By Pat Bataillon

When I think of America, I think of raging wild fires in the West and floods in the South and the Twin Towers of the East. Neither I nor John Cougar Mellencamp tend to think about anything in the North, most likely because the North has been pretty much free of natural and terror-related disasters recently.
I am, of course, referring to the advertising stroke of genius known as the new Chevy truck commercials featuring the musical talent of Johnny Cougar Mellencamp, or John Mellencamp or John Cougar – depending on your generation.
Johnny C. sings about what America is to him and us because he is the voice of our country, according to him and the geniuses at Chevrolet. As he belts out “This is our country!” there are great scenic shots of America, including a panning shot of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and fires burning out of control in California. The new commercials in the series, using the same song, feature photos of people who define what America is, like that race car driver who died in a car wreck. Well, actually he died racing a car at ludicrous speeds in close quarters with other cars going roughly the same speed in a relatively tight area – roughly a quarter of a mile in a circle. So you be the judge if that describes you.

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Posted on November 14, 2006

Bouncing on a trampoline is just kid stuff until you learn to harness those G-forces.
What It Is: A small trampoline and a series of videos that teach you how to do a variety of exercises with it. A detachable stabilizing bar helps you stay on the trampoline.

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Posted on November 12, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

I watched The Tony Peraica Show last night. It was a pretty good episode – it started out kind of predictable, you know, alleged ballot fraud and voting machine malfunctions and bumbling at election headquarters. At first I thought it was a rerun of a show they ran in March.
But then came the twist, and more compelling television I have not seen in a long time. And it was live.

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Posted on November 8, 2006

By Pat Bataillon

Monday night headaches, it must be Election Day! I get tense when I watch political coverage the night before any election; been that way for a couple of cycles. I watch every time with anticipation and ridicule the pundits and disagree with all them and think that I am oh-so-smart. They all talk different agendas. MSNBC was speaking to the dirty politics of the Republicans; apparently the GOPers are robo-calling Democrats with dirty tricks. CNN has their election coverage going on all night with a panel of experts; they cover all the angles of all the States. Wolf Blitzer is such a fake name by the way. But my favorite of all, of course, is FOX News. FOX News was issuing warnings about what would happen if the Democrats win the House and not the Senate. Somehow the terrorists in Iraq killed more Americans this last month because they want to the Democrats to win. This was actually said by a commentator on Hannity and Colmes. Terrorists are Democrats and Democrats are terrorists.

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Posted on November 7, 2006

By Pat Bataillon

I watched the Bears lose to the Dolphins and thought about how annoying ESPN and the local media would be pounding into my head that this was a good loss. You know, puncture the team’s overconfidence to better prepare for a Super Bowl run. Let me tell you something: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD LOSS. If that were true the Cubs would be thought of as the greatest team ever. Furthermore, I’m now bracing myself for a week of “Not So Sexy Rexy” nonsense that is bound to dominate the media coverage this morning and throughout the week. Listen, Rex Grossman is like seafood: Most of the time it is really good but there are those few times that you wished you never got involved with it. Rex is comparable to a clam in my book. I have never liked Rex for one simple reason: He played football for Steve Spurrier. And Steve Spurrier is worse than Sean Hannity.

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Posted on November 6, 2006

By Kathryn Ware

David Simon, the creator and producer of HBO’s The Wire made a special appearance at Northwestern’s Block Gallery for a Q&A session recently. As a big big fan of The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Streets (a show I still miss), I was very interested to hear Simon talk about television, the production process, and perhaps share a few behind-the-scenes tidbits.
The audience was filled with students, journalists, aspiring journalists (Simon was a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun for thirteen years) and fans from the community. Here are some highlights from the evening:
1. If you thought The Wire was a depressing, harsh program before, wait till you hear what Simon says is the program’s overarching theme: With every passing day, human life (our lives) are worth less. And with that loss of value, comes the loss of dignity. It holds true whether your a cop or a drug dealer, a school teacher or a school kid, whether you live in a third world country or the inner city of Baltimore.

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Posted on October 29, 2006

Pat Bataillon will be on hiatus until Monday, Nov. 6.

Posted on October 28, 2006

By Pat Bataillon

I watched some pre-electricity television last night at the Cadillac Palace Theatre here in Chicago; I went and saw The Pirate Queen. Typically, I enjoy watching a play, and last night was no exception.
If you’re into some very creative stage design and even more extravagant costumes, this is the musical for you. The Pirate Queen is set on the high seas of Ireland and England. There are cannons and ropes and scaffolding and all other types of ship-related things on the stage. Fight scenes follow between the English and the Irish, and the Irish win. Apparently this piece of theatre is not completely historically accurate.

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Posted on October 27, 2006

By Pat Bataillon

I’ll keep this short and sweet. Last night I struggled to find anything worth watching. Instead of baseball there was rain. Instead of a new Mythbusters they covered old myths and retried them. The Wednesday before a Halloween weekend one would think there would be some decent television on – you know, something scary or haunted or what have you. I had some dinner and relaxed in front of the boob tube and . . . nothing but the same old stuff. Until I hit upon an unexpected source of entertainment for an hour on ESPN2. Thank you Christopher Guest.

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Posted on October 26, 2006

By Pat Bataillon

When we were all little kids we watched Sesame Street on PBS. If you didn’t, you couldn’t be reading this because you wouldn’t have learned your letters of the day from the letter-of-the-day segment at the beginning of each program. If I had watched Sesame Street yesterday, I would have found that the letter of the day was the “O.” How do I know this? Because on Street Ball and Yo (your) Momma (mother) the letter was repeated countless times. After anything of remote significance occurred, the studio audiences of each show screamed “Ooooooooooh.” Sometimes there was such enthusiasm behind this sentiment that you could hear an exclamation point. “Oooooooooooooh!”

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Posted on October 25, 2006