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March 29, 2024, 12:51:18 AM

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Heads Up - Chris Morris article in Time Out

Started by terminallyrelaxed, February 14, 2005, 12:06:23 PM

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terminallyrelaxed

Yes, its the one with Bill Murray on the cover (two comedy geniuses for the price of one <yes, he is, and no, you're wrong>  and 'great moog moments' thrown in, what more could you want?)
I shall let you know what I think once I've read it. Feel free to discuss its content in this thread - or hey, just cynically speculate on it, whatever works for you....

butnut

Is it written by Morris or just about him?

terminallyrelaxed

Its about him, written by Kieran Corless whoever the hell he is, and has 'Morris according to those who know him' by  Iannucci, Baynham and someone called Rebaecca Front - oh, its only a double page spread, so editorally quite light, bit of an 'factoid-file' actually, you know, high points, low points and 'offspring' (inspired descendants).
Forget I spoke.

chav

Do they mention the memorable incident when he let off some helium in the newsreader's studio and made him speak in a high-pitched voice? Or did they wisely leave that anecdote to one side seeing as IT'S NOT TRUE? What with physics an' all getting in the way.

A Passing Turk Slipper

Quote from: "chav"Do they mention the memorable incident when he let off some helium in the newsreader's studio and made him speak in a high-pitched voice? Or did they wisely leave that anecdote to one side seeing as IT'S NOT TRUE? What with physics an' all getting in the way.
But hasn't he said in interviews that he did it. Like on his resume that alan strang?  posted. Also, it could be done, there's a clip on the site somewhere that shows that.

chav

Sorry, my mistake, if he said he did it.

I'd be interested to hear any clip that "shows" it can be done. I was just thinking of that Law (Boyle's, is it?). You'd need an extraordinary amount of helium, depending on the room size.

A Passing Turk Slipper

There is a clip on the rarities page although it says that they are not sure where it originated from so it might not be the incident we are talking about. I'm not sure how it would work either though. I have wondered that before actually, you'd need pretty big balloons.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: "A Passing Turk Slipper"I'm not sure how it would work either though. I have wondered that before actually, you'd need pretty big balloons.
Just drag a cylinder of the stuff (as used to fill helium balloons at funfairs and so on) into the studio and turn it on?

I would have thought the biggest risk was causing people to pass out, actually.  Helium isn't toxic in itself, but if you fill your lungs with it, there's no room for any oxygen...

By the way, enjoy it while you can.  The world's running out of helium.  Since it's lighter than air, it escapes into space, and all that we have is trapped inside certain types of rock-seams, which are fast running out.  They reckon that by the next decade we won't have any left, which will completely bugger all those nice hospital MRI scanners and so on.  THEN we'll regret wasting it on balloons and comedy pranks.  :-)

Maybe if they get cheap fusion working they'll be able to make some more.  Let's hope so.

A Passing Turk Slipper

But in that clip you can hear balloons popping. Is Helium really going to have ran out in ten years time then? What are we going to use to make our voices go funny?

Spiney Norman

Yeah, I've heard a clip somewhere that's supposedly of the helium incident (possibly this site, can't think where else I could have found it). So it did happen in some form or another... However common sense suggests, like people have said, that you'd need a fair bit of helium for it to work. Could it have been staged, with the newsreaders willingly inhaling helium (ie they were in on the joke)?

Dan

Santa's Boyfriend

From the sound of the clip it may have just been a voice effect.

Spiney Norman

Hmm, can't find the clip now, but I know a fair bit about audio effects as I write VST plugins, and I remember it sounding a bit too 'irregular' to be a pitch shifting effect, if that makes any sense. It's possible though.

Dan

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: "A Passing Turk Slipper"Is Helium really going to have ran out in ten years time then?
Yes.  I first read it in this New Scientist article (only the first three paragraphs readable without a subscription), which says it will run out in 50 years.  I think it then went onto say that within 10 years the price will start rocketing though.

A quick Google search reveals other similar reports though:
Quote from: "Energy Bulletin"It's surprising how many scientists and nonscientists alike are oblivious of the pending helium shortage. But it is a fact—we will run out of helium. According to [blah], the question is when, not if, this will happen. Conservative estimates of the helium remaining indicate that the U.S. private reserves may run out by 2015, assuming the rate of helium consumption stays constant at the 1998 rate (1). Obviously, a continued increase in helium demand could significantly advance the date when the world's supply becomes critical.
(emphasis mine)