Last night we watched the New Year's celebrations on the Malian station, ORTM. It was the usual amateurish video work, shaky hand-held cameras jumping around and spastically zooming in on the crowds, edited with over-enthusiastic use of wipes and split screens (which cut off one of the host's heads, showing only the mic pointed at him.) The traffic was blocked off around one of the major monuments downtown, and there was (lip- and guitar-synched) music, and fireworks, and I thought, that looks kind of fun, at least in a campy way; wish we'd known and gone down for a look.

Then I watched as someone lit a firecracker, but it wouldn't launch, so he waved it, fuse burning, at the hosts of the show, and it finally shot out and exploded ten feet over their heads, showering them with sparks. I watched as the hosts leapt out of their chairs in a complete, unscripted panic. The camera jerked violently; presumably its operator was as alarmed as they were. I watched as the female host bolted into the darkness, brushing sparks from her suit, and I thought, then again, I'm pretty happy here on my couch.