Big eating in Little China
Authentic Chinese fare for the New Year
Minority interests When Latino doesn’t mean Latino
Real-deal minority broadcasters face the threat of Big Media “They’ve dangled money in front of my mom, big time,” says KEDA Program Director Richard Davila, whose mother owns the station. “If we sold the station, conjunto airplay would die here.” (Photo by Mark Greenberg) KEDA (1540 AM) is a throwback to an earlier era, a…
CREATURES OF CIRCUMSTANCE
Lesbian-hooker-killer: Real-life multiple murderer Aileen wournos is portrayed by Charlize Theron in Monster. (courtesy photo) Does ‘Monster’ feed on lurid misogynistic fantasies of femmes fatales? Desperate to persuade Selby Wall (Ricci), a lonely gamine she meets in a bar, to spend a week with her, Aileen Wournos insists: “You’ll never meet someone like me…
People power A third way
It’s not flawless, but collective broadcasting is an alternative to the corporate model Last month, Prometheus Radio Project organizers put a new community radio station on the air with the help of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farm worker organization comprised of primarily Latino, Haitian, and Mayan immigrants in Florida. (Photo by Jacques-Jean…
STALE, REPULSIVE GAG
Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller) holds Rodolpho, his love interest’s pet ferret. (courtesy photo) Formulaic gross-out humor doesn’t work in ‘Along Came Polly’ Some day soon, a sharp grad student somewhere is going to write a dissertation entitled “Snot, Flatus, and Assorted Secretions: An Epistemology of the Farrelly Brothers.” The paper will dive right into…
Independent survivor Radio free Gonzales
KCTI: obits, polka, and an occasional off-color joke L.D. Decker (left), takes over the controls in Studio A to deliver the noon newscast. Joe Haynes (right), was named KCTI general manager in the mid-1990s. (Photo by Michael Cary) From an old bank vault in the rear of KCTI 1450AM, Aaron “Double A” Allan retrieves a…
Armchair Cinephile
City of lights-camera-action Much of the talk around Chez DeFore lately has been about long-overdue international travel. So I’m going to take it as a sign that so many recent DVD releases offer visions of Paris: The most whimsical view is Love Me Tonight (Kino), a goofy, corny, and wholly charming 1932 musical starring…
Internet choices Create your own news
Get corporate media out of your head Would you like to unplug? To ignore mainstream media, and get your own sources of news? It’s possible, thanks to new technologies of which most people haven’t heard. “Technology is bringing more power to people,” FCC Chairman Michael Powell told the National Press Club on January 14. “Power,”…
SPECIAL SCREENING
42nd Street Dir. Lloyd Bacon; writ. Bradford Ropes (novel), Rian James & James Seymour; feat. Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Guy Kibbee, Ginger Rogers (NR) “Jones and Barry are doing a show! Jones and Barry are doing a show!” Few of us live in a world where news of an upcoming stage…
Public records Policing the airwaves
What lurks in a station’s public file? It isn’t well-known, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that television and radio stations provide a public file listing their public service announcements, and programming – including public interest and children’s educational shows – minority hiring information, viewer comments, and political advertising invoices. The purpose of this…
RECENT REVIEWS
21 Grams Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu; writ. Guillermo Arriaga; feat. Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melissa Leo, Paul Calderon (R) 21 Grams juggles three main characters who, though they don’t know it yet, are involved in one story. We see snippets (very short ones, for much of the film) of their…
Democracy The uprising
The Right and the Left agree on one thing: The FCC rules suck Last June, Chairman Michael Powell and his Republican colleagues at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expected to discreetly pass new rules on lifting limits on media ownership. Instead, Powell’s tactics triggered what media scholar Robert McChesney calls the “Uprising of 2003.” “Nothing…
BIG EATING IN LITTLE CHINA
Chef Chan Chi Man prepares pork fried rice during a recent lunch hour at Golden Wok. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Authentic Chinese fare for the New Year According to the lunar calendar, the Year of the Monkey begins on January 22, which means millions of Chinese people are celebrating the New Year with magnificent…
Anatomy of a mugging Public TV not immune
Remaking PBS in the more “fair and balanced” image of the Fox Network There is something comforting about public broadcasting. Compared to the networks’ vacant sit-coms, sappy dramas, and obnoxious reality shows, watching a PBS station has a calming effect, even if the program’s subject matter is disturbing: Frontline or NOW with Bill Moyers…
SYMBOLISM ON A PLATE
Traditional foods served during the Asian New Year at Van’s Chinese Seafood (3214 Broadway, 828-8449). Clockwise from front: traditional salad with pork, shrimp, and jellyfish; braised pork feet with five spices; steamed whole fish with scallion sauce; sesame balls with red bean filling; sticky rice cake; treasure box, an assortment of Chinese candied fruits;…
SOUND AND THE FURY
a week on the scene CONCERT PREVIEW One of the most promising artists to emerge on the modern R&B landscape in the last year is a 24-year-old rapper-turned-singer from Detroit named Dwele. With his smooth, soulful command of ballads, his weakness for rich, jazzy chords, and his obvious love for hip-hop, Dwele has been lumped…
AMERICAN IDOLATRY
Kimberly Young belts out a song during Friday night karaoke at Cooty’s bar while Warren Dunn of Dunn-Rite Karaoke readies the next song in the background. (Photo by Mark Greenberg) Karaoke DJs learn to take a back seat for a living Karaoke DJs are like sports referees and bus drivers: You really only notice…
LADY LYRICISTS
An example of MC and hip-hop graffiti artist Binx’s art work (courtesy photo) Local hip-hop show puts the focus on female MCs CURRENT CHOICE ℵ Women have been a part of hip-hop as far back as 1976, when Ntozake Shange dropped her “feminal” poem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.…
FLO MOTION
CD SPOTLIGHT ℵ A female duo of British expatriates currently based in Philadelphia, Floetry fits somewhere in the hip-hop/soul continuum between Philly soul sister Jill Scott and Miseducation-era Lauryn Hill. Like Scott, they’re earthy, jazzed-up bohemians, and like Hill they approach their performances as sermons, infusing their songs with one-world cosmic consciousness and spiritual gratitude.…
FCC Public Hearings Clearing the airwaves
Where is the public interest in the media? Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell likes to compare the airwaves to a flea market where buyers and sellers haggle over invisible ions as if bargaining down a pair of Cabbage Patch dolls. “In the past, the Commission tried to promote localism by requiring broadcasters to air…
DOGG EAT DOGG
Snoop Dogg CURRENT CHOICE ℵ Calvin Broadus has come a long way since his landmark debut on the Dr. Dre produced single “Deep Cover” in 1992. Later that year, Snoop’s syrupy flow lifted Dre’s The Chronic to monumental heights, and in ’93 he released his funk influenced debut CD, Doggystyle. For a while, Doggystyle was…
News flavor Fear factor
The media’s crime obsession KABB news: Purveyors of doom? (courtesy photo) On New Year’s day, KABB Fox 29 ran the following stories on the 9 o’clock news: “The first murder of the year,” “San Antonio’s murder rate down in 2003, and “The last murder of 2003.” Given that a story about the declining murder…
SPREAD THE NEWS
What: The Federal Communication Commission’s Localism Task Force conducts a public hearing on media consolidation rules and their impact the local content and diversity of voices in radio, TV, and newspapers. When: Wed, Jan 28, 5:30-9:30pm Where: City Council Chambers, Main and Commerce streets. Seating inside is limited to 275. The hearing will be…
TV and politics Talking heads
On TV, political ads replace bona fide election coverage Tony Sanchez: paying the piper, calling the tune (courtesy photo) At the peak of the Texas governor’s race in mid- to late October 2002, you could not turn on the television without being smothered in political ads by Republican incumbent Rick Perry or his Democratic…
Merging sources Cloning the news
Media convergence creates the same old hay on every station We heard it over and over as children: “Informed citizens are the cornerstones to a functioning democracy.” The ideology continues into our adult lives: “The ideal citizen is an active participant – paying diligent attention to the day’s news, forming his or her own…
