|
|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Television
Sorry, but there are no more tags available to filter with.
-
 Heres' a public service announcement to (illegal) satellite TV users from Shanghaiist: Don't put stuff on top of your satellite receiver box.
We had gotten in the habit of placing the occasional DVD or DVD sleeve on top of our satellite box, which is covered by a bunch of small vents. Not long ago, while working at our computer (surprise, surprise) at around 1 am, we heard a popping noise coming from near the TV (which was plugged in but powered off at the time). We turned around and saw smoke and sparks coming out the top of the satellite box (which was plugged in and powered on). We raced over, unplugged everything and swept all the stuff on top of the satellite box to the floor. It was pretty scary, especially considering we normally would have been in bed by that time, and we have no idea what would have happened if we weren't in the room to put a stop to things.
So just be careful satellite users. Your illegal TV habit likely won't get you in trouble with the authorities, but it could burn your house down. (The don't-lay-stuff-on-top-of-electronic-equipment-with-vents suggestion likely holds true with legal devices, too.)
Luckily, we had a spare satellite TV box (doesn't everyone?) and when we hooked it up, while all the channels were mislabeled, we appeared to have two sports channels we previously had never seen before, and we thought we should almost burn down our landlord's home more often. But apparently it wasn't magic that made the channels appear , it was some suit in the Philippines. The channels are BEN Sports 1 and BEN Sports 2 (Chinese name 明哥体育台) and they now come standard on Dream Network satellite TV. This is very good news — they show live feeds of a variety of sports from a variety sports networks around the world. Some people have wondered about the legality of these channels because they often just show the ads from whatever network they happen to be showing (and when they don't, they play the song "Yeah" by Usher ... over and over again). Some people are also saying that there are BEN Sports 3, 4 and 5 — bring 'em on!
Right now, we are watching live coverage of the Dallas Cowboys vs. the Green Bay Packers, an NFL game that, because of the network it's being shown on, isn't viewable by quite a few people in America. Take that, bitches!
Related
『閒聊』可愛的Ben Sport明哥体育台
146明哥体育台是盗播大王
146梦幻Dream Cinema电影台变为 明哥体育台(BEN sport)
Also on Shanghaiist
No Right: The illegal satellite TV screen of death
Watching the NBA Finals on satellite TV
A note to the dozens of NFL fans who might read this
|
-
- Don't be too surprised if you're walking down Nanjing Lu next month and you see a bronze chariot rampaging down the street. War hasn't arrived. It's just one of the shoots for the Hollywood blockbuster The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor which stars Jet Li as Emperor Qin Shihuang, alongside Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame. We hear it's a massive production (like anything isn't in China), and they're still looking for another 1,200 extras. So for those of you that missed the chance to be cast in The Painted Veil, your next shot at Hollywood has arrived.
- To the reader on our Contribute page who saw "Steve Buscemi and a table full of NYC-ish hipsters dining on the terrace at M on the Bund the other night, it appears Buscemi is in town for the shoot of John Rabe, a drama based on the Nanjing Massacre. John Rabe is played by German actor Ulrich Tukur who is described here as "a card-carrying Nazi and Siemens executive who managed to create a safe zone in the city and to save the lives of 200,000 civilians (which rather puts Oskar Schindler's efforts to shame)". Steve Buscemi plays American doctor Robert Wilson, who stayed on in Nanjing during the Japanese occupation to care for the sick and wounded. We don't know what it is, but apparently, FOUR other dramas based on the Nanjing massacre are also being shot at the moment: Nanking Nanking, The Diary, Nanking Xmas 1937 and Purple Mountain. Some propaganda machine at work?
- For all you baseball fans: The Major League Baseball International (MLBI) has reached an agreement with Shanghai Media Group (SMG) that will mean a significantly increased exposure of the sport in China. The 2007 World Series will be "broadcast live in its entirety on Great Sports, the country's leading cable sports channel."
- Jackie Chan who is currently working with Beijing Television on "The Disciple," his Chinese talent show (gawd, not another of those) has advice for all aspiring kungfu stars: Don't bow to me. He writes on his blog: "Some preliminary competitors would introduce themselves the old-period kung-fu way: the fist of one hand clenched firmly, the palm of the other wrapped on top, head slightly bowed, then saying, `All the heroes here today, please advise and correct my wrongdoings,'... [The greeting] is old-fashioned and definitely not what I'm looking for... I think actors of today should adapt to situations appropriately, like using old-fashioned terms for old-fashioned movies or using modern-day speech for modern-day films. Actors shouldn't mix old-fashioned speech with modern-day films. It just doesn't fit." Wow, talk about breaking stereotypes.
Photo of a Mummy 3 set in a Hebei Province desert from China.org.cn
|
-
 Rumour has it that Shanghai Media Group, the city's largest TV conglomerate which operates 20 television and radio channels, has plans to start a new 24-hour English language news channel. Rejoice all ye who don't have (or can't afford) satellite at home (that includes us)! Well apparently this has been in the works for a year now, and while SMG hasn't jumped pass the final regulatory hurdle, it has already started hiring "hiring English-speaking presenters, editors and reporters, including foreigners, for the new service" (now just where does one send in his CV?).
Dutch reporter Fons Tuinstra of China Herald asks a rhetorical question, Can the Shanghai Media Group beat CNN?: Could the Shanghai Media Group (or any other state-owned broadcasting station in China) compete on a global market. I'm not the most reliable expert in this field, since I have given up watching the boring nonsense on Chinese TV years ago.
To be honest, we're not too sure ourselves but from what we've seen of SMG's English-language lunchtime news segment, they have a jolly good chance of putting CCTV-9 to shame. Go SMG go!
Related links
Reuters: Shanghai Media plans English news channel in China
China Herald: Can the Shanghai Media Group beat CNN?
|
-
A few months ago, we informed you of the latest information about the 15th edition of CBS' Survivor: China, to be held...in China. As the stentorian narrator in this YouTube video says, "For the first time, a major American show goes behind the Great Wall to shoot entirely in China. It's a place where the strategy of war became an art." And cue the quotes from The Art of War. Naturally, every contestant was given a copy of that book.
While initially, it was thought that an island was the setting for the show, that rumor proved to be false. The true location of the shoot was near the part of the Zhelin Reservoir (柘林水库) located in Wuning county (武宁县), Jiujiang city (九江市), Jiangxi province (江西省). In accordance with Survivor tradition, the names of both "tribes" or groups are a tribute to the host country's culture. In this car, the names of the tribes are Flying Dragon (飞龙) and Fighting Tiger (战虎)...hmmm.
On the show's official website, you can view the profiles of all the contestants, including the party girl from Hong Kong that got kicked out of UC-Berkeley. She is one of two contestants of East Asian heritage on the show (okay...one and a half).
In two weeks, the show will premiere in America. We are too po for satellite television and don't even know if it's available in Shanghai. But if you want to see heavy editing and reality writing at its finest, you can tune in on Thursday, September 20 at 8pm for the premiere and every Thrusday night thereafter. Of course, there are other ways to view the show, but we would never, ever encourage that kind of activity.
|
|
|
|