OFF THE GRID

OR, LENNY GETS DISCONNECTED
FROM THE INFORMATION AGE

7/8/05

nyone who regularly reads this column may have noticed it goes "missing" from time to time. I've retired from The Biz almost as many times as Don Garlits has, albeit with a lot less fanfare than the Swamp Rat tends to generate. It's usually a dose of bad breaks or bad attitude, and I eventually get over it. Hey, I'm a 1320 junkie, and that's as much of an apology as I'm likely to offer. This latest episode of Lenny - MIA!! wasn't a voluntary absence. It was nothing less than an Act Of God!!

At least that's what my insurance agent calls it. Underwriters, and laymen like me still call a lightning strike an Act Of God, regardless of what the ACLU or Theory of Relativity believers may prefer. Three weeks ago, plus three days, a lightning bolt of the first order struck the House Of Lenny, and instantly rendered five grand worth of electrical gear a pile of burnt up junk. Yes, that includes the computer, two of three televisions, the thermostat for the Air conditioner, cable modem, and a few odds and ends I sometimes use. Maybe it really was an Act Of God, as I was out gambling at One of Kansas City's riverboat casinos when the strike happened. To reinforce the "bad Karma coming home to roost" scenario, I had left my lovely wife home alone, one week removed from cancer surgery to go out and gamble. She SAID it was all right!! And I even won some bucks at the casino -- but not five grand.

At any rate, Lenny is back on the Internet, and reading up on recent developments. As you might suspect, I have an opinion and/or insight to share. So let's get down to cases.

NHRA AND LIVE TV

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If this happens, it won't be the first time. Yes, they have done it before, just not as a matter of course. Portions of the US Nationals have been done live, and NHRA even ventured into the closed circuit TV arena a while back. They had a deal with Direct TV, a well-known satellite TV provider to buy the dish and get all-access coverage for a couple of events. Seemed like a good idea to me, but it didn't last long. A few observers felt the whole shebang had a bad odor, but I think the numbers just were not what NHRA and Direct TV were looking for. All of which should serve as a good object lesson for NHRA and their current broadcast partner, ESPN. I am speaking specifically about the recent NHRA broadcast in Hi-Def from Englishtown. Or rather, I'm wondering if the proposed live coverage will be available on ESPN2 High definition ONLY, or on the old kinda TV signal too. Either way, I just want to know what's coming at me, in what format, so I can budget accordingly and get with the right programming content provider. After all, at the end of the day it's NHRA's show, we're just watching it!

Which brings us to another "concern" when one ponders what live drag racing TV coverage might actually be. Just what exactly are they gonna show? A good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, likened NHRA drag racing TV shows to infomercials. And to a large extent, he was right. If you look at who gets the interviews, who gets the personality (puff) pieces, who gets left out of the qualifying coverage you can begin to see the truth of such a viewpoint. Lots of selling, but lots of what would qualify as news or even noteworthy gets omitted. Again, it's NHRA's show, so whatever approach they choose to take, that's what we get.