Friday Links

Time magazine has a column by James Poniewozik about the new version of the classic board game Monopoly, and it contains a few points that relate to things we discussed this week:

If you want to understand the American attitude toward capitalism, look inside your hall closet. There's probably a Monopoly game in there somewhere. Monopoly is the most popular board game in history, with more than 250 million copies sold. You may never have taken a real estate seminar or cracked an economics textbook. But if you grew up in an American home, and at some point it rained, you played Monopoly.

Smarter writers than I have tried to figure out why Americans resist the regulation of business and markets, often even when we would personally stand to benefit from that regulation. But you could do worse than to start with the fact that for more than 70 years, we have played a game whose object is to corner a market and beggar our neighbors. Every year pundits decry video games like Bully or Grand Theft Auto, yet our first introduction to one of business's most predatory, illegal practices is through a widely loved game with adorable doggy and thimble pieces. It's as if someone had invented a children's board game called Racketeering or Usury.

The new game replaces the thimble, dog, and iron with a Motorola cell phone, New Balance sneaker, and a Starbucks coffee, but it's hard to complain about corporate product placement in something as rah-rah-capitalism! as Monopoly. Also, you now get $2 million for passing Go.

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I'm still way into watching web video. Two of the most popular vlogs (videoblogs) have become regular stops on my daily tour of the web. They are:

Rocketboom, news/documentary in content, comic in tone. (Here is an old Rocketboom on net neutrality.)

The Show with Ze Frank, zany, funny. (Here is a blog trying to explain some of Ze Frank's appeal--it has to do with how his head fills the screen, says the blogger.)

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And here is my media consumption forecast:

Movies:

UWM Union Theater has The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, one of the most acclaimed films of the past several years. The New York Times called it a masterpiece.

The Science of Sleep is playing at the Oriental. It was directed by Michel Gondry, who made many brilliant music videos before directing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (Review: Variety.)

Television:

Degrassi The Next Generation begins a new season tonight on The N. You can also watch online at the website.

Veronica Mars begins a new season on Tuesday on The CW. (You can already see this episode online here if you have Windows Media Player.)