Rocci Fisch

April 10, 2009

THE RED, RED ROBIN IS BOB, BOB BOBBIN’ ALONG

… It’s finally spring and the birdies are hopping all over the front lawns of America. The worms are nervous.
… Those red-breasted songbirds are chirping away and busy getting their nests ready. Squeaky, the outdoor cat in my neighborhood, is licking her chops and ready to pounce. It’s time for dinner.
… Jenna Wolfe, a co-anchor on the Today’s show’s Sunday edition, asked a panel of “experts” whether the Obama European trip had been a “gush-athon” for Michelle, the first lady. Basically the answer was yes, it has been.
… It used to be that fashion was talked and written about as a “sidebar” item in the news. Now everyone’s making note of it, including network TV anchors. It’s come out of the back pages and now makes headlines.
… It’s what today’s “journalism” has turned into. Sad, this.
… HE GAVE IN. Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol Palin’s 3-month-old son Tripp, appeared as a guest on The Tyra Banks Show and admitted, when pressed, if he and Bristol practiced “safe sex” all of the time. “All the time?” Ms. Banks kept asking. Levi finally responded, “most of the time,” which elicited laughter from the audience and a smile of satisfaction on the talk show host who thinks she’s the next Oprah. Levi’s mother and sister were sitting right beside him on the couch, how cozy.
… So they all had a good-natured laugh. Geesh.
… The former VP candidate Sarah Palin, upon hearing about Levi’s reveal on national TV, issued a statement saying how disappointed she was about this and that Levi was exploiting his relationship with her daughter.
… So maybe Levi will wind up on a reality show sometime soon. Maybe we all can get to know him better.
… THIS JUST IN: Levi gave in again and appeared next on CBS’s Early Show along with his mother and sister and was interviewed by Maggie Rodriguez, who said to his mother, “Your little boy was a man all of a sudden …”
… Good God, where do they get these anchors? What a sappy, motherly, ignorant thing to say.
… A Web designer I work with said that the new Pepsi logo looks like Korean Air Lines Meets Virgin Atlantic. This, I feel, is accurate.
… And, does anybody get that the white center of the logo is, supposedly, a smile? That’s obvious if you ask me. It takes some figuring out.
… Failed mission. Fire the PR firm.
… I did a doubletake when I saw what looked like The Joker (Heath Ledger?) protesting in London’s financial district against the G-20 (Group of 20) summit last week (AP picture). He looked just like The Dark Knight character, with his makeup all smeared around his eyes and mouth.
… A lawyer who worked in the district, in an interview with The Washington Post, called the protesters privileged youngsters who “are living on daddy’s credit card.”
… Buncha brats.
… There’s been a lot of hoopla about Lady GaGa and her album (The Fame). She’s got a lot of hits off it. I finally saw her “perform” Poker Face, on American Idol last week and it had to be the single worst thing I’ve seen/heard performed on TV in the past six months.
… So, for me, the hoopla was a noopla.
… SUSPICIOUS. I am, over Australian “country” singer Keith Urban. He’s got that twang and all the right moves and is quite animated while he’s singing his songs. (He was on GMA this past week.)
… So how’d he get an American western accent and sound like all the other C&W singers out there? He’s from Down Under.
… I think it’s fake, all an act. Boycott.
… DUPLICITY. Movie with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen as two undercover spies who work for multinational corporations and may or may not be conning each other. One company has a new product that the other wants and there are high stakes, many plot twists and flashbacks. Roberts and Owen are good together, movie’s fast-paced and takes place in multiple countries.
… I’m no Julia Roberts fan but she was okay, mainly because she didn’t let out that wide-mouthed hideous laugh of hers and was more controlled inside her character, thank you.
… Jamie Foxx plays a homeless, schizophrenic musician (cellist) that “journalist” Robert Downey Jr. finds on the streets of L.A., writes about and helps fulfill his dream of playing at a concert hall. (It’s based on a true story about musical prodigy Nathaniel Ayers.)
… I’ve seen the preview (trailer) and it looks like a schmaltzy, over emotionally-acted movie that tries to tug at the heart strings and yes, isn’t Jamie Foxx great, isn’t he versatile, can’t he do anything. Gimme a Break!
… “IRVING R. LEVINE, NBC NEWS.” I can hear the sign-off now (it took him a while to say it all and he insisted on using his middle initial) and see him in his daily bowtie. He was a fixture at the network for 45 years and was considered one of the first network correspondents to report on the economy exclusively (actually Louis Rukeyser of ABC News held the first distinction, according to a correction in The New York Times to its obituary of the newsman). Too bad he’s not around now. He’d be a hell of a lot better than all those alarmists at CNBC.
… He died March 27 of prostate cancer at age 86 and worked all over the world, distinguished career.
… IF I HEAR … “And all that … Jah ah aazzz (All That Jazz)” ad on TV one more time, I’ll smash in my Sony. There’s something about hearing that phrase and the way it’s sung that makes me cringe. The singer’s voice box should be ripped out.
… So stop advertising and shut up about it.
… How long has that Chicago play been around anyway? It’s been revived too much. (Currently at the National Theatre in Washington.)
… Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, loves it down in the country where the horses are. Sonny, the new one, is still a “baby,” according to owner Sally, and likes to chase Hanalie around the paddock. The dog barks and the horsie kicks; they have fun. And last weekend, poor Hanalie hid from Sally when it was time to leave. She didn’t want to go home. Awwww.
… ASKING. How many times do you have to repeat something? Does it matter anymore? EXAMPLE: On ABC, out of the new Bob Saget sitcom show, Surviving Suburbia (which is pretty dumb), the announcer says this for the next program, Castle, the new detective series: “ABC’s ‘Castle’ … Coming Up on ABC.” You just said ABC. I know what network I’m watching. Do you have to say it again? Do you have to drill it into our heads? What, might I, the viewer, forget that it’s an ABC show the next time I fill out some stupid viewer survey?
… It’s just like when Brian Wilson, er … Williams, the Nightly News anchor, introduces a story and says that “our own Rehema Ellis” reports on this ‘n’ that. “Our own”? Who else would be reporting for the newscast? Someone from ABC or CBS? Ridiculous. And do the correspondents feel warm after hearing their anchorman refer to them as “our own”? Is it a familial moment?
… Paula Deen ought to be muzzled. Her and her big mouth and that exaggerated southern drawl … totally put on. Who does she think she’s fooling?
… REFLECTION. It’s too bad every newspaper in the country is looking like USA Today, the national McPaper. Design, graphics, headings, use of color and, unfortunately, story length. Who would’ve ever thought that they would lead the way for lofty newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post.
… IN THE NEWS. Two Komodo dragons mauled a fruit-picker to death in eastern Indonesia moments after he fell out of a sugar-apple tree on the island of Komodo, where the giant reptiles are found in the wild. The lizards were lurking below and attacked him, biting his hands, legs and neck. He was taken to a local clinic and died soon after.
… How gruesome is that?
… Those Komodos are known to grow up to 10 feet, weigh 150 pounds and have sharp, serrated teeth (like a shark). Their bite can be deadly and their saliva contains roughly 50 different bacteria strains. All this according to an AP report.
… COMMENT/OBSERVANCE. A friend of mine has this to say about Ann Curry as the newsreader on the Today show: “I never know what’s important when she gives the news. She announces everything like it’s the kickoff of World War II.” Ha Ha Ha.
… I did notice the other day that she pronounced Pakistan as PAHK-istan for some reason - Maybe to sound European-influenced or Madonna-like.
… “IF I ONLY HAD A GUN.” That’s the title of Diane Sawyer and David Muir’s 20/20 special exploring access to guns, young people’s attraction to and fascination with guns, etc., in light of the recent shootings in Binghamton, N.Y. and Pittsburgh.
… “If I only had a brain …”
… An executive from Dell computers who was given the task of diminishing “negative chatter” on the Internet about the company’s products by setting up a blog-monitoring program and establishing an outreach team to tackle the situation, has left the company to become president of the Blog Council, an industry group formed to help companies navigate social media online.
… Hmm. The Blog Council, huh? What’s next, an international association of Twitterers?
… UH … Rockin’ Robin - Bobby Day, on Class Records, 1958:
… “All the little birds on Jaybird Street, love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet.”
… FYI: A tweet is a text-based posting on Twitter, the social network micro-blogging service.

rocci@roccifisch.com

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