Calling All Sheep
Here’s a review for Oprah’s new “show”:
Oprah seeks sainthood with phony reality show
Fri Feb 29, 2:12 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The first oddity (but certainly not the last) about the eight-week Oprah Winfrey infomercial “Oprah’s Big Give” is that there is nary a single genuine giving moment to be found during the opening hour.
ADVERTISEMENTIt is instead a profoundly hyperkinetic and unwieldy adventure in product placement, in Oprah-as-Messiah hype and, ultimately, in what’s so utterly fake and insidious about “reality” television itself.
Because the ABC series operates under the high-minded guise of bringing life, rescue and joy to people in need, it’s actually even more disturbing than those shows claiming no similarly socially redeeming purpose.
While the recipients of this largesse no doubt truly benefit in a format that’s one part “Queen for a Day” and one part “The Amazing Race,” the question must be asked early on: Is it worth being exploited as a quasi-pathetic charity case on national television, replete with on-cue manipulative sappy music and photo ops choreographed by editors seemingly in the throes of epileptic seizure, to gain that helping hand?
The idea here is that, armed simply with a photo, directions and $2,500 in cash, 10 selfless soldiers — including an Iraq War vet, a dot-com millionaire, a paraplegic author and a pre-med student — must change the lives of their needy assigned human/family in five days through fundraising, corporate sponsorship or just plain love (which in this case is another synonym for cold hard cash).
The “Biggest Giver” will wind up with $1 million, though Oprah insists “that’s a secret!” Oh really? These people are taking weeks out of their busy lives just to help their fellow man?
What makes “Oprah’s Big Give” especially unwatchable is a vertigo-inducing pace. Few shots last more than three seconds, making it virtually impossible to get to know any of these people on anything more than a surface level. Which is probably as it should be.
Shallow as a birdbath, the program would appear to exist less as a true philanthropic exercise than yet another self-aggrandizing vehicle in Oprah’s divine quest to become synonymous with all that is virtuous and good on Earth. We might well refer to this as “Touched By a Talk Show Host.”
The sad part is the legions of zombies fans will eat this drivel up simply because she’s part of it.
Thanks For Voting
Yep. To all you Floridians who voted for Amendment 1 I want to give you a great, big “Thanks”. Seems the State is considering raising the tax on gasoline to help defray the loss of revenue. You poor assholes were taken for a ride if you voted for that Amendment, and we all have to suffer. Personally, if you voted for it, you need to form a mob and go after Charlie Crist who convinced you idiots to vote for the stupid thing.
If you don’t live in Florida, Amendment 1 was created to lower a person’s property taxes (not by much, mind you) by cutting funding from other areas in the State. Seems like the State may have found a way to make that money back.
You can read a news article about the tax increase here.
You can find all the data you want on Amendment 1 by entering “Amendment 1 Florida” in your favorite search engine.
So you at the gas pumps…
Sad Pickle
I like this restaurant…but their pickles are just pathetic. I think they take regular wedges and slice them a few mores times. Just raise your prices 5 or 10 cents and give us a regular size wedge, or make them by request only.
I So Want One Of These!
Geek alert! Unless you like cool, new gadgets, you might not think this a big deal…but for those of you who like technology gizmos for your computer, check it out:
Why We Love Scott Adams
Another story that helped brighten my day. I’ll let you know that I have a Dilbert cartoon pinned to my cube wall, where no one can hold meetings because all the meeting rooms were renamed with inspirational names and no one knew where they were supposed to go. The exact thing happened to our offices a few years ago.
Seems Scott Adams is going after the bosses of an employee (now former employee) who posted a Dilbert cartoon where the bosses were called drunken lemurs. The actual story has a link to one of the cartoons.
‘Dilbert’ retells story of Iowan fired over comic
Is it a case of art imitating life, or life imitating art?
“Dilbert,” the newspaper comic that routinely ridicules self-important office managers, is taking aim this week at an Iowa company that fired an employee for posting a “Dilbert” strip in the office.
In a bit of self-referential cartooning, “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams has penned a series of strips that indirectly describe the plight of Dave Steward, a former security supervisor for Catfish Bend Casino in Burlington. Steward, 50, a resident of Fort Madison, was fired by the casino last fall after seven years of employment. He had posted on an office bulletin board a “Dilbert” strip in which the protagonist compares his bosses to a bunch of “drunken lemurs.”
AdvertisementCasino managers were not amused. By reviewing surveillance tapes, they determined that Steward was responsible for posting the cartoon. They fired him and accused him of not being a “team player.”
The dismissal became national news after The Des Moines Register reported the outcome of a hearing at which the casino challenged Steward’s claim for unemployment benefits. The casino’s human resources director, Steve Morley, testified that “upper management” was offended by the cartoon. “Basically, he was accusing the decision-makers of being drunken lemurs,” Morley testified.
The judge in the case sided with Steward and said his actions represented an error in judgment, not intentional misbehavior.
In a new series of “Dilbert” comics that begins today, Steward’s bosses — represented by the strip’s infamous Pointy-Haired Boss — are lampooned for their actions. Steward is depicted by Wally, the strip’s bespectacled, coffee-swilling office drone. Steve Morley is portrayed by Catbert, the evil human resources director.
In one of the strips, Adams gives his take on Steward’s dismissal.
Catbert: “Wally, I have to fire you for posting a comic comparing managers to drunken lemurs. You won’t be eligible for unemployment benefits unless you can prove you were stupid as opposed to malicious. Can you prove you’re stupid?”
Wally: “Is there another explanation for working here?”
Another strip features a reporter from the “Dogbert Gazette” pursuing the story and searching for quotes to support his thesis that the man responsible for the firing is a “humorless stain on the soul of humanity.”
Adams acknowledged in an interview that Steward’s firing was the impetus for this week’s series of comics.
“I know good comic fodder when I see it,” he said, “and any chance to mock the humorless is worth the effort.”
Asked whether he was amused, honored or embarrassed to be immortalized in “Dilbert,” Steward said it was a combination of all those things. He said he is a big fan of Adams’ work.
“I have five of his books,” Steward said. “My wife and I both comment on how they relate to (the casino). She worked there from 1994 to 1998, so she knew what I was going through. The day I was fired, she went to work and the same comic was on several of the bulletin boards where she works. Nobody got fired.”
Morley declined to comment on the new “Dilbert” comics.
Steward, who is still looking for work, said the news stories about his dismissal last year prompted a lot of people to get in touch with him.
“I received a lot of ‘attaboys’ from everyone,” he said. “Ex-employees, current employees and patrons were not happy about me getting fired for something so trivial.”
As for this week’s comics, Steward said he probably will add them to his scrapbook.
But will he ever post a “Dilbert” at his workplace again?
“If I thought I would get the same results as I did that time, no,” he said. “I hope to work somewhere that has a sense of humor — when I find something.”
Need It
I really needed a laugh today and got a good one listening to the recent episode of Pop Trash Radio. Particularly the part about Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner. I about pissed my pants laughing while I was at my desk. Warning: Adult language and some serious discussions are on this show – The Aretha section is within the first 30 minutes of the show if you just want the funny parts.
Gotta get back to work. Don’t forget about the lunar eclipse tonight at 10 PM (at least where I live).
Disappointingly Deflated Dexter
So we tried to watch Dexter last night on CBS. We made it over half way through but finally turned it off.
This show has been sliced and diced by the censors worse than the Ice Truck Killer’s victims. Right off the bat I found the re-dubbing of Sgt. Doakes’ dialog ridiculous. He never said words like “friggin’” and “mother lover”. And I swear they used CGI to change his mouth movements to match. His words don’t fit his nasty disposition anymore.
And then the atmosphere and speed of the program comes to a crashing halt during a commercial break. Dexter’s preparing an abandoned house in preparation for doing in a bad guy and suddenly they go to commercial! I’ll also say they cut out some of the torture, too.
Dexter was written for cable, not for network television. You can’t put it on there and expect it to be the same. I know why it was done: CBS knew it was a hit on ShowTime and thought they could get more viewers out of it, but in the end it just comes out a pale imitation.
If you’ve never seen Dexter I highly recommend renting or buying the series on DVD…the network version will simply leave a bad taste in your mouth.
