Not to run the risk of this becoming a one-subject blog or anything, but I had to annotate the occurrence of Karl Malden performing an unauthorised Vulcan mind-meld on an unsuspecting English-accented baddie in ep.05, Tower Beyond Tragedy.
Now and then I also listen to bit of radio national. One program, ‘Life & Times’ has interesting stuff – mostly recycled radio docos from 10 or 12 years ago.
This one and the second part feature interviews with an old lady – 105 years old, in 1982, and she’s talking about stuff from the 1890s in a really lucid and interesting way—dear old thing—it’s worth it just to listen to her voice. But the actual content is good too – about a failed socialist commune experiment that australians pioneered in Paraguay
What with the weekly hour+ bustrips I’m able to get back into podcasts, and People Like Us is back on WFMU for the (Northern) summer. Vicky played this mashup by dutch-based madmixmustang:
Take It Easy On Me.
I guess it says a bit about the normal schedule, but during this summer break I’m actually working three times harder than normal. It’s killing me. My feet are killing me—I’m standing up standing still too much of the day and I’m not getting the other normal stuff done. I’m actually learning too though so it’s not all bad. For the first time I’m having teach real ridgey didge grammar. Always managed to somehow skirt around it before but this time I’m using these books (the black one on the bottom) and I have to say it’s really good.
I also just wanted to say that I’m not usually thinking that entrepreneurial cappos are really cool but that guy Elon Musk is into some pretty interesting stuff. First there was paypal—love it or hate it, and most people hate it, and afterall it is now owned by ebay, but it’s still the only system of international electronic payment I know of. Then there’s SpaceX, which is undeniably cool. Plus there’s Tesla Motors, which certainly is like pushing shit up hill going against the automotive/petro gangsters, but nevertheless it’s there.
I’m really getting into cop shows. It’s mostly because I like the scenery. It’s like a time machine, visiting a city at a certain time in history. CHiPs is LA in the late 70s. A month or two back in the cultural theory unit when we came up to postmodernism and the reading on how LA is like hyper-real simulacra I put the point to the class that wasn’t it just another city? But I guess I am starting to see how Hollywood may have warped its reality a bit.
The second series is interesting. They lost the old(er) school brass-dominated scoring and have gone for a more 4-on-the-floor disco beat, plus the guitar is more effected. They’re still pushing the boundaries as is evidenced (ep02S02) by this brilliant juxtaposition of images; a tiger, a supermarket—a tiger in a supermarket.
It was only because of Karl Malden dying the other day that alerted me to ‘The Streets of San Francisco’. I d/loaded the pilot episode and it was pretty ace. 1972. Big cars and everyone had sideburns, which makes me feel at home. It’s pretty easy to see that Police Squad got a few of their ideas from here, and from there, The Naked Gun.
Lt. Stone & Inspector Keller, working around the clock, eating around the clock
I’m also watching Miami Vice again. 1984. It’s pretty okay. I like how a bit of info on the wikipedia page about it says that in planning the show some exec handed someone a ripped little bit of paper that just said, “MTV cops”—make it happen. The first ep of the series had some things going on about identity and obfuscation. Flava Flav does repeat guest appearances in series 1. Given that P.E. must’ve been going by then I don’t know how he reconciled the whole Rebel without a pause thing with playing a character who’s a snitch for THE MAN.
Update: 10/14/09 I just found out the guy playing Noogie was not Flava Flav. Whoops.
