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Saturday morning Sebastian and I joined his Cub Scout troop on a visit to the WPRI, channel 12 FOX Providence. We met Pete Mangione, one of the weatherman there. He gave the kids a talk about being a weatherman, answered a lot of questions (not all of which really made a lot of sense), and let the kids play on the blue screen a bit. I even got on the blue screen myself, since I was wearing a plaid blue shirt that made me look as if I were riddled with holes. The kids loved it.
I took some video and photos before my batteries ran out (damn it, that happens too often). Several of us sent photos to the troop Yahoo group, and the Cubmaster sent one of mine to WPRI. To my amazement and delight, they showed the picture on the broadcast! Pete even circled Sebastian and one of his friends, football-diagram-style, because they were the only two who had actually been looking at my camera instead of the one to my left.
I have the broadcast on tape, and I'll convert it to some computer format soon. I wonder if it's already online somewhere?
I took some video and photos before my batteries ran out (damn it, that happens too often). Several of us sent photos to the troop Yahoo group, and the Cubmaster sent one of mine to WPRI. To my amazement and delight, they showed the picture on the broadcast! Pete even circled Sebastian and one of his friends, football-diagram-style, because they were the only two who had actually been looking at my camera instead of the one to my left.
I have the broadcast on tape, and I'll convert it to some computer format soon. I wonder if it's already online somewhere?
Saturday morning Sebastian and I joined his Cub Scout troop on a visit to the WPRI, channel 12 FOX Providence. We met Pete Mangione, one of the weatherman there. He gave the kids a talk about being a weatherman, answered a lot of questions (not all of which really made a lot of sense), and let the kids play on the blue screen a bit. I even got on the blue screen myself, since I was wearing a plaid blue shirt that made me look as if I were riddled with holes. The kids loved it.
I took some video and photos before my batteries ran out (damn it, that happens too often). Several of us sent photos to the troop Yahoo group, and the Cubmaster sent one of mine to WPRI. To my amazement and delight, they showed the picture on the broadcast! Pete even circled Sebastian and one of his friends, football-diagram-style, because they were the only two who had actually been looking at my camera instead of the one to my left.
I have the broadcast on tape, and I'll convert it to some computer format soon. I wonder if it's already online somewhere?
I took some video and photos before my batteries ran out (damn it, that happens too often). Several of us sent photos to the troop Yahoo group, and the Cubmaster sent one of mine to WPRI. To my amazement and delight, they showed the picture on the broadcast! Pete even circled Sebastian and one of his friends, football-diagram-style, because they were the only two who had actually been looking at my camera instead of the one to my left.
I have the broadcast on tape, and I'll convert it to some computer format soon. I wonder if it's already online somewhere?
I was awfully sad to hear that Patrick McGoohan, the creator and star of The Prisoner, died yesterday at the age of 80. I was a huge fan; as a teen, I practically worshiped him.
When Sebastian is older I'll watch The Prisoner with him...and probably some Danger Man, too.
When Sebastian is older I'll watch The Prisoner with him...and probably some Danger Man, too.
I was awfully sad to hear that Patrick McGoohan, the creator and star of The Prisoner, died yesterday at the age of 80. I was a huge fan; as a teen, I practically worshiped him.
When Sebastian is older I'll watch The Prisoner with him...and probably some Danger Man, too.
When Sebastian is older I'll watch The Prisoner with him...and probably some Danger Man, too.
Avatar end
Jul. 19th, 2008 11:42 pmI don't know if anyone on my flist watches Avatar: The Last Airbender. The series finale was tonight.
No spoilers here...but it seems to me that there are a couple of major threads which weren't cleared up by the finale.
One is the issue of Prince Zukko's mother. The other, far more major issue in terms of the world of the show, is a problem that has seemed obvious to me since I first started watching the show:
The world of Avatar is one in which there were four great nations, each following a different element: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. The Avatar had the power of all four elements, and was reborn as a member of each nation in turn. The Avatar's role is to keep the world in balance.
But 100 years before the show begins, a comet passes through the sky. It temporarily empowers the Fire Nation, and under the Firelord they conquer most of the rest of the world. The Avatar disappears at this time, his fate unknown.
The Firelord, knowing that the next incarnation of the Avatar will be as an Airbender (i.e. a magician of the Air Nation) proceed to exterminate the entire population of the Air Nation. And he succeeds! Every member of the Air Nation is killed. That's why the show is called Avatar: The Last Airbender, after all!
Aang, the Avatar and last Airbender, is found frozen in an iceberg. He's thawed and begins the task of bringing peace and balance to the world throughout the show. But - and this is the problem - even assuming he succeeds (and I'm being careful not to do any spoilers here), he'll still have a world in which the Air Nation no longer exists! In which case, how can there be balance in the long run? And since the Avatar will be due to be reborn as an Airbender again in four incarnations, doesn't that mean that the Avatar cycle is broken?
Now, there were some people living in the ruins of the old Airbender temples in the lands of the old Air Nation. But as Aang said on first seeing them, they weren't Airbenders. They'd been living in that place for a long time, and none of them were Airbenders. Nor was there any hint that Aang could train them to become Airbenders (it seems that you really need to be born as one). So it would seem that Aang has a real problem: how to restore the missing 1/4 of the population of his world, along with their culture and powers. There's no sign that that's within the powers of the Avatar.
While I'm at it, it's a pity that Mako died before the third season was filmed. The replacement voice actor did a good job (as the former Fire Nation general, Iroh), but it just wasn't the same. Even the words themselves didn't seem as well-written.
By the way, if you haven't seen Avatar and would like to, all episodes including the series finale are now available to view online over at AvatarChapters.com. It's not the greatest show in the world, but it's very well done and more intelligent then most TV shows.
No spoilers here...but it seems to me that there are a couple of major threads which weren't cleared up by the finale.
One is the issue of Prince Zukko's mother. The other, far more major issue in terms of the world of the show, is a problem that has seemed obvious to me since I first started watching the show:
The world of Avatar is one in which there were four great nations, each following a different element: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. The Avatar had the power of all four elements, and was reborn as a member of each nation in turn. The Avatar's role is to keep the world in balance.
But 100 years before the show begins, a comet passes through the sky. It temporarily empowers the Fire Nation, and under the Firelord they conquer most of the rest of the world. The Avatar disappears at this time, his fate unknown.
The Firelord, knowing that the next incarnation of the Avatar will be as an Airbender (i.e. a magician of the Air Nation) proceed to exterminate the entire population of the Air Nation. And he succeeds! Every member of the Air Nation is killed. That's why the show is called Avatar: The Last Airbender, after all!
Aang, the Avatar and last Airbender, is found frozen in an iceberg. He's thawed and begins the task of bringing peace and balance to the world throughout the show. But - and this is the problem - even assuming he succeeds (and I'm being careful not to do any spoilers here), he'll still have a world in which the Air Nation no longer exists! In which case, how can there be balance in the long run? And since the Avatar will be due to be reborn as an Airbender again in four incarnations, doesn't that mean that the Avatar cycle is broken?
Now, there were some people living in the ruins of the old Airbender temples in the lands of the old Air Nation. But as Aang said on first seeing them, they weren't Airbenders. They'd been living in that place for a long time, and none of them were Airbenders. Nor was there any hint that Aang could train them to become Airbenders (it seems that you really need to be born as one). So it would seem that Aang has a real problem: how to restore the missing 1/4 of the population of his world, along with their culture and powers. There's no sign that that's within the powers of the Avatar.
While I'm at it, it's a pity that Mako died before the third season was filmed. The replacement voice actor did a good job (as the former Fire Nation general, Iroh), but it just wasn't the same. Even the words themselves didn't seem as well-written.
By the way, if you haven't seen Avatar and would like to, all episodes including the series finale are now available to view online over at AvatarChapters.com. It's not the greatest show in the world, but it's very well done and more intelligent then most TV shows.
Avatar end
Jul. 19th, 2008 11:42 pmI don't know if anyone on my flist watches Avatar: The Last Airbender. The series finale was tonight.
No spoilers here...but it seems to me that there are a couple of major threads which weren't cleared up by the finale.
One is the issue of Prince Zukko's mother. The other, far more major issue in terms of the world of the show, is a problem that has seemed obvious to me since I first started watching the show:
The world of Avatar is one in which there were four great nations, each following a different element: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. The Avatar had the power of all four elements, and was reborn as a member of each nation in turn. The Avatar's role is to keep the world in balance.
But 100 years before the show begins, a comet passes through the sky. It temporarily empowers the Fire Nation, and under the Firelord they conquer most of the rest of the world. The Avatar disappears at this time, his fate unknown.
The Firelord, knowing that the next incarnation of the Avatar will be as an Airbender (i.e. a magician of the Air Nation) proceed to exterminate the entire population of the Air Nation. And he succeeds! Every member of the Air Nation is killed. That's why the show is called Avatar: The Last Airbender, after all!
Aang, the Avatar and last Airbender, is found frozen in an iceberg. He's thawed and begins the task of bringing peace and balance to the world throughout the show. But - and this is the problem - even assuming he succeeds (and I'm being careful not to do any spoilers here), he'll still have a world in which the Air Nation no longer exists! In which case, how can there be balance in the long run? And since the Avatar will be due to be reborn as an Airbender again in four incarnations, doesn't that mean that the Avatar cycle is broken?
Now, there were some people living in the ruins of the old Airbender temples in the lands of the old Air Nation. But as Aang said on first seeing them, they weren't Airbenders. They'd been living in that place for a long time, and none of them were Airbenders. Nor was there any hint that Aang could train them to become Airbenders (it seems that you really need to be born as one). So it would seem that Aang has a real problem: how to restore the missing 1/4 of the population of his world, along with their culture and powers. There's no sign that that's within the powers of the Avatar.
While I'm at it, it's a pity that Mako died before the third season was filmed. The replacement voice actor did a good job (as the former Fire Nation general, Iroh), but it just wasn't the same. Even the words themselves didn't seem as well-written.
By the way, if you haven't seen Avatar and would like to, all episodes including the series finale are now available to view online over at AvatarChapters.com. It's not the greatest show in the world, but it's very well done and more intelligent then most TV shows.
No spoilers here...but it seems to me that there are a couple of major threads which weren't cleared up by the finale.
One is the issue of Prince Zukko's mother. The other, far more major issue in terms of the world of the show, is a problem that has seemed obvious to me since I first started watching the show:
The world of Avatar is one in which there were four great nations, each following a different element: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. The Avatar had the power of all four elements, and was reborn as a member of each nation in turn. The Avatar's role is to keep the world in balance.
But 100 years before the show begins, a comet passes through the sky. It temporarily empowers the Fire Nation, and under the Firelord they conquer most of the rest of the world. The Avatar disappears at this time, his fate unknown.
The Firelord, knowing that the next incarnation of the Avatar will be as an Airbender (i.e. a magician of the Air Nation) proceed to exterminate the entire population of the Air Nation. And he succeeds! Every member of the Air Nation is killed. That's why the show is called Avatar: The Last Airbender, after all!
Aang, the Avatar and last Airbender, is found frozen in an iceberg. He's thawed and begins the task of bringing peace and balance to the world throughout the show. But - and this is the problem - even assuming he succeeds (and I'm being careful not to do any spoilers here), he'll still have a world in which the Air Nation no longer exists! In which case, how can there be balance in the long run? And since the Avatar will be due to be reborn as an Airbender again in four incarnations, doesn't that mean that the Avatar cycle is broken?
Now, there were some people living in the ruins of the old Airbender temples in the lands of the old Air Nation. But as Aang said on first seeing them, they weren't Airbenders. They'd been living in that place for a long time, and none of them were Airbenders. Nor was there any hint that Aang could train them to become Airbenders (it seems that you really need to be born as one). So it would seem that Aang has a real problem: how to restore the missing 1/4 of the population of his world, along with their culture and powers. There's no sign that that's within the powers of the Avatar.
While I'm at it, it's a pity that Mako died before the third season was filmed. The replacement voice actor did a good job (as the former Fire Nation general, Iroh), but it just wasn't the same. Even the words themselves didn't seem as well-written.
By the way, if you haven't seen Avatar and would like to, all episodes including the series finale are now available to view online over at AvatarChapters.com. It's not the greatest show in the world, but it's very well done and more intelligent then most TV shows.
Colbert vs. Stewart
Apr. 26th, 2008 11:34 pmMy comment on an article over on the Washington Post about Colbert vs Stewart:
The Daily Show has funnier sketches and supporting players (not surprising, since Colbert's on-camera supporting team is much smaller). But Steven Colbert is a far more incisive and effective interviewer than Jon Stewart, who has a tendency to take it easy on his guests.
All in all, The Daily Show is marginally funnier, but Colbert is more biting and newsworthy. But both shows are funny and great.
If I had to vote for one of the two for President? Colbert. His in-your-face speech at the 2006 White House Correspondence Dinner was one of the most impressive acts of political courage that I've seen in the past twenty years.
Which is, I'll admit, a sad commentary on the state of American politics: that a truth-to-power speech by a comedian to a criminal President and criminally negligent Washington press corps ranks as a major act of courage. Nonetheless, it does.
Colbert vs. Stewart
Apr. 26th, 2008 11:34 pmMy comment on an article over on the Washington Post about Colbert vs Stewart:
The Daily Show has funnier sketches and supporting players (not surprising, since Colbert's on-camera supporting team is much smaller). But Steven Colbert is a far more incisive and effective interviewer than Jon Stewart, who has a tendency to take it easy on his guests.
All in all, The Daily Show is marginally funnier, but Colbert is more biting and newsworthy. But both shows are funny and great.
If I had to vote for one of the two for President? Colbert. His in-your-face speech at the 2006 White House Correspondence Dinner was one of the most impressive acts of political courage that I've seen in the past twenty years.
Which is, I'll admit, a sad commentary on the state of American politics: that a truth-to-power speech by a comedian to a criminal President and criminally negligent Washington press corps ranks as a major act of courage. Nonetheless, it does.
A letter to Salon about Narnia in neon, an article about the children's television of Sid and Marty Krofft (subscription or ad-watch required).
I'm part of that odd generation that grew up watching the Krofft shows. I was born in 1964. My wife is a few years younger than me, and she'd never heard of them - although she'd watched more TV than I did, as a kid.
Any time I meet anyone born in 1964, though, I always find that we speak the same language: Krofft. We all dreamed about those shows, and our imaginations were forever changed - twisted? liberated? - by them.
So I bought the complete Pufnstuf and Lidsville series on DVD for my little boy. He's going to have the same bizarre images as I have floating around in MY subconscious. That may seem domineering, but have you looked at modern television for kids? It's either gross-out animation in the spirit of Ren & Stimpy (but without the talent) or the same perky-happy-crappy garbage that has been churned out for defenseless kids practically since the medium began.
Yes, I'm talking about you, Dora the Explorer, Little Einsteins, Hannah Montana, and the atrocity of the Winnie-the-Pooh shows featuring an animated perky AMERICAN GIRL in place of Christopher Robin (who was, damn it all, ENGLISH!). I'm talking about YOU, Disney! Mickey Mouse was NEVER funny!
And every single goddamned show is backed up by millions of dollars worth of focus groups, psychological research, and products to buy, buy, buy.
It's sanitized. It's sterilized. It's televisual pap! And what is that doing to the minds of our children?
Take a look at a random episode of Lidsville. It would never be made or broadcast today. The evil Hoodoo the Magician (Charles Nelson Reilly) having lost his "zap" powers to Raunchy Rabbit (I swear to God I am not making this up) dresses up as a female bunny and seduces the hapless lagomorph out of his powers!
Adults cringe in amazement at the sight of the tutu-wearing girl-bunny-disguised Reilly rolling around on a chaise longue with a little person in a bunny costume. But kids love it.
It feels as if Sid and Marty Krofft got a gang of brilliant maniacs together, said "hey gang, let's put on a show!" and made it happen. They're incredibly lose and amateurish compared to modern shows. There are obvious mistakes; for example, take the opening of Lidsville. Butch Patrick's fall into the giant hat was visibly botched - you can see his foot kind of bouncing there as he hits the padding upside-down at the bottom of the hat.
TV executives today would fire anyone for suggesting that a mistake like that be broadcast. But god forbid that even a smidgen of the creativity and imagination that the Kroffts displayed in almost every episode get on the screen now! Our screens must remain sterile...as sterile as our children's minds. I think that the time will come when we realize that raising our children in an ideologically pure and sterilized environment destroys their mental immune systems, just as raising them without exposure to germs and dirt destroys their resistance to physical disease. Both are a cruel disservice to the next generation.
Pufnstuf and Lidsville were the purest of the divine Kroftt madness, in my book. They give us a window into a brief time when American culture was on the edge of becoming something truly, fundamentally different. Instead, that change was assimilated, digested, and eliminated.
Land of the Lost was a fun show (as a kid I loved it), but didn't have the essential Krofft craziness; that seems to have required giant-headed puppet-costumes. Sigmund & the Sea Monster verged on the weirdness, but somehow never quite reached the same level of strangeness and magic. That was probably, I think, because unlike Pufnstuf and Lidsville the child-protagonists of Sigmund were never taken away to another, magical world; their California world expanded a little to include sea monsters and other creatures, but it retained a link to reality that somehow made everything seem a little flat.
As for the Bugaloos, I didn't watch it much as a kid. And when I tried to watch it as an adult, I just couldn't take it. Yes, it seems to be the true Krofft quill...but maybe you have to have first seen it with the eyes of a child to be able to really enjoy it.
I'm part of that odd generation that grew up watching the Krofft shows. I was born in 1964. My wife is a few years younger than me, and she'd never heard of them - although she'd watched more TV than I did, as a kid.
Any time I meet anyone born in 1964, though, I always find that we speak the same language: Krofft. We all dreamed about those shows, and our imaginations were forever changed - twisted? liberated? - by them.
So I bought the complete Pufnstuf and Lidsville series on DVD for my little boy. He's going to have the same bizarre images as I have floating around in MY subconscious. That may seem domineering, but have you looked at modern television for kids? It's either gross-out animation in the spirit of Ren & Stimpy (but without the talent) or the same perky-happy-crappy garbage that has been churned out for defenseless kids practically since the medium began.
Yes, I'm talking about you, Dora the Explorer, Little Einsteins, Hannah Montana, and the atrocity of the Winnie-the-Pooh shows featuring an animated perky AMERICAN GIRL in place of Christopher Robin (who was, damn it all, ENGLISH!). I'm talking about YOU, Disney! Mickey Mouse was NEVER funny!
And every single goddamned show is backed up by millions of dollars worth of focus groups, psychological research, and products to buy, buy, buy.
It's sanitized. It's sterilized. It's televisual pap! And what is that doing to the minds of our children?
Take a look at a random episode of Lidsville. It would never be made or broadcast today. The evil Hoodoo the Magician (Charles Nelson Reilly) having lost his "zap" powers to Raunchy Rabbit (I swear to God I am not making this up) dresses up as a female bunny and seduces the hapless lagomorph out of his powers!
Adults cringe in amazement at the sight of the tutu-wearing girl-bunny-disguised Reilly rolling around on a chaise longue with a little person in a bunny costume. But kids love it.
It feels as if Sid and Marty Krofft got a gang of brilliant maniacs together, said "hey gang, let's put on a show!" and made it happen. They're incredibly lose and amateurish compared to modern shows. There are obvious mistakes; for example, take the opening of Lidsville. Butch Patrick's fall into the giant hat was visibly botched - you can see his foot kind of bouncing there as he hits the padding upside-down at the bottom of the hat.
TV executives today would fire anyone for suggesting that a mistake like that be broadcast. But god forbid that even a smidgen of the creativity and imagination that the Kroffts displayed in almost every episode get on the screen now! Our screens must remain sterile...as sterile as our children's minds. I think that the time will come when we realize that raising our children in an ideologically pure and sterilized environment destroys their mental immune systems, just as raising them without exposure to germs and dirt destroys their resistance to physical disease. Both are a cruel disservice to the next generation.
Pufnstuf and Lidsville were the purest of the divine Kroftt madness, in my book. They give us a window into a brief time when American culture was on the edge of becoming something truly, fundamentally different. Instead, that change was assimilated, digested, and eliminated.
Land of the Lost was a fun show (as a kid I loved it), but didn't have the essential Krofft craziness; that seems to have required giant-headed puppet-costumes. Sigmund & the Sea Monster verged on the weirdness, but somehow never quite reached the same level of strangeness and magic. That was probably, I think, because unlike Pufnstuf and Lidsville the child-protagonists of Sigmund were never taken away to another, magical world; their California world expanded a little to include sea monsters and other creatures, but it retained a link to reality that somehow made everything seem a little flat.
As for the Bugaloos, I didn't watch it much as a kid. And when I tried to watch it as an adult, I just couldn't take it. Yes, it seems to be the true Krofft quill...but maybe you have to have first seen it with the eyes of a child to be able to really enjoy it.
A letter to Salon about Narnia in neon, an article about the children's television of Sid and Marty Krofft (subscription or ad-watch required).
I'm part of that odd generation that grew up watching the Krofft shows. I was born in 1964. My wife is a few years younger than me, and she'd never heard of them - although she'd watched more TV than I did, as a kid.
Any time I meet anyone born in 1964, though, I always find that we speak the same language: Krofft. We all dreamed about those shows, and our imaginations were forever changed - twisted? liberated? - by them.
So I bought the complete Pufnstuf and Lidsville series on DVD for my little boy. He's going to have the same bizarre images as I have floating around in MY subconscious. That may seem domineering, but have you looked at modern television for kids? It's either gross-out animation in the spirit of Ren & Stimpy (but without the talent) or the same perky-happy-crappy garbage that has been churned out for defenseless kids practically since the medium began.
Yes, I'm talking about you, Dora the Explorer, Little Einsteins, Hannah Montana, and the atrocity of the Winnie-the-Pooh shows featuring an animated perky AMERICAN GIRL in place of Christopher Robin (who was, damn it all, ENGLISH!). I'm talking about YOU, Disney! Mickey Mouse was NEVER funny!
And every single goddamned show is backed up by millions of dollars worth of focus groups, psychological research, and products to buy, buy, buy.
It's sanitized. It's sterilized. It's televisual pap! And what is that doing to the minds of our children?
Take a look at a random episode of Lidsville. It would never be made or broadcast today. The evil Hoodoo the Magician (Charles Nelson Reilly) having lost his "zap" powers to Raunchy Rabbit (I swear to God I am not making this up) dresses up as a female bunny and seduces the hapless lagomorph out of his powers!
Adults cringe in amazement at the sight of the tutu-wearing girl-bunny-disguised Reilly rolling around on a chaise longue with a little person in a bunny costume. But kids love it.
It feels as if Sid and Marty Krofft got a gang of brilliant maniacs together, said "hey gang, let's put on a show!" and made it happen. They're incredibly lose and amateurish compared to modern shows. There are obvious mistakes; for example, take the opening of Lidsville. Butch Patrick's fall into the giant hat was visibly botched - you can see his foot kind of bouncing there as he hits the padding upside-down at the bottom of the hat.
TV executives today would fire anyone for suggesting that a mistake like that be broadcast. But god forbid that even a smidgen of the creativity and imagination that the Kroffts displayed in almost every episode get on the screen now! Our screens must remain sterile...as sterile as our children's minds. I think that the time will come when we realize that raising our children in an ideologically pure and sterilized environment destroys their mental immune systems, just as raising them without exposure to germs and dirt destroys their resistance to physical disease. Both are a cruel disservice to the next generation.
Pufnstuf and Lidsville were the purest of the divine Kroftt madness, in my book. They give us a window into a brief time when American culture was on the edge of becoming something truly, fundamentally different. Instead, that change was assimilated, digested, and eliminated.
Land of the Lost was a fun show (as a kid I loved it), but didn't have the essential Krofft craziness; that seems to have required giant-headed puppet-costumes. Sigmund & the Sea Monster verged on the weirdness, but somehow never quite reached the same level of strangeness and magic. That was probably, I think, because unlike Pufnstuf and Lidsville the child-protagonists of Sigmund were never taken away to another, magical world; their California world expanded a little to include sea monsters and other creatures, but it retained a link to reality that somehow made everything seem a little flat.
As for the Bugaloos, I didn't watch it much as a kid. And when I tried to watch it as an adult, I just couldn't take it. Yes, it seems to be the true Krofft quill...but maybe you have to have first seen it with the eyes of a child to be able to really enjoy it.
I'm part of that odd generation that grew up watching the Krofft shows. I was born in 1964. My wife is a few years younger than me, and she'd never heard of them - although she'd watched more TV than I did, as a kid.
Any time I meet anyone born in 1964, though, I always find that we speak the same language: Krofft. We all dreamed about those shows, and our imaginations were forever changed - twisted? liberated? - by them.
So I bought the complete Pufnstuf and Lidsville series on DVD for my little boy. He's going to have the same bizarre images as I have floating around in MY subconscious. That may seem domineering, but have you looked at modern television for kids? It's either gross-out animation in the spirit of Ren & Stimpy (but without the talent) or the same perky-happy-crappy garbage that has been churned out for defenseless kids practically since the medium began.
Yes, I'm talking about you, Dora the Explorer, Little Einsteins, Hannah Montana, and the atrocity of the Winnie-the-Pooh shows featuring an animated perky AMERICAN GIRL in place of Christopher Robin (who was, damn it all, ENGLISH!). I'm talking about YOU, Disney! Mickey Mouse was NEVER funny!
And every single goddamned show is backed up by millions of dollars worth of focus groups, psychological research, and products to buy, buy, buy.
It's sanitized. It's sterilized. It's televisual pap! And what is that doing to the minds of our children?
Take a look at a random episode of Lidsville. It would never be made or broadcast today. The evil Hoodoo the Magician (Charles Nelson Reilly) having lost his "zap" powers to Raunchy Rabbit (I swear to God I am not making this up) dresses up as a female bunny and seduces the hapless lagomorph out of his powers!
Adults cringe in amazement at the sight of the tutu-wearing girl-bunny-disguised Reilly rolling around on a chaise longue with a little person in a bunny costume. But kids love it.
It feels as if Sid and Marty Krofft got a gang of brilliant maniacs together, said "hey gang, let's put on a show!" and made it happen. They're incredibly lose and amateurish compared to modern shows. There are obvious mistakes; for example, take the opening of Lidsville. Butch Patrick's fall into the giant hat was visibly botched - you can see his foot kind of bouncing there as he hits the padding upside-down at the bottom of the hat.
TV executives today would fire anyone for suggesting that a mistake like that be broadcast. But god forbid that even a smidgen of the creativity and imagination that the Kroffts displayed in almost every episode get on the screen now! Our screens must remain sterile...as sterile as our children's minds. I think that the time will come when we realize that raising our children in an ideologically pure and sterilized environment destroys their mental immune systems, just as raising them without exposure to germs and dirt destroys their resistance to physical disease. Both are a cruel disservice to the next generation.
Pufnstuf and Lidsville were the purest of the divine Kroftt madness, in my book. They give us a window into a brief time when American culture was on the edge of becoming something truly, fundamentally different. Instead, that change was assimilated, digested, and eliminated.
Land of the Lost was a fun show (as a kid I loved it), but didn't have the essential Krofft craziness; that seems to have required giant-headed puppet-costumes. Sigmund & the Sea Monster verged on the weirdness, but somehow never quite reached the same level of strangeness and magic. That was probably, I think, because unlike Pufnstuf and Lidsville the child-protagonists of Sigmund were never taken away to another, magical world; their California world expanded a little to include sea monsters and other creatures, but it retained a link to reality that somehow made everything seem a little flat.
As for the Bugaloos, I didn't watch it much as a kid. And when I tried to watch it as an adult, I just couldn't take it. Yes, it seems to be the true Krofft quill...but maybe you have to have first seen it with the eyes of a child to be able to really enjoy it.
Courageous Cat
Dec. 26th, 2007 08:51 pmI'll write about our Christmas soon. The short version: it was a good one.
But things can never go entirely smoothly, of course. One of the things I'd gotten from Sebastian was an old VHS tape, Courageous Cat #1. I'd bought it via Amazon from Granbury Trader. I'd have bought the DVDs, but they're insanely expensive; I think they've been discontinued.
When it arrived, I was a little surprised at how worn the case was. The tape had a very old, stained label, but it appeared to be the correct one.
You've probably guessed that I wouldn't be writing this if it were the correct one, I'm betting.
Yup; we put it in the VCR today, and discovered that A) the tape was almost unwatchable, with incredible amounts of snow and serious tracking problems that c could not be resolved, and B) it wasn't a Courageous Cat tape at all - it was filled with random material apparently taped off the air, including commercials and some Disney TV stuff.
What's more, the record safety tab was still present - which indicated to me that this was almost certainly never a commercial pre-recorded tape. Those are manufactured without the tabs to begin with. I took a look at the label, and - well, here's the letter I sent to the vendors:
I hope we hear back from them soon. Sebastian cried and cried when we found out that it wasn't a Courageous Cat tape. I'd chosen them to begin with because they seemed to be more reputable.
But things can never go entirely smoothly, of course. One of the things I'd gotten from Sebastian was an old VHS tape, Courageous Cat #1. I'd bought it via Amazon from Granbury Trader. I'd have bought the DVDs, but they're insanely expensive; I think they've been discontinued.
When it arrived, I was a little surprised at how worn the case was. The tape had a very old, stained label, but it appeared to be the correct one.
You've probably guessed that I wouldn't be writing this if it were the correct one, I'm betting.
Yup; we put it in the VCR today, and discovered that A) the tape was almost unwatchable, with incredible amounts of snow and serious tracking problems that c could not be resolved, and B) it wasn't a Courageous Cat tape at all - it was filled with random material apparently taped off the air, including commercials and some Disney TV stuff.
What's more, the record safety tab was still present - which indicated to me that this was almost certainly never a commercial pre-recorded tape. Those are manufactured without the tabs to begin with. I took a look at the label, and - well, here's the letter I sent to the vendors:
| Sirs, Regarding order 058-5210333-2224327, which I placed with you on 15-November-2007 for Courageous Cat #1 [VHS Tape]: the tape which you sent to me is incorrect. It is an old VHS cassette containing material taped off the air, including commercials and Disney TV programming (among others) - but with no Courageous Cat content at all, as far as we have been able to determine. There is considerable snow and the picture is extremely poor, almost unwatchable. It has the appearance of a home tape which has been re-used many times. The record safety tab on the tape has not been punched out. Its presence clearly indicates that this was never a commercially pre-recorded tape, but rather a home VHS cassette. The Courageous Cat #1 label is also half-detached from the cassette. How would you like to resolve this issue? Please contact me at xxxxxx@xxxxxx.com. Thanks! |
I hope we hear back from them soon. Sebastian cried and cried when we found out that it wasn't a Courageous Cat tape. I'd chosen them to begin with because they seemed to be more reputable.
Courageous Cat
Dec. 26th, 2007 08:51 pmI'll write about our Christmas soon. The short version: it was a good one.
But things can never go entirely smoothly, of course. One of the things I'd gotten from Sebastian was an old VHS tape, Courageous Cat #1. I'd bought it via Amazon from Granbury Trader. I'd have bought the DVDs, but they're insanely expensive; I think they've been discontinued.
When it arrived, I was a little surprised at how worn the case was. The tape had a very old, stained label, but it appeared to be the correct one.
You've probably guessed that I wouldn't be writing this if it were the correct one, I'm betting.
Yup; we put it in the VCR today, and discovered that A) the tape was almost unwatchable, with incredible amounts of snow and serious tracking problems that c could not be resolved, and B) it wasn't a Courageous Cat tape at all - it was filled with random material apparently taped off the air, including commercials and some Disney TV stuff.
What's more, the record safety tab was still present - which indicated to me that this was almost certainly never a commercial pre-recorded tape. Those are manufactured without the tabs to begin with. I took a look at the label, and - well, here's the letter I sent to the vendors:
I hope we hear back from them soon. Sebastian cried and cried when we found out that it wasn't a Courageous Cat tape. I'd chosen them to begin with because they seemed to be more reputable.
But things can never go entirely smoothly, of course. One of the things I'd gotten from Sebastian was an old VHS tape, Courageous Cat #1. I'd bought it via Amazon from Granbury Trader. I'd have bought the DVDs, but they're insanely expensive; I think they've been discontinued.
When it arrived, I was a little surprised at how worn the case was. The tape had a very old, stained label, but it appeared to be the correct one.
You've probably guessed that I wouldn't be writing this if it were the correct one, I'm betting.
Yup; we put it in the VCR today, and discovered that A) the tape was almost unwatchable, with incredible amounts of snow and serious tracking problems that c could not be resolved, and B) it wasn't a Courageous Cat tape at all - it was filled with random material apparently taped off the air, including commercials and some Disney TV stuff.
What's more, the record safety tab was still present - which indicated to me that this was almost certainly never a commercial pre-recorded tape. Those are manufactured without the tabs to begin with. I took a look at the label, and - well, here's the letter I sent to the vendors:
| Sirs, Regarding order 058-5210333-2224327, which I placed with you on 15-November-2007 for Courageous Cat #1 [VHS Tape]: the tape which you sent to me is incorrect. It is an old VHS cassette containing material taped off the air, including commercials and Disney TV programming (among others) - but with no Courageous Cat content at all, as far as we have been able to determine. There is considerable snow and the picture is extremely poor, almost unwatchable. It has the appearance of a home tape which has been re-used many times. The record safety tab on the tape has not been punched out. Its presence clearly indicates that this was never a commercially pre-recorded tape, but rather a home VHS cassette. The Courageous Cat #1 label is also half-detached from the cassette. How would you like to resolve this issue? Please contact me at xxxxxx@xxxxxx.com. Thanks! |
I hope we hear back from them soon. Sebastian cried and cried when we found out that it wasn't a Courageous Cat tape. I'd chosen them to begin with because they seemed to be more reputable.
Predictable...
Oct. 9th, 2006 09:44 pmYou know what I hate about Heroes? It's so damned predictable. For example, the quasi-girlfriend of the Indian guy, the thin girl with the shot black hair. It's totally obvious that she works for the bad guys, whoever they are.
Boring...
Boring...
Venting Jordon
Sep. 28th, 2006 02:09 pmI couldn't resist going over to the IMDB and venting my opinion about Crossing Jordon:
I suspect the comment will get a lot of bad ratings from fans of the show. Oh well.
Predictable and not authentic
The series is supposedly set in Boston, but is about as authentically Bostonian as a Philly cheese steak (I think it's mostly filmed in Toronto - it's DEFINITELY not filmed in Boston). Apart from that, I found it painfully predictable. Some episodes haven't just *blurred* the line between real science and the supernatural, they've plowed up the ground that the line was drawn on and dynamited the underlying bedrock.
In other words, for a show which purports to have a mystery element, the writers simply don't play fair with the viewers.
The show also suffers from more than a tinge of "Providence" syndrome - the heroine is SOOO perfect, almost always right when she bucks the system (except for a few "very special" plots where she makes a mistake"), and every man is in love with her. Annoying!
I did like the characters of Bug and Nigel. They were funny and well-acted. But they don't make up for poor writing and utterly stale plots.
I suspect the comment will get a lot of bad ratings from fans of the show. Oh well.
