why Ikea is dangerous

[Brian Kent]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGYSQ-xtWl4&NR=1

[Brian Effinger]

:D I've always liked Pinky & The Brain. :D
Made me smile.

[Van Huskey]

Problem is NO man would ever be effected by his plan...

[Kent A Bathurst]

Those fans of The Wire on HBO will recall the scene where Det Kima Greggs was struggling with IKEA assembly, and called Det Jimmy McNulty for advice. His response:

"What brand of Scotch are you drinking?"

btw - 5 seasons of The Wire via Netflix was a wonderful way to spend some evenings.

[Neal Clayton]

agreed, the wire was probably the best cop series ever on tv, even disregarding the wasted season on the port worker scams.

[Mac McQuinn]

My Wife and I took our 1st journey to an Ikea store on Thursday and it was a bit of culture shock for me. Totally out of my normal furnishings realm I walked around for two hours and submersed myself in the theology of Ikea. After all is said and done I saw a lot(not all) of well designed products for a wide range of very affordable pricing.

I personally feel this is probably the future for 75% of the people out there. In my eyes a fantastic concept if you can get past preconceived notions.

With society moving towards more service industry occupations with less pay on the average, I see this as a viable option in furnishing your home, apartment, etc. As an alternative I can see a emerging market for refurnished/rebuilt affordable furniture. FWIW

Mac

[Kent A Bathurst]

agreed, the wire was probably the best cop series ever on tv, even disregarding the wasted season on the port worker scams.

Au contraire - that was a great season + story - Sobotka was doing anything and everything he could to keep his members working, and to provide a future for them and their kids - it led him to felonies to raise cash to supply to the politicians to get the port expanded - and even to the point where he bought a stained glass window for the parish church - any and every angle. And the inevitable moral - the politicians let him down, the drug trade to raise the cash cost him his kid and his life, and the future of the longshoremen was no brighter after all of that.

There were many characters of high morals in the series that acted, for better or for worse, in a manner that on the surface is immoral. Bunny Colvin, Omar Little, McNulty, and Sobotka, to name a few.

[Neal Clayton]

Au contraire - that was a great season + story - Sobotka was doing anything and everything he could to keep his members working, and to provide a future for them and their kids - it led him to felonies to raise cash to supply to the politicians to get the port expanded - and even to the point where he bought a stained glass window for the parish church - any and every angle. And the inevitable moral - the politicians let him down, the drug trade to raise the cash cost him his kid and his life, and the future of the longshoremen was no brighter after all of that.

There were many characters of high morals in the series that acted, for better or for worse, in a manner that on the surface is immoral. Bunny Colvin, Omar Little, McNulty, and Sobotka, to name a few.

i don't have a problem with the concept, just the execution was rather off. they played the port workers off as too dumb to get away with anything, so every episode that they didn't get caught seemed like tedious time filling to me. you expected them to get caught, and every episiode that they didn't get caught reflected poorly on the cop characters. the drug characters were played off as more clever than the cops gave them credit for, which explained why they got away with so much.

the other criminal characters that were involved in that season (omar, stringer, and the beginning of going into depth of the plots and schemes of prop joe) were so much better, i thought, than the port workers.

[Kent A Bathurst]

i don't have a problem with the concept, just the execution was rather off. they played the port workers off as too dumb to get away with anything, so every episode that they didn't get caught seemed like tedious time filling to me. you expected them to get caught, and every episiode that they didn't get caught reflected poorly on the cop characters. the drug characters were played off as more clever than the cops gave them credit for, which explained why they got away with so much.

the other criminal characters that were involved in that season (omar, stringer, and the beginning of going into depth of the plots and schemes of prop joe) were so much better, i thought, than the port workers.


I can agree with that - prolly a question of degree, though.

"...the drug characters were played off as more clever..." Always felt that was part of the point - plus the requirement that the cops have rules to play by - the "success" they finally had came from Freamon + McNulty going waaaay wide of the rules to bring down Marlo, except they didn't bring him down - they just made him move on, and open the game to new players - mostly. The ending montage with the political players were in the Capitol; Colvin, Freamon, and McNulty are out (because they didn't play by the rules but succeeded); and The Greek?? - he's still sitting at his same seat at the counter.

BTW - hope you are watching Treme - Pierce and Peters are great.

Sorry, folks for the hijack, but I find an irony that we've hijacked the thread while talking about drug-filled shipping containers that were sorta hijacked :D

[Neal Clayton]

i am absolutely watching treme, since i used to live right outside of that neighborhood ;).

bunk is a pretty believable trombone player thus far!

[Kent A Bathurst]

i am absolutely watching treme, since i used to live right outside of that neighborhood ;).

bunk is a pretty believable trombone player thus far!

Jeez, Neal - musta been hard for you to watch Katrina's decimation of NO, and their struggle to rebuild. You gotta love Goodman's lines and especially his delivery and emotion. Melissa Leo's too. And last week, BP/Transocean/Halliburton is out to get 'em.

Bunk is an excellent actor. They did a remarkable job of casting - I believe 'em all. Of course, after Homicide + The Wire, I would expect no less. The one actor from Homicide/Wire group I am waiting to appear on Treme is Clark Johnson (Det Meldrick in Homicide).

I'm assuming you have watched Simon's first effort - Homicide - correct? - Det Falsone is Sgt Basilone on The Pacific, of course.

And Wire's Omar is the head of the black OC group on this fall's Boardwalk Empire, opposite Buscemi's character as the white OC guy. Can't wait for that one.

[Mick David]

agreed, the wire was probably the best cop series ever on tv, even disregarding the wasted season on the port worker scams.

I liked the Sobotka plotlines. Mr. Pryz as a teacher for a season was the low point of the series for me. That, and the end of Omar Little.

I'll have to check out Treme, even though Steve Buscemi creeps me out.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I liked the Sobotka plotlines. Mr. Pryz as a teacher for a season was the low point of the series for me. That, and the end of Omar Little.

I'll have to check out Treme, even though Steve Buscemi creeps me out.


Buscemi is not on Treme. He will be on Boardwalk Empire this fall - the Org Crime head of Atlantic City during prohibition. He can be creepy, and a bit wierd, which is part of his attraction - Sopranos, Reservoir Dogs, others.

If you like music on the jazzy-bluesy side - even just in passing - you will love Treme. The background music, the small out-of-the-way clubs that are part of the story line, the stuff the DJ character plays (last week Louis Prima and Buona Sera :D), - last show had Elvis Costello and Alain Toussaint in the script. Wonderful stuff, even if you aren't an afficianado.

[Neal Clayton]

Jeez, Neal - musta been hard for you to watch Katrina's decimation of NO, and their struggle to rebuild. You gotta love Goodman's lines and especially his delivery and emotion. Melissa Leo's too. And last week, BP/Transocean/Halliburton is out to get 'em.

Bunk is an excellent actor. They did a remarkable job of casting - I believe 'em all. Of course, after Homicide + The Wire, I would expect no less. The one actor from Homicide/Wire group I am waiting to appear on Treme is Clark Johnson (Det Meldrick in Homicide).

I'm assuming you have watched Simon's first effort - Homicide - correct? - Det Falsone is Sgt Basilone on The Pacific, of course.

And Wire's Omar is the head of the black OC group on this fall's Boardwalk Empire, opposite Buscemi's character as the white OC guy. Can't wait for that one.

i was there right after the waters receded, i didn't live there at the time but my brother still did, we went to clean out his place. he was one of the lucky ones that lived in a high rise condo, so once his building was cleaned he could go right back. i moved up here to little rock a couple of years prior. my mother's family is from up here, my dad grew up down there, so i've spent about half my life in NOLA and about half here in Little Rock. you can't really imagine a whole city smelling like mold/mildew, til you've seen it first hand. my first impression at the time while describing the scene to someone on the phone was "you see baghdad on the news after bombs/artillery wipe out every other building? that's what it looks like here".

i used to live a block toward city park from esplanade and broad. the treme neighborhood is the next area down esplanade from there that winds up behind the quarter. the local people have always referred to it as "back of town". it was a mix of about half/half middle class black/white folks before the storm. not really what you'd see in the ninth ward, which was more lower class, more crime, etc. treme was where most of the first freed and self sufficient black folks after the civil war lived, and has been a fairly stable working/middle class area since. notably alot of the more prominent black musicians live there, and alot of the people that work at the hotels/restaurants/etc. in the quarter live there, since it's the first residential neighborhood, besides the garden district, out of downtown.

it's coming back, just takes time. rome wasn't built in a day, as they say ;).