*taps foot impatiently* The watched torrent never arrives obviously. Still waiting.

I finally cleared off Worlds off the dvr. Sparkly pants have apparently made an unfortunate comeback in men's skating. I was nearly blinded by the costumes in some of those exhibitions.

I was startled to see a "Deep Sea Detectives" promo during one show. They've started new episodes on the History Channel and even started a new website for the show. I'm quite miffed because I've missed so many episodes already. History Channel International has started airing the sequel to "Spitfire Ace" called "Bomber Crew". I've missed the first episode of that, but they do usually repeat the series afterwards. "Dead Famous" is showing new episodes as well. Last week's episode featured the search for Rita Hayworth's ghost. That marked the first time I'd seen them acknowledge on camera that a "star" might have two personas. Rita underwent a massive change from the hispanic Margarita Cansino to the red haired goddess of "Gilda" and "Cover Girl". Usually when they did seances or tried to contact the ghosts, they always used the star name, the one given by Hollywood. Would Judy Garland answer to Judy or Frances? Marilyn or Norma Jean?

Last year Gail Porter developed alopecia, a condition that caused her hair to fall out. Rather than offer any explanations on screen, they just went about their business in the show. Gail has been wearing head scarves occasionally, but basically nothing has changed. She's just as skeptical as before and Chris still tries to change her mind.

Upon reflection, I realized that all of the above shows are British made, which says a lot about my viewing habits, doesn't it? Or the sad state of American tv.

"Dead Famous" focused on Frank Sinatra this week, visiting sites in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. They focused their investigations squarely in Old Blue Eyes' heyday with the Rat Pack. I think it might have been just as interesting to focus on his earlier time with Tommy Dorsey for a comparison, but I'll come back to that later.

( Dead Famous; Frank Sinatra; )

( Sinatra related fic ramble )

"Dead Famous" covered Norma Jean Baker/Marilyn Monroe, the topic of much conversation these days on her death and love life. The main location Chris and Gail visited was the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Marilyn posed for one of her advertisements at the hotel poolside and stayed there often. While the Monroe room didn't provide any real fireworks, the Montgomery Clift room certainly did. Notoriously a drunk, he spent a lot of his time in bathroom, so not surprisingly Chris heard moans and groans from there. They also visited a Marilyn memorabilia collector with a psychometry reader, someone who could read objects. Interestingly Chris picked up on the "Marilyn" spirit as well, even seeing the last moments of her existence, trying to cling on to life, before failing. I read her death as more accidental in that description, if it should be believed. They also did a "communication circle" aka seance. Again Chris seemed to connect with the "Marilyn" spirit who suggested that she was being held on the earth more by her fans holding her up as some kind of icon than a tragic end.

I discovered Chris Fleming has his own website with breakdowns of each of the season episodes.

menikoff has her recaps of "Most Haunted". I am clearly drawn to the rich and famous for I've started watching Biography Channel's "Dead Famous". The X-files-ish setup has a "skeptic" and a "sensitive" looking for the spirits of the famous. Or the infamous as tonight's episode proved with the focus on the mob. They visited the old Ciro's location and Alcatraz island. The skeptic Gail wandered around Alcatraz "alone" (camera crew obviously in tow), which would have unnerved me no end, while Chris was getting seriously wigged in various locations. The previous episode was more interesting with the focus on Lucille Ball. For some reason, Chris was blocked during some of their investigations. He could sense someone was there, but in several cases, the women with them received the brunt of the contact, including poor Gail at the Hotel Del Coronado. She wasn't prepared for any of it. Even during the final seance, the message went through the female medium, not Chris. They also visited the Queen Mary. I think I visited the ship back when it was in tandem with the Spruce Goose. I don't remember the ghost tours however.

normadesmond has photos of some of the nose art from the WWII era planes in US Air Force Museum. I've always been fascinated with the "Moonlight Serenade", the P-61 Black Widow. Her reports inspired one of my story ideas, although I haven't gone any further with it than the initial scene/chapter.