Tune In Turn On

Welcome to a cloudy South Manchester on a Saturday lunchtime. I’ve just returned from a cruise to Greece where we visited four Greek islands, Athens and a couple of ancient Roman cities in Turkey. It was a good trip and renewed my faith in cruises. 

Sadly it now marks the end of summer and Autumn has now definitely kicked in, as is usual around this time of year. It was my birthday on Tuesday last week and I am looking forward to seeing Christmas adverts appearing on TV and every other social media outlet. 

There is other evidence of Autumn too – like this wonderful tree I passed the other day on my morning walk. 

Anyway, let’s mark the beginning of my Autumn with some sill questions from Sunday Stealing. 

1. Name a TV show you've seen every episode of.

I watch every episode of every TV series that I like. I will name one that I have recently watched called Stargate Atlantis because it is fresh in my mind. I loved the show and I think it was better than Stargate SG-1, the original series from which it was a spin off. I was surprised to see that one of its stars is a young Jason Momoa and I have to say that my favourite character was the curmudgeonly, flawed, scientific genius Rodney McKay. 

2. On which device do you do most of your viewing (television, tablet, computer, phone)?

I only really watch shows on my TV. There are exceptions of course, and it usually involves football. For example, I was in Malta this year and I watched a very important play-off match involving my team, Walsall, on my tablet. Similarly I watched a whole game on my smartphone while away on a weekend to Delamere Forest because I couldn’t get it on TV. These are genuine exceptions due to necessity and unavailability of the games on local TV. 

3. Name an actor/actress who would make you less likely to watch a show.

I’ve mentioned this before. I refuse to watch anything with James Cordon in it because he totally annoys me with his clumsy arrogance. He thinks he is hilarious but I find him totally irritating and annoying and not funny at all. Here is an illustration of him being an arsehole to a man I admire greatly – Sir Patrick Stewart.

See what I mean?

4. When you were a kid, what show did you love?

I am a huge geek and I love science fiction. I was a huge fan of Dr Who (I still am) and Space 1999 as well as Star Trek the original series. I will pick Space 1999 as it isn’t around anymore. In case you have never seen it, just imagine a parallel universe where in the year 1999 there was a base on the Moon manned. On September 13th of that year, a massive and catastrophic nuclear explosion on the Moon blasted it out of orbit and into the darkest depths of space. 

I absolutely loved it. 

5. What show do you recommend everyone watch?

Definitely Dexter. I wrote a blog post when the original series ended after eight seasons and I was genuinely saddened. You can read it here:

Goodbye Dexter Morgan 

I loved it. For the uninitiated, Dexter Morgan is a blood splatter analyst who works for the Miami Police department but just happens to be a psychopathic serial killer. His father, who was also a policeman, taught him a way to channel his murderous ways into bumping off other serial killers. I loved a line he said in a trailer for the first series:

“You had better hope that the police get you before I do!”

However, now, I am delighted to say that Dexter is back. I have seen the follow up series Dexter: New Blood and even the prequel Dexter: Original Sin. And now as I type I am about half way through the latest series Dexter: Resurrection. 

Long may you live Dexter – my favourite anti-hero.

6. What show do your friends like, but you don't?

I have female friends who adore Downton Abbey and all the movies and I simply do not get it at all. It is just not a series that I could watch. I saw one of the early episodes and just found it dull and tedious. Now I’m not saying that it really is dull and boring; it’s just not my cup of tea. 

7. When you watch TV, do you also busy yourself with something else (jigsaw puzzle, folding laundry, etc.)?

I tend not to watch TV unless I really want to, which usually means excluding any interruptions. However, if there is a football match on TV featuring teams that I do not support, sometimes I will have the occasional surf of the internet while the game is going on. 

8. Do you eat a meal or snack while watching TV?

Yes – often. We are not the typical family who sit at the dinner table to eat, unless it is a special occasion, which means that we will have breakfast, lunch and dinner while watching TV. Etiquette experts will no doubt frown on this practice, suggesting that meal times are family times. But who cares what they think? 

I know I don’t. 

9. What's your preferred genre (comedy, drama, reality, etc.)?

I am a huge fan of comedy and I love anything that is exciting, intriguing and weird. For example, I will watch a lot of science fiction programmes, intriguing thrillers like Dexter, action series. I also like documentaries especially science based stuff like Brian Cox’s Solar System, and anything involving UFS’s and conspiracies. 

10. Do you prefer mini-series (shows that tell their stories in a pre-determined number of episodes) or shows that come back season after season?

I like both. I’ve watched a couple of mini-series recently and really enjoyed them. I think that if you get a series that is based on a novel then a mini-series is the only thing that really does it justice. If you watch a movie based on a novel it can be good but I think sometimes it loses the profound essence of what the author was trying to say. 

I must admit that I presser TV shows that have multiple seasons to have an overriding story arc that lasts the entire series. You can say so much more and get deeper in the characters and story. 

I like that. 

 

Progressive Thoughts - Day 4

I love the title of today’s song but I must confess to not really understanding it. The song is by one of my most recent and favourite discoveries, a progressive rock band from Poland called Riverside, who have totally won me over in the past two years.

The song is called Lost (Why Should I Be Frightened by a Hat?).

To some people this sums up how strange progressive rock can be with weird song titles and bizarre concepts as subjects. Yet, despite the odd title, this is a beautiful song and typical of the band.

The meaning of the song is, thankfully, not weird at all. Basically, it is about somebody looking back at his younger self and picturing the innocent wonder as the boy contemplates his future life with no fear – only excitement.

I can relate to that.

I cannot remember the thoughts going through my mind as an innocent boy. Some of my friends may ask “Were you ever innocent, Dave?”, to which my answer would be “Of course!”

But as a young child, I cannot confess to ever being unafraid of the future. To be honest, I was captivated by it but also deeply scared because it was all about the unknown. My fascination with science fiction steered my imagination into a vision of the future that was as terrifying as it was amazing.

Back in 1970, most kids were looking at the year 2000 with awe. I used to love reading books and watching TV programmes about what life would be like in that amazing future. To be honest, some of it has come to pass, but equally, one or two ideas from that time are laughable.

For example, we all thought that there would be a Moonbase, like in the TV series Space 1999 and UFO, and that we would be travelling to the outer reaches of our solar system. Also, the vision of orbiting space stations crammed full of people seemed to be a distinct possibility.

Closer to home, we pictured ourselves sitting in futuristic houses, with robots as servants , We would travel around in flying cars and be able to travel to the other side of the world in aircraft that left Earth’s orbit and could, say, fly from London to Sydney in just two or three hours. Furthermore, seers predicted that we would barely have to lift a finger in our own homes, from asking the cooker to prepare dinner and switching things on and off with voice command.

Now these later items do seem possible. Certain people got it totally right, particularly with the prediction that we would be carrying or own computers with us (in the shape of a smartphone) to being able to summon our own entertainment by watching television on-demand from a vast library of movies, TV series and box sets.

I am fascinated by the future and I would love one of two things to happen. Either I somehow become immortal and can watch the development of future technology over the next few hundred years, or somebody invents a time machine that can whisk me away to the future where I can see for myself what happens.

That would be a dream if it were possible.

Of course, depending on your religion, there might be some hope that when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil, I may be born again and enjoy the future that way. Sadly I won’t be able to remember this life – unless technology permits it, of course.

Who knows?

I remain optimistic.