Sights and Sounds

There is a high school across the street from my building, so during the afternoons I am often serenaded by the sounds of their marching band. I hadn't expected a marching band in the heart of the city to sound particularly awesome (I, a marching band geek in my youth, associate marching with wide open fields and big ol' football jocks--neither of which are particularly dominant in the grander DC culture, and I suppose ultimately less than important to music-making), but I have to say I am more in awe day by day. The band is out on their one field--impressive, given my memories of being booted to the auxiliary soccer fields more than once by the many teams fighting for practice space--almost every weekday afternoon, and then every Friday night for football games. I'm pretty sure they were at the junior varsity game the other day, as well. That's commitment.

The halftime show is an interesting mix of Rhianna and Justin Timberlake songs ("Four Minutes to Save the World", "Disturbia", "LoveStoned", and "Take a Bow" at my last count). Most schools outsource their halftime music for one-of-a-kind shows, but the content leads me to believe that the students had significant input, at least on content if not arrangement itself. There are a lot of musical prodigies out there, waiting to be unleashed on the world, and the exercise of teens deconstructing pop music is especially awesome if that's what is going on across the street. It would mean that DC is putting some of that money for the public schools to good use--DC is notorious for spending absurd amounts of money on schools and having it benefit everyone but the kids.

Alcoholic-Pirate-Robot John McCain...in Space

So, any self-respecting member of the nerd community is already aware that Colonel Tigh from Battlestar Galactica strongly resembles John McCain. In fact, they have a great deal in common: both have MILF-ish blonde wives with substance abuse issues, both were POWs, both have Tina Fey-bespectacled associates, both have anger management problems, etc. If it ever comes out that McCain is a cylon, I'm going to pick up a rosary and start praying to Edward James Olmos.

Anyway, my question is this: what happened to John McCain? The word from some of my fellow liberals is that McCain has always been as two-faced and drunk on fierce competition as he's been these past few months, but I'm not so sure. Perhaps this is just the kind of naivete that McCain kept referencing during last week's debate, but I recall a completely different man going on the Daily Show a dozen times and charming the college set. I remember buying one of his books for my conservative mother a few years ago and thinking "you know, this guy's had a pretty crazy life, and yet he's still down to earth". The word "maverick" wasn't a part of the conversation back then; John McCain was a decent senator who, while I didn't always agree with him, could present a pattern of logic that I could respect. He didn't need gimmicks or smears to get his point across (though I understand that most of these gimmicks and smears come from the fact that he appears to be losing the race, it also seems like they're only hurting his polling, especially among independents--Check 538 if you don't believe me).

The Keating Five thing has been mentioned to me several times as proof of McCain's past shadiness, going back almost twenty years. I was pretty young for the whole Keating incident, and I honestly don't have a great enough grasp of economics to get into the nitty-gritty of it, but from what Wikipedia tells me, I get the impression that McCain screwed up pretty royally the last time we had a nationwide financial/loan crisis. The more I read about it, the more it reflects McCain's inability to be president, not so much his character (which is my primary concern here). Yes, it appears he accepted gifts and whatnot from shifty people, but that point seems so petty in terms of the greater scandal. I'm not excusing that behavior entirely, but he wasn't taking money from the National Rapist Lobby, you know? I'd be willing to hear from someone who can speak more eloquently than I on the Keating scandal, though.

Whatever happens in November, there will someone new living in that big white mansion down the street. I want to know more about my potential future neighbors.

Fringe was terrible.

...I watched the first episode on Hulu, and it was just dreadful. I was liveblogging as I watched, but lost steam even on that about halfway through, so I never posted it. Unfortunate. I could have used a new show.

But, at least we can all--finally--take comfort in the fact that a new season of American television has arrived (none of my British shows, save for The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures, will be back for a few more months). Sunny has kicked of their season with several double-episode blocks, for which I am very thankful. House is back, too, and more Hugh Laurie in this world is always a good thing. The Office premiere--though the writers continued their distressing trend of abusing the hour-long format to spread an episode far too thin--delivered consistent laughs. Also, Jim and Pam were so adorable that I hardly noticed the episode length. The presidential debates have forced me to the liquor store far too often this month, but being a little buzzed and extra-happy for the Daily Show and Colbert afterword makes it all worth it.

I am counting down the days untill 30 Rock returns, though. What the fuck, NBC? Why hold it back? Throw a bunch of Emmys at a show and that's how the network repays us. Blergh.

Has anyone seen a show from the new Fall lineup that merits a review here? Let me know.