Man, this was great. I'm a little iffy on Henenlotter in general (Frankenhooker is lousy, and Basket Case hasn't aged particularly well), but this was undeniably enjoyable. I'm not sure I have too much to say about it, however, which is probably a good sign.

I haven't looked any of this up, but I assume the plot they intended to go into the end of the third season, in which "Jack has been involved in some sort of secret plot involving his daughter," turned into the "Jack killed Irina" storyline was to cover up some sort of dispute with Lena Olin. I'm kind of curious what the original plot was supposed to be, as this one didn't really offer a lot of narrative drive.

Perhaps that's why the first half of the season didn't really feel like it knew what to do with itself. I'm assuming the abrupt disappearance of Rimbaldi from the storyline was network-mandated, but that sort of robs the writers of a lot of their go-to plot devices. The introduction of Nadia didn't help much, as she's a fairly weak actress, so that made things a little painful.

Of course, everything picked up immeasurably once Omar and Joel Grey showed up. I'd been thinking for a while that Ron Rifkin was starting to look a bit like Joel Grey during the third season, so the decision to introduce Joel Grey as a faux-Ron Rifkin was very pleasing. And I'm always glad to see Omar getting work.

I certainly was not expecting the show to turn into 28 Days Later for the final episode, but I suppose I should be pleased that they managed to surprise me. I assume Nadia is fairly well written off at this point, so that bodes well for next season, as does the excellent cliffhanger.

Oh, I should also point out that the show's technical advisor has pretty clearly departed in recent seasons. I meant to write, way back in the first season, how nice it was that they actually had somebody suggesting how computers actually work. They tended to use command line interfaces and wrote fairly recognizable linux commands. That's all gone now. Every computer now runs Hollywood OS. It's kind of a shame.

I had a pretty odd experience while reading this book. I was sitting in a nice outdoor area at OHSU, while waiting for Eleanor to get out of her doctor appointment. The patio was empty, so I lay down on a bench and started reading. The unnamed protagonist had returned to Tokyo, and had gone to see the film about the high school teacher for the Nth time, and, since school was not in session, found that the theatre was packed with high school students, which lessened his ability to enjoy the movie. I looked up, and noticed a half dozen or so high school aged Japanese girls heading toward me. Moments later, another twenty or so Japanese high school students filled in behind them and completely filled up the patio. I have no idea what they were doing there, but they stood around, talking quite loudly for quite a while. I guess perhaps they were a tourist group, but I'm not sure what kind of tour involves visiting a hospital. I suppose they might have taken the tram, but I'm not sure why this patio was also included.

Anyway, enjoyable book, though his recurrent plot points are starting to get a little old.



I always assume I'm the last to hear about these sorts of things, but apparently two of contestants on So You Think You Can Dance? (a show my dad is unhealthily obsessed with and perpetually tries to get me to watch) performed a routine to "The Garden" by Mirah. This is pretty much the last place I expected to hear a Mirah song (or, really, any song that I would listen to by choice). I've almost gotten used to music I like showing up in ads (Helen Love? Chris Knox?), but, when my musical taste is showing up on dance-themed reality TV shows, there's something wrong with the world.

I feel bad saying bad things about bands, but I really don't understand the thinking behind having Graves play this show. I'm not a big fan of dinner jazz, so they're clearly not my thing, and I have no idea why someone thought they'd be a good band to open for BOAT and Aquaduct. Anyway, we spent most of their set outside, wandered off to get some drinks, etc., then went back in for BOAT. They played as a four-piece (with Ricky on guitar, sax, and keys), but this was probably the first time I've actually been able to hear the sax parts (most likely because I was standing about one foot from Ricky). It's a nice touch, and I look forward to hearing the sax-enhanced tracks on the upcoming album. Didn't stick around for Aquaduct, since it was late and I'm old.