protein from the sea

i watched all 11 episodes of tanner '88 this week and, on balance, enjoyed it. it's officially a satire of media-age politics. jack tanner is a fictional congressman who runs in the 1988 democratic primaries alongside mike dukakis and jesse jackson; the series follows his campaign through the primary season to the convention floor in atlanta. while there was an over-reliance on pratfalls in some episodes, the incredible political drama of the 10th episode made the whole series worthwhile. on the floor of the convention, tanner's campaign lodges a challenge to the super-delegates, who are separate from the official state delegations. with the super-delegates voting, dukakis has a majority, but without them, there are enough uncomitteed delegates to open up the convention. to do this, tanner has to win the challenge on the convention floor, which is one of the most exciting sequences i've seen in a political film.

tanner '88 is fun, too, for the hyper-reality playfulness of it all. situating the fictional jack tanner in a very real race between jackson and dukakis is neat enough, but it's taken further by centering jack tanner's appeal on his 'realness' as a candidate. early in the series, the tanner camapign is floundering, and jack makes an angry speech to his campaign staff in a hotel room; it's cliche, but he manages to say, off the cuff, what he's been unable to convey in his official advertisements: why he's running for president. one of the staff, however, tapes the whole impromptu thing, and turns it into a tv ad. it not only rescues the campaign, but gives the tanner campaign a delightful tagline: "tanner '88: for real."

below are six songs that i really like lately. you can download them too; they'll be avaliable for seven days or 25 downloads, whichever happens first. let me know what you think.

five songs:
swing out sister, breakout (1986)
my bloody valentine, you made me realize (1988)
kate bush, king of the mountain (2005)
leonard cohen, first we take manhattan (1988)
fleetwood mac, dreams (1977?)
depeche mode, precious (2005)

adrian spoke in the legislature on bill 12 and called it 'collective bargaining by franz kafka', which i appreciated. i read hansard every night not only so that i can keep track of what's going on, but also to judge each new mla's rhetorical abilities.