Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MyNameIsTerry
Yep, very popular for those not looking to find offence in everything. :winks:
We have a local version called 'Owd Grandad Piggott. There are still some recordings around (I have a few on cassette from decades ago) online.
In the Scene in Bottom I mentioned above she had kicked Eddie in the balls and hit him with her collecting tin. She was actually collecting for victims of domestic violence so Eddie robbed her tin but threw some change out of it down the stairs for her. Bottom was a very physical comedy.
I know I'm going off in a tangent a bit here, but funnily enough, I have been digitising some old VHS recordings from the 90s today, with tapes that are 25-30 years old, and I've had to keep stopping and starting every 30 minutes or so to clean the VHS VCR heads and capstans with a cotton bud dampened in methylated spirit due to the constant build-up of stray oxide particles, that resulted in random white specks being reproduced on-screen. We're literally spoilt rotten with today's 'HD' AV equipment using non-mechanical media with a lot of the current high-end consumer camcorders, TV sets, etc being better than even the very best fully-professional gear of ten years ago!!
But of course, we didn't know any different before digital AV media came along from around the late 90s onwards.
Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lencoboy
I know I'm going off in a tangent a bit here, but funnily enough, I have been digitising some old VHS recordings from the 90s today, with tapes that are 25-30 years old, and I've had to keep stopping and starting every 30 minutes or so to clean the VHS VCR heads and capstans with a cotton bud dampened in methylated spirit due to the constant build-up of stray oxide particles, that resulted in random white specks being reproduced on-screen. We're literally spoilt rotten with today's 'HD' AV equipment using non-mechanical media with a lot of the current high-end consumer camcorders, TV sets, etc being better than even the very best fully-professional gear of ten years ago!!
But of course, we didn't know any different before digital AV media came along from around the late 90s onwards.
Can I just say that a cotton bud applied to the video heads is taking their life in your hands. Take it from an old pro - meths is fine (it just takes a long time to evaporate) but apply it to a lint-free cloth then hold that against the head drum and rotate the head drum so the heads pass over it. ON NO ACCOUNT use an up-and-down motion on the heads themselves, ever.
It's not just oxide building up on the heads either but the backing and plasticisers in the tape. Some tapes are much better than others, some very much worse!
Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pamplemousse
Can I just say that a cotton bud applied to the video heads is taking their life in your hands. Take it from an old pro - meths is fine (it just takes a long time to evaporate) but apply it to a lint-free cloth then hold that against the head drum and rotate the head drum so the heads pass over it. ON NO ACCOUNT use an up-and-down motion on the heads themselves, ever.
It's not just oxide building up on the heads either but the backing and plasticisers in the tape. Some tapes are much better than others, some very much worse!
Thanks for the info, the machine is fine now.
Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lencoboy
Thanks for the info, the machine is fine now.
Great news :yesyes:
Some time ago I embarked on a project to digitise some 250 audio cassettes, which are up to maybe 45 years old? You soon learned which brands were going to cause terrific trouble, jamming the machine as soon as you hit play. I've only done 50 to date...
Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lencoboy
I would hardly call repeated use of the F-word in a lot of comedies over the past 25 years or so 'moralising'. And I'm no prude in the grand scheme of things either, I just find it all very repetitive, unoriginal and in all, lazy writing.
Neither would I. But I was talking about what you mentioned earlier: why we can't watch certain things anymore.
More the type clutching their copy of The Guardian, the type that could be described as woke.
Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
The professionally offended will find something to take offence at in anything - just as long as it gives them an excuse to stand on their moral soapbox and expound their outrage. What joyless lives these people must live.
Whilst we're going through the canon of 70's comedic brilliance ... what about Porridge? Along with Fawlty Towers, Monty Python and others of that ilk, I still crease myself with laughter after 40 years. My favourite character was always the 'charmless Scottish nurk' screw Mackay. It wouldn't get commissioned nowadays in our humuorless PC society, but by god was it funny and very well written. Of its time and it struck a chord with the massive public viewing figures.
Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
There have been no new cases of Covid 19 in NZ for 14 days in a row and only 1 active case. This is a fact not a 'gloat'. If this continues, then next Thursday we will drop to Level 1, which means all business as usual, except borders will remain closed. There is still talk about (but no time frame set for) the Trans Tasman Travel bubble to begin.
Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
Thing is, somehow whilst I can believe the figures in NZ I just can't help but think that the figures in the UK are being constantly massaged to make things look better than they actually are.
I 'eagerly' await our second (and third, and fourth) wave.
Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pamplemousse
Thing is, somehow whilst I can believe the figures in NZ I just can't help but think that the figures in the UK are being constantly massaged to make things look better than they actually are. I 'eagerly' await our second (and third, and fourth) wave.
I don't think you can get a second wave until the first wave in under control?
We are waiting to see if another case/s arise from somewhere in the community and this would be a second wave. If another month (2 cycles) goes by without any more cases arising then a second wave is unlikely so it's a wait and see scenario.
Re: New Zealand Out of Lockdown ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
WiseMonkey
I don't think you can get a second wave until the first wave in under control?
We are waiting to see if another case/s arise from somewhere in the community and this would be a second wave. If another month (2 cycles) goes by without any more cases arising then a second wave is unlikely so it's a wait and see scenario.
Exactly. Our first wave still isn't even over yet.