Vitriolic Humor

Does that song in the American Express sound strangely familiar? It's "Give Me Some Money" by Spinal Tap. Who would have thought that we'd ever see mainstream advertising using a mostly fictitious spoof band's mostly fictitious spoof music in an advertisement? Anyone want to bet whether or not anyone will use "Sex Farm" or "Bitch School" in an advertisement?

Tags: mainstream advertisement television video advertising money spinal spoof spinal tap tap

Posted by speedeep at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently contacted Charter's support chat to see if they offered a reasonable solution to recording HDTV on PVR. The Moxi Box I have now (great, Linux-based solution) only has 80GB of storage, which represents about 6 hours (give or take) of HD programming that can be stored. This past weekend I recorded both Divisional Playoffs on Sunday, then accidentally hit the record button while watching TV later and the Moxi wiped out one game completely to make room to record the current show. I'm ping on the edge of the storage space with nothing but 2 3-hour shows recorded. I've added an external 250GB drive to the Moxi and it worked fine until the drive overheated and died. I don't want to maintain my DVR infrastructure, that's why I effectively rent this solution from Charter with a monthly fee.

Here's the online discussion I had with Charter.

A representative will be with you shortly.
You have been connected to Janet .
Janet : My name is Janet. Thank you for contacting Charter Communications. How may I assist you?
Me: My Moxi box is woefully inadequate for my DVR (esp. HDTV programming) recording needs. Do you offer something with more storage?
Janet : May I please know if your DVR is hd capable?
Me: Yes, it is. I recorded 2 3-hour football games this weekend (in HD) and it wiped out all other programes on the box.. I could've kept some of the programs, but then I couldn't record the games.
Me: I really need to be able to record more than 6 hours of HD programming
Janet : HD
Janet : HD DVR only records short hours.
Janet : If you want longer hours of recording, you may add external drive to your moxi.
Me: I'd prefer not to be in the business of upgrading my infrastructure, that's why I'm paying Charter a monthly fee. Do you offer anything more than the Moxi with 80GB of storage?
Me: I understand that HD requires (drastically) more storage. Is Charter offering any practical solution to this issue?
Janet : Yes, you may add an external hard drive to your moxi.
Janet : That is to have longer hours of recording.
Me: Please take a note for Charter: I'm going to switch to satellite because they will not provide me a more adequate solution for my PVR/DVR needs. I don't want to buy and maintain extra hard drives because Charter isn't keeping up with technological demands. That is why I pay a DVR fee to Charter.

If you are looking at using Charter's cable television services (especially HDTV) beware their DVR solutions are drastically limited on space (while otherwise being a great technological solution.) Expect Charter to not upgrade their infrastructure, but to pass on storage upgrade costs onto you, the consumer, despite you renting the DVR from them in the first place.

That felt good, now I'm off to go shop for a satellite provider...

Tags: tivo moxi recording hd htdb dvr capacity pvr charter technology

Posted by speedeep at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of my favorite comedians that I've heard in the last five years is Phil Hendrie. He does a radio show where he plays both the part of the Host (himself) and the Guests (also him performing voices of made-up, obnoxious characters.) Most of the audience is in on the joke, but a small percentage of the audience honestly believes that his guests are real and call up the show steaming about whatever provocative topic Phil has chosen for the day. Phil eggs the unsuspecting callers on while playing both the role of sympathetic host and the incendiary guest. The results are hilarious and often show what not having a sense of humor will get you. His show is one (funny) Mean Joke. Phil is the anti-PC.

George Noory (host of Coast to Coast AM) had Phil on his show last night, pimping his new comedy, Teachers which will air on NBC tonight, March 28, 2006 (9:30pm Eastern/8:30pm Central), right after Scrubs. They've filmed 6 episodes and NBC is trying the series out. Phil has done a couple pilots for comedies in the past and it's great to see him finally get on the small screen. I hope the series does well, check it out tonight and for the next couple Tuesdays (at a minimum.)

After a quick browse over some of the sample video clips from the show, there seems to be some good writing and good talent on the project. Phil gets to use his voice talents as well (always wondered if he did that live or electronically...) Phil plays the bald, burnt-out PE teacher with a wry sense of humor if you aren't familiar with him.

I (unfortunately) live in one of the few areas of the country where I can't catch Phil on the radio (he's on 100 A-Phil-iates nationwide and on XM Satellite Radio (channel 152)) so I have to settle for catching an occasional show or bit on-line. Find him on a local station and check out his radio show as well. Wikipedia also has a good article and links about Phil.

phil hendrie phil hendrie philhendrie radio comedy talk comedian hdtv network tv television new comedy nbc sitcom teachers teacher school humor hot funny current pilot premiere series scrubs

Posted by speedeep at 5:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I remember fairly clearly watching an intro to a weekly show during the 1980s that I now find deeply embedded in my mind. The scene is of a very low-slung sports car that is in some sort of high-speed chase and the driver evades his pursuers by sliding the car laterally underneath a moving semi trailer (nevermind the spare tire rack that usually sits there.)

I've checked out a couple obvious sources and tried to pick a few of my friends' brains, but we can't come up with where the scene is from.

Obvious Sources:
80salive.com
series-80.net

Could it have been:

Hardcastle and McCormick - The Coyote: Found the intro to this series on-line. It's got the low-slung sports car, the chase scene, but the closest thing to the semi is when they drive the Coyote up the back of an auto transport and jump the car over the cab.
Simon and Simon?
Magnum P.I.?
Miami Vice?
It's not Automan (though that was another series that completely embedded itself in my mind. I recently found a complete set of Automan episodes. Wow those special effects were bad!)

I remember seeing this scene over and over, so I'm assuming it was the intro or outro to the series each week. I could be wrong about this. A couple people I've pinged on this seem to remember the scene as well...

Anyone got any leads or memories about this? I'm trying to identify the series and if possible find a video clip of the intro.

Posted by speedeep at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)