Monday, August 22, 2005

sitting and waiting, might as well do some reading

The Independent has an article on broadcast news and its on-air figureheads, who are "the human imprint of trust, and at terrible times they say, hold on, it will be OK, television is handling this".

"Are we equipped to survey all the news sources and make up our own minds? Or is the variety of news services just a sign that we have elected to ignore the news or treat it as just one more show?"

This of course stems from the recent death of Peter Jennings, who stayed on-air for 60 hours during Sept 11, 2001.

And in an old issue of Believer, Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler interviews Jack Black. And they talk about weddings for some reason.

DH: Do you dance at weddings?

JB: I don’t like to dance but I do end up dancing a little bit. That’s part of the duties. You have to get out there and try to force some merriment. But I always feel self-conscious dancing.

DH: So people grab you on the floor to dance, or you feel self-obliged?

JB: I feel obliged. Whomever I’m dancing with I’m thinking, “Am I doing the right thing?” They’re looking at me to see my moves. When you’re dancing with someone there’s a feeling that you guys should both be doing a similar dance, but I can never really settle on any one dance. It’s this constantly changing, exhausting experience for me. Do you like to dance?

DH: I do, I do. I will enjoy the occasional dance. Have you always felt this way about dancing? Was this your sixth grade, first boy/girl-dance feeling?

JB: Yeah. I feel like whenever I’m dancing that it’s a performance so there’s all kinds of performance anxiety. If it was just moving to the music... but I feel like I’m being judged. [mockingly] “God, Jack’s really doing a boring dance. So much for Mr. Comedy.”

DH: Is that why? Because you feel obliged to be the wackiest dancer on the floor?

JB: I don’t know. It doesn’t come naturally. Let’s just leave it at that.

Listening to Wilco's When You Wake Up Feeling Old

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