Donald Trump’s harebrained obsession: painting the Reflecting Pool. Also: ‘Josh Johnson: Symphony’ on HBO Max and ‘Ghostlight’ (2024).
Another Week: Number 183
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TV
Here is a list of content tagged “TV” on MarkCz.com.
Another Week: Number 181
My mom’s 91st birthday party, Donald J. Trump is in the frustration stage of his tragedy, ‘Lucy Worsley’s Holmes vs. Doyle,’ and ‘Blue Moon.’
Another Week: Number 174
Trump moves deadlines in his Iran war. Also: ‘The Lowdown’ (FX), ‘American Masters: Starring Dick Van Dyke,’ and the (final?) White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Another Week: Number 166
More Scrivener and Obsidian in my workflow, missing Epstein files, WISN 12 News loses Lindsey Slater, Trump takes us to war with Iran, and ‘The Fall Guy’ (2024).
Another Week: Number 157
“I Saw Three Ships”: Jesus had a Lady? Daniel Lawrence O’Keefe and Festivus. Sarah Vowell’s book on Lafayette, ‘The Brothers McMullen,’ ‘The Family McMullen.’
Another Week: Number 154
Winter’s here. The USA has carried out 22 airstrikes off South America. Shovelwax works pretty well. Also: ‘Death By Lightning,’ and Johnny Carson.
Another Week: Number 153
Rutger Bregman: the BBC Reith Lectures, Thanksgiving football, National Guard members shot, ‘Light in August,’ and ‘The American Revolution.’
Another Week: Number 151
9 inches of lake-effect snow, Democrats cave on government shutdown, Jimmy Kimmel eulogizes Cleto, nutritionist Marion Nestle, and ‘Frankenstein.’
Another Week: Number 146
No Soliciting: Door-to-door is an outdated approach, American Experience: ‘Hard Hat Riot‘
Another Week: Number 144
Packers lose/Bears win, The Three Stooges run our country now, ‘American Experience: FDR,’ ‘A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599,’ Bob Odenkirk/Nobody
Another Week: Number 143
Another brutal Bears loss, Apple’s ‘Liquid Glass,’ Indiana Fever advance, ‘A Story is a Deal’ by Will Storr, ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel.
Another Week: Number 142
Hummingbirds out, NFL in. Two stories about walking. A local cashier. The assassination of Charlie Kirk. ‘Thursday Murder Club’ on Netflix.
Another Week: Number 138
Whatever we thought “America” was, getting rid of it only took a few quick months. Also: ‘Song Exploder,’ ‘Adolescence,’ the Trump-Putin “summit,” and ‘Whirlybird.’
Another Week: Number 136
Fighting Canadian wildfire smoke with my Coway HEPA filter, more Trump-Epstein horseshit and Gaza starvation. Plus: ‘Easy Living‘ (1937), ‘South Park’ (2025), and ‘The Lady Vanishes’ (1938).
Another Week: Number 134
Camp Lake birthday party, life-threatening yardwork, how Elon Musk can save public broadcasting, and ‘Your Friends & Neighbors.’
Another Week: Number 132
Local noise nearly reaches a climax on the Fourth of July. Plus: a pumice stone diagram — and ‘Stick’ and ‘The Studio,’ two Apple TV+ shows.
Another Week: Number 127
More perennials and mulch this gardening season — and maybe some moss. Elon Musk exits. NATURE: ‘Hummingbirds of Hollywood,’ ‘Bono: Stories of Surrender.’
Another Week: Number 122
Easter season hope, Pope Francis dies, Pete Hegseth’s pocket square, WISN 12 News and the NFL Draft, ‘Conclave’ (2024).
Another Week: Number 121
Wind blasts a squirrel’s nest out of my juniper, Trump is finally a constitutional crisis, Jason Isbell on ‘Fresh Air’ with Terry Gross, ‘Rick Steves’ Poland,’ “The Last of the Mohicans’ (1992).
Another Week: Number 110
Trump’s deranged plane crash press conference, ‘Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music,’ the Unrivaled Basketball League, and the new ‘CBS Evening News.’
Another Week: Number 109
Trump is back. Sam Kuffel is gone. FEMA is next. Plus: ‘Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg’ (2024), ‘Roy Wood Jr.: Lonely Flowers’ (2025), and ‘A Real Pain’ (2024).
Another Week: Number 106
Happy New Year horseshit, reincarnated children, ‘All Fours’ by Miranda July, and Season 2 of ‘Bad Sisters.’
Another Week: Number 105
More rumbling noises — ‘The Hum’? Samantha Brown, Christmas unease, William Faulkner’s ‘Sanctuary,‘ Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Suspicion’ (1941), and ‘Double Jeopardy’ (1999).
Another Week: Number 102
Hair and nails over 50, Cyber Monday deals, ‘My Effin’ Life,’ by Geddy Lee, ‘Cape Fear’ (1962), ‘Jim Gaffigan: The Skinny’ (2024)
Another Week: Number 100
Disappointment awaits, Larry wants my Land’s End jacket, Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Volleyball, ‘The West’ (1996 documentary miniseries), ‘Joan Baez: I Am a Noise’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 99
Living with our choices, Jessica Lang on ‘WTF’ and in ‘The Great Lillian Hall,’ Johnny Cash: ‘Man in Black – Live in Denmark 1971’
Another Week: Number 96
Imagination gains elasticity. Canvassing and voting. Tim Walz rally in Racine. ‘John McGivern’s Main Streets’ (with Emmy Fink). Michelle Obama’s speech in Kalamazoo. ‘His Three Daughters’ (2023).
Another Week: Number 90
Monarch butterflies and window repair, Bears beat Titans, Pablo Torre: Wright Thompson on Caitlin Clark, Trump/Harris debate, ‘Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos’ (2024)
Another Week: Number 89
Crispy lawns, school and football return, ‘Impolitic with John Heilemann’: Nicholas Kristof, Jonny Lyons & the Pride at Paddock Lake, Chicago Bears on ‘Hard Knocks,’ ‘Faye’ (2024)
Another Week: Number 88
Dew points and skincare commercials. Also: CNN’s interview of Kamala Harris and Time Walz, ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969), ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975), and ‘Bridesmaids (2011).’
Another Week: Number 84
Crickets. Bears 21, Texans 17. The Killers at Lollapalooza. ‘Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants.‘ ‘As I Lay Dying,‘ by William Faulkner.
Another Week: Number 83
A power emerges from the stillness. Racine yard waste hurdles. Joe Biden endorses Kamala Harris. The Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.
Another Week: Number 60
Super Bowl LVIII, chicken pot pie, Valentine’s Day, Kansas City mass shooting, Alexei Navalny, Fani Willis hearing, ‘Past Lives’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 59
Walking is a metaphor. Moving forward trains you to move forward. 66th Grammy Awards, Immediate Family (2023), Apple Vision Pro review at The Verge.
Another Week: Number 54
A Mobile Stairlift gets Amy to her surgical procedure, ‘Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song’ (2021), ‘Lessons in Chemistry,’ ‘Fargo,’ Season 5
Another Week: Number 53
Finishing out 2023 in our living room, ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ (2022), ‘Gary Gulman: Born on Third Base’
Another Week: Number 50
Amy too weak on Wednesday after Monday chemo, ‘The Thing About Pam’(2022), ‘Hard Knocks: In Season With the Miami Dolphins,’ ‘The Year the Earth Changed’ (2021)
Another Week: Number 49
Amy now on Piqray and attempting finger-sticks, ‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’ (2021), ‘The ABC’s of Book Banning’ (2023), Trump calls for government crackdown on the free press, ‘Kyle Kinane: Shocks and Struts’
Another Week: Number 48
Thanksgiving week: Amy starts new Piqray chemo, Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield, ‘The National Dog Show,’
‘Austin City Limits’: Foo Fighters
Another Week: Number 47
Amy’s anemia and a bedroom fall, ‘Austin City Limits’: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, ‘Good Eats’ is streaming on Max, ‘JFK: One Day in America’
Another Week: Number 46
No chemo this week because Amy is anemic; ‘Quiz Lady’ (2023), ‘American Symphony’ trailer, ‘Austin City Limits’: Margo Price/Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, ‘Albert Brooks: Defending My Life’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 45
Trying to balance all the effects and side effects of Amy’s cancer, ‘Now and Then — The Last Beatles Song,’ ‘Bosch: Legacy’ (Season 2), ‘Feud: Bette and Joan’
Another Week: Number 44
Amy’s meager diet; Chicago Bears 30, Las Vegas Raiders 12; ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ (2019), Nile Rodgers & CHIC: Tiny Desk Concert
Another Week: Number 43
Amy’s an outpatient with low platelets and edema; ‘Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe,’ ‘We Don’t Talk About Leonard,’ ‘Renfield (2023),’ ‘The Insurrectionist Next Door (2023),’ ‘The Descent (2005)’
Another Week: Number 39
Some uplifting cancer results, ‘Dark Winds‘: Season 1, ‘Daisy Jones & the Six,’ ‘Theater Camp’ (2023), Dua Lipa in Conversation With Patti Smith, Author of ‘Just Kids’
Another Week: Number 37
The beginning of fall, the Rolling Stones hype ‘Hackney Diamonds,’ Mehdi Hasan vs. Vivek Ramaswamy, ‘Under the Covers’ (2002)
Another Week: Number 36
‘Oppenheimer (2023),’ ‘Telemarketers,’ ‘BS High’ (2023), ‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’: Season 2, ‘Scarface’ (1983), ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ (2022
Another Week: Number 35
Our rollercoaster existence, ‘My Old School’ (2022), ‘Windy City Rehab: Alison’s Dream Home,’ ‘Reservation Dogs’: Season 3, ‘Full Circle’
Another Week: Number 34
More chemo treatments, Jason Isbell’s guitar collection, ‘Justified: City Primeval,’ ‘How To with John Wilson’: Season 3, ‘The Donut King’ (2020), ‘See How They Run’ (2022)
Another Week: Number 32
Amy released and sometimes headache-free; Bluetooth earbuds: soundcore by Anker Space A40, Trump indicted for conspiring to steal 2020 election, ‘The Quiet Girl’ (2022), ‘Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi,’ ‘Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 31
Caged for a week; Celsius Sparkling Orange caffeinated water; superseding indictment of Donald Trump, ‘Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale.’
Another Week: Number 30
Three more days at the hospital, ‘Morimoto’s Sushi Master.’
Another Week: Number 29
Inpatient week for Amy, Crumbling barn on Wilmot Road, ‘Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,’ by Ben Smith, ‘Poker Face,’ ‘Painting with John.’
Another Week: Number 28
Fireworks are illegal in Wisconsin, ‘John Early: Now More Than Ever,’ ‘Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind’ (2020), Cocaine Bear (2023)
Another Week: Number 27
Smoke from Canadian wildfires, ‘The Bear,’ Season 2, ‘The Righteous Gemstones,’ Season 3, ‘Hijack,’ ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022), Tour de France 2023.
Another Week: Number 26
Kwik Trip Tour of America’s Dairyland in Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin, ‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’ (2022), ‘The Grand Tour’: Season 5.
Another Week: Number 25
Cancer treatment as Habitrail; ‘Of Human Hearts’ (1938): Abraham Lincoln berates James Stewart for not writing his mom; Tom Petty & Garry Shandling
Another Week: Number 24
Hospital rollercoaster leads to chemotherapy, Trump indicted in Mar-a-Lago-documents case, ‘Being Mary Tyler Moore’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 23
Bad Friday at the hospital, ‘SmartLess: On The Road,’ ‘Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love,’ ’WTF with Marc Maron’: Episode 1436 – Warren Zanes
Another Week: Number 22
‘The Secrets of Hillsong,’ ‘Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming With Dave Letterman,’ ‘Bama Rush,’ ‘Platonic,’ ‘Kathleen Madigan: Hunting Bigfoot,’ ‘Shutter Island,’ and one very sad robin.
Another Week: Number 21
‘The Way to Heaven’ in a McDonald’s bathroom, ‘Lewis Black: Tragically, I Need You,’ ‘The Great’ Season 3, FRONTLINE: Clarence & Ginny Thomas, Tears for Fears: KCRW Live from The Village Studios, ‘A World of Calm.’
Another Week: Number 20
The robin nesting in our backyard, ‘Clarkson’s Farm,’ Season 2, ‘White House Plumbers,’ debt ceiling, ‘Jimmy O. Yang: Guess How Much?,’ ‘Air’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 19
A week of personal ordeals, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ on ‘CBS Sunday Morning,’ ‘Somebody Somewhere: Season 2,’ ‘This Boy’s Life (1993)’
Another Week: Number 18
‘Stutz,’ verification in reverse, ‘Judy Blume Forever,’ ‘In Session: Stevie Ray Vaughan & Albert King.’ And do birds really eat grass seed?
Another Week: Number 17
Old greeting cards and photos, ‘Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits,’ ‘Rye Lane,’ ‘Tiny Beautiful Things,’ ‘Boom! Boom! The World Vs Boris Becker,’ ‘Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed
Another Week: Number 16
Gun violence insanity, Chris O’Dowd in ‘The Big Door Prize,’ ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ (2023), ‘Candy,’ and Jon Favreau’s ‘Chef’ (2014).
Another Week: Number 13
Looney Tunes: ‘Porky’s Bear Facts,’ ‘Boston Strangler’ on Hulu, ‘Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,’ Jason Isbell in Garden & Gun and on HBO, ’The Sound and the Fury,’ by William Faulkner (Third Norton Critical Edition)
Another Week: Number 12
Woman finds husband’s mummified remains, ‘The Consultant,’ ‘Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano,’ the best tortilla chips are Donkey Chips, COVID lockdown + 3 years, Jackson Browne and David Lindley.
Another Week: Number 11
More snow, another power outage, ‘The Midnight Special’ on YouTube, ‘Tár,’ ‘Hello Tomorrow!,’ ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble,’ ‘Kate Berlant: Cinnamon in the Wind.’
Another Week: Number 10
911 calls to report the Jupiter-Venus conjunction, A new bathroom scale, ‘To Leslie,’ Alex Murdaugh trial coverage, ‘The Naked Archaeologist.’
Another Week: Number 9
Instagram and Facebook verification fee, ‘Empire of Light,’ ‘Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted,’ by Suleika Jaouad, ‘The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy,’ ‘The 1619 Project’ on Hulu, ‘Fire of Love’
Another Week: Number 8
A death in my family, Super Bowl LVII, ‘Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark,’ Mike Pence fights a subpoena, ‘Nate Bargatze: Hello World,’ Bing + ChatGPT = HAL 9000?
Another Week: Number 7
‘80 for Brady’ bad reviews, website spring cleaning, 65th Annual Grammy Awards, President Biden’s State of the Union Address, Hallie Jackson exits MSNBC, ChatGPT: artificial intelligence for what?
Another Week: Number 6
Shrimp Cocktail, NFL Conference Championships, Tyre Nichols killed by Memphis Police, ‘He Gets Us’: $100 million ad campaign for Jesus, Three Pines, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Live at the Fillmore – 1997, Branson
Another Week: Number 5
‘Big Little Lies,’ Félix Carvajal (Cuba’s first Olympic marathoner), ‘Vida,’ As We See It,’ ‘Shrinking’ — and, of course, snow.
Another Week: Number 3
A shooting close to home, Aaron Rodgers loses to the Detroit Lions, ‘Bad Sisters,’ ‘Physical,’ ‘Elvis,’ ‘Hard Knocks In Season: The Arizona Cardinals,’ ‘The Established Home,’ ‘The Lost Kitchen,’ Dr. Seuss teaches Critical Race Theory, ‘Welcome to Chippendales,’ ‘The Flagmakers’
Another Week: Number 2
NFL anguish, ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘International Falls,’ ‘The Menu,’ ‘Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter,’ ‘Severance,’ ‘This Place Rules,’ House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Another Week: Number 1
William Faulkner’s ‘The Sound and the Fury,’ movies ‘Moonage Daydream,’ ‘If These Walls Could Sing,’ and ‘The Banshees of Inisherin,’ plus Melissa Villaseñor, ‘This Way Up,’ ‘The Big Brunch,’ and Southwest Airlines flight cancellations.
‘Treme’ (HBO series in New Orleans, 3 1/2 seasons)
Treme is an HBO TV series about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer, who previously collaborated on Homicide: Life on the Street and the masterpiece HBO series The Wire, Treme is named for the New Orleans neighborhood where...
‘The Wire’: Must-watch HBO series from a decade ago
Amy and I just finished watching all five seasons of The Wire. While we were doing this, I was surprised by the number of people I mentioned this to who had never heard of the show. "The what?," they'd ask. "The Wire?" Yes — The Wire. The Wire was an HBO series that...
Emily Helck: Fellow breast cancer blogger
This morning, we saw Emily Helck on MSNBC, talking with Thomas Roberts about her breast cancer journey and how she chronicled in a weekly photo shoot the way her body has changed over the past year.
What is a catheter and why is it stalking me?
I'm a political/news junkie who works from home, so the TV on my desk is often tuned to MSNBC. While Morning Joe, The Daily Rundown, Jansing & Co., Andrea Mitchell Reports, The Cycle and the rest are sweeping through the hours like the sun across the sky, the TV...
‘Morning Joe’: Chris Matthews nails Reince Priebus on racism
There was an unusually interesting moment on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning. Hardball host Chris Matthews took on Kenosha, Wisconsin's own Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, over Mitt Romney's thinly veiled appeals to racism — including...
Honey Boo Boo on CNN with Brooke Baldwin, John Berman
Here's a little TV moment that I'll be reliving in nightmares for a while. Apparently, "Honey Boo Boo" is the nickname of Alana Thompson, the breakout star of TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras beauty pageant show who will now be featured in her own TLC spinoff, Here Comes...
‘Exporting Raymond’: ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ in Russia
Have you ever found yourself in a meeting, attempting to communicate what you know to be a sound and worthy idea, and yet every point you make is blunted and deflected by your collaborators? Perhaps there is some friction with their corporate culture, or a difference...
Racine on TV: ‘Around the Corner with John McGivern’
For a few months now, we've been watching Around the Corner with John McGivern on Milwaukee Public Television. It usually airs Thursday nights at 7:30 on WMVS Channel 10, and Friday nights at 8:00 on WMVT Channel 36. The show is a breezy...
‘Once Upon a Time,’ ‘Grimm’: New TV from old tales
Two of the new TV series we have sampled over the last couple of weekends have some things in common. Both are hour-long scripted dramas which layer fantasy and supernatural elements onto the everyday, modern world. Both also link back to the realm of classic fairy...
TV schedule shell games make it hard to follow shows
As a TV viewer, there are few things which irritate me more than the games played with the TV schedule these days. Despite the ridiculous amount of money we pay to a cable company every month — and despite our willingness to follow and even promote the few shows we do...
‘Mad Men’ Season 5: I give up
As Maureen Ryan wrote yesterday at TV Squad, Mad Men Season 5 is now postponed until 2012. Difficult negotiations are reportedly in progress over product placement, cast cuts, and trimming two minutes of each Mad Men episode's length. [includeme...
Rick Steves travel bloopers
We have enjoyed Rick Steves and his European tours on public TV for years. We've even used a Rick Steves travel guide or two to find our way around France and Italy. Only through social media, however — like the Rick Steves Facebook...
NBC’s Kerry Sanders reporting live while driving
This was a very odd sight today. It's NBC correspondent Kerry Sanders reporting live from Wellington, Florida about the dangers of teens and their "car surfing" (also known as "ghost riding"). For both the intro and outro of the story...
Eric Holder and Second Amendment, Eric Holder and firearms
The video clip above, regarding Eric Holder's record on guns, from last night's installment of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, is a fantastic thumbnail of this midterm election. Rachel Maddow took her show to Anchorage, Alaska. The demonstrators shown here are...
Al Franken speech: Obama’s car-in-the-ditch metaphor
Sen. Al Franken is not only one of the best guys ever — he is also one of the funniest comedians and writers of our lifetime because he appreciates absurdity and the hard nugget of truth sometimes concealed inside it. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell is a pretty sharp truth...
Suryia the Orangutan’s Robitussin commercial
So I'm watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann the other night when I see a commercial which shows an orangutan in a pharmacy aisle using a Droid X smartphone and buying Robitussin® cough medicine. This was a lot to process. My first reaction was concern that the...
My love for Indian Food
Oh my gosh! Last nights dinner was one of those that Mark and I literally high five each other on. I know it's corny but that's what we do when I am able to duplicate the experience we get dining out at most Indian restaurants. Earlier this week Mark came across an...
Glenn Beck, Eric Massa, and the worst interview ever
The clips included in the clip above really deserve to be enshrined in the Awkwardness Hall of Fame. I'm someone who grew up watching the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon year in and year out. I was tuned in when David Letterman interviewed Crispin Glover and Farrah Fawcett...
Alton Brown diet plan: Weight loss through ‘Good Eats’
Here's something we watched while my blog was getting redesigned. It's the Alton Brown diet plan — the January 4 episode of Good Eats, titled "Live and Let Diet." We had noticed, going back to a recent season of Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt, that the guy had...
Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart: Out-crazying Glenn Beck
Keith Olbermann's segments on Glenn Beck's Rockefeller Center lunacy the past two nights have been hysterical. Do not miss these: The clip above is from Thursday night's installment of Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. In it, Keith analyzes Glenn Beck's...
Justine Henin singing, acting, cooking on reality show
The YouTube video clip above comes via Straight Sets, the NYTimes.com tennis blog. It's former tennis superstar Justine Henin singing a duet with Belgian balladeer Salvatore Adamo. There was no explanation there, but a little Googling reveals that back in May, Henin —...
‘Morning Joe’ Scarborough brews up Jon Stewart feud over Starbucks
Former Florida congressman Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC's Morning Joe, may be the electronic media's most tolerable conservative Republican. He may even have a new book, out just yesterday, urging his party back from radical recklessness to a more moderate...
May the 4th be with you: Happy Star Wars Day!
To celebrate Star Wars Day, please enjoy the hilarious Late Night with Conan O'Brien segment featuring Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog at the premiere of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones in New York City. You can see more classic Triumph and Conan segments...
ABC’s ‘World News Now’ (or is it ‘America This Morning’?)
It has come to my attention that, as of June 12, all TV in the U.S will make the transition to digital. Because of this, I will probably lose a show I have been enjoying for the past year or so. Often, while Amy sleeps, I am already conscious and worrying about the...
The power of now: Eckhart Tolle and a Bike Ride on 35W
A baffling practice on public television here in the USA is the way the program schedule gets swapped out whenever fundraising time rolls around. While public radio stations typically interrupt abbreviated versions of their regular shows to ask for money, public TV...
Rick Santelli, CNBC in hot water on ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’
God bless Jon Stewart and the Daily Show researchers and editors for putting CNBC's accuracy record under the microscope following Rick Santelli's anti-bailout rant on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.. I am so sick of...
Deep thought: Happy birthday, Jack Handey!
Jack Handey is a real person, and just to prove it, he got himself born 60 years ago today. Even Wikipedia agrees that "Handey is a real person, not a pen name or a character," so happy birthday, Mr. Handey. Even though Jack Handey has authored books — such as Deep...
Joaquin Phoenix on ‘Late Show with David Letterman’
Let's just say there is a lot of buzz. The world is all a-twitter today over the disoriented demeanor of Walk the Line star Joaquin Phoenix on last night's Late Show with David Letterman, but I would like to point out a Rolling Stone post from January 20 which details...
Obama inauguration: Breathtaking images
We're ditching the commentators on the various networks and watching C-SPAN's inauguration coverage today on TV. Meanwhile, over on the computer, I am getting blown away by the astounding seven feeds of HD video streaming from CBS2Chicago.com. Breathtaking.
Rachel Maddow: Miracle on the Hudson wrought by jobs well done
Yesterday afternoon, Steve Dahl tweeted that he was already sick of the "Mirace on the Hudson" coverage of US Airways Flight 1549. I know what he means. TV news has mastered the process by which the most astounding occurrence is instantly hyped so full of grandiose...
George W. Bush legacy: 8 years in 8 minutes, by Keith Olbermann
On Thursday evening, before President Bush's farewell address, I spent some time searching YouTube for an apt retrospective of his eight years leading our nation. There were some possibilities, but nothing really summed up the George...
Snuggie, Slanket, Heat Surge: My TV monk life
The Great Recession and its effect on our household budget have started producing some bizarre yearnings in me — especially when combined with the influence of our TV set. This began with a video that arrived here from Netflix. I don't know how it got added to our...
‘Good Eats’ on YouTube
I have written here before about Good Eats — about the steel-cut oatmeal show, the gumbo show. Good Eats is one of my all-time favorite shows on television. At the same time, I currently loathe the Food Network. Where I once looked...
SNL skits: Fred Armisen, ‘Obama Plays It Cool’
Fred Armisen was jeered pretty roundly when he started playing Barack Obama on SNL, but I always thought he had keyed in on several quirky traits, and that the parody just keeps getting better and better. Last night's "Obama Plays It Cool" piece was his best yet....
Total Oprah
Speaking of Oprah, Sarah Terez Rosenblum has a Chicago Sun-Times story today about Robyn Okrant, a writer-performer who has been living her life according to Oprah for darn near a year now: "... I have to breathe a certain way, I have to savor every meal, I have to be...
ABC World News: Racine, Wisconsin’s minute in spotlight
ABC's ABC World News with Charles Gibson devoted this past week to a "Great American Battleground Bus Tour" gimmick which purported to give Gibson and his viewers insight into real, live heartland voters in cities like Dayton, Bowling Green, Indianapolis, Davenport —...
Enablex commercial: Class reunion of urine-filled balloons
So I'm sitting here eating my lunch in front of MSNBC when I hear the familiar voice of Andrea Martin during a pharmaceutical commercial depicting a class reunion. This is slightly troubling in itself, because Andrea Martin is one of the most talented and funny women...
‘Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie’
Even on public television's extensive menu of food and cooking shows, Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie is a standout offering. It's a globe-hopping, half-hour magazine of on-location footage and interviews featuring all sorts of fascinating topics from the primitive to the...
Chef José Andrés: ‘Made in Spain’
Update, April 17, 2009: With the addition of the new YouTube Shows section, you can now watch all 13 episodes of Made in Spain at YouTube. I seem to be on a little bit of a Spanish kick with my posts here recently, so let's go for trillizos. If you like chefs with...
Oprah Winfrey’s MySpace: I’m not Oprah-worthy?
Now I understand how David Letterman must have suffered. It's like an unexpected punch in the stomach. It's difficult to even breathe, and I just sit here in absolute disbelief wondering what I ever did to deserve this. In the hopeful early morning hours of October...
‘The War’ (Ken Burns World War 2 documentary, PBS)
Thanks to the miracle of the video recorder, Amy and I have been wading into The War, the seven-part, 14-and-a-half hour documentary on World War II from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that has been airing on PBS since Sunday night. It is excellent. [includeme...
Mary Tyler Moore statue at Macy’s, Minneapois
Minneapolis, Minnesota — Mary Tyler Moore statue in front of Macy's department store on Nicollet Mall at S. 7th Street. $variable({"type":"content","value":{"name":"post_tags","settings":{"before":"See other posts...
Keith Olbermann’s ‘Special Comment’ on Condoleezza Rice
I continue to enjoy Countdown with Keith Olbermann every weeknight. There are a few bugs in the show that I would fix — for example, there's way too much talk about American Idol — but overall, it's a very refreshing hour and an entertaining downshift from the...
Edward R. Murrow: ‘Good Night and Good Luck’ (2005 movie)
As a lifelong news junkie, I think of Edward R. Murrow as a divinity. I don't feel all that strongly about George Clooney one way or another, but I was interested to see what he would do as a director. (I have always meant to see his directorial debut, Confessions of...
Keith Olbermann’s special comments
I watch TV news all day long for a living, so it's unlikely that I would want to watch more of it when I'm finally off work at 7 p.m., and yet that's what I find myself doing these days. Radio legend Steve Dahl was a very early enthusiast of Countdown with Keith...
Oatmeal recipe: Steel cut oats ala Alton Brown, ‘Good Eats’
Poet Stanley Kunitz died on Sunday. In one obituary there was a quote from him which began, "The deepest thing I know is that I am living and dying at once ..." At age 45 and counting, I feel the same thing, and that makes it harder to waste time on many of the...
Wally’s Service station, Mount Airy, North Carolina
Mount Airy, North Carolina — Wally's Service Station at 625 S. Main St., built in 1937, is the real-life inspiration for "Wally's Filling Station" on TV's The Andy Griffith Show, where cousins Gomer Pyle and Goober Pyle both...
Floyd’s Barber Shop, Mount Airy, North Carolina
Mount Airy, North Carolina — Floyd's City Barber Shop at 129 N. Main St., owned by barber Russell Hiatt, who is said to have been the real-life inspiration for Floyd Lawson ("Floyd the Barber") on TV's The Andy Griffith...
Snappy Lunch restaurant sign, Mount Airy NC
Mount Airy, North Carolina — Restaurant sign for Snappy Lunch (and Coca-Cola) at 125 N. Main St., where Andy Griffith occasionally ate as a boy growing up in Mount Airy. The restaurant is famous for its pork chop sandwich,...
TV viewer
Kenosha, Wisconsin — Ian on my mom's couch, watching television. $variable({"type":"content","value":{"name":"post_tags","settings":{"before":"Filed under:","after":"","link_to_term_page":"on","separator":"...
NFL football viewers: Bears vs. Saints
Kenosha, Wisconsin — Kevin and Art watch the Chicago Bears defeat Mike Ditka's New Orleans Saints 14-10. $variable({"type":"content","value":{"name":"post_tags","settings":{"before":"Filed...