wait, what

[spatch]

1. Today I watched Un Chien Andalou with a little experiment. First I muted the film's soundtrack (done by Bunuel for the 1960 release; features tango and selections from a Wagner opera.) Then I put on the Pixies' Doolittle album, set it to shuffle, made sure Debaser was the first song, and watched the film. As expected, the music served merely as audio wallpaper, much like any soundtrack you'd care to throw at the film. It did make me more nervous while watching, though. The film's already a nonsensical fever dream, but the frantic guitars and Frank's screaming heightened the tension generated by the jerky, slightly overspeed motions and the ants and n'hey. Overall an interesting experiment, though it drove Abbie the cat into a mewling, sister-fighting fit. I think he hates high registers.

2. Found this little gem on the IMDB news page:

Fox: No More TV Seasons

Fox plans eventually to abandon the practice of launching new falls in the fall and airing repeats in the summer, Fox-TV President Gail Berman told reporters attending the TV critics' winter press tour in Los Angeles Friday. "The economic model that created this business has lasted too long," Berman said. She said that, like last year, Fox will roll out new shows next summer, including a reality series set in Las Vegas called The Casino and a new courtroom drama titled The Jury. "People understand that what we have done is the wave of the future," she said. "This is a huge change in the way business is done in Hollywood, and I believe we'll come around to it, and presumably other people will as well." Her remarks were pooh-poohed on Saturday by her CBS counterpart, Les Moonves. He told the writers: "There's nothing tragically wrong with the current model that good programming won't fix ... The question is not when you launch them but how good they are. If you launch a bad show in August, it's still going to be bad in September."

I rarely find myself agreeing with Les Moonves, but here I am. Fox sounds like it's creative juice bucket is running low and instead of deciding to find interesting, compelling programming, they're gonna blow some smoke about shaking up the "traditional" American television scheduling format. What-ever. The real problem is that the suckers are gonna buy it.

Oh, and what's 7 News heavily advertising tonight? Their WEEK-LONG COVERAGE of the MARTHA STEWART TRIAL. Why do I even turn this idiot box on? Oh, yeah. It's Monday and that's Fear Factor night.

The tube of self-loathing hates me.

Comments

[pecosy.livejournal.com]

This tactic is not new for Fox. In the early days they built their audience by airing new episodes in summer opposite the other networks' re-runs. This strategy is what propelled "90210" to popularity.

So we have something to look forward to.

[spatch]

There's something to be said for summer series and summer episodes and whatnot, but every network does that. For Fox to claim they've stumbled upon some incredible earth-shaking secret of quality television! because of this is inherently silly. I bet every network's considered this, but have decided against it for whatever reason. Fox hasn't reinvented jack shit, but again, I just know people are gonna buy it.

[archangelsk.livejournal.com]

It's just another iteration of the "New and Improved!!!" sales pitch: the only thing new or (arguably) improved is the label on the box.

Fuck television, man. Let's go watch Big Fish and The Triplets of Belleville again.

[dskasak.livejournal.com]

Rupert's entertainment side may not have reinvented the wheel, but he has certainly polished it and presented pictures of it from unique angles. He has also excelled in hawking his own polishing skills, which is where most of his success really comes from.

Side note: wow, another show set in Las Vegas. Whenever shall the excitement end? I'm still breathless from the last episode of Casino or whatever James "Damn, I Need A Paycheck" Caan's show is called.