Okay, it is time

All followers, please subscribe to my blog on wordpress to keep up with me.

upagainstthewalge.wordpress.com

Please let me know what you think of the new format, and I will make adjustments accordingly.

To My Followers...

Hey, guys. I know it has been a while since you have seen any activity here, but the reason is because I am moving my blogging activities over to Wordpress. I am in the process of setting everything up over there now, but it will be quite some time before it's ready to go. I have a lot of options to peruse, and I have a lot of pieces to go through to make sure that the pieces I am posting are the best that they can be.

I am moving over for two reasons.

First, the features that Wordpress provide make it easier to archive my work outside of the blog, and that is really what I want to use this blogspace for, as a business card of sorts, a place I can refer people to when they ask what it is I write. While I could just start copying and pasting all of my best work onto this blog, it looks far more attractive and much more organized on Wordpress.

Also, by forcing me to separate my writing into categories, it might even start some actual blogging on its own. As you can see from my blog description here, the writing I do is pretty varied, which is not ideal for a blog. A good blog is very focused, and whenever a subscriber comes around, he or she expects to see a post that is similar to what has come before it. If you subscribe to a blog about snowboarding, coming in one afternoon and finding a post about the Academy Awards would throw you off completely.

But when I was creating my blog, I found myself having a difficult time picking one avenue to pursue. I have many interests, and most of them are fleeting. But with Wordpress's options for categories, it would be very simple to start little micro-blogs. These will be very focused pieces, and they will connect with each other thematically and stylistically. And, again, each will be posted in its own category. That way, I can keep an ongoing blog without ever feel like it is getting stale or repetitive.

I am not posting the URL yet, because there is still a bit of work to be done over there. But when it is ready, you will be the first to know.

What are your thoughts on the move? Are their deeper features to Blogger that I am not aware of that would allow the vision I have for my blog? Has anyone else used Wordpress, and not been as impressed? Or, has anyone used Wordpress and be willing to guide me through some of the features I might not be aware off? Sound off below.

Back to Life

I am a fan of television, but it is very rare that I will watch a show every week. I generally catch up after a few seasons have already aired, as I did with Mad Men, The Wire, and Californication. I let the reputation of a show steer me towards it or away from it. This habit is mostly a time constraint, because if I had to make sure that another slot in my schedule had to be filled each week, I'd probably wink right out of existence.

That being said, I just want it to be clear that at 8 o'clock on March 21st, I will be sitting in my living room with about fifteen people watching the premier of Life.

For the uninitiated, first, please go to this link: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/life-the-series-videos/.

If your face hasn't melted all over your jeans at what you just saw, or for those who didn't want to link to the videos, Life is a series on the Discovery Channel premiering later this month, a documentary from the same producers of Planet Earth.

The amount of love I have for Planet Earth is on the verge of being obscene. When that show aired in my freshman year of college, I was sitting in a room full of friends watching every Sunday night. I met a few of my friends through Planet Earth.

I've seen the first episode of Planet Earth synchronized with Dark Side of the Moon several times.

It was an episode of Planet Earth that caused my dad to accuse me of smoking marijuana. "It wasn't that you were telling me to watch the show- it was how adamant you were that I watched it." Then he told me about how his friends would go to see Fantasia in the theaters back in the seventies. We bonded.

The day I give in and drop the money on an HDTV, I will put Planet Earth on a constant loop simply for the ambiance.

And now, there is going to be a sequel.

Cheetahs hunting ostriches.

Balloon-eyed tropical flies.

Ninja tree frogs in slow-motion free falls.

Komodo. Dragons.

To quote my friends over at the US Fun Team:

"We're getting the team back together."

So, who are you watching Life with? You are watching it, aren't you? Because if you don't, you're really really stupid. Any favorite Planet Earth moments for anyone else? Thoughts are welcome.

Whiskey, Misogyny

A lot has been written about the series Mad Men. Critics have praised its portrayal of the Sixties and the underplayed acting. It has been lauded for its set and costume design. And after just finishing the third season, I will not try to deny what has been said. It is as good as its reputation claims. It is simply quality television.

Yet, as engrossed as I was in the show, and as entertaining as Mad Men is, I felt exhausted after every episode that I finished. Each one was a moral test of character. Every time I joined Don Draper and the rest of the Sterling-Cooper became a challenge not to become completely intoxicated by their world. Mad Men is an advertisement for a lifestyle, and the show's contents can be just as poisonous as the cigarettes its characters pitch to imaginary markets.

Those wishing to avoid spoilers for all seasons should stop reading here.

The show makes no illusion about the dangerous lifestyle that these characters are living. They do not explore these issues lightly. Roger Sterling has a heart attack in the first season attributed to his vices, and Freddie Rumsen was let go from the company in order to dry out after pissing over himself before a meeting. Don Draper, the central protagonist, has a serious accident while driving drunk. In another memorable scene, a creative team is discussing the Lucky Strike contract, all with lit cigarettes in hand. When one of them makes a joke, they all began to laugh-- only to then break into violent fits of coughing. But despite all of the glimpses at the downside of their vices, not a single character has sobered up or quit smoking. In fact, the only teetotaler on the show fell off the wagon at the end of the second season.

Now, I am no altar boy. I smoke cigarettes (only until I graduate, I swear) and I drink liquor, and neither habit can be attributed to the show. But I do practice moderation. And when Don Draper pours a bourbon and lights a smoke in his office at 9 am, it is impossible not to envy that kind of casual disregard for health and safety.

But the lax attitudes towards health standards are not the only components of the Mad Men lifestyle that one might find appealing. Many of the characters, particularly Don Draper and Bert Cooper, exhibit the rational self-interest that provides the ethical backbone to Ayn Rand's writings. As a result, these characters come across as focused, driven, stoic, hard-working, and self-reliant; they are the classic portrait of American at work. They are the men returning from work in Norman Rockwell's paintings and the nurturing mothers at home waiting for them.

Add to the mix that most of the characters are beautiful and rich, and Mad Men becomes the one-sheet advertisement that our generations' parents and grandparents waved in our faces all of our lives. The Mad Men are the people we were told to grow up and be.

But it is still just an advertisement. Its claims are not true. These seemingly happy, successful people pursue their wants and get wrapped up so deep into their own desires that they fail to develop any real relationships. Husbands cheat on their wives. Wives refuse to confide in their husbands. Coworkers turn against each other. Everybody fails to connect.

Anyone who has seen advertisements for the show will tell you about the racist, misogynistic and homophobic tendencies that appear in many of the principal characters. To a modern audience, these attitudes are absurd. With some unfortunate outliers aside, these feelings are not held in the mainstream in most of the country. This has led some critics, like Mark Greif with the London Review of Books, to dismiss Mad Men as a collective pat on the back, "an unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better."

For a lot of issues, that is true. We have made social progress since the era Mad Men takes place. We have made progresses on health standards. Our feelings about the environment have changed through necessity. And I say: good for us.

But Mad Men is not rewarding its viewers for having a certain political view. That is the glossy picture that draws your attention. That's just the pitch.

But then something happens. You sympathize for an alcoholic. You cheer for a chauvinist. You want the sniveling little creep to get the promotion.

And when you are too blinded by all the immaculate haircuts and cocktails and Cadillacs to watch the show through your own cultural lens, you realize that they did it.

They just sold you.

What do you think of Mad Men? Have you seen it? Does it deserve the Golden Globe? Have any ethical revelations stemming from the show? Leave your comments on the below

First Piece of Advice

Chocolate Ibarra. Buy it.

Heat milk, add two wedges per cup, mix well in a blender or with a wire whisk.

Garnish with cayenne pepper.

Forget that you had to work too late to catch any of the Super Bowl and now all you can do is get caught up on Twitter.

Nick Walge's Blog

Greeting, Internets.

Welcome to my blog, which is in its infancy stages. The direction of each entry will vary some, but mostly I will be writing about things that inspire me or enthrall me. I will be blogging about television, books, food, film, beer, women, college life, cattle, Gary Busey quotes, writing, politics, dinosaurs, Kim Jong-Il, sports, cigarettes, photography, technology, music, and this thing called "America."

If nothing else, it will be interesting to me.