My Apple iTV Life

Below, L-R: Scenes from Mad Men: Left & right - parking lot (right - with Betty Draper);












Betty Draper discovers the sensational sexuality of an unbalanced washing machine (sit on it girl!)


Vagabondblogger noted in another post (here), the hissy fit NBC and Apple had over their iTunes contract. Obviously, NBC did not read Vagabondblogger's memo. There's nothing quite like being ignored, is there?

Vagabondblogger downloaded a bunch of free shows from iTunes. She liked several so much, she decided to subscribe. For awhile Vagabondblogger had tried to access the new episodes of HOUSE, which is shown on the FOX Channel, but no new episodes were offered on iTunes. On the other hand, new episodes of My Name Is Earl, which is shown on NBC, were offered. That's because HOUSE is produced by Universal Studios a subsidiary of NBC, and My Name Is Earl is produced by Twentieth Century. After doing a little research, here's what Vagabondblogger discovered: The following shows are produced by Universal Studios a subsidiary of NBC, and thus the new season will not be offered on iTunes:

30 Rock (NBC) / Andy Barker, P.I. (NBC) / Angela's Eyes (Lifetime) / Battlestar Galactica (SciFi)
The Black Donnellys (NBC) / Curious George (PBS) / Eureka (SCI FI) / Friday Night Lights (NBC)
Heroes (NBC) / House (FOX) / The Land Before Time (Cartoon) / Law & Order (NBC)
Law & Order: Criminal Intent / Law & Order: Special Victims Unit / Monk (USA)
The Office (NBC) / Psych (USA) / Raines (NBC)
American Dreams (NBC) / Complete Savages (ABC) / Committed (NBC) / Crossing Jordan (NBC)
Las Vegas (NBC) / Law & Order: Trial by Jury (NBC) / The Office: An American Workplace (NBC)
Will & Grace (NBC)
Blow Out (Bravo) / The Biggest Loser (NBC - Reveille) / Dennis Miller (CNBC)
Fear Factor (NBC) / Last Call With Carson Daly (NBC) / Late Night with Conan O'Brien (NBC)
Nashville Star (USA-Reveille) / Queer Eye For Straight Guy(Bravo) / Queer Eye For Straight Girl(Bravo)
Saturday Night Live (NBC) / The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (NBC)

Notice Project Runway, Top Chef,and Top Design are not on the NBC Universal Lists, even though they are played on BRAVO, a member of NBC Universal. Why is that? These shows are all produced by independent companies. On the other hand, The Black Donnellys (see above list) was a mid-season offering by NBC, which after ooh, say three weeks (?) they cancelled, but offered the continuing saga on, iTunes! NBC cancelled Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, which was not a huge hit, but had a good following and excellent reviews, and then substituted The Black Donnellys - same, same, as they say here in the Middle East. Maybe NBC should rethink their programming, cuz some of us out here are starting to think that they don't know what they want, or what the viewers want. Maybe they don't care either, but they are starting to display some very unstable tendencies. Here's another example of NBC's total insanity, for those of you making your own YouTube videos - beware. NBC Universal has become so anal, and zealous about prosecuting copyright violations, some people have decided to fight back: Standing Up To Takedown Notices

On a chilly February day, Stephanie Lenz decided to show her family and friends what her bouncing baby boy could do. She plopped 13-month-old Holden, then learning to walk, on the floor, cranked up Prince's song "Let's Go Crazy" and whipped out the digital camera.

In the 29-second YouTube video that resulted, Holden smiles and bobs up and down to the music. According to Universal Music Publishing Group, he also helps his mom commit a federal crime: copyright infringement.

"The idea that putting a little video of your kid up on YouTube can mean you have to go to court, and maybe declare bankruptcy and lose your house, is just wrong," Lenz said. "I don't like being made to feel afraid, and I don't like being bullied."

Thanks go out to NBC for not only trying to squeeze the consumers dry, but for assaulting perfectly innocent people in their quest to make another buck! Copyright has little to do with NBC Universal's strategy. This type of move just puts the capital g on the word Greed! Aw - let's just capitalize the whole word: G-R-E-E-D!

Now that Vagabondblogger has vented her anger (again), at NBC Universal, let's look at the bright side of TV life. Not only is the 'Colbert Report' going global, but the Daily Show is actually on Showtime daily now! Last week Vagabondblogger was flipping channels, and saw Jon Stewart, on the Daily Show, interviewing Ben Affleck about his new movie Gone Baby Gone! It has happened that fast folks!

The new 40-episode half-hour has been especially adapted for international auds and will be distributed alongside the original series, which has been picked up by CTV in Canada and Foxtel in Australia since its international launch last year.

The "global edition" concept has proved a success for "The Daily Show," which has built a strong following on international broadcasters such as CNN,Blighty digital web More4, CTV in Canada and France's Canal Plus. Most recently MTV Nets Intl. has struck deals for the series with broadcasters including Showtime in the Middle East, DBS in Israel, CNBCe in Turkey, DR in Denmark, OBN in Bosnia and Norway's NRK.

Also, the latest show on Vagabondblogger's favorites list, Mad Men, is now airing locally (in the Middle East / Africa) on MBC 4 ! It started October 21st. Vagabondblogger had hoped to get this post out in advance. Here's an article from TimeOut Abu Dhabi with more information. And the good news doesn't stop there: AMC Renews Mad Men For a Second Season. The second season will consist of 13 episodes beginning in the summer of 2008. The Season One finale aired on Thursday, October 18th at 10PM | 9C.

Ever since the show started Vagabondblogger was able to download her show on Friday evenings here in Cairo. Two weeks ago a glitch occurred. I'm sure Apple received loads of angry letters (not from Vagabondblogger though) since the new show did not become available until that next Wednesday. Then on Friday, as usual, the most recent one became available too. Apple sent Vagabondblogger an apology, and credit for a free TV download of her choosing. For anyone who questions Vagabondblogger's recommendations, let her add that this show is produced and created by the same man (and many of his staff) responsible for the Sopranos. It was offered up to HBO, and other networks first. They have no idea what they lost. A.M.C. will start re-running Mad Men early November for those in the U.S.A.. As they say, "check your local listings."

From Salon Magazine: (Vagabondblogger is quoting here bits taken from the article, without divulging any spoilers. Salon.com requires a subscription.)

You really have to hand it to the writers of "Mad Men" for offering us scenes that are not only utterly original and imaginative, but that also reflect, with every word, the central premise of the show: Is it possible to foster close connections in a society that, for all of its potential, is built on the laws of supply and demand and is, therefore, cold and unforgiving by nature?

In each scene, the writers revisit the impossibility of living an honest life in an essentially corrupt world.

The sad message of the show is that, in a world built on lies, ethics are a barrier to both success and happiness.

The characters of "Mad Men" are thus resigned to live double lives, and the more comfortable they are with their deceit, the happier they'll be.

This is what a good dramatic work should do: ask important questions that have no easy answers. But that's not all we get from "Mad Men." We get weighty, nuanced scenes that we've never seen before, and that we can't predict as they're unfolding. We get fantastic acting, incredible art direction, and dynamic, fun storytelling with a wicked sense of humor. "Mad Men" is easily the best new show of the year, a true work of art grounded by sharp social commentary and poetic insights into the American experience.

You can also watch some of your favorite shows on the Internet, since Networks Start to Offer TV on the Web. The article lists each major player, and needless to say, NBC comes on the scene a bit late, and with little to offer. For you expats out there, these Web shows are only available for Internet users in the U.S.A.

The TV networks have begun to put programs on the Web. The selections are crisp, clear, legal and free. But there aren’t many choices, and they don’t stay on the Web long enough.

I've listed channels and times for both Mad Men and the Daily Show at the end of the blog, using GMT.

Since plenty of new shows have started their new seasons, Vagabondblogger has been asked over and over again, "what are you watching?" Everyone has a list of what's on their iPod playlist, well this is what's loaded onto Vagabondblogger's iTV:
Kitchen Nightmares - FOX (as usual with an "in your face" dose of Gordon's tyranny);
I Love New York- VH1 (purely brazen, trashy entertainment - New York is definitely a skank);
America's Most Smartest Model - VH1 (dumber than dumb but with Ben Stein, who is actually smart, a radical Republican, but still funny),
Mad Men-AMC (need I say more on this one),
Aliens in America - CW (reminds Vagabondblogger of That 70's Show, but with sentimentality),
Numbers-CBS (I can't explain why I love this show - Okay, Okay - mathematician brother reminds Vagabondblogger of Number One Son.)

Below L: Gordon Ramsey does not like the Korombiedes made by the Greek owner's mom, at the Seascape Restaurant.
Below R: Tiffany, I mean, New York, who apparently got fitted for her outfit before her breast enlargement surgery!

Middle East / Africa Schedules:GMT
Mad Men: MBC4
>Sundays: 20:00, 23:30 / Mondays: 14:00 / Fridays: 02:00
The Daily Show: Showtime Comedy Channel:
Mondays: Global Edition 19:00 / Tuesday - Friday: 19:00
The Daily Show: Showtime Comedy Extra:
Mondays: Global Edition 21:00 / Tuesday - Friday: 21:00


Okay, while Vagabondblogger was writing this post, and watching TV, she saw an ad for a totally great show, Big Love, on America Plus. (Yes, we have both Orbit and Showtime, but in different rooms.) Those of you out there reading this, who have more than one wife, will totally relate! Warren Jeffs, the overlord of his sect,only wishes he had it this good, but, like NBC he got a bit greedy, and decided to marry many more woman, including underage girls (which equals rape.) The Boss Man would like three wives too, but can't afford it, plus Vagabondblogger thinks he has does not have the stomach for all the cat fighting that goes on. Or maybe he would, if it was all about him. But then, on the other hand, the main character requires Viagra to keep up with all of his husbandly duties.

MAD MEN CAMPAIGN (Arabic)

US Presidential Elections - Judith Giuliani

If you like Michael Vick....then you'll Loooove Judith Giuliani!

If you're a dog (or any pet) owner like I am (actually was, and will be again) sit down, because, this might upset you. Everyone knows (or at least figures) that Judi Giuliani is a "gold digger," but puppy killer?

For the complete story of Judith Giuliani go to Vanity Fair:

"If you had told me back when we were in high school that one day Judi would move to New York and marry a presidential candidate, I wouldn't have been in the least surprised," says Gemma Matteo, a former classmate of Judi's, now a special-education teacher in Hazleton. In an era of blue jeans and rebellion, Judi was a fresh-faced, meticulously groomed enigma—quiet, self-possessed, biding her time. "Very prim and proper, not a hair out of place," according to Holly Ciotola, another former classmate. "She was always in a dark blazer, white collared shirt, and dark skirt."

In 1974 she graduated from St. Luke's School of Nursing, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As a registered nurse, young Judi spent only a few months at Sacred Heart Hospital, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She would never care for patients after that. She had other plans. At 19 she married Jeffrey Ross, a U.S. Surgical salesman six years her senior.

In short order both Rosses were working in Charlotte, North Carolina, for U.S. Surgical (now part of Tyco Healthcare), which eventually grew into a billion-dollar enterprise marketing surgical staplers. Judi was excellent at her work, and earned $40,000 a year by the late 70s. But problems arose when animal-rights groups began investigating the way the company sold its products—problems recently pointed out by the New York press. U.S. Surgical used dogs in demonstrations to doctors and hospitals as part of its marketing plan.

"Every salesperson at U.S. Surgical was trained for six weeks with dogs at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, and that was really brutal," explains a former employee. "They spent days and days with dogs, taking out the spleen or stomach or the lobe of a lung. Then if the dog started moaning or fidgeted, whoever was closest would push more sedative into him from the syringe. It was horrible. Then the dog would be killed with potassium chloride."

After training, the salespeople marketed the staplers to doctors, and, once again, in many cases large dogs were used, as they had organs comparable in size to those possessed by humans. "After the stapling, sometimes they'd put a big clamp above and below the staple lines of the dog, and fill [the area] with lots of fluid," the ex-employee says. "It would fill up like a balloon, and the salesperson would say to the doctor, 'See—it doesn't leak!' That's how they marketed and sold the product." (Some years ago, former C.E.O. Leon Hirsch defended the company's practice of using dogs, claiming that there was no proper substitute.)

WABC radio host Ron Kuby, a lawyer and severe Giuliani critic, marvels at the campaign's sublime lack of preparation for the storm of fury that greeted the dog issue, in April. "Think of all the hacks and politicos who sit down and they say to Judi, 'O.K., we've gone through your background, husbands, etc.,'" he muses. "'Is there any other thing in your background, some crazy little thing, that might catch someone's attention?' It's at that point you should raise your hand and say, 'Oh, you mean when I was killing puppies?'"

But for some reason the campaign entered the ring gloveless. "I wouldn't dignify it with a comment" was Giuliani's reply when asked about the use of dogs.

The puppies are not amused.

Politicians, Dress Codes, and Losers

I like reading certain political blogs, which I don't list as links.
Crooks and Liars is one of my favorites and I found this little gem on their site. Marie Claire Magazine is at it again. You'd think they'd quit after the article on hijabi-style clothing and shopping for abayas in Dubai. Some people accused them of supporting the Islamofascists. Now they've exposed Mike Huckabee for the true fundamentalist conservative he is (I know, "surprise, surprise"). Apparently Mike Huckabee has a problem with mini-skirts (can you believe that - a man who does not like mini skirts?) and he has a definite opinion on how women should dress. That's cool (also annoying as hell), but as a politician, he should keep his mouth shut on that front; the same goes for Jack Straw and Tony Blair. Tim Gunn, though not a politician, can express his opinion all day long and I'll listen intently, just like I do to his podcasts. Since I'm a big supporter of free speech though, I say let these two-bit politicians throw in their two cents!

Rachel Maddow's Campaign Asylum- Huckabee Mini-skirt Madness

I don't believe wearing a hijab should be outlawed (as in the French system) and I also don't believe it should be forced (as in Iran, Saudi Arabia). I don't think anyone has any business dictating what a woman should or should not wear (although Trinny and Susannah are experts at dissecting a woman's pathetic sense of style). I've worn a mini-skirt in my time, and I used to keep a hijab and abaya in my car when I lived in the U.A.E., "just in case" I might need it as a cover up, particularly when dealing with the police. The last thing you want, is to be in a traffic accident in your mini skirt, shorts, tennis skirt, etc. when you're just driving up the road on your way home from "the club" or a day at the beach. (I learned my lesson after that experience I had wearing an "OUZO" tee-shirt in a traffic accident.)

There are women I see and define by the way they dress, i.e. low cut jeans, ass antlers peeking out, bare midriff with showy belly ring bling, super tight tee = skanky. I don't care if the girl is a virgin, she still looks skanky. Oh and those sweats just spell out L-A-Z-Y to me! Anyone who's seriously working out / exercising does not wear sweats all day, particularly ones with a butt logo. Look, I may hang out in my P.J.'s half the day blogging (pajamahadeen?), but I don't go to lunch, out shopping or to school / work in them. And if you're a parent who hangs out in your sweats - take a good look at yourself in the mirror. Do you really think you look attractive or even desirable as a friend (or a parent)? Are you wondering why you can't get play-dates for your kids? You all look like losers! So to all the people who dress like that, keep doing it, because it just makes my life easier, gives me something to talk and harp on about and just makes me feel so much better than you! At least I change my clothes before going out in public (and I brush my teeth).

Oh yeah, and something else I noticed about those sweat-pants ladies - they're the ones who drive around parking lots, circling, crawling up your ass, trailing you, looking for a parking spot close to the entrance. Maybe if they got some exercise, such as, actually changing their clothes, and a little walking (like from a farther parking spot) they wouldn't be so embarrassed or (again) L-A-Z-Y or do I mean, just plain S-L-O-P-P-Y? Might I add, that when you do that, you're contributing even more to the Greenhouse Gases - just thought you losers might want to know.

"First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not infrequently) to our cost, when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible professions or studied actions. A man's look is the work of years; it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life, nay, more, by the hand of nature, and it is not to be got rid of easily."
William Hazlitt

I've written about hijabs and I feel equal time should be devoted to other clothing styles, as well as opinions. Thus the video about Mike Huckabee's fashion preferences. I'm interested in fashion and sometimes wonder why people dress the way they do. I, myself, can be quite judgmental about it, no? I was one of the ten finalists for The Project Runway Ultimate Fan Blog last season. I was addicted to Project Runway when I moved back to the U.S. from Baku, Azerbaijan, where the sense of fashion was, well words cannot describe - just look here on Carpetblog. You decide for yourself. See if you can come up with a description. (Is it truly S-K-A-N-K-Y? Or possibly ex-Soviet Republic s-k-a-n-k-y, as in taking it to a new low?)

Now you may ask why I, someone who is obviously a fashionista, was not picked as "The Official Fan Blogger". Well, the decision was based on how many votes you got from all the friends of your friends, persons within six degrees of separation, and the rest of the freaking world. It takes a village to elect the Project Runway Ultimate Fan blogger, don't you know. To tell the truth, I was lacking in friends - okay, I admit it! I have no friends! (Yes! I'm a loser too. Boo-Hooooo)
Here's what the e-mail said:

Subject: Project Runway Ultimate Fan Blog Contest
Good news -- you're in!
We are pleased to inform you that you are a finalist in our "Project Runway Ultimate Fan Blog" contest.
We sifted through scores of entries and would like to offer our congratulations, you're in the top 10.
Finalists will be announced later today, so you can see your submission and check out the competition here:
http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway/fanblog/
BravoTV.com readers will be able to vote for the winner through Monday, August 7.
Here's what we suggest: Send this to all of your friends, tell them to vote for you and then tell them to send it to all of their friends. Make it work, and then just sit back and wait. You can check the website on the morning of August 9th to find out who is auf, and who is the winner of Project Runway's Ultimate Fan Blog Contest.
Good luck!

http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway/fanblog/

Since I'm pretty much living overseas, in Cairo, these days, and have to watch many of my favorite shows by downloading them from iTunes, I have to find other ideas to fit my fashion appetite into my blog.

I highly recommend trying out for the Project Runway Fan Blog if they have another contest for it this season. My only advice is to write it up immediately after watching it (possibly taking notes, so you don't lose any of those snarky thoughts in your head) and forget who's who. I should have just called Jeffrey "Tattoo Guy" last year (bottom far right photo), instead of trying to remember his name. Trying to remember all the new names will just drive you batty and make you lose your concentration. Fourfour usually has excellent reviews of each episode. His are the best! (Do I sound like I'm over-anticipating here?) I may have to get a subscription for it on iTunes, and not to let it take over my other blogging interests.

I'm having a hell of a time not commenting on VH1's Flavor of Love's Charm School starring Mo'Nique. She's the host - no loser here. The contestants are the losers from the Flavor of Love (that's so lowdown it's scary), and it's one cat fight after another! I just love Mo'Nique's description of Brooke's (aka Pumkin's) behavior at a party as "slutacious." And that had nothing to do with the way she was dressed, since Mo'Nique picked out the dresses. I love Mo'Nique!


I guess we're all a bunch of losers (skanks, whores and sluts - in men's eyes) regardless of what we wear,say,or do, (like I care); but Mike Huckabee and his ilk will be the major losers (personally, I think he is already) particularly if he doesn't keep his mouth shut. I hate it when a man tries to tell women how to dress. Really, is it for me or for you, honey?

I dress for myself, sweetheart.

Hey, even Ann Coulter (who's in love with Joe McCarthy) wears minis (talk about skanky assed mega, ass backwards thinking, WTF?, losers!)



















The damn fonts on this page are (I fucking swear) driving me crazy!!!!!