regarding recording television

Upcoming Recordings 11/11-11/16

If you’ve got the patience for talk of video making and computers, it’s “Home Video Crash Course” week on TechTV’s THE SCREEN SAVERS. I think I’ll be recording Friday’s episode (about making your own DVD’s) and sampling some of the others. The whole thing will probably convince me to wait until consumer HD video cameras are available before I replace my 8mm video camera that broke three or four years ago. Of course, knowing me, it’s possible I’ll end up buying a Hi8 camera sometime in the next three months in an attempt to convert all those old videos into DVD’s.

I never made it to Coney Island to ride the Cyclone this summer, but if you’re unfamiliar with the coaster FineLvg presents a segment about the ride on a show called BORN AMERICAN (Wednesday, 3:30am). Of course, I don’t think too many people are unfamiliar with the wild wooden coaster. It’s always featured on those coaster shows.

TRIO ON TOUR presents THE JAM (Wednesday, 10:30am) could be interesting. Maybe the show will convert me into more of a fan of The Jam.

Fans of Neko Case should be tuned to PBS this week. A new episode of AUSTIN CITY LIMITS features Rosanne Cash followed by Neko Case. The show airs midnight Friday (officially Saturday) on New York’s WLIW 21. Of course, my DVR will also be recording SUBTERRANEAN UK at the same time. The show airs monthly on MTV2 before SUBTERRANEAN. I’ve yet to catch an episode, but I’m ready to be hip with what’s happening in the UK scene. Hee. Who am I kidding?

On Sunday at 1am I’ve got the device set to record OPENING SOON. This episode of the show that airs on FineLvg is about the opening of a restaurant at a winery in Canada. Wine. Canadians. What’s not to love?

By the way, what is the deal with OVATION, The Arts Network? I want this to channel to be a great country-wide public access channel featuring crazy, ridiculous culture programming all the time. I want to see shows about books and music and movies and painting and sculpture and design. And the channel runs the same 25 shows over and over and over. I’ve recorded about four things on the channel during the past two months. And those same things keep catching my interest over and over. Is programming that expensive? Can’t they syndicate old episodes of 120 minutes from MTV? What about buying some programming from colleges and universities? We’re living in a world where video cameras are recording cultural activities at a ridiculous pace. Why can’t I watch any of it? Why hasn’t the “what’s new” section of Ovation’s website been updated in a year? Why am I verging on a tirade about how I want to program a television network?