Remember back when--??

No this is not a invite to go back and rehash fond memories of your first ice cream cone or day at the beach.----no, ---asking, do you remember back when we had the public debate about free TV versus Pay TV? Look who I am asking?----there are so few of us left. Forget I asked.
Back a number of years ago, the cable companies wanted a bigger slice of the pie and fought to have laws passed that allowed them an ever bigger slice of the TV Pie. Back then , not unlike now, those who could not get a broadcast TV signal due to mtns, being in the way of the TV Towers, or perhaps in a remote area where the signal just flat was to weak to deliver a picture, could at a price (a monthly fee) get cable and get the same tv programming as the rest of the world.---and life was good. The Cable companies wanted more---how about people in big cities where the signal was blocked by tall buildings----then it was how about those that just didn't want to attach a ugly attennae on the roof, shouldn't they be allowed to pay for cable if they wanted??---SO-O-O, the Free VS PAY TV wars broke out-----Long story short---Free TV lost.
The people in the know looking ahead saw that what was needed was a source of new material to feed the jaws of Television broadcasting. "Free TV, quickly signed up all the current actors, comedians, clowns and musicians---and we entered what is called the golden age of TV.
In the Golden age we had great shows ---drama, a whole library of great movies, and an army of young writers and technicians---and we had shows like "The Twilight Zone", "The US Steel hour", "The Ed Sullivan hour"---"I Love Lucy". How great was it?---it was so great that the TV Guide Magazine was the biggest seller, even outdoing "Reader's Digest"!!---but that was then.
Today?? Today TV Guide Magazine is not even in the top ten magazines---the big annual TV award show for best programs the Emmemys---sponsored by ??---yeah you guessed it, one of the Cable companies---if ya want good TV---you gotta pay for it---anyday now I expect the "Donks" (aka the Liberals) to start picketing for we need "free TV"---to late everybody climbed on board the cable wagon---(whose pulling the wagon----oh, ooh yeah, the monthly subscribers)

Prime Time New Shows

I wait with a modicum of impatience for the NEW Fall TV schedule to get underway. I will watched the new shows as they present their premier episodes and then based on my reactions to seeing the first show will decide if the show is worth watching on a regular basis. Last season I liked the show that premiered then, "Eli Stone", about the Lawyer who had visions of George Michael's, I found the premise somewhat far fetched, but the well written scripts and good directing and acting make the program quite entertaining, and I look forward to its return,---even with all the commercial breaks every five minutes..
Its not a new show, but another one that I have grown to like, mainly for the sheer idiocy of it, and again the great writing of dialog and that's "The Big Bang Theory". I also look forward to the return of "NCIS" and "Brothers and Sisters".
One new show that is already being hyped to death, and whose title escapes me, has a guy running around in a big green plastic diaper-----I am pretty sure THAT show won't be on my must see list---and its being hyped so heavy I can only assume its a weak show. If it were any good it wouldn't have to be hyped so heavy. The new fall schedule will at least offer us all some modicum of entertainment and allow us to ignore the tedium of the presidential race, which has been going on, and on and on------

On A Scale of 1 to 5---five being the best-----

Here in the "States", where 30 second soundbites rule---(anything longer than that leads to boredom or confusion) most everything is rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most favorable rating. The use of this rating scale being a prevalent as it is, makes for very brief but meaningful verbal exchanges---and encourages everyone to be minimalist in their answer. "How was your day dear?" (not needing to be said ---"On a scale of ---"), one hear's maybe a grunt and, "I rate it as a 2.5, and how was yours?", "not bad I would rate it 3. 8"-----"Whats for dinner?", "I made meatloaf, is that okay?", another guttural grunt, a shoulder shrug, "give it a 3",---------anyway you can see how totally useful the scale is and how its applied---those that "twitter" just think its a total "5".----with a bit more practice we can cut out all face to face communications and just exist in our small comfortable cubicles (aka wombs) and live a fairly decent comfortable, non-threatened life---(will somebody shut the door so the light goes out---sorry that was a hang up I developed when first born and they put me in an incubator.

Ranking TV Shows

What is very interesting is looking at what the various TV networks offer us to watch as a choice for those that do not want to watch the Olympics. THIS is where the NETWORKS Identify their weakest shows, the ones that are losers----the ones we would normally be offered in the absence of anything that might be more exiting or live. Our normal offerings are frequently interrupted with breaking news and live coverage of a slow speed police automobile chase (which of course IS more interesting than the normal programing offered) Now if we could just get the industry to cut back on the number of commercials, put the emphasis on good writing and acting---then just maybe people WILL start watching TV and the networks THEN could correctly raise the price of commercials on THOSE in demand shows.
Talk about spitting into the wind---free TV is dead. You want good stuff, you can pay for it, sign up for cable, find out what the basic monthly pay TV package costs, and negotiate the number of premium channels you can afford to get the good stuff. or like this old person, sign up to Netflix (There are other Movie rental companies who have similar rent by mail programs), and pick a plan to rent them once they go to released video CD's. The Netflix plans start at five dollars a month----sure beats paying cable or Satellite prices of $39.95/mo and up---and it keeps the Post office busy too .

THE BIG READ (stolen from Morgan Drake)

This fun list came from another blog written by Morgan Drake, and I have to say I found it a fun list of good reading, something for everyone in it.

Big Read Top One Hundred
"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed." So check the list and 1) Look at the list and bold/colorize those you have read.2) Post the list on your site.(This can also remind you of some great books to read.)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen *
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien *
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte *
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (well, I read the first two books of the series)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee *
6. The Bible (some, huh?)7
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte *
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell *
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens *
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott *
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller *
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare*
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier*
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien *
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger *
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger *
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot*
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell*
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald *
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens*
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy *
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh *
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck *
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll *
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame *
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ***
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ***
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis ***
34. Emma - Jane Austen ***
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen ***
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis ***
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres*
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ***
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne ***
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell ***
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown ***
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ***
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery ***
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood ***
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding ***
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan ***
51. ife of Pi - Yann Martel***
52. Dune - Frank Herbert*
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen ***
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens*
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck*
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt*
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ***
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas*
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie*
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville*
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ***
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker ***
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett ***
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce*
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath*
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray*
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens ***
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker ***
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro*
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ***
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White ***
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ***
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad92
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery ***
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams ***
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas*
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare*
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl ***
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Well darn seems I have read less than half of the above list---spending to much time sucking up all the "Who dunits" I guess. (I didn't count the titles above that I hadn't read the book ,but HAD seen the movie---that would be cheating)

What Ya Reading?

I was bumming around the house and got to thinking, what do others read, what magazines do they subscribe to and like to read.  My curiosity built higher so I googled up so stats, the ones I came up with are from close of business 2006.  Here is the list of the Top 10 magazines by circulation.

TOP 10 MAGAZINES BY CIRCULATION

1    AARP Magazine                         23,434,052.

2    Reader's Digest;                          10,094,281.

3    Better Homes And Gardens           7,638,912.
4    National Geographic Magazine       5,071,134.
5    Good Housekeeping                       4,74,1353.
6    Ladies' Home Journal                      4,169,444.
7    Time                                               4,066,545.
8    Woman's Day                                 4,027,113.
9    Family Circle                                   3,953,651.
10  People                                             3,750,548.

     I guess I was surprised to see this list, as had if I had had to guess, I would have guessed maybe that The Reader's Digest would probabely have been number one, and not the AARP Magazine.  Wow guess us old people do read a alot.   The other big eye opener for me was just how bad the TV Guide has sunk in the rankings.  Back when TV was good, the TV guide was the must mag to have, to make sure you knew what was on when and on what channel.  Today's TV Guide---doesn't tell ya what channels anything is on, only referencing the station call letters, which is worthless to most tv viewers.  This explains I think why they have gone from 4th to 13th, a drop of 55.4% in circulation.
     I learned to the advertising people make a distinction between magazines like those listed above versus those that are distributed via Newspapers.  Here are the top 3 newspaper distributed magazines, (sunday supplements). (again as of the close of 2006)

Parade Magazine     30,416,712
American Profile        8,162,141
Relish                        7,199,254

     Oh, and how about that rabid supermarket magazine---the National Inquirer you ask??  They came in at position number 78, with a circulation of 1, 149,106---and not counting all those quick peeks we all take while waiting to check out.   Well happy reading to ya all.

   

Stats, I Got Em---and I'm not afraid to use em

Statistics are easy to come by. There are a whole slew of places that will for free advise you how many visitors are checking out your blog, and you too can be razzle dazzled with stats, visitors, yesterday, today , expected tomorrow, page views, where did they start, and what page did they exit from----(imagine in the background the song from "Damn Yankees" playing in the background "You Gotta Have Heart"-------Stats can be exhilarating, they can be boring they can be down right cruel---and if used properly can prove any side of any and every argument on any and every issue. (its all in the delivery---ya gotta--" Razzle Dazzle Em"---which you all know is a song from the Broadway show "Chicago".
What I am kinda talking about is---who is and who isn't reading my blog--even more important--how come more people aren't reading it?---Maybe I need a new bar to do my preaching in?---maybe I need a better business manager (wait I am my own business mgr)---MAYBE I just need better PR ?(Whats PR? , the blond asks innocently as she licks her ice cream cone----who brought her to the party anyway?)
I know "Rome wasn't built in a day"---and its only been what??---three months since we started this thing?----still it occurs to me that not that many people come to this area---and pretty damn sure the chamber of commerce ain't exactly promoting us----(damn how do I meet anybody on the Chamber of Commerce?) I'm blogging my brains out here-----and nothing?? you sure this is how Bob Hope got started? (the blond all smiles, "Whose Bob Hope?"---somebody sees the look in my eyes and removes her from my line of vision).
Seriously folks---just how DOES one get discovered these days---seems like 98% of people have camera/phones, then there are all those cameras mounted at intersections, all the ATMS----wow---just a matter of time before the Old Dude here gets the call huh----huh? what?? Johnny Carson isn't on TV anymore??----hey I don't DO "impersonations" and I expect my own dressing room----you tell em that okay??

Electronics Are Pheenominal

I'm an old dude, as the title of my blog implies, but what I have got to comment on today is , is the state of electronics.----we sure have come along way------.
I recall growing up as a small boy, during WWII, sitting on the floor of the living room, with my parents listening to the big floor model radio (literally the size of large chair or similar furniture). I was not allowed to touch it---in fact only my Dad was allowed to handle the radio. It was magic as far as I was concerned. Listening to people from as far away as London, New York, and waaay out in California----. Anyway that's my earliest memories of electronics. Couple years later my older brother came back from overseas and HE had a portable record player, with a whole slew of big flat 78rpm platters. I especially recall one had a song on it that my mother declared was her favorite, "Blue Skies" (I don't remember the group that sang it, the year was 1945), but I do remember the song that was on the flip side, "I Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle"---needless to say being 8yo, going on 9---THAT was my favorite---my second fav, was "I'm looking over a four-leaf Clover", but I digress----I was totally jealous of my brothers portable record player (must have weighed about 30 pounds and was the size of a small suitcase---I almost got killed as one day while playing records I accidentally knelt on one of the discs and broke it----my bro wasn't to happy----)
My next brush with electronics came a couple years later---I was given a desk top radio of my own---An RCA Victor model----oooh yeahh many an hour of entertainment there---Sunday afternoons and early evenings, listening ot one after another grea radio shows. "Sky King", The Shadow, "The Creaking Door, "The Green Hornet", "The Fibber McGee& Molly Show", "Truth or Consequences,", and "The Quiz Kids" to name but a few. All audio, no TV yet, good writing and we listeners could visualize the settings as we listened avidly minute by minute. Then a year later graduating from Jr. High school (guess PC-wise, should call it "Middle School"), I was given more electronics, this time, a plug in 45 record player that went with my radio----along with this neat gift I was given records (45's) of music my parents thought I would like (sigh, its the thought that counts right?), Les Paul & Mary Ford, and Nat King Cole---the year was 1951
I of course saved my allowance, collected empty soda bottles (aluminium cans hadn't been invented yet), anyway I collected monies, bought records, the good stuff, like Fats Domino, "I Found MY Thrill on Blueberry Hill"and you all know this was the beginning of Rock N Roll---would be five more years before Elvis was discovered. But TV was now pretty prevalent, big boxy sets, some with round screens, black and white, but ooh man, all the movies---I was so frustrated my parents wouldn't get a TV---Dad considered it just a fad, and besides it was to expensive----. So no TV for this kids, except what he got visiting with friends. My folks broke down and bought their first TV in 1955, about three months after I went up state to college.
Anyway that was about when 45's went into the trash, replaced with 33 rpms and something called Hi Fidelity ---TV's started coming out with real color, there was some kind of war going on between the movie theater operators and the Televison people---over paid TV (aka cable), The Russians launched Sputnik----and well the field of electronics went berserk. smaller, faster, cheaper, more features, , pagers, portable phones, Stereophonic sound, 8 track tapes, cassettes, (33's went into the trash), ---flip phones, picture phones, computers, electronic notebooks---digital Televisions----42" plasma in the other room as I speak----and do you have ANY IDEA what is on the drawing boards for the very near term??? ---BEAM ME UP SCOTTIE, is not as far fetched as it once use to be-----voice recognition, kids trudging off to grade school with more computing power than the first IBM Braniac computer------its gonna be wild people, its gonna be just pheeenominal.

SATURDAY (mama-mia),SATURDAY (mama-mia)---

I'm humming along with the music of Abba going in the background, thus the title above---all started when I heard the current commercial pitch selling tickets for the broadway show "Mama Mia", currently playing here in Los Angeles.  (Its not the original cast , but another cast that is travelling the country putting it on).   I Have to say its quite a compliment to the original Abba singing group, that they're music is still popular. In fact a lot of the music from the late fifties, 60's and 70's gets a lot of air time on the radio today. That's when there was good music being written and we had good performers to do it. Elvis, Mamma's& Poppas, the Beach Boys, Earth, Wind & Fire, Abba, and I am sure you all could name some of YOUR favorites as well from that era. Guess for me one of my real favorites is the song, "Monday, Monday" as sung by the Mamas And The Poppas----I was unemployed at the time and after a hard day of looking for work, would find myself holed up in a local sleazy bar nursing a half drunk, warm bottle of beer listening to that song blasting away on the bars best feature an incredible sound system---the lyric going----"Monday, Monday, ----can't trust that day-----oooooooooh Monday, Monday----.
LOL, well nobody ever told I could sing either, but anyway love that song. I'd like to hear what YOUR singular favorite song was/is??. It doesn't have to limited to the 50's, 60's or 70's, they wrote some damn fine stuff even earlier too---(----"I'm looking over a four leaf clover, that I overlooked before-----" they don't write good lyrics like that anymore).

How Bleak the Summer TV Programming

I am sure everyone has noticed it---the offerings of TV fare since the ending of what the TV Industry now calls the end of the season . There is a lot of confusion over what constitutes a "season" now---back when TV was good---and only us old people remember that time---there were only two seasons---Fall/Winter---and Summer. The Fall/Winter season began like the first week of September (about time the young'uns had to go back to school), and lasted for 39 weeks. (they were not interrupted with breaking news events---or other network excuses), then, just as the kids are getting out of school, (first week of June), the fall schedule programs ended and were replaced by the Summer program schedules. As a rule the summer shows were somewhat weaker (that is to say less interesting) than the Winter/Fall programs, but----not infrequently a summer show would do better in the viewer ratings than the winter/fall programs they replaced and VOILA, come fall, they were continued, and the old winter/fall program became history.
Course this was back when TV was good---back then there were Movie theaters, Live Stage productions and TV-----now of course, we got Movie theaters, Live Stage, TV, and "PAY TV" (aka cable, satellite---). The quality of "free" TV of course has plummeted, as those people can't afford to pay for good writers and directors---as such they only offer us , the sad "reality" shows for the most part. What shows they offer with real writers need be cut up so bad with commercials to cover the costs that----well its hard to enjoy---and now a word from our sponsors every five minutes, does kinda break one's mood , ya know?
So here we are , we have finished the "Fall/Winter" schedule, and we got what to watch??---re-runs of the somewhat good shows we watched before, --- and the dreaded reality crap. So much for regular TV. ON the Cable/satellite channels which some can afford to pay for we got??---ooh my reruns of the shows we watched during the winter season?? (and now wonder again why we are paying a monthly fee to watch TV??)
Have YOU been to your local library lately---or maybe discovered Netflix? -----well if not, the Summer Olympics is coming in August---along with the comedy of both National Political Conventions----and hopefully the TV people both the public and Pay TV people will offer us something to watch by early Sept, when School starts-------(I ain't holding my breath).

The Day After The Day

Okaaaaay another 4th of July celebrated, hopefully the night (tonight), will be quiet and sleeping can be properly attended too. LAST NIGHT---seemed like an on going sporadic war going on outside, what with small to medium fire crackers being enthusiastically thrown about---concluding at 3am with two very loud window shaking explosions, which had me laying there in bed almost holding my breath waiting for the fire trucks and police to arrive---neither did, and the next thing I knew it was dawn and my body was screaming for its Caffeine fix.---which I am now imbibing and writing this summary.
To back up some, to celebrate the 4th here, we , the LP and I, put together a dinner of Quiche Loraine, mini hot dogs filled with cheese, a concoction made from Deviled Ham, and some mayonnaise , and spices, club crackers and mostest and bestest of all , a cold bottle of Champagne, and episodes 4, 5 & 6 of "Huff", which upon conclusion we then switched to regular TV and watched the fireworks at the end of the Boston Pops concert.---on our new 42" digital TV, the fireworks were PHEEEENOMINAL!!

Classic TV

I'm old, I'm so old I can remember watching Television before they had even invented TV Dinners.---(now thats OLD). I miss those good old days, back then we had Television---not the sappy reality crap they pass out today. Back then the fall season of programming was 39 weeks, followed by the summer programming of 13 weeks.. Back then the networks didn't recycle the programs every week was new material. Damn near put the movie business out of business. Most of the big shows were recorded live, no retakes, and we had real professional actors working. Some shows were so heavily watched, that traffic in the streets would become eerily absent, everyone was home watching TV. Here is a list of ten good shows that I looked forward to watching every week.----and I betcha that you readers can think of a few more , what were YOUR favorites.?

Ed Sullivan
Twilight Zone
Gunsmoke
Peter Gunn
Father Knows Best
The Loretta Young Show
Texaco Star Theater w/Milton Berle
You Bet Your Life, w/ Groucho Marx
Hazel
Sea Hunt

---------yeahh back then TV was entertainment---now its pablum for the masses. (no writing, no direction, just lots of pretty colors and actions to keep the commercials spaced apart.)

Good bye Cyd

As everyone has no doubt heard, Cyd Charisse has past away. But ohh what a lovely legacy of entertainment she has left us. I can't think of a single dancer today that performs on the levels she demonstrated again and again. Since receiving the sad news, one phrase has been repeating over and over in my head---"GOTTA DANCE---GOTTA DANCE"----you "youngun's" of course have no idea, but for us older people----that was the exciting voice exclaiming the need to dance---and the musical number was played out in the movie , "Singing in the Rain"---and the particular dance number staring Cyd Charisse, dancing with Gene Kelly----you kids have NOTHING to compete with that level of professionalism, and you have my sympathies for that. What you do have of course is that all the good stuff is on film, available to be watched whenever you want good entertainment---but right now---feeling kinda sad---yet another great one gone---and no one even close to replacing the lost.----I think tonight we will pull one off the wall in Memory of Cyd---"Brigadoon"