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The Day the Earth got lectured?

Published

Keith

on July 21, 2008

in ConRANTings and Movies

. 0 Comments

Just a couple of weeks ago they released the first trailer for the new remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Even if Jennifer Connelly doesn’t actually say “Klaatu barada nikto” during the trailer, it still looks pretty impressive. It would appear that Klaatu isn’t content with just making the Earth stand still in this version, he has to knock a few things down too. And that’s the reason that I have a hard time getting excited about the latest in Hollywood’s massive conga line of remakes.

In the original story Klaatu stopped by Earth because we were beginning to take the first steps in space travel, and our “neighbors” were worried about us bringing our arguments to their front door instead of keeping them on Earth. Exactly what about that story is unique to the 1950’s and needs to be updated?

In 1951 the space race was almost ten years away from heating up, with the Soviet Union and US racing to get to the Moon. In 2008, China and the US are getting ready to start a whole new space race… doesn’t the original story have just as much meaning now?

Well you would think so… but director Scott Derrickson feels like you need a lecture. So this time around Klaatu is coming to tell you that we all need to stop driving our SUV’s and save the environment.

So will this new brand of “Obama on your shoulder” movie do any better than the Iraq war movies that have been bombing for a few years now?

My guess is no.

But I’ll still go, just to see Gort.

1:47

Published

Keith

on June 8, 2008

in ConRANTings and Cubs

. 1 Comment

Yes one minute and forty seven seconds… that’s how deep we were into ESPN’s broadcast of the Cubs/Dodgers game before Joe Morgan mentioned “1908.”

Seriously people stop it… no one on the Chicago Cubs roster has anything to do with the Cubs long championship drought. Until the day comes that the Cubs decide to solve their need for another lefty bat by re-signing Jimmy Sheckard (And they can’t… he’s dead), for the love of all things holy stop mentioning 1908!

Oh, and Joe Morgan is also on the list of people I hate with the fire of a thousand suns.

Early morning chit-chat

Published

Keith

on April 29, 2008

in ConRANTings

. 0 Comments

A few weeks ago during one of his guest stints on WGN Radio, Dan Deibert brought up the fact that whenever he gets in a cab in Chicago the driver is always on a cell phone… which might explain why a number of cabbies aren’t the best drivers in the world, but that’s another story.

Today I noticed another pattern.

As most of you know, I’m a morning producer which means that I have to wake up before Al Roker and head into work at an hour when most people my age haven’t even gone to sleep yet (I wake up at about 3:30 every morning).

Amazingly every time I go into the building, the security guard is talking on her cell phone… at 4:30 in the morning! Who do you think she’s talking to?

Maybe I should sneak up on her one morning just to see if she’s actually saying anything when she doesn’t think anyone is around

Recovering the satellites

Published

Keith

on March 27, 2008

in ConRANTings and Radio stuff

. 0 Comments

(I’ll give one of my five remaining Early Spin Slot Machines to the first person who can tell me where I got that title from… you’re on the honor system, but no googling)

While I’m on the subject of a local radio giant like Wally Phillps, I think this also gives a pretty decent opportunity to respond what David said earlier this week about the XM/Sirius merger.

For David I think it’s easy to say that satellite radio will take off… David has lived his entire life in the southeast, and quite literally the closet they get to a “local media giant” is probably Jamie Cooper. So it should come as no surprise that he wouldn’t quite understand the impact that a successful local personality can have on a community.

Sure the internet and satellite radio have taken their toll on stations across the country, but if you look at the stations that are still doing well… places like WGN, WTMJ, KMOX, WLW, WTAM and others, they all have something in common: strong local hosts. No one is quite like WGN, whose only syndicated show is The Twilight Zone… but rather than leaning on syndicated hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity or Boortz, they make their living on hosts like Mark Reardon, Willie Cunningham and Bob Frantz. Those stations won’t be effected at all by satellite or the internets… as a matter of fact, lately they’ve been embracing it more and more.

The stations that would be hurt by new media and satellite radio are the… well, let’s call them “McRadio” stations. In other words, the stations that have little or no local content to offer listeners. I think people will always prefer shows that they can feel like they are a part of. That’s something that a place like WBHP simply can’t claim offer, and if you’re in a market with a station like that, I’d expect you to look into XM… if you’re in Chicago, Cleveland or another market that has a history to it and still takes some pride in what they put on the air, they won’t feel all that many ill effects, as long as they are smart in the way they use the web.

Evangelicals become mackrel snappers?

Published

Keith

on March 9, 2008

in ConRANTings

. 0 Comments

Back at the beginning of Lent, Ally decided to give up Facebook for the 40 day feast of self-denial (She didn’t quite make it). It was a cool idea, because not many people would come up with something so modern, but it was also interesting because she’s not even Catholic! Well it turns out she’s not the only one, it’s actually becoming pretty common among young, non-Catholic Christians:

Fasting, and giving up chocolate and favorite pastimes like watching TV during the 40 days before Easter are practices many evangelical Protestants have long rejected as too Catholic and unbiblical.

But Lent — a time of inner cleansing and reflection upon Jesus Christ’s sufferings before his resurrection — is one of many ancient church practices being embraced by an increasing number of evangelicals, sometimes with a modern twist.

I’d say giving up Facebook qualifies as a “modern twist.” They also offer up a few theories as to why Evangelicals would be adopting traditions from the Catholic church that they rejected for so long:

Experts say most who have taken on such practices have grown disillusioned with the contemporary, shopping-center feel of the megachurches embraced by baby boomers, with their casually dressed ministers and rock-band praise music.

Instead, evangelicals — many of them young — are adopting a trend that has come to be known as “worship renewal” or “ancient-future worship.”

I don’t think it’s so much of a rejection of megachurches, because they seem to have been on a pretty steady decline for a while no, I think it’s simply that more people have been exposed to other ideas and liked a few of them.

I wonder what the Catholic Church has to say about this. For better or worse the Church has always come down hard on “Cafeteria Catholics,” who accept some aspects of the Church but reject others… so it would be interesting to know what the think about non-Catholics adopting Catholic traditions.

Personally, I’m just happy that not quite so many people will look at me weird when I say I can’t have meat on Friday.

How did we get here?

Published

Keith

on February 24, 2008

in ConRANTings and Politics

. 0 Comments

Victor Davis Hanson has a great summary of how we got to where we are in the 2008 election at Pajamas Media… one of the highlights:

The country is soon to be in a position, thanks to the Obamas, that voting for a national hero, with three decades of governmental experience, and prior national campaign savvy over a half-term U.S. Senator is proof of being illiberal.

I think that’s the best description of the flap over Michelle Obama’s comments on her pride in America. My concern isn’t over how proud Obama is of her country, it’s that there is a messianic undercurrent to Obama’s campaign. (I’m certainly not the first person to notice that… heck, Allahpundit at HotAir literally always refers to Obama as the Messiah in a not so subtle dig). How can someone be a Messiah when they aren’t saying anything? How can voting for someone who isn’t saying anything make anyone proud of their country?

Regardless of the socialist leanings of Obama’s votes and policies, isn’t it just a little insulting for someone to say that they, and only they are the answer to Americas divisions… both political and racial? Even more amazing is the fact that he claims to be the answer to Americas divisions, while saying nothing, and claims to want to repair the partisan divide in this country while insulting Republicans.

I’ll continue to be proud of this country no matter who ends up winning the election in November… no matter who wins, it won’t be the end of the world, if we could survive four years of Jimmy Carter we can survive anything.

But I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that we expect so little of our politicians… how many times during this election cycle have we heard pundits talk about people voting for who they would rather have a beer with?

I want the person who would never think about running for office, and has to be dragged into the race kicking and screaming… that’s the person who won’t abuse their office, and that’s who the founding fathers envisioned governing the Republic. Obama can say whatever he wants about being the candidate of change, but at the end of the day he’s nothing but a career politician… and electing career politicians is what got us into this mess.

Give me the person who stops telling people what they want to hear and instead focuses on the fact that a government bureaucracy isn’t the solution to our problems, it’s the cause of our problems. Oh wait, that was Reagan.