Insomnia Blogging

I can’t sleep. Three AM in the morning, I’m lying on the couch trying to fall alseep and I just can’t. Flipping through the channels on the television can only go so far.

Is it just that I’ve watched the show a bit more now than ever before, but is Lou Dobbs devoting much more time of his show to push for some sort of abandonment of the Republic and Democratic parties? I remember maybe a year or so ago, all he really focused on was illegal immigrants. He’s still focusing on that topic, but now it seems like he’s attacking all levels of government and both political parties for not having a solution to this issue. A part of me likes the fact that somebody is getting loud and aggressive about finding some sort of alternative to the elephant and donkey, but this guy. I don’t know why, but something about Lou Dobbs just bugs the hell outta me.

The current Time Life collection being pushed is the Superstars of Country. The infomercial is co-hosted by Kenny Rogers. Watching that got me thinking about the current state of music. Many of these older artists have such wonderful voices. Not just technical singing ability and talent, (country music doesn’t really require classically trained vocalists) but there is so much character in the singer’s voice. The video clips from this informercial is obviously just a bunch of lip-synced performances from various television programs. Regardless, the singers are often really feeling each song. Which is a testament to the artists’ talent. Many country songs (especially the Nashville scene) are created in the pre-Beatles method, writers in one room, musicians in another. Many country songs are performed by artists but written by professional songwriters. While music today, the popular artists today, just can’t get into the songs. Maybe there’s a lack of talent out there today or maybe its the recording techniques, I don’t really know. But what ever happened to singers like Karen Carpenter. Clean vocals sung with character and feeling. That’s what is really wrong with the music industry today. There is no performer I can think of that reminds me of Karen Carpenter.

There is one television channel in my region that actually airs entertainment programs in the early morning hours. The Fox affliate in Buffalo, WUTV airs a couple of hours of sitcoms. Frasier, Scrubs, Will & Grace and King of the Hill. Okay, W&G sucks, KotH is hit and miss, Scrubs I’ve got on DVD and Frasier requires the faculties of mind running at a higher level of effeciency than I can usually muster at 3:30AM, but it all sure beats the Lou Dobbs Report. The downside to this block (other than the fact that Will & Grace is an awful program) is the abundance of commercials for some telephone service I don’t quite understand. The commercials are all pretty much the same, some hot chick is telling me to call people just like her for a good chat. I really doubt the people on the other end of the line are just like her. First of all, if they’re up at that time of the morning, they’re probably just as incoherent as me.

I do sure miss the commercials for Ashley Madison though. They were always funny and weird. That guy walks onto the screen, looking like he should be some flashy cult leader in an episode of Law & Order, and he starts talking about helping people in relationships find something more because sometimes a single relationship is not fulfilling enough. First of all, I think its just wrong to make money by encouraging people to cheat. But more importantly, Ashley Madison is encouraging greedy people to be lazy. Its one thing to have two girlfriends, taking one girl away from lonely single guys, but to pay people to do the acquisition for you. That’s just lazy. If you’re going to cheat, do the legwork yourself, okay.

And apparently, there’s a sixth American Pie movie coming to DVD this year. I remember a fourth in the series being direct-to-DVD, but when was the fifth released. And how many ways can they incorporate Eugene Levy’s character without actually having the Jason Biggs character?

Recommended Listening: Superstar by The Carpenters.