Monday, February 06, 2006

My room's very stuffy today.

*UPDATE: Thought I'd put this bit up top, or no-one'll see it. I couldn't quite get the murderer/gravel driveway analogy to work. Something about the nice sound of walking across gravel, even when the person walking towards you is going to kill you. That was the best I could up with as well - other suggestions gratefully received. In Grammar Puss world it would be a murderer pulling a gun out of a really nice handbag, but that doesn't work so well in my world. Sometimes the Muse just passes by, avoiding eye contact altogether.

ANOTHER UPDATE. Some of those Arj and Poopy episodes now have ads in front of them. Gah. See also: 'Tch'.

Also, check the comments section below for a link to another animation using the same D&D script. Fat Roland, you are correct, that one's much better.

Wonder how long I could go on just updating/rewriting the same post? Hmm....


Adverts give me the screaming ab-dabs at the best of times. The only tv adverts I have ever liked:

1. That one for jeans, or classical music or something, where a man and a lady run through walls, then find a wood and run up trees into the sky, shouting at God.

2. That Transformer one.

3. Er....


Anyway, I was watching the television the other day, and something felt wrong. Adverts seemed even more moronic and appalling than usual, and whereas I usually have to shout 'Mnargh!' to myself a few times to block them out, this time I was having to mnargh on what was practically a constant basis, whilst at the same time hitting my head with a tablespoon to distract my brain. And then I realised - all the telly I have seen for ages has either been off DVD sets or dowloaded. I have managed to avoid televisual based adverts for at least three weeks now. The only 'live' television I watch is Life on Mars, and that's on BBC, so no adverts as such.

And then I saw episode seven of Arj and Poopy, and I realised - I may never have to watch television again. It feels good, but simultaneously worrying. Imagine hearing a murderer walking towards you across a sweeping gravel driveway*, and you will be some way towards feeling the mixture of my emotions.

In other news, I like to think of roleplaying games as a great undiscovered artistic medium, where the imagination can freely roam, and strange new worlds be discovered in an interesting, consensual way. But to honest, I don't think it'll shatter anyone's dreams to say that usually, it's more like this.

UPDATE: rest of the episodes of A+P not as good, to be honest. But same people also make the song with the sex-starved rabbit, which is funnier and sweeter than it sounds.

17 comments:

patroclus said...

Apart from Life on Mars (and now the IT Crowd), I haven't watched telly for seven months now. Can't say I've missed it one little bit.

Also, according to the Economist, the number of people shouting "mnargh" and beating themselves over the head with tablespoons rather than pay attention to infantile TV ads is leading big fatcat corporations to splash out heretofore unheard-of amounts of cash on PR, which previously got about 0.001% of the available marketing budget. Which means that a) I am going to be fearfully rich, and b) everything you read in the papers is going to be even more spurious and made-up than it is now.

Sorry, I went on a bit there.

Anonymous said...

What brought on John Simm's shocked expression at the end of Life on Mars? I missed the beginning... Was it himself as a wee lad with his dad or am i talking crazy?

James Henry said...

No, that was it I think. Would like more of the 'coma' stuff than an occasional beeping sound please.

Still enjoying it though.

patroclus said...

Maybe there *is* more of the coma stuff, but we just can't see it.

Why does he always sleep with the telly on, for example?

James Henry said...

Yes, that would give me a terrible headache. I reckon Sam's dad is a mur-diddly-urderer. Bad father? Not often home? You gots to wonder...

Anonymous said...

I thought the scary test card girl was coma-related. Or is she the "am I mad" option?

Anonymous said...

you know these things you have at the top of the page, below "blue cat"? right now there's the trivia thing which is very nice, but I miss the older ones.
i don't actually remember them but i do remember that i laughed.

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

Just been wasting work time looking at Pitchfork. Apparently Sigur Ros have announced some tour dates. None in Cornwall I'm afraid, but a couple of nights at Hammersmith Apollo (28th and 29th March).

Anonymous said...

Tag! You're it!

Fat Roland said...

A much funnier version of that D&D sketch can be found here...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=840960313659062542&q=summoner+D%26D

Same sound, different animation, I think it's clevererer.

Love the blog by the way, becoming a bit of a regular visitor.

ScroobiousScrivener said...

Am I the only person very confused by this murderer coming towards me analogy? Why would my emotions be any more mixed than AAAAAAHHH! EEEK! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

I must be missing something...

Piers said...

Here was me thinking that the great thing about hearing a murderer walking towards you across gravel was that you knew where he was.

And that was a good thing.

James Henry said...

That would make more sense than what I wrote.

Those GW deleted scenes not looking so promising now, are they?

Anonymous said...

I don't watch adverts either. More or less the same reasons - downloads and DVDs but also changing channels if adverts come on.

It worries me though that surely more and more people will do that and either the advert people will find more sneaky and clever ways of getting to you, or telly people will run out of money. Ok, it doesn't worry me *that* much, but you know what I mean.

patroclus said...

Telly people are moving online, where advertising is (currently) booming...

James Henry said...

And writers are under increasing pressure to include 'product placement', which is worrying...

Piers said...

"And welcome once more to the Persil Drama Hour. But first a word from our sponsor."

Product placement, not so good. But I can't see why you couldn't return to sponsored blocks of TV - after all, Corrie's had wraparound chocolate for many years.

As have films on C4 with Stella.

Just off the top of my head, those two.

'course there's an alternate distribution model. Once we can start receiving NVOD, we can simply start paying for the programmes we want sans ads.

Cut the broadcaster out of the equation entirely and go directly to the production company.