Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Technical Info
Monday
March 24, 2003
"But that's technical talk. That doesn't concern you."
-Buck Swope in Boogie Nights
I finally received the BTLS technical info today, which will be helpful to answer questions about how the show is delivered. I'm familiar with AMC and Transponder numbers and what not from my days as a TV news producer, though admittedly it's a different beast when it comes to radio. But at least now I can give a better answer than "it's delivered by satellite". As if the show would be done via ship-to-shore radio or something... But now I can speak about ABR 200 and ABR 202 units and have some understanding of what they mean.
It felt great to work out yesterday. I've been out of my routine for the past couple of weeks, between New Orleans and my parents and sister being in town and what not. Plus it was great to work out yesterday with the NCAA tournament games on TV to watch. That helped the time fly by.
While an Arizona/Kentucky game would be entertaining in the Final Four, I actually hope it doesn't happen, if for nothing else so that the TV commentators won't start yapping about "reseeding the finals". Forget that. As I mentioned before, if it's such a big deal then why not just change what region plays another in the finals BEFORE the tournament begins? Let 'Zona and Oklahoma's regions match up on the bottom and Kentucky and Texas' meet on the top. Is that too much to ask for?
But all the talk around the office today has been about Butler. I can't emphasize enough just how much fun it was to watch that Butler win over Louisville yesterday. That Archey guy was lights-out from 3-point range. Plus he's deadly accurate from the charity stripe... Even though he kind of reminds me of "Boggs" from Shawshank Redemption (though not as much as Jeff Garcia), his efforts on Sunday were nothing short of spectacular.
I've been ridiculously sleepy in the past week or so. And I'm not sure why. I slept a ridiculous amount on Saturday, and Sunday I got about the normal amount. Last night I slept about eight hours, though there was an hour and a half long interlude when I couldn't sleep (even with the help of a droning Saddam Hussein speech "live" on CNN at 3 AM).
One TV commercial campaign I really like are those AutoTrader.com spots. I'm talking about the ones where people describe the cars they want, and all the choices go flying by them. It's done with a bright white background and it comes across amazingly well on TV. They had a new one on during the tournament yesterday that had cars (and sales people), this time using metal lifters. If you haven't seen the spots, my description probably isn't helping paint an accurate mental picture... But believe me, they're very well done.
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