The End of Film, Big Data and Super Media

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013-14 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of February 3, 2014


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. 

Super Media                                                                                                    

Normally I like to do a little wrap up of the Super Bowl in the week that follows.  Unfortunately for me I will have to be on the road for the first of the week so I won’t have the chance to do that.  So as I record this show the day BEFORE the big game I thought I’d take a look at what is without argument the single biggest media event of the year in the United States.

Now you may be under the impression that this was a sports event.  You know teams from Seattle and Denver playing the championship game of the most popular sport in our nation.  Well let’s be honest, the game itself just isn’t that a big deal.  I know that there are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of people who pay little to no attention to football during the regular season and playoffs who will suddenly show up for the Super Bowl.  It’s not because the quality of the play jumps up for this game.

No it’s the media aspects that make the difference.  Take a look at the first Super Bowl, which, parenthetically wasn’t even called the Super Bowl.  That didn’t happen till the third one.  In  1967 that first AFL-NFL Championship Game wasn’t nearly the show it is today.  It was broadcast on both CBS and NBC, it is the only one of the series that wasn’t a sell out and a 30 second ad sold for only forty two thousand dollars.  Oh and the half time show?  The marching bands from the Universities of Arizona and Grambling.

Since then the commercials have gotten outrageously expensive and sometimes astoundingly creative.  While last year’s game actually gave you a reason to watch more often than not the commercials are a lot more interesting than the football.  As for the half time shows they have grown progressively more complex.  Right up to ten years ago when the show was so complicated that the rehersal ran more than four hours long.  Following some changes required by the league to the show two of the performers decided to add a little risque twist to the show.  When Justin Timberlake pulled off a little more of Janet Jackson’s costume than expected we all learned the phrase “Wardrobe Malfunction” and the FCC proceeded to lose its marbles.  All over something that took something like nine sixteenths of a second.

It may not be a great game but it’s likely to be the most watched television broadcast of the year (it has been recently) and the second largest watched event in the world (after the World Cup).

Yeah, it’s really about the media.  And now we can all get on with our lives for another year.


Super Media                                                                                                        

With the return of the Net Neutrality issue to the middle of the media discussion and the ongoing concern over our national Intelligence organizations gathering all kinds of information about us many of us are actively thinking about the amount of data that may be floating around out there about us.  So let me give you a catchall name for that phenomenon.  It’s called “Big Data” and it has a whole bunch of problems of its own.

I’m not talking about the ones we normally think about.  On the other side of the issue there are problems as well.  First of all there’s the fact that big data is, well, big.  Enormous.  Gigantic.  Elephantine.  In fact we may need to come up with a whole new word just to describe it.  If you’re someone trying to make some sense out of all of this you completely understand the image of trying to drink from a firehose.

There is so much data being generated every day by millions of millions of people that most systems just can’t keep up.  You need specialized programs to sort through it all that have some kind of method of sifting the important stuff from the stuff most of us generate.  Then you need people who are accustomed to dealing with this massive weight of information.  Here’s the problem.  The programs only sort of exist and there aren’t nearly enough of the people to deal with the output of the programs we have at the moment.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had this problem.  Back in the early days of the Cold War the United States began to intercept massive amounts of Soviet coded information.  We lacked the computers, the codebreakers and the time to deal with the massive amount of information that poured in.  Decades later millions of pages of information still hadn’t been processed.

So what’s likely to happen with the problems of big data in the 21st Century?

The software will get better, the computers will get faster and more people will begin to specialize in its analysis.  The other curious side effect is that big data users will begin to change how they gather the information.  Some experts are saying that rather than gathering EVERYTHING they will have us do some of the filtering based on how we’re asked to share our information.

Meanwhile some of us will get more careful how our information is shared.  Most people won’t understand the issues or the problems.  For those people big data will remain just too big to comprehend.

RIP Pete Seeger                                                                                                                       

I have very mixed feelings about this next topic.  I am aware that technology marches on and the old must make way for the new.  I’m also aware that we’ve been through this same shift in several other areas of the media and have survived, even thrived in many ways.  But this is different.

The movies are moving away film.  Most of us don’t even think about it but when we go to the movies we are watching them presented in the same way they’ve been presented for decades.  Our parents watched them pretty much the same way and even our grandparents would recognize the basic technology.  It’s called 35 millimeter motion picture film.  The same basic technology that was the basis of still photography for more than a century.  Expose the film, develop the negative then create the positive print.  Pretty straightforward.

Of course film in the still photography world is largely a thing of the past.  I’ve been a hobby photographer since the 1970s and it’s been years since the last roll of film passed through my camera.  I still love photography and have enjoyed learning about digital imaging.  We went through a similar challenge when we moved away from vinyl for music recording to digital.

But I still have reservations about this shift.  First of all is the visual difference between film and digital recording.  Too often it’s easy to spot the video versus the film.  It looks different and I’m not sure its an improvement.

I understand the business aspects of this decision.  Paramount is leading the way announcing the current “Wolf of Wall Street” is the first wide release movie to come ONLY in digital form.  There’s a huge savings on creating prints and physically shipping them worldwide.  Now they can be delivered electronically or by satellite.
Beyond my artistic concerns are the worries of the archival community.  There are advantages to having a negative to preserve.  Kept at a proper temperature and humidity an old fashion negative will last for centuries.  With digital formats changing seemingly every decade or less the cost of trying to keep a master library could quickly become astronomical.  Because early movies weren’t considered worth preserving there is at least a decade of the early days of the movies we have completely lost.

We need to make sure we don’t make the same mistake again.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

Intellectual Terrorism, Media Bingeing, Well Excuse Me

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of September 23, 2013


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. 

Well Excuse Me                                                                                          

Let me start off by saying I have no delusions about the impact of my commentaries.  I know I have an audience among WRFA listeners because some of you have made the point of telling me you enjoy these programs.  And I know I have a small following of the blog that is connected to this show.  Just Google “The View From the Phlipside” and you’ll find it.  There you’ll not only find the scripts to each week’s programs but reviews of movies and books.

It’s that last fact that spurs today’s program.  I review movies and books because I love them.  My hope is that I can point folks in the direction of examples that they will enjoy, even help them choose from the enormous universe of these particular media.  Again, I have no illusions about what I do.  I do it because I enjoy it and because I’ve gotten some positive response from authors and publishers.

There’s a website called NetGalley that links up reviewers with publishers and vice versa.  You go on, fill out a bio sheet and then request titles.  Over the last year or so I’ve done about 8.

Last week I received a very politely worded e-mail from the folks at Viking Publishing telling me that I didn’t meet their standards as a reviewer and therefore they declined to offer me a copy of the book I’d requested.

For the record NetGalley deals in digital books, ebooks.  So there was no question about postage and handling and publishing costs and the like.

I’m not really angry about this rejection as much as I’m puzzled and bemused.  The cost of letting me review their book is effectively ZERO.  So from a cost to benefit basis it appears that Viking is saying my review has a negative value.  It’s just not worth anything to have me review the book.

In an age when legacy publishers like Viking are screaming about the future of their industry, when fewer people are reading, when ebooks are becoming the larger part of the publishing industry, when the Internet is becoming a bigger part of how all of us make decisions on what we buy will someone please explain to me how getting a review that costs you nothing and might just result in sales or word of mouth is worth nothing?

I’m not going to mention the book because I don’t want to punish the author.  But I think this is a case of the publisher being penny wise and pound foolish.

At least that’s the thought in this tiny and apparently unimportant little corner of the world.

Media Bingeing                                                                                     

Binge eating?  Bad thing.
Binge drinking? VERY bad thing.
Binge viewing?  That’s an interesting topic of conversation.

Have you come across this concept before?  Binge viewing is watching episode after episode after episode of a TV series or movie series.  You might call watching a marathon on one of the cable networks binge viewing.  You could certainly do it if you bought an entire season of a TV show on DVD or Blu-ray.  But binge viewing really took off with the advent of services like Netflix that allowed you access to not just episode after episode but season after season of TV series for a single low price.  You can just plug in and take off for an entire day.  No commercials, no disc changing.  It’s not a marathon, it’s a binge.

The dictionary defines binge as an unrestrained, immoderate period of self indulgence.  The words uncontrolled and excessive also appear in definitions.

So this is generally not associated with behaviors that should be a regular part of our lives.  See binge eating and binge drinking.

So what’s the down side on binge viewing?  Well there’s that whole circles-under-the-blank-staring-eyes-of-a-zombie look.  It’s followed by the inability to talk about anything else for days which is then followed by a complete collapse into catatonia as your brain attempts to go back to processing real life.  So there’s probably no real long run negative effects.

But I’d like to argue against making binge viewing a regular part of your media consumption.  There are things that you have to give up when you go on a binge.  That’s any opportunity to savor what you’re seeing.  If the show you’re watching is just eye candy, like Baywatch or Dancing With the Stars, then go for it.  Gorge yourself.

But for shows that offer some depth, some story telling, some deep characterization do yourself a favor and take a break.  After every episode or two stop and give yourself the chance to revel in the quality of what you’re seeing.  Letting the show appeal to more than just the short term rush of enjoyment.  It’s the difference between just getting high and full engagement with an experience at every level.

So when it comes to media bingeing it’s mostly about picking your spot.

Intellectual Terrorism                                                                                                     

This week, the week of September 22, is Banned Books Week.  Each year the American Library Association highlights the attempts around our nation to ban certain books from libraries, especially school libraries.  What kind of books?  Books like these, all of which appear on recent lists compiled by the ALA:
Harry Potter by JK Rowling, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Kite Runner by Kaled Husseini, Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeliene L’Engle, the Goosebump series by RL Stine, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Hadden and just to fill out our irony quotient for the week Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  A book that is about book banning.

Banned Books Week is designed to celebrate our freedom to read.  The freedom to explore ideas, even odious ones.  Let me be clear about two concepts.  

First I believe that people that want to ban books, to limit other people’s access to books they believe are somehow “dangerous” are intellectual and cultural terrorists.  Having no faith in the strength of their own point of view to stand up to a challenge they try to insure the supremacy of that view by banning opposing ones.  It’s pretty much the same technique used in political spheres by bomb throwing terrorists.  And should be fought against with the same energy and determination we bring to the bomb throwers.

The other thing is that I think this protection should extend to all books.  The most odious, vile, evil book I can think of is called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.  It is a hoax created in Russia in 1903 that has been used for a century of violence and hatred aimed at Jewish populations worldwide.  There is not a micron of truth in this horrible book.
But it should not be banned.  Ideas need to be dragged into the light, to be examined, weighed and judged.  Only those who fear ideas want them hidden away.  Only those who do not trust humanity want to place blinders on their fellows.  Only those who can not compete in the market of thought will demand that theirs be the only thought permitted.

Pick up a book and read it.  Fight back against the terrorists of free thought and read a banned book.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

Cheerios and Cowardice, Trailer Wars plus Sports and Media

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.



Program scripts from week of June 2, 2013

(My apologies for the long silence.  Life has been...complicated)

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. 

Sports and Media                                                                                                       

Time for one of my rare forays into the world of sports and media.  And it all begins when a man loses his job.  In this case the man in question is National Hockey League coach John Tortorella.  Tortorella was, until recently, the man behind the bench for the New York Rangers.

Now on the surface it’s kind of hard to see why he lost his job.  The Rangers were 171-115 and 29 in his time, made the playoffs 4 of 5 seasons he coached and finished first in their division just a year ago.  Heck the Rangers signed him to a contract extension just a couple months ago.  So apparently he’s not a terrible coach.

At least on the ice.

If you’re a hockey fan or a regular viewer of ESPN you have seen what the coach was bad at however.  He gave awful media.  Arrogant, dismissive, uncooperative, Tortorella made it clear that he’d rather be having the most unpleasant medical procedure you can imagine rather than talk to reporters.

The relationship between sports and media has changed immensely over the years.  Once upon a time reporters considered covering up the personal shortcomings of the players just part of the job.  More recently with 24 hour coverage the relationship has been often more antagonistic.  The former Rangers coach isn’t the first sports coach to be, shall we say, less than forthcoming.  New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has made something of an art form of it.  But Belichick manages to keep it at least civil.  It’s more a mandatory social engagement with someone you don’t much like.  

Here’s the reality.  The old days are gone.  Local coverage from print, radio and TV plus national coverage from the networks both broadcast and cable plus all the bloggers and vloggers are a part of the day to day life of athletes and coaches.  You either need to figure out how to deal with them like a professional or find another profession.

I’m sure John Tortorella had some shortcomings as a coach on the ice.  But my bet is that his shortcomings in the interview room are probably what cost him his job in the long run.

Trailer Wars                                                                                                                

Interesting when you get two completely different groups of people to suddenly start saying the same thing at the same time.  In my experience that’s when you need to start paying attention when they’re talking about you.  In this case it’s the movie studios who need to sit up and pay a little attention.  It’s not the movies themselves that are generating the conversation this time.

It’s the movie trailers.

Trailers are those movie previews that we watch before we get to what we actually paid to see.  They’ve been around for decades.  Like since 1913 when a short promo film for a musical called “The Pleasure Seekers” debuted in New York.  They’re called “trailers” because orginally they were shown AFTER the movie.  When they moved to their current postion shortly thereafter the name stuck.

So what’s the problem after all these years?  How about the darn things have gotten too long?  That’s the assessment of two different groups, the theater owners and the audience.  A British research company called YouGov did a survey of audience members and found 49% said the trailers were too long and gave away too much of the movie.  Meanwhile the theater owners think they’re just too long, period.  With an average length these days of two and a half minute it just keeps pushing the start of the movie back and back and back.  Which also annoys the audience.  And there is no profit for the theater owners in an annoyed audience.  Plus they’d like to limit the advance time for promotion to just four months.  Right now you may be looking at teasers and trailers for movies that aren’t scheduled to be released until the summer of 2014.

You can certainly include me in the crowd that thinks these trailers are just too long and give away too much.  At the same time I have to admit that the really bad movies are pretty obvious when you watch a long trailer.  There’s just a feel to a trailer that has handed you every single funny moment in a bad movie.  I kind of appreciate those I must admit.

At the same time I’m in the theater to see the movie I paid for, not something that’s coming in 10 months or to see a trailer that gives away any reason to pay for it when it does come out.

There’s a lot of conversation going on with people whose opinions count.  Let’s hope the studios are listening.

Cheerios and Cowardice                                                                                                                                         

I know the whole Cheerios TV ad has been analyzed to death.  I doubt I have anything particularly new or exciting to add to the discussion.  At the same time I think it’s one of those stories where every voice needs to be heard.  We need to be clear that certain kinds of behavior just aren’t acceptable.

In case you missed it Cheerios is running an ad that involves a family of Mom, Dad and little girl.  The little girl asks Mom about whether Cheerios are good for your heart like Daddy says.  Mom basically agrees and little girl wanders off with the box of cereal.  The last scene shows Dad with his chest covered in Cheerios.  Cute.  The source of the furor is that Mom is white and Dad is black.  The immediate reaction in the comments section of YouTube was angry, abusive and overtly racist.  While there was an outpouring of positive comments in reaction Cheerios wisely chose to turn off the comments and make them all go away.

Now let me be clear.  I think the whole race-mixing, miscegenation argument needs to be consigned to the scrap heap of history.  It’s the human race and it comes in different colors.  I have no use for any other point of view.  At the same time I defend our American belief in freedom of expression.  The French author Voltaire said "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."  and I agree completely.  But he also said “We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.”  And that’s where we may have lost the thread.

Freedom of expression does not mean that we can say whatever we want without fear of peril, risk and hazard.  Our Founding Fathers knew it.  That’s why the last line of the Declaration of Independence reads that they “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor,”.  They accepted the risk in the words they said.  

The problem with the Internet is that anonymity is taken as a right as well.  Behind the cowardly mask of that anonymity things are said that dodge the risks and hazards.  Those who exercise their bigotry under the flag of freedom of expression without being willing to take on the burden of those comments betray the very foundation of our country.  As such they should be treated with the contempt that such behavior deserves.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - Cars and Media

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.

By now I’m guessing you’ve caught on to the fact that I am seriously into the media.  Maybe even beyond the point that a grown man of advancing years should acknowledge but there it is.  What you may not know is that I am also something of a car guy.  I come by that honestly because my dad was a big time car guy.  His first job out of college was in the design department at Ford, on their honeymoon he took my mother to the Detroit Auto Show and before I was allowed to drive his cars I had to be able to explain how an internal combustion engine worked, identify the major systems of a car and be able to change a tire and the oil.  I grew up in a serious car household.

So imagine my unfettered joy when two of my great passions come together in a single story.  In the last week or two the folks at Ford and the the folks at National Public Radio have announced a partnership that will put a special app in new Fords that will give you direct access to programming from NPR.  That story in and of itself is no big deal even if you’re an NPR fan as I am.  

What got me about the story is the ever increasing amount of media that is now available in cars.  And it begins to worry me.  The worst idea, putting a video screen in the middle of the steering wheel, seems to have died off.  Which is wonderful from my point of view.  Even so you’re seeing more and more screens in cars.  The Tesla electric sports car boasts a 17 inch screen that basically takes over all the functions of the dashboard.  At the other end of the cost scale the brand new Dodge Dart has a screen for dashboard functions plus a second one for things like climate control and sound system.

But what really worries me is the advent of voice control for media in cars.  All of this MIGHT be a distraction if you let it but what happens when people from anywhere in the car can start affecting distraction inspiring stuff inside the car?  In my lifetime car radios were options.  Now we have music, phone, video, web access, and most of them can be fired up by a three year old in the back seat.

Somewhere along the line we need to remember that we are in a vehicle that weighs around a ton or more at speeds that can be well in excess of a mile a minute.  We drive them in situations that require great concentration.

Forgetting that, even for a second, can get you in a lot of trouble.  Something else my father taught me.


Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - Media Failures

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.

When I got started in the media about 30 years ago if you were a public figure you only had to deal with three media, print, radio and TV.  And in form they were actually all pretty similar.  Radio reporting had been formed by print reporters and TV reporting had been based on the radio standards.  So it was pretty simple really.  Plans for dealing with the media were pretty straight forward.

That stopped being the case back in the Watergate days.  Since then public figures and politicians have had to rely ever more on media specialists.  With the explosion of new media in the last decade it’s become even more important.  Which why two recent media meltdowns just leave me shaking my head.

Start with Kansas governor Sam Brownback.  He made an appearance in front of a high school group and one 18 year old girl wasn’t impressed.  She tweeted her thoughts, uncomplimentary thoughts, about the Govenor.  To her 65 followers.  At which point Brownback’s media team turned an insignificant issue into a medium sized disaster.  In the end the Governor ended up apologizing to the young lady.  All because the “media experts” lost any sense of proportion.

At the other end you have former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.  Cain’s suspension of his campaign has much less to do with whether or not his ideas were good than they do with the fact that the Cain campaign handled the media about as badly as it’s possible to do.  Bizarre campaign videos and videos of a chronically under prepared candidate left the campaign with a huge added hurdle to overcome.  Even in the speech announcing leaving the race Cain chose to rather bizarrely quote music from a Pokemon movie.  If you’re 66 years old and trying to be taken seriously  for the most powerful job in the world you need to avoid quoting children’s cartoons.

Good media teams should be there to help out.  Then of course you also have to listen to them.  Plenty of blame to pass around these days.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - Small Business Media

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.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, in the midst of all the Black Friday shopping madness, I came across something that I had never heard of before.  It was “Small Business Saturday”, a promotion to remind people to shop with their local smaller retailers during the hottest shopping days of the year.  I have to admit it was great to hear a campaign about shopping locally because the smaller retailers remain an important part of all our local economies.  Even better the campaign was aimed at a reasonable goal.  All they were asking you to do was make one of your purchases on that weekend with a local small business.  Pretty cool.

When I did a little research I discovered that the campaign is actually underwritten by the folks at American Express.  Which is both kind of cool and perhaps the tiniest bit ironic all at the same time.

Then I started to think about the changes in our economy brought on by changes in technology and the media.  It used to be that our local business people only had to worry about their competition down the road.  Today they are competing in a worldwide market.  And that means that small business people probably need to start thinking on a bigger scale.  The sound you just heard was small business people throughout our area sighing heavily thinking about one more problem on their plates and the inevitable extra costs they’ll have to cover.  Even if they know it’s true it’s not the kind of news they really want to hear.  So the challenge will be to think outside the box.  That may mean new challenges and roles for business associations like the Chamber of Commerce.  Or it may mean finding new ways to attract business like Domino Pizza’s app that turns pizza making into a game and then offers you the chance to actually order the pizza you make.  There are some real challenges for local businesses as they make their way through the maze of Twitter, Facebook and all the other media of the new age.  It will also be a great opportunity for local media specialists to help with those challenges.

Only one thing is certain.  A one day ad campaign, even one funded by a major corporation, isn’t going to be enough all by itself to help small businesses in the next couple of decades.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - The Most Media Time of the Year

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.

I was enjoying the company of family  last week when it dawned on me.   This isn’t just the holiday season, this is the media season.  The time of year when we are more deeply involved with our media than any other time of the year.

Think about it.  It starts first thing on Thanksgiving morning.  What has been a tradition for an awful lot of us for decades?  The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  What I grew up calling the Macy’s Day parade.  Over the last 10 years a lot of folks have tuned in the National Dog Show.  Don’t believe me, just look at the ratings.  I can’t say I understand it, dog shows bore the pants off me, but it’s clear that a lot of folks do watch.  Then we get serious.  Thanksgiving Day football, now up to three games after years of two.

After that you get the usual batch of college and pro football but that’s just a side dish.  Because as soon as Thanksgiving is past we jump into the great Christmas music debate.  Now I know that lots of stores and some families have been playing Christmas music for weeks before Turkey Day.  But after that people start demanding Christmas music.  I regularly played the grinch when I was the music director in local radio because I wouldn’t do it till we hit December.

Beyond the music then we hit Christmas movies and TV specials.  How many of you are like me and have shows you just have to see for it really to be the holidays?  There might be one, maybe two such programs any other time of the year.  But this time of year there are a dozen or more.  You have almost that many choices JUST with Dicken’s A Christmas Carol.  In the last couple years we’ve seen internet videos of computerized lights and music on people’s houses going viral.  Then the New Year rolls around and we have college football bowl games.

Music, movies, parades, TV, football, some great stories get told this time of year as well.  Let’s face it, it’s the most media of the year.  Let’s just sit back and enjoy.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - Phrase of the Century!

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.

I would like to discuss a commonly used phrase in the media.  A commonly used phrase that I would like to see eliminated once and for all.  The phrase is “...of the century”.  The game of the century, the match of the century, the trial of the century you know the drill.  Any time we want to hype something, usually WAY beyond any level of reason, it gets called the whatever of the century.  

The latest violation in my opinion was this last weekends college football game between the number one ranked Louisiana State University and the number two ranked University of Alabama.  Now logically this should be a good game.  Maybe even a great game because they were both very good teams coming into the game.  What we got was a game with very little offense from either side, lots of missed field goals and a final score of 9-6 in overtime.  Maybe if you really love defensive football this was a great game but the game of the century?

You see the real problem here is the question - of WHAT century?  This is the part that makes me crazy.  It’s the football game of the century.  The 21st century?  We are a grand total of 11 years into this century (let’s skip the whole argument about when centuries start shall we?  For the sake of argument let’s call it 11 years)  So in the next 89 years we are confident that NO football game is going to be better than this 15 total point contest.  Seriously?

Or is the best game of the past 100 years?  I’d be willing to bet that you can probably come up with all kinds of games you’d rather nominate.  Hey Bills fans you want this game to out rank the Comeback Game?  Remember?  1993, playoffs against the Houston Oilers.  Frank Reich leads the Bills back from a 32 point deficit to win in overtime.  But hey, that’s not the game of the century.  It’s ‘Bama and LSU failing to score a single touchdown.

The reality is that you never know in advance what the anything of the century will be.  The phrase itself is actually totally without meaning as it is commonly used.  It’s an attempt to emotionally manipulate us that relies on the belief that we’re really not very bright.

And that’s an assumption that we can leave in the last century as far as I’m concerned.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - When is a story a story?

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.

How big does a story have to be to be a big story?  A political assassination requires only two people, assassin and victim.  But it is inevitably a big story.  How many million people catch cold each winter?  Yet that’s not a news story 999 times out of a thousand.  The recent story about the planned Q’uran burning has me thinking about when a story makes the big time.

I’m not going to discuss whether I think it was a good idea or not, you’ll probably figure my position out for yourself.  This is about the media circus that surrounded this non-event and what we need to learn from it.

Based on the number of column inches and screen time devoted to it this was a big story.  Every major network had large investments of time and manpower in covering it.  We learned a lot about the characters involved and heard a lot of analytical embroidery around the edges.  My question is - why?

The size estimates I heard on the church is question ranged from 30 to 50.  Now I did a quick, off the top of my head estimate of how many people live on my street.  I live on a one block long street.  And there at least that many people living on my street.  Somewhere just below 50.  About 15 houses.  If we had a big bonfire in the middle of the block would anyone outside of Mayville care?  Probably not.  Nor should they.

This is an unknown pastor from a tiny church that represents a small fraction of the population of their hometown.  For whatever reason they were going to burn the holy book of another religion.  Suddenly this became of interest to the entire nation.  The only reason why this was a story was because we made it a story.  It’s a self perpetuating cycle.  If we ignore it it never becomes a story.  As soon as we make it a story then we can’t ignore it and it begins to grow.

I’m not saying to ignore the story because I believe in censoring the news.  I’m saying we should have ignored this story because it wasn’t ever a story.  Not beyond three sentences on page 27 or 10 seconds of screen time.  Whatever damage has been done in the tattered relationship between our nation and the Muslim communities of the world can not be laid at the feet of that pastor.  That blame lies firmly with the media and one other group.  That would be us the consumers of information.  If the media isn’t smart enough to know what isn’t a story then we should.

And we should have let this one burn itself out by itself.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010

View From the Phlipside - The Firestorm! (Not Really)

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.

Well, well, well.  I never would have expected this.  It seems I’m the center of a tiny little firestorm on the world wide web.  The controversy began with my comment last week on the cartoon mash-up Jersey Circus which brought together the Family Circus comic with quotes from the TV show Jersey Shore.  I didn’t much like them.  And said so.  And some people are very cranky with me because of that.

First let me note that the nicest, most intelligent response I got was from Liz Laribee, a contributing writer at Jersey Circus.  Her response was witty and to the point.  Liz made me go back and think about what I said and how I said it.  I’m not backing away from my opinion of the work.  It doesn’t appeal to me.  Someone suggested that it was satire.  Ok, even as satire it just doesn’t work for me.  I don’t find much amusing, compelling or though provoking about the folks on the show Jersey Shore.  I’m disturbed as someone who works with young people by the number of youth who seem to find these folks role models.  So I’m pre-disposed to dislike the comic meme I guess.  

What bothers me most is that Liz seemed to feel that I was calling  her and her collaborators perverse and dumb.  Not my intention.  They went where their creative muse directed them.  I have nothing but the highest respect for the creative process.  When you put your work out in public though it’s open for criticism (just like this commentary).  Some folks aren’t going to like it.  I’m quite certain that Liz understands that.

I’m not so sure some of the commenters do.  A variety of folks (a fair number of whom posted anonymously.  My rule is that I pay very little attention to folks who won’t put their name where their mouth is.  My name is at the start of every single program) chose to question a wide variety of my personal traits.  I was told to lighten up, told that I was a crank.  The defense of Liz’s right to make her commentary on society was not accorded to my commentary.  But that seems to be the way of it.  Sadly too much of what passes for discussion these days takes the tack that “I’m right and you’re an idiot”.  Happily the creators of Jersey Circus are better than that.  And whether I like it Jersey Circus or not it has created the chance for a deeper discussion.

At some point I probably owe Liz a beer.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

(The cartoon is from the BRILLIANT  xkcd - a web comic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.  If you are not a regular reader you should be!) 

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010

On getting blasted for an opinion piece

Last week I wrote/broadcast about a couple new comic creations that I didn't much like in a post called "Cartoons "
I was away for most of the rest of the week so I only just caught up with the comments that landed on my blog.

Holy smokes people!  I didn't think anyone payed that much attention to me!

Let me first say that I find this tiny little firestorm amusing.  Let me also say that the most reasonable and good humored response actually came Liz Laribee a writer for Jersey Circus.  She took my comments for what they were, questioned a couple of assumptions and phrase choices and on the whole gave me a whole boatload of things to think about.  You can check out her comments HERE  They are well worth reading.

I would note that I am prone to hyperbole to make a point.  Thus "pantheon of literature" was not meant literally.  Neither Jersey Circus nor this blog aim to attain whatever might be meant by that phrase.  I use (or was attempting to use) polar opposites to make a point.  Jersey Shore and literature are polar opposites.  At the same time "anti-intellectual thuggery", a phrase which it pleases me that Liz found amusing, was probably over the top.  I just really don't like the final product of what Liz and her colleagues produced.

The Kanye/New Yorker memes I just don't find amusing.  Every one I look at falls flat.  'Nuff said.

So what bothers me about Jersey Circus? (Check it out yourself HERE and decide for yourself.  YMMV).  To start with I don't like Jersey Shore or the people on it.  Everything I have seen and heard about them is repulsive (to me).  I've never found vulgarity as a lifestyle particularly appealing.  And that's what I see and hear from those folks.  I grew up reading Family Circus and have a soft spot for it in my heart.  Not a must read but if its there I check it out.  It is simple and naive (in the best sense of that word) and innocent and a reminder of a different time and place.  The concept of bringing the two together has a valid basis.  As a former Theater major I was taught Goethe's three rules of Criticism - what was the artist trying to do, did they succeed and was it worth doing?

What were they trying to do - I can hazard a guess that they were going for social commentary.
Did they succeed - In the end I'd have to say they did.  Look at the discussion that's popped up about it!
Was it worth doing - Here is where we part company.  The Jersey Circus mission statement ends with this:

We think you'll agree that something important is being done here.

And I'm afraid I don't.  My impression is one of...sigh, this makes me feel bad because it sounds like I'm upset or angry or whatever with Liz and Co., which I'm not really.  So I will attempt to disagree without being disagreeable.  OK?  This smacks of pre-teens giggling when they get their four year old cousin to saying dirty words.  That's what I hear every time I read one of the cartoons.  For me that is a violation of innocence.  And as a youth minister in the Episcopal church that's not going to sit well with me.  It is from that impression that my claims of smugness arise.  It is that that I find perverse.  And yes, I find people getting amusement from that kind of thing perverse.  Again, YMMV.  I tend to be hyper-protective of the younger brothers and sisters.  Makes me a pretty good youth minister, maybe it makes me a less good media critic.  I'm not so sure.

But Liz can clearly state what she and her friends are trying to do and I understand that and appreciate it.  To the point where I'm willing to go back and look again.

Now as to some of the commenters.  I thought I'd try and respond to some of them.  My blog first.

Anonymous #1 - claims I missed the point.  Could be.  You think it's funny.  I don't.  Humor is subjective.  How is your world view better than mine?  I put my name on mine.

MP - ever heard of satire?  Yep.  Big fan.  Didn't seem to make it for me.  Satire is the most difficult and subjective of all forms of humor/commentary.  Lots of people try and fail.

Anonymous #2 - oooh sarcasm.  I'm cut to the quick.  Care to actually offer something intelligent to the conversation or is snark the best you've got?  I know which I'll bet on.

Liz - no hard feelings at all, :)

boojum - Had to go back several times to figure out what you're talking about.  I think you're counting my intro as the first paragraph, yes?  In that case go back and read the "second" paragraph again yourself.  I "get" mash ups, I even acknowledge that I like some of them.  I just don't "get" these.  As a fellow father, writer, brother in Christ, et cetera I find very little in the way of "loving correction" here.  Sorry that I make you feel bad but I think that says more about you than me.  Apparently your view of how a father, writer, brother in Christ etc should think gets disgruntled when you find that it's not universally held.

Anonymous #3 - I actually like this simple comment.  Could be taken a variety of ways and as being directed at a variety of people in the conversation.  Even if aimed at me, bravo!

Young Structural - yes, you probably are too serious.  I can also tend that way.  I've explained above why I reacted the way I did.  For the record I do this commentary show because I think people take all of the media too damn seriously.  I'm also not sure that the Jersey Circus folks will take kindly to your assertion that their work is of so little consequence to be unworthy of any level of analysis.  And if you think my comment rises to the level of either a doctoral thesis or a novel (it's only around 400 words for pete's sake!) then you've precious little experience with either.

Anonymous #4 - Yep, it's getting toasty in here! (I have a hunch I know who this person is.  Just a hunch)

From the Jersey Circus comments

Someone named "ninjapirateben" would look down his nose at me because I have a soft spot for Family Circus.  Really?  Not up to your intellectual standards I presume?


Fan and Rob (two separate comments) - both make interesting points.

smokeyprimrose  and thingsonthewestcoast (two comments) - fans of Liz's.  Must be good people.

alphabet - "stuck up" and "prudey"?  Really?  Given that you know nothing about me that's a rather amazing comment on my person.  Obviously I'm rather taken with my own opinions otherwise why would I do a public commentary?  By the way I think you've missed the mark widely on your assessment of my personality.

heydave - oops seems dave doesn't like the description I offer of myself.  Dave - two words.  Too bad.  In attempting to help people understand who I am I offer a very short listing of some of the roles I've fulfilled in my life.  The ways that I interact with the other human beings in my sphere.  Let me add to my list - person who isn't impressed by folks who spew pointless obscenity and name call as if they were still stuck in the 7th grade.  My experience of people like you is that you wouldn't have the stones to say any of that to my face.  So STFU yourself.

Dream Thiever - good advice.  I shall try and follow it.

Joe in Philly - not sure why my title bothers you.  Sure it's a pun.  A play on an old school record term (the side of the single record that didn't have the hit tune on it was called a B side or the flipside) and a play on my last name.  Folks in my family have been called Flip for a couple generations.  I tweaked it for the name of my radio program almost 30 years ago.  I left radio a decade ago then returned a couple years later in a different venue and form (public radio and commentary) but kept the name in slightly altered form for the recognition factor and marketability.  And given that the 8 comments I got on the original post is one of my all time highs I'm not so sure we're not in the same ball park.

Phew!  In the end I will simply remind you that commentary is just a form of opinion.  My opinions are based on my education both formal and informal, my years of being a media consumer and a student of the media and my experience in the media.  That makes me better qualified than some, less than others.  Feel free to agree or disagree.  But it's opinion, whether mine or yours.  We are each entitled to our own.

Now if you'll excuse me I have a new weeks worth of scripts to write.

Peace