Thursday 23 February 2012

Tenth Entry: Ranting, the public broadcaster and Reality TV's reality

EntWined: 7 Tales of the Urbanites - Pete Kermally, AuthorHouse, 2007 - p.173

    Have you ever seen an innocent old lady get squashed below the wheels of a speeding lorry, or been witness to a rapid dog mutilating daily shoppers in an afternoon in Asda?
    No?
    Me neither but both I imagine, however unpleasant they may seem, you would be fixated upon them for at least three or four minutes when your mind would then inform you of the disgusting sick nature of the topic and involuntary close your eyelids.
    This is exactly what is happening to me, when by sheer accident and bad luck I come across Celebrity Love Island.
    Two to three minutes of watching this piece of media filth makes me wish indeed I was witnessing the Cujo-esk killing spree in the supermarket or Mrs Brady being crushed by the fourteen wheeler.
    "What the fuck is this shit?"  I asked myself, temporarily unaware that thirty kids and six teachers are in the room with me.
     The worrying thing about this psuedo -celebrity shag fest is the fact that immediately it makes me feel very, very old and very, very prudish.
    For the last five or so years I've managed to completely ignore this phase of non actors being on my telly and making complete and utter titfucks of themselves.  I regard Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother, Celebrity Wrestling and the Farm with the same dismissive attitude as Busted splitting up or as the comeback single of The Pet Shop Boys.


    Before you get on your high horse about Reality T.V simply being good viewing and accusing me of being a geeky nerd due to my (mild) Star Wars and A Team obsession, I want to point out the pitfalls and simply the wrongness of supporting this media whoring.
    Firstly those who claim they do not enjoy these shows but, "just like it to laugh at the people" need a fucking life.  As a teacher I spend many an hour "laughing at the idiots" but unlike you guys obsessed by Big Brother I get paid for being the bemused and casual observer.  What your doctor should strongly recommend in to cancel your subscriptions of Heat, Now, Look, Hello and O.K and buy some descent shit that will engage your pea sized minds and explore your...
(Note: I have not corrected any spelling or grammatical errors in this piece, as I don't know if they are intended ((first person narrative and all that)).  As stated in the title heading, I use these pieces as a spring-board for my own writing, not for editing practice.) 

I love a good rant, both administering, listening and watching.



Whether my rant is about politics, film, television programmes, cartoons - whatever ... it's nice to get it all out and then enjoy a fruitful conversation about the topic, with some informed points of view, opposing or not.

The above rant is amusing and though I'm not as impassioned, I have similar opinions about a lot of reality TV.  I understand why networks produce these shows; they are cheap and they rate highly.  It's good business.  The successful programmes gain more than a following, their watchers invest much of their emotions in the contestants and are frequently outraged with judges' decisions or the weekly exile, (X-Factor time in the UK comes to mind).  That this genre lacks any intellectual merit has been discussed ad nauseam, it is the constructed nature of the presented 'reality' that many fans are apparently oblivious to, the narrative imposed to compel the viewer to watch and watch and watch.  Charlie Brooker demonstrates:



With the declining television profit model, Big Brother and Survivor and those shows about the Kardashians, with their ease of production and potential wide profit margins, offer networks a life-line.  This is why the existence of a public broadcaster is important.  Not being subject to profit and ratings exigencies, they have a much greater opportunity to produce something clever, whose humour and drama isn't provided through a contestant's self-abasement (witting or unwitting), but through good writing and talented actors.  The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, has provided several shows like Rake, The Slap, Spicks and Specks, The Gruen Transfer/Gruen Planet, Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight, The Hamster Wheel and many more.  The BBC also produces several acclaimed programmes.  Before anyone mentions 'left-wing agenda' or even intones 'Socialist' to enforce their vacuous point, I would challenge any to direct me to any study that establishes the Socialist policies of either the ABC, BBC or NPR.  You'll find that they are all quite moderate and not a mouth piece for government or the extreme left.  The main reason is that they have to be; as government funded entities, they are scrutinised in far greater detail than commercial networks, except maybe for Fox News, who are unabashedly conservative.

Producing content of acclaim is not the exclusive purview of public broadcasters though; The West Wing for example was brought to us by NBC.

All that said, one of my not-so-guilty pleasures is watching cartoons.  If a person derives pleasure from watching fat folk sweat, stressed people cook, strangers share a house and the opulent young 'cope', then that's their choice, and they have it in abundance.  If things are defined by their opposites, then quality programs like The West Wing need Celebrity Apprentice to exist.  There are certainly worse trade offs.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Ninth Entry: 'Death on the River Walk' - Protest, Occupy and Protect

Death on the River Walk - Carolyn Hart, Avon Books, 1999 - p.237

...were occupied on my floor, four on the second.  An asterisk marked one room.  I glanced at the legend below.  The asterisk was folliowed in neat printing by "Not Attending Austrion."
    Rick had listened well.  I had no interest in the Wallaces from Canton, Ohio, in room 9.  But I had a great deal of interest in the other guests, the Harrisons in room 2, Cara Kendall in room 4, Bud Morgan in room 8, Joshua handler in room 12, and Kenny King in room 14, all invited guests to the annual Tesoros auction.
    If Borroel had given me a chance, I would have laid it out for him.  The grand exhibition of ancient gold at the Museum of Anthriopology in Mexico City was a stellar event in the world of antiquities, running throughout the summer. The robbery could have occurred at any time during the period.  I was sure Ed Schmidt had been in the district several times since summer began. So why did the theft occur when it did? Because the quicker the theif disposed of the gold, the shorter the period he would have it in his possession and the less danger of exposure he faced. Therefore, the sale of the gold had already been arranged.  That was the only smart way to set it up. Who has the money or the lust for possession to buy that kind of treasure? Very, very rich collectors. Where did a handful of such collectors turn up every year? At the annual auction at Tesorors. Yes, I felt certain that the entire transaction had been planned long in advance, the date selected for the theft, the gold brought to Tesoros and hidden in the wardrobe to await the arrival of its purchaser.
    All would have gone according to plan if it weren't for a young woman's curiosity.  For want of a nail ...
    But I conifdent that once the murder re- ...

"...were occupied on my floor ... the money for the lust for possession..."

Unless you have been in a coma, planted in front of a gaming console or circling the moon for the last few months, you will undoubtedly have heard about the 'occupy' movements that have taken, and are taking, place across the Western world. Some have been peaceul, some have escalated (or degenerated) into riots, whilst others have been forcibly dispered.  The movement doesn't have a clear objective, an articulated mission statement or a unified message, but has been born of citizen frustration (note: citizen, not youth).  In the United States, these occupies have legitimate concerns about the state of their state: their health care system is in thrall to insurance companies whose function of providing medical care is secondary to its motives for profit maximisation, politicians are becoming ever more dependent on corporate funding for their election campaigns, the minimum wage is not a living one and, as in the United Kingdom, social mobility is increasingly becoming the exception.
    A popular picture went around pointing out the iphones, ipods, cameras, and brand name clothing of some of the protestors in an attempt to highlight their ingrained hypocrisy and the inconsistencies of the entire movement; mass consumers of corporate products that are protesting against corporations and all that.  This would be a clever point if these protests have/had a socialist agenda and if corporate ruination is/was the overarching goal of all occupiers.  With the exception of a few far left wingers (the presence of which can't be helped at these sorts of events), nobody wants the government to assume control of all means of production, nor do they strive for the abolishment of corporations.  What they ultimately want is to live in a society where their system of government is not disproportionately influenced by and representative of corporate interests, where the access of a reasonable quality of health care will not leave them destitute, and an option of a fulfilling publicly funded education. The benefits to a corporation should not outweight the benefits of the community or of the individual - a moderate position independent of the far left.

"The grand exhibition of gold at the Museum..."

Speaking of protests, one of the prouder moments in this year's Arab Spring occured when Egyptian civilians formed a human ring around the museum of Egypt to protect it from looters.  Unfortunately, some vandals had already broken in and destroyed some priceless artefacts and mummies.
To put the importance of this event into context, you must understand that this is not a building that only contains a couple of chipped vases and rusted arrow heads.  This is one of the world's greatest repositories of ancient and cultural artefacts (Tutankhamun's gold mask but one of the many items), there are not many other places in the world that can even rival this museum's inventory, let alone importance.  As one of the world's influential empires of yester-milenia, this building houses not only Egypt's history, but humankind's.  To quote Jonathan Jones' blog on the Guardian website, "Rationalise the destruction of history and you will be amazed at what you rationalise next."


"All would have gone according to plan if it weren't for a young woman's curiosity."
Jinkies.