Thursday, October 21, 2010

Rant number 1:

I hate Glee. There. I said it. Before people get their knickers in a twist and scream "you meanie, how dare you dislike glee, its the greatest thing on television since Family Guy (another rant for another day)", I'll just sum it up in the following fashion...

My reasons for disliking Glee are as follows:
1. Its a pseudo-edgy version of High School Musical.
2. Autotune.
3. Their versions of classic songs are akin to taking a huge, hard, whiskey-fuelled dump on the Shroud of Turin.
4. Their "gay" character is an insult to all intelligent homosexual men by playing up to the stereotype of a mincing, prancing diva. Seriously, very few gay men behave in such a fashion, I know plenty and I'd imagine that they're extremely insulted by his camp histrionics.
5. This is the main one...none of the characters appeal to me or have any gravitas in my life.

However, rest easy Gleeks (seeing as thats what you lot call yourselves), this is where the pointed invective towards the show comes to a halt.

My major issue is the fact that a few weeks ago in the events guide for incoming students to my place of education (Cork institute of Technology/Institiuid Teicneolaiochta ChorcaĆ­), there was a huge advert concerning a "Glee tribute act".

Now pardon me for being a pedantic fuckwit, but dig this...is there anything else out there more redundant than a tribute to a covers act?

I'll set the scene...

Imagine a covers band by the name of The Unoriginals, tooting out all the party favourites that some of us despise, and more of us lap up like the sheep that some of us indeed are...well imagine they had a serious bust up because the cymbalom player was fucking the lead triangle player's other-half whilst the guitarist ended up getting pissed off at the theremin player for ripping him off in a mephedrone deal and they all decide to part ways...

Now imagine a bunch of jackasses called The Unoriginal Unoriginals performing the same tired covers in tribute to the covers band, aping their stage moves and predictable banter.... "ah lads, waaaaaaaaaay, we're all drunk, waaaaaaaaay, this is a song that The Unoriginals used to do, its a U2 cover, etc."

Something here doesn't quite add up.

I was all for schlepping along to said "gig" with a cardboard sign bearing the simple legend "redundant" with an arrow pointed at the entrance, but by the looks of things, that time has passed me by...

Ah well, next time it happens, I'll hire out a camera crew and post the pictures up here for all to guffaw at.

Yours in righteous indignation

Jim.

p.s. I'm aware that Glee is highly popular over here at this moment in time and people seem to lap it up good-oh, but, it may be a household name, but rubbish is also a household name, and it stinks just as much.

6 comments:

  1. It didn't unfortunately. The event took place a week or two ago and I was either up the creek with college work or else too tanked up to move, haha.

    Next time it happens though, I will be there with my Redundant board. If there's one of those taking place in your neighbourhood, give me a shout, we'll make a day trip out of it.

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  2. Well, I admit I've watched the occasional Glee episode, and I don't mind their stuff. I don't disagree with you, though.

    The only good thing I can say about Glee, maybe, is that it's helping spread some of the 'oldies' among today's younger generation. I mean, I can imagine there are at least some kids that hear the glee covers for The Beatles or Ella Fitzgerald and actually go on youtube and listen to the originals, and maybe that's something.

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  3. Nana, I dig where you're coming from and I dig your opinion.

    My main bit of ire is towards those who think they can get away with offering facsimiles of photocopied versions of songs that other people made famous, and try and pass it off as being something worthwhile and worth the money of admittedly very cash-strapped students.

    The show itself, well, truth be told, if the national broadcaster of our land could pump that much money into getting new series from abroad, maybe it could reconsider and grant that space to some of the talented folk that we have in our colleges or the people that are making short films and not going very far because of the short-sightedeness of the director-generals of the 4 terrestrial channels we have here.

    It must be the same in Israel at the moment, it seems to be the same everywhere...what was the biggest television programme on Israeli screens in the last few months let alone year or two, home-grown or an import?

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  4. My main bit of ire is towards those who think they can get away with offering facsimiles of photocopied versions of songs that other people made famous, and try and pass it off as being something worthwhile and worth the money of admittedly very cash-strapped students.
    Agreed. That is just wrong, no matter how you look at it.

    It must be the same in Israel at the moment, it seems to be the same everywhere...what was the biggest television programme on Israeli screens in the last few months let alone year or two, home-grown or an import?
    Actually, we might be the exception to that rule. Israeli networks spend ridiculous amounts of money and promotion on 'local' projects, but unfortunately, most of these suck. I have to say, though, that most of the programs on the top of the rating list are Israeli productions, even though most of the channels have foreign (American mostly) series, too. The Israeli versions of Survivor and The Big Brother get ridiculous ratings. You see, local doesn't mean quality. How many GOOD shows get on the air? Hmmmph. Uh.... yeah, I see your point.

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  5. I'm reminded of a quote from a Canadian commentator during the 70s, pardon my Swiss cheese memory because I can't remember the exact wording but it was something along these lines: stop importing cheap American novels, buy lousy Canadian novels instead.

    Something along those lines, in a back handed kind of way it does get across the point that "heh, we have enough going on around us, we don't need to import half as much, even if the quality isn't at all great".

    At least if the IBA is actually funding proper home grown productions, that does bode somewhat well towards a healthy television industry, even if the programmes are a bit, well, shit.

    It would be great though if the arts councils put a lot more money into homegrown television and not just local versions of established brands...I know a great amount of people that have excellent ideas for films and/or television programmes but they rarely get listen to all that often.

    The only homegrown productions we have here these days are fashion shows, kids shows that link to cartoons and bad reality television and talent shows.

    It burns me up sometimes. I've often considered refusing to pay my television license as an act of civil disobedience.

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