Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Probably a fuss over nothing – one negative comment often creates more outrage, and therefore more issue, than there actually is.
Having a 5yo, I tend to watch far too much CBeebies than is good for me! Our discussion over Cerrie has consisted of my son saying (after Cerrie and Alex had been fronting the segments for about a week) "Oh look, she’s only got one hand. Why?". I said I didn’t know, she might have had an accident, she might just have been born with only one hand. He replied "Why doesn’t she get a new one?"
He asked if lots of people only have one hand, and I told him about one of the girls at my school who I used to go riding with who only had one hand. He was curious to know how she could ride using only one arm (she was much better than me!), but he was certainly not scared or repelled. He’s not mentioned Cerrie’s arm since.Having said that, Cerrie and Alex aren’t good presenters yet – very stiff and self-conscious, horribly scripted and artificial sounding. Bring back Chris and Pui!
I also have a CBeebies obsessed 5YO daughter. I watched Cerrie for about a week and didn’t notice her "disability." Neither did our daughter!
It was only when my partner came in early one night and pointed it out to me (not in front of my daughter) that I became aware. I have no problems at all with employing Cerrie. However, Cerrie and her partner are both very wooden and we want the old presenters back.
Both seem to be undecided whether they should act their roles or be themselves. Hopefully they will improve.
I feel sorry for the children of the parents who have complained.
RexWayne:
As I live, work, play, write and call in the USA, it is color.
Be thankful you do not have to deal with rural Appalachian people on a daily basis.
Craig
10/10 for missing the point Craig. Nearly all of your interesting posts refer to your work in the USA. However, you are not writing to inbred hillbillies in The Appalachians when you post on this forum.
You should be bi-lingual now.
Get with the programme. Or, as I am writing to you in red-neck land should I say program?
PS Big Mac was very frisky on ATR today, especially before the fillie’s (all but one) race!
Hi Paul:
I would wager money on being able to tell the difference if the commentator relies largely on the monitor or binoculars.
I am a big advocate of binoculars as I learned to call races without a monitor. A lot of my practice as a teenager came from calling races at Newmarket without a monitor. Either from the grandstand or the Devil’s Dyke. And of course commentary boxes are often in less than ideal positions and sometimes cramped beyond all belief. A trend here in America is to enclose them all in glass which can’t be opened which is not a lot of fun!
I use Binoculars 90% of the time like Lee and Richard. At US Tracks, the only times I really look at a monitor are as they leave the back straight if the field are really tightening up and as they turn for home, I will have a quick glance just to see what the TV viewer can see. Depending on the angle of the box, I may also do the same as the field start the turn away from the grandstand.
That said, I do think a commentator should be able to call the race largely without the monitor unless there are physical obstructions in the way. It’s a crutch, and when you start to rely on that crutch, it’s easy to go down the slippery slope of continually stealing looks at your color[/color:2j5oh6tw] chart (not that many do them these days as many use the colors[/color:2j5oh6tw] in the papers, though Lee and Mark Johnson color[/color:2j5oh6tw]) and not bothering to properly memorizing the field.
Many commentators in the USA do not color, memorize or even use binoculars! I have a US colleague who is a friend who has gone for the same overseas gig I have gone for this year. The racecaller in charge of recommending someone for his replacement will not even entertain my colleagues application as he steadfastly refuses to memorize colors[/color:2j5oh6tw]!
Calling through binoculars also means you need to have a decent pair of bins. My go to pair at present are some Pentax 12×50 PCF’s which unusually for such a magnification have a pretty wide field of view which is just as important.
Craig
Almost all of us live in the UK Craig.
It is
colour
He bites his nails, does strange things with his mouth and constantly adjusts his file at PM questions time. Utterly bonkers, if you ask me.
I just saw (on television) the new American president and the First Lady at the Inaugural Ball doing the first dance in front of the attendees.
I was shocked because they were doing modern non-touching dancing and Barack himself was ‘dad dancing’.
Oh for the days of Ronald Reagan sweeping Nancy around the room with the foxtrot and waltz. I believe that as well as being born within the USA you need to be able to do at least one traditional ballroom dance to stand for President.
I understand that they do have Strictly Ballroom on one of the television networks.
What has the world come to?
Unlike Channel4 racing they don’t have results up right next to where you enter the replays.
Handy tip Fist, Before you click on the Channel4 website minimise the size of your browser window as small as it goes then scroll to far right and down to the replay section. This means you can avoid the results directly next to the replays. My missus always moans at me for leaving the window size minimised for when she turns on the computer, lol!
I cover the left hand side of the screen with my left hand. The other thing that annoys me is the long length of time that it takes to channel 4 to load the replays compared to the short time taken by ATR.
315 Brighton Madam Caversfield ½ p EW<br>415 Brighton Aylmer Road ½ p EW<br>500 Catterick True Magic ½ p EW<br>
240 Cork Stuttgart <br>635 Windsor Sir Monty <br>650 Carlisle Premier Times 1/2 p EW<br>850 Carlisle Outrageous Flirt
210 Market Rasen La Maestra ½ p EW<br>230 Newbury Flor Y Nata 11/10<br>320 Galway Mesmeric ½ p EW<br>
