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The Fake News

Sat in on a class today discussing ethics in documentary filmmaking and was reminded twice that, as the cliche’ goes, nothing is as it seems. First was a five-minute excerpt from a NOVA special about a firefight and rescue operation in Kentucky in the 90s. It all seemed very intense and scary and educational and all that. Afterwards we were asked what the problem with it was. No one had any idea. Turns out that all of the rescue scenes of a downed firefighter with a crushed pelvis being pulled out of the area by a brave team and a helicopter were totally faked. Staged. By NOVA. One of the most respected long-form documentary/science shows running.

The second example was the opening sequence to Ken Burn’s “The Civil War,” which revolves around the person who signed the papers to put an end to the war (neither Grant nor Lee, I forget his name). They showed old pictures of his house, they showed him, they showed the people who were there. Except that they didn’t. Burns couldn’t find any pictures of this guy, or his house, or anything. So he found pictures that would convey the mood and intentionally misled the viewer into thinking he was seeing accurate historical photographs.

Burns is one of the most respected historical documentarians we’ve got. If we can’t count on Ken Burns or Nova to give us the truth even when in documentary mode (where the journalist ostensibly has the time and resources to do it right), are there any journalists or institutions we can count on for the truth? How would we know? Even in the context of a class on the very subject, we didn’t have enough context to know we were watching something tantamount to lies. How much worse is it for the general public watching your average evening magazine or Fox News or CNN coverage of event XyZ?

Music: Deerhoof :: Trickybird
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Transcefunkadentalism

A piece I wrote years ago for a book of Pagan Kennedy’s, The Cosmology of P-Funk, just had an unanticipated spillover effect — a fellow name of Brian Benson apparently used it as a springboard for a master’s thesis on how Parliament-Funkadelic connects to the Transcendentalist movement. He sent me the finished piece, Transcefunkadentalism, with an invitation to post it on (old school) birdhouse alongside my earlier piece. It’s very good. His appendix contained a bunch of complete P-Funk lyrics, so I removed his appendix :-) to avoid possible copyright issues.

Brian adds, “My prof and I are trying to get this published in the “English Journal,” a mag for English teachers. This makes me laugh.” He’s interested in feedback, so drop him a note if you dig it.

Music: Peter Tosh :: Brand New Second Hand
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5th-Grade Level

Read a piece in the SF Chronicle this morning about how infant car seat installation manuals are being rewritten to make them more understandable. “That’s good,” I thought. I read on. Turns out the manuals are considered too difficult to understand because they are written at a 10th-grade reading level, and include really hard words like “automobile” and “collision” and “remedied.” Turns out that health-related information is best digested when written at a 5th-grade reading level, so they’ll be changing these words to “car” and “crash” and “fixed.” Okay, whatever it takes, I thought. Then I digested the kicker:

“… data suggest that nearly a quarter of U.S. adults read at or below a fifth-grade level, and at least 25 percent read at about an eighth-grade level.”

Read that sentence again (if you can). This is the most prosperous country on earth and one quarter of our citizens are leaving the educational system reading like 5th graders? Fully one half graduate as if they had never been to high school at all? I knew illiteracy was a problem in the U.S., but I had no idea we were talking about levels like this. I am dumbfounded. Blown away.

Next time you get confused about how the country can be in such an unthinkable political quaqmire, don’t forget: These people vote.

Music: Macy Gray :: Gimme All Your Lovin’ Or I Will Kill You
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Teen-Beef Magazine

Hey girls! Got to “keep it real” … “way cool” … “so cute” … a girl’s got to eat lots and lots (and lots) of beef! Cool To Be Real is a thinly “vealed” beef industry propaganda campaign aimed at teenage girls — too many of whom, apparently, are going vegetarian behind the backs of good wage-earning cattlemen. How can a vegetarian be true to herself and keep it real? Fortunately, I think (I hope) that even Teen-Beat readers are savvy enough to see through this. As Matthew put it, “It’s like life imitating the Simpsons.”

Music: LA Symphony :: San Diego
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Stone Age

In the process of switching connectivity to Speakeasy (needed faster upstream than my current provider could offer). They get nothing but rave reviews, but we didn’t get off to a great start – they gave the telco the go-ahead to drop my line before they had even shipped me a modem. Going from ADSL to RADSL so my current modem won’t work with their service. So tonight our line went dead and Amy and I get to go dial-up for the next 4-5 days. It feels kind of like driving Fred and Wilma’s stone-mobile with the hole in the floor so you can use your feet to push.

Ah well, it keeps things in perspective. Also a nice chance to test out OS X’s internet connection sharing feature, which is totally effortless and transparent. Turn it on in Sharing, set the client machines to DHCP, and tell the modem to dial when needed. “Just works.”

Music: Guru Guru :: Dagobert Duck’s 100th
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Hitler on the Nile

Excellent piece in the NY Times by Nicholas Kristof comparing Eisenhower’s containment of Nasser in Egypt with the situation Bush faces with Saddam in Iraq. Saddam today is not the threat today that Nasser was then, and yet Ike chose containment over invasion. And Nasser just faded away… just as Saddam has been — these have been the 10 best-behaved years of Saddam’s career and his military is at 1/3 strength. He’s fading away with no help from us.

But perhaps it would be best to bomb Iraq into Democracy.

Music: Marvin Gaye :: Got To Give It Up
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Miles Five Months

No photo album this month… our photo drawer runneth over. Notes instead. Well, maybe just one little picture ;)

miles_5mos_w_kitty_tb.jpg (Click)

Miles becomes more of a little person every day, his personality is emerging so quickly. He is the most joyous baby I’ve ever met, and I’m not just saying that as daddy. He never stops smiling and laughing, such a gas to be around him. This month he (read on):
Continue reading “Miles Five Months”

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Bumball

This afternoon did a quick animation experiment using a small portion of Amy’s expansive gumball collection and iStopMotion. Soundtrack from the Minutemen’s “Toe Jam.” Around 220 individually snapped frames with no particular intent. n.b. Even very old pre-chewed gum gets a bit sticky under hot lights.

bumball (Click)

Music: Minutemen :: From An Old Notebook
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Banyan

To Elbo Room w/Chris, Nada, Mike to see Banyan — Mike Watt (bass) and Nels Cline (guitar), Stephen Perkins (drums), and a small horn section. Each of these guys has a long and mixed history, but as Watt said to an interviewer, “working in our “song” bands is like sitting alone writing, while Banyan is like conversation.” An outrageously fluid stomping improvisatory conversation. Watt as always solid and rooted and inventive without being quirky and yet abstract but not flighty or airy or particularly difficult. The real deal. Wearing exactly the same plaid shirts, jeans, Converse high tops he wore when I watched him in the Minutemen 20 years ago.

Painter Norton Wisdom improvised paintings behind the band in real time – amazing what he could do with sponges and fingers and some basic red, black, blue ink washes so quickly. Perfect complement. Why are music and painting not more often married? Almost everything tonight mostly improvised, but right in the middle of it all they launch into The Stooges’ “TV Eye.” I can die contented.

Music: Gun Club :: Jack on Fire
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Ginger

Saw a Segway “in the wild” today in Rockridge (Oakland) on the way to breakfast with Amy. Dude balancing at a stoplight waiting for it to change, then leaned forward slightly and went zipping across the street and up College Ave. like floating, a personal hovercraft. Smooth, quiet, and utterly elegant. Just a few months ago it seemed everyone was wondering what the heck this Ginger thing was going to be that was supposed to “revolutionize” cities and the way people got around in them. Now here we are, the Segway not yet common but no more obtrusive than a bicycle and only noticeable for its new-ness. Seeing it like that, not as an oddity but as a plain old fact of life made it seem so sensible. I kind of want one.

Music: Suba :: Felicidade