Over There

I had committed myself to watching FX's new show, Over There, with the knowledge that there was potential there for really well produced drama. Steven Bochco was producing it, so I knew that there were creative controls that he would have demanded (and been able to demand) in the production. I also had seen a flury of content from NPR... so much so, that I felt like there was some type of FX underwriting going on.

What strikes me as interesting about the show is that there isn't much desire to be politically driven, and at the same time the issues will easily speak to extremists on either side. Perhaps what can come of this is some understanding that regardless of what side you fall on politically, there is a real stake in war, and a very human, individual reaction to being a part of war.

It must be incredibly tough to produce the show, being that the war is not over. Traditionally Hollywood has avoided such dramas, preferring to wait until the war time has passed, and to treat the events with a regrettable, yet patriotic eye.

But how do we react to the drama, now matter how fictional, when the visuals we see are mimicking, so closely, the images of our own current news? Do we feel more drawn to the real life soldiers? Do they resent us for feeling like we can empathize more of their struggle through a television show? Do they want us to feel pity?

I was taken by the emotion in the first episode and it proved to me why I feel the ways I do about war. I feel shame for the act of killing. I feel proud for the people who do what I don't dare. I feel torn over doing what is right and what only appears to be right. I feel unworthy of their stories. I have not punched my ticket. I have not earned my opinion in this matter.

So, I think the most I can say is really about the show and my take on it as film. It feels more like film than television. The wide, swooping angles seem to allow you to take in the entire scene before butting you up face-to-face with a soldier. The cinematography overstates the beauty of the land, using orchestral and guitar driven music to bring the visual to a surprising visual climax.

The characters seem to have been drawn with hard outlines. Each one fitting a specific set of roles, rarely bleeding into other's opinions or stepping away from their own. It feels a bit too much like reality television in this way: each character having his/her own role... the cowboy, the academic, the kid from the streets, the overworked sergeant, the mother, etc.

I have a feeling that as the show progresses those lines may intersect and disappear. At least I hope they do.

It a series worth watching to shock yourself... to remind yourself that drama is most gripping when it is attached to life... to think about the people over there for a while. I think it's only fair after they do so much thinking about us.

Pay no attention to the woman who prompts the voice mail

Many times I will go off on tangents and it helps get it all out. Then I'll hear someone else go off on a tangent about the same thing, and I'll think to myself, "Hey, self. They did a better job ranting about that than you." I like it when this happens because it affirms my own argument and adds to it.

Recently I heard an NPR producer rant about the cell phone voice mail lady. I thought his assessment was dead on, and worth a listen.

Adding to his thoughts, I find it amazing that people have not adjusted to the annoyance of the company cell phone lady by simply not saying what she will say. You don't need to say "leave a message" or "wait for the beep." She takes care of that... even if it is longer and less personal.

I guess the best suggestion is to learn how to turn her off and stick it to those minute-grabbing cell phone companies.

Forget that.

I just spent 30 minutes searching on Verizon's web site for a way to do it... nothing. Pansies.

Selective censorship

So, I was watching the Discovery Channel's new show, Dirty Jobs. On the show, the host was getting some on-the-job training in the art of horse breeding.

Like most of forms of life generation, it involved some fornication... artificial in this case.

What surprised me while watching the show, was that the producers had chosen to blur out the picture of the stallion's erect penis, but had not censored the mare's vagina.

Is female horse genitalia any less offensive than male horse genitalia? Does the FCC have any regulations on horse genitalia, as it does on human?

It seems to me that the females got the short end of the stick here. Not only were they exposed on national television, but they got none of the enjoyment out of the exercise, because the whole thing was artificial in the first place.

Anyone else find this odd?

Virtual Earth (without the competition)

As reported by Forbes, it appears that Microsoft has once again unsuccessfully tried to get rid of Apple Computer.

Microsoft's web-based map application "virtual earth" is stolen, like almost everything else they do, directly from Google Maps. It too is meant to allow people to see directions or to view aerial photographs of a given address.

Many Apple lovers know that Apple Computer's headquarters is at One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA. The cleverly named address (if you don't get it, ask a computer programmer) appears to be a warehouse and vacant lot according to "virtual earth." But, Google maps correctly displays the campus in it's own aerial map.


^ Google's aerial map


^ Microsoft's inferior mapping skills

Microsoft blames old satellite images. I blame the predictably slow nature of Microsoft. Not only are they still playing catch up with Google maps, but they are still playing catch up with Google map's aerial photos. Leave it to Microsoft to be late to the party, allowing everyone else to try out something new and innovative, and then finally make a crappier version available 6 months or later down the line, and expecting everyone to use it just because it says Microsoft.

Some Microsoft users probably think that "virtual earth" is some amazing new technology that Microsoft is bringing to them., because Microsoft does such a good job of blinding people to the real potential of computing. They're like a politician who is eager to keep the public uninformed until they can claim credit for some amazing piece of legislation. Then the legislation proves to be ineffective.

Also (predictably) I was unable to effectively use "virtual earth" using Apple's Safari browser. Instead I had to use Mozilla's Firefox, which is a great browser, but it speaks to Microsoft's inability to make their products available to all people.

WWTOD?

If you are a fan of sports, then you are not a fan of Terrell Owens. On 7/21/2005, Jim Rome explains:

::

Terrell Owens didn’t just stick his foot in his mouth, it’s halfway down his throat. In fact, he has his knee, leg and hip jammed in there too.

First TO compared himself to Jesus, now he wants a new deal because as TO said, I need to, “Take care of my family.”

Is Latrell Sprewell giving TO public relations tips now?

What, that $49 million bucks you signed for a year-ago isn’t enough to take care of your family?

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think TO is eating mac and cheese or Top Ramen. I don’t think anyone in TO’s family is going without.

Who exactly is that argument supposed to appeal to? Do you think anyone fired open the fish-wrap this morning and thought, I know exactly what TO is going through. It really is tough out there. $49 million doesn’t spend like it used to.

Look, if you want to make the argument that player “A” makes more than you do and you’re better than player “A”, therefore you deserve more fine, I’ll listen to that. But save this nonsense about just wanting to take care of your family. It’s insulting to those of us who are trying to do the same on less than $49 million.

:: Jim Rome ::

To the moon!

If you have spent any time perusing tangent's "Things I'll rave about" list, then you know I love Google Maps. To me, it's the best way to find out how to get from here to there, and blows MapQuest out of the water.

Well, Google is now taking us from here to the moon, in a special tribute to the anniversary of the first lunar landing, back in 1969. 36 years ago today, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins experienced the moon first hand. Now you can explore a bit yourself... virtually. And if you do a good job exploring you'll find some surprises to make you smile.

Aquababe

Dee sent me these lovely photos of a car parked outside her building in Ann Arbor, MI. Near the license plate of this toy-studded car it says "aquababe."

My vote is that this person was once a mermaid. For her entire life, under the sea, she wondered what it would be like to walk on land and drive on roads. She was magically given legs, and she promptly bought a Ford Taurus. Her infatuation with all of our what-do-you-call-thems and snargles and thing-a-ma-bobs prompted her to decorate her car with them.

Seriously folks... how does she keep them all on while driving the highways? Maybe she just has them there to attract truckers, who are invariably taken to classy nick-nacks like a pewter-cast beer stein with an indian headdress and the singing, wall-mounted bass.

I'm curious to hear what other stories we can imagine up for "aquababe's" story.

Volunteer!

Each year I make it an effort to involve myself with an organization known as the Appalachia Service Project. It is a home repair ministry that serves the people of Appalachia.

I used to have a teacher in American Studies who coveted the idea of volunteering - the act of giving of one's self without any expectation for compensation, monetarily or otherwise. He used to tell us that he loved Tennessee simply because it is the Volunteer state. You could have said he was an idealist, but from what i have witnesses in my own volunteer opportunities, he was equally a realist.

The truth is that volunteering is difficult. It demands a sacrifice. For some this is greater than others. It is certainly different for everyone. But nonetheless, you must give up something (time, money, opportunity) to volunteer.

It works against the laws of economics in that it can be a selfless act... one where the individual is not necessarily thinking of themselves or their interests first. Perhaps that is why I like volunteering so much. It is rebellious in that way. We rebel against the conventions of our economy, of our societal norms. We put a cause or an idea in front of our own desires, and we work at it. That's pretty sweet.

On this most recent trip to ASP, I was surrounded by eighty other volunteers. We were broken up into work crews of six or seven people, and we worked to repair the homes of families who lived in Breathitt and Perry Counties in Kentucky.

To explain the entire week of volunteering, from the travel to and from the centers, to the relationship with the families, to the relationships with the center staff, the other volunteers from other areas of the country, the time to develop yourself, the break from the everyday... it is all too much to process at once. But suffice it to say that when we returned, not one person was exactly the same as when they first left. Every person had learned a little more about the power of individual sacrifice, of working together, of the lives of many in Appalachia, of Appalachian culture, of the power that they can have on change in this world.

If you have never done it. Volunteer.

If you have ever thought about it. Volunteer.

If it's for a day or a year. Volunteer.

If it's for a religious cause, a medical cause, a friend's cause, a patriotic cause, a symbolic cause... Volunteer.

Push aside your reservations. Volunteer.