City-centric thinking gets up my nose!

[Old Koreelah]

This arvo a competitor on a TV quiz show referred to Orange as being in far western NSW.

 

Since Orange is only 170km from Sydney, what would he call the other 800km of the state?

 

Newsreaders often tell us that Singleton (only 60 from the coast) is in the Upper Hunter. What do they call the rest of the valley?

 

I loathe filling in forms which ask for my address. Usually the only option is suburb. This ignores the hundreds of thousands of people live in towns and rural localities.

 

The ABC used to have high quality announcers who did their homework. The commercial media have always been woeful, but now even Auntie regularly makes a dog's breakfast of pronouncing well-known Australian place names.

 

 

[willedoo]

Old Koreelah, I think all media has reached an all time low in quality. I guess from here, it can only get worse. They barely speak English these days; it's rapidly turning into a form of Pidgin English. The newsreaders are all talking about the Comm Games here, too lazy too say Commonwealth. Thankfully it's in April which they can still manage to say. If it was held this month, they'd call it the Feb Comm Games. Journalism must be a two week TAFE course these days, going by their standards.

 

 

[Marty_d]

When you have media companies firing hundreds of journo's and editors, what do you expect?

 

 

[willedoo]

Marty, out of whoever is left standing, I'd still expect them to be able to put a sentence together. But maybe there's a lot of junior journos these days with very little experienced senior oversight.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Mate at mine down here told me that when his wife started a new business, he sent a puff piece about it to the local rag (the Mercury). It got printed with no questions asked, no checking, nothing. Free advertising!

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

The dumbing down of the media has been happening for a long time - in a lot of the western world. While they traditional medial outlets can now claim financial pressures of the internet and mobile technology, the reality is they were doing it back in the early 2000's when there was little, if any pressure. An old team-mate of mine is a producer (in Aus) and was producing a nationally popular show which, quite frankly, was a national embarrassment. When I asked him why it was so base, his response was that all the media are targetting the lowest common denominator as that is the biggest market - bigger the ratings - bigger the advertising revenue - the bigger you can charge for your show.

 

[edit] One good thing about bringing the missus to Aus all those years ago - she gave up watching East Enders

 

 

[facthunter]

What about Steptoe and Son. (and Alf Garnet) . ? Nev

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Well, I never took to either of those shows, but as they were about people of that particular vernacular, it would not be valid artistic licence to show posh accents speaking the queen's English. There were many others, Only Fools & Horses, Men Behaving Badly, On the Buses, Love Thy Neighbour, etc. Like them or hat them, they were written very cleverly and provided hours of entertainment. That is not the same as general presenters (e.g. news, architectural shows, documentaries, sports presentation, etc) dumming everything down for the lowest common denominator. It is cheap media - can't be bovered putting anything in to maintain standards.

 

 

[coljones]

I'd like to see some of them have a crack at Goonoo Goonoo. One of the most commonly mispronounced towns in Victoria is Warrnambool. Usually mis-pronounced Warner-Bull

In the case of Gunna Ganoo - the early white settlers couldn't spell - and the way they spell Kinwah as quinoa or Neslay as nestle.is an outrage.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I may be way off beam, but I imagine the name is aboriginal in origin, and I think the spelling reflects aboriginal dialect...

 

...and the old people had a sense of humour when they helped the invaders with place names. This famous pastoral property has hosted royalty; the story goes that Goonoo Goonoo means "crap".

[Yenn]

My nearest town is Calliope. That stumps a lot of radio and TV announcers, but some of the pronunciations cannot be guessed, you have to have local knowledge. How about Tallangatta and Coolangatta and then compare Tallangatta with Wangaratta. Canowindra is another good one to confuse those not in the know.

 

The really sad thing is not the mispronunciation of place names, but the sadly lacking ability to speak good english, which GB Shaw I think it was who said "up with which I will not put"

 

 

[spacesailor]

"speak good english, which GB Shaw"

 

Wasn't he Irish ?.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Our local Prime newsreader lost my respect a couple of days ago. It's bad enough when they can't pronounce local place names, but after someone got geographically embarrassed in the bush, she discarded her national language and said they'd been lost in the woods.

 

.

 

 

[spacesailor]

Perhaps it should have read:

 

Lost in the Forest (rain that is )

 

spacesailor

 

 

[facthunter]

The Irish one is "to be shaw, to be shaw". . Nev

 

 

[facthunter]

Bulahdelah gets most of them. Quirindi also. Nev

 

 

[spacesailor]

F.H.

 

"What about Steptoe and Son. (and Alf Garnet) . ? Nev "

 

I watched " the Glen Miller " film today & it brought back his music that we heard on the radio, when I was young, I mean very young.

 

The problem with memories is, his band played on without the Master.

 

"Little Brown Jug" But not with Glen Miller. By utube.spacesailor

 

 

[octave]

F.H."What about Steptoe and Son. (and Alf Garnet) . ? Nev "

 

I watched " the Glen Miller " film today & it brought back his music that we heard on the radio, when I was young, I mean very young.

 

The problem with memories is, his band played on without the Master.

 

 

Ah, this takes me back. Having spent 12 years of my life in the airforce as a full-time musician I certainly played this many many times. There was a period of time in the 80s when perhaps every second concert ended with a Miller bracket, Moonlight Serenade Little Brown Jug and In the Mood. Always crowd pleasers. I have to sheepishly admit that as a teenage boy I did not have pictures of sports stars or Popstars on my bedroom wall but I did have a portrait of Glenn Miller on my wall.

 

I believe that Glenn was not necessarily well liked by the musicians that worked for him. Also, he wasn't necessarily well thought of by some of his peers, I love the quote attributed to the clarinetist Arte Shaw

 

" fellow bandleader Artie Shaw frequently disparaged the band after Miller's death: "All I can say is that Glenn should have lived, and 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' should have died."[77][78] "

 

My young (on old) are students still learn keen to learn and play music from this era.

 

I do believe somewhere I have a cassette tape the airforce band released in the late 80s which features a MIller set. I will have to dig it out and perhaps digitize it before it is too late

 

 

[Bruce]

Apparently lots of places in Australia are called " f -off whitefeller" in the local aboriginal dialect of yesteryear. It happened because the white map maker asked his Aboriginal guide what the place was called, then he unsuspectingly wrote it on the map.

 

 

[nomadpete]

Yes I've heard similar from indigenous brothers. And knowing their sense of humour, I believe it.