Posts by Rich Lock
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Hard News: The flagging referendum, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Wolverine rips into flag...
To be fair, the 'X-men' flag is pretty cool....
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Beatles'…, in reply to Russell Brown,
It's the spawn of rock music as drone, you can drop it into a modern DJ set, it's everything.
This. Nothing much to add except that this came out in 1966. Two short years earlier, they were releasing fluff like 'can't buy me love'. That tickles me and mildly blows my mind. Now, let's all get up , and dance to a tune that was a hit before your mother was born.
I have an original copy of 'Revolver' on vinyl. Thanks for the lend, mum and dad! I'll give it back soon!
you can drop it into a modern DJ set
Like this? (runs and hides)
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Hard News: What you lookin' at?, in reply to Jason Kemp,
in talking with some of the people who were on the show they also knew they were mocking various genres and that was a big part of its charm.
I think the difference is between 'affectionate-teasing-coming-from-a-place-of-love-but-c'mon-really-this-shit-is-ridiculous', and 'hur-hur-look-at-the-stupid'. No prizes for guessing which one generally ends up as a better product.
'Deadpool' is the latest example. An irreverant send-up R-rated superhero film with a main character who constantly breaks the fourth wall. 10 years in development hell, and needed the 'accidental' leaking of test footage to kickstart it out. It's now taken US$609.8m (and rising) at the box office...
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Hard News: What you lookin' at?, in reply to Jason Kemp,
Isn’t this the Golden Age of TV?
Maybe.
It is, if you're commissioning programming in the US.
As my wife observed recently, UK TV commissioning is stuck in the '90's - high cost costume drama (War and Peace, this year), or any number of police procedurals (plus the usual low cost dross- property porn and reality shows). In contrast to the US, it is very risk- and experiment-averse.
Given Russell's comment about the 'tart-with-a-heart' character, it sounds like NZ TV commissioning is stuck in the early '80's....
I have just watched a few episodes of Xena Warrior Princess
Context. All of these shows (and Dr Who is another example) need to be seen in the context of the time of original broadcast. A show with an unapologetically bad-ass arse-kicking female warrior as the lead, without her needing to be rescued by a man? Pretty left-field back in the '90's.
A show about an old man who travels through time and space in a police box? Try pitching that as a brand-new concept now, and see how far you get.
We tried re-watching E.T. recently. For a classically beloved children's film that earned approximately all the money when it was first released, it's remarkably slow and dull. Techniques of story-telling and filming move on, and audience expectations adjust accordingly.
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Hard News: What you lookin' at?, in reply to BenWilson,
Manu Bennet
...is also in 'Arrow', as supervillain Slade Wilson/Deathstroke. Which is pretty cool.
Silicon Valley (my favourite by far)
You (and other techies) might enjoy hacker drama series 'Mr Robot', if you haven't already seen it. Another Amazon original.
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Hard News: What you lookin' at?, in reply to Russell Brown,
The People v OJ Simpson
Seconded
the exagerrated presence of the teeny Kardashian daughters
Which does actually serve to provide comic relief. There's a scene in the third episode where Robert Kardashian takes them all to a restaurant just as his new-found and unasked for fame is starting to kick in, and says: “We are Kardashians. And in this family, being a good person and a loyal friend is more important than being famous. Fame is fleeting. It means nothing without a virtuous heart.”
The pointedness, it was pointy. He might as well have been staring directly into the camera. I guffawed.
Plus one for 'Jessica Jones', too. Which retrospectively made us go back and watch 'Daredevil' (both shows on Netflix).
Continuing on the sci-fi/fantasy side of things, I've on-and-off been watching 'Arrow', but it hasn't comepletely captured my attention. I'm more interested in it's semi-spinoff 'The Flash', but (more interestingly from a wider industry perspective) I've been watching both of these, and a few other shows, via Amazon, where you can rent-buy access to a series either via individual episodes or the complete series as a package. No need for broadcast TV, cable subscription, or even a TV. I've got 'Agent Carter', 'Vikings', 'Black Sails', and 'The Man in the High Castle' all lined up waiting for me to find the time to watch them, along with 'Narcos', and 'Breaking Bad' spinoff 'Better Call Saul' on Netflix. Flicking through my 'you watched' library, I see 'The Blacklist', 'True Detective', 'Justified' and a few others. I've watched 'Game of Thrones', and 'The Walking Dead' in a similar manner, via legal digital box-set downloads. If I'm not sure about a series, or want to get an idea if it's small-child friendly before sitting down with my daughter, I'll head to Youtube and watch a few clips. If I don't have the time or inclination to watch 45 minutes of TV uninterrupted, I'll head to Youtube and spend 10-15 mins watching shorter vids, usually hobbyists or similar, just like Da Kidz, although in my case it's mostly medieval/napoleonic swords at the moment, rather than videogames.
I'm a middle-aged man, and the cutting edge is a long way away these days, but it's hard to escape the conclusion that broadcast TV is essentially dying, potentially kept afloat by 'Event' telly such as big sporting events. Here in the UK, our TV package was essentially bundled into our internet package as a secondary consideration. It's exceptionally rare that we'll actually be sitting down watching a live TV broadcast. Even if we are, it's generally something pre-recorded, which means we're forwarding through the ads at 60x normal speed (no revenue for you!)
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OnPoint: Yeah nah, but what *do* we…, in reply to BenWilson,
Some clothes look better than others and you probably want those
Blue overalls for the Outer Party, Black for the Inner Party.
Now all sir has to choose is: tapered waist or straight? collared or collarless? Belt loops or not? If belt loops are required, please specify numbers, width and thickness. Breast pocket? One or both sides? Open-topped or flap closure? Zipped, button or pop fasteners?
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Wizards of…, in reply to Russell Brown,
And you can help the petition for one of the new elements to be named Lemmium
Since the element in question is a heavy metal, and Lemmy consistently insisted that he just played rock 'n' roll, I'm refusing to sign on principle....
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Personal favourite:
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Seeing as how we've got a new (and very good) Star Wars film out, we should probably give the Star Wars Christmas album a whirl:
Or there's always the Megadeth Christmas album:
