TV: Ultimate Film Fanatic

The second season of the Independent Film Channel’s game show kicked off two weeks ago. I wrote about the first run of the series here. My misgivings didn’t prevent me from watching the rest of the season.

Or from auditioning to be a contestant on season two.

Imagine my surprise when they picked me.

My episode of the show – the battle to crown the Ultimate Film Fanatic of the Pacific Northwest – airs this Friday, January 21 at 10:30 PM Eastern, 7:30 and 10:30 PM Pacific. Many questions will be answered. Will the TV lights make me sweat like Nixon? Will my abundant natural charisma translate on camera? Will I humiliate myself? And, most important of all, what do I look like? Tune in this Friday to find out.

As for Rosemarie’s first (?) JEOPARDY! appearance, that’s been pushed from February to June. Blame the impending super-tournament, which is just an excuse to bring Ken Jennings back. I’ll post a reminder as the show date nears.

Magazine: The New Yorker, 1/17 issue

Margaret Talbot profiles Hayao Miyazaki, director of such classic animated films as MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO and SPIRITED AWAY. My favorite passage:

“Although much of Japan’s kid-oriented anime has been exported to the U.S., a great deal more – such as ‘Anpan-man,’ a hugely popular series about a bean-paste-stuffed roll – has not. (A fan Web site notes, ‘To a non-Japanese person, the concept of a living bread superman who fights giant germs and feeds the hungry with pieces of his head may seem bizarre.’)”

Not to me. Bring him on.