A note from a friend regarding the Clear Channel (informal) no-play list: “I guess we can all be thankful that none of the planes that crashed were loaded with illegal…
A note from a friend regarding the Clear Channel (informal) no-play list:
“I guess we can all be thankful that none of the planes that crashed were loaded with illegal drugs piloted by porn stars or we wouldn’t have any songs left to play on the radio at all.”
Many thanks to Doyce for his Herculean efforts to get us All Caught Up on Angel, so that we could watch this evening’s season premiere with a clean conscience. He…
Many thanks to Doyce for his Herculean efforts to get us All Caught Up on Angel, so that we could watch this evening’s season premiere with a clean conscience.
He made the comment the other day that some folks who watch Seventh Heaven might be in for a bit of a shock when, seeing the “cute” title of following show, stay tuned to Angel. I think it will only be matched by the angst I expect to go through each week catching the last few minutes of Seventh Heaven before tuning into what follows it. Bleah.
Made up for, of course, by the kick-ass LOTR trailer.
On the other hand, is anyone else getting a wee bit tired of the “patriotic” station IDs now showing up on-screen all the time?
On the other hand, that was one KICK-ASS LORD OF THE RINGS TRAILER.
Do I have to repeat that again? I suspect I will.
Trailer for the new Justice League cartoon coming in November. Cool….
Trailer for the new Justice League cartoon coming in November. Cool.
“Back in time” Spacecheese.com reports on the screwball editing of Back to the Future on TV. Puh-leaze, people….
Spacecheese.com reports on the screwball editing of Back to the Future on TV.
Puh-leaze, people.
I’ve been reading William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade, his autobiography/expose of his screenwriting career. It’s really a good book — a bit dated as far as names go,…
I’ve been reading William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade, his autobiography/expose of his screenwriting career. It’s really a good book — a bit dated as far as names go, but still an entertaining description of how Hollywood works.
So over the last few days I’ve been reading the section of the book on Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, a movie I’ve never seen.
And this morning, on the History Channel — an examination of the movie from an historical perspective.
That goes right along with my earlier this week having read his section on the making of A Bridge Too Far and then running across, also on the History Channel, a “History’s Blunders” on Operation Market-Garden.
Weird.
(Actually, what’s weird was that I read the screenplay, knowing Robert Redford and Paul Newman starred, but not knowing who played which role. I got it the wrong way around, which made seeing some film clips of the actual movie — a bit surreal.)
Am I the only one really irritated by those stupid Dell commercials with the so-cool older teen (probably 25) who is trying to convince his pals’ parents to buy his…
Am I the only one really irritated by those stupid Dell commercials with the so-cool older teen (probably 25) who is trying to convince his pals’ parents to buy his pals Dells?
I didn’t think so.
There’s a report at Launch.com about songs that the Clear Channel Network (the largest owner of FM stations in the US) decided were, in the aftermath of Red Tuesday, “lyrically…
There’s a report at Launch.com about songs that the Clear Channel Network (the largest owner of FM stations in the US) decided were, in the aftermath of Red Tuesday, “lyrically inappropriate” to be played.
They include some presumably obvious ones like Peter Gabriel’s “You Dropped a Bomb On Me,” James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” and pretty much anything with “New York” in the title.
They also include some oddities like the Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian,” Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” and the Beatles’ “Obla-di, Obla-da.”
We have met the Enemy, and He is Large Corporations Making Goofy Decisions.
Further coverage is available from the NY Times.
Via Moriarty, who had a few other interesting things to say.
It’s 1968. The Fantastic Four. Shazzan. The Wacky Races. The Banana Splits Cartoon Network runs year-themed bits from its Boomerang sister network early on Saturday mornings (right about the time…
It’s 1968. The Fantastic Four. Shazzan. The Wacky Races. The Banana Splits
Cartoon Network runs year-themed bits from its Boomerang sister network early on Saturday mornings (right about the time when Katherine wakes up, coincidentally). Fun stuff.
Katherine likes the Banana Splits.
“Next on SciFi: At 6, Star Trek. At 7, Babylon 5. At 8, Farscape. This is SciFi.” There’s a reason I have digital cable, folks. It doesn’t get much better…
“Next on SciFi: At 6, Star Trek. At 7, Babylon 5. At 8, Farscape. This is SciFi.”
There’s a reason I have digital cable, folks. It doesn’t get much better than that.
See previous post on my head and its contents. So this was a perfect day for the host/DNS cutover from DollarHost to Averdata. This blog was down for most of…
See previous post on my head and its contents.
So this was a perfect day for the host/DNS cutover from DollarHost to Averdata. This blog was down for most of the day because I was trying to use Explorer’s FTP, which kind of masks the whole directory shuffle that Averdata does, which meant I was not creating the directories I thought I was.
Mail seems to be connecting (no errors), but I haven’t seen any come in all day, which is worrisome. If nothing comes in tonight, I’ll check with the Averdata people.
None of the other web content is up, which is okay in a way because I haven’t pointed anyone over to www.hill-kleerup.org as of yet. On the other hand, evidently all the uploads I did the other night went into the other directory, which is a tad annoying.
That and I managed to “ruin” B5 Season 4 by leaving a tape cued up between two episodes, rather than to be the beginning of the tape. Not a huge problem, except that it was the Big, Climactic Battle tape, so Doyce went straight to the happy post-war party tape, and kept waiting for the flashback …
Slosh, slosh, slosh …
Today’s Ted Rall cartoon Today’s Tom Toles cartoon Yup….
And so life begins to return to a more normal-like state. Back in the office this morning. Doug’s back in this week, too, which means I can take off one…
And so life begins to return to a more normal-like state. Back in the office this morning. Doug’s back in this week, too, which means I can take off one of my several hats. Day-to-day concerns, like calling in on the furnace, setting up eye appointments, etc., become the norm, rather than 24-hour news coverage.
Which is how it should be.
Still, folks continue to natter on about what happened, what we are doing, and where we are going. Which is good, too, since once we stop talking about it, we let the agenda be controlled by others.
I’m neither in the camp of the “The Guvviment is going to use this to take away all our rights, slaughter innocent abroad, and tattoo barcodes on our foreheads” folks, nor am I in the camp of the “Nuke ’em all until the glow and let God sort ’em out” people. I’m in the camp that’s ready to act, not sure what that action should be, but willing to entertain reasonable ideas. Which is where I suspect most folks are.
Jackie and Doyce were over last night, as we try desperately to catch up with this past season of Buffy and Angel. I would laugh at Doyce’s efforts to make this happen, if we weren’t also participating in those efforts.
Got an e-mail from Wil thanking me for mentioning his site on my blog. Which is kind of weird in a bunch of ways it shouldn’t be, and kind of neat in a bunch of ways that are too geeky to go into right now.
Well, daylight’s burning (not really, it’s cloudy out), and time’s a-wastin’ (quite true). Let’s move ’em out.
Various quick intercuts between different people in different walks of life — sitting on a couch, lying in bed, sitting at a lunch counter, sitting in an office, looking through…
Various quick intercuts between different people in different walks of life — sitting on a couch, lying in bed, sitting at a lunch counter, sitting in an office, looking through a store window, sitting at a shoe shine station — looking at something and saying the same word. “Sputnik.” “Sputnik.” “Sputnik.”
We keep cutting back to the same people, as they are more insistent. “Sputnik!” “Sputnik!” “Sputnik!”
Each time they get more frantic, more commanding, more shrill. “Sputnik!!” “Sputnik!!” “SPUTNIK!!!!”
Cut to a generic, rather tentative-looking game show contestant on the TV. “Uh … Skylab?”
“Game Show Network. You know you know.”
They’ve done this same thing with “Marsupial” (“Rodent?”) and “Botulism” (“Salmonella?”). If you’ve ever shouted at some idiot on TV who couldn’t figure out the blindingly obvious answer, you’ll love this one.
Of course, it helps if you watch the Game Show Network. Which we do, to excess. It sounds really funny. But it’s really fun.
(Actually, “The ‘Botulism’ spot earned Game Show Network a Silver Lion while ‘Sputnik’ and ‘Marsupial’ made the Cannes Lion Shortlist. Cannes Lion Awards are determined at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, which celebrates the latest in creative advertising from around the world. Over 19,000 entries were received for Cannes Lion 2001 consideration.” From NewsRe.)
I choose my words carefully. We’ve been over that before. In recent articles on the upcoming television season, one place where network shows are looking to push the envelope is…
I choose my words carefully. We’ve been over that before.
In recent articles on the upcoming television season, one place where network shows are looking to push the envelope is with language, i.e., adding more “swear words,” “cuss words,” etc. This is meant to add a more adult tone, and, of course, to win back folks who have fled to cable (where such language is more common).
One threshold proposed is to allow characters to use the term “God damn!”
Now, frankly, such language doesn’t bother me. I figure God has more important things to worry about than such gaffes. However, it does upset others. So I try to watch the occasions when I do it, but it does, on occasion, slip out. And it bothers some people very much when I do let it slip, which makes me feel bad, since I don’t go about intending to bother people, usually (and if I did it would not be that way).
So why put it onto night time television? Well, arguably, it’s real life. Some people (like me) do talk that way, on occasion or regularly. So to never have anyone talk that way is unrealistic.
Fine. I can buy that. Artistic integrity. That’s important.
So what about other sorts of invective? We’ll hear people saying “shit,” but when will we hear people called “fags” on Prime Time? Heck, when will we hear characters of color referred to as “niggers”? Sure, it bothers some people to hear those words. But there are people out there who use those terms, and other terms of racial and ethnic hatred. To pretend they don’t exist is unrealistic. Doesn’t artistic integrity demand it, when necessary?
I mean, imagine it. A Law & Order episode focusing on racial hatred. You’d expect to hear someone using various perjoritive terms for African-Americans, right? I mean, using such words is part of the story, part of showing that hatred. It’s real. Artistic integrity demands it.
I don’t expect to see it happen any time soon. Which points out to me an unfortunate double standard — that offending some people with words is more acceptible than offending some others with words.
Which doesn’t strike me as being any sort of integrity.
I don’t like to see people offended. But if we’re going to offend some people in pursuit of realism, of art, of the message we want to convey, we should be willing to offend anyone. And if not — then let’s not wrap ourselves in the cloaks of realism and art.
[It occurs to me that some people might not be able to load this page because of some of the words I’ve used above. You can guess which ones. You can also probably guess which ones would not be grounds for blocking. Interesting, isn’t it?]
One of the few things I regret in my move, several years ago, from LA to Denver, is losing the Los Angeles Times as a paper. Or, rather, being stuck…
One of the few things I regret in my move, several years ago, from LA to Denver, is losing the Los Angeles Times as a paper. Or, rather, being stuck with the local papers (the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News, now quasi-joined in their mediocrity) instead of the Times.
An aspect of the papers that very much stands out in contrast is the reader letters. Granted, there are plenty of yahoos, dimbulbs, and people who see the world in sound bites in LA, too. Probably more of them. But the larger population there allows the editors of the Times to be a pit more picky-and-choosey as to what letters they print. Thus, on the whole, they are a more articulate, and, usually, more thoughtful bunch. It’s not a fair sample, to be sure, but it’s better reading.
From this morning’s letters:
“If we are to be secure … we must make them fear us more than death and more than dishonor. Our response to their attack on us must be so brutal, so violent and deadly that they will cut their own throats before daring to attack us again. And since they are obviously willing to sacrifice their own lives to kill us, we must be willing also to sacrifice the lives of their famiy, friends and neighbors.”
“Most of the world’s problems stem from religion. If you go from the Crusades to the persecution of the Jews in World War II to what’s going on in Ireland between Protestants and Catholics now and then this. The institution of the church is the root of all problems in this world.”
“It is time for an end to politically correct speech about radical Islam. The truth is that it is a cancer that feeds on violence and murder. It is totally alien to Judeo-Christian morality. The children and grandchildren of the free world are not safe until it is eradicated.”
And this gem from the other end of the political spectrum, as given by an anti-globalist activist from San Francisco to the Wall Street Journal: “We’re supercritical of [Tuesday’s] terrorists’ scorn for human life. Why couldn’t they have done what they did on a Sunday? There are always ways to make allowances for people’s lives.”
It’s the Silly Season, folks. Only problem is, too many of the Sillies have access to guns, or to Congressmen.
On the bright side, as asinine, if not infuriating, as much of the above was to me, most of the commentary, and the letters, were within the bounds of sanity. Messages of tolerance, of compassion, of determination, and of justice. Those are the voices we need to be listening to.
On another note, we went to visit Rick & Amanda’s new house yesterday afternoon, up near Longmont. As we traveled along I-25 north of the city, the continued suburban sprawl was apparent. Indeed, Rick & Amanda live in brand-new block of houses, with vacant agricultural lots (with zoning change signs festooned upon them) in all directions.
It’s a problem that has needled Colorado for decades — how to accomodate those who wish to come here, adding to our economy and diversity, while also preserving the rural and mountain character that makes this such a neat place to live.
In some ways, the dangers, threats, fear and devastation of the past week render such considerations trivial. And yet … these problems, and so many others in our society, the ones that in any relatively sane week would have been our headlines, remain. The horror of terrorism, and the difficult, complex decisions we need to make regarding it and our future, do not replace these issues on our list of Things to Do. They simply add to that list. The same way a serious illness in the family doesn’t mean the bills don’t have to be paid, the furnace doesn’t have to be replaced, or the baby doesn’t have to be fed.
Life goes on. We have to along with it, handling what it throws at us. The alternative is not really an option.
Disney’s “Jungle Ride” operators at Disneyland will no longer carry blank-firing pistols, as the “script” has been changed to no longer fire at the animatronic hippos “attacking” the boat. PETA…
Disney’s “Jungle Ride” operators at Disneyland will no longer carry blank-firing pistols, as the “script” has been changed to no longer fire at the animatronic hippos “attacking” the boat.
PETA spokeswoman, Debbie Leahy, applauded the move, telling the LA Times, “If it was a fantasy baby or fantasy toddler, I don’t think somebody would find it funny. Clearly we should not be accepting it for a hippo.”
Doubtless other Politically Correct changes to the ride (which features African headhunters, native guides, and many other threatening animals, not to mention traditionally some of the best operator dialog at the park) will soon be coming.
(via Studio Briefing)
Taxi driver recounts how he had heartburn. His passenger surprises him by asking him to try some of the Zantac he just happens to have with him. “What are you,…
Taxi driver recounts how he had heartburn. His passenger surprises him by asking him to try some of the Zantac he just happens to have with him. “What are you, a doctor?” Imagine the taxi driver’s self-deprecating wry humor as he relates how the passenger said, “Yes, I am.”
Okay, let me get this straight. We’re supposed to buy this product because a fictional taxidriver is telling an anecdote about an equally fictional encounter with someone who claimed he was a doctor?
I mean, sheesh. How many nested levels of story-telling is that? That’s supposed to convince us of the quality of this product? Could they possibly insult us any further?
As Episode 2 (Attack of the Clones) hurtles toward us, I ran across this article in About.com about where the idea of a 9-episode series came from. Interesting stuff. Of…
As Episode 2 (Attack of the Clones) hurtles toward us, I ran across this article in About.com about where the idea of a 9-episode series came from.
Interesting stuff. Of course, those of us who read the original Star Wars paperback back in ’76 knew that Lucas’ ideas were not nearly the polished products that all the fans thought they were. Nevertheless, it makes one wonder what other alternative courses the films might have gone — and where he’s planning on going in the next two.
Home, reading Newsweek over lunch. The 17 September issues, which is, of course, published a week ahead of time, so we got it earlier this week. Very pre-911, of course….
Home, reading Newsweek over lunch. The 17 September issues, which is, of course, published a week ahead of time, so we got it earlier this week.
Very pre-911, of course.
What was on the editors’ minds that week?
Does give one perspective.
Studio Foglio If you’ve never read any of Phil Foglio’s work, you should. It is funny beyond words. If you have, but haven’t recently, find out more at the linked…
If you’ve never read any of Phil Foglio’s work, you should. It is funny beyond words.
If you have, but haven’t recently, find out more at the linked site.
If you’re looking at his web site even now … what are you doing reading this?