the pod bay door

Tomorrow I’m off to NYC for my 11th visit to the area since 1990. I’m also visiting friends in New Haven on the weekend. I’m looking forward to a break from reality in New York, a city I’ve grown to admire considerably since my first visit. Confirmed plans include seeing the Hallowe’en Parade, the play Frankie and Johnny in the Claire De Lune, starring Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci, and a return visit to the WTC area. I will hang with friends, walk a lot, see Jessica, see new movies, visit The Strand, and whatever else happens, happens. I hope to take many pictures, digital and film.

I’m planning to post comments here while I’m away, so please check back when you can. There’s a nifty ‘net cafe on 42nd Street that I’ll frequent while in Manhattan.

The subject of overload be it pop culture overload, media overload, information overload, whatever, is a topic of regular discussion among friends and family. Each year I swear I will limit, drastically, the number of television shows I will watch, in order to free up more time (to do other pop culture stuff?) Anyway, this fall I decided to continue to watch the 3 Law and Orders, West Wing, SNL, MAD-TV, Ebert & Roper, 24, and The Sopranos, and Sports Centre, as well as various sporting shows, bits of late night talk shows like Charlie Rose, The Daily Show, etc. (Aside: I lament the demise of the shows of Dennis Miller, Bill Maher and Tom Snyder (warning: bubble machine sounds), but life goes on.)

New shows I’d give a shot would be Robbery Homicide Division, Without A Trace, CSI: Miami, Presidio Med, Boomtown. Now, totalling up these shows w/o adding in the sports and talk shows, and you’ve got 13 hours of television. OK, add in more, and it’s probably up to 20 hours. I realized this, and immediately dumped Boomtown, CSI: Miami, and reluctantly, Presidio Med (I have an immense crush on Julianne Nicholson).

Still…that’s a lot of tv. Life is short. And I’m about to take another trip to NYC. Historically, I would leave and program my two VCRs to tape 12 shows while I was away. Now I’m thinking, what does it matter? So I’m setting up to tape The Sopranos, 24, and a few Law and Orders. Will pass on everthing else.

But this is just a small sample of the larger issue of total and complete pop culture overload.
Read more »

It seems headlines from The Onion are being taken seriously, once again. (You might have heard about the Beijing Evening News in China reporting an Onion headline as real?)

Now the Branch County Michigan sherrif’s department has advised its residents that Al-Qaeda in involved in telemarketing schemes. Apparently they were responding to recent complaints of telemarketing scams in the area, especially targeting the elderly. During the course of their investigations they found the link to the Onion article which described members of Al-Qaeda involved in telemarketing to raise money, thought magazine subscriptions, vacation home rentals, etc.

The detective involved said he wasn’t aware that The Onion was a humor publication, but that he believes a link to the Onion’s web site was available on the Michigan Attorney General’s web site, which of course, was denied by that office.

This certainly increases my confidence in local law enforcement.

I’ve spent the last 30 minutes browsing through NYC Bloggers, as I’m in a New York state of mind. There are a few gems out there. Check out Jay L Zilber’s Mind Over What Matters, “commentary on political, social and cultural fringe matters.” Within he offers a list of pundit sites, including Bitch Pundit, Music-Pundit, and more. There’s even Punditwatch.

In one of the few negative reviews of Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore’s brilliant and disturbing new documentary on American gun culture, Desson Howe of the Washington Post writes: “A lot of this is amusing and somehow telling. But what does it all add up to?” I’m not sure Moore knows the answer himself, but I don’t see that as a reason to slag this movie. After the Columbine massacre in 1999, Moore went to Littleton CO to learn more about life there and to meet some of the surviving students. Along the way, he introduces us to a number of individuals, displays statistics, and shares graphic images, some at times incredibly disturbing. For me, this is where the power of the film lies.

In the most startling and unnerving sequence, Moore splits the screen into a quad, and in each section plays video from one of four surveillance cameras at Columbine High. Sitting in a packed theatre, no one could move in their seats. I could barely breathe. Thinking about it now, I’m at a loss for words to describe how I felt.
Read more »

One of my (many) annoyances is the trend that began, oh, who knows, in the early 80s perhaps, of parents naming their kids last names that are less than conventional. (Meaning names that are traditionally last names only, unlike my own, Randall, or my brother, Christopher, etc – names that function as first or last names). Or just strange and bizarre names. Or changing one letter to make the name look “cool” (usually means replacing an “i” with a “y”, like Madyson or something equally childish.) Contractions of two names. Whatever. Have you even been shopping somewhere, and you hear a yuppie mom yell something like, “Tyler, Tyson, Mckenzie, we’re leaving now!”. When that happens, I want to slap the parent upside the head and ask them why they decided to inflict such cruelty on their children. (If your name is Tyler, Tyson or Mckenzie, no offense!) I was in Costco once, and the woman behind me had two beautiful little girls – their names were Kennedy and McKinley, after dead presidents or something.

From Rebecca‘s site I found “Baby’s Named a Bad, Bad Thing – A Primer on Parent Cruelty” (Bow towards Chris Issak.) Here you will find not lists of names, but “naming questions and suggestions posted on two different baby naming bulletin boards going back as far as early 2001” Read it, and you will cringe. Would you name your child Denver Kade Lional, Xev Chiana Louise, Vashara Rashea, Kakinston? Speaking of contractions, one woman wants to name her girl Thazel, which is a contraction of Thelma and Hazel. AAGHHHHH! But wait, there’s more.
Read more »