Last New TV review and Annual Pumpkin Parade

I'll keep this short because, of the two new shows I've been able to watch, one's been cancelled and the other one's not very interesting.

1. Viva Laughlin - I've made no secret of my man-crush on Hugh Jackman, so it's no surprise that I gave Viva Laughlin, a musical drama, a chance. While it was probably tied with Cavemen in the race for most negative pre-season buzz, I thought the promo of Hugh singing "Sympathy for the Devil" was great. The show, though, was pretty dumb. I'm not a big fan of musicals, but simply being a musical isn't what failed. It was the execution. Not only were most of the numbers cheesy, but they had the characters singing while the originals were playing behind them, like they were singing along to the radio. That was really dumb, and distracting. Plus, having Melanie Griffith sing was a huge mistake, too. Combine those things with a protagonist who's an asshole, boring family sidestories, and a lukewarm murder mystery, it's no surprise it was cancelled after two episodes aired over four days. The only positive of the show (aside from Hugh, of course) was Madchen Amick. I've heard of her before, and probably seen her in movies and pictures, but I was never aware of how totally cute and hot she is. Rowrr!

2. The Next Great American Band - I don't know why I thought the producers of American Idol wouldn't ruin the concept of finding good bands. Silly me. This show is a major disappointment. I watch Idol, but my musical tastes are much more band-oriented, so I thought this show had a chance to be good. Of course, almost every band the judges chose for the finals is either a gimmick band or horribly derivative. The most interesting bands on the show are the Bluegrass band, the trio of revival minister's sons playing a smoking country-bluegrass mix, and the gospel/funk/hard rock band from Philly with incredible musicians. That Philly band, Franklin Bridge, WAY overdid their songs on the second episode, though. They have a shot to win, my other favorites probably don't, though. I'll keep watching to fill my Friday nights and see who wins, but I'm not very excited about it.

And now for this year's pumpkins! (This is for ACW, a much superior carver of pumpkins).

My 7 year old son carved his a few weeks ago, and did a great job. Unfortunately, it started decaying well before Halloween, as you can see here:



The small pumpkin above was decorated by my 2 year old boy with markers. He's so proud of it. Whenever he walks by it he points to it and tells us it's his pumpkin.

I didn't carve mine until the night before Halloween, and was up pretty late doing it. I tried some new ideas this year, which like every year, are better in theory than execution. Here it is in daylight:



The eye shape came out well, but they look crooked because of the tilt of the pumpkin. I didn't draw the shapes with the pumpking standing as it would on the porch, so my bad. The menacing teeth design was a last-second idea. Unfortunately, I couldn't make the lines quite wide enough to really show the teeth and allow for the light to come through. Here it is lit up:



By the time Halloween came around, my son's pumpkin looked a lot like a zombie, so the decay worked out well.



Here is a blurry photo of the pumpkins lit up on Halloween night:



Meh. Better luck next year. Hope you all had a great Halloween!


P.S. - Oh yeah, we sold our house and bought a new one! I'll try to write more about that soon.