Showing posts with label WPBT-TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WPBT-TV. Show all posts

Thursday, June 2, 2016

That curious news re pro #Jeb, pro #amnesty, anti #Trump Miami TV host Helen Aguirre Ferré getting hired by the RNC sounds very, well, Dolphins-like. And when has that been good for fans or anyone since 2000?

That curious news re pro #Jeb, pro #amnesty, anti #Trump Miami TV host Helen Aguirre Ferré getting hired by the RNC sounds very, well, Dolphins-like. And when has that been good for fans or anyone since 2000?
Wow! Where to even start with this bit of curious news I could have never predicted.


















So, pro #Jeb, pro #amnesty, anti-Donald Trump Miami TV host Helen Aguirre Ferré's 
longstanding public criticism of Trump counts for little with the powers-that-be at the RNC these days, as they've now hired her for a task that she seems particularly ill-prepared for, and even worse, will make a bad situation worse, if possible.
It's like hiring a run-oriented head football coach when you have a young, healthy Dan Marino as your QB. A #disconnect.

The story has gottten lots of traction in the national press, but so far, has stirred little public notice or critical commentary in South Florida where Ferré and her frequently condescending attitudes were not just tolerated but embraced, in large part because her Conventional Wisdom attitudes almost always were 100% in sync with those of the Miami Herald Editorial Board & the perpetually misfiring Downtown Miami Biz community's. :-(

That's why despite a mountain of self-evident facts that would show objective readers how true my criticism of Ferré and her style is, it's hardly surprising that Ferré, thus far, has received almost complete kid gloves treatment from many in the community and press who know better, including former Miami Herald reporter Beth Reinhard, now of the Wall Street Journal.
Reinhard is someone whom I have long criticized on this blog over the years for some very sound reasons about basic fairness, bias, clarity, context and accuracy, as anyone taking the time to check the blog's archives for past posts on Reinhard can discover for themselves.

See all the tweets about Helen Aguirre Ferré's hiring here, inc. the Reinhard tweet

Honestly, over the past dozen years, Helen Aguirre Ferré may've been the single most-over-rated and over-praised woman in all of South Florida, in or out of public policy. 
And for a TV show on a PBS affilate in Miami like WPBT-TV that 
a.) hardly anyone watches, including even me, and that 
b.) has often seemed more like a not-so-funny sketch comedy parody of a TV chat show, because of how often she and her guests are in almost complete agreement, regardless of the issue.

If Helen Aguirre Ferré was doing a good job, wouldn't I have mentioned the show more than once in the past nine years of doing this blog?
It's not been a show to take unpopular positions or inform and enlighten the South Florida electorate so much as it has often seemed to exist merely to hearten true-believers in whatever line the South Florida Establishment's status quo had taken, so Ferre could echo it like a cheerleader.
Usually against meaningful government or political reform of the sort that the South Florida Establishment was afraid of, regardless of party affiliation, geography, race or nationality. 
And forget about Ferré talking out-loud in detail about how truly awful the caliber of the South Florida media has become the past dozen years in simply covering local govt./issues/politics fairly and accurately, and why that was so. 
No, a truth-to-power, straight-talker Helen Aguirre Ferré is NOT.

That's why to me, her show has always seemed so terribly underwhelming, frustrating and disappointing, especially compared to what it could have been -and should have been for the part of the South Florida populace that actually wants to be well-informed, which to be sure, has never been a majority.

Ferré's hiring by the RNC seems destined to just draw more more media attention to her own personal track record in the public eye and her condescendning political attitudes, instead of the task at hand, which was not an easy one.
That is surely NOT what the RNC needs the next five months going into November's election.

Frankly, Ferré's hiring by the RNC has the feel of any of a hundred awful personnel moves the woebegone Miami Dolphins have made the past 15 years, to their fans' dismay:-(

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Intrepid Swedish police inspector Kurt Wallander and beautiful-but-dangerous Ystad FINALLY makes it back to TV in Miami again




EmilyBarkerandTRCH video: Nostalgia by Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo from their "Despite The Snow" album. Track was subsequently re-recorded with composer Martin Phipps and used as the theme to "Wallander," winning a Royal Television Society Award for best original theme and a BAFTA for best TV soundtrack.Uploaded on June 26, 2010. http://youtu.be/w098rz-rdiQ
See also: https://sites.google.com/a/blowupthenandnow.com/branagh-s-wallander/theme-music

Before you ask, yes, you're right, I was just thinking the same thing.
PBS has taken seemingly forever to catch-up on the English language TV series adaption of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels, starring Kenneth Branagh as the idealistic Swedish police inspector who investigates murder in the greater Ystad area of Skåne in southern Sweden, that has both its rural-but-beautiful charm as well as the Danish medieval old town area. (And many readers of the blog!)



BBCWorldwide video: Wallander's Revenge. Scenes of Ystad Square. Uploaded on March 5, 2010. http://youtu.be/0QpgFaCQOnc

Originally broadcast on BBC1, where it continues to air and Series 3 started up in early July, almost two years since the last episode of Series 2 was supposed to air in the U.S., this past Sunday we finally saw Season 3's series-opener An Event in Autumn.
Below, a preview of that episode.


Watch Wallander: An Event in Autumn Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.


See the entire episode online here until October 9th: http://video.pbs.org/video/2276220740

This has been a particular problem far from both Albion and Wallander's Ystad, as where I live in South Florida, the Miami PBS station has NOT shown some of the series episodes from the previous two seasons, the last of which was supposed to air in October of 2010.


gogomezzz video: PBS "Wallander" Series 1, Episode 1- "Sidetracked" based on the 1999 novel  "Villospår," starring Kenneth Branagh as Police Inspector Kurt Wallander. Here, with David Warner as his father Povel Wallander, who suffers from Alzheimer's Disease. Uploaded on October 6, 2010. http://youtu.be/gXRjmsMpaA8 


I know because I've waited and waited and waited... only to hear about it from friends in other U.S. cities, while we in backwater South Florida were getting buried under an avalanche of WPBT's mishmash of programming geared to get elderly Anglophiles and elderly supporters of Israel to cough up some money during one of their all-too-frequent fundraising drives.

The last point is ironic given Mankell's well-known anti-Israel political sentiments, even to the point of having been a passenger and willing participant on one of the Palestinian Ship of Fools flotillas that never succeeded, but still, I wanted to see the shows -in order- and not have to buy the DVD to do that.


I've said it here before but it bears repeating: to me, compared to the options that are available to other PBS viewers in other parts of the country, WPBT-TVChannel 2, based out of North Miami, is the worst-run PBS 
station of any American city I've ever lived in, given its resources and locale, and I know of what I speak.

It is so far from what it once was - entrepreneurial, opportunistic and community-minded.
That was back when I and some friends of mine in the pre-Cable TV mid-1970's, actually went around the North Miami Beach area trying to get local businesses -especially bars and restaurants- to contribute money to Channel 2 when they announced, quite out-of-the-blue, that IF they received enough money to purchase the rights, they would simulcast -wait for it- the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals
We succeeded, they aired it, we watched it in huge numbers -and the then-small number of sports bars were happy to have so many hockey fans showing up heir venues.
Everyone won, especially South Florida's sports fans.

The current management people making decisions at Channel 2 seem not capable of the sort of thinking outside-of-the-box that its former execs did to give South Florida programming that nobody else was offering us.
If they ever has a fastball, they've lost it, and it's clear that it's never coming back...

See also

BBC News
Sir Kenneth Branagh: Knighthood 'surreal'
18 June 2012 
Last updated at 10:03 ET 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18493574


In the Footsteps of Wallander: A Guide to Ystad and the surrounding area for fans of criminal inspector Kurt Wallander:
http://www.ystad.se/ystadweb.nsf/wwwpages/2B771FAB0A5A7DC9C125730700343C64/$File/wallander_pdf_english.pdf
To get an application for the above, download at App Store and Android Market. www.wallander.ystad.se


ystadweb video: The Film about Ystad (English version, HD). Uploaded March 11, 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC8yRj9HJTQ

Unless something unusual happens in the next few weeks, like some crazy and wonderful invitation or completely out-of-the-blue opportunity presents itself, I won't be getting to Skåne on my upcoming trip to Sweden. 
Or Malmö or Göteborg.

-----
https://sites.google.com/a/blowupthenandnow.com/branagh-s-wallander/

http://www.emily-barker.com

http://www.henningmankell.com/

ITV1's trailer for Downton Abbey Series 3, coming to PBS and the U.S. on January 6th, and premiering in the U.K. this Sunday night at 9 p.m.




ITV1 video: Downton Abbey Season 3 premieres on ITV this Sunday, September 16th. Uploaded September 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/Kvw7J26V68U

Straight from Albion... ITV1's trailer for Downton Abbey Series 3, coming to PBS and the U.S. on January 6th, premiering in the U.K. this Sunday night


ITV1 video: Downton Abbey Season 3. August 18, 2012. http://youtu.be/NvDtszcZAV0

Meanwhile, PBS is showing this as their first trailer...


Watch Downton Abbey Season 3 Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

Photo gallery from season premiere: 
http://www.itv.com/downtonabbey/photos/series-three-preview-photos/

More videos are available below, but keep in mind that you may NOT be able to view some depending upon what country you're in because of copyright reasons:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/ 



Los Angeles Times
Showtracker blog
TCA: 8 things we learned about 'Downton Abbey'
By Yvonne Villarreal
July 22, 2012, 10:31 a.m.
"Wait, what is a weekend?" — Oh, Dowager Countess, if you were present Saturday night at the Television Critics Assn. press tour, you'd surely discover it's the period of time when the cast of "Downton Abbey" lets loose.
Still beaming with an Emmy glow — the show took up residence in the drama category and received a total of 16 nominations — a few of the actors from the popular British series, including newcomer Shirley MacLaine, took the stage and reflected on the show's fame.
Read the rest of the article at:

Please, all I ask is that there be more scenes with moxie-filled Lady Sybil, the adorable 

Jessica Brown Findlayhttp://www.imdb.com/media/rm4044534528/nm3726887

The Daily Mail

Period detail: Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay reveals her secret side onscreen
By J.J. Anisiobi
PUBLISHED: 11:36 EST, 25 August 2012 
UPDATED: 05:15 EST, 27 August 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2193515/Downton-Abbeys-Jessica-Brown-Findlay-reveals-secret-onscreen.html

Facebook page for fans watching on ITV1 - 635, 228 Likes as of 4:43 p.m. Eastern, U.S. 
http://www.facebook.com/DowntonAbbey