Day: 11 February 2024

Weeknotes #55: catch-ups and anniversaries

Weeknotes: Vibrant catch-ups, cinematic delight, insightful media exploration.

Week commencing Monday, 5 February 2024

A pint of beer on a table in a pub with a view of the bar in the background
Catch-ups with beer

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 4/7 and Move 4/7. (62%). Morning walks: 0/4 (days in the office don’t count). Office days 1/5. Plant diversity: 39. Total steps: 46,626

Life

  • Lovely to catch up with Cornelia for our revised Thirsty Thursday (on a Tuesday) meet-up. Lots of talk about cooking. We seem to be converts to the slow cooker way. And a catch-up beer with Frank on Thursday back on Grey’s Inn Road.
  • I read more about companies tightening their belts in the current economic climate. I wonder how that will impact the push to ‘return to the office’ when, again, it’s proven to have no impact on productivity and a negative impact on people?
  • Did I miss it or has there not been a lot of discussion about this being the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Channel Tunnel? Has it been a wasted opportunity? I love travelling Eurostar.
  • It was also the 20th anniversary of Flickr. I couldn’t explain how my first photo had been uploaded before the service was even launched until I remembered Yahoo used to own it and Yahoo Photos was merged in at some point. Metadata retained, I assume.
  • As a Product Manager in my day job, given I have feedback on your product, and I leave a feature request, is it good enough?

Media

  • To the cinema, to see Poor Things. Lovely screening room at BAFTA where I’d never been. Stunning building. But the film? Another beautifully shot movie (see, 2023: Asteroid City). In the colour parts I could only describe it as steampunk Victorian through a fish-eye lens. Wonderful. The story weird, horrific and compelling. A child in an adult body questions the world. Outstanding performances: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef and an incredibly funny Mark Ruffalo. But, somehow, too disturbing to be great.
  • More episodes of The Morning Show and, after the last couple of episodes had missed the feel of the ‘newsroom’, this episode felt like the show was back to its old self.
  • I saw Kara Swisher at an event once. She was as you’d imagine. Thank god somebody’s watching the tech giants: Over Three Decades, Tech Obliterated Media.
  • Stephen Fry, reviewing Apple’s new Vision Pro: “Technology is a verb, not a noun; a process, not a fixture”.

Curns’ Ad Links for 11 February 2011

Complaining About TV?

Ofcom’s complaints bulletin has been issued, so I thought I’d have a look.

Ofcom’s upheld complaints about the Phixx performance on BBC’s Top of the Pops (scenes from a bondage club) which amuses me. If you look at some of the pictures of Man of the Moment Andrew Kinlochan you’ll see they are from the video. It’s a lot of pretty boys tied up on chairs singing. Apparently, it breached some standard (apart from musical taste). If bondage clubs were populated by pretty guys tied to chairs singing pop tunes you can bet I would be first in line!

They’ve also upheld complaints about the Channel Four series Little Friends. The concept of the series, using children to entice people into comedy stunts, was amusing at first, but gradually the whole thing became cringeworthy. Apparently, it breached the code on ‘General Offence’. It really should have breached the code for a faintly amusing idea taken too far. I am sure we’re all relieved to know that ‘Ofcom accepted that the broadcaster had taken steps to protect the children’s moral welfare’.

While you’re looking into offensive things you should read the very short entry on Dream 107.7’s breach of Section 1.3 (Language in Programming) of the standards. That only one person complained about the language (when you would have expected Ofcom’s switchboard to be melting) suggests a very limited audience at the time.

Broadcasting regulation is, apparently, here for my own welfare. Shame they can’t regulate Footballer’s Wives off the air (a new series starts tonight).

Five Second Censorship

The Oscars will be subject to a five-second delay this year. Apparently, that’s not good.

I’ve said before that I don’t really understand all the nonsense about Janet Jackson and what happened when she performed with Justin Timberlake. It seems to me that there are so many other things that the American people should be spending time worrying about. I am hoping that something similar happens at The Brits. We are in need of another Jarvis/Michael Jackson incident to spice up proceedings.

Having said that, BBC News reports that Oscar president Frank Pierson is up in arms about a five-second delay on the broadcast of the awards ceremony. To accuse it of a form of censorship seems to be a little unnecessary. I am sure it used to be pretty common for all live broadcasts to have some kind of built-in delay. What’s the big deal? Michael Moore’s acceptance would not have been censored by a five-second delay; no, it was censored by the audience at the time.

I think everybody needs a sense of perspective.

As an aside, I am thankful that I know several Americans living in London who show that not all – nay most – Americans are perfectly rational people. It’s a shame our media does not present them as such. Am I exaggerating all this?

Day At Home

I spent the day at home, but it was not as useful as I had hoped it would be.

I’ve had a day off work which I have totally wasted, but I shall not let that worry me right now. What should worry me is my inability to cope with four glasses of wine last night which resulted in the time-wasting (the day off had long been arranged).

While wasting my day, I have been reading about gay campaigning, all of which has been quite interesting. Tin Man pointed to the Faces of Family site – which, I think, could be a great project if you can get anybody who does not think our relationships constitute family to look at it. The message boards over at OutEverywhere have an interesting (but very long) thread discussing the Brazilian resolution to the United Nations which would have sexual diversity included as an integral part of Universal Human Rights. The discussion considered if it is right (or not) to support and sign the petition. I signed it and, I believe, you should think about signing it too. I guess it’s clear which side of the discussion I came down on.