27 posts tagged “tv3”

For overseas friends who would not have seen it live, here is the link to my TV3 appearance this morning on Sunrise. Props to Helen Baxter, to Ali Ikram and Carly Flynn on the programme itself, to Lars and Frankie at the Wellington studio, to Claudine for my make-up, and to Alison for the contact. Only one quip about the mayoralty; the rest was about Facebook and the dangers of having your photographs uploaded to it.

A shocking series of racist emails attacking job applicant Julie Eru on the North Shore, which have been traced back to a Chinese-run company called Brightstar, has been exposed on 3 News.
   It was generally agreed by Brightstar that their computers had been hacked and a police report has been filed.
   The boss of Brightstar has limited English so we can easily rule him out as being the writer of these messages, which point to a native English speaker.
   The question was raised in the report, ‘But why would a hacker attack a small business in East Tamaki?’
   I would have thought the answer very easy. The hacker is a racist.
   I said not too long ago on the blogosphere that those who make accusations of racism so readily, as the writer of these offensive emails does, are usually racists themselves.
   Their motivation is to make an immigrant, in this case, Chinese, company look bad, and to create a rift between Chinese and Māori.
   It was a failed attempt, trying to revive the sort of irrelevant muck that yesterday’s politician, Winston Peters, specialized in.
   It’s less disgusting than the attempts by racist groups some years ago of simultaneously desecrating Jewish gravestones and sending pork to Muslim families, but the ideas are similar.
   That time, we could rule out the perpetrators being Jewish or Islamic; this time, we can rule out the hacker being either Chinese or Māori.
   That time, too, it brought Jews and Muslims closer together in New Zealand; this time, I can only hope that both Chinese and Māori, who have both experienced racism, either as immigrants or in our own homeland, can come closer together, too.

From 3 News tonight: wow, there are some angry people over in Australia.

   I’m not going to say that this wouldn’t happen here, but I would have expected it at a pub, not a pizza shop!

Good to know that the final season of Bro’ Town is getting a bit of an ad push with outdoor advertising:

   I think there was still more promotion for US Life on Mars by TV3, however. Maybe they figured that Bro’ Town, being a local institution, wouldn’t need it—but I can’t remember when it’s on, so it’s probably not enough in my book!

As is evidenced by the rear of some buses in Wellington, TV3 is going all out on promoting its Monday night line-up, which includes the US Life on Mars remake. As with the TVCs here, Harvey Keitel is marketed as the star of the show.
   It’s more than TV One ever did for the original series.

This will be a treat for Lifers: Life on Mars, twice tomorrow night. The first catch is that the TV3 one at 9.30 p.m. is American. The second catch is the British one on TV One has had something like 13 minutes butchered out of it, usually the best bits (e.g. the Camberwick Green sequence). From the NZ City website.

Trivium for tonight: New Zealand fans of Life on Mars can get the show twice on one night. The second original series will continue to be repeated till the great leap of the last episode on TV One, Mondays, 11 p.m. The American series begins, with heavy promotion from TV3, from Monday in just over a week’s time, I believe—and judging by the promos it will enjoy a prime-time slot. It’s almost fortunate that the same stories won’t be shown on the same night.
   In the TV3 ads, Jason O’Mara’s role has been downplayed in favour of the bigger star, Harvey Keitel.

President-elect Barack Obama is being sworn into office today. Where are you watching the events of this historic day unfold? 

Get up at 5.30 a.m. to watch the swearing-in of the president of a foreign country? Yeah right.
   I didn’t even watch our own PM get sworn in, so what makes one think I would watch a foreign head of state? (Oh, and why is this being carried live on TV3 when I don’t even think our own leader’s swearing-in was?)
   I will watch it on the news out of interest, but there’s no way in heck I would watch it live.
   The last time I watched anything like this and actually gave a damn, John Major had won the UK General Election for his final term. And I believe I watched it when Tony Blair was driven to see HM the Queen in May 1997. But I can put that down to being a British national.

TV3 has started promoting US Life on Mars as part of its new season, showing TV One and Prime how to promote a series in New Zealand.
   Life on Mars, the original, was appallingly promoted by TV One. I probably mentioned it more while I appeared on Good Morning than the network ever did back in 2007. Those who presented with me had not even heard of the show. (The second series, which also failed to enjoy any teaser period of note, is currently being re-run on Mondays on TV One.)
   Very few New Zealanders outside this office even heard of Ashes to Ashes and Prime TV spoiled most of the finalé’s plot by showing the scenes in its 30-second TVC.
   As with Life, which featured my good friend Jennifer Siebel, TV3 is building up a useful audience with teasers featuring Harvey Keitel as Lt Gene Hunt.
   We might complain about American remakes but the fact is few outside the UK would have even heard of the original shows if it weren’t for them in some cases.

Napier, New Zealand’s “piddler on the roof”, as he was dubbed by the media, has turned himself in.
   A vandal has been urinating on the meter for a parking complex in Napier. One news report indicated that he had managed to urinate into the coin slot so that the inside of the machine has been full of urine.
   The machine has been damaged as a result of his actions.
   This is disgusting and I feel for the citizens of Napier who have discovered the machine had been so vandalized. I know it would have pissed me off.
   He was caught on CCTV (closed circuit television, not the Red Chinese network—though I suppose Big Brother and the People’s Republic have a lot in common).
   The story got a lot of exposure.
   The motive is not clear but I imagine he was protesting about parking prices, and wanted to show that he was a man of the peo-ple.
   What amazes me is not that this has happened but the vandal’s impeccable aim in managing to get urine into the coin slot.
   New Zealand meters are like many internationally: the coin slot is closer to eye level, not penis level.
   I know Napier people aim to please but this guy aimed to pee.
   The CCTV pictures did not show the vandal getting up high to urinate.
   This either meant that he had very good aim for the coin slot through experience, or that he took an unusually large leak in order to ensure some piss got in to the slot.
   I don’t know about other blokes but I don’t think about aiming high when taking a leak.
   A third explanation is that he used a piss pouch as Ethan Hawke’s character did on Gattaca—which you should know was written and directed by a New Zealander.