a Micronesian island that concluded last night was a good omen for her. First, the women ruled. Everyone in the final four was female. The girls were way more devious than the guys. That's why this is called a "reality" show. Cirie talked about how her mother said that…

I knew I was going to like the play, "Copenhagen," when one of the first lines said that some questions are unanswerable. That appealed to my churchless soul. As did Salem Repertory Theatre's reading of the play. For a mere five bucks each Laurel and I got to see "Copenhagen" performed last night. OK, read. But when a play has so much dialogue, and so little action, seemingly it doesn't make much difference whether the actors are sitting on stools with binders in their hands, reading, or sitting around on a stage reciting memorized lines. "Copenhagen" is about a 1941…

Just what we needed – another engaging TV series that'll add to our backlog of unwatched DVR recordings. But we're hooked on HBO's "In Treatment." My wife is a retired psychotherapist. So not surprisingly, Laurel finds watching Gabriel Byrne fascinating. He plays Paul Weston, a psychotherapist who acts like a traditional psychiatrist because he's so non-directive (he also seems semi-depressed). But Weston must be something else, since he has plenty of time for his patients and doesn't whip out a prescription pad. So far, at least; we've only watched five of the forty-five episodes. After my first viewing of "In…

After four days of seeing how Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart fared without writers after returning to the airwaves, I can issue my review: The Colbert Show and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (now called A Daily Show) are more entertaining without the writers. So even though my progressive sympathies are with those on strike, my TV watching sympathies say, "Stay away; let Colbert and Stuart keep on doing their own thing." I've always enjoyed The Colbert Show more than The Daily Show, because Stephen Colbert is more of a natural improvisational comedian. His interviews are terrific, filled with…

My wife and I already are tired of watching re-runs of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Pretty soon we'll be reduced to desperate measures, like watching programming with actual educational value, such as the many nature and science shows stored up on our digital video recorder that we've been ignoring in favor of Comedy Central. There's a few bright spots to the writer's strike, though. This YouTube video, "Not The Daily Show, With Some Writer," is terrific entertainment. Persuasive too. Stick it to those corporate bastards, writers! This other YouTube offering, apparently from The Colbert Show writers, isn't…

After watching the first episode of Survivor China tonight, I have my favorite contestant: Ashley. Contrary to what my wife would have you believe, my admiration for Ashley has nothing to do with the size of her breasts. Well, maybe just a little. OK, maybe a lot. Still, I need to defend my bosom friend (oops, bad choice of words) from vicious rumors that were being spread in our home this evening by – not big surprise, since our dog doesn't watch much TV – my wife again. Almost every time Ashley appeared on camera with the "professional wrestler" identifier…

Who has the hottest music video featuring an ardent – and attractive – female admirer, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? This is the sort of political debate that should be going on right now. It's too early to decide on a Democratic candidate. But it's the perfect time to pay close attention to the positions of Taryn Southern, who's hot for Hillary, and Amber Lee, the Obama girl. You decide. At first I was drawn to Taryn, but after watching Amber I realized that she has her own, um, assets.