Sunday, July 30, 2006

A&E is Evil!

I'm a fan of "Flip This House" an A&E show featuring Trademark Properties buying houses, fixing them up, then selling them for a profit. It's a great show, and you're really missing out if you haven't seen it. Wait....I meant I WAS a fan of the show. Season 2 premiered last Sunday, but Trademark Properties isn't part of the new season, and isn't part of the show at all. I noticed Richard C Davis, CEO of Trademark, was credited as the creator of the show in season 1, but his name was removed from the credits of season 2. I checked out the A&E forums and fans were PISSED at the cast change. I decided to email Richard and ask him what was going on with the show, and a few days later I received this email (which went out to everyone that emailed him):

    WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    First of All, I want to personally thank you all for the overwhelming show of support you guys have shown us during season 1 of "Flip This House" and even more so since the introduction of season 2 without Team Trademark. TRULY HUMBLING and more appreciated than I can ever put in words.

    Many of you have taken the time out of your busy lives to let the powers to be know how you feel, that means more to me personally than any victory we will have in court.

    I can't comment on the lawsuit but I will tell you it is the FIRST time in my life that I even contemplated suing anyone. I don't believe in wasting good energy chasing bad energy and truly believe you reap what you sew but this time I wasn't going to be bullied by a network and allow them to steal what is rightfully mine.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060725/tv_nm/house_dc_1

    I want to clear up any question as to our association with season 2, it's real simple....WE HAVE NONE! A&E did a casting call to replace myself, Ginger, Dawn, Lori, Vance, John and everyone else associated with Trademark Properties. I wrote the show, produced our pilot, shopped it to 3 networks, never sold it, still own it and somehow A&E "recast" a show that was never cast in the first place. We are real people, doing what we do every day, just with a camera capturing it for your amusement and hopefully you pick up some tips along the way, some how to and some how not to:)

    We are filming as we speak for a new series on a new network. I want to assure you of one thing, we will not change for the sake of a network or production company or anyone for that matter. We are who we are, flaws and all and don't care to show you anything but who we really are, what we really do and how we really do it, success or failure.

    It has been great meeting many of you at the airports, at our office and for many of you at The Crab House:) you guys have shown us nothing but support and even if I get in trouble with the lawyers, I felt the need to respond to your gracious support.

    Everyone has brought it to my attention that the network has removed the website and discussion boards for your comments. I would ask that you all please go to www.imdb.com and utilize the "flip this house" discussion boards there. This is a television database for the industry that cannot be removed by the network. It means so much to Team Trademark that you continue to have a place to voice your concerns. This is the place that will get the most attention from network executives, production companies, and sponsors, as well. Please remember when you rate the show, it is about season 1 with Team Trademark. So if you like season 1 - rate it high, but put your comments about season 2 in the comment section.

    Thank you so much – we could not ask for a more supportive group of people! We will keep you up to date as we are allowed (and sometimes when we're not:) )

    Richard
BAD A&E! I hope Trademark wins this lawsuit and walks away with a pile of cash, and their show. I won't be watching season 2.

Gord

Friday, July 21, 2006

Heroes

This is going to be the hot show of the fall season. "Heroes" is a story about a bunch of normal people that discover they have "powers." No, they don't run around in costumes and fight crime. you'll want to find out more about this show, so I know you'll click over to 9thWonders.com - the official unofficial website run by our buddy Craig (he also runs KryptonSite.com).

I went to the Comic Con screening of the pilot and it's awesome, awesome, awesome! I only watch a handful of scripted shows on TV (okay.....2 shows), but I'll watch this when it airs in September. I snapped a whole bunch of photos that I uploaded to my Flickr account if you care to take a look.

Gord

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Inept

I had the pleasure of running into some of the most inept people today. Yes, this is a rant.

My day was shit, right from the start. I sat down in my seat and my eyes started to itch, and I started sneezing. This was odd because that only happened when I was around cats. A few minutes later I heard a long, low growl which sounded like a pissed off cat. I've seen dogs on airplanes, but never a cat. I started looking for the cat, but couldn't see it, and then I heard the girl behind me say, "It's okay Whiskers, mommy will protect you." Yes, I had a cat under my chair. Thankfully I was able to switch to another seat because the plane wasn't full, but I couldn't believe my luck. Little did I know it had just begun.

We pulled into Phoenix earlier than expected and found another plane at our gate. Not a problem, because we were early. Well, that turned into a problem after the plane left and our gate caught on fire (seriously). We had to wait for another gate, which meant more time was wasted. I got off the one plane and stood in line for my flight to San Diego, but I made sure to ask someone at the counter if my bags would make it on the flight. "Yes, of course," said the lying bitch Lana.

We had the same problem when we got into San Diego; someone was at our gate. This time they didn't leave a fire when they pulled away, but it was a long delay before we got off the plane. I waited for my baggage as I watched my fellow passengers pick up their bags and leave. I had a bad feeling from the start, but that lying bitch Lana said everything would be fine. I've tipped you off to something - Lana lied. My bags didn't arrive in San Diego, and I wasn't sure whether I should cry, or laugh when the bags stopped going around and around. I decided to laugh. I went to customer service and spoke with Terry - she seemed nice, but she also lied. "We'll call you later this afternoon sir." The call never came.

I decided to chill in my room for a bit - a room that turned out to be smoking before I had it changed (I know I didn't request a smoking room). Still no call from the airline, so I decided to see about picking up my press badge for Comic Con. I arrived there at 5:00, found the press line and stood....for a hell of a long time. I was already in a pissy mood, but standing in that line at Comic Con made it worse...far worse. People who go to Comic Con every year are reading this and saying to themselves, "Duh...of course there's a line!" They're right, except the press line is much smaller. I had to register on site which ended up being a two part process. Part 1 was to stand in a short line of 4 people (I was number 5) and hand the person my credentials, and then fill out a very short form with my name, address, phone number and the name of the press outlet. The form takes 2 mins to do, maybe less, but the line took 30 mins to get through. I finished that up and stood in the longer line (15 people ahead of me) for 1 hour and 20 mins. The people working this desk had one of two things to do; find the persons name in the computer if they were already registered, or enter it if they aren't there (I wasn't there). Then they print the badge out, put it in the plastic thing, and hand the person two packages. Sounds simple, except they had inept people working! It took some of these people forever to retype the information from the form that took 2 mins to fill out in the first place. Insane! Look, I realize Comic Con is a massive undertaking, but FIND PEOPLE THAT CAN TYPE! I wanted to yank that computer out of her hands and do it myself, but I didn't. I made it out of there just in time to run across the street to meet some people for dinner. I ordered a drink - a double - because I needed it.

The airline still hadn't called back, so I called them and left a message. This whole time I've been thinking about what was in my bag, what I can replace, what will be a pain in the ass, and what I'm going to wear the next day (I could only come up with one thing - what I had on today). We went for dinner, which was good, except it turned into a scene thanks to some inept people working at the restaurant. That's all I'm going to say about that.

So I return to my hotel at 11:30, and still haven't heard from the airline (US Airways/America West). The airport closes at midnight, and I'm close to it, so I head over there to find out where my freakin' bag is since the hotel hadn't received anything. The baggage area is empty, though the door is open (I thought about scrounging for a t-shirt in case my bags didn't show up, then decided against it). I finally got to speak to someone and was told.......my bags were delivered to the hotel! The America West person got someone from the hotel on the phone and they said my bags would be delivered to my room.

I got back to the hotel, went into my room and there was.......nothing there. A few mins later the phone rings and it's the bellman asking me if I had my bag. I felt like screaming at this point, but I simply said, "no." His response was, "Hmm....I'll see where they are." 20 mins later I was reunited with my long-lost bag.

There's a moral to this story:
When you have a shitty day and your girlfriend isn't around to comfort you, just blog about it and you'll feel a little bit better. Oh, and don't believe that lying bitch Lana.

I'm sure I'll wake up tomorrow and forget most of this happened, but right now I wish I was at home with my girlfriend, and not surrounded by inept people.

I'm going to bed after being awake for 22 hours. Good night,
Gord

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Pimp your ride?

We often get emails from people thinking that we're somehow connected to a TV show. We're baffled by it, because I can't think of anything on the site that would lead someone to believe we work on any show. By far the number one show people think we're connected to is "Pimp My Ride," the MTV series where they take crappy cars and pimp them out with new paint jobs, killer sound systems, and TVs in the strangest places (really, who is going to go out to the garage and watch a TV in their trunk?).

Now I bring you the "Pimp My Ride" emails:

Bernard has sent the following email:
How do register to get my car pimped?

Sal has sent the following email:
My name is Sal and I have a junky car and I want to get it fixed up for my mother's Birthday and I wanted to do it through your show. You can contact my mothere at the email address, XXXXXXX@yahoo.com or mail me @ XXX ave. XXXX Fresno, CA XXXXX and our phone number is (XXX) 2X1-1XX2, ask for Regina. Thank you for your time and consideration
Sal

althea has sent the following email:
I'm 70 and have a MR2 1985 the frist one out and my 11 grandkids told me to see if you pimp my car??????

Richard has sent the following email:

Hi My name is Richard, I would like to congradulate you guys for the show "pimp my ride" . I think it's great what you'll are doing. I was wondering if you guys could help a vato out one time. I bought this old 71 leman pontiac, and is kind of rusted. I had plans to fix it up myself but with a 5 yrs. old daughter and being under pay is hard to do so. I'd always loved old cars and this is one of my favorite ones. I see myself in it cruisin the streets of my neighborhood clean clean feeling like a million bucks. thank you for your time and please send me your adress so I can mail you my car fliks and mines thanks again, by the way I live in the bay area, san francisco. peace...

Ricky has sent the following email:
Will you please please pimp my ride ?

boakai has sent the following email:
HI,MY NAME IS BOAKAI,I WASH YOUR SHOW EVERY TIME ON TV AND I READY ONE TO TELL YOU PEOPLE THANKS ,FOR YOUR HELP YOUR BEEN GIVING PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY TO RIDE GOOD CAR.MY SELP I DO NOT HAVE MONEY TO RIDE GOOD CAR TOO.BUT THANK GOD,I PRAY ONE DAY YOU PEOPLE WITH SEE ME TOO.THANKS GOD BLESS YOUR AND YOUR FAMILY.GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU.

lee has sent the following email:
would love to pimp my ride , they only prob. is don't really have the finaince for ..... guess my question would be how or what would you you do to a '94 intrepid 3.5l power everything .. would like some ideas that would not be to expensive , , is there any pimp my ride contest for canadians up north in timmins ontariothat i could try to enter would love to see what some one else would do

Tyrone has sent the following email:
I would like to know where the shop is located so that I could purchase some rime and get my music installed

Jessica has sent the following email:
I filled out an app. for pimp my ride on a web site. they wrote me back and said i got it. then they wanted me to fill out some more info and give them a credit card number. can you please e-mail me back and tell me if this sounds wright.

bear ballard has sent the following email:
how do you get your truck pimp out please let me know a 75 chevy is waiting

There are more, but those are just the recent ones. It's too bad the show wasn't called "My Pimped Car" and these people were offering to send me their pimped out car so they could get on TV.

Gord

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Turn off your phone!

I just got back from seeing a movie, and I was sickened by the number of people that were using their cell phones while the movie was on. There were 17 people (older movie, not popular at all), and at least 4 of the people were either talking on their phones, or using them for text messaging. What's wrong with these people?! Can't they go 2 hours without talking/messaging people? Apparently not. I was so frustrated with the girls behind me that I turned around and asked them fairly nicely to shut their phones off. Had I actually seen the phone I would have grabbed it and tossed it as far, and as hard, as I could. I rarely go to the theaters any more, and it seems as though I always meet inconsiderate people talking on cell phones in a theater where the projector isn't in focus. ARGH!

Gord