Borderline Fantastic

The past few weeks I’ve found the music I listen to has shifted. I had been listening to more screamo and indie-type rock (my best way to describe Say Anything and The Hold Steady). I started listening to music a little more pop and a lot more fun. Its summer time and I didn’t even realize that I change my listening habits when summer comes around. It also seems like a lot of bands that I like or am starting to like are releasing new albums around this time.

It started by going back to some albums that I hadn’t listened to a whole lot recently. Once I gave them a listen I started to grab for them more often out of the CD case. Now they are in a solid rotation with all the stuff I’ve just bought recently. They bring me back to when I first got them, which for most of them was some point in college.

It doesn’t seem like I’ve been listening to all these groups for a few years now. It seems like yesterday when I first heard them. They all date back to high school and early on in college. I don’t even know what I listened to before all this besides Weezer and Green Day. Well, I guess you can’t forget Hootie & the Blowfish. Cracked Rear View is a masterpiece.

Here is what I’d call my first generation. Each band I have a pick of a song that is a quality summer tune. You can’t go wrong driving around all summer with these bands.

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Thank God You’re Here started on NBC a few months ago. I was intrigued because I love improv/sketch comedy. They were going to have on some moderate celebrities. The idea was that a celebrity would be dressed in some sort of attire related to the skit they were about to do. They knew nothing about it. They would be sent through a door with the show’s cast prepared with a story. During the sketch the cast would set up the celebrities for jokes. The average performers only got creative when prompted by these queues. The solid performers would take over the scene, not waiting for their turn. It was surprising how few of them actually took control.

David Alan Grier is the host. I usually enjoy him. Dave Foley is the judge. I don’t mind Dave Foley, but was a judge needed? He was nice even when somebody was terrible. He apparently picked who was the best on the show and gave him or her a trophy.

I watched a the first few shows but it was nothing that I was going to watch during primetime. There are too many other options. I tried to DVR it, but I never had a desire to watch it. It would just sit there in my recorded list until I realized I was never going to watch it.

I do think the show could be a lot more successful. It should be on some cable channel at various times during the day. If I just caught it randomly during the day I’d be more likely to watch it. Each skit should be put on YouTube. Then have people vote on the best ones and direct people to the better ones. It may even be better to start online. Instead of a celebrity doing one scene have them do a couple when they come in. Make the TV show the best of these skits as voted online.

I do have the desire to try it out, to play the role of the celebrity. I think there are a lot of people that would enjoy this. Now its not good for TV, nobody cares what I do. I just think it would be a lot of fun. The cast is there to help me out a bit, if it turns out I’m terrible. If I was decent I’d want video of it to watch again and show people.

One issue I can see is that an audience is needed. The performance really plays off the crowd if its any good. How do you get an audience to see people they don’t have any relation to who might not be very good?

One way to do this is to have a tour. This could work going across the country taking people from the crowd. The cast would know how to play to the crowd, making it entertaining for everyone. A huge bonus is that when the cast realize that the crowd member is terrible they can just switch to making fun of this volunteer. Great fun. If popular enough it could stay in one place, be sort of a weekly/monthly event at a theater.

With the tour you have to get lucky in the crowd to get up on stage. There needs to be some way to be sure you’re going to get a shot. Perhaps pay a little extra. This removes the getting made fun of aspect, since you don’t want to pay to get made fun of. If you’re paying its likely you’re a little better than the average crowd member.

Either way this sounds like an entertaining idea. Really, for me, I just want to do some sort of improv. There must be a place where random people off the street can do improv.

To save myself from Summer TV withdraw I’ve decided to plan my week’s in advance. I’m going to do some research to make sure I don’t miss any specials that tend to sneak by in the Summer. Oh, and Sports.

This week will be especially difficult with all the talk shows on break.

Sports

Stanley Cup Finals: Monday (Versus), Wednesday (Versus), Saturday (NBC)

French Open: ESPN2 and The Tennis Channel - Comcast is giving us The Tennis Channel for free for this. Trying to tempt me into purchasing the Sports Package. Little do they know I’m planning on getting it when the college football season starts. That is, if I can hold old during the college baseball regionals.

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, check out the whole week … (more…)

The TV Seasons are done. I’m left with Sopranos, Entourage, and Studio 60. That should mean I fill my time with other things. Will those things lead to me having more to talk about? We’ll see. I might just play more video games in my freed up TV time. Anyway, here’s what I have from this week.

Headlines of the Day
Pigeons targeted for birth control

Keyshawn Johnson to retire, pursue TV career
Apparently no one at ESPN watched their own draft coverage.

Other Links
Eye of the Sports Guy with Paul Shirley
A great episode. It was weird hearing Paul Shirley talk for the first time. Although not as weird as hearing Bill Simmons talk for the first time. One item they discussed was why networks don’t pick people who get along to broadcast games together. This is similar to a discussion in IDM 6. Evan and I talked about how we’d probably great if we broadcasted games together.

The Penn State football team has been misbehaving again this off season. JoePa says he’s going to have them clean the stadium after games this year. Will this also apply to road games?

Quotes from The Office. Possibly every line ever spoken on the show.

Music
The Dangerous Summer - Free mp3: The Permanent Rain

Smashing Pumpkins - Listen to the new single: Tarantula

I’m no fan of commercials. The #1 reason for purchasing a ReplayTV all those years ago was to easily record things so I could skip the commercials. Turned out the real beauty of DVRs is not being tied to the TV schedule, but that’s off topic.

Still, I’m always intrigued by good commercials. Its just they are so few and far between. Even less often is there a campaign that I just love. I discovered a new one this week. Off the top of my head here are two of my favorite ad campaigns ever, plus a new favorite that I think has a ton of potential.

ESPN
I don’t even need to really talk about these. There have been so many classics over the years. Even now they will still bust out a solid one. I loved the one with Jorge Posada and David Ortiz where Ortiz puts on the Yankees hat (even though it may have been against the rules).

EPSN Commercial Archive

Emerald Nuts
These were just off the wall when they first came out. It was during the 2004 World Series. This is pre-Goulet, those debuted during the 2007 Super Bowl. There were a bunch of them so you didn’t get tired of any and they were available online so I could show people I wasn’t insane.

From the first set: Encouraging Norwegians (also includes Evil Navigators). If I remember correctly, Egomaniacal Normans was my favorite of this group, but I couldn’t find a video.

Then the came back with the really long phrases that spelled out Emerald Nuts.
My favorite from this group: Engrossed Manicurists Eventually Relay Advice Like Do Not Untie That String

Red Stripe
Finally caught these this week during PTI. First I saw the Sweater one and was impressed. What put me over the top was the evil room. I found some of the others online and this campaign only has the ceiling of the number of places Red Stripe is advertised, which I’ve only ever seen during PTI. This one is good enough to be on everywhere.

iFilm page of Red Stripe Commercials

See some that I’ve mentioned after the jump. (more…)

Audio: mp3
Running Time: 23:18
Hosts: Evan and Mike

We took a two month hiatus as the baseball season got started. Oh well if we missed another Gator championship. Evan had a pretty scary accident that could have been really bad. He also got to chaperone seventh graders in the Florida Keys. Mike wants to stop giving and receiving gifts. In sports, ESPN continues to get worse. Mike has another great sports idea: more horse racing.

Topics
Evan’s Near Accident on the Interstate
Evan’s School Trip to the Keys
Getting out of the Gift Business
ESPN’s SportsCenter Rundown
More Horse Racing
Sports Guy’s Podcast = Us with a production budget

For a while now I’ve been trying to think of a logical way to add some time to the day. All I really want is two more hours each day. I feel that will allow me to stay up until I’m sufficiently tired and get the sleep I need. Still, with a little extra time, I don’t think I’ll be able to squeeze everything I want into a day.

Besides sleep, the #2 use of my time is work. 40+ hours and 5 hours of driving to and from each week. Not much I can do about that since I enjoy paychecks. It could be worse, I’ve had a job that was 7 days a week and anywhere from 50-70 hours a week.

TV takes a large chunk out of each day. There are all the shows I watch, which thankfully are coming to their season’s end. A few are getting cancelled which will free up some time in the fall. Of course its the ones that I don’t want to get cancelled. Then you have the shows that are on every day. I keep up with The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Eventually I get to watching every Letterman (skipping the guests I could care less about). Still there are some that don’t make the cut just because of time. These include Conan, PTI, and Countdown. Can’t the late night shows put out some sort of best of the week shows? I’d pay to see the clips of Letterman and Conan that are worth my time. Even if I hear about a good Conan clip NBC has it yanked from YouTube. I’m not sure what NBC is thinking by doing that. Now I’m less likely to watch Conan.

There is also a lot of TV that I’ve missed. Shows that I didn’t jump on board from the beginning require me to catch up, and there are some that I missed altogether. Currently the show I’m catching up on is The Wire. I’m getting the discs slowly through Netflix. While this is a pain to have to wait when I want to get to the next disc, its the safest approach. If I had them all in front of me I might as well just call off a week of work to watch the entire thing.

For some reason at work I don’t have a TV at my desk with cable and a DVR. I also don’t have internet so I have to search for other forms of entertainment. Its a good thing that we have an amazing morning show in Philadelphia: Preston & Steve. Its also a good thing that they post the whole show every afternoon for download. Otherwise I might have to ignore people all morning because I don’t want to miss anything. When I did have internet I would just listen after they posted the show in the afternoon, then I could pause when needed. I’m not allowed to have Sirius so I haven’t been able to get hooked on Stern. Possibly a good thing. I enjoy Stern’s show, its just that these radio shows are so long.

Let’s not forget about sports. I don’t watch nearly enough of Phillies’ games. I wish I had the time to watch every pitch. At least every pitch until they drive me crazy enough to change the channel. Then there are all the other games on and events throughout the year. I wish I could watch more NHL Playoff action, I’d even consider the NBA. Soon the College World Series will be starting and last year ESPN was nice enough to carry some of the Regional and Super Regional action, because they want as much of my time as they can get.

I also have a mountain of sites that I visit on a daily basis. I have to keep up with the many areas that interest me: sports, TV, movies, video games, social networking. Oh, did I mention tech sites? On top of that I try to keep on top of my sites. Writing the occasional blog post and adding some features to Ice Cream Helmet.

Have I mentioned I miss my Xbox 360? We barely get to spent any time together. I know its jealous of the Wii.

I do my best to combine some activities. When I do my web surfing I will catch up on Preston & Steve or watch something on my DVR that does not require my full attention.

What’s missing? Doing any sort of physical activity. For now, let’s just pretend its because Summer is just getting started. The pool is open and the weather is warming up, eventually allowing people into the pool sans wet suit. Playing softball and maybe a little effort on my part will take care of all that. But as you can see, where am I going to fit that into my day?

CBS announced a new show for the fall called Moonlight. Its about a Private Investigator who is also a Vampire. I’m not sure which came first or if one led to the other. It would make sense if he was on the case of a vampire and got bit. Then even though he’s now a vampire he still wants to continue his PI career.

Why is this a show? What makes the PI/Vampire combination so intriguing? Does being a vampire help his investigating? I can’t imagine its easy not being able to go out in the light. The only suggestions I’ve heard so far are that maybe he can become a bat and sneak around, he may have a heightened sense of hearing, or that he can smell blood and find the bodies.

Some plot points I found on TV Squad: “The story will revolve around his struggles with immortality, feuds with adversaries in the vampire world, and a romance with a mortal.” I’m most curious about the feuding with other vampires. Maybe he’s investigating other vampires, making him an outcast in the vampire community. Come to think of it, I’d be interested to see how vampires interact day to day. You only think of them doing bad things, biting people, and on occasion, selling cereal. I want to see how they get their shopping done or send their kids to school if they can’t go out in daylight.

I’d talk about the cast but the only person I know (after looking him up) is Rade Serbedzija. He played Dmitri Gredenko on 24 this season and was Boris in Snatch. Most importantly he was the guy in Bratislava in Eurotrip (”Miami Wice is number one new show.”).

It will be on Fridays at 9. You will want to catch it quickly since who knows how long it will be around. I’ll be watching, cause at this point I just have to find out what’s going on.

A strange thing happens whenever I find myself wandering around a sporting goods store. I decide to take up at least a dozen new sports and activities. Everything I see I think ‘I need that’ or ‘that would be fun to try.’ So far I’ve always been able to resist. Someday though I will come home with a car full of new equipment and a dream.

This weekend in Modell’s I found myself in the boxing section. I’m fairly certain I’ve never been in a boxing section before, otherwise I’d be a boxer right now. First I saw the boxing gloves. $20 for a pair of your standard boxing gloves. At that price you don’t really have a choice. Further into the section there are the speed bags and punching bags. I need all of this. During the weigh in of the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight I wondered why I hadn’t become a boxer. I think I’m that size, which a little effort I could punch someone and I have pretty good balance. Problem is I guess, that I break easily. One punch and I’d be done. Still, it’d be a blast to have the gloves and something to punch that wouldn’t punch back.

Further travels found me in the tennis section. I always seem to wind up there. Thinking that tennis looks like fun to actually try and get good at. I love watching it on TV. I’m just lacking a court and someone to play against (who would be willing to put up with me sucking for a while). Unfortunately they are pretty important parts to playing tennis. Good thing I’m not hooked on doubles.

This was just Modell’s at a Sports Authority or Dick’s I could spent all day dreaming of activities. Baseball bats, hockey equipment, roller blades (is that still a relevant term?), swimming goggles, lacrosse sticks, wakeboards, and golf. Seriously stop me if I’m ever about to drop a fortune on some clubs. For some reason buying golf clubs always seems like a good idea at the time. If I in the store long enough the camping, fishing, and hunting gear all starts to look interesting to me. When I start pricing tents or kayaks I know its time to leave.

For now I will have to keep myself entertained with Wii Sports. I don’t need a buddy to play that. Of course even when I do have a buddy around we’ll just play Wii instead of going outside and doing the real thing.