Entries For: January 2007
01/30/2007
Mista Vista
It's hard to forget the ambitious ad campaign for Windows 95. The thumping disco-beat of The Stones' "Start Me Up" -- licensed for $8 million -- led to the biggest launch of an operating system ever. Thanks to this pitch-perfect spot, WIndows 95 had that ever-important element working for it: hype.
A dozen years later, Bill Gates is releasing Vista, a flashier OS that has been chasing after Mac OS X's ingenuity since rival Steve Jobs launched it more than five years ago. After a six-year development process, which even Gates admits to being long, I feel like Vista should be launching with the largest ad campaign we've ever endured, but instead, awareness seems minimal and there's no classic rock song to elicit Pavlovian response to buy and install.
Unlike Apple, who was smart enough to release the most minimal version of their new operating system so users could grow with their developments, Microsoft waited too long to release a convoluted product that will no doubt overwhelm their less advanced users. Comparing Steve Jobs excitement over the iPhone at Apple's Keynote, and this Bill Gates appearance on The Daily Show talking about Vista is like comparing a puppy with a new toy and a dead puppy. C'mon, Bill, ya friggin' dork... Where's the hype, the ambition, The Stones?
01/25/2007
Exploitation Idol
If the regular American Idol season is one big circus, then the audition shows are surely the sideshow. Mental defectives, the depressingly deranged, and the sometimes-charmingly-delusional line up for days to be lambasted by the British fop, the boozy ex-pop star and the formerly-fat, rich guy who unconvicingly talks street. And it's all for the enjoyment of America, who get to be thankful they're not them.
Seriously, though, with Idol going into it's sixth season, Fox -- as it does with its film studio with movies like X-Men 3, Big Momma's House 2, and Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kitties -- is serializing and exploiting the sick need Americans have to see what they've seen before, but bigger and worse.
This six minute segment on failure-extraordinaire Ian Bernardo is a low point in Fox's run of excessive sadism. Watching this idiot run his mouth and anticipating his eventual verbal smackdown is like a sick psychological twist on the Roman Colosseum. This is as bad, and as bad for you, as network television gets.
Rupert Murdoch is a doo-doo face.
01/19/2007
Reality TV Reality
Not since last year's chaotic outburst over a Swedish cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed has a piece of media served as such a polemic. This last week the UK's trash reality soap Celebrity Big Brother unearthed cultural tensions between race and class that have been silently brewing between the country's effete upper class and the escalating number of immigrants.
Since the show started, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has been targeted by her fellow housemates who refer to her as "The Indian." As a result, Channel 4, the show's broadcaster has received a record 30,000 complaints, and protests in India have featured the burning of effigies of the show's producers.
When two cultures have a history of being on the opposite sides of imperialism, it's not surprising that explosions of buried anger happen every now and again. However, what's most interesting is seeing the effects of Blair's Britain and how these class and race tensions so closely echo the economic and social conflicts of Bush's America. Finally it seems that reality TV has reflected something real.01/18/2007
Gay's Anatomy
The proof of the invocation is debatable, but this compendium of interviews from the evening tells me that Isaiah Washington is a shockingly sincere liar. And, I know that if T.R. Knight referred to Washington as a n****r, he would've been fired, driven out of town, and charged with assault. You can say race and sexuality are a different beast, but it's still a civil rights frontier. Like it or not, public personalities like actors do make a difference in swaying people on what's OK and what isn't.
Instead of going into self-preservation mode, Isaiah Washington should admit fault and weakness, and issue a statement how it's not cool to hate. Problem solved. Too bad that won't happen and we'll have to see a sad and sheepish T.R. Knight make appearances on Ellen seeking validation to live his life without being persecuted for it.
Seriously folks, we take care of this homophobia and fear of immigrants, and we're inching towards tolerance in this country. Can't we unite in the hate of one group of people? I nominate the douchebags.
