PopCult: February 2003 Archive Page

"Media mega-star Oprah Winfrey?s announcement that ?I'm back in the business of recommending books?but with a difference,? drew a standing ovation from an audience of America?s leading publishers... [T]he new book club will focus on literary classics because ?I cannot imagine a world where the great works of literature are not read.? Her hope, she said, is that ?The Oprah Winfrey Show? will ?make classic works of literature accessible to every woman and man who reads.?" --Oprah's Book Club: Back to the ClassicsPress Release)

"In this time of great sadness about Fred Rogers' death, we understand that parents may be concerned about how to approach the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood series and our Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Website with their children. We here at Family Communications have given this a great deal of thought and have talked with our colleagues in child development and mental health. We'd like to share our thoughts with you."

--PBS Kids Statement on "Mr Rogers"PBS)

We don't get good reception on the PBS channel where we live, so Peter hasn't really watched Mr. Rogers, but maybe Carolyn will when she's older. At any rate, note how the main web page for Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood acknowledges its dual audiences -- the kids who are the primary audience for the website, and parents and causual Internet surfers who may be visiting the site after hearing the news.

"Baseball - a slow, serene game played with a wooden bat, a cloth ball, and cowhide mitts on a broad, grassy field - surged in popularity just when the industrial revolution was taking hold, leaving masses of urban workers and shopkeepers yearning for the pastoral peace and quiet of the fabled agricultural age. They could relive this for a day by attending a baseball game. By extension, no wonder stock-car racing - a fast, furious sport contended on a paved roadway with snarling, smelly machines operated by hand - is surging in popularity at the very time the computerized information revolution is transforming our society from top to bottom." --Social Science at 190 MPH on NASCAR's Biggest SuperspeedwaysFirst Monday)

The above speculation is from an article by David Ronfelt, who credits "long-time race promoter and track owner H. A. 'Humpy' Wheeler" as quoted in Scott Huler's A Little Bit Sideways: One Week Inside a NASCAR Winston Cup Race Team. This line of reasoning also accounts for the popularity of BattleBots.

"Dear Strong Bad,|Right now I am putting off writing a paper for my English class. Can you write my Englilsh paper? I don't even care if it's good or not. I just don't want to do it." --A Well Thought-Out Englilsh [sic] Paper, by Karl "The Yellow Dart" SmithHome Star Runner)

Never underestimate how a cool nickname and a little bit of cash can affect the grade of your "Englilsh" paper.

"Andy Serkis' computer-aided performance was one of the best things about 'The Two Towers.'... Is Hollywood ready to acknowledge and honor digital performances, or even human-digital hybrids? This year, the answer seems to be a resounding no." Ivan Askwith --Gollum: Dissed by the Oscars?Salon)

"We use music as a vehicle to engage, inspire and reinforce the magic of literature and the power of reading. We have launched an awareness and outreach campaign for one of this country's most critical problems: adults who cannot read or write."

From the Chapter One benefit CD for "Artists for Literacy":

• Bruce Springsteen - "The Ghost of Tom Joad" Inspired by John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath
• David LaMotte - "Dark and Deep" Inspired by Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
• Suzanne Vega - "Calypso" Inspired by Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey"
• Ray Manzarek - "He Can't Come Today" Inspired by Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot

Songs Inspired by LiteratureSIBL)

"'The Internet allows us to do all kinds of things quickly and efficiently, and that includes hoaxing,' Jerz says.|Jerz, an assistant professor of English at UW-Eau Claire, learned of the Olsen hoax when a skeptical student emailed him the fake CNN story....News hoaxes aren't the only ones that spread by e-mail, says Jerz, who often sees financial scams, false computer virus warnings and tales of fictional missing children. All of these are examples of 'memes,' the intellectual equivalent of genes, ideas that reproduce themselves by jumping from brain to brain, Jerz says. Many vanish quickly, but others spread swiftly." Tom Giffey --Gotcha! Olsen Twins Hoax Had 'em Fooled (Leader Telegram)

This local news story from the Eau Claire paper offers a good summary and reflection on the Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen hoax that was spreading across the Internet about two weeks ago.

"We are a powerful race, but we are not a violent one. The wars you wage on your planet are an outdated notion to us, as we prefer more intellectual pursuits. We also enjoy jogging, hiking, basketball, and golf, so we will accept nothing but the best in athletic footwear from Adidas, Reebok, and Converse. The citizens of our planet are in need of all manner of sport shoes, from cross trainers to hiking boots.|Bring them now, humans!" --People of Earth: We Come in Search of Quality Name-Brand Footware at Reasonable PricesThe Onion)

My freshman composition students are about to submit a paper in which an imaginary stranger from a completely different culture examines the items that they are wearing or carrying with them. My "Stranger Essay" assignment is in many ways the opposite of the Onion's footwear article.

"MMRPGs are pervasive virtual environments populated by human-controlled digital people from around the globe. | Players develop characters, work towards goals, solve puzzles and engage in social fluttery. They're the visual marriage of text-based adventures and chat rooms, and women are flocking." Alex Krotoski --Online Role-Playing Fits the BillGuardian)

Interesting... while Slashdot just posted a thread savaging The Sims Online, the article above praises it (but it apparently hasn't been released in the UK yet).

"That people are gravitating from the television to the Internet, especially for information, is, of course, extremely good news--at least for us. But while they are coming more, they are believing less: Last year the UCLA survey indicated that 58% of Internet users believed that most of what they read online was 'reliable and accurate.'" Dan Ackman

--For 53% Reliable Information, Click Here Forbes)

Unlike many journalists summarizing (and dumbing down) academic articles, Ackman offers an unusually close examination of the original academic study. I like it when news summaries of academic articles acknowledge when the journalists are moving beyond the gaurded conclusions offered by the academics, and into the kind of headline material that attracts readers (and undergraduates doing research online).

"Some see it as part of the same cultural continuum of reality TV programming. Others see a broader trend in which digital technologies are allowing everyone to participate more directly in media experiences. Under this scenario, an era of decentralized media is fast approaching in which the idea of "consumers" of mass-market media will become obsolete, because people will be making, not consuming, culture." Leslie Walker discusses the mainstreaming of blogs. --New Kids on the BlogWashPost)

"There are dozens of well-designed studies that show that TV, movies and other media affect what viewers believe and how they behave. This is true of many different kinds of attitudes and behaviors -- positive and negative -- but many studies conclusively show a statistical link between watching violent programs and behaving aggressively. And, of course, billions of dollars have been spent on media advertising because it is well established that even brief messages can be powerful in shaping behavior. However, there are very few studies of whether exposure to media violence causes criminal behavior." Diana Zuckerman --What is to Blame for Youth Violence?: The Media, Guns, Parenting, Poverty, Bad Programs, Or? Nat'l Center for Policy)

I found this link on Donna Hibbs's Media Issues Weblog," which looks like it will be worth watching.

"But after being heralded on the cover of Newsweek and on '60 Minutes,' the $25-million 'Sims Online' has turned into an expensive letdown for Redwood City, Calif.-based EA. Sales are sluggish, reviews have been merciless, and many in the video game industry wonder whether online games will ever find a large following." Alex Pham --'Sims Online' Gives Creators a Painful Reality CheckLA Times)

A Slashdot poster sums it up well: "With The Sims Online, you basically end up with a graphical chat room. The tasks you perform are repetitive and dull. Each involves clicking on something and staring at the screen until that task finishes or your happiness levels go down far enough to finish it for you. Fix that up, rinse and repeat. All in all, the game ends up being a glorified IRC chat room that you pay for." And this is the next big thing in gaming?

"The Fake CNN News Generator was online only a week, but generated a lot of controversy after ersatz news stories were picked up by local outlets and reported as real. Phony stories about the death of musician Dave Matthews, or the Olsen twins attending local universities, for example, appeared in a number of local newspapers, as well as regional radio and TV news reports. Fake stories were generated the site's visitors, who filled out a form with the story's headline and text. After hitting a button, the site created a convincing facsimile that included CNN's logos as well as live links and banner ads." --Fake CNN Website Taken Offline Wired)

Humph. I thought the "Olsen Twins Attend UWEC" spoof required some effort on the hoaxer's part, and accordingly publicized it as a creative achievement -- but it turns out to have been a fill-in-the-blank exercise. For example, the Wired story includes a partial screen capture of a story about the Olsen twins attending Notre Dame.

I built a bloated icebox made to store
my ripe ingredients. Its shelves are crammed
with shrunken tentacles, and scalps are jammed
beside the vats of larva, pulp, and gore.
The handle's slick. It's hard to shut the door
against the swelling mold. It must be slammed.
This foul refrigerator of the damned
will always stretch to hold a little more.

The fearful call this fridge a gate to Hell,
the brave can't wait to stick their heads inside,
my neighbors can't endure the rancid smell
and wonder what the sticky magnets hide.
But now it's time to bid you, friends, farewell,
and save the nutrients your skins provide.
Jacie Ragan

--The HoardGorelets: Refrigerator of the Damned)

"The Refrigerator of the Dammed" lets you play with virtual tiles (refrigerator magnets) on a horror theme. Part of Gorelets.

"Horror is the genre of the jolt, the shock, the spark. The horror story's conflict is always a matter of life and death, but death -- even to an undead creature -- always comes as a surprise. The climax of a horror tale is almost unilaterally a killing blow, catching someone or something unaware. Death almost always comes too soon -- that's why we fear it. Life is always too short. Never long enough." Michael Arnzen --Knife Wounds: Horror and MinimalismGorelets)

"The year is around 1952, the dead of winter in Chicago. I'm 18 years old, bucking the fierce winds off Lake Michigan and the below-zero temperature as I head across the parking lot to attend classes at the University of Illinois at Navy Pier. I wait freezing while a Cadillac approaches, a yellow convertible with the top down. The driver is immense with a lion's mane of hair blowing in the wind. He wears no coat, jacket, or sweater. Just a loud Hawaiian print, short sleeve shirt. His massive forearms almost obscure the steering wheel. I immediately recognize Yukon Eric. He is out for a spin along Chicago's Outer Drive. His car passes. Somehow it does not seem as cold as before." George Jerz

Memory of Wrestler E-Mail)

My father tried sending the above reminiscence to a Yukon Eric memorial page, but the e-mail got bounced back. I'm happy to publish it here instead.

"It baffles me that so many people would believe that the page is true, enough to be on TV 13, TV 18, I-94, and the Carp. I thought that in college we are supposed to learn to question what we see and read, and this page have proved to me that we don't." Benjamin Williams About the "Olsen Twins Attending UWEC" Hoax E-Mail)

I hardly watch the local TV news -- just the last few minutes before my four-year-old's favorite show, "Wheel of Fortune," comes on. But if the local TV news reporters fell for this hoax, as Benjamin says they did, I wouldn't be surprised at all.