Idle Chatter

by William Ham

I realize that most of you would rather have your toenails yanked out with rusty pliers than watch VH-1, but it does have my favorite show of the moment, 4 on the Floor (Sundays, 11:30 am/6 pm), in which three music journalists and a celebrity guest discuss matters musical in an intelligent and non-condescending manner quite refreshing to see for those of us who take their noise seriously. A recent highlight was the appearance of John Lydon, who finally appears to be settling into his role as punk’s elder statesman and not just a self-consciously obnoxious brat. Damn, are we all getting old or what?…

Speaking of music-video channels and their ilk, I have a suggestion for a new MTV series: The Grinder, in which every week a different MTV carbuncle gets thrown into a large industrial combine and is ground into chum. It’s a sure-fire winner, and for sweeps, they can toss in Eric Nies, Dan Cortese, and Kennedy all at once! The dawn of a new age of true public-service programming is upon us…

A hearty “welcome back” to Michael Moore’s TV Nation, soon to come back via Fox, and The Young Ones, running weekly on Comedy Central. (I’d be even happier if the dull-witted weasels from the local cable company would bother to add it to my basic service. Information superhighway, my tuchus. This ain’t even an off-ramp. But that’s another column.)… And that’s all from here ’til next month. Good night and keep watching the skies.