Is there anything worth watching on the TV?

[Dave2002]

The snooker final last night was worth watching. I wouldn't bother watching it again though!

[MrGongGong]

It's funny how some people who tell you that they don't have a TV (and I have several friends who are like this) will insist that there's nothing at all to watch on TV.
We do have one. I don't watch it much.
I think my dissatisfaction with many things on TV is to do with me getting old NOT necessarily to do with TV getting "worse".
It reminds me of our old academic friends views about Stockhausen

[teamsaint]

It's funny how some people who tell you that they don't have a TV (and I have several friends who are like this) will insist that there's nothing at all to watch on TV.
We do have one. I don't watch it much.
I think my dissatisfaction with many things on TV is to do with me getting old NOT necessarily to do with TV getting "worse".
It reminds me of our old academic friends views about Stockhausen

well you might be right.

or then again there may be (on free to air)
a pitiful lack of quantity and quality in Arts programming
A disastrous "presenter led" approach to much programming that detracts from quality.
Pathetic sports coverage.
Drama all too frequently based on serial killing.
The One show. every day.
Endless soaps.

etc etc,
which in some peoples eyes amounts to " nothing much on TV".

I'm pretty certain its possible to make a case that at certain times in the past, programming in some of the above areas was much "better", especially given broadcasters resources.

Possibly.

Who is "Stockhausen"?

[MrGongGong]

Who is "Stockhausen"?

dunno mate ? Some kind of syndrome i guess ?

One of the things that does happen as one gets older is that things get compressed
In my mind every weekend of my teenage years involved going to Liverpool to see
one week it was Cage at the Everyman
the next was Stimmung in the Cathedral
the next was the RLPO playing Mahler
the next was the Bunnymen
the next was Tangerine Dream in the Cathedral and so on

BUT the reality was that most of the time I was bored out of my box and there was "nothing" on at all !

[teamsaint]

oh, I Lurrrrrrrrrrve Syndrums.

Made the early 80's what they are today.

[umslopogaas]

Who is Stockhausen?

Cue for a Beecham story.

"Sir Thomas, have you ever conducted any Stockhausen?"

"Indeed not, though I think I once trod in some."

OK, I'm sure most of us have heard it before ...

[Serial_Apologist]

oh, I Lurrrrrrrrrrve Syndrums.

Made the early 80's what they are today.

You may mean sin bins.

Or synods?

[MrGongGong]

Who is Stockhausen?

Cue for a Beecham story.

"Sir Thomas, have you ever conducted any Stockhausen?"

"Indeed not, though I think I once trod in some."

OK, I'm sure most of us have heard it before ...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
BINGO

[Flosshilde]

It's funny how some people who tell you that they don't have a TV (and I have several friends who are like this) will insist that there's nothing at all to watch on TV.

I don't have a TV; I watched it when I visited my mother & can say that (imo) there is a lot on TV - but mostly dross, which is why I don't have one - because I think I'd end up wasting my time watching all the dross!


(rather like I do here )

[Flosshilde]

Jonathan Meades wrote that he writes the scripts for his TV programmes because he wants to read them and to watch the programmes. He went on: “If that sounds selfish and immodest so be it. But it is surely more honest to write for an audience of one whose peccadillos and limitations I understand than for an inchoate mass of opinionated individuals whose multiple and conflicting tastes I can only guess at and which I have, above anything else, to be indifferent to. ...... This is a pretty basic point which the cretinocracy that has seized control of television cannot begin to understand. ..... In the name of populism or ‘accessibility’ the cretinocracy has all but destroyed a medium which was for thirty or so years an instrument of beneficent cultural diffusion.” (From the introduction to “Museum Without Walls”)

He hasn't been posting on the threads about 'Breakfast' & 'Essential Classics', has he?

[Hornspieler]

It is always a good idea to keep an eye out for orchestral programmes on Sky Arts 2

International orchestras conducted by International conductors. I've just finished watching a complete cycle of Prokofiev Symphonies.

Also caught a very good hour of the Dave Brubeck 4tet.

A pity about the commercials between movement, but fully compensated by the absence of ANNOUNCERS

HS

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A pity about the commercials between movement,

but fully compensated by the absence of ANNOUNCERS

It has come to a pretty sad pass to realize that there's something that's actually worse than the prospect of three hours of non-stop Rafferty: the movements of Prokofiev Fifth interrupted by someone trying to sell me ear wax medication.

[Serial_Apologist]

It has come to a pretty sad pass to realize that there's something that's actually worse than the prospect of three hours of non-stop Rafferty: the movements of Prokofiev Fifth interrupted by someone trying to sell me ear wax medication.

That's to help hear it better!

[gurnemanz]

I don't have a TV; I watched it when I visited my mother & can say that (imo) there is a lot on TV - but mostly dross, which is why I don't have one - because I think I'd end up wasting my time watching all the dross!


(rather like I do here )

There is a lot of dross, of course, but I do not watch it. That is surely not a reason to reject an entire medium. Who would say "I don't read books. There is so much rubbish published"? I hope I am not an easily pleased fool, but I find plenty to watch. Last night I saw two programmes on BBC4: A really stimulating survey by Dr Richard Clay on iconoclasm and the art of the French Revolution and I stayed there with the following highly entertaining programme about the Royal Family's strange relationship with Scotland, as epitomised by Balmoral Castle. There were two other programmes on BBC4 last night which I might also have watched and may go back to: Horizon - the new generation of supertelescopes and Dan Cruickshank on London's bridges.

[Hornspieler]

Last night, I watched (and recorded on my Tivo box), a Summer Concert from Vienna by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted Gustavo Dudamel.

A fine performance of the Brahms/Haydn Variations.
A few commercials, which I can fast forward through to the next item. (Or put the kettle on)

THE MOST SENSATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF HAYDN'S C MAJOR CELLO CONCERTO THAT I EVER HOPE TO HEAR, by a young cellist called Gautem Something or other.
(Pour a second cuppa, whilst fast forwarding to:

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Superb! They all started together! (how many times can you say that about the opening four notes) and the build up to the final climactic bars was wonderful

I have always been a little cautious about Dudamel's conducting, but you can't argue with the fire and inspiration that he drew from the Berlin Players

Don't knock the commercials. You can alwas skip through them and the result, Music without fatuous and unneccesary comment more than makes up for the slight inconvenience.

HS