Summer TV doldrums eased by Kathy Griffin & Life on the D List

I'm not proud.

I'll admit it.

One of the worst things about summer is that there is nothing on TV, anymore.

I mean, it was bad enough when we started all that "Staycation!" B.S., but now, apparently we're still on that same tired "Staycation" and it's obvious that it's gonna be a long one.

So, where the hell is the good stuff on TV? Oh, wait a minute, the shows are on "hiatus," too? No way.

You gotta be kidding. Great. Thank you.

So, this means, that even though there's no homework right now, or any of the usual distractions (including employment, for many.) to stand in the way of our love affair with the tube, suddenly there's also no more "quality" TV to watch? No Breaking Bad? No Survivor? Wife Swap? No more Mad Men? Californication?! - No more...(gulp.) I can't believe I'm going to say this, but...no more of that that "other" show? You know, the one I said was wretched? ("I Can't Believe...")

No more of my steady stream of addictive crap TV?!

What. The. Hell?!

Are TV execs so delusional that they actually think we're somewhere on vacation, too, like they are?

Hello? We're home. We are NOT at sleepaway camp, right now. We're not even at day camp. We are at Camp Home.

If I were a TV executive, which clearly, I'm not, I would totally capitalize on having this much attention from an audience at this moment. The last thing I'd do is send shows "on hiatus" for summer vacation. That's just stupid.

Do they not get that almost all of us are actually stuck home on the range just like everyone was in post WWII 1950s?

And I don't mean the shows with the big tires on trucks or Cops. Give us something good, please.

Okay, all cranky old man ranting aside, there is one bright spot on the magic box horizon, and her name is -- Kathy Griffin!

Yes!


I'm so, so happy to report that at least my TV BFF, Kathy Griffin, is finally back with her Season 5 of Life On the D List.

So, thank you, Jesus, for that! At least they threw us that bone at us for the summer.

Kathy Griffin's still terrific. Funnier than ever, and she's even got a new vibe going on with a focus on sending out some love to her mom in this season's show.

It's touching and yet, it totally works. It's still all very Kathy Griffin.

Here's a hilarious clip of Kathy shopping with her new shopping BFF, Paris Hilton.

The final part of it is the best part, though when Paris Hilton lectures Kathy Griffin that "only ugly girls need to go down on their knees."

So, set your DVR's for Life on the D List, because it really is one of the only shows, this summer, actually worth recording and watching.



Let me tell you, her clips of fulfilling her mother's "bucket list" moments by producing surprise cameo visits with Betty White and Don Rickles are also comic genius, and very moving, as well. I love how she pays homage to the comic greats this way.

So, anyhow, this is one bright spot in yet another long summer of TV shows "on hiatus"

My wild July garden

The best thing about a summer garden is that sometimes it's left alone, untended for awhile, and things just expand and fill space without human intervention.

Before you know it, it's become wilder, woolier and far larger than I ever anticipated.

Here's some images from our long, oddly shaped backyard. Some from my bedroom, some from behind our home.

My favorite photos is the one with Juliet's back to the camera in front of the ten foot sunflowers. It's sort-of the essence of how it all seems to me, today.

This is how our garden grows: Lush and wild in some spots, perhaps a bit parched in others, but all the direct result of what we could accomplish right here, right now.

Karl Malden: The one and only "Mitch" in A Streetcar Named Desire.

In a summer shaping up to bear more than it's expected share of celebrity deaths, when someone Karl Malden's age passes on it shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Still, his caught me off guard, just the same.

Malden was a member of that small handful of actors that helped shape American cinema as we know it today.

True, most of them are gone, but their brand of passionate realism really changed what it meant to be a film actor, leaving behind a legacy of work still as strong and memorable today as it was years ago.

He infused his characters with integrity, strength and a unique "every man's" vulnerability which drew the audience in whenever he was on screen.

It's impossible not to think of Malden's trademark voice and intensity in the legendary American films, A Streetcar Named Desire, or On The Waterfront.

Below is a scene with Malden as "Mitch" and Vivian Leigh as "Blanche" from A Streetcar Named Desire.

It's really "Blanche's" scene, but Malden is a smoldering presence, equally as riveting and intense as Leigh's Blanche. Perhaps, even more so.

It exemplifies his talent for scene stealing simply by listening to actors up there with him.


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A great American actor. RIP.