I woke up this morning face down in my bed. My brain was fuzzy from the deep sleep I just had and I wasn't sure what was real and what was not.
Last nights dream had me sitting along a concrete wall with a crowd of people wearing jeans and jackets or military camouflage. I was still near home in the Arlington area, but along a road that seems to be on a hill. As I looked down the road the sky grew darker and there were flashes of colored lights and the sounds of explosions like faint thunder.
The soldiers around me seemed experienced and calm but also a little anxious. The scene began to make sense as it would seem that the civilian people in the crowd were joining the military in battle down the hill. It was an all-hands-on-deck moment where anyone who could fight was about to.
I was as cool as... ok, completely not true. When faced with the fact that I was in the masses about to go down the hill I started to think about the mortal possibilities. I said to myself, “I don't want to die.” The soldier to my right turned and said, “What? Did you say something?” I repeated my self only a little louder for sympathies sake. Everyone was going down the hill. There was no getting out of it and I was prepared to go. But I was also marking the moment, acknowledging that it could be my last on the planet.
There were soldiers and civilians walking around everywhere making preparations. Then people started going over and down the hill. I turned to the soldier on my left and smiled. She seemed experienced but also empathized with my cavalcade of emotions. People were moving forward now. I reached over for the soldier and for some reason we kissed. It was just simple human contact I think. The desire to connect with something positive and full of normalcy that I think caused that to happen. I don't know.
The hilarious thing to me is that I am the first guy in a movie that instinctively calls out “Come on! Do we have time for this?” in a theater when two characters kiss in the middle of an action sequence. Now, while my motivation didn't really parallel the passion that you see on the silver screen in a action-moment-kiss I think I could understand how if given the right amount of stress and time, such a thing could actually happen.
I woke up after that, my alarm calling me from my sleep.
I can say that this is likely a media dream. Between reading the book “flashforward” to watching the TV shows “V” and “Flashforward” and recently beating the video game “Modern Warefare 2” and all of the press talking about a Congress bankrupting the country, the idea of being engaged in a bunch of unsettling upheaval where regular citizens have to get involved or get plowed under seems to be at the front of my mind.
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
TV Show V Tops All Shows
Well, the new TV show “V” is a hit. The typical top-of-the-list show has been “Grey's Anatomy” for a while now, but as of November sweeps, “V” topped it for over-all viewership and specifically within the 18-49 crowd (that's a large crowd!)
What I find fascinating about the show are the seemingly political analogy that underlies the program. From using “devotion” as a weapon, to marketing for favor via selling “universal health care” to a large demographic of youth getting involved in promoting the “visitors” doing what they call “spreading hope” the show seems to have taken it's plays straight out of the 2008 presidential election.
Some might say there is nothing new about those political ploys, but there is an interesting twist only more recently found in the 2008 presidential election: courting of the fan-boy press by the visitors to gain influence over the masses through “news” media.
People are very aware of the influence of the press. And, of course, as “news” in the 21st century has become a commodity like shampoo brands, people behind the news desk think about their careers more often than not. It is understandable as everyone who works likely thinks about their careers. But promoting someone at a news desk in “media” today is far different than merit-promotions of old. Look at the rise of previously unknowns like Katy Curric, who was formerly lost in small offices as a lowly pentagon reporter who “caught her break” during dessert storm in the early 1990s and was later promoted because of her demographicly-tested trustworthiness. Through the years weather forecasters have gone from scientists/climatologists to up-and-coming wanna be actors who said their first lines in front of green-screens reading scripts about the coming day's weather before heading to Hollywood. Every news job is a stepping stone today. And it isn't about telling the truth or breaking some news. It is about effective polling and degrees of perceived trustworthiness and influence.
I digress. Here is an exchange between two characters from “V.” In episode #2 a news reporter was asked to give an exclusive interview of the “V” high commander, when just before going on-air the “V” high commander instructed the reporter to not ask any questions that could portray the visitors in a bad light. When the reporter asked what she meant by that, the response was to appeal to the reporters rocketing career and the highly visible nature of the interview. Said another way, make us look good and we will do exclusives with you that rocket your career to the top. So, now in episode #3, the reporter is struggling with having sold out his conscience for an advancing career move:
Other news person, “Poll numbers. The country is split about the visitors.”
Lamenting reporter, “50 percent are still undecided.”
Other news person, “Yeah, I mean, people don't have enough info.”
Lamenting reporter, “That's my fault. I didn't ask any of the hard questions. I got played”
Before you think this is just pure entertainment fiction, check out this news article from the Orlando Sentinel:
What I find fascinating about the show are the seemingly political analogy that underlies the program. From using “devotion” as a weapon, to marketing for favor via selling “universal health care” to a large demographic of youth getting involved in promoting the “visitors” doing what they call “spreading hope” the show seems to have taken it's plays straight out of the 2008 presidential election.
Some might say there is nothing new about those political ploys, but there is an interesting twist only more recently found in the 2008 presidential election: courting of the fan-boy press by the visitors to gain influence over the masses through “news” media.
People are very aware of the influence of the press. And, of course, as “news” in the 21st century has become a commodity like shampoo brands, people behind the news desk think about their careers more often than not. It is understandable as everyone who works likely thinks about their careers. But promoting someone at a news desk in “media” today is far different than merit-promotions of old. Look at the rise of previously unknowns like Katy Curric, who was formerly lost in small offices as a lowly pentagon reporter who “caught her break” during dessert storm in the early 1990s and was later promoted because of her demographicly-tested trustworthiness. Through the years weather forecasters have gone from scientists/climatologists to up-and-coming wanna be actors who said their first lines in front of green-screens reading scripts about the coming day's weather before heading to Hollywood. Every news job is a stepping stone today. And it isn't about telling the truth or breaking some news. It is about effective polling and degrees of perceived trustworthiness and influence.
I digress. Here is an exchange between two characters from “V.” In episode #2 a news reporter was asked to give an exclusive interview of the “V” high commander, when just before going on-air the “V” high commander instructed the reporter to not ask any questions that could portray the visitors in a bad light. When the reporter asked what she meant by that, the response was to appeal to the reporters rocketing career and the highly visible nature of the interview. Said another way, make us look good and we will do exclusives with you that rocket your career to the top. So, now in episode #3, the reporter is struggling with having sold out his conscience for an advancing career move:
Other news person, “Poll numbers. The country is split about the visitors.”
Lamenting reporter, “50 percent are still undecided.”
Other news person, “Yeah, I mean, people don't have enough info.”
Lamenting reporter, “That's my fault. I didn't ask any of the hard questions. I got played”
Before you think this is just pure entertainment fiction, check out this news article from the Orlando Sentinel:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2008/10/obama-campaign.html
When Barbara West asked a few tough questions that Joe Biden could have answered in a manner that laid such questions to rest, instead his response was “I don't know who's is writing your questions” and the Obama team canceled scheduled interviews and cut off that news outlet. In recent days the White House has given the same cold shoulder to any news group willing to continue to ask tough questions, attacking those news groups and questioning if they can even be qualified as news because they are thinking about questions that the White House would rather people not think about.
Spoiler alert:
The show “V” is a remake. In the original the alien “visitors” come to earth to consume humans as a food source. And how do they make their ulterior motives happen? They mislead and lie about their intentions attempting to persuade the masses to support them while they quietly work out their actual plan.
In general, the show is maintaining it's basic plot. What is different would be a modernization of tactics and efforts to fool people in order to gain their devotion and support. The makers of the show admit, they are drawing these modernizations from our contemporary life.
It is interesting how palatable the idea of people feeling undecided because they don't have enough questions is in a TV plot, or how obvious it is for the news reporter to claim the blame because he wasn't asking any hard questions. It is just interesting to me that TV shows can expose this problem in the form of allegory, but if a news outlets or common people call the press on such stuff then (in the 2008 presidential election) they are labeled “enemies of hope.”
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Fun With PhotoShop
I would so totally go see this......if it actually happened.
This is a composite of 4 pictures and a winging a bunch of photoshop effects. Click the image to see a larger version!
Enjoy the silliness!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Favorite New Quote "The truth has come a' knockin!"
Recently a friend from work has decided to force me to watch season one of "Pushing Daisies." This is a very surreal TV show about a man who can bring dead people back to life for 60 seconds and he and some friends solve murders as a result of this gift. It is mostly a dark comedy and there is a lot to like about the show in its various parts while the jury is still out on the show as a whole (for me.) Even though the show only lasted a season and a half, it is growing on me as each episode takes creative turns with the characters and the relationships of those characters on the program.
Well, I have just found my new favorite quotation and it comes from this show.
Near the end of season one there is this episode where a man is killed by his neighbor. You see, the neighbor invited this man out on a double date and when the man meets the neighbor's girlfriend he finds out that the crazy neighbor is dating a life-sized plastic doll that only looks like a women (like I said, quite a surreal show.) Cutting to the chase, the main character in the show is about to confront the neighbor. As the main character is about to knock on the door to begin the confrontation, one of the main character's friends says...
"What if he does actually believe that his doll is a person? Maybe that is his truth, it's just different from our truth?"
The other friend of the main character replies... (and here is my new favorite quote)
"The truth ain't like puppies a bunch of them runnin' around, you pick your favorite. One truth. And it has come a' knock'n!"
Yes! I love it!
Well, I have just found my new favorite quotation and it comes from this show.
Near the end of season one there is this episode where a man is killed by his neighbor. You see, the neighbor invited this man out on a double date and when the man meets the neighbor's girlfriend he finds out that the crazy neighbor is dating a life-sized plastic doll that only looks like a women (like I said, quite a surreal show.) Cutting to the chase, the main character in the show is about to confront the neighbor. As the main character is about to knock on the door to begin the confrontation, one of the main character's friends says...
"What if he does actually believe that his doll is a person? Maybe that is his truth, it's just different from our truth?"
The other friend of the main character replies... (and here is my new favorite quote)
"The truth ain't like puppies a bunch of them runnin' around, you pick your favorite. One truth. And it has come a' knock'n!"
Yes! I love it!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Christian Reality TV
ABC News has taken notice. On Sunday night they showed a news piece about two Christian reality-tv shows that are happy to make use of the medium but in a counter-cultural manner:
The Uprising:
http://www.steelroots.com/theuprising/
Revolve:
http://www.gospelmusicchannel.com/revolve
On the show they talked with "cast members" about how even though they are willing to be real about heavy issues and conflict that they feel that people will benefit from shows that do not focus on rejection or disappointment but rather decisions and conflict resolution that is influenced by the reality of their faith.
So, in the spectrum of reality-tv, less "Roadrules" and more "Extreme Home Makeover" or "Biggest looser."
As a complete aside, I had no idea that Christian Hosoi had become a born-again Christian. I recall him skating when I was younger, pulling McTwists on a vert ramp with his long hair flowing in the wind. I recall him being pretty dramatic, into drugs and at one point running from the law. He even invented the move the "Christ air" which maybe got me praying for him originally. But it appears that durring prison and not too long ago he got saved. I remember praying for him as a kid. I was never a skater, but I loved their skills and their style and had a good handful of friends who were living that life. I remember thinking as a kid there is nothing so raw as people litterally sitting on a curb and talking about real life.
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