city of sails

two reports on the city have been released this week
the first states that aucklanders work harder than the rest of the country and pay more. this has caused some discussion

http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/your-views/2009/1/30/do-aucklanders-work-harder-other-new-zealanders/?c_id=1501154&objectid=10554276

the second notes that aucklanders are lonlier than the rest of the country due to the lack of community spirit in the city. i wanted to discuss this with someone, but i don't know my neighbours

silly season is over

all the regulars are back on radio and the movie every night on tv have been replaced by new or returning series.
parliament starts back next week or so, although they have been slagging each other off for the last fortnight
i guess the summer break is over.
of course i've been back at work for the last three weeks

happy anniversary

it was a year on friday since i started dialysiis

to celebrate, last night i got cramps and low blood pressure

i'm spending today in front of the tv with volume way down

1409 is on sky. good thing i got all my cleaning done yesterday

credit where credit is due

an excert from san interview with david attenborough was featured in yesterday's herald:

Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he gets hate mail from viewers for not crediting God in his documentaries. The veteran broadcaster said that he has received letters telling him to burn in hell because of his views on evolution. He told Radio Times that he is often asked why he does not credit God when talking about some of the creatures featured on his shows: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds...(Source: The Telegraph)

so god should be credited in nature programmes for the beauties of life.

as i enter the second hour of dialysis for the evening, i wonder whether we can also petition him for compensation over shoddy workmanship

not so perfect

as i mentioned earlier, i picked up a copy of the the's soul mining over the weekend
i'd listened to it three times before i realised that it was song short
i'm sure that on the original vinyl there was a re-mixed version of the single, "perfect"
i feel ripped off

sounds kitteny

the latest press release from PETA has been getting some mockery from the news discussions here:

http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/about.asp

"People don't seem to like fish. They're slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads—which is weird, to say the least. Plus, the small ones nibble at your feet when you're swimming, and the big ones—well, the big ones will bite your face if Jaws is anything to go by.

Of course, if you look at it another way, what all this really means is that fish need to fire their PR guy—stat. Whoever was in charge of creating a positive image for fish needs to go right back to working on the Britney Spears account and leave our scaly little friends alone. You've done enough damage, buddy. We've got it from here. And we're going to start by retiring the old name for good. When your name can also be used as a verb that means driving a hook through your head, it's time for a serious image makeover. And who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?"

you can see where the mockery comes in.

change the name and you're still left with a fish.

still the idea of giving something unpleasant a nice name to improve iys image has an appeal:

"israel says that it will take action if hamas continues to fire kittens over its borders"

"kitten epidemic worsening in zimbabwee"

"climate change caused by global kittens"

"george w kitten"

gotta go, i'm having sea kittens and chips for dinner

WASP swatted

i note the death of john updike.
can't say i was a fan.
the herald report notes that he wrote "the witches of eastwick" and some other stuff (quality of nz reporting, huh?)
wikipedia is a little more forthcoming.

i quite liked the movie of witches, so i thought i'd give the book a try. i read the first couple of chapters and then put it down, meaning to go back to it, but i never did.
i may still have it around somewhere, i might dig it out and give it another try
you known what they say, as long as an authour is still being read, he's never really dead

didn't get the memo

was putting up bookshelves yesterday and had the radio on in the background. as the job took longer than i thought, the morning infotainment show morphed into the midday business programme
there was the usual "people aren't panicing enough' from a business commentator (mass redundancies haven't really hit nz yet) and reports on john key's urging for politicians, public servants and wage earners to forgo pay rises during the crisis.
this segment was then followed by how some people haven't noticed that things have changed.
as you may know, the american investment firm merril lynch was close to bankruptcy last year until it was bought by the bank of america
the former head of merril lynch became the number 2 at BOA.
so the guy who, at least in part, was responsible for the destruction of his firm must SURELY have learnt his lesson and is doing his bit to improve the economy

well, no. apparently, in order to stamp his personality at his new job, he needed to refurbish his office. the cost upward of a million dollars.
he then told his new boss that before ML folded, he had authorised bonuses for the staff that totalled a billon or so and these needed to be paid. of, and talking of bonuses, it was time for his and he thought that ten million or so would be a fair price for his actions over the previous year.
he is now unemployed

bitter? me?
well at a time when the workers are being asked to cut down, or even cut back to avoid unemployment, while at the same time, their tax money is being used to bail out the likes of the dumbarse executive, i do get a trifle miffed that those at the very top don't seem to believe that the financial crisis should impact on their lifestyles.

another few stories like this and it really will be pitchforks and torches time

danger will robinson

the second death is that of bob may.
he is best known as the person inside the robot in the original lost in space
i remember liking that show, but i've repressed the memory of the movie

the robot originally appeared in forbidden planet, but became one of the most popular characters of lost in space
when i was younger i accepted without question that it was real robot. when i got older and was reading sci-fi geek magazines, i read an interview with bob may who talked about his time of the show, and a little bit of magic died

carried off

two deaths this week
the first is jack douglas, best known as a regular in the carry on films, often playing sid james' gormless sidekick

a couple of years ago, tv3 screened a different carry on each day during the christmas break. i'm not a huge fan, but having a fondness for british comedy, i tuned in when i wasn't doing anything else
they were, i guess, a kind of filmed seaside postcard, mild smut, double entendres and so on

the best of them were parodies of other films (carry on cleo, carry on henry) and so on
its odd but as films became more permissive, the team kept on with the same old format and so looked tired and out of date. the one time where they tried to matchn the "confessions" series was the worst carry on i'd seen-carry on emmanuelle.

my fellow dead list collector robbie and i tried to work out how many carry on regulars are left.
barbara windsor is currently on eastenders, apparently jim dale does the audio book versions of harry potter-after that we got into an arguement over who as a regular.

aarrgghhhhh!

finally found a copy of the the's "soul mining" on cd yesterday and bought it
then tried to open it so i could play it.
it had three (count them) THREE layers of plastic around the jewl case and a piece of cellotape keeping it closed. several minutes of knife work later, i was able to break into it

then i needed some panadol so i tried to open a new packet
the milk has a new sealed lid under the old type
so does coffee (given that i can only drink one, small cup per day, i look forward to it)

why do we need to take locksmiths course to live in the 21st century?

ps soul mining-still a good album. sample track on blip fm

thank god for the daily show

after all the gushing over obama's inauguration, it was good to see that the daily show back to its old tricks
there was a fear that with obama in the white house, satire would die
not in this case, however. stewart and co have the will to look at the things they believe in with the same scrutiny that they used on the old administration

it may be a cliche, but i get a lot of my american news from the daily show

and if i miss an episode?

check it out on www.thedailyshow.com

hype for the future

i woke up this morning just as barack obama was being sworn in as president of the us
no matter what radio station i tuned to, i couldn't avoid it
while history was being made, i was taking a shower and getting ready for work
now, don't get me wrong, were i an amrican citizen i would have voted for him, but just listening to orgasmic euphoria that has infected the media today
never mind journalistic objectivity, whatever happened to straight reportage of the facts?

still i feel sorry for obama. you would think that after 8 years of bush, he wouldn't have to do much to be a success. however, expectations have been raised so high, i wonder if anyone could meet them.

good luck to him

ice age 2

i liked the first ice age, laregly, i think because it caught me when i was in the mood to enjoy it
so when the sequel screened last night, i sat down hoping that it woud be closer to godfather 2 rather than sister act 2
sadly no
it failed to grip.
ok, it wasn't all bad. the visuals were impressive (and would have looked even better on the big screen)
but the best bits were skrit and his endless search for acorns. nicely timed and strongly reminiscent of those warner brothers cartoons (road runner et al).
but apart from that, i just wasn't into it
and is it me, or does queen latifah's voice really grate
still, it was better than shark tales

one less drug

got the results of my monthly bloods on saturday
i am no longer anemic, my haemoglobin having risen to 130 something
this means that i no longer have to inject myself with recormen
am still on fluid restrictions, though

Adourned sine die

A bad week.

The third death I noted was that of John Mortimor, creator of Rumpole of the Bailey.

Rumpole had a huge impact. Apparently at the height of the show's popularity, there were a number of lawyers emulating him-drinking at wine bars and reciting poetry.

I first heard the show before I saw it-there was a radio version starring Maurice Denham. the I got the books and finally saw the TV Shows

They are now slowly being released on DVDs and still hold up well.

Mortimor was still publishing-Rumpole and the Reign of Terror came out last year and believe that there is another one that's just come out. time for another trip to the bookshop.

He also wrote other things. I quite enjoyed Dunster and Paradise Postponed, although his book of interviews were oddly unsatisfying being as much about Mortimer as they were about his subjects.

Still, RIP Mr Mortimer

Number One

What with Patrick McGoohan's death this week, here is my view of the meaning of The Prisoner.


One of the most common questions McGoohan was asked was whether number six was John Drake, the hero if his previous show Danger Man (aka Secret Agent). He always denied this, but it was assumed that he had to as if Number Six was Drake, McGoohan would have to pay royalties to the earlier show's creators. However, I think that McGoohan was telling the truth.
The Prisoner was Patrick McGoohan himself.

In 1967, Patrick McGoohan was one of the most well known people on television in Britan. Danger man was one of the most popular shows at the time, even competing well with other shows in the same genre-the Avenegers, the saint, Man from Uncle and so.

Goohan was also getting film roles, but most of them were along the same lines as John Drake. He famously turned down an offer to be James Bond in Dr No and had also turned down being the Saint.

Sir Lew Grade, who owned the network that made danger man was happy with his show. It had started off as a half hour black and white show. Grade had arranged for it to be filmed in colour and to extend the running time to an hour. McGoohan, however, having already done 54 episodes was less enthused and offered Sir Lew an alternative.

He wanted a show that would provoke debates, discussions, arguments and, afetr a promise to make it audience friendly as well he got it.

And so, The Prisoner was made. Under the guise of another secret agent show, McGoohan as star, writer, director and executive producer was able to depict his views on individuality, freedom, democracy and anything else that struck him.

And on a meta level, McGoohan was also looking at television and fame.
The opening titles show number six resigning-just as McGoohan had effectively resigned from Danger Man. (Note that the person he resigns to in the credits is George Markstein-script editor pisof danger man and the prisoner (for the first seven episodes, anyway)).
The question the Villages authority keep asking him is "Why did you resign?" Or, why would anyone leave a successful show. McGoohan/number six wanted to do something differently, but he's put in a concept that is similar to one that he is was in before.

Number six tries to escape, but also tries to fool the authorities as to what he is really up to.
McGohhan is trying to escape his previous role, but also tries to fool the audience by presenting something different from the same old stuff.

This is way in "Fall Out" hen he finally confronts Number One, he sees himself. I beleive that Number one is actually "John Drake", the role that he was most identified as and the one that was effectively keeping him prisoner.

At the end of the show, number six escapes-or does he. He drops the butler off at his London flat, but the door opens automatically as it does in the village. The final shot of the show mirrors the opening shot implying that everything is going to start again. McGooham has freed himself from John Drake, but is now a prisoner of The Prisoner. Number six is the new number one. And given that its now 42 years since the show was made, and we're still talking about it, you'd have to say that this was awfully prescient.

Other hints that McGoohan himself was the prisoner?

• number six has McGoohan's birthday ("Arrival")
• photos used of number six are MCGoohan's offical publicity shots from Danger man ("Arrival", "Free for all")
• "The Girl who was death" was a rewritten Danger man script. It included a semi-regular character from the earlier show-Potter-played by the same actor Christopher Benjamin)

Most notably, I dug out my DVDs of the show to rewatch (since its unlikley that any TV station is going to) and noted, on the preview to each episode is the legend "PATRICK McGOOHAN IS THE PRISONER"

Well quite

Be seeing you

Also dead this week was Patrick McGoohan
Obviously, he will be best remebered for The Prisoner. I got the DVDs a couple of years ago-it is still a really good series.

This wasn't all he did, though. Most of the coverage of the death has mentioned Braveheart, which he was good in.

One that is missed however, was a film he made for Disney. The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh aka Dr Syn. I don't remeber much about it except that it was set in England and had McGoohan as a priest(?) by day and a highwayman with a sack over his head at night.

I'll have to try and find it.

Dead List

it's a tragedy when people die and there have been a lot of them this week
here is an opportunity to pay tribute to the famous who have gone.

The first one this week was Ricarado Motalban.
I don't remember ever watching Fantasy Island, although the small guy in the white suit yelling "the plane, the plane" is a cultural symbol of my time

i do remeber him from star trek-the wrath of khan (and from the original star trek episode "space seed"

hello

I have a lot of time on my hands.
I'm on dialysis, you see-four hours three times a week chained to a macine.
So I bought a laptop with a wireless modem and i've been lurking for the last few months

the title of the blog is because at the moment, my life is work-commute-dialysis. it is draining, literally and on the days i don't do dialysis i just blob out in front of the tv or with a book.

so, i was thinking i would just jot down my thoughts on what i've been watching, or reading, or listening to, or any news that happened to attract my attention.

comments are welcome