The U2 lads
ABC2 is showing the making of Joshua Tree at the moment, which I’ve got in the background as I read a Ben Peek story to review for ASif! It’s quite interesting, musically, and I have to say – the lads have all distinctly improved in looks over the years! The long hair was really not a happy time for Bono. And Adam Clayton looks heaps better with the spiky short blonde. Interesting.
The word ”archaeology”
I’m watching Time Team, and I’m really enjoying it – they’re at Cirencester, which we visited in January, and they’ve found some really cool stuff – the mosaic in particular is brilliant, and I can’t imagine how thrilling it must have been to discover it.
However, they really pain me when they use the word “archaeology” to mean the stuff that they find: “there’s some really interesting archaeology still to be found.” No, there isn’t. There are some interesting ruins and artifacts to be found, and some arduous digging and cleaning to go through as well, The process of finding the stuff is ‘doing archaeology’, along with figuring out how it all works together and what it means.
Bugs me. Grrr.
Proper Widescreen
We bought ourselves a new TV the other day – it’s a combined birthday present to ourselves. At least, that’s the excuse; mine’s not until October, but hey.
So we’re watching The Fifth Element, which we haven’t done in much longer than normal. And it is great to have it in proper widescreen! It makes a huge difference – wll, ok, maybe not huge, but it really does make it a more pleasurable viewing experience.
And now we get ABC 2, which is nice, so I can watch JTV XL next Tuesday. And Rage/JTV Saturday on a big screen will be fun!!
Life Support
Oh. My. Goodness.
The bro-in-law bought us the first season on Life Support, an SBS TV show from a few years ago that he and Starvin’ Dan had absolutely loved.
We’d never heard of it. For those like us, it’s a spoof on lifestyle shows. It’s got Todd, the handyman; Sigourney, The Modern Woman (who tells you how to have a pleasant home and please your husband); Dr Rudi, a South African doctor who likes to talk a lot about sex; and Penne, a 19 year old who helps people scam their way through life.
We’re only half way through the first episode, I have shrieked a number of times – part in horror, part in horrified amusement. I know it’s deliberately trying to be offensive – they’re pushing boundaries really hard, and it could only work on SBS….
I think we’ll enjoy watching this series, but I think we’ll only be doing one episode a week – it would just be too, too much otherwise!
Numb3rs
I generally really enjoy this show, but I am getting a little bit fed up with it at the moment. The dude who plays the maths genius (I just thnk of him Mr Universe from Serenity) just gives too much expostion – every episode insists on explaining some esoteric maths idea: it seems like a not-very-subtle way of making maths look sexy. Maybe that’s the point, but… a bit more subtlety would be appreciated over here.
Bridge to Terabithia
They’re making a movie of it! Amazing. Another of the books that I grabbed from school the other day, which I haven’t read in a long while – I definitely read it in primary school, and I can’t remember if I’ve read it since. Anyway, I’ll have to read it again before I see the movie, I think. From the trailer, it looks very different from what I remember about the book – I thought the imaginary stuff was just that, imaginary – but the movie seems like it will make those things ‘real’.
What I really wonder is how they will deal with the ending. I know some kids’ movies don’t shy away from tragedy, but that far? It will be interesting to see.
Ivanhoe
I am in the middle of Ivanhoe, the TV show. I thought it was much older than it is – it was made in 1997! And there was me thinking there were parts that looked like Monty Python’s Holy Grail! Oops.
I am definitely enjoying it… I got Scott’s book at a second hand book sale ages ago, but haven’t got around to reading it yet. Of course. The romantic entanglements have me very confused about exactly how it will all be resolved in the end. Well, one of them is dead, so I guess that helps… .
House
Not a place, the series. We got the four discs of season 1 out tonight – it is Friday, after all. Interestingly, we have actually seen the pilot and first episode. The third episode was, however, very good. I’m lookin forward to filling in the gaps – we only started watching it regularly in season 2.
There are few soapie aspects to it, but not too many, thankfully. And House could basically be the archetype anti-hero.
Stargate and Doctor Who
I think it’s only just occurred to me that Stargate is a lot like Doctor Who. Everybody speaks English.
Even the Russians.
House
House is one of the weirder anti-heroes out there. Truly – a sociopathic doctor, addicted to pain killers, who likes bossing people around and being truly, brutally honest.
I like it.
Randomly Yours, Alex 