My Dad in Time Magazine

A few weeks ago a reporter interviewed my ol’ pop about Fibrominn, a power generating plant that takes turkey droppings and turns them into BTUs. Well, the story is up and online. Check it out.

What’s wrong with Television networks

I’ve spent a lot of the last few days thinking about the whole structure of how television networks make decisions as to what will be on the air and what won’t be.

In the last few week we have seen the shows Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls and Jericho all canceled, two of them well before their time. Gilmore Girls came to an end at a time that worked, but it could have lived a few more years.

Now Veronica Mars, a show I love and Jericho, a show I have never really watched - died well before they deserved to die. I think I know the real reason they died. It’s the way television networks program their seasons in general.

Here’s the deal and I’ll generalize here, when the Fall season starts, you get a nice fresh look at shows - both new and old. They come on like a storm and run for a couple weeks. Then, maybe a month in the re-runs start up. Not the end of the world, after all the production cycle needs time to build up episodes to continue on.

Then it’s another month or two before more re-runs or at this point a show will hibernate for a couple months while the network tries out a crappy reality show that will get just enough viewers to guaranty profit. Of course this gives viewers of the original shows time to forget about them and move onto something else. By the time they return, the viewers are long gone and onto a different show that occupy the the time slot.

While a short break isn’t the end of the world for a show, a lengthy hiatus like the ones Veronica Mars (two months) and Jericho (a few months as well) encountered this season, there is no way viewers are coming back. Whatever momentum the shows had are gone.

Instead of setting shows up for this inevitable end, I think programmers should keep this thought in mind. Viewers aren’t stupid. They know when you don’t have faith in a show and they don’t want to end up latching onto something you’re going to shoot can anyway. They just don’t want to put up with it. Why watch something you’re not going to let find it’s natural end.

A better option to give shows a chance to flourish would be to let the Summer season fully develop and push the Fall season back. Split it 6 months even. Give producers the same amount of time to build their shows up, have enough episodes to run straight through the season with limited re-runs. Let the audience WATCH the shows. You have your web site to let people catch up on episodes the miss, or better yet, do what channels like Discovery do, play your shows a couple times throughout the week, that would free up some development cost and ensure you cash back into what you have.

People aren’t going to ONLY watch CBS or NBC or (and especially at this point) The CW all the time. You have my eyes for a couple hours a week and other networks have them for a couple hours a week.

I assert this will allow shows to find an audience faster and sustain them. You will get your return back because shows will have multiple time slots to play with - that way someone who watches The Office each week will have an equal time to watch Grey’s Anatomy or whatever CBS is trying to put up against those two awesome shows.

This would be a good way to tell your customers - we’ve got you in mind and I think will increase the quality of broadcast as we know it. No more throwing pasta against the wall and praying it sticks. Cook it till it’s done.

After all - Cheers, The X-Files and even The Office took their time to catch on. If you gave Veronica Mars an actual shot it would have taken off and if you gave Jericho a second time slot I would have watched it.

Good job TV executives. You showed just how little you know.

Yeah, so that happened!

To anyone who hasn’t seen the season finale of “The Office,” you might be best served by not reading this post.

OK, you’ve been warned. So basically, “The Office” is the best show on television right now. Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars are both gone and lets face it, the Simpsons lost steam years ago (but I still love it). The third season of “The Office” came to an end here a few hours ago and I just finished catching up thanks to TiVo.

Jim and Pam, the love story of the show, finally came to an amazing head - in a understated and beautiful way. With Jim asking Pam on a date.

I’ll expect anyone really interested in the details will watch the episode themselves and not bother reading this entire post, so I will just comment on what happened. Instead of a massive kiss or big proclamation that most would expect they did something amazing - the let it be real. Jim simply asked Pam out. To dinner. With a “sure” and a “it’s a date” the moment millions have been waiting for happened.

They’re apparently together. Now the show didn’t go any further into the details of their relationship, however the set up for next season will be interesting. The temp is Michael’s new boss and Karin apparently is going to come back (at least for a few episodes, the actress has a pilot that got picked up by FOX) so the summer is going to be a little longer than I wish it would be.

Watch the scene that we’ve all been waiting for!

Jenna Fischer (Pam) was recently injured in a fall, so everything else aside, I really hope she feels better - Office or no Office. Get well soon Jenna.

P.S. - I’m officially not watching the CW. Smallville and Supernatural work very well on DVD. You shouldn’t have canned Gilmore Girls or Veronica Mars CW. We’re through.

The return of the dotcom

I used to own the .com that went with the RJW3.com domain, but after moving to Dreamhost I lost it a few years ago. Every now and then some jerk would e-mail me asking if I wanted to buy it for $100, which of course I didn’t. Well the guy let it laps and I now own it at a MUCH lower price.

I’ll be remapping RJW3.com for a portfolio Web site I’ve wanted to make, keep an eye out for that in the future.

Now, Daysinblue (dotcom) is still owned by someone else, hopefully I can snatch that up in the near future and I’ll have all my URLs back.

Baby step towards HDTV

Let me start off by saying, I am somewhat of a home theater hobbiest. While I don’t have a high end set up, or even a big screen at the moment, I do have a subscription to Home Theater Magazine, accounts on both AVSForum.com and HomeTheaterForum.com.

Up until a few weeks ago I was going along happily with my standard definition Philips 27 inch CRT. Sure it wasn’t the best set out there, but it was mine. It fit into my set up nicely and displayed images wonderfully for what it was. While gaming one night the television suddenly turned off with a slight pop. Luckily (or so I thought) I was able to get the tube turned back on and the evening continued unaffected.

The day things got a little strange. After a long day at work I came home ready to pop a DVD into the old theater when I found the television had fallen silent. After a number of attempts to bring it back to the living (plugging in and unplugging really) it became evident the television was taking the eternal dirt nap as it were.

So here I am today, on the look out for a new television. Luckily I have some extra money, not a whole lot, but some to spend on a new television. With some other things going on this summer, the television budget is pretty tight, but I think I have found a good option.

I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Vizio, a small company that sells its budget displays in places like Walmart and Sam’s Club. While I was originally planning to avoid those outlets, I have to say the Vizios have caught my attention. With good reviews and recomendations from c|Net.com and a number of other places, I think I’m sold. Well at least sold enough to check it out.

I’m debating between the 32 inch and 37 inch. In reality I think I’ll be going with the 37 inch to play nicely in my home theater. Plus this gives me some future proofing.

A couple of things this set will allow me to invest in, in the future include a home theater computer (I’m going with a MacMini with a DVD burner) to host my music and download podcasts and work with my iPod. Also in the works will be an XBox 360 for a little Halo 3 action. And in the center will be a Series 3 TiVo to replace my current 80 hour single tuner series 2 TiVo. Of course that is all a little while down the line, I need the TV first.

I’ll also be looking at upgrading to some HD programing over the summer. I’ll keep you all posted on where things go with all this. Pictures will inevitably follow.

Rediscovering Travis

I started out this post as a way to talk about what the band Travis has meant to me over the years. I began writing about the history I have with these amazing four scouts, and I realized something - I can’t sum up that history very easily in a single blog post.

My connection to Travis is unlike anything else I’ve had in my life. While I wouldn’t call it life changing, I would say the band is actually a pretty big part of my life. From penning the song that would be my favorite song of my high school graduation profile to meeting and later getting to hang out backstage with them.

I have seen Travis in concert five times, one in-store session and backstage during a sound check.

I met a lot of friends through the bands online community, while I haven’t stayed in touch with many of them, the time I spent with those friends I will hold with me forever.

I’ve had my ups and downs with this band, no doubt. I was a little conflicted over their last album “12 Memories.” While I have no problem with bands going political in their music, I just felt they took it a little farther than they should have - almost loosing their way. The album had some shining moments though, and I continued to enjoy what they did.

My passion for those crazy Scottish troubadours returned this week. They released a new album called “The Boy With No Name,” named after drummer Neil Primrose’ child who went weeks without a name.

It’s a return to form for the band. With happy go lucky and down in the dump numbers floating in the air with a hint of classic rock raining down. It’s The Band meets the Beatles meets Travis. It’s wonderful, it’s classic, it’s Travis.

I posted the video for “Closer” a little earlier and I have to say, the song is really growing on me the more I listen to it. It’s a perfect pop song. A feel good love song to the world. God bless you Fran for this one.

At some point I will finish my thoughts, exploring exactly what Travis has done to my life, but I don’t think a single blog post can really tell the tale of 10 years. It just can’t be done. So instead, enjoy the new album.

Travis "Closer" video

Look for a familiar face in the mist of all this fun.

Blank slate

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy. I won’t go into details but work has been pretty crazy. I have a few things I will share in the near future, including music reviews (Travis’ new CD is amazing) and a new project I’ve teased in the past. Not sure where this will go, but I have some ideas.