I've Blogged Myself For A Full Year Now

Good on me.


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A Quick Announcement

We interrupt this blog's hiatus for a brief plug: The newest, grooviest thing to hit the blogosphere in literally weeks is coming soon to TV Is My Life.

You've heard of Big Brother, yes? (I hope so.) Well, imagine if there was a humorous online version filled with various blogging identities SUCH AS YOU. That's right, you could have the chance to star in (and maybe even win) the first series of Big Blogger.

Applications are open now. If I don't get twelve people volunteering, I may have to just grab some names at random and shove 'em in there before I present the first edition sometime next week.

But if you want in, head over here and 'sign up'.

You could win actual money!!*



* Although this is unlikely as I'm sure I'll find a way out of having to make good on any monetary prizes that may be offered.


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Everyone Else Is Doing It ...

That's right; BEVIS is succumbing to peer pressure.

I'm going to take a short break from updating this blog. My new TV blog will still be updated (as frequently as Blogger allows, anyway), but I need some time to put things in order in My Real Life, so something had to take a rest.

Because I have heaps of time-specific posts half-written or ready to go on my TV blog, I'll keep going with that one. I'll still be around the traps reading your blogs and leaving comments, etc. But -- for the moment, at least -- I Blogged Myself is going to fall quiet.

It won't be for long. Just enough time for me to make some changes around here and start moving forward. I've been in a 'holding pattern' for too long now. Wish me luck!


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The Muppet Show - Season 2 DVD?

Here's news that indicates that the notion of the second season of The Muppet Show coming out on DVD is not completely out of the question.

Initially I'd feared that season one mustn't have sold very well, due to the longer-than-expected (and compared to other series, extremely lengthy) delay in bringing out the consecutive seasons on DVD, but perhaps there's light at the end of the tunnel after all. The Muppet Newsflash also reports the same thing.

Hopefully this article is accurate, because I really hope what it says turns out to be true.

(At least for my sake, if for no one else's.)


PS - I'm still a couple of posts behind 'schedule' on my TV blog, due to Blogger still giving me occasional issues when I try to add photos to the posts I've written. Hopefully they'll be up there shortly. Please bear with me and stuff. Cheers.


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BEVIS Is What BEVIS Does

A fellow blogger sent me and a bunch of other bloggers (the contributors to this food blog) an email yesterday. He gave everyone the impression that he knew stuff about 'the real me' by doing a little basic research on the Internet:

"You'd be amazed what Google will turn up. I am."

Well, so am I, Chai. :)

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For anyone who has wanted to know more about the man behind the small green frog, this is me. Wanna know how I can stay up until six or seven AM? Easy; I just pop a lot of these pills. I was once in a band. You can trust me with your money. Your kids will be safe here. Someone on the aforementioned food blog simply HAS to review this place soon (named after Yours Truly for dining there once). I'm considered a hero in some places of the world (find me for yourself here). And I do great things for humankind in my spare time. Here's something I knocked together a few years ago on a slow Saturday afternoon to ensure that respirators are functioning properly at all times.

Want to be near me? (You know you do!)

It's pretty cool, being me. I think you'd really enjoy it.


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Things I Learnt Today While Painting

While painting the walls of our foyer/entrance area, hallway and dining room today, the following things occurred to me:

1) My father-in-law is a wonderfully kind and generous man for helping me out on two (going on three) Saturdays to complete this job.

2) Paintbrush bristles are really annoying when they come off the brush and get stuck in your paintwork right at the end of your carefully-perfected paint job on the most prominent wall of the entire room, causing you to effectively have to start that wall again.

3) The level of lighting in the dining room is really bad and makes it hard to see where you've already painted after 4pm.

4) Going over an area more than once without allowing it to dry does not count as 'multiple coats' or save time/money/energy/paint.

5) If you let your cats into your newly-painted house, they will invariably gravitate straight to the wall with the fresh coat of paint on it and rub up against it like they're old friends.

6) Wifey even looks absolutely adorable when she's 23 weeks pregnant, wearing tracksuit pants, an old jumper, and a paint (or surgical) mask over her face to avoid the paint fumes that are permeating throughout the entire house from harming her or the baby.

7) Sam Newman is sometimes a real jerk on the radio, during Triple M's pre-football show. (This wasn't actually a new realisation; it was just one that I had cause to think of during the day.)

8) When you're paying more attention to the radio than the job you're doing, sometimes it's easy to apply a whole coat of paint to a room that turns out to be the wrong colour.



THIS HAS BEEN A COMMUNITY SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, PROUDLY BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FRIENDLY STAFF AT WATTYL.


Distracting yourself from the task at hand so you have to return to the store and buy extra paint to undo the wasted efforts of 10 litres of 'Cleo Yellow'? ...

"WATTYL THEY THINK OF NEXT?"


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Ads & Delays

I've finally succumbed to including a box on the right (under the digital clock) for little ads. Please don't think poorly of me - you never know what exciting goodies you might find listed there! I haven't "changed, man", either. I just figured I spend so much time on my blog instead of earning money ... perhaps there's a way I can do both.

I don't expect that it'll bring in so much cash that I can stop looking for jobs or anything, but it can't hurt to give you all a chance to peruse the odd little ad if you're interested.

I am specifically NOT allowed to ask or even encourage you to click on the ad if you're not serious about what it says, so please don't do that.

On another matter, some of you may have noticed that my usual Big Brother wrap-up hasn't appeared here. That's because I have a new TV-themed blog which will contain all of my TV-related posts that aren't centred around The Muppet Show. I'll keep the indexes that appear below listed here for a while, and update them as new posts are added to the other blog accordingly, so you'll still be able to find the final TAR 9 review when I post it on Friday (or thereabouts), and tonight's final TGYH summary when I post it sometime tomorrow. Same with my usual Monday BB recaps. (Last week's TAR 9 review is up there already, if you thought it wasn't done yet.)

But the good news (for some of you, anyway) is that the new blog already boasts a new section dedicated exclusively to Neighbours. And I've started it off already (with more to follow shortly).

Other new shows will be added very soon, as well.

Due to the problems Blogger was having these past few days, I've posted a few items on the new blog that are back-dated to when I wrote them / when they were intended to be posted. If I get a chance this week (but I'm prepping half the house for painting on the weekend, so no promises), I'll finish off the remaining three or four posts I have in draft.

If things get too busy in my real-life adventures ("long paint strokes, up and down"), the remaining posts may not appear until early next week. But I'll do my best.

Be well.


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Not To Be Confused With Fountain Lakes

From the 'Friends of Krispy Kreme' newsletter:

All Melbournians, mark this date in your diary! Thursday 22nd June at 6.30am will see the first store in Victoria open its doors at Westfield Fountain Gate, Narre Warren.

Queue to be the first through the door and enjoy a showcase of local bands and great entertainment as well as prize giveaways galore! Be one of the first to taste a Hot Original Glazed doughnut straight off the line. Remember the first person through the door will win a year's supply of doughnuts! YAH!

The long awaited opening at Westfield Fountain Gate is finally here! Face painting, live bands, giveaways, roving entertainment, handball competitions and lots of fun for everyone from 6pm on Wednesday 21st June.

Westfield Fountain Gate, Narre Warren (access via Narre Warren North Road), Melway reference 110 E4.

See you there!

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(Is anyone else having issues trying to upload images to Blogger? I've had a few posts ready to go since Sunday -- on my new TV blog -- but I can't put them up yet because the necessary images won't load. It's very frustrating!)


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Important Announcement

Today's important announcement can be found here.

I will add my weekly TAR 9 'summary' over the weekend.

Have a good one, everybody.


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Thank The Lord For Your Presence # 9

Last night saw the ninth episode of Thank God You're Here (TGYH).

This week, we were treated to performances by Hamish Blake (on the left of the picture - why can't I find a good picture of him on his own?), Peter Rowsthorn, Bob Franklin and Fifi Box. The interesting thing about this week was that all four of our participants were winners of a previous week, so no matter who 'won' the trophy this time, it was going to be a record-setting second win for someone.

Hamish started us off this week, and as Audrey was 'the first' to point out in the comments to yesterday's post, his scene was flat-out hilarious. From his skillful inclusion of his white socks (discussed briefly with host Shane Bourne before entering the scene), to his returning to the two biscuits he'd been instructed to walk into the scene holding in his hand, to the way he answered the charge of racist remarks in the workplace by asking if 'Ching-Chong' had reported him, and how he couldn't remember the name of the middle-eastern man he'd shared a working space with for the past year ("I dunno ... Muhammad?"). It was all executed perfectly, and his laid-back style only made it sound even funnier.

Bob Franklin came on next, and he was dressed in an army sergeant's uniform. Walking with the aid of a cane and looking for more clean-cut than I've ever seen him (even if he did still sport his customary two-day growth), Bob seemed ill-at-ease during his scene of being welcomed home by his family and a guest after a long stint away at war. But ill-at-ease in an amusing way. The obvious "Mum, Dad, we're gay" situation we could all see developing when his 'college roommate' entered the room at the end was the only part that Bob seemed to struggle with. I put this down to him not wanting to go the obvious route, but being able to come up with little else that he coudl substitute for it. The references to Giles the family dog (and how he'd received him war wound from shooting a dog that reminded him of Giles) were brilliant, and Wifey and I found that the first two scenes far outweighed the two that followed. We quite enjoy watching Bob Franklin onstage, and his performance in this scene was very entertaining.

Fifi Box was the third victim contestant to try their hand at this particular brand of improv, and it was interesting to note her disclaimer at the top of the show that she's not a comedian. This is true, she's not, and as I've said before, although her scenes may seem weaker than others, I'm sure this is part of it. She's doing a great job (and her courage is second-to-none for giving it a go and happily coming back for show after show, even though - to listen to her speaking beforehand - the very notion of the show scares her silly), and when you take that into account (coupled with the previously-stated suggestion that the writers on the show aren't able to come up with scenes for the girls that are as good as those they write for the guys), you're reminded that Fifi's doing an okay job all round. It's not easy to bluff your way through a scene, remembering the timeslot, the live audience, the camera crew, and the judge's comments. Anyway, back to Fifi's scene. She was playing a woman who had started her own 'adult toys and novelties' business, called "Naughty But Nice", and she was being interviewed live on TV about her latest range of products and clothing. Fifi did alright with the scene (which was considerably better than the scenes provided to the women participants in previous weeks, I was happy to note), and her references to the models wearing items from her new clothing range, and her imaginary husband Derek, were also quite amusing.

Naturally, this means Peter was the final solo performer for the night, and I must say I was almost bored by this scene. Perhaps it's because I have absolutely no interest in cricket (he was playing an Australian cricketer who'd just scored two centuries by was having a press conference about his more questionable behaviour - both on and off the field). While I believe he played the scene fairly low-key, I would have to say in his defence that he was very much acting the part of an Aussie cricket bad boy, complete with the stare and attitude. He did well, but we weren't laughing as hard during Pete or Fifi's scenes as we were during Hamish and Bob's.

The group scene held a lot of promise, as they all walked on stage in full pirate regala (Elaine would have been so proud), and it turned out that they were all applying to be crew members (first mate, even) on the ship of a new captain. Although this scene seemed brief (in reality, it was probably just that so much of the scene was spent on the set-up by the ensemble cast), Bob's few lines seemed to be the highlight. He interrupted Hamish when they were asked their names, so the captain asked him to go first instead, so which Bob said, "Arrr, spoke too soon!" When ordering their drinks, Bob asked for a strawberry daiquiri (a joke that, to be fair, he kind of copied from Hamish asking for a raspberry lemonade). He also spoke of a bite mark on his leg that a nasty little dog named Giles had given him (excellent work to refer back to his previous scene - this was my biggest laugh of the night), and when asked what ideas he had about something (I forget what it was about now, but it doesn't matter), Bob replied, "Arrr ... he'll think of something, for sure!" and pointed behind him at Peter. It was very funny. Hamish also got some laughs by referring to Fifi (who called herself Kevin) "a fine young lad" and later telling her/him to take off her/his top so they could read the tattoo on her/his chest. (That reminds me of another great call by Bob - when Fifi said her name was Kevin and Hamish said he was a fine young lad, Bob added that Kevin was very popular on those long voyages.) Yet again, the scene ended with the pirates being asked to dance a jig. I'm still not sure if Hamish was trying to pick Fifi up to dance with her in his arms at the very end of the scene, or if he was intentionally grabbing her on the chest, but we'll be forever wondering because that's when we heard the siren to indicate the end of the scene.

After tuning out what judge Tommy G had to say, we watched as Peter was made the lucky recipient of his second TGYH trophy.

I have to say that I find it a let-down (and creatively, I think it's a cop-out) when they end so many scenes by making them dance. It's just not funny to see them dance so often. Bob had to do it when he was the revolutionist, Tanya had to do it as the newlywed bride, Peter even had to do it as the cricketer! And of course they all had to do it as the pirates in this last scene. Throughout the course of the series, it's been a very commonly-used device with which to end a scene, and I think it weakens everything that's gone before it, because it's simply not that funny. Once or twice, maybe, but when it's used so frequently, I've got to wonder if it's just the writers being lazy and/or not being able to think up a more original way to finish the scene.

But that's just a personal preference; perhaps everyone else loves the dancing bits.

Thanks to that all-knowing, all-seeing tome of televisual feasting, TV Week, I can now tell you that the finale features five, yes five performers (unless TV Week included a misprint!). If you'd looked at my TGYH posts' index since Monday, you'd have noticed the same thing. According to the article I read in the aforementioned magazine, the performers featured on next week's TGYH season finale are: Shaun Micallef (spelt 'Sean' in the article - tut-tut!), Frank Woodley, Angus Sampson, Akmal Saleh and first-timer Kate Langbroek. (All of these people have won an episode before as well, with the exception of Shaun and - obviously - Kate.)

Should be good, although if the five performers thing is correct, each scene may be cut shorter than normal (because it's still only running for an hour). Either that, or they're getting rid of the judge's comments (yay!) or the pre-recorded bits (boo!) or something else to make room for the fifth solo scene. Surely they wouldn't cut the group scene at the end. Not when it's such a great way to finish off with everyone onstage at once.

So this means that for the entire ten episodes, there was no appearance by ... (you guessed it) ... Judith Lucy!

I am thanking the Lord daily for this present.


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