Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with commentary

A piece of fruit on prime time?

slactoid — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:33:38 -0800

Fruit on TV? I remember someone saying something to the effect of, "If we put a piece of fruit on television every night, it will become a national icon". Who said that? And I think that someone actually did it (SNL?), did THAT happen?

No more bulges in the old onion bag

any portmanteau in a storm — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:20:08 -0800

I like watching sports but don't particularly like listening to the commentators. Surely I am not alone in this. So why don't they broadcast commentator-free audio on the SAP channel? Yes you can mute the audio, but I'd like to hear the sounds of the game.

I can understand that for some sports commentary can be useful to fill in all the time when nothing is happening (football, baseball) or where it is impossible to show all the action on the screen (hockey) but for sports like basketball, soccer and tennis having commentary actively detracts from the experience (think Tommy Smythe). To me anyway.

I don't see how this would cost very much, if anything, to implement but I know nothing about broadcasting. Are there large costs involved with this? Am I the only one who would like the option to disable commentary? And if it doesn't cost much to implement how could I go about convincing sports broadcasters to give us this option?

Help Finding an Election Day Piece

knmr76 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:24:35 -0800

This is a shot in the dark, but maybe you well-read, politically minded people can help: I am trying to track down a short commentary I remember reading around election day 2008. It was written in a French newspaper, I believe, and it was a short piece, but the basic gist was: "Today we are one with america. that may change later, but today we're one" re: the Obama win. I feel like I saw it linked in Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, but couldn't find it in the archives. I was voraciously reading so many sites at the time that I have no idea where it actually was. It was just a beautiful piece and I would like to read it again and keep it around. If it rings a bell with someone, that would be great!

EYE OF THE TIGER

fire&wings — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:40:44 -0800

What are some of the most stirring and melodramatic sports compilation videos on Youtube? For example Rivaldo's hattrick against Valencia or Lance Armstrong climbing Luz Ardiden. Any sport. It can be one game, match, event, or an overview of an entire career. The more music from the score of Gladiator utilised, and the more emotional the commentary, the better.

Best method for summarizing papers?

painquale — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:56:21 -0800

My approach to academic papers is to read through once, then go back and type up notes on it. The problem is that my notes serve two functions: summary and commentary. What's the best software for making synopses of academic papers with personal annotated notes? Most of what I what I write is done in the original author's voice. It's a summary of the author's key points, arguments, data, and citations to other works. But occasionally I break into my own voice and add some of my own observations or arguments. I want some way to delineate the two (and preferably, be able to easily print the file with or without my personal commentary). I've tried around with a few potential solutions in Word -- making my comments in a different color, putting them in footnotes, using the commenting feature -- but none them seem adequate. I tried hacking something up in LaTeX, but unless there's a really cool package out there I haven't seen, it doesn't seem to be made for this sort of thing. It strikes me that there should be some software out there that is tailor-made for this, or there's some method that I'm not seeing. Does anyone have any ideas? What do other people here do?

I want to hear great commentary from directors or other people

0xFCAF — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:20:17 -0800

What movies have great director's commentary? I've listened to Joss Whedon's director's commentary of Serenity (and Objects in Space and The Train Job) over and over and over again. I could listen to these again, but what other movies have commentary that speaks interestingly about either film-as-art or film-as-moviemaking? Kurt Wimmer's commentary on Equilibrium was also enjoyable just from the down-and-dirty aspect of making an actual movie. Conversely, Brad Anderson's commentary of The Machinist and Aronofsky's commentary of The Fountain were excruciatingly boring and uninteresting commentaries of otherwise interesting and thematic films.

Broadway Commentary

LeeJay — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:51:46 -0800

Looking for Broadway funnymen...and women! In the spirit of this post, I am looking for theater know-it-alls who comment on theater with a detached but loving sense of humor. I am looking not for the best of the stage but for the best of commentary on popular roles. I am looking for criticism like Rudetsky's, which obviously stems from love of the theater. I want to know about mistakes that theater royalty make and commentary that makes the best of American theater even better.

I want to get to know those who make Broadway their business. Point me toward hilarious theater commentary.

Montezuma's Revenge

misha — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:24:18 -0800

Where can I find a downloadable version of Michael Murphey's classic, "Temple of the Sun" to download? Of course I am willing to pay for the copyrighted, legal, etc. version. But I would rather not have to buy the entire Swans Against the Sun CD to get this one song. Also, HUGE Bonus Points if you can lead me to similar(?) songs which might interest my sons (see inside for more on this challenge). I want to download "Temple of the Sun," by Michael Murphy, which is a cherished song of my own childhood, to introduce to my kids, who are now old enough to enjoy it. I'd rather not pay for the entire CD, but Itunes doesn't have the song for download. Any suggestions? (I'm on a Mac, and I have an Ipod Shuffle and an Iphone, so I would prefer Mac friendly versions).

Also, bonus points if you can think of other works to interest and educate us. This is tough, because what I am looking for are songs that have an impact on a greater scale than just, "Huh. Nice lyrics and you can dance to it, I give it an 8." I'm looking for songs that have...how do I put this? Cultural significance? Historical relevance? A "Eureka" moment? I guess the best way is to list a few:

'39 from A Night at the Opera (Queen): Blew me away when I was a kid and actually understood, after this song, what "time is relevant" means.

Phantom of the Opera: Faust set to music, with an evil parody that appealed to a young teenager, much better teaching method than telling me to read"Dorian Grey" would have been at that age.

Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado: Political satire couched in witty, alliterative lyrics.

See? I told you this would be difficult. Thanks in advance, Hive Mind!

In screenwriting terminology, what are "bookends"?

paperfingers — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:04:43 -0800

In screenwriting terminology, what are "bookends"? I just watched Pirates of the Carribean with the writer's commentary; and they list the five rules of screenwriting:

1. No Bookends
2. No Bookends
3. Leave the kiss for the end
4. Don't kill the dog
5. (I forget the last one).

What are bookends?

Help me find a classic Spy Magazine Article

Phred182 — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:18:36 -0800

I am looking for an article from Spy Magazine about America's colorful track record with politically appointed ambassadors. The title set the tone nicely--something along the lines of: "Hey Jambo, Does Anyone Here Speak American?" Google turned up a reference to it in the December 1991 issue, that may or may not be the correct date. [BTW, if you find it, be sure to read it--it's hilarious.]

DIY DVD Commentary

crypticgeek — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 19:43:04 -0800

Help me create my own commentary track for a DVD movie. So I've got a DVD movie (ie: VOBs and whatnot) on my hard drive. I have an mp3 audio track with commentary. I need to do this:

1) Extract the audio track from the movie.
2) Composite that track with the commentary track to produce an audio track that is the commentary over the movie audio.
3) Add this new track to the dvd.

I have Nero SoundTrax, and as far as I know that should help me accomplish #2. If anyone has an easier or better solution, please do let me know.

I'm sure this is pretty simple, but I have never authored a DVD before.

Spoilers in Twin Peaks DVD commentaries?

Dean King — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:56:18 -0800

Do the commentaries on the Twin Peaks DVDs contain spoilers? I watched the entire series when it was originally broadcast, but my wife is seeing it for the first time. We'd like to listen to the director's commentaries together, but not if the plot twists are going to be ruined for her by spoilers. Could anyone who's already heard the commentaries let us know if they're "safe"?

Recreating Baseball Commentary

ArsncHeart — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 21:48:07 -0800

How can I (legally) recreate the commentary of the last few moments of the Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series? I'm doing a documentary for my Master's Project. There is a possibility of getting funding and maybe even distributing. I would like to open the film with what sounds like the last minute or so of Game 4 of the series (unrelated video goes on top).

1) Is there somewhere I can get a transcript of the actual commentary or an audio/video clip, so I can write something comparable?

2) How differently do I need to write it to avoid infringment? (Is it enough enough to change a few words around if my voice actor sounds wildly different from any actual commentators?)

DVD Commentary to MP3. Painlessly? On a Mac?

adamkempa — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 22:32:37 -0800

I'd like to transcode the commentary tracks of some DVD's for iPod listening, preferably on a mac. I think I have it narrowed down to some obscure VLC commands. I've been passively working on this for the past few weeks. The closest I've come is this tutorial which was recently posted to lifehacker. This tutorial is perfect, except it only works for the primary audio channel. Some googling revealed command line options --audio-language, --audio-track and --audio-channel, but none of them appear to be working.

--audio-language seems to be the obvious one to go with. It accepts a string as the parameter. I've tried every Possible permutation of the name apple's DVD player reports for the commentary track ('Audio English 2'), without any luck.

So, I'm asking for either the correct way to do this using VLC, or any other (possibly better?) method.

I apologize if this has already been addressed (It seems like it should have been). I searched using both available methods.

I need insight!!

emptybowl — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 07:02:04 -0800

Many times I'm really interested in what a DVD commentary may have to say, but just don't have enough time to watch the whole movie again, especially if it was a rental. Are there any sites that summarizes the major points made in a commentary, or even transcribes the commentary? Besides Commentary Tracks of the Damned, I mean.

Political Writing Outlets

hazyjane — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 04:46:18 -0800

Writing political commentary. I have a friend (no, really) who has a lot of talent for writing political opinion pieces. He's had letters published in Time and in the International Herald Tribune. Now he'd like to start submitting some articles he has written, but he doesn't know where to send them. He's looking for small publications where he could get started, and he isn't necessarily looking to make money from this. In terms of slant, he describes himself as a civil libertarian, free-trader, legislative minimalist when it comes to issues of morality and mores, pro-redistributive lefty who veers right on issues of unnecessary regulation.

Any ideas on where he might find his niche? Much appreciated!

Your favorite DVD commentary tracks?

Prospero — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 13:28:06 -0800

What are your favorite DVD commentary tracks?