MacGyver Mondays: "Thief of Budapest" (Season 1, Episode 3)

Title: Thief of Budapest
Airdate: October 13, 1985
My age at Airdate: 2 Years, 2 Months, 27 Days
Episode Type: Espionage

OPENING GAMBIT

A man with a very awesome mustache sits in a tent in the desert. He is in the tent with a horse. Mustache has stolen the horse from a king and it's considered to be one of the most valuable horses alive.

MacGyver takes out the guard and steals his turban. Yep. There's MacGyver in a turban. A perfect disguise.

Mustache is practicing sword-based Martial Arts while Mac saddles the horse and rides it out of the tent. For some reason, a shepherd is among those who try to stop him. So MacGyver steals his crook (shepherd lingo. it's something i do.)

MacGyver leads the chase with his deft, one-handed horseriding. They're on a beach. Hopefully Mac has a plan.....

He's surrounded by Mustache and his men. So what's left to do but joust. Sword vs. Crook. The first pass, Mustache cuts the end off Mac's crook, the next pass, Mac clotheslines Mustache with the hooky part of the crook.

And then the chase continues.

Suddenly, there's a helicopter with a tow line. MacGyver grabs it, hooks the hook to the saddle and the horse lifts into the air. Turns out it was a harness and not just a saddle that MacGyver put on the horse.


Horse (neigh-over): Whinny!!
MacGyver (voiceover): I'm with you, pal. I hate heights


OPENING CREDITS

MacGyver is in, of course, Budapest. He gets an ice cream cone and very cooly eats it without dripping on his snazzy white shirt. He looks good, you guys.

He eats the ice cream and throws the cone away. If there's one thing MacGyver hates....it's probably guns. But if there's TWO things MacGyver hates.....well, probably guns and heights. But if there's THREE things MacGyver hates, you've gotta give the bronze to ice cream cones. Apparently.

He checks out some sort of fancy yellow car and moves on. But the camera lingers as an adorable Street Urchin Girl in a Jaunty Cap and a Fancy Necklace runs up behind him. She runs into him and CLEARLY picks his pocket. Mac catches her and criticizes her technique. She asks him if he's a gypsy. Haha aw, she's cute. I think her name is Yanna. I dont want to call her Urchin the whole episode because she's cute.

So, Yanna closes the scene by successfully picking Mac's pocket.

There are two KGB agents monitoring MacGyver's double agent friend Nicky. He's Russian. It's the 80's.

So, Nicky doesn't want to give MacGyver the names of the KGB agents he has out in public. He says to meet him at Cafe Mozart. (is that how you spell Mozart? It looks wrong...) so, he walks away.

Yonna trips him with some marbles and steals what is almost certainly the list, but she doesn't know any better. Unless......maybe she's a covert KGB agent! It's brilliant! Employ the cute gypsy youth. It'll be the  KGB-CGY project!

The KGB agents (there are like 4 of them now. They must double like tribbles...) yell out Nicky's name and he runs into oncoming traffic and is hit by a truck. Whoa. He's way dead.

The KGB leader searches him but...gasp...no list! They figure that MacGyver must have the list. But then they watch the surveillance tape and see Yonna (have I changed the spelling of her name? Maybe Urchin would have been easier) pick his pocket. So they're after both of them.

KGB Leader is talking to the guy who plays the Dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and he's like the head cop of Budapest or something. Clearly a dirty cop.

MacGyver tries to catch Yanna/Yonna to get his knife back but she's a clever gypsy.....but not clever enough! He knows that she took the watch, too. Man, she's a horrible thief. She said that she gave the watch to her brother, Bruno.

They're going to go talk to him, but the police get to Bruno first! Fuckin' Hungarian Pigs. Whoa it looks like they arrested her whole damn family.

Greek Wedding Inspector also has an AWESOME mustache, too.

KGB Leader tells Greek Wedding Inspector to be a hardass with this family, despite his qualms. GWI is basically a good guy, I think.

So, first things first. Mac and Y?nna have to break her family out of the work camp/prison.

Haha, there's an Asshole Prison Guard in every work camp/prison, you know? This one just picked on Bruno (? I'm not sure if that's Bruno or, like, someone else in her family)

Mac puts a lightbulb (where the hell did he get an intact lightbulb in the Hungarian countryside?!) between two boards ("Think of it as a lightbulb sandwich....and hope they swallow it." Mac always needs a skeptical observer to explain what he's doing in charming, down-home ways) and Y?nna pulls it across the road as the Supply Truck arrives.

WHOA. There's like 7 lightbulbs in that sandwich! Was there just a whole bunch of lightbulbs laying around out there?!?!

Also, why didn't the driver of the Supply Truck notice the wooden board that was crossing in front of the path of his Truch apparently of its own volition?!?1

Naturally, he DOES swallow it, thinking he's popped a flat. He stops and goes around to inspect all the tires, giving MacGyver time to get into the truck. Locks, people. Put locks on your Supply Trucks.

MacGyver puts on a Black Prison Uniform and exits the truck. He fills a bucket with Battery Acid?

Haha he tells a quick anecdote about his mom's chili while he's making a bomb from salt, sugar, weed killer, and the battery acid (or something. it looked mostly like white powder and cloudy water to me).

He makes contact witht he family and tells them to "hang tough".

Under the prison uniform, he has a guard uniform. The gypsies cause a diversion while he takes out the guard of a forklift or something. Oh. Bulldozer. With barbed wire attached to it.

The barbed wire separates guards from prisoners and the bulldozer knocks over the guard tower a la F Troop.

Everyone (by which I mean Bruno and Y?nna's grandpa) loads onto the Supply Truck and escapes!



MacGyver: Now where's my watch?
Bruno: I sold it.
MacGyver: You sold it?!

--comedy genius

So MacGyver has to go talk to a Gypsy Fence named Reena. Bet she's gorgeous. Who wants to bet me?

An obligatory barfight later (wasn't much of a barfight actually. Two guys vs MacGyver. Mac dives behind bar and lights something explosive back there and it flashes like Phosphorous. What could it be? Red powder behind a bar? Anyone?) MacGyver finally meets Reena.

MacGyver: You know, I really don't drink too much.
Reena: Virtuous or suspicious?
MacGyver: Habit.
--Possibly one of the reasons I don't drink is because I saw MacGyver not drinking. True story.

The watch is hanging from a necklace around Reena's neck. MacGyver levels with Reena. And she kisses him. Haha she says that that's how she knows he's not lying. Nice lie detector. Someone's always kissing MacGyver. Have you noticed that?

MacGyver shows her where the list is hidden on the watch. Why is he trusting her so much? That's weird. After all that, she asks what he's offering to pay. The KGB have come into her bar. She says he can't afford to buy it, so it's a gift. He slides down the roof and calls for a taxi.

Welp, that looks like the end of it...hm much more quickly than usual....

Wait. That guy driving the taxi is Y?nna's brother Bruno. So the other guy was her...Dad? Yeah, that makes sense.

Y?nna tells MacGyver that her family wants to defect.

The whole family is now dressed in mechanic's uniforms. They're going to steal racecars from a rally in Budapest to drive across the border.

MacGyver is jamming slices of a credit card into the timer on the traffic light.

Uhoh. KGB Leader and GWI got news that the Taxi had been found, so they're on the way.

Huh. The racecar's are red, white, and blue minis. I mean, they're not mini-Coopers and I never saw the original, but is this, like, an homage to The Italian Job? I think it is!

The traffic light trick slows KGBL and GWI down, but the motorcycle cops are still on their tails.

There's all sorts of racecar shenanigans going on. MacGyver has Y?nna tape her transistor to the police radio(....which they took at some point...I just rewound the episode to see if I was typing when they stole it, but I didn't see anything of the sort...) to jam the radio with non-descript "rock and roll" if they can get it high enough. Fortunately, there's a balloon salesman right there and they stop and buy all his balloons.

The radio/transistor combo is attached to the balloons and the police radios are jammed!

Greek Wedding Inspector: "They're heading for the border!"
--No duh.

The speedy American colored cars make it across like a fjord? or something, but one of the cop cars is swept away.

They're in a sewer pipe now (I think we have car chase BINGO, here.) and some of Y?nna's cousins have raised the grate for them. But they put it down so the last cop car runs into it and off the road.

With so many helpful cousins, why have they not defected before?

They roll into Austria. They're safe.

KGB Leader yells "MACGYVER!" and Mac salutes him sarcastically.

EPILOGUE

MacGyver comes out of the guard booth and tells Y?nna's family that they have successfully escaped. He goes to walk away, but Y?nna has some last words. She's upset that he's leaving. So he gives her his Swiss Army Knife and SHE GIVES HIM A CURSE WHERE HE KEEPS GETTING THINNER AND THINNER....no, I'm kidding. She gives him her gypsy charm necklace. They hug and we go to credits.

Man, that episode had EVERYTHING!

Thanks for watching/reading!

NEXT WEEK: THE GAUNTLET

It was a rough week, but we'll relax with some music!

The week went by so fast and yet it was full of stress for most of the people I know. Weird, huh?

Well, I know what I always do to destress: Rock out to some Alternative Tunes. The funny thing about this countdown is that the songs can take on a comfort food feel to them. So, pull up a chair and enjoy!

Countdown #88

***Featuring***
The Black Keys
Blink-182
Bush
Cage the Elephant
Chevelle
Coldplay
Foo Fighters
Lifehouse
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Switchfoot
Young the Giant

MacGyver Mondays: "The Golden Triangle" (Season 1, Episode 2)

Title: The Golden Triangle
Airdate: October 6, 1985
My Age at Airdate: 2 years, 2 months, 20 days
Episode Type: Magnificent Seven-style Village Rescue

This is where the rubber meets the road, people. We're out of the Pilot territory and into the honest-to-God Season 1 Experience. Still with me? Great. Let's go.

Opening Gambit


A bearded man is holding suitcase in a junkyard. He looks anxious. MacGyver sneaks in undetected. Beard guy is approached by two suits. Mac lets us know that Beard has Pentagon missile launch codes to sell to the suits. He knocks over some tires and everyone pulls out their guns.

Playfully, MacGyver nabs the briefcase and Beard's gun with a car magnet. But now there are three guys with guns after him! How will he escape?!?!

He hides in one of the cars until two of the guys go by, emerges only to be punched in the face by the third guy. They decided to go with a 1st person POV shot for the punching. More dramatic that way. Evokes empathy for MacGyver's predicament.

Mac wakes in the backseat of a car. Ominous music. The three guys are watching him and gesturing to......A FORKLIFT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CAR! MacGyver is handcuffed and struggles to escape as the forklift carries him to a car compacter!

"Now, you may find this hard to believe, but there have been times when I've had a lot more fun in the backseat of a car." -- MacGyver's steamy past makes an early appearance in this episode.

He has ripped out the back seat and is now in the trunk. He uses a tire iron as a lever to open the trunk as the compacter crunches down. Very clever, MacGyver. He has escaped with his captors none the wiser. What's left to do?

Hoist their car into the air with the forklift, pin it to a pole, and call the authorities. :)

OPENING CREDITS

We open our main event on seagulls. They're flying over a beach. Where MacGyver lies in the sun, tanning.

A military officer is suddenly standing over him, "Good Morning MacGyver. Ever been to Burma?" The dialogue is off to a great start. The general lays out the mission: Recover or destroy a canister full of super toxic material in 24 hours.

So now we're in the Burmese jungle with MacGyver. He comes upon a slave march. Opium dealers leading locals through the jungle to harvest more product. Looks like we have Plucky Boy in Red Cap, Defiant Mother/Sister, D M/S's Love Interest, D M/S's Grandfather, and the Village Leader on Team Harvester. And Lewd Bully on Team Dealer.

Plucky hits Lewd in the back with a branch, so Lewd chases after him. MacGyver hides Plucky and then  asks him about the Red Cap with American military stuff on it. Clearly from the plane with the Canister. So Plucky shows MacGyver where the plane is. But the Canister is missing.

SUDDENLY MACGYVER AND PLUCKY ARE CAPTURED BY LEWD BULLY AND HIS FRIEND!

Haha Lewd Bully just called MacGyver a Narc. But there's no time for him to ask any further questions. The General is here. He'll want to see the Opium!

Ok I've definitely seen the General in something before. A comedy, I think. I'm not sure. He's kind of tiny. But then, all tyrants are. (Sorry, tiny people).

Ah, they have the stuff from the plane in the VIllage! INCLUDING THE CANISTER!

And the General plans to add the weapons to his helicopter. "My helicopter will become a gunship!"

I think it's clear that MacGyver has to rescue this town from the tyranny of this General. It's not about the Canister anymore.

The General decides to make an example of MacGyver and put him out in the sun for 5 days with no food or water. Interesting callback to when he was tanning on the beach before. Plucky and Defiant Sister (confirmed as Plucky's sister) come and dab him with a washcloth, but say they can't cut him down or The General will kill a bunch of villagers.

Plucky has stolen back MacGyver's Swiss Army Knife. He puts it in MacGyver's hand. A guard change is taking place, but MacGyver tricks the new guard because he's already cut himself free. He knocks out the guard and escapes.

We see an interaction between Defiant Sister's Love Interest and Lewd Bully. So, the third layer of this episode will be DSLI proving himself and standing up to LB.

Back in the village, MacGyver lets out all the village pigs to distract everyone. He sneaks under the tarp covering all the plane scavengings and goes to the canister. He's a little to cavalier with that clearly empty canister. It's flopping around all willy-nilly.

So he's setting up a chain reaction with the rest of the scavengings  to try to get away, but he crashes into a tent. DSLI takes down a guard too and LB runs away. Self-satisfied and cocky, Mac comes back to the village after watching LB hightail it and declares them FREE!....only to be told that LB is going to run to the outpost with the rest of the bad guys and bring back reinforcements...and they're kind of pissed at him for putting them in that position.

The village is divided about whether they want MacGyver to teach them to fight or leave because he's doomed us all. So Mac is all "I've got a chopper to meet. Peace out, yo." (or something like that). But they're zooming in on Plucky, so I think he might run after him and make a desperate plea.

The chopper is about to pick up MacGyver when all of a sudden...there's Plucky. Is he too late? Did MacGyver leave? No! He's still there! "I wasn't going anywhere" (Layer #1, complete)

It must be super nice to return to a village that actually NEEDS you. And Mac looks super smug about it. Really it's only the Village Leader that's not wanting to fight the General.

You know that part in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves where they're preparing to fight the Sherrif? That reminds me of this.

Also, this is a blatant cribbing of The Magnificent Seven (which, in turn ripped off The Seven Samurai)

So, so far, they're making bamboo-based tear gas and trip wire gun nests. Maybe a pit or something?

MacGyver (regarding the Pit): It's perfect
DS: Perfect.... But, they can see it, though
MacGyver: That's what makes it perfect.
--FORESHADOWING 101

Now it looks like they're putting some bamboo in a thin trench. For something.

The reinforcements are on their way.

Mac stands up at the top of a mountain, telling the reinforcements that they're "liable to have a battle on their hands". Because he's badass, that's why.

First up, DSLI chucks a rock at a jeep to get them to chase him, so that Plucky and DS can drop a whole freakin box of snakes on their heads, ambush them, and steal the jeep.

LB clearly sees the pit trap, orders his jeep to drive around....and falls into a pit on the side of the road!! Classic.

The tripwire gun trap tricks the reinforcements into moving a tree, and shooting out their own jeep tires!

So now they're on foot. Wait no. They still have one jeep left. But, you know, it's still good.

A big log battering ram is released and takes out...exactly no one. But they all leap off the last jeep. It drives for another 5 feet and stops for some reason.

Then LB takes out THE BIGGEST WALKIE TALKIE EVER!!!!!! and calls the General.

Ok. NOW the bad guys are on foot. They've hooked the exhaust pipe of the jeep to the bamboo shoot in the middle of the road....oh i get it. That's where they put the bamboo-based tear gas. So, the villagers win, DSLI fights LB and wins, securing his manhood. (Layer #3, complete)

And it's all over....or is it?!?!

The sound of a helicopter...it's the GENERAL!

He has guns on his helicopter and nearly shoots MacGyver, but Mac has an idea. He grabs some wire from the scavengings, hooks it up to a winch (I totally recognize a winch when I see one), and hooks the other end of the wire to the....feet(?) of the General's helicopter. Then it's just like reeling in a fish. In fact, I'm surprised MacGyver isn't talking about catching a fish at the old fishing hole.

A quick Martial Arts fight between the General and Macgyver. Then the General pulls a sword, lunges at MacGyver, trips on the...what are they called? seriously. the helicopter's feet...and somehow impales himself on the sword. I honestly know don't know how that happened. Then the helicopter, which was clearly connected to the General's Life Force, turns off. (Layer #2, complete)

DSLI: Now we are free.
MacGyver: Yeah.

Seriously. "Yeah." is the last line of the episode. Awesome.

Well, that does it for "The Golden Triangle". I hope you're enjoying reading these, because I'm sure enjoying writing them! I know I go on a bit long, but hopefully it's an entertaining kind of long.

NEXT WEEK: THIEF OF BUDAPEST

Countdown #87. Geewilickers!

Haha I have never seen that word spelled out before. It looks silly.

Here's a new countdown. Hopefully no new songs will go on the chart until I figure out how to get my computer fixed after it suddenly found itself sitting in a pool of soapy water. Pray that it's just the power cord that's fried, people!

Countdown #87

***Featuring***
Ben Kweller
The Black Keys
Blink-182
Bush
Cage the Elephant
Chevelle
Coldplay
Foo Fighters
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Switchfoot
Young the Giant

MacGyver Mondays: "Pilot" (Season 1, Episode 1)

Title: Pilot
Airdate: September 29, 1985
My age at Airdate: 2 years, 2 months, 13 days.
Episode Type: Rescue

And here we go. We're opening on a majestic canyon. "....Somewhere in Central Asia. Present day" A dude in a funny hat is climbing an almost sheer cliff. The sultry voice of Richard Dean Anderson comes on the voiceover. Telling a story about a horse. As I recall, MacGyver is a lot more country than he became later on.

This is what's known as the "Opening Gambit". It has nothing to do with the episode itself. It just serves to get the adrenaline pumping.

There's a downed fighter jet. Mac has taken out a guard and taken his clothing, his coffee, and his gun. Weird to see him holding a gun. He hates guns.

This horse story is serving as the skeleton for him rescuing the pilot who has been taken prisoner by these anonymous Asian guys.

HAHA. He just tossed his Swiss Army Knife up to the prisoner to cut himself free. He threw it and it stuck perfectly in one of the wooden jail bars. Awesome.

So now he's in a tent with "the missile". Pulling out some tools. Uh oh. Looks like the missiles going to explode unless he.....YES! Pops an unbent paper clip into the missile and stops it at the last second. That's what I'm talking about.

So then he sets a gun to fire on a matches/taut string timer and they escape! Huh. There's MacGyver returning fire briefly. Weird.

So he shoots himself and the prisoner off the cliff and floats away on a parachute!

OPENING CREDITS.

Ok, so who's pumped up? The opening gambits would slowly peter out. I'm sure they were expensive.

So, we establish that Mac lives in the Griffith Observatory? And is Big Brother to a friendly black pre-teen. So far so good. Wait. Did he LIE to this kid? He can't really live in the Griffith Observatory, right? That's...shady.

Now we're in Bannon, New Mexico. A cute blonde, Barbara Spencer, is both gorgeous and brilliant. This kind of woman will constantly resurface on this show.

Two old scientist dudes are playing chess for hours. But oh no! There's a bomb! Bright chemicals flying everywhere. And a vat has cracked and is leaking "acid" (It looks more like puke, but who asked me?) 20 people are trapped 300 feet below the surface (it's mainly an underground lab. you know how there are, like, underground labs?)

Who, oh who, will they get to solve this? Yes, MacGyver is the ONLY option.

Hmm, the guy that is giving MacGyver his orders isn't Pete Thornton. That's weird, too. Oh wait. There he is. He's not "Mac's best buddy", yet. And he's "Andy Colson".  And he smokes. Weird. Pilots are weird.

LOL!!!! This clown who Pete will replace just had to have "Aquifer" and "Sodium Hydroxide" explained to him.

Colson: "It's going to take a lot more than what you can carry in that knapsack to get you through all this"
MacGyver: "Well, the bag's not for what I take, Colson, it's for what I find along the way"

That's MacGyver in one exchange, right there.

He's mic'd up and by himself. This is where it gets good. He's at an elevator shaft that is filled with high voltage lasers. He uses 3 cigarettes borrowed from Colson to smoke out the invisible lasers and the mirror from his binoculars to reflect the laser back onto itself. Easy peasy.

Next problem: the bio lab is blocked by rubble and girders. Mac hears a tapping sound, taps back, and hears a response. There's life down there!

To move the girder that's in his way, he's gotten a fire hose, knotted it and put it under the girder. Turning it on, he can loosen the girder enough to burst through. He's saved the day!

But those two scientist guys are still trapped. And the blonde is going to help him get them, despite Mac's protesting. He is constantly getting bulldozed by strong, beautiful, stubborn women. This is what impressionable me was watching when I was 7 or 8. Explains a lot.

Whoa. The door she was taking him through has a fire on the other side of it. They have to go through "the gas chamber": a series of airlocks around a common lab that works with toxic gas.

Mac stops to grab some chocolate bars. Wonder if those will come into play later.

SUDDENLY THE AIRLOCKS START TO CLOSE! But they get through. Barely. Man this is exciting!

Cute Blonde and Macgyver see that all those people in that toxic gas lab are dead. Probably from toxic gas.

So, the time crunch here is that they're going to flood the labs with Sodium Hydroxide (strong base) to offset the acid leak. I guess that Mac only has the time it'll take the tankers to get to the lab. And then, SLOOSH, skin separates from bone, and so forth.

They're trapped behind the airlocks. They have to go through the toxic gas lab to get to the Vacuum Evacuation pump which can't be turned on remotely because the circuits are fried. Seems like poor planning on whoever designed the lab.

Mac gets a good luck kiss from Cute Blonde and they each put half his flannel shirt over their mouths to protect them. He turns on the pump. Phew.

Unfortunately, not-Pete (Not Colson, who would become Pete, but the guy that's doing Pete's job for the pilot) finds out that, in addition to the Sodium Hydroxide, they're also going to shoot an underground missile at the lab. You know, to really seal things in. Or something.

I'm not sure what it is that Cute Blonde does, but her high heels and skirt tell me that maybe she's not a chemist. In either case, she's walking all over the acid. But that's a non-point.

They're going to seal the rupture with the Candy Bars. Basically,  SULFURIC ACID + CHOCOLATE = TEMPORARY RESIN SEAL. It works like gangbusters.

Unfortunately, their walkie-talkies have been left behind and they still have those two scientists to get. Mac deduces that it was a bomb and not an accident.

Cute Blonde: "Don't tell me you know how to make a bomb out of a stick of chewing gum"
MacGyver: "Why, you got some?"

They have to bust through the rubble to get to the scientists. And they only have 6 minutes before they get missiled (it's a word. just don't look it up, ok?). He's going to pop some Sodium into a pill capsule. Pop the capsule in a glass jar of water. When the water dissolves the capsule, BOOM he's in. Easy peasy. Haha what a clean, rectangular hole. Chemistry is so neat.

OH NO! The scientist that Cute Blonde works for has a gun!

I'm pretty sure that they just over-dubbed Mac saying "Goddammit" into him saying "Gosh Darn it."

We're going to get the "villain monologue" now. Dude wanted to set his experiments back 20 years by killing himself and the world's only other expert in the field because the military was trying to turn his into a weapon. A bold sacrifice. Speaking of sacrifices...

Cute Blonde saves the other scientist by throwing herself in front of the gun. Shot in the stomach, she needs medical assistance. Plus the missile. Plus the Sodium Hydroxide. Thinking quickly, Mac controls the master power to convey a Morse code message via the lights. Hooray! Everyone's saved! And MacGyver gets to kiss Cute Blonde goodbye. And never see her again, ever. He's kind of a kiss slut, it turns out.

Ok, so the epilogue is in Macgyver's room...IN THE OBSERVATORY (which means 1) He didn't lie to the kid, which is good and 2) He lives in the Griffith Observatory??). Where he plays Nerf basketball with his Little Brother (also never seen again. He's a busy man, you know?)

 That was fun. But I think it's clear that once a week will be good enough. That was long! It's just there's so much to talk about! Well, I hope you enjoyed it. If this takes off and I make shirts, they'll say MACGYVER: EASY PEASY. And they will be glorious. See you next week.

NEXT WEEK: "THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE"

Back on track with a New Countdown!

So, you may not be aware of this, but you are reading this in the middle of my daughter's 6-day birthday extravaganza. Well, maybe "extravaganza" is a bit dramatic, but damn if this kid isn't celebrating her birthday on three non-consecutive days! Her actual birthday was on Thursday (1/12) and K and I took the day off and spent it with her! It was lots of fun. Now, when you're reading this, we'll be preparing for the actual birthday party. Fun times. We're probably rocking out to the countdown right along with you!

Countdown #86

***Featuring***
The Black Keys
Blink-182
Bush
Cage the Elephant
Chevelle
Coldplay
Foo Fighters
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Switchfoot
Young the Giant

MacGyver Mondays: Intro

So, on Twitter the other day, I asked if anyone had any opinions about me starting a feature on my blog where I watch and talk about each MacGyver episode. One person said that they were PRO that idea and so here we are.

MacGyver (god it's going to get annoying capitalizing that "G". don't be surprised if that stops very quickly. like, before this post is done, quickly.) is one of those shows that I "grew up" on. I have a very vivid memory of being in the TV Room/Office in our house in Nebraska, watching MacGyver, and eating Sour Cream and Onion Ruffles until I puked. Literally. So, that's fun.

The other show in this vein is Quantum Leap. If I enjoy doing this with MacGyver (see, now I'm capitalizing just to spite myself.), maybe I'll do QL, too! (Ooh. I like the abbreviatability of that...QL) It's two seasons less and it's TIME TRAVEL.

But back to MacGyver. Don't worry. There's time travel in MacGyver. Near the end, but still.

So, I will build up a slew of these and then each Monday, you can enjoy reading me watching MacGyver. It'll be great.

It's 139 episodes plus 2 movies. So that's almost 3 years!

I just decided that I'm going to post this Intro and then start posting next Monday. Who knows? Maybe I'll decide that it warrants a Saturday showing, as well. We'll see. For now, I'll see you next Monday for "Pilot"!

2011 Artists of the Year

This is one of my favorite episodes of the year. I look forward to it and I think that all my anticipation has paid off. I had so much fun putting it together and I think you'll have a lot of fun listening to it!

2011 Artists of the Year

***Featuring***
Dessa
Doomtree
King Post Kitsch
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
New Found Glory
NOFX
P.O.S.
Rise Against
Smashing Pumpkins
Wild Flag

January 2012 Media Update

So, I'm going to start doing this media update on the first of the month because I think it's fun to look back at what I have been watching, reading, and listening to. If you see something that's missing from my Media Updates, let me know.

Last Song/MP3 I listened to: Part 1 of the 2011 Contrast Podcast Festive Fifty. The In Crowd just introduced #47.

Last TV show I watched: We're in the middle of the Once Upon a Time episode "That Still Small Voice". Really enjoying this show!

Last Movie I watched: We watched bits and pieces of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End while my mom, stepdad and sister were here. They're better than I remembered. But the last movie I watched from front to back was Love Actually. Which is such a kickass movie.

Last Written Work I read: Well I'm reading back issues of the New Yorker and a book of essays for a Twitter-based book club. But the last thing I actually read was the murder-mystery book I'm reading called Reunion in Death. Part of a series that I've been really enjoying a lot, even though there are large swaths of romance novel aspects to them. Overall, though, they're like if Law & Order: SVU was set in 2059

Happy New Year! It's the Year End Countdown!

Well Holy Crap, you guys. It's time for the SECOND ANNUAL Year End Countdown. Can you believe it? So much has happened this year and I've been countin' them down all the while!

It's such an honor to do this podcast for you and I plan to do it for as long as I'm able. Feel free to check in from time to time ;-)

2011 Year End Countdown

***Featuring***
AWOLNATION
Bush
Cage the Elephant
Foo Fighters
Foster the People
Linkin Park
Mumford & Sons
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rise Against