Pipestone Flyer
Vol 15, Issue 1, January 6, 2011
Colin James once sung about the only things worth living for was chicks, cars and the third world war. As the New Year gets underway those words for some reason seem to be running around in my head. For me this time of the year always serves to remind me of things from the past, both the good and the bad. It seems the bad stuff haunts me more than the good stuff but given my track record that does not surprise me. While watching the ball drop in Time Square, Ryan Seacrest made the comment that 2011 marks the beginning of a new decade. Now for the record I think Seacrest can't add because the last time I looked the 90's started in, lets say 1990 but I am not an over paid television personality.
I for one will not miss the last decade, having gone from being married to a widower. This last decade marked some significant changes in my life and while I have come out of it all, mostly intact, I have learned to appreciate things in my life and those around me.
I always seem to walk down this memory's lane when I am watching New Year's Eve coverage on television. I probably would not be thinking of this if most of the coverage on TV did not suck so much.
Who would think bringing a New Year's Eve countdown show to television would be so hard. I mean Dick Clark's Rocking New Years Eve with Ryan Seacrest should be called Boring Moron With A Mike New Year's Eve. I think a drunken monkey wearing a dress throwing bananas at Ryan Seacrest would have been more interesting. I have nothing against the man, I guess he is good at reading a teleprompter, but this time around he had more in common with an oak tree.
Now between Mr. Wood Seacrest and musical performers that need to take some singing lessons it makes for bad television. What happened to the day when you had local coverage of the New Year's Eve festivities. I would take local entertainment over former boy bands who think yodelling like a cat in heat is music. Okay I admit that I think most modern music sounds like someone stuck a cat in a blender but what ever happened to people that used to sing. I am not a big fan of Frank Sinatra but I think even dead he sounds better than most music you hear on the radio.
Even changing stations did not help, it is sad to say, but the Canadian coverage was not better than the American feed. One station had coverage from Niagara Falls and the other from Toronto. I even got to see the mayor of Toronto on stage counting down the New Year. To say the least it did make one appreciate the American coverage. In hindsight Ryan Seacrest might have not been so bad. Maybe next year I might even get to watch the count down with that monkey. I wonder what kind of dress it will be wearing. I might even want to buy it a drink. Happy New Year.