This is what London looked like in 1903:
It's amazing that this film exists, but it makes me wonder what people will think of our society today in 100 years. We're leaving behind a lot of video; people in 2111 will, we can assume, have access to much more that indicates what life was really like in 2011 than we have of 1911. Plus, it's all in color and high definition. I won't be around to find out what they think, but it's something about which I wonder.
Wow.
Tonight's baseball action has been, as anyone watching knows by now, insane. As of this writing, neither wild card is yet determined, the Yankees blew a 7-0 lead with the Rays tying the game on a 2-out, 2-strike ninth inning homer by, of all people, Dan Johnson, whose last recorded hit was in the Pleistocene Era, the Braves got tied up and sent into extra innings by the Phillies, the Red Sox took a lead and then ended up in an extended rain delay, and the Cardinals, well, they were the only Wild Card contender to grab and hold control. So it's about 8:30 Pacific, 11:30 Eastern, nothing's been decided, and everyone following these races is dizzy and drooling.
In other words, this is great.
It's been weird, in a way, because the Phillies have nothing at stake other than to determine who they'll play in the first round of the playoffs. Some think they'd be better off letting the Braves win, hoping they win the one-game Wild Card playoff, and then getting Arizona in the first round, but those kind of shenanigans tend to bite a team in the ass in practice. The Phils are trying to win, and that's as it should be.
Really, at this point, it doesn't matter how this ends up. It's been spectacular anyway. Excuse me while I watch the rest.
It's pretty incredible that someone still has this:
That was the intro to "Baby Blue Movies," which was CITY-TV Toronto's 1970s soft-core pr0n late night movies. Back then, CITY-TV... er, let's type that as Citytv, as the logo says, was an upstart independent TV station in Toronto on channel 79, and they would do pretty much anything to get attention. It was the precursor to Cinemax and the scrambled late-night soft-core on over-the-air subscription TV, but this was unscrambled and free. Needless to say, you can imagine channel 79 being the number one station in teen boys' bedrooms late at night. It went away, came back in the '90s, spawned a cable network (Sex TV), then went away for good. With the Internet, there's no real need for it, is there?
Citytv was also the station where anchors roamed the newsroom rather than sitting on a set, and shows came from studios by the street; it spawned MuchMusic, Canada's MTV equivalent, and clone operations in other markets. Long ago, I got a job interview with a company that planned to clone the idea in U.S. markets, but by the time they got to the air in their first market, they had come under the spell of some early dot-com refugees who misunderstood the concept and the target audience, focusing on the hipsters who don't watch TV instead of the millions of non-hipsters who do. It would have been fun to work on a Citytv-like station, but that wasn't an option, and even Citytv isn't what it used to be. At least, they don't show "Baby Blue Movies" anymore.
Not even time for a video or something?
Nope. No time. Not tonight. Sorry. Hey, at least it's free.
Noted without comment, seen on Palos Verdes Drive West this weekend:
Do your own jokes.
Well, that was fun.
While we're obsessing on TV, the good folk at FuzzyMemories.tv, keepers of the Chicago TV history flame, posted a cool promotional/sales video from WFLD-TV, channel 32, from around 1970:
I love stuff like this, because it gives you an idea of what cheesy UHF independent television used to be like, including the local production that they just don't do anymore: kiddie shows, movie hosts, that kind of thing. That's what made those stations special to the generations that grew up watching them (and those channels always got the kids first; if you could only see "The Flintstones" or Bugs Bunny on channel 48, then, by God, you found channel 48). TV's a lot slicker now -- channel 32 is today Fox Chicago -- and there's much more choice, and you can find practically anything on the Net, but in 1970, small UHF stations were the only alternative you got to the Big 3 networks and PBS in most markets, and it was kinda fun to watch.
I feel compelled to post something even though I wrote so much today my head is emptier than usual. But I got nothing, so here's a promo for Saturday's Nerdist TV show and I don't even remember if I posted it here before:
So watch it. I'm going to go now.
Yeah, I know. I've been lax here. This was an especially busy week because I've been writing extra material for BBC America for the runup to the Nerdist TV show (Saturday night, 10/9c, WATCH IT) and handling other duties. Those are my excuses.
That, and I still have a column to write (that isn't going to get done tonight) and some news to cover (which HAS to get done tonight). Let me go do that. Maybe it'll ease up tomorrow.
Here, courtesy of FuzzyMemoriesTV.com, is the opening to "Thing Theatre" on WSNS-TV, channel 44, Chicago, in 1978, featuring Eddie Constantine and Fernando Rey (and Eddie's son Lemmy, named after his most famous recurring role Lemmy Caution) in an oddly-cropped version of "Attack of the Robots":
"Attack of the Robots" was actually Spanish-French horror flick "Cartes sur Table," directed by Jesus (Jess) Franco, from 1965, badly dubbed and retitled by American International Pictures for the unsuspecting American audience. Franco went on to make a million movies (or so it seemed), and is still making them at 81.
Independent TV stations used to run these movies all the time, with great names like "Chiller Theater" or "Vreature Feature," often with a host doing comedy schtick between (and sometimes during) segments. But you've heard me go on about Ghoulardi and Dr. Shock and Vampira and Sammy Terry and Svengoolie/Son of Svengoolie and countless others. Those were the days.
While I was in Chicago, I played around with digital TV signals. That city has a lot of those, and because my hotel room was on the 16th floor right in the heart of downtown, pretty much line-of-sight to all the antennas, I got everything there was to get in Chicago and even the CBS affiliate from all the way in South Bend, rock-solid signals. I loved the multiplex channels from Weigel's WCIU-TV, which has the regular independent schedule and the Cubs and White Sox on its main channel, a "U Too" channel with the same program at different times, the "MeTV" classic TV channel Weigel distributes nationwide, yet another vintage TV show channel called "MeToo," and ThisTV, which is a national thing as well that we get in L.A. as well. I'd watch those channels all the time.
And then there was this:
According to what I found about this channel, it's available in L.A. on KRCA-TV's subchannel, but we don't get channel 62 over the air here and Verizon FiOS doesn't carry all the subchannels, so this was the first I've seen of it. Sure enough, it's a station dedicated to Mexican immigrants, but appears to be virtually nonstop advertising for one attorney's immigration practice. I have to hand it to him: I bet he gets a lot of clients that way, because the target audience likely watches more over-the-air TV and will happen upon his spiel at all hours. But it's weird to see a while network of sorts devoted to nothing but a lawyer's immigration practice.
Also on the dial there was this:
WLFM is one of the more successful pseudo-FM radio stations in the country. It's one of the low power TV stations that takes advantage of the fact that VHF analog channel 6 happens to use 87.75 FM for its audio, which can be received by most FM radios off the end of the dial. The FCC seems to be moving towards eliminating the last analog LPTVs, so channel 6 analog LPTVs and their "radio stations" may not be long for this world. Still, for now, WLFM-LP is on the air, and gets some numbers. For a while, the station fulfilled its mandate for video by showing still pictures of Chicago landmarks, but for a few months now, they've been showing traffic maps and ads along with the Smooth Jazz... er, Smooth Adult Contemporary music. It's actually a little mesmerizing. This screenshot came from a digital subchannel of low power WCHU-LD (61.2), and the channel also airs on Comcast digital cable.
I know, exciting.
It's late, and I never did get all my work done. So, no time. Whatever. Oh, here's a picture from Chicago I forgot to post:
WGN Radio had a little gathering to celebrate the start of hockey season. Very nice. I have nothing to say about it other than, geez, hockey season already? How did that happen?
Made it back from Chicago in an uneventful manner. Spent all day trying to fix my cell phone. So here's a touristy shot I took yesterday:
...which everyone remembers from this;
Great city. Good to be home, though.
On my walk to work this morning, I brought the camera. The walk is very "Bob Newhart Show"-ish, along the bridges and river walks and elevated and sunken roadways of downtown Chicago, and I passed a few things of note. Like, say, a radio show:
WGN's Greg Jarrett is in there, his forehead sort of visible. I don't like to gawk there, because I can imagine that it makes the talent uncomfortable. Once a program director....
Nearby, there's this:
The late, legendary Cubs and Bears voice, Jack Brickhouse, has a statue. It's just there. Why it's not outside Wrigley Field, I don't know. I guess more people see it here, although it's overshadowed by this giant piece of, er, art (pardon the blurry photo):
Tourists love it, and yes, as I walked past it several times this week, I lost count of the number of guys looking up her skirt.
It was a cool, cloudy morning; I pointed the camera towards the lake and got this:
Nice. And on the corner of Wacker and Michigan on the upper level, this:
..good DAY!
And, finally, looking back across the river, iconic building number one, the Tribune Tower:
Once, it was a giant. And so was this:
The House That Gum Built. The Wrigley Building looks remarkably, er, white and bright. It reminds me of some of the old buildings in London neighborhoods, well-scrubbed and neat.
After all this, it was a crappy day. I'll explain at another time. Let's just enjoy the view for now.
My cell phone sort of died today. I say "sort of" because it suddenly ceased booting up properly and ceased to connect to the network. It also ceased to make calls and allow access to contacts and do practically anything useful. This is especially timely because I am 1,500 miles or so from home and so can't access the computer with which it syncs, or grab another phone to activate in an emergency. Also, Sprint, for it is on the Sprint network, will be likely getting the iPhone in a month, so I would prefer not to buy a new phone before then. So this was not optimal.
But, right, "sort of"... I found a work-around. See, a while back, I tried putting a version of Android on the phone. It doesn't boot into Android, but it can launch and run Android off the MicroSD card. It's not ideal, it's slow and sometimes crashes, but it's real Android. So I managed to get to the file system, launch Android, and... yes, it works. Sort of. Keys don't do what they're marked to do, I'm still not sure how to hang up a call, but calls DO go through, it DOES fetch email, the browsers work, and it's all good, apart from draining the battery in no time and heating up like crazy. If I have to run it like this to just make calls, I'll go crazy. But I'll do it if it gets me to iPhone time. In the meantime, we can email, right?
Very busy. Here's a picture form my morning run:
Exciting.
Yeah, I know. Traveling all day today, heavy workload all week. I'm in Chicago; stuff from here coming up. But not today- too late.
I'm sitting in a dark room right now. The only light is from the computer; everything else is off, and silent. The neighborhood, ringing with kids' playful shouts about an hour ago, is quiet. The air is, for once, cool, and someone has a fireplace going. Off in the distance, the church bells are tolling 8:00.
I like this. I like it a lot. I like it so much that I'm going to stop working, shut this thing down, and just sit here with Fran and enjoy the total, enveloping silence. I don't get enough of that these days.
What kind of week was this? A pretty bad one. I'd prefer not to give out details, but let's just say this wasn't one of the good weeks. We had that under siege feeling all week, and the heat didn't help. But we made it to the weekend, so there's that.
Here, while I go soak, watch some commercials from sometime in the 80's, including a wonderfully cheesy commercial for Action Mountain in Pine Hill, NJ and a promo for Doctor J and the Sixers moving to channel 17:
"It's AWEsome!" Action Mountain (and Ski Mountain) closed in 1991. It's now a golf course and townhomes. Progress!
In honor of the start of the NFL season on a hot night here, let's watch the NFL championship in 1948, in very different weather:
Ah, football in snow. Can't beat it. And then there's this:
Yup.
Today was even weirder than yesterday, including someone massively flaking out in spectacular fashion on us. But that's done, the day is over, the Phillies swept the Braves, and it's cooled down around here to, oh, about 140 degrees. Seriously, today was uncomfortably hot. I had three fans trained on me and it was still impossibly hot. It's supposed to be semi-Fall by now, isn't it? Check the calendar, people. Even in California, it shouldn't be this hot.
Here, watch an episode of the 1961 series "Miami Undercover." See if you recognize the young disc jockey at the beginning:
He doesn't last long.
Hate to continue the long run of suck, but this wasn't the best day. It just wasn't. I'd plow through the gloom and get something written here, but I'd rather just go off and call it a day and hope for better tomorrow. Plus, it's ridiculously hot here, even by the ocean; the wind didn't make it feel any cooler. I have two fans hitting me with air from opposite sides and a third overhead, and it's still hot.
Funny, though. I keep intending to come to a decision about how I'm maintaining this site and where it fits among the others I do, and I just can't bring myself to write an explanation of what I'm thinking. Maybe, subconsciously, I'm keeping myself from making a rash decision. We'll see how long I can hold out. For now, though, I'm going to bring this day to an end and see how we can make it better tomorrow.
What did I do on Labor Day? I worked.
That is all.
Oh, and Cliff Lee was worth the money, don't you think?
It's a day off. I worked most of the day, but it's still, technically, a day off.
I'd post a video of something, but it's a day off. I'm lazy that way.
I'd seen WHYY's "Philly's Favorite Kids Show Hosts," but I was unaware until now that it was on the Web and embeddable... which it is:
Watch the full episode. See more WHYY Specials.
There's some great footage here, from Wee Willie Webber to Gene London and lots more, including the information, of which I was previously ignorant, that the 1950s CBS circus series "Big Top" -- with Ed McMahon as one of the clowns -- was shot at the same Armory where I saw Nirvana on their last tour. That's the kind of useless trivia I love.
The problem with writing all day and then needing to write more for this place is that when it's late and you have a searing headache, writing anything more is just too painful.
I did write stuff today that you might like, though. Like this. And this. Or this from yesterday.
See? I AM doing something, just not always here.
Wrote a column. Now thinking I want to tone it down. May need to rewrite the whole thing.
Gah. Can't keep doing it like this. Hurts the head, it does.
