Busytown: A series of tubes
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I actually remember, and have recalled more than once in the interim, that Tom Lehrer "-ly" song from spome point in my youth. Although I had never connected it with Lehrer I didn't have to listen to realise you were right..
While I had a decent memory of the tune and the last verse, I didn't realise how good it was, musically.
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Yay, a Jolisa post! With The Goodies! And The Wombles! Now, if only YouTube had some Woolly Valley clips... anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Now I want one of the major diaper manufacturers to pounce on his song The Joy of Sex, with its insanely catchy chorus of "Baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby"
The song with which I achieved performance immortality! (See the NZ Music Stories thread.)
I certainly hope Heineken makes him hugely rich, anyway.
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I would love to watch it, but I can't: a little notice comes up saying "This video is for New Zealand viewers only." I flipping well am a New Zealand viewer, dammit.
That, and the Youtube message "this video is not available in your country". I don't want a segregated internet, with content allocated by country. I want everything, here, now.
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Very nice to see you back, Jolisa. A child in hospital seems like a pretty good excuse to me (in fact, just a child, full stop).
As always, I really enjoyed your book reviews. Someone should give you an award for them...
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Belt,
"sent the two year old to the hospital, where I spent a couple of not completely horrible days watching him rehydrate on a drip, master the buttons on the electric bed, and discover the hitherto unknown delights of 24/7 cable TV"
I hear ya.
Except they gave mine morphine. And I didn't get anything. Not even an ice block.
But giving mine morphine while I was near death-through-exhaustion meant I had to deal with a toddler bouncing off the walls for the next 6 hours! Sure, I had my own bed next to his in a private room, but do you think I could get my OWN?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
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Thanks for posting the splendid mole from days of yore - however did you find it (he asked, rhetorically)?
I often wonder what interesting things TVNZ's former penchant for bargain basement job-lots of Eastern European programming have done to those of us who grew up watching more TV than was probably good for us in the 80s. Perhaps they paid for the programmes with a bale or two of prime NZ wool smuggled through the Iron Curtain under cover of darkness.
Now all I need to complete my misty 80s reverie is a clip of the bizarre Scandinavian live-action TV show called 'Mika' in which a Lapp boy takes his reindeer across Europe to a zoo in Paris. And wears a silly hat. I consider myself lucky to have seen such worldview-expanding televisual riches from my dingy bedroom in Onehunga. Of course the kids these days, bah, what would they know about reindeers and Bohemian moles; back in my day... (etc.)
The website TV Cream summarises it thusly (throwing in a mention of the pop singer by the same name for good measure):
MIKA (MID 1980s)
FINLANDONE-HIT WONDER Freddie Mercury rip-off merchant who Steve Wright played to death in early 2007. Also, another summer holiday morning ITV fillers revolving around titular pest from Finland, whose pride and joy was a reindeer called Ossien, who was on some kind of quest, and whose arrival on our screens was always heralded by a chorus of sickly-sweet kids shouting "Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikaaaaaaaa!". One episode featured Mika betting on a pigeon race along with some locals in backward reindeer-roasting village; ends up quids-in, but nearly doesn't turn up to collect winnings. That was the level of excitement.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
XXXXXXXXXXXX ...BARELY LESS COMATOSE THAN HEIDI -
Now I want one of the major diaper manufacturers to pounce on his song
Diapers?? Sorry Jolisa, you're being assimilated. Best you hop on that plane and spend some quality time with New Zild nappies before the process becomes complete...
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Oh, Jolisa. Yay for you. I'm up to here with all this dreary political talk that's been going on here lately, and you know just how to make us smile. The Wombles! Doing Punk! And the Goodies! And cute kids who actually know "Right Said Fred"! Love it. And it's great to see that you're making a bit of dosh in New Haven (wasn't that where the Bob Newhart show was based?) doing what you do best. So thank you - you never disappoint.
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O how sad I am to be on dial-up, when I could be watching Mole's adventures again, and exciting new NZ arts programming! One day...
That Lavinia Greenlaw book looked just my sort of thing too, I'll have to have a hunt for it. Thanks for the tip :) -
We do in fact have a TV at home, but we only use it for DVDs.
Our line is "we do in fact have all the premium channels, but we only got them for FotC".
What? You're saying that FotC is over and there won't be another series for more than a year? Sorry, you're breaking up, I can't hear you.
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Awww guys, you're making me blush. I was worried that was the most uninspired "where have I been" post ever. Still, when words (or other people's immune systems) fail me, I can link - and embed! - with the best of 'em.
Lyndon:
I didn't realise how good [Tom Lehrer] was, musically.
I know, genius, right? How he can play the Vatican Rag and sing at the same time is beyond me.
Danielle and Ethan:
Woolly Valley didn't ring a bell, but look, someone wants to resurrect it! I must have been listening to Buzz O'Bumble or watching the Monkees on the other channel. But Mika (no relation to this guy I guess) does sound vaguely familiar, and I have an extreme fondness for Scandinavian stories in which not a lot happens. See also Astrid Lindgren's Noisy Village stories, in which they climb a tree, walk to school, say hello to a dog, etc, and somehow it is absolutely riveting.
As for the little mole, we got turned onto him by the family of Pepichek, one of the kid formerly known as Busytot's little mates in NYC. Love those crazy Czechs. Everything is art!
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Any YouTube footage of that performance, Danielle? Sounds solid gold!
I certainly hope Heineken makes him hugely rich, anyway.
I reckon. And what with FoTC burning up the TV (psst, Amy, how do you think I watched the whole first series? Let's just say in bite-sized chunks), and Jemaine doing the Outback Steakhouse ads, the covert Kiwi takeover of American consciousness is almost complete...
Speaking of which, thanks Jeremy for spotting an early symptom of deculturation. Did I actually type "diapers"? Poo. The word has only ever passed my lips in cases of extreme urgency when I can't afford to wait for the locals to catch up or get subtitles. But it looks like my fingers have begun to assimilate ...next it'll be my elbows next, and then where will it stop. Thankfully, we still have bums in our house rather than butts (cf. Russell's post the other day).
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Belt, all sympathy for your experience. Wouldn't it be nice if "private room" meant something more like "luxury suite"? We were lucky to get our own room - it's a teaching hospital, so with initial symptoms exciting enough to make the doctors ask questions like "Has he played with turtles recently?", we were fast-tracked into a quarantined room, where we were allowed to stay even once it became clear this was nothing more than a particularly horrible case of Norwalk virus, aka Cruise Ship Surprise.
For me the first night's sleep was the best, even though it started well after midnight. The nurses who snuck in and changed the vilest nappies known to humankind while I snored deserve at least ten times more than they were actually being paid. And the hero at the lab whose job it was to analyse said nappy... no amount of money would be enough, in my opinion. Even the seasoned ex-Navy nurse, a big strong guy who must have seen and smelt worse in his time, offered to come back with some air freshener.
No morphine for either of us, but the TV had a pleasantly narcotic effect, especially the two hour episode of American Idol with the kids performing unspeakable acts on Beatles songs.
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Jackie, I had to go googling to find you an answer. It looks like Newhart (the second series) was based in Vermont, perhaps in a small town called New Haven? But I couldn't swear to it.
If you watch the new Indiana Jones movie, though, you'll see some very nice shots of New Haven during the motorbike-bus-truck chase sequence.
New Haven is also famous (or infamous) as the birthplace of pizza, hamburgers, lollipops, Erector Set, frisbies, the cartoon strip Doonesbury, and a certain sitting President of the USA... can't win 'em all, I guess.
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And what with FoTC burning up the TV (psst, Amy, how do you think I watched the whole first series? Let's just say in bite-sized chunks)
Ah, but see, we explicitly wanted to be counted in any network measurements of People Who Watched It.
Not that our puny contribution mattered in the end. Hooray for them. (But a small tear for my chances of ever again wandering down to Mo Pitkin's House Of Satisfaction of an evening and getting a door ticket to a small-room Conchords show...)
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I reckon. And what with FoTC burning up the TV (psst, Amy, how do you think I watched the whole first series? Let's just say in bite-sized chunks), and Jemaine doing the Outback Steakhouse ads, the covert Kiwi takeover of American consciousness is almost complete...
And he plays an Aussie! Why didn't I know about this?
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Don't worry, the food at Outback Steakhouse isn't really Australian, so it makes sense that the guy on their commercial isn't either.
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I took a few photos at the New Artland event with Ans Westra.
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Nice pics, Sarah! (And your hair grew - who knew?)
And oh my god, that cheese chips entree. I think that's what Elvis was eating immediately prior to his terminal event on the commode.
Christine Kenneally wrote this excellent piece on Outback Steakhouse a while ago, but it still speaks to me, mainly to remind me never to go there. Chocolate Thunder Down Under, anyone?
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Just had a trawl through my iPhoto collection and this I believe is the sister in question? (Pardon the crappy photo.)
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Bingo! That's my sis. And I know Beardy Weirdy Man, too.
So cool that you captured the behind-the-scenes action. What did the littlies make of it all?
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Just had a trawl through my iPhoto collection and this I believe is the sister in question? (Pardon the crappy photo.)
It's a great photo! It makes me think what's going on there?
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BTW, Sarah, are you blogging these days? I miss your writing.
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It makes me think what's going on there?
It makes me thank that too, and I was there. The tragedy of old age. I've filled in the blank with a naked tango involving Chris Knox and Beardy-Weirdy man.
BTW, Sarah, are you blogging these days?
I started a new blog recently and neglect it with great care.
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It makes me think what's going on there?
An effect only enhanced by the exclamation mark behind them. And is that an ice-block Ans Westra is holding?
Yay, new blog!
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