Musings #5: The Return of EXTREME!

Filed Under The Deconstructionist, Musings

Hey all-

Jut a few things: First, thanks to everyone who submitted to but especially everyone who commented on Flash Fiction Contest Beta! We got some great stories and some great feedback on same. FFC-whatever-the-next-letter-is-in-the-Greek-alphabet (coming12-1-07) will have a lot to live up to.

Secondly, if you are an editor or a judge, get your contest votes to me pronto!

I’d also like to talk to you all about a new show on the discovery channel called ‘Fearless Planet.’  At heart, this is a program about geology, but since most of you have already fallen asleep, the producers decided to spice it up by adding (wait for it) EXTREME SPORTS!

Yes, for how else could you learn about volcanoes except by skiing down an active one? Or by mountain biking down an extinct one. Want to talk about glaciers? Better have someone para-glide over an unstable one. Are the glaciers melting? A harrowing kayak trip down a surging run-off stream carved through 10,000 year old ice will find the truth and pucker the assholes of the viewing public at the same time.

The spectacle of people risking thier necks to jazz up science only makes me feel guilty. I want to shout ‘Don’t take foolish risks just to teach me about glaciers! I’ll study harder!’

Also, for me, the promise of the 21st century was leaving all the mania for EXTREME of the 90’s behind. Now it’s back, a cultural meme that’s even harder to put down than disco.

–G

 

 

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Comments

5 Responses to “Musings #5: The Return of EXTREME!”

  1. Nathaniel on November 25th, 2007 11:03 am

    Next they’ll have the backset of reality TV inside a volcano or within the depths of the Mariana Trench.

    Can love and scandal still flourish when the only light source is bioluminescence?

  2. Lucien on November 25th, 2007 11:39 am

    I must admit the base jump into the volcano interests me!

  3. Natalie L. Sin on November 25th, 2007 1:33 pm

    How about skiing INTO an active one? ; )

  4. Gregory Adams on November 25th, 2007 7:56 pm

    Well, it’s not a terrible show, it just makes no sense. What’s really idiotic is they sometimes act like they are just discovering things like continental drift. Some hotshot freeclimbs to the peak of Mt. McKinley and finds some fossils of marine life and is like ‘all this was once an ocean? Up here? But… how?’ Cue cgi of plates compressing.

    So the real adventure for that guy would be overcoming his apparent illiteracy. Open a book sometime, extreme guy.

    –G

  5. Bonnie on November 27th, 2007 10:05 am

    Hehe…now they just need to get the Extreme Ironing People on the show to talk about Cleavage and such.