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Friday, April 25, 2003
Among the Literati XXXIII A bookstore in Ohio has come under fire for throwing away hundreds of unsold books when it went out of business. A local TV news reporter came across the overflowing dumpster and got upset that the books weren't donated to area nonprofits. The reporter became even more upset when she learned that taking the books out of the trash was illegal. NewsChannel5 was told that tearing front covers off new books is standard procedure when a bookstore closes. It's called "stripping a book." ... [T]o take these books from the trash bin is illegal; the books would be considered stolen property. Inside the front cover, a warning states that a book without its cover is unauthorized. It was reported to the publisher as unsold and destroyed, and neither the author nor the publisher received payment. I just checked a mass-market paperback -- Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World -- and it has no such warning. Ah, here in Stephen King's A Bag of Bones, it says, "The sale of this book without a cover is unauthorized." Dumpster dive away, Media Dieticians. It's legal unless you sell the books. Thanks to MobyLives. Rock Shows of Note LXII After Anchormen practice, we went to the Cambridgeport Saloon in Central Square for a couple of drinks with Leslie. We headed home around 11, and I thought I'd swing by TT the Bear's to see if Kurt and Geraldine were within eyeshot from the doorway. They were there with friends to see the Mendoza Line, and I said I'd try to stop by after practice. As it turns out, Kurt saw me as soon as I stepped inside and I arrived just as the band before the Mendoza Line was wrapping up, so I had some time to talk to Kurt and Geraldine before their set started. Having not heard the Mendoza Line before -- and occasionally confusing them with the Verona Downs much like I confuse the Hudsucker Proxy with the Shawshank Redemption -- I was in for quite a pleasant surprise. The five piece blends alt.country with unabashed power pop, and they have so much fun on stage that they're a joy to watch. When Tim sings, it's with gusto, and his sometimes straining melodies are extremely enthusiastic. But it's Shannon's voice and gentle tambourine playing that's the highlight, most likely, especially when she's playing off of lead and pedal steel guitarist John. Wonderful, wonderful songs. Well worth the $8 even if I didn't catch any of the other bands. The Free-Range Comic Book Project XIX This is an installment of Media Diet's Free-Range Comic Book Project.    Blue Devil #22 (DC, March 1986). Writers: Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin. Artist: Alan Kupperberg. Location: On a bench in the Sound Museum in the South End.    For more information on this project, please refer to this Media Diet entry. Thursday, April 24, 2003
Mention Me! XXXVII A Humor Me entry earned me a listing in this directory of acupuncture joke resources. The Web can work in funny ways sometimes. From the In Box: Sketchy Ethics Almost a year after I commented on an opinion piece Steve Friess wrote for Editor & Publisher, Steve replies: This is Steve Friess. I'm having a bit of an insomniacal night here in Hong Kong, where I'm handling SARS coverage for USAT. I decided to Google myself (actually Yahoo, but it's not as pleasing a verb) and unearthed your blog blast of my E&P column from last year about working at China Daily. I'm amused you criticized me for writing a predictable column with criticism that was at least as predictable and easy. It was the sort of facile response to journalism "ethics" that would make a Medill Law & Ethics prof proud but has little bearing on the realities of working abroad and in difficult situations. As Eason Jordan gets beaten up all over town by misinformed journalistic moralists and opportunists for the practices of CNN in Iraq in the 1990s, I'm reminded of just how arrogant and simplistic it is to sit back from stateside and presume to know what is possible and viable when attempting to work under a dictatorship. Media Diet: One bug in my bonnet was the assumption that American journalism was better. Sure, propaganda from the government, and press limitations are bad, but is there a locally appropriate journalism for China that's not a cookie cutter of our kind of journalism? British journalism, for example, is much different than it is here. And I don't think it's a worse form of journalism. The same could be argued about Al-Jazeera. Let's agree that any media incapable of providing any balance or vague semblance of truth is absolutely "worse." I don't know why it's so hard for Americans to be proud of the liberties we have and recognize them as desirable to all people, not just us. Because to the rest of the world that seems like arrogance? Just because our motives are constantly misunderstood doesn't make the misunderstandings true. Thanks for the response, Steve. And best of luck in Hong Kong! Music to My Eyes XVII I used to date a woman with whom I could almost never agree with about music. In the car, she'd always change the radio station too fast. She rejected almost every mix tape I ever made her. In her room, I'd sit on the hardwood floor bored while she danced like a dervish to Madonna. We did, to be fair, agree on the Weakerthans, which was a gift to me. Now, Go Home Productions' online assortment of mash-ups and bastard pop is a gift. The blokes mix the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" and "God Save the Queen" with Madonna's "Ray of Light" to good effect. TLC's "Unpretty" bumps uglies with the Specials' "A Message to You Rudy." And the Strokes' "Someday" pops the cork on Christian Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle." Maybe she and I could have agreed on these! Thanks to Retrorocket. Television-Impaired XII Charles Rolland Douglass, inventor of the TV sitcom laugh track, died earlier this month. TV Barn offers an appreciative look at the impact Douglass' invention has had on television, the laugh track's origin in radio broadcasting, and the technological innovation race several inventors ran to "improve" the laugh track first. A little-known piece of media history! Read But Dead XII Travel Holiday is going on a permanent vacation. The staffs of other travel mags say that it wasn't the travel industry's ad dollar that was weak -- but Travel Holiday itself. Time will tell, I suppose. Corollary: Blogging About Blogging LVIII Six Apart, maker of Moveable Type, is rolling out a new hosting service intended to butt heads with Blogger. The announcement of Ben and Mena's TypePad brings with it the news of a partnership with Neoteny and the hire of Anil Dash, whom I met briefly at SXSW. People often debate the merits of using Blogger, Moveable Type, and Radio Userland -- much less the host of other tools available -- and with one leading contender rolling out a service quite akin to another's, the landscape is sure to shift slightly. I've been an avid Blogger user since day one of Media Diet, and I'm hopeful that its new relationship with Google -- and coming new version of its software -- will keep it in the clear. I'm also hopeful that the new version of Blogger rocks. Looking forward to it. Blogging About Blogging LVIII Part of the promise -- and charm -- of blogs and LiveJournals, much less personal Web sites in general is that they're, well, personal. There are people behind the pages. And the best sites work well because of their publishers' personalities. Invisiblog is a new service that enables people to post to blogs using an anonymous remailer network. While I understand the allure of anonymity, I'm not sure how I feel about Invisiblogs. Sure, the best blogs need to have solid content, but in many cases you can forgive a favorite blogger a less-than-necessary post because of who they are and what they normally do. Identity has currency as well as the content. Invisiblogs will need to stand solely on content... and the writing of the publisher. There will be less leeway. That said, blogs such as Gizmodo, which I read daily, are already largely anonymous. What's the value of blogging via an anonymous remailer? And what does this mean for the interactive aspect of blogging? Sure, you will probably be able to comment on posts, but who are you commenting on? Thanks to Slashdot. Wednesday, April 23, 2003
IM'erview with a Ween Fan I don't get many random IM's from people I don't know via Media Diet, but I just got pinged by a Ween fan in Pennsylvania. Here's the "fan"-script: boognishdeciple: hellow And that's a wrap. Or rap. Media Dieticians, if you're on AIM, don't be shy. From the In Box: Read But Dead XI In response to an entry published earlier today, Nick comments: Boys are discouraged to read by their peers and environment. It's just not "manly" enough. They're also discouraged from asking questions, it being better to be independent and self-sufficient. Having doubts about yourself and seeking answers in magazines is not something one can be seen doing. An interesting point, especially given this article from the Toronto Star. Philip Marchand reports that less than 20% of people who buy novels are men -- and that most boys stop reading fiction at the age of 12 or 13. Is it true that men read less than women? Thanks to MobyLives. Technofetishism XXXIV Thanks to News Is Free's premium export service and NetNewsWire, I'm now set up better than many wire editors at daily newspapers. This is fun, fun stuff. Employee of the Week III Media Diet would like to recognize the following Fifth Man Media employees for their service above and beyond the call of duty: 
Always willing to listen Jack "Jack" Jackson is almost constantly called on as a sounding board, devil's advocate, and source of feedback. He may not know what you're saying -- he might not understand what you're talking about -- but he's always available to lend a listening ear. "I'm a good listener," Jackson says. "Sometimes the most important thing isn't what people don't say, but what they're saying." Well-known around the Fifth Man Media offices for his colorful, abstract ties and quizzical, occasionally totally confused look, Jackson is "the man" (in the words of one colleague) to corner by the water cooler if you need to bend someone's ear. While Jackson is a good listener, however, he's not that great a speaker. That's part of his charm! Every so often, Jackson will repeat back to co-workers what he thinks they're saying, sometimes expressing the exact opposite of the point they were making. Correcting him and "setting Jackson straight," as it's become known around the office, helps clarify your thinking -- and that spells "good business." Tele-Phony IV The Payphone Project is an impressive of payphone-related news items; photographs of payphones in New York City, Georgia, Denmark, and Africa; and an online database of payphone numbers around the world. Searching for payphones in Massachusetts, I learned that the payphone outside the Harvard COOP on Harvard Square in Cambridge is 617-868-0695. Calling it just now, I got a data squelch. Do they still disable incoming calls to payphones because of the War on Drugs? This project reminds me slightly of the payphone photos in 2600, and the directory could make for some fine Media Diet fun. If you have half a mo, make a payphone call near you today. "Calling William Morris!" Thanks to Memepool. Magazine Me XXX Scott Dickensheets has compiled a handy guide to Radar magazine based on reviews and news releases. After reading this roundup, you might not need to read Radar. Thanks to Bookslut. Business Media Reportage Goes Bust, Now Boom? VIII June 2 marks the 25th anniversary of Crain's Chicago Business, long held as one of the better regional business journals. Blending business reportage, regional magazine-style writing, and some lifestyle coverage, the 50,000-circulation weekly often gives the dailies in Chicago a run for their business section money. Happy birthday, Crain's Chicago Business! Thanks to I Want Media. Read But Dead XI Fucked Company reports that Transworld Stance may be folding. An offshoot of the Transworld Skateboarding media empire, this magazine covering "lifestyles of the young and the dangerous" is a rare modern example of a general-interest magazine aimed at young men. Of the men's magazines, Details has long skewed a little younger than it's Esquire and GQ counterparts, as did the defunct POV, but it wasn't really until the emergence of the lad mags that men's magazines appealed to the younger set. This fascinates me. In the history of magazines, publishers have long been able to support tiered general-interest magazines for female readers. You had your Teen, Seventeen, and Sassy, and then you had your Cosmopolitan, Elle, Mademoiselle, Glamour, etc. Now many of the women's magazines -- excluding the seven sisters of yore -- are skewing younger with slightly different titles such as Cosmo Girl! But I wonder: Why not just read Cosmo? Part of the allure of those magazines to younger readers is the aspirational aspect of pending maturity. Men's magazines don't have this. When you're young, you get Boys' Life. Then you're left to a few older men's general-interest magazines and special interest magazines aimed at men. Sports, cars, crafts, hunting, and so on. Is this because men's interests specialize earlier on in life? Or do men just not need a general-interest magazine outside of the big three? Curious. Back in the day, there were several magazines aimed at college-aged men including titles such as the digest-sized 21 (not the wonderfully sexy French magazine). Does the rumored nail in Transworld Stance's coffin indicate that the title didn't work -- or that the premise of a general-interest magazine for young men doesn't work? Tuesday, April 22, 2003
New School, New Media Style Stephen Downes, the educational technologist -- or technological educator -- behind the OLDaily newsletter, recently launched Edu_RSS, which "automatically harvests metadata from about 50 educational bloggers, displays the results (updated hourly) and provides a database search of all aggregated submissions." Feeds harvested include many of the usual suspects -- such as Gillmor, Lessig, Megnut -- but also feature some nice, focused news services such as CogDogBlog, EdTechPost, and the Shifted Librarian. Once the service is stable, Downes plans to release the code under GPL. An excellent project. Big Brother Is Watching XIII The more you improve security, the more people will improve ways to work around it. Yet the race continues. Hollywood has long battled against bootleggers who videotape films during closed screenings. Now, two companies funded by the Advanced Technology Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the rate of $2 million are developing a technology that will embed flickering patterns in digitally projected movies to stymie folks with handheld camcorders. While the flickering patterns will be unnoticeable by the human eye, they will render the resulting recordings unviewable. While the anti-piracy captain for the Motion Picture Association of America says that the system will not stop videotaping, it will stop bootlegs from reaching the market before a domestic release. Thanks to Lockergnome. Monday, April 21, 2003
Rock Shows of Note LXI I've been remiss in terms of reporting on the bands I've seen play lately, so this is a less in-depth catch-up entry. Scads of great shows lately and an overly active social schedule as spring emerges! Saturday, April 19: Plunge Into Death played under their moniker DGXJC because of their recent show at TT the Bear's. They went on first, which was a little iffy because new member Mac Swell was running late (He got on the T heading in the wrong direction, he says.). So what seemed to be a sound check and technical difficulties troubleshooting actually turned out to be the beginning of their set. The band wasn't in the fine form they were in at TT's previously, but the set was still solid. Geisslah stepped off the stage, and the several songs that Mac joined them for were quite solid. One is quite impressive. And another, well, it kind of reminded me of boys jumping around in a basement, shouting sing-along songs. It sounds great, but visually, more could be done musically, perhaps. Still, excellent sequenced noise rap rock or whatever it is! Next up, the Japanese Karaoke Afterlife Experiment, a masked noise duo that reminded me of Tunnel of Love by way of the Boredoms. It also made me think that maybe Chris and I shouldn't pursue our nascent side project Cruel Ranch. This is basically what we'd do, only skronkier. Nice dramatic bleep-box, keyboard-bashing, drum set-slamming noise. Scads of fun, and charmingly staged. Their CD comes in a handmade sleeve encapsulated in duct tape. Then came the Janet Pants Dans Theeatre, a small, independent modern dance troupe from Los Angeles and New York City. With three dancers and a sound engineer/keyboardist, the Theeatre performed three pieces and screened a video. Despite my initial skepticism, I was quite impressed by their performance. Definitely one of the better independent dance troupes I've encountered -- much less performing at a bar. The dude playing under the name Pleasurehorse took forever to set up, but it was pretty much worth the wait. Using a PowerBook, touchpad, video game console controller, CD player, and microphone, this former member of Six Finger Satellite created a static- and scratch-drenched noise collage that was quite interesting. I do wish that when he found a groove, he kept it for a spell, or that he incorporated more tunefulness, because despite the fun I had trying to figure out how he was making all of his noises, his dramatic jumping around, touchpad pen in mouth, machine manipulation struck me as so much noodling. Make some music, dude. The technology is impressive, and the gimmick is great, but focus on the sound. Regardless, worth checking out. The last band, Life Partners, we didn't stick around for. More noise, much later. Time to go home. Kudos to Mr. Records for continuing their extremely impressive series of shows at the Choppin' Block! Friday, April 18: I wasn't going to go out, but true to form lately, I decided to brave the springtime streets around 10 o'clock. Unfortunately, that meant that I'd miss the Mary Reillys set -- I arrived just in time to catch Deb, Keira, and Ben on the front stoop. It also meant that it'd be too crowded for me to get in to see Emergency Music. From the bar side, where I met up with the gang, they sounded like pleasing power pop. I did however get into the show side for the Brett Rosenberg Problem set. With a new CD just out, the band's added a rhythm guitarist, and this was the first of two CD release shows. They played an energetic, bash-pop set that seemed to expand on Brett's melodic songwriting, and I look forward to the new disc. The place was packed, so I was smashed into the back with Deb and Keira. Still, a good show, and I was lucky to get in because word is the show sold out. Wednesday, April 16: This was the best Plunge into Death show I have ever seen. Their costuming was the best it's ever been. Their stage presence was the most confidence it's ever been. The sequencing of and transitions between the songs were the best they've ever been. And it was just a great show all around. The show Saturday was a bit of a let down given this evening's epiphany, but that's the way the ball bounces. You can't be the best all the time! This was also Mac Swell's first night with the band, and Mac hammed it up old-scholl style, decking himself out in an amazing track suit. Very, very good. Best PID show ever. King Cobra played next. Featuring Betsy Kwo, Tara Jane O'Neil, and Rachel Carns, the band is a Needs-like no-wave wunderkind. I quite enjoyed their set even though I didn't know any of the songs -- and it's been awhile since I've spun my Needs records. A nice followup to PID. Last up, Tracy and the Plastics, another fine no-wave band. A skronky night, and much appreciated. North End Moment XXXVII Parking and traffic is a mess in Boss Town today because of the Boston Marathon and a Red Sox game. So I had to smile slightly when I found this in the back alley.  Indeed: Read the sign. Music to My Ears XXXV The Mr. T Experience's Dr. Frank (or is that the other way around?) has written a war-related song entitled "Democracy, Whisky, Sexy." In his blog, Blogs of War, which is more politically than punk rock oriented, he describes his thinking about making live demos available on the Web, why he offers limited-run CD's only at his shows, and why listener feedback is important early in the songwriting and recording "process." Dr. Frank's statement that "I'm not sure how many fans of my songwriting read this blog, nor how many readers of the blog might be interested in my songs" made me grin, as I rank among both circles in that Venn diagram, just as I follow Chris Imlay's songwriting and design work at MacAddict (where, I learned this weekend, a fellow NU alum also works). Thrilled silly that he'll be playing at the Kendall in Cambridge while he's on a brief Northeast tour. We didn't meet up when I was last in the Bay Area. Maybe I'll be able to meet him while he's in town. I've been following his music since I got "Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood" from Blacklist Mailorder, and I interviewed someone from MTX for my very first zine ever, Blow #1 in 1988. Thanks for the songs, Dr. Frank! Rules for Fools XV Rule No. 19: While it is true that if you play with fire, you will get burned, it is equally true that if you do not pay close attention to the proximity of the edge of a cookie sheet to the crook of your arm, you will also get burned. Magazine Me XXIX Reasons You Should Read TV Guide Even If You Don't Need To: 1. What I'm Watching This Week. Celebrities such as Leann Rimes and Shannen Doherty weigh in with their TV recommendations -- and why they watch them. On one level, who cares? But on another, the featurette gives a nice personal approach to TV viewing. 2. Cheers & Jeers. Like the Columbia Journalism Review's Darts and Laurels feature, this weekly commentary column takes on the best and worst of broadcast media. Items range from the snarkily shallow to the substantial. 3. The Robins Report. J. Max Robins' tracking of trends and developments in broadcast news lends the Guide a semblance of credibility and legitimacy in professional news journalism. 4. SportsGuide. The week's sporting events in a wide range of games -- at a glance. 5. Cable Conversion Chart. Hella easier to use than the little card that comes with your cable box -- or the online channel guide. Want to know what's where? Start here. 6. Close-Up. The Guide's more in-depth descriptions of and commentaries on programs -- while hardly at-length -- still provide useful insights on what might be particularly noteworthy on a given day. 7. TV Guide Crossword. 'Nuff said. 8. Easy multitasking. I've never really enjoyed watching TV while navigating the on-screen channel guide, program listings, or show descriptions. I'd much rather read while watching, and the Guide is something I can reach for when I need it -- and without reaching for the remote. If I wanted to watch TV Guide on TV, I wouldn't really want to watch TV, now, would I? 9. You don't have Tivo. 'Nuff said. 10. What it is. TV Guide interests me for several reasons. Beyond the actual listings and program grids, the Guide is equal parts users' guide to the television -- how we watch, why we watch -- and news source on the state of TV production and promotion. Oh, it's no Broadcast & Cable or Television Broadcast, but it's as close to a consumer-oriented sociological or anthropological look at TV viewing as we can get right now. Comics and Conversation V Slashdot is interviewing Warren Ellis as we speak, so to speak. Slashdot participants can post questions to the discussion forum, and CmdrTaco will pass the "highly moderated" ones onto Mr. Ellis, who will then answer the questions. A nice example of community-oriented, grassroots Q&A journalism. The Movie I Watched Last Night LXV Frogs At the behest of Andrea, I watched this wonderfully bad 1972 horror movie last night. I love frogs. I really do. I have no idea whether I have a totem animal, but I wouldn't mind if it turned out to be the frog. This movie, then, fits right into my frog fetish. It's a throw-away groaner of a horror film, but it's got several things going for it. At base, it's an environmental cautionary tale. If we keep polluting the planet and mistreating the animals that share it with us, eventually, nature and its denizens might rise up against us. A domineering patriarch hell bent on quashing any and all natural infringements on his island home hosts a Fourth of July party for his extended family. An amateur ecologist and nature photographer played by Sam Elliott stumbles across the family gathering while documenting the environmental ills caused by the patriarch. He emerges as the hero figure as, one by one, the family members are isolated from the rest of the pack and killed by a host of frogs, snakes, spiders, Spanish mosses, quicksand pits, alligators, and other natural slayers. Shades of Friday the 13th, this is your basic divide and conquer horror plotline. If someone wanders off, they die. The scene in which one victim is overwhelmed by Spanish moss is particularly interesting, and the almost-constant representations of frogs and toads of various sizes is an absolute hoot. The frogs are so not frightening. Yet the sense of impending, almost Lovecraftian doom is quite effective. In the end, the patriarch comes to a deserved end, and the danger is left open as the nature photographer and his love interest escape. Or do they? Also of interest are the portrayals of interracial dating, alcoholism, and other social concerns. All are given a passing glance, but they're there. Thanks, Andrea. I wouldn't have come across this without you. Corollary: Technofetishism II Thanks to Anime on DVD -- I think -- I learned last night about a Netflix-like online rental service that specializes in anime, Asian cinema, exploitation, and martial arts films. Rareflix supposedly offers several tiered levels of service, much like Netflix, with the lowest running $20/month for three DVD's. But I can't seem to sign up for anything beyond the pay-as-you-go plan, which is fine to take it for a test run, I guess. The site sports some awkward -- and concerning -- typos (a la a Comdey genre subsection and typos in the FAQ), but the selection of DVD's available is quite appealing. With the pay-as-you-go plan, rentals cost $3 a piece, with a two-DVD minimum, and you get to keep the movies seven days from the date you receive them. Odd. Even though I just rented three DVD's -- The Astro-Zombies, Freeze Me, and Evil Dead Trap -- and I just got an email confirmation, my rental queue online indicates I've made no rentals. Fingers crossed that Rareflix doesn't rip me off, but if I get the DVD's -- and if they get their Web service in order -- this could be an amazing Filmfax- or Asian Cult Cinema-styled Netflix complement. Digesting the Daily XI Recent editions of the Daily Northwestern, the student newspaper of my alma mater, featured several media-, technology-, and activism-related items that might be of interest to Media Dieticians. For the thrill Chicago-based independent records label Thrill Jockey celebrates a decade of success with a broad, ecclectic roster of musicians (Jan. 23, 2003) Evanston resident sues theater chain for showing ads Plaintiff says movies starting late violate contract on ticket; Loews calls lawsuit "frivolous" (Feb. 27, 2003) Getting active Northwestern breathes new life into the peace movement with education, marches and social gatherings (Feb. 27, 2003) Eye spy Webcams let NU students -- and the rest of the world -- play voyeur to The Rock and Lake Michigan (Feb. 28, 2003) Studies find heavy backpacks a drag on students, lower backs Chiropractors advise using both straps, limiting load to 15 percent of body mass (March 4, 2003) Hot for teacher A Web site lets college students rate professors on what CTECs leave out (March 5, 2003) NUIT to premier revamped WebEmail site Wednesday (April 8, 2003) Pitt study fails MS Word grammar, spell checker Profs warn against "blindly" following software's imperfect correction system (April 8, 2003) If you work for a college newspaper and would like to sign me up for a complimentary subscription, please feel free to do so. My address is in the grey bar over on the left. Comics and Conversation IV Rich Watson offers a transcript of the "Open Minds" panel he moderated at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo held April 5 in Ohio. The discussion addresses approaching readers, retailers, libraries, and other potential customers and venues. Good stuff. Thanks to Slashdot. Music to My Ears XXXIV War Child, an international nonprofit that focuses on helping children affected by war, released a benefit album today to aid Iraqi children. Musicians including Avril Lavigne, Spiritualized, Beth Orton, and Billy Bragg -- as well as the commercial ringers Paul McCartney and David Bowie -- donated songs, and the CD was released by London Records, which agreed not to take any profit on the project. The playlist represents a nice round-up of political pop. But Avril Lavigne singing "Knocking on Heaven's Door"? Ugh. The Free-Range Comic Book Project XVIII This is an installment of Media Diet's Free-Range Comic Book Project. Saturday: The Blair Witch Chronicles #2 (Oni, April 2000). Writer: Jen Van Meter. Artists: Bernie Mireault and Abu. Location: On the Green Line between Park Street and Brigham Circle. For more information on this project, please refer to this Media Diet entry. The Commerce of Cartoons Instead of starting the day resolved not to watch CNN, like I do on some mornings, in the name of TV Turnoff Week, I decided to take another route. Having read a listing of anime currently aired on American TV stations in Animerica, I decided to set my alarm clock a little early, get up a little early, and turn on the television a little early. This morning's targets? The anime Medabots. Released stateside by ADV Films, Medabots is an anime skewed at younger viewers that incorporates an evident toy line tie-in. This morning's episode on ABC Family at 7 a.m. was "There's Something About Miss Mimosa", a simple tale about three men warring over the affections of Ikki's teacher, Miss Mimosa. The animation isn't that solid, and the Medabots are used almost as afterthoughts. That said, the multimedia evolution of the Medabots is intriguing. Initially launched as a video game in Japan, the Medabots then spawned a toy line that features 2-inch figures and two-piece Ro-Battle kits. Each Medabot comes complete with Ro-Battle statistics and fighting specialties. While it's clear that the anime was introduced to the States to help market the toy line, the battle and competitive aspect of the toys and game don't really communicate well in the cartoon. Regardless, this isn't your standard fighting anime. The romantic aspect of this episode, and the occasionally Rumiko Takahashi-like character designs give this a little more depth. But just a little. (Extra credit for the student journalist character Erika.) At 7:30, Medabots was followed by Beyblade, another fighting anime aimed at younger viewers. Done more in the style of Dragonball Z, this anime also has an evident toy line tie-in. This morning's episode, "The Race Is On" carries a light message about teamwork, trust, and patience, but for the most part, it's a tense, bide-your-time approach to a straight-ahead stadium-battle. It seems rather silly that someone could base an anime on competitive tops -- at least in Medabots, the 'bots can be fleshed out as characters -- so even though the animation is better here, the story stops short of interesting. Unless you're into fighting narratives where a team faces an ever-changing line up of competitors. Of the two toy lines, Beyblades seems more fun. In some ways, the Beyblades toys fit into the collectible toy and card game menace a la Pokemon, but, come on... battling tops? If someone wants to gift me a Griffolyon A-28, I wouldn't say no. Why is all of this interesting? Cartoons have long been used to market toys. It's not that cartoons spawn licensed toy lines, but that the toys almost always come first. The horribly designed "He-Man Vs. the Advertisers" page indicates that many characters and plotlines in the Masters of the Universe cartoons were catalyzed by the introduction of new toys. And Norma Pecora's The Business of Children's Entertainment suggests that this effect might be best seen in the light of a market exchange model. Media organizations are suppliers. Advertisers are the source of the demand. And what do they want? An audience. Children. This is nothing new, but it highlights the fact that this has nothing to do with anime or toys. So if cartoons and children's programming are at base advertisements, stateside or otherwise, wherefore the future of children's programming? Are kids consumers? To a certain age, their parents are in their stead. How do you reach them? One Web writer offers a brief analysis of the G.I. Joe cartoon series that aired in the '80s, positioning it within a broader cartoon cultural context -- and in a post-911 light -- barely touching on the educational and occasionally ethical messages that capped each episode. Those messages were the result of Congress intervening in children's broadcasting in the '80s as part of the Children's Television Act. By couching an otherwise commercial program in an apologetic, educational afterthought, networks could better guarantee that affiliates would air a given program. Medabots and Beyblade have no such educational aspirations or apologies. They are commercials pure and simple. Is the CTA on the wane? Does it matter less on cable? Do international imports fall under different guidelines in the name of cultural exchange? All food for thought on the first day of TV Turnoff Week. From the In Box: Kill Your Television VI Lest it get lost in the Comments box of history, Media Dietician Joe Clark points out an interesting project organized as a response to TV Turnoff Week, which starts today. Turn on the TV 2003 is a week-long "exercise in living through our favorite appliance." Every day, Matt May will issue an assignment to critically assess television. Today's assignment is to watch a foreign-based news broadcast. |
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