Captain Digital

Random musings on politics, society, and pop culture from the Internet's marketing curmudgeon.

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Entertainment

Banking on Intelligence.

My wife is a brilliant woman. One day I was casting about for a creative idea to use as the nucleus of a website demo, and I asked her for some ideas. (I was stumped.) Out of the blue, she said, “why don’t you create a bank for intelligence?”

Wow.

In a flash, the whole thing hit me. It was a “V-8 moment” if ever I had one. [side note: A friend once started to tell me about a sketch he’d seen the night before, watching “In Living Color” with two guys in a phone booth, as the “Homeboy Shopping Network.” He didn’t have to say anything else – I could see/hear the entire routine in my mind’s eye. This was the same kind of experience. [Read more…] about Banking on Intelligence.

The (Un)importance of Being Oscar

Oscar

I skipped the Oscar broadcast Sunday. I’m not alone. So did millions of other Americans. From what I hear, the ratings were off 10% from last year, which were down significantly from the year before. In fact, Uncle Oscar’s been slipping quite a bit in recent years. For the life of them, Hollywood can’t seem to figure out why.

I think I know.

I’m a red-stater. Proud of it. I’m one of the ones with which George Clooney admits to being “out-of-touch.” At one time, Hollywood proudly made movies that I was interested in seeing. Star Wars (the first one…you know…episode IV), Patton, Young Frankenstein. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Big budget – small budget – I didn’t care. As long as it was entertaining, I didn’t care if it was a war picture, a western, a comedy, even a love story. Along the way, though, Hollywood forgot about entertaining me, and decided their mission was to indoctrinate me into their cause célèbres.
[Read more…] about The (Un)importance of Being Oscar

Valentines® Day™ (New! Improved!)

Another Valentines Day is upon us. Pardon me whilst I reflect on Valentines Day, commercialism, holidays, and The Meaning Of It All.

I’m not a big “holiday” guy. I like Christmas. Thanksgiving’s okay. I’m partial to Independence Day, since it bookends my birthday. The rest of them seem to be somehow second-tier. Also-rans. Valentines Day was big when I was a kid, as it was an excuse to get hyped up on limitless amounts of candy. Big sugar rush. As I grew older, I realized that Valentines Day (like New Years) was society’s excuse to force you to keep score, relationship-wise. As an adult male, if you were in a serious relationship, Valentines Day is the time you are forced to Be Romantic™ and Do Something Special™ for your significant other. The evil cabal of retailers/media/peer pressure combines to force you to treat this day as sacrosanct. [Read more…] about Valentines® Day™ (New! Improved!)

the Advertising Bowl.

Color me dissapointed. Years removed from the glory days of the dot-com ads, the Super Bowl AdverFest did NOT deliver. What we got were a bunch of derrivative (a nice word for stealing from yourself) ads from Bud, CareerBuilder.com, Pizza Hut, and Pepsi. What we didn’t get were fresh, interesting ideas that would give us all something to talk about around the water cooler today. This year, the game was really more interesting than the ads. Sad.

NBC & the Christians’ Den

I’m trying to figure it out. Why does every move NBC makes seem coldly calculated to anger, inflame, and insult Christians? I mean, in general, I think Christians have a pretty good sense of humor about ourselves. Unlike Muslims, Christians don’t go staging riots when a political cartoonist depicts Jesus Christ or God in a drawing. We don’t call for fatwa against those who write books that we deem blasphemous. So why does NBC seem (forgive me) Hell-bent on trying to poke a sharp stick in Christianity’s eye? Allow me to explain… [Read more…] about NBC & the Christians’ Den

On Fashion.

Fashion Victims.Read something this morning in what passes for a newspaper these days. The writer opined that “nude is the new black.” For those of you (as I am) decidedly NOT a member of the fashion cognoscenti, allow me to decode that statement. What they meant to say was “a particular color – in this case ‘nude’ (whatever that is) – will be this year’s favorite color with fashion designers.” What they really mean is “the fashion industry wants you to throw out everything in your closet that they told you was ‘hip’ last year, and buy all new stuff in the new ‘hot’ color.”

Pardon my whilst I laugh my lower posterior region off.

[Read more…] about On Fashion.

Thoughts on TV.

Law & Order & Profit

 

"Half of everything on TV is crap. But then, half of everything is crap. "
– Anonymous

 

I’d love to know who first said that. Looked around Google and a couple of other places. Couldn’t find it. Oh well.

I was checking the news this morning, and came across a couple of items:

  • The West Wing has been canceled.
  • Emily’s Reasons Why Not (Heather Graham’s new show) was canceled after only one episode.
  • Law & Order (NBC) has been moved from it’s time slot to be opposite Lost (ABC) on the schedule.

Let’s think about this for a second. The West Wing was, at one time, an interesting show, but had long since "jumped the shark." I think that happened with Martin Sheen & Co. said "the Hell with doing a drama…now that we’ve got an audience, let’s push our liberal agenda message!"

[Read more…] about Thoughts on TV.

Insane-O!

Calypso Harry!Why is anybody taking this guy seriously?

If this country had any cojones left, we’d either put him in a home for the mentally unstable, or we’d be prosecuting him for treason. But noooooo…he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a pal of Paul Robeson. He Speaks Out For the Oppressed!

Give me strength. And while you’re at it, gimme a couple of aspirin… [Read more…] about Insane-O!

God versus the MSM.

I can relate to the way Saul of Tarsus must have felt, once he “got it.” In his experience, scales literally fell from his eyes, and he could see. My scales were not literal, but my experience going from “blind” to “got it” is certainly a similar experience. Only my blindness had to do with the way the mainstream media portrays religion, God, Christianity, and what used to be lumped together into one umbrella term called “family values.” [Read more…] about God versus the MSM.

Devaluing Entertainment.

I watched a little bit of Dr. No on TV tonight.

That, in and of itself, is certainly unremarkable. But stay with me for a sec. I think I’m on to something.

When I was a kid, there were three channels on the (black and white) TV. There were, I think, two or three movie theatres in my hometown (Shreveport, LA) and probably a bunch of drive-ins. If you wanted to see a movie, you waited until it was released in your area, then you went to the theatre to see it. You probably went right after it opened, because there was no way to know how long a flick would play at the local (single-screen) theatre. If you didn’t catch it in the theatre, you MIGHT be able to see it at a drive-in – they largely subsisted on second-run and B-movie fare. [Read more…] about Devaluing Entertainment.