Watched this past week.

Fuck me. The post I had been adding to and accumulating over the past week is lost to the internet ether. Where it went, or how, is unknown. Following reconstructed from memory.

Lie to Me, House, Dollhouse, SNL, Parks and Recreation, Modern Family, Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Bored to Death, TUF, NCIS, Community, The Mentalist, The Office, The Simpsons, FlashForward, Iron Chef America Battle Octopus

Parks and Recreation - Fred Armison made this the best ep of the season

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - "I'm a full on rapist." I knew I watched this show for a reason.

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food - a cooking show with copious profanity? Sold. Actually, damned entertaining.

Having just finished reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, figured I'd check out Angels and Demons [and re-watch The Da Vinci Code, since I only kinda sorta half watched it the last go around. Still the most annoying thing? The way the film version was pretty clearly breaking its own back not to offend the Christianists - who still lost their minds...] Actually read Angels and Demons years and years ago, before Brown blew up. Remember it as a decent, fun read. Brown catches a lot of heat from "elitists" of all stripes for his writing style, his cribbing of conspiracy theories and whatnot, but overall, as far as making it palatable for the mainstream [and yes, that probably does mean simplifying/dumbing it down a little] his stuff is entertaining. Both the books and the flicks. I mean, I read stuff like In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I and The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail damn near 15-20 years ago, so it's not that ground breaking for me [you know, in hindsight, my hometown didn't have a whole lot going for it, but apparently the local library wasn't half bad] - one reason I never got all that swept up in the Da Vinci Code popularity. And if you want more complex, thorough and more engaging conspiracy entertainment, then read Rex Mundi or the The Historical Illuminatus by Robert Anton Wilson [or the grandaddy of them all - The Illuminatus Trilogy by Wilson and Shea] but as far as material fit for distilling it down to a 2 hour film, Brown does servicable and entertaining work. Same kind of goofy conspiracy fun as stuff like the National Treasure films.

Though in checking out Angels and Demons Decoded via the History Channel, it did bug me that their one hat tip to the probable murder of Pope John Paul I was a possible Masonic angle. While the P2/Masons were probably involved in some way, going the way of the sexier Mason route as opposed to the far more likely Vatican Bank angle was a little disappointing. Cui bono and follow the money. But like I said, I read the rather convincing In God's Name a long time ago. Ah well.

Role Models - Paul Rudd + Sean William Scott = WIN. Funny.