Qualler's Commodity Market: October 2010

As you may be aware(*), I, Qualler, have a day job. It's true. As much as I'd like to rap at y'all as a full-time job, The Blogulator don't always pay the bills so well.

(*)One of my least favorite work e-mail sentence starters.

In my day job, though, I do occasionally run across the business page of the Wall Street Journal. This usually happens whilst in the restroom, where the big muckywucks somewhat disgustingly bring their morning subscription to the Journal into the handicapped stall (hey, it's got the most room and not one of those annoying auto-flushers. Wait, too much info? Sorry. My filter was burned away yesterday after running 26.2 miles. Yeah, Doktor, you can make fun of me for bragging now, and for talking about my worktime pooping habits. Bring on the monotone zingers.) And when I read said business page, I run into a lot of business commodity stuff. So I thought to myself: why not apply this to October's pop culture?

Thus, a new feature is born: Qualler's Commodity Market! Hooray!

What I shall do is name three pop culture things that are rising in my commodities market, and three things that are falling. Here we are for October.

Rising:
1. Kanye West
Damn, did you see Kanye's performances on Saturday Night Live this weekend? They were, to put it one way, off da hook. Aside from being stunning visual pieces, especially for being on live television, the two songs he played, "Power" and "Runaway" are logical leaps forward, much more so than his mostly weak latest record 808s and Heartbreak. Though his new record is not officially announced and will be coming out "sometime in November," his performance on Saturday Night Live instantly removed his status as an internet meme and put him back in his rightful place as one of pop music's most visionary artists.

2. Jason Katims
Aside from the Qualler-Brigitte household discovering that Friday Night Lights is, indeed, a spectacularly great television program, Jason Katims, Lights showrunner, keeps his schedule busy by also running NBC's Parenthood, which has slowly become one of my favorite shows (even with Dax Shephard, whose debt to The Blogulator society has been mostly repaid thanks to his strong work on this show.) Parenthood's second season has so far improved upon its first season simply by the benefit of knowing the large cast of characters and knowing how they interact, even if nothing much of consequence happens. Add to the fact that Katims has run Friday Night Lights (which is not really about football! It's about life!) and suddenly, Katims is one of my favorite showrunners in the biz.

3. David Simon
Speaking of great showrunners, obviously we all know that David Simon is a good one. One cannot be involved in snobby pop culture blogging without someone obviously (and deservedly) saying The Wire is one of the greatest dramas of all time, Dickensian in nature, etc. So it's somewhat puzzling that Simon's newest offering, HBO's Treme, didn't get as much bloggy love as its predecessor. Perhaps it was because people wanted a new Wire and didn't really get it in the more character-centric Treme. But after having finally finished the first season, it's possible that his new show could eclipse The Wire in greatness, because it contains the same level of detailed, journalistic environments, but also contains unbelievably great acting performances. Melissa Leo is especially great, especially in the last couple of episodes of the season, as is Khandi Alexander. Can't wait for season two.

Falling:
1. Alan Ball
Speaking of formerly great showrunners, Alan Ball, you have disappointed me. I finished the third season of True Blood this weekend, and found that a show that I didn't totally love ceased to be entertaining. Now, Ball set my expectations low in its first season with regard to character development, but the late-season development that Sam the Shapeshifter is actually a bad guy is frustrating at best and idiotic at worst. As Chris pointed out: How does Sam go from being a fun, sympathetic character, to being a boring character, to being an evil character, happen in one season? Not to mention, the wildly different plot strands that continued through the third season never meshed in any way that was satisfying. Denis O'Hare showing up every once in a while expertly chewing scenery wasn't enough to save this dud of a third season. And most disappointing to DoktorPeace, there wasn't even very much good nudity this season. Get your priorities straight, Alan.

2. Easy-target documentaries
Granted, I haven't seen Waitng for Superman yet. But, I have a major issue with "major" documentaries like the aforementioned expose on public education. One, how easy is it to make a statement like "Public education needs to be fixed?" Nobody would disagree that education should be good. But what does a documentary with a major marketing push really do for us in society other than get people to have a half-baked conversation while also pummeling us with built-in advertising, like NBC's "Education Week" on the Today show this week? Gah. Go away, easy-target documentaries.

3. Annoying critic blurbs
Finally, whoever called OHD favorite Joey Lawrence of Melissa and Joey "yummy and enjoyable" needs to lose his or her job. Actually, whoever makes the marketing decisions at ABC Family and chose that blurb should lose his or her job. Okay, let me rephrase that: I don't want anybody to lose anybody's job. But, c'mon. Yummy? Is "yummy" a critical reaction? Additionally, that Legends movie about 3D Owls directed by Zack Snyder (I refuse to look up the actual title while citing the Shrek Forever After rule of Confusing And Clunky Movie TItles) has a critic calling it "Awesome." Now, I don't have a problem with somebody calling it awesome. Maybe someone thinks it's awesome. But, does the faux British dude who does the commercials need to say "Awesome" in such an annoying way?

Actually, finding the source of the "yummy and enjoyable" quote proves that this is the fault of ABC Family, because in the article they are actually saying that he now resembles a piece of moldy cheese!

Speaking of Joey Lawrence being "yummy" and "enjoyable," remember this video? I totally didn't watch this after a very special episode of Blossom when I was a kid. Oh Joey, you're so New Jack Swing.

This entry was posted by Unknown, on Monday, October 04, 2010. You can leave your response.