Mitch Wagner's Blog

Fun Web video series: The Guild

2009-11-10T21:44:53-08:00

The Guild is kind of like Seinfeld for nerds. It's the story of six dysfunctional people who play an unnamed World of Warrcraft-like game together. Their lives revolves around scoring in-game points, leveling up, and attempting to relate to the real world through the lens of the virtual world.

The Guid stars and is written and produced Felicia Day, who's had a modest success as a character actor on TV: She had a supporting role in Joss Whedon's TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She had a supporting role as a paralyzed dancer in the HBO biopic Warm Springs, which starred Kenneth Branagh as FDR; she did a memorable song-and-dance number leading a troupe of dancers in wheelchairs.

Day also appeared as a depressed math teacher on House. She had the top of her head sawed off so they could poke at her brain. They didn't really saw off Felicia Day's head, though -- they used a prop and special effects. Hmph. Paraphrasing Alan Rickman in Galaxy Quest: Actors today have no commitment to the craft.

Felicia's career has taken off as a cult star of Internet video, starring in Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog and creating and starring in The Guild.

Other stand-out characters and actors: Zaboo, a priapic, manic Indian-Jewish-American, played by Sandeep Parikh.

Vork, the productivity-obsessed guild leader, who stands out as antisocial even in that crowd, played by Jeff Lewis. I really couldn't stand Vork in the first season, but his earnestness grew on me.

Felicia, Sandeep and Jeff appeared on Copper Robot in April. Listen to the interview here:

Download it here.

The Guild is three seasons so far. Each episode is about seven minutes long, so each season is actually about 45 minutes. Good lunch-at-your-desk watching.

Overthinking the season finale of "Mad Men"

2009-11-09T23:14:13-08:00

Interesting set-up for next year. Sterling Cooper was always a bubble of the past in a changing world. It was an oasis where middle-aged white men still ruled, where they could go out for two-hour lunches saturated with beef, alcohol, and tobacco, and then come back to the office and chase their secretaries around the desk for the rest of the afternoon. In the rest of the world, women and non-whites were gaining power and the world was moving on. Now, Don Draper, Roger Sterling, and Bert Cooper are thrust into that new world. What will they make of it?

Great to see Don and Roger as drinking buddies again. Roger continues to be a mensch -- who'd a thought it? Also, Peter and Trudy seem to have the most healthy relationship of any couple of the show. They discuss matters like adults, they hear each other out respectfully, they share defeats and victories. Who'd a thought it?

Peter is the unlikely man of the future. He's the spoiled scion of a wealthy family, and yet he's the one with ambition and drive, and the vision to see the future clearly when others around him are blind to it. Don rattled off a list of ways that Peter is a visionary: Missile and air companies, the African-American consumer market, and more. I expect come the late 1970s Peter will be recommending that Sterling, Cooper, Price & Campbell throw its weight behind a little startup called "Microsoft."

And speaking of the late 70s: At the end of the episode, the network showed a "coming in 2010" string of promos. I saw Superman flying and I thought, briefly, "Holy crap, they're going to jump Mad Men to 1977! That's brilliant!" But then I realized it was just a promo for Superman Returns. Shucks.

Joan's back, hooray! In the new firm, maybe she'll be more of a senior management role, and not just the head girl. Too much to ask for 1964?

I'm a little surprised that Pryce's weaselly Brit assistant didn't come along to the new agency.

I wonder which of the Sterling Cooper characters not in the hotel room will be coming back to next year? Kinsey, Cosgrove, Sal? Kinsey is potentially an interesting character, with his stupid beard and stupid beatnik affectations. He thinks he's a genius, but he now knows he's not--he now knows that Don and Betty are the true geniuses. So many potentially interesting ways to take that character.

I suspect Sal will be part of the new firm. I suspect there just wasn't time in the episode for a Sal storyline, and he'll be back next year. Don might have to come to Sal, as he did with Betty, and admit to being in the wrong and ask him humbly to come back. But I think it's more likely, given Sal's character and the nature of the world in 1964, that Don or one of the other partners will simply invite Sal to come back, and Sal will simply choose to not mention the circumstances under which he left. Sal thinks if he keeps pretending everything is OK, everything will be OK.

Season finale of Mad Men = Kramer vs. Kramer + Ocean's 11.

"Peggy, get me a cup of coffee." "No." I had to make Julie rewind that so I could see it again, it was so great. One of the main things I love about Mad Men is how small moments like that become so enormous. Peggy had another one: "Thank you for stopping by." And Trudy: "Peter, could I talk to you in here for a moment?"

Betty says she doesn't love Don, and almost certainly a lot has to do with the fact that she's caught him in yet another betrayal. Yet I think part of it is because she's appalled to find he's just trash, not the aristocrat she thought he was at all. I thought that before last night, and I think it even more based on their fight in the bedroom. Also: What's with the marriage to the new guy? When is she going to stop looking for men to take care of her? And, as Julie points out, she hardly knows him and he hardly knows her.

What do you think of the flashbacks? I like 'em, but not everybody does:

[W]e had to sit through a few flashbacks that, like nearly all MM flashbacks this season, looked and sounded like drafts of an unproduced Eugene O’Neill play. Young Don’s life was portrayed as a hillbilly caricature complete with a corked jug o’ moonshine. (Weiner seems to have gleaned his knowledge of lower-class rural life from old collections of Li’l Abner comic strips; it’s too bad he never lets Don’s subconscious stray enough to portray Betty as Daisy Mae… ) When the horse reared in the stable and knocked Dad unconscious, Weiner has by now programmed me to select the appropriate time-period song lyric. In this case, I heard Dean Martin singing, “Ain’t that a kick in the head… "

Don Draper has an opportunity to re-invent himself with integrity now. He can either be openly single and tomcat around without shame or deceit, or find someone new and settle down and be monogamous and honest. Who thinks that'll actually happen?

It must be awful to have to tell your kids that Mommy and Daddy are getting a divorce--but even more awful in 1964. At least parents today have a script they can follow, so many people have done it, but in the world of Mad Men, divorced people are still freaks (as we saw in the first season).

As usual, James Poniewozik has great observations. He calls Bert Cooper in this episode a "lion in winter."

Next on Copper Robot: Singer Tamra Hayden, star of Second Life and Broadway

2009-11-09T12:59:42-08:00

Join us on the next Copper Robot program for a conversation with Second Life musician and real-life Broadway star Tamra Hayden (SL: Tamra Sands), followed by a concert from Tamra and party in Second Life.

WHEN: Sunday, Nov. 15, 6 pm

WHERE: The lovely Seaside Theater, World2Worlds Island in Second Life, or watch the live video on the Web.

Tamra is a real-life Broadway performer, who starred as Cosette in "Les Miserables." (No fooling. The real Broadway, real New York. Isn't that fantastic?)

As Tamra Sands, she's a frequent performer in Second Life, singing a sultry mix of jazz standards, Broadway tunes, and folk-rock, mixing up classics and original songs. She's also an officer of Broadway Live Island here in SL.

Tamra's RL performing resume includes "Cabaret" on Broadway, and she performed Off-Broadway in "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris." She traveled the US in tours of "Phantom of the Opera," "Les Mis," and "Fiddler on the Roof," and she has a busy concert schedule all over America. Check out her upcoming show schedule on her home page. I'm exhausted just reading it. On the plus side, she must have about a gajillion frequent flyer miles.

Tamra has also produced two CDs: "A Day at the Fair" is a singer-songwriter album of original tunes, and "Unwrapped" is a Christmas CD. She's currently co-producing a third CD, "I Believe in the Fire," to be released next month.

Read more about Tamra in a brief New World Notes write-up: "Mixed Reality Profile: Broadway Star Tamra Hayden Makes the Metaverse Her Stage."

Visit her SL Profiles page

Tamra on Tonight Live With Paisley Beebe. Tamra is the second guest - very good interview.

Second Life avatar Mo Hax writes about a day visiting Tamra and her husband. In real life, Mo is a programmer for a major multinational computer company. He writes: "Some people wonder if I have lost my mind when I gush about Second Life. But in what time or place could a closet-bound, pro coder, repressing his inner madrigal, ever happen to meet and befriend one of the biggest Broadway stars to live, let alone hear her sing live, dance with her, and eventually enjoy touring her stomping grounds with spouses?" I've had similar experiences in Second Life; it's one of the main reasons I keep coming back.

Overthinking "The Office"

2009-11-08T12:43:43-08:00

I wrote this in response to a friend's post about The Office on Facebook. He said he's boggled that people think Michael Scott is sympathetic, and that Pam treated him badly for dating her mother.

I responded:

I have a slightly different view of Michael than you do. I think he's got a better nature and an inner monster, and part of the tension of the show is rooting for his better nature to win this time. Which it occasionally does, once a season or so, like the time he gave Jim advice while handcuffed to the railing of the booze cruise boat.

Another thing I like about the show is the way we're seeing the petty side of Jim and Pam emerge in the past season or two. They're still mostly sympathetic, but I'm not sure I'd want them as friends, or to work with them. In the first couple of seasons, we saw that Jim seemed to genuinely like Michael and Dwight, which made Jim seem even more sympathetic; now it seems more like Jim has low self-esteem, he thinks of himself as an underachiever, and he likes Michael and Dwight because he sees them as even bigger losers than he is.

Many of the characters in "The Office" are like that.

Phyllis can be a bit of a barracuda at times.

Dwight, while being a mean-spirited ultra-nerd, is also the most competent person in the office in many ways.

Andy Bernard seems genuinely sweet underneath it all -- although he's so dumb you have to wonder how he got into Cornell. Normally, with an Ivy League grad that dumb, I'd say "family money," but if Andy had family money, why's he working for Dunder-Mifflin?

I-8 overpass: Seen on my daily walk around the neighborhood

2009-10-31T13:35:01-07:00

Mitch Wagner

Copper Robot: How the occult shaped America

2009-10-30T09:56:59-07:00

I talked with Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH THE VIDEO

We started out talking about the history of Halloween in America, an ancient Celtic holiday that's become one of the biggest events on the American calendar.

"It has its roots in pre-Christian Celtic practice where you were getting ready for winter and welcoming the ghosts of their ancestors," Horowitz said. Irish immigrants brought Halloween to America in the 1840s, and the holiday evolved over time, adding costumes and Jack o' Lanterns and trick-or-treating.

Now, Halloween is returning to its religious roots, as Wiccans take it up. Horowitz predicted that soon Halloween will be recognized as a religious holiday.

We turned to Horowitz's book, which he describes as essentially a history of the powerful influence the occult has had in America. "Occult beliefs have had a very serious influence, a liberalizing influence on a lot of our politics, and a very powerful and unseen impact on how we think about spirituality in America," Horowitz said.

"There are certain things that Americans expect from their churches, from their religions," Horowitz said. "They expect religion to be therapeutic, they expect it to be a kind of healing force, they expect it to come up with practical ideas and solutions to the problems of day-to-day existence.

"These ideas were almost unheard of about a hundred and fifty years ago. But as a culture of occult and alternative spirituality really took shape in America and took off with a kind of bounding popularity in the mid-19th Century, it changed our religion. And America became a laboratory for all kinds of ideas that later came to be called New Age or alternative religion, and exported this stuff all around the world. So occult and esoteric movements in America need to be written in to our religious history if we're going to understand our religious history.

"To ignore them is to misunderstand how many aspects of our politics and our culture and our spirituality took shape in modern America.

"My whole aim in writing this book was not to get caught up in the truth or falsity of the beliefs. I wanted to understand the impact of the beliefs. If one were to hold any religion up to the mirror of truth or falsehood, I don't think any could pass."

Horowitz said: "If the validity of Judaism is based on whether Moses really parted the Red Sea, that's got to be pretty shaky ground on which to base a belief system. But if someone could disprove to me the validity of the historical Moses--maybe such a man never walked the Earth--it does not reduce the validity of 'thou shalt not steal,' or 'thou shalt not kill.'

"Similarly, even if you could disprove Cayce's clairvoyance, it wouldn't reduce the experience people had in getting advice from him. Cayce introduced 'karma,' 'clairvoyance,' 'psychic' and 'reincarnation' into the American lexicon.

"Karma became part of our outlook on life. Even if we don't believe it's literally true, it's still a pretty good way to live, to believe that whatever I visit upon my neighbor in some way or another will get visited upon me."

We talked about the dark side of occult beliefs in America, from the occult roots of the neo-Nazi movement to deaths in a sweatlodge ceremony just a few weeks ago.

And we also discussed Christian Science, Abraham Lincoln's occult connections, how Horowitz became interested in occult history, and more. Listen or watch now.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE:

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Next on Copper Robot: "Life, Inc." author Douglas Rushkoff

2009-10-27T11:39:51-07:00

Join us for a conversation with author Douglas Rushkoff. We'll talk about his latest book, Life, Inc.: How the World Became A Corporation And How To Take It Back.

WHEN: Sunday, Nov. 1, 6 pm Pacific time (which is the same as Second Life Time).

WHERE: The lovely Seaside Theater, World2Worlds Island in Second Life, or watch the live video on the Web.

Life, Inc. looks at how corporatism and consumerism have turned us from human beings into producing-consuming machines. In our conversation with the author, we'll talk about how we got here, and what we should do about it.

Rushkoff is hardly the first guy to point out that we've gotten focused on consuming rather than creating, watching TV rather than connecting with our neighbors, and we've come to rely on big business to do for us what we used to do for ourselves, or for each other. But Rushkoff makes it all seem fresh, illustrating his points with research and anecdotes.

We'll talk to Rushkoff about those things, and also about what we should do to take back our society and lives. Don't worry, you won't have to wear hemp clothing and live in a yurt.

Rushkoff has written 10 books on the media, technology and culture. Previous books include Get Back In The Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, Open Source Democracy, the graphic novel Club Zero-G, and Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism. His book Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace, published in 1994, looked at the cyberpunk digital counterculture of the period. He teaches at the New School University, serves as technology columnist for The Daily Beast, and lectures around the world. Catch his program, the Media Squat, on the radio at WFMU or available as a podcast.

Join us for a fascinating conversation with one of the best minds of the Internet.

From Copper Robot. iTunes

Halloween decorations near our house

2009-10-23T17:23:56-07:00

Mitch Wagner

Tastes like chicken

2009-10-23T08:52:55-07:00

"Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent."-Mark Twain

Listen to my Copper Robot interview about same-sex marriage

2009-10-16T11:36:54-07:00

I talked with Pamela Brown, national policy director of Marriage Equality USA about why same-sex marriage is important, and the status of the fight to get it legalized all over the United States.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

WATCH THE VIDEO

Brown described how same-sex marriage benefits states in many ways. Businesses profit from wedding-related spending. But that's not the important part. "Mostly, the stronger that our family structures are, the more we are able to support and protect each other. That's not just a benefit for us as individuals, it benefits for society as a whole. It makes our communities stronger and allows us the opportunity to prosper the way we need to," Brown said.

Civil unions, with all the legal rights of marriage, but without the name, are an alternative to same-sex marriage. But they're not good enough, Brown said. She cited the example of her own relationship; she and her spouse have been together nearly 14 years. After five years, they registered as domestic partners, with a commitment ceremony. But friends, family, and the community found it confusing, people don't really know what a "domestic partnership" is.

Last year, Brown and her partner married. "The way we were treated after that-- I was surprised. People pretty well know we're together, we've been together a long time and involved in supporting this issue of marriage equality. But when you can go out and say 'we're married,' people get it. We were treated differently by the businesses we dealt with, whether it was the insurance company or jewelers or just talking to neighbors and co-workers.

"We said we got married and the first thing they said was 'congratulations,'" Brown said. "When we said we registered as domestic partners, they said, 'What does that mean?'

"Marriage is something that's understood and very important in society, and civil unions and domestic partnerships will never be the same thing."

That was just a few minutes of our discussion. We also talked about the legal and political work being done to get same-sex marriage recognized In California and Maine and other states, as well as on a federal level. We talked about whether it's fair to decide the issue in the courts, and whether legalizing same-sex marriage would infringe the rights of religions that consider same-sex marriage wrong.

LISTEN or WATCH.

And don't forget: Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation is our guest Sunday. Join us for the live interview. Hope to see you there!

From Copper Robot. iTunes

Next on Copper Robot: Occult America

2009-10-12T09:06:27-07:00

Join us for a conversation with Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation.

WHEN: Sunday, Oct. 18, 7 pm (SPECIAL TIME)

WHERE: The lovely Seaside Theater, World2Worlds Island in Second Life, or watch the live video on the Web.

For our Halloween program, we'll talk about how mysticism, Spiritualism and belief in the occult have been important to the US from its very beginning. George Washington and other Founders were Freemasons, Abraham Lincoln consulted with mediums, and occult beliefs shape pop culture to this very day, in the hip-hop music of Jay-Z and the recently released bestselling novel The Lost Symbol by Dan The Da Vinci Code Brown. And of course, Halloween itself is a massive celebration of the occult.

You don't have to believe in mystic secrets and talking to the dead to recognize the powerful effect occult beliefs have had on our nation. Occult practitioners helped shape some of the best things about America, such as equal rights for women and the abolition of slavery. Occult practices here have always been given an uniquely American stamp, used for self-improvement, with do-it-yourself techniques, and connected with progressive political causes.

Horowitz is a writer and publisher on metaphysical themes. He has appeared on the History Channel, The Montel Williams Show, CBS News Sunday Morning, and just completed a stint guest-blogging on one of my favorite blogs, Boing Boing. As editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin in New York, he has published some of today's leading titles on world religion, esoterica, and the metaphysical.

Join us for a fascinating discussion.

From Copper Robot. iTunes

Three Conrad Hilton quotes in honor of last night's episode of Mad Men

2009-10-12T09:05:13-07:00

"I like the tumult of life. I like its problems, its ever changing stresses."

"If you are 100% occupied, you are not charging enough rent."

"Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."

I cleared out my 20-year collection of daybags and briefcases today

2009-10-10T17:40:35-07:00

At Julie's prodding, today I went down to one of the garages and cleared out my 20-year-collection of daybags, briefcases, man-bags, man-purses, murses, satchels, gadget-bags, knapsacks, and overnight bags. We put most of them in a giveaway box, including a Computerworld messenger bag I got when I worked there in 1995-97. It's a nice bag but I have better ones about the same size now. And, more importantly, I've worked for InformationWeek since 2005, and I can't exactly go around sporting our competitor's logo.

I also got rid of a bag from a Netscape developer's conference in 1996. I remember that conference and bag well. Netscape was at the top of its game. I met a friend in New York for dinner; he had just been diagnosed with MS, but was still in good shape. He'd come in to New York to pick up an experimental med that he called "cow brains" because that's what it was made from. Both Netscape and, sadly, my friend have declined since then, although, fortunately, my friend is in better shape than Netscape.

I kept two small leather bags, one just big enough to carry a notepad, pens, and a couple of protein bars, another one big enough for the tablet computer I expect to buy over the next six months (which one? I don't know, they don't exist yet, except as rumors).

The clearing-out only took me a few minutes; it's part of Julie's big project to get the garages cleared out, which she's been going at for days.@

Ghost sign, 6th near Market, San Diego

2009-10-09T09:57:23-07:00

Mitch Wagner

Cory Doctorow reviews a collection of Conan the Barbarian stories

2009-10-08T10:16:52-07:00

I was literally raised on Conan stories. My dad was a Conan fan, and when I was a kid, he would spin out half-remembered Conan tales for me on long car trips, changing Conan into a gender-diverse trio called Harry, Larry and Mary, who would vanquish evil rulers and then create a dictatorship of the proletariat in their wake (Dad was, and is, a Trotskyist, after all).

via www.boingboing.net

This paragraph is priceless. It ought to be bronzed.

Letterman’s Mea Culpa, Take Two

2009-10-06T16:09:50-07:00

I've never really got the argument anyway that Dave is a "hypocrite," because he's made endless fun of politicians' sex lives in the past. I think this argument essentially misunderstands late-night sex jokes. They're not made out of moral indignation; they're made because sex is a ridiculous, hilarious thing that everybody cares about and gets big laughs. Comedians don't make jokes about sex scandals because they themselves are morally beyond reproach. They make jokes about sex scandals because sex scandals are funny.

via tunedin.blogs.time.com

Why Fining People Can Actually Increase That Activity... An Economics Lesson

2009-10-06T15:34:33-07:00

Nifty examples of a basic economic principle, that the value of some things can't be measured financially, and introducing money into the equation can backfire.

Paying people to donate blood sometimes reduces blood donations. People donate blood to feel good about helping others, and paying them diminishes that good feeling.

Likewise, fining parents for picking up their kids late from daycare can actually increase tardiness. Because the real cost of picking up your kids late is guilt at inconveniencing others, and fining parents reduces that guilt. Some parents will just think of the fine as a fee, and pay it.

This is really fascinating stuff that is important for people to understand in setting up any sort of incentive structure. Money -- either on the cost or benefit side -- is not the only incentive. And thinking that it is often leads to miscalculating a series of other, potentially more important, costs and benefits. That doesn't mean that economics is wrong. It can handle all of that. The problem is when people assume that it's only the direct monetary costs and benefits that go into the equation. It is, unfortunately, a common problem, and leads to all sorts of confused thinking both about business models, but also about the economics profession itself.

Seems to me this is a central issue in healthcare reform in particular, and economic policy in general. We've spent 30 years creating a nation where financial incentive is king. In particular, we've created a system where doctors receive financial incentives to practice, and we've attracted doctors whose primary motivation is making money. And healthcare is worse for it.

Doctors deserve to make money. We all deserve to make money. I want to be rich. But there are other incentives in life as well.

Watch the video of my Copper Robot program on same-sex marriage

2009-10-06T10:32:00-07:00

I talked with Pamela Brown, national policy director for Marriage Equality USA, fresh back from her honeymoon and ready to resume the work of giving other same-sex couples the right to to marry. We talked about the political and legal campaigns, as well as this weekend's National Coming Out Day and upcoming demonstrations in San Francisco and Washington D.C.

I'm editing the sound file now for the audio-only podcast, I'll have it up soon.

Watch it here:

Embed code:

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From Copper Robot. iTunes Podcast

Tonight on Copper Robot: Pamela Brown, national policy director, Marriage Equality USA

2009-10-04T13:11:37-07:00

Join us tonight at 6 Pacific time (which is the same as Second Life Time) for a conversation with Pamela Brown, national policy director of Marriage Equality USA, an organization working to legalize same-sex marriage.

Pamela's just back from her honeymoon in time for a big weekend for the cause--next weekend is National Coming Out Day, as well as several scheduled demonstrations. In coming months, same-sex marriage will be in issue both in the courts and in the ballot box. Join us for fascinating conversation.

URLs and SLURLs and more details here.

You know what's great about the iPhone?

2009-10-03T17:59:36-07:00

If you're tired you can easily sit staring at the screen for an hour or more, tapping buttons and getting nothing useful done.

Wait, no, sorry, that's not what's great about the iPhone. That's what sucks about the iPhone.

What I learned about technology today

2009-10-01T13:58:29-07:00

Maybe if I put the old USB headset away, I won't put it on when I need to answer the phone and shout "HELLO! HELLO! HELLO!" into it when I can't hear what the other guy is saying.

I mean, it's not even connected to anything anymore.

It's been that kind of a day.

The Internet exists because the world doesn't give us enough reasons to feel inadequate

2009-09-30T12:59:04-07:00

I looked up a friend on Twitter to send her a direct message, and I saw she'd stopped following me. Even though we don't know each other well, I was sad. I spent a minute being sad, but then I realized I was looking at the wrong Twitter profile--it was someone else, with a Twitter nickname similar to my friend's. My friend is still following me on Twitter after all.

Good grief.

Next on Copper Robot: Marriage Equality

2009-09-29T10:23:00-07:00

Next on Copper Robot: Join us for a discussion of same-sex marriage. We'll talk about why it's right, why it's important, and what's being done about it

When: Sunday, Oct. 4, 6 pm Second Life Time, which is the same as Pacific time.

Where: The lovely Seaside Theater on World2Worlds Island in Second Life. Or watch the live video on the Web.

Photo: Tillie Ariantho

We're talking with Marriage Equality USA, a national organization working to promote civil marriage for same-sex couples. In two weeks, Marriage Equality is participating in the sixth annual Bridgewalk to promote the cause, marching across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. That's Oct. 11, the same weekend as a two-day National Equality March in Washington D.C. Oct. 11 is also National Coming Out Day and a National Day of Action--we'll find out what that's all about.

While marriage equality suffered a big setback in California, with the passing of Prop. 8 banning same-sex marriage last year, the fight goes on. Maine is voting on Proposition 1, overturning that state's marriage equality bill, in November. And there are several cases headed to federal court, looking to overturn Prop. 8 and the national Defense of Marriage Act.

Hope to see you Sunday!

Listen to my conversation about healthcare reform with political blogger Avedon Carol

2009-09-28T10:16:00-07:00

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Avedon is a passionate progressive blogger at The Sideshow. She was a vocal critic of President Bush, and is no great fan of Obama either. We talked about why she thinks the current healthcare proposal is a massive ripoff of the American people.

"He's got a terrible plan because he's putting insurance companies first," Avedon said. She makes a case for the U.S. instituting a government-run healthcare system like Britain (where she lives), which she says is less expensive, more efficient, and delivers better care.

Avedon demolishes arguments that national healthcare would violate healthcare companies' private property. "It's not their property. It's our health. They're not entitled to our money." She notes that the Founders were great proponents of government run public services: Jefferson was most proud of founding a public university, and Franklin founded the Post Office. The Constitution says the government's job is to protect the public welfare, not private commerce.

We also talked about 9/11 hysteria, whether high-fructose corn syrup and aspartame are bad for you (she's convinced they are, I'm skeptical), her career as a Second Life stripper, and why the nation that invented the deep-fried Mars Bar still manages to be less obese and healthier than Americans.

From Copper Robot. iTunes Podcast

"C.S.A.," a fake documentary about the history of America after the South won the Civil War

2009-09-27T10:43:00-07:00

As you might expect, CSA is a heavyhanded movie.

Analee Lewitz writes at Alternet in a 2006 review:

I love a good alternate history yarn for the same reason I love science fiction. Both genres analyze present-day trends by projecting them into another reality. That other reality might be the future or simply a transformed version of the present.
In the United States, there are two incredibly popular alternate history scenarios: 1. What if the South had won the Civil War? and 2. What if Germany had won World War II? “C.S.A: The Confederate States of America”, a fake British documentary made by Kansas filmmaker Kevin Willmott, answers both questions.

After its limited release in the theaters two years ago, the movie achieved cult status in DVD form, which is really its natural medium. It's fascinating to watch “CSA” on a television set because the movie is meant to resemble a snippet from a TV station, complete with freaky commercials and news breaks, that is airing a "controversial" British documentary about the history of the CSA.

Blending dark humor with painstakingly researched historical revisionism, Willmott begins the movie with a fake commercial for insurance. The clip looks exactly like something you might see on ABC, including the fact that everyone in it is white. Then the announcer says, "Our insurance protects you and your property," and the camera pans over to a smiling black boy who is clipping a hedge. This is a present day in which slavery still exists.

The British documentary reveals how this came to pass. After the South wins the Civil War with the help of France and England, the president heals the rift between North and South by offering Northerners slaves to help reconstruct the bombed-out cities of New York and Boston. Deposed president Lincoln flees to Canada, followed by 20,000 abolitionists including Fredrick Douglass and Henry David Thoreau.

The framing device is that we're watching 95 minutes of uncut TV from this universe, complete with station checks and commercials. A title card at the end of the movie says that many of the products advertised are real, in our universe: Darkie toothpaste, the Coon Chicken Inn, and a brand of tobacco with a name so racist and vile I'm not even going to use it here. A couple of the products were available until the 1950s.

I couldn't tell you whether I liked the movie. I watched the whole thing. I wanted to see what happened next, that is, how the alternate American history played out. I don't really feel like I learned anything: I already knew that racism existed throughout American history, and continues today. And I'm uncomfortable with political discussion that isolates racism, as this movie does, and fails to portray it in the complete matrix of American ethnic, religious, economic, and class prejudices--and also great opportunity for all people. Our African-American president is subject to quite a bit of racism--but he's still President.

It's a low-budget movie, and it shows. In particular, bits that are supposedly excerpts from movies made by D.W. Griffith in 1915, and Hollywood in the 1940s, look cheap and fake. D.W. and the Hollywood studio system made better movies than that.

Overall, a nice attempt, but I prefer Harry Turtledove's novel, Guns of the South, which covers essentially the same ground.