What were they thinking?!

[threemonkeys]

Top Gear Australia. You knew it was going to be wrong. It was wrong. It will always be wrong. Sigh.

Comments

[battblush.livejournal.com]

I think it would have been a sure fire ratings winner both here and overseas if we'd invented it. But we didn't so TGA is never going to be anything more than a poor-cousin-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks clone.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Of course, they could have cloned 5th Gear and nobody would have cared.

[cricketk.livejournal.com]

They've tried to hard to replicate Top Gear. If it were more it's own thing it might not suffer quite so badly in comparison.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I'm no great fan of 5th Gear, as they did try to replicate TG - but they also try to inject some of their own character as well and that gets them some plus marks.

[bytheseaside.livejournal.com]

OK, completely out of the blue and off topic here, but I've just been approached by someone in the US who is looking for a copy of Craig Harrison's The Quiet Earth. It sounds like she's searched online fairly thoroughly and not had much luck.

You know more about this than me, so I was wondering if you could offer any help on where to look?

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I assume you mean the book - the DVD is available from Amazon readily enough. I note Amazon lists just the one copy of the book from one of their third party suppliers for $2000 - presumably a first edition, but still a lot, indicating rarity.

I pretty much have a 4 step process for finding books in this situation (then I give up)
1 Check Amazon (for reference info as much as anything)
2 Go to Arty Bees and see if they have it (www.artybees.co.nz) - they have a query form if I can't get there in person. Barbara's in Auckland are also worth dropping a line. Like Arty Bees they have a lot of NZ stock that isn't actually catalogued online so you have to ask (www.barbarasbooks.co.nz)
3 Wander around the shops in Welly - there are some good ones for NZ books but they don't have web presence (not much help for somebody in the States)
4 Go to www.booksearch.com and institute a global search. Only when I'm desperate though which given how many books I have on my to-read pile does not happen much.