More Watchmen crack

they keep giving us just enough.
More crack please.

OK, here's a job handed to you

There's a listing for a TV hosting job. That's rare. But if you can cut an epk and do a standup then you are in luck.

Oh, but then there's this...


Oh, if you want to do this you can, but you don't have to...

It's about timing people...

Todd Levin observed:

I was watching a panel discussion about MLK's vision on CNN, featuring Cornell West, Al Sharpton and several black scholars. They were talking about Obama's responsibility in keeping the discussion of race alive. After a very animated and serious to-the-camera statement by Dr. West, they cut to directly a commercial for Sandals resorts, featuring a bunch of super-rich white people in beach chairs, being served drinks by Jamaican waiters.

The got the wrong guy

who's sponsoring inauguration of our next pres. A movie about a guy who fumbles at his job, until there's a task that makes him rise to the occasion and wins.

That might be the story of our last president... except in his story he chased the wrong bad guys. It's like if John McClane went after the terrorists in Die Hard 2 during Die Hard 1 and then taking credit for the Nakatomi Building not getting invaded again.

Anyway, it's a strange sponsor for such a great moment in history.

LA has one less station to play the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Radio Station "Indie 103.1" which went from punk to puke closed its doors and moved downtown to the internet.

The station started out as a college radio station for adults - but as the ratings dipped the station needed to tweak the format. They added more mainstream songs in with the cool obscure ones.

Over the years they added more and mo'. By the end they were a rip off of KIIS Fm which itself is a rip off of KROQ.

They also go t rid of some of their home grown talent. They replaced Joe Escalante in the morning with a guy who sounds like he does afternoons at KROQ and nights at KISS. And the great Liz Werner with her dry wit and personal touch was replaced with a more professional sounding woman that they called the "News Babe."

Now Indie is online. And not such a bad place to be for them. When you log on, you have to watch a TV ad before you can listen to their commercial radio station. Plus, you almost have to go to the website each time.

It does suck not having them in my car. But by end they just became like all the other LA radio stations:
Lots of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck, that Social D song and 311. Yes, we love our local heroes, but I can hear the same crap over and over again.


Ok, I'm old - but when is there going to be an 80's channel? Not just that Violent Femmes song and "Eye of the Tiger" over and over again, but a good mix of the crap we forced to listen as kids.

---OK--- They play too much Beastie Boys, but I can listen to that shit all night!

Gay Marriages in New York CIty!

HACK ALERT!

The old bank-robbery-gone-wrong-now-a-hostage-situation story line is back again. Jeez, we almost finished the year without another hacky premise. We came close when "Life on Mars" had a hostage situation in a hospital earlier this fall.
Some shows wait years before going there ("The Comish"), but "Leverage" on TNT only took 4 episodes before going there. I remember seeing Anthony Michael Hall being interviewed about the "Dead Zone's" bank story line. He said it was an homage to "Dog Day Afternoon." That is a great movie, but between the Al Pacino film and the USA network drama there were tons of "homages" to the movie. Making TDZ a rip off.


Mafia show "Line of Fire" decided that a bank robbery would be a good idea within the first 13 episodes of the show. It didn't last much longer than that.

This is a bad sign for "Leverage." Too bad. I like this show.

Latest Watchmen Trailer*

*Until the nest one.

Watchmen Exclusive

lies we tell each other to survive in LA

This week's column is an audio one. Since Rob Long of Martini shot decided to take on the subject this week, I thought he should do it.

Take it away Rob...

From Togas to Orange Jumpsuits

From the New York Times:
December 16, 2008
National Lampoon Chief Faces Charges
By RITA K. FARRELL

The chief executive of National Lampoon, Daniel S. Laikin, was charged on Monday with conspiracy and securities fraud in what prosecutors said was an attempt to raise the value of the company’s stock artificially.

The National Lampoon, a media company in Los Angeles with projects in feature films, television programming and interactive entertainment, owns interest in the movies “Animal House” and the “Vacation” series.

Mr. Laikin, who was arrested on Monday in Los Angeles, and five other defendants were indicted by a grand jury in Philadelphia.

Laurie Magid, acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said in a statement, “These schemes were designed to corrupt the market and reap large profits for these defendants at the expense of the average investor.”

Mr. Laikin was accused of promising kickbacks to a stock promoter to raise the value of National Lampoon’s stock.

The investigation was conducted by the Philadelphia offices of the F.B.I., the Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States attorney.

Prosecutors said a seventh defendant, the stock promoter Eduardo Rodriguez, 49, of Livingston, N.J., enlisted other promoters to use insider information provided by the companies and drive up the share price of National Lampoon and two other companies, the Advatech Corporation of Florida, and Swedish Vegas of California. Richard J. Margulies, the chief financial officer of Advatech, is a defendant.

The stock buys were made from March to June and timed to the release of public announcements to avoid suspicion. But a witness in Pennsylvania, not part of the government but using F.B.I. funds, exposed the plan after pretending to cooperate in raising National Lampoon’s stock to $2.50 to $5 a share, from $1.87 in mid-March.

Mr. Laikin, 46, controls about 40 percent of the company’s 8.9 million outstanding shares. Had the plan succeeded, the value of his stake could have increased by up to $15 million, Ms. Magid said.

An assistant United States attorney, Derek A. Cohen, who with Louis D. Lappen will prosecute the case in Philadelphia, said Mr. Laikin was working out the terms of his release.

Mr. Laikin’s assistant, Cora Victoriano, said the company had no immediate comment.

The S.E.C. also filed civil charges against the seven defendants. Daniel Hawke, director of the S.E.C.’s regional office in Philadelphia, said paying illicit kickbacks to arrange manipulative trades “is brazen misconduct and threatens to destroy any sense of fairness that investors expect in the financial markets.”

Mr. Hawke said that trading of National Lampoon shares was halted at 9:30 a.m. on Monday. Shares closed Friday at 73 cents on the American Stock Exchange.

Invest in this movie!*

Do you have lots of bail out money laying around just waiting for something to spend it on? Open up your check books. Here's the movie for you ...
According to their Youtube page they are looking for funding.


More from their page...
The first teaser for Iron Sky - the upcoming scifi comedy from the creators of Star Wreck.

Check out our website at http://www.ironsky.net/ and read more about the film - and how you can get involved in the production.

The film is in pre-production and thus the teaser does not contain any actual footage from the film. It is meant as a demonstration of the style and feeling of Iron Sky.

*or don't. It's none of my business. What do I know. Nothing.

CRACKATRON!

Crackatron, Episode 1

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