p e n g u i n d e v i l

I guess we feel the air of election time approaching, so last night we re-watched Orwell Rolls in his Grave. Part of the flood of political documentaries that sprouted up after George Bush was, um, elected in 2000, it is one of my favorites of that genre. An all-encompassing movie, as its subject is the control of the media, media consolidation and the role that the modern media plays in the government. As the cover says, it explores what the media doesn’t want to talk about – Itself.

It is a serious documentary, being primarily just interviews, but these are interviews with some great folks: Charles Lewis (formerly of 60 Minutes), Mark Crispin Miller, Bernie Sanders, Greg Palast, Vincent Bugliosi and more! Filmmaker Robert Kane Pappas continually reminds us of the dangers of the national dialog being not just presented in the forms that they are, but with the control of that presentation in the hand of too few corporations whose agendas are more and more hand in hand with the government, rather than serving the public interest to inform us about the actions of the government and corporations.

The movie has extensive quotes from both Nineteen Eighty-Four and from Joseph Goebbels, I imagine in the hope of shocking the viewers in either awareness or an actual sense of caring about any of this. But the people who would watch this aren’t the people who need to see it. But would those people care anyway? Probably not.

Orwell Rolls in his Grave goes into the deregulation of the media, the removal of the fairness doctrine, the FCC lack of interest in the public good and the effects of all of those. It is scary stuff, rather aggravating with some great scenes… Especially the FCC committee hearing where they are planning on basically throwing out all ownership rules, hearing one board member make an extensive and intelligent argument against relaxing these rules, and then having another one make an terrible argument for it (against the first amendment rights of the corporations, and some chatter about media ownership limitations deny the citizens their right to choose?)… They also look at the power of the Media’s lobbyists in Washington (personally, I’m not ever sure why any lobbyists are allowed at all).

As with most of these films, it is frustrating and maddening, but also filled with though-provoking and valuable insights and it is all something that is good to keep in mind. And a reminder that though we are made to read Nineteen Eighty-Four in jr. high as (I imagine) some kind of warning, some of those kids took to it as a “how to succeed” guide.

Especially me. I am still around but spare time seems sparse and the movies just aren’t getting watched too much. One thing that is getting watched is Perry Mason. Now I imagine I haven’t said this here before, assuming that it goes without saying, but Perry Mason is more that just a great Ozzy song, it is unquestionably the best TV show ever made! Due to KPTV, what used to be our local independent TV channel, Perry Mason has been on TV every weekday at noon for my entire life. Or at least 30+ years. That being the case, entire summers would go by when Perry at noon and Star Trek at 5pm (thanks again, KPTV) were the points to my day. I watched god knows how many hundreds of episodes over the years. Though every show follows the same story (murder/Tragg gets it wrong/Burger gets it wrong/Perry knows they’re wrong, but just doesn’t quite know what’s right/at the last minute Perry gets someone [usually someone who wasn’t even a suspect] to confess from the stand) the show never gets tiring! But back to the present. A good while back we got ourselves all 10 DVD’s of the First Season of Perry Mason and, wow, what else can I say, it was the best and now it’s even better!

Certainly the best DVD buy I’ve made (well, except for maybe the UK Russ Meyer boxed set and the Blind Dead coffin set), I am continually being re-amazed. These are the full original episodes and as such they are 10 or so minutes longer than the ones I’m used to. And those minutes are put to great use. I don’t recall ever seeing so much of Paul Drake (and his office and his sports car and the way he works), Perry comes across as much tougher and sneaky (law-breaking even) than I remember… They’re just great. They look good, the Gardner stories are still a lot of fun and the added time adds a lot of character and depth to these already great shows.

Oh yeah, we’re about half-way through and the best episode so far has been episode 11, “The Case of the Crooked Candle”. When two women are waiting at the beauty parlor and it’s time for the next appointment… For Mrs. Bradford. Strangely, they are both named Mrs Bradford. They then learn that their Mr Bradford’s both have the same first name… And in fact, both of these women have the same address! Then Mr. Bradford turns up murdered… Obviously, something funny is going on in the state of California!