I happened to watch MTV after a loooong time today and it was surprising to see very little music on music television. It was one wasted reality show after another and it was like it would never stop! Its bad enough that English music is next to never seen on MTV (for which they have VH1.... of course!), now even our desi stuff is off. Though I am certifiable no longer part of the Y generation, I dont see my younger cousins interested in viewing the crap being dished out either.
MTV... losing it!
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, September 12, 2008
Huh... Come Again ?!?
I have rarely liked Ads on US television and looks like internet Ads are no different. I have seen a few of the famed Apple Ads, they are OK, but not really out there funny or out there cool. Micro$oft Ads have been even less funnier than the Apple ones and they seem to be very intent on keeping it that way. They must have paid millions to get Jerry Seinfeld to do these, but then, just because you have one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time does not mean that you can get away with absolute nonsensical crap!! Bill Gates may be a saint, thanks to his charity foundation, which is cool. But damn, he is not even close to cool in the below Ads! Have a look...
Damn Bill, Damn Jerry, Damn Micro$oft... what were you guys thinking ? What was the point of the Ads ? If you plan to pass some message or slogan about Windows/Micro$oft, at this rate, you will need a 100 videos before you actually get there!
Damn Bill, Damn Jerry, Damn Micro$oft... what were you guys thinking ? What was the point of the Ads ? If you plan to pass some message or slogan about Windows/Micro$oft, at this rate, you will need a 100 videos before you actually get there!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Riddle me this!
There has been a lot of news about the Mehtas abortion case. There has been a zillion opinion polls already and a lot of view points. Usually most issues that we see or hear in our day to day lives (even through media) have very simple positioning, when it comes to which side of the story you are on. Rarely do you come across something that you don't know the solution for or even don't know who is right and who is wrong. This particular case was one such for me.
I assume everybody is more than aware of the details of this case, thanks to utter lack of privacy on the part of the media. If you don't, please go through the link provided earlier. Among the most popular of opinions I have heard is, "What has the court got to do with all this! ?" The Mehtas have, and with good reason, chosen not to have the baby. It has to after all be their choice, since they are the ones in a position of sacrificing a big portion of their lives, earnings, time etc etc. On the other hand, why can't this be branded as a case of 'perfect baby' syndrome ? And this can, with little reasoning, be extended to be a case of boy vs girl child. Who decides the perfectness of the baby ? What is perfect for one person needn't be so for another. Here there is a case of a child with a heart problem. What if there is a case later where the child is supposed to have one leg shorter than other and the parents happen to be athletes and hence feel they don't want the child ? As you can see, this is now a case for the court to decide, since this almost points to choosing life and death for a fetus. And choosing death amounts to murder!
Because of all the emotions involved in this, its relatively (and obviously) easy for us to find fault with the courts as being insensitive to the Mehtas. But, this is a case that will have implications in the coming years, as the high moral ground that we Indians claim to stand on erodes as the years go by. The Indian values that we pride on, have been morphed by us to suit our current lifestyles. We are making a valiant attempt at keeping them alive, while each passing day is another nail in its coffin. With more and more parents getting more and more involved in their professional careers and the rat race in general, who wants to spend more time in taking care of a less than perfect child ? On a different note, lets say the court orders the government to take care of all medical expenses for the child. I am sure a certain portion of the people protesting against the court order will be ok with this solution, but would this be good enough for the Mehtas ? Would they have then wanted to have the baby ?
The latest development in this case gives a new twist to the whole saga. A mother and father who didn't want a baby are being forced by the law to have one. Is it too much to imagine that they did whatever they could to avoid complying with this diktat ? Can it not be claimed that the Mehtas murdered the fetus ? If so, is that right ? If not, who is to get the Mehtas to justice ? Who will file the complaint in order for there to be a further probe ? Who wants to be the cold hearted impassionate villain ?
This issue may or may not be in the news for long, but this sure has had me thinking a lot!
I assume everybody is more than aware of the details of this case, thanks to utter lack of privacy on the part of the media. If you don't, please go through the link provided earlier. Among the most popular of opinions I have heard is, "What has the court got to do with all this! ?" The Mehtas have, and with good reason, chosen not to have the baby. It has to after all be their choice, since they are the ones in a position of sacrificing a big portion of their lives, earnings, time etc etc. On the other hand, why can't this be branded as a case of 'perfect baby' syndrome ? And this can, with little reasoning, be extended to be a case of boy vs girl child. Who decides the perfectness of the baby ? What is perfect for one person needn't be so for another. Here there is a case of a child with a heart problem. What if there is a case later where the child is supposed to have one leg shorter than other and the parents happen to be athletes and hence feel they don't want the child ? As you can see, this is now a case for the court to decide, since this almost points to choosing life and death for a fetus. And choosing death amounts to murder!
Because of all the emotions involved in this, its relatively (and obviously) easy for us to find fault with the courts as being insensitive to the Mehtas. But, this is a case that will have implications in the coming years, as the high moral ground that we Indians claim to stand on erodes as the years go by. The Indian values that we pride on, have been morphed by us to suit our current lifestyles. We are making a valiant attempt at keeping them alive, while each passing day is another nail in its coffin. With more and more parents getting more and more involved in their professional careers and the rat race in general, who wants to spend more time in taking care of a less than perfect child ? On a different note, lets say the court orders the government to take care of all medical expenses for the child. I am sure a certain portion of the people protesting against the court order will be ok with this solution, but would this be good enough for the Mehtas ? Would they have then wanted to have the baby ?
The latest development in this case gives a new twist to the whole saga. A mother and father who didn't want a baby are being forced by the law to have one. Is it too much to imagine that they did whatever they could to avoid complying with this diktat ? Can it not be claimed that the Mehtas murdered the fetus ? If so, is that right ? If not, who is to get the Mehtas to justice ? Who will file the complaint in order for there to be a further probe ? Who wants to be the cold hearted impassionate villain ?
This issue may or may not be in the news for long, but this sure has had me thinking a lot!
Monday, June 16, 2008
TRP Loses... Sport wins
We have all witnessed the TV spectacle that IPL was. TV viewership of the other soaps and reality shows took a serious beating, thanks to IPL. Many of the Bollywood filmmakers decided to delay the release of their films, so as to avoid competition with IPL. All this went according to the Modi TRP plan and guaranteed that players would actually fight with their respective boards, if needed, to get a chance to play in IPL.
Lets now talk of the most played and viewed sport in the world, Football. In stark contrast to how IPL did things, Euro 2008 has chosen togiven give more importance to the game rather than the TRP or viewership. During the first half of the group matches, we had two matches per day and each being played at different times. Now that we have gotten near the end of the group matches, and many of the quarterfinal spots are going to be decided by these matches, the organisers have chosen to play both the matches at the same time. This almost halves the neutral viewership, for e.g. as in todays case, I am watching the Austria vs Germany match and haven't been following the Poland vs Croatia match. They did it so, because, no game should become a dead rubber, if they can help it. In IPL, we didn't have a single such situation of a clash in match timings. No way can the money-hungry-TRP-craving administrators afford to lose viewership.
As made note by me in an earlier post too... there is always going to be more to sport than money. And this simple fact eludes the money-ruled cricket administrators in India!
Lets now talk of the most played and viewed sport in the world, Football. In stark contrast to how IPL did things, Euro 2008 has chosen to
As made note by me in an earlier post too... there is always going to be more to sport than money. And this simple fact eludes the money-ruled cricket administrators in India!
Saturday, March 08, 2008
... And it gets better!
I had already blogged about MTV Roadies 5.0 and how I have really gotten into it. Now, the folks at MTV and of course GiftMate have sweetened it for me and I am sure for many others.
Giftmate in an attempt to get more popular and gain userbase have tied up with MTV and have made the Roadies show not only entertaining to the eyes, but also very pocket friendly. Though Roadies is not a SMS based voting system, they have a number that people can SMS too, to voice their vote on who would go out. Giftmate will give a Rs.200 voucher for anyone who sends an SMS (which costs Rs.3) to MTV Roadies. These vouchers are accepted at almost any e-retail site in India, like indiaplaza, rediff shopping, indiatimes shopping, bookmyshow etc etc.
I have sent the SMS, got the voucher and used it already, so it all works. :-) So, what are y'all waiting for...
Giftmate in an attempt to get more popular and gain userbase have tied up with MTV and have made the Roadies show not only entertaining to the eyes, but also very pocket friendly. Though Roadies is not a SMS based voting system, they have a number that people can SMS too, to voice their vote on who would go out. Giftmate will give a Rs.200 voucher for anyone who sends an SMS (which costs Rs.3) to MTV Roadies. These vouchers are accepted at almost any e-retail site in India, like indiaplaza, rediff shopping, indiatimes shopping, bookmyshow etc etc.
I have sent the SMS, got the voucher and used it already, so it all works. :-) So, what are y'all waiting for...
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Road Rage Is Fun!
Don't read too much into the subject, as road rage is never fun. But when this rage is from a bunch of guys and girls on a show which is always on the road, then, well, it sure is fun! I am referring to the MTV reality show "Hero Honda Roadies". The show is in its 5th season, and is unique among the plethora of reality shows that flood all the tv channels these days. For a change the channel is not trying to fleece you off your money, at least not directly. There are no sms based voting eliminations! Yipeeee!! The commercial breaks are also less than 6 minutes, which is about 3-4 minutes less than the average commercial break time for other reality based shows. Add to this, the creative team behind the Roadies earnestly works towards making every episode unique with a guaranteed surprise element to boot.
This year the roadies selection process, which is one of the highlights of the show was as entertaining as ever. And when the actual show started with the 13 finalists, there was bound to be a lot of fun. Since this is their 5th season, people came in more strategically prepared, more emotionally prepared and most importantly more prepared attitude wise.
Its been a treat watching the first 3 episodes and sure promises to be a great season ahead. When I talk of surprises, lemme take the example of the first 3 episodes.
1st episode: All the contestants know that they had to vote one contestant out of the show. The groups have already started forming, the votes had been more or less decided. The surprise factor: Change in plans, they now had to vote 2 people out of the show. This changes all the equations and in fact 2 of the stronger contestants leave the show, instead of the forming villain of the group.
2nd episode: The villain of the group continues to be the overwhelming favourite to leave the show. But again, 2 relatively strong contestants seem to have polled all the negative votes and one of the more confident looking contestants leaves the show. The villain doesn't get a single vote against him!
3rd episode: Again, the group villain goofs up even more and looks like the absolute bakra to go out. But again, the person who was thought of as one of the most scheming guys on the show is voted out.
Watch it guys... its definitely much better than the rest of the crap reality shows on tube these days! I am loving it!!
This year the roadies selection process, which is one of the highlights of the show was as entertaining as ever. And when the actual show started with the 13 finalists, there was bound to be a lot of fun. Since this is their 5th season, people came in more strategically prepared, more emotionally prepared and most importantly more prepared attitude wise.
Its been a treat watching the first 3 episodes and sure promises to be a great season ahead. When I talk of surprises, lemme take the example of the first 3 episodes.
1st episode: All the contestants know that they had to vote one contestant out of the show. The groups have already started forming, the votes had been more or less decided. The surprise factor: Change in plans, they now had to vote 2 people out of the show. This changes all the equations and in fact 2 of the stronger contestants leave the show, instead of the forming villain of the group.
2nd episode: The villain of the group continues to be the overwhelming favourite to leave the show. But again, 2 relatively strong contestants seem to have polled all the negative votes and one of the more confident looking contestants leaves the show. The villain doesn't get a single vote against him!
3rd episode: Again, the group villain goofs up even more and looks like the absolute bakra to go out. But again, the person who was thought of as one of the most scheming guys on the show is voted out.
Watch it guys... its definitely much better than the rest of the crap reality shows on tube these days! I am loving it!!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Our Planetary Neighbours
NASA's Spirit has picked up some strange human looking life form on Mars. Yes people, the answer to our question 'Are we alone' (as if the 7+ billion was not enough) has been answered. We are not alone! Like this is what we really wanted at this time! We have so few humans around, why not get some Martians to stick around!
Too bad the Martian doesn't look anywhere as cool as depicted in the movies. :-) And since this picture is just as grainy or hazy as any of the ones of Sasquatch or Loch Ness monster, it must be true. :-)
Anyway, some more fuel for the SETI gang to continue their search.
Too bad the Martian doesn't look anywhere as cool as depicted in the movies. :-) And since this picture is just as grainy or hazy as any of the ones of Sasquatch or Loch Ness monster, it must be true. :-)
Anyway, some more fuel for the SETI gang to continue their search.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
'Mis' things
How often do you see a misprint or wrong data or spelling mistake in the newspaper? Not so long ago, these kind of mistakes used to be rare, but Times Of India sets new lows every other day in this aspect. Thought I will start off a new section focussing on this.
The print below the headline in todays Sports section of TOI reads that Tendulkar crossed 11,000 runs enroute to an unbeaten knock of 53. But Tendulkar was overnight unbeaten on 57!
And why do I still stick with TOI, you ask? Its the known devil, unknown angel thing. :-)
The print below the headline in todays Sports section of TOI reads that Tendulkar crossed 11,000 runs enroute to an unbeaten knock of 53. But Tendulkar was overnight unbeaten on 57!
And why do I still stick with TOI, you ask? Its the known devil, unknown angel thing. :-)
A 50% Day...
Its old news that Times Of India has more Ads than news, atleast in Bangalore. But amidst all the Ads was this strange coincidence in just 6-8 pages of yesterdays supplement paper.
... and I still didn't get off the couch. ;-)
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