Apocalypse Now

The end is near...
At least that's what you may think by seeing any of a half dozen recent movies which all deal with the end of the world as we know it: The Road, Legion, Book of Eli, 2012, etc. It's not all that surprising since many of us have experienced the end of our worlds through job loss, foreclosure, and many other signs of the "economic apocalypse." Will President Obama be the hero and save the world? Hopefully - but I know for sure that it will take more than a creative screenwriter to save us.

Mom-Rock Rocks!

So I've heard a term used more often recently: Mom Rock or Mom Rocker. I think it replaces Soccer Mom. I prefer Minivan Warrior.
I first heard the term Mom Rocker used to describe musician Rob Thomas. Does he like that? And just what makes his music attractive to those of us who fit the demographic?
I bought his new CD (which is also a commentary on my generation that I didn't download it from iTunes), and, it sounds like a fine set of music to me. It may be important to know that one of my favorite guilty pleasures is watching music videos on VH-1. My musical preferences have been influenced greatly by this.
I would describe the playlist as a mix of Top 40 and Adult Contemporary. It includes Michael Buble (another Mom Rocker?), as well as Rob Thomas, but a smattering of Top 40 that includes Lady GaGa, Rhianna, Beyonce, Jay-Z, etc. Just enough to give me a small amount of "street cred" with my teenage sons.
Of course, the very fact that I watch music videos on my television is evidence that they will always be one step ahead of me in terms of technology and mass media awareness. They watch whatever they want, whenever they want, online.
I'm sure that I enjoy music videos, in part, because they harken back to my teenage years, when they first appeared. In the beginning few people had cable television, but the advent of MTV drove people to subscribe. Now, three decades later, content continues to drive people to adopt the latest technology: iPods, etc. And, at the same time, we remove the middle men - the record companies, cable music channels, etc. - and better enable anyone with content to provide to access the audience directly.

Of Video Games and Video

It was surprising to see that people are videotaping themselves playing video games and then posting it on YouTube (and other video-sharing sites). What was intended as an interactive video experience becomes a passive video experience. When I asked my kids why watching these videos is interesting to them and why they themselves produce them sometimes, here's what they said:
It's fun;
You get tips about how to play the game;
You can learn how to do something difficult by watching someone else do it;
You gain confidence in your own game-playing skills.
So, while it's not immediately interactive, there is something of a "time-delayed" interactivity involved in the enterprise.

Attack of the Unemployment Rate

I've been reflecting recently on the trend in popular culture to feature the undead. Current examples of horror novels, movies, and TV shows, as well as undead-related advertising, are many. "Twilight" may have been the spark, but the oxygen fanning the flames of this new paranormal obsession is the angst over the current economy.

We keep hearing that the unemployment rate is more than 10 percent, but it's actually more than 17 percent when you count those who are underemployed and those who have given up altogether. Compared to that, I'd happily face a vault full of vampires, a gaggle of ghosts, and a zoo of zombies. It's comforting to know that, while the undead are frightening, we are more afraid of losing our homes. As I tell my children: "The only scary thing in our house is the mortgage."

Election Day

Ah, Election Day! The day we know the end is near: the end of the campaigns and the end of the campaign advertising. One more day of this political publicity pollution and then we can all get back to normal.
Election returns are so anti-climactic these days. Even ballot counting that goes on for weeks would never qualify as a "cliff hanger." And mailing your ballot, along with your gas bill and birthday card to your sister, just doesn't have the same cache that going to the polls had. I miss the nice retired ladies with the cookies in the church auditorium. What are they doing now?
It is a lot more convenient, though. So why do election officials expect only 56 percent of registered voters to submit their ballots by midnight tonight?
Has the plethora of political ads led to greater apathy among voters? And, if so, can we fight fire with fire? Perhaps we need a public service campaign (another advertising campaign?!) to combat voter apathy. Rock the Vote and Washington Bus are two programs aimed at activating teens during elections, but what about us old folks? Only half of us are voting right now. Seems like there's a lot of room for improvement.

Hide-and-Go-Text

I discovered my 8-year-old daughter and her friends playing a new game yesterday: Hide-and-Go-Text. It's a version of hide-and-go-seek, of course, but the players (both hiders and seekers) have a cell phone with text messaging. So the hider sends a text telling the seekers how long to count before seeking. Sometimes they provide clues during the seeking: hotter, colder, etc.
My immediate reaction was to feel REALLY old. But then I remembered it was my generation that invented the video game - an electronic interface between two or more people who want to play a game together but can't stand the intensity of actual face-to-face competition. Sometimes I think that our inability to deal directly with one another is being reflected so much by the technology we use. Even phone conversations have been replaced with texting. We hope to replace voice inflection with emoticons.
So, let's think of what other classic children's games could be adapted to work with new technology. Tag using Segways? Jump rope with avatars?

When News Breaks, We Fix It!

Ah, yes! I just saw the first of many "breaking news" stories that are headed our way in the coming weeks. This one was a condo fire in downtown Seattle. No one was hurt, as far as the report went, but it was really only news because there were flashing lights in the dark. Good video.
When I worked on the assignment desk of a local television station's news department, I remember conducting beat checks, calls to various police and fire agencies to see if there is anything newsworthy (i.e. any flames visible, etc.). But during my tenure, an edict came down from the news director that "thou shalt have a live shot in every newscast."
Why include a live shot in every newscast? Because it creates the illusion that the station is covering "breaking news." In reality, the poor nightside reporter is standing in the dark outside a darkened building, saying: "Two hours earlier something was happening here."
That's one of the reasons why a lot of live shots are weather related. Something is always happening with the weather: rain, snow, heat. And the weather forecast is the most watched segment in any local newcast. That's why it won't air until later than fifteen minutes into the newscast. Because if the viewer makes it into the second quarter hour, even if just for the three-minute forecast, the station gets credit for the entire half hour.
At least that's how it used to be in the stone age of television nearly 20 years ago. Nowadays, the ratings services are much more sophisticated and measure viewership in smaller increments. It was a sensation when Nielsen introduced the "People Meter" which could track which members of the household were watching at any given time. Streaming video online made that somewhat irrelevant, at least for certain demographic groups.
Next time: more to look forward to in the coming television ratings sweeps.