The Rest of Your Life (v3.0)

Remember Gaelan Walker from BB06 ?

Now compare to Emma Cornell from this year’s series -

Uncanny resemblance, or what ? We definitely have a paper-bagger here, gents. Although she’d snap anyway, once you got a decent rhythm going with the old in-out

Just in time for the weekend, it’s the second of our semi-regular “Royale Friday Night” DJ mix podcasts. This time, it’s a tasty little 2 hour selection of tracks for all the nasty girls and boys …

Check it out at -

http://3z3r0.net/podcasts/2007/05/24/royale-friday-night-mix-2-get-your-freak-on/

Enjoy !

It’s that time of week again – BB Noms. Now it’s become pretty obvious over the course of evictions (Kate, TJ & Bodie, Demet) that Ghastly Gretel, the FNL/Up-Late gang of Mikie Goldman & cohorts, and of course the BB production team (Chris Noble and pals) have a definite agenda, and a preference for faves they want to see stay in the house. I know Gretle has always laid it on pretty thick at the best of times, but she’s been particularly overdoing the simpering admiration for the evictees this year, and thereby the implication that somehow WE, the voting public, are voting ‘wrong’ by removing all the annoying fucking twats from the house. It’s also become pretty clear over the course of the last 4 weeks whom the production team DON’T want to see staying in the BB house, and therefore ultimately winning the prize. Hayley & Andrew (‘Haydrew’) to be exact.

Demet’s eviction, coupled with her win of FNL last week, and thereby the power of the nominations ‘twist’ however, has presented the Endemol crew with an unprecedented opportunity to manipulate the nominations process this time ‘twould seem. Before Demet left the house last night, she was instructed to write out a list (much like Australia’s actual ballot system employed during State & Federal elections) of her fellow HM’s in preferential order both to “save” and “nominate” for purposes of the ‘twist’.

Ostensibly, we the viewing public were told, this list would remain ‘confidential’ and ‘unopened’ until after the HM nominations finished tonight. This assertion is cleary utter bullshit ! Naturally, Demet’s voting was fairly predictable anyway – we all knew she would save Emma, and put either Hayley or Andrew in the former’s place. Now in normal circumstances, without a ‘double eviction’, there was no way the production team could get BOTH Andrew and Hayley out at the same time, even with this highly predictable ‘ballot’ from Demet. So what did (ig)Noble & Co. decide to do ?

(1) Obviously peeked at Demet’s ‘twist’ ballot, just to make sure they would indeed have the opportunity to carry out step 2 of their devious plan below.

(2) Called Hayley & Andrew in to the diary room at the start of the Nom’s night, and (for no good reason at all – it was a fucking GIVEN that they would have an “advantage” going into the house as a couple right from the start, yet BB had no qualms accepting this initially and taking them into the house. We also DIDN’T see the producers trying to pull this kind of fucked up stunt with EITHER the Logan twins in 2005, NOR the completely excerable Krystal and Karen mother/daughter duo last year !!! ), decreed that one of them must leave the house this week. Giving them the (bullshit) chance to ‘choose’ which one would go and which one would stay (with 30 seconds thinking time).

It was of course immaterial which one the couple elected – either way, the producers would have spun Demet’s ballot (much like they spin the non-adding-up percentages of the “vote & evict” totals on eviction nights) with their usual lack of transparency to make sure the other partner in the couple ended up on the public eviction chopping block.

THIS IS SUCH FUCKING CRAP !

We are being royally screwed with, all so the producers, Gretel and everyone else at Endemol can have their little ‘favourites’ get closer to the prize. But you know what people ? It’s OUR house, and OUR decision – as Gretel keeps trying to bang into our heads – we need to vote for the house you want to watch™, so you all KNOW what we need to do, right ?

Vote to SAVE ANDREW – the ‘geeks’ ain’t goin without a fight !!!

This post is just to give you a quickie recap of last night’s nomination show. Given the turmoil in the BB house over the last two days following TJ & Bodie’s eviction on Sunday night, you’d have thought Andrew & Hayley would feature heavily in the Noms. Whether the other HM’s realise that Andrew’s nomination ‘twist’ power would effectively render any nomination of the ‘power couple’ useless and were nominating strategically with this fact in mind, or whether there was in fact some other strategy at play (with BB ominously warning them before Noms began “BB is always watching, and has detected groups of HM’s [Bodie's 'A-Team' no doubt] attempting to collude on nominations, and communicate in code. This must stop NOW”), either way ‘Drew and Hayley escaped the noms process with only a passing mention, which was something of a surprise.

Instead, Emma, Thomas and Zoran ended up being the ‘original’ nominees, with Andrew exercising his ‘twist’ to remove Thomas from this list, and substitute Demet (rather deservingly, I thought) in his place. Bodie & TJ naturally joined Ghastly Gretel on stage to add their two cents worth to proceedings during the night, with the former showing once again just how frikkin clueless (and not up with ‘current events’) he is, by choosing to refer to ‘his’ original ‘A-Team’ crew as “The Bandidos”.

Hellllooo … dickwad … big news story … the ACTUAL Bandidos motorcycle gang held a funeral in Greystanes yesterday arvo for one of their members, watched closely by some 300 members of the police, riot squad and tactical response group. You gotta hope one of them doesn’t decide to smash your pretty-boy underwear model face in Bodie boy, when you’re doing an appearance with TJ at the Collector Tavern in Parra hehehe

So anyway, my hot eviction tip this week is Demet. From some of the daily show and up late footage we’ve seen, especially the stuff from Sunday night’s all-in post-eviction housemate rumble, it’s obvious she’s a two-faced, conniving biatch. Let’s vote to kick her out, and build the house you want to watch™

So, how are things going in the Big Brother house ?

Well if you haven’t been watching lately, for one thing BB has now revealed the ‘secret couple’ (Andrew & Hayley) to the other HM’s, along with ‘Mr.X’ (Billy). I have to say, I’m really happy for the former pair – not only did they successfully manage to keep their relationship secret for the nominated time period, therefore securing both their places in the house, but it also appears (at least at this stage), that the necessary ‘deception’ required to achieve this task hasn’t ‘rubbed’ the other HM’s ‘the wrong way’, and no one appears to bear them any ill-will in the aftermath of BB’s revelation.

On the contrary – the majority of the other HM’s laughed and cheered when the relationship was revealed to them, and only Kate (no surprises there), Joel (not sure what the story is with him), and Rebecca (again, no surprise, since both her faith and personality imply she’s not big on deception as a general rule) showed any apparent ‘discomfort’ in the initial minutes after the true ‘state of play’ was revealed. Even Thomas, who had been flirting with Hayley extensively during the first week in the house, appeared to be experiencing no discomfort from the revelation – but then, he’s struck me as a genuinly “nice” and “mature” guy from the get-go.

‘T would also seem I may have been wrong about Billy. He’s still got a creepy smile, but it would appear from the footage shown during the ‘BB Full House’ special, and his interactions with both Andrew + Hayley, that he honestly doesn’t bear them any malice. Possibly the fact that his sexual identity is now “gay” (something which he briefly mentioned during the ‘reveal’ night, but I don’t think has been discussed since) had something to do with it – obviously given this fact, he’s not going to want to get back in relationship with Hayley Thankfully, Billy’s status as Hayley’s ex also doesn’t seem to have created any apparent traumas for Andrew.

With their relationship revealed, it’s obvious the two love-birds have felt a big weight lifted, and it’s been great to see them finally able to enjoy each other’s company, and be open in their mutual affection. “I’m so going to marry you” was a great line from Hayley which summed up the night.

OK, the next bit of BB news is the first lot of eviction nominations. Kate, Bodie & Emma were the original HM’s put up on the chopping block by the others. Then Emma exercised her ‘twist’, and wisely removed herself from the eviction pool, substituting poor Jamie instead. Unlike previous years, the ‘twist’ doesn’t work on a points system anymore, instead allowing the HM with the twist’s ‘powers’ to directly name their choices for both ‘saving’ and ‘damning’ purposes. Therefore, the ultimate choices we have for eviction this week are amongst Kate, Bodie & Jamie.

Unsurprisingly, my vote to evict goes to Kate. She is annoying as f*ck, and this week’s tearful ‘admissions’ of insecurity aside (for feck’s sake people, isn’t it blatantly obvious she’s trying to carefully orchestrate a ‘public sympathy’ vote to save herself ?), her head is so far up her own arse, she’s like a big, fat, Bavarian pretzel ! Sure, as some people have pointed out, she creates ‘conflict’ in the house … but the BB house will inevitably have conflict with or without her (it’s engineered that way – extended 24/7 confinement with strangers in a close environment will ALWAYS generate clashes), and keeping this whining twat of a woman in the house simply for the sake of generating tension is simply too high a price to pay ! I don’t have any time or patience to listen to her crap, ergo her presence in the house simply makes me want to watch less Big Brother (in fact, I haven’t been bothering with most of the daily shows). So for sod’s sake people, PLEASE VOTE TO EVICT KATE, AND SAVE US ALL FROM THE PAIN !!!

Failing that, vote to evict Bodie, because he’s a conceited, Gen-Y, bogan – a perfect example of the kind of thing that makes us Gen-X’ers write off the majority of ‘fekking 20-somethings’ and their teenage siblings as lost causes. Whatever you do though gang, DON’T EVICT JAMIE !!! Granted, it would appear he’s said some stupid, sexist things to the girls this week (obviously the result of too much ‘net porn, and not enough social interraction with women outside in the ‘real world’), but I think with the right advice from some of the older HM’s like Thomas or Sussana, this can be quickly remedied. Also – we need a geek in the house, to offset the ‘plastic fantastic’ Hitler-Jugend brigade for as long as possible

The final BB news this week was the evacutation of the ‘White Room’, and the eventual triumph of Demet as the ‘wildcard’ chosen to go into the house. The ‘official’ HM’s voted on whom they would like to see joining them, after the White Room crew competed in a series of FNL-like challenges. My only comment on that is “good on ya Demet”, and it will be interesting to see if there is any conflict between Rebecca and Demet given their respective religious backgrounds.

Thas it for the BB update !

AKA “The 30th Mix”

For those that don’t know, I turned 30 last week. So I thought I’d use the opportunity to start a new semi-regular feature called the “Royale Friday Night Mix”. Basically, it’s a podcast of DJ Mixes by yours truly, to get you in the mood and start the party on a Friday night

Now because it was my 30th, I thought I’d made the first of these a bit of a (semi-chronological) retrospective, featuring some of the artists and/or songs that have had particular impact on me over the last decade and a half, since I started ‘seriously’ listening to music way back in high school at the tender age of 15 or thereabouts.

You can check out the podcast here:

http://3z3r0.net/podcasts/2007/04/20/royale-friday-night-mix-1/

Here’s a bit of insight into the track selections.

(1) Welcome to the Jungle – Guns N Roses

The Gunners were the first ever band I really got into. They’ve long since ‘lost it’, with Axl Rose the only original band member left. Back in ’88 though, they were still ‘the shit’, and this is arguably one of the best tracks off their massively successful “Appetite For Destruction” album. Talk about Westie roots, eh ?

(2) Enter Sandman – Metallica

Metallica were the first band I ever saw live in concert, back when I was a 16 year old, long-haired ‘metal-head’. It was the tour to promote “Black”, the album which this breakthrough single helped to shift so many copies of.

(3) Alive – Pearl Jam

My fave single from Pearl Jam’s seminal “Ten” album, this song (and this band) played a huge part in defining what would become known as ‘The Seattle Sound’. Started listening to them, the Ramones & Sonic Youth around the same time, while hanging with our school’s ‘skater’ crowd.

(4) Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana

The song to define a generation, if I ever heard one From “Nevermind”, this one is also a fave from my ‘skater’ period. We skipped many classes at school, to go smoke cones while listening to Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins on my poxxy little walkman (complete with inbuilt speaker) behind the art block buildings.

(5) Take The Power Back – RATM

Rage Against the Machine were a great political / angry band, with funky guitar/bass action, and insightful lyrics. Basically, they were doing the ‘rap/metal’ combo, way before Limp Bizkit. This is probably my fave track from their debut album.

(6) Power – Ice-T

Before Tracy Morrow became a regular on Law & Order: SVU, he was one of the original West Coast ‘gangsta’ rappers. At the same time I was listing to G’N'R & Metallica, I was also mainlining some of this man’s ‘dope beats’, such as this gem from the album of the same name.

(7) Shake Your Rump – The Beastie Boys

Remember when the Beastie Boys weren’t ‘cool’ ? Well, at least not at my school ! I remember listening to tracks like this from “Paul’s Boutique” (still by far their BEST album, in my opinion) on the bus, and having the other guys hassle me for listening to ‘weird shit’. Guess the joke’s on you now, mofos !

(8) 3 AM Eternal – The KLF

‘Stadium techno’, courtesy of those Scottish pranksters Bill Drummond & Jimmy Cautey. Taken off their “White Room” album, this is one of the ‘defining’ acts which helped push ‘sampling’ and ‘dance’ into the mainstream in the 90′s. ‘Curiously’, I dug it, along with various obscure European ‘acid-house’ acts I’d pick up on the cheap on tape when flying through Asia to visit my dad overseas.

(9) Head Like a Hole (Opal) – Nine Inch Nails

“Pretty Hate Machine” was the album playing in the background when I first “stayed the night” with a girl (if you get my drift), a few months after starting uni. ‘Nuff said !

(10) Can U Dig It – Pop Will Eat Itself

This anarchic, ‘alternative’ band from the UK were big on the ‘underground’ Sydney club scene when I started venturing out to places like Rollercoaster & Club 77 in the mid 90′s, and quickly became a fave. The unique brand-identity forged for them by The Designers Republic for albums such as “This Is The Day, This Is The Hour … This Is This” (which this track comes from) no doubt helped in the endearment, as did their use of cheeky samples !

(11) Beers, Steers & Queers – Revolting Cocks

F*ck me, wasn’t this a good club song ? A side project from the lads of Ministry, I first heard this track on JJJ at some point around 1 a.m. when ‘dial-surfing’ on my radio-walkman after listening to Dr.Feelgood’s “Pillow Talk” on 2-Day FM. From the album of the same name, this was a great example of the humour & social satire (mixed with hard beats) this band are known for.

(12) Yesterday’s Void – My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

‘America’s Most Dangerous Band’ (by their own PR), I have to admit I loooooove these guys ! They’ve been at it for 25 years now I believe, and their sound has certainly changed over the years. Taken from “A Crime for All Seasons”, this track is a great example of their mid – late 90′s direction, and one of my (many) faves of theirs.

(13) Sex Game Sucker – Def-FX

My first girlfriend got me on to this Aussie cross-over band. Still think the best gig I’ve ever seen would have to be when Def-Fx played support for Infectious Grooves (& Syko Miko) @ Blackmarket in Sydney. Fiona Horne seriously ROCKED as the pagan, feminist front-woman, exuding a mixture of anger & sensuality, the guitars & drumming were great, and Sean Lowrey’s uncoventional vocals + keyboard playing rounded out one of the most ‘original’ (for my money) bands to come out of this country, especially during that period. It’s SUCH a shame they broke up !

(14) Chant – The Merry Thoughts

Going through my ‘goth’ period, it was inevitable I guess that I’d get into The Sisters of Mercy at some point. This is a song by The Merry Thoughts though, from “Psychocult”. So what gives ? This is one of those rare ‘clone’ bands that sound more like the original than the original, if you know what I mean. Having seen Sisters perform live at the Arvika festival in Sweden in ’98, I have to say Andrew Eldritch has lost much of what made them such a fantastic band in their hey-day. The Merry Thoughts evoke the ‘original’ Sisters sound, and with ‘friendlier’ song-lengths of around 3 1/2 minutes, as opposed to the latter’s average of at least 5 minutes, their inclusion on this 2 hour ‘time limited’ podcast was a no-brainer, really. My fave song of theirs.

(15) Trap – The Cure

My absolutely favourite band of all time I do believe, even more so than TKK ! There are so many good songs to pick from, and so many memories associated with them. A band for the good times (perfect make out music), and the bad times (perfect “I hate everyone, and no-one understands me” music). My first girlfriend got me into them, and looking back I think they’ve been a bit of a yardstick for all my relationships and ‘flings’ since. If a girl doesn’t like the Cure – it’s never going to be more than a fling. If she does, then and only then is there potential for more. Thankfully, my wife is a Cure fan also This track is my fave off their “Wild Mood Swings” album.

(16) Stripped – Rammstein VS Depeche Mode

This is actually a remix I did back in ’99 while I was living in Melbourne, and trying to land a DJ gig at a goth club. I first got into Rammstein in ’97, thanks to one of my best mates in Sweden being German. So about a year before everyone else back in Australia had discovered them thanks to JJJ and the Lost Highway soundtrack, basically. I’d been into Depeche Mode for a long time, so when I found the original Rammstein cover of Stripped (a DM song from “Black Celebration”) on a DM tribute album, the inspiration for this ‘unholy’ melding of the two via remix arrived.

(17) Just One Fix – Ministry

I had my first kiss to one of the ‘filler’ songs off the end of Ministry’s excellent “Psalm 69″ album, during my second week of university. Where are you now I wonder, Jo Schaeffer Between that and the girl who played NIN (see Track 9) while we “did” it for (my) first time, I think it’s no wonder I ended up going ‘goth’ for nigh on ten years hehe. This is a far better song off Psalm 69 though, and I used to go off to it big-time at the clubs !

(18) Biggest & The Best – Clawfinger

Despite the seppo accents, this is actually a Swedish band from Stockholm. I discovered them when I was living in Uppsala between ’97-’98, and they played a pretty awesome gig at (one) of my local pubs (Sten Sturr). A great mix of rap vocals, ‘metal’ guitars, synth hooks and attitude, I’m surprised they still don’t seem to have been ‘discovered’ much outside of Europe. This track off their self-titled second album DID get some heavy airplay on MTV Europe at the time, but I guess sometimes the good bands just don’t make it out to our ‘arse end’ of the world.

(19) Oxyacetylene – Cubanate

A lot of the student places in Sweden only played ‘mainstream’ dance, and since I was going out drinking and clubbing pretty much 7 nights a week during the year I lived there, it was inevitable I’d be spending a lot of time listening to it. So it was good that when I got back to Oz, I had ‘crossover’ bands like Cubanate & Sheep on Drugs to listen to, which mixed ‘dance’ beats and the ‘harder industrial’ sound I was used to from earlier days of clubbing. Cubanate seemed to be a particular dance floor fave in all the clubs I used to go to when I moved to Melbourne between ’99 – 2001, and this track off their “Cyberia” album is probably my personal favourite of theirs.

(20) Jukejoint Jezebel (Metropolis) – KMFDM

Another band that’s been around for 20 years, mixing up genres on the ‘harder’ end of the spectrum. A club favourite of mine from way back, nonetheless by the late 90′s they’d also brought in definite ‘dance’ elements, as this remix of the track originally from their Nihil album shows. Whose the remix by ? Giorgio Moroder – the producer of pop classics like Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”, the theme from “Never Ending Story”, and the “Electric Dreams” soundtrack, among others.

(20) El Phantasmo & The Chicken Run Blast-O-Rama – White Zombie

White Zombie is another one of those bands who use samples from B-Grade horror and exploitation movies, which I love. Rob Zombie also provided really unique vocals, and their lyric content was always “out there” (even if you had to read the liner notes to decipher what the lyrics were hehe). This track from their “Supersexy Swingin Sounds” remix album is another great example of the industrial/dance cross-over head-space I was in by the start of the ‘noughties’.

(21) High Energy Protons – Juno Reactor

Taken from their album “Bible of Dreams”, this is a band I got into because of a number of reasons. For starters, one of their other songs off this album (“God is God”) was an occasional club player at some of the ‘alternative/crossover clubs’ in the late 90′s / start of the noughties. For another thing, they’d collaborated with Traci Lords on her (under-rated, but I love it) debut album “1000 Fires”. Finally, their music reminded me of some of those ‘acid house’ tapes I used to get from Asia. It’s nice to know I got into them way before all the anime geeks ‘discovered’ them thanks to the “Animatrix” soundtrack too

(22) Hardgroove 2001 – Resin Dogs

Thanks to this Aussie band, and their album “Grand Theft Audio” being JJJ’s ‘feature album’ one particular week, I started to get back in touch with my love of hip-hop, around the same time being on the dole really started to bite hard, and I started realising I really would have to move back to Sydney. 1200 Techniques really did it for me after these guys, but this track from the aforementioned “Grand Theft Audio” album is here with kudos for starting the ball rolling.

(23) Too Much Brandy – The Streets

I’ve always loved the English, and do a pretty good cockney myself. Cockney rap though … brilliantly original, as far as I was concerned ! Mike Skinner writes great lyrics too, and delivers them with a style that (at the time) was all his own. This is one of my fave tracks off his debut album, “Original Pirate Material”.

(24) Jindi Mahi – Panjabi MC

Living in North Parrammatta, and dating (my second) Indian girl, I started getting in touch with my past, having grown up for 6 years in Pakistan. So I went through a bit of a ‘Desi’ phase. Panjabi MC is a great example of the Bollywood / Electronica / Rap combination that particularly tickled my fancy at the time. This track comes from his self-titled debut.

(25) Twist – Goldfrapp

Your typical ‘Cockle Bay’ dance club material, which is also where I started going with the aforementioned Indian girl while we were dating, people from work, and later by myself, when the girl and I had broken up. Taken from “Black Cherry”, this track is a good example of the Goldfrapp sound, with it’s high production values, and kick-arse synths. Alison Goldfrapps voice is pretty unique too, of course !

(26) Ra – Ebony Dubsters

Got into Drum and Bass a bit in Sweden, and still loving it, especially now with the stronger UK connection via The Streets (and others). This is a great example, and has a nod to my old ‘Goth’ + ‘Eastern’ influences thrown in with the whole Egyptian reference (i.e. Ra). My fave track from the “Drum & Bass Arena” compilation.

(26) Addicted to Bass – Josh Abrahams

This track takes us to where we’re at now, really Danceable, relatively current (this is actually a remix off the “Maximum Bass” compilation from 2006, not off the original album), the sort of thing you’d hear at Tank or Chinese Laundry. Frightfully non-’alternative’, I know. I love it anyway

Mmm-ok gang, it’s time to talk about the ‘plot twists’ revealed in the first two eps of BB ’07.

First off, we should remember that this year, as every previous one, the producers and the network have teased us with promises of ‘earth shattering’ and ‘ground-breaking’ twists to the basic BB experience, and the way the game is played. Essentially, what Chris Noble and cohorts promise to deliver every year is ‘originality’ in one form or another. Unfortunately, they’ve more or less failed to live up to said promise pretty much every year since the first one or two series, which is reflected in the ever declining audience share the show draws year from year (opening night this year had the lowest rating figures of any Australian BB series debut to date), and the decreasing numbers of auditionees (as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the Sydney audition venue at Moore Park for BB ’07 was all but dead by about half past one in the arvo on the second day, in stark contrast to the frenzied camping out and massive line-ups of years previous).

So the question must ergo be, “is this any different in 2007 ?”. Judging by the first two shows, sadly the answer is “no, not really”. Let’s go through each of the ‘elaborate’ twists in turn, shall we ?

(1) No Prize Money:

This has been forshadowed over several seasons with the fines system, especially last year when the fines looked to be reducing the $1 million prize pool considerably. It has also been the topic of much off-season speculation on the various forums and fansites for at least the last 6 months, so unless you’ve been living under a rock this really should NOT have come as a surprise to you. Even the HM’s didn’t look too shocked when BB told them the news about this one, and the only person who seemed miffed by it was Kate (now why is THAT not surprising, either ?). Incidentally, the ‘no prize money’ angle is just that – an angle – and it’s almost a dead cert the producers will allow HM’s to ‘earn’ money through competing in FNG, and other ‘special tasks’. Series sponsors like Starburst and Visa are also likely to continue the tradition of giving evicted HM’s little ‘going away’ cash-presents. It’s all a crock, basically.

(2) The ‘White’ Room:

In the past, the Australian BB producers have usually resorted to ‘lifting’ ideas from the UK and US versions of the show (and of course the whole concept of the show itself originated in the Netherlands). The ‘lie detector’ novelty of last year was lifted from BB UK, ‘secret twins’ originally appeared in BB USA (or maybe UK … not 100% sure), and so on. They’ve also not been averse to poaching stuff from other reality shows – so for example, Miriam (the trans-gender star of There’s Something About Miriam) was a ‘special guest’ HM on BB ’04, in a scenario similar to the program s/he had originally starred in i.e. the BB housemates had to pick her ‘true’ birth-gender. So it is with ‘The White Room’. This is basically adapted from a US reality show named “Solitary”, in which contestants had to endure extended confinement in a similarly austere room, complete with a big, red button in the middle of the floor for them to push when things all got ‘too much’. Word is still out on whether BB producers will make the ‘potential’ HM’s in their ‘White Room’ endure lying on a bed of nails, as some of the Solitary contestants had to

(3) The Housemate ‘Vote-In’:

You know, the most interesting thing about the BBBO pre-opening-night ‘hack’ is that it shows both Zoran and Susannah amongst the ‘official’ HM listings. Which raises very disturbing questions about the subsequent phone-in vote to ‘select’ which two additional HM’s would be going into the ‘main’ house, and which would be relegated to the aforementioned ‘White Room’. Not that this is the first time BB producers have been accused of ‘rigging’ the voting process. Still, it shows that even when it comes to the ‘crucial’ decisions in which BB fans are supposed to have a ‘choice’, there are really no surprises. Gretel said it herself on the second night “we’re not surprised” – of course, if the votes for this really were rigged, it was a little inside joke on her part, which most of us weren’t supposed to understand.

Mind you, just for the record – I’m glad Susannah & Zoran got ‘in’, regardless of how they were selected. They both seem normal – Susannah especially struck me as ‘down to earth’ whilst was chatting to Gretle, and it’s great to have someone in the house whose first ‘sound-bite’ is “just because I’m 30 doesn’t mean I’m dead”. Yeah, yeah, she’s buying into the whole youth-obsessed culture, I shouldn’t ‘admire’ her for a comment like that. You know what ? Screw you

(4) The Secret Couple:

Given that BB had ‘secretly’ connected low-eys last year thanks to the excerable Forscutt duo of Karen & Krystal, it was a ‘given’ that we’d have another ‘secret’ pairing this year. IG and I have often mooted the possibility in years past of suggesting to BB producers they have us in as a ‘secret couple’ when throwing about the idea of auditioning, and I’m sure even WE weren’t original in coming up with that one – it’s bound to have been done in the UK or USA before. Given that the ‘secret couple’ of last year were mother & daughter, and BB 05 gave us ‘secret twins’ (the ‘Logans’), I think it was fairly inevitable this year would produce our first ‘secret’ romantic pairing. “Ho-hum” again, in other words.

(5) Mister-X:

You know, this would almost be original – if it hadn’t been done before To paraphrase Ridge from Celebchaos “I told readers here recently that I predicted that he’ll be an ex-lover of a current HM and I explained why I thought this was so (the ‘X’ promo gave it away – it’s an idea from BB U.S.)”. I’ll get to the ethics of it in a second, but the point is, as with all the other ‘twists’ revealed thus far, the producers have yet again failed to give us anything TRULY ‘original’ or ‘ground-breaking’.

OK – so now we’ve discussed the ‘blandness’ of the BB07 twists in terms of originality, let’s move onto some of the ‘ethical’ implications presented by twist (5) i.e. ‘Mister-X’. Some would argue that anyone who agrees to participate in a show such as Big Brother has no right to expect any measure of ‘privacy’ or ‘ethical treatment’ from the producers. Personally I disagree; as I’ve stated elsewhere (such as some of my BB05 posts regarding the ‘leaking’ of Gianna Pattison’s personal contact details due to lax editing of one of the daily show episodes by Endemol), I believe there’s still a ‘line’ the producers shouldn’t cross, regardless of the need to make ‘good’ or ‘exciting’ television, and regardless of the HM’s participation in the program.

The ‘Mister-X’ twist skates dangerously close to this line, and it only remains to be seen whether it shall in fact cross it. As those of us who saw last night’s show now know, Mister-X is indeed the ex-partner of one of this year’s ‘main’ HM’s. To be exact, his name is Billy, and he’s the ex-boyfriend of Hayley, the latter not-coincidentaly being the female half of this year’s ‘secret’ romantic couple (Andrew being the male half).

Both the BB producers, and Gretel, would like us to believe that Billy’s inclusion in the show is purely to ‘create pressure’ on Hayley and Andrew, and force them to reveal their ‘secret’ relationship to the other HM’s, thus making them fail in their allotted task of avoiding discovery. Ostensibly, he isn’t going in to “break them up”, as Gretel was quick to remind not just Billy himself, but the viewers once again, after he’d been loaded on the obligatory golf-cart. Unfortunately for this pre-emptive PR exercise (“look … we TOLD everyone he wasn’t supposed to go in and break them up, how we were to know it would lead to that ?” will be the quip), I don’t think Billy really stuck to the script, did he gang ?

To be completely honest, the smiles he kept flashing ‘Big G’ and the audience looked … in a word … slightly “demented”. To elaborate a little further – chatting to Gretel, Billy came across looking like a jealous, conceited, and slightly obsessed fuckwad, who dated some girl for a mere 3 months (by his own admission), then took off on a round-the-world back-packing trip, before literally JUMPING at the chance to come back at the drop of a hat to put the boot in to said girl, and her current relationship.

Bitter, much ?

You don’t have to be a trained psychologist to see that breaking Andrew & Hayley up is PRECISELY what this guy wants to, irrespective of anything the producers may have told him. Anyone but a complete half-wit could have surmised that after two minutes of his little introductory chat with Gretel. Yet supposedly, Endemol have one of those (i.e. a trained head-shrinker) on staff to assess all the potential HM’s, and any psychological ‘damage’ their participation in the program may inflict on them, and the other HM’s. How this person (not sure if it’s still Carmel Whats-Her-Name, or if they’ve replaced the resident psych this year) could have agreed to Billy being allowed in the house with such a blatantly hostile agenda, I have no idea.

The most likely scenario I can suggest, is that the producers over-ruled any objections their staff psychologist had to Billy’s participation, in the interests of creating some ‘good’ story-arcs, and injecting ‘tension’ in the program. Unfortunately, this would seem to indicate they simply don’t care enough about the long-term psychological welfare of the HM’s, and even less about their ‘real world’ relationships. Certainly not when it comes to Hayley & Andrew.

Think about it gang – let’s say you and YOUR significant other decided to go on Big Brother, and under-take the challenge which Hayley and Andrew have set themselves. It would be hard enough trying to hide your relationship from the other people in the house, dealing with the inevitable paranoia about your partner’s relationships with all the good looking strangers you’re spending 24/7 with, being unable to sort out any misunderstandings you could normally nip in the bud in the outside world (e.g. Andrew’s ‘censored’ comment on the first night, which resulted in Hayley and Thomas leaving the group conversation), and so on.

Now, imagine the BB producers fly in some frikkin non-entity fling from your past, that you haven’t even bothered telling your partner about – not necessarily because the ‘fling’ wasn’t a hot one, but because you figured this ex wasn’t important in the ‘big picture’, you didn’t want to hurt your current partner’s feelings, and you thought this person was well and truly out of your life (and you’d made your peace with that). What do you do ? What old emotional scars will this re-open, and what new ones will it inflict on you, your current partner, and your current relationship ?

At ‘best’. and contrary to what Gretel and BB would have you believe, I can foresee Billy destroying Hayley and Andrew’s one year relationship, with no lasting emotional damage for anyone involved. At worst, this has the potential to get really ugly, with insults, lots of tears, and even physical violence. Either way, for my money it doesn’t make for ‘good’ TV, and if the latter scenario eventuates, the BB producers have definitely ‘crossed the line’ in contributing to the circumstances which allowed it to occur.

That’s my view, and I’m Derryn Hinch

So it begins – another season of Australian Big Brother is finally upon us. As usual, Channel 10 and the Endemol producers have been promising the usual loads of ‘earth-shattering’ surprises in the promos leading up to this year. Unfortunately, if opening night is anything to go by, this year’s effort appears to be in real danger of quickly becoming as unwatchable (at least for my money) as last year, and the ‘surprises’ revealed so far are decidely of the ho-hum variety.

Let’s begin with a round-up of the housemates, in the order they were introduced.

(1) Hayley – The Lawyer / Female Bodybuilder (Blonde)

Supposedly 24 years old, although I’m seeing some bags under the eyes in the portrait on the official BB website profile linked above. Jeez guys, hasn’t anyone heard of Photoshop ? Her bio clip (also linked at the official site) also seems confirm my feeling she’s about 5 – 8 years older than she claims. Should this matter ? Only in so far as someone who is going to be dishonest about their age to look more ‘appealing’ to viewers, is not like to play the 100% honesty card when it comes to other things as well. Reminds me a little bit of Angela Aiken from BB05 – the annoying-as-f*ck dating agency owner who was also obviously lying about her age, and turned out to be a prize cow and a half indeed ! Granted, the latter’s ‘age-deception’ was far more obvious to anyone but a total cretin, whereas with Hayley it isn’t so blatant, and she didn’t come across as a totally conceited cow in her bio vid. Guess we’ll have to see which way the wind blows with this one, eh ?

(2) TJ – The Bar Chick (Brunette)

I have to confess I actually missed the first 15 or so minutes of the show because the wife and I were … umm … otherwise occupied … so I didn’t see TJ’s intro as broadcast (nor Hayley’s above). Going off the bio package linked on the BB official site however, she strikes me as being a fairly normal and ‘down to earth’ 22 year old lass. Which would make her a bit of an exception to most of the rest of this year’s crop, and BB housemates in general. I have a feeling she’s quickly going to become my favourite female HM if these first impressions are confirmed, especially as she’s the ‘token’ brunette in the otherwise wall-to-wall ‘Hitler Youth Poster-Child’ lineup we have dominating proceedings this year.

(3) Rebecca – Life Be In It Coach / Mormon (Blonde)

Time to appeal to the Family First / Hillsong demographic. Claims she’s never drunk alcohol, or worn a bikini. For my money, this means she’s going to be boring-as-batshit. Who else cringed when she started trying to instigate lame-arse ‘get to know you’ games later in the show ? I’ve been to Life Be In It camps, I did ‘peer support’ at high school; I know what your game is, Beccles On the plus side, there’s the potential for some minor conflict here when she invetibly succumbs to the temptation to lecture the other HM’s on their ‘debauched’ lifestyle choices (watered down no doubt, thanks to the furor from last year’s drunken antics, and the resultant axing of BB Uncut). We may even witness a complete melt-down, if she herself ‘succumbs’ to the ‘perils’ of alcohol and communal spa-usage, although her being a hardcore fundie makes such a ‘corruption’ unlikely.

(4) Kate – Lawyer / Token Overweight Girl (Bottle Blonde)

Oh look, it’s a 25 year old (bottle) blonde, slightly thinner version of Chrissie Swan from BB ’03. She is going to annoy the piss out of me, I can tell already ! At least Chrissie had a measure of humility. Kate on the other hand, both with her video profile, the outfit she wore on the night, and her first interactions with the other HM’s, strikes me as one of those ‘porkie princesses’ you see strutting around suburban shopping centres, fat-rolls hanging out over their too-tight Glue-store jeans or Supre leggings, thinking they are ‘hot shit’. Chrissie (the aforementioned BB03 archetype this HM is derived from) may have been a few sizes bigger, but if it came down to a choice, any normal guy would still choose the former over the latter. No wonder Kate claims her perfect relationship is to be “single”. It’s a desperate rationalisation, one which we’ll doubtless see thrown to the wind the first second she perceives any of the blokes in the house are drunk enough to be even remotely interested in her. Ugh !

(5) Emma – Fitness Instructor (Blonde)

F*ck me, am I having flashbacks to living in Sweden again, or were all these people grown on The Island or something ? Depending on which media outlet / gossip board / other ‘news’ source you follow, this 24 year old bird is a former model, our first trans-gendered HM (which I doubt … but then again, Miriam from Something About Miriam, the reality show with a twist from a few years back, was actually a pretty convincing woman apart from the voice, so anything is possible I guess), or simply obligatory ‘eye candy’ for the male viewers. In a word – plastic. Basically, it’s a recycled version of Mel Smerdon, from BB ’05.

(6) Aleisha – Hairdresser / Token Country Chick (Blonde)

*Yawn !* They’ve gone for a bit of a combo with this one. There’s the ‘zany country gal’ angle (Jess Hardy, BB ’02), the ‘fun loving youngster/baby spice’ angle (Christie Mills, BB ’05) – at 20, Aleisha is the youngest of the ‘confirmed’ HM’s, and the obligatory hairdresser base covered as well (coz there’s invariably one in every series, give or take). Has potential to be really … forgettable !

(7) Jamie – The Karaoke Host / ‘Nerd’ (Brunette)

The first of the boys, and doubtless a HM that’s going to become close to my own heart. He sings karaoke, has gone on countless internet dates, and exclaimed unashamedly that he’s doing this “for all the nerds out there” At 29, he’s also older than most of the other HM’s, and the show’s core demographic. All of which means he’s in real danger of being voted out early on, unfortunately. Although we can’t underestimate the Tim Brunero effect (BB ’05 again) – but Tim did have the union rank-and-file on his side thanks to his pre-BB writing gig, which no doubt played a big part in helping him become a runner up (in addition to his own natural charm – don’t get me wrong, I luuurved the old Timmie, as previous posts here will attest). If anyone redeems this years bunch of HM’s, I have a feeling it’s Jamie. Paradoxically, I don’t think he would have got in during previous years – underscoring my earlier post about the poor turn-outs for auditions for this series.

(8) Bodie – The Male Model / Sparkie (Strawberry Blonde ?)

Another genetically modified, good-looking, vat grown freak It’s basically a better looking version of shearer (Glen Dallinger) from BB ’05 again, mixed with a dash of Vince Amato (BB ’03). Are we seeing a recurring theme yet, gang ? Likely to be a sexist, self absorbed, attention seeking, bore, as evidenced by both his appearance on the show thus far, and his bio video package. The guy that all the female viewers are going to love to hate, he’s going to leave them all conflicted because he’s like “sooo hawt”, but “such a prick”. You heard it here first

I’ll sum up the remaining HM’s later – it’s time to go home now and grab some groceries on the way, before watching the next ep. I think we’re seeing a pattern already though when it comes to HM selection this year, aren’t we ? With a few exceptions, I think the theme this year is “recycle, preferrably in vat-grown Ubermensch form if we can”. *sigh*

—— Updated ——–

OK – the round up of the rest of Opening Night & The HM’s :

(9) Andrew – The Fireman (Brunette)

Another anglo. He’s 28, hails from Bondi (if the online reports are to believed). First impressions are – generally inoffensive, in a vaguely bland, good-looking way. An older version of Logan-Greg from BB05 ?

(10) Joel – The Token ‘Wog’ / Young Liberal (Brunette)

The only obviously non-caucasian HM choice of the ‘confirmed’ original batch, this 24 year old restaurant manager appears image-wise to be a bit of a mixture of all the ‘ethnic’ stereotypes from previous series including Simon ‘Hotdogs’ Deering (BB ’05), Vince Amato (BB ’03), Dean Glucina (BB ’05), and so on. Interestingly though, he’s the son of a former SA Senator, and is himself a member of the Young Liberals, so his ‘wog playboy’ image is mixed in with the ‘cerebral / political up-and-comer’ angle as well. Being a Young Lib, of course he’s bound to turn out to be a wanker … but at least as the only ‘token ethnic’ casting choice this year, they’ve made him more than simply one-dimensional. Small consolation though, considering he is the only out-and-out non-caucasian this year, as I’ve already mentioned.

(11) Thomas – Real Estate Agent / BFG (Blonde Tips)

He’s a good looking man-mountain, I’ll give him that. Predictably, all the girls inside (and outside) the house are gonna be swooning over him. He’d be a total alpha-male cliche, if it weren’t for the fact he seems to have a genuine ‘nice’ side. Mind you, it’s probably just some weird mutant adaptation, that lets him get even MORE chicks He’s married (but separated), and recently broke up with his girlfriend also. Claims he wants 6 months to ‘sort himself out’, and has expressed a desire not to become involved with anyone in the house. Either this is a cunning ploy to get even more chicks AGAIN (after all, everyone always wants what they can’t have, don’t they ? *s*), or is something to genuinly admire him for. Another one to watch, my personal jury is out.

(12) Travis – The Truckie / Token Married Bloke (Blonde)

The first thing that popped into my head when Gretel introduced this bloke to us was “f*ck me dead Sharl, it’s Warney !” Yep, he’s another white fella, blonde and blue-eyed, and all that jazz. On the plus side though, he’s a married bloke, and he’s even older than I am (32). As a (relatively) newly married man myself, I’m hoping he’ll do me proud, and resist the temptations of the assembled fem-bots. Yes – his other sub-type could be classed as a mixture of ‘bogan’ and ‘alpha male’ – but curiosly, there’s something about him which seems ‘honest’ and endearing, in a way that ‘bogans’ and (especially) ‘Alpha’ males usually are anything BUT endearing to me. I’m not entirely sure what it is … I think his calling Gretel “Big G” on the stage, before he entered the house could have something to do with it. Probably THE moment of the opening show for me.

And THAT, friends and fans, is where I’ll leave it for tonight. I’ll post about the various (non-twists) tommorrow, since the second episode revealed the majority of them.

So, I’ve been keeping busy lately battling the flu, moving office, moving webservers (and all the associated hassle of setting up mail redirects, moving the blog etc etc) and 1001 mundane things like installing our new clothes drier (a rant for another day).

I’ve also found a bit of time to venture out in a new musical direction, namely doing a bit of film scoring.

Now, I did a very basic job of ‘scoring’ my own (ultimately short-listed, but non-winning) Tropfest short earlier in the year. However, this just involved cutting down the duration of one of my own music tracks, and dropping it in as background sound.

The film score I’ve been working on lately, however, is a much more involved piece of sound engineering for a short ‘teaser’ trailer for some accquaintences off an Aussie film-maker’s board. They’re basically trying to get funding to be able to shoot the film proper, and have shot a short trailer to show potential investors. It’s essentially a horror / thriller flick, and the preview looks fairly slick. Apart from incidental sound / dialogue, I’ve had to do the whole sound-mix and music from scratch, trying to build suspense and work together with the visuals.

It’s been an interesting experience, and I’ve been using it as an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of my new DAW (finally upgraded from using Jeskola Buzz and Modplug Tracker to the ‘pro-sumer’ choice of SONAR HS 6 XL) and get some decent use out of the X-Station. I’ll post the trailer (or links) up here once it’s done and the guys are happy with the result (we’ve gone through a few versions now with the last beat sequence causing headaches, but they’ve FINALLY managed to clarify what they actually want).

So – any other musos out there looking for something ‘new’ to try – I’d definitely try posting on some of the film-maker boards out there, and offering your scoring services for free. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a film project that interests you, and you’ll be helping out the film-makers as well.

That’s all for now

UPDATED 26/04/07:
——————-

‘K gang, the trailer is finished, and viewable here, and on my MySpaz band page

A few years ago now, when Adobe Systems first bought up Macromedia, some of you may remember I had a small rant concerning the topic in this very blog. From memory, I remember being concerned about a number of things, such as the implications for ‘competition’ brought about by this merger, the inevitable loss of ‘choice’ for designers, and the very real risk that Adobe was going to run Macromedia’s previously-competing flagship products into the ground.

With Adobe’s announcement of the imminent release of Adobe Creative Suite 3, I think it’s time to revisit this topic, and look at some of the (exciting) implications this new release brings to the table for designers. Regarding the first issue i.e. the question of ‘competition’, I’m only going to touch on this very briefly. In so far as my original post is concerned – I was right on this point. The intervening period hasn’t really seen any ‘new players’ of note come to the market place for top-notch design software. 

If anything, we’ve just seen Macromedia/Adobe consolidate their dominance of “Rich Media” with the ubiquitous Flash format, and it’s various extensions. They’ve also made considerable headway establishing Flash Video as a compelling alternative to the defacto streaming ’standard’ of Quicktime - after all, how many ‘killer’ video sites do you know that use Windows Media or the even-more-archaic Real Networks format ? Photoshop continues to be the standard for raster graphics, especially given Corel’s post-Jasc-acquisition hobelling of the once-promising Paintshop Pro line. Illustrator has regained the crown that Freehand once threatened to steal when it comes to vector illustration (Freehand being the first and thus far only ‘real’ Macromedia casualty of Adobe’s buy-up; but we all KNEW that one was coming), and there is still no credible top-flight alternative to Dreamweaver when it comes to web design.

Is all this a ‘bad’ thing ? It probably would be, if the Macromedia/Adobe stable of products wasn’t so damned good ! Naturally, there are going to be those of you who disagree with me. Yes, The Gimp is coming along nicely as an open-source raster graphics app, but for my money it’s still trailing behind the level even the last Jasc incarnations of Paint Shop were at. Yes, there are still some poor suckers out there using Coreldraw for illustration. Sure – SwishMax is a cheap, reasonably mature, Flash ’alternative’ – but it outputs in SWF format anyway, and has a limited feature-set compared to the original. The point is though, easily 95% of designers would have chosen Adobe or Macromedia products prior to the merger (if we discount ‘price’ as a factor, of course), and that hasn’t changed. With the up-coming release of Adobe CS3, it’s a pretty safe bet to say that’s even less likely to change now.

Now, this may seem like a pretty bold statement. Indeed, if you told me two years ago I’d be writing this, I would have probably looked at you like you were a nutter. That’s largely because for a little while, it did indeed seem like Adobe/Macromedia were in danger of losing the plot. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you ? That’s right, I’m talking about the first major release from the combined Adobe/Macromedia stable, the oft-maligned Macromedia Studio (& Flash) 8 A.K.A ’8-Ball’. So let’s talk about 8-Ball for a minute, shall we ?

Flash 8 take-up was always going to be a little slow, like any major overhaul of Flash. Some features, like the advanced alpha channels, filter effects, and blend modes put a particularly large performance dint in the player, and it’s taken some time for the hardware specs of ‘Mr & Mrs Average’ to catch up. It also sported an improved video codec, which Adobe have done so well to capitalise on in the interim, especially thanks to the growth of sites like Youtube and Myspace, all of which utilise FLV. At the time though, Quicktime was still king, and Youtube was still around the corner. Given this, it’s natural that a lot of designers decided to stay with their old versions of Flash.

True, if you’re working for a BIG developer, you could get the boss to pony up for the upgrade – but if you’re an independent, the new version of Flash alone wasn’t going to swing it, especially since you knew you’d likely be exporting your SWF’s for backwards-compatability for a few years to come. The other components of Studio 8 were no great shakes – ‘incremental upgrades’ I think is the kindest way to describe them. At least Flash 8 had the above new features to attract the ‘deep pockets’ and ‘early adopters’. The Dreaweaver, Fireworks & Contribute upgrades on the other hand were no great departure from their predecessors. The Studio offering was rounded out with Flashpaper 2, a somewhat awkward attempt to bridge the PDF-Flash portable document space.

Unlike previous Macromedia-only versions of Studio, version 8 also saw the notable exclusion of Freehand from the bundled product line-up. A sure sign, to the ‘die-hard’ Macromedia fans (like moi), that our merger-inspired fears were in real danger of coming true. In addition to all the above, when it comes to 8-Ball, the PRICE SIMPLY WASN’T RIGHT ! From memory, the upgrade to Studio 8 from Studio MX 2004 was anywhere between AUD $580 – $650. When you consider that the original version of MX ’04 cost around AUD $1500, the upgrade path was ONLY available to MX 2004 owners if I remember correctly (earlier versions being restricted to a full purchase), and as I’ve already mentioned, Flash was the only SUBSTANTIALLY upgraded app in the package (with Freehand being dropped altogether), for independents like yours truly, the upgrade to 8-ball simply didn’t represent good enough value.

So instead of upgrading to 8-ball, I stuck with my MX 2004 version of Studio, happily continued using Freehand, and stayed with Paintshop Pro 8 as my raster graphics app (coz ponying up another $1.2K for Photoshop on top of Studio + my $2.5K version of Director MX 2004 was something I just couldn’t do). Apart from the aforementioned ‘deep pockets’, and large studios, I know I wasn’t the only one.

This all brings us rather neatly, then, to Adobe Creative Suite 3. This is the new release from Adobe/Macromedia, slated to hit the stores mid April, just in time for my birthday. Guess who’s buying themselves a little design pressie ? For this release, they’re pitching a few different versions, which represent different bundle offerings. I’m going to concentrate on the “Web Design Premium” incarnation, because in my opinion, this represents the best value, especially if you’re a web designer. If you do a fair bit of print, the “Design Premium” bundle may be more your thing (it includes a new version of InDesign, and ommits Fireworks + Contribute), but the upgrade price is steeper from Studio. There’s also a rather exxy ”Production Premium” package aimed squarley at the video buffs (includes version of AE, Premier, among others), but I’ve already got some decent video editing software, and useful video functions have also found their way into the new versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks, all of which are included in the “Web Design Premium” bundle of CS3.

Let’s talk specifics then, shall we ? For starters, the ”Web Design Premium” package naturally includes a new version of Flash Professional. This once again has a host of new features, including a new version of Actionscript. It’s also closely integrated with the other Creative Suite components – which is a big drawcard, when you see what the other components are. Naturally, any sensible designer will still be exporting his/her SWFs for backwards compatibility (so Actionscript 3.0 won’t actually be getting a major look-in for a few years yet) , but ”backwards” now encompasses Flash 8 as well (the takeup of the relevant player starting to filter through pretty decently by now), complete with ’Tube-alicious FLV streaming.

Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Contribute have also been upgraded, and it looks like the upgrades are more substantial this time. There’s better support for standards like XML, XHTML, CSS, and Spry/Ajax – all the important ‘Web 2.0′ tools basically. ’Integration’ is once again the buzzword, and once again this is a great thing, when you know what they’re integrating with. S, without further ado, I’ll stop teasing, and let you know what the other big draw-cards of this bundle are ….

Two words - (1) Photoshop & (2) Illustrator !!! That’s right peeps, in one fell swoop, they’ve put non-Flash vector illustration back in the picture to make up for dropping Freehand, and they’ve upped the ante by throwing THE ‘gold standard’ raster graphics program into the bundle as well. Not only that, it’s actually the ‘Extended’ version of Photoshop CS 3, with the aforementioned video-centric enhancements, plus various web-related ones.

Sensibly, they’ve also decided to drop the farcical ‘Flash Paper’ idea from this release, and all the packages (except “Production Premium”) are also rounded out with Acrobat 8. *Bam* – there goes my el-cheapo registered version of PDF Creator Pro So … the BIG question … is the ‘price right’ this time ?

You bet your arse it is, kids ! There’s a much more comprehensive ‘upgrade eligibility’ matrix, covering previous versions of Macromedia Studio right back to MX, and the cost for upgrading from MX 2004 is just AUD $865. For that you get Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, Fireworks CS3, Contribute CS3, and Photoshop CS3 Extended + Illustrator CS3 + Acrobat 8 (as well as the helper apps Bridge, Version Cue & Device Central).

That is already a SERIOUSLY good deal – the full version of the package costs almost 3K (AUD $2,775) … so the upgrade is a definite money saver, and certainly worth it (it’s a saving of around four hundred bucks, for the literal minded).

However, when you also consider that buying Photoshop seperately would set you back AUD $1735 alone, and Illustrator is AUD $1039 – in REAL terms you’re saving FUCK-LOADS more than the $400 I just mentioned above, since you’re upgrading your existing ‘Studio’ software AND picking up PS + AI as well.

That my friends, is why Adobe has FINALLY got it right