A clever advertisement
Elizabeth March 31st, 2008
Saw this ad at [ embodiment ], along with some great commentary about the devices they used to make it such a successful commercial. It definitely sucked me in!
Archive for the 'TV/Movies' Category
Jimmy Kimmel responds to Sarah Silverman
Elizabeth February 26th, 2008
Remember a few weeks ago, when Sarah Silverman was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel’s show? She used the opportunity to announce that she was cheating on him with Matt Damon, and the resulting video became hugely popular on YouTube.
Here’s the clip, in case you missed it:
Jimmy finally responded on his post-Oscars show last night. Some of the cameos in this video are awesome, but I think Brad Pitt and McLovin probably top the list.
As soon as a non-bleeped version appears on YouTube I’ll update this post, but until then it’s mostly “safe for work”.
#50 - Go to an outdoor movie
Elizabeth February 15th, 2008
Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge.
Last night I treated Tim to a movie at The Rooftop Cinema for Valentines Day. I managed to keep the whole thing a secret right up until we got to the door, which made it extra fun!
The cinema is on the roof of a 6-storey building, and the view was awesome. It was just high enough to make the passing trams look little, but small enough to give us a great view into surrounding skyscrapers. It was the perfect perspective for two people still getting to know their city.
One leg of the L-shaped venue was a small but well-stocked bar (shown in the photo immediately above), and when we arrived it was full of people having their post-work drinks. Many had sprawled into the cinema area around the corner to take advantage of the sunshine and synthetic grass, and there was awesome chilled-out music playing the whole time.
At around 8pm staff herded people away from the screen so that they could begin setting up deck chairs, and by 8:30pm anyone who hadn’t bought a ticket for the movie was sent back to the bar.
We managed to grab terrific seats, and when we sat down we saw that a menu had been clipped to the chair in front of us! The text read:
Howdy. Left your credit card with the bar? If not, go hand it over so you can run a tab during the film and simply text us the seat number, your surname, colour of your card and what you want. And then we bring it to you.
PS: If it’s a crying moment of the film, we might wait until that scene is over and we’ve wiped our eyes.
The menu contained a great selection of drinks, and four food options from the award-winning restaurant/bar Cookie downstairs. Tim had chicken yakitori skewers, and I tried the tofu burger (as part of my new resolve to “try new things”). The price was very reasonable ($8.50 each), and they warmed us up.
The movie began a little after 9pm. We saw Raising Victor Vargas, a movie that I knew absolutely nothing about but seemed to rate really well on Rotten Tomatoes. We both really enjoyed it, and I think I like it even better today than I did last night. It got some horrible reviews on imdb, but whatever. Worth seeing.
Overall, I had a great time and thoroughly recommend this place. Be warned, the cinema only operates from late November until the end of March each year - so check it out soon if you can!
Location: Level 6, 252 Swanston St
Tickets: $18 + BF
Two videos that you have to watch immediately.
Elizabeth February 2nd, 2008
For those who don’t know, Hamish & Andy are comedians and radio personalities, with a regular spot on Rove.
Last year Rove did a Mothers Day special, in which all the mothers of the cast filled in for them during the show with hilarious results. My favourite part of the show was when Hamish & Andy hooked their mothers up to earpieces and concealed microphones, and sent them out into the street to do as they were told…
And since I’m in a Youtube mood, everybody really needs to see this fantastic Sarah Silverman clip from her interview with Jimmy Kimmel this week. Since we don’t get his show here in Australia, here’s a bit of background from Wikipedia:
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel often says: “Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time” near the end of his ABC television show Jimmy Kimmel Live, a gag lampooning instances where shows cannot feature their last guest due to time constraints. On September 12, 2006, after a segment highlighting the running gag and a lengthy introduction by Kimmel, Damon finally appeared on the show, only for Kimmel to apologetically cut his interview and head to credits, as Damon cursed him.
Got all that? Anyway, Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman have been together for years, and when she went on his show this week she presented him with this surprise:
#56 - Catch up on Lost
Elizabeth January 13th, 2008
Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge.
(A big thank you to Josh Holloway for making this task so easy to complete!)
So. Halfway through November 2007 I had never seen a single episode of Lost. I’m not much of a TV person anyway, but I’m sure it didn’t help that when the show began I was working afternoons and nights. By the time I realised that it was a popular show, and that all the praise was really justified, I guess I felt like I’d missed the boat.
As the writers’ strike dragged on and on, Tim decided it would be a good time to catch me up on what I had missed. I never (ever!) expected that I would be able to watch 71 episodes of anything in 6 weeks - but we did! It was especially easy to watch the show on Blu-Ray, since hitting the pause button gave such incredible detail. There were a few times when we were able to spot a clue that would have told us nothing in standard definition.
We had a number of marathons that began over dinner and ran until after midnight. To be honest, now that I’m all caught up I’m looking forward to eating at our table again! Not to mention sleeping through the night without the crazy, all-consuming Lost-related dreams that have been breaking my brain. I’m expecting more of that tonight, but then I should be ok again.
So now I have to wait a few weeks to see what happens next, but at least it’s not the months that normal viewers have had to endure. I have a few ideas at this point, but first I’m looking forward to reading the massive amount of online material that I’ve been hiding from. Until tonight, I’ve had to get Tim to check Lostpedia for the answers to my questions so that I didn’t accidentally encounter spoilers.
I know, I know - I’m the last kid to show up at the party. But this was a fairly time-consuming project for me, so it’s nice to be able to check off another item on my list.
Marina Anfetamina
Elizabeth November 10th, 2007
Remember yesterday, when I was lamenting the changes to the Bonds underwear commercial? They replaced the original Bonde do Role song Marina Gasolina with a lyric-free remix, and it has turned my little world upside down. It doesn’t take much, I know.
Today I searched for a translation of the lyrics to see if there might have been an issue with them, and it turns out there is a reference to amphetamines. The translation was incomplete, but that’s probably all that was needed to get it off the air.
Is there a proven link between references to drugs in foreign languages, and drug experimentation in viewers? I doubt it.
Lame. You should watch this instead:
Marina is on fire (uhh)
Elizabeth November 10th, 2007
In this house, conversation comes to a screeching halt when the latest Bonds underwear ad comes on TV. Conversation resumes mid-sentence 30 seconds later. I can’t explain it - I consider myself to be a healthy heterosexual girl. but there’s something completely mesmerising about this ad. If I think about it too much I might creep myself out.
Tim doesn’t have any conflicting feelings about the ad whatsoever.
I’m trying to find the original on Youtube to share with my international readers, but having no luck so far. In fact I suspect that there is some sort of issue with the song they chose - I notice that for the past few days they have been playing a lyric-less remix of the song. And while the song was apparently available for download on the Bonds website, there’s now no sign of it at all. In fact, the ad itself isn’t even on their Recent Ads page.
I figured the changes to the ad must have had something to do with the lyrics of the song, which I couldn’t really decipher. My google-fu turned this up:
GASOLINA - Bonde do Role
Marina anfetamina
Marina gasolina (oooooo orra)
Marina caipirinha
Bum tchá tchá tchi tchi tcháMeet me after school and i’ll beat you like gorilla
Bite you like piranha, vem brigar com a minha aranha
Oooooo orraEgüinha pocotó
Marina is on fire
Etc, etc. If the English lyrics are the problem, I’d be pretty surprised. And I have no idea what the rest means. It’s far more likely that the mention of “meet me after school” suggested that the girls in the ad were school-aged, and some cranky viewers thought they were sexualising little girls. It’s a stretch, but that’s the only thing I can come up with.
All I know is that the song is EMBEDDED IN MY BRAIN when I am trying to sleep and if I don’t find an mp3 of it sometime soon it might actually explode from frustration.
Meanwhile, I found out that Tim & I aren’t the only fans. This is a video made by the seniors of some school called McKinnon Secondary, in which they recreated the Bonds Kaleidoscope commercial (which uses the same music).
How they roped their teacher into doing this is beyond me - my teachers never displayed this level of commitment to our ideas. Maybe that’s because our best idea involved an elaborate plot to put the school up for sale.
If anybody has this song as an mp3, they should really let me know. Until then, at least I have the lyrics so that I can sing them over the remix every 15 mins on Ten!
EDIT: I found the mp3! Uploaded it to my little music player on the sidebar, if you want to have a listen.
Ian Smith can’t quit!
Elizabeth November 3rd, 2007
I found today’s news about Ian Smith quitting Neighbours very distressing. In fact, I’m not even sure it’s legal. Surely once you’ve been on Australian TV screens for 30 years, you’re not allowed to stop without the unanimous consent of its citizens? Am I right? Of course I am.
I am appalled, and I feel betrayed. If Neighbours can go on without Harold, then what sort of a world are we living in? Can we even be certain that the sky is blue anymore, or is that just another elaborate hoax that we’ve been fed to distract us from the big issues?
I’m cranky, so just watch this damn video. It even contains the legendary Haaaaaa-roooooold Madge scene.
We’ll miss you, Harold. Ian Smith for PM.
Big Brother 2007 voting controversy
Elizabeth July 31st, 2007
In what I hope will be my final Big Brother post, I want to draw attention to the huge mess made of the voting process during last night’s Finale. From everything I’ve read tonight (at Behind Big Brother, the Ten forums and various blogs) I am of the opinion that the $450,000 was quite possibly awarded to the wrong person.
I was first suspicious of technical issues when I was woken by an SMS at 1:22am, telling me that voting had ended (and therefore, that my vote hadn’t been counted). My very last vote was sent at 8:15, half an hour before the voting lines closed, so the error wasn’t mine. As replies are only sent once per day (rather than once per vote) I have no way of knowing which of my votes contributed to the final outcome, only that I was charged for them.
Only 500 votes separated Zach and Aleisha when the lines closed, and at one point there was a difference of only 64 votes. Considering how many angry people are blogging and commenting about this screw-up, it’s not much of a stretch to suggest that Zach could have been the true winner last night. This scenario is further supported by the fact that rabid Zach fans were frantically trying to help him catch up to Aleisha, once their identities were revealed on the graphs.
I left a comment on Ten’s forums myself, which I’ll re-post here for the sake of the search engines. I’m happy to add to the pressure being directed towards Big Brother producers on this issue.
I am just another dissatisfied voter and viewer who is waiting for an appropriate response from Channel 10, Southern Star Endemol and Legion about the technical issues that resulted during last night’s Big Brother Finale.
I sent save and evict votes well in advance of the advertised closing time, as listed below:
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 7:03pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 7:04pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 7:36pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 7:36pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 8:13pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 8:13pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 8:13pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 8:14pm
“Zach” to 19938428 at 8:14pm
“Zach” to 19938428 at 8:15pm
“Zach” to 19938428 at 8:15pm
“Zach” to 19938428 at 8:15pmAt 7:14pm, 10 minutes after my first two votes, I received the following SMS from Big Brother:
BB: Thanks for your vote! U won’t receive any further replies. For all the BB action and goss watch TEN weeknights at 7:00 or go 2 bigbrother.3mobile.com.au
It is interesting to note that my successful vote/s were sent before the graphs were revealed to viewers, complete with the names of the housemates that belonged to each value.
Thinking that everything was fine, I continued to send save and evict votes until 8:15pm, noting that the lines closed at 8:45pm. Although I was frustrated by the length of time taken to announce the winner, I accepted that recounting was necessary to ensure that the right person was evicted. I was satisfied that, if nothing else, at least my votes were being counted and would contribute meaningfully to the outcome.
At 1:22am this morning I received the following SMS from Big Brother:
BB: The voting period is now offline! For all the BB action and goss watch TEN weeknights at 7:00 or go 2 bigbrother.3mobile.com.au
I have no way of knowing which of my votes were counted, and which fell victim to the clogged lines. All I know for sure is that I have been charged for all of these votes, and that at least one of them (but realistically, probably several of them) did not contribute to the outcome of the Big Brother Finale.
Considering that only 500 votes separated the winner from the runner up, and that at one point during the show only 64 votes separated them, it is safe to say that the technical issues have potentially affected the outcome of Big Brother 2007. I believe that there is a strong possibility that $450,000 has been awarded to the wrong person.
I acknowledge that technical issues can happen, but I believe that they were completely preventable in the case of last night’s finale. I was disgusted at the blatant money-grabbing tactics of the producers in deciding to name the final 2 housemates on the voting graphs throughout the show, and believe that this decision altered the outcome significantly. If the number of complaints on this forum (and others) are anything to go by, the revenue raised by last-minute voters was astronomical and I have no faith that the money I spent resulted in meaningful votes.
I only hope that the extra revenue raised by greedy Big Brother producers compensates for the lack of faith that I now have in the integrity of the process.
And my response to another poster, shortly after:
fireit wrote: I think the underlying thing out of all of this is that it affected _everyone_. It’s not just one person’s evict / save votes were lost.
I understand your point, fireit, but I think your comment oversimplifies things. I don’t think we can ignore the impact that the graphs had on the type of votes received during those last couple of hours, as Zach fans tried to frantically catch him up to Aleisha.
For what it’s worth, I was voting to save Aleisha and evict Zach and therefore got the outcome that I wanted. However, I strongly suspect that Zach would have won the series had the votes been tallied correctly and that the $450,000 has been awarded to the wrong person.
If the possibility of this exists, I think we have a responsibility to apply pressure to those responsible and make sure that Zach receives an equal prize.
So there, that’s what I think. Considering the way that Big Brother producers have treated its viewers like complete idiots this year, I’m more than happy to make some noise about this.
On a lighter note…
If my site stats are anything to go by, the 2007 version of the Big Brother Turkey Slap is the “Chicken Slap”. Google is a beautiful thing.
boadie throwing the chicken at gretel
big brother final bodie throwing chicken
gretel big brother chicken
gretel bodie chicken
bodie gretel head rubber chicken
gretel bodie chicken slap
Bodie Big Brother chicken Gretel
Gretel Rubber Chicken
Big Brother Deal.
Elizabeth July 31st, 2007
I’m really glad that I discovered The Fishbowl tonight, before writing my autopsy of last night’s Big Brother Finale. Not only has Charles saved me the time and energy of putting the disaster into words myself, but he summed it up with more humour than I could have mustered. My spirit is officially broken, but his post said it all:
You know how the English version of The Office was funny, the way it made you cringe so much that it was stomach-churningly painful even while you were laughing your ass off? That’s how it felt watching Gretel more and more desperately trying to find ways to vamp out that last hour, her already artificial smile getting thinner and thinner as she played for time interviewing whoever stood closest to her, as they successively showed all the video packages they had prepared for the night, while the show fell apart around her.
It was frustrating. It was comical. It was an exercise in just how wrong live TV can go if you’re performing without a net. The least-watched series in the show’s history was capped by an unwatchable finale. Bravo.
Next year, I say, take another hour. Take two. Have the DJ do a whole set. Interview all the housemates again, plus every past-season housemate you can get on a last-minute hospital pass satellite hook-up. Replay every single highlight you can find in the archives. Announce who won UK Big Brother, and see if anyone notices the difference. Make the audience form conga-lines to spell out their favourite housemates. Hold an impromptu game of charades. Interview everyone again but make the entire cast and crew do a tequila shot every time someone says it was “just a great experience”, or that it “changed their life”. Show a montage of Gretel’s less fortunate wardrobe choices over Green Day’s Time of your life. Bus strippers up from the Gold Coast. Dancing bears. Contortionists. Elephants.
Read his full post at The Fishbowl, or watch the following video to see Bodie throwing a rubber chicken at Gretel’s head. Either way, it’s better than watching the show.
How Big Brother lost a loyal fan
Elizabeth July 27th, 2007
A few months ago (in a password-protected part of the web far, far away) I wrote the following post.
Some people disappear into their TVs during soccer season. Other people live and breathe cricket (although that condition is very serious and probably has a very long name ending in “-chosis”). Football season is understandable when it’s AFL, because of those tight little shorts and sleeveless jerseys (put an AFL player next to an American footballer and then tell me which is the better spectator sport).
Such pursuits are very noble and all, but they’re just not my thing. Big Brother is my season. And before you Americans rush off to delete me from your bookmarks, remember that our show is approximately 9472658x better than the disaster that gets served up in your country.
Big Brother is the thinking man’s television. It’s poetry; it’s culture. Big Brother is art for the masses, perhaps more Jackson Pollock than Renoir, but nevertheless speaking wisdom through our TV screens. Its cast members go on to become productive, benevolent members of Australian society - humanitarians and defenders of the downtrodden who work tirelessly without recognition. Before dismissing the importance of this institution, ask yourself what contributions you have made to the betterment of our nation in the past year.
More reasons to watch:
* Gretel has a new stylist. That should be reason enough.
* Big Brother is routinely discussed in Parliament, so you’ll be better informed come election time
* You won’t be left out of lunchtime discussions at workAnd so, I am saying farewell for the next few months. I don’t wish to be the sort of un-Australian viewer who fits Big Brother around their existing priorities - Big Brother is a lifestyle and a commitment I intend to see through to the end. We have a responsibility as viewers to watch all 19-20 hours of weekly broadcasts, and anything less is simply a slap in the face to the mission of these brave crusaders.
But this is not goodbye, just “see you soon”. Probably sooner than you think, with plenty of discussion about the show! Please feel free to share your support and excitement in the comments.
Too much? Probably. But I was genuinely looking forward to this season of Big Brother and indulging my voyeuristic side. I have fond memories of earlier seasons, where the cast was made up of normal people who sat around and talked about normal stuff. It was uncomplicated, it was addictive, and it worked.
The person who knew that best of all was the show’s original Executive Producer and voice of Big Brother, Peter Abbott. In an interview with ABC’s Media Report on Radio National in 2002, he said the following:
Peter Abbott: There’s a lot of temptation to produce, but you’ve got to resist it. The whole process is one of creating an environment and then seeing what happens, and the nice thing is that it sometimes rewards you with something that’s far better than you could have ever imagined.
Back in the days of Peter Abbott the show was simple and transparent, and they were rewarded with great ratings and a loyal following. Most of all, the concept of the show was pure: Put 15-20 strangers in a house, cut off their contact to the outside world, let them interact and film them while they do it. And most importantly, guide them with weekly tasks but interfere as little as possible.
What resulted was a beautiful little social experiment, and viewers had front row seats. As viewers we could consider and discuss the relationships and events in the house with our friends, confident that what we had seen was unabridged and unproduced. In those early days the show was very transparent, and they weren’t trying so hard to make it into something it was not. It seemed easier to connect to the cast members, and identify with them.
With Kris Noble as EP, the true meaning of Big Brother has slowly been eroded. Over the past few years there have been fewer natural cast members, and too many famewhores. Simple tasks have been replaced with complicated themes, usually with no tangible end product and very little pay-off for the viewers. It seems that producers are only interested in creating enough content for their 22-minute daily shows, and are relying on SMS games and repetitive montages to fill in the remaining airtime.
Remember when housemates would auction off one of their belongings after their eviction for charity? When people cared enough to own the rug from the knitting task, or somebody’s guitar? I can’t imagine anybody bidding on stuff belonging to this year’s housemates, because we simply don’t care about them. Except for medical science, who are probably interested in the functioning portions of Michelle’s brain.
Speaking of Michelle…
Never before have I wished for a ratings box, purely so that I could protest with my remote control. None of my BB-watching friends could bring themselves to turn on the TV for her final 2 weeks in the house, despite being interested in how the others were going.
I wanted to like this year’s show, but with just a few days to go I don’t care. Not about the housemates, the outcome, or next year’s show.
Connie Talbot on Britain’s Got Talent
Elizabeth June 16th, 2007
You have got to watch this video of Connie Talbot, who is 6 years old, singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” on Britain’s Got Talent. This kid has such a refreshingly soft and expressive voice, and the cutest smile you ever saw.
If you can watch this without getting tears in your eyes, see a specialist and schedule a heart transplant.
