Author Topic: Is it just me, or...  (Read 10695 times)

Offline ednbarby

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Is it just me, or...
« on: September 26, 2006, 12:12:30 am »
... does anyone else here find television *really* irritating?

I flicked the tube on tonight, thinking I'd check out the Monday Night Football.  And who's playing, but the Falcons and Saints IN THE SUPERDOME.  I can't believe they didn't take a wrecking ball to that atrocity.  Hello?  People DIED there.  Horrible deaths.  And were attacked.  And lived in squalor because our country didn't give a shit about them.  And they're playing fucking football there?  What the holy fuck?

So I shake off that anger and think, all right, enough of that crap.  Let me see what else is on...  I land on NBC and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."  And in the space of about 30 seconds, I kid you not, I count not one, not two, but three gay jokes.  So I think, "Well, fuck this noise."  I fly through the chanels.  I get up to Showtime and stop on "Weeds."  In the space of 60 seconds, another derogatory gay reference.  But I think, "You know what?  I'm taking things too seriously.  Let me step back a bit and give this show a chance - I hear it's really good."  I see it through.  I like certain aspects of it, don't like others.  Get to the end of it and find out it's produced by my buddies at Lionsgate.  I about yak.

I just give about give up on the whole shootin' match altogether, but I come across "Pleasantville," just starting.  And I can't help but watch because it so perfectly matches my black mood.

Katie Freaking Couric doing the Evening News?  Fox "News" driving Bill Clinton to spew in the general direction of Chris Wallace (aka Shithead Extraordinaire)?  Homophobia passing as entertainment on what's perported to be the "biggest hit" show of the new TV season?

Screw television.  I'm watching movies from now on.  I've pretty much given up on the major networks altogether.  I can't help but take it all too seriously.  Somebody's got to.

I want you all to go to your windows right now, open them up, and yell at the top of your lungs, "I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!!"

The truth is, television is gonna get us.

Don't wanna be an American idiot - one nation controlled by the media.  Information Age of Hysteria - it's going out to Idiot America.

This country is going straight to hell, and TV is lighting the way.

_________________________________

(Sorry, y'all.  Just needed to partake in a good, old-fashioned American bitch fest.)
« Last Edit: September 26, 2006, 12:15:13 am by ednbarby »
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Is it just me, or...
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2006, 01:30:55 am »
Oh, don't be so shy, Barb, tell us how you really feel!  ;D

A quick couple of words about the dome: the horrifying reports of murders and rapes in there were later debunked (the papers doing the debunking were the Chicago Tribune and, I think, the LA Times). Apparently there is no evidence that anyone actually did die. I don't think anyone disputes that people lived in squalor, though.

Also, there's an interesting piece on Slate today saying that the dome, once widely scorned by New Orleanians (that was certainly the case when I lived there in the '90s-- it was hideous even before Katrina) has now become a beloved landmark and symbol of rebirth. Here's the story:

http://www.slate.com/id/2150341/

Also, did you see that your favorite band played there tonight (along with U2) for the big reopening celebration?

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2006-09-13-superdome-rebirth_x.htm
« Last Edit: September 26, 2006, 01:45:57 am by latjoreme »

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Is it just me, or...
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2006, 01:51:59 am »
Barb, did you know that the pilot for Studio 60 has Judd Hirsch playing a Peter Finch type character (the one in Network who has people go to their windows and yell), going on live TV with a diatribe not unlike your own?  It was pretty good.  No gay jokes that I noticed in that episode. 

I don't seem to want to ever watch live TV, and didn't watch any til the TiVo moved in with us. 

And re Superdome becoming a revered landmark - that's what happened with the World Trade Center.  When I lived in NY a couple of decades ago, I never heard anybody say anything good about it. 

Offline alec716

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Re: Is it just me, or...
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2006, 10:44:44 am »
I am one of those accidentally-countercultural people who does not watch TV at all... not so much by way of conscious decision, but just because since the passing of Murphy Brown, not much on the tube interests me.  I would rather do something interactive than watch TV, and I get my news from the internet.  I moved nine weeks ago and my TV is still packed!  Although I am starting to miss watching some of my concert DVDs.... and of course there is this DVD about some sheep herders who love each other that I really would like to see again soon...  ;)

I say BRAVO, don't let mass expectations rule you, and most of all, YES, PLEASE keep being so attuned to the subtle and not-so-suble references to homophobia and other hatreds.  It really is amazing how much denigration and prejudice and violence are expressed in so-called "casual" speech.  We can't counteract it unless we are aware of it.

OK, end of sermon.  That was my rant for this morning!   ;)  Thanks for listening.  :)
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Offline ednbarby

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Re: Is it just me, or...
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2006, 04:26:45 pm »
I say BRAVO, don't let mass expectations rule you, and most of all, YES, PLEASE keep being so attuned to the subtle and not-so-suble references to homophobia and other hatreds.  It really is amazing how much denigration and prejudice and violence are expressed in so-called "casual" speech.  We can't counteract it unless we are aware of it.

Exactly.  The first "joke" was particularly denigrating.  I found it even more distasteful than the "Jake likes it in the rear" bit at the Espy's, if that's any indication.

Frankly, I'm more than a little disturbed at the major networks' apparent need to make the same lame-o jokes again and again and again.  Resistance may be futile, but as long as I'm breathing, I will *not* be assimilated.

(So, I just dated and outed myself as a Star Trek: Next Generation geek at the same time, there...)

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Offline delalluvia

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Re: Is it just me, or...
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2006, 09:42:53 pm »
  Resistance may be futile, but as long as I'm breathing, I will *not* be assimilated.
(So, I just dated and outed myself as a Star Trek: Next Generation geek at the same time, there...)

You are SO busted, barb. ;D

Offline newyearsday

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Re: Is it just me, or...
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2006, 05:34:47 pm »
There's certainly a lot of crap out there on TV, that is for sure. But I did watch a ton of TV when I was growing up, and I have to say I look back fondly on all those cheesy 70's and early 80's shows; life was somehow simpler then even though I'm sure they had their homophobic moments. Now things in the country feel more back-biting, more apt to stir up controversy, and more written for shock value. I don't watch much TV, except for the distractions it can provide and sometimes, the education. I just watched Oprah today with wife of former vice presidential candidate John Edwards' wife Elizabeth Edwards on as the guest, and it was well done.

I also have to say I love Conan O'Brien. He's nutty, and doesn't take himself seriously.

One thing though re: the Superdome, they did debunk the myths about the murders and rapes that were originally reported to have occurred (although we really have no idea; rapes could easily have occurred and not been reported since the majority of them never do get reported) but I'm pretty sure people died there, from not receiving medical attention and being diabetic and such. The lack of food, water, and air conditioning would have been enough for the elderly and the young to die. I get mixed up between the Convention Center and the Superdome, but deaths occurred at one and probably at both.
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Offline alec716

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Re: Is it just me, or...
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2006, 05:45:48 pm »
I have to say I look back fondly on all those cheesy 70's and early 80's shows; life was somehow simpler then even though I'm sure they had their homophobic moments. Now things in the country feel more back-biting, more apt to stir up controversy, and more written for shock value.

Exhiibit A: 1974: Flip Wilson dressing as a woman and playing Geraldine on his comedy show.  Then, it was funny.  Now, it would be controversial.  Ugh.   :(  I still maintain that it was funny!
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Is it just me, or...
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2006, 06:59:18 pm »
One thing though re: the Superdome, they did debunk the myths about the murders and rapes that were originally reported to have occurred (although we really have no idea; rapes could easily have occurred and not been reported since the majority of them never do get reported) but I'm pretty sure people died there, from not receiving medical attention and being diabetic and such. The lack of food, water, and air conditioning would have been enough for the elderly and the young to die. I get mixed up between the Convention Center and the Superdome, but deaths occurred at one and probably at both.

Oops, you're right, Jenny. There were some deaths. Sorry, Barb and everybody, my mistake. Not only that, but I neglected to give the New Orleans Times-Picayune credit for breaking the debunking story! This is from the Times-Picayune:   

Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated
Widely reported attacks false or unsubstantiated


6 bodies found at Dome; 4 at Convention Center

By Brian Thevenot
and Gordon Russell
Staff writers

After five days managing near-riots, medical horrors and unspeakable living conditions inside the Superdome, Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron prepared to hand over the dead to representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Following days of internationally reported killings, rapes and gang violence inside the Dome, the doctor from FEMA - Beron doesn't remember his name - came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies.

"I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying.

The real total was six, Beron said.

Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his death in an apparent suicide, said Beron, who personally oversaw the turning over of bodies from a Dome freezer, where they lay atop melting bags of ice. State health department officials in charge of body recovery put the official death count at the Dome at 10, but Beron said the other four bodies were found in the street near the Dome, not inside it. Both sources said no one had been killed inside.

At the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, just four bodies were recovered, despites reports of corpses piled inside the building. Only one of the dead appeared to have been slain, said health and law enforcement officials.

That the nation's front-line emergency management believed the body count would resemble that of a bloody battle in a war is but one of scores of examples of myths about the Dome and the Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top officials, including the mayor and police superintendent. As the fog of warlike conditions in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath has cleared, the vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.

"I think 99 percent of it is bulls---," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney, who played a key role in security and humanitarian work inside the Dome. "Don't get me wrong, bad things happened, but I didn't see any killing and raping and cutting of throats or anything. ... Ninety-nine percent of the people in the Dome were very well-behaved."

Offline jura86

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Re: Is it just me, or...
« Reply #9 on: September 27, 2006, 07:58:35 pm »
Since we're on the topic of television, I've always been curious about a few things about American tv - how many network channels are there? Do most people have cable or satellite with extra channels in the US?

For most of my life I had four network channels on my TV (and still do while I'm at uni) but at home I have satellite television now with hundreds of channels (none of which I ever watch). I do think one of the greatest things about network tv in the UK though was the creation of Channel 4, designed specifically to cater for minority audiences, so they take their gay audience seriously. I didn't have Channel 4 for most of my life unfortunately (we don't get it in Wales! - we get S4C instead) -- but now I do, it is by far my favourite channel! Plus it has all the great US imports, like Six Feet Under, Sopranos etc. Is there a network channel in the US for minority audiences, or are they all pretty similar?