Hi all. Yes, I've actually remembered to input a blog entry in finally. I wish I could come up with a decent excuse for not doing a blog entry for several weeks, but I can't come up with a decent excuse, so my apologies for not giving you my readers a blog entry sooner. Stick with me, I'm still learning the art of blogging. In an effort to get back to my weekly bloggings , you'll find that your slaidback blog entry will come out on a Tuesday until further notice.
Okay, enough of the apologies. Down to business.
You may have noticed that at the end of February and early this month, there was a little event called the Winter Olympics in the Canadian city of Vancouver. The coverage of this event by Sky in New Zealand was light years ahead of what the previous coverage of an Olympic games was by the state broadcaster, TVNZ with four channels 24/7.
The same can't be said for the coverage of the Winter Olympics companion event, the Winter Paralympics. The coverage of this event is quite frankly shocking with a nightly highlights package that was originally placed at midnight, but quickly moved to a slightly more acceptable time at 10. Which is still a shocking time placement.
Its not like the Paralympics is a bad sporting event to watch- the salom and ice hockey at the winter olympics are considered ideal sports to watch- but what if a skier was doing that salom blindfolded or a sitting down on a sledge? What would you rather watch a guy doing the salom normally or a guy doing the salom who's legally blind?
I'm not asking for four channels of Paralympics that would be excessive, given the importance of the Paralympics in tv sporting events. It would just be nice to be able to watch all of a Paralympic event rather than bits and pieces.
If we, as society are for all equality and equal opportunity, we should treat the pinnacle of sport for people with impairements as an equal to that of an able-bodied event.
Okay, rant over. Tell me what you think.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The 7's. The Top Rating Movie's of all time .
While on holiday in Blenheim, a few weeks ago, the topic of conversation came around to what movies are our worst and best movies of all time-the one's i would rank 0 and 7 retrospectively.
At time the time I couldn't come up with a definite list- i could only sprout a few off my tongue. So this the answer to that question.
Disclaimer: the quotes used in this blog may be a little off.
So seeing its the start of a new decade, here's my list of the Top Rating Movie's of all time, the movie's that deserve a rating of 7 for classic movie in no particular order:
There is a distinct qualfying aspect to this list- its fill of movies I've seen so while movie's like the Godfather are regarded as the best of all time- i haven't included them due to not seeing them- after you can't rank if you haven't seen it.
La vita e bella or Life is Beautiful (1997)
Yes, right now I sound like a foreign language/indie film lover. But this movie deserves to be in any top movie list. This movie will have you shaking with laughter one moment and sobbing the next. While you may have to deal with subtitles- if you are not effected fundamentally in some way by this movie- you could call this movie a classic psychopath test. This movie is famous for the Jewish father in this story disguising the holocaust treatment to his son as a competition to win a life-sized tank. Any synopsis i would write would not do it justice so for synopsis: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/plotsummary
Appropriate Audiences: As this movie involves violence- i would of course not recommend this movie to anyone below the age of 14. However, this is a movie that needs to be seen.
Forrest Gump (1994)
If you haven't even heard of this movie, let alone watched it- then rock you have been living under must be mighty comfortable. This movie about the life of a not-so-bright man called Forrest Gump who succeeds through life and history's challenges despite his difficulities, give's you that inspiration tinkle. Famous for lines like "woah! you step in a whole of pile of @&#*" "it happens".
Appropriate Audiences: This movie has the jackpot of warnings: nudity,violence and coarse language, so not entirely appropriate for young children or those that can't stand the above jackpot.
Schindler's List (1993)
This movie was introduced to me in fourth form by social studies and form teacher, as the one movie that you need to see in order to understand the holocaust. This movie in case you don't know is about the true story of "Oskar Schindler, (a rank and file member of the Nazi Party) uses Jews to start a factory in Poland during the war. He witnesses the horrors endured by the Jews, and starts to save them." (quote taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/)
Completing out this list of the Top Ranking of all time are:
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The original Star Wars Triology
for pure popularity sakes.
The Green Mile (1999)
Fight Club (1999)
Lord of The Rings Triology
because it brought New Zealand and NZ film making into the open.
Life Of Brian (1979)
The Lion King (1994)- the animated movie i grew up with.
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
This is what I believe to be a concise list: if you disagree or want to add a movie, leave a comment.
Have fun out there,
Stephen.
At time the time I couldn't come up with a definite list- i could only sprout a few off my tongue. So this the answer to that question.
Disclaimer: the quotes used in this blog may be a little off.
So seeing its the start of a new decade, here's my list of the Top Rating Movie's of all time, the movie's that deserve a rating of 7 for classic movie in no particular order:
There is a distinct qualfying aspect to this list- its fill of movies I've seen so while movie's like the Godfather are regarded as the best of all time- i haven't included them due to not seeing them- after you can't rank if you haven't seen it.
La vita e bella or Life is Beautiful (1997)
Yes, right now I sound like a foreign language/indie film lover. But this movie deserves to be in any top movie list. This movie will have you shaking with laughter one moment and sobbing the next. While you may have to deal with subtitles- if you are not effected fundamentally in some way by this movie- you could call this movie a classic psychopath test. This movie is famous for the Jewish father in this story disguising the holocaust treatment to his son as a competition to win a life-sized tank. Any synopsis i would write would not do it justice so for synopsis: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/plotsummary
Appropriate Audiences: As this movie involves violence- i would of course not recommend this movie to anyone below the age of 14. However, this is a movie that needs to be seen.
Forrest Gump (1994)
If you haven't even heard of this movie, let alone watched it- then rock you have been living under must be mighty comfortable. This movie about the life of a not-so-bright man called Forrest Gump who succeeds through life and history's challenges despite his difficulities, give's you that inspiration tinkle. Famous for lines like "woah! you step in a whole of pile of @&#*" "it happens".
Appropriate Audiences: This movie has the jackpot of warnings: nudity,violence and coarse language, so not entirely appropriate for young children or those that can't stand the above jackpot.
Schindler's List (1993)
This movie was introduced to me in fourth form by social studies and form teacher, as the one movie that you need to see in order to understand the holocaust. This movie in case you don't know is about the true story of "Oskar Schindler, (a rank and file member of the Nazi Party) uses Jews to start a factory in Poland during the war. He witnesses the horrors endured by the Jews, and starts to save them." (quote taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/)
Completing out this list of the Top Ranking of all time are:
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The original Star Wars Triology
for pure popularity sakes.
The Green Mile (1999)
Fight Club (1999)
Lord of The Rings Triology
because it brought New Zealand and NZ film making into the open.
Life Of Brian (1979)
The Lion King (1994)- the animated movie i grew up with.
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
This is what I believe to be a concise list: if you disagree or want to add a movie, leave a comment.
Have fun out there,
Stephen.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Happy New Year.
First things first; before I launch into this week's entry- I want to wish all those who take the time to read my blog fill of my ranting and ravings and those that you and I know a Happy New Year fill of wonder, joy and all things nice. While I'm wishing good fortune, I also have to beg a bit of pardon. As you will notice the date for this entry is Friday 8 January 2010- i was so intending on doing this blog yesterday- but you tend to lose what day your on- when your holidaying.
Right, to the topic of the week- as you may of noticed from my last blog I was on hiatus- due to me going on holiday to Queenstown, Blenheim and Wellington. This blog entry may have a future-looking tilt to it- this was due to me writing the bare bones of this blog entry in Christchurch airport waiting for my plane to unload. For my regular reader(s), this blog entry is not my usual blog entry. Don't worry, normalcy will revert soon.
This hoilday entailed Queenstown for Christmas, Blenheim for that period between Christmas and New Year and Wellington for New Years.
You know something is going to be good, when your sister says ' before (completely) you step off the plane, take a deep breath and breath the cleanest air in the world'. This seemingly tourist byline did not do the experience of getting off a plane in Queenstown. It sounds clique- but when you refer to a place like Queenstown words don't really seem to do it justice- if you don't believe me check out my sister and brother in laws blog: http://gregandandreajarvis.blogspot.com/
Let's just say there's a reason why they call Queenstown and its surrounding areas 'heaven'.
I was only in Queenstown from the 23rd-26th, but the exprience has me putting that in my 'good stuff to replay' file. I went up and down the gondola, did the luge- the scenic and i think it was called the experienced track- i just call it the fast track. I got criticsed for taking my sweet time on the scenic track- its scenic- you look at the scenery! Did some target shooting which i was surprisingly good at. You would think a person with a tendency to have uncoordinated moments and guns shouldn't mix- but the bullets we're hitting their mark. Oh also went up the Remarkables- which interestingly enough- sit on a true North-South plane, which is a hairy ride, in summer.
My next stop on my journey was Blenheim. However in order to get to Blenheim- i had to go via Christchurch and Wellington. I would just like add something quick about Christchurch-my first expriences of Christchurch- which aren't that much, because i didn't venture beyond the airport doors. Firstly, Christchurch is flat...like a size zero super model. I did seem some hills..kinda in the distance though.. As for the airport it is the most depressing airport- it has no features- the food court is stuck upstairs in a corner out of the way and just a tiny small bookstore. Maybe I was infected with airports-are-boringitis. Wellington's domestic airport at least looks like a shopping mall.
Once I had finally got to Blenheim and had to chance to exprience, I was pleastantly surprised- i was expecting your average New Zealand town with a church, a square, a row of shops- Blenheim was still your still your average town- but dressed well and bigger than just a church, a square and a row of shops- think a small university campus mixed with a typical urban centre you get in the city suburbs of Wellington, Auckland and probably Christchurch. From what gathered with Blenheim is that you use it as good base for all the stuff to do in the north south island, which invariably involve the Marlborough Sounds.
I got two expriences of the Marlborough Sounds- one by car and one by boat. You just keep going 'ooh, pretty', just at differing speeds- by boat the 'ooh pretty lasted a bit' but that's the point your supposed to immense yourself in good old natural New Zealand pretty. By car, you simply turn a corner or go over a hill and you get your classic wow moment.
The exprience of seeing the Marlborough Sounds had another less important purpose- it got me to Wellington. I got two experiences of Wellington- your typical airport transit exprience-refer to airportitis above. My Wellington exprience was one of exploration-exploring downtown Wellington, the houses of parliament and Te Papa. Now parliament on tv looks big- however in real life it's surprisingly small. You could easily start to run across the main debating chamber and have to stop before you hit the wall or a chair. But its impressive, no doubt. Anyway power or decision making is made has that aura of importance. Te Papa is one of the those places where its very different, depending what you see and how your with- i saw a Goldie- my god the guy could draw-you could see the wrinkles in the Maori grandmother's face.
After all that, I came Home.
I hope this satisfies the 'how was your hoilday' questions.
Look after yourselves and have fun,
Stephen.
Right, to the topic of the week- as you may of noticed from my last blog I was on hiatus- due to me going on holiday to Queenstown, Blenheim and Wellington. This blog entry may have a future-looking tilt to it- this was due to me writing the bare bones of this blog entry in Christchurch airport waiting for my plane to unload. For my regular reader(s), this blog entry is not my usual blog entry. Don't worry, normalcy will revert soon.
This hoilday entailed Queenstown for Christmas, Blenheim for that period between Christmas and New Year and Wellington for New Years.
You know something is going to be good, when your sister says ' before (completely) you step off the plane, take a deep breath and breath the cleanest air in the world'. This seemingly tourist byline did not do the experience of getting off a plane in Queenstown. It sounds clique- but when you refer to a place like Queenstown words don't really seem to do it justice- if you don't believe me check out my sister and brother in laws blog: http://gregandandreajarvis.blogspot.com/
Let's just say there's a reason why they call Queenstown and its surrounding areas 'heaven'.
I was only in Queenstown from the 23rd-26th, but the exprience has me putting that in my 'good stuff to replay' file. I went up and down the gondola, did the luge- the scenic and i think it was called the experienced track- i just call it the fast track. I got criticsed for taking my sweet time on the scenic track- its scenic- you look at the scenery! Did some target shooting which i was surprisingly good at. You would think a person with a tendency to have uncoordinated moments and guns shouldn't mix- but the bullets we're hitting their mark. Oh also went up the Remarkables- which interestingly enough- sit on a true North-South plane, which is a hairy ride, in summer.
My next stop on my journey was Blenheim. However in order to get to Blenheim- i had to go via Christchurch and Wellington. I would just like add something quick about Christchurch-my first expriences of Christchurch- which aren't that much, because i didn't venture beyond the airport doors. Firstly, Christchurch is flat...like a size zero super model. I did seem some hills..kinda in the distance though.. As for the airport it is the most depressing airport- it has no features- the food court is stuck upstairs in a corner out of the way and just a tiny small bookstore. Maybe I was infected with airports-are-boringitis. Wellington's domestic airport at least looks like a shopping mall.
Once I had finally got to Blenheim and had to chance to exprience, I was pleastantly surprised- i was expecting your average New Zealand town with a church, a square, a row of shops- Blenheim was still your still your average town- but dressed well and bigger than just a church, a square and a row of shops- think a small university campus mixed with a typical urban centre you get in the city suburbs of Wellington, Auckland and probably Christchurch. From what gathered with Blenheim is that you use it as good base for all the stuff to do in the north south island, which invariably involve the Marlborough Sounds.
I got two expriences of the Marlborough Sounds- one by car and one by boat. You just keep going 'ooh, pretty', just at differing speeds- by boat the 'ooh pretty lasted a bit' but that's the point your supposed to immense yourself in good old natural New Zealand pretty. By car, you simply turn a corner or go over a hill and you get your classic wow moment.
The exprience of seeing the Marlborough Sounds had another less important purpose- it got me to Wellington. I got two experiences of Wellington- your typical airport transit exprience-refer to airportitis above. My Wellington exprience was one of exploration-exploring downtown Wellington, the houses of parliament and Te Papa. Now parliament on tv looks big- however in real life it's surprisingly small. You could easily start to run across the main debating chamber and have to stop before you hit the wall or a chair. But its impressive, no doubt. Anyway power or decision making is made has that aura of importance. Te Papa is one of the those places where its very different, depending what you see and how your with- i saw a Goldie- my god the guy could draw-you could see the wrinkles in the Maori grandmother's face.
After all that, I came Home.
I hope this satisfies the 'how was your hoilday' questions.
Look after yourselves and have fun,
Stephen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
