For those of you who missed out, we’ll be bringing you bits and pieces, leading up to playing the audio version in late March. The first of those is this video that we created out of the testimonials people sent in about their Press Gang influences.

Actual Chad went one step further and created the feel-good hit of the summer. Have a listen after the jump:

Thanks, Chad. You are a very talented man with too much time on his hands.

For those with browser that can’t handle html5 controls (you know who you are) you can download the file here.

This means that we won’t have any threaded comments but you will be able to comment more easily.

Sorry for the inconvenience this has or will cause.

It has been disciplined appropriately and we are all sincerely sorry if any of your messages went missing over the past few weeks.

In other news, we’ve opened up our comments using the Disqus system. It means you no longer have to log in to comment meaning you can write your rant and get out before anyone catches you.

There’s also our Facebook page where you can become a fan and see other people in the Boxcutters family.

Enjoy the new openness.

Sex on television – is there too much of it? Is there too little? What works for you, and what doesn’t? What is gratuitous and what is justified? What would you cite as good and bad examples?of sex on television, and why? In your opinion, does television portray sex unrealistically? Unethically? Unyieldingly?

We’ll be reading your comments out on the show (it’s just like CNN!) so feel free to discuss the issue in the comment below, or email us at?hooray [[at]] boxcutters [[dott]] net,?or sms us at 0458 288837 (that’s 0458 BUTTDR. Or even 0458 CUTTER).

Boxcutters – you only get out what you put in. Oh, that sounds rude. And a Happy New Year to you all!

We hope you can find out a way to entertain yourselves until then.

On another note, thanks to Paddy who created a Boxcutters Wikipedia page. Unfortunately it was taken down fairly quickly because, apparently, it didn’t have enough information. Thanks for trying, Paddy.

Anyone who wants to give it another go, please, be our guest. You might want to have a look at some other podcast descriptions on Wikipedia.

The Age reports:

The network is now expected to inject capital to digitise its Artarmon Road, Willoughby, studios in Sydney’s north, and the Bendigo Street, Richmond, studios in Melbourne’s east.
When PBL Media listed the properties for sale at the end of last year, institutional developer demand was buoyant, with the two properties at one time expected to have sold for $200 million.
But sharemarket volatility and a slowdown in the residential market changed the dynamic this year. It has been reported that Charter Hall lowered its price for the Willoughby and Richmond sites to about $165 million.

They just can’t seem to catch a break. What is going on with them? Also, it’s obvious from this latest debacle that since the whole PBL Media creation, Nine is being shaken like a piggy-bank trying to get the money out rather than being used to actually make great television.

Source: The Age

What do you want to see in a one hour chat show with a personable host and a musical combo on the side? Should there be a monologue? Should the host do a song from time to time?

Does it need to try to be a comedy or can it be sustained with intelligent conversation? A barrel or wheel? Audience interaction? SMS voting? We’ve come a long way from Don Lane’s barrel but would it still work today?

Any thoughts invited – it’s a blank canvas.

“We’re out of contract and they keep threatening to turn us off,” Mr Gordon said. “We said, ‘Go ahead: take your programming off’, and we think it would be a lot of fun if they did. We can program this network. When I bought this network in 1979, there were no affiliation agreements.”

PBL Media, owner of the Nine Network, wants WIN to pay 40 per cent of its revenue in return for programming, up from the 32 per cent it pays under the current agreement, which officially expired on July 1.

Mr Gordon wants the fees reduced to reflect poor ratings, and to bring them into line with the 29 per cent of revenue that WIN’s main regional competitors, Prime and Southern Cross Broadcasting, pay their partners at Seven and Ten.

Apparently it is worthwhile to boast about putting on 35 year old repeats if it means you’re sticking it to the big boys.

WIN calls Nine’s bluff on program supply — The Age

I don’t know about you but I can’t understand how The Simpsons gets in there but Arrested Development misses out. Then again, they don’t seem to have listed any criteria or even seek to define what a “cult” show might be.

Of course, magazines have a tendency to create lists in the hope they will be talking points. In that way this list is no different to Who Weekly‘s most intriguining people lists. Similarly, it was probably created in a half-hour meeting with people just shouting names at someone writing them on a white-board.

For your perusal, here’s the list: TV Guide Names the Top Cult Shows Ever

Especially interesting in regards to his reasons for originally saying he wanted four seasons of Deadwood.

Fingers crossed about the movies.

and

If you’d like to download just the bit that you missed, here it is:
Direct Download

iTunes seems to be a mite recalcitrant about re-downloading podcast shows – there’s no way I can figure out to make it get the full show again – so, for iTunes users, the news, once again, isn’t good.

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It started out talking about their pranks being newsworthy and finding their way into the nightly bulletins before they get a chance to air them on the show proper – this happened with the West Coast Eagle mascot more than a week before it turned up on the Chaser.

The article goes on to talk about the Chaser podcast being number 1 on iTunes Australia and how the download doesn’t include a number of items from the version that went to air:

The Marcus Einfeld sketch is missing due to him being subsequently charged for 13 criminal offences;

The Qantas ad pisstake; and

Andrew Hansen’s musical tribute to Naomi Robson, Goodbye Plastic Face.

The article also talks about the Mercedes Corby suit against TT, et al., stating that Jodie Power has been named in the suit and that Stuart Littlemore QC is Corby’s barrister. Did I mention this could get interesting? As a former host of Media Watch (before it was a crippled piece of dross), with a particular focus on the ethics of tabloid TV, Littlemore’s involvement should make it even more so.

And on the back of the Quotes segment this week:
Eboni Stocks, the winner of the second series of Australia’s Next Top Model, was removed by security from a Darlinghurst, Sydney bar after allegedly punching a female patron in the face. ANTM isn’t a show I’ve had the pleasure to partake in but, having heard Josh’s offering, now I’m not so surprised to hear about this.
More Info

Be quick because this limited item will be rampaging out the door for just $19.95 from the Boxcutters Superstore o’ Love and, once they’re gone, that’s it.

You can find a rundown of the episodes here.

Also, I can highly recommend checking out the podcast. It’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.

Add that to the list of urban and suburban myths.

It turns out that a lot of people with digital video recorders are not fast-forwarding and time-shifting as much as advertisers feared. According to new data released yesterday by the Nielsen Company, people who own digital video recorders, or DVRs, still watch, on average, two-thirds of the ads.

One big reason is that many people with DVRs still tune in to watch about half of their shows at the scheduled start time, meaning they must sit through commercials.

And even when people watch recorded shows later, many are not fast-forwarding through the ads. On average, Nielsen found, DVR owners watch 40 percent of commercials that they could skip over ? perhaps because they like ads, don’t mind them or simply can’t be bothered.

“People are actually playing back more of the commercials than we thought,” said Steve Sternberg, executive vice president and director of audience analysis at Magna Global Media Research, an ad-buying agency. “People are buying DVRs not because they want to time-shift all of their viewing and skip all commercials, but because they want to time-shift some of their viewing.”

While the new data may well be fodder for cocktail party chatter, it also has major financial implications. Largely because many advertisers thought that people with DVRs were not watching their ads, they have not been paying for time-shifted viewing on DVRs. Now the networks could use the new information to try to charge more. And advertisers may begin pressing networks to rethink commercial breaks — maybe making them shorter.

People who have DVRs often insist that they never watch commercials, as if skipping commercials is a badge of honor. And while it is true that some DVR owners probably watch no commercials, others never touch the fast-forward button. Most people are probably in the middle of those two extremes.

“That’s part of the reward of taping: being able to zip through the advertisements,” said Marjorie Elson, a 62-year-old psychologist in Maryland. “But sometimes I do watch them ? only if they capture me.”

TiVo has found that its customers view the last commercial in a break the most, followed by the first commercial. (Viewers sometimes do not start fast-forwarding right away, and they often stop a bit early so they do not miss the next part of the show.) Commercials in the middle fare the worst, said Todd Juenger, vice president and general manager for audience research and measurement at TiVo, which serves 4.5 million of the roughly 15 million DVR viewers.

Nielsen announced the data as part of its preparations to release commercial viewing numbers for every TV program, starting in May. Nielsen, which collects data every few seconds through its set-top boxes, added DVR households to its sample in the last year; its commercial ratings data reflects the total time viewers spend watching ads, including viewing of partial ads, rather than whether ads are watched from start to finish. Advertisers spent upward of $70 billion last year for their TV spots ? more than in any other type of media.

“The cable operators that have the subscribers, the programmers who have the content and the marketers have to get ahead of this,” said Curt Hecht, chief digital officer at GM Planworks, the part of the Starcom MediaVest Group that manages General Motors’ ad buying. “They need to figure out how advertising can remain sustainable and effective in the new landscape.”

Advertising and television executives have not yet figured out which DVR owners are more likely to be commercial skippers, though Nielsen has found that younger people generally skip more commercials and time-shift more of their viewing than older people.

Nielsen has also found that commercials are more often watched during playback if the viewer is looking at the show the same day it ran. Commercial viewing drops significantly over time after the original showing. If advertisers start paying for DVR viewing, one question is whether they will pay just when viewers play back shows within a few hours.

Without DVRs, people can, of course, change the channel, leave the room or not pay attention during commercial breaks, but those activities seem to have only a minor effect on ratings during commercials ? only 5 percent, according to Nielsen data.

“DVRs are really the big X factor going forward,” said Brad Adgate, senior vice president for research at Horizon Media, an ad-buying agency. “People’s DVR behavior is going to drive the marketplace.”

DVRs, which were introduced in 1999, are becoming more popular every year, and the cable operators are increasingly offering the feature in new set-top box packages. Analysts say DVRs are now in 12 to 20 percent of households. DVR owners tend to be wealthier and more educated than the average TV owner. DVR owners tend to have more children, and some own more than one DVR.

DVR owners account for about 6 percent of all TV viewing, but that figure is likely to grow, said Tracey Scheppach, vice president and video innovations director at Starcom USA. “Four of five people use the word ‘love’ when they describe this product, and when you have a product that powerful, it is going to become mainstream,” Ms. Scheppach said.

Starcom USA signed on last month to become TiVo’s first customer for a new monthly rating service in which TiVo will sell viewership numbers for commercials and programs seen by its customers. Companies like Nissan have already bought TiVo data to analyze how often their commercials are fast-forwarded. TiVo has long been tracking what its viewers watch, down to the second. But it is just now beginning to develop demographic data, using a panel of customers.

In some households, children are exposed to TV only through DVRs. Patricia Bowen, 35, a commercial property manager in San Antonio, said she liked being able to control what her children watched by programming acceptable shows on the DVR. She said her family liked to stop fast-forwarding during commercials to watch Apple and Geico ads.

“My son doesn’t understand why other people cannot pause their TV when they need to go to the bathroom,” she said.

Advertisers are well aware that coming generations may be DVR users. Visa decided to use brighter colors in its recent ‘Life Takes Visa’ commercials in an effort to get fast-forwarders to stop and watch for a moment, said Susanne Lyons, chief marketing officer for Visa.

“We’re trying to make a bigger-than-live color statement so when you’re flipping through quickly, the color jumps out,” Ms. Lyons said.

But Visa also decided not to advertise on TV at all in its new campaign for Visa Signature, a card for affluent consumers, in part because DVRs tend to be in wealthier households, Ms. Lyons said.

Emma Staples, a 29-year-old sales manager in Knoxville, Tenn., says she fast-forwards the commercials at a slower speed than her husband in case she wants to stop and watch one.

“I like to see what is going on in commercials,” Ms. Staples said. “Sometimes I’ll stop if it’s a preview for a movie I might want to see.”

Advertisers generally do not get to purchase particular positions in commercial breaks, even though it has long been known that the first and last position are best for brand recall. Now, networks may have to consider what happens to advertisers that follow a boring ad.

“If you have a horrible ad in the first position and it just basically drives people away, whose fault is that?” said Alan Wurtzel, president for research at NBC Universal.

Network executives said they had talked to a number of advertisers developing commercials that remain visible even during fast-forwarding. TV networks are testing to see how often DVR users remember ads even when they fast-forward through.

The cable operators are also experimenting with ads shown through video-on-demand and promotions for ads that run along the bottom of screens during TV viewing. Advertisers like Burger King and General Motors have purchased a new offering from TiVo that asks people at the end of shows if they would like to see a commercial.

Network executives said that commercial skipping has been overblown.

“When you talk to an advertiser it is like “Oh god, I’ve got to go on to the Internet because on television these people are fast-forwarding through the commercials,” said David Poltrack, the chief research officer for the CBS Corporation.

Mr. Poltrack also said that the networks had always focused primarily on attracting the most viewers to their programs. As DVRs become more popular, he said, networks will be forced to find ways to keep more people watching commercials.

Katherine Bryant, 29, owns three DVRs ? two in her home in Charleston, S.C., and one in her Oklahoma City apartment. Ms. Bryant, a dentist, said she watched more TV shows than she used to because she no longer had to sit through all the ads.

“Once you have one,” she said, “you can never, ever go back”

Kiefer Sutherland was delighted to receive his own Jack Bauer doll, sent to him by the ’24′ merchandisers, to see if he approved of the design. He certainly did approve and reported back straight away that he was particularly impressed with the realistic facial carving on the wooden prototype, before taking his balsa doppelganger on a riotous night out with his mates.

Kiefer’s friends were also impressed and used the doll in a series of pub party games, acting out scenes from the hit series with aplomb and staggering faithfulness to the scripts. Sad to say, the doll Bauer proved less durable that the fleshy version, with the result that it failed to survive such stunts as running whilst alight and doused in vodka.

A bleary Kiefer stumbled into the office the next morning only to be told that the pile of ashes in his local bar was in fact the ONLY prototype of the doll, and was the result of a master Japanese wood carver’s year full of sleepless nights and constant reworking. And yes, it was the only copy and designed to be used as a mould for the final plastic version.

With remarkable calm, he insisted the doll was safe and had certainly not been stolen, and whenever asked in future about the fate of the doll would only reply, “It has NOT been stolen,” without further information.

A year later, another prototype appeared, at which point Kiefer revealed the fate of the original Bauer and agreed to approve the second prototype by sight alone.

(Click more to see them)

Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, CHEERS, FRASIER, THE SIMPSONS, WINGS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG, and has co-created his own series including ALMOST PERFECT starring Nancy Travis.

He’s got some great tips for young players on his blog including how to pitch pilots.

It’s definitely worth checking out for anyone interested in breaking into the biz.

Beaming Beeman
http://gregbeeman.blogspot.com/

Greg Beeman is one of the two directors on Heroes which started on air in the US last September.

In his blog he details the difficulties of directing television with its restrictive budget and how wonderful it is to be making such a fun show.

The Venice Project
https://www.theveniceproject.com/about.html

The Venice Project™ is a new venture that combines the best elements of the TV experience with the most powerful internet technologies, in a way that will redefine the way people think about television. It is not a file-sharing application or a video download service.

I think it’s worth keeping an eye on this one. I also think Brett doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The way these guys created Skype used existing technologies in a way that nobody else had thought of. They are innovators and I’m quite excited about what they’re building with regard to TV. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Sorry for the delay.

Apparently they have definitions and guidelines on what is indecent but they can’t share them around because that would be telling.

*sigh*

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mister James Brown.

Firefly Reborn as Online Universe (via Wired).

Click the (more) link to see it:

At the club:

Apology on Letterman:

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As much as there’s sure to be insights that might lead to some new examinations to “Find the real killer”, some haven’t been so pleased to hear the news.

Check in the more section to get Fred Goldman’s take (he’s the father of Ron Goldman – one of the victims).

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Check out the Simpsons TOH XVII edit your own promo thingy. It’s a little bit of website fun.

The critics that Mark Scott speaks of are, invariably, right-wing, conservative supporters of the Howard government – people like Andrew Bolt, Gerard Henderson (who is the executive director of the Sydney Institute – who happened to host the speech) and Piers Ackerman – people who support Australia being part of the invading forces in Iraq, the locking up of asylum-seekers in detention centres, the denial of climate change and the refusal to sign the Kyoto agreement, the new “work choices” industrial relations legislation that reduces the pay and conditions of Australian workers and the reduction in public funding for the ABC.

And the reason why they are loud, bully-boy critics of the ABC is because the ABC hasn’t played the part of a cheer squad on each of these issues as they’ve arisen and they don’t like being challenged. Mark Scott’s new policy simply panders to these thugs and gives them more air time than they already have to spout their lies and to proselytise for their church of the far right… not to mention the more extreme groups of the right who will be compulsorily included so that we “hear the full range of voices” “on contentious matters”.

For example, this means that if there’s a program that deals in evolution – say Walking With Dinosaurs – which some claim is a contentious matter, the ABC would have to give air time to creationists to argue their case for creationism or, as they’ve repackaged it, Intelligent Design. A similar thing has happened in various states in the US in the schools’ curricula with ‘Intelligent Design’ being taught in SCIENCE classes, in order to refute Darwin’s theory of evolution and consolidate the belief that the Genesis book of the bible is a literal document of how God created all life.

Already, even without any new policy, 774 radio in Melbourne has filled their afternoon and drive programs with Richard Stubbs and Lindy Burns – two presenters that distinctly lack the intelligence of their predecessors who present programs that waste two and three hours every day covering crap like world massage day and whether footballers should be held up to greater accountability because they’re role models.

Already we’ve got Helen Razer cutting off guests because they say that newly appointed, conservative ABC board member, Keith Windshuttle’s denial of the Aboriginal stolen generation is akin to holocaust deniers – because she’ll lose her job.

The new ABC policy marks the beginning of the end of the ABC being anything but an excuse for dead air that acts merely as an exercise in covering its own ass, lest the vocal, far-right, conservatives be offended.

Now let’s take a look at who’s at the controls of the ABC: Mark Scott is the Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was previously the senior political adviser to former NSW Liberal education minister, Terry Metherell.

According to a report by Crikey.com.au, while editor-in-chief of metropolitan newspapers at Fairfax, Scott overturned a decision by the editorial staff at The Age newspaper’s to call for a change of government at the 2004 federal election. Accoding to Crikey, “a decision was taken to call for a change of government. That decision was then overturned by Mark Scott, Fairfax’s head of metropolitan newspapers, who apparently made the rather extraordinary claim that backing [Opposition Leader Mark] Latham wasn’t in the commercial interests of the company.”

Taking the theatre out of ABC criticism
The ABC’s new policies will give audiences a full range of views, writes Mark Scott. The Age, 18/10/06

IN MY early weeks as managing director, I have called on some of the ABC’s harshest public critics. And almost to a man and woman, they have been at pains to point out how much they love the ABC.

Then comes the but – and as my father-in-law has often warned me, ignore everything before the but. There is a sense that the organisation has issues with balance and fairness, particularly through its news and current affairs content, although some critics would suggest across its entire content. We need to address the criticism carefully and comprehensively. To ignore it or reflexively dismiss it only serves to limit ourselves, and is at odds with the ethos of open debate and discourse that is central to our reason for being.

Instead of facing up to these criticisms, it is easy to take comfort in the market research that suggests the ABC is remarkably popular with its owners: the public. A recent Newspoll indicated 90 per cent of the public believed the ABC provided a valuable or very valuable service. And there is comfort in recent research by Young and Rubicam that said the only brand more popular in Australia than the ABC is Vegemite.

Within the ABC, it is easy to say that people like us, the ratings are reasonable and the critics are the ones who really don’t get it. At times it does appear that criticism of the ABC takes the form of set-piece theatre: everyone knowing their lines and going through well-known rituals. But such an approach is unwise and misses the real point: is there substance in the criticism? Does the ABC have a problem with editorial values? It is an important question. It is very clear to me that this pattern of critique and reflexive defence needs to be challenged.

What I am outlining represents the ABC taking the lead to break this ritual. It is a challenge to both ourselves and our critics to learn some new steps and think afresh about how we deliver balance, diversity, impartiality. It is only reasonable, that as the public broadcaster using public money, the ABC set high standards for itself; higher standards than anyone else in the Australian media.

The public invests its trust in all ABC content, regardless of its source within the ABC. The new policies reflect this reality. The policies will ensure that ABC audiences can see and hear a broad range of viewpoints on matters of importance. The policies are contained in a document that runs to some 50 pages. It says upfront that as a creator, broadcaster and publisher of news and current affairs content, there is a requirement for impartiality. Each news and current affairs story and program must be impartial. For opinion programs or programs of topical and factual content, individual items of content can take a particular perspective, but the ABC must be able to demonstrate that it has provided audiences with a range of different perspectives on the subject under consideration on each platform, be it radio, television or online.

On contentious matters, we need to hear the full range of voices. We have taken another look at fairness and what it means to be impartial. Impartiality is a long-held expectation of our news coverage. Being a responsible public broadcaster is not synonymous with universal public popularity. The editorial policies now require the ABC to be impartial as a broadcaster and generator of content. As we assess the output of each of our platforms – ABC TV, Radio National, local stations such as 702 ABC Sydney – there is now the expectation that there is impartiality. That there is a demonstrated plurality of opinion and perspective.

The new category of opinion will be content presented from a partisan point of view about a matter of public contention. This content will be signposted as opinion and the impartiality test will be: has the ABC presented a plurality of views? And the ABC will expect staff to operate in a way that is reflecting key values of honesty, fairness, independence and respect.

We are looking to have three mechanisms for quality assurance around the implementation of our editorial policies. The first is regular program and performance review. Second, we have our established mechanism for dealing with public complaints.

A new mechanism is through the director of editorial policies, who will be able to commission research to provide better insight into whether we are meeting our own expectations. And when staff are dealing with a difficult decision in light of interpreting editorial policies, or I am concerned about a matter before broadcast or publication, the director of editorial policies will be able to provide independent advice.

Our journalists need to be able to undertake courageous journalism. Our radio broadcasters need to be lively and engaging and provocative at times to win and keep an audience. So, too, with television and online. Our policies promote the spirit of inquiry, not dampen it. As I have explained to our newsrooms, I want them to practise great journalism. To find the big stories and to hold those who seek to lead us to account for the promises they have made and the truths they espouse. But to achieve great journalism, you need to practise good journalism. Journalism that is fair, accurate, balanced and objective.

If there is a deference in these policies, it is to the primacy of ideas, to the intelligence of an audience, to the right of audience members to make up their own minds.

Mark Scott is managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. This is an edited version of his speech to the Sydney Institute last night.

I have not been boned, says Nine’s McGuire

By Brooke Williamson – October 20, 2006 12:00am – Article from: The Daily Telegraph

CHANNEL 9 chief Eddie McGuire yesterday denied he was out of favour with senior PBL management, despite being a notable omission on the new company’s board.

“Have I been boned? No,” McGuire told The Daily Telegraph.

“My job is to be the CEO of Channel 9. Three days ago I was CEO of Channel 9 and I’m the CEO today. It’s a really exciting time to be in the chair.”

On Wednesday, James Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd sold 50 per cent of its media assets including Channel 9, ACP, and ninemsn to private equity company CVC Asia-Pacific for $4.5 billion.

These assets are now part of a separate company called PBL Media, which will have John Alexander as its executive chair and ACP boss Ian Law as its CEO.

McGuire will now report to Mr Law, creating an extra layer of management between him and his last direct boss, Mr Alexander.

An industry source said McGuire’s omission from the board of PBL Media – which is comprised of Mr Packer, Mr Alexander, Mr Law, Chris Anderson and Pat O’Sullivan – signalled the end for McGuire.

“Normally you’d put Eddie McGuire on the board as a nice, face-saving thing,” the source said.

“The fact that he isn’t, and Nine is a major asset, does not bode well for Eddie. This is a rebuff to him.”

Mr Alexander denied the claim, saying he had full confidence in McGuire’s abilities.

“I am very happy with how Eddie is running Nine. He has turned Nine around.”

NEWS.com.au

It’s the Orson Welles outtakes for some Californian champagne he was shooting while, perhaps, having sampled too much of the client’s product.

Click the more link to see the clip.

PRESENTER of British motoring program Top Gear Richard Hammond suffered a significant brain injury in a high-speed crash in a jet-powered car while filming for the program, a hospital spokesman said today.

“He has suffered a significant brain injury,” the spokesman said.

“It is still giving cause for concern as it is still early after the injury. However, we are reasonably optimistic that he will make a good recovery.”

NEWS

It’s more cigar shaped than previous blimps around Melbourne have been and the screen looks like it’s just a rear projection system onto the side of the balloon. That’s a lot less interesting than the report sounded. Not to mention it’s just on a loop of ads for Commodores.

And it doesn’t even look that big and I’m looking at it almost directly overhead.

There’s a word that comes to mind and that word is LAME

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Here’s the first part and Part 2 is over here.

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Good work Matt – none of us happened upon that episode…

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Hey Boxcutters,

Matt Boxcutter here. Got home last night, a few beers and a dodgy souvlaki short of my usual self and decided that I would tune into ‘Quizmania’ on Network Eddie. Well…imagine my surprise when I saw that yes…it was Quizmania…but no…there was no quiz. A glitch in the Netwrok Eddie phone system meant that the hosts (two women, who i have never seen before…and after last night…may never see again) had to ‘improvise’ for an hour or so. We were ‘treated’ to speculation about Jessica Simpson’s sexual proclivity…a race between one of the girls (on a trolley pushed by the floor manager) and a monkey (on a trolley pusehd by one of the camera people)…enquiries about the wellness of the crew…a discussion about John English looking like a Panda…and a lot of sunglasses on…sunglasses off…pained banter. I’m not sure if Eddie was watching, but the girls were just about to read out a joke email (yes…it had come to that) when they both grabbed their ear pieces…apologised…and said to stay tuned for some Drew Carey. Drew Carey followed…then another ten minutes of trying to get the phones to work…and then back to Drew Carey. The best late night entertainment that any of the three networks is liekly to put on for some time, and thoroughly enjoyable. Who would have thought that those quiz shows are actually better without the quiz element?

Cheers,

Matt.

And don’t forget to check out the Boxcutters Video Podcast here.

You can find it here. Thanks very much to South Park studios for helping the Boxcutters Family come together.

Here is what we look like and what some of our listeners look like.

The event was a small black tie dinner hosted by an 18 year old Oxford girl to honour the election of some conservative toff to some office position at the university. The whole affair was nothing more than a display of terrible arrogance the likes of which can really only be demonstrated by over-privileged British university student tossers.

At the end of the episode the two Inspectors wrote a letter to the hostess thanking her for the invitation and then criticising her for a few of the things she did poorly. There was absolutely no face-to-face advice or even meeting on screen between the hostess and the Inspectors. I suppose that’s why they’re the Dinner Party Inspectors and not the Dinner Party Helpers.

It is a ridiculous show and is of the sort I would ordinarily turn off but there is something strangely compelling about it.

The first result that came up when I googled ‘anonymous proxy’ was The Cloak. I plugged in the address – www.sho.com – and I’m in. It’s easy as.

BB

From the left: Brett, Josh, Ross.

Click the more link to open the post –

Michelle Rodriguez had received a 60-day jail sentence for DUI probation violations. She checked herself in on Thursday evening and was released 4 and half hours later due to jail overcrowding.

A spokesman for the LA city attorney’s office said Rodriguez was released after just less than four and a half hours as part of a book and release program typical for non-violent offenders with sentences of less than 90 days. Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the LA County Sheriff’s Department, said the early release program was implemented in 2002 “as a last resort” to meet budget cuts that reached $180 million.

Over the weekend, Rodriguez not only was spotted stateside — but she was back in the celebrity swing of things. On Saturday, Rodriguez was seen at the Ultimate Fighting Championships at the Staples Center, alongside Paris Hilton, David Spade and others.

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“The ‘T’ stands for talking,” Mr T said. “I’m going to talk it up. It’s what I’ve been doing all my life.”

But Mr T will not simply be a carbon copy of self-help guru, Dr Phil McGraw. “My show ain’t no Dr Phil, with people sitting around crying,” he said. “You’re a fool – that’s what’s wrong with you. You’re a fool if you don’t take my advice.”

It was with this in mind that I came across this picture of Mr T. Perhaps not the most recent – given the distinct sheen on that suit he’s wearing – but I think you can get the idea.

Click the thumbnail, then click it again to see it full size.

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TV program drawn into firm dispute

A Nine Network current affairs program has been drawn into a bitter dispute between a Melbourne engineering firm and its workers.

Finlay Engineering hit the headlines last month when boss Jim Sutton reportedly sacked a worker for smirking, his mate for backing him up and another worker for being absent.

A union campaign and a community picket won the men their jobs back.

On Tuesday, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) held a barbecue at the firm’s Heidelberg plant, claiming management enlisted A Current Affair to harass staff.

The program denied the claims and accused the union of being hypocritical.

Union secretary Dave Oliver said Tuesday’s event was to protest against “bullying and harassment”.

“They (Finlay management) have allowed a film crew to chase them (the workers) around work,” he said.

“We want to send a message out to the employer that we won’t tolerate this type of behaviour.”

A Current Affair did follow-up stories after the dispute, indicating that the sacked staff had been absent on occasion since their re-hirings.

One of the three workers went on stress leave following the involvement of A Current Affair and had a WorkCover claim in progress, while another of the men had left the company, Mr Oliver said.

Following the initial involvement of A Current Affair, Mr Oliver claimed that one of the men, Vince Pascuzzi, had journalists from the show camped outside his home to take footage of him.

Mr Sutton denied his company had bullied or harassed staff members.

“If anyone has been harassed it is me. They bullied me into reinstating the three blokes. If it wasn’t for the picket, I wouldn’t have rehired them. They would have sent me broke,” he said.

Supervising producer of A Current Affair, Danny Keens, also denied the show had harassed the three men.

A letter sent from A Current Affair to Mr Oliver said: “I find it extraordinary that you would accuse A Current Affair of bullying and harassment, considering the threats reportedly made by your union to Mr Sutton with regard to re-reinstating these employees in the first place.

“I also find it extraordinary, and somewhat hypocritical that you are so concerned about the effect of media attention on your members, when just a month ago, you were happy for them to go on national television propagating your cause, when it suited,” Mr Keens wrote.

Also, check out their website. You will need the latest Flash plugin but it’s worth it.

Stay tuned for Josh’s info about the online game.

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On the subject of Telstra/foxtel cable being laid down in the street. I’m not sure how they used to lay it down, but when they are putting the cable down these days they put it through a tube. Our area was a broadband blackspot and Telstra decided to fix this by laying down Telstra cable (according to the bigpond website its active, though some Telstra employees say its not!) so I saw what they did. They put down a white tube first then laid the cable down that, so if they really want to replace it they can.

BTW: For me one of the things that would get me to take up digital TV would be a nice free Electronic Program guide. Only problem with this is it would always be incorrect because they stations cant keep to a guide!

Thanks

Nigel