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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Those Annoying Visa Ads
Actually, you may think of them as 'those charming Visa ads', but they annoy me to distraction. You know the spots - there's a shopping mall food court, or a sandwich store, or a zoo, or a toy store, and everything is going like clockwork in a Busby Berkleyan frenzy. There is always a top down shot of the whole kaleidescopic vista. The thing that makes this efficiency possible is the fact that everyone is using their Visa check cards.
But then, of course, some idiot pulls out cash and ruins everything. The whole beautiful clockwork thing grinds to a alt and everyone passively agresssively regards the offender until they either leave or remember that they too have a Visa check card.
Why do I hate these ads so much? It's because, although most ads are full of shit, these ads are full of shit in a profoundly unamerican way.
Allow me to explain.
First, the premise is patent nonsense. Cash is often just as quick as a check card. Or at least, its as quick as a check card machine manned by someone being paid minimum wage.
Second, businesses love cash. Especially restaurants. Want to know why? Most restaurants skim a whole bunch of untraceable cash (typically 10%) off the top of each days take and squirrel it away somewhere before accounting begins. Thats just basic restaurant practice. Add to that the fact that check card and credit card transactions cost businesses money, and the whole 'we hate cash' thing kind of falls apart.
But third, and most important, who wants to just be a cog in a machine? I remember a friend who lived in Japan telling me about a tv commercial for garbage bags that ran over there. Everyone was taking out their black garbage bags and when some poor sap brought out his white garbage bag, everyone pointed at him and laughed. That was the whole commercial. At the time, I thought that was fascinating, and also something that wouldn't fit in the United States, because of this countries huge cultural mythos of Rugged Individualism. In this country, we want to be the person who stands out. We want to be the car that stays on the track while all others fall in the holes. We want to be the hammer and not the nail. We want to be the clever woman who is eating Lean Cuisine and not her poor colleagues eating tasteless mush.
And thats where the Visa commercial is the most wrong. Like I said, it's just plain unamerican.
But then, of course, some idiot pulls out cash and ruins everything. The whole beautiful clockwork thing grinds to a alt and everyone passively agresssively regards the offender until they either leave or remember that they too have a Visa check card.
Why do I hate these ads so much? It's because, although most ads are full of shit, these ads are full of shit in a profoundly unamerican way.
Allow me to explain.
First, the premise is patent nonsense. Cash is often just as quick as a check card. Or at least, its as quick as a check card machine manned by someone being paid minimum wage.
Second, businesses love cash. Especially restaurants. Want to know why? Most restaurants skim a whole bunch of untraceable cash (typically 10%) off the top of each days take and squirrel it away somewhere before accounting begins. Thats just basic restaurant practice. Add to that the fact that check card and credit card transactions cost businesses money, and the whole 'we hate cash' thing kind of falls apart.
But third, and most important, who wants to just be a cog in a machine? I remember a friend who lived in Japan telling me about a tv commercial for garbage bags that ran over there. Everyone was taking out their black garbage bags and when some poor sap brought out his white garbage bag, everyone pointed at him and laughed. That was the whole commercial. At the time, I thought that was fascinating, and also something that wouldn't fit in the United States, because of this countries huge cultural mythos of Rugged Individualism. In this country, we want to be the person who stands out. We want to be the car that stays on the track while all others fall in the holes. We want to be the hammer and not the nail. We want to be the clever woman who is eating Lean Cuisine and not her poor colleagues eating tasteless mush.
And thats where the Visa commercial is the most wrong. Like I said, it's just plain unamerican.
Monday, October 22, 2007
When I first moved to this country from New Zealand, during the waning days of the Clinton administration, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of political reportage in the mainstream media. The Lewinsky scandal was in full swing and although there were some reporters who got that story terribly wrong (why Sam Donaldson continues to have a job after publicly guaranteeing Clintons resignation in early 1998 is a mystery) there were also plenty who got it right – Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppell chief among them. I suppose it is no accident that both of these men are no longer part of the mainstream media, at least in any meaningful way.
This isn’t going to be a rant about the Bush administration and it’s numerous sins against the Republic. I mean, there’s lots of time for more of that before January 2009. This is a rant about the state of American journalism and how it has devolved since September 2001.
Here are some things I saw on tv last week:
A story about Al Gores Nobel Prize win that focused on the political implications for the US presidential race and the fact that a British Judge found ‘errors’ in the film. (In reality, the British judge ruled in favor of the film and used the word “errors” in sarcastic quotation marks in his ruling – a fact that only one major newspaper has since reported).
A story about S-Chip that attempted to blame the Democrats for the right wing smear campaign against a 12-year old.
A puff piece on Clarence Thomas on “60 Minutes” in which he ripped unabated on Anita Hill – the producer later admitted they hadn’t even asked Hill for a response.
Another piece on 60 minutes – this time about Blackwater USA – that fawningly interviewed its chairman and did not contain a single interview with any of the company’s critics or even show some of the truly odious incidents which Blackwater's own operatives have uploaded onto YouTube.
What’s going on here? Why has 60 Minutes become so neutered? Why does the nightly news give “both sides” of the global warming “debate” even though one of those sides is patent nonsense?
I think that after the attacks of September 2001 the media went into a defensive crouch. And to be fair, it was sort of OK for them to do that for a little while. The psyche of the nation was damaged and fragile and news organizations wanted to ‘be supportive’ of the government. But somehow that changed into a new baseline instead of a temporary aberration. The Bush cabinet were lionized in gritty photo essays in Vanity Fair and Rumsfeld's sneering dismissive answers to legitimate questions were seen as lovable, like he was Wilford Brimley. Well he was Wilford Brimley, just not the cuddly Wilford Brimley from Cocoon. No, he was the scheming, evil Wilford Brimley from The Firm. But this time there was no Tom Cruise to kick him in the head. (By the way, you should watch The Firm, if only to see Wilford Brinley get kicked in the head)
As the administration revved up their engines for the Iraq war, the media went even further. Now mere lack of critique wasn’t the baseline, it was out and out cheerleading for armed conflict. Everyone knows about Judith Miller's stenographed articles for WMD in the N.Y. Times. But I remember in early 2003 being flabbergasted at an article in Time Magazine talking about the possibility of Saddam allowing inspectors back into the country. The article ended by saying “…and then if the inspectors don’t find any WMD Saddam could conceivably be allowed to stay in power, which is absolutely unacceptable” (Italics mine). Now, first of all, this wasn’t an Op-Ed piece. This was a regular Time article. And they felt the need to editorialize that under no circumstances should Saddam be allowed in power. I remember re-reading that sentence several times and feeling a chill. Because at that point the media had become completely co-opted.
Things have changed a little since then. The biggest sign of this was during Katrina, when even some Fox News correspondents went off script and said some harsh things about the government. But by and large our media have yet to recover. If it wasn't for Bill Moyers, I don't know what I'd do.
This isn’t going to be a rant about the Bush administration and it’s numerous sins against the Republic. I mean, there’s lots of time for more of that before January 2009. This is a rant about the state of American journalism and how it has devolved since September 2001.
Here are some things I saw on tv last week:
A story about Al Gores Nobel Prize win that focused on the political implications for the US presidential race and the fact that a British Judge found ‘errors’ in the film. (In reality, the British judge ruled in favor of the film and used the word “errors” in sarcastic quotation marks in his ruling – a fact that only one major newspaper has since reported).
A story about S-Chip that attempted to blame the Democrats for the right wing smear campaign against a 12-year old.
A puff piece on Clarence Thomas on “60 Minutes” in which he ripped unabated on Anita Hill – the producer later admitted they hadn’t even asked Hill for a response.
Another piece on 60 minutes – this time about Blackwater USA – that fawningly interviewed its chairman and did not contain a single interview with any of the company’s critics or even show some of the truly odious incidents which Blackwater's own operatives have uploaded onto YouTube.
What’s going on here? Why has 60 Minutes become so neutered? Why does the nightly news give “both sides” of the global warming “debate” even though one of those sides is patent nonsense?
I think that after the attacks of September 2001 the media went into a defensive crouch. And to be fair, it was sort of OK for them to do that for a little while. The psyche of the nation was damaged and fragile and news organizations wanted to ‘be supportive’ of the government. But somehow that changed into a new baseline instead of a temporary aberration. The Bush cabinet were lionized in gritty photo essays in Vanity Fair and Rumsfeld's sneering dismissive answers to legitimate questions were seen as lovable, like he was Wilford Brimley. Well he was Wilford Brimley, just not the cuddly Wilford Brimley from Cocoon. No, he was the scheming, evil Wilford Brimley from The Firm. But this time there was no Tom Cruise to kick him in the head. (By the way, you should watch The Firm, if only to see Wilford Brinley get kicked in the head)
As the administration revved up their engines for the Iraq war, the media went even further. Now mere lack of critique wasn’t the baseline, it was out and out cheerleading for armed conflict. Everyone knows about Judith Miller's stenographed articles for WMD in the N.Y. Times. But I remember in early 2003 being flabbergasted at an article in Time Magazine talking about the possibility of Saddam allowing inspectors back into the country. The article ended by saying “…and then if the inspectors don’t find any WMD Saddam could conceivably be allowed to stay in power, which is absolutely unacceptable” (Italics mine). Now, first of all, this wasn’t an Op-Ed piece. This was a regular Time article. And they felt the need to editorialize that under no circumstances should Saddam be allowed in power. I remember re-reading that sentence several times and feeling a chill. Because at that point the media had become completely co-opted.
Things have changed a little since then. The biggest sign of this was during Katrina, when even some Fox News correspondents went off script and said some harsh things about the government. But by and large our media have yet to recover. If it wasn't for Bill Moyers, I don't know what I'd do.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The Red Ring of Death isn't neccesarily a bad thing
If you're reading this you probably know I'm something of a geek. Not a total, complete, living in Mom's basement, never been kissed geek, not at all, but you know that I have, lets say, some geek elements. I have my Geek Card, as it were.
I love comic books, and I don't have to call them 'graphic novels' to feel good about myself. I could name all of Superman's relatives if I had to. It's possible that I played Dungeons and Dragons once or twice when I was growing up. With regard to movies, I could tell you seven differences between the Raiders of the Lost Ark that was released in 1981 and the version that was released on DVD three years ago. I can hold my end up in most geeky conversations. However, lets face it, when it comes to my geekdom the jewel in the crown is my love of video games.
This is my hobby, and I'm not frightened to admit it. But don't worry - this isn't goping to be a post about how video games are great and people should just, you know, stop trying to ban them and everything (probably because I think I've already done a few posts on that topic already). No, this is going to be a post about how I'm NOT playing video games right now, and how I kind of like that.
It's not a voluntary condition. I got the Red Ring of Death.
Allow me to explain. The Red Ring of Death is not the aftermath of a tick bite or the unfortunate consequence of a two AM drunken binge at Taco Bell. It's an Xbox 360 hardware failiure. You may have heard about it in the mainstream media, even. There's an overheating problem in some of the 360s and Microsoft have to spend a billion dollars fixing them. I'm currently waiting for a special box to arrive and when it does I shall place my console in it and send it off to Redmond, Washington, where a team of geeks will fix it and ship it back to me. Hopefully before Mass Effct, the new role playing game from Bioware, comes out on November 19th.
So here I am, without a games console, which isn't an altogether bad thing. If it was forever, that might be a bad thing, but its not, its only for a month or so. This opens up other options for whatever time I have left after working my job and spending quality time with my beautiful wife and newborn son.
It gives me a chance to read more, which is good. I love reading and there are several books I've been meaning to catch up on - some of them even lack pictures.
It gives me a chance to watch some more tv - I swear, since Jack was born, I've doubled the amount of late night tv I have ever watched. I've also been watching some of the new tv shows this season - I may well post some of my opinions on these.
It also gives me a chance to write, even to update this blog. Thats gotta be a good thing. I have all kinds of opinions about whats going on in pop culture and politics, and it might be fun to dish some out. We'll see.
But hopefully, by November 19th, I'll be back to playing the games.
I love comic books, and I don't have to call them 'graphic novels' to feel good about myself. I could name all of Superman's relatives if I had to. It's possible that I played Dungeons and Dragons once or twice when I was growing up. With regard to movies, I could tell you seven differences between the Raiders of the Lost Ark that was released in 1981 and the version that was released on DVD three years ago. I can hold my end up in most geeky conversations. However, lets face it, when it comes to my geekdom the jewel in the crown is my love of video games.
This is my hobby, and I'm not frightened to admit it. But don't worry - this isn't goping to be a post about how video games are great and people should just, you know, stop trying to ban them and everything (probably because I think I've already done a few posts on that topic already). No, this is going to be a post about how I'm NOT playing video games right now, and how I kind of like that.
It's not a voluntary condition. I got the Red Ring of Death.
Allow me to explain. The Red Ring of Death is not the aftermath of a tick bite or the unfortunate consequence of a two AM drunken binge at Taco Bell. It's an Xbox 360 hardware failiure. You may have heard about it in the mainstream media, even. There's an overheating problem in some of the 360s and Microsoft have to spend a billion dollars fixing them. I'm currently waiting for a special box to arrive and when it does I shall place my console in it and send it off to Redmond, Washington, where a team of geeks will fix it and ship it back to me. Hopefully before Mass Effct, the new role playing game from Bioware, comes out on November 19th.
So here I am, without a games console, which isn't an altogether bad thing. If it was forever, that might be a bad thing, but its not, its only for a month or so. This opens up other options for whatever time I have left after working my job and spending quality time with my beautiful wife and newborn son.
It gives me a chance to read more, which is good. I love reading and there are several books I've been meaning to catch up on - some of them even lack pictures.
It gives me a chance to watch some more tv - I swear, since Jack was born, I've doubled the amount of late night tv I have ever watched. I've also been watching some of the new tv shows this season - I may well post some of my opinions on these.
It also gives me a chance to write, even to update this blog. Thats gotta be a good thing. I have all kinds of opinions about whats going on in pop culture and politics, and it might be fun to dish some out. We'll see.
But hopefully, by November 19th, I'll be back to playing the games.
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