Saw the pilot episode, and had to watch all episodes of The Supersizers.... This series features Giles Coren and Sue Perkins eating in the styles of different periods of British history, for example the 20s, Restoration, Medieval, Wartime, etc...
The show consists of them eating in that period's style for a week, each day they are restricted to menus from the time, although they can range over several different menus from all over the period. They also dress up in the style of the time, and indulged in the other past times going on (such as motor racing in the twenties, gladiatorial battles in Ancient Rome and so on). And this is all done with light hearted banter and some remarkably spot on wit.
The focus, of course, is the food itself. In each time, they happen to be near the top of the wealthy classes, so they can indulge in the best the periods had to offer (well, it would be boring if they had peasant meals all the time), although they do sometimes lose their wealth to eat skimpily for a day. They also get medical evaluations before and after to see what impact the diet has had, a touch I like.
This all said, they do go through a lot of food, getting chefs to prepare entire banquets. And there is often a lot of food left over. I do have to wonder just how much was spent on some of the more esoteric dishes, often most of which they barely touch. Huge amount of waste there (unless the production team eats well?).
Anyway, great series, and I look forward to any more series they care to make...
[END]
Friday, 7 January 2011
The Supersizers Go and Eat
Thursday, 6 January 2011
I've Been Watching...
In a vague attempt to try to get through some of the backlog, I watched the Barnsley classic The Creature From Down't Pit.
It's actually quite a well paced story, nearly taking place in real time for the most part. We go from arrival, to Adastra's palace, to down the pit, to everyone getting down the pit, to the translater, and then the final bit with putting aluminium around a neutron star (as one does), and boom! that's ninety enjoyable minutes later!
No, it's not all perfect. The bandits were all cast from the ham school of over-acting, and then there's Erato, firmly in place with such other creations as the Magma Beast and the Myrka... On the other hand, Myra Frances is brilliant, and one might almost think that Geoffry Bayldon should be playing the Doctor... oh, hang on.
On the extras side, Lalla gets in a few digs at Tom (as he would have at her), and we get to see Tom in completely mad mode in Animal Magic.
Yes, sir, I liked that a lot.
[END]
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
The Big 5 Mil
No, not 5 million dollars (I wish), but 5 million people. As in when will New Zealand hit that? I thought, quick calculation, by 2020 (we hit 4 mil in 2003), but... let's take a look at properly done calculations, using information from Statistics New Zealand.
First, we could use the population clock, which puts us currently at just under 4.4, and growing at, basically, 1 person per 10 minutes. So with 605,432 to at the moment, that works out at... 11.5 years, so 2022-2023. [Note that these estimates are updated so this can change.]
However, we also have population projections
for upcoming years. Although this series is produced by the 5 year mark, we can get a yearly breakdown from Table Builder. Now, this is broken down in to various series 1-9 to allow for variability in assumptions of birth rate, death rate and migration rate. (There are more detailed sub series, but this is fine.) [Note that these estimates were rebased to 2009, and will probably change again come the next Census in a few months.]
According to Series 5, the middle of the road assumptions typically used, we hit 5 mil in 2027. Series 9, the highest growth, hits 5 mil in 2022 (which matches the clock, interesting). Series 1, the slowest, doesn't even hit 5 mil.
Ignoring Series 1 (as we can't use it), the years of 5 mil are 2030, 2028, 2031, 2027, 2024, 2026, 2025 and 2022, giving a range from 2022 to 2031, and an average year of 2026/27. (The latest release gives "mid-2020s" for 5 mil, about right.)
So, yeah, while my estimate was off, we are looking at 5 mil in around 15 years. Be interesting to see where we house them all...
[END]
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
I've Been Watching...
Since I've had a few days off (back to work tomorrow, sigh), I managed to work my way through The Trial of a Time Lord. Although, to be honest, I've done everything but watch it. In that I watched the main story with commentary and production subtitles on, and haven't watched the story straight per se, as well as all the extras.
Certainly an interesting event in what was happening during the "hiatus" (*) and during the season itself in terms of who was supposed to write what versus who did actually write it. This is one of the most interesting periods of Doctor Who in what was going on behind the scenes, and a lot of that does come up during the DVD, but it is spread out a bit, and could have been done with being better collated (presuming they wanted to give the full picture, they might not have wanted to focus too much on that side of things).
One question I do have: why no Bonnie Langford? It's not like she gave up on DW, so where is she? Was it just really unfortunate scheduling? (Is she on any DVDs?)
One DVD per day was better than trying to get them all out in one day. Does suggest that it is better to keep with DW as intended, and watch, at best, one episode per day. DVD compilation isn't necessarily better.
(*) It does have to be pointed out that the BBC / Michael Grade said "it's off for 18 months" and it was only off for 18 months. The fan effort to bring things back didn't really do too much, did it? Aside from producing a truly horrible song.
[END]
Monday, 3 January 2011
24 things wrong
I've just finished watching season eight of 24, and have realised I've been watching it wrong.
With a series like this, and with having it on DVD, the standard approach is throw in the DVDs and watch until you run out. For 24, it can be made more interesting by trying to watch it in 24 hours (well, 18 given the lack of ads). This is basically what I did.
The problem is, the series isn't written like that. It's written so you are supposed to have a week between episodes. Now, I don't think, if you have the DVDs, you should wait a week between episodes, but I would now recommend spacing the episodes out a bit.
There are two issues, the first is action fatigue. This is a high action series, every episode there is usually someone getting shot or something blown up, or... and basically you get sated by having the constant boom that you start not paying attention, and then why are you even watching?
The second issue is information replay. As it was written with a week between episodes, there are continual recaps of what happened last time. However, when you watch it back to back to back, you quickly realise that what happened last time isn't what they said did (they found out that information? no, they didn't!), and you also realise just how ridiculous some of the revelations are. Given this is 24, most people are going to turn out to be working for the enemy (even predictably so), but if you watch continuously, you have a much harder time buying their sudden turns as you can't picture the person you just saw getting smacked down by a "surprise ex!" is now an action specialist.
Some year from now, I'll probably rewatch 24. When I do, I hope I remember to break it up.
[END]
Sunday, 2 January 2011
That Far-Off Sleep
So what do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep?
This morning, I listened to some music. Sometimes I go on the internet, sometimes I just lie there, yearning for sleep. They say you should get up and do something (eg read a book in another room (so different posture as well)), but too often I'm too tired to do anything, but not tired enough to actually sleep.
This morning was the added bonus of an alarm off in the distance, just barely audible, but I knew it was there. Reminded me of the alarm that awoke me while I was on holiday. Four loud blaring notes, then a voice saying "a fire alarm has been set off elsewhere, be ready to move your ass" (although it eventually was just switched off, so I guess the fire wasn't that bad). No idea what the voice was actually saying this morning. Have to say that a part of me hopes it annoyed another people as well, as all too often it seems that when there is a loud noise in the middle of the night (eg from a large metal door to the meter box that fell open and started banging about in the wind), I'm the only one that seems to hear it and so I'm the one to has to deal with it. Really, really annoying...
Anyway, sleep, need it, especially when having to work that day (fortunately not today). What's your remedy for getting it? Warm milk anyone?
[END]
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Seeing in the New Year
Much like for the Mayans in a few years, we now hit the end of our calendar, and just like the Mayans' predicted the world has been destroyed when you reach the end of a calendar...
...no, hang on...
Anyways, typically around this time of the year, everyone stays up late, drinks, parties until after midnight and... actually, that sounds like most nights for many people.
Many young people. Me, I gave up and went to bed. I'm old and tired. But here is some random fireworks I found on YouTube to celebrate:
[END]
