I just watched USA-UK via DVR... and the announcer did mention playing/blowing (?) "some" kind of instrument being a local custom

According to what was said, the US has a history of giving up early goals in the WCup... and they one they scored on the UK goal keeper's fumble was just about the luckiest  WCup goal there has ever been

Next two US games of the first round are 6/18 and 6/23 and I have both set to record

It will be enteresting to see if the US can do well enough to make it into the 2nd round... I'm not exactly sure of the format then, but I think it is single game results... win and go on to the next stage, lose and go home

But, since the final isn't until July 11 the next round (or two or ???) could still be total results of playing each team in your group

Nope... just looked at the schedule http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/fixtures?cc=5901&ver=us and after the first group stage, everything is winner stay and loser go home

Now, some people are saying it's the ball's fault for being unpredictable http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-usa-england-sider-20100613,0,58901 92.story

I watched... the ball hit his hands and he didn't curl around it like he should have... he got lazy/careless the the ball bounced away

OK, what did CNN say was the cause?

Hunt

Is the feed CC'ed? I think that I'd rather have captions, than that noise.

Think about the number of viewers, who rushed out to replace their home theater receivers.

As for the drug wars, I try to stay away from the borders, as much as I can. I also do not spend much time in West Phoenix, except to drive though on I-10. We even moved a board meeting from down south of Tucson, just for safety. Sedona gave us a deal to come up there.

Glad to be back,

Hunt

Being an old TV and not going through surround sound I notice commercials volume REALLY get loud sometimes... and probably don't hear the same mixing that I would for most new movies etc that are using newer sound

Going way back, basically before the advent of cable distribution, the FCC had a ruling that commercials could not be louder than program content. Probably something like a +1dB allowance. Now, with cable and a mix of national feed commercials and locals, I find that there's about a +7dB difference in the volume, and especially for the "local" commercials, and this is with a home theater system, or just a newer TV set. My unit on the patio has something that I love, Half Mute, which I use all the time. Since I watch a lot of news programing, and often the mic'ing is not the ultimate, especially with remote interviews, I have the base volume up. Then here come the commercials, and they will blow your eardrums, even outside. Half Mute is a wonderful feature, and I will now look for it on all new TV's. It is saving what is left of my hearing.

Just got a new TV for the master bedroom, which is fed through a full sound system, but it does not have that Half Mute, and the commercials will bring you right out of the bed!

Hunt

Rod,

You make some good points, regarding the Audio Levels, and how the mixes are done. We are living in a Disneyesque world now, where the aural stimulation is over the top.

I hate the History Channel & the Discovery Channel, especially when Arthur Kent is doing the narration. He has a great voice, but either the sound guys, or the mixer in post do not get it, or he does not project all that well. I have to turn the volume up several "clicks," only to be blasted by the SFX, or the commercials. I spent about 2 hours in discussion with one of the Discovery Channel producers, really bending his ear on this matter. He needs a boost of about +5dB, and the music and SFX need to be attenuated by about -7dB. The commercials are out of their control.

In too many commercial productions, the dialog is way down, only so that the audience gets nailed by the +130dB SFX, that are lurking - think the plane crash scene in Fight Club.

Also, music that is -1dB below the dialog is not good, and does not help an audience pick up the dialog, regardless of the audio system. Unless you have a passage with no dialog, the music and most SFX should be well below the level of the dialog. There was a recent piece on History Channel, where the narrator was at the exact same Level as the music and the SFX of rumbling tanks. I guess that the sound folk wish to immerse the viewer in war, and assume that the narration is not being listened to anyway. They must all come from the music video world, where the music is the big draw. I just wonder how the sound people/mix people are monitoring this stuff. Obviously, they have a script to read, so do not even listen to the narration, and are only interested in placing what should be background in the foreground.

Also, what's up with all the whispering nowadays? Hitchcock had his actors whisper, when it was part of the story, but never over a bed of music and foley sounds. It was done so that the audience knew that the passages were whispered, but they could still hear it, and understand what was being whispered.

Do not get me started on TV programs, where everyone talks over everyone else. Even my fav. Fox News, does far too much of this. Panel discussions do not need to be perfectly structured, but having six people shout at the same time, does not cut it. I want to hear all views, whether I agree with them, or not. I call this The View treatment. Now, I have to admit that I only see clips from that program, when, say Glenn Beck, or Bill O'Reilly is a guest, and it's shown on Fox News, but it is a cat-fight in each of those clips. If I wish to hear 6 - 8 people shouting at once, I'll go to a homeowner's meeting.

Getting back to Disney, we were at Epcot some years ago, and we were going through one of the exhibits. There was a "holding area," where the line would be paused, before boarding some sort of conveyance. The noise level was deafening, with music and SFX. The kids were all stimulated to the max, but I was appalled by the noise level. In short order, we were all dumped into some sort of a retail store, and the kids were extremely worked up and ran all over the place, and were just grabbing everything in sight. That was a point where I was so glad that I did not have kids. Hey, let's take the kids out, feed them a bunch of sugar, then place them in a room with 125dB sounds, and turn them loose in FAO Schwartz! Sounds like a plan to me.

Whenever we go to Epcot, we make sure that it's when school is in session, and then are able to by-pass, or pass quickly through these stimuli traps.

Hunt

PS - I know that I am old-school and the sound teams are now doing edgy stuff, for an much, much younger audience, though with iPods, I am not sure that their hearing is any better than mine is. Were I an investor, I'd start up hearing, and tattoo removal clinics.

At the time, Michael was more into the pre-production end of producing, and is also a few generations younger, than I, so he barely listened to me, and I am sure left that lunch wondering what that doddering old fool was even talking about, as he plugged in his iPod earbuds and cranked the sound up really loud.

You are correct about the technology. I recall the remixes when Quadraphonic sound came out. In a Gadda da Vida had the drum track circling the "theater," like Ron Bushy's set was on a boom crane located in the center of the theater and swinging in long arcs around the room.

Like so many effects, both video and audio, much was done, "because they could," so why not?

BTW - have you used up your allocation (one) of the Page Curl Transition? If so, you are required to remove it from PrPro.

Hunt

Speaking of mosquitoes (wasn't someone speaking of mosquitoes?), one of my most vivid memories was fishing on the Chandelier Island chain off of the Louisiana Coast. The chain is built up by alluvial silt from the Mississippi River, and is a large crescent chain, moving slowly to the SW. The leeward side of the chain is a rather still, dead mangrove swamp, and the islands are slightly crowned, with a live mangrove jungle on the crest. The open Gulf with surf is on the windward side of the chain and the surf fishing was great there. We had taken the motor launch into the swamp and moored at the edge of the island. Hurricanes cut through the islands and also through the live mangrove growth on the crest of each island, so one usually has a "pathway" to get through the jungle to the surf. We were a group of about 5 fishermen, and were trekking through a fairly narrow cut in the living mangroves. The person ahead of me was wearing all khaki, and carrying a couple of surf rods. He was only about ten feet in front of me, when one of the rods touched the live mangrove plants. Suddenly the air came alive with giant mosquitoes, and they were so large and dense that he disappeared from my sight. The mosquitoes live on the underside of the mangrove leaves, sucking sap. However, when warm-blooded creatures are near, the females swarm, going for the blood. These mosquitoes were so large that one could plainly see the yellow hair on their abdomen. I'd guess that they were about 1/4 inch long and there were billions of them. We ran through the mangroves, as quickly as we could and plunged into the surf, diving down below the waves, to escape those mosquitoes, even though it was stingray breeding season (late July - August), and the rays were thick in that surf. We would rather face the rays, than the mosquitoes. The sound that they made was almost exactly what Jocheim posted.

Now with the Gulf oil spill, it seems that much will change on the Chandeliers. I can just imagine workers scrubbing those mosquitoes.

Hunt

Yes, Ft. Polk is/was a wonderful place. If one survived the environment, they left with an "attitude," so were properly equipped to go to war, and bring that attitude into play. Made for some mean dudes. The Louisiana State Prison is not that far away, and makes AZ's Sheriff Joe Arpio's "Tent City," look like a Sandals Resort.

Have you ever seen Southern Comfort with Powers Boothe and Keith Carradine? You'll recognize some of the "locals," and also the environment. Kind of a National Guard meets Deliverance. The haunting score by Ry Cooder is great for setting the ominous tone of the film, though the soundtrack from Deliverance got more air play. I cannot recall such an appropriate score. If you can locate it somewhere, give it a listen, and remember your time at Ft. Polk.

Hunt

Well, one positive note will be that the referee will NOT be calling their game(s).

I have yet to see the foul, that was called, and the official has refused to even discuss it.

Interesting. Almost like "style points" in most current Olympic games. If the judges do not "know" the competitors, they do not stand a chance in heck. It is getting to the point where I do even want to watch any sports with judging. It has gotten to be almost a farce.

Hunt

PS - I would feel the same way, if Slovenia had gotten hooked that way. I am getting so tired of "judging." I feel that the "Las Vegas line" is getting in the way of sports. Going back a bit, the PHX Suns got hooked in the playoffs, and the official even admitted to have bet against them, and to having been paid to see that they lost to the Mavericks. He was suspended, and possibly fined, but the game stands. Since the "right" teams, due to their markets, can mean US$10M difference in finals, I have become very jaded with my appreciation of sports.

I am not sure that the finalists have not already been decided. What with "phantom fouls," who can possibly win, if the referee does not want them to?

"What was the foul?"

"I do not have to tell you. I just saw one, so the goal was not allowed."

"But what happened? What did you call a foul on?"

"I saw it, but do not have to tell you what it was."

"The replays did not show a foul. Can you help us identify what you saw?"

"It was there, and I do not have to tell you what it was... "

OK, not sure why we play on, as the officials already know who the winners will be. Just mail in the results and we'll all get on with our lives. At least it's not quite so blatant as the French judge and the Russian judge conspiring to award points to their countries' skaters, to beat all others.

Hunt

The only foul I saw, and a blatant one at that, was a Slovenia player with his arms completely wrapped around a US player to keep him from running toward the ball... this was in the "scrum" in front of the goal, so the referee MAY have been screened by other players and didn't see the foul

Oh well... that game is done and there is one more chance for the US to score first and not have to play catch up

I do wonder if FIFA has an official's committee that reviews game tapes and rates officials?

An audio company has figured out a way to remove the horns from World Cup viewing

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/06/world-cup-broadcasters-vuvuzela -horns/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wir ed%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

Jeremy,

Glad that I am not the only one, who cannot find the foul. I attributed that to my lack of knowledge of football (non-US football). It actually looked like a couple of wrestling moves were being put on two US players, but then maybe that is allowed? It'd be like a rugby fan looking at a replay of US football, and asking, "what do you mean you can't do THAT?!?!"

Now, I've heard several discussions by US sportswriters, who seem to know soccer, but then they have mostly been from the US, so I cannot vouch for their impartiality.

It's like when one of my team's defensive players is tackled and hauled to the turf, and no Holding is called. If it had been the opposing team and Holding HAD been called, I'd be up a screaming, "incidental contact. The defensive player tripped on his own feet!!!!"

Maybe soccer needs to embrace instant replay on goals, etc. Though I am pretty much a tennis purist, I have to admit that the replays have improved thing greatly. I have been surprised at how many calls are blown. OTOH, I have called lines in some junior matches, and it is not as easy, as it looks. Were I doing so for the pros, I would relish having instant replay to verify my calls, good, or bad.

Oh well, "stuff" happens,

Hunt

Bad juju

Careful Jeff. You are invoking the spirits of the past there, or nearly so.

Hunt

Jeff,

THOSE spirits are easy to deal with!

Hunt

PS - I do still miss some of those long dead discussions. Though too few were in the Lounge, I have to admit to some good laughs, and also some pithy discussions along the way...

That would be my guess, but it's ONLY a guess. I thought that I saw him with a new screen name, not THAT long ago, but could well have been wrong. I do have to admit that there was always more acrimony in some of those thread, than was needed, but there were often some good discussions, at least in the beginning. Many of the threads devolved too quickly into "mush," but still some interesting replies.

Hunt

Hmm aren't you talking about the dreaded vuvuzelas? It's a pain to watch the whole match with the constant buzz .

Well, I do have to admit that for the first time in my life, I actually followed some soccer, so all is not lost.

Still, nice showing!

Hunt