Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

So I guess there's a new cop show coming on TV called Battle Creek. No surprise that WWMT-TV -- which is a CBS affiliate, and is based in Kalamazoo, covering West Michigan including Battle Creek MI -- is all over flogging this new show. They're sponsoring a premiere at a movie theatre in the next week and the show itself airs starting Sunday March 1st. I guess the producers of Battle Creek also did some TV show called Breaking Bad, which a few of you might have seen.

Tonight on the 11pm News they were showing interviews they did with with the cast out in the field, literally, as in the set was in a cornfield outdoors. Now, it's February and here in West Michigan there's snow, temps are down near zero and falling, with windchills going down to -25°F. The corn here, including the field corn, is long harvested. So either they filmed this back in the fall and have been sitting on the footage until now or, horror of horrors, maybe they aren't filming Battle Creek in Battle Creek.

Asked and answered -- the corn field is on a back lot in L.A. What a surprise. They have to be careful not to show buildings, palm trees or the myriad planes flying in and out of LAX. But they have a nice looking John Deere green tractor. I understand they came by Battle Creek with the cast and all back in the summer to look around and hang out with the Battle Creek police.

Oh gosh, is that the Allstate Mayhem guy? It is. Dean Winters. Never knew his name, but we recognized him because the interview on the set had him all beat up -- just like the Mayhem guy. We loved the Mayhem commercials.

And Kal Penn is in the series. He's been on House, the Harold & Kumar movies which we haven't seen -- and he took time out from Hollywood and served in the Obama Administration as Associate Director of Public Engagement. (At first we were trying to remember if Penn had a Michigan connection, thinking maybe he'd been in the locally done 2011 movie 30 Minutes or Less, but that was Aziz Ansari. No, not going there with the "they all look the same" crack -- we're just bad with names.)

Maybe, we'll have to tune in.

Even though Battle Creek isn't actually filmed in Battle Creek.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

The West Wing just showed up on Netflix streaming.

Yay!

Of course, between everybody being at home on Christmas and everyone using Netflix, no doubt, we've run into buffering issues halfway through Series 1 Episode 1: Pilot.

... and we're back on. 'Bye!

Dr. Phil

Weather Here

Temps still peaking in the mid-90s. We had a chance of thunderstorms and rain in the last 24 hours, but it didn't work here in Allendale. There was lightning when I went to bed at 4am -- no rain. And a big peal of thunder at 9am -- no rain. But it's "abnormally dry" right now. One stage below a drought, I gather.

Weather There

Hard to believe what's been going elsewhere in the U.S. Named storm Debby drenched Florida. But massive fires in Colorado, Utah and elsewhere. I've never had so many online friends having to pack up and evacuate or have their gear ready to go. Fire is a terrifying event and even when it's not right up on you, the smoke can be overpowering.

Then there was the derecho. Last week we were supposed to get hit by a line of thunderstorms, but they tracked south of us and only the counties by the Indiana border looked to be getting any of it. Then came the reports that an intense straight line wind storm called a derecho blasted 700 miles from Indiana to the East Coast. I've run into derechos a couple of times. Once in Medina NY as a little boy, trying to walk home into a 60mph wind. Here in West Michigan, we've gotten 60-70mph continuous winds a number of times. It's why the new roof we put on the other year has hurricane rated shingles.



So the storm hits June 29th and millions of people are without power. Most of Ohio is out of power. And they're sweltering in high heat and humidity. And... I've a number of friends who are looking at power restoration dates of the sixth or seventh. Over a week. Strange how hard it is to get knocked out of the 21st century at home -- it's why we have a 12kW automatic backup generator -- and yet I'm hearing about this because there are pockets of power and Internet.

Excitements On TV

It's the beginning of July and that means it's the Tour of France. The rerun of Stage 3's finish in on right now.

And as Le Tour de France was beginning, last weekend NBC was showing the last part of the a series of races connected with next year's America's Cup. At first I was disappointed with the new AC class boats, as they're doing catamarans again. But gosh, the technology of showing yacht racing has gotten even better than before, between the projected lines where you can actually see who is really ahead to the cameras on the boats themselves.

I'm in no physical shape to do bike racing, yacht racing or Olympic events, but I surely enjoy seeing those who can.

The Avengers 2D [PG-13]

Celebration North Theatre #15, 3:00pm

Of course I saw The Avengers in 3D (DW) back on 11 May, but Mrs. Dr. Phil was off in Nicaragua at the time.

Very enjoyable the second time around. Works well in both 2D and 3D. Cast is terrific, Joss Whedon actually wrote dialogue. This is, so far, the class act in summer adventure movies. Do stay to the very end of the credits in order to see both Dr. Phil Specials. (grin)

Highly Recommended

TRAILERS: Mostly things we've seen before. New trailers for the new Spiderman and Batman movies. I will say that this may be the first time I've seen the Frankenwienie trailer in 2D and not 3D. Though the 3D work is quite good, should you be inclined to see that movie, you might want to do it in 2D, because the artwork is dark and much more visible in 2D. Just saying. And for years it's been something of a joke about movies based on video games sucking. Well, Wreck-It Ralph about a bad guy in an old video game who is tired of being the bad guy, may finally be able to make a great video game movie actually about a video game. Think Monsters, Inc. but for the 8-bit crowd. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Holmes At Large

Ah, Sherlock Holmes. While in grad school, I had a one-volume complete set of all of the real Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and read them all during lunch one summer. Basil Rathbone. Jeremy Brett. Robert Downey, Jr. (DW)

I love them all.

Sherlock 2.2

It's the first Sunday in May 2012 and that means that PBS' Masterpiece Mystery starts showing the second season of the marvelous Sherlock with "A Scandal in Belgravia". One of the things I love about the BBC 21st century reboot of Holmes is how they don't feel obligated to do exactly the same thing, but to re-imagine it as needed. Watson blogs. Cars and planes figure in prominently. Holmes is glued to his cellphone.

But of course some things stay the same. If you have Holmes and Watson and the older smarter brother Mycroft, why then you have to have Irene Adler. The Woman. Is this the love of his life? Or just his favorite challenge? Who knows?

This Irene Adler is, presumably among other talents, a dominatrix. Knowing that Holmes is coming to see her, she takes care to prepare herself -- and shows up naked. We can see that Holmes is stumped -- the hypertext clue system turns up just "????". He can immediately get a number of clues off of Watson, but nothing from Adler.

Watching Irene and Sherlock sparring is totally brilliant.

This may be my favorite episode to date. There are so many mysteries, large and small, which at first blush have no connection to each other, but are so expertly woven together that it almost hurts. And the very last bit in Pakistan... ah-hhh.

My mother commented that this Holmes is gorgeous, whereas Holmes is usually not. Perhaps, but it is of no interest to Holmes and he wears it to no advantage.

Mrs. Dr. Phil was annoyed to find that she would be in Nicaragua when Sherlock restarted. I did tape it. You're welcome.

They cannot do enough episodes of this show. But we'll take what few they offer. And Benedict Cumberbatch? He's Smaug in The Hobbit and Khan in the next Star Trek reboot movie, just to mention two upcoming roles. And on NPR, he revealed nothing about the latter.

Elementarially brilliant. (grin)

Dr. Phil

SUPER SUNDAY

So the Super Bowl is on. Patriots leading 10-9 at the half. I suppose Madonna is just about finishing her halftime show. But at 8 o'clock we switched over to PBS to watch a locally produced GVSU documentary Up From The Bottoms: The Search For The American Dream on the black migration from the South to Muskegon MI, here in West Michigan. GVSU's Community Read book for 2012 is The Warmth of Other Suns, which sounds like an SF novel, but is also about the black migration from the South.

But we're not watching this on channel 12. We've got it on DT35.1. Back in the beginning of January, we bought a "giant" 7" HDTV (DW) for the kitchen. Who knew that before the month was out we'd be buying another TV.

Mrs. Dr. Phil and I got our first color TV in 1985 or '86, when the cable expanded in Laurium and they announced we were going to get WGN-Chicago. In those days that meant every Cubs game -- and all the Wrigley Field games were in daylight. So we trucked off to American in Marquette, a hundred miles each way, just as everyone did in that part of the U.P. I'd always said that if I was going to buy a color TV I'd spring for the Sony Trinitron. Which we did. But not having much money, we bought the 13" TV. I think our B&W TVs were 12" and 14" at the time. We also bought a decent but cheap Sanyo VHS VCR so we could timeshift the Cubs games.

Nine Years Ago...

... just about exactly, on 11 January 2003, we had to go to Circuit City in Holland and get a new TV. The 13" still worked, when connected to the VCR, but its tuner was shot, which meant there were cable channels we couldn't get. We looked at the 14" Sony flat face WEGA Trinitron, but Mrs. Dr. Phil pointed out that our eyes weren't getting any younger, so we brought home the 20". 54 pounds and with off-center handles on the carton so it balanced beautifully for carrying.

When HDTV rolled out nationwide, we didn't have to convert because our cable continued to offer analog signals. But over the years they borrowed a couple of analog channels for digital channels. And the networks kept reducing the size of text so it wouldn't scream like a billboard on a 54" TV. Sigh. And we still weren't getting any younger.

Let's Not Burn The House Down

When we came back from North Carolina in December, we noticed that the 20" was having problems with colors from time to time, then would clear up. But last weekend it started behaving badly -- the picture would go out for a few seconds then there'd be a buzz and a click and it'd be back. So last Sunday I drove off to Best Buy after doing some research.

I wanted another Sony, so it'd work seamlessly with the pair of Sony remotes we already have, without finding the codes for another brand. A year ago we could've gotten a 22" Sony, but they've stopped selling "small" TVs. Smallest Sony we could get was a 32" 720p LCD Sony Bravia. They had one in the box in stock, as everyone else was there to buy their Super Bowl pary showpiece. Always hard to judge sizes in a TV department, but walking next to a wall of 44" and 54" HDTVs all showing the same panning golf shot is something of a vertigo inducing experience.

True to the comments I found online, it took longer to disconnect the 20" Sony and move its 54 pound bulk, than to set up the 28 lb. 32" Sony. Given that the speakers on the 20" were on the sides, the 32" isn't that much wider. And in analog mode, the picture wasn't that much bigger than the 20", though it was sharper.

But this weekend I began picking out the HDTV channels, so we get the full 32" in 720p for the local channels. Including PBS -- and that Super Bowl.

Ah, New England leading 17-15 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Kitchen Convenience

When we moved to the U.P. in January 1984, we hooked up our old B&W TV to cable. Turns out Calumet-Laurium had a very early CATV (Community Antenna Television) system -- in 1984 we got 12 channels. The next year the cable expanded and one of the new stations was going to be WGN out of Chicago.

Cubs! WGN was still showing every Cubs game, so this meant a trip to American on Marquette to get a Sony 13" color TV and a VCR. (grin)

That was fine for the living room, but our funny little old ex-mining company rental house had an oddly shaped kitchen -- completely out of sight of the living room. So at K-Mart, one day, we found a tiny cube of a 4.5" B&W TV, which I was able to hook up to the cable with a splitter, so Mrs. Dr. Phil could have the TV on in the kitchen, too. And Cubs!

We probably got about ten years out of that TV, until the weight of the cable, F-connector, transformer to pigtails, pigtails to supplied mini-jack just couldn't make the antenna connection any more. We replaced that with a somewhat larger color unit, which proved unreliable and it eventually died.

Then we got a Phillips Magnavox TV, larger still, which "just" fit under the cabinet and on top of the old microwave.



Something broke internally, so that it couldn't use the remote, but we still used it slaved to the VCR's channel selector from the living room, so that wasn't too bad. Then last year the microswitch controlling the power relay got squirrely -- Mrs. Dr. Phil nursed it along by rapidly cycling the switch til it deigned to come on. But sometime in 2011 even that didn't work.

Shopping Expedition

Saturday we went to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, then hit Schuler's on Alpine to buy some discounted 2012 calendars. Nearby, in what had been a Linens and Things, there was a brand new ABC Warehouse discount appliance store and Mrs. Dr. Phil suggested we see if they had a tiny TV.

So I asked if they had something like a 9" TV that could still take an analog signal -- some of the small TVs we'd seen online could only do HDTV. What they had included a GPX 7" LCD HDTV DVD Portable player -- the same discount brand as our first 4.5" B&W -- which as you can see, fits quite nicely. Hell, it came with a car DC power adapter and has both an SD card slot and a USB socket so you can use it as a digital picture frame, too. (grin) Which we are unlikely to disconnect it from its perch. (double-grin)


Like it's always been there.

Last time I was in an ABC Warehouse, probably ten years ago, it was a dark depressing warehouse piled up with boxes. And they didn't have what I was looking for. But years of competing with the big box stores, and this new store was brightly lit, well stocked and had a number of helpful staff. And the $86 price ended up cheaper than any of the online prices, so we did well.



Mrs. Dr. Phil is happy now. And I'll be able to check school closings come the bad weather. Of course, now when we mute the TV in the living room, we once again discover that the sound is still on in the kitchen. (grin)

Dr. Phil

The History of the World in Two Hours

History Channel, Thursday 6 October 2011, 9-11pm EDT

An ambitious project, given all of history in two hours, especially when you start at the Big Bang and spend the first 14 minutes or so doing cosmology and the creation of the world. But part of the logic is that the makeup of the universe in part controls what elements and materials are available and in what scarcity. Copper is three elements past Iron in the Periodic Table. That means that like everything past Iron it cannot be built up in the cores of stars by fusion alone -- it can only be created in the fury of supernova explosions. So advancing from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age not only made stronger materials, but more common ones.

So what is civilization? What does civilization move around the globe from peoples to peoples? Apparently it's dark magenta smoke. (grin) At least they used smoke trails snaking through the Silk Road and crossing the Atlantic, billowing from the sacks on camels, pouring out of smoke stacks, etc. But... all kidding aside, the metaphor is a good one.

I suppose one could criticize the animations of representations of morphing and construction and development, which might give some people the wrong idea. They get shown repeatedly in recapitulations to remind the viewer of their point, probably because they really are trying to create a coherent and complicated weaving together of facts and influences. Images get inlaid and expanded in things like the representation of the Big Bang and expansion -- again, a metaphor rather than literal. And for my tastes the space program and modern communications and computers get short shrift. But given that they don't get to the 20th century until 14 minutes left, there's only so much you can include.

After all 14 minutes was enough to cover the first 10 billion years of history. (double-grin)

So Who's This Good Looking Guy?



This is our friend Craig Benjamin. Transplanted Aussie, professor at Grand Valley State University and the most energetic True Renaissance Man that I know. He teaches, among other things, a History course which covers this whole scope of the Universe sort of thing. And he's one of the talking heads used in this show.

We knew he'd worked on this project, but Mrs. Dr. Phil found out during a noontime water aerobics session today when Craig was in the pool that it was on tonight -- which is why I didn't get a chance to post advance warnings out there. But I think it'll be run again on the History Channel.

It's a cool show. And it's so very cool to know somebody who's in it! Thanks, Craig! I wish we could spend more time talking... about everything.

Dr. Phil

Oh Yes, It's Time Again...

... to discuss the voicemails I get for The Dr. Phil Show. And no, that's not my ego crowing about my mix of storytelling, performance art and science in my Physics classes. It's people trying to get that Other Dr. Phil. You know, friend of Oprah. Has a big TV show. Is going bald.

Take today. Google "dr. phil" and I show up on hits 9 and 10 of the first page. Try "dr. phil show" and a site for fanmail for the Dr. Phil Show shows up as hit 67 and I don't show up until, well, I didn't show up at all in the first 300 hits. Try "dr. phil address" and ding-ding-ding!, I'm #5! Of course this web page says:

I am NOT the "other" Dr. Phil -- Dr. Phil McGraw -- who has the TV show. Please do NOT mail or call me with your problems!
I teach Physics courses to science and engineering students at Western Michigan University. Sorry. You might want to try clicking on THIS link to the Dr. Phil Show for help.

For Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon...

I then did a search on my university office phone number and hit #10 was this:


Yikes! Red flag alert! Look at the URL -- would you go to a place like that? And what the hell does an Oster food grinder have to do with the Dr. Phil Show? (evil grin)

I'm sure this isn't the only "sewer" site out there -- this is how people get my phone number. It's an aggregater site, with text run together from a whole lot of websites about Dr. Phil, so that it'll show up in Google. I got that from Google's cached copy -- the original page tries to go somewhere else and Norton Anti-Virus announces that someone is trying to attack your computer. Nice.

Though I will admit that the full text of my "I am not the Dr. Phil on TV" is in their page. Just not on their Google search snippet. Not that you'd want to go to a nasty piece of work like that to begin with.

So I Get Messages

Today there were three messages. The first was a hangup. Second told me in no uncertain terms that my outgoing message couldn't be understood and that I need to rerecord it -- repeated three times -- and that they are trying to get in touch with the Dr. Phil Show and would I call them back. And then they didn't leave their number. The third was from late last night, a very troubled sounding person desperate to talk to Dr. Phil from Washington state. Sigh.

I can't help these people. They don't believe me anyway, they are sure they HAVE found the second phone number for Dr. Phil and won't take No for an answer.

As for my outgoing message, I called it from my office on my cellphone. Surrounded by computers and such, I don't have the best reception here anyway. Plus cellphone fidelity combined with the Voice Over Internet phone system they switched to, isn't perfect. But the real problem with my message is that it explains that I teach Physics at Western Michigan University, and if you are a student of mine, to say which course you are in during your message. See, the problem is the message isn't understandable because the words aren't what these people want to hear.

Sigh.

To delete this message, press 7. To hear other options... 7... Message erased. Next message...

Dr. Phil

No Apologies Here

As I mentioned the other day, one of the most impressive Super Bowl ads was the two-minute Chrysler 200 ad "Imported From Detroit". It didn't pull punches and it didn't apologize for being from Detroit. If anything, it suggested that being forged in Detroit is a positive, not a negative.



The more I think about it, the more I like this ad. Except for five years in White Plains NY outside New York City and three years of high school in Greensboro NC, I've spent my whole life along the Great Lakes. And at this point, over half my life has been spent in Michigan. Up and down economies, progress and Rust Belt. And a lot of people, including a lot of movers and shakers from the East and Left Coasts, are ready to write off Detroit and Michigan. Hell, Newsweek declared Grand Rapids to be a dying city -- Number 10 on their list of ten. This was a shock to West Michigan, which has sort of basked in the knowledge that things are much brighter over here than in Detroit. GR Mayor Heartwell responded with a letter to Newsweek saying that they didn't know what they were talking about.

And the Chrysler 200 ad did about the same thing.

How Does One Roll With The Punches?

Monday night FOX-TV premiered their next big new cop show, The Chicago Code. The hook is that it is about a war between a bright new police superintendent and a corrupt alderman. What? A Chicago show about crime, murder, corruption and rigged city bids? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. I'm sure Chicagoans might feel the same way that Detroiters do about Detroit 1-8-7. On the one hand, the latter surely reinforces stereotypes about Detroit as the Murder Capital and a decaying city. On the other hand, there's Hamtramck! And you can see the love some of the characters have for the old city. After all, New York has survived all the countless murders of several incarnations of Law & Order plus CSI: New York, Philadelphia has survived Cold Case and, perhaps even more germane, Baltimore survived the stellar Homicide: Life on the Streets.

In other words, a little publicity is good, especially if they spell your name right.

And in that spirit, Chrysler certainly poked America on Sunday and said, "Detroit. Deal with it."

Dr. Phil

Nothing Says Christmas Like Murder

Perusing the TV listings, we seem to have marathons and multiple re-runs of Criminal Minds (on TWO cable channels simultaneously last night), Bones, and various Law & Orders, CSI.

We love these shows, but it seems pretty creepy to celebrate Christmas like this.

The Oddball

Comedy Central is spending the afternoon with Harold & Kumar and Bill & Ted. MTV starts off with three episodes of 16 and Pregnant, the Teen Mom 2 -- are they trying to channel Mary? -- then a marathon of That 70s Show. The so-called SyFy Channel is doing all their awful CGI monster flicks -- Sea Snakes, Frankenfish, The Eye of the Beast, Lake Placid 2, Malibu Shark Attack and Shark Swarm.

More Traditional Marathon Fare

TBS seemed to start it a couple of years ago by doing 24 hours of A Christmas Story, the oh-so-excellent Jean Shepherd view of Christmas through the eyes of children. And they could give nearly the entire staff the day off from 8pm Christmas Eve to 8pm Christmas. To this marathon, add AMC doing Scrooged all day.

Turner Classic Movies is going for a spectacular afternoon with Ben-Hur and King of Kings. Then they go for family fun with The Lion in Winter. FX spends the daytime repeating Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who.

Spike is running the REAL Star Wars trilogy, now re-designated Episodes IV, V and VI. TNT will do all three of Noah Wylie's Librarian movies. USA tonight will run Elf for the 783rd and 784th time since Thanksgiving.

Why Worry About What's On TV?

Hopefully you've got lovely friends and family to do Christmas with, if you do Christmas. But for something to have on for background, we've got the Mythbusters marathon from Discovery channel. Nothing is more Christmasy than watching mayhem -- including igniting Christmas trees with thousands of lights, etc. (grin)

Hope you have a merry and happy day doing whatever.

Dr. Phil