A Qatsi-travaganza!
As if there weren't already enough going on this weekend, Lincoln Center is presenting a special three-night screening of the entire Qatsi Trilogy by Phillip Glass and Godfrey Reggio performed live starting tonight. And I've got tickets!
I first saw Koyaanisqatsi on The Learning Channel (or, rather, the channel that eventually evolved into the Learning Channel) back in the early Eighties, and it blew my tiny little junior high mind. That was back in the wild, early days of cable when the channels were so desperate for things to show that they'd think nothing of showing an art film in the middle of the afternoon.
I miss those days, when you got the idea that the programmers didn't exactly know what they were doing and were just playing things by ear. Not necessarily because they produced programming that was good -- trust me, they played a lot of crap -- but there was a strange, random element that would often surface that made things interesting that you just don't get today when every programming decision is run through three dozen focus groups.
Look at the history of late night programming on Friday nights on the USA Network as an example:
In the 1980's they had "Night Flight" which played practically everything from music videos, a variety of short films, old Japanese TV series dubbed with humorous new dialogue ("Dynaman"), and bizarre Czechoslovakian animated movies ("Fantastic Planet").
In the 1990's they had "Up All Night" which played low-budget flicks like "The Toxic Avenger" and "Stewardess School" hosted by Gilbert Gottfried.
Today they have: reruns of "Law & Order". Just like about 80% of the rest of the prime time TV schedule.
See what I mean? The average program quality today is probably quite higher, but it's much more safe and cozy, programmed for their precise demographic, accurate to 2 percentage points. There's still the occasional pocket of that arnarchic spirit on cable (probably Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" comes closest), but mostly there's nothing to surprise or throw the viewer for a curve, like "Koyaanisqatsi" did to me all those years ago.
Oh well, we've still got the internet...
I first saw Koyaanisqatsi on The Learning Channel (or, rather, the channel that eventually evolved into the Learning Channel) back in the early Eighties, and it blew my tiny little junior high mind. That was back in the wild, early days of cable when the channels were so desperate for things to show that they'd think nothing of showing an art film in the middle of the afternoon.
I miss those days, when you got the idea that the programmers didn't exactly know what they were doing and were just playing things by ear. Not necessarily because they produced programming that was good -- trust me, they played a lot of crap -- but there was a strange, random element that would often surface that made things interesting that you just don't get today when every programming decision is run through three dozen focus groups.
Look at the history of late night programming on Friday nights on the USA Network as an example:
In the 1980's they had "Night Flight" which played practically everything from music videos, a variety of short films, old Japanese TV series dubbed with humorous new dialogue ("Dynaman"), and bizarre Czechoslovakian animated movies ("Fantastic Planet").
In the 1990's they had "Up All Night" which played low-budget flicks like "The Toxic Avenger" and "Stewardess School" hosted by Gilbert Gottfried.
Today they have: reruns of "Law & Order". Just like about 80% of the rest of the prime time TV schedule.
See what I mean? The average program quality today is probably quite higher, but it's much more safe and cozy, programmed for their precise demographic, accurate to 2 percentage points. There's still the occasional pocket of that arnarchic spirit on cable (probably Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" comes closest), but mostly there's nothing to surprise or throw the viewer for a curve, like "Koyaanisqatsi" did to me all those years ago.
Oh well, we've still got the internet...
posted by Michael at 12:50 PM
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