Category: Arts & Entertainment

Must See TV

 

 

I don’t watch a whole lot of television but when I do, it has to be intelligent and make me think. Nothing fraks with my mind like LOST, which is airing it’s 6th and last season this week. If you haven’t been keeping up and feel a bit lost yourself, Hulu is airing all episodes for free. Time to play catch up. I’ve been watching all seasons and will still have to watch at least the past 4 episodes from last season to prepare for this one.

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I was skeptical of the recent Battlestar Galactica series until a co-worker turned me on to it. That series ended last year where humans were being wiped out by the sentient beings they created, the Cylons. A robotic race that evolved into looking/acting like humans themselves. You can kill the body but the soul/mind would download into a replicated body.

Now comes Caprica, a planet where the humans lived and created the Cylons. The new Caprica series is designed as a prequal to BSG and tells how the Cylons were created and why they turned on the humans. The girl featured in the promo photo above is Zoe. Her genius, rich father created the robots for the military. Zoe is a genius as well and rejected everything for her beliefs. I won’t spoil the rest except to say she becomes the first sentient Cylon somehow. Just like BSG, this show already deals with science, religion, race, ethics and so much more.

For comedic relief, I will still watch The Office and 30 Rock. They are both well written/acted and intelligent comedy.

Firewall of Sound

Firewall of Sound is a documentary looking at how the digital revolution has changed the way we receive and distribute the music we listen to. Why can’t music labels find a way to reward us for our audio passions instead of persecuting us? I grew up with vinyl records, the 8-track, cassette, disc and now digital downloads. I miss the vinyl. There is something there that pulls you in, makes you want to read every word and view every detail of the album art. Then again, I love the sheer convenience of a digital file too.

Rock on.

Arts & Craft

While we were visiting the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Wonderwife wanted to attend a lecture on art conservancy. Little DVD and I decided to make our own once we discovered a craft program for kids just down the hall. The theme was African animals to help promote the museums African holdings.

I think all we need is an ornate frame and the most prominent wall space available.

Daphne's First Art Project

Of COURSE it is a bird….why do you ask?

Rainy Days = Museum

Wonderwife, DVD and I piled into the car to escape cabin fever and get cultured at the Museum of Fine Art Houston today because of thunderstorms. If you have not visited your local museums, what is stopping you? We have a membership to the MFAH and appreciate it’s contributions. When we arrived, our feet took us to see the traveling exhibits that included antiques from the National Museum in Kabul, Afghanistan. These pieces of history and art have been rescued from the Taliban’s cultural destruction.

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Also travelling was an exhibit on European war prints from 1500-1825 AD. I loved the amazing detail of these drawings and etchings of how the tools of war had evolved as well as the battle scenes.

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Of course a trip to the museum would have my Miss Art History major (Wonderwife) stroll through the vast array of Renaissance and Impressionist works.

 

* This is a blog post from Mojo Denbow For more content like this, subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter & Disqus

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

I haven’t been a fan of baseball since I stopped playing it back in the 6th grade. I’d cheer on the Yankees because there was no professional team close by when growing up unless you count the Texas Rangers. Ugh. Now that I live in a huge metroplex that has 4 pro teams, I’m going to catch a couple games and support them!

Monday was the Houston Astros opening day and I was able to cover the event from the field and press box. Thanks to Sally Gunter for making this possible.

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Minute Maid park’s 10th anniversary helped add to the festivities of Opening Day as did retired Astros Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. Lyle Lovett sang the Star Spangled Banner just as he did ten years ago.

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The Astros were hoping to recover from a devastating loss last season that helped eliminate them from the playoffs. After hurricane Ike struck Houston, much of the area was without power and so the game was moved to Milwaukee as a “home” game against the Chicago Cubs. Guess who came to dinner last night? Yes, the hated Cubbies.

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The hopes of avenging that loss died quickly. With only the second pitch of the game, the Cub’s Soriano hit a homerun to Center field. It took 7 innings for Houston to get on the board. The final score was 4-2.

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* This is a blog post from Mojo Denbow For more content like this, subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter & Disqus

signing Off

Can I tell you how glad I am that the Battlestar Galactica series has reached it’s conclusion? Now if only ABC’s Lost would hurry up and have a point to the whole story I can write that off as well. As an adult I really never watched television until these two episodes came on and friends suggested it. I had missed their first seasons and played catch-up thanks to Netflix’s DVD subscription.

Growing up I was a big reader. My imagination combined with the author’s story are much more powerful and rewarding than television. I’ll confess my book and other print reading has suffered thanks to the internet. Blogs and news sites have filled that time instead. Like a book, the Web has no boundaries and I consume it. The difference with the internet is that I am a contributor.

I have just cancelled my subscription to Direct TV and to Netflix without remorse. With network television providing full content in HD online, what is the point? With the technology we have in outlets such as Hulu, Boxee, Apple TV, Windows Media Center, why bother? I need to mention the legion of podcasts out there as well. Speaking of Hulu, here is a clip of their ad wherein Alec Baldwin sarcastically asks: “what are you going to do, turn off your TV AND your computer?”

Yes, I will not let my brains turn into mush.

Don’t get me wrong, television has been a powerful and informative tool since it’s inception and I am not trying to be negative. Just simply saying I am over it. This is the Mojo and I am signing off.

 

 

 

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