AND NOW WE RETURN TO REGULAR PROGRAMMING

I’m back. From Downtown. Sitting at my desk with a sad look upon my face.

Sorry I was gone so long. I’m still recovering from my Tribeca experience — a great but exhausting one that saw me get very little sleep, many injuries and plenty of headaches. I’ll write more on that later, but for now I just wanted to come back and say, Hi. Did you miss me?

Come on … you could lie just a little bit, no?

It’s been a crazy three weeks for me. Not only was I not able to post, but I had no time to read all my favorites listed to the right. In fact, I finally said to myself I had to look at another blog today, and where else would one start other than Gawker. What do I find when I get there, but Choire is on vacation and the talented Andrew Krucoff is sitting in for him. But then that brought up the flashback, days of Gawker yore, Gawker v1.0, when the editor Elizabeth Spiers suddenly took a “vacation” for a week, and Choire started sitting in. Next thing you know, La Spiers is gone, off kicking people with New York Magazine’s backing. Not that there was anything wrong with that change; and I’m sure my little conspiracy-theory brain has gone into wild overdrive, but … I’m just saying ….

Anyway, in other news of note that you’ve probably already noted elsewhere:

• R.I.P. Tony Randall. With Jack Klugman’s throat cancer problems years ago, who woulda thunk that Felix would go first. It’s very sad. I especially feel bad for the 84-year-old’s two daughters, aged 7 and 5.

• Fox is expected to announce at its upfront presentation this week the renewal of Arrested Development for next season. YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY.

• Obviously, the decision to renew Arrested Development sapped all the energy and brainpower belonging to any Fox execs as they are also expected to renew the absolutely terrible Tru Calling. I love me some Dushku, but give her a better show.

• It’s awards season for the Broadway stage, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Wicked is winning everything so far since it’s the kind of big spectacle everyone loves, but it really wasn’t all that good. It has its moments and the lead performances are phenomenal, especially the powerful singing voice of Idina Menzel. But this is the year of Avenue Q, by far the funniest, most creative and simply the best musical to hit the Great White Way in some time.

As I try to catch-up with this week with the last several, I may or may not get to other fun topics such as: Should Van Helsing be a guaranteed Razzie winner next year? Was Mean Girls mean enough? After having seen Kill Bill Vol. 2, was Vol. 1 even necessary, or was it just the best example of QT’s overly-self-indulgent filmmaking technique yet?

And of course most importantly, happy birthday Karen Cinecultist. Sorry I missed your drinks-party … I think I was still huddled up in a cocoon trying to recover from those crazy first 10 days of May. My only advice, stay 27 as long as possible. It is the ideal age!

Until later ….