July 25, 2011

IT'S LIKE AN OVEN OUT THERE

  1. …A New York City woman in a news report on NBC said it was "snasty," a combination of sweaty and nasty.
  2. …Air conditioning on trains and buses in the nation's capital was stretched to the limit and many times non-existent, providing a not-so-pleasant commute. People thought they could switch to another car that was cooler on the Metro for relief but guess what? It wasn't there. Every car in that train was AC-challenged.
  3. …People were up in arms about it and so were their pits, all wet and stinky.
  4. …Many thought there was no excuse for it. Everyone knew the heat was coming.
  5. …They spend money on everything else, why not the AC?
  6. TV reporters were cooking outside in the heat: Jeff Rossen of NBC cooked macaroni and cheese, pizza and eggs on the sidewalks of New York.
  7. Matt Guttman of ABC cooked a steak on the dashboard of a car that was 115 degrees. He said it looked medium well done.
  8. Queen Elizabeth, upon seeing new bride Kate Middleton's "dress of the century" on display at Buckingham Palace said it was "horrible," referencing the fact that there was no head on the mannequin that the dress was on.
  9. …The gown was on the dummy's body without a head but hovering over where the head should be was a veil attached to the tiara she wore and it looked like a spaceship.
  10. …It did look like something was missing.
  11. …That queen speaks her mind.
  12. Jay Leno called Anthony Weiner, the New York congressman that resigned due to a "sexting scandal" sending sexually suggestive pictures of himself on his Twitter account, called him the "Peter Tweeter" in his opening monologue one night last week.
  13. DO WE NEED MORE SOCIAL MEDIA? Don Lemon, regular weekend anchor on CNN, signed off one of his newscasts by saying that you could follow him on Facebook and Twitter and - are you ready for this? - on "Foursquare."
  14. Foursquare is a location-based social network website that people can use on their smartphones - a cell phone is longer enough -- to let their friends know their location so they can hook up.
  15. …How connected can we get?
  16. …How much more public can people get?
  17. …And if that wasn't enough about the anchor, there was a shameless plug for his book, "Transparent," (its cover was shown on the screen) -- in which he admits he is gay, at the end of the announcement.
  18. …I'm surprised that they didn't say how much it cost and where to find it, for crissakes.
  19. …It's probably on Twitter somewhere. What isn't?
  20. …I don't think they should do that on a newscast. It's okay on a talk show but do we have to put up with self-promotion on the more important programs?
  21. OVER FAMILARITY. "For Scott [Pelley] and all of us at CBS News, goodnight and have a…" [good weekend] was what Bob Schieffer said at the end of the CBS Evening News last Friday.
  22. …The "good weekend" audio was cut off by either the network or the local station I was watching (WJLA in Washington). Careless.
  23. To continue, Pelley is the regular anchor of the show now but he wasn't in the anchor chair all week. And he hasn't been the anchor that long and to hear Schieffer say "Scott" in his sign-off like he (Pelley) was sitting next to him or something seemed out of the blue.
  24. …It was just a device to remind viewers that Pelley is the regular anchor of the show and not to forget it.
  25. …Does seasoned professional newsman Bob Schieffer, of all people, have to submit to the ridiculous use of just the first name of his fellow anchor to make it all sound like one big happy family?
  26. …The manufactured comaraderie and clubiness of network news is really grating sometimes.
  27. …You can thank the Today show for this annoying concept.
  28. …"Thanks Matt and Ann and Al and Natalie…"
  29. Matt and Ann and Al and Natalie who? Everybody doesn't know them.
  30. ABC weekend anchor David Muir reminded viewers Saturday that "Diane"[Sawyer] would be back in the anchor chair on Monday.
  31. …Who, Diane von Furstenberg?
  32. If I hear Don't Stop Believin' (Journey, on Columbia Records, 1981) one more time I'll…
  33. …Does it have to be used on everything, from inspiring American Idol-like competitors to being used as the song to plug the touring Broadway show Rock of Ages?
  34. IMPORTANCE OVER-STRESSED. I'm sick of hearing what might happen to the country if the debt ceiling is not passed and we default. You know it's gonna be passed, that there will be a compromise and everything will come out in the wash. S o stop making things seem like it's doomsday.
  35. OBSERVED. James Murdoch, Rupert's son and the one who did most of the testifying at the British House of Commons committee hearing on the News of the World hacking scandal last week, has shifty eyes. You could see them bobbing and twitching rapidly from side-to-side during his testimony.
  36. …He seemed like Slick Willy.
  37. NOTICED. Tom Daschle, former senator from South Dakota, didn't have on those ridiculous Sally Jessy Raphael (remember her?) red glasses on in his This Week With Christiane Amanpour appearance Sunday. Remember when he wore those goofy round specs? He was laughed off the planet.
  38. Steve Williams, Tiger Woods's caddie, was let go. Woods announced it last week on his website (how personal). Williams said that after 13 years of loyal service it came as a shock and that he had been through a lot with Tiger in the last 18 months (the sex scandal, a new coach, a "swing" change and Tiger's injuries).
  39. …ADVICE: Get over it. You're not the only one it happens to. No employer these days cares about loyalty and service. Today they toss you out at the drop of a hat with no concern for what you've done. It's cold-blooded out there.
  40. EXAGGERATED CLAIM. All the reports - on TV, in print, on the Internet - said Paris Hilton "stormed off" the set of an interview (not in the studio) with ABC's Dan Harris last week when he asked her, "Do you ever worry about your moment having passed?" while making light of the low ratings her Oxygen cable show is getting and the popularity of newer-on-the-scene celebrity Kim Kardashian.
  41. …TRUTH: She didn't "storm off." It was quiet and calm - no outbursts or trashing the set. Paris is smarter than that; she knows about how to 'PR'her image.
  42. …She simply got up out of her chair and moved away from the cameras to talk to her publicist who was also in the room. There was no yelling or punching or anything.
  43. …She later returned and finished the interview and then gave Harris a hug at the end of it.
  44. GMA anchor Robin Roberts said afterward, "I'm glad she hugged you."
  45. …Yeah, let's all have a group hug about it..
  46. STUPID ADVICE. "Put your sheets in the freezer for a couple of hours before you go to bed," said ABC's Dr. Richard Besser -- Diane Sawyer calls him "Rich"-- to World News substitute weekday anchor David Muir, giving his advice on how to beat the heat.
  47. …Yeah, sure, I'm gonna do that.
  48. …How big a refrigerator do you think I have?
  49. …That's okay, I'll just go out to Home Depot and drop $400 on a Maytag chest freezer.
  50. IS IT NECESSARY? On Meet the Press, to have historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on every other Sunday to tell stories about old presidents and what they did way back then to give perspective on present-day politics? She's not a newsmaker.
  51. …I don't need a history lesson on Sunday mornings.
  52. NEW PRODUCT. Preparation H now has a new portable product called Totables, "irritation relief wipes," which are individually wrapped and flushable. So I hope that helps you all with your hemorroidal discomfort when you're on the go.
  53. Elizabeth Palmer of CBS News said Mos-COE instead of Mos-COW when she reported last week about the demise of the U.S. space program and future trips to space with Russia's Soyuz crew.
  54. …We mentioned in the last column that she also says "bean" instead of "been." She needs to take a course in American pronunciation.
  55. FYI: Actress Mila Kunis had a "butt double" when filming the current movie, Friends With Benefits, in which she stars with Justin Timberlake, which I learned by reading a "crawl" at the bottom of the screen on Entertainment Tonight (a new feature and possibly copied off CNN's Showbiz Tonight show) before they went to a commercial break.
  56. …Was it Jennifer Lopez's?
  57. Rebekah Brooks, former editor of News of the World and CEO of News International, and who was also questioned at the House of Commons hacking hearings last week, looked like Medusa with that huge, unruly head of red hair. Good God did she have a tangled mane.
  58. …Her head looked small and almost disappeared in it.
  59. …She looked like a character out of Lord of the Rings.
  60. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, doesn't like the heat. She pants and gets very lazy. Yet when she goes outside, relates owner Sally, "instead of lying in the shade she plops herself down on the hot pavement and suns herself. Go figure."
  61. "You are "ballsy" and aggressive," said Piers Morgan to Nancy Grace, who was a guest on his nightly CNN interview show, talking about - what else? - "tot mom," as she incessantly refers to Casey Anthony.
  62. …Couldn't he think of another descriptive word other than that vulgar term?
  63. …I don't mean to sound prudish or naive but it sounded pretty gross American TV.
  64. …Go back to where you came from, back to Rupert Murdoch's empire. (The talk show host and America's Got Talent judge used to be editor of The Daily Mirror and News of the World, British tabloid scandal sheets heavy on bluntness and muckraking that are owned by Murdoch.
  65. MOVIE: Captain America: The First Avenger. Fantastic special effects/3D summer blockbuster based on the Marvel Comics superhero character, who is the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a very slight young man who wants to join the war effort to fight the Nazis in World War II and achieves his dream by taking an experimental serum to bulk up.
  66. …The beginning of the movie is a tad slow but it picks up and after that it's an absolute wild ride through Europe fighting with the Allied forces against the bad guys.
  67. …The film is totally exaggerated and with comic book "believability" but director Joe Johnston (The Wolfman, The Rocketeer) sure knows how to make a movie. I was on the edge of my seat.
  68. …Ray guns that disintegrate people, rapid pursuit in huge retro/futuristic airplanes, chases through snow-filled black forests, scientific experiments by a mad scientist in a huge lab with electricity flashing all over the place - that's what you get and more.
  69. SAD DEPARTURE. Amy Winehouse, the soulful British singer/songwriter who was found dead in her apartment in Camden, North London on Saturday. She was 27.
  70. …She only had done two albums - "Frank" (2003) and "Back to Black" (2006) - the second of which won her five Grammys, had the pop hit "Rehab" in it and was backed up by members of the Dap Kings, a tight, James Brown-like band from Brooklyn.
  71. …THIS JUST IN: NBC's Stephanie Gosk, in her report from Camden, said that she did record a third album some time back but that it was held by her record company but now it will be released.
  72. …Her musical inspiration came from many different artists: Frank Sinatra, Thelonius Monk, Motown and rap that she put it into a mix of "retro soul" that captured fans from all over the world.
  73. …She also liked Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington.
  74. …She had a lazy way of singing sometimes, especially on the ballads, like Billie Holiday often did.
  75. …She sounded very American. (It's curious the way many British singers sound this way with barely a hint of their native accent.)
  76. …Her beehive hairdo was inspired by the 1960's girl group, the Ronettes,as well as the heavy eye makeup, which looked Cleopatra-like.
  77. …She also liked the tough girl group the Shangri-La's (Leader of the Pack, Remember ("Walkin' in the Sand").
  78. …Her arms were festooned with tattoos.
  79. …She had a somewhat trashy and thrown-together look and sounded whiny, sassy, bluesy and jazzy.
  80. …But Winehouse's personal life turned out to be tragic. Repeated bouts with drug addiction and alcohol abuse made her tabloid fodder and she was in and out of treatment and on the track to self-destruction.
  81. AWAITING… The toxicology reports.
  82. Some people in Chicago are complaining about that huge sculpture (26 feet high and designed by J. Seward Johnson) of Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate like she did in the film, "The Seven-Year Itch," and calling the statue "sexist and creepy," and the Chicago-Sun Times reported "disturbing 'photo-op' behavior that included men and women 'licking Marilyn's leg, gawking up her skirt and pointing at her giant panties as they leer and laugh'."
  83. …Critics said it was "more New York than Chicago"-ish because she's astride a subway grate when a whoosh of air comes up from below but in Chicago the subway is above and not underground .
  84. …Stickler point.
  85. …Glad somebody caught it.
  86. …UH… Have You Seen Her - The Chi-Lites (from Chicago) on Brunswick Records, 1971.


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