The Primetime Emmy Awards

It's a shame I did not start writing here two hours ago, when the show started. I will try not to yammer on about the three hour tape delay for those of us on the west coast. You'd think it just might matter that the freaking show is being televised from Los Angeles... but nooooo.

Obligatory comment about the opening skit... the one on the plane. Should NBC really have cancelled the bit. Perhaps. It is tragic that 49 people lost their lives because some stupid pilot didn't know what runway he was on. Or perhaps the flight controllers are to blame, or the airport itself. That will undoubtedly be sorted out in the courts. But I submit that at least that many people lose their lives every single day, for equally stupid reasons, and we hear nada about them.

Moments I remember: Steven Colbert whining about losing to Barry Manilow. Farrah Fawcett looking positively bored during the tribute to Aaron Spelling. Seems to me she still has a substance problem, or something. Dick Clark, speaking a more clearly than he did at the New Years Eve show 9 months ago. The tribute to American Bandstand was excellent, and it's nice the Academy chose to honor him while he is still with us.

Hugh Laurie comes out as a presenter, and I'm all excited to hear his British accent, and he speaks French.. arrrrgh. But it was a funny bit.

Enjoyed the Tivo bit, as well as having one bunch of clips shown on audience member's PDA's, Smartphones, whatever. Love the Newhart gag. As of this writing, I do not know how it will end. Conan even managed to make me laugh when he introduced the accountants. Kareem Abdul Jabbar should always have such regular work.

Someone PLEASE tell Simon Cowell where the buttons are on his shirt. What a self-absorbed idiot. Show some respect for the forum you are in, huh? I would have preferred a T-shirt, buddy.

Apparently 24 is going to win for Best Drama. They got that right.

Oh and NBC? Your incessant promos have not enticed me to watch any of your new shows. I especially enjoyed Conan's song and dance number about how far in the toilet the NBC network is.

Doo Wop Part 2

I'm about 45 minutes into this show. Even the pledge portions are interesting because they show additional footage of the old artists.

Del-Vikings opened. They were one of the first groups I ever enjoyed on the radio... 1957. I remember the absolute thrill of going to a friends house and they had an actual record of "Come Go With Me." I played it at least 7 times in a row. Sorry to say the people on this show, possibly only had one original member of the group. But hey, it was a resonable facsimile of the group.

Peguins and Capris followed. Great to see them. Then came the Cadillacs, who brought down the house with the choreographed dancing and great music. Not to be upstaged, the Duke of Earl, entering from the rear of the audience. Good old Gene Chandler (pictured) still has it. He sounded the most like his original hit.

Johnny Maestro and Brooklyn Bridge sang next. Unremarkable. Then the Edsels, with that great old favorite, "Rama Lama Ding Dong." More choreography, and great colored suits. This group is still viable, and quite entertaining.

Tokens came next... so so. Then the Diamonds doing "Little Darling." Here we have the orginal four members on stage, (impressive) and they don't even look that old. They are in their 70's!!!

I am 45 minutes into this show, with another 45 to go. Stay tuned.

Sox Sox Sox Sox

I'm afraid the season might be ending for the Sox. They are my favorite team, just kind of by chance.

Three years ago, I started watching the mlb package on DirecTV and found the Sox games infatuating. The whole Fenway mystique, Orsillo and Remy, and the fact that they won the World Series the first year I was a fan. How lucky is that? No 86 years of suffering for me!

I always travel east every summer, and managed to get a ticket to one game two years ago. Visiting Fenway totally hooked me. A game at Fenway is like one large family party. It seems like you know everyone in the park.

One year ago, I saw a three game series. This past June, I saw another three game series, in between lots of rain. The Friday night game, rain began in the 7th inning, which wasn't a big problem. Saturday already had a make-up game scheduled from a previous rainout. My game was scheduled for 8 pm. Of course it rained all day, people in the park for the early game had to wait 6 hours until it cleared enough for their game to start. My game, was rained out, so I had all day to wonder if/when it would be rescheduled? This was especially important because I had a seat in the 4th row, smack behind home plate. I know I will never have a seat that good again in my lifetime, so I was crushed that the game was rained out.

For six hours, I listened to WEEI, to find out what they were going to do. First the game was rescheduled for September. Then the Rangers said they weren't going to make a special trip back (again) to play that game. Thank you, Rangers.

Once the first game finally started, someone finally figured out they should play a doubleheader on Sunday, and that could be done, without losing TV money to ESPN. My Saturday night game would be played Sunday at noon. The second game would start at 5. Short turnaround, but it all worked out. I was pretty darn happy, and lucky. The above picture I took from my seat. Ortiz hit a walk-off homer! David Ortiz is having an incredible year. I hope he wins the MVP. He is clutch.

Bike Riding

Just returned from a bike ride. Not a long enough bike ride because I've been slacking something terrible. Got very much out of the habit of riding during the winter. It was always too cold, or too windy, or I didn't have enough time. I knew those were just excuses, and sure enough, they have carried over to summer. I honestly can't say if I can motivate myself enough to ride as much as I used to. Used to ride 3-4 days a week, at least 10 miles per ride. We shall see.

One of the pleasures of being on the bike though, besides the obvious of it being very good for my health... I can fire up the Ipod and get lost in music.

Today's playlist consisted of the year 1974: Allman Brothers "Blue Sky", "One Way Out", Joan Baez "Imagine, The Legend Of Billy Rose" "In The Quiet Morning," Paul Anka "Jubilation", Chuck Berry "My Ding a Ling", Clapton "Let It Rain", Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose "Too Late To Turn Back Now."

Doo Wop

Was nosing around the TV listings this evening, and stumbled across a wonderful show on the PBS station: American Soundtrack: Doo Wop's Best. I only caught the last half hour or so, but it's going to repeat shortly. Thank god for TIVO.

Little Anthony and the Imperials can still bring it. I always tend to judge music acts by how well they can duplicate their sound of 30, 40, 50 years ago. Most of them can't. My favorite singer, Neil Diamond, unfortunately, cannot approach his sound of the 60's, but if it's a choice of the way he sounds now, or nothing at all, I will happily take what we get today.

Little Anthony and the Imperials, all decked out in peach colored suits, darn near matched the way their records sound. Kathy Young and the Innocents (she has to be pushing 60), were fantastic. She looked fabulous too.

I will update further when I see the rest of the show. Meanwhile, I have about 6000 more titles to list on my website: www.oldies45s.com. Go have a look.

Keith Olbermann

I am a big-time Keith Olbermann fan. Have been for the last 20 years. In the late 80's I worked with a disc jockey who went to school with Olbermann, who was, at the time, doing local sports here in Los Angeles for KTLA.

Keith is, how do I say this... unique. His "Countdown" show airing on MSNBC, covers the complete gamut of news, odd goings on, daily absurdities, crazy video, all culminating with his designation of today's "Worst Person in the World." (A title which should be renamed the Bill O'Reilly Memorial.).

I discovered this show about 3 1/2 years ago, at the beginning of the Iraq war, and have been hooked ever since. If Olbermann is away, I can't watch, because no one can carry this show in the same fashion. They can use the same format, the same scripts, but it's hopeless. The best replacement I ever saw was Alison Stewart, who now has her own show, but I digress.

Countdown makes use of music coming out of some it's stories, and early on, when I actually heard Neil Diamond's "I Am, I Said" used as a bumper, I almost died laughing. If you analyze all the music they include over a period of time, you will find someone on staff has quite a knowledge of the last 60 years of pop music.

If I had my way, Countdown would replace Brian Williams and Nightly News on the Big Network.

Olbermann also does one hour a day with Dan Patrick on ESPN Radio. Appointment listening. Patrick is great, I've discovered, but I never listened to him before Keith started doing one hour per week with him on Fridays. I could never remember to turn on the show at that particular time on a Friday, so when they made it a five day a week deal, my life got easier. 2 PM EDT. Two of the sharpest minds in sports media.

Internet Shopping

It's just so darn easy. I've had to make a serious effort to curtail my purchasing, or at least slow down. It's always a little bit of a crapshoot, as to whether the item will be exactly as you expect, how long it will take to arrive, and will it work?

In the past two weeks, I've made three purchases: a couple of new covers for patio furniture from Koverroos.com. Arrived in 4 days, excellent product. I was looking for the best covers on the market, after my last ones rotted in less than 18 months. Two 2007 calendars from Calendars.com. Supposedly shipped 8.2 from Dallas. From Dallas, they went to Cincinnati (why I don't know) and supposedly left there for points unknown, on 8.6. It is 8.11 and they have yet to arrive. Calendars.com says if 16 business days go by with no delivery, they will ship again. That's promising.

Third purchase was a desk lamp from Lamps.plus. Did quite a bit of nosing around on the internet, looking for just the right lamp, with plenty of wattage. Still wasn't sure, so went to a Lamps Plus store, only to be disappointed with the few desk lamps they actually stocked. They did have computers available in store to order from their website, but I chose to return home and do more shopping. Finally settled on a great lamp with two moveable arms, and a total of 140 watts of halogen lamps. Ordered it from LampsPlus.com. It arrived in three days (excellent), however one of the two arms would not provide light. I swapped bulbs, no luck. I am now involved in a long, return process. Yes, they are going to make it right, but it's going to take at least a week, and I'm not thrilled. The styrofoam packing fell apart before I could even get the lamp out of the box, so good luck to me when I ship it back.

Today It Started...

I needed my own space. Who knows where this is gonna go.

Today I saw World Trade Center. Wasn't sure I should, but decided all movies don't have to "entertain." I knew I was in for a rough experience in the theatre. A few teenagers persisted in talking and lighting up the whole place with their cell phones. A couple of people walked out. But overall, it was a fairly quiet and respectful audience.

Excellent movie. Very well done, most compelling. Only dragged for a tiny bit, in the middle, but I guess that helped make the point of how hopeless these two guys were feeling, buried beneath tons of rubble. I'm not really a Nicholas Cage fan, but he did a great job... playing an ordinary Port Authority Policeman.