Well, gang, with the Super Bowl tomorrow, the ad world is abuzz with the upcoming vignettes of consumerism. And, my treatise on insurance ads is still only half done. The first part is here. Let’s get to the rest of them that confuse/annoy me.
Years ago, in a much simpler time, the world was rocked by a conflict pitting two forces against one another in a no-holds-barred fight to the death. Everyone chose sides, pitting brother against brother in a struggle that redefined how we looked at our society – and ourselves. I’m speaking, of course, of the Cola Wars.
This morning, I was able to catch last night’s SNL on the DVR. Host was Tina Fey with musical guest Justin Bieber. Besides a stellar effort by Fey in all phases of the performance – another dead-on Sarah Palin impression and a very memorable brownie commercial – this show was notable for all the Justin Bieber-ness that it put forth. Seriously, a kid hasn’t gotten this much SNL airtime since a pre-druggie Drew Barrymore hosted in the 80s.
As someone who gets a kick watching the media overreact to, well, anything, the last few weeks have been treeeee-mendous. I mean, the death of Michael Jackson was a tragedy to his friends and family. It was a kick in the gut for his biggest fans. For the other 95% of us, who were consuming all this coverage, what was our stake in the game? Read more…
I’ve blogged before about the rare Internet gift that is Hulu (here, here and here). It is a great time-killer, especially if you’re in one of those “I have a rare 30 minutes to watch TV, but everything on TV sucks” moods. My favorite Hulu spot is the Saturday Night Live section, especially because it has a good selection of archival clips from past shows. Read more…
(Editor’s note: Yeah, I know… I ended the title with a preposition. So what… you wanna fight about it?)
The annual hoopla about American Idol – and my friends’ near-universal ranting and raving about who won and who didn’t – has gotten me on my annual rant. That’s right! My regularly-scheduled grumpy column. I’ve taken a pretty wicked swipe at AI before. Got a lot of hate comments after that one (some I couldn’t post).
You know what’s fun? Catching a virus that strikes on Christmas night, your first day off in a week-and-a-half break. So, you spend the time between x-mas and New Year’s feeling a ratty, only to have the fever break but keep a recurring cough (the kind that makes is sound like you’ve been smoking for 30 years). Just good, good fun. Read more…
Earlier this year, I did a top 10 list of Saturday Night Live clips on Hulu that are often lost in the shuffle – but shouldn’t be (see here and here). Then today, I realized that my boy B-Dizzle (the technical brains behind this Web 1.1 marvel you’re reading right now) did me a great service with the latest WordPress upgrade. I can now embed video into this blog – something that, unbelievably, never worked before. So, I went throught the list again and found a few more (they seem to be adding more gradually). Read more…
Sorry for the delay in posting anything. I’ve been pretty wiped out most evenings, finding myself more content to just watch TV or read than to come up with anything creative. Tonight, though, as I watch the epic UNC-Chaminade game, I figured I had time to post some random thoughts. Enjoy…
As the last few presidential elections have shown, Americans are easy to break down into groups. Especially at election time. From soccer moms in 2000 to NASCAR dads in 2004, we’re all just caricatures. This year, the gross oversimplifications are coming fast and furious. Joe Sixpack. Joe the Plumber. Pro-Americans. There are probably more… I just can’t keep track. Read more…
