Just a chime....or??

[Jerry Oz]

British humor is much more dependent upon timing and facial expressions. There is also much more clever word play. I'm a much bigger fan of subtle comedy than something that all but tells you "laugh now".

[westgrandboulevard]

Yes, that's fair comment. There is also a broad range of comedy, some of it very vulgar and 'smutty'. Normally, I don't go for that at all because it doesn't make me laugh. A rare exception is 'Mrs Brown's Boys' which is beyond vulgar, but does the trick for me.

British humour tends to succeed best with situation comedy, rather than gags, although we do have some very accomplished stand-up comedians.

I don't think we have anyone to touch Joan Rivers - who starts her "Quick! ....before they close the lid! [[Seriously!.... this one could be IT!)" tour over here in October...

[Jerry Oz]

I cannot handle Joan Rivers. I was never a fan of Don Rickles, either. There's a line between funny and mean and neither of them cared to look at it.

[westgrandboulevard]

Joan is indeed very acerbic, but does seem to also poke fun at herself.

Don't know anything about Don Rickles, just recognise the name. Will have to check him out, but I'm prepared for him to be uncompromising......

[Jerry Oz]

He's long since gone away. His heyday was the '60s and '70s. He wasn't quite as personal as Joan Rivers tends to be. My problem with her is that she jokes about others but seems to have extremely thin skin herself. When someone says something about her or her daughter Melissa, the claws come out and it's not in a joking way.

[westgrandboulevard]

I've not seen that, but then Joan Rivers is not on TV or in the media here nearly as much as over there.

She does come over as having keen observational skills, but also as being defensive, and using humour to soften the bluntness. She also appears extremely driven.

There may indeed be underlying unhappiness behind the comic persona. I've never quite learned the circumstances behind her husband's suicide, but she has a right to keep them private if she wishes. She was interviewed about it on UK TV a while back, and she kept going with her conversation, but was weeping.

[Jerry Oz]

Professional interviewers go over the topics before the session for just such a reason. It's unfair to throw a question out there that can result in a compelling interview at the expense of someone's emotions and humility.

I'm reminded of a Barbara Walters interview with Robert Blake as he sat in a jail cell a few years ago. She asked him the obvious question: "Did you kill your wife?" Of course, he told her that he didn't. My understanding was that his lawyer asked her to avoid asking the question. But she knew that and still had to go there for the sake of being taken seriously as an interviewer. Quite the opposite, actually.

It made me chuckle when he was exonerated [[in spite of much compelling evidence that leads many to conclude that justice wasn't served) and the made a very special point to thank Walters for helping him beat the rap. I imagine she spewed a mouthful of coffee onto her television screen when that happened.

[westgrandboulevard]

Robert Blake is a name which does not immediately resonate....what was the story?

[Jerry Oz]

He started out as "Mickey" in the old "Our Gang" shorts from the 1930s. He would become more famous in the '70s after playing the lead in "Baretta", a detective series. He didn't do much else in his career. About five years ago, his wife was shot dead after an argument. It seems like it was with his gun, but I cannot recall the specific circumstances. It was a case that was considered to be cut and dried by all of the legal experts who commented on it. Somehow, his highly paid legal team established reasonable doubt for the jury and he walked.

I just found it funny that Walters tried to get a scoop and asked a question when she knew his answer in advance. I'm pretty sure that his lawyer only agreed to the interview on the basis that she not ask it, but she had to put her big boy pants on and did it anyway. [[You may have guessed that I'm not a big fan of hers by now.)

I consider it to be lazy journalism to ask a question that you already know the answer to under the guise of being "hard hitting". There was no chance that he was going to admit to killing his wife after pleading not guilty in his arraignment, so her question was simply grandstanding and of no value.

[westgrandboulevard]

Barbara Walters is, again, only a name here, and I'm unsure if 'Baretta' was shown.

I wouldn't recognise either of those people, so just my way of thinking, after reading your account...

I can understand that Barbara Walters was not the prosecutor, but a televison presenter.
However, she was/is also a very popular televison presenter, so Robert Blake appearing on her show would boost the ratings, as the viewers would be interested, with him being 'hot' at that time.

Just thinking about it - and I may have missed something - but wouldn't that mean that, if Barbara Walters wished to ask any provocative questions, she was obliged to do so only when the answer was already known? A television presenter is not permitted to conduct a trial of their own, so anything else might have left her open to legal proceedings?

That said, I can well imagine the viewers tuned in, just in case....!!

[Jerry Oz]

I'm sure that they did. I'd care less if it wasn't presented as a "hard-hitting" interview. It was fluff and grandstanding, done only to put her out there as the one who got the interview. Thankfully, she's retiring this week. The sad part of it is the fact that she was actually a ground-breaking newswoman when she got her start. She broke many barriers and helped open doors for women in journalism in the States that were never opened before. I'm grateful for her contributions overall, but I'm also glad that she's going away.

[westgrandboulevard]

I checked her out. At nearly 85, she deserves a rest from it ...and so do you...

[Jerry Oz]

Ahh, but one of Murphy's Laws contends that everytime an idiot leaves a situation, another will ever show up to take her/his place. And we've our fair share of idiots over here.

Am I being judgmental again...?

[westgrandboulevard]

Yes, of course, simply because you have a need and, also, a right to be. You would be expected to exercise your personal preferences at all times, in order to best suit yourself.

Television presenters are no more than that, and are addressing the general public in the first instance.

You have always to listen to yourself. It is not absolutely necessary to give time to television presenters, let alone agree with their views or presenting style - or even the way they look or sound....

[Jerry Oz]

Do you guys have the "shock journalists" over there, who are more entertainers than newsmen? They lack any objectivity, claiming huge ratings based on the fact that they pander to the fears and hatred of a small-minded and bigoted set of the population. They know no shame and admit no wrong, even when their stories fly in the face of truth or objectivity.

[westgrandboulevard]

Over here, they work as hacks for the red top newspapers.

The BBC is the benchmark for balanced journalism. Like certain other institutions here [[for example, some might say the Royal Family) it can be regarded as stuffy - and doesn't always get it right - but it ensures that standards don't descend into the mire.

The independent TV stations follow suit, but in a slightly more chattier style.

[Jerry Oz]

Here, if you're not extreme left or right, then you're not interesting. And if you're not mad, then viewers apparently won't watch. It's all a game of finding the niche market and exploiting it for gain.

[westgrandboulevard]

The majority of viewers want to plonk their bottoms, stare at the screen, and be entertained.

They're not interested in the truth. If they were, they'd need to think about it, not watch TV.

[Jerry Oz]

Things have changed. People only appreciate it if you find new and more obvious ways to insult their intelligence. It is an absolute case of broadcasters saying "when I want your opinion kid, I'll give it to you".

[westgrandboulevard]

I prefer the internet or rental dvds.

I feel much better to be creative right here on SDF, than sit passively watching TV.

It is on for a lot of the time, but it's not so often now that I give it my full attention.

[Jerry Oz]

With the exception of rental DVDs [[I prefer NetFlix), I could have written that post word for word. I purchased a Roku and it gives me a lot of free product that is otherwise only available on cable television. I'm glad to avoid having to bust my budget in order to have options.

[westgrandboulevard]

I love having the options - but the choice takes up time!

[Jerry Oz]

And I can get nothing done because I try to do everything. At a time when I have tons of things to do that interest me, it's always what I'm not doing that draws my attention...

[westgrandboulevard]

I can keep focused and single-minded, but only for relatively short periods. A notebook and pen are never far from me at those times, should something else start to cross my mind...

[Jerry Oz]

Lucky you... I'll start working on something musical when the yearning to draw comes on me, so my musical endeavor winds up half-hearted. I'll start drawing and I begin to think about things that I'd like to write, so after a short while, I'm unhappy with the act of drawing [[which I actually love to do) because I'm not writing. I'll start writing and suddenly the idea for a cool lyric will come into my head, so there went the Great American Novel... I'd much rather have one interest than many.

[westgrandboulevard]

I know. If only your butterfly mind would just let you......

[144man]

I've recently discovered "The Good Wife" [[which is into Series 5) and "Castle" [[Series 6), so catching up on earlier series is taking up a lot of my spare time.

[westgrandboulevard]

It's always very interesting first to discover something, and then to learn that there is far more of it available to enjoy.

[144man]

On the other hand, I've been watching "Supernatural" and "Once Upon A Time", but the current series being shown in the USA aren't going to be shown in the UK. That's more annoying than if they'd been cancelled.

[Jerry Oz]

The only show that I find interesting right now is "The Mentalist". However, it airs so late that it's hard for me to watch most weeks. The last show that I made a point to either watch or record was"Lost". I also find Hong Kong films to be much more interesting than most Hollywood blockbusters.

I suppose I'm quite boring art the waste cooler.

[westgrandboulevard]

I'm not very knowledgeable on these things, but is it now not possible to watch [[perhaps online) previously shown US episodes, whether as a viewer based in US, or in UK?

[144man]

Yes. A lot of old series can be seen via iTunes, Netflix or Amazon Prime.

[westgrandboulevard]

Perhaps you will be able to catch up that way.

[144man]

When you're on SDF, are you listening to music at the same time, and, if so, do you appreciate it as much as if you were giving it your full attention?

[westgrandboulevard]

When not at work, there is usually a TV on nearby, [[at home, I'm using the computer in the hall, or on the laptop in the sitting room) but it's unusual for me to have music playing when I'm on computer.

I find I can't concentrate on listening to lyrics if I'm also concentrating on using the keyboard. In that respect, they become a distraction.

I'm usually signed into SDF at home and also at work, so have to get up and do other things, then back to keyboard, and so on...

I often play CDs in the car, usually if I'm doing a fair distance, say 30 mins or more, without a break.

[144man]

It's just that I turned the TV off a couple of hours ago, and I suddenly thought instead of writing about music, I could be listening to it.

[westgrandboulevard]

It's a bit like sitting in a room for quite a while before realising it is cold.

it takes a while to notice the silence. Once noticed, I do something about it, and fill the void.

It's the same when one is in solitude. Once one starts to notice the quiet too much, there's a tendency for a feeling of loneliness to set in.

[Jerry Oz]

[[This dialogue has been temporarily interrupted to permit me to explain: When using a mobile device, autofill sucks horribly. To that end, please be aware that we do not have a "waste cooler" where I work, but we do have a water cooler. I'm afraid that post #2730 may have given you the wrong idea about how I spend my breaks while on the job. Thank you, and your regularly scheduled thread will be picked up in progress...)

[westgrandboulevard]

No problem Jerry.

I just used my imagination - as I do for much of the time I'm around here....

[Jerry Oz]

"Waste cooler"? SMH. Sounds like the portion of the morgue where they place people who died from drinking too much hooch or overexposure to network television...

[westgrandboulevard]

Presumably those are the bodies of which parts are used for medical research?

[Jerry Oz]

Or at least the parts of the cadavers that are not needed...

[westgrandboulevard]

Once the breath and the "eek!" are no longer there, I suppose something could be made of each part of us.....

[Jerry Oz]

There's not much more to us than there is to the street pizza stretched for 15 meters along a country road.

[westgrandboulevard]

And most of that is water. Some, of course, might say otherwise.....

[Jerry Oz]

Yep. We're in balance with the elements. Although some of us are out of proportion with too much hot air.

[westgrandboulevard]

They're the type to explode shortly after they die, if left without proper attention.

[Jerry Oz]

From my experience, they explode a lot in life if they don't get the attention that they want. The typical result is to ruin mine.

[westgrandboulevard]

Only if you let them, Jerry...only if you let them...

[Jerry Oz]

See, now you did it too..! My wife does it all the time when she says that I'm too sensitive... The world is a cold, mean place.