I am a sucker for the Olympics. The human drama is just spell-binding. I have been watching when I can during these Olympics, here and there. While I generally think the coverage has been good, it can get annoying the way the commentators try to dumb it down for the lowest-common denominator. I think anyone who produces live sports on TV needs to read this great article about the use of silence in sports. As my old broadcast professor used to say. "Nats is king. (natural sound) You can say so much more if you just shut up and let the sound tell the story." The author is so on the money. If you don't believe him, go to the Olympics web site and watch Lindsey Vonn's or Shaun White's gold medal run--with no commentary, just nats. Great Stuff. Here is the article:
You know it's cold outside when your drinks start exploding. Last night, we were sitting at the dinner table when we heard this loud !pop! It turns out that one of the cans in a twelve pack of diet coke we had stored outside had frozen, expanded, and exploded. I said I would bring them in in the morning, and promptly forgot. The next morning, we heard a loud BOOM! and looked out the window. A two-liter of coke had now exploded, showering our little back yard in frozen coke. I had to sweep it up with a broom.
Off the seventh tee, Joe sliced his shot deep into a wooded ravine. He took his eight iron and clambered down the embankment in search of his lost ball.
After many long minutes of hacking at the underbrush, he spotted something glistening in the leaves. As he drew nearer, he discovered that it was an eight iron in the hands of a skeleton!
Joe immediately called out to his friend, "Jack, I've got trouble down here!"
"What's the matter?" Jack asked from the edge of the ravine.
"Bring me my wedge," Joe shouted. "You can't get out of here with an eight iron!"
When you Google your name, what comes up? Don't tell me you don't. Everyone does it; it's healthy. At least that is what I hear. Anyway, a few years ago, when I would Google my name i found other Dustin Dibbles. There is one that was a HS basketball star in Michigan, and now plays for UMKC. And from what I read, is pretty darn good. There is another one in Kansas (who is about my age) and another younger one that races motocross. About half of the first 10 hits were me. I felt pretty good about myself! Out of all the dustin dibbles, I was making something of myself!
And then came April 23, 2006. On that fateful night, one Dustin Dibble of New York City (heretofore unknown to the googleverse) got blitzed with his friends at the bar while watching hockey. After, he stumbled down to the subway (his BAC being more than twice the legal limit), and somehow fell onto the track. He was then struck by the train, and ended up having his leg amputated. So what did he do? The only American thing - He sued! And he won-- $2.3 million from the NYC transit system! As you can imagine, the internet was alive with angry taxpayers and tort reform activists, many of whom disparaged his funny name, as well as his dumb actions. Such was the vitriol directed at dustin, that on urban dictionary, a dibble is "A person that does stupid things without taking responsibility and blames those who have to pay for their consequences."
Now, when you Google "Dustin Dibble" the vast majority are news articles, legal blogs, and angry posts about that Dustin Dibble. So much for me making a name for myself in the Googleverse. So on behalf of Dustin Dibbles everywhere, thanks a lot Dustin. Thanks a lot.
After viewing the media circus surrounding the death of Micheal Jackson this last week, I kept thinking af a song by one of my favorite bands. "Godspeed" by Anberlin sums up what I was thinking quite nicely. Back when I worked for PCTV, I got the chance to interview the band and I asked them about this song. They said, (paraphrasing) "Imagine the great songs the were still floating around in Kurt Cobain's head when he died. What other musical jems could Elvis have given us? Jim Morrisson? Sid Vicious? All taken early beacuse of drugs and alcohol." I could not agree more. So much potential is lost becasue of substance abuse. I have seen it destroy the lives of memebers of my own family. Here's the video, and the lyrics are posted below- follow along for a great message:
Burning down neverland (scatter the ashes) White lines black tar the matches Is this another death by misadventure? Tell me what you got, what you really got Lexington cross your veins Sleepers can't just wake the dead When needles and lovers collapse on guilty beds
Fall asleep, don't fall asleep Don't fall asleep
(They lied when they said the good die young)
THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG! stay with me, stay with me tonight
Burning down bridges now (scatter the ashes) Godspeed to all your after Is this a life left just to remember? Tell them who you were, who you really were Kill yourself slowly over time, fashion statement suicide She's still asleep in a Chelsea hotel Bad turns to worse, and the worst turns into hell
Fall asleep, don't fall asleep Don't fall asleep
(God save the eyes that dim tonight)
THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG! Stay with me, stay with me tonight
As we move through the spring time, we draw to the end of the television season. This is a sad time for a lot of people, because we find out which of our favorite shows have been given the boot because of low ratings. I am really disappointed this year because a really good show is biting the dust, or will be soon--Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on FOX. TSCC had an OK run --ratings started out strong, but then the strike happened, and the viewers never came back. Then it got moved to friday nights--a death sentence for a drama series.
Which brings me to this rant-- Why can't people wise up? Why can't people enjoy quality programming? I cannot beleive the garbage that draws the ratings these days-- Dancing with the next top model, Who wants to marry my dog?, Are you smarter than the celebrity apprentice?--Why do they air this crap and cancel the good stuff?
Because not only is there an endless supply of foolish idiots willing to degrade themselves in front of a national audience, apparently they are willing to do it for very little money. Reality programming is cheap to make--around 100k to 200k an episode. In contrast, The West Wing, my all time favorite show, cost around $6 Million an episode--as much as a small feature film.
I am uspet because network execs wont even let a show find it's feet. Sienfeld, Friends--None of these shows would have made it today because they would have yanked them after 2 episodes.
TSCC is a brilliant show. You should check it out on DVD when it is released. The character development is nothing short of outstanding. The writers took a tired story about killer robots and turned it into a complicated and profound discussion about the meaning of humanity, religion and technology. It explored deep questions that kept me thinking long after it was over. Can a machine love? What is the nature of the soul? What is the meaning of good and evil? Why do we believe the things we do? I think the biggest problem with the series was it's name--people saw it and said--oh, I've heard that story. Trust me-- you haven't.
