Tag Archives: Media

Why There’s Traffic In Silverlake

18 Sep

Two and a Half sitcom writers left in L.A. is a nondescript story about the state of affairs in the business of Hollywood concerning it’s now mostly out of work writers. In reality, maybe it’s bigger than that, as my Producer neighbor is now in the bread line. It’s the economy, it’s Wall Street, it’s the mortgage crisis, or it’s because the amateurs are taking over.

The Thumbs Up for Leslie Hall

Many outlets, such as YouTube and Napster, are channels that can circumvent institutional and expensive (i.e. to apply for industry jobs, you’ll need a short film as a CV, costing upwards of $20,000) obstacles standing in the way of unrecognized brilliant and marketable ideas, like a big F-U to a system that doesn’t easily let anyone but Ivy Leaguers get in; a way to communicate with masses of people who would support and demand more of what you put in front of them by way of cold hard cash through media deals and artist partnerships. As in, Leslie Hall and her Gem Sweater riffs.

I can’t wait to see where this gets us.

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Watching TV Is Not An Exercise

11 Sep

I worry about my brain.

Yesterday I wanted to pour coffee on my salad even before I sat down to eat it (maybe lumping that in with brain malfunction is a little presumptuous since I was eating tofu and spinach, and really who wouldn’t want it to taste like something, anything else than what it actually is?). Nevertheless, I was having visions of doing this act while reading/eating in Barnes & Noble across from my office. Am I forgetting my vitamins?

Photo by John Baird

I don’t have cable TV. I have TV, I just don’t have the multi-channel surf wonderment that is 150 channels of digital information at its best, with the exception of all gaming options of Tomb Raider (only you, Lara). Anyway, thanks to my empty pockets, I won’t pony up the funds to pay for the 145 channels I will never watch, even with the option that I will get to watch Showtime’s Dexter Season 3 (I love you Michael C. Hall!) with a $80 dollar upgrade (I don’t love you that much). So, with just 28 channels of network TV, 20 of which are in Spanish, I’m left with two choices, KCET’s channel 15, or Fox’s channel 11. Fox loses because The Simpsons are not on, and therefore, at 8:30pm at night, I’m left with KCET’s public programming. Lucky me, it’s about brain fitness and rightly called The Brain Fitness Program hosted by a former famous actor, whose name I can’t recall. Where are those vitamins?

Photo by M.S. White

Dr. Jason Karlawish has a lot to say, so I’m listening intently, but as all programming goes, they cut to commercial and I realize they’re hocking a Brain Fitness Video (Like Brain Age? Um, no. I imagine Richard Simmons – Fitness for Your 50’s). I was watching based on the promise of educational content; free unencumbered access to it (where’s my tivo?). I’m out. I think I’ll stick to chess, I hear that can be good for your brain too.

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