I never had a eight track tape machine; my dad was an audio engineer and I always remember having audio cassettes (as well as reel-to-reel 1/4″ tape machines) around. We had a cassette player in the van as well and on family vacations we’d listen to “Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America”, “National Lampoon’s Greatest Hits”, Abbott and Costello, The Shadow, and other great comedy and radio bits.

When I was 10 years old or so, I stumbled across a copy of a George Carlin stand up recorded live in Salt Lake City, sometime around 1974 or so. I listened to the cassettes regularly until they wore out. Later, I found used copies of Carlin’s albums and devoured them as well. I still have my vinyl on the shelf behind my desk.

Comedians such as Carlin, Berman, Freberg, Williams, Pryor shaped my world view as an adolescent and continue to do so.

Rest in Peace, George.

(photo by Ken Howard via NPR)

Once upon a time, many long years ago, there was a television channel. It was one of the first cable television channels and as such it took the responsibility to heart and it was good. It was dedicated to music and news about music and musicians. It showcased Rap, Metal, Alternative, long before these genre became the mainstream claptrap that they are today.

It was MTV.

Music TeleVision.

As has been much lamented, MTV no longer plays music and it may just be that it has not played music longer than it ever played music. To appease the masses, the started up another channel, VH1, that played music where MTV did not; it too died a slow reality show death. CMT, VH1 Classic, MTV2, all were the new home of music videos and all have succumbed to the allure of selling their time to reality shows.

Such is life and I’ve resigned myself to only watching visual representations of the songs I love in the wee hours of the morning or on YouTube.

Until I realized that it is happening to other channels, better channels.

I scanned through the guide for TLC, supposedly The Learning Channel, to find:

• A ‘documentary’ on Bigfoot.
• Several episodes of the reality show, A Baby Story
• Several episodes of the reality show, A Wedding Story
• Several episodes of the reality show, Bringing Home Baby
• The reality show, Little People, Big World
• What Not To Wear (definitely educational, for the fashion impaired such as myself)
• Several episodes of the reality show, 10 Years Younger
• Several episodes of the reality show, Take Home Chef

And so on into the night. Add to that the ‘Paid Programming’ items and there was ONE quasi-documentary and ONE quasi-educational show.

The Discovery Channel fared better:

• How’s It’s Made, documents how common and not so common things are manufactured
• How Do They Do It? which is basically the same premise.
• Several episodes of the reality show, Deadliest Catch
• Several episodes of the reality show, A Haunting
• Several episodes of the reality show, Cash Cab
• Several episodes of the reality show, Man vs. Wild

I’m not complaining that some of these aren’t good television. I enjoy Man vs. Wild in small doses and I’ve heard from friends that they really enjoy Deadliest Catch and Cash Cab. I really get off on Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters, both of which I find to be very educational.

I’m quite certain this is because I’m old and cantankerous. Damned kids won’t stay off of my lawn either.

Please don’t shave my head.

Will Write For Chocolate

“… and this is mine, all this is mine, I’m claiming all this as MINE.  Except that bit; I don’t want that bit.  But all the rest of this… is… mine.”

– Cat, Red Dwarf, “Confidence and Paranoia”

Up until now, I have been leading a rather charmed life here in Shenzhen, China.

Last night, while shopping I had someone pull the old ’switcheroo’ and give me a product that was less than agreed on and tested. Since there is really no recourse for returns, you usually plug it into the computer and the person opens up Windows Explorer and shows you the size of the component in the properties. I was looking at a SD media card that was 8 Gigs in size for about 100 RMB (13$US). A fantastic price but there is always a bit of risk involved with the quality of the device or media.

Anyway, we negotiated for a while (I didn’t really need it and had talked him down from about 180 RMB) and I took my leave. We had tested it and it appeared to be fine, but he was really eager to make a sale so he followed me, still negotiating. He offered 80 RMB which is about 10 bucks for me so I decided to go for it.

What I didn’t realize until I was on my way home on the subway was that the chip I bought wasn’t the same chip I had negotiated for and sure enough, even though it said 8 Gig it was really a 1Gig chip and it had a big old crack underneath the label.

Caveat emptor.
So this morning the hotel staff hailed me an official taxi and I headed off to work. When we arrived, the fair was double what I was expecting and I knew something wasn’t correct – however, since I don’t speak the language I can’t argue well. I had some smaller bills and then a couple of 100 RMB bills. Since the fare was more, I gave him a 100 RMB bill and after a moment he handed it back to me, pointed to my wallet. I showed him I didn’t have smaller bills, pulled the 17 RMB out and handed it to him. He smiled, took it and I got out.

Can you see the problem here?

I knew there was something wrong when the fare was wrong but I have a receipt and the cab number (the hotel is very good about writing the cab number on a card and giving it to you when you leave). Armed with grave suspicions, I went in and talked to a co-worker and friend that has been a great help and a guide while I’m here. I showed him the bill and he knew immediately – it was counterfeit. When I gave him the bill, he turned and then turned back and gave it back to me but it was a different bill – he had switched them. So my cab ride this morning cost me 117 RMB instead of 21 RMB (15$US instead of 3$US). My friend reported it to the right authority who informed him that both the cab’s external identifying number and the number printed on the receipt were not registered numbers – definitely a practiced swindler. I’ll let the hotel know as well.

I asked and my friend said I could keep the counterfeit bill but not try to pass it on anywhere.

I still think it is funny – I can’t do anything about it at this point other than report it and it doesn’t do any good to rant against the people I’ve made friends with here. No use ruining their day. Apparently, this happens to local people as well so I’m not a simple mark and I know better now so it has a good lesson to it.

If you are a fan of the Alien movie franchise or the Predator movie franchise, you’ll probably get rather excited over this trailer:

(edit:  This trailer is very graphic and contains strong language.  If you are watching at work, you might want to use headphones and make sure someone easily offended or grossed out isn’t watching over your shoulder)

Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem

I did enjoy the previous Alien vs. Predator movie, but I didn’t go into the movie expecting anything other than a bit of gore and fighting. I have the same expectations here; if it is a great movie, fine, but I’ll be happy if it is just a bit of fun.

Looks great though.

As a separate comment, I love it that movie companies or distribution companies are putting trailers on the web in increasing numbers. I hated that the only way to see certain trailers were to watch a specific movie, sometimes one that I didn’t want to watch. In some cases, I snuck into a different movie just to watch the trailer and then went back to my movie that I wanted to watch.

Eight years ago there was a wonderful television show that had its genesis in my favorite comic strip, Dilbert.  A few years later, I bought the DVD set when it came out and watched it quite a few times as I hadn’t seen any of the shows when they were originally broadcast, only as reruns on Comedy Central.  The boy and I would curl up and watch the shows when he was in preschool.

Jump forward to last Sunday morning and the boy gets up before everyone else and makes his way downstairs to watch some TV.  Out of all of the shows he could pick, he decides to watch Dilbert. 

That’s my boy. 

By the time I get up and join him, he is four or five episodes into the first season.  We’ve now watched almost all of them in our free moments over the last few days.

I’m already working on British comedies with him – My Family first and then Red Dwarf.  Python will have to wait until I’m willing to deal with the awkward questions…

Nibblonian 1: It’s a genetic abnormality which resulted when you went back in time and performed certain actions which made you your own grandfather.
Fry: I did do the nasty in the pasty!
Nibblonian 2: Verily. And that past nastification is what shields you from the brains. You are the last hope of the universe.

– Futurama, “The Why of Fry”

Oh, how clever. Yes, I’ve heard it before. Yes, I’ve seen this episode (and all of the others) so many times that I have them nearly memorized.

Still… “past nastification”… very funny.

I like to watch TV, but I’m selective.

Kind of.

I watch a lot of Cartoon Network – about half of the Adult Swim are among my favorite shows. Futurama, Family Guy, Robot Chicken, Witch Hunter Robin, Ghost in The Shell. I’ve recorded most of them (except Family Guy) and have them stored on the network for when I need a quick fix.

I also watch a lot of BBC America, History Channel, Public Television, Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel. I’ve also become a recent convert to CSI, the original show, and since Spike TV shows a two or three hour block each day in the afternoon and early evening I get my fix in.

Tonight though I discovered a new show and it is wonderfully decadent. The Riches, on FX.

Now, to be completely honest, I won’t get to watch the show until I get back from a business trip but I’ve got it taped and scheduled to tape all episodes from now on. It stars Eddie Izzard (wonderful as always) and Minnie Driver.

Minnie Driver… oh yeah.

Anything that has Ms. Driver in it is fine by me. She always looks so very ‘drop dead’ gorgeous and whether she is sporting an English accent or a Midwestern drawl it is simply a treasure to watch.

The bits and pieces of the show that I saw were funny, dramatic and down right wonderful. I hope it stands up when I watch the episode in full.

I’ll still watch it though – Eddie Izzard always stands out and, well, Minnie is in it.

A year or so ago I stumbled across this video, then promptly lost the URL. Now, here it is in its glory:

“Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me”, a song by TISM (This Is Serious Mum) animated by Bernard Derriman.

Please note that the song is rather catchy and might not be safe for where you work. Makes me laugh though; I feel for the rabbit.