Interrelativity

Category: Television

  • The Gaps, Crap and Gumption Traps in Creative Work

    The poster above reflects hard-won wisdom acquired and shared by Ira Glass, host of PRI's This American Life, emphasizing the importance of perseverance in developing mastery of creative production. While Glass focuses on storytelling for radio and television, his insights and experiences about the gaps between ambitions and realizations – and the connections between quantity…

  • Remembering Community: Fixing the Future via Community Currency at Hour Exchange Portland

    Community is more like something that we're remembering than something that we're creating all over again. I was inspired by physical therapist and sailor Stephen Becket's words at the end of a segment of David Brancaccio's upcoming special edition of PBS Now, Fixing the Future, shown on tonight's PBS Newshour. I'd forgotten how much I…

  • Nothing brings people together like ignoring each other to stare at their phones

    Last night, on the Colbert Report, near the beginning of the segment on Fear for All, Part I, host Stephen Colbert announced the new Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear app for the iPhone (also available in the Android store). The app was developed by MTV Networks for the upcoming combined Rally to Restore Sanity…

  • Violent communication, emotional contagion, genocide and eliminationism

    Last night, I watched a disturbing show on PBS, Worse than War, "the first major documentary to explore the phenomenon of genocide and how we can stop it". Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, narrator of the film and author of the book upon which it is based, argues that contrary to common conceptions of irrational and spontaneous…

  • Hope and Dreams trump Fears and Smears

    The speeches of the two U.S. presidential candidates Tuesday night were hopeful and inspiring, a welcome change from the fears and smears that dominated much of the campaign … or, at least, one side of the campaign. John McCain delivered the most gracious concession speech I have ever seen, and Barack Obama delivered yet another…

  • Conservativism, Liberalism and Independence

    As the campaign draws to a close, two classic Doonesbury cartoons have been regularly recurring to me, a visual analogue to the aural experience of a song I can't get out of my head. One of them was the pithiest summary of the differences between conservatives and liberals I've ever read; the other was a…

  • Consistency, Change and Conventions

    Between the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention, and their coverage on PBS (especially the Lehrer NewsHour), I’ve probably watched more TV in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years. It seems that change is very much in the air – or, at least, on the air –…

  • Religion, Politics, Racism and Invisibility: Obama and Wright vs. McCain and Hagee

    Robb’s comment on my post about the Capitol Steps show in Seattle got me thinking – and writing – [again] about some of the religious and racial issues in the U.S. presidential race. I started to write a comment in response to Robb’s comment, but as it grew longer and longer, I decided to move…

  • The Beginning of the End of America

    Keith Olbermann is my hero.  In a scathing commentary on George W. Bush’s recent signing of the Military Commissions Act, Keith takes the president to task, comparing him and this act to earlier presidents and similar actions that gave them the authority to ignore and abuse the constitutional rights of our citizens: John Adams’ Alien…

  • No One Can Terrorize Us Without Our Consent

    As we approach the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, some politicians and members of the media are promoting and perpetuating terror, consciously or unconsiously.  I’m reminded of a famous quote from the former First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. I would…