Laugh is health - PART III

In this part of my presentation, I would like to present few from many polish cabarets and polish series “Spadkobiercy”. I think you would agree that in Poland we have many talented comedians, not only in cabarets but also in stand-up’s. At this point I mean Marcin Daniec, Maciej Stuhr or Cezary Pazura. I couldn’t mention Daniec not remembering about this



I bet you have seen it before but if not, you should watch whole three parts.

Kabaret Moralnego Niepokoju

In this cabaret we can see five people: Robert Górski, Przemek Borkowski, Mikołaj Cieślak, Rafał Zbieć and Kasia Pakosińska. All five of them is great, but personally I prefer Robert and Kasia. Also Mikołaj is great, especially with his facial expression. In my opinion the best sketches are Wizyta Księdza and Drzwi. Here you can see one of them




Ani Mru Mru

Not everyone knows that at the beginning in 1999 there were four people in this cabaret: Joanna Kolibska, Grzegorz Tatara, Maciej Wojnarowski and Marcin Wójcik which is the originator. Later, in 2001 team changed – Marcin Wójcik and Janusz Bronkiewicz stayed and Michał Wójcik was invited as a mime. They are cracking people up this whole time and I think they are still object of interest after all those years. I guess that most people have seen great sketch Maciej i Smok (or Król I Wieśniak) or Otwarcie Supermarketu, but have you seen great sketch Dylemat Studenta? Very good one and not only for students 





Spadkobiercy

This series is to be the some kind of polish version of WLIIA. Base for this show is no script – actors just before entering the scene are told to who and on what subject they have to speak, also the scene-ending sentence is known. The series takes place in Los Angeles in rich Owens family. It is rather improvised soap opera, but still great comedians (Robert Górski, Marcin Wójcik, Michał Wójcik, Grzegorz Halama, Piotr Bałtroczyk, Artur Andrus, Maria Czubaszek, Roman Żurek, Joanna Kołaczkowska, Wojciech Kamiński, Janusz Rewers, Agnieszka Litwin, Tomasz Łupak, Wojciech Tremiszewski and Marek Grabie) make it very funny.
Here you may see mix of bloopers



I also heard that TVP2 is planning to make something more similar to WLIIA, but it was unconfirmed. Maybe somebody knows something about that?

Which is your favorite polish cabaret?

Laugh is health - PART II

Drew Carey and Ryan Stiles were playing at the same time in WLIIA and The Drew Carey Show. Sometimes performers made jokes because of that. I really wanted to find a video to post it here, but unfortunately I was unable to do that. Also they made fun of his second name(Allison) and, if I remember well, Greg once asked Drew is he Jim or Mariah (because of the same surname). Drew also wrote a biography called “Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined”.

Colin Mochrie, a Canadian comedian, because of his baldness was sometimes victim of jokes in the show. Take a look at this scene

Since 2002 with Brad Sherwood has toured North America as a two-man stage show called, "An Evening with Colin and Brad," playing mostly in small theaters. He also played in few movies.

Ryan Stiles was also sometimes a victim of jokes, because of three things: height (198cm tall), big feet and big nose. Here is one from many situations

He often wore really crazy shoes. I can’t find link to jokes, but here is a funny compilation

Here are my personal best of scenes from WLIIA

Arctic Tern

Wrong Name

Scenes From a Hat

Maltese Burger

Those were just few of my best of, it’d be impossible to place all of them here. If you enjoy the show, visit Youtube.com for more, especially see Special Episode – Best of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

In my next presentation I will review some groups from polish cabaret scene.

Laugh is health - PART I

In my presentation I would like to say something about guys that make people laughing out loud all the time. Everyone knows dictum “Laugh is health”. This is why I want to review few of them which are my favorites for a bad day.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a TV show, in which four comedians act totally improvised scenes creating various characters in funny situations. The host gives subjects for performers to act in different scenes. Many of them are based on suggestions from audience asked before the show. After the game, host gives “Points-that-don’t-matter” for comedians usually giving a humorous reason for his decision. Also sometimes host participates in scenes with performers. In many games the audience is asked by the host for the subject for performers to act, but also takes part in few kind of scenes. In the end, there is a winner chosen by a host(no, not because of points - totally arbitrarily) and his prize is either act a scene with the host or sit and watch other performers play a game with the host.

What is interesting, the show was created as a BBC radio show in 1988 in Great Britain in which credits where presented in a funny way. Then it was turned into TV show which was a bang on. There were 10 series with total of 136 episodes in UK, hosted by Clive Anderson. Show was ended due to dropping ratings. Fortunately, in 1998 show was brought to the attention of U.S. comedian Drew Carey. He and Ryan Stiles were stars in U.S. TV sitcom The Drew Carey Show. Carey convinced ABC(U.S. TV network) to make some test episodes. There were 8 seasons with 225 episodes. The production ended in 2004 and from 2005 to 2007 earlier unaired episodes where showed.

In U.S. version most of the performers where from UK version. Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles appears in every episode. Two remaining performers where mostly from those: Wayne Brady(from the second season he also became a regular), Greg Proops, Chip Esten, Brad Sherwood, Jeff Davis and Kathy Greenwood. Sometimes celebrities joined the show, like: Robin Williams, Stephen Colbert, Kathy Kinney, Kathy Griffin or Whoopi Goldberg. Also, in single scenes appeared: Sid Caesar, David Hasselhoff, Florence Henderson, Jerry Springer, Joanie "Chyna" Laurer, Richard Simmons, Katie Harman, Jayne Trcka, the Loyola Marymount University cheerleaders, Hugh Hefner and Lassie.

There are plenty of different games for performers to improvise. There are so many of them, I will give you a link to read about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_from_Whose_Line_Is_It_Anyway%3F
Notice, that there are games from both UK and U.S. versions of the show. I personally love Scenes From a Hat, Irish Drinking Song, World’s Worst and If You Know What I Mean. But, honestly, they are all great games, specially performed by Drew, Ryan and Colin, which for me are the best from the whole cast.

Here is the sample of their genius with Colin’s dance 



Due to many mistakes and unmentionable vocabulary, show was never aired live. From all games played on set every day, producers chose some from which episodes were made.

In my next presentation I will place here my personally few best scenes and say something more about my favorite the performers.

Do you like the idea the show is based on?
Do you think this kind of show could be popular in Poland?

Analog / Digital music

My last post was about portable players, but this time I would like to say few words about music format.

As we know most popular format of digital music is mp3. It's understanding, because one mp3 file size is not too big, and quality of sound is at acceptable level. But mp3s isn't one and only format.

Not very much known, but much better than mp3 is OGG. We can get this format in easy way. We need only CD record to rip music by some program, for example - foobar2k. OGG weight more than mp3s, but sound quality is much better and bitrate is higher. Almost every new portable player has OGG support. If we want same sound quality in digital files as on CD, we can simply rip to loseless format FLAC. This format is perfect for those, who want the best sound quality. Unfortunately, one song in FLAC size is even 50mb. If you want to have music in that format on our portable player, you must read carefully technical specs, because in these days not every player can play FLAC.

Obviously music formats is not only mp3, OGG or FLAC. There's much more of them, but today these are in use most. Digital formats were CDs, sometimes vinyls, casettes, everyone had "walkman". There were for important music only. Next "discmans", even with mp3 support.

Now almost everyone has mp3 player. We can rip music from CDs, but also we can buy songs on Internet, e.g. in iTunes Store or just download from an artist site (legally of course ;) like album "In Rainbows" by Radiohead in 2007, when people can download it and pay how much they like or none). So, what is the future off recording music? Sandisk thinks, that the future is in digital formats and microSD cards. Why? Because they made player with microSD slot and 0mb internal memory - Sansa SlotRadio. They think, that this cards will replace CDs in few years.

Vinyls is still in use, so what will be with CDs? What will be next? Will they invent something better and more popular than mp3/OGG/Flac?

Portable Sound Players

Nowadays, everyone wants to have music with them, and no one is surprised now seeing portable players, because almost everyone has it.

Players have two primary categories:  hard-drive-based and flash-based.

Main merit of HDD-based player is big capacity. They're usually build about 1,8 inch hard drives, so players have even 160Gb space. Frequently, their price is similar to flash players with smaller capacity (for example, iPod nano 16Gb - 169$, iPod Classic 160Gb - 235$). HDD-based players unfortunately have demerits. Above all we must be carefull, because we can easily damage hard disk, for example - while we running. These players is also bigger, just because they have greater battery. In the other hand, players can hold even about 30,000 songs! Often they have much more functions too, like picture viewer or movie player.

Flash-based players don't have moving parts, so you can safely play some sports. They're mostly cheaper than HDD-based and battery can hold more energy (even 60 hours of still playing). We can define many types of portable players.

First type is small players for music only so-called DAP (Digital Audio Player). They have small display (or none). DAPs haven't many functions, basically music players. They're perfect for playing sports, running or something.

Next category are players, who have bigger screen (about 2,5 inches). They're also build for music, but we can play some movie, but often it's not comfortable. This size is quite universal, they're not too big, so you can easily put them in pocket.

Third - players with display around 3,5 inches so-called PMP (Portable Media Player). Here music is important in the same way as movies or photos. PMPs have many functions and big size screens, so they are perfect for traveling to, for example watch some movie or play a game. Now, almost each PMP has touch screen. It ensure a lot of aplications, for example, we can use fingers to paint or type something.

There is one more primary type of players - it's also PMP with display size above 3,5". It's also called MID (Mobile Internet Device), because many of them have Wi-Fi function, so you can find a hotspot and surf on the internet for free. Some of these devices have also GPS module or TV receiver. Also, most of them have operating system. Unfortunately, we must remember, that many functions comes in pair with large price.

For good player you must buy good earphones. I think, that the best combination is warm-sound (more down frequency – bass etc.) player with cold-sound (more high frequency – e.g. percussion) earphones. These features is complementary to each other and generate real good synergy set.

 

I choose flash-based small iPod Nano 1st generation. It's really tiny and sound pretty well. My headphones is not quite portable, but I'm very satisfied of them – Panasonic HTX7.

 

So what is your combination of portable sound system and what is your opinion about that?

Portable earheadphones

Everyone have some experience with music. We usually listen to the music in our houses using cd/mp3 player or computer as source and big speakers in output. Usually, but not always. If we want to go outside, we must buy a pair of portable ear/headphones. I wrote quick review of some types of them.

Tiny, cheap, easy-use – that words describe open earphones so-called “buds”. They're very popular just because they're very portable and low-cost. Sound and isolation are not very good, but price, comfort and portability is like no other.

Next earphones is a big step forward. They're earphones, that fit into ear canal (in package you get several pairs of ear tips in different sizes) and block noise quite well. In “canal” earphones you don't need to play music loudly, because you are listening only your music, not noise around you. They're sound very well and price is not too big.

In Ear Monitors (IEM) – these are the best earphones for professional musicians, or people, who need to listen in most perfect quality. They have armature drivers, that assure great sound stage, instruments separation and audiophile sound.

Custom molded earphones are also IEM, but only one person can use them. You must make a custom molds of your ears to make that, but sound isolation is awesome. Professional on-stage musicians are wearing “customs” (or people, who have hefty wallet ;)).

 

Okay, that's all about buds, iems etc.. Now it's time for small review of greater brothers of earbuds - portable headphones.

Headphones have bigger dynamic drivers. There are earbuds for 200$ and headphones for 5$, but mostly, over-the-ear or ear-padded headphones are just better than smaller earphones. It's a lot to discuss about sound of them, but I like to write something about two primary types of portable headphones.

First - it's closed headphones. They're mainly constructed for blocking noise around us. These headphones are not always comfortable just because of their build (they're bigger and heavier than open headphones), but the way of playing low frequency ("bass") is quite awesome. They are perfect for walk on the streets or to train or bus.

Second - it's open headphones. In audiophiles opinion, they're much better than closed headphones. They have less effective noise isolation than in-ear or full-size models and less powerful bass, but they are more comfortable, sound is more balanced, dulcet.

 

So, if you want to go outside and listen to the music, leave your big headphones at home and get some more comfortable and portable alternative.

What is your opinion about that? What are Your experiences with ear/headphones?

 

Part 3: Extreme Machines - sea

Knock Nevis

Knock Nevis is a big ship. The longest in the world, it turns out. At 458 metres from tip to tip, it surpasses the 443 metres Empire State Building. Even in an age of superlatives, it continues as the ultimate superlative, a ship so huge that four football fields could be laid end to end on its deck.

The Knock Nevis, a ship so huge that when fully laden it cannot pass through the 51.5 km wide English channel that separates England from France. For, when laden, it sits 24.6 metres in the water, a depth great enought to deny entry to most of the world's major ports.

In 1981, it was ready to be put to sea under the name the Sea Wise Giant. It was first operated in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. It was later trabsferred to the Persian Gulf to be used for exporting oil from Iran.

As the timing goes, it launch was not without hassles. Two major oil-producing states of Iran and Iraq were locked in a war. So ship was seen as a military target. As expected, disaster struck soon enough. While sailing the Hormuz Straits in 1986, it was targeted by Iraqi jets. Extensively damaged, it sank in the shallow water of Iran's Kharg Island. In 1988, the Sea Wise Giant, or what remained of it, was bought by Norman International. After major conversions and repairs it was relaunched in 1991 as the Happy Giant. By 1999 it had been sold to the Norwegian company Jahare Wallem to be operated under the name Jahre Viking. In 2009 it was renamed Mont and now waiting for ship breaking.

Oasis of the Seas

Five times bigger than the Titanic The Oasis of the Seas is quite simply the biggest ship ever. It is owned by Royal Caribbean International. This ocean going city has seven 'neighbourhoods' each offers passengers a different taste of luxury. This induces aqua theatre with fountains and lighting shows. There is also an opening park with restaurants and bars. Also the ship has library, three cinemas, many shops and disco clubs.

The vessel Oasis of the Seas has a length of 360 metres and the beam of 47 metres. The height of the vessel Oasis of the Seas is 65 metres, which is the dimension above the water line. That makes it more than 30 percent bigger than the previous supersized cruise ship. The passengers capacity of the vessel is over 6000 guests.

Such large cruise ship needs strong engine. The builders installed six diesel engines, giving the speed to the ship of 42 kilometres per hour in economy mode.

What about submarines?
Please put some interesting information.