Post-24 Depression

Sigh. Well, it's mid-May, and Jack Bauer has yet again saved the world, the U.S., California, Los Angeles, a bus full of nuns, a cute kitten that got stuck in a tree, a 3-2 Dodger win over the Giants, and 15% by switching to Geico. Seriously, is there anything you can't do, Jack Bauer?

But now, Grego is left with a hole in his heart as he sees his favorite TV hero...(omitted for spoilers). 24 has long been my must-see TV show, and those who have called me in the past during that time know that nothing disturbs my weekly date with Jack Bauer. But now I must wait until January for the new season of 24 and an as-yet unknown time in 2008 for Battlestar Galactica.

For those who missed Day Six, it revolved around five missing suitcase nukes. The day is prefaced by weeks of violence and suicide bombings in the US at the hand of Muslim extremists. I won't go into too much detail for those who plan on watching it on DVD or MySpace (which I thought was ingenious on FOX's part), but I enjoyed the season for the most part. There were parts of it I thought were unforgivable (Curtis...WTF?), and at times it tried too hard and forsook development for more action (12 hours to see your first explosion in Day One vs. 12 seconds in Day Six), but it definitely got better as the season developed.

It reminded me a lot of Day Three. In it, there was a viral scare and the writers tried far, far, far too many plot twists throughout the day (Jack's heroin habit?). They ended up cleaning house and introducing an almost new cast for Day Four (my favorite), and I can see the same thing happening for Day Seven.

I definitely see a new cast, and possibly a new non-LA location. Hmm? Any takers? Or is LA destined to be the #1 terrorist target for the seventh season in a row? Seriously, how does CTU Los Angeles continue to get funding? Not only do they make their employees work 24-hour shifts (where's the night shift in all this?), but with all the leaks, the attacks, the moles, and infiltrations, shouldn't we be evaluating CTU's effectiveness? And how much has LA's population dropped over the course of these six days (which I would guess is around nine or ten years).

I'm not sure where they'll go with the next season, but I think Jack Bauer killing some terrorists in new scenery would do him well. Those questions will be answered in time. Until we meet again, Jack Bauer, vaya con dios; you will be missed (until I start rewatching Day Four. Heart.).

Tuesdays with Mercer

Nothing like a spur-of-the-moment trip to see The Shins to get this week started right. You see, The Shins hail from here in Albuquerque, but they haven't come back to play in over four years. So after a string of European dates, I guess they figured, "What the heck, let's go back to Albuquerque and rock that town silly."

And rock it silly they did. They played in a small club called the El Rey, and tickets sold out QUICK. I was unable to procure any as I found out about the concert too late, but last night, my friend asked if I wanted to go downtown and try our luck at getting tickets. They had released 45 tickets that night, but were unable to get any of those. We ended up buying some from a scalper for a slight increase, but it would soon be well worth it, although in my rush to get out of the house I forgot my camera, so all I could do is take crappy phone pictures. Forgive me.

I won't bore you with the openers, but The Shins effing rocked. They sounded tight, loud, and overall just plain awesome. And they appeared to be happy to be back in town, constantly thanking us for coming out and telling fun little anecdotes, like James Mercer saying, "This is a song I wrote about four blocks from here," and then breaking into "New Slang." It changed my life. Glee.


They also played a very cool cover of "Breathe" by Pink Floyd, a rocked out version of "So Says I," and turned "Caring Is Creepy" into a slow ballad, which all sounded great. Overall, they played for close to 90 minutes with a great mix of all three of their albums. My one complaint is that there wasn't enough dancing. Oh sure, there was the emo kid head bob, but where was the jumping and flailing about? Meh, it just made me look that much cooler. Amazing concert, that's all I can say. Why aren't The Shins ruling the world with their poppy goodness right now? Oh well.

Next up is TV on the Radio back-to-back, along with a soon-to-be-drunk-and-mischief-filled weekend in Atlanta, washed down with a chaser of some great music, both live and blared through the speakers at the residence of one Austin Louis Ray. Have a great weekend, fooligans.