Refenestration Daily.
This “laundry formula testing facility” commercial for Clorox’ Stain Fighter & Color Booster seems to imply that only women do (or should do?) laundry. Even the man-unable-to-operate-a-washing-machine scenes from 1983’s Mr. Mom seem unwatchably dated today. And that was almost thirty years ago.
I expect better, Clorox.
If you’ve been to a conference over the last few years, you may have encountered a “back-channel”. A back-channel is simply an alternate communication channel that continues alongside the primary communications channel. For instance, there may be an IRC room where audience members can discuss a panel while the panel is going on.
For the upcoming Presidential and Vice-Presidential Debates, the channel Current is doing just that with Twitter in a project that they're calling Hack the Debate. In short, if you tweet during while you’re watching the debates, just include the tag “#current” and your tweet will be overlaid onto the broadcast (probably similar in look to subtitles or closed-captioning, but just with a lot more people contributing to the feed).
In this promo video, the Current team goes over how this might have worked if Twitter had been around for the Kennedy/Nixon debates:
I don’t know about you, but I think this sounds like it could be good fun. And while I might normally watch the debates on CNN or MSNBC, I think I’ll give Current a try. If you’d like to play along, here’s the schedule for the upcoming debates:
- First presidential debate:
- Friday, September 26
- University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS
- Vice presidential debate:
- Thursday, October 2
- Washington University in St. Louis, MO
- Second presidential debate:
- Tuesday, October 7
- Belmont University, Nashville, TN
- Third presidential debate:
- Wednesday, October 15
- Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
That news item from the Commission on Presidential Debates goes on to say that all debates will be 90 mins in length and will start at 9 p.m. Eastern / 8 p.m. Central / 6 p.m. Pacific. And, yeah, that first one — on Friday September 26 — is this Friday.
Some coworkers and I went to Gloria’s last night for a going-away party for Garrett since he’ll be working for himself in the New Year. The food was super tasty as always — this wasn't the first time that I had been to Gloria’s and it was a great time.
There was a large-ish flat-panel TV on one of the walls near us and, interestingly enough, it wasn’t tuned into a sports or news broadcast (not that there's anything wrong with that). Instead, it happened to be tuned into a program about furniture making (including what appeared to be a segment featuring some Herman Miller products). And, given that a good chunk of the people at our table have more than a passing interest in productivity pr0n, several of us (myself included) found the show to be a pleasant background accompaniment to our regular conversation.
A few of us eventually tried to figure out what the show was (with the idea that we might be able to catch a re-airing of it later). Confoundingly, though, the channel-identifier which bookended the commercials carried the logos of both Universal HD and The Sundance Channel. After a bit of poking around the web (and a few dead-ends), I think I’ve figured out which show it was. It appears to have been the “Furnish” episode of Big Ideas for a Small Planet which airs on Universal HD under the banner “Sundance Channel on Universal HD” (yeah, your guess is as good as mine on that one).
The “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” page at UniversalHD.com describes it as an “original documentary series from Sundance Channel [which] focuses on environmental topics with features on forward-thinking designers, green products and alternative ideas that may transform our everyday lives.”. More specifically, here’s what’s listed for the “Furnish” episode:
In this episode, a leading furniture company explores the goal of making all new products 100% sustainable; two designers use leftover scrap wood to create recycled furniture; and a Philadelphia-based firm shows off their innovative and stylish home-product designs.
The good news, I suppose, is that we now know what the show was. The bad news, at least for now, is that I checked my TiVo for soon-to-air episodes of the series and I didn’t see “Furnish” among any of those upcoming episodes. Still, my TiVo only keeps track of listings for the next two weeks, so it’s entirely possible that Universal HD might re-run “Furnish” in a few weeks time. (I'm tempted to add a Season Pass for the show just in case that might happen.)
TVPredictions.com is reporting that neither NBC nor ESPN will be broadcasting Wimbledon in HD. Are we still living in 2001?
NBC and ESPN both said this morning that they will not broadcast the 2007 Wimbledon Tennis Championship in High-Definition.
Adam Freifeld, a spokesman for NBC Sports, told TVPredictions.com today that NBC would not show Wimbledon in HD. He did not elaborate on the reasons behind the decision. […]
It’s as if NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker just doesn’t care. Well, actually, he said as much himself, commenting that “I’m not overly concerned about it at this point [...] if viewers will be less interested in unscripted programming that’s not in HD when the rest of the programming is in HD.”
If you get HBO (or even if you don’t), you're probably aware that the final episode of the mob drama The Sopranos aired last night. Though I get HBO, I decided at the beginning of the season to wait until the DVDs come out — that way, I can watch them at whichever pace I’d like.
As you might guess, I’m caught up all the way through the penultimate season; it’s only the recent episodes that I haven’t seen yet. So, if you happen to have seen the last season, and particularly the last episode, I would appreciate if you could avoid spoiling any bits for me :).
PBS describes their show POV as “television’s longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films” which premiers “14-16 of the best, boldest and innovative programs every year on PBS”. And, I’ve just recently learned that tonight’s episode / short-film is “Tintin and I” As they describe it:
Who was Tintin? Indeed, who was his creator, Hergé? Tintin was the determined and resilient hero of a comic book series that took him on thrilling adventures around the world — and on some voyages not quite of this world. Actually, though Tintin is not as well known in the U.S. as in Europe, his distinctive tuft of ginger hair and Hergé’s no less distinctive drawing style will ring a bell with many Americans. Appearing from 1929 to 1982, the series took Tintin to the planet's most exotic places to confront all sorts of danger, treachery and political machinations, with an emphasis on the fast-paced visuals of trains, planes, cars, bombs and other new technologies. […]
For those not familiar with the series, The Adventures of Tintin could be thought of as a set of graphic novels, though they were each about 11" x 14" (?) and about a quarter inch thick. They were written from the ’30s through the ’70s by a Belgian fellow named Hergé. As you might guess, they’ve also been translated into English.
Back in March, I wrote about reports that series creators Shawn Ryan and David Mamet were unsure whether they’d continue with another season of The Shield. Basically those guys had been working on a new show for CBS, The Unit, and if that had taken off, the two of them might not have had time to work on another season of The Shield. It looks like luck has prevailed, though, as Ryan has decided on continuing:
He’s decided. It’s coming back.
However, if you’d been led to believe that the 10 episodes currently in production would be available later this year … think again. Season “six,” or “season 5.5” as it’s informally been called, will now be delayed until 2007. Season “seven” won’t even go into production until next summer. But truly — better late than never. […]
I can’t say that I’m overjoyed by the Sopranos-like pace at which the upcoming seasons appear to be scheduled, but I’d rather that than not have the show continue at all.
TV critic Aaron Barnhart writes on his blog about the goings-on with The Shield. In case you’re not familiar with it, the show is about a set of corrupt cops on LA’s “strike team”, a group brought together to bring down drug dealers, prostitution and the like. Oh, and it’s no spoiler that the cops are corrupt — that’s a running theme throughout the show. What makes the show interesting, in part, is that the corruptness of those cops isn’t black-and-white; in many cases, the cops are merely bending the rules (in other cases, they’re busting heads).
The show is on its fifth season and it’s one of my favorite shows on the air. However, what Barnhart reports is that series creators Shawn Ryan and David Mamet have also been working on another show, The Unit on CBS. So far, so good, right? Well, indeed, The Unit has been doing very well in the ratings and that could spell an exit route for Ryan and Marnet:
The outcome of “The Shield” may be turning on another program that aired last night. “The Unit,” from “Shield” creator Shawn Ryan plus David Mamet, scored what CBS is promoting as a significant share of its previous week's rating (85%), given the fact that last week's had a “NCIS” first-run lead-in and this was a rerun.
If “The Unit” keeps putting up decent numbers, the temptation would be strong for Ryan to make these next 10 episodes of “The Shield” the last. He intimated as much in an interview last week on public radio.
I’m not saying that I want The Unit to tank, but I sure would like to see The Shield continue. It’s one of those shows where, at the end of an episode, I just can’t wait for the next one. It’s that good :).
I’ve been catching up on several premium-channel television shows through Netflix, among them, Six Feet Under. Before going on though, if you’re also watching the DVDs and you’re only on season one or two, you may want to stop reading as there’re several spoilers below.
One of the luxuries of watching a series on DVD is that I can watch the last episode of a season and, after swapping discs, move right on to the first episode from the next season season (so far, so good). In any case, at the end of the second season of Six Feet Under, Nate is about to undergo brain surgery for his condition, his engagement to Brenda is going through a rough patch, and his past fling Lisa has revealed that she’s pregnant with his child. Then, in the first episode of the third season:
Did I play the wrong episode by mistake or something? I thought he really liked Brenda and their un-gagement was only a knee-jerk reaction to the disagreement that they were having at the time (?). And I guess Nate’s “death” was really just a hallucination while he was anesthetized? (Don't get me wrong, I really like the show — but it was as if LeVar Burton snuck in as guest-director-of-the-week or something.)
Apparently Viacom bought iFilm back in October and now they plan on making use of it — “Web Junk 20” is premiering on VH1 this evening:
“Web Junk 20” is a weekly show based on clips and shorts that will be shown on VH1 and on-demand via VH1's broadband network VSpot.
Set to premiere Jan. 13, “Web Junk 20” is a countdown of the strange and humorous videos being spread virally around the Internet. Hosted by comedian Patrice O’Neal, the show is executive produced by Rick Hankey, Shelly Tatro and Michael Hirschorn. […]
Sounds like fun — with this and Best Week Ever, maybe I’ll be able to stay current with pop culture ;).