Television ratings and Gordon Ramsey

I love him. You may not. The question is given the level of “coarse language” should Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant programs - eg Kitchen Nightmares - be shown on free-to-air television as early as 8.30pm?

Today the radio was filled with talkback… yes still talking about Troy Buswell but also about the amount of swearing on Gordon Ramsey’s popular program “Kitchen Nightmares”. This show is on at 8.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday nights and is rated M for coarse language.

Ramsey’s feedback style is… direct. If you haven’t caught his show before he is more likely than not to say to some hapless chef ” What the f*&k is this? It’s f*^king sh!t. Call yourself a f$#king chef?!”

I haven’t counted how many swear words he might say but put it this way - he doesn’t hold back.

One night, albeit when it was on a later timeslot, I even heard the C-word dropped. My jaw hit my chest in disbelief… did I really hear that word on FTA telly?

I love his show though. I tune in every night, record it to miss the ads, and settle in with my cuppa to watch him take apart a restaurant and make a success of it and he obviously rates otherwise the TV execs wouldn’t schedule his show three nights a week…

There’s no doubt though that he is a bully in the way he gives his feedback. It might make good telly but I would hate to have anyone treat me as he treats these restaurant owners who presumably sign up for some Sado-Masochism - Gordon Ramsey style.

But that is all by-the-by… should his show, given the level of coarse language (very high) be allowed to be screened at 8.30?

What say you, my friend?

BB08 - could it get any worse?

Last week the most popular search terms which ended up at my blog were “Rima” and “Rima bb08″. Now that of course was because last Friday night on BB08, Rima broke her leg during FNL and so I imagine there were a few worried viewers wondering what had happened to their favourite - now what was the term Ben used? Ah that’s right - height challenged housemate.

It was probably also due to the fact that there were a number of “tasteful” photographs, that her husband claims Rima is “quite happy with” circulating the net.

Excellent.

Now BB has sunk to the level of “dwarf porn” - not that Rima is in fact a dwarf, she says she has a very rare condition, so rare in fact that the condition was named after her.

Any normal reality television program might have stopped there, but BB doesn’t know where the line is, so they got together with another fellow who doesn’t know where the line is and asked him if he’d like to enter the house as a guest.

Recently described in a seminar I attended as the “Sum of all our fears”, enter Corey Worthington, a minor, aged just 17, now a guest in the freak show that is Big Brother 08.

To supervise him, they’ve challenged the recently evicted nanna, Terri, who cites her influences as Pauline Hanson and so you know, is the modicum of tolerance, with the task of guiding Corey in the house.

Her entry caused a full two minutes of continuous bleeping as the housemates expressed their joy at seeing the oldest ever housemate back again, a housemate they themselves chose to evict.

Channel 10, I can handle the f-word, but call me squeamish, references to dwarf porn after my Sunday roast do disturb me.

Excuse me. I need to shower. I feel a little dirty.

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

Extras is the fourth book in the Uglies trilogy. Well, strictly speaking the trilogy - Uglies, Pretties and Specials - stands alone. Lets just say this is another book set in the Uglies world. You can read my review of that series here.

Extras is set around a new heroine in another city - this time in Japan. This city is based on a “reputation economy” where the most famous get the most resources. Sound familiar? To get famous you either need to be clever at something or you need to report or “kick” the story.

Fame is everything.

Your fame buys you luxury apartments, beautiful clothes, invitations to the most exclusive of parties. It’s kind of how our celebrities live now!

(You can also get merits by being a doctor or scientist… the merit system runs alongside the reputation economy.)

If you want a glimpse into the future this could be it. Obviously Scott Westerfeld has spent some time in Asia. In his future world anyone can “kick” a story. From our 15 year old heroine’s point-of-view, it’s her chance to go from a “face rank” of 451,369 into the top 1000.

The kickers in his story are our “Naturals” of today. They don’t travel anywhere without their cameras, they are completely at home with hi-tech equipment and then they “kick” their stories onto the internet. Just like on social networking sites of today - but of course far more integrated into their society. :)

Stories are then “kicked” on by others - just like you Stumble and Digg stories today.

I think that’s why I’ve found this series so engaging. Scott manages to pick up on contemporary themes and spin them out to see where they go.

A good series for teens, late tweens and young minded adults. :)

Big Brother 08

I’ve been debating with myself as to whether I’ll post about BB08. At first I thought I’d be a bit Rodney Olsen and do the “I don’t think so” deal… but then I thought well, I’ll watch the freak show for the first night and just see…

Well I saw.

The short, the old, the fat and the ugly. The Barbie doll, the boobs, the surfie and the fireman.

And now they have to sacrifice one of their own on first impressions.

Interesting.

What would you reveal - or not reveal - about yourself if you were trying to convince someone you’ve only just met to let you stay?

Will Rebecca talk about her hygiene paranoia for example?

Will Rory mention his anti-religion status - or David his strong faith?

Travis might not want to openly reveal he’s in it for the money… and he’s a church regular too. Hmmm maybe Rory had better keep quiet.

Chosen for their opposing views and likelihood to clash with each other, they are walking a minefield.

And if they say nothing? They might just be kicked out just for being boring.

Hmmm I might not mention my…

PS: If you missed it, Jen Live Blogged it.

Fingernail vanity

I know posting about this is tantamount at waving a red flag at fate and saying “Yoo hoo! Over here! Time to break a fingernail!” but I don’t care.

I’ve managed to grow my fingernails quite long and they’ve not broken all week, despite gardening on Sunday and I wanted a record..

Noice.

By the way anyone watching East of Everything on Sunday nights? What do you think?
I’m thinking it’s not quite Seachange but I’m starting to enjoy it three episodes in… and that Richard Roxburgh is pretty cute…

Me and Chas Licciardello

Claiming that my son is a huge fan and would be sick-makingly jealous if I had my photo taken with him, I stood next to the (surprisingly not tall) Chas Licciardello from The Chaser and smiled.

Of course it’s me who is the big fan… and Hugamuga… but one doesn’t want to be so uncool. Oh except… um… I guess it’s pretty lame to then display the photo on your blog… And I don’t want to appear a stalker but that’s 2/5!

I took the family to The Chaser’s Age of Terror Variety Hour at His Majesty’s Theatre this week. I was amused, I laughed out loud, I sniggered, I wondered if we’re going to have a problem in the future recycling all those reusable green shopping bags…

Hugamuga LOVED it.

It’s like a Uni Review crossed with the Chaser’s TV show. The demographic was young. It was fun.

Details of the show.

Speaking of things happening in Perth… apparently the World Blog Awards are in our fair city in August…

Wideacre by Philippa Gregory

You are probably more familiar with Philippa Gregory’s later historical novels from the Tudor period: The Other Boleyn Girl etc… I say later because they were written this century although the period they write about is in fact earlier in time than this series which was written earlier, in 1987. Confusing maybe?

Wideacre is set in the late 1700s. A younger daughter born to the Quality in Sussex aches to own the land she farms. Her father - the squire - is her idol and she can’t bear the thought that one day she must marry and leave the farming lands she knows and loves.

This is a bodice ripper to the highest order.

As the review on the cover says: “Beatrice Lacey leaves Scarlett O’Hara in the dust” or words to that effect…

There are no lengths to which she will not go to stay on Wideacre. And some of the lengths she goes to are long indeed. At some points I audibly groaned and had to put the book down.

She’s surrounded by a pretty wet bunch most of the book who let her get away with it it must be said.

It all gets a bit too much in the end and the ominous spectre of her past seems a little contrived - hey it’s a fictional bodice ripper - what should I expect - nonetheless I enjoyed the escapism and will probably pick up the next two in the trilogy for a gander.

How hard can it be?

I was feeling a bit uninspired this evening.

Don’t want to cook dinner.

Don’t want to clean up.

Don’t want to do any work.

Don’t have a book on the go.

Don’t have any “projects”.

And then I hear a loud exclamation from the lounge room.

The show on the telly is The Biggest Loser.

“It’s really important that I make the right choice…” says the Loser in question…

“What?! How hard can it be?!!” Is what I hear, “They’re fries?!!!”

The Loser had to choose the product with the least fat. There was a 60g packet of muesli against a 72g packet of fries.

Put it this way: There was a good reason this person needed to be on the show.

Speaking of losers… did anyone catch My Kid’s A Star the other night?

photo credit: Steve Beger Photography (Beger.com Productions)

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

I picked up this book in my local bookshop last Sunday. It was a toss up between this one and a Philippa Gregory novel Wild…something…

I loved the way this book started. “Sorry of my English.”

Zhuang is a Chinese language student who arrives in London to attend an English language school in order to get ahead in China.

The book begins in broken English: “Is unbelievable, I arriving London, ‘Heathlow Airport’. Every single name very difficult remembering, because just not ‘London Airport’ simple way like we simple way call ‘Beijing Airport’. Everything very confuse way here…”

Broken but charming, her language is quite poetic: “Immigration officer holding my passport behind his accounter, my heart hanging on high sky.”

Xiaolu Guo’s insights are also really interesting and sometimes funny: “People say ‘I’m going to go to the cinema…’ Why there two go for one sentence? Why not enough to say one go to go?”

I felt inside her skin as she tried to make sense of the alien Western world and as she comments on the differences learning learning learning about her culture.

Now I suppose the title should have given it away… after all “for lovers” is a pretty big hint, but I was surprised at the amount of sex in this book. It’s not confronting, just… surprising. But it makes sense as part of the novel, for this innocent from China is not only discovering the Western World but also herself, her sexuality.

I really enjoyed this novel. It’s very cleverly written. Zhuang’s English gets better and better throughout the book. And as her language gets better, so does the depth of her insight.

My favourite expression is her description of the English sun while she’s in Portugal: “They got a real sun here in their sky, not like in England. English sun is a fake sun, a literature sun.”

Right on the money!

Un-fayre

We’ve had 63 mm of rain in Perth today. The wettest start of April which more than doubles the previous record set in 1964. 90.6mm. W00t. Not good news for those promoting the second desalination plant in Binninup - always easier to get those things through when the dam levels are low, and not good news for those planning today’s Medieval Fayre.

Today I woke up at about 10am… I heard the sports guys on the radio going on about the rain and how it would probably clear by the afternoon in time for the clash between the Dockers and the Eagles and I rolled over and congratulated myself for taking the washing off the line.

I got up briefly. Made myself a coffee and crumpet and slothed back to bed and read a bit more of my (unexpectedly racy) novel.

A girlfried called and we chatted for awhile…

And as we were chatting, there was a knocking at my door…

Another friend had dropped by. I LOVE the drop in, although it was slightly inconvenient as I was as I say, on the phone and in my pjs. I made plans with my friend on the phone to catch up tomorrow, pulled on some jeans and went to see my visitor.

I had a lovely morning. We ended up going to Spotlight where I’m considering buying a sewing machine. Yes yes I know I’m not the world’s most obvious dressmaker and lets face it - do I really have the time - but oh those machines… I just love them. The fancy stitches which I’d never use, the LED lights, the bobbin racks and pull out accessories drawer.

I said to my friend… “Hmmm the NS10 only has a single needle. Do you really need the twin needle option?”

She said yes.

Sigh.

I got home eventually and as I logged online remembered that it was the day of the Medieval Fayre. Hey nonny nonny and all that stuff. Having watched Gladiator (isn’t that a surprisingly good movie?) the night before I was even ready to watch a couple of geeks in armour throwing a sword around. I was.

Pulling the kids in the car we headed off to the city. “Isn’t this exciting!” I enthused as we passed the statue in the river, today sporting a towel and beach spade… “Something new to do together!”

Yes, full of the joys of spring we drove until reaching Supreme Court gardens where we saw the remnants of the fayre packed up. Stacks of white plastic chairs (oh so medieval!). The odd scattered tent. Puddles.

It was only 3.15 and the Fayre was supposed to finish at 5pm. It was so unfayre!

We went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles instead. Which was fayrely entertaining movie.

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