television – Page 2 – Observations Along the Road

Weekend News Chum to Fill your Loving Cup

Posted onSunday, February 14, 2016Sunday, February 14, 2016Authorcahwyguy

Observation Stew ’tis the weekend, and that means it is time to clear out the accumulated links that didn’t them… well, at least those I remembered to send back home from work. In the spirit of the day, feel free to share these stories with your sweetie.

A Yiddish Date. Let’s start things with something fun for the day. If you haven’t seen the Yidlife Video linked in this post yet, go watch it. It is hilarious. Plus, it stars Mayim Bialik.
Nobel Drama in Trouble. The Nobel Middle School drama program is in trouble, falling victim to a parent complaint and district policies that dictate, at the Middle School level, that activities can’t select based on skill level. Thank you to Colin at Bitter Lemons for spreading the word about this beyond the school community to the theatre community in Southern California.
Congratulations to Van Nuys HS. Ever since my daughter was part of the Van Nuys Academic Decathalon team, I’ve silently cheered them on against the nation’s leader, Granada Hills HS. So congratulations to Granada for winning at the LA level and going to state, but even more congratulations to the other high schools the district is sending: Marshall, which finished second; Franklin, which finished third; El Camino Real; Garfield; Bell; Van Nuys; Grant; Narbonne; Hamilton; North Hollywood; and, for the first time, Cleveland and Lincoln. It is a lot of hard work by a lot of good kids.
A Nigerian Needs Your Help. At the ACSAC conference, we presented the Nigerian Spam Scam Scam, a story about how Dean Cameron led on Nigerian spammers to get money out of them. Well, it appears another Nigerian needs our help: this one is lost in space unless you provide the funds to bring him back. What I found most interesting here was the email address used: XXXX@nasrda.gov.ng . At the conference, we actually had a Nigerian senator in the audience, and even he was using a Hotmail address because the Nigerian government infrastructure wasn’t set up. Note that here we have a .gov.ng address. Very interesting.
Kickstarters Makes Good. Two Kickstarters we’ve supported have made the LA media. The first, which we knew as Smash Cup but is now called StoJo, is a collapsible reusable coffee cup that got written up in the LA Times Gear section. The second kickstarter is Game Haus Cafe, a wonderful board gaming cafe that got a nice piece from KCET’s SoCal Connected. They only made one error: the problem with the place is not finding a seat, but finding parking.
Theatre Podcasts. Here’s an interesting announcement from The Folio Group, which has brought together a number of theatre podcasts into a collective, including two that I listen to: the Ensemblist and Theater People. I do find it interesting that they did not get The Producer’s Perspective or Broadway Bullet to be part of their collective.
Undercover Boss. One of the shows I enjoy watching is Undercover Boss, although I do find it odd that only a few select people win the largess lottery. Here’s an interesting article on the show from one of the bosses from a recent episode.
Changes in the Archie Universe. Whereas comic books in the past tended not to push the bounds, today’s comic books reflect society. Surprisingly, one of the ones at the edge is Archie, which once was the whitest of the white breads. Riverdale has added gay characters, and now Jughead has come out as asexual. This is good: the asexuals are a group that society doesn’t understand, and attempts to force into mold that just doesn’t fit them.
The Feathers are Gone. The last Showgirl show in Las Vegas has ended. Jubilee, at Bally’s has closed its 35 year run, leaving the strip devoid of shows with the traditional Las Vegas showgirl. Will the era ever return?
Crumbling Presidents. 43 Presidential Heads are decaying in a field in Virginia. I view the images as a pictorial commentary on the state of our politics, and of the respect we show for our leaders.

The Word Is… 📺 “Grease Live!” on Fox

Posted onMonday, February 1, 2016Authorcahwyguy

userpic=television Last night, I watched Fox’s attempt at doing a live musical, Grease Live!. I’m not going to attempt a full review with synopsis and notes on all the cast and crew. Rather, here are some jumbled observations on the show. I thought about dividing them into the good, bad, and ugly, but I couldn’t separate the bad from the ugly.

I don’t think the director knew what this show wanted to be when it grew up. At times, it seemed like a stage show and the theatrical production. At times, it seemed slavishly devoted to the movie version. At other times, it veered off into its own direction without explanation. In doing so, it didn’t quite satisfy the fans of the stage version, but also didn’t satisfy fans of the movie version. The failure, I believe, is one of managing of expectations. Promotion of the show before airing should have made clear the goal: a live version of the classic movie; a live version of the original stage show; a refreshed version of the movie; or something else. This would have greatly helped the audience who were either expecting a live version of the stage show (based on what NBC had done), or were expecting the movie.
I thought the performances were universally strong: the actors could sing and dance, and there were no significant gaffes. I think, for the leads, it showed off their talents well and may lead to more consideration for stage roles. The only exception was when the leads attempted to ape the performances of their movie equivalents too closely.
The interpretation of some of the songs made me wonder if the director understood the show at all. In particular, “Freddie My Love”, while performed flawlessly, made no sense as done. This was a song about a teen girl leading servicemen on, getting them to send her presents with no intent of having a real relationship. So incorporating it into a USO show was just … wrong, so wrong. Similarly, “These Magic Changes” … which a really a song about a fellow learning guitar, became this weird relationship song in the show. They completely cut the words to the “Mooning” number.
I can understand the desire to give Frenchie a song in the show, especially when you have cast a good singer. But the song you gave her was from the wrong period and didn’t fit the style of a show. Much better might have been an “I want” song earlier on, because this is a character who really doesn’t know what she wants.
I wasn’t sure about the opening. I did appreciate the singer and showing the extensiveness of the sets. But I think the show could have equally gone with the traditional stage opening (at a reunion of the class) and have had equal impact.
I found the interstitials with Mario Lopez interesting, and a great way to emphasize the live nature of the show.
I did, however, appreciate the closing. NBC has done away with the curtain calls, but I think for a live show you need them there. I would have superimposed the names of the actors and characters, however, as there wasn’t a program.
As you know, Saturday we saw A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. One person commented over on Facebook that they didn’t like the show because of its dated attitudes towards women. Although the script to this show attempted to do a little updating in that regard, the basic show Grease does demonstrate — and almost promote — a number of bad traits: expecting women to put out, belittling nerds, cultures of violence and hazing, and such. Some (such as I) can just put them into the historical context; however, it is something to think about when making the choice about what to highlight. I’m not sure whether Grease is even correctable, but it is a reflection of its times.
One area they did attempt to update the show is by making the school integrated. Given that this is a show in a particular historical context, I found it jarring — especially in that the integration they were showing for the time wouldn’t have happened back then. If you’re going to update race integration, you need to update the rest of the attitudes. I’ll note that other shows can bring in diversity without problem, because they are of an unspecified time and place, or are clearly imaginary. [Further, if you are going to integrate the cast, what does it say when all your leads are white. Look at the poster, folks.]
Despite the story problems, the technical craft was excellent, especially the quick changes such as between the slumber party and the USO show. This clearly demonstrated that complex productions can be done live; further, if you do them live, you’ll draw in the audience (especially when you do it against other new run shows). NBC, the gauntlet has been thrown.
For the most part, I appreciated the cameos, especially Didi Cohn and Eve Plumb. However, using Boyz II Men for Teen Angel was just wrong: they didn’t get the style right, and they made many of the words hard to hear.
They cleaned up quite a bit of language: not only did the pull the “pussy wagon” line from “Greased Lightening”, but the line about being an athletic supporter was gone, the Sal Mineo line was gone from Sandra Dee, and they pulled the Fangool!. This is Fox, folks. One expects a bit of raunch. You hear worse on the Simpsons.
Another odd change, seemingly for no reason: They moved where Sandy and Danny met to Salt Lake City, and changed Sandy’s name to Young from Dubrowski. Why? It destroyed the double entendre in “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee”, and had no fathomable reason other than to imply she was Mormon, and thus couldn’t drink, smoke, etc. It was unnecessary. Note that the movie did the name change as well, changing the name to Olsson. I also noticed they changed the year to 1959, for no reason other than to include the rocket jokes.
Kudos to Vanessa Hudgens for her great performance, especially considering that her dad passed away that morning.
They coped quite well with the unexpected SoCal rainstorm. Good thing they had those umbrellas handy.
While watching the show, I’ll admit I was mostly hate watching. C’mon, it was on Fox. But looking back, I don’t think it was as bad as all that: the performances were good, and the technical craft was excellent. For someone who knows Grease, the story changes were jarring; for much of the audience, they probably enjoyed it.
I haven’t decided yet on whether to get the cast album: I liked the new orchestrations and the vocal performances, although I didn’t like the new song for Frenchie or Boyz to Men. I also have at least 4 versions of Grease in my music library: the original Broadway cast, the revival with Rosie O’Donnell, the revival with Laura Osnes, and the movie soundtrack. Do I need a fifth? Then again, I have at least 6 versions of Gypsy: Merman, Lansbury, Midler, Daly, Peters, and LuPone.

Week End News Chum: Threading a Connection

Posted onSaturday, January 16, 2016Authorcahwyguy1 Comment

Observation Stew For some, this is the start of a 3 day weekend; for others, just the normal weekend craziness. Whichever it is, it’s been a busy week. I’ve been accumulating a lot of articles of interest, but none of them have themed into groups of three, or proved to be the start of a single-subject rant. So let’s toss them into the crock-pot of discussion, and see if we can at least come up with a thread to connect each to the next:

CSI: Cyber Under the Microscope. I miss the mothership of CSI:, although it had gotten a bit predictable towards the end. It’s current lovechild, CSI: Cyber, is just wrong. For someone who works in cyber, however, I can’t keep my eyes off of it. On one hand, it does do a good job of educating the public of some of the threats that are out there. This is a good thing. What’s bad is how they do it: usually by amping the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Distrust) and using techniques that aren’t to the level they show. Last week’s show with the air traffic control system is a great example, and Ars Technica rips it to shreds.
Ripping Apart Los Angeles. Speaking of ripping things to shreds, let’s look at how Los Angeles has been rippped apart. I love Los Angeles history, and so a recent article from KCET caught my eye. It explored how Orange County split off from Los Angeles. The southern part of the state used to be divided into just a few very large counties: San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Mariposa. Over time the split, with Los Angeles giving birth to Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange. This article explores the last split, which created the “orange curtain”.
Los Angeles History Podcast. Speaking of Los Angeles: By the way, if you like Los Angeles, Boing Boing just highlighted a really interesting podcast on LA History. I’ve listened to a few episodes, and it is really good.
History of the 3.5mm Plug. Speaking of History: History is fascinating. Sometimes you use something every day, and you don’t realize how old it is. Take, for example, the 3.5mm plug you use for your headphones. The history of that plug goes back to 1878 and the quarter-inch plug (6.35mm). It was originally designed for use by operators in old-fashioned telephone switchboards, plugging and unplugging connections. They needed secure connections that could be easily inserted and removed.
iPhone 7 Rumors. Speaking of 3.5mm connectors: The interest in the 3.5mm connectors comes from the fact that Apple now wants to get rid of the plug in the iPhone 7. PS: There’s also a rumor they will take the iPhone 7 to 256GB, but I’m not sure that’s much greater than the 160GB classic, given the requisite app storage, photos, and other crap that memory shares space with. Still, it might entice the remaining classic audience.
Unlocking the Moto X. Speaking of phones, news came out this week that Lenovo was dropping the Motorola name and moving to using just Moto and Lenovo. Moto used to be a great phone to have, because they kept is updated. That promise isn’t always kept, and so Motorola is offering a bootloader so you can unlock your Verizon Moto X 2014-generation, and update the OS. I’m not sure I’m going to do it.
Name Changes. Speaking of name changes, here are two more of interest. GE is selling their appliance business to the Chinese company Haier. Supposedly, they will still market under the GM name. Also in the news is Yosemite National Park, which is proposing changing the name of many historic lodges and areas because of a trademark dispute with a prior concessionaire. This one is really exciting the public, who are up in arms about a private company claiming they own the rights to “Curry Village” or “Ahwanee”. The trademark dispute is an example of ancillary damage: the result of a contract that included intellectual property.
Ancillary Damage. Speaking of ancillary damage: In all these well publicized crimes on the internet, we think a lot about the victims and the people that committed the crime. We don’t think about the ancillary damage: the damage to the family of the criminal. Here’s a great example of that: a woman whose husband (unbeknowst to her) went out and raped two other women. He was convicted, but her life was destroyed.
Fighting Back. The author in the previous link fought back, and speaking of fighting back, let’s look at a new honeybee technique: biting back. Keeping honeybees healthy has become a challenge for beekeepers. One main reason is a threat that has been wiping out bees since the late 1980s: the varroa mite: a new breed of honeybee that bites the legs off of the mites. This is part of a larger breeding technique to create bees that will survive.
Broccoli and Dogs. Speaking of breeding programs, have you ever realized that broccoli is a dog? I learned this listening to the latest Surprisingly Awesome podcast, which was about broccoli. I learned that broccoli, cauliflower, all the kales, all the collard greens, brussel sprouts, all the cabbages, and kohlrabi are actually the same species of plant, just bred for different characteristics.
Viewing Fat Differently. Speaking of science and food, this weeks Science Friday had an interesting discussion about why we need body fat. It talked about how fat is an organ, the purposes that it serves, and most importantly, how we might just need to retrain our body so it doesn’t think it needs to store the energy in fat.
The Gut Microbiome. Speaking of diets, more and more information is coming out about the gut microbiome. New research is showing how our western diets (with all our junk and processed foods) are destroying our gut microbiomes, potentially in non-recoverable ways.
Science Games. Speaking of destroying things and science, here’s an interesting quickie (and read the comments for more): using the periodic table to play battleship.
The Dragon Cancer. Speaking of games, I’ve been reading a lot of reviews of a new videogame: That Dragon Cancer. The Reply All podcast recently had a fascinating episode on the origins of that game.
Science Themes Stamps. The game That Dragon Cancer serves as a memorial to a lost child, and speaking of memories: commemorative stamps serve to memorialize and celebrate things. This year is seeing the release of lots of stamp remembering the successes of the space exploration program. Cool.
Weather Apps. Speaking of cool (I didn’t say these would always be strong connections 😏 ), here’s a list of some good Android weather applications.
Windows 10 Nagware. Speaking of weather, I’m sure some of you are debating whether to move to Windows 10. Perhaps you think it is all wet. Perhaps you’re just tired of the nagware. Although Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 on more and more users, this week brought information on how to finally turn off the Windows 10 nagware window (and also here).

Lastly, I’m sure you think I’m crazy in the head for trying to thread all these disparate articles together. Speaking of crazy in the head: how’s this for a headline: “Doctors dismissed his pain as migraines. Then they said he had 24 hours to live.” Did that get your attention? It got mine. The connected article was about something I mentioned last week: undetected subdural hematomas. Scary.

Media NewsChum: 6 Passings, 3 Arrivals

Posted onSunday, January 10, 2016Sunday, January 10, 2016Authorcahwyguy

userpic=masters-voice Here is the second bunch of themed news chum for the weekend — consider this your mixed salad before the stew. Articles in this group cover multiple media types: stage, TV, and radio.

Passings No. 1: Elizabeth Swados. Broadway composer Elizabeth Swados has passed away. The headlines all cite her show Runaways (which I’ve heard but never seen), but I recall her for her show Doonsebury. The show has a number of great songs, including “Just a House”, “It’s the Right Time to be Rich”, and “Another Memorable Meal”. I doubt it will ever be revived, as kids today don’t remember the early days of the strip.
Passings No. 2: Wayne Rodgers. Just before the end of the year, original M*A*S*H TV star Wayne Rodgers passed away. Here’s a remembrance from his co-star, Alan Alda.
Passings No. 3: Sheldon Epps. No, Sheldon hasn’t died. However, he is stepping down as Artistic Director of the Pasadena Playhouse. For a long time, we were subscribers at the Playhouse. Were there there in the Susan Dietz era; we were there when Sheldon came in; and we left during the bankruptcy. I didn’t always like Sheldon’s programming — especially his habit of TBA shows in a season. But he had more hits than misses, and he did a great job of raising the visibility of the playhouse during his tenure. Even more importantly, he did try and bring diversity to the traditionally mono-cultured Pasadena.
Passings No. 4: KFWB 980. “Give us 22 minutes, we’ll give you the world.” Hasn’t been that way for a while, since KFWB gave up the news baton to KNX and went talk… and then sports talk. KFWB has been sold, and will be becoming an ethnic station. While this is bad news for the Clippers, it is also a significant passing in the LA Radio community.
Passings No. 5: Allegiance. Sad to say, the new George Takei musical Allegiance has posted its closing notice. This is after 113 performances, which is definitely not hit territory, or even recap-costs territory. However, the musical did make a significant political statement (which is good), and is going on tour (even better).
Passings No. 6/Arrival No. 1: Beatles Music. This is, in a sense, a coming and going. The going relates to a very interesting article about the convoluted path of how the Beatles lost control of their music catalog to Michael Jackson. As usual, some wrong decisions early on in their career from which they could never recover. It shows the importance for artists to pay attention to what you sign. On the other side, the Beatles have just arrived on streaming music services. For me, that’s a big “Whoops” (as in “Don’t Care”). I’ve got *all* their music on my iPod, of which 95% was recorded from the original vinyl.
Arrival No. 2: Hamilton. It has been announced that the hit musical Hamilton will be going on tour. There will be longer tour engagements in Chi-town, LA, and SF. The big question in LA is where? Given the Ahmanson’s schedule and size, I don’t see a long sit-down show going there (although it is the best venue). The likely place is the Pantages, but I’m not sure they would want a *long* sit down (but they’ve done it for Wicked). It would be great if it could go into the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion — the hall was partially built for the LACLO, but theatre hasn’t been there in ages. Another possibility is a theatre on Broadway — I recall hearing that they want to get back into the show-biz.
Arrival No. 3: Galavant. The mini-TV musical Galavant has returned. If you watched the first two episodes last week, you’ve discovered they’ve gone very meta. They probably won’t survive, but they sure are fun to have around.

Gettin’ The News You Need

Posted onSaturday, November 28, 2015Authorcahwyguy3 Comments

userpic=television It’s Saturday morning. Time to put your feet up and read what laughingly passes for a newspaper these days — which, of course, means we have some media news chum for you:

The Dress. The Dress. No, not that dress. Rather, this is a situation where dozens of female meteorologists (what used to be called “weather girls” or even derogatory terms) all have been observed wearing the same dress. The dress, a “Stretch Tunic Pencil Sheath Dress” sold on Amazon for $23, has been seen on at least 50 weather reports across the country. Jennifer Myers, a meteorologist from Dallas, Texas, posted a collage to Reddit showing several of the women sporting the ensemble. Dress of female meteorologists is restricted: they aren’t allowed to wear “distracting prints,” lace, anything green, short skirts, or cleavage-bearing shirts. Other than the humor of the inadvertent common uniform, a few observations. First, while looking into this story, I happened to click on the Amazon page. Big mistake. Now all the little Amazon ads that pop up everywhere are trying to sell me a dress. Second, with respect to local TV, I do find the dress of the weathercritters to be interesting. I often catch the weather on KTLA at 10pm, and their weathercaster, Vera Jimenez, often picks an unflattering outfit (the problem, by the way, is more the choice of color and the shortness of the skirt). Doesn’t affect the quality of her presentation any, but for some reason it is one of the few times where I comment to my wife on fashion (and it now has me wondering why I’m so petty in this one area). It sounds like TV newscritters are responsible for their on-air wardrobe, as opposed to the studio providing it.
This is National Public Radio. Two articles related to NPR and NPR news. The first relates to demographics: it appears that the NPR audience is significantly aging, and NPR doesn’t know how to turn it around. This is a problem in a number of ways. First, the station funding model is one of subscribers, and subscribers come from pledge breaks, and pledge breaks come from listeners, and if the listeners are greying and dying off — what happens to your funding? Younger audiences do listen to a number of NPR programs, but they do so via direct streaming or podcasts, and thus support the podcast directly, not the station. They are exploring ways to turn this around (including the NPR One app), but so far it hasn’t made a dent. The second article relates to breaking news. Those of us who grew up with newsradio (cough, KNX, cough, KFWB) knew that entire programming days could go out the window when there was breaking news. NPR, on the other hand, doesn’t always take that approach for breaking news. They have a complicated approach to when they can go live, depending on staff, where they are in the “clock”, what they would be interrupting, etc.
Los Angeles Times in the News. In yesterday’s news chum, I wrote about the buyouts that have occurred at the LA Times. I fretted about how they are decimating the reporting, and the once great paper was but a shadows of its former self. Yesterday a rumor surfaced about the possible sale of Tribune Publishing and the LA Times. The rumor, from Rupert Murdoch, has been subject to intense analysis and may or may not be true. I, for one, hope that it is. Los Angeles used to be a great newspaper community, from the LA Times to the Herald Examiner to the Valley Green Sheet to the Orange County Register to the VC Star to the San Diego Union Tribune. Now they are all gone, merged together, or otherwise diminished. It would be nice to see it come back, even a little.

At Last, The Stew: Tasty Links in a Simmering Sauce

Posted onSaturday, October 17, 2015Authorcahwyguy

Observation Stew And finally, some tasty news chum stew, which has been simmering in the bookmarks for a couple of weeks:

DoD and Silicon Valley. My wife brought my attention to this article, which explores how the Defense Department is working with Silicon Valley to get cutting edge technology into defense systems. For those who don’t know the DOD and its acquisition processes (which grind exceedingly slow), this is very novel. Silicon Valley brings technology out faster than the DOD can get past an MDD and RFP, so it is really a new way for the DOD.
Boarding Passes. This hit the news last week, but is worth highlighting. We all have typically thrown away those boarding passes we print, because they don’t contain anything useful. So we thought. Brian Krebs did some exploration, and discovered that you might want to save the boarding pass for shredding instead. There’s information on there that is likely sensitive.
Trading Spaces. One of my favorite shows of the early 2000s was Trading Space on TLC. Near the end, it started to go off the rails and quickly disappeared. Here’s a great explanation of the rise and fall of Trading Spaces. I still believe it could be brought back in these tight economic times — they just need to keep it at its original concept, and not allow Doug or Hildy anywhere near it.
Preparing for El Niño. We’ve all been hearing that this winter will be something Southern California needs: a wet one. Here are 28 things that you should be doing to prepare now for the wet winter. I do know I need to out and clean the gutters. All of this is good advice.
CSUN Resurgent. Every time I drive along Reseda, I think how Northridge is reshaping Reseda to be the college town that will complete the transformation of CSUN. In the past 10 years, the transformation of CSUN has been remarkable, and the Daily News has a good exploration of it. CSUN has gone from being just lil’ old Valley State to a full university, with top notch nationally recognized programs and a larger residential contingent. In many ways, I think it — together with the Cal Polys — are the gems of the Cal State system. I think it could almost be another UC, but I believe there is now a law (but I can’t find the reference) that schools in the CSU system cannot convert to UCs. (Both UCLA and UCSB are former CalStates)

Unintended Consequences

Posted onFriday, September 4, 2015Sunday, September 13, 2015Authorcahwyguy

userpic=im-with-stupid The process of clearing out the accumulated links continues, although I’m getting close to caught up. This groupa-three deals with some unintended consequences:

Unintended Consequences of High Definition. Bloomberg has an interesting article about how the growth of high-definition video has made the prop master’s job harder. Simply put: the detail now visible means that props have to be stunningly believable, although that can create problems with things like realistic fake money. Wood has to look like wood, not plastic. Words on printed items need to be sensical. Logos of products need to be believable. What used to be visibility to a 2″ circle is now down to a ⅛” circle. Dust, dirt, and paint chips are visible.
Unintended Consequences of Answering Your Phone. Have you ever gotten a phone call, answered it, and … nothing. NPR explains how this simple act of answering your phone can be the start of phone fraud. This is how fraudsters determine there is a human on the other end and the number is a valid number. From there, it escalates…
Unintended Consequences of Conserving Water. The LA Times has an article about how all the water saving during the drought is creating a big problem. Sanitation districts are yanking tree roots out of manholes and stepping up maintenance on their pipes to prevent corrosion and the spread of odors. And when people use less potable water, officials say, there’s less wastewater available to recycle. Water suppliers, meanwhile, say the dramatic decrease in consumption has created multimillion-dollar revenue shortfalls. Shorter showers, more efficient toilets and other reductions in indoor water usage have meant less wastewater flowing through sewer pipes, sanitation officials say. With less flow to flush the solids down the system, those solids are collecting and can eventually damage pipes. [I’ll note there are similar problems with power districts as people move to self-generated solar: suddenly, they don’t have the revenue to pay for all their power plants.]

One Man’s Trash

Posted onFriday, May 22, 2015Sunday, May 31, 2015Authorcahwyguy

userpic=television It has been a while since lunchtime reading of the news has prompted me to set down my salad and pick up my keyboard. It happened today when I read an article about David Letterman. Now, I’ve mostly been ignoring Letterman — I never quite got into him or his humor, being more of the Carson / Leno / Fallon mold. But this time the problem isn’t specifically Letterman — more, it is his production company or CBS. Why? Well, with the exception of one or two pieces, the rest of David Letterman’s set has gone to the dumpster.

What a waste.

Letterman should have taken a lesson from Survivor, which for years has put props from the season just closed up for auction, with proceeds going to charity. I think that’s a wonderful thing, but most shows don’t bother to do it. Letterman certainly should have — he could have really helped charities, and cleaned out a bunch of stuff that wasn’t wanted. Hell, even Stephen Colbert (who is replacing Dave) auctioned off his desk for charity. For me, it just centers my impression of Letterman as self-centered.

It also highlights one of the few problems I have with the entertainment industry as a whole: they are incredibly wasteful. For example, think of all those car crashes and car stunts in a movie. What do you think happens to the cars? They fill up junkyards. Loads of industrial effort… that is just trashed for entertainment. Think about all the water scenes filmed and the water wasted. Think of all the fictional house and office sets for TVs and movies. Most are used once and trashed. Waste of wood. Waste of plastic. I’ll note its not just movies and TVs — the same is true for ballet, opera, and stage, although often there sets are warehoused and leased out for use to future productions.

Then there is intimate theatre, which often does reuse props and sets. However, that’s more due to the fact they need to save money than any ecological desire. In fact, in smaller theatres, that sofa you are sitting on today was probably in a previous production (and before that, rescued from a thrift store). Don’t believe me? Ask the REP where the piano in the Hydeaway Lounge came from, or the Colony where the Egyptian Coffin came from.

That’s better. Rant is out and lunch is done.