Wes Kelley

Yes, this is completely absurd, but I can’t help but appreciate the creative effort required to cover one the The Police’s finest as a Lenten hymn.

This amazing photo shows the progress being made on the new highway spanning Hoover Dam. One great engineering feat on top of another.

Yes, I am going to post an excerpt from The Price is Right, but I couldn’t resist.  The compilation of Taylor’s success on daytime television’s long-running staple almost makes we want to watch game shows… almost.

Kevin Spacey has always seemed a gifted actor to me, but in this clip you can see that he is naturally funny and quick too.

This image amazes me.  McDonalds is as American as… well… America.  Below is a graphic representation prepared by Fast Company that shows all the McDonalds franchises in the United States.  You have to head to some pretty isolated areas to get out from under the shadow of those golden arches.

I signed up at Last.fm a good while ago and it dutifully records the music I’m listening to on a regular basis.  I looked at my account tonight and I saw the following rundown of the artists I listen to the most.  I’ll own up to this list.  While the order might move around a bit, this is a good list of many of my favorites.

1. Sting
2. New Order
3. Coldplay
4. The Cure
5. Depeche Mode
6. U2
7. The Beatles
8. Sarah McLachlan
9. The Shins
10. Dido
11. Jars of Clay
12. The Smiths
13. The Stone Roses
14. Peter Gabriel
15. XTC

Now that I have a child of my own, I’ve been thinking about the TV shows I watched when I was growing up in the late 70s in the early 80s. In spare moments, I’ve been surfing the depth of the Internet looking for information on the shows that kept me company as a little kid. Everyone remembers Sesame Street, The Electric Company and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood as sources of high quality live-action entertainment for kiddies. And who didn’t watched Super Friends and all the classic cartoons that ran in a perpetual loop for decades. But I have been on the hunt for the not-so-well-remembered. After finding some clips on YouTube, I have to say that the 70s were bizarre. Some of the crap produced for kids during that confused decade makes me wonder how the youth of my generation grew up to be half-way normal.

The strangest of the bunch were the live-action shows produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. I think it is safe to say that the Kroffts were troubled men. While all of their shows were bizarre, some were just plain terrifying. Their contribution to 70s culture included classics like HR Pufnstuff, Land of the Lost and Sigmund and the Sea Monster. They also produced cute, but odd, shows like Wonderbug, The Lost Saucer and other Saturday morning staples. Not be to outdone, others prepared flashy live-action programming. The Banana Splits (with costumes made by Kroffts), the New Zoo Revue and the Great Space Coaster being among the ones that I remember.  

My truly fond memories of early childhood television were the cartoon space adventures. After being exposed to Star Wars when I was around four years old, my appointment television became Japanese imports like Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers. These shows had it all: grand adventure, sci fi plots and big battle scenes. Star Blazers really stands out in my memory because it was the first serialized show I remember following carefully. Every episode built on the story before it. It was a grown up story told for children.  

By the time I was nine or ten I fell into G.I. Joe, Transformers and Voltron. After that, even I became too old to watch cartoons. I do recall liking Kids Incorporated, but I’m embarrassed to admit watching an early tween show.  (However, check out this link to see a very young Jennifer Love Hewitt perform a Peter Gabriel classic, or this link to see an equally young Stacey Ferguson–Fergie from the Black Eye Peas–sing some Elvis.)

Thanks to YouTube and several fan sites, I’ve enjoyed rekindling some distant childhood memories that reminded me how I passed the time after a hard day in daycare and elementary school.

This sign is curious for several reasons. First, why bother listing the distance in feet. Second, if you are going to list the number of feet–get it right–a mile is 5,280 feet.  Research and proofreading must not be the street department’s speciality.

[Via @dlprager]

It is nice to see some creativity still exists in the been-there-done-that music video business.  This video takes a simple concept and executes it well.  Granted, there is nothing new about stop motion (Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” is perhaps the best known example), but I really like this execution.  Oh yea, and the music is okay too.

[Via Leo Laporte]

It seems that a Cincinnati station manager has a sense of humor. When it came time for a local TV station to switch to its new digital format and take a new call sign, they selected WKRP.  Granted, the classic 80s sitcom was situated in struggling radio station, but perhaps some baby boomer television mojo will rub off on this independent TV station.

[Via AP News]