I am a big fan of the American liberal TPM media, because they look at the details of American politics and media interaction. Today the media is so self obsessed that it creates it’s own politics around politics. So called experts and pundits are framing the issues where there are none - and create a storm of media attention where it is wasted. Big issues like the war in Afghanistan get under-reported.

The clip above perfectly illustrates how one false citation can keep the cable network news happy and busy for a whole day. The pundits simply create work for themselves. This is not journalism, but simply a propaganda business that has nothing to do with the real needs of people and essential political issues.

God bless America and TPMtv!

Isn’t it amazing that so many movie and TV series deal with magical relationships: mortal boy meets witch girl.

Woman are complicated enough already - why would anyone want to added bonus of being magical as well?

There is not much TV (via the Internet) which is worth watching, but "30 Days" is a great show. It is TV at it’s best: showing people other people and their way of life - so we can learn from each other and gain insights that are usually hard to achieve.

All "30 Days" episodes are built around the same mechanism: one person has to live with another group of people - with a contrary lifestyle or opinion. For example a bible thumbing guy has to live with a San Francisco gay dude or a meat munching hunter lives 30 days with a vegan family.

Most reality TV is built on "stupidity sensationalism" - which means they show the stupid sides of people and their actions and make fun of them. Jerry Springer talkshow is a typical example of this breed of television.

Morgan Spurlock and his team try to keep it real and show both sides of the argument / lifestyle. They never preach, they never portrait any side as better or superior - and they don’t use any cheap television effects to dumb it down.

I really hope there will be some day an international version of these - because it is obviously very US-centric - but nevertheless good.

More? 30 Days - Official Site and Wikipedia

You can only get as smart as the programs you decide to watch on the telly. Most people chose crap - so they stay stupid. But also most so called educational broadcasters like Discovery or History Channel are pretty dumb. Fancy computer graphics are no substitute for excellent researchers and writers.

Hmmm, isn’t the X-Files hype already a bit old?

Don’t get me wrong: I was a huge X-Files fan - it was one of the best things that happened in the 1990’s and it even made me buy a TV to watch the video tapes I bought for a lot of money (note to kids: that was before bittorrent gave you all these shows for "free").

But ten years after the first X-Files flick "Fight the Future" it all feels a bit stale and disconnected. Please Mr Carter don’t turn this into another media zombie like Star Trek that refuses to die.

And putting a comedian - the great Billy Connolly - into the movie as a serious character is not a great indicator of great wisdom. Maybe a less well known face might have been better?

More? Trailer @ Apple.com  and the Official Site

Finally a sport you don’t need slow motion action replays.

*Thanks to Jason for that nasty image*

Got 90 minutes to kill?

Watch some British Humor "Trigger Happy". They play nasty tricks to unsuspecting people with their weird humor and hidden cameras.

*Thanks to Edosan for some more fun in my life*

In the Age of TV families shared quality moments together in front of the screen. In the Internet Age we sit quietly in our rooms and maybe chat via AIM together. Computer screens don’t provide the same social glue as TV screens.

Several people fighting for the remote control was bad enough - but a consensus could be reached which show to watch for an hour or two. But you can’t have four people controlling a computer and surf different websites at the same time.

TV serves as the radio today - it provides the noise to our life, but it is the computer with it’s highly individualized interaction that grabs our FULL attention.

So our media experience is more and more individualistic - and all these digital toys and gadgets (especially cell phones and instant messaging) keep us “busy” and distracted all the time.

In front of the TV the whole family could switch off - today that switch has been lost. We are always “ON” …

Is it just me or are these TV presenters get hotter every year, with even bigger red lips and tantalizing outfits? Can’t we have simply ‘normal’ women not dress up dolls as presenters?

Watching the underclass, the addicted and the stupid getting busted. Doesn’t that make you feel superior?

It is amazing how many shows there are on TV that deal with justice, law and order. It doesn’t matter if it’s reality TV like Cops or fiction like those many CSI shows (all these different offspring of the same formula are a phenomenon in itself). Each country seems to have it own mixture of court TV, forensic documentaries, lawyer dramas and car chases …

In all these shows one topic prevails: the law wins, the bad guys are caught and punished.

One would think that we would want to watch something relaxing in the evening or ignore other people’s problems - instead murder and minute details of investigation seem to be more interesting than some simpler forms of entertainment.

I’ll give you blood, you give me better ratings!

But behind all this is our natural (?) desire for social porn: to participate in what’s going on and staying informed about the newest gossip of the global tribe. It doesn’t matter if it’s a real event like O.J. Simpsons trial or such trivial crap like Paris Hilton going to jail for being a drunken pussy. We want to be informed and we want to ‘relate’ - and it doesn’t matter if it’s a petty criminal or a superstar - or even fictional character.

It doesn’t matter if it’s other humans killing each other or making love to each other - we love to watch and learn intimate secrets behind it all.

But there is another layer to this lust for justice. It’s a double sided affair of the same mechanism of ‘violence’. We all have been victims of social, emotional or even criminal violence - so we want justice, revenge or just the reassurance that we will receive justice and protection. But deep in our fantasies we are also thieves and murderers - we all had the impulse / moments in our life’s to cause mayhem to others out of anger or a simple case of road rage.

Science and bad scripts to the rescue - we bring justice on a weekly basis.

So on one side we want protection from violence - but we also love to explore and participate when others were violent or even killed. For a few minutes we can dive into the mindset of the killer, the victims and the justice system - and compare it to our own inner world. It a mental carnival in which we can play every role and explore their good and bad sides while munching potato chips.

Scientists have shown many times that we mentally and emotionally emphatize on a deep level with other people - no matter if we watch something happening in reality (like driving by a traffic accident and everybody gloats) or a fictional event (we cry when made up characters die or model our lives on their behavior).

Especially in our hysterical media world plus criminals and terrorists at each corner we welcome ’security’, ‘justice’ and ‘protection’ - even when it’s just artificial. Soothing our minds is almost as important as real justice, protection or security.

So watching violence and how others deal with it or are doing terrible stuff helps us to cope with violence in our own lives and shows us new, different or frightening ways to deal with this topic.

But real crime and real violence is no ‘game’ to explore. Especially in fictional crime the dead always return in another series and lethal injuries can be overcome with a good script. Even court TV, recreations or documentaries do not really show the blood, pain and horror or real crimes. So can’t really emphatize, we always only get a filtered nicer version of reality.

Even celebrity victims are pretty dead after being murdered by their celebrity husbands.

Before I finish the empathy aspect of the Justice Porn: it is amazing that we do not really hunger for justice. In many fictional and real stories we are rather fascinated by the dark and evil characters. Some murderers have become celebrities or have a weird cult following. It is more of a social consensus that the bad guys have to loose, not because we love justice, but because we don’t want to be on the receiving end of a bad persons action without protection and the moral high ground against ‘evil doers’.

Since we all can relate to pain and suffering we all agree / empathize that we don’t want to suffer from it. This has nothing to do with justice, this is simply egoism and self preservation.

It’s good to be the king …

One last aspect is the God-complex in all of this. Sitting there and watching the crime like God watches masturbating sinners - we ’see and know’ more than the real or unreal protagonists. We are TV Gods, we know it all - and we also judge the people in the stories and events we watch on screen.

It’s truly pornography of power for the powerless. It’s an illusion of power and simpler version of sitting on a jury bench yourself (just without any responsibility). Most of all ‘all of our couch potato opinions’ don’t have any serious consequences. The law and justice are thankfully no longer bound to popular opinions or people’s anger and rage - at least in most countries.

And that’s a good thing. Instead of ropes for lynching and stones for stonings give them TV.

Just because people watch you bending spoons doesn’t mean they believe in the paranormal. They rather like your little show and entertainment you provide …

Just two years ago I discovered Bob Ross show ‘The Joy of Painting‘ although it’s pretty old. You might not like his style, but he is fun to watch. It’s the most peaceful art show I have ever seen - he is more like a monk preaching happiness then a art teacher. I love it - and I might even learn a trick of two.

He died over ten year ago 1995 - a sad loss, since there are not many TV art shows around. I would swap ten big brothers for one decent show about architecture or sculpting. I would even dump some of these techno fetish documentaries (Monster Trucks, Monster Buildings, Monster Anything) from the History Channel for some more art education.

We already have way too much crap on TV.

More? Bob Ross on YouTube

As an European I am used to being ignored by American media companies. Most of them block foreign access to their web video players. The BBC has done the same with the spanking new iPlayer as well.

I find it very annoying that in the age of international media consumption markets are still protected so fiercely. On one side media companies like to have a global hype to sell their wares (in that case DVDs and TV rights around the globe), but they don’t want an international audience to join the fun at the same time. They are only allowed to join the ‘local’ party - organized - or better say licensed - by some national broadcaster / company.

This is boring. For example ‘Heroes’ arrived two years after the hype started in the US. People read about that a long time ago, but had already forgotten about that ‘cool new thing’ once it arrived 24 months later. Not so cool anymore.

Many movies are released on the same day worldwide. Movie companies now understand what it means to have a global audience. TV broadcasters are still on that national mindset - that seems to directly program their firewalls to keep people like me out.

Today the American Mainstream Media is finally showing some backbone and attacks the Bush government. But for many years nobody was brave enough to raise his or her voice - with a few applaudable exceptions.

One of these exceptions is Keith Olbermann (and his crew) - anchorman of the MSNBC news show Countdown. The show itself follow the usual American pattern of facts mixed with some political pundits comments within a three to eight minutes slot between advertising. Nothing special here.

But his special comments are superb (click here to see a list of his greatest moments on YouTube)! Sometimes his monologues are up to ten minutes long and present well analyzed reflections of the current situation (or usually fuckup by Mr Shrub and his cohorts).

There is a brilliance and intelligence in his speeches that most mainstream TV journalists don’t come close.

So in the recent years he has been the voice of sanity in the dark called the United States of America. Thank you Mr. Olbermann!

The older Max.

The younger one back in the good old days …

Well, it’s only for a very amusing TV spot. But at least they used the original actor (Matt Frewer).and setup. Great Homage to one of the greatest pop icons of the 80’s. Remember that cool song from Art of Noise with Max?

Once more thanks to Edosan for keeping me updated on my childhood heroes.

Life could be so simple! Everybody should have a green handler - so we can blame the slugs for our miserable life’s. I for one welcome our new jelly overlords!

Romantic movies are for chicks and action stuff is for guys. Right? Wrong. There seem an incredible number of chick flicks out there and an even greater number of dumb violent stuff for youngsters - BUT hardly any good stuff for ‘real men’.

Dead Poets Society - or how it feels like to be a boy. One of the few movies who don’t turn growing up into a screwball comedy. This one shows how important it is to have a good mentor (sort of older guy) to introduce young gentlemen to art and higher principles - as an alternative to ‘just’ sex and getting a proper job.

Birdy - Also a story about growing up, but also about coping with tragedy, pain, madness and - mostly - about finding your own way. Friendship also plays an important part in this one. Great Soundtrack by Peter Gabriel.

About Schmidt - This movie kills me every time. About the tragedy of a guy, who discovers at the end of his life that he hasn’t lived at all. Very heartbreaking and a huge warning sign. To do what is expected of you (getting a good job, starting a family and retire to a nice home) isn’t life …

Broken Flowers - Whatever happens to old womanizers? The story of Don and his search for a son or better say a family or steady relationship he never had or could ‘create’. A great movie about lonely guys, who have achieved something, but have nothing.

Any movies my male readers like to add?

I am a big fan of Frontline and it many great documentation - not only because you can watch so many great reports online. This one is important, because it shows what really happened at Abi Graib and HOW it happened. I still can’t belief that Rumsfeld is still in Office and this Gonzales guy got even a bigger job.

I hope that one day they will be brought to justice, like Osama or any other terrorist - because what Rumsfeld ‘allowed’ was political terrorism - nothing else.

Please go and watch it.

If you live outside the UK you might not have heard of the Clangers. I love these little buggers. They are so very different from today’s often brutal computer animated action heroes and monsters for kids.

The last Star Trek show ‘Enterprise’ was pretty much a fiasco. It had bad scripts, bad actors, bad everything. Now a new movie is in the making and I already hate it. It’s about young Kirk, young Spock and young McCoy …

Instead of trying to come up with really good ideas, Hollywood just circles the drain and recycles the same idea over and over again.

Gene Roddenberry was a brave men and tried to break old taboos and limits with his wacky little show. He succeeded and that is why the show was so beloved. But today it’s only about the franchise and milking some more dollars out of plastic figures and re-released DVDs.

Why are they afraid to go where no one has gone before?

Since I recently complained about the lack of overall female comedy power I want to praise a great talent. She is a great writer and performer. A rare combination. And she is quite sexy without pushing the standard bimbo factors (blonde, boobs, brainless behaviour).

Get some Tina on YouTube.

The Japanese have a very weird TV shows, but this one drove me mad with laughter: Human Tetris, Part 2 and Part 3. Enjoy!

Thanks to Edosan for another mad moment in my life. 

I love the BBC. They always produce challenging series and try to support public education and discussion. I can’t add much to what the website has to say about itself and the project:

Democracy is arguably the greatest political buzzword of our time and is invoked by everyone - but what does it mean? Can it be defined, measured, safeguarded? Can it be sold, bought, and transplanted? Can it grow? Can it die? What does it mean to people who can’t even talk about it? What does it mean to people who don’t believe in it? What does it mean to you?

In October 2007, ten one-hour films focused on contemporary democracy will be broadcast in the world’s largest ever factual media event. More than 40 broadcasters on all continents are participating, with an estimated audience of 300 million viewers. Each of the broadcasters - an A-Z which includes everyone from Al Arabiya to ZDF - will be producing a locally-based seasons of film, radio, debate and discussion to tie in with the global broadcast of the Why Democracy? films.

The films are made by independent award-winning filmmakers from around the world, including China, India, Japan, Liberia, USA, Bolivia, Denmark, Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan and Russia. With subjects ranging from US torture methods to the election of a class monitor in a Chinese primary school to the Danish Cartoons scandal, the films take a wide-ranging and in-depth look at the world we live in today.

That’s not all. We are creating 20 thought-provoking short films, dealing with personal, political and rights issues around the theme ‘What does democracy mean to me?’  These films will be available to view on whydemocracy.net.

Please take some time to watch all ten episodes online. Highly recommended. And it provides you with insights you hardly find in most of the mainstream media (reports).

More? Official Homepage

Read this nice article at the Telegraph website - and don’t forget to click the big image to watch the video.

Nicely done Guinness - I am sure these people had no cars, furniture or books left after the shot was done.

Thanks to Edosan for another insanely great link.

I really really really don’t like cars. Never owned one, probably never will. So TV shows about cars hardly appeal to me … unless it’s done in style with that dry British humor …

In this episode our three heroes try to cross one African nation with the shabbiest and oldest second hand cars they could buy off the natives. A highly amusing adventure unfolds … enjoy!