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Television

Reality Show, PBS Style

Colonial House is the newest PBS project in "experiential history" and they lead into the series by presenting the picture of daily life in 1628 as indentured servitude with no baths or showers and public punishments.

"Researching this era, we were surprised — and viewers will be surprised — at the misconceptions about our colonial roots," said Beth Hoppe, an executive producer. "History often paints a drab picture of our forebears, but they would fit into modern day America better than one might think. From wearing bright-colored clothing and consuming large amounts of alcohol to testing the laws of the era, early colonists were a vibrant group of individuals."

The website contains a section on the laws of the colony: The laws were not comprehensive, but provided a range of offenses that gave the governor a framework for running the colony. The governor also had a facsimile of an an early 17th-century book of English common law, Michael Dalton's Countrey Justice (1619), to help him, particularly for those many incidents not covered in our book of laws.

Another section profiles the colonists including Carolyn Heinz, 62, " a professor of Anthropology in the modern world. In the Colony, she assumes the challenge of a Lay Preacher's wife, helping to avoid upsetting the severe social and religious codes that effectively silenced women in the 17th century." She remarks that "being a 17th-century colonist was possibly the hardest time of my life; I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad it's over. It will always be a part of me — a brief, tough stretching of my imagination back to my ancestors' experience of the New World."

Don Heinz, her husband, is a professor of religious studies from California and as an ordained Lutheran minister performed the duties of the lay preacher and also as Assistant Governor of the Colony. As lay preacher he was responsible for the Colony's spiritual journey, marked by a mandatory, weekly Sabbath service. As the Assistant Governor and an elder within the community, his position of authority was further solidified.

Heinz comments on the experience thusly: "Above all, I miss two things about Colonial House. In no 21st-century community that I know of do neighbors live at such an intense level of intimacy and mutual support. And every Sunday, as the lay preacher, I set before this community the wager that the underlying meaning of our life together was religious. The early colonists would have understood both the experience and the assertion."

One other section profiles the experts used to prepare and instruct the colonialists for their adventure. Panoramic views of the colony are glimpsed as well as nature, the colony and interiors. There's a quiz, too, to question how you would have fared under similar circumstances and a paper-doll interactive presentation (you need flash for this activity) that lets you dress the colonist. Fantastic Voyage tests your skills as a Governor of the New World Colony: "You will be judged on the health and morale of your colonists, the quantity of supplies you bring to the New World, the state of your ship and crew, and the likelihood that your colony will succeed in the future."

We did spy a surprise for the colonialists in the form of a visitor (and brief participant) in the experiment, filming a segment for her show: Oprah!

Frontline

Frontline, the highly respected PBS investigatory program, has a companion website for its broadcast of the jesus factor.

The premise of the program:

"As an evangelical Christian, President Bush has something in common with the 46 percent of Americans who describe themselves as being "born again" or having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Often has the president recounted praying about major decisions facing the nation — but what do we actually know about the rudiments of George Bush's faith? To what extent do the president's spiritual beliefs impact or influence his political decision-making? And how closely do Bush's religious views mirror those of the country's burgeoning — and politically influential — evangelical movement?"

The contents of the website will include:

Information about George W. Bush's born-again Christianity and the impact that it has had on his political career, including:

· Extended interviews with Bush advisers, political analysts, evangelical Christian leaders, and historians and observers of the evangelical world;

· Analysis and readings on religion's role in public life, the religious vote in the 2004 election; and John Kerry's Catholic faith.

The program debuts on Thursday, April 29th.

On May 4th, NOVA presents a program entitled Battle Plan Under Fire investigating high-tech warfare. The segments covered on the website are:

Unconventional Combat - An excerpt from The Iraq War: A Military History, by Williamson Murray and Major General Robert H. Scales: "But machines alone will never be decisive in this new phase of the Iraq War. This will be a struggle for the allegiance of the Iraqi people, who must choose among three conflicting sides: the first represented by the promise of freedom and democracy imposed by an occupying infidel, the second by a return to the tyranny and terror of the old regime, and the third by Islamic fundamentalists."

Transforming Warfare - Adm. Arthur Cebrowski, Director of Force Transformation at the Department of Defense, on how "network-centric warfare" is changing war.

The Immutable Nature of War - Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper, former president of the Marine Corps University, on how technology will never alter the essence of war.

Time Line of UAVs - Explore the history of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Imaging with Radar - Use an interactive feature to what synthetic aperture radar can "see."

Designing For Stealth - Using another interactive, take a closer look at Boeing's ultra-stealthy Bird of Prey fighter plane and learn some of the ways that aircraft designers can achieve stealth.

Two from PBS

Nova is presenting Dogs and More Dogs, a subject that is sure to please all those who own dogs or might consider this animal as a companion. (As always check local TV listings for times).

The lead into the site asks the rhetorical question, How and why did man's best friend evolve from wolves, and why are dogs so remarkably diverse today?

The following topics are covered on Nova's site:

A Potpourri of Pooches
How come dogs, alone among Earth's species, come in so many shapes and sizes?

The Truth About Dogs
In this excerpt from his book, Stephen Budiansky explains why he feels dogs have got us exactly where they want us.

Working Dogs
Sniffing out termites, aiding search-and-rescue missions, locating land mines—the tasks dogs perform are remarkably diverse.

Dogs Around the World
Match 14 dogs to the environment they were bred for, from the rugged mountains of Argentina to the Australian outback.

Two companion websites that are linked to are:

PBS's Still Life with Animated Dogs
In the PBS program "Still Life with Animated Dogs," artist Paul Fierlinger pays tribute to the dogs he has owned and what he has learned from them. This companion Web site contains facts about dog behavior and the history of domestic dogs, viewer testimonials about their favorite dogs, and postcards of dogs featuring Fierlinger's illustrations.

WOOF! Tips from Matty
A dog behavior expert and authority on aggressive dogs since 1968, Matthew Margolis is the host of the PBS television series, "WOOF! It's a Dog's Life." This site offers tips on how to train your dog correctly and end bad behaviors like digging, running away, and barking excessively.

Forsytes Redux

Beginning February 8, "A new generation of Forsytes unwittingly repeats the errors of its elders in The Forsyte Saga, Series II, based on To Let, John Galsworthy's climactic volume in The Forsyte Saga trilogy."

Pages at the Masterpiece Theater site for the new series features Production Notes which includes The cast comments... and a Behind the Scenes photo gallery of cast and crew.

And, yes, you can get an idea of the three weeks ahead in the series by a description of each of the episodes but the plot is revealed so don't go there if you don't want advance knowledge! However, if you want a chapter (At the Gallery) from the Saga as well as the screenplay for that chapter, do use the link we're providing.

Fortunately, there's also a family tree for the overwhelmed (or forgetful) but load the Flash 4 plugin if you don't have it already. If you're not satisfied with just one chapter, there are 45 of Galsworthy's books at Books Online. The Online Books Page was founded and is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom, a digital library planner and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.

The median age of the PBS viewer? 58.8

Foot-in-Mouth

The Plain English Campaign's site named Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as the recipient of their top award for the Foot-in-Mouth category, the author of a truly baffling comment. From their site:

Not everybody agreed with our choice of Donald Rumsfeld for the Foot in Mouth honour, and the award has provoked countless debates on Internet message boards, ranging from the purely linguistic to the political and philosophical. But we certainly seem to have promoted the cause of plain English, with more than 100,000 people having visited our site so far this week.

Aside from the various pro- and anti-Rumsfeld e-mails, we've received several dozen reports of a comment by another politician, which is already the leading candidate for next year's awards. And several people offered the theory that Arnold Schwarzenegger's comment 'I believe gay marriage should be between a man and a woman' was actually a case of the California governor using 'gay' in its original sense of 'happy' or 'care-free'. Could 'Arnie' in fact be a stickler for traditional language?

Here's Secretary Rumsfeld's statement, given in a press briefing:

'Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know.'

Even though the organization didn't have an award in 1991, special merit was recognized in the utterance of one Dan Quayle, who, if you remember, was a US Vice President:

.'We offer the party as a big tent. How we do that (recognise the big tent philosophy) with the platform, the preamble to the platform or whatnot, that remains to be seen. But that message will have to be articulated with great clarity.'

Consumer Research

Desire is the motivating force behind much of contemporary consumption. Yet consumer research has devoted little specific attention to passionate and fanciful consumer desire. This article is grounded in consumers' everyday experiences of longing for and fantasizing about particular goods. Based on journals, interviews, projective data, and inquiries into daily discourses in three cultures (the United States, Turkey, and Denmark), we develop a phenomenological account of desire. We find that desire is regarded as a powerful cyclic emotion that is both discomforting and pleasurable. Desire is an embodied passion involving a quest for otherness, sociality, danger, and inaccessibility. Underlying and driving the pursuit of desire, we find self-seduction, longing, desire for desire, fear of being without desire, hopefulness, and tensions between seduction and morality. We discuss theoretical implications of these processes for consumer research.

Consider a child's Christmas anywhere in the world that celebrates Santa and his avatars as magical gift-bringers. For such a child, desire is palpable, and hope hangs as heavily as stuffed stockings on the fireplace mantle. Yet most prior understandings of consumers do very little to encompass the excited state of desire that moves children and adults alike.

This is not to say that desire has failed to seep into or even permeate consumer research. In fact, many studies of consumption touch upon phenomena intimately related to consumer desire, even though an explicit development of the construct is still lacking in the consumer behavior literature. There is also spreading consensus that much, if not all, consumption has been quite wrongly characterized as involving distanced processes of need fulfillment, utility maximization, and reasoned choice.

A sharp distinction between consumer desire versus needs or wants is evident in the way that we refer to these concepts in everyday language. In a conceptual paper, we observed that:

We burn and are aflame with desire; we are pierced by or riddled with desire; we are sick or ache with desire; we are tortured, tormented, and racked by desire; we are possessed, seized, ravished, and overcome by desire; we are mad, crazy, insane, giddy, blinded, or delirious with desire; we are enraptured, enchanted, suffused, and enveloped by desire; our desire is fierce, hot, intense, passionate, incandescent, and irresistible; and we pine, languish, waste away, or die of unfulfilled desire. Try substituting need or want in any of these metaphors and the distinction becomes immediately apparent. Needs are anticipated, controlled, denied, postponed, prioritized, planned for, addressed, satisfied, fulfilled, and gratified through logical instrumental processes. Desires, on the other hand, are overpowering; something we give in to; something that takes control of us and totally dominates our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Desire awakens, seizes, teases, titillates, and arouses. We battle, resist, and struggle with, or succumb, surrender to, and indulge our desires. Passionate potential consumers are consumed by desire (Belk, Ger, and Askegaard 2000, p. 99).

From The Fire of Desire: A Multisited Inquiry into Consumer Passion in the Journal of Consumer Research

Film

"It is said that no man is married south of Gibraltar, but we passed the Rock and Sophie's hold upon my thoughts is still strong. I miss her presence, but cannot mention that most human of weaknesses to any but Maturin. It would serve no purpose for the men to see this weakness in men, even this most human of weaknesses. One day there will be the cottage and the horses, but for the present we must all do our duty."

So begins the entry in the Captain's log, Day 32, of Master and Commander; The Far Side of the World, a film version of one of Patrick O'Brien's sea tales fashioned around the Napoleonic wars. David Mamet, writing in The New York Times, said of O'Brien:

"His Aubrey-Maturin series, 20 novels of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is a masterpiece. It will outlive most of today's putative literary gems as Sherlock Holmes has outlived Bulwer-Lytton, as Mark Twain has outlived Charles Reade. God bless the straightforward writer, and God bless those with the ability to amuse, provoke, surprise, shock, appall."

O'Brien himself wrote a short piece for a The Times millenium issues on The Best Naval Battle: Full Nelson; Outmanned and outgunned, the British flummoxed the French.

So thoroughly captivated by the series of novels that authors have gone to extraordinary lengths to minutely examine themes and details in the O'Brien books with books of their own: Lobscouse & Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels; A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales; and Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian.

An excerpt from The Hundred Days imparts a bit of the flavor of the novels:

Aboard Pomone the proper ceremony for the occasion was well under way, and as Jack walked out of the great cabin, stuffing a fresh handkerchief into his pocket and pursued by Killick with a clothes-brush, flicking specks of dust from the back of his gold-laced coat, he found his officers present on the quarterdeck, together with most of the midshipmen, all either wearing gloves or concealing their hands behind their backs.

The side-boys offered him the sumptuous man-ropes, and following the reefer on duty he ran down into his barge. All the bargemen knew him perfectly well — they had been shipmates in many a commission, and two of them, Joe Plaice and Davies, had served in his first command, the Sophie; but neither they nor Bonden, his coxswain, gave the least sign of recognition as he settled in the stern-sheets, shifting his sword to give the midshipman more room. They sat there in their formal bargeman's rig — broad-brimmed white sennit hat with ribbons, white shirts, black silk Barcelona handkerchiefs tied round their necks, snowy duck trousers — looking solemn: they were part of a ceremony, and levity, winking, whispering, smiling, had no place in it. Bonden shoved off, said 'Give way', and with exact timing, rowing dry with long grave strokes, they pulled the barge across to the starboard accommodation-ladder of the flagship, where an even more impressive ceremony took place. Jack, having been piped aboard, saluted the quarterdeck, shook hands with the ship's captain and the master of the fleet, while the Royal Marines — scarlet perfection under a brilliant sun — presented arms with a rhythmic clash and stamp.

If you want a slice of the real thing, a virtual archive of maritime related documents is maintained by Lars Bruzelius at the University of Uppsala, Sweden There are pictures, materials on models, life at sea, medical matters, including a 1707 text, "The Sea-man's Vademecum."

What could even be more interesting to our audience is a past exhibition at The Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Virginia: Women and the Sea. The online exhibit's timeline reveals the story of Mary Lacy, who wrote that in 1759 " . . . a thought came into my head to dress myself in men's apparel and set off by myself."Taking the name William Chandler and signing on to HMS Sandwich, Lacy became the servant to the ship's carpenter and learned a good deal about ship construction. In 1763 she took a position as shipwright's apprentice at the Portsmouth Dockyard. When a local woman suspected Lacy's secret, Lacy revealed herself to two trusted male friends who insisted, "He is a man-and-a-half to a great many." After spending seventeen years posing as a man, Lacy applied for a pension in 1772 under her true name and was granted £20 a year.

TV

Finding and Selling Antiques

Recently, PBS began a series hosted by the Keno twins of Antiques Roadshow fame. The premise is ambitious: To help people to "find" their own style, to gain knowledge about antiques, collectibles, and interior design and apply that in their own lives.

An FAQ on their site, Find-TV, reveals how they chose the homes that they visit:

"First, producers contact local historical societies asking if they know any residents who might be interested. Another way is through letters and e-mails that the Kenos have received over the years as a result of Antiques Roadshow and their own careers. Finally, they go through the many submissions they receive via mail and e-mail here at Find!, and they select a few of the most intriguing items for follow-up. If your item is selected, you'll be contacted for more information about it. A few of the items selected for follow-up will be considered for a home visit and evaluation."

The site also features a section that discusses tips and techniques regarding antiques as well as listing resources. Windsor chairs, tilt-top tea tables and series ware plate are explored.

Another network, BBCAmerica, has debuted a program entitled Cash in the Attic, based on a similar concept:

"Invited into the family's home, the show's experts, Jonty Hearndon and Paul Hayes, help them go through their possessions, sniffing out potential items of value. Anything that is found then goes to auction. While the object is clearly for the family to make enough money for them to achieve their goals, the outcome is by no means a foregone conclusion." As noted, the show combines "fascinating tales of family history with circumstance and the unpredictability of the auction room."

Again, the site has tips for antiques care.

We can attest to the excitement generated by the auction room bidding ... always an unpredictable adventure.

Jamie's Kitchen

We saw Part Five of Jamie's Kitchen while in England recently and the concept was refreshing. We say refreshing because we saw the angst-self-obsessed themed NBC Restaurant series this summer. This viewer got to the point of shouting "Snap Out of It" to the whiny wait staff depicted on the show.

The show concept was more original and, indeed, altruistic: Jamie Oliver (previously known as the Naked Chef) decided to train 15 young, unemployed Londoners as chefs who will work in a new nonprofit making restaurant that he’s building in the East End. Each series part also carries recipes such as Tomato Focaccia, Crispy Fried Salmon with Spring Vegetable Broth and Rosemary and Raisin Bread.

The Food Network is running Oliver's series and with the emphasis on training in the kitchen rather than fawning over celebs in the restaurant proper, it's a very different series.

Library of Congress & Bob Hope

The Library of Congress' Bob Hope and American Variety site contains a number of features that covers the late entertainer's life: early life, vaudeville, bits and sketches, radio and TV, a joke file, the USO shows and his public service.

NPR, too, honors the comedian with a 1986 Morning Edition interview, talk Hope gave to the National Press Club in 1980 and numerous audio clips.

Mysterious Fare

Here's a preview of two PBS sites that inform about programs on most of their station:

"In November 1849, Dr. George Parkman, one of Boston's richest citizens, suddenly disappeared. The police conducted an extensive search of the city and dredged the Charles River. Parkman had last been seen walking towards the Harvard Medical College. The Medical School's janitor, Ephraim Littlefield, who had a suspicion where Parkman might be found, spent two grueling nights tunneling beneath a basement laboratory looking for clues. What he discovered horrified Boston and led to one of the most sensational trials in American history." American Experience’s Murder at Harvard.

Web site highlights:

-Behind the scenes: Tour the scene of the crime with the film crew, explore the set with a 360 degree panoramic view, and select hotspots to access images and comments from the cast crew.

- Gallery: Examine nineteenth century medical instruments and teaching tools from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and imagine a time when ether anesthesia was a cutting edge technique.

- Primary sources and History: Study testimony from the trial, newspaper accounts of the gruesome evidence, the defendant's confessions, and more.

- History and fiction: Access an interview with historian and presenter Simon Schama and find out how he was drawn to the Parkman murder.

- Timeline: Examine a brief history of western medical history and revisit major medical milestones such as the invention of the stethoscope and the first anesthetized operation.

Diana Rigg steps out of role as host on Mystery! again to star in a new series, The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries, (Series Two). In one of the episodes, Rigg's character, Jazz Age Detective Adela Bradley, concludes that the risk factors for sudden death are weddings and virginity. The website includes descriptions of the four episodes, some additional perspective and episode descriptions of the first series.

Television & Medical Workers

Doctors Without Borders (also known as Médecins Sans Frontières) was founded in 1971 by a group of French doctors who believed that all people have a right to medical care. The group delivers emergency medical relief to victims of war and disaster. If you have cable you'll be able to see the new six-part series on National Geographic's channel. Here are some of the highlights of the upcoming programs:

Seasoned MSF nurse Luc Legrand uses his own kind of 'tough love' as he cares for prisoners in the overcrowded La MACA prison on the Ivory Coast.

In Sudan, Dr. Kate Done is on her second mission for MSF and she appears unfazed by the nearby bombing and almost daily visits to the bomb shelter.

Katiana Rivette, a nurse from Canada on her first mission, experiences the loss of one patient and the birth of twins by another. Rebecca Golden, Head of Mission from the USA, who successfully negotiated with rebel soldiers allowing MSF to re-open a hospital, prepares to return home to Houston, Texas.

What is the Matrix

whatisthematrix is an adjunct of a Warners Bros. site publicizing the films The Matrix and now, Matrix Reloaded. The site contains a collection of essays that, as explained by Chris Grau, the editor,

"that both elucidate the philosophical problems raised by the film and explore possible avenues for solving these problems. Some of these essays are more pedagogical in nature – instructing the reader in the various ways in which The Matrix raises questions that have been tackled throughout history by prominent philosophers. Other contributors use the film as a springboard for discussing their own original philosophical views. As you will see, the authors don't always agree with each other regarding how best to interpret the film. However, all of the essays share the aim of giving the reader a sense of how this remarkable film offers more than the standard Hollywood fare. In other words, their common goal is to help show you just 'how deep the rabbit-hole goes.' "

Television

Remember the controversy about 'the Pill' when it was first introduced? For many American women, it provided sexual and birth control liberation. PBS' American Experience Online presents The Pill, companion site to the documentary with the following website highlights. The section dealing with Mrs. America: Women's Roles in the 1950s has a familiar ring for this senior woman:

In the 1950s, women felt tremendous societal pressure to focus their aspirations on a wedding ring. The US marriage rate was at an all-time high and couples were tying the knot, on average, younger than ever before. Getting married right out of high school or while in college was considered the norm. A common stereotype was that women went to college to get a "Mrs."[initials spelled out as M.R.S.] degree, meaning a husband. Although women had other aspirations in life, the dominant theme promoted in the culture and media at the time was that a husband was far more important for a young woman than a college degree. Despite the fact that employment rates also rose for women during this period, the media tended to focus on a woman's role in the home. If a woman wasn't engaged or married by her early twenties, she was in danger of becoming an "old maid."

In January 1970 experts assembled in the stately Senate chamber and began giving their testimony on the hazards of the Pill. Alice Wolfson, a member of the radical collective DC Women's Liberation, was sitting in the audience listening to the experts. Her group had come to the hearings because they had all taken the Pill at one time or another and had experienced side effects. The group was outraged that their doctors had never informed them of the risks when they prescribed the Pill. As they sat in the chamber and heard one male witness after another describe serious health risks, they were furious that there wasn't a single woman who had taken the Pill there to testify.

The correspondence between Margaret Sanger and Katharine McCormick demonstrated that each of the birth control activists followed the medical developments closely. However, Sanger's theories on "national sterilization for certain dysgenic types of our population who are being encouraged to breed" are, to say the least, controversial and shocking.

The Forstye Saga

On my desk is a $2.50 hardbound illustrated reissue of the 1922 Heinemann's version of the Forsyte Saga picked up at a book sale. The original volumes, three in all, began appearing in 1906.

I was struck by the dedication to Galsworthy's wife:

To My Wife I dedicate the Forsyte Saga in its entirety, believing it to be of all my work the least unworthy of one without whose encouragement, sympathy and criticism I could never have become even such a writer as I am

The new version of the Saga's seven installments are on PBS with a companion website. Those of us who enjoyed Band of Brothers on HBO will recognize the lead actor Damian Lewis who stars as the "acquisitive, tormented Soames Forsyte" and Gina McKee (who appeared in Notting Hill) as his wife, Irene. Other cast members are Ioan Gruffudd (Horatio Hornblower) as the architect Bosinney, Rupert Graves (many an Ivory and Merchant production) as young Jolyon Forsyte and Corin Redgrave (Shackleton) as the family patriarch, old Jolyon. There's a biography of the author, cast and credits to straighten the faces and names out, essays and interviews and episode descriptions. The Nobel Prize for Literature presentation speech is on the site as well as the Gutenberg site's trove of Galsworthy literature, including the Saga, just so you can read ahead if you like.

And what else? An overview of the 1967 series with the tidbit that "The [rape] scene was rendered even more convincing by bloodstains on Irene's dress (Eric Porter had inadvertently cut his hand on her brooch when tearing off her bodice)."

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