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TV’s Turd Blossoms

Admit it. There have been times when you’ve tuned into an episode of a particularly bad television show for no other reason than, shall we say, the “eye candy”. Maybe you even tuned in for an entire season or more just to catch a glimpse of that certain actor or actress that made your heart go pitter patter. So I’m happy to present a list of what I’m calling my top five “TV Turd Blossoms”. Even though the shows that starred them were veritable train wrecks, they all made us think twice about changing the channel, which I think, was the entire point of casting them.

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Playing In Hell

First there was Cooking Mama, and then my friend Dave Miller blogged about the upcoming Iron Chef game for the Nintendo Wii and DS. Now the genre comes to full circle thanks to the controversial but always entertaining Gordon Ramsay. His hit show Hell’s Kitchen, is being transformed into a digital arena where wannabe chefs can hone their culinary skills or face ultimate humiliation in the comfort of their own homes.

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Of Exocomps & Evangelion

Well, we’ve done it again. Blogger buddies Dave Caolo, Jen Segrest and myself were joined by the insightful Krystyn Heide to discuss reaction to episode 4.2 of Battlestar Galactica and the results were a full on geek fest. Topics of discussion this time range from Buffy and Babylon 5 all the way to The Next Generation, Evangelion and lobotomizing those poor little Cylon raiders. Episode 2 of Sci-Fi Cast clocks in at 23 minutes and is available as an enhanced podcast for your listening pleasure.

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For the Love of the Game

When was the last time you played a game of pinball? If you’re anything like me, it’s been years since you plunked quarters into one of those classic arcade contraptions. The plight of the pinball machine is one, that in today’s modern world, has grown more and more familiar. What once captured the money and imagination of players across the country, has become relegated to collector’s garages and played by a small group of enthusiasts who look back on pinball with fond memories through neon colored glasses. The story of pinball’s origins and how one company tried to re-invent it, is being told via a new documentary written, produced and directed by my friend and designer Greg Maletic.

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So Say We All

Speaking of podcasts, it seems I’ve taken my first steps into a larger world. Thanks to the group blog post regarding Battlestar Galactica, myself, Jen Segrest and Dave Caolo got together after the BSG season premiere and did a quick audio commentary of the episode. We’re not sure if it will turn into a regular thing just yet, but it sure was fun! The podcasts lasts a mere 13 minutes (ha!) as Dave, Jen and I discuss subjects including our picks of the final cylon models, connections to the original Battlestar Galactica, and Dave’s apparent fear of boxing and deep emotional turmoil.

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Podcast To Oblivion

Summary: The length of some audio podcasts are increasing at an alarming rate. Podcasters should learn to master the fine art of editing or risk losing large portions of their listening audience. I provide some helpful tips to help them avoid pitfalls and offer some anecdotal evidence on the subject.



Even if you read no further than the above summary, you’ll have a pretty good feel for what this post is about, where it’s going and what will be discussed. Unfortunately, this is more than I can say of many of today’s most popular audio podcasts.

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One-Way Street

Let me just say up front that the engineers, programmers and developers I work with are some of the most talented people in the industry. They manage to write software and code few others have the skill to create, and I am often in awe of their abilities. That being said, I’ve recently been reminded of an inequity between designers and programmers which I have to get off my chest.

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Betting On Baltar

If you’re a sci-fi fan then you probably know that this Friday, April 4th, marks the return of Battlestar Galactica on the Sci-Fi Channel. After almost an entire year on hiatus, fans everywhere are finally getting ready to embark on the final season of what some have called the best science fiction show on TV. Of course, the main puzzle on every geek’s mind is who will turn out to be the final 12th cylon model. Over the last four years I’ve wavered on who was and who wasn’t a Cylon, but one name keeps coming back to me – Gaius Baltar. I know you’re thinking that he’s too obvious a choice to be the 12th Cylon, but deep down it makes perfect sense, and here’s why:

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Greensboro’s Restaurant Graveyard

If there is a truism about living in the Triad, it is this: people here love to eat out. More than any place I’ve lived, the residents of Greensboro enjoy dining out. A lot. Ask anyone who’s tried to get a table here after 6 pm and they’ll most likely tell you they had to wait. Yet despite all this, the place is littered with the corpses of eateries that for one reason or another, couldn’t take the heat. Some of these fine establishments were ahead of their time, others suffered from poor location, but a few died sudden and mysterious deaths. This post is dedicated to these wonderful joints, that for whatever reason, went the way of the dodo.

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George W. Bush’s Blue Thumb

For the last several months there have been warning signs that November is going to be bad for the GOP. Throughout the primary season, Democratic candidates have been enjoying record press coverage, record fundraising and record turnout. Now there is even more bad news for the GOP in the form of a newly released Pew poll. According to Pew “The balance of party identification in the American electorate now favors the Democratic Party by a decidedly larger margin than in either of the two previous presidential election cycles.”

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Design Disconnects

This week I was confronted by no less than two glaring examples of poor or lazy design that I just had to share with you. I think they really illustrate how important our job is as communicators and how easily information can be miss-conveyed when designers don’t do their jobs well.

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Fox’s Big Giant Head Goes Buh-bye

Sadly no, not that big giant head. I’m talking about the other one that goes by the name of John Gibson and who used (note the past tense) to host the conservative opinion show The Big Story on Fox News. Seems as though Gibson’s ratings have been in the tank for quite some time and Fox has finally decided to “re-tool” the time slot with America’s Election HQ instead. Just in case you don’t keep up with Fox, Gibson was the ego-centric, factually challenged, racist host who helped spawn the whole “War on Christmas” fantasy that has boosted Bill O’Reilly’s declining ratings these last few years. Here are some of the other winning moments from John Gibson’s all-too-long stint at The Big Story:

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AAPL’s SDKmarks

Despite the long-awaited release of the iPhone SDK yesterday Wall Street in their usual “wisdom” decided to punish Apple stock. Despite all the incredible news about iPhone for Enterprise, the immediate availability of the beta, the iFund, and even the game-changing nature of the event itself, AAPL managed to lose $3.41 on the day. Here’s how I think it all went down:

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Futurama’s Future

Good news everyone! Amazon.com has posted the release date for the second direct to DVD installment of Futurama. The Beast With A Billion Backs will be available starting June 24th and is now available for pre-order. According to Wikipedia, this second of four movies will feature the voices of Brittany Murphy, Dan Castellaneta reprising his role as the Robot Devil, and a personal favorite of mine, Professor Stephen Hawking.

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Bite Me!

News out of Hollywood today that Kate Beckinsale won’t be returning to star in the next Underworld film. I think I speak for all the geeks out there when I say, “Come on Kate, hit just one more for the team!”. I’m not ashamed to admit the only reason why I eventually watched Underworld: Evolution was because of you-know-who.

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