Wow! Cartoons are artsy again! I discovered Samurai Jack tonight. It's groovy; lots of amazing sound work and finely crafted images. It jumps from full-screen to letterbox and is light on the dialogue. It's mature content in the good sense.

Contrast that to the toons that pervade the "Adult Swim" programming block, which while clearly less suitable for children acually feels juvenile after watching Samari Jack. It's like watching some good modern dance piece and then watching a booty-bass video. Maybe that's a somewhat strained analogy, but you get the point.

Back in NYC we have some strange channel selections by the grace of the cable company; the majors plus the "new" TNN and Faux News. We used to get IFC, but lately that's been scrambled. Anyhow, there's a lot of media out there to which I'm simply oblivious. Broadcast isn't really my format, and I have a hard time stomaching advertising. But Luke has cable and has the tube on quite a lot; sometimes it's a bit of a distraction, and my general opinion remains that popular culture is going to the dogs, but every now and then I see something interesting and new and it gives me a little whiff of hope.