  I never write about television. Cable news offends every last one of my sensibilities. Reality TV is far too obnoxious and staged for my tastes (even though I have been known to watch Love and Hip Hop Atlanta). And manufactured dramas and comedies these days lack good writing, except for maybe a handful of shows. Since Wavelength is more of a film blog, commentary on television normally wouldn't fit here. It's a good thing I don't follow the rules, though. One of my favorite music critics, Tamsin Chapman over at Collapse Board, mentioned a late 1960s British television show called The Prisoner. Anyways, apparently the big star of The Prisoner is a white balloon with a mind of its own called Rover. Rover is nothing like the red balloon in Albert Lamorisse's Le Ballon rouge (1956). Rover seems to have its own agenda, which apparently has nothing to do with altruism or enlightenment - this balloon has it in for a character named No. 6. It's also more like the red balloon with eyes from the Balloon of Doom comic strip. This sinister, bouncy white balloon seems to have had a major impact not only on pop culture but the helium-addled art world as well. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Big Air Package, an inflatable white balloon sculpture, and French artist Charles Pétillon's works reveal a strange fixation with white balloons. Jana Linke's Click & Glue looks like a smaller version of Rover on temporary lockdown in an art gallery. There's a Renault commercial (on Youtube) in which Rover appears to chase a red Renault automobile after having tumbled down a rocky hill. A requisite red and white Eero Aarnio Ball Chair appears in the commercial before we spot Rover. It's all kind of silly if you ask me and who in their right mind would want a Renault car? (At least I had sense enough to get a Volkswagen!) But anyways, perhaps the Brits stole the idea for Rover from Italian giallo director Mario Bava's Operazione Paura. After seeing Rover bounce around, I thought perhaps there should be a horror movie update of Rover called Le Ballon Blanc, but some fast-thinking Iranian people already claimed that title for their own movie. At any rate, white balloons will never ever be welcome in my house (Hahaha)! - Ericka Schiche
