Keys

 

William Link, cocreator of Columbo, speaks. My educated guess is that the interview, of which this video is just a brief excerpt, is from sometime in the 90s. 

It's interesting that he advises young screenwriters to read old murder mysteries. Interesting and canny. The "pop" that he talks about, quoting Peter Falk, is applicable to a lot of kinds of stories. And there are ways to set it up. You might not figure out the latter part until some revisions have been done. Everyone's different.

He's pretty much right that the inverted mystery was new to TV, even if some Victorian fiction writers had experimented with it.

Some kind of gag

You may have heard some grim things about the state of free speech in the UK. If not, here's one.

In these circumstances, news organizations make one of two choices. They simply ignore factual things because it is legally too dangerous to speak truthfully about them. Or they lie about factual things because it is legally safe – and politically opportune – to speak untruthfully about them.

The so-called “liberal” parts of the media, including the BBC, tend to opt for the former; the red-tops usually opt for the latter.

The government itself is taking full advantage of this lacuna in reporting, injecting its own self-serving deceptions into the coverage, knowing that there will be – can be – no meaningful push-back.

While it may sound off-topic, this is why I don't have a lot of patience with liberal protests directed at Trump and only Trump. Donald Trump is unsubtle, in British terms a kind of panto tyrant. This ridiculously oppressive law, among others, was enacted under colorless timeserver Keir Starmer. All around the developed world, the good technocratic leaders have been doing likewise.

If my calculations are correct, here in the US the Democrats are about two years from inflicting oily sociopath Gavin Newsom on their voters. Does he seem like someone who will protect the Constitutional right to dissent, especially on the Mideast? Keep dreaming!

Goin' south

As this page notes, Weddell seals live further south than any other mammal on Earth. They are the neighbors of penguins in what most of us would consider rather extreme conditions. That includes catching fish and eating under vast sheets of ice.

Seals are thought to have evolved from an otter-like species in Arctic Canada. So modern day harp seals and walruses haven't moved far from where their long-ago ancestors were. Weddell seals live at the other end of the world. Seals have evolved and migrated since then. Of course many have gotten used to sunshine and warmth in the lands in between. Some of those who went all the way through had to adjust to perpetual winter conditions.

FX

 

In the seventies and eighties, Ray Davies was cut off from the inspiration of so much of his best work: namely, his marriage and home. This was one of the negative repercussions of America lifting its embargo against the Kinks touring. Be careful what you wish for.

And yet. He was still a great songwriter. And as such, he still sometimes wrote great songs. This is one of them, filled with bitter humor and a kind of holiday spirit.

Merry Christmas, friends.

180

There's a lot of interesting stuff in Pop Art: A Critical History, edited by Steven Henry Madoff. It collects a lot of varied writings starting in the 1950s (when the original British edition of Pop started) and continuing through retrospective analyses in the 1990s. 

What really stands out is how quick and vast a change in the public perception of art and artists happened in a very short amount of time.

Abstract Expressionism was the dominant style for about the first fifteen years after World War II ended. Painting had, for decades, been moving away from objective representation of the real world. Abstract Expressionism brought the trend to its logical conclusion. Paintings became pure expressions of form, color, pattern. It was now considered gauche to ask "What's it supposed to be?" The layman's criticism of "My kid could paint that"  really took off here, but among the initiated, this was what art should be. 

Pop Art, especially in its American phase, changed all this overnight. Now you could very much tell what you were looking at. It tended to be very familiar things: comic strips, movie stars, advertising montages, products you trust. All delivered with the precision of a Madison Avenue print ad campaign. If you looked closely enough and asked the right questions you might see some continuity with the previous regime. But again, as far as public perception went, this was the biggest change since Impressionism had hit in the latter 19th century.

One good bit is a public symposium with Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol. The moderator asks each of them when and why they started doing what they do. When he gets to Warhol, Andy says, "I'm too high right now. Ask somebody else something else." Probably got a laugh in the hall, but it's obvious that the real issue is that Warhol doesn't like being put on the spot. He's ready to join in the conversation when it's a conversation. I found this quite relatable.

Now hear this

Analog technology tends to be comprehensible to the amateur, at least if the amateur takes an interest and invests some time in studying it. Thus if something goes wrong, the user has a good chance of analyzing what it is and maybe even doing something about it.

Digital technology, on the other hand, has a tendency to crap out for no apparent reason. In the larger sense the reason is that it's not built for durability and you're using it to do everything. 

Mobile-exclusive telephone users are out on a ledge made of sand. To some extent that also applies to those of us whose landlines are push-button, cordless, etc. So I think Ted Rall is right to be dismayed at the deliberate obsolescence of copper wire landlines. It's the destruction of a piece of communications infrastructure that we may remember is necessary only when it's too late.

If you have the knowhow, the equipment, and a little bit of capital, consider stepping in where AT&T is stepping out. The telecoms' shortsightedness may be your golden opportunity.

Youth

Since Marjorie Taylor Greene was elected to the House, I've gone from being doubting that she'd do much worth talking about to actually rooting for her. (I never bought into the liberal panic about her.) 

Early next year she'll be leaving Congress. Her sponsorship of the Protect Children's Innocence Act makes me wonder if she might be planning a second act, and if so where. Her opposition both to Israel's assault on Gaza and the march to war in Venezuela speak well of her, but have made her persona non grata among the still dominant Neocon wing of her party. She's also broken ranks on some domestic issues. This could be intended as a reminder that she's still, after all, on the right.

Whatever the case, it's the right call. Gender medicine is a prime example of activists driving everyone over a cliff. Enough with the nonsense about how "kids know who they are." No, left to their own devices, kids will walk on all fours and eat grass because they think they're a cow today. The process of growing up is and always has been one of gradually finding out who you are. And in truth it lasts well into adulthood.

Let me count the ways

On this blog, I reserve the right to analyze awful trends, or to write about things that make other people mad and might make me mad as well. But that's not the primary reason for the blog. Things that are good, beautiful, or both: I want to take time to honor them.

An excerpt from his story "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins" is justifiably one of the most celebrated things Jorge Luis Borges ever wrote. It's a classification scheme from a fictitious Chinese encyclopedia entitled The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, and it must be seen in full.

In its remote pages it is written that the animals are divided into: 

1. those that belong to the Emperor,
2. embalmed ones,
3. those that are trained,
4. suckling pigs,
5. mermaids,
6. fabulous ones,
7. stray dogs,
8. those included in the present classification,
9. those that tremble as if they were mad,
10. innumerable ones,
11. those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush,
12. others,
13. those that have just broken a flower vase,
14. those that from a long way off look like flies.

At the risk of explaining the joke, this is not how classification systems usually work. When scientists divide animals into categories, it's by things like vertebrate/invertebrate, coldblooded/warm blooded, etc. Laypeople might divide by domesticated or not, or by color.

The thing about Borges's system is that if you're going to follow it, it forces you to switch into a different mode of thinking for every succeeding item on the list. Which is where the fun lies.

Newsflash

I've been keeping an eye on the little weather app that I guess is embedded with Windows, which puts the temperature and verbal stuff in the lower left corner of my laptop screen. First it said "Cold weather", which I'd already picked up on. Last night was colder, though. Then "Partly cloudy", which is a little harder to pick up on at night but I can see the cloud cover out the window. As far as predictions, it says the temperatures will rise tomorrow, which I believe. And also there's supposed to be an inch of rain on Friday, but that far out it's still anybody's guess.

Casey on the beat

What was the first American police drama with a female protagonist? A lot of people, I'm sure, wouldn't hazard a guess. Others might guess Police Woman, the 70s show starring Angie Dickinson. But it was actually Decoy, which aired in 1957-58.

Decoy starred Beverly Garland, who starred in several Roger Corman movies including It Conquered the World and who would later play Fred MacMurray's new wife on My Three Sons. It was created for syndication, which in some ways may have been a problem. It was consistently popular, but not being supported by a network meant the producers ran out of money after one season. That season has 39 episodes, though. 

Garland is an appealing lead, flitting from role to role as the undercover job requires, but always projecting warmth and decency. She narrates in voice-over while appearing onscreen, and at the end usually breaks the fourth wall to talk to the viewer. The show overall has a lyrical feeling.

Greasing the wheels

This is an odd time to be fighting against intellectual property. Generative AI (artificial intelligence) has been scraping all the digitalised material that humans have ever created, almost entirely without any licence or permission and creating ever-expanding torrents of slop. Copyright has emerged as the only effective tool for halting the descent into derivative banality and reasserting human dignity.

From an interesting critique of author/activist Cory Doctorow and his new book Enshittification, which I confess to not having read. But the author of the article makes a good point that there are downsides to Doctorow's crusade against Intellectual Property. Yes, concepts of IP and copyright have been abused by corporations, which essentially means that a number of interests have to be balanced. But consider what happens when copyright laws are absent, or when everyone just ignores them. If nobody owns anything, it turns out that Google owns everything. In practical terms, at least. 

This has happened numerous times in our era. Technological innovation breaks down barriers. Everyone celebrates. Only gradually does everyone learn that the real beneficiaries are an elite group who already own most of everything. Chesterton's Fence remains undefeated.

You never know

 

Composer Gavin Bryars started the Portsmouth Sinfonia in 1970. The idea was that the members of the orchestra shouldn't be familiar with their instruments. If they were professional musicians, they should pick another instrument rather than the one in which they specialize. Brian Eno played clarinet with them for a while and they play on his song "Put a Straw Under Baby." 

It's an interesting concept. Bryars was a trained double bassist, and I don't think he would denigrate skill. But you do sometimes discover new things just by stumbling around.

2 pair

 

Talk about a study in contrasts!

Lovis Corinth was a Prussian painter born Franz Heinrich Louis. The adoption of a more exotic name was of a piece with how he lived, especially in his youth. Throughout his service in the military and his travels through Europe, he was passionate about art and passionate about being passionate.

The painting on top is an excellent bit of self-salesmanship. The English translation of its title is "Self Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne." With one hand he caresses the breast of a pretty young woman, naked to the waist. Her name was Charlotte Berend, and yes he did marry her. She was an artist in her own right as well. In the other hand he hoists a glass of red wine (so technically, not champagne.) This is the artist's life as imagined by many of those who aspire to it. It's also the artist's life as imagined by those who want to keep artists out of their neighborhood.

The lower painting, for obvious reasons, is titled "Self-Portrait with a Skeleton." Corinth, in his studio, looks more of a paunchy businessman. It's an earlier painting, which of course means he's actually younger. He and the skeleton together regard and interrogate the viewer. It could be part of a harrowing team interview. ("What would ya say...ya do here?") One window is open, perhaps providing much-needed ventilation on a hot and stifling day. This depiction of the artist's life is more realistic on a day-to-day basis. It may still be fun, but in a quieter way.

o joy

“It’s a lot of young Jewish-Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand,” Clinton said. “A lot of the challenge is with younger people. More than 50 percent of young people in America get their news from social media.”

It's not that everything Hillary Clinton said at the Israel Hayom summit is wrong. Young people have had their attention spans compromised by screentime. That makes thinking things through an insurmountable chore for some.

But she doesn't really want Zoomers to have more context. She wants them to have protocol. The rule is that you just do not criticize Israel, regardless of what you or anyone else sees them doing. And for some reason this Methodist midget thinks she can take young non-Zionist Jews to task for jewing wrong. It beggars belief.

If you're going to make the endcap of your public career about how you should have been elected President and shattered the glass ceiling, you simply have to do better than this. Nobody wants to hear the old establishment whine.

Great crossings

Oceanic dispersal is a wild idea. Some animals can swim from where they are to an entirely different place. Even among those that can't, some have been relocated via vegetation rafts. 

Rafting doesn't guarantee safe arrival, of course. In some cases creatures may simply find themselves floating out into the ocean with no way to survive. This is sad, although the sadness is somewhat abstract, there not actually being anyone to mourn.

But then there are successes. New World monkeys, for one. Simians that made the long journey from Africa to South America. They actually got a chance to start a new life, and it was a gain for all.

Hi there

I just found out about the Hand of the Desert, also known translatedly as la Mano del Desierto. It's quite striking. A hand that rises up like a mountain in the middle of the desert. Really, of course, it's a sculpture with an iron base, made in 1992. Looking at it, though, I could see it dating from thousands of years ago. 

The Atacama desert is pretty extreme in its own right. Colder than other deserts, with the most notable exception being the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica. This is an austere landscape far from civilization, and strange to see the great hand there.