Also...
Here's a
great scene from
one of the best movies
that I've ever seen... NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN:
The guy behind the counter
just has NO idea of who he's
dealing with in Anton Chigurh.
Television
There are only a very few broadcast TV show that I watch every week...
The newBATTLESTAR GALACTICA(don't knock it til you see it...
it's one of the best shows on TV).
Here's a montage of clips
from the first season:
HOUSE, M.D.(the only medical show that I've EVER been interested in watching... and it hasn't disappointed yet)
CHUCK(the only comedy that I'll watch... and I only watched the pilot episode because it was on right before my last choice...)
HEROES(which I only started watching after I saw a show marathon one rainy Saturday... I originally thought it was just going to be a crappy TV version of the X-MEN)
_________________________
Here's my tribute to two of the best shows on television...
both of which suffered untimely deaths at the hands of network idiots:
THE WHITE PLAGUE
by FRANK HERBERT
Written in 1982, it's about a molecular biologist who goes insane and makes a virus that kills only a certain segment of the human race... and then releases it around the world.
Amazing in how it predicted almost exactly how the world would try to find a cure for a worldwide pandemic (it was published before AIDS became known to the general public).
Yeah... as you can probably tell by these last books... I tend to lean conservative in my politics. But, I will NEVER follow
a single political party.
Heroes
THE GUY WHO
INVENTED PET ROCKS
Come on... YOU try to sell a regular rock to someone and see how much money YOU make. HE made A FEW MILLION DOLLARS... F'in GENIUS, I TELLYA!!
Yes, it's me... SEAN THE PRODUCER... and this is my MySpace page.
For those of you who just happened to stumble across this page and have no clue who I am... let me explain your good fortune to you...
You are now on the MySpace page of an almost-was-but-not-quite-semi-famous-local-television-has-been.
I know... exciting, isn't it?
But hang on a minute... let me clarify a bit more...
I am the former producer and co-host of THE LONE SHARK television
and radio programs. Yes, yes... I can understand your excitement at this moment, and-- wait, WHAT? You've never heard of THE LONE SHARK?!
No, SERIOUSLY... it was a REAL television program! You mean after ALL that we've been through together by now, you don't believe me?!
Look... here's some PROOF...
Exhibit A:
A cool photo of JIM SHARKY and myself from an article about THE LONE SHARK in the CONNECTICUT POST:
Exhibit B:
This is THE LONE SHARK'S OPENING ANIMATION which was
created for the program by DAVE WARNER(who, by the way,
is LEGALLY BLIND... seriously... no joke there):
Believe me NOW?!
Fine... screw it... let me explain it to you...
THE LONE SHARK was a weekly live talk / call-in / entertainment / music video / whatever-the-hell-we-felt-like-doing-that-week television program, hosted by Jim Lall-- umm... I mean... hosted by JIM SHARKY and co-hosted by SEAN HAFFNER(a.k.a. SEAN THE PRODUCER... a.k.a. ME). For 10 years (1991-2001), we humored ourselves on local cable television here in Southwestern Connecticut... and for some strange reason, people watched us (every week... some for the whole 10 years). THE LONE SHARK was totally unscripted and uncensored. Every week, we just did things to entertain ourselves and took live phonecalls on the program... and the viewers loved it.
I mean, we were up against Monday Night Football, Monday Night Baseball, Roseanne (when her show was #1) and just about every other top-rated television program on every network... and people STILL chose to watch us. Trust me... I don't understand it, either.
To give you an idea of the fast pace and eclectic nature of THE LONE SHARK, here's a slapped-together montage of clips from the program. You'll notice that you only hear my voice, but don't actually see me on-camera... that's how we did the show every week (that way, I could make adjustments and move around the studio without affecting the "flow" of the show).
So, sit back... relax... and enjoy the video (or don't... it's no skin off MY back) :
Okay... now that you've watched the clip, you're probably even MORE stupefied that anyone would watch THE LONE SHARK than you were when you had only read my description of the program. I know... believe me... I KNOW. I've just learned to accept that (for some odd reason) people REALLY liked the program... and I've moved on from there. Maybe you should do the same... trust me... it just makes things easier for the both of us.
For a short time during the 10-year run of THE LONE SHARK, we also produced a SECOND television program called THE SHARKY & SEAN SHOW(aren't we clever with these names?). It was basically THE LONE SHARK, but with the added feature of an AOL chatroom that we and the viewers could be in to chat with us (and fellow viewers) during the 30 minutes that we were on the air. For the short time that we produced THE SHARKY & SEAN SHOW, it aired every other week in the same time slot as THE LONE SHARK... and people watched THAT program, too. Again... don't bother trying to figure it out... let's just move on.
Here's a clip from THE LONE SHARK that kinda shows the free-form nature of the show. While discussing the content and condition of the "master" tapes of THE JERRY JER SHOW(a program at the station that was not suitable for viewing by a majority of the general public), a housefly that had been buzzing thru the studio the entire night suddenly dropped out of the air and died on-camera:
In 1993, JIM SHARKY, myself and BILL ARCIPRETE teamed up to host a radio incarnation of THE LONE SHARK on WICC(600 AM) in Bridgeport, Connecticut. BILL ARCIPRETE was the Producer & Host of VOXPOP TELEVISION, ALTERNAVISION and THE SWINDLE(the latter-two of which I co-hosted). THE SWINDLE won the 1997 Billboard Music Video Award in the "Best Regional Music Video Program" category.
The weekly one-hour LONE SHARK RADIO program was made to appeal to a broader audience than our tv program (in other words... no profanities). Even though we produced LONE SHARK RADIO for only a couple of months, we quickly built a new fan base with regular callers to the radio program... some of whom then became viewers of the television program.
Oh sure... there were times when things on THE LONE SHARK didn't go as well as we would have wanted them to. Sometimes, certain people on the crew were more concerned with trivial personal projects than they were with the production of THE LONE SHARK, which would cause problems with the program. But, host JIM SHARKY would always take time on the air to calmy diffuse the situation. Well... maybe not THAT calmly:
The producers of other programs at our studio would tend to kiss the ass of Station Management so as not to cause any problems for their programs. But at THE LONE SHARK, we were almost always at-odds with every Station Manager of every studio where the program was produced. Every week, we pushed the limits of what could be said and done on local-cable television... and it usually led to some sort of temporary suspension for THE LONE SHARK.
BUT... on August 20th, 2001, after 10 YEARS on the local-cable tv system of Southwestern Connecticut, THE LONE SHARK was PERMANENTLY SUSPENDED FROM PRODUCTION after the unfortunate airing of THREE SECONDS OF A VIDEO... okay, A PORNOGRAPHIC VIDEO... ON LIVE TELEVISION... DURING PRIME-TIME (and no... we had no delay or censors at our station):
* * * WARNING: THIS CLIP IS NOT FOR THE KIDS!! * * *
Okay, now... I HONESTLY didn't know about the porn clip until the moment it popped up on the monitor in front of me during the show. Yes, you can hear me laughingly say "Ohhh myy God... I'm gettin' a phonecall tomorrow, I know it"... while JIM SHARKY laughs hysterically. But what I was REALLY thinking was "HOLY SHIT!! WE'RE SCREWED!!". Well... Station Management waited for an entire week before I got THE phonecall (telling me that the show was suspended from production).
As far as I knew, this whole porn clip thing was a COMPLETE accident...
and that's what I told the Station Manager and the Cable Advisory Council when I had to stand alone in front of them at the HEARING THAT I HAD TO ATTEND to defend myself and JIM SHARKY against the charge of "Broadcast of material of a prurient nature"... as well as a few other broadcast violations.
Yet, the tape of a woman's anal cavity being violated on our program during a live and uncensored broadcast didn't exactly work well in my defense of the charges against us. Gee... go figure.
At the end of the hearing, the vote to permanently suspend production of THE LONE SHARK(and ban us from even entering the Studio Facilities) was something like 8-2, with the two "Don't Suspend" votes coming from Council Members that just happened to be friends of ours.
All of the other of the Council Members wanted to have me executed.
Yeah... THAT was a fun day.
So... without even getting the chance to say "Good-bye" to our viewers... THE LONE SHARK was no more.
Since 2001, I have been in seclusion at my condominium, along with my neurotic doberman / german shepherd mutt, devising my next destined-to-fail attempt to change the world of local cable television (or radio).
I don't spend a lot of time on this project...
I mean, changing the world is really just a part-time hobby for me...
it doesn't pay the bills...
but, then again... neither does my day job.
Hey... wait a minute... damn, why do I even bother?
I've always been aware of the fact that I have a voice (and face) for radio...
yet I have never been able to use these attributes for profit.
My friends who are in the radio and television production fields
always say to me: "Dude... you have a GREAT voice for radio and voiceovers!"
... to which I reply "Thanks... are you going to hire me?"
... to which they reply "Umm... no".
You know... now that I think about it a little more... should I really consider these people to be "friends" ?
Oh well... I'll add more LONE SHARK video clips here as they become available (TEN YEARS of shows... there's just SO much to sift through).
If you want to know anything else about me, just look over there on the left side of the page.
Who I'd like to meet:
Female Humans. See? I'm not all that picky.
If you fit into this category, then you're well on your way to a life filled with: A) Dead-bolting your doors, and B) Filing restraining orders.
Yep... that's ME... a real "people person".
Actually, I'm on here to catch up with old friends who I've lost contact with...
as well as former viewers / fans of THE LONE SHARK, LONE SHARK RADIO, THE SHARKY & SEAN SHOW, VOXPOP TELEVISION(with BILL ARCPRETE and PETER VOURAS), ALTERNAVISION, THE SWINDLE, EGOISTE and THE ROD MICHAUD SHOW.
And, if I meet some new people along the way... well that's cool, too.
Also, Connecticut bands and businesses are more than welcome to send me Add Requests... I'm always happy to help out local entrepeneurs (that doesn't mean I'll definitely add you... but you have a good chance of being added... so give it a shot).
Sean what' up? Thank You for listening to RW and feeding back - doing things like stirring up the "AIB" controversy is what Reality Wasted is all about.
Your myspace page is awesome, I have to sit down and watch all this Lone Shark... speaking of which, Jim missed stage time in Bport last night to go to an ani difranco show? Tsk tsk. what is the world coming to. GBD
SEAN!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BAAAAAATHDAY!!!!! Thank you for being a friend and thank you for being YOU! You are one of the REAL PEOPLE I got to meet on paltalk! ROCK ON!!!!
Best wishes for your birthday! If you want, I'll let you have one of my MP3 tracks for free as my birthday present for you. Just let me know which one would you like and I'll tell you where to download it.
THERE you are! Hi Sean - great seeing you in Trumbull, and I'm happy to hear Sharky won!
Thanks for joining this site, and I hope others click on my pic and join up too .... and pass it around. I'd like to see this site grow to honor our CT troops that gave their lives in this terrible war.
I hope to see you again soon! - Anne (CT COMIC + "Roseanne Barr" Tribute)
