Monday, February 27, 2006

Sirasa Super Star - The Dramatic Exit of Shihan Mihiranga

So there I was sitting in front of the telly on a cold, damp Sunday night, waiting for Kamal to take his time in announcing who gets the dubious honor of staying on in Sirasa Super Star (SSS) and who gets the easy way out of a fake reality (fake-ality??) show.

And after much rhetoric and a few songs, it was down to Amila Perera (great voice and average presentation) and Shihan Mihiranga (average voice and great presentation) as the two contestants with the allegedly lowest number of votes. Kamal went on yapping in that special way of his which we have all grown to love and appreciate and then he says (translated into English) - "The person who gets to the next level - Shihan - it's - not - you................you - are - leaving - us - tonight...." and then he went on and on and on and I didn't hear a word he said because I was staring at Shihan's expression as he was given the news and let me tell you - the man knew it was coming!!

There was a backlash building up against SSS for quite some time and it became an unavoidable force after the exit of Manjula on Sunday the 19th. So as much as the station tried to portray Shihan as the obvious winner of SSS, it suddenly became apparent that if he did win, there would be a lot of questions raised regarding the SMS voting system and its validity. The prospect of an official investigation would definitely hurt the next season of SSS (auditions are scheduled to take place soon) and to avoid the inevitable hassle of having to prove that the public does in fact get the winner it votes for, SSS has suddenly decided to kick out Shihan as a means of damage control.

After my laughing my head off at the images of a few girls crying in the audience (if they can be called that) I felt a tad sorry for Shihan because even though he may have been involved with a crooked show, he is undeniably talented and deserves a recording deal. News about town is that he is in fact already recording an album and will be releasing it soon. I'm sure the buzz created by SSS to date will help its sales and his looks/personality/stage presence will definitely make him a popular fixture on the concert circuit.

The question of the moment is - who is going to be the winner now that Shihan is out of the picture? Right now, my money is on Malith Perera with Amila as the runner up.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Sirasa Super Star - So I May Not Like It After All And Here's Why....

It's a SHAM. I am such a tube-light for not realising it until now. There I was SMS-ing my vote for the singer whom I thought deserved to win and here they are putting on an hour of entertainment under the guise of a reality show. I was naive enough to think that my vote was counted and mattered and the person with the highest votes would ultimately win the competition but it turns out the winner has already been selected by the producers and it's just nothing but a giant hoax of a media event to promote his upcoming album.

It all started last Saturday (February 18th) - after watching the final six perform songs by Clarence, I decided to vote for a contestant - let's call him X. The lovely and competent host Kamal ( here's how much I like him) repeated the telephone number and two other numbers (7788 and a Suntel #) which accepted SMS votes. The same numbers also appeared on the screen while the song was performed and for a few seconds after the it was over. I sent an SMS to the Suntel # which was 114-93700X and then was stumped to find the delivery report mentioned "Not Sent to 114-93700X". I then called the number and received a mechanical voice message informing me the number DID NOT EXIST. I then sent the vote to 7788 and received a confirmation of delivery. I was still wondering why the suntel number was all wrong and on Sunday evening, during the elimination round, I found the contestant I had voted for was in the bottom 3!! He made it (narrowly) into the next round but I started to have doubts about the authenticity of the vote collection and counting (just like our elections, huh?!).

The following day at work I mentioned this to a couple of people who both looked at me like I was nuts. They told me that it was all a hoax and that voting for it was just a waste of money. One of them gave me a link to a scanned newspaper article (go to page 2 for a message posted by flashyskyline on February 18th on the message board) from a Sinhalese newspaper (which I must admit, I do not read regularly) which had written extensively about the "SMS Fraud" going on with the show. It also mentions that the winning contestant hardly ever looks nervous or upset during the elimination round whilst all the others looked like they would cry. I had noticed this myself and I must say that initially when a contestant was voted off, he looked extremely sad and some had tears in their eyes whilst singing their farewell song. But since two weeks ago, I noticed the contestant who hears he has been voted off doesn't even look surprised - it's like he already knew about it or didn't care. An extremely emotional chap was voted off two weeks ago and he used to look almost teary when he was in the bottom three on an earlier occasion but on hearing he was going home, he just nodded his head. Does this mean the rest of the contestants have realised they are fighting a losing battle and are just performing because they are under contract?

More than anything, what a crime it is for encouraging people to vote using SMS to these numbers!! The cost of a vote is Rs 10 (normal cost of an SMS is Rs. 2.50) and if it's not getting counted, what's the point?? Sirasa might as well abolish the voting system and call in a panel of judges who decide who goes and who stays (like the Apprentice). Tricking the public into paying four times the normal rate of an SMS and not accepting the result of the SMS votes is just plain wrong.


Sri Lanka to Tax all Foreign Movies, Dramas and Sitcoms

According to an article on LBO, Sri Lanka is to tax all foreign movies, dramas and sitcoms from April 2006 onwards. The taxes collected will apparently go into a special fund that will develop the local celluloid industry.

Two months ago, when I watched King Kong at the Liberty Cinema, I coughed up Rs. 275 for a seat in the balcony. Despite the relatively comfortable nature of the cinema (much better than Majestic Cinema and almost on par with Savoy) it wasn't a reasonable price for all viewers. The proposed tax on movies will undoubtedly increase the price of all movie tickets and given that most of the audience belongs to average income earners, would it impact the number of people who take the time and effort to make it to a cinema to watch a movie when a pirate copy of the movie can be bought for Rs. 150? Despite the court cases and temporary closure of several illegal video sales outlets, the business of selling pirate DVDs and CDs has not slowed down at all.

With just two tv networks catering to the English audience 24 hours a day, how will the imposition of tax on programs like The OC and CSI impact the amount of advertisements that is already cluttered into an hour of the average episode. In fact, I have noticed that most episodes drag on for more than one hour thanks to the numerous advertisements that interrupt the characters' speech in mid-sentence!

Does this mean American Idol will be exempt from the tax because it is a reality show and does not fall into the category of drama/movie/sitcom? Are re-run or cancelled shows like Friends and Providence eligible for tax?

Was the tax imposed because several parties (including local artistes) who protested the sudden influx of Indian movies and drama into Sri Lankan theatre and television? That would be my guess. I doubt if the local teledrama/movie industry loses much sleep over the amount of money that is lost when public watches The OC in comparison to watching one of those annoying dubbed dramas on Sirasa Ran Depaya (sp??). As entertaining as the dramas maybe to some people (I have the same to say for those who watch The Bold and The Beautiful) would imposing a tax discourage the fans from watching the program and make them switch over to watch a local program?

I Love Ambigrams


It all started when I read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. It was, at the time, a relatively unknown book and the only people enthusiastic about it were conspiracy theory buffs (cough cough). I had read about the Illuminati before and like all other secret societies - Freemasons, The Priory of Scion etc, I found them mildly fascinating. What I loved about Angels and Demons more than anything, were the ambigrams . In the novel, six brands were used by an assassin to signal the re-emergence of the Illuminati and the ambigrams of "Illuminati", "Earth", "Air", "Fire", "Water" and finally the "Illuminati Diamond" with all four elements merged into a diamond shape, were used in the novel.



I found a web site that generates ambigrams of any word entered. Mind you the results are not as artistic as the calligraphic images found in Angels and Demons. I then found that Sun Microsystems also uses as ambigram in its logo. Very cool!!