- A huge excess of rushing wind isn't just a resource to be found any time the U.S. Congress is in session. No, wind is also plentiful in places like the small African nation of Malawai and for a true hero named
- We need to talk, America. Now this talk may not pertain to some of you, so if you begin reading and think, “Hmm, I don’t know if this applies to me,” then consider yourself excused. However, if you have anything - ANYTHING - to do with the incredibly lame, ridiculous and idiotic cultural phenomenon I’m about to talk about, then you need to listen up. Of late, I’ve noticed an inordinate number of incidents that basically boil down to the following: a person turns their video camera on either their own young child or the young child of a relative or friend as that child mimics either a famous speech from a movie or the dance moves of a music video. Said yahoo then posts the video on YouTube and this kid then becomes a so-called “cultural phenomenon.” Two examples that spring to mind are the tot who was filmed singing and dancing to a Britney Spears video (although you could argue that the kid probably has infinitely more musical talent than Spears) and the kid who did his own rendition of former U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks’ inspirational speech in the movie Miracle. Here’s the bottom line, people: Just because your child can learn and recite lines from a movie or mirror the dance moves from a crap-tastic music video doesn’t mean anyone needs to see it other than you. It’s not cute, your kid is not that talented and there is nothing amazing, interesting or riveting about it. Millions of people have kids, millions of people have video cameras and we don’t want or need all of you thinking that it’s just so darn cute and cool that little Jimmy can recite a monologue from Field of Dreams or Any Given Sunday or that little Ashley can do a hack-job rendition of the dance moves from a Rihanna video. Either put the video camera down or cancel your YouTube account, because if you can't pull back and stop yourself from foisting this crap on the rest of us, then someone needs to step in and help you. If that someone needs to be me, then so be it. I am all too happy to tell you what a delusional, brain-dead loser you are being and how you are truly embarrassing yourself in the process. Heed my wise words, stop this pathetic charade and our lives will all be better for it…………
- See, this is why just banging out a little cardio, running or hitting the gym is always a good idea. If you don’t do any of those things, then you end up doing stupid sh*t like going to a central Arizona resort, sitting in something called a "sweatbox," a dome-like structure covered with tarps and blankets, and trying to sweat off the pounds. For your troubles, you then end up either dead or injured, all because you were too lazy to do actual exercise. Doubt me? Just look at the two people who died and the 19 who were injured at after spending up to two hours in the "sweatbox" Thursday night at the Angel Valley Resort near Sedona, Ariz. An emergency call came in saying that three people were not breathing and another was burned. Two of the three were pronounced dead at the hospital and on Friday afternoon, they were described as "a middle-aged man and woman." The sheriff's Criminal Investigations Section began a death investigation Thursday night, which can’t be good for James Arthur Ray, author of the best-selling book "Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want," was in charge of the ceremony during which the incident occurred. This kook has appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" and on the "Oprah Winfrey Show," and describes himself as
- Now THAT was a quality episode of Heroes. Sure, the lingering problem of not being able to find screen time for key cast members lingers, but that appears to be the way the show is going to be from here on out, so it’s a matter of learning to live with it or else, so I’ll learn to live with it. Focusing on those who did appear on screen, Sylar’s life after rising from the dead proved predictably complicated. Given the fact that he was Nathan Petrelli crammed into Sylar’s old body before being shot and left in a shallow grave, that was to be expected. No sooner had Sylar freed himself from the grave and began staggering through the woods than a police detective, Capt. Lubbock, (played by Ernie Hudson) happens onto the scene and finds Sylar, covered in dirt, disheveled and with three bullet holes in his clothing. Due to the suspicious circumstances, Sylar is hauled in for questioning and locked in an interrogation room. When he displays what appears to be total amnesia, unaware of who he is or anything else about himself, the police call in Dr. Madeline Gibson for a psychological evaluation. Her job is to help Sylar figure out who he is and what happened to him. She tries her best and slowly but surely, a few memories come back. He remembers a few scattered details of being shot, but when Dr. Gibson tells him to close his eyes and say the first thing that comes to his mind, all Sylar can pick up is the sound of the clock ticking on the wall and the doctor’s ticking watch. Showing that his catalog of powers still lurks somewhere inside, Sylar is immediately able to discern that Gibson’s watch is running a few seconds fast, something she admits has been true for years. Before the self-discovery cab go any further, Capt. Lubbock is back with some news of his own. The police have finally been able to identify Sylar and they now know him as Gabriel Gray, the watchmaker from the Bronx who murdered his mother. When Lubbock presses the issue and threatens to get rough with Sylar and “throw him down a hole” for the rest of his life, Sylar’s powers pop up again. He uses his power of telepathy to throw Lubbock through a plate glass window, then escapes to the nearby parking garage where he finds Dr. Gibson in her car, leaving the premises. Sylar forces the doctor to drive him to freedom, but the police are in pursuit. When she pulls over, gets out and tells him to take her car and go, Sylar refuses. He says he needs her help to get his memory back, but the police come roaring onto the scene and Gibson tells him to surrender and cooperate. Sylar surprisingly agrees to do so, but when he puts his hands behind his head, another of his powers pops up: the ability to conduct electricity from his body. The police see the electrical sparks and open fire, hitting Sylar multiple times. He and Gibson go tumbling down the hill into the dark woods, where Gibson sees Sylar’s power to heal take effect. His body spits out the bullets and it’s as if he’s never been shot. A stunned Gibson encourages him to flee as the police and their dogs come chasing him. Sylar sprints through the woods and up another hill, where a mysterious light appears. The light is from none other than the Sullivan Bros. Carnival, which has miraculously appeared in the middle of nowhere because……Samuel Sullivan has promised his “family” that by day’s end, they will have added a new member to their family to replace his dearly departed brother Joseph. He doesn’t say who, but after his breakfast speech, Tattooed Lady Lydia finds him in the field outside the carnival, digging holes in the ground and planting seeds. She presses him for the identity of the new family member, but Samuel admits he doesn’t know yet. Still, he’s sure that someone will join them and summarily waves his arms in front of him, using his power to control dirt to bury the seeds he’s just planted and say that they’ll have to wait and see who sprouts first, so to speak. Could it be Peter Petrelli? Not likely, even though someone new is coming into Peter’s life. That would be Emma, the file clerk at the hospital who is deaf but has the power of being able to see sounds as colors. Last week, we saw Emma’s doctor suggest that her condition is synesthesia. This week, that same doctor visits her in her office to check up on her. We find out that a) the doctor is also her mother, b) Emma actually has a degree in biomedicine and c) someone close to her died six years ago, causing her to quit her residency and quest to become a doctor. When Emma’s mother suggests that being a file clerk is beneath her and that she should resume her residency, an indignant Emma storms out of the hospital and goes for a walk. When her power begins popping up and she sees colors from police sirens and a jackhammer, Emma is so taken aback that she literally stumbles backwards into the street. An oncoming bus nearly hits her, but Peter is in the area and super speeds into the street and saves her. He’s fresh off of a visit to his apartment by his mother Angela, who barely pays attention as Peter tries to talk to her about his life, his desire to stop isolating himself and to make conections with those he cares about. She’s much more concerned about Nathan and blows off Peter’s attempts to talk about his own thoughts. Peter decides the visit has lasted long enough, especially since Nathan was supposed to show up for the breakfast as well but flaked (well, technically he was shot and turned back into Sylar). That put Peter in the street to save Emma, but she’s in no mood to hang around after the fact. She bolts and Peter takes off as well - or tries to. His super speed power is gone, but he realizes that he is now able to see sounds as colors. After a little thinking, he realizes that he must have picked up his new power from Emma. Because he can only hold one power at a time now (damn his dad Arthur for stealing his powers and Sylar-like ability to hold multiple ones at the same time), his super speed is now gone. At the hospital, Peter tries to find Emma in her office but she’s not there. Down the hall, a children’s choir is visiting the hospital and singing for some elderly patients. Peter wanders by, seeing all sort of colors from their singing and finds Emma there to listen to the music (and see the colors) as well. They spot one another from across the room, lock eyes and Emma realizes that Peter can see what she’s seeing. After the singing ends, they begin to talk - well, Peter talks and Emma reads lips - and he tries to explain the concept of people having powers, just like her. She is doubtful, but when they sit down at the piano and begin playing together, the colors begin to fly and the two of them share a magical moment. Peter suggests they meet for lunch the next day to talk more and Emma happily agrees. That evening, she gets home to her apartment and sits down to play the upright bass, seeing more and more sounds as colors as she plays. Her emotions from the day begin to boil over and her playing becomes more and more ferocious. All of a sudden, a wave of color and sound shoots out from the bass, causing a huge tear/rip in the wall and ceiling of the apartment. So perhaps her power is more powerful than Emma knows……we’ll have to wait and see. The last big storyline for the week was for Claire Bennet, who was enjoying immersion in “normal” life at college, eating lunch with new BFF and roommate Gretchen in the cafeteria when she’s ambushed by a girl named Becky Taylor, who is an officer for Claire’s mom Sandra’s old sorority, Psi Alpha Chi. That makes Claire a legacy and basically guaranteed a bid to the sorority. She accepts an offer to visit the house and drags Grethcen along. Both seem to enjoy the experience and are invited back for a mixer the next day. As they prepare to leave for the mixer, a book falls off the shelf above Gretchen’s computer, waking it from sleep mode and revealing a screen full of suspicious information that Gretchen has been viewing about Claire and Claire’s former roommate Annie, who supposedly committed suicide at the beginning of the semester. Claire immediately thinks that Gretchen is stalking her and suggests that they go to the mixer separately. At the mixer, Claire is introduced to another potential rushee who also was a high school cheerleader, just like she was, and they are chatting it up when a Psi Alpha Chi flag suddenly comes crashing down from the balcony above, causing Claire to leap back and push the other girl out of harm’s way. When she looks up and sees only Gretchen on the balcony, Claire assumes that her creepy roommate is responsible. Back at the dorm, an argument breaks out when Claire accuses Gretchen of being a stalker, including the flag incident. Gretchen protests her innocence and in a blatantly shameful play to the supposed lesbian fantasies that every guy has, she plants a kiss on Claire’s lips, admitting that she has a crush on her. So if Gretchen is guilty of nothing more than having a lesbo-crush, who was guilty of the other suspicious behavior? That would be Becky, who is not what she seems. The next day, as Psi Alpha Chi comes to offer bids to Claire and Gretchen, Becky is there but then disappears without anyone noticing and pops up at the carnival, of all places. She calls Samuel “Uncle Samuel” and admits that she’s doing everything possible to isolate Claire and push her over to their side. That includes a) pushing Annie out of the dorm window, b) placing the fake suicide note on Annie’s pillow, c) knocking the book off the shelf so Claire would see what was on Gretchen’s computer screen and d) caused the flag to fall when Gretchen was standing right beside it. So how did Becky do all of this unnoticed? Seems that her talent is being invisible, along with teleporting, as evidenced by zapping from campus to carnival in no time flat. So she was able to commit all of her mischievous deeds while invisible. But at episode’s end, it is not Claire who joins Samuel and Becky’s “family.” No, it’s Sylar, who wanders out of the woods and is greeted by Samuel waving him inside the carnival. A bewildered Sylar follows his lead and by the time his police pursuers crest the hill, the light has vanished and so has the carnival. There is nothing more than an empty meadow left. The carnival has moved on, on to an undetermined time and place. Sylar walks around with Samuel, who welcomes him “home.” Next episode, it’s time to reclaim the old Sylar, as Samuel and his crew will look to rehab the ultimate bad guy and get him back into form. Oh, and still no Mohinder Suresh this week. I had to check and make sure Sendhil Ramamurthy is still part of the cast and technically, according to NBC’s Web site, he is. Maybe next week? Also, no Hiro, Ando, Matt Parkman, H.R.G., Rebel or Tracy Strauss this week. Until next time……………
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