Category: television

Carry On, Wayward Son

One of our former library interns, Ben, is leaving town. He’s moving to Wichita, Kansas to take a job. Albany is a tough market for a new librarian because there’s a library school here, and moving away is often the best option. The folks in Wichita had called and I gave a positive reference for him.

He had asked his friends whether he should stay or should he go. I advocated for his departure, not because I was getting rid of him – as he [kiddingly?] suggested, but because his life was simple enough (no house, no spouse, etc.) that leaving was easier than it might be later in life.

Last night, he had a BBQ/auction. Well, not everything was auctioned, only “the most prized and valuable items” were auctioned. Other items were sold in a more traditional manner — “priced and sold to the fist taker”. I think he meant “first”, for there wasn’t anything worth fighting over.

He is a lapsed blogger who may get back to it after he gets settled in his new job.

Ben leaves for Wichita tomorrow. Good luck.
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The Marvin Gaye segment of American Masters premieres on PBS, starting May 7; check your local listing. Also being shown this week, the American Masters piece on Aretha Franklin.
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Gin, Television, and Social Surplus.

ROG

ROG

Ketchup

When we got home from our vacation Friday, I checked the phone messages (only four – two junk and two for an event that’s now past), and turned on the TV (DVR 99% full!) I could delete a few shows we saw during the week, which got it down to 92%, and I thought I’d watch some while unpacking. But then something fell off the back of this humongous piece of furniture where the television resides and unplugged the TV. This meant moving the furniture, which meant removing all the LPs (yes, LPs), VHS tapes and DVDs from the beast, plus photos and other items; fortunately, the two drawers, each with dozens of tapes, pull out. I could plug in the TV, and I recovered my cribbage board which had fallen previously, but this meant that I had to also recover…the Barney DVD that had fallen some months earlier. By accident. Really.
Unlike the Barney cassette, which I don’t mind, the DVD is a game show with an audience of children…and adults. There’s something really creepy about WATCHING grown-ups feign (I think it’s feigning) the same enthusiasm as their kids. I mean, it’s OK for them to BE that enthusiastic; I just don’t want to see it.
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Checked my e-mail. 524 new work e-mails. One was a link to this stupid internal Microsoft video for stupid Vista:

I also discovered that the search committee I’m on for the PR position in my office has four interviews on Wednesday and Thursday; so kind of them not to schedule them for Monday. I also found out, in an e-mail that only arrived Friday afternoon, that a presentation that a colleague and I offered to the Association of Small Business Development Centers was selected for us to present at the ASBDC 2008 Annual Conference: Blogging with the SBDC – Implementing Web 2.0 Technologies at Your Center. Which means I’ll be going to Chicago in September. I’ve never actually been to Chicago; being at O’Hare does not count, so that’s rather cool.
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I’ve been trying to catch up on reading some blogs. Ken Levine wants people to vote on some komedy kontest. I learned from Mark Evanier that Kelly Bishop was in the original cast of A Chorus Line; she already looks like a younger version of Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls. Evanier also has a cat named Lydia, darn those Marx Brothers. And I’ve discovered how Mike Sterling posts every day:

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Sometimes, I just love spam. In addition to all those kind offers of getting me free money or increasing the size of…well, you know, there are these:
Dear Gmail Account Users,

We hereby inform you that our system has developed database error so we need to access all accounts in other to save and keep them active even till after a new database is introduced to Gmail .
Gmail Team advices you update your account details to verify and keep them valid and undeleted.
PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH THE FOLLOWING
USERNAME:……………………………
PASSWORD:……………………………
VERIFY PASSWORD:………………….
ALTERNATE EMAIL ADRESS:……….
DATE OF BIRTH:…………………………
COUNTRY/TERRITORY:…………………
After the details are given your account will be upgraded and safe for your use.
YOU WILL BE ABLE TO CONTINUE USING YOUR E-MAIL AS SOON AS THE MAIL IS RENEWED AND ACTIVE.
To reply just “CLICK” on the REPLY tab in your browser.
Please bear with us.
I didn’t need the REAL notice from Gmail – Warning: This message may not be from whom it claims to be. Beware of following any links in it or of providing the sender with any personal information. – to detect it as fraudulent. I’m guessing though that if they actually got native writers/speakers of English, they might fool a few more people. “our system has developed database error”? “we need to access all accounts in other”? “keep them active even till after”? Spammers, thank you for today’s entertainment.

ROG<

ROG

Barack and Hillary QUESTIONS

When I was on vacation in Virginia this past Sunday, I turned on the TV and happened to catch the last 45 minutes of Barack Obama’s Q&A with CNN on religion/faith/values. I thought he seemed most impressive and comfortable; I didn’t see Hillary Clinton. Then I catch the local news tease asking if the Dems have a “prayer” of dealing with faith issues. The story itself noted Clinton’s and Obama’s “struggle” talking about religion (in general, it was implied) and then showed the clips of Hillary and Barack talking about abortion (she said that the potential for life began at conception, Barack noted that he did struggle with this particular issue).

It seemed that abortion is still THE issue when it comes to matters of faith, at least according to that broadcast. A related issue in the media also seems to be that the Dems are FINALLY talking about religion in 2008, when, in fact, John Kerry for one was, I thought, quite eloquent in speaking about his faith and how he acts on it in a 2004 debate; since he didn’t talk about it often, and because he didn’t oppose abortion, he was perceived as somehow inauthentic.

So my questions:
1) Did you see or hear any of the Clinton or Obama pieces on race? If so, what did you think?

2) Regardless of whether you actually saw them, what was your perception of how they did based on what you read in the newspaper or heard on radio or TV? I’m interested in sources of your info, too, if possible.

3) How SHOULD candidates be talking about faith and religion, if at all?

4) I also caught much of the ABC News debate on Wednesday, and I thought they both were fine. Mostly it reminded me that either of them is a better choice than John “not so straight talk” McCain, who had ducked the faith debate. Did you see the Wednesday debate, and what did you hear about it, whether you saw the debate or not?

ROG

ROG

Roger Answers Your Questions, Gordon

Gordon, who knows I’ve met Rod Serling, asks these questions:

1) What’s your favorite Twilight Zone episode?

Certainly, Time Enough At Last with Burgess Meredith:

The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street with Claude Akins and Jack Weston, and A Game of Pool with Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters are up there. It’s a Good Life with Billy Mumy and The Dummy with Cliff Robertson and Frank Sutton scared me as a kid.
But perhaps, as a librarian, I relate most to The Obsolete Man with Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver, about librarians and religion and politics, which can be seen, in three parts, below:


Yes, it’s heavy-handed and preachy, but that’s OK by me.

2) What have you been asked to do professionally that has you going, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this?”

When I worked at the Schenectady Arts Council on a CETA grant in 1978 into January 1979, I was hired as a bookkeeper and to run a biweekly craft show, but there really wasn’t that much to do to fill 35 or 40 hours a week, though I was on the telephone selling ads for a benefit to revitalize Proctor’s Theatre for a couple weeks. So I found other things to take on. The dancer, Darlene, was teaching elementary school kids dance in the elementary schools, including disco, and she needed a partner, so I was drafted. The secretary, Susan, decided that she and I would go sing to the developmentally disabled from time to time. I loved that job, loved dealing with artists and musicians, and we stopped only because the money ran out.

3) What’s the deal with “Chocolate Rain”? I don’t get it.

You mean this thing that got 16 million hits and won some YouTube award?


Damned if I know. I have little idea WHY something becomes a hit on the Internet: LOLcats or lonelygirl15 – don’t really get it.
That said, let me spitball here. It may be the juxtaposition of the unexpected. This nerdy-looking black guy with a deep voice that one might not be anticipating, with lyrics that seem to be saying SOMETHING, but we’re not sure what; better play it again. Or maybe it’s that he’s put his listeners in a trance with the keyboards.
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The footer to an e-mail I received yesterday (no, I don’t know the parties involved)-
Mr. Diefenbaker:…I mentioned the cost of living a moment ago, and while I speak the cost of living has gone up.
Mr. St. Laurent: You should stop speaking.

ROG

ROG

Beatles’ TV Alert

On A&E, Sunday, February 3, 2008

7 a.m. BIOGRAPHY: The Beatles’ women
A look at the women–some celebrated, some forgotten–who influenced the lives of the Fab Four and were often the muses behind some of the Beatles’ greatest songs. Includes portraits of Yoko Ono, Linda Eastman, Pattie Boyd, Barbara Bach and Heather Mills. Plus, we look back at May Pang, John Lennon’s lost weekend companion; Cynthia Lennon, his first wife; Jane Asher, Paul McCartney’s posh girlfriend during the band’s heyday; Maureen Cox, Ringo’s first wife; and Olivia Trinidad Arias, who married George in 1978. TVPG | cc
8 a.m. Paul McCartney: Live at the Olympia
They are known among fans as the “secret concerts.” In 2007, Sir Paul McCartney took his band to a few small select venues around the world to play the most intimate, raw, and stripped down shows of his storied career. The shows have already become legendary. The most spectacular of all the performances was in Paris at the Olympia Theater in October. 43 years earlier the Beatles had played a series of concerts at the venue and for the 2007 show McCartney revisited the Beatles songbook, as well as playing solo hits and some tracks from his Grammy-nominated album “Memory Almost Full.” TVPG | cc
9 a.m. Private Sessions: Ringo Starr “Ringo shares a private look into his career.”
This morning, in an in-depth exclusive interview, former Beatle Ringo Starr chats with host Lynn Hoffman about his incredible career. His music, as a solo artist and as a Beatle, is permeated with his personality, his warmth and humor and his exceptional musicianship, which have given us songs we all know and love. Starr reflects about what it was like being part of the world’s most adored and famous group; his solo career; and his touring the globe with his All Starr Bands. TVPG | cc

9 A.M. for the premiere of the Ringo piece?? If you miss it, the Ringo piece will be repeated at 4 a.m. on Sunday, February 10.

ROG

ROG
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