bilingual | zweisprachig

Everybody knows the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is full of hypocritical shitballs. One of America’s finest news outlets thinks so too. But see for yourself…

Somewhat sad, I have to mention that this is just a satire. “ONN – Onion News Network” (slogan: “Making you seem better informed”), which is part of “the ONION,” really hit home with it, though. If this had been a real interview on NBC’s “Today” show, for example, a major rant would have followed. The lack of a rant should of course not belittle the fact that the FCC actually does operate in similar fashion. But instead, here is Seth MacFarlane’s take on the issue by way of his genius show “Family Guy” (the clip is from the episode “PTV”)…

Personally, I am opposed to any kind of censorship whatsoever—not just on TV, but in print media, on the radio, and internet as well. People should be allowed to express themselves in whichever words are necessary to bring their point across, anywhere and everywhere without exception.

Fuck appropriateness. If “fuck” (or any derivation thereof) is the right word to illustrate your emotional state towards the issue in question, then that makes it appropriate. Do not ever let anybody shut you up on account of the words you are using or the thoughts you are expressing with (or without) those words. Freedom of speech is a right, not a fucking privilege.

Here’s to the ideal society.

Here’s a short excerpt from an interview done by Entertainment Weekly with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation’s chief economist Jack Kyser (wow, what a job title; his business card must be gigantic):

What’s the cumulative effect of the writers’ strike so far?
Right now the impact of the lost wages [of WGA members and below-the-line workers], when you apply that ripple factor, it’s about $1.4 billion.

No, this is not a typo. One point four billion fucking American Dollars of losses to the industry and L.A. economy since the writers went on strike on November 2^nd of last year. Just for how long would the big-shot production companies have been able to pay their writers under new contractual terms with this kind of money, instead of letting it come to the most momentous strike in Hollywood history? And just how much extra money would they have earned instead of lost?

While you’re at it, read the entire EW interview linked to above. There is more information of this kind in there.

The striking writers have their own “cost counter” over at their strike blog. They’ve got an estimate of $750 million in losses for the L.A. economy. Though it is only half as high a number, it still makes me shake my head. Part of me wishes these shenanigans would go on for the entire year. But then the other part of me would die from series/serious withdrawal.

But I think it is starting to look like the AMPTP and the WGA won’t come to terms ever again. This whole situation is going into the direction of the United-Artists approach. Each studio is going to make individual deals with the writers. Period. Just like in the good old days of Hollywoodland when motion pictures from the big studios still deserved to be called “films.”

Long live the independent film!

Send to : : : : : : : :

The nominations for this year’s Academy Awards are out [complete list]. I am especially thrilled that my favorite movie of 2006, Little Miss Sunshine, got four nominations, one of them for Best Picture. But I doubt that it will win that category because indie productions never get a Best Picture Oscar. An award for Best Original Screenplay is far more likely.

Daily Cartoon

Some surprises, some not-so surprises at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, which just ended a couple of minutes ago. Among the winners were Martin Scorsese (director, The Departed), Sacha Baron Cohen (actor comedy/musical, Borat), Eddie Murphy (supporting actor, Dreamgirls), Forest Whitaker (actor drama, The Last King of Scotland; he had tears in his eyes), Helen Mirren (several times), Dreamgirls (comedy/musical; not Little Miss Sunshine to my disappointment), Babel (drama).

TV shows were not as important. Zach Braff did not win for his performance on Scrubs. Kiefer Sutherland did not receive an award for 24, Hugh Laurie won instead for House (which is just as good) and his acceptance speech was fabulous.

Have a look at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s website for the complete list.

~~~~~

Great match between Maria Sharapova and Camille Pin. Sharapova almost got kicked out of the tournament by the French and she forgot there is no tie-break in the last set at the Aussie Open. When it was 6-6 in the third, she actually wanted to play a tie-break. In her defense: it was over 40°C/104°F on the court.

~~~~~

Daily Cartoon (January 16)

Endlich mal wieder was auf Deutsch.

Am Montag ist Yvonne De Carlo im Alter von 84 in Los Angeles gestorben. Ihr kennt sie bestimmt noch als Lily aus The Munsters.

Carlo Ponti, Produzent von Filmen wie Doctor Zhivago und La Strada, ist am Dienstag in Genf gestorben. Er wurde 94 Jahre alt.

Wie schon früher mehrmals erwähnt, Thomas Pynchon wird gerade durch alle kulturellen Medien gereicht. Gestern gab es in "Kulturzeit" einen Beitrag über sein neues Buch, der doch reichlich interessant war. Auf der Internetseite kann man auch das Gespräch zwischen Moderator Ernst A. Grandits und Literaturkritiker Denis Scheck ansehen.

In nächster Zeit werde ich versuchen, wieder vermehrt deutsche Beiträge zu veröffentlichen. Die Ideen sammeln sich, sie müssen nur noch zu Papier gebracht und dann abgetippt werden.

The two great TV shows 24 and Scrubs both started off into their sixth seasons. 24 went back on the air with a four hour season premiere on Sunday and Monday. Scrubs already came back several weeks ago and it is as great as ever.

The extremely hysterical Family Guy is also on air again but they started showing the very first episodes. In case you have never seen this one you have to check it out. The show is even better than The Simpsons, especially little Stewie who always tries to kill his mom or take over the whole world. "Victory is mine."

~~~~~

Just out of curiosity I checked whether there were any good WordPress domains available for my upcoming ramblings about Thomas Pynchon and Marcel Proust. That way I can blog about these two quite large topics in their own places. I did get the two best domains possible for this: pynchon.wordpress.com and proust.wordpress.com. I could not believe they were still available. Go ahead and bookmark them for later.

~~~~~

Daily Cartoon (January 9)

MTV Germany is showing the movie South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut right at this moment. Saddam Hussein also has a part in it—he’s in hell playing butch and bitch with satan. The channel already announced the airing of the program a couple of weeks back. This is a strange coincidence, considering Hussein was hanged less than a week ago. They probably were not thinking, as usual. If MTV had not announced the movie but shown it as a reaction to what has been going, chapeau. But, as I said, they are not thinking. By the way, the South Park movie is by far not as good as the TV show, although it was made by the same guys.

As many of you might have heard already, Joseph Barbera died yesterday at 95. The New York Times published an obituary that very well recognizes his achievements. I will not attempt to write a better one, which I couldn’t anyways, so here is the link.

Hearing this news made me think of all those Hanna-Barbera cartoons I watched as a child, and still watch to some extent today. Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, The Smurfs, and the like. Reminisce about the laughs you had with all those fun shows. WILMA!!!