Saturday, February 28, 2009

"Red" And "Stormin'" Pass On

R.I.P. Johnny "Red" Kerr and "Stormin'" Norm Van Lier. Both passed away within the last two days.

I had the chance to work with Van Lier at the Morris Napa store many years ago. He was making an appearance, and I was hosting a remote broadcast from the event.

I got to sit next to Van Lier for two hours, interview him during our on-air segments, and converse with him off the air.

It was a lot of fun, and it was great to see how enthusiastic he was to just be out and about, meeting fans, talking hoops and just having a good time.

He kept trying to persuade me to play more Led Zeppelin on WJDK. He loved his rock 'n' roll.

Eerie how both Van Lier and Kerr were in the news a bit the last few weeks. Kerr was honored at halftime of a Bulls game earlier this month -- something that should have been done a long time ago, and reeked of "let's do this before he passes away" -- but Van Lier was strangely absent.

Seems he was never invited, for whatever reason, and he was deeply hurt by the snub.

Less than three weeks later, Van Lier -- who had been suffering with some unreported bad health the last few months -- passes away, and Kerr, who had prostate cancer, went just a few hours later.

I'm not a Bulls fan, but I certainly recognize what these two men meant to the city and to a large fan base over the years. They'll be missed. A lot.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Seinfeld Back To Television -- Sort Of

I mentioned on the show this morning that none other than Jerry Seinfeld is returning to NBC. "The Sein" is helping create and produce a reality show in which celebrities lend their marital advice -- for comedic effect we're assuming -- to real-life couples.

It would have to be for comedic effect, since the last people that should be offering genuine marital advice are celebrities.

It doesn't seem as though Seinfeld will appear onscreen in this new project, but then again, it's still in the very early stages of development.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

"Idol" Thoughts

After one night of "semi-finals", I feel fairly safe in making the following prediction about this season of American Idol: There is no conceivable way that a woman wins this year.

None.

In fact, I'd be surprised if a woman makes the final five.

I know, there are still two more weeks of this round -- where 12 sing on one night, and nine of those 12 are eliminated the next night -- but I think I've seen enough.

I've felt all along that the winner of Idol will be the blind guy. And since nobody reading this knows his name either, "TBG" is how we'll refer to him, and that will suffice for now.

After last night, I'm pretty confident that Danny Gokey (above) will be in the top 3, and could easily win the whole thing. Heck, I might vote for him just for the fact that last night he (thankfully) refused to mug for the camera by doing that annoying thing where contestants hold up the number of fingers that correspond with their phone number.

That's worth a few votes, Danny. Keep it up.

I think Anoop gets pretty far as well.

Also, watch out for this guy. Adam Lambert is his name, and he has a voice that will not only shatter your windows, but it will proceed to levitate the broken shards of glass and whip them at your face.

He's a real threat.

So, there you have it. Very unofficial predictions for this stinkin' show. I hate American Idol, but watch just about every week.

It's one of the few shows that we can all watch together as a family, which is saying something.

The show, like it or loathe it, has changed the music scene, and then some.

Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Jordin Sparks, Clay Aiken, David Cook are all enjoying big success.

Jennifer Hudson is an Oscar winner.

My daughter owns a David Archuleta CD.

And, I have a CD of tunes by William Hung.

Maybe the show isn't that bad after all.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Hawks Win, But...

Chalk up another win for the Blackhawks, a 4-0 shutout at Florida last night.

Now, as good as it is to see the 'Hawks continue this very strong season -- with yet another road win, no less -- the problem with last night's shutout at Florida is that Panthers fans were deprived of the chance to hear any goal calls of their play-by-play announcer.

Check out this montage of the pop-culture infused calls of Randy Moller, and you'll hear what they're missing.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The 'Dark Side' Of Dentist Visits

Thought this was pretty inspired...

You've all seen by now this clip of a kid named David, an 8-year old boy, still drugged up from his trip to the dentist chair, that was filmed by his father.

It's been viewed over ten million times on Youtube.




Well, the beauty of clips like these that have a life of their own on the internet is that within a few days there are countless parodies that pop up as well.

Some of them are really well done -- take a few minutes later and dig up some remixes of Bill O'Reilly or Christian Bale's famous rants.

Here is a spoof of the "David After Dentist" video starring none other than Darth Vader...

The Rabbit (Ears) Died

...or at least they should have. Yesterday was supposed to be the day that the switch to digital television would be made, making analog television obsolete.

However, the switch date has been pushed back to sometime in June because there are too many people that aren't ready for the conversion.

Problem is, many networks had budgeted for the switch to be made on February 17th as was originally planned, and now to keep transmitting an analog signal, when they weren't expecting to, is going to cost a lot of money. So, some -- but not all -- stations are going ahead with the transition anyway.

The fact is, the date should have remained February 17th, with no extension into June.

Look, we've been hearing about this switch since the spring of 2007! It's been known for almost two years that this day was coming, and back when the announcements were first made, February 17th was the date appearing in the story.

My point is, it wasn't like this day snuck up on us.

People have had plenty of time to get their act together and make the switch from analog to digital.

Coupons were available to help defray the cost of getting a conversion box, but apparently too many people still haven't made the switch yet.

Well, tough. It they couldn't afford it, or a family member couldn't have purchased them one for Christmas or whatever, then maybe they should just turn the TV off anyway, and listen to the radio -- preferably to 95.7 FM -- read a book, or get some exercise.

Seriously. Not to sound like a heartless jerk here, but I find it hard to believe that in nearly two years time so many viewers out there have been unable to equip themselves with what is needed to continue to watch television after this switch is made.

If they haven't converted by now, then they obviously don't put a lot of importance in TV in the first place.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

He Got The Beat

This is nowhere near the top of my list of favorite Barack Obama mashups -- that honor will always belong to the Barack-roll -- but this one is still pretty good.

Apparently there's still some more previously unseen, and unreported on, footage emerging from the historic inauguration day.

Witness the beat-boxing skills of President Obama...

Friday, February 13, 2009

Hockey Fright

Knowing what we know -- at least in the movies -- about Friday the 13th, and dudes in hockey masks, I can only hope that the Blackhawks are careful tonight when they play at St. Louis.

The Blues goalie could go on a rampage and take out the whole team!

He'll have a stick, two knives on the bottom of his feet, and the pent up anger of a bunch of dudes shooting pucks at him all night.

Sure signs of trouble for the Hawks if you're watching tonight...

* If one of them is skating alone in the dark with a flashlight, calling to see if anyone else is around.

* If one of them starts to take a shower with their eyes closed, and the door unlocked.

* If two of the Hawks run off to an abandoned cabin and start to make love, you know that at least one of them is a goner.

So, good luck, Hawks. Watch out for the dude in the hockey mask.

I'll make sure to watch the game with the lights on.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

An Eye For Cuisine

Meet Andre Thomas, a death row inmate in Texas, who satisfied some hunger pangs recently by plucking out his eye, and eating it.

Hey, the guy must know a delicacy when he, um, sees one, because that was the second time he had done it.

Back in 2004, he plucked out an eye for the first time, and proceeded to eat it, and just a couple of months ago, he plucked out his other eye, and ate that one, too.

Thomas is in jail for killing three people -- including an infant -- five years ago.

There is no execution date set, yet.

As Jay opined this morning, this gives new meaning to "watching what you eat."

My question was how do you properly season an eyeball? I picture it being something like eating a hard boiled egg.

If that's the case, some horseradish and a few sprinkles of salt are in order. Not too much, though. It might overpower the taste of the eyeball.

Of course, when you're eating your second eyeball, it's kind of hard to measure the amount of seasoning you're using. You know, not being able to see and all.

Food for thought. Or something like that.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Super Bowl (B)Ads

I'm having a hard time remembering any decent Super Bowl ads from last night.

That's partly due to their (lack of) quality, and the fact that I was in the midst of a card game during most the the Steelers' win, so I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the commercials.

It doesn't seem like I missed that much, though.

Here's one of the ones Bud Light spots that I remember, and liked...