Redacting History

I noticed something odd during the flashbacks on General Hospital. It happened during the tribute to Edward Quartermaine (John Ingle) on November 22, 2012. Take a look at the background actors.

They were blurred out.

Now that video software is cheap and easy to use a person can re-edit anything. These actors were likely not extras since the storyline in that flashback had mostly main characters interacting at a Quartermaine party. I think that woman in the second picture was the originally Carly.

Is it right to change the past? Do these actors get paid when the footage is used? Do these actors get paid if they are pixelated or erased?

Postponed Part 2

Due to the shooting in Connecticut some more shows were cancelled or postponed or modified.

The Simpsons was not shown, at least not on the east coast.

Family Guy and American Dad were both pulled and older episodes were shown instead.

Homeland aired a disclaimer the due to the Connecticut incident the episode may be a bit harsh. They were right since the bombing on the show led to a scene where 200bodies were lined upped at a hanger waiting to be processed.

On The View some good advice was given, of course not by the women of the show but their special guests.
--Pre-1970 asylums and institutions dominated the country now unfortunately we can only hold the mentally ill for 72 hours.
--1 out every 100 people use to be in an asylum.
--Blaming others is a key to spotting a future mad-killer. (The FBI should look at the number of bloggers dedicated to hating Obama.) 

Nothing new so stop blaming TV and video games.

Bath School bomber killed 38 children and 6 adults after killing is wife that same morning on May 18, 1927.

Postponed

Due to the shooting in Connecticut some shows were cancelled or postponed.

Haven: Reunion 
Originally took place during a high school reunion and had some violence. The SyFy channel left these statements: "In light of today’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, Syfy will not be airing the new episode of #Haven tonight at 10/9C.", "At this time, no decision has been made as to when the episode will air."

General Hospital: 12.14.2012
The episode was postponed both on ABC and Soap Network due to the coverage of ABC news. They plan to air the non-controversial episode on Monday.

Most of ABC and the rest of networks pre-empted their daytime shows but since they are horrible it didn't really matter.

Over at the laist they have a great article of other shows and events that were pulled, I helped out a bit with one tip.

Frontline: Poor Kids

Happy Thanksgiving! Eat well!

This is a must watch documentary from the kids who do not have the joys you may have today.

The honesty from these kids is often drowned out by politics. Even on the website for Frontline there are ignorant comments about how these people have so much and eat like the rich. They are conservative commentators who blindly and willfully ignore the actual truth told. Some of these poor had $60,000 jobs in construction that dried up and they kept half there stuff and lost the other to storage auctions. Slowly as they the months dragged on they lose more things and the price of frozen pizza and soda gets cheaper than fresh produce especially with no kitchen.

Emotions and experiences make up a person's spirit and these kids will have theirs killed as they continue to grow up like they do. Accurately one girl sees how if she has no education and no job that she will end up a criminal. While their plights are not as drastic as those in other countries they are still important. The few safety nets we have is why these kids are not dead like they would be during the the early part of the 1900s.

Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together Benefit

The benefit to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Most of the coverage on the news is a mix of destruction and the whiners. Yes I know I am suppose to be nice but trust I live in the middle of the city and most people even in the bad areas are fine. The whining is tremendous as the free cheese lines grows and the cell phones are not fully charged.

Still there are plenty who did suffer and died and hopefully this money goes to them and their families before the fat whiners and scammers cut to the front of the line.

First up Christina Aguilera and she was good and depressing as was Jon Bon Jovi. Billy Joel was political as usual.

Jimmy Fallon took lead in a band with Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Steven Tyler, and more. Unfortunately half the performance was not audible because of faulty microphones.

In between songs they showed  little news snippets and clips showing the destruction.

Aerosmith played.

Whoopi Goldberg introduced sting even though she had mic issues, her face when they handed her the second mike was priceless.

Damn Coldplay with sharp images makes an instant tearjerker.

Mary J. Blige was up next with her drama.

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band ended the night.

I leave everyone with the message that if the weather people give you 10 days warning you should not wait until after the event to prepare.

God I Hope They Kiss!

Since I watched all the debates on ABC it seems only I steal a line from an ABC show for this title. For those fans of Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23 you will instantly recognize the title of this post.

Debate Summary
Romney holds no opinion for more than a few months and wants to fire hundreds of thousands of governments workers (including the Big Bird puppeteer). This grand plan with no details, a huge cost, and ignoring the layoffs of a theoretical small government is all he pushed. Romney touts himself as a great business man except for the fact he does not get how binders full of women is wrong. Also how efficiency works seems to elude him because he keeps calling for a large fleet that no one needs.

Obama plays defense terribly. Instead of promoting the few accomplishments that matter he defends things that he has no control over. Bush left a broken economy that will take 15 years to fix and add to that efficient technology will keep unemployment high. While Obama has done little over the last 4 years he should have pointed out that he tried but got GOP'd to a stand still.

Debate #1 = Big Bird has a target on his beak.
Debate #2 = Biden has a cartoonish laugh.
Debate #3 = Women in binders = affirmative action, unless your Romney.
Debate #4 = WWI is what we should striving for, bayonets for everyone.

Your Vote

Um, it does not matter for most people except for a few in the small counties not in NYC.

The focus should be on medical, science, and engineering and the future technologies in every field. Ignorance, psychosis, and religious extremist should be punished at every turn. In response to the Muslim extremist many Christians have become equally extreme and none of the candidates wants to acknowledge this reality.

At the end either guy getting elected will not change much. Romney has many millionaire/billionaire backers like the owners of Home Depot and Staples who will create jobs if he gets elected, also they will cut jobs if Obama wins just for spite. Obama on the other hand will be stuck in gridlock as the economy slowly fixes itself but at least we won't become a theocracy.

John Ingle R.I.P.

John Ingle passed away 2 days ago from cancer. He had melanoma and wore a hat in his later career to cover a scar and bandages on the top of his head. Married for 58 years his wife died earlier this year and is no surprise that he passed away so shortly after the love of his life.

Made famous on General Hospital Ingle worked on nearly every top show during the 1980s and 1990s. Original a acting teacher he only started film and TV work after retiring in the 1980s. He often played a priest/father and I remember him on the Drew Carey show very well.

84 is a full life but he seemed so full of life and a great actor. Ingle also did lots of voice over work including the Land Before Time movies and TV show. He will be missed and I look forward to the dedication on General Hospital.

Partial Monday Season Premiere 2012

Bones: The Future In The Past
I have to admit I have not all of last season because it is against CBS shows. Apparently last season some genius killer setup Bones and so she ran with the baby. Of course they solve the murder and prove Bones is innocent but it did take three months.

Warehouse 13: Second Chances
The overall storyline of bringing back the bad timeline continues. The show is getting funnier but for secret service agents they are hardly professionals.


Revolution: Pilot
Electricity suddenly stops working and one family knew it was about to happen. 15 years later the world has plunged into chaos with everyone turning into gangs of thugs and pilgrims barely surviving. 

As an engineer I know this is utterly ridiculous. Old New York City, Old Chicago and currently half of the world lives without electricity. Wait not only do they live without an modern appliances but they thrive. Add to that that every scientist and engineer would just make things that didn't need electricity. Wind and water could still turn things and make grain. Clocks work with gears and so can many other things. Light, sound, and wave technology would thrive in the absence of electricity and little in modern life would change.

Famine, plagues, and other disaster would be easily handled and this future could never happen. Katrina was a large event and after a few days of partial lawlessness everything calmed down, 95% of the people did not act like idiots. After 9/11 and the east coast blackout in NYC no one rioted went crazy or anything close to that. I guess people are less like animals than the media portrays.

So back to show. The family that knows too much is being hunted by the new Monroe government and people need to be rescued and answers must be found. Nothing original and the end shows someone using a Dharma like computer. Expect little answer and a quick cancellation if this logic continues to fail.

Weeds Series Finale

Weeds: It's Time, Part 1 & Part 2

Well after years of action packed misadventures and they end the show with an extremely slow look into their future lives.

The storyline picks up about ten years in the future and everyone is living mostly ideal lives. What ever problems they have are trivial just like normal folks. The days of high crimes are long gone.

In this utopia pot is legal and sold at grocery stores. Of course this is ridiculous seeing how they are banning sodas so a smoke producing material which always be cancer causing won't ever be that free to get.

Kind of disappointing but still the years of fun makes up for it. At the end the are all back together and reasy to be a normal family, maybe.

Stop the Extremist and Remember Why

As always on September 11 it is time to talk about and remember the events on that tragic and evil day back in 2001. It has been 11 years and 8 times I posted something about it while most everyone else moved on.

At least 20 Muslims conspired to kill as many Americans as they could on 9-11-2001. They brought terror and destruction based on their extremist views. Yet we rebuilt and as a working engineer I can gladly say WE and mean it.

Religious conservative extremist have no room in a civilized society and whether they live half across the world or choose tea as their symbol they always bring death and despair. Respond to one form of Islamic religious evil with the Christian version is ridiculous. On 9/11 like everyday you should keep in mind the majority killed where Americans working in their office in the true heart of America which is now and always be NYC.

This year the remembrance begins at 4:30AM eastern time and will mostly just be the reading of the names. I will pause many times to remember. The new tower is nearly complete and hopefully many more to come.

"This is how we feed animals" = RNC

Nothing much to watch at 10PM everyday this week.

The RNC did show their true colors when at least two members threw nuts at a camera woman who is black possibly African-American saying "This is how we feed animals".

NBS

Someone said it better than me.

2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies

Everything was announced in French and English. History of London was on display ad they used a huge set that looked like something from Oliver Twist. The mock work done by the dancer seemed a bit silly. The whole thing looked like an episode of doctor who.

The Olympic rings being forged were cool to see as they seem to be floating in air.

Craig Daniels as James Bond picks up the Queen. They copter over all the icon places in the UK. The Queen and "Bond" seemingly jump out of the helicopter but of course this was all fake as the Queen gingerly walks into the Royal viewing area.

For some reason the UK national anthem was preformed by kids in their pajamas. The only integraed deaf and hearing choir in the UK, what the eff? Are they still that backwards!

Playing the Excorist theme song (Tubular Bells) during the tribute to healcare workers was creepy. Lighted blanket seems counterproductive.

JK Rowling tribute to reading and Peter Pan was also creepy. Child cathcers and Voldemort fights Mulitple Mary Poppins and loses.

Mr. Bean (Rowan) is doing some keyboarding although he is utterly board while doing the Chariots of fire theme. The bit was cute.

A way too long music/media tribute was boring since the original British pop culture references are not as popular as they think they are. Now the American version are defitnately international hits.

Some rapper?

Valerie by Amy Winehouse and Muse were the only highlights. Sir Tim the invetor of WWW was given his honors. Al Gore must be spinning in his grave.

Olympic torch relay was nice with Ab Fab's famed duo was great. A tribute to victims of something was nice.

The long march of the 204 nations began.

One of the Americans actually yelled baba booey.

The Olympic cauldron forming from many flutes of fire.

Flame on.

All images are property of the BBC UK.
Image source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/2012/

When is the Olympics on?

This Friday is the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and I have seen little coverage on the TV. Sure there was a shooting, epic heat, and some type of presidential elections so priorities have shifted.

The Olympics is being held  in London and broadcast on NBC locally. There is the problem that plagued other Olympics. There is a 5 hour difference so 12pm in London is 7am in NYC. Logic dictates that NBC should show all the major games live but they have never been good at doing what is logical. Historically they have delayed games to fit their schedule and that has proven to be a ratings disaster thanks to the internet.

I generally watch whatever random game is on and of course the opening and closing ceremonies. Since there seems to be no hype around the games I can really care less. NBC has nothing interesting on this summer so most people have not been watching the network at all. There are no breakout stars like Jordan or Jenner so that add to the dullness.

I once again call for the Olympics to be held in NYC. Mayor Bloomberg, when he is lucid, tried honorably to bring them here. London as been having issues but none of them are crippling. NYC  has had several sports championships, huge celebrity events, and grand holiday spectaculars with normal issues. People who thrive on fear of course will objective but again this is America and we should host this event with some safety and style.

Now to wait for Friday and hopefully not forget to watch the 2012 Olympics.

Hard Times: Lost on Long Island

HBO Hard Times: Lost on Long Island

The chronicle of older Americans who grew up in near ideal conditions suddenly get knocked down when their jobs are gone.

The documentary is very moving and sad.  The jobless know that their age is a big factor in not getting hired. As interns replace paid workers the job field is narrowing. Of course once the work stops other problems get worse. They are losing their homes, health, and relationships. Gather together to meet they offer support but little else. Unlike most news show talking about unemployment their is little anger among the subjects.

The one person who got a job at the end of this doc is training Indian employees to takeover the work once done by Americans. But there is no need to get mad because software is slowly replacing the Indian workers too.

It's The New Economy Stupid

The 8% percent constant unemployment rate has become the norm. While idiots believe this is because of policy or politics the truth is that technology and efficiency is the main cause. Software is replacing tax preparers, office managers, secretaries, and dozens of other white collar jobs. New robotics and advanced vehicles are replacing blue collar workers. A combination of both can replace train conductors, packagers, and cashiers.

As an engineering nearly 100% of my fellow graduates got jobs while the social and arts graduates are struggling. Granted the things that are being made by us engineers seem to contribute to the problem. Here is a photo emailed to me by a fellow engineer trying to bring this to the metro area.

This machine can replace a dozen workers and do the job in a fraction of the time. Recently NYC added a pothole repair machine that replaces 5-6 workers while never complaining, never getting sick or hurt, and best never suing for millions.

Weeds Gets Messier

Weeds: Messy

The cast is back and as inappropriate and bad as ever. Nancy got a bullet to the head and everyone is in less than a panic. Turns out that Nancy's past came back for revenge whether she was guilty or not.

Again this show is still funny and outrageous. Hopefully with the revelation that the Florida face-eater was only high on marijuana they will add this to the show in some way. This season looks to be great I am happy.

Anger Management Premiere

Anger Management: Charlies Goes Back To Therapy, Charlie and the Slumpbuster

Charlie Sheen plays Charlie Goodson an ex-ballplayer turned therapist for an anger management group. Now putting my dislike for Sheen aside the show has some funny moments most from the cast few from Sheen. 

The cast is made up of crazies or playing crazy. His daughter has OCD. His ex-wife is played by Shawnee Smith from Becker fame. Brian Austin Green is the exes new boyfriend. Selma Blair plays Charlie's friend with benefits. Brett Butler from Grace Under Fire fame is the local bartender. Michael Boatman from Spin City fame plays his friend. Barry Corbin from Northern Exposure fame plays an old fashioned bigot that is seeking help in group therapy.

Charlie is seeking therapy as his anger is back out of control in first episode. The second episode has Charlie making up for sleeping with an ugly girl back in his ball playing days or slumpbusting.

Adam Carolla vs The Unfunny

Adam Carolla made several jokes about women and the homosexual community. They were jokes and intended to mix truth with humor. Unfortunately media whores like Perez Hilton and half of The Talk staff used their best parasitic tendencies to try and make it a big deal.

Sheryl Underwood in the same breath calls Adam's wife a bitch without a hint of shame. Great for a daytime talk show when the child of Mrs. Carolla can watch and wonder why some unfunny woman is calling her mom a bitch. Julie Chen talked about women who gather and make jokes while guys don't laugh. She thinks it is because the guys are jealous not even thinking for a second that maybe men just don't find their brand of humor funny.

Any who has followed Carolla for the last 30 years knows he is a good man of honor who would stand up for any person being bullied or offended. He is also a comedian who will make jokes about anything and everything. Seriously listen to old Loveline episodes and even the worst tragedies can solicit humor.

Parasites like Sharon Osbourne and Perez Hilton who create nothing original and just live off the drug addicts in their lives should take a step back and see how the world really works.  These two combined had made fun and straight out lied about many celebrities and facts to the point they had to issue official apologies.

I would add they spent the next segment saying how women are better liars since the are psychologically more developed. Which they all accepted as true. BUT WAIT. If that is true then men are more immature and find more things funny that would make Carolla's statement about female comics also true.

Holly Robinson and Leah Remini were funnier, keep Aisha and get rid of the rest.

Burn Notice is Back

It is all about Fiona this season. She is in prison because of lies while the gang tries to figure out ways to help her. The overall feel of this season is depression as Michael cannot stop the evil Anson and must betray the CIA or work with them reluctantly.

They announced a big death for the first episode but that did not happen. I expect this to be the last season and hopefully it will end with all the loose ends tied up.

Dallas Is Back

Dallas: Changing of the Guard

Do you remember May 3, 1991? Of course not but apparently TNT is betting on it. Most people just think "Who shot JR?" after that they forgot that Dallas turned a bit ridiculous.

Now the Ewings kids are grown up and each one wants to be king of Ewings. Unfortunately the old men of South Fork Ranch are not letting that happen.

JR's clan wants to suck up that last drops of oil using new technology. Bobby's clan want to ranch and use alternate energy to keep their  mom/grandma's dream alive.

Most noticeable is how they raided the Desperate Housewives cast for the new blood. At the end of the day it is a solid show but still a primetime soap. Maybe it should of stayed gone because I do not the young people watching this.

And Good Riddance

So TV continues to be less than thrilling but they are making room by canceling a bunch stuff. I will give my opinion on each and why they tossed. I do this in hope that someone listens and adjusts how they write.

"Are You There, Chelsea?" (NBC)
--The horrible and evil Chelsea Handler is played by sweetie Laura Prepon. No surprise a person with no redeeming qualities cannot get an audience. Hopefully Prepon will not get tarnished by this and will continue to work.

"Ringer" (The CW)

--I watched the pilot and it was one of the worst acting and special effects for a network I ever seen. I could no get into the storyline since everything else was so bad it was distracting.

"Alcatraz" (Fox)

--Lost the prison years. Everything was good except the lack of answers. The time traveling criminals were never shocked that they were in the future. Add to that they became super-villains. Stop making simple show complicated and then refuse to give answers. Giving wrong clues does not make the show clever it makes the show unwatchable.

"Harry's Law" (NBC)

--This was a good law show with great acting and good story lines. The problem was that everyone had too much attitude but I can see if this show had another season they would have mellowed out a bit.

"Pan Am" (ABC)

--2010s attitudes in the 1960s. Nothing realistic or nostalgic about this time and the people on this show.

"Awake" (NBC)

--Great acting and almost unique premise (BBC's Life on Mars and Canada's The Odyssey did it bettter). Trying to avoid the sci-fi label they made this show more of a medical drama. Hints of something bigger going on kept popping up but again with no resolution.

"Breaking In" (Fox)

--Never saw it was Megan Mullally being her same character on some other show.

"Bent" (NBC)

--??? what was this? I guess I'll never find out.

"GCB" (ABC)

--No!

I liked this show although thinking that all the women went to school together was completely ridiculous. I hope to Leslie Bibb in some other comedy soon. 

"The Secret Circle" (The CW)

--Teen witches that take life too serious. Typical teen melodrama no big loss.

"A Gifted Man" (CBS)

--A doctor sees his dead wife. She in turn tries to make him a better person. Like Ghost Whisperer expect just one ghost and less bouncy.

"Missing" (ABC)

--CIA agent tracking down her son that was kidnapped. Sounds great except Ashley Judd's head was so enormus that it became distracting and impossible to watch. Sorry but having a person fit the role is part of a TV show.

"The Finder" (Fox)

--Bones awful spin-off about a guy who finds anything if he tries. The premise was silly but the execution was worse. The cast was cool but that was not enough to get over the weak premise.

"Best Friends Forever" (NBC)

--Kind of sort of heard about this but not really.

"I Hate My Teenage Daughter" (Fox)

--Ads for this show were so annoying I think they stopped after two weeks. Never saw it but it looked low class and not funny.

"The Firm" (NBC)

--John Grisham was rolling in his grave when this unnecessary continuation of his great book and movie was announced. Leave the man alone he's dead.

"The River" (ABC)

--A ghost story and magic mixes with reality TV except scripted. In other words to many genres mixed together and no clear escape. The fact that everyone on the boat was not absolutely shocked by the supernatural made things unrealistic beyond the norm. 

Like It Was

Gil Noble was the host of Like It Is a community based talk show that was created in response to the 1960s racial turmoil. Today Mr. Noble died at the age of 80.

Everyone in New York City growing up would run to their TV on Saturday or Sunday morning looking for cartoons instead got this talk show. It was not until I was older that I really got to appreciate this unique show. Noble would talk to those who did great things and got little recognition on the nightly news shows.

One of the best episodes was a tribute to Paul Robeson that showed how one intelligent man went through so much for recognition and yet many people still got his motives wrong.

Gil Noble will be greatly missed and sadly many people will never get the chance to see a man who tried to show the complete history of America.

Why is this funny?

Bridesmaids was an okay movie I had about two or three chuckles. What I do not get is why so much hype? I remember laughing so hard at the second Austin Powers film that I could hardly breath. But Bridesmaids went to the Oscars and it had a few smile moments and a nice message but that is it.

Luckily I did not spend a dime to watch it in theaters instead I waited for my cable to show it. Reminded me of There's Something About Mary which also was much hyped and did not even get me to laugh once.

Yes I know humor is subjective and I watch lots of comedies like The Big C which have few laugh-out-loud moments but I get the humor. With the exception of Wiig and McCarthy doing SNL skits I saw little attempt at being funny.

At first I felt I am getting old. These kids today and there slapstick comedies and YouTube are not as good as in my day. Yet there were a slew of years in the late 1970s-1980s where the movies were horrid too, thanks to reruns I saw most of them. Somewhere in the mid-1980s Steven Spielberg changed it all and great movies like those in the 1940s came back.

Then came Titanic and I found nothing great about that movie yet everyone else was entranced. That ushered a teen driven mess of unwatchable hits. All the Harry Potters, Twilights, and Dark Knight movies  are among the worst movies ever yet no one seems to notice. Christian Bale is great in Empire of the Sun but in the Dark Knight he is completely not believable and The Joker is ridiculous.

Not that the past two decades have been lost but most of the entertaining movies have been romantic comedies. Honestly I know my taste are unique but in the past ten years I went from watching 20 great movies a year to less than 2 great movies a year, and these few are not even hits. I just went through the list of 2009-2010 top 50 movies according to Moviefone and I only found 2 were good.


Here is what I enjoyed recently:
Something Borrowed
Vanishing on 7th Street
The Hurt Locker
Up

Please any other recommendations will be appreciated.