A Confession

I confess a guilty pleasure - I'm kind of a Perry Mason freak.

Weirdly (I think), it started when I watched a BBC documentary about the rise of fundamentalist religious/conservative groups to prominence in the US (and the Middle East), and how the mobilization of those factions came to be used as a potent political weapon by a rather fanatical right wing in the GOP.

One the series highlights was the teachings of a guy named Leo Strauss at Univ of Chicago, who helped birth what would become the NeoCon movement, which grew up to be the Radical Libertarian thing that Nancy MacLean talks about in her book Democracy In Chains, as Republicans work at tearing down our traditions of democratic self-government in order to replace it all with plutocracy.

Anyway, the Perry Mason character is appealing because he's kind of an anti-hero. He's more or less always on the side of right, but he's willing to bend the rules and play a little in SmarmSpace to get at whatever truth there is be gotten at, and he's not above omitting a few details as he directs his associates in their tasks, and sometimes manipulates his opponents to serve his purposes.

Also - it's good to know what's motivating your opponent.

(from about 6:20 thru about 10:30)

There's also a sexual tension between Mason and his assistant, Della Street, which was hinted at pretty strongly but never addressed directly.

But then, more than 35 years later...

GoT Breakdown

YouTuber Eric Voss - New Rockstars

"Breaking the wheel" is a notion that carries an appeal that's almost universally popular - thus its political enshrinement as Populism - but in the end, it's almost as universally false.

Revolutionaries ride in promising some variation on "peace bread freedom and justice", but they deliver struggle and pain and sorrow and privation.

For as long as there's been any kind of political structure, people have been out to conquer the world. The world is bruised and bloodied, but it remains undefeated.

When will we ever learn?

Crammin' For The Final

The last season of Game Of Thrones is coming. Time to brush up.

Today's Bamboozle

I need to smack myself in the head with this whenever I think I'll watch a game on TV on any given Sunday, because no - I won't.  I'll watch commercials and replays and people standing around not doing jack shit.

I'll spend more time watching video of something the players did a few seconds before than I'll spend watching the players actually doing what I'm watching on video.

Average length of NFL game: 3:12:00

Average time the ball is actually in play: 0:11:00

Number of commercials: 100+

We Were Warned

"When we were kids, we were all afraid of the dark. And when we grew up we weren't afraid anymore, but it's funny how a big lie can make us all kids again."

Today's GIF

The Most Beautiful Thing

Shit's been going on for a very long time.

hat tip = Democratic Underground

Today's Philosophizing

Game Of Thrones is ridiculously popular - partly because a large portion of the audience is willing to embrace the idea of basing an entire government on the awesome image of a small odd-looking naked woman emerging from a house fire of suspicious origins.

And really - if you've been following this election cycle on American TV, you're prob'ly not all that surprised.

Colbert Arrives

Stephen premiered last night, and I had to watch the open, and it was pretty awful.  First night jitters, or maybe it was supposed to manage the expectations down or whatever.  It got a lot better - at least for this bit, which was classic awesomely awesome Colbert.

Meanwhile, Back At The Planet

I hate it when I get to thinking there's more truth being spoken by fictional characters on a TV show than by anybody in any position of authority anywhere here in These United States of Opinion-As-Reality.

At the same time, I wonder if this is just to see if anybody's listening. 

And I wonder if this little vignette is simply a plot device in Aaron Sorkin's devious little brain. 

And what if it's only an attempt to illustrate his other point about Crowd Sourcing and the dangers of instant reactions due to the immediacy of social media driving the mob, which is masquerading as "true democracy"?

And I wonder if the whole thing is so twisty-turny that it spins off into the infinite numbers of universes where everything that can happen does happen, and all you have to do to make it real is to say it's real.

And what about the very very very very real shit hitting the fan because of Climate Disruption?

and and and - fuck, I hate my brain sometimes.

Dear HBO

...I'm kind of intrigued by your new series - The Leftovers.  It's an interesting premise, and it seems to have some real potential.

But there's one little problem.  The flag patch on Garvey's right shoulder is backwards.  Protocol requires the field of stars always to be on the forward edge - ie: never "in retreat".

Just a nit I felt needed pickin'.

Newsroom

Another guilty pleasure from Aaron Sorkin - master of the This-Is-How-It-Oughta-Be TV series.

Turn That Shit Off

It Takes A While

From prototype to market in less than 20 years - wow.

Introduced at a trade show in Chicago in 1961, this thing featured a flat screen (4 inches thick) and a programmable recorder.

(hat tip The Atlantic)

Charlie Brooker

...is a fucking genius.

Part 1


Part 2

InfoMania

Current TV popped up on my Dish Network box a couple of years ago(?). They do some interesting stuff.

Moyers and The Wire

Bill Moyers' Journal has a very interesting interview with the creator of HBO's The Wire.

(Be sure to look for the full version - in 2 parts)

The guy has a lot to say about telling a story that journalists should be telling us and aren't - we're only getting some of these stories thru "reality-based fiction".  That's a pretty weird concept.  I should prob'ly think on that one for a while.