What Number One Wants for Christmas...

As they have yet to offer holiday vacations at the beautiful seaside community "The Village"...

I think I want a life sized working Robby the Robot for Christmas. At 5 cents under 50 grand, it's a bargain. If it were actually 50k, I would think twice about asking, but those 5 cents sure make a difference. If you want to buy me a "hand crafted" Robby, rather than the corporate one above, you can get one here.

D&D Has History on Its Side

It always fills my heart with warmth when a new person is brought into my favorite geek hobby. Yet it has seemed in the past that the Roleplaying establishment were satisfied with their current "market share" and were unwilling to advertise outside the existing players. Earlier this month, my opinion of the industry hadn't changed when I read that November 5th was World Wide Dungeons and Dragons day, after all the event was marketing "game days" at current niche gaming stores. Who goes to these except people who are already playing.

But lo and behold! It appears that Hasbro is a major sponsor of The History Channel's upcoming documentary about the Crusades. It looks like Hasbro is waking up to marketing in order to expand the hobby. Either that or someone at the History Channel is an RPG geek. Since THC has a card game called Anachronism (it's a pretty good one at that), my guess is that the latter is more likely.

Parents Television Council Releases TV Best and Worst List

The Parents Television Council, the modern equivalent of Tipper Gore's PMRC, has released their list of Best and Worst Television shows. The list is based on assumptions similar to that of former Hearst columnist Louella Parsons and Tipper Gore. Parsons has been quoted as saying: "The child's little mind is like a beautiful rosebud; if you force it open with unnatural things you will have a warped rose." (Thanks to Cathy Seipp for the quote). Naturally, according to the PTC, modern television is filled with many unnatural things. As for Tipper, well in her natural "I know better than you way" she said in her book, "It's not easy being a parent these days. It's even tougher being a kid. Perhaps together we can help our society grow up." Isn't that nice.

You probably have guessed by now that I don't much like these "what's wrong with the world today" lists. It isn't because I like the thought of 8 year-olds jackin' cars and smackin' hoes while playing GTA: San Andreas. My ire is raised because the advocates of these kinds of lists seem to be under the impression that we once lived in some Golden Age where young minds were pure and uncorrupted by sex, violence and drugs. It is true that in 1650 young people didn't read these kinds of stories, instead they lived them. I imagine the life of a child in Magdeburg in 1630 where he gets to see his father burned alive and his mother raped by imperial troops -- all of which happens before some pederast rapes and murders him or her -- and I start thinking about how nice it is that we can spend so many resources "protecting" our children from graphic images in modern society, and it is nice. I am grateful that we live in a world so peaceful and stable, at least here in the West, that we can worry about imagined explicit acts and how much they cause real immoral acts to occur. But I also know that much of the social science research in this area is deeply flawed by preconceived notions as to whether seeing violence causes violence, even if the witnessed violence is virtual. Before I dig myself too deep, let me just say this. I believe it is the duty of every parent to actively engage in their children's upbringing and to monitor their activities. It is also central that parents communicate and transmit virtuous character to their children. I don't like preachy people who come off as holier than thou telling me what is good and what isn't.

So without further ado, their list and my thoughts.

Best Shows, according to PTC:

1) Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Okay, I have to admit that this is pretty positive programming and I watch it when I loose faith in humanity, but I cry everytime I watch this show. It is so overwhelmingly manipulative of my emotions, so I don't watch it regularly.

2) Three Wishes. Nope, I don't watch EM:HE the NBC version because it is even more gratuitous in its manipulation of my emotions.

3) American Idol. Right, these are positive role models for children...Baby Mama anyone?

4) The Ghost Whisperer. Haven't seen it, have no interest. Seems like a schmaltzy combination of Sixth Sense and Necroscope, but no make me jump moments.

5) Everybody Hates Chris. Haven't seen it, have it on TiVo because everyone seems to like it. But seriously, the PTC recommending Chris Rock?

6) Reba. Don't watch it, can't say anything pithy.

7) Bernie Mac. Like it, don't watch it much.

8) Dancing with the Stars. Now we know who watched that show.

9) 7th Heaven. Huge guilty pleasure for me.

10) None. Are you kidding me?! What about Rock Star INX (it was no more/less immoral than American Idol)? How about Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy? Nope...nothing else kids can watch.

Worst Shows according to PTC:

1) The War at Home. This show bored the heck out of me, it was so forced that I was forced to change the channel. Okay, I think it's bad too, but that's just because I find it dull.

2) The Family Guy. Just like I don't like "preachyness," I hate forced sophistication and "edgyness." When a show is naturally edgy, or does it real well like South Park, I like it. Family Guy? Click. I think I'll watch the Simpsons.

3) American Dad. Yawn...is this a show? See comments re: Family Guy.

4) The O.C. I love this show and am certain that, just like Laura Ingraham, the PTC doesn't actually watch this show. Sure they describe the events from the episode descriptions, but do they actually watch the show. Sandy Cohen is one of the all time great fathers in television history. Sure there are drugs, sex, and scandal. But this is a show about how a family who loves one another deals with the problems around them. Your wife or mother is an alchoholic? Have an intervention and get her help! Yup...that's bad advice. Ryan drops out of school and doesn't want to apply for college? Talk to him about his problems, work through them and get him on track. Yup...that's bad advice. Tell woman, your first love in fact, who wants you to cheat on your wife with her no? Ooooh how shocking. As I said, I don't think they actually watch the show.

5) C.S.I. So criminal procedurals are a no go, but Ghost Whisperer is okay? Okaaaay. I understand the subject matter is a little "raw," but criminals are caught and punished and treated like scum. Isn't that what we want young people to learn?

6) Desperate Housewives. Don't watch it, but looks entertaining. Question to those of you who do. Do the characters who behave immorally not get punished or something?

7) Two and a Half Men. Obviously the PTC is confusing Charlie Sheen's private life with that of his character. Have you ever noticed the Charlie character, you know the playa, is often made the fool. Sure he doesn't learn from his past, but the anti-Charlie website episode was hilarious.

8) That 70's Show. Most of my comments about the O.C. apply here. Red rules. The PTC must be smoking dope.

9) Arrested Development. Too "edgy" for me.

10) Cold Case. Can't watch those procedurals. Is it because murderers are caught?

Maybe tommorrow, I will post the shows that I like. I won't post about the shows I don't like because I don't watch them.

Another Film Celebration This Weekend in LA LA Land.

When posting interesting things to do this weekend, I forgot to mention the "FILMI MELODY: SONG AND DANCE IN INDIAN CINEMA" series at UCLA.

Here is a description of the event from the Archive Calendar:

The Archive's 2005 showcase for some of the best products of Indian popular cinema has a few new wrinkles. We are now calling it Filmi (rather than Bombay) Melody, in order to suggest that the exuberant music and melodrama so closely identified with the Hindi commercial cinema produced in Bombay (Mumbai) are truly pan-Indian.

Also, this year's series celebrates the work of three of contemporary India's top stars:
Amitabh Bachchan, the industry-defining "angry young man" of the 1970s, voted the "greatest star of stage and screen" of all time in a BBC online poll and still a major leading man in his 60s;
Kamal Haasan, the chameleon superstar, arguably Indian cinema's leading method actor, who has dominated South India's Tamil-language movie industry for two decades;
and Shah Rukh Khan, a new kind of Bollywood megastar whose popularity owes an unprecedented debt to audiences in the global Indian diaspora.

This is still, of course, a celebration of melody, because the music in popular Indian films continues to be an excellent early warning system of stylistic changes on the horizon. One of the most hopeful recent developments has been the rapid growth of a sharply focused neo-classical movement among younger actors and directors. Remakes of Golden Age classics have been released or are in the works, and one of the past year's biggest hits, choreographer Farah Khan's directorial debut MAIN HOON NA (I'M HERE NOW), is a frank and affectionate homage to the sort of high-'70s masala movies parodied a generation earlier by Manmohan Desai in AMAR AKBAR ANTHONY. The changes are especially evident in the way songs are being picturized. In some of the best new Bollywood movies, such as Ashutosh Gowariker's SWADES (2004), the hero sings while sauntering along a country road like Dev Anand or slouching over a piano like the young Raj Kapoor. He no longer feels obliged in every case to do what lyricist Javed Akhtar calls "aerobics" in front of a chorus line of item queens.

As the title character of last year's crowd-pleaser MUNNA BHAI, MBBS, would likely put it: "Lose the tension, yaar. Relax and enjoy."


Curated by David Chute and Cheng-Sim Lim
Special thanks to: Ramesh Ramaswamy, Chandra Hasan—Rajkamal Films, Uma da Cunha, Isa Cucinotta—Film Society of Lincoln Center.

I was forwarded the information by event curator David Chute.

Want to Write a Supernatural Spec?

As a fan of Supernatural, and of geek genre fiction in general, I thought I would offer my advice to any struggling screenwriters who might want to write a spec for Supernatural. I don't have time to write one myself, with my trying to get young people to vote and all. While my wife might attempt one, it would be based one one of the several discussions we have had over ideas. I just want to make sure that whoever ends up writing on Supernatural continues to entertain me. See, it's a selfish reason.

[Before I continue in this vein though, I would like to direct you to Gaze Theory's post regarding Unesco allowing its members to ban US film and music, something that could have serious affect on the entertainment industry.]

Okay, now back to the advice:

First, select an Urban Myth with supernatural elements and have that be the basis of the A storyline. If you don't know any you can go to Snopes to find one to research. You can also take a non-supernatural urban myth and make it "mysterious" or take a standard horror tale and modernize it.

Second, make sure to include the trope of "secrets." Every episode has had reference to how secrets come back to haunt you. This includes the fact that the brother's are ghost hunters being a secret (see below).

Third, have a small romantic element. By small, I mean very small, and usually involving Dean because Sam has his own C story going on (see below).

Fourth, remember the "secrets and lies" comment above. Well the brothers have a great longterm conflict building due to their dishonesty. In almost every episode the brothers have claimed to be law enforcement and have been found out. In the Pilot, Dean was arrested for impersonating an officer. In Phantom Traveler they potentially p.o.'ed the Feds by posing as Homeland Security, and in Skin the doppelganger committed murders while looking like Dean. Sure the Winchester brothers killed the doppelganger, thus the case is closed, but Dean Winchester had an APB issued for his arrest for murder and he probably has a warrant from when he broke out of jail in the Pilot. They are building up with this and if you pick up on that, it will look good.

Fifth, speaking of building up...remember that C storyline with Sam I was talking about. We all know that he saw his girlfriend murdered in the Pilot, but he also saw her ghost (in daylight and dressed in white which is a possible reference to the Lady in White in the Pilot). Try to speculate what her supernatural yearning/need might be, and remember their mom was killed the same way and may be lurking around somewhere as well.

Sixth, don't try to trick the audience. The narrative should have surprises, yes, but they should be conventional genre surprises.

Seventh, remember that the brothers are the exception to your typical horror movie rule. The brothers know from moment one that they live in a horror show. They may not know if they are in the middle of a horror narrative at any given moment, but they know what is going on. Remember that Sam figured out that the doppelganger was posing as Dean very easily because he was expecting something to be wrong.

Those are my thoughts...oh, and I might be happy to read any specs you might be writing and comment back.

In an Era of Declining Subscriptions Will Clarity Make a Difference?

Clarity Media Group will be offering a FREE local paper in Baltimore sometime next year. The paper will have an initial circulation of approximately 250,000 and according to the Miami Herald, "will focus on local news in addition to offering regional, national and international stories."

The move is interesting given that, according to the Wall Street Journal (requires subscription), Baltimore's current mainstream paper The Sun had an 11% fall in circulation over the past 6 months.

Living in Los Angeles, the topic of the health of the Los Angeles Times comes frequently into conversation. You can read some of Cathy Seipp's comments on the topic here and here, but make sure you read the comments section as well.

As we well know a number of conservative pundits, like Hugh Hewitt, have been prophesy-ing the death of the printed newspaper. Conservatives are not alone in this opinion, the chaps over at Penny-Arcade are fond of saying they don't like to talk about syndicated comic strips because extinct species are boring.

Personally, I think that deep coverage of local events (unlike the Times coverage of Rod Lurie say which they covered in their business section since that is where we all look for local entertainment news), good state capital coverage, sufficient national coverage, and a price tag of FREE is what most people are looking for in a newspaper. One of the features that keeps people coming to the online versions of Newspapers is the pricetag. The pricetag is also one of the reasons I read the LA Weekly (it also has much better LA coverage than the Times). In fact, when it comes to a good local paper I am very willing to read opinions I vastly disagree with if the paper is both topical and free.

I think Clarity Media Group may be on to something, but what do I know?

World Video Standards Map

Just in case you were all wondering which country uses which video standard.

bright green - NTSC, yellow - PAL, or switching to PAL, orange - SECAM, olive - no information

Thanks to Wikipedia for the image.