Congratulations, Jonathan Jackson

Tonight, Jonathan Jackson won his fourth Emmy Award for the role of Lucky Spencer on General Hospital.  It’s the first time he’s won as a supporting actor.  The first three Emmys (1995, 1998, 1999) were as a younger leading actor.  Congratulations, Jonathan!  And, Happy Father’s Day.

Jackson going up to accept the Emmy, with cast mates expressing their delight

Jonathan Jackson with his daughter, older son, and the 2011 Supporting Actor Emmy

Watch the video of Penn & Teller revealing his name, followed by his acceptance speech.  This YouTube video has a hiccup, so the five nominees are shown twice, and the sound is a bit out of sync. 

 

Happy Birthday, Jonathan Jackson

Today is Jonathan Jackson’s birthday.   I woke up to the news that he’s been nominated for another Daytime Emmy for his role as Lucky Spencer on General Hospital.  It’s impossible to top that for a birthday treat, so I won’t even try.  Congratulations and Happy Birthday!

 Note:  This is the scene from General Hospital that convinced critics and fans that he’d get an Emmy nomination.

A Sad Week For Soap Fans

This week, the news broke that Rebecca Herbst has been fired from General Hospital.  For thirteen years, she has played the character Elizabeth Webber, who arrived in Port Charles as a rebellious teen, and is now a nurse and a single mother of three small boys.  Not only is she one of the most popular actresses on daytime television, but to viewers who have watched her all these years, she is an old friend.  Passionate fans engage in fierce battles on soap forums over which character is her best romantic partner, and they are willing to travel far to attend her fan events. 

 I’ve only been watching GH for seven months, but I can see from the online reaction that this is a truly shocking event.  Viewers, critics, and cast members are stunned, and nobody can make sense of this decision.  The official word from ABC: “Storyline dictates the exit of Elizabeth Webber this spring. The next few months promise to be a ‘not to miss’ story for the character. We at ABC and GENERAL HOSPITAL wish Rebecca Herbst nothing but the best in all of her future endeavors.”  This is news to everybody, because Elizabeth Webber hasn’t had much of a story to miss lately.  Viewers have been waiting impatiently since March for her to find out that the father of her baby is really Lucky Spencer, since Helena Cassadine switched the results of the paternity tests.  Things are either going to start happening really fast, or viewers are going to be left frustrated and unhappy.  Oh, yeah, that’s going to happen anyway, isn’t it?

Most GH viewers agree, even though Rebecca Herbst is a lovely, talented actress, her character has been poorly written this last year.  Rather than try to fix the writing, they are just writing her out.  It can’t be easy to go back on set, filming your last scenes over the course of several weeks, after you’ve been fired.  I’m sure Rebecca Herbst will remain professional and give her very best to these scenes, but they will be heartbreaking to watch, no matter how her character departs.  Soaps are famous for bringing back popular actors, even after their characters have died, but who knows if General Hospital will be on the air long enough for Elizabeth Webber to return to Port Charles. 

Many viewers are saying they will quit watching General Hospital now.   I have to say, it’s been a real slog ever since the whole evil Balkan storyline began, and I can’t wait for that to be over.  Will I stop watching?  Well, I will definitely stop watching when Jonathan Jackson (Lucky Spencer) leaves the show.  Until then, I will probably keep at it, yelling at the TV when the storyline gets unbearably stupid, knowing that nobody at ABC is really listening.

Update: It didn’t take long for producers to reverse their decision.  Now it’s just a question of whether Rebecca Herbst will get a storyline and writing that’s worth watching.

My Year End Wrap-Up 2010

As the year comes to a close, it’s time to look back and reflect on the best and worst of 2010.  I’m not going to be the least bit objective here.  This is my blog, so I get to ignore popular trends and public opinion.  You won’t find Lady Gaga or Dancing With The Stars or Harry Potter The First Part of the Last Book (Finally).  This is what entertained ME this year.

Best Books: This year, the recently published books that I most enjoyed were The Gates by John Connolly, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson, Operation Mincemeat by Ben McIntyre, and The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart.  The biggest disappoint was One Day by David Nicholls.

Best Television: All year long, the television show that has been the most consistently funny and worth watching is The Big Bang Theory.  Jim Parsons gets a lot of the credit, but I’m also a big fan of Kunal Nayyar as Raj.   Another excellent series is Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.  My favorite new show from the fall is Hawaii Five-O.  The worst show this year  was the incredibly dull American Idol season.  I can’t even remember the finalists anymore, probably because I was watching NCIS instead.   (People who know me will wonder about General Hospital.  Just keep reading.)

Best Twitter:  Matthew Gray Gubler from Criminal Minds tweets with charm and whimsy, and his photos, while not always in focus, are always worth clicking open.

Best Movie:  This category is very tricky.  I only saw five films this year in a movie theater, and two of them were silent.   Of the talkies, Easy A was the funniest and most endearing.  Emma Stone, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are so appealing, you easily forget the shortcomings of the story.  Fortunately, none of the films I paid good money to see actually sucked.  Considering the clunkers released this year, that’s pretty good luck.   All the good films released this month will have to go into next year’s list, because I haven’t seen them yet!

Best DVDs:  Here is where I make up for all the movies I missed in the theater.   The best films I watched on DVD weren’t even released this year, but they’re worth mentioning.  I loved Mrs. Palfrey at The Claremont, Patrik Age 1.5, In the Loop, The Band’s Visit, and Heartlands.  Note that three of these films are British, one is Swedish, and one is Israeli.  Not one American film made my list this year.  Unfortunately, the worst thing I watched on DVD this year was also British.  It was a short-lived TV series called Bonekickers.  Avoid it.

Best Streaming:  A special thank you to my downstairs neighbors Nathan and Eric, because I share their wireless DSL.  They upgraded the speed a couple of months ago.  Now I can watch programs on my computer without all the stops for buffering.  The best thing I watched streaming was the British comedy series The IT Crowd.  A special mention goes to the hours of entertaining clips I watched on YouTube.

Best Music:  The music that gets the most space on my mp3 player, and the most plays, is by Enation.  I’ve also enjoyed the new albums by Hanson (Shout it Out) and Jason Castro.

Best Music Video:   I love dogs, so my favorite is White Knuckles by OK Go.

Best Entertainment News:  This is a weird category, but I have been fascinated by all the news about the making of The Hobbit.  The director changes, the New Zealand union controversy, the casting news—it could all prove to be more entertaining than the movie itself.  If it ever gets made.  The worst news was when Entertainment Weekly magazine refused to honor my great subscription rate from past years, so I didn’t renew.

Entertainer of the Year:  This one is a no-brainer.  Back in July, I started watching General Hospital to check out James Franco’s guest appearance.  I became interested in Jonathan Jackson, who plays Lucky Spencer.  I thought my interest would last about a week.   Six months later, I’m still watching him on GH, listening to his band Enation, and checking his facebook page every day.  I’ve watched his movies, his YouTube videos, and his live streaming events on Ustream.   He even answered a question from me on his Twitter Q & A last month.  Jonathan Jackson gets this “award” not just because he has entertained me, but because he has done it in so many different ways.  Thumbs up!

Jonathan Jackson and Enation (click to see larger)

The Enation Tutorial

A beginner’s guide and 12 step program for becoming a fan of the indie band Enation.

1.  Watch General Hospital and become intrigued by Lucky Spencer and Jonathan Jackson.  (This first step can be swapped with many others, such as watch One Tree Hill, watch Saved By The Bell: The New Class, eat at Galeotti’s Restaurant, hear about this band from a friend, etc.)

2.  Visit the official Enation website.  Follow the link to CD Baby to check out the music.  Listen to the music samples.  Order three of the CDs because you can’t resist a good sale, but don’t tell anyone because it’s embarrassing to buy three CDs before you’ve heard a full song.

3.  Receive your three CDs in the mail and start playing them constantly.  Find a small problem with one of the CDs and feel delighted, because it means you get to send the band an email.  Get a response to your email and feel stupidly excited.

4.  Go to Ustream and watch the archived live concert, live rehearsal and live interview.  Find the answer to the question, what does the name Enation mean?  Then go to YouTube and watch the videos on EnationMusic’s channel, Daniel Sweatt’s channel (which are the funniest!), Jonathan Jackson’s channel, and then check out the fan videos.

5.  Go to facebook and “like” Enation’s fan page, and while you’re at it, “like” Jonathan Jackson’s page and Richard Lee Jackson’s page.  

6.  Go to twitter and “follow” Enation, Jonathan Jackson, Richard Lee Jackson, and Daniel Sweatt.  Add their twitter feeds to your Google Reader.

7.  Go back to the Enation official website and join Enation Army.  Don’t hold your breath waiting for your first “monthly” newsletter. 

8.  Go to the band’s Myspace page, if you can remember how, just because it’s there and you’re obsessed now.   Find some other fans online to chat with about the band, because you’re starting to annoy your friends and co-workers.

9.  Go to Amazon.com and order your first mp3 player so you can buy the Enation albums at CD Baby that are only available as downloads. 

10.  Go back to the official Enation website, order an autographed Enation photo from the band’s store.  Feel a little bit of disappointment when the photo arrives because it doesn’t have Luke Galeotti’s autograph on it.  Then see it as an opportunity to get it autographed when you finally see the band perform live.  Print out a small photo of Luke, because you’ve downloaded hundreds of photos off the internet, then stick it on the band photo and pretend he’s in the picture.

11.  Start buying lottery tickets, and hold off planning your vacation until the band announces another set of tour dates.

12.  Wait patiently (or impatiently) for the next concert, the next CD, the next tee shirt, the next tweet, the next DVD, the next book of poetry, the next video, the next monthly(?) newsletter…because now you’re hooked.

Enation (click to see big and even bigger)

 

Lucky Spencer Grows Up

I’ve been watching old clips of Lucky Spencer on YouTube.  He’s a character on General Hospital, if you haven’t been paying attention.  I put together this collage of just some of his different looks through the years, as played by Jonathan Jackson.  Well, I don’t actually know if the photo in the water is from General Hospital, and if you’re really paying attention, you’ll see I slipped in one image of Jackson as Kyle Reese on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  Just because I felt like it.

Lucky Spencer as played by Jonathan Jackson.

I don’t have anything profound to add.  I just wanted to show off my mad photoshop skills.  (No copyright infringement intended.)

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Yesterday was one of those days when nothing worked for me.  We’ve all had them, I suppose.  It started the first thing in the morning when I was surfing my morning lineup of sites.  I was on zap2it.com checking out the Emmy nominations that were just announced.  I was delighted by some, like Jim Parsons for The Big Bang Theory and Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton for Friday Night Lights.  Naturally, I was disappointed that certain names were missing from the list, like Zach Gilford for Friday Night Lights and FNL for best drama series.  I’m happy about Alan Cumming’s nomination, but his name was spelled “Cummin” in the list.  Being the annoying person that I am, I typed the correction into the comments section.  The site’s obscenity filter changed my correction to “C******” and then blocked me from further comments.  Poor Alan C******!  Imagine having an innocent name that can’t bypass site filters.  Not that Mr C himself is innocent; nobody could mistake that. Anyway, I wonder how long I’ll be blocked…

The afternoon came, and I sat down to watch General Hospital.  It was a pretty good episode, with some humor added to the mix after a tense week.  Lucky Spencer was looking good in blue.  Then the last ten minutes of the show were preempted for breaking news about the Oakland BART police shooting trial.  Well, it’s been a big story and the news was important, since a verdict had been reached and it was about to be announced, but still.  Couldn’t it have waited ten minutes? 

I spent part of the evening attempting to watch Enation’s online concert on Ustream.  You guessed it.  Technical problems.  Not with the band—they were fine.  I guess my DSL isn’t fast enough, because the image was mostly frozen, and the sound came and went.  To the right of the screen was a live chat scrolling along, and it moved more than the band on my computer.  It took me most of the concert before I managed to login to the chat, and then my computer froze.  I was sitting there feeling critical of the chatterers for their spelling errors, then discovered that I couldn’t even manage to spell ”hello” correctly in the chat window.  I gave up.  I’m going to try to go back to Ustream later and watch the archived video, but I don’t have much confidence that it will be any better on my setup.

While I was writing this post just now, my computer glitched and I almost lost this whole entry.  Fitting, isn’t it?

Summer Heat

While most of the US is roasting in triple digits, good old San Francisco is cool and overcast.  My google toolbar says it’s 55 degrees (fahrenheit) at the moment.  We may get swallowed up by an earthquake at any moment, but I’m still grateful to be here!  Still, I don’t mind a little summer warmth, so here is my first annual list of Guys Who Are Heating Up Summer 2010 (in no particular order).

Alex O'Loughlin

Alex O’Loughlin:  I love this Australian actor, and I sure hope his third CBS series will stick around.  The reboot of Hawaii Five-0 begins in fall, and the trailers look promising.  This summer, both his cancelled CBS series have been airing, Moonlight (vampire in LA) and Three Rivers (transplant hospital).  I’d watch this guy in old reruns over stupid reality shows any day.  I didn’t see The Back-Up Plan in the theatres, so I’m waiting for the DVD release on August 24th. 

Matthew Goode:  Today A Single Man was released on DVD, and I was at the redbox at 8:20am to rent my copy.  I will be happily watching it tonight, as a reward for a full day of errands.  It’s awfully tough sitting here and not watching it right-this-very-minute.  I know Goode’s role in the film is small, but I just love him and Colin Firth (who probably deserves his own place on this list!), and I understand from friends that I will adore Nicholas Hoult after seeing this movie.

Zac Efron:  This cutie’s movie, Charlie St Cloud, opens at the end of this month.  Efron looks great in the trailers.  I read the book this film is based on, and it’s sweet and predictable and unchallenging, so the movie should allow me to sit back and enjoy the sights. 

Taylor Lautner:  See my last post for my impressions of Eclipse, but Lautner is the reason I bothered to see the movie, and he didn’t disappoint. 

Jonathan Jackson:  Not a lot is happening with his character, Lucky Spencer, on ABC’s General Hospital, but that gives me a chance to catch up on his character’s background.  As I said in a recent post, I just started watching GH and listening to Jackson’s band.  I’m responding to his GH character’s sensitivity, not to mention his delicate good looks.

 Joseph Gordon-Levitt:  Inception is opening soon, and I’m delighted to see this guy in a big film.  Well, I’m delighted to see him anywhere.  I’m a little worried about his haircut in Inception, but I know I can count on his performance being excellent.  He has never disappointed me. 

Russell Brand:  I’ve read My Booky Wook, and I love Brand’s unique way with language.  He cracks me up, too.  This is a guy who doesn’t have many filters, and he’s excellent at pushing boundaries too far.  I’m watching him with fascination wondering when he’s going to alienate everyone.  He reminds me of Pee Wee Herman, a twisted character created for a certain adult audience who became a mainstream hit, was given a real children’s show (which I never understood!) and then…well, you know the rest.  I’m not saying I want Russell Brand to blow it, I’m just not sure he can resist it.

So, who’s on your list?

One Thing Leads to Another

The San Francisco Frameline Film Festival was held this year June 17-27th, showing LGBT films from around the world.  It’s the oldest LGBT film festival, and this year they had an Andy Warhol retrospective and many films from South America.  This was my second year as a volunteer.   I like to staff the hospitality table, where volunteers and staff greet the filmmakers.  It’s great fun, and as a volunteer you get a movie voucher for every shift you work.  Unfortunately, I’m still recovering from this malingering virus that’s been going around, so I had to cut back on my shifts and missed seeing most of the films on my personal list.  I did get to see the opening night film, a BBC production called The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, about a Yorkshire woman from the early 1800s who left coded diaries about her various romances with other women.  It was based on a true story, and it was sure different from Pride & Prejudice! 

I didn’t get to see the closing night feature, a film called Howl about Allen Ginsberg, starring James Franco.  Franco came to the screening, so I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to check him out.  I’m not obsessed with Franco like I am with a few dozen other actors, but he’s certainly on a roll right now.  The Film Festival showing came just before Franco’s return as a guest star on General Hospital.  Now, I can follow a couple of other soaps (I grew up with a mother obsessed with Days of Our Lives), but I’ve never watched General Hospital regularly enough to follow the storylines.  In spite of that, I started tuning into GH this last week to see Franco.  A few trips over to soapnet and wikipedia helped me to understand key plot points.  A friend who used to watch filled me in on more background character info.  This same friend loved Jonathan Jackson as Lucky Spencer (back in the 90s), so I started paying particular attention to him.  Next thing you know, we’re watching Jonathan Jackson in Tuck Everlasting and On The Edge, and I’m spending hours on YouTube watching GH clips of Lucky from 1993.  And this is how one of my obsessions begins. 

And it won’t end until I’ve watched every video, rented every DVD, checked out every website and fansite, linked up on twitter and facebook…it’s exhausting, but at least with the internet everything is faster.  Before the internet, DVDs, and even VCRs, it used to take me ages to work through one of my actor obsessions.  I would search through the TV guide looking for movies that were airing (yes, kids, there actually used to be movies shown on regular, non-cable TV!) and take endless trips to the library searching through periodical indexes and microfiche machines looking for information.  As a teenager I kept a card file of my favorite actors and all their roles—my very own low tech imdb.  Now with everything at my fingertips on the internet, I can zip through an actor’s entire body of work  in days and weeks instead of months, so then I have to move on to somebody else.

So at the moment it’s Jonathan Jackson.  He’s a musician as well as an actor, so a couple of his CDs should arrive in the mail this week.  His band is called Enation, and I like the brief clips I’ve listened to online.  I have no idea if I’ll actually like a whole song.  My taste in music is obscure, eclectic and weird.  Most people wouldn’t even call it taste.  It was a risk ordering the Enation CDs, but I love ordering music from CD Baby, and their summer sale is awesome (selected CDs, three or more, five dollars each).  The best part about ordering from CD Baby is the email you get when they ship your order.  I would describe it, but I wouldn’t want to spoil your fun.  Just order from them and see, if you haven’t already. 

Enation is doing a free online concert this Thursday, and here’s the poster:

Enation internet concert

I’ll be checking it out.  Hopefully my CDs will have arrived by then so I’ll already be familiar with some of the songs. 

Well, I’ve got to go back to YouTube now.  I’m up to early 1994, and little Lucky Spencer is in the hospital trying to avoid a mob hit.  Tomorrow I will tune into the current episode of GH to see who survived the car bomb.  It’s such a full life.