Thursday, June 19, 2008

TT - Israeli Late Night TV

It's 1:30 in the morning and since I crashed out on my daughter's floor before and ended up sleeping there for a few hours I am now distressingly wide awake. Wide awake in the wee hours + no great ideas for a Thirteen = "What's On TV Right Now". If you were looking for pithy prose this definitely isn't the day - try again on Friday when the writing prompts start. In the meantime, you get drivel:

1. Channel 3 (general entertainment) - Martha Stewart, about to be followed by Oprah

2. Bip (comedy) - The Simple Life (oh god, this is that horrible Paris Hilton thing, isn't it?)

3. Xtra Hot (more general entertainment) - Jack and Jill (just ending), followed by Arrested Development

4. AXN Action Channel - The Sentinel

5. (skipping the strictly Israeli channel since what's on won't mean anything to most of you - to those who care it's Yellow Asphalt with Moshe Ivgi)

6. Channel 8 (documentaries) - American Shopper - "Documenting the introduction of "Aisling", a new supermarket sport that promotes self-expression through creative shopping". Huh?

7. (skipping the Russian channel) Israeli Channel 10 - Ring & Win, a local game show

8. Israeli Channel 1 - How Dares The Star - culture and music

9. HOT Gold (movie channel) - The Prestige. Thriller. Rival magicians in turn of the century London battle each other for trade secrets. With Hugh Jackman.

10. HOT Fun (movie channel) - Domestic Import. Comedy. The life of a couple is in turmoil, as the Ukrainian maid they hired is only interested in finding an American husband.

11. HOT Action (movie channel) - The General's Daughter. Thriller. The daughter of a well-respected general is murdered and the investigation exposes dark secrets and corruption. With John Travolta.

12. HOT Drama (movie channel) Il Tempo dell'Amore (in English). Drama, depicting 3 impossible love stories. 1 in the South African Boer War, 2 in Occupied France, 3 in current day Italy.

13. Hallmark - Mary Bryant. Drama. Part 2: In 1788 Mary Bryant, a starving young Cornwall girl, is convicted of a petty crime and sentenced to seven years in the Australian penal colony of Botany Bay.

We've got cable so the list could go on and on (and that's only the English and Hebrew language offerings, there are also a number of foreign language channels) but there's 13 of them for you.

Now I just need to avoid getting sucked into watching any of them and force myself to go to bed! Say goodnight Gracie. G'night Gracie. (Sheesh, I must be getting tired (I hope I'm getting tired!), I'm writing utter nonsense.)




Visit Thursday Thirteen to see what other, hopefully more coherent, people are counting this week.

43 comments:

Chelle Y. said...

I went to Israel for on Senior Trip in 1986. We all tried to watch television at night because they would not let up roam the streets of Jerusalem by ourselves. It did not interest us much, because we did not understand the language.

So we played on the elevators! Haha!

Robin said...

There weren't too many channels back then, were there. It's all cable and satellite now - 3,953,487 channels of nothing to watch.

Michelle said...

Isn't it funny that everyone has cable these days and there still isn't anything to watch. I remember those late night baby feedings and not finding anything on the TV. It use to drive me crazy. LOL. Thanks for visiting my TT!

Anonymous said...

Self expression through creative shopping?? omg does anyone actually fall for drivel like that?

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Your nonsense rocks. And it's helpful for the Tour Manager, who boards a plane on Friday... eep! Me, a single mom for a week!

This could be bad.

Btw, I owe you something really huge for catching the broken link of mine at the TT hub! Do you need/want to have anything hand-delivered?

Robin said...

That's really sweet of you to offer Susan but I'm good for now. I'll be in the States myself in August so I'll be able to do some shopping then. These days you can get just about anything you might like here, it's just sometimes more expensive. Not like the old days when we'd bring over ridiculous things like peanut butter and shampoo.

Anonymous said...

Wow! It's just as bad there as here! Great reason to grab a book, I guess.

Anonymous said...

You know, I love this kind of thing. I am as fascinated with how other people live as I am with people. Are the movies subtitled in Israeli (sorry that's an "I a stupid american" joke - Hebrew)? or are they dubbed in Hebrew?

Happy TT Robin! I hope all is really well

SandyCarlson said...

All that "HOT" is interesting. The self-expression through creative shopping thing has me baffled. I don't have the budget to express much self, so I'll have to watch sometime and see how it's done! (Self-expression in the dollar store is the show I need!)

Robert said...

You stole my comment about all those channels and nothing to watch. I watch very little tv these days. I prefer blogs. Stories here are much more entertaining! Even stories written in the middle of the night about nothing to watch on tv. Actually, that would have made a good Seinfeld episode!

So I see you said you'll be in the states soon. It makes me wonder, are you from the states living out there? Or from out there and visiting here? Or some other scenario I haven't mentioned?

Hope you got some sleep.

Lilibeth said...

I've watched more tv than I care for over the last three weeks--no computer. The only two programs I liked were Matlock and Jeopardy.

Wylie Kinson said...

Personally, I'd go with The General's Daughter. Good movie based on an excellent book by Nelson DeMille.
Hope sleep finds you soon!

pussreboots said...

I think we have about 10 channels (no cable). Happy TT.

Carol said...

Thatsa lotta hot movie channels.

Good T-13!

Anonymous said...

I think I could be drawn into watching whatever #6 is. It sounds like a sport I could actually be good at. Although maybe I should have googled "Aisling" first to be sure what I'm getting into.

storyteller said...

Decisions … decisions ;--)
Hugs and blessings,

Maisie said...

I'd probably watch the Hallmark movie - except it's part 2. I just got up from a nap at 9. So, I probably won't be getting to bed until later, too. I just needed a quick power nap, but it turned into an hour and a half.

SJ Reidhead said...

As long as you have Arrested Development you're safe! I love that show.

SJR
The Pink Flamingo
http://thepinkflamingo.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/6/18/3751571.html

Robin said...

Claudia - everything here is subtitled in Hebrew (not Israeli ;-)) except for things geared for young children who obviously wouldn't benefit from subtitles. Their programming is dubbed.

Sandy - "HOT" is the name of the cable company (as opposed to the satellite company which is "Yes"). The HOT channels are just their proprietary ones.

Robert - I'm both American and Israeli. I grew up in the States (suburban NY) and have lived in Israel for nearly 20 years now. My husband, kids and I all hold dual citizenship - two passports each. Makes international travel quite bulky LOL.

Wylie - that one did sound like the best of the bunch, but I didn't want to start watching anything that was just beginning at 1:30 in the morning.

Gattina said...

I see that you are not better served than we are here in Belgium, lol ! For the moment they show all old stuff from the 70th! Good idea to make such a list !

Anonymous said...

What? No shopping channel? Those are dangerous when awake late at night! :-) I echo you and others at how despite having oodles of channels, there isn't much worth watching.

Hootin Anni said...

Thing is...now-a-days, with all the TV available, there is absolutely nothing of interest. I'd much rather read.

My 13 is posted, come join me?
Happy Thursday.

Anonymous said...

Oh girl...I'm so sorry that your television in the wee hours of the morning is so bad. It's bad ALL the time here. Can you order dvds from Netflix? Do they have that in Israel? Nahh, it probably would take too long to send them. You might die of boredom before you got them.

Shermanim said...

It's so funny that a list of what was on TV 1:30 in the morning can be so interesting that I read every word, even though I basically know what is on tv in Israel. Thanks for an enthralling list of what was on TV last night. :-)

Anonymous said...

Wow -- you have quite an assortment to watch there much like over here! Great TT BTW even if was thunk up in the wee hours!Thanks for stopping by mine!

marcia@joyismygoal said...

oh sad those represent our sad state of our airways Good things good books are not on a schedule

ShannonW said...

I don't like the Paris Hilton show either. I do like the Hallmark channel though.

Denise Patrick said...

What an interesting list. It's sobering in a way to see that Americans are the only ones with too many channels of "nothing".

Thanks for visiting my TT!

Anonymous said...

Fascinating! I'm curious about the "Bip" and "How Dares the Star" programs.

Happy TT!

Janet said...

Never heard of an "Aisling" supermarket sport!

Anonymous said...

If I had been the one who's awake, I wouldn't be able to come up with a list because we have no TV!! Happy TT, Robin.

Amy Ruttan said...

I hope you got some sleep!!

I would like to see what's on the local Israeli and Russian channels.

I'm curious.

Happy TT and thanks for dropping by mine. :)

Darla said...

Oh, this is fun! I should try to remember to do one on German TV one of these days. We have one channel that we still haven't been able to figure out... I think it's a public access channel, but it's very odd.

Anonymous said...

Oh my! I hope you got to make up on your sleep! This reminded me of when my kids were little and they'd wake up sick at 2 am ...and how we'd bring them in to our bed and struggle to find something good for them to watch on t.v. but nope- not a hope. Luckily they're older now and they'll read quite happily instead.
Thanks for the T13...I can sympathise!

bella:)
http://bellamocha.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/thursday-thirteen-11/

bernieg1 said...

Great list, mine is up at Top 13 Boys Names for 2007

Genny said...

The only TV we watch anymore is stuff that we've DVR'd (recorded). It seems like any time I turn on live TV, there's nothing on. Plus, commercials make me nutty. :)

Unknown said...

Hot drama and Hallmark sound pretty good. What?? No 200 channels?? Its probably better that way. What would you do with 200 channels of nothing?? lol... Happy TT and thanks for stopping by.

Lori said...

Yawn....is it time for bed yet???lol...poor thing. Maybe you should just play on the computer instead:) Happy TT and thanks for stopping by.

Meju said...

Sounds like an interesting line up. I would love to visit Israel one day!

Anonymous said...

Ian and I watched The PRestige not too long ago and really liked it. Well . . . I like anything with Christian Bale. ;-)

creative shopping??

Don Mills Diva said...

I have to agree with Bruce Springsteen, except now it's 157 channels and nothing on...

Gilit Frank said...

Hey Robin

I still bring toothpaste over from Canada for 40-50 cents a tube - beats the Israeli price by a lot, even when on sale here!

regarding cable tv, I don't have it...i'm happy with channel 2 reruns of Sex in the City, Seinfeld and Friends late at night

Anonymous said...

LOL! There's a reason I almost always just watch DVDs. ;)