Here I am at a quarter past three on a Sunday morning, a few hours away from the end of another of those that are known as night shifts.
It has been a particularly long drawn out affair if truth be told, with virtually nothing to speak of happening, which is good because I really couldn't discuss if anything were to occur anyway. That's something that I am sure a lot of people have the same problem with. Even if you could discuss work though, it may in fact get you into trouble because your bosses might happen upon your Facebook or Twitter account (or any number of other social network sites, all of which have another social network on as a member too, so they are sort of interlinked nowadays anyway. It's a little like the television industry over here in the UK in a sense, because they used to not have anything to do with each other.
Frequently in interviews back then you would find some celebrity on a chat show and the host would have to say, "oh, you can't mentioned the other side". It was ridiculous and petty I felt even back then. Now it isn't even a problem because the BBC make money from their programmes being repeated on television stations that advertise and, if truth be told, they must earn a quite sizeable amount of money from the programmes being repeated. Next we'll find them having repeats of 1960's episodes of Blue Peter or something because it is obvious that they don't make anywhere near enough money from the license fee that we have to pay by law so that they can provide programming and the like.
I was one of those people that was really looking forward to the digital switch over - more channels to choose from, so hopefully something to watch when I want to forget the day and just settle down to some escapism. Do you now what though? I switch the television on and realise that I have been duped yet again.
Now I know that I am going to give away my age here, but I remember Channel Four coming into being, and that was expected to be so big. There were a few things at first that grabbed the attention, not least of which was the amazing television programme The Tube, which to me as a music lover was absolute gold dust. There were some absolutely unforgettable moments on there that I still remember, even if those memories are hazy. I think that is the programme where I first caught sight of INXS, and also saw other acts on there such as The Style Council, Big Country (always an incredible live band anyway, since I have seen them live), Magnum, Motorhead, and so many more (you realise I am making up this blog as I go along and haven't got anything written down, otherwise it would be much more organised and make more sense).
I could have sworn that I actually caught Ozzy Osbourne on The Tube, and I always thought that the band Living Color played on the show, but I could be mistaken. You know how the haze of time can make you wonder about some really silly things?
Anyway, Channel Four came about and eventually so did Channel 5 (after a lot of messing about because their signal was on the same wavelength as my video recorder, so had to change the tuning of that - daft sods who decided to place it there, no problem with that now). Now that was one of those strange things. I even remember waiting for that channel to start and occasionally putting the channel on before it's official start date to see what they were going to be advertising on there as tasters of programmes. That indeed turned into not much at all. To open the channel up they had the Spice Girls doing a special recording of a song for the station. For a long while after that it was made up of a few programmes that were shown during about a four hour period, and then just repeated over and over. It took a while for them to find their feet, and that came about (in my opinion) really when they started getting the crime drama's from the US, and the television movies that were also from America. This was something new and, if truth be told, the foreign made programming had been made on far better budgets that British television. Gone were the days of us providing television that was absolutely classic such as the Gerry Anderson series, and the old ITC programming such as The Saint, The Persuaders, and the likes. The television now that took over was most definitely American, and over the years the CSI's, Law & Order's, NCIS would all become staples of Channel 5's empire as it is now.We had frequently dipped our interest into other programming from other countries, such as the Star Trek's, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and all those other shows, but now we were starting to be flooded with all of this programming which really isn't such a bad thing is it? In some ways it gives us a glimpse of another culture - I know that's sort of stretching things, but also not. Anyone who has seen Law & Order UK will see first hand what I mean (I have probably caught one episode in it's entirety and snippets from others) - there they have for the most part based the episodes on the American episode, and they even credit it as such, and these just show the difference between the two justice systems, and the cultural differences too.
Let's face it, all television is in truth is pure escapism. We turn on the television to get ourselves away from everyday lives, which is why I freely admit to being a science fiction nerd, and I also have a habit of getting lost in whatever I am watching as well. I don't wear the uniforms and all of that stuff, although sometimes I've been tempted to suggest the mini-skirts from Star Trek for Louise, but she hates most Sci-Fi, so that would never be a suggestion that I could ever suggest anyway. Well, a man can have these thoughts can't he?
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| A pair of night time socks |
Anyway, eventually after the initial wow of changes to television services, you get to a point where you'll switch the telly on and inevitably say, "I can't find anything interesting on to watch." Well, that's the way it goes.
Oh, and don't even get me started on satellite and cable television because I believe that they should include your television license as part of the deal because they cost an absolute fortune.
Oh, and quickly back to digital television. We have switched over where I live and the signal is no better than it was before to be perfectly honest, yet we were told that when the terrestrial signal was switched off that they would boost the digital signal. Yeah, like that has really made a difference to occasional pixelation and all that.
Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope that what I have written has some semblance of order. Please take care.
April 1st 2012 (41 years, 4 months, and 6 days old)
PS - I have not placed an April fool's joke on here because I couldn't be bothered. The joke is that my shift finishes in time for me to get home for seven in the morning, and noise will start to ensue very much around that time, which is enough of a joke to me thank you very much.
Links -
INXS on The Tube (not so bothered about the interview, but the performance is amazing)
Big Country - Fields of Fire live on The Tube
The Style Council - Shout To The Top live on The Tube
Ozzy Osbourne - Shot In The Dark live on The Tube
Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, & The Furious Five live on The Tube
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