Program scripts from week of April 9, 2012
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Sons of the Fathers
It was the most frightening and disturbing story I’ve come across in a very long time. Just one of those things that create a disturbance in the Force. It’s almost beyond description it’s just so wrong at a fundamental level.
There’s a rumor the Beatles might get together again. Now many of you will instantly wish to point out that two of the Beatles are dead and therefore, barring the Zombie Apocolypse, a reunion is unlikely. That would still leave open the question of whether John and George would do the tour before or after they ate Paul and Ringo’s brains. Another comment for another day.
No in this case it would kind of be the Beatles version 2. It appears that there is at least some conversation going on among the sons of the originals about coming together to form their own band. Reports from England say that James McCartney has approached Sean Lennon, Dhani Harrison and Zak Starkey about the idea. So far it’s just in the talking stage. Curiously the only son who isn’t really open to the idea up front, according to McCartney, is Zak Starkey. But Ringo has another son who might step in.
All of which leads to one inevitable reaction. NOOOOOOOOOO! Don’t do it guys, in fact don’t even think about it. Put it out of your minds. Make it a topic of conversation that is simply never broached. Go so far as to shun forever anyone foolish enough to bring the concept up again, in public or in private.
Do I even need to list the reasons why this is such a bad idea? The chances of this being a winning idea are so vanishingly small that there’s just no percentage in trying. The standard by which such a group would be judged is impossibly high. As good at the Beatles were the pedestal gets hoisted even higher when people start talking about the “next Beatles”. It can’t be easy living in the shadow of a legendary father so why push yourself even deeper into that shadow? At best you become a novelty act and at worst, well the worst doesn’t even bear thinking on. It’s not even a matter of trying a different musical style. It would still be Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr(key). Maybe you could get away with a tribute special event concert, a new “Concert for Bangladesh” kind of thing. But beyond that? Let’s just say Love Me Don’t.
Troll Laws
If you spend any amount of time on the internet you will have come across the most irritating aspect of life online. The internet Troll. A troll is someone who breaks into an online conversation with inflammatory comments, insults, or topics that have nothing to do with the discussion at hand. Trolls are inevitably people who want the attention on themselves. They are bullies who try to push other people around in an environment where they know they are safe from virtually any form of retaliation. The worst that can happen to them is being banned but any troll knows multiple ways around that particular barrier. There really is only one good defense against trolls and that is encapsulated in the conventional world wide web wisdom that says “Don’t Feed the Trolls”. If you ignore them they almost always go away.
At least that was the only effective way of dealing with them. Maybe there’s a new one. Or maybe not.
The great state of Arizona is looking at an amendment to it’s communications harassment act that reads:
"It is unlawful for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use any electronic or digital device and use any obscene, lewd or profane language or suggest any lewd or lascivious act, or threaten to inflict physical harm to the person or property of any person."
To harass, annoy or offend. All of a sudden being an online troll is a criminal act, at least in the state of Arizona. The bill has passed both Houses in Arizona and as of the time I wrote this I couldn’t see if the Governor had signed it.
If you’ve ever had trouble with a troll your first reaction to this idea is probably positive. The problem is that the language is so broad that virtually all of us could probably be prosecuted under it. Let’s face it at some point or another you’ve probably annoyed someone on Facebook or a blog or left a comment that set somebody off. All of a sudden snark the life blood of online commentary could be outlawed. Suddenly our courts will have to attempt to determine “intent to annoy”. And I think we can count on the trolls delighting in trying to use the law for their own purposes.
In the end the easiest answer remains Don’t Feed the Trolls.
Little Screen Viewing
Recently I’ve noticed more TV shows telling me to check out their online site so I can enjoy more special offerings while the show is on. And I’ve always thought that was dumb. My TV is in one room and my computer is in another so it’s not like it’s convenient. I know that more and more people have laptops which overcomes that problem. But I thought it was just silly to sit there with your laptop while you watched TV.
Till I realized I’d been doing it for a year.
Not with a laptop but with my Nook Color. One of the great things about this version of the Barnes and Noble e-reader is that it can function partially as a tablet computer. I can access the internet via WiFi and surf around to many common web sites. Where I do it most often is when I am watching movies. I will inevitably go to IMDB, the Internet Movie DataBase, and check out the cast list and the trivia about the movie. Sadly I must also confess that I am probably driving my lady wife and daughter crazy by sharing all this information while we watch the movie. What can I say, I’m just a bad person.
Some research shows me that I am very much not alone in this particular practice (using a tablet computer while watching TV not annoying my wife and daughter). Something like 70% of tablet users will be checking out something with the computer while watching TV. This is leading more and more TV shows to figure out ways of capturing both sources of attention in the viewer. During NBC’s Biggest Loser we are encouraged to surf on over to the show’s forum area and talk with both other viewers and some past contestants about what is happening on the show. Look for other programs to synch up the broadcast and online content so that at crucial moments suddenly a new feature will be revealed online. Some of these are being coded so that it even works that way if you are watching the show at a later time.
The concept is challenging from a variety of stand points. Not only are there the technical challenges but also the question of how determine viewer ratings. Am I one viewer split between two media or am I a discrete viewer for each one even though I’m doing it at the same time? Advertisers will want the ratings to accurately reflect where my attention really is before they spend the big bucks.
My wife and daughter would probably just like me to be quiet. Not sure how the technology will deal with that problem.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
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