The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

I learned some disturbing news today. There’s more than one Jonah Weiland out there. And apparently he lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

I really didn’t think there could be another Jonah Weiland out there. Neither Jonah as a first name or Weiland as a last name are all that common and I certainly think the combination of the two is even less common, but there’s at least one other out there.

Heh, at least he can’t get this domain name! SCREW YOU, JONAH!

That was odd to type.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that enjoyed the season finale of “What About Brian,” Embarassing Admission #3 in my life. The EW PopWatch blog has a fun little entry about the season finale, but it’s the comments section that surprised me with the sheer number of men digging on the show.

I guess “What About Brian” is a little like heroin — you know it’s not good for you, but you try it once and most people get hooked. Although the detrimental effects of heroin are a little worse than watching “What About Brian.” Just a tad. And I’ve never mainlined WAB, but would if it meant a third season go ahead.

Thanks to Mark for pointing out I screwed up the commenting system here. Comments work again.

I figured you were all so quiet because I was so quiet. While that’s most likely true, when your commenting system is broken it’s kind of hard for anyone out there to comment, eh?

Look, I’m about to make another embarrassing admission, but I refuse to defend myself. I am totally comfortable with the following and remember enough Tae Kwon Do that I will kick the ass of anyone out there who shall challenge my manhood after I admit the following.

I love the ABC series “What About Brian.”

I realize that most of you out there are saying, “What is ‘What About Brian?’” No, it’s not a show that’s lighting up the ratings charts and pretty much no one other than myself and my friend Dawn watch the show, but why should any of that matter? I like it.

Yeah, it’s junk television. Yeah, it’s about a bunch of 30-something, mostly highly successful, beautiful individuals living in Los Angeles, consistently making stupid decisions about their personal lives who invite more drama into their lives than necessary just because they won’t be honest with themselves or anyone else around them. Yeah, it’s pretty much a soap opera with a tad more protein than the day time soaps. Yeah, most every show is incredibly predictable. Yeah, it’s not intellectually challenging. It’s a lot of things I rail against, but I fucking love this show.

They’re all so pretty. They’re all so stupid. And I fucking love it!

It’s a show about a close-knit group of friends where everyone has mostly paired off, except for Brian, who at 32 is sort of the last bachelor standing. And while it seems like the focus of the show was originally intended to be entirely on Brian, that’s changed a bit as they’ve added a number of new cast members in season two, which has helped round things out.

Barry Watson as Brian Davis is a very appealing character. I’m actually sad to see things didn’t work out with him and Bridget (Oh, so god damned hot!), but oh well, such is the story of Brian’s ever changing bed mates. Matthew Davis as Adam Hillman can be annoying when, well, he’s being annoying, but he’s a great best bud for Brian, although I will miss his stripper wife, but don’t miss Marjorie. Rick Gomez as Dave Greco can act unbelievably stupid and self-centered at times, but he’s the very appealing nerd of the group. Pretty much ditto for Deena Greco. Rosanna Arquette as Nic is an odd mix of unbelievably capable woman who is suddenly filled with incredible amounts of self-doubt. I wish they’d just let her be the capable woman she actually is. Jason George as Jimmy was quite obviously the “black add” of season two at first, but he’s really settled into the show and he and wife Ivy, played by Amanda Foreman, bring a lot of humor to “What About Brian.” It’s nice they finally gave them a back story. The latest addition is Tiffani Thiessen as Natasha Drew, Brian and Dave’s new boss and Adam’s new love interest. I was really concerned when I saw her on the show, but she’s turned out great and damn if she’s still not a completely Hotty McHottersteinberg.

One thing Dawn and I love about watching the show is trying to figure out where they film each scene. Outside of the shots in their various homes, it appears they use mostly natural sets around Los Angeles for filming. In the last five episodes or so, Ivy’s bar is actually NoBar, a former hangout of mine in North Hollywood. They’re down on Larchmont, hang out in Venice, have been to Runyon Canyon, pretty much shot all over Los Angeles, the Valley and the Westside.

The only reason why I started watching the show in the first place was because I saw a commercial touting the fact that it’s executive produced by J.J. Abrahms, the guy behind “Alias” and “Lost.” I tried it, only to discover it’s nothing like those other shows in any way, but as I do with most every new show I gave it two episodes and, while I found myself at odds with the truth of what this show was, the characters sucked me in. I was powerless to their prettiness.

The second season came to a satisfying end tonight with a third season hanging in the balance. Apparently sometime before the May upfronts we’re supposed to learn the fate of the show. I hope it gets renewed. I need my junk TV.

Watching “What About Brian” doesn’t make me a woman or any less of a man. I’m comfortable with who I am and can watch the show with my pint of ice cream week in and week out with little care for what you might think. Oh, and I eat that ice cream with a steak knife, you know, just to “man it up.”

Dear Taco Bell,

For years I’ve been an admirer of your food product. I remember enjoying your food all the way back into my very early adolescence, back when you introduced the 39/59/79 cent menu where I could get Tacos for only $.39 cents! And on occasion, you’d reduce the price to only $.29 cents! Man, those were the days. No responsibility, a $5 bill burning up your pocket and the promise of 17.24 tacos in the course of one week.

While you’ve introduced many new items over the years – the new Taquitos are the best new add in years – it’s the Mexican Pizza – which I remember calling the “Pizzaz� when it was first unveiled more than 20 years ago – that is my most favorite. Crunch, meaty, cheesy and beany. Plus, tomatoes and green onions. That is, until recently.

A few months back when the vegetables rose up and started to kill their human oppressors using Ecoli laced green onions from a handful of Taco Bell establishments, you removed the chopped green onions from the Mexican Pizza, I’m guessing over fear that either your vegetables are still angry or that people would stop ordering the deliciousness that is the Mexican Pizza. Whatever the reason, it was the right decision for the moment.

However, it’s time to reverse the decision. The vegetables have been contained and the carnage has stopped – for now. Yes, we know the green onion is like the Al Qaida of the vegetable world, but right now we’ve got them where we want them and that place is in our stomachs. Veggie terrorism will always exist, but we can’t let them decide for us what we can and can’t eat. We have brains – they do not. That means they must be eaten. Anything without a brain is fair game. Taco Bell, we must reassert our greatness on the green onions. Reverse your decision.

Plus, the Mexican Pizza tastes like ass without them.

Sincerely.

Jonah Weiland
– A loyal Taco Bell customer cince 1982 – at least.

I don’t know what it is about me, but I suffer jet lag badly. It doesn’t matter if I switch one time zone, three, or 14, it wrecks me for a while. Once I return home from a three hour time change, it usually takes me a week to feel right again. After I returned from China in 2005, it easily took me two weeks to feel totally right again.

Funny thing is, the switch to/from Daylight Savings Time does the same thing to me. For two or three days following the switch I find myself completely exhausted. I don’t get restful sleep. I’m pretty much a grumpy monkey for three days because we have this odd need to switch time in the spring and fall.

I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable answer, and I know more than just I have asked this question before, but why do we need this change at all? Why not always operate on Daylight Savings Time if the energy saving benefits truly are that great? I’m rather skeptical of the energy saving benefits considering these days we use more electricity demanding electronics than ever before. So we turn off a few lights during the day, I have a cordless phone charging, rechargeable batteries charging, three computers and two TiVos running constantly picking up the energy saving slack for me. In fact, this Wikipedia article mentions “sometimes [DST] can increase energy costs.” Lame.

But seriously, why not just use DST year round? It would avoid this awful exhaustion I know a lot of people are experiencing right now. We’re a nation lagged, and that can’t be good for productivity.

Plus, I don’t like changing the time on my clocks. It physically pains me.

I’m mentioned in this article, but not quoted sadly. And they get the description of CBR wrong, but whatever. It’s wacky.

Is there a person in the United States that doesn’t know Captain America is dead? All my non-comic reading friends keep calling me. “Dude, are you upset they killed him?” Really? Upset? Hardly. Amused and loving the attention comics are getting this week. Not comic book movies or TV shows, but comics. That’s amazing.

Wow, two entries from me in two days. I must have a fever.