August 15, 2008 5:28

Programming Note

Photo by Shiny Things.

Can you hear it? The cheerful whirring of servo motors... the friendly clank of metal limbs... the jolly hiss of a nozzle dispersing a paralyzing nerve agent to neutralize possible biological adversaries—why, it's our friend Robo-James, here to lay down the binary code at Tuned In while my lazy, carbon-based butt goes on vacation for two weeks!

I'll be spending much of the vacation at my mom's house in Michigan, where the Internet access relies on a string run from the house to a telephone line, so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to check in here. I may drop in now and then with a few posts while I'm out. But Robo-James will have a couple robo-posts a day for you in the meantime.

Otherwise, I'll see you after Labor Day, for the very early start of the TV season. Robo-James can't wait for the debut of 90210. Mainly because of all the zeroes and ones in the title.

August 15, 2008 4:51

One More Opening Ceremonies Fake-Out

After the phony fireworks and the phony singing, how could Chinese Olympic organizers possibly top themselves? With phony Chinese!

OK, that's a slight distortion. But a slighter one than, we're learning in dribs and drabs, pervaded the production of the ceremonies. According to Reuters, a segment of the festivities that the ceremony's media guide described as "Fifty-six children from 56 Chinese ethnic groups cluster[ing] around the Chinese national flag, representing the 56 ethnic groups" actually featured mostly kids from China's majority Han group, dressed in the garb of China's other ethnicities.

Of course, we must remember that there are cultural differences involved here, and that what you and I might recognize as "misleading" may, to another culture—oh, to hell with it. Whatever the intentions behind the stunt, it pretty much hangs a light on the fact that, when you take people's countries away and systematically repress them, they may be less inclined to lend their children to dress up for your parties.

And yes, the U.S. has historically done terrible things too. Which is why I tend to think that if we had white kids dressing up as Sioux children in our next Olympics, people might make a bit of a thing about it.

August 15, 2008 11:55

TV Weekend: Skins

Sunday brings the (much?) anticipated American debut of British teen show Skins on BBC America. I'll just reproduce my brief TIME review in full:

Skins BBC America; Sundays; 9 p.m. E.T. This British teen dramedy comes touted as "daringly realistic." Translation: lots of drugs and naughty bits! The realism doesn't extend to the exaggerated characters and plots, but if you focus on the sharp dialogue (and aren't an easily worried parent), these students earn a solid ... B

In other words, I didn't feel the early episodes quite lived up to the advance hype that I'd heard, which hailed it as a new, starkly more true-to-life kind of teen serial. The characters are much the same, broad types familiar from American teen soaps—nerd, manipulative charmer, etc.—but the content is a lot more explicit and racy. (Also, unlike many past American teen shows, not every character is required to experience a "lesson" or a scare every time they smoke pot or have sex; in general, Skins is much less melodramatic.)

With appropriately lowered expectations, though, it's a funny, sharp show, and a good fix for anyone waiting for Gossip Girl's September 1 debut. Has anyone out there already seen the two British seasons?

August 15, 2008 10:05

Dead Tree Alert: The C Word

My current column in Time looks at the cultural battle in the Presidential campaign—over who is a "celebrity"—and asks:

Why, after all, is celebrity an insult? Personal magnetism, the ability to galvanize attention and rally masses: this is a bad quality in a Chief Executive? J.F.K. and Ronald Reagan managed to soldier on with this handicap. Besides, celebrity is America's chief international export. There's something almost unpatriotic about denigrating it; it's like insulting Obama by comparing him to a GMC truck. (You know who complains about American celebrity culture? Al-Qaeda and the French, that's who!)

August 14, 2008 4:48

Lost Discussion Group: While You Were Out

I sort of, um, forgot to post LDG earlier in the day, so I'll keep this brief. This will probably be the last Lost Discussion Group of the summer (at least, the last one not hosted by Robo-James), after which I think we'll give LDG a rest for a while, so we may as well return to our tradition for one whole entire year and solicit predictions for the first scene of the first episode of season 5. Jeff Jensen at EW gives us a jumping-off point by revealing the title of the return episode:

"Because You Left"

That seems to give weight to the theory that the season premiere will start filling in the blanks as to how things went south on the Island after the Oceanic Six's escape. I'm thinking it'll either start at the beginning or the end of that story. Someone on the beach watching the plume of smoke from exploded ship on the horizon—disappear? Or Locke telling Jacob that he hopes he's happy and turning the Frozen Donkey Wheel?

I'm trying to imagine what sense I possibly would have made of those last few sentences if I had time-traveled from August 2007 and read it. Anyway—have at it.

August 14, 2008 12:38

Olympic Public-Service Announcement

So that's what the hell that sport is called. I think I'm going to keep calling it "basketsoccer," though.

August 14, 2008 10:44

Mike Myers: McCain Ad Not Worthy

I promise (kinda) that this will be my last post about the McCain "Hot chicks dig Obama" ad, but in the comments section earlier, someone had asked why the original video had disappeared from YouTube. Turns out the McCain camp never got permission to use the ending "We're not worthy!" clip from Wayne's World, and Mike Myers (or his lawyers) insisted the video be removed. A new version of the ad, with Wayne and Garth snipped out, is now up instead. "Apparently, we are not, in fact, worthy," said McCain staffer Michael Goldfarb.

If only they had used a clip from The Love Guru instead; I'm sure Myers would take whatever promo he could get on that one.

August 14, 2008 10:10

NEWS FLASH: None of ANTM's Previous Models Were Transgendered!

In retrospect the amazing thing is that they didn't do this sooner, but the next "cycle" of America's Next Top Model will include Isis, a 22-year-old transgender model who describes herself to Us Weekly as "a woman born physically male."

Good for them, I guess, and maybe this will entice me to check out what used to be one of my favorite reality shows for the first time in a few seasons. But really: has there ever been anything about ANTM that isn't transgender, in the broad sense of the term? The most distinctive thing about the show—well, except for the Tyra! Tyra! Tyra! self-promotion—has always been how it shows the fluidity of gender roles in modeling. Each season features gamine women being coached by (among others) gay men to emulate drag queens, which is basically the highest compliment afforded on the show. The ideal ANTM contestant, really, is a drag queen born physically female. The show is a veritable Pee-Wee's Playhouse of gender-bending ("Mister Jay" and "Miss Jay" even sound like Pee-Wee characters). So while the transgender casting may get ANTM some needed fresh attention, the question will be whether anyone will notice.

August 14, 2008 8:49

Project Runway Watch: Synergistic Jungle

High-powered, successful women Shields and Nina Garcia. / Bravo Photo: Barbara Nitke

SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers for Project Runway coming up after the jump.

August 13, 2008 2:12

The YouTube Channel

After I watched The Line for the first time, I re-watched it last night with Mrs. Tuned In—on TV. TiVo, for you non-cultists, now allows you to search for and stream YouTube videos directly to your TV. (I don't know if the entire database is available, but TiVo touts "millions" of videos, and having tried to search for several obscure clips, I have yet to stump it.)

I can't decide yet whether watching Internet video on the big screen enhances the experience or defeats it. It definitely lends itself to group viewing better than hunching around a laptop, but part of the aesthetic of online video is its scale and intimacy, which you necessarily lose watching several feet away on a big screen. (You also lose most of the social features like the comments—though some would say that's a feature, not a bug—and searching using the remote is much slower than it is with a keyboard.)