The Underground Bunker

On the Big Screen

Mark Bunker — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:54:00 GMT

Can bad movies get better on reflection? I saw a film this weekend that I didn't enjoy at all and yet I keep hearing the theme song playing in my noggin and keep reflecting on the experience. That doesn't happen with most films made in Hollywood.

This film was made far outside of Hollywood. In Colma. That's a suburb of San Francisco which is best know apparently for having far more dead people buried in its many cemetaries than people living in the city.

The film is called, "Colma, the Musical" and from its engaging trailer and high rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, I decided to give it a chance. I love to discover gems that are out of the mainstream and was hoping this would be one of them.

It's a musical, shot on digital video on a very, very, very low budget. I'd say no budget. I was hoping that would actually add to its charm but I found the performances, writing and direction disappointing.

Am I sorry I saw it? Nope. I'm sorry I dragged a friend to it. It was the first time we saw a movie together and I knew I was taking a chance with the selection but if it had been a winner it's something we could have discovered together.

But I'm still thinking about the film...so maybe it wasn't a failure. And maybe it'd be a great film to revisit sometime down the lane.

Oh, and having just watched the trailer again...I want to see that film! I guess that's the power of a good trailer.

Itsy Bitsy Spider...

Mark Bunker — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 01:10:00 GMT

I was digging up some video for a viewer just now and stumbled upon this incident from Monday morning's FOX in the Morning. It happened around 5:30 am while Chrissy Russo was giving her traffic report. A spider was spotted on her green screen background...and fun ensued!

Attack of the Giant Green Screen Spider 8/20/07
Chrissy's traffic report is interrupted by the appearance of a spider on the green screen backdrop.

Enjoy!

RIP Fake Dead Bird

Mark Bunker — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:09:00 GMT

Have you ever watched a newscast and seen the same shots show up over and over again? Fat people walking down the street from the neck down? Smokers lighting up a butt outdoors? Partiers downing beer with friends?

That's stock footage that gets used when there's no new footage to show.

Sometimes those shots have to be retired because we've all seen them too many freakin' times. Such is the case with this classic clip. This will be the very last time you see the fake dead bird with his feet in the air, used too often in a West Nile Virus story.

What We Have Here is a Dead Polly
R.I.P. Fake Dead Bird. Died for the last time on 8/17/07.

So long, fake dead bird with his feet in the air. We hardly knew ye.

Let's Go Live to Ruben...!

Mark Bunker — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 06:09:00 GMT

Those are my favorite words in FOX6 broadcasting! I love the combination of live TV and FOX in the Morning's own Ruben Galvan. There no telling what is going to happen when we find out the answer each morning to "Where's Ruben?"

Quite often some TV gold is mined as Ruben puts himself into situations only Lucy Ricardo would face and the results can be just as hilarious. I was reminded of that tonight as I was digging through the archives and found this clip called, "Ruben Get's Stuck."

With a title like that, I knew I was in for some fun! Ruben was doing a live tease at the start of the show with the help of some automotive students and quickly discovered he needed more help than anyone expected.

Ruben Gets Stuck 4/18/06
FOX 6's Ruben Galvan is at Clairemont high school hanging out with the automotive class.

Of course, Marc Bailey was no help. He was doubled over in laughter and as always, teased Ruben mercilessly. But here's the deal. It's all in good fun. It's the type of ribbing you give to your closest friends...just televised.

What I love about Ruben is he puts himself into situations the rest of us would avoid. Swinging on a trapeze? No thanks. Hopping on the back of a rodeo bull? Nope, not for me. But Ruben does them all, and even faces his fear of heights on camera where people can gawk in amazement.

Ruben Walks The Catwalk
Ruben faces his fear of heights and shows us how much fun you can have at the Salvation Army Kroc Center. We even keep our eyes on him throughout weather and traffic on the 6's.

Ruben remains imperfectly human instead of being your usual plastic, placid reporter. He's a real guy facing unreal situations and letting us watch. And everywhere he goes, he spreads joy. Thanks for all the great segments, Ruben!

Wine and Hot Air Balloon Tour
Ruben is out in Temecula at the South Coast Winery where he makes the catch-phrase "My Eyes Are Burning!" a national craze.

Indoor Skydiving Part 1
Ruben is at the Perris Valley Indoor Skydiving facility as he attempts to take to the skies.

Indoor Skydiving Part 2
Ruben is at Perris Valley Skydiving, braving the unknown as he goes indoor skydiving. Will the second try be the charm?

Biker Ruben 2/15/07
Ruben hops on a bike and takes on the Supercross racing course at Qualcomm.

Campo Bull Riding and Barrel Racing 3/7/07
Buckaroo Ruben and his horse pal "Rip" blaze a trail around the barrels out in Lakeside.

Ruben Attacked
Ruben gets attacked by his own life vest at West Marine.

Ruben on Ice 3/22/07
We so loved Ruben's adventures on the ice from yesterday that we've put together a tribute video.

Remembering Merv

Mark Bunker — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:33:00 GMT

With Merv Griffin's passing, I was recalling how much he was enjoyed in my household when I was growing up. We all gathered to watch his afternoon syndicated talkshow which introduced me to a lot of old-time show biz folks and a lot of young up-and-comers as well.

It was a place where people like Totie Fields and Ann Miller could always drop in but Merv also gave big breaks to people like David Letterman and Garry Shandling, too.

Unlike the mild Mike Douglas, Merv always had a freewheeling sense of humor and I recall my dad especially roaring with laughter most days. Okay, dad was an easy target. But Merv did have great comic timing, as I was reminded when I watched this video of Merv singing his early novelty hit, "I've Got a Loverly Bunch of Coconuts."

Doing a quick search, I was amazed how much Merv there is on YouTube. I'm sorry to say my two favorite guests aren't there. I loved it when either of the two Orsons would stop by. Orson Bean and Orson Welles were both tremendous story tellers and you could tell Merv loved having them as guests.

Merv Griffin Dies 8/12/07
The entertainment world has lost a legend. Merv Griffin, who created the hit game shows "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" died of prostate cancer at the age of 82.

The Next Big Thing?

Mark Bunker — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:43:00 GMT

Carly Layne wrote us to let us know about San Diego singer/songwriter Molly Jenson. She's had articles about her in Relevant, San Diego Reader, and Teen Vogue. She; been nominated for a San Diego Music Award for Best Acoustic Act. I've checked out some of her music at her website and think she's terrific.

Check out this YouTube video and let us know what you think.

Look! Up in the sky!

Mark Bunker — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 02:33:00 GMT

The Skyfox chopper caught some fun footage today for all you aviation fans. The Bed Bull stunt plane took off from the deck of the Midway and spent ten minutes doing some daring loop-de-loops around the bay.

It's take-off is remarkable. It becomes something close to a helicopter as it suddenly goes into a steep climb from the deck. This is raw unedited footage so bear with the occasional fumbling of the camera on the helicopter. They managed to captured some great shots.

Red Bull Stunt Plane 8/8/07
The Skyfox chopper shot some footage of the Red Bull stunt plane rehearsing before a big air show. This raw, unedited footage follows the plane from it's spectacular take-off from the deck of the Midway to it's landing. Runs 10 min.

My dad loved planes although we were rarely up in the skies ourselves as a family. Our trips were usually car treks, filled with lots of sturm und drang...whatever that means. It can't be good from the sound of it.

But dad would often times drag us to the local airport and park the car outside the fence by the landing strip on a quiet evening and we would sit there with our Dairy Queen treats and watch the planes take-off and land. Yes, it was every bit as exciting as it sounds...but those Dilly Bars were tasty.

Here's some more airshow video from our archives, in honor of my dad. Unwrap a Dilly and enjoy.

Miramar Air Show 10/14/06
A salute to the Blue Angels highlights the annual event.

Miramar Air Show 10/12/06
The best civilian and military pilots take to the air as the show opens at MCAS Miramar.

Miramar Air Show #2 10/12/06
They're fast, they're loud, and boy will they draw a big crowd this weekend, the Blue Angels are in town for the Miramar airshow. Fox-6's Sherri Palmeri gives us preview.

From the Archives

Mark Bunker — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:04:00 GMT

Eric Collins is covering a great story for Tuesday's 10 pm show. It's another confrontation between the Mayor's office and the City Attorney's office. It seems that many public parking spaces have been used by a posh restaurant for valet parking.

Mike Aguirre had the valet parking signs torn down, the Mayor's office had them put back up and now...Aguirre is saying, "Go ahead and park there. We won't prosecute you!"

That's a pretty amazing statement and I can't wait to see the fallout. I love it when things get stirred up. We are all too complacent and could use a little poking with a stick from time to time.

Speaking of which, in the archive stories I've included with Eric's report on the web, I want to point you to this gem from John Mattes. I don't know about you but I HATE the tiny parking spaces we have in San Diego.

Well, John Mattes did a fun story last year in which he took a tape measure and went around seeing if various businesses were giving us the full space width required by the city code. He measures space after space...before checking out the parking spots of the mayor and city council. Check it here.

Parking Spaces 2/17/06
Everywhere you go the size of parking spaces seem to be shrinking. FOX 6's John Mattes investigates how San Diego parking spots measure up.

Two Thumbs Way Up!

Mark Bunker — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 07:41:00 GMT

When I wrote yesterday about my love of streaming video on the web, it was really just part one of my blog entry. I didn't have time to talk about the newest and most welcome web video treasure trove: The The Balcony Archives debuted online Thursday. All of the movie reviews to have ever appeared on Siskel and Ebert's and now on Ebert and Roeper's movie review shows are online and searchable.

I grew up in Wisconsin. With my rabbit ear antennae on my little TV, I could just barely pick up the distant and flickering images of the Chicago public TV station where Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert did their first program, and I followed them to commercial TV when their show became "Sneak Previews", then "At the Movies," and then "Siskel and Ebert."

I still have a VHS copy of the tribute show Roger did for Gene Siskel after Gene passed away. They were unique as critics in that their exchanges were often more entertaining than the movies they reviewed.

After Gene's death, the show carried on with guest hosts until settling on Richard Roeper who has now grown comfortable with Roger, and I in time grew comfortable with him. As Roger recovers from his own health crisis, Richard has done a fine job of holding down the fort.

Incidentially, when Roger made his first public appearance again after his surgury, I put some video of him and his wife on the site:

Roger Ebert Interview
Ebert makes first public appearance since cancer surgery. Runs 3:20 4/26/07

Now the great news is that every single review that Roger, Gene and Richard have ever done can be accessed on their website. Just do a quick search and the review pops right up. My confession here...the first movie I searched for was "Battlefield Earth." I wanted to cozy up to some good old fashion thumbs down action.

But to see Gene again, I chose next their classic disagreement over "Blue Velvet." Gene never let Roger forget that he gave David Lynch's film a thumbs down. I love seeing them spar once again.

Some day I may tell you of the time I met Roger and Gene, or even better, the time I was told "Don't let Mike Tyson walk through that door."

Til then, the balcony is closed.

Streaming Goodness

Mark Bunker — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 07:31:00 GMT

We are constantly tinkering with the site and sneaking in improvements right under your nose. For instance, did you know that we now have a video player on each of our main story pages?

Go to any of our top stories from the main page and you'll see a video player on the right hand side of the page. Click the play button and that story will open up and stream right from that page. No need to go to the Media Center to watch the report. Of course, it is also archived in the Media Center and you can find it there as well.

Here's an example from tonight's show. It's the story Kristine Frazao did on bridge safety here in San Diego and includes a follow-up to the tragic collapse of the Minneapolis bridge. You can watch the report stream on the Flash player and if you click on the little icon to the left of the "More Videos" button on the player, the video will fill your screen.

I love streaming video. I've been streaming video on the web since 1998. It is a wonderful thing to be able to see and hear the people who are making news. I always try to include more video for the website than we have time to put on air. If you have the time, take a look at some of the extras we included for the bridge story.

I like to include longer videos whenever possible. For this story, we have press conferences, background pieces, and some moving stories. When I saw the collapse aftermath yesterday, I was drawn to that school bus. There was something especially poignant about the sight of that bus. How miraculous was it that the kids made it out alive? I'm happy we can bring you a seven minute interview with the man who helped the kids escape.

Hero Bus Chaperone 8/2/07
Interview with Jeremy Hernandez, who helped rescue children from bus. Runs 7:50

Well, that's all for now. Let us know what you want to see or how we can make things better.

Puzzled By the Site?

Mark Bunker — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 05:18:00 GMT

Are you a crossword puzzle addict? I go through periods when I can't get enough of them. I'll buy the softbound books and fill in page after page. Then I go cold turkey and try to swear off, only to be tempted by an unsolved puzzle left out on a friend's kitchen counter.

Recently, our webmaster, Aaron, told me that we had some cool new features on the FOX6 website in the Entertainment section, including gossip, movie reviews, comic strips and...puzzles! Sure enough, we have a new daily Flash-based crossword puzzle which is really fun to solve.

The interface is terrific. You can quickly go from entry to entry and fill in the blanks. Enter a wrong letter and a quick backspace gives you a second chance...and a third and fouth if you need it. I have to admit, I have only tried it on the "Regular Skill Level" which tells you immediately if you've entered a wrong letter. The "Master Skill Level" sends you out into the cruel up-and-down maze on your own.

We have so many features on the FOX6 website that many of our own staff here in the station are surprised to discover a certain feature. But imagine my surprise this afternoon when I mentioned the crossword puzzle to Aaron and he said, "We have a crossword puzzle?"

I showed him today's puzzle and the elegant interface and before you know it we were hooked and had to finish the thing. But if management asks, we were working. It was important research. And it led directly to this blog entry.

Give it a try. Or maybe you prefer one of the other many puzzles on the site. Let us know what you like and dislike and what you'd like to see on the FOX6 website.

Rolling in DOH!

Mark Bunker — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 07:03:00 GMT

The Simpsons Movie opened last weekend to huge success, shocking even the studio by making more than twice the expected gross at the theater. If you haven't seen it yet, you have to go. It is brilliantly funny.

I have to admit, I had grave doubts about the film. I think the glory days of the TV show happened a decade ago and while I continue to watch every week and will do so every week for the rest of of my life (since the show would clearly outlive me even if I were a teen), I laugh less often than at the show's peak during the Conan O'Brien period of seasons 4 and 5.

I sat down in the theater with a little chip on my shoulder, saying, "You think you can make me laugh? Go ahead, prove it."

Almost immediately, I was roaring out loud with laughter and never stopped till the end credits were through. This is "The Simpsons" at it's best and I won't even think about spoiling a single joke.

See it! You'll love it!

Here are some of the stories we've done on "The Simpsons" recently:

Simpsons Hit the Big Screens 7/27/07
Kristine Frazao talks to moviegoers to get their reaction to "The Simpsons Movie."

The Simpsons Movie 7/25/07
Frequent Simpson guest voice-artist Albert Brooks appears in this Oval Office clip from the new Simpsons film.

The Simpsons Movie 7/25/07
We see Homer face an angry mob in a clip from the new film and then we go to Moe's Tavern for an anecdote from Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons."

Homer Simpson on the Tonight Show 7/25/07
Homer Simpson fills in for Jay Leno on the Tonight Show.

The Simpsons Movie 7/25/07
Homer sings "Spider-Pig" in this clip from the new Simpson feature film.

Lobbying for Springfield 7/5/07
14 "Springfield" cities vie to host premiere of Simpsons movie.

The Simpsons' 400th Episode 5/18/07
The Simpsons have broken another TV record. We get a preview of the long running series' star-studded 400th episode.

The Simpson 400th Episode
A sneak peak of this weekend's record-breaking 400th episode of "The Simpsons."

The Simpsons Movie Trailer
The Simpsons Movie is coming to theaters worldwide July 27th.

Harry Shearer
Legendary satirist Harry Shearer, voice of many characters on "The Simpsons," has a new book called "Not Enough Indians." His weekly radio show can be heard at www.harryshearer.com

Simpson's 350th 4/26/05
America's favorite dysfunctional family is celebrating a milestone this weekend.