I Drive Myself Crazy, I Saw “Beerfest,” and I Remember Some Things about College.

By:

The Dude on the Right

Sometimes I drive myself nuts.  Case in point was this morning.

So this
morning I got up a little later than normal because I was up the night before a
little later than normal.  Driving to get my #2 breakfast with a large Diet
Coke for $4.04, I was debating on seeing another movie today, namely
"Invincible," or skipping the film, even though I did want to see it, and use
the extra time to working on the animation for our next "Stu & The Dude" episode
of "Snakes on a Plane."  My decision was to skip the movie.  So I got
back home, reading my Sunday paper and enjoying my breakfast, with "Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban" on the TV.  I finish reading the paper,
breakfast was done, but there I sat, on my couch, missing a new movie and
spending most of the time I should have been animating by watching Harry Potter
get his ass kicked by the Dementors.  Needless to say our "Snakes
on a Plane
" review isn’t done yet.

But I did see "Beerfest,"
and it was okay, pretty much most of what I expected, although it did have one
flaw because anyone who has tried to drink out of a yard glass would know that
the secret to "Das Boot" is rotating the glass, or so I’m told.  The movie
also had me recall some college memories where I was a kickass "Thumper" player. 
There are a couple of secrets to being a kickass "Thumper" player, but those
will rest me me.  I was never good at the chugging thing, couldn’t open my
throat, and I preferred to consider myself a distance drinker, able to just hang
out on the roof of the fraternity house waiting for the sun to rise.  I
suppose being good at drinking games is good in one respect, because you don’t
get as drunk, but being good at drinking games is bad in another respect,
because you don’t get as drunk, which is really the goal of most drinking games. 
What a dilemma.  In Kamikaze Checkers, however, there is no winner,
although it does lead to laughing your ass off when it precedes
Jesse
Jackson reading "Green Eggs and Ham" during Saturday Night Live
, or so I’m also told.

Well,
enough reminiscing and probably giving my mom some chest pains about my college
days, it’s back to some animating and watching the
Emmy Awards.

Thanks
for reading!

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

My Singing a Song, My New Kids, and is “Criticize” a Synonym for “Lynch?”

By:

The Dude on the Right

Just a couple of quick things to blog about while I take a break from animating
our "Snakes on a Plane" review…

If you listened to

my latest podcast
you already know about my latest dilemma, but in case you
didn’t listen, I wrote what I think is a cute parody song concerning the demise
of Pluto, but right now it isn’t the criticism of the funniness of the song that
is stopping me from recording it, but the making fun of my singing by everyone
in internet-land, especially by those of my immediate family.  I suppose I
should just suck it up since I know I’m no

Pavarotti
, or even
Weird Al
.  We’ll see how the weekend goes if "The Dude on the Right’s"
singing debut goes public.

It was also an exciting week in The Dude household
as I’m a new dad (sorry mom for telling you this way)!  Ever since

Bill’s passing
last December, my other two "kids," Steve and Ashley, just
haven’t been the same.  I think they are too young to understand the
concept of death, but they seemed to always sense that someone was missing from
their home.  And so, needing a replenishment of snails and crabs, and since
my fish tank seems to have stabilized after my

last cleaning debacle
, I decided it was time for Steve and Ashley to get
some new siblings.  I could have replaced Bill with another Bill, but
decided on something different on the swimming side, and also added a couple of
starfish.  I’m trying not to get too attached to them right now, waiting to
make sure they end up nicely adapting to their new home before dying on me, and
so they don’t have names yet, although one of them is close to being called
either Bam, Betty, or Becky.  I don’t have pictures yet, either, because
they are still kinda skittish about coming out in the open.  One of the
starfish, as it is want to do, also just likes to bury itself in the sand, so my
only hint it is still alive is that the sand looks to move.  More on my
growing family at a later date.

And finally, I don’t want to give my
commentary on this right now, other than I found it interesting and odd, but one
of the sport’s talk radio stations pointed out something very interesting about
a quote by Cubs’ Manager Dusty Baker as printed in the Chicago Tribune. 
I’m listening to "The Boers and Bernstein Show" on
The Score here in
Chicago yesterday, and they pointed out that while Dusty was discussing pitch
counts, the Tribune wrote "Baker pointed to Greg Maddux’s high pitch counts
early in his career, claiming Maddux had thrown 167 pitches in one start. 
‘If I left somebody out there 167 pitches, you’d [criticize] me,’ Baker said." 
You might be saying something like "Fine, so Dusty might have said something
like "shit all over me" and the Tribune decided to replace that phrase, in
brackets so you knew it wasn’t exactly what Dusty said, with "criticize." 
Only the boys at The Score played the tape of the interview and what Dusty Baker
actually said was "If I left somebody out there 167 pitches, you’d lynch me."

Boers and Bernstein weren’t criticizing Dusty Baker’s choice of words, they
actually had their reasoning for Dusty’s using the word "lynch."  Nope,
they wondered why the Chicago Tribune, who own the Chicago Cubs, would seem to
decide to replace an inflammatory word with one not so inflammatory?  My
question is simply in what thesaurus can you find "criticize" as an appropriate
replacement for "lynch?"  Nothing in my mind, nor my online source,

www.thesaurus.com
, comes close.

Anyway, back to animating!  Thanks
for reading!

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

What’s New? Should I Sing a Song About Pluto?, MySpace Friends at 10, “Survivor” is Great, and Go See SoaP.

For this podcast, The Dude on the Right laments about the passing of Pluto and wonders if he should sing a song about it. He also loves the twist “Survivor” is putting on the new season, and is always looking for more MySpace friends.

Should I Sing a Song About Pluto?, MySpace Friends at 10, “Survivor” is Great, and Go See SoaP.

By:

The Dude on the Right

Pluto is gone.  At least as a planet.  And it is sad.  And I
started writing a parody song for Pluto, but then I got wrapped into the dilemma
of actually singing the song, and the potential ridicule I would get from folks
I know for my singing ability, let alone my lyrics, and now I don’t know if I
want to go there.  Do I sing it?  Don’t I sing it?  You’ll just
have to wait and listen.

Now as much as my singing is a ridicule issue, I do have ten whole friends at
my MySpace
Page
, and that doesn’t even matter right now because the show "Survivor"
has found probably the best publicity machine they could find – the racial
machine.  The new season starts with four teams of five folks, divided by
race.  And all of the politicians looking for some quick TV time are using
the "Survivor" "experiment" to get themselves on TV, without, of course, seeing
how it is all put together.  I’ve always been a fan of "Survivor," and will
be there for this one, or any one, as long as they keep making them.

And then again, should I sing, or not?

Thanks for listening.

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

Download and Listen Here Subscribe Here



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What’s New?: Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up: Missing the Steve & Garry Reunion, A Song for Stu, and Some “Accepted” Talk.

For this podcast of “Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up,” The Dude on the Right discusses his reason for missing the live broadcast of the Steve Dahl and Garry Meier’s on-air reunion, and also talks a bit about “Accepted.” Meanwhile Stu wonders a bit about block-party etiquitte and really doesn’t like a song by The Playmates. The Dude on the Right also tries to justify to Stu why he should be a guest reviewer on the “Ebert & Roeper Show.” Get well soon, Roger.

Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up: Missing the Steve & Garry Reunion, A Song for Stu, and Some “Accepted” Talk.

By:

The Dude on the Right

Stu & I hooked up again.  No, not in that way, we met this morning to chat
about our weekend.  As is usual for me I do some movie talking, this time
about my seeing "Accepted,"
and we both do a little discussing about "Snakes on a Plane" in preparation for
our next episode of "Stu
& The Dude Reviewin’ the Movies for You
" (to be posted later this week). 
I’ve also decided that I am blaming my brother for my missing getting any photos
of the "Steve
Dahl & Garry Meier
" reunion.  Stu was looking for a special song for
Mama Gotz, and it turns out I have the album collection, "40 Funky Favorites,"
complete with pops and crackles.  Who knew a song called "Beep Beep" could
drive Stu nuts?

I also do some talking about the

William Shatner Roast on Comedy Central
, and how I would like to be a guest
reviewer with Richard Roeper on the
Ebert & Roeper show. 
Stu thinks he would be the better choice, but my selling point is that I would
keep my bag on.  Dreams aside, Stu also wonders about a neighborhood block
party gone, well, not as planned.  We’re all over the place for this
podcast.

Thanks for listening.

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

Download and Listen Here Subscribe Here



Yahoo! Podcasts






“Snakes on a Plane” was Great, and I Missed a Live Viewing of the Steve Dahl & Garry Meier “Reunion.”

By:

The Dude on the Right

I’m a little torn right now because part of me wants to do a full movie review
of "Snakes
on a Plane
," but since
Stu
Gotz
and I decided that it will be our next episode of "Stu
& The Dude Reviewin’ the Movies for You,
" I’ve got to hold off a tad on my
full opinion, but if you know me, you can probably guess that, awe, screw it, I
give it 5 stars out of 5.  The purported re-shoots did what they were
supposed to do, namely add the gratuitous nudity, Samuel L. Jackson being able
to swear, and some kick-butt snakes killing humans in way-creative ways. 
It was exactly what I wanted and more, but even more comes when Stu and I do our
reviewin’ which will be posted some time next week.

I’m also a little bummed
right now because of something I didn’t do yesterday, yesterday being Friday,
August 18th.  A few years ago I found the secret to seeing the
Chicago Air
& Water Show
, and that was to go and see it during the practice on Friday. 
Full show, a lot less people.  But the weather was a little iffy, and I had
some consulting obligations to take care of since I was in Ohio the previous
Monday, so I opted to skip the Friday practice.  Originally my plan would
have been to take the camera gear, have a nice day at the beach, but it didn’t
happen.  Sure, that’s not really something to bum you out, especially since
the weather wasn’t that great, but in missing not going to the Air & Water Show,
I also missed out on witnessing, live, some radio history in Chicago.  For
a lot of you this won’t mean a damn thing, but yesterday,

Steve Dahl and Garry Meier
were on the radio, together, again, and it was
funny.

Quick history –
Steve and
Garry
were huge in the Chicago market until a falling out between them occurred in
1993 (supposedly a lot about money, and some about Garry getting married). 
I had never heard them together, as radio wasn’t a big a part of my life back
then, but have since become a fan of Steve’s, and even of Roe Conn where Garry
was also a co-host, but then Garry seemed to make a huge blunder, again,
supposedly, a lot about money, and Garry has been out of radio since 2003. 
For years lots of radio folks and fans wondered what would happen if Steve and
Garry got back together, and yesterday it happened. 
Steve Dahl was doing a live
broadcast from Oak Street Beachstro, a restaurant at Oak Street Beach in
Chicago, where the Air & Water Show also happened to be happening.  As was
also happening, Garry Meier happened to be dining at same said Beachstro. 
And then it happened.  Steve mentioned he had heard Garry was eating there,
and all of a sudden Garry Meier was back on the air with Steve Dahl, and no one
could really believe it.  And had I gone to the Air & Water Show practice,
I would have been there, camera in hand, to get some photos.  But, like
most folks, I just got to listen to their "reunion" in my car, and at home, and
even though I thought Garry was okay when he was teamed up with Roe Conn, I
could hear how Steve and Garry seemed to have that special chemistry on the
radio that doesn’t happen often.  Even after all of these years apart, they
seemed to gel right back into a radio team, if at least for just a day.

The
skeptic in me thinks this reunion might have been planned by a bunch of friends,
and the radio folks at WCKG, looking for some ratings boosts after their latest
debacle with the departing of Howard Stern.  But part of me really hopes
that this reunion was genuine, that Garry Meier was at the Beachstro to have
some eats and watch the Air & Water Show, that Steve Dahl just happened to be
there to do his broadcast, and somehow, Garry just said "Fuck it.  Maybe
it’s time to just say ‘Hi.’", and Steve was smart enough to let that happen. 
No matter the case, it was great radio with Steve & Garry on August 18, 2006. 
I’m just a little bummed I wasn’t there to see it live. At least I was able to hear it, on my radio, where maybe it was really meant to be heard. I guess I’m really just bummed because I wasn’t there to get some pictures.

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

What’s New? A CD Review of “Delusions of Grandeur” from Cathy Richardson.

For this CD review of “Delusions of Grandeur” from Cathy Richardson, it took The Dude on the Right a few listens to remember how much he likes Cathy’s songs, and even though the CD doesn’t rock a lot, he still liked it a lot. It might need a couple of listens to grow on you, but it will grow, if you take the time to listen.