Cartoons vs. Video Games

Last night I woke up thinking about old black and white cartoons.  Something must have pulled my mind into the deep, dark recesses of my oldest memories.  I don't recall when we first had color television, but I know I wasn't very old.

One of the best things about many of those old cartoons was the music.  I didn't know at the time, but found out later that most of the musical score was from famous classical compositions by composers such as Beethoven, Bach and others.  We were being educated as we were being entertained.

There was a lot of slapstick humor in those old cartoons.  Often, the punchline was literally that, a punch, or getting "whacked" over the head, or something similar.  It was a sure-fire way to get a laugh.

Later on, Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote took that theme to an extreme when the entire cartoon was about coyote's failed attempts to catch roadrunner and his being blown up, or crushed, or otherwise maimed by his own failed inventions.  It was funny because he was clearly the bad guy and the good guy always won.  He always came back for more.

As we had children and they watched cartoons, I was dismayed by the fact that the ones I had enjoyed as a kid were no longer considered acceptable because of the "violence" they portrayed.  They were replaced by lessons in how to treat each other and all about "feelings" while violence was condemned.  Children of that age and now, their children, have been taught, through cartoons and other children's programs, that violence is unacceptable, yet they have been freely allowed to play video games that portray graphic violence.

I don't know what caused me to wake up thinking about those old cartoons, but I enjoyed the memories.  Our generation has a healthy understanding of violence and its proper place in the world.  Younger generations struggle to separate reality from the fantasy of a video game.

Many people think banning weapons is the answer.  I suspect banning violent video games would be much more effective.  We need to go back to portraying the struggle between good and evil in a way that causes children to want to be the hero -- the good guy.  Instead, they are taught to have "feelings" that don't match reality.  It is a sad state we have fallen into.

Turn Off the Television

Most people like to watch t.v.
As they sit in their easy chair.
Me, I prefer to read a book
Rather than sit and stare
At the mindless chatter
On some flat screen
Across the living room
Where we see an interpretation
Of someone else's thoughts
In a somewhat voyeuristic manner
Instead of allowing our own
Imagination to create the images.

A book stimulates your mind
To think of that contained
In the written word you hold
Yet gives freedom to build
From that which is seen
In the deep recesses
Of the gray matter
Between your ears
Whereas the flat screen
Across the room allows
Little space for linking
Thoughts as you merely
Record the scenes before you.

Let my thoughts wander;
Set them free;
Give rein to imagination;
Turn off the television;
Pick up a book
And travel to distant places
Where rest and solitude
Are filled with adventure
And the cares of the world
Fade away.

The Cattle Show

Yesterday I spent an interesting afternoon at the taping of a television segment for RFD-TV. No, I am not in the segment, but a friend and fellow blogger, Neal Odom, was one of the guests on the show. The segment will air on The Cattle Show on August 7, 2007.

If you are interested in what I do for a living, that is what Neal will be talking about. His company provides part of the technology that we utilize in the services that we sell to our customers.

The segment was filmed inside of a garage located at a small feedlot in the Texas Panhandle. It was interesting to me how they controlled camera angles and positioning of the participants in order to limit what was seen in the background. It was humorous to me that there were sacks of feed lying on the floor in direct line with the camera that were from a competing brand to one of the sponsors. Those sacks will not be seen in the final edited version.

I also found the tele-prompters to be interesting. The producer's 9-year old daughter sat on a bucket and ran the tele-prompter from a laptop which she held in her lap. The tele-prompter itself was a flat-panel LCD display mounted horizontally on the camera tri-pod. The image was reflected on a one-way mirror mounted at a 45 degree angle to the display so that it could be seen by the participants in the show. The camera shot through the one-way mirror that displayed the prompts. The effect was that the subjects looked directly into the camera and their eyes did not move as they read the prompts.

I was disappointed that they didn't have what I call the "clacker" that you see in old movies that marked the beginning and end of a scene being shot. You know, the thing that went "clack" when the director said to roll the film for a shot. The technician told me that it was used to synchronize the old sound-tracks with the video. Originally the sound was recorded separately from the video and the editors used the "clacker" as a point-of-reference to synchronize the sound track and the video. (Yeah, I know it's called a Clapper Board, but "clacker" seems to fit.)

It was fun and educational. I suspect that we will be doing some promo videos in the future with the company that did the filming -- Hot Shots Video Productions. Who knows, some of my poetry might even end up on one of their segments.