Around the age of 17, I got to know who Bruce Campbell[wiki] was. Prior to Evil Dead 2[imdb], I never gave a second thought to horror movies. Then, I understood what brilliance really was, not to mention how much the human face could really contort. Even in the spirit of the Super Bowl, in which this has been airing prior to, I could care less if this is a commercial. Bruce Campbell is just one of those guys, and I’m a big fan.
Prince brings it at the Super Bowl
Matt was quicker to the draw, but I am in complete agreement. Prince‘s performance in the Super Bowl halftime was spectacular, probably one of the best in my memory. U2’s show in 2002 was pretty excellent, but this one was on a much different level.
I had a buddy I went to high school with that was a huge Prince[wiki] fan. When the clock hit midnight for the start of 1999, he put “Jam of the Year” on the stereo when all the rest of the world hellaciously over played “1999”. After years of being witness to my sister’s love affair with the guy’s music, it was at that point when I started to see the genius of the man.
The halftime show made everything I’ve thought about Prince even more evident. Wicked on the guitar, amazing vocals, and one hell of a showman. Pyrotechnics? Ok, that was cool. What I loved more was having a marching band on the field in addition to him on the stage. Other than that, it was a huge stage, a backing band, couple dancers, and Prince at the mic. He rocked it. And who knew that a Foo Fighters cover could be so damn good?
Thanks, Prince. You made it not painful to watch the halftime show of the Super Bowl.
Already available on YouTube, here is one video of the performance, and here is another.
Get more of Coach’s Corner
I’m going to completely admit it. Before I moved to Vancouver, I had no knowledge of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada other than its existence. I also had no clue, as a loving hockey fan, how good their coverage is. Of course, I lived my whole life in the U.S. This is Canada. There’s your difference.
To my dear friends who also love hockey and don’t get the coverage that you should, especially in the states, take this information that comes off of Inside the CBC. If you’re not checking out the Don Cherry[wiki], then you’re not getting all the hockey you could be.
CBC.ca will launch a special online version of Coach’s Corner tomorrow with new content, design and features. Enhancements include an improved and larger video picture and an online forum allowing hockey fans to submit their remarks regarding Don’s, uh, “legendary” weekly commentary.
Episodes from the 2006/07 season are available online, and in the coming weeks, a full-screen viewing option and a revamped archive consisting of some of the most memorable Coach’s Corner moments from the past will also be available exclusively on CBC.ca/coach. [insidethecbc]
I was chatting with my buddy, Sushi, back in Iowa about the coverage he gets back there. Even with digital cable, mostly likely the basic package, he hardly gets any hockey on TV. Comcast SportsNet shows Blackhawks games from time to time, and combined with the weekly games on NBC, that’s about it. His cable package doesn’t include OLN (who the NHL has the explicit contract with for broadcasts in the states), and there isn’t an extra package he can buy for the NHL Network, NHL Center Ice, Versus, or an “Ice Pack”.
How’s that for someone living within a four hour drive to Chicago, five hours to Minneapolis, and five hours to St. Louis?
If anyone is complaining about the lack of success that the NHL is experiencing in the U.S., then there’s your reason. Hockey fans can’t get what they want, and there is very little for new fans to get exposed to. If it wasn’t for the NHL on ESPN[wiki] while I was in high school, I don’t think I would have ever come to love the sport. And yes, that was before Fox ever did the glowing puck thing[wiki].
Additional Note
I was just checking out the Coach’s Corner site and had a thought, so let’s see if anyone at the CBC is paying attention to me(which I highly doubt).
Why not publish all this video content to YouTube? Or do Google Video or whatever. The point is, make it so that anyone can embed the video on their website or blog. On top of that, and to sweeten the deal for you guys, tack on a five second ad for CBC programming at the very beginning. Nothing too flashy, but a quick voice over and a slide for a CBC program.
This way, we can share Coach’s Corner with the world, and you CBC folks get to promote your stuff. TV, radio, podcasts, or whatever. Have at it, but just make it simple and to the point. Go beyond five or ten seconds, and I am fast forwarding to the good stuff.
Why there’s not more Canucks in HD
Listening to the Canucks This Week podcast from this past Monday, there was something that was asked to Dan Murphy that caught my ear.
Why are there not more Canucks games in high-definition, more so why Sportsnet doesn’t show any at all?
Answer: there is only one HD Sportsnet channel for all of Canada, but this doesn’t play well with the fact that all Canucks games on Sportsnet are regional broadcasts. NHL rules prohibit regional games from being aired nationally, and Sportsnet does not have the technical capability to blackout specific regions on their HD channel.
The network is in the process of moving into new facilities next year, which, according to Murphy, will include four, different HD control rooms that will enable them to show more games on Sportsnet in high-def. More than likely, all the network flavors will be getting the HD upgrade when that facility comes online.
Murphy did say “next year”, so I’m unsure if that implies 2008 or next season. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Keeping my fingers crossed, this might also see the Canucks pay per view go into HD. I wouldn’t bank on it, but a guy can hope, right?
Max Headroom: TV pirate
A story that I caught over on BoingBoing has me fascinated. The basic low down is that one night in November of 1987, a couple of TV stations in the Chicago area were hijacked of their signals. This means that someone had the right knowledge and equipment to pull off this amazing stunt. For a brief period of time, people were treated to a guy in a Max Headroom[wiki] mask with a moving background and garbled audio.
You can see the event transpire on WTTW[wiki] as it actually aired during an episode of Doctor Who[wiki] via this YouTube link. I know that if I would have caught this in 1987, when I was nine, I would have been creeped out. Below is a CBS news report detailing the event[wiki].
The fine for a prank like this from the FCC isn’t cheap, and the “masked man” was never found. Getting onto WGN[wiki] is what really blows my mind. Even though that attempt didn’t last very long, you’d have to be close by to get it to work. However, you think someone would notice a bunch of people hauling large pieces of broadcasting equipment around. Also, you can see in both of these video examples that there was at least another person who helped pull this off. Curious that after nearly twenty years, the secret has remained safe.
The BoingBoing post goes on to point to other links that further the background of this story, and I’ll post them here as well because they are nothing short of incredible pieces of underground history. Damn Interesting has an article about the event itself, especially a closer look at the audio from the signal hijack of WTTW. Signaltonoise offers further background on the incident involving Captain Midnight’s hijacking of HBO in the year prior[wiki], which the CBS report mentions above.
I instantly sent this to my former chief engineer at WSUI because he eats up this stuff just like I do. Jim has some experience dealing with the realm of TV as well as radio, and we both worked in tandem with a bunch of TV guys. Of course, he still does.
“This would be much tougher now a days. With the digital links in place the pirate would have to shell out bigger dollars for the digital modulator. Sometimes hackers do find a way to edge into this stuff on the cheap. I kind of remember the hubbub of the day.”
– Jim
As much as TV is changing to a more IP delivered system, you know that this will inspire someone to try something just as daunting. They go to great lengths to keep those systems closed, but nothing is ever secure enough to someone who really wants to stir something up. Just look at what happened during an airing of a press conference with Dick Cheney on CNN in November of 2005. A producer exercised their feelings about him by slapping a big “X” graphic on his face during the live feed, and CNN dropped the producer when it was discovered to not be an accident or technical error.
The human will is a marvelous thing, and this is the most incredible element in all of this. Fines and security won’t stop someone who really wants to stir things up. I would bet that this got a lot harder to do, especially after 1987.
With warming there is dimming
I discovered something new last night on the Knowledge Network when it comes to the issues of climate change and global warming. Global dimming[wiki] is a fascinating phenomena that doesn’t get as much press as the previously mentioned topics do. It’s a friend and foe all at the same time.
This is the best, basic explanation that I could find.
Fossil fuel use, as well as producing greenhouse gases, creates other by-products. These by-products are also pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide, soot, and ash. These pollutants however, also change the properties of clouds.
Clouds are formed when water droplets are seeded by air-borne particles, such as pollen. Polluted air results in clouds with larger number of droplets than unpolluted clouds. This then makes those clouds more reflexsive. More of the sun’s heat and energy is therefore reflected back into space.
This reduction of heat reaching the earth is known as Global Dimming. [globalissues]
So of course, the more sunlight you reflect into space, the cooler the temps are on the surface. The way the program put it, there needs to be a delicate process of reducing these particles because a sharp decline of air pollution will accelerate an increase of temperatures on the surface of the Earth. And with this being a recent discovery among climatologists, it’s making a lot of current models regarding the future trends of global warming to be reevaluated.
I try to keep a very open mind when I hear about these things, but the data is really hard to argue with. The simple matter is that things need to change for the better, and this needs to happen soon rather than later. Even if nothing will happen for another 10 years or 50 years, everything that is done now can make things better for the next 500 years. We cannot, as a global community, keep pumping junk into the atmosphere.
Oh, and by the way, they are discovering new islands around Greenland at an amazing rate. Not from volcanoes, but because the shorelines are melting away.
I wanna be a NBC page
Well, not really, but Kenneth from 30 Rock[imdb] is what really keeps me coming back to this show. For those not in the loop with the series, he’s the southern kid who is consistently looking on the bright side of life with blissful ignorance to anything negative from the world around him. Truly a hero among men.
I realize that I am posting this after ripping on the flagship that birthed this show(SNL), and it is that reason alone that I first thought that the series was doomed to fail. I have to say that my assumption was a tad off. In fact, I didn’t see this one coming. Alec Baldwin is what Phil Hartman was to NewsRadio[imdb], and I might even add in a twist of Stephen Roots’ character of Jimmy James.
It’s weird, random, and completely what is needed in this post-sitcom-wasteland of live studio audiences, laugh tracks, and three camera sets. You can’t call it perfect, but it’s damn nice to have surprise gems like this pop up on the major networks.
Liz Lemon: Where’s Gary?
Jack: [Kicks down door and enters room] Gary’s dead. I’m Jack Donaghy. New VP of development for NBC/GE/Universal/Kmart.
Pete: Oh, we own Kmart now?
Jack: No. So why are you dressed like we do? [imdb]
I can’t stand Amy Poehler on SNL
You know how it is where you have that one person that pops up in your life and they have that ability to send that feeling of nails on a chalkboard down your spine? That’s what Amy Poehler[wiki] does to me. Sure, as a person who isn’t trying so desperately on camera to get you to laugh while on camera, I bet you that she’s a really nice person. On the set of SNL, she doesn’t work for me.
Every time she pops up on a SNL sketch, which seems to be every single one, I’m already not liking what I’m seeing. I really, really try to keep an open mind and give her, or whatever she is in, a chance, but it always ends up being the same. It’s Amy Poehler, no matter who it is that she is trying to mimic. It’s the same thing that happened with Cheri Oteri and Jimmy Fallon. They could have been funny, it should have been funny, but they weren’t. At least not to me.
I think where it really gets me is the Weekend Update. There was a time where it was done with the premise of being a real news show but with total satire on recent events in pop culture. It had a sense of dead pan that made the jokes all the more hilarious. I would even go as far to say that things just seemed to have been written better. In fact, it was just better. Better to the point where I had trouble breathing because I was laughing so hard.
When you see Amy Poehler do the news on SNL, it’s like listening to a bad knock-knock joke. That other guy is guilty of it as well, but Poehler is worse by far. Smug face, a look-at-me-I’m-funny look, the setup, punch line, and even a badda bing follow-up where she rehashes the punchline to squeeze out those few extra chuckles from the live studio audience. Painful. And even more so, she’s not much different in any of the other sketches that she pops up in. She’s all the same to me, and it’s just not that entertaining.
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Yeah, the title is enough to make me not want to keep watching it, but I can say that I’ve watched the first episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie. I’m not taken by it, but it is just the first episode of the series.
Once we can get past all the terrorist jokes, people in the town claiming that all these people are terrorists, and something else about stereotyping Muslims being linked to terrorism, this show might be good. It’s too early to tell.
To tell you the truth, I felt like I was watching something on PBS back in the states. It’s like a Canadian version of a British sitcom, if that makes any sense. Blatant humor with elements of being subtle, but not as hugely funny as I find many British sitcoms.
Like I said, at least I can say I saw it. The U.S. media seems to be up in arms over it more than the Canadian side, but maybe that’s just the effect that living in Vancouver has done to me. There’s so much diversity here that it just seems commonplace to me anymore.
Don’t know if I’ll make too much more of an effort to pay attention to Little Mosque on the Prairie from here on out.
Somebody leaked it onto the subnet
I’m not sure how it’s happened, but the first four episodes to season six of 24 have been released into Internet-land. Yes, that is the upcoming season that has yet to officially premiere. I leave that up to you to track down where and how, but it is some pretty good television, not to mention the really great quality you can find it in.
Trust me, I’ve been scanning the headlines over the past few days to hear of Hollywood crying foul over it, but there hasn’t been anything. Clever marketing technique or rogue pirates on the loose? You decide.