I still can’t get my head around the fact that Jon Stewart is leaving, as explained in this post from February, and for sure it will take a few days to process the information that Trevor Noah will be replacing Jon.
After Jon’s announcement, nobody seemed to want to step up to the job because it is a tremendous responsibility, and whoever would take the position would be inevitably compared to Stewart. But it took time for Stewart to take the show to where it is today. If you ever watch the first show Jon hosted (which is available in the video section on their webpage) he couldn’t be more uncomfortable and not in his element, and he even admitted years later that during the first years of the show, he was prepared to quit at any time. But nothing better than experience to make things better. The topics, his delivery and everything else about the show just got better and better and he managed to be one of the most important voices in the political conversation.
Trevor will face a tough time, especially at the beginning, with the comparison with the former host, and this will be the biggest — but inevitable — mistake everybody will make. Nobody can be near to what Stewart does and Noah has to develop his own style which, again, TAKES TIME.
But the problem with American television is that most shows are not given time to develop and grow. For example, I’m a big Seinfeld fan, I can’t get enough of the reruns and laugh every time of the same jokes, but I wonder if the show would have been so successful had it been launched last year. It’s known that the producers had to fight for the show to be on the air and the ratings they had during the first seasons wouldn’t get them past the second season in current standards, at best.
When Stephen Colbert left and gave way to a new show (The Nightly Show) because there can’t be a Colbert Report without AT LEAST a person named “Colbert,” we can all compare the shows as a whole, because not only is the host different, but the format, guests, topics and segments are different as well. One thing that remains in The Nightly Show is the audience chanting the host’s name “Larry! Larry! Larry!” just like they used to do with Colbert. But that era is over now and Larry himself has to find his own voice and develop his audience along the way. It’s been nearly three months that The Nightly Show is on, with some hits and misses, but overall on a positive note, in my opinion. And I think that what will make both shows (Daily and Nightly) successful is the host TAKING CHARGE, being in control when at the desk and, most importantly, being diligent in their research and NOT screwing up on/off camera.
We WILL see changes “under new management hosting” at The Daily Show and it will actually be disappointing if we don’t. But with the industry and audience growing more impatient and wanting a perfect show from day one, I truly wish Noah the best of luck.
So, it turns out I’m in San Francisco for the month! A lot has happened, probably to be reported here later on, but nothing, NOTHING, has overwhelmed me so much as the news I saw last night….
JON STEWART IS LEAVING THE DAILY SHOW (Looking at the TV in horror…)
It all started with Ronaldo, Daniel, Lindsay and I doing the bar crawl last night. It was fun, we had good and bad beers, and at the end we all collected a really cool print from San Franpsycho. We ended the run at my favourite place, which does feel like “the local” we had in London: Gambrinus. They serve a long list of Polish beer and the atmosphere is great, so we decided to have something to eat there before going home.
We were going to have a piece of Ro’s birthday cake for dessert, but we were all so tired and full that we just called it a night. Ronaldo slept over at Daniel’s and I just crashed in bed, watching the 11-o’clock news to see what had happened during the day. Eyes closed, listening to the anchor talk about the local news, when suddenly they report on Brian Williams being suspended for 6 months without pay after the whole helicopter incident in Iraq. After that, they show a picture of Jon Stewart with the caption “Stewart stepping down.” I couldn’t believe my eyes. No longer tired. No longer being able to sleep. Just two months ago Colbert ended his hilarious tenure at Comedy Central, now the guy that started it all is leaving as well?
It’s just hard to process everything… He said he’ll leave later this year, “it could be September, it could be July…” As soon as JULY?? Maybe Comedy Central would have the summer to prep the new anchor, but then again, are they keeping The Daily Show as it is? Stewart started in 1999 replacing Craig Kilborn and transformed the show in what it is today. The Daily Show is Jon Stewart and Jon Stewart is The Daily Show, it’s not like a news show that every so often has a new anchor. There can’t be a Colbert Report without Stephen Colbert, can there be a Daily Show without Jon Stewart? (Well. there is the podcast…)
I feel really, really sad. I have to say that it’s spoiled my trip a little bit and I will definitely be bummed out for a couple days… I was so excited about the premiere of Better Call Saul and looking forward to upcoming episodes, but now all I can think about is already not watching Stewart do his thing, even though there will be at least some five months to go.
Here’s a link to his first show, which will sadly be paired with the last one soon.
Last nightBreaking Bad won its final awards after six brilliant seasons (I don’t buy that AMC’s 5A and 5B split, apparently that’s the new thing because it’s not like you’re waiting for a whole new season, it’s just PART B of the one you’ve been watching…) But anyway, the show is over but not done indeed!
I wasn’t sure whether they would win because the show had finished a year before and all the hype had slowly disappeared, but I can see that people did justice to the Walter White’s saga and awarded them the best drama series, among other categories. True Detective was a strong contender, but in the end it stood no chance, Breaking Bad was just too good. And even though there was a lot of talk that Matthew McConaughey might take home the award for best actor in drama, Bryan Cranston proved people wrong. Well, perhaps the idea of having to sit through a Matthew McConaughey acceptance speech, inevitably started by his “alright, alright, alright…” might have dissuaded people from voting for him. (Note: The actor claims that he borrowed the line from Jim Morrison. This link shows the explanation along with an album where the singer says the line, but I’m pretty sure it’s from the In Concert album, where he says it right after “Roadhouse Blues.” As a Doors’ and Jim Morrison’s big fan, I think it’s flattering and a big homage; but let’s be honest and agree that now it’s got to a point that it’s just annoying.)
I was also happy that “The Colbort Report” (Gwen Stefani had a John Travolta moment) took home the award, especially because this is the last year of the show. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that the persona Stephen Colbert will no longer exist and he will become a broadcast TV talk show host. Even though The Daily Show has a much stronger political impact, since when Stewart talks everybody listens, it will be difficult to win another award. One thing I know for sure: one of the best Daily Show‘s correspondents and now host of Last Week Tonight will definitely be on the ballot next year. John Oliver just doesn’t pull any punches and has provided us with brilliant segments such as the incredibly famous FIFA smackdown, climate change media coverage, nuclear weapons and native advertising. Let’s wait and see.
As for comedy, Modern Family took the trophy for the fifth consecutive time. Some four or five years ago a co-worker lent me the DVD and I watched the first five or six episodes of the series. I found it OK, funny, but never watched another episode ever since. I don’t know if it’s because I find the actors so annoying in “real life” when going on talk shows or giving interviews that I can’t bring myself to get invested in the show. I haven’t jumped on the Orange is the New Black wagon either, but in this case the show is still brand new and I still have a chance to catch up until season 3. And because the new cable and Netflix shows have a reduced number of episodes, as opposed to the never-ending 24-25-episode-per-season broadcast shows (although it’s been changing), it’s easier to binge-watch as it only takes a couple of weekends to do so.
So I can’t say anything about Modern Family because I’ve never watched it. It might be a hilarious show but I’m sure I’ll never know. All I know is that Louis C.K. should have won in more categories, not only writing. Louie is great, it was funny from the get-go, and hopefully will be on for years to come.
All in all, I’m happy that Breaking Bad scored big last night. And perhaps I should start watching less television…
So, it’s no surprise that I’ve been fed up with how things are going at work. I know that everybody has good and bad days at work; no job is perfect and we need to try to address the problems the best way we can. However, the good days are rare now and the bad days are really bad, really really bad.
I really feel sorry for all the students that come to the school and enroll in a course that is poorly devised and won’t help them at all. The material is awful, it isn’t cheap, has no quality, treats the student like a dumbass, it’s disrespectful. I’m glad that I’m not part of this department anymore, and I’m glad that I still get to work with my students using material that make them think. But things change fast where I work, and if I don’t do something soon, I might either need to start selling the lie that those courses are or get laid off.
Last week I had a long conversation with one of my colleagues and we seem to agree on many things that we should be doing right now, things that we should start doing. We bust our asses for nothing, the pay we make is ridiculous and the owners think we should be thankful. It’s a complete waste of time and talent, we’re constantly tired and we simply can’t move forward. I’m tired of making other people rich while I struggle to pay the bills and get to the end of the month.
So, today two colleagues and I had a lunch meeting and we’re really willing to make the move. A lot of people say that in order for you to make the jump you need “the fear”, but in our case we’re way beyond fear, we’re desperate. So, this year we’ll do a lot of planning and research, because we truly believe that there’s more to language learning than what we’ve been seeing for the last few years. I refuse to believe that people are looking for what most of the schools offer, including the school I work for, and we’re willing to make the change! We’re gonna do something about it! And we’re taking our country back!!! (just kidding, couldn’t resist…)
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The protests in Egypt really are taking a turn for the worse. Now journalists can’t report what’s going on because of the attacks in the last two days. Even though correspondents from all over the world were attacked, hospitalized, threatened and arrested, no doubt that Anderson Cooper was the most talked about, so much so that even Stewart had to step up and say “hands off Anderson Cooper!” But I could have done without tonight’s cation on Pierzzzz Morgan, with AC360 talking on phone about the latest developments: “Secret Broadcast from Anderson Cooper”. Really? Come on, guys…
After a few months of really hard work and insomnia and not meeting deadlines, I finally got a few days off. No big plans for these days, apart from catching up with some studying and watching some news. News…
So, this morning I was watching Fox & Friends and they showed images of an apparent riot at Moscow airport because people have been stranded there for days because of weather conditions, as have folks in the US and Europe. You can see the Euronews report here. Of course people are pissed off, nobody likes to spend even one hour waiting for an airplane. The problem with Fox & Friends was that, as they were showing the images of people protesting in Moscow, the hypothetical questions started and they were something like: ‘could we see something like this in NYC? People have been at the airport for three, maybe four days here, so could this be a possibility? If the situation continues, people might start doing the same…’
I saw the same story on CNNI, they showed the same images, but instead of coming up with hypothetical things and making audiences think, ‘uh, this WAS President Obama’s fault, he should be shoveling snow off the tarmac right now!’, I actually learned what was going on there.
This is something that really pissed me off this year: the hypothetical news, the passionate-blogger news, the no news-value news. And they’re everywhere.
I’m a big fan of Twitter, for me it’s the best way to compile all the organizations or people you want to get news from, but I guess in the urge of producing more and more content you can see stuff that, well, should be left unsaid, like when our local newspaper Correio do Povo reports something like: “Beach vacationers enjoy the day walking along the shoreline”. If you knew what the shoreline really looks like in my state, you’d be running like hell from it. (Oh, so maybe THAT’s the news! People enjoying themselves on the awful beach shore!)
Photo taken in Imbé
This year was definitely Jon Stewart’s year. Having a comedy show, it’s obviously easy for him to make fun of the absurdities that politicians and pundits say, but the different thing about him is that the show researches and checks facts before putting something on the air and one of his biggest trademarks is the sound bites shown to contradict what somebody is now saying so passionately on TV (this is now being used by AC360. Couldn’t have he done this before?) Anyway, one of my favorite moments was the ‘republicans will ride in the “back of the car”/”back of the bus” thing’. In the failed attempt to get people to vote in midterm elections, Obama said he wouldn’t give the car keys back and GOP would have to sit in the back of the car. Well, guess what Fox News reported…?
They simply progressively replaced “car” by “bus” and this obviously became a racial issue. The whole Jon Stewart segment can be seen here, really worth watching!!! What makes me angry is the progressive change, you know? Slowly and subtly during the hard news, and then boooom! Obama wants to send all Americans to concentration camps. In the back of the bus.
But I think one of the most outrageous passionate-blogger pieces of news was Obama’s trip to Asia last month. It all started with this Michelle Bachmann’s interview on AC360:
And it all turned out to be complete bullshit spread by those talk radio guys that for some reason have millions of listeners. That piece on AC360 actually generated comments on the NY Times, basically saying good job for the fact-checking.
It’s unbelievable that now pieces on good reporting are not given to Watergate-like articles or war stories, but to reports that straighten out fake/not fact-checked ones.
Federal judge blocked some parts in the Arizona immigration law. The sad thing is that this case will go on and on and on and divide people even more. AC360 showed that policemen go through training on how to do the job which includes a video basically saying the do’s and don’t’s. The thing is that some three weeks ago Jon Stewart showed the same thing. Three weeks ago! The video is “old” but it’s a must see. The judge Napolitano part is fantastic. Agenda breach! Agenda breach! Latino 911.
I’m just glad Stewart’s back… And I really like the new look!
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What a crappy day. Every single thing to be done took me hours. Expected responses not e-mailed, exercises not finished, meetings not carried out, projects not finished. Loud, annoying people around me. Endless telephone and Skype interviews. Irritatingly slow Internet. The longest bus ride home ever. Crowded bus. People bumping into each other. Traffic jam, stopping at every traffic light.
I have been so tired and seen things piling up and no perspective of working on them. College deadlines approaching. Trip to Santa Cruz on Friday very early in the morning, so early that people should be in the middle of counting sheep at the scheduled time. And if you think that after the trip I’ll get to binge drink to forget this awful week, well, think again. My stupid attempt to be a good person and help out at the school on a fucking Saturday morning turned out to be even worse than I thought. The teenagers didn’t show up, instead only a girl who had learned about the workshop the day before, has huge pronunciation problems, isn’t loud and is expected to record a podcast.
I need to get some sleep but I’m at the stage of tiredness that can’t close my eyes. I wish I could pass out and wake up 10 hours later…
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We Feel Fine: “I also learned that my weaknesses include: I get discouraged if I feel I am not being appreciated I lose interest if I no longer control my projects and I become exhausted from competition” (4 days ago)
So, I got home earlier today because at precisely 8am I was at the school doing an assessment with one of the employees from Santa Cruz who’s going on vacation next week, therefore he won’t be at the company for the big line-up of interviews — 20 something people whom I need to speak with for 15 minutes and decide which level they’ll be placed. Fantastic…
My students cancelled the class tonight, so I had some time to go online and check the news, and I came across this article from CNN’s Hala Gorani about how writing letters has become almost obsolete. I totally agree with the fact that we’ve been losing the ability to focus, at least it happens to me: e-mail, tweets, podcasts, IMs, all happening at the same time and all of a sudden you forget why you went online to begin with. I do like having the possibility of contacting people fast or accessing information with a few key strokes, but I do miss the time when there wasn’t anything technological at all around us and we would have to wait until the next day for news coverage in the paper or check the mail box for cards and letters — not only bills!
But anyway, I had a few things to do around the house so I went on to organise some stuff, and the TV was on Beck’s programme — you know, I need the reminder! — and I heard him talking about Robin Hood and…. no, sorry, Robin MAO Hood, saying that he was the guy taking from the rich and giving to the poor, a true socialist. He was taking from the elites and giving to the people that had nothing. And he went on to say that folks should tell the story to their kids… What the… I didn’t really get if Beck was okaying the story, which would sound odd because of the MAO thing, or if he was scolding the guy or scolding the elites… Bottom line is: there’s so much nonsense coming out of that person that I don’t think I’ll ever waste my time trying to pay attention to what he says. I’ll let Jon Stewart do the dirty work for me!!! Welcome back, man!!!!
I have another TEDTalk translation published, with a little help from my friend Volvey Faustini, who reviewed the work. Nathan Myhrvold and his group of smart people spend most of the time inventing, not only for fun and profit, but also to help people around the world. They present a series of inventions that could really lend a hand when it comes to reducing preventable diseases in developing countries. And the malaria mosquito is the main target of their studies — literally! Fascinating talk!
We Feel Fine’s randomly selected piece of story of the day: “I flourish in that God has assigned to me I feel I am truly following his will” (2 hours ago)
Another boring, bureaucratic day at the school. I’ve recently complained about being very busy and teaching for many hours during immersion and I wanna say that I like teaching, but I would also like to have some 15 minutes between classes to go to the bathroom or have some water as opposed to spending five consecutive hours with one student. I started tabulating the student’s responses to the programme and the results look pretty good. And this week I’ll have two more assessments to prepare, kind of a preparation for July, I guess. And, well, I gotta confess that putting the student’s feedback together is being stalled to the last possible day. I don’t know what’s worse: having to write some 20 texts about their performance or putting up with that duchebag, piece of shit neighbour of mine. Well, this is a subject for another post.
Well, Arizona just couldn’t stand being out of the news for some other wacko piece of legislation. This time, the bill that was signed into law put an end to ethnic studies, on the premises that these classes could segregate Latinos, teaching them that they are an oppressed ethnic group and as a result this could cause them to distance themselves from whites. The superintendent of public instruction, Tom Horne, was on AC360 and said that he believes in equality and he is a supporter of all races coming together and attending the same classes, but he went on to say that the schools shouldn’t be teaching “the downers” of history and I just went, “wait a minute, buddy.”
So, according to him, a person that believes the downers of history shouldn’t be taught, World Wars I and II should be out of the history books, right?, you know, all the death and persecution. Maybe they shouldn’t teach the Inquisition anymore as well, because that just makes the Catholic church look bad… Or, maybe, they could scratch out all the soldiers that have been killed in the two ongoing wars and focus only on the “removal of a brutal dictator”, quoting Bill O’Reilly. This is insane. From what I gather, anyone could attend these classes, if the majority happens to be Latino, so be it. Is there anything wrong in learning about their heritage which would help them understand where they came from, what their ancestors have been through and how they have contributed to the building of the country they live in? And if I may take this a little further, myself, as a Brazilian, should only learn that Princess Isabel signed the end of slavery and not that the Portuguese started the whole slavery thing and also devastated millions of miles of our forests for wood, correct?
This whole thing reminded me of this Jon Stewart piece on a committee deciding, in Texas, what should be included and banned from textbooks. Unbelievable stuff, but I guess Arizona managed to crank it up a notch. And absurd things just have a massive chain reaction, such as cities boycotting the state.
Well, enough with the downers, right? One more TEDTalk translation available — we’re on fire!!! This time, I translated this fascinating talk by Jeremy Jackson, a coral reef ecologist that explains how we have destroyed our oceans within the past 100 to 150 years. Data is alarming and the future isn’t looking any good. The reviewer that helped this eye-opening talk be published fast was Giuliano Giordano. There are three more talks lined up but I’m still waiting for the final “OK” from the translators to have them published.
Spending most afternoons at work, and most of them doing overtime, it has been ages since I last saw a Glenn Beck show. With the timezone difference down to only one hour between NY and Porto Alegre — wow, for a split second it even sounded as if Porto Alegre was a place worth mentioning… — his programme starts at 6pm, and I’m usually at the school or on my way home, so I don’t get to see it. My co-worker even says a “thank God” now and then when I say I can’t watch the show anymore. Well, I agree with my co-worker in many aspects, and not seeing his show kind of made me forget how insane he is. So, as I was at home preparing the meal for tomorrow, and it was 6:15pm, I went, “why not?”
He was of course blasting the “socialist” media, that you know, write about him and write about people that seem not to enjoy what he says and thinks — basically what Fox News does with everybody that’s not a Tea Partier (or a sympathizer), right-wingers and radio talk show hosts — something that, again, contradicts his ideas of “freedom” and “no government control whatsoever”. Shouldn’t he be OK with the fact that, by saying things that would cause a bit of a distress in some people, such as encouraging parents to take children out of school, he would probably be the target of a lot of criticism? But the topper was during his show today. He so passionately delivers his crazy, non-sense stuff, almost preaching, that he managed to link Obama with Satan! This is really, really sad, you know, what people are capable of doing for ratings. And as I said before, what’s even sadder is that people believe that kind of stuff.
Well, you might think that I’m one of the ones that gives the guy those ratings, and as Jon Stewart would say, “guilty as charged…” But you cannot ignore that this guy is big and it helps me understand what’s been going on there, you know, when crazy Arizona bills get passed or when commentators get surprised that Obama’s ratings go up five points or when Bill O’Reilly devotes huge amounts of time grilling the “liberal” media and says that Fox News is the “fair and balanced” news network — and he includes himself into the mix… — and the other networks just don’t show what people are interested in, what people want. And, as “the trusted name in news” that they now are, Fox News can simply say whatever they want and support whatever groups and parties and simply get away with “we’re number 1”. I think that’s happening a lot lately.
Due to constant problems, I've decided to abandon Clustermaps for good. First time it happened there had been about 1,800 visits. The following time there were about 250 visits, so now let's add 2,050 to the number shown above.
-- Never too many beers -- 