Episode #120:
How It Knows What It Knows
First Broadcast: 7/14/97
A rant about the new
Metrocard
system in New York City,
and a discussion about my letter to the
New York Press,
which was published only 5 days before this broadcast. Hey, if
you see this episode when it premieres, you can still pick up
the paper and read the letter for yourself. If not, you can
also read it here.
Episode #121:
Definitely, It's Music
First Broadcast: 7/21/97 Repeated: 10/20/97, 6/21/99, 2/26/01 (Episode began at 1:59 AM and ended at 2:28 AM)
What's definitely music, you ask?
Rap music,
that's what. The opinions of some pinheads at my office
forced me to go out and prove to the world what I've been
saying all along: RAP IS MUSIC. And practically everyone
we stopped on the street agreed with us when we took our
informal survey earlier in the week. So, if you still think
rap isn't music even after watching our program, then I have
seven words for you: Open your eyes and ears, damn it! Or, as
Flavor Flav might say, "You're blind to the facts, 'cause you've
been watchin' that garbage." (Hmm. Didn't think I'd end up quoting
Flavor Flav, of all people. Oh well. First time for everything.)
Episode #122:
Disaster Strikes
First Broadcast: 7/28/97
Disaster films, namely. But before I got to that, I got into a discussion
about
past Presidents of the United States.
You know,
Bush,
Reagan,
Carter,
Ford,
Nixon,
(I think I skipped over
Johnson for some
reason)
Kennedy,
Eisenhower,
Truman,
Franklin Roosevelt,
Hoover,
Coolidge,
Harding,
Wilson,
Taft, and
Theodore Roosevelt, to name a few.
Where is this going?
You'll find out when this gets continued in Episode #123, when I ask if
there's a link between disaster films and terrorism. What kind of link?
Find out later on . . . (Oh yeah: here's some links to
Air
Force One,
and the
Urban Legends Archive
--which also got mentioned
somewhere in there)
Episode #123:
U.S.-Soviet Relations Are To Apocalypse Films As . . .
First Broadcast: 8/4/97
So, here's where I get to the meat of my hypothesis: That the state of
United States foreign relations has a direct impact on certain kinds of
movies made within the U.S., and sometimes Britain. Specifically, when
tensions were high between the United States and the Soviet Union,
there was increase in "apocalypse" films produced by the U.S. and Britain
--that is, films which deal with "the end of the world," usually the result
of nuclear devastation. And, conversely, during periods of low tension
between the U.S. and the Soviets--including current relations
between the U.S. and Russia--which also seem to occur during times of
heightened awareness of terrorism--
there is an increase in "disaster" films
produced by the U.S.; that is, films which deal with the sudden appearance
of a phenomenon (such as an earthquake, or volcano) which causes mass,
intense destruction until finally ends or is subdued. In both types of
films, there is usually as much emphasis on how the characters within cope
with the situation as there is on the situation itself. This hypothesis
leads to a lot of questions: Does
Independence Day, coming after the end of
"the Cold War," represent the bridge between U.S. attitudes shifting away
from a "Russian threat" and more towards a terrorist threat
(as a combination of a sudden disaster which results in worldwide
devastation--some of it nuclear)? Is it more
than a coincidence that so many "disaster" films have been released after
the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City? If, somehow, U.S.
attitudes towards Russia shifted once again to see that country as an enemy,
would more "apocalypse" films be produced as a result?
Is
Air Force One an attempt to do away with the
terrorist-as-disaster metaphor, in favor of just showing the terrorists
themselves? Does the action in
Air Force One taking place in
Russia reflect a more fearful attitude of Americans towards Russians?
Why is Britain relatively on par with the U.S. in regards to "apocalypse" films,
but mostly deficient when it comes to "disaster" films?
I'm currently
thinking about turning this idea into a more fully-formed paper, but for
now, everyone will have to settle for my less coherent description in front
of the camera--with me fleshing it out for the first time as the tape
was rolling. One of the more cerebral episodes we've done, I suppose, but
hey: we can't talk about just politics every day of the week.
Episode #124:
I Want To Believe
First Broadcast: 8/18/97. Repeated: 6/22/98
So, we took a break this week from current events and decided to
show off Kim's collection of
X-Files
pictures
--all of which she
collected off the Internet. Maybe we'll show the other few hundred
megabytes some other time in the future. (Or, we would if the hard
drive with all the pictures on it didn't completely crash soon
after this episode was broadcast. Coincidence or conspiracy? Hmm
. . .)
Episode #125:
Potted Meat Product
First Broadcast: 8/25/97
My personal experience with Internet SPAM,
an experience which, unfortunately, has yet to end anytime soon. You
too can help end this scourge by supporting
H.R. 1478,
a bill which would severely penalize people who spam--or at least
people in the United States, anyway.
Episode #126:
She's The Real Thing
First Broadcast: 9/1/97
This week we took one of many breaks and showed off some pictures of
(among other things)
Xena,
warrior princess. Too bad we didn't get
to see her when she was in Grease for a month . . .
Episode #127:
Let's Go Trippin'
First Broadcast: 9/15/97
So, instead of squirrels, we took a look at local
rabbits.
(Just as an aside, it's awfully hard to find a web page about
just plain rabbits. Apparently you either have to
own rabbits or raise them in herds if you want information about
them on the internet.) Oh yeah,
we played some
surf music too.