(Warning: Contains rock lyrics from 40 years ago)

Some music goes beyond the sound that comes out of your speakers. From time to time, these sounds define a cultural or political movement. In a few cases, they become the soundtrack for a generation.

Neil Young wailing, “four dead in Ohio,” still conjures memories of a black and white photograph of a young girl on one knee, panic stricken, next to the face-down body of a student shot dead by the National Guard at Kent State.

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The Super Bowl is Sunday. It is a big deal for football, entertainment, advertising and Saints fans. If you enjoy the NFL, thank Steve Sabol. His stories created it.

Sabol is 67 now. He became famous by turning football into art (according to Joe Posnanski in Sports Illustrated his week). It is a great story if you haven’t read it in the Scorecard section. (more…)

Have you seen the commercials for Chantix? It is a smoking cessation prescription medication. All of these pharmaceutical commercials have a long recitation of side effects and warnings. We have heard them for years: constipation, nausea, gas, etc. Everything on the shelf has those side effects. But anxiety, panic, aggression, anger, mania, suicidal thoughts, hostility, agitation, vomiting, abnormal sensations, hallucinations, paranoia, or confusion, life-threatening skin reactions seems a little weird. Then I read this one: You may have vivid, unusual, or strange dreams. (more…)

During the holidays I was hit by a moment of revelation while watching Bobby Bowden coaching his last game at Florida State. After his final win, he gave a press conference. He was classic Bobby B. I flipped channels and there was Paula Dean on the Food Network. That is when it hit me; Paula Dean is Bobby Bowden in a wig. They both have the same face, accent, voice, mannerisms and enthusiasm for their profession.

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Speaking of credibility:

I love college football. Always have. But there are parts of it that chew at me. This is one of them:

Last night I saw a B-52 bomber sprinkling bombs into history on the History Channel. I think it was the same, black and white, archival footage I have seen all of my life. A young airman probably shot it with a spring-loaded camera (like the 8mm Bolex) on a run over Vietman in the 1960’s.

My first B-52 experience happened in the early 1980’s at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas. Before it closed in 1994, Carswell headquartered a lot of the behemoth bombers. They were going day and night, it seemed. I never knew where these things went all day. They took off and roamed the skies of America and then return like massive, metal birds to their nest next to Lake Worth. A B-52 Stratofortress coming in low overhead is not something you forget easily.

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After 24-hour-a-day basketball, what are we supposed to watch now? American Idol? Baseball that doesn’t matter? Diners, Drive-Ins and the Toast Chees I used to eat every day for lunch? (more…)

Do you watch Iron Chef? Have you seen some of the fru-fru things they are doing with food lately? I saw one just now, using basil. The stacked little bites on the plates were so precious no one should lay utensils so crude as knives and forks near them. I don’t think people are actually supposed to eat those little orbs and squares. They are art. Imagine strolling through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with a spoon and scooping out a chunk of a masterpiece here and there. That is how I felt about the food on Iron Chef tonight. (more…)

I have one. You have one. Animals have them. While guys getting hit in the groin may still be popular, the biggest thing in advertising these days is your butt (not literally, of course). It started with the “does this dress make my butt look big?” commercial a few years ago. No one complained, so butts got a leg up on other body parts. Now, butts are all over the air. (more…)

An old friend of mine, Peter Kaufman, recently invited me to a function where it was my job to be a panelist, talking to a fairly large group (who paid to get in – more for the drinks than the entertainment) about Super Bowl commercials. I was supposed to be a critic, comic, commentator – something along those lines. I did this job last year and for some inexplicable reason, I was invited back. I suck at this job, by the way. (more…)

If this is your favorite TV show (that title up there), then stop reading now because what I’m about to say will just torque your sensitivity gland. But if you think this show is as ridiculous as a man willing to saw off a leg to save money on socks, read on. (more…)

We’re all going to be living on bugs in a few years; you know that, don’t you? Roaches, scorpions, grubs, crickets, worms, crispy, crawly crunchies, they are the answer to the coming food shortage — and that shortage is coming. Read around, you’ll see. I’m trying to wrap my head around that insectful situation now. (more…)

I’ve often wondered if supposed aliens come here on vacation or is this just a business trip? Maybe you have seen a UFO. Or maybe you have even been abducted and probed or whatever the bug-eyed beings do when they snatch up a human. I have talked to people who swear they have seen strange things in the sky. Personally, E.T. has never phoned me, nor do I expect he will anytime soon. But if we’re going to get that call from outer space, the aliens better start dialing soon. (more…)

I have always been a sucker for manufacturing processes and I am virtually hypnotized by watching how stuff is made. It seems there are more and more TV programs that cater to my Jones. Maybe it was started by Unwrapped on the Food Network. People wanted to see how MoonPies and Red Hots and potato chips were made. Then Cliff, from Cheers, hit the factory trail with Made in America. Now you can see everything from aluminum cans being created, to skyscraper construction, to entire islands shaped like palm trees getting planted off the coast of Dubai. (more…)