200 Years and Still Counting. I AM SO PROUD.

200 Years of 'A Wilderness of Machines'

Congratulations everyone, we did it!!!!! Here's to another two too funny funny centuries!!!!!!

Breaking Bad

1. This show was created by Vince Gilligan, a Richmond native who was on the writing staff for a great deal of "The X-Files," including almost the entire "Lone Gunmen" spin-off series.
2. The show is no "Wire" or "BSG" or "Mad Men:" 4 episodes in, it seems like some major characters will remain so flawed as to be irredeemable and thus consistently hard to want to watch (a la Ziggy from "The Wire.") There are some very obvious plot gaffes, and it often relies on "quirkiness" for humor or twists in a way that is tiresomely typical with this genre of television and hard to really even exemplify or describe here. I see myself watching the whole thing, but not continually harping on everyone around me that they have to watch it, and they have to catch up with me so they can watch it with me, as I did with "The Wire," et al.
3. However, what it has on the abovementioned shows is that, through its inoperably cancer-ridden protagonist, it deals with mortality as a major theme in a way that those shows never did, which is to say the way that mortality itself deserves: not entertaining, not thrilling. Aside from Roger's coronaries*, Roslyn's cancer, and Bubbles's bug, which are all sort of just subplots, no TV show I've ever seen has dealt with imminent, untimely death in such a major and accurate way.**

*I'm also not giving up hope that "Mad Men," given its creator's expressed intent for a very long story arc, will at some point explore the thanatological in an equally serious and extensive manner.
**I've also never seen "The Sopranos," so there's that.

Fuck It.

Observations:
Obviously it's still awful in an unparalleled way, but wouldn't you say their music has become more "listenable" (not necessarily better or even less awful) since their early years, which years are exemplified (in my lay non-Juggalo mind) by whatever song it was about "fried chicken" or whatever that made me turn off and not finish the documentary I was watching about them and their fans, I mean I honestly couldn't even finish watching what was turning out to be a pretty fascinating documentary because the music was actually so un-listenable? Is it the listenability that has turned them from something that one could actually call somewhat threatening and edgy and kind of scary into something much more hilarious than any intentional parody or self-parody could ever produce? Likely it's not just that, but also the newfound apparent positivity and granolaishness that seems to happen to every band that stages outdoor concerts. Their smug, confused equating of "15,000 juggalos all in one room" to the wonder and glory of nature offers a hint as to what the deal is with that effect. They're not nihilists anymore because they're so proud of themselves for being good businessmen.