Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Muse: Linky Love, in reply to Matthew Littlewood,
I guess my biggest problem with Skins is that I'm obviously more than two decades outside the target demographic (and at least twenty years older than most of the writers and cast). But if you really want to get right down to it, is there more filth and moral degeneracy in a series of Skins or six months worth of Corrie and East Enders?
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1) When I chose the name of this blog,if I was “ripping off” anything, it was a well-thumbed copy of Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths and an entirely misbegotten university career as a classics major, not Public Address’ last culture blogger. (My taste for rather lame puns also reared its head.)
2) When asked to pick a colour for the masthead, I went for my favourite colour – Blue. Read into that what you will, but trying to pull a Ihimaera is the least interesting (and plausible) interpretation.
I hope that clears up a few things for the two people who care.
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Muse: Linky Love, in reply to Sacha,
I just wish the yanks would get over their need to remake the rest of the world's culture so everyone speaks with their accent - provincial hicks.
Delicious irony is that the biggest bitch I've seen about Being Human, Skins and the William H Macy-headlined version of Shameless (pilot written by Paul Abbot), is that they're too respectful of their parents...
Extra irony points: As the flagship of the venerable Law and Order franchise is cancelled (and the latest spin off is shedding cast and crew like a leper with his fingers caught in a blender), Law and Order: UK seems to be the only part of the family looking healthy.
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I feel a pitch for a reality mockumentary coming on: When Sexed Up Non-Stories Go Bad. A bit clunky, but someone else has dibs on Almighty Johnsons.
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Muse: Linky Love, in reply to artig,
I suspect my relationship with the e-reader is going to be cellphones all over again -- late, reluctant and deeply ambiguous. I don't want to be a tiresome luddite about it: They work for plenty of people, and anything that encourages reading is good with me. But I still love books as objects, and the serendipitous discoveries and happy accidents that come from browsing through a meatspace bookshop or library can't be replicated on-line.
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Hard News: Only what we would expect a…, in reply to Pdogge,
and slightly OT do I perceive, it being election year, the Herald moving into it’s traditional beefed up anti Labour whacking mode ?
Nah, if anything Goff and Cunliffe should be profoundly grateful that Idiot Savant’s fact-based, intellectually honest fisking of how Labour’s intends to pay for its tax policy is exceedingly unlikely to be repeated in the mainstream media.
Personally, I’m a little more concerned about the void between Goff’s ears than what he puts on his hair.
Now, does anyone know if Joan Didion is looking for work? The Election Year of Magical Thinking would be a wonderful read.
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Legal Beagle: Coalition of Losers, in reply to Dismal Soyanz,
I was in Oz when there was a threat of a double dissolution. Wish I had taken more interest in the why’s and wherefore’s at the time but from memory it didn’t strike me as being a terribly good way to run government
Which is a nice segue back onto one of my hobby horses, fixing the election date. Muldoon's infamous game of chicken in 1984 (or Clark's own strained justification for a snap election in 2002) doesn't strike me as very sound either.
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Given Simon Dallow and John Campbell's comments, here's a question:
Has The Herald learned nothing from the grovelling apology the Herald on Sunday had to give Sharon Shipton? (Not least the tacit admission quotes attributed to her were false.)
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<i>From what I’ve seen, McCafe is consciously modelled on the same setup that works in your typical suburban cafe, rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel the way Starbucks did.</i>
Indeed - last time David and I were tootling around in Oz, the McCafes we patronised scored a solid B. The coffee and food was respectable, and on one occasion wheremy order was farked it was done without attitude.Sometimes, good enough -- doing the basics well -- is just that.
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Please don’t underestimate the importance of a really good director. Actors, even really, really good ones, who have been given no direction, or, as I suspect happens often, have no faith/trust in the director, will give their best, but it will not be a patch on what a good director can get them, by virtue of their being able to trust her/him, to take risks and be bloody marvellous as a result.
Up to a point – on my DVD of Alien, Sigourney Weaver made a rather interesting observation about what was her first big film. She wasn’t the only actor who felt, shall we say, rather neglected by Ridley Scott who, to put it mildly, didn’t have the time or temperament to feed actors their motivation. But his response to her having a bitch was fascinating (and I’m paraphrasing): “What can I tell you about acting? I’ve hired you because you know what you’re doing. I’ll rein you in if you’re too far off what I need, but I trust you.” (Or as Stanley Kubrick reportedly once told an actor - "I can't tell you what I want, but that wasn't it.") Of course, there’s many actors who can’t bear that but others do.
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