Guilt

Television notes from the land of perpetual rainfall—Castle Rock, Washington The way things are going in this country, I'm pretty happy that I gave up on cable TV when I did. Not that I don't watch stuff on TV, I just don't see much of what passes for video entertainment on any of the major networks. I watch stuff that comes into my living room via my television set, but…….I bet you get my meaning. Here's what made me think of all this: ABC is releasing a new series entitled “Uncle Buck”. You remember Uncle Buck, right? John Candy…..Mccaulay Culkin. Lotsa laughs and a real humorous movie. Never could be a series no matter what. But that's not quite enough, you see. It's an ALL BLACK Uncle Buck. Gonna be just as popular as the all black Honeymooners, I betcha. Maybe as good as the All Girl Ghost Busters. No question about it though, the networks need to take some more stuff and Turn It On It's Head!!!!! The Half-Nelsons. ...

Yeah, yeah, yeah……….And not in the Beatles manner. I know that it's June and all, but it's windy and cold and rainy here. The grand and green Pacific northwest. Everybody loves it here what with Portland and Seattle and Starbucks and Costco and grunge and all the rest of the crap up here. My take is this: It rains a lot. Movie notes from the land of perpetual rainfall—Castle Rock, Washington. I'm not working for a few days, and, like I already said, apparently it's still winter. Winter isn't severe like it was in Ohio, but it's glum and there's a bite in the air. Looking at the offerings on Amazon Prime, I settled in on a Denis Leary movie entitled Double Whammy, an hour and a half feature from 2001 that was one of those “direct to DVD” offerings. I wasn't expecting much. It was better than expected. By a wide margin. The story is disjointed and jerky revolving around a troubled New York City Police Detective (Leary) while he tri...

I bought a new television. It's a 48” TCL Roku TV. Just in case you're wondering, the “TCL” is for “The Creative Life”. What the “creative” life has to do with watching TV is anybody's guess, but the TV is just dandy by my standards. It's a wide screen LED HD gizmo with a built-in Roku box. And, I got it on the cheap from Amazon. I hooked up some speakers and a sub-woofer to fix that tinny sound of the built-in speakers, and there you have it. I know what you're thinking, and you're right………. Television Notes from the land of perpetual rainfall—Castle Rock, Washington I've said this before, and I'll say it again: 1) I'm not a critic, I'm a fan, and 2) I like the short-run TV series. A really long time ago (when I lived in Ohio), I tripped across a TV marathon of all the existing episodes of what was then a first-run TV show titled “The Good Guys”. There was no one in the house other than me and the dog. We caught most of ...

Only a reminder that there are a few fun, interesting, and often overlooked web sites out there. If you're interested. James Lileks is one of my favorite guys. Smart and funny. http://www.lileks.com / Wanna know what yahoo.com looked like 10 years ago? https://archive.org/web/ I laughed 'til I cried at The Rink Works. http://www.rinkworks.com/ Geeky stuff, fun stuff, tips and tricks. http://www.refdesk.com/ Joe Bob Briggs. Explanations are completely unnecessary. http://www.joebobbriggs.com/ Every time I have a date, there's only one place to go. http://www.driveintheater.com/ Real maple syrup from Ohio. If it's not from the Stan Hess farm in Ashland, Ohio, I'm not eatin' the waffle. http://ohiosyrup.com/

Any time I stop to think about it, I get surprised at how I have become accustomed to a 48 inch HD Wide Screen TV as an expected thing.  I shouldn’t be quite so cavalier about it.  Really.  This is truly amazing technology.  Not only am I watching a baseball game in high definition wide screen splendor, I’m watching the home broadcast of the San Francisco Giants in Castle Rock, Washington.  Not only that, I’m doing it without an antenna nor even a cable connection.  The whole thing is beamed to my tiny ROKU box via a wireless connection fed by Comcast cable through something called a “router” sending the signal silently, and ultimately, to the aforementioned High Definition Wide Screen 48-inch television. In other words…..Magic.  Amazing technology.  After the game, I’m going to watch a B&W Film Noir from 1947 utilizing the same technology.  That’s even more amazing.  I’ll still be in front of the same TV, using the same WIFI ho...

Tony Gwynn was a great guy, a REALLY great baseball player, and a gift generally to San Diego and baseball.  He never made excuses, and always carried his own water. Now I read that his family has lawyered up and is suing the tobacco industry for wrongful death due to Tony’s addiction to snuff.  I simply cannot believe that Tony Gwynn would be OK with his widow and children suing someone over his choices.  I just don’t believe it.  I just don’t believe it. If Tony had blamed the tobacco industry and wanted to sue them, he would have sued them himself.  It’s just the sort of guy he was.  A Stand-Up guy. In other, totally unrelated baseball thoughts, I was wondering……….Well, I’m an “out-of-market” baseball guy, therefore I watch baseball on my High Definition 48” TCL ROKU TV (I’m not shouting here, it’s just that all that stuff is just initials except for ROKU, which I thought ought to be in all caps because it’s so cool)……….Anyhow, I s...

I was taking a long detailed look at the S.F. Giant's baseball schedule, and noticed that most of the dates have some “special” thing going on—Lots of “heritage” games. In case you're wondering, that's something on the order of Chinese Heritage Night (with a special hat or bobblehead or something as a give-away) or Korean Heritage night, with much the same sort of thing going on in addition to the mandatory baseball contest between my beloved Giants and some lesser baseball club. I have no grief with the Chinese, or the Japanese, or pretty much any other “ese” or ethnic group or religion, unless the group preaches “Death to America” as a substantial part of their credo. I guess that's why there's no Iranian Heritage night. Looking further, there's all sorts of “special” nights and days—Metallica, Marvel Superheroes, University of California (Berkeley), Autism, LGBT, Jewish…..The list goes on, culminating (at least for me) with Peanut Allergy Day. Pean...