There has been quite a bit in the news recently about the reintroduction of standing areas at football matches. Top flight matches in the UK were mandated to be all-seater affairs following the Taylor Report into the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. There were a number of recommendations which were mainly common sense measures to improve the safety at football matches and few of these were particularly controversial amongst fans other than the removal of terracing. However, it was something I did agree with as I knew from first-hand experience that the welfare of the ordinary fan on terraces was often precarious.
I’m trying to remember the last time I was in a terrace for a top-flight game. I seem to recall it was at Roker Park in the early 1990’s but I’m not certain as to the exact match. I have been on terraces since but, at the amateur levels of Scottish football, one is more likely to suffer from loneliness than being crushed against the barriers. There is a great deal of over-romanticised nostalgia about terraces. They could be exhilarating when your team was winning and the whole crowd was singing in unison but there appears to be a collective amnesia about the down side: the poor view, rib crushing crowd surges, someone peeing down your leg at half time and the stench of urine from the kids at the bottom of the stand who were downstream of several thousand emptied bladders. I suffered broken spectacles on more than one occasion during over-exuberant goal celebrations and, notably, bruised ribs when the minimal crowd control didn’t go to plan.
Even though I am opposed to the old style melee of terracing I am in favour of what is currently described as “safe standing”. I wouldn’t be tempted by it but I believe it is necessary for entirely practical reasons. Once football stadia went all-seater it didn’t prevent standing at football grounds. It is just that the standing now takes place in what were the traditional terraced sections of the stadia which is both a great annoyance for those that do want to sit as their view is blocked and it is also dangerous as someone falling over where many people are standing could cause a domino effect as there is nothing to catch their fall other than the fans immediately in front of them. And, of course, once one person stands at a match it rather encourages everyone behind them to stand as well so that they don’t miss any action for what is a rather expensive 90 minutes entertainment.
“Safe standing” areas are common in Germany and have recently been introduced at Celtic Park in Glasgow. What they are not is a traditional terrace with its sparsely placed barriers and minimal crowd control. With “safe standing” areas, every standing spectator has their own barrier to lean against and tickets are given to a particular place. In effect, it is no different from people standing in all-seater stands except that they are not blocking the view of those that do want to sit and they have the added safety feature of a dedicated rail in front of them to prevent a human domino effect. The Taylor Report was a quantum leap for the safety of sports stadia. The pragmatist in me says that far from challenging the wisdom of Taylor’s report, safe standing would actually enhance it.
Saturday, 26 November 2016
Saturday, 19 November 2016
The Golden Age of Streaming
I have heard the phrase “The Golden Age of Television” used to refer to various periods of time depending on who is using it. In the US this tends to refer to the period from the end of World War II to 1960 in which the medium became pervasive and programming to utilise it was devised. In the UK it tends to refer to the decade from 1953 when TV ownership rocketed after the Queen’s coronation was broadcast . However, I would argue that the true Golden Age was in the 1970s as most people had a set, increasingly in colour, and there were only 3 channels to pick from with little other mass entertainment to compete with. This was to change after 1980 with the advent of the VCR which meant that the one pervasive trend, the single shared experience, began to be diluted.
Now there is more television programming available than ever before but there is very little in the way of event television. There is no real point in watching TV at the time it is broadcast unless it is a live event: a sports match or something like the Eurovision Song Contest. People do still watch programmes as they are broadcast, or soon after, but the real reach of many programmes will not be achieved until months or even years after the original release date. Just as the VCR brought to an end the age of the shared experience of live broadcast, now streaming is changing the concept of broadcasting altogether; but can streaming still create event TV?
There have been a couple of streaming only television shows that I have watched recently which may have attempted this. The first was the BBC’s Doctor Who spinoff “Class”. I did watch the first two episodes on the day that they were released. Being a Doctor Who nut I am probably part of the key demographic for this but the show is aimed more as a sort of Buffy The Vampire Slayer for the Netflix generation. It’s actually not at all bad although I think having The Doctor making a guest appearance in the first episode was something of a mistake if this is to exist as a stand-alone series. In essence it picks up the concept from the very first episode of Doctor Who in 1963 but now uses Coal Hill School as a general purpose refugee centre for aliens on the run and much of the action centres around visitations from whatever the said aliens are seeking refuge from. Whether this counts as event TV is another matter because I’m already a couple of episodes behind what has been released. It’s not that I don’t want to see them but I have other things to do and I know that they will be available for at least a year.
The other streaming event this week was “The Grand Tour”, Amazon’s offering of “not” Top Gear featuring the familiar Clarkson, May, Hammond trio presenting the motoring show from a travelling circus tent in various countries. I already have a Prime membership and I did watch this on the day of its release. In fact it has attracted quite a bit of interest and mainly critical acclaim which does predispose it as “event TV” although I am rather ambivalent towards it. The bulk of the show featured a test of three hybrid supercars which was promised on Top Gear prior to Clarkson lamping one of the production staff. I was rather put off Clarkson again when he made a crass “joke” about Gypsies at the start of Grand Tour but I reminded myself that he once punched Piers Morgan so, whilst he might have a short fuse, he isn’t all bad.
I think part of my problem with The Grand Tour is that it was far too knowingly trying to be Top Gear and really concentrated on the rather mediocre bits that the show had descended into but didn’t highlight on the bits that really worked: particularly the travelogue elements that the “Grand Tour” title suggested and the general tomfoolery between the hosts. It was a waste, as hosting the show (this week) in America could have given them the chance to use some of the world’s most stunning locations. As it was they had an initial feature about differing motoring terms and their replacement racing driver was one skit on redneck Americans that wore out after 15 seconds: for some reason the mute “Stig” is still funny after many years on the original show. The only element that I did find laugh-out funny was the dead celebrities which resembled a sketch from The Goodies. Unfortunately, I suspect that will only work once.
I will probably watch The Grand Tour again but probably not on the day of its release. It’s an entertaining enough diversion but I can’t say that it is unmissable television. I also doubt whether I would miss it if I didn’t have the Amazon Prime subscription. Oddly enough, I am looking forward more to watching Class but will make an effort to watch it when I am alert enough to appreciate it. Maybe that’s the difference: event television with streaming happens in the individual home and not the nation as a whole. It is the way the world is going but I rather miss the concept of a shared national experience.
Now there is more television programming available than ever before but there is very little in the way of event television. There is no real point in watching TV at the time it is broadcast unless it is a live event: a sports match or something like the Eurovision Song Contest. People do still watch programmes as they are broadcast, or soon after, but the real reach of many programmes will not be achieved until months or even years after the original release date. Just as the VCR brought to an end the age of the shared experience of live broadcast, now streaming is changing the concept of broadcasting altogether; but can streaming still create event TV?
There have been a couple of streaming only television shows that I have watched recently which may have attempted this. The first was the BBC’s Doctor Who spinoff “Class”. I did watch the first two episodes on the day that they were released. Being a Doctor Who nut I am probably part of the key demographic for this but the show is aimed more as a sort of Buffy The Vampire Slayer for the Netflix generation. It’s actually not at all bad although I think having The Doctor making a guest appearance in the first episode was something of a mistake if this is to exist as a stand-alone series. In essence it picks up the concept from the very first episode of Doctor Who in 1963 but now uses Coal Hill School as a general purpose refugee centre for aliens on the run and much of the action centres around visitations from whatever the said aliens are seeking refuge from. Whether this counts as event TV is another matter because I’m already a couple of episodes behind what has been released. It’s not that I don’t want to see them but I have other things to do and I know that they will be available for at least a year.
The other streaming event this week was “The Grand Tour”, Amazon’s offering of “not” Top Gear featuring the familiar Clarkson, May, Hammond trio presenting the motoring show from a travelling circus tent in various countries. I already have a Prime membership and I did watch this on the day of its release. In fact it has attracted quite a bit of interest and mainly critical acclaim which does predispose it as “event TV” although I am rather ambivalent towards it. The bulk of the show featured a test of three hybrid supercars which was promised on Top Gear prior to Clarkson lamping one of the production staff. I was rather put off Clarkson again when he made a crass “joke” about Gypsies at the start of Grand Tour but I reminded myself that he once punched Piers Morgan so, whilst he might have a short fuse, he isn’t all bad.
I think part of my problem with The Grand Tour is that it was far too knowingly trying to be Top Gear and really concentrated on the rather mediocre bits that the show had descended into but didn’t highlight on the bits that really worked: particularly the travelogue elements that the “Grand Tour” title suggested and the general tomfoolery between the hosts. It was a waste, as hosting the show (this week) in America could have given them the chance to use some of the world’s most stunning locations. As it was they had an initial feature about differing motoring terms and their replacement racing driver was one skit on redneck Americans that wore out after 15 seconds: for some reason the mute “Stig” is still funny after many years on the original show. The only element that I did find laugh-out funny was the dead celebrities which resembled a sketch from The Goodies. Unfortunately, I suspect that will only work once.
I will probably watch The Grand Tour again but probably not on the day of its release. It’s an entertaining enough diversion but I can’t say that it is unmissable television. I also doubt whether I would miss it if I didn’t have the Amazon Prime subscription. Oddly enough, I am looking forward more to watching Class but will make an effort to watch it when I am alert enough to appreciate it. Maybe that’s the difference: event television with streaming happens in the individual home and not the nation as a whole. It is the way the world is going but I rather miss the concept of a shared national experience.
Sunday, 13 November 2016
Trumped
Much of the world appears to be shocked at the election of Donald Trump as US president this week. I thought I would be as well but I find myself actually more bemused. Part of the bemusement is that the American people have elected a fart as a leader. OK that is just my puerile mind but the main bemusement is the fact that many seem to think that there was some huge difference between the two presidential candidates. In terms of policy, the choice of presidential candidates usually comes down to picking between Pepsi and Coke. I don’t think the difference is that marked this time either it’s just the style that differs. Hillary was the standard measured stateswoman, well-rehearsed in presentation. Trump, on the other hand, is a clown from a television show. The American people have just gone and elected Krusty the Clown.
In fact, I think a closer parallel would be with former Italian leader, Silvio Berlusconi. He is so far beyond the pale that no standard political scandal can touch him. In fact it would appear that the more outrageous and controversial he is, the more his appeal to a certain demographic increases. There was a campaign in the UK for Jeremy Clarkson to be prime minister which even Clarkson found to be idiotic. By comparison to Trump, Clarkson is the model of understatement but I suspect that it is the same people who take Clarkson’s self-mocking oafishness seriously that support Trump, Berlusconi, Farage and any other pseudo anti-establishment figures. The problem is, of course, that the likes of Trump (white, privileged billionaires) are about as establishment as they come which many blue collar Trump supporters are about to discover as he gives huge tax cuts to his billionaire brethren whilst they get jack.
For someone who is a wanton lefty like myself, Trump doesn’t worry me rather than causes me despair. The United States is protected in a rather conservative manner by its constitution. This means that whilst genuine reformers like Obama struggle to get their reforms to healthcare and gun control through congress, it also stops demagogic clowns from running amok with every vacuous whim that their brain farts (or is that trumps) out. The constitution can be changed, of course, but this is a glacial process that requires the co-operation of all 50 states.
The despair comes from the fact that the world is stuck with what will be a major roadblock to combat the worlds increasing problems. Maybe we will be in luck and Obama will discover, like Jimmy Carter did in the past, that they can be far more effective as an ex-president than as a serving one. As for Trump, I can’t see him lasting that long. His appeal may have been about “sticking it to the man” but now he is that man he will be under intense scrutiny and, unless I am mistaken and he actually is some kind of political genius, his promises will be proven to be as vacuous as his speeches. Unfortunately the effect of the hatred spilled from those speeches is likely to last longer than his presidency.
In fact, I think a closer parallel would be with former Italian leader, Silvio Berlusconi. He is so far beyond the pale that no standard political scandal can touch him. In fact it would appear that the more outrageous and controversial he is, the more his appeal to a certain demographic increases. There was a campaign in the UK for Jeremy Clarkson to be prime minister which even Clarkson found to be idiotic. By comparison to Trump, Clarkson is the model of understatement but I suspect that it is the same people who take Clarkson’s self-mocking oafishness seriously that support Trump, Berlusconi, Farage and any other pseudo anti-establishment figures. The problem is, of course, that the likes of Trump (white, privileged billionaires) are about as establishment as they come which many blue collar Trump supporters are about to discover as he gives huge tax cuts to his billionaire brethren whilst they get jack.
For someone who is a wanton lefty like myself, Trump doesn’t worry me rather than causes me despair. The United States is protected in a rather conservative manner by its constitution. This means that whilst genuine reformers like Obama struggle to get their reforms to healthcare and gun control through congress, it also stops demagogic clowns from running amok with every vacuous whim that their brain farts (or is that trumps) out. The constitution can be changed, of course, but this is a glacial process that requires the co-operation of all 50 states.
The despair comes from the fact that the world is stuck with what will be a major roadblock to combat the worlds increasing problems. Maybe we will be in luck and Obama will discover, like Jimmy Carter did in the past, that they can be far more effective as an ex-president than as a serving one. As for Trump, I can’t see him lasting that long. His appeal may have been about “sticking it to the man” but now he is that man he will be under intense scrutiny and, unless I am mistaken and he actually is some kind of political genius, his promises will be proven to be as vacuous as his speeches. Unfortunately the effect of the hatred spilled from those speeches is likely to last longer than his presidency.
Monday, 7 November 2016
Huntingtower Castle
My list of Historic Scotland sites to take the kids to see appears to have suddenly reduced. Partly, this is because we have covered lots of the nearby ones but mainly this is because many of the smaller ones go into hibernation for the Winter. However, there are still lots to see and the latest was quite intriguing.
One of the oddities of modern architecture is that domestic homes appear to be getting smaller and more cramped together and yet there is an insistence to make all the houses detached. The problem is that the “detachment” is pretty minimal. I’ve seen cases where there is barely enough space to walk between the buildings and the overall effect looks aesthetically dreadful. It just makes me wonder why they didn’t go for a nice terrace instead – the answer, of course, is that the word “detached” probably adds 20% to the already overinflated asking price.
As it turns out, this is not an entirely new phenomenon as Huntingtower Castle in Perthshire shows. This is actually two separate towers built right next to each other with just enough space to walk between. However, in another seemingly modern trick, the towers were later joined and the access between them knocked through – similar to the way that many people annex garages as an extra room.
The castle itself is very well maintained and thankfully (given the weather) the roof is both intact and highly functional. It is possible to get up on to the roof but, like the top of Linlithgow Palace, this is really terrifying for the likes of me and my particular distrust of gravity. Anyway, we are forecast to get the first snow of the year this week so I won’t be risking anywhere high and slippy in a hurry.
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| Huntingtower Castle - two towers for the price of one. |
One of the oddities of modern architecture is that domestic homes appear to be getting smaller and more cramped together and yet there is an insistence to make all the houses detached. The problem is that the “detachment” is pretty minimal. I’ve seen cases where there is barely enough space to walk between the buildings and the overall effect looks aesthetically dreadful. It just makes me wonder why they didn’t go for a nice terrace instead – the answer, of course, is that the word “detached” probably adds 20% to the already overinflated asking price.
As it turns out, this is not an entirely new phenomenon as Huntingtower Castle in Perthshire shows. This is actually two separate towers built right next to each other with just enough space to walk between. However, in another seemingly modern trick, the towers were later joined and the access between them knocked through – similar to the way that many people annex garages as an extra room.
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| Inside Huntingtower Castle |
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