Chapter Ten: Idiots at the End of Summer I don't watch or read a lot of the major news sources anymore. Most just retread the same line with different spins, read by someone with passable diction and the ability to keep eye contact with a camera for more than 30 seconds. When the urge to see what's going on in the world moves me I check out Nando and Smirking Chimp. This was actually an interesting news week. Cheers to Christopher Reeve for his little dig against the Catholic Church. The fascinating part of this story was that even though he caught flak for saying it, nobody really tried to disprove him. For those keeping score at home, organized religion is also directly responsible for every faith healer who expedites death, every church that lets its members die, and every Anointed One who's been charged by god to threaten others. Less "religious tolerence" and more critical thinking, please. And just in case you think I am a knee-jerk reactionary against anything theistic, I actually side with the Christian radio network pushing the local NPR off the air. Yes, I listen to All Things Considered and Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!, but if you look a little deeper you'll see that NPR is by no means an underdog here. There's enough wrongdoing to pin on Christian media without having to make stuff up. The corporate ownership of the airwaves was the number one most ignored news story according to Project Censored 2001. They report that the FCC under Bush is making it easier for large broadcast companies to buy up more stations. Facts left out of this report include: 1: Under U.S. law the Government is sole owner of the electromagnetic spectrum and all broadcasters (as well as wireless phone companies) licence slices of it from them for a large yearly fee. 2: The hefty and rising price of syndicated programming and network affiliation make it cost prohibitive for small companies to own an independant station. 3: Broadcasters compete against an ever-growing number of cable channels for an evr-shrinking number of advertiser dollars. 4: If a station cannot pay its fees or bills, it goes dark. If that happens, the FCC will not allow another station to take that frequency in that area; instead, it will be re-allocated to wireless phone service or something else. They also failed to mention the fact that the FCC is forcing stations, at their own expense, to move to digital broadcasting (which is currently a lukewarm market at best), and that they are rewriting the definition of "serving the public trust" to include more low-quality educational cartoons and public interest shows. The broadcasting situation will not improve until the FCC is out of the picture. Besides, it will all be irrelevant when the technological singularity happens. The security cam footage of the woman beating her child in the parking lot certainly got a lot of play. Was it me, or does she hit like a girl? And the videotaped punches kept coming with the two shirtless nozzleheaded white trash fucks who attacked the first base coach in Chicago. Baseball has continued its crusade to attract ignorant and emotionally puerile fans, so the idea of someone being so hung up on the game that they are willing to beat someone up over it shouldn't surprise anyone. If you keep throwing bricks at a window, even if your aim is atrocious, eventually you will break it. I am actually waiting for the announcement that the child-puncher and the shirtless-ones will be appearing on Celebrity Boxing. Obsessive fandom of anything, sports or not, is bad for the mind. Those who partake of it should be watched carefully. Science fiction fans had a bad rep along these lines long before the internet, and the web has most certainly spread the archetype. Even though SF is the "literature of ideas" it is marked with a scarlet letter for the more esoteric aficianados (and if it's any good, well, it must not be science fiction). But take a look at the web presence and fan involvement of soap operas, sports (even minor ones), Pokemon, and any number of other more accepted "mainstream" flavors of fanaticism and SF fans look downright boring. Things were interesting on the home front as well. My dad went into the hospital for what may have been a mild heart attack. He's fine and will be getting out early next week. On the same day I had my license plate stolen. It took me 22 minutes to report the theft over the phone to the Hartford police, but it took a mere 18 minutes to get new plates at the DMV, and 6 of that was waiting in line. The government agency with the ugliest historical reputation has become a well-oiled model of efficiency, at least in Connecticut. I do not know how it happened or who was responsible for this, but they should be found and hired by the IRS. And then there are the distributors of syndicated programming, who still have to master the trick of putting commercials and closed captioning on the show before they send it to a TV station. And they say 'village idiot' is a dead vocation. It is the responsibility of every sane, reasonable and cognizant person to repeatedly remind the inept that they are inept, and that their ineptitude is an abomination. We live in a society where knowledge is easily accessable and wisdom is pretty much everywhere. Simply put: Ineptitude and ignorance are a choice. Even with the desperate media repeatedly shouting that it's acceptable (and even preferrable) to be an imbecile, one has to choose the state of intellectual laziness instead of going out and partaking of something that does more than stimulate the baser urges. And I will not give credence to the argument that "society" doesn't make alternatives available. Kids skateboard over moving cars and ride bikes down stairway bannisters, people climb mountains (or reasonable facsimiles) and scuba dive. These are risky activities that require practice, focus, and discipline, and they are done for the fun of it. Nobody throws that much mental energy into a potentially dangerous recreational act out of a lack of alternatives, just as people who study the world around them to aquire knowledge don't do so because "there's nothing better to do." Poverty can't be blamed either. It is repeatedly stated that over half the kids in America at or below the poverty level can't read. True. But roughly the same percentage own video game systems. The mental input of each is chosen. This fact is lost on a lot of people. Take all the activists trying to curtail the proliferation of advertising. They are basically admitting that they are too weak to ignore or dismiss advertising. "Sorry, we don't have the rudimentary critical thinking skills required to be even a little discriminate in our opinions or actions, so you have to stop trying to influence us." Ah, critical thinking skills. Remember them? They were great. New stuff: Retrocrush put up a gallery of photos of their favorite beer bottles. I love these guys. Some students at MIT, the nation's foremost center for science and advancement, put up a website where you could vote for your favorite Playmate of all time. Finally, someone who knows what technology and tuition dollars were meant for. The site has since been taken down (surprise surprise) but they left the final tallies up. I was offended to see that Ruthy Ross, quite possibly the most beautiful woman ever to appear in Playboy, scored rather low on the chart. No accounting for taste. Speaking of taste, I've added sites for Nina Blackwood and Linda Harrison in the My Favorite Women column of the Link Page. Warren Ellis has a new weekly column on Artbomb called Brainpowered. It's mostly little oddities and opinions about comics and the surrounding culture. Humanoids Publishing's relaunch of Metal Hurlant has been spectacular. Strangely enough, the first issue of the decaying Heavy Metal that came out after Hurlant was probably its best issue in at least three years, not a difficult feat considering how dismal it's been lately. Still, I fervently hope a competitive freakiness can be sustained between the two. This week I go see Mr. Show live, listen to the new Porcupine Tree disc, and hit the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. Life is good. Ciao for now. JP |
Eager Anticipations: The Moebius online series Arzak Rhapsody. (Has anyone heard any more news on this?) The Leonid Meteors Egyptian Exhibit at Boston Science Warren Ellis' Global Frequency The Out of Time exhibit comes to Springfield. A new Nancy Kress novel Tadao Ando Exhibit at Clark Art A new Jonathan Carroll novel. New Discs and/or Tours by The Terrastock Music Festival The Super Mega Fests in Newark and Boston Alan Moore's Magic Words A new Walter Jon Williams novel. Another Line of Todd McFarlane/Clive Barker Tortured Souls figures. The SFX Expo in Boston DaVinci Drawings at The MET Apollo 13 in IMAX 3D Kerouac Days in Lowell Conventions 2003: The 2004 World Science Fiction Convention returns to Boston. Currently in My Various Stereos: Gongzilla Suffer Marillion Misplaced Childhood Paranoise Private Power Flower Kings The Rainmaker Brian Eno/John Cale Wrong Way Up Killing Joke Pandaemonium Morphine Like Swimming FM City of Fear Be Bop Deluxe Raiding the Divine Archive Fish Raingods with Zippos The Best of Charlatans UK Yes Keys to Ascension 1 & 2 Tangerine Dream Exit Ministry Twitch Barry Adamson King of Nothing Hill (still) |
Eager Anticipations: The Moebius online series Arzak Rhapsody. (Has anyone heard any more news on this?) The Leonid Meteors Egyptian Exhibit at Boston Science Warren Ellis' Global Frequency The Out of Time exhibit comes to Springfield. A new Nancy Kress novel Tadao Ando Exhibit at Clark Art A new Jonathan Carroll novel. New Discs and/or Tours by The Terrastock Music Festival The Super Mega Fests in Newark and Boston Alan Moore's Magic Words A new Walter Jon Williams novel. Another Line of Todd McFarlane/Clive Barker Tortured Souls figures. The SFX Expo in Boston DaVinci Drawings at The MET Apollo 13 in IMAX 3D Kerouac Days in Lowell Conventions 2003: The 2004 World Science Fiction Convention returns to Boston. Currently in My Various Stereos: Gongzilla Suffer Marillion Misplaced Childhood Paranoise Private Power Flower Kings The Rainmaker Brian Eno/John Cale Wrong Way Up Killing Joke Pandaemonium Morphine Like Swimming FM City of Fear Be Bop Deluxe Raiding the Divine Archive Fish Raingods with Zippos The Best of Charlatans UK Yes Keys to Ascension 1 & 2 Tangerine Dream Exit Ministry Twitch Barry Adamson King of Nothing Hill (still) |
Chapter Ten: Idiots at the End of Summer I don't watch or read a lot of the major news sources anymore. Most just retread the same line with different spins, read by someone with passable diction and the ability to keep eye contact with a camera for more than 30 seconds. When the urge to see what's going on in the world moves me I check out Nando and Smirking Chimp. This was actually an interesting news week. Cheers to Christopher Reeve for his little dig against the Catholic Church. The fascinating part of this story was that even though he caught flak for saying it, nobody really tried to disprove him. For those keeping score at home, organized religion is also directly responsible for every faith healer who expedites death, every church that lets its members die, and every Anointed One who's been charged by god to threaten others. Less "religious tolerence" and more critical thinking, please. And just in case you think I am a knee-jerk reactionary against anything theistic, I actually side with the Christian radio network pushing the local NPR off the air. Yes, I listen to All Things Considered and Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!, but if you look a little deeper you'll see that NPR is by no means an underdog here. There's enough wrongdoing to pin on Christian media without having to make stuff up. The corporate ownership of the airwaves was the number one most ignored news story according to Project Censored 2001. They report that the FCC under Bush is making it easier for large broadcast companies to buy up more stations. Facts left out of this report include: 1: Under U.S. law the Government is sole owner of the electromagnetic spectrum and all broadcasters (as well as wireless phone companies) licence slices of it from them for a large yearly fee. 2: The hefty and rising price of syndicated programming and network affiliation make it cost prohibitive for small companies to own an independant station. 3: Broadcasters compete against an ever-growing number of cable channels for an evr-shrinking number of advertiser dollars. 4: If a station cannot pay its fees or bills, it goes dark. If that happens, the FCC will not allow another station to take that frequency in that area; instead, it will be re-allocated to wireless phone service or something else. They also failed to mention the fact that the FCC is forcing stations, at their own expense, to move to digital broadcasting (which is currently a lukewarm market at best), and that they are rewriting the definition of "serving the public trust" to include more low-quality educational cartoons and public interest shows. The broadcasting situation will not improve until the FCC is out of the picture. Besides, it will all be irrelevant when the technological singularity happens. The security cam footage of the woman beating her child in the parking lot certainly got a lot of play. Was it me, or does she hit like a girl? And the videotaped punches kept coming with the two shirtless nozzleheaded white trash fucks who attacked the first base coach in Chicago. Baseball has continued its crusade to attract ignorant and emotionally puerile fans, so the idea of someone being so hung up on the game that they are willing to beat someone up over it shouldn't surprise anyone. If you keep throwing bricks at a window, even if your aim is atrocious, eventually you will break it. I am actually waiting for the announcement that the child-puncher and the shirtless-ones will be appearing on Celebrity Boxing. Obsessive fandom of anything, sports or not, is bad for the mind. Those who partake of it should be watched carefully. Science fiction fans had a bad rep along these lines long before the internet, and the web has most certainly spread the archetype. Even though SF is the "literature of ideas" it is marked with a scarlet letter for the more esoteric aficianados (and if it's any good, well, it must not be science fiction). But take a look at the web presence and fan involvement of soap operas, sports (even minor ones), Pokemon, and any number of other more accepted "mainstream" flavors of fanaticism and SF fans look downright boring. Things were interesting on the home front as well. My dad went into the hospital for what may have been a mild heart attack. He's fine and will be getting out early next week. On the same day I had my license plate stolen. It took me 22 minutes to report the theft over the phone to the Hartford police, but it took a mere 18 minutes to get new plates at the DMV, and 6 of that was waiting in line. The government agency with the ugliest historical reputation has become a well-oiled model of efficiency, at least in Connecticut. I do not know how it happened or who was responsible for this, but they should be found and hired by the IRS. And then there are the distributors of syndicated programming, who still have to master the trick of putting commercials and closed captioning on the show before they send it to a TV station. And they say 'village idiot' is a dead vocation. It is the responsibility of every sane, reasonable and cognizant person to repeatedly remind the inept that they are inept, and that their ineptitude is an abomination. We live in a society where knowledge is easily accessable and wisdom is pretty much everywhere. Simply put: Ineptitude and ignorance are a choice. Even with the desperate media repeatedly shouting that it's acceptable (and even preferrable) to be an imbecile, one has to choose the state of intellectual laziness instead of going out and partaking of something that does more than stimulate the baser urges. And I will not give credence to the argument that "society" doesn't make alternatives available. Kids skateboard over moving cars and ride bikes down stairway bannisters, people climb mountains (or reasonable facsimiles) and scuba dive. These are risky activities that require practice, focus, and discipline, and they are done for the fun of it. Nobody throws that much mental energy into a potentially dangerous recreational act out of a lack of alternatives, just as people who study the world around them to aquire knowledge don't do so because "there's nothing better to do." Poverty can't be blamed either. It is repeatedly stated that over half the kids in America at or below the poverty level can't read. True. But roughly the same percentage own video game systems. The mental input of each is chosen. This fact is lost on a lot of people. Take all the activists trying to curtail the proliferation of advertising. They are basically admitting that they are too weak to ignore or dismiss advertising. "Sorry, we don't have the rudimentary critical thinking skills required to be even a little discriminate in our opinions or actions, so you have to stop trying to influence us." Ah, critical thinking skills. Remember them? They were great. New stuff: Retrocrush put up a gallery of photos of their favorite beer bottles. I love these guys. Some students at MIT, the nation's foremost center for science and advancement, put up a website where you could vote for your favorite Playmate of all time. Finally, someone who knows what technology and tuition dollars were meant for. The site has since been taken down (surprise surprise) but they left the final tallies up. I was offended to see that Ruthy Ross, quite possibly the most beautiful woman ever to appear in Playboy, scored rather low on the chart. No accounting for taste. Speaking of taste, I've added sites for Nina Blackwood and Linda Harrison in the My Favorite Women column of the Link Page. Warren Ellis has a new weekly column on Artbomb called Brainpowered. It's mostly little oddities and opinions about comics and the surrounding culture. Humanoids Publishing's relaunch of Metal Hurlant has been spectacular. Strangely enough, the first issue of the decaying Heavy Metal that came out after Hurlant was probably its best issue in at least three years, not a difficult feat considering how dismal it's been lately. Still, I fervently hope a competitive freakiness can be sustained between the two. This week I go see Mr. Show live, listen to the new Porcupine Tree disc, and hit the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. Life is good. Ciao for now. JP |
