Intermissionary

Seen this past week or so:

1. Britney’s girl thing. Well, the ex-teen pop star shows ‘em what they want. She went commando. Hey, I’m not judging. But feisty fashion list-maker Mr. Blackwell’s probably fuming right now. It’s interesting that Ms. Spears has been in partying mode for the last couple of weeks, hanging out with fellow celebs Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan and celebrating her split from the ex. And just as talk of their supposed sex tape died down, people get a peek at her goodies anyway. More than once. Oops, indeedy.

2. Pacquiao’s parade. What the hell were all those people doing with him on that float? Were they boxing champs too? Utterly shameless, self-aggrandizing opportunists. Good thing the boxer’s declared that politics is the last thing in his mind right now. Let’s hope that he won’t ever aspire to become a politician, and just sticks to doing what he's great at--bashing heads in--instead.

3. Sarah McLachlan sang “River.” Just saw her perform on Conan. It’s not as beautiful as the Joni Mitchell original, but Sarah’s more than worthy to cover it. It’s from her new Christmas album "Wintersong." I wanna listen to that, and Aimee Mann’s recently released holiday album.

4. Super Spy. Finally watched and finished the first season of Alias. Jennifer Garner kicks serious ass as double agent Sydney Bristow. Yeah, I know, I'm late in finding that out. I was skeptical of the series at first, but I like how the conceit's been entertainingly and believably stretched to the end of the season, so far. I also like that she’s a mistress of disguise, that she’s scrappy and can pull off a lot of identities. Too bad she didn’t do so well as Elektra, though. I hope the next couple of seasons will keep me as interested. The show just ended early this year, after five seasons.

5. Heroes. People are noticing similarities between this show and Lost, but as I’ve yet to watch an episode of the latter, I really don’t know how Heroes might be emulating it. Anyway, I like some parts, but find some characters’ situations boring so far. But as it’s an ambitious enough fantasy series and very much comics-inspired, I’m curious how the multiple storylines connect and become realized. I like Hiro (the time-space bender), the younger Petrelli brother (the power mimic), and the cheerleader (with the healing factor and the obviously evil dad). Hope the payoff’s good.

6. The latest Civil War Frontline. With the exception of the hit-and-miss last portion of the book (which has gotten really forced in presenting war analogies lately), this eleven-issue series is an important tie-in to the main Civil War miniseries, and is mostly a substantial, worthwhile read. It’s more meaningful and deeper than that main title, actually. The central book, unfortunately, has been suffering from jumpy storytelling and is having a lot of important things happen off-panel or off-book, which shouldn't be the case.

7. Smooching. A pair of twenty-ish lesbian girls kissed each other goodbye as one of them was boarding a jeep in Muntinlupa. Sweetest thing I’ve seen all week.