January 10, 2000

First and foremost, you MUST watch Freaks and Geek tonight. If it doesn't get good ratings tonight, NBC is going to cancel it, and it is not only the best show I've seen this season, it is one of the best shows I have ever seen. And Jim agrees with me, so you know it's not one of those cheesy teeny-bopper shows. Please watch it tonight, on NBC, at 8 PM EST. Please! Tell your friends!

So, you may have noticed some changes around here! I changed my entry font to Georgia (or Times, if you don't have Georgia, but you really should have Georgia). I was reading some other journals this weekend that used it, and I decided I really liked the look of it, so here you go. I tried to space things out a bit more, but my CSS implementation sometimes leaves a bit to be desired, so let me know if it looks totally bizarre or is hard to read.

Also, I wrote two new film reviews: The Talented Mr. Ripley and Magnolia. The Magnolia one only really makes sense if you've already seen the movie. It's not so much a review as me trying to make sense of the film. If you haven't seen it, don't read that unless you want spoilers - big, gigantic ones.

Also, my new WWF article is up at Ironminds, if you are so inclined. I have to say that I am incredibly flattered to be writing for the same webzine as Mike Nelson and other former MST3K-ites.

As mentioned in my quasi-Friday entry, I spent all of Friday pretty much comatose. Saturday was recovery day (and try to finish up my WWF article by deadline day), so I didn't do much else. Jim and I watched the South Park movie on Pay PerView. It was funny. I have to say, it wasn't gut-bustingly funny, as some people have said, but I think part of that is seeing it in a theater with a bunch of other people, all laughing their fool heads off. Jim and I saw it sitting on a couch, in our living room, and I was perusing the new Hold Everything catalog at the same time. So you can see why I didn't fall off the couch laughing.

Sunday, I accompanied Mar to a Wedding Expo here in Syracuse. Neither of us had ever attended one before, so we didn't really know what to expect. We got there a little early, and had to wait for the doors to open. Mary got to wear a sticker that said, "I'm the Bride" which I have reproduced for you over there to the right. It was really that pink. I kept looking at it and kind of cracking up. Also, Mary got a big stack of tickets, because each vendor was having a drawing, so it was just a big scam to get the brides to visit each and every booth. I don't know how well it worked out since for a lot of the booths (like Valvoline Instant Oil Change - why were they there?), we just did a fly-by and dropped the ticket in.

But the best part of the Expo was the fashion show. First of all, I have never been to a fashion show before. Not even those cheesy teen back-to-school ones in the mall. So it was kind of exciting! They had a big stage, and the lights were all dimmed. The bridal gowns were okay. None of them really jumped out at me. Plus, they showed mostly sleeveless or spaghetti straps, and Mary is getting married in October, so that may not be appropriate! The big trend seems to be wraps. I like the look of it, but what do you do with the wrap when you get sick of holding it, or have to dance or something? One solution a designer came up with was to have the wrap attached in the back, so that when you don't want to hold it anymore, it turns into the train of the gown. It sounds weird, but it looked very cool.

The cheesiest part of the show was the male models. One guy just thought he was the shit. He was good looking and all, but he loved himself A LOT. And there were women screaming for him, like it was Chippendales. I'm thinking, "You people are getting married! Behave yourselves!" Then there was one model who must've been someone's son, because he was kind of short and dumpy. But maybe they were just trying to show what the tuxes would look like on a variety of body types. But my favorite guy was this older gentleman who was setting off my gaydar in a big way. For the last turn down the runway, the men all came out in top hats and canes and did a little dance number to "Putting On the Ritz" by Taco, and it was so sad. The show finale featured all of the female models coming out with umbrellas, and then the male models coming out and joining them to the tune of "It's Raining Men". It was possibly the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. I loved it!

Afterwards, we had to go back to all the booths to see if Mary won any prizes, and she did! She won a picture frame from a photographer, and he also gave her $50 off if she decides to use him for her wedding! So that was pretty exciting. All in all, Mary and I had a good time. I can't believe how many people are getting married, and how young a lot of the brides were! I felt kind of old there. But it was interesting.

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So, what the hell. AOL is buying Time Warner? I just hope that AOL doesn't screw up my digital cable or my cable modem. I don't want AOL. I don't like AOL. I like my Roadrunner service and I don't want it to change, really. So Steve Case, don't mess up my service!

Gamecenter picks the Top 40 Games of the Millennium.

In case you missed my plea in the entry, please watch Freaks and Geeks tonight, or it's going to be cancelled. If you've never watched, here's a good primer.

Of all the people she could have chosen, Melissa Etheridge chose David Crosby to be the father of her children.

I watched a little bit of the People's Choice Awards. Jim got so disgusted that Stark Raving Mad beat out Futurama, we turned the channel. But if you're interested, here are the results.

What will the year 2000 yield in terms of entertainment highlights? EW weighs in with their choices.

ABC and NBC shuffle their lineups around. Sometimes I think network programmers are on crack.

Why would anyone, much less Madonna, choose to cover "American Pie"? Now we can look forward to another generation trying to decipher the lyrics, I guess.

EW rates the online versions of TV game shows. I have done "Millionaire" and "Jeopardy", and both were fairly entertaining, although they might be annoying if you have a slow connection.

ZDNet has good coverage of the neat gadgets at CES.