Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Headline News 2006-05-09

Guest post by basil

Joe’s away and said I could post here. What was he thinking?!?! He did ask me to do a couple of things ... and I will. Eventually. But in the meantime, I’m not sure just how much news Joe will be able to catch while in the Czech Republic. So, Joe, here’s the news:

From ABC News:

Marley Still Jammin’ 25 Years Later

Still not responding to requests for interview

From ABC News:
Ga. Student Suspended for Threatening Song
Song sues, seeks damages

From ABC News:
Ga. Woman Collects Outhouses for Backyard
Tried to interest backyard in stamps or baseball cards to no avail

From ABC News:
Owners Get $1,300 in Dog’s Python Death
John Cleese appeals verdict

From ABC News:
Ala. McDonald’s to Display Reagan Bust
Nancy still in good shape after all these years

From ABC News:
Iowa City Fines People Who Feed Stray Cats
Brian Setzer calls city rules ‘inhuman’

From ABC News:
Status-Conscious Monkeys Shed Light on Celeb Obsession
People magazine subscribers respond to survey

From Fox News:
New York City Fires Man for Surfing Web at Work
NYC’s Webmaster tries to explain, boss won’t listen

From Fox News:
New Jersey Schools Get Radios For Faster Response to Crises
Next school shooting, teachers will immediately tune to Paul Harvey

From Fox News:
Gallaudet Univ. President-Elect Draws Fire
Adds clouds, smiley-face sun to picture

Cross-posted at Basil’s Blog

Oh, don’t worry Joe. I won’t simply cross-post everything. You’ll have to come over to my little blog for Columbus Catfish updates.

When The Joe’s Away

(Guest post by Harry from The Kudzu Files)

Joe, preparing to go walkabout, has foolishly left open a window in the cellar - you know, the one behind the large Formosa azalea, which he’s forgotten about because the azalea is overgrown - that window, he has left unlocked.  When that happens, sometimes someone will sneak in.

Me!

And just inside the cellar window, I found a License To Post.  Convenient!  And so, here am I.  What shall I do with this License To Post?  I think.....  West Wing.

I’ve been a devoted West WIng watcher since about midway through the second season, when I decided to set aside my preconceived notion that there was no way you could make a television series about the Presidency, and watch an episode.  The addiction was immediate.  And very soon, Wednesday night became Date Night for my wife and me.  We set every Wednesday night during West Wing as our time.  Friends and family learned soon enough that there was no point calling during WW.  We didn’t answer the phone.  If permanent damage can result from ignoring your child for one hour a week, then our daughter has permanent damage.  Even through seasons 5 and 6, when the writing stumbled, we stayed with the show.  Then came season 7, the current, and last, season.  Whether it was an infusion of old blood, and writers finally hitting their stride, or just better ideas, the result was a markedly better story line.  It helped than Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits were brought in, and having them run against each other to succeed Jed Bartlett in the White House made for a great season.  I haven’t looked at the ratings, but they have to be up.  (OK, I just looked, and according to a blog I hadn’t found previously - West WIng News - they are indeed up.) The writers have done something in this, the final season, that rarely happens in the world of television dramas - they have crafted a scenario that could give West Wing a totally new start, with fresh faces, fresh story lines, fresh everything.  And they didn’t even have to switch Darins to do it.  But I guess it’s too little, too late.  Sunday night is the last episode.  I hate that. And what I hate most is that we’ll probably see it replaced by yet another reality show, something like “Survivor Americal Idol Chef”, in which singing cooks will run around a tropical island trying to set up their portable Viking ranges and produce a seven course meal before another singing chef throws them off the island.

Anyway, Joe, have fun in the Czech Republic.  I’ll set the garbage can in front of that window when I leave.

Marginalizing our media

A friend sends this article from the New York Times about “a gender-bending camp, low-budget soap opera” on the Public Access channel in the Bronx called “Strange Fruits.”

Given what Congress plans to do, this may be the last of the genre of MSM stories that define Public Access Television as irrelevant hokum but it is not the first.

In 1991 I was the Executive Director of a Community Television Center (my preferred term) and I reviewed a couple of stories on Public Access, one from Entertainment Tonight and one from MTV. I’ve posted them on YouTube because I note that we’re beginning to hear the same kind of commentary on the citizen-produced media of today.

Here’s Nicholas Carr on the User Generated Wasteland (note again the terminology, we’re all “users” like drug-addicts or parasites; I prefer citizen produced media) explaining that because he doesn’t see a business model for this stuff, it’s illegitimate.
Here’s Slate, more lovingly but still inherently condescendingly, in an article titled The Fab Four Million on how we’ve revived the art of lip-synching. There are more of these kinds of stories everywhere, I should start a category to track them.

Meanwhile, here’s a sample of the kind of crap the cable networks fill their time with, then mock us for watching. Someone please tell them that we know the local church choir is not the technical equivalent of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but that does not stop us from appreciating the joy, and artistry, of a community coming together to raise its voice in song.

They may stop us again this time, but I for one am confident that one day one way or another we will find a way to have our non-commercial, non-mediated voices heard.

Happy birthday Dianetics

Guest post by Rachel

L. Ron Hubbard’s book is 56 years old today.

Some readers hailed Hubbard as a visionary and an innovator. Others reacted more skeptically. Many reviewers, particularly those trained in medicine, were appalled by his ideas, which one critic called “abortions and monstrosities of theory and practice.” But Hubbard was launching an ideology that would gradually move from the edge of American culture into the center of the public eye.