Watchin' Stuff Lite Vol. 13

Well, it's been close to two years since I last posted anything on this blog. But, I've missed it recently and figured I'd stop by to drop a Watchin' Stuff Lite on you all. Here's a list of ten songs and shows that have kept me occupied over the course of our time apart.

#1: Heavy (When I Need It) - Sleater-Kinney. This is my very favorite band. Last year they released their first album in ten years, No Cities to Love. If you missed it, I suggest you acquaint yourself, stat, because it was one of the best albums of 2015. This is one of the bonus tracks from said album.

#2: Broad City. This show is now coming up on season three and if season two is any indication, we're in for a roller coaster come mid-February. Broad City is honestly one of the funniest, ballsiest shows I've seen in a very long time. Throughout the run of the show thus far, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer are unapologetically blunt, crude and generally unladylike and I love every minute of it. If you have yet to let this show into your heart, get your shit together and go watch it.

#3: He War - Cat Power. Every time this song comes on in my car I have to replay it two or three times until I can move on, it's that good.

#4: Transparent. This is another great show that has already completed two seasons, so, as you can probably tell by now, I'm not addressing anything terribly new. However, this is one of the few shows over the last two years that have truly stuck with me as something I can legitimately recommend. This show, if you haven't heard by now, follows Jeffrey Tambor's character, Maura, and her trials and tribulations as a newly out trans woman with three of the most selfish children of all time. Tambor is fantastic and his supporting cast is equally fantastic. So fantastic, in fact, that it even includes the one and only Ms. Carrie Brownstein. Go give it a watch on Amazon instant or wherever else you can find it.

#5: Second Skin - The Gits. I discovered this song by the Gits fairly recently, though I've been aware of the band for a while. Unfortunately, even though the Gits were a pretty great early 90's Seattle-based band, their success was abruptly abbreviated by the murder or their lead singer, Mia Zapata. Despite this tragedy, in their short time together, they were still able to put out a few gems like this one.

#6: Master of None. This is a more recent watch of mine. Though I wouldn't call Master of None one of my new all-time favorites, I will say, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Aziz Ansari's contribution to the new abundance of self-written shows about comedians living their lives (ala Louie and Maron), Master of None is pretty much what you would expect from Aziz Ansari. It's funny, it's charming and it's lighthearted when addressing not-so-light topics.  Overall, it's enjoyable and I'd suggest stopping by Netflix to check it out. It's a quick watch.

#7: Pedestrian at Best - Courtney Barnett. It's cool, take a listen.

#8: Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Definitely one of my top three network sitcoms of the last five years. If you are holding out on this one because you're not so sure you'll be into it (like I was for a while) I would highly recommend giving it a watch to make sure. Expect to see a lot of Andy Samberg being Andy Samberg, but in the best way possible. If you're not a fan of him, however, the rest of the fantastic cast might just make up for him with their flawless portrayals of some great characters. Gina (played by Chelsea Peretti) and Captain Holt (played by Andre Braugher) being two of my personal favorites. It's basically just a very well executed classic cop sitcom with a more modern feel and I love it.

#9: Blackstar - David Bowie. We lost a great one a few weeks ago and luckily for us he was thoughtful enough to leave us all a little love note before he departed. This is the title track off David Bowie's final album and it does everything I had hoped it would.

#10. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. I've always enjoyed the liberal comedy-meets-newscast format used most notably in the past by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but I never watched their shows as religiously as I have Last Week Tonight. Perhaps it's the fact that it's on HBO or because the weekly episodes are less daunting to keep up with than episodes on the daily but I have yet to grow tired of this show. In fact I'm very excited for John Oliver to return to his desk after hiatus. He and his writing staff never cease to impress me with their wit and creativity. And no matter my level of interest in the topic of the episode I am always equally entertained. This show really just checks all the boxes in terms of what I look for in my programming and I would like it to come back now, please.

The Watchin' Stuff (New) Portlandia Drinking Game

Hi there folks! As you know, it's been several months since I've posted an new drinking game and I figured it was high time for a new one. However, instead of creating a game based on a new show, I decided to revamp a previous show's drinking game. I made the original Portlandia drinking game before the start of season 2 and I've since realized some of the rules were not as relevant to the subsequent seasons as I had hoped. So, in order to rectify my lack of foresight into the development of Portlandia, I've made a brand, spanking, shiny, new Portlandia drinking game, perfect to play while watching any of the show's four seasons. So, try your hand at some mixology or just fill your mason jar with your favorite whiskey and have some fun with the official Watchin' Stuff (New) Portlandia Drinking Game. But remember, don't drink and bike.

Watchin' Stuff Lite: Vol. 12

Hi all! It's been quite a while since I last posted but I figured that since today is the 2 year anniversary of our first episode I'd stop by and post a Watchin' Stuff Lite for old time's sake. It's been about 10 months since my last Watchin' Stuff Lite so I think I'll double it up and give you ten suggestion to make up for lost time.

#1: "Someday, Someway" - Marshall Crenshaw. I've liked this song for some time but had mostly forgotten about it until recently when I started hearing it at work. It never fails to put me in a good mood.

#2: An Idiot Abroad. If you've ever seen The Ricky Gervais Show you're probably familiar with Karl Pilkington, the show's resident "little round headed bafoon". If you aren't familiar with Karl take it from me, you should be. This show follows Karl on his trek across the globe as orchestrated by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. His color commentary is honestly the reason to watch.

#3: "Teenage Dirtbag" - Scala & Kolacny Brothers. This women's choir does some really awesome covers of songs you wouldn't expect a choir to sing. If you live in California you might have heard/seen the television and radio spots for the lottery featuring their version of "California Dreamin'" which is also beautiful. But I think this song is more fun.

#4: A Band Called Death. This documentary was put on Netflix a few months back and I immediately thought I needed to watch it. I didn't end up seeing it until more recently but I definitely wasn't disappointed when I finally did. This film tells the story of the first all black punk band comprised of three brothers. Though they never gained widespread notoriety they were actually impressively ahead of their time. The story kinda crazy and they made some really great early punk music.

#5: "Politicians In My Eyes" - Death. One of the best from that band called Death.

#6: Maron. If you are a fan of the podcast WTF with Marc Maron, chances are you will enjoy this show. If not, then I'd say it's still worth a shot. Though the show does revolve around Marc's neurosis a lot of the time I feel it's to be expected and it never really delves so far into his anxiety and self-loathing that is becomes depressing (at least as far as I'm concerned). Overall, it's an entertaining show and a very quick watch.

#7: "Atomic Man" - Portugal, The Man. I dunno, I just like it.

#8: Sons of Perdition. If you're interested in the learning more about fundamentalist Mormonism then you should watch this documentary. It follows integration of a group of former FDLS young men and women into mainstream society and gives a bit of insight into some of the practices of the sect.

#9: "Myriad Harbour" - The New Pornographers. The person who introduced this song to me once described it as "a perfect song". Now, I don't know about that, but it is pretty damn good.

#10: Her. The only one of my programming suggestions that is not available on Netflix but is very much worth going out of your way to see. Now, I understand that not everyone enjoyed this little film as much as I did but I thought it was absolutely beautiful. The way I described it was "a futuristic Harold and Maude". Though some may think it was too strange, I think at it's core Her is just a basic, eloquent love story about how love can exist without definition or parameters.

The Watchin' Stuff Orange Is the New Black drinking game!

All right, boys and girls. It's been a while since I posted anything at all so I'm pleased to present you with a drinking game for my favorite show of the summer, Orange Is the New Black. So, grab your toilet hootch and knock a few back to the women of Litchfield.

The Reenactors! Episode 3: Fight Club

Several months and a different haircut ago, Talor, myself, and a few good friends made a third episode of The Reenactors! (If you missed the first two you can see the Breakfast Club episode here and the Labyrinth episode here) This time our parody fodder was Fight Club. If you're a fan of Fight Club, Talor, me or you just have a spare 8 and a half minutes you're looking to kill, check it out.

5 "Huge Mistakes" made by the new Arrested Development

All right, don't worry Arrested fans, I'm not going to completely bash the new Arrested Development, but I must note that the new incarnation seems to be just that, the "new" Arrested Development. Basically, revamped to capture the audience that eluded them in their original run. Though it did grow on me in the later episodes of season 4, there's still something about the relaunch that feels watered down and seems like it's pandering to the audience in a way that other shows do, but Arrested managed to not only avoid, but make fun of. It's just not the same, guys. And even though I do admit they could've never lived up to the hype that was generated, I came up with a list of five "huge mistakes" that couldn't be overlooked.

1. Seth Rogen as young George Sr.:
Kristen Wiig as young Lucille, yes. Seth Rogen as young George Sr., absolutely not. Some may argue, what's the difference? I say, talent. Kristen Wiig can effectively play Lucille because she is actually able to replicate the Lucille created by Jessica Walter fairly well. Seth Rogen, on the other hand, is unable to play anything but Seth Rogen. So, instead of being invested in the story during the flashback scenes, I was distracted by the fact that Lucille apparently used to be married to Seth Rogen. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I kind of feel that the plot of the show suffers when it is blatantly obvious that a well known actor has been brought in to play a part because they are well known. And Seth's wasn't the only cameo I found incredibly distracting. I mean, I know cameos have kind of been their thing since the beginning (and I really didn't have a problem with the people who appeared in the first three seasons reappearing), but, come on, the only reason to put Ed Helms, John Krasinski and the Workaholics guys in there was to garner cheap enthusiasm from the audience. Not enjoying the show? Well, look, it's Jim from The Office! Isn't that fun? No, it's cheap and you're better than that Arrested Development.

2. Telling Tobias that everyone thinks he's gay:
So, that's how it's gonna go down? Lindsay's just gonna tell Tobias flat out that not only does everyone think he's gay, but that it's a "running joke"? Yes, the show has always been very self-reflexive and snarky, but that's just too far. You never tell Tobias he's gay, that's like going back in time and talking to your past self about the future. It will tear a hole in the space/time continuum! Also, once he knows, they do nothing with it. He just goes and finds another woman to not have sex with. So, he's not gay?

3. All the meta
Michael trying to get the life rights for a movie about his family directed by Ron Howard while all the while pretending that Ron Howard isn't the one narrating? That's a lot of meta, even for a show that has always kept us well aware of the fact that they know it's a TV show. I was okay with the little things they put in during the original run, like the begging for viewers in the third season and the shameless Burger King plugs from Carl Weathers, but to have Michael's entire plotline revolve around producing the movie that we all know is coming is more meta than I can handle. We get it, there's gonna be a movie. And if the movie is about making the movie I'm gonna be pretty disappointed.

4. Putting all the good episodes too far in:
Raise your hand if you were dying to know what George Sr. has been up to... Oh, no one. Yeah, that's what I thought. Let's face it, for a lot of people the first three episodes were hard to get through. I understand trying to keep people on the hook so they watch the whole season but were you really worried about viewership? Everyone was gonna watch it all anyway. Starting us off with a Michael episode followed by a George Sr. episode and a Lindsay episode didn't serve to keep people in it to the end, a lot of people I talked to were actually so disappointed by the initial episodes that they stopped after the first or second. Putting Gob, George Michael, Maeby and Buster at the end was a horrible choice. In my opinion, they were the one's with the most interesting stories and the ones most people were interested in seeing. If you were one of the people discouraged by the first episodes I highly recommend skipping to the end and then coming back. It's much better that way.

5: Playing to the "hop ons":
I know not everyone is going to agree with these issues I had. I'm sure there are many people who felt the newest season was a total success, but to me, it seemed as though all of these things served to reach out to a broader audience than it had initially. Things were spelled out more blatantly, jokes were a little less thought out and they relied to much on people's delight in "being in the know" (i.e Henry Winkler didn't have to say "Chachi" during the trial with Bob Loblaw for me to get the fact that he and Scott Baio were on Happy Days together. And either way, that's not a joke). Once you get to the end of the season, it's obvious that the plot was as well thought out and interconnected as the show was during the original run, but in a lot of ways I feel they took the easy way out. Overall, it just felt cheaper. Like a mere suggestion of the show so many of us loved before everyone on the Internet decided they loved it too. I feel that this season could very well garner a new audience. And I'm sure for a lot of avid fans this was exactly what they were hoping it would be. I, personally, was a little let down. But as I said, it would've been very hard to live up to the hype and, hey, there's always the movie.

Watchin' Stuff Lite: Vol. 11

#1: "Fox On the Run" - Sweet

#2: Bully. Netflix continues to add wonderful new things and this movie is one of them. Although it enters the realm of depressing from time to time, Bully is an incredibly well made documentary maintains an uplifting tone despite the subject matter. I would highly recommend it to anyone raising kids, thinking of doing so, or who was ever once a kid themselves.

#3: "Sweet Talking Woman" - Electric Light Orchestra

#4: Circus. A documentary show I just discovered yesterday and ended up watching all six episodes. It provides an in-depth portrayal of all those involved in the running and performing of the Big Apple Circus. Over the course of the series it becomes apparent just how much work goes into the production and how much dedication to the tradition there is for those who were born into circus families.

#5: "Handbags and Gladrags" - Rod Stewart