The Ottermanempire.com

Nearly all the famous Australians , or those known to  the average American,  are the stereotypical  outdoor  bloke’s bloke personified by Steve Irwin and  “acted” by Paul Hogan  but there’s  Murdoch, Robert Hughes ,Germaine Greer and Clive James  that if they are not out trying  to buy all the words in the world then they’re trying to create them.

Most people have no clue that “Uncle” Rupert  until he  became a naturalized US citizen  hails from the largest island most people can’t find on a map;)   and the other three are  pretty obscure  , least I can’t say I’ve found another person that’s  heard / read of all three. 

So while happily trawling through Slate I noticed a “Clive James”  show link and .. oo  content for the next week or two has appeared. He wears many hats running the gamut from serious critic to hanging around on the corner of  CRT and remote  and has put ,what I  named the “Due South”  affect ,( drama/ comedy re a Mountie and a US cop that had jokes, had violence and fell over sooner than it should have) into the following.  

America doesn’t really like two labels on the can: Humor and seriousness, for example, are two separate things, and there’s room for each in the supermarket, but the idea that there could be a can with those two labels on it is inimical to the culture.

Sadly  I come with a whole magnetic set of labels that so endears me to the people here  that in many respects resemble adults ;)    Anyway his new  show online is The Clive James Show and maybe you should start on the Terry Gilliam  interview since it  segues neatly into what follows.

What’s this about the Toasters?    Well this article here from James relates to  torture as depicted in the media, something  that’s been bugging me lately since the appearance of such in movies and TV shows  seems  to be increasing and in most cases not in a  ” this isn’t who we want to be manner” it’s leaving it up to the viewer’s digression..  Lovely   seemingly we can  preach on the joys of every ISM  being evil while presenting  an ends justifying the means..  There’s a post following re how the new Battlestar Galactica  has  been handling this.. 

Ze Frank and THE Frank  totally priceless.  GALACTICAST presents The Ducky Horror Picture Show

Just one of the many well executed parodies from the duo that comprise Galacticast.     This is yet another way not paying for cable has led to some fun new material which unfettered by  focus group, fcc, and budget( you sometimes get way more creative  without an fx budget )  is consistently funny  to the point that SNL  and Mad TV  should teleport themselves into the nearest star out of embarrassment. 
 

St Patrick’s Day Secrets Revealed

Actually not too bad on the whole though way too kind to the Irish for my bigoted tastes in this piece. Besides if it’s not Scottish, it’s crap.

Feds unveil digital-TV subsidy details | CNET News.com

If that initial $890 million worth of coupons run out, NTIA has the power to ask Congress to hand over an additional $450 million, creating up to 11,250,000 more vouchers. Those coupons would be reserved, however, for households that self-certify that they rely solely on over-the-air broadcasts, as opposed to cable or satellite.

In short $40 to each family that wants to put money towards a set top converter which could so easily have been done by just giving a $40 off the taxes, you know for the people that fucking pay them! I’m surprised it’s not 100% rebate given the need by the state, the absolute need, for these crt cabbages that buy their low cal phosphorescent diet which are required to keep the illusion going. I think I’m bitter since I just had about 50% of the money I received in a bonus to pay off this kind of innovative theft

You must all really really want this?

mrdeity

God that’s funny.

In , there’s hope for humanity for recognising a good thing dept,   Goodnight Burbank   the  ruthless self promoters that gave me so many postcards at the podcast expo that I wallpapered the spare room with them  have “graduated” to  an HBO pilot.  While I’m still awaiting them to  “Drop the Dead Donkey”  a  reference to a    obscure UK tv show ( for Americans anyway)  I can’t find a clip on You Tube, the   “breaking news”  being the broken news staff has so far made it to a must watch part of my cable tv replacement …Oh crap Hbo’s on cable isn’t it.. 

Just go check them out.

NewTeeVee » G’night Burbank Scores HBO Online Pilot

This weekend I’ve watched most of the  videos from TED   that interest me then embarked on all the others.  Briefly The TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference is an annual event where leading thinkers and doers gather for inspiration, by invitation only and unless I seriously get off my ass and come up with something  useful   my attendance is guaranteed… not to be there:) 

So far I’ve enjoyed these the most I’d rank Dawkins andDennett  highly but I’ve been lucky enough to see them in the same year the talks they gave covered roughly the same ground.

Malcom Gladwell on “there is no perfect — there’s just the perfect —”

Ze Franks presentation

Mena Trott on blogging

And Steven Levitt on  the economics of being a drug dealer.

After all what’s the point of having good ideas if you can’t disseminate them?

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Online video ‘eroding TV viewing’

Yes it’s a UK study, but so am I , a study in  cholesterol and black pudding abuse, but I’m sure it’s the same case over here.  We just ditched Direct TV to pay for, a new tv , that’s quite a fun explanation to give them while canceling btw:), which we’re feeding from the web and Netflix.  $42 a month for a crappy picture from a digital service, there were more artifacts on screen than your average Indian burial ground, and a very uninspiring line up.   So bye bye piss poor anthropomorphic “documentaries”  bye bye nanny state fuck filter and  most of all….  I may never see Nancy Grace again…  Damn I’d pay $42 for that:P

So I stayed in on “Black Friday” at least till 930am or so. My parents had bought Dobhie a bed for his xmas and this was secured, loaded and later constructed, by Erin, in the same day.  

I then went to see my friend Jennifer ,first time in near four years,  who “lives” in bumblefuck Arizona, though I think it’s called Willcox on the maps. The bar crowd were straight out of “The station agent (told you I’d remember the movie + many a “you ain’t from around these here parts” moments.  They have no cider, curious unnamed  “well drinks” which may stand for  Well it kinda resembles rum and the cook goes off at 9pm, that is the microwave doesn’t have an operator at that time:D  I didn’t go for the scenery though, it’s hard to catch up at karaoke but the meal at 2am  wasn’t that bad , hell it beats that shitty  Mexican place in Waikiki and    I just  wish it wasn’t  3 hours to drive there. One amusing thing if you’re on drugs,  coming up to strangers to tell em , that you’re not.. well weird:)   Sadly another case of a body that  no matter how much you want to look away  it’s trainwreck time and I had a front row seat.  

Today after driving home went out and  as part of the plan to stop paying for Direct TV ,  a flat panel followed me home, so  we can now PIP a computer view in the living  as well as  finally seeing the DVD’s closer to the way “nature” intended.

Having telegraphed our giving up of Direct Tv I’m going to start posting the media that replaces it. First up on Google video Aaron Russo’s “America: from freedom to facism” You can find out a lot more here.

In short. People want to pay taxes. They want to do it so much that the gun to their head is a mere cursory detail. Most of you can’t see the fnords! let alone the gun;)