Posts by Malcolm Ibell
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Geoff & Jackie, I agree, there so does need to be a book... but probably not by me. I'm not really a writer.
I do, however have the germ of an idea; Would some of you lovely people be interested in an long-form tour of the Mighty Civic?
I'd have to sort it with the powers-that-be, but I'm sure that if there's not too many of youse – it's a rabbit warren & I'd hate to lose anyone – we can organise something. A weekend would probably be the go for us working peoples.
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I do have another, rather ironic anecdote re. M. Marceau at the Civic:
After the 12 or curtain calls and a quick change, I escorted him and his support crew down to the after show reception, being held in the Wintergarden.
The maestro was pretty shattered – as you'd expect after the performance he'd just done, at his age – so, after a few gallic pleasantries, I took him back up to his dressing room and left him to pack his miming things away.
Half an hour later we returned to collect him, only to find that the stage door security guard had decided that his shift was over, switched all the backstage lights off via the master panel, and gone home. The dressing room was in total darkness – I mean total and utter blackout – and there was the greatest mime that has ever lived, feeling his way around the periphery looking for the door!
The instant recollection of that staple of god-awful steet mimes: Mime In A Box , caused total loss of control amongst me and his crew. Needless to say the maestro failed to see the humour.
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My recollection is that yes, they were red, Danielle. However, I shall find out for sure for you tomorrow, when, injured cats willing, I'll be back at work.
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And there are gold lions with flashing eyes!
I'm going to be a total pendant here Danielle – and I'm allowed, 'cos I work in the Civic daily – those gold felines are actually Panthers. The eyes pulse between blue/green and green... they're fantastic!
Marcel Marceau, when he played the Civic a few years back, was so disturbed by those eyes that he had me cover them in gaffer tape.
The Civic is an amazing place that seems to be able to 'suck time'... every job, no matter how small, takes an indeterminately longer time to complete. I head off to do something trivial in the Wintergarden – a 10 minute re-focus of a light – and emerge, blinking, on Queen St an hour and a half later. And all I've done is the original task!
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Oh, and speaking of John Cale. Russell, have you heard the Cale version of LCD's All My Friends?
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Can I add Teddy Thompson's A Piece Of What You Need to the list?
It's my album of 2008 - full of wry, sometimes self deprecating, thoughtful songwriting. The title track alone is worth the price of admission - with lyrics like:
... Drop dead gorgeous teen
Singing pages from her diary
So bad, you'd kick her out of bed ...Then later on, a fantastic OTT camp horn line, courtesy of Marius de Vries.
Just. Brilliant.
There's a hidden track on the CD too, a great Everly Bros' cover which doesn't seem to be available via any download services - it's one of those 12 minutes of silence after the last track, give you a helluva fright when it suddenly appears kinda hidden.
Oh, and the website has streaming audio for every track - well, except the hidden one (flash dependent though - sorry all you flash haters).
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For those who haven't already played, here's some Palin fun.
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Thanks! Which of those would be a reasonable swap for the 250 Plus?
Damn! You would choose that one! As far as I know it's a Terratec box, but I can't find it on their website anymore - I shall have a better search later.
Is there a reason that you're after the 250+ ?
I ask as that the advantages of hardware encoding are scant when recording DTV. As your Mac (via EyeTV) just puts the raw H264 stream onto disk - virtually no processor load. It's the playing back that taxes the processor(s).
The hardware codec comes into it's own when recording analogue tv and dubbing your old vhs tapes.I'm a big fan of the USB stick tuners like the EyeTV hybrid/Hauppage HVR900 and the Pinnacle equivalents. They mostly come with remotes and little stick antennas, they're easy to swap to your MacBook too.
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Russell, as Christiaan pointed out upthread, it's the software that's the jewel in EyeTV's crown.
The Elgato hardware however is mostly re-badged product from other manufacturers - ie. Terratec, Hauppage etc.- for instance the EyeTV Hybrid Stick is a re-badged Hauppage HVR900 available for $167 here.
The cool thing that I've found is that you can buy the original for a third of the cost, chuck away the PC software, and the tuner will more than happily co-exist with EyeTV.You can find a list of supported tuners here and you can get some of them in your local mall.