Character Study: Gregory House, MD

I'll confess to being late to the party when it comes to the TV show House. I'm catching up now, and feel fairly confident that I've seen almost every episode. Finally.

Of course, part of the success of this show is the talent of its star, Hugh Laurie. I've dug his work since I saw Jeeves and Wooster on PBS.

Image via Wikipedia

Anyways, another secret to the show's success is making House such an interesting character. I'm sure you've noticed that House is the center of the Universe on the show--everyone kowtows to him or enables him in some way. He's a master at manipulation, at getting what he wants, and the second you give him what he wants, he changes what he wants to something else. You can't satisfy him.

Being a bit--just a bit mind you--narcassistic myself I can't help but dig that.

House, though, is up front about his flaws. He will admit that he's willing to lie to get what he wants, that he finds it difficult if not impossible to remain faithful to whoever he may be dating, and he has no qualms about using emotional manipulation to accompish a goal.

That, I think, is why I find him so fascinating. Having had to deal with a drug addict in my personal life on a couple of occassions (one of them long-term and unavoidable, unfortunately) I know how frustrating it can be, especially when the addict in question is in total denial about it and thinks nobody knows--when in fact everybody knows. House, though, will admit (if you aren't a cop) that he's a drug addict. He simply doesn't care. He's up front about it all and if you still insist on dealing with him, well, you have been warned.

Another plus--for me, anyway--is House and I seem to have pretty much the same taste in women. A stunning array of flat-out HOT women on that show, from series regular Lisa Edelstein to the various guest-stars (like Mira Sorveno) and semi-regulars. When the story drags I can at least enjoy the scenery.

So, now I'm hooked, and like House regarding his Vicodine jones, I'm not ashamed.

Friday morning randomocity

So, I was stretched out on the couch last night, watching TV, when bam! The lights went out.

I thought it was a power outage until I noticed that my air conditioner was still running. Open the breaker box--tripped breaker. Problem is, I can't untrip it--I try to turn it on or off and it just flips back to the middle position. Not good.

Last time this happened it was because of an exposed wire in the ceiling fan in the living room. I suspect that's the culprit this time, too.

Usually I can get stuff fixed here in a day or so, but the last time I reported an issue I had to deal with someone who apparently didn't know what she was doing and tried to cover her ass by lying about it. Drives me crazy. If you are new to a job and you don't know how to do something you should ask somebody, instead of telling people you are taking care of whatever and then not doing anything about it, because you don't want to admit you don't know what you are doing.

Here's a hint--when I ask you to do something and you say you'll do it, if you don't do it I will notice.  And I'll let you know that I noticed. Or let your boss know. I'm not going to just let it go.

Sorry about that. I do go on and on about stuff that gets on my nerves, and I just can't let things go. It's not something I'm proud of, but it's also something that's kept me from repeating mistakes. I just don't forgive and forget. I may do the first part, but I don't do the second. I can't. I've tried.

Fortunately, the air conditioner is still working, and the lights in the back part of my apartment work, along with everything else (like the computer I'm using now). So, there are some things I can do.

Poor Atari, I believe, thinks he's done something wrong and I'm mad at him--he's following me everywhere I go. It won't help that I have to shut him up in the bedroom in the off chance the maintenance people should get the work order today. I mean, Atari's going to spend the whole day sleeping in the bedroom anyway, but when I close that door it seems to really bug him. I guess I'd feel the same way--there's a difference between not wanting to leave and being unable to leave.

If anybody's curious, spec script for Mythophobia is coming along. I'm maybe halfway through it. Still got some people to kill off. Things are just about to get frantic again, after a little time to cool off.

And I'm still pretty pleased with my newest tune, "Inside." It turned out almost exactly like I wanted it to. If you haven't heard it you can go here and click it to listen. It's the first song on the list. Feel free to listen to the others while you're there, too. Got some other new stuff and some stuff that's a couple of years old there. Let me know what you think!

Lyrics--important or not?

Most people I know prefer a vocal with the music they listen to--instrumentals normally aren't all that popular. But I've often wondered how important are the lyrics to the songs people love?

Think about it--could you sit down and write out the lyrics to your favorite tune? Really, I mean--not guessing at some words. And, really, what is your favorite tune about, anyways?

I know I can't do that. Hell, there are a ton of songs out there I just love and I have no earthly idea what they are about or even what most of the lyrics are. I just dig the tune, and the vocal, the musical tension and drama that develops along the course of a really good tune. Often I can't understand the vocal, but it still helps. And don't even ask me what a song is about--nine times out of ten I have no idea, even if I do know the lyrics, unless it's one of those "I'll love you forever" things that I don't usually go for.

Still, I obsess over the lyrics to my own tunes. I try to make them interesting in some way--I'm listening to "Inside" now and I'm pretty proud of those words, and how the song in general turned out. But I spent a lot of time on those lyrics.

But, if someone else had recorded that song, I don't think I would care what the lyrics are.I think it's dark, powerful, with a throbbing, driving beat that I love, and the lyrics would be academic. Sure, since I wrote it I know what it's about--but I wouldn't if someone else had.

What do you think? How important are the lyrics of a song to you?

A touch of grey

How do you feel about grey hair? Or a grey beard?

Personally I don't get the panic people feel when they see that first grey hair. I kinda dug it. I think a lot of people do. To me it's quite attractive.

A few years ago I went to see Emmylou Harris give a free concert in Forsyth Park. Now, I'm not a big Emmylou fan, but she's okay, and it was free, and I had nothing else planned, so I went. I've always thought she was hot, which was another incentive.

Anyways, her trademark long black hair was instead long salt-and-pepper hair. Lots of grey there. And it was sexy as hell. Good show, too--I had fun except for the idiots who insisted on standing in my line-of-sight instead of stretching out on the ground like us normal people. That was irritating.

When I have hair it's got a lot of grey in it. Plus, my beard has a patch of grey, cocked to one side. I think it looks cool.

Maybe I'm weird. Hell, I am weird, but I think in this I'm with most people. Or at least a significant minority.

Just curious. What do you think?

Things I just can't handle

I can't watch a movie or TV show where a child--especially an infant or toddler--is harmed or abused. I just can't take it.

I know it's not real. I know it's a work of fiction and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. But, deep down in my unreasonable and overactive subconcious, it seems real.

It's worse if it actually did happen--like on CNN. Stories about horrible things that happen to children in this world haunt me.

All this means there are several films I just can't bring myself to watch. Don't get me wrong--if you dig films where that sort of thing happens, and you can watch them, then good. I don't cast aspersions on you. It's just something that I personally can't handle. I'm not talking about that sick, twisted porno that some monsters like to watch--I'm talking TV shows like Law and Order: SVU.

Next thing, though, is animals. I'm the same way about those, dogs in particular. And in American cinema, if a dog is a major part of a film, he's gonna be dead before the end. Not something I care to see, thank you.

I guess I'm turning into a big ol' wimp in my old age.

"Inside" now available

I just uploaded my new tune, "Inside." You can visit one of the links above to hear it, or just click here.

I'm quite proud of it. It's pretty bombastic and loud and dark. All things I look for. Anyways, click on over, give it a listen, let me know what you think! Feel free to listen to my other stuff that's there, too.

Redshift, Blueshift . . .

I wrote a story by that title a long time ago and I've been thinking about the ethical dilema it posed. I thought I'd bring it up here so maybe we can have a little discussion about it.

The basic premise of the story--it was science fiction--is that the narrator of the story figures out a way to end a long and bloody war with an alien race. Unfortunately, his way of ending the war will result in over a hundred million human casualties. But, afterwards, the war will be over. It had been going on for years with neither side getting an advantage and with the sheer power of the attacks growing and no chance of it ever coming to an end, until this happens.

It's kind of complicated, what happens in the story--basically he figures out that we had been attacking ourselves because we were using a technology we didn't totally understand. Ships we sent to attack the enemy were actually being sent back a few months in time, and everything was so distorted that they didn't know they were attacking earth--and we didn't realize it was our own ships. The commander of a powerful fleet sent to avenge a devastating attack figures it out--it was his ships that came and wiped out all those people and created all that destruction.

Unfortunately, if he aborts his attack then someone else will. The nature of time travel--in this story, anyway--the attack happened, so it will happen. If he doesn't do it, then someone else will, and it's entirely possible that it'll be an alien race that will sort of pop up to fill the void that gets created when he aborts. So, if he continues he'll kill all those people, but since he has the evidence now to prove this is what's happening, the war will be over. If he doesn't, then it'll be out of anyone's control and the war can continue until humanity is wiped out totally. He'll basically be creating an enemy--one that it will turn out has always existed.

He goes through with it. The story is both about the attack, and the after math, where the military decides what to do with him--is he a hero or not?

Here's the question, though--what would you do, in that situation? Think about it, and let me know. I'm curious.