Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 May 31

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

May 31

New South Wales Rugby League

Is it possible to include a chart to show when teams like Newtown & North Sydney left the first tier comp & ended up in the second tier.

In addition a chart to show the year of inclusion/exclusion of expansion teams to form the NRL. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.148.236.95 (talk) 06:57, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Maybe, but wouldn't this suggestion be better raised at Talk:New South Wales Rugby League? -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 07:11, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Really random songs

I know you guys hate queries about mystery songs, but I just couldn't find these easily.

What is the name and artist of:

(1) a jokey-sounding rock song about "a vegetarian/an intellectual"; (2) a slow, sad, tune about "going down to the liquor store...this is supposed to be the most important night of my life"; and (3) a techno tune with the words "aliens must die" repeated frequently.

Thanks! 75.73.226.36 (talk) 11:11, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

We, at least I, don't hate them at all, in fact I really like them, especially when I know the answers. 1 is "The Logical Song" by Supertramp, although it says vegetable not vegetarian. 2 is "Most Important Night Of My Life" by GB Leighton [1] (you could have found that one for yourself by googling the lyric). Don't know what 3 is. --Viennese Waltz 11:55, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Number 3 could be "Invaders Must Die" by The Prodigy. --Canley (talk) 12:56, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Number 1 is not The Logical Song, as I know that one. This mystery one had a more raunchy connotation to it, and sounded more Nineties or late Eighties. Numbers 2 and 3 sound right. 75.73.226.36 (talk) 03:38, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

I believe #1 might be Mary Moon. (Oops...guess it's actually called New Age Girl. I just previewed and saw a blue link...) --Onorem♠Dil 03:42, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Just noticed you also asked for artist name. It's Deadeye Dick if New Age Girl was the song you were looking for. --Onorem♠Dil 04:02, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Trying to remember a film or two

I have a vague recollection of a film I saw on UK TV during the early to mid-90s. It may have been a short drama series, or indeed two different films. I'll post the stuff I can remember hear and if anyone can help me out as to what I'm talking about, that would be great.

• A rich, well dressed woman persuading a couple to take drugs through customs in rubber bags. She does this by checking if they can swallow oysters whole.
• The woman in the couple, who was rather prudish, cannot swallow the bags, so she hides them on her person. When she's at the airport she trips and all the bags roll away. I believe the man leaves her at this point.
• I want to say that Sandra Bernhard was in the film - and that there's a scene with her character having sex in a US school corridor, against the lockers. "woman in the couple" enters at the end of the corridor, and is seen by the man, who carries on, but not by the Sandra Bernhard character. I get the feeling that's significant.
• In the final scene of the film, "woman in the couple" meets the remain cast at a golf course, and with less inhibitions she takes off her top and walks down the hill.

Now I'm sure the first two scenes are from the same film/show, and the second are from the same film/show, but I'm not sure that all 4 are. It's been bothering me for a while, so please help! 195.59.45.126 (talk) 12:10, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

The first two scenes happen in an Australian film (100% sure) but I can't remember exactly which one. I can see the scene in my minds eye but I can't place the actors. It might be Bangkok Hilton. --TrogWoolley (talk) 20:44, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Mars Corps

How many games, films, etc had a major corperation or organisation that basically owned & run Mars & what were they ?
For example I know of the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) from the Doom series & also the Ultor Corporation. Are there any more ? 80.254.146.140 (talk) 12:58, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Maybe Total Recall, but I'm not sure if it was a ruthless corporation or a corrupt colonial ruler in charge. --Colapeninsula (talk) 13:25, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

According to the Total Recall 2070 page, the government is run by a cartel of corrupt companies called the consortium. After a cursory search, it would appear that there are several science fiction stories feature a small number of corporations controlling Mars, rather than a single corporation. The short story Podkayne of Mars had a corporation that ran Venus (but not Mars). Would these these companies manage Mars as their primary asset, or have Mars as one of many?Sazea (talk) 18:15, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

You could take a look at the categories Mars in fiction, Video games set on Mars, and Mars in film for some more. For some reason I can only get them to link externally; when I try to build wikilinks they disappear completely. --some jerk on the Internet (talk) 19:11, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

You need to link to categories by putting a colon at the start of the link, otherwise you're adding this page to the category - so Category:Mars in fiction, etc. Warofdreams talk 13:53, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip! --some jerk on the Internet (talk) 14:32, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

The conflict between corporatism and scientific exploration is a central theme in the work of Ben Bova. I haven't read them all, and it has been a while since I read the ones I read, but I'm pretty sure several of the works from his Grand Tour (novel series) would fit the bill for the OP. --Jayron32 19:12, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Podkayne of Mars is a full-fledged novel. Is this another of your tricks, Clark? Clarityfiend (talk) 00:15, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

And here I thought Mars was already owned by Mars, Incorporated. Do they plan to put a hard chocolate coating on it ? :-) StuRat (talk) 03:12, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Social Distortion non-cover

I have come across a collection of songs claiming to be covers by Social Distortion - an EP titled "Bs and Covers," which I can't find listed as an actual SD release. In my research to learn more about the tracks, I have come to realize they are not all by Social Distortion, but other similar-sounding bands. Has anyone else come across a cover of the Bob Dylan song "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" mislabelled as Social Distortion and know who the real band is?

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with enough of the artists listed in the song's article to figure out which one it might be.

Thanks. Medleystudios72 (talk) 15:46, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Check out Mike Ness' first solo album Cheating at Solitaire. --LarryMac | Talk 16:17, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Sweet! Thanks! Medleystudios72 (talk) 20:36, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Since making my original request, I've tracked down all but the last 2 now. Can anyone help me with "Tainted Love" and "Atom Bomb?" Tainted Love is definitely a Gloria Jones cover - likely influenced directly by Soft Cell. And I'm unsure if Atom Bomb is a Fluke cover or an original piece. Thanks. Medleystudios72 (talk) 20:51, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried http://www.allmusic.com ? They're usually a pretty good resource for questions like this. --Jayron32 21:58, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried http://www.google.com ? Seriously, the information is immediately available by typing "Social Distortion $SONGNAME". --LarryMac | Talk 12:26, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I have tried both. No success. Allmusic doesn't say "this version of that song was inaccurately labelled as Social Distortion." So to re-affirm - the recordings I came across are labelled as being recorded by Social Distortion. No source I have found with SD's discography lists either song as having been ever recorded by SD - including Wikipedia, Allmusic, Google, and Discogs. Therefore, it is possible and probable someone mislabelled the recordings because they sound similar to SD. I'm looking for the accurate artist credit. So I'm hoping someone here is also familiar with the above tracks and knows the correct cover artist(s). Thanks. Medleystudios72 (talk) 12:47, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Type Social Distortion Tainted Love into Google. The top result when I do that is a YouTube link. The top two comments on that link clearly indicate that the artist is Shades Apart. The third result from my Google query is a wiki.answers.com page that has the same information. I understand that sometimes Google results are not the same for everybody, but I can't imagine that those links are completely missing from any result set. --LarryMac | Talk 12:58, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, thanks. I actually just found the Shades Apart info. Because I cannot view videos or download files with the current security settings on this computer, I enter "-youtube -video -download -mp3" routinely in google. So I omitted them this time and that info came up.

Still looking for "Atom Bomb" info.

Medleystudios72 (talk) 13:02, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

1945. --LarryMac | Talk 15:01, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Programming TV advertisements

Has any TV station ever announced (in TV Guides, etc) the advertisements they're going to broadcast, as they do for the programs?

Advertising is big business, and sometimes it seems we get almost as much advertising as actual entertainment. The lines have become blurred anyway. Ads have become an art form in themselves, and they now have TV programs that look at the most entertaining, humorous and creative ads from today, and revive the oldies but goodies from yesteryear. And shows like The Gruen Transfer. The industry gives out awards for the best adverts. The people who make them are probably justly proud of them, and the TV stations certainly are not backward in broadcasting them. So, in the interests of transparency, why don't they tell us what delights we're in for? -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 20:47, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Probably because they don't know. I must admit that I'm entirely making this up, but I'd always thought that if, for instance, the Man U match goes into 8 minutes of Fergie time that someone somewhere (or, more likely, a computer) will say "right, we've got 137 seconds until All New You've Been Framed Cats and Dogs Special - what you got me?", and get the reply that the station's resident video monkey is queuing up a Coca-Cola ad for 28 seconds, 43 seconds of Michael Parkinson offering you a free pen for naming him in your will, 35 seconds for Ambulance Chasers R Us to tell you how much compensation you're entitled to because this morning's Sun gave you a paper cut, before David Beckham rounds it all off with a virtuoso 35-second performance in his pants advising you how much you want to smell like him. If it had been 138 seconds, we would probably have been treated to a completely different set of mindless guff of slightly different length.

That's how it works in my mind, anyway. But, then again, strange things happen in there. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:21, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

In any case, it would probably be too much detail. In the old days of radio and early TV, corporate sponsorship was built in, as with, "The Johnson Wax Program, Starring Fibber McGee and Molly", or "The Bell Telephone Hour". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:05, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

I've seen cases where the advertiser himself, rather than the TV station, has announced TV ads in advance. There have been newspaper ads saying "this ad will be shown for the first time in the Coronation Street break tonight" or some such. They tend to be long ads with high production values. I can't think of any examples right now, but some may occur to me later. --Viennese Waltz 07:03, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

The Super Bowl is kind of like that, where some days before they are essentially advertising the upcoming advertisements. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:16, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

McCain Foods took up awhole 3min ad break during Coronation Street once for an Oven Chip advert and of course there is always Cog (advertisement) which even got released on DVD. Nanonic (talk) 13:24, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

In the early 1980s, a Christmas ad for the (late, lamented) UK store Woolworths was announced in advance in TV listings magazines as a "must-see". It lasted for the whole 2-minute ad break and had remarkably high production values, featuring The Goodies, various other famous-ish people, Cossack dancers, geishas and all sorts of other exciting things, set to a jaunty, Brotherhood of Man-style song entitled "Have a Cracking Christmas at Woolworth". It's on YouTube (search for Woolworths Christmas Ad). Hassocks5489 (tickets please!) 16:00, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Further to this, it was 1981 (Google Woolworths Christmas advert 1981 for lots of links, including this informative piece which also discusses the 1982 follow-up, and this article). Hassocks5489 (tickets please!) 16:05, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Right, so there are special occasions. Interesting. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 20:17, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Having worked in television (and other media) for some time, I can tell you that it often isn't known that far in advance. The sales departments of stations and networks want to make as much revenue as possible, so if a show is not sold out, they will work right up to the last minute trying to sell it. These days it is a lot easier to do that, for all it takes is one entry in a computer to get the ad on the air, rather than dubbing tapes and getting them cued in sequence. Also, because programs are rarely individually sponsored these days, the programming department has no need to know who is advertising, as long as someone is. And it is the programming people who send out the schedules.    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 19:36, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

That's interesting that it's all done with computer clicks now. So, how come it happens too often that there's an ad break in the news, and when the news returns the newsreader is already some seconds into the next story? Can't they coordinate this apparently simple scheduling task better than that? -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 20:17, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

You may be watching a news program supplied by a network with a commercial break being filled by the local station. If the news program is live and the local operator does not calculate the break time correctly or is not paying attention, the end of the local break may intrude on the beginning of the next program segment.--Thomprod (talk) 23:33, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

I have found that local stations, especially smaller ones, are not as careful about timing their ads. Network breaks are typically two minutes long, allowing time for four so-called "30 second" ads. Those ads are actually supposed to be 29.5 seconds long, with a half-second gap between each. But if a local station creates an ad that is two long, even by a fraction of a second, it will not trigger the return to network until after the network has already re-started its programming.    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 10:49, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

That's undoubtedly my experience. I live only 2 and a bit hours drive from Melbourne, but it's far enough out to be regional/rural/remote in all the ways that matter. While the national news is relayed from Melbourne, the local stations chime in with local ads during the ad breaks. That's the commercial stations. The government-owned stations (ABC and SBS) just have the one news feed, so it's never an issue with them. And the ABC, bless them, still has no ads anyway (apart from the ones for themselves, but at least they're only shown between programs, never in the middle.). Thanks, Michael J. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 11:05, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Jack, I once had reason to visit the "studios" of a regional TV station (which largely transmits relayed programs from the big cities) not far from your corner of the world. It was the middle of the day on a week day. I thought the pimply teenage kid who answered the door must have been a student on work experience, but no, he was the only human present. If they were depending on him to slot in the ads, his experience level would not have been high. HiLo48 (talk) 18:45, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Scary, isn't it. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 23:19, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Another oddity: Not infrequently I'll see the same 30-second spot twice within the same 2-minute break. Is that because they've literally paid for it twice? Or maybe got a "deal" because the station needed to fill in some time? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:32, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

That is irritatingly common here. Talk about "Chronicles of Wasted Time". -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 21:22, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Running the same spot at the beginning and end of a commercial break is intentional and the two spots are sold as "bookends". It is not a mistake. --Thomprod (talk) 23:33, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

I didn't figure it was a mistake, I just wondered why they did it. And now I know what it's called, so this was educational. :) It seems to be most common on "local" ads as opposed to "national" ads. And Jack's right, it's irritating. It's irritating enough when the commercial is clever. When the spot is annoying, having to see it twice is doubly irritating. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:13, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

I agree with Bugs that, in the US, playing an ad during half-time of the Super Bowl is the ultimate status symbol for an advertising agency, so they often put out their best new ads then, and sometimes leak them to the media and/or public first. StuRat (talk) 03:00, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

I've often thought that ads should be rated on entertainment value and different rates should be charged accordingly. After all, some ads are so annoying they will make me change the channel or at least mute it for the rest of the commercial break, while others are so funny, cute, etc., that I will stop flipping channels just to watch them, and maybe stay tuned in for the show. StuRat (talk) 03:07, 2 June 2012 (UTC)