Tag: Radio and TV

TV Violins

80s joke. Rosanne Rosannadanna: “never mind”.

Anyway, being couch bound with an unending cold recently, I have watched more TV than usual and have noticed an amazing increase, at least for me, in the violence on TV dramas. I suppose a bit part of it is that the violence is in the present. For the first chunck of this decade most US TV drama was about deadly events in the past, in the form of various detection and forensic shows such as the Law and Orders and the CISs and our own wee DaVinci’s Inquest. In two opening shows of this year, however, there has been an incredible level of present moment violence.

First, in the Third Watch opening show, the bassist from Kiss as bad criminal seeks revenge and sends machine gunning thugs out to kill and be killed all over “the city”. It was an hour of bullet spray without plot, going even into an ER, though, sadly, none of the character actually from the also unending ER were picked off. It was the sort of thing that I would have never thought would be on broadcast TV. Then, on Saturday night I watched bits of the opening show of Lost. Holy Freeg-holy! Repeated rehashing of the inside of a passenger jet full of people as it breaks up in flight (note to self: take the train), repeated showing of the results of said break up after the chunks land (ie “I see dead people”) and, then, people getting eaten by oversized and geographically misplaced carnivores – including one particularly blood-enriched consumption of an airline pilot through a window complete with chomping sounds and buckets of red paint being splashed back onto the neighbouring cockpit windows in time with the chomps. It is a potentially groundbreaking show having an actual original premise…oh, but the gore. Mixing Survivor with Edgar Rice Burroughs while riding the pop culture terror wave it could spawn a flood of copycat exotic pointless fear-mongering shows to kill off reality shows and cop shows and maybe Jamie Oliver for good measure.

I am not suggesting that these shows should be off TV or that you should not watch them. Maybe I have just been stuck watching a world of tedious home redecorating shows, wardrobe renovation shows, stuff storage renovation shows, dating life renovation shows…and sports for the last seven years and forgot how much blood is on TV if you want to find it.

Amazing Race

Watching tonight’s Amazing Race it is amazing how conditioned I have become to the premise of a reality show that we are watching for the worst of human behaviour to come out. No one appears now with six teams left to consider that it is a game. Like Survivor, they are obsessed, they are mean and they are looking to trip the others as much physically as in the game. Like Fear Factor there is the barfing test.

I watched the movie Network last weekend and ever since, I can’t get over how accurate many of its implicit forecasting was, the obsession with the stupid and the sensational. I wonder if there will ever be a peaking followed by a reversion to more conservative views of “reality” – will the last few years be noted for how sordid this stuff is or how tame?

Best Song

On Go this past Saturday, Brent was asking the question what is the best song ever. “London Calling” by the Clash was given much respect from the outset and I once again was amazed listening to the lyrics in the chorus:

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
Cause London is drowning – I, I live by the river

My grade eleven adoration of this song and the entire double lp was intensified by the title being a reference to the post-colonial relic which was the BBC World magazine London Calling which I happened to have a subscription to, nerd that I am was.

But that is not my pick for best song. It is up there as silver medal winner with “Redemption Song”, “Happy Family” by the Ramones, and every ska tune ever recorded. The winner of first prize has to be Elvis Costello’s “(The Angels Want to Wear My) Red Shoes” which begins:

Oh I used to be disgusted
and now I try to be amused.
But since their wings have got rusted,
you know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes.
But when they told me ’bout their side of the bargain,
that’s when I knew that I could not refuse.
And I won’t get any older, now the angels wanna wear my red shoes.

While The wheat is growing thin is a great line and nuclear fear was the rumbling undertone to my teens, the prospect of the Almighty’s henchmen needing a hand and getting it from a loser who can’t get a date is perfect. Besides, Elvis and me had breakfast for some reason in my last dream this morning (I dropped his toast as I passed it over) and ever since he became a Canadian-in-law I have felt some greater kinship than that of a mere somewhat lapsed fan what with the knowledge that there is a chance one day of him sitting on a sofa sitting eating pork roast and mashed spuds off a TV tray with brothers in law on Grey Cup Day staring at the tube and asking why they are Ti-Cats and what is an oskeeweewee between sips of 50.

Alternative suggestions?

Frontline on Dubya

I watched PBS’s Frontline and its hour long discussion of the faith of George W. Bush, “The Jesus Factor”, this evening and was struck by one passage about the transformation of themes in the speeches of Bush after 9/11.

I generally follow the arguments of evangelicals and believe much the same principles but end up often with different outcomes. This sometime bothers me but questioning the insertion of faith based language and imagery into the political realm does not.  Due to the facts of history and culture, the words of the Bible are some of the most familiar and evocative in English language moral discussion and discussions of justice. These are, however, analogies to one specific reality – being the reality understood by persons of faith within the Christian context. When the words get transferred into the civil context, when scripture is used to describe western culture, democracy or individual experience in themselves, the basis in the context of faith is left behind.

Those unfamiliar with the analogies being made can get caught up by the familiar and persuasive words without the necessity of the reality those words describe. Christianity, for example, never required or promised individual liberty in that it equally and, often, florished more in slavery or imprisonment – consider Onesimus, Boethius or any number of more recent acts of saintliness of the unfree. When, however, the “light to the world” becomes related to freedom rather than faith, a phrase used as an example in the Frontline broadcast, the context is broken and the aim of the persuasion doubtful.  What is not, however, doubtful is the compelling nature of the persuasion and how it becomes useful as a buttress for just about anything.

One other point I noted was the efforts of the Bush administration to include faith-based organizations in the provision of social services supported by tax dollars. What struck me about this was how common it is in certain contexts – homeless shelters run by the Sally Anne, for example. Would anyone suggest tax dollars should not support their work on the street? No, because the majority – whether faithful or not – support the decency of the effort.

Colonial House III

So, unlike before, I am now happy after last night’s PBS broadcast with the colony as, with 4 weeks to go, a business manager – something of a factor – has shown up to get them into economic shape and he looks to the berries and the tidal zone for prosperity. Gone are the puritans as baptist fundamentalists and here come the puritans as early corporate gurus. A much more realistic scene for the early 17th century not to mention better television.

Listening to George

I am listening to George Bush right now during the live speech part of tonight’s presentation and I can’t shake how similar it is to listening to the English lyrics sung by Swedish pop bands like ABBA or Ace of Bass. It is not what he is saying (I don’t care much about debating that) but how he says it: slightly disjointed sentences one following another, within each sentence cliché and familiar word groupings. But no flow…so what comes across to me is grip rather than comfort. But when he starts answering questions his accent reappears, the cadance reappears.

Who was the best public speaker you have heard, the best speech written? What would Trudeau be saying – “just watch me”. Thatcher would be scary, Old Testament. Ronnie Ray Gun would say “weeeell” too often with that little head shake.