The Wild Blog in the West

I am a huge  Les Miserables  nerd.  Or, I guess it's fair to say, a  Les Miserables  the musical nerd.  Though I've read the novel and seen a couple movie incarnations, the musical has always had a special place in my heart.  I saw it for the first time with my French class when I was 13 years old.  I've since seen it five more times, in San Francisco, London, and Los Angeles.  I've seen the "old school" turntable version and the 25th Anniversary projection screen version -- otherwise known as "the version where we actually get to see Gavroche die" versus "the version where we get to see Grantaire scream about it."  I've purchased both the 10th and 25th Anniversary DVDs.  I have weighed in on Michael Maguire versus Anthony Warlow, Francis Ruffelle versus Lea Salonga, Colm Wilkinson versus Alfie Boe, and Patty Lupone versus Ruthie Henshall.     I am far from the only person obsessed with this musical.   ...

Say you were taking public transportation.  If you were in the middle of an activity, such as putting on cologne, makeup, or nail polish, and someone in the seat behind you said: "Excuse me, I'm sorry: your [insert activity] is causing me to have an allergic reaction," what would you do? In my case, my immediate response would be: "Oh, I'm so sorry!"  And I would promptly stop the activity.  Maybe afterward, I would wonder if my activity were really that bad, or if I should have really had to stop.  But my FIRST reaction would be: "Oh, I'm so SORRY."  Because I would understand that I was not in my own bathroom and that I was sharing this space with other people, and that other people could be affected by what I do.  Even when I'm in a shitty mood, I am mindful of this. Not an actual representation of my train.  This one is much, much nicer. So this morning, I was sitting behind a man and a woman on the BART train into San Franc...

It struck me that the title could be construed to suggest that Daria itself was MTV's one great miss.  On the contrary, Daria was the best series to come out of MTV.  I would even venture to say that its very existence almost makes up for MTV's other drek.  Almost. So after I built up the show so well in the last post, what was it that was Daria 's great miss?  Well, for a show that managed to create such complex characters and a high schooler who was unique, yet to whom we could all relate, Daria never really seemed to get high school. It is far from the only show to miss in that respect.   Saved By the Bell and Beverly Hills 90210 divided the school into Popular Kids and Everyone Else.  Occasionally an unknown character might pop up to "school" the Popular Kids about the Specialness of other students, but that person usually vanished by the next episode.   Buffy acknowledged the unpopular kids, to the extent that they really were unpopular, but t...

Since I want this blog to look at media as well as general social issues, it only makes sense that I start with the show that was my passion for the good part of a decade: MTV's Daria . From the left: Jake, Helen, Quinn, Daria, and Jane Many are probably already familiar with the show, since  Daria was finally released on DVD in May 2010.  In case you are not, though, here is a brief description.   Daria was a half-hour animated series that ran from 1997 to 2002, for a total of 65 episodes and two full-length TV movies.  It was a spinoff of Beavis and Butt-head , another MTV animated show that ran from 1993 to 1997.  The character of Daria was originally created because someone at MTV thought that Beavis and Butt-head could use a smart female character as a foil for the "protagonists."  Around 1995, MTV executives approached Beavis and Butt-head  writer Glenn Eichler with the idea of creating a spinoff show for Daria.  That was when MTV ex...

Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration.  No, not really. And this guy is doing... what exactly?  Blowing leaves back onto the grass?  Into the water? I hate leaf blowers.  Really, really hate them.  It's not just that a leaf blower sounds like a jumbo jet landing on your front lawn, but also that so much noise and pollution comes from so little.  It just blows leaves around for Crissake.  You would think for all that noise, it could at least vacuum the leaves up and turn them into easily disposed-of mulch.  But no.*  Most of the time, the people that use leaf blowers aren't even blowing around big leaves, but tiny little leaves that no one notices, except for those who think it is their job to make the yard look as sterile as possible.  Half the time, the end result is not forming a neat pile of leaves that can be easily scooped into a bucket for disposal.  It is blowing the offending leaves into the street... or onto a ...