The political power of the the media was evident in the hostility of the Murdoch press towards the British Labour party in the 1980s, promoting the general view that they were 'unelectable'. This was vividly illustrated on the front page of The Sun on the eve of the 1987 general election, which featured a picture of Neil Kinnock's head in a light bulb beneath the headline "will the last person to leave the country please turn out the lights!" Murdoch was also widely credited with the Tory election triumph over Labour in 1992. The Sun is Britains most popular newspaper with sales consistently over 3 million and a readership of up to 10 million.

Tony Blair, the new Labour leader, travelled to Australia to visit with Murdoch, persuaded him to reconsider his support, and succeeded in getting Murdoch's papers to support Labour in the 1997 election campaign. In return Blair unilaterally repudiated the Labour pledge to seek a decentalisation of the media.

Also, I love that cover of Mad World so damn much.

Me too. I woke up to it one morning (it was playing on the radio) and now it's one of the three songs which don't drive me batfuck when I get a line from it stuck in my head on an endless loop.

Although, now that I think of it, a lot of them are films that I feel are a part of me because I watched them to death when I was a child, not so much films that I watch fresh now and instantly feel some sort of identity connection with.

My mum hated me watching the television endlessly, so I re-read books instead. Once in grade four I read Roald Dahl's The BFG twelve times in a row just because it was a book I knew I liked. Which is probably part of the reason why I interact better with books than movies--I'm addicted to characters, and cinematic characters often seem to exist at a bit of a remove, just as a result of the medium they're presented in. If I was going to be honest, I'd say that LotR is my favourite movie (I have a little snobbish devil-on-my-shoulder who says I shouldn't admit that, but it's true so I might as well cop to it), but I only really feel in love with the LotR movie when I watched it the third time and I wouldn't have gotten to the third watching if I didn't already love the characters from the book.

In return Blair unilaterally repudiated the Labour pledge to seek a decentalisation of the media.

Dude. Just when I think I'm getting too cynical, I realise I still harbour odd notions regarding journalistic impartiality.

Leigh, I got the tape today, thanks so much! Ooh, and it has a Prime logo instead of a Channel 7 one, and Canberra commercials...how cute!

This was in an email I received ...

The All Blacks make up the New Zealand team; the Haka is their spine-tingling war-cry and dance performed before they go into battle ... er ... start playing.

"Following complaints made to the IRB about the All Blacks being allowed to motivate themselves by performing the 'Haka' before their games, other nations were asked to suggest pre-match rituals of their own. The IRB Rugby World Cup 2003 Organising Committee has now agreed to the following pre-match displays:

1. The England team will chat about the weather, wave hankies in the air and attach bells to their ankles before whingeing about how they invented the game and gave it to the world, and how it's not fair that everyone still thinks New Zealand is the best team in the world.

2. The Scotland team will chant "You lookin' at me Jimmy?" before smashing an Iron Bru bottle over their opponents' heads.

3. The Ireland team will split into two, with the Southern half performing a Riverdance, while the Northerners march the traditional route from their dressing room to the pitch, via their opponents' dressing room.

4. Argentina will unexpectedly invade a small part of opposition territory, claim it as their own "Las In-Goals-Areas" and then be forcibly removed by the match stewards.

5. Two members of the South African team will claim to be more important than the other 13 whom they will imprison between the posts whilst they claim the rest of the pitch for themselves.

6. The Americans will not attend until almost full time. In future years they will amend the records to show that they were in fact the most important team in the tournament and Hollywood will make a film called 'Saving No.8 Lyle'.

7. Five of the Canadian team will sing La Marseillaise and hold the rest of the team to ransom.

8. The Italian team will arrive in Armani gear, sexually harass the female stewards and then run away.

9. The Spanish will sneak into the other half of the pitch, mow it and then claim that it was all in line with European "grass quotas." They will then curl up under the posts and have a kip until half time, when their appeal for compensation against the UK government will be heard.

10. The Japanese will attempt to strengthen their team by offering good salaries to the key opposition players and then run around the pitch at high speed in a highly efficient manner before buying the ground (with a subsidy from the UK government).

11. The French will declare they have new scientific evidence that the opposition are in fact all mad. They will then park lorries across the half-way line, let sheep loose in the opposition half and burn the officials.

12. The Australians will have a barbie before negotiating lucrative singing and TV contracts in the UK. They will then invite all their mates to come and live with them so they can get on the grog every night.

Warning, self-indulgent rant ahead...

ARGH!!! Had a crap day, have been looking forward to tonight's episode for FIVE WEEKS. Then, about a minute after it started I accidentally pressed something on my TV remote and (I've since realised) detuned my TV from the VCR signal. At the time I couldn't figure out what was wrong so I simply pressed stuff at random and made the whole thing worse. I got upset (and by 'got upset' I mean 'went fairly hysterical'), pissed off my mum with my ranting and ruined the episode for myself because I kept brooding and flicking back to the video channel in the ads to try and fix it, thereby missing some little chunks of the episode. Then I felt stupid and embarrassed for getting so worked up. And if I'd kept my cool I probably could have figured out the problem in two seconds and everything would have been sweet. It's really not a big deal because my friend can make me a copy from her tape but it's the PRINCIPLE of the thing. Stupid clumsy fingers. Stupid technology. Sigh. The painful side of fandom. Next, on Sick Sad World.

Rant Over.

Anyway, I really liked what I saw of the episode, but I have no concept of the pace or tone of it because I watched it so disjointedly. I'll rewatch in a calm state when my friend copies it. And by then it should have aired in the other states.

Oh, and the film vs book thing. I'm not sure that I have a preference. I was a huge reader and a huge watcher when I was a child, and love doing both pretty equally. Although if you forced me to choose, I'd give up my videos and DVDs before I gave up my books.

Oh, Emlah, condolences, that's my worst nightmare. (Well, a close second to what happened to me last week anyway, when I turned over to 7 half an hour before Angel was due to start and it was already on.)

Thank God for tape fairies.

Oh, Emlah, condolences, that's my worst nightmare. (Well, a close second to what happened to me last week anyway, when I turned over to 7 half an hour before Angel was due to start and it was already on.)

Oh yeah, it could have been way worse. At least I was able to watch it. I'm all calm now, and I knew people on this board would understand the horror! My mum's pretty accepting of my fannishness, but this little performance had her completely bemused.

Thank God for tape fairies.

Bless their little hearts and magnetic strip wings.

Edit: I've decided I want Chrissie and Dan to get married and have funny, funny babies and maybe travel Australia in a van solving mysteries.

moonlit - that email is hilarious.