Old TV nostalgia...

[VIDEO] Last night before I went to bed for some reason my interest led to me the old sitcom Roseanne. Then it hits me how much TV I watched with my mother. Roseanne was one of her favorite programs.

Then I remembered other series that she liked such as Hill Street Blues, LA Law, Cagney & Lacey, Simon & Simon, Golden Girls or even M*A*S*H. SO basically TV series of the 1980s and early 1990s. Well by the time I became aware of M*A*S*H it was the 1990s and in reruns.

Ah, M*A*S*H...well some of the series listed above I'm not sure you can count me as a fan. Been years since I've ever seen Roseanne aside from the intro you see above. Also been years since I've seen M*A*S*H, and that's a show that over the years I've often seen in reruns over and over again.

Funny thing is that I've essentially became a fan of the movie MASH which in some respects the TV series of the same name was based - actually both were based on a novel. My mother unfortunately would say she hasn't been able to get into the movie and likely remains a fan of the series.

Either way this posting is one of nostalgia. The shows of the past that we now see in reruns were once popular and enjoyed long runs when they originally aired. Now it's like where has these shows been?

Early in the last decade some of these shows I became a fan of because they were rerun on some of these cable networks especially LA Law. Dallas - another of my mother's favorites programs - I became a fan of because reruns once aired on the network that ultimately became Spike.

Even though there's some good TV on today - save at least for any "reality" based programming. Now I miss the shows that sort of made up my childhood and at least before I started taking command of the remote. Although some of those shows were very adult for me it hits me that it's been years since I've actually seen them on TV.

Out of hibernation...

[VIDEO] Well we finally have our warm temps here in Chicago and artistmac talks about that. The snow that fell on Super Bowl Sunday this year is finally melting. Hopefully the cold temps that kept our young people out of school for at least 4 days within the past two months are nothing more than a memory.

Even better daylight savings time has passed as of this Saturday and then in the next week or so the first day of spring. It seems we've had a miserable winter this year and the end is only around the corner!

#Selma 50 years later

From @jeffmason1: The Obama family and Bush family join marchers to cross Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge. pic.twitter.com/NuMMx4F3XS
— WSB-TV (@wsbtv) March 7, 2015

Over the weekend there was a lot of news out of Selma, Alabama commemorating a famous civil rights march that started in that town (which also spawned a major motion picture based on those events 50 years ago). The bridge that was largely a symbolic epicenter of that event was host to a 50 year anniversary march which featured two Presidents of the United States.

I got to find out why former President George W. Bush decided to make his way to Selma with his wife Laura Bush. It certainly was a cool gesture as I truly believe the fight for civil rights back in the 1960s or even today is a just bipartisan cause.

Partisanship with civil rights in my mind has no standing in the demonstrations of 50 to 60 years ago. A segment of the population back then were being denied their rights and it was unacceptable. Most people who saw how civil rights activists were treated on their TV screens back then realized the same thing, hopefully.

So I've been seeing complaints that President Bush had been cropped out of the pic with President Obama. The uncropped pic you see above and the cropped pic you may have seen via the NY Times.

Now I'm not going to add onto the speculation to why this occurred. The question is was it partisan. If it was then I would say petty because I truly believe civil rights was right regardless of any political leanings. So if this was merely partisan then the cropping was certainly petty. Although the photograph claims this hadn't been intentional at all.

I recognize that many may not like President Bush whose administration lasted from 2001 to 2009 mainly because of his execution of the War on Terror. At the same time a Republican former president and a sitting Democrat president - who also happens to be Black - marching at a commemoration of a 50 year old event should be good press. It only shows that no one party or ideology can say they are the party of civil rights.

#RIPNimoy

Via Star Trek fb

Leonard Nimoy who is most famous for playing the half-human and half-vulcan Mr. Spock on the 1960s Star Trek series has passed away. Apparenly he succumbed to late stage Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

While he was most famous as a result of Star Trek, he had been acting on TV for many years having been seen on this Chicago set 1950s TV series M Squad, the classic Twilight Zone and he also starred on Mission: Impossible. He had been retired from acting for many years until having appeared the JJ Abrams rebooted Star Trek films in 2009 and 2013.

I'm so tempted to find Mr. Spock's first actual appearance on film. Star Trek was born from two pilots one of which was rejected by NBC. This pilot is one that until much later Trek fans finally had a chance to watch in syndication. Although clips of that rejected pilot was seen in a first season episode called "The Managerie".

[VIDEO] In this clip Spock says nothing he only touches those blue petals of those flowers and smiles at his then Captain Christopher Pike on this strange planet they were exploring. Since this was from the pilot the general expectations that Vulcans share no emotion hadn't been established.

Well at least there are many episodes and movies of Star Trek to remember him by and we do have the new movies as well. Alas he won't repeat his performance as Spock in the third movie expected to come out next year. 2016 will be the 50th anniversary of Star Trek.

May he rest in peace.

Is blogging dead?

I've been beginning to wonder. Years ago people in the mainstream media were talking about blogs, now it's about YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram or even Facebook.

To be sure as much as I've taken to writing 140 characters, nothing will beat good writing. You can't do that in 140 and at that it has to be very interesting.

No one pays attention to a YouTube channel that doesn't have interesting content. I began to realize that there is a science to being a viral YouTube sensation. It's either intentional or unintentional and for the most part something viral just happens can't script it nor plan it.

Although I just recently started a FB account to attach to this blog, there's a lot of FB status I wouldn't want to share and hadn't for a long time. It's also cool to share photo albums and such from FB. But who would want to read a long status.

Remember TL;DR? LOL

Anyway, perhaps it's good that blogging has had it's heyday. This just means that the ones with something to say and hopefully the truly good writers will get the attention it deserves. Everyone else can flood FB, Twitter, Instagram and these other sites that are out there.

Besides all these other social media sites can be utilized effectively especially if you do utilize a blog.

Sometimes I miss things like this on Twitter

So our new Governor hasn't been in office for almost two weeks and he's showing us his road trip to Springfield. Of course he made some stops along the way especially seeing some state troopers and a quick stop for his dogs and some Micky D's. And you would think he's driving in a fancy luxury car right?

Well this tweet is from one of the governor's staffers.

This is happening... #rollingtrashcan pic.twitter.com/mYmBbH04mm
— LTrover (@LTrover) January 24, 2015

The last time I saw that vehicle it took him to the south side to make a deposit at a neighborhood credit union. So if it got to the south side safe and sound as a candidate for Governor, it could get him to Springfield our state capitol.

At least we can say this for Gov. Rauner, at least he forgo a trip on a state aircraft as one of his predecessors Rod Blagojevich had. And for good measure he came home to the executive mansion in Sprinfield as well.

Stella pumpkin and I made to the mansion! What's a fun ride. Glad to be home pic.twitter.com/M9oXKKYvws
— Bruce Rauner (@GovRauner) January 24, 2015

Here's hoping this is what we can look forward to the next four years. A traveling Governor showing us around the great state we call Chicago...I mean Illinois.

BTW, hopefully I can catch this stuff on Twitter when I see it. :P

I've decided Friday night is wrestling night

[VIDEO] Who knows how long I'll keep this up. From time to time I have been a huge wrestling fan as I have watched different types of wrestling on TV. Mostly WWF, WCW or even ECW and there used to be wrestling on ESPN during the weekday afternoons and would watch when I get home from school.

So tonight I observe the late ECW and not the version WWF aired on the SyFy network until 2010. The original ECW started in the early 1990s as Eastern Championship Wrestling and then after Shane Douglas threw down the NWA world title the E in ECW went from Eastern to Extreme. From that point forward ECW became a hardcore promotion.

For the most part I only got to know ECW from the summer of 1998 airing on our local channels 62 and 26 (the U) until it's eventual demise in 2001. It was something different from what I could see on WWF or WCW. ECW programming tended to be bloody and violent and the fans had a thirst for it.

Fans of Jerry Springer would change Jerry after something extreme happened on the show. Fans of ECW would chant ECW after something extreme happened. It wasn't hard to get caught up in the actions.

Tonight, I want to share a piece of ECW. It's a match I never had a chance to watch. The Sandman vs. Mick Foley in a barbed wire match. Sandman would be the equivalent of Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin or Rick Flair or Sting. The difference is probably only real wrestling fans know Sandman and I'm not sure Sandman is really capitalizing on his status as an Extreme Icon.

While it seems ECW survived on nationwide syndication on local TV stations, they did ink a nation TV deal. Spike TV used to be TNN - or The Nashville Network - and ECW's deal with TNN lasted close to a year. Unfortunately near the end of 2000 WWE moved to TNN - which eventually became The National Network - and ECW was back to syndication.

I miss ECW, and unfortunately had very little time to really get to know that product. If I understand correctly the company ran into money issues and ultimately WWE bought the brand and even had a TV show to reignite the brand. Now ECW is a legend in a business that it seemed to have helped revive during the 1990s.

One can only wonder if there will be another company to come along and re-invent professional wrestling. Time will tell.

BTW, as a side note I had no idea he was being walked to the ring by a performer who's often been known as Woman aka Nancy Benoit. ECW seemed to be a seed for talent to both WWF and WCW over the years and Woman was no different. Unfortunately Woman was murdered by her husband WWE superstar Chris Benoit in a murder-suicide. So for those who know about very tragic incident there is some sadness for sure.