View From the Phlipside - Avatar

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

Well I went and saw the movie. I tried to be as open minded about it as possible and I must admit that some of it was better, even much better than I expected. That's right I saw Avatar and I saw it in 3D.

So where to begin? With the movie or with the effects? Let's deal with the effects first because it was the part I had the greatest reservations about. Color me impressed with the "Real D" three dimensional effects. The glasses sat comfortably on my nose in front of my regular glasses, I really stopped noticing them fairly quickly. They don't do any of the cheesy "3-D" silliness in Avatar, you know the spear flying out of the screen right at your face, stuff. It was very impressive. So I would certainly be willing to give the process another chance in another movie.

Now about the movie itself. It's a science fiction action adventure film. I want to get that out there right up front so we can be fair. This isn't Shakespeare or Bergman or even Woody Allen. So let's keep the standards reasonable for what to expect from the movie. Having said that the plot was pretty simple and predictable. It didn't have to be, there are always ways to keep the storyline interesting. But I'd say the plot was the minimum needed to keep the story going. So give it a passing grade of C. Not doing quite as well was the dialogue, which struck me as trite, boring and utterly uninspiring. There were one or two lines late in the movie that struck me as almost exciting but I can't quote one of them to you right now. When I walked out of Star Wars the first time I could do a half dozen or more. So dialogue gets a D.

Characterization was the real loser here. We're talking cardboard cutouts. We're talking stereotypes, shallow, one dimensional. And the worst part is there was some real room for character. Giovanni Ribisi's character had the chance to work on some real internal conflict, as could Sam Worthington's lead character of Sully and several of the Navi characters. But we don't get it. And that's a real loss to this movie. Call characterization a D minus.

So is Avatar any good? Should you go see it? I would say absolutely see this movie and see it in 3D. My bet is that the defects are much more obvious without the effects. You'll have plenty of fun and you'll talk about it for days. My bet is that if you're really into the movies it's going to leave you feeling a little empty. As if some important inner piece was missing from the experience. Like disconnecting your avatar.

Call that the view from the Phlipside


These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

May Our E-mails Be Simple

Great story by NPR on the update Anglican blessing of the tools of the work force. Seems the Rev. Canon David Parrott offered a prayer at a service in London:

"...a modern take on a prayer for laborers that dates to medieval times then: plows and hammers. Now: smart phones and laptops. The blessing: "May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple and our Web sites be accessible."

Amen and amen.

Story HERE

Hmmmm, wonder where I can get my iPhone and laptop blessed around here...

LOL

Peace

View From the Phlipside - The Emmys

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

What would happen to a major media award if it lost the support of the industry that it supposedly served? What would happen if the industry itself decided it wasn't sure it was worth the time and effort to even promote the awards show itself? We may get the answer to that question sooner than you might expect. Amazingly it's the television world that is standing at the brink with their award, the Emmy.

Seems that the Emmy, the award that's actually ABOUT television hasn't been doing very well on television. The ratings have been terrible. The latest news is that the broadcast TV networks that air the show have been cutting back on their promotion of the event which doesn't help either. There's been lots of talk about the awards shows for the last couple decades. They're too long, the artists do silly things or blather on and on and on, they're old fashioned and more than a little dull sometimes. In reality though both the Oscars and the Grammys, the awards for movies and music, have managed to hang onto their ratings and both finish AHEAD of the televised television awards program. You'd think THAT alone would be enough for the TV industry to pull together to get things fixed.

Ah, pull together, there's the other major problem that the Emmys have. You see the TV industry is a lot like a dysfunctional blended, Brady bunch kind of family. On one side you have the "older kids" meaning the broadcast networks and on the other side we have the "younger kids" the cable networks. Add in that the cable kids have been racking up a LOT of victories and multiple award winners like "Mad Men" and you have the making a major family fight. You see the award show is always on a broadcast network, this year it's NBC, yeah the news just gets worse and worse. The broadcast children are tired of being the stage for the glorification of the little kids. This despite the fact that the old paradigm is dead, dead, dead. Something like 80% of homes get TV from cable or satellite. It's really not "big brother broadcast networks" any more. Besides LOTS of those cable networks are owned by the network owners too.

TV needs to understand that they are all part of the same industry. They need to use their own medium to showcase their own medium. It's a chance to really let all the great things on television to really get a moment to shine. In other words it's time to stop acting like children.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

Who is that smiling devil?

My friend Bronwyn, who is the Youth Officer for The Episcopal Church, has a blog dedicated to youth ministry in our denomination. She asked me to share the 52 reviews in 52 weeks series with the larger church and I agreed. So now the world has to endure an entirely too large photo of my smiling mug on her blog. Worst part is that's what I really look like. I'll let you decide for yourselves how frightening it is.

I encourage you to check out the first of her "Illumination" series and the entire EpiscoYouth blog. And for the many other Episcopal youth ministers out there, let's see what you've got!

Don't forget you can find the reviews all on one "page" HERE

View From the Phlipside - Most Important Tweets?

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

Now I know I just finished last year by wondering why I spent so much time talking about Twitter, the micro-blogging service that I'm not entirely sure I buy just yet. So naturally we will begin the New Year with....a program about Twitter.

But when I saw the folks over at buzzmarketing today had put together a list of the "10 Most Important Tweets of the Year" I just couldn't resist. Since I'm not sure it's possible to say something important in 140 characters I wanted to see if they could change my mind by showing me the light. So let's see what they have to offer.

Numbers 9 and 10 didn't do much for me. Number ten was a tweet from Google where they printed their catch phrase "I'm Feeling Lucky" in binary. If you're a computer code geek maybe that's cool. Number nine was from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg assuring everyone that yes it was really him. That was it. Let's see we also got a tweet from the Yankees victory parade by a player, we discovered that Oprah Winfrey is some kind of internet newb since her first tweet was IN ALL CAPS! A tweet from an astronaut and one from Ashton Kutcher. I'll admit there's only a subtle difference there. And at number one was a tweet from Barak Obama. From November of 2008. Ummm, isn't this the 2009 list? Yes it is, but apparently they couldn't come up with 10 that could even pretend to be important. And all of these so far are definitely pretenders to the crown.

Were there ANY tweets of any importance? Actually I'd give at least a probationary nod to three. All of them showed Twitter's ability to advance the concept of instant coverage of current events. These would be a tweet following the emergency plane landing in the Hudson river, Michael Jackson's death and news from inside Iran as anti-government forces protested and were being suppressed. To my amazement these three finished at numbers four, five and seven respectively. That put them behind the astronaut, Ashton Kutcher and the slightly out of date Obama tweets.

So those are the ten most important tweets of the year. At least according to one source. The latest update on show topics from The Phlipside didn't make it somehow. I'm rather astounded by that actually. Surely my withering analysis of the Jay Leno show deserved at least a mention. No? There is another possibility, of course. That Twitter really IS just a vehicle for minor marketing efforts and major ego massage.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - 2010 Movies - ReMakes and Sequels

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

The start of a new year and that means a whole new year of movies to see! So let's take a look at some of what's coming. This week we'll start with remakes and sequels. As always I expect this to be a mixed lot. Too often the second or third or whatever in a series or the remakes are just lacking in whatever it was that made the original work.

For example in June we can look forward to the "Kung Fu Kid" a remake of 1984's "Karate Kid". This time around the teacher will be played by Jackie Chan and the young boy by Will Smith's son Jaden. Could be a hit or a total disaster. Other remakes include Clash of the Titans which as I remember was awful back in 1981. The effects were all done in stop motion and looked tired even then. New generation computer animation will certainly help I'm just not sure how many people will jump at the chance to see the story of Perseus on the big screen. Made plenty of money the first time though.

OK more remakes still to come - Poltergeist (despite the rumor that the first three movies in this series were cursed. Seriously). Red Dawn, with the Chinese invading this time instead of the Russians. Look for a return of the "Wolf Man" and the folks at Disney return to "Alice in Wonderland", get ready to dance again with a new "Footloose", oh and Freddy Krueger is back with a new version of "A Nightmare on Elm Street".

Turning to sequels there are PLENTY of those this year too. The animated film Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil is coming. If you're ready for a return of the old "Greed is Good" motto watch for "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps" in April. Then we have "Iron Man 2", "Shrek: Forever After" and "Sex in the City 2" in May. Later in the year you'll find "Toy Story 3", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1", "The Chronicles of Narnia - Voyage of the Dawn Treader", and "Tron: Legacy"

I've probably missed at least a couple more re-makes or sequels but that's more than enough for one year. I'm not sure I'd bet on any of them other than Harry Potter being a guaranteed hit. I know I'm interested in the Narnia, Tron, and Iron Man films along with Harry. Most of the rest I can wait till they hit DVD and a few I'll skip completely. Next week I'll take a look at what's new and interesting in the movies.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

Things I Don't Get - Tattoos

This is an ongoing, occasional series of comments on things I don't understand. It's just me thinking aloud, not passing judgement. I encourage people to help me understand.

This may get some of my favorite people a little riled. I know a LOT of people who have tattoos. Every time I see someone getting one I ask the same question. "Why?"

I don't mean the question in any judgemental or derogatory sense. I really don't understand why someone would do that. I don't understand any of it.

The pain - I've heard some people claim it doesn't hurt much. They're in the minority. Simple understanding of physiology tells me it will hurt. Repeatedly jabbing a pen into the skin and injecting a foreign body. It's going to hurt. I'm not into pain. In fact I'm a self confessed weenie about needles. So I would have to really, REALLY want a tattoo to go through the pain. I don't understand wanting it that much.

Choosing a permanent mark - You're going to live with this for the rest of your life. (There are some processes for removing tattoos. They only work to a certain degree and I hear they hurt, maybe more than getting the tattoo to begin with. So there's really no going back). There are very few things I like enough to want to have around for years, let alone decades. Virtually all of them are people (I don't count things like music or movies because I can put them away for as long as I like), virtually none of them are "fashion" items. Even my taste in religious icons have changed over the years. How much consideration goes into being a 60 year old woman with a "tramp stamp" when you're a 20 year old? I just think there are going to be a whole lot of embarassed middle aged and senior citizen folks coming down the pike.

Marking your body - Gotta be honest, I don't like getting a tiny spot of pen ink on my hands. While I'm not compulsively clean I don't much like having "stuff" on my body. So the idea of permanently putting a mark on it (Confession time - when I first started to type this item I was going to type "Disfiguring your body". It seemed a bit judgemental so I didn't but it IS how I feel. At least in regards to my own body.) I only get this one body. I was raised to believe that you keep your stuff clean and tidy.

Clearly I'm not a candidate to get a tattoo. Reasons number 1 and 3 are also the reason why it's unlikely that I'll ever get a piercing. I'm not asking this question to try and find a reason to change my mind. I'm comfortable being pictorially bland and unadorned.

Please be clear, I don't think any less of people simply because they get a tattoo. Certain tattoos make me wonder about some folks and what they're thinking. My hunch is that they're not thinking much at all when they do it. But then I'm fairly certain that a percentage of the population doesn't think much about most things. My opinion on the size of that percentage varies with how grumpy I am that day with my fellow humans.

In the end it comes down to just this. I don't get it.

Peace

2009-2010 - A Life Lived and Yet to Live

So the new year is here and 2009 has been firmly and finally to rest. A few thoughts on the year that was in my life and the year to come.

I see a lot of folks talking about how terrible '09 was and I understand. At the same time this has been a wonderful and memorable year for me. We had some financial challenges even though we didn't lose our jobs (Thank you Lord). I wondered if my job would last through the year. We had to cancel or postpone two events. My least favorite part of the job. I had to make a very difficult decision that angered someone very special to me. It was the correct decision and I will shoulder the responsibility and the burden of it. I've struggled with the usual issues. No doubt they'll be back this year as well. We've had a modest number of car issues, including getting hammered by a deer (still waiting on getting the damage fixed. Maybe this week). At the end of the year I've backslid on my weight loss, putting about 10 pounds back on.

On the other hand:

Our health has been good. In fact I received several pieces of great news concerning my health. I lost 40 pounds in 18 months. I have to re-lose some of them and then a few more but I KNOW I can do it now. What a huge difference that makes. The weight loss and working out helped pull my blood tests back to normal and improved my outlook both short term and long term.

I blew away several physical/workout challenges this year. I climbed the Westfield hill a rise of just shy of 800 feet in the span of about 5 miles. For me it was like climbing Everest. And I did it first thing in the summer. I looped the lake a couple times (42 mile ride) and rode to work several times (21 miles in 90 minutes). In fact by summer's end that 20+ mile ride wasn't even a big deal anymore. That's simply astounding. I discovered I can play volleyball without embarrassing myself.

I cooked a couple spectacular meals, a whole lot of very good ones and only a couple really bad ones.

I wrote 50,000 in 29 days in the NaNoWriMo challenge. The kid always believed even when I didn't. Turned out she was right. Takes after her mom. I wrote 52 reviews of youth ministry resources in 52 weeks. Wasn't sure I'd finish that either.

I was named to a Standing Commission of the larger church.

I travelled to visit friends, on a mission trip to New Orleans (and saw my aunt Dorothy Dexter!), added some successful new wrinkles to our Senior High program, supported Sleep Away and served as Head Pop for a Happening Weekend. I made some life changing decisions at Lay CREDO #9 and made some great new friends.

I passed 27 years as a married man and 22 years as a father.

On the whole 2009 wasn't such a terrible year for me.

So what's happening in 2010?

A few more landmarks coming, 52, 28 and a child with a college degree. Amazing.

Starting in March I will be taking a Sabbatical. That's both very exciting and rather scary. As we get closer I'll be writing more about that. There will be some changes and challenges associated with that.

Later this year we (the Diocese of WNY) will elect a new bishop. That will be very important for me and the rest of the staff. Fairly important for the diocese too of course. Again exciting and a little scary.

More programs to get up and running and healthy again.

I have decided (and announcing here publicly for the very first time) that my new physical goal for this summer is to run a 5k race. You should have heard the silence at the other end of the phone when I told my middle brother that. He knows I don't run. Period. Full stop. So this is a challenge that is completely out of my comfort zone. And so it's a very good challenge. I will continue to ride and hope to extend my goals there as well.

I'm going to finish the process of losing weight. From where I am today I need to drop 20-25 pounds. The first half will be easy, the second not so much. But I will do it.

I'm going to love my life, my wife, my daughter, my family and my friends. I'm going to enjoy the young people that God brings me to serve.

I'm going to laugh, dance, pray, sing and finally really learn to play the guitar.
I'm going to read books and finish writing one. Then maybe write another. Or maybe some more poetry. Or maybe do some really serious work on my photography. Or teach myself to draw. Or all of the above! Why the hell not?

I'm going to stop being afraid. Fear has had far too much sway in my life for far too long. This old travelling companion can disembark, right here, right now.

I can hardly wait. Let's get this part started.

Peace (and love)

View From the Phlipside 2009 Review pt 3

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

I'm closing out the 2009 series of A View From the Phlipside by taking a look back at what we've been talking about this year. I have to admit that even I had forgotten about some of them.

For example there was the big flap over the title of a new Britney Spears song back in January. Like most things about Britney these days the memory fades pretty fast. Then there was the great Stephen King - Stephanie Meyer flap. If you'll recall the horror king had some very nasty things to say about the queen of the new glittery vampire series. With the money the books and this summer's movie have raked in I'm sure she's weeping all the way to the bank. Of course people said the same thing about King early in his career too.

This past year was the time of the discussion of how much coverage the new president's daughters should receive. I'm happy to see that the answer has been - very little so far. Let's hope that trend continues.

We marked anniversaries and milestones this year! We noted the Viewmaster and Tetris. We commented on Sesame Street and Rolling Stone magazine. It was a tough year for Viewmaster which has pretty much died. Sesame Street is going strong by staying flexible but the verdict has been delivered on what happens to Rolling Stone (or pretty much any mainstream magazine. And isn't it weird to realize that Rolling Stone has become a mainstream magazine?) Speaking of milestones the TV soap opera The Guiding Light reached its finish line. The show was canceled after decade upon decade upon decade of story line.

High tech stocks were added to the Dow Jones, Spiderman was turned into a musical, Facebook was turned into a movie, Windows 7 was released, so was Google Chrome OS and Jon and Kate got divorced. There was an amazing number of dumb advertisements trotted out for us to see and plenty of dumb people too. I considered lots of cheap jokes right here but I'll let you fill in your own. I took the opportunity to rant about a few things. The downside of fame. The art of the public apology. How Santa gets his mail. The pointlessness of 3D movies (no I haven't seen Avatar yet). And Archie marrying Veronica instead of Betty.

It was a busy year with lots of things going on in the world of the media. I'm pretty certain that there will be new movies and TV shows to test in the new year. The world's supply of people doing stupid things appears to be in no danger of thinning out. There will be at least one unexpected development. And I'm certain to plop down behind this mic ready to rant about something.

I'm looking forward to 2010.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

Resource Review - Videos/TV Shows/Toons That Teach

(This is part of a year long series of resource reviews I've been doing. 52 resources in 52 weeks. You can see all the reviews in one place here)

Videos That Teach, TV Shows That Teach, Toons That Teach A series of books to help use video clips in your youth ministry.

OVERALL - Three resources that all offer the same help. How to find and use video/TV clips in your ministry as ways to approach topics and start discussion

WHAT'S IT ABOUT? Videos That Teach started all this with Doug Fields and Eddie James doing the first book of 75 movies. That series is now up to four volumes. Then Eddie teamed up with his partner from The Skit Guys(who probably should have gotten their own review in this series, sorry guys!), Tommy Woodard, to create the TV Shows That Teaches with 100 episodes to draw from and then Stephen Case (author of The Book of UnCommon Prayer) jumped in with Toons That Teach (75 clips). All of these guys are top quality and well known folks. And this can be a great resource to keep on the shelf. You get a variety of options on topics for each clip, suggested questions plus the exact timing to find the clip when you need it. Very complete and very useful. Check out the multiple formats you can get these in as well (paperback, ebook, etc)

RESERVATIONS Hmmmm, don't know. Sometimes the topics don't seem to match my thoughts on the clips but that's hardly their fault. Really nothing too serious to question at all.

RECOMMENDATION I'll be honest and say I've only used the first Videos book personally. The quality of the authors leaves me with no reservations at all about recommending the entire bunch however. This is a great piece to use as a regular part of your ministry or to keep as a last minute emergency resource too (not TOO last minute, you still need to get a copy of the video or whatever!)

View From the Phlipside - 2009 review pt 2

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

Year in Review time this week on the Phlipside. I try not to note the passing of every single figure in the media but I do like to take note of the biggest and most interesting. Those categories are not necessarily the same.

For example this year we lost one of the greatest news men of all time. Walter Cronkite had an impact and ability to influence the thought stream of the American public like no one since. Folks like Rush Limbaugh may claim to have that kind of sway but they all lack the true broad cross section of the American public as their audience that Cronkite held. He truly was a giant of the media. I very much doubt we will ever see another figure like him. The closest we have now is Oprah Winfrey. I'm not being my usual snarky self either, Oprah comes closest to matching Uncle Walter's grasp on the American mind.

At a smaller scale but worthy of a mention next to Cronkite was Paul Harvey. Harvey's career outlasted Cronkite's but a good long stretch but since his primary medium was radio, which was fading instead of growing, he falls to a slightly lower rung. This was a man also dedicated to the news but with a more homegrown touch. For many people that folksy flavor to his broadcasts spoke to the lack of sophistication of the audience and possibly the performer. That seriously underestimates the intelligence and business acumen of Harvey. You would be hard pressed to find any other media star ever to have the kind of staying power.

Slipping down another rung we find Casey Kasem. This small time radio DJ turned his spunky personal style into an icon of popular music. Kasem didn't pretend that the subject of his program was of any particular substance or weight. He just knew that the music was important to most of us at some point in our lives. Kasem knew that music is tied to memory and gave us the chance to explore them both.

On the other hand this year also saw the death of Soupy Sales. The pie in the face king was important only in the fact that he was a childhood bringer of laughter. He wasn't a great actor or singer or even a great comedian. But he knew how to make us laugh and he was willing to do whatever it took to get us there. The world may have suffered more by his death than it suffered in any of the others. There's always plenty of news. There's often not enough laughter. RIP to them all.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - 2009 Review pt 1

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

I thought I'd take a moment here at the end of the year to look back at what we've been talking about so far this year. My records show that there were about 150 programs recorded for this effort during the course of 2009. So I did a quick skim to see if there were any trends I could notice. A couple names popped up repeatedly during the year. For example I talked about Twitter quite a bit this year. I'll be honest and say I'm not really sure why. As the year went on it became clear that outside of a relatively small group dedicated group of Twitterers most people can't figure out just what the allure is. Business is still trying to figure out what the value is or if there is a value. Let's just say the jury is still out on that one. Oh and one more reminder that there is a Twitter for this program, just look for radiophlipside, spelled with a PH.

I also spent a lot of time talking about NBC and Jay Leno. If I treat them as separate topics they still make the list as some of the most talked about topics of the year. NBC has had just a rotten year and Jay Leno hasn't done much so far to turn things around. Actually right now may turn out to be make or break time for the new Leno show. With everything else in reruns, or like the case of "Lost", it hasn't debuted for the season yet this is the best time for people to sample the show. The problem is that too many people sample it but don't come back for seconds. Meanwhile the network itself has been sold off with the rest of the media group. The Peacock Network was the throw in on the deal, which never makes you feel very good about yourself.

You probably heard more than you wanted about NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. It was great fun for me and I think it's a great opportunity to advance writing and creative thinking in the world. I'll just warn you now that you're probably in for a second round next November. You have been warned.

Of all the media it appears I spent the most time on TV followed closely by the internet. Music, movies, commercials, books and smart phones all got some air time as well. We talked about how we interact with the media and how people act badly for the media. NBC may fall off the list of topics in 2010 but I'm betting people behaving badly probably won't.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - Stale TV News Anchors

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

One of the interesting points about the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one is the chance to look back and decide if you want to keep doing it. That's why we make resolutions at New Year's, it's a dividing point between the fixed past and the future that we hope to fix. That can be a very good thing too. For example this year the family Phlipside will take time at the New Year to clean out certain cupboards. Like the one where we discovered a cake mix that was a full two years out of date. Time to discard the old and move into a new, brighter and slightly less stale future.

All of which leads me to some end of year thoughts on the retirement of what one newspaper referred to as the "...last old school TV anchor". They were referring to the end of Charlie Gibson's tenure on the evening news at ABC. Eric Deggans at TampaBay.com said the following about Gibson and it got me thinking:

"He's not very active online and takes his anchor role seriously. ...He is not willing to pop up in comedy sketches the way NBC anchor and frustrated stand up comic Brian Williams does. ... And he's not about to become a fixture in either tabloid news or the online world, in the way Katie Couric has managed."

Now I'm second to none when it comes to my respect for old school news anchors. Give me Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, thank you very much. But as I read that bit from the St. Petersburg Times my initial feelings began to change. You may or may not like the new world of the internet. I've got plenty of misgivings about the wisdom of trying to communicate anything of importance in 140 characters or less. But if you're going to simply ignore the most important step in modern communications then maybe it's TIME to step aside. Like it or not it's a brave new world out there. I would remind you that the phrase comes originally from Shakespeare. It's an expression of wonder at the amazing and new people confronting Miranda in the play "The Tempest". This is a time when new things are happening all around us, when new opportunities present themselves and new challenges require new responses. A stubborn adherence to "old school" in defiance of that smacks far too much of Don Quixote. Even Murrow looked for new ways to bring news and information to people. A new year is coming. Sounds like it's time for something a little fresher in the news anchor cupboard.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - Tiger's Tale

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

So here's the question of the day: Is the Tiger Woods marital problem the biggest media story of the year? Is it the biggest story of the decade/century so far? I'm amazed at how often this question is getting asked these days. I'm amazed at the folks who are willing to lay claim that this is not only the biggest SPORTS story of the year but it might even be the biggest sports story of all time. I seriously heard someone make that claim on the air in the last couple weeks. So let's take a moment to look at this.

Is this a sport story? Well it does involve a sports figure, arguably the most high profile and influential sports figure of the last ten years. On the other hand it actually has NOTHING to do with sports. So I would classify this as a non-sports story that happens to have a sports angle to it. So that pretty much eliminates it from the biggest sports story of the year or the decade or whatever in my opinion. Next subject:

Is it the biggest news story of the year? So far this year we've had a major political battle brewing over the quality and accessibility of health care for the citizens of our country. We're fighting two wars, we are struggling with the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression, and we have unemployment running somewhere between 10 and 20 percent nationwide on average and depending on how you choose to count the numbers. That's just off the top of my head. You could add in that we swore in the first person of color to the highest office in the land this year too I think.

On the other side we have a man who has made enough money to allow him to live at a level of which you and I can only dream even if he never works another day in his life . Plus his children and grandchildren could maintain the same lifestyle without ever working a day in their lives either. He has a gorgeous wife, a wonderful family and a successful career. Oh yeah and like many other stupid men before him he decided to, how shall I say this, dally with another woman. OK, it appears he decided to dally with enough other women to form a baseball team, possibly a football team. His wife found out, she got mad, there was a scene and they may get divorced. Or they may not. That still appears to be up in the air.

No my friends it is NOT the biggest story of the year. It's a sad and pitiful little story that needs to be ignored. The only thing more sad and pitiful is that we still insist on having this discussion. Playing peeping tom on other people's troubles through the media is something we should give up as a new year's resolution.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - Pepsi and the Super Bowl

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

Next year's Super Bowl is going to have one rather historic moment. Or more precisely it's going to have an historic absence. No, not the Bills failure to return to the big game but rather Pepsi's decision not to return to the big game. For the first time in 23 years the Super Bowl will not have a single Pepsi ad anywhere during the game. That's a big change for the number two soft drink company in the world. It may also herald a big change in the whole media advertising world too.

You see the Super Bowl isn't like any other advertising medium or event. At least not in this country. The Super Bowl is THE media event of every year. Every football fan in the country will be watching the fame or mourning the fact that they can't watch it. People who only care a little about football will be watching. And people who don't know or care about football at all will likely be watching it simply because that's where most of their friends will be that night. In the advertising industry it's all about the number of "eyes" you can access. That means the number of people you can push your message to at one time and in one place. And in the United States of America there is no better place to get seen than the Super Bowl. I mean let's face it, the game too often is boring so what do we wait for? THE COMMERCIALS! Because you know you're going to see the some of the very best of the year.

And Pepsi, perennially one of the bigger advertisers on the game, is taking a pass. It's not just the price, although a thirty second ad, just one mind you, is still running between two and a half and three million dollars. This is where you may feel the ground of the media world shifting beneath your feet a bit. They are going to put that money into something new, with a strong world wide web basis, called the Pepsi Refresh Project. It's a grant program designed to make the world a better place. Consumer will be able to go on line and vote on the projects that will be funded. The Pepsi Refresh Project is scheduled to be funded to the tune of twenty million dollars. That will be the flagship media vehicle for the cola.

Whether or not this new campaign will actually get people to buy Pepsi Cola remains to be seen. There is no doubt that this is a major shift for Pepsi and maybe in the advertising world too. It takes a lot of guts to walk away from the biggest advertising event of the year without a backward glance. We'll have to see if this idea makes the world want to sing in harmony with Pepsi.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

Resource Review - Youth Ministry Geek

(This is part of a year long series of resource reviews I've been doing. 52 resources in 52 weeks. You can see all the reviews in one place here)

Youth Ministry Geek A blog about youth ministry and technology.

OVERALL - A great blog for youth ministers with a bit of the geek in them (or who wish they had a bit more geek in them). Technology that is useful and helpful as we work with our young people and church in general.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT? Chris Davis, the Geek himself, found a way to bring together his love for young people, his faith and his self professed "love of toys". He's my kinda guy. His blog is always a source for all kinds of great ideas he's found around the world wide web. Last week he shared a video of a group of teens playing "The Carol of the Bells" on their iPhones, a bunch of Christmas media freebies and the iPhone apps so our kids can do the iPhone band thing themselves. Scroll down a little farther and find excellent ways to get a little more life out of your old computer. Great for those of us on a budget. His posts are concise and easy to read. An excellent resource to keep ready.

RESERVATIONS It does tend to be very Apple/Mac oriented. Not entirely but I'd love to see the blog expand the stuff for PCs just a little more. Like it or not PCs make up most of the computing world.

RECOMMENDATION I can hardly turn my back on a fellow youth ministry geek brother. Chris's blog is a fixture on my blog reader and I've picked up some very good ideas from him. You will too.

View From the Phlipside - Verizon vs. AT&T

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

I've been ignoring the great Verizon/AT&T battle over the last couple months. Quite simply it all seemed pretty dull to me as the two cell phone giants battled back and forth over their current ad campaigns. Even when they took the battle into the courts trying to get a judge to order the other guy to stop it didn't raise much interest for me. But now that the court case has been settled (basically both sides agreed to go away and stop bothering the judge with this nonsense) I've taken another look. There is I think a rather important lesson to be learned by looking at what they've been fighting about.

The ad campaigns I'm referring to are what are called the "map ads". Verizon shows you two maps that illustrate how great their coverage is and how rotten AT&T's is. AT&T comes back to show you just how wrong those nasty V people are and tout all the wonderful reasons to sign up with them. There are two important things to note about this. First is what's actually being said and second is what the two companies apparently think about you and me.

Pay attention the next time you see the ads and you'll realize they're actually about two completely different things. Verizon is talking about the higher speed 3G network coverage, where to be honest they have a decided edge. But they want you to believe that it describes the entire coverage package. So it appears that you can't use your AT&T phone most places. AT&T is talking about all kinds of coverage which gives them a map that's about the same as Verizon's. They then talk about how much faster their 3G network is without mentioning that you can't always get it. Like here in Jamestown.

So what does this tell us about the companies attitude toward you and me? Simple, the fact that they went to court to get the ads pulled tells me that they think we're pretty stupid. Or at least that we don't pay much attention to what's actually being said. On that second point they are probably right. Of course that's the whole point of both campaigns so yeah they probably think we're pretty stupid too. The worst part is we probably deserve it. We DON'T pay attention, we LET advertisers get away with half truths and misleading claims and we STILL make decisions based on the incomplete information.

So the next time you listen to, watch or read an advertisement, pay attention to what's actually being said. And don't make a decision till you get all the information. That way the advertiser will learn to concentrate of the quality of their product rather than the obscureness of their advertising.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - Anti-social Media

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

This may be the worst idea to come down the media pipeline in a very long time. Or it may just be the idea in the worst taste in a very long time. I'm betting it scores very high on both scales.

I begin this little audio temper tantrum by admitting that I spend more time on Facebook than I really should. Not that it interferes with work or my personal life. At least not yet. but especially with my iPhone offering virtually ubiquitous access I check it a lot. Which is absurd because it's not as if there's always something interesting waiting for me. The occasional note from a friend, the rare but wonderful discovery of a friend I'd lost touch with (just had that happen last week again, very cool), or the random bit of lunacy that one of my siblings likes to inject into my virtual life for everyone's amusement. I mean, really, do I NEED to check it four, five, six or more times a day? No. Which is why some folks are either cutting down on their social media or just walking away. I can totally understand it.

But then you find the folks at seppukoo dot com. This admittedly tongue in cheek website offers you the chance to put an end to all of that obsessive observing of the boring details of your friends lives. By committing virtual suicide. Seppuku is the ancient Japanese tradition among the samurai of ritually killing themselves in order to preserve their honor. It's a very serious thing. The online folks (who spell the word differently) say the following about what they offer:
"Seppukoo playfully attempts to subvert this mechanism by disconnecting people from each other and transforming the individual suicide experience into an exciting 'social' experience."
The "mechanism" they are aiming at is Facebook, by the way. Once you're "gone" you get a memorial wall where folks can stop by and leave you messages.

So is this a really bad idea or just a really bad taste idea? I don't think you can argue too much with the second point. Making a joke where the word suicide is part of the punchline is just nasty. Doing it with the kind of smug, self satisfied attitude found on the web site is rather sickening. If your virtual life is interfering with your actual life, or if you're not sure where the one begins and the other ends then it may be time to take a step away for a while. Surely we can call that a virtual vacation. If you really need or want to just walk away from the whole thing then go right ahead. But spare us all the pseudo-sophistication of a web site that calls making an adult decision virtual suicide.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - Black Hole Sequel

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

Over the years I've watched a LOT of movies. A couple handfuls of really great ones, dozens and dozens or outstanding ones, hundreds of OK ones, a few dozen bad ones and just a couple AWFUL movies. I'm usually pretty good at spotting the real stinkers before I waste my time and money on them. But not always. The good news is that the really putrid films will die a quick death and never be seen again. But not always.

Now let me make one thing clear. A movie can be bad and still be good. The transcendent qualities of certain old horror movies are impressive. At the very top of this list traditionally is the Ed Wood directed classic "Plan 9 from Outer Space". In a lot of ways it's not really any better or worse than a handful of other contenders but it is gloriously, wonderfully awful. I'm not talking about those kinds of bad movies.

I'm talking "Ishtar", a move so bad that when the rental video tape I was watching broke I never bothered to get another copy of the movie to finish. There have been a few others so bad that I refused to finish them. At the top of my list however is the first Disney film ever to get something other than a "G" rating, 1979's "The Black Hole". I should have known. By '79 any movie with Ernest Borgnine in it was pretty much a lock to be schlock. But I love science fiction. I very nearly walked out and demanded a refund. That's how bad this movie is. Awful acting, awful production and awful pseudo-science.

So naturally it's just been announced that they are making a sequel. It's being made by the same people who are producing next year's sequel to 1982's vastly superior sci fi flick "Tron". The movie, curiously also from Disney, is head and shoulders above "The Black Hole". When you add in the chance to use the latest computer techniques this sequel looks great. Even the early trailer looks great. "Tron-Legacy" is set to hit the theaters a year from now. But where does that leave us with the sequel to "The Black Hole"? I'm encouraged to note that the creative team is already talking about putting more science into the new movie. The original was the most expensive movie Disney had ever made to that point so hopefully they'll make a proper financial commitment to this one. And apparently the very nasty robot Maximilian will also return. So I'll keep hoping this will be the rare occasion where a sequel is better than the original. Of course that's not that hard in this case. I really don't want any more movies on my Awful list.

Call that the view from the Phlipside

Resource Review - Gives Me Hope

(This is part of a year long series of resource reviews I've been doing. 52 resources in 52 weeks. You can see all the reviews in one place here)


Gives Me Hope (.com) A website to brighten the day of you and your youth

OVERALL - A collection of submitted true stories designed to share some hope in all our lives.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT? I'm a regular reader of a variety of similar sites like FML (F*ck My Life), My Life is Average, E-mails From Crazy People and others. My bet is your youth know at least FML if not several of the others. None of them has grabbed me as quickly and completely at Gives Me Hope. These are stories of people doing the right thing, making the right choices and making the world a better place. And there's a LOT more of them than you'd expect. Unless you have a heart seven sizes too small (you Grinch you) this will give your day a lift. And there are days when we all desperately need just that.

RESERVATIONS Hmmmm, sometimes the stories can be ever so slightly risque. Which might, maybe be a problem for middle schoolers. And I'm stretching even for that one.

RECOMMENDATION In a time when too many of our youth feel like the world sucks and there's no love in it for them having this kind of tool in your repetoire strikes me as a very good idea. I also see it as a great conversation starter as you read through the items. Even if you keep it for yourself it will put you into a brighter mood and make you better able to face your own rotten days. Thanks to "graduated youth" Sammi Jo Calabrese for tipping me to this great site.