http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 12 Sep 2006 06:38:43 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/09/12/063843.php TamaThe Battlestar Galactica Webisodes ... The television series Battlestar Galactica, re-imagined for the twenty-first century, has consistently been at the cutting edge of television and cross-media.Executive producer Ronald D. Moore and the Battlestar team utilise not just blogs and production-side videoblogs, but also episodic commentary podcasts. They’ve made deleted scenes available online as well as having put up two full episodes free for viewing. BSG was one of the first shows available via iTunes. It should be no surprise that the latest Battlestar-related venture is pushing the boundaries of television as we conventionally know it (and, no, I don't mean the inevitable spin-off series Caprica). The Sci-Fi channel is currently releasing two webisodes per week until the US launch of season three of BSG on October 6th. As Moore mentions in his blog, "We're very excited about the Webisodes and I think they're unlike anything anyone has done in this arena to date, so I hope you'll all take a moment to check them out." Moore makes a point to list the full credits as well, since there was something of a pay controversy as to how the cast and crew should be paid for the webisodes. SF fans might point out that the latest Doctor Who series was accompanied by the Tardisodes.These 30-second teasers may have contained original footage related to upcoming episodes, but they were exclusively targeted to mobile phone users. While the BBC didn't charge for this mobile content, the telecos certainly did! There were Real video versions released online, but these were of extremely poor quality and clearly illustrated that the media was created and intended primarily for small-screen portable media devices. The BSG webisodes set a higher target, with the ten segments culminating in almost a full thirty minutes of original media or the best part of an original episode of one of the best written and produced shows currently being made. An article in the The New York Times, "Sci Fi Creates 'Webisodes' to Lure Viewers to TV", mentions there will be ten webisodes all up, attempting to replicate the production values and gritty realism of the show itself. However, the Times article also notes that these webisodes are testing new boundaries for online trans-media storytelling: "It was challenging on several levels," said Erik Storey, vice president of programming at Sci Fi. "Each of the Webisode chapters had to be close-ended, with a beginning, a middle and an end, and each of those chapters is going to be three minutes, four minutes. And there had to be a little cliffhanger ending for each one." While NBC Universal is using the webisodes (and the SciFi channel more broadly) to test the appeal and utility of original franchise material online, there are already plans to release material for other shows. Craig E. Engler, general manager of SciFi.com noted, "This is a way to get people talking about the show a month before it airs." The webisodes appear each Tuesday and Thursday on the Sci-Fi channel website. However, they only appear for people using computers inside the United States with a US ISP (or internet address)! ... and the Tyranny of Digital Distance Clearly, NBC Universal has elected to try and generate fan interest in BSG's third season premiere, but have decided to limit the webisodes to that segment of the internet nominally American (and only US, not Canadian, as pointed out by D'Arcy Norman). To some extent, this might appear to make sense to the studio executives financing BSG, since the release dates for season three will be later in other countries. They don’t seem to notice that the very large and thriving fan communities that built up around Battlestar (and similar shows) are global in nature. There may be arcane big media arrangements that mean the third season will debut later in the UK and later again (if ever!) in Australia, but the buzz about BSG, the communities which actively discuss and to some extent participate in the show (a sense heightened by Ron Moore's podcasts) and thus the interest, is spread further than the national boundaries of the US (or the ISPs located therein). By barring large segments of the BSG fan communities from seeing the webisodes is tantamount to a slap in the face to the very loyal fans in other countries who not only watch the series, but buy the DVDs, comics, soundtracks, and other offshoots from the BSG franchise. More to the point, denying the international fan communities (and others) access to the webisodes simply provokes the collective intelligence of knowledge communities in getting around such arbitrary (and difficult to maintain) restrictions in an age of digital distribution.Hours after its release, the first webisode appeared on YouTube, but has since been removed, displaying this notice: "This video has been removed at the request of copyright owner NBC Universal because its content was used without permission." Less easy to police, each webisode is also rapidly appearing on filesharing networks and as bittorrent downloads. Rather than providing that little extra sense of community and loyalty to the show, the decision to restrict the webisodes to the US has those international fans who might not have been using peer-to-peer networks now turning to them in order to get content which is supposedly free!Last year I used the term "the tyranny of digital distance" when talking about the oddity of a number of geographically-based distribution decisions in the face of the potential for high-speed digital distribution. I cited Ron Moore's commentary podcasts as an example since I could get the podcasts within minutes of their release, but had to legally wait almost a year for the episodes that accompanied them to appear on Australian television. The term "the tyranny of distance" was used by Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey to describe the geographic gap between Australia and the centres of the Western world (US, UK) and how this divide played a fundamental role in shaping the Australian psyche and character. Nowadays, geography has been supplanted by an almost instantaneous information network, shrinking the time and conceptual distance between places. The tyranny of digital distance occurs insomuch as the potential and, indeed, expectation of synchronous global culture (at least for English-speaking countries) leads to a constant state of delay and annoyance when the promise isn't met. The tyranny of distance was geographic with cultural effects. The tyranny of digital distance occurs when the geographic has been replaced by the digital. The age-old national boundaries to legal media distribution will very soon lead to more and more people circumventing those legal limits unless big media admits that dividing the pie up in terms of national licenses (or the ridiculous DVD region zones) no longer makes sense when information is moving at the speed of light!The webisodes illustrate this point even more clearly. An arbitrary decision by NBC Universal studio executives has suddenly made Australian and other BSG fans feel ostracized from the officially recognised BSG fan community. Thankfully, fans themselves will always find a way if studios won't. The Battlestar Galactica team has often shown insight when respectfully dealing with fans everywhere. It would do NBC Universal well to listen to Moore and the show's creative team and let the fans everywhere enjoy the webisodes. This would reinforce an international sense of shared media fandom rather than the tyranny of digital distance. Sci/Tech52727@blogcritics.org Tue, 12 Sep 2006 06:38:43 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/30/163512.php TamaThe good news is that Superman Returns is a worthy continuation of the first two Superman films (1978 and 1980) and ignores the far less memorable III and IV. Indeed, director Bryan Singer almost seems to channel Richard Donner (who directed the first Christopher Reeve film) in a way that parallels Jonathan Mostow's fannish fidelity to James Cameron's vision when he took the reigns of the Terminator franchise. Amazingly, Brandon Routh is a worthy successor to Christopher Reeve's sizable legacy in the blue tights and red cape, with the right mix of over the top nerdishness in Clark Kent and boy scout certainty in the man of steel. Complementing Routh nicely, Kevin Spacey is probably the most enjoyable big screen (or small screen) Lex Luthor to date, taking over where Gene Hackman left off. Rather than starting from scratch with the Superman mythos as Christopher Nolan did in Batman Begins, Singer manages to bring a more contemporary feel to the man of steel and reboot the franchise for the big screen. While Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), complete with fiance (James Marsden) and son (Tristan Lake Leabu), is at times a little wooden, she nevertheless manages to bring a less certain and more complicated Lois to the film. The introduction of Lois' son is handled playfully, leading down a path which leaves some interesting doors open for future cinematic exploits of the world's most famous underwear on the outside fan. Despite the hype surrounding Marlon Brando's synthespian resurrection, the footage and voice-overs from the doubly deceased Jor-El are tastefully handled and heightened the continuity with the earlier films. Of course, the emotional connectivity with the 1978 classic are stirred early on with John Williams' original score again stirringly taking centre stage.The story itself manages to be both a sequel in some sense and in another a remake of the first film with a plot which simply adds years and magnitude (bigger body counts and ambitions for Lex, smoother special effects for Superman) to a remarkably similar plot. Manohla Dargis in the New York Times argues that "the Man of Steel has been resurrected in a leaden new film not only to fight for truth, justice and the American way, but also to give Mel Gibson's passion a run for his box-office money." In many ways Manohla is right as Singer has certainly layered the Christian (and Ancient Greek) symbols and imagery in a fairly heavy-handed way. Of course, these symbols are so deeply engrained in our popular imaginary that they, for the most part, heighten the films impact rather than diminshing it.Overall, Singer does for Superman what he did for the X-Men: he's brought a fine film to the silver screen and ensured at least one sequel to follow. It would be nice if Singer's around to direct it. Video49865@blogcritics.org Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:35:12 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/05/29/104342.php TamaI'm not having a good run with films at the moment; after the disappointment of The Da Vinci Code, I really expected X-Men: The Last Stand to be rather good, especially after a very impressive opening was released online to entice viewers. Those six minutes, I should add, are not the opening per se, but rather a collage of some of the opening scenes and other bits which do look quite good; better, I'd have to say, than the film overall. Before getting critical, let me start with the good: this film has some gorgeous special effects, including Bobby Drake turning fully popsicle at one point, and some very impressive fight scenes by lots and lots of mutants. This time round, Kelsey Grammer does adds a very solid Beast to the cast, and Ellen Page is a decent Kitty Pryde. And while we don't get the firebird special effects one might have hoped for, when Jean Grey goes dark phoenix(ish), she does look convincingly evil! However, Brett Ratner's direction just wasn't up to the job. While Bryan Singer's past two X-Men films certainly took dramatic license in terms of the history or Marvel's merry mutants from the comics, Singer clearly understood what worked and what didn't in adapting for the big screen - he made films accessible to new audiences, but equally exciting for comic book geeks (or even mostly reformed comic book geeks such as myself). In contrast, Ratner helmed a film which squished dozens of big comic book plots together into a story where too much is meant to be addressed and thus everything seems too superficial. Some things that occur to core characters don't make sense or get enough screen time to justify their inclusion. The re-writing of Jean Grey was just a bit dull and unnecessary; the characterisation suffered a great deal (without the past two films to rely on, the character development really wasn't enough to hold any story, let alone such a large one). Actors like Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart did the best they could with average material, while others such as Anna Paquin could do nothing to inject energy into bizzarely limp dialogue. The politics of a "cure for mutants" certainly opens a number of interesting issues with political resonance today, but these issues really aren't utilised or pursued. Indeed, the US President in the film seems completely inconsistent as a character or as an icon of political power. All in all, the weakest of the X-Men films by a long shot. Video48461@blogcritics.org Mon, 29 May 2006 10:43:42 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/12/26/225045.php TamaUnlike The Lord of the Rings, I have much fonder memories of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicle's of Narnia from my childhood, so I couldn't help but be very curious as to how my imagined Narnia would compare with director Andrew Adamson's adaptation The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. For the most part, I have to admit, I enjoyed my cinematic visit to a land of witches, warriors and a rather large helping of Englishness. Visually, Narnia is the same combination of amazing landscapes drawn from New Zealand, via the wizardry of digital effects, and is definitely worthy of the landscape of the imagination. The citizens of Narnia are similarly imagined in all their splendor, with Weta Workshop and Weta Digital doing an amazing job bringing everyone from Mr Tumnus and Aslan to the Minotaurs and Centaurs to believable life. The Centaurs, who I was most worried would look like CGI, were among the most convincing characters of all and Mr Tumnus is a wonderful synergy of acting and digital effects, bring a convincing personality to those fawn legs of his!The strength of Narnia, however, like Lord of the Rings, is in the casting. Everyone is well chosen and Tilda Swinton definitely deserves an Oscar nomination for her take on the White Witch. Swinton is chilling, graceful and captures the anger and envy of her character exactly as I would have imagined in my younger days. While the first words from Aslan--voiced by Liam Neeson--did sound a little like the wisdom of one Qui-Gon Jinn, he quickly owned the voice and gave a regal vocal performance. Also inspired was the double act of Ray Winstone and Dawn French as Mr and Mrs Beaver, who brought both comic timing and heart to their roles. The real stars, though, are definitely Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell as Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan respectively. These young actors all give exemplary performances, especially young Georgie Henley whose take on Lucy brings so much heart to her role, while not falling into the too-wise-for-their-age syndrome that so many young actors give in to. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is, after all, Lucy's story and Henley's performance never lets you forget the context of World War Two that surrounds the magical escape Narnia provides.Narnia, however, is a little hampered simply by being released after The Lord of the Rings (LotR). A couple of shots of Narnia were too much like LotR; one sweeping god's-eye (or helicopter's-eye) shot of the children crossing the snowy hills looked exactly like a shot from LotR, while the Minotaur's rallying call to war looked exactly like a Uruk-hai. Similarly, while the score is impressive, while Howard Shore's work on LotR meshed perfectly with the story, the Narnia score by Harry Gregson-Williams and a number of collaborators lacks subtlety and tries to amplify emotional scenes which would do better with less overt music since the actors have already created a scene which pulls at your heartstrings without the aid of an orchestra. There has been a lot written about the Christian symbolism of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and it's definitely there, but not to the extent that it dominates the story. While Aslan's resurrection is clearly the story of Jesus Christ, the film is perfectly enjoyable without engaging with the symbolism. Perhaps more dominating is the Englishness of the story, with Peter's Richard-the-Lionheart standard everywhere in the last third of the film. Actually, one of the more clever parts of the adaptation is the increase in the initial scenes of images of World War Two, which lead to Peter's dilemmas in protecting the family but trying, simultaneously, to embrace a heroic masculinity preempted by tales of his father away fighting the for Britain. Overall, the first Narnia film doesn't quite match Fellowship of the Ring, but is nevertheless an extremely well-acted and engaging experience, with amazing visuals and definitely worthy of a sequel or two.[Cross-posted from my personal blog, Ponderance.] Video41498@blogcritics.org Mon, 26 Dec 2005 22:50:45 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/10/055128.php TamaI guess I would describe Serenity as a sci-fi action drama about the price of freedom. Or, Citizen Kane with spaceships. I could go either way. -Joss WhedonThe FilmAs an unabashed fan of pretty much everything Joss Whedon has written, it should come as no surprise that Serenity is probably my favourite film so far this year. By now pretty much every film critic and media outlet in the world has posted a review, so let me quote Australia's top film critic David Stratton: "It's like watching Star Wars almost back in 1977." I can't imagine more positive words than that. (Check out the Cinecast podcast for a similarly positive review ... there may be one or two others out there as well!). The core of Serenity is something many big budget feature films miss: solid characterisation, plotting and dialogue. Joss Whedon is, first and foremost, a story teller. He writes people, and writes them well. Sure, they all seem to be imbued with a tad more wit that your run of the mill individuals, but that makes for good dialogue. Serenity has heart; you care about the characters and they face real challenges with, well, very real (and lasting) consequences. While having seen the short-lived series Firefly may enhance the film, it certainly isn't necessary and Joss does a great job of writing enough exposition to let the film stand alone, while not boring the fans. Each character has a story, and with such an ensemble cast it's impressive that you care about every one ("I am a leaf on the wind..."). On the downside, this is also clearly the first feature film Joss has directed: it is shot more like a TV show, with lots of tighter and functional shots, with the odd wider shot here and there more indicative of budget than planning. That's a small complaint, and didn't really impact my viewing pleasure much (it does, however, seem to be the biggest criticism I've read elsewhere.) In a nutshell, though, this is a clever film, with real characters, real dialogue, dealing with actual issues (more on that below) and doing so in a heartfelt and frequently hilarious way.The FansSerenity is remarkable not just as a film, but for the fact that it got to be a film at all. The film is a prime example of Chris Anderson's idea of the long tail, the idea that commerce online is not restricted to big hits, but recommendations and ever-present back-catalogue can re-invigorate cultural products long after their big media life-span; Serenity was commissioned in large part due to the very, very impressive sales of the Firefly DVDs, despite that series being cancelled after half a season which, combined with Joss Whedon's impressive history and fan-following, led Universal to pick up the franchise as a feature film. Whedon and Universal also cleverly built on that following: rather than an expensive TV and cinema trailer campaign, Universal sank a lot of their marketing money into grassroots campaigns including the Browncoats recruiting campaign (complete with exclusive Browncoat merchandise for those who earned the most points promoting Serenity in their own right). Perhaps the most impressive promotional aspect from the production side was a series of five short-films distributed as viral media staggered over several weeks which showed River's transformation at the hands of the military (and thus acted as an eerie prequel to both the film and the tv series). Actually the most impressive thing was the clever idea of having (paid) preview screenings months ahead of release for fans. The website You Can't Stop the Signal at times showed details of preview screenings for fans across the US and UK, with similar events for fans in many other countries (including Australia ... and yes, I was lucky enough to see Serenity in early August); shows tended to sell out within hours with no advertising at all (word of mouth is very loud online).Of note, though, is that for everything Universal did, the fans did far more without prompting. Fan efforts ranged from the usual reviews, blog posts, photoshopped posters, images, trailer cut-ups and the like through to the newer forms. Of particular note is the podcast The Signal which makes the most of the podcasting format to bring together a dozen or so Firefly fans who have produced a digital show about the lead-up to the film's release (and aims to total 16 hour+ length shows plus several specials by the end of October). The team behind The Signal have never all met in person and indeed the first meeting between a few cast members happened at the recent DragonCon. Digital communication technologies have allowed a disparate fan-base to come together online to achieve some amazing things: The Signal podcast is very detailed and has a strong support from the Serenity cast, more than half of whom have been interviewed on the show which also talks about the latest Serenity news, fan happening and even a guide to learning the Chinese language used in the Firefly 'verse. The Signal has been at the top of many of the podcast best-of polls and lists.A documentary is also being finished not about the making of the film, but rather the input and support of fans in terms of getting the film made; it's called Done The Impossible: A Fan's Tale of Firefly and Serenity. There are lots of other examples out there (such as the Waiting for Serenity short fan-film or the very funny (and adult-oriented) parody Mosquito), so it's worth thinking about how fandom has embraced digital culture to become a considerable part of the promotion a fan-favoured film. Serenity exists because of both fans' enthusiasm and their willingness to consume everything Firefly related.The PoliticsWith everyone from the New York Times to About.com comparing Serenity to Star Wars, one has to wonder what they're on about given that Serenity's box office take has been less than stellar so far (although without a doubt it will make its money back and then kick straight into profit with DVD sales ... perhaps enough to justify a sequel or two since Joss has already mentioned they're in his head). The comparrison, to my mind, is more about the politics than the money. The original Star Wars trilogy was about rebellion in the face of imperial rule, but more basically about individual freedom and rights in the face of tyranny and terror. The atmosphere of terror and the unprecedented role of governments in policing and "securing" their citizenry (in the West and elsewhere) has led to a political climate where difference is far from respected. Governments are getting more and more power, and citizens are rapidly losing their rights (often with consent). The difference between being evil and being a little bit naughty is pretty much disappearing, with absolutes being powerfully re-deployed. Thus, a film that has its heroes boldly state, "I aim to misbehave", the comparison with contemporary politics is easy to make. Indeed, the heroes of Serenity ultimately used the media to combat a seemingly monolithic and impenetrable government. The crew of Serenity are the bloggers, podcasters, citizen journalists and pirates of their day and speak loudly to those today who aren't evil, just different to the conservative far right norm hailed and embraced by US and Australian governments. As the tagline states, The Future is Worth Fighting For, and Serenity offers a powerful metaphor for those struggling to maintain their rights and dignity in the face of a conservative right-wing political climate. That, I suggest, is Serenity's similarity to Star Wars, and a similarity well worth thinking about.The Links (or some of them..)The Ballad of Joss [Direct MP3] [Lyrics] [Via] [Official Serenity Movie Website] [Official Australian Serenity Website] [Browncoats] [Whedonesque] [WhedonWiki] [The Signal, Serenity-dedicated Podcast] [Can't Stop The Signal] [Session 416]And if you're unsure whether Serenity is the film for you, go and watch the first nine minutes of Serenity for free at iFilm. I suspect the film's opening will win most of you over![Cross-posted from Tama Leaver's blog Ponderance.] Video37684@blogcritics.org Mon, 10 Oct 2005 05:51:28 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/04/120807.php TamaKatrina, the devastation of much of the Southern US, and the far too slow relief responses have dominated the media, both mainstream and citizen, these past few days. Some of the reports have been so hard to read and understand. Below are just a few responses that I've read which have struck me, as well as some links to the emerging citizen journalism/citizen media resources.[X] Bitch, Ph.D has two poignant posts, one with a very confronting image, and another which captures the sentiment of so many US citizens who are appalled at the lack of leadership and action by their president:Well, it looks as if Bush and the goddamn troops and some goddamn supplies have finally started arriving. Too late for the babies that died of dehydration, the old people that died of neglect, the sick people who died because there was no medical care, no supplies, no help.[X] David Brooks in the NYTimes 'The Storm After the Storm' highlights the political ramifications of Katrina's aftermath:Civic arrangements work or they fail. Leaders are found worthy or wanting. What's happening in New Orleans and Mississippi today is a human tragedy. But take a close look at the people you see wandering, devastated, around New Orleans: they are predominantly black and poor. The political disturbances are still to come.For the rather blatant racism even in mainstream press coverage, see these two juxtaposed AP articles.[X] Dave Winer's very raw comparrisons with Sept 11, and shock at life-as-usual in so much of the US also struck home.[X] Wired News has an article about Scipionus.com and interview with the creators Greg Stoll and Jonathan Mendez. Scipionus.com describes itself as:Katrina Information Map - This map is intended for the use of people affected by Hurricane Katrina who have or are trying to find information about the status of specific locations affected by the storm and its aftermath.It uses Google Maps and allows ordinary citizens to maps of the Southern states, creating a citizen-generated data-map of everything from reports about the water levels in specific regions to information about the whereabouts and safety of people who, until a week ago, lived in houses now gone or severely damaged. One such tag simply reads:Hyw 11 Camps; All Gonehttp://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1125516407116_ORIGINAL_P1010064.jpg[X] The Interdictor - A livejournal transformed by survivors with a generator and internet connection: "This journal has become the Survival of New Orleans blog. In less perilous times it was simply a blog for me to talk smack and chat with friends. Now this journal exists to share firsthand experience of the disaster and its aftermath with anyone interested."[X]The Katrina Help Wiki - First stop for find out how to help, and how to get help for people in the affected area. An excellent resource. (The Wikipedia entry for 'Hurricane Katrina' also has lots of factual information and is also being continually updated.)[X] The Online Journalism Review has a solid collection of media resources regarding Katrina.[X] Flickr Images - The NoniMan's Flickr Photoset (very gripping images of Hurricane Katrina's increasing victims), Katrina Relief Auction Group (some amazing Flickr shots being sold to raise money for relief efforts), and also follow the Katrina Tag or Katrina Cluster. There's also the appropriate political satire to be seen.[X] On Thursday, CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, who had already been in the thick of New Orleans' devestation for several days, turned on Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu during a live-telecast interview when she tried to basically dodge the hard questions and instead started thanking other politicians:COOPER: Senator, I?m sorry? for the last four days, I have been seeing dead bodies here in the streets of Mississippi and to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other ? I have to tell you, there are people here who are very upset and angry, and when they hear politicians thanking one another, it just, you know, it cuts them the wrong way right now, because there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman has been laying in the street for 48 hours, and there is not enough facilities to get her up. Do you understand that anger?LANDRIEU: I have the anger inside of me. Most of the homes in my family have been destroyed. I understand that, and I know all the details, and the President ?COOPER: Well, who are you angry at?LANDRIEU: I?m not angry at anyone. It is so important for everyone in this nation to pull together, for all military assets to be brought to bare in this situation. I have every confidence this country is great and strong as we can be do to that, and that effort is under way. That effort is under way.COOPER: Well, I mean, there are a lot of people here who are kind of ashamed of what is happening in this country right now, what is ? ashamed of what is happening in your state. And that?s not to blame the people that are there, it is a terrible situation, but you know, who ? no one seems to be taking responsibility. I know you say there?s a time and a place for kind of, you know, looking back, but this seems to be the time and the place. There are people that want answers, and people want someone to stand up and say: we should have done more. [From the Think Progress Transcript] [Download the clip in QT or WMV at Crooks and Liars]The shock of the disaster and the uncharacteristically honest media seems to have lit a fire under Landrieu, though, as she has now turned on Bush and his attempts to media-managed the disaster. From Landrieu's official press release:"Yesterday, I was hoping President Bush would come away from his tour of the regional devastation triggered by Hurricane Katrina with a new understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency. 24 hours later, the President has yet to answer my call for a cabinet-level official to lead our efforts. Meanwhile, FEMA, now a shell of what it once was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand."I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims -- far more efficiently than buses -- FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency."But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national government."[Via From The Roots] When American senators are lamenting politicians trying the manage the media, you know things are getting rough![X] During the NBC Concert for Hurricane Relief, rapper Kayne West departed from the safe, banal, scripted message he was "supposed" to deliver. West began looking uncharacteristically nervous and upset. When he spoke, he spoke his mind, much to the dismay of NBC:Mike Meyers reads off prompter ? switches to black singer, Kanye West:"I hate the way they portray us in the media."If you see a black family it says they are looting if you see a white family it says they are looking for food."And you know that it?s been 5 days because most of the people are black and even for me to complain ? I would be a hypocrite because I would turn away from the TV because it?s too hard to watch. I?ve even been shopping before giving a donation and so right now I?m calling my business manager what is the biggest amount I can give."And just to imagine if I was down there, those are my people down there. So anybody out there who wants to help with the set up, the way that America is set up to help ? The poor, the black people, the less well off as slow as possible. I mean, Red Cross is doing everything they can."We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war now fighting another way and they?ve given them permission to go down and shoot us."(Mike Meyers tries to get back on prompter, reads from script and then camera cuts back to Kanye. He pauses beforeKanye West: "George Bush doesn?t care about black people."[Transcript from Crooks & Liars] [Download the clip in QT or WMV also from Crooks & Liars]The LA Times notes that by the time the "A Concert for Hurricane Relief" hit the West Coast three hours later, Kayne West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" was removed from the broadcast. The Washinton Post continues:West's comments would be cut from the West Coast feed, an NBC spokeswoman told The TV Column. (The Associated Press later reported that only his comment about the president was edited out.) The show was live on the East Coast with a several-second delay; someone with his finger on a button was keeping an ear peeled in case someone uttered an obscenity but did not realize that West had gone off-script, the spokeswoman said.Kudos to Kayne West is all I can say.[X] The "Left I on the News" Blog reports that a certain president has shown real and immediate compassion and resourcefulness in trying to combat the human disaster:Not President Bush. Cuban President Fidel Castro. Speaking on Cuban television tonight, Castro revealed that on Tuesday, while George Bush was still on vacation playing with his spiffy new guitar, and a day or two before the Secretary of State went shopping for shoes, Cuba contacted the State Department and offered no less than 1,100 doctors to assist in dealing with the crisis. Doctors who, unlike the hospital ship which has yet to leave its berth in Baltimore and isn't scheduled to be in New Orleans until next Saturday (!), could have been on site by Wednesday if the Cuban offer had been accepted.It wasn't.Update: In his speech last night on Cuban television, Castro reiterated his offer. These doctors would arrive carrying their own medical supplies and food, capable of operating on their own without any infrastructure. If the offer had been accepted last night, 100 of them could have been here today, with the other 1000 following within the next two days. People will die today in New Orleans due to lack of medical care. Condoleezza Rice was, we can presume, too busy admiring her new $500 shoes to pick up the phone, or care. Leaving aside their response in general, the lack of response of the United States Government to the Cuban offer, all by itself, is criminal. Not just grounds for impeachment, but grounds for being charged with accessory to murder. Because the people of New Orleans aren't just dying, they are being murdered by criminal neglect.[Via The Republic of T][X] Matt Wells, writing for the BBC in " New Orleans crisis shames Americans":At the end of an unforgettable week, one broadcaster on Friday bitterly encapsulated the sense of burning shame and anger that many American citizens are feeling. The only difference between the chaos of New Orleans and a Third World disaster operation, he said, was that a foreign dictator would have responded better. It has been a profoundly shocking experience for many across this vast country who, for the large part, believe the home-spun myth about the invulnerability of the American Dream. The party in power in Washington is always happy to convey the impression of 50 states moving forward together in social and economic harmony towards a bigger and better America. That is what presidential campaigning is all about. But what the devastating consequences of Katrina have shown - along with the response to it - is that for too long now, the fabric of this complex and overstretched country, especially in states like Louisiana and Mississippi, has been neglected and ignored. [...] The country has to choose whether it wants to rebuild the levees and destroyed communities, with no expense spared for the future - or once again brush off that responsibility, and blame the other guy. [X] Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing is dismayed that the army seems to have declared war on the civilians in New Orleans:An article in the Army Times is referring to American citizens in New Orleans as "the insurgency".Does this mean the United States is now in an undeclared state of civil war? [...] Junkies and desperate people in dehumanizing conditions without homes, hope, or the most basic resources for survival. The context doesn't make crime acceptable. It doesn't lessen the very real dangers for military and law enforcement personnel tasked with the daunting job of restoring security. But it doesn't make an entire population "insurgents" either.We often hear the term used by military leaders or politicians to refer to armed entities in Iraq and other war zones overseas.We are talking about fellow American citizens here -- in America.Not insurgents. Not refugees. Not enemies. Americans.[Cross posted from Tama Leaver's blog Ponderance.] Sci/Tech35465@blogcritics.org Sun, 4 Sep 2005 12:08:07 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/28/213727.php TamaOn Thursday, Boing Boing ran a story "Alleged subway wanker caught on cameraphone, Flickr" which tells how a young woman, Thao Nguyen, was allegedly flashed by a guy who completely exposed himself to her and masturbated on the NY subway; in response, she took his photo with her cameraphone, apparently putting him off enough to leave the train. She took the photo to the police, looked through some existing mug-shots, couldn't immediately identify the man, and then posted the photo to her Flickr account. Since then, her Flickr photo has been viewed over 89,000 times, the story has appeared in 1010Wins and, more importantly, in the New York Daily News (cover image here, [via BoingBoing]). At first glance, this story reflects an empowering use of new technologies: instead of being victimised by a guy who may never be identified, Thao Nguyen used her cameraphone to capture an image of her abuser and then used Flickr and digital word of mouth (amplified by Boing Boing and then an old media newspaper) to get the image of this guy out as a warning. Even if not caught, the guy in question probably won't be riding the subway again for a while as there are no doubt many citizens (and police) who are now familiar with his face. In this particular instance, this use of technology appears to be entirely positive (especially if the guy is caught, tried and proven guilty). However, there lies the issue. Boing Boing, quite sensibly, added an "allegedly" to their first story about this incident. While I'm 100% comfortable with everything up to Thao Nguyen posting the image in her Flickr account (which is her right as the person taking the shot), I'm less comfortable with the media reportage thereafter. Sure, this case seems very straightforward: flasher guy is bad/evil/deranged. But, what if "the flasher" has a mental illness of some sort and didn't understand what he was doing? What if there are other extreme circumstances behind his action? Now, let me state clearly: I would never wish this situation on anyone and am sure the trauma Thao Nguyen felt is very real and should not be in any way trivialised. However, beyond this image, nothing else is know about the guy on the train. Now, I recognise that this is one of those cases where if it was left up to the police and law, it's very possible nothing would get done. Police in NY seem to be very busy most of the time and this sort of abuse may very well not register very high on their priority list. So, Thao Nguyen's actions may very well have sped up justice in a particular way. Indeed, in this very specific case, Thao's actions and those of the media seem very just and upright.Before getting too drawn into the story, lets look a few steps into the future. Pictures, as we all know, can easily be manipulated. Pictures tell 1000 words, but which thousand can be readily manipulated by whoever takes or contextualises the image. I'm not suggesting that Thao Nguyen did either of these things. But, if this becomes a trend and a cameraphone-enabled trial-by-Flickr gains a odd sort of credibility, the potential to abuse such a system is virtually limitless. What if after a nasty breakup photos that were taken with consent within the bounds of a relationship were re-constextualised and posted online as a form of revenge? What if a particularly effective photoshop effort was posted online? It's probably the case that either of these cases would be shown to be untrue give time, many people would probably never see such a clarification/retraction. Newspapers, if they pick up the story, have a nasty trend of giving accusations page one treatment and retractions two lines on the bottom of page forty-seven. So, while I commend Thao Nguyen for her quick thinking and wish her every luck in prosecuting the man who appears strongly to have abused her, I simply want to add a few words of warning to the digital ether and ask you to think about the ramifications of digital images becoming a form of citizen "justice". We need to be wary in such cases, or our new digital resources may indeed open a seductive but ultimately unjust hi-tech pandora's box.[Cross-posted from Tama Leaver's blog Ponderance.] Sci/Tech34978@blogcritics.org Sun, 28 Aug 2005 21:37:27 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/26/021335.php TamaIn the wake of the signing of a rather expensive HALO film deal, and the delaying of HALO 3 to coincide with the film release, I've been thinking, do we really need a HALO film? Game to film adaptations rarely work well (Tomb Raider while tolerable, certainly was no masterpiece and the Final Fantasy film lost a lot of money). The upcoming Doom film looks immediately forgettable or lamentable (although I hold onto the naive hope that self-reflective scriptwriters will use the line, "The Rock's gonna put the smackdown on your gaming ass!", but I'm not entirely confident on the front!). In the meantime, the wonderful HALO-generated Red Vs Blue machinima series now has competition from This Spartan Life for funniest machinima to date. Host Damian Lacedaemion's HALO-world talkshow with heavy weapons is absolutely fantastic (and, for a communications studies academic, a wonderful critique of sensationalist media!). That said, with machinima getting better and better, do we really want a HALO film, or films created using HALO? I for one, fear the HALO film, but hope to see HALO machinimation reaching new heights!Meanwhile, Machinima.com led me to the Sponsorhood, a very amusing parody of Rooster Teeth's Strangerhood (which is the oddball, bizzaro second-child of the Red Vs Blue team). The Strangerhood has never really worked for me, and I think the critique explict in the Sponsorhood is rather apt!Also, the winners are in for the USC/EA Sims 2 machinimation competition; you can view and download the winners here.[Cross-posted from my blog Ponderance.] Gaming34843@blogcritics.org Fri, 26 Aug 2005 02:13:35 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/08/023938.php TamaIn the late 1960s, conservative Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey coined the term "the tyranny of distance" to describe how the geographic gap between Australia and the centres of the Western world (US, UK) played a fundamental role is shaping the Australian psyche and character. Fast forward thirty something years into the future, the world is widely considered a global village; the web, email and a million other applications have made realtime information-heavy communication and commerce the expected norm. Today, however, the event of the last few days have given me pause enough to think about what we might consider the tyranny of digital distance insomuch as the potential and, indeed, expectation of synchronous global culture (at least for English-speaking countries) leads to a constant state of delay and annoyance when the promise isn't met. A few examples from my life in Perth, Western Australia ("the world's most geographically isolated capital city") ...News (in print and more or less online) David Sifry's State of the Blogosphere, August 2005, Part 1: Blog Growth has been widely cited across the blogosphere and the US and UK newsmedia for most of last week. A full week after the story hits, The West Australian, our only WA-based newspaper, finally picks up the piece. Although, I shouldn't really complain, because the story actually makes it online; less the half The West goes up on there website (I have no idea why, but I suspect it's a lack of demand and a lack of foresight reinforcing each other).Film: Code 46 While this film has had a slightly difficult release no matter which country we look at, the mainstream UK release was September 2004. The cinema release date for Code 46 in Australia was July 28 2005. There's a ten month delay there!Television I: Desperate Housewives While I'm not particularly interested in this show, it's a good example because it is very widely watched in Australia. The finale of Desperate Housewives,"One Wonderful Day" aired in the US on May 22nd. The episode airs in Perth tonight, 8th August. While that's actually quite a respectable delay considering the norm, that period of almost three months is how long Aussie Desperate Housewives fans have had to avoid large segments of the net which have reported/discussed/dissected the season finale. (That's not counting the period before the show when spoilers were widely available!)Television II: Battlestar Galactica & The Podcasts A show I am very interested in. Battlestar Galactica season one didn't air in Australia until March 2005, despite a UK release in 2005 and a US release in early January. Any SF/F show is going to have a large, dedicated, fannish following. Battlestar Galactica is a very good SF show, and thus has a huge following. There are even official podcasts by exec producer Ron Moore, and fan podcasts such as the Combat Information Centre. I can get the podcasts via iTunes minutes after they go live. But the episodes? Well, after season one got pushed later and later into the evening (finally resting at a 10.30pm timeslot), season two doesn't even have a scheduled release date (although I sorely suspect early 2006 to be likely).So, here we have plenty of examples of cultural delay in an era where the technology and infrastructure already exist to get around the delay. Now, I recognise that these delays are in large part caused because big business and big media have divided the world up into slices that they each exploit to their fullest. Channel Seven trys to milk Desperate Housewives for all it can, thus playing the show later in the year during the traditionally higher rating winter months. Channel 10 moves Battlestar Galactica to a later slot for the same reason and because they know SF/F shows have the most stable audience; move it to 2am and they'll still watch (or, at least, record) their favourite shows. Code 46 is too artshousey for much mainstream release, so cinemas don't worry too much about when. And The West ... well, in a one newspaper town the web is king.However, these delays are also hurting the businesses who live off advertising. The delays in TV shows have led to a widespread culture of TV-show downloading; torrent TV is the easiest and fastest way to keep apace of your favourite TV show. I purchased and got mail-delivered the (legal) Code 46 DVD before Australia had even agreed on a release date. And I haven't paid for The West Australian for a long, long time. So, is this just a whinge? No; it's a suggestion. Australian media distributors need to be looking at alternative models, not try to lock them down through lawsuits. Yes, downloading torrents of TV hurts Australian ratings a little (but not a lot from the looks of things), and it may very well continue to get worse. The solution, of course, is not trying to prevent innovative technologies ("information wants to be free", after all!), but rather to embrace them. If I could pay a few dollars for a direct-download of Battlestar Galactica today, I would. If an Australian company set this up via a license from the US, this would mean the show can still, to some extent, be marketed nationally. If Australian cinemas can't get films before their US DVD release date, then why not try and set up a direct-download-pay-per-view or some such platform in Australia? The generation that are growing up having experienced peer-to-peer filesharing will expect synchronous global media even more than the current twentysomethings. Big media should be embracing innovation and learning to work with new technologies or they may find the carpet being pulled from under them before they've even realised it was made of ones and zeroes.The tyranny of distance was geograhpic with cultural effects. The tyranny of digital distance occurs when the geographic has been by and large supplanted by the digital, but the age-old national boundaries to legal media distribution will very soon lead to more and more people circumventing those legal limits unless big media admits that dividing the pie up in terms of national licenses (or the ridiculous DVD region zones) no longer makes sense when information is moving at the speed of light![Cross-posted from Ponderance.] Sci/Tech33811@blogcritics.org Mon, 8 Aug 2005 02:39:38 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/22/222312.php TamaI'm a big fan of the reincarnated Battlestar Galactica series. I think the writing is clever and thoughtful and the issues explored add real depth to the series, not to mention some great characters and battles. However, something else seems to be setting Battlestar Galactica apart from other SF TV series, which is the fantastic online presence of the show's braintrust and their innovative and creative use of digital technology to enhance the experience of the show and build their already sizable fanbase. Examples so far include the fact that Ronald D. Moore, the show's executive producer, has a detailed and candid blog talking about the show, responding to questions, sometimes admitting flaws in the overall story and occassionally sequeing into more personal territory; this not only expands the fan/producer interaction Joss Whedon or JMS style, but also adds a very human face to the production process. The second innovation was to put the entire first episode, "33", online freely watchable for all to view, complete with four deleted scenes. Putting this episode up was, I think, a very clever move especially since so many people have already downloaded torrents, and again builds a lot of goodwill. The deleted scenes are a nice touch, and the website also has deleted scenes from each episode which has aired in the US. The only downside is that it's streaming realplayer footage which is a little crappy at times (but entirely understandable insomuch as it prevents most people from saving the file). Finally, and most impressively, Moore is now doing a podcast before each new epsiode which contains a commentary on the episode. This is pretty much the same content that, I imagine, will turn up on the DVD, but releasing it online in advance certainly ties fans and the production team together very effectively. More to the point, all of these online extras can certainly enrich the experience of the show, as well as solidifying the US fans who may have already seen the epsiodes via torrents (the UK versions aired several months before the US), and tying those viewers directly to the US airdates. All in all, it's a better experience for fans who want all the Battlestar they can find, means the producers have already made a lot of the DVD material as soon as the episodes have aired, and relishes the possibilities of online distribution.Meanwhile ... BBC News reports that an entire (but possibly not entirely post-produced) episode of the newly revived Doctor Who series has turned up online as a bittorrent file. Moreover, the rather miffed BBC is investigating, leading to some blushing Canadians:A show spokesperson said the leak was a "significant breach of copyright". "We would urge viewers not to spoil their enjoyment and to wait for the finished version, which airs at the end of the month," a statement said. [...] "The source of it appears to be connected to our co-production partner," the BBC statement said. The partner is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). A CBC spokesperson said: "We are looking into it. That's all I can say at this point because we don't know exactly what happened. It certainly wasn't done intentionally."While I completely empathise with the show's producers who have been cheated of their big launch, now that the "damage" has been done, the best thing the BBC could do is follow the lead of the SciFi channel and Battlestar producers and put the first episode up online officially as soon after the official premiere as is possible. The worst thing the BBC could do (and they've show no signs of doing so yet) is prosecute fans who've downloaded the episode as that would erradicate the hardcore fanbase before they've even had a chance to embrace the new show. It's time to try and run with your fans and use all the tools of online distribution, not run against the digital winds.In the words of Commander Adama: "So say we all ..." Sci/Tech27131@blogcritics.org Tue, 22 Mar 2005 22:23:12 EST