Author: Andy Labis

By:

The Dude on the Right
From one of my MySpace
friends I received a suggestion, and even though a little narcissistic, I felt
it necessary to oblige.  So "Thank you" my MySpace friend, I think I
actually doubled your suggestion.  Being cool aside, there’s a little
rambling about the lack of movies I want to see, but for the most part this
podcast deals with how happy I am that "Survivor"
has returned to the airwaves.  The biggest lesson we’ve learned so far in
this "social" experiment by separating the tribes by race is that while the
other tribes seem to want to show everyone that they are a force to be reckoned
with, well, the white tribe just seems to be worried about snuggling to keep
warm and maybe hooking up.  God I love reality TV!

Thanks for listening.

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

By:

The Dude on the Right
With my new TiVo, and now that I have, hopefully, most of the TV recording
options I should need, I have to now readjust how I actually watch TV to make it
more efficient, as well as get shit done.  I realized these things
yesterday during the premier of "Dancing With the Stars" and the almost finale
of "Rockstar: Supernova," especially when my main computer’s UPS decided to take
a crap and I tried to figure our how to get my PC up and running again (you
never have enough three-prong extension cords when you need them), yet still
watching TV shows, when I could have put off the latter, especially since I HAVE
MY NEW TIVO.  I’m such an idiot sometimes.  The important thing I
forgot is the ease, if you are watching a recorded show, to skip the commercials
(sorry advertisers).  As such I was finding myself still switching between
shows during the commercials, then getting wrapped up into one show, then
another, and missing stuff.  I make my life so complicated sometimes, and
I’m working on getting my new TV viewing schedules straight, but now I’ve
complicated my head even a little more, thanks, to of all things, a movie called
"Artie
Lange’s Beer League," starring, well,
Artie Lange,  a
movie I was looking forward to seeing, hopefully in the theater.

How can a movie create a dilemma and make my life complicated?  It’s
because I’m mental I tell you.  Here’s the deal.  "Beer League" is a
smaller budget movie, opening this coming weekend in only three cities – New
York, Philadelphia, and Cleveland.  Sure, you might say "What the hell kind
of limited release is that?  I get New York City, but Philadelphia and
Cleveland?"  The movie studio, and I guess Artie and his people, figured
that these are markets that strongly support Artie Lange and could give the
movie a strong opening, especially in terms of dollars per screening.  So,
"Beer League" doesn’t open at a Chicago movie house, at least right now, which
would take me, tops, and hour-ish to get to.  In any case, if I want to see
the movie this weekend I either have to hop on a plane to Philly and hope our
character artist, Archie Tect, could pick me up at the airport and get me to the
movie on time, or drive some 360 miles to see the movie scheduled to play at a
movie theater some 15 minutes from my parents’ house.  Here-in lies my
dilemma (and Mom, if you are reading this, I apologize to you right now).

For
a couple of minutes I thought of making this Saturday a day trip to Ohio, to, of
all things, see "Beer League."  Fine, I’m crazy like that.  As it
shows right now, there is a 2:30 afternoon showing that would work into the
planning.  I would leave early on Saturday morning, getting into the area
around 1PM, giving me a cushion if the Ohio drivers still haven’t learned how to
drive on a three-lane highway.  I could catch the movie, it would end
around 4PM.  Two choices:  Stopping in to see the parents before the
movie if traffic is light, maybe catching some lunch before the movie; 
Stopping in to see the parents after the movie and then heading back to my
dude-pad after maybe catching an early dinner.  Sounds simple enough, and I
know my parents would like to see me, and maybe not so much my Dad, but Mom
would think I was nuts, for driving 6 hours to see a movie, spend more time with
Artie Lange on a screen than with her at home, and then heading back to my
dude-pad back in Illinois the same day.  Mothers don’t always understand
wacky behavior, and she really doesn’t like me driving at night.

Thankfully for me, and maybe
sadly for my Mom, I think, at least right now, that rationality has set in,
thanks to seeing one of those MasterCard commercials.  It sort of turned
into this for a one-day trip to Ohio to see "Artie Lange’s Beer League.":

   
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois Tollway/Turnpike fees:   $17.80
    Fuel for 720 miles on the road:                             
$95.00
    Food:                                                                   
$15.00
    Movie ticket:                                                        
$  7.00
                                                                                
——-
    Cost to see Beer League:                                    
$134.80

    Price to hear my Mom say I spent $135
    to see Artie Lange instead of her:       
Not worth: $135.00

Sorry Artie, I guess I have to hope your film does well
enough in New York, Philly, and the home of the Michael Stanley Band, so that it
opens a little wider, or I’ll at least get the DVD, because I can’t justify
$135.00 to see your movie, especially when it will incur the guilt of Mom. 
Being of Catholic upbringing, I think you understand.

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

By:

The Dude on the Right
First, because you may not read this, nor my review in time (it should be posted
tomorrow), if you are a fan of "Office
Space" and the over-the-top satirization of life that Mike Judge seems to be
able to portray, see, or at this point probably wait to rent/buy "Idiocracy." 
Simply put it’s a movie set 500 years from now, when, in simplest terms,
white-trash and a sports drink have taken over.  Anyway…

If you
listened to my podcast yesterday, and you know me, you know that right now I am
obsessed with the dilemma of getting a new TiVo in preparation for my fall
television viewing.  Too many shows I like, too little time, and too many
times they are up against one-another.  Last year was tricky, and I was
able to pull off most of TV viewing, except for missing way too many episodes of
"Smallville."  My best solution, at times, was to watch one show on my TV,
have my TiVo recording another show, and then, in the age of antiquities, have a
VCR recording the third show.  This was okay in the days of old, but not
with today’s technology.  The show I was watching live wasn’t being
recorded, so I couldn’t rewind or pause if I wanted to, and if there was some
great audio for a podcast, or a dress that malfunctioned, I wouldn’t be able to
watch or listen to it over and over again.  At least I had one program
recording on the TiVo for easy watching, and although an antique method of
recording, the VCR was still working, although not as smooth on the skimming
through commercials.  I am being faced with another television season of
pain and frustration, especially if I was going to be gone for an evening and I
had three shows to record, since I only had two recording devices.

And then
came my kids needing some new supplies for the upcoming school year.

My kids,
Steve, Ashley, New1, New2, and New3 (the newbies still need some names, but I’m
thinking right now one will be named Bam, the other either Spidey or Paul, and
New3, well, it’s either ‘drew or Don.  I’m sorry, I digress), well, they
needed some new supplies, namely some food, some testing kits, and some
filtering.  Yup, my fish needed some stuff, and I headed to my local
PetSmart to get it.  Sadly, but maybe it was fate, the PetSmart didn’t have
the essential thing I was looking for, so I headed to my local PETCO, and PETCO
had it all.  But a couple of stores down from PETCO was a CompUSA, and I
saw on their windows was a notice that they were closing, and everything in the
store was 20% to 40% off.  My kid’s supplies safely stowed in the
dude-mobile, I figured what the hell, let’s hit the computer store to see if
there was anything I couldn’t live without.  First I headed for the iPod
accessory area and decided I really didn’t need anything for my iPod.  Next
stop was if there was any chance they had last year’s Power Mac G5 at some
obscenely low price (no luck).  I scanned through the software but nothing
struck my fancy, and CompUSA never had the greatest variety of Hi-Def TV’s, so
nothing there caught my eye.  But then I said to myself "Self, CompUSA
normally sells TiVo’s.  I wonder if they have any of those new, dual-tuner
TiVo’s here?"

Low and behold, at an endcap, there was a stack of them, on
sale, and I started to do the computations in my head.  After the rebate
offer that was still in force, the net cost for the TiVo would be a little over
fifty bucks.  Then I also knew that since I was a TiVo subscriber, and I
was adding a new TiVo and not replacing one, I would get a discount on the
monthly service fee (I do miss the "Lifetime" upfront fee because mine has
already paid for itself on my first TiVo), but in any case, my television
viewing/recording dilemma for this fall season is over.  I now have three
TiVo recording sources, and in a worst case can add the antique VCR to the mix
and watch a fifth show live without recording it.  My fear now:  Six
shows to watch at one time.  You can never have too many recording options,
although, wait a minute, I think my latest computer purchase had a TV tuner card
installed?  Scratch that, my fear now:  Seven shows to watch at one
time.  Too much TV, too little time.

Since this blog is already too long,
I’ll leave my bitching about the American Family Association and CBS’ problems
with airing their "9/11" documentary for a blog or podcast on Sunday if I can
put one together tomorrow.  Right now I’ve got to get my new TiVo set up!

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!