Which brings us back to Average Reader. Because the truth is you can’t write just for people living the event, if the market will not also follow. TV still being something of a mass medium, even with all the fractured cable universe now reducing audience size per channel. Well, here’s a secret that I learned with Homicide and have held to: if you write something that is so credible that the insider will stay with you, then the outsider will follow as well. Homicide, The Corner, The Wire, Generation Kill—these are travelogues of a kind, allowing Average Reader/Viewer to go where he otherwise would not. He loves being immersed in a new, confusing, and possibly dangerous world that he will never see. He likes not knowing every bit of vernacular or idiom. He likes being trusted to acquire information on his terms, to make connections, to take the journey with only his intelligence to guide him. Most smart people cannot watch most TV, because it has generally been a condescending medium, explaining everything immediately, offering no ambiguities, and using dialogue that simplifies and mitigates against the idiosyncratic ways in which people in different worlds actually communicate. It eventually requires that characters from different places talk the same way as the viewer. This, of course, sucks.

Just finished the fourth season of “The Wire”, now digging through some of the copious collection of interview with David Simon out on the Internet. The above is from an interview with Nick Hornsby in The Believer from last August. He’s not shy about speaking his mind. This about sums up my feelings on the series, not having a clue about the world the series takes place in but still getting drawn in.

Also I’m messing around with the design of my website (live!) so if something is screwed up, that’s why probably.

The Sci-fi Channel currently has the pilot of a new cartoon, The Amazing Screw-On Head, up on their website. I just watched and it was very well done. Funny dialogue, lots of action, and mostly good voices. I couldn’t stop seeing Niles Crane in Emperor Zombie, though he had many good lines, and Molly Shannon was kinda “eh”. Overall I enjoyed it a lot. Recommended if you like The Maxx or Venture Brothers. It’s based on a comic I haven’t read by Mike Mignola that I haven’t run much into before in my limited forays into comicry, but maybe I’ll have to change that.

Be sure to fill out the survey so this will make it on the air.

The Maxx was a cartoon that aired on MTV in 1995. It was based on a comic book series of the same name by Sam Keith. I just finished watching the complete series, only lasting 13 approximately-15-minute episodes, on Youtube. I’m surprised that they haven’t been taken down, what with Youtube’s stricter stance on material that violates copyright. I’m glad, though, since I never saw the show when it was first on TV. The plot goes something like this, taken from Wikipedia:

The series follows the story of The Maxx, a homeless man who believes he is a superhero. The Maxx shifts between the real world and a dream world, which he refers to as The Outback, which is just as real to him as the real world. Julie Winters is a “freelance social worker”, who befriends The Maxx. Little does she know that she and The Maxx have a deeper connection, and it involves the dream world that The Maxx is constantly drawn into.

The hand-drawn animation is awesome, humor and drama are balanced extremely well, and the voice work is over-the-top in a good way. Evidently Blizzard thought so too, since they hired Glynnis Talken Campbell, the voice of Julie, to be Kerrigan in the Starcraft games and other voices and Michael Haley, the voice of The Maxx, for Diablo. The distinctive voice of Mr. Gone, Barry Stigler, went on to do voicework for many anime productions.

Cartoons no longer are seen in America as solely the realm of children, with television programming like Adult Swim, but I don’t know if most people would be accepting of mature topics like rape being handled seriously in animation. Probably not since the MTV Oddities block, which The Maxx, didn’t take off. I hope it comes to DVD one day with a copious amount of extras, especially commentaries, but it isn’t too likely. Enjoy while you can:

• Episodes 1 & 2
• Episodes 3 & 4
• Episodes 5 & 6
• Episodes 7 & 8
• Episodes 9 & 10
• Episode 11
• Episodes 12 & 13

You need to see the video of Stephen presenting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, aired on CSPAN only moments ago, if you’ve been even vaguely aware of politics for the past year. Stephen, as well as whomever invited him to speak, may be getting a visit from some hired thugs tonight. Check it out at Crooks and Liars and read more at Editor & Publisher:

A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.

I’m sure there will be many heated discussions in the Oval Office beginning with “who the hell is this Colbert guy?”

Edit: Available at vSocial. It was working, now it says “This video is still being prepared for viewing, and will be available soon.” Guess they didn’t want to handle the traffic? Back to Youtube I go.

Pallies – content edited for television

Cock Ring Warehouse – “any cock’ll do!”

Mayostard/Mustardayonnaise