If you saw the CNN homepage at the time I was writing this, you would've seen (among a few others) these three head lines.
- School Siege: hostage, gunman die
- House Passes Terror detainee bill
and
- How to turn over a 600kg cheese
I don't understand. Unfortunately I can't watch this cheese story video at work, so I have no idea what exactly is entailed in the story about the turning of the cheese. However, if it is what I think it is, I should like to know why it was the sixth listed headline in the top stories menu.
For those of you who were unaware, Typhoon Xangsane hit the Phillipines yesterday. 3 people died. But for some reason, it was listed 8th in the top stories. Why is turning a 600kg block of cheese more news worthy than a tropical storm that left 3 dead, many injured and quite a number homeless?
I only went to the CNN site to learn about the school shooting in Denver. I wanted to know what I was talking about before I began my rant on the gun laws and social situation in America which allowed yet another school shooting to occur. But this brought me to this point.
You know the "Most Popular Stories"? Those would be the ones that get the most views from the most people. And they are listed as follows:
1. Story about Denver school shooting
2. Terri Irwin's vow to continue Steve's (RIP) work
3. Woman asks to be 3rd legal parent
4. Too much testosterone kills brain cells
5. Greece adds prostitutes to GDP
6. Saudis plan fence to block Iraq's terrorists
7. Dubbya meets with squabbling allies (George "Dubbya" Bush for those who aren't savy with the Aussie slang).
8. Zero-Gravity surgery a success
9. Bankok fiannly opens their much delayed "Air-Hub"
10. New Japan PM to boost China ties
Are you picking up a problem here? Two of the top 3 stories are tripe. Heart strings pulling rubbish. This is just stupid. I had an American ask me the other day, "why is it that you Aussies hate us Americans so much?".
First of all, I don't hate America or Americans, let's make that clear. With that said, I don't like them either. I haven't met an American yet that I've liked. And I will tell you why.
Every single American I have come across fits the OC stigma. They are more concerned about bullsh*t stories with little violins playing in the background than real life issues. The Canadian lesbain who wants to be a legal parent, or the struggle of Terri Irwin dealing with Steve's (RIP) death. These should be 12th page stories, not the top 10 news headlines for today.
That's just the start of it. Have you ever watched the tonight show with Jay Leno? Personally I don't like his humour much, but there's a great segment where they go roaming the streets asking people questions about current world issues.
These people are clueless. Most of them don't even know whether their country is at war with Iran, Iraq or Khazakstan. But if you ask them whether Brad and Angelina are still together, they would be able to give you a play-by-play of every event leading up to the eventual celebrity break-up. It's really quite ridiculous.
I think the most frustrating thing of all, is that I can see people in Australia that are going the same way. It would have to be my biggest annoyance. Not stupidity, but ignorance. They have the mental capacity, they just don't care. It seems they've been using the block of news each evening as a chance to cook dinner between the day-time soaps, the arfternoon game shows, and night-time soaps.
Who's to blame for all this? Is it schools, parents, government or society in general?
I think this requires more brain power than I'm prepared to use at this time of the day. It's only an hour till knock off, then if I hurry home I can catch 'Days of our Lives' and 'Young and the Restless'.
- coops
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Just too busy
I can understand now why Pees doesn't update her blog (http://carlzp.blogspot.com) that often. It's really quite hard to find the time. That and it has been difficult lately for me to get on a good rant, I think I've just been too content with life. But today I think I'm in the right mindset.
I'm quite disappointed at today's block-buster (or lack-luster) movie scene. I mean honestly, what has Hollywood put out lately that was of any worth.
I think the Hollywood producers have caught on to the "1000 monkeys in a room with 1000 typewriters could come up with Shakespeare" concept and ran with it. Except they were too cheap to pay for any more than 10 monkeys and the scripts now reflect.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh. There have been SOME passable movies in the last few years. There just doesn't seem so be a great number of them coming to mind at the moment.
Ok, so over the last year there was Pirates of the Caribean 2, Munich, Lord of War and.... Nope, that's pretty much it. Ok, sure there were some others that might have been a 4 out of 5 stars too, but all in all not a memorable piece of cinema came out of main-stream Hollywood in the past 12 months.
You know how long ago Humphrey Bogart said "Here's lookin at you kid" or Igrid Bergman said "Play it Sam"? Sixty Four years! Casablanca was made in 1942! People that were born 40 years after the movie was made still know those quotes. Can you imagine, in 64 years time, someone going "why is the rum gone?" and have someone else recognise that is was from Pirates of the Caribbean? Not bloody likely.
So what am I going to do about this? Nothing. I'm no author. But that's not going to stop me bitching about it. Surely though there are some writers out there that still have some GOOD new ideas.
Which reminds me... WTF!!! Who the hell decided it would be a good idea to take the works of Shakespeare, and "adapt" them into a f*cking idiotic, hormone fuelled teen-romp!?!?!?!
- Romeo & Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996). Ok, not bad, at least they stuck to the script and story line. Nice work Baz.
- 10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999). So, you've taken "Taming the Shrew" and turned it into complete and utter drivel. Tsk tsk tsk. I'm not angry Gil, I'm just disappointed.
- Get Over It (Tommy O'Haver, 2001). NO! Bad dog! I cannot believe the bastard's have ruined "a Midsummer Night's Dream". Oh my god they just keep getting worse. And that was one of my favourites.
- She's the Man (Andy Fickman, 2006) Oh crap, not "Twelfth Night" too... Now, I haven't seen this particular movie, and until I'm EXTREMELY bored and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING else to do, will I ever see this movie (it was under these circumstances that I saw "10 Things" & "Get Over It"), but I'd wager that it is just as amazingly crap-tacular as they were.
Honestly, these stories are classics. They have stood the test of time, there is no need to change them into yet another stupid teen romp. If they insist on using a little artistic lisence, why can't they come up with their own idea and ruin that, rather than destroying a work of genius.
Someone must stop these people, before they get their hands on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Well, that's my rant for today. So until the next time I feel rather annoyed at nothing in particular, adieu.
I'm quite disappointed at today's block-buster (or lack-luster) movie scene. I mean honestly, what has Hollywood put out lately that was of any worth.
I think the Hollywood producers have caught on to the "1000 monkeys in a room with 1000 typewriters could come up with Shakespeare" concept and ran with it. Except they were too cheap to pay for any more than 10 monkeys and the scripts now reflect.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh. There have been SOME passable movies in the last few years. There just doesn't seem so be a great number of them coming to mind at the moment.
Ok, so over the last year there was Pirates of the Caribean 2, Munich, Lord of War and.... Nope, that's pretty much it. Ok, sure there were some others that might have been a 4 out of 5 stars too, but all in all not a memorable piece of cinema came out of main-stream Hollywood in the past 12 months.
You know how long ago Humphrey Bogart said "Here's lookin at you kid" or Igrid Bergman said "Play it Sam"? Sixty Four years! Casablanca was made in 1942! People that were born 40 years after the movie was made still know those quotes. Can you imagine, in 64 years time, someone going "why is the rum gone?" and have someone else recognise that is was from Pirates of the Caribbean? Not bloody likely.
So what am I going to do about this? Nothing. I'm no author. But that's not going to stop me bitching about it. Surely though there are some writers out there that still have some GOOD new ideas.
Which reminds me... WTF!!! Who the hell decided it would be a good idea to take the works of Shakespeare, and "adapt" them into a f*cking idiotic, hormone fuelled teen-romp!?!?!?!
- Romeo & Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996). Ok, not bad, at least they stuck to the script and story line. Nice work Baz.
- 10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999). So, you've taken "Taming the Shrew" and turned it into complete and utter drivel. Tsk tsk tsk. I'm not angry Gil, I'm just disappointed.
- Get Over It (Tommy O'Haver, 2001). NO! Bad dog! I cannot believe the bastard's have ruined "a Midsummer Night's Dream". Oh my god they just keep getting worse. And that was one of my favourites.
- She's the Man (Andy Fickman, 2006) Oh crap, not "Twelfth Night" too... Now, I haven't seen this particular movie, and until I'm EXTREMELY bored and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING else to do, will I ever see this movie (it was under these circumstances that I saw "10 Things" & "Get Over It"), but I'd wager that it is just as amazingly crap-tacular as they were.
Honestly, these stories are classics. They have stood the test of time, there is no need to change them into yet another stupid teen romp. If they insist on using a little artistic lisence, why can't they come up with their own idea and ruin that, rather than destroying a work of genius.
Someone must stop these people, before they get their hands on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Well, that's my rant for today. So until the next time I feel rather annoyed at nothing in particular, adieu.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
