Wii video

stairflight visited us over the weekend. We spent a fair amount of time surfing online with the Wii. And I was surprised to see that suddenly, YouTube videos could be played by the Wii's beta browser. That definitely wasn't possible two or three days before.

Anyway, stairflight found a couple of videos of Allan Havey's old Night After Night late-night talk show from Comedy Central at YouTube. We used to watch that show back when it was on the air, about fifteen years ago. It was really funny and different.

I wish that it was available on DVD, or that more of it was up on YouTube. But so far, this is all there is.

Watch on YouTube

Ooh, wait a second, there are a bunch of other Night After Night videos there after all. I guess they're probably listed under "Night After Night" instead of "Alan Havey". Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scz6O6ktffU&mode=related&search=

Wii video

stairflight visited us over the weekend. We spent a fair amount of time surfing online with the Wii. And I was surprised to see that suddenly, YouTube videos could be played by the Wii's beta browser. That definitely wasn't possible two or three days before.

Anyway, stairflight found a couple of videos of Allan Havey's old Night After Night late-night talk show from Comedy Central at YouTube. We used to watch that show back when it was on the air, about fifteen years ago. It was really funny and different.

I wish that it was available on DVD, or that more of it was up on YouTube. But so far, this is all there is.

Ooh, wait a second, there are a bunch of other Night After Night videos there after all. I guess they're probably listed under "Night After Night" instead of "Alan Havey". Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scz6O6ktffU&mode=related&search=

(no subject)

Posted this to the Post's media critic Howard Kurtz, but I suspect he won't chose it.

---

"You lost me at corporate-owned media" - why? I don't think that there's some secret star chamber of corporate executives deciding the news for the day. But at the same time, media ownership has been remarkably concentrated into the hands of a tiny number of large corporations - and many journalists have admitted to self-censoring to please their bosses.

You might want to read "Into the Buzzsaw", which has some fascinating first-person accounts of journalists (both famous and obscure) discovering that covering stories that displease or embarrass the management of the corporations that own them is a sure-fire career-killer.

It's a disservice to your role as a media analyst to simply dismiss the effects of corporate ownership and the concentration of media control.

(no subject)

Posted this to the Post's media critic Howard Kurtz, but I suspect he won't chose it.

---

"You lost me at corporate-owned media" - why? I don't think that there's some secret star chamber of corporate executives deciding the news for the day. But at the same time, media ownership has been remarkably concentrated into the hands of a tiny number of large corporations - and many journalists have admitted to self-censoring to please their bosses.

You might want to read "Into the Buzzsaw", which has some fascinating first-person accounts of journalists (both famous and obscure) discovering that covering stories that displease or embarrass the management of the corporations that own them is a sure-fire career-killer.

It's a disservice to your role as a media analyst to simply dismiss the effects of corporate ownership and the concentration of media control.

Easter

Weird Easter.

On Saturday Sebastian was being a bit loud, so Teri and I took him to the playground. It was a bit cold, and there weren't many kids around. But the few who were there told us that there was going to be an Easter Egg hunt soon at the church down the street.

Sebastian wanted to go, so we took him. I felt a bit weird - me being an atheist and all - but it's not like we had to join the church or anything, or even give them our names. It was a Catholic Church, incidentally.

We have an advantage in that we look quite Catholic, incidentally - Sebastian and I look like big Irish redheads, although of course I'm not Irish at all and Sebastian only has traces of Irish ancestry from Teri. Teri IS part Irish, and she could certainly pass.

It was a decent hunt. They'd put out a lot of plastic eggs with candies in them, plus a few odd religious tattoos. There were two separate areas, one for children 6 and younger, the other for older kids. Teri was quite impressed at the quality of the candy in the eggs: it was all brand-name stuff. Sebastian picked up a huge number of eggs, and there were plenty for everybody.

Hmm. You know, it strikes me that the demolition of American neighborhoods and communities has probably greatly enhanced the growth of churches, particularly churches that include "tight" social networks (I might say, more "cult-like" churches). But I digress.

Later that day Teri took Sebastian back to the playground for a play date with his "best friend" from school. While they were playing, a little girl wanted to play with Billy. Apparently this hurt Sebastian's feelings, but she eventually decided to play with both of them and peace was restored.

Anyway, we spent much of the weekend with stairflight. On Sunday morning we dropped her off at the bus station, and then headed over to my cousin's house for Easter. My parents and my brother and his family were going there, too.

When we got there, we had a really nice surprise: my aunt and uncle were there! They live in Florida, and we don't get to see them very often. My mother in particular was so surprised and happy to see her sister.

Sebastian was in heaven. He does live a lonely life - there are no kids in our neighborhood that he can play with - and now he had FOUR other kids to play with. So he ran around and they all had a ton of fun.

In the meantime I helped my cousin's wife beat a few tough areas in Zelda: The Legend of the Wind Waker, and told them about the Wii.

When the time came for us to go, Sebastian almost threw a fit. He cried and cried, and begged to be allowed to stay - or even to sleep over! He needs a little brother or sister so badly, or at least a good bunch of friends in the area. Teri told him that we had to go right away, at which point he shouted (as I wrote earlier) "Then I'll run into the woods and let the coyotes and wolfs [sic] eat me!". At which point he dashed off towards the trees.

I was paralyzed with laughter and pity, but Teri chased him down and grabbed him. We let him play a little tag, and then a little soccer, but it was getting late and we really had to go. So we ended up having to grab him and drag him by main force to the car. He got angry and tried to hit both of us, but once he was in the car he calmed down and was good. The traffic on the way home was pretty awful, but eventually we got home; Sebastian was asleep, of course, but Teri managed to carry him into the house.

We still have a lot of Easter eggs. We'd planned to do an Easter Egg hunt at our house in the back yard on Sunday morning, but we were too rushed and it was too cold to do it. So we'll probably do it sometime soon, weather permitting.

And that was our Easter weekend!

Easter

Weird Easter.

On Saturday Sebastian was being a bit loud, so Teri and I took him to the playground. It was a bit cold, and there weren't many kids around. But the few who were there told us that there was going to be an Easter Egg hunt soon at the church down the street.

Sebastian wanted to go, so we took him. I felt a bit weird - me being an atheist and all - but it's not like we had to join the church or anything, or even give them our names. It was a Catholic Church, incidentally.

We have an advantage in that we look quite Catholic, incidentally - Sebastian and I look like big Irish redheads, although of course I'm not Irish at all and Sebastian only has traces of Irish ancestry from Teri. Teri IS part Irish, and she could certainly pass.

It was a decent hunt. They'd put out a lot of plastic eggs with candies in them, plus a few odd religious tattoos. There were two separate areas, one for children 6 and younger, the other for older kids. Teri was quite impressed at the quality of the candy in the eggs: it was all brand-name stuff. Sebastian picked up a huge number of eggs, and there were plenty for everybody.

Hmm. You know, it strikes me that the demolition of American neighborhoods and communities has probably greatly enhanced the growth of churches, particularly churches that include "tight" social networks (I might say, more "cult-like" churches). But I digress.

Later that day Teri took Sebastian back to the playground for a play date with his "best friend" from school. While they were playing, a little girl wanted to play with Billy. Apparently this hurt Sebastian's feelings, but she eventually decided to play with both of them and peace was restored.

Anyway, we spent much of the weekend with stairflight. On Sunday morning we dropped her off at the bus station, and then headed over to my cousin's house for Easter. My parents and my brother and his family were going there, too.

When we got there, we had a really nice surprise: my aunt and uncle were there! They live in Florida, and we don't get to see them very often. My mother in particular was so surprised and happy to see her sister.

Sebastian was in heaven. He does live a lonely life - there are no kids in our neighborhood that he can play with - and now he had FOUR other kids to play with. So he ran around and they all had a ton of fun.

In the meantime I helped my cousin's wife beat a few tough areas in Zelda: The Legend of the Wind Waker, and told them about the Wii.

When the time came for us to go, Sebastian almost threw a fit. He cried and cried, and begged to be allowed to stay - or even to sleep over! He needs a little brother or sister so badly, or at least a good bunch of friends in the area. Teri told him that we had to go right away, at which point he shouted (as I wrote earlier) "Then I'll run into the woods and let the coyotes and wolfs [sic] eat me!". At which point he dashed off towards the trees.

I was paralyzed with laughter and pity, but Teri chased him down and grabbed him. We let him play a little tag, and then a little soccer, but it was getting late and we really had to go. So we ended up having to grab him and drag him by main force to the car. He got angry and tried to hit both of us, but once he was in the car he calmed down and was good. The traffic on the way home was pretty awful, but eventually we got home; Sebastian was asleep, of course, but Teri managed to carry him into the house.

We still have a lot of Easter eggs. We'd planned to do an Easter Egg hunt at our house in the back yard on Sunday morning, but we were too rushed and it was too cold to do it. So we'll probably do it sometime soon, weather permitting.

And that was our Easter weekend!

Community

I've been pondering the whole issue of the loss of community lately, and it seems to me that although there probably was never a conscious decision on the part of some star chamber group of uber-corporatists to encourage the dissolution of local American community ties, the consumer culture has both encouraged that dissolution and simultaneously benefited from it. Time spent interacting with neighbors is time NOT spent buying. The ideal society from a corporate viewpoint is one in which each individual or purchasing unit (i.e. nuclear family) spends as much time in isolation as possible, watching commercials, consuming at a maximum rate, or buying goods to consume.

Social interaction just impedes the efficiency of the purchasing/consuming cycle.

A wild idea: Perhaps the ultimate corporate goal would be to use the human need for social contact by replacing lost communities with an ersatz corporate-based community, centered on marketing and consuming. I wonder what form it might take? I was going to work this towards a joke of sorts, morphing the corporate replacement for community into a parody of LiveJournal, but that would be a bit lame. The truth is, the problem with an electronic community is that it can't connect its members as tightly as a real-world community; it's too easy to just end contact by hitting the delete key (a much more difficult proposition when you're dealing with physical neighbors).

In fact, I'd think that - say, this might be an interesting idea for a story, if I could flesh out the plot somehow! As I was saying, an electronic community would be vulnerable to attack by a real-world community. I can envision a corporate electronic community, say, one centered around a particular TV show or other marketable interest, being attacked by a real-world community formed by a smarter corporation: the human social instinct would make such a conflict relatively short-lived.

Lots for me to think about here.

Community

I've been pondering the whole issue of the loss of community lately, and it seems to me that although there probably was never a conscious decision on the part of some star chamber group of uber-corporatists to encourage the dissolution of local American community ties, the consumer culture has both encouraged that dissolution and simultaneously benefited from it. Time spent interacting with neighbors is time NOT spent buying. The ideal society from a corporate viewpoint is one in which each individual or purchasing unit (i.e. nuclear family) spends as much time in isolation as possible, watching commercials, consuming at a maximum rate, or buying goods to consume.

Social interaction just impedes the efficiency of the purchasing/consuming cycle.

A wild idea: Perhaps the ultimate corporate goal would be to use the human need for social contact by replacing lost communities with an ersatz corporate-based community, centered on marketing and consuming. I wonder what form it might take? I was going to work this towards a joke of sorts, morphing the corporate replacement for community into a parody of LiveJournal, but that would be a bit lame. The truth is, the problem with an electronic community is that it can't connect its members as tightly as a real-world community; it's too easy to just end contact by hitting the delete key (a much more difficult proposition when you're dealing with physical neighbors).

In fact, I'd think that - say, this might be an interesting idea for a story, if I could flesh out the plot somehow! As I was saying, an electronic community would be vulnerable to attack by a real-world community. I can envision a corporate electronic community, say, one centered around a particular TV show or other marketable interest, being attacked by a real-world community formed by a smarter corporation: the human social instinct would make such a conflict relatively short-lived.

Lots for me to think about here.

Star Whores

No, this isn't a post about porno movie titles (although I'll bet...let me see...son of a gun. There isn't a movie with that title. I'm shocked).

I was bored tonight while I was waiting for my dinner to cook, so I tuned in Return of the Jedi on cable. That dumb fucker Lucas has been screwing around with his movies again. The Force Ghost Annakin at the end of the movie (during the Ewok orgy) is now played by the puppy-dog-eyed actor who played young Annakin in the later movies.

Why does he appear as a young Force Ghost, while Obi-Wan and Yoda appear as old Force Ghosts? He died at a reasonably ripe age, after all!

Don't bother answering. I know that it's all bullshit. I just get annoyed with Lucas.

Star Whores

No, this isn't a post about porno movie titles (although I'll bet...let me see...son of a gun. There isn't a movie with that title. I'm shocked).

I was bored tonight while I was waiting for my dinner to cook, so I tuned in Return of the Jedi on cable. That dumb fucker Lucas has been screwing around with his movies again. The Force Ghost Annakin at the end of the movie (during the Ewok orgy) is now played by the puppy-dog-eyed actor who played young Annakin in the later movies.

Why does he appear as a young Force Ghost, while Obi-Wan and Yoda appear as old Force Ghosts? He died at a reasonably ripe age, after all!

Don't bother answering. I know that it's all bullshit. I just get annoyed with Lucas.

(no subject)

Mii? My Mii. Unfortunately there's no way to capture a Mii directly from the Wii to a PC (although apparently you can do it with a Mac), so I snapped a photograph of it on the TV. Everyone thinks it looks a lot like me.

Emulating Mii? There's a website where you can re-create your Mii, and here are the results. The emulation is rather different from the actual Wii Mii generator, though. I suspect that whoever created the emulator was young, and was biased towards styles and looks for younger people - the idea of a full beard was apparently beyond their comprehension (or, perhaps, their technical ability). I suspect that eventually Nintendo will allow Mii captures or emailing or something - apparently they do plan to do more things with Miis. I have to say, it's mesmerising just to watch them interact in the Mii Plaza. A Sims-like game would be really cool.

(no subject)

Mii? My Mii. Unfortunately there's no way to capture a Mii directly from the Wii to a PC (although apparently you can do it with a Mac), so I snapped a photograph of it on the TV. Everyone thinks it looks a lot like me.

Emulating Mii? There's a website where you can re-create your Mii, and here are the results. The emulation is rather different from the actual Wii Mii generator, though. I suspect that whoever created the emulator was young, and was biased towards styles and looks for younger people - the idea of a full beard was apparently beyond their comprehension (or, perhaps, their technical ability). I suspect that eventually Nintendo will allow Mii captures or emailing or something - apparently they do plan to do more things with Miis. I have to say, it's mesmerising just to watch them interact in the Mii Plaza. A Sims-like game would be really cool.