Oh, Sure, Now They Think About It

Fox president think fans of serialized dramas deserve closure

Speaking to critics at the TCA press tour, Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori mentioned that the proliferation of serialized dramas offered by the networks this year might start to wear on viewers, especially if many of them end up getting cancelled before fans see a satisfying ending to the show's story arc. He felt the networks and show producers should put together a plan to wrap such shows up if they get axed prematurely. "I think the audience deserves some closure," Liguori told the critics.

Fine. Great. Close up the open-ended series - see if I care.

I just wanna know why this wasn't considered before NBC axed Crime Story back in the day. Last we saw, Detective Mike Torello and mob boss Tony Luca were locked in mortal combat in an airplane that crashed into the ocean. That's it, end of season, end of series. Bah.

Self-Portrait Challenge 2

This is my second entry in the Self-Portrait Challenge: Me and the cat.


I was napping on the couch, and Skie crawled up and settled on my shoulder. Laura *BrainyBoy was sufficiently sneaky enough to take our picture. I was, however, awake enough to notice the sneakiness...



* - I was informed by said Brainyboy that it was him taking the picture, not Laura. I stand corrected at the threat of a tantrum.

Pretty Please?

Would you consider sponsoring me for Blogathon 2006?



I'll be on from 9pm-3am Saturday/Sunday January July 29/30. Come visit, comment, keep me company, keep me awake.

If you don't sponsor me, our new kitten will be so sad...


Don't disappoint the kitten.

Welcome, Skie

Meet our new 12-week-old kitten, Skie. He's part Siamese. Dig those blue eyes...

Must've Missed That One

Albertini, out of jail, says he was not drunk

Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Albertini says he was not drunk when he was arrested Thursday night on a public intoxication charge, but says he will ask the public whether they want him to drop out of the Aug. 3 primary.

To which the public will reply, "Do I know you?"

Blogathon 2006

Cathy, Doug, Jay and I will be participating in Blogathon 2006 this year in a group blog created especially for this occasion.

We will be blogging nonstop for 24 straight hours starting at 9am on July 29 to raise money for Farm Aid. Tune in between 9pm and 3am to catch my shift, although all of us will be dropping in at various times during the day.



Click on the button above or click here to contribute to our efforts and sponsor us. Also, please consider copying the button and link and adding it to your site.

Be sure to drop by at various times to Fresh Food, Fresh Blog on July 29th - comment often, heckle us, generally make our lives miserable. This time it's for a good cause!

Friday's Feast

Friday, July 21, 2006 - Feast One Hundred Three

Appetizer - Fill in the blanks: I ____________ when I _____________.
Who are you, Gene Rayburn? Ok, I procrastinate when I need to do something necessary, like improve the home, work out, spend time with my kids, talk with my wife....


Soup - Name something you use to make your home smell good.
Microwave popcorn


Salad - If you could receive a coupon in the mail for 50% off any product, what would you want it to be for?
A new TV for our living room. The old one is dying and everyone looks all pale and colorless. Oh wait, that's the mirror...


Main Course - Besides sleeping, what do you spend the majority of the hours of your typical day doing?
Sitting behind a computer. Seriously. 8 hours a day at work (more or less) and another 2 hours a day at home usually, after everyone's in bed. Plus 5-10 minutes here or there throughout the evening.


Dessert - What can you hear right now while answering these questions?
Various office chatter and keyboards clattering.

Celebrity News of the Day

Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson are getting married!

Oddsmakers are setting the over/under at about 20 minutes.

What IT's All About

James Lileks:

On the way back from morning class I was nearly killed by a driver who blew through a red light. Pissed me off for fifteen blocks. Like I can die when I have so much to do. Idiot: I just BOUGHT this car. Thinking of it now, though, it made me realize she [my daugheter] is my IT, and perhaps the reason I worry about the other nonessential IT projects is because I can get them done. I can see them through. Any IT I start tomorrow I could finish in a year, barring comet / intersection T-boning / Road-Warrior future (meep meep!). It’s all about that; it’s all about her future, and there’s not a damn thing we’ll do tomorrow she’ll remember. And kids wonder sometimes why you hug them so tightly.

6-yr-old Tink snuggled up against me last night on the couch as we watched Klingons on TV. It was time for bed. "Don't wanna go," she said, in her faux-2-yr-old voice. "Wanna stay with Daddy."

Daddy want you to stay with him too, sweetheart.

World's Fair 25 Button

Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the 1982 World's Fair

Justin Griffin, an I.T. worker at U.T, has a great guest editorial in Sunday's Knoxville News Sentinel about how Knoxville is dropping the ball in preserving the memory of the 1982 World's Fair.

In 1982, when the World's Fair came to town, I was only 10 years old and unfortunately too young to realize the importance of the event. To me, it was just a fun time that frequently resulted in aching legs.

Now, almost 25 years later, I see it as a shining point in Knoxville's history. However, since the World's Fair closed, it seems Knoxville began the process of forgetting rather quickly.

...

In my newfound enthusiasm, I have tried to rally some interest in recognizing the 25th anniversary of the World's Fair May 1, 1982, without much success. In fact, it seems most people I talk to around town would like to put this event out of their minds.

At first, I thought it had to do with the Jake Butcher scandal that happened after the fair ended, but now it seems to be something deeper.

...

I heard that, during discussions of what to do with the Sunsphere, the architectural hallmark of the World's Fair, it was stated that the heating and cooling bill for using the structure would be nearly prohibitively expensive. It has been years since anyone could travel to the observation deck of this unique structure, and the once well-used Tennessee Amphitheater, standing just beside it, is now kept inside a fence, slowly rotting.

...


If the Sunsphere joins the U.S. Pavilion and the amphitheater on the junk heap, it will be clear that the people of Knoxville stood up and with a singularly clear voice stated, "We don't care."

If that happens, it will be a truly sad day for children growing up in this city. As for me, I will lose a great deal of respect for my hometown.

Preach it, brother.

As evidenced in my list below, I have a very special place in my heart for the 1982 World's Fair. I was 15 years old and practically spent my whole summer there. To think Knoxville will just let this 25th annivesary pass by is deplorable.

While the park is nice and well maintained, some of the relics of the fair lie in ruins - the Tennessee Ampitheatre, which once played to celebrities such as Red Skelton, lies rotting. The US Pavilion fell under the wrecking ball long ago.

I was too young to even notice the financial scandals and other malfeasance going on around the Fair. Maybe all that still leaves a bad taste in peoples' mouths. Maybe there's still lingering political bad-feelings. Maybe it's just the good-old typical Knoxville apathy. I don't know.

But I do know the 1982 was the best thing to happen to Knoxville in the 20th Century, and it deserves to be commemorated.

I'd love to help Justin and lead/help lead a Knoxville are blogger community initiative to get things moving again on this. What do you say, Michael? Cathy/Doug? Tish? Teresa? Uncle? Randy? Dare I say, Glenn?

Let's prove East Tennessee Bloggers know how to get things done!

Also:

• Here's a News Sentinel poll about what to do with the Sunsphere (take some suggestions with a grain of salt)
  
  
• Mike Gibson at Metropulse discusses actual upcoming plans for the Sunsphere.

UPDATE: I've started a new site, Worlds Fair 25, as a starting place for garnering support, remembrances and other information about a 25th Anniversary celebration. If anybody would be interested in helping administrate it, let me know.

I also will begin working on a logo/button for supporters to put on their sites. Again, if anyone is interested in putting something together or has any suggestions let me know.

24 Things About Me

Logtar has issued a general challenge, so here it is: 24 Interesting Things About Me That You May Know Or May Not Know.

1. I once played the Tin Man in the 6th grade production of "The Wizard of Oz". I believe I still have the wooden axe we made.
2. I hate nuts and can't stand the smell or taste of peanut butter.
3. I was in the University of Tennessee Pride of the Southland Marching Band from 1984-1987 and played at the Superdome in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl where UT beat Miami 35-7. I was the tip of the beak of the eagle we made at halftime.
4. I came in second as "Most Talented" in high school behind a guy who dropped out between semesters. He also had been my best friend in elementary school and lived down the street from me, but got weird in Junior High and went punk.
5. I went to the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville about 49 times. My family had seasons passes, and a friend and I would take a bus from Ftn City to downtown every weekend during the summer and sometimes during the week.
6. I can only open one eye underwater.
7. I used to be an asst. manager at a movie theatre in Sevierville. Every evening while I was counting up the daily receipts, I would fill a big cardboard tub I kept in the office up with popcorn and eat the whole thing.
8. I have no problems flying whatsoever. From takeoff to touchdown I enjoy the trip. It's getting to the airport, checking luggage, finding ticket, going through security, finding the gate on time, changing planes, finding your luggage on the carrels and securing ground transportation that I loathe.
9. I can vibrate my eyes. It's quite unnerving, so I hear.
10. My college roommate and I (not this one, an earlier one) kept all our empty pizza delivery boxes stacked in the kitchen, just because. Once it got to be almost my height we threw them out and discovered the roach colony(s) living inside them.

11. My family visited relatives in Atlanta every summer when I was growing up, and we always went to Six Flags over Georgia. My favorite ride was the Okeefenokee Swamp, and my favorite attraction was the Sid & Marty Krofft Puppet Theatre. The first real rollercoasters I ever rode were there (Dahlonega Mine Train, the Mindbender and the Great American Scream Machine)
12. I can eat a whole bag of chips in one sitting.
13. I have every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation on video tape, beginning from when they first aired back in 1987. I also have almost every episode of Deep Space 9 and Voyager and the first season of Enterprise. I stopped taping them when DVD Season Boxed sets started appearing in stores.
14. I've never bungee jumped, nor do I ever intend to. I've also never hang-glided or parasailed, though I'd love to.
15. I've been in love with two women in my life. Someday I may talk about the first one, though there's not much to tell except she was already engaged. Oh, and I married the second one :) Thank goodness the first one didn't work out.
16. I bawled on my dad's shoulder in the few minutes after my son was born out of relief and joy. It's the first time I'd cried in front of my parents in 20 years.
17. My favorite vacation is a cruise to the Caribbean.
18. I would dearly love to be able to compose, record and perform my own original music, or perform one-man shows in public. This fellow's talent and ingenuity is amazing, and this guy's showmanship is also amazing. Why don't you just go for it, Barry, you ask? Good question.
19. One of my favorite things I do to annoy people is recite movie dialogue that I'm familiar with right along with the movie.
20. My "pointer" toes are longer than the other toes. This is a trait of Scotch-Irish heritage, so check your feet - do your second toes stick out past your big toes? Welcome to the family, lads and lassies! It didn't get passed on to my son, but my daughter's feet are like that.

21. I love the smell of hot buttered popcorn, barbecue cooking and fresh baked bread and bacon sizzling. Hm, all B's. What does that mean there, Barry?
22. I've never broken a bone or had a significant injury.
23. I have high blood pressure, but it's controlled nicely by medication.
24. I've never been drunk. I've been buzzed a couple of times. I've never smoked a cigarette or drank a beer. I hate tequila but like rum. My favorite alcoholic drink is a strawberry dacquiri. My favorite regular drink is sweetened iced tea.

Fun in the Sun

Vacation pics from Ft. Lauderdale

(Note: This first photo is now my initial entry into the Self-Portrait Challenge! Welcome to all those new readers...)



Tink, Brainboy v10.5 and me sitting on the edge of the pool at the condo, next to a cool waterfall/fountain thing. Presently the waterfall is going down the back of my trunks. Laura took all the photos, so she's not in the pictures..


At Wannado City, Tink's a fire fighter.


Also at Wannado City, Brainyboy's working in the Coca Cola Bottling Plant


On the Airboat in the Everglades. Note the earplugs to keep out the deafening noise of the propeller fans. For some reason I look very stern... My t-shirt says, "One Fine Scotsman - Measured, Weighed, and Found Fit"


A denizen of the swamp. The guide threw wadded up pieces of grass at him...


Space Shuttle and fireworks photos were taken with the print camera, so those'll come later...

No-Show Sheriff

I wanted to help make sure as many people in Knox County saw this story:

Hutchison fails to show up for debate (From WATE-TV6)

Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison did not show up Thursday night for a scheduled debate with his opponent in the race for county sheriff.

The debate between Hutchison and former Knoxville Mayor Randy Tyree was set to take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Halls Senior Center in north Knox County.

Instead, members of the media were informed that Sheriff Hutchison would not be attending. That came just moments before the debate was supposed to begin.

"He does apologize for not being able to be here this evening," said Hutchison's legal advisor Mike Ruble. "He had a conflict with a civic organization and he promised to do something for them a long time ago."

..

Sheriff's officials say Hutchison's civic meeting was taking place at Austin East High School. 6 News dispatched a news crew to the scene shortly after the debate began.

At 7:05 p.m., the only activity on school grounds was a football practice. There were no signs of the sheriff.

Keep note of that last statement. Apparently there was no "civic event" or Mr. Legal Guy would've specified it, or given details.

Remember that when voting for Sheriff.

"This the third time that we were supposed to appear together in a public forum. Now as far as I'm concerned, third time is a charm," said Tyree.

"I am certainly not surprised that the sheriff was not here," said Lori Lesslie, who came in hopes of hearing the sheriff speak.

"If he really wanted to be elected, I think he would be here to give the courtesy to at least talk with his constituents and tell them why he wants to be re-elected," said Beth Smith, another person in the audience.

Tyree told 6 News after the debate that he doesn't think a debate between with the sheriff will actually happen.

Again, remember that when voting for Sheriff.

For you out-of-towners, that's the way things work with politics in Knoxville and Knox County.

Interesting World War II Archive Photos Revealed

Some interesting photos of never-before-revealed Nazi and Allied weaponry have been uncovered recently, and I think everyone should see some of high-tech gadgets they had to deal with.


The German war machine was certainly prepared to march right over the enemy.



Interestingly, the pilot seemed to have been trying to land with his S-Foils in attack position.


Top photo via Airminded
Bottom photo via Hell In A Handbasket

Two More Things I Don't Quite Get (Part 2)

Here's the other movie I watched on HBO while on vacation, that I seriously don't get the seeming universal admiration of:

Napolean Dynamite

Ok, I get the humor in a clueless slacker trying to fit it. I get the oddball cast of characters. I even get the Montana/Utah/Morman-esque society where everything is a little behind the times and little more sanitized than the rest of the country.

It was mildly amusing, I laughed in a couple of spots.

But it was certainly no Ferris Bueller, and not even a Better Off Dead or One Crazy Summer (both Savage Steve Holland movies, who made some great quirky teen comedies in the 80's). I could sense it almost trying to be a SSH movie, but never quite making it over the hump.

For one thing, the leads in the previous movies (Matthew Broderick, John Cusack) were much stronger actors than Jon Heder, and their characters were much more likeable, believable and identifiable.

When your main character's a hopelessly lost kid who stands around mumbling all day, occasionally gets angry over mundane things, and can't muster an emotional reaction above the occasional grunt....um, sorry, not buying it.

Apparently this guy has become a slacker cult hero. If this is what people are identifying with as a hero these days... oh boy.

I'm sure I'll hear from Napolean-philes out there, telling me how wrong I am - it's ok, I can take it :)

Barnard Hughes Dies

Veteran actor Barnard Hughes dies

Veteran actor Barnard Hughes, star of stage, big screen and small screen, has died after a brief illness at age 91.

According to the Associated Press, Hughes passed away on Tuesday at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Hughes appeared in dozens of Broadway productions and also movies like Midnight Cowboy, Doc Hollywood, Sister Act 2 and The Lost Boys (as the seemingly clueless grandfather-turned-last-minute-rescuer).

He is perhaps best known to TV-viewing veterans as the star of such series as Doc, Mister Merlin and Blossom.

He also had a very memorable role in Tron, one of my favorite movies...

I always liked Mr. Hughes and enjoyed his performances. He seemed like he would be a nice guy to get to know and work with. I'm surprised they remembered he was Mr. Merlin, that was a great show way back when...

So long, Barnard.

End of Line.

Two More Things I Don't Quite Get (Part 1)

While on vacation I had the opportunity to persuse something I don't normally get a chance to see: Pay TV.

No, not that kind of Pay TV, I'm talking HBO. Our condo was equipped with HBO, so I was able to catch a couple movies here and there. I saw the last half of Titanic, which was nice because I hadn't seen the ship sink in a while...

Hm, that was kind of a bad thing to say.

Anyway, I also saw two other things I'd never seen, and I'm a bit puzzled by their popularity.

1) Deadwood - I've heard of this original HBO series about an old Wild West Town and its citizens, but never caught an episode. I know it's old news to anyone who's watched or even heard of this show, but the swearing was....well, it was beyond uncomfortable to the point I actually started to get used to it. When every other word out of the characters' mouths was f- this and f- that and shut your f-ing mouth or I'll beat the f-ing s- out of you...blah blah blah - by the end of the episode, I hardly noticed it.

Maybe that's a good thing? I don't know, but I doubt it. Is it authentic to the time and era? Maybe so, but we have 80+ years of cowboy movies and TV shows without swearing that tell me it's not a necessary convention of the Western.

I have a whole big long post about swearing just itching to get out (I'm sure Becky's looking forward to it) and maybe one day I'll write it.

Meanwhile, was the show any good? Well, not knowing the characters and situations it was a bit confusing because there were a lot of them. Characters and situations, that is, all running together. There was tension, and some comic bits, plus some nice interaction I might like to explore more of. But did it make me want to see another episode? Not really. And it doesn't matter now because we're home and don't subscribe to HBO. And I'm not planning on wasting a Netflix queue on it.

Puzzling HBO Show #2 will be in the next post, so y'all can comment on Deadwood in this one.

Is it a Law?

Supposedly there was a Knoxville city cop at a speed trap on Sutherland Ave. last night outside my church - the word from someone who went out and talked to him was that he had nabbed 16 people, and would ticket anyone pulling into the church parking lot too quickly. And that we need to install speed bumps at the entrance and exits.

My question is, is there a speed limit for entrance and exits to private parking lots? If the speed limit on Sutherland is 35 and you're caught doing 45 that's one thing. If you're doing 35 and pull into the parking lot at about 25 mph would that earn you a ticket? Where's the actual statute for parking lot speeding?

I blame the Charter.

Back Home

Back home from Ft. Lauderdale.

The following are the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from our vacation....

The Good:
1) The weather, overall, was much nicer than I anticipated. Highs in the upper 80's, with not a lot of humidity - well, at least not the kind of humidity that keeps you up at night here in Knoxville. The only bad spot was Friday when lightning storms rolled through and we had to scramble off the beach into the condo before we all became so much crispy bacon strips on the sand...

2) We were treated to a 6+ hour Fourth of July fireworks show, courtesy of the entire city of Ft. Lauderdale. I'll probably have photos to show later, but the balcony off our 8th floor, 3 bedroom condo wrapped all the way around from bedroom to living room to kitchen to other bedroom (the third being windowless). We were able to sit outside on the deck and watch fireworks go off all over town, from up to beach toward West Palm Beach to across the entire town, to down the beach toward Miami. The actual Ft. Lauderdale "official" fireworks were behind the condo, thus hidden from us, but we could see everything else.

It was a continuous 180-degree concert of light and sound, everywhere you looked there were fireworks going off somewhere, either nearby or in the distance. And it lasted from just before sundown to finally tapering off close to midnight. Even then you could see random bottle rockets and Roman Candles going off. Fantastic.

3) My brother got engaged! Congratulations, little guy :)

4) We got to take an airboat tour of the Everglades, and saw three alligators in the wild. Very, very cool. The boat just drifted up to the old gator and every once in a while the captain would throw a piece of wadded up vegitation at it, causing it to roll and thrash. Nicely thrilling. The boats were very loud, and we had to wear earplugs.

Which I later regretted throwing away while riding with kids back home to Knoxville...


5) I've found my new profession. I'm chucking website design and theatre, and I've decided to apply for the manager's job, or creative designer job, of one of these places. If they ever come to Knoxville or Pigeon Forge.

Wannado City in Ft. Lauderdale was amazing - just take a look at the website and browse at the geekiness of it all. If one of these had been around and nearby when I was a kid, you would've never gotten me out of it.

If they ever decide to franchise and open one in this area, I want to run it. I want to run the whole thing, from design, to HR, to corporate sponsorship opportunities to advertising. That's it, I'd retire a happy man.

6) No sunburn. For once. And a decent tan, to boot. Cool.


The Bad:
1) There we were - stationed at a park in Titusville, FL, right across the little bay from Cape Canaveral. We had a great viewing location, and could even see the Space Shuttle Discovery launching pad from our viewpoint. A number of menacing clouds had drifted about all afternoon, but about an hour before launch there was an official "no-go" unless weather conditions improved. They waited until only about T-10 minutes to launch to decide to scrub..

We were right there!!! *sigh*

Then we had over an hour of mega-post-UT-game-type traffic to get through in exiting the Cape area. I'm not kidding, it was bumper to bumper, stop and go getting out, so we finally started exploring by taking back roads around Titusville.

2) Didn't make it down to Key West like we'd hoped - the drive was just going to be too long, and bad weather was threatening the Keys. So our visit to the original Margaritaville didn't happen. Yeah, all together now, awwwwwwwwwwwww...

But buck up, little twooper... we did get to eat at one of these places in Ft. Lauderdale which is almost the same. So all was not lost.

3) Punked out in the Texas Hold-Em Tournament. Ah well. Good thing it wasn't for money...


The Ugly:
1) I love my fellow man as much or more than a lot of people, but there is only so much of that obnoxious New Jersey/Bronx/Brooklyn attitude and that !*@^%^! accent that a man can take. The two only complement and feed on each other. The more obnoxious the Yankee, the more screechy the accent. Oh, my, I love you all, but please go back home and leave the South to the Southerners...

2) In a similar vein, it becomes all too clear that when you are in America, your primary language around others should be English. And if you are a clerk and other clerks are around you and the customer (me), don't speak together in Spanish while I'm standing there. It's too much like the Seinfeld episode with the Korean manicurists talking in Korean about Elaine. It's just unnerving - don't do it.

3) Speaking of Korea....oh, never mind.