To UK or to US?

I often find myself telling people I don’t watch a lot of TV.  That is technically true; you don’t find me channel surfing often, and about the only shows I catch when they air are Lost and The Office.  The real truth is that I do watch quite a bit of TV via other means.  Let’s call those other means “Netflix”.

Sports Puppets

One of the many reasons I miss the Triangle area is the quality of the local media (although the TV doesn’t hold a candle to my beloved Upstate). So it is with envy that I watch this video of the NBC 17 late night news on YouTube several days later.

Innotech, er… EniTech

I spent Saturday through Friday last week in Seattle at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting. Seattle is awesome and I had a lot more time to explore than my previous, three day trip. The weather was actually pretty decent — it was often rainy but not raining. In fact, it only rained the two times I didn’t take my umbrella with me.

Anyhow, I need to get back into the blogging habit, and as a big Terminator fan (apparently one of the few that prefers the original) I think that the website for Enitech is pretty entertaining.

Killing the Blue Jeans

Every time I see it, I am blown away by JCPenney’s ad for Ralph Lauren’s latest line, American Living. Not so much the ad itself, but the use of the song “Killing the Blues” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Check out the ad, and if you like what you hear, definitely check out the album, Raising Sand.

Recidivistic Development?

Kristin from E! Online—who I think would fit in with our group just fine—reports that an Arrested Development movie may be in the works. It was definitely a love-it-or-hate-it show, and many of us loved it immensely.

My Eighth Annual Super Bowl Party of One

For the first time since 2000, I will not be hosting a Super Bowl Party. (The first year was just me and Brent, and we left at halftime to go to Burger King.) For a couple of years, it was the social event of the season for the graduate students in Duke Physics and their friends. In later years, though, as my involvement in the department shifted from “very” to “kinda”, the crowd reduced to several close friends. Alas, now that I live in a different city, and most of my friends are married with children and/or live prohibitively far, the streak comes to an end. Frankly, it’s a relief. I’m not much in the mood to host a party right now.

My favorite Super Bowl party memory is from 2002. Our friend Karl attended, and it was apparently the first time he’d ever had any interaction with Brad. After observing Brad and I trading barbs all night, he later commented, “I thought that guy was being a dick!”

Anyone else care to share?

The 50 Best TV Episodes of 2007

The folks over at TheFutonCritic.com compile a list every year of the 50 best individual television episodes of the year. I always find it very close to my own ranking, although I don’t watch many of the shows they rank. Today, they completed their recap of 2007. (NOTE: Under each entry is a sentence that contains major spoilers! If you just want a list, I’ll put it after the jump.)

I still say that the last ten minutes of the latest season of Battlestar Galactica is one of my favorite moments in television all-time, but since they gave the show its #1 spot last year, I suppose I can’t be too upset with them putting it at #2, especially considering who it lost out to. One big surprise: I figured #15 would be much higher than it ended up.

Patriots-Colts “Unusual Audio Moment”

The National Football League is denying that the above clip indicates that Indianapolis uses amplifiers to make the crowd louder when their opponents are on offense.  Officials claim that the weird audio effects were not audible in the stadium, but were introduced in the broadcasting.  While conspiracy theorists work feverishly, I am much more amused by this list of possible explanations left as a comment from “Mark G” on the Sports Illustrated blog, The 10 Spot:

1. Electronic interference from Patriot’s surveilance equipment
2. Background noise from Peyton Manning commercials playing on TVs in concession stand walkways
3. Actually sound of women being impregnated simply through a combination Brady’s boyish good looks and cavalier attitude
4. Super-sensitive mikes picked up groans from Al Davis’ Oakland hot-tub as he contemplates letting go a “washed up” Randy Moss

Any other ideas? 

Incidentally, through that blog, I have learned of another blog that is perfect for this blog.  Awful Announcing has been added to the blogroll.

Stephen Colbert for President

Regular viewers of The Colbert Report know that host Stephen Colbert announced that he would run for President, at least in his home state of South Carolina–and is actually doing quite well. When asked which party of which he would seek the nomination, he responded by simply saying, “both,” claiming that it is legally possible in SC. He even started a campaign website and accepted a corporate sponsorship from Doritos and is being courted by Dr Pepper. But is it legal to maintain the program during the campaign, or does Comedy Central technically endorse the candidate by airing his program? Slate tackles the issue here.

(Full disclosure: as a registered voter in South Carolina, I have signed a petition to get Stephen Colbert’s name on the Democratic primary ballot.)

This Weekend’s Football

Saturday night’s Michigan game was a blast — tied late into the fourth quarter.  Illinois matched each Michigan turnover with several mind-numbingly bad penalties.  All three of Michigan’s glamor offense players were injured for some or all of the game, though fortunately not superstar offensive tackle Jake Long.  Both teams used two quarterbacks.  Ultimately one of the wide receivers tossed the go-ahead touchdown pass.  However, the highlight was that not only did I get to hear a commentor say “now we have a football game” about two-and-a-half hours in, but while discussing how University of South Florida (then #2 in both polls) had lost and Boston College (#3) had not played, a commentator actually said that BC would “slide into the 2 hole”.  Given that Ann mostly watches football for the homo-eroticism, I thought that was absolutely classic.

Another classic that I observed briefly on ESPN was an Auburn kick return during the LSU game.  After receiving, dropping, and recovering the kick, the return man turned his back to the oncoming LSU players and was joined by four teammates, two to either side.  After swapping the ball, all five players ran in different directions.  Unfortunately, I could only find what has to be the world’s worst Youtube video ever to show the play.  Not only is the fumble edited out (Auburn fan?) but the actual yardage gained as a result isn’t shown.  Assuming he got past the 25 yard line, I would think this would become a standard way to return the ball.