Wanna Be Starting Something

Forty seconds of my completely freestyle, completely sober, frenetic dancing to Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Starting Something":



Thanks to John Ricotta for manning my Flip Mino HD, and congratulations again to my newlywed friends Deshant Paul and Tracy Boni.

May 31: Lineup Reading at Cornelia Street Cafe

Reed Farrel Coleman and Richie Narvaez will host The Lineup's third live reading this Tuesday, May 31, 6:00 P.M. at the Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia Street, NYC). Scheduled readers include Jeanne Dickey, Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson, and, in from Texas, Sarah Cortez. Please call (212) 989-9319 for reservations. $7 cover includes a free drink.

Smile

Here I am, prepped for a casual drinks night with friends, leading up to a wedding tomorrow (not mine). My smile was unplanned, which is why I thought the photo post-worthy.

Bones Season 6 Reviewed

Below are links to my full Boomtron coverage of Bones Season 6:

The Mastodon In The Room
The Couple In The Cave
The Maggots In The Meathead
The Body And The Bounty
The Bones That Weren't
The Shallow In The Deep
The Babe In The Bar
The Twisted Bones In The Melted Truck
The Doctor In The Photo
The Body In The Bag
The Bullet In The Brain
The Sin In The Sisterhood
The Daredevil In The Mold
The Bikini In The Soup
The Killer In The Crosshairs
The Blackout In The Blizzard
The Feet On The Beach
The Truth In The Myth
The Finder
The Pinocchio In The Planter
The Signs In The Silence
The Hole In The Heart
The Change In The Game

The Big Bang Theory Season 4 Reviewed

Below are links to my full Boomtron coverage of The Big Bang Theory Season 4:

The Robotic Manipulation
The Cruceriferous Vegetable Amplification
The Zazzy Substitution
The Hot Troll Deviation
The Desperation Emanation
The Irish Pub Formulation
The Apology Insufficiency
The 21-Second Excitation
The Boyfriend Complexity
The Alien Parasite Hypothesis
The Justice League Recombination
The Bus Pants Utilization
The Love Car Displacement
The Thespian Catalyst
The Benefactor Factor
The Cohabitation Formulation
The Toast Derivation
The Prestidigitation Approximation
The Zarnecki Incursion
The Herb Garden Germination
The Agreement Dissection
The Wildebeest Implementation
The Engagement Reaction
The Roommate Transmogrification

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 2 Reviewed

Below are links to my full Boomtron coverage of NCIS: Los Angeles Season 2:

Human Traffic
Black Widow
Borderline
Special Delivery
Little Angels
Standoff
Anonymous
Bounty
Absolution
Deliverance
Disorder
Overwatch
Archangel
Lockup
Tin Soldiers
Empty Quiver
Personal
Harm's Way
Enemy Within
The Job
Rocket Man
Plan B
Imposters
Familia

NCIS Season 8 Reviewed

Below are links to my full Boomtron coverage of NCIS Season 8, in my opinion the first season NCIS has shown its age:

Spider and The Fly
Worst Nightmare
Short Fuse
Royals and Loyals
Dead Air
Cracked
Broken Arrow
Enemies Foreign
Enemies Domestic
False Witness
Ships in the Night
Recruited
Freedom
A Man Walks Into a Bar...
Defiance
Kill Screen
One Last Score
Out of the Frying Pan...
Tell-All
Two-Faced
Dead Reflection
Baltimore
Swan Song
Pyramid

Hawaii Five-0 Season 1 Reviewed

Below are links to my full Boomtron coverage of Season 1 of CBS's Hawaii Five-0 re-imagining. If you can tell the plots apart by title after the pilot, I salute you:

Pilot
Ohana
Malama Ka Aina
Lanakila
Nalowale
Ko'alauloa
Ho'apono
Mana'o
Po'ipu
Hao Kanaka
Palekaiko
Hana 'a'a Makehewa
Ke Kinohi
He Kane Hewa'ole
Kai e'e
E Malama
Powa Maka Moana
Loa Aloha
Ne Me'e Laua Na Paio
Ma Ke Kahakai
Ho'opa'i
Ho'ohuli Na'au
Ua Hiki Mau Kapalena Pau
Oai'i'o

Alice Doesn't Live Here Nemore

The entry title is a play on Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Yesterday, I saw anymore spelled "nemore". I pictured someone wracking his brain to remember how the word was spelled, and failing. It's also possible the person never cared to learn correct spelling. The clunky "nemore" saves one vowel, but the time it takes to decipher wastes that savings.

I thought finally of how much I love and respect language. To see it misused out of ignorance or for a fleeting show of personality pains me. I know the feeling of understanding a message immediately. I want to be understood immediately in turn, so I learn to express myself in as many different languages and connotations as I can.

It's common to say we must make language our own, but I'd only feel a language were mine if I made it up. I didn't make up English, French, Russian...

I don't own language; I borrow it, use it wisely, and return it in great condition.

Smallville: "Finale"

Hard to believe Smallville has ended after ten seasons. The show was originally aimed at teens and I was twenty-six when it premiered, but to me, Clark Kent's upbringing is what makes Superman so appealing. So I was interested, but the show often deviated from my knowledge of the Superman mythos, and I wasn't all that open to a fresh take.

As time went on, I realized the show would only be remembered if it were a fresh take. And now my clearest memories are of the attempted nuances, particularly a Jor-El who seemed more adversary than innately caring biological father (voiced by onetime Zod Terence Stamp).

I found parts of every season worth watching. I can't say that about many series. A final thank you to everyone who worked on Smallville.

Beat to a Pulp's Poetry Week: "Ghost" by Keith Snyder

The final featured poem of the week is "Ghost" by Keith Snyder. I caught up with Keith at a Cell Theatre reading last February and planted the seed that eventually became the poem.

My Turn at Beat to a Pulp's Poetry Week

Read my poems, "Security" and "Life Sentence".

If you'd like some background, here it is. My thanks again to David Cranmer for the invite.

Afterthoughts

I dozed off last night around the sixth inning of the Mets/Phillies game. When I woke, the score was still tied 1-1 in the 14th inning, and the news of Osama bin Laden's death was flashing across ESPN's ticker. I'm glad to have slept through the initial reaction. I don't know how I would have reacted.

I thought the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, that our intelligence wasn't good enough to go in, certainly not to stay in Iraq this long. I knew that if and when bin Laden were found, it would be by a small Special Operations unit. That said, conventional warfare probably played a role in putting bin Laden on the run.

Was all the time, money, and effort worth it to get our man? You'll have to ask someone more closely affected than I by the U.S.S. Cole bombing and the World Trade Center attacks, but I'll bet the answer is yes.

Beat to a Pulp's Week of Poetry

David Cranmer's excellent e-zine is running poetry this week, including two of my poems, and David asked me to write up each poem for his blog. Here's my intro to Fred Zackel's "You Keyed My Car".