Official Not So Random Thoughts Thread Version 2.2

[Wizards2Lottery]

The new TV show Homeland on Showtime is really good. Damian Lewis is a great actor.

[closg00]

The new TV show Homeland on Showtime is really good. Damian Lewis is a great actor.

+1 we checked it out after Dexter, it's pretty good in a slow-burn 24 style of show.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

This story leaves me shaking my head.

Cops stop 9-year-old 'good' driver

Oralandar Brand-Williams/ The Detroit News
Brownstown Township— Police say they stopped a 9-year-old who was driving her father to the store because he had been drinking.

http://detnews.com/article/20111017/MET ... 1409/rss36

I don't even let my 9-yr stay up past 10:30 on weekends. Driving drunk dad at 3 AM? Mom couldn't be reached? No telling the things that little girl has already had to deal with...

It's a wonder her father didn't hand her a concealed, loaded weapon to hold while she drove in Detroit. Stuff goes down on the roads there, all the time. I bet her pops taught her how to shoot a gun, too.

[Rafael122]

Honestly, this is just me but I would stay away from H Street if you're trying to get 30 people there. For one, there's no Metro access unless you want your party to walk the 15 blocks from Union to the Rock N Roll Hotel. Doubtful, especially mid-November. You could always cab it, sure, but you're asking people to pay a $20 cab ride, minimum. One way most likely.

Best bet is U Street or Adams Morgan, or even Dupont. As for hippy bars, not my thing, my bad dude. I have gone into Marvins and it isn't bad.

If you asked me about clubs, I've already got 5 off the top of my head, but you're not a club guy so #kanyeshrug. That would run you at least a few grand though.

[closg00]

The Hoops World iPhone AP is a must-have.

[fugop]

i'm throwing it with a friend, both turning 25, both single, and both looking to ball out to the best of our ability. i'm not the club-iest person out there but i wouldn't label myself crotchety just yet (close though). i've already looked into r n r hotel (pretty hip for a crotchety old man like you fugop) and the bar min is $750 which isn't bad. i like the Bourbon suggestion. def look into that. i didn't really enjoy the other bars: local 16, 18th st lounge.

how's chi cha? seems like a place with a lot of dudes with open shirts, chest hair, and no undershirt, $12 margaritas, and i don't know how to dance salsa.

Sorry to miss this. Just do Bourbon -- call to see if it's available, and reserve it. If you're not going to do Bourbon, call Scott at Ventnor's and see if he's got space available.

Local 16 and 18th Street Lounge are inordinately douchey, but they are available, and if you bring a decent enough crowd, the other clientele is irrelevant. If you're looking to mingle, go with one of the above.

Chi Cha is douchey as well. Some of the girls I associate with like their coconut mojito, so I end up there on occasion.

Stetsons is right next to Local 16, and much divier, but has a second floor that you may be able to secure. You're not going to find many interesting strangers to fraternize with, though.

There are a couple of places in Columbia Heights that might be more up your alley. There's a hipster vibe, of the sort that would irritate Wes Tiny Abe to no end, but if girls in American Apparel outfits are your thing, you might be in luck. Wonderland and the Red Derby are the only two that I've spent any time at, and it was a few years ago, but both were reasonably priced and live on weekends.

[closg00]

Trevor Booker is returning to the states injured, who pays for the rehab?

[Nivek]

Trevor Booker is returning to the states injured, who pays for the rehab?

Booker or his overseas team. He's locked out, so he doesn't have access to the Wizards medical staff. Which may actually be good thing, come to think about it.

[miller31time]

Trevor Booker is returning to the states injured, who pays for the rehab?

Booker or his overseas team. He's locked out, so he doesn't have access to the Wizards medical staff. Which may actually be good thing, come to think about it.

[miller31time]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP02QYkelYI[/youtube]

[Nivek]

Anyone else watching "Walking Dead"? I loved season one, and was more than a little worried when AMC fired Frank Darabont. Thing I love about this show is that it Goes There. Episode 1 of this season, a little girl goes missing in the woods with zombies lurking about. They go looking for her, and the main character's 12-year old son gets shot. Really good show that's worth catching up on if you've missed it.

[montestewart]

Anyone else watching "Walking Dead"? I loved season one, and was more than a little worried when AMC fired Frank Darabont. Thing I love about this show is that it Goes There. Episode 1 of this season, a little girl goes missing in the woods with zombies lurking about. They go looking for her, and the main character's 12-year old son gets shot. Really good show that's worth catching up on if you've missed it.

I'm in the core target audience of suckers that watch almost anything with zombies, quasi-zombies, or Earth's population thinned by named or unnamed catastrophe. The Walking Dead format allows it to develop plots that wouldn't work well in a feature length. I was a little disappointed in the season premiere (it felt a little padded to fill the longer time) but season openers often have a lot of business to take care of. I haven't watched the second episode yet.

[Nivek]

I'm halfway through episode 2. It's good. Sundays are usually too busy to watch it that night. I got through half this morning.

[verbal8]

I'm halfway through episode 2. It's good. Sundays are usually too busy to watch it that night. I got through half this morning.

I am not a huge zombie fan in general, but I do like Walking Dead a lot. Episode 2 really has a cliff-hanger ending. It might be annoying if they do that every episode, but I think it worked pretty well.

[closg00]

Dexter has "Jumped the Shark", anyone agree/disagree?

[Nivek]

Yeah, I haven't been much of a zombie fan either. I tried Walking Dead because of Darabont. For those not up on their screenwriter geekitude, Darabont wrote Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile, and he directed Shawshank and a good TV movie called Buried Alive. He was a producer on Collateral -- the one with Tom Cruise as a hit man being driven around by Jamie Foxx. This movie was the same year that Ray came out, and was BY FAR the better performance from Foxx. Darabont was also involved in the Young Indiana Jones series, which is pretty good. And he wrote a Frankenstein movie that I never saw, but that had HUGE stars in it, including DeNiro. He also worked on The Majestic, but I wouldn't hold that against him.

I am a little worried that they fired him. He was already working on season 2 when they kicked him to the curb, so we may still be seeing a significant amount of his work. Hopefully it'll stay good. Most of the story is coming from the graphic novels (which I haven't read). But Darabont has a great storytelling sensibility that will be tough to replace.

[Zonkerbl]

Dexter has "Jumped the Shark", anyone agree/disagree?

Noooooo, say it isn't so!

I kinda like that they've written out a lot of the soap opera stuff and have gotten back to blood and guts.

But I haven't watched the latest episode, have to pira... *ahem*, I mean use alternative means to view it.

[miller31time]

A lot of people are saying that the writers are what's keeping "The Walking Dead" from being a truly great show. They say there's a lot of lazy writing and almost no emotional investment into the main characters beyond the cheap one-liners that are supposed to give their character "direction" (such as the wife saying how grave-robbing the cars for supplies just doesn't seem right). Then there's the scenes with very implausible things happening. Example: Old man is the lookout for zombies, perched atop the van. Looks through the binoculars....sees nothing. Looks again, sees hundreds of zombies just feet from their cars.

But with that said, while I agree there's not much emotional investment in the characters, and that some objectionable stuff happens, I still watch the show religiously and find that it has a very high "cool" factor.

[Nivek]

I hear that criticism, but really don't have much idea what they're talking about. I think those critiques may have more to do with the reviewer than with the show itself. I think the characters are terrific, and I think those characterizations have built nicely throughout the series. But whatever -- different people can have differing opinions.

As for the old guy looking out for zombies with the binoculars, I found that scene entirely plausible. He looked and didn't see anything. Then he saw a zombie emerge from behind a large vehicle. Then a bunch of others along emerged behind that zombie. They were clearly far enough away that they could run and warn each other and hide under vehicles. I thought that sequence was brilliantly planned and executed.

The bigger "plausibility" question for me was about why there were so many dead people in the cars. I'd have figured that people would have gotten out and run or fought or something. Abandoned cars make a lot of sense. Dead children, elderly and infirm in vehicles would make sense. Just dead people in vehicles -- not so much.

[Nivek]

Not that it makes any difference to what we're discussing, but I just saw a blurb saying that the season premiere set a basic cable ratings record. The show beat everything except football in its time slot, including Desperate Housewives and X Factor.