deep thoughts on TV
I've been working at home this week, as my office is being painted. It's good for productivity and happiness in the short-term, but not leaving the house until the late afternoon several days in a row made me a bit stir-crazy.
One lunch break discovery was that the only channel that I can get with any clarity on my cable-less antenna-less TV shows The Awful Truth, Michael Moore's show from 2000 0r so. The bits about NAFTA, compassionate conservativism and getting Alan Keyes to jump into a mosh pit are entertaining and feel like a little time capsule of before 9/11 changed everything.
I don't understand why it is being broadcast here, though. I can't imagine that it translates very well. Compassionate conservatism and Alan Keyes are both specifically American things from a very specific time. I'm a little frightened that people here can get the jokes, that American cultural imperialism has spread so far that Serbians understand jokes about Alan Keyes. I mean, who here cares about American union jobs being shipped to Mexico?
Regardless, it is a good break and a nice chuckle when my head is full of translating. And the subtitles entertain me.
One lunch break discovery was that the only channel that I can get with any clarity on my cable-less antenna-less TV shows The Awful Truth, Michael Moore's show from 2000 0r so. The bits about NAFTA, compassionate conservativism and getting Alan Keyes to jump into a mosh pit are entertaining and feel like a little time capsule of before 9/11 changed everything.
I don't understand why it is being broadcast here, though. I can't imagine that it translates very well. Compassionate conservatism and Alan Keyes are both specifically American things from a very specific time. I'm a little frightened that people here can get the jokes, that American cultural imperialism has spread so far that Serbians understand jokes about Alan Keyes. I mean, who here cares about American union jobs being shipped to Mexico?
Regardless, it is a good break and a nice chuckle when my head is full of translating. And the subtitles entertain me.
posted by rachel @ 5:12 PM
6 Comments:
At 5:29 PM,
fatrobot said…
tv is signals are going to make aliens on other planets mad and then they will come here and smash everything
At 7:31 AM,
Anonymous said…
rachel, are you going anytime soon back to the USA to visit your family and friends? Are you nostalgic?
At 7:50 PM,
Bg anon said…
I might have an explanation for you about the Awful Truth.
I spotted it too recently. Its not on a Serbian channel, its on a Bosnian channel. Cant remember which but if its the local Bosnian Serb one the explanation is in the context of anti globalism. Or that the US government is unaccountable and does as it chooses at home and abroad.
One might stretch and draw the conclusion that the Bosnian war was the fault of the US.
Funny I originally watched that programme in the UK. He always slagged on the US and the American audience during the network breaks and 'bigged up' the British audience. But in a recent one I didnt see he completely slagged on the British.
Heh heh Moore, Moore, good but ever the populist.
At 1:42 PM,
rachel said…
I'm planning to go back for six weeks or so this winter. I am nostalgic sometimes. . . but not too often
At 5:14 AM,
Brad said…
Alan Keyes existed in the post-9/11 world. He ran against your boyfriend for the Senate. And got about 20 votes.
At 12:15 PM,
rachel said…
I know that Mr. Keyes ran against my boyfriend. But he's a trivia question answer in the states - why would people anywhere else pay attention.
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