Discourse Chronicle

[Here is something I notice about this video that really bothers me. According to CMT, this song hit #1 on Billboard’s Country charts and helped Underwood’s album go five times platnium last year, but now this song is shooting up the pop charts as DJs and VJs herald it as a “new” song. Naturally, appearing on Country and Pop charts makes Underwood a successful crossover artist like Shania Twain, but what bothers me is that DJs and VJs are treating her as if she is brand-new whereas before they were aware of a crossover artist’s previous success. BK]

category: Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Television    

Nelson first played 007 in a one-hour TV adaptation of “Casino Royale” in 1954, eight years before Sean Connery played the British agent in the big screen adaptation of “Dr. No.”

The occasion was the CBS series “Climax!” which had purchased the rights to the first James Bond novel from author Ian Fleming, reportedly for $1,000. The live broadcast on October 21, 1954 featured Peter Lorre as the card player Le Chiffre. –CBS | AP

category: Popular Culture, Television    

Yes, Superman (played by Brandon Routh) is not enlightened after all. He can only save physical lives, and not save individuals’ spiritual lives – though he might inspire many with his compassion in action. Superman was featured almost in a god-like way with a host of archetypal comic book super powers, while Lex Luthor (played by Kevin Spacey) comments that “gods are selfish beings who fly around in little red capes and don’t share their power with mankind.” Well, it’s not so much that he doesn’t want to share, but that he can’t share his power, it being his self-earned karmic birthright! Similarly, the enlightened cannot literally make us wise, but can only share with us their wisdom on how to become as wise as them. –Shen Shi’an

[Many of us graduate students choose Analyzing Visual Rhetoric as our first paper units when teaching freshman composition. Here is a brief visual analysis of the Superman Returns movie poster through a religious studies lens using Buddhism. BK]

category: Comics, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Television    

[What if Duck Dodgers picked up Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern costume at the dry cleaners by mistake? Hilarious! BK]

category: Comics, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Television    

To stay in the game, the player must answer trivia questions and get every one right — wrong answers from the mob eliminates them from the game, driving up the cash prize for the player. If the player can eliminate all 100 members of the mob, which will also be stacked with surprise opponents, such as geniuses, valedictorians, grandmothers and other game show champs, he will go home with the $1 million top prize. However, if the player gets one answer wrong, the game is over and “the mob” will split the player’s winnings up to that point and a new contestant gets to take on “the mob.”

[Here is another interesting game show from NBC hosted by Bob Saget alongside Howie Mandell’s Deal or No Deal. BK]

category: Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Television    

Internet search leader Google is snapping up YouTube for $1.65 billion, brushing aside copyright concerns to seize a starring role in the online video revolution. -Associated Press

[From Jerz’s Literacy Weblog. BK]

category: Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology, Television    

If Google reaches a deal with YouTube, the combined company would be a more potent force against MySpace, the social-networking Web site that has become the No. 1 provider of video on the Internet, according to comScore Networks, a market-research firm. -Ben Charny

[I know lots of people use Facebook, MySpace, or both, but MySpace as number one for online video? I always wish MySpace would develop more aesthetically pleasing and usable pages. BK]

category: Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology, Television    

The Enterprise top lot has garnered one of the highest prices ever paid for any piece of Hollywood memorabilia and set a record for a piece of Star Trek memorabilia.

The 198-centimetre model of the Starship Enterprise-D, used extensively in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series, has sold for 20 times the predicted sale price.

It was bought by a determined, unidentified private American collector bidding via telephone. -Reuters

[I thought for a moment that bidder on the phone might be Dennis G. Jerz, an undergraduate mentor and friend of mine, but then I remember he chose Kirk over Picard =) BK]

category: Popular Culture, Television    

[Favorite Colbert line: “…he disguised himself as the one thing farthest from a hero – a journalist.” Favorite bulletpoint: “Like get a comics page” (To the New York Times). BK]

category: Comics, Popular Culture, Television    

Any time you think of a simple animation you don’t assume that it would take too long to make. For the bigger blockbusters we can expect a teaser trailer up to a year in an advance. For The Simpsons Movie, Fox tells us that not only we have to wait till 2007 for the film’s release, but we have to wait all the way until July. Holy cow! What if we forget by then!

[The trailer is viewable at YouTube. It has been a long time since I watched an episode of The Simpsons, but I imagine that a big-budget movie would be successful for the long-running animated sitcom. BK]

category: Popular Culture, Television