| another great leaves us |
[Jul. 18th, 2009|03:25 am] |
Walter Cronkite. When they mention true news men of the early modern age you really only hear his next to Edward R. Murrow. And Murrow, despite what people think, was not a nightly anchor guy. His show was along the lines of the commentary.
Dan Rather later followed and is still a force doing a weekly show on HDNET after some controversy at CBS.
It's amazing how CBS ruled the news in the 60's to early 80's.
Now CBS Evening News is a joke with Katie Couric. All the national news casts were a disgrace during the Jackson funeral but her's was the worst. It was like she was once again doing The Today Show interviewing the speakers and musical acts like Steve Wonder during the broadcast!
I really would like to have known what Mr. Cronkite was thinking these last 3-4 weeks as the news became The Jackson Death Bed.
Over the years you have the TV news media crying to viewers questioning if national network and cable news as we've known it will survive in years to come with the internet and blogs. At this rate, I hope they don't. They don't deserve to! (Hell, on a side note look at all the newspapers and magazines folding left and right these days. The net is cheaper and offers less clutter around the house.)
And I don't want to hear ppl around town bitching that the TV news is "fixed" depending on what guy's party is in the White House. It has been going down hill the last 10 years and it seems to be getting worse.
I don't know if any ONE controls the TV news. If I had to guess I'd say ratings and advertising dollars control it just like any other "show" on regular TV and basic cable.
My great grandma passed at 101 in Sept. She and my great grandpa were the King and Queen of news watchers. I spent 95% of my time with them growing up. It was a blast. Between them, my mom, and even my estranged dad and his mom, I got the TV, movies, and TV news gene. It certainly explains why I watch Fox 2 News for the whole hour and a half each night..
Years before I took pro wrestling too seriously, I took the news and weather seriously. I wanted to be a TV weather man. That was until I knew sucking at math wouldn't let me go far. |
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| news media wack jobs/more |
[Jul. 17th, 2009|03:48 am] |
I heard a YouTube of Glenn Beck screaming at a caller for trying to correct him on what may or may not be facts. He yelled "Get off my Phone!" then made a high pitched sound that sounded like "yaaah!"..
Beck was grilled a few months ago by the hosts of The View. He never directly answered any of their questions. Then he admitted he didn't tell 100% of the truth in a non-TV situation dealing with Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters while running into them on a train.
Guys like Beck, Bill O, and Rush Limbagh remind of me of modern day versions of Morton Downey, Jr.
Back in the late 80's MD, Jr. was a syndicated TV hit. He would smoke and swear at guests. He'd always have a pro and con panel. MD, Jr. would proudly call himself a Conservitive Republican. He would take sides in the panel arguements, calling ppl he disagreed with "pablum puking liberals". And before Jerry Spinger and Maury had the annoying censor bleeping sound, MD, Jr. as a host would say "F-You Pal!" to guests.
MD, Jr. even got "celeb honors" as a guest at WM 5 doing a Piper's Pit segment with Roddy, which like Hogan vs. Andre and Steamboat vs. Savage has been shown in clips more than enough times on WWE TV every year come WM time.
A year or two later MD, Jr. was charged with filing a false police report. Pics of him were shown beat up with the Nazi symbols written all over him. He claimed that it was a group of racists that did it because they hated his show and what it stood for. It never happened. Police said he did it to himself to create a story wanting to bring attention to his show.
From there it was outted that his show had been a phony set up all along! All the people he cussed out while blowing cirgarette smoke in their faces turned out to be planted actors in on the act!
As a result of all this his show was cancelled.
When Bill O. starts pointing and screaming all red faced at guests he reminds me of MD,Jr...When Rush throws around his catch phrases like "ditto" and "Ditto Heads" he reminds me of MD,Jr...When Beck screams and cries he too...You get the idea.
Liberal folks get too outraged in their hate for these clowns. They ask why they have to act like this instead of debating with civil discourse. Civil discourse in these days of Reality TV and shock radio won't bring in ratings or help sell books. Being over the top sells.
These guys are nothing but living comic book and cartoon characters. To their fan base they are the heroes. To ppl that hate them, they are the villans.
I'm all for free speech and making a buck. I hope the ppl that these guys have on as guests and callers are indeed "real people" and not plants in on the act. But as society itself seems to get more evil with all of the violent crimes and senseless murders, I worry about the listeners and viewers that hang on to every word these guys say.
Today we also had Ted Nugent making some waves. He did an interview bragging that he isn't liberal so he has a nest egg of savings while a lot of people are suffering from their own stupid mistakes. He bashed ppl for running up their credit cards. Then he said people who are fat that smoke and drink dont deserve to be covered by any kind of health care.
The kicker was, he called Obama a criminal and blamed him for the current state of things. He or the interviewer however didn't mention exactly what "crime" was comitted! |
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| HaHa! Free UFC 100 |
[Jul. 12th, 2009|01:32 am] |
Well I got to watch the last three fights at home on my computer. I happened to be in the chat room of this dating website I belong to. (Lame I know). A guy that is a regular in there had a link to a site showing the event!
I'll be damned! This was crystal clear picture and sound! I could not believe it. I called up one buddy and he was watching on ppv at another friend's house. The feed was actually 30 seconds behind mine.
Then I called Paul Morrison and he was on his way with a friend to catch the Brock/Mir fight at a bar. They didn't care about the other stuff.
I saw on UFC's website that they were charging $45 to watch it on there. Not sure how much regular ppv was, but another buddy of mine said he heard for HD it was like $80 or $85..
Once again I'm glad I didn't pay.
Brock/Mir was really nothing and Brock had it all the way. He came off real low class in his post match interview which came off like a pro wresling heel promo. He sounded like a cross between Vader and Scott Steiner.
I hope I'm wrong about Brock but he gives me a real bad vibe. We've been seeing a lot of bizzare tragedy in sports as of late. I fear that he one day might kill someone or end up being killed. Rather it's in the Octagon, on the street, or at home. |
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| worst decade ever? |
[Jul. 9th, 2009|02:54 am] |
I often think about the past in my life. Sitting here tonight restless and bored at 3am trying to find something on TV, I have to say the 2000's have to be the worst decade in my lifetime. I'm speaking mainly from a pop culture and society stand point.
I can't find anything in TV, movies, or music that will be worth looking at or listening to in years to come. Nothing comes off as "classic".
I never thought I'd be old enough to say (as I'm sure my parents and grandparents did in their days) that music sucks. There are no bands that will have decades long careers or classic radio hits like The Who, Led Zepplin, or hell, even Mike Jackson to name a few. Bands like The Who are past their prime but they still sell out or near sell out every time 40 years later. They still have the vibe of "must see"..
TV is the worst! It's all Reality TV most week nights..
When I was a kid cartoons ruled four networks each Sat. Morning from 8am to 11am or 12pm. These days if I do turn on the TV early enough on a Sat. it's weekend editions of newtork news/variety shows or infomercials. How boring is that? What do little kids and teens have to look forward to that's fun and entertaining?
I guess now they socialize (which I never did much of) on MySpace and Stickam. That I suppose that's fun to a point but it can lead to trouble and all sorts of "experimentation".
Of course I always have to touch on pro wrestling. Sat. Morning had that too. So did Sat. Evening. Now nothing. Pro wrestling isn't even on the weekend radar outside of TNA's buried replay on Spike TV. Nothing beat Sat. Night in the old days with WWF Spotlight, NWA Pro Wrestling, then GLOW on Ch. 7 with A&W Cream Soda and all sorts of snacks. There was even the occasional Sat. Night's Main Event in the days before DVR's and many working recording VCR's. You had to flip channels between breaks.
Syndication is beyond bad! Growing up you had classic TV reruns in order each night by the season in order along with some cool new and original shows just for syndication. Now there's all Judge shows in the day. Reruns are the same episodes over and over again and out of season order! I can't think of any new half hour sitcoms or hour long shows. Just this week we got "Beyond Twisted" which comes off like an adult version of America's Funniest Home Videos from the makers of TMZ..
I'm on a bad sleeping pattern again. Last night I didn't want to watch the 2am-3:30am replay of Fox 2 News at 10pm so I put Cartoon Network on in the backround. It was the episode where Chris falls in love with his teacher who wants him to kill her husband while Brian takes over as a classroom sub. I just saw the very same ep on TBS a few days before! Clearly I know that Toon and TBS are own by the same company, but come on!
As of late I gained a lot of respect for Kill of the Hill. I loved the first couple seasons then it went off in odd directions from there. The last couple of seasons have been back in some ways to what it once was in my opinion. I like watching the late night reruns on Fox 2. The other night it was the ep where Cotton dies..
Well, tonight I saw they have an hour block on Toon from 2-3am. The 2:30am ep was the one where Cotton dies!!!
On any given night I can see Scrubs listed on TV-20, Comedy Central, and now MTV in half hour eps or hour blocks at various times!
In addition to TBS and Toon, Family Guy is also on TV-20 everyday!
TV these days has ranged from nothing at times to overkill most times!
Then there's style. I admit I'm one of few straight guys that tries to follow fashion. Not the runway stuff that no one will ever dare to wear in public, but the everyday stuff. I feel comfortable dressing high casual and formal. A lot of my friends and family have never seen me in jeans or tennis shoes. I always wear dress pants. That's what I like and what I feel comfortable with.
But I go to the bars or the store and I see all these guys around here wearing ball caps and UFC and Tap Out shirts. They have buzzed hair or bald heads and tatoos. All of them look the same to me. And most are with hot chicks. I don't get it. On top of all that, a lot of these guys think they could be real MMA fighters and go out just hoping to get into a fight! Tons of these types will without a doubt be at Tap Room and BWW on Sat. for UFC 100. There will probably be trouble come 2am.
(Side note to that. The UFC/MMA shirts have taken over the pro wrestling shirt of the mid 80's and late 90's. Another bad sign of the times for 'rasslin.)
I hope 2010-2020 will be more exciting than this decade. I don't want more of the same. But I fear we have run out of vision and innovation. Could be why the movies are going back to the 80's. Seems that with pop culture in some case, if you can't go forward you try to go back. |
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| it is finally over? |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|12:38 am] |
Well of course I allowed myself to be suckered in to watching Jackson's funeral. I also happened to catch TMZ and I totally agree with Harvey Levin's review. He said it was more like a concert and a celeb red carpet than about Jackson and his death.
I know how Hollywood and the media works. Sad to say I'm sure the kid from Britian's Got Talent and Jackson's daughter are now "over night" stars just from their appearences.
I hope the little girl wasn't acting but it sure felt from hearing the original broadcast that she was coached by Janet and Mother Jackson. "Speak lounder into the mic so they can hear you." Granted she's a kid but she kind of sounded like she was acting. And in the countless new clips of it, Janet and Mother Jackson's stern urgings of her were edited out.
I thought Smokey Robinson and Brook Shields had the best speeches. But of course I'm biased since I love both of them.
How the hell do Jennifer Hudson and John Mayer get into all of these kinds of events? I think both of them are over rated. Were they friends of the Jackson Family? Barry Gordy? Who invited them? |
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| upcoming events |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|05:51 pm] |
I am really looking forward to the StrikeForce MMA show Aug. 15 that will air on Showtime. Not sure if Gina Carano vs. Christine "Cyborg" will be the actual main event, but it is the bout I am most looking forward to. It is also the fight getting the most press on the show.
In the past I had Showtime (along with every other movie channel) and I was never impressed with the programming. The Made for TV shows can been rented or bought in box set form. The movies are lame and they show the same ones over and over again. HBO and Starz get all the Hollywood Blockbusters while Showtime seems to get all the Bombs and B-movies.
That being said I will order Showtime, if only for a few days, in Aug. just so I can see this StrikeForce event.
UFC 100 is this Saturday and I have zero interest. Brock Lesner vs. Frank Mir is the main event. I don't know much about MMA, but I know what I see, and I know what I like. To me UFC reminds me a lot of WWE.
Dana White is the face of the company and he's a foul mouthed, unprofessional low life in my view. I'm no angel but hearing this guy use the F-word left and right gets annoying after a while and it's far from original. Also the product is expensive and a lot of it feels like it's way over hyped.
I was impressed with the Elite XC group that aired a few times on CBS before going belly up. To me, like in wrestling, it seems as if the lesser known MMA groups have more interesting fights on paper that at times deliver in the ring compared to UFC.
One thing is clear. Even without my support UFC 100 is going to do huge business. It won't even be worth it to me to go to one of two bars in my area to catch it for free. These places are always packed for the ppv's. With this one being a milestone, I can bet anything there will no chance of getting in. Not even close.
On the movie front, I am not much of a Summer Movie guy. All the superhero and action flicks don't live up to the quality of when I was growing up. I think I've mentioned on here before that I hate CGI. Also the stuff that's the rage now is based on things that I grew up with in the first place! Now a days everything is 80's and it can't recapture the classic magic!
Transformers 2 is at the $300 million dollar mark. I know a lot of my friends are rooting for something along the lines of action/adventure beating Titanic which still holds the movie box office record. I think that stands at $600 million. The Dark Knight got close but still no cigar. Transformers 2 set a one night opening record but I think it will fall off after another week or two.
None of the Summer Movies 2009 have had glowing reviews to this point. At least from the "At The Movies" side of things. "Up" and "The Hangover" are the top reviewed so far, and both are as far from live action/adventure as they get.
With my taste of things, I REALLY want to see Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood starring in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works". Of course with all the Summer Action flicks it has not yet been released at the local MJR and who knows if or when it will be. In the past they have carried every Allen movie but I'm not sure if one has been released in the thick of summer.
I've always been a huge David/Seinfeld fan. This movie is said to be a blend of David himself and Woody Allen which is sure to make the character even more ocd and neurotic. I even have a crew of five or six people that want to go with me to see a movie for once! They are Seinfeld/David fans as well, and a more mature crowd also tired of the mildless action stuff. |
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| "At The Movies" 7-5-2009 |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|09:12 pm] |
Public Enemies- directed by Micheal Mann. The second half is over the top action. Strong performances. But second half gets away from the character development. Ben Lyons- Rent It.
Depp captures the essence of John Dillenger perfectly. This is "movie gangster" likability. Ben M- See It.
I Hate Valentine's Day- reunites the top stars from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". predictable romance comedy, but fun and likeable. Ben M- See It.. Not Clever. One Note. Lame jokes. No appeal. Lyons- Skip It
Ice Age 3- more of the same. the movie series has worn thin and this should be the end. Lyons-Skip It... Ordinary. Nothing of note to object to or protest. Average and not inspired. It is in 3D but you would never know and it is forgettable. Ben M- Skip It.
Local Color- written and directed by George Gallow and is sort of auto biographical. Ray Liotta stars as a teen boys father wanting to stop his son from hanging out with an artist in his 70's. Liotta's character is an old school, out of touch, homophob. The teen character isn't believable. Empty mix of a movie. Both say Skip It.
The Girl From Monoco (international film)- unclear if it tries to be a comedy or drama at times. Slow moving. Lyons- Skip It...Perfect blend of comedy and drama. Works as a satire. Laughed a lot. Ben M- See It.
DVD Picks are past Gangster movies with the release of Public Enemies. Ben M picks "Bugsy" and Lyons picks "Donnie Brasco".
Lyons 3 to See: My Sister's Keeper, Afghan Star, and The Hurt Locker. |
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| back on the site |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|07:53 pm] |
I don't use this site nearly as much as I should. As of late find myself taking hand written notes on things or writing e-mails then keeping them in my sent folder.
I am a huge fan of "At The Movies" and I take notes on the movies, because after a few weeks, I can't remember a lot of them or they all blend. I always need a list as I run out of things to rent through the awesome Netflix!
Over the last year, Blockbuster has been crying foul that they may be going out of business. It seems that they can't compete with the prices and ease of Netflix. I don't feel sorry one bit for them. The whole situation is laughable and ironic!
I remember it was back in 1988 when Blockbuster started opening store after store in the area. They started in Texas. Soon they started putting the local "mom and pop" video stores out of business. Customers started going to Blockbuster in droves under the assumption that "bigger was better". I never understood that as Blockbuster's prices were always much higher than the local guys and they never had much diverse or obscure selections. Back then they charged $3.00 a VHS. Today in 2009, they charge around $5 a DVD.
They have also bullied customers countless times over late fee charges and claims videos and video games were never returned at all in some cases.
Compare all of this to Netflix with thousands of titles that can be sent to your home, three DVD's at a time, for only $18 a month! No late fees for at least 30 days if you choose not to renew by the month. And by the way, that's all you can rent for the month! You can average up to 24 rentals in a one month cycle!
So from here on in, I will scroll down notes from "At The Movies" and anything else from pop culture that strikes me. I never tend to write about my own life as I don't find that to be very interesting. I guess I live to be entertained. |
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| weather |
[Mar. 8th, 2008|12:15 pm] |
When will this snow end this year?
Right now there's about 2 inches more on the ground and it hasn't stopped. Chances are I'm going to be out there again shoveling like Wed. It sucks on my back.
The last few years I considered getting a snow blower but decided against it. I figured it would have been a waste of money due to the very limited amounts of snowfall this decade. Each year you never know what you're going to get.
Around Michigan and many parts of the country, this year has actually been a normal or above normal winter. And with that I'm seeing articles jumping on Al Gore and global warming experts about it saying they were wrong.
I don't know what's going on this year but about 7 years ago Art Bell and Whitley Striber wrote a book called "The Upcoming Global Superstorm". I never read the book but I guess the concept is it starts with global warming then all of a sudden things "snap" back into an ice age.
I don't think Bell and Striber got credit for it but parts of their book was basically the concept for the movie "The Day After Tomorrow".
One thing is for sure. I'll be glad when the end of the month gets here. March 29 is the first Indy Race. And I believe March 31 is Tiger Opening Day.
With those two events on the way, I know spring and spring weather is not far off. |
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| new CD's and other notes |
[Mar. 7th, 2008|07:41 pm] |
Only one concert at the moment for me so far this year. Joe Jackson on April 20 in Ann Arbor at the Music Theater.
I once again missed out on the internet pre-sale and for once this one was free!! I still ended up with $40 seats but I wanted the top prices of $50. The $50's were all sold out from the pre-sale!
Would have loved to have seen The Police with Elvis Costello in July but I didn't have the money when they went on sale a couple weeks ago. Hopefully the show isn't sold out and by July there are some lawn seats left for DTE so I can still go.
I want to expand my music tastes. With my Best Buy card lowered down from X-mas I picked up Joe Jackson's new CD "Rain" to prep for his show. Also been getting into 70's and 80's punk/goth music and picked up a CD from The Cramps.
My local Best Buy has sucked since they've moved to the mall. I don't even bother going in there anymore as they never have the music artists I want, and if they do, they never have an exact album title. So these days I do everything by the website and wait for it to get to my doorstep.
I watched the most recent ep of NWA World Championship Wrestling on WWE 24/7 from March 15, 1986. A wild trip down memory lane as they are promoting the first annual Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup.
Had to laugh to myself that it was a 24 team tournament. Most of the teams were regular working teams like The Road Warriors, Midnight Express, Rock and Roll Express, etc.
Only a few like Ron Garvin/Magnum TA, Manny Fernandez/Jimmy Valiant, and at the time Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard were "working together" for a chance at the $1 Million Dollar Prize.
The reason I laughed is because I think about today's wrestling. I don't even think you could come up with 24 teams between WWE, TNA, and ROH combined. |
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