AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 31 — Team America: World Police which has lots of bad language and even nude puppets. And puppet carnage. I watched a bunch of crappy TV, too, like the edgy Desparate Housewives which, I confess, I'm starting to sort of get into because they have these mysterious story lines. I watched a DVD of Rebel without a Cause. I wish East of Eden was on DVD.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 30— Nothing very satisfying either on cable, recorded or DVD. Heard football, the distinctive sound of football announcers, flowing around the house a lot of the day. But I wouldn't say I watched that much.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 29 — Watched about five minutes of McEnroe and decided that this one wasn't worth recording for later viewing. The DVR is valuable in that way.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 28 — Who Wants to be a Millionaire in quick DVR replay agaom; CSI which I'm tiring of and Without a Trace, ditto especially when they have a victim be one of those reality show heroes. An episode of Northern Exposure and a bit of an old Dallas episode I recorded.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 27— Who Wants to be a Millionaire in quick DVR replay ; the baseball game. Educating Rita. This is a good, modern Pygmalion with a twist or two. I watched it to see Dublin. Trinity College. So, baseball is over. I wasn't nearly as excited (or disappointed) as the fans. Fandom. So amazing and silly, really.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 26— Part of The Simpsons; the baseball game, Law and Order: SVU.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 25— Watched CSI: Miami but not too carefully. Decided that I don't care for it that much anymore.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 24 — The World Series.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 23— I guess I'm watched out. Because I was kind of watch-free again except for a snippet of a movie or two before bed.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 22— I watched virtually nothing today.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 21— Saw The Life and Death of Peter Sellers in the film festival. Now the point would be, um, that there was no Peter Sellers, that he was a shell. They hammered that home. I didn't think the sound mix was that good. It was so hard to watch the faked movie clips because well, Geoffrey Rush, just wasn't as good. He did a pretty good job but Peter Sellers was so brilliant. Robert Downey, Jr. in Chaplin was brilliant in playing someone who was so unique. Rush made a valiant effort but it wasn't that good a performance. There was a brilliant performance, though. Charlize Theron as Britt Ekland! Wow. She is so, so good. Also, they implied that Sellers faked the injury that convinced Kubrick to cast Slim Pickens as Maj. T.J. 'King' Kong. Dr. Strangelove is one of our favorite films in this house.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 20— Saw Cape of Good Hope in the film festival. An upbeat look at South African society, touching on some issues, but staying in the 'everything comes out OK' romantic comedy vein. I enjoyed the visuals of the landscapes, the townships and compounds. I thought I recognized a fish and chips place where I'd actually eaten. Everyone likes to see movies of places they've been. Granted, I didn't get up close to the townships. Saw a little baseball, too.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 19— Saw the documentary Searching for Angela Shelton. Beautifully produced. Honest. A look at America through a strange, strange lens. Caused me to have some odd dreams.

It's that time of year when baseball seems to really mean something.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 18 — It's fun to watch baseball this time of year. The doc film I saw last night, Hot Shoe, made me sad at all those people trying to have fun in Las Vegas. The doc I saw tonight, Tobacco Money Feeds My Family, struck me as very even-handed. Tobacco use may kill you. Or the hot sun may be the culprit. While you are farming tobacco. The love of farming, of the process, comes through. And I was amazed that the farmers who were being systematically destroyed by government edict (reducing production quotas nearly 20 per cent for several years running) could be so calm about it.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 15-17— Ballet Austin's Peter Pan was brilliantly fun. I liked a short doc I saw about Shiner, Texas (Something's Brewing in Shiner). I liked a short film called Comfort. I liked Chyrstal a lot. I liked how when it got sort of surreal and unreal it always yanked back to the plausible.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 1-14 — I haven't watched much TV. My sister likes to control what is on TV. We saw an AFF shorts program. We saw two features: Stage Beauty and Second Best. The former was a period piece, The Dresser meets Shakespeare in Love which worked for me. The latter I liked as well. It appeared to be shot on digital video but oh so professionally. Subtle camera sweeps to catch a reaction, interesting plays of light. There wasn't much plot, really, and I didn't care. Plot is way over-rated. The gay son seemed obligatory and forced but there was much to like in the Joe Pantoliano character. A self-described loser, obsessed with chronicling his loserness while looking for purpose. Only to find that the chronicle is the purpose. I can't imagine that such a connected guy would print the dang chronicle, though. But it made for cool visuals of his broadsides here and there. What's it mean to be a loser? This movie dares to ask and then not elevate the losers and reverse their fortunes with the winners. Yeah, that's what I liked.