My sister Darlin' came to visit me! Yipee, another family visit and so soon too, how lucky am I? Darlin' was here on business so was quite busy in Sydney so was very tired by the time she arrived. I decided she needed to see Jervis Bay as I have fallen in love with Jervis Bay and the lovely community of Huskisson. This time Darlin' and I stayed in a different B&B, instead of my wonderful Jervis Bay Guest House, this time stayed at the Huskisson Bed and Breakfast. Kate and Steve were awesome hosts, very friendly and accommodating and the rooms were lovely. They had loads of books available for reading which of course made me very happy!
I plugged the B&B's address into the GPS, who was nicknamed "Tomy Girl" by my sister Deej's friend Stacy on our trip through Europe. Tomy Girl is only a computer and as the default setting for calculating the route is "Fastest." Well, hmmm....not so sure that is always the best. We ended up on Turpentine Road, which was...scenic. And unsealed, which is Australian for gravel road. Luckily it had been recent graded so no major potholes, but...it was bumpy and dusty. But you know you travel for the adventure!
After we had settled into the B&B we went to the beach Steve had suggested to us, Steamer's Beach. He warned us that it was quite steep downto the beach. And it was! When Darlin' sends me the pictures she took I'll add them to this post. It was at least 250 steps, some quite steep down to the beach, but it was so worth it. The water was so many wonderful shades of blue and had a perfect surf, big and with lots of bubbly water as it crested, it made you want to jump in however, Darlin' says, it was darn cold! I plan to go back there and bring a blanket and picnic and spend a few hours next summer. Wow!
Later, we went to dinner and a pretty good Thai restaurant and had an early night. That night it rained. And rained. It's hard to begrudge drought ridden Australia rain, but why me? Anyway, we leisurely got up, had breakfast and got ready to leave and it was still raining -- so rather than going to another beach as planned, we headed to the Kangaroo Valley. It is the cutest little town, I picked up British first editions of two books by Frank B. Gilbreth, one written with his sister, Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. One book was "Belles on Their Toes," the sequel to their 1948 book , "Cheaper by the Dozen and the other "Time Out for Happiness."
Then we headed to a few of the wineries in the vicinity of the Kangaroo Valley. At the first one we encounted the owner, who was rather rude and so we left. The second one, Jacob's Creek, was awesome the owner was very nice and welcoming and his wine was very good. He gave us a taste of a sparkling red wine, which is apparently quite popular in Australia now. Then we headed for another winery, well this was a unique place. The wine wasn't very good, but the owner which a kick. He was somewhat elderly, his white hair was sticking out on end, he had "British" teeth, which is to say they were crooked and missing. He was wearing the ubiquitous Australian shorts and a flannel shirt and had a very winning manner. He told us they hadn't expected anyone, and as it was a cafe as well as a winery, had no cook. But people kept coming in! He was so busy, he couldn't handle everything which included giving out tastes of wine, seating people, taking orders, deliverying orders. We didn't buy any wine but we quite enjoyed his personality.
Finally, we headed back home -- on the way we needed the "facilities" somewhere, anywhere!!!! Plus we were hungry. So as I saw another winery/cafe sign I knew they had to have a toilet so I stopped there and planned to eat as well. We were able to do one, but there were no seats to be had for lunch. But we did try their wine, it was very good and we bought quite a lot -- I mistakenly told Darlin' I could mail it home -- but later found out I couldn't. My very bad. So then we headed home and stopped and Maccas (Aussie slang for McDonald's).
It was so nice to get off the road for a bit. On Monday I went to work and Darlin' went on a run. That afternoon we headed to Tidbinbilla, I got a bit lost on the way, but we eventually found it. No koala's this time, but we saw emu's, a kookaburra, wallaby's and numerous kangaroo's. It was very nice. I took Darlin' to the airport and discovered that she had too much in her bag, and she ended up with overage charges -- darn budget airlines. So I took some home to bring with me when I head home at Christmas. Then I gave Darlin' a hug and was very sad to see her leave.
I had a great time with Darlin' and we sort of planned the trip she'll do with the kids next year. So much too look forward to!
Monday, May 11, 2009
First Oz Trip
Well what a great trip! My sister Deej came for her first visit to Australia and we had a terrific time. I had Deej meet me in Sydney, so I worked half a day and drove up to Sydney, a very easy 3-hour journey--thank god for the GPS when navigating big city traffic. When I arrived Deej had pretty much just gotten back to the room after walking around Sydney since 9:30 a.m. She was tired, not just from not sleeping for umpteen hours, but from all that walking around. But it was great because I had been to all the same places just a few weeks before. It was great to see her again.
The first day the weather in Sydney looked...Seattle-like. So we decided to up to the Blue Mountains, which is roughly an hour outside Sydney -- first though, Deej needed her coffee and I needed breakfast so we headed to the a French patissiere and I had awesome hot chocolate and croissants. Then we got in the car and headed toward the Blue Mountains, again, thank god for the GPS in getting us out and into Sydney. As we got close to our target, a mist settled down all around us -- hmmm. We finally got to the visitors center car park and it was clear -- yipee. We went into the visitors center and got a map of walking trails, we came out -- yep, misty again. We looked in the direction of the Three Sisters natural feature and it was -- surprise, obscured by mist. Well, we decided to take one of the walking trails hoping it would clear up again, and ended up doing the Giant Staircase walk of more than 800 steps. It was steep in places and made up of rock, cement, and metal stairs but always with beautiful scenery--even if it was draped in mist. It was a long way down, then we walked over the the Scenic Railway which was another 2-3 km and saw the Koomba Falls on the way -- very pretty, but doesn't match what I saw at Iguazu Falls in Paraguay. We took the scenic railway back up, it is the steepest in the world and short, and fast. But it was pretty neat and I certainly didn't want to walk back up those 800 steps! All in all a very good day, if misty. We never did see the Three Sisters, just a bit of one or two on the way down.
The next day we headed to the beach--I was a bit sore from walking those 800 steps. First, we walked from the hotel to the ferry, going through the Botanical Park, which was cordoned off in the most inconvenient places. They were hosting a local triathalon there -- we were looking for the Ironman Triathlon Deej's co-worker had entered and my friend Brandon wanted pictures of -- but nothing, was was that darn thing? We took the local ferry to Manley Beach -- it started out to be a very nice day and for a while it was, then the clouds shrouded the sun and the wind picked up so we started walking around the area, the sun came out again and we enjoyed soaking up those rays! After we felt we'd had enough beach time we headed back to Sydney on the ferry to get a good view of Sydney Harbour from the sea. Then we did a bit of walking around the oldest part of Sydney, The Rocks. We stopped in the Visitors Center and found out the Ironman was indeed this weekend, but in Port Maquarie -- a 4-hour drive away -- maybe next time! We then went to the Susannah Place Museum -- which is 4-row houses that were built in late 1844 and continuously used until the early 1990's. They've kept it more or less as it was in different eras of the houses. I really enjoyed that, then we had pub dinner and went back to the hotel.
Monday we headed back to the car and started our drive down the Prince's Highway toward Melbourne. We took 5 days of 2-3 hour drives, our first stop in Jervis Bay was a winner, white sand beaches, pleasant bushwalks (hikes), wallaby's and quiet. Then as we headed to our next stop of Narooma, we stopped at a beach where, we heard, there were plenty of kangaroos (Deej hadn't seen one yet and really wanted to) we took a left at the sign for Pebbly Beach and it was a dirt road with plenty of potholes. We got to the beach, which was quite nice and settled down to wait for kangaroos -- but nothing. After a couple hours of enjoyable beach time and lunch we got back in the car, ended up on a different road with 200 yards of freshly graded dirt road and then ashphalt -- hmmm. When we got back on the Prince's Highway, I saw the turnoff sign, it said Mt. Agony road, personally I think road signs were switched! We walked around Narooma -- not much there actually, then had dinner in a great fish 'n' chips type place sitting on the water. It got very cool when it got dark though.
Then we headed to Orbost and stopped at Eden Beach, which was beautiful and we saw dolphins -- no good pictures though my camera just isn't good enough for that distance. Orbost is at the base of the Snowy River and we easily found our B&B -- it was a great place. We went for a long walk around the area which was lovely and quiet. When we got back the fire pit was lit and we took our bottle of wine and chairs and looked up at the stars, but it was too cloudy to see many. Sue and Glenn, our hosts, came out and we had a very interesting and wide-ranging conversation. They invited to their club the next night and gave us some suggestions for the next day. We went to the Buchan Caves to see the really cool stalagtites and -mites, as we came out we headed toward the carpark and guess what we saw -- kangaroos! Then we did a bushwalk to the Falls and saw a goanna (huge lizard) and a lyre bird (just the back but it was big and had long feathers) we got to the falls, but due to drought, no water. Then we headed back to Orbost to take the paddlewheel boat on the Snowy River -- very relaxing, if chilly. Then we headed to Cape Conran Reserve and went walking on the boardwalk at Sailor's Grave, it was great and there were beaches with some great seashells and photo ops. BTW a boardwalk here is just a nature hike over boards, I guess to try and minimize destruction of nature by manhandling it to make paths and people going off-path. Late we joined our B&B hosts Sue and Glenn at their club and had a great time, I haven't laughed that much in ages. Wonderful people, wonderful town! I'm going back!!!
The next morning we headed back down the road and stayed at a not-so-great motel and saw the old mining town of Walhalla, it was interesting, but the most interesting bits burned down in the 4 different fires they had from 1860 to early 1900's. I didn't like the motel so much, so we headed 45+ minutes away to go to a movie! So as to spend as little time as possible in the room.
The next morning we headed to Melbourne (again, thank god for the GPS) where we stayed with my counterpart, Leez. We saw Melbourne, which is a lovely city including the National Library where we saw the real iron suit worn by Australian outlaw Ned Kelly (he's Oz's Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid type) the suit only covered his chest and torso, his arms and legs were not covered and that is what eventually got him caught. Deej, Leez and I participated in the Ned Kelly trial reinactment and it was great fun. Deej was the prosecutor, she took the role to heart and was very good, I was the chief witness and enjoyed it immensly. The guy may have been guilty, but that trial was a travesty of justice. The next day we did a trip to Dandenong Ranges on Puffing Billy, a old steam train -- gorgeous day and scenery. The next day we went to Bendigo another old gold mining town and went deep into a mine to look for gold, walked through tunnels, used a drill, cracked some quartz to find gold (but only found pyrite) and had a miners lunch of meat pasty and tea. It's a beautiful town with very eclectic and pretty architecture, you can tell it benefited quite a bit from the gold the miners found. Then Donna and I flew to Alice Springs to see Uluru (Ayers Rock). Out of 30 days of bad weather a year, we were there for two of them and couldn't see the great sunrise/sunset at Uluru or the Olga's because of all the cloud cover. Bummer. There was a great long and somewhat difficult walk around the Olga's, it was gorgeous though. There were some very good shops for typical Australiana souveniers in Alice Springs and I'm very happy with my purchases. But don't ask me to play that digereedo, just does'nt seem to want to happen!
Our final big trip was to Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef. This was amazing!! When snorkling or diving it was like swimming through an aquarium. It was to me, the major highlight of our trip. We stayed at a great studio room with a hot plate and stuff, and a grill by the pool, walking distance to town, the beach and marina. Loved it. The beach was gorgeous and the water soooo warm. I did the intro scuba dive and enjoyed it, would like to finish getting my dive certification and am working on planning that now. If you come visit me you CANNOT miss this. We also did some walking through Daintree Rainforest, which was rather nice with lovely beaches there too. Finally we flew back to Melbourne and drove my car back to Canberra. It's a long trip with lots of road construction -- we were so happy to be home! We did loads of laundry and saw the War Memorial (beautiful building), found a great new Vietnamese restaurant, and went to the Tidbinbilla nature reserve. Now Deej had seen the kangaroo's at Buchan Caves, but that was it. She was rather disappointed, I mean Australia is 'roo's, right? Well, driving around Canberra we saw plenty of "lazy" 'roo's (meaning dead), but few live ones. We get to Tidbinbilla and start driving to where the koala's are and she see 'roo's, so we stop and she takes some photos. Then we keep on driving and there are more 'roo's and more. Then we walk see the top bit of a koala high up in a tree, and wallaby's (same family as 'roo's), birds, etc. Then we see some duck billed platypus', but all you can see are their stomach's and if the ranger hadn't told us what they were we would thought they were anything but platypus'. On the drive back, around dusk, all we saw were 'roo's everywhere we went, more kangaroo's. It was hilarious!! But cool....so long as you don't hit one! Anyway, that is my first trip around Oz.
Deej will be back in 2011 and we'll do Tasmania and New Zealand. I'll also do some traveling with my parents and everyone else who comes to visit.
The first day the weather in Sydney looked...Seattle-like. So we decided to up to the Blue Mountains, which is roughly an hour outside Sydney -- first though, Deej needed her coffee and I needed breakfast so we headed to the a French patissiere and I had awesome hot chocolate and croissants. Then we got in the car and headed toward the Blue Mountains, again, thank god for the GPS in getting us out and into Sydney. As we got close to our target, a mist settled down all around us -- hmmm. We finally got to the visitors center car park and it was clear -- yipee. We went into the visitors center and got a map of walking trails, we came out -- yep, misty again. We looked in the direction of the Three Sisters natural feature and it was -- surprise, obscured by mist. Well, we decided to take one of the walking trails hoping it would clear up again, and ended up doing the Giant Staircase walk of more than 800 steps. It was steep in places and made up of rock, cement, and metal stairs but always with beautiful scenery--even if it was draped in mist. It was a long way down, then we walked over the the Scenic Railway which was another 2-3 km and saw the Koomba Falls on the way -- very pretty, but doesn't match what I saw at Iguazu Falls in Paraguay. We took the scenic railway back up, it is the steepest in the world and short, and fast. But it was pretty neat and I certainly didn't want to walk back up those 800 steps! All in all a very good day, if misty. We never did see the Three Sisters, just a bit of one or two on the way down.
The next day we headed to the beach--I was a bit sore from walking those 800 steps. First, we walked from the hotel to the ferry, going through the Botanical Park, which was cordoned off in the most inconvenient places. They were hosting a local triathalon there -- we were looking for the Ironman Triathlon Deej's co-worker had entered and my friend Brandon wanted pictures of -- but nothing, was was that darn thing? We took the local ferry to Manley Beach -- it started out to be a very nice day and for a while it was, then the clouds shrouded the sun and the wind picked up so we started walking around the area, the sun came out again and we enjoyed soaking up those rays! After we felt we'd had enough beach time we headed back to Sydney on the ferry to get a good view of Sydney Harbour from the sea. Then we did a bit of walking around the oldest part of Sydney, The Rocks. We stopped in the Visitors Center and found out the Ironman was indeed this weekend, but in Port Maquarie -- a 4-hour drive away -- maybe next time! We then went to the Susannah Place Museum -- which is 4-row houses that were built in late 1844 and continuously used until the early 1990's. They've kept it more or less as it was in different eras of the houses. I really enjoyed that, then we had pub dinner and went back to the hotel.
Monday we headed back to the car and started our drive down the Prince's Highway toward Melbourne. We took 5 days of 2-3 hour drives, our first stop in Jervis Bay was a winner, white sand beaches, pleasant bushwalks (hikes), wallaby's and quiet. Then as we headed to our next stop of Narooma, we stopped at a beach where, we heard, there were plenty of kangaroos (Deej hadn't seen one yet and really wanted to) we took a left at the sign for Pebbly Beach and it was a dirt road with plenty of potholes. We got to the beach, which was quite nice and settled down to wait for kangaroos -- but nothing. After a couple hours of enjoyable beach time and lunch we got back in the car, ended up on a different road with 200 yards of freshly graded dirt road and then ashphalt -- hmmm. When we got back on the Prince's Highway, I saw the turnoff sign, it said Mt. Agony road, personally I think road signs were switched! We walked around Narooma -- not much there actually, then had dinner in a great fish 'n' chips type place sitting on the water. It got very cool when it got dark though.
Then we headed to Orbost and stopped at Eden Beach, which was beautiful and we saw dolphins -- no good pictures though my camera just isn't good enough for that distance. Orbost is at the base of the Snowy River and we easily found our B&B -- it was a great place. We went for a long walk around the area which was lovely and quiet. When we got back the fire pit was lit and we took our bottle of wine and chairs and looked up at the stars, but it was too cloudy to see many. Sue and Glenn, our hosts, came out and we had a very interesting and wide-ranging conversation. They invited to their club the next night and gave us some suggestions for the next day. We went to the Buchan Caves to see the really cool stalagtites and -mites, as we came out we headed toward the carpark and guess what we saw -- kangaroos! Then we did a bushwalk to the Falls and saw a goanna (huge lizard) and a lyre bird (just the back but it was big and had long feathers) we got to the falls, but due to drought, no water. Then we headed back to Orbost to take the paddlewheel boat on the Snowy River -- very relaxing, if chilly. Then we headed to Cape Conran Reserve and went walking on the boardwalk at Sailor's Grave, it was great and there were beaches with some great seashells and photo ops. BTW a boardwalk here is just a nature hike over boards, I guess to try and minimize destruction of nature by manhandling it to make paths and people going off-path. Late we joined our B&B hosts Sue and Glenn at their club and had a great time, I haven't laughed that much in ages. Wonderful people, wonderful town! I'm going back!!!
The next morning we headed back down the road and stayed at a not-so-great motel and saw the old mining town of Walhalla, it was interesting, but the most interesting bits burned down in the 4 different fires they had from 1860 to early 1900's. I didn't like the motel so much, so we headed 45+ minutes away to go to a movie! So as to spend as little time as possible in the room.
The next morning we headed to Melbourne (again, thank god for the GPS) where we stayed with my counterpart, Leez. We saw Melbourne, which is a lovely city including the National Library where we saw the real iron suit worn by Australian outlaw Ned Kelly (he's Oz's Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid type) the suit only covered his chest and torso, his arms and legs were not covered and that is what eventually got him caught. Deej, Leez and I participated in the Ned Kelly trial reinactment and it was great fun. Deej was the prosecutor, she took the role to heart and was very good, I was the chief witness and enjoyed it immensly. The guy may have been guilty, but that trial was a travesty of justice. The next day we did a trip to Dandenong Ranges on Puffing Billy, a old steam train -- gorgeous day and scenery. The next day we went to Bendigo another old gold mining town and went deep into a mine to look for gold, walked through tunnels, used a drill, cracked some quartz to find gold (but only found pyrite) and had a miners lunch of meat pasty and tea. It's a beautiful town with very eclectic and pretty architecture, you can tell it benefited quite a bit from the gold the miners found. Then Donna and I flew to Alice Springs to see Uluru (Ayers Rock). Out of 30 days of bad weather a year, we were there for two of them and couldn't see the great sunrise/sunset at Uluru or the Olga's because of all the cloud cover. Bummer. There was a great long and somewhat difficult walk around the Olga's, it was gorgeous though. There were some very good shops for typical Australiana souveniers in Alice Springs and I'm very happy with my purchases. But don't ask me to play that digereedo, just does'nt seem to want to happen!
Our final big trip was to Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef. This was amazing!! When snorkling or diving it was like swimming through an aquarium. It was to me, the major highlight of our trip. We stayed at a great studio room with a hot plate and stuff, and a grill by the pool, walking distance to town, the beach and marina. Loved it. The beach was gorgeous and the water soooo warm. I did the intro scuba dive and enjoyed it, would like to finish getting my dive certification and am working on planning that now. If you come visit me you CANNOT miss this. We also did some walking through Daintree Rainforest, which was rather nice with lovely beaches there too. Finally we flew back to Melbourne and drove my car back to Canberra. It's a long trip with lots of road construction -- we were so happy to be home! We did loads of laundry and saw the War Memorial (beautiful building), found a great new Vietnamese restaurant, and went to the Tidbinbilla nature reserve. Now Deej had seen the kangaroo's at Buchan Caves, but that was it. She was rather disappointed, I mean Australia is 'roo's, right? Well, driving around Canberra we saw plenty of "lazy" 'roo's (meaning dead), but few live ones. We get to Tidbinbilla and start driving to where the koala's are and she see 'roo's, so we stop and she takes some photos. Then we keep on driving and there are more 'roo's and more. Then we walk see the top bit of a koala high up in a tree, and wallaby's (same family as 'roo's), birds, etc. Then we see some duck billed platypus', but all you can see are their stomach's and if the ranger hadn't told us what they were we would thought they were anything but platypus'. On the drive back, around dusk, all we saw were 'roo's everywhere we went, more kangaroo's. It was hilarious!! But cool....so long as you don't hit one! Anyway, that is my first trip around Oz.
Deej will be back in 2011 and we'll do Tasmania and New Zealand. I'll also do some traveling with my parents and everyone else who comes to visit.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Netflix
I waste so much money on Netflix, you just wouldn't believe it. I order shows, then don't watch them for a long time. I have a huge queue of movies and TV shows. Right now I'm in the midst of watching Reaper, a Fox show I believe. It's really very good. It supposedly takes place in Seattle and I guess it must be filmed in Vancouver because it kinda looks like the Pacific Northwest, but it would be really great if they threw in some Mt. Rainier, Puget Sound, shots of Seattle and it's landmarks. Just having a Washington state license plate does not make it Seattle.
The show itself is really cleaver and Ray Wise is awesome, young Bret Harrison is very good as is rest of the cast. I'm really enjoying the show and apparently it hasn't been canceled yet! I just finished the arc with the Devil's mistress and it was a lot of fun. I think they need to keep doing little arcs like this otherwise it will fall into too much of a routine. Like the Danielle Steel books.
I hope the show lasts a while longer. Next up in the queue is Captains and The Kings, a miniseries from 1976 and was based on a book by Taylor Caldwell. It starred a young Richard Jordan (he was beautiful) and a very young Jane Seymour (also very beautiful). We'll see how it stands up to my memory of it as a romantic 15-year old.
The show itself is really cleaver and Ray Wise is awesome, young Bret Harrison is very good as is rest of the cast. I'm really enjoying the show and apparently it hasn't been canceled yet! I just finished the arc with the Devil's mistress and it was a lot of fun. I think they need to keep doing little arcs like this otherwise it will fall into too much of a routine. Like the Danielle Steel books.
I hope the show lasts a while longer. Next up in the queue is Captains and The Kings, a miniseries from 1976 and was based on a book by Taylor Caldwell. It starred a young Richard Jordan (he was beautiful) and a very young Jane Seymour (also very beautiful). We'll see how it stands up to my memory of it as a romantic 15-year old.
More Battlestar
Hurrah! It's Fraking great! What's even better is that it is showing down here in OZ just about the same time as at home. What could be greater than that. I just don't know. The shows just keep getting better and better. Kudos to all in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Battlestar Galactica
God, what an awesome show. I admit I loved the original late 1970's show a lot, I even bought the book tie-ins because I wanted to know the ending of the story. Then I heard about the new Battlestar Galactica that launched in 2003 on the SciFi Channel. Wow, I thought, cool, I'll find out what happened to Starbuck, Apollo, Adama and Athena.
I was in The Hague when the show premiered and didn't show there until some time after the U.S. premiere and I'd heard about how Starbuck and Boomer were suddenly women, and that a lot of the story was different. Well, I just didn't watch it. Then time goes on and the blogs and TV websites I read were praising the show to the skies and I was in the process of relocating to Islamabad for a year and I thought there would be little on TV so I bought the first three seasons. And they sat on the bookshelf for a year while I read a lot more than I watched TV.
Suddenly, I'm off to my new post in Canberra with a lot of travel time in between, so I packed the first and half of the second season of Battlestar Galactica to watch on my laptop. Still the DVD's just sat there. Then I arrive in Canberra with lots of free time on my hands and I finally, finally put BSG in the DVD player. I WAS HOOKED.
I couldn't stop watching, when I had to wait for the rest of the DVDs to arrive the first thing I did was unpack my TV and VCR so I could finishing watching. I was so hooked than when I finished Season 3, I went to iTunes and bought the available shows of Season 4. I went through those episodes in a weekend, albeit a long weekend. Now I'm totally into the webisodes and anxiously awaiting each new one and the start of the final part of Season 4 completely regretting the fact that the series is ending so soon.
I am inspired by the creativity shown on all levels in the production of this television series. From the writing, to the actors, the music and the production values this show is hard even for the most expensive Big-3 TV network to surpass. To my mind Lost is it's closest competitor. The parallels to modern day situations is dealt with and not in a "rosy" future world way, but in a realistic and messy manner. Which is one of the hardest parts of watching this show. Sometimes because the parallels are so close to what we are living through, I want a happily ever after Star Trek ending to each episode and we don't get that -- I salute producers who don't go the easy route.
If you want a great overview of the series so far, go to http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/ to see the terrific work of Maureen Ryan. She has take the last few weeks to watch and write about the previous seasons of the show -- I believe she still needs to finish writing up Season 3, but what I highly recommend reading her blog.
I can't wait for January 17th! I hope iTunes is prepared for loads of people wanting to download!
I was in The Hague when the show premiered and didn't show there until some time after the U.S. premiere and I'd heard about how Starbuck and Boomer were suddenly women, and that a lot of the story was different. Well, I just didn't watch it. Then time goes on and the blogs and TV websites I read were praising the show to the skies and I was in the process of relocating to Islamabad for a year and I thought there would be little on TV so I bought the first three seasons. And they sat on the bookshelf for a year while I read a lot more than I watched TV.
Suddenly, I'm off to my new post in Canberra with a lot of travel time in between, so I packed the first and half of the second season of Battlestar Galactica to watch on my laptop. Still the DVD's just sat there. Then I arrive in Canberra with lots of free time on my hands and I finally, finally put BSG in the DVD player. I WAS HOOKED.
I couldn't stop watching, when I had to wait for the rest of the DVDs to arrive the first thing I did was unpack my TV and VCR so I could finishing watching. I was so hooked than when I finished Season 3, I went to iTunes and bought the available shows of Season 4. I went through those episodes in a weekend, albeit a long weekend. Now I'm totally into the webisodes and anxiously awaiting each new one and the start of the final part of Season 4 completely regretting the fact that the series is ending so soon.
I am inspired by the creativity shown on all levels in the production of this television series. From the writing, to the actors, the music and the production values this show is hard even for the most expensive Big-3 TV network to surpass. To my mind Lost is it's closest competitor. The parallels to modern day situations is dealt with and not in a "rosy" future world way, but in a realistic and messy manner. Which is one of the hardest parts of watching this show. Sometimes because the parallels are so close to what we are living through, I want a happily ever after Star Trek ending to each episode and we don't get that -- I salute producers who don't go the easy route.
If you want a great overview of the series so far, go to http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/ to see the terrific work of Maureen Ryan. She has take the last few weeks to watch and write about the previous seasons of the show -- I believe she still needs to finish writing up Season 3, but what I highly recommend reading her blog.
I can't wait for January 17th! I hope iTunes is prepared for loads of people wanting to download!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
RIP - Soap Operas
As a huge TV fan, I've loved soaps since I was a kid. My first soap memories are Meredith's death on One Life to Live -- it was so sad; and the string of saliva between Philip and Tara on All My Children -- it was so gross. I was fasicnated by the relationship between Marlena and her evil twin Samantha on Days of Our Lives and was sad when Marlene and Don's baby was killed by SIDS. By the time I hit the college years I was totally into Luke and Laura's adventures on General Hospital followed by plenty of Bo and Hope on Days of Our Lives. Then it was the star-crossed romance of Cruz and Eden on Santa Barbara, and the tragic death of the saint-like Mary by the letter C. I went to visit my cousin in Florida and she started me watching the CBS soaps too -- oh dangerous James Stenbeck and Alan Spaulding kept me interested for quite a while.
I used to take a late lunch so I could watch Days of Our Lives and I would put my tape recorder on so I could listen to at least part of General Hospital. I got my first VCR so that I could watch the soaps. As the years went by I became less and less interested in the soaps. A sick day was only fun because if I could stay awake I would watch my shows. I subscribed to Soap Opera Digest magazine to help me keep up.
As time went by General Hospital deteriorated into "Stories From the Mob" with occassional guest appearances by stories that actually dealt with a hospital and with love and loss. I stopped watching. Days of Our Lives deteriorated into "The Stefano DiMera Evil Show" with occassional guest appearances by stories that actually dealt with a real people and with love and loss. Again, I stopped watching. One Life to Live became "The Most Boring Show Ever" with very few guest appearances by the previously mentioned stories and I stopped watching.
My "soap" life didn't go away completely because I found Eastender's. A British soap opera that had real people with real situations. The actors had a normal attractiveness about them and I bet that most would have never even gotten past the doorman of a U.S. soap studio. The stories were enthralling, they had everything I could want in a soap. Sure, if I was sick I would run through the U.S. soaps, but the remote would be working the entire time, just picking and chosing the stories I was interested in watching.
Eventually I got my first overseas posting. Paraguay didn't have much in the way of television and for a TV-aholic like myself this was a disaster. I found a company that would tape TV shows and mail them to me. I got one tape of soaps, General Hospital and As The World Turns and one tape of dramas, mostly from the Aaron Spelling school of drama, Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. I got back into soaps again because General Hospital brought back Luke and Laura, with their young son Lucky. And As The World Turns brought back Lily, and the fun triangle between Lily, Holden and Damien. Soaps were interesting again, they were fun again. The drama inherent in just Luke and Laura -- even with the occassional mob stuff thrown in, kept me glued to the mailroom waiting for my tapes. Watching Lily struggle between her long-lived love with Holden and her new-found love with Damien. When I went to my next posting in London, well my interest in the U.S. shows faded and I started watching Eastenders again. But there were a million other things on television and I just didn't care that much for my soaps anymore.
In London, Tel Aviv, and The Hague I've found that U.S. soaps are popular, about 5 years old - but popular. I've found The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, as well as Days of Our Lives on TV just about everywhere. Occassionally, All My Children is on too. But they are all old, and while I haven't seen the actual episodes, they don't really interest me.
Through all this, I did keep my Soap Opera Digest subscription and kept up on all the stories. I really like the magazine itself. You can tell the writers and editors enjoy soap operas and are trying their best to save this dying medium. However, it's the soap operas themselves that are letting the magazine down. They don't build story, they alienate their long-time views by bringing in young actors who have no training or experience. It's like they're just giving them on-the-job training, a sometimes lackluster story can be redeemed by the performances of competent actors. They focus the stories too much on what worked once and don't even try to go in another direction. Sure the mob thing worked for Luke and his cohorts, but it totally doesn't work anymore. Especially since The Soprano's showed just how violent that life is. I don't want to watch Kate or Michael get shot every sweeps period. I want to watch love, romance with a hint of danger and sometimes I want the danger to be psychological rather than violent. I'm tired of bombings and shooting sprees in my soaps. I get that on the news and on night time TV, which by the way people are not watching anymore.
After nearly 15 years I've let my subscription to Soap Opera Digest lapse. Not because of the cost of the magazine and not because of a lack of quality in the magazine both have remained more than acceptable. But because I just don't care about the soaps anymore. They occassionally peak my interest, when they bring back the characters I actually care about, when the stories are ones that wring the heart. But those are so few and far between that it isn't worth my money, nor any effort to try to watch them or pay for a subscription to a very good magazine devoted to them.
People say that soaps started going down the tubes with the OJ trial. I suppose that could be true -- I can't say whether people actually watched all that trial stuff during the day when soaps were pre-empted or not, I don't have the statistics and don't care to Google them. I can only speak of my own experience. When the OJ stuff was on I turned to another channel -- like millions of other Americans. When OJ was over, I didn't turn the channel back -- like millions of other Americans.
RIP my beloved soaps.
I used to take a late lunch so I could watch Days of Our Lives and I would put my tape recorder on so I could listen to at least part of General Hospital. I got my first VCR so that I could watch the soaps. As the years went by I became less and less interested in the soaps. A sick day was only fun because if I could stay awake I would watch my shows. I subscribed to Soap Opera Digest magazine to help me keep up.
As time went by General Hospital deteriorated into "Stories From the Mob" with occassional guest appearances by stories that actually dealt with a hospital and with love and loss. I stopped watching. Days of Our Lives deteriorated into "The Stefano DiMera Evil Show" with occassional guest appearances by stories that actually dealt with a real people and with love and loss. Again, I stopped watching. One Life to Live became "The Most Boring Show Ever" with very few guest appearances by the previously mentioned stories and I stopped watching.
My "soap" life didn't go away completely because I found Eastender's. A British soap opera that had real people with real situations. The actors had a normal attractiveness about them and I bet that most would have never even gotten past the doorman of a U.S. soap studio. The stories were enthralling, they had everything I could want in a soap. Sure, if I was sick I would run through the U.S. soaps, but the remote would be working the entire time, just picking and chosing the stories I was interested in watching.
Eventually I got my first overseas posting. Paraguay didn't have much in the way of television and for a TV-aholic like myself this was a disaster. I found a company that would tape TV shows and mail them to me. I got one tape of soaps, General Hospital and As The World Turns and one tape of dramas, mostly from the Aaron Spelling school of drama, Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. I got back into soaps again because General Hospital brought back Luke and Laura, with their young son Lucky. And As The World Turns brought back Lily, and the fun triangle between Lily, Holden and Damien. Soaps were interesting again, they were fun again. The drama inherent in just Luke and Laura -- even with the occassional mob stuff thrown in, kept me glued to the mailroom waiting for my tapes. Watching Lily struggle between her long-lived love with Holden and her new-found love with Damien. When I went to my next posting in London, well my interest in the U.S. shows faded and I started watching Eastenders again. But there were a million other things on television and I just didn't care that much for my soaps anymore.
In London, Tel Aviv, and The Hague I've found that U.S. soaps are popular, about 5 years old - but popular. I've found The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, as well as Days of Our Lives on TV just about everywhere. Occassionally, All My Children is on too. But they are all old, and while I haven't seen the actual episodes, they don't really interest me.
Through all this, I did keep my Soap Opera Digest subscription and kept up on all the stories. I really like the magazine itself. You can tell the writers and editors enjoy soap operas and are trying their best to save this dying medium. However, it's the soap operas themselves that are letting the magazine down. They don't build story, they alienate their long-time views by bringing in young actors who have no training or experience. It's like they're just giving them on-the-job training, a sometimes lackluster story can be redeemed by the performances of competent actors. They focus the stories too much on what worked once and don't even try to go in another direction. Sure the mob thing worked for Luke and his cohorts, but it totally doesn't work anymore. Especially since The Soprano's showed just how violent that life is. I don't want to watch Kate or Michael get shot every sweeps period. I want to watch love, romance with a hint of danger and sometimes I want the danger to be psychological rather than violent. I'm tired of bombings and shooting sprees in my soaps. I get that on the news and on night time TV, which by the way people are not watching anymore.
After nearly 15 years I've let my subscription to Soap Opera Digest lapse. Not because of the cost of the magazine and not because of a lack of quality in the magazine both have remained more than acceptable. But because I just don't care about the soaps anymore. They occassionally peak my interest, when they bring back the characters I actually care about, when the stories are ones that wring the heart. But those are so few and far between that it isn't worth my money, nor any effort to try to watch them or pay for a subscription to a very good magazine devoted to them.
People say that soaps started going down the tubes with the OJ trial. I suppose that could be true -- I can't say whether people actually watched all that trial stuff during the day when soaps were pre-empted or not, I don't have the statistics and don't care to Google them. I can only speak of my own experience. When the OJ stuff was on I turned to another channel -- like millions of other Americans. When OJ was over, I didn't turn the channel back -- like millions of other Americans.
RIP my beloved soaps.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Vintage Television
I have recently been watching some awesome vintage television. Quincy ME with Jack Klugman, Ironside with Raymond Burr and The Rockford Files with a James Garner. What an amazing three hours of television.
Besides the obvious, that they are crime shows and the protagonists name is in the title, they all three have one thing in common. The musical score is important to each episode because it was used to either convey a tone or a mood. This is particularly true of Ironside -- I've just finished watching the first season and am starting the second. In the first season particularly, they didn't just use the score to set mood and tone, but used actual songs. Their music director did an amazing job. I'm only on the second season of Ironside and I'm eagerly looking forward to the rest.
What I like about all three is that the cuts don't jump here, there and everywhere. They stay and linger on and move through the story in a gradual way, but still building up to the conclusion. The shows live and die on the strength of the iconic lead actors. Jack Klugman amazed a lot of people I think going from the comedy of The Odd Couple to the drama of Quincy. However, as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple he had the same intense-ness of Quincy. Quincy ME was a great show at the beginning, when it was more a crime drama however in the later years it got a little too strident when espousing or exposing a cause -- I just didn't find it as enjoyable.
The Rockford Files has held up, maybe because it had fewer years than Quincy ME. But in this role James Garner exhibited a lot of what has made him popular over the years. He has a real presence, charm and stubbornness that he exhibited in many of the roles he played in films and television. I love to see the interaction between James Garner and Noah Beery Jr,and the interaction between Garner and Joe Santos and Stuart Margolin. Plus, he works his charm quite well on the ladies, it has certainly worked on me.
Besides the obvious, that they are crime shows and the protagonists name is in the title, they all three have one thing in common. The musical score is important to each episode because it was used to either convey a tone or a mood. This is particularly true of Ironside -- I've just finished watching the first season and am starting the second. In the first season particularly, they didn't just use the score to set mood and tone, but used actual songs. Their music director did an amazing job. I'm only on the second season of Ironside and I'm eagerly looking forward to the rest.
What I like about all three is that the cuts don't jump here, there and everywhere. They stay and linger on and move through the story in a gradual way, but still building up to the conclusion. The shows live and die on the strength of the iconic lead actors. Jack Klugman amazed a lot of people I think going from the comedy of The Odd Couple to the drama of Quincy. However, as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple he had the same intense-ness of Quincy. Quincy ME was a great show at the beginning, when it was more a crime drama however in the later years it got a little too strident when espousing or exposing a cause -- I just didn't find it as enjoyable.
The Rockford Files has held up, maybe because it had fewer years than Quincy ME. But in this role James Garner exhibited a lot of what has made him popular over the years. He has a real presence, charm and stubbornness that he exhibited in many of the roles he played in films and television. I love to see the interaction between James Garner and Noah Beery Jr,and the interaction between Garner and Joe Santos and Stuart Margolin. Plus, he works his charm quite well on the ladies, it has certainly worked on me.
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