So, watched the Eurovision song contest tonight with some friends from college; its a tradition of theirs I’ve never fully embraced, but really enjoyed tonight. Suzanne and Jamie hosted an entertaining evening, and there were two things in particular that snagged my interest.
(1) Terry Wogan is hysterically funny. His sarcastic deconstruction of Europe really made me chuckle: “this is a kiosk… why its not like kiosks in other countries I can’t say… oh yes, I know stuff…” — paraphrased equivalent
(2) I really, really enjoyed Finland’s winning entry. Shows that humourous music really is appreciated, which was gratifying.
It is a bizarre event, though. Spex speculated that the only people who could adequately replace Wogan would be Ant and Dec – saddens me that they are the best that British television has to offer… but it did make a great deal of sense. Their high-energy idiocy might be the only thing that will wean the UK public off the reassuringly cutting wit of Wogan.
Turns out Sky was just temporarily disoriented by bad weather. It’s all back now: good thing I didn’t call a support team round, would have cost me an unnecessary quantity of cash…
The last few days have been windy. I mean really, hats blowing off, cycling is twice as hard, umbrella-inverting kind of windy. And probably as a result, our satellite transmission stopped working… and so I had an encounter with Sky’s customer support.
They’re usually pretty helpful, I’ve got to say, and the process they guided me through involved at least one thing I hadn’t thought of myself (“are you sure its plugged in?” – not that one)… but, asides from the fact that the lady was singularly grumpy, they couldn’t help me. You see, it could be the dish, and not the digibox, at fault. Which would require me to pay a separate bunch of people to come around and fiddle about with the cabling.
So its all very frustrating. Bring on IPTV – and a new version of Tivo that can cope with it…
So, the story of poor Guy Goma, who was brought on as a commentator for a BBC news programme about the Apple v. Apple courtcase, is an interesting one. Valuable lessons can be learnt from this:
Bloopers are funny, especially on the Beeb!
Bad though I feel for Guy Kewney, who was left waiting in the lobby as a fellow pundittaxi driver job seeker took his place and his identity on National Television, I can’t help but chuckle at the hilarity of it. And of course, both Guys have received an inordinate amount of media coverage, and Guy Coma will probably be offered a slot on the next season of The Apprentice thanks to his slick blagging skills. Presumably the Beeb will get Mr K back on to comment on some other breaking news story pronto!
Video is here, if you want a quick chuckle. The man done good.
Have you ever just felt the need to watch rubbish TV? I have – last night being a particular case in point.
I admit, I had some curiosity about the Merlin’s apprentice miniseries, but it evaporated shortly after the principle character (the apprentice in question) started talking to a pig in the opening sequence.
“Who’s pig is this,” I asked myself, “and why do I care?”
It is one of the worst pieces of television I’ve ever encountered and it went on for nearly 3 hours. And I watched it all. And enjoyed making fun about the pig with my sister. Not sure why…
I am sure that Sam Neill should be ashamed of himself. No amount of money was worth that travesty…
So, the created a weird new character in Smallville, somewhere between Huntress, Batman and The Punisher. Not sure I like what they did – have been waiting for them to introduce a young Bruce Wayne… would have had more impact.
Finished watching season 2 of BatGal and am now anxiously awaiting the next one… It is really, really well done. Par for the course with its end season cliff-hanger, but what a cliff-hanger!! Bring on July…
Have found that I’m putting off the most trivial things lately – replacing the blade on my razor, doing the laundry, erm, blogging, and more. The attitude of ‘I’ll get to it eventually’ has me standing knee deep in a pile of slowly mildewing laundry and dust an inch thick around the base of my monitor.
I’ve bought a dustbuster, and made a list, inspired by Early Hickey. I’m going to cross off everything on my list if it’s the last thing I do (I haven’t yet written down ‘lose two stone’ but that may find its way onto the list…)
Watched some Battlestar Galactica after a friend at work described it to me as:
“…some of the best story telling on television at the moment.”
And
“…the best thing to come out of America for ages.”
And actually pleasantly surprised. Whilst not remotely feeling the superlative enjoyment that Jon did, it has all the good charateristics of a solid drama series – characterisation, suspense, back-story, heroes, villains, and explosive action. Surprised at how different it is from a lot of other ‘sci-fi’ – no interest in featuring a technology, nothing made of the science that makes everything possible, and a slight disconnect from reality. Really more fantasy than sci-fi, but without enough CGI spaceships to satisfy the most 3d rendered fanboy.
So; interesting – will see how it develops. Although I am disappointed that there are no networks on the Galactica – they need a self-defending one ;).
Armand David's personal weblog: dadhood, technology, running, media, food, stuff and nonsense.
