My Sick Mind

Geez, like I don't get enough of this crap on TV. I'm in the middle of talking to two hot girls, and Bloggus Interruptus pops up with the "Restart" window. Screw you, buddy - you're Blog Blocking, big time. If I wanted to re-start, I'd re-start. Then, I'm watching TV, and up comes the icon on the screen, telling me what's on next. I really don't care what's on next. I care about what's on now . Then, when the commercial break comes, they tell me what's on next - again. Not only do they have to hype up their next show, but they have to do it with moveable images that take up a quarter of the screen. Can I watch the show? Imagine you're reading a book [a stretch, I know for the TV types] and someone waves a piece of paper in your face and says, "Read this!" Would you be irritated that somebody interrupted your book? Sure, you would. So, why do we stand for it when we're watching television? They don't interrupt the ...

I know what you’re asking. What are Anthony’s favorite TV shows? I knew it. I used to watch more TV than I do now, which is ironic since I’m paying for it now, and I watched more when it was free. There’s so much crap and nonsense on TV that, frankly I’d rather be blogging. Here are some can’t miss shows: American Chopper – I was on this bandwagon from day one, but got a little burned-out on it last year. I took some time away and now that it’s on Hi-Def, the bickering is as clear as ever. I have a lot of respect for the Teutel’s and what they have accomplished, and even though I don’t ride a motorbike, the ones they build are amazing. They’ve gone from a little shop in Montgomery, NY to TV stars. They’ve built quite a little empire. My Name is Earl – Season three is coming, and I can feel the show slipping a little. I’m hoping they can inject some life into the plot line to keep me interested. I’m still with ya, though. The Office – I was late to the party with this one, ...

On occasion, television runs out of things to show us. It happens because there are more TV channels than ever - and more all the time - and less and less interesting stuff to show. So much so, that things like America's Funniest Home Videos is a long-running program. It's interesting, since the show's title proclaims what we are supposed to believe it is; funny, when in fact, it really isn't all that funny. What it is is people being hit in the crotch and falling off of things, jumping off of things and having their pants fall down. The word funny is in the title (well, Funniest actually) so it must be funny. Funniest. This week, in the doldrums of television that is the summer, baseball is holding its annual party that they call the All-Star break. It isn't a break, really, since there is a lot of baseball packed into those three days. The only break comes for the unlucky losers who aren't invited to the party. They get to spend three days at home with their...

A little known subset to the immensely popular Thursday Thirteen, I present the Saturday Six. Six Things That Control Your World, Over Which You Have No Influence 1. Big Oil - No kidding. Did you put gas in your car this summer? Since then, the price has dropped about a dollar a gallon and I haven't heard about any big new discoveries or any wide-scale drilling projects. Price manipulation. Ya think? Besides, so many things are made from petroleum , that to escape its influence would mean living in a cave - which would eliminate #2 and #3... 2. Television - Playoff and big-time sports start at ridiculous hours for those of us here in the Eastern time zone, advertising is invasive, we are persuaded to buy products we do not want or need and the cost of cable is outrageous. For those of us in restricted environments (condominiumns) who are stuck with either cable or rabbit ears, what else are we to do? 3. Microsoft - I'm trying to use my computer, but I cannot, because I have th...

The National Football League is moving closer to world domination every day. Forget about the crisis in the Middle East and the threat of terrorism, the real threat to our way of life is coming from the NFL. The top-rated TV show last week was Sunday night's Manning vs. Manning match-up on NBC, with 15,730,000 viewers nationwide. Seven of the top 20 programs last week were NFL games or pre-games. There is an entire network devoted to the games, called appropriately, the NFL Network . Hey, nobody said they were creative geniuses, just bent on world domination. There are games on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Thursday. This Thanksgiving there are 3 games on, instead of the usual 2, because you can't have a holiday without 24-hour football. Tuesday at 10am, the Philadelphia Eagles drove another nail into my cynical coffin. They placed on sale an additional 1,500 seats for each home game. Eagles games are sold-out, and season tickets are harder to come by than Elton John's girl...

There is a lot of junk on television. I'm not talking about the programs, although there are enough of them to qualify. The junk is the stuff going on around the programs - icons, crawls, shrunken screens - all sorts of things designed to distract us from the program and make us pay attention to what else is on, rather than what is on now. Several years ago, I purchased a 32-inch television to replace the 21-inch one that I had. Partly out of rebellion to a failed marriage, and partly because I wanted a bigger TV. (OK, mostly because I wanted a bigger TV) I could do what I wanted, and I wanted a big TV. Sure, it's not big by today's standards, but it was big then. Little did I know that the 32-inch screen would soon become 21 inches, with the advent of modern technology that does little but make me yearn for the good old days - not the married part - just the TV part. I'm trying to watch the news on CNN Headline News (the middle 'N' stands for News ) but ...