The Barstool Journal of Jonco Bugos
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

BarTube

As I've said before, my favorite time to mosey on down to the Lounge is on a Wednesday afternoon. I'm not much of a lounge lizard and never was. My pickup lines are so rusty they couldn't reel in a green Amazon woman from Saturn and green Amazon women from Saturn are always looking to be reeled in. So, this past Wednesday around three pm EST Earth time, I found myself unceremoniously perched atop my favorite bar stool.

Yessir, I prefer the relative sounds of silence at the Lounge on a sunny Wednesday afternoon instead of the raucous disorder of a Friday or Saturday night. I like a sunny afternoon because I take some secret delight in being in a dimly-lit tavern instead of at the business end of a lawn mower or a rake. Or even, for that matter, at the business end of my outdated word processor. Besides, when you get older it's easier on everyone if you know your limitations and stick to them.

The other thing I like about Think-A-Holic Lounge in the middle of a work week and in the middle of a sunny afternoon is that there are never any sports or soaps or game shows or even beer commercials on the tube at that time of day. Not at Think-A-Holic Lounge. People who like to eat, drink, watch sports (or game shows and soaps) never frequent Think-A-Holic Lounge in the middle of the week. They're too busy working the business end of a lawn mower, rake or snow shovel. Or the business end of just plain business. And women who frequent the Lounge rarely watch TV here. They're too busy defending their honor against us lounge lizards.

Why they angle the TV at the Lounge so it reflects the window light is a mystery I may never fathom. It must have something to do with the fact that I'm definitely doing something illicit. But who cares? I'll just have to squint and eat that bullet. And the cobwebs on the Lounge TV set are as big as spider plants but who cares about that either? Being here instead of there on a gorgeous sunny day is escapism in all its grimy glory.

Any who, some weird podcast from a far away galaxy is usually on TV in the afternoons and this past Wednesday afternoon was to be no exception. In fact, this was the strangest podcast I'd ever seen. Some buffoon who looked like a cross between Charlie McCarthy and Groucho Marx was whining and crying about how he's tired of being bullied by Reptilians and Grays on some planet called Mars. Wherever that is.

No, I didn't really care for this Mars Broadcast. It smacked of old 20th-Century "yellow journalism" which made it seem out of place for a 21st-Century podcast. Nossir, I didn't like it at all. In fact, I told (not asked) our bigass head bartender, Angus McCloud, to change the channel. Angus didn't even blink an eye as he punched in the digits for a sports channel that featured ultimate fighting between males from one species and females from another species. Highly illegal, mind you.

But anything's better than having your mind assaulted by some lunatic with an axe to grind about some stupid prison planet and alien abductions and the Mallo Cup shortage there, whatever that is. I never caught this pathetic old poop's name but, if he doesn't like it on Mars, why doesn't he get his butt back to Earth? Hell, even a dangerous world run by crooks is better than a boring planet run by lizards.

And any indie author's alter ego could have told you that. Sour grapes or not.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Bushwhacked by "Skywatchers"

This past Friday night, I waltzed into Think-A-Holic Lounge like a big-ass bird, fully expecting Angus McCloud (the Lounge's head bartender and the ghost of a dead Scottish poet) to be buying rounds for his regular patrons (like me). I expected this because, being a ghost, this was the eve of his absolute favorite holiday: Halloween. My brain was also in a receptive zone for the typical menu of cheesy Halloween movies that Angus always manages to find on Earth's many satellite channels. But I was in for a big surprise.

A short, independent video was playing over and over on the wide-screen TV, taking up only a square in the center of the big-ass screen. I wanted to ask Angus what the hell was going on but he was too busy buying rounds for anyone and everyone who lauded his video selection. I waited a full fifteen minutes before the ugly old spook got around to serving me a shot of think-a-hol and a bubbly chaser. When I asked him why this video was showing instead of a spooks-and-goblins movie or a movie about lascivious teens getting their just deserts from a mad slasher, the touchy old fart just took my money and replied.

"Well, hell, this is the latest video from that popular indie author from Earth," he said, as if that somehow answered my question. Before I could ask him another question he added, "You know how it is. If you're a science fiction author who makes funny videos instead of working on another novel, then you deserve a little sympathy, if nothing else. Now make nice."

How do you follow a line like that except with complete, dumbfounded silence? So, I nursed my think-a-hol, sipped my brewski and wished I was home watching "Halloween H2O" instead. No, not for the stupid story. For another peek at Jamie Lee Curtis, what else?

"Skywatchers", I thought to myself as I knocked back the rest of my think-a-hol and slugged down my draft, "what a ruse."




Author's Note 12-6-11: This video was extended and music was added to it on 12-6-11. Hope you like the new "silent" version.


Friday, January 26, 2007

Couch Hippo Sci-Fi

The other day I was contacted by someone whom I thought to be a fan of my six sci-fi thrillers (all right, I know, I'm Michael Casher's alter-ass ego, but it's the same dumb-ass difference). Boy was I wrong. His message was enough to make me cry in my think-A-hol.

This guy kept using the words sci-fi and movies in the same sentence. Then he wanted to know when I was going to write my next blockbuster movie. Little did he know that I'd never written a single sci-fi screenplay. I've never written any teleplays, either. What I have written is six sci-fi novels. Which he never even mentioned.

I had a dream that night about our American culture in the new millennium. No one read books anymore and everyone got their entertainment from sitting in a chair and staring straight ahead at images on a screen of some kind.

In my dream, everybody looked like this.