Albert Banks

If you’re like most Americans, you’ve got a DVR or Tivo for your TV watching. This brilliant device allows us to cram more viewing into less time. We no longer have to sit through the 20 minutes of commercials per hour.

Nor do you have to sit through a show’s intro. But do you? Most of the time I don’t, but there are a few show that I just can’t skip. Here’s my list:

The Office
The jingle gets me every time.

Chuck
Cartoony Bond-like intro backed by Cake’s “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”

Battlestar Galactica
Closes with high-energy snippets of the current episode

What TV Show intros do you watch?

A majority of Americans still rely on cable companies for television service. Here in Charlotte the culprit is Time Warner Cable. We all know the benefits of cable: service not affected by weather, low installation costs and package deals with internet and home phone.

But in recent years satellite has been gaining on cable in the quest for subscribers – and for good reason. I’ve recently considered switching from Time Warner Cable for a very simple reason: High Definition (HD).

Many of us have joined the HD revolution. In fact, I can’t even watch standard definition stations anymore. Once you go HD, you can’t go back – and cable companies continue to lag behind in their offering of HD channels.

Out of 500 or so channels on Time Warner digital cable, there are only 29 high definition channels with the premium HD and movie package. And that includes the HD channels available for free over the air (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, WB and PBS).

Meanwhile, DIRECTV has 88 HD channels with the highest HD package. Even Dish Network beats cable with 58 HD channels. And both satellite options plan to add more channels in the near future.

So, cable better hustle. The numbers don’t lie. High Definition customers, such as myself, are ready to overlook the pitfalls of satellite to increase their number of channels. We didn’t invest in HDTVs to watch pixelated or stretched standard def channels.

HD offering numbers for Charlotte found at www.whereishd.com.

After a year and a half break – partially due to the writers strike – Battlestar Galactica finally returned Friday night for it’s fourth and final season. The season premiere picked up right were the final episode of season three left off and the episode didn’t disappoint.

For anyone who has never seen the latest incarnation of Battlestar Galactica, you should. Male or female, Sci Fi fan or not, you will be fraking addicted. Remember the Lay’s ad campaign, “Bet you can’t eat just one”? Well, I bet you can’t watch just one episode.

Bottom line, it is the second best show on television (Lost). This is not a Sci Fi show. This is an action packed, culturally relevant drama set in a Sci Fi world. The show deals with very human issues like racism, religion, trust, perseverance, terrorism, oppression, love and sacrifice. By utilizing the Sci Fi genre developer, writer and executive producer Ronald D. Moore is able to provoke genuine emotion and self examination in a way that a traditional drama never could.

The final season is airing Friday nights at 10pm on the Sci Fi Network. If you are not up to date, I recommend watching the mini-series and the first three seasons. You can rent them on Netflix, buy them on Amazon.com or catch up on some recent episodes on the web via SCI FI Rewind.

Recently, the Myjive crew headed out West on business – specifically Los Angeles. It was a great time as we met with a ton of clients and friends. While there we stayed in Hollywood, but traveled all over the city. After business hours we did some sightseeing including the Walk of Fame, Mann’s Chinese Theater, etc. When we returned to the East Coast, I kept getting the half-sarcastic question, “Did you see any celebrities?” Well, actually…

One night we went to dinner at Genghis Cohen a fantastic hybrid-Chinese restaurant. After we were seated, I looked to the table next to me into the face of Steven Weber (Studio 60, Wings). It was a pretty surreal moment as I had never really seen a non-athlete celebrity. Throughout the meal I begin to recognize his dinning companions were Richard Kind and Michael Boatman from Spin City. Later, they were chatting with a table across from them where Jeffrey Ross (stand-up comedian) was sitting.

Let me answer all your questions. No, I didn’t get autographs. No, I didn’t say hello. No, I didn’t take a picture. A long time ago I told myself if I ever saw a celeb, I’d let them be. I mean, who wants their dinner interrupted by some stranger. Anyway, it was an excellent dinner with good company and yes, we saw some celebrities.

As many of you know I played for the University of Florida Ultimate Club Team (UFUCT) in college. It was a great time and I made lifelong friends. We grew the team from humble beginnings into a Sectional and Regional force.

This year, UFUCT made it’s first ever appearance at Nationals. The 16 team tournament is the pinnacle of College Ultimate. Florida went undefeated in the tourney to become the 2006 College Ultimate Champions defeating Wisconsin 15-12.

Image Courtesy of Discraft

This team was truly special, accumulating a final record of 49-1. They won the Florida Winter Classic, Trouble in Vegas and Stanford Invite tournaments in the regular season. Florida continued their domination by capturing the AC South Sectional and Atlantic Coast Regional titles to become the top seed at Nationals.

Anchoring the team in his final season was Captain Tim Gehret. His dominating play on offense and defense showed he was clearly the best player in the country. It was made official as he won the 2006 Callahan Award, given annually to the top college player.

Check out CSTV for the broadcast of the final: Schedule

UFUCT, UFUCT, UFUCT U!

The crocodile hunter runs into Albert the Alligator at ESPN headquarters.