danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

If you have watched television for more than five minutes in the past year, you have no doubt seen one of the millions of public service announcements heralding the impending switch to digital-only TV broadcasts.  These announcements, which are aired on practically every channel on broadcast and cable, in nearly every time slot, tell viewers that beginning February 17, 2009, analog broadcasts will cease, and older televisions using only an antenna will no longer function.  The advertisements make clear that cable and satellite subscribers with set-top boxes will still be able to watch TV, and viewers with newer televisions will also be fine.  Only old TVs with antennas will stop working.

Today I read that this public awareness campaign is not going well.  Apparently, Consumers Union thinks people are terribly misinformed about what will happen and how it will affect them.

“We need boots on the ground,” said Joel Kelsey, a Consumers Union policy analyst. Mr. Kelsey advocated armies of people, from firefighters to television industry personnel, going into homes and setting up converter boxes for consumers.

A number of people involved in the switch to digital think the Feb. 17 deadline will leave millions of Americans bewildered when their TVs stop working.

I disagree with these assertions that this is a significant problem, and I certainly do not think we need firefighters doing something so trivial, as though this were not the season for space heater-ignited infernos.  It is claimed that 20 million American households still receive their television signals exclusively via antenna.  I find this number very difficult to believe.  I don’t know anyone who actually watches TV on a regular basis that doesn’t have at least basic cable.  Even very poor people have cable.  Actually, poor people especially have cable.  The photograph above shows me in my apartment in 2000, when I was as very poor and my cupboards were always bare, and I had basic cable.  (There was no way to get CBS or NBC in Gainesville at the the time without cable.)  My guess is that the people who only have an antenna don’t watch much TV at all, and won’t notice their TVs don’t work next February.  This includes the haughty people who never let you forget that they don’t watch any television, as though that is something to be proud of.  I don’t hear this from people who are busy all day curing disease or feeding the hungry.  They’re hanging out like everybody else – just not with the TV on.  That isn’t to say that it won’t be inconvenient for them to have to replace their TVs, but if they have one of these old sets with rabbit-ears, they’ve gotten their money’s worth out of it.  I’ve bought three different TV sets in the last eight years.

Here’s what I suspect is really happening and what will happen: people who actually watch TV on a regular basis know about this digital transition; they are biding their time before they make a new purchase.  On February 18 they’ll get in their horse and buggy and ride to the general store and cash in their green stamps for a new set, and all will be well.  Or, people in big cities where over-the-air signals offer a decent amount of programming will finally have to splurge and get a new set.  This won’t be some Y2K nightmare scenario where everything will grind to a halt, and satellites will fall from the sky.  I think the FCC and Consumers Union is overly worried.

Filed under: Rantings, Technology, Television on December 22nd, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Once you hear Gustav Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony you never forget it.  It is an absolutely overwhelming experience.  It requires well over a hundred players, plus a huge chorus and a soprano and contralto, and lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes.  It is no surprise whatever that Gilbert Kaplan would have become so passionate about it.

Kaplan is a wealthy businessman who has devoted his life to Mahler’s Second Symphony.  Kaplan isn’t a trained musician, nor does he claim to be, but from time to time he conducts the work with various orchestras.  He’s even made two recordings of the piece.  I have his first, released on MCA in 1988 with the LSO.  Kaplan’s conducting is clearly not in the same league as Klemperer or Walter, but, judging from the recording, it isn’t horrible by any means.

But to read an article published last week, the New York Philharmonic players would disagree.  One of the Philharmonic’s violinists said of Kaplan, “I think he’s a charlatan.  At best his conducting is incompetent. At worst it’s laughable”.  Ouch.

How is it, then, that music critics and record reviewers like myself haven’t come to the same conclusion as the New York Philharmonic players?  The answer is the players themselves.  First class, modern orchestras like the NYPO play at such a high level that they can compensate for inferior conducting.  Let’s say a conductor’s technique is lacking, and he doesn’t show the beat.  The players power through.  Counting Mahler isn’t like counting Stravinsky, so the players can keep together themselves, and if they pay attention to the concertmaster and their section leaders, they can simply ignore a bad conductor. The audience might be unaware, especially if they can’t see what the conductor is doing.  It’s not ideal, and it is not likely to be revelatory, but that’s how it is.

What makes Kaplan’s MCA set so impressive is the care that went into the documentation he put together.  There are two booklets: one is full of notes and the sung text; the other includes an assortment of letters written by Mahler related to his Symphony No. 2.  It’s a lavish package I wouldn’t want to be without.  Kaplan’s recording may not be the first I turn to when I want to hear the Resurrection, but I cannot help but feeling the NYPO players are being a little dramatic.  Plus, Kaplan has done a great deal to advance this incomparable music.  He owns the manuscript copy of the work, and while I never like the idea of great works of art being in private hands, I am certain he treasures it.

Here’s a short sample from Kaplan’s LSO recording:

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Filed under: Music on December 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

As the end of any year draws near, media outlets publish their lists of ten best this, and ten worst that.  I seldom pay any attention.  But this list of words or phrases popularized in 2008 does include one expression I have become fond of: terrorist fist jab.

Filed under: Current Events, Television on December 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

Samuel Johnson, my vote for smartest man who ever lived, is well known for his literary criticism.  Among his best efforts in this vein is the Lives of the Poets, which reviews the work of 52 authors, including Dryden, Pope and Milton.  A complete edition runs to over 2,200 pages.  How much would you expect to pay for such a thing?  If you consider that my Penguin edition of Clarissa, at 1,500 pages, was $16, you might assume that the Johnson set would cost about $30, or maybe a little more if it’s hardcover.  Nope.  It’s $550.

Filed under: Literature and Books on December 20th, 2008 | No Comments »

Yesterday I took two final exams, and concluded my Fall semester, and my first year as a student at the University of Florida.

My first exam of the day was in Professor McCrea’s Eighteenth Century Novel course.  I had been worried about this one for the identification component I knew it would have.  My memory is terrible at best, so recalling obscure quotes and names of minor characters in novels I read in late August or September was bound to be a difficult task.  I was pleasantly surprised that I knew it all, even if I couldn’t remember as much about Captain Tomlinson as I’d have liked.  The second half of the test was an essay, and I wrote mine about the Eighteenth Century meaning of “quality” as it relates to highly individualized characters like Clarissa and Roxana.

My exam in Astronomy was not as brutal as I expected, since many of the questions were recycled from previous tests.  I’m crossing my fingers that I can pull off a B in the course.

Filed under: Literature and Books, School on December 19th, 2008 | No Comments »