Meant to post this Monday
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Just wanted to share a couple of odds and ends with you that I caught late Sunday over at DCRTV, http://dcrtv.com/ , a go-to media website and connect them to some local issues of interest to me.
DCRTV's a website that I've been going to for years since I lived in the DC area, and eventually got fed-up with the whitewash and company line I saw too often in the Washington Post's coverage of news about DC-area TV and radio stations and their personalities.
They still cover that in a way that's long been missing at both the Herald and the Sun-Sentinel, though I'm old enough to remember when the Herald did a pretty decent job of that, back when it seemed like every other week something crazy was happening at WNWS, with Neil Rogers, Al Rantel, Stan Majors, et al, when there was local radio talk that was a worth listening to.
But then South Beach Hoosier still recalls how great Neil Rogers was doing play-by-play for U-M baseball games, so...
Owing largely to DC's much-larger media universe, it necessarily is better plugged- in to the industry and has more influence up there than locally-based http://www.sfltv.com/ down here, though I still go to the latter a few times a week, and have listed them on my blogroll from Day One.
In fact, it's there that I first learned that IU alum and then-Local10 meteorologist Megan Glaros was heading up to Nueva York.
It's also where I first learned yesterday morning about Post-Newsweek buying local NBC-6 -WTVJ, to create yet another duopoly in this media market.
I'll have a post on that story tomorrow as I really thought that the Tribune Company was a more likely buyer for the NBC affiliate. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/605477.html
Please read the first link below from the Washington Post, as it presages exactly the sort of embarrassing future Marlin headlines I think it's quite likely we'll see in the Herald, if this disastrous Megaplan goes through, as the Washington Nationals' owner is currently not paying the team's rent in DC due to problems with the stadium.
Not surprisingly, the City of Washington is not amused!
And did you catch this delicious nugget in Barry Jackson's Sunday Herald column? http://www.miamiherald.com/592/story/602626.html
Apparently the Marlins were trying to change the terms of their $38.5 million loan from MLB, but the suits up at Park Avenue weren't buying Jeffrey Loria's lame excuses.
They want their money back.
Well, to paraphrase what Popeye's popular side-kick Wimpy (J. Wellington Wimpy) often said, Jeffrey Loria & Co."would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."
The difference is that Loria wants to use our wallets to do it!
See this great illustration of Wimpy and the whole gang at a very interesting flower blog called the Human Flower Project: Sweet Pea - ‘Adoptid infink’
Sweet Pea on Popeye’s lap, with Wimpy and Olive Oyl Image: Myron Waldman, King Features
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from http://www.dcrtv.com/
More: Baseball A Bust In DC - 7/11 - Now, on top of news that the team's delivering lower-than-low TV ratings, we learn that the Washington Nationals' owners - the family of Bethesda-based developer Theodore Lerner - have failed to pay $3.5 million in rent for the District's new ballpark, contending that the state-of-the-art stadium is still incomplete. DC paid more than $611 million in public money to build the stadium complex along the Anacostia River. More in the DC Post.....
Nats' Fans May Boycott Post - 7/11 - Some Nationals fans are not happy with the Washington Post's coverage of the team. And are floating the idea of boycotting the Post's Nats coverage in favor of the Washington Times' Nats coverage. Dan Steinberg has more at washingtonpost.com.....
(It's all at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071002731.html?hpid=topnews )
Nationals Withhold Rent on Ballpark, Hundreds of Items Are Incomplete,Team Owners Say
By Daniel LeDuc and David Nakamura. Washington Post Staff Writers, July 11, 2008)
Williams: Bad Baseball Cause Of Nats' TV Slump - 7/14 -In the Examiner, Jim Williams looks at the ultra-low TV ratings for the Nationals: "The team isn't playing well and there just not seem to enough compelling storylines. Add to that the area is not yet used to following the Nationals... I think that it is unfair to blame MASN for the low numbers. I have heard the absurd argument that because the Nationals and the Orioles alternate between MASN and MASN2 fans can't always find the games. If you can find NBA basketball on CSN, TNT, ESPN, ABC, and even NBA-TV then you should be able to find the Nationals games".....
http://www.southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/
Monday, July 14, 2008
On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever...
le 14 de juillet 2008
Happy Bastille Day!
Happy Bastille Day!
"On a clear day, you can see forever..."
True enough from atop La Tour Eiffel en Paris, http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/ and especially in one of my all-time favorite films, 1956's Funny Face, strarring Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson (See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050419/ for info and http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3499137024/tt0050419 for great photo!)
But as this delicious and interesting post Thursday by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Anthony Man on their Broward Politics blog makes clear below, it's also true from atop Broward County Govt.'s HQ at 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale.
From interim County Administrator Bertha Henry's office, it's apparently nothing but blue skies -and green lights!
This attitude certainly explains a lot around here!
With friends like this...
I'd planned on being there Friday, taking some notes and photos for les blogs, but something came up. Given what happened with the delay, I lucked out.
Happy Bastille Day!
Apropos of the French holiday today, over the weekend on FOX Movie Channel, I finally saw the non-musical 1952 film version of Les Misérables, starring Michael Rennie as Jean Valjean and Robert Newton as Inspector Javert. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044907/
Por aujourd'hui, I'm going under my nom de guerre, Laurent.
"On a clear day, you can see forever..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rSA0Va-xTQ Barbra Streisand at her best!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066181/
La Babs est magnifique!!!
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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
July 10, 2008
Something to think about when you're stuck at a traffic light in Broward County: the government believes the signals are timed
Posted by Anthony Man at 10:15 AM
Broward County has a $3.5 billion annual budget. But it hasn't come up with the dough to synchronize the traffic lights, so taxpayers can save time, gasoline, and wear and tear on their cars.
The reason, perhaps, is that at the top of Broward government, it isn't seen as an issue.
The view from county government headquarters is that the lights are synchronized.
It just doesn't seem that way to drivers who travel at the speed limit along many major streets and get stuck at light after light even when there is hardly any other traffic around.
To see the rest of the post, see: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2008/07/something_to_think_about_when.html#more