Dictum Ridiculum: November 2004

Archived rants and raves from the main page of the Colin Campbell Network.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Not As Goofy As You Might Fear

But still, plenty damn nerdy. So what are we talking about today?

As someone who watches probably a bit too much ESPN (I'm still addicted to Pardon the Interruption), and someone who likes Star Wars a little more than the average person, I was quite worried when I heard about a new series of "SportsCenter" ads featuring Star Wars characters.

Turns out, I didn't need to worry. It's pretty damn funny. Click on the link and view the commercial for yourself.

May the Force be with Stew! (Uh, that's Stuart Scott, the ESPN anchor featured in this commercial.)

Transmitted 06:04 PM PST | Link |

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Because Every Self-Respecting Website Should Have One

One what? One link to William Shatner's legendary 1978 spoken word interpretation of Elton John's Rocket Man, of course. (*asf file, playable with Windows Media Player)

Dr. Mom called the other day, and among the many topics we discussed: Shatner on Boston Legal, and how he's surprisingly good. Yepper, he sure is. And the new Ben Folds/Shatner album? It's getting a lot of play, and actually being taken seriously. (Why, it's an Amazon.com Best of 2004 selection. Who knew?)

In the business, this is what's called "having the last laugh." Just the way Captain Kirk always did. And I say good for him.

Transmitted 12:54 AM PST | Link |

Monday, November 15, 2004

Just One Question

When I read the headline, "Beavers Make Dam Out of Stolen Money", my first thought was, "Gee, how did they steal the money???"

Turns out, much to my disappointment, they didn't.

Beavers found a bag of bills stolen from a casino, tore it open and wove the money into the sticks and brush of their dam on a creek near Baton Rouge. "They hadn't torn the bills up. They were still whole," said Maj. Michael Martin of the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Office. The money was part of at least $70,000 taken last week from the Lucky Dollar Casino in Greensburg, about 30 miles northeast of Baton Rouge.

There's nothing there that a little re-write couldn't help...

Police near Baton Rouge arrested three beavers on charges ranging from grand theft to money laundering, after the rodents were discovered wallowing in stolen hundred dollar bills at their home on Petit Rouge River. A police spokesman said some of the money was used to finance the construction of the beavers' dam. Photos from the arrest site seem to show the missing cash woven in among the sticks and brush used to build the dam.

But beaver attorney Mark Geragos had an alternative explanation for the presence of the greenbacks. "We'll prove that these beavers won that money fair and square, playing video poker, blackjack, and one especially high stakes game of canasta," Geragos said at a hastily-arranged afternoon news conference. "This whole case stems from nothing more than the aggrieved allegations of an embarrassed casino pit boss, who can't believe his dealers were beaten by beavers."

Casino pit boss Lanny Sangfroid was quick to pick up on Geragos' comments. "That's right, they beat me," said an obviously distressed Sangfroid. "Used them muscular tails, they did. They crazy beavers."

Police promised to immediately launch a parallel investigation into the alleged beating.

Transmitted 11:05 AM PST | Link |

Sunday, November 14, 2004

I Wouldn't Have Believed It...

... if I hadn't heard it and seen it, with my own eyes and ears.

Carson Daly actually said this, out loud, while sucking up to Duran Duran, and citing their influence on bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Killers:

"We've been suffering with Backstreet Boys and N'Sync for so long, it's about goddamn time."

That's right, that was said by Carson Daly... who owes nearly his entire damn career and not unsubstantial financial success to his fine, fine work hosting MTV's pop culture abomination, Total Request Live, the spawning ground for Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, Britney Spears, and their countless less-talented imitators.

We're now several generations, professionally speaking, in to the music "revolution" launched by Daly and TRL. Which brings to mind this: What do you get when you have no talent to begin with, and you then spend your career IMITATING other people who have no talent? Ashlee Simpson. She's not a person, she's a marketing hook, the "rebel," the "dark chyld," the reality show, the author of a "confessional" Autobiography at the age of 19...

Thanks, Carson! Keep up the "good" work!

Transmitted 10:55 AM PST | Link |

Saturday, November 13, 2004

An Acutal Question About President Bush and CBS

Were the documents CBS used to report its infamous "George Bush Got Special Treatment In The Texas Air National Guard" story ever proven to be fake?

I ask only because the Associated Press doesn't seem to know.

In one story tonight, about the ongoing internal investigation at CBS, the AP reporter writes:

The CBS report cited documents purported to be from one of Bush's commanders in the Texas Air National Guard. The documents say the commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, ordered Bush to take a medical exam, which he did not, and felt pressured to sugarcoat an evaluation of then 1st Lt. Bush.

However, several handwriting experts emerged to suggest the memos were fake and appeared to have been generated by a computer that did not exist in the early 1970s.

While in another story, about the influence of 'blogs on news coverage, the issue is presented much more definitively:

Glaser noted the importance of bloggers in tearing down CBS News' election season story about President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. The constant barrage of questions and charges from the Web kept heat on the network until it admitted a mistake in relying on what turned out to be fake documents.

So which is it? Proven fake? Or suspected to be fake?

I guess there's a third possibility: The whole story -- you know, about special treatment for Bush -- was probably true, with a smattering of largely-discredited suspicions about the type of font used in the memos getting an undue amount of attention, thanks to it being incessantly raised by increasingly power mad right-wingnuts.

I report, you decide!

Transmitted 10:24 PM PST | Link |

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

I Can't Tell You...

... how many times somebody has said to me, "Hey, Colin. You're an L.A. industry-type guy. Do you know of any professional singers? I mean, someone who sings like an angel, has experience both writing songs for and performing on numerous film and TV soundtracks, and is available for any kind of studio or session work?"

And when they do, I simply point them to dialedinvox.com.

Dial it in and see for yourself!

Transmitted 06:12 PM PST | Link |

Monday, November 8, 2004

Something Very Cool I Wrote and Directed... and it's Actually On TV

So, The History Channel (and my bosses at Greystone, the production company that employs me) says, “Hey, we’re switching hosts on the big Wild West Tech show. We had Keith Carradine ... now, we’re getting his brother DAVID Carradine, Mr. Kung Fu & Kill Bill his own bad self. Anybody have cool ideas as to how we can do the switch over?”

I pitched several, and they liked one, and we refined it ... and they still liked it! (Imagine!) So then, I got to shoot it, and include it as part of my show! It was a simple, yet fun idea – Keith loses the hosting job to David playing poker. We were very lucky to get both Keith and David to go along with it, and the History Channel to pay for it!

There’s also a pretty funny gag with the brothers Carradine to close the show (which I won't give away) – so really, all you have to watch is the first five minutes and the last two ... the middle 53 are completely optional.

You can see this unique on-air host transition, along with the rest of my show about Six Shooters, on the season premiere of Wild West Tech, airing this Tuesday night, November 9th, at 8pm EST/PST (check local listings), on, of course, The History Channel.

They even liked my advertising tag line enough to use it in the commercials for the show: “New Season, New Tech ... New Carradine.” That about sums it up...

Coming later this winter – my Wild West Tech episode ... about Freak Shows!

Transmitted 02:31 AM PST | Link |

Tuesday, November 2, 2004

A Final Prediction for Election 2004

Okay, here it is:

Kerry: 51%
Bush: 47%
Nader/Others: 2%

ELECTORAL VOTES

Kerry: 282
Bush: 256

Random predictions:

When will we know the results? By 11:00pm Pacific.

At the end of the night, Kerry takes Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Iowa, Minnesota; Florida remains in dispute, but even if it goes to Bush, it won't matter.

Bush will take New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, but even a surprise "lei-over" visit from Cheney isn't enough to swing Hawaii to the Red State column.

I won't miss Bush, Cheney, Rove, Condi, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, et. al. one bit.

(That last prediction you can take to the bank.)

Transmitted 12:24 AM PST | Link |

Monday, November 1, 2004

Vote!

Transmitted 09:40 PM PST | Link |

[Archive Index] [Main Index]

Comment:
feedback@REMOVEcolincampbell.net

mammals have visited Colin Campbell Web Pages, and you're one of them.
Privacy Policy
©2007 All Rights Reserved