Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if the Talent Bible says “the first show must contain an amusing one-man band and an old lady who surprises everyone.”
I watched the last series of Britain's Got Talent (thanks, auntie!) and NZGT had a lot of stylistic similarities. Vignettes of performers getting ready for their big day, the nervous backstage chatter, Tamati's lol reactions to the performers - it was all classic BGT.
And it worked! I remember those talent shows in the '80s that always seemed very very serious. NZGT comes with a big dose of good-hearted humour. The 'bad' performers seem to relish the chance they've been given and there was no sign of X Factor-style strops.
I think the Got Talent formula is much better suited to New Zealand than NZ Idol ever was (or how a local version of X Factor would be). New Zealanders take music very very seriously and so a pop talent show is going to rub a lot of people up the wrong way. But variety performance? Hey, every one loves a show! It seems even the contestants who are singers will come across more as talented amateurs (a la Homai Te Pakipaki) rather than wannabes.
By the way, I think what the show needs is a judge who is a female comedian - someone with non-musical performance experience, and someone who is funny. And as a bonus, someone who knows that Pie Jesu is Latin.
But I'm generally loving it. As things are these days, the NZGT viewing experience is aided and abetted by the hilarious Twitter back channel. This is going to be a fun series!
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Hard News: We ... WHAT!?, in reply to Collin2012,
This is simply a case of a genuine error by the transcriber, it would be unwise and imprudent to read too much into it. It seems to be that the transcriber (who probably has little if any knowledge about NZ’s foreign/diplomatic policies) was trying to make sense out of something he couldn’t understand, was rushing the job or thought he had the correct transcription.
This is my instinct too. I'd say the transcriber would have a better than average knowledge of the policies of foreign governments, but in this case, she probably just transcribed what she genuinely thought she heard.
Transcribing in situations like this done on a tight deadline. Care is given but no one is going over it with a fine-tooth comb to make sure that everyone involved agrees that every sound made was precisely recorded. (Ever compared a Hansard record to an audio recording? It's not a word-for-word transcript.) However, as we have seen, mistakes can happen by they are easily amended.
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Hard News: We ... WHAT!?, in reply to Danielle,
Remember the first time you ordered water in a restaurant over there? And the second time? And the third? And every other time until you just put on an American accent to save yourself some trouble? :)
Yes! New Zealand's non-rhotic R can cause so much trouble in America. A holidaying friend with the surname Turner had to go to a lot of effort to make people realise it wasn't "Tuna".
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Hard News: We ... WHAT!?, in reply to Michael J. Parry,
...and we welcome the opportunities to cooperate further. In that context ...
I can understand 'correcting' "opportunities" to "opportunity" but what did the American transcriber think "further" was and why did they leave it out? It's very clear!
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The correspondence of Alice reminds me of a lady who used to send faxes to a television programme I worked on. (About once a year she'd ring up to get the fax number, which always prompted a "Do we have a fax machine?" panic.) The lady always wanted to appear on the TV show to talk about her theories which involved Barack Obama, Winston Peters, Bill Gates, Work & Income, her local DHB and Oprah and she'd fax in long hand-written explanations of her theories. The faxes always ended up in the recycle bin, but I always found something really lovely in her writing, and it's the same sort of spirit that Alice put into her letters. They're quite serious, intended for a serious audience, so it's fitting that they should be taken seriously.
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I have a soft spot for "Destiny in Motion" because it was a track on the very first recorded music I bought - a compilation cassette tape called "The Hit Zone", circa 1985. Back then (I was 10) they seemed cool. But with all this hooha, over the name, they seem most uncool.
I wonder what's so special about the Satellite Spies brand that both guys want it, yet neither seem to be doing much with it. It's not like it's 2004 and they can embark on a "I Heart the '80s" tour along with Peking Man and the Narcs, raking in the nostalgia cash. There's no beloved album they can reissue and tour in track-by-track order. All the cyber bickering seems a terrible lot of fuss just to be able to say, "The Satellite Spies? Yeah, that's my band." Ugh. Shut up and make some music.
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Field Theory: In closing, in reply to Samuel Scott,
The highlight for me was probably Take That. And I don’t really like Take That. They are tolerable.
Gary Barlow, who this week has been privately dealing with a family tragedy, was incredible. That performance almost made up for all the previous quibbles.
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Field Theory: In closing, in reply to Russell Brown,
I really thought it was a production shambles, programmed by someone who just had no feel for music.
The most cringy moment for me was the use of Bowie's "Fashion" during the fashion section. Ugh. Because for the last 30 years, that song has been the uninspired soundtrack for fashion montages all over the telly. The closing ceremony didn't do anything new or amazing with it. It was as inspired as typing "fashion" into iTunes.
But the Spice Girls were fabulous. They performed the right songs, they gave an enthusiastic performance, and even Posh looked like she was enjoying herself.
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OMG, this is fabulous. I've already fallen in love with the old tourism posters, courtesy of the large collection digitised at Digital NZ. But this takes it to a whole nother level, y'all. I'm saving my pennies for this one.
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Brilliant photos! It makes me want to explore the area at night and during the day.