Thoughts on what i've read or seen lately.
Media
The Glass Teat (to borrow from Harlan Ellison)
Remember the good ol' days when you had new shows in the fall and reruns in the summer? It was easy to plan for things then....sigh.....
Now one show will start in the summer, another in the winter and yet another will mix repeats and new episodes. Thank god for Tivo. And now they're not even timing shows right. They might start three minutes early or go 5 minutes late. And Tivo doesn't always catch it so the last of show is cut off or the begining is wrong. Crap.
I rarely watch network shows except for the Sunday night FOX animateds but I am really into S*%& My Dad Says with the Shat. With Sasso and Sullivan from MAD TV it's a hilarious show. They always seem to sneak some little Star Trek or TJ Hooker trivia into the show for the fans. They know who's out there. Shat is doing great for a guy his age. His shows on A & E were top notch, too. "Raw Nerve" had the best interviews i ever saw of Limbaugh and Gene Simmons. "Aftermant" was an eye opener with lots of information left out of the 'news'. The Jessica Lynch interveiw was great.
Of course, i still love the Sci Fi channels Eureka for good sci fi comedy and action and the Cartoon Networks Robot Chicken is ever funny. But if you haven't seen the CN's "Ranger Smith" yet, hoo boy, you are missin' out. They brought back John Krickfalusa (Ren and Stempy) and all the old Yogi Bear music, sound effects and backgrounds. But the action is pure insanity. It's like Yogi and BooBoo on crack with a Tim Burton chaser.
5 days a week I listen to the radio at work. I listen to Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz in that order from 6M to 3pm. It's an interesting mix. Stephanie and crew make me laugh, Thom makes me think and Ed makes me mad. They are great progressive talkers, very informative and very passionate. They know that they are drowned out by the voices of hate and fear on the right but they keep putting out the word.
My favorite is Miller who works with two talented 'mooks' one of whom is Jim Ward, a voice artist who does remarkable impressions. He does voices for cartoons, has won an emmy and is lso very intelligent and multilingual. They have great guests, some regular like Hal Sparks who is on every Wednesday and is also intelligent as hell. When he and Jim get rockin' there is no stopping them.
Thatls the only radio I listen to. Can't stand the canned stuff.
Since my vision started going I have been listening to audio books. Reading small print is very difficult these days so i rely on the Library of Congress and iTunes for my reading material.
Recently, I downloaded a copy of "Where Men Find Glory: the Pat Tillman Story" from the National Library Service. This was an amazing book about the life of Pat Tillman but far more was it an eye opener about the way he died. I was not aware, for example, that he was part of the rescue squad in the Jessica Lynch fiasco. Her story is dynamite also. What is so sad about this is not his death, though it was tragic, but the way he died and the shameful and deceptive way the Bush Administration tried to cover it up.
Why was his brain, which was found at the scene of the death (murder?) lost in transit when it had been clearly marked as urgent by the commanding officer who scraped it up from the ground where it had been literally blown out of his head.
Why did they burn all of his belongings including his body armor and diary? Why did the Pentagon stand in the way of every investigation into the affair? Why did the man who killed him give 5 totally differant versions fo the event when questioned and interviewed?
We know about the cluster fuck that was the Jessica Lynch incident and how badly the military screwed that up and then lied like dogs to make her and themselves look good. (see the "Aftermath" interview with Jessica Lynch on AE for the sordid truth on that one).
This book made me question even more why we trust the idiots in the military to do anything right for us. There were more friendly fire deaths in Iraq then there were enemy action related fatalities. The military now has a shoot first and then forget it policy, ordering their troops to ignore innocents and just kill them all.
Anyway, it's a great book if you don't mind having your blood pressure elevated.
I never enter a theater any more. My eyes make it too difficult and I get a headache trying to follow the action. The last movie I saw at the theater was "Star Trek" last year. I have a 61" LCD rear screen projector and a 7 channel surround sound system at home with a Sony Bluray hooked to it so I just wait for the movie to come out on DVD. I rent from Netflix so keep up pretty good with the movies. I really don't mind waiting for awhile to see a flick. Avatar was great on my TV and I was able to skip back if I missed something.
I really enjoyed "Percy Jackson and the Olympiads: The Lightening Thief" and the remake of "Clash of the Titans". They were fun and made good use of the technology to create a believable spectacle.
Of course, the "Transformers" movies and "Iron Man 2" were outstanding in blu ray.
Radio
Books
The Bigger Screen