Week 7: Public Media

Now quality is what I like for my TV programs. Now I am very biased in this view, I can admit it, but I really like the things that the ABC and SBS have to offer. Q&A and Insight are brilliant shows (and I know many people agree), all the period drama pieces and the remakes of classic literature are brilliant too. All I have to say is Pride and Prejudice (the BBC production obviously, not the movie). Also I was brought up on the Friday night murder shows that play on the ABC as its about the only time my mother watched TV. That was always a big thing in our family, sitting down with our nachos and watching the Friday night murders as a family.
And who is better than Margaret and David for movie reviews (except maybe Mark Fennell on Triple J which is still counted as public media and part of the ABC). And The Chasers and Hungry Beast, those shows are so great, especially for people of our generation. And what channel is best for news? SBS, of course!
When I lived on the Coast (the Sunshine one), one of the highlights of coming to Brisbane was going to the ABC shop in Queen St. That shop always has cool stuff.
One of the subjects that was brought up in the lecture was that some people view the ABC as elitist and boring, of limited interest, poorly presented and out of touch. Now I strongly disagree with most of these. As you may have been able to gather from this post and others, I clearly don't find the ABC boring, but that isn't to say that it can't be. There are many programs that are played that I wouldn't watch and if it is still playing the bowls then obviously that is one of the most boring things I have ever seen (yes I have watched it...). But most of the time it has really interesting programs and it doesn't have adds. That is one of the ABC's best qualities. I could possibly cry if it follows SBS and gets add breaks. I can see how people view it as elitist but in my opinion it has something for everyone. I don't think I have met many young people who have seen at least some of Chris Lilley's shows and there are shows like Q&A and it has inventing shows and things like Spicks and Specks and The Gruen Transfer. How can all this be out of touch? As for poorly presented, well, it looks fine to me.
Bias on TV is like a game of soccer or any sport really. Whatever the referee calls, there will always be one side that doesn't agree. The referee can hardly ever make anyone happy. Its just his or her job to call what he or she sees and try to keep it fair. I think many shows on the ABC and SBS are like this. One political party is always not going to be happy and say that the show is biassed, and if both sides keep saying or thinking this then the show is doing a good job (probably). Like on Q&A the other night, the religion debate, the crowd seemed to be mostly siding with the Cardinal but then most of the tweets were in favour of Dawkins.
If you don't have something like Austar then how are you possibly going to see the latest Premier League games and highlights? SBS of course (and you have to love the soccer. Messi is a god). And there ain't no one out there that knows soccer as well as Craig Foster and Les Murray.
Oh and the ABC plays Dr Who, therefore it beats every other channel.

LNP staffer quits after anti-feminist rant

I found this article (LNP staffer quits after anti-feminist rant) on the Brisbane Times website this morning and I could not believe what I was reading. Now, my political knowledge may be limited, but all I can say is that I knew I didn't like the coalition. If this is what the members of their party are like then Queensland is screwed. If the Federal election in the all too near future has the same results as the Queensland election, as it looks like it is going to, then I think I will have to get out of Australia, study abroad or something until the Australian public comes to their senses and sees that the Liberal National Party is not the way to go.
I cannot believe that this Max Tomlinson can possibly, in this day and age, view women like this, especailly seeing as we have a female Prime Minister at the moment. Such disrespect for women is ridiculous. I just couldn't believe it. LNP didn't have my vote before and they definitely don't have it now.

Kristen Bell and Ellen

If you haven't seen this video then I highly recommend it. It's HILARIOUS. And just for fun you should check out the autotuned version. Man does that song get stuck in your head.

SUGAR!

Sugar could be the single greatest thing ever to exist in the entire world. I'm just saying, it could be.
I mean it's in EVERYTHING. You can't avoid it, so why try? Just embrace it. There is natural sugar in fruits and vegetables and then there is sugar in bread and added sugar in awful white bread. Soft drinks and juices consist purely of sugar. Sugar in dried fruit, sugar in jams and spreads. Sugar in water these days and sugar in...LIFE. Chocolate and lollies turn sugar into a better consistency and better flavour. Caramel is the best and its burnt sugar. And then you have books like Roald Dahl's Charlie and Chocolate factory which is brilliant in your imagination and then you bring it out in two different films and its even better.
It might kill you in the end, it might cause obesity in our society and health problems but that is no reason to stop eating sugar just a reason to limit our sugar intake and if you are eating awful processed foods then this could be hard to do. Eat as naturally as possible with fresh fruit and veggies. Don't buy frozen or premade meals and you will be able to control the amount of sugar intake into your diet and it will also taste a million times better. 
You can't not eat sugar. Its almost impossible and let's face it, life would be so bland.
What would Easter be without chocolate? I mean really, that holiday is all about sugar these days. Jesus, you died on the cross to...allow us an entire day dedicated to eating chocolate. For that alone, you are a brilliant man.

As I Like It

A few weeks ago now I saw As You Like It by the La Boite Theatre Company at The Roundhouse. And it was brilliant. I haven't ever seen a Shakespearean comedy nor have I ever studied one but I was taken with this one.

The story is a quest for love by Rosalind (Helen Howard) who is the daughter of the banished Duke. She is also banished by the new Duke (Hayden Spencer). When she leaves she takes with her her cousin, Celia (Helen Cassidy) and the court's fool, Touchstone (Bryan Probets). In their desperation not to be persecuted, Rosalind disguises herself as a man and they venture into the Forest of Arden to find her father (Kate Wilson). Enter Orlando (Thomas Larkin). He is forced to flee the court after being rejected by his older brother, Oliver (Luke Caddin) and for challenging and defeating the Duke's wrestler (Thomas Carney). After the match and before Rosalind is banished, Rosalind and Orlando fall in love. They are reunited once again in the Forest of Arden but with Rosalind disguised as a man.

The cast was incredible. All actors worked reallly well together and each performance complimented the other and although all performances were superb, Bryan Probets stole the show as the fool, Touchstone. He has crazy manic energy that he brings to the character. At times he delivers his lines at a hundred miles an hour and almost never breaks rhythm. His comic timing is great and his use of the audience and the stage is spell-binding. Helen Howard was brilliant and was the definition of feminity as Rosalind. Her transformation into her disguise as a man is hilarious as she gets herself into all sorts of situations. And Thomas Larkin is not just good to look at but he is also a stunning performer. His character's mad determination to defeat his brother is almost completely forgotten by his love of Rosalindand Larkin handles the journey very well. I very much look forward to seeing Larkin in Romeo and Juliet later this year with the Queensland Theatre Company. One of the student interns, Alec Snow, was fantastic and his appearance as the God of Marriage at the end of the play is truely dazzling. Helen Cassidy also gave a fantastic performance as Celia.

Bryan Probets as Touchstone

The choreography of the wrestling match, by Justin Palazzo-Orr, was enthralling and really intense to watch. At some points the audience was nearly knocked out of their seats, literally. This raw testosterone fuelled scene showed off the physicality of the both Larkin and Carney.

Thomas Larkin (Orlando) and Thomas Carney (Charles)

Director, David Berthold, created a great but minimal set. It is dark, ominous and dull when in the castle and then, pulling on the Woodford Folk Festival for inspiration, made the set of the Forest of Arden a magical and mystical place. I swear they pumped up the air conditioning to make it colder when it was night (it may have been because I didn't have a cardigan or jacket but I don't think so) so that you were drawn to the fire that they lit in the middle of the set and into the characters that were settled around the fire. At no point was an actor awkwardly positioned so that he had his back to the audience beacuse the audience was all around and you were always in the thick of it. It was theatre like Shakespeare intended it. The actors broke through the parameters of the normal stage as they hid at the audiences feet, threw pieces of paper professing love for Rosalind across the seats and incite the crowd to participate.
Their use of song was very good too. One of the student interns had an amazing voice and the use of the live guitar also created that more intimate feel.

This is such an uplifting and warm production that has you in stitches. You can't help leaving feeling enlightened and dancing along to the music. And this gender-bending comedy reminds us that Love is a many gendered thing.

Week 5: Sound

The radio is a medium that I use mainly to listen to music. Occaisionly the odd program like Tripple J's Hack is great to listen to but I never seem to be listening to any type of talk back radio at all. I don't know if this is my generation or just how I have grown up but I really only use radio for music. I know there are stations out there that offer so much more but I don't take advantage of it. Nor have I ever been tempted to call up to talk or to request a song, even when Rosie Beaton was hosting Super Request. But this doesn't mean that I wouldn't listen to what other people have to say. It would really depend on the topic and on the person being interviewed. And I can't even listen to commercial radio as there are far too many adds and not enough music and then the music they play I can't stand listening to. Pop music is awful (unless it's Lady Gaga. for some reason I have a soft spot for her).
But, instead of going on a rant about how I don't enjoy commercial radio and their music (or on any more of a rant than I  have just gone on) I shall say that the two men, Richard Fidler and Steve Austin, that Carmel interviewed had very nice voices to listen to.

Week 6: Commercial Media

Commercial Media is awful.
I cannot stand watching any type of morning show and they are completely taking over the television. You used to be able to escape them on the weekends but now that is all that is on TV on a Saturday or a Sunday morning. You used to be able to turn the TV on to some ridiculously awful kids show (which although they are awful can be a lot of fun) as part of something like Saturday Disney but now it's just a bunch of fake people with a heap of make-up, talking to other people with a heap of make-up, smiling with their white teeth and botox at the camera and talking about a whole bunch of nothing. They fail to look like real human beings and their fake conversation does nothing to help, with their corny jokes and puns that they chuckle to themselves about. After talking about something for about a minute they decide that it's time to throw some really crap product at you and for the next half hour you have to watch some poor person promote the latest vacumm cleaner or facial product. It's awful.

And evening television is even worse. The shows like A Current Affair and Today Tonight. It's mind-numbingly boring to watch not to mention that you feel like you are losing brain cells watching it.And if that's not bad enough, the show is half advertising. SO after sitting through about 5-10mins of the most boring story about women who didn't think that breast implants would effect their children whilst breast feeding or a story about a new bra or a conspiracy to do with some idiot being scammed, then you have to sit through the add-break which is normally longer than the story itself. And all the adds have such annoying voices and sometimes you can even see that they have changed the voice of the person on the add as the dubbing is either really bad or you can just tell something is not right. Why do people suffer watching TV at all? If you aren't watching a morning show or a today tonight show then you are watching adds, or an awful reality TV show like Big Brother or Border Security or something about a vet, a life saver or an emergency room. Scripted television can sometimes be even worse. You either get repeats of some badly written drama or comedy (Friends excepted), normally always American or a series that has been running far too long and is now long past it's expiry date (Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives). I don't have pay TV but I have friends that do and it's exactly the same story. There is never anything decent on to watch and there are hundreds of channels (My friend is a huge fan of Jersy Shore which I believe is the worst show that has ever made it on to our screens and called entertainment. Why would you want to watch those people?).

And then all the good shows that are made; like Joss Whedon's Firefly, or Bryan Fuller's Pushing Daisies, are cancelled after one or two seasons because apparently good writing and great characters can't last in the commercial world (although Buffy the Vampire Slayer got a very decent run). It's so disappointing. Scripted shows barely get a chance in this world of reality TV. Unique shows are wiped off the face of the earth before they can ever reach their full potential and before people even get a chance to see how great they are. I do hope that shows like Community, and Game of Thrones survive this world where Bones gets a million seasons but not Firefly is cancelled before it gets a proper first season. Commercial media, what have you done to this world?