links for 2008-04-30
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I’d try it, but sitting is soooo good.
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links for 2008-04-27
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Never believed in user generated content?? That is an untruth if ever I heard one.
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This is beyond bizarre.
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More lovely statistics.
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Don’t.Panic.Buy
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links for 2008-04-24
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I didn’t know this was what he’s doing now. A step up from Popstars, eh? Still, if the critics hate it, it’s bound to be good.
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Wow. How much do I want a scarf with a big fat M on it?
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Oh lord, if it isn’t enough to have to think about apostrophes and commas all day long…
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Always two sides to every story, this is one.
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And this is the other.
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Right, sorry, isn’t he a stunt driver? How can it be dangerous driving when it’s his job?
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“I don’t think that they ever recovered in the minds of creators from their contract being read by Keith and the Girl.”
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Saves me from ever having to explain it again
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Linkage Is Gooood
For a while now, I’ve had del.icio.us set up to post whatever links I bookmark during the day to post on this blog at 1am.
I hope that’s okay.
The thing is, I look through a lot of links and I want to share them with everyone (particularly the other half, otherwise I’d spend all day emailing him URLs). I don’t usually have enough to say about each that it would warrant a blog post, but the little snippet you get to fill in as a note with each link is more than enough.
So, I just wanted to officially announce the links and say, give them a chance, because I’m starting to realise that other people’s link repositories can be a goldmine.
Filed in Links One Response so far
Get Your Message Across
When The Archers became available as a podcast, I was excited, simply from a podcasting fan’s point of view. Then I started listening, and was intrigued by the way radio soap is put together. The little things fascinated me – having to say character’s names more than you would in real life because they’re not always distinguishable by their voices, managing to make an entire 13 minutes listenable, despite very little happening, and clearly doing plenty of research into current and potential farming techniques.
That interest wore off after a while, but I’m still listening. I have no excuse for that; I guess I’ll just have to admit that I like it.
Anyway, I was looking at the website, checking up on the Who’s Who for details on a character (it’s been going so long that a new listener can often miss out on some vital history), and I stumbled across the message boards. I had a quick browse around and wasn’t that bothered. I don’t really like forums that much.
One of the boards is called Notes and Queries, and it’s a space for listeners to question the story, the details, the writers. A recent example would be a premature baby storyline. Listeners are saying that she can’t possibly be as premature as they’re telling us, because the conception dates just don’t add up. And let me tell you something, these people are adamant they’re right, and they want an admission of guilt.
The boards are monitored by a BBC employee, I think actually someone quite high up at the Archers, script editor, executive producer, something like that. He goes off, finds out the information people are asking for, and gets back to them. But, unfortunately, he was on holiday.
This made people mad.
Mistakes happen - although I think it’s very sloppy not to get this particular calculation right as it’s CRUCIAL to the premature birth storyline - but hey, mistakes happen, we all make them. What I find unacceptable is that now it’s been pointed out by listeners and an explanation asked for, none is forthcoming. Utter radio silence on the matter.
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Enjoyment of storyline is already ruined, I’m afraid, for me, at least. I appreciate that it cannot really be corrected at this stage in the game, but an apology/explanation from whoever failed to count the weeks properly wouldn’t go amiss.
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Sloppy, shoddy, and an insult to our intelligence, I’m afraid.
Really really really poor show.
Finally, we got our answer. The writers held their hands up and said they’d made a mistake with the dates, but as the storyline was so entrenched currently and for future plots, we have to grant them some artistic licence.
And to that I have two things to say:
1) The whole thing is artistic licence. It’s a soap. I never even bothered to work out the dates. Why would you? It’s about the dialogue, not the realism.
2) How amazing to have a programme actually interact with its fans? If you wrote to Corrie and said: “Wait, you know what? You’re wrong.” Do you really think you’d get a response?
Filed in Internet Radio No Responses yet
Organisational Headaches
I know, I know, this blog has been about television far too much recently. The problem is that at the moment, it’s the only other non-Sidepodcast thing I’m interested in.
ITV hasn’t really featured in my thoughts recently, but now two things have happened that sort of cancel each other out. Let me explain.
The Good
ITV shows are now available on iTunes. Get your hands on Cold Feet (yay!) or Lewis (uh…) and that’s about it at the moment. But shows are being added all the time, and this makes me happy. And very, very poor.
The Bad
There’s a US import on ITV at the moment called Pushing Daisies. I haven’t managed to tune in, because I’ve been busy catching up with The Apprentice, but I did see a trailer. It looked a bit bright for my liking, but either way, I won’t be watching it on ITV anyway.
They decided to schedule it just before some kind of football championship, except they’ve made a slight error. There aren’t enough weeks to get through every episode, before the football begins, so they’re just going to drop one. The second episode isn’t going to be shown. This is wrong on so many levels, I don’t know where to start. Surely they forked out a decent amount for this show, and that money is literally just sitting on a shelf somewhere? Is the story going to make sense without this episode? Why can’t they just show two in one night, like the penultimate and finale in a 2 hour special? That would make it a big exciting marketing dream, rather than this scheduler’s nightmare.
The Ugly
The worst part (or best, from a consumer’s point of view) is that almost the same day that ITV let slip this information, Pushing Daisies became available on iTunes.
Filed in Internet TV No Responses yet
links for 2008-04-20
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I can’t imagine how this is useful, but something is tempting me to sign up!
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Well, they never really tied it in to the eBay concept, did they?
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links for 2008-04-19
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I both love and hate LonelyGirl15 at the same time. It’s an interesting mix!
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Everyone loves a good set of stats.
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It irks me when songs have both English and their native language in there. Pick one and stick to it.
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I honestly can’t tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
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Surely people who read Andrew Baron’s Twitter account do so because they like what he said? Why wouldn’t they just unsubscribe from the new owner? It must be a waste of money.
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Good news, although of course, I say go back to iTunes.
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An extra hour - woohoo!
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I’m glad about this, although I never figured out why I liked the show, not being a huge fan of kids.
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This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard and I will have to write a rant about it at some point this weekend.
Filed in Links One Response so far
links for 2008-04-10
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An interesting choice.
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Coooool.
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Looks very swish. I’m an Adobe Air fan, so interested to see how this goes down.
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A puppet announcement. Whatever next?
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No, don’t do it.
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