Appreciations of Director Sydney Pollock (1934-2008)

Appreciations and appraisals of film director Sydney Pollock are appearing regularly after his death earlier this week. I cannot say that I have ever been a particular fan of Pollock's, but as these items suggest, his career was marked with a respectable--and probably underappreciated (while he was alive)--consistency (in terms of reliably entertaining work) and diversity (in terms of the variety of types of films he made).

A.O. Scott of the New York Times offers an appraisal of Pollock's work that remarks upon his position as a positive throwback to a kind of director that was common in the studio era (Scott compares Pollock to William Wyler) but has now, regrettably, almost completely disappeared.

Dana Stevens of Slate, in an obituary of sorts, likewise assesses Pollock as an excellent journeyman director (and prominent character actor) whose work had a remarkable range.

From the Blogosphere: Discovery Home Becomes Planet Green

Time's James Poniewozik, in his Tuned In blog, observes that Discovery Home becomes Planet Green this week. Discovery Home is one of those cable networks that most people probably didn't even realize they have, up there in the upper reaches of their digital cable tier.  And this is part of the point Poniewozik tries to make: Discovery Home never established an identity for itself, trying to be "a little cooking, a little home design, a little lifestyle" (all market segments already served by other networks).

The phenomenon of cable network transmutation has been active in the past year or so.  At the beginning of this year, Court TV mutated into TruTV; the Outdoor Channel (I think) mutated into Versus; and a little further back TNN (originally The Nashville Network, then in a misguided mutation designed to avoid getting new initials, The National Network) turned into Spike. The phenomenon has even occurred with networks that were arguably even more obscure than Discovery Home, evidenced by the mutation of INHD (a network I liked very much even though I don't have HDTV) into Mojo (a network I have no use for whatsoever).

This kind of cable network transmutation, while probably a sound business strategy (maybe), seems to me to accelerate the increased mushy similarity of cable channels, as every one of them tries to latch onto a (cable-sized) hit like History Channel (in one of the more inexplicable programming choices) has with "Ice Road Truckers." Likely, in most cases, the effort is futile--I for one, never watched Discovery Home and probably will never watch Planet Green either.

MediaLog SnapShot: Hefty Lawn & Leaf Bags, 1973

Hefty Lawn & Leaf Bags, 1973
Originally uploaded by Roadsidepictures.

This picture (from Flickr) of a box of Hefty bags from the 1970s encapsulates everything I love about this kind of ephemera. This kind of everyday item is something that (almost) no one would ever think of saving or even of now considering seriously as an item of interest. But I find it fascinating for a number of reasons: as an example of packaging design from its era; as a "blast from the past" (of garbage bags!); and as an interesting example of a celebrity endorsement with the Jonathan Winters photo and signature. You can find a lot of photos of items like this--grocery or consumer items from the past--and it's one of the areas I like to search for pictures of on the always-interesting Flickr.

The MediaLog MediaFix: NBC "Flow" from 1983

The concept of television "flow" is one that has gained great currency within academic television studies. Basically, flow is the idea that TV is constituted by a constant flow of images and sounds that take the form of different televisual elements (such as segments of programs, interstitial items such as promos and stations IDs, and commercials). It is this flow, much more than any programs or specific type of program, that characterizes television as a medium.

This clip is an example of televisual flow, here in a segment from NBC from August of 1983. The segment begins with the opening of "NBC News Digest," a sample of the kind of interstitial news updates that networks used to offer in the days prior to 24-hour cable news. (Featured news stories include an upcoming space shuttle launch and the military conflict in Beirut, Lebanon.) The flow also includes commercials for Airborne Express, Pepsi Free, and Burger King, a brief local news promo, and, at its very end, the opening title for an NBC movie.

(Length: 2 mins. 34 secs.; video source: YouTube)