The Writers' Resource

Never thought I would say this, but Australian television, despite the creeping 'common' element headed up by Eddie Everywhere at the Nines and Adam Boland at the Sevens and Courtney Gibson at the ABC, is better than that of many other countries, most of which have given up just as digital has come in and as the internet has pretty much moved in on the roles initially held by the TV medium.  CNN is UN-FRIGGING-WATCHABLE and sadly it is the rubbish bin of Aussie losers (Michael Holmes excepted), all with annoying speech defects and strange verbal tics (Ay! - who darn well started that one?).  As an ex-producer and quite a senior one, I am well in touch even now with the costs involved in mounting and then maintaining a show.  I was called 'The Budget Queen' for many years.  And for not too many pesos more, CNN could actually give us some FRIGGING CONTENT!!!!  Couldn't they?  Same goes for The American Network. They recycle programmes and promos over and over until it seems as though I am trapped in Abu Ghraib and this is another form of waterboarding I call Tellyboarding.  Force feeding crap and when you have had enough they fill you up again with more of the same.  And I have to PAY for the privilege.  I am thinking of writing to the stations and demanding a refund as connection to these 'non-television-stations' is a total con. 

Way better than that is the iTunes selection of radio stations.  Amazing stuff from all over the world, though I haven't been able to hook into Margaret Throsby's daily interview yet.  I always seem to be somewhere away from my computer.

I, for one, would love to be able to view EVERYTHING on the computer and cut off cable, satellite and all those delivery systems so that I never need to see CNN and their amateur lineup ever again.

Especially those whose photos are below: 

This is not a finite list - more as they come to hand....

More on watching CNN, I am overwhelmed by the lack of 'quality control' in hosts!  Reporters are fat, ugly, with speech impediments, grammar challenged, adenoidal and facile and I am sure that this diverts from the matters they are laying before us!

Anderson Cooper is an exception as he is almost as urbane as the perfect Alex Trebek! His questions are mostly the sorts of things you would ask if you had the guts and the interviewee was a dinner guest.

Michael Holmes is a keeper.  Anna Coren's cow like moo is very annoying as are her Scientologist-like twinkling eyes. Contacts perhaps?  Then it may have been a good idea to pick blue ones to match her bottle blonde hairdo.

There is definitely a great need for good producers on CNN - the trend for presenters to stand is quite stressful to watch.  Nobody looks comfortable. A producer would fight for chairs.  Mind you no chairs means a budget saving.

I like the braininess of Christiane Amanpour but sometimes she verges on the preachiness that threatens the story. She is also a good looking woman, no dolly bird but with credibility, something so many of the other presenters lack.  

But the biggest complaint is the ever-dwindling playlist of news. When are they going to  cater for people who are interested in the whole world, not just whatever region CNN decides we may watch?

Now that I am here in glorious Puerto Vallarta, where the weather is perfect and the hardware stores ill-equipped (come on, you don't REALLY think they expect anyone to want a full range of wall anchors??) I have settled in to a life without any Aussie TV.  But wait!  Who's that? Noooooooo it's Anna Coren from TT mooing the news at me from the telly.  Strangely, though, she is not as bad on CNN as she was on 7 which just goes to show that perhaps she wasn't getting the production required to use her talents.  Though she still says 'ay' instead of 'a' and punches every word with the force of Joe Frazier.

Stan Grant is here and nobody cares about his 'scandalous' life and when my solar man today said he had never seen an aborigine, perhaps I should have pointed the spunky Stan out to him!  Michael Homes and that Stevens guy are also on my screen.  So I get enough of an Aussie fix thanks.  But I confess to missing SBS more than anything.  Anton Enus and his gang are newsreaders par excellence.  I even started watching soccer just so I could hear TUIPOLOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAA... evan-charlton do his trendy sign off.  Check him out chaps!  It's worth it!  As goldne a moment as Brian Naylor wishing that all our news could be good news or Uncle Eric Pearce looking right at me as he signed off 'and you.'

TV is woeful here but there are some amazing game shows and I will try to improve my Spanish so that I can  tell you what they are all about! Millionaire isstarting soon (great language practice as it is so darn slow.)  I'll be glued.

Due to work, I have only seen Jeopardy ONCE!!!!!

More soon,

Off for a dip on the pool now and maybe a G & T.

Well, not really a TV review.  More a TV commercial review.

 I was chatting to a colleague this morning about 'how things were simpler in the 70s™'.  The reason we were cloudily reminescing is that I had stumbled on www.adsimissed.com - a web sieve (did I just coin a phrase?) for catching all the radio and TV ads you might have missed.

 On this website we discovered ads from the 70s.  Ads for Coke, Tab, and RC Cola (I only just got the arsey joke!); Mrs Whatserface with McLeans toothpaste; Mr. Sheen of, well, Mr. Sheen fame ...

And by crikey, what a wonderfully carefree, naive, joyful time these ads capture!

Have a wander back to the days pre-CGI.  Marvel at the loose direction and perky buttocks on display.  This was advertising for a sun-drenched country.  This was advertising for the country with one endless summer.

This ... this was advertising before it got 'important'.