“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-18 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from the week of July 29, 2018
This Week’s Podcast
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
The End Times?
For the traditionalist in the arts world, it might look like these are the end times. The earth is moving beneath their feet as the world continues its never-ending march into a new, and different future.
There’s a term for these times. It’s called a “paradigm shift”. That means a fundamental change in the underlying assumptions of the world. The moment when you realize that the way “it’s always been” is changing all around you. Paradigm shifts don’t happen instantly, those underlying assumptions take time to morph. So we tend to notice right in the middle of the change.
I’m seeing that right now when it comes to recognition of the best in various art forms. Categories are being challenged and new forms of the arts are forcing their way to the fore.
I think this shift began with the Emmy awards. Once upon a time, they were dominated by the broadcast networks. The shift began when cable channels began to take over, most especially the dominance of HBO. It was a bit uncomfortable that this new kid was the top dog, but it was still basically television. This year the leader in Emmy nominations for 2018 was Netflix. It’s not like we haven’t seen the streaming media outlets coming, but there’s a sharp intake of breath when we see them topping the list.
Of course, they aren’t the only places where this is happening. It’s begun to happen in literature as well.
The literary world can be very old school. Especially when it comes to the highest awards in the field. The hoi polloi can mess around with any sort of “non-serious” literature, but the rarefied air of the top awards are only for the “serious”.
Which is why Bob Dylan’s win of the Nobel Prize for Literature was such a huge issue. And also why some folks are getting all bent out of shape of of Nick Dmaso’s graphic novel “Sabrina” on the long list for the Man Booker prize. The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is an annual award for the best original novel written in English and published in the U.K. And a graphic novel has never made the cut before. The literary traditionalist are beginning to hyperventilate.
Here’s the reality. Life moves on and changes. And that change causes some anguish. When Igor Stravinsky debuted his ballet “Rite of Spring” in Paris in 1917, a riot broke out in the theater. Today, the piece is considered mainstream.
Paradigm shifts are never comfortable, merely inevitable.
The “Not” Take
I have made no secret on this program that I am a sports fan. This last month has been my personal sports nirvana with both the World Cup and the Tour de France, running end to end. Six or seven straight weeks of sports heaven for the outlier, American sports fan. Scatter several Formula One Grand Prix races in that time span and it’s a wonder that my productivity wasn’t lower.
All of which is a preamble to a sports rant for the week. There is a thing going on in sports media that has been burrowing its way under my skin for a while now.
It’s called the “Hot Take”. At the beginning, this was the descriptor for an opinion from an expert who was reaching beyond the easy call. Through insight to the sport, connections within the game, and a deep knowledge of the gestalt of it all, they came up with an idea that most people didn’t see coming. Knowing that a big trade was on the way, that a coach was going to be fired, or that something should happen because of the hidden factors that only an expert would know. They were exciting ideas, guaranteed to get the conversation, the debate, the arguments rolling.
The problem is that, as with everything, once the cool kids are doing it, EVERYONE wants in. And that tends to spoil the fun.
That’s where we are today. Hot Takes are no longer the result of deep thought, based on in-depth knowledge. They’re a game, and anyone and everyone is diving into them.
What you get are endless stupid opinions that are based on a simple concept – “Do you think we can start an argument over this?” So we end up with “Hot Takes” like “Is a hot dog a sandwich?”. That was the question posed within the last thirty days on a high profile sports program. Today it becomes a “hot take” if you shout it loud enough, or say with just the right amount of implied disdain for anyone who might disagree. It doesn’t matter how inconsequential the idea may be, it no longer requires that you have any idea what you’re talking about, just slap the “hot take” label on it and you are set.
There’s nothing hot about just running your mouth. It’s really time for those of us who watch and listen to sports media to push back on the nonsense. I’m ready. Because I’ve had as much of that “hot” as I care to “take”.
Virtual Friends
This program is a little personal. And it’s a little sad. And some folks may find it just a little disturbing. I wanted to let you know up front, in case you want to step away for the next two and a half minutes.
It has to do with death and the reality of virtual friendships. One of the biggest arguments that the Baby Boomer and Millennial generations have had about the internet is whether or not you can have “real” friends online. Let me take a moment to once again voice my advice to my generation when it comes to the whole “Millennial are messing up the world” argument. Stop. Just stop. It’s not true as a start. Second, the exact same thing was said about our generation. Third, it makes you sound old and stupid. So stop.
Returning now to the original topic, I am struck by the reality of my virtual friendships because one of my friends is dying. I know how we first “met”. It was online through our mutual work, on opposite sides of the continent, as youth ministers. It is barely possible that we met in person IRL (in real life) but I don’t think so. So our friendship is entirely virtual.
I believe that she will be the third of my virtual friends to die. One I met just once, the other, never, because he lived in Europe. Both of those deaths touched me. But this latest one is taking it to a whole new level. Maybe it’s because her death is from a terrible, lingering illness. My other two friends both died suddenly. Maybe because she has shared so much of the journey with us on her social media. The others were just gone, the details unrevealed.
I don’t know why. I just know that my heart is saddened in a way that gives the lie to the idea that we can not be friends with someone we have never met in person. It tells me that there is a true social connection that can be made with people at the far end of a digital wire that can be profound and deep.
From afar I have watched the parts of her life that she shares slide by. Some are happy, some are sad. And now, from that same distance, I watch her make end of life decisions. And my heart breaks for my friend.
A friend in the distance. A virtual friend. A friend.
That is what my heart tells me. And how better to decide the question of who is your friend?
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2018
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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