MittelMitte

Manhattanhedge Narrow 2, originally uploaded by luzer.

From the East Side of Cental Park Reservoir - June 28th, 2006 - right after sundown

Classic Taxi - Grill
Originally uploaded by luzer.

Brittany Charlton speaks at a protest yesterday at the New School University. Several students and faculty members oppose Sen. John McCain as speaker at this week’s graduation ceremony.

Yes, I know, the Lakers lost. Kobe had 50. And, like the old days, his boys let him down in crunch-time (Smush, Smush, Smush, & defense).

However, a well-trained eye would have noticed Larry David and his good-friend, the black-clothes-only Richard Lewis, in the audience last night (in separate seats-though). Larry seemed to be sitting (alone) to the right of the visiting Suns' bench, touching knees with the injured Kurt Thomas, hardly one the best seats in the house. An SI blogger quasi-interviewed him before the game:

During warmups, I grabbed a courtside seat next to arguably the funniest man on the planet, Larry David, who was enjoying a chicken sandwich as he watched Steve Nash practice free throws. "This is still a Lakers town," said David. "I actually go to both Lakers and Clippers games, but the Lakers crowd seems to get a little more excited." As he was greeted by Kevin Dillon, I asked the Curb Your Enthusiasm star if the Lakers were still the hottest ticket in town. "Probably," he said. "If you don't know anything about basketball and want to be seen, you'll go to a Lakers game."

As I sat next to David in a seat that would be worth over $2,000 if I continued to sit in it for another 20 minutes, I took a look at a menu given to me by the in-seat dining waitress. Acting as if I belonged, I asked what was good and she recommended the sushi plate and the margarita, which would have cost me $30. I was going to say that's a pricey meal, but the absurdity of complaining about a $30 tab while sitting in a $2,300 seat quickly hit me. So instead, I went the Stoudemire rout and got some McDonald's from the Staples concourse instead.

• HBO is re-running all CYEs from Season 1, Episode 1, starting this week.
• It seems like series is over. Season 5 was the weakest of the bunch, and show 50 was titled"The End."
• LD has a myspace account??? Is this real?
• List of LD appearances on Seinfeld - for fun:
• (1) He was the VOICE of George Steinbrenner in [The Gum (and all others)]
  
  (2) He was on the Greenpeace boat. [The Pilot]
  
  (3) He was Frank Costanza's lawyer in the cape. [The Chinese Woman]
  
  (4) Asks "Where's my Kosher Meal?" [The Airport]
  
  (5) Larry David was the voice of Newman (before Wayne Knight) in the
  original broadcast of The Revenge - Wayne Knight's voice was later
  dubbed in for the syndicated run. [The Revenge]
  
  (6) He is mentioned in the newspaper articles. [The Wizard]
  "Larry David Gets Hole In One"
  "Larry David Hurts Elbow"
  "Larry David Never To Play Golf Again"
  
  (7) At the table in the Chinese restaurant. [The Chinese Restaurant]
  
  (8) Yells, "Is anyone here a Marine Biologist?" [The Marine Biologist]
  
  (9) On television "great green globs..." [The Heart Attack]
  
  (10) He sells gum at a little hole-in-the-wall newsstand [The Gum ]
  
  (11) When Kramer has to go to the bathroom, someone inside says "customers
  only' [The Pilot]
  
  (12) The emcee who introduces Jerry at the comedy club. [The Fire]
  
  (13) Says hello to Cosmo on the street [The Switch]
  
  (14) "Everybody out of the Chunnel! Everybody out!" [The Pool Guy]
  
  (15) Barking dog [The Dog] - perhaps - still being validated)
  
  

If I had to sum up the new television shows so far this year (I don't... but let's say I did...), I would say they are "So Bad, They're Good."

Huh? Confused? Let me explain.

Back in the day, the stand-out TV series (Seinfeld, ER, alf) were exciting, witty, and entertaining. Then the reality TV-show craze hit (real-world, fear-factor, simple life), and we were left with exciting, scandalous, and entertaining series, but nothing that made you think. (Smart shows don't sell. Just ask the rat, David Cross.) Now, in the Post-Reality Era, the studios are trying something else out: Shows so bad- they are good.

I have three (3) examples and will address them individually, one per week.

Prison Break on FOX. (imdb, blog) This is without a doubt the "best" of the bunch. I actually became addicted to it while I was over in Central America (figures), during a week-long Maratón De la Rotura De la Prisión. I was hooked after about half an episode. The plot premise- that a successful, professionalstructuralal engineer would tattoo his entire body with a blue-print/hell-scene, rob a bank just to get caught, get caught, enter a maximum security prison, build a popsicle-stick model of the Taj Mahal, involve every schmoe in the escape plans (including the 350 lb launder who couldn't climb over a table), etc, etc, all to break out his ugly, bumpy-headed, inappreciativeve, drugie, older-brother from of maximum-security prison- just seemed very feasible and logical to me. I never really stopped to question the plausibility of all this.

However, as the weeks went on, I found some things annoying.

• The Music- Our leading offender, the musica in this show tries to create suspense where there is none. For example: A member of our group is bleeding, something our idiot-pack -o-guards has finally realized. The music thumps like Andre the Giant's heart without its pacemaker(?)... What will happen? Cut to commercial... Thump Thump... Return... Our hero, Scofield, takes the blame by pricking his thumb. Silence. Whew, that was close.
  
• The Idiot-Guards. See above. The guards are the only morons left in Fox River that don't know what is going on. Also- I have never seen inmates given so much freedom.
  
• The Forced-Suspense. See above.
• The Plot. here is a quote from ABC's website:
• Combining the hope of "The Shawshank Redemption," the camaraderie of "The Longest Yard" and the tense procedure and spectacle of "The Great Escape," the series promises to reveal additional pieces of the puzzle each week as Michael carries out his daring plan to mastermind the ultimate prison break – and solve the far-reaching national-scale conspiracy that landed him and his brother there in the first place.
• The Fact That I Love This Show. I don't care what happens. I just am dying to find out what completely absurd plan AND kinks (in said plan) could arrise next week.