Category: Politics, Policy & Culture
Well, ‘Real Sex’ Is A Good Show
This is how a conversation between the C.E.O. of CBS, the president of NBC Entertainment and the chairman of HBO—imagining a perfect TV schedule—begins:
Jeff Zucker: You’re really tan.
Leslie Moonves: You know what? I haven’t gone away. I have a place in Malibu, and I tan very fast. So–.
Zucker: He’s really tan.
Moonves: Thank you. It’s that Bob Evans look.
The conversation is ultimately tragic, but has its hilarious moments. Some additional highlights:
Zucker: I might have a lot of crazy, wacky ideas, but the best ideas actually walk in the door.
– – – – – – – –
Chris Albrecht: I don’t do anything on a show. I don’t write a show. I don’t direct a show. I don’t produce a show. I don’t act in a show. I don’t edit a show. So my idea of a show is almost sort of useless. I don’t do anything.
– – – – – – – –
Zucker: You know, you never say that HBO’s most successful show is “G-String Divas.”
Albrecht: “G-String Divas” is not our most successful show.
Zucker: Oh, come on.
Albrecht: It actually didn’t get nearly the ratings I thought it would. “Real Sex” gets great ratings.
Moonves: Well, “Real Sex” is a good show.
Doubleplusgood Ad Campaign
The “Secure Beneath Watchful Eyes” image is from a campaign in London that’s meant to make people feel safe while using the public bus system.
How could anyone not have known the image would be more worrying than it is comforting?
Man: Study Is Stupid
A recent study found that U.S. citizens living in Japan think many studies are really quite ridiculous. Researchers are unclear as to the reason for this attitude, but some suspect the cause may be an over abundance of silly studies, to wit:
Japan Children “Least Treasured”: Study
The study of U.S. citizens involved interviewing one man living in Nagano, and thus must be quite accurate.
A Pack of Heathers
The often-inane, though usually entertaining, Maureen Dowd has a funny column this week, comparing our leaders to a pack of alpha girl Heathers:
“Now we have the spectacle of the 70-year-old Rummy acting like a 16-year-old Heather, vixen-slapping those lower in the global hierarchy, trying to dominate and silence the beta countries with less money and fewer designer weapons.”
Remembering Quietly
For the past couple days, I’ve been trying to put together some thoughts on how I’m glad to be outside of the United States as the commemoration of Sept. 11 passes. I’m relieved to be spared the barrage of an American media spectacle, especially when that spectacle is presented as if it were restrained and solemn. It’s been nice to be somewhere where any observances are more restrained, and are not packaged into entertainment passed off as news. It’s not that there hasn’t been extensive coverage of the anniversary here in Japan, but it’s nothing like what Americans are being subjected to. And the language barrier makes it easier to miss all the noise.
Just about everyone involved in the media industry in the United States means well, of course. But the nature of our entertainment-saturated society means restraint is just a lowering of the volume from 10 to 9, and a time for talking heads to put on even more comically serious faces.
Remembering the terrorist attacks and reflecting on them outside of the bubble of American culture has been a relief.
A couple related editorials:
The Onion
The New Yorker
Buy Our Pesticide Spinach, Or Else
Which is more important: free trade or democracy? These two ideals are often lumped together as if they were a package deal. But with the World Trade Organization, it may be more of an “either-or” choice. The latest example of this is being played out in Asia right now. China has threatened to take Japan before the WTO for banning imports of Chinese spinach found to contain 180 times the permitted level of pesticides. China says this is unfair trade and could theoretically find a sympathetic ear before the WTO.
Dam Issues
A special election is scheduled for Sept. 1 in Nagano Prefecture (Nagano city is the seat of the regional government). Voters will elect a governor, and the likely winner will be the man who resigned just last month. The election is drawing interest from all over Japan, and is seen as a harbinger of the battle between reformers and the entrenched political establishment in this country.
The picture here is of Yasuo Tanaka, the reform governor who resigned last month after a no-confidence vote by the prefectural assembly. One of the main points of conflict between the governor and the assembly was whether a new dam should be built near Nagano city. The dam seems to have been one of the many pork-barrel construction projects for which Japan is infamous, and Tanaka angered many entrenched interests by blocking construction of the dam.
Tanaka was a famous writer in Japan before entering politics, and is something of a maverick. He is expected to be re-elected next week, thus gaining more leverage against his opponents in the assembly.
As the campaign draws to a close, the candidates and their supporters rely on bullhorns to help get their messages out. I’m woken up each morning by political speeches which sound like they’re coming from a loudspeaker right outside my window. In the evenings, during the after-work rush, I often have to speak louder in my classes to be heard above the noise.
Update (Sept. 04) — Tanaka won the election by a large margin.
Strait vs. Gay
In Alaska, Republicans Steve Strait and Becky Gay are running neck-and-neck in the primary race for a seat in the Alaska House of Representatives. With all precincts reporting, it’s 947 votes for Strait and 945 votes for Gay. Maybe absentee votes (all those sailors overseas) will tip the balance.
(Thanks for the story tip, Dad.)