Saturday, January 27, 2018

This is how to win a game


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Friday, January 26, 2018

Another Creep Revealed


This time it's Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn.

That has to be the least surprising revelation outside of Stormy Daniels.
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Fundraiser


Our soccer club (Green White) is doing a Super Bowl squares fundraiser to raise money for a trip to a tournament in Philadelphia. If you'd like to participate (some pretty nice prizes), click here. The password is greenwhite.
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2nd Greatest Day of my Life as a Sportsfan


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Fox News is a Disgrace


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Burger King Speaks Up For Net Neutrality

This has gone viral. As of today, nearly three million views...

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The XFL

Remember the XFL? It was a short-lived football league that competed against the NFL. It was the brainchild of wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, and the league featured players like Hershell Walker, and owners like Donald Trump.

It also sucked.

I remember the Chicago team was known as the Blitz, and their quarterback at one point was the 75-year-old (slight exaggeration) Greg Landry.

Well, Vince McMahon wants to bring it back. That story was making the rounds yesterday. Here's an article about it if you're interested.
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Thursday, January 25, 2018

Minutia Men, Episode 81


EP81 – Rick and Dave discuss Agent 99, an unusual Father/son moment, the Pope telling nun jokes, the man they named the ballpark after, and Rick’s brush with Danny Bonaduce.
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Getting that Hall of Fame call

I have no problem with any of these four guys making it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Love watching them receive the news...





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For Those of You Traveling Overseas

This little tidbit of information is often left out of the self congratualatory tweeting of our First Tweeter..


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Murphy Brown is Coming Back

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. CBS is bringing back Murphy Brown for 13 episodes.

I did watch Murphy Brown in the 90s because there were always good zingers I could use on the air (as drop ins--that's what we called the little audio clips we played). At first I didn't like the show, but I came around on it. By the time it went off the air it was one of my favorites.

But my honest first thought when I heard it was returning was "I guess it's true. There are no new ideas anymore." On the other hand, it wasn't until I started writing this post that I realized the timing for Murphy Brown's return might be perfect. Who better to weigh in on the current "Fake News" crisis we're experiencing? Let's unleash those razor-tongued Murphy Brown writers.

There's no shortage of targets for those incredible zingers.
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Fahey, Joel, and John Coleman

This incredible piece of video from 1971 was unearthed by FuzzyMemories...

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Will Ferrell

The former SNL man is returning to host the show this week, and Chicago has done it's part. From Robert Feder's column this morning...

Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications responded to an urgent call this week from “Saturday Night Live.” With Will Ferrell set to host this weekend’s show, producers needed to secure his original costumes as Harry Caray and the Spartan cheerleader. Both have been on display as part of the yearlong “Saturday Night Live: The Experience” exhibit at the museum. “It was all very confidential and hush-hush,” said Justin Kulovsek, the museum’s vice president of innovation. “I had to use protective gloves and wrap each item in plastic and take photos of the garments before boxing them up and sending them off to New York.” The two costumes are expected to be back on display in Chicago next week.

Looking forward to this episode. That cheerleader bit was always one of my favorites...
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Wednesday, January 24, 2018

175 years!

Hard to argue with this sentence...more than 150 young girls molested...that's just over a year in prison for each one.


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Another Retirement from Touring

Yesterday Neil Diamond retired from touring.

Today, Elton John announced that he would stop touring too. From ABC...
After almost a half of century of performing for packed audiences, Sir Elton John has announced his plans to retire from global touring.

The icon held a press conference today, which was streamed to his official website and YouTube.

"I’m not gonna be touring anymore," he said, aside from his last tour 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' that will kick off later this year in September. To be fair, he added that this global farewell tour will last a few years and will be 300 shows.

He remains one of the only rock icons I've never seen live. I guess I have to go see him when he comes to town.
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Another State Protecting Net Neutrality

Yesterday it was Montana that passed a law protecting Net Neutrality.

Today it was New York!

I still don't think it's legal because of a sneaky provision inserted into the FCC Order banning states from doing so, but it's certainly worth the shot to fight it in court.
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Garrison Keillor

At first the Garrison Keillor firing sounded a bit harsh. He claimed he accidentally touched a woman's bare back, which didn't sound like much to me. The results of the inquiry are in, however, and it was clearly more than that. From Tom Taylor's NOW column...

More about the Garrison Keillor firing – MPR now cites “unwanted sexual touching.” “Dozens of sexually inappropriate incidents over a period of years,” according to the attorney for a woman who worked for Garrison Keillor’s company. (Though not Minnesota Public Radio itself.) MPR posts an extensive statement here about what it learned from an “extended, independent fact-finding investigation” conducted by an outside firm. Keillor had stated that there was a single episode of him accidentally touching a bare back. The woman’s attorney supplied emails, written messages, “requests for sexual contact, and explicit descriptions of sexual communications and touching.” Some Minnesota Public Radio listeners and supporters questioned its judgment last Fall. Now CEO Jon McTaggart says the results of the investigation are in – and there are pieces of it that he can share, shedding light on his decision. McTaggart says “We appreciate Garrison’s many contributions to MPR, and we have gone to great lengths to be considerate of his privacy and his reputation.” The CEO says because Keillor owns many of the rights around his signature “A Prairie Home Companion” and the daily “Writer’s Almanac,” it was necessary to make a clean break in their business relationship. The hastily-chosen new name for the folksy two-hour weekly show now hosted by Chris Thile – “Live from Here.”
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Tuesday, January 23, 2018

RIP Hugh Masekela



His greatest song, and one of my favorites...


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Oscar Nominations

Here they are, hot off the press...

Best Picture
Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Directing
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
Guillermo del Toro, Shape of Water

Actor in a Leading Role
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Actress in a Leading Role
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Meryl Streep, The Post

Actress in a Supporting Role
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

Actor in a Supporting Role
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Adapted Screenplay
James Ivory, Call Me by Your Name
Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, The Disaster Artist
Scott Frank, James Mangold, and Michael Green, Logan
Aaron Sorkin, Molly’s Game
Virgil Williams and Dee Rees, Mudbound

Original Screenplay
Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, The Shape of Water
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
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Montana Passes Net Neutrality Law

I thought there was a provision in the latest Net Neutrality debacle pushed by FCC Chairman Pai forbidding this, but it looks like Montana is ready to challenge the legality of that provision. They passed a Net Neutrality law, ensuring a free and open internet in Montana. It should be noted that Montana is not exactly a blue state.

I suspect there will be a legal challenge to this, but I still applaud the effort.
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Neil Diamond Retires from Touring

From this morning's RAMP newsletter...

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Neil Diamond announced his retirement from touring due to his recent diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. On the advice of his doctors, the third leg of Diamond's 50th Anniversary tour, set to land in Australia and New Zealand in March, has been cancelled.

In a statement posted to his website, Diamond said, "It is with great reluctance and disappointment that I announce my retirement from concert touring. I have been so honored to bring my shows to the public for the past 50 years. My sincerest apologies to everyone who purchased tickets and were planning to come to the upcoming shows."

Tomorrow, Diamond will celebrate his 77th birthday, and this Sunday, January 28, The Recording Academy will honor him with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Imus is Another Cumulus Victim

From this morning's Tom Taylor NOW column...

Don Imus to leave his current radio gig on March 29 (not his choice). NOW readers identified the precise moment – 7:22am Eastern time yesterday – when the I-Man told his audience on Cumulus talker WABC/770 and his Westwood One affiliates that Cumulus and he aren’t going to the end of 2018. He’s not thrilled about it, even though he’s 77 and still endures the punishing hours required of a morning-drive broadcaster. But he understands, says the New York Daily News - Imus explains to listeners that “They have a responsibility, as far as [the Cumulus] bankruptcy, to try to cut costs, to save money and figure out a way to make the thing work.” He’s actually confident that management can do that, and a fan of CEO Mary Berner. Cumulus predecessor Citadel hired Imus for WABC after he lost his job at MSNBC and CBS Radio’s sports “Fan” WFAN New York/660 in April 2007. That uproar was about his crack that the Rutgers women’s basketball team looking like “nappy-headed hos.” But Citadel’s Farid Suleman was a fan, and rescued his radio career. (Also his TV career, which continued on the RFD channel and, from 2009-2015, Fox Business Channel.)
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Monday, January 22, 2018

RIP John Coleman

The legendary weatherman passed away over the weekend. He was 83 years old.

Coleman was known nationally as the man who founded the Weather Channel, but in Chicago he will always be remembered for his incredible run at Channel 7 as part of the classic lineup (Fahey Flynn, Joel Daly, John Coleman and Bill Frink).

Joel Daly wrote about him quite a bit in his great memoir "The Daly News" (Eckhartz Press). Here's a photo from that book...

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Tom Weinberg

Tom Weinberg’s book signing at the Book Stall in Winnetka yesterday. A good time was had by one and all as Tom talked about his Eckhartz Press book "Chasing the Lost City"

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Will Trump Do the Pre-Superbowl Interview?

Indications are that he will not do it, ending a tradition going back to 2004.

The main reason is that NBC is airing the Super Bowl. The last NBC interview he did was with Lester Holt, and in that interview he admitted obstructing justice.
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Facebook will now ask users to rank news organizations they trust

Facebook will ask users to rank news they trust.

This sounds like a terrible idea to me. With all the Russian bots out there, once they use their forces for evil (labeling real news as fake), all this will do is damage legitimate news. To defeat fake news we need an impartial arbiter to declare it fake. Allowing the users to say what is fake or not is the opposite of what needs to be done. The users are in a bubble. That's how fake news worked in the first place.
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Doin the Cruise



Mitch Michaels recently appeared on the Brandwidth podcast (hosted by Kipper McGee and Dave Martin). You can listen to their discussion right here.

As always, Mitch is quite entertaining.
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Look what arrived in the mail

Get your own cup at weareallshitholers.com...

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Trump Affair?

If you missed Bill Maher on Friday night, you missed a great interview with Michael Wolff. In the interview he implied something. Variety wrote about it this morning...
When asked whether there is a section in Fire and Fury that he wonders that the press isn't asking about, Wolff told host Bill Maher on Friday's installment of HBO's Real Time that there is, "but I can't tell you what it is."

"There is something in the book that I was absolutely sure of, but it was so incendiary that I just didn't have the ultimate proof," he said.

Maher then pressed Wolff on what the topic of the incendiary revelation is, asking whether it is a "woman thing."

"Well, I didn't have the blue dress," Wolf responded, referring to evidence in the Monica Lewinsky scandal with former President Bill Clinton, before telling Maher that "it is" about a woman.

"It's somebody he's fucking now," Maher said.

"It is. You just have to read between the lines," Wolff said, "It's toward the end of the book." After being pressed some more by Maher to reveal details about where the suggestion of an affair is, Wolff said, "You'll know it. Now that I've told you, when you hit that paragraph, you'll say 'Bingo.'"

Looking forward to getting my copy of the book in the mail. Speculation I've seen on Twitter so far is that it might be Nikki Haley. That seems like a stretch to me, but then again, I shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore.
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Attention Broadcasters

During the last few government shutdowns, it was a fun joke for broadcasters to say they could get away with anything on the air because the FCC was not in the office. Not this time. From Tom Taylor's NOW column...

Most of the “non-essential” parts of the federal government closed on Friday – but not the FCC. Chairman Ajit Pai saw the potential shutdown coming and stashed away enough funds to keep his agency going for a whole week – at what sounds like full-tilt. Note that this isn’t the shutdown-contingency plan Pai shared last month, when he said they’d keep about 225 of the 1,492 staffers on the job. That’s still in abeyance and could be triggered if needed. Here’s what the FCC said Friday – “In the event of a partial government shutdown, because of available funding, the FCC plans to remain open and pay staff at least through the close of business on Friday, January 26.”
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Sunday, January 21, 2018

Aerial View

This is tremendous. When you hear a Republican saying "America thinks this" or "America thinks that", he or she is completely disregarding every single person seen here...


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