Monday, August 15, 2005

What's up doc?

Okay fine...I admit it. I loved 'Doc Hollywood.' Happy now?

The thing is, I'm a sap for stuff like that. That and it always seemed to come on when I had nothing else to watch. Over time, it's become like an old friend. If I need a boost, I just call it up and feel the cheer.

Anyway, there's a scene near the end where Michael J. Fox's character calls the recording put up everyday by the chamber of the little town he finally escaped from. He's feeling saudage* for the place and just calls to hear a familiar voice.

A while back I found just such a place. I was looking at journalism jobs and there was a little paper called The Corbin Times-Tribune in Corbin, Kentucky. It serves Knox, Laurel and Whitley Counties thank you very much. On their website, they always have a short video clip of the day's headlines read by a high school girl who I think is the daughter of the publisher. It's charming.

Now, whenever I feel a bit jaded or annoyed with life, I click over to The Corbin Times-Tribune and watch Jessie Hanson giving me the headlines from Knox, Laurel and Whitley Counties. It never fails to make me smile, even if just a little.

If you hurry and follow the link, you may get lucky and catch highlights of the Nibroc Festival. Kansas played there if you're wondering. Also, you may not have noticed that Nibroc is Corbin spelled backwards. That's gotta warm your cynical heart...

11 comments:

Eileen said...

I can't believe that you enjoy watching perky teenagers on the internet. That's so unlike you!

The Zombieslayer said...

I was trying to think Doc Hollywood, that sounds so familiar. Then I realized, it was that awful movie with Michael J Fox that I tried blocking out of my mind a decade ago.

Sorry, buddy. I guess we can't agree on everything.

Laura said...

It's not a terrible movie, but it's your typical fish out of water romantic comedy.

I have to agree with eileen though... the cynical side of me thinks that's just a tad bit creepy. :-p

thephoenixnyc said...

I get that same feeling of comfort when I read The Onion (a Wisconsin product BTW).

Shawn said...

Eileen - Yeah, but those sites usually cost money.

That reminds me though of a question I had...do you ever wonder what's happened to the people you've taken pictures of? (I was going to say 'shot', but I thought that might freak people out a bit.)

ZS - That's alright...I know it's a cheesy movie. but I'm okay with that. For a while it was probably my most watched movie due to the fact that it seemed to always be on whenever I stayed at a hotel (along with 'League of Their Own'). I have my own movies I hate list...it includes most of the Disney library.

Laura - Sadly cynical...you're probably not alone. No Neverland here though.

Phoenix - I love The Onion although I don't read it nearly enough for my sanity. I like the Broadway posts by the way.

kris said...

Don't feel bad, Shawn. I love the movie Rudy and will defend it until death.

Jason said...

Doc Hollywood's OK. Whatever happened to Nancy Travis?

I've been to Corbin a few times. Some things never change.

Laura said...

Actually, didn't the Onion move to New York? I was very sad when I heard that.

thephoenixnyc said...

Glad you like them. More to come...

Josh said...

Goddammit, Eileen. You always say what I'm thinking first.

Doc Hollywood is a fine movie, Shawn. Did I ever tell you about how Harleigh had this plan for all of us to record a different Michael J. Fox theme song? So, like, maybe he'd record a cover of "Back in Time" by Huey Lewis, and I'd record a cover of whatever the theme song to Teen Wolf was, et cetera, et cetera.

It was going to be called The MJF Project, and the last track was going to be all of the contributing artists collaborating on the Family Ties theme ("Sha na na na . . . ") Actually, I think the only reason he wanted to do it was because he had the piano music for that song.

Anyway, we never got around to it.

Shawn said...

J-Wimmtastic - That because Eileen now gets up in the morning and does productive stuff...she's so cool.

Speaking of cool...The MJF Project could have been big, but I think you've missed your window of opportunity.