Monday, February 23, 2009
Morpheus is back from the future to save us all
I caught CSI for the first time in ages the other night, and bugger me if Morpheus didn't show up to solve the case. I'd heard William Petersen, who plays Gil Grisham (one of my favourite characters on the show), was leaving, but had no idea his replacement would be an actor as cool and engaging as Lawrence "Larry" Fishburne. Petersen is only 56, so quite why he decided to bow out so young is curious; Fishburne is only 47 but is made to appear much older in the show (perhaps through addition of more grey to his hair?) He's certainly a bit bigger than he was in Apocalypse Now. ;-)
In other news, some Cantabrians were "terrorised all weekend" - not by al-Qaeda, but by, um, traffic. Apparently boy racers going no where fast are now "the acceptable face of 'terror'". Methinks the editor at the Christchurch Press needs to exercise a little control over such sensationalist shit. And perhaps buy his 'journalists' a fucking thesaurus or two.
National is following through on its election promise to play favourites with certain University graduates by paying down a bit of their student loan if they stay in the country. It's a shame the scheme doesn't apply to journalists, the country could sure use some right now.
Tough times mean Bill English is signalling severe restraint (and possibly fair enough) ... in every area except tax cuts which only benefit those above the average wage, or thereabouts. Maybe National could disinter such nasty 90s legends as Simon Upton and Max Bradford to slash a few budgets, hike a few fees, and ensure National returns to form.
And there was a very sad death on the otherwise unexceptional Candia Rd. I've always enjoyed driving it, but apparently it's a known blackspot.
In other news, some Cantabrians were "terrorised all weekend" - not by al-Qaeda, but by, um, traffic. Apparently boy racers going no where fast are now "the acceptable face of 'terror'". Methinks the editor at the Christchurch Press needs to exercise a little control over such sensationalist shit. And perhaps buy his 'journalists' a fucking thesaurus or two.
National is following through on its election promise to play favourites with certain University graduates by paying down a bit of their student loan if they stay in the country. It's a shame the scheme doesn't apply to journalists, the country could sure use some right now.
Tough times mean Bill English is signalling severe restraint (and possibly fair enough) ... in every area except tax cuts which only benefit those above the average wage, or thereabouts. Maybe National could disinter such nasty 90s legends as Simon Upton and Max Bradford to slash a few budgets, hike a few fees, and ensure National returns to form.
And there was a very sad death on the otherwise unexceptional Candia Rd. I've always enjoyed driving it, but apparently it's a known blackspot.
Labels: boy racers, morpheus, national, playing favourites, taxes, terrorism, TV
Monday, June 16, 2008
Define irony
Am I right? Are people glued to their TV sets watching the nightly news and closely tracking power savings? Are there lots of computer-generated graphics to detail our savings? Are the news anchors presenting from in front of a huge video screen with bright images? Is the studio brilliantly lit so we can accurately gauge (and reflect?) the concern on the faces of our trusted anchors? Are there multiple cameras being used during the news bulletins that cover the crisis? Are there mobile reporting units down in the South (nice time of year, but chilly) sending up-to-the minute details on lake-levels back to the studio VIA SATTELITE?
Why have I not heard or seen anything saying we should save power by, gulp, turning off the TV?
And stop reading this! Unless you're one of those kids in a developing country with a crank-handle laptop. (Where do I get one of those?)
Why have I not heard or seen anything saying we should save power by, gulp, turning off the TV?
And stop reading this! Unless you're one of those kids in a developing country with a crank-handle laptop. (Where do I get one of those?)
Labels: power generation, TV, TV news
Monday, March 24, 2008
Fuck You TVNZ and Police Checkpoints
These pricks have long had it in for the Warriors and league in general but tonight they stooped to.... well, their usual level. The Warriors got so pissed with their negative coverage that they basically told them to fuck off. And TVNZ make it pretty plain they have no professional integrity. Probably why I only watch TV3 news and flick back and forwards during sports news time to see the bits I want to.
Guess who was hosting the sports news on TVNZ as well? Andrew Saville, rugby commentator. There's no fucken way he wants to give league the time of day in the current climate with union being so shit, getting ratshit crowds and plummeting tv ratings while year after year the NRL crowds remain stable and increase slightly with TV ratings on the up.
So anyway, what exactly do we get on TV1 tonight?
There were two NRL league games yesterday afternoon/evening. The Warriors win over the Eels and in the later kickoff a huge upset in Melbourne with the Storm going down to the Sharks. And what does TV1 do? Well of course they show the incident which saw a player from each team sent off, show none of the tries or give the score and then cut to a game from Saturday night (two days ago) and show a forearm from a Cowboys player which left Hodgson dazed and the offending player put on report. And that's it. And no mention of the Warriors, post match analysis, nothing, the game finished too late to do it the day before.
TV3 of course does not have any bias and showed the tries from yesterdays games along with the foul play incidents in the Storm v Sharks match, and they have comments from Cleary and Wiki after the Warriors v Eels match.
And then low and behold I flick back to TVNZ and they have a 3 minute piece on the Marist rugby club's centenary which would probably have interested a few thousand people nation wide as a nice filler before they go to the weather. And what the fuck is up with previews of the weather forecast, before, and during the regular news before the usual 5 minute weather forecast. You would swear to god that most nights we could revert to the 30 minute news broadcasts we used to have. Although then they would fill it with 10 minute weather forecasts and 7 minutes of Super 14 highlights to slot in betwen ad breaks.
As I mentioned early. Fuck you TVNZ.
I've sent them a bit of feedback and will see what the response is.
Here's some thoughts I had on tvnz in 2006 to help establish a theme of shitness. That reminds me. I sent the NRL website an email on its shit website because it has a million links, takes a while to load and then slows down the operating of your comp. Not to mention there's so much stuff on the front page that you can't find anything. They never replied. But then they did reply when I told them they had ballsed up their ladder crediting the win to the Panthers instead of the Raiders from Saturday night. Talk about a classic example of the too hard basket, ignore it.
And while I'm on bias, or prejudice or persecution or whatever. Why the fuck are the police conducting check points for registration and warrant at the top of my road every couple of weeks (at least) these days. In 5 years of driving in NZ I think I had been stopped 3 times (in the 1990s). But in the past year I have been through a dozen check points up the road and about 8 of them have been in the last few months. Obviously they are catching people but fuck me, I resent to being checked constantly when I am never checked or never see anybody else being checked anywhere else. Maybe if you try another suburb you'll catch people there too. Although in saying that a mate of mine in another 'poor' part of West Auckland has them in his hood all the time as well.
Brothers just can't get a chance. Might have to go out strapped in future.
Guess who was hosting the sports news on TVNZ as well? Andrew Saville, rugby commentator. There's no fucken way he wants to give league the time of day in the current climate with union being so shit, getting ratshit crowds and plummeting tv ratings while year after year the NRL crowds remain stable and increase slightly with TV ratings on the up.
So anyway, what exactly do we get on TV1 tonight?
There were two NRL league games yesterday afternoon/evening. The Warriors win over the Eels and in the later kickoff a huge upset in Melbourne with the Storm going down to the Sharks. And what does TV1 do? Well of course they show the incident which saw a player from each team sent off, show none of the tries or give the score and then cut to a game from Saturday night (two days ago) and show a forearm from a Cowboys player which left Hodgson dazed and the offending player put on report. And that's it. And no mention of the Warriors, post match analysis, nothing, the game finished too late to do it the day before.
TV3 of course does not have any bias and showed the tries from yesterdays games along with the foul play incidents in the Storm v Sharks match, and they have comments from Cleary and Wiki after the Warriors v Eels match.
And then low and behold I flick back to TVNZ and they have a 3 minute piece on the Marist rugby club's centenary which would probably have interested a few thousand people nation wide as a nice filler before they go to the weather. And what the fuck is up with previews of the weather forecast, before, and during the regular news before the usual 5 minute weather forecast. You would swear to god that most nights we could revert to the 30 minute news broadcasts we used to have. Although then they would fill it with 10 minute weather forecasts and 7 minutes of Super 14 highlights to slot in betwen ad breaks.
As I mentioned early. Fuck you TVNZ.
I've sent them a bit of feedback and will see what the response is.
Here's some thoughts I had on tvnz in 2006 to help establish a theme of shitness. That reminds me. I sent the NRL website an email on its shit website because it has a million links, takes a while to load and then slows down the operating of your comp. Not to mention there's so much stuff on the front page that you can't find anything. They never replied. But then they did reply when I told them they had ballsed up their ladder crediting the win to the Panthers instead of the Raiders from Saturday night. Talk about a classic example of the too hard basket, ignore it.
And while I'm on bias, or prejudice or persecution or whatever. Why the fuck are the police conducting check points for registration and warrant at the top of my road every couple of weeks (at least) these days. In 5 years of driving in NZ I think I had been stopped 3 times (in the 1990s). But in the past year I have been through a dozen check points up the road and about 8 of them have been in the last few months. Obviously they are catching people but fuck me, I resent to being checked constantly when I am never checked or never see anybody else being checked anywhere else. Maybe if you try another suburb you'll catch people there too. Although in saying that a mate of mine in another 'poor' part of West Auckland has them in his hood all the time as well.
Brothers just can't get a chance. Might have to go out strapped in future.
Labels: andrew saville, league coverage, TV, TV news, tvnz are shit, weather
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Ad Free, Yeah Right
Why are the TV channells allowed to have ads promoting themselves? Surely if they can't have ads for anybody else they can't have them for themselves either. I realise that they aren't getting paid to broadcast their own ads but they indirectly make money by advertising themselves, enticing people to tune in to these shows and then getting advertising money as their ratings go up. It all seems a bit shit arse if you ask me. If they can do that then all stores in NZ should be able to open their doors and simply not sell anything. Not many people would bother going into them but there might be the case where people use the day to suss out prices at different stores and buy the next day.
On the whole no-trading friday and sunday it absolutely sucks. I've got quite a bit of stuff to do round the house but haven't been able to do half of it because of the closed policy. I can handle shops being shut on one of those days but why the fuck two and so close together? Jesus would be well pissed off if he couldn't buy timber for that cabinet he was making.
And Sportsfreak is now 0-7 with his picks. Hahahahaha. hang on, I'm 2-5.
On the whole no-trading friday and sunday it absolutely sucks. I've got quite a bit of stuff to do round the house but haven't been able to do half of it because of the closed policy. I can handle shops being shut on one of those days but why the fuck two and so close together? Jesus would be well pissed off if he couldn't buy timber for that cabinet he was making.
And Sportsfreak is now 0-7 with his picks. Hahahahaha. hang on, I'm 2-5.
Labels: carpenter, easter, jesus, TV
Friday, February 29, 2008
The Not Sure What to Title it Post
Couple of things.
Firstly, tonight on TV2 we have American Idol at 8:30, and at 9:30 American Psycho. Was that on purpose by some crafty 'programmer' or just a coincidence. Either way you could flip the titles. Half of those on Idol are indeed psycho's and there's a certain amount of 'idol' in aspects of Christian Bale's outstanding performance as a mass murdering, humping, big city playa.
Secondly, who put the TV ad together about women's health where the Pacific Island women jump into a van to go off to get a smear test? or some other 'women's issue' but none of them bother to put a seat belt on.
I'd say they are just as likely to be killed in an accident as they are of dying of cancer in the next 10 minutes. Nice effort at portraying Pacific Island culture though. I see half a dozen Pacific Island women laughing in a van with no seatbelts on all the time.
Have a nice weekend.
Firstly, tonight on TV2 we have American Idol at 8:30, and at 9:30 American Psycho. Was that on purpose by some crafty 'programmer' or just a coincidence. Either way you could flip the titles. Half of those on Idol are indeed psycho's and there's a certain amount of 'idol' in aspects of Christian Bale's outstanding performance as a mass murdering, humping, big city playa.
Secondly, who put the TV ad together about women's health where the Pacific Island women jump into a van to go off to get a smear test? or some other 'women's issue' but none of them bother to put a seat belt on.
I'd say they are just as likely to be killed in an accident as they are of dying of cancer in the next 10 minutes. Nice effort at portraying Pacific Island culture though. I see half a dozen Pacific Island women laughing in a van with no seatbelts on all the time.
Have a nice weekend.
Labels: Pacific Island women with no seatbelts, road safety, TV
