JadziaKathryn wrote:But, the interesting thing that I learned - the only interesting thing in the entire second chapter - is that Thomas Edison was trying to build a machine to communicate with the dead.
I also heard he sabotaged a lot of Nikola Tesla's work. One of my big favorites, that man. (Tesla, not Edison). Tesla was a visionary, WAY ahead of his time. Tesla had the kind of intuitive genius for electromagnetism that Einstein or Newton had for gravitation. He could visualize the most complicated AC systems and predicted phenomena we're still trying to understand today. If he were alive, he'd be the one to win the nobel for explaining high temperature super conductivity.
Listening to: Phil Collins & 2Pac Remix - In the Air Tonight (remix of 'Starin at the World Thru My Rearview')
HEY ITS A GOOD SONG!
Speaking of HBO: They have had a lot of good series, think, when you look all the way back.
True Blood is my most recent favorite. I missed
House of Saddam but I heard it was good.
Generation Kill, of course, I loved. Even the non-military person should watch it, very enlightening about the true nature of some our nation's most talented, taxed, and dedicated warriors. I read a different book written by the young Lt. in that movie, Lt. Fick. Great officer.
Six Feet Under I used to watch way back in the day. I still think
Dead Like Me is better
, but it's a different kind of show. Lately HBO has had this comedy series (it's actually a year or two old but I keep catching it on HBO HD) called
Assume the Position 201 with Robert Wuhl, the same guy from the HBO series that launched the career of Margaret Cho (Yang from
Grey's Anatomy),
Arli$$ (Arliss). I loved that show. And b/c it's HBO and they have a big budget, plus they do a lot of stuff like
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, they had real big name athletes on there, which made it more realistic than like never actually showing these big name clients. I also loved how Arliss had a love affair with like Oxana Baiul (can't spell it), or something like that. Some figure skater. Let's see what else... my sophomore year roommates said they loved
Deadwood and
Carnivale.
Carnivale was supposedly kind of like a John Milton knockoff. Oh God, how could I have forgotten
Band of Brothers or
From the Earth to the Moon? It's kinda funny, actually. Both were like extended versions of other Tom Hanks movies... since Tom Hanks did both, haha. BoB was like a longer Saving Private Ryan and FTETTM was like a longer Apollo 13. That reminds me, the word on the Marine grapevine for awhile was that HBO had greenlighted a series to follow
Band of Brothers called,
Pacific, about Marines in the Pacific in WW2. I can't wait for that, it should be awesome. My friend, Corey, used to rave about how awesome
Rome was, but with a lot of murders and a number of mother-daughter threesomes, I don't think it's for the faint of heart. This wasn't HBO, but Showtime had a show that only ran one season awhile back called
The Cell about a domestic terrorist cell infiltrated by an FBI informant. That was one to see, great, great show. Last but not least, I'm only NOW watching
The Sopranos and I love it, I can't stop watching it. Yeah it's dark, and definitely lacks any perfect characters, but I like a lot of them. I really like Tony and I actually kind of identify with Christopher Mantisanti (sp?), however frightening that may be for some
.
And then of course there is my favorite standup comedian of all time who had
14 HBO specials before he died... Geroge Carlin. Never see him on HBO again
. I can remember where I was for the last
3 of those, which were the only ones in my adulthood. I actually saw him live in concert twice before he died... the first time I went instead of going to my sophomore high school homecoming dance
, at the Fox Theater in St. Louis. That was a great one because he had a new HBO special that aired like 2 weeks later and a lot of this performance I saw was him testing new material for that special, so I got to see a lot of new stuff before the general public
. The other one was REALLY a treat because it was in the
Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas just about a year before they demolished it, on the VERY SAME STAGE that Frank & Dino once shared. That was somethin.
WTF. Whoever that actress is she should be shot for pretending to be a professional voice actress. As well as the agent who was dumb enough to represent her AND get her the job, the casting director who cast her, and whoever put a deaf casting director in charge of picking voice actors. Or whomever/whatever the hell she slept with to get the part. Or maybe she just extorted it by threatening someone with singing. 
)
.
