The George Zimmerman trial has concluded. The not guilty verdict is in. If you have no clue what I'm talking about then I look forward to hearing your tales of life under a rock. I'm so glad its over. I don't care about the verdict. I'm just hoping this blows over without riots or any more violence and hopefully the dimwits shouting how "the system" is racist, and there's no justice will eventually settle down.
This whole thing breaks down to two guys who made a bunch of bad choices. Unfortunately one of them ended up dead. Tons of public outrage. Obama spouting bullshit about "if I had a son, he's probably look like Treyvon Martin." All this pressure to put Zimmerman away. Ridiculous amounts of news coverage.
The prosecuting attornies should have gone for a manslaughter charge, but think about how that would have played out. "How can they not go for a murder charge!" would be the battle cry from all the people who had already made up their minds about what happened despite not having seen all the evidence. This of course has much to do with media spewing forth every little factoid (regardless of accuracy) and opinion that someone has to offer.
This was such a circus. A big stupid circus. The media hyped it up for ratings. People got their outrage on and fed the media beast. It spiraled out of control. Everyone who disagreed with someone else was somehow a racist, and then there were the actual full on bigots that popped up to either call for the lynching of Zimmerman or say disgusting things about a dead teenager. If everyone had just shut their yeps and let this play out and let the police, and investigators, and the attornies do their jobs then Zimmerman would probably be in jail over a manslaughter charge.
Keep that in mind.
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Just the facts, ma'am.
Hit 'em with an internal organ and its three points! Its Wednesday, February 16, 2011, that pesky lung just won't hack up, and this is The Side. Tournament season is approaching and while I'm trying to prepare that nasty cough from my bout with the flu is hanging in there like Oleg Taktarov on the receiving end of a beating. Old Oleg did alright for himself though and has done some pretty sweet movies. I doubt I'll be offered any choice roles upon my recovery, but at the very least I'm hoping to snatch up some trophies next month.
Does this look like a black belt in Karate to you? I don't know either. I read a lot of magazines. When you spend a lot of time riding in work trucks sometimes up to an hour at a time, you pick up anything eye catching and read just about every last bit of it. I've read a lot of comic and entertainment magazines. I read a ton of Maxims back when it was worth a damn. Read a bunch of Black Belt magazine when there wasn't a whole lot of choice in martial arts magazines. Now the magazine I like to keep up with is Fighters Only.
Fighters only is really good. They've got great interviews. There's a lot of training tips. Its also the main way I keep up with news on mixed martial arts. Each issue has a Fighters Only "Babe" and sure enough one month it was Francoise Boufhal whom I have pictured. There's a few pictures and a brief interview. So I read the attached interview and while she says her knowledge of MMA is light at best she did say she was a black belt in Karate.
These interviews do remind me a lot of the Maxim interviews in that I have to wonder how much actually came out of her mouth. Sure some of these girls are very savvy and know what to say to cater to the target audience. I do think the interviewer in many cases is more of a writer making the gals more appealing. See, I could understand if the "babes" were UFC ring girls, or even some of the more attractive female fighters. Sometimes they'll have the ladies in fight gear or wrapping their hands like they're getting ready to pound out a few rounds on the heavy bag. Typically, I'll see the girl featured in a pictorial that has absolutely nothing to do with fighting, and the notion that they do anything fight oriented stretches even my imagination. Its kinda like when you see the star of the latest hot movie say that she goes for the average guy who likes to eat burgers and play video games. Does anyone really think that the Maxim cover girl du jour loves playing Call of Duty when she isn't watching football?
I can live with lie of it all. I really can. I just wish it was a little more plausible sometimes. I know full well I'm not going to see a girl like this in a magazine like Fighters Only and have her say "Gee, I don't know anything about that mixed martial... whatever. I'm just here for a check." but it would be a refreshing change of pace. Of course that's about a likely as hearing a politician say "No, I really don't give a damn about anything you care about, I just want you to vote for me."
Ah, the truth. Don't hold your breath waiting for it.
Ya know what really sucks nowdays? Science, that's what. Science used to be so awesome. It used to be all about exploration, and making cool stuff, and blowing things up with lasers. Now all it seems to do is show us how terrible everything is and suck all the wonder out of everything.
Let's look at out old pal Pluto. Remember Pluto? Little frozen rock out in the middle of nowhere. Last little planet on our solar system. We learned about him in elementary school. We had bright colorful posters showing off the planets of the solar system and his little gray self was there on the end. I have a book. Its got all the planets in it, and sure enough, there's Pluto. Then five years ago they demote Pluto. Its not a planet anymore. Buncha jerks! Some of us out here love Pluto.
And all it is is a bunch of scientists being spiteful. I bet they got a lousy grade on their report on Pluto when they were kids and this is payback. They are just dead set on there only being eight planets in our solar system. Hell, some scientists have possibly found another planter out there. Its four times the size of Jupiter and hidden in the Oort cloud (obviously to hide cool, mysterious stuff) and those jerks want to say that it doesn't count either! Just being spiteful is what it is. Its like they don't really care what's out there, they just want to be right about there being eight planets.
Same with triceratops. Seriously, who doesn't love triceratops. I do. My kids do. They like Tank the Triceratops on Dinosaur Train. He's a very popular dinosaur. If he wasn't would there have been a Dinobot of one? I think not! But no! Bunch of killjoy scientists say there was no such thing. Its really a torosaurus.
No its not, you jerks. Its a triceratops. Every last cartoon I've ever seen with a dinosaur in it says so. And so do the Transformers, and we don't argue with Transformers unless they're directed by Michael Bay.
And when science isn't taking cool stuff away from us its telling us how horrible everything is. You can't even eat a cheeseburger anymore because it'll kill you horribly and put a hole in the Ozone layer. Pretty much according to science the best thing we could do for the planet is all die. We cause global warming. We take up too many natural resources. We're all just horrible. But if we drive pansy cars and use those stupid light bulbs with mercury components that aren't worth a shit then maybe science will say its OK for us to live and have kids.
Of course you have the science used by the high and mighty atheist assholes who like to break out whatever they can to crap on whatever religious holiday you're trying to celebrate. They can tell you all these stupid facts about Christmas, yet couldn't bring themselves to wish you a "Merry Christmas" if someone had a gun to their head. They don't need faith because they have science. Well, no one ever gets a present on Science Day, now do they.
Then there's the stupid wannabe science that tells us stupid stuff. Some study just came out and they talked about it on the morning news show that women are the ones in charge of relationships. Yeah, that revelation was worth diverting intellectual candlepower away from finding that cure for cancer.
So here's the thing science. You need to get your act together. Start being awesome again and stop being so damn douchey. Get back to the business of making great and useful discoveries. Quit telling everyone how horrible everything is and start making ways that everything can be really cool.
The fact that this was on VH1 Classic is a win beyond belief, except for the fact that it makes me old.
That's it for this go around. I'm going to go kick some ass now. See y'all Friday.
LIES!!
Does this look like a black belt in Karate to you? I don't know either. I read a lot of magazines. When you spend a lot of time riding in work trucks sometimes up to an hour at a time, you pick up anything eye catching and read just about every last bit of it. I've read a lot of comic and entertainment magazines. I read a ton of Maxims back when it was worth a damn. Read a bunch of Black Belt magazine when there wasn't a whole lot of choice in martial arts magazines. Now the magazine I like to keep up with is Fighters Only.Fighters only is really good. They've got great interviews. There's a lot of training tips. Its also the main way I keep up with news on mixed martial arts. Each issue has a Fighters Only "Babe" and sure enough one month it was Francoise Boufhal whom I have pictured. There's a few pictures and a brief interview. So I read the attached interview and while she says her knowledge of MMA is light at best she did say she was a black belt in Karate.
These interviews do remind me a lot of the Maxim interviews in that I have to wonder how much actually came out of her mouth. Sure some of these girls are very savvy and know what to say to cater to the target audience. I do think the interviewer in many cases is more of a writer making the gals more appealing. See, I could understand if the "babes" were UFC ring girls, or even some of the more attractive female fighters. Sometimes they'll have the ladies in fight gear or wrapping their hands like they're getting ready to pound out a few rounds on the heavy bag. Typically, I'll see the girl featured in a pictorial that has absolutely nothing to do with fighting, and the notion that they do anything fight oriented stretches even my imagination. Its kinda like when you see the star of the latest hot movie say that she goes for the average guy who likes to eat burgers and play video games. Does anyone really think that the Maxim cover girl du jour loves playing Call of Duty when she isn't watching football?
I can live with lie of it all. I really can. I just wish it was a little more plausible sometimes. I know full well I'm not going to see a girl like this in a magazine like Fighters Only and have her say "Gee, I don't know anything about that mixed martial... whatever. I'm just here for a check." but it would be a refreshing change of pace. Of course that's about a likely as hearing a politician say "No, I really don't give a damn about anything you care about, I just want you to vote for me."
Ah, the truth. Don't hold your breath waiting for it.
ST00PID SCIENCE!!
Ya know what really sucks nowdays? Science, that's what. Science used to be so awesome. It used to be all about exploration, and making cool stuff, and blowing things up with lasers. Now all it seems to do is show us how terrible everything is and suck all the wonder out of everything.
Let's look at out old pal Pluto. Remember Pluto? Little frozen rock out in the middle of nowhere. Last little planet on our solar system. We learned about him in elementary school. We had bright colorful posters showing off the planets of the solar system and his little gray self was there on the end. I have a book. Its got all the planets in it, and sure enough, there's Pluto. Then five years ago they demote Pluto. Its not a planet anymore. Buncha jerks! Some of us out here love Pluto.
And all it is is a bunch of scientists being spiteful. I bet they got a lousy grade on their report on Pluto when they were kids and this is payback. They are just dead set on there only being eight planets in our solar system. Hell, some scientists have possibly found another planter out there. Its four times the size of Jupiter and hidden in the Oort cloud (obviously to hide cool, mysterious stuff) and those jerks want to say that it doesn't count either! Just being spiteful is what it is. Its like they don't really care what's out there, they just want to be right about there being eight planets.
Same with triceratops. Seriously, who doesn't love triceratops. I do. My kids do. They like Tank the Triceratops on Dinosaur Train. He's a very popular dinosaur. If he wasn't would there have been a Dinobot of one? I think not! But no! Bunch of killjoy scientists say there was no such thing. Its really a torosaurus.
No its not, you jerks. Its a triceratops. Every last cartoon I've ever seen with a dinosaur in it says so. And so do the Transformers, and we don't argue with Transformers unless they're directed by Michael Bay.And when science isn't taking cool stuff away from us its telling us how horrible everything is. You can't even eat a cheeseburger anymore because it'll kill you horribly and put a hole in the Ozone layer. Pretty much according to science the best thing we could do for the planet is all die. We cause global warming. We take up too many natural resources. We're all just horrible. But if we drive pansy cars and use those stupid light bulbs with mercury components that aren't worth a shit then maybe science will say its OK for us to live and have kids.
Of course you have the science used by the high and mighty atheist assholes who like to break out whatever they can to crap on whatever religious holiday you're trying to celebrate. They can tell you all these stupid facts about Christmas, yet couldn't bring themselves to wish you a "Merry Christmas" if someone had a gun to their head. They don't need faith because they have science. Well, no one ever gets a present on Science Day, now do they.
Then there's the stupid wannabe science that tells us stupid stuff. Some study just came out and they talked about it on the morning news show that women are the ones in charge of relationships. Yeah, that revelation was worth diverting intellectual candlepower away from finding that cure for cancer.
So here's the thing science. You need to get your act together. Start being awesome again and stop being so damn douchey. Get back to the business of making great and useful discoveries. Quit telling everyone how horrible everything is and start making ways that everything can be really cool.
MUSIC!!
The fact that this was on VH1 Classic is a win beyond belief, except for the fact that it makes me old.
That's it for this go around. I'm going to go kick some ass now. See y'all Friday.
Super-Ladies press the Press
It's Friday, December 17, 2010, everything outside is frozen, and this is The Side. I'd type more on stuff that's going on, but it all comes down to one thing. Its freakin' cold and we've gotten a lot of snow for this area for December and there's more on the way. I hate snow. Still, it could be a lot worse. I could be up in Minnesota.
Stay warm, Linda!
BIRDS OF PREY #7 should come with a warning on the cover: "CAUTION: contents contain male strippers". I'm cruising on through this issue which kicks off the "Death of Oracle" storyline, there's a really cool scene with Babs and Bruce, I turn the page and WHAMMO! Great big men wearing banana hammocks and little else! Startled the hell out of me. Thanks a bunch, Gail Simone. That aside (which wasn't really a problem, but it did catch me off guard) this issue was great. Raises a question as to whether or not there's a double agent in the Birds as The Calculator is looking to yet again take on Oracle. The gals are all out having a good time for Dove's birthday, who is utterly mortified by the entire thing. Oracle and Batman have a bunch of really good stuff going on as this storyline looks to be one where things really change for the characters in a really great way. Its one of those issues where I can say if you haven't been reading this comic here's a good place to jump on board. My favorite bit in there actually addresses something that bugged me previously. In James Robinson's really awful CRY OF JUSTICE series, it was alluded to that Hal Jordan had a threesome with Huntress and Lady Blackhawk. It was a macho high five moment that I would expect from some meathead teenagers. Some friends of mind online joked that Huntress and Lady Blackhawk probably drank him under the table and he doesn't remember a thing. This issue made me wonder it Simone saw that exchange. Loved it!
Moving it on over to SUPERGIRL #59 which wraps up Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle's definitive run on the book. Much like Greg Rucka's run on WONDER WOMAN, all other runs by creative teams on this book will be judged against Gates and Igle's work here. Its been that good, and their final issue is no exception. The story involving Cat Grant finally comes to a close and brings things full circle, in a really awesome way. We also get a nice Christmas scene at the end on the Kent farm with the rest of the family. I found this part to be interesting in that early runs on this title pretty much showed Kara off as jailbait. Seeing her in this issue, particularly at the end shows us a Kara who is a mature, respectful young lady. She's become the kind of character I would like my daughters to look up to. And of course there's plenty of cool action in the story as Kara spends much of it trying to track down who's been kidnapping children. Great book from top to bottom. The next creative team is very good and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do, but they've seriously got some big shoes to fill.
I have trust issues with the media, particularly news media. There's bias there obviously, so we tend to tune into whichever news source shares our biases, unless we want to piss ourselves off them we tune into the other side. But my trust issues aren't really about bias. They mainly stem from my observation that most of the people who report news are trying to interpret life without much knowledge of how life actually is. And then there's a fact that many of the ratings-crazed doghumpers would report on their grandmothers being utterly destroyed by insane, genetically altered ferrets if they could just get the story out ahead of their competition.
When did I come to distrust the media? It was probably about ten years ago. My father was part of an Air Force reserve unit. They're an engineering unit, meaning when something needs built somewhere they deploy to do it. There was a mission in Florida in which part of the unit, not including my father, went to Florida. The mission went completely fine and they were on the way back when there was a problem and the plain crashed killing (if memory serves me) seventeen members of the unit. Terrible tragedy and a really tough time for everyone.
My father was placed in charge of building a memorial on the base which turned out incredible. Also, he was assigned a family of one of the fallen to help through this time. There was a lot of paperwork to get through which he helped with and he also served as a liaison to keep the family updated about everything going on including the investigation as to what caused the crash.
A month later the investigation about the crash concluded. In real life that's how long these things take. Its not like the movies when they rush in their team of experts and have results in a day or two. These things take time and a lot of it. So my father and the rest of the family liaisons were called to a meeting. The findings were gone over and all the questions were asked and answered. The following day, the liaisons were going to go to the families and go over everything and report the findings, hopefully to give a little closure to the grieving families.
That night, I'm at the bar, checking IDs and making sure all the drunks behaved themselves. There were about seven TV in the place and the one right in front of me had on the local 11 o'clock news.
Guess what the lead story was.
There had been a leak. The findings were not to be released to the media until all the families affected were briefed on everything. But there it was for everyone to see. A story about a plane crash over a month ago, in which the only people who really gave a damn about it were supposed to find out personally the following day. In the local news's defense it had been a slow day and they needed something concerning somebody dying to lead off with.
This lead to the next day when my father goes to the family, who are understandably upset to say the least. Why should they even talk to my father when the results were on the news? Why wouldn't they be the first to know what had really happened to their son?
I utterly seethed about that for a long time. There was once some stuff called integrity and ethics attached to news and journalism. They call that censorship now. An asshole with a website gets a hold of classified documents that he shouldn't? Well, he's got a right to publish them. That doesn't mean that he should, but it'll drive up his page views. Canadian news station shows an athlete suffering a fatal accident at the Olympics over and over again? No problem! It wasn't a close up, so that means it wasn't sensationalized enough for it so be exploiting a some poor guy getting killed.
Just because this is the "information age" does not mean that we should be able to get every last bit of information in front of us at our whim. There are things like discretion and ethics that should be drilled into anyone who wants to be a journalist or reporter. They need to know what needs to be made public and what really should be sat on. Julian Assange isn't a journalist. He's a douchebag with a website who gets his mitts on stuff he shouldn't and waves it in front of everybody because he has the law to hide behind. That Canadian station that ran that footage from the Olympics over and over and over again? That was a complete jag-off move and if they don't know it, they're complete morons. And that local news show that decided to lead with a story without considering the people it would affect or hurt? They're just assholes.
Since this week's comic reviews were all about the ladies (not including the male strippers) here's a song about more ladies.
Alright, time for me to probably go explore Ice Station Norfork. If I die horribly and freeze into a giant Nozzsicle, I'll let you know.
Stay warm, Linda!
COMIX!!
BIRDS OF PREY #7 should come with a warning on the cover: "CAUTION: contents contain male strippers". I'm cruising on through this issue which kicks off the "Death of Oracle" storyline, there's a really cool scene with Babs and Bruce, I turn the page and WHAMMO! Great big men wearing banana hammocks and little else! Startled the hell out of me. Thanks a bunch, Gail Simone. That aside (which wasn't really a problem, but it did catch me off guard) this issue was great. Raises a question as to whether or not there's a double agent in the Birds as The Calculator is looking to yet again take on Oracle. The gals are all out having a good time for Dove's birthday, who is utterly mortified by the entire thing. Oracle and Batman have a bunch of really good stuff going on as this storyline looks to be one where things really change for the characters in a really great way. Its one of those issues where I can say if you haven't been reading this comic here's a good place to jump on board. My favorite bit in there actually addresses something that bugged me previously. In James Robinson's really awful CRY OF JUSTICE series, it was alluded to that Hal Jordan had a threesome with Huntress and Lady Blackhawk. It was a macho high five moment that I would expect from some meathead teenagers. Some friends of mind online joked that Huntress and Lady Blackhawk probably drank him under the table and he doesn't remember a thing. This issue made me wonder it Simone saw that exchange. Loved it!Moving it on over to SUPERGIRL #59 which wraps up Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle's definitive run on the book. Much like Greg Rucka's run on WONDER WOMAN, all other runs by creative teams on this book will be judged against Gates and Igle's work here. Its been that good, and their final issue is no exception. The story involving Cat Grant finally comes to a close and brings things full circle, in a really awesome way. We also get a nice Christmas scene at the end on the Kent farm with the rest of the family. I found this part to be interesting in that early runs on this title pretty much showed Kara off as jailbait. Seeing her in this issue, particularly at the end shows us a Kara who is a mature, respectful young lady. She's become the kind of character I would like my daughters to look up to. And of course there's plenty of cool action in the story as Kara spends much of it trying to track down who's been kidnapping children. Great book from top to bottom. The next creative team is very good and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do, but they've seriously got some big shoes to fill.
EXTRA EXTRA!!
I have trust issues with the media, particularly news media. There's bias there obviously, so we tend to tune into whichever news source shares our biases, unless we want to piss ourselves off them we tune into the other side. But my trust issues aren't really about bias. They mainly stem from my observation that most of the people who report news are trying to interpret life without much knowledge of how life actually is. And then there's a fact that many of the ratings-crazed doghumpers would report on their grandmothers being utterly destroyed by insane, genetically altered ferrets if they could just get the story out ahead of their competition.When did I come to distrust the media? It was probably about ten years ago. My father was part of an Air Force reserve unit. They're an engineering unit, meaning when something needs built somewhere they deploy to do it. There was a mission in Florida in which part of the unit, not including my father, went to Florida. The mission went completely fine and they were on the way back when there was a problem and the plain crashed killing (if memory serves me) seventeen members of the unit. Terrible tragedy and a really tough time for everyone.
My father was placed in charge of building a memorial on the base which turned out incredible. Also, he was assigned a family of one of the fallen to help through this time. There was a lot of paperwork to get through which he helped with and he also served as a liaison to keep the family updated about everything going on including the investigation as to what caused the crash.
A month later the investigation about the crash concluded. In real life that's how long these things take. Its not like the movies when they rush in their team of experts and have results in a day or two. These things take time and a lot of it. So my father and the rest of the family liaisons were called to a meeting. The findings were gone over and all the questions were asked and answered. The following day, the liaisons were going to go to the families and go over everything and report the findings, hopefully to give a little closure to the grieving families.
That night, I'm at the bar, checking IDs and making sure all the drunks behaved themselves. There were about seven TV in the place and the one right in front of me had on the local 11 o'clock news.
Guess what the lead story was.
There had been a leak. The findings were not to be released to the media until all the families affected were briefed on everything. But there it was for everyone to see. A story about a plane crash over a month ago, in which the only people who really gave a damn about it were supposed to find out personally the following day. In the local news's defense it had been a slow day and they needed something concerning somebody dying to lead off with.
This lead to the next day when my father goes to the family, who are understandably upset to say the least. Why should they even talk to my father when the results were on the news? Why wouldn't they be the first to know what had really happened to their son?
I utterly seethed about that for a long time. There was once some stuff called integrity and ethics attached to news and journalism. They call that censorship now. An asshole with a website gets a hold of classified documents that he shouldn't? Well, he's got a right to publish them. That doesn't mean that he should, but it'll drive up his page views. Canadian news station shows an athlete suffering a fatal accident at the Olympics over and over again? No problem! It wasn't a close up, so that means it wasn't sensationalized enough for it so be exploiting a some poor guy getting killed.
Just because this is the "information age" does not mean that we should be able to get every last bit of information in front of us at our whim. There are things like discretion and ethics that should be drilled into anyone who wants to be a journalist or reporter. They need to know what needs to be made public and what really should be sat on. Julian Assange isn't a journalist. He's a douchebag with a website who gets his mitts on stuff he shouldn't and waves it in front of everybody because he has the law to hide behind. That Canadian station that ran that footage from the Olympics over and over and over again? That was a complete jag-off move and if they don't know it, they're complete morons. And that local news show that decided to lead with a story without considering the people it would affect or hurt? They're just assholes.
MUSIC!!
Since this week's comic reviews were all about the ladies (not including the male strippers) here's a song about more ladies.
Alright, time for me to probably go explore Ice Station Norfork. If I die horribly and freeze into a giant Nozzsicle, I'll let you know.
Holmes investigated Olbermann's anti-feminism.
Here we go again. It's Wednesday, November 10, 2010, my hair is a mess, and this is The Side. Welcome to you WTF portion of the week. Seriously, it says so on the calendar.
Being part of the downwardly mobile isn't as glamorous as I make it seem. My new found status as poor white trash prevented me from being part of a big Karate event over the weekend. This involved serious training with very high level martial artists on the beach in wind gushing up to 40 MPH which dropped the wind chill factor to a balmy 23 degrees. This made the part where everyone jumped into the ocean quite pleasant, until of course they all had to come out of the water. There were punches, kicks, yelling, kata, sandy uniforms, and plenty of mild hypothermia to go around. With all this my Karate brothers all told me after it was all over how much they wished I could have been there.
I suspect they wanted me there to drown me, but that's beside the point.
I wish I could have gone too, but that wasn't an option this time around. The experience sounds absolutely horrible and i would have to be completely insane for even thinking about it, but still I wish I could have gone. On the bright side, my cousin Scott got promoted to 6th dan and my buddy Bill received the title of Renshi. Both of these are really big deals, and I'm proud of them, and I'm proud that I helped a little along their budo journeys where I could.
So maybe next time. Which means I better start preparing now just in case. Be right back after I do some push-ups.
What are the first three literary characters that come to mind?
That was the question I asked across the bits of social media that I bounce around on. The answers were varied and interesting. One character that got mentioned quite a bit was Batman. Batman was not the only comic book character mentioned, but he was the one that was mentioned the most. This is interesting because it makes us consider comic books as literature. The stories abide by similar rules to those of prose. I guess you could argue that comics are just excessively illustrated prose. Batman has been featured in many different mediums, and that is something that he shares with the two characters that had the most mentions.
Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes took the top spots. I'm pretty stoked that Holmes made it since I've been on a big Sherlock Holmes kick lately. I'm working my way through the complete Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and am currently re-reading "The Red-Headed League". I also really dug the BBC's SHERLOCK series, which featured the greatest Moriarty ever. As for Harry Potter, I know next to nothing about him. Never read any of the books or scene any of the movies.
All three of these characters have been featured prominently in media. All three have had a major motion picture in theaters in the last couple years. All three have movies in the works. Batman and Potter both have successfully franchised into the video game market. Holmes and Batman both have been re-imagined in different times and settings. Harry Potter hasn't had a TV show yet. I think its safe to say that Holmes and Batman have and will survive the test of time. Its too soon to tell for Potter.
That's now a cue for all the die hard Harry Potter fans to mob me with comments about how the stories will live on and on forever and ever. Yes, they are insanely popular now. Yes its true that I'm not a fan. That doesn't mean that I don't realize the characters significance to pop culture nor the fact that he has millions and millions of fans. I can say that the other two currently over shadow him.
When someone thinks of a superhero, Batman tends to spring to mind.
When someone thinks of a detective, Sherlock Holmes tends to spring to mind.
When someone thinks of a wizard, Harry's still got serious competition. However, that may change with time.
It was interesting to see the results. The finding could easily be, and most likely would be, very different, if I asked the exact same people the same question again. Still, I'm pretty sure those three character would get their fair share of mentions.
And the news has become the news. Keith Olbermann, host of Countdown on MSNBC, was suspended for making contribution to candidates in the recent elections. The indefinite suspension was pretty much a long weekend. MSNBC was all up in arms about how could Olbermann do such a thing, and professional journalists shouldn't do such things! After all, they aren't Fox News. MSNBC has rules!
Cue the laughter from anyone who has watched MSNBC.
It is no surprise to anyone that the suspension was lifted so quickly. I was even more surprised that there was any sort of rules against campaign contributions to begin with. Its Olbermann's money. He should be able to donate to whomever he wishes. Its not like he wasn't going to go out touting the Democrat/Liberal in whatever race. Its MSNBC, they lean left. Just like Fox News leans right. Its no shock to anyone. Well, maybe its a shock to some people who live under a rock.
Olbermann is paid money to give his opinion. Great job, wish I had it. So his boss got pissed because he made financial contributions to candidates? I doubt any of the viewers were shocked at all. But they did have a rule against it. Which will probably go away because its inconvenient to enforce it. It was a dumb rule anyways. The only thing that rule did was set them apart form Fox News in their own little weird heads. It gave them some odd feel of superiority, like they were real reporters or something. Fortunately, that's all been cleared up and now viewers know.
They're all the same.
The "Anti-Feminists" are meeting in Switzerland and are meeting in a secret location. Obviously this is to plot how to destroy the woman's movement and put them in their proper place which is in the kitchen making me sammiches. That's right, it all started with them wanting to vote and it all went straight to hell from there!
I'm sure that's what the protesters think this meeting is about.
The reason its being moved to secret location is they don't want to deal with the protesters. Also, surprise, this isn't a meeting against women. Gender relations are totally messed up in many areas. You go to Middle Eastern cultures and in many places women have no rights whatsoever. Hell, you go to the right place and if a woman says something wrong they throw rocks at her until she is dead. Or you could go to China were records of a marriage of a beautiful popular woman are being scrubbed from public record because her husband is the next president and she can't be seen more favorably. Her role will be to be quiet and smiles nicely at meetings with officials on the occasions that families are invited.
Then you come over to good old western civilization. Over here if there's any kind of domestic dispute, the man is to leave the house. The woman can be going absolutely bonkers and even assault him, and if the cops show up, typically the guy is made to leave. If there's a divorce children are typically sent to live with their mother.
Equality doesn't exist. The feminist movement did a lot for women, and that's awesome, but we've got a problem when the focus shifts from lifting up women to putting down men. Its not just gender either. Affirmative Action was great, but has now outlived its usefulness. There was a time for it and that time may very well be past.
We've been told that gender doesn't matter. We've been told that skin color doesn't matter. So its time to walk the walk. If the qualifications of person make them the best candidate for something, be it a job or custodian of children or whatever, they should get it even if they're a white guy. That said, everyone should have the same opportunities offered to them. That's what the Switzerland meeting is about. Who knows? maybe this will be the start of progress towards true equality of rights and opportunities for everyone!
And in this magic fairy tale land, I want a flying horsey.
Great song, good album, bet you forgot is existed.
Yep. While you were reading all that and enjoying the music, I was busy cranking out some crunches. I'd post a picture of my studliness, but it may be too much for the internet to handle. See y'all Friday.
Being part of the downwardly mobile isn't as glamorous as I make it seem. My new found status as poor white trash prevented me from being part of a big Karate event over the weekend. This involved serious training with very high level martial artists on the beach in wind gushing up to 40 MPH which dropped the wind chill factor to a balmy 23 degrees. This made the part where everyone jumped into the ocean quite pleasant, until of course they all had to come out of the water. There were punches, kicks, yelling, kata, sandy uniforms, and plenty of mild hypothermia to go around. With all this my Karate brothers all told me after it was all over how much they wished I could have been there.
I suspect they wanted me there to drown me, but that's beside the point.
I wish I could have gone too, but that wasn't an option this time around. The experience sounds absolutely horrible and i would have to be completely insane for even thinking about it, but still I wish I could have gone. On the bright side, my cousin Scott got promoted to 6th dan and my buddy Bill received the title of Renshi. Both of these are really big deals, and I'm proud of them, and I'm proud that I helped a little along their budo journeys where I could.
So maybe next time. Which means I better start preparing now just in case. Be right back after I do some push-ups.
CHARACTER STUDY!!
What are the first three literary characters that come to mind?
That was the question I asked across the bits of social media that I bounce around on. The answers were varied and interesting. One character that got mentioned quite a bit was Batman. Batman was not the only comic book character mentioned, but he was the one that was mentioned the most. This is interesting because it makes us consider comic books as literature. The stories abide by similar rules to those of prose. I guess you could argue that comics are just excessively illustrated prose. Batman has been featured in many different mediums, and that is something that he shares with the two characters that had the most mentions.
Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes took the top spots. I'm pretty stoked that Holmes made it since I've been on a big Sherlock Holmes kick lately. I'm working my way through the complete Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and am currently re-reading "The Red-Headed League". I also really dug the BBC's SHERLOCK series, which featured the greatest Moriarty ever. As for Harry Potter, I know next to nothing about him. Never read any of the books or scene any of the movies.All three of these characters have been featured prominently in media. All three have had a major motion picture in theaters in the last couple years. All three have movies in the works. Batman and Potter both have successfully franchised into the video game market. Holmes and Batman both have been re-imagined in different times and settings. Harry Potter hasn't had a TV show yet. I think its safe to say that Holmes and Batman have and will survive the test of time. Its too soon to tell for Potter.
That's now a cue for all the die hard Harry Potter fans to mob me with comments about how the stories will live on and on forever and ever. Yes, they are insanely popular now. Yes its true that I'm not a fan. That doesn't mean that I don't realize the characters significance to pop culture nor the fact that he has millions and millions of fans. I can say that the other two currently over shadow him.
When someone thinks of a superhero, Batman tends to spring to mind.
When someone thinks of a detective, Sherlock Holmes tends to spring to mind.
When someone thinks of a wizard, Harry's still got serious competition. However, that may change with time.
It was interesting to see the results. The finding could easily be, and most likely would be, very different, if I asked the exact same people the same question again. Still, I'm pretty sure those three character would get their fair share of mentions.
POP POLITICS!!
And the news has become the news. Keith Olbermann, host of Countdown on MSNBC, was suspended for making contribution to candidates in the recent elections. The indefinite suspension was pretty much a long weekend. MSNBC was all up in arms about how could Olbermann do such a thing, and professional journalists shouldn't do such things! After all, they aren't Fox News. MSNBC has rules!
Cue the laughter from anyone who has watched MSNBC.
It is no surprise to anyone that the suspension was lifted so quickly. I was even more surprised that there was any sort of rules against campaign contributions to begin with. Its Olbermann's money. He should be able to donate to whomever he wishes. Its not like he wasn't going to go out touting the Democrat/Liberal in whatever race. Its MSNBC, they lean left. Just like Fox News leans right. Its no shock to anyone. Well, maybe its a shock to some people who live under a rock.
Olbermann is paid money to give his opinion. Great job, wish I had it. So his boss got pissed because he made financial contributions to candidates? I doubt any of the viewers were shocked at all. But they did have a rule against it. Which will probably go away because its inconvenient to enforce it. It was a dumb rule anyways. The only thing that rule did was set them apart form Fox News in their own little weird heads. It gave them some odd feel of superiority, like they were real reporters or something. Fortunately, that's all been cleared up and now viewers know.
They're all the same.
GET YOUR BISCUITS IN THE OVEN AND YOUR BUNS IN THE BED!!
The "Anti-Feminists" are meeting in Switzerland and are meeting in a secret location. Obviously this is to plot how to destroy the woman's movement and put them in their proper place which is in the kitchen making me sammiches. That's right, it all started with them wanting to vote and it all went straight to hell from there!I'm sure that's what the protesters think this meeting is about.
The reason its being moved to secret location is they don't want to deal with the protesters. Also, surprise, this isn't a meeting against women. Gender relations are totally messed up in many areas. You go to Middle Eastern cultures and in many places women have no rights whatsoever. Hell, you go to the right place and if a woman says something wrong they throw rocks at her until she is dead. Or you could go to China were records of a marriage of a beautiful popular woman are being scrubbed from public record because her husband is the next president and she can't be seen more favorably. Her role will be to be quiet and smiles nicely at meetings with officials on the occasions that families are invited.
Then you come over to good old western civilization. Over here if there's any kind of domestic dispute, the man is to leave the house. The woman can be going absolutely bonkers and even assault him, and if the cops show up, typically the guy is made to leave. If there's a divorce children are typically sent to live with their mother.
Equality doesn't exist. The feminist movement did a lot for women, and that's awesome, but we've got a problem when the focus shifts from lifting up women to putting down men. Its not just gender either. Affirmative Action was great, but has now outlived its usefulness. There was a time for it and that time may very well be past.
We've been told that gender doesn't matter. We've been told that skin color doesn't matter. So its time to walk the walk. If the qualifications of person make them the best candidate for something, be it a job or custodian of children or whatever, they should get it even if they're a white guy. That said, everyone should have the same opportunities offered to them. That's what the Switzerland meeting is about. Who knows? maybe this will be the start of progress towards true equality of rights and opportunities for everyone!
And in this magic fairy tale land, I want a flying horsey.
MUSIC!!
Great song, good album, bet you forgot is existed.
Yep. While you were reading all that and enjoying the music, I was busy cranking out some crunches. I'd post a picture of my studliness, but it may be too much for the internet to handle. See y'all Friday.
Avenger's Holmes Computer!
By Jove, its Wednesday, July 25, 2010, and Operation Cleansweep has hit its 50% completion mark in its Shock and Awe campaign. That means the the misses comes home and is shocked by how hard I worked to clean the Cozz Compound up and when she sees how tired I am she goes "Aaawwwww". I'm working my way to domestic warlord status while blogging my way into the hearts and minds of people everywhere who have nothing better to do.
I'm currently re-reading "The Hound of the Baskervilles" after watching the Guy Richie SHERLOCK HOLMES film. But I stumbled upon some thing. There's a new Sherlock Holmes show on the BBC which I tried to watch on my computer but my computer is so old that in trying to do so I got an alert "Warning: Voo Doo and Gremlins detected". But hey, I did get to see the trailer.
Looks pretty neat. There was also an interview on the BBC with comparisons to Doctor Who and such and it went down the rather dopey road of comparing the partnership of Holmes and Watson to a gay relationship and dispelling it which is kind of a waste to time. However, it did make an interesting assertion: Sherlock Holmes is greatest character in literature.
That's a hell of an assertion but it holds up really damn well. I think in terms of popularity Holmes is up there, only to be trumped by probably Dracula. Also the books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle epitomize the detective fiction genre even though he did not start the genre. (It was Poe with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", which I know because I'm a nerd.) Holmes is a definite pop culture icon. When you think great detectives, you think Sherlock Holmes.
I just realized that when looking at the two literary characters I named as probably the most popular that it is still all about Batman.
The character has endured quite well. The previously mentioned Guy Richie movie did quite well and a sequel is already in the works. This new show on the BBC makes the character contemporary which I find interesting and will definitely be checking out at my first opportunity. There was some cartoon show about Sherlock Holmes somehow being in the future and Watson was a robot sort of thing. The old stories are still a great read. Also looking at a lot of those cop shows and even shows like HOUSE M.D. I'd say they owe quite a bit to Holmes.
So is Sherlock Holmes the greatest character in literature?
I'd say that's elementary.
Note I did not say "That's elementary, my dear Watson" because Holmes never said that in the books. I know that also because I'm a nerd.
Edward Norton is indeed out as far as the AVENGERS movie goes. The cast got introduced at the San Diego Comic-con with Mark Ruffalo to play Bruce Banner. I'm not going to be the guy who runs about the internet yelling "Oh this movie is going to suck now!" but it does seem like a step down from Norton. Nothing against Ruffalo, but when I look at him I don't think Bruce Banner at all. I'm not very surprised by this announcement since reports came out about how much of a prick a marvel movie exec was about discussing Norton stating pretty much that he does play well with others and spouting off crap.
They should have at least been honest and said "Hey, we've got to play Jackson and Downey plus play for a ton of special effects. We can't afford Norton." But that would mean someone in Hollywood being honest. Perish the thought.
Does this mean that I won't go see the AVENGERS movie when it comes out? It doesn't, but that also doesn't mean that I'm going to rush out to see it either. Its way too early to tell. I'm not terribly excited about comic book movies right this second. IRONMAN 2 was good, but that was thanks mostly to Mickey Rourke and in lame comic book movie fashion he got bumped off at the end.
OMG, did I just drop a spoiler? I apologize to the two people who haven't seen the movie yet.
But yeah, not terribly excited for THE AVENGERS, so we'll wait and see.
In less than 1 year IP addresses will run out. This, of course, means the end of life as we know it on the planet. Prince was right. The internet is indeed over. Or someone is going to change the system to generate trillions of new addresses. According to the article the system that created IP addresses was created thirty years ago. That's right 1980. So let's look at back, shall we?
In 1980 no one had a home computer. We're going back to well before even the good old Commodore 64 here. Hell, if someone on the street had an Atari, they were the most popular kid in the neighborhood. Cell phones? That was science fiction. The internet was pretty much Science Fiction as well. Remember, this was the era in which WAR GAMES (the movie not the Batman storyline) was like scary cutting edge tech.
But technology has snowballed since then and just about every home has a computer, and some of them have more. Cell phones have become a part of life, even the most basic ones are capable of going online. I'm surprised a 30 year old system created in the conditions of 1980 has made it this far.
The article is pretty damn funny, actually. It compares this problem to Climate Change which is just stupid on a number of levels. It also makes mention of the possibility of a black market for IP addresses which I find amusing on a grand number of levels. The funniest was it stating that back when the system was created the notion that a refrigerator would possibly need an IP address was ludicrous. Which means, in someone's warped little mind, some time in the past, the notion that a refrigerator might need an IP address became not ludicrous.
Welcome to the future. People are still nuts.
Which seems to be what people think is going to happen to anyone who isn't white very soon. I didn't want weigh in on this. Its a hot button topic. People get amazingly livid and pissed off about such things, but no one comments in here anyways so why the hell not. I came across two news stories in as many days on the subject. First was about illegal immigrants fleeing Arizona before the new State law goes into effect making being an illegal immigrant a state crime and not just a federal one. The second one was about illegal immigrants getting upset that their fingerprint could be used to identify them to the authorities as an illegal immigrant and get them deported.
What struck me in both these stories is that the writers are treating the people breaking the law as the victims. The fingerprinting one is aggressively stupid in that if some is getting fingerprinted by the Police then most likely its because they've been arrested. Fingerprinting is done for a reason. You see this in every Cop show on TV. There's a crime scene, and they dust for prints. That way they make an arrest they can use these fingerprints as evidence. Or possibly the prints may match up to somebody who has already been arrested for something else and its already a win. The police are not going to go around fingerprinting whoever they want. This isn't racial profiling, its procedure. And sure enough if it turns out the person being processed is not in the country legally, that's a crime, and as we still theoretically have laws, they are sent back to their country of origin. And if the crime they committed is spying they're invited to film premiers by Angelina Jolie.
But it seems that America is in a weird position. There's people who want us to be "no better than" every other country out there because we're all equal and whatever, YET, we are supposed to have an open door to anyone who wants to come here and we take care of them with tax dollars because our country provides better opportunities. We're expected to have the most lax immigration laws in the world. Mexico has double tough immigration laws, but it seems double standards are OK as long as they don't favor the United States.
The first story I found discusses people fleeing Arizona to other states to escape the law. I can't pity these people. Instead of running away, they should be trying to obey the law. So now they're not just illegal immigrants, they're now fugitives.
I've actually got about 10 subscribers on YouTube and have never posted a video. But I do get friend requests as well, and I ignore most of them to be honest because the only reason I have an account is to make following certain people on there easier. But for some reason I checked out Picklespantry when she sent me a friend request, and I'm glad I did. For she has given me MUSIC!
That is the skinny for today. Come back Friday as I talk about comics, probably gush over Batman, and make fun of Justin Bieber thus earning the ire of of any possible tween that may have stumbled into here.
See ya then.
NO S**T, SHERLOCK!!
I'm currently re-reading "The Hound of the Baskervilles" after watching the Guy Richie SHERLOCK HOLMES film. But I stumbled upon some thing. There's a new Sherlock Holmes show on the BBC which I tried to watch on my computer but my computer is so old that in trying to do so I got an alert "Warning: Voo Doo and Gremlins detected". But hey, I did get to see the trailer.
Looks pretty neat. There was also an interview on the BBC with comparisons to Doctor Who and such and it went down the rather dopey road of comparing the partnership of Holmes and Watson to a gay relationship and dispelling it which is kind of a waste to time. However, it did make an interesting assertion: Sherlock Holmes is greatest character in literature.
That's a hell of an assertion but it holds up really damn well. I think in terms of popularity Holmes is up there, only to be trumped by probably Dracula. Also the books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle epitomize the detective fiction genre even though he did not start the genre. (It was Poe with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", which I know because I'm a nerd.) Holmes is a definite pop culture icon. When you think great detectives, you think Sherlock Holmes.
I just realized that when looking at the two literary characters I named as probably the most popular that it is still all about Batman.
The character has endured quite well. The previously mentioned Guy Richie movie did quite well and a sequel is already in the works. This new show on the BBC makes the character contemporary which I find interesting and will definitely be checking out at my first opportunity. There was some cartoon show about Sherlock Holmes somehow being in the future and Watson was a robot sort of thing. The old stories are still a great read. Also looking at a lot of those cop shows and even shows like HOUSE M.D. I'd say they owe quite a bit to Holmes.
So is Sherlock Holmes the greatest character in literature?
I'd say that's elementary.
Note I did not say "That's elementary, my dear Watson" because Holmes never said that in the books. I know that also because I'm a nerd.
THE NEW DON CHEADLE!!
Edward Norton is indeed out as far as the AVENGERS movie goes. The cast got introduced at the San Diego Comic-con with Mark Ruffalo to play Bruce Banner. I'm not going to be the guy who runs about the internet yelling "Oh this movie is going to suck now!" but it does seem like a step down from Norton. Nothing against Ruffalo, but when I look at him I don't think Bruce Banner at all. I'm not very surprised by this announcement since reports came out about how much of a prick a marvel movie exec was about discussing Norton stating pretty much that he does play well with others and spouting off crap.
They should have at least been honest and said "Hey, we've got to play Jackson and Downey plus play for a ton of special effects. We can't afford Norton." But that would mean someone in Hollywood being honest. Perish the thought.
Does this mean that I won't go see the AVENGERS movie when it comes out? It doesn't, but that also doesn't mean that I'm going to rush out to see it either. Its way too early to tell. I'm not terribly excited about comic book movies right this second. IRONMAN 2 was good, but that was thanks mostly to Mickey Rourke and in lame comic book movie fashion he got bumped off at the end.
OMG, did I just drop a spoiler? I apologize to the two people who haven't seen the movie yet.
But yeah, not terribly excited for THE AVENGERS, so we'll wait and see.
THE E-SKY IS FALLING!!
In less than 1 year IP addresses will run out. This, of course, means the end of life as we know it on the planet. Prince was right. The internet is indeed over. Or someone is going to change the system to generate trillions of new addresses. According to the article the system that created IP addresses was created thirty years ago. That's right 1980. So let's look at back, shall we?In 1980 no one had a home computer. We're going back to well before even the good old Commodore 64 here. Hell, if someone on the street had an Atari, they were the most popular kid in the neighborhood. Cell phones? That was science fiction. The internet was pretty much Science Fiction as well. Remember, this was the era in which WAR GAMES (the movie not the Batman storyline) was like scary cutting edge tech.
But technology has snowballed since then and just about every home has a computer, and some of them have more. Cell phones have become a part of life, even the most basic ones are capable of going online. I'm surprised a 30 year old system created in the conditions of 1980 has made it this far.
The article is pretty damn funny, actually. It compares this problem to Climate Change which is just stupid on a number of levels. It also makes mention of the possibility of a black market for IP addresses which I find amusing on a grand number of levels. The funniest was it stating that back when the system was created the notion that a refrigerator would possibly need an IP address was ludicrous. Which means, in someone's warped little mind, some time in the past, the notion that a refrigerator might need an IP address became not ludicrous.
Welcome to the future. People are still nuts.
PAPERS OR GTFO!!!
Which seems to be what people think is going to happen to anyone who isn't white very soon. I didn't want weigh in on this. Its a hot button topic. People get amazingly livid and pissed off about such things, but no one comments in here anyways so why the hell not. I came across two news stories in as many days on the subject. First was about illegal immigrants fleeing Arizona before the new State law goes into effect making being an illegal immigrant a state crime and not just a federal one. The second one was about illegal immigrants getting upset that their fingerprint could be used to identify them to the authorities as an illegal immigrant and get them deported.
What struck me in both these stories is that the writers are treating the people breaking the law as the victims. The fingerprinting one is aggressively stupid in that if some is getting fingerprinted by the Police then most likely its because they've been arrested. Fingerprinting is done for a reason. You see this in every Cop show on TV. There's a crime scene, and they dust for prints. That way they make an arrest they can use these fingerprints as evidence. Or possibly the prints may match up to somebody who has already been arrested for something else and its already a win. The police are not going to go around fingerprinting whoever they want. This isn't racial profiling, its procedure. And sure enough if it turns out the person being processed is not in the country legally, that's a crime, and as we still theoretically have laws, they are sent back to their country of origin. And if the crime they committed is spying they're invited to film premiers by Angelina Jolie.
But it seems that America is in a weird position. There's people who want us to be "no better than" every other country out there because we're all equal and whatever, YET, we are supposed to have an open door to anyone who wants to come here and we take care of them with tax dollars because our country provides better opportunities. We're expected to have the most lax immigration laws in the world. Mexico has double tough immigration laws, but it seems double standards are OK as long as they don't favor the United States.
The first story I found discusses people fleeing Arizona to other states to escape the law. I can't pity these people. Instead of running away, they should be trying to obey the law. So now they're not just illegal immigrants, they're now fugitives.
MUSIC!!
I've actually got about 10 subscribers on YouTube and have never posted a video. But I do get friend requests as well, and I ignore most of them to be honest because the only reason I have an account is to make following certain people on there easier. But for some reason I checked out Picklespantry when she sent me a friend request, and I'm glad I did. For she has given me MUSIC!
That is the skinny for today. Come back Friday as I talk about comics, probably gush over Batman, and make fun of Justin Bieber thus earning the ire of of any possible tween that may have stumbled into here.
See ya then.
You have the right to shut up and go away
In a nice morbid bit of legal action, a judge is having to block footage and photos of the death of a Seaworld trainer from being made public. Under State Law in Florida documents, photographs and video from criminal investigations go to the public record after the investigation concludes. The media say they want to see the footage and pictures to get a better understanding of what happened that led to the trainers death. Seaworld and, more importantly, the family of the trainer don't want this footage to be released, not because they are guilty of any wrong doing, but because they don't want pictures and footage of the woman's death published anywhere.
Of course the media say they wouldn't do it, but since NBC didn't have much of a problem showing footage of a fatal accident at the recent Winter Olympics who the hell is going to believe them. If those pictures and that footage go into the public record I guarantee you'll be able to find them online within 24 hours. Its a fairly safe bet that clips will be on the television complete with an anchor person doing there best stern face telling the viewers that the footage they're about to see is graphic in nature and not for young viewers. Afterward there will comments about how horrible and tragic it all is before segueing over to weather and traffic reports.
There is no mystery here. The details have been released in full. We know what happened. If the family does not want footage released, that should be honored. There's no debate here. Even that little Spider Jerusalem part of my brain that screams "The TRUTH no matter what!" is silent. The media know the truth, now its time to learn respect.
This is jogging up some particularly bitter memories. There was a plane crash well over ten years ago. My Dad reserve unit lost a team that had gone to Florida on a mission. They are an engineering unit, meaning they build things. If a landing field needs built in the middle of a desert, its unit's like my father's who get it done. Plane crash was due to weather if memory serves. My father lost friends on that flight.
My father, along with others then served as liaisons to the individual families who lost loved one and aided them through dealing with the paperwork that came up as well as keeping them informed as to what was going on with the incident investigation and memorial services. On a Friday my Dad was called into a briefing explaining exactly what had caused the crash. This information was going to be shared with the families the following day.
That night I was working to door at the bar, and it was a slow enough night that I could follow what was going on on the numerous TVs as the band was playing the obligatory Van Morrison numbers. There I stood, watching our local news give out the details of the crash. I took a break from in position, called the local TV station running the segment and told them that the families of the people who died had now been informed yet. I'm not an official anything so I kind of got brushed off. I still don't watch that channel, so no CBS for me. The next day my father got to walk right into a nice "why should we even talk to you since we got all the details off the news".
Anger. Perfectly justified anger. The truth. No matter who it hurt. No matter that the story would not have lost any relevance if it had been sat on for just 24 hours. People weren't even thinking about that crash anymore. It had been well over a month until the investigation had conclusion.
But, if it bleeds, it leads.
Like the blood on the ground after the plane crashed.
Like the blood in the water at Seaworld.
This is what happens when ethics take a backseat to desire for ratings.
Of course the media say they wouldn't do it, but since NBC didn't have much of a problem showing footage of a fatal accident at the recent Winter Olympics who the hell is going to believe them. If those pictures and that footage go into the public record I guarantee you'll be able to find them online within 24 hours. Its a fairly safe bet that clips will be on the television complete with an anchor person doing there best stern face telling the viewers that the footage they're about to see is graphic in nature and not for young viewers. Afterward there will comments about how horrible and tragic it all is before segueing over to weather and traffic reports.
There is no mystery here. The details have been released in full. We know what happened. If the family does not want footage released, that should be honored. There's no debate here. Even that little Spider Jerusalem part of my brain that screams "The TRUTH no matter what!" is silent. The media know the truth, now its time to learn respect.
This is jogging up some particularly bitter memories. There was a plane crash well over ten years ago. My Dad reserve unit lost a team that had gone to Florida on a mission. They are an engineering unit, meaning they build things. If a landing field needs built in the middle of a desert, its unit's like my father's who get it done. Plane crash was due to weather if memory serves. My father lost friends on that flight.
My father, along with others then served as liaisons to the individual families who lost loved one and aided them through dealing with the paperwork that came up as well as keeping them informed as to what was going on with the incident investigation and memorial services. On a Friday my Dad was called into a briefing explaining exactly what had caused the crash. This information was going to be shared with the families the following day.
That night I was working to door at the bar, and it was a slow enough night that I could follow what was going on on the numerous TVs as the band was playing the obligatory Van Morrison numbers. There I stood, watching our local news give out the details of the crash. I took a break from in position, called the local TV station running the segment and told them that the families of the people who died had now been informed yet. I'm not an official anything so I kind of got brushed off. I still don't watch that channel, so no CBS for me. The next day my father got to walk right into a nice "why should we even talk to you since we got all the details off the news".
Anger. Perfectly justified anger. The truth. No matter who it hurt. No matter that the story would not have lost any relevance if it had been sat on for just 24 hours. People weren't even thinking about that crash anymore. It had been well over a month until the investigation had conclusion.
But, if it bleeds, it leads.
Like the blood on the ground after the plane crashed.
Like the blood in the water at Seaworld.
This is what happens when ethics take a backseat to desire for ratings.
Leaving well enough alone
We live in an age of multimedia cross-marketing saturation bombing. It's almost to the point where we don't have consumers, we have targets. Think about that the next time you hear the term "target audience". As if some record producer or artist agent or webcomic writer who spews forth his half crazed opinions on his blog is perched upon the water tower overlooking the vast mass consciousness of the developing mono-culture picking and choosing the recipients of their .50 caliber meme which will be fired through the media of their choice.
And it's not like we're sitting up in our water towers, sucking down anything caffeinated or mind altering that we can get our hands on, and only having to use one weapon of thought attack at our disposal. Oh no children, we've got the whole toy store at our disposal. Movies, books, television, radio, CDs, DVDs, MP3s, Blue-Ray, broadband, satellites skimming over the Ionosphere for the sole purpose of getting our ideas into your heads, or make your fillings sing "hey nani nani". Whichever comes first.
And some people just can't get enough. The movie isn't enough. They need the soundtrack downloaded onto their Ipod, the same one that has the movie's trailer which they downloaded when it somehow, as if by magic, got leaked onto the web. Wait, there's a book adaption? Got to get that to! It doesn't matter that the movie in question is an adaption of a novel to begin with. Now you have to wait for months for the DVD, but not that piece of shit that's coming out a couple of months later, NO YOU FOOLISH BASTARD, it's got to be the special edition 5 disc hi-def box set with the little book and commemorative paperweight!
There's an animated WONDER WOMAN movie coming soon, to which I say "Yay". I'll be buying it. However, in a little online discussion doom was reigned upon us with the statement, "That doesn't solve the problem of there not being a live action Wonder Woman movie."
Fuck the economy and tell the entire Middle East to sod off! Get Obama on the phone! We need a damn Wonder Woman live action movie, because damn it all we're entitled to have our every whim catered to.
This is a problem? THIS? No, CATWOMAN was a problem. This is just a matter of no one can pull off the role. And don't bother leaving comments about Lucy Lawless. That ship sailed about ten years ago. Let her do the animated voice like she did in NEW FRONTIER.
WATCHMEN is getting set to be butchered on the screen. I caught some people clamoring about doing a KINGDOM COME movie. Here's where we hit the problem.
Some works lose their magic in translation. NEW FRONTIER was great, but so much got cut out when the work got animated that it felt like they just when from Darwin Cooke's outline. There's even more stuff going on in WATCHMEN and KINGDOM COME that there's no way you can get a decent translation of the work compiled into a two to three hour movie. There's also not enough there to warrant a series of films. And think about one of the main strengths of KINGDOM COME: the art. Alex Ross ain't gonna be painting those animation cells.
Some works can translate well. SIN CITY and 300 proved that. The difference is that there's room to work with them. They had to add a lot to 300 to flesh it out for the movie. SIN CITY faithfully adapted multiple limited series into one movie. The thing is, while I love SIN CITY, we are not talking about a terribly dense work. It's fairly light, a popcorn read. That's not an insult, I love popcorn reading.
Also intellectual properties like BATMAN and SPIDER-MAN are easily adapted because there a lot of source material for the producers to cull from. They can make it work. Adapting a series like WATCHMEN, or the numerous other Alan Moore properties of which he won't even allow his name to be attached to the adaptations, and the producers are hand cuffed. The creators only produced a set amount of source material and it often isn't much. It's way too easy to go off the reservation and piss off the audience you were hoping to cater to.
Tricksy things, those target audiences. Blast them right and they'll worship you with devotion, praise and money. However if your aim is off, you've got a pissed off beast which you've disturbed and it's never easy to calm them down.
As humans it's in our nature to adapt. Ideas must adapt meet the rigors of the world. Art does not adapt. The world adapts to art. People adapt to art. Great glowing ideas that change the minds, hearts and souls of all who come in contact with them, which drive their creators to near madness in the best of conditions, in their quest to formulate and express them. And for every single one of these wonderful ideas, there's a hundred people looking to change it so that they can make a buck off it.
And it's not like we're sitting up in our water towers, sucking down anything caffeinated or mind altering that we can get our hands on, and only having to use one weapon of thought attack at our disposal. Oh no children, we've got the whole toy store at our disposal. Movies, books, television, radio, CDs, DVDs, MP3s, Blue-Ray, broadband, satellites skimming over the Ionosphere for the sole purpose of getting our ideas into your heads, or make your fillings sing "hey nani nani". Whichever comes first.
And some people just can't get enough. The movie isn't enough. They need the soundtrack downloaded onto their Ipod, the same one that has the movie's trailer which they downloaded when it somehow, as if by magic, got leaked onto the web. Wait, there's a book adaption? Got to get that to! It doesn't matter that the movie in question is an adaption of a novel to begin with. Now you have to wait for months for the DVD, but not that piece of shit that's coming out a couple of months later, NO YOU FOOLISH BASTARD, it's got to be the special edition 5 disc hi-def box set with the little book and commemorative paperweight!
There's an animated WONDER WOMAN movie coming soon, to which I say "Yay". I'll be buying it. However, in a little online discussion doom was reigned upon us with the statement, "That doesn't solve the problem of there not being a live action Wonder Woman movie."
Fuck the economy and tell the entire Middle East to sod off! Get Obama on the phone! We need a damn Wonder Woman live action movie, because damn it all we're entitled to have our every whim catered to.
This is a problem? THIS? No, CATWOMAN was a problem. This is just a matter of no one can pull off the role. And don't bother leaving comments about Lucy Lawless. That ship sailed about ten years ago. Let her do the animated voice like she did in NEW FRONTIER.
WATCHMEN is getting set to be butchered on the screen. I caught some people clamoring about doing a KINGDOM COME movie. Here's where we hit the problem.
Some works lose their magic in translation. NEW FRONTIER was great, but so much got cut out when the work got animated that it felt like they just when from Darwin Cooke's outline. There's even more stuff going on in WATCHMEN and KINGDOM COME that there's no way you can get a decent translation of the work compiled into a two to three hour movie. There's also not enough there to warrant a series of films. And think about one of the main strengths of KINGDOM COME: the art. Alex Ross ain't gonna be painting those animation cells.
Some works can translate well. SIN CITY and 300 proved that. The difference is that there's room to work with them. They had to add a lot to 300 to flesh it out for the movie. SIN CITY faithfully adapted multiple limited series into one movie. The thing is, while I love SIN CITY, we are not talking about a terribly dense work. It's fairly light, a popcorn read. That's not an insult, I love popcorn reading.
Also intellectual properties like BATMAN and SPIDER-MAN are easily adapted because there a lot of source material for the producers to cull from. They can make it work. Adapting a series like WATCHMEN, or the numerous other Alan Moore properties of which he won't even allow his name to be attached to the adaptations, and the producers are hand cuffed. The creators only produced a set amount of source material and it often isn't much. It's way too easy to go off the reservation and piss off the audience you were hoping to cater to.
Tricksy things, those target audiences. Blast them right and they'll worship you with devotion, praise and money. However if your aim is off, you've got a pissed off beast which you've disturbed and it's never easy to calm them down.
As humans it's in our nature to adapt. Ideas must adapt meet the rigors of the world. Art does not adapt. The world adapts to art. People adapt to art. Great glowing ideas that change the minds, hearts and souls of all who come in contact with them, which drive their creators to near madness in the best of conditions, in their quest to formulate and express them. And for every single one of these wonderful ideas, there's a hundred people looking to change it so that they can make a buck off it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)