Stop hoarding daylight, it’s time to live in the darkness
Hey everyone! It’s that time again; time for me to go to sleep one night and hope to god my cellphone knows what exactly fall back/spring forward means in the morning. I always get confused whether or not I get an extra hour of sleep (drinking) or one less (cursing the sky). Luckily for me cellphone alarm clocks are the most advanced clocks in the world as they are programmed to adjust for DST automatically.
As you should be able to guess, daylight savings time is coming for us yet again; it is predicted that it will occur this Sunday around 2 AM – consider yourself warned.
Photo Courtesy of judepics
The history of daylight savings day :
Daylight savings time has existed in some form or another for over 2000 years. The modern format of an hour just disappearing in the middle of the night (and me showing to work an hour early wondering if a disaster has claimed the lives of all my coworkers) has only been around for a little over 100 years. There are many reasons why daylight savings time may have started – one such story describes an annoyed William Willet observing his fellow Londoners sleeping the day away. I too observe too many of my cohorts sleeping the day away; alas, in order to correct their slumber the daylight hours would have to be adjusted about 5-7 hours forward.
Why daylight savings is good :
Generally speaking – during the Spring and Summer months daylight savings increases productivity as well as enables people to be more active and lead healthier lives. Unless you live in Arizona or Hawaii. If you are living in Hawaii you live on ‘island time ‘ and probably don’t even know what season it is let alone if it is 5 o’clock or 6 o’clock in the morning. Arizona however is another story. Arizona boasts one of the only people alive since before time existed as it’s Senator – and thus has been slow to accept the relatively modern idea of switching their clocks for no good reason. To this day I don’t know if there is any way to tell exactly what time it is in Arizona.
Why daylight savings time is bad:
When daylight savings time was first put into effect I can only imagine that all hell broke loose. That being said, we’ve all come to terms with the idea since then. I have no counter argument for daylight savings time, other than the fact that simps like me have a really hard time wrapping their mind around the concept and always get confused exactly what ‘falling back’ or ’springing forward’ means (so do I go forward in time? Or does time go forward and I stay in the same place? It gets really meta and existential if i think about it too long). Perhaps one solution for the problem of the intangible essence of time shifting is to just sound some sort of really loud alarm clock at 7 AM combined with over-saturation of the media warning us that the sun will be rising a little bit later than usual (I’m trying to do my part right now).
Say good-bye to the tans you worked oh so hard to get over the Summer, box up all your sunglasses and shed a single tear, for this Sunday we say goodbye to the Sun. I pray to Zeus that it comes back next Spring and is bigger and better than ever (besides the fact that we could benefit from it being a little cooler than it has been as of late).
Monday is here, and while I typically bemoan the end of a weekend, this particular Monday arrives bearing gifts in the form of Current praise from none other than Lo-fi legend Lou Barlow.
This is Lou Barlow, one of the founding members of Dinosaur Jr., we’re talking about here. He’s responsible for Sebadoh, and The Folk Implosion! Amazing. In the post, Lou shares his experience discovering Current along with some very insightful feedback on our programming — ranging from infoMania, Vanguard, and SuperNews! Getting into Current wasn’t exactly a cakewalk for Lou, and I think his recount of the journey to eventually place us on his list of good things is a telling document.
Here’s some of what he had to say:
So, now I’m hooked. I don’t mind the time bar, and the music content is way indie: Animal Collective during the hourly what’s-hot-on-the-web stats, a best-of Take-Away Show (the French web series that captures all our favorite precocious indie stars emoting in public places), a Death Cab For Cutie documentary, etc.
Based on Lou’s interest in our music programming, I wonder if he’s had a chance to check out some of the sneak peeks of Embedded — our six part music special premiering Wednesday October 14th 11/10c. The show covers a wide range of artists, including Mos Def, Silversun Pickups, Ben Harper, Common, Thievery Corporation, and The Decemberists to name a few. To name a few more, you’ll also catch glimpses of K’Naan, Arcade Fire, Lykke Li, Bloc Party, Amanda Palmer, Delta Spirit, Passion Pit, and Bon Iver to boot.
This is just a taste, so please take the time to read his full write-up over on Magnet. If you’re so inclined, do yourself a favor an check out the re-united (and touring) original members of Dinosaur Jr. If you happen to catch them on tour, say hello to Lou for us and deliver this message on our behalf:
Lou, Current is honored to be listed as one of “Lou Barlow’s Good Things.” Thanks for the awesome feedback.
Do you have a “How I discovered Current?” story to share? Post us a comment on this post, over here, or just submit a story to Current (Requires login via Current or Facebook Connect) and tag it “How I Discovered Current.”
Everyone on this side of the fence has been working hard in preparation for next week. Vanguard returns to Current TV next Wednesday October 14 10/9c for a third season chock full of all new episodes. Kicking it all off is Mariana van Zeller’s investigation of the prescription drug use in Florida, “The OxyContin Express.”
Today on the Hulu blog, Mariana chats with Editor Rebecca Harper about the episode. She answers questions about Vanguard, how she got started in journalism, and the decision to investigate prescription drugs for the season premiere.
Of course, the best part of all of this? Well, sometimes pictures speak louder than words.
Here’s another Current TV host top favorite stories countdown. This time around we pulled together host Dominque Purdy’s top 8 Current TV videos, and gathered them here, for your enjoyment.
Dominque’s countdown is going to air today, at 6pm E / 3pm P on Current TV, so be sure to tune and join Dominique as he walks you through each story. For now, get a sneak peek at what he’ll be covering in the special. These are some pretty inspiring stories! Feel free to add links to some of your own favorite moments in Current TV in the comments.
Here’s another Current TV host top favorite stories countdown. This time around we pulled together Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller’s top 14 Current TV videos, and gathered them here, for your delight.
Mariana’s countdown is going to air today, at 6pm E / 3pm P on Current TV, so be sure to tune and join Mariana as she walks you through each story. What? You can’t make it tonight? Don’t worry, her countdown will re-air on Monday 9/21 at 1pm E / 10am P, so you could always set your DVR(s) to record.
For now, get a sneak peek at what she’ll be covering in the special. These are some pretty memorable stories, and they’ve obviously left an impression on Mariana. Feel free to add links to some of your own favorite moments in Current TV in the comments.
It’s time for us to take another look at one of our host’s top video stories from Current TV. In case you’ve missed it, our hosts have been digging deep into the Current vaults to assemble their top favorites lists, and they’ve been counting their lists down on Current TV. So far, we’ve revisited infoMania White Hot Top 5 master Sergio Cilli’s top 16, and The Rotten Tomatoes Show co-host Ellen Fox’s top 14 on the blog, so give those a look if you missed them.
This time around, we’re pulling faves from Douglas Caballero — many of you recall Douglas from his Current Fix days, but lately he’s been chopping it up in the evenings on a show called Current Exposed. IF you have done so already, check out some of the cool stuff they’ve been up to (below the list), follow Douglas and Current Exposed on Twitter, and most importantly, tune into Current Exposed weeknights at 8 / 7 C.
The best part, you can browse Douglas’ list on the blog, or you could tune into Current TV today at 6pm E / 3pm P and hear all about his list straight from Douglas himself. If you can’t make it today, don’t fret! Douglas’ countdown will re-air on Tuesday 9/22 at 1pm E / 4pm P, so plan a sick day or learn how to program that DVR.
Make no mistake, Brett loves himself some Internet — how else could he slog through videos for Viral Video Film School on infoMania? His list feels like a best hits of web culture, so take a quick peek, and be sure to tune into our weekly double feature of Brett every Thursday (hint: infoMania and The Rotten Tomatoes Show, back to back starting at 10pm E/P)
Brett’s top favorite stories countdown is airing on Current TV RIGHT NOW, so if you’re home you have no excuse…tune in. If you can’t make it, Mr. Erlich’s list will re-air on Wednesday 9/23 at 1pm E / 4pm P.
Ya know who gets their own two-hour TV show about stuff they like? THIS guy! Yeah, tonight Current is re-airing my countdown of favorite videos – and if you like my taste in movies, you may like these segments, too! (Also, if you don’t like my taste in movies, you may finally find something we both like.)
If there’s a common thread running through the line-up, it’s probably “Beautiful Women Doing Interesting Things.” Catching catfish with their bare hands, rioting over chocolate, driving convoys through Iraq.
Enjoy!
So, grab your headphones, tell your boss you have a 2-hour conference call, and check out Ellen Fox’s top 14 Current TV videos for a taste of what is airing on Current TV today at 3pm E / 6pm P. If you can’t make it, we’ll be re-airing it again on Monday 9/28 at 3pm E / 6pm P.
And, if you just can’t get enough of Ellen, check out this interview she did with Douglas Caballero for Current Exposed titled, The Dirty Business of Hollywood.
If you’ve tuned into Current TV lately you may have happened upon a new series of “host favorites” countdowns wherein one of our hosts spends the hour working through a list of their favorite stories from the Current back-catalog.
Each host’s list is jam-packed with great video, so I thought it would be great to re-cap their lists here on the blog and offer you, dear readers, the chance to catch some of the stuff from the archives that you may have missed. First up is the host known for his infoMania segment, Sergio’s White Hot Top 5…ladies and gentlemen, Sergio Cilli!
[Incidentally, I'm incapible of typing that segment title without hearing Sergio's title announcment in my head...every. single. time. It's awesome.]
Sergio’s Favorite Stories countdown will be airing again today on Current at 6pm E/3pm P, so if you want to hear some details behind his selections make sure to tune-in. It will also re-air next Tuesday (9/29) at 6pm E/3pm P, so set your Tivo’s to stun.
There’s a lot going on out there in the world of Current.com, so let’s take a quick look at some of the recent blog posts from our online producer team:
Current Movies
Over on the Current Movies blog, John Lichman offers up news that Nic Cage has decided to bow out of Green Hornet, and takes a look at the new teaser trailer from Up in the Air. Here’s a snippet:
Biopiracy is the patenting of indigenous bio-diversity related knowledge. For purposes of this writing, the patenting of natural traits found in plants, which is now described as epidemic. While the rewarding of patents should be based on inventiveness and original creativity, it has become a license for corporations to steal such indigenous traits endemic to nature already naturally cultivated by indigenous farmers for centuries. This is done to make fast cash and to take advantage of the climate crisis and food shortages which ironically are also exacerbated through monoculture industrial methods of what I like to call ‘strip farming.’ Such methods have stripped soil nutrients and carbon essential for sustainability of the land and our climate balance.
