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mashby

The personal blog of Michael Ashby

Tag / tv

Apple TV

Umm… What He Said

I’ve been a fan of the AppleTV since it debuted and I’m currently on my 3rd one. It’s a great device and one of the reasons we “cut the cord” – 99% of what we watch is done through it. That being said, it’s not a perfect device and there is plenty of room for […]

My New Favorite Show – “Modern Family”

A friend of mine recommended a new comedy from ABC called “Modern Family” and I think I owe him one. It’s cleverly written and VERY funny. It’s done in a hybrid classic sitcom/reality show style, kind of like “The Office”, but without the awkward moments. The actors are suppose to know the camera is there, […]

John Mese On “CSI” Tonight

John F**kin' MeseBe sure to tune your televisions to CBS this evening to watch “CSI“. My good buddy, John Mese will be appearing as Gordon Wallace in tonight’s episode Spellbound. I’ve seen a few previews for the show and you can clearly, albeit quickly, see John being interrogated. I don’t know if this means he’s playing the “bad guy” or not, but he’s sure to get plenty of face time, which is fantastic.

John’s been having a great run over the past year or so. He was on “Law and Order” in the episode Acid, which then lead to a role on “Bones” in The Superhero In The Alley. Before all that, he was on “Medium” in the episode Suspicions And Certainties, which was a brilliant role. It was very dark but VERY funny.

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Trading Spaces Behind the Scenes by Meredith Books

Trading SpacesTLC’s Trading Spaces is like crack to a new home owner – you watch the show once and you’re hooked. At least that’s how it happened to me. 🙂 One Saturday afternoon, I was scanning the television and stumbled upon the show and instantly fell in love. For those that haven’t seen the show, two sets of homeowners swamp houses and with the help of a designer do a two-day room re-design armed with only a $1000 budget. As you might imagine things can go wrong as the designers pull and tug the homeowners into doing sometimes outlandish things to their neighbors spaces. It’s a great show that can give you a lot of inspiration and ideas for your own home.

I was in Home Depot looking for a book on Tiling for a project I’m working on, when I stumbled upon “Trading Spaces Behind the Scenes” book. If you love the show, this book is for you. However, if you’re looking for Tips and Tricks, then keep looking because this book is more about the “behind the scenes” than anything else. In it, you’ll learn about how the show is put together from start to finish. There is a chapter dedicated to each member of the cast as well as a large glamour photo. Fans of Ty Pennington the hunky carpenter, won’t be disappointed.

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Oh My Virgin Ears!

Naked EyesLast night I was watching TV and a commercial for Hechts department store came on and to my horror the song used for the ad was ‘Always Something There To Remind Me‘ by Naked Eyes. :O They had changed the lyrics of the hook to ‘Always something there to excite me,’ but there was no mistaking the original song.

This isn’t the first time that a company has bastardized a popular song to peddle their products. I remember back in 1987 when Nike used a single version of “Revolution” as part of a $7 million campaign to sell Nike shoes. I remember thinking at the time that it was no big deal. It was a good song, but it wasn’t part of my cultural history, so I didn’t see the harm in it.

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Almost Normal

Well, things have almost returned to normal. I stopped for lunch about 4pm and I noticed that all the major networks were carrying the war now and even MTV was doing some limited coverage. Most of their coverage was of the protests in New York City, but at least their attention is now on what is happening.

Of course seeing reporters in Kuwait donning gas masks still adds a bit of surreal effect.

Totally Surreal Morning

TeletubbiesThis morning was totally surreal. I’m trying to get back to an early morning schedule, so I’ve begun waking up earlier and will keep pushing back the time I wake up until I reach 5am. A few years ago, I shifted my internal clock and was able to wake up at 5am every morning and believe it or not, it was a good experience. 🙂 However, it seems that in the “computer world” things tend to run late into the night and I’ve slipped back to my normal routine of staying up quite late.

So, here I am up at 6:00am and I go downstairs to do my AM Yoga. 20 minutes later, I rewind the video and turn on the TV – the war with Iraq has begun. I quickly absorb the news of what has happened thus far and am glad to hear that nothing severe has happened to our troops thus far. We’re in the early stages, but so far so good.

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