Frankster's Archive

Random bits

2009-07-02T12:22:00.003+10:00

G'day bloggers,

Well, how did we go with Oz Lotto the other night? Me? I fell back to Division 6 - $20.45..got the $19.20 cost of my ticket back with $1.25 on top. Wo-ow. Four numbers and one supplementary meant I fell back to four numbers only. Ah well.

I found this story on Sam's blog this morning quite amazing! It must've been a hell of a gust to take down an entire transmitter tower. I certainly hope the guy wires didn't come from some poor hardware shop's end-of-financial-year sale! Sam's done a wonderful job taking a couple of photos of the site and the tower and its probably the closest I'll ever get to a radio tower too. Quite amazing for people like me who find all this stuff interesting. Have never been inside a transmitter hut though.

OK, now on another front. This involves Angela Bishop, Network 10's entertainment reporter and appearing a number of times on radio 2GB. I hear numerous comments on message boards saying oh she's ugly, oh she's got bad legs blah blah blah. You know what? I think Angela is a definite plus, particularly her legs! You can't argue with legs like these can you?

(thanks to the gang at Ozcelebs.net for the second image of Angela on the red carpet)

Now, compare Angela to this:

I know which one I'd rather go for - that's right, Angela. She's got better legs anyway! - and honestly, I couldn't care if you wanna be critical of my taste in women. I'd much rather have someone who isn't a stick figure - and am I ashamed to admit it? NO. Ashamed to admit I like Angela Bishop? NO. I still say she has brilliant legs that's for sure, and if she wants to show them off I say more power to her!

Rant over.

AV Update - June 29th 2009

2009-06-29T23:23:00.002+10:00

All clips are available for download from 2:00am AEST Tuesday June 30th 2009

Video Clips
All clips compatible with Quicktime and the iPod Video
MP4, 320x240, 256kbps vision, 128kbps audio

**Clips this update sourced from Betamax**

TVC: Nissan Slalom
Dur: 30 sec, 1.2 MB

TVC: Nabisco $100,000 Prize Draw
Dur: 30 sec, 1.7 MB

TVC: 00555 Numbers - Molly Meldrum and Richie Benaud amongst others
Dur: 29 sec, 1.3 MB

TVC: Sea World
Dur: 30 sec, 2.0 MB

TV0 Promo 1988: Richmond Hill
Dur: 30 sec, 1.4 MB

TVC: Holden Rodeo
Dur: 45 sec, 3.2 MB

TVC: Schweppes Fruit Juice
Dur: 30 sec, 1.3 MB

TVC: ITP Tax Refunds
Dur: 30 sec, 1.2 MB

TVC: Nestle Symphony Icecreams
Dur: 30 sec, 1.3 MB

TVC: Waterloo Bay QLD
Dur: 16 sec, 692 KB

Audio Clips
Compatible with most if not all MP3 devices!

2UW Master Tapes: Promo Master #2
All tracks are MP3 format @ 192 kbps 44kHz Stereo

The Great Tickoff promo - 0:56, 1.3 MB
The Cash Call - 0:27, 670 KB
Supaloo promo 1 - 0:57, 1.3 MB
The big tickoff promo 'monday only' version with slate (primarly left channel only) - 1:10, 1.6 MB
The big tickoff promo 'sundays only' version with slate (primarly left channel only) - 1:08, 1.6 MB
Supaloo promo 'to air on monday' with slate - 1:09, 1.6 MB
Supaloo 'new' promo - 1:31, 2.1 MB
Another supaloo promo - 1:25, 2.0 MB
Another supaloo promo - 1:30, 2.1 MB
Another supaloo promo (friday and saturday version) - 1:20, 1.9 MB

Top Spots Studios Master Tapes: Master #70
All tracks are MP3 format @ 192 kbps 44kHz Stereo
**Some tracks may sound a bit thin on the ground..this is due to some of these cuts having DBX encoding and the tape being dubbed without a suitable DBX decoder inline**

State Rail: SR320-TAM 11-3-87 - 1:06, 1.5 MB
State Rail: SR321-ARM 11-3-87 - 1:02, 1.4 MB
State Rail: SR322-CH 11-3-87 - 1:03, 1.4 MB
State Rail: SR323-GRA 11-3-87 - 1:08, 1.6 MB
State Rail: SR324-T - 16-3-87 - 1:00, 1.4 MB
State Rail: SR325-A - 16-3-87 - 1:02, 1.4 MB
Civic Advance Bank 1x30 6025 - 12-3-87 - 0:56, 1.3 MB
Civic Advance Bank 1x30 5729 - 5-3-87 - 0:44, 1.0 MB
Centrepoint 1x30 CP80 - 11-3-87 - 0:55, 1.3 MB
Bushells Tea X146 - 9-3-87 - 0:40, 961 KB

Farrah Fawcett succumbs to cancer, aged 62

2009-06-26T18:20:00.002+10:00

G'day bloggers,

It's certainly been quite a day hasn't it. We lost both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett within hours of each other.

Who could forget Farrah's pin-up of her dressed in a red bikini - every guy's dream! I wonder now if Foxtel's TV1 will be scheduling a Farrah Fawcett weekend. Every episode of Charlie's Angels that can fit inside a 48 hour block. Hang onto your Fox boxes folks, it may become reality!

Not a lot to say about Farrah except bloody cancer is a friggin' awful way to go. Watching someone dying is never easy, but with cancer it's especially a difficult thing to do. I lost my beautiful labrador in January 2007 to cancer, and 12 years before that, my beautiful german shepherd also to cancer (Early 1995).

Things like this make me wonder about my own mortality. How long have I got left?

Moral of the story folks - do everything you want to do with your life NOW. Tomorrow may be too late. Don't hesitate, just get out there and do it.

Rip Farrah, 1947-2009

Michael Jackson dies

2009-06-26T18:07:00.004+10:00

NB: The ABC will be showing a Michael Jackson tribute tomorrow morning at 8.55am during Rage, which is then being repeated on ABC2 at 4.00pm. The playlist for tonight's edition (Friday June 26th) has been updated to include some Michael Jackson video clips.

G'day bloggers,

Well, it's with sorrow that I have to write this post about Michael Jackson, who died after going into cardiac arrest today (AEST). He was 50.

Michael Jackson was wonderful. His music was sensational, always had time for his fans, and he will very definitely be sorely missed by everyone who loved the guy. Even if you didn't, you knew when you heard a funky tune on the radio or on a music video show, you knew right away it was Michael Jackson.

Sam and Danny J Palmer have each written a wonderful tribute to this legend - and regarding the whole pedophile thing I've heard from a few people, nothing had been proven, and Michael was acquitted in 2005. That's where that whole saga should have ended, but no, some were still quite content to rip him to shreds. Amazing huh?

Re his music, I first heard the Thriller album on vinyl, and then the CD reissue - it was still only 9 tracks then, and I believe that album in later years was given a decent remastering and bonus tracks were added. Off The Wall also had bonus bits 'n' pieces, as did the Bad CD reissue. Hopefully those issues are still available and weren't released as limited editions, as one of these has a snippet from the actual tracking session where Vincent Price added the end speech to Thriller, and it's quite interesting to hear that session in isolation.

RIP Michael 1958-2009, aged 50 years. A very sad loss indeed.

Triple M Sydney's monday night footy call

2009-06-22T19:02:00.002+10:00

G'day bloggers,

I'm just curious, and it's probably something to do with broadcasting rights or something, but why on the Sydney Triple M stream almost every monday night when an NRL game is on, a looped announcement on the stream says that they can't broadcast the AFL?? Apparently to listen to the NRL game tonight, I have to go to the AFL site and "stream it there" according to this announcement, if I do indeed wanna hear the AFL. What AFL game on monday night? I'm not aware of any... "Because of legal reasons we can't actually stream the football, the AFL" it says. Eh?? I don't wanna stream the AFL on a monday night, I wanna stream the NRL!!

Um...folks who are running the stream, a little message to you...update the announcement on the stream eh? Triple M Brisbane stream isn't running it either even though the Broncos are playing tonight.

Hmm..gotta be a rights issue. Now to find two AAA batteries that work so I can listen to it via FM...Fox box is being used so I can't watch it, and 2GB don't carry monday night footy. Up the creek without a paddle? You bet...pity though coz their calls are hysterical! NRL.com score updates...yeah, cool, still can't stream the game though.

Bloody hell..red tape EVERYWHERE...

AV Update - June 12th 2009, remade on June 20th 2009

2009-06-20T12:29:00.003+10:00

Video Clips
All clips compatible with Quicktime and the iPod Video
MP4, 320x240, 256kbps vision, 128kbps audio

**Clips this update sourced from low-band U-matic**

TVC: Schick Intuition - Soap Slip
Dur: 18 sec, 963 KB

TVC: Schick Intuition - Can Splat
Dur: 18 sec, 948 KB

TVC: Schick Intution - Wobbler
Dur: 18 sec, 975 KB

TVC: Nicorette - 16:9 version
Dur: 47 sec, 2.4 MB, Stereo

TVC: Moccona Temptations coffee
Dur: 31 sec, 2.3 MB, Stereo

TVC: Ingham Chickens - Test Centre
Dur: 46 sec, 3.5 MB, Stereo

TVC: Disprin Max - "Boyfriend" (Keyed REBE0028)
Dur: 34 sec, 2.8 MB, Stereo

TVC: Marie Claire - Deforestation/White Collar/Foreign Affairs
Dur: 36 sec, 2.6 MB, Stereo

TVC: Lipton Ice-Tea - The Mechanic
Dur: 38 sec, 3.0 MB, Stereo

TVC: Kellogg's Crispix - Robots
Dur: 37 sec, 2.6 MB, Stereo
The slate on this cut says it's 16:9 so we've presented it that way - doesn't look like 16:9 though!

Audio Clips
Compatible with most if not all MP3 devices!

2UW Master Tapes:
Australian Made segments master - Mike Walsh (Part 1)
All tracks are MP3 format @ 192 kbps 44kHz Stereo

**An amazing amount of print-through starts from segment 5 onwards**

Segment 1 including intro - 1:19, 1.8 MB
Segment 2 - 1:12, 1.6 MB
Segment 3 - 1:11, 1.6 MB
Segment 4 - 1:11, 1.6 MB
Segment 5 - 1:11, 1.6 MB
Segment 6 - 1:11, 1.6 MB
Segment 7 - 1:13, 1.7 MB
Segment 8 - 1:15, 1.7 MB
Segment 9 - 1:14, 1.7 MB
Segment 10 - 1:13, 1.7 MB

Top Spots Studios Master Tapes:
Heckendorf Master Reel #9 (Part 1)
All tracks are MP3 format @ 192 kbps 44kHz Stereo
**Some tracks may sound a bit thin on the ground..this is due to some of these cuts having DBX encoding and the tape being dubbed without a suitable DBX decoder inline**

Katies Winter Sale: 2 track jingle - Version 1 - 0:33, 797 KB
Katies Winter Sale: 2 track mix - Voiceover cut 1 - 0:35, 823 KB
Katies Winter Sale: 2 track mix - Voiceover cut 2 - 0:32, 787 KB
Oral B Labs: Asia Submission TV audio track 1 - 5th August 1985 - 0:28, 703 KB, V/O by John Laws
Oral B Labs: Asia Submission TV audio track 2 - 5th August 1985 - 0:25, 613 KB, V/O by John Laws
Oral B Labs: Revised Asia Submission track 1 - 15th August 1985 - 0:27, 656 KB, V/O by John Laws
Oral B Labs: Revised Asia Submission track 2 - 15th August 1985 - 0:22, 525 KB
Pizza Hut: Taco Amigo - Fruit Salads version 1 - 10th December 1985 - 0:31, 733 KB
Pizza Hut: Taco Amigo - Fruit Salads version 2 - 10th December 1985 - 0:30, 717 KB
Pizza Hut: Taco Amigo - Taco Salads - 19th August 1985 - 0:31, 747 KB

Ch-ch-ch-ch-chaaaangessss....

2009-06-20T12:12:00.002+10:00

*singing* Tiiime to wriiiiiiiiiite the bloooggg...ch-ch-chaaaangeeyeyes...oops...

Gudday bloggers,

Well..sorry to stuff you all around but another change will be taking place to this blog. Just in case you haven't caught up yet, I was getting a bit fed up of audio and video updates always being pushed down the page everytime I wanted to write on this thing, so I made up seperate pages for both the audio and the video.

Unfortunately now, it makes the site look like the ol' "behind closed doors" theory. Sort of like a sealed section. That's not exactly what I had in mind. Given every post has a seperate link to the right before its archived monthly, if you need the audio and video you can just zap to it by clicking the appropriate update link..yeah? So what this means is everything will be just like before, and I'll be thinking of how I can get the hours and days back I spent on it...

Current audio and video clips won't be affected, they'll just be pushed over here to the main page, where they always were.

Frankster's Vidcaps

2009-06-19T00:19:00.002+10:00

G'day bloggers,

In the last year I've tried doing vidcaps of various celebrities but have always been critical in the sense that they weren't good enough quality to put online, so they've stayed offline.

Tonight I was thinking about it and I thought nah, bugger it, I'm gonna put a few of my vidcaps up here - what better way to start off with Channel 10's Kim Watkins from the 9AM show!

Port Macquarie maccas

2009-06-18T17:49:00.002+10:00

I heard about this story yesterday but didn't get a chance to write anything about it.

Can I take your order? (Source: Wireless Fodder)

Matt wrote a piece about it and it reminded me I had to post my own take on it but I was so caught up in my latest audio transfer project I completely forgot to do it! So basically all I have to say is...is it safe to say "Hamburglar" now?

7's Dancing With The Stars moves to 6.30pm from July 5

2009-06-16T12:38:00.002+10:00

News of this came around yesterday but didn't really believe it until I read it elsewhere this morning.

If you're a fan of the seven network's "Dancing with the stars", guess what? It's now back to 6.30 on sunday nights - an hour earlier than previous seasons.

I'm not sure it's gonna work at 6.30, leaving aside the fact that when networks decide to move certain shows to different time slots a few times it's almost certainly the death knell for the shows in question. As a result, Mike Munro and Chris Bath's "Sunday night" is being "rested" for three months apparently. Where have we heard that before...?

Anyway, good luck to 7 - if it works at 6.30, so be it.

Zoo Weekly and Tracey Grimshaw

2009-06-13T22:17:00.003+10:00

Image Credit: News.com.au
G'day bloggers,

Well, you may have caught on by now to the story of the Nine Network's A Current Affair host Tracey Grimshaw being offered a tidy sum to pose in a bikini for lads mag Zoo Weekly.

If she were to take up the offer, I don't think she'll do too badly! Hey, we're all gonna get to the age she is at now (if we don't drop dead), and I think it was Zoo who asked Roberta Williams to pose and she did it. I've been following quite a few posts on various forums and message boards and it seems the majority are against Zoo's idea (and kudos to those who are in the minority thinking the same as me) but I don't see anything wrong with Tracey Grimshaw in a bikini. I mean, so what? So she's not in some people's eyes a wafer-thin blonde 20 something model - big woop - it would be a totally refreshing change to see someone like Tracey doing it for the fellas, out of the stuffy suit and all - and at this point in my life I really don't care what people think, nor am I embarrassed to admit that I AM slightly curious!

What's wrong with Tracey anyway, I think she looks great, and if ya don't like it, don't read my opinion pieces on here. Simple.

Complete!

2009-06-13T00:34:00.002+10:00

G'day bloggers,

Well, everything is in place now, audio and video clips are now available, the links work, and I'm chuffed all is well. So...

Welcome to the revamped Frankster's Archive!

From here on it'll be easier for you to find stuff, instead of having it all on one page and having to repeatedly scroll down further and further to find all the AV goodies - they're now on seperate pages and available just by clicking either link to the right of this page depending on where you wanna go. Needless to say, to get back to the blog side, just keep clicking back on your browser until you're back on this page.

As far as the recommended links go, more will be added in due course.

For now, welcome, and I hope you enjoy the revamp!

Nearly there...

2009-06-12T17:36:00.003+10:00

G'day bloggers,

We're just about there now. The audio and video pages are up - audio clips will follow soon, but for now, enjoy the 10 new video clips up!

The rebuild continues...

2009-06-11T18:21:00.002+10:00

G'day bloggers,

The rebuild of the site continues. There's probably some stuff still not working as yet but that's coz the final pages aren't on the server yet - they will be soon.

Welcome back to the archive

2009-06-08T19:21:00.002+10:00

G'day bloggers,

Well, you're probably wondering what the hell was going on if you visited this site in the last 48 hours and found nothing. Just a page in white.

On saturday I had planned to rebuild the site and started removing things little by little, but I made such a mess of the thing I started with - the links - and didn't wanna spend all the long weekend trying to fix things up again with my very limited knowledge of html code, so I threw a blank page up and would return to it later, which I did.

All of the last postings are gone as I wanted to do a complete rebuild. The good news is it'll now be easier for you to find things. I must admit, I was getting a bit fed up with everything being pushed down the blog whenever I wanted to do something outside of an AV update, and the pain in the bum was that you'd have to scroll down a lot to get to the good stuff. Not anymore. As you can see, I've now added seperate pages for both the audio and the video stuff, and have finally fixed up the look of the links section, as well as changing the template back to what this site used in 2006. It looked fine then and it looks fine now. Don't know why the hell I ever changed it - this template seems much more customisable too.

Back in a few days time with a fresh AV update. Am also currently getting organised more server space to store all the goodies. As a certain Sydney sports broadcaster once said, "Don't touch the set! Don't touch the dial! Don't you go anywhere!!".

Testing

2009-06-08T19:16:00.002+10:00

* Previous links back up
* Seperate audio and video sections included - pages themselves currently being made

Frankster's Archive site rebuild

2009-06-08T17:47:00.001+10:00

Bear with us folks as we move the furniture around a bit...we'll return shortly.