Below is an instructional video on how to convert your analog TV to receive digital feeds. As we all know, here in the US, analog service will be discontinued in February 2009.

If you haven’t already seen it on CNN, Family Guy took a jab a McCain and Palin in this past weekend’s episode. In the scene below, Stewie and Brian knock out some Nazi guards to disguise themselves. And… well, just watch the clip….

I think it’s lame that some conservatives are getting bent out of shape over this jab at McCain. You’re watching Family Guy after all! The show is irreverent and witty, and it has been making fun of everyone and everything for years now.

Moreover, Stewie never actually says the word McCain. He does not say, “McCain’s a Nazi.” It’s unfair for someone to get upset over this implication in Family Guy if that same person is not also upset by Gov. Palin’s impications of Sen. Obama as a socialist (and a terrorist). After all, Family Guy is just a sataric cartoon. Gov. Palin is a VP-candidate.

That crazy dude at StuffWeLike.com made another great video review of a recent DVD release. This time around it’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I don’t even like the series, but this video is total bad ass!

One of my favorite places to eat in the South is the world-famous Cracker Barrel. The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders recently shot part of their TV show there because they adore the food so much! Here’s a clip from their episode. Remember, next time you’re anywhere from Texas to Illinois, make sure to get some eggs, country ham, and grits…. only at Cracker Barrel!

So Microsoft has pulled the plug in no time at all on the Bill Gates / Jerry Seinfeld team up of spots. The $300 million “let’s make Microsoft look cool” campaign so far has been a bust. Jerry’s commercials weren’t funny, much like Bee Movie. As much as I grew up ADORING Seinfeld, the two spots they made just aren’t funny. 

The ad below is weird. It’s not quite funny. It’s also not cool. Above all, it’s just weird. But the grandmother is kinda funny. I’ll give Jerry that! The whole ad is cluncky. It in no way competes with the Mac vs. PC ads that Apple has been producing. CNET News.com wrote a great blog about this.

Below is the “Shoe Circus” spot. It’s the official Windows YouTube account. Notice how the audio sync is off
 

(Aside: I recently upgraded to Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. Half my webpages basically don’t load now. So as a longtime microsoft supporter, I’ve basically given up on IE now and migrated to Safari. Everything’s much better. I’m quite dumb though: I should know Microsoft products on Vista are buggy and there is no way a beta version of a Microsoft product is a smart idea. I have got to get it together!)

I’m quite peaved over MSNBC’s decision to demote Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. Variety reported on it this morning. I agree fully that MSNBC’s coverage had become exceedingly biased towards liberals. It was not balanced journalism. I don’t hold MSNBC, Olbermann, or Matthews accountable however. MSNBC only did what they had to do to compete in a cut-throat world of 24-hour news media. MSNBC chose to become the political liberal network in primetime. It was a move designed to combat the likes of conservative FOX’s O’Reilly Factorand the equally satanic CNN’s Glen Beck.

The FCC is to blame for the current ridiculousness of news media. I’m disgusted that you can’t even watch the news if you tune into CNN’s Headline News in the evening. Instead you’re subjected to relentless hours of Showbiz Tonight, Headline Prime, and Nancy Grace. 

The bottom line is that news media need to be cleaned up. They have a constitutional obligation to provide unbiased news. Right now there is so much spin - politically, militarily, religiously, ethnically, and economically that it is almost impossible to decipher fact from opinion. If you’re going to demote Olbermann and Matthews, you need to make Fox toss O’Reilly too. Now’s the time to clean up our country’s media outlets. It cannot be about news ratings; it needs to be about credibility and public service.

I always like to play a fun game with reading news. Visit the websites for Fox News, BBC UK, and Al Jazeera. If you mix the three together, you’ll probably get a fairly decent idea what exactly is going on in the world.

The Muppets made their return to television a few weeks ago on Disney Channel as part of a two-part special called Studio DC: Almost Live. The special mixes Disney Channel talent like High School Musical 3’s Ashley Tisdale with Kermit the Frog. There is also a segment featuring Hannah Montana and Animal as well as another segment featuring Gonzo and Kermit with the cast of The Suite Life of Zack &  Cody. I believe Studio DC won its time slot back in July when it launched. As is typical at Disney Channel, they definitely repeat their content. In fact, Studio DC is even on today! So if you need a Muppet fix, be sure to tune in. Or you can watch some of it on YouTube by clicking here.

I don’t know what happened to the Muppets. Between all the dealings and buyouts at Henson, I think they’ve gone the way of the Looney Tunes — a great slice of kids’ culture not just in Americana but throughout the world has just gone to the wayside. And kids’ media pundits always say some dribble like, “Kids don’t relate to these characters anymore.” What the real problem is that creators aren’t given enough control over the characters to produce anything funny. There are only so many Looney Tunes  movies one can watch with Brendan Fraiser after all! I’m glad at least that Disney tried to modernize the Muppets by mixing them with their already popular talent. Hopefully there will be more Muppets on Disney Channel to come!

The LA Times is reporting that Disney Channels Worldwide will be re-branding their Toon Disney / Jetix cable channel starting in February 2009 as Disney XD. The re-brand sounds like a great idea, but the LA TImes article doesn’t go into too many specifications on the new content that will be on the platform. They mention a series called Aaron Stone (pictured below) that will star Kelly Blatz in a “a male fantasy version of ‘Hannah Montana,’ in which an ordinary teen leads a double life as a rock star.”

I’m excited that there will finally be some more boys content out there as lately the market has been quite girly. Hopefully there will be more shows in the works besides Aaron Stone. What would have really excited me is if DIsney had come up with a great animated series for tweens (because Cartoon Network certainly hasn’t been able to pull that off.) The LA Times article doesn’t mention anything about upcoming cartoons which is disappointing. I would hate to see the re-brand boil down a facelift for a channel but with the same basic content. Maybe it will be a gradual change? I guess only the people at the Mouse know.

Hopefully the re-branded channel won’t be mostly live-action the way Disney Channel is currently. People have to get past the stigma that tweens prefer watching live-action over animation.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disney7-2008aug07,0,6413232.story

(Kelly Blatz as Aaron Stone)