TV worth TiVoing: While I have not blogged it, two of this weblog’s seven readers and I have exchanged e-mails during the weekend about how remarkable it was when Jon Stewart performed the first-ever live, televised castration when he appeared on Crossfire Friday.

Jeff Jarvis (a media critic from way-back) calls it, “the single best piece of media criticism (he’s) seen in years. And it’s all the better because it’s face-to-face.”

How good was it? (Or bad, depending on your opinion of Crossfire and its ilk.) Jon Stewart’s performance reminded me of one of those kung fu masters who can rip their opponent’s heart out and while it is still beating, they show it to their opponent right before he falls over, dead.

How magazines get started (continued): Today’s SF Chronicle has a classic HMGSC story about the previously blogged magazine, Edutopia, a new title published by the George Lucas Education Foundation.

Quote:

The idea started last year, according to Milton Chen, the foundation’s executive director, when Lucas, while gazing at the bountiful magazine racks at a Borders Books store, groaned about the titles devoted to dogs, cars, gardening and crocheting. “He wondered, ‘Why isn’t there a magazine about education?’ ” Chen said. “He said, ‘Let’s come up with a plan.’”…The magazine will operate as a business like other nonprofit magazines that are self-supporting, such as Smithsonian, National Geographic and San Francisco’s Mother Jones. The first issue of Edutopia is filled with ads from educational technology firms such as LeapFrog, Adobe, Serious Magic and Gateway, and also features ads from the likes of TiVo and Air New Zealand.

Good luck to all involved, but here are my observations regarding the venture:

1. I think creating a magazine to evangelize the use of technology in education is a wonderful, noble and commendable idea and one that George Lucas is uniquely positioned to accomplish, but, the notion that this magazine can be “self-supporting” (if that means “profitable”) is highly suspect. Frankly, it’s setting up the wrong measurement to judge success. Nor, if history is a guide, will it likely occur. Again, the magazine is a wonderful idea and the editorial and philosophical missions are outstanding, but the business model is flawed and likely doomed.

2. Are Mother Jones and Smithsonian magazines “self supporting” through subscription and advertising revenue? And, if so, how many years (decades?) did it take them to get there? And if they are, I can give you tens of thousands of examples of foundation and non-profit institutional magazines (i.e., every university alumni magazine) that serve vital, successful roles but are not “self supporting” in the way Edutopia is challenged by Lucas to be, according to the article.

3. George Lucas should give John Grisham a call and talk about this whole “self-supporting” magazine concept. If Grisham’s market power and considerable cash could not succeed in helping Oxford American find self-support at a time when it was a perennial National Magazine Award nominee and winner (and in my opinion, one of the most outstanding magazines published in America), I don’t think even “the Force” can make Edutopia “self-supporting” in a financial way.

4. George Lucas is among the most creatively brilliant people living today (or, perhaps ever), but he should give the magazine another challenge, something like, “change the world,” rather than “be self-supporting.” Frankly, changing the world will be an easier goal to attain for a magazine intended for an audience of over-worked, under-paid individuals who have no direct purchasing power for the merchandise advertised or access to an expense account to pay for a subscription.

5. I still think the magazine’s concept and purpose are wonderful, noble and commendable and feel certain it can be successful, just not self-supporting.

Who were those people dressed up like Titans fans? I’ll get to the disappointing performance of the players in a minute, but I’ve got to say first that today’s game was the strangest, and worst, experience I’ve had yet at a Titans home game. For the past six years, whenever the Titans are on defense, without any coaxing, the fans in my section — and most of those on the field level, stand up and scream their heads off. It’s just a tradition. You stand up. You scream. You go home hoarse.

Today, however, it was like a totally different crowd showed up. All the seats in my section were filled up with what looked like Titans fans. They were wearing Titans gear. But these people were not fans. They had come to the game, a TITANS game, and were being spectators. Spectators at a Titans game! No 12th-man thing going on here. It was like showing up at an alternate universe, or something. A “down-in-front” crowd had replaced the fanatics who were usually sitting in those seats. I thought I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone, or any moment now, someone was going to tell me it was all a part of some giant practical joke. It was only deep in the second half, at the coaxing of Kevin Carter, that the home crowd “got into” a defensive stand. Pathetic. The “best fans in the NFL” claim has now become an ironic joke.

Granted, the team didn’t give the fans a lot to cheer about either. In a nutshell, the Texans shut down Chris Brown. Drew Bennett continued to drop the must-catch, in the hands passes. (Is he channeling Chris Sanders, or something?) Steve McNair threw four (it could have been more, I lost count at four) interceptions and seemed “off” all day. And Lamont Thompson got whipped in his pass coverage. There’s more really bad things to say (i.e., every team in our division has beaten us at our house), but frankly, I’d rather go sulk elsewhere.

Update: My 14-year-old co-analyst (a Jets fan since the 3rd grade) points out that the Titans’ lack of depth at wide receiver and failure to pressure opposing quarterbacks are the missing links, and the cause of both problems may be benefitting other teams: Justin MacCariens is now at the 5-0 Jets. And Jevon Kearse is now at the 5-0 Eagles.