PAMS Advertising Agency of Dallas was one of the most successful producers of radio station ID jingles during the 50's, 60's and 70's. Out of the many series of jingles they produced over the years, the most famous were the so called "numbered series" (which also had names).
Don't you roll your eyes at me! The mere thought of listening to station jingles over and over is, at first glance, quite crazy I grant you! But the MP3s over at the PAMS Jingles page are SOLID GOLD catchy little ditties with high production values that never had a chance reaching your ear on the lo-fi AM band. They're just short little station IDs, but they sound great and each one tells a story!
I like series 18 (Sonosational) but they all seem good, really.
1:23 PM
When you die, why not get cremated? And then why not go one step further and have your ashes blown apart into a million pieces in a firey nighttime explosion in the sky? Packages start at just $3250.
The second season starts on June 8th. But there is controversy!
You know in the beginning how they have the celebrity judges who whittle down the list of applicants until they decide on 10 comedians who then go on to live in a house together? Well it turns out those 'celebrity judges' don't have any decision-making power at all.
Drew Carey and Brett Butler, two of this season's judges, have made it clear that their votes didn't count for anything, and that the final decision was ultimately made by the show's producers.
Be that as it may, I'm sure it'll still be fun to watch.
9:44 AM
Saturday we went to California Adventure with Stacy and Steve and some of her relatives who were visiting California.
I'm not sure how it happened, but I managed to get myself into the hot seat at Who Wants to Be a Millionaire - Play It! I made it up to the 64,000 point question before I crashed, but it was a heck of a lot of fun being up there with the audience cheering me on.
I got 10 collectable pins (one for every right answer I gave,) a hat for hitting 1,000 points, and a polo shirt for hitting 32,000. The grand prize for correctly answering the 1,000,000 point question was a three night cruise to the Bahamas for four. I knew I didn't have a chance at going all the way, so I made sure to use all of my lifelines before I got taken out.
When I finished my run I went backstage to fill out paperwork and collect my winnings. The guy said they get a million point winner on average about twice a month. That's pretty good for a show that runs five shows per day, just three days a week. I'm not allowed to play again for 30 days, but now that I've got the fire in me I think I'll try to shoot for a million one of these days!
1:06 PM THX 1138 is coming to DVD, and it has been digitally sexed-up with new added computer effects and everything, just like the original three Star Wars movies. Watch the trailer (if you can find it - good luck) to see what I mean.
This film was George Lucas' first, and they've managed to repackage it in a way that makes it looks relatively recent. In fact I bet they could even get away with re-releasing this in theaters.
9:27 AM
The four packages for the 2004 HMH event are now viewable online. With packages ranging from $85 per person to $2275 per person, there's something for everybody!
Last year's event was kinda gay. I'm pretty sure I don't want to go again.
3:06 PM
Love him or hate him, Michael Moore usually has 'interesting' opinions about a lot of things. A young filmmaker has an 'interesting' opinion about him and will be releasing Michael Moore Hates America this summer.
I used to love Michael Moore back when he did TV Nation on NBC. That was such a funny, intelligent show and it didn't last as long as it should have before it got canned.
When he started getting all political about stuff I sort of lost my enthusiasm for him. It's fine to hold strong political opinions about the state of the world or big business or whatever, but it made him look like a kook when he gave his little Oscar speech. It took him from 'people's advocate' to 'radical left-wing advocate' overnight.
When it comes to politics, I think I'd prefer it if people took a "don't ask, don't tell" policy - not just on TV - but everywhere. You'll never change peoples' minds about politics and religion, so why bother.
I don't think that Michael Moore Hates America. He just hates the people and the companies that run it, and he loves screaming and yelling about it to anyone that'll listen. Jiminy Christmas man, just move to Canada already and shut up about it.
7:59 PM
Well we knew it was coming and now it's here - two days ahead of schedule!
If you're a Dish Network customer and you subscribe to AT120 or more, you now have access to all of Sirius Satellite Radio's commercial-free music stations right there on your TV at no extra charge. You'll find the channels in the 6000 range. The best part about this arrangement is that these stations are streamed to Dish Network at 200kbps, much more than the 60kbps used in Sirius' own radios!
I'm listening now and it sounds fantastic. There are SIXTY Sirius music channels on Dish and they all sound great.
The old lower-quality music stations that sit in the 900 channel range are still there - all 32 of them. I'm not sure if Dish is planning on keeping them around or not. It wouldn't make much sense to do so... Those old streams are provided by Muzak, by the way, a company who is mostly responsible for the background music you hear in office buildings or when you go shopping in retail chain stores (hence the lower audio quality).
If you're one of those die hards with a FTA (free to air) receiver, you can listen to these streams free too! Just point your dish to Echostar 7 at 119° and tune in! They're unencrypted. Can you believe that?
4:49 PM
I am interested in forming an adult dodgeball league. If you are located in LA or Orange county, contact me at your earliest convenience. I don't care who you are as long as you're at least 21 years old.
I was inspired by this article. However the league in the article seems to prefer the 'multiball' approach. I think I'd have more fun with a single ball. Old school style.
Yes, I am serious. Contact me if you're interested.
11:26 AM
Over the weekend I replaced a leaky valve in one of our toilets with a Fluidmaster 400A. From what I've been reading, these newfangled Fluidmaster valves have mostly replaced the old-school ballcock/floater combo in new toilets.
I was skeptical at first, but it seems to work just as good as the old way!
9:24 AM
One sign of the challenges faced by the new 'G4TechTV' merger are the retards running G4 - specifically a producer named Jim Downs. Wil Wheaton used to host 'Arena' back when the station launched in 2002. His accounting of why he quit is amazing.
3:01 PM
Didn't Unreal Tournament 2004 just come out a little while ago? It sure didn't take long for the Duffers Golf mod to see the light of day. Beautiful.
10:24 AM
Oh my god, is Sony retarded? I seriously think they are.
Any company who thinks that an awkward brick of an MP3 player like their new VAIO Pocket can take on the iPod is sadly mistaken! I hereby dub it "H3" - Huge, Hideous, and it's even Heavier than an iPod.
Sony needs to take a good look at all the crap they've been making lately and trim the fat off of their consumer electronics division.
5:05 PM
The new channel will be called "G4TechTV" and it'll launch on May 28th.
Expect plenty of E3 coverage this week on both stations!
It looks like the only programming casualty of the merge on the TechTV side will be Call for Help. They claim that everything else will be returning...for now...
1:23 PM
A wonderful thing happened on Saturday. We had California Closets come out and install our custom closets.
We put custom shelving in my closet, Tammy's closet, the office closet, and we had custom-fit cabinets installed in our garage. We went from having ZERO storage space to having more space than we know what to do with. The installers worked from 9am to 6pm without ever breaking for lunch, and they did a great job. I could not be happier with the final result.
Now it's just a matter of organizing and putting away all of the crap that we'd had stashed in boxes and bags since we moved in a year and a half ago. But man oh man I'll be happy when I can close those closet doors and not see clutter anywhere.
10:42 AM
The day is fast approaching when you'll be able to run OSX on your Intel or AMD machine thanks to PearPC, an open source PowerPC emulator. It's in the very early stages of development so it's super slow, but it has potential!
And while it doesn't yet get you to the OSX desktop, it does begin the OSX installation process. Check out the screenshots!
9:12 AM
Comcast owns G4, the video game network. They just bought TechTV and will soon be merging the two stations into one. TechTV's bay area headquarters will soon be moved down to Los Angeles.
Leo Laporte is reporting that as of yesterday, the entire TechTV staff has been given 60 days notice - they're gone.
If that's the kind of havoc that Comcast can wreak on a dinky little cable station, imagine the kind of chaos they could have put Disneyland through. Yeesh.
10:32 AM
It is highly uncool of NBC to put the last episode of Friends on the air at the same time as Survivor tonight. I am not a Friends fan and I have no plans to watch the finale, but you can bet that Survivor's audience will take a big hit tonight.
10:03 AM
The kids over at Mega64 are awesome. They do these hidden-camera setups where they re-enact scenes from video games in public places.
I guess they have a public access show on TV in San Diego or something, but they're now planning on releasing a 'best of' 2-disc DVD containing some of their funnier skits in association with SomethingAwful. If the downloadable previews are any indication of what it'll be like, you can bet I'll be buying a copy. The Metal Gear video is pure comedic genius.
7:37 AM
Today at 10AM Disney will be announcing their big plans for Disneyland's 50th anniversary in 2005. Almost everything they're going to announce has already leaked though... Buzz Lightyear's coming, new fireworks are coming, Space Mountain will be all-new, the castle will have crazy projection effects at night, the Disney Cruise Line will start traveling to California, and some other stuff.
I'm in no position to buy a new TV right now. And in fact, I'm still very much in love with my non-HDTV set.
HOWEVER, the world of HDTV is confusing as hell, and I fear the day when I will need to spend a few weekends researching my socks off to get something that will look great, have enough connectors for all my crap, and impress me enough that I feel compelled to plop down money for a 5.1 surround system.
It's a really good read; not too technical. It explains how many "HDTV" sets just stretch or squish an image to fit the TV's own resolution, and it stresses the importance of getting a TV that can natively support 720p or 1080i. That's something you'd think about when purchasing an LCD PC monitor, but maybe not when you're looking for a TV!
You should check it out if you've even got just a passing interest in HDTV, because you have to stay on top of stuff like this!
![[Powered by Blogger]](http://buttons.blogger.com/bloggerbutton1.gif){kind=small}
