Pictures from mb's wedding this past weekend

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:54:58 -0700

Excellent flat screen TV placement in Hollywood mini mart.

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:17:37 -0700

Excellent flat screen TV placement in Hollywood mini mart.

Paris Hilton’s response ad to the McCain campaign

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:24:32 -0700

Paris Hilton’s response ad to the McCain campaign

"I’ve been asked again and again for my response to the now infamous McCain celebrity ad. I..."

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:28:50 -0700

“I’ve been asked again and again for my response to the now infamous McCain celebrity ad. I actually have three responses. It is a complete waste of the money John McCain’s contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country’s time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States.”

- Kathy Hilton (McCain contributor, mother of Paris) at the Huffington Post

Beach Door

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:34:25 -0700

Beach Door

Radio, New Music and Politics

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:44:40 -0700

We all grew up with radio and likely had a favorite station and air personalities. When we moved to Los Angeles I was shocked to find no decent radio in the market. We were coming from Chicago where WXRT was king. Two different stations came along that were decent, then went Spanish . I ended up re-connecting with Howard Stern (a NY staple) and other alternative talk radio. There were days when even that was unlistenable or my entire commute was commercials only.

When Howard Stern announced he was going to Sirius I had been feeling like it was getting harder to find new music. I could listen to WOXY on the internet but there was not much else. So we got Sirius for Howard and to see what the music was like. At this time they had about 600,000 subscribers.

What we found was a rich radio landscape and with something for every mood. To name a few: Sirius Disorder with one of the great all time DJ’s Meg Griffin, an excellent Blues station, Margaritaville for those Friday moods, NFL Radio for Jenn and many others. All with minimal chatter and no commercials and every radio came with an internet subscription. And of course, Howard.

So here we are two and a half years later and now that the merger is complete the combined Sirius-XM has a staggering 18 million subscribers. How bad must broadcast radio be that 18 million people are willing to PAY to replace a free service?

The thing is Sirius-XM is so much more. Mel Karmizan, the guy who hired Howard originally in broadcast radio and now runs Sirius said it best the other day. He was talking about how at one point during the torturous talks about the merger a Senator called him in for a meeting and said he would support the merger if Satellite would agree to follow the same decency rule as broadcast radio. Mel said that was not an option, that people pay for the service like a magazine or HBO and that there is no reason to dumb it down to the lowest common denominator and be safe for children.

During the merger process some real outrageous things were proposed. Give 25% of the channels to non-profit causes (was broadcast radio going to give up 25% of their stations?). Require all Sirius-XM receivers to include broadcast tuners including HD radio (again, so all AM/FM were going to include Sirius-XM?).

So all the talk you heard about the merger where the NAB spent millions to convince legislators that Sirius-XM was a monopoly - it was all really because they themselves wanted to protect their monopoly. If they could drive them out of business by delaying the merger long enough they’d get back some of those 18 million people.

One more bizarre note. The merger passed the FCC with a 3-2 vote. The three commissioners who voted for the merger were all Republicans.

Election Blues

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:05:02 -0700

I’m already sick of the elections and we are so early in the game. The commercials for John McCain are really sad… he is either getting some really bad advice or he is stupider and more evil than I thought. Either way “he approves of the message”.

Obama’s people should edit an exact parallel of one of the spots with Britney and Paris replaced by Cheney and Rove… then again I hope they don’t. Political campaigning has gotten like the entertainment business - full of crap that we are told “it’s what the people want”.

After 8 years that has left the country in shambles economically, morally and emotionally… can we please move forward?

What Would Don Draper Do?

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 04:47:25 -0700

What Would Don Draper Do?

Offshore Drilling Claims Are a Political Hoax

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:45:26 -0700

Offshore Drilling Claims Are a Political Hoax

"Oh, you know I’ll strap on anything that’s going to bring me pleasure"

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:11:42 -0700

“Oh, you know I’ll strap on anything that’s going to bring me pleasure”

- Kurt the Cyberguy this morning while demoing a camera that straps to the back of a surfer. KTLA should change it’s slogan to “Your Double Entendre station”.

"If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not..."

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:17:00 -0700

“If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody anymore, thank god; and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don’t seem to have much of an issue,” Bratton told KNBC, L.A.’s local NBC affiliate.”

- LA police chief at at press conference about hearings proposing paparazzi legislation. It was a classic LA news story including a crowd shot that panned over Larry Melrose Green (who spent years at Melrose and Highland waving a sign for Howard Stern every morning). Bratton added: ”So as far as all this grandstanding and foolishness, waste of city time on this issue - and the fact that I felt aggravated enough about it to interrupt my workout to come over and set the record straight, LAPD has no intention of participating in this farce.”

News Madness

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:34:38 -0700

The stories that were on every newscast in the last few days… a 70 year old japanese porn star, a 44 pound cat and a Cheeto that looks like jesus (or a telephone pole, if you ask me). Good thing there are not troops in two conflicts, a economy in crisis and gas prices at all time highs. At least they had the earthquake to fill the rest of the time without doing any actual reporting.

Last night as we went to bed the teaser came on KTLA “your kitchen countertops could be killing you”… well we had to stay up for that, who could sleep fearing our countertops could kill us in out sleep? How do they do it, should we hide the knives? The story was about possible small amounts of Radon in some granite that even the expert they interviewed said was not really a problem. To give anchor Emmett Miller props, he paused after the story and said to the reporter with a hint of WTF? ”so there really is no danger?”.

Seriously, how much longer really can local news survive? As the earthquake hit I got updates instantly from all over LA via twitter. First person instant reports, unfiltered.

Animal House Event I wish we knew about

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:44:17 -0700

Animal House Event I wish we knew about: 30 year panel discussion

A USB key for the contractor in your life.

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:21:22 -0700

A USB key for the contractor in your life.

video find of the day… one of the comments on the site...

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:11:00 -0700

video find of the day… one of the comments on the site called this clip “Hillbilly Space Camp”

The extra 10% is directly attributable to Jerry, the one armed...

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:17:48 -0700

The extra 10% is directly attributable to Jerry, the one armed tire dresser.

Make up your mind!

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:22:09 -0700

Make up your mind!

No left turn?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:21:11 -0700

No left turn?

Favorite iPhone apps so far

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:08:43 -0700

1: Sync... ok not really an app but having contacts and calendars automatically in sync on multiple computers and iPhones is fantastic
2: Twinkle - twitter application
3: AIM - chat
4: Remote - control iTunes and AppleTV
5:Midomi - sing, say, type or record a snippet and have the song identified
6: EtchASketch - cool simulation of the real thing - shake to clear
7: Level - a digital level
8: AOL Radio
9: Rotary Dialer
10: Holdem - addictive and amazing graphics, plus wifi multiplayer
11: More Cowbell - silly

Sirius/XM merger finally clears FCC

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:14:41 -0700

Sirius/XM merger finally clears FCC