Now, with that being said, sports media sensationalism is only dangerous because it makes people go postal with annoyed rage.  All in all, the NFL season was a bust.  The baseball season wasn’t much better.  So far, the NBA season has been exciting for just a handful of people.  So – what’s a 24 hour sports news network to do?  Find their Bird Flu, of course.  We witnessed this with the super-hype of the mediocre-at-best quarterback of a mediocre-at-best franchise in a mediocre-at-best TV market in Tim Tebow.  I could fill everything interesting about Tebow in a 2″ column on the third page of the Indiana Daily Student.  Mercifully, the NFL season finally ended, and all we’re left with is the usual spackling of diva players thinking they deserve more money to catch a few balls once a week, and an owner that needs to either hire a better PR firm, or start listening to the one he has.  The downside?  The bloodhounds in the media need another minor story to make into the story of the year so that when it wins an ESPY at the end of the year, they can justify the award with “well, it was talked about ALL the time!!”

The New York Knicks have been irrelevant in the NBA since, well, pretty much forever.  I know, that sounds like there’s no way that’s right, but check it out: The Knicks have won 2 championships.  That’s good enough for 8th on the list – tied with the Houston Rockets.  Compare that to 17 for the Celtics, 16 for the Lakers, and 6 for the Bulls.  So, clearly, the reason why the Knicks are talked about so much is because the majority of the media outlets talking about them are located in New York – it certainly can’t be because of a winning tradition, because, other than the fact that they have been around for forever, they’ve done nothing to deserve the praise and/or expectations.  Now, however, all of that has changed because of Jeremy Lin.  In fact, since the Knicks added Lin, they have been on quite the little winning streak!  So – sure – praise is certainly warranted for such a team.  Here’s the problem, though.  Instead of doing a story each time the Knicks win – our buddies over at the networks have decided that all other news is second, including the Knicks winning games – to one, solitary player on the team.  That’s right – Jeremy Lin.  In fact – in true CNN wartime-coverage style, they have even come up with a nickname: Linsanity.  I’d  rather catch West Nile than hear that word ever again.

So, what’s the big deal?  What’s the hype?  Surely Mr. Lin is putting up Hall of Fame, or at least MVP numbers for these guys to be so droolingly obsessed, right?  Well, let’s look at the numbers from NBA.com:

PPG (Last 10 games)
1. Bryant, Kobe – 28.7
2. James, LeBron – 28.0
3. Durant, Kevin – 25.3
4. Love, Kevin – 25.3
5. Bargnani, Andrea – 23.5

Uh oh, where’s Linsanity?? Surely we must be getting close to Mr. Lin’s points per game here – after all, he’s the savior of the most storied franchise of all time!! Nope.

83. Lin, Jeremy – 12.9

Yikes. Looks like we should be talking about Bargnanisanity instead… Heck, Lin isn’t even the top scorer on his team! In the last 10 games – Carmelo Anthony is 9th on the overall list with 22.3ppg. (He’s missed a few of those games to be fair.) So, what’s the deal? I mean, Lin is a Point Guard, right? So, I guess maybe assists are more important. After all, that’s his job. So, let’s take a look at those numbers:

1. Nash, Steve – 10.6
2. Paul, Chris – 9.5
2. Rondo, Rajon – 9.5
4. Calderon, Jose – 9.3
5. Rubio, Ricky – 8.5

Eeek. (Collar-pull a la old-school shtick comedy.) Where’s our hero? Oh the linsanity!

t-11. Lin, Jeremy – 6.6

Well. Shoot. I don’t know. I tried.

So, here’s the thing. There really isn’t that much going on with sports right now. The NBA season is almost halfway over, and, just like most of us thought, it’s kind of been a bust. Understandable, since you have a mix of 60 year old and 13 year old players on the same teams trying to push their way through a 66 game schedule in 4 weeks, but still, ESPN, SI, USA Today…try harder to diversify your stories. Think of each story as an investment. Each day, you have X amount of dollars to spend on news. Some of the stories are going to hit, and some are going to flop. The Lin story? It’s a good story – maybe a hundred shares of a small mom-and-pop grocery store good. (In comparison, stories about Dwight Howard are more on par with a thousand shares of K-Mart; they were certainly worth something at some point, but now, it might be cheaper to just recycle the paper they’re printed on.) They certainly aren’t Google stock… So, when this story fades away after the Knicks self-implode, and they will, we all know it, maybe you should have another few stories to rely on? Just a thought.

Oh – and Skip Bayless, ESPN? Are you really going to keep that holding in your portfolio? Because, honestly, most people that owned Enron stock just pretended like they never invested in that mess…and maybe you should follow suit.

Consider this entire article a **SPOILER ALERT** if you have not yet watched the episode from Sunday Feb. 12.

Well, after the weakness that was episode 11 (last week’s), Once Upon a Time finally gave us what we so desperately needed – a revelation that will actually impact the show from now on.  That revelation, of course, is that Mr. Gold, aka Rumpelstiltskin, seems to remember his past.  (If you’ve forgotten already how this was revealed, Regina, aka The Evil Queen, asked an incarcerated Gold what his name is, rather, what is real name is.  Gold’s reply?  ”Rumpelstiltskin”.  Gold also calls Regina “Your Majesty”.)  This came after an irate Gold beat an indebted shop-keeper half to death for stealing something from him.  (We later find out, of course, that the man was put up to it by Regina, and that what he stole was the teacup chipped by “Belle” whilst she was in the employ (servitude) of Rumpelstiltskin a la Beauty and the Beast.)  I really liked the Beauty and the Beast element in this episode.  Just thought I’d throw that in here.

This is the kind of thing I’ve really been wanting to see on this show week in and week out: something that actually impacts the series on the whole, not necessarily just a Simpsons-esque episode where everything “resets” at the end of the episode back where it all started.  (This is how last week’s episode was, other than the revelation that the new “writer” in town has a (the?) copy of Henry’s fairy tale book, which wasn’t that shocking.)  Now, we can finally start progressing this story forward again.  The only other thing I’d like to see addressed is this painful romance between Mary Margaret (Snow White,) and David (Prince Charming.)  I mean, really?  He bought two Valentine’s Day cards and handed her the wrong one?  The one written for his wife?  I’ve never been involved in an extra-marital affair, but I’d assume that if I were, I’d have gotten caught a looong time ago if I were dumb enough to A. carry both cards with me when handing one out, and B. REMEMBER which one was which.  Unless something tragic happens to the unimportant Kathryn Nolan (Abigail Midas,) which I think probably will, I think we’re going to have to suffer through this story line for quite some time, especially as, for the time being, it’s the only real love story this show has since the Huntsman died.  (I suspect this will also soon change – as soon as we figure out who the “Stranger” is – as there will definitely be some romance there between he and Emma.)  Oh, and in case you were wondering my thoughts on the Stranger?  (No, not this stranger.)  He has to be the book’s author, right?  I mean, I know that in the real world, these stories are all written by various authors – but I don’t think we’re supposed to be thinking that here.  I think the Stranger has arrived in town to “finish” the book.  I could be way off…but I haven’t heard any better suggestions!

Last thing: Does Regina still have her powers in this world?  Many are saying that she has been “slowly regaining her memories and powers”, but I must have missed that arc.  I’ve not noticed anything showing her regaining anything – all I’ve seen is that she still has a vault full of hearts, and that she knows how to use it.  It seemed like she knew about that the whole time, too…it wasn’t a “recent” discovery by her.  I think she’s had her powers/knowledge this whole time.  Am I missing something there?  And, if she still has all of her powers, why is Emma still alive?  Is she untouchable for some reason?  Obviously she has plans to get back at Gold by holding the prisoner (Belle) over his head eventually, but why has Emma just been walking all over Regina without retribution?

Actual last thing:  If Gold remembers who he is, and he remembers the “Please” agreement, (Regina must do what he wants if he says “Please,”) why doesn’t Gold run things around there?  He clearly has something on just about every citizen of Storybrooke, including the “Mayor/Queen.”  It would seem to me that Gold should be living in the biggest house, running the city the way he sees fit.  It makes the story line of him backing Emma as Sheriff kind of silly:  If he wanted Emma to be Sheriff, he should have just made Regina appoint her!  I know Sparky…it’s a TV show.  Well…this is an entertainment blog, and it would get really boring (more boring?) really quickly if my blog posts summarized each episode with: “It was good.  It’s a TV Show.”

I just don’t understand.  I really, really don’t.  I don’t understand how we, as humans, can let ourselves idolize performers for their performing:  athletes, musicians, politicians, etc.  Admire?  Sure.  Respect?  Sometimes.  But idolize?  Absurdity.  Even though it pains me to write yet one more article with the words “Whitney Houston” in it, I just have to.  As you know, Houston died on Saturday afternoon in a bathtub in a hotel in Beverly  Hills.  I’m not going to openly speculate the cause, but I think everyone pretty much can surmise what went down in that bathroom on Saturday…  Now, all over the “world”, fans are “crying out” in mourning.  People are setting up shrines in her hometown, and fans everywhere are sending in cards, letters, etc.  There’s just one problem here…what has Houston done in her life to deserve such treatment?  She was a good singer and even did a bit of decent acting.  The problem is, again, what has she done to be idolized?  Throughout her entire career, there has been nothing but controversy.  She did drugs, (she was caught in the airport with weed and admitted in an interview with Oprah that she would do “marijuana laced with rock cocaine,”) and she has a history of being a no-show to performances.  Wow…one heck of a role model, let alone hero.

So, why then, do we mark this death with anything but pity?  I pity her now in death, as I pitied her in life.  I feel bad for her family – no matter the cause, a family deserves to grieve, (just as a family doesn’t deserve to be put through what they were put through…)  It’s very much like the death of Elvis.  Why the idolizing?  Why the “worship” lasting to this day?  Even though I never understood it, at all, most people think he was a great performer.  (The emphasis there must be on the word performer – because he certainly wasn’t a great singer…)  Most think he changed the music world forever.  Great.  But what else did he do that warranted such praise and remembrance?  Heck, the most basic of “heroic barometer” – searching the word “charity” on one’s Wikipedia page – comes up with just two results:  TVs donated to a military base, and two shows performed to benefit charities.  On the other hand, a guy like Warren Buffet, when he passes, will be giving roughly $30 billion dollars to charity – along with the billions of dollars and time he has already donated.  Along with Buffet, Bill Gates, Margaret Cargill, Paul G. Allen and several others, when they die, will make up a list of 10 people giving hundreds of millions of dollars to charities.  When they pass, will there be a tribute at a major awards show?  Will there be shrines created along streets in New York City with candlelight vigils?  Probably not.  But, there will be cures found for diseases.  Food on plates.  Textbooks in schools.  I’ll hold candles for that.

The list of “false idols” could go forever:  John Lennon, Joe Paterno, Brittany Murphy, Steve McNair, Michael Jackson…  I’m not saying these were bad people, but many of these deaths get just as much or more attention than when true heroes die.  People like Princess Diana and Mother Theresa, who devoted much of their lives to helping people – deserved the candlelight vigils.  They deserved the world-wide mourning they received, because the world lost someone truly great when they passed.  This week, the world will go on without Whitney Houston.  Are we that much worse off?

NBC has been running so many promos for this show, that I began wondering what the show was actually about.  At first, I suspected it would be a mix of Glee and possibly Chicago.  After another 40 hours of ads, I starting thinking maybe it was a bit more Playboy Club meets the horrible, horrible, horrible Step Up movies.  You couldn’t blame a guy for getting a bid worried here…  I decided, at this point, that if this show was going to have chance of gaining my viewership, I really needed to stop expecting anything.  So, in spite of NBC’s obvious “Playboy Club was such a disaster-we only have one more shot at a big hit this year” advertising strategy, I have done my best to avoid the Smash universe.  Until show-time.

First things first.  This show plays much more like a film than a TV series.  It’s shot like a movie, cut like a movie, and definitely written and performed like a movie.  In a refreshing change from every other pilot episode in the history of television, I have counted not one awkward plot explanation forced into this script.  Like a film, we were just immediately thrown into the story to fend for ourselves.  It just felt good.  The first few minutes of this episode just felt good.  If this show isn’t your thing, even if you hate musicals, don’t deny yourselves the pleasure of seeing how a pilot episode should be set-up.

If you are reading this to try and decide whether or not to invest any time in this episode – let me cut right to it:  it’s a musical.  There’s music.  There’s singing.  There’s some dancing.  It’s a musical.  If you hate musicals, then don’t watch, because you won’t like it.  If you like music, even if you don’t like musicals, give it a chance.  The music is actually quite good – not like the forced drivel that is shoved down our throats on radio and Americal “Idol” these days.  Also, to answer my own questions from earlier: this show is much more Moulin Rouge than anything else.  The characters don’t bust out into song in lieu of dialog, the songs all make sense to the plot – i.e. the songs are during auditions, performances, etc.  (Except for one post-show scene…that was just pure musical, and kind of confusing, plot-wise.)  Now, can this format survive in the world of poorly-written cop dramas, sitcoms, and reality shows?  I hate to be the continual cynic, but probably not.  But dammit, and I’m tired of saying this to no avail, this is yet another risk taken by a major network that just has to be applauded.

Now to the characters themselves: Debra Messing is great.  She is always great – why doesn’t she get more roles?  Messing plays a confident and smart woman better than most other TV actresses ever have – and she doesn’t disappoint in Smash.  I believe she’s a Broadway writer, I believe she’s a wife and mother, and I believe that she’s dedicated to her work more than anyone.  Anjelica Huston is Anjelica Huston…solid.  I’ve never disagreed with one of her roles in the past – I mean, if anyone should be type-cast as the bitch, it’s Anjelica Huston.  (You know how real media outlets cut out one line to be the “summary line” for an article?  If I did the same…that last line would be in 24 font and bold…)  The rest of the cast (Marilyn’s and Smash’s) consists mainly of relative unknowns.  Obviously, the two lead singers, McPhee and and Hilty can flat sing.  Both seem to be capable actresses, as well, but in the first half hour, it’s pretty obvious why they were casted.  Messing’s songwriting partner, played by Borle, was probably called in with the following casting call:  we need a 50/50 mix of Jack and Will from Will & Grace.  That’s it.  That’s the whole casting call.  And, they did it – and it works.

The thing is, this show just feels good.  The music is really enjoyable, and the characters are really likeable.  I don’t know many (read: any) Broadway actresses, but I do have friends (past and present) currently working their way to that stage, and I know just how tough and heart-breaking that journey is.  If Smash can portray even a tenth of that drama, this show can be great.  So, good luck NBC and Smash…I hope you can make history here, and not just follow it to the cutting room floor like so many other innovative shows…

I give the pilot episode of Smash a 4 out of 5.

So, if you’ve been living under a rock for a while, or, more specifically, a rock outside of the LTE coverage area, Madonna was the performer for this year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis, which took place last night.  Now, if you remember, I really enjoyed the show last year – despite the fact that I think they allowed the local high-school to provide the audio engineers.  So, when they announced Madonna, I had a flashback to when Aerosmith took the stage on those rechargable ride-ons from Wal-Mart.  Like I’ve said over and over in the past, I get it – because Janet Jackson’s quasi-uncovered boob was shown on television, the networks feel that all of the main acts have to be geriatric.  But, as we’re starting to see, the organizers’ favorite acts from their past are getting to the point where they embarrass themselves more times than not.

Now, after 215 negative words, I’m going to start going in the other direction.  I loved this halftime show.  The visuals were beyond stunning.  I pride myself in knowing how they do the technical things on these shows, and I can safely, (and cheerily,) say, that there were some screens in there that I have no idea how they worked.  I loved the visuals last year, but this year’s show made 2011′s look like it was pulled from a cereal box.  The best part?  They again decided to forego the frustratingly painful fake-fans (FPFFs?) that used to be put on the field to look like a concert audience.  How something as simple as cheering can look so forced, I don’t know, but it just does.

Not only were the visuals great, but the audio was great, also!  (I was starting to wonder if no on in the live audio business knew how to press “Play” on the computer anymore without messing with the audio levels.)  Madonna’s audio sounded great…even though I knew she’s lip-syncing, she still had to sing this in the studio recently, and unless they had to do months of repair work on the tracks, she really sounded fantastic.  The choice of songs was fairly safe, good, but safe.

Madonna was joined on-stage throughout the show by Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., LMFAO, and Cee Lo Green.  I really thought they all brought their unique specialties to the show.  I was curious how they could blend all of these sounds with each other and with Madonna, but the transitions were seamless each time.  It was nice to see at least a couple of “risks” taken by the organizers with LMFAO and M.I.A.  Since Timberlake, anyone under the age 45 didn’t even know what the halftime performers looked like before the event…

That decision did backfire just slightly, however.  M.I.A. apparently decided to flip the camera the bird at a point in the song that was already being censored for lyrics.  Many markets saw this, but many just saw a blurry screen for a second.  The primary feed didn’t seem to catch it, but many local/regional stations were also watching, with their fingers on the blur-switch…  Like many have said all over the internet today – what’s a middle finger in the grand scheme of things?  If that’s the worst that happens during the most-watched live concert of the year, possibly ever, I think we’re okay.  While I think the censorship rules are way over the top and overprotective for the sake of being so, I still say shame on M.I.A. for this.  As a musician, she should be even more fed up about the acts being chosen for this stage than the rest of us.  A young, somewhat controversial, act is finally chosen, and she decides to act out like an 8th grader in a school band yearbook photo.  Knowing the history of the event, I just hope this doesn’t knock us back even further into the entertainment dark ages.

I give a big, pointy, thumbs-up to Madonna and all of these acts, and a big thumbs-up to the presentation on the whole.  I’m also proud to say that I’ve heard nothing but great things about Indianapolis’ hosting of the event from start to finish.  I hope this finally proves that all NFL teams should have the opportunity to host this game.  Football players should be able to play in the cold weather – and frankly, I don’t care if the media likes the cold or not!

I don’t always rate these kind of things – but I’d give the halftime show a very solid 4.5/5.

Also – these aren’t necessarily my favorite shows of all time here, just shows that I really wish had never gone away.  (Keep in mind, these are all shows that I watched when they first aired…so no comments about why I left off certain shows, particularly MASH!)  So, here we go:

10. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

9.  Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

8.  Cheers

7.  Nero Wolfe (a mini-series on A&E – may be the greatest miniseries I’ve ever seen.)

6.  Firefly

5.  The West Wing

4.  The Screen Savers (The zdTV version or the TechTV version – never the G4 version…stupid Comcast.)

3.  Mystery Science Theater 3000

2.  Seinfeld

1.  Scrubs

In the skills competition on Saturday, one of the events has players doing the hockey equivalent to the NBA’s dunk contest.  The player has three tries to do the best “trick” during a breakaway goal chance.  Fans, then, vote on the best after the event is over.  If you’re 6’9″, it’s not difficult to dunk a ball – even if you’ve just jumped over the hood of a car.  Controlling a 3″ piece of a rubber with a stick, as you fling it around your head, off your skate blade, and into a tiny opening to the net, all while trying to stay upright on the ice, is difficult.  So – needless to say – there were some flubs.  There were definitely some players that looked a bit silly doing these tricks.  The thing is – it made them so much more endearing to fans.  Do you know how long an event like this would last in the NBA?  Maybe to the Player’s Association’s desk, but that’s about it…  The NFL?  Shoot – any resemblance of a skills competition went by the wayside many years ago in football.  Not in the NHL, however – every time a player was interviewed, the same words were spoken: This is for the fans.  Patrick Kane, from the Blackhawks, even donned a Superman cape (and Clark Kent glasses – it was a twoferone,) and performed the winning trick of the night – diving to his stomach to “fly” in to the net, flipping the puck up along his stick and around the goaltender for the “goal.”  (Even as a Chicago fan, though, still not sure that was the best of the night – definitely the funniest.)

The thing is, sure, some of the events are a bit silly.  At the same time, though, it’s pretty amazing to sit back and realize just how good these guys are.  Some of the “easier” events for them, would be impossible for the rest of us – even for most hockey players.  One of these events involved shooting the puck at four targets placed within the net: one in each corner.  Sure, the bottom two could be hit fairly easily by anyone with some experience – but those top two?  I’d need someone counting how many times the clock switched over from all 9s.  Yet, these guys were doing it in less than 20 seconds.  The team competition, where the whole team competes in several areas of skill: passing, shooting, puck control, skating ,etc. is another event that would make even the least of hockey fans to sit and watch.  I think the word of the night was impressive.

Then we get to the game itself.  Sure, the defense wasn’t necessarily as tight as if this was a playoff game – and there wasn’t near the hitting you’d see in any game in the NHL, but it was still real.  These guys wanted to win…and how unusual is that?  Really, how unusual is that, that guys in an all-star game actually want to win?  Sure, in Major League Baseball, teams that have serious plans to be playing baseball in late October want to win so that they have homefield advantage – but the other 20 guys there?  It’s just a fun game for them.  Let’s not even go into the NFL – the Pro Bowl is just a broken event – with no purpose whatsoever.  (I don’t want to see any kind of ill-advised home-field advantage idea implemented there – but something has to be done – this game is simply irrelevant.)  The NBA players, at least, have a bit of pride, and dislike each other enough to sortof try.  Well, by trying, I guess I mean that they want to show off – so  that sort of makes it competitive.  I’m probably the one millionth to the tenth person to say this, but why was the NHL the first, and only, to implement a “player draft” for the all-star game?  The idea of having captains choose their teams, regardless of conference, is quite literally, game-changing.  We see guys in the same conference together all the time – how about we change it up a bit?  It’s kind of like inter-league play in baseball.  It used to be awesome – when two teams that haven’t played each other, maybe ever, met on the field.  Now – they all play each other so often, what’s the point?  I’d love to the see the NBA put this draft in the all-star game.

Professional hockey may not be the most popular sport in America – but it’s not for a lack of trying.  So far, in my extremely limited time as a viewer, I’ve seen very little done wrong by this league.  Professional hockey is clearly for the fans – from the regular season, to the all-star game, to the playoffs.  It would be really nice if the other leagues could attempt to humble themselves a bit and be more like their colleagues over at the NHL.

1. 2 Broke Girls (4.4)

2. The X Factor (3.8)

3. Once Upon a Time (3.7)

4. New Girl (3.4)

5. Person of Interest (3.2)

6. Unforgettable (2.6)

7. Revenge (2.5)

8. Last Man Standing (2.0)

9. Up All Night (1.9)

10. Grimm (1.8)

11. Are You There, Chelsea (1.7)

12. Whitney (1.6)

13. Pan Am (1.3)

14. A Gifted Man (1.0)

15. Terra Nova (0.4)

16. Hart of Dixie (0.3)

The thing is,  TV doesn’t change a whole lot.  For the foreseeable future, crime dramas, sitcoms, and “reality” TV will thrive.  What’s interesting to me, however, is how real life can change how you see these things on TV.  In my earlier days, kids on television just flat bugged me.  Especially kids in commercials.  Man, how annoying is a bad-acting kid in a commercial trying to tug at your heart-strings to get you to buy some Cheerios?  (That can be read two ways, both annoying:  Bad-Acting = mis-behaving, or bad-acting = not  a very good actor.)  But, things change.  Small changes such as…being a father of a 19 month-old.  Holy game-changer Batman!  All of the sudden that story about kids suffering in Kenyauzbekistan isn’t reason to change the channel…it’s reason to realize that everything you own in your life is a waste of time and money and effort and that you don’t have a single problem worth thinking about more than a second of your perfect life with your perfect family and perfect job and car and house.  (HA!  Now that’s a run-on sentence to be proud of.)

Let me give an example:  On New Year’s Eve, my wife and I usually hang around the house and be boring.  (And we wouldn’t have it any other way.)  Well, this year was no different.  We watched a movie (can’t even remember what it was now…No Strings Attached, maybe?) and we then switched it over to the New Year’s festivities.  Now, I don’t care how much I’ve grown up, the network’s New Year’s specials are horrendous.  I mean…I can’t think of a single other show throughout the rest of the year as terrible as these.  (Maybe I’ll do a blog post on New Year’s specials next year.  There’s too much here to discuss without getting completely off-topic…and I think the parenthesis keys on my keyboard are getting worn out.)  So…back to New Year’s.  We switch over, watch Seacrest fawn all over Bieber and Lady Gaga (or was that Lady Gaga dressed as Beiber?  Does the “i” come before the “e” in Beiber?  I care so little, I’m not even going to look it up.)  Well, we watched the ball drop (so many Bieieber jokes could be in this comment…but I’ll leave it be) and, to rid ourselves of the boredom virus we had just contracted, we switched over to watch the Red Bull stunt thingy that ESPN always puts on.  If you didn’t see it this year, they had two guys attempt world-breaking jumps, one on a motorcycle, the other on a snowmobile.  So, after the successful jumps, they begin interviewing the motorcycle-guy, who happened to be holding a baby, his I assume (remember – this article is about how being a father changed things…did you forget?)  Well, 3 years-ago Daniel would have not cared a tiny-iota about this.  Not now, brutha…my wife and I were losing it over this kid.  The entire interview he kept grabbing the foam wind-screen on the reporter’s microphone.  I’m telling you what…we rewound (rewinded?) this interview and watched it again.  To this day, I still have absolutely no idea what the guy said, or what questions they asked him.

Example #2 (I’m 667 words in, and I’m at my second example.  How do you guys have time to read my posts?  Don’t you have jobs?)  Volkswagen has been airing a commercial that follows a guy as he grows from a bike-buying kid to a car-buying adult.  3 years-ago Daniel would be pulling hair out because the commercial was too long, too stupid, and had been shown too many times.  (Ask my wife…commercials really get me fired up.)  But not 2012 Daniel…nope, I PAUSED my DVR, backed it up to the beginning, and called my wife into the room.  HA!  Take that young Daniel that thought that all things child-related were pointless and annoying and smelly!  (On that point…when I was hanging out with my sister and her newly-born son –  the first baby in our family – I remember thinking, and possibly saying, “man, I completely thought that all babies smelled bad like, all the time.  Ask her, I bet she remembers me saying that to her.)  I’ve now watched that commercial multiple times, really only because The Big Ten Network only has roughly 3 sponsors, and Volkswagen is apparently one of them – but now, I know all the words, and laugh every single time he asks if the car is safe.

The point is, TV has the power to change us.  I was so awed by the video of us attacking Baghdad back in the day, that I became a Bush fan for like, an hour.  I was so disgusted by the everything else throughout the next 10 years, that I would have voted in a pair of old shoes to get him out.  What I think is more interesting, though, is how much we change television.  Sure, we don’t change it for everyone else necessarily, but we change it in our own house, in our own mind’s-eye.  (NO idea what that means.)  What may be a source of frustration today, may become a source of joy down the road – sometimes it’s just hard to realize that even though we’re watching, we’re not the only ones watching.  Just like the world doesn’t center on one individual, television doesn’t, either – and that’s what makes it so great.

Hell, maybe one of these days I’ll finally understand what pulling a trailer full of horses has to do with impotence.

Next to each title is the score from Rotten Tomatoes.

Arthur (2011) – 26%

Waterworld (1995) – 43%

Little Giants (1994) – 40%

The Boondock Saints (2000) – 17%

Newsies (1992) – 32%

Happy Gilmore (1996) – 59%

Just Go With It (2011) – 19%

Hook (1991) – 29%  (This should NEVER be panned by anyone.  Who doesn’t like Hook?  This is why I don’t like people that review movies.  By the way, on RT, the audience gives it 72%.)

The Mighty Ducks (1992) – 12%

Home Alone (1990) – 54%

Super Troopers (2001) – 35%