The Gap Between The Pauses

Let us imagine for a moment that you live in a civilized part of the world where spin, publicity and promotion trouble you infrequently. Its like a rare exotic bird glimpsed through the leaves and branches (and no, I’m not referring to Sam the Fruit Loops Toucan). In my part of the world there has been a habit of late to advertise questionable television with these three scorching words: Just Got Hotter. Thus, a year ago one might have heard these words issuing from the Tube: “the OC – Just Got Hotter”. Of course this genius phrase has been liberally applied to a number of television shows of varying soapiness. In TV terms, Just Got Hotter, usually means some hot girl or boy related to one of the other hot boys or girls has arrived in the street, suburb, town (whatever) and is likely to launch a hotness offensive that will singe every other character older than sixteen and younger than 24 in the ‘hood, bay, valley (whatever). I think the time to extend this phrase into the Real Worl...

Zeitgeisters, Its winter in the Southern Hemisphere or SoHem as we like to call it down here. Which means its soup-making time. I like to get a ham shank and a leek and some magic beans and boil it up for a couple of hours and then freeze the result in a number of containers. Not quite the way granny would’ve done it, but its as close as I get. Last winter I was doing this very thing on a particularly cold night and managed to mist up my small flat. The windows, the computer and the front of the microwave all had a fine layer of moisture on it. I opened all the doors and windows thinking that equalising the temperature outside and would be in some way effective. You know that way you seize upon half-remembered scientific principles learnt years ago in school? I went about with a towel and dried light switches, the desk lamp and the telly etc. Then I sat on the sofa in a my thickest jacket while a chilly wind blew through the flat. I managed to catch a pretty good documentary on SBS a...

Zeitgeisters, I know I’m supposed to be mature about this and ignore it. But if I cannot rant ineffectually to youse guys, then where? When? That’s why we ‘blog, right? I just read these words: Paris Hilton was released from a Los Angeles County jail early Thursday because of an unspecified medical problem and will fulfill the reminder of her sentence in home confinement, a sheriff's spokesman said. Are they really trying to tell the good people of Los Angeles County that her medical condition is so much worse than any other inmate that she can be detained at home? There’s no one else in the slammer that can get home detention, her condition is so peculiar that she deserves special treatment? If she’s so ill why isn’t she being put in some kind of sick-bay with medical attention? These are rhetorical questions, of course. I actually don’t hate Hilton. The problem is that she is the icon of an age when doing nothing, meaning nothing, thinking nothing and producing nothing is seen a...

Zeitgeisters, Internet Privacy advocates are not too happy about Google’s latest innovation, Google Street View , which is part of Google Maps . Street View currently shows photographic details of some parts of five US cities; San Francisco, New York, Denver, Las Vegas and Miami. Streetview allow you a 360-degree view of certain streets. These images are made up of actual “panoramic” photographs that Google took at street level from a vehicle. The argument is that Jane and Joe Citizen are also in these photographs and in some cases are doing things they shouldn’t do (e.g. jaywalking) or in places that they shouldn’t be (e.g. walking into a strip club when they’re supposed to be teaching an ethics class). There has been some debate about this on Boing Boing , and you might have seen stuff about this on Digg or in the New York Times . However, on a geewhiz level it is as cool as Google Earth was when we first played with it. Watch the Google’s cute(ish) video first, then check it out....

Zeitgeisters, Miss Raspberry Beret used to do continuity on film shoots and so she is given to exclaiming “those are not his hands” while we’re watching things on the free-to-air. Put simply, this means that the hands in the close up shot that we see turning a key, loving placing a rose on a pillow or grabbing a knife handle and operating it in a stabbing motion, are not the hands belonging to the actor in the wider shot. There can be many reasons for this. Sometimes close-up hand shots are cutaways done later in that day’s shooting when the actor has left the set already. Sometimes the shot has to be ‘picked up’ which means there was no thought of having the shot in the first place, but editing has revealed that the sequence doesn’t make sense without a close up of the hands. And sometimes the actor is a flippin’ megastar and there’s no way they’ll hang around portraying the part of their character’s hands especially when some shmo can do it. Doesn’t half spoil the magic though, when...