Hoax Museum Blog: Entertainment

Good Samaritan Fooled — The LA Times tells of a good samaritan who tackled an armed man who was chasing three people down an alley. Unfortunately the armed man turned out to be an actor who was shooting a scene from the upcoming movie "Hunter." (registration required to view story).
Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2002.   Comments (0)

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2002.   Comments (0)

The Illusion of Entertainment — Interesting piece by Neal Gabler in the NY Times about the American love for the fake over the real, as applied to the entertainment industry. Gabler argues that at the movies and on tv we now experience only the 'illusion of entertainment,' as opposed to entertainment itself. He argues that the audience itself is to blame for this, basically because they're lazy. The 'illusion of entertainment' frees them from the burden of having to be emotionally engaged with whatever is on the screen. Entertainment becomes something like junk food for the brain, instead of being healthy. Of course, critics have been making this same accusation about the shallowness of popular forms of entertainment for hundreds of years. What I think they fail to acknowledge is that modern entertainment largely serves the purpose of relaxation. We don't always want to be emotionally engaged by it. Just diverted. The stresses of modern life emotionally engage us quite enough. We come home from work, we're exhausted, and we just want to collapse in front of the tv for a while. We don't want to have to commit ourselves to the subtleties of an elegantly produced drama. Just bright lights, laughter, and a few special effects will do just fine. Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with this. Nor do I buy into the argument that this mindless entertainment is going to overwhelm and crush 'true art' with a flood of mediocrity. Mindless entertainment and more carefully crafted art can and will live happily side by side.
Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2002.   Comments (0)

Signs Renews Interest — The LA Times reports that the upcoming movie Signs is renewing interest in crop circles.
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2002.   Comments (0)


Signs, Crop Circles — Daily Variety gave Shyamalan's new film Signs a mediocre review. I loved The Sixth Sense, but found Unbreakable disappointing. So I'm not expecting much from his new one.
Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002.   Comments (0)

Naperville Crop Circle — Large crop circle found in a field of soybeans outside of Naperville, Illinois. Is it real, or a publicity stunt in anticipation of the release of the movie 'Signs' on August 2?
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2002.   Comments (0)

Crop Circle Movie — Wired has an article today about crop circles, in anticipation of M. Night Shyamalan's movie Signs coming out next month.
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002.   Comments (0)

Antiques Roadshow — vAntiques Roadshow dealer is convicted for making bogus appraisals of items. It turns out that some of the appraisals were staged. Wow! If you can't even trust the Antiques Roadshow, who can you trust?
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2002.   Comments (0)

P.T. Barnum — Here's an interesting site about P.T. Barnum, including a list of his most famous humbugs: ptbarnum.org
Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2002.   Comments (1)

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