Being Shocking Just to be Shocking

Radio host Pete Santilli recently had some shocking things to say about Hillary Clinton. You can learn about his shocking words by clicking here.

In the article, Santilli is called a “Radio host.” Let’s say it the way it really is. Santilli has a blog and with that blog he does a podcast. Nothing more, nothing less. Hell, I have a blog too—maybe I should do a podcast (don’t be looking for that from me). I’m small potatoes. So is Santilli.

Santilli made his remarks about Clinton to be shocking. He wants to be a real radio station host. That’s pretty clear from reading the article. I hope this doesn’t happen but what the hell do I know?  Being shocking just to be shocking is pretty much what right wing talk radio is about these days. Santilli may fit right in.

I’m hoping this idiot just gets his 15 minutes of fame and that’s it. Time will tell.

It says in the article that Santilli is a former U.S. Marine. Thank you for your service, sir. He’s was also a Coca-Cola executive. That’s probably a good reason for me to switch to Pepsi.

(Image from WordPress)

“Mad Men,” the Chevy Vega and Me

I’m a fan of the television show “Mad Men,” but it usually takes me a while to get around to watching it. That’s just how I am. I’m on the current season, but haven’t yet watched the show when Don Draper’s advertising agency lands the Chevy account.

What I know about that episode is that Don and company do indeed land the account for the Chevy XP-887.  Oh yeah. I remember that model very well. That’s really the Chevy Vega.

The Chevy Vega was the first new car I ever owned. Growing up in Indiana, I bought the car from a dealer in Friendship—from a dealer that my father bought cars from all his life.

If I remember correctly, I purchased the 1975 model. No, it’s not the one in the photo. My Vega was silver in color.

Vegas became known as lemons. They burned oil, would break down a lot and would become rust buckets. But not my Vega. In the three plus years I owned it; I never once had any problems with it at all. It never burned oil, never broke down and never developed rust. It was a perfect car for me.

The only reason I needed to sell it was because I was getting married. My soon-to-be wife had a newer car, we didn’t need two and I could sell the Vega and make a little money. That was easier said than done.

I think I took it to every GM dealer in Cincinnati. When I would mention I had a Chevy Vega I wanted to sell, people working for those dealerships would almost run away from me. They wanted no part of it.

I needed up selling my Vega to a guy who had just moved to America. He wasn’t aware of how bad the Vega name was. Maybe the name was bad, but my Vega was just fine.

It will be interesting to see how the Chevy Vega plays out in the upcoming episodes of “Mad Men.” It was a decent car for me, but somehow, I don’t see Don Draper ever driving one.

(Image found on Google)  

The Return of the Bluth Family

If you’re fans of Arrested Development, this is probably old news to you. The show is coming back to television on May 26^th.

Well, I guess Netflix is considered television.  At least give me some credit that I know what Netflix is. I kind of know how it works, but then again I don’t. I don’t keep up on this new stuff, but please don’t feel bad for me or think I’m stupid. It’s my choice.

Arrested Development ran for three seasons on Fox from 2003 to 2006. The show developed a cult following which means it had a small audience which means that the network had to finally cancel it. I found out about the show through my son who put all three seasons on my computer.

I watched every show at least three or four times and laughed my ass off each time. Every time I watched an episode I had already seen, I found something I missed previously. The show is so quick and smart. 

Keep in mind, I was laughing at Arrested Development two or three years after the comedy went off the air.That’s how I am when it comes to good teevee shows. I’m usually a day late and a dollar short. I didn’t find out about Mad Men until the fourth season. Again, enter my son who let me know how good that show is.  

Netflix has produced 15 new episodes of Arrested Development. It may take me a while to get around to watching them (again, I’ve have to count on my son to help me), but I look forward to the return of the Bluth Family. From judging from the previews I’ve seen, the show is still funny and intelligent. You don’t find that very often on the tube these days.

I’ll be back on Thursday.

(Image from bite.com)

Just in Case You Care About Rush Limbaugh

Part of my job, or so I tell myself, is to pay attention to the news and to the media. Paying attention to the media, as sad as it may be, means paying attention to Rush Limbaugh.

Not that I do all that much. Sound bites of his show have been forced on me from time to time, but that’s about it. I have never once listened to an entire radio show of his—and I don’t ever plan to.

But Rush is in the news again. The Cumulus Radio Network isn’t too happy with him and neither are advertisers and it’s possible they may not want Rush and his award winning show back when his contract is up.

Just in case you care about Rush Limbaugh, The Huffington Post can fill you in on what’s going on. I personally don’t give a rats ass.

(Image from gifsoup.com)

Writers and Money

I found myself on that Walgreens bus bench again on Wednesday afternoon. I needed to get away from my desk, needed to get away from that massive freelance assignment I’ve been working on.

A friend walked by me – this time a true friend or at least I think so. He wanted to know what I was up to, so I told him about that freelance assignment.

“Must be nice to be doing what you like and living large,” he said. “Mr. Money Bags.”

He was in a hurry, so we didn’t talk long. That was fine by me.

Writers and money. Mr. Money Bags. Hardly. I don’t know one “rich” writer, don’t know one who releases books and doesn’t hope they sell well enough so they can relax a little and not have to hustle damn hard to get freelance assignments. If I said it was a dog eat dog world out there when it comes to making money on writing, I think I’d be right.

But I am doing what I like to do. On that point, my friend is write. You take the good with the bad. Hell, when it comes to making a buck, I think we all have to do that.

I’ll be back sometime over the weekend. Because of that freelance project, I’m not sure when.

(Photo from WordPress)

Dead, Not Dead

Screwing around on YouTube one afternoon last week, I came across this thing called “Country’s Family Reunion.” Apparently, it’s on the RFD-TV network and features a lot of old time Country Music acts.

These clips were right up my alley as a lot of these performers I knew during my music days when I was a kid (I’ve talked about this before—you all know my strange history). When watching those clips, I composed a list. It is as follows and not in any kind of order. . .

Larry Butler: Dead

Jan Howard: Not dead

Freddie Hart: Not dead

Bill Anderson: Not dead

Grandpa Jones: Dead

Leroy Van Dyke: Not dead

Little Jimmy Dickens: Not dead (gee, how old is this guy?)

Merle Kilgore: Dead

Charlie Pride: Not dead

Bobby Lord: Dead

Skeeter Davis: Dead

Charlie Lovin: Dead

Bill Carlisle: Dead

Johnny Paycheck: Dead

Jim Ed Brown: Not dead

Crystal Gayle: Not dead

Charlie McCoy: Not dead

While Charlie McCoy may not be dead, as you will see in the clip up above, he’s slowed down quite a bit. I’m winking here.

(YouTube video)

Nothing But the Best

CityBeat’s “Best of” issue came out on Wednesday. If you forgot to pick it up, good luck in finding it now. That issue doesn’t stay in those racks very long. Of course, you can always read it online.

Did you go to the “Best of” party on Wednesday night? It was held at Bertke Electric Warehouse in Northside. I didn’t go, but when I read about it, it got me thinking of the first CityBeat party I ever went to.

This was back in the spring of 2000. I was a fairly new employee at the time and the “Best of” issue had just come out. If you think it’s easy to put together a paper of that size every year, you’re wrong. It requires a lot of work.

Back then, CityBeat was at their old location at 7^th & Vine and the paper came out on Thursdays.  On that Thursday, back in 2000 and after the issue came out, we closed the office early.

All of us walked over to The Barrelhouse in Over-the-Rhine. Don’t go looking for that bar and restaurant now, because it’s no longer around, but they had great food and great beer.  The management at CityBeat threw a party there for their staff to celebrate getting the issue out and to thank them for working so hard.

Yep—that was my first “Best of” party back in 2000. My, how times have changed.

A few years after that, “Best of” parties became open to the public which was all well and good. They were still fun and they were still free. The free part changed on Wednesday night.

General admission, before March 22, was $25 per person. If you didn’t get your act together and just showed up at the door on Wednesday night, you had to add another ten bucks to that $25 to get in. When you add it all up, we’re not talking chump change here.

Look: I get it. This is about sales and marketing and moving forward and promoting that  “Best of” issue. It’s all necessary. I’m not faulting anyone. It’s me, not them.

As for the event on Wednesday night in Northside, I’m sure it was all worth it; sure you got a lot of bang for your buck—all that. I know some of the people who put those CityBeat parties together and they work hard to make sure everyone has a great time. I wish everyone involved with these parties and the one held on Wednesday night nothing but the best. Really. They know that.

But that kind of party and having to pay money to go to it just isn’t for me. Yes. Consider me a stick in the mud.

Barrelhouse in Over-the-Rhine is gone and so are those free “Best of” parties. It’s true I guess that nothing stays the same and I can accept that—but it doesn’t mean I can’t be a little bit sad about it too.

(Image from CityBeat)

What’s Really the Bad News in This Continued Ann Curry, Matt Lauer, “Today Show” Mess?

Ann Curry hasn’t been on “The Today Show” since June 28^th of last year. That’s when she said her emotional goodbye and was forced off the show. Being forced out was common knowledge then—still common knowledge now.

The fallout from this continues to make news. It’s being reported that Matt Lauer didn’t like Curry and wanted her off the show. That sort of makes Lauer a jerk. His bosses at NBC are also jerks. When Robin Roberts was going through her health problems over at ABC and “Good Morning America,” the executives at the peacock network didn’t want Curry to tweet her any well wishes. Pretty petty, don’t you think?

So, “The Today Show” is no longer #1 and viewers are hating Lauer. The noise continues. To be honest, I don’t care about any of this stuff. You know what’s really the bad news here?

When was the last time you saw Ann Curry do a report for NBC News? It’s been a long time since she’s done anything meaningful for the network and it’s all because of this “Today Show” mess.

Curry is a find journalist and the viewer is the one being punished because of the games being played at NBC. If that network can’t find anything for her to do, they should let her out of her contract, so she can go to another network and work. The news executives at NBC need to put on their big boy pants here. Come on. It’s beyond time.

(Image from mashable.com)

Goodbye Boston Phoenix

I hate it when any newspaper goes out of business, but when an alternative-newsweekly goes under, I feel especially bad. Hell, I write for one of these kinds of papers in Cincinnati—you know, CityBeat. We need different voices and different views and alternative papers provide that.

That’s not going to be the case in Boston. After 47 years, the Boston Phoenix is about to call it quits. In recent years, it’s been a bit of a sell-out alternative, but still it was alternative. That voice is going to be missed.

Camille Dodero has written an interesting piece about the Boston Phoenix and their excellent Senior Managing Editor until 2009, Clif Garbodex. You can find it at Gawker by clicking here.

Goodbye Boston Phoenix. 47 years is a good run I guess, but I wish it could have been longer.

(Photo from bostonherald.com)

Mika and Soda

I like Mika Brzezinski. I really do and agree with her on most issues. On this soda ban stuff? Not so much.

The soda ban in New York City has been blocked. If it hadn’t have been blocked, sugary drinks larger than 16 oz. would have been prohibited in restaurants, movie theaters—you get the idea. Mika, a very health-conscious person, wanted the ban. You can go to The Huffington Post and a video to witness her outrage over the ban being blocked.

It pains me to agree with Joe Scarborough on this, but I do. I don’t think the government has any kind of right to tell us what we can and can’t eat or drink. If people want to be stupid and not educate themselves on a proper diet, then let them be stupid and, in turn, kill themselves. Government doesn’t need to be policing everything.

I can’t imagine drinking a 16 oz. cup of anything let alone soda (in this part of the country, most call it “pop” but that’s a subject for a different day). If people want to do it and damage their health and piss every five minutes, you know, go for it. Enjoy your life. What you have left of it.

Sorry. Don’t mean to be preaching. Have some more Coke while I have another cigarette.

(Photo from patdollard.com)