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These listings cover television programs up to Sunday, June 13.
Greetings, TV viewers!
The Media Hour discussion topic in the Greek Theatre on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Whyville Time will be "Where's your favorite place to go to?" For some people that's a real location -- like where your grandparents live, or where you play soccer. For others it's a place in your imagination or a geographic location that you hope to explore someday. The programs below describe various people's thoughts on this topic.
For the Media Hour, watch the show(s)-of-the-week, jot down some ideas, then talk about them with me and other citizens (including other City Workers, if they're available) at the Greek Theater, over in City Hall. You'll find that the Theater makes discussions pretty easy, since City Workers are able to direct people's movement and behavior, when we need to, and it keeps everyone's chat bubbles from overlapping too much. We meet for MediaHour on Wednesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Whyville Time (that's the same as Eastern Standard Time).
Monday, May 7
"Secrets Of Gold" (Travel Channel, 9-10 p.m. E/P) This documentary explains
why gold has become the most coveted of precious metals. You will see the mines
-- the deepest on earth -- where it comes from, the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul
where much of it is sold as jewelry and laboratories in England where it's being
turned into products for the medical, electrical and other industries. Lots more
info at:
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Au/key.html.
Tuesday, June 8
"Secrets of the Mind" (PBS, 8-9 p.m. E/P) This is a re-broadcast of the
NOVA documentary about brain researcher Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, who studies
patients with bizarre neurological deficits. A fan of Sherlock Holmes, Dr.
Ramachandran finds simple but intriguing clues that reveal the deep structure of
emotion, perception and consciousness. Log on and download a virtual experiment
where you can analyze and interpret brain hemispheric dominance in order to
understand its impact on learning: http://www.pbs.org/nova/mind.
Wednesday, June 9
"Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip" (PBS, 8-10 p.m. E/P) This film
by Ken Burns follows Horatio Nelson Jackson's adventurous, and often funny,
drive from San Francisco to New York City a century ago. (The name of the show
is misleading. There weren't many actual roads to drive on back then. So this
should be called an "off-road" trip.) Jackson accepted a wager: If he made the
trip, something no one had done before, in less than three months, he would win
$50. Four days later, Jackson and a 22-year-old bicycle repairman, Sewall K.
Crocker, set off from San Francisco in a 1903 Winton Touring Car with a 22
horse-power engine.. Tom Hanks provides the voice of Jackson. The companion Web
site offers virtual ways to experience the trip:
http://www.pbs.org/horatio/about/.
(Editor's Note: And to think, I just made almost the exact same trip
in only four days!)
Thursday, June 10
"World's Biggest Airliner: The Airbus A380" (The Learning Channel, 8-9
p.m.
E/P) The most ambitious technical project in civilian aviation will be
launched in about 18 months from now -- carrying 555 passengers over distances
of 8,000 miles. The European-built engineering marvel, the A380 (an oddly vague
designation for the biggest thing you'll ever fly in) is the subject of this
technology documentary. Lots more information at
www.airbus.com.
Friday, June 11
"The Andromeda Strain" (AMC, Channel, 8-10 p.m. E/P, available on video)
This movie about how a virus epidemic spreads -- and how scientists combat it --
is based on a Michael Crichton thriller novel. Both the book and the movie have
been praised for accurately depicting scientists at work. There are lots of
comments from scientists about this movie at
http://imdb.com/title/tt0066769/.
Saturday, June 12
"Jane Goodall Special: State Of The Great Ape" (Animal Planet Channel, 8-10
p.m. E/P, repeating June 13th at 5 p.m.) In this documentary, Dr. Goodall looks
into the future of chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos to see what's
the future for our great ape cousins 50 years from now. Will they have been
driven to extinction or will they share the same rights currently reserved for
humans? For more information about these animals, log on to
http://www.janegoodall.org/.
Sunday, June 13
"Lost Horizon" (Turner Classics Channel, 8-10:30 p.m. ET , 5-7:30
p.m. PT,
available on video) Whyville is an example of a place to escape to from the
"real world". I think that 'reality' shows on TV are another form of
wish-fulfillment. But the idea of a paradise-on-earth is not really new. An
Oscar-winning movie about such a place was made in black and white some years
ago, and I think some of you might find it fascinating. If you watch it all
the way to the end, you will never forget the experience. For more information
on "Lost Horizon", which was a book and a Technicolor musical movie as well as
this classic B&W movie, log on to
http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/hilton.html. One thing you will find there
is a comment about the religious ideas in the story -- a combination of
Christianity and Buddhism.
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