Author: Wiberg

Super Sunday – Mark’s Instalanche story

~ Wiberg

Wow – yesterday was fun! My blog went from an average of 6 hits a day to just under 4,000 hits!

The topic – that Superbowl commercial and my brief criticism of the Chrysler commercial featuring Clint Eastwood (who, by the way, is one of my favorite actors/directors).  On a whim, I sent it to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com, whose blog is one of my favorites. It ‘made my day’ as one fictional film detective used to say. Only once before years ago did I email Glenn with, understandably, no reply as he probably gets hundreds of emails a day. Last night, I sent Instapundit an email and nearly ‘instantly’ he linked back to my site and post. Let Instalanche begin! “Instalanche” or “Instalaunch” is a dramatic spike in traffic driven by a linked post from the widely followed Instapundit.  It was a most awesome surprise, and I believe the timing of it (last post of the day for Instapundit) meant that it had a pretty visible spot on his site until this morning.

So, some numbers, for others who have had an instalanche. On Sunday Feb 3rd I had about 3,900 views. Today, February 4th, I’m nearing 10k views. CRAZY!  I’m not a blogger by any means; I post things from time to time that interest me. During the 2008 election, I posted a a bunch of funnies/commentary about the presidential contest. Lately, I’ve begun posting things that interest me more, things I want to revisit and watch or listen to later. I may do more politics later (comments off) and humor. That is what interests me most.  This also reinforces the strength of Instapundit. He often links to the same fellow bloggers about bigger issues, but he also links to what I would call ‘non-affiliate’ blogs/pages – one-offs because, I assume, he finds the post somewhat interesting to him or somewhat worthy of attention. So his site is more diverse and those wide range of topics keep on appearing, drawing his readers back every day.

The Instalanche was informative (to actually have wide range of data was a first).  Besides the views and other analytics, moderating was a first for me (usually I’m deleting silly comments from friends and family). This time, strangers who were interested in topic at hand were sharing their thoughts. I was pleased that most of the several dozen posts were relatively civil. Thanks readers!  I know you’ll be off to more prolific and interesting bloggers but maybe we’ll meet again.

Halftime America! Clint Eastwood Makes It All Better! Ugh.

~ Wiberg ~ 26 Comments

I thought this commerical was well-made. Who doesn’t like Clint, right?

But the ad invites criticism. Would Dirty Harry ask for a handout? Hell no, he wouldn’t. He could build a car made out of his melted Smith and Wesson handgun, all while eating a sandwich and zinging bad guys with one-liners.

So, bringing in the city of Detroit as some city on the ‘comeback’ after being knocked down, and blah blah blah, was a bit disingenuous as it fails to mention they knocked themselves out.  Detroit and the American car industry would not have made it to ‘half-time’ if it wasn’t for the Bail-Out ™.  They were carried by the taxpayer to half-time, beaten and bruised by building inferior products, bloated management and union mismanagement and over-the-rainbow promises to it’s retiring workforce. People will debate for years whether the bail-outs work, and I’m no expert. The point of this post is that having cool music and the coolest American film icon in a commercial about American ‘can do’ is a bad idea when you bring a failure of a company like GM/Chrysler/Chevrolet.

Both Bush and Obama are to be blamed/credited for the various bail-outs which rewarded those industries who behaved (and will continue to behave) in a reckless manner, knowing that they have a safety net in the brain-dead taxpayers via the federal government.  If America was hit and is readying for a comeback, it’s only because it allowed itself to get hit. The economy isn’t some otherworldly force that visited us by random chance and gave the United States a concussion.  Americans, rich and poor, in and out of Detroit, in and out of government, acted stupidly in spending and borrowing.

So, it was nice to see Clint talk about how America will soon roar back (easier said than done), but when I think of Detroit and the auto-industry, I think of  bailouts, the U.S. taxpayer being on the hook for a company that refuses to change, a company that thought the Chevy Volt was a good, affordable idea.

America will roar back in spite of Detroit, thank you very much.  The rest of us will pick up the slack so crappy car or solar-energy producing companies can exist and disappear and reappear depending upon who is in the White House.

———

(update: thanks go Instapundit for sharing the post this evening!)

Further update: I’ll let the other sites, like Big Hollywood, to provide more info on this issue, where Eastwood is distancing himself from any political tones or intentions that the Chrysler commercial has.  If I don’t post (approve) your comment, it’s only because I think the few dozen listed are enough to provide several viewpoints and moderating comments isn’t on my Bucket List.

A “must-listen” podcast – The Tobolowsky Files

~ Wiberg

Actor, writer, storyteller Stephen Tobolowsky has a podcast. It is not to be missed.  It is, thankfully, so many things for an internet-age audience short on attention.  It is smart, hilarious, serious, sappy, thoughtful, sad, thrilling, educational – all those things push things from “entertainment” to “art.”  I am only in about 6 episodes but can already tell that he is an exceptional, practiced storyteller.

Three months ago, I didn’t know the name Stephen Tobolowsky. After nearly a year of listening (and enjoying) writer/director Kevin Smith’s podcast network (recommended, also), I decided to look up a few other top-ranked podcasts.  I scrolled through list after list and somehow came across Tobolowsky. I saw the name, searched it online and instantly recognized the podcaster as “that guy from the film Groundhog’s Day.”

Tobolowsky’s credits go on forever – see imdb. So many I nearly forgot he was in my favorite series, Deadwood until he mentioned it in one story.  He is mostly recently seen in Showtime’s Californication as a wealthy and horny film producer, Stu Baggs (great name!).

Back to the podcast. The first episode of the Tobolowsky Files that I listened to happened to be about his time on the set of Groundhog Day.  He talked of getting the part, filming scene after scene in varying weather and the people he met. I won’t spoil it – listen to it. What was different in his podcast was the day-to-day details, the humor, and self-awareness of what it means to be a working actor (hard work, time, talent, etc) in a world where we think actors and actresses have got it made.  There is more to be learned in this podcast than a lifetime subscription to any celebrity-filled magazine. Because acting is just part of the story in the Tobolowsky files.

Not every podcast in the Tobolowsky File is film/actor-related. This is a nice surprise. Too often we turn to podcasts to hear celebrity (small or large) bitch about other celebrities and directors.  Do I want to know what it is like to work with Bill Murray? You bet. Bill is God. Who doesn’t? But is it more rewarding to hear about Tobolowsky and his time at university dealing with a professor who was hell-bent on ruining his academic career? Or the time he spent babysitting an egg with his son, waiting for it to hatch?  Absolutely.

The best of Stephen Tobolowsky stories that I’ve heard involve the ‘life lesson’-type podcasts. They are not preachy and often Tobolowsky puts the lesson out there, not even sure himself of what is being learned (I’m thinking of “Man in the Closet” episode #40). There are stories of his time at school, time with his family, and time with friends during his struggling actor days in Los Angeles.

I’m not on expert on storytelling (I took one class in grad school and barely got through it – it was too ‘actorly’ for me, to out of my comfort zone to, I suppose, be that honest in a story to be presented to an audience. I prefer the jaded, sarcastic one-liners in my stand-up comedy).  Some might find some episodes to be too corny or too nicely wrapped in a lesson, maybe not entirely true in every detail – like something your mom would listen to and believe every word – but I think they are perfectly measured with humor and insight and truths. Those episodes that I’ve listened to are miles ahead of the typical ‘entertainment’ podcast where the actor/actress/comedian interviews his friends and spends an hour with unprepared material talking about what was on Conan last night. That works sometimes. But with Tobolowsky, it is obvious he treats the time in the podcast as valuable time. He doesn’t waste a minute. He has something to share with his listeners. So, listen!!

Stephen Tobolowsky at Slashfilms.com, program listing. And, of course, available on iTunes.

I look forward to listening to the rest of the episodes…

Jokes of Angelo Bowers

~ Wiberg

I post this so that I can visit this twitter feed later and be reminded of comedian Angelo Bowers’ humor and wit. I’m afraid I’ll forget. Bowers has some very MitchHedberg-like jokes, which I always appreciate.   I did not know him – just heard about his unfortunate passing last week, when he was killed by a drunk driver. I’m grateful for his friends, family, and fans for contributing to the twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/#!/angelosjokes

I lost my mom to a drunk driver 10 years ago, so I feel for the family and friends of Bowers and what they must be going through.  In time,  I hope they can be comforted  as much as possible, by the fact that Bowers’ jokes and video clips will (or should) live online and provide everyone a chance to hear and read his unique and clever sense of humor.

 

Directv’s New Menu – adjusting the menu scroll speed

~ Wiberg

I got the new Directv menu on my hd dvr a few days ago.  I noticed that scrolling through the menu action was much SLOWER than before.  Others have noticed.  And here. Google “new directv menu” and you’ll find similar posts/questions.

It is annoying to search online for a fix and to not find it at the website of the business providing the satellite service. You know – the company you’re paying.  Maybe it’s there.  Maybe Directv has an entire page dedicated to this topic!  Maybe they were creating a TVMail message about it and were planning on sending it any moment.

Anyway, this is what I did, which put the menu speed back to what it was before.

Click the Menu button.

Click Settings & Help

Click on Settings

Click on Display

Click on Preferences

Move the cursor down and change Scrolling Effects from ON to OFF.

Also, you can change the Banner time (I switched mine to 4 sec).

But I believe it is the Scrolling Effects that somehow was set to “ON” which provides the slow-as-hell scrolling. Turning that off should make things the scrolling action faster.  Now, this may be obvious to tech/satellite nerds, but I didn’t even realize these options were there in Settings. So, if this post helps just 1 person, then I know I have made a difference.

Besides finding the remote control ugly and user-unfriendly (ie, “More Info” feature is odd- usually provides an entirely different description than the brief description), this is the first annoying issue I’ve had with Directv but its indicative of tech companies who upgrade their software and hardware and pat themselves on the back about it, without enough guidance for users to actually use it correctly.