Let me be clear that I’m a Worldwide Pants kinda guy. I’ve been watching David Letterman since his morning show in 1980 and I still watch — and love — Dave and Craig Ferguson. However, I’m also a huge Johnny Carson fan. Carson is one of the few entertainers whose death made me cry. And I respect The Tonight Show as a cross-generational American institution. Regardless, I’m a fan of fairness and rationality.
So I don’t give a flying fig newton what explanations Jay Leno and/or NBC executives give. If Jay @10PM isn’t working out, then Jay needs to find another legitimate gig on his own merit (or lack thereof). Fairness and rationality both dictate that The Tonight Show is not an option for him. He retired from there and handed the reigns to a worthy successor. His claim on that turf has — voluntarily — passed. No man of character, no matter how great or small — especially not even Carson himself — would consider muscling back in over the corpse of that successor.
Ref: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/18/kurt-greenbaum-man-loses_n_362406.html
This is neither a completely new interpretation of the concept nor a faithful re-make of the original. It’s somewhere in between and ends up being… nothing. So far, anyway.
There are many mistakes that stand out. The one that irritates me the most for some reason is that they explain why Six resigned. In the original, it ended up being quite key that we never knew, precisely because it was irrelevant. (And, of course, asking the question was the obsession of his captors.) The original stayed on target with the theme of a man who maintained his identity (and therefor his freedom) despite his circumstances. It didn’t cloud the issue with irrelevancies, most especially in the early episodes. Why can’t American TV writers resist the urge to tell the audience everything. Less is more, dammit. Besides, in this version just what the heck is it They want from Six?
The longer you live, the more stories you collect that help prove points (and that make for good entertainment at parties!). I have a bunch of ‘m (many — but not all — thanks to the Navy). Here’s one of my favorites. It may just be the ultimate tale of government inefficiency, and it is a guaranteed 100% true sea story! [Spoiler alert: Scroll down slowly, so you don't see each photo until necessary!]
This isn’t a spiritual quest article. I’m not talking about love or friendship or intangibles like a good reputation or a clear conscience. Nor am I talking about that other form of intangibles, financial “securities” (which many of us have recently learned can disappear into the ether as easily as love or a clear conscience). No, I’m just talking about physical, buy-and-sell-without-cosmic-implications kinds of “things”. Short of cars and houses (which I didn’t actually own anyway; several banks did), I’ve held title to one physical item so far in my life with a five digit market value. And since it’s now gone, I’m going to take a moment to document it; after all, it’s possible that in my next 43 years of life I’ll not own anything this cool again.
And now, my other MIA VIP: Elizabeth Anne Shirey-Mizobuchi, a.k.a. Beth. When we met in Gainesville, FL, in 1985, Beth was the accompanist for and best friend of my girlfriend at the time, Vanessa Kissel. [Vanessa isn't missing, tho. Hi, 'Nessa!] When I needed a roommate to help pay the rent, ‘Nessa suggested Beth and believe it or not, it worked out fantastically well. We became friends and re-connected now and then up until about twelve years ago. Since then, nadda.
I can’t help but join in whenever this issue comes up. From the comments at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXu9C6rdDYs:
theshaggyshow (3 weeks ago)
he said we are a democracy… he is wrong… we are a REPUBLIC…
Bartleby1701 (1 week ago)
Yes! Which is a FORM of DEMOCRACY pinhead! Read the rest of this entry »
I just posted the following comment to an sxephil episode on YouTube (NSFW), wherein Phil talks about the transition of a site called “Pirate Bay” to a legal, for-pay service… (see this). It reminded me of what happened to the original (real) Napster, which a decade later remains the best Internet app ever, by my reckoning!
Read the rest of this entry »
Well, guess I should have known better than to try calling this in March. ‘Cause here it is less than three months later and JetBlue has already — much to my surprise — been topped. The winner? The Toyota Prius “Harmony” commercial, embedded below. Some of the most amazing and artful visuals ever put to motion pictures! And perfect audio with the Petra Haden version of “Let Your Love Flow”. I Hope my neighbors the Bellamy Brothers got a good deal on the use of their song (they’re from just up the highway, Dade City, FL).
One way or another, I can find just about anyone on the Internet. It’s one of the things I love most about it — every relative, friend, neighbor, coworker, girlfriend, whoever, from any phase of my life, probably has some sort of Internet footprint that can be found. (Long-dead ancestors too, for that matter!) Usually, it’s as simple as a Google search. Sometimes it takes more work. But as long as the person is still alive, they can probably be located and contacted on the Internet.
Probably. But not always. There are a handful of people, a couple of them very important to me, that I’ve never been able to track down. Since I’ve tried almost everything else, I’m going to try posting here about my two main missing friends that I’ve a) lost contact with and b) cannot for the life of me find current info for online.
I wrote this up recently because someone asked, and I feel the need to share. Since I no longer work for Altiris or Symantec, and despite the risk of creating a karmic debt, I’m gonna go ahead and do something I don’t usually do — publicly speak ill (albeit factually) of someone in the industry. I figure the risk is low; it’s unlikely that John Dvorak will ever be the key to getting a job I want, and if he gives one of my products a poor review, that would likely only help sales. So here you go…
The “Mustang” is a drink I developed in the early nineties in Gainesville, Florida. It was inspired by the fantastic blend of Jack Daniels and Cherry Coke that my college roommate Beth had introduced me to in 1985. I wanted to perfect that, so took it just a little further. The name comes from my love of the Ford Mustang (I drove a black ‘90 GT convertible at the time the drink was conceived). “Southern” was added to the name later, to distinguish it from the unrelated Fiery Blue Mustang.
My ex-wife (Elizabeth) has a cat… a white Siamese named “John”. He’s meant to be an outside cat, but considering the wild animal population where they live now, letting him out there isn’t safe. He’s not doing well inside — poor guy has become neurotic and keeps looking at the wall, nervous all the time and peeing where he shouldn’t. I was planning to take him when I move into my own place up there, but since I’ll likely have an apartment, the situation won’t be much different.
Read the rest of this entry »
Oct ‘09: Per Google Analytics, this is the second-most read post on my blog.
This story is one of the first things I ever posted publicly on the Internet. Way back in maybe 1995 or ‘96 (maybe even ‘94, I dunno for sure), I tried one of those “Ten Gazillion Hours Free!” disks from AOL. C’mon, admit it — didn’t we all do it at least once back in those days? Well, the only thing I found on AOL that was remotely interesting to me was the Led Zeppelin discussion board. It was there that I posted this true story from 1989. It appears that the content of those boards has not been preserved anywhere online, so I’m going to tell the story again here.
Now this is hot:
Come on, Baby, bite my (Cat 5) wire!
