Here are May 2022âs imagesâaides-mĂ©moires, photos of interest, and miscellaneous items. I append to this gallery through the month.
Posts tagged ‘Netherlands’
May 2022 gallery
02.05.2022Tags: 1960s, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1970s, 1971, 1980s, 1983, 1986, 2022, advertisement, advertising, Alfa Romeo, Brazil, Canada, car, Envoy, fashion, film, GM, humour, James Bond, language, modelling, musician, Netherlands, Opel, Panos Emporio, retro, science, Sweden, Twitter, UK, Vauxhall
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The return of Van der Valk
08.09.2021I came across an old post of mine on Euston Films remakes, at the time the American version of Widows hit the big screen. My last question, after going through Minder, The Sweeney and Widows reboots, sequels and remakes: âNow, whoâll star in a new Van der Valk?â
Since local TV programmers and I have entirely different tastes, I only happened across the new Van der Valk from 2020 recently thanks to a French reviewer on Twitter. I wish I knew earlier: I rate Marc Warren as an actor, it has a great ensemble cast, and for those of us who are older, the theme tune is based on the original (Jack Trombey still gets a credit in each episode, though it should be noted that itâs a pseudonym for the Dutch composer Jan Stoeckart).
As far as I know, few (if any?) of the Van der Valk episodes with Barry Foster were based on the Nicolas Freeling stories, so I didnât really mind the absence of Samson and Arlette. Mentally I treated it as a prequel, pre-Arlette, till I found out that showrunner Chris Murray had killed her off in a flashback sequence in episode 3 (giving stuntwoman Wendy Vrijenhoek the least screen time of the four actresses who have played her in the British versions). Which is, of course, the opposite to how Freeling had it, since he had killed off van der Valk and had Arlette star in two novels.
I read that one reviewer noted that the stories werenât particularly Dutch, but then, were they ever? I didnât really get into Broen or Wallander because of how Scandinavian the storylines were (though it must be said, I enjoyed Zen for its Italianness). I do, however, appreciate the change of scene from London or Los Angeles, which seem to be the home of so many cop shows. I even welcomed Brighton with Grace, starring John Simm, and produced by Kieran Murray-Smith (of the Murray-Smiths), or, for that matter, Sheffield with Doctor Who.
But a Van der Valk sans Arlette does mean the heart of the old stories is gone, and we have yet another emotionally broken TV detective, a ploy that weâve all seen before. But the casting is solid, and the very likeable Marc Warren shows he can lead a series ably.
Of the Euston Films shows I followed as a youngster, it does appear they have all now been revisited in my lifetime, except for one: Special Branch. Bring back Craven!
Tags: 2020, actors, Amsterdam, book, celebrity, Euston Films, ITV, music, Netherlands, remake, TV, UK
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June 2021 gallery
01.06.2021Here are June 2021âs imagesâaides-mĂ©moires, photos of interest, and miscellaneous items. I append to this gallery through the month.
Sources
The Guardian letter, from Twitter.
Ford Cortina Mk II pick-up made by Hyundai, referred by ê°ëì° on Twitter.
Ikea water, reposted from Twitter.
Alexa launch, reposted from Twitter.
Protest Sportswear’s women’s range for springâsummer 2021. Read more at Lucire.
Collusion between Google and Facebook, from Bob Hoffman’s The Ad Contrarian newsletter.
Ford Falcon ESP limited editionâa familiar image to those of us who read Australian car magazines in the early 1980s. More on the Ford Falcon (XD) at Autocade.
This was the famous advertisement for the 1965 Ford Mustang, for its dĂ©but in April 1964 at the World’s Fair in New York. It was mentioned in Lee Iacocca’s autobiography, but I had not seen it till 2020.
Dido Harding work history, shared by James O’Brien on Twitter, possibly from The Eye.
Tags: 1960s, 1964, 1965, 1980s, 1982, 2010s, 2012, 2021, advertisement, advertising, Amazon, art, Australia, Bali, Big Tech, Boris Johnson, car, cartoon, celebrity, collusion, Donald Trump, Facebook, fashion, Ford, Google, Hawaiâi, history, humour, Hyundai, Instagram, Korea, language, licensing, Lucire, McKinsey & Co., Netherlands, New York, newspaper, NewTumbl, NY, oligopoly, politics, retro, technology, The Guardian, Twitter, UK, USA
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Reality TV is not everything non-ïŹction
01.01.2011I found it very odd that Antiques Roadshow and Mythbusters were nominated for the reality TV category at the Emmy Awards. Based on the vocabulary I grew up with, these are not ‘reality TV’.
I doubt many of us over a certain age would think of The Gong Show or New Zealand’s Top Town as reality TV. Or Britain’s Got Talent. By this token, is Top Gear a reality show? It is, after all, filmed in the real world.
I would, however, classify the usual Survivor or The Apprentice as reality TV: shows that have very little reality to them thanks to editing and sensationalism. There should be as little scripting as possible.
The term reality TV might stem from the fact that if you believe them, you need to get a reality check. That’s probably the easiest way to distinguish one.
So what is the difference between what I call a reality showâto date the only one I have followed was the first season of That’ll Teach âEmâand the rest that are based on fact?
The term was originally given to shows that purported to show reality, as based around voyeurism. Big Brother is the archetype: the idea that you could see everything with as little editing as possible, covering a long period of time. While of course there was editing, you were invited to get a “slice of life” from observationâa bit like an aquarium but humans replacing goldfish.
The genre extended to those that relied on heavy editing for dramatic effect. Survivor and The Apprentice are perhaps the next best known. There’s a week’s worth of footage to condense into an hour, so there’s a lot of fodder that editors can cut to create heroes and villains and play on our dramatic expectations. The Amazing Race qualifies if we use this definition.
Where, pray tell, is there “reality” in Britain’s Got Talent and its licensed ilk? We see a performance and some background. If we argue that the background deems it a reality show, then the nightly news must qualifyâit, too, provides background to a story. As does 60 Minutes. Or the Miss France telecast on TF1.
Antiques Roadshow hardly gives us a slice of life greater than a documentary. Where is the long period of time in which we follow Jamie, Adam, Grant, Kari and Tory on Mythbusters? Should we now revise our thinking to include the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World as a reality show, as it is of a similar genre?
For those of us who dislike the reality genreâbecause they take up precious time where we snobs can see some decent dramatic programmingâthe claiming of regular documentary and talent shows as reality TV is surely a sign that the genre has passed its heyday. If The Apprentice in the US continues its downward spiral ratings-wise, one of the biggest shows in that genre will be history, consigned to being something that was “so 2000s”.
Tags: 2000s, culture, France, history, language, media, Netherlands, occident, reality TV, TV, UK, USA
Posted in culture, France, interests, media, New Zealand, TV, UK, USA | 7 Comments »
An ideal surfing camera, and why we love the Saab 9-4X more
20.11.2010My friend Gareth Rowson is now review editor for WideWorldMag.com (alongside his design practice). Here is his test of the waterproof Oregon Scientific ATC9K Action Camera, filmed while surfing at Vazon in Guernsey. I thought this was very nicely shot.
Less well shot, but significant, is the official video from Saab USA about its new 9-4X crossover SUV, from the LA Auto Show. I spotted this on YouTube when I went to get Gareth’s video. So nice to see Saab confident and launching new models againâshowing that it doesn’t always pay to be part of a larger corporation such as GM. Now part of the Netherlands’ Spyker, Saab seems to rediscovered some of its mojoâand despite the 9-4X not being built in Europe, the public seems to accept it more readily than the Subaru Impreza-based 9-2X and the GMT350-based 9-7X.
Part of that is down to the 9-4X looking like a Saab and not a facelifted Subaru or Oldsmobile, but there’s probably more than that.
The 9-4X is still based around a GM architectureâas is the large 9-5âso to call these signs of an Saab free from GM is not terribly fair. It’s even built at a GM plant in MĂ©xicoâas the 9-7X was built at a GM plant in the US. You might even say that Saab’s products were beginning to come right under GM, even if it took them long enoughâand “getting it right” was probably spurred on by crises, too.
Our more ready acceptance of the 9-4X probably stems from three things: (a) the loyalty shown by Saab owners around the world when the brand was on its last legs under GMâdemonstrating that there was far more life in the brand than the general public was prepared to admit; (b) a company with its back to the wall that was more ready to embrace decent marketing operations; and (c) its readiness to speak to its audiences through web videos and other media, something that it did not do well when it was part of GM. Being free of the negativity of GM doesn’t do the brand any harm, either.
Tags: brand equity, brand loyalty, branding, cars, Channel Islands, GM, marketing, México, Netherlands, Saab, Spyker, SUV, Sweden, technology, USA
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