Category Archives: media

June 11, 2013 · 3:05 am

50 worst charities

The Tampa Bay Tribune has a bone-chilling series of investigative reports on sketchy charities.   Salute to primary researchers Kris Hundley and Kendall Taggart for the year-long project.  A little stomach-churning taste:

Collectively the 50 worst charities raised more than $1.3 billion over the past decade and paid nearly $1 billion of that directly to the companies that raise their donations.

If that money had gone to charity, it would have been enough to build 20,000 Habitat for Humanity homes, buy 7 million wheelchairs or pay for mammograms for nearly 10 million uninsured women.

Instead it funded charities like Youth Development Fund.

The Tennessee charity, which came in at No. 12, has been around for 30 years. Over the past decade it has raised nearly $30 million from donors by promising to educate children about drug abuse, health and fitness.

About 80 percent of what’s donated each year goes directly to solicitation companies.

Most of what’s left pays for one thing: scuba-diving videos starring the charity’s founder and president, Rick Bowen.

Bowen’s charity pays his own for-profit production company about $200,000 a year to make the videos. Then the charity pays to air Rick Bowen Deep-Sea Diving on a local Knoxville station. The program makes no mention of Youth Development Fund.

via America’s 50 worst charities rake in nearly $1 billion for corporate fundraisers Dirty secrets of the worst charities | Tampa Bay Times.

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May 30, 2013 · 12:38 am

Cannibal capitalism poker edition

Cannibal capitalism is the performance of bodily suffering amplified by mass media.

It is cannibalistic because humans consume humans.  Viewers watch human beings exchange of their well-being for our entertainment.  Put another way, some people find it profitable to harm themselves in the name of their work, which happens to be televised.  And some people make money on the whole exchange.

I don’t think the concept is all that new or inventive, it just happens to be useful to describe a pattern 0f commonly repeated media tropes.   Consider an athlete who picks themselves up after an exceptionally hard crash.  Television highlight films, complete with expert commentary will fill our lives with the painful exchange.  “She really took a bruising, bone crushing hit there . . . what a soldier getting back in the game.”

Re-reading a Grantland series on the 2003 World Series of Poker I noticed a paragraph about the impact the long-hours of playing poker had on the participants.   Farha is the runner-up and Harrington came in third place in 2003.

Farha: For five days, I had no sleep. None. I did not sleep. And the last day, the reason I lasted, I drank 20 Red Bulls, about 20 cups of coffee. I could not function.

Harrington: I’ve played a lot of different games, chess, backgammon, whatever, where you had to put in long, grueling hours. If you get down near the end, where victory depends on you being alert, I could dig down and get something out of myself to give that final push. Well, at that final table, I dug down, and there was nothing there. I hit the wall. Here’s how bad it was: When it got down to me, Sammy, and Chris, I wanted to bet 75,000, which was the right bet for that situation. I sat there and I couldn’t calculate how to make the bet. I had a whole bunch of 25,000 chips in front of me, and I could not figure out how to get to 75,000. It was an insurmountable problem.

via The oral history of the 2003 World Series of Poker, in which Chris Moneymaker turned $39 into $2.5 million – Grantland.

Cannibal capitalism is often accompanied with mediated commentary — either praise or blame about how the person who experienced the suffering took it.  In the case of Farha, the runner-up in 2003, it seemed his many hours of extra poker play became a justification for his ultimate loss.

Later Harrington gives this insight:

Harrington: After I busted in third place, ESPN asked me for a prediction, and I told them, “No one over 40 is ever going to win this tournament again.” It’s become an endurance contest. The next year, I was at the final table again. I was sitting next to a younger player. He nudged me and said: “I know you tell everyone how brutal it is on you to get down to this point in the tournament, you don’t have the energy. Well I’m 28, and it’s brutal on me, too.”

via The oral history of the 2003 World Series of Poker, in which Chris Moneymaker turned $39 into $2.5 million – Grantland.

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May 15, 2013 · 12:34 am

Daft Punk on the mask

I’m really fascinated by any artist who performs in a mask.  Daft Punk point out a few good ideas in this profile in Pitchfork.  One of the most interesting ideas is their reference to the wage-serf people under the theme park costumes.  Ryan Dombal:

THE PYRAMID BLOWOUT WAS AKIN to your typical rock star extravaganza in scale and scope, but also laced with the more inclusive and diffusive aspects of traditional DJ gigs, where everyone’s the star. It put Daft Punk in a unique position within contemporary music’s personality-driven ecosystem: legitimately famous and faceless. To this point, Bangalter compares their situation to Batman (“we feel that the pyramid was like our Batmobile”), Cinderella (“after the show is over, we go back to anonymity and normality”), the Wizard of Oz (“we’re just guys behind a curtain pushing the knobs and creating the spectacle”), and a dude in a Mickey Mouse costume at Disney World (“if you have 100 kids around you all day long, are you not becoming big-headed?”). Their mechanized identities also act as a buffer for the out-of-control egomania that could result from a sea of people losing their shit in your general direction as you stand over them from the apex of a million-watt triangle.

via Cover Story: Daft Punk | Features | Pitchfork.

I remember getting a series of photos with oversized plush Shaggy and Scooby characters in some upstate New York theme park. Upon reflection, it was one of the most one-directional emotional exchanges I’ve ever had in a commercial setting.

I gushed to these paid actors.  I talked about how many days after school I had scrambled home to watch  Scooby Doo during the days of three channels. I’m sure I wasn’t alone — in essence these workers accepted adoration while cooking in the suits.

Here is Peter Mandel in a witty overview of what it is like inside the suit.  He  volunteers to wear a plush costume (Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants) for a day in a theme park.

1:35 p.m. I step into giant fuzzy leg pods and pull up my mesh-style underwear and suspenders. Next come a pair of massive pea-green pantaloons.

Patrick’s head and body unit is heavy — under the pink fuzz there’s a structural shell. I need help from Vest and an assistant to hoist it over my head and get my arms through the knapsack-style harness inside.

SpongeBob’s suit, I’m told, is equipped with a personal fan. Nothing fancy like that in mine. It’s like a tropical evening in here: dim, roughly the color of sunset, scraps of thread and duct tape hanging limp in the humid air.

As a final touch, I attach some Velcro straps and slide my arms into the arm pods, which I try to flap using subway-style fabric straps. Voila.

2:25 p.m. Vest and her assistant explain the rules. No talking in the suit. No food. No gum. No running. No signing autographs (how could you grip a pen with a flipper?). And no embellishing the costume.

“Once SpongeBob came out with a bracelet on,” explains Vest, “that’s supposed to go with Dino from the Flintstones. Someone was like, ‘Hey, look, SpongeBob has bling!’ I had him back in the shack in two seconds.”

via Peter Mandel: A Day In The Life Of A Theme Park Character.

 

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May 7, 2013 · 1:05 am

Killer Mike exposed

Killer Mike is a grown up hip hop artist, thinking about serious stuff.  He and El-P ran through the Combat Jack show and came off with this nice little exchange. 

1. Notice the fundamentals, Dallas Penn sets this off.  I don’t love his consumerist Polo identity, but there is no discounting how smart and insightful that guy really is.  If you aren’t reading and donating to Dallas Penn’s web site, you aren’t living right.

2. Good interviewers.  Ask the question and get out of the way.  Combat Jack is serious, Dallas Penn is serious.  That means listening when ideas are flowing.

3. How about two grown men getting honest with each other?  El-P telling Killer Mike he is just starting his career.  Killer Mike talking about having to expose parts of his vulnerabilities and fears to work with El.

***

Updated a few days later . . . May 9, 2013.  Part 3 is out.

El-P, Killer Mike, Combat Jack, and Dallas Penn.  The third clip is a conversation about race.  Nice discussion.

1. For those educators out there looking for an example of a “race pass” check out Dallas Penn saying to El-P: “I don’t call you a white rapper.”

Absolutely on point, El-P rejects the offer of the card.  “I’m a white guy, I rap. There’s no question about it.” Just because you are cool doesn’t mean that you don’t have privilege.  And leave it to Killer Mike to remind us of that.  When asked about white-identified rap fans Killer Mike responds:

“I’m not saying their experience isn’t worthy, I’m not saying it isn’t valuable. I’m saying it’s not special.  Because every human being experiences love and pain and let down.  Your thing is no more special.  And a lot of times, as Americans, and in this country, we feel like our suffering makes us special. You are special because you are a human being.”  – Killer Mike

3.  This argument is a dumb prompt from Combat Jack.  I think it might be a kind of policing — because of Killer Mike’s reference in segment one to his increasing vulnerability.   I appreciate all the examples of great black emcees who recorded some vulnerable verses that are quickly volunteered by the panelists.

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May 2, 2013 · 6:59 pm

Ten Frisk Commandments: Jasiri X

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes (of course sometimes you gotta run). Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Stay free y’all.

Salute to Jasiri X!

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April 27, 2013 · 10:37 pm

Not everyone has access to the same technology

Jen Schradie on the digital divide.  Thanks to Cyborgology via the Society Pages.

6. But aren’t people from marginalized communities “leapfrogging” over desktops, laptops and even tablets by using their mobile phones?

As Sociologist Sheila Cotton put it, “Could you type a 10 page paper on your phone?” However smart it might be, newer, smaller, sleeker gadgets, such as the iPad mini, are designed more for consumption, rather than producing and engaging with online content. Certainly, many people are tweeting and posting status updates with their smart phones, but class divisions are stark both domestically and worldwide for smart phone, rather than mobile phone access. And mobile devices are not always “smart.” As I have argued, having online access at a variety of locations (i.e. home and work) and owning a lot of gadgets allows people to control the means of digital production and have the autonomy for high levels of Internet use. One cell phone doesn’t cut it.

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April 5, 2013 · 12:21 am

Kid President and Obama

Power of the internets x 1,000,000,000.

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March 22, 2013 · 1:38 am

I too blame the patriarchy

Just a quick note.  It appears as though Twisty Faster has returned.  Don’t miss the insights.

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March 1, 2013 · 1:21 am

Wrestling commentary is fake? Glen Beck vs. WWE

I enjoyed the story of a conservative (fictional) storyline in professional wrestling taken for reality by right wing schmuck Glen Beck.  We get an amazing opportunity for the actors who play wrestling characters to explain some of the differences between acting and reality.

Thanks to David Shoemaker who ran the whole scenario down for us at Grantland.

The most impactful response to Beck, however, came not from the WWE front office but from Swagger and Colter, who recorded a new wooden-fence oratory. But, this time, after the promo ended, the camera angle changed, and Colter and Swagger were revealed to be standing on a soundstage in front of a green screen. They introduced themselves by their real names and explained in plain, straightforward terms how the pro wrestling enterprise works. Those anti-immigration speeches? Those were just promos, said Zeb — “a scene we record to elicit a positive or negative reaction from our fans.” The substance was irrelevant. “We aren’t in the political business or the immigration business,” he continued, “we are in the entertainment business.” After shaming Beck with a litany of audience demographics, Zeb and Swagger launched back into their rant as if nothing had happened. And Monday on Raw, even when Zeb mentioned Beck, he didn’t have to break character to do it. That was probably the most revealing thing about the broadcast — of course WWE was going to keep talking about Beck if it meant more mainstream attention, but they didn’t need to address his wrestling illiteracy on the air. They didn’t need to explain why Zeb and Swagger act the way they do, because everybody knows wrestling is staged. Beck should understand this, too, because as much as anyone, Beck knows what it is to be a performer.

via Dissecting WWE’s feud with the tea party and Glenn Beck – Grantland.

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February 28, 2013 · 5:12 am

Onion tweet and visibility of hatred of women

Thanks to the potent Feministing column “Your daily feminist cheat sheet,” who recommended film critic Maryann Johansen who coordinates Flick Filosopher.  The title of her article is: “a feminist film critic defends the Onion’s Quvenzhane Wallis tweet.”   Her title is inflammatory, but I’m a little intrigued by the notion of some idiot was going to parade their shadow representation of feminism to justify calling a nine-year old kid a misogynistic insult.

I could not have gotten it more wrong.  Turns out that Maryann Johansen is not only on-point, but seems to be the kind of really smart feminist critic who can help make oppressive discourse visible, able to be mocked and defeated.  Thinking about it, the denigration of Quvenzhané Wallis is only visible because the insult doesn’t work against regular celebrity women — they are often called terrible names.  Johansen explains that the Onion tweet is visible precisely because the message (hate women) has suffused mainstream culture.

That gets attention in a way that calling a famous adult woman the same thing never does. Because it’s clearly outrageous in a way that, apparently, isn’t quite so clear-cut when it comes to an adult woman. But she asked for it by wearing that dress. She’s an attention whore. She likes being in the spotlight. She can stop being famous any time if she can’t take it. We should see such rationales as ridiculous. We can see it when they’re applied to a nine-year-old. But we don’t see it in general.

via a feminist film critic defends the Onion’s Quvenzhané Wallis tweet | MaryAnn Johanson’s FlickFilosopher.com.

What a smart argument.  I still don’t see any need to defend the tweet.  I’m not going to cheer on hatred of women in order to make hatred of women more visible.  We work with the tools available to us.  We read the signs available to us.  We dismantle systems of oppression as they are described and spoken into being.

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