tinkleflick.com

Yes, that’s right.  The new blog version of the website is only a few months old and we have already upgraded it!!  You probably won’t see too much of a difference in the appearance for now (if everything went right, you shouldn’t)…until a scheduled graphical theme redesign later in the year, but since we went live with the new site in October, the developers of WordPress have released a new version.  I had been waiting to see if I liked the new version and (due to a side project that is, as of yet, super-secret) I had a chance to test-drive it.  I liked it enough to want to upgrade.  So, with Natalie asleep on my tummy and the clock ticking over to 1:00 a.m. on a weeknight what better time to embark on a full-blown technology upgrade?  It actually wasn’t very bad and the new version is pretty cool.  If you are interested (and, we here at tinkleflick cannot possibly believe that very many people would be), please feel free to drop Ralph a line and he’ll be more than happy to geek out with you.

Well, we are all in official mourning here at the house of tinkeflick. The flag was ordered to be removed from the front patio after the Bears’ stunning loss 29-21 to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday despite home field advantage, a week’s rest and the number one defense in the league. Ralph spent time with Noah in the days leading up to the big game by attending the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show with Noah, who enjoyed being in the literal driver’s seat for a change. If, but only if, you are interested in Ralph’s observations of either of these events, including the lack of viable meatball sandwich options in Cerritos on a Sunday, please make sure to check out his blog (reader discretion is advised).

In early November as we drove across the Bay Bridge to Oakland for a flight back to So Cal after attending the wedding of good friends Suzy and Scott, Ralph noticed a billboard advertisement for the Auto Show in the Bay Area. Ralph, ever the marketer’s dream, thought that this might be the year for Noah to attend his first car show (now you know why companies spend so much money on billboards: they actually work, at least for people like Ralph). Anyway, from that point on Ralph was determined to take Noah to the Greater L.A. Auto Show whether Noah was interested in it or not. Auto Shows are custom-made for father-son outings and 2006 would mark Noah’s third birthday and first Auto Show, kind of like a rite of passage.

Of course auto shows are just one giant commercial for which you pay $10 per adult, $20 to park and $30 on bad food to see. We figured we’d wait out traffic and head to the downtown area at around 7:00 p.m. but, of course, we forgot that there was a Lakers home game and the opponent was no less than LeBron James the phenom star of the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, after negotiating a bit of traffic in the downtown area, we found parking, paid the $20 ransom, and made our way to the Los Angeles Convention Center.

WARNING: Out of Context Commentary Follows (may not be suitable for all audiences):It’s been a while since I have been downtown and I remember why. What a complete dump that place is. And, what I don’t understand is why they keep building more and more stuff down there to chase some stupid dream of a “city center” in a city that doesn’t really want a center!!! Going to the Auto Show on a Thursday night is a prime example of why this whole “design” (I’m not sure I want to give them too much credit by even calling it a “design”) is silly. Back in the day, the Lakers played in Inglewood. OK, not the best neighborhood, but at least it spread out the people a little bit so a couple of folks can take their kids to see the Auto Show on a Thursday night and not have to spend as much to park as they do to get in! I just wish that Eli Broad and his cronies would get over the idea that we will ever have some kind of a city center that anyone from any suburb of any distance is going to drive to for any other reason than to see a Laker game or go to the Auto Show. We will never be Chicago, San Francisco or New York. Just get over it. And, I swear, that if they put an NFL team in that awful Coliseum venue I will not go (unless the Bears happen to be scheduled to play there and then I won’t have a choice but to set my little protest aside for a chance to see my team–but that’s it, otherwise it will be a total boycott!) End of Warning. We Now Return to our Regularly Scheduled Blog Entry

Noah was interested in the cars for about 15 minutes. The rest of the time he just wanted to ride in the plastic stroller in the shape of a car (that we rented for $7) and collect brochures. He did like it when he got to sit in a couple of trucks and pretend to drive. Amazingly, the Auto Show was about as uncrowded as I have ever seen it and we had a remarkably nice time. We even got a chance to see the $1.2 million Bugatti Veyron which was the major debut of the show (it’s ugly).

I was disappointed in the Auto Show for two reasons: (1) I really expected a much better people watching experience but the people in attendance were, largely, normal and polite, and (2) there really was not a single car that is in my price range and that I was particularly interested in. The sorry state of the U.S. auto industry was on full display when you see their offerings next to the displays of the European and Japanese auto makers. It’s no wonder they are in such trouble.

Anyway, we had a good time and Grandpa John is already talking about taking Noah next to the Boat Show. Remember, as Chick Hern used to say, “Don’t miss the Boat…Show!”

I need to start off by bitching a little bit about football pre-game coverage. I never watch the FOX NFL pre-game show and that policy was completely validated this weekend. Because it’s the playoffs and the NFL TV contract limits who can broadcast the product at any given time, I had no choice but to watch the FOX pre-game show before the Seahawks/Redskins game. I’m not sure exactly what ‘infotainment’ is but I think this crap probably qualifies. First of all Terry Bradshaw is intolerable (I actually just muted the TV at one point). Second, there is almost no actual football analysis or content. They spent most of their time taking a viewer poll about Jimmy Johnson’s hair, showing a fake clip from a TV show where Jimmy Johnson pretends to be in jail and then they turned to their “weather commentator”, Jillian, who after 30 seconds discussing game-time weather turned to more important things like the NFL Sexiest Man contest and her appearance on Skating with Celebrities. I am not sure how class act Jim Brown can handle being associated with crap like this. It’s kind of like the Regis and Kathie Lee (or whoever else is on that show now) for the NFL, not that I have ever watched Regis other than while waiting to have my tires rotated. And, the most depressing part of the whole thing was that I realized a major downside for the Bears was their membership in the NFC which, in turn, meant that FOX would be broadcasting their game on Sunday.

Of course, real depression did not set in until Sunday afternoon. I watched the first quarter of the Colts’ embarrassing loss to the Steelers before taking off to Noah’s cousin Talia’s birthday party (Happy Birthday, Talia). My PDA kept me up to date on the score and I got home just in time to see Mike Vanderjadt miss a long, but totally makeable, field goal. How lame after going to 13-0 to not be able to win at home…in a dome…with a week’s rest! And how lame was it that Peyton Manning had to whine about the ‘protection issues’. I like Peyton, but if that’s how he is going to react, he deserves to lose.

OK, so back to my depression. I decided to go to my parents house for the second half of the Bears game and bring some early dinner. I was thinking that I would just stop off and get a meatball sandwich on the way over. Seems like a sensible idea, right? I mean, Avenue 3 Pizza is just down the street so I could call in my order, pick it up and be sitting in my parents’ family room just in time for the second half to get underway during which I would enjoy a domestic light beer, a meatball sandwich and some quality NFL couch potato time with my Dad. However, I was foiled by the COMPLETE LACK of pizza places open on Sunday in the greater Cerritos area! There should be a law…

So, the Bears were down at half and brought the game to within two by the time I made it to my parents’ house with, I am sad to admit, Taco Bell for dinner (there’s a time and a place for Taco Bell, and the grilled steak burrito is actually pretty good but I really wanted a meatball sandwich). But, sadly, Steve Smith was just too much for the Bears despite their NFL-leading defense. I like what coach Lovie Smith has done with the team and I was so excited to have a good season for the first time in a number of years. But, I have to say, that the Bears really departed from what has been working for them all season. During the season, they ran the ball and limited big plays by their opponents and consistently won low-scoring games. So, it was disappointing to see them blow several big pass plays, mostly to Steve Smith, and to watch them throw the ball over and over again with a quarterback that, because of injury, just didn’t have enough experience to be risking it all like that in the NFL’s sudden death playoffs.

Sadly, when I got home, I went outside and retrieved my lucky Bears flag from the porch and put it away until next season. The flag that I got at Soldier Field had been flying all season as the Bears posted one unexpected win after another. A season that started off slow, picked up major speed after my visit to Soldier Field in October and resulted in the second seed in the NFC and a home playoff game unraveled in a three hour block of time and I couldn’t even enjoy a frickin’ meatball sandwich (I did have fun hanging with my Dad and grubbing on some Taco Bell, though). Such is life, I guess. And, I hope that the Bears are able to build something off of this season for a change and, with smart off-season moves and draft picks, build a real, sustainable contender so future football seasons can be as exciting as this one was.

January 9, 2006 will be a big day in the house of tinkelflick. Noah will celebrate his third birthday (you read that right–Noah is three years old already!!!). On the same day, Natalie will celebrate her third week on the planet. It has been a very busy holiday season, but we have had a lot of fun and Noah is actually tired of opening presents! We have posted a new photo gallery with pictures of Birthday Weekend. As is the tradition in the Flick Family, the birthday boy or girl gets to select the restaraunt for dinner. So, we’ll be at Souplantation on Monday night. If you live near the Lakewood Mall and are interested in a salad bar for dinner, maybe we’ll see you there!

Happy New Year from all of us at tinkleflick. We hope that everyone has a happy, safe and successful 2006. We celebrated quietly at home with family opting, as we have the past few years, to watch the countown to the new year on East Coast time, or 9:00 p.m. our time. (At least we made it to 9:00 p.m. this year–last year we didn’t make it that late!!) Noah ran himself wild with his cousin, crashing hard at about 10. Natalie, as Wendy said, had a drink and passed out. Ralph, wasn’t tired enough to join his sleeping family so he did the next reasonable thing–flipped channels through the various New Year’s Eve broadcasts which resulted in his latest blog entry. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Why, why, why do they let Dick Clark in front of the camera? I don’t deny his credibility but, dude, you gotta know when to fold ‘em. They are obviously grooming Ryan Seacrest to replace him so while Dick stayed in the warm comfort of the studio (I guess to prevent cardiac arrest), they made Ryan wear those goofy headphones and introduce the acts. One of the acts he introduced was Mariah Carey who apparently has made a comeback this year which I wouldn’t know had I not watched New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Watching Mariah made me feel somewhat embarassed for the state of American pop culture–no wonder the rest of the world hates us. (Oh, an Mariah, we all know that you can do that really screechy high-note thing, so just don’t do it anymore because we don’t need to be impressed.)

ESPN is supposed to offer guys a place to go on the TV where you are very unlikely to see Mariah Carey and can escape from Top 40 hell and see some sports. Not on New Year’s Eve. ESPN felt it necessary to put Stuart Scott (”DJ Stewey” to those Jim Rome fans) in a stupid hat hosting the same camera angles that you can get on sister channel ABC. Not sure why this is necessary.

Using what now seems to be a quaint technology, my wireless remote control, I moved on to FOX. I’m not sure why I don’t dislike Regis Philbin. I think it’s because he’s just SO cheesy that you sort of blow it off. I’m not exactly sure why anyone would watch this crap and, if you are, why wouldn’t you watch Dick Clark? There’s no need for Regis.

I even watched Univision for a few minutes just to get another perspective. I like watching TV in other languages because you can only focus on the images and it makes your realize just how BAD TV really is. Other than indicating that the images were “En Vivo” from “Nueva York” and with an elderly host wearing some kind of wierd Russian-looking hat co-hosting with a bunch of hot latin babes, the images that you see are teh same.

Basically, all of these broadcasts are the same. They are all panning over Time Square, showing the same people, telling us who the top 10 pop music acts were and showing us their lame hosts try to “host” performances of lame musical acts. I just don’t understand the draw and the little window into pop culture is more confusing and embarassing to me than entertaining. CBS was the only major network who had it right–they just bailed on the whole thing and showed an episode of CSI.

So, I just gave up on attempting to uderstand pop culture and, with Natalie curled up asleep on my chest, I flipped on the wireless laptop, got my wireless headphones and settled in to type my blog entry while watching an episode of Nova that I had recorded on the TiVo. No Mariah Carey, no Dick, Ryan, Regis, D.J. Stewey or bizarre Spanish-language equivalents, just a sweet little baby, decent TV content and my blog to ring in the New Year.