It's back! The Wire returns for its final season

My all time favorite show, The Wire, is back on HBO Sunday nights at 9PM. http://www.hbo.com/thewire/?ntrack_para1=feat_main_image It is fantastic and not be missed unless you are only interest is escapist TV.
For people who watch it, it is like an obsession. Sport Writer Jason Whitlock listed it #3 in last Friday's column: Sorry, I have to take a timeout and talk about my No. 1 passion, "The Wire." Click here for the full article: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7658418
It is the quickest and most compelling hour of television. I have to hold on until next Sunday. After that there are only 9 episodes to go...

Finally they got a pair

Finally some sanity returns to the voters and the congress and the democrats take the house and the senate. There is no questions that moderate Republicans are on the endangered speicies list and sane ones and or ones with integrity are sure to follow.
Not sure if this helps or hurts McCain other than taking George "Maccaca" Allen out of th e 2008 Republican Primary race. Go Jim "I'm the winner" Webb!

The new Democrats kick ass and take names.

"You know, this war is so fucking illegal." - SPC Pat Tillman

Nuff said. A true patriot who gave his life to his country and lived and died his creed. It is a true shame the administration cravenly used his death for their own PR purposes then stonewalled and lied to his family.

Borat on Bush

Bush is very strong but not as strong as his father Barbara.
-Borat on Bush as a leader

The Wire: Season 4 begins

The best show on television is back with a vengeance. These season’s focus is on education and introduces four 8th graders. 3 episodes have aired so far with a visual punch and storytelling verve. You have to feel for the kids and what they are face and know it will only get worse as the series unfolds up over the next 10 episodes.
Perhaps the greatest aspect of the show is the sense of truth in it. The stories are fictional but reflect the truth and emotion of Baltimore specifically and the US in general. The creators David Simon, ex-reporter and writer, and Ed Burns, ex-detective and ex-middle school teacher. The men care passionately about their city and the inhabitants, especially the faces and stereotyped caricatures we usually see on TV and the movies. Simeon and Burns see and portray the interconnectedness of everything that is Baltimore. This is true from the locations to the dialog to the some of the actors on the show who bring their real life Baltimore experiences to the show as well as characters bases on real people or composites of real people.
The first season centered on the drug trade in public housing, the second on the Longshoreman and the displacement of the less educated middle and lower middle classes and the third season was on the local politics. Now it is educational system. So far this season we have only seen in one junior high school but I am sure there much more awaiting us both within that school and schools around it both public and I will venture to say private school’s (like McNulty’s kids as seen in season 3).
My wife and I became addicted to the Wire watching season 1 on a DVD set check out from the library. We finished season 1 and I said I have ten minutes to get to the video store before it closes and rent another couple of DVDs. Off I went and was back with the first two DVDs of season. When we finished season two subscribed to HBO to watch season three.

Link to The Wire Home page -
http://www.hbo.com/thewire/?ntrack_para1=leftnav_category0_show1
Salon article with spoilers - http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/09/20/the_wire/index1.html

Deadwood is Dead on

My most recent video obsession was Deadwood the brutally well done HBO Western series (http://www.hbo.com/deadwood/?ntrack_para1=leftnav_category0_show2) with salty language based in the historical town of Deadwood circa 1876. The series doesn't gloss over the reality of the time and try to put a PC/Glorified/Romanticized version of prevalent in portrayals of the west. People's fates are much more tied to their roots and race and sex are ever prevalent. I blazed through it with a library check out of season 1. Once that was done I rushed out to my local video store Reckless Video (http://www.recklessvideo.com/index.php) and grabbed the first two discs of season two. In a few of days I was done with season two and watched the first four episodes on Comcast’s on demand. I stayed home to finally get my taxes done with a TaxAct and had Deadwood on.
I highly recommend the show if you can handle the brutality evident in the times this show examines and portrays. If not there is plenty available that is less challenging and free on the network shows.

When to use your head

Zidane lost his cool at a crucial moment from his team. Should Les Bleues be grateful he lasted through a majority of the overtime before using his head to make his point. Now it's all: he said-he said. Trash talking seems to be evident in most team sports and head games in all.
Zidane average at least one dismissal a year during his career and with most thing the timing of this one was critical with a billion people watching he let his opponent beat him and in time his team went down as well.