Letters to the Editor
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I like to unplug
TV is (and I don’t mean at all to speak figuratively) the means by which doxa, or the Matrix, is transmitted to keep us so comfortably in collective illness, “ . . . the last, tattered remnant of [the American lie] this pitiful nation has." So few unplug for the same reasons that so few are free of other comforting addictions used to soothe anxiety and emptiness.
Weeds, Wonder Showzen, and a few other gems are viruses in System that give us some evidence and hope for a future “ . . . of community and understanding . . .”
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Okay, pcv2006, your answers.
Let's see...pcv2006, you who are so much in touch with your own feelings that you can determine that I'm not...
The Sopranos is mostly about sex because it's a convenient, lazy way to write. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but some of the most important thinking human beings do has nothing to do with sex. Foremost in most people's minds is the desire to kill their enemies. That's why the violence in today's media, because the things that used to restrain violence - religion, philosophy, common decency, the higher brain functions - are held in disrepute.
And if you ever really watched The Untouchables, most of the episodes are built on the idea that (to swipe from Lucas) once you start down the dark path of crime, forever will it dominate you. Blake Edwards's series made that important. In Sopranos it's little more than a fart, set decoration. Oh, Tony hallucinates a horse...for an episode. How talky! The Untouchables showed their gangsters's rise and fall economically, within a one-hour format per story, without all the nudity and obscenity - the only two factors distinguishing Sopranos from a straightforward crime drama. Far too many people buy HBO only for the "bewbies."
As for Freaks and Geeks, it must be pretty obvious that I am one of life's losers. And I hate a series that shows us losers continually losing, that meditates on the fact that we always lose. That show drowned in misery, instead of showing characters conquering in some small way the judgment society and God had heaped upon them. They're talking about my parish, damn it, and they treated us losers the way Imus treats black women.
And now, the big reveal. I hate Havrilesky for several reasons - her contempt for her readers and her subject, her damned pretend New York Intellectual cappucino snootiness, her lack of knowledge of the industry. (If you don't know the history of a subject, how can you talk about its present knowledgably?) But mostly because when I read someone's column, I'm looking for people smarter than me. I don't pretend to be brilliant myself, but how the hell did Salon - a journal I respect enough to pay for it annually - wind up with such a poseur as a columnist? I could write a better column, and I know I don't have the right or credentials to write for pay - there are lots of people smarter than me and I want to hear from them. Why can't one of these smarter people write about television? Why can't Salon go for the best, instead of the clearly unworthy?
Okay, pcv2006, time to insult my race, creed, color or whatever you want to slam. Go for it, dude.
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How many TRUMPER yuppies have been hungry
impoverished, depressed, homeless or handicapped?
OVER THREE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED non SURVIVORS of Iraq and American TV madness. That of it's own 'broiling' "W"ealth?
PEACE ON EARTH
goodwill to mankind
IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY
VETO "the Decider" and Associates,
rendering them unto Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without habeus.
To paraphrase Christians: "Render unto the King, what belongs to the King".
jpi7
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TRT get over yourself
tomreedtoon - Regulars around here all know you think you are smarter/wittier/more eloquent than Heather. Nobody cares.
There are plenty of avenues for an aspiring writer/critic to vent his views in public. They are called blogs. Get one. Write your own weekly column, filled with your delicious wit, your endless supply of television trivia, and your contempt for HH. Advertise it here, I'm sure everyone would love to read your stuff. If its truly better than Heather's, we will all flock to your blog in droves.
I'm so fucking sick of your "I am better than Havrilesky" screeds every week. You are pathetic. Get a life. Stop whining about how much you think she hates everyone and how much you think her writing sucks. If you can do better, prove it. Start a blog, attract an audience, and get your own writing gig. It happens all the time.
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Two things...
Amen, l3fty2007, to your words of wisdom:
"I'm so fucking sick of your 'I am better than Havrilesky' screeds every week. You are pathetic. Get a life. Stop whining about how much you think she hates everyone and how much you think her writing sucks. If you can do better, prove it. Start a blog, attract an audience, and get your own writing gig. It happens all the time."
Not to beat a dead horse but to the comment made by another Anonymous which was:
"There's something I've always been curious about -- why is rape not funny in the least bit when it happens to women outside of prison but absolutely adorably and forgivably hilarious when it happens to a man in prison?"
I say: Good question. I agree that there is no room for humor regarding the act of rape no matter who the victim is.
However, if you question why there seem to be more men-in-prison rape jokes out there you'd have to ask the male comics out there who make these jokes and who outnumber, by far, females who might have made jokes about this situation.
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oh heather, i am you!
this was the funniest i like to watch ever!
touche'!
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it's Earth Day, and pretty much beautiful all over the U.S. - and where are we?
at the Losers Blog! thanks annoir, i had watched only one minute of Maldoror selections (seemed weird - but i just hadn't watched enough) fat demon, that was funny. and the little musicians, adorable. the english one was so different! japan and england both had empires, two, three generations ago, but japan lost and england won. japanese humor is hopeful, the british, bitter. [that was "Great Thought of the Day" (Earth Day)]