11/21 - World Television Day, snort, heh

hdr  f.ck television nation

~~ Trash Your TV

Television is one of those inventions that initially showed great promise of being of potential benefit to humankind but, in the end, did nothing of the kind.

Television is a medium because anything well done is rare.

Fred Allen

Television is chewing gum for the eyes.

Frank Lloyd Wright

KILL YOUR TV

Or blow it up

-

**********

On this day in history:

-

0164 BC -- Judas Maccabeus restored the Temple in Jerusalem.
1386 -- Timur of Samarkand sacked Tbilisi
1676 – Astronomer Ole Rømer presented the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.
1783 – The first untethered hot air balloon flight.
1877 -- Thomas Edison announced the creation of the phonograph
1894 -- The Japanese captured Port Arthur. The lessons to be learned weren't until during WWI.
1905 -- Albert Einstein's paper on the relationship between energy content and inertia was published.
1910 -- Brazilian Sailors rebelled (The Revolt of the Lash).
1918 -- The Lwow pogrom took place.
1920 -- "Bloody Sunday" in Dublin.
1922 -- Rebecca Latimer Felton became the first female US Senator
1927 -- Striking coal miners were slaughtered with machine guns by state police in the Columbine Mine massacre.
1953 -- The "Piltdown Man" skull was revealed to be a hoax.
1959 – Alan Freed was fired from WABC radio over allegations concerening payola.

1964 -- The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened. (Giovanni da Verrazzano beat Hudson and all those folks, but ...)
1967 – General William Westmoreland said: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."
1969 -- The first permanent ARPANET link was set up between UCLA and SRI
1983 -- The US criminal war against Grenada ended.
1986 -- Oliver North fired up the shredder
2002 -- NATO invited Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to join & help restart the cold war.
2013 -- The Euromaidan began in Ukraine.

-

**********

Some people who were born on this day:

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere

~~ Voltaire

1694 -- Voltaire, historian, playwright, and philosopher, friend of Frederick the Great.
1852 -- Francisco Tarrega, guitarist and composer
1861 -- Tom Horn, police officer and murderer, not a prototype, but an exemplar for sure.
1902 -- Isaac Bashevis Singer, author and playwright
1904 -- Coleman Hawkins, saxophonist and clarinet player
1940 -- Dr. John, singer, songwriter and pianist; gris-gris man as well
1948 -- Lonnie Jordan, singer, songwriter, keyboardist and guitarist (War)
1965 -- Bjork, bjork

-
-

**********

Some people who died on this day:

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.

~~ Robert Benchley

1695 -- Henry Purcell, organist and composer
1938 -- Leopold Godowsky, pianist and composerv
1945 -- Robert Benchley, humorist, newspaper columnist, and actor
1953 -- Larry Shields, clarinet player and composer (Original Dixieland Jass Band)
1970 -- C. V. Raman, physicist and academic, Raman effect, Raman scattering
1986 -- Jerry Colonna, singer, songwriter, comedian, trombonist and actor; ya gotta be kidding
1999 -- Quentin Crisp, actor, author, and illustrator
2002 -- Hadda Brooks, singer, songwriter, and pianist
2006 -- Robert Lockwood, Jr., guitarist
2010 -- Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, painter and author, co-founded the DuSable Museum of African American History
2011 -- Anne McCaffrey, author, dragon rider
2012 – Austin Peralta, pianist
2013 – Bernard Parmegiani, composer
2017 – David Cassidy, TV actor, pop singer, songwriter, and guitarist

-

**********

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

National Adoption Day (US)
World Television Day

So, like, adopt a TV ?

-

**********

-

Today's Tunes

-

Francisco Tarrega

-

-

Coleman Hawkins

-
-

Doctor John

-
-

Lonnie Jordan

-

Bjork

-

Henry Purcell

-

Leopold Godowsky

-

Larry Shields

-

Jerry Colonna

-

Hadda Brooks

-
-

Robert Lockwood, Jr.

-
-
-

just for grins: (This ought to eat up the whole morning)

-

-
-

**********

-
**********

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?

-

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, Henry Purcell, Bjork, Jerry Colonna, Hadda Brooks, Coleman Hawkins, Doctor John, Rebecca Latimer Felton, Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders

Share
up
11 users have voted.

Comments

dystopian's picture

Hi EL! Hope yer on a nice trip man!

Yeah man what a disappointment the TV became. Just another tool of manipulation, not education. Kinda like school, it's for programming you. We have not watched one in 20 years, and most of the 70's I did not watch it either. We have a couple CRT versions here, not plugged in.

The great Edward Abbey, what 50 years ago said, "Free your mind, shoot your TV". This may have been captured at the time... I saw a bumper sticker locally with that statement a decade ago.
EdwardAbbey-on-TV.jpg
Edward Abbey

be well all!

up
8 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

earthling1's picture

Caucus99%.

up
3 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1 from the dead.
It's supposedly happened before.

up
5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

travelerxxx's picture

I picked up a book somewhere or another about FDR and the press. It was pretty interesting how FDR liked the press - mostly - and had a good relationship with them. At least up until WWII, where he had little choice but to be less generous with them. At least, per this book.

Within the covers of said book, in passing, it was mentioned of a great battle to keep the newfangled invention, television, free from commercial advertising, etc. That was the first I'd ever read of such a battle. If I recall correctly (that book is buried somewhere and I can't find it right now), the battle on the non-commercial side was led by Henry Wallace. I might be wrong about that, but that's my recollection.

Obviously, the commercial side won, but at least there was a fight. I've always been going to go research this, but still have not. Thought I'd mention it, though.

up
5 users have voted.

@travelerxxx A drug by Pfizer was approved for alopeacia by the FDA. Days or a couple of weeks later, the Oscar awards were televised.. Chris Rock gets smacked over the bald headed actress joke. The drug goes on sale shortly after the show.
The Awards show was sponsored by Pfizer.
Turn it off, America!

up
5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

travelerxxx's picture

@on the cusp

Just a coincidence, I'm sure......

As with professional wrestlers, they all likely went out together for a nice, paid for, steak supper after the festivities.

up
3 users have voted.

@travelerxxx by being gorgeous, not acting skill.
It is just all so contrived. News, series, ads, all in concert with making our choices for us.
They know what is best for us, which coincidentally profits them.
I gave up tv at least 25 years ago.

up
3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Sima's picture

I haven't watched TV since around 2001 or so. At first, seeing a TV in an airport or bar, or gag, at my parents' house (where it is on constantly, non-stop, forever), was ok. Now it's disorienting and sort of nauseating. How can people watch that stuff? How can they stand the commercials?

Here's an addition against TV from the foul-mouthed German punk side of music:
Smash Your TV!: Heiter bis Wolkig
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkurzNWxBbw]

I always end up humming it when at my parents' house Smile

up
5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

lotlizard's picture

An ABC commercial, promoting the medium itself:

[video:https://youtu.be/LqaSj6rHO6Y]

FCC chairman Newton Minow, 1961: “a vast wasteland”:

[video:https://youtu.be/5FxgJBMp_ww]

up
4 users have voted.