What is the official currency of the USA?
Posted: February 25, 2011 Filed under: TV Leave a commentThis is about the dumbing down of UK television.I first started seeing it on Sky, but it’s been creeping on othe channels, even the good old BBC.
The first thing I noticed, was the practice of interrupting the credits at the end of a program with a trailer for the next program. I was watching a very moving drama, with a very poignant ending. The closing music was stunning and thought provoking. Except the bastards interrupted the music with some inane drivel about ‘coming up next on Sky 1’.
I know why they do it. They don’t want you channel hopping, so they try to keep you interested in what’s coming next. One can understand commercial TV stations doing it, but when the BBC started doing it, it was the thin end of the wedge.
Another complaint is introduction of sponsorship of TV programs. It’s been going on in the US for years – it’s sad to see it her in the UK. Coronation Street, (ITV1) sponsored by Cadburys – what’s the connection there then? Grand Designs (Ch4), sponsored by B&Q – there’s a bit of logic there. Vampire Diaries (ITV2), sponsored by Mentos is quite amusing and apt (Series 1, anyway). And you can’t help wonder about the irony of The Biggest Loser (ITV1), a weigh loss game show being sponsored by Subway, a fast food company.
The title of this missive is taken from an example of the “quiz” at the end of some programs on Channel 5. This one is was from The Mentalist tonight (but has been used on other shows too.) CSI is the worst though. The quiz question is so stupidly simple, something any viewer will know if they had been watching the last 5 minutes of the program. It’s all a means of getting thousands of stupid viewers to call an 0900 number and make pots of money for Channel 5.
Come on, TV execs. Show us viewers some respect. We are intelligent people. Y ou want us to watch your programs. Don’t drive us away by providing a shoddy product.
Fog…
Posted: February 25, 2011 Filed under: Highway Code Leave a commentTodays complaint is another Highway Code related matter. It’s those drivers who drive around in fog and other times of reduced visibility with out any sort of lights showing. Or just sidelights, which is just as bad.
Todays trip to work over the foggy South Downs revealed a number of cars materialising, a few yards away, out of the grey fog in a grey car, without a care in the world and not a light to be seen.
Something of a matter dear to my heart this one. A number of years ago I was done for this very offence on the Race Hill in Brighton. I had had my lights on, I’d stopped on the top of the hill for something and turned off the engine and lights. A few minutes later, started off again and lo and behold a hundred yards down the road there was a copper. So he pulled me over.
Of course that was the olden days when you saw policemen on the road – not like these days when the only time you see them is when they are screaming around in their cars with the blues and twos going. You don’t even see them – just hear them. Whatever happened to good old fashioned police patrols? That sounds like the subject of another Rant…
Remember the days of Dixon of Dock Green. A copper in need of assistance would blow on his whistle and a dozen of his mates would appear. These days you wouldn’t find another one within earshot. Actually I don’t think they even carry whistles these days. British bobbies without whistles. Whatever next. Sigh…
Apostrophes…
Posted: February 20, 2011 Filed under: Apostrophes | Tags: Apostrophes Leave a comment
Spotted on the side of a rental van...
I’m a eager spotter of Errant Apostrophes, and photograph those I can. I’ll be sharing some with you.
Traffic Lights…
Posted: February 20, 2011 Filed under: Highway Code Leave a commentIs it just me, or has the Highway Code been revised to say red traffic lights are now ‘Stop if you feel like it’? When I learnt to drive, if a light turned yellow (or amber as the more pedantic readers would correct me) as you were approaching it, you stopped. [I’ll get the current Highway Code out one of these days to find the exact wording. Ed]
There’s always been the tosser in a Beemer or Hot Hatch screaming towards a set of lights as they were amberising, and gone through just after they have turned red. But over the last few years, it’s become almost compulsary to accelerate to make sure you get through, even if it means you go through after it has turned red.
First it was just the aforementioned Beemers etc I would see doing it, then it was more sedate drivers, taxi drivers [swap those last two around, I think. Ed], even buses, and bloody police cars. If they don’t uphold the letter of the law, who will. (I can almost hear the cries of ‘you naive thing’ after that one!)
The two local sets of lights I can recommend are first – Preston Circus, both northbound, and the southbound right turn filter lane into New England Road, and second – Ditchling Road/Upper Lewes Road junction, mainly southbound, but a northbound driver nearly hit me after I came out of Upper Lewes Road after my light had turned green, having gone through his light long, after it had turned red. It was a company car – I should have let him hit me. Let’s see who is in the wrong there, sunshine.
An extract from the Highway Code.
And don’t get me started on bloody cyclists. I’ll save that for another day.
Walkmen on trains…
Posted: February 19, 2011 Filed under: Public Transport | Tags: BBC, MP3, Personal Music, Radio 4, Trains Leave a commentMy first moan. Dear to my heart, this one.
I have to honour of catching the train from Brighton to Eastbourne every day on my way to work. I’ve done it for the last 10 years. Some days I’ll read, some days I’ll do some work on the laptop, some days I’ll snooze, and some days I’ll just dreamily look out of the window at the ever changing countryside.
But every day there is some inconsiderate twat or twat-ess listening to their ‘personal stereo’. Except it’s not personal, because they have the volume up so loud that the rest of the carriage can hear it too.
I’ve done a survey. Pretty much all of the offenders are wearing white earpieces, suggesting they have got an iPod. Now Apple make some very pretty and inovative kit, but they can’t design earphones to save their lives. They are hard plastic and have holes on the outside to let the sound out. I’ve used something similar and they were as uncomfortable as hell.
One day there was one young lad three rows way from me listening to his ‘sounds’. Very loudly. The lady across the aisle asked him to turn it down, I asked him to turn it down, the train conductor asked him to turn it down. His response was somewhat shirty, saying that if he turned to down he wouldn’t be able to hear it himself. Sorry, mate, I said to myself. Poor design of your kit isn’t reason to annoy the rest of us. Or your deafness due to listening to music that is TOO LOUD!
Occasionally I’ll listen to music too. More often than not it is a podcast downloaded from BBC Radio 4. However – my earpieces, which cost me £9.99 from Waitrose, have rubber bits that go right onto the ear canal and are very comfortable. And they don’t let any sound out to disturb my neighbours. They are so good that they keep outside sound out, so much so that I stick them in as earplugs, even if I’m not listening to anything.
So – Apple – sort yourselves out! Design some decent earwear to go with your music products.
There are audiophiles that use what we might call Proper Headphones to listen to their music. Sometimes they can leak sound too, but less so. However, the really chunky headphones look ridiculous. It’s like having a bloody Cyberman sitting in the carriage with you!
NOTES : Walkmen? What is the plural of Walkman? Or should it be Walkmans? And I know Walkman was a tradename of Sony, but it still gets used by some as a generic term for a portable music player. These days the term MP3 is used, but MP3 is an encoding protocol – a bit of software, not hardware. And I know other manufacturers than Apple supply white earpieces these days, but they were the first and are to blame!
tonesrant 
