Jon Stewart's Farewell to Glenn Beck and Colbert's Friday

1) Glenn Beck is leaving Fox News? Oh, the inhumanity!
Who is he blaming this time, Soros and Santa Clause?
Here's Jon Stewart's awesome bit on it. Watch it here.


Tip of the hat to my good pal, Vipul for making me aware of this:

Colbert and Alicia Keys: New York Remix

I cannot think of a better person to explain pop culture remixing than Stephen Colbert. Watch the following Colbertian version of the Alicia Keys and Jay-Z uber-popular track Empire State of Mind. I don't know about you, but I definitely prefer the Colbert remix.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

And, according to the nonfactzone here are the Colbert lyrics:

Yeah, yeah, yeah
I love New York, King of all the Cities
Lived up by the Guggenheim, ’til I got some kiddies
Moved to Connecticut, ‘bye George Pataki
Volvo to the dry-cleaners, pickin’ up my khakis

Shoppin’ mall is close, my community is gated
My shorties are all private school educated
Home theater system, 60-inch plasma
Clean suburban air, much better for my asthma

Still hit the city, Times Square, keep it real
Hard Rock Cafe for the appetizer deal
M&M Store, Disney Store, I’m in heaven
I own this town from 41st to 47th

Take you to The Lion King, that show is fantastic
Leave half an hour early so I can beat the traffic
I can get home really fast, driver rocks an E-Z Pass
Land of cheaper gas and the upper middle class

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Clip of the Week

I enjoyed this all sorts of things. Colbert's in rare form here.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sport Report - U.S. Open & NFL Wheel of Scandal
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

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The Flaming Lips

I like the Flaming Lips.
I especially like their "Do You Realize?" track from 2002 even though I remember satirizing it a bit when it came out. One kids those one likes, I suppose. "Do You Realize?" was named the official rock song of Oklahoma this year. The FLips are now on their album-promoting tour and if they're coming to your neck of the woods, I recommend the show.
Also, you may listen to their new album Embryonic on colbernation.com which will be available till next Monday.
Watch this rather funny exchange between Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne and Stephen Colbert.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Wayne Coyne
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

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The Irony of Satire: Study on Colbert

Tip of the hat to my good friend Dimitri for the pointer.

Ohio State's own scientists are publishing a new study on satire which will appear on volume 14 of The International Journal of Press/Politics.

This is a most interesting idea which those of you who are Stephen Colbert fans are bound to enjoy. I look forward to reading this on the journal as, I reckon, it will be a good addition to my current literary [and other] references. Often when asked to tackle the concepts of irony and satire, I tend to rely on the work of Bertolt Brecht, especially his Choräle. Congratulations to Ohio State's faculty members: Heather L. LaMarre, Kristen D. Landreville, and Micheal A. Beam who produced this original study. I will be reviewing it here shortly.

The abstract says:

"This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion."

You can get more information about this new study here.

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graph per google image

Remixing, Colbert-style

The following is most likely the most entertaining thing I have seen in a few days. Colbert's version of 'remixing' is a parody par excellence. I give it an A!

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen's Remix Challenge

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

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David Gregory Makes Me Laugh. Really?!

Cable news entertains me greatly. Truly. It's entertaining and relaxing. The prospect of my favorite news commentary becoming available via podcast is as thrilling to me as reading a brand new title in my field of research, or going to a Muse concert. Yes. It's right up there.

I had a bit of a moment the other night. It came to my attention that I was laughing profusely when David Gregory was on. Now, humor is not the first thing to think of when one looks at David Gregory. If anything, he is s serious journalist. He's very tall (actually because of that, Bush refers to him as 'Stretch'), has silver hair, and features uninteresting intonation patterns. So, when asked why I was laughing, I said, "I really don't know what it is but when David Gregory speaks, I can't help myself but laugh. The need to laugh is too great to contain."

David Gregory is the new moderator and managing editor of the very serious program Meet the Press. I used to be able to follow the program with interest when the late Tim Russert was in charge but now my interest is of a different nature.

Consider the following clip. David Gregory is featured towards the end (his bit starts at the onset of the fifth minute). I do not know what it is but David Gregory does to me what Larry and Leon do on Curb Your Enthusiasm. But, at least, the latter two are comics. Go figure.

Are there things out there that have no business making you laugh but somehow they manage to?

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Bush and the Press

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

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Colbert Talks Copyright

Sra, I suppose this will especially be of interest to you. Lawrence Lessig's points are not only gripping but also relevant. I will be reviewing Remix, the book he is promoting on the Colbert Report next week.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Lawrence Lessig

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

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A Few Questions Answered

I get various questions from different posts which I don't always find enough time to answer. Ergo, here is some info.

1) What non-fiction book are you reading right now and why?

I won't be including the titles that relate to my work here as, well, they are "special interest" titles. Unless you're interested in reading about new scholarship on the Middle Ages. If that's the case, let me know and I'll attend to the questions.

Now, here are the current titles:

1) Bob Woodward's The War Within
2) Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How
It Can Renew America
3) Maya Angelou's Letter to My Daughter
4) Sophie Uliano's Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life

-Bob Woodward, well, because he seems to be so well-respected, and most importantly, he writes like a true historian who does think that context does matters. A whole lot. I will be reviewing this book soon.

-The reason why I'm reading Friedman is because I read his column on the NY Times regularly and because he is writing about a most relevant topic: global warming.

-Maya Angelou? Well, because it is Maya Angelou.

-And lastly, I'm reading Gorgeously Green because I am trying to implement green-living techniques in my quotidian experience. I will end up blogging about this title, too.

I have two more titles I'll be starting this week. Courtesy of Paul's suggestion. More to come.

What music are you listening to and why?

Keane's Perfect Symmetry
Beethoven's 7th Symphony
The Magnetic Fields' Distortion and i
Sean Lennon's Friendly Fire
Jenny Lewis' Acid Tongue


- Well, again, there is no secret that, at least recently, I've been almost exclusively Keane-bound. I rarely get so thoroughly impressed by one single album but, as I've mentioned before, it's that good!

-Because I always have time for Beethoven. The 7th Symphony always delivers.

-The Magnetic Fields are somewhat of a staple. Two different friends informed me the night before of their concert in town and while efforts were made to make it, no success was met. Ergo, to compensate, I am listening to them.

-Sean Lennon's Friendly Fire. One solid reason: Liam says this album is to him was Keane's latest seems to be to me. I didn't give it a lot of attention when it first came out due to much new music being released around the same time. However, I am absolutely loving it now. John's son gets music.

Jenny Lewis' new album Acid Tongue is breath-taking. Plus, I am a big fan of Rilo Kiley so it makes good sense that I would like her stuff too. I'll be reviewing her latest album soon.

Which news programs do you watch and why?

Meet the Press
Daily Show with Jon Stewart
The Colbert Report
The Rachel Maddow Show
Countdown with Keith Olbermann

I tend to be a reader of news more than a watcher. However, when time allows for it, I try to catch a few news programs.

Meet the Press is one. Even though I was a more regular viewer when the late Tim Russert was doing it.

The Daily Show has proven to be a good source of information with regard to new books. Plus, few people get political satire the way Stewart does.

I've liked Colbert since first discovering him on the Amy Sedaris' show Strangers with Candy. And I absolutely love his [satirical] efforts to be lexicography-minded. The segment of his show named 'The Word' is one from which many contemporary players might learn a thing or two.

I don't always manage to catch Rachel Maddow but when I do, it feels like a good decision. The Oxford-educated commentator who also has a radio show on Air America is well-poised, witty, and impressively quick. She also has a knack for contextualizations.

Keith Olbermann, well, I suppose I fell in the trap of Olbermann's charm as apparently so many others before me did. Again, I don't manage to catch him often but when I do, see the aforementioned Maddow comment.
graphs per amazon

Jon Stewart: Most Trusted TV Man?

Those of you who watch The Daily Show might enjoy this. A bit from the article features Stephen Colbert's comments, among other things.
" “Jon’s ability to consume and process information is invaluable,” said Mr. Colbert. He added that Mr. Stewart is “such a clear thinker” that he’s able to take “all these data points of spin and transparent falsehoods dished out in the form of political discourse” and “fish from that what is the true meaning, what are red herrings, false leads,” even as he performs the ambidextrous feat of “making jokes about it” at the same time.

“We often discuss satire — the sort of thing he does and to a certain extent I do — as distillery,” Mr. Colbert continued. “You have an enormous amount of material, and you have to distill it to a syrup by the end of the day. So much of it is a hewing process, chipping away at things that aren’t the point or aren’t the story or aren’t the intention. Really it’s that last couple of drops you’re distilling that makes all the difference. It isn’t that hard to get a ton of corn into a gallon of sour mash, but to get that gallon of sour mash down to that one shot of pure whiskey takes patience” as well as “discipline and focus.”"
graph per ny times

Nas on Colbert

The performer Nas was on The Colbert Report this week. Nas's newly released album Untitled was released a little over a week to encouraging reviews and sales. Nas is also much in the media due to his ongoing back&forth with Fox News' O'Reilly.
I'm not much of a fan of hip-hop but I am a fan of any well-made album regardless of its genre. I suppose anything other that Kate Perry is a good move on the part of radio DJ's. Moments like this make one appreciate the iTrip even more.
I find Nas's Untitled passionate and seemingly honest. While I've only been listening to it for a short time now, I have to say it definitely delivers on pathos.
Nas, per his admission, sings about problems and foibles he observes in his own community. He says he sings to inform and, if nothing else, his passion for his art will be easily detectable in this new project. Nas is known for his flare for grandiosity and superiority. I don't know if that's the performativity aspect of the genre or not, but be it as it may, it doesn't bother me. However, not much of his signature bravado (that he is usually known for) can be observed in this album. He almost sounds altruistic. Well, almost.
The Rolling Stone review observes:
"Still, on Untitled, Nas has found subject matter worthy of his grandiosity and his grumpiness."
I would concur.
Check out Nas on the 07/23 episode on The Colbert Report. Much of his conversation with Colbert had to do with a discussion of race and some of its depiction in a few news programs.

Quote of the Day from the Colbert Report

This piece of beauty comes from my favorite entertainer Stephen Colbert:

"In a way I like this because I understand everything on the cover."

Stepher Colbert, the Word, and Gas Prices

Here's a Colbert-ian moment. Via Greg Mankiw, another good blogger I read regularly. Mankiw is also quoted by Colbert in this piece.

Colbert and Jacoby on Truthiness

This just now. Stephen Colbert mentioned his coinage truthiness tonight when talking to his guest, Susan Jacobi, the author of The Age of Unreason. I was told to pay attention, so I did. And this is what I heard.

Susan Jacoby: Truthiness is to truth what military music is to music.
Stephen Cobert: What, you can march to it?
Susan Jacoby: And you don't have to think.

The Colbert 'Bump'

Stephen Colbert doesn't just make some of us laugh uncontrollably. He's also a good book 'reviewer', it turns out. My instincts tell me that the authors who go on the show must do pretty well in terms of book sales after their Colbert appearance. After all, if other people out there feel a compulsion to read the new books the why I do, these authors can't be doing all that badly.
The piece on juice analytics states:
"... being on the Colbert Report increases sales by 10 times on average. That bump doesn't last forever, but, let's face it, what does?"
Interesting bit. Read it here.
graph her colbert nation

Stephen Colbert's coined 'truthiness'

And here is Stephen Colbert's coined 'truthiness' as per English Wikipedia's entry:

Truthiness is a satirical term created by television comedian Stephen Colbert to describe things that a person claims to know intuitively or "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts. Colbert created this definition of the word during the inaugural episode of his satirical television program The Colbert Report, as the subject of a segment called "The Wørd". It was named Word of the Year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Merriam-Webster. By using the term as part of his satirical routine, Colbert sought to criticize the use of "truthiness" as an appeal to emotion and tool of rhetoric in contemporary socio-political discourse.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert's Comedy Central show The Colbert Report is worth watching. And his syntanctically disfunctional [and absurd] title "I Am America (And So Can You)" is also a must-read.

A good example of satire [not] gone wrong.

Here's an example of Colbert's treatment of atheists:

"Imagine going through life completely duped into thinking that there's no invisible, omniscient higher power guiding every action on Earth. It's just so arbitrary!"



graph per amazon

Colbert

I had to watch Stephen Colbert's pre-taped Branson interview and see what the fuss was all about since the blog world was Report-buzzing.

It was amusing watching Sir Richard Branson and Stephen Colbert go at it and it got even more amusing when the water fight started. Branson 1-Colbert 0.

It was perhaps the most homosocial interview of the summer.

Colbert is no Cronkite, folks, nor does he try or want to be. He is in character when he does the show so let's see and understand him in character.

And it was only a while back when he was in Amy Sedaris' "Strangers with Candy" after all.

Andrew Keen's Cult of the Amateur

According to Andrew Keen's new book, The Cult of the Amateur, it is necessary to have elitism when it comes to the dispensation and dissemination of news and information on the internet. Keen maintains that the internet has done nothing but allow everyone to blog, express their opinions, and spread information as they see fit, without being held to any kind of journalistic standard.

While I do agree that the 'relativization of knowledge,' as a result of facile 'googlization of information' is indeed troubling, the upside of Web 2.0 is that it provides a platform on which education may indeed occur.

However, while in the past the powers that be were easily identifiable, what we encounter nowadays is a 'curse of anonymity' of sorts i.e., not knowing who asserts what. And this is a point I wholeheartedly agree with. The full disclosure of one's identity might allow for more responsible reporting on the internet.

Keen’s premise is one of fundamental elitism. He seems to maintain that he knows how to read information, he knows how to read Wikipedia, for instance, as opposed to Britannica but that the majority of people might not have that inherent and informed savvy he owns by virtue of him being a professional writer and one who makes a living by writing.

While I do agree with Keen that the internet does attract much nonsense, an informed user is one who teaches her/himself how to do a search and how to problematize and check the information she/he encounters in cyber space. Media literacy is a necessary thing and one that needs to be encouraged and fed.

Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur could be worth a read.

Keith and Stephen: Odd Music Review

Ok, the other day I saw Toby Keith on the Colbert Report.
Those who know me, are aware of my penchant for Stephen Colbert's rhetoric since I very much seem to communicate in a similar fashion with many, many people in my life. Colbert's discursive choices very much mirror my own, hence, out of basically narcissistic reasons [why, call it something else?], I dig most about him.

Colbert had Toby Keith on his show and I got a kick out of Keith's speech which actually was not the way I used to think it would be. Keith was quite funny, employed double entendres, and seemed genuine. Afterwards, Keith performed a song called "High Maintenance Woman" which made me laugh so hard I almost fell off my couch. But I didn't. Fall, that is.

Instead, I got on iTunes and got said song, played it once and then realized that there is absolutely nothing in my music sensitivities that allows for a fair appreciation of country music. I am disinclined to enjoy it because I just do not get it. Nothing in my DNA and overall makeup is conducive to a fair appreciation of country music. Nada!

And I told my friend, let's call her "Terry", that I was listening to Toby Keith and "Terry" informed me that she was completely disgusted and that she "won't tell because [she] does not try to think about him ever, and thinking about [me] listening to him goes against all of that." And then she ended the email saying "You lose about 5000 cool points."

Ha. Double ha. Leave it to "Terry" to make me laugh that hard but who could blame her? My brain is glam punk-infested and I leave no room in it for such 'disturbances of creation' as country music. But perhaps, I have been too set in my own ways and in an effort to give all artists out there a chance, I managed to commit musical blasphemy and in the process lost about 5000 cool points. Now, is it biology or the environment that is impacting my musical tendencies? Or is it both? I guess I was born this way. Not into country music, that is. I need to go back to my roots and reclaim my coolness now before I lose all the cool points in Terry's eyes.

Warped tour, here I come!