regarding recording television

cable dial as the new magazine rack

John Battelle, magazine industry veteran, examines the digital television channel guide and finds it much like the world of niche magazines. The main part of his discussion is that ad revenue that would've gone to specialty magazines is now going to specialty cable channels. I want to agree with his thinking but I don't think television is there yet (from the perspective of wanting as much selection on the cable dial as I have at all the magazine stores in New York City). Not being involved in the advertising industry, I can't really speak to the way ad dollars are spent. I drool over the day there are as many choices on television as there are on the magazine shelves. For an idea of what's out there in the world of magazines, check out the comments from Jason Kottke's recent "52 Magazines or Bust". (searchblog link via new media musings)

music videos

i was a real fan of "sonic videos," the video show that aired on sundance this past october. i can't say i watch too much music video programming on mtv or fuse, but according to an article in the la times fuse is gaining viewers quickly and, feeling threatened, mtv is locking up the rights to videos. the article provides a somewhat detailed glimpse into the world of mtv and the network's contracts. (link via new media musings)

one of the two shows i record on fuse is "next big thing." recent videos aired include "i believe in a thing called love" from the darkness (it's really is a must-see video) and "light and day" from the polyphonic spree. the 30 minute show usually has at least one or two good videos. it airs on fuse at 9pm this coming saturday. it's followed by 30 minutes of indie rock videos that are also pretty hit and miss but worth recording if you get annoyed with searching for and downloading videos on the computer.

trio and direcTV

it seems like the efforts to save trio from being dropped by DirecTV may be working. according to an article from reuters last friday DirecTV and universal television group are talking. i'm not a DirecTV user but if i ever leave the city and the safety of my digital cable box, i'd consider making the switch. of course, during the past year i've considered trio a must for whatever television package i subscribe to. i hope things work out for the network and for DirecTV customers (why is it so hard to type directv without using the capital letters?). the part of me that wrote letters to abc to save "twin peaks" encourages you to visit the save trio website in order to send an email to DirecTV.

Upcoming Recordings - 12/16 - 12/20

The 76th Academy Awards are being held at the end of February. Sometimes I’m good about seeing the short films that are nominated and sometimes I’m not. Actually, that may be a lie. Most of the time I’m not very good about seeing the nominated shorts. But I did make it to MoMA one year to see a series of nominated shorts that included SPEED FOR THESPIANS. I remember liking it quite a bit. The short is a well-directed look at three characters performing a play on a public bus. It airs Tuesday night at 8pm on Sundance.

I’ve never been much of one to watch the History Channel. The art of warfare isn’t something I think about too much and an interest in Roman times can only be explored so much since there were no video cameras around to capture the explosion of Vesuvius and the ruin of Pompeii. But all the talk during the past few weeks about the Wright Brothers has put me in a bit of a mood to catch INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS II (Wednesday, 5pm – History Channel). I recently returned to New York for Columbus, OH and I can’t say I was too impressed with Port Columbus International Airport. I had no real problems there. The pick-up and drop-off sections were quickly accessible and easy to navigate. I liked the automatic boarding pass issuing machine (have you seen these little things? They’re like baby ATM’s and they make it so that if you have no baggage to check, you don’t have to wait in line or even bother to just walk straight to your gate…why are they there again?). Security seemed to do a somewhat thorough job. No, I guess my major complaint about Port Columbus was that the section of the airport where my flight departed had just one hot food option. And I was there in the morning so they only had breakfast sandwiches. And the breakfast sandwiches were gross. And the entire area was too dark. I imagine the show on the History Channel will not be covering any of this information at all.

My History Channel recording will continue on Thursday at 1pm when MODERN MARVELS – digi-tech airs. I’ve never seen an episode of “Modern Marvels” but this one looks at the PDA, HDTV, the PVR and more. I’m not expecting much, but this sort of shows should be able to find good talking heads for interview subjects. If not, I’ll be quite disappointed.

Thursday night is the time to check out Trio’s POP CULTURE ROUND UP YEAR END SPECIAL: WHITE NOISE (10pm). Talk about opportunities for brilliant talking head interview subjects! I want to see Johnny Fairplay talking about Paris Hilton! I want to watch one of those little turtles from “Finding Nemo” rave about what a great live show The Darkness puts on! I dream of returning from fast forwarding a commercial to find Adam Brody talking about his favorite media blogs!

Of course, that year-end pop culture wrap-up is against LIBERTY AND SECURITY IN AN AGE OF TERRORISM (PBS 10pm in NYC). Aaargh! More chances for talking heads! When did I become such a non-fiction freak? I’m glad my dvr has two tuners.

And to prove that I do flip to ESPN and ESPN2 every now and again, I’ll mention that on Wednesday I’m recording PUTT-PUTT CHAMPIONSHIPS at 12:30pm (ESPN2). It seems like they air a few times during the week. I’m not sure if there’s just one episode or five. I figure 30 minutes of miniature gold should be enough to satisfy my non-baseball sports intake for a week. Recording THE 2003 NFL FLAG FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP (Saturday 4pm – ESPN) should send my sports watching for the week to an all time high.

if you missed it...

and i did! on saturday, december 13th, amy blair from the black table will be on UNSCREWED WITH MARTIN SARGENT. amy writes the week in craig for the black table and manages to find the best of craig's list each and every week.

(i think the show aired on monday or tuesday night, but i missed it).

rewind

i've been having some technical problems lately, thus the reason there were no updates the past two weeks.

fear not, i'm still watching a ridiculous amount of television. i hope to get the formatting fixed this week. i'll also have a new entry by the middle of the week.