Business Items :: Missed Monday

{ 2009 06 23 }

Missed Monday

Television - I don’t think MTV’s It’s On with Alexa Chung is quite so ironic as Slate’s Troy Patterson would like to believe. While Chung, whose dowel-like limbs lend the disturbing appearance of being 25 going on 14 (years old), does appear to have a respectable disinterest in her guests, she also seems to share enough interests with them to leave one thinking that less mockery is involved than competitive solipsism. That is to say that everyone on the show, including its host, is primarily concerned with him- or herself.
Further cementing this impression is It’s On’s function as a shill for Facebook, which needs no advertisement. Perhaps the numerous requests for viewers to “send me your…” via Facebook are intended as an analog to Singled Out’s strategy of casting en masse, or maybe Facebook is paying for product placement. Regardless, despite the meta-message in support of self-involvement, It’s On does offer some of the charm that MTV’s lost in the past decade or two.
That charm, specifically, is the look and feel of a program still groping to find its backside with both hands. Unfortunately, such allure is mitigated by the fact that society’s predilection for cheap furniture and adolescent behavior has given way to sterilized sets and false dignity. Rather than promoting the next generation of Ben Stillers and John Stewarts, MTV chooses to gestate more scripted “reality” stars.

Belated - Here is a link to the piece by Sandra Tsing Loh that I concisely excoriated as misandry last week. Also, here’s another response from Hanna Rosin, who has also been known to contribute to the Atlantic on occasion. Rather than characterizing Loh as a demanding [epithet redacted], Rosin prefer to defend what may be the contemporary status quo.

Decisions - If your interest in government transcends electoral politics, then you might be interested to read Slate’s meta-breakfast table, around which a trio of J.D.’s discuss the events of this, the last week of the Supreme Court’s 2009 session. It’s also a useful link for insomniacs.

Iran - Apparently, the zeitgeist chose a mascot for Iran’s civil insurrection while the proprietor of this venue may or may not have been napping yesterday. Does it strike no one else as being somewhat Stalin-esque that, while robbing an entire nation of even the appearance of democracy spurs only policy debate and speculation, a thirty-seven second video [Login required by censors] of a woman dying on the street — in the absence of any concrete context — rouses empathy from abroad? As Wyclef said, “Think with your mind, and not with your pistol.”
Meanwhile, in a development some might interpret with gallows humor, a British group has released a statistical study refuting the original election results reported by Iran’s ruling regime. While such insight might serve to justify prospective international intervention, one doesn’t imagine that anyone in Iran has been awaiting the news with bated breath.

Housekeeping - Regular readers likely recognize the majority of the sources from which this venue derives material. A person may feel like a tool when he keeps going back to the same wells, but at the same time, some of those wells are pretty outstanding. Thus, in a blatant attempt to get more hits by becoming more like a portal, this page has added a few more permanent links near the top of the sidebar. If you think a worthy outlet has been overlooked, then suggest it via comment or email to blog [at] levikafka [dot] com.
Also, of course, there are reasons a person might want you visiting the actual page, complete with sidebar and footer, rather than reading the RSS feed.