Showtime Addiction

Showtime got me. Last night was the last night of Big Brother AfterDark. Tonight, former houseguests pick the winner, either Dick or Daniele. One of those two will take home $500,000. The last couple of BBAD’s have been the Donatos ranking on the former houseguests. It’s even a little funny. So we’ll find out who the big winner is later this evening.

While I watched BBAD, Showtime promoted two of their series like crazy. “Weeds” and “Californication” are on every Monday night. I prefer “Weeds” because of its humor and unpredictability. “Weeds”stars Mary Louise Parker as a suburban mother who finds herself dealing drugs.

“Californication” is titillating and entertaining. David Duchovny plays a man who’s obsessed with the mother of his child. She’s moved on but he hasn’t. Madeline Zima plays the underage daughter of Duchovny’s former girlfriend’s current boyfriend. She’s not the same girl you remember as Grace Sheffield on “The Nanny”.
I may have to go back and get the first few seasons of “Weeds” on DVD. It’s a great show.
Weeds

Ain’t Photoshop Grand?

I just thought it would be fun to do a little photoshopping on the Boddington’s logo. Maybe I’ll change “taawd’s thoughts” to “toddingtons’ thoughts”. Okay, maybe not, but it was a thought. Enjoy your week! I know I will it is my birthweek. Gifts eagerly accepted.

McDemolition

I don’t know why this bothers me but it does. McDonald’s has a practice of demolishing their restaurants, hauling away the debris and then rebuilding. They did just that in Westlake near Crocker Park. They are in the process of doing it near East 30th & Carnegie.

To me, it just seems to illustrate how we’ve become a disposable society. Nothing seems made for the long haul anymore. Instead, you buy something knowing it has a shelf life. Think back to our grandparents, they bought something knowing they’d probably pass it down to their family. I have three watches sitting in my closet that all need batteries but I’m not going to throw them away. I’ve even replaced the bands on them. Things are so cheap and made that way it’s easier to buy them, use them and toss them. Where is all of this stuff going?

Couldn’t McDonald’s just remodel these restaurants? Is it that much cheaper to bulldoze the building and raise up another? How did these buildings get in such a state of disrepair anyhow? Just a thought. By the way, the McDonald’s near East 30th & Carnegie promises to be open in December.

I couldn’t mention McDonald’s however without talking about their breakfasts. I crave them almost daily but I have to stay strong and avoid them. Besides knowing the grease is ready to clog my aging arteries, I know the fat is ready to cling to my body and undo any good workout that I do. Still, I have to succumb every now and then with a trip to the golden arches. Er, I’m hungry and I think McDonald’s is open… I’ll be right back… I’m lovin’ it!

TV Times They Are A-Changing

I’ve been in the television news business going on 14 years. It’s hard to believe that because it seemed like just yesterday as a college graduate I pestered the Human Resources Coordinator at WKYC for a part-time job on the news assignment desk at the old building at 1403 East Sixth Street in Cleveland. It was one of Bob Tayek’s last duties as Managing Editor to hire two desk assistants. Pat Kilkenney and I got the nod to fill the positions at “the desk”.

We didn’t have computers with Windows. We did have BASYS, a newsroom computing system that NBC bought for all of its “O & O’s” (owned and operated stations) back in the 1990’s. You had your choice of colors for monitors, blue on black or amber on black. There were no flashy graphics, just text. Don’t worry about a mouse, there wasn’t one. No Internet at all. If you wanted a fact, you had to look it up in the “factsheets” section of the computer or call someone on the phone. Yes, I’m talking about just 14 years ago.

We talked via a two-way radio for basic communication with the reporters and crews in the field. We were lucky to have an encrypted signal so our competition couldn’t listen to what we were saying or where crews were going. Forget about cell phones, some people had them but they weren’t mobile. They were car phones at this point because they certainly weren’t something you wanted to carry with you. Most people mainly carried their pagers and if you were lucky, you had one that was alpha-numeric . This was the advent of the technology age for television newsrooms. Of course, technology was running rampant in the production departments but the news departments were still awaiting what Microsoft and the Internet would bring to newsgathering.

Now, it’s almost impossible to keep up with the technology. At WDIV in Detroit, each newscast producer has two monitors so they can see the rundown (the schedule of what’s happening during each newscast), the news wires and the Internet. They also have the ability to edit video from their desktops. When I was there, it was beneficial to have that ability. Sometimes it was simply helping out editors who were crashing a package (a reporter’s story) or just because you knew the video and wanted to make sure you got the shots you wanted.

Gone are the days of storing big and bulky video cassettes, they are bigger than VHS in some cases. Now many stations are transferring that video over to DVD’s. They are easy to catalog, take up so much less space and you don’t have to worry time taken its toll on them. At WEWS, we’re even close to doing away with DVC Pro tapes. They aren’t that big at all but the next generation has almost arrived. Soon our photographers will shoot on cameras with internal hard drives. After coming back from a story, they’ll copy over the video much like you would a file on your home computer. That video will be accessible from any other computer and multiple users can use it at the same time.

Reporters and photographers will have their own laptops that they’ll be able to access the newsroom software, currently iNews, from the field. No more calling a producer and dictating a script by cell phone. Now, they can type their script directly into the rundown just like they were at the station. Photographers can take their video in the field and ingest it into their laptop, edit it, then send it back to the station for the newscast. I know there’s been the prediction of one man bands but I still think you need two people to do this correctly.

Coming soon, the Internet’s effect on newsgathering and producing newscasts.


Todd’s listening to: The Smiths – How Soon Is Now

Summer’s Over

We’ve past Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer. The pool is closed. The temperatures could dip into the upper 40’s in the coming days for overnight lows.

I love my seasons. You’ve probably heard me in the past talk about the lack of Spring, Fall and Winter down in South Texas. Probably one of the best things about being back in Ohio is the fact, I can experience all of the seasons and not just for a couple of weeks.
In South Texas, you get fall for about three weeks, Winter for two weeks and then Spring for about three weeks. After these two months, it just gets plain hot and steamy. It’s nice to vacation. South Padre Island is beautiful. Mexico is definitely worth the trip. I don’t think I’ll ever go back and live there again. Yes, I intentionally didn’t put “never”.

Nothing quite smells like Fall in Ohio. I love this time of year. Apple Cider, donuts, pumpkin pies. It’s nice to be back in the Midwest!


Todd’s listening to: Fergie – Big Girls Don’t Cry (Raphael Gomes Remix)

Dick Wins Final HOH

All of this season, I went back and forth on whether I liked ED and Daniele or not. I knew I didn’t want Zach to win because of his game play. Say what you will but he just didn’t do as good of a job as Dani and Dick.

Yes, I know some people out there are upset that I have just a few final posts about Big Brother 8 but sadly [sic] the season comes to an end on Thursday. We’ll see who people pick. I believe Daniele is $500,000 richer.

I’m also glad to see that the showmance between Eric and Jessica might be a little more than just that!

Big Boring Brother

Call it the BBB! For the first half hour on BBAD, we follow Danielle around the kitchen while she makes herself some food. Flash to Zach who’s on a bed doing nothing but breathing. (it looked really funny on fast forward) Last night’s contest was very boring, you just got to see Zach and ED freezing their butts off for most of the show. Oh, I forgot there was also the exciting shots of the storage room so we, at home, could see exactly all of the food rations the houseguests get.

Finally, almost 1 hour into BBAD, ED and Daniele are talking strategy and about past houseguests. Daniele is packing and surprise, she’s complaining about how much time it’s going to take her to get everything put together. She claims she needs two handlers just to get everything ready. She says the first time she packed, it took her two days to get things together. Daniele also just said she hadn’t been to DR yet and seconds after she said, I’m glad I haven’t been called into the Diary Room, Big Brother called her. Of course, she complained about that as well. Things haven’t changed since the start of the summer except there isn’t ANY enterainment in the house anymore.

Everything will be over next Tuesday night.

Patience? No, Thanks…

I have to say I seriously lack in this category. Slow Internet at work, annoying. OnDemand delays, frustrating. Slow drivers who shouldn’t be on the road, infuriating. Add your pet peeve that just causes you to lose seconds, minutes, hours or days from your life.

You know the saying goes don’t ever pray for patience. Believe me, those words will never come out of my mind or mouth. I’m proud I’m a midwestern kind of guy. I’m on the go and doing things, why stop and slow down so that anything can get at you.