Happy Labor Day holiday weekend! "Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."
America has turned into an anti-labor endeavor of the part of the rich and powerful. We need to consider and reflect on that today, and all that we can do to continue turning that around. A country is not built upon its wealthy and powerful, but upon the engine of its existence...the people.
Some argue Unions, labor concerns, and government caring about its citizens is socialism. Pure socialism is dysfunctional just as pure capitalism is but hybrids work. Like in America, when it's allowed by those in power who tend to fight it tooth and nail. Who tend to call entitlements such things as social security, Medicare, and healthcare for all. While actual entitlements THEY want, for big business, as unquestionably necessary and not to be discussed but simply given, no matter what. Even against all reason and the damage, it does to our government, our citizens and our trust in our leaders, mostly Republicans as the belonging to the party of big business and apparently citizen discare and abuse..
Irish Central argues: Labor Day is an 'Irish holiday,' as the Irish created the union movement
OK. Enjoy...
In 2016 I retired from a career in IT, sold my house of 16 years where my kids grew up most of their lives in and moved to another nearby town of Bremerton. Ironically a town I'd avoided all my life after being put in jail for the afternoon one fine early summer day when I was in 12th grade and visiting my girlfriend who lived in Bremerton and went to Olympic College (yeah, back then in high school, few believed a 12th grader in Tacoma, had a girlfriend in college, in another town, nearby or not...though my close friends did knowing I wouldn't lie).
I was just sitting there waiting for her to stop by for lunch, at a friend's house, with her best girlfriend and ex-boyfriend (older than me and her) who introduced us. when I was 17. I was innocent of anything that day, and they let me go. I've detailed this story elsewhere. In being the only town I was ever tossed into a jail cell in, and because back then Bremerton sucked (it's really nice now) and kind of a rough Navy town, I never wanted to return here after we split up. Until I moved here in 2016 and both myself and my two adult kids found it a pretty nice community ... now.
I was shooting for, as I still am, for a career change, not actual retirement. Like many, my retirement funds aren't what they need to be. But I had enough of a cushion to allow me this attempt into a creative career in writing and filmmaking. A luxury I didn't have while my kids were being raised. As I just noted to a friend who said he was impressed with what I'm doing as he wouldn't try it at this stage in his life...I had really had it with working in IT and it was quit or retire. So I retired and decided I had the ability to go for it. I'm making the best of it so far. In the end, I'll either fail and look stupid, bor succeeded and appear smart and courageous. Time, very soon, will tell.
That meant I needed to change my lifestyle, cut my overhead, and lose some amenities and luxuries. One of those being news and entertainment access. I dropped my DirecTV satellite which I'd had for years and had never wanted Comcast because everyone I knew who had it, complained about it and I'd had no complaints with DirecTV. Besides, for years they refused to run a line out to the community I lived in, which was in the woods. Not far off, only a mile out of town, but if you wanted "cable" you needed a non-cable cable. Or pay for the cable to be strung? Really Comcast?
Once I got moved to Bremerton (from Suquamish, where Chief "Seattle" is buried), I signed up with Comcast. I wanted faster internet speeds and had tired, to be honest, of atmospheric conditions screwing up my viewing times.
One of my favorite shows and one I missed the most, was/is Rachel Maddow. Also Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Which I still can't get.
One of the things I like about Rachel is her cheerful attitude, her understanding of what the hell is going on and her ability to deliver complex issues today through a historical perspective. Essentially educating her viewers.
Something I don'/t see on Fox News, or much of anywhere else. It's what I've liked about some PBS news shows. A deeper, more academic perspective. So I'm going to use her show as a vehicle to exemplify what I'm talking about in this blog for this week.
Let me take this brief aside as I've gotten hammered by various conservatives I know about being in a liberal bubble (while it really is them in a far more corrupted conservative bubble), saying I only watch MSNBC (I don't, only Rachel on there), Or only CNN (I don't, not at all, unless I'm at an airport maybe).
I actually have always gotten my news worldwide, since college, ever since the 60s as a kid watching PBS. I found it fascinating there were other ways of delivering the news, fewer articles and deeper perspectives. Back then I did watch Walter Cronkite, and so on. Those were good days when news was a "loss leader", not for profit, or for entertainment, but real journalism.
I watched broadcast news shows for years and then I did like CNN for a while, in its beginning. But in the past years since college, I've leaned on a wider perspective. How do other nations view us? How accurate is our news? What are they missing? What are they too focused on? And since the last Iraq war, how much are they too closely aligned with our government.
Informed consideration, not political belief.
I do my best to receive and assimilate actuality in reality. I don't see that effort much on the conservative side.
I get my news now from all over. I see someone post something, I research it (if it's interesting) before I share it (mostly). I research down two or three levels while most do one level if even that. I review news from all over the world. I rarely watch American news, not MSM, or faux news as is on Fox News entertainment "news" shows. I review other information from intelligence sources available to citizens. Janes, FBI, even CIA, sources, raw journalists' comments in areas of concern, and so on.
I watch news shows from Japan, Canada, UK, Al Jezeera, and other countries. I do NOT watch Russia Today (or their disingenuous obfuscating moniker, RT), Sputnik or read Pravda (the misnamed Russian State News agency which disingenuously means, "Truth").
So yes, I'm well informed, with a background, education, and history involved in professional levels research, world history, civics, and covert intelligence research. I am, therefore, far better informed than most American citizens. There are obviously others far more informed. But for a citizen, I think I do pretty well to stay level headed and rational with actual facts and information.
Before retiring I had MSNBC and so I had The Rachel Maddow Show (TRMS). When I moved/retired, I cut my paid channels down to basic and lost her show. I missed Rachel. But two years, no Rachel.
Then I moved a mile away into a far smaller home, with a much more reasonable monthly rent (yes, dumped having a mortgage and just rent now...I hope to buy another house, but I want to pay it off, with no mortgage as I do now when I buy cars).
I moved as I said, and moved my Comcast cable. A friend, an actor I had used on my audiobooks and now in my filmmaking, mentions Rachel at times, as he has her show at home, and sometimes good-naturedly teases me about my not having her. I got to wanting to figure out how to get Rachel's show back.
I discovered on my LG smart TV something I'd known about but never much bothered with, "Live TV", streaming TV off the internet. MSNBC is in there. So I started messing with it and discovered, Rachel's show was on it!
I started watching streaming TV and discovered some interesting things. Like, the network doesn't much care about the quality of their shows on streaming. It's a bizarre world of broken segments, ads you HAVE to watch (can't scan past or skip as with a DVR), and weird juxtapositions of shows, internally speaking.
I'll say upfront, even though I'm a high-level computer and internet savvy one time professional, I haven't researched this issue and don't know much about the format or issues of networks presenting their shows on the internet. I'm just relating it as a consumer and a viewer. So I'm happy to hear knowledgable explanations for my following complaints.
I couldn't figure out at first what the hell was going on with Rachel's show. And then, they took it off streaming on Live TV. I lost her show again. But, what I realized was, they were running the segments of her show...backwards! It was starting with the last segment of the show first, then go backward until at the end you had the beginning. WTF I mean, really? But before I lost access to her show on streaming, they seemed to be changing it around to be more in proper order. OK, progress. But again, what the hell? I even posted on their website asking, what the hell people?
Anyway, she was gone again. Until...Amazon Prime day. I have a Kindle Fire HD 7" and on Prime day I got a 10" Kindle. I'd also heard about Amazon Fire TV Stick. Cheap, so I got one. And discovered that I could now again access MSNBC and other things. And I had back, Rachel's show!
So I started watching again, though I have to wait until the day after to see the previous day's show. . It seemed the show was better handled on this format which is apparently streaming, but different, more ordered and not just seemingly (to me) so randomly presented. There's a menu system for each show offered.
However...
Again there are the ads I cannot skip as I can automatically now, on my Tivo Bolt DVR. Something I'd been looking forward to for decades. Still, the attention to detail on these shows is frustrating at times. At times, at the end of a segment, they cut it off before the end of the segment.
When the adverts are over, you see that cut off ending, then the brand logo, then the next segment. The commercials, ones you have to watch, or mute as I do as they are so annoying (I mean, animals selling big pharma products? bizarre) and the same commercials again and again, saturation advertising for the dumbest among us. So annoying.
My point? IF they know, and they do know, that we are forced (no ad-skipping capabilities) to watch their adverts, then they are making money off these ads. To be sure. So at least they could do some due diligence regarding the quality of their presentations of their shows.
IF the argument is there's only one tech putting these shows online and they are overworked or something, they're still making money! Give us the quality we're actually "paying" for in watching adverts. We're not just your poor unwashed, we're your customers, your ad viewers, so give us the paid for attention we deserve!
Enough with this sketchy quality nonsense on streaming!
Also, monitor and keep the audio synced up with the video? Just a basic tenet of production, right?
It's time that streaming is given as much attention as cable, paid cable or broadcast TV.
It's time. It's passed time.
You're all professional organizations.
Act like it. Be professional.
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Monday, September 2, 2019
Monday, October 1, 2018
Sanity in TV Shows
I love progressive shows like The West Wing (which may come back!). It makes you wonder why conservatives shows aren't popular. Or all that useful other than for conservative to feel all touchy feely kind of theistic goodness. Fine. But we live in a harsh world where we need to be feeling bad when we should, not feeling good and ignoring reality.
Being conservatives doesn't push us boldly prepared into the future. It walks us slowly sometimes backward, tentatively into a perceived frightening future instead. It's interesting to note what conservatives and liberals like to watch on TV. From the article:
Carlson said there wasn't much of an overlap when it came to liberal and conservative television preferences. There were only three shows that liberals and conservatives both seemed to enjoy equally: "Dancing with the Stars," "Star Trek: Discovery," and "The Orville."
Carlson pointed out that these shows "don't necessarily have a political flavor," and suggested that probably had a lot to do with why liberals and conservatives both enjoyed them.
"Dancing and space — these are the things that unite our country," Carlson said.
Pure Genius (originally, Bunker Hill) was another show proposing change in a new and positive way. Of course it didn't last long,
We need shows that no matter how ridiculous they seem to some, at least try to tell us, to show us, how we can do things better. Proposing change in positive directions, technologies we don't yet know about, considerations of a future not devoid of happiness that gives us hope. Even if only for an hour or a half hour at a time.
We need shows that rail against a broken status quo, delve into possibility, suggest new realities. This isn't about any one show, just about a type of show in general who offer us hope, and possibilities.
That being said, a new show, New Amsterdam is in just that vein and I look forward to it. Give us more. Its preview this week was perfect in that way, pleasantly cathartic. No matter how ridiculous it may be it raises one's hope.
Until... reality once again seeps too quickly back in as one to think again of our current world, our broken Congress, Supreme Court and presidency. As ongoing efforts from within and without continue to further cripple our government, our broken political parties, and ourselves.
Our new reality is the world at large staring back in shock at us with frightened curiosity for where our lost and supposed protectors will take us next in their dismantling our governmental protections, befriending our enemies against us, all merely for their own profit, power and self benefit, all while trying to convince us it is all for our protection. But we're really not that stupid. Yes, some see disaster and conspiracy at every turn, but it has to be based in reality and information. Trust. Real Truth.
And now we have Murphy Brown back. A once top popular comedy from the 90s steeped in politics and reality, they are back at a time when we most need a severe and constant dose of reality, and some decent sense of humor. Maybe they will fail, but I hope not. Because we could really use some biting satire, some not always so gentle humor to help us plough through the day, much like Stephen Colbert does for me now on a nightly basis. Perhaps they should consult with Colbert or Jon Stewart?
Our broken status quo is only getting worse as confused and lost supporters of this feigned American conservative regime continues to dissemble and damage all they can before we take them out to the back forty and lose them there...hopefully forever.
After this week with the Judge Kavanaugh disastrous hearing (for Republicans) we could use a break. But Pres. Trump seldom lets up, trying to exhaust us so we will simply stop paying attention and let him do anything he wants.
Luckily, the US government legal system is not forgetting about Pres Trump,
And neither it would seem (finally) are progressive TV shows.
Being conservatives doesn't push us boldly prepared into the future. It walks us slowly sometimes backward, tentatively into a perceived frightening future instead. It's interesting to note what conservatives and liberals like to watch on TV. From the article:
Carlson said there wasn't much of an overlap when it came to liberal and conservative television preferences. There were only three shows that liberals and conservatives both seemed to enjoy equally: "Dancing with the Stars," "Star Trek: Discovery," and "The Orville."
Carlson pointed out that these shows "don't necessarily have a political flavor," and suggested that probably had a lot to do with why liberals and conservatives both enjoyed them.
"Dancing and space — these are the things that unite our country," Carlson said.
Pure Genius (originally, Bunker Hill) was another show proposing change in a new and positive way. Of course it didn't last long,
We need shows that no matter how ridiculous they seem to some, at least try to tell us, to show us, how we can do things better. Proposing change in positive directions, technologies we don't yet know about, considerations of a future not devoid of happiness that gives us hope. Even if only for an hour or a half hour at a time.
We need shows that rail against a broken status quo, delve into possibility, suggest new realities. This isn't about any one show, just about a type of show in general who offer us hope, and possibilities.
That being said, a new show, New Amsterdam is in just that vein and I look forward to it. Give us more. Its preview this week was perfect in that way, pleasantly cathartic. No matter how ridiculous it may be it raises one's hope.
Until... reality once again seeps too quickly back in as one to think again of our current world, our broken Congress, Supreme Court and presidency. As ongoing efforts from within and without continue to further cripple our government, our broken political parties, and ourselves.
Our new reality is the world at large staring back in shock at us with frightened curiosity for where our lost and supposed protectors will take us next in their dismantling our governmental protections, befriending our enemies against us, all merely for their own profit, power and self benefit, all while trying to convince us it is all for our protection. But we're really not that stupid. Yes, some see disaster and conspiracy at every turn, but it has to be based in reality and information. Trust. Real Truth.
And now we have Murphy Brown back. A once top popular comedy from the 90s steeped in politics and reality, they are back at a time when we most need a severe and constant dose of reality, and some decent sense of humor. Maybe they will fail, but I hope not. Because we could really use some biting satire, some not always so gentle humor to help us plough through the day, much like Stephen Colbert does for me now on a nightly basis. Perhaps they should consult with Colbert or Jon Stewart?
Our broken status quo is only getting worse as confused and lost supporters of this feigned American conservative regime continues to dissemble and damage all they can before we take them out to the back forty and lose them there...hopefully forever.
After this week with the Judge Kavanaugh disastrous hearing (for Republicans) we could use a break. But Pres. Trump seldom lets up, trying to exhaust us so we will simply stop paying attention and let him do anything he wants.
Luckily, the US government legal system is not forgetting about Pres Trump,
And neither it would seem (finally) are progressive TV shows.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Finally, quality shows abound in the video wasteland. Great! Right?
Do you have a favorite TV or cable show? Have more than one? A few? Many? More than you can watch? Have you had trouble recording shows on your DVR (digital video recorder) because there are more shows to record in one hour than your machine can handle? Recording on a second DVR in another room maybe? Feeling at all frustrated, even minimally, that you can't record (or watch) all of what is now available to you?
Remember when cable and TV were "video wastelands"?
But now you can watch on your DVR, stream shows, even watch on your cell phone!
I've finally hit a saturation point. I never thought I'd see the day. For years it was a video wasteland out there. Then Cable hit. Horrible, horrible cable TV that I told people would some day be great.
Things like tape (VHS, BETA) were wonderful and we could record off TV, buy or rent tapes and could finally enjoy a film straight through without commercial interruption.
Then, pay per view and pay cable channels arrived.
Then came TiVo and the DVR came to be. Awesome.
Now I could record shows and movies to watch as I spent increasingly too much time viewing as the amount of quality shows to watch grew and grew until today (see, I told them we'd get here, it just took nearly 30 years). I became concerned that I was watching too much video.
Then it happened, it came out of the blue. One day I realized that I had more video to watch than I could ever conceivably handle. And when you hit that saturation point, after worrying that you would be forever frozen to the screen (a thing which grew out of a long term sparseness of quality shows), finally, you could simply...let it all go.
Why?
Because. Since you have way more shows than you could ever conceivably watch, your internal responsibility checker, that software in your mind that tells you that you can't miss good shows because there are so few of them; you have to see them all. Finally we have passed through that now fictitious barrier to catch all the interesting stuff to watch and has led to opening the flood gates to reality.
Now you have got to let it go. You can finally back away. Away from too many shows to watch where you are watching all the time. Now you don't have to watch as many shows and that my friends, allows you to cut it down, to only a few of the highest quality shows, or the ones you are most attracted to. You can go out and breathe fresh air again, go visit friends, see something live and in person, music, plays, libraries, the sky's the limit!
And so here we are back again to where we all started. Except that now we do have more quality shows to view, when we are in the mood. Of course there is still the pablum out there available to when you feel like being mindless. Or for those who like remaining in that state, day in and day out.
Only, then you notice other shows that you feel compelled to watch, and so you again you increase your viewing till it gets saturated and then, one day, you realized it's too much again.
So you comfortably cut it back down, to reality and reasonableness. And so it goes, over and over....
Unless, you get a handle on it, adjust your lifestyle and lock yourself into only a few hours of only the most special shows per week. Just like we need to learn to limit our intake of luscious foods so we don't become morbidly obese, so we have to limit our intake of luscious and addictive shows and movies, so our life doesn't become morbidly obese with sitting and staring at the screen watching one after another after another, after another show.
So we have finally made it to where the video wasteland is filled also with very good shows and within that situation, we have a trap. Now that finally TV, cable, YouTube, Netflix and other DVD and streaming companies can supply us with all we could ever want and then some, it is time we catch up to them and restrict ourselves and build our lives so that we are enhancing our human experience and learning, and not just watching, watching, watching.
Even if we only watch the best shows or the best documentaries, we still need to consider and limit our viewing behaviors, otherwise we face the prospect of some other countries whose interpersonal relationships are suffering from all this technology and media. And their population is decreasing because of it. Something that in the overall context is good, but only up to a point. Countries where it is too much trouble to interact and make intimate relationships do to fear of rejection, or a lack of desiring drama we can get elsewhere and prefer superficial relationships as we have all those needs taken care of elsewhere.
Like in Japan where you can go and for a price have two cute girls smother you in attention for the rented amount of time, bolstering your ego, eliminating the need to deal with the fears of the drama of real relationships, social diseases, monetary issues and loss from things like divorce and familial situations. And women have the same options to purchase beautiful young men, sans sex, sans guilt, sans negative aspects so apparent in most romantic relationships.
Are we losing the emotional toughness required through having relationships?
So the next time you turn on that next great show after hours of viewing others, ask yourself if you couldn't be doing something more real and useful. Or if this is your solace after working long hours, or because you can't afford to do real things, ask yourself why that is too.
Is quality viewing now the new drug of the masses? Not that the concept is new but the availability of so much good viewing certainly (and finally) is. Is this excess of quality viewing becoming the new Soma, as in the novel, "Brave New World"? The drug that calms the masses so the leaders of the country could do whatever they wanted.
"..there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon..."
and
"the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of soma-holiday. How kind, how good-looking, how delightfully amusing every one was!" From Brave New World - 1932 by Aldous Huxley
Sounds kind of like TV, doesn't it. Have you ever taken a "staycation" because you couldn't afford to go to a real location and so you stay home to "relax" and work around the house or just watch and catch up on your viewing habit?
Perhaps this is all just more complicated than you ever realized? But how is it you haven't noticed?
Remember when cable and TV were "video wastelands"?
But now you can watch on your DVR, stream shows, even watch on your cell phone!
I've finally hit a saturation point. I never thought I'd see the day. For years it was a video wasteland out there. Then Cable hit. Horrible, horrible cable TV that I told people would some day be great.
Things like tape (VHS, BETA) were wonderful and we could record off TV, buy or rent tapes and could finally enjoy a film straight through without commercial interruption.
Then, pay per view and pay cable channels arrived.
Then came TiVo and the DVR came to be. Awesome.
Now I could record shows and movies to watch as I spent increasingly too much time viewing as the amount of quality shows to watch grew and grew until today (see, I told them we'd get here, it just took nearly 30 years). I became concerned that I was watching too much video.
Then it happened, it came out of the blue. One day I realized that I had more video to watch than I could ever conceivably handle. And when you hit that saturation point, after worrying that you would be forever frozen to the screen (a thing which grew out of a long term sparseness of quality shows), finally, you could simply...let it all go.
Why?
Because. Since you have way more shows than you could ever conceivably watch, your internal responsibility checker, that software in your mind that tells you that you can't miss good shows because there are so few of them; you have to see them all. Finally we have passed through that now fictitious barrier to catch all the interesting stuff to watch and has led to opening the flood gates to reality.
Now you have got to let it go. You can finally back away. Away from too many shows to watch where you are watching all the time. Now you don't have to watch as many shows and that my friends, allows you to cut it down, to only a few of the highest quality shows, or the ones you are most attracted to. You can go out and breathe fresh air again, go visit friends, see something live and in person, music, plays, libraries, the sky's the limit!
And so here we are back again to where we all started. Except that now we do have more quality shows to view, when we are in the mood. Of course there is still the pablum out there available to when you feel like being mindless. Or for those who like remaining in that state, day in and day out.
Only, then you notice other shows that you feel compelled to watch, and so you again you increase your viewing till it gets saturated and then, one day, you realized it's too much again.
So you comfortably cut it back down, to reality and reasonableness. And so it goes, over and over....
Unless, you get a handle on it, adjust your lifestyle and lock yourself into only a few hours of only the most special shows per week. Just like we need to learn to limit our intake of luscious foods so we don't become morbidly obese, so we have to limit our intake of luscious and addictive shows and movies, so our life doesn't become morbidly obese with sitting and staring at the screen watching one after another after another, after another show.
So we have finally made it to where the video wasteland is filled also with very good shows and within that situation, we have a trap. Now that finally TV, cable, YouTube, Netflix and other DVD and streaming companies can supply us with all we could ever want and then some, it is time we catch up to them and restrict ourselves and build our lives so that we are enhancing our human experience and learning, and not just watching, watching, watching.
Even if we only watch the best shows or the best documentaries, we still need to consider and limit our viewing behaviors, otherwise we face the prospect of some other countries whose interpersonal relationships are suffering from all this technology and media. And their population is decreasing because of it. Something that in the overall context is good, but only up to a point. Countries where it is too much trouble to interact and make intimate relationships do to fear of rejection, or a lack of desiring drama we can get elsewhere and prefer superficial relationships as we have all those needs taken care of elsewhere.
Like in Japan where you can go and for a price have two cute girls smother you in attention for the rented amount of time, bolstering your ego, eliminating the need to deal with the fears of the drama of real relationships, social diseases, monetary issues and loss from things like divorce and familial situations. And women have the same options to purchase beautiful young men, sans sex, sans guilt, sans negative aspects so apparent in most romantic relationships.
Are we losing the emotional toughness required through having relationships?
So the next time you turn on that next great show after hours of viewing others, ask yourself if you couldn't be doing something more real and useful. Or if this is your solace after working long hours, or because you can't afford to do real things, ask yourself why that is too.
Is quality viewing now the new drug of the masses? Not that the concept is new but the availability of so much good viewing certainly (and finally) is. Is this excess of quality viewing becoming the new Soma, as in the novel, "Brave New World"? The drug that calms the masses so the leaders of the country could do whatever they wanted.
"..there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon..."
and
"the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of soma-holiday. How kind, how good-looking, how delightfully amusing every one was!" From Brave New World - 1932 by Aldous Huxley
Sounds kind of like TV, doesn't it. Have you ever taken a "staycation" because you couldn't afford to go to a real location and so you stay home to "relax" and work around the house or just watch and catch up on your viewing habit?
Perhaps this is all just more complicated than you ever realized? But how is it you haven't noticed?
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