MUSINGS ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Welccome to today. Crisp and cold in Studio City CA. Feels more like a fall day in Boston. I think to jump start this little enterprise further, I'm going to regale you with a classic newspaper colmun premise of a string of random thoughts.

(Not that any of those columns ever fooled us into thinking anything other than the writer is blocked and this is just a way to fill a page and keep their jobs.)

Whoever says "There's nothing good on television" isn't watching it.

Not that 1) There isn't a lot of crap and 2) I'd ever tell someone to watch more TV...There are a lot of better ways to spend your time.

But when you can watch, "Deadwood", "Rescue Me" ,"The Shield", "Law and Order", "Lost", "The Office"," Veronica Mars", "The Daily Show", "Reno 911" and "Drake and Josh" - and that is barely scratching the surface, don't use uniformed elitism to justify not indulging in a habit you're better off without, anyway.

Or, in fewer words, don't be a fucking snob.

Continuing on TV...

If your head is still spinning with the "Drake and Josh" reference, try this experiment. Watch two episodes of "D&J" vs any two episodes of "Yes, Dear""Still Standing" or the "George Lopez Show" and tell me what makes you laugh more.

And feel better, Drake Bell, by the way.

Daytime TV --

My "guilty" pleasures? Court shows. (See what I did there?)

Judge Judy - The Queen

Judge Joe Brown? - I rememeber when he used to care.

Judge Marilyn from The People's Court? - I admit it, she and I may be involved in a restraining order in the not so distant future. Funny, tough and... well, I'll say it, hot.

I may need to discuss the last item with my therapist.

How does Maury Povich sleep at night? Besides with Connie Chung, which isn't nearly enough compensation for watching his soul get sucked away by his work on that show, I mean,

Brokeback Mountain - Loved it, believed it when they got together. Although watching two men have sex makes me think of a naked guy shoving a desk through a doorway. Does nothing for me.

And yet, two women making love? A work of art. Go figure.

My best time in a movie theater this year? Chronicles of Naria with my eight year old daughter, Talia.

Biggest disappoinment? Rent.

Loved "Good Night and Good Luck". "Capote".

Most overrated Oscar contender? "Crash". A lot to like, a lot we have seen many times before - "Short Cuts" "Grand Canyon", "Magnolia". And the gears of the storytelling machinery ground a little too loudly, too often. ( "Who's pulling me out of this car accident? Why the RACIST SCARY COP from the other day! Darn the bad luck of this crash!")

Doesn't anyone get the fact that the big deal is not that Cheney shot that guy, it's that this Administration thinks it's such a pain in the butt to inform the public that the second in command of the most powerful nation in the world shot someone.

Maybe red states wouldn't be so sanctimonius if the realized that all of the quality education as well as the tax income that paves their roads came from blue states.

Hey, this was fun...I think I'm going to do this again sometime.