Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for being away for so long. My work and household duties have escalated recently and my posts are, unfortunately, going to be few and far between for a while. The commitments cut into both listening and writing time. I do keep an eye on comments and have appreciated most everyone's observation of the site's unwritten rules.
I have made a few notes from the last couple of weeks, some ticket-related, some not. Nothing too profound here, but maybe this will get some the threads kick-started:
1. Junior Miller: "There are too many idiots in the world, and half of them are commenting on websites." (Referring to comments to news items in the DMN.)
I have made a few notes from the last couple of weeks, some ticket-related, some not. Nothing too profound here, but maybe this will get some the threads kick-started:
1. Junior Miller: "There are too many idiots in the world, and half of them are commenting on websites." (Referring to comments to news items in the DMN.)
2. Both the Hardline and Musers have remarked on the fact that there seem to be lots of people hanging around Southern California who "aren't doing so well." No kidding. I have a lot of good feelings for California, having lived there with great pleasure for five years in the '90's (hence my fondness for Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton), but it's a holy mess. Decades of mismanagement (Democrat and Republican), have left the state broke. Its legislature is a corrupt candy machine (Democrats are the problem here), devastating state taxes that are going higher, enormous public payroll, vast welfare benefits for illegal immigrants, it goes on and on. The leading candidate for a catastrophic Detroit-style bankruptcy. It's America's Greece. Meanwhile, Texas still can't get free agents to come here.
3. Can we get a report on how Norm and BaD handled the camp? I heard zero minutes of either show while they were in Oxnard.
I actually like the travelogue aspects of The Ticket's travel to faraway places, yes, even Corby's stories. I do wonder whether there is a whole lot of sportsy value to having all those shows out there, and at Super Bowls, and at playoffs. Some take it more seriously than others. I would think that Norm and BaD, broadcasting during daylight hours, would snag a relevant interview or two along the line. How was their time out there?
4. This site's deepest condolences to Mike Rhyner and his loved ones on his mother's passing. She seemed like a sweet lady in her few interactions with the station, and Mike's voice took on a different tone when she came up. One had the idea that one would mess with that woman at one's considerable personal peril. RIP.
5. Several commenters have taken the opportunity of Mike's occasional absences to note how good Corby can be when he has responsibility for running a presentation. He's also on good behavior with other hosts. This site has mentioned this on several occasions. More than one person has observed that perhaps Corby's excesses are encouraged by the kind of chemistry he has with Mike. I got an e-mail from Confessor N:
"Perhaps it's just me, but me and some of my real good P1 friends all find Corby with anyone other than Rhyner actually very good, crisp, funny and more likable. It started last week with Corby manning the ship when Rhynes suddenly left Oxnard for his mom's illness. I thought his chemistry with Craig, Gordon, Dan, Donny, the Commander et al was great. Then Friday it clicked for me when Rhynes was out for the funeral - I like Corby leading with Danny in the co-pilot seat and Jake as the on mic producer. The chemistry is much more free-flowing. I respect Rhynes but it is clear to me now that he gives this thing the 'cruise control'/'I don't give a damn' vibe."
I think that's right. He knows he's untouchable, nearing the end of his reign, and feels little obligation to incentivize Corby or Danny. Although I will say, once in a while the last few weeks, it has seemed to me that Mike, while clearly tired from his schedule and the emotional drain of his mother's passing, has generated some pretty strong segments.
3. Can we get a report on how Norm and BaD handled the camp? I heard zero minutes of either show while they were in Oxnard.
I actually like the travelogue aspects of The Ticket's travel to faraway places, yes, even Corby's stories. I do wonder whether there is a whole lot of sportsy value to having all those shows out there, and at Super Bowls, and at playoffs. Some take it more seriously than others. I would think that Norm and BaD, broadcasting during daylight hours, would snag a relevant interview or two along the line. How was their time out there?
4. This site's deepest condolences to Mike Rhyner and his loved ones on his mother's passing. She seemed like a sweet lady in her few interactions with the station, and Mike's voice took on a different tone when she came up. One had the idea that one would mess with that woman at one's considerable personal peril. RIP.
5. Several commenters have taken the opportunity of Mike's occasional absences to note how good Corby can be when he has responsibility for running a presentation. He's also on good behavior with other hosts. This site has mentioned this on several occasions. More than one person has observed that perhaps Corby's excesses are encouraged by the kind of chemistry he has with Mike. I got an e-mail from Confessor N:
"Perhaps it's just me, but me and some of my real good P1 friends all find Corby with anyone other than Rhyner actually very good, crisp, funny and more likable. It started last week with Corby manning the ship when Rhynes suddenly left Oxnard for his mom's illness. I thought his chemistry with Craig, Gordon, Dan, Donny, the Commander et al was great. Then Friday it clicked for me when Rhynes was out for the funeral - I like Corby leading with Danny in the co-pilot seat and Jake as the on mic producer. The chemistry is much more free-flowing. I respect Rhynes but it is clear to me now that he gives this thing the 'cruise control'/'I don't give a damn' vibe."
I think that's right. He knows he's untouchable, nearing the end of his reign, and feels little obligation to incentivize Corby or Danny. Although I will say, once in a while the last few weeks, it has seemed to me that Mike, while clearly tired from his schedule and the emotional drain of his mother's passing, has generated some pretty strong segments.
6. Greg Williams's blog: Seems like there's not much to it any more -- song lyrics, definitions, and recently a TMI post from Jenn on "what Greggo's really like" that didn't exactly flatter the guy. Apparently they are moving, which, she reports, will make it hard to keep the blog up to date (although it seemed like they weren't actually moving, just planning for a move).
7. Gordon is 100% correct about the Geico Old MacDonald's spelling ad. The joke about spelling "cow" is completely wrong and unfunny because it misses the real joke that the Geico ad writer apparently misremembered. Bet I can find it . . . yup, took me about 12 seconds:
A Hoosier, a Kentuckian and a West Virginian were on a Hollywood TV quiz show. The host asked them to complete the sentence: "Old MacDonald had a ..." The Indianan said, "Old MacDonald had a carburetor." "Sorry," said the MC. "That's incorrect." "Old MacDonald had a flat tire," said the Kentuckian. "Wrong," said the host. "Old MacDonald had a farm," said the West Virginian. "That's correct!" shouted the MC. "Now for $200,000, spell farm." The West Virginian thought hard and then spelled carefully: "E-I-E-I-O."
The Geico ad should either have had Old MacDonald spell "farm," which he then spells "E-I-E-I-O," or spell "cow" and spell that the same way but not preceded by C-O-W. Anyway, it's a bad ad. In fact, all of the Geico ads that use the "well, did you know . . . " format are weak.
8. However, Gordon and George are entirely wrong on "The Girl from
Ipanema," a wonderful bossa nova pop song. The English lyrics were originally meant to be sung by a man, not a woman (Astrud Gilberto having made it famous), which accounts for the gigantic grammatical blunder "she looks straight ahead, not at he" when sung by a woman -- should be: "she looks straight ahead, not at me," sung by a man.
9. Love George, we all love George, but he has apparently graduated to dropping 100% of his g's on present participles and gerunds (-ing words). I swear, one morning a few days ago it sounded like he was deliberately workin' at droppin' all those g's. I wish he wouldn't. It makes him sound hickish, which he's not. Maybe it's his increased C&W profile, he's got to use some kind of backcountry patois to keep it real.
10. Matt Garza has a tiny brain.
11. While we're on the subject of Ticket word usage: Is The Ticket the last bastion of the overuse of the word "awesome"? It was bad enough when this perfectly lovely, evocative word was devalued back in the Bill-and-Ted's-Excellent-Adventure days, but it seems to me that the language has finally moved on with the exception of George Dunham and BaD radio. Sorry, man, every time I hear someone on the station use that word (and it's not just those guys), I think -- you know, this station really needs to get out more.
13. Johnny Manziel is a sociopath.
14. Caught a little bit of Ben and Skin one day, only about ten minutes. This is not a general Ben and Skin opinion, only observation about the tiny slice that I heard. I want to give those gents a fair shot, and that just can't be done by flipping over for the odd segment. They had some Ranger talk about "overpaying" players (Elvis Andrus was on the griddle at that particular moment) that did not make any sense to me in the context of a free market for players and widespread information on their current skills. (I think that was Skin but cannot be certain.)
We are very fond of Kevin Turner around here, but during my short time of listening I caught a very unfortunate remote segment that only lasted about 35 seconds that ended with Kevin asking some group of people how many were ovulating. Could not figure out what the bit was supposed to be about at the outset, and, whatever it was, it cratered almost instantaneously and B&S seemed somewhat startled to have the show tossed back to them. Sorry, KT. I promise I'll get around to giving B&S the benefit of a sustained listen one of these days.
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Hope to see you all soon.
LATER: Just saw this post. Blogger has once again defeated my efforts to make the thing look nice. Sorry for all the inconsistent margins, fonts, spacing.
LATER: Just saw this post. Blogger has once again defeated my efforts to make the thing look nice. Sorry for all the inconsistent margins, fonts, spacing.
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Wednesday, August 7, 2013 BONUS: Today's Ticket Traffic Twist Julie Mac, who looks like she sounds:
