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| The decline of movies & the rise of TV shows |
| Thursday, September 28, 2006 |
I was scanning the Internet Movie Database, looking at the upcoming new movies and DVD releases when I realised that there was nothing there that interested me. This is becoming more and more typical. I am increasingly finding that I like more television programmes than I do movies.
It seems that all movie producers want to make are mindless violence movies and stupid romantic comedies. The actors and actresses in these movies are also mindless morons with no talent whatsoever. Lindsay Lohan is a case in point. Tom Cruise is rapidly becoming Asshole Number One on the male side.
I can count on one hand how many times I have been to the cinema this year and I can truly say that I didn't really enjoy any of the movies I went to see. At the time, it seemed a reasonable way to pass the time with friends but looking back, I can't help but think "why the hell did I go to see that?". One real stinker was the remake of the "Posieden Adventure" starring Kurt Russell. I went on a Sunday morning to see that and I remember sitting there wondering what possessed me to give up my Sunday morning lie-in to watch that mindless dross.
What would really excite me would be something of the calibre of Lord of the Rings. In other words, a movie with a real story behind it and good actors playing the part. Eragon is coming in probably December or the New Year and I am looking forward to that. I just hope that the movie version doesn't totally destroy the book. I also heard that a movie of Tolkien's "The Hobbit" is in the works. No idea if it is Peter Jackson again who's doing this one but I would love to watch "The Hobbit" on the big screen.
As I wrote in one of my earlier posts, I have a lot of favourite TV shows which are much better than the dross that the movie studios are churning out by the ten dozen. One advantage of TV shows is that a season is normally spread out over an average of 20 episodes and so the writers have lots of time and opportunities to flesh out the character development and plot development. The quality of the dialogue also seems to be better in TV shows ("The West Wing" is a case in point and a more up-to-date example is Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip").
TV shows are a godsend for writers like myself. Everything I watch sparks new ideas for writing. I wish the same could be said for movies.
Labels: movies, Sorkin, television, Tolkien |
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| Wednesday, September 20, 2006 |
Although I whole-heartedly agree with the aims of Yahoo Answers, I am starting to think that it is the central meeting place for all the idiots of the world. Plus although I am NOT anti-American, all these stupid questions come from Americans!Just take some of the questions that have been posed on the site :1. if we exterminated all the muslims in the US, would that solve the terrorist problem?
2. There's this Albanian guy called Benito Hitler who occupies Northern Italy. He sounds like a really bad dude. Why is no-one talking about him?
3. What happens when you kill someone by accident? (sounds like he is after some free legal advice there!)
4. How do people in other countries give birth? Is it the same as the US? (this one had me in stitches).
5. Are the Royal Family allowed to be gay?
It makes you wonder if these people are just making up these questions for fun or if they really ARE that stupid. But one question horrified me and got me so mad. The question was "my baby can't stop crying. Should I beat him with a belt?". I was so furious that I wrote a really vitriolic response but the person flagged the answer as "offensive" and Yahoo removed my answer.
Offensive? Not as offended as I am that you would even ask a question like the one you did, you brutal bastard.
Labels: reference, yahoo |
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| The return of the shows |
| Wednesday, September 13, 2006 |
Television is starting to heat up again in September with the return of many popular shows.Most popular shows take a summer break which normally goes from May until September. So during the summer, I really go through a "summer of discontent" (as the great Shakespeare once put it). During the summer, I normally catch up on old series that I didn't have a lot of time to watch before. This summer, I watched the rest of Star Trek : Deep Space Nine and re-watched some West Wing.
 Wednesdays perked up a bit a couple of weeks back with the return of Bones. I am normally quite a squeamish person but Bones is more about the skeletal remains of a person, therefore I can handle that! Emily Deschanel is a babe, even though she always seems to be having a bad hair day, and of course for the girls we have David Boreanaz. So something for everyone.
Although I am quickly getting pissed off with the storyline in this season. A new boss has come in, full of attitude and throwing her weight around and Brennan (Deschanel) is getting all huffy and uppity. I wish the writers would just forget the female hysterics and just get on with the forensics side of the story which is why I watch it in the first place. The last thing we need to watch is two females trying to get one up on each other.
 Wednesdays are now getting even better with the start of an interesting new legal series called Justice. OK, the title is not original nor the storyline (hard-charging legal firm gets aggressive in defending high-profile clients) and on its own, it would probably flop. What doesn't make it flop is the presence of the wonderful Victor Garber who many people know as Agent Jack Bristow in the hit series (but now finished) Alias. Garber is a larger-than-life figure and when he gets started, you know he's going to shake things up. He has the ability to have this look on his face that makes him look a little mad and he ALWAYS livens the place up. It's early days yet with this series but it is looking promising so far.
In the next couple of weeks, my other favourite shows are going to start - Without a Trace, Cold Case, Criminal Minds and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Then in October, Lost returns. Yay.
Labels: television |
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| Dilbert gets it right again |
| Sunday, September 10, 2006 |
Labels: dilbert, humor |
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| And some stamps too.... |
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Fresh from Bulgaria also are some stamps.....
 Labels: bulgaria, stamps |
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| Coin collection additions |
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 I made a small but significant addition to my coin collection at the end of last week. I managed to get a hold of three San Marino coins - the 1 cent, 2 cent and 5 cent pieces. The San Marino coins are not that difficult to get anymore (thanks to coin dealers on eBay) but they cost a great deal of money, more than your standard Euro money. San Marino belongs to a small group of Euro nations that virtually requires a bank loan to buy their currencies. The other "expensive nations" as I call them are Monaco and the Vatican. The collectors prices for these coins go through the roof and these countries seem to deliberately inflate the value of their Euro coins by keeping them in scarce supply and using other countries' Euros instead. For example, the Vatican uses Italian Euro money and distributes their Euros sparingly. In fact, one friend who went to the Vatican a few years back saw a sign on a door leading into the Vatican which said "no Vatican Euro coins here". And then with the 2005 death of Pope John Paul II, you now have the Pope Benedict XVI coins. This has meant that the John Paul II coins have increased even MORE in value. The more they increase in value, the more they slip away from my grasp. I am not a rich person to be spending a fortune on desirable coins. I need to work within my budget.
 Today, my girlfriend's parents returned from Bulgaria and they had some left-over coins for my collection. No paper money unfortunately but the coins are quite interesting. I've noticed that a lot of the European countries not in the EU or EU countries about to enter the Euro have altered their currency to look like a Euro coin. For example, the Turkish coin looks exactly like a 1 Euro coin, with its gold rimmed edge and silver middle. This is becoming quite a problem here in Europe with people using Turkish coins to fool slot machines and inattentive cashiers. The Turkish coins are worth a fraction of the Euro coins so by accepting them, people are losing money.
The coin just above is one of the Bulgarian coins - it's worth about 50 Euro cents here in Germany. So not much.
Labels: bulgaria, coins, euro, san-marino, turkey, vatican |
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| Notes from my brain |
| Thursday, September 07, 2006 |
I've basically been limping along this week with no clear purpose in mind and not much has been done. The epilepsy has calmed down for the moment but the depression has come back for a repeat visit. Whenever someone asks me what it is like to have depression, I tell them to imagine their most hated relative coming to visit uninvited. They come into your house, take over the whole place, start criticising you, they start to take charge of every aspect of your life....then when they are becoming truly obnoxious, you start to wonder when they're leaving but you haven't got the guts to ask. Then suddenly one morning they're gone and you have peace and solitude again. A few days later, they return and it all starts again....
For me, the "relative" is the depression.
But I can be thankful that I can still work to a certain degree. I got some new writing assignments this week and I managed to get them done and sent back fairly quickly and the pay wasn't bad either for the time I put into the work. Even in the worst of the depression, the writing skills don't seem to leave. In fact, the writing skills become more honed and clearly defined. My fingers move faster across the keys and thoughts race through my head. I can sometimes say that a depressive episode is one of my most creative moments. The bad part is finding the energy to stop hiding under the bedcovers and do some work. But that area is slowly improving too these days. I am finding it a little easier to motivate myself.
I was reading a book about depression, The Lost Soul Companion, in which it said that a lot of creative people suffered from depression and it speculated that the reason for the depression was that the person had a creative bent to their personality and it is the creative DNA makeup of the person that somehow triggers depression. Perhaps it is the numerous rejections that creative people get (I can relate to that), or society looking down their noses at the person's "alternative lifestyle" or family harassing them to "get a proper job". Or perhaps the depression person feels that their creative talents are not properly recognised and appreciated by the rest of the world? I don't know if all of that is 100% true but you have to admit that an inordinately high number of writers, poets, artists, playwrights, etc, have suffered from depression. Just look at Vincent Van Gogh - all that talent, all that work that he did (which I love looking at) and in the end, he shot himself. Or if you want a more modern-day example, take Sylvia Plath or Virginia Woolf. All committed suicide and passed before their time on earth was properly up. Reason : depression.
Now that's not to say that ALL depressed people are suicidal - I'm not. I just have my shitty days and I get through them by closing down the hatches and escaping to bed with a few good books and the TV remote control. Then on my good days, I work at full speed and get through my work backlog. That's all I can do. Medication is spotty at best and the doctors have basically told me this is the best it's going to get. But some depressed people can't cope at all and in the end it all gets too much for them so they go searching for a release or a way out. I thank my blessings that I am not at that extreme stage of things. At least I can still function properly, work and be productive.
German people here seem to be fascinated by the current saga about Tony Blair - the "will he resign or won't he?" fiasco. I've had German friends quiz me relentlessly on the ins and outs and who the possible contenders will be and why Blair has to resign anyway and so on. In the almost 6 years I have lived in Würzburg, this is the most interest I have seen in British politics from a German. Today I had a shopkeeper quiz me on it while I was buying a baguette. And to answer the one question every German has asked me - NO, I don't want Gordon Brown to be the new Prime Minister. Yes, he's Scottish but that doesn't guarantee my immediate support. I firmly believe that if Brown wants the job he has to fight for it. There should be no coronation, no ass kissing....there has to be a debate on the issues, other people have to be allowed to compete for the job and may the best man (or woman) win.
Even though I am a conservative, I am still attracted to the idea of another Scotsman, John Reid, winning the Labour Party leadership and therefore Downing Street. Reid is the Home Secretary but he has been in lots of other government departments such as Northern Ireland and Health. He's what you would call the Party's "thug". If you want a no-nonsense sharp intelligent "takes no crap" kind of guy to stick up for the government, send in John Reid. He eats journalists for breakfast and has the look of a bulldog, bearing its fangs ready to attack. If Tony Blair looks like the cover model for "Pretty Boys Monthly", Reid is the cover model for "Brutes United!". A Prime Minister Reid would sit very well with me actually. I abhor Blair and everything he stands for but I wouldn't be so averse to John Reid claiming the crown. He wouldn't cozy up to Bush like Blair has done. I really believe that Reid would speak his mind and that is something we sorely need in the US-British relationship.
The problem with Brown is that nothing would change. Foreign policy would remain the same for starters and Brown supports many of Blair's other policies. The only thing that would change would be the style and substance of a Brown administration. Less flashy git and more dour Scotsman!
Labels: blair, depression, politics |
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