It is big time actually

My tickets to Steve Coogan's live show arrived today - YUS! I really hope they are selling his tie and blazer combo sets or his awesome black Castrol GTX that he wore to the funeral.

For anyone that doesn't remember Coogan - he was Alan Partridge the host of a military style quiz show on UK conquest, the host of Radio Norwich's 2am-6am slot and a failed BBC chat show host in the TV shows Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge and I'm Alan Partridge. Coogan's Alan shows are totally in my top 5 and were groundbreaking for their time - he was doing awkward fly on the wall comedy way before Gervais.

There were so many classic Alan lines and I still pull some of them out every now and then - Cashback! Jurrasic Park! Kiss my face! Smell my cheese you mother! Wings - they're only the band the Beatles could have been.

Anyway, here is some classic Alan - when he realises his new best friend, kitchen designer Dan and his wife are 'sex people' (dont worry its safe for work).

So he's like, there?

Clip below from the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC the other night.

She interviews Thomas Gillespie, a geography professor from UCLA, who has used a geography model used for finding endangered species to work out where Bin Laden is... So if you've been thinking about trying to get in amongst the US25 million bounty, he finds a pretty good place to start.

Top Gear Live

I went up to Auckland on the weekend to check out Top Gear Live at the Auckland Showgrounds. It was a really good show but did lack that final punch I thought. The best bits had to be the four motorbikes in the collander of death and the Suzuki Swift stunts. There was also an exhibition of kick ass cars attached to the show including Mustangs, Corvettes, Porsches, Bentley's, Lamborghini Galardo's (which had a black suede dash) and of course Ferrari's.

I had read a review earlier in the day which mentioned some of the jokes, so some of the script seemed a bit set piece and Greg Murphy should stick to the track!

It was a great weekend in Auckland though, sipping Laphroaig Whiskey after dinner and golf after brunch the next day.

The photos I took were a bit shit, but you get the idea below.

All kinds of awesome in one

Hat tip to Gizmodo/via Pat for this - there is a new Japanese show called, Engine Oh G12, that basically combines Voltron with Power Rangers - watch the video below. Guaranteed to blow your freakin socks off.



From the Gizmodo write up -
"What's so wonderful about Engine Oh G12 is that it's literally ballooned the genre beyond parody. The show has upped the ante of the giant vehicle-assembled robot television so immensely that it's beyond the scope of humorous exaggeration, its components refined to such a point where every individual element is, in itself, too pure to be tainted by sophomoric prop humor. To fully appreciate this the clip, look beyond the obvious and examine the subtleties of presentation. For instance, two vehicles are there only to serve as covers for the robot's shoes."

The T-mobile dance

Hat tip to senor Weston for this.

T-Mobile's fantastic telly advert - give it two years and I guarantee Saatchi's come up with a 'great new idea' along the lines of this for another telco!

Watch the ad first, and the making is below it



Making of

Agenda gets struck off the uh... agenda

Ok so I wasn't the biggest fan of TV One's Agenda - but I'm pretty pissed that it has been canned.

One of my worries about our new tory government is that there will be very little critical analysis of what is actually happening as we are almost heading towards a perfect storm with minimal coverage from the media other than scripted set pieces. We have an ever decreasing media in New Zealand - our major dailies are continually downsizing, most actual journalists are either now in PR or working for government departments - if not running them! On top of that we have a new prime minister who, chances are, will adopt the Shipley approach of only holding fortnightly Cabinet meetings and no press conferences (he isn't great when put on the spot - so he's not going to chuck himself in the lions den like Clark did each week, is he?).

For all its faults it was the very show that tripped up several players in the last 12 months - Mike Williams on Owen Glenn etc and Maurice Williamson on tolls for example - and it was our only actual political show with in-depth interviews. It's also ironic that Agenda's Australian namesake on Sky News has made it's host David Speers one of the leading commentators in the country and the show has become central to political coverage.

I only hope that either Sky News or even TV3 look to fill the void (and ideally chuck it in a better time slot). What I would love to see is something intelligent and insightful without boring everyone to tears - much like MSNBC's fantastic Rachel Maddow Show. If you haven't seen it - check out some of the clips on her site - we have nothing like it here (probably the closest would be Media 7 on TVNZ7). Also it's quite funny how I came across the show too since we don't get MSNBC - the Palin Vlog #13 where Sarah Palin trys to pray away the gay from Dina after her sapphic desires of Rachel Maddow are exposed - so very funny - watch it here .

TV3 - One big family?

Just saw this over on the spare room - now I've thought at times that Campbell Live wasn't far off the ABC's excellent satire - Frontline, but TV3 seem to have taken it to a new level... They've actually ripped off Frontline's hammy 'One Big Family' promo - but not in an ironic way, they're actually serious. I wonder if the similarities extend to the stars not actually wanting to be in each others company - the bit where they get someone else to do Brooke's high-five with the weatherman after she refused to touch him was classic!

Spot the difference -

The Enemies of Reason

After doing something incredibly irrational (watching the NZ Cricket team flail about in Chittagong) I watched The Enemies of Reason, Richard Dawkins' follow up to his fantastic documentary on organised religion - The Root of All Evil, to balance me out. The new doco examines how superstition and new age treatments and alternative therapies are being presented as cool, regularly filling column inches in magazines and newspapers, despite having no scientific evidence to prove that they work or that they are anything more than a sham.

As you might have guessed, I'm no fan of alternative medicine or therapies. In fact I think the term 'alternative' is a little kind and somewhat misleading - it basically means untested, unproven and unlikely to work. If it works - get it tested and proven. But they know its a sham and they know proper testing will likely prove that.

In New Zealand this whole hokum industry is a particular concern as people seem willing to give this crap a go and more so since the government failed to pass the Joint Trans-Tasman Therapeutic Products Authority legislation. So given there is no regulation you can basically bottle any old rubbish and chuck a label on it claiming it can cure cancer - and that would be legal. Worse still, utter rubbish like Sensing Murder seems to have a huge audience - despite the fact that its psychics have been exposed as sham with an Australian Current Affairs show finding that psychic Deb Webber can talk to dead people - even if they never existed.

I agree with Dawkins - like religion, these conjurers are actually dangerous and shouldnt be hailed by the media or idiotic celebrities (including Prince Charles and Hillary - Chopra). Rational people need to actually call this crap for what it is - false hope for those desperately seeking a cure or closure after the loss of a loved one.

Anyway below is a clip with Dawkins challenging an astrologist to test his readings and a psychic doing a reading.

Them again? Really?

Has anyone else noticed the very late 80s/early 90s look to TVNZs Olympic coverage?

Sure, Tony Veitch would have had a big role before he was found out - but still, they seem to dredge up the same tired old hacks every four years. Look at their frontline team - Geoff Bryan, Peter Williams, Keith Quinn, John McBeth and Peter Montgomery. I guarantee they were the nucleus of the team that presented the 1988 games in Seoul.

Yes, yes they're experienced and all that - but surely we could do better than this? All I have ever known is these boring grey old men mispronouncing names and dealing in cliches. Even just some of their other presenters would be better - Neil Waka? Bernadine Oliver Kerby? The grip? Camera Operator 1?

Mind you, on the flipside - what's with the two 10 year olds presenting Breakfast? I seriously don't think that the dude shaves.

Limpuc Games

I love the Olympics and on paper this is looking like a great games for New Zealand - world class rowing crews for africa, Valerie Vili in the shot put, Hayden Roulston in the cycling, Ben Fouhy in the kayaking, Sarah Walker in the BMX, Bevan Docherty in the triathlon and of course the reliable Barbara Kendall.

And this year TVNZ have upped their coverage with their usual coverage on TV1, a dedicated Olympic channel on Freeview and two other streaming online channels. Its a real shame they still drag out Keith Quinn and John McBeth every four years - I mean Murray Mexted may say some daft things, but at least he has a pulse. I love the way they felt there was a need to inform us that they were fireworks that were going off - yeah thanks Keith I think we can work that out.

But anyway I couldnt resist the pull and ended up buying a Freeview box today. Yes yes I already have Sky - but you can't get the extra Freeview channels (including the extra Olympic channel) on Sky! For our overseas readers - Freeview is based on the UK digital platform with the same name that the BBC run - its like Sky, but funnily enough free - but you do have to buy a set top box for around $200.

Its great though - took all of 10 minutes to set up (assuming you already have a Sky dish) and now I have the best of both worlds! Plus I know a few people who have been considering getting a box so I figure I can flog it off after the games if I stop using it.

John and Bryan doing a Maister

An oldie but a goodie - John Clarke and Bryan Dawes

The Questions

Sometimes you need to ask the big questions -

Why are the stairs at the back of the BNZ foodcourt so steep?

How do they get toothpaste to come out with the nice perfect stripes when its all mushed in there?

Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?

What is Meatloaf talking about when he said he 'would do anything for love, but I won't do that'?

Shouldn't you be doing some work?

What has happened to the Home and Away omnibus?? I had to flick between Agenda and Shortland St the other day - what the fuck is that about?

To make up for it - Frezned and co lip syncing the theme song

A glass and a half... at the Vic?

Yes I am moderately embarrassed that I know what the Vic is.

Anti Piracy

Video below from the IT Crowd taking the piss out of those anti video piracy ads.

It reminds of a joke I heard - those ads say 'you wouldn't steal a car' and no I wouldn't. But if I had a friend who had a car, and had the ability to make an exact copy of that car for free - I'm not gonna say no am I?

Enjoy

Some TV

Recently I have discovered a couple of new TV shows, which aren't even on the telly here (nobody says telly anymore do they?).

First up is Morel Orel from Adult Swim - like the other Adult Swim cartoons such as Harvey Birdman and Sealab 2051 its fantastic. Its old school stop motion annimation and follows Orel, a Christian kid growing up in Moralton, Statesota, as he learns moral lessons based on the other Commandments.

These include:
11. Thou shalt be ashamed of thy natural anatomy.
12. Thou shalt only have sex face-to-face, man on top.
13. Thou shalt not bastardize the American language.
14. Thou shalt always clean thy plate and not waste anything, whether thy stomach is full or not.

The Church sign is also great - has a different message each week, such as
Yes kids, we lied about Santa, but Jesus is real
Jesus died for your sins and had long hair so that you wouldn't.
All aboard the Censorship
The Holy Ghost: spooky or just a third wheel?

Along the way he becomes a junkie, masturbates over the neighbourhood women (mustn't waste it after all). If you can't download it the DVD is around and its worth checking out.

The other show I've been checking out is The Thick Of It - I hadn't heard of it but got lent a copy of the DVD. I was told its like a cross between The Office and Yes Minister - how could you possibly fail with that combination? But I think its more like a cross between Yes Minister and the excellent Australian current affairs show piss take, Frontline. The Thick Of It was created by Armando Ianucci, who produced and directed both Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge and of course I'm Alan Partridge.

It follows the UK Minister of Social Affairs, who cocks up almost every announcement only to be torn to shreds by Malcolm Tucker, the PM's shit-kicker/policy enforcer/H2. Its basically a political version of those painfully funny mockumentaries and definitely worth checking out.

I'm not sick, but I'm not well

1. Vamos Rafa! What a game that was - finally Nadal beat Federer in a grand slam that wasn't in Paris. It was so enthralling that I actually missed the bus. Outside of Wii im normally not much of a tennis fan, but I have this odd thing where I always watch the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon (dont care for the US Open).

2. More babies on the way - its the latest craze it seems.

3. Skins is back with a vengeance on C4 - its like This Life, but not cancelled after one season! Maxxie's school musical with the stalker was hilarious - Osama: The Musical.

4. Given lip syncing is all the rage, I thought I'd share this great one with you.

Office etiquette

And I thought my last employer was unreasonable...



Clip from Big Train

When good u choobing goes bad

I was watching that episode of Seinfeld where George had done his answer phone message to the theme of the Greatest American Hero...



And so then I searched for the actual theme music... and from there it got out of hand (as you can see). I give you 80s and 90s theme songs!

Greatest American Hero


MacGyver, The A-Team, Miami Vice, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Magnum PI, Knight Rider, Love Boat, Hawaii 5-0, Bay Watch and last but not least CHiPs

Summer Heights High

I recently got put on to Summer Heights High, its the new series by Chris Lilley, the dude that brought us the very excellent We Can Be Heroes. This time the show follows the lives of two students - Ja'mie from We Can be Heroes and a new character Jonah Takalua as well as a Drama Teacher, Mr Gregson.

Unfortunately I havent seen it on our screens yet - but the DVD is around or you could be naughty and download it.

In the meantime, below is one of my favourite scenes - Mr Gregson using his drama skills to liven up the evacuation drills. Enjoy.

Oooo that's good

Onion satire at its best - a 20 vehicle horrific road crash serves as a sad reminder of the loss of Princess Diana

".. spilling blood across the Paris-roadway-coloured highway"

As the wreckage from today's tragic crash continues to smolder, one can't help but think of the accident that took the life of the People's Princess.