The Klaxons

[noel emits]

True enough in principle, but I think that, in practice, mild subversion isn't the reason why people abandon their criticality on important issues.

No, it's just an additional sweetener.

 

[baboon2004]

For example (and to move slightly off-topic) I think 'doing one's bit for the environment', is, right now, becoming an excuse for people not to do anything else worthwhile, and to ignore other issues, as they have 'done enough.

 

[UFO over easy]

I haven't said it's a pacifying medium.

well, you implied it when you said this -

The problem is that the medium itself is such an effective attention grabber. People know the characters in Eastenders better than their own neighbours, and what's going on in Guatemala better than who runs their own local council.

So is the internet, fiction, and music. And I don't see why that's a problem unless it's because of the pacification of the (omg) masses

I personally know the selected ambient works series better than my own neighbours. I know more about the films of Werner Herzog than I do about my local council - OH MY GOSH, FUN STUFF IS AWFUL - SUBVERT! RESIST!

By the way, if you watch any of the later seasons of the simpsons, you'll see they've subverted far more than you give them credit for - now they display (and I think subtlety encourage) a complete adandonment of values, and sense. Now is that a good thing, or because it's TV, is it a dangerous sociological double (triple? quadruple) bluff?

 

[Mr. Tea]

I'm reliably informed that Domino's Pizza is very good for you and represents excellent value for money.

Oh, I see - because I watch The Simpsons, and Domino's advertises in the breaks in that show, I obviously stuff myself with Domino's pizza every night because I'm a stupid conformist consumer who doesn't know any better.

Good job I've got some non-TV-watching free thinkers to hand me that red pill and rescue me from my sheepdom!

[OK, that was a well OTT reply, but still...let's just say, for the sake of argument, that Simpsons isn't in any genuine way subversive at all, and is in fact simply another product. In that case, who cares? It's a fucking good product and I enjoy consuming it. How is this, in itself, bad? Unless you're seriously contending that it's helping perpetuate the status quo by being a little bit subversive, and is in fact doing harm (to someone or other) that it wouldn't be doing if it didn't even have this superficial level of irreverence...in which case that's just a bit too po-mo for me. I'm going to laugh at Homer getting into farcical situations and to hell with the politics.)

 

[noel emits]

UFO

I haven't said that TV is a pacifying medium. It's a distraction, and a great way to sell stuff. The Simpson's is the pacifier allowing you to believe more easily that it can't really be bad.

I would say that you have probably exercised more conscious choice in immersing yourself in the Selected Ambient Works of Werner Herzog than in watching what makes it to the TV screen most of the time. But in any case the content isn't really the point.

And yeah sad to say all this fun stuff we surround ourselves with could really be disastrous, the more fun and the more high quality the worse it is. It's a hell of a lot easier though I'll admit.

 

[noel emits]

By the way, if you watch any of the later seasons of the simpsons, you'll see they've subverted far more than you give them credit for - now they display (and I think subtlety encourage) a complete adandonment of values, and sense. Now is that a good thing, or because it's TV, is it a dangerous sociological double (triple? quadruple) bluff?

If that's true I suppose I might find it entertaining. I used to think that South Park managed that but their limits became very apparent after that business in New York a few years ago.

But that's not the point. They still have your attention! That's all that TV demands of you.

 

[baboon2004]

Every cultural medium demands your attention, and if you watch/listen to it, it gets it. You're not going to unmask yourself as a member of the Taliban by the end of this thread, are you?

 

[noel emits]

True, Radio 4 is nearly as bad so don't think I'm singling the visual media out. It does have the benefit of not being much fun though, but that just means it appeals more to masochists.

 

[Mr. Tea]

But that's not the point. They still have your attention! That's all that TV demands of you.

And the TV gives me entertainment in return. Seems like a fair two-way exchange to me. The moment I cease to be entertained I turn it off and do something else.

 

[noel emits]

And the TV gives me entertainment in return. Seems like a fair two-way exchange to me. The moment I cease to be entertained I turn it off and do something else.

You are Homer Simpson and I claim my five cans of Duff.

Have you noticed though how in so many households TV is used as a kind of ambience?

And have you met many people who work in TV? Do you really want them smearing their squalid worldview over the whole country?

 

[Mr. Tea]

You are Homer Simpson and I claim my five cans of Duff.

Have you noticed though how in so many households TV is used as a kind of ambience?

Not mine. I grew up in a house where we - gasp! - talked to each other at dinner time. I have friends and housemates who like to talk about stuff. Doesn't mean we sit around deconstructing Schoppenhauer every night, of course, and when we want to watch TV we watch TV. Your argument sounds a bit like "some people eat McDonald's every day, therefore burgers should be made illegal".

And have you met many people who work in TV? Do you really want them smearing their squalid worldview over the whole country?

I resent the implication that my worldview isn't perfectly squalid enough to begin with, thanks.

 

[noel emits]

The Klaxons remind me a bit of Ned's Atomic Dustbin who had a song called Kill Your Television. Ironically Ned's Atomic Dustbin enjoyed a brief flush of success and dual bass-player notoriety because that bloke on Eastenders used to wear one of their 'distinctive' t-shirts.

That's how devious and evil TV is.



Edit: William Hill have just offered 3/1 odds that a regular poster on this internet message board used to play bass in Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

 

[mistersloane]

What really annoys me is the way people who watch TV feel threatened by people who don't, as if it's not all bollocks, it blatantly is, and the less you come into contact with it the more shockingly shit it is.

I'm so far out of TV now that it just doesn't register on my radar, and I don't think I know anyone who's got one now except my nephew.

Having said that I watched some fantastic, mind-blowing stuff on ARTE France in a hotel last week, remixes of Nazi war propaganda followed by a German drag queen opera, I was so glad I refused the acid.

 

[nomadologist]

i really can't stand tv. i have one, and sometimes i watch it. but i find it sincerely difficult to watch more than an hour at a time.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I'm not 'threatened' by people who don't watch TV, I'm irritated by people who try to convince me I'm imperilling my immortal soul because I like to catch Newsnight or a half-decent sit-com now and then.

Has it got a bit straight-edge in here this afternoon, or is it just me?

 

[nomadologist]

sometimes I watch The Girls Next Door, the reality TV show about Hugh Hefner and his three live-in girlfriends

I used to really love Nip/Tuck but I haven't seen the last few seasons

 

[noel emits]

Has it got a bit straight-edge in here this afternoon, or is it just me?

This all started because swears hates music and baboon2004 knows too many po-faced pseudo-twats. And because I was impressed by this random old geezer's tale of bravely shunning television in the face of social ostracism.

For my part I've been shooting smack all afternoon.

So come on, which one of you was in Ned's?

Wait a minute, there was a Black Dog remix wasn't there? Hmmm, the plot thickens.

 

[nomadologist]

don't waste a good high online--go take a nap

who is ned?

flanders?

was this about the simpsons?

anything but the klaxons will do

 

[mistersloane]

For my part I've been shooting smack all afternoon.

So come on, which one of you was in Ned's?

Right on!

I know someone who was in Jimmy The Hoover, does that count?

 

[mistersloane]

a half-decent sit-com now and then.

I completely and utterly fail to believe any sit-com is even way to half decent. And don't tell me it's 'Are You Being Served?' 'cos that was pants n all.