Gramarye

This morning, I swung by Temescal to test-drive “La Calaca Loca’s”:http://www.google.com/search?q=la+calaca+loca breakfast burrito, available until 1:00 on the weekends. It’s not bad, exactly, but it’s very barebones — eggs and potatoes, and not much else. It *is* excellent when you order nachos and spread the excess queso fresco, sour cream, guacamole, etc. on top of the burrito before each bite. However, for ready-made breakfast burrito awesomeness, I’ll have to stick with the Berkeley Bowl.

Later, I also got to try out the stupidly name but very tasty “Nude Sushi”:http://www.getnudesushi.com/ delivery service. Caveat: I don’t know anything about sushi. However, the ability to get anything delivered that isn’t pizza, especially when several of the components taste good and it comes with wasabi and pickled ginger — I have to approve.

Awesome. I knew I had to watch this show, because I’ll watch anything with a ??Sports Night?? alum — and with Peter Krause, even more so after seeing the amazing SciFi miniseries, ??The Lost Room??.

However, I more than half expected this show to fall flat. Not because of Nick’s Law — I’m still holding to the theory that ??Lost?? has broken the curse. Because I’m not of the party that holds rich people’s problems are intrinsically hilarious, or that family secrets are automatically good television — and it’s easy to do this kind of show badly.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Compared to my highly vague expectations, the actual product is about 50% less prime-time soap and 35% more Christopher Guest. They really should be airing this next to ??Ugly Betty??, not the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff — ??Dirty Sexy Money?? has a very similar campy, tragi-comic air about it, and similarly spot-on performances that merge deadpan with over-the-top.

I’m not sure whether the show will pan out — much depends on how they handle story arcs. If they plot it the way ??Desperate Housewives?? is plotted (which wouldn’t shock me; it’s a pretty obvious comparison), I may have trouble not tuning out, no matter how much I enjoy the characters and performances. Hopefully not, however.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/09/27/dirty-sexy-money-pilot-series-premiere/

Okay, okay. I keep saying I’ll get a separate blog for photography stuff. Well, here you go. It’s not quite in a finished condition yet, however…

For later reference:

“History of Photography”:http://www.cod.edu/photo/curto/1105/handouts.htm
“Camera Position”:http://www.cameraposition.com/
“The Candid Frame”:http://thecandidframe.blogspot.com/
“The Radiant Vista Daily Critique”:http://www.radiantvista.com/critique
“Light Diary”:http://www.craigtannercreative.com/lightdiary/
“Martin Bailey”:http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/podcasts.php
“Nikonians”:http://podcasts.nikonians.org/
“Photowalkthrough”:http://www.photowalkthrough.com/
“Focus Ring”:http://www.photocastnetwork.com/
“Digital Photography Show”:http://digiphoto.thepodcastnetwork.com/
“Tips from the Top Floor”:http://www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com/
“Inside Digital Photo”:http://www.insidedigitalphoto.com/
“The Digital Story”:http://www.thedigitalstory.com/blog/
“Lightsource”:http://www.studiolighting.net/category/studio-photography-podcast/

Note: I usually doze off about fifteen minutes into Lightsource — not their fault, I’m just interested in lighting. (I just keep trying to be.)

Update, February ‘08:

“TWiP”:http://twipphoto.com/
“EXIF and Beyond”:http://www.jmg-galleries.com/exif_and_beyond.html

Had a bit of good luck with one of these guys yesterday afternoon:

I finally got around to sorting through and deleting pictures from the August set, and I’m now declaring it finished-ish. Some of them aren’t bad. There are 39, although a few won’t be publicly visible.

Quick overview of newish TV. Keep up with me now…

* ??Torchwood??, ??Doctor Who?? anagram/spinoff, featuring everyones favorite omnisexual dude who isn’t Freddy Mercury. Verdict: Good in pretty much the same way as ??Doctor Who??, but with a different kind of manic energy.
* ??Hotel Babylon?? — not nearly as stupid (or sex-filled) as it BBC America makes it sound in the commercials. The writing and acting are both a little hit and miss, but when they hit, they really hit.
* ??Jekyll?? — I said it before, but seriously, if you have access to this thing, watch it. Some of the best sci fi to hit television in years.
* ??Prison Break?? — You can really, really feel the season transition, and a lot of things feel forced. That said, I’m not going to turn down an opportunity to watch William Fichtner break a man’s neck.
* ??K-Ville?? — It’s mostly just my low initial expectations, I’m sure, but I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this. It’s a little rough around the edges (they cover at least three episodes worth of material in the pilot, for example, and it makes you feel like you’ve been fast-forwarding), but it’s got a solid premise, a good setting, and interesting values; the acting and writing are at least good enough to not make me spend the entire time thinking how bad they are.
* ??Bionic Woman?? — It’s not a BSG-grade reboot of an old series, but I can tick off some good reasons to pay attention: the hot nurse from Jekyll (seriously, watch Jekyll. I mean it.), Starbuck, Miguell Ferrer, Mark Sheppard (Badger on ??Firefly?? also excellent on ??Medium??, among other things). Writing isn’t all there yet, but I can be hopeful.
* ??Chuck?? — It’s like the dumbest parts of ??Jake 2.0??, the least original parts of ??The Office??, and the sort of stuff that’s probably left on the floor of the ??Scrubs?? writing room. By which I mean, of course I’ll watch it. Note: contains GiftShopGirl/Madison from ??Everwood??. Oh, and Adam freakin’ Baldwin. (Jayne.)