bloggie blog

Right off the bat, we have a variation of the brief B&W opening from Episode 201. And it reminds me more of Sunset Boulevard in that it seems to indicate the death of the protagonist. Can it be?!

The immediately we jump into the most mundane family scene ever in the history of BB. Great. We know what that means. The lull before the storm. The storm in this case turns out to be pretty passive aggressive. In short: this is an excellent episode revolving around family, or the lack thereof. And now I’m almost caught up!

I am late in blogging about this season’s 3rd episode of Breaking Bad. Oops!

It opens with a scene with actors, unlike the first 2 episodes. Somewhere I heard that Bryan Cranston very much likes to work with his pants off — and many, many scenes have found him in his BVD’s for this series. But you get him baked in the desert — literally, from heat not drugs — and he’ll even lose the briefs. So it begins.

Guest star Michael ShAmus Wiles: for your opening credit, you get americium, the most patriotic element. Tom KiEsche: you get einsteinium, an excellent element — and by the way I think we have a mutual friend. MiChael Slovis: you get my continued apologies for your nonexistent element.

Tonight I learned a new word: fugue. Of course, I know the word from music, but its second definition, related to fugitive, is new to me:

fugue |fjug| noun (Psychiatry) a state or period of loss of awareness of one’s identity, often coupled with flight from one’s usual environment, associated with certain forms of hysteria and epilepsy.

Sometimes a fugue-state episode does seem kind of tempting, I must say. Flee your problems! Head to the high chaparral! Is that so wrong? But eventually I’d come back, if only for another fine episode of Breaking Bad.

Script highlight: Very funny “Whole Foods” line! Minor complaint: You could never reinsert an IV like that! Question of the week: What does “Bit by a Dead Bee,” this episode’s title, mean?

Checking receipts, I realized today that sales tax in California has gone up one percent to a whopping 9.25%. An increase in what is obviously a regressive tax is not what we need!

This was supposedly written by an agent at CAA to all of his clients regarding the current state of the entertainment industry. It was forwarded to me today by a reputable source, but I am not certain of its true provenance. It’s worth a read, but it may be not be from a CAA agent. Or maybe this high-level agent doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘conflagration’ nor how to spell some well-known names.

Dear Clients,

I wanted to take a moment and give you a number of important updates. Before I begin, however, I wish to tell you that I am so very proud of you for your dogged determination during these most difficult times. Hollywood is being challenged on multiple fronts — labor uncertainty, paradigm shifting and the ‘great recession.’

More…

Several years ago, my friends Doug and Sarah introduced me to The Setters of Catan. With beginner’s luck, I won that night. I played it many times in Boston after that, and also with my family. I’m pretty good, but usually don’t win. So many times I’m one card, one roll, one thingy — just “this much” — from victory. Good times!

It’s been popular amongst board-games people for a while. (My people are board-games people.) Now it’s really taken off, according to this article in Wired. If you’ve played “Catan,” you’ll enjoy the article.

The real question on my mind is not addressed in this article: How do you pronounce “settlers”?

The dictionary allows two pronunciations (settler |ˈsetl-ər; ˈsetlər|), but if you use the second pronunciation and are one of those people that have a very strong glottal stop between the two syllables, you are a rube and I will take you down, bitch!