selkie

My DVR is picking up coverage of the Santos Tour Down under now. Phil's got the lead commentary role, and Robbie McEwen is in Paul's old seat with Jensie doing some sideline work. They sound pretty good, though Robbie needs to get a feel for when to nudge Phil away from discussions on whale-watching and such and get him refocused on the race action.

I thought of y'all today when I walked out of Whole Foods with a loaf of Cuban bread- think a chubby version of a French baguette- actually sticking out of the top of my shopping bag.

And someone has actually compiled all the different "I'll Be Fine" intros from "Please Like Me" (Youtube won't allow season 3 to embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G47KK_9AAHY

Freeform has picked up the pilot of 'Everything's Gonna Be Okay" for a ten episode season. As someone who really enjoyed "Please Like Me", I'm excited to see what Josh Thomas is doing with this one. He's got a real talent for handling serious topics in a comedy show without having them seem like Very special Episodes, so the concept for the new show seems to play to his strengths. https://deadline.com/2018/12/freeform-josh-thomas-everythings-gonna-be-okay-comedy-series-1202518322/

We did briefly see a couple of Chris Keller's female exes on "Oz" back in the day, and Chris Meloni was definitely the attractive one with mad sex appeal in those relationships. But the thing with Keller was that he was a flat out psychopath and I felt like it was written like we were supposed to read all his relationships as an attempt at a predator/prey dynamic rather than some sort of partnership of equals or anything.

Freeform has picked up Josh Thomas' "Everything's Gonna Be Okay" pilot for a ten episode run. As someone who loved what he did with "Please Like Me", I'm excited to see what he'll do with the new project https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/everythings-gonna-be-okay-freeform-picks-up-comedy-from-josh-thomas-please-like-me/

Claire on 'Please Like Me'. ( I actually liked Claire. She had her rough edges but she was a necessary character who kept the plot moving forward and prevented the guys from looping back into too much navel-gazing.) Okay, it only semi-counts since it's an Australian show that only had a modest cult following in the USA, but it was actually a very well-written episode that managed keep Claire consistent with everything else we'd seen of her character. Ironic that the showrunner/lead actor/head writer for 'Please Like Me' was a gay man, Josh Thomas who just really liked to do his research on serious topics before working them into his show.

While the production values were crap, and the most noteworthy actor on the show was a pre-NBA Bill Laimbeer (he was a regular Sleestak as a summer job in college- they needed some really tall guys in those roles) Land of the Lost might be worth trying to rewatch because of the writing talent that included DC Fontana, Ben Bova, Theodore Sturgeon and Larry Niven. It seemed like the show was a kind of WPA-esque paycheck project for really good SF writers living in LA in the 1970s.

Cycling commentator Paul Sherwen, 62 https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/dec/03/australian-cycling-mourns-death-of-much-loved-commentator-paul-sherwen Along with partner Phil Liggett, he's long been the voice of Tour de France and other professional cycling commentary in a lot of the English language world, painting a picture of suitcases full of courage, snapping elastic, spots of bother, dropping hammers, beastly climbs, and riders dancing on the pedals.

Paul Sherwen has died unexpectedly at his home in Uganda at the age of 62. I'm gutted https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/dec/03/australian-cycling-mourns-death-of-much-loved-commentator-paul-sherwen

When I herd that Stephen Furst had passed away, I found myself digging for clips of the two scenes in that sequence because it really was a great payoff for the Vir's whole story arc. But it's probably a good thing I've never had to break out that particular speech in real life. (I think I have muttered the 'Ivanova is GOD' bit under my breath a time or two back in the day though.)

From Babylon 5: Assorted variations on "Time is infinite. You are finite. Zathrus is finite. This... this is wrong tool." Ivanova- "No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow." A shortened version of Marcus saying ""You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." Kosh's "The hour of scampering" is often used to describe my cats Editing for one more: "Vir, Intelligence has nothing to do with politics."

I think the NBC crew has mentioned that they're stuck with the global video pool feed instead of using a NBC film crew. And the Qataris and FIG definitely hired on the cheap when it came to AV services for the event, just like they seem to have low bid an all the apparatus.

I really hope that Morgan & Cipres makes a habit of skating that cleanly because they've got such amazing chemistry together and choreography, and they can create such magic when they're fully on.

Wimbledon gave in and just announced their 'Isner rule'- final sets now go to a tierbreaker once that set reaches 12-12

Burn USAG to the ground already and start all over with no one who has ever been associated with the organization https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/18/us/usa-gymnastics-former-president-steve-penny-arrest/index.html

Babylon 5 ended exactly as it was originally conceived and pitched, and they were stuck with a fully filmed ending to conclude season 4 because of renewal uncertainty. And then when season 5 got picked up after all, that final episode still made perfect sense when moved to the end of season 5, even though Claudia Christian didn't come back for season 5. And that final episode, 'Sleeping in Light', is right up there with the end of Six Feet Under when it comes to finales. But then JMS was extremely obsessive-compulsive about having every little small detail come together in a way very few showrunners would attempt to duplicate.

Professional road cycling. Since the big races typically get a lot of funding from local tourism boards, there is significant incentive to showcase some beautiful landscapes and architecture all around the world. (I jokingly call the Tour de France three hours of Castles! Cathedrals! Cols! Cows! every morning in July)

The UCI is also doing some useful things in restructuring women's professional cycling and phasing in a minimum wage for those teams. Looks like the goal will eventually be to go with a World team and Continental team structure like on the men's side. It's slow progress in some ways, but I can understand the difficulties both men's and women's teams face in getting sponsors to fully fund themselves and how trying to move too quickly could cause some women's teams to fold over the new financial requirements. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-womens-worldteam-minimum-salary-set-for-2020/

Amazon just greenlit a 'Wheel of Time' series. I'm very geeked about the possibilities. https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/2/17928400/amazon-video-robert-jordan-wheel-of-time-neil-gaiman It's a big enough project that there's also a pretty big incentive to get it right.

When they got to the baseball bat murder, I turned to my husband and said 'Do you still enjoy watching this? I don't?'. He said 'I'm not enjoying this either.' and turned the episode off, deleted the series season pass, and we haven't watched a minute of the show since.

The one that got me back in the day was 'Live Via Satellite" and I thought Via Satellite was a town in Spain or Yugoslavia or something.

Let's Run goes fanboy for great reason over Eliud Kipchoge's world record marathon today in Berlin http://www.letsrun.com/news/2018/09/greatest-ever-20139-eliud-kipchoge-crushes-world-record-win-2018-berlin-marathon/

Another Kim's Convenience fan. I was going to recommend myself a while back, but wanted to wait for another discussion to run its course and then forgot to. Totally different concepts, but the humor style reminded us of 'The Detectorists', and it's always nice to find low key being well done like that.

My criteria for going forward in a professional athletic career when seeming to be past peak is: 1. Can you still support yourself with your game and endorsement deals? 2. Do you genuinely enjoy getting up in the morning and going to work? Serena seems to be making both those criteria, so eh, might as well continue on with her fun and well-paying career.