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Archive for April, 2009

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Real Time Reality TV

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

By now, most everyone is aware of the escalating violence off the coast of Somalia. Since Sunday, Somali pirates have taken seventy-five additional hostages and fired upon American ships bearing food aid, all in response to this past weekend’s rescue of American Captain Richard Phillips and several French sailors. A spokesman for the pirates (yes, they apparently have spokesmen) said, “Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land.”

A serious situation, to be sure. So imagine my surprise when I saw this banner ad in my Yahoo! news feed:

Apparently, a company called 44 Blue Productions will station TV crews aboard U.S. Navy vessels patrolling the Somali waters for pirates. Rasha Drachkovitch, 44 Blue’s president and founder says he will have access to dozens of navy cameras along with his own. He feels it’s his job to “find the characters and stories to focus upon.”

Spike’s senior VP for original series, Sharon Levy, said she didn’t know if the incident with Richard Phillips would “kill the deal or seal the deal,” but feels that “following the work of Navy personnel on this mission is the sort of action Spike craves. . . The cable channel targets young male viewers aged 18 to 34, potentially making ‘Pirate Hunters: USN’ a strong recruiting tool for the Navy.”

The Navy, believe it or not, agrees. Navy spokesman Commander Richard K. Anderson (who was terrific in The Matrix, by the way): “That’s the Spike demographic and (recruiting) is a factor. We also have a responsibility to inform the American public about what we are doing.”

To all of which, I can only add this: Seriously? The U.S. Navy needs a Reality TV show to inform the American public about what they’re doing to fight Somali pirates? Isn’t that what the news media is for? Isn’t it enough that the President of the United States has publicly vowed to halt the piracy? Or is that just advance marketing for the TV show now?

And do we really need to “find characters and stories to focus upon?” Here’s a story: a group of Navy Seals took out three pirates with high-powered rifles in open water without so much as splashing water on the hostage. Sorry, but I don’t need touching background footage of their wives & kids back home to consider them heroes.

This is reality. It doesn’t need to be reality television.

Categories: News and/or Media, Primetime TV | 1 Comment »

Some thoughts on Citi Field

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

The New York Mets christened their new stadium last night, making them the first of two baseball teams in New York to do so this week. I’m obviously a biased source

Categories: New York, New York, Sports Talk | 1 Comment »

Minor Blog Maintenance

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Lately, I’ve found myself using the “Recent Comments” widgets on other blogs more frequently, in order to keep tabs on comments I’ve made, whether or not people have responded, etc.. That realization led to a second realization, which is that my blog didn’t have a “Recent Comments” widget.

As you can see on the right sidebar, this travesty was finally rectified this morning.

Categories: Blogging about Blogs | 5 Comments »

Precisely.

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

xkcd:

 

Categories: Money Talk | Comments Off on Precisely.

After the Beep, Please Send E-mail

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

The New York Times ran an interesting article last week about the impending obsolescence of voice mail. Some quotes:

Over 30 percent of voice messages linger unheard for three days or longer and that more than 20 percent of people with messages in their mailboxes

Categories: Tech Talk | 1 Comment »

Page Not Found – Ver 1.0

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

This made me laugh:

I’m a geek.

(via)

Categories: Random Acts of Blogging, Tech Talk | Comments Off on Page Not Found – Ver 1.0

The Official Blog Post of the New York Yankees

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

With the Yankees and the Mets sporting new stadiums this year, the opportunities for new sponsorship deals were numerous. Apparently, both teams took full advantage.

Some examples from the Yankees:

  • Benjamin Moore is the Official Paint of the New York Yankees
  • Amtrak is the Official Rail Fare of the New York Yankees (not the trains, mind you, just the fare)
  • Met Life is the Official Life Insurance of the New York Yankees (despite the word “Met” in their name)
  • Hess is the Official Gasoline & Convenience Store Retailer of the New York Yankees
  • H&R Block is the Official Tax Preparation Company of the New York Yankees
  • StubHub is the Official Secondary Ticketing of the New York Yankees (for those who are wondering, there is no “Official Scalper of the New York Yankees.” Coincidence?)

So, if you want to show your Yankee pride while you buy life insurance or pay your taxes, you have that option now.

The Mets are similarly opportunistic:

  • Davis Vision is the Official Eyecare Provider of the New York Mets
  • Geico is the Official Auto Insurance of the New York Mets
  • Kozy Shack is the Official Pudding of the New York Mets
  • Landmark Concessions is the Official Fried Dough of the New York Mets
  • Send In The Clowns is the Official Party Provider of the New York Mets

So, if you want to have a party, and serve pudding and fried dough, you can do it all while supporting your hometown boys from Flushing, Queens.

It gets better: both teams have official hospitals (Yankees: New York Presbyterian, Mets: Hospital For Special Surgery). Nathan’s is the Offical Hot Dog of the New York Yankees, and the Non-Kosher Hot Dog & French Fry of the New York Mets (one assumes the Mets no preference on kosher hot dogs and the Yankees don’t care what kind of french fry you eat…) The Yankees have Official Life Insurance (Met Life) and Official Health Insurance (Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield), and the Mets have Official Auto Insurance (Geico) and an Official X-Ray Equipment Provider (NY Imaging). So you can get sick and/or die as a Yankee fan, but if you crash your car or break a bone, you better be rooting for the Mets.

Oh, one more thing: Zales is the Official National Jewelry Retailer of the New York Yankees. The Mets have no Official Jewelry Retailer. I guess they don’t expect to be buying rings anytime soon.

<grin>

Categories: New York, New York, Sports Talk, The World Wide Weird | 1 Comment »

ISBS Review: The New Yankee Stadium

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

So remember that secret mission I mentioned on Thursday? The one that required a new digital camera? Well, it took two days to get all of the online documentation in place, but now I can discuss it. My older son, Avery, and I found ourselves in possession of two tickets to the New York Yankees’ Pre-Season workout at the newly opened Yankee Stadium. This was the first time the new stadium was opened to the public, and it afforded us the opportunity to spend several hours exploring the entire structure, sampling the food, taking in the new amenities and watching our beloved Yankees take batting and fielding practice.

Those who want the whole story of the day can read on below the fold. For everyone else, a collection of 57 photographs is here and a six-minute video retrospective is here. There’s also a separate video of Bernie Williams singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” here (which you can read more about if you continue below).

All in all, it was an amazing, historical, unforgettable day that neither my son nor I will ever forget. A reporter for the New York Post stopped us outside and asked me why I was a Yankee fan. Here’s what I told him:

And now, as they say, the rest of the story:

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Family Matters, New York, New York, Sports Talk | 5 Comments »

High School High

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Both Jason and Ilya have partaken in the “My So-Called High School Life” meme, and since high school was all about peer pressure, well – here goes:

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 8 Comments »

Free Ice Cream!

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but no one can argue with free ice cream:

As a way to thank our customers for their support and to celebrate 31 years of scooping the chunkiest, funkiest ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet, Ben & Jerry

Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | Comments Off on Free Ice Cream!

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