The USA network ran the film, "Schindler's List" last night with no commercial interruptions. This was a rather civilized way to have a portrayal of one of the most uncivilized periods in the world's history. You just can't have a scene where a child hides in the pit of an outhouse to save his life followed by a commercial for KAYAK dot com. I think they sell hotel rooms. A bit incongruous. Not a good fit.
I'm a fan of history, particularly more recent history because it more directly affects us all. There are people whom you can talk to about The Holocaust and WWII, though, soon they'll all be gone by the natural attrition of life. But, while they are here, they have been living history of an awful, recent time in our history. There are plenty of assholes about who deny The Holocaust ever happened at all despite overwhelming evidence and first-hand accounts and these are often the same sort of assholes who know that the founding fathers intended the second amendment to be justification for civil war in the event of a black president. See where I'm going with this? Revisionist historians are assholes. If you give them a chance, they will revise our futures. The words of gods or presidents from 200 or 2000 years ago- no matter how well intended- don't really matter.
This is why, as silly as they sound, the teabaggers really piss me off. There's some evil afoot here. Most of life is about money and there is billions of dollars at stake here every day. Being republican is just another way of being reasonably legal about going about the business of making money and the Tea Party is just a twist on the business model of that. I hope. Right?
I wanna believe that these politicians are as comically stupid as the blowhards in the threads are. The thing is, they might not be. They may be as cold hearted and fucking dying to spill blood as your average Kentucky security guard who thinks he protects the president, perhaps because he might or might not have been a Marine- the president's own, as they like to say.
In other words: a impotent idiot who probably just drinks too much and hates being short and is easily led by politicians out to make buck. The thing is there are tens of thousands of these assholes out there and even though most are probably as harmless as the rent-a-cop, one or two might not be.
In Nazi Germany, most people weren't Nazi's. They just went along with Hitler and the Nazi's because it seemed like the thing to do at the time. They weren't coming from a good financial place after The Great War and I bet they were game for anything. Though Hitler was pretty upfront about his disdain for the Jewish people, he was not upfront about his plans to annihilate them. Intelligent Germans might have seen that coming but, he gave them the right mix of plausible deniability plus the knowledge that, there but for the grace go I... He made it easy to ignore what people didn't want to see anyway.
Most people that is. The Nazi's had a knack for attracting the best and brightest of the depraved crowd. Those are the types you need to commit genocide. You can't get the average citizen to do the dirty work. Besides, you need them to go along with the dirty work. Complicity is the mother of politics.
We can laugh at the Tea Party and chuckle at how they are bringing down the GOP. Sheesh- Glenn Beck?! Rand Paul?! Alan Fucking West?! Gomert?! Ted Cruz?! Where the fuck did they get these guys? They are idiots! Anyone can see that.
No. Too many people cannot see that. Too many people want more. Too many people are willing to accept worse. They laughed at Hitler. They let him be Chancellor as sort of an appeasement... The rest is history. You just never know, do you? That's why we remember. That's why we should try to remember so our future isn't forgotten.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Recycled. AGAIN!
It's been about ten months but, The Laffin' Devils are back on the air with The Devils Ride tonight. It seems to be the reality show that everyone loves to hate. The story I did about it last May has received several hundred hits here- the most by far of any blog post I've ever written.
Much happened while the producers wondered whether to keep the show or take it in another direction. The internet is rife with rumors and, maybe even a few facts. Ya never know...
It is a fact that main character, Gipsy, was arrested for allegedly molesting his step-daughter. Hopefully that's not true. Before you light the torches and gather the townsfolk with farming implements, the man is embroiled in a custody battle and such allegations are often Lawyering 101. Sad but, true. The allegation seems to have come after the show got popular but, evidently didn't factor in Gipsy's leaving the club. Though these guys are not the arch gangsters the producers might like you to think they are, it turns out that Gipsy was asked to leave the club when it was found out that his current wife is a local policewoman. That could be viewed as a conflict of interest...
If you google, you'll find all this stuff and tons of comments about how fake the show is. People think these guys are actors. The show takes place in San Diego, which is in California, where Hollywood is located, and Kevin Bacon is an actor so, there you go...
The point of most reality shows however, is cheap entertainment, using real people who want to be on TV. There has got to be some compensation though. I don't know that these people have SAG cards but some might be seeking one after seeing themselves on the small screen. Their fantasies are their business. Producers certainly like to expand their horizons with spin-offs. For example, who isn't digging for gold in Alaska or buying storage lockers for fun and profit? I can think four pawn shop shows. Nothing succeeds like excess! Or, is it art imitating other art? Imitation is the sincerest form of television?
Television's first priority is to entertain. Thus, it typically involves actors and some scripting here and there. Real or fake, no doubt there's a ton of editing involved. Really, how interesting is a pawn shop transaction or even digging for gold if you were to watch 12 hours of it? Break it down into 22 minutes and you've got something more palatable.
One show I find very enjoyable is "Auction Hunters". The two stars are actors and they do a very good job of making the show interesting. I don't think it's a secret that the fellas are actors. I think it is a secret that the show appears to be very contrived. If anyone does try to make a living buying the possessions of people who have fallen on hard times, I bet they are not finding coin collections, rare guns and other treasures that they get full retail value(!) from experts(!) There is some artistic license going on there, some seeding of the lockers, I have read. I know people are a little quirky from person to person but, if you had Waterford Crystal in storage and you owed a few hundred in storage fees, you might find a way to come up with the cash to keep a few thousand dollars worth of crystal. So, many of the interesting items they find are easy to find because the producer had stagehands put them there.
I've read too that Pawn Stars is a huge fake as well. I saw a clip of Dave Attell's old show "Insomniac With Dave Attel" where he interviews Rick Harrison at the pawn shop during the overnight shift where he's taking in junk from street people looking to score quick cash. It was quite a bit different from the TV show where people bring in Picasso's and Russian Jets... Having been in pawn shops myself, I had known from jump street that they rarely (if ever) get interesting stuff let alone ancient artifacts. The word on the internet streets is that the old man is a bigger dick than he appears and that Cory and Chum are drunken ner' do wells. If you visit the shop in Vegas, it's more a tourist trap and a TV set than a place to sell your jewelry. I gather you can but, not to any of the stars. I like to think Rick is a pretty smart guy who knows a lot of trivia. At least he was smart enough to take his dad's sad, little pawn shop into the big time.
I think that's how reality television comes to fruition nine times out of ten. "Fast n' Loud" is a likable show about two Texans who flip old cars for fun and profit. I heard the owner of the shop worked very hard shopping his idea for a show to every production company he could find before he found the one that got him on The History Channel. Ya know- why the heck not? You can only make so much money fixing up old wrecks. More power to you if you can entertain folks while doing it. It's like Fox news or burger at McDonalds. It's not 100% real but, it's made from 100% real ingredients. It's close enough.
Much happened while the producers wondered whether to keep the show or take it in another direction. The internet is rife with rumors and, maybe even a few facts. Ya never know...
It is a fact that main character, Gipsy, was arrested for allegedly molesting his step-daughter. Hopefully that's not true. Before you light the torches and gather the townsfolk with farming implements, the man is embroiled in a custody battle and such allegations are often Lawyering 101. Sad but, true. The allegation seems to have come after the show got popular but, evidently didn't factor in Gipsy's leaving the club. Though these guys are not the arch gangsters the producers might like you to think they are, it turns out that Gipsy was asked to leave the club when it was found out that his current wife is a local policewoman. That could be viewed as a conflict of interest...
If you google, you'll find all this stuff and tons of comments about how fake the show is. People think these guys are actors. The show takes place in San Diego, which is in California, where Hollywood is located, and Kevin Bacon is an actor so, there you go...
The point of most reality shows however, is cheap entertainment, using real people who want to be on TV. There has got to be some compensation though. I don't know that these people have SAG cards but some might be seeking one after seeing themselves on the small screen. Their fantasies are their business. Producers certainly like to expand their horizons with spin-offs. For example, who isn't digging for gold in Alaska or buying storage lockers for fun and profit? I can think four pawn shop shows. Nothing succeeds like excess! Or, is it art imitating other art? Imitation is the sincerest form of television?
Television's first priority is to entertain. Thus, it typically involves actors and some scripting here and there. Real or fake, no doubt there's a ton of editing involved. Really, how interesting is a pawn shop transaction or even digging for gold if you were to watch 12 hours of it? Break it down into 22 minutes and you've got something more palatable.
One show I find very enjoyable is "Auction Hunters". The two stars are actors and they do a very good job of making the show interesting. I don't think it's a secret that the fellas are actors. I think it is a secret that the show appears to be very contrived. If anyone does try to make a living buying the possessions of people who have fallen on hard times, I bet they are not finding coin collections, rare guns and other treasures that they get full retail value(!) from experts(!) There is some artistic license going on there, some seeding of the lockers, I have read. I know people are a little quirky from person to person but, if you had Waterford Crystal in storage and you owed a few hundred in storage fees, you might find a way to come up with the cash to keep a few thousand dollars worth of crystal. So, many of the interesting items they find are easy to find because the producer had stagehands put them there.
I've read too that Pawn Stars is a huge fake as well. I saw a clip of Dave Attell's old show "Insomniac With Dave Attel" where he interviews Rick Harrison at the pawn shop during the overnight shift where he's taking in junk from street people looking to score quick cash. It was quite a bit different from the TV show where people bring in Picasso's and Russian Jets... Having been in pawn shops myself, I had known from jump street that they rarely (if ever) get interesting stuff let alone ancient artifacts. The word on the internet streets is that the old man is a bigger dick than he appears and that Cory and Chum are drunken ner' do wells. If you visit the shop in Vegas, it's more a tourist trap and a TV set than a place to sell your jewelry. I gather you can but, not to any of the stars. I like to think Rick is a pretty smart guy who knows a lot of trivia. At least he was smart enough to take his dad's sad, little pawn shop into the big time.
I think that's how reality television comes to fruition nine times out of ten. "Fast n' Loud" is a likable show about two Texans who flip old cars for fun and profit. I heard the owner of the shop worked very hard shopping his idea for a show to every production company he could find before he found the one that got him on The History Channel. Ya know- why the heck not? You can only make so much money fixing up old wrecks. More power to you if you can entertain folks while doing it. It's like Fox news or burger at McDonalds. It's not 100% real but, it's made from 100% real ingredients. It's close enough.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Post Hard
After about the 100th time they post your name in the threads, you kinda lose interest in filing a complaint. The mods have gotten quicker about pulling those posts but, they are still helpless in catching the culprits....
It's like the polls 'about' Ferrerman. There's been a few hundred. Accord to the mods it isn't one scumbag doing it. The mod checked and ten different ISP's were behind the first ten polls she looked at. You'd think it was one asshole with a proxy server but, according to her, at least ten people hate Ferrerman enough to dedicate their lives to following me around the threads. Well, she stopped counting at ten....
Ferrerman does not poll well among assholes!
Well, we knew that. To paraphrase Holly Gennero in DIE HARD, when she watches the terrorist throw a fit and she realizes John McClane is still alive: "Only Ferrerman can drive somebody that crazy!"
Only Ferrerman indeed. But, without bitter, terrorist trolls, Ferrerman is just a charming bottom-spanker who is liberal in politics as he is in wit. If you can't beat Ferrerman and you certainly can't join him, you can always troll him.
Most trolls are essentially low-grade, entry-level terrorists. They don't have the skill set to hack or make things go boom, so they follow and harass people on the internet. Trolls have absolutely no sense of irony. This means they can accuse you of 'cowardly' posting anonymously... while they post that to you anonymously(!) That's pretty much Topix in a nutshell- hypocrisy rules the day. Someone starts something with someone hoping to finish it, and they get really- REALLY- pissed when that person fights back. Think of Hitler, had he been caught, blaming Poland and France for WWII. Well, what were they wearing?
Posting well IS the best revenge but, sometimes ya gotta say: "yippie-ki-yay motherfuckers!"
It's like the polls 'about' Ferrerman. There's been a few hundred. Accord to the mods it isn't one scumbag doing it. The mod checked and ten different ISP's were behind the first ten polls she looked at. You'd think it was one asshole with a proxy server but, according to her, at least ten people hate Ferrerman enough to dedicate their lives to following me around the threads. Well, she stopped counting at ten....
Ferrerman does not poll well among assholes!
Well, we knew that. To paraphrase Holly Gennero in DIE HARD, when she watches the terrorist throw a fit and she realizes John McClane is still alive: "Only Ferrerman can drive somebody that crazy!"
Only Ferrerman indeed. But, without bitter, terrorist trolls, Ferrerman is just a charming bottom-spanker who is liberal in politics as he is in wit. If you can't beat Ferrerman and you certainly can't join him, you can always troll him.
Most trolls are essentially low-grade, entry-level terrorists. They don't have the skill set to hack or make things go boom, so they follow and harass people on the internet. Trolls have absolutely no sense of irony. This means they can accuse you of 'cowardly' posting anonymously... while they post that to you anonymously(!) That's pretty much Topix in a nutshell- hypocrisy rules the day. Someone starts something with someone hoping to finish it, and they get really- REALLY- pissed when that person fights back. Think of Hitler, had he been caught, blaming Poland and France for WWII. Well, what were they wearing?
Posting well IS the best revenge but, sometimes ya gotta say: "yippie-ki-yay motherfuckers!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)