Tragic TV Week
30 April 2005, 10:00
My infernal couch-potato ways have well and truly smacked me on the butt this week - spent most of it in a cloud of celluloid disbelief - Kaya got eliminated from X-Factor (don’t ask me why I still watch this crap), Constantine got booted from American Idol, Angie exited with her tail between her legs on The Apprentice and Jon and Kris came second (second!) in the Amazing Race 6. What next? Jenn wins Survivor Palau?
I have often pondered why I’m drawn to so much reality TV - I studied Film, Drama & Lit (and a minor in Modern Religion but we don’t talk about that) at Uni and spent 4 years analysing both “decent” and “crap” film and TV (ah, back in the days when I couldn’t get enough of David Lynch - natsubloodykashi!). At the end of my degree, I was so frikkin’ sick of analysing. analysing. analysing everything, I started watching as much escapist junk as I possibly could. Uni had snatched a lot of the enjoyment I got from watching film and TV. Yes, even the quality stuff.
Japan didn’t help - there are so many weird “tarento” chat shows and hilarious “re-enactumentaries”, often featuring a nefarious gaijin-of-the-day story, that I got hooked. It was fascinating and really quite different to anything you get in Australia.
Back in Australia, I went into binge mode after the famine of english-speaking shows in Japan and it really hasn’t waned. My job is stressful enough that at the end of the day, I come home and just plonk in front of the TV (but not too stressful as to make me run to the Pharmaceuticals cabinet / head doctor). I. can’t. stop. Can I get me some help? ls there any such thing as T.V.W.A?
This entry has just turned into a massive justification tirade. Gomen.
Permanent Link Comments [3]Gallery Sad Face
28 April 2005, 08:18
Sorry guys - ye ol’ gallery is currently M.I.A. Husband promises to sort it out but for now, no pics, only cantankerous epithets. Gomen!
Magical Mystery Birthday Tour
25 April 2005, 10:07
Husband had decided to plan a mystery birthday camping getaway somewhere in Victoria, so on Saturday morning we got our shit together, jumped in the car and headed north.
View from Mount Donna Buang
The intended destination? A lovely picturesque place called “Murrindindi” Scenic Reserve north of Kinglake N.P. It might as well have been called “Murrinbundy” Reserve, for all the bogans crowding the place.
We were meeting the Ds at a campsite called “The Ferns” - a terribly romantic name, chock full of bogans. Even the babies were bogans. Two other camps had already been set up, one with a large bogan family, the other with about 10 teenage bogans who had pumped up the music (Guy Sebastian? so had to get out of there). How’s the serenity?
While we waited for the Ds (no mobile coverage), I went to scope out some other campsites but they were all similarly full of bogans eyeballing me with a “don’t even f&# in’ think about camping anywhere near us, mutha*!@#”. I was sure someone was going to ask me to prove that I was one of them - as if “bogan” had been offically stamped on their driver’s licenses. Scary.
Come on, Mum. Giddyup!
Scarier still was as I returned to the Ferns, there were two little signs on the gate, one with the classic “No Dogs” sign (there were in fact, 2 big bogan rottweiler dogs at the site) and a “No Guns” sign. Now, I realise that the no firearms law is standard throughout Victoria, but I’d never seen it spelled out so thoroughly before. Evidently there had been some duck-downing action in them thar hills.
At that point, as was my birthday right, I chucked a massive tanty and insisted that we get the hell away from the place. Poor Husband. He’d thought it sounded so nice in the book (which it would have been if it hadn’t been a long weekend, and we hadn’t wandered onto the set of “The Hills have Eyes II”).
We ended up meeting the Ds in Healesville and traversing Mount Donna Buang to get to the Acheron Way where they’d discovered a neat bush camping spot off the road in the middle of the rainforest.
Nearly Full
The only oddity was a v. strange “whooing” sound all night that none of us could place. It was coming from the river, and if we’d been near any other people, I would have sworn it was some dickhead pretending to be a ghost (note: usually Adventure D but he’s calmed down on the trickster front since the birth of baby). No clue what it might have been, but we weren’t hacked up in the middle of the night, so it was probably harmless.
Cracked open some champers around the campfire, tucked into some chocolate birthday mudcake and enjoyed the ambience of the nearby rushing river and a pint-sized infant smacking her chops in search of boob. Lovely. V. delightful campin’ trip.
Happy birthday to moiye
20 April 2005, 13:39
“Pocahontas? Is it really you?”
I love a good costume party, alas, due to settlement in 43 days, birthday celebrations have been postponed, ah stingy Hitler child (H.C) that I am. Judging by track record with costume parties, though, is probably just as well ->
This morning, Husband presented me with spiffo tripod for spiffo Nikon cam, so that my pics won’t look like something from “Ringu” anymore (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Do love Husband.
Some April 20 Facts…
Famous birthdays:
Marcus Aurelius (Emperor dude - 121; Joan Miro (surrealist painter - 1893); The Fuhrer (ex-CEO of Germany - 1889); Telemann (composer - 1748); Betty Cuthbert (Aussie swim legend - 1938); Jessica Lange (much esteemed thespian - 1949) ; Luther Vandross (singer - 1951); Carmen Electra, Denis Leary & Joey Lawrence (no list is quite complete without the Unholy Trinity); moiye.
Famous deaths:
Bram Stoker, Benny Hill and a shit load of people in the Oklahoma City bombing (1995) and Columbine Massacre (1999) [have always wondered if they were both some kind of sick Hitler homage, but hell, it’s my birthday so no morose ponderings today, oh NO!]. Is April 20 really the tardis of evil? Sorry. Did say I was going to stop. Love Husband. Love Husband. Pure thoughts.
Other Stuff
Birthstone: Bling bling, baby
Birthflower: Sweet Pea
Star-Sign: Aries/Taurus with a side of mashed potatoes
Photo Friday "Rest"
16 April 2005, 09:00
Reclining in Huairou, China. Click to enlarge
