Getting It Off My Chest: Videos/Print, Stage/Screen, Attack/Ignore

So that I can enjoy my vacation, a few rants I’d like to get off my chest:

• The Video Generation. What is it with the growing tendency to impart information with videos. There is this consumer columnist in the LA Times who loves to do this, such as this response to a question. This morning, checking work email, there was an item about good practices for VTCs and telecons. How did they convey the information — a video. Videos mean I have to sit through the entire talk. I’d much rather read an article conveying the same information (which would likely be much shorter and a better use of my limited time).
• Screen to Stage. With the report that “Rocky – The Musical” will soon be on Broadway, the usual furor over the lack of original properties on Broadway is back. In my opinion, the problem is not lack of original properties, but slavish devotion to original sources. When Broadway is filmed, it often fails if it is the musical straight on the screen. Stories need to be reworked and expanded for the different screen focus and presentation. Similarly, when properties are essentially unchanged when they move to the stage, why bother to see them? This is what has hurt many a screen-to-stage transition (especially recent ones), leaving them in the middle tier of productions, not the upper echelon. Use the movie as the basis of the story; keep the essential elements, but expand on what the stage does best — revealing innermost thoughts and motivations through music.
• Syria. The debate is on: Should Obama intercede in Syria?  One side cites Obama’s “line in the sand”, and indicates the US will lose credibility if we don’t do anything. The other side just doesn’t want to go to war again. Me? I’m wondering why we’re debating this. If you look at history, the US involvement in wars that didn’t directly involve attacks on the US started after WWII, when we vowed “Never again” to permit a genocide such as Hitler perpetrated. Modulo a few cold war battles, that’s been the basis of most of our fighting since then: to prevent a government from slaughtering its civilians. Kosovo, Iraq, and now Syria. Is it the job of the US to enforce the moral high ground? If we don’t, can we live with ourselves for standing by idly? There are no easy answers. Complicating the matter is the fact that Syria and Iran have promised to take it out on Israel if we do attack: that’s like the playground bully saying: “I’ll beat up your little brother if you beat me up for attacking my sister”. No good answers, but I do believe the answer is not sending cruse missiles to an indescriminate target where we will be likely to take out civilians. If we can do a surgical strike to either take out Assad or the chemical weapons stockpiles, that’s one thing. Alas, I’m not sure we’ve got that precision.