Wow, I wound up taking an expected break from blogging. Even got an email from a regular commenter wondering whether “I fell off the face of Itaewon”. No such luck!
So, to catch y’all up… *chirp*
Actually, I just went into a lazy phase. We are in the midst of a wet monsoon season (the wettest since 1940, or so I am told). So, I’ve spent a good deal of time indoors. Well, I guess I am practically always indoors, what I mean to say is I’ve been spending more time at the villa. But not so much on the internet obviously.
I mentioned buying some DVDs in Bali and I’ve whiled away quite a few hours enjoying Deadwood. Halfway through season 2 and it is really one of the better “westerns” I’ve seen.
And I’ve frittered away the rainy days playing CIV IV as well.
I have gone out to chuck some darts of course. Friday we had a birthday tourney for Matt Duff at Dolce. I’ll tell you, I have no idea where my dart game has gone. We took a several week break between seasons, but I still kept up my practice regimine. Since my return from Bali though I’ve really been struggling.
I took a 2nd Place in doubles Friday night, but was still not happy with my performance. Just didn’t have a good “feel” for the darts. I decided my mechanics had somehow gotten out of kilter. All I know to do is to try and play through it.
Sunday we had a going away tourney for Scott and Craig. Neither of whom as it turns out was able to attend. We played a round robin singles tourney with the six of us who showed up and I played well enough to win that. Had dinner afterwards with Alisteir and his lovely wife.
Last night was league night and we took on the Filipino team from Friends Bar, Kaibigan. Kaibigan is “friend” in tagalog apparently. Well, we managed to take the match 21-16 and I played marginally better, going 8-4 on the night. I think all those darts on Sunday helped me work through the mechanics problem, although I still can’t find the bullseye with any regularity. That’s a big part of my cricket game so I need to get back in the groove.
So, that takes you up to the minute in my exciting life. I’m guessing after reading this drivel you might be wishing I had extended my blogging hiatis a little while longer.
Too bad for you!
Agree, John. IMV, Deadwood was the best western series I have ever seen. But it was cancelled by HBO because of some sort of dispute with the creator, can’t remember his name, but I read an article about him and he is apparently very creative but also very eccentric too – his script writing technique was to dictate the script, all parts as it was to unfold, to a group of note takers who hurried to keep up with him……very strange, but seemingly very effective too.
Interestingly, most of the principle Deadwood actors, probably nearly all of whom who had before Deadwood, not been well known, began to appear in all sorts of movies and series after Deadwood went off the air. And no sooner than did this happen, it also stopped……so most of them, if not all, pretty much have disappeared again. I can only conclude that they had clauses in their contracts that gave them follow-on acting gigs which were apparently fulfilled after Deadwood’s demise.
After Deadwood disappeared, the very next season HBO aired a short series which only lasted for one season or less which had as a theme a young man who was a really talented surfer prodigy and whose father had been a champion surfer in his day but who was now a hopeless druggie, but the young man had some kind of miraculous healing power as well, which manifested when he touched the injured/diseased/even dead creature. I mention this series only to say that fully 50% of the actors in this series were from the Deadwood series, but in completely different kinds of roles.
I would bet a lot of your money, John, that the Deadwood series was one of HBO’s more popular ones and probably made them a ton of money, but they dropped it cold……. many people were disappointed when it happened.
BTW, your LTG Blog Stats meter is still broken. has been for several weeks. What’s up with that?
Yes, the DVD set includes a disk devoted to the making of Deadwood and shows the unique writing style of David Milch. Fascinating.
The LTG Blog Stats is working for me this morning (I rarely go there though). Not sure what the issue is you are having…????
Actually you can catch the guy who played Swearengen, Ian McShane on Kings a show on NBC. This guy has been around a while. He had a role in the miniseries Roots. I guess he is just better known in London.
Yeah, Kings….. another flash in the pan, post Deadwood HBO series that didn’t last……….but McShane seems to be the best known and, now, the most active of the Deadwood alum……. I read where he hadn’t worked in quite awhile and was sitting in a London restaurant when he was approached for the Deadwood role – since Deadwood he seems to be turning up almost everywhere. I saw him in a movie last night, even, where he played a prison inmate – a ridiculous movie about demolition racing in prison actually staring Jason Stratham (sp) – it was completely ridiculous but still somewhat entertaining, somehow.
And , other subject, John, regarding your blog entry meter ………. in just exploring your site features I noted that your blog stats, just as an example, showed an entry by you today but your last prior entry was 7/15/09. You took a break in there but pretty sure you had an entry or two between the 15th and today, which was the 22d.
But I guess you’ll decide how much such flaws matter or even if they do…..(the unresolved, ‘can’t see the picture’ issue, etc…).
Correction.
Ur right, Kings is NBC vs HBO and started a new season, apparently, last night, with Swe’gen/McShane in place.