Thursday, December 29, 2005

RTE and Christmas

Congratulations to RTE who proved that charity is at the heart of Christmas. For indeed charity can be the only explanation for their schedule over the holidays. Every poor old celebrity in Ireland who could sing, do a magic trick, tell a story, or just stand there and smile at the audience were brought onto some stage or other to entertain the public. Many of these people no longer have a real income, the target audience for their music having died sometime during the famine of 1846. Now RTE is the only organisation on the face of the planet trying to support these people, feeding both their wallets and their egos. From bad Elvis impersonators to Daniel O'Donnell, RTE are firmly stuck in a timeline all their own.

Unfortunately I'm stuck in 4 channel land so I cant avoid RTE. My parents have so far refused to get a satellite dish using the logic that since there's never anything on TV why would they want more channels? I've tried to explain that the lack of good programming, scripting and acting is something RTE seems to be proud of. Where, for example, have they gotten the actors on Fair City? Were they homeless and scavenging in the dumpsters behind the BBC offices when the RTE recruiter came around and took pity on them? The Christmas week is the only time I am home for any long period of time so I don't push the subject and go find other things to amuse myself, mmm Carlsberg and Christmas Cake :-).

Anyway I'll be back up to Dublin on Saturday to celebrate New Years, after which I hope to get a connection speed faster than 19K and one that lasts longer than 5 minutes (bloody Eircom), so this is a very fast post (excuse any spelling mistakes or typos). My blog will soon return to its old frequency, I promise :-)

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