as I live a few more questions

Intervention?

If I'm addicted to Intervention, do I need an Intervention intervention?  At least I'm not the only one:

I’m an addiction addict.  And, yeah…I can totally stop on my own, but now is just not the right time, okay?

The one addict from Intervention that haunts me is Kelly F. from Episode 10 (image left), a beautiful blond man hell-bent on alcoholic self-destruction.  He agrees to go to rehab only because it means he can get his dog back, the only creature he appears to care about.  But the first thing he does after leaving rehab is buy beer.  A drunk panhandler who lives on the street, he eventually loses his beloved dog.  About a year after the episode aired, viewers of the TV show cross paths with Kelly F:

My wife and I were vacationing in Las Vegas on 11/12/2006 when we were sitting at a traffic light in our convertible and were approached by yet another beggar. This particular beggar however my wife instantly recognized from an Intervention episode. Neither of us could remember his name at the time but we both remembered that he was a skater from California with a beer addiction who so dearly loved his dog Odie. Although I recognized him myself once my wife said, “hey, weren’t you on A&E”, I am very sad to say that he looks nothing like he did on the show. He looks at least 10 years older and had a large abscess on his right lower jaw, and although I am not a doctor, I would be very surprised if he lasts another year.

This sort of story just tears my heart out.  Totally engaged, I sit there on the couch and talk to the TV set: "How can you be so stupid?"  "Omigod, she's chugging another beer!"  "With that attitude, she is so not gonna make it through rehab."

I know, I know, some may laugh at other people's predicaments, and others may judge the TV series to be exploitative of addicts, but there is a very strong, real sense of caring about these people and what happens to them that I find, um, well.... addictive.

Oh God.  Why do I have this feeling that one day soon, I'm going to open a door in a hotel room and come face to face with Jeff VanVonderen??

P.S. So do Intervention interventionists need Intervention interventions if they become workaholics?   And if I keep having Intervention interventions, does that mean I need an Intervention-intervention intervention???  AAARGH!!!!

Donald Trump Sputters and Spouts

In the current war of words between Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump, The Donald's latest salvo is:

"If you talk to Rosie for a little while, she's crude, she's tough, she's arrogant, she's pushy, she's disgusting."

Uhh, Don, you're proving my point that often, that which most irritates you about other people, are qualities that you yourself have.  Let's do a quick run-through, shall we?  Hmmm... Crude, tough, arrogant, pushy, disgusting.  Check, check, check, check, checkeroo, Don.  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Oh, and just for the record, Mr. Trump?  Rosie may have her moments as a blowhard, but at least she's not pretending to be anything other that who she is.  You've become a walking caricature of yourself, as full of himself as Star Jones ever was, and if I see one more media picture of you with your over-Botoxed wife #3 pushing that gilded baby carriage around, I think I'm gonna throw something at my TV set.   

I'm with Barbara Walters on this one; I'm taking Rosie's side.  Replacing Star Jones with Rosie O'Donnell was the best move they ever could have made to revitalize The View. 
 

Say Good-bye to the Screaming Cheese Lady

Here in Canada, the dairy farmers' association had been promoting the buying of cheese and cooking with cheese, running a series of TV commercials which I had talked about previously on my blog.  The most memorable part from the commercial series, the crotchety granny screaming "Can't get your kids to leave home? Stop cooking with cheese!" (MP3 sound file, 114K, Warning! VERY LOUD), had already gone viral, as evidenced by these two fan-videos on youtube.  But, alas, it looks like the Screaming Cheese Lady's days are numbered.

According to an article in Saturday's Globe and Mail newspaper, Canada's dairy farmers have halted their "Stop cooking with cheese" advertising campaign after a wave of complaints about their latest TV ad:

Canada's dairy farmers have killed their controversial "Stop Cooking with Cheese" campaign, saying the latest TV spot crossed the limits of good taste.

Cossette Communication Group Inc., the agency responsible for the work, must now compete against other agencies for a chance to retain the account.

"We track everything we hear from the consumer. And sometimes you cross a line that maybe you should not," said Nathalie Noël, director of marketing for the Dairy Farmers of Canada.

The marketing association will not go ahead with a planned spring rollout of the campaign. Instead it is looking for an agency that can take cheese marketing in a new direction.

The initial campaign used crude reverse psychology to convince parents that the best way to get their adult children to move away from home is to not cook with cheese. Each commercial features a grumpy old lady who screams: "Stop Cooking with Cheese!"

In the latest ad -- titled "Protection" -- parents sit down with their daughter's boyfriend to convince him that their daughter isn't good enough for him.

"How can I put this nicely? She's cheap," the father says. The daughter retorts: "I hate you."

Then the pitch-granny chimes in: "Can't stop your daughter's boyfriend coming over? Stop cooking with cheese. Don't melt gouda on his vegetables -- he'll never dump her."

Ms. Noël said she didn't expect the backlash that came both from consumers and dairy farmers, who saw the last ad as mean-spirited and anti-family.

...

Nancy Vonk, creative director at Ogilvy and Mather in Toronto, said she winced when she saw the ad for the first time.

"It was really mean-spirited," she said. "I'm a big fan of dark comedy but that just crossed the line. . . . I felt so bad for the girl in the spot."

She said the reverse psychology approach -- trying to sell more cheese by telling people not to buy it -- was a bold attempt to do something different, but didn't work in practice.

"The whole shtick with the old lady yelling at you to stop cooking with cheese. It's like: 'Shut up. Get out of my face.' "

Here's a link to the ad discussed in the article.  The first time I saw it, I kinda went "What the...??" and didn't think it was terribly funny.  Anyway, I expect someone's head over at Cossette Communications is gonna roll over this one.

They've already taken down www.cantgetyourkidstoleavehome.com :-) ...

 

Yip yip yip yip yip!

Someone finally posted some video of this.  I used to love watching this as a kid!

Current TV

I was at a friend's house this evening, and we were channel surfing through all the (grey-market) digital cable channels he gets, and we stopped at Channel TV.  My friend explained that much of the channel's programming is split up into 15-minute segments where the public can submit their own home-made videos, or "pods".  One very well-done pod we watched was Elliott's War, about an Iraq War veteran who is battling Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 

Channel bills itself "the TV network created by, with, and for our audience", and I think it's a brilliant idea.  Al Gore is one of the investors.  I hope we get this, or something very much like this, in Canada soon.

Bianca Ryan Coming Back August 2nd on America's Got Talent!

Fourteen of the last 16 comments I have received on this blog have been in response to my post about the singer Bianca Ryan and her riveting performance on the TV show America's Got Talent! . 

One new commenter said that Bianca would be back on the show August 2nd for one of the semi-final rounds.  Mark your calendars!

An Update

Yay!  I fouond my digital camera battery recharger.  Still looking for my ticket, though...

Double yay!  I found a link to that absolutely amazing performance by Bianca Ryan on America's Got Talent!  See and hear for yourself...

And here's Jennifer Holliday herself, singing the same song from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls:

Bianca Ryan

One of the contestants this week on America's Got Talent! (my new guilty pleasure) was an 11-year-old red-haired girl named Bianca Ryan.  Just before she came on stage there was a clip of her backstage joking that when she sings, peope tell her she has the voice of a big black woman.

Then she came on stage, dressed in her Sunday-school best, and sang.  My God, what an incredible voice!  She blew all the judges and everybody in the audience away.  If I can find a video link somewhere on YouTube or elsewhere, I will post it. 

Remember the name: Bianca Ryan.  You're going to be hearing a LOT more from this kid. 

(Photo source: http://www.growlhockey.com/multimedia/bianca/index.htm)

UPDATE: Bianca Ryan is returning to the show.

Everybody Dance Now

And here's one of the acts from last night's premiere of America's Got Talent!  This is just to give you some idea of why I called this a cross betwen American Idol and The Gong Show.  I think this show is going to be a hit :-) 'cause I'm gonna be watching next Wednesday night, and I *NEVER* schedule my TV watching. 

You can catch some of the other acts here: Bobby Badfingers, Rapping Granny, The World's Oldest Male Stripper... I laughed my ass off.

Canadian Idol Meets The Gong Show

I can't believe I am saying this: I actually watched a reality-TV show I LIKED!

It premiered tonight, and I came across it quite by accident.  It's like American/Canadian/etc. Idol in that it has celebrity judges (Brandy, David Hasselhoff, and Piers somebody who's obviously meant to be the Simon Cowell role).  Where it's different is that there are no restrictions to acts, it's not all singers or all dancers, it's a mix of acts, everything from an 8-year-old standup comedian to a rapping granny!

It's called America's Got Talent and I'm hooked.  There goes my Wednesday nights :-)