August 7, 2009
The Top 10 Television Overtures 1985-1999 (Drama)
A friend of mine likes to play a great game every time he has new people over to drink at his place. He plays past television theme songs (mostly ’60s-to-early ’80s) on his iPod in a sort of pseudo-competitive quiz scenario. Enamoured with his party trick I’ve taken it upon myself to update it to include the late ’80s and ’90s in my own version.
After nostalgically considering the marquee television of the ’80s and ’90s, it occurred to me that the show’s overtures were spectacles intrinsically linked to the show’s identity, unlike contemporary television. (We’re talking two-minute epic intros more entertaining than the actual show.)
Being a numbers guy, I’ve decided to rank the best of the period over three categories (drama, sitcom and cartoon). First up, the dramas (including but not limited to action and comedy hybrids).
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10. Melrose Place
The hard truth: A sexed up, clumsy attempt at edgy, much like the show itself. Set the standard for average theme songs that permeate television to this day.
09. Renegade
The story of my life, in opening voiceover: “He was a cop, and good at his job. But then he committed the ultimate sin and testified against other cops gone bad. Cops who tried to kill him, but got the woman he loved instead. Framed for murder, now he prowls the badlands. An outlaw hunting outlaws. A bounty hunter. A Renegade.”
Who actually watched this?: Screened at 9.30pm Friday night prior to World Championship Wrestling, me, that’s who. And it was a damn burden watching Lorenzo Lamars haul his long, oily hair across my television screen for sixty minutes.
July 16, 2009
The Suburbs: Western Springs
Western Springs, Auckland. May 2009.
SH16 from St Lukes Rd | Western Springs | AUCKLAND
Pukeko in Western Springs Park | AUCKLAND
Woman waiting for tram in Western Springs Park | AUCKLAND
Warning sign outside Auckland Zoo | Western Springs | AUCKLAND
Council worker mows traffic island on St Lukes Rd | Western Springs | AUCKLAND
July 7, 2009
The Spectacle of the Celebrity Death
If the state of New Zealand news and current affairs isn’t already at an all-time low (and believe me, it is), now we have to put up with repetitive stories mining the death of a has-been celebrity. Seriously, Michael Jackson was 50, sick as a dog, hadn’t had a career-defining album in 22 years and was pretty much the celebrity punching bag for media gossip and office jokes and I’m supposed to feel shock or grief at his passing?
I can understand why the media is hyping this. MJ’s death is easy news in a time of tight budgets and hyperentertainment, whilst middle-aged news editors feel some sort of contrived adolescent nostalgia toward Thriller-era Jackson as an iconic road marker in the transfiguration of the multinational popular culture machine. (For the record, that’s probably like me mourning the death of the lead singer of The Offspring in twenty years time.)
But the media wouldn’t get away with this perennial Jacko-wake it if the public wasn’t lapping it up too. So why do we care? I theorise a combination of psychological impulses.
Reasons for captivated public reaction to Michael Jackson’s death:
- Conformist reaction to media hype
- Desire to partake in Sudden Iconic Celebrity Death that has credulously defined previous generations via retroactive popular culture (see also: Dean, Monroe, Kennedy, Lennon, Morrison, Hendrix, Presley, Cobain, Spencer, Ledger et al), stemming from craving for shared human experience (possibly due to the emotional insulation of the modern world)
- Desire to actualise own popular culture literacy by posthumously acknowledging a supposed luminary of collective acclaim
- Recognition of the symbolic death of the super-wealthy, flamboyantly extravagant commercial Top40 music artist
- Reaction of guilt toward own role in public treatment of Michael Jackson (specifically) and public resentment and excoriation of celebrities (generally)
- Empathy for flaws and insecurities of the shamed individual
- Apologia for previously repressed Alien Ant Farm fetish
July 5, 2009
The Suburbs: Kingsland
Kingsland, Auckland. May 2009.
Bar overlooking Eden Park renovations| Kingsland | AUCKLAND
Eden Park | Kingsland | AUCKLAND
Train station | Kingsland | AUCKLAND
Bank security guard | Kingsland | AUCKLAND
June 26, 2009
It’s the holidays!
You’ve gotta love the university calendar. Goodbye assignments, hello three weeks off!
Goings Ons:
Visit Wellington
Host visitors (numerous)
Immerse self in pointless NBA offseason transaction speculation
Make pancakes (numerous)
June 15, 2009
The Suburbs: Morningside
Morningside, Auckland. May 2009.
Train tracks from St Lukes Rd | Morningside | AUCKLAND
Youth outside Westfield Shopping Mall | Morningside | AUCKLAND
Mt Albert by-election campaign signs on St Lukes Rd | Morningside | AUCKLAND
Church on St Lukes Rd | Morningside | AUCKLAND
June 11, 2009
News
My sister’s getting married in a few months! And I’ve been given the ceremonial responsibility of music. She wants to walk down the aisle to Palchelbel’s “Canon in D”. Think she’ll notice if I use the Coolio version?
(Is it just me, or has that song held up well? It was “Where Is The Love?” six years prior and the music video had bullet time pre-The Matrix! Too bad it’s not reflected in back catalogue demand.)
