Whatever Happened to Bobby Sherman?

The latest craze seems to be these eating contests. Do you have those in your area? They get a bunch of contestants together to see who can eat the most hot dogs or buffalo wings or whatever in the least amount of time. I don't know why, but for some reason news directors all seem to think that these eating contests make good TV. Personally, I think they're some of the grossest things I've ever seen. I sure hope this fad runs its course.

And the quicker, the better.

But on a evening like this, who cares about greasy slobs pigging out on TV. It's pretty redundant at this point to say that we've been having some weird weather, but, you know, the weather's been really weird this year. Here we are in the middle of June (almost), a season when we'd normally expect hot days and warm summer evenings, and yet the weather couldn't be milder or nicer. Right now I'm sitting out on my patio and the sun is just starting to set and there's a cool breeze blowing down through the pine trees and...man, this is about as good as it gets. In fact, if I had to describe it I couldn't, except to play you this old song that keeps bouncing around my head. For some reason an evening like this makes me think of this song.

So, I'll probably go to jail for posting this, but go ahead and download this. It's an old Afro-Cuban lullaby played on the guitar by Christopher Parkening. As it's playing close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting with me under the trees and staring at the stars. Just the two of us. Ooh, it's a little chilly - would you like to borrow my coat? There, that's better. Oh yeah, this is nice, isn't it?

(Ahem. Sorry about that. I was just having one of my little fantasies again)

So what's new. Well, let's see. I finally got my cable installed. I know, I don't watch much TV but Comcast has a pretty good deal going. It's $29.95/mo for digital cable with HBO and DVR. Not bad. That's about half of what I used to pay for DirecTV without HBO. Anyways, I've got this Comcast DVR thing setup and it's not too bad either. I'd heard horror stories about it, but I haven't had any problems with it at all. The UI isn't as good as my old TIVO, but it's not that hard to figure out.

The best thing is that Comcast gives you dual tuners and you don't have to pay for an extra line. That means is that you can watch one channel while you're recording another, or just record two shows at once. Pretty convenient, but overkill for me. I'm lucky if I can find even one thing on TV that's worth watching, let alone two things at once.

Which leads me to whole Letterman vs. Leno thing. Now that I've got my new DVR I can finally watch both shows, and, more importantly for me, I can see the bands they each have at the end of their shows. I don't know why they always put the bands on last, but that's what they do. Whatever the reason, I think it's clear that in terms of musical quality there's just no comparison between the two shows. Frankly,

Where does the Tonight Show find those godawful bands?

Not that all the bands on Letterman are picked from the top of the talent tree, mind you, but they do have some pretty good bands on that show. I don't remember their names, but I like most of 'em. The Tonight Show, on the other hand, has some of the worst bands I've ever seen in my entire life, and what really bothers me is that most of them can't play. It drives me crazy. Especially the guitarists. They line up there on stage with all these fancy axes and effect pedals - thousands of dollars worth of equipment, just so they can play a couple of chords and make it sound really cool. It drives me nuts. Why don't they learn to play first, and then move on to all the fancy doodads? Too old school, I guess.

The way it works, I think, is that someone from the Tonight Show staff goes down to the local modeling agency and finds a bunch of twenty-somethings with the right "look". When they find them they take them back to the studio, give them an instrument, teach them each a couple of notes, find some insipid little teen pop ballad for them to play, and then put them on in the last 3 minutes of the show when they think no one is watching. I'm watching, though, and let me tell you it's painful.

What I don't get, though, is that both shows have pretty good house bands but they never let them play on TV. All you get is a little snippet here and there, but never the full song. I remember Johnny Carson used to let the band play every now and then, but I guess those days are gone. Audiences are too fickle these days, and if you start indulging the band and let actual musical talent go out over the airwaves, then people are going to start reaching for those remotes. Ah well, there's no business like show business.

One last thing before I go. It's pretty obvious I don't have anything to talk about tonight, but I thought as long as we're talking about guitars I might as well mention this. Sid McGinnis is one of the guitarists on Letterman and he plays a Strat. At least I think so. Either it's a Strat or some kind of clone. Sounds like a Strat though. Felicia Collins is the other guitarist on the Letterman and she plays all different kinds of guitars. Mostly Gibsons, though, as far as I can tell. I've seen her play a Les Paul and a SG, and sometimes she's got a Strat and who knows what else. Might even have an Ibanez around somewhere when she's ready to do some heavy shredding. Kevin Eubanks is the guitarist for the Tonight Show and he plays a custom guitar. Looks like a hollowbody or a semi, I can't tell. It's got a big, fat sound though. Eubanks also has a doctorate in music. Go figure, huh? Makes you wonder why they can't get decent bands for that show.









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