It's here! It's here! All the local news headlines you need to know about, delivered straight to your e-mail box and from there to your little grey brain.
Learn more about it here.
Sign up at the handy link below.
CLICK HERE to get on board with your very own MISCmedia MAIL subscription!
Warner Bros. and the divorced-from-Viacom CBS are merging their second-tier broadcast networks. Instead of UPN and The WB, this September will see the “CW” network, which I’m sure some cynical critics will rename “WC” (Brit slang for a toilet, or “water closet”).
Locally, the merged programming slate will appear on KSTW, owned by CBS’s UPN Stations Group. That leaves KTWB, nee KTZZ, as a true indie again, scrambling for old movies or talk shows or judge shows to fill its evening hours.
I’m sure the expensive switch to HDTV played a factor in the merger decision. Perhaps now we’ll get an HD feed of KSTW, the only major commercial broadcast station in this region that doesn’t yet have one.
Herewith, some screen snaps of highlights (as if you’ve not already seen them) from the Seahawks’ incredible demolition of the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, winning the team its first-ever trip to the Sooper Bowl.
It was easily the most important single sporting event ever held in Seattle. (The Sonics’ 1979 championship was won on the road. So, of course, were all the UW football team’s bowl-game victories. The Mariners’ 1995 and 2001 triumphs were really the accumulations of many single-game victories.)
And, of course, it led to the biggest outdoor party Seattle’s seen since the riotous Fat Tuesday of 2001. This time, though, all went apparently smoothly in the ol’ P-Square. Good raucous fun was had by all. (More on this in my next post.)
P-I sportswriter Art Thiel claims this year’s Hawks, and particularly Sunday’s victory, represent a new era in Seattle history. Thiel posits the city’s onetime reputation for “the Scandahoovian trait of reticence,” modest casual fashion, tree-hugging, grunge’s ironic self-deprecation, and rain jokes has now and forever been superceded by a new confidence, an assertive new swagger, an instinct for unhinged joy.
I, as you might expect, am not so sure.
Seattle’s always been defined by great dreams and big schemes. That’s why it became the PNW’s dominant city, even though Portland had a head start and Tacoma had the railroad barons’ blessing. Boeing and Microsoft established their respective world dominations through slick deal-making and aggressive business tactics. Seattle’s infamous “politeness” is, at its best, a quiet businesslike confidence. And that’s exactly what the Seahawks have shown on the field this season.
The Hawks played like a smooth, well-choreographed troupe. And at its greatest moment of triumph to date, the team merely responded with the joy of boyish innocence. That’s what makes these guys so loveable.
More on this later.
Tonight might see the final episode, after years of haggling, of Mike Hunt TV, the cable access show that dared to rebelliously run excerpts from ordinary corporate hardcore pornos.
…watching the Seahawks’ glorious playoff victory at Cafe Racer (nee Lucky Dog) on Roosevelt.
The back room held 13 women and only one other man at the game’s start; three other males showed up by the second half. Apparently, Racer’s boss, my ol’ pal Kurt Geissel, had successfully made it the game-viewing site of choice for U District lesbians. These lovely, loving ladies were all good, attentive fans. Football, beer, and lesbians–what more could a blue-blooded, blue-state straight male want?
After a full year, the Sci-Fi Channel will finally debut the new Doctor Who in the US.
Oh, and Mrs. Alito crying in the gallery during hubby’s hearing? So freakin’ obviously pre-rehearsed…
…but the January Belltown Messenger is now out, complete with a big cover story and pix by yrs. truly.
Also, Messenger correspondent Megan Lee will be on KOMO-TV’s Northwest Afternoon this Friday at 3, as part of a story about “The Truth About Tabloids.”
I’ll always remember the late comedy legend for one of my earliest memories of what would now be called “performance art.” I’m thinking of some of his early appearances on Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin, in which he didn’t tell one-liner jokes but instead weaved a complex comedic story, with minor gag lines along the way, leading to one tremendous big punch line–that was invariably completely bleeped. The buildup, the seconds of silence, the uproarious studio-audience laughter and applause. You just don’t get experiences like that anymore.
…when the local TV anchordrones insist there’ll be snow this-time-for-sure, it doesn’t happen, at least not in town.
…the “civil war” football game between Oregon and Oregon State. Eugene, this evening, is one of those places where the fog’s so thick you can’t see the end of Ringo’s nose. At times, the Fox Sports Net images are like washed-out watercolors of battling athletes. It’s a thing of beauty, uglified only by the U of O’s new Nike-designed “industrial” jerseys.
Let us now praise The Boondocks, the animated series.
Parts of the first two episodes have been too dark and disturbing for even an ol’ hardboiled viewer like me to watch as light humor. But it’s expertly written and animated.
I’ve always said every work of satire contains, within its internal aesthetic, a view of the satirist’s ideal world. The internal aesthetic of Boondocks is one of solid storytelling, fine draftsmanship, attention to detail, and a careful sense of beauty. This is nothing like the cheap slapdash computer cutout worlds of most Adult Swim shows. Nor is it the jagged-edged aesthetic of the gangsta culture Boondocks’ young protagonists both sneer at and aspire to.
The aesthetic of Boondocks is the culture creator Aaron Macgruder obviously would like to see–a world of talented people who give a damn about what they put out into the world.
In the first day it’s been available, by new electronic book Take Control of Digital TV has sold a whopping 141 copies.
It’s all thanks to the well-crafted niche marketing operations at TidBITS Electronic Publishing. And it just goes to show you: Create a product that fulfills a consumer need, showcase it effectively, and watch the proceeds roll in. I’ll have to remember this lesson the next time I decide to devote a half year of my life to an artsy literary endeavor.
My latest verbal opus is finally available, and it’s a beauty. It’s Take Control of Digital TV, a beezy read telling you just about everything you need to know to join the high-definition video age. The book’s sold exclusively online, through my ex-Seattlite friends at TidBITS Electronic Publishing. Go on their site, buy it, download it instantly, and get started on the road to greater televisual splendor in your home.
…(a name we’re gonna have to give up once CRT televisions finally die off): You may have seen a Comcast cable commercial that looks amazingly like an old episode of that game-show favorite, The $20,000 Pyramid. How’d they do it? They dubbed the audio, and digitally altered the video, from a real episode!
…instead of writing to this Web site:
