haiku haiku

haiku

simplicity spake
word not wasted to define
eloquence of thought

© 2009 Altair

Royal Pains

Don't Get Royally Burned Notice:
Burn Notice has been moved up an hour this season!
Burn Notice will air an hour earlier to serve as a lead-in
for USA Network's new summer series "Royal Pains".

Royal Pains, USA's first home-grown doctor-drama, stars Mark Feuerstein as Dr. Hank Lawson, a recently axed Manhattan medical wunderkind. Opting to save a street kid's life in ER instead of a billionaire hospital benefactor, he finds his rising star has crashed and his promising career blacklisted. hmmm, sounds a lot like the life of our favorite spy! Which has been played up in recent two-way commercials for Burn Notice and Royal Pains, with Michael Weston sending Dr. Hank a care-package - sunglasses, sunscreen, and some plastic explosives - to get him started in the Hamptons as a concierge doctor to the rich & famous.

USA is pinning their hopes on Royal Pains and Mark Feuerstein being able to fill the gap when Tony Shalhoub and his Emmy winning Monk wanders off into the San Francisco sunset. Having Burn Notice as its lead-in will surely help Royal Pains find an audience, but it remains to be seen if Dr. Hank can get the new series off life-support and standing on its own two feet. Feuerstein's TV track record is a bit sketchy. Like his new character he's remembered more for the series he has killed than saved in the past decade. I remember Feuerstein most vividly from two movies - as Mel Gibson's sidekick in What Women Want and as the lost and bewildered cable TV producer opposite Penélope Cruz in Woman On Top both released in 2000 - definitely good company, but did any of their caché rub off on Feuerstein.

P.S. If you are a Monk fan, remember that later this summer will be the beginning of Monk's final season. The OCD among us already have our DVR's and VCR's programmed to capture those last episodes!

Royally Burned!

I have a very small schedule of "must-see" shows on TV.

My favorite show is the Amazing Race. This is by far the best reality show on TV and most fairly run as teams advance on their merits and strengths, not by subjective voting. On my schedule the Race is followed by Dancing With The Stars. Admittedly the voting is a little suspect, especially early on each season, but the finals usually boil down to three of the better couples and talent winning over just plain popularity.

Now comes my favorite unreal show - USA Network's Burn Notice!

Fiona, Sam, and everyone's favorite spy Michael Weston return tomorrow night - Thursday June 4th - for the start of Burn Notice's summer season. Perfect timing, since both the racing and dancing are on summer hiatus.

Michael Weston is my favorite spy - part Jason Bourne, part James Bond, a dash of McGyver. Michael has got average-guy good looks, realistic physical aspects, and is spy smooth & sauve without being cloying. His true blue guy-pal Sam has his back. Ex-girlfriend, sometimes lover, and former IRA gun runner Fiona is better than a Bond Girl, she's more developed, as a character where it counts. And as independent and world-wise as Michael is, he still has to occasionally answer to his "mom", played by Emmy winner Sharon Gless.

Don't Get Burned Notice: Burn Notice has been moved up an hour this season!
Burn Notice will air an hour earlier to serve as a lead-in to USA Network's new summer series "Royal Pains".

Obama to Buy GM for $30 Billion

Obama announced today that his administration will buy a 60% to 70% stake in the failed automaker GM (General Motors) with $30 Billion of American taxpayers money.

Obama said that GM's bankruptcy will be longer than the 31 days it took to settle the Chrysler bankruptcy. Obama defended his actions with GM stating that his people inherited a severe financial crisis "unlike any we have seen in our time" that put the government in an "unwelcome position."

However, those statements are an attempt to convince people that GM's problems were solely caused by the previous administration, when in fact, GM has been digging their own grave of debt and bad business practices for over 30 years and through at least 4 different administrations.

Here are some of the things that are going to happen with the GM bailout.
In the US:
14 US plants to close
21,000 more workers to be layed off, about 1/3 of all workers.
Union contracts to be drastically restructured and will effect past, present and future workers' wages and benefits.
It is not completely clear how the GM bailout will effect their suppliers and what closures will ultimately take place and which debts will be paid or negated.

Foreign operations:
GM is selling part of it's European operations, Opel, to German Magna for $2.1 billion.
Restructuring of union contracts and debt in Canadian operations.
China, GM's second largest market, are to be mostly unaffected by the bailout and GM will continue to advance operations with their joint venture partner the state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp.

The news of Obama's bailout of GM has found favor with the markets as the DOW has jumped up 200 points so far today. Yet, over the past 12 months GM lost 97% of its stock value. The bailout of GM by Obama will not save common shareholders and preferred bondholders appear to receive some special treatment with respects to a "new" GM.