With the Olympics and now the convention, I gotta get out more. But this is not your father's Democratic National Convention. I was absolutely shocked to discover that one of my favorite parts of the convention, the roll call of the states, must have started about 5:30 Eastern. WTF?

There's nothing like watching each state have someone who drops names of their favorite in-state politicians, toss in their state nickname, perhaps throw in a celebrity from their state, give some historical perspective, then proudly pledge delegates for the candidates. Only to be followed by that creepy lady, who repeats the vote total in an absurdly enthusiastic manner.

The other part of the coverage this year I do not like, is the constant talking over of speeches. C-SPAN obviously shows all, with CNN showing the most, by far, of the cable news networks. John Kerry spoke tonight while Chris Matthews was simultaneously holding court on MSNBC. Jeepers, he was the nominee last time. He failed, but how about a smidgen of respect?

Meal of Links

I set aside my bunting and put down my straw hat and stopped convention-ing a bit to watch the latest installment of "Dinner Impossible". In this episode, Michael Symon went down to Nashville and cooked a dinner based on the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Of course, he had to cook that for Charlie Daniels pre-concert and 300 post-concert Opry guests.

Could not have been too tough, I mean, have you seen Charlie lately? Not exactly on the South Beach Diet. These shows are fairly harmless, in that any crises that may come up, seem to be concocted. Everyone gets fed, fed well actually, and then goes home happy. But it is neat to see what type of a menu they come up with.

I am not Dr. Sci-Fi, by any stretch of the imagination. But here are 10 Underrated Sci-Fi Movies. I agree with "Gattaca" being on this list. Hardly even see this one on cable anymore. "Sleeper", "Silent Running", and "A Boy and His Dog" also good choices on the list.

Angel from "Dexter" talks about acting. He used to be an NYC cop.

Anthony Bourdain talks about everything. Including Rachael Ray. Again. I never get tired of that.

Labor Day Marathons:

Jerry Lewis, consult your local listings.

"Scrubs" on TV Land.

TNT has "The Closer", while TBS runs "House of Payne". What, no "Family Guy"?

"Mad Men" runs on AMC on a catch-up Season 2 Sunday at 5:00.

The "Fred Essentials" has already started on XM Radio today.

VH-1 has "80 hours of '80s" starting on Friday.

SciFi has "Star Trek: TNG", while Discovery has "Dirty Jobs".

Travel Channel has "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations".

Spike has "CSI", but isn't that every day on Spike?

But the weather is supposed to be fine, so get out there!

Exercise Yard

Why the biggest stars of the NBA will never go to Europe. A nice economic study.

Different in the EPL, where Abramovich seems to be buying the entire free world. The latest being a $58 million deal.

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