One of my favorite films of all time is Good Will Hunting. It was on TV the other day and the message I always take away from it is living your life without regret. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with my life over the past 37.5 years and there isn't really much I would do differently. That being said, there are a few things I would love a chance to go back and do. They aren't earth shattering moments or moments that would have changed the course of fate but rather opportunities that came my way but for some reason or another were not acted upon. Here they are:
Beach Boys Concert: When I was in high school The Beach Boys came to Maine for a show at Loring Air Force Base in the town of Limestone. I am 95% sure it was on July 4, 1988 but I haven't been able to find the exact date anywhere online. Limestone is 202 miles from my hometown and I did not have a car or driver's license in my high school years so the odds of me making it to this show seemed pretty minimal. Then out of the blue, my next door neighbor Doug, who was originally from that part of the state, said he was going to the show and offered me a chance to go. At the time I didn't know Doug very well so the thought of driving 200 miles to the middle of nowhere for a concert with some random dude wasn't very appealing. So I turned down his offer and missed what I assume is the Beach Boys first and only concert in the Pine Tree State.
Man Without A Face Extra: In 1992 they filmed the Mel Gibson movie The Man Without A Face in Maine. They filmed scenes all over the state all summer long. The climax of the movie is the graduation scene and to film it they needed tons of extras to be the crowd for the scene. It was a slam dunk, if you show up at this location, on this date, at this time, you will be an extra in the film. My buddy Aaron and I were all set to go but he ended up having to work unexpectedly that day and as a result I blew it off. It would have been pretty cool to say, "Oh yeah, I was in that film" whenever it was on TV for the rest of my life.
Dukesfest: Actor Ben Jones, better known as Cooter, started an annual Dukes of Hazzard fan gathering called Dukesfest in Sperryville, Virginia in 1999. It quickly grew tremendously in popularity, so much that he actually started having two festivals, one in Virginia and another in Tennessee. My buddy Drew and I were all set to go to the 2003 Dukesfest in Sperryville, Virginia which is a mere 50 miles from my house. But the morning of the fest I blew it off for a hot date with a gal named Angie. Low and behold, my date with Angie ended up being postponed so I missed the festival for nothing. Unfortunately, that ended up being the last Dukesfest in Sperryville. It simply grew too big for this tiny mountain town and moved 400 miles south to Tennessee the following year.
Last Game At Rosenblatt Stadium: If you know anything about college baseball you know what happens each June at Rosenblatt Stadium - the College World Series (CWS). Rosenblatt has been the home of the CWS since 1950. Like nearly all old things in the US, Rosenblatt is being replaced by a new stadium with tons of luxury boxes and fancy amenities. This means that the 2010 CWS was the last to be played there. The stadium is also the home of the Omaha Royals minor league baseball team, meaning their last game of the 2010 season would actually be the last baseball game ever played at Rosenblatt. I tried desperately to convince someone, anyone of my friends to make an early September road trip to go to the last game. In the end no one wanted to go so I missed my chance but not for lack of effort.
Mood: Nostalgic
Movie Quote of the Day:
"Well, I got her number. How do you like them apples?" - Good Will Hunting
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Television Advertising Overload
If you think that there is more and more advertising than ever today on television you are probably right. Advertising is coming at you more often than ever on television and in new and sometimes unethical ways. Here are some of the trends I have noticed:
Extra Commercials: I first noticed this change a few months ago when two of the shows I watch regularly changed the length of their segments. Both Fast Money and Mad Money are 60 minute shows on CNBC. Each used to go to commercial only once between the 45 minute mark and the end of the show at the bottom of the hour. Then a few months back they both starting splitting that last 12-13 minute segment into two segments 5-6 minutes long. This allowed them to sneak in an extra 2-3 minutes of advertising.
At first I thought this was simply a sign that they were able to sell some extra advertising space but I have since come to the conclusion that this move is more likely motivated by greed. They are just trying to cram more and more commercials into their time slot. It's one thing if a show is successful and is able to sell more advertising space. It's quite another to dramatically change the flow and content of the show for the sake of the all mighty dollar.
Coming Back From A Commercial To Go To A Commercial: Both Fast Money and Mad Money occasionally employ the most evil of all advertising tactics. They come back from a commercial to go to a commercial. This happened most recently yesterday on Fast Money at about 5:51pm ET. They came back from 3 minutes of commercials, talked for about 15 seconds, and then went to 3 more minutes of commercials.
Between the extra advertising segment and the coming back from commercial to go to a commercial, my opinion of both Fast Money and Mad Money has gone way down. In fact, I regularly switch the channel to ESPN to watch PTI when that first commercial break happens at 45 past the hour. There is so little actual content and commentary from that point to the bottom of the hour that I am not really missing anything. They want their viewers to sit there through those extra ads but I refuse to do so.
Product Placement: Product placement is nothing new in the world of television. An occasional can of Coke here or an Apple logo there is no big deal in my opinion. Unfortunately product placement has gotten totally out of hand. The best example of this recently was the How I Met Your Mother (which isn't even about how Ted met his wife anymore) episode on 10/11/2010. They should have just retitled the show "How I Met Microsoft" that night. The number of product placements Microsoft had in this 22 minute show was incredulous. I am not going to quantify them as it's already been done. Check it out! The bottom line is that it was extremely egregious.
Cutting Out Content: This is the newest and most disturbing trend I have seen. Some networks are now editing classic shows and reducing their running length so they can cram in more ads. One of my favorite shows growing up was The Wonder Years. There was no mistaking when it came on the air as the Joe Cocker cover of The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends" was always played at the top of the show. The Wonder Years is now on The Hub on weekday evenings, but it's theme song is often left on the cutting room floor. In addition, The Hub seems to edit out some of the content of the actual show as well. Quite often the show will suddenly go to commercial in the middle of a scene and when it comes back from commercial it is in the middle of a new, unrelated scene.
Mood: Enraged.
Song of the Day:
"What would you do if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me."
-With A Little Help From My Friends
Joe Cocker
Extra Commercials: I first noticed this change a few months ago when two of the shows I watch regularly changed the length of their segments. Both Fast Money and Mad Money are 60 minute shows on CNBC. Each used to go to commercial only once between the 45 minute mark and the end of the show at the bottom of the hour. Then a few months back they both starting splitting that last 12-13 minute segment into two segments 5-6 minutes long. This allowed them to sneak in an extra 2-3 minutes of advertising.
At first I thought this was simply a sign that they were able to sell some extra advertising space but I have since come to the conclusion that this move is more likely motivated by greed. They are just trying to cram more and more commercials into their time slot. It's one thing if a show is successful and is able to sell more advertising space. It's quite another to dramatically change the flow and content of the show for the sake of the all mighty dollar.
Coming Back From A Commercial To Go To A Commercial: Both Fast Money and Mad Money occasionally employ the most evil of all advertising tactics. They come back from a commercial to go to a commercial. This happened most recently yesterday on Fast Money at about 5:51pm ET. They came back from 3 minutes of commercials, talked for about 15 seconds, and then went to 3 more minutes of commercials.
Between the extra advertising segment and the coming back from commercial to go to a commercial, my opinion of both Fast Money and Mad Money has gone way down. In fact, I regularly switch the channel to ESPN to watch PTI when that first commercial break happens at 45 past the hour. There is so little actual content and commentary from that point to the bottom of the hour that I am not really missing anything. They want their viewers to sit there through those extra ads but I refuse to do so.
Product Placement: Product placement is nothing new in the world of television. An occasional can of Coke here or an Apple logo there is no big deal in my opinion. Unfortunately product placement has gotten totally out of hand. The best example of this recently was the How I Met Your Mother (which isn't even about how Ted met his wife anymore) episode on 10/11/2010. They should have just retitled the show "How I Met Microsoft" that night. The number of product placements Microsoft had in this 22 minute show was incredulous. I am not going to quantify them as it's already been done. Check it out! The bottom line is that it was extremely egregious.
Cutting Out Content: This is the newest and most disturbing trend I have seen. Some networks are now editing classic shows and reducing their running length so they can cram in more ads. One of my favorite shows growing up was The Wonder Years. There was no mistaking when it came on the air as the Joe Cocker cover of The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends" was always played at the top of the show. The Wonder Years is now on The Hub on weekday evenings, but it's theme song is often left on the cutting room floor. In addition, The Hub seems to edit out some of the content of the actual show as well. Quite often the show will suddenly go to commercial in the middle of a scene and when it comes back from commercial it is in the middle of a new, unrelated scene.
Mood: Enraged.
Song of the Day:
"What would you do if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me."
-With A Little Help From My Friends
Joe Cocker
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