Ah, great, I just watched 'Everybody Loves Raymond' (which is on in the morning on Channel 4), I love it. It seems to get better and better. It's one of those little gems that TV companies hide by transmitting at obscure times...well 7:30am is obscure for me anyway... I think it was Hermit that mentioned watching Everybody Loves Raymond a long time back but it's not until I had purchased a televisual recording device that I was able to dine on the delights of the sitcom. And like other established US sitcoms, because each season has so many episodes (compared to our sitcoms that only have 6), the Everybody Loves Raymond feast seems to be going on and on, each episode rounded-off by a soul caressing bit of tinkly-light chill-ing-out-ing Jazz piano playing, with a soothing bit of snare drum to boot, as the outro theme tune. A tune that has been so well chosen as are many outro (and intro) TV themes tunes. The outro theme tune makes all the difference... it allows you to gently return to every day reality from the 'reality' of your favourite show leaving you with a little of it's magic or joy on which to ponder and quietly muse. The outro theme tune is like the slowly sipped cup of tea after your favourite favourite yummy cake, a way of gradually cleansing your palette holding onto the thought and the feeling of the taste and sweetness as the actual sweet taste is washed away sip by comforting sip. Now-a-days though of course it is a wonder that anyone bothers spending more than five minutes choosing a tune for their TV programme, let alone commissioning an original composition, because when the toil of their labour is finally broadcast some bastard continuity announcer always goes and talks VERY VERY LOUDLY over the majority of the outro about some VERY VERY UNIMPORTANT shite like some TOTALLY UNCONNECTED rubbishy programme that is coming-on next... and this totally destroys the moment, yanking you back to the real world in a most unpleasant way indeed. I suppose that people under about 30 have never really experienced mainstream TV where they respect the actual programmes they broadcast and don't talk-over the outro in this totally rude and un-British way, so perhaps those younger folk don't appreciate outros even when watching DVDs maybe they just skip the outro or just don't instinctively know how to use it for the benefit of a little ponder and reflection on the experience. It would be ashame if a whole generation has been robbed of the delight of the outro in that way, and the fear has to be for the diminishing numbers of people who still do appreciate a TV programme as an entire rounded entity, that programme makers will stop bothering with the humble outro all together and just roll the credit silently with no artwork ('cause that'll just get squashed to one side anyhow). And the other issue of total and utter disrespect is the volume level of the continuity announcers and the adverts (compared to the volume level of the programmes) -- it's bloody deafening, and bloody stupid. Quite a few times over the years on viewers' reply type programmes I've heard viewers' letters/emails where they complain about this, but the TV companies always give some technical excuse like 'compression'. What they mean generally by this is that they can't be arsed to sort-it-out, but... specifically, what they mean by 'compression' is that in TV programmes the programme maker (because there is a maximum volume level that can be transmitted) may make normal speech be at quite a low volume level so that when there is shouting or explosions etc. they can be at a much higher volume in comparison so that they have a more dramatic impact. Whereas advert makers generally want high drama and impact over most of the advert so they have even normal speech at the higher volume level. (A perfect example of this is the Sillette Bang advert: you'll note that the sound is no more deafening than the next advert despite the fact that the bloke is SHOUTING AT THE TOP OF HIS VOICE). So anyway, they don't want to upset the advertisers I suppose so they stick their head in the sand and hope viewers will forget about it... but the viewers don't forget about it (what with all the blood dribbling from their ears) and people just increasingly press the mute button when the adverts come-on or if they are watching something recorded they'll definitely fast-forward through them....so really it serves the TV companies right for not getting to grips with the problem as they only hurt themselves by reducing their advertising revenue (since the advertisers must be taking this into account). You don't have to be a genius to solve the whole problem: by simply making continuity announcements and adverts have a maximum volume level of 2 thirds of that of the programmes (or whatever turns-out to be the magic proportion).
Well it's all go on the TV front, Ashes to Ashes has finished but soon to start is Doctor Who on the Beeb, and according to a bill board I ambled past yesterday a programme called Chuck is to start soon on Virgin1 (the Virgin1 that's on Freeview I hope)... I've seen the pilot (or maybe it was episode one) at RussH's last week and I'm very impressed with it, I'm not sure what genre it fits into really...'action comedy'? And House has already started on Channel 5 again, where House has rather amusingly hired about 30 replacements for his old team and is gradually whittling them down as they inevitably don't manage to jump through his hoops. The House character works on two levels as regards his personality...people think of him as heartless because he just seems to care about results and has a shitty bed-side manner... but maybe he cares more than all his colleagues, maybe he cares so much that he is concentrating on the end result heartlessly in a 'cruel to be kind' way, and maybe he just lets people think he is heartless because it amuses him... or maybe he does not really know himself. It's this enigmatic personality that keeps me watching -- I'm always examining his motives and seeing what they point to, I'm always trying to work him out.
As you have seen, I'm not getting many blog entries done lately ... I notice a half finished one about the earthquake on my WP which is useless now it's so out of date. The problem is the Spring/Summer is coming so lots more to do like welding-up my 1972 Ford or mowing the lawn and stuff... so I'm going to have to change to doing small pithy blog entries over the Summer, I think, or ones that are not topical. Hmmm.
