Yay for Ellen. Her little skits were hilarious.
Yay for Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin. She and Jayden Smith were the cutest thing ever.
Yay for Al Gore.
Boo for stupid The Departed. Soooo not interested.
Boo for Nicole Kidman's huge red bow.
Boo for Clint Eastwood. Will he not die yet?
Yay for Melissa Ethridge making sure to mention Tammy as her wife.
Yay for Robert Downey Jr. making fun of himself.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Bai Ling
okay, how goes the role of exotic Asian?
first she shows up on Angel as a demon fighting to free the women from her world. they have these cords on their neck that literally glow red when they are sexually aroused and the men from their dimension cut it out/lobotomize them.
anyway, nows she's on Lost as Jack's playmate, mysterious and dangerous and exotic.
and im just like, anyone offended much? even notice?
first she shows up on Angel as a demon fighting to free the women from her world. they have these cords on their neck that literally glow red when they are sexually aroused and the men from their dimension cut it out/lobotomize them.
anyway, nows she's on Lost as Jack's playmate, mysterious and dangerous and exotic.
and im just like, anyone offended much? even notice?
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Identity TV
In response to my previous post and the comments, I want to try and pick at the idea of pleasure and academics. The "guilt" aspect of watching certain shows always seems to coincide with a personal sense of fandom- an almost illogical sense that this show, this representation and set of images, somehow connects with you in your gut and therefore you have to justify the link to your head. So not everyone is going to like Buffy or Veronica Mars- and they don't have to and they probably shouldn't. I might never like 24, or have more than a passing acquaintance with the X-files or Starwars or the Matrix. But what is important about these shows is how they create counter(is that the right word?) cultures or subcultures maybe. Narrowcasting makes sure one audience or another is addressed and that audience feels compelled to undestand why these shows are aimed at them and how they work- how do you identify a niche, sell it and compel it. As the media side of Film and Media grows, more and more people will come into conflict with the cannon of film and the postmodern chaos of television. b/c TV is so fast, so fleeting, it often captures the identity of a moment in a way films cannot.
So this is a Flow article on VM and discusses how identity and the self are captured by these narrowcast shows like Battlestar Galactica, etc. :
http://jot.communication.utexas.edu/flow/?jot=view&id=2074
and for true convergence check out this fan remix of VM and Battlestar explaining the origin of the word "Frak.":
Frakking frakkingfrak! Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Buffy lives
One of the podcasts this week was about the website Flow and about how one of the posters said she couldn't teach an episode of Buffy b/c it made her weep. Peters makes three points "1. These people enjoy Buffy a lot. 2. They may like Buffy too much and 3. Its a shame most contemporary media scholars don't practice some self indulgence and simply forget McLuhan and move on to Buffy in their actual classes. It
would be much more interesting."
Now, here's what I think (thanks for asking):
*Before anyone gets in a huff, if anyone even reads this, I am playing devil's advocate to Johnathon's devil's advocate. plus i just like to talk about Buffy.
Point one assumes that first and foremost, its wrong to enjoy Buffy. This could be because Buffy is gendered female due to its lead character being a woman, the soap/melodrama/emotional elements or because it is classified as teen age drama and therefore not serious enough or because it was on the WB, a more marginal network. All of these reasons endanger Buffy's status as "quality" television and therefore make it wrong to like the show.
Point two assumes that such liking is bordering on a scary kind of teen girl screaming fandom that has lost rationality. Buffy becomes an excess, something liked "too much." Heaven forbid an academic critique a show that is pleasurable and blatant about its lack of pretension- or a show that embraces cheesy sci fi effects and fights are always accompanied by snappy one-liners.
point three assumes that one cannot actually link mcluhan (the stand in for Academia with a capital A, although Mcluhuan's Wake may disprove that point) and Buffy, that to do so would be an allowance, another indulgence- you are doing it b/c the students like it rather than its relevance in one authorized cannon or the other. the contrast again marginalizes Buffy as a show that girls/teens/fans watch and therefore it cant be taken seriously.
Well, Buffy is taken seriously and should be. and so should Veronica Mars. I've read books and books (and more coming out) by academics on Buffy. These two shows are rare shows that engage with academic, film and feminists texts/theories. but more than that, there is something to their pleasure- pleasure can be academic, it can be productive, and it is NECESSARY for work. i am so tired of people automatically dismissing television in the old tired thread of the "vast wasteland"; of defending soaps because they are taking over tv (aren't soaps just the purest form of television, always have been, and everything else is diluted?); or people who dismiss "girly" shows as unimportant fluff. this is most definitely a rant, and perhaps not all that logical, but there you go.
my point is you can't just throw around the B-word or an angry feminist will go after you. if that isn't unpc, i dont know what is.
would be much more interesting."
Now, here's what I think (thanks for asking):
*Before anyone gets in a huff, if anyone even reads this, I am playing devil's advocate to Johnathon's devil's advocate. plus i just like to talk about Buffy.
Point one assumes that first and foremost, its wrong to enjoy Buffy. This could be because Buffy is gendered female due to its lead character being a woman, the soap/melodrama/emotional elements or because it is classified as teen age drama and therefore not serious enough or because it was on the WB, a more marginal network. All of these reasons endanger Buffy's status as "quality" television and therefore make it wrong to like the show.
Point two assumes that such liking is bordering on a scary kind of teen girl screaming fandom that has lost rationality. Buffy becomes an excess, something liked "too much." Heaven forbid an academic critique a show that is pleasurable and blatant about its lack of pretension- or a show that embraces cheesy sci fi effects and fights are always accompanied by snappy one-liners.
point three assumes that one cannot actually link mcluhan (the stand in for Academia with a capital A, although Mcluhuan's Wake may disprove that point) and Buffy, that to do so would be an allowance, another indulgence- you are doing it b/c the students like it rather than its relevance in one authorized cannon or the other. the contrast again marginalizes Buffy as a show that girls/teens/fans watch and therefore it cant be taken seriously.
Well, Buffy is taken seriously and should be. and so should Veronica Mars. I've read books and books (and more coming out) by academics on Buffy. These two shows are rare shows that engage with academic, film and feminists texts/theories. but more than that, there is something to their pleasure- pleasure can be academic, it can be productive, and it is NECESSARY for work. i am so tired of people automatically dismissing television in the old tired thread of the "vast wasteland"; of defending soaps because they are taking over tv (aren't soaps just the purest form of television, always have been, and everything else is diluted?); or people who dismiss "girly" shows as unimportant fluff. this is most definitely a rant, and perhaps not all that logical, but there you go.
my point is you can't just throw around the B-word or an angry feminist will go after you. if that isn't unpc, i dont know what is.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Oh no they didn't
The Simpsons just aired a show where Nelson and Bart become best friends and then their friendhsip ends. Bart goes home, opens his closet and hugs to his chest the vest Nelson gave him. The Brokeback music plays in the back and Nelson rides past the window shouting
"Ha Ha! I touched your heart."
Wow.
"Ha Ha! I touched your heart."
Wow.
Angel
"It was a seminal show owned by an idiot network. And then they canceled it. I was going to picket them but I didn't have any comfortable shoes"- Cordy
oh self reflixivity
oh self reflixivity
Saturday, February 17, 2007
podcast
I tried to post a link to my podcast on Jenkin's Spoling Survivor but i dont think it worked. still trying to figure out technology
Why?
Why has Britney gone crazy? Why did she shave her head?
Why does Charlie have to die?
Why was there no Sawyer in this week's episode?
Why was Desmond naked in the jungle?
WHY WHY WHY
Why does Charlie have to die?
Why was there no Sawyer in this week's episode?
Why was Desmond naked in the jungle?
WHY WHY WHY
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