BSG OMFG

Spoiler-free: The past episode of Battlestar Galactica may have been the best of the series. It blew my mind with just how awesome it was… That is all about that subject.

Saturday (after we gave up on the door fiasco) I caught loudQUIETloud: A Film About Pixies, which was great. It’s strange to see how dysfunctional that band is dysfunctional in a completely unconventional way… Tim came out to watch the flick too, which was good, as I don’t get to see him much anymore. Sunday we caught The Prestige with the film club last night, which was pretty good.

I am a Genius

This may be considered a spoiler, but really I’m dissecting something that happens in the first 10 seconds of last night’s episode of Lost, and it has nothing to do with the overall plot of the episode, so read it at your discretion.

I was watching Lost last night, and at the beginning a new character pulls out a CD and puts it in the CD player. I saw the cover artwork and identified it as Talking Heads “Speaking in Tongues”, but when the CD started playing, it was Petula Clark. A look over at Lostpedia, however, confirms that other people agree with me..

I also noticed that it was a DualDisc, which is a pretty recent technology, and the Heads’ catalog was recently released on DualDisc. Someone over at the ‘pedia, however, said it was a recent Son Volt disc, and I defer to their geekiness. Regardless, both slip-ups seem too egregious, and must have been intentional… What they mean, however, I don’t know.

Success

What a great weekend! Hung out with Schaeffer for dinner on Saturday, and afterwards I finally convinced to watch the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. Needless to say, that by this evening we had not only finished the miniseries, but also the first SEVEN episodes of Season 1. I believe the plan is to motor through Seasons 1 and 2 in preparation for the Season 3 opener in a few weeks. This will be complicated, however, by our trip to NJ/NYC this upcoming weekend.

Saw Jackass Number Two tonight, and holy shit was it great. It was everything I expected times 10. I wanted to watch it a second time as soon as I left the theatre.

Can I Get a Fuck Yeah!!??!?!?!

After ten years of popular demand, The State is available again! The
first season of the critically acclaimed 1993-95 MTV Series will be
released on iTunes Music Store, starting Tuesday, September 26th.
Depending on how many people download, MTV will release subsequent
seasons, and then eventually, hopefully, a DVD.

The first season includes introductions of favorite State characters
Doug, Louie, Barry & Levon. From the minds that brought you RENO 911!,
WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, and STELLA: Kevin Allison, Michael Ian Black,
Ben Garant, Todd Holoubek, Michael Patrick Jann, Kerri Kenney, Thomas
Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Michael Showalter and David Wain.

Tivo Part Deux

Ok, So I investigated the Tivo thing a bit more, and it turns out that a while ago it was advantageous to get the Sony unit because it was cheaper, but this is no longer true. The feature set between the two brands is almost identical, the Sony has a lousy remote compared to the Phillips, and the Sony is more expensive (although not that much more).

A bigger problem is that Tivo doesn’t support my ghetto A/B cable system, and won’t ever. I would have to jump through all kinds of hoops in order to get it to work, and it simply isn’t worth it.

I am now thinking about getting a DirecTV receiver with built in Tivo, and just get rid of my shitty cable service.

There are two problems with that:

  • Placing the Antenna – I am supposed to get my landlord’s permission, which I will attempt. If he doesn’t give me permission, I can always invoke FCC law which “…prohibits restrictions that impair the installation, maintenance or use of antennas used to receive video programming.” and “Effective January 22, 1999, the Commission amended the rule so that it also applies to rental property where the renter has an exclusive use area, such as a balcony or patio.”. So the “Patio of Doom” may very well be my ticket to DirecTV.
  • Having the Right Sky – I am not sure if my sky is good for DirecTV… I will try and figure that out tonight… I see other people with dishes on my block, but I think they are all Dish Network.

There are a couple of advantages however:

  • Cost – Believe it or not, this whole operation will be cheaper overall. The 35 hour Tivo-ed DTV receiver is $399, but there is a rebate bringing it down to the same price as the normal 30 hour box. The DirecTV service, even with HBO and the like added comes to around $50 a month, which is $10 a month cheaper than my cable bill, with more channels.
  • Second Tuner – The Tivo’ed DirecTV receivers have two tuners built into them, so you can record a program while watching another, or record two programs at once. This is a great advantage over the normal Tivo receiver.
  • Get Rid of Ghetto Cable – My cable system blows, and it would be great to get rid of it. Of most annoyance is the A/B setup, where I have to press a button on the remote to change the switch, allowing me to view the second half of my channels.

I know that some people reading this have experience with DirecTV, so I was looking for some feedback. I am particularly concerned with rain and stuff like that affecting the picture quality. Is there anything I should know? I am aware of the “local channel” stuff, and DirecTV offers local service in this area, so that shouldn’t be a problem.