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- Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
To be honest I was a little disappointed by Amusing Ourselves to Death, although this may have been due to high hopes raised by having heard the book mentioned a lot. Much of it seemed either blindingly obvious, or like the moanings of a killjoy who can't bear that TV is entertaining and that people don't listen to long speeches any more. However, it's still very much worth a read for its main point: TV is good at entertainment and anything that tries to rise about that level will fail and be worse than useless. Serious TV is thinly disguised entertainment and there is little need for authorities to censor the media when we so willingly take in the froth that's fed us. Given that this was written pre-internet, many of its ideas could do with updating to critique a whole new media — it sounds strangely quaint the few times it mentions “computers”. Postman's How to Watch TV News (UK, US) is probably a good read too.
In Books, Television on 26 September 2004. 29 comments. Permalink
- Walking on the right
A few years back, a couple of weeks after I began my stay in Houston, Texas, I met someone who joked that he thought I must be British because he'd driven past me and noticed I was walking on the left of the sidewalk. I was a bit taken aback as I hadn't been aware that there was a convention of walking on the right in America (or Texas? or Houston?) as if everyone was a car. And it must have been coincidence that I happened to be walking on the left when he'd passed.
In Misc on 26 September 2004. 25 comments. Permalink
- Links for 26 September 2004
- Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Acting out
- Looking at how we react quicker physically than emotionally, and applying that to acting.
- Folksongs of America: The Gordon Collection: American Folklife Center
- MP3s of music recorded onto wax cylinders in the 1920s with lyrics and extensive liner notes.
- Ninja Tune free music downloads, free video downloads @zonicweb.net
- A big bunch of tunes by Ninja Tunes folk for free download (MP3, Real and Windows Media).