Tag Archive for tv

Touching Darkness by Scott Westerfeld

29/08/2011 Joh reading

The second in the Midnighters series was even better than the first. I read this post on Scott Westerfeld’s blog, a fan has a tattoo from the novel. That’s keen:).

Touching Darkness (Midnighters, Book 2) reveals more of the history of Bixby and introduces a Midnighter we haven’t met yet. I’ll share some of my favourite parts:

Didn’t any of these brainless wonders ever notice that TV shows were called programs? The same word that meant a bunch of numbers stuck into a computer to make it dance for its masters

pg 53

and then

‘In the summer of 1949, I had just turned eleven. We played all day until it grew dark, which in summer was very late. young children and teenagers together, while the adults sat on the porches, visiting. Everything was in the open, everyone could see each other.’……….

…….’Hang on – you’re saying you lost to the darklings because of air-conditioning?’

Madeleine lifted a finger sternly. ‘And television. You can’t discount television. You see, Dess after that first evening the adults stayed inside, watching Mr. Jack Benny instead of looking after our childish games.’

p155-156

I can’t wait to read the next in the series:)

 

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Crownies

22/08/2011 Joh music, random

What Do I Do (Lanie Lane) from Lanie Lane on Vimeo.

I don’t watch a lot of TV but I have enjoyed Crownies. I usually watch it on iview because my life rarely fits into the TV guide. It’s on the ABC on Thursday nights I believe. The above song by Lanie Lane is the theme song. It’s interesting.

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The Young Ones on ABC

05/07/2011 Joh health


This documentary was extraordinary. Another great example of the power of thought. If you didn’t see it and can catch it tomorrow, I would recommend it. It’s time we redecorated Aged Care Facilities, what do you think?

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The Gifts of Technology

02/01/2011 Joh family, gratitude, home, love, music

Yesterday was a very quiet start to the New Year. Darin’s children were traveling to Sydney with their mum and he was in touch with them all day via the mobile. It’s great that we can keep in contact with our loved ones when they head off on adventures. They had been here for a few days and the house seems so silent and still without them.  Once we knew they were safe and sound at Joan’s home in Sydney (their Nana), we relaxed into a night of TV watching:-).

We caught up on a couple of TV shows on ABC  iview. We’ve been watching ‘To the Manor Bowen’ this year and usually through iview. I love that show. It’s so funny and I love the clothes they wear and the conversations they have. The transformation of their home is amusing as well and their creativity in homemaking appeals to me. It’s very watchable.

We then watched Family Confidential: The Barnes Family and The Mundine Family, another great series on the ABC that I’ve enjoyed but don’t always catch when they are on. They were both interesting stories and especially the Barnes story reinforced to me the power of love and family.

And because I stayed up very late last night I got to watch some kind of ‘Countdown’ retrospective. David Bowie and Kate Bush on the one show! It was made for me:-).

Having a HDMI cord means I can watch stuff from my computer like TED talks and any other online video, on my big TV. My TV has become more useful to me again. I love it. These marvels of technology never cease to amaze me and I feel that the abundance of choice I have, even about amusing myself is a luxury that previous generations couldn’t have dreamt of.

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Dan Millane – Come Together and other current fancies…

25/09/2010 Joh film, gratitude, music

Darin introduced me to this guy on You Tube this morning. I quite like him. As it turns out he will be playing near us over the next few months, so we aim to go see him probably at Warragul when a child free, work free weekend crops up.

I enjoy covers. There are so many great ones. We both look for them. Triple J’s ‘Like a Version’ is sometimes great. I am still disappointed that I can’t download ‘Josh Pyke – Under the Milky Way’ on itunes.

During the week we went to one of our local pubs to watch a past student in a band. I always admire artists the courage it takes to put themselves out there and I enjoyed it.

Last night we started season two of ‘Breaking Bad’. It’s intense with rich characters and action. We watched about 5 episodes and I would have kept going except I want to make it last :-) . It is my favourite TV drama for a long time, so well made, and such bliss to watch it without ads!

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Tasty TV

21/06/2010 Joh food, health, home

I am not a big watcher of TV. There are so many cooking shows that lure me lately. Darin is working most weeknights now… so I have to watch chefs on TV. I no longer have the pleasure of watching him chop, slice and dice etc and I’m miss it. I do get to hear about the goings on in his kitchen, but it’s not the same. I can’t smell, taste and wash up after it! Those hours to myself have become healthy, because I exercise instead. It’s got to be better long term!

I’ve started watching Masterchef and Hell’s Kitchen. I’ve even watched ‘Kitchen Nightmares’. I am not even a fan of Gordan Ramsey, although it’s mainly based on his inability to be honest in relationship, in fairness I like his style as a chef. In fact if he can be so honest professionally, I do wonder what went wrong at home. Really it’s none of my business and I would be happier if the media didn’t tell me about people’s private lives.

My favourite has to be Jamie Olivier though, I follow his twitters and nod at the seriously intelligent, yet yummy he has to food. He is just lovely. His food revolution is serious common sense and it’s heartening to see someone use their fame for good.

Watch this :

He’s awesome.

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Halfway

28/09/2009 Joh holidays, home

I haven’t blogged since last week! The weather turned a bit rough so I turned to inside activities mostly, though we did get some gardening in on Thursday. It was long overdue with some garden beds needing to be mowed rather than weeded. I want to do so much outside it is overwhelming to start sometimes. It looks much better now, yet I still see a lot to do.

We had the kids for a night last week, which is always fun. One of the kids decided to stay with her mum, I noticed her absense. I missed her actually. We didn’t get out with them curtailing our tendency to always go out when the kids are here. Darin thought it was time we did a bit of normal hang out stuff. I remember when my kids would go to their dad’s for the weekend, they tend to have high entertainment expectations when that’s what usually happens. It’s so interesting being on the other side of the ‘every second weekend’ family.

I watched a few films, the most interesting was ‘Flashbacks of a Fool’ with Daniel Craig. I have also been introduced to Carl Baron and laughed till my stomach hurt watching his DVDs. I had no idea he was so cleverly funny. I watched the Grand Final, half heartedly baracking for the Saints. I fell asleep though so I didn’t get to experience the loss. I’ve watched the Grand Prix as well on a few occasions during this season. I can barely contain my advertising analysis though whilst watching these ‘blokey’ things on TV. It’s a whole new reality to me.

I went for a drive to Golden Beach and had a long walk along the beach Saturday morning.

Yesterday we went to Ikea in Richmond to get some cutlery I wanted and as you could expect walked out with a few more items. We went to the National Gallery to see the Salvador Dali exhibition but the queue was for an hour so we took in the rest of the Gallery and resolved to go back during the week. I don’t know why I thought doing this on a Sunday was a good idea…. Ikea was packed also. We had dinner at Bukhara’s in Warragul on the way home. It was my first visit, Darin thought it wasn’t as good as it once was, I thought it was yummy.

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Wednesday Night Watching

19/08/2009 Joh home, relationships

I know I’m always banging on about not watching TV, but last Wednesday when I had the student information night I came home and Darin was watching ‘The Librarian’ on the ABC.I got into it, so much so that tonight I am watching again. I look forward to the ‘United States of Tara’ that will follow this ridiculous, yet entertaining show.

Life is good right now, I can relax enough to watch TV…. for amusement alone.

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Loathing Lola by William Kostakis

17/06/2009 Joh reading

I loathe reality TV. It has always fascinated me that anyone can believe it’s not constructed. This novel ‘Loathing Lola’ was a fun read about a teenager who is ‘selected’ for a reality TV show. There is nothing very surprising to me in it about the way she is treated and the experiences she has with the production company. I hope young people who are deluded about the genre read this book.

It was an easy and fun read. The characters and setting were believable at times. I found it a little unrealistic in parts and sad but real in others. The website for this book is http://www.loathinglola.com/.  If you want to read what other young people thought of it Inside a dog has some reviews.

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Jingles

10/10/2008 Joh learn

Today in class we were discussing advertising. I was astounded yet again at how the kids could complete so many advertising jingles. They loved it. They quite cheerfully completed phrases such as “Have a break, have a ……’, and ‘Which bank? …….’ to mention just a couple. They were like trained animals. I don’t watch TV very often and I was amazed at how much they still watch and the number of advertisements they could recall.

I also noticed they became almost defensive when asked to reflect on how well they know what advertisers tell them compared with what they learn at school. I asked them if realistically this information was more empowering to them than what they learned at school. They didn’t like that question.

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