Weblog Response: Do You See?

(clue: like alan, i have been a teacher and many of my friends still are)

(this class was made up of a single large nigerian family, five brothers and sisters, aged about 17-10, and their work method was OLDEST DID THE ACTUAL WORK, second oldest copied from him, on down the line... so it was like chinese whispers... the 10-yr-old's work was a kind of abstract work of art, no figures or symbols discernable)

i wz k-rub at discipline etc:
"i didn't do my homework, i went to a club instead"
"cool, what music wz playing?"

i know several other teachers but have not in fact ever discussed this with them

It's not total crap but I hate the way they keep jamming in indie tunes and doing clever cut scenes, also the jokes are kind of meh. And does every tv show have to be about 30 somethings trying to get married?

With Archel's crosspost it's 2.1 to 2.

But Rule the School - surely EVERYONE likes that? I saw some this morning and one of the teachers reminded me of one of the teachers from That'll Teach Them... I wonder if he's some kind of reality TV teacher-ho?

Also, I saw Rule the School for the first time this morning. It wasn't all that. I think I may have missed the good stuff -- this was the exams and sports day at end of term, so a bit dull.

looking fwd to Ian Lee back on Rise next monday. no i am. really

(tenses in readiness for thorough beating)

teachers - first series best.

kate lawler on RISE - cringeworthy

classic comment - 'jordan's not ugly, not like mo mowlem'

sorry alan yes i magpied and then internalised yr insight: ps i do this all the time, in case ilxor hadn't noticed (not with alan, with everyone)

Best bit about Power of Kroll for the DrWho uber-trainspotter is that K9 is out of action for all of it (AGAIN), so they cast the guy who does the voice as one of the major technicans in it. His voice is funny cos it still sounds like K9. Also John Abineri (Herne the Hunter) is painted green throughout.

I did not see this weeks Teachers, but have discovered that yes, I actually rather enjoy it. I don't think I liked the early series as much (when I saw it). I think I am responding to it being more formulaic now - perhaps finally realising that rather than groundbreaking drama/comedy it is a very basic sitcom.

My sister is a teacher, if that is relevant to Emma's theory at all.

the character-types in 2PoL are not worn to the bone (i don't feel): but they are not written up to either (esp.the girls, who are kind of increasingly interchangeable in classic MEN-BEHAVING-BADLY PC-misfire style)

(actually when did "daffy asian girl" become a comedy meme? cf also dinnerladies AND the thin blue line)

Scrub that. It was the mnost awful piece of turgid shit I have ever had the misfortune to witness, and I've seen some shite in my time. It reeked of a conversation between 2 coked-up trustie fuckwits in a Westbourne Grove pub who invent a concept because they have a mate who's like that, and instead of doing the normal thing and writing a wanky lifestyle piece, actually get CHANNEL 4 TO GIVE THEM MONEY TO MAKE A SERIES!!!. 'kin ell.

ho ho. DYS has had referrals from google searches of "gorgeous teacher in Channel 4's Teachers" and variations.

the new geordie teacher is good too, although they haven't stressed the fact that kurt fancies her enough for my liking...

i am not a teacher, but my sister is...

Doesn't Teachers fit into this?

Interesting that the Day Today doesn't qualify, since by the above criteria it totally does.

also what is that loud claxon noise i can hear?

(on a related note, perhaps first mentions of new blogging could have links to the appropriate bit of said blogging please)

1. The vote opens on 12th August 2003.

2. You have up to ten votes - but you can't vote for the same sitcom more than once.

3. Only British sitcoms are eligible.

4. Sitcoms with multiple titles count as one show (Blackadder, Blackadder Goes Forth, etc.). These additional titles cannot be used as your nominated vote.

5. A maximum of 5 people per household will be allowed to vote (via web and telephone votes).

6. Nominations for shows which are not considered by the BBC to be sitcoms will be excluded. A sitcom is a comedy series where the same characters and actors appear in various day to day situations and each thirty minute episode is built around a separate story, e.g. The Good Life is a sitcom; Auf Wiedersehen Pet is not.

7. Calls to the phone line cost 10p per minute. Some networks may vary.

8. The results of the vote will be compiled and revealed in 2004.

9. If more than 100 people nominate a sitcom not already on our list, that show will be added to the voting page on the website, and its votes registered.

10. There will be mechanisms in place to stop automated and block voting and the BBC reserves the right to disqualify any mass orchestrated vote by an individual or organisation and will discount those votes accordingly.

Least favourite typo: films for film's, which would nudge Pete's last sentence towards coherence.

(also insert generic "FFS Pete, stop being such a knee-jerk iconoclast" here, k thx)

(Typo shall be fixed - thanks). Iconoclast, moi. The problem with a film that has been bigged up round here for two years that it sin't ever going to be THAT good. But Spirited Away was only this good.

xpost - yeah, I'm thinking about it.

That there was no climactic battle was top of my list of grate things about it, about which more later.

And what about all the other staff in the dormatory, they were all humanoid. Though of course Lin is bad enough with her 'you stink of humang' stuff. Yeah I liked the lack of climatic battle, but this was part of the pacing problem - the first two thirds of the film (up until the baby=mouse) is near deadly serious, which kind of dissipates. Stakes are dropped.

And what is No-Face all about.

I'm still not sure I like the film.

One of the force powers you could use in Jedi Knight was Force Pull, which I was disappointed to find out was just chucking small object about, like Darth Maul does in TPM, rather than the obvious.

"These are the guys you're looking for"

"These are the guys we're looking for"

"Get your coat love, you've scored"

"I'll get me coat"

That's what I noticed about Scott's storyboard drawings included on the Alien DVD - there is no structure to them, they're all surface, like a mosaic. Very odd to look at.

I was pointing out that Pete made some spelling mistakes.

Which is different, yes.

Coming later...my review of the new He-Man and the Masters of the Universe!

IS 'Flubber' w/ Robin Williams any good, btw? (I have NO money until payday on Tuesday and cannot afford to leave the house = excuse to watch tv's shittiest shit)

And I spell Masturbate wrong often because I don't really understand the concept.

the word under strain in pete's phrase is "quite"

(disclaimer: i have not seen bean, which may buck the trend)

Unless Sinker is talking about Mr. Bean, Tim.

CsS: does anyone ever listen?

My take is that he knew from the get go it was in 1. Even before he picked up the gun I said "It's in 1" because the very nervous guy was being given all these specific instructions about a very dangerous set of actions and DB kept saying "Now you have ONE bullet, to put in ONE chamber, now you have to decide which ONE you are going to choose - any of the chambers numbered from ONE up"

Then there may also have been some cues in the wieght of the barrel as he turned it??

Anyway, yes, no magic and when you've already seen him do tricks with the weak-willed 5 (the seat order thing near the end) then you know that there's not going to be mcuh to it. The 'loss of nerve" then the long pause before the final flourish was totally calculated.

(Which is a good thing.) As good as it gets with this sort of thing. Much more entertaining than man in a transparent box anyway.

What games should I get?

You can also find multi-platform games cheaper for the GC. Second hand Tony Hawk 4 for GC: 19.99; for Xbox/PS2: 29.99

I haven't played Goldeneye or Halo, so I'm not familiar with their solution to FPS on console, but I suspect that lock-on (cheating, cry our PC cousins!) is the way to go for making something fast-paced yet playable. The first scene with the ghosts was fantastically terrifying, up there with _that_ bit of Unreal.

On another note, the PC version of Halo is daring but unsurprising on Microsoft's part: it was the only widely-acknowledged great game on the system, and it's never certain that any company can deal with the pressures of making a widely-anticipated sequel. Unless you're Valve and can take you own damn time because you wrote the book on "it'll be released when it's ready". I assume that's a typo in Magnus's article, by the way: Halo's the best FPS on consoles but I've never heard anyone suggest it's better than Half Life.

Also nice to see that the last few bosses in MP are bastard hard.

This may be just me: I felt the same about Super Mario 64.

But it brings up another qn - we're thinking of moving videogames coverage to the sports blog. This is because

i) it 'fits' better there since there's talk about other games.
ii) DYS tends to have lots of posts and TMFD fewer so good gaming ones won't get lost.

Any objections/thoughts?

so they should both be on the Pumpkin then seeing as they're both fruit?

Isn't there some sort of world cup of computer games going on in Korea right now? That probably makes it a kind of sport doesn't it?

The guideline is whichever blog was posted to least recently.

Hein?

Alan, the trick is to be ready to leap every time he rears back, then pelt him with super rockets after he does the sweeping-left-to-right bit. Unless you're playing on hard, in which case the trick is to die.

It is worse than 'Down with Love'.

(Actually this film would be something I think might split the geezaesthetic divide. Canon lovers may find trouble fitting IC into their preconceptions of what the Coens ouvre si all about. I had no trouble. It was just fucking funny.)

Does that make Down With Love the funniest film you have seen this year?

I laughed once at IC - the asthma inhaler gag.

I thought the performances were bad in IC. Clooney is a one-trick pony in comedies, I think. In 'Oh Brother...' he's obsessed with his hair! Here, he's obsessed with his teeth! And CZJ shouldn't be let within 5 miles of a comedy script. In comparison, DWL had better leads (and supports!) and was a lot more fun.

And all the ass gags! What is this? A Farrelly Bros pastiche?

My opinion may be biased as I am a Screwball comedy rockist. Me and Mrs The Nipper came home after IC and watched Hepburn and Tracey in 'Adam's Rib' - much better.

You screwball comedy rockists are what made screwball comedies die in the first place. Cherish what we have. I have never really understood CZJ hate either. her time is perfect in this film, and she seems to have cornered the market in femme fatales. Okay it might not be Adam's Rib - but what is?

(I was also reminded of this column by John Patterson in last week's Guardian - as though making in-jokes for film students makes the Coen Bros superior to straight genre pieces!

The one example from which I take heart is that of the Coen brothers, a good two-thirds of whose films have sought active engagement with older genres and movie types. The important difference is that the brothers engage in the busiest, most knowledgeable way imaginable with the forms they seek both to honour and subvert, mainly by putting them under extreme duress. Their aggressive reshaping of genres to their own ends results always in something utterly original. This is not the case with Down With Love, which amounts to little more than a facsimile movie, little better than a remake. )

Should my draft post be visible to me? I selected the "drafts" option from the pull-down in the lower pane, and it says there are none :(

It's gone now anyway.

xpost - oh is that where the draft one went?

You should be able to edit it still if you want.

(The problem on TBW Mark seemed to be that is had been posted twice, and to delete you need to republish the whole site, not just the latest post).

so, more time commanders things.

do we think they've moved it cos it was getting good kid demographic? also Mark Urban, you are a bloke off of newsnight, not military historian and author!!??!! the whole greeks inventing winning and losing seems a little, um, unusual as well...

a. kids and teacher
b. "satellite tracking" ie instead of moving the blocks around during the battle they had an overhead view of the battlefield in real time.
c. coming soon to digital "armchair general" where (a selected few) viewers get to have a go themselves!!

as pete pointed out last night, i think we were all getting a bit bored of the romans...

who in the media world thinks that James Lance is any good at acting, leave alone comedic acting? He's bloody awful - I've seen him in so many shows, and in every one he seems wooden and unnatural. just BAD. stop giving him acting jobs.

I like James Lance. He is terrible but very serious about it.

I vailate between a pro and anti QI stance. It has done nothing to justify the use of cameras in it so far.

Hehe, picked a bad day for gooling yourself, James :)

Lionel, as usual, is right about most things. i flicked on to TV burp the other night, expecting it just to be tarrant on tv with harry hill instead, but no! it is a very funny look at the past week's telly...

also, what i think is the most interesting bit about the mouldy old dough PS2 ad is what the bird says "i don't know how it works, but it's good isn't it?" (slight paraphrase i think), the point being only a relative handful of ppl do know how the PS2 works, unlike in my day (drifts off into nostalgic waffle about spectrums etc)

24 made a virtue of split screen as a core narrative device, and it worked very well, at least at first, before we learnt their tricks.

I wonder if there are fads for editors, directors and producers? If you're nothing in a Shepherds Bush bar if you haven't split your screen or created an instant reality celebrity in the past week?

Deirdre O'Kane (the bank manager's wife) was probably as important a character, and she's fairly Irish (though less indie-adorable than Shirley Henderson). She's also been in two of RTE's most popular light comedy series of recent years, Paths to Freedom and Fergus's Wedding. Which is of moderate relevance because the people who made that have just made their feature debut, which stars not only Samantha Mumba and Louis Walsh, but also two Commitmentettes. I should go see that. Then I should write something to DYS, ever.

You loved Shirley Henderson's moustache, but how was her accent. Intermission is never as good as its opening sequence. Coo that Colin Farrell.

A plot to herself = someone to kiss at the closing credits.

(Change what, later readers say. Post edit ahoy).

"Colin Baker, he was actually quite good, perhaps"

NO!!1111! Vengeance on Varos is a pretty good high-concept story brought low by poor acting (Baker, Connery, the actor playing Connery's bird). C Baker never manages to create a character in any of his stories. He may be able to act - but not with the lines and character given to him. The centre cannot hold etc, but when all around is ruin too best pack it in. Not long after Varos is the DREADFUL Timelash - a script so bad that it specifically calls for a dull set just to emphasise the fact.

I think one reason ver modern fans might rate him is that he does the conventions, acts on the audio books etc. i.e. generally plays up to the fans.

He was much better in Time Gentlemen Please

C. Baker is definitely the most underrated Doctor.

> Even when analysing the composition they do a weak job, including
> missing the significance of the shape of the clouds, admittedly only
> clear in the better quality prints.

care to enlighten us?

i enjoyed said show but i guess, like those dexy's documentaries on radio 2, that it was pitched at us beginners. nice to learn that there were another 45 just like it too (my desktop is currently some men measuring a tree with fuji way off in the distance). i didn't even know it was a woodcut until the show and was great to see someone trying to recreate it (was a good weekend for woodcuts all round - sunday night had a documentary about william morris and featured his hand blocked wallpaper).

but yes, it was kinda light. still, at least it wasn't rolf harris 8)

(actually, i liked the rolf harris art thing)
(i don't like the new freaky trigger comment mechanism though hence the post here)

best set i found was here: http://www.theprices.com/view1.htm but the interface, not to mention the poetry, is awful.

andy

I hope most of you have been reading the FT's top 100 films, which strated sometime last week.

Was gonna revive this at around 9am with a PETE THE SEQUEL HATA!!! kind of post but he's just given props to the godfather pt II.

A bit too much in the 'lets smash the canon'-mode but I like it a lot so far.

We established the 100 greatest records ever made a couple of weeks before the films one. You'd have liked it a lot, Julio, but unfortunately the bits of paper were included in tom's washing and are therefore lost forever.

(Nuns On The Run woz robbed, obv.)

''We established the 100 greatest records ever made a couple of weeks before the films one. You'd have liked it a lot, Julio, but unfortunately the bits of paper were included in tom's washing and are therefore lost forever.''

I'm sure I would've liked it Tim! *coughs*

I'm looking forward to other ppl's contributions.

DYS is a great collection of great writing, it must be said. Discounting my occasional wafflings.