More Late Night Changes

A couple of months ago we had the changing of the late night guard at NBC. Jimmy Fallon took over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno and Seth Meyers moved into the Late Night slot vacated by Fallon. Then last week David Letterman of CBS announced that he will be retiring from The Late Show in a year or so. This week it was announced that Steven Colbert, host of the Colbert Report on Comedy Central, will be taking Letterman's place. 

As a very longtime connoisseur of late night TV and owner of this blog, I get to express my opinion of these recent developments. 

I was never a Leno fan so him stepping down, or being fired, didn't bother me. I was also never a Jimmy Fallon fan so I wasn't thrilled about him taking over The Tonight Show. Then NBC made another mistake putting Seth Meyer into the Late Night chair. The late night genre may morph into something that suits their talents but they have very limited skills in the current format. I think both Jimmy F. and Seth should abandon the monologue. They can't do it and it is often painful to watch. They also can't conduct an interview. Jimmy has had several years of practice on Late Night and he still can't do it. Seth is a neophyte so maybe he'll figure it out. So, neither of NBC's late night hosts can deliver a monologue or conduct an interview. Maybe they should return to the Steve Allen format, more of a variety or skit based program. Steve didn't really do a monologue or many interviews although he could do both.

Over at CBS it appears that Craig Ferguson will be staying as host of the Late Late Show. That's fine with me. I don't know if he wanted the Letterman slot but I suspect he is better off where he is. I'm a very big Ferguson fan as is my 20 something son but I don't think his style would play as well with the restrictions of the earlier time slot. Craig, Geoff the Robot and Secretariat the fake horse seem just perfect for the later hours. He also doesn't do the standard promotion of movies and TV shows. I'm sure over the next year we will hear numerous stories about whether Craig did or did not want to replace Letterman.

I think the selection of Steven Colbert for the Late Show is genius. He has a large following with the younger viewers. He is a politically astute comedian, unlike the Jimmy's. He is a very good, curious, quick and competent interviewer. He also does the equivalent of a monologue at the start of the Colbert Report programs. On his current program Colbert plays a numskull conservative pundit. He does it very well and is very funny. He has already said that he will not host The Late Show in his current buffoon character.

As further proof that CBS made a good choice for the Letterman replacement, Rush (Blowhard) Limbaugh objected to it. 

I watch Letterman, Colbert and Ferguson every day now. I predict I will still be watching Colbert when he moves to CBS followed by Ferguson. 

No one ever replaced Johnny Carson and no one will ever replace David Letterman but time marches on. It will be interesting over the next few months to see who will be the band leader on the Colbert Late Show or will he even have a band. Will he have a sidekick a la Ed McMahon or more like Geoff Peterson? Will there be a prominent announcer? Will he broadcast from the Ed Sullivan Theater? Will he even stay in New York?

When Letterman leaves, we lose the last of the post-Carson generation. We move onto what I think is the fifth generation of late night hosts (Steve Allen. Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Leno/Letterman, all the current hosts). It's a tougher more fragmented landscape now. Johnny was pretty much the only game in town after the late news. He drew more viewers than recent top prime time shows do. Now we have a couple of Jimmy's, Conan, Arsenio, Chelsea, Jon and others. There are also about 3 million cable/internet channels. 

Will the old late night format survive, should it survive? I like a few minutes of topical jokes followed by interesting interviews. A great band helps too. I am also several hundreds years old so my preferences don't matter. 

I'll miss David Letterman but I'm glad Steven Colbert will be taking over. I already watch his show and will be interested to see what he is like outside of his right wing wacko fake personality. What changes will he bring to the table? I hope he figures out a way to continue to ridicule Fox News.

The Late Show changing of the guard won't happen for another year nor will the Colbert Report be disappearing for several months. I'm ready when it does kick in, are you?

wjh

The Dave Clark Five

The PBS Great Performances program on Tuesday, April 8th was The Dave Clark Five - Glad All Over. If you are a child of the 60's you are very familiar with DC5. Even if you are much younger you have probably heard their music. This show was a two hour documentary about the British band and not a concert. There was plenty of music but very few complete songs. 

It's hard to believe now, but for a couple of years the Dave Clark Five were as popular as the Beatles. They had a string of top ten hits between 1964 and 1967 in the United States and then a couple of more years at the top in the UK and Europe. They were the second British Invasion group to appear on Ed Sullivan and were on that show 18 times. The press manufactured a rivalry between DC5 who played the Tottenham Sound and the Beatles who played the Liverpool Mersey Beat but the bands never really bought into it. The DC5 did have a different sound. That can be attributed to more prominent drums, a keyboard and a saxophone along with the usual guitar and bass. The DC5 has a bigger sound than most other groups of the British Invasion.  

There are a few reasons that the DC5 is not as well known today as the Beatles or Rolling Stones. For one their song catalog is not as deep although it is impressive. They were not one hit wonders but also were not as prolific at writing their own songs. They also pretty much disappeared after 1970. They didn't have reunion tours in the 80's, 90's, 00's or ever. The individual members didn't go on to big solo careers or form new bands. They just faded away. That shouldn't diminish their contribution to the music scene. There is also another reason they are now more obscure than some other bands of that era. I'll get to that a little later.

The documentary is a combination of original footage, narration and interviews. Although the program has a 2014 copyright date, some of the interviews were done much earlier. Freddie Mercury and Lawrence Olivier obviously aren't still with us. There were also interviews with Paul McCartney, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zant, Max Weinberg, Stevie Wonder, Whoopi Goldberg and several others that may be recent. Scattered throughout the documentary are clips from the DC5 induction speech into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Tom Hanks. He did a terrific job and managed to get most of the DC5 hit song titles into the speech. The induction was in 2008, it should have been much earlier. The last 30 minutes of the program are mostly dedicated to Dave Clark's career after the band's breakup. He has had an interesting life in music, TV, stage and movies.

The Dave Clark Five consisted of Dave, Mike, Lenny, Rick and Dennis. Not quite as catchy as John, Paul, George and Ringo. Unfortunately only Dave and Lenny are still with us. Sadly Mike, the lead singer, died just a couple of weeks before the group's induction into the Hall of Fame.

Getting back to the lack of current recognition for the group, I think it is mostly due to the fact that their music is so hard to find. Dave Clark owns all the rights and has been very stingy with allowing anyone to license those rights. There may be some songs available on iTune. There are no albums available on Google Play, only a couple of cuts on oldies compilation albums. Even Amazon has very little DC5 music and much of that is old vinyl for high prices. 

There are some videos on YouTube if you want to listen. Here's one of my favorite DC5 songs, Because. Check out the DC5 discography, I'm sure you'll see some familiar songs.

I enjoyed the program and learned new things about a group I enjoyed immensely way back when. If you missed the show, it is available online at the PBS website you can also buy the DVD.

I hope your day is Glad All Over.

wjh

Freedom of Money

The recent Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision on election contributions (McCutcheon v FEC) has raised varied reactions as do most rulings by our highest court. The court again ruled to take additional teeth out of the federal election laws. This is an issue that I wrestle with. There is a tendency to side with those who argue it is our freedom of speech to support our political candidates in any way we can including unlimited contributions. There is also my tendency to think our political system has been corrupted by big money. 

My longtime friend, fellow blogger and sometimes partner in crime, Dennis Sherrard, posted his thoughts on his blog Indies Are Us. It got me thinking again about this subject. He contends that the candidates' war chests need to be put on a diet. 

I won't pretend to know all the legal ins and out of the ruling but that won't stop me from stating my opinion. Rather than debate this one Supreme Court decision let me point out some concepts that trouble me. Concepts that were used by Chief Justice Roberts in his majority opinion.

The first is that money is equivalent to speech and is therefore protected under the first amendment. Here is the text of the very short and very important first amendment to our Constitution:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 

I don't see any reference to money. I also contend that money is treated differently than speech in our society and legal system. I can vocally and in print advocate that heroin, cocaine or automatic weapons should be legal and available to everyone. If I buy, with money, illegal drugs or a Thompson sub-machine gun I can be arrested. If I say that I want Senator Leghorn to vote for the dam project it's OK. If I give Foghorn say $5,200 to vote for the damn dam project it's a bribe. Of course if I give the Senator $5,200 for his general campaign we are again in the clear.  

Another contention is that corporations have the same rights as people. Well that's just complete bullshit. Again, check the first amendment. See any reference to corporations? Corporations are not people. They can't vote or hold office. They can't get married, regardless of their sexual preference. They can't adopt children. They can't be put in jail. Corporations are owned by people. Isn't it illegal to own people? So are stockholders actually slave owners or maybe a corporation isn't really a person. 

Corporations and labor unions are currently banned from direct contributions to political campaigns but they can establish Political Action Committees (PAC) which have no limits. To me that's like denying me personally from contributing but allowing me to get Aunt Margaret and Uncle John to organize a campaign fund that I can give unlimited funds to. Have you ever worked somewhere that is big on United Way contributions. Has your boss ever been the company chair or even worse the local campaign chair? Try to resist contributing. Your career will suffer. It's the same with contributions to corporate or union PACs. Of course once you do give your involuntary contribution, you have no control over how the PAC money is spent.  

Chief Justice Roberts contends that many unpleasant activities are protected by the first amendment such as flag burning and Nazi or KKK parades. That is true and that is a good thing. He contends that there is no evidence of bribery or even the appearance of any such corruption in our political landscape. I contend that he is either stupid, blind, politically motivated or very naive. The problem with the big money influx into politics is that it does influence their votes and most of us have no influence. I have one vote and a $1.98 for a candidate. The Koch brothers have a couple of votes and $1.98 billions. Who's phone call will the politician accept? Who's pet project will get put to a vote? The evidence is undeniable if not specific. The big money interests win the congressional votes over and over again. Corrupt and law breaking corporations hardly ever are really punished, unlike actual poor people who go to prison.

I don't know the answer to this problem. I do know that it is broken. In my perfect world I would allow everyone to contribute as much money as they want to as many candidates as they want. The alternative would be to allow no private contributions. All candidates would be publicly funded at a relatively low amount. I would also significantly strengthen the bribery and corruption laws. I would hold corporate executives and directors responsible for what their companies do. That would include prison time and banishment from corporate life, not just a fine that the stockholders ultimately pay. Politicians would be under the microscope. Bribery and influence peddling laws would be strengthened.

Nobody ever said that this democracy stuff would be easy. This issue is at the root of democracy. Can a few rich folks control our government or can the majority rule? Can the Supreme Court bestow human rights and protections onto organizations? 

Unfortunately, like everything else in Washington, the SCOTUS has become predictably partisan. Almost every decision comes down to a 5-4 vote. That's OK, but it is always the same five on one side and the same four on the other. Right now the conservatives hold the majority. How long will that be the case? Like congress, the SCOTUS votes should not be so predictable. There should be some room for compromise based on the facts and situation, not just some hardcore party plank. We need the pendulum to stay nearer the middle, not too far right and not too far left. 

What is your solution to campaign financing? 

wjh

Scattershooting 04-06-14

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to the great

 Nolan Ryan

Sunday's Summary

My incomplete recap of the week

Rangers opening day (3/31). I can't believe the ballpark is 20 years old this season. I was at that first opening day and then a couple of days later for the first night game. Note the old stadium in the background, long since gone.

GO RANGERS!

Amazing aerial shot of opening day National Anthem at Rangers Ballpark.

When Robinson Cano came up to bat on opening day, a fan in a Yankees jacket held up a sign saying "It's all about the money". It often is Mr. Yankees fan and you should know, the Yankees have been buying pennants for decades. The height of hypocrisy.

Baseball opening day is over. Don't you feel better now, even if your team lost? Opening Day, an unofficial national holiday.

My work is done. On Monday my youngest son sent me a text that read "Happy Opening Day!". He knows the important dates in life. Here is a picture of him sliding into home at Rangers Ballpark when he was five. 

GO RANGERS! GO MATT!

Did everybody get signed up for Obamacare before the deadline? Not a problem for me and all my Medicare buddies.

Brings back memories. OK dad.

I watched Late Night tonight just to see if it has gotten any better. Short answer - Nope. To me it is still unwatchable. Stick with The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson if you want funny.

For #TBT here's my first day of kindergarten. Can't believe we wore suits to school at age 5. These were my running buddies back then - Dick, Little Billy, Big Bruce and Chuck. We pretty much controlled the neighborhood. — at Queen of Peace Grammar School.

Been a hail of an evening (4/3) in North Texas. Lotsa cars damaged and it looks like every skylight in the Denton Walmart has holes in it.

Bad news, bad news, good news. It was a bad night (4/5) on the sports front. The Gators played like poop against UConn and are done. The Rangers blew a late lead and lost to the Rays. The good news is that I got to spend this disappointing sports night with my son who is also a Gators/Rangers fan. We also made a trip to the liquor store so there is plenty of medication available for our pain.

GO GATORS! GO RANGERS!

Forgot to mention on Friday. A new restaurant is "coming soon" at Harwood & Central where Le Peep used to be. A 50's hamburger joint named Hwy 55. Looks like a Steak 'n Shake kind of place.

http://hwy55burgers.com/

Watching the Country Music Awards show I realized that there is barely any difference between country and rock now. Country has a few more cowboy hats and is a little more nasal. Fiddles and banjos were few and far between.

Have you seen that stupid commercial for Dr. Pepper 10? A man of nature listens to trees and communes with bears and eagles. All natural right? Here is what he's drinking - INGREDIENTS
CARBONATED WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CARAMEL COLOR, PHOSPHORIC ACID, ASPARTAME, SODIUM BENZOATE (PRESERVATIVE), CAFFEINE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, ACESULFAME POTASSIUM, SODIUM PHOSPHATE

Looks all natural to me and what will he do with that empty can? BS

Thanks to the Florida Gators basketball team for a great season. They had a run all the way to the Final Four. They won 30 straight and finished with a 36-3 record. Special thanks to Coach Billy Donovan and the four senior players. 

GO GATORS!

wjh

Procrastination

I am a selective procrastinator and have been my entire life. By selective I mean there are certain situations I handle expeditiously and others that I put off until the last possible minute. I have some theories about why I often procrastinate but I'm not prepared to bare my psychological soul on this forum at this time. 

Why am I bringing this up? Well it's because I finally completed something that I have been putting off for a couple of months. It wasn't life or death, but was becoming more critical that the task be taken care of. As usual, the completion of the task was a relief. I feel better now that it's done. Despite that good feeling, I'm pretty sure I'll procrastinate again.

I'm not sure when this behavior began, but I think it was early in my life. I hardly ever did long term school assignments until the last minute. I would do each day's homework (usually) on schedule but if I had an assignment due in a month I'd wait about 28 days to get started. I usually pulled it off.

The other contributing factor is that very often the assignment was either delayed, the requirements changed or completely cancelled. I guess I figured that out early in life. While cancellation didn't happen too often in school, it was a regular occurrence during my business career. 

Procrastination is normal behavior in school. Hardly anyone starts a long term assignment near the day it is assigned. The same is also pretty much true in business but there are a few more early starters. There are also not quite as many last minute starters. I remained a last minute holdout. This too had positive and negative consequences. While I often got out of doing unnecessary work, I also incurred the wrath of my peers who had already completed the assignment only to find it cancelled, modified or the deadline extended. Family members would get upset with me too about putting off family matters.

A short anecdote. A director I once worked for gave all his direct report managers (I think there were five or six of us) a written report assignment with a specific deadline date. It was BS busy work so as usual I kept putting it off. A few days before the deadline, the boss had a change in schedule and would be out of town on the assignment deadline date. As usual, he appointed one of us to be the acting director in his absence. He rotated those duties but it was not my turn to be in charge. Instead it was the most anal, least imaginative, least technical, least competent and least liked manager's turn. Despite the fact that the boss would be out of town on the deadline date and for a few additional days, this anal, pretend in charge person told us that all the reports were due at the original deadline. As is my want when a fake pompas ass tells me something, I ignore it. I never did turn in the "assignment" and it was never asked for. The director had new fires and priorities after his trip.

Now don't get me wrong. If it was really an important task or project or one that actually required advance work, I would do it. I participated in and/or led several large projects that took between six months to a year or more to plan and complete. I jumped on those and worked whatever hours were required. 

I don't have many long term projects now but there are still things that need to be done. Some are important and the deadline is not negotiable. The rent or mortgage and electric bills need to be paid on a specific date. Miss a couple and you'll be sitting in the dark or on the curb. Others are more flexible like doing the laundry or planting the spring flowers. A day or two or even a week delay won't be a disaster. Unless you are out of clean underwear. 

 So, are you a never put off till tomorrow what you can do today person or a never do today what you can put off till tomorrow (or next week) procrastinator?  There's no right answer, it's whatever works for you. 

This post was originally scheduled for early March but... Well, you know, stuff happens.

wjh

Very Random Thoughts - April 2014

• Have you noticed how the "those we've lost in the past year" memorials at the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, etc. seem more poignant and meaningful as we get older?
• What excuse do today's teenagers use to get out of the house on a school night? We used to say we were going to the library for research or to get a book. Google and the internet have rendered that excuse obsolete. On a few rare occasions we actually did go to the library.
• Changing to or from Daylight Savings Time is way less traumatic now that the kids are out of school and I'm retired.
• The only thing real about reality TV shows is that they are really fake and really scripted. Does anybody care?
• Know anybody like this? Seldom right but never uncertain.
• When did men's suits that are too small become the style? A better question is why.
• Have you ever poured the contents of a "small" container into a "large" container only to find out that they are damn near the same size? Or vice versa.
• The easily offended usually deserve to be easily offended. 
• Many of us had very good times in the '60s. Now it's time to have fun in our 60's.
• As political correctness continues to advance, will we be able to joke about anything or anybody in a few years from now?
• I'm not a big fan of the death penalty, but is it true that there is a shortage of "lethal injection" drugs? People die of drug OD's every day. The states can't find a lethal drug but a strung out junkie can.
• Any similarity between life and fairness is purely accidental.
• People in hell, where do they tell people to go?
• When you see a product in a store labelled "Homemade", do you ever wonder whose home it was made in?
• When someone starts a statement with "I'm not a racist (or bigoted) but..." you can be pretty sure that they are.
• Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. 
• No matter how far in the future the deadline is or how often it is extended, there will always be a last minute rush.

wjh

Scattershooting 03-30-14

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to the great

 Bill Russell

Sunday's Summary

My incomplete recap of the week

Just for grins I checked final four tickets at Jerry World. Matt and I went to the regionals (sweet 16) last year to see the Gators - FGCU game. Seats in the section next to the one we sat in, which are worse seats, are going for $4,145. That's a little more than I paid last year. Cheapest seats in the far upper corners are $464. I'm pretty sure even if the Gators make the final four I'll be watching the game on TV.

Once again for the second time in a week, the lowly unranked Gators beat the #2 Noles. This time it's 4-1 in Jacksonville.

This applies to some law offices too. Ask Lawyer Rick.

Good point. Tolerance.

It's #TBT once again. Here I am at 11 for my school photo. That means it was either the second half of fifth grade or first half of sixth. Note the very cool tough guy rolled up sleeves. That's a pretty long collar too. The pocket patch "A" was blue, not scarlet. I'm sure it was to help people more easily identify us so any bad behavior off campus could be reported to the school. Not that I ever did behave badly of course.

New health food choices this season at Rangers games. Home opener is Monday.

Tough year for these gentle mammals.

Here is a picture of the new MLB ROC (Replay Operation Center) in New York. I think they need a couple more monitors.

This is enough to make you sick (pun intended) - 

Homeopathic drug company caught putting actual drugs in its remedies

Good idea -

Remember when there was just Triscuits? The box didn't have a qualifier like "Original", it just said Triscuit. Now there are over 20 variations of this venerable snack cracker that was invented in 1900. What's your favorite new flavor? I still buy the plain old kind most of the time.

http://brands.nabisco.com/triscuit/?gclid=COjxovfQuL0CFRFp7AodoxAAGg

Gators are coming to Jerry World again. This time for the Final Four. We'll have to wait until Saturday for the next game.

GO GATORS!

Pretty strong SNL for a change. This week's host was Louis C.K. His opening monologue was very good. Musical guest Sam Smith was OK too. Good SNL's are few and far between these days.

Have you been seeing the ubiquitous H & R Block commercials all over TV as we approach tax day? They have been using "Reunited" by Peaches & Herb as a theme. It perked my interest in the original version. I had forgotten how gorgeous "Peaches" was and how good Herb sang. Here's the original. Good song, good singers, a couple of dated hairdos and outfits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26J0uDIGErM

Gators will be facing the UConn Huskies in the opening round of the Final Four. They are the last team to beat Florida, a one point loss at Connecticut on 12/2. Let's avenge that loss on Saturday.

GO GATORS!

Nice piece on 60 Minutes about Marcus Roberts. He's a Jacksonville native and attended Florida D&B and FSU where he now teaches. Mom still lives in Jax.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-virtuoso-marcus-roberts

wjh