Now who will tell us the way it is?

One of my earliest memories is of sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a black-and-white console TV watching Walter Cronkite's coverage of one of the Apollo moon missions. I was too young to understand the complexity of the science in sending men to the moon, but I knew that this was a big deal. There was something about Cronkite's coverage of the event that told even a young boy that this was a big deal.

My parents still have the console TV I watched the broadcast on. It hasn't functioned as a TV or a radio or a record player in decades. Now it's mostly a long, extremely heavy side table along a wall in my parents living room. But, sadly, Walter Cronkite is now gone.

For much of my youth, the three major networks were all the TV we had, but when it came time for the evening news, like many American families, there was only one channel to watch -- Walter Cronkite on CBS.

Cronkite retired before I pursued my education and a career in journalism. As a print journalist, I don't know that I consciously considered Cronkite an influence, but I know he was a huge influence on my early knowledge and understanding of the world. TV news and journalism have changed a lot since Cronkite retired from the daily media stage in 1981.

I learned about Cronkite's death, not from the evening news, but from the Internet, specifically Twitter, and then read the story on the Wall Street Journal website.

I'll be curious to see how the media world covers Cronkite and his passing. We've been bombarded with all the minutia surrounding Michael Jackson's death for more than three weeks now. By all rights, coverage of Cronkite's death should eclipse coverage of Jackson's death based on the role Cronkite played in generation's of lives. But I know it won't. By Monday morning the media world will largely have moved on to other things, including more trivia about Jackson's life and death. It's a different world than it was in Cronkite's heyday.

At my current job, I have been consumed for more than a week with preparing for the launch of a new website. It's an exciting time and an exciting world. I love the conveniences of modern technology and the speed with which information can be shared with the world. But part of me missed the time when the world was as black and white as that old television set and we could tell the most important issues of the day affecting the world by where they ranked in Cronkite's broadcast and how much time the segment commanded.

So long Walter, and thanks for keeping the issues of the day in perspective.

GM and Bing saturate the airwaves

Either I watch too much TV or GM and Microsoft are spending some serious money on their new TV campaigns.

In the case of General Motors, about every other commercial break seems to feature GM's "Chapter 1" commercial, putting a positive spin on the company's bankruptcy filing.

As a print/online journalist, I hope they funnel some money to newspapers and their websites too. But the cynic in me wonders how long it will be before some politician throws a hissy fix and complains about how much money the company is spending on advertising now that taxpayers own most of the company after the latest bailout. So I expect the ads to be pulled in short order. But media companies can sure use the money, especially as so many of those local dealers, which aren't selling many cars for either GM and Chrysler and thousands of them are about to get their signage pulled. Many of them may not be around when American car buyers return to the showrooms.

Come to think of it, with FCC control of the airwaves and government ownership of GM, maybe their new commercial actually qualify as a donated airtime PSA.

The other commercial assaulting the airwaves right now is the one for Microsoft's new search engine, Bing.com.

Will Microsoft's new search engine pose a threat to the Google colossus? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, have you Binged yourself?

I did. So far I like it. But maybe that's because on Google, there is a millionaire with the same name as me who shows up first on the search. My work blog profile comes up second. I come up No. 2 on Bing too, but the No. 3 item is also a reference to me. The millionaire dude doesn't show up until No. 5.

I have to like a search engine where I outrang someone on the Forbes 400.

But in the interest of full disclose there is an obvious flaw to Bing. The No. 1 person on the search is a reference to a neurologist named Gary L. Miller. WTF? I searched for Gary L. West.

So keep working on it Microsoft. But I have already found something to like there. But I do have a question, does Matthew Perry get a residual for the use of his "Friends" character's last name? I sawy his recent appearance on Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. Perry seemed like he might be looking for work. At least hire the guy for a frickin' commercial.

And thanks GM and Microsoft for eating up some of those commercial spots that probably would have been filled by Viagra and Cialis ads.

Leave already, or I will

Dead Denny not only returned on Grey's Anatomy again this week, apparently dead people are amazing lovers. And even when Izzie spurned her ghostly lover, he still frickin' won't leave.

I may have to leave. The shark is in the process of being jumped. The concept was creative the first time I saw it, which Patrick Swayze's spirit used Whoopi Goldberg's body to ring Demi Moore's chimes. Now it's just tired.

We single men have enough pressure to deal with in trying to make women happy. Do we really need to compete with the screwed up notion of a love so true and powerful that a lover can come back from the dead to curl a woman's toes? What a stupid story line.

But I was recovering and feeling better when afterward I'm enjoying the show Life on Mars. I told myself that at least I have that to look forward to on Thursday nights, only to learn during the previews of the next new episode that the next new episode will not be on until Wednesday, Jan. 28. So, I get to wait two months and tune in a different night. Two months from now, I may have found something else to do with my time on Wednesday nights.

Network TV executives need to be shot. I'm more outraged by TV executives' decisions than people are about the big three from the Big Three automakers taking their private jets to Washington to beg Congress for a bailout. Those idiots make my credit card debt look like chump change.

But the morons running the networks -- canceling shows after only a few episodes, or only showing a few episodes of a show before taking an extended break --are going to wonder why their ad rates drop through the floor because no one is watching anymore.

Has Grey's Anatomy jumped the shark?

I think Grey's Anatomy has jumped the shark. What's the deal with the ongoing Izzie and dead Denny storyline? Can't the writers find enough dramatic content in a hospital, complex family, friend and lover relationships? Do they have to keep bringing back a character they killed off? Really?

My opinion may not be universally held (see this post from Daytime Confidential). Hey, I can handle shows with supernatural storylines that are beyond the scope of normal, conventional beliefs. I like the show True Blood for example, with it's vampires and people who can hear people's thoughts or shape shifters, and Life On Mars and its time-traveling cop. But I want to know I'm expected to suspend disbelieve from the outset based on the plot.

I'm not saying I'm completely done watching Grey's Anatomy, but my loyalty to any network TV show is tenuous at best, given writers' strikes and odd-ball, on-again, off-again schedules, I can find something else to do with my time in any hour time slot -- like watching old Happy Days reruns.

An enjoyable journey down October Road

This season's TV viewing has been pretty much a bust. The writer's strike left a lot of long winter nights without some familiar faces and video friends to keep us company.

I'm currently watching the season finale of October Road. I find it ironic that the second season is ending after showing about one season's worth of shows since it's debut.

In this strike-shortened year, it is an odd irony that one of the bright spots of the last few weeks has been a show that is very well written. I hope that's not a kiss of death for the show as the last well-written show I became a fan of was the Aaron Sorkin drama, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. That show died an all-too-quick death.

But October Road is different, because it's a show about normal people and the normal dramas of life. It's not another cop show, or a hospital show or a show about a show. It's a show a bout a small town guy and his mixed feelings about returning home. Trying to get a life back he left behind and reconnect with the people he loves who he once walked away from in pursuit of a dream.

I can related to that. And it features great music.

I like October Road. I hope it has a long and winding journey.

Hey, Dex, can you help me out?

My efforts to polish my culinary skills (OK, the develop ANY cooking skills) have been derailed, at least momentarily.

My grocery supply has run short, so I've reverted to some of my old ways the last few days. I've been eating out more often the last few days. I have no good excuse.

I may have rediscovered why I never developed the habit of regularly eating at home. Did you realized that in order to have food food in the house you have to go shopping? With each and every meal you prepare, your food supply is diminished. And if you don't use it fast enough, some of it spoils! What's up with that?

The fact of the matter is I've just been too lazy to go back to the store to stock up again. On the way home from work, I'm just not motivated to deal with tramping up and down the aisles, checkout counters, etc. So, then I get home, get busy being a bum, and then it just gets too late to go to the grocery store.

Maybe I need to start exploring the options to shop online and get my groceries delivered. Then I can sit on my ever-expanding butt at midnight in my underwear and artery-clogging digestibles.

***

I obviously spend too much time setting on my widening butt watching TV. So, since not everyone has that sort of quality time to bond with their boob tube, I'll share with you what I've learned.

There is this actor named Brian Stepanek who seems to be in every frickin' commercial there is. But don't take my word for it. Here are some samples:









For more samples of his work, check out the commercial reel on his website. The dude in omnipresent and funny as hell.

Have I ever mentioned that I did some acting in high school? Maybe I could have been the Dex guy! Naw, on second thought, probably not. If I was Dex, I'd already know how to find a grocery store that delivers after shopping online.

For some reason I'm craving a DiGiorno pizza and a DQ Blizzard.