And here's the aforementioned Devin. Note: that's not a wacky pose. He suffered some nerve damage and doesn't like to talk about it.  

Real Shock and Awe...

From reading this blog, most of you may have the idea that I'm a loner. You know, the kind of guy that everyone refers to as, 'The quiet sort, kept to himself mostly.'

That's after the authorities drag out three to four freezer units and begin excavating the back yard.

Well, to disprove that theory, I'll be introducing to you a few of my chums. Chances are they might even acknowledge the fact that they know me.

First off is Devin. In addition to his own amusing blog, he's also the boss of DallasBaseballHome, a site for those interested in the Great Game.

We met on the P1WAC, which you've heard mentioned countless times here. He challenged Big Anthony, a man of considerable size, to a Krispy Kreme eating contest, the results of which can be seen here.

He's a great guy and I'm privileged to know him.

I'll check back in with more soon.

Take Care,

Mike G.

GAH.

Well, never let it be said that the Bush Campaign fails to serve.

Rather than compose your own thoughts into a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, the Bushies [my pet name] have created a handy dandy form that plugs in phrases about the President's 'successful' policies in 7 different categories.

You know, I may just be a liberal who hates this country, but it seems to me that if things were actually as good as W. claims, we wouldn't need a website to remind us.

Thanks to Counterspin Central for the news.

For a look at the lighter side of politics, please visit The White House and W's own site.

Take Care,

Mike G.

A Look Back pt II...

I understand some of the base desires for a clip show. You get a full-length episode with all the primary actors, you get to showcase the best of the season and only have to weave a thin storyline to tie the clips together. Because let's face it, shows are expensive. The cast of Friends make ridonkulous amounts of cash, and apart from having them act on an empty stage [not a bad idea]...

But what really got me thinking about this was on the other night. There's a game show out there called Street Smarts, a version of The Tonight Show's JayWalking where contestants guess random people's answers to questions.

I've always read that game shows are fairly cheap to produce, so it was odd to see that they were airing a clip show.

All of this leads me back to my main question.

Who came up with this idea? Was it just to pad out the total episode count? After all, two clip shows equal about 2/3 of an original episode, and if you can pull it off, you only need 1 or 2 cast members.

Just wondering...

A look back...

This is a tease to a longer post later this evening...

During a particularly unproductive laundry session, I had a thought about one of my closest friends, the TV.

I want to know which executive, producer or writer had the brainstorm to wrap previous material around one or two new segments and create....

The Clip Show.

Be back later...

Mike G.

Eye-Opening...

Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy caffeine and the odd energy drink. Given that I don't smoke, take drugs, or drink alcohol, I figured I might as well do something.

My favorites include Bawls, Hansen's, AMP, Monster, and for a short while, Rockstar.

That is until I found out something unusual.

It seems that one of the founders of that particular drink is Russ Weiner. His dad, Michael Weiner helped him to develop it.

From a Salon review...

Savage's son, Russ Weiner, kicked off the show. With his spiky, dyed-orange hair and calculated scruffiness, he was reminiscent of Dr. Evil's son Scott from the Austin Powers movies. The resemblance was confirmed when Weiner proclaimed, "I'm proud to be the son of Savage!" The 30-something Weiner is the founder of RockStar, an energy drink that he developed with his dad, drawing on Savage's previous career as a Marin County herbalist and ethnobotanist named Michael Weiner. RockStar's herbal liver-cleansing formula is supposed to enable drinkers to "party like a rock star," which presumably means drinking and doping. Generous free samples had been passed out to the crowd on the way in. It lived up to its hype: The antifreeze-colored, cough-syrup-flavored beverage can only be enjoyed if you're taking drugs.

So what, you may ask. Well as it happens, Michael Weiner is the real name of 'famous' talk show host Michael Savage. You may have heard of him lately, issuing such bon mots as these:

Regarding the prisoner abuse photos at Abu Ghraib...

Instead of putting joysticks, I would have liked to have seen dynamite put in their orifices and they should be dropped from airplanes. How's that? You like that one? Go call somebody that you want to report me to, see if I care. They should put dynamite in their behinds and drop them from 35,000 feet, the whole pack of scum out of that jail.

A possible solution to the situation in Iraq....

The most -- I tell you right now -- the largest percentage of Americans would like to see a nuclear weapon dropped on a major Arab capital. They don't even care which one. They'd like an indiscriminate use of a nuclear weapon.

Thanks to Media Matters and Salon's Right Hook column for those quotes.

Bottom line, I'm afraid that anyone who makes statements like those might be drinking something that even I won't touch.

Feedback is welcome.

Take Care,

Mike G.

This is a pretentious picture of myself taking a picture of myself. If you can see this, then i have a brand new way to annoy the world. 

Ta-Da!

Say hello to Victoria Marie, the newest member of planet Earth.

Geez, I guess I should have cleaned up the place a bit before she got here.

Oh, Mom and child are doing fine.

Take Care,

Mike G.

Drumroll...

This is probably straying too far into the personal realm, but since I don't have anyone round here to share this with...

In approximately 10-12 hours, my niece will make her debut in this place called the world.

Technically, she won't be my niece, but her mother {my cousin} and I grew up together, so I'm Uncle Mike and that's that.

So keep a good thought for both mother and child, and I'll update when I know more.

Take Care,

Mike G.

The Pistachio Theory...

The following post deals primarily with wrestling. If this isn't your cup of tea, please come back in a day or two.

After washing all the cigarette smoke off of me, I have a few thoughts about the recently concluded Judgment Day PPV. For a more detailed recap/review, tune in Wed. Night to the P1WAC.

In my oh so humble opinion, a PPV has two primary functions. One, to serve as a payoff for a feud or storyline, Second, to start off new feuds or storylines. When people are shelling out 35-45 bucks, you owe them that much. When those functions aren't carried out, Enter the Pistachio.

Say you're enjoying some pistachios, and you unwittingly eat a bad one. It leaves such a bad taste in your mouth that it doesn't matter how many pistachios you had before; the whole experience is ruined.

The same rule applies to the PPV. A particularly bad match can ruin the whole show. Now it is true that a great match can bring a below average show out of the ditch, but we'll cover that another time.

The main event featured Eddie Guerrero vs. Bradshaw for the WWE Championship. For whatever reason, the WWE has decided to give Bradshaw a massive push, and it looked to culminate at the PPV. Instead, Eddie 'loses his cool' and gets disqualified, meaning he loses the match, but retains the title.

That is a bad Pistachio. Instead of wrapping up a storyline, we have to suffer through at least a few more weeks of this. I didn't even care who won or lost, as long as somebody won or lost cleanly. The PPV was even shaping up to be somewhat enjoyable until that final match.

Your thoughts are always appreciated.

Take Care,
Mike G.

Service Announcement...

Readers of this blog may notice a change in the surroundings.

Rest assured, the quality{?} of the postings will remain the same. Blogger {the purveyors of this service} has provided commenting tools, so I'll be trying them out for a while.

Of course, if this redesign doesn't pass muster with the legions of Churn fans out there, please let me know.

Take Care Folks,

Mike G.

somebody explain...

Now, I'm not going to editorialze this, but I would like it if someone could explain the difference.

This past Wed. two Portland DJs were suspended, and then fired for playing audio from the Nick Berg beheading tape. Here's quote from someone at the station:

"Our audience found and we found that this material was not a matter of pushing a boundary, this was living without boundaries and without conscience, and that's unacceptable," said Clark Ryan, of Entercom Radio.

Today, Sean Hannity played pretty much the exact same audio. Here's a quote from Mr. Hannity:

"I think people need to know what we're dealing with - it's evil right before your eyes," said Hannity, the Fox News Channel personality whose syndicated radio show is based at WABC (770 AM).

Maybe I'm not sophisticated enough, but it seems that both parties should be treated the same.

Take Care folks.
Mike G.

The One Where They Stopped Making New Ones....

No, I didn't watch the series finale of Friends. I admit that I was once a big fan, but I contend the show should have ended a few years ago.

But The Powers That Be did the right thing and ended the show with Ross and Rachel together.

Now what?

Well, NBC has seen fit to give us that old sitcom staple, the Spinoff. Will it be sucessful? Remember, the spinoff has levels of success ranging from Fraiser to The Tortellis. {Oddly enough both of which were birthed by Cheers}

Now if you weren't a big fan of the show, then maybe this might be more to your liking.

I'll be there for you,

Mike G.

Gah....

I won't pretend to know what it's like to serve in the armed forces.

I don't know what it feels like to be under the pressures that those soldiers overseas are.

BUT COME ON.

On top of all the other problems we're having in Iraq, do we really need this going on?

CBS, which was one of the first to break the story has more info here. It looks like the Washington Post is due to release more photos and claims of abuse soon.

And not to be a shill for the Left, Here's a link to some comments made by Rush Limbaugh on the subject.

A Meeting of the Minds....

A short time ago, I posted what I thought was a humorous little aside about the Left Behind books and an imaginary conversation between the authors and an agent at the publishers.

Someone apparently thought it wasn't so funny and posted a detailed comment explaining his displeasure with my writing.

Actually, he just called me a moron. So I called him on it.

And lo and behold, yesterday my detractor finally answered:

{Yes I called you moronic because I'm a god fearing man and to even joke about the fact that god would lose a battle to} {satan is just ignorant it's also insulting to christians just remember if you live like there is no god you better be right}
{I know where i'll go when my number is called}

Sir,

Thank you for reading. First, the Left Behind books are enormously popular, selling millions upon millions of copies. Second, it's no surprise that the final book in the series entails the very last days of existence. So I just thought that with no more books to write, that means no more books to sell. So I put forth the suggestion that maybe some people weren't too eager to see the series end, and a cliffhanger like the one I proposed would be a humdinger.

Take Care folks.

Mike G.

A Burning Bush and the Mouse That Roared....

I should warn you, the following may be a bit liberal for some readers.

So Michael Moore, author and film maker has a new movie, called Farenheit 911, which explores the links between President Bush and the Saudis.

Miramax, the same people who released the Kill Bill movies, was set to distribute the film in the U.S.

That is until Disney {Miramax's owners} decided to forbid them from doing so.

So the big fat hairy question is....why?

Depends on who you ask. Moore's agent claims that Michael Eisner told him that the film would anger Bush's brother, Jeb. Since Jeb is the governor of Florida, the film would jeopardize Disney's tax breaks in Florida.

Disney denies the claim, stating that the company simply doesn't want to be " dragged into a highly charged partisan political battle".

I won't say who's right or wrong here, but it seems to me that Disney just made a mistake. The more they try to hush this film up, the more people are going to want to see it. Wouldn't you rush to see a film that 'Disney didn't want you to see'?

In 24 news, boy is that Sherry Palmer a sneaky one. Unfortunately, I can't take Senator Keeler seriously because I keep looking for Mr. Floppy whenever he has a scene.

Take Care,

Mike G.

Sighhh.....

Welll, as you can tell by the melancholy tone of the boldface type, I'm not going to visit Mr. Hefner, or 'Hef' as I'm told he likes to be called. The cop I mentioned last post will have the honor, and I'm very happy for him.

Actually, I'm very bitter and indignant, but I'm also smart enough to know neither of those feelings will do me any good.

I do hope the guys have a good time, even though it would be better if I was there too.

Wow. That was sarcastic, insincere, and disengenuous. I was honestly only going for one.

I guess only a tall cold smoothie will drown my sorrows. That, and internet porn. Which varies little from every other Friday Night. Boy am I glad noone reads this.

Take Care,

Mike G.