Knitting in the Big City

What I wish was on my DVR…

Knitting Daily
Now that Knitty Gritty is in repeats all the time I wonder why none of the five local public television channels carry Knitting Daily.

Doctor Who Christmas Special
So who will air it in the states? Sci-Fi or BBC America? I hope it's not BBC America - the have horrible editing. The channel recently aired the last Doctor Who (Stolen Earth) and the whole dialogue between the Doctor, Rose and the Half doctor was edited out of the show! It ends Rose's story with the Half doctor saying "You could spend the rest of your life with me, Rose Tyler". No protest, no kiss!!! All because BBC America wanted to promote a new show that's coming on. After the preview was shown the Doctor and Donna are back in the TARDIS. Grrrrr!

Torchwood
A show that hubby and I actually watch together! When will it be back on the air?

Skins
A work colleague alerted me to this show about Brit teens. One of the cast memebrs, Dev PAtel, has a hit movie, "Slumdog Millionaire". I was able to catch a few episodes around New Year's . The cast is engaging and I hope BBC America airs a marathon in the next few months.

What’s on my DVR?

ReGenesis
Canadian heath/science drama circa 2005. Found it on ABC one night when I couldn’t go back to sleep. There are intricate relationships between all the characters but nothing that would distract a new viewer. It airs regularly on one of ABC’s cable stations.

Chuck
Sly and funny spy comedy for the generation nerd. My favorite new show from 2007.

Real Simple, Real Life
Interesting makeover and advice series, definitely has the magazine’s unique vibe.

Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style
I just love the way Tim is direct and honest yet sensitive to the subject’s feelings. I definitely think season two is better than season one and I wish there were more than just 6 or 7 episodes a season.

Eleventh Hour
A medical drama, the leads make the show – Rufus Sewell and Marley Shelton.

Fringe
I’m still waiting to see how what made some critics say “successor to the X-Files”. The show does well without the X-Files comparison. And the characters are certainly quirky.

MLB Hot Stove Live
Yup, the new MLB network has made it to my “favorites” rotation and they had the good sense to grab one of my favorite baseball analyst, Harold Reynolds.

Summer reading

Yup, it's summer so it's less knitting and more reading. Here's the list so far:

A Rather Lovely Inheritance by C. A. Belmond

This was a breezy read – not to taxing on the brain cells but likeable enough characters that make you wonder what else will happen in their lives.

Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading by Maureen Corrigan

The title caught my attention and being part of Borders buy 2 and the 3rd free promotion didn’t hurt either. I quickly got lost in the books Corrigan mentions and discovered a few books in her notes that I somehow haven’t read yet. Dorothy Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey are on the "buy" list next time I go to Borders. It is a memoir of sorts so you will gleen bits and pieces of the author’s life.

The Anxiety of Everyday Objects by Aurelie Sheehan

Interesting if only for the “divide and conquer” office politics strategy employed by the new employee in the heroine’s place of employment. Whimiscal style, the narrative is a bit awkward at times (such as the attempt to establish an allegory between the heroine’s lack of authority in her professional and personal life). The ending is satisfying so I’m likely to seek out another Sheehan book to read.

Murder in Chinatown by Victoria Thompson

Another well written Gaslight mystery. The next book hints as resolving the years old death of the heroine’s husband. Perhaps with that out of the way, Sarah Brandt and Sargent Malloy will spend some time with one another!

Pretty Little Mistakes by Heather McElhatton

This book was horrible! Written from a woman’s point of view, it’s hook is being a “do-over” book. You are a young adult: Do you go to college or do you go traveling and see the world? Each scenario brings you two options until you live a short life and die or live a long life and die. It seemed that there were an overwhelming number of dying young by a violent death or doing something criminally or morally wrong and being rewarded with a long and happy life.

Now if you read my entry about the Heroes “future world” episode you can tell that I find the alternate time line stuff fascinating so I’m very disappointed that I reacted this way to this book. Frankly it scares me that there’s a second book in the works using the same premise.

Sometimes I’m reading instead of knitting

1 - Murder in Little Italy by Victoria Thompson

A sure way to get me to read a book is to set it in turn-of-the-century New York. Victoria Thompson has done this and she sets each of her murder mysteries in a different New York neighborhood. Ethnic politics as well as the wheel-greasing antics of Tammany Hall are feature is this book.

The series heroine, Sarah Brandt, is a midwife and she has been summoned to help deliver a baby. Unfortunately the next day the mother is dead. The baby is a product of mix ancestry, Irish and Italian, and the families do not get along. There’s also the tiny fact that the baby was conceived before the parents were married. All this adds up to murder. And that’s where’s Detective Frank Malloy comes in (and sometimes Teddy Roosevelt).

I would recommend reading the series in order if only for the fact that that the reader gets the full view of the developing relationship but the two lead characters, Sara Brandt and Detective Frank Malloy. I think there have been 7 books so far and Thompson does a good job with introducing new characters and developing them within the confines of the mystery series.

2 - Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes

It’s the next book in the Walsh family saga and this one focuses on Anna who seems to have gotten her life together, lives in New York and has a PR job.

As expected Keyes’ quirky but enjoyable style manifest itself quickly. Anna straightens herself out and falls in love. But that’s a flashback. The story begins with Ann recuperating at her family’s home in Ireland. Once she’s back in New York she and the reader start piecing together what happened in her life and how she deals with it.

There are two twists – I figured out the first fairly quickly. I had no idea the second one was coming.
If you like the books about the other Walsh sisters then you’ll like this one.

3 - The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

I really liked this book – enough prose to get to know the characters but it never gets verbose or off on a tangent. I guess you could say that’s Alice Hoffman’s style. It’s got all the usual Hoffman touches - Characters with odd lives who come together and resolve their fates.

The heroine grows up carrying the guilt of wishing that her mother be removed from her life, and poof!, mom is dead. As an adult she moves to Florida to be closer to her only living relative and once there she is zapped by lightening. She is a medical oddities and she becomes fascinated with another victim of lightening, a local recluse farmer. The author manages to have them meet and resolve their futures in the least amount of prose imaginable!

4 - Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner

Excellent book – If you have a logical mind and can work a calculator then you can use insulin effectively. The light bulbs kept popping over my head as I read the book. This book should be given to any doctor dealing with diabetic patients. If you can “think like a pancreas” then you have to ability to control diabetes, not the other way around.

5 - Sour Puss: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown

I love the Mrs. Murphy/Pewter/Tee Tucker books in this series but this one was predictable. And it didn’t have that much action with the cats and the dog.

What to do on a Monday night

Well if your favorite Monday night show is done for the season you can still ponder and question the events that occur:

Why capture and place implants into the "special people" if there is the Walker tracking system (otherwise known as Molly Walker)? And how did Linderman's organization get a hold of Molly when the local police or the FBI had custody of her in episode one or two?

The End of Volume 1

(Rambling post, no knitting content, attempts were made to make it as coherent as possible during my lunch )

Wow - the Heroes finale worked on so many levels - and as it has been all season - raised more questions than it answered:

The Petrellis

Does Peter return? To Earth? Ever?
If Peter falls back to earth where does he land?
Since Peter explodes does he come back in one piece or as 99 different pieces/versions of Peter?

Did you notice that whenever Peter had strong emotions the radioactivity was the first power to surface? However why was it that Ted managed not to explode, establish when he first became aware of his power? I mean Ted always seems to be quite an emotional guy.

Why did Peter not just fly off by himself? Throughout the series it's been established that Peter constantly seeks his Nathan's reassurance and love. And Nathan came through for Peter at a time where Peter truly could not do anything for himself since he was constantly struggling to master his powers.

Did Nathan know that he had to save Peter? That whole conversation with Mom right before the election? "You're the one that we need Nathan", "Why do I have to make the sacrifice?" (or did I imagine that line?)

What was really Mama Petrelli's plan? Did she know that Linderman was rogue and outsmart him somehow by playing along? And what's her power? She has to have one you know.

Charles Deveraux's appearance was great but it basically served as a way for Peter to deliver a soliloquy about death. And to see Simone again.

Parkman, Niki, and et al.

Is Parkman dead? Sure looked dead to me. He probably wore a bullet proof vest.

If Linderman engineered everything in Niki/Jessica and DL's lives does that mean he eventually engineered his own death?

Does Jessica accept being number 2 in a split personality world?

Do Molly and Micah become BFF? The four of them make quite a little family unit.

Can Ando really go back to being a desk jockey? It's a shame that Ando wasn't able to witness Hiro's destiny.

My two burning questions:

Where's the Haitian?

What about the hero (heroine) that the Claude Rains/Invisible Man/ Christopher Eccleston was hiding? Have we seen that person yet?

And finally, once I had a chance to think about the ending

I do believe Sylar was the one everyone (old and young) were trying to stop ("notice how Sylar never crossed paths with the older generation?) but Peter's abilities presented a conundrum of sorts. What happens when one person kills to gain power and another person can just absorb others' powers? Here's the assumption: Peter had all of Sylar's powers plus regeneration (Claire), flying (Nathan), reading thoughts (Parkman), going nuclear (Ted), and then by Niki joining the fight Peter ends up acquiring super-strength.

Evolution just isn't at the point where Peter can keep absorbing powers without mastering each one. He'd turn into an insane hero with Sylar-like potential. And if he doesn't the world would have two heroes have the ability to acquire powers and one is evil and the other is not then it's a virtual standoff for infinity.

Yea, yea, yea…

Another Heroes entry.

Watching Heroes has made me pullout my copy of Bullfinch’s Mythology. Heroes has had comparisons to the X-men but for me it brings back all those Grek and Roman myths I learned in grade school.

I didn’t watch the next to last episodes until this past Saturday night. So whatdaya think folks? Is Linderman really dead? It seems that somehow DL survives and makes it into tonight’s finale. And what does Nathan really do now that he’s been elected to Congress.

And for you Future Peter fans – Milo’s in Fergie’s new video. Tattoos and ponytail – yikes!

Lost Heroes

Well now I know that ”Lost” will have an end I might go back to watching it! I saw the last 10 minutes last week and I'm trying to figure out how Locke's dad ended up on the island. “Lost”, with all its strange twists and turns, almost make “Heroes” seem like a reality show.

And judging from the emails I got most of us prefer Future Peter better than Present Time Peter. Peter has such faith in Nathan it’s disgusting. And how can Mummy ignore Peter? Peter's got to have more powers than Sylar. The think Sylar's got 14, but Peter, all he has to do is walk by a hero and -boom- there's another power I have.

However I don't like Future Peter with Future Niki. The Niki/Jessica character just seems like such a stereotype. That good girl/bad girl thing is tiresome. I’m sure the writers can come up with better female characters with better powers. Mistress of Illusion Candice (“why I’m so happy you’re happy Mr. Linderman” ) and Wireless Hana? Plueeze. How about a female character that takes your power but also has the ability to give it back? Or a truth-detector? Give me something to work with….

And as for the Entertainment Weekly Heroes cover watch – I’ve seen all of them but the one with Mohinder, Peter, and Parkman. I have to say the Hiro/Nathan one is odd if only for the fact that Nathan looks so bug eyed. It really doesn’t look like Adrian Pasdar at all but a morph of his character Nathan and Sylar. Eeeek!

Heroes Theory

(Hereos today - knitting post tomorrow).

Upon a second viewing of last week’s “Five Years Gone” episode have I come up with a theory that hasn’t been discussed on the internet?

Sylar isn’t the one that needs to be stop – it’s Peter.

Peter is the one that causes devastation to NYC and Sylar gets the blame. Future Hiro has been operating under an incorrect premise. Sylar is most definitely a threat to those who have powers but Peter is the one that made the general public fearful of the new evolution of humankind.

There are some odd questions raised by the episode:

1 - Does future Peter have regenerative powers? He must since Claire is alive.
2 - Somehow Claire still knows that Nathan is her father. That storyline plays out but how?
3 - When did Peter get telekinesis? When he encounter Sylar in Mohinder’s apartment?
4 - Does Parkman know he works for Sylar? Does he ever turn around and see Nathan morph back into Sylar as he confronts Peter? Does it matter, especially since it seems that Peter and Sylar have a fireball encounter with Parkman in the vicinity? Mind reading doesn’t save you from fireballs!
5 - The brother vs brother remark is quite scary. Is it possible Sylar is related to the Petrellis? Or perhaps Mr. Linderman?
6 - What other ability did the Haitian acquire so that powers are rendered useless in his presence? Does it have something to do with tonight’s new character, Molly Walker?
7 - It strikes me that Parkman hasn’t made a lot of progress with his power. C’mon still reading one mind at a time?
8 - What does Ando do with his knowledge of the future?
9 - By acquiring Isaac’s ability to paint the future, can Sylar change the future?

And on a crappy note – Entertainment Weekly has 5 different covers of “Heroes” this week and the only ones I see are the Linderman/Sylar ones. And of course my subscriber copy hasn't show up in the mailbox yet. Argh!

Heroes spoiler

Wow, what a great episode. I record many of my shows so I can skip through about 6-12 minutes of commercials. I ended up watching ”Heroes” at midnight and by the end of the show my mind was racing with so many possibilities that I couldn’t fall asleep until 2 am. I love that time travel stuff – I didn’t want Hiro and Ando to return to their correct timeline because I wanted to see what happened with Sylar and Peter’s “dueling fireball” confrontation. And if Sylar can walk through walls it mean he met up with DL somewhere. Yowza - I’m going to have to watch it again tonight!

Why did I end up watching the show so late last night? Well I was busy shopping for shoes on Zappos, reading a couple of days worth of blogs and I ordering this gorgeous Orchid fingering weight merino (pink, violet, and green) from Cabin Cove . Hey, you knew yarn had to be involved!