If an ONT is posted and no reads it or comments on it, does it still count as a contractually obligated post? Well I think so.

Paul Anka About to Slice Like a Hammer

And Jay-Z's dissing of him is making him a maniac.

Anka was outside Madeo restaurant in L.A. last night, when we asked about his upcoming album "Duets" -- which features collaborations with legends like Willie Nelson, Gloria Estefan and Dolly Parton. ... because according to Anka, Mr. Knowles didn't have the common courtesy to return a simple phone call!!!

Anka says he feels completely disrespected -- and says Jay acted "inappropriately" towards him ... especially since Jay once sampled Anka's biggest hit "My Way" on a rap song.
Now, Anka is escalating his anger into a full on war of the music titans -- and even took a shot back at Jay-Z.

And for all you newbies here's where it all started: The Paul Anka Rant  And a full explanation here. Click on the picture to get your loose shit straightened out by Mr. Anka.

And a quiz:

2. Hypothetically, suppose you are the pilot of a plane. You wish to land your aircraft safely. What do you look at?

a) The instruments only
b) The fucking runway, to make sure it's fucking there
c) Both A & B
d) Mr. Paul Anka, to see if his arms are raised to indicate the cut-off to the song I'm Not Anyone
e) All of the above

Where's Joe?

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:27 PM | Comments (427)
Post contains 1127 words, total size 13 kb.

As you may have heard by now Bruce Carroll (aka Gay Patriot) has decided not to challenge Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina GOP primary in 2014.

Earlier I had an exclusive interview with Bruce earlier tonight about his decision making process and what led him to pass on running. I didn't have time to put it in the soundbite but Bruce made it very clear he wasn't the least bit worried over how Republicans and conservatives would react to his sexual orientation. That said, politics is a tough game, especially in South Carolina. And there are always the oh so tolerant liberals.

Next we discussed whether or not a blogger might some day make the crossover to electoral politics. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 05:24 PM | Comments (219)
Post contains 191 words, total size 2 kb.

As this is going to last a while, I'm trying to find an alternative.

[Update - Andy:] Go here to comment.

Posted by: Ace at 04:41 PM | Comments (8)
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

9pm eastern on his radio show.

In case you missed the story, well known blogger Bruce Carroll has been considering a primary challenge to everyone's least favorite Senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham.

I just finished an exclusive interview with him (damn, that sounds corny) about his process in coming to his decision, the realities facing non-professional politicians who are considering entering the electoral arena and what he sees as Graham's vulnerabilities from the right.

I'll have a full post up on his decision and parts of my interview with him at about 9:20 tonight.

Posted by: DrewM at 03:52 PM | Comments (6)
Post contains 123 words, total size 1 kb.

So, she's super excited 'n stuff.

The only way I can describe my series is it's meet the press meets [MTV's] jackass

Counter-premise: It will resemble neither show in any way.

Further counter-premise: It will consist of interviews conducted in an RV in which the chief topic of conversation is, "Isn't it wild we're doing a show in an RV?"

I almost don't blame her for the stupid hype-lines -- every show's debut comes with that stupid hype, like "It's like Firing Line meets Sofia Vergara's sex-pillows!!!"

Almost. Some of this is unforgivable. The following quotes are from the Huffington Post.

Gee, I wonder if the show is going to be uncensored -- but real.

She said that the show would be "uncensored" and "real."

Wow. A "real" show. Not like those phony shows with phony issues and phony people. Real talk, for real people.

In a real RV. Hey guys isn't this great?, Flounder was quoted as saying.

You know how every ten years there's that adjective that basically means the same thing as "cool" that everyone overuses and it becomes embarrassing in retrospect? "Real" is 2003's "hep" or "funky." It was popularlzed by the Real World's intro's closing line, about "things getting real." And that show is way old, yo.

But what sorts of real issues -- which I assume will be "edgy" -- will she be covering?

One example of an issue she would be interested in covering is the explosion of meth in her homestate of Arizona.

Well I'm sure there's a lot of angles to cover there. We need real talk about meth, a real problem.

But will this show be for young people? And what deficiency in current news delivery will it cure?

"We're told ... that young people can't have news because we're just tweeting all the time, and that's just bullshit," McCain said at the presentation.

Ah good, she got the word "young" in there; time was ticking down on the clock, and I feared she wouldn't get her shot off in time.

Listen, I don't know who you guys are, but You know who you are.

Let me address You. Yes, You. The one reading this right now.

I don't know which of You said this horrible thing, that "young people can't have news" (what? that doesn't even make grammatical sense) because they're "just tweeting all the time," but Thanks a lot for saying that. Now Meghan McCain has a show just to answer you.

I swear if I find out which of you said "young people can't have news" (Como? Esta anglais?) because they're "just tweeting all the time," and brought this sweaty, stinky, podcast-from-an-RV upon all hour heads, I'm going to ban you.

One last thing. @noahcrothman tweeted something that I thought was a parody. It was absurd. It was an absurd line claiming certain attributes supposedly belonging to Ms. McCain.

Just for shits and giggles, and expecting to look like a fool, I asked him, "That was a parody, right?" Because if it wasn't a parody I wanted to include it.

I was sure it was a parody. But I did want to check.

Not a parody. This was really said. In fact, it was written, which is even crazier, because usually deliberation and self-reflection occurs during writing.

What is this show "Raising McCain"?

a genre-bending docu-talk series starring and executive produced by the complex and accomplished Meghan McCain with Go Go Luckey Entertainment

See? I thought it was a joke. But I asked to make sure. And holy hell, it's not a joke.

And... "genre-bending"? It will be a talk show in which they try to "hep" things up by being zany, just zany, I tell you.

No one's tried that before.

And no one's tried it... in an RV that smells like Coors and talcum powder over backsweat.

Posted by: Ace at 03:15 PM | Comments (17)
Post contains 665 words, total size 4 kb.

I've mentioned this in a couple of posts. I am aware of the problem. I've contacted Pixy, and am waiting for a response.

Posted by: Ace at 02:27 PM | Comments (2)
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.

Allah hits the google machine and recalls all the pushback she'd gotten from the Kentucky Democratic party, which was very concerned about this flaky, puffy-faced would-be Senatrix.

So there you go. She murdered her own shot at a candidacy, with her strange statements about everything from rape, to hating children, to rape.

I guess this means this politically-interested puff adder will be back to writing screeds on the Huffington Post or Daily Beast.

Posted by: Ace at 02:15 PM | Comments (8)
Post contains 83 words, total size 1 kb.

NBC is trying to mend fences with Leno. Supposedly it worked, and they won't have another embarrassing talk-show drama on their hands.

Still, Leno doesn't "need the money," as this article says, because he doesn't even spend the money. But he does want to continue being on TV.

So, Fox?

The most obvious next move would be a late-night show on Fox. In fact, according to Bill Carroll, director of programming at Katz Media Group, it's the "only logical place" in syndication. What's more, Fox affiliate board chairman Steve Pruett recently told The New York Post that if the network were to present "the right business plan, the affiliate board would be interested." Still, Fox weighed the option of luring O'Brien when he lost Tonight and ultimately decided it did not make economic sense. Carroll estimates it would cost $100 million to launch a new Leno show.

Fox actually has a deal with Arsenio Hall to start a late night show this fall. To put on Leno, they'd have to bump Arsenio to midnight. So, imagine: We could have another Leno-Hall drama. Everything old is new again!

More interesting in this article, though, is the Decline of the Networks. The Tonight Show used to be a cash bonanza for NBC -- $150 million in profits, per year. Now it's down to $30-40 million. Even though Leno is still the ratings champ, they're dumping him anyway, in a cost-cutting move.

Networks didn't used to do that. They used to be flush enough with money that these things could be negotiated. (Johnny Carson wound up working just 4 nights a week to make his huge contract deal work out for everyone.) But do to declining importance and fewer viewers, they now have to just let top rated guys go.

TV networks are in serious trouble. There is no chance they won't remain major players -- they have a lot of expertise tied up in contracts. And institutions tend to continue on.

But Amazon is going to get into the TV production game, and Netflix already did. Meanwhile cable continues to cut into networks' ratings-- where it was once unthinkable that cable stations could beat the mighty networks, it now happens from time to time.

It will happen more.

Empire of Jeff posted on What This All Means in a comment earlier (when comments were working). It means further cultural balkanization, as specific entertainments (and "news" shows) are specifically tailored for specific tribe... which I'm not sure is such a bad thing.

We have had a shared culture in one area for years -- TV. But that's a pretty shabby medium to share a culture by, isn't it? Not exactly the sort of thing a civilization is proud of.

We've had balkanization in print for years and years and years. Because print was relatively inexpensive (compared to filmed entertainment), the market could easily pump out entertainments and nonfiction with less appeal to a general audience, but much stronger appeal to specific niches of that audience.

And who's to say that's worse?

A year ago Andrew Breitbart made what I thought was an absurd prediction: "In five years, all of this is gone. The media, all of it. Gone." Something like that.

Well, it might not be five years, and it might not be completely gone, but ground is starting to shake beneath us. Plates are shifting. Grand houses may well fall.

Posted by: Ace at 01:47 PM | Comments (7)
Post contains 574 words, total size 4 kb.

The dream is dead.

Focused on her family, huh? I wonder who she murdered.

Whenever someone says they're quitting something to "focus on my family" I start wondering about that.

Anyway, that's not the interesting question here.

The interesting question is, Why is her face so puffy? What is she doing, gargling with bees?

Posted by: Ace at 01:19 PM | Comments (4)
Post contains 97 words, total size 1 kb.

steve_in_hb just mentioned to me this clip from The Music Man, which shows the exact plan every single political huckster employs to gin up government action.

The moves:

1. Gin up a problem

2. Panic the populace

3. Tell them first that you personally have nothing against x, and actually are a big fan of thing you seek to prohibit, except x promotes all these horrible things, let me tell you about some of them

4. It's for the children -- make sure parents understand that this Lurking Horror threatens to overwhelm at any time, and that there's nothing they can personally do to stop it, except accede to your plan

It's funny... Even though people know this schtick, and can laugh at it when it's presented to them in a parody form, they still fall for it, don't they?

Still No Word on the Comments, Alas.

Oh, Here's Something: The trailer for The Wolverine, the new movie which the filmmakers swear is completely unconnected to the last Wolverine movie which you didn't like.

I do like all the pretty colors. Does anyone remember that in the nineties and early aughts the Big Thing in movies was to drain all the color out of a film and then push it to a single dominant color? Essentially draining out all colors in favor of, say, blue, and then in one awful John Travolta movie (the General's Daughter) a murky yellow-green?

I mean they were even doing it in popcorn movies.

Yeah I did not get that all. I much prefer vibrant colors in popcorn movies.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:04 PM | Comments (5)
Post contains 302 words, total size 2 kb.