Results tagged “tv”

• We've managed to finish all five seasons of The Office thanks to Netflix streaming. They don't have season six available yet but we'll be all over it as soon as they do. I love that show. Granted the later seasons aren't quite as funny as the earlier ones but it's still well worth the watch.

• Once The Office was completed, we had a "well now what shall we stream?" moment, so we started 30 Rock. And then stopped. Couldn't really get into it and to be honest I really didn't think it was all that funny. Does it get better, should we have stuck with it for longer?

• I've gotten so spoiled by the iPhone's auto-spell-corrector that I've started to miss it in other apps. Sure Firefox flags words I've spelled incorrectly but I wish it would just fix them. I'm wondering how I could get any lazier.

• Last month I started Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and found it hard work in the beginning. I put a little dent in it this week and I'm glad I stuck with it as it's getting really rather good. You have to pay attention though and it's not a book you can read if you're in any way tired.

• Musically I've had a trip down early 90's shoegaze nostalgia lane this week. I've been playing Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, The Wedding Present, and Slowdive. All of which takes me back to my sixth form days.

Say what you will about Michael Jackson's antics, and let's be honest there's plenty to say, any child of the 80s will tell you that his music forms part of the soundtrack to their childhood.

His music certainly registers in the soundtrack to my childhood. I have early memories of hearing Billie Jean and Beat It on the radio as I got ready for school as a nine year old. I remember the first time I saw the Thriller video and thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen in my whole life.

Since then, like most everyone, I hadn't really given him another thought until he passed away last year. The other night we happened to notice This Is It on Netflix and because we're the only two people on the planet who hadn't watched it yet, decided to give it a whirl. You know, a bit of nostalgic curiosity.

And you know what? It was really really good. It wasn't at all what I was expecting and as music documentaries go, this was one of the best one's I've seen. I love rehearsal and behind the scenes footage. I always have. But this stands out as something more than that because the cameras really capture what the final concert would have looked like.

When it began I had a bit of a sinking feeling in my stomach as he wasn't quite pulling it off. He didn't sing all the words to the songs and some of the moves were a little, well, off. But I realized that we were watching rehearsal footage that was never meant to be seen by the public. Sure if I were rehearsing a song and we had to do many takes to get it right, I don't think I'd want to belt it out 20 times in a row either. For six hours. For two months.

As the film progresses we see that he was certainly able to put it all together, to hit the notes, to really pull it off. He's the ultimate showman, songwriter, and perfectionist. He wanted to put on one hell of a show for his fans. He would have succeeded. What we see pieces of here would have been something special to see in person. I really think we all missed out on a great concert.

And no one was more surprised at my reaction to this film than me ;-)

So in a few days time a little tournament will be starting in South Africa. You may have heard of it. Actually, If you don't like soccer football, you probably haven't. But that's ok, it just means you're weird.

So yeah, the World Cup is held every four years and in my home country, it's a really big deal. Huge. Massive. Flags on cars massive. Country comes to a standstill massive. You get the idea.

What makes this World Cup particularly interesting for me is the fact that my home team is in the same group as my newly adopted home team.

And wouldn't you know it, we play each other in the very first game in our group.

So while I'm going to be supporting the USA in spirit in all their games, after all I've been here for 13 years now so I bloody well should, that all goes out the window when they play England. Actual home country beats adopted home country every day of the week.

Is it June 12th yet? I can't wait. Sorry USA, we'll try to go easy on you.

A few years back my sister mentioned I could do far worse than go watch a little show called Lost. I'd heard about it, had read some interesting reviews of it, so thought why not? I became immediately addicted. I loved it. So much mystery. Where were they? What were those noises in the jungle? Who were the other people on the island? What were they doing there? From that point on I watched every single week without fail.

Over the seasons the quality of the episodes varied wildly, every mini answer we were given inevitably led to 7 more questions. New characters were introduced, more mysteries were revealed. But it was so much fun. Frustrating, but fun nonetheless. It was like nothing I'd ever watched before.

Unless you live in a hatch, you know that after 6 seasons, the very last episode of Lost ever aired this past Sunday. It was a bittersweet experience to say the least and let me just say that I don't really like how it ended. While I get it, I don't have to like it. One bit.

It had me hook line & sinker right up until the last 10 minutes. The dog laying down next to Jack so that he wouldn't die alone was television gold. Gold I tell you. Then came the big reveal and I was gutted. A cheesy explanation of the flash-sideways universe wasn't where I expected nor wanted the show to go at all. All rather disappointing really.

Having said that, I still consider Lost to be one of the best TV shows I've ever seen. Right up there with the BSG remake, The West Wing, and The X-Files. It's too fresh in my mind right now, but in 12 months or so it might be interesting to go back and watch it again from the beginning to see if it still holds up once you know how it ends.

Mind you, I think that might be a test of my patience now that I know so many questions will go unanswered. Oh Lost. You trickster you.

In honor of tonight's episode of Lost, I thought it only fitting to showcase one of my many talents. Play-Doh sculptor extraordinaire. (ahem)

Smoke Monster

Good lord I'm going to miss Lost once it's gone.

You know, the more I look at that picture, the more it doesn't look right at all. But that's a different matter entirely.

I woke up at 2:30am last night and found myself wide awake. So obviously, as you do, I took that opportunity to watch the last 6 episodes from season 5 of Lost. I'm now all caught up and ready. Ready for what you may ask? Well...

Remember kids, the final season of Lost begins on February 2nd. And good lord do they ever have a lot of work to do to tie up all those loose ends. They already had enough of them hanging out there without adding some Jacob death and that darkshirt/non-Locke bloke into the mix.

I'm going to reserve judgment on the series as a whole to see how well they end the wild ride we've been on for the past few years. If they manage to pull it off* I'll venture that Lost was one of the best things on TV ever. We'll see.

* that's what she said.

Remember kids the remake of V airs tomorrow night.

I loved watching the original when I was a kid. So I'm simultaneously excited and worried. Please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck.

[Moozik: Android Lust - Follower]

My excitement level was high, my curiosity piqued, a new Battlestar Galactica movie? Say it ain't so. Then I read the announcement and just rolled my eyes.

Battlestar Galactica is getting the big-screen treatment. Universal Pictures has confirmed blog speculation that Bryan Singer, director of Valkyrie, will take on directing and producing duties for a BSG movie. Glen Larson, who created original series back in 1978, will produce as well. The film is not expected to be a continuation of current popular television show that's running on the SyFy network but will be a complete re-imagining of the sci-fi lore that was invented by Larson back in the 70s.

Wait, what? Another re-imagining? Didn't we just do that with the series on the Sci-Fi channel? Couldn't we at least wait a few years before doing another re-imagining?

Dear Hollywood, please come up with some new ideas. Thanks. Kevin Spencer.

[Moozik: Clan Of Xymox - Stranger]

• BBQ last Saturday. Drank beer, played drums, and learned about Harley Davidson's from biker blokes. Now to convince my better half that buying a Harley is a good idea. Of course, will first have to learn how to actually, you know, ride a motorbike.

• He was an icon from my yooof and had hits that I grew up listening to, but come on now, can we pump the brakes a little on the wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage on TV? The media are really milking this to a level I've not seen before.

• The nice weather bloke on TV tells me that it will be 116° this weekend. So if I leave the frying pan outside on the sidewalk for a couple of hours, will it be hot enough to fry an egg? Hmmm, these are the things that keep me awake at night.

• My oldest friend is going to be a Dad for the first time. Congratulations are well in order and I couldn't be happier. The first drink this weekend is for you mate.

• For whatever reason I had the bright idea to have a little Rap experiment last week. So for a few days I listened to Rap whenever possible. Verdict? Rap complete shite. Well, except for Public Enemy. And the Beastie Boys but they don't really count do they?

[Moozik: Meg Lee Chin - Heavy Scene]

• Good lord Battlestar Galactica writers, you're really in no hurry to get where you're going are you? Wait. You are going somewhere right? The end is almost nigh, and you've got that whole loose-ends thing still dangling there.

• It really is the future. For I've now seen actual real life vending machines, once those last bastions of cash obligation, that accept debit cards. Rejoice.

• A friend lent me a book a couple of years ago. And now they've gone and made a movie out of it. Good by all accounts. So I'm thinking I should probably read it now.

[Moozik: Thomas Dolby - Weightless]

A while ago we returned our cable DVR because we were recording so much TV we didn't have time to watch it all. Plus all the decent TV networks have their programmes online now so you can watch things "on demand" whenever you want to.

A friend asked why I'd want to "watch TV" on my laptop vs a big screen HDTV? The answer is I don't. I use the best of both worlds, I stream the TV over the internet to my HDTV. Using a Macbook Pro, it really couldn't be easier.

What You'll Need

• Apple MiniDisplayPort to DVI adaptor.
• DVI to HDMI adaptor.
• RCA stereo cables.

Connect As Follows

On the Macbook Pro, connect the Apple adaptor to the DVI/HDMI adaptor. Plug that into the MiniDisplayPort. Connect the RCA stereo cable to the audio out jack.

On the TV, connect the HDMI cable to the HDMI input jack, connect the RCA stereo cable.

Finishing Up

On your TV, select the appropriate HDMI input. Mac OSX then just "does the right thing" and you have a mirrored display & sound coming from your TV.

And before you know it, you'll be watching the HD stream of Lost on your TV.

I've also been playing with Boxee and Hulu and while it's all still a tiny bit rough around the edges, I could honestly see canceling our cable TV service completely at some point.

Very geeky and a tad exciting. Well, it's amused me while I've been at death's door this week anyway.

[Moozik: The Horrorist - Born This Way]

• A few years back, my sister introduced me to the goodness that is Röyksopp. They have a new song and the video is teh awesome. Go ahead watch it, I'll wait.

• We had an excellent time at the Phoenix Zoo yesterday afternoon. Smaller than I remember, and all the animals were hiding in the shade, it was 87° after all. But we had a blast nonetheless. Did I mention it was 87°? There's something special about taking kids to a zoo. Watching them observe animals they've never seen for the first time was worth the price of admission alone.

• I played competitive indoor football (soccer for you 'merkins) for the first time in, well, a bloody long time today. I'll write more about that tomorrow. Mind you I don't think I'll be able to get out of bed tomorrow. I'm old. And VERY out of shape.

• Dear Battlestar Galactica writers, you do realize you've only got 3 more episodes right? In any other season, creating new plots and having a character-centric story line might have been a good idea. But this close to the end? You've got an awful lot of loose end tying up to do this month. I hope I'm not disappointed. Just sayin'.

[Moozik: Black Light Burns - Lie]

Don't you find that you get awfully spoiled when watching entire seasons of your favorite TV programmes on DVD? There's something really quite addictive about watching so many episodes one after the other isn't there?

Of course the downside to all that TV cramming is that once you stop watching from DVD and actually start watching on the regular TV schedule, waiting a week between episodes is agony. Agony I tell you. I'm looking at *you* Lost and *you* Battlestar Galactica.

I think the better idea might just be to skip watching them on their regular schedule and just wait for the DVDs.

[Moozik: Nine Inch Nails - Non-Entity (Live 2006)]

So, a rather belated Happy New Year then. So far 2009 has brought me a case of the suck. Usually I get over colds/flu pretty quickly. Not so this time and I've been totally wiped out. Friday night I went to sleep at 6:00pm and woke up at 8:45am Saturday morning. Last night I was in bed by 7:30pm and woke up around 9:00am ish this morning. I don't remember the last time I slept this much or had so little energy.

Still, I've managed to feed my Battlestar Galactica addiction, watch Batman movies, and get caught up on all the old episodes of The Young Ones. Which have surprisingly stood the test of time rather well.

"Dr Martens, Dr Martens, Dr Martens Boots"

Them: It's Harry the bastard.
Harry: And you owe me 500 quid.
Them: Well, what a complete bastard.

[Moozik: Depeche Mode - Halo (Live 1990)]

Every once in a while I like to gauge just how out of touch I am with "top 40" American music. I already know the answer as "top 40" music isn't exactly my cup o' tea. Still, it's at least a little entertaining to have it reinforced on a regular basis I think. So, tonight we decided to watch part of the American Music Awards on ABC.

Oh. My. God. It was worse than I thought. Is this really what the music industry is betting the farm on? It's no wonder they're in trouble. I mean srsly? Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Kanye West, Mariah?

There were a couple of highlights though. Firstly The Eagles were nominated for a couple of awards. I would imagine this was purely for sheer comedy value for someone behind the scenes. Secondly, and more importantly Annie Lennox received some kind of lifetime achievement award. Nice to see some old Eurythmics flashbacks and even nicer for her to dedicate half of the award to Dave Stewart.

So, award shows. They're really not very good are they. Well, the ones that are shown here on American TV. Which is probably why I only watch them once every three years or so. After that amount of time I have a kind of morbid curiosity and have to watch just one more time.

So, I'm good now until 2011 then.