Chicago - A message from the station manager

What I Watched Last Night

By Scott Buckner

I leave the TV world for a few days to come back last night all Abominable Snowman-like to the Home Plate Pub only to end up next to a guy who looks like Kid Rock’s retarded cousin while the daily repeat of Oprah plays on the corner TV. Why am I even bothering to pay attention to it? Because there’s some weird Chinese doctor dude sticking acupuncture needles into Oprah’s hand and foot while she sits in some sort of dentist/tattoo parlor chair.
I intentionally miss the last 10 minutes of the show, so I’m left to wonder exactly what Oprah got cured of in about the time it takes to get a pair of glasses at Lenscrafters. I’m pretty confident that she didn’t get a tattoo in that chair, though.

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Posted on February 14, 2007

JUST IN: Obama Speaks

Barack Obama’s speech announcing his candidacy for president, as told by CNN’s real-time graphic summary.
JUST IN
Obama: Fired Up.
JUST IN
Obama: You Believe We Can Be One People.
JUST IN
Obama: I’m Fired Up.
JUST IN
Obama: In Face Of War, You Believe There Can Be Peace.
JUST IN
Obama: You Believe We Can Be One People.

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Posted on February 10, 2007

Acne Complex

It’s an as-seen-on-TV product with a cloak of over-the-counter innocence.

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Posted on February 9, 2007

What I Watched Last Night

By Scott Buckner

I was glad to see that ESPN2 is still the official home of foreigners with big shoulders and no necks with back-to-back airings Tuesday night of the MET-Rx World’s Strongest Man competition. For those of you unfamiliar with it, WSM was dreamed up in 1977 when a group of disqualified powerlifters from the Yugoslavian Olympic team all hooched up on slivovitz somehow stumbled across an unlocked boxcar full of empty beer kegs, railroad ties and cases of MET-Rx dietary supplements.
Since then, it has grown into a very successful annual international event that tests the strength of anyone goofy enough to do things like carry a 400-pound pot between your legs, drag around an anchor and chain stolen from the nearest battleship, or toss 60-pound beer kegs over a 14-foot-high wall. Naturally, it’s an event also popular among chiropractors and hernia truss salesmen looking to write off business trips to far-flung international WSM venues like Iceland, Hungary, New Zealand, and Six Flags Magic Mountain.

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Posted on February 7, 2007

What I Watched Last Night

By Scott Buckner

The Bears lost. Good. If I had to hear “Sweet Home Chicago” one more time, I would’ve had to find a clock tower to climb. Anyway, here are a few Super Bowl observations, made from my seat at the always-friendly and always-respectable American Legion Post in Lansing:
* Congratulations to CBS for the most gratuitous promo ever for their show Rules Of Engagement by showing David Spade in the stands. All the network did was remind us again that he doesn’t even have to open his whiny little mouth to annoy the living piss out of everyone.
* The commercials were the worst ever. The CareerBuilder.com ads were probably the best, but that’s like saying The Black Plague is funnier than AIDS. Really, guys – the monkeys were fine.
* Billy Joel: Illustrating yet again why “Oh Canada” is the best national anthem ever.

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Posted on February 5, 2007

What I Watched Last Night

By Scott Buckner

I’m not a big fan of NBC’s The Office. I’ve seen it a mess of times and there’s nothing wrong with the show itself, really. It’s funny enough in its own special bizarro way, it’s good enough, and gosh darn it, people like it. For me, though, the whole show just reminds me of a lot of people I’ve worked with (and for) in the past. People I wished would get hit by trains or would probably be okay if they’d just spring for a Learning Annex class on growing a personality. So I have a hard time finding humor in the rampantly ignorant and stupid in the same way a lot of people would find more Dilbert comic strips funnier if they just weren’t so real.

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Posted on February 2, 2007

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