Swigzine BLOG

My Review of Ed Sullivan Book

2012-02-03T16:36:00.000-06:00

I just finally discovered that my review of a book about Ed Sullivan for the Journal of American History is published and online, but I imagine that your institution needs to be a subscriber to read it. So I'm posting it here.

Right Here on Our Stage Tonight! Ed Sullivan's America. By Gerald Nachman. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. 455 pp. Cloth, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-520-25867-9. Paper, $18.95, ISBN 978-0-520-26801-2.)

Ethan Thompson

Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi, Texas

Gerald Nachman has pored over much that has been written about Ed Sullivan, watched a lot of archived television, and conducted many interviews with people who fell within Sullivan's orbit. He has fit much of that material into this book, a detailed portrait of Sullivan, with insights into the man and his program that ought to interest scholars of American popular culture and media history.

Nachman credits his interviews as being “the sources that most candidly revealed Ed Sullivan and his show to me” (p. 413). This interest in “revealing” explains the barrage of quotations that too often amount to little more than personal impressions of Sullivan, his producers, and performers on his show. Nachman pays scant attention to contemporary cultural criticism and television scholarship, and this affects his historical account and ability to explain the impact of the show. For example, he describes TV westerns as a “fad” rather than a defining programming trend and offers contradictory ways to understand early television, first dismissing Milton Berle's initial success by telling us anything could have been popular in TV’s earliest years, then later suggesting his success was because his style of comedy was well suited to the tastes of early, urban audiences. When he could have gone to an African American studies scholar to explain the significance of Sullivan's showcasing of black entertainers, he instead cites a secretary's complaint that James Brown was rude to her.

Nachman loves puns and hyperbole, and he is a little too zealous to include comments that are meant to be amusing but too often come off as irrelevant or offensive. More distressing is a sloppy attitude toward sources and getting facts straight. Nachman ignores contemporary media theory, but when he cites Marshall McLuhan's infamous “hot/cool” media dichotomy, he gets it wrong, nonsensically saying “TV was a ‘hot medium’ where a cold fish could flourish.” Most embarrassing, he notes that Carol Burnett's introductions for a “best of” clip show had to be shot in Los Angeles because she did not want to fly in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks. This might be interesting trivia had Nachman not told us in the previous sentence that the program was hosted in 1991.

What Nachman chooses to focus on is at times puzzling. Discussing the show's decline leading up to its cancellation in 1971, just one sentence notes the reduction in episodes produced each season, from 52 to 39 to 24, with no identifying years or insight into who mandated them. He then dedicates at least three pages to the Sullivan compilations that have been made over the years. Also certain to frustrate historians, Nachman likes to drop provocative tidbits then change the subject. Recounting the competition between the networks in the mid-1950s, Nachman notes that NBC’s Pat Weaver tried to steal Sullivan away from CBS. No attribution, no further discussion.

Still, the book does have strong points. Nachman recounts Sullivan's initial struggles courting a sponsor, culminating in a close relationship with Ford Motor Company, which saw the program's audience as a way to build prestige for its Lincoln-Mercury lines. The best section of the book may be the chapter devoted to the Beatles, which, rather than serving the Fab Four up as Sullivan's greatest triumph, describes the group's appearances as part of a carefully orchestrated marketing campaign.

Nachman also does a good job recounting Elvis Presley's appearances on the show, again correcting the notion that Sullivan was his first national TV appearance, but still emphasizing that the Sullivan show was the most significant “crossover” performance for Elvis and thus a foundational moment for rock ’n’ roll.

My Favorite Music 2011

2011-12-24T11:46:00.002-06:00

I find it nigh impossible to write about music, and although I don't suffer from the misconception that anyone in the rest of the world cares what my favorite music was this year, the truth is I love reading other people's lists. It means I should spend time with something, it means the chance of--sniff--sharing. So in the spirit of sharing, not narcissism, I offer my favorite music of 2011. BTW, it's friggin hard narrowing down a list to something manageable. With limited exceptions, the order below is arbitrary.

1. Cut Copy – Zonoscope.

Push comes to shove, my favorite band. As should be apparent from most of these albums, I’m a sucker for the dancey electronic stuff, and these guys seem like the U2s of it. That is, I can imagine this stuff filling arenas and not just clubs or bedrooms. Listened to this more than anything else this year, I’m sure. They’re the (my) INXS of the 2010s--forget the U2 comparison. I'd never seen the video below before, but it looks sort of like if David Lynch ripped his own Obsession ads off in order to make one for Nike.

2. Little Dragon - Ritual Union.

Really solid album through and through. Gotta kinda smooth, funky Prince feel but cold--they're Swedish, after all. Great guest appearance on SBTRKT record, too. As the video below proves, they do this stuff live. Nice fashion sense as well.

3. Tycho - Dive.

Discovered late this fall, but I feel confident in keeping it on my list. This is the sort of intricate electronic music you can listen to as closely (or not) as you like, and hear lots going on. Really listenable, but stays fresh--fresher, in my opinion than Washed Out. Which I do like.

4. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up.

I've always thought Digable Planets were underrated, particularly their Blowout Comb album. This is a comback of sorts. Again, actually interesting to listen to--as opposed to, say Watch the Throne. Which has its undeniable charms, so long as you don't care to listen closely or hope to hear anything new. Look...it was on my list...but push come to shove, I think I've heard it before. Not this. Enough talk about Watch the Throne. Stream Black Up in its entirety below.

5. Ford & Lopatin - Channel Pressure.

80s inflected electronic. Just listen.

6. SBTRKT - SBTRKT & Step in Shadows.

It's pronounced "subtract". Once I could wrap my head around that, quickly fell for this fast DJ, eletronic stuff. Maybe it's the mask, but I often think of Soul II Soul when I listen to this.

7. Metronomy - The English Riviera.

Did you catch that album title? I like it. Watch and listen to the video below. You will know within 5-10 seconds whether you like this band.

8. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient.

Rock-n-roll 2011. The lead singer’s voice has got a weird Dylan thing going on every now and then. Come to think of it, I think I hear Marshall Crenshaw in his voice. Marshall Crenshaw? WTF? They sound lots better on the album than in this clip.

9. Peter, Bjorn & John – Gimme Some.

There’s no “Young Folks” on this album, but such a song only comes around once in the lifetime of about a thousand bands. I think this is their best overall album—the most consistently pleasing, at least.

10. Phantogram - Eyelid Movies.

Again, electronicky rock that doesn't get old. Check out "Running from the Cops."

FURTHER NOTABLES:

Atlas Sound – Parallax. Came out too late and listened to too little to put on the list. But Bradford Cox will always have a spot somewhere on my year-end list.

Black Keys - El Camino. Just doing my part to continue the Black Key’s media blitz and adding some rock to my list. This is an instant pleaser. You don’t like the Black Keys? What’s wrong with you?

Gus Gus – Arabian Horse. The Icelandic electronic act that just keeps going. Put this on and go about your business. You’ll feel better about whatever it is you’re doing.

Wugazi. Has this DJ marketed a “This is not a Wu-Tang Clan/Fugazi shirt?” Because he should. Get this album: it’s free and it’s great.

Washed Out – Within and Without. Previous album put me to sleep. Not so this one.

Beastie Boys. When this first came out, I listened to it a whole, whole lot. Not so much since then. But I still think it’s their best since Ill Communication. And more so than anything else, this one probably falls victim to the Woody Allen syndrome on end-of-year lists.

Foster the People. Horrendous performance on SNL. Dude should not try to dance or be a rock star. But I like the album, not just the one track that got them on SNL and the radio play. Really stupid lyrics, most of the time.

Also, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Cults, New Division.

Someone I can appreciate but that just didn’t make the top ten: James Blake.

Someone I just don’t like: Bon Iver.

Stuff I’m immediately going to listen to after looking at all the other lists: Kendrick Lamar – Section.80, Wild Flag – Wild Flag.

News & Pepper Spray Class Outline

2011-11-22T19:34:00.000-06:00

Today I decide to make use of our shortened Thanksgiving week and do the job that I'm supposed to do. That is, teach media criticism. It's late in the semester. Some things have gotten put off or lost in the shuffle. For my television criticism class, that's been discussion of the news. One reason I don't typically dwell on news in television criticism is that it's an area I know gets attention elsewhere in the curriculum. Aside from that, outside of the field of Television Studies, for many in academia, TV criticism = news criticism. There's plenty else to talk about, and I usually do.

This kind of thinking has allowed me to not dedicate too much of my time to a subject which greatly frustrates me: Fox News. And yet, it must be dealt with. What I did today was use the Occupy Davis Pepper Spray incident as an opportunity to examine how news entertainment mediates events and renders them meaningful in particular ways. I started with my typical lecture material on the history of the news going back to the Camel/Plymouth News Caravan in the 1950s. I have a DVD which includes one 15-minute broadcast. This shows the sponsored format of the news, the reliance on library film footage, and also the role of the media in defining/speaking to the nation. It concludes with a great promo for NBC bringing an atomic test in the Nevada desert to audiences...arms race as TV event. Below is a different episode, but pretty much the same deal.

I'll skip over the rest of the lecture on the rising stature of TV news, from making up for the Quiz Shows, to "loss leader" status, to the Vietnam War and the post-Watergate investigative journalism mania. Cue Network. Bottom line, 80s and 90s news is just another profit-generating entity. Thus, news must be entertaining. Here we discuss Hallin's strategies to make the news entertaining. Must students grasp right away Character, Conflict, Dramatic Structure, Images/Graphics, the News Family, and then the fun one, Populism. Actually, they tend to get that one, too, but it does require a bit more teasing. We talk about "man in the street" type interviews and the celebration of common wisdom, but today we added a bit more nefarious version to the mix. That is, the rampant anti-intellectual hypocrisy of Fox & Friends (which my colleague Jeff Jones is currently writing about as not so much "news family" as "high school clique").

We watched the following clip from the Daily Show, in which Stewart "outs" Carlson's intellectual cred in the face of her claims she doesn't understand such mind-boggling concepts as "double-dip inflation" and "czar". This is about the halfway point of the following clip.

Kitchen Cops, that ain't. Interesting conversation about populist performances by political candidates followed: for example, George W. Bush clearing brush. Then we watched this clip from O'Reilly Factor with Megyn Kelly talking about how pepper spray is one of the basic food groups. Basically. I decided to show this clip prior to the unedited YouTube footage of the Occupy Davis incident, because it really shows some aggressive meaning-making going on.

Where to start? That must be watered down pepper spray? I'm disgusted again and I can't finish this post. If it meant I could subsequently vomit on Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly, I might take a hefty dousing myself. No questioning of ethics. O'Reilly pisses me off not by just saying we can't Monday morning quarterback the police, but asserting we can't tell what's going on. Yes, we can. We don't need this explained. It's self evident. Also: notice how the clip edits together Davis footage with that from Berkeley, which does show protesters physically clashing with police. This helps lend credence to the suggestion we can't "know" how the protesters were behaving or whether the police action was warranted. Bullshit. Seriously. Can't revisit.

Then there is the complete 8 1/2 minute clip. I showed this and asked how understanding of the event changes when seeing the entire thing. Thank goodness the BoingBoing article that featured this clip (or was it a Facebook post) that said to watch the whole thing. Otherwise, I might have given up. It truly is a revelation.

My students' reaction was immediate and echoed my own. While they may have started with the question in their heads of whether the actions were somehow warranted, by the end what is impressive is how they have taken power. Watch footage of protests on television, and who wants to be a part of that? Here you see a crowd of protesters in control, effectively shaming the police. It stands as an inspiring piece of television, as well as a disgraceful document of nonchalant abuse of power.

More Derelict Modern at Camp K Photos

2011-11-16T10:06:00.001-06:00

See the related blog post.

Derelict Modern at Camp K

2011-11-16T09:03:00.002-06:00

Last weekend I visited Camp Karankawa, the Boy Scout Camp on Lake Corpus Christi, for the first time in 24 years. When I was in Boy Scouts, we spent a week there each summer earning merit badges, doing "KP" duty, trying to stay hydrated, and occasionally shooting 22s. Also, lots of carefully timed troop shouts to win the scout spirit award. Camp K hasn't changed much in those years at all, save the recent marvelous addition of two first-rate restroom and shower facilities that have replaced the two-seater pit toilets in each site. For the record, I will definitely take Camp K for one weekend in November in my thirties over Camp K for a week in June in any of my preteen years.

Nothing much has changed over the years at Camp K, and that led to a revelation. While walking the camp to plan a hike for the cub scouts, I came to this group of cottages that have housed the camp counselors for many years. I was struck by their modern style. More to the point, I was struck by how similar these structures were to the "Surfhouse" design that my friend and architect Mark Meyer designed in consultation with me and my wife. Kid #3 came along and that house didn't get built. But compare the camp cabins and this one elevation.

Mark and I both attended Camp K during some formative years, and while Mark has gone on to a career in architecture, I also remain a fan of architecture and in particular modern design. Was Mark channeling memories of Camp K when he designed the Surfhouse? Aside from the shed style of our house, one of its distinctive characteristics was the clerestory, very much like the screened area on the camp cabins. I decided to take some pictures to send to Mark.

The cabins only had screen doors, and as I approached to check out the interior, I caught a glimpse of a familiar form inside. There it was, a Saarinen armchair like the one sitting in my current living room. Well, a little worse for the wear of the hand-me-down life at Camp K. A woodpecker was stuck inside the cabin, and when I came in to take photos, he unfortunately started desperately flying into the screen to escape. I took a few quick shots and left to check the other cabins. To my surprise, three of the other cabins also had these Saarinen arm chairs in different upholstery. How long have these chairs been sitting out at Camp K? I never served as a camp counselor (one week a year was enough for me). But I tried to remember back to my year as a senior patrol leader. Had these chairs been in the office then? Surely Camp K didn't go straight to Knoll to outfit its counselors' cabins. No, it's pretty clear these cabins were just the end of the line for the chairs. They probably started out at the scout executives offices, then made it to the office at Camp K, then the counselors cabins, if I had to guess.

What about the design of the cabins themselves? I haven't begun to investigate. I'm just glad Camp K hasn't torn them down yet. Actually, despite their decrepit shape, someone visiting for the weekend was apparently staying in one during my visit, as I saw a scout shirt and bag inside.

Also, maybe some of us were positively inspired by these cabins without knowing it. On the other hand, how many camp counselors were turned off from modern design forever after their time at Camp K? I'd be interested to hear what sleeping in one of these during June and July was like. How effective was that screen clerestory? And what about those chairs? Trust me, they were pretty much in the "wouldn't pick up on the side of the road" shape.

How many were turned off by modern design because they lived with one of those stinky things for a summer? Still, I have to believe there's some good design samaritan out there seeing to it that these chairs haven't yet been tossed, and the cabins not yet bulldozed. I have met the camp ranger and it is not him.

Then again, I've seen that despite the new restrooms, the other structures at Camp Karankawa are pretty much as they were in 1987. Probably just a matter of time before these are gone. For now, these chairs live out their final days in unexpectedly appropriate structures.

See more (and bigger) Derelict Modern at Camp K photos here.

Beavis & Butthead: the Resurrection

2011-11-15T08:59:00.000-06:00

It was not Beavis and Butthead, but Bill and Ted who once said there was something strange afoot at the Circle K. I'm enjoying the return of Beavis and Butthead on MTV, mostly because Mike Judge is in fine form and the guys are as funny as ever. I'm also enjoying weird juxtapositions watching the show and visiting the website. Something strange is afoot at the Circle K. Bringing Beavis and Butthead back has revealed some weird wrinkles and ruptures in the MTV audience. Consider the framegrab below, which suggests viewers of Beavis and Butthead both expected to actually have the ability to score, and be in the market for a Cadillac. The Trojan sponsorship also extends to the TV show...this is not the result of my own web surfing trail of data, in other words.

The Long Way Across the Weminuche

2011-07-28T19:31:00.000-05:00

The following six videos document six days of backpacking across the Weminuche Wilderness in Colorado along the Continental Divide Trail. Ninety some odd miles in six days. Not necessarily a recommended pace, but a once in a lifetime experience, nonetheless. Stay tuned for a narrative describing the trip. For now, the videos.

Day one:

Day two:

Day three:

Day four:

Day five:

Day six:

There is no "off" position on the Jackass Switch (and I mean that as respectfully as possible)

2011-06-22T17:06:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I talked for about 20 minutes with a reporter from TheWrap.com who was working on a story about the possible implications of the car-crash-death of Jackass cast member Ryan Dunn for TV comedy. The first thing I said on the phone was that I wanted to be careful not to sound glib about his death and its possible repercussions—mostly because I didn’t imagine it would have any.

Unfortunately, when the piece was published, my thoughts were whittled down to “Jackass is forever going to be the show with the guy who died” and that’s it. I don’t know if that reads glib, but it certainly reads as useless to me. I understand that’s the nature of interviews—less gets published then spoken, naturally. But unfortunately that also tends to be the nature of journalistic quoting of academics; that is, reinforcing whatever preconceptions the writer has brought to the piece, rather than offering a more expansive view or different perspective.

I’m not so interested in bitching about this (like I said, nature/reality of journalism) as I feel like putting down some of my thoughts about celebrity, reality TV, comedy, etc. that emerged from my conversation with the writer.

The truth is I hadn’t really thought much of this until a reporter was interested in talking to me. The whole event seems mundane, and on the one hand this is maybe because Dunn was probably on one of the lowest rungs of celebrity. I don’t mean that as a dig; on the contrary. His celebrity was of the reality TV variety, and I think what is interesting here is how this particular case of celebrity death is different from the past, and therefore ordinary.

The real undercurrent of concern here wasn’t about the decline of outrageous or obnoxious comedy or audience taste broadly, but the value of the Jackass franchise in particular. What might make it an interesting case for how a franchise weathers controversy is because the Jackass franchise isn’t based in one media, but multiplatform: TV, movies, DVD, live performance, Twitter feeds, online video. Dunn’s death (and rhetoric of its aftermath) played out across those platforms, and so did Dunn’s life as Jackass performer. Dunn’s tweeting of a photo of himself drinking the same night didn’t just suggest this was a case of drunk driving, but also showed how “performing Jackass” wasn’t just about making movies or a TV show, but performing a lifestyle of such stunts that could be documented and distributed via new media at any time.

Dunn’s apparent notorious Twitter partying photo before the crash didn’t just evidence drunk driving, but was one of the attractions. Roger Ebert’s “Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive” tweet and Bam Margera’s response became another part of the spectacle. Sorry, but I can’t seriously contemplate whether or not what Ebert said was “wrong”—I’m too busy imagining Bam Margera trying to punch him out.

Another thing that came to mind is how totally ubiquitous “Jackassery” is as entertainment now. I find that much of the pleasures of Tosh.0 lie in physical abuse or public humiliation being suffered by people who seem like they deserve it, by virtue of them sharing that misfortune with the public. Nevermind that maybe it isn’t them who decided to share it. In some parallel universe where video of Dunn’s crash existed and Comedy Central was only slightly more adventurous, I imagine it would make the ultimate Tosh.0 clip.

I have to wonder if Tosh.0 has really taken the place of Jackass, or if maybe it just creates a little more ironic distance from Jackassery so that it can be enjoyed. I’ll admit it: Dunn’s death in a drunk driving crash, in his Porsche, just seems such a down-market Jager-bomb way to go. Maybe I would have been more moved (and do I mean entertained?) if it had been a Corvette or 1983 Trans Am.

Personally, I harbor a deep fear that beneath it all, I am just one of those people in the audience of the fart movie in Idiocracy. That bothers me more than my feelings about the death of Ryan Dunn. Sorry. I just don’t quite know the appropriate response to events that spawn headlines like “Bam Margera Rips Roger Ebert for ‘Jackass’ Tweet.”

Best Riot Photo Ever

2011-06-16T08:40:00.000-05:00

Something about this photo from the Vancouver post-hockey-game-loss-riot moves me. The whole event maybe embodies how close to the edge we all are, everywhere, at every moment, of just going completely ape shit. And then there's this hipster fellow on the left. His hair, socks, shorts--clearly he has maxed out his hipster fashion cred to the point of meaninglessness. And in Vancouver.

This photo comes from an LA Times slideshow which you can find here.

SNL Goes to Harvard via The Land of Gorch

2011-06-04T22:45:00.001-05:00

This week I made a trip to Harvard for a symposium on television satire and puppets. Yes, puppets. While this might be the sort of scholarly thing that causes slack-jawed yahoo governor and tea party types crazy, I want to point out that although TAMUCC bought my plane ticket, most of the support came from a researcher from Holland who was the happy recipient of a $500K grant to study such things. She just got another $1 million grant to work on analog culture in contemporary media culture. Europeans know how to treat their academic types.

Last Gasps in The Land of Gorch from ethan thompson on Vimeo.

My paper was about the first year of Saturday Night Live, during which the Muppets had a regular skit. The characters were from "The Land of Gorch" and the skits were uniformly and irredeemably unfunny. But so was a lot of stuff on SNL (then called NBC's Saturday Night). The Muppet characters were gone after a year, when Henson went on to create The Muppet Show. Have a look at their final appearance here, with Lily Tomlin. Note that it's Tomlin, and not the Muppets, that blows the punchline.

One my last day I wandered around Harvard a little, and went to the Harvard Bookstore hoping to find one of my TV books. Turns out, there are not too many TV books to find in the Harvard Bookstore. Cinema (like so many other places) gets its own section, but not TV. The battle still must be fought! When I wandered down into the used books-basement, I managed to find a couple of TV books, mysteriously put in the "Social Sciences" section. More interesting to me were the various images, ads, art, graffiti taped to the book shelves in the area. This was a history of those who labored in the book store over the years, and from what I see, they seemed to have some excess creative/intellectual energy to burn off in the midst of the high culture and serious academic stuff that made the shelves, because the expressive graffiti was mostly pop culture ephemera stuff.

What caught my eye was an ad for NBC's Saturday Night with George Carlin. This is the same ad from TV Guide the week of SNL's premiere in October 75 that I had used in my presentation. So there was George Carlin, manning the shelves for 35 years. Look closely at the picture above and you can see that the Muppets are also listed on the bill, along with Andy Kaufman and Billy Crystal. Crystal's appearance was cut. He thinks it set his career back a few years, but if you've seen Crystal's later "first appearance", they were doing us all a favor.

Anyway, you can see Carlin is now strangling the Mona Lisa. C-3P0 and R2D2 are hanging out below. On another column in the basement, someone had long ago pasted the cover of Horace Newcomb's TV: the Most Popular Art.

To be fair, I also found a picture of a TV smashed in--there's one of those in every hipster-bookstore crowd in my imagination.

Rowlf on The Jimmy Dean Show

2011-06-01T21:26:00.000-05:00

Rowlf the Dog on the Jimmy Dean Show. First consistent network Muppet presence.

Sam and Friends: Visual Thinking

2011-06-01T20:20:00.000-05:00

This is one of the more famous Muppet sketches, "Visual Thinking," from the original Henson show, "Sam and Friends." Consider the square vs. hip thinking. Also, this is an interesting analogue to Ernie Kovacs video tricks.

Saturday Night Live - Dregs and Vestiges - Video - NBC.com

2011-05-29T15:50:00.000-05:00

Saturday Night Live - Dregs and Vestiges - Video - NBC.com

SCMS Abstract: Comment Comedy

2011-02-18T14:48:00.002-06:00

It's getting down to SCMS crunch-time. Gotta write that paper I'm presenting in a couple of weeks. Here's the abstract.

TITLE: From Flame Wars to Web Redemption: Tosh.0, Comment Comedy, and Participatory Humiliation

In the summer of 2010, Daniel Tosh pulled off a Comedy Central coup: his show, Tosh.0, was drawing more viewers than the cable network’s cornerstone, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. True, Tosh only put one new episode on the air each week to Stewart’s “daily”, but in the land of basic cable comedy, this seemed a significant milestone. The show had more than doubled its viewership from the previous, premiere summer, and Daniel Tosh was, in the words of The New York Times, “indisputably the television comedian of the moment.” Most surprisingly, Tosh had done it all on a clip show featuring online videos that many people had already seen.

Rather than breathing new life into a traditional television format like the talk show or sitcom, Tosh and the producers of the show had fashioned this successful television comedy from an online media model of participatory culture. In each episode, Tosh was essentially doing the same thing that anonymous viewers all over the world had been doing for at least the last five years: commenting on YouTube videos of individuals humiliating themselves in an infinite number of ways. True, making snarky comments about television on television isn’t exactly ground-breaking. Clip shows like Talk Soup (and other non-Kardashian programming on E!) essentially edit entire genres of TV into “Greatest Hits” packages along with sniping comments about famous and not-so-famous hosts, stars, and guests. Beavis and Butthead’s video rants were symptomatic not just of pubescent hormones, but dissatisfaction with the MTV-media ferment of the 1990s. Even Bob Saget on America’s Funniest Home Videos wasn’t above a gentle jibe at Dad, Junior, or Rover.

But all that took place (and the format of the clip show was essentially set) before two key developments: 1) YouTube and 2) the expansion of online commenting beyond isolated conversations on fan message boards to the common convergent media practice it has become. Comments posted by individuals (who used to be considered viewers/consumers) now provide a legitimate draw in their own right, especially for those who enjoy taking pleasure in the pain and failures of others. The participatory culture of comically commenting on “failures” can target everything from a lousy episode of an expensively produced TV show, showcased on an official web site, to a low-res, mobile phone-shot clip of backyard wrestling, to a badly produced, early 1990s hip-hop video. Whether actually commenting on the footage, or laughing at other people’s comments, there are abundant opportunities to participate in the culture of humiliation comedy without actually being the person shooting the video or--heaven forbid--its subject.

This paper will discuss this development of “comment comedy” in participatory media culture, as well as the specific strategies that Tosh.O has used to turn those activities into television content. Included will be consideration of Daniel Tosh’s willingness to humiliate himself, and how that humiliation may be used to create a masculine identity privileged to engage in “politically incorrect” comic commentary.

Shocking Ben Stiller Revelation

2011-02-08T11:20:00.000-06:00

I found this paperback at a library book sale last weekend. Its cover provides compelling evidence that Ben Stiller is a time-traveling leftist agitator.

Absurd, you say? Is it any more absurd than Glenn Beck's conspiracy theories about a coming Pan-Islamic Caliphate? I personally find the Onion New Network's coverage of the ongoing attempts to save mankind from Suri Cruise's impending fate as transglobal overlord more plausible.

Need evidence? Just try to find some clips of their coverage for a blog post like I just did. Someone out there, maybe from the future, doesn't want you to know the truth about the Suri menace.

Column in Antenna: Historical Comedies Now

2011-02-07T10:22:00.000-06:00

I just published a new column in the Antenna blog at Madison. It's light on socially significant TV and high on TV pleasure. Here's the first paragraph.

America Needs Historical Comedies Now

One day this January, ABC picked up four new TV pilots: a crime procedural set in the nineteenth century with Edgar Allan Poe as detective-protagonist; a “sexy soap” set at iconic airline Pan Am in the 1960s; and two multicamera comedies. The post reporting the pick-ups on Deadline Hollywood said that one of the comedies, Work It, had a “Bosom Buddies vibe to it.” The description of the other, Lost and Found, said it was about a party girl whose life is “turned upside down when the conservative 18 year old son she gave up for adoption shows up on her doorstep,” suggesting another early-80s sitcom icon, Alex Keaton. In both cases, the comedies intertextually reference the TV past, but they don’t go so far as actually setting themselves in it. While I am all for multicamera comedies, the juxtaposition of the period dramas and contemporary comedies is worth thinking about.

Read more here...

A.O. Scott on Film vs. TV

2010-11-24T11:11:00.003-06:00

Are Films Bad or is TV Just Better?

A.O. Scott from October:

"Look back over the past decade. How many films have approached the moral complexity and sociological density of “The Sopranos” or “The Wire”? Engaged recent American history with the verve and insight of “Mad Men”? Turned indeterminacy and ambiguity into high entertainment with the conviction of “Lost”? Addressed modern families with the sharp humor and sly warmth of “Modern Family”"

Newcomb/McPherson Conversation

2010-11-10T09:49:00.000-06:00

Recently I've been thinking about Newcomb's cultural forum model of television, which I think remains a compelling, useful way to think about how television can work. The terms of how it works maybe re-theorized--and that's one of the things that my work has done tangentially. Here's a great conversation between Horace Newcomb and Tara McPherson that deals with some of Newcomb's reservations about the model, though it really ranges much wider.

Example, on the Iraq War:

"I do think one reason there may not be a more organized antiwar effort is because we are not forced to watch one of three networks every night and that we can avoid so much by watching something else. There is no authoritative core, no cultural center as there was in the 1960s. I don't want to romanticize that, it was a very repressive core in so many ways, but now you can choose to avoid ever seeing much about the war or you can express your opinions in a very fragmented media sphere."

Television, Gender, Feminism Clips

2010-11-01T23:13:00.001-05:00

These two clips were made available through http://criticalcommons.org/ which amounts to a YouTube for scholars. Very useful, if only for these two great clips from the latest (and best) season of Mad Men.

Feminism vs. Civil Rights

,

Women Who Stare Back

TV Criticism Syllabus Fall 2010

2010-10-14T18:39:00.001-05:00

Week 1, 8/26: Why TV?: An Introduction to the Course

Week 2, 8/31 & 9/2: TV History, Style, and Industry Structure
Readings: Mittell, Chapters 1 & 2; Watts, “Melancholy, Merit, and Merchandise”
Screenings: Texaco Star Theater, Tales from Tomorrow, Ernie Kovacs

Week 3, 9/7 & 9/9: New TV Structures
Readings: Caldwell, “Convergence Television”; Brooker, “Living on Dawson’s Creek”
Screening: Tosh.0, Justified

Week 4, 9/14 & 9/16: Public Interest and Television Citizenship
Readings: Mittell, Chapters 3 & 4
Screening: Good Night and Good Luck

Week 5, 9/21 & 9/23: Modes of Production
Readings: Mittell, Chapter 5
Screening: All in the Family, I Love Lucy, The Good Guys
PAPER 1 DUE 9/23

Week 6, 9/28 & 9/30: Modes of Production, cont. COMEDY & GENRE?
Readings: Thompson, “Comedy Verite?”
Screenings: Louie, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Week 7, 10/5 & 10/7: Narrative Structure
Readings: Mittell, Chapter 6
Screenings: Mad Men, Northern Exposure
10/7 MIDTERM

Week 8, 10/12 & 10/14 Narrative Structure, cont.
Readings: Johnson, “Watching TV Makes You Smarter,” Sconce, “What If?”
Screenings: Arrested Development, Freaks & Geeks

Week 9, 10/19 & 10/21: TV “Politics”
Readings: Mittell, Chapter 7; Newcomb & Hirsch, “Television as a Cultural Forum”
Screenings: Father Knows Best, Dragnet, Star Trek

Week 10, 10/26 & 10/28: Representing Identity
Readings: Mittell, Chapter 8; Santo, “Of Niggas and Citizens”; Dow, “Ellen, Television and the Politics of Gay and Lesbian Visibility”
Screenings: Boondocks, The Sarah Silverman Program

Week 11, 11/2 & 11/4: Representing Identity, cont.
Readings: Arthurs, “Sex and the City and Consumer Culture,” Kraszeweski, “Country Hicks and Urban Cliques”
Screenings: Mary Tyler Moore, Maude

Week 12, 11/9 & 11/11: Cult TV
Readings: Mittell, Chapter 9; Jenkins, “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten”; Hills, “Defining Cult TV”
Screenings: Firefly, Slash Tapes

Week 13, 11/16 & 11/18: Children’s TV
Readings: Mittell, Chapter 10, Banet-Weiser, “Girls Rule! Gender, Feminism, and Nickelodeon”; McAllister and Giglio, “Commodity Flow of Children’s TV”
Screenings: Pee Wee’s Playhouse, iCarly
Paper #2 Due 11/18

Week 14, 11/23: TV Technologies
Mittell, Chapter 11
Screenings: Breaking Bad

Week 15: 11/30 & 12/2: TV & Taste
Readings: Thompson, “Good Demo, Bad Taste”; Rowe, “Roseanne: Unruly Woman as Domestic Goddess”
Screenings: Tim & Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job!, Eastbound and Down

Week 16: 12/7 The End of Television (Criticism)
Parting thoughts, Review

Dude, You Have No Quran!

2010-09-14T09:09:00.002-05:00

This is what I call uplifting television. It's news coverage like this that gives me hope and here's why: 1) A Quran-burning is foiled in Amarillo, TX. If it can be foiled in Amarillo, it can be foiled anywhere. 2) There are enough Unitarian Universalists in Amarillo to outnumber potential Quran-burners, and they're organized! 3) The individual hero here is a skateboarder with truly hip hair and glasses, and he's a man of action.

Jacob Isom, you are the American Bad-Ass Patriot of the Week!

I first saw Jacob as I see many things, excerpted in Daily Show coverage. The actual footage embedded above I found after a friend/colleague posted it to Facebook. This week in my Television Criticism class we're talking about TV news and the public service function of TV. I'd say it's good timing because of the current hubbub about whether the media should have paid so much attention to that obviously wayward Florida pastor-apparently-without-a-congregation. I'd say that, but of course there's always some questionable media coverage going on. And ever generalizing about "the media" is a questionable act in itself.

Anyway, here's a link to a longer clip from the episode of the Daily Show. I can't get the embed code to work.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-september-13-2010/islamophobiapalooza

Aside from Jacob, the best moment of it is when Stewart describes TV news/the media as the dog from the movie Up, which is outfitted with a special collar that allows it to talk intelligently, but is still given to uncontrollable urges to drop everything at the sight of a "Squirrel!"

Anyway, the local news coverage from Amarillo makes me happy. Never thought I'd say that. Thank you, Jacob.

iPad Destruction Meme

2010-09-02T00:15:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure what I find more annoying, Steve Jobs' repeated assertions that the iPad is "magical" and "revolutionary", or all the new, painfully earnest iPhone 4 ads. On the latter, Apple seems to have decided they really need to teach people why they should want to be able to see each other as they talk on the phone. Hence the ad about the daughter embarrassed to show Dad her braces, the grandpa getting to see his new grandchild, the wife telling her husband that she's pregnant. I'd much rather have back the dancing silhouettes. At least I discovered some new music from those.

The iPad, on the other hand, has been on the receiving end of some violent media backlash. My favorite is from the Fuel TV show Built to Shred which is a show that features a very resourceful, very bearded host who makes spaces like the shut-down waterpark Raging Waters or a rundown industrial park skate-able with a little well-placed plywood and a cordless screwdriver.

In this episode, however, it's the iPad that gets "built to shred." The iPad gets trucks & wheels bonded on, and even some gently placed griptape. It then (not surprisingly) immediately cracks when first ridden. Things just get more graphic from there.

The whole clip reminds me of the first episode of South Park--specifically, the first time Kenny is killed. You may remember that he get's really really killed...stampeded by cows, run over by a car. Then rats eat his body. I think a bird pulls out his eye. It's good ol' carnivalesque revelry in the grotesque.

Another, briefer example is from Tosh.0. An iPad gets dispatched very quickly in the writer's room via golf club.

These examples seem symptomatic of a backlash not just against Apple, but against technology that thinks a little too much of itself. All the "magical", "revolutionary" comments and precious commercials are practically begging for such treatment. Seeing this abuse is thrilling, not just because it represents money wasted, but fetishized technology that we are supposed to treat so personally as extensions of ourselves, instead brutally destroyed.

It reminds me of the printer scene from Office Space, in which all of the characters' cubicle-induced rage is inflicted upon office technology while a Geto Boys song plays on the soundtrack. To those who destroy iPads for our viewing pleasure, I say, "Damn, I bet it feels good to be a gangster."

Why the Sitcom Matters Now (and Figuring Out How it Can Matter More)

2010-08-19T23:18:00.003-05:00

[The following is the expanded version of my response for the sitcom panel at the upcoming Flow Conference at UT Austin.]

Here, and moving forward, I want to think about what sitcoms can do to make comedy on television more responsive to our desperate need at the moment for more informed social dialogue. I want us to re-embrace the notion of TV as a cultural forum, and in particular, the role of the sitcom in that forum. I’d like to get away from focusing on stylistic or structural differences in sitcoms, or even their current trends of self-reflexivity and instead focus (or re-focus) on what are the enduring pleasures of the sitcom, and considering how those pleasures might hold promise for articulating and negotiating cultural conflict. Maybe, as the title of an upcoming Flow Conference panel I will be on suggests, “The Sitcoms Have Become Self-Aware.” But it’s what makes the shows “sitcoms” and not what makes them “self-aware” that I’m interested in.

Despite persistent rumors of its demise, there is clearly a continued taste for the sitcom. Nostalgia abounds for the old-fashioned, multicamera sitcom among journalist-critics (evident in the “sitcom is dead” rhetoric) and sitcom writer-producers such as Bill Lawrence (who made a multicamera episode of Scrubs as an homage to the format) and in the creation of shows like Comedy Central’s Big Lake, which appears to be attempting to force the ironic, self-reflexive trend in TV comedy into the multicamera, live audience format. (Similar attempts have been made before with Lucky Louie and That’s My Bush…I’m sure we can think of others.)

There is also evidence for audience taste for traditional sitcom pleasures. On the one hand, there is the continued success of sitcoms that academic and journalist-critics shun, but which Nielsen ratings suggest audiences love, such as How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men. Then there is the very fact that critics are so vocal about shunning these shows and wishing there were “better” sitcoms more suited to their tastes and nostalgia. Sitcom nostalgia extends to general TV audiences as well. Besides the strip programming of syndicated sitcoms such as those just mentioned, and relics like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I am recognizing among my students a growing trend of binging on DVDs of 1980s and 1990s sitcoms such as The Facts of Life and Full House, and brandishing knowledge of those texts and the ways in which they dealt with conflict as hip cultural capital. Maybe LOST will enjoy a longer life of binge viewing, but my students stare blankly at me when I talk about doing so with 24. Having done so with The Facts of Life, however, brings approving ooohs and aaahs.

Personally, my own sitcom nostalgia has got me watching episode after episode of The Bob Newhart Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Hulu. I have to admit that it’s sort of like what Mad Men does for me in drama: the production design (really the fashion and décor) provides me the necessary aesthetic distance with which I can enjoy all manner of self-destruction and over-indulgence. Without it, I might as well watch that douchebag Scott on Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami. Watching those early 1970s shows is similar. They are so awesomely dated in their fashion and reliance upon the proscenium that I can enjoy the popular pleasures of complication and resolution the traditional sitcom so efficiently provides.

Another sign of continued relevance of the sitcom is the breakout success of Modern Family, which adopts the comedy verite style to produce a narrative structure and visual style that seems about equal parts Arrested Development and When Harry Met Sally. I have argued before that rather than speaking of “mockumentary” style sitcoms, we ought to call them “comedy verite” because a number of these shows never directly address the camera (Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm) or suggest an actual documentary/reality crew presence aside from direct testimony (Parks and Recreation, Modern Family). In short, I think the style is prevalent enough that we ought to acknowledge its presence alongside single and multicamera as a mode of production because it’s really neither. (See my essay, Velvet Light Trap, Number 60, Fall 2007. And btw, Brett Mills called it that before me, focusing on performances in recent British sitcoms.)

We can look at a show like Modern Family to see what the format allows a sitcom to do aside from the traditional complication, confusion, alleviation structure. Besides the annoyingly exaggerated handheld camera, Modern Family uses the verite format to produce humor that deviates from linear narrative in ways conducive to more aggressively articulating cultural critique. The couch segments, in which individual characters or couples speak to the camera about their familial experiences, provide opportunities to cutaway to past comic episodes, at the same time they reiterate the persistence of the family, since they suggest that outside the immediate episode, the family persists, prevails, and can be positively reflected upon in order to teach us something.

Besides these specific segments, the verite design of the program suggests it has been rapidly edited, which in turn encourages the sort of non sequitur jokes and ironic moments we’ve become accustomed to in other kinds of comic programming. One other benefit of fitting traditional sitcom-style jokes into the verite format is that when something is said it doesn’t have to succeed at being funny, because there is no audience to respond with laughter, or no laugh track to suggest that an audience would have. A line doesn’t have to succeed at being funny; it can just be ironic, or poignant, or just a line.

Recognizing how nicely Modern Family fits the typical complication/confusion/alleviation (through family) model of the domestic sitcom described by Newcomb should help us recognize that the characters are characters again in the model of the domestic sitcom who fill specific familial roles and whom audiences can empathize with, rather than discursive figures who critique cultural stereotypes. While some have suggested that the show satirizes both modern families and sitcom constructions of families, I don’t see this at all. For example, the fact that the more “flamboyant-gay” character, Cameron, was once a college football player doesn’t undermine homophobic stereotypes; it throws his “gayness” in greater comic relief, allows him to identify with his partner Mitchell’s father more, and further highlights Mitchell’s failures at traditional masculinity. In short, even Cameron loves football! And isn’t that funny! I cringe during most scenes with Gloria; she seems employed as both a fiery Latina stereotype and an only slightly less emasculating Peg to Ed O’Neill’s Jay/Al Bundy.

Watch an episode of Modern Family and imagine how easily it could be transformed into a “filmed before a live studio-audience” sitcom with only the addition of some sound effects. Better yet, watch this clip where I have done it for you.

Modern Family (Old School Version) from ethan thompson on Vimeo.

I don’t, however, simply wish to dismiss Modern Family as a regressive sitcom. Rather, I want to cite its popularity and success as evidence that sitcoms can, and should, do more to serve as a cultural forum. Bottom line: sitcoms can serve as the cultural forums we need aside from Fox and Friends, The View, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck—and aside from The Daily Show, Colbert Report, and yes, South Park, too. I’ll let someone else theorize about how dramas do or do not successfully deal with complicated social issues. I’m a comedy person, and so I look to comedy to be more innovative because I think it is ultimately the more successful forum for cultural dialogue. But I do think that there is something especially powerful about narrative, and about characters that viewers can empathize with, and this is why Jon Stewart, Colbert, or even a new Dave Chappelle isn’t enough. (Hell, while we’re at it, how about a new Richard Pryor?)

Given continued popularity of sitcoms, the abundance of “sitcom nostalgia,” and the embrace of the neo-traditional domestic sitcom Modern Family, I think it’s time to 1) reiterate how we define the sitcom by describing its narrative structure in ways that accommodate recent innovations in modes of production, performance, and visual style and 2) consider how that narrative structure can take advantage of such innovations to more aggressively mediate culture, articulating controversy more routinely, if less narratively framed, than it has in the past.

The latest edition of Newcomb’s TV: The Critical View doesn’t include the cultural forum essay, but I believe that the continued show of love for the sitcom, nostalgic and otherwise, suggests that the ritual of TV watching is still important, regardless whether it is done online, on-demand, time- and format-shifted, etc., and that the sitcom still holds a privileged place in television culture. Here is my recurring anecdotal evidence for this: if I casually talk about sitcoms with non-academic acquaintances, I don’t receive the immediate and obligatory revulsion that I get when talking about reality TV. (Mind you, if I talk about specific reality programs, I’m less likely to get that reaction.) General reaction: Reality = Uhg; Sitcom = Ahh.

What I do hope we can abandon from the critically-informed past is the notion that the sitcom is an essentially conservative format. The cultural forum argument ought to have pushed us past that—it’s more important what is discussed than how things end, or how we feel about the theatrical characters saying things. What I want to think about is how the sitcom format could now be pushed (thanks to narrowcasting, pay cable, YouTube, et al.) to articulate pressing political issues in a way that counters the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. Those two pop culture creations have been granted powers to “connect the dots” between real public discontent and alienation with conspiracies and right-wing flights of fancy less bounded by rationality than the most outlandish fantastic sitcom from the 1960s.

Is it unreasonable to ask a sitcom (particularly one that purports to be “modern”) to do better in 22 minutes? Given the damage that Glenn Beck can do in two, I don’t think so.

Whatever happened to TV as furniture?

2010-08-11T13:48:00.001-05:00

Spend any time looking at old TV ads from the 50s, and it's clear a lot more thought used to be put into how a TV "fit" into a home's decor than nowadays. Sets routinely were advertised with various styles of cabinets--colonial, modern, etc.--all the better to fit the home. This ad goes a step further, suggesting the TV could be folded away into a normal piece of furniture. Of course, this is just a cousin to the old console TVs included a turntable, speakers, vacuum tubes, etc. and had to be a good looking piece of furniture as they were bound to dominant any room.

With only a few minor bleeps in the last 50 years, TV design has pretty much been all about the "ers"--bigger, flatter, thinner, higher def-er. Why hasn't anyone done what Apple did for the PC, first in the 80s and then at the end of the 90s with the iMac, giving us a TV as design fetish object? How come the only sweet looking TV in the last 40 years has been the JVC videosphere, which might look cool on my office shelf (if I could find one on eBay), but I'm pretty sure won't hook up to my DirecTV box?

Instead, I am presented with the tantalizing option of hanging my TV on the wall, as if this has always been the fantasy of how TV should fit in a room, rendering it part of the architecture as much as decor. Of course, that's nonsense. TVs are, by definition, meant to be seen. I'm sure we all know someone who keeps a TV in a cabinet, behind a screen, or in an armoire. But aren't the doors always open?

With so many corporate TV death rays set on mobile TV, there is also the other trend of TVs getting smaller. Maybe this will lead to putting them in interesting cases, which will mysteriously remain immobile. Since I'm no industrial designer, here are my specific instructions: I want a new HD Videosphere and I want it to have built in Wifi so I can connect to Hulu and Netflix. I'll stick it next to my bed, on a side table. That seems straight forward enough. Can I really be the only one?

My Weird Exhibitionist, Narcissistic Streak Reveals My House

2010-07-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I decided to take some snapshots of our house to the Apartment Therapy blog. I guess I needed some positive reinforcement, a pat on the head of sorts. Kind of fun to read other people say nice things about our place. (pat, pat, pat)

Ethan's Southern Texas Modern Vintage

Baby Preacher with subtitles

2010-07-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

Watch this baby perform a devastating parodic critique of his clueless preaching elders!

Mixtape: I Wanna Be Your Adored Dog

2010-07-13T20:26:00.003-05:00

I found a super easy way to export an iTunes playlist as a single "chapterized" file--app called "Joined Together." Perfect for making and sharing a mixtape. I present to you my latest. Although it's one file, you can skip around and see the titles of the various songs as it plays.

Download I Wanna Be Your Adored Dog (60-something megs...but it's worth it!).

Here's the playlist:

I Wanna Be Adored- The Stone Roses
I Got a Man - Positive K
I Can Do Anything (Delacratic) - De la Soul
I'm a Cuckoo - Belle & Sebastian
I'm Finding it Harder to Be A Gentleman - White Stripes
I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You - Ramones
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor - Artic Monkeys
I Bleed - Pixies
I Can't Get No Satisfaction - Gary McFarland
I Can't Go for That - The Bird and the Bee
I Didn't Know I Love You Until I Saw You Rock'n'Roll - Vaselines
I Found that Essence Rare - Gang of Four
I Had to Tell You - 13th Floor Elevators
I Know I Know I Know - Tegan & Sara
I Know I'll See You - A Place to Bury Strangers
I Still Believe - Tim Capello
I Turn My Camera On (John McEntire Remix) - Spoon
I Want You! Peter Bjorn and John
I Wanna Be Your Dog (Acoustic Demo) - Uncle Tupelo

Chapter abstracts from my upcoming book

2010-06-12T09:24:00.001-05:00

My final manuscript (10+ years in the making) for my book, now titled Parody and Taste in Postwar American Television Culture is due at the publisher next week. Here are the chapter abstracts. I will hopefully be able to provide chapter pdfs to those interested who might want to use them in courses on TV history or TV comedy. I also hope the book will prove useful to anyone working on television comedy.

CHAPTER ABSTRACTS

Introduction: The Parodic Impulse in the (Not-So) Fabulous Fifties

The introduction outlines the key historical and theoretical concerns and approaches of the book, surveying cultural criticism of the postwar period and critical approaches to the study of humor and parody in particular. The introduction sets the stage for an analysis of parody in postwar culture that acknowledges that the pedagogic as well as entertainment functions of parody both fundamentally shaped how viewers made sense of TV during the first decade of America’s adjustment to television culture.

Chapter 1: The New, Sick Sense: The Mediation of America’s Health and Humor at Mid-Century

This chapter examines a variety of television shows, comedy albums, and newspaper and magazine articles to understand how comedy in the late 1950s and early 1960s functioned in the articulation of identity in relation to perceptions of what it meant to be “normal.” During this time, television and the popular press took note that a new type of humor was developing: comedy was simultaneously becoming more socially relevant and breaking more social taboos. This new, socially relevant postwar humor that was often labeled “sick” (particularly that of Shelley Berman and Lenny Bruce) is examined to show how television propagated and popularized criticisms of postwar American culture

Chapter 2: What, Me Subversive? MAD Magazine and the Textual Strategies and Cultural Politics of Parody

This chapter examines how MAD Magazine, through its parodies of movies, television, and advertising, armed readers with protocols for the reading of texts based on strategies of recycling, reappropriation, and recombination. Through analysis of articles from that magazine’s first decade as well as popular and critical responses (including that of the FBI), this chapter shows how MAD popularized decoding strategies as humorous-but-necessary exercises. MAD demanded the reader go outside the immediate text to uncover its meaning, and in doing so established its countercultural status as a monument to irreverence over the same period television became a fixture within the vast majority of American homes.

Chapter 3: The Parodic Sensibility and the Sophisticated Gaze: Masculinity and Taste in Playboy’s Penthouse\

The dramatic success of Playboy magazine in the 1950s paralleled the meteoric rise of television, but the magazine’s relationship with the new electronic medium was an uneasy one. This chapter examines how Playboy promoted a taste for parody as a form of cultural capital essential to its model of “sophisticated” masculine identity. The tensions between Playboy and television were especially apparent in Playboy’s own syndicated program, Playboy’s Penthouse (1959-1961). Analysis of that program’s urbane performances and distinctive televisual style show how it self-consciously offered a version of sophisticated television production that supplemented the magazine’s model of sophisticated television watching.

Chapter 4: Ernie Kovacs and the Logics of Television Parody and Electronic Trickery

Ernie Kovacs has posthumously been deemed the first video artist, but his aesthetic was also deeply steeped in parody. By looking at a wide variety of his programs and examining archival production documents and press coverage, this chapter examines how his parodic strategies fit within mainstream TV practices, from the vaudeville aesthetic of early comedy, to the loosely scripted talk format, to the fundamental need in commodity culture for product differentiation. This chapter seeks to refigure our understanding of Kovacs’s contribution to television culture at the same time it explores how parody functions in the formation of taste and identity.

Chapter 5: Black Tie, Straightjacket: Oscar Levant’s Sick Life on TV

Oscar Levant was a peculiar star of postwar culture, a concert pianist turned radio and television personality, who hosted a local show in Los Angeles in the late 1950s. This chapter investigates how The Oscar Levant Show cultivated a devoted following through Levant’s “sick” star persona and humor that incorporated a popularized and ambivalent form of mass culture critique. Oscar’s frequent tirades against his sponsors, his wide-ranging guests (Fred Astaire, Alduous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood), as well as his put-downs of celebrities connected with audiences who identified with his sick take on postwar culture and critics who certified Levant as quality culture and antidote to television mediocrity.

Conclusion: Television for People Who Hate Television?

The conclusion draws together the themes developed throughout the book, summarizing how television culture served as a catalyst for reflection not only on TV content, but the forces shaping that content in both its production and reception contexts. Through focusing on the relationships between parody and early television, we can trace out the ways in which Americans have grown accustomed to understanding politics, current events, and popular culture through parodic humor that can be simultaneously critical, commercial, and funny.

Dos Modos: Bedroom Side Table Project

2010-06-04T14:54:00.002-05:00

My wife reads lots of books. I like to stack things. Thus, when she suggested her Mother's Day present from me could be a couple of side tables, I jumped at the chance. It had been a while since my last construction project (long enough that I had forgotten my general lack of construction "craft") and I was hankering to add another modern touch to the house.

As a model, I took Modernica's "Case Study" side tables that they sell to go along with their Case Study Bed, which we have. However, Modernica's tables are $500 a pop, which seems exorbitant for something made out of Plywood that doesn't have "Eames" attached to it. Also, in my opinion they are too wide, and would basically look silly in our small bedroom. So, after some discussion, we settled on a smaller version, with an opening on the side in place of Modernica's single drawer. This would actually be more functional, since we were both looking to use the tables to store reading materials, something a drawer isn't really good for.

I'm posting a scan of my plans, showing Modernica's table with my dimensions and alterations. I settled on a 20x20 back, made of two pieces of 3/4" plywood glued together, with a top of 17.5x20, atop two 10" hairpin legs I ordered online. The opening would be 6-7 inches high, depending on how things went. "How things went" turned out to not be exactly as planned, but in the end, came out almost exactly as I had initially hoped, dimension-wise at least.

The legs were bought from hairpinlegs.com and was easily the most expensive part of the project. For four legs plus shipping, the total was just under $100. They shipped pretty quickly, and once I had ordered them, I was committed to the project. The surprise, money-wise, was the affordable plywood I got from Sutherland's: $35 for a 4x8 sheet of 3/4 inch cabinet-grade birch. My plan would would take up almost all of that sheet, with enough left for scrap to keep me comfortable.

On my last project I learned that perhaps the single most important component is being able to cut your pieces consistently, so I asked for a favor and had a friend cut my plywood on a very nice table saw in his shop rather than attempting it myself. Since I was making two matching pieces, this was important, and since I didn't want it made of anything except the plywood, it all had to match together nicely. The initial plan was for it all to be held together with carpenter's glue, with just a few screw supports in the back. That ended up changing as I decided to screw into the upright pieces from the bottom of the table. This was fine, though, because you can't see those screws, or the ones in the back. So it basically looks held together without screws or nails although it is very sturdy.

My biggest miscalculation was not realizing that the 10-inch legs weren't actually 10-inches high because they sit at an angle. This meant my tabletop wasn't high enough when first assembled. I remedied this by 1) cutting a scrap piece to attach the legs to which was in turn attached to the bottom of the table and 2) making the riser piece 7 inches instead of 6. With those changes made, I got to my target numbers of the initial design. Prior to this, as you can see in this picture of the table clamped together for assembly, the design looked goofy, with the back of the table far too tall. You can also see an essential tool for this job: "Quick Grips" to hold the pieces in place as you screw as well as hold them tight for glue to bond.

In the end, I have again confirmed that I am more designer than craftsman. I enjoy the process of building, but I would be better off having someone with more patience and skill put the thing together. Another mistake I made was putting too much polyurethane on the top pieces, which I did with multiple layers, sanding between each. Still, the end product is pretty sweet plywood modern furniture. Total price, just under $200 for both tables.

Chelsea Handler article

2010-04-26T11:44:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by a reporter for the Houston Chronicle, Tara Dooley, about comedian/talk show host Chelsea Handler. I had a nice conversation with Tara for about 45 minutes about my thoughts about Chelsea, placing her show within the context of post-network TV, as well as various female comedians.

I got interested in Chelsea a couple of years ago during the presidential election, and truth is, I don't watch her show nearly as much anymore. During 2008, I thought it was striking how outspoken she was on her show RE her support for Obama. I talked about this at Flow 2008 and ICA 2009. Though her show on E! is pretty much nonstop celebrity snark, occasionally something more "relevant" continues to work its way in...

Chelsea remains interesting for that reason (and she's funny, too). The larger point that I made at the conference discussions was that the so-called "political" moments that people remember or cause controversy are rarely in predictable places. It's when we least suspect them...

Anyway, the resulting article from my interview is a good one. Have a read: Chelsea is working hard, lately

"Your Office" Photo Album

2010-03-15T13:38:00.002-05:00

The Office is Closed: WGA Strike Video

2010-03-15T13:18:00.002-05:00

Posted this on the blog prior to my presentation at SCMS 2010 in Los Angeles. Turns out Max Dawson and I both used the clip.

I'm writing about the Office's online content as an example of convergence comedy. This protest video is pretty much better than any of the official content, and I think it's the natural, subversive product of the two governing aesthetic guides to the show's online comedy. First off, Max Dawson writes about the "aesthetic of efficiency" of webisodes, and uses "The Accountants" which is spoken about here as an example.

My presentation was all about the "other" non-webisode content, which I think is overall guided by what I call, following Max's model, an "aesthetic of play". Basically, while the webisodes provide what Max describes as a dual promotion/entertainment function, most of the other content is more participatory...allowing you to play with the show, whether making wise-cracking comments or doing tasks on Dunder-Mifflin Infinity. More on this subject to come...

Behind the Scenes of "The Mentor" from The Office Online

2010-03-15T12:48:00.000-05:00

This is a webisode about a webisode...

NATPE: David Zaslav, President and CEO Discovery Communications

2010-02-08T15:47:00.000-06:00

Zaslav was introduced as the CEO and President of the "strongest platform media company in the world"--and the number one item of interest up for discussion seemed to be the Oprah Winfrey Network. Zaslav talked about that and had some other interesting comments on the state and future of the industry. Besides Oprah, Zaslav was optimistic about 3D TV, promising a 24-7 3D channel to compliment Discovery's 7 all HD channels. In his keynote he outlined what he believed to be future fundamentals:

1) Quality content is the key to growth

2) the TV set will remain the center of television consumption in the home.

3) Social media: Need to acknowledge that "viewers are the experts" and executives needed to be able to follow their leads. He mentioned that social media made "River Monsters" the most successful show in Animal Planet history (a program that had very little marketing) thru more or less social media word-of-mouth. He also compared social media to what MTV used to be...the place where people go to see what people wear, listen to, etc. I thought that was an interesting comparison. TV companies "must acquire assets to play in that space."

4) International distribution is the key to growth. He said that international markets are like cable was 10 years ago, specifically mentioning Russia, Romania, Poland, and India. Companies need to take content and channels outside the US.

Before the Q&A, a promo for OWN ran (featuring the indie music stylines of Los Campesinos!). The network launches in 80 million homes. The right way to launch a network, whether or not you are Oprah.

Zaslav also had some interesting things to say about the importance of branding in TV’s current landscape. His mantra was “Strong brands, strong programming, stay on brand.” He credited Discovery for staying basically on its foundational brand, while others have refashioned themselves, such as A&E. When he initially came to Discovery, one of the things he did was get rid of “biker and tattoo stuff” to return to that brand image.

Another thing separating Discovery from other cable channels is that Discovery owns almost all of its content, which he credited to the desire to be able to air them over all platforms. In terms of defining “quality”, he said it was their business to identify the great storytellers and getting them to “work with us.” Beyond that, quality meant “great storytelling” and “original characters.”

As another branding case, he talked about how the success of Jon & Kate enabled TLC to rebuild itself after losing an audience by diluting its brand with too much A&E or Bravo-type programming. I’m not sure exactly what he meant—but I thought of “What Not to Wear” a show I like, but does seem more Bravo, I suppose. Anyway, the popularity of J&K created a moment when “women in America were finding the channel” and they could take advantage of that.

Back on the 3D tip, Zaslav again expressed his belief in its future by suggesting that 3D gaming might drive the sets into homes. Basically, thru teens who want it for gaming…then others will find they want it for sports, etc. He thinks the creative community will want it as well, especially following the success of Avatar. He also described how Sony planned to provide programming and had interests thru selling sets, as well as content in films and music acts. Discovery itself, he pointed out, had a 20 year library which it could upconvert.

Zaslav seemed smart about online distribution, talking about Mythbusters and how that show had incorporated shortform videos as well as promoting viewer participation. They don’t post shows, but clips. And also encouraged viewers to submit their own videos suggesting “myths to bust.” Apparently the Mythbuster guys are keen on this stuff.

Before taking over Discovery, Zaslav was at NBC Universal for 20 years. Unfortunately, the interviewer was not successful at getting him to dish some dirt on his form employer.

One moment that caused me to shudder was in reference to Discovery’s “Planet Green” channel, which apparently hasn’t caught on. Zaslav said the company is no longer emphasizing it because he felt “there’s been a political/cultural shift”. The company is no embracing a “lighter” approach to the network.

Again, he was tight-lipped about what OWN would feature in terms of Oprah’s role, though he assured viewers would “feel her presence in a meaningful way.”

A recurring theme among the week’s speakers was a notable relief that the NY Times was soon going to require online readers to pay. He warned, however, that entertainment companies had created the expectations for free content by giving it away to start with. With the NYT, Hulu, and Variety all starting to charge, he saw this as a “shift” (excuse?) to charge.

Lastly, he said that Discovery has people watching YouTube and trawling the social networks. They want to know what people think about their shows.

Nice work, if you can find it.

NATPE: Jeff Gaspin, Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment

2010-02-05T15:22:00.001-06:00

Conan O'Brien Vs NBC was on everyone's mind at NATPE. It was a constant opener in discussions, and more than one punchline. Jeff Gaspin had no hope of avoiding the topic of that $45 million for nothing to Conan, especially on the heels of the announcement just before the conference that NBC would lose $250 million on the Olympics. Let's have a look at who this guy is. The following comes straight off the NBC Universal executive bio pages:

Jeff Gaspin, who was promoted to Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment in July 2009, oversees all business, creative, production, distribution and marketing aspects of NBC Universal's wide-ranging entertainment television operations.

Among the businesses he's responsible for are NBC Entertainment (home of critically acclaimed and popular shows including "30 Rock," "The Office," "Heroes," "The Apprentice," "The Tonight Show," "Saturday Night Live," "Days of our Lives," and the "Law & Order" franchise); cable's top-rated USA Network and buzz-generating, growing channels Syfy, Bravo, Oxygen, Chiller, Sleuth, and Universal HD; Spanish language outlets Telemundo and Mun2; TV production companies Universal Media Studios (which produces dozens of top shows, including "House" and "30 Rock") and Universal Cable Productions...

And on and on and on and on... I appreciate Jeff Gaspin's apparent candor, but I fear he may be out of a job in the next year.

The absolute best line of the entire conference came when Gaspin was asked about how NBC could possibly justify/be optimistic about the prospect of losing $250 million on the Olympics. From his perspective, the Olympics "will be a cleansing moment" for the network before relaunching their schedule March 1. $250 million buys one helluva shower. Or is the "cleansing" more of an enema? I apologize, but the guy asked for it.

Other Gaspin nuggets: He admitted that he was surprised that Conan was "so emotional" about the scheduling situation. Gaspin just shrugged, and said repeatedly that he thought they had come up with a plan to keep both Leno and O'Brien...and also admitted that they goal that started all this to begin with was wanting to keep Jay in the first place.

Jay! Jay! Jay! Always Jay! At some point I will pontificate on the nut-so scheduling choice of stripping Leno during primetime--which goes against typical network programming strategies regardless of the personalities involved, by taking late-night programming and throwing it in primetime. But I'll save that rant for later.

Asked whether the network now had an image problem, Gaspin tried to shrug it off. "What hurts us is not having enough hits on the air." Which, I guess, is true. What can I say. After he loses this job, he has a future in politics. "The economy is bad because not enough people have jobs." Etc. Etc. Later he admitted that the bottom line was NBC did have an image problem IF the creative community was alienated from the network.

Gaspin admitted that he thought the company had taken too much out of the broadcast business with its emphasis on cable (USA especially), a move which made sense for the company, but not the network.

On the optimistic tip, Gaspin pointed out NBC's aggressive program development: 20 pilots will be done this year. Later, admitting that 55% of those would be produced by NBC. "I really just want to get the best shows on the air," he said. He admitted that he might use a hit as a loss leader, pointing out that he liked how FOX uses House (produced by NBC) to launch other shows. "Broadcasting" equals network + studio according to Gaspin, and those two together are still a good business model. The upfronts would be "a time to celebrate broadcasting" presumably meaning not just what NBC had on the air, but what it was producing for other broadcasters.

Asked whether the Comcast deals was affecting NBC currently he said they couldn't at all because they aren't allowed to participate in any decisions until regulatory approval. So he didn't offer any suggestions about how anyone might be forward-thinking about this new ownership model, how it might change what NBC does. Actually, listening to him, I believe he probably doesn't have much of that "vision thing" to offer.

Finally, Gaspin was asked what he had learned in his time as chairman at NBC. He took a nice long time coming up with an answer. Finally, he said he had underestimated the emotions involved, particularly those of Conan, and thought he had simply presented a logical plan for keeping both onboard. He also said he was surprised by the speed of the public discussion--and even recognized that people were bloggering/twittering what he was saying then.

Well, took me another week, actually.

NATPE: Bill Lawrence, creator/showrunner Scrubs & Cougar Town

2010-02-05T14:36:00.004-06:00

Full disclosure: I don't watch Scrubs. I don't mean I don't regularly watch Scrubs; I mean I've never watched Scrubs. I haven't seen Garden State either. Zach Braff doesn't do it for me. Having said that, I found Bill Lawrence genuinely entertaining, and more importantly, he seemed like a thoughtful guy. He was also extremely gratified when my colleage Kevin Sandler from Arizona State told him he shows the episode "My Life in Four Cameras" in his television course.

But enough about my personal feelings, and on to my "take-aways" from his talk, moderated by J. Max Robbins from the Paley Media Center. Since this is a blog few people will read, I am going to be sporadic in how I translate my notes. But I fear I'd better do it soon, before I forget what the nonsense I scrawled down means.

On the importance and shifting role of the showrunner, Lawrence stressed that he believed "TV is an execution business" while the movie business is idea-driven. Hence the showrunner's importance maintaining consistency, as opposed to the individual development (of an idea/story if not individual creative voice) in film.

On the difficulty of getting a new sitcom on the air, Lawrence said he was working with someone who wanted to make a show about an adoption agency. Turns out 11 adoption agency sitcoms had already been registered with the WGA in one year.

On empathy in comedy, he said he thought characters who actually care for one another make comic stakes higher, and that people (viewers) need something emotional to hang on. He said that he thought maybe that was what stopped Arrested Development from catching on. This was the second time that point had been brought up. Earlier in the day, there was a panel for Modern Family, the producers of which pretty much admitted that they wanted to make Arrested Development--but with feeling.

On how he would change the development process: get rid of all the extra hoops of mid-management that clog up development at the networks. He contrasted this to the "Grant Tinker" approach which didn't have all that.

On good and bad pitches:

One of ABC's presidents fell asleep when he was pitching Scrubs. He was shocked because he thought the pitch was so good--everything was true, based on a real-life JD who was a huge screw-up.

Worst pitch: to Kevin Reilly, President of NBC at the time. When changes were suggested to Lawrence, he countered "you should write that." He then warned the audience to beware of comments which give you five minutes of joy followed by many, many, many more without it.

Best pitch: Clone High to MTV.

Lawrence also talked about Cougar Town, a show that purportedly has more women writers on staff than men--uncommon for a comedy. Since the core of the show is about how men and women approach things different, this was necessary.

On Scrubs moving from NBC to ABC, classic stuff on the dynamics of TV production, distribution, and ownership today. ABC owned the show, which meant NBC could only make money off selling ads. When ABC picked it up, they therefore stood to make more money through "syndie".

On convergence and comedy: Lawrence was asked how much he thinks about people watching "bits and bytes" of comedy online when he writes/produces the show. He admitted that they always are sure to incorporate some "internet-ready" bit that will self-promote the show. An example was an airband version of "More than a Feeling."

More: "There are no quick hits in network TV, but on the Internet...the person who can monetize" will make a fortune." He also stressed that the opportunities to hustle a small company are still there.

On "My Life in Four Cameras": Lawrence said he believes that there's nothing as immediate and gratifying as the multicamera sitcom, "nothing purer than the multicamera" sitcom for "pure escapist entertainment." However, he related that doors kept getting shut in his face when he pitched multicamera shows. The episode was a response to that; a "love letter" to the multicamera sitcom that he said many people thought was a "slam" of it.

2010-02-05T14:08:00.000-06:00

BLOGGING NATPE

I took copious notes during the National Association of Television Program Executives conference in Las Vegas last week. I'll be posting them piecemeal, but I really need to because I found the individual presentations very interesting and informative. All about what people working in various capacities in the industry think is happening. Lots of comments about NBC and Leno.

Ruthless Satire?

2009-11-24T10:22:00.001-06:00

Lately I've been thinking that the problem with the Daily Show and Colbert Report is that they aren't ruthless enough. Their parodic and talk formats seem to be keeping them from going for the jugular in very direct way. I'm not saying that Colbert or Stewart can't amount to devastating satire, but I think the current times call for someone more direct.

Instead, what we've gotten from Comedy Central is the Jeff Dunham Show. I've watched two episodes, and let me tell you, it ain't Chappelle's Show with puppets. I bring that show up because I think that was the thing about Chappelle's that made it great it in its (brief) prime. You knew he would do or say anything, kind of like Jack Bauer on 24 (also in his prime at about the same time).

I'm happy to say that it looks like Letterman might be the one answering the call. I've started watching again, and if he keeps doing stuff like this, I'll keep watching.

Actuality #3: DFW Underground

2009-11-23T09:39:00.001-06:00

Going from one terminal to another, transported into a lonely future.

Actuality #2: Central Park Sidewalk

2009-11-23T09:38:00.001-06:00

On my way from Guggenheim to Paley Center for Media.

Actuality #1: GUGGENHEIM LOBBY

2009-11-23T00:27:00.001-06:00

Here's a video I shot on my recent research excursion to New York. It's the first in a series I am calling "actualities" since they basically are nothing more than some footage of me walking around a place, looking...sort of like the first actuality films from Lumieres, Edison, etc.

Curse of the Swamp Creature 9/9

2009-11-04T14:22:00.000-06:00

BAD TASTE - PETER JACKSON 1987 part 1

2009-11-04T12:54:00.000-06:00

More Marilyns (Warhol)

2009-10-28T11:58:00.000-05:00

Marilyn (Warhol)

2009-10-28T11:56:00.000-05:00

The Scream (Munch)

2009-10-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

Diamond Dust Shoes (Warhol)

2009-10-28T11:54:00.000-05:00

Peasant Shoes (Van Gogh)

2009-10-28T11:53:00.000-05:00

The Fabulous Fifties

2009-01-28T16:02:00.000-06:00

I have been obsessed with this spectacular since I first saw it. Please, if you know where I can get a copy of the whole thing, let me know. Beware of other "Fabulous Fifties" things which are not the real deal.

ModoDonkey Revealed

2009-01-17T13:37:00.000-06:00

Here's a side table/bookshelf/laptop cart I designed and built. I'm calling it the ModoDonkey in reference to the Penguin Donkey [see post below] of yore. It's made out of one 4x4 sheet of birch plywood and four metal casters. I learned during this process that I am much more interested in the design stage of the process than the construction. Luckily, I discovered wood filler. For larger, future projects, I'm going to design the piece and get a cabinet maker to properly cut and assembly any boxy sections I really need square.

I'm pretty happy with the piece. It is very useful, and fits nicely in our modest, modern aesthetic. The idea is that one side you can place coffee table books and magazines. On the other, DVDs or books I'm currently reading. I cut a hole in each end so the table can easily be pulled over to my chair. Also, the design fits DVDs and paperbacks on two sides. I'm using the back side to store Nintendo Wii gear. It's great for keeping things out of sight, and the kids are into putting things away in this "secret compartment."

ModoDonkey Side Table: Design Inspiration

2009-01-05T23:14:00.000-06:00

In the last day or two I've been indulging my interests in modern design (while not working on research or prepping courses) by designing and building an occasional side table/book & media storage unit inspired by midcentury and industrial design. I've been wanting another sidetable because I'm constantly moving them around in my living room depending on whether I'm watching TV, reading, or on the laptop. I don't like coffeetables because they mostly get in the way of foot traffic and attract clutter. I also have a thing for pocket paperbacks from the 50s and 60s. I love the compact design, and the fact that you can load up on classics for less than $1 a pop. (Currently I'm reading Saul Bellow's Herzog). Reading these is a tactile experience (when will the spine break? which pages will fall out first?) almost as much as an intellectual one.

I latched on to a very unique storage table from the 1930s called the Penguin Donkey, especially designed to be stuffed full of Penguin pocketbooks on two sides, with space in the middle for newspapers or magazines. Unfortunately, the tops of this are bent plywood, which looks great, but is extremely difficult to balance a cup of coffee on. Isokon has built a couple of more models, including the Donkey 3, which is cool, but more money than I'm willing to pay. Also, it has four legs, and I wanted something I could easily move a couple of feet from a nice balanced spot on the wall under a poster to coffee or laptop position.

Inspiration: the handy side tables we bought 2 @ $30 from our vintage furniture dealer when we bought our house. They're incredibly simple and useful, with a white laminate top, easily transportable, and scaled just perfectly. I sometimes put both of them together, one with laptop, one with coffee, to work at the TV. The new piece would have to live in relative harmony with these, but I wanted something to show off paperbacks and the occasional coffee table book as well. As the piece took shape, I also realized it would give me a chance to hide away the slowly growing number of Wii games stacked next to the TV, and, more importantly, the gangly Wii controllers.

Other inspiration: the Case Study bed from Modernica via Design Within Reach we've had since our son (child #2) was born (child #1: bought four door car, child #2: bought Case Study bed for son to be born in, child #3: bought bigger car and house. no more kids, no more big purchases on the horizon.) The birch plywood headboard on the bed is so simple and striking with just a clear semigloss coat. I decided to make the entire table out of birch plywood, as that seemed in line not only with minimalist, modernist aesthetics, but my minimalist carpentry skills.

Design guidelines: #1 the height of my favorite side tables; #2 the height and depth of my Herzog paperback; #3 the dimensions of my Julius Schulman coffeetable book. I checked the plans to see if they would also accomodate DVD boxes, and lucked out. So the inspirations guiding the design are midcentury, even if the media contained are 21st century. I designed a 14 inch deep side table, 20 inches high (with casters), 24 inches wide. Half the table will be one large compartment for coffeetable size books and magazines. The other half will have two shelves on both sides of the table, retaining the donkey saddlebag design of the original Penguin Donkey. This means you can spin the table around to find more books or DVDs, etc. It also means I've got an excuse for loading up on a bunch more cheap, quality pocket paperbacks. I'm cutting a 2.5 inch diameter hole in each end piece for carrying the table, or--more importantly--grabbing it from my chair to pull toward me to put a beverage or laptop on.

It took a little more thinking to figure how to take care of the mobile component of the table. Frankly, since I was inspired by the Isokon donkeys, I figured I'd give it four feet and just gently move it around. But I looked through one of my favorite books, High-Tech, which is a classic design book from the 1970s on using industrial design in the home. In that book, I hit upon what was really a no-brainer: caster wheels. I lucked out and my Lowe's had some great 2.5 inch tall steel ones that were a great match for the plywood body.

Another valuable source for the project was Todd Oldham's book, Handmade Modern. The book contains 50 or so projects, many of which are lame, but many of which also provide some inspiration and nuts-and-bolts know-how for building small furniture. It's kind of like a tourist guidebook--you might not do what's in the book, but it gives you the confidence to set out and do something.

I figured out how to get all the necessary wood from a 4' by 4' sheet of birch plywood (which Lowe's had for about $27) with very little scrap leftover. I had a budget of $50 for the project, but having to buy a can of polyurethane and a hole-cutting bit added $25. I'm out of Lowe's for $80. Which means not only that I can't spend any more money, but that I need to make and sell another one of these things (or two. interested?)

Here's something totally unexpected that shares the minimalist plywood aesthetic: furniture by Donald Judd (?).

Russian Perfect Strangers Intro

2008-12-03T12:20:00.000-06:00

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it. The magnificence of globalization...

Top Chef and the Decline of Western Civilization

2008-11-13T10:49:00.000-06:00

Tonight was the premiere episode of the new season of Top Chef, probably my favorite of the Bravo reality shows. This one started off pretty good, if only because the two most annoying contestants were promptly kicked off the show. This was somewhat predictable, given the ample screen time allotted them both, but the satisfaction at never having to watch either of them, ever, ever again made up for it.

The program is definitely trumping up one of the contestants as the "Foreigner You Love to Hate" but my early favorite is Eugene--the heavily tattooed Hawaiian who has worked his way up from dishwasher to chef and has never attended culinary school. That differentiated him from the two kicked off last night, who were friends that met at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America, though if they had met at the other CIA that would be much more interesting). But the reason I'm really rooting for him is the uncanny resemblance between Top Chef Eugene and Eugene from The Decline of Western Civilization, Part I--one of my favorite documentaries.

The documentary is currently unavailable unless pirated or in ancient VHS form. You can find most of it on YouTube. Here's part one of "Part I" with Eugene's brilliant first interview:

Obama, Boffo!

2008-10-30T21:50:00.000-05:00

Check out the ratings for Obama's infomercial Wednesday night. Not too shabby.

Screen grab from TVbythenumbers.com.

Opie, Andy, and the Fonz for Obama

2008-10-28T23:13:00.000-05:00

This has got to be a classic for TV fans...and yet another example of how celebrities have been willing to make their politics known this election cycle.

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

The Vet Who Did Not Vet

2008-10-25T10:18:00.000-05:00

Does Dr. Seuss proud.

Wassup 2008

2008-10-25T10:05:00.000-05:00

Perfect recycling of a beer campaign as political satire.

Radio Royalty

2008-10-01T13:50:00.000-05:00

Finally, after much digging, I was able to find a news article that does a decent job of explaining the different royalties that get paid for music on the radio (broadcast, satellite, Internet).

It's from the LA Times and you can find it here.

If I don't get to keep my Internet radio, I will expire.

Pick Your Own Electoral Map

2008-09-30T12:55:00.000-05:00

<p><strong>><a href='http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008/pick-your-president/'>2008 Election Contest: Pick Your President</a></strong> - Predict the winner of the 2008 presidential election and enter to win a $500 prize.</p>

These are my predictions for the 2008 election. I started with Kerry 2004, then added a few that seemed to have shifted (CO, NM, VA, NV, IA, OH). Then, I gave FL to Obama because I think Sarah Silverman's Great Schlep will pay off.

Sarah Silverman's "The Great Schlep"

2008-09-26T22:16:00.000-05:00

If I had Jewish grandparents in Florida, I would totally do what Sarah Silverman says. Unfortunately, my grandparents are all dead and were never Jewish and I'm pretty sure spent little time in Florida, ever.

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

TPMtv: McCain, Letterman, Palin, Couric

2008-09-25T16:11:00.000-05:00

Another great installment of TPMtv documenting our bizarro world of media stunts, where John McCain out-does David Blaine the same night on TV. No mention of Blaine in this, actually. Letterman was amazing. Really didn't back off. I'll post some of his show later.

Rick Sanchez Gone Wild

2008-09-25T09:46:00.000-05:00

1982 Obama Ad: Still Crazy

2008-09-20T10:05:00.000-05:00

(Satire)

Chelsea Lately - Chelsea Responds to Jonas Fans

2008-09-19T16:28:00.000-05:00

Chelsea Lately, Finally

2008-09-19T07:54:00.001-05:00

I finally got round to watching Chelsea Lately, and. oh. my. lord. She is my new comedy hero. So funny. If Conan is getting Leno's job, then she should get Conan's job, seriously.

Great format. I think she actually does a better of running a nonsense roundtablethan Bill Maher does--granted she's dealing with 2nd rate comedians rather than 2nd rate celebs and the occasional intellectual.

The sketch in last night episode about a psychologist was off the charts funny. Clips TK if I can find some ones I especially like.

Precaution Before Salvation

2008-09-19T07:54:00.000-05:00

Where do you draw the line between ironic pleasure and poetic appreciation? For me, it's right here.

Via NYTIMES/FREAKONOMICS BLOG: HERE

Passengers - A Lego Star Wars Minifig Video

2008-09-17T13:51:00.000-05:00

My first venture into YouTube nonsense.

TPMtv: Sunday Show Roundup: Better Vetting Late Than Never

2008-09-09T13:14:00.000-05:00

one of the clips i'm looking at for my next flow column on the aesthetics of blogger tv

2 Scenarios, Both Bad.

2008-09-09T10:43:00.000-05:00

I've been watching lots of the Weather Channel lately, and it's been almost as scary as hearing evangelicals rave about Sarah Palin. This morning a couple of interesting things:

One of the channel's Weather forecasters discussed two key different scenarios for Hurricane Ike: 1) a low pressure system moves quickly thru the US, and Ike goes northerly, from Corpus Christi to north of Houston. 2) the system doesn't have that effect and it goes from northern Mexico to north of Corpus Christi. Now, this was alarming for a couple of reasons: 1) Corpus Christi is included in both scenarios 2) the second scenario, which has the effect of destroying Corpus Christi, more or less, was basically lauded as more favorable than if it were to hit Houston. Ouch. So that's what it feels like when we talk about how it would be better if it would just go into Mexico rather than the US...

2008-09-06T20:27:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan:

"The sexism that implies that someone cannot stand up to reporters because she is a woman is appalling. This entire pick, of course, is incredibly sexist, and the handling of her in the last week the most sexist double standard I have ever seen in American politics. Can you imagine Hillary Clinton saying she wasn't going to answer questions for two weeks? Or Margaret Thatcher? Or Kay Bailey Hutchison? Or Elizabeth Dole? And none of these women were ever as close to global power as Sarah Palin now is. This is getting to Manchurian Candidate levels of creepiness. It's deeply sinister and slightly terrifying."

READ THE POST

Palin vs. Fey?

2008-09-05T11:27:00.000-05:00

One of my Communication faculty colleagues next door just asked if Sarah Palin is the Republican Tina Fey. Ouch. Not nearly as funny, but does have the glasses.

My book cover:

2008-09-03T12:59:00.000-05:00

Here's the model for the cover of my co-edited book, due out in March from NYU Press.

HURRICANES, SMURICANES

2008-08-26T11:21:00.000-05:00

There's a good chance that in the coming days we'll have a hurricane headed full steam for the gulf coast. I live on the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Gustav will likely be headed our way, but...if the storm threatens US coast at all, which seems very likely, it will definitely distract press coverage from the Republican National Convention. Which, unfortunately, is in Minneapolis, and not on the Gulf Coast.

Something to think about.

TPMTV'S VIEW OF MICHELLE OBAMA'S SPEECH

2008-08-26T08:11:00.000-05:00

And by "view" they mean literally view...quite interesting to see perspective of convention like this. You really get a better sense of the overwhelming presence of the crowd.

Latest article:

2008-08-25T23:00:00.000-05:00

iWant My TweenTV: iCarly, Sitcom 2.0

My article on convergence, the sitcom, and Nick's hella successful tween sitcom.

"Woe be to the Flow columnist that sets out to write about how convergence is changing television comedy without acknowledging what might be the biggest success story of convergence comedy, the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly.

Now, iCarly might not be this media scholar’s preferred convergence culture, but it is most certainly his 10-year-old daughter’s. It is what she is watching repeatedly on the DVR or on a laptop at her friend’s house, and it is the overflow she is reading online by following characters’ blogs that may or may not tie in directly to the episodes she knows by name..."

click the title to read the column

The Pirate's Dilemma

2008-08-15T22:02:00.001-05:00

JC Penny - High School Cinema - Breakfast Club

2008-08-15T21:43:00.001-05:00

The Pirate's Dilemma

2008-08-15T21:33:00.000-05:00

GREAT VIDEO on the hypocrisy of anti-piracy rhetoric from MSM.

wellsfargo.com

2008-08-08T01:55:00.000-05:00

www.wellsfargo.com

I use the wells fargo online website almost everyday to check my account balance. I can usually run home after a spending spree and it has already shown up on my online activity. This is absolutely new media because it allows me to get my information immediately and without having to go to the atm to check it. Also it eliminates credit card statements because I can access that on the website as well. I think this website has made me a little ocd about my accound activity but it has also kept me from overdrawing.

Katelyn McCullers, replace lowest grade

No Time For Internet

2008-08-08T01:16:00.000-05:00

Since use of the Internet has become America’s favorite pastime, people are more easily connected to each other through electronic use. There are those who have been stubborn about depending on this technological phenomenon too much, and would rather just never turn on a computer than have to rely solely upon one. A part of that person lives in me. Reasons that I do not visit more than two or three sites during my week are simple: 1) I usually just do not have the time. 2) I have a malfunctioned computer that refuses to connect to a modem and cannot make up its mind about any wireless network except the one at school. 3) I am an impatient person. If a connection is taking too long to bring me to a site, I give up trying, only going back again when I have more time. I lead a very hectic and busy life and I usually have a purpose when I log into the Internet. The few sites I do use are Yahoo Mail, Facebook, TAMUCC.com and all that goes along with it (WebCT, Wiki, etc.) I also check my funds using the website for Wells Fargo. I used to stay online for hours… but as I said before, if a connection is taking too long, I am out. I am not an Internet hater, but I just have too much going on with life to sit down and learn all about how to work with it and enjoy all it can offer me.

Bethany Woodard replace lowest blog grade (the missing one if at all possible) Thank You! :)

YouTube.com

2008-08-08T00:54:00.000-05:00

www.youtube.com

YouTube is a site where people who have created videos may post them and leave comments or blogs as to what they have viewed. Everything from home created videos, to commercials, to clips of movies can be accessed through YouTube. This site is a form of new media in the way that things that could once only be accessed through our televisions can now not only be watched on our computers, but can also be email to friends or shared in blogs. The thing that this site allows only for new media is that personalization and "talk back" can both take place. This site allows for personalization in the way that things we have created can be posted on the site and shared with people from around the globe. It allows people to have the ability to talk about the videos by being able to leave comments on the actual YouTube site, or people can post them in other blogs (as we do here) have have people leave their thoughts and comments on those sites. Networking can happen through the site by being able to leave comments and have others read your thoughts. If people wish to get in contact with you to discuss your comments they can and so YouTube allows people to meet others and see others ideas.

Erika White-Offer, 5 points on exam

Extra Credit

2008-08-08T00:43:00.001-05:00

www.stumbleupon.com

Stumbleupon is a toolbar that you can download for free on your web browser. It allows you to choose your interests and in takes you to random websites for your particular taste. The web pages can be kept in your favorites or if you don't like a web page, you can simply click on the stumble button to take you to a differnt page, like channel surfing.

I usually use stumbles web page to change my types of interests in order to search according to what I feel like seeing. I use this site at least three times a week to take up time when I'm bored. I also like discovering new websites I've never seen before.

This website offers personalization in a way that you can customize your personal interests to surf websites. It also lets you have a profile to where other users can link up to your page and look at a list of your favorite websites with similar interests. You can meet people and give or receive recommendations of cool websites.

Extra credit-Musicovery

2008-08-08T00:43:00.000-05:00

http://musicovery.com/

Musicovery is an interactive webradio that allows you to choose the types of songs you feel like listening to. It is so unique because you can set the mood to energetic, dark, positive, or calm. You can also choose to increase or decrease the tempo or dance, so that it can help you discover what you are looking for. From your selections, it then gives you all the genres of music to choose from. You can select them all or you can select as many as you want. Another awesome thing about this website is that you can choose the decade from 1950s-2000s.

By using this webradio, you are able to listen to all kinds of songs and also discover music that is not just mainstream. I regularly use this website because it's free, it's perfect for parties or if I just feel like hearing random music other than the traditional radio. I found this website on stumble.com one day when I was randomly searching the internet. This website offers many opportunities for personalization because it gives you the option to ban songs or mark them as your favorite songs on your list.

Daphne Clement, exam bonus points

ifc.com

2008-08-07T23:02:00.000-05:00

ifc.com stands for the independent film channel. It is a site that is based on everything that is independently done in film and music, (anything that isn't mainstream). This site even has a section on politics. I use this site mainly for the movie aspect. I love watching the ifc station on tv, but the website allows for more of an in-depth look at certain films. I also use it to see what movies are going to be played on certain nights, to assure that I won't miss them. There are reviews, podcasts, stories, interviews, and even web shows. I really love this site because I love independent films. ifc.com even gives updates and allows you to watch clips from films that are showed at film festivals around the world. There are even contests sometimes where the prizes are to attend a certain film festival. There is a talk area in every different section on this site. You can talk/argue about film, music, politics, even the actual ifc station. There is a section even called "start a conversation" where you can talk about anything you like. ifc.com also has a store where you can by movies and documentaries. This site is just really interesting and informative to me. I love it!

Tori Fitzsimmons, exam bonus points

Extra Credit Blog

2008-08-07T21:02:00.000-05:00

http://perezhilton.com/
A website I visit regularly is perezhilton.com. It is a celebrity gossip website. I read it purely for entertainment purposes. I get the juicy gossip on celebrities, which I have to admit is a guilty pleasure of mine. I think its hilarious. It really doesn't serve any other purpose. The site is interactive. It offers users an opportunity to comment on the stories and read what other users have to say. You can also email your favorite stories to your friends. It definitely provides material for users to gossip with each other about, which is a social networking component. It is a prime example of new media. Although, there are telveision shows providing the same stories, there is a level of interactivity on the website that is impossible to get from tv.

Catherine King, replace blog grade

Extra Credit/ CNN.COM

2008-08-07T20:05:00.000-05:00

www.cnn.com

I view cnn.com at least three or four times a day. This website offers most everyday national news. I am constantly on the computer. This website lets me know what is going on in the world. I don't really don't have a chance to watch news on television. I use this website to learn about entertainment news, weather, just everyday happening in sour society. It's amazing how many times the headlines change throughout the day. I like that it has the Corpus Christi weather on the top of the page. At the bottom of the page it also has a section of Corpus Christi news. This website allows me to know what is going here as well. You can also post a blog on this website.

Lori Enriquez
5 Bonus points on Final

Extra Credit Blog- LiveScience.com

2008-08-07T17:01:00.000-05:00

http://www.livescience.com/

LiveScience.com is a website that has different sorts of science news regarding groundbreaking developments in health, environment, animals, technology and space. It has different articles on these subjects and my favorite part is the "top 10" features they have. It's not a lot of reading but I still learn a lot.
Even though I'm not a science major, I like to go to this site to read random articles and now that I've found MySpace and Facebook a bit boring, I go to this one everyday because there's always something new that is interesting as well as educational. I've used this site to find random facts about a subject, I use it for entertainment since I sometimes don't have much to do at work.

This website lets you be a member of it and you can actually receive emails on your favorite stories and sections. It doesn't enable to keep in touch with people, you just know what's new on the website.

Nikte Flores, exam bonus points

Youtube.com

2008-08-07T16:28:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/

Youtube.com is a website that is made up of video and audio posts. The individuals that post information on this site cover a large spectrum of people. Some of the different types of people include students, musicians, and even religious leaders.

Some of the ways I use the website include viewing various video posts for entertainment purposes (watch music videos and view clips of television shows), stating my opinion on different comments that have been posted, and for educational reasons. I use this site because there is so much media material on it that you can just about find anything your looking for. In other words, if you can think of a topic to search for on this site, your bound to find it, or find something that is very close to it.

The Youtube.com site allows people to interact with others in ways like leaving comments on peoples' video posts and leaving your own video responses. There is also a community that classifies different information for people to interact with specific types of information.

Chris Gentry, exam bonus points

Disney.com

2008-08-07T14:40:00.000-05:00

Disney.com is the official website for Disney. This site has unlimited "new media" interactivity with mass communication for all to use, from games to movies,and online shopping. I personally use this website to access schedules and tickets to up-coming Disney events that come to town, along with my obsessiveness on-line shopping since I am a huge and I mean HUGE Mickey Mouse aficionado, must I say more!.

Extra Credit

2008-08-07T14:29:00.000-05:00

http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html

Craigslist is a site that people can go on to post things that they have that others may want. It’s all localized so you can do your search by your state and city. You can seriously find almost anything you want or need on here, and you can rid of stuff that you don’t want or need anymore. It’s way better than Ebay and sites where you don’t see the product until you’ve already paid for it.

So I don’t normally use Craigslist so often, I lately I’ve been checking it like 4 or 5 times a week. This is because I’m moving into a new place that is bigger then the one that I’m in now and I need inexpensive furnisher that isn’t cheap to fill it up.

This site is a great example of new media because it allows the users to decide what they want to post about and what they want to look at. People post jobs, personal ads, houses, even services (like new places to get beauty treatments done). There are tons of discussion forums for anything you want to talk about and there is even a craigslist blog. There’s also the socialization that occurs when you respond to ads and when you meet up with people to get what you need.

Kim McComas, replace blog grade please.

MLB.com

2008-08-07T13:19:00.000-05:00

http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp

MLB.com is the Major League Baseball Associations main web page. From this page you can access loads of information about your favorite teams, players, and trades going on in the game with up to the minute news and notes from some of America's top baseball writers. I'm not sure if you all have noticed but I pretty much wore a baseball cap to school everyday representing my favorite team the "Chicago Cubs" and as long as we remain in first place I'll wear it till the end of the year.
I use this site to check on the Cubs status in the NL Central Division and the stats of my favorite Cub players. Not only do I use this site to monitor the Cubs I also use it to monitor the other teams in the division and around the league. I use this site this way because I am deeply rooted in the game of baseball. I've been a life long fan since I can remember and I see no end in the immediate future. Through this site you check highlites from games around the country and also get up tp the minute scores and statistics from all around the league. The highlight's contain outstanding plays from around the league from every game in every stadium.This new brand of media lets the fan closer and more informed in the game than ever before. I can't imagine reading about sports highlights after having them readily available at my finger tips for the past three years.
Through MLB.com I've also ordered my favorite jerseys, including a cubs jersey with my personalized last name on the back. In addition to jerseys you can also order caps and other souvenirs. Oh yeah, if you pay just $100 dollars you can watch every game all year long right from your computer; not so good if your a college student trying to write a blog and you keep getting interrupted by all of the days baseball action.
On MLB.com there are hundreds of blogs and chat rooms and there are even player blogs from big leaguers. This component allows for fans to interact with fellow fans and players, as well as chat about all the action on the field. Overall this website incorporates several different types of media into one simple user friendly interface that even I can use.

Kevin Peterson, Replace low blog grade please (the one I missed preferably). Thanks Peace Out!

Extra Credit Blog

2008-08-07T12:42:00.000-05:00

http://fallout.bethsoft.com

Yes, this is the web site for new upcoming Fallout game. And yes I check it about 3 times a week to see whats new. To say the least, this is a great game. It combines the 1950s style of "everything is 'A' OK", and matches it with the reality of nuke war. Very funny! The first two games were very good and if you have not played them you should give them a shot.

I check up on the web site because it has been almost 10 years sense the last game came out and now that they are finally making a new one I like to seen if there is any new content or up dates as to how the game is going to be played. They also have a list of all the links to other Fallout fan sites that are fun to go and see what fans are doing in say-Russia or Germany. In addition, they have reviews from the different people that are making the games that are interesting.

There definitely is a social component to the site. There are links to the different fan sites as well as a posting board where you can talk to people about the game or other aspects of the Fallout world. Non of this would be possible in the old media. This is a great sit and I recommend you look it over and spend a little time in the Fallout world-you will like it.

Ethan Thompson, exam bonus points please.

Extra Credit Blog

2008-08-07T11:23:00.000-05:00

http://www.weather.com/

Weather.com is a website strictly dealing with the weather nationally and locally. There are updates about the weather throughout the day along with video broadcasts of the weather.
I use this site to stay informed about the weather in my area and the areas of my family members. I also use this website to stay informed about the weather because it is always changing, which is why it interest me so much. This site gives hourly, 7 day, and 10 day forecasts, showing graphs and columns to give the weather and percentages of changes that could occur. This website is neat because you can search a zip code and it will give you the weather for that area instantly. Like most webstites they have videos of different stories and articles posted mostly by google. There is not a social networking component because this site is to inform its viewers of facts, not have opinions of what people think that the weather is going to do.

Lauren Self
bonus points toward final exam please.

TVCulture vs FOXSoccer

2008-08-07T01:09:00.000-05:00

www.tvculture.com (oh, you are already here...sweet)

I visit TVCulture about three times a week! It is a great blog website, where you'll find blogs of different things, from Family Guy episodes, to blogs about the amazing Pandora website, not to mention, suck-up blogs about this particular website...whoohoo!! Students who register, can post their blogs and comment on other students blogs. Polls are posted as well from time to time, and even though "The Dark Knight" has recieved more votes than it should, the polls give us an idea of where we stand as a classroom. You can also find an archive list of past blogs, so if you do not see your blog on the homepage, you can always find it under the archive.

This website is not so much individually personal, given the fact that only about 25 people ever look at this website, and your name is stamped on every comment and blog you post, but it is personal to all of us, and it gives everyone a good feeling seeing that cheesy blinking Television Set, that probably no one owns anymore and which this blogger might just tattoo on his chest, because we know it's not just a grade we want, but a form to express ourselves...

Rolando Davila, an "A" on the Final... :) :)

seriously now....

www.foxsoccer.com (Just in case the top one wasn't "fair-use")

Soccer (futbol) is my passion and my life, so I rely on foxsoccer.com to inform me of what goes on in the soccer world! I visit the site everyday, becuase everday there is something going on in soccer. The homepage gives you the latest news about certian teams, clubs, players, transfers, managers, etc. On the top you can also find tabs, of each region around the world. So after you read the millions of articles about Cristiano Ronaldo's ambigious transfer, you choose your favorite region and it gives you the news about that certain region. There is also videos news, photos, interactive forums and blogs.

The reason I like this website also is that, it allows fans to comment on each news article, photo, and video. Soccer is the passion sport because of the fans, so it is very interesting on the comments some people post and the arguments that go on cyberly. All you have to do is register, make up a name, and start interacting. Another neat thing, is that you can register to get news sent to your e-mail, right when they post it on the website! So if you are registered for that feature, you can be the first to know if C. Ronaldo will be leaving Manchester United!

Rollie, extra points on the final please....

Alibris.com

2008-08-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

http://www.alibris.com/

I constantly go to Alibris.com because I like searching for books. I enjoy looking at the different kind of books that you can get from them, as well as searching for rare books and books for special projects for use in the classroom. I have ordered from them and they are a really great source for books; any kind of books.

I was searching for a rare copy of a book that my sister had gotten from my grandparents; I looked at the information inside the front of the book, and with the year, and title and author I was able to find out that her book was an origin copy and if I wanted one it would cost me almost $100. I still want to get that book, but maybe when the funds are available.

If you need books...Alibris is the place to find them. They are just a great source for information on purchasing books, or just what is out there. It's cool.

Becky Sanchez, Bonus Exam Points

NFL.COM

2008-08-06T23:23:00.000-05:00

My team is the Pittsburg Steelers so my site is www.steelers.com

The web site is the official national football website. You can pick your favorite teams logo at the top and then you can go their home site and look at the game schedule, about the players, comments and even watch games online if you are not in front of a TV. You can even go through and buy official gear from their store and look at the charts and data from previous games and players.

I mostly use this website to look up information about my team. If they are trading someone I want to read the press release and see who they are signing. I also look up the game schedule so I can know when they play next and most importantly I use tit to watch the games online while I am at work.

This site can offer you to log into what is know as Fan Zone which you can personalize and make it your own. There is also a message board where there are a variety of different topics and you can engage in back and forth talk with other fans and even read comments and talk with the general manager of the teams and players themselves. You can make your self heard. Also after a game has just finished you can go and watch video clips that are from locker room interviews as well as highlights and recaps of the game; so it is a continuation from TV to the internet.

Ashley Bridges, Exam Bonus Points

Radio Y Online music

2008-08-06T19:28:00.000-05:00

I use this radio station online everyday while im sitting around on the computer or playing playstation or something. Its based in Orlando, Flordia; it is a christian rap and R&B station http://radioy.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1. Of course it is broadcasted online live in HD, anyone can access it for free with no membership. There are a lot of people looking for an alternative type of rap and r&b without the things they do not believe in. I personally just started listening to this a week ago, but I like it and I like the way that it is sent out over the air waves for free for the masses. Not to long ago this type of media technology was not possible, and if it was, it was not in HD.

Toddrick Garley replace blog grade!

Seeing the World

2008-08-06T16:38:00.000-05:00

Mobissimo (click on name to be transfered) is one of my favorite finding air fare websites

I check this site several time a week and theres no real other reason than it's because i'm a travel freak. I love mobissimo because they are like many other 'Cheap flights' site and they pull together different airfare prices for several different companies. I like them over the rest because they have a wider variety of airlines that are not typically searched. I used to use Sidestep but they resently stopped filtering for American Airlines and they are one of the nations largest airlines, so of course i want them listed.
Mobissimo is also different from many other booking sites because it offeres "MobiFriends", MobiHeadlines"(which gives you news that could affect your travel such as the featured headline "Iraq to Open New Airport in Hopes to Promote Tourism"),Newletters, MobiActivity (which lets you search by some activity you want to do ie beaches, gambeling, cricket etc), featured profiles, blogs and good deals on resent search results other users have found. This is taking it from just a 'find fare' web site to more of a travel community.
By having all of these things offered, it turns it into a more interactive site that involves more people and more mass communication about a centralized topic. By creating a whole profile it can refine your likes, dislikes, home airport, dream spot, desireed destinations and then find cheapest fares for you or also connect you with people who have already been where you want to go; therefore providing tips and external resources. They advertise this as "Meet fellow travelers from around the world , Trade tips on favorite hotels and restaurants ,Share your plans, make your trips more social". Next time you want to get away, check it out because Basically i <3 Mobissimo.

Victoria Murray, Exam bonus points.

DAILY USAGE:PANDORA

2008-08-06T15:53:00.000-05:00

http://pandora.com/

Pandora is a personalized radio online, where the stations only play music you like. By typing in a favorite artist or song Pandora will make a radio station that explores just that part of the music universe. Anyone can use Pandora for free online or on your mobile.
I use pandora mainly at work or when I am doing homework online to drown out all the noise around me. If a song is played on the radio station that you thoroughly enjoy you can rate it or even bookmark it. I like to listen to Pandora because it is a way to hear new music because the radio blows now a days.
On Pandora you can search and invite friends to join the site. I invited my father and now I share new artists with him that I think he would enjoy, and we also leave little comments on each others page just saying HI and what not. A Pandora user can make a profile, share a current station with a friend and find other listeners. Also, this radio station online has a blog that I read sometimes. Pandora has also teamed up with the iPhone and iTouch, and about 30 other mobile phones with either AT&T or Sprint to listen on the go.
ERIN TODD, exam bonus points

PIRATE'S DILEMMA

2008-08-05T09:37:00.000-05:00