Late to the story

I often come late to things, books, films, tv series - and it's been the same with Game of Thrones.

I have the first book, I want to read it but I really struggle with 'made up' names, foreign languages and such like, so just haven't got into it.

So my plan was to watch the series to learn the names, and now I'm completely hooked!

I'm not sure what's dragged me in, but the stories are complicated and entwined, the characters are hard to get a handle on - are they goodies or baddies - it's sometimes hard to tell and even when you're sure some plot twist changes your mind.

Siege always went on about Tyrion - and I can totally see why; he and Aria are by far the best characters!

I'm going to attempt the books at some stage, Peter is reading them and I know lots of others who are totally obsessed with them - it's just the enormity of the task! There will be 10 or so books, and that's a big commitment - hell, I didn't even manage past the first Thomas Covenant book (and I really enjoyed it).

Anyway, if and when I do read them I'm sure you'll hear about it!

In the meantime I have to share this Bad Lip-reading video made from clips of the series, if you've watched it you'll appreciate it (if you haven't watched it you'll still hopefully find it funny!).

 

They'll always be something interesting in my tv!

As you know, I don't have a tv - except now I do!!

When we cleared out the loft to have the installation put in I found the case of a 1970s EKCO (I love that EKCO stands for Eric Kirkham Cole!).

It's been sat outside ever since and being me I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away.  I recently found a photo on the internet of someone using a portable as a bookshelf (with the tube removed) - and it set me thinking!!

So, I've gained an extra bookshelf for big books, and it's certainly a talking point (John hates it).

Highest form of flattery

It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery, but I still can't understand the need for American tv and film producers to remake foreign language programmes and films?

There can be only a couple of explanations; either the population of the US is, on average, so stupid that they either can't read subtitles, or they can't contemplate a world outside the USA or, producers 'think' the population are stupid and couldn't cope with subtitles or something outside their own country - either way it's a sad state of affairs.

I recently saw, and very much enjoyed the highly successful Swedish film, 'Let the right one in', already an excellent film, but now remade as 'Let me in' (which I haven't seen but understand to be good - but was it necessary to move the story to New Mexico?).

Then of course there are the amazing film adaptations of the Stieg Larsson books, 'The girl with the dragon tattoo', 'The girl who played with fire', and 'the girl who kicked the hornets nest' - all to be remade in the US starring Daniel Craig! Why do they feel the need to do this?

The latest is a Danish 20 part thriller series that John and I have been watching on BBC4 iplayer, The Killing. Fantastic plotting and storyline, with brilliant acting by the Danish cast (poster above) - but will never be seen in the US as it's already been remade for the American speaking world (poster below).

It's no wonder that many Americans have little understanding of the rest of the world - they aren't given the chance to see it!

Postscript: if anyone fancies knitting me a jumper like the one in the top photo I'd really appreciate it! - although I suspect they will be the next 'must have' winter clothing item!

Celebrities?

Yesterday was the National TV awards, with prizes for presenters 'Ant and Dec' and shows such as 'I'm a celebrity'. I'm not going to comment on the quality or otherwise of the programmes as I've not seen them, but one thing did catch my ear when it was reported in passing on the radio this morning....

The main award for most popular drama went to 'Waterloo Road', again a programme I've never seen. But WHY was one of the Chilean miners chosen to present the prize??!

Presumably he was paid for his appearance? Why? He even got a standing ovation from the audience .......why?  (don't get me wrong, they went through something terrible, and survived against the odds, but really?)

Has the UK run out of Z list celebrities, have we got to the sad point that anyone who has been on the news becomes a celebrity? People do not need to have a skill or talent to be famous (the answer has been yes to that for sometime unfortunately), just to have 'been on telly'.

There's An App For That

I think I'm a little bit disturbed by this.

The game is afoot Watson

Minifig Characters #5: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
Originally uploaded by minifig.

Last night was the first episode of a new three part television programme, called 'Sherlock', and since I'm down at Lottie's I took advantage of having a television and watched it - and I'm glad I did.

Although I wasn't sure if it would work in modern day London, it really did - mainly I think, due to the actors who play Holmes and Watson (although the actor who takes the role of Lestrade is excellent too).

Holmes is as arrogant and condescending as ever, and it looks like Watson will be the loyal friend who saves the day everytime!

If I can find any criticism it would be that the storyline was a bit weak, but don't let that put you off.  There is an accompanying website, and Dr Watson has a blog!

10 minutes with a television reminds me why I don't have a television!

I'd been in the hotel for half and hour, bored of my book (I've just not got into it yet), I turned on the television.....big mistake!

Being in a hotel I had a choice of lots of channels, but as usual stuck to BBC in the hope of finding something vaguely intelligent - again, big mistake!

If I'd been interested in Wimbledon all would have been fine, or Eastenders - I turned off - but not before seeing two trailers for upcoming programmes on the BBC.

'101 ways to leave a gameshow' - looks about as moronic as it's possible to get, people being thrown, catapulted and jumping into pools of water....or if you fancy something factual how about, 'The fox attack twins' - the true life story of two children attacked in their beds recently by an urban fox......tabloid tv at it's best (worst?).

If this is the type of fair offered up by the BBC there is no hope whatsoever.

Photography and Song

Over on my book blog I've been mildly complaining about how disappointing the Sookie Stackhouse vampire books are - badly written, edited and executed (no pun intended!).

However, a number of people had said how good the HBO television series was. So, since I'm away for a few days I thought I'd get the first season on DVD and watch them - I assumed John wouldn't be interested (actually he beat me to them and is already on episode 4 or 5!).

Since I haven't watched them yet I'll save judgement - but what I did want to share is how bloody fangtastic (every pun intended) the opening credits are.

Watch for yourself, the song is brilliant, but the film sequence is amazing - I love the muted colours and the sort of cinematic mash up of Southern State US.

If the programme is as good as the opening it will be well worth watching - yeh!

Hole In The Wall

Someone mentioned this programme in a blog entry and so I went to find it on YouTube.

Words cannot describe how disappointed I am with the BBC - they think this is entertainment? they think this is 'good' television? people actually want to appear on this? people actually want to be in the audience?

It's programmes like this that totally destroy any hope I have for the human race.

Wibbly Pig

normal service will resume shortly
Originally uploaded by wibbly pig.

I've always loved the Wibbly Pig books by Mick Inkpen - even though they are relatively modern (so certainly weren't around when I was young). I'm not sure why, I just think he's really cute.

The first time I saw him was in Amsterdam in a book shop where I bought a small board book, I've been looking for other language versions of his books for years but so far only have the one Dutch version and all the English versions.

CBeebies (the BBC Children's channel) now have a Wibbly Pig programme for pre-school children - and I want to like it, but the voice is so wrong. What a shame, but then I guess I'm not the target audience!

(tele)vision

(tele)vision
Originally uploaded by punch for lunch

What a couple of days! This week has been the first of the switchover days for the area I'm working in at the moment - the first date that people really needed to take note if they wanted to continue watching television.

The first date they really should have done something about the fact that analogue will be switched off. We'd been asked to run a pop in centre, with demonstrations, computer access (to allow people to look at the relevant websites, and to look up retuning instructions), and make leaflets and reassurance available.

Two staff plus a volunteer to run the centre. It was difficult to gauge how busy it would be, or the types of queries that we'd get - although I was pretty sure that we'd get a lot of people who had lost channels, had not taken any notice of the wall to wall advertising that's been about for the last 6 months, and NOW were panicking!

Actually, it went very smoothly. We did get a number of people, some with general questions, others who wanted to be shown how to retune. We even had a lovely lady who couldn't retune so had brought down her digibox, remote and instruction manual - she said she'd have brought the tv if she'd been able to carry it!

Max, Pete and I were able to help everyone; many just wanting reassurance that retuning wasn't difficult and that if they pressed the wrong button it wouldn't break their tele.

But, the biggest frustration of the days was the amount of telephone calls we had - 100s! Most were from people who were genuinely having problems with the televisions and were unable to help themselves. Have you ever tried to talk someone through retuning a television or digibox without being able to see what's on the screen (coupled with the fact that many of the callers were frightened of pressing buttons on the remote)?

Although we'd been told to give these callers the national helpline numbers, there was a problem with that. They either couldn't get through, or they couldn't understand the strong accent of the call handler (even though they were British - perhaps Tyneside is not a good place for a call centre!!), or the helpline for one reason or another were not very helpful.

Many of the callers had either tried the helpline and got nowhere, or were not willing to do so. On a number of occasions we discovered that the helpline hadn't even tried to help, they'd just given the caller our number and told them that we'd send someone out to them!! Luckily we have a team of guys who can go to people's homes to do small jobs - boy were they busy (and still are)!

Although it's not my problem, it does worry me that there are many people who didn't call or come in, who are now sitting without a television, or with the favourite channels missing. And what about people in areas where there isn't a team of wonderful guys who will come and 'fix it'?

Anyway, we've got a month to recover, to sort out what the best plan is for the second date (when their analogue television will stop working altogether if they don't do something) and to make sure that we are able to help as many people as possible.

Sesame Street

I believe I can fly~~
Originally uploaded by Penguinmo - ma vie, mes photos.

When I was a child Sesame Street was one of my favourite programmes. I learnt alot from the programme, counting, the alphabet and of course a smattering of Spanish too!

This month the programme is 40 years old (only a few years older than me!) - many of the original characters are still on the show - Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, The Cookie Monster, and of course Kermit the Frog.

It's apparently a franchise now, and each different language version (it is shown in over 140 countries) reflects the issues of the culture whilst maintaining the core values of the original show.

What I really can't believe is that it's not been on British television since 2001! There is now a whole generation of children who have not seen the programme - how can that be right?

How can you not want your children to see this -

McNulty and Bunk - motherf**kers!

I'm sorry to anyone who doesn't like bad language - but this scene from the first season of The Wire is just a classic.

The best dialogue in a television programme - ever.

Surviving the 21st century

Smashed
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

Earlier this week I was in my first lecture about 'Media and the Public Sphere' (don't ask!), and the tutor was waffling on about television and viewing figures etc.....after a about 10 minutes of this I asked a question,

Will it be a disadvantage to me on the course that I don't have a television, and having really watched anything for a couple of years?

He looked completely aghast, thought for a moment and then said,

MY GOD! How do you survive in the 21st Century!?!?

Television worth watching

Shoes
Originally uploaded by MASSIVE DEFEAT.

As many of you know, I don't watch much television - in fact I only really get to see something if it takes my fancy on the BBC iPlayer.

Last week I read an article about Jerry Springer taking part in the BBC series, Who do you think you are?, and so made an effort to watch the programme.

Born in England to Jewish parents he was searching for what happened to his grandparents and his family during the Second World War.

What a moving and humbling programme, I'm not ashamed to say that it made me cry. How could any human being do such things to others? - millions of human lives ended for no reason.

It is stories like these that remind me (as if I needed it) why I am a pacifist, why I can never believe that it is right to take another persons life (under any circumstances), and why war can never, ever be the answer.

The shoes in the photograph are from part of the museum at Auschwitz - a place that I'm not sure I could cope with visiting.

This is something that MUST never be forgotten about, something that every child should be told about and something that we should all learn from.

I like to think that we (the human race) have learnt from something from this hideous period of our history, but I fear we have not.

Television - at it's finest?!

Cheviot Quarry
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

I image some of you who read my blog will have been surprised to find that I've been silent regarding the new BBC drama, 'Bonekickers', which started this week.

The main reason for this is that my television doesn't work and I hadn't got round to watching it online - but I have now.

And I find my self almost lost for words at the awfulness of the whole thing! But I'll try!

Firstly I have to say that I DID enjoy it, in a cringing sort of way - I just 'used my archaeological imagination', it was a total load of hookum but it did have some fantastic lines (in between the stupid storyline, bad acting and even worse archaeological practice - Professor Mark Horton should be in hiding).

I think I have to put a few things straight for my non-archaeological friends and family.

1) Archaeology is not that fun, even if we like to think it is (and secretly wish it was).

2) A medieval coin doesn't just 'pop' out of the grass without the builders even digging any holes.

3) A site such as that would at least have had a desktop survey and probably trial trenching before the builders got anywhere near.

4) Archaeologists don't wear dinner jackets - unless they are trying to get funding out of someone!

5) C14 and Dendro dates take months to get - NOT minutes!

6) Anyone who 'yanked' a find out of the ground like that would NEVER be allowed on another site (and then she appeared to just walk off site with it?!)

7) IF wood survived like that it would have to be preserved (eg. kept wet) to stop it beginning to decay as soon as it was taken out of the ground.

8) No archaeologist could afford to live in a flat on the Royal Crescent in Bath

9) Even if someone bought the site they wouldn't be able to stop an archaeological dig - the government (eg. English Heritage) and various other people (eg. the County Archaeologist) wouldn't allow that
10) hard hats??? Health and safety would have a field day.

10) as if someone wouldn't have found a big cavern full of crosses before then?!

And loads of other things I've probably missed as I was laughing so much!!

The only saving grace of the programme was the fantastic lines and quotes -

Do you know what history is, mate? It's layers.

Hacked to death, they were all hacked to death.

This is rewriting the books stuff.

Use your archaeological imagination.

Everything packed in acid free paper.

I'm just a grubby wee digger.

Antiquity with titties and front bottoms.

Let's do dendrochronology!

and my fav -

Remove your stringy buttocks from my dig.

Makes me wish I was a digging archaeologist again so that I could say that to someone!

Chase your cares away.....

Fraggle Rock
Originally uploaded by siskumont.

Fantastic, there is going to be a film of the brilliant Jim Henson 80s TV programme Fraggle Rock.

I suspect that I was really a bit old for the show when it was originally shown, but a still have fond memories of Red, Boober, Gobo, Wembley and the little Doozers in their tiny hard hats.

I'm sure that Peter and Cat will consider it too young for them but I'm going to see it!

Down at Fraggle Rock!

Pushing daisies

Daisy daisy
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

If Tim Burton were to make a television programme, this would certainly be it - Pushing Daisies really has the weird and quirky dark sense of humour which is his hallmark.

I'm not sure what I think yet, I think it will take a few episodes to get into (although since it's on ITV on a Saturday evening I can't really see me getting the chance to watch it that often).

The characters seem likeable and the plot is certainly silly - we'll see if I can be bothered to watch it again!

1000 channels (and nothin' on)

Nothing on the tv
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

As most of you will know, I don't really watch television (more of a radio kind of gal), just the odd crappy American crime show, sometimes the news and every now and again a documentry.

This is partly due to the fact that I have no terrestrial reception in my house (you'd think that being on top of a bloody great hill it would be perfect?!), and the Freeview box isn't much better - at best I can get one or two channels. So I rarely bother, if anything I tend to watch things on the BBC iPlayer thingy.

This weekend I've visited my aunt over in Manchester. Her and her partner watch a lot of television, Diane likes to keep up with whats going on in the States (she's from New York), and Gee enjoys things like Ugly Betty and Medium.

So, the television at their house is important and as such they have Sky.

This morning I turned on the boobtube to see if there was anything worth watching - okay I'll admit it was a bit of a vain hope on a Saturday morning, but you never know.

NOTHING! all shit quite frankly, but that isn't what prompted this blog entry, I wasn't surprised that there was nothing worth watching. What really amazed me was the number of channels - over 1000!!!!

And that doesn't include the radio stations available! Okay, so many of these were pay channels (films and porn), and some only broadcast limited hours - but still, 1000 channels? Who needs that many?

Needless to say I sort of half watched an old episode of Time Team before giving up and coming to the computer!

(BTW, the title of this blog entry refers to a Bruce Springsteen song from 1992, '57 channels and nothin' on' - things have moved on a bit in 16 years)

Coo-ee!

Do you remember those 'information' adverts that used to be on tv in the 70s and 80s!? Charley Says, Green Cross Code Man (he was Darth Vader you know!?) and Joe and Petunia - remember them?

Well, Joe and Petunia have risen from the grave (they were killed off in back in the 70s). The Central Office of Information (how very 1984 that sounds) are using the same 'lifeguard' episode to try and get a message across for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

As you will see, the couple have been updated for the new version - edition of iPod, Hello magazine and mobile phone to call for help; and of course Joe has swapped his knotted hanky for a Burberry cap!

What is really interesting is that they felt the need to add a car to the background and to remove the Union Flag on Petunia's bag.