Crises of Capitalism

Educational and entertaining!

Question

And just how, praytell, shall we fit into these "2D theatres"?!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

It was pretty compelling for a film in which, essentially, nothing happens. Not as good as the first film, but much better than the second.

Well worth the $5 admission.

*** (out of 4).

Found it!

"It" being the radio program that fills the void left when CBC Radio 2 canceled Brave New Waves in 2007...


...it's Late Junction, on BBC Radio 3. Yes, I'm sounding like a shill for BBC Radio lately, but I don't care. Where else am I going to hear a guitar quartet arrangement of Arvo Pärt's Summa?!

Enjoy!

More Who Fun

This time from BBC Radio Wales. It's... The Terry Nation Story, an overview of the career of the man who created the Daleks.

Available until 8:00 p.m. (GMT) Sat, 1 Jan 2011.

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (or, What? No Cyberking?!)

Compared to the Tennent-era Christmas specials, this year's Doctor Who Christmas special was a treat. There were no monsters, no Torchwood tie-ins, no giant Cyberking kicking the shit out of Victorian London; no RTD false sentiment, no farting aliens, and no flimsy plots. Instead, we got a charming, quiet Doctor Who take on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It was a crazy, time-altering story that followed a well-constructed internal logic, but allowed for some unexpected twists. Smith, as he has been from The Eleventh Hour, was pitch-perfect, and guest-star Michael Gambon added some gravitas without being overwrought.

And the season 6 preview showed us we're in for a whole lot of River Song... what's not to love about that?!

BBC, whatever you do, keep Moffat happy and working on Doctor Who! He "gets" it, in a way RTD never did.

Happy Christmas!

There's nothing I like more than discovering a good radio comedy series or a one-off I haven't heard before. Here are six of the best I've heard this year:

1. Two Episodes of Mash. That's both the name of the comedy duo and their very funny one-off sketch show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast as part of a comedy showcase series. Let's hope we hear more from them in 2011.

2. Nebulous. Mark Gatiss (from The League of Gentlemen, Doctor Who, Sherlock, etc. etc. etc.) stars in this hilarious sci-fi radio sitcom. It also guest-stars the wonderful David Warner. If you like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or early Red Dwarf, you'll like this. I think it's far funnier than both.

3. Beautiful Dreamers. Six mockumentaries, played straight, and all the funnier for it. Outstanding writing and performances, with my favourites episodes being "The River Europe", and "The Whalemen of Musungenyi".

4. Richard Herring's Objective, in which likable comedian Richard Herring attempts to reclaim things society has deemed unlikeable or unacceptable (i.e. the hoodie, the Hitler moustache). Lots of laughs and social commentary.

5. Rhod Gilbert's Bulging Barrel of Laughs. Especially funny are this Welsh comedian's Rant Club segments. The single-potato rant had me laughing aloud on the transit.

6. Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show. A very old-fashioned radio sitcom starring Steve Delaney as the arrogant, aging, malapropism-spouting stage actor, Count Arthur Strong. He is a fine comedic invention: all bravado and bluster and backpedaling. Delany has invested a lot in developing this character, and he shines here, making the mostly unbearable Count simultaneously acerbic and sympathetic.

Any surprise that these are all BBC Radio productions?

As far as I can tell, Nebulous and the first five seasons of Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show are available on CD. Season six of Count Arthur is running on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesdays as of the date of this posting. Of course, all these programs are "available" if one knows where to look. But support the productions and comedians by buying the CDs where you can, yes? Nebulous lists for C$21 and change on a popular book-seller's site, that's just over a buck an episode.

I heard a couple of poor comedy series this year too, but thought I'd leave the "bah humbug" out of this posting. Happy Christmas!

Infantalization, part 4

The Star reports today on an iphone app developed by the LCBO. It lets you send a pre-recorded message to a friend to warn them about the perils of drinking and driving.

Sez the LCBO marketing boffin:

Customer research suggests the toughest thing for many hosts is approaching guests on the issue of drinking and driving, hence the arm’s length approach to an issue that is often the elephant in room.

Well, okay, but why is no one talking about the other elephant in the room, the fact that more and more of our social interactions are being mediated through technology, taking away our ability or desire to actually communicate directly with others? High tech meets passive aggressiveness, and to no one's surprise, it's like they were meant for each other.

I give full marks to the LCBO for attempting an education campaign, but few marks to the end result, and even fewer marks to the final users who are happy to abdicate responsibility by pressing a button on a screen. It will be interesting to see how use of this app might be used as a legal defense "I sent the drunk guy who drove, crashed, and crippled himself a message in someone else's voice telling him how concerned I was about him driving that night, what else could I have done?" "My client pushed the send button, Your Honour; we have the data records to prove it."

Radio Vault

In my "secret" life, I'm a writer for Radio Vault, a Toronto sketch comedy troupe that performs in the style of 1940s radio shows.

Here's our site: radiovault.ca. You can find podcasts and upcoming show information there.

If you do make it to a show, please say "hello" to us, we don't bite. And if you're listening to the podcast outside of Toronto, it would make our day to know where we've been heard. Please leave a comment on our pages.

Misread wish fulfilment?

While visiting a friend recently, we walked by a movie theatre near her home. The view of the marquee across the street was slightly obscured by a tree, leaving this:

THE GIRL WHO KICKED
THE LITTLE FOCKERS

If only.

For Your Listening Pleasure

Said the Gramophone, an excellent music blog, has posted a "top 100 songs of 2010" list, complete with links to download all the songs in two .zip files.

While the tastes of site mangers Sean, Jordan, and Dan doesn't always intersect with mine (one or more of three likes dance tracks), it overlaps often enough that I find about 80% of the music they post of interest. And hey, at least this list was compiled by someone with opinions about what he likes, not by some algorithm or sales figures. This quote from the posting sums up Said the Gramophone's philosophy nicely:

Said the Gramophone is one of the oldest musicblogs. We try to do just two things well: finding good songs, and writing about them. We don't mess about with tour-dates, videos or advertising.

So, check out the site at saidthegramophone.com and Sean's top 100 songs of 2010 here.

In praise of BBC Radio

If I could pay the BBC license fee of £142.50 annually, I'd do so gladly. What? you gasp. Nearly C$300 for radio?! Yes. First because of the excellent content, and second because, out of the major English-speaking countries' public broadcasters, the BBC's media player is the best.

Have you ever tried to find a podcast or live radio stream on the CBC's website? Maddening. You bounce around from page to page until you hit a dead end or, all too often, a dead link. Then you get to click "back" a bunch of times and start your quest again. Program and podcast pages are separate (why?) and often not even linked (huh?). It's like the Mother Corp doesn't want you to find something to listen to.

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) site has fewer dead links, but it's difficult to find programming of interest due to poor layout. That said, the program pages, once you find them, archive past shows nicely. Once you find a program you like and its corresponding page bookmark it! You may not be able to find it from the main page a second time.

NPR's player is better, but a lot of their old material is up in .ram format, requiring you forego the player and use RealPlayer, if you have it installed... Does anyone use RealPlayer any more? I haven't seen it for years. Also, the site's navigation is far from intuitive: new content could be posted at any time on one of hundreds of pages, and with no index page or all-encompassing guide, you'd miss it quite easily.

The BBC iPlayer (despite some marketing dork's stupid recommendation for its name) is uncluttered, well-organised, and well-maintained. Everything from the stations' last seven days of airplay is there, listed by station then chronologically.

You want listeners? Build it simply and they will come.

And finally because I'm talking about finding content there are two excellent sites to help with that: PublicRadioFan.com and Radio-Locator.

P.S. BBC? I wasn't kidding about £142.50.

Fringe: Nope, Take the Quick Way Home

All of season three so far leads to... this?! Fauxliva goes back to The Other Side. Olivia, aided by alt.Broyles, comes back to Our Side. And no one gets hurt. Well, except for alt.Broyles who for helping Olivia gets replaced by a shape-shifting doppelganger. Everyone is back where they should be, albeit with a bit more information about the other's dimension.

Here's a nagging question... given that Olivia and Fauxlivia were basically improvising their respective ways home by the end, due to a series of complications, how did they both manage to do it within a couple of hours of each other? Oh, right. 10 cc of dramaticexpediencium.

Honestly, this has to be the most anti-climactic climax since Fringe began. The Olivia of two worlds story fizzled this week, faster than the John Scott or Newton storylines.

Cue the outraged message-board geeks who were counting on some Torv-on-Torv catfight action.