The Super Network? Hardly.

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a website called Media Hunter, run by a one-time Super Network Radio employee named Craig Wilson. Of particular interest was this article about the firing of a popular Newcastle radio personality, Luke Grant, from 2HD for the most trivial of reasons.

It’s only too easy to dismiss the many articles on that site revolving around the nefarious goings-on at Super Network Radio as sour grapes, in light of the fact that the webmaster is an ex-employee. However, I’m not going to do that, since on the strength of the comments from other readers, I now firmly believe that the horror stories about how Bill Caralis (aka Billy The Greek, Buffalo Bill, Kill Bill, and many other less flattering nicknames) has run his radio network over the last several years are indeed true.

Business owners who seek to run their businesses as cheaply and as unscrupulously as they can – and who defend their behaviour so arrogantly while attacking others – don’t deserve to be in business. So let’s hope someone buys him out of the radio industry sooner rather than later, if only to end the fear and the pain for certain people.

Another $0.02 on the James Bond franchise ;-)

While I was viewing the original series of James Bond films a while back, I decided to take the same approach this person took, and rationalise the first 20 films into a suitable fictional timeline.

Assuming that the James Bond of Dr. No through to Die Another Day was born in 1946, would become a 00 Agent in 1976 at age 30, and would retire in 2000 at age 54, here’s one possible timeline for those films:

Dr. No – 1976
From Russia With Love – 1977
Goldfinger – 1977
Thunderball – 1978
You Only Live Twice – 1978
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – 1979
Diamonds Are Forever – 1979
Live And Let Die – 1980
The Man With The Golden Gun – 1980
The Spy Who Loved Me – 1981
Moonraker – 1981
For Your Eyes Only – 1982
Octopussy – 1983
A View To A Kill – 1984
The Living Daylights – 1985
Licence To Kill – 1986
GoldenEye – 1987 intro, then 1996
Tomorrow Never Dies – 1997
The World Is Not Enough – 1998
Die Another Day – 1999 intro, then 2000

Give or take a few real world references and events, I believe it could work very well.

As for the new continuity, which is currently covered by Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace (both set in 2006, by the looks of things), I actually hope that it doesn’t become infinite. After all, there’s only so much ground that can be covered by the espionage genre before it begins to cross over into others, and as I recall, critics have often singled out Moonraker and Die Another Day for their science fiction concepts which have little chance of becoming a reality at this point.

That said, I’d like to see six more James Bond films made, and since Daniel Craig is locked in to do another three, a new actor will need to take the reins after that, with Hugh Jackman being my ideal choice if he’s up to it. And as for the all-important film titles, I’ve taken the unused Ian Fleming story titles into account in preparing this list, albeit with some modifications:

THE QUANTUM TRILOGY
Property Of A Woman
Operation Risico
Nothing Lasts Forever (to mark Daniel Craig’s final appearance)

THE SPECTRE TRILOGY
A Spectre In New York
The Hildebrand Legacy
Never Say Never Again (since they own it these days, why not? )

But once more, these are only ideas, and only the producers of the James Bond films – namely, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli – can make the call here. So let’s hope they make a good one.

There are now T-minus 4 days and counting….

…. until my self-imposed hiatus from The Palace is over. However, I’m still feeling a bit uneasy about the whole thing, especially after the dream I had last night.

I realise this post won’t win me any popularity points with anyone associated with the club who takes the time to read it, but I’ll do it anyhow. In the dream, I was visiting a very large strip club somewhere in Melbourne – one which reminded me of Showgirls Bar 20, actually – and to my surprise, little Jagger turns up to work there. However, there are two major problems:

1. She now has a straight, ear-length, flapper-style bob haircut, which is an automatic turn-off in my book; and

2. Try as I might to get her attention, she simply ignores me and walks on past, almost as if I wasn’t even there.

Naturally, viewers, I’m going to make my best efforts to prevent something similar from happening this Wednesday, but given my past record, I still think a spanner may be thrown into the works. More specifically, Jagger could be absent, and my reconciliation with her would have to wait a bit longer, but we shall see.

An early (and welcome) Christmas present ;-)

When I ordered the Wal-Mart Exclusive Transformers Dinobots 2-packs from BBTS a week ago, I wasn’t actually expecting them to arrive until the 21st. And for a while, I thought they were going to spend more than 2 days in the UPS distribution centre in Louisville, Kentucky on account of the Christmas “crush”, so to speak.

But in an unexpected twist of fate, I now have all 6 figures in my possession – three days ahead of schedule – and I don’t plan to wait another week to open them either. Naturally, I’m thankful to all involved parties for surprising me once more, and for those who haven’t seen the figures before, here are some TFU pictures of them in their robot modes:

Censorship STILL sucks.

You guessed it, viewers; that sanctimonious cock Stephen “If You’re Not With Me, You’re Either A Paedophile Or A Terrorist” Conroy is still as hell bent as ever to get his mandatory Internet filtering legislation through both houses of Australian Parliament. Never mind the fact that the vast majority of Australian Internet users (including myself) are still against it, and that it ultimately will not work.

Yet as far as I know, he still has the full support of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in this matter, and if the filtering somehow does become law here, I have no doubt it’ll prove to be the thin end of the wedge. And even on the strength of a post like this, I could end up in Chairman Rudd’s little red book.

But while I’m at it, don’t forget to take a look at this:

Speaking of sanctimonious cocks, Australia still has the South Australian Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, to thank for R18+ rated video games being banned in Australia. To the best of my knowledge, he is the only State Attorney-General who won’t support the idea, and if Premier Mike Rann and his State Labor Government are re-elected (not that Rann’s personal affairs will stop that at all, mind you), I can only see Michael Atkinson remaining in that position for four more years.

So does anyone else think it’s most ironic that these so-called “progressive” Labor Governments have strong Christian conservatives such as Atkinson and Conroy in high Cabinet positions, or is it just me? Because their views might be better suited to the conservative Liberal opposition, or better still, the arch conservative Family First Party (whose politics are most definitely religiously motivated. Yeek).

Also, I’m happy to say that the South Australian Classification Council’s apparent ban on the movie 9 Songs has failed. And how do I know this? Because I was able to purchase a copy at a store in suburban Adelaide yesterday, though I’m not saying which one.

Having seen what all the fuss was about now, I most certainly would not classify it as pornographic. Here’s why:

1. It actually has a story (not a dense one, but a story nonetheless) behind it; and

2. True pornography is 100% concerned with explicit sex, simply for the sake of it, and the sex in porn films is completely bereft of any sense of true love between two people. Nothing I saw in 9 Songs fitted that description.

So maybe I ought to send each member of the SACC some paper towels for Christmas, so they can all wipe the egg off their faces.

Modifications to my Star Trek ideas….

For some more background on what I’m about to do, feel free to read this first.

After giving them further thought, I’ve come up with a couple of changes to the ideas I suggested in that earlier post. More specifically, to points 3 and 4 in my Star Trek: Collective concept, and here they come:

3. Realising that going back to the prime 2261 could further jeopardise their existence, since some of the assimilated Borg may be directly descended from people of that era, the Borg choose another timeline, which happens to be the new one created in the previous film;

3a. The initial attack on the Federation would occur at space station Regula One, where Dr Carol Marcus – who had a brief relationship with the younger Kirk in his first year at the Academy – and their 5-year-old son David (who the younger Kirk knows nothing about at this point) are stationed;

4. Another Borg drone kills Carol, and after a few moments, an unseen drone (who will later reveal himself as Tiberius of Borg/Kirk Prime) takes David, transporting off the station with David in tow;

4a. Just before one of the three Borg cubes is destroyed in the otherwise futile Federation counterattack, a small sphere pops out of it, heading to parts unknown and eventually making contact with the Enterprise;

Of course, this would lead to some very interesting character development for Chris Pine’s James Kirk in the future, what with having a young son to raise in addition to a starship to captain. And if Gaila (Rachel Nichols) returns and becomes a stepmother to young David Marcus-Kirk, I’d welcome that.

I’m also open to such ideas as Spock going through pon farr (the Vulcan mating ritual) with Uhura, since they have a true romantic relationship in this new timeline, and Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood) captaining a new USS Excelsior, complete with a working transwarp drive this time. But naturally, those aren’t my calls to make; the final decisions rest with J.J. Abrams and his crew, and since they got it so right the first time, I’ll trust their judgment this time as well.

So it’s fake then? Good. ;-)

According to Nelson – an administrator at Michael Bay’s Shoot For The Edit forums – the Transformers 3 script treatment I mentioned the other day isn’t legitimate. Which is very good news, since practically rebooting the current movie continuity into a G1 clone might satisfy many of the purists, but it could also serve to alienate the new fans brought in by the movies thus far.

Onto more real things now, and why am I not surprised that another Home & Away actor has been caught out in terms of illicit substances? This time, it’s Todd Lasance, and this apparent trend of Generation Y actors thinking they’re untouchable and indestructible makes me proud of the fact that I’ve never watched a full episode of the show in my life.

Finally, I’ve noticed another trend lately; there have been quite a few people finding this blog by doing searches on the Crazy Horse dancer formerly known as Zoe Zooko. Here’s a little tip for you; she’s using the name Honey Daniels these days, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if she’s doing that because of my Miss Nude Australia posts (a long shot, of course, but not entirely beyond the realms of possibility).

How prophetic was this?

Let me tell you right off the bat, viewers, that I am in no way endorsing what Tiger Woods has done when I embed this video. Quite the opposite, in fact:

I owe chinocash at YouTube a beer for making this, since even though the clips were twisted around to make Tiger Woods seem more malevolent, I can’t help but wonder if chinocash knew in advance that such a shitstorm would occur.

Hell, never mind holes in one; who knew that Tiger sought holes in many? And if the movie rights were sold, perhaps “Tiger’s Eleven” would be an appropriate title (I’ll take that prize, thank you ). But all jokes aside, I certainly hope that the younger, more impressionable members of society learn to think twice about who they idolise in the wake of all this.

Genuine or bogus? It’s a tough call.

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone following the making of the next Transformers live action film, but I’ll say it anyway. A script treatment has been leaked, and having saved it on my hard drive and read through it twice, I’m somewhat on the fence as to whether it’s the real deal or not.

Let’s weigh up the evidence, shall we?

REAL
- Logical advancement of the current storyline up to a point
- The dialogue is consistent with established characters
- Bumblebee is speaking again, and only using his radio for comic effect in two instances
- It sets up a sequel, possibly to be released in 2014 (the 30th Anniversary of the Transformers brand)
- Sam being nicknamed “Spike” due to accidentally causing a power surge/spike at the Hadron Collider makes sense to me

FAKE
- Many prominent characters (both human and robot) are omitted, with no guarantee that the sequel will explain their absence
- The new characters are strictly from Generation 1 and 2, as if to increase the fanwank factor and appease the purists
- The movie universe is essentially rebooted into an alternate G1/G2 universe, with events mirroring those of the original cartoon
- Due to accidental time travel, all Transformers must reformat into modes closer to or matching their G1/G2 incarnations
- Both the humour and the language have been toned right down, possibly to target a younger audience

So I’m staying on the fence for the time being.

Of course, there’s always the possibility of this leak being the first part of a new “misinformation campaign” by good old Michael Bay, but only time will tell.

Is that so, Bruce?

Not too long ago, I found this story on The Australian newspaper’s site, and what Bruce Gordon had to say really spiked my interest.

On the strength of him addressing other shareholders at a Network Ten annual meeting from the floor for the very first time, I now strongly believe that he plans to make a play for a larger – and possibly controlling – stake in the network before he shuffles off this mortal coil. I also take his words as another strong vote of no confidence in the network with which WIN Television is affiliated – the Nine Network, naturally – and therefore, he could be looking to cut his ties to Nine sooner rather than later.

In light of what’s happening at Nine, I wouldn’t really blame him if he did, though the way in which his WIN Television stations – and, in particular, NWS9 and STW9 – are being run at the moment isn’t much better if you ask me. And to be honest with you, it wouldn’t surprise me if such an approach arises from a sense of disinterest on Bruce’s part, or that of his son Andrew.

So once more, I’d welcome any move by Bruce Gordon to take control of Ten and offload WIN, even if it’s just to give Andrew a chance to step out of his shadow and successfully run a metropolitan network after he keels over.