The Popularity of Waleed Aly, Terra Nova, K9, and More Red

1. Dreamed that, I have a large bag of cocaine in my possession. I don't plan to use it. I talk to Tim about it. He says once you try cocaine, your body needs to have a little bit of it each day. I then worry that I'm accidentally going to ingest some.  

I'm sure that was inspired by Killing Time. 

2. Started to watch an episode of Home and Away.

3. Saw Kat (Pia Miller) and Nate (Kyle Prior) arguing about the public marriage proposal.  

Nate thinks Leah (Ada Nicodemou) was wrong in saying no, because she embarrassed Zac (Charlie Clausen). Kat thinks Nate is wrong for thinking a woman should say yes to a man just to save him from embarrassment.

The conversation made me realize something.

I've been annoyed at Home and Away for having these annoying public proposals. But now I'm thinking maybe the show is actually taking a stand against them.  Because twice they've resulted in a no.

4. Sickened by an editorial I just read. It's about accusations that Waleed Aly isn't popular enough to win a Gold Logie.  

I'm trying to understand it. 

5. Started to reread the editorial, and I'm even more disgusted.

First, some background information.

Like America's Oscars, the Logies tend to favor white people.

But UNLIKE the Oscars, this years Logies actually showed some ethnic diversity.  

This year, two out of the six nominees are not of white-European heritage: Waleed Aly has an Egyptian background, and Lee Lin Chin was born in Indonesia.

The editorial says that on the Today Show, three of the hosts dressed up in white face and chatted about why one of the hosts, Lisa, hadn't been nominated. The answer? She's too white. Lisa then said,  I got a spray tan and everything, still didn’t make it.What can you do?  

I'm trying to give these people the benefit of the doubt here. MAYBE they were going for irony. But it's hard for me to believe that.

It really does seem like they're complaining about nonwhite people being nominated.Yes, there's humor, but it seems like the kind of humor that's used to hide real anger or annoyance.

But it gets worse.

Apparently, there was an editorial where someone listed why Waleed Aly shouldn't have been nominated. One of the reasons? He's not popular enough.

WTF?

I don't have statistics. But I feel like almost every time I go on Twitter, Waleed Aly is trending.

I've heard of him more than I've heard of some of the other nominees. Grant Denyer? Scott Cam?  I'm not familiar with those guys. Granted. I've here in the U.S.  If I was in Australia, maybe I would have heard of them.

6. Went to read the anti-Aly-nomination editorial.

7. Bewildered by these lines in the article. Aly’s biased — but that’s not exactly his fault. One minute, Aly’s professing journalistic neutrality, such as when he interviews Shane Warne about his charity foundation, and the next, he’s editorialising about terrorism. Granted, that’s an academic speciality of his, but in the mix of current affairs, panel show and interviews that make up The Project, Aly’s role is a bit unclear.

Again. WTF????!!!

First of all, since when does being biased have anything to do with one's level of popularity?

Have you seen Alyssa Milano's Twitter account? She's very biased, and she's also very popular. She has millions of followers.

What popular person out there isn't biased?

Second, what's with the line about Aly's bias not being exactly his fault? What does that mean?  It sounds like he has some kind of medical condition we need to take in account. Oh, poor Waleed Aly. He has a bias. He's not completely objective like the rest of us.  

8. Saw that one of the reasons why Aly shouldn't have been nominated is diversity should be the norm.

So, we should refrain from having Aly as a nominee until we get more nonwhite people on television?

9. Went back to watching the episode of Home and Away.

Suddenly, there's a major spark between Phoebe (Isabella Giovinazzo) and Ash (George Mason).

It feels like it came out of nowhere. There was a playful sports bet, flirting, and then that led to skinny dipping.  Late they accidentally fell on top of each other and had that look of romantic confusion. All of this happened in one episode.

10. Thought that maybe there was a build up to all this, and I didn't notice it.

11. Decided to add Terra Nova to my to-watch list. I don't know why I didn't add it before.  It's part Australian. It was filmed in Australia and has some Australian actors.

The reason I'm wanting to add it now, though, is one of the writers is Travis Fickett. He's the creator of my current favorite show, 12 Monkeys.

12. Saw that there are TWO Terra Nova writers that are 12 Monkey creators. It's Travis Fickett AND Terry Matalas.

13. Saw that Tai Hara from Home and Away appears in two episodes of Terra Nova.

14. Wondered if there were any Australians in the crew.  I checked a few of the writers and directors and didn't see anything.  But there could be some Aussies in there somewhere.

15. Looked at random people in the credits. It looked like most are NOT Australian.

Then I found Louise Coulston in the make-up department. Based on her filmography, I'd guess she's Australian.  She did make-up for Paper Giants: Magazine Wars, Rush, Scooter Secret Agent, and some other Aussie things.

16. Found another Australian in the make-up/hair department—Karen Adcock.  She did work for The Elephant Princess and H20: Just Add Water, along with some other things.

17. Got the idea that all or most of the make-up/hair department is Australian.

Simon Joseph was the make-up artist for the later seasons of Packed to the Rafters.

Sharon Robbins helped with H20.

Gail Kane did hair and make-up for Camp, another American show filmed in Australia.

18. Saw that some of the stunt workers are Australian.

19. Saw that some of the costume people are Australian.

20. Saw that the caterer of Terra Nova, Loretta Kindness, also did the catering for K-9.  I ran into that show recently when I was learning about Daniel Webber.  I'm seeing now that the show was filmed in Australia.

21. Started to look at the cast of K-9.

Are there many Australians besides Webber?

So far, I've found Keegan Joyce from Rake.

22. Guessed that Philippa Coulthard is Australian.  She's been in some Aussie things, including Lightning Point, which also starred Lucy Fry. Fry starred with Webber in 11:22:63.

23. Saw that there are many Australians in the cast of K-9. I think most of the cast, actually.

24. Thought I should mention that K-9 is a Doctor Who spin-off.

I wonder if it takes place in Australia. Or is it just filmed there?

25. Excited to see the K9 is available on Hulu!

I wasn't expecting it to be, but I decided to check.

I'll definitely have to add that show to my list as well.

26. Felt overwhelmed by my list.

There's so much I want to see.


What would our world be like if we
 knew for sure there 
was life after death, and 
we could easily talk to our 
dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts 


27. Started to watch an episode of Killing Time.

28. Continued to be preoccupied with the actors' skin and eyes on this show.

I keep seeing redness.

For example, in the scene I'm watching now, David Wenham has one very red ear.



His other ear is much less red.

29. Pleased to see that Nicholas Bell is in this episode.

I'll have to see if he has redness as well.

30. Didn't see any unusual amount of redness on Bell's face.

31. Saw that John Wood, the actor who plays Alan Bond, has redness on his face. It looks like a rash.

32. Wanted to say that I wouldn't usually point out the skin conditions of actors. It's just that on this show, it's so rampant.  It's like there was some kind of communicable illness that was passing around.



33. Wondered if David Wenham usually has the red eyes he has on Killing Time.

It's not something I've noticed before.

Could it be make-up and something to do with the cocaine use?

Is red eyes a symptom?

34. Found a website with signs of cocaine use.  Red eyes isn't listed.

35. Googled red eyes and cocaine. This website mentions blood shot eyes. I don't think that's what I'm seeing with Wenham.

I'm not sure, though.

I think of blood shot as redness in the whiteness of the eyes. With Wenham, it's more redness in the bottom bits.  I don't know the name of it, but it's where you'd put eyeliner.

It reminds me a bit of vampire make-up.  I think maybe the True Blood cast had eyes like that?

36. Looked at pictures of Wenham.  I'm seeing a few that have some pinkish in the eye area.

Even on Killing Time, he doesn't always have the red-pink eyes—just some of the time.

37. Saw redness now on Nicholas Bell.

Maybe it's just something universal to white people, and I never noticed it before.

38. Decided to watch some other videos and see if there's a lot of skin redness.

39. Had an idea.

If there IS more redness on Killing Time than most shows, it might not be because of make-up. It might be about there being less make-up.  Maybe the skin of us white people usually has red blotches, but on film and television, the redness is covered up with make-up.

Maybe Killing Time was going for a gritty realism approach, and so they used less make-up.

40. Decided to look at the skin of people on 12 Monkeys...just because I love it, and am going to grab any chance to watch a bit of it.

41. Saw a little redness but not as much as with Killing Time.

The make-up does look heavier. I think I'm on to something here.

42. Started to see more redness in 12 Monkeys.

Maybe I'm just noticing something I didn't notice before.

Tonight we're going to watch Fargo. I'll try to remember to look out for redness on that.

43. Watched a scene with very classical manipulation.

Denise Fraser (Diana Glenn) surprises her husband Andrew (Wenham) in Perth. He's been working there while she's home with their children in Melbourne.

Andrew is obviously not excited to see his wife, though he TRIES to fake it. I think the main reason is he has a lot to hide.  His hotel room is a huge mess from wild partying.

The Frasers go out for breakfast where the waitress is a bit flirtatious. Then some other woman comes up to the table and kisses Fraser on the lips. She doesn't know his wife is sitting there...or she doesn't care.

Denise kept her cool when seeing the remnants of the party, but she loses it at the restaurant.

Instead of being apologetic and acting ashamed, Andrew goes on the defense.

Some quotes from him:

Denise, I'm doing this for us.

I'm working my ass off.

Just understand I'm working.

Well, a little bit of faith wouldn't go astray.

What Fraser does is take a wife that's reasonably angry for reasonable reasons and tries to make her seem unreasonable.

If Fraser's manipulations worked, Denise might begin to see herself as a bitchy bunny boiler who doesn't support her husband, doesn't have faith in him, and isn't grateful for how hard he works.

What Denise IS, is a woman with a cocaine-addicted husband who has wild parties in Perth while she's at home taking care of their two young children.

44. Remembered reading something in George K. Simon's manipulation writings where he talks about the manipulative person using the tactic of saying, Okay, okay. 

Andrew Fraser says a lot of okays in the scene.

Simon says, When a person is determined to have his way but is not gaining sway with you because you’ve dared to call them on their aggression and you’re holding your own ground, they might feign the willingness to back-down, back-off, or accede to your call for change. This “okay, okay!” tactic is the disturbed character’s attempt to get you off their back by insinuating that they understand what you are asking and are willing to accede to it while they actually have no intention of changing their stance.

I think that's what Fraser was doing.

To me, it seems similar to when someone says something like, Alright! I'm sorry!  

These statements are really just code for,  Drop the subject. Leave me alone.

45. Saw Andrew Fraser being very dishonest.

Denise wanted him to come home. He wouldn't do that for her.

Then he lost the case with Alan Bond, didn't get paid, and was sent home. Instead of being honest about all that, Fraser acts like he made the CHOICE to come home to her. He acts like he chose his family over his job, which is not true.

I personally feel that's another trait of manipulative people. They'll have ulterior motives or reasons for the nice things they do. For example, a husband might tell his wife he's staying home from work because she has the flu and he wants to take care of her. She thinks it's really sweet of him, but then she learns he really stayed home because he wanted to catch up on his Breaking Bad binge watching.

Another example: A woman calls her sister and gives a whole speech about how she thinks the two of them should spend more time together.  The truth is all her so-called friends are having a party, and she wasn't invited.

I think an honest person would just call her sister up and moan about feeling abandoned by her friends. Then she might suggest that she and her sister go out together.

A more honest husband might say something like, Hey, I need a break from work, and I'm dying to catch up on Breaking Bad.  I'm going to stay home. That way I can also be there if you need anything.

46. Loved these lines from Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies. As Jane looked around her, she felt that dissatisfied feeling she often experienced when she was somewhere new and lovely. She couldn't quite articulate it except with the words If only I were here. This little beachside cafe was so exquisite, she longed to really be there-except of course, she was there, so it didn't make sense.

I've felt that way before.

47. Felt grateful for the existence of the Moriarty sisters.

They're really good at expressing the stuff that's in my head.

48. Wondered about that certain feeling of not being there.

I think I get it when we go to a place, and we're not staying as long as I'd like.  Or we go to a place that I know we're not going to go often, but I wish we would go more often.

49. Thought that sometimes it's also a feeling of not belonging. Maybe it seems like everyone else are regulars, and I'm an intruding guest.

50. Started to proofread my post and realized I interpreted some of the Waleed Aly editorial wrong.

I was asking what bias has to do with someone's popularity.  But now I'm seeing that the bias accusation wasn't an answer to why Aly isn't popular enough. It's part of the answer to why Aly shouldn't win the Gold Logie.

I don't personally agree with the idea that a biased person shouldn't win a Logie. It's just now that I'm getting it clear in my head, the editorial makes a little bit more logical sense.

51. Thought about it more.  I think originally I saw the editorial as saying Aly's bias is one of the reasons why WHY he isn't popular enough. Now I'm seeing it as the editorial saying that the bias SHOULD be a reason why he isn't popular.  Because the Golden Logie is basically a popularity contest. It's voted in by the public.

52. Proofread some more and saw that I had planned to look for red skin blotches on Fargo.

We watched Fargo.

I didn't remember to look.

I do remember a lot of red, but that was blood.  I'm not sure about the skin. I'll try to remember to check tomorrow.




What would our world be like if we
 knew for sure there 
was life after death, and 
we could easily talk to our 
dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts