TV and Radio
Oh no! Mr. E has lost his blanket!
Squander Two recommended that I check out the BBC programme In The Night Garden, which is aimed at young babies. And he’s right, it’s brilliant - but something about it has been nagging me for a while, and I’ve only just realised what it is.
The main theme tune sounds like Eels. Not “a bit like Eels”; I mean “every time I hear it I’m expecting E to start singing about death and cancer and stuff”.
You can hear the theme here (link goes to a YouTube parody, which is basically the theme with some added drums) and a very similar Eels track here (Windows Media format).
Books’n'telly’n'tunes
More odds and sods:
Charlie Brooker has a new book out, called Dawn of the Dumb. It includes the column Face at the Window, which may be the funniest thing I’ve ever read. I’m not exaggerating.
The BBC4 documentary Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives is a little gem. It follows E from Eels as he tries to find out more about his late father, a physics genius. I cried like a baby. If it’s repeated or turns up on a torrent it’s well worth your time.
Things you don’t hear very often these days, but should: I bought a Gerry Rafferty best-of today, and it’s brilliant.
Things you do hear too often these days, but shouldn’t: Christmas songs in pubs. I wouldn’t mind - well, I wouldn’t mind as much - if 99% of Christmas music wasn’t so bloody awful.
The Onion: even better than the real thing?
While other newspapers desperately add gardening sections, ask readers to share their favorite bratwurst recipes, or throw their staffers to ravenous packs of bloggers for online question-and-answer sessions, The Onion has focused on reporting the news. The fake news, sure, but still the news. It doesn’t ask readers to post their comments at the end of stories, allow them to rate stories on a scale of one to five, or encourage citizen-satire. It makes no effort to convince readers that it really does understand their needs and exists only to serve them. The Onion’s journalists concentrate on writing stories and then getting them out there in a variety of formats, and this relatively old-fashioned approach to newspapering has been tremendously successful.
An interesting Reason magazine article via MetaFilter, where MeFite Tiresias isn’t impressed by interactive journalism:
A part of the problem, for me, has been the newsmedia’s endless parade of “What Do You Think?”s — the slew of worthless interactive content, the endless ratings, and, dear God, the comments, the comments on fucking everything…. they just turn even the most serious subjects into mere entertainment for a certain kind of person who may not know too much about a subject, but now has the ability to argue passionately about it.
Which is a pretty good description of some interactive sites, particularly those newspapers whose comments sections are usually populated by idiots, bigots and bores. *cough*Evening Times!*cough*
In the current issue of NUJ house magazine The Journalist, Victor Noir writes about viewer interaction:
I gather from a BBC source that half the images they get are of people’s cats…
Cats.
Another who worked at a BBC regional studio says that viewers were asked to send in pictures illustrating the weather. What did they get? Snaps of bedraggled-looking moggies in the rain.
It’s the future of news!
It wouldn’t be so bad if the desire for interactivity at all costs didn’t infect pretty much everything. A good example of what I mean is last week’s Location Location Location: Best and Worst Live programme (hey, I’m waiting for baby Bigmouth to come along, I’m bored…). It’s a fairly lightweight bit of TV - various stats (crime, average salaries, percentage on sickness benefit, that sort of thing) compiled into a league table of the best and worst places to live in the UK. And it was interactive, so when a particular place was mentioned, the viewers were exhorted to get in touch and have their say. And they said one of two things:
MY TOWN DOESN’T SUCK YOU SUCK
Or:
MY TOWN SUCKS
Which meant a 20-minute programme lasted for three and a half days (although to be fair, some of that was phone-in-scandal-induced panic of the “If you’re watching this on video and you’re too stupid to realise that this is no longer live, don’t call! Don’t text! PLEASE, IN THE NAME OF GOD DON’T GET IN TOUCH!” variety, which amused me immensely.)
Tiresias again:
There’s nothing really wrong with it, you know, it’s just shooting the shit and we all do it, but now it’s not really just shooting the shit. It’s being published and legimitized, and this middle of the road, well-meaning but ill-informed drivel is pretty much setting the tone of the debate.
Biffovision: a review
Jonathan Deamer’s reviewed the pilot of Biffovision, a warped parody of kids’ TV from the mind of Mr Biffo.
I watched it in the wee small hours after one beer too many, which I suspect is the perfect viewing environment…
In the belly of the Beeb
I did my usual radio babble on BBC Scotland this morning, but for the first time I went to the Beeb’s spanking new headquarters in Govan. It really is an amazing building, although it’s very easy to give yourself a severe attack of vertigo once you’re up a few floors.
I’ve asked if it’s OK for me to take my camera next time, and I’ve been told yes. So in the unlikely event that I actually remember to take it with me next time, I’ll bash off a few pics.
Dr Ben boots old boot-face
Ben Goldacre’s gone after Zelda from Terrahawks Gillian McKeith again, and this time it’s serious: ASA verdicts that she can’t call herself a doctor, selling products in defiance of the law, that sort of thing. So naturally he does what any right-minded person would do: he sticks the boot in. Heh.
New Mac ads with Mitchell & Webb
Apple’s latest “get a Mac” ads feature Mitchell and Webb. Maybe it’s a sign of my increasing fogeyism that I identify more with Mitchell.
On a related note, I’ll be on BBC Radio Scotland’s MacAulay and Co this morning (at about 9.45, ish) to settle the PC versus Mac argument through the medium of dance. The last part of that sentence is a lie.
The sweet smell of hypocrisy
This is the cover of this week’s Now magazine:
It’s pretty appalling, but the worst bit is the editor’s letter. As it explains, Now employed Jade Goody as a columnist until November of last year, and her contract is well and truly terminated. The implication is that Now has sacked her because of her Big Brother performance, presumably by using a time machine, and the ed’s letter basically says “we employed her but we didn’t realise that she’s more evil than Hitler. Burn the witch!”
There’s a sad irony here: Now’s appalled at what it sees as Goody’s bullying behaviour, so it’s decided to, er, bully her. Given that Jade isn’t the sharpest tool in the box and is hardly the most secure person in the world, this kind of vilification might have a very unhappy ending.
Celebrity Big Brother: the final word
“Big Brother is not racist, says BNP”.
Does it hurt when you Wii?
Best blog headline ever? I think so.
Anyway - BBC Radio Scotland’s MacAulay & Co show is doing a piece on Monday about Wiinjuries, so if you’ve smacked yourself silly while playing Wii Sports then I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.