Anyone who knows me, knows I love me some Jason Schwartzman! He is adorably nebbish, and hipster all rolled up into one! I may be repetitive in this post, but Max Fisher is my all time favorite movie character and Bored to Death gives me my Schwartzman fix on demand.

Max Fisher: The Great Anti-hero

Within the first day of watching the movie Rushmore, I saw what a classic anti-hero Max Fisher was. An anti-hero is someone who is the main character/ hero of the story, but they don’t have the qualities most people associate with normal heroes. For example, one unheroic trait that Max Fisher has is his extreme social awkwardness.

Rushmore is a 1998 comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson about an eccentric teenager named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), his friendship with rich industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray), and their mutual love for elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). The film was co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson. The soundtrack was scored by regular Anderson collaborator Mark Mothersbaugh and features several songs by bands associated with the British Invasion of the 1960s.

The movie helped launch the careers of Anderson and Schwartzman, while establishing a “second career” for Murray as a respected actor of independent cinema. Rushmore also won Best Director and Best Supporting Male awards at the 1999 Independent Spirit Awards while Murray earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

The film centers on Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), a precocious and eccentric 15 year-old, who is both Rushmore’s most extracurricular and least scholarly student; Herman Blume (Bill Murray), a disillusioned industrialist who comes to admire Max; and Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), a widowed first grade teacher who becomes the object of both Max’s and Herman’s affection.

Max’s life revolves around Rushmore Academy, a private school, where he is a scholarship student. Max spends nearly all of his time on elaborate extracurricular activities, caring little how it affects his grades. He also feuds with the school’s headmaster, Dr. Guggenheim (Brian Cox).

Blume finds his operation of a multimillion dollar company to be unsatisfying and is frustrated that his marriage is failing and the two sons he’s putting through Rushmore are unrepentant brats. He and Max become close friends; Max admires Herman’s success while Herman is impressed by Max’s cocksure attitude.

Ms. Cross arrives at the academy as a new teacher after the death of her husband (and former Rushmore student), and Max quickly develops an infatuation. He makes many attempts at courting her. While she initially tolerates Max, Ms. Cross becomes increasingly alarmed at his obvious obsession with her. Along the way Blume attempts to convince Max that Ms. Cross is not worth the trouble, only to fall for Rosemary himself. They begin dating without Max’s knowledge.

After Max attempts to break ground on an aquarium without the school’s approval, he is expelled from Rushmore. He is then forced to enroll in his first public school, Grover Cleveland High. Attempts to engage in outside activities at his new school have mixed results. A fellow student, Margaret Yang (Sara Tanaka), tries to engage Max, but he pays little attention to her. Rosemary and Blume attempt to support him in his new school.

Eventually, Max’s friend Dirk (Mason Gamble) discovers the relationship between Rosemary and Blume and informs Max as payback for a rumor Max started about his mother. Max and Blume go from being friends to mortal enemies, and they engage in back-and-forth acts of revenge on each other. Max informs Blume’s wife of her husband’s affair, thus ending their marriage. Max then puts bees in Blume’s hotel room, and then Blume destroys Max’s bicycle with his car. Max also cuts the brake lines on Blume’s car, for which he is arrested. Eventually Max gives up and explains to Blume that revenge no longer matters because even if he (Max) wins, Rosemary still would love Blume. Max then becomes depressed and stops attending school. He cuts himself off from the world and works as an apprentice at his father’s barber shop.

One day, Dirk stops by the shop to apologize to Max and bring him a Christmas present. In the process, Dirk suggests Max see his old headmaster in the hospital, knowing Blume will be there, as well. Max and Blume meet and are cordial, and Max finds out that Ms. Cross broke up with Blume. He also manages to bring Dr. Guggenheim out of his coma. Max begins to apply himself in school again. He also develops a friendship with Margaret Yang who he casts in one of his plays.

Max takes his final shot at Ms. Cross and is rebuffed again. Max makes it his new mission to win Ms. Cross back for Blume. His first attempt is unsuccessful, but then he invites both Herman and Rosemary to the performance of a play he wrote, making sure they will be sitting together. In the end, Ms. Cross and Blume appear to reconcile. Max and Margaret Yang also become a couple.

The movie ends with Max and Ms. Cross looking at each other enigmatically as they share a dance at the play’s wrap party.

Kenny Powers has got to be the most inappropriate character ever written! He makes me laugh, blush, cringe and laugh each and every time I watch East Bound and Down. Kenny Powers is a washed up ex major league baseball player who still believes he is the man, rife with mullet, out of shape body, and all are integral to his completely inaccurate self assessment! This season is particularly funny to me. It is my favorite out of all the on demand shows on HBO and Showtime, well, The Big C may be the closest second!

Kenny is a mess of a man, and I am never ever bored watching him!

“Like a pot-bellied white knight, Kenny rides his moped onto the infield of the Charros and declares his independence from living under a false name. He tells his soon-to-be teammates that they stink, but admits that he does, too. He will help the team rise from the dead and goes on to confess that he is probably a “Christ figure.”

I am loving The Big C  on Showtime! Laura Linney  is an unbelieveable actress and anything she signs on to do deserves a look. This show is no exception.

Laura plays Cathy: 

Cathy has always been conservative and structured – the perfect suburban wife and mother. Receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis becomes not only a challenge, but a catalyst for change. Cathy is tired of being “the sensible one” — now she wants to let her freak flag fly. For the first time in her life, she is going to make choices that suit her needs. Who says you can’t eat dessert as an appetizer? Time is precious, and Cathy is grabbing life by the balls…

Her wacky and homeless brother Sean is a fun character:

Sean is Cathy’s eccentric brother – and “eccentric” is putting it mildly. Selectively homeless and wildly outspoken, Sean appreciates life while he is living it, on his own terms at all times, critics (and deodorant!) be damned. He has always been the portrait of unbridled freedom – no inner conflicts, just comfortable and content – Cathy’s polar opposite. Which might be why she finds herself seeking him out as she goes through this big transition.

There are a few others, which are amazing.. one is, Andrea, played by Gabourney Sidibe:

Andrea is mean and snotty, but something about her attracts Cathy. She carries a confidence and a spiritedness that makes her stand out from the other students in the class. Cathy takes on Andrea’s smart-aleck ways as a challenge to nurture and help. And through this, Cathy helps herself.

And lastly, her sexy, and sweet doctor!

Anyway, I highly recommend it – I LOVE IT!

Louise Row, Host of Plain Jane, British Fashion Expert

For the second night in a row, while sewing, I happened across the show Plain Jane! I love it! I don’t know if it is because I was obsessed with giving makeovers from about age 10.. YES, that is exactly why.. I was also the makeover queen in high school. There is something about bringing out the best in someone that feels so great to me. Seeing someone transform into a person with confidence, loving the way they look, and feeling great is the ultimate high! I never got off on making someone feel awful- I was always the opposite. I wanted people to feel great. If you ask anyone who truly knows me, they will say the same. This show is SOOOOOO GREAT because of that. Tonight, I watched this adorable Asian girl, Jona reveal her secret crush on her best friend. The last two shows featured girls who were secretly in love with their best friend. I wonder if every show will reveal the same. Jona was adorable as a plain jane and became cuter as her new made over, haircut, made up, dress-wearing self. I am not going to be able to get enough of this show! I don’t think I could handle one of the participants confronting a crush and the object of their desire rejected them. How horrible would that be? I will have to keep watching to see if it ever happens. I hope it never happens it will break my heart!  If you want some “feel good” television, tune into Plain Jane! I wish I was the host!!! http://www.cwtv.com/shows/plain-jane

Friday Night Lights- SO MUCH MORE THAN FOOTBALL...

This show is unbelievably emotional and addresses so many societal moral issues it is INSANE! Whomever writes this show, hear me LOUD, you are all GeNIUs!

Peter Berg, creator, Friday Night Lights Television Series

The creator of the show, Peter Berg, is to be hailed. Every time I watch this show, and I am mostly alone, I say aloud, “This show is going to kill me!” I say things out loud the whole time like, “I cannot believe how great this show is..” so on and so forth. You get the picture. Never in my life have I watched a show that addresses all moral issues, and creates perfect repercussions and makes you think and understand things in a way you might not have before! I have all of them watched this season so far, and last night’s viewing of last Friday’s episode was no different for me! The characters are all so well written and the situations they are put in are genius.

Tim Riggins

Everyone in America should be made to watch this show- EVERYONE…! Tim Riggins is now going to take the blow for his bro- that TIM RIGGINS!! He is the good bad boy everyone loves to love. Quietly doing the RIGHT THING.. MOST OF THE TIME.. if he doesn’t, he understands, and is a stand up guy and will take the heat, admit it and move on.. this time, a glimpse into the future– we think he might take the blame for the chop shop because his bro just had a baby.. omg.. TIM… could we love you anymore.. you and your mildy bowed legs, monkey like musculature, long hair and awesomeness?

Last eve, as I finish up sewing, I lay down to partake in some television viewing and decide to fore go my Roku and actually tune into a television show. I went higher up into the channels and decided to watch Jersey Shore because it is so saturated in the media that we all are subject to on a daily basis. 

As I watch them file into their “new” Miami location, being paid $30,000 per episode, I realize that I haven’t heard a word used larger than suntan, and that the obvious lack of intellect should probably be embarrassing for them, but then again, in America we aren’t exactly bending our brains much- and we aren’t making intelligence and being smart cool. 

As a matter of fact, television programming is striving to do the opposite! It is adding to the denigration of American Society at Large. This show is the grand-daddy of all that is wrong with America and I don’t understand why the media keeps covering, it why the President mentions it, which is a whole nother issue  I don’t care to get into. 

Jersey Shore should be shown in schools as a prime example of what is wrong with America, and how one should never behave.  The women focus on highlighting external body parts, hair, tanned skin, ample cleavage, heels, and a the vocabulary of an 8 year old. The men focus on, hair, sun tans, ridiculously “sparkly” clothing and fitness. Thank god fitness is amplified because truly that is the only redeeming quality of this show. The girls are out of shape and focused on fighting, drinking, and wondering why the men they choose aren’t mature and don’t respect them. 

If  American media wasn’t publicizing this so ad nauseum I wouldn’t feel compelled to ensue this diatribe. Jersey Shore should be viewed as everything that is wrong with youthful society of America– To make celebrities out of people with brains no larger than a chick pea is a crime. They should be made an example of, WHAT NOT TO BE, WHAT NOT TO BEHAVE LIKE, WHAT NOT TO WEAR, WHAT NOT TO SAY, WHAT NOT TO DO UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!

America is becoming lazier and lazier and less concerned with creativity, intelligence, and ingenuity. It is becoming the largest trailer park on the planet. No one wants to think, work for what they get and emulate people who are incredibly vapid, unattractive and scarily stupid.

The behavior on Jersey shore depicts operating in life as if in the 5th grade in terms of being able to handle your emotions, vocabulary, and emphasizing only physical attributes to deem your total worth to someone else. The larger the boobies, the darker the skin, the longer the hair, the more makeup, the higher the heels, the sexier and more valuable you are. Wow, really?!

Shouldn’t Jersey Shore be packaged with the show COPS? Double header… maybe people want to see the lowest form of human society back to back, a double feature portrayal– a veritable slice of American trash pie. The violence on both shows is equal and performed regularly by both casts! The actual physical attacking and regular threats of  “let’s step outside” to one another because of an inability to express yourself any other way is despicable, EMBARRASSING and pedestrian.

I am able to discern due to my striving to be a productive person in society, but MTV caters to younger minds which are formative and vulnerable. Youth is searching for an identity and they see these sort of people being televised, covered in major magazines, so they think that this must be the way to behave because they are and they are on TV! The ultimate prize.

Can’t MTV come up with something that empowers youth to want to become better? Smart is cool, and there are so many ways to portray it so that it becomes attractive to the youth of today. That is what was so great about punk rock, and independent films in the 80s. It fostered a coming together of youth that were striving for intelligence, getting 4.0’s in college, trading cool books, talking about philosophy and going to see indie films. That was a regular part of the crowd at hardcore shows. No wonder we found ourselves to be “elitists.” We weren’t buying into retardville. We knew there was a better and more productive way to grow and to find ourselves. Through books, literature, conversations about being vegetarian, organic foods, etc. What a totally different scene! And our parents didn’t understand, and thought hard core was so evil. They would be so relieved now to read this, knowing what was going down as we skated to the local VFW hall to be “intellectual” as we released our anger to 7 seconds, Minor Threat, and Murphy’s Law, etc. –through hardcore and later talking about books. Most every person I ever met at these shows was in college, getting great grades, dj’ing at the university radio station and questioning life- wanting to learn even more while not in class! We bragged about the latest Bukowski book we were reading and how raw and real the writing was. There was also a big “straight edge” continence abroad this lifestyle which meant many of the kids didn’t drink, smoke or have sex. Much different than today, and our parents were scared? What a joke!

Come on MTV, Step it up- Show smarter, hipster, edgier kids who have an imagination, who are creating the next wave of internet fame, fashion, and innovations through intellect, and using their minds to further themselves! CONSCIOUS MEDIA!  I am appalled and sickened by the enforcement of stupidity on television. How is society going to improve if we keep publicizing and creating fame out of the dumb?

I was interested in Cougartown when it first came out because I wondered how many unique situations can you really put a cougar into with respect to the term “Cougar”.. and dating.. but I now see that they make it a “lifestyle” .. which is a single 40 something… and different aspects of that experience.  The first show was clumsy and it just didn’t work.. but now.. the direction has perfected and the cast has settled in and I really enjoy watching it! 

My favorite character is Jules’  teen-aged son! He is hilarious.. his delivery is dry, witty and his facial expressions, priceless.  Second in line is Jules’ ex husband.. who is so imbecilic he is lovable.  By the way, Jules is played by Courtney Cox.  I like her enough, but find the male characters to be funnier.  I do like the younger girl.. blond, who used to be on Freaks and Geeks.. she is cast perfectly and has good comedic timing.  All in all, I really am liking this show… Good Job David Arquette!

Two characters that are irresistably flawed, well written and well directed are:

Hank Moody on Showtime’s Californication:

Hank Moody, The lovable colossal F*&K up!

Don Draper on AMC’s Mad Men:

Don Draper, the smoldering, badboy Advertising Exec

The ever mysterious Don Draper

For those of you who don’t know.. MAD MEN is short for Madison Avenue Men, the old school Advertising Executives that once owned the avenue and ruled the business world in Manhattan.

I have had many  reputable people suggest this show to me, and finally ordered the first season from Netflix and finished it! The direction of this series is unmatched on any show I have seen in a long time.  Don Draper, the main character is portrayed in a film noir, dark manner.  He is secretive, mysterious, dark haired and eyed, smart yet stupid with his personal decisions.  Often times, in life, I have found smart business men to be dumb romantically.  They take chances and bet on a situation beneath them.  However, Don makes interesting mistress choices, they are metaphorical for each part of his personality.  In the first season the series clearly shows Don Draper married to a younger woman, blonde, typical trophy wife.  However, it is clear that she doesn’t challenge him intellectually, and ultimately is bored, but she makes a fine mother of his two young children.  Mistress one, is artsy, and a bit dangerous, has her own ad agency business, is sexy and bohemian.  She appeals to his intellect.  Mistress number two, yet to happen, is a young Jewish woman who has taken over her grandfather’s upscale Manhattan Department Store.  She appeals to his business side and strength of character because she doesn’t give in so easily to his advances.

Very entertaining is the bevy of American circumstances that no longer are acceptable such as: children playing with plastic bags on their heads, only to be scolded for removing the dry cleaned clothing, kids jumping back and forth from front seat to back seat as mother drives the car, no seat belt, no airbags, a child getting smacked by his neighbor as he runs through the house during a party and the father of the son makes the child, after being smacked, apologize to the “smacker”, people smoking cigarettes in the office, the home, while pregnant, drinking at work, even in the morning, and gender specific treatment, men vs women and their place within society expressed through business meetings, secretaries and their superiors (bosses), and the way the men treat the secretaries.

This show is interesting as they don’t give it all away, and there exists many nuances that the viewer will pick up on and make up their own mind about what they are watching as situations unfold.  The direction is genius and the feel of it, 1960s, is very authentic.  It is much more than Mad Men, it shows human thoughts, consciousness, and shows inside the ad business, which is manipulative, frowned upon, and ultimately shapes society.  The shapers are flawed beyond belief.  Think about that for a minute…

I highly recommend this show.

I loved the movie Witches of Eastwick way back when as did most women… especially because Jack was at his most devlish and although aging, still sexy!

The premise behind the new show on television, Wednesday nights, is the same… 3 women in town who come together under the guise of some sexy man, Darryl VanHorn, in this case and they unwittingly discover their “powers.”  I thought they did a great job of casting. 

Roxie, played by Rebecca Romjin, my girl Lindsay Price from Lipstick Jungle as Joanna, and Jamie Ray Newman as Kat, who I haven’t seen before, but is beautiful and well cast.  This is definitely a woman’s show.. as it centers around 3 women who become BFF’s and a super cute man, who they all barely resist.  Also fun is the fact that it addresses the “unknown” and the mystical, which typically is very woman-like.

I recommend it… I dvr it every week and settle in to watch it… it is a super fun treat… check it out on ABC Network..

http://abc.go.com/shows/eastwick