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Some time ago I showed the other Flooby Nooby-ists the pilot for "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_the_Conchords. It was gratifying to see them enjoy it so much that when the band came to town, we got tickets to go see them. Now I've got <a href="http://www.justsomelyrics.com/424765/Flight-of-the-Conchords-Mutha-Uckers-Lyrics">this song</a> stuck in my head, it's becoming my personal anthem.
We've also finished watching season one of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_blood">True Blood</a>. I only recently made the connection between this show and Six Feet Under: Alan Ball is one twisted dude! There's some weird ideas that need to be ignored for this show to make any sense... the idea that the only thing keeping vampires out of human society was their nutritional requirements. The immortality thing doesn't much count as a hook to hang any bigotry onto. And the idea of vampires as a minority class struggling for civil rights, that kind-of-makes me giggle. Yet the show is well worth watching, it's really well written, and who doesn't enjoy looking at Anna Paquin's upper lip? She's an excellent reluctant superhero.
Much fluffier, more of a guilt pleasure, is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_notice">Burn Notice</a>. I don't have attention of "24", so I can't compare the two, but it reads a lot like a television version of Ocean's Eleven. Breezy, glib, rat-pack comedic thriller where somehow no one gets killed. There are two areas where I can't quite suspend my disbelief: for all the gun play, this guy never has to shoot anyone, and despite having been an effective field agent, he's still a nice guy who calls his mom and gives a shit about John Q Public.
In fact, this morning, I was musing about this last point, and I hit something of a wall. Anyone who's been hassled about taking an innocent photograph, has run into this - In general, civilians are just not liked by those who 'protect' them. (I put protect in quotes because it has two meanings that are equally valid in this usage)
The more I think about it, the more this cultural rift represents a hard boundary, defining the limits of democracy. In another era, Slavery was another such hard boundary- you could only have a democracy so advanced before the property rights of slaveholders put a lid on it. This time around, democracy can only find so much self expression before it starts to interfere with the needs of the security apparatus, and they take action to shut it down. It's really kind of irrelevant what the law says, it's a cultural artifact. As long as civilians fear and resent the cattle dogs keeping us herded, and as long as those cattle dogs regard us as helpless sheep, you can only have this interesting a democracy, and no more.
We've also finished watching season one of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_blood">True Blood</a>. I only recently made the connection between this show and Six Feet Under: Alan Ball is one twisted dude! There's some weird ideas that need to be ignored for this show to make any sense... the idea that the only thing keeping vampires out of human society was their nutritional requirements. The immortality thing doesn't much count as a hook to hang any bigotry onto. And the idea of vampires as a minority class struggling for civil rights, that kind-of-makes me giggle. Yet the show is well worth watching, it's really well written, and who doesn't enjoy looking at Anna Paquin's upper lip? She's an excellent reluctant superhero.
Much fluffier, more of a guilt pleasure, is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_notice">Burn Notice</a>. I don't have attention of "24", so I can't compare the two, but it reads a lot like a television version of Ocean's Eleven. Breezy, glib, rat-pack comedic thriller where somehow no one gets killed. There are two areas where I can't quite suspend my disbelief: for all the gun play, this guy never has to shoot anyone, and despite having been an effective field agent, he's still a nice guy who calls his mom and gives a shit about John Q Public.
In fact, this morning, I was musing about this last point, and I hit something of a wall. Anyone who's been hassled about taking an innocent photograph, has run into this - In general, civilians are just not liked by those who 'protect' them. (I put protect in quotes because it has two meanings that are equally valid in this usage)
The more I think about it, the more this cultural rift represents a hard boundary, defining the limits of democracy. In another era, Slavery was another such hard boundary- you could only have a democracy so advanced before the property rights of slaveholders put a lid on it. This time around, democracy can only find so much self expression before it starts to interfere with the needs of the security apparatus, and they take action to shut it down. It's really kind of irrelevant what the law says, it's a cultural artifact. As long as civilians fear and resent the cattle dogs keeping us herded, and as long as those cattle dogs regard us as helpless sheep, you can only have this interesting a democracy, and no more.
