Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Harwell

Ugh. No Major League Baseball tonight. A night like this makes me long for last summer, when I could fall back on the John McEnroe show.

If you read nothing more about the All-Star Game and its broadcast, read this. You'll have to flip past a 10 sec ad about an idiot with a bowtie, but it's worth it.

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Censorship watch: Willie Nelson's new reggae album, "Countryman," was released Tuesday. The record company, Universal Music Group Nashville, is releasing it with two different album covers. A primary one with a green marijuana leaf on the cover, and one with a palm tree. The latter is being issued so that the album can be sold nationally in Wal-Mart stores. Says Nelson, "They're covering all the bases." The album's contents remain unchanged. Here are the two covers.

Censorship watch 2: An intriguing new documentary called "The Aristocrats," which goes national August 12th, will not be exhibited by AMC Theaters, the nation's soon-to-be second largest theater chain. The unrated film chronicles the history of "the dirtiest joke ever told," and features multiple tellings of the vaudeville-era joke, from such disparate artists as Robin Williams, Sarah Silverman, and Bob Saget. An AMC spokeswoman explained that when a film is unrated, the company's policy is to send the film up to its corporate office. In this case, she said, the chairman of the company made a business decision not to play the film. (AMC owns 3,500 screens.)
The film's distributor, ThinkFilm, calls the move censorship and says AMC reneged on its initial obligations. "The Aristocrats" is directed by stand-up comedian and former "Northern Exposure" star Paul Provenza, and is produced by Provenza and magician/comedian Penn Jillette. It contains no violence or nudity.

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The Emmy nominations will be announced early Thursday morning. We're rooting for "Arrested Development" and "Deadwood."

6 Comments:

At 8:15 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have never heard Ernie Harwell broadcast a game, but I know the name and I know he is a HOFer and a legend. I thought it was sickening the way they cut him off after they had asked him to say something. He, in his great radio way, was painting a picture of a great player. He was telling a story in the way few others can (Vin Scully comes to mind). The second they interrupted him so they could do something else I said "that's just stupid". When you have a person like that talking, you don't interrupt, you just sit there and enjoy the moment.

 
At 11:35 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Thank God someone has their eye on ol' Willie. I can't believe he almost got away with having a picture of a plant on his CD, especially one with proven medicinal benefits.

I could understand it if it was a picture of a more dangerous plant like a Venus Flytrap. As plants go, those seem kind of violent. Or if it was a cactus, since they're prickly and you wouldn't want to sit on one.

 
At 3:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

When I download it off the internet how will I know whether I got the palm tree or the marijuana version?

 
At 6:46 PM, Blogger CM said...

I wonder what they would do if someone put a picture of a can of spray paint on their album.


It's hysterical that Harwell only got 17 seconds, and he still slipped in so much information.
I remember when FOX got the baseball broadcast rights in 1994. They made a public statement that their games would be for a new generation of baseball fans, and their broadcasters would not be allowed to mention a dead player on the air. I'm not kidding. This lasted only a matter of weeks until Matt Williams, Ken Griffey, Jr., and others began seriously chasing Roger Maris' home run record.

 
At 9:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

CM,

Did I tell you about our JEL posters that included a picture of a can of spray paint sitting next to the wet looking word "Unfiltered" (the title of this year's summit)? We got scolded by the anti-huffing nazis at the Public Health building for using it. Some of the schools even refused to hang the posters. This was a poster promoting anti-tobacco for christ sakes!

 
At 9:37 PM, Blogger CM said...

And the Jews will probably be pissed that you're calling the anti-huffers Nazis (like that guy on Curb Your Enthusiasm who confronted Larry about playing Wagner.) But I say, Right on! You know you've stumbled onto something powerful when the poster illicits that kind of reaction. I like the Marlboro man who says, "I miss my lung."

 

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