September 5, 2008

The Dude's TV: R.I.P.

By: The Dude on the Right
Maybe it's just a fuse, maybe it was God telling me I shouldn't watch John McCain's speech at the Republican Convention, but yesterday, just as I was getting ready to settle on to my couch to see how John McCain will save the world in a better way than Barack Obama (because that is what these conventions are all about, aren't they?), I went to turn on the TV in my living room, and, well, it didn't turn on. Because I couldn't believe it wouldn't actually turn on, of course I kept pushing the power button about twenty times, both on the remote and on the TV itself, and still nothing happened. What to do, what to do? I fished the TV power cord from out of the power strip, went to my garage to get an extension cord, plugged it into an outlet I knew was working, plugged the TV into the extension cord, and wouldn't you know it, my TV still didn't turn on.

Now I know that my TV had been making funny noises a few weeks ago, but those noises, surprisingly, had gone away, and things were working well.  I figured my TV was just going through a phase, but sadly, it looks like that phase was "Screw you, you 'America's Got Talent' watcher. I just can't take it anymore, and since you continue to watch crap shows like "America's Got No Talent," "Dancing with Loser Stars," and "Yup, These People are Fat," or something like them, I'm done. I just can't take it anymore.  I'll show you!"

Yup, I think my TV just couldn't stand my TV viewing habits, and with a new TV season upon it, and my forcing it to show another season of the Chicago Bears while the Chicago Cubs totally collapse during September, it felt it was actually doing me a favor by shorting itself out, thereby making me realize that there might actually be life without television.

But what my TV didn't realize was that its days were numbered anyway, what with him being an old tube, non High-Def television, and as I know The Chicago Bears will be in the Super Bowl in 2009 (I am so optimistic right now), I was looking to kick him to the curb anyway, or maybe put him in my bedroom, especially when those great sales came around before the big game.  I'm thinking, though, that I still might wait for those big sales, in the meantime moving my basement TV to the living room, and putting my really old TV that is still in the garage in the basement, even if the color is all discombobulated on that old TV.  Who cares if green grass is red, anyway?

In the meantime, maybe I'll put my broken TV on eBay.  If Governor Sarah Palin can try to sell an airplane on eBay, maybe some sucker, I mean handyman, I mean handyperson, will want a broken TV.  At least I should be able to make some money on the shipping and handling!

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

Posted by Rightdude at 8:17 PM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2008

What's New? A Podcast of: Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up! The Dude sees "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and Fireworks, Stu Wonders if He Can Get "Wii Fit."

Thanks to the internet, Stu and The Dude were able to record their "Weekend Wrap-Up!" podcast via Skype, and although not the most exciting of Memorial Day weekends, some things for them were the same, and some things for them were different.  Duh.

Stu is nursing a cold, which kept him keeping up with his Netflix queue, namely watching "Wild Hogs" and "Cougar Club," while The Dude on the Right ventured into Chicago to see "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," fireworks, and have a nice dinner.  Stu couldn't go backyard camping with his kids, and The Dude needed to buy a new filter for his kids.  And Stu probably didn't use his Wii Fit, while The Dude doesn't own a Wii.

Now that they know the Skype thing works, there really isn't an excuse for Stu and The Dude to not ever do a podcast again.

Posted by Rightdude at 5:57 PM | Comments (0)

April 1, 2008

As Much As I Love Dolly, These Singers Need Bruce.

By: The Dude on the Right
Tonight's mentor was Dolly Parton, and I know if I were there as a contestant I would be screwed because rather than listening to anything she said I would be just mesmerized with her, umm, voice.  Yea, her voice.  The only thing I would be focusing on would be her big, giant, voice.

In any case, these contestants overcame Dolly's voices, I mean voice, and here's how I thought they did. (And, yes, the opening "April Fool's Joke" during the she show was really lame.  If they really wanted to do it right they would have teamed up with ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" and have millions of people wondering what was wrong with their TV sets.)

Let's go...

Brooke White
 - Sings - "Jolene"
 - A great song for her, and as much as I like her doing the acoustic guitar thing I think she would be more potent if she wasn't sitting on the stool and able to "work" this song more.  She's already got the fan-base so I don't think it will hurt her, but for "American Idol" this needed to be a "performance" song.

David Cook
 - Sings "Little Sparrow"
 - So David, this week, decides to actually do his own arrangement, and Dolly had nice things to say about it.  The country fans might not like it, I did, and although the singing was off a bit at time, who the hell cares?  His confidence is growing and it shows, and for him, I hate to say it, but like a dude named Daughtry, it might be better if he loses.

Ramiele Malubay
 - Sings - "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind"
 - She sings nice enough, but what a wrong genre for her to be in after last week's issues.  She's not country, and she's not rock and roll; I think she needs a "Rihanna Week" to pull her out of her funk.  Sadly she will probably be gone by that night because even though I like her spunk, but she still seems scared.

Jason Castro
 - Sings - "Travelin' Through"
 - Simple enough song, but I don't think he has the fan base to keep him going much longer.  For me I can't envision him on a big stage, but rather doing a lot of acoustic shows in the smaller clubs, with fans that love him.  He hasn't shown himself to be able to command a 20,000 seater, on a big old stage.

Carly Smithson
- Sings - "Here You Come Again"
- This might sound wrong, sexist, or whatever, but she doesn't have the look to pull off this song.  Sure, her voice is good enough, but this song doesn't seem to to in her genre of music.  Randy and Paula (especially Paula) really liked her, but Simon had his issues.  I agree with Simon.

David Archuleta
 - Sings - "Smokey Mountain Memories"
 - Dolly really loves him, she almost even cried.  Damn, I really like this young dude, and even though his voice cracked a bit, on the slow songs he seems to be fantastic.  I still, wish, that he would do something up-tempo to see if can turn into a true performer instead of just wowing the dudettes.

Kristy Lee Cook
 - Sings - "Coat of Many Colors"
 - Please tell me she is going to get off her butt and sing this song to the audience because she is singing great enough in the country genre.  Okay, she got up, and is still singing nice enough, but she needs to learn a lot about performing, and if she wanted to get any mentoring from Dolly it would be how to be a performer and not a singer - if I were her, for this song, I would ask Dolly how I could touch her, umm audiences.  Sadly Kristy was boring as usual.

Syesha Mercado
 - Sings - "I Will Always Love You"
 - She sings purty enough, and I like her sitting on the piano.  She comes across better looks-wise this week, but I really wish she could have pulled off getting her butt off the piano for the ending of the song to really blast it out for the crowd.  She almost had a chance to blow this song out of the house, but instead just sang it.

Michael Johns
 - Sings - "It's All Wrong, But It's All Right"
 - As much as I didn't like a lot of his carrying on with this song, as a "performer" and not a singer he was probably the best of the night, and since Paula talked to long, and my TiVo flipped to "Dancing With the Stars" and "The Biggest Loser," I'm not sure what Simon said.  Doesn't matter, he did great and should stick around until next week when I can re-adjust my TiVo Season Passes so Idol doesn't get clipped.

Let's wrap this up...

The thing that sort of makes me sad is that pretty much everyone on the show right now is great, or at least good singers, but only a few of them seem to have the personalities to be performers.  Every one of them you can picture singing in a smaller club, with a group of fans, but none of them have shown the step to the next level.  I suppose Dolly Parton week wasn't the time to see that (although a lot of them should have gotten tips from her about being a performer rather than a singer), but if the "American Idol" folks want to truly groom any of these kids, bring on a Bruce Springsteen as a two-week mentor to help them become a small-club person, which most of them already are, to a stadium rocker, which he is.  Pimp The Beatles if you must, but teach them Springsteen or The Rolling Stones.

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

Posted by Rightdude at 8:22 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2008

What's New? A Podcast of: Why Johnny Fairplay Might be Gone, Goodbye Josiah, TV is Almost Back, and Getting Howard Stern off the Air.

The Dude on the Right is here for his Valentine's Day podcast, and he doesn't talk about love. Instead The Dude gives his analysis on Johnny Fairplay being booted from "Survivor: Micronesia" last week, feeling bad for Josiah who's back living in his car after "American Idol," and being happy some of his favorite TV shows will be back, soon. He is also worried that Howard Stern might be off the air soon recalling the movie "Spies Like Us" and the government looking to shoot down a "broken, spy" satellite.

Posted by Rightdude at 5:58 PM | Comments (0)

February 4, 2008

What's New? A Podcast of: Lot's of Super Talk About a Bowl and Voting, Bob's House Was the Best, and I Could Be A Stripper.

For another Monday The Dude on the Right is flying solo for a weekend wrap-up podcast, but that's okay because this podcast is all about Super. The Dude talks about the Super Bowl, about Super (thanks for asking) Tuesday, his almost being a Super Stripper, and Super Bowl commercials. And speaking of those Super Bowl commercials, he thinks the most creative of the bunch actually came during the Super Bowl Pre-Game, a spot titled "Bob's House" from Pepsi, which The Dude thinks they actually screwed up just tad. The hell with Justin Timberlake, if Pepsi wanted to make a stir they should have run "Bob's House" during the big game, without the pre-explaination of what it was about.

Posted by Rightdude at 6:51 PM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2008

What's New? A Podcast of: An Apology, Movie Talk, Some New TV and MTV, but No Stu.

Even though it's normally a day for a Weekend Wrap-Up Podcast with Stu Gotz, The Dude on the Right and Stu couldn't figure out how to meet up today so The Dude on the Right handles the podcast duty flying solo. The Dude apologizes for his choice of words in yesterday's blog, which he has since edited, but doesn't apologize for liking the new "Rambo" movie. But mostly TV is on the mind of The Dude and he thinks it's time for MTV to change its name because seriously, what do constant "America's Next Top Model" marathons have to do with music?

Posted by Rightdude at 5:58 PM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2008

What's New? A Podcast of: 2008: What a Strange Year It's Already Been

The Dude on the Right is already flabbergasted at how strange 2008 has been, and it's only ten days in. For this podcast he leaves the family stuff for later but instead delves into Britney Spears and Dr. Phil, wants The Academy Awards to go on but only if the writers get their stuff, and now that Sony/BMG is going to let Amazon sell music/mp3s with no copyright protection, why no love yet for Apple who, sure, wanted to sell a bunch of iPods, but showed the world some people would actually buy music over the internet.

The Dude is also flustered by the elections and the influence Iowa and New Hampshire have on the entire picking a President process, but he has at least 11 reasons why he is looking forward to this season of "Survivor: Micronesia."

Posted by Rightdude at 7:33 PM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2007

What's New? A Podcast of: Ellen DeGeneres, Britney Spears, Joey Bishop, and Go Tribe!

For this podcast The Dude on the Right is flying solo and gives his take on this entire Ellen DeGeneres dog crap, is in the corner of the "Mutts and Moms" people, and thinks the problem might not be the dog, it might be the cats. He also is baffled at how Britney Spears can still be screwing things up with her custody issues and practically begs her to move out of California. With the death of Joey Bishop, well, The Dude is sad to see the last of The Rat Pack go, long live The Rat Pack.

And of course, most importantly for him, screw the "feel-good" team of the Colorado Rockies getting to The World Series, for him it's "Go Tribe!"

Posted by Rightdude at 7:33 PM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2007

What's New? A Podcast of: Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up! Britney's Mom-Ass, "Shoot 'Em Up" Talk, and Smelly Coffee.

For this podcast episode of "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up!" Stu Gotz is trying to deal with his allergies, and his weekend was sort of boring except he is amazed at the ability of his son to recognize various smells. The Dude on the Right saw "Shoot 'Em Up," but for the most part the boys talk about the MTV Video Music Awards that had Britney Spears not losing her mom-ass yet, and Sarah Silverman doing stand-up that would have went over great in a club, just not so much at the award show. At least The Dude didn't have to talk much about watching the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cubs both lose.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:19 PM | Comments (0)

February 4, 2007

Being Sick, Super Bowl Pre-Game, and Bobby Flay Needs to Learn About Food.

By: The Dude on the Right
Maybe it’s the cold weather, maybe it’s something I ate, but for whatever reason I find myself sidelined from my Super Bowl watching plans by some kind of stomach flu, complete with a slight fever. So as I’m curled up here on my couch, waiting for the game to start, I am forcing myself through the pre-game coverage, and figured I would type a quick blog.

My Super Bowl viewing plans were pretty simple, and pretty much the same as it has been for the last half a dozen years: Hop in the dude-mobile and watch the game at Dewey, my accountant’s, house with his friends and family. I even had some hors ‘d oeuvres to bring, and had I felt better yesterday, I probably would have attempted this fabulous peach cream cheese cake/pie thing. So, instead, I’ll probably heat up the hors ‘d oeuvres for myself, so I don’t have to cook, and just stay curled up under a blanket on my couch.

But a couple of observations I have had while watching the pre-game coverage have really struck me. One is, and no breaking bad on Stevie Nicks, but what the hell was she doing there, singing "Stand Back," which is from like 1983. I also hope some producer or director is getting chewed out for the ending of the "Baghdad Bowl" segment. All was going well, we got to see the soldiers playing some flag football, then there was the nice "letting some of them give shout-outs back home," and as Randy Cross was introducing the climactic moment of the segment, with all of the soldiers yelling "Hello back home, we love you!" someone cut back to James Brown, asking an inane question if any of the soldiers might want to be football players, then cutting back to the soldiers, then Randy Cross doing his best to wrap-up the segment. Randy Cross had the perfect ending for the segment; too bad J.B. couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

And finally, a message to Bobby Flay, who was doing the food segment. First off, from everything I’ve been able to find on the Internet in my two minute search, Indianapolis is famous for its breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. You came up with corn, proceeding to now highlight a corn-dog, and I believe it was a butterscotch pie. Then you moved to Chicago, where you spotlighted the Italian beef sandwich and the Chicago Style Hot Dog. Both good choices, but in my now 21 years living in the Chicago area, I have never heard of putting mustard, nor red peppers on the Italian beef. From what I know there are only three things you add to your Italian beef: Green sweet pepper slices, hot giardiniera, and/or more juice. And I don’t know what bread you were using, but it also isn’t served on bread/roll that is sliced all the way through like a submarine sandwich, it is sliced half-way through to conveniently hold the beef and peppers, until, of course, the juice soaks through, the bread disintegrates, and the beef and peppers end up on your plate or tie. And your Chicago Style Hot Dog needs some work, also. You do not put chopped tomatoes on the hot dog, you put tomato slices, and you also forgot two other major ingredients, the Kosher dill pickle spear and the sport peppers. And you also forgot to mention that in no instance are you to add ketchup to the Chicago hot dog.

Well, I should wrap this up and get wrapped back up on the couch. And Bobby Flay, can I recommend two things? One is Google (look up "famous Indianapolis food") and Wikipedia, which gives detailed info on both the Chicago hot dog and the Italian beef, as well as that breaded pork tenderloin.

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

Posted by Rightdude at 4:17 PM | Comments (1)

December 14, 2006

What's New? A Podcast of: The Biggest Loser, The Plight of the Nauga, and The Golden Globe Nominated Movies I Didn't See.

For this podcast The Dude on the Right agrees with Howard Stern that Caroline Rhea, the host of "The Biggest Loser," ruined the emotional moment when Erik won, he also tries to remind people about the plight of the Nauga, and wonders why he doesn't see movies in the drama category of the Golden Globes.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:35 PM | Comments (0)