Tuned In

The U.S. Vs. Jack Bauer

Senate hearings in support of TV-violence legislation began in Washington today, as the Parents Television Council aired a greatest-hits reel of TV gore to bolster the call of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) for government regulation of violence. The hearings also featured testimony from Peter Liguori, entertainment president of Fox, which produces 24. “To be [...]

More on Morphing Modernism

My trip to Philip Johnson’s Glass House last week sent me back to Franz Schulze’s indispensable 1994 biography, Philip Johnson: Life and Work, where I was interested to find that as early as 1941/42, Johnson, then still the arch Modernist, the chief American disciple of Mies van der Rohe, had written an essay in which [...]

Tuned In

JPTV Jr.: Don't Screw With Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas is watching you. / Photo: HIT Entertainment In the New York Times, reporter David Barboza writes about his experiences as a prisoner of Thomas the Tank Engine, or more accurately, of the Chinese factory he was investigating after reports emerged of lead paint in Chinese-made Thomas toys. It’s not a TV story, exactly, but [...]

Tuned In

Big Love Watch: Straight Edge

HBO photo: Lacey Terrell Big Love had kept us wondering for a while whether it was actually going to go the whole Brady-Bunch-forbidden-love route with Ben and Margene, and last night the show finally showed us that we weren’t the only ones who had noticed what’s been going on. I was glad, though, that their [...]