Here's another great Showtime show. Actually, this one follows right after WEEDS every Monday...so if you're watching one show chances are you're watching the other.Californication.Awesome name for a show. I'm a bit shocked they aren't using the brilliant Red Hot Chili Peppers song (which I THOUGHT is where the word came from)...but whatever. Awesome show.David Duchovny is perfect as the book author with the "rock star" personality. I can't imagine any other actor that encapsulates that unique mix of geek, sexy, and asshole. I missed the first 2-3 episodes, so apparently I missed Duchovny fucking a bunch of hot wannabe Hollywood ladies. Shame on me. I don't mind, though, because the show's become a wonderful mix of characters exploring relationship and sexuality on a variety of levels (adolescence to middle age).The "Hollywood" angle is glamorous enough to have you coming back (everybody on the show is beautiful) but nothing is as shallow as it initially appears. I love that.Here's the brilliant sequence Jerry Frissen sent me that inspired this whole post:

I just got back of all my "Preacher" Graphic Novels from a family friend. The kid who borrowed them finished his Freshman year in college...which was right around the time I started reading "Preacher". I felt it was necessary to corrupt the kid's mind at just the right time! :-)Man, I loved Preacher...especially the first half or so of the story. The Saint of Killers, Jesse Custer's family, Starr, and the Grail...all of it was such morbidly fascinating stuff. I actually felt dirty when I started reading these comics! None of this would matter if Ennis and Dillon didn't do such an amazing job with the characterization and storytelling."Preacher" reads a bit differently than most comics. Ennis' work tends to be dialogue heavy...so the art takes a step back from the text. Fortunately, Dillon's art is expressive and efficient enough to complement Ennis' style.For me "Preacher" loses a bit of it's magic once Jesse Custer goes to Salvation...but I still regard the whole series as one of the best English comics of the 1990s.

I finally got around to seeing "Children of Men" starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. Damn. That may very well be one of the best film's I've seen in the last year. Someone was telling me that Director Ridley Scott claims that "Sci Fi" films are "dead". Clearly Mr. Scott hasn't seen "Children of Men".In the film, Theo (Clive Owen) assists a faction of rebels to help a pregnant woman to safety in a future dystopia where all human beings have inexplicably become infertile.Director Alfonso Cuaron ("Y Tu Mama Tambien" and "Harry Potter 4") does a masterful job of creating a rich world and visceral story. From the opening seconds of the film the viewer is thrust into a rusty world overloaded with information. Instead of glamorizing the future, the world of "Children of Men" forces the audience to catch up with the frantic paranoid pace of it's inhabitants.I highly recommend this film. Anyone read the novel it's based on?Here's an amazing steady cam scene that (I assume) was Cuaron's homage to "Saving Private Ryan":

Initial reports claim that Mr. West is on track to outsell 50 Cent in CD Sales. On the first day of sales, West's "Graduation" sold approximately 437,000 copies to 50 Cent's "Curtis'" 310,000.Amidst all of this, I thought it'd be a little fun to see West's hissy fit after the MTV Music Awards alongside 50 Cent's candid interview on the day of his album's release. Ironically, 50 Cent comes across as way more "human" than Kanye. I almost feel sorry for the "Gangsta"!Kanye's MTV VMA Hissy Fit50 Cent's Tired

We just got our latest batch of prototypes from the factory. Here's the first public glimpse at Dr. Destruction Original with a removable cape, cigarette, and cane. The Doctor will be in stores by the end of this year.

What a weird and funny show. Now, I've just seen 2 episodes...so I'm really ignorant to how much weaker Season 3 is to the first 2 Seasons (as Jerry adamantly assures) but I'm enjoying this wacky Showtime Television Series.The basic premise is a Single Soccer Mom deals drugs in the Suburbs. In the midst of the 3rd Season, she can no longer deal drugs because Federal Agents are supposedly watching her.The show finds a shaky balance between tragedy and comedy. I sometimes feel it moves too far into the realm of caricature. But when it seems the writers are lazily using racial and cultural stereotypes, a brilliant idea is introduced to makes it all worthwhile.Here's one of my favorite moments from the last episode: