But not as much as we love ourselves.
With that in mind and with not much posting going on here lately, i’m going to ramble about assorted events and or minutiae for a bit. I’d like to write a longer, more cohesive essay about something in particular but I just haven’t had that in me lately for various reasons not to be dwelt upon here. So here’s some stuff. Discuss amongst yourselves.
We got some recent confirmation that FOX News viewers are dumb and I’m smart. A recent study gives us the following:
NEW YORK A new survey of 1,502 adults released Sunday by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that despite the mass appeal of the Internet and cable news since a previous poll in 1989, Americans’ knowledge of national affairs has slipped a little. For example, only 69% know that Dick Cheney is vice president, while 74% could identify Dan Quayle in that post in 1989.
Other details are equally eye-opening. Pew judged the levels of knowledgeability (correct answers) among those surveyed and found that those who scored the highest were regular watchers of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and Colbert Report. They tied with regular readers of major newspapers in the top spot — with 54% of them getting 2 out of 3 questions correct. Watchers of the Lehrer News Hour on PBS followed just behind.
Virtually bringing up the rear were regular watchers of Fox News. Only 1 in 3 could answer 2 out of 3 questions correctly. Fox topped only network morning show viewers.
Not that I really think I’m all that brilliant but I do have to admit I think Fox viewers are just too stupid to live. Just the other day they had a debate about whether or not some guy running for President will be hurt by his role on the awesome late 80′s show Wiseguy. He played an anti-semite cum racist con man who toted around a supposedly signed copy of Mein Kampf. What’s funny about this is that they apparently didn’t mention was that it was revealed that the character didn’t believe any of what he preached and got supporters to rally behind. He was a con man who took advantage of weak minded people in various parts of the country by playing on their ignorance and fear using different issues for different people. He only believed in making big scores and taking advantage of people for money pretending to be whatever was convenient.
Get the irony here?
And finding out the actor has been in politics and is running just makes me wonder if it might not be the demagogue and charlatan we should worry about more than the anti-Semite.
Not that we should. But leave it to Fox to blur the lines. It’s probably only a matter of time before they start reporting the events on 24 as facts and cause for national action against the Chinese.
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Speaking of 24 and t.v. Boy Kim is in trouble. Just when you thought it was safe to leave a Bauer offspring alone we have to deal with this. But the Chinese invading CTU is kind of cool. Morris is going have to lay it down for Chloe to redeem himself if only in his own mind.
Milo takes a bullet for Nadia who then is allowed to live after the Chinese find out she’s really the person they meant to shoot. And the Chinese don’t immediately kill Jack Bauer when they have him in a defenseless position.
There’s no figuring out these foreign cultures I guess.
Audrey?
Are we done with Audrey?
What was the point?
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Lost:
I really thought Ben was going to start talking to that chair in a slightly higher register saying, “Yes mother, Juliet is really a nice girl mother. Do we have to feed her to smokey mother?”
Ben is weird. This is the lesson of season 3.
I still like him.
Can’t say the same abut Jacob.
PLease don’t let him or Richard Halpert, who does not appear to age, be Pirates from the Black Rock or the Vampires Louis and Lestat. Because I get that vibe.
I think we may have to call in the Scooby Gang to solve all this stuff.
And of course we had the announcement that Lost will end in May 2010. They’ll run 16 straight shows starting the next 3 February’s. Mini seasons will supposedly promise maxi entertainment and quality. I hope so but I fear two things.
1. People will lose interest without the show around the bulk of the year, the ratings will slip, and it will be cancelled before that date and or become obsolete.
2. Many of those same people will make like pre shark jumping Fonzy and become cool to the show as it turns more and more into some cross between Buffy, Medium, the old Prisoner, and a well produced sci fi channel show.
Nothing wrong with any of those shows or channel. Well I haven’t ever seen Medium and Jeebus help me I never will. But I’m not sure enough of Lost’s audience realized they were watching that kind of show the first 2 years and once it becomes clear they are they may not want to go for the much delayed ride.
At times I’m not sure I want to. i really like the show but as I get older find it harder and harder to enter into a fantasy world without some basis in reality. It’s pretty apparent now that Lost will offer no plausible scientific explanations for what is going on. But I can still suspend disbelief a bit for parallel-time dilated-electomagnetic influenced wackiness that allows for some strange shit within its remotely scientifically explainable hypothetical world. But if they keep heading towards ghosts and spirits I’m going to feel like calling shennanigans.
But then again I always felt part of the mythos was the battle between reason and mysticism best represented by Jack and Locke. Problem is mysticism is winning right now. Not surprising since reason doesn’t make for exciting tv for most. This is perhaps why people tend to believe in mystical things. It’s just more interesting than the probable reality and it keeps viewers. At least in the real world.
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I have weekends off regularly now for the first time in the better part of a decade. Friday’s and Saturday’s that is. Mostly flexible on Sundays I believe. I am largely ambivalent about this. I initially said no. That was for other Quixotic reasons I won’t bore you with anymore than I have already bored anyone who has read this far. But this whole schedule thing just kind of reminds me of how the timing in my life is always a bit off. A few years ago maybe this would have made a difference socially. Now I just wonder if I’ll be able to find enough shopping time during the week to avoid throngs of people teeming in their weekend frenzy of normalized activity.
Cue Eleanor Rigby strings.
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Spiderman 3.
I have nothing to say really.
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I liked The Queen. Quite good really. Really seemed like Elizabeth had quite the stiffy over Diana.
Upper lip that is.
There’s this whole noble stag metaphor thing going on I thought was a bit much but it was a good movie that inspired some genuine emotion intercutting real news footage concerning Diana during the week of her death and the quieter death of the royal tradition. I almost felt sorry for them. Until I remembered that they’ve been living off the country like uber welfare Queens contributing nothing but symbolism for so long.
The real Liz was here last week and Bush told her how good it was to have her back for the first time since her last visit in 1776.
Maybe we need to start giving him credit for being a master satirist. He can’t really be such a twit can he? Geraldo likes him afterall.
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Just saw Blood Diamond. Nice movie detailing the repercussions of our lust for diamonds. Unfortunately, as in typical Hollywood fashion, 2 of 3 heroes in this struggle through Africa’s murderous, slave holding, paramilitary nightmare, are pretty white people. I like DiCaprio. I love the Jennifer Connely. But this is more of that Schindler’s Disease. Spielberg makes a movie detailing the heroic and horrible struggle of Jews to survive Nazi persecution and the hero is a German Catholic.
I think Hollywood has little trust in our ability to receive any kind of weighty issue or historical moral tale without pretty white Christians along for the ride. This seems a remnant of some kind of tribal reinforcer. I guess occasionally substituting Denzel Washington in these scenarios is progress.
But at this point he’s still not quite the hero Matthew Broderick is though Civil War came as close as anyone to not making an issue oriented film be about someone other than what most of us identify with.
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Speaking of Heroes
Super powered family dynasties.
This is the word on where season 2 is headed. Suresh, the Petrelli’s and Nakumura’s seem to figure into this.
I like.
Jessica/Nikki doesn’t necessarliy figure into it.
Me really like.
2 eps to go. Whoever blows up I hope Claire has her cheerleader outfit on when it happens.
Part of me hopes Sylar survives this though I don’t want him slicing Nathan’s head and using the figure of a real President to hide a depraved, sick and twisted agenda of pure evil.
I think we’ve had enough of that in the real White House.
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Back to diamonds.
I’ve never gotten the fascination with these things. Or jewelry in general. Do people really think they look prettier or cooler with bling? I’ve always found it kind of tacky.
And when Hollywood makes movies like Blood Diamond and then you get stars walking down the Oscars red carpet wearing jewelry and dresses worth more than most people make all year, well it just kind of makes me want to throw up on Joan and Melissa.
I think this lust for ornamentation is kind of disgusting even if it did make people look better. Many of us live like royalty in past centuries. Do we have to make it worse by just pouring on the opulence? It’s all so Baroque. Small people with massive egos trying to shine brighter. I watched Marie Antoinette recently. Pretty good movie if nothing super. But when you look at these pompous idiots and the way they dressed you really get a sense of people trying to make more of themselves than they really are. It’s like piling on layers and layers of frilled vests, fillayed overcoats, wigs, ornate breeches etc is done to present an image of high formality and importance to cover up the emptiness that their culture tries to hide.
Then bloodlines were of great importance in establishing this pretext of nobility and greatness. Now being pretty will do. But is the opulence any less empty?
Throw in the fact that people die for the diamonds and to power the big limos they jump in and out of and you got to think they’re lucky activists aren’t cutting their braceletted wrists off with machetes and dropping IED’s in front of their Hummers.
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The Mets.
Looking ok. Braves look better though. Braves appear to be back. When the Braves are good the Mets always fold. And we’re 2-4 against them so far this season. Our pitching has held up but is on thin ice and the long hot season tends to melt thin ice. The predictable injury bug with all our older guys like Alou and El Duque is well under way already. The Braves have had that magical air about them so far and our offense has been a bit overrated as I predicted. Way to streaky. Feast or famine and bullying the weaker pitchers.
Maybe that ideal deal or two can happen in June or July but there doesn’t seem to be quality pitching available and if so the cost will be even more prohibitive that it would have been this past Winter.
And of Jose Reyes gets hurt we are absolutely and utterly done. Chant it with me. Jose, Jose, Jose.
But nice series win over Milwaukee who have been the best team record wise so far this season. They’ll probably get us in Milwaukee later but at least we got the rubber match here with their ace on the hill today.
Next weekend is first of two Subway Series of the year and then the Braves in Atlanta shortly after that.
Next weekend is at Shea. Yanks aren’t looking very good but they are potent and due. They’re also a pretty 8 behind Boston already. Baseball’s biggest mercenary whore Roger Clemens will be back but not for this series. THe Yanks have sold yet a little more of their souls in giving this guy 20 odd million for 4 months of pitching and then breaking long standing team rules in allowing him to not travel with the team and pretty much set his own schedule. For this both they and he deserve a long miserable summer.
THey Yankees continue to be the biggest part of Baseball’s economic problem. The Mets are not innocent but they play within the room and have a team salary comparable with the other top 5-6 teams. The whole system needs overhauling. A hard salary cap is desperately needed. i wonder if adding a floor would get the players to agree.
I don’t know but the Yanks are certainly desperate and out of control and the natural and rightful resting place for Clemens to prostitute himself.
Next weekend will be interesting though and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees start firing on all cylinders coming off West Coast trip and with the Red Sox threatening the unthinkable in Yankee land.
Running away with their division of the past dozen or so years.
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