regarding recording television

tivo battle!

once again, i've been slacking on exploring the lesser known channels for worthwhile programming (and i also failed to mention the three episodes of THE NEW AMERICANS that started airing this past monday night on pbs. i've watched 40 minutes of it and i'm captivated).

anyway, on wednesday night at 8pm, look for WAREHOUSE WARRIORS on DIY Network. it's an episode all about TiVO's and DVR's. two teams (one from TiVO headquarters and the other, a group of online friends) compete in a contest to build anything for TV they can think of. i don't really understand the concept, but my fingers are crossed that the show will be more interesting than most of the other stuff on DIY. the episode also repeats at midnight. (via lost remote)

schnack

via aaron, schnack will be featured on tonight's episode of COOKIN' IN BROOKLYN (DH&L, 8pm and it probably repeats every four hours for the next day). i'm embarassed to say i haven't been to schnack, and i've been bad about checking discovery home & leisure for interesting shows. it's time to start taking advantage of this good spring weather.

recap before looking ahead

A few of my thoughts on the new shows that started airing during the past month:

Last night I dutifully watched the third episode of WONDERFALLS. As much as I want to get hooked on a new show this spring, I’m incapable of doing so. Wonderfalls is watchable, but if you’re hearing or seeing any grassroots hype, that hype is worth questioning. The main character graduated from Brown with a philosophy degree. I don’t understand why the creators didn’t go the whole nine yards and just say she was a semiotics major (okay, okay, so maybe that doesn’t exist anymore, but wouldn’t that have been more fun and in line with cool NY indie film roots?). That would’ve had a lot more weight and let me know that wording wasn’t being compromised for network television. This show seems quirky for the sake of being quirky. Most of the jokes / odd references fall flat. One of the producers / directors is Todd Holland who has a track record with shows that can be described as “offbeat”. What I wanted from Wonderfalls was Twin Peaks meets Joan of Arcadia with a pinch of Everwood. What I got was Joan of Arcadia meets Malcolm in the Middle with a liberal coating of Father Dowling Mysteries.

CRACKING UP held my attention longer than CENTURY CITY. I managed three episodes (and the first four minutes of a fourth) of CRACKING UP before hitting the stop button and taking the show off my “record this every week” list. My hope that the show would become funny has been abandoned, like my interest in the show. I get the sense that this show is just a quick premise Mike White created on a cigarette break during the filming of Chuck & Buck. Looks like Chris may have been right when he called Jason Schwartzman a one trick pony.

TRUST is a show that would have me using the VCR, if I still used the VCR. It airs Saturday nights on BBC America and as I mentioned when I touched on my early disappointment with CENTURY CITY, this show has good actors bringing complex characters to life. It’s set in a corporate law firm where everyone struggles to manage their interest in getting ahead with the pleasure (or discomfort) of their personal lives.

The first episode of DEADWOOD was enough to keep me watching, but I don’t think I’ll be ready to embrace it until episode three or four.

not missing much...

i'm 99% sure the channel lineup from my cable system doesn't include the biography channel. when i learned yesterday that a special about the coen brothers is airing on a show called ACTION! i was disappointed that i wouldn't be able to watch. the hollywood reporter has a review and apparently i'm not missing much at all.

searching for air times...

this past friday night, kaci informed me that she'd caught an episode of two of the sweet spot on comedy central last week. i'd never heard of the show but it's a fun take on the world of golf by bill murray and his brothers. i checked the listings for this upcoming week and it's not set to air. but if anyone happens to know when it will air again, drop me an email as i'd like to watch!

will leitch on CNN

Looks like I'm racing home after work tonight. No time to finally buy that pair of shoes. No time to get a much needed haircut. I've got to make sure I'm able to program the DVR by 8pm! I just got word that Will Leitch (of LIFE AS A LOSER fame - buy the book!) will probably be on PAULA ZAHN NOW tonight on CNN (8pm). He's supposedly on at the end of the show and he's there to discuss "Lad Lit." Rumor has it the episode will also have an excerpt from his appearance years ago on Win Ben Stein's Money.

(info courtesy the shrewdness of apes)

**UPDATE**
Will wasn't on.

a doc worth searching for

I just finished watching a film by Jennifer Baichwal called THE TRUE MEANING OF PICTURES: SHELBY LEE ADAMS’ APPALACHIA. It was really good. It aired on Trio earlier this month. And it airs again Thursday night (3/25) at 9:30pm. I apologize for not mentioning this film sooner. I had no idea it was going to be so good.

The film is an amazing documentary that takes an in-depth look at Adams, his photographs, his subjects, his process and the critical reaction to his art. This is the kind of film that’s infinitely fascinating. The photographs of Shelby Lee Adams are powerful documents. They’re the kind of photographs that have you looking for details and meaning. His subjects tend to be the families he knows at the heads of hollows in Kentucky and other parts of Appalachia. He has befriended the families and photographed them over years, decades even. But what makes this documentary work (especially as an exploration of Appalachian culture) in a way that far supercedes Rory Kennedy’s AMERICAN HOLLOW is the critical response to Adams’ photography.

For the last thirty years Adams, who grew up in eastern Kentucky, has been photographing the people of the Appalachian region. His black and white photographs are gorgeous and rich with detail. He straddles the line between documentarian, portrait photographer and visual compositor, seeking out and creating a story within each image. The photographs record the faces of the people he knows, the people who have lived and continue to lead hard lives. Adams’ use of the flash is especially evocative in the way it gives his subjects an otherworldliness. As Mary Ellen Mark points out in the documentary, his handling of the 4x5 format is technically superb.

One aspect that makes THE TRUE MEANING OF PICTURES especially enriching is the use of archive video collected by Adams (mostly during 1990). This footage captures his gentle and loving interaction with his subjects. It also lets the viewer know how the photographs are created. They aren’t just snapshots of people he happened to come across. He collects images and gives them back to the people he photographs. They appreciate his work.

And this is where the documentary becomes interesting. The conversation between gallery owners, art critics and other photographers leads the viewer down a more critical line than “is he exploiting these people?” Your gut instinct is to say “yes.” But watching the behind the scenes footage forces you to question how you feel about his images. There’s a particularly interesting section of the film that examines his photograph of a family that’s slaughtered a hog. As a critic points out, there’s no way this is the way that family lived when the photo was taken; yet the image is presented as such. The archive footage from Adams and the voiceover from his interview confirm that he had the hog brought in. But he also suggests that this experience reminds him of growing up in Appalachia thirty years before the photo. When you know all that detail the photo takes on a more interesting tone. Yes, the composition is strong (Adams seems to love talking about triangles) and the faces are intriguing, but now there’s an entirely extra level of meaning that shifts the photo in tone. Scenes like this exist throughout the film, which is told through Adams’ interaction with three different families (a generation of Kentuckians at the end of a hollow, a group of Snake handlers and a family with three retarded children).

THE TRUE MEANING OF PICTURES is an incredibly deliberate film. There are no overtly loud moments of outrage, only quietly shocking moments expressed by critics and one or two people of Kentucky. The entire piece is level headed and would be an amazing conversation starter. This is the best film about a photographer I have ever seen. This is the kind of film that should be presented in photography, documentary and sociology classes. I wish there were more films as rich, insightful and intelligent as THE TRUE MEANING OF PICTURES.

A more comprehensive review of the film can be found on digitally obsessed.

The Stranger has a much more negative review of the film calling Baichwal’s style the “blustery indignation of a film-studies freshman.”

Either way, THE TRUE MEANING OF PICTURES is worth recording and watching.

**UPDATE**
Now that I've slept on it, the review in THE STRANGER is starting to sound better to me. I think the filmmaker doesn't question Adams' methods enough. I'm not sure if she makes it clear enough that he really is seeking out the strangest people he can find. It's mentioned once or twice in the film, but it doesn't come up enough. He really is going to the most out of he way families he can find. I would've like just a bit more exploration of the communities in which his subjects live. The viewer should be reminded that the majority of people in Appalachia are like the majority of people in the US. They shop at Wal-Mart. The men who have no each other for fifty years meet each other at Hardee's on weekday mornings for coffee. People look forward to their weekend free time when they can relax in their swimming pools, go to church and see their friends. Now that I think about it, I want a bit more of this in the film. Showcasing a photo or two that feature satellite dishes is not enough.

not quite night court

If, like me, you turned off CENTURY CITY twenty minutes into the program please be aware there’s another corporate law drama worth watching. It’s not set in 2030 and it doesn’t air Tuesday nights on CBS. It’s airs on BBC America (Saturday nights @ 10pm) and is a lot more interesting. TRUST has more complex characters (and better actors). The stories don’t involve cutting edge topics like embryo cloning and the sets don’t feature futuristic looking computers but the liveliness of the show keeps me watching each week. The excitement I expressed a few days ago for CENTURY CITY (“It’s lawyers! But…IN THE FUTURE!!!”) has evaporated.

new episodes of "the real world" just don't cut it

i still watch tv, i swear.

Upcoming in March

Aaron Barnhart of TV Barn has a rather thorough rundown of television shows starting and airing in March. It's a nice reminder that the WORLD POKER TOUR starts again tonight. A few weeks ago I sampled a poker show on Fox Sports that was imported from the UK. It was pretty much unwatchable, and lasting only 30 minutes difficult to become invested in.