This FARK thread and this post by Glen reminded me of another guilty pleasure of mine: Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.
More specifically, this version:
and this version:
Archive for the ‘TV’ Category
Another guilty pleasure.
Friday, July 23rd, 2010I feel guilty, oh so guilty…
Friday, July 23rd, 2010All the cool kids are doing it, so I thought I’d throw my chapeau into the washing machine. Hence, a list of my guilty pleasures:
- “Cops” and “America’s Most Wanted”. I actually find AMW to be a kind of a amazing show in the sheer perfection of the idea; put a show on the air that’s impossible to cancel. If Fox ever did try to cancel it (and they did, once. Once.) the howls of outrage from law enforcement would be heard from coast to coast. John Walsh is right at the border of getting on my last nerve, though (especially given his ignorance about guns) so I don’t want to spend a lot of time on the show.
“Cops”, on the other hand…well, I can’t explain the strange attraction of that show to me. I’d like to think it isn’t a “there but for the grace of God go I” sort of thing; no matter how low my social circumstances go, I don’t think you’ll ever catch me wearing a wife-beater and drinking a Bud Light after thumping some on my woman. It may be that there’s just a dark part of my soul that enjoys seeing stupid people in trouble.
- The music of the not-so-late C.W. McCall. Especially “Convoy” and “Wolf Creek Pass”. I have fond memories of riding around in our old Chevy Suburban with the 8-track tape player, listening to a Radio Shack tape of trucking songs that included “Wolf Creek Pass”, “Phantom 309”, and “The White Knight”. (Anyone else remember those last two? I’m probably dating myself. But then, no one else will.)
As for “Convoy”, let’s just say that I used to have a 45-RPM record of that song that I literally wore the grooves smooth on. Yes, it is on my iPod.
- The “Dirty Harry” movies. At least “Dirty Harry”, “Magnum Force”, and “Sudden Impact”. I’ll actually defend “Dirty Harry” as being a lot more subtle and sophisticated than people like Roger Ebert think. I don’t see it as a fascist film; I see it as a movie about a good man, struggling to do a job, and dealing with a new set of obstacles society has put in his way. Indeed, I think it could be argued that “Dirty Harry” is a modern remake of “High Noon”, right down to the last scene. (I’m pretty sure Harry throwing his badge into the water is a direct homage by Don Siegel.)
“Magnum Force” I’ll also defend as an answer to the critics who claimed Harry was a vigilante, and the people who said “So what? Maybe we need vigilantes these days.” I see “Magnum Force” as a movie that’s explicitly about the rule of law, and the need for same.
“Sudden Impact”…well, I really can’t defend that as anything but fun. “Smith…and Wesson…and me.” “Go ahead, make my day.” The dogshit speech. (Another shameful confession: I also have Clint Eastwood and T.G. Sheppard’s duet, “Make My Day”, on the iPod.)
I won’t defend “The Enforcer”, and I’ve heard so many bad things about “The Dead Pool” that I haven’t watched it yet.
Take a look at these fabulous prizes.
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010By way of one of the mailing lists I subscribe to, an Esquire article about Terry Kniess, the first person ever to turn in a perfect Showcase bid on The Price Is Right, and the controversy that followed.
Bonus points for the reference to Michael Larson.
Quotes of the day.
Friday, July 9th, 2010It would be possible for me to care less about LeBron James in general, and last night’s fiasco in particular. But I would have to work really, really hard at caring less than I do now.
However, some of the quotes in Richard Deitsch’s SI article made me giggle:
…
Random notes: July 8, 2010.
Thursday, July 8th, 2010Speaking of LA, the LAT has a long and somewhat sad feature story on the Polaroid photographers of MacArthur Park and their dying way of life. These are older men who spend their days trying to make a few bucks by taking photos of folks in the park. For a long time, they were able to make a good living at this; many immigrants would purchase photos and send them home to show how well they were doing in America. Disposable and digital cameras have mostly killed off this business (“These days, on a good day, they earn $10, $30.”) but they’re still out there, still hustling.
Meanwhile, the NYT would like for you to know that “The Constitution Trumps Arizona“. I, personally, am delighted at The Paper of Record’s new-found respect for the Constitution of the United States, and the applicability of same to state and local governments.
A river runs through it.
Thursday, July 8th, 2010The Environmental Protection Agency has declared the L.A. River to be “traditional navigable waters”.
Actually, I have no joke here; this story just gives me an excuse to post video from the pilot episode of the late lamented TV series Boomtown
Miscellaneous crap.
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010The City of Austin has flushed the low-flow toilet rebate program. However, you can still get a free low-flow toilet: you just have to fill out an application and, if you’re approved, pick up your toilet from an approved toilet vendor.
The 2010 Bulwer-Lytton contest results are out.
Edited to add 1: Oh, what the heck. By way of Ace of Spades, a WP review of the greatest concert ever. Where “greatest concert ever” is defined as “complete disaster”.
Edited to add 2: Derek Lowe has a new post up in the “How Not To Do It” series. It appears that a lab at the University of Missouri underwent explosive renovations after some hydrogen and oxygen got together for a hot date. Photos of the aftermath at the link.
Edited to add 3: The HouChron has interrupted their “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” watch to let us know that Dr. Demento is ending his radio show. Why, yes, this is the same story that Slashdot and Lawrence brought you almost a month ago.
Edited to add 4: As I’ve noted in the past, my newspaper reading during the weekends can be spotty. So I missed this Ben Wear article in the Statesman about the MetroRail ridership figures. (Hattip: Blue Dot Blues, by way of Battleswarm.)
Edited to add 5: Headline from the HouChron: “Dear Abby says what to do when grandma spoils the kids”. Somehow, I suspect Dear Abby’s answer does not involve a Taser.
Speaking of Popehat, I think this is a great post by Patrick, but I’m a very bad person; whenever I read the phrase “Res Ipsa Loquitur”, all I can think of is “Ipsa this, you p—y little b—h!“
We are amused.
Friday, June 25th, 2010We watch very little television these days, to the point where we haven’t even hooked up our converter boxes to our analog television yet.
What TV we do watch (Cops, America’s Most Wanted, the occasional episode of Nova or the American Experience during the three months out of the year our local PBS affiliate isn’t begging for money: and we have recently found that The Good Guys kicks over our giggle-box), we watch on the MacBook using an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid and Elgato’s EyeTV software. The EyeTV software gives us very TIVO-like features, as well as the ability to export and even burn recordings to DVD (as well as skipping commercials). Indeed, we are considering an upgrade to a new television (now that prices have come down considerably) and hanging a Mac Mini off the new TV as a fake TIVO.
The point of this tale is that we were highly entertained by an email from Elgato this morning: the company has released a version of EyeTV with a “Vuvuzela Filter”. Not that this matters much to us; we consider soccer to be even worse than baseball, but the idea brought a rare early morning smile to our face.
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of aspiring actors cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Friday, May 14th, 2010Obit watch: “Law and Order”: Original Recipe, aka “The Full Employment for Aspiring Actors and Actresses In New York City Program”.
I’ve watched various incarnations of the series and spinoffs, but I could never get into the original after Michael Moriarty left; Sam Waterston, to me, has all the charisma of a bowl of oatmeal. I’d still tune in from time to time and watch the first half just to see the late Jerry Orbach work, but after he died, so did my last tie to the show.
Still, the show deserves some kind of tribute, and this gives me an excuse to present some of my favorite L&O related art.
Brandon Bird’s painting, “A Night Away” (hotlinked):
(Larger, better quality version.) Supposedly, this was a private commission; if Bird would make prints available, I’d snap one up. In the meantime, here’s a link to Bird’s “Law & Order: Artistic Intent” and some related L&O art. I’m also kind of fond of “Lennie Grabs a Dog” and “A Tough Day at the Office“.
Stolen from FARK threads:
And the single biggest “WTF?” moment in the history of “Law and Order”:
Edited to add: Now that I’m back home and not behind a filter, here’s Sam Waterston at his best:
Hackwork.
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010I’ve been a big fan of Tom Shales since I started reading the WP online. Only a small handful of people – Roger Ebert, Shales, and possibly a few others – can do a negative review well.
But this review of the PBS series “Need to Know” is lousy hackwork.
- Starting off with a riff on A Tale of Two Cities is a cliche you’d expect from a lousy writer such as myself, not a Pulitzer-prize winning media critic.
- Shales spends three and a half paragraphs ranting about…computer viruses? before getting into the actual subject of his review.
- His main point seems to be that computers and the “digital revolution” are responsible for displacing Bill Moyers. I won’t get into my personal feelings about Moyers, and I never watched his show. But Shales seems to be basing much of his dislike for the show on his idea that Moyers was forced out.
I realize that this is a popular conspiracy theory, but it isn’t true. As PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler has noted, more than once, “Bill Moyers Journal” ended because Bill Moyers wanted to end it. Shales may not believe that, but it would be nice if he at least acknowledged there was a difference of opinion on the subject.
“Need to Know” may indeed stink. But Shales hasn’t proven it.
Random notes: May 5, 2010.
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010The results of the XKCD color name survey have been blogged in many places, but I haven’t seen anyone pick up on this yet:
A couple dozen people embedded SQL ‘drop table’ statements in the color names. Nice try, kids.
My faith in humanity is temporarily restored.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Harvey Milk’s bullhorn, and the NYT finally picks up on the “new moonshine” trend.
Also in the NYT: CBS was losing so much money on the NCAA basketball tournament, they actually considered paying ESPN to take over broadcast rights. I’ve wondered for a while now if the current model of payments for sporting events rights can be sustained; this is more evidence that the answer is “No”.
Obit watch: Ernie Harwell.
Edited to add: Patrick Beach, one of the Statesman‘s best writers, interviews Dan Aykroyd about Crystal Head vodka.
The juice is made with Canadian wheat and corn (the latter giving it a suggestion of sweetness), with water from the glacial aquifers of Newfoundland. It’s quadruple distilled, then filtered through charcoal and Herkimer diamonds — quartz crystals, actually, from upstate New York. It’s also certified kosher.
So there’s non-kosher vodka? What do they do; filter it through pig intestines?
Random notes: April 15, 2010.
Thursday, April 15th, 2010Happy National Buy a Gun Day. I usually extend this out to the weekend, just because it is almost impossible to get out to the gun stores during the workweek.
Lawrence suggested I blog this: guy gets 20 years in prison for selling community service hours to people on probation. The coke they found in his pocket didn’t help much, either: he got 15 years for that. (The Chron doesn’t say if the sentence runs consecutively or concurrently.)
The Astros are now 0-8. I was holding out on blogging again until they reached 0-10 (if that happened) but noting the Astros record gives me an excuse to link to this article about the 1983 team, which started out 0-9.
Edited to add 2: Darn, they finally won a game. At 1-8, that puts their winning percentage at .111, which projects out to 17.982 games over the 162 game season.
Edited to add: Tragic news out of Louisana. Production on “Steven Seagal: Lawman” has been shut down. Apparently, the sex slave charges are just too much of a distraction for the department.
Obit watch: March 25, 2010.
Thursday, March 25th, 2010“At the Movies“. I gave up on the show when Roper and his rotating cast of guest hosts left; there was no way I was going to watch the pulsating ball of suck that was The Bens. I’d heard that Phillips and Scott were a vast improvement, but I couldn’t bring myself to start watching it again. It didn’t help that the show was usually on in the early early morning here, and was frequently postponed due to sporting events.
I can’t say that I’ll miss it, but Ebert’s been hinting at a new television project: I do look forward to that.
Edited to add: Ebert’s latest blog post does more than hint.
“I’m Peter Graves, and I was wondering if you could direct me to the natatorium, as I am attending a swim meet.”
Sunday, March 14th, 2010Obit watch. I’ll link to full obits when they go up. (Edited to add: NYT obit. LAT obit.)
I still think Mission: Impossible was one of the great TV series of the 1970s. (You can find M:I openings on YouTube, but oddly, pretty much all the ones I found did not include Peter Graves, or were from the later incarnations of M:I.)
And I will confess that I’ve actually sat through Red Planet Mars.
(Hattip. Yes, I chose to go with the more obscure reference. You were expecting gladiator movies?)
Obit watch.
Monday, January 25th, 2010Pernell Roberts, star of Bonanza and Trapper John, M.D.
Interestingly, at the SDC we were discussing M*A*S*H spinoffs and Trapper John, M.D. came up. (When was the last time you thought about that show? And many people remember AfterMASH, but did you know about W*A*L*T*E*R, the bizarre failed spinoff?)
Also interestingly, Trapper John, M.D. is officially not a M*A*S*H spinoff:
Legally, the show is considered a spin-off of the original motion picture, MASH, rather than the M*A*S*H television series. This is due to a court case in which the producers of the television series sought royalty payments on the grounds that Trapper John, M.D. was a spin-off of their series. The court found, however, that the series was a spin-off of the original movie – itself an adaptation of H. Richard Hornberger’s MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors (published under the nom de plume, Richard Hooker). As a result, the series producers did not receive any royalties from Trapper John, M.D.
[Citation needed.] Seriously, if anyone knows more about the court case, I’d love to hear about it.
And I want to mention one of Pernell Roberts’ lesser works; yes, it was cheesy, and, yes, I have no taste, but I enjoyed FBI: The Unheard Music The Untold Stories.
Edited to add: NYT obit. Formal LAT obit.