Film, media and art links
Weird and wonderful theme parks from around the world (not worksafe).
Some roofing ornaments are just wrong (not arachnaphobe safe).
Newsreels of Damascus, Jerusalem and Havanna in the 1930s
Folks, I know stupid Hollywood celebrity is now a redundant term, but let’s not defend Roman Polanski for this, let’s really not. But aforementioned stupid Hollywood celebrities and various others of the conspicuously compassionate are lining up to do so.
Of all the world’s cultures, the one which one would think was safe from being used to sneer at Western civilisation would be the Aztecs: but no, it’s The Guardian, so they had to go there. Hugh Thomson, on the other hand, knows a brutal and tyrannical theocracy when he sees one.
An informative, blunt, even savage, report on British Army media “management” from Michael Yon:
After much experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, I have discovered another: Soldiers always treat correspondents they way they treat the local people. When soldiers treat correspondents badly, they treat local people even worse and are creating enemies. Those troops who brag about how they mistreat or detest correspondents are abusing and resentful of the local population, and they cannot win this sort of war.
About the appeal, virtues and vices of al-Jazeera:
And Al Jazeera, rather than spotlighting people who are loaded with credentials but often have little to say, has the knack of getting people on air who have interesting things to say, like the brilliant, no-name Russian analyst I heard explaining why both Russia and China need the current North Korean regime because it provides a buffer state against free and democratic South Korea.
The BBC is suffering from a serious lack of friends.
The UK broadsheet The Independent continues to lose circulation and looks set to close.
Being really annoyed about a new “documentary” which is really an SF piece of postulated history. Trailer. The horror at the thought of Third World people becoming rich is quite clear. A very different documentary, going for an innovative release strategy.
The corralling of (federally funded) art and artists to support the Obama Administration:
Time was, artists were proudly adversarial regarding authority, the established order, etc. "Epater le bourgeois!" and all that. Now they are just another servile interest group seeking morsels from the federal banquet. Are they real artists? Sure, because in this egalitarian era, government reasons circularly: Art is whatever an artist says it is, and an artist is whoever produces art. So, being an artist is a self-validating vocation.
The White House has issued new guidelines so it does not happen again. The NEA Chairman announces the (former) NEA Communications Director acted without authorisation, has been re-assigned and has since resigned.
Hitch on (US) liberal humourists failing to be funny:
It certainly works very well with audiences who laugh not because they find something to be funny, but to confirm that they are-and who can doubt it?-cool enough to “get” the joke.
About Tina Frey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin:
Can one imagine Eddie Murphy returning to SNL to lambast Obama night after night weeks before the campaign? And NBC clearing blocks in their prime time schedule in order to promote more time to bash Barack? Of course not.
The appeal of the movie star appears to be dying at the box office.
Doing “the full Ginsburg”: putting in a strong media sell effort on a particular day.
Noting the rash of news-stories that did not make the mainstream US media (with a great headline): they are about down to “the dog ate my homework” level of excuses. The NYT public affairs editor on its coverage lapses:
The Times stood still. Its slow reflexes - closely following its slow response to a controversy that forced the resignation of Van Jones, a White House adviser - suggested that it has trouble dealing with stories arising from the polemical world of talk radio, cable television and partisan blogs. Some stories, lacking facts, never catch fire. But others do, and a newspaper like The Times needs to be alert to them or wind up looking clueless or, worse, partisan itself.
Some editors told me they were not immediately aware of the Acorn videos on Fox, YouTube and a new conservative Web site called BigGovernment.com. When the Senate voted to cut off all federal funds to Acorn, there was not a word in the newspaper, although a report in the Caucus blog that day covered the action. When the New York City Council froze all its funding for Acorn and the Brooklyn district attorney opened a criminal investigation, there was still nothing.
Readers noticed.
Which does not quite account for why the same newspaper avoided the John Edwards story last year:
The New York Times has not deigned to touch the story, although it recently ran thousands of words on a relationship between McCain and a female lobbyist, which appeared to be based more on innuendo than fact.
Meanwhile, the US media continues to obsess over Sarah Palin and not in a good way.
Organising through conservative netroots to get around the mainstream media’s blockages.
Some roofing ornaments are just wrong (not arachnaphobe safe).
Newsreels of Damascus, Jerusalem and Havanna in the 1930s
Folks, I know stupid Hollywood celebrity is now a redundant term, but let’s not defend Roman Polanski for this, let’s really not. But aforementioned stupid Hollywood celebrities and various others of the conspicuously compassionate are lining up to do so.
Of all the world’s cultures, the one which one would think was safe from being used to sneer at Western civilisation would be the Aztecs: but no, it’s The Guardian, so they had to go there. Hugh Thomson, on the other hand, knows a brutal and tyrannical theocracy when he sees one.
An informative, blunt, even savage, report on British Army media “management” from Michael Yon:
After much experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, I have discovered another: Soldiers always treat correspondents they way they treat the local people. When soldiers treat correspondents badly, they treat local people even worse and are creating enemies. Those troops who brag about how they mistreat or detest correspondents are abusing and resentful of the local population, and they cannot win this sort of war.
About the appeal, virtues and vices of al-Jazeera:
And Al Jazeera, rather than spotlighting people who are loaded with credentials but often have little to say, has the knack of getting people on air who have interesting things to say, like the brilliant, no-name Russian analyst I heard explaining why both Russia and China need the current North Korean regime because it provides a buffer state against free and democratic South Korea.
The BBC is suffering from a serious lack of friends.
The UK broadsheet The Independent continues to lose circulation and looks set to close.
Being really annoyed about a new “documentary” which is really an SF piece of postulated history. Trailer. The horror at the thought of Third World people becoming rich is quite clear. A very different documentary, going for an innovative release strategy.
The corralling of (federally funded) art and artists to support the Obama Administration:
Time was, artists were proudly adversarial regarding authority, the established order, etc. "Epater le bourgeois!" and all that. Now they are just another servile interest group seeking morsels from the federal banquet. Are they real artists? Sure, because in this egalitarian era, government reasons circularly: Art is whatever an artist says it is, and an artist is whoever produces art. So, being an artist is a self-validating vocation.
The White House has issued new guidelines so it does not happen again. The NEA Chairman announces the (former) NEA Communications Director acted without authorisation, has been re-assigned and has since resigned.
Hitch on (US) liberal humourists failing to be funny:
It certainly works very well with audiences who laugh not because they find something to be funny, but to confirm that they are-and who can doubt it?-cool enough to “get” the joke.
About Tina Frey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin:
Can one imagine Eddie Murphy returning to SNL to lambast Obama night after night weeks before the campaign? And NBC clearing blocks in their prime time schedule in order to promote more time to bash Barack? Of course not.
The appeal of the movie star appears to be dying at the box office.
Doing “the full Ginsburg”: putting in a strong media sell effort on a particular day.
Noting the rash of news-stories that did not make the mainstream US media (with a great headline): they are about down to “the dog ate my homework” level of excuses. The NYT public affairs editor on its coverage lapses:
The Times stood still. Its slow reflexes - closely following its slow response to a controversy that forced the resignation of Van Jones, a White House adviser - suggested that it has trouble dealing with stories arising from the polemical world of talk radio, cable television and partisan blogs. Some stories, lacking facts, never catch fire. But others do, and a newspaper like The Times needs to be alert to them or wind up looking clueless or, worse, partisan itself.
Some editors told me they were not immediately aware of the Acorn videos on Fox, YouTube and a new conservative Web site called BigGovernment.com. When the Senate voted to cut off all federal funds to Acorn, there was not a word in the newspaper, although a report in the Caucus blog that day covered the action. When the New York City Council froze all its funding for Acorn and the Brooklyn district attorney opened a criminal investigation, there was still nothing.
Readers noticed.
Which does not quite account for why the same newspaper avoided the John Edwards story last year:
The New York Times has not deigned to touch the story, although it recently ran thousands of words on a relationship between McCain and a female lobbyist, which appeared to be based more on innuendo than fact.
Meanwhile, the US media continues to obsess over Sarah Palin and not in a good way.
Organising through conservative netroots to get around the mainstream media’s blockages.