Category: tv

Huh?!?…Wha?!?…Oh! Hey there!

Don’t sneak up on me like that!

Yeah, so, it’s been a while. I guess my Twitter account is seeing more action than this place. I need to work on that.

Here is something that has been on my mind lately (among lots of other things). They’ve just added a new channel to DirecTV called Planet Green. Which is pretty cool and they have some good shows which appeal to my moderately handy, mostly granola self. But it mostly just pisses me off.

Seeing these architect/developer/real estate agent/independently wealthy couples either building green or fixing up old houses green kinda makes me a little mad. I’ve always felt that being environmental (and I do mean mental) is only possible if you have the money to do it. We do what we can here in east Nashville. We recycle pretty much everything, we compost (even though we don’t have a garden)(this compost heap looks like Marjory, the trash heap from Fraggle Rock but not as matronly), compact fluorescent bulbs throughout the house, buying produce from our friends’ farm in Springfield (if anyone wants info on buying from Natural Fields Farm let me know!), etcetera, etcetera, yadda, yadda, yadda. I agree that every little bit helps but I also believe that it’s the big stuff that will make big differences.

Big differences like solar panels, wind turbines, a brand new house…the list goes on of what we can’t afford as normal human beings. It just seems like these people on Planet Green are doing it because it’s cool and they get to be on TV. I think it’s cool but I also think it’s very important. Why aren’t these planet saving things more affordable? If they were more people would probably be able to obtain them which means more people doing the green thing. Wouldn’t that make the planet green?

Alright, I’ve ranted long enough. At the moment I’m helping do my part by not driving to work…which I have to do…right now…sigh.

Gravity’s Bringin’ Me Down

The Elder Extroverted Holy One, the Young Extroverted One and I watched ‘Dexter’s Laboratory‘ last night. In one episode Dexter was on Mars and the YEO noticed how far Dexter and DeeDee were flying through the air when they jumped.

YEO asks, “Why are they flying?”

EEHO answers, “Because there is less gravity on Mars.”

YEO, “What’s gravity?”

EEHO, “It’s what’s holding us onto the earth.”

YEO, “I don’t like gravity.” (Wherein I wanted to geek out and say, “But it’s the law.”)

Well said, YEO, well said. . .

Back in My Day . . . and We Liked it, too . . .

Grumpy Old Man

I’ve been waiting for this moment since having children. The Elder Extroverted Holy One and I had a “Back in our day” moment with the Young Extroverted One and the Neighbor Boy. I can’t remember what we were talking about before the event but I started talking about how when we were kids there weren’t any channels devoted strictly to cartoons. The only cartoons shown were on Saturdays, to which the YEO says, “That sounds boring!”

EEHO responds, “We weren’t bored we went outside to play or we read books.”

Yeah, we also walked up hill both ways through the snow to get to school. Fought off bears with our little slate chalkboards. Crouched in fear when the sky went black as night during an eclipse. We didn’t have TV, we sat on a hill and watched the sun ’till our retinas burned out. Or my favorite phrase of all time: I remember when that Wal-Mart wasn’t there.

My TV Girlfriends

As a parent, one watches a lot of children’s television. As the Young Extroverted One calls it, “Kid TV.” Through watching these shows one develops connections or revulsions with the hosts of certain shows.

Tahra of Tahra Time on NPT? I wanna punch her in the neck. And don’t get me started on Barney.

However, there are three hosts that hold a special place in my heart. And the fact that the YEO likes to watch these shows makes it easy for me to get my crush on. A quick note to the YEO and the Bobblehead: I love your mother very much. As Buffett says in ‘Little Miss Magic,’ “Your mother is the only other woman for me . . .” This is just a fun little crush and maybe a little unhealthy and creepy as well. Just relax and play along.

First up is a classic. The kids have never watched this show. Heck, I can’t even remember when it was on TV. xuxa15.jpg But, here is Xuxa.  I guess she was on around the late 80’s early 90’s. I don’t remember much about the show. I just remember her.

Next up is my buddy Jenn from Hi-5 fame. The show is actually kind of annoying. I’m not a big fan of bubbly people just bubbly beverages. But Jenn stood out among the cheese.

jenn.jpg

She has since grown up and is now a ‘big’ country star. Regardless of the genre, the crush remains. country-jenn.jpeg

Last but not least is the lovely Nina from the Good Night Show on Sprout. She is soft spoken, sweet and multilingual. nina.jpgMaybe she can teach my daughters some Spanish because us white folk love to have multilingual kids!

I Must Be Weak-minded

Yet again I have a brainworm. This time, however, it’s from the Young Extroverted One’s collection of fine tunes. The problem with brainworms and my poor memory is that all that plays over and over in my head is one verse. It wouldn’t be that bad if I could remember the whole thing.

Luckily, the music that the YEO chooses (read: we play for her) are mostly pretty good and this particular song is pretty fun. It’s from the Jack’s Big Music Show Soundtrack from the show that’s on Noggin and it’s the Dirty Sock Funtime Band. As with the majority of brainworms I must pass them on in the hopes of getting them out of my head.

Enjoy:  Music Everywhere

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Nashville Should Have Some Talent

We have the America’s Got Talent group in the hotel today and it is crazy packed with a line around the building and going west down Union. They’re here for two days and surely some sliver of talent will be found in Music City U.S.A.

I’m not a big fan of the show but I might have to watch to see how we fare as a talented city. For now, I will hide in my office and try not to come out.

I am Not Frightened by Some Ethereal, Supernatural Being

I have become a big fan of the show Ghost Hunters on the Sci-Fi Network. These two plumbers-by-day-ghost-hunters-by-night and their team are intriguing to me. I’m hooked on the possibility of maybe there being some footage of a glimpse of an apparition on video. I don’t know what it is about it but I’m addicted. My favorite episode is the St. Augustine Lighthouse. They all had some questionable personal experiences but seeing the footage and hearing the recordings has me a little convinced about otherworldly goings on.

Now they have a Ghost Hunters International show that airs on Wednesday nights. I thought it had some great potential especially with Europe’s history going a little farther back than ours. But I’ve been let down.  The two downers for me are Brian Harnois, whose most memorable quote is, “Did you see that?” and Barry Fitzgerald the drama queen of the show. And, yet, I still watch.  Now, I’m not saying I’d be spooked and see stuff or not want to continue a hunt but I wouldn’t do it in front of a camera to be shown on TV.

Lately, I’ve been checking out Paranormal State on A&E. I was slightly interested in the differences of their pseudo-scientific techniques between TAPS and PRS.  Other than being a little more dramatic it’s not too bad. But the Elder Extroverted Holy One and I were watching Paranormal State last night and they visited a woman and her husband who were experiencing hauntings in their condo that was once a schoolhouse. As Ryan was interviewing the woman I saw that she looked very familiar. All of a sudden it hit me! She’s on the GHI crew! What the heck?!? I’m not sure how one becomes a haunted victim to a haunted hunter but she’s done it. With tacky outfits to boot (ya gotta watch the show).

Other than having some spooky vibes at one point or another I’ve never really had a personal experience. That is until the EEHO and I were at our dear friend’s parents’ house in Black Mountain, NC. Their family is probably one of the oldest in the town. Sitting around their great room one night I smelled pipe smoke and then so did the EEHO and we both commented on it. My friend had said that they had a relative (I can’t remember which one) had long since passed but used to smoke a pipe. That was kind of neat . . . as long as it’s not in my house! I have enough problems dealing with the brown recluses!

Survivor Queen?!? HUH?

I had to revert back to looking through my moleskine to get some writing mojo. I just came across a little entry I wrote while I was up in Schaumburg, IL for some sales training.

It must have been my second night in my hotel room because I got to the hotel way too late on the first night and I just passed out. But, it was 11:00PM and I was channel surfing through the small amount of channels this hotel had and came across Oprah. I have no idea why Oprah was on at 11 o’clock at night. Maybe they have a 24-hour Oprah channel in the Chicago-land area? I really don’t remember why I stopped on this channel but Oprah gave a little tease of what was up next after the commercials.

She was talking about survival and what you would do in certain situations to survive. I thought to myself, “Self? This should be pretty cool.” Considering I like surviving in all situations and the guest is probably someone cool like Les Stroud. Do you know who it was? LEEZA GIBBONS?!?!? WTF? Did she recently become the ‘survival queen’ and I didn’t get the memo? Needless to say, I was too aghast to continue watching. So, I ended up watching something else as I fell asleep dreaming of being stuck on the roof of a high rise inferno as Leeza swooped down to save me. Good times. . .

“Aaaaah, if anything will get you up in the morning it’s chewing on some cold squirrel bones.”

My latest man crush (besides Alton Brown) is Les Stroud of ‘Surivorman’.  The premise of the show basically is that he goes out into the wilderness for 7 days and tries to survive off of the land.  With his history of film-making and survivor-ing his show is a great marriage between them both.  Sometimes he has these scenarios where all he has with him are his multi-tool and whatever else he came with. 

Les Stroud is the man.  He carries all his camera gear himself.  He sets up intricate shots where he’ll walk ahead set the camera and hit record, walk back to pick up the rest of his gear and then walk through the shot and then have to walk back to pick up the camera. Whew, that’s a lot of work considering he hardly eats anything.

I read “Into the Wild” again recently in preparation for seeing Sean Penn‘s film based on the book.  I would love to get in touch with Les to get his thoughts on Chris McCandless and his lack of surviving in the Alaskan wild.  Maybe I would even suggest an episode of ‘Survivorman’ where Les hangs out where McCandless did.  If there was a way to do it respectfully that would be a cool show.  I just think it would end up showing us that McCandless wasn’t too smart in the ways of surviving.  He was more into the romance of it.  You gotta use your brain out there, too.