Ten More Links and a Video.

6 things you don’t understand about feminism that you should probably learn before writing about feminism:
"Why oh why do so many American liberal media platforms insist on publishing articles about feminism by people who are totally clueless about feminism? There are so, so many feminists who know what feminism is, it seems unnecessary. There are also hundreds of books and resources that you could simply, you know, read if you were interested in writing about feminism with any accuracy whatsoever. But why bother learning about what you are writing about when you can just make it up as you go along! Especially when you know your fellow American liberals are eager to take in any and all ideas that support their lazy disinterest in challenging the status quo or memememeME! worldview."

Speaking While Female:
"YEARS ago, while producing the hit TV series “The Shield,” Glen Mazzara noticed that two young female writers were quiet during story meetings. He pulled them aside and encouraged them to speak up more. Watch what happens when we do, they replied. Almost every time they started to speak, they were interrupted or shot down before finishing their pitch. When one had a good idea, a male writer would jump in and run with it before she could complete her thought. Sadly, their experience is not unusual.

Help us create a directory of the UK’s recorded sound collections:
"Sound recordings help us to understand the world around us. They document the UK’s creative endeavours, preserve key moments in history, capture personal memories, and give a sense of local and regional identity. But the nation’s sound collections are under threat, both from physical degradation and the disappearance of the technologies that support them. To understand the risks facing the UK’s sound collections and to map the scale of the problem, the British Library is initiating a project to collect information about our recorded heritage, to create a directory of sound collections in the UK. By telling us what you have, you can help us plan for their preservation for future generations."

How Old VHS Tapes Helped Save Early Web Design:
"Conventional wisdom has it that anything published online can never be truly erased. People petition governments for the "right to be forgotten"—to have personal information and images permanently removed from the Internet. But look for a screenshot or image from a page of the very early web, and you'll find it almost impossible to locate. Prominent technologist Andy Baio, who runs the site Waxy.org, where he promotes tech ephemera and news, has discovered an unlikely portal to an era that has all but disappeared from today's Internet, and quite nearly from the human record: VHS tapes. With these tapes, now viewable on YouTube, comes a critical look into a period that set the stage for the massive design and technological changes society has undergone over the past 20 years."

The year of post-it-notes and mindfulness:
"For a nethead and digerati like myself, 2014 was a year of ironies."

The World's Oldest First-Grader Is Honored By A Google Doodle:
"The Google doodle for Kenya today shows a white-haired man at a table in a primary school, earnestly writing a classroom exercise. The kids behind him grin as if to say, "He is kind of old to be a first-grader.""

If Hermione Were The Main Character In “Harry Potter”:
"Hermione Granger and the Goddamn Patriarchy."

Video Games and the Curse of Retro:
"Video games are more prone than other media to obsolescence. With each new generation of hardware and software, scores of titles are made unplayable. Music has suffered similarly, of course: vinyl morphed into cassette into CD into digital audio. But music, like films and books, is easily transferred to new formats. Video games, which rely not only on audiovisual reproduction but also on a computer’s ability to understand and execute their coded rules and instructions, require more profound reconstruction. Without a strong commercial incentive to maintain their back catalogues, many publishers allow games to drift into extinction."

Google Translate Now Rewrites Foreign Signs Before Your Eyes:
"Google's Translate app is already pretty neat, allowing your to snap photographs and have them converted into one of 36 languages. Now, though, you can point your camera at a sign or menu and see the translation in real time."

Why Star Trek: Voyager Meant The World To Me:
"Twenty years ago today, Star Trek: Voyager premiered. Of the five live-action Star Trek series, Voyager is not the best. If you were ranking them, Voyager and Enterprise would probably duke it out for last place. But none of that matters, because Star Trek: Voyager meant everything to me as a child."

Oblivion (The Complete Eighth Doctor Comic Strips Volume Three).

Comics The DWM strip made the change to colour superbly well, still able to provide moody imagery when required but also allowing for bright technicolour leading to a change in the shading of the Doctor's jacket from green to blue (which seemed like a huge decision which just shows how conservative the Eighth Doctor era was) and real expression in Izzy/Destrii's gills. This graphic novel also includes the short piece Character Assassination, drawn for a special issue about the Master but since it's about the Delgado model I'm saving that for when I finally try and catch up on my Third Doctor backlog. Yes, I'm the kind of fan who has piles of stories for particular incarnations unread or unheard.

Ophidius

Of everything there is to focus on in the story (the Doctor’s new jacket, Izzy’s new body), I’m slightly obsessed with the TARDIS interior. Although the general look is similar to the TV Movie, the focus is on a library which is I think how it's portrayed in the novels and is much the case in the tv series. There’s also that massively scenic element of opening up the ceiling to reveal the exterior view something which must have been considered for television too but perhaps would never quite look right. Plus there’s the fairy tale element of having the door acting as a portal into another world and has that quality from both directions. It’s a moment which tends to be cut from the strips for reasons of brevity, and sometimes, as here, it’s sadly missed.

Beautiful Freak

Having Izzy change species is really bold storytelling and for the first time in the comics, the story arc is much more about character than story. The Doctor’s big speech about changing shape is just how you would expect him to try to deal with the situation but of course he’s dead wrong and Izzy throws it back at him just as she should. She’s not just isolated from her body now, she’s isolated from her entire life and doesn’t even know how her body reacts to anything, even how to breath. The scenes were she attempts to regain some of her identity by wearing the clothes she originally wore when she joined the TARDIS are meant to seem hopeful, but really they’re chilling. At this point we’re meant to believe Destrii isn’t returning with her real body but even with hindsight, this is extremely effective.

The Way of the Flesh

Four years before The Unquiet Dead, here’s a surprise celebrity historical which also backgrounds mortality albeit in a way which is utilised in a way which is closer to Army of Ghosts in terms of how it effects the local population. In keeping with the television series, we have the idea of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera with just enough accuracy for the purposes of the story, the former, thanks to her own condition, a way helping Izzy come to terms with her predicament ready for the next story in which it becomes vitally important. Reading this reminds me to watch the two biopics again at some point, Frida and The Cradle Will Rock, though it’s Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina’s voices from the former which spoke the dialogue in my head when reading this rather than Corina Katt Ayala and Ruben Blades from the latter.

Children of the Revolution

The strip that’s famous enough to inspire a merchandising gift set though kids won’t really be able to do a re-enactment until the inevitable waterproof Kroll hand puppet emerges. Of all these strips, barring the Izzy the Fish business, this is one of the few of these strips that could be filmed as is on television give or take a few budgetary trims. The idea of good Daleks has of course been visited a few times since, notably Into The Dalek, but also in Marjorie Blackman’s novella The Ripple Effect. Unlike pretty much every other occasion, the Doctor doesn’t immediately assume it’s a ruse and doesn’t attempt to reveal their “true” colours ala Victory of the Daleks. The notion of Daleks as religious beings would also later be developed in the Russell T Davies era as well as the notion of the Doctor as “saviour”.

Me and My Shadow

Another “Dalek Cutaway” this time to explain to potential new readers who Fey Truscott-Sade is to new readers as well as explaining to old ones why she hasn’t killed Hitler yet or some such. We’re told and we’ve seen in various narratives that the Time Lords aren’t the only beings in the Whoniverse with access to the technology. Although stories have been told about them and others manipulating history (see the Databank) even in Let's Kill Hitler there’s not much prospect of it. In the final exchange between Fey and Threshold, the latter reminds the former that Adolf is part of a nexus in history which is why she can’t go vigilante on him. But it’s interesting that we’ve never had a story about the Doctor saving Hitler as a young man from some other freelancer in order to save future history.

Uroborus

For all my griping about Capaldi’s callousness last year, the Eighth Doctor, largely due to his multi-media development across many years, could be pretty acerbic himself especially when his friends were in danger. Even knowing whom it’s directed it and why, when he says, “Wake up, Destrii. I care about keeping Izzy’s body intact, the girl currently wearing is can rot” it feels especially dark, especially since John Ross’s artwork magnifies the lines on his face and then cuts to a close-up of her finally appreciating the magnitude of what she’s done.  The story ends on a line which would become famous in the Eleventh Doctor era, the sentiment magpied for The Hungry Earth.  The monsters are scared of him.

Oblivion

Bye then Izzy. Something, now Sinclair’s departure is one of the most heartfelt in the show’s history not and least and also because of the reveal that she’s the first LGBT assistant in the show’s history. In the notes, writer Scott Grey explains that this had been decided right at the start as part of the development of the character but hadn’t really been worked into any of the stories because, as I suspect, how could you do that in the DWM strip without it seeming crass and exploitative? It’s only in her concluding chapter that it begins to make sense and her final kiss with Fey a poignant and logical conclusion to the narrative. Russell T Davies apparently contacted them with his admiration and quite right too. It’s an occasion when Who's comics demonstrate their ability to be as moving as any other artform.

Oscar's Predilections.

Film Having been reading Doctor Who comics all morning and shopping at Asda, I entirely forgot about the Oscar nominations. Watching the announcement via YouTube led to an enjoyable moment when a microphone two of the producers of the coverage discussed when to turn off the feed, "We don't want a situation like last year..." Whatever happened then. I've slept and eaten some cheese since then. Either way the only thing anyone is talking about on Twitter is Dick Poop and The Lego Movie.

Best Picture

American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Of course, though given previous experience, and I do keep saying this, it'll probably go to something relatively conventional with a decent lead performance.

Best Director

Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

But if it wasn't there, Wes Anderson. That goes for Best Picture too. I wouldn't be entirely unhappy if Budapest won both either.

Best Actor

Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Because Cumberbatch.

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard, One Day, Two Nights
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Because Jones. Felicity "Chalet Girl" Jones is now an Oscar nominee. Though Pike is a close second.

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Laura Dern, Wild
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Although we're reminded by anyone who watches soap operas that actors there have had to sustain characters across many years, the technical feat of doing that convincingly and invisible across over a decade within a few days here and there can't be disregarded. There is an argument that they're playing versions of themselves, but Hawke's characterisation is very distinct when seen in comparison to Jesse.

Best Original Screenplay

Birdman, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., Armando Bo
Boyhood, Richard Linklater
Foxcatcher, E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness
Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy

Admittedly to an extent these awards should be handed to Boyhood for the sheer endurance of the effort, but in relation to screenplay, creating a coherent story across that time taking into account changes in casting and location has to be acknowledged.

Best Adapted Screenplay

American Sniper, Jason Hall
The Imitation Game, Graham Moore
Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson
The Theory of Everything, Anthony McCarten
Whiplash, Damien Chazelle

Shrugs. Haven#t seen any of these. Cumberbatch rule applied.

Best Foreign Language Film

Ida (Poland)
Leviathan (Russia)
Tangerines (Estonia)
Timbuktu (Mauritania)
Wild Tales (Argentina)

Was One Day, Two Nights not submitted? I haven't seen that yet either but it seems like a real Oscar type film. Odd.

Best Documentary Feature

Citizenfour
Finding Vivian Maier
Last Days in Vietnam
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga

That's what I presume will win - its the least controversial of the choices,

Best Animated Feature

Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

See here. Other than that I'm applying the MARVEL rule. Other than Boyhood, the most important film of last year was relegated to the craft categories.

Best Original Song

“Everything Is Awesome,” The LEGO Movie
“Glory,” Selma
“Grateful,” Beyond the Lights
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me
“Lost Stars,” Begin Again

Consolation prize. Sniff.

Best Original Score

The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Mr. Turner
The Theory of Everything

Though having two Desplat nominated scores means it'll go to something else due to split voting.

Best Film Editing

American Sniper
Boyfood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Whiplash

In your face, The Baftas. The multiple aspect ratios of Budapest should give us pause though.

Best Cinematography

Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ida
Mr. Turner
Unbroken

Obvs.

Best Costume Design

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr. Turner

Because it's the one I've seen. Disney vs Disney here too.

Best Production Design

The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Mr. Turner

See above.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy

Because it's the most important film of last year. Expect Budpest will get it though.

Best Visual Effects

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Dawn will probably win it though. At a certain point the Oscars are going to have to start looking at mocapping in general and as an artform. In this category we're comparing the creation of a performance with crashing a spaceship into a city. They're not the same thing.

Best Sound Editing

American Sniper
Birdman
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken

Bless.

Best Sound Mixing

American Sniper
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash

No idea. Should have seen it at the cinema. Didn't. I've left the Short Films off. I know my place.

Let's talk about The Lego Movie and the Oscars.

Film

Don't read this if you haven't seen it yet.

Seriously, don't.

Here's what the Oscars says in relation to the eligibility of an animated film:

"An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of more than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture’s running time."

The running time of the film is 83 minutes.

 My guess is the live action elements towards the end rendered it ineligible for a nomination (we could time those minutes I suppose and see) or failing that Oscar voters assumed it was ineligible and simply didn't vote for it.

Or decided that it was simply an eighty minute long toy commercial and didn't vote for it on that basis.

Simple as that.

Still, it was exciting for the three minutes when we thought it might be up for Best Picture.  I'll post the nominations in a minute or two.

My Favourite Film of 2013.

Film  Gravity was a surprise.

The process of Christmas shopping every year is different.

Some years, like this year, everything seems to fall into place, the perfect items tumble off the shelves and through the letter box (or rather carefully handed over at the doorstep) and there little stress and no worry.

2013 was not like this.  In 2013, I didn't have a clue.

Which is why I ended up on Renshaw Street looking for Christmas presents one afternoon late into 2013.

I didn't find anything and I especially didn't find anything for my parents.

Dejected and doubting myself it didn't take too long to realise that I needed to take a step back.  To breath.

So despite having decided I wouldn't end up seeing Gravity at the cinema, I went to see Gravity at the cinema.

I surprised myself with a film.

In Screen One at Picturehouse at FACT in Liverpool.

Thank goodness.

Sitting on the row was a good choice especially since FACT's screen runs from floor to ceiling and as Sandra Bullock tumbled and rolled through her computer generated space, I felt my stomach repeating the gesture right the way through, my heart pumping, my mouth wide open, forgetting all my Christmas present buying troubles.

Not even the burk directly behind me with the massive bag of crisps who only seemed to munch during the all important moments of silence really distracted me.

I turned around now and then to give him my trademark glare but he was clearly in the group of people who just didn't seem to get Gravity, that its slight characterisation and relatively simple story are a slave to the visual and ride.  He sighed.  He fidgeted.  He continued munching.

But I was with Sandra in her space suit breathing and breathing and breathing some more even when she shouldn't, even when I couldn't.

Then as it reached its conclusion, my arms wrapped around myself, watching one of the most powerful, moving shots in cinema history, I grinned.  As director Alfonso Cuaron's credit appeared I raised my arms in the air.

Presents were bought.  Christmas was fine.  Though I can't credit either to Gravity exactly, I was at least reminded that if you just keep going you'll get there in the end.

Woody Allen's signed with Amazon.

Film You will have read the news but just to record it here for posterity, Woody Allen's signed with Amazon to write and direct a series for them.

"I don't know how I got into this," says in the press release I received about it. "I have no ideas and I'm not sure where to begin."

Well, quite. It's not his first television work of course. That would be, most prominently and least promisingly, his version of Don't Drink The Water starring himself and Michael J Fox for HBO which I reviewed here. Which isn't especially promising.

Does this mean that for the first time in decades there won't be a new film in 2016, breaking an unbroken run of annual releases since Annie Hall in 1977? Or will he manage to fit this in and a theatrical release?

What form will it take?  Will it be one story across multiple episodes or my guess which is some kind of anthology series based on his previous writing (so as to keep it distinctive from the Whit Stillman series).

Presumably they're just throwing some money at him and seeing what he'll come up with.  Either way, it's deeply exciting.

Soup Safari #14: Boston Chicken Chowder at La Soupe du Jour.

Lunch. £3.50 meal deal (including bread with cheese topping and a banana). La Soupe du Jour, 1-3 Dolman's Lane. Warrington, UK. WA1 2ED. Tel: 01925 555 030. Website.

The Company of Friends: Izzy's Story

Audio The oddness of suddenly hearing these characters which have only previously appeared on page is entirely mitigated by just how authentically enthusiastic Jemima Rooper sounds as Izzy and how perfectly writer Alan Barnes gauges the script in capturing her pop culture references. Having this audio version comment on its comic origins is sublime as are the satirical swipes against 2000AD and its ilk, in a story which you can still absolutely imagine having appeared early in the comic’s DWM run (I think I may have listened to it slightly “out of sequence” but with no standard placement and multiple choices online I just ended up picking somewhere at random). Funny also how its conclusion manages to sound like parts of Gallifrey Base commenting on a female Master just a few years later.

The Glorious Dead (The Complete Eighth Doctor Comic Strips Volume Two).

Comics If all of the Eighth Doctor's multi-medium appearances, mimicked the production method of the televisions series in some respect with book editors and audio producers working in a similar way to showrunners, the comics also had just one or two writers across their entire run, Alan Barnes and Scott Gray, developing a unifying style and a very specific idea of how this version of the Doctor and his adventures should be written whilst simultaneously being just as flexible and experimental in the media within which they’re working.  Having jumped in originally halfway through the material in this collection, it's quite the experience to finally read the stories leading up to The Glorious Dead and beyond and understanding what all of those continuity references actually meant.

Happy Deathday

There’s an argument that Doctor Who’s rarely better than when it’s taking the piss out of itself but as writer Scott Gray suggests in his notes this was the main strip’s first attempt at out and out comedy. Predictably, it’s hilarious. As he says, after the TV movie had “flatlined” they were looking for any opportunity to celebrate an anniversary and this was the 35th and so we have eight Doctors and hundreds of monsters appearing across eight pages spoofing both The Five Doctors and Dimensions in Time (and arguably and spectacularly Terrance’s recently published novel The Eighth Doctors). There is a conversation between 4th and 7th about Time Lord allergies which is probably one of the best pieces of dialogue in the franchise’s history and an example of just the sort of fun you can have with this character.

The Fallen

Grace! Having waited a couple of years to bed in, the strip finally does the direct sequel to the TV movie on but harshes the mellow of the reunion by all but removing the romance from the relationship and in a way which doesn’t quite feel in character for Dr Holloway – though its fair to say that its probably impossible to say properly what is in character considering her limited screen time. Nevertheless it’s easy to admire how Scott Grey is able to turn the odder elements of the TV movie, 8th’s prophesies, the half-human thing to the advantage of the story and how conservative it is that despite the strip has access to the character (something neither the novels or audios have) they don’t use her as the companion. The strip wants to be its own thing so Izzy remains.

Unnatural Born Killers

Kroton! This short piece by Adrian Salmon acts as a kind of “Dalek Cutaway” for future attractions. The graphic novel helpfully reprints the cyberman with a souls first appearances in the then Doctor Who Weekly in which he first discovers he’s different and begins to make human friends and the Salmon strip somewhat continues his story to show that he’s begun to take the fight to races, in this case the Sontarans, who’re threatening what he knows to be his former people. The art is dynamic with great use of blacks to produce something distinctive to the rest of the strips. Of course the notion of expected antagonists, what are usually called monsters, becoming the Doctors and allies and friends would return in the new series with the Paternoster Gang if lacking the melancholia of this man caught between races and worlds.

The Road To Hell

A full on Japangasm with the sort of dense storytelling and heavy exposition you can usually expect from manga. With massive visuals and splash pages and acres of philosophy and alien mythology it’s sometimes difficult to quite follow. It’s noticeable the extent to which Izzy is being utilised to drive the narrative as much as the Doctor and across all of these strips is rarely damselled. Katsuri will clearly return (his condition also looks towards the future treatment of Captain Jack). Even after having been saved he’s clearly unhappy that it means he’ll have to walk in eternity, his honour devalued. As we’ve already seen, the sense of who’s an antagonist/protagonist in these comics is especially fluid. The Doctor had better watch out.

TV Action

Good old TV Action. Of all the Eighth Doctor strips, this is one of those which is often talked about in hushed tones, I believe, the nod of recognition that people were there. I was. I began reading DWM some time during The Road To Hell, perhaps episode three, so felt like a bit of charlatan when suddenly handed a celebration for all the issues I hadn’t read – until I realised I been bought that very first issues. This now doubly nostalgic trip to BBC Television Centre in 1979 is fairly notable for the extent to which it dodges the yewtree in a way that even television documentaries from the late 90s singularly failed to and rendered themselves impossible to rebroadcast. Oh and the Tom Baker bit which is one of the funniest things I’ve read so far on these travels, the quotes all from actual interviews, the total legend.

The Company of Thieves

Kroton! Again! Designed to insert the Cyberman into the TARDIS crew, his first meeting with the Doctor’s noteworthy because it’s a rare cliffhanger in which our sympathy is with an attackee. The Time Lord “kills” Kroton first and so successfully has Scott Grey’s writing made us careful him that see him felled is genuinely worrying, notably also because we know how the Doctor will feel when he realises his mistake. As 8th tussles with pirates over the most powerful weapon in the galaxy, it’s also the first time I’ve really heard Paul McGann convincingly saying his lines and there’s even a moment with which I’m sure I’ve heard repeated between him and Charley as he worries about the TARDIS’s navigation, whispering so as not to heart the time capsule’s feelings.  He’s always doing that, isn't he?

The Glorious Dead

Yes, a single paragraph is entirely inadequate. Once again it’s impossible not to see resonance with later escapades, notably the conclusion to Capaldi’s first series with its weaponising of death and a emotional Cyberperson sacrificing himself to thwart the Master’s plans (see also the clever misdirection the Time antagonist’s identity). The concept of the Omniversal spectrum just confirms my expectation that all of fiction and reality is Doctor Who (also neatly explaining the TV Action business) and the resulting Peanuts parody is inspired. It’s the first occasion when I’ve cheered on turning the final page and the whole thing took an hour to read, much longer than usual. Only really marred by the slightly odd moment early on when 8th describes Izzy as a “blushing beauty” during some introductions. Oh dear, Doctor.

The Autonomy Bug

For the final strip in black and white, Roger Langridge returns with some absolutely gorgeous cartoon visuals which smuggle a very dark tale about what constitutes identity and whether anyone one person has the right to dictate how another group should live. The whole thing looks like and is structured in the style of a Doctor Who Adventures strip but the storytelling is much more mature (though its true some DWA can be deceptively so too). Scott Grey suggests Cuckoo’s Nest as an influence in his notes but there are moments that recall Who Framed Roger Rabbit in the way that characters who could be simplistic gain depth through action and exposition (see also the novels The Crooked World by Steve Lyons and Paul Magrs’s Sick Building). A really impressive end to the collection.

The teenage version of me just screamed.

Music Old friend Matthew Rudd is now a DJ on Absolute 80s and presents Forgotten 80s and whenever he plays a Debbie Gibson tune he tend to let me know as he did this afternoon:

#nowplaying on @Absolute80s - Out Of The Blue by @DebbieGibson ... #forgotten80s (cc @feelinglistless)
— Matthew Rudd (@MatthewJRudd) January 11, 2015

To which I replied:

@MatthewJRudd @Absolute80s @DebbieGibson it's like a dream come true...
— Stuart Ian Burns (@feelinglistless) January 11, 2015

To which Debbie Gibson herself replied:

“@feelinglistless: @MatthewJRudd @Absolute80s @DebbieGibson it's like a dream come true...” Out of the bluuuuue :-)
— Debbie Gibson (@DebbieGibson) January 11, 2015

Oh who am I kidding. I screamed, the version of me now. I expect I know what I'll be listening to for the next week.



Sigh.

Another Ten Links and a Video.

How Wes Anderson’s Cinematographer Shot These 9 Great Scenes:
"There are few directors with a visual style as distinctive as Wes Anderson's, and to find out just what goes into his carefully composed shots, you'll want to talk to Robert Yeoman. The 63-year-old cinematographer has shot every one of Anderson's films (save for the stop-motion Fantastic Mr. Fox); though, astoundingly, he's never been nominated for an Academy Award. Still, with The Grand Budapest Hotel in the hunt for multiple Oscar nods next week, what better time to talk to Yeoman about his storied career, using nine of Anderson's most famous scenes and shots as prompts?"

Why Pygmies Aren't Scared By The 'Psycho' Theme:
"In many ways, music and emotion almost seem interchangeable. Try listening to the Star Wars' Cantina Band song without smiling, or to the Psycho soundtrack without feeling a little tense. But what if you had never heard Western music before. Would these songs still make you feel the same way?"

Can’t sleep? How to beat insomnia:
"I don’t remember having trouble sleeping – until my late teens. There was no grand trauma, no “aha” moment to pinpoint when my sleep was disrupted. I just sort of drifted into insomnia. And there I have stayed, on and off, for almost 15 years. It has meant exhausted days and nights stretched out in front of me like the Grand Canyon. I have tried to remedy it over the years, using pills (soft herbal brands and the hard big pharma types), sprays (top picks: lavender and frankincense), a variety of “calming” sounds (including whale, panpipes and white noise) and, of course, the gold-level option of “wishing really hard”."

David Sedaris gives evidence to the Communities and Local Government Committee:
"On 6 January 2015, MPs on the Communities and Local Government Committee took evidence on litter. It was the committee's second evidence session for its inquiry on litter. The inquiry is looking at how significant a problem littering and fly-tipping is, and whether current government policies are adequate, and give local authorities enough autonomy to tackle the problem." [I also posted this to Metafilter.]

A Look at Battersea Park Station:
"At first sight, Battersea Park station appears to be a complete contradiction. It is not exactly pretty at platform level, but has a splendid façade and booking office. It has five platforms, but only one that is really both fit for purpose and useful. It is surprisingly busy despite the lack of any obvious reason for the high demand. It will also likely get much busier when construction begins on the Battersea Power station development or the Northern Line Extension."

An Open Letter to Men On the Subway During Rush Hour:
"I know you like to spread your chests wide, inhaling deeply and filling your lungs with that special patriarchal air that is your birthright. I know you need to place your legs in wide stances to give ample room to your massive testicles, which you have inherited after generations of Darwinism have assured only the largest and best scrotum survive. I know you need to mount your body against the entire center subway pole, claiming your land like Columbus. I get that."

Women, Minority First-Time Directors Face Tough Time Getting Into TV Biz: DGA Study:
"Women and minority episodic TV directors face a “significant hiring disadvantage” getting into the business because of their gender and race, according to a new five-year study by the Directors Guild of America. The report found that only 18% of all first-timers are female, and that only 13% are minorities."

Navigating The Social Mob Of Mistaken Identities On Twitter:
"In May 2010 I joined a startup called Aviary. My first boss was one of the founders of Aviary named Michael S Galpert. Michael’s initials are MSG and as an early tech adopter, he managed to snag @msg when Twitter came out. MSG is also short for Madison Square Garden, and the Twitter mentions go a little nuts when the Knicks’ and Rangers’ seasons pick up. Michael has fun with it, using a hashtag of #wrongmsg when retweeting some of the funny mistakes. @msg was my first understanding of mistaken identity on Twitter."

Great Museums Television:
"GREAT MUSEUMS is an award-winning documentary television series celebrating the world of museums. The series airs coast to coast on public television stations. GREAT MUSEUMS opens the doors of the museum world to millions of Americans through public television, new media and community outreach with the goal of "curating a community of learners." Executive produced by Marc Doyle and Chesney Blankenstein Doyle, the compelling educational series has won more than forty television awards for excellence, including multiple Cine Golden Eagles, Telly Awards, and Aurora Excellence Awards." [YouTube Channel]

The Code: A Declassified and Unbelievable Hostage Rescue Story:
"Colonel Jose Espejo was a man with a problem. As the Colombian army’s communications expert watched the grainy video again, he saw kidnapped soldiers chained up inside barbed-wire pens in a hostage camp deep in the jungle, guarded by armed FARC guerillas. Some had been hostages for more than 10 years, and many suffered from a grim, flesh-eating disease caused by insect bites."

Their names fit their jobs #4

This is an excellent name for a ballet dancer @ENBallet #swanlake #nominativedeterminism pic.twitter.com/1YppZaBzC2

— Harriet Lane (@HarrietLane_) January 10, 2015

Who will win at the Baftas. 2015.

Film In an attempt to what's become my routine, I was up bright and early to watch the Baftas being streamed on Facebook (for some reason). The best bit was obviously "Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game" "No!" mostly because it was the only moment in which either of the presenters, Stephen Fry and Sam Claflin went off script. Anyway, here's the usual predictions based on having only seen a couple of the films.

BEST FILM

BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
THE IMITATION GAME Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten

Boyhood. Though the appearance of The Grand Budapest Hotel is so many categories is gratifying given that its experimental use of changes in aspect ratio and sheer level of not trying to be an awards film. Plus is came out nearly a year ago which shows just how long the Bafta memory is.


OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
’71 Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke
THE IMITATION GAME Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore
PADDINGTON Paul King, David Heyman
PRIDE Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
UNDER THE SKIN Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Nick Wechsler, Walter Campbell

Under The Skin. Though I haven't seen any of the others. For all I know if I'd seen Paddington this sentence would have begun differently. But I'll never forget seeing Scarlett Johannson walking part Primark.


OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

ELAINE CONSTANTINE (Writer/Director) Northern Soul
GREGORY BURKE (Writer), YANN DEMANGE (Director) ’71
HONG KHAOU (Writer/Director) Lilting
PAUL KATIS (Director/Producer), ANDREW DE LOTBINIÈRE (Producer) Kajaki: The True Story
STEPHEN BERESFORD (Writer), DAVID LIVINGSTONE (Producer) Pride

Pass. Pride?


FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

IDA Pawel Pawlikowski, Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzieciol, Ewa Puszczynska
LEVIATHAN Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov
THE LUNCHBOX Ritesh Batra, Arun Rangachari, Anurag Kashyap, Guneet Monga
TRASH Stephen Daldry, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Kris Thykier
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd

Trash is an interesting choice here. Generally this is thought of as the foreign film category, but Trash was written by Richard Curtis and directed by Stephen Daldry and has Rooney Mara and Martin Sheen in the cast. But's a Brazilian co-production so there it is. Either way the Dardennes will win this.


DOCUMENTARY

20 FEET FROM STARDOM Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, Gil Friesen
20,000 DAYS ON EARTH Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
CITIZENFOUR Laura Poitras
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
VIRUNGA Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

Oooh, oooh, film I've seen. Of course it's an oddity because it won the Oscar for this category last year, insanely beating The Act of Killing which won at the Baftas last year.


ANIMATED FILM

BIG HERO 6 Don Hall, Chris Williams
THE BOXTROLLS Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable
THE LEGO MOVIE Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

MARVEL film (ish) nominated for Bafta. The Lego Movie will win though.


DIRECTOR

BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING James Marsh
WHIPLASH Damien Chazelle

Boyhood, because why the hell wouldn't it be? As an act of direction, Boyhood is one of the most thrilling examples we've ever seen.


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Armando Bo
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson
NIGHTCRAWLER Dan Gilroy
WHIPLASH Damien Chazelle

Again - imagine trying to write and rewrite a coherent screenplay on the fly across a decade.


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

AMERICAN SNIPER Jason Hall
GONE GIRL Gillian Flynn
THE IMITATION GAME Graham Moore
PADDINGTON Paul King
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Anthony McCarten

Insanely difficult brief produces film everyone seems to adore and from a much loved character. As the Postman Pat film shows, this isn't the easiest thing in the world apparently.


LEADING ACTOR

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH The Imitation Game
EDDIE REDMAYNE The Theory of Everything
JAKE GYLLENHAAL Nightcrawler
MICHAEL KEATON Birdman
RALPH FIENNES The Grand Budapest Hotel

But only because I've seen it, though its fair to say part of the film's ongoing appeal is this performance.


LEADING ACTRESS

AMY ADAMS Big Eyes
FELICITY JONES The Theory of Everything
JULIANNE MOORE Still Alice
REESE WITHERSPOON Wild
ROSAMUND PIKE Gone Girl

I like all of these actresses, so I've fallen back on the tie-breaker rules and chosen whoever's been in Doctor Who.


SUPPORTING ACTOR

EDWARD NORTON Birdman
ETHAN HAWKE Boyhood
J.K. SIMMONS Whiplash
MARK RUFFALO Foxcatcher
STEVE CARELL Foxcatcher

Notice how Hawke and Arquette were submitted for supporting actors even though you could argue that a fair percentage of the emotional weight of the film are carried by the two of them.


SUPPORTING ACTRESS

EMMA STONE Birdman
IMELDA STAUNTON Pride
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY The Imitation Game
PATRICIA ARQUETTE Boyhood
RENE RUSSO Nightcrawler

As above, though let's pause for a moment to enjoy the glow of Emma Stone having been nominated for a Bafta.


ORIGINAL MUSIC

BIRDMAN Antonio Sanchez
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Alexandre Desplat
INTERSTELLAR Hans Zimmer
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jóhann Jóhannsson
UNDER THE SKIN Mica Levi

Under The Skin.


CINEMATOGRAPHY

BIRDMAN Emmanuel Lubezki
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Robert Yeoman
IDA Lukasz Zal, Ryzsard Lenczewski
INTERSTELLAR Hoyte van Hoytema
MR. TURNER Dick Pope

For being able to sustain Wes Anderson's vision across the various aspect ratios.


EDITING

BIRDMAN Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Barney Pilling
THE IMITATION GAME William Goldenberg
NIGHTCRAWLER John Gilroy
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jinx Godfrey
WHIPLASH Tom Cross

But not Boyhood? Here's an interview with editor Sandra Adair, the editor of "Boyhood" which demonstrates what an insane decision this is. She was there for the whole period of production and worked on it for three or four weeks a year during that period.


PRODUCTION DESIGN

BIG EYES Rick Heinrichs, Shane Vieau
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock
THE IMITATION GAME Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald
INTERSTELLAR Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
MR. TURNER Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts

Clearly, though it's fair to say I haven't seen Interstellar yet so ...


COSTUME DESIGN

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Milena Canonero
THE IMITATION GAME Sammy Sheldon Differ
INTO THE WOODS Colleen Atwood
MR. TURNER Jacqueline Durran
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Steven Noble

Clearly, though it's fair to say I haven't seen Into The Woods yet so ...


MAKE UP & HAIR

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Frances Hannon
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White
INTO THE WOODS Peter Swords King, J. Roy Helland
MR. TURNER Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jan Sewell

Hello the craft categories. Hello Guardians of the Galaxy. Clearly should have been nominated for Best Picture, but Bafta tends to be even pretty conservative in these things but the whole thing is a nonsense anyway isn't it etc etc


SOUND

AMERICAN SNIPER Walt Martin, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
BIRDMAN Thomas Varga, Martin Hernández, Aaron Glascock, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wayne Lemmer, Christopher Scarabosio, Pawel Wdowczak
THE IMITATION GAME John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Stuart Hilliker, Martin Jensen
WHIPLASH Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins, Craig Mann

The film I've seen rule.


SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Erik Winquist, Daniel Barrett
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, Jonathan Fawkner, Nicolas Aithadi
THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White
INTERSTELLAR Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer

They're all worthy and I'm only using my MCU bias here to choose. Presumably it'll actually go to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes for its leap forward in mo-cap.


THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

GUGU MBATHA-RAW
JACK O’CONNELL
MARGOT ROBBIE
MILES TELLER
SHAILENE WOODLEY

Doctor Who rule for playing the sister of the best companion in the new series. Margot Robbie second for being in my favourite new show in 2011, Pan-Am.

Soup Safari #13: Parnsip and Honey at Bretta & Co.

Lunch. £5.00. Bretta&Co., 5 Heathfield St (off Bold Street), Liverpool L1 4AT. Tel : 0151 709 6369. Website.

End Game (The Complete Eighth Doctor Comic Strips Volume One).

Comics  The adventure continues and here we go again.  When I finished reading the Eighth Doctor novels a few years ago I had planned to return to him and read the comics and then catch up on the audios, but after spending most of 2013 watching my way through the whole of the television series I was a bit exhausted with the whole thing and still am to an extent.  But Jac Raynor’s superb Review 2014 post from this very parish about being a Reginald Fortune completist has nudged me towards working my way through the rest of my favourite Doctor’s appearances, especially since last year’s screen disappointments have led to my fan gene experiencing a bit of a wobble.  I’ve even considered selling on the earlier dvd versions of stories which have later been given special edition treatment.  It’s that serious.

A few pieces of house keeping.  The Eighth Doctor novels were approached much like the television series with length reviews filled with words, sentences and paragraphs and acres of analysis which was sometimes fun and sometimes a real drag and one of the reasons the whole process took longer than it should because of stopping after every novel and spent many hours in analysis, sorry, offering an analysis.  Not now.  I want to enjoy this.  Everything from now onwards (strips and audios and any other prose materials which crop up) will be given a capsule review of roughly the same length (ten lines in Times New Roman 12pt on Microsoft Word 2000 if you must know), not least because I’ve already covered a lot of the audios in some depth elsewhere (which I’ll link to where necessary).

So that the blog isn’t then littered with these short bursts of text, I’ll also group most of these around recognisable seasons and sets and for the comic strips that means the four graphic novel reprints which appeared in the late noughties and are apparently soon to be reprinted.  For some reason, perhaps to do with narrative flow, these aren’t printed in publication order, something I didn’t notice initially so some of these stories were read out of sequence but I’ve inserted the reviews back into the correct order.  Which is an incredibly boring sentence but an important grumble.  I didn’t notice until I reached the commentary at the back which is in publication order but in reading made me think I’d accidentally skipped some instalments like I did with that episode of The West Wing that time when I was watching all of those back.

We last left the Eighth Doctor leaping to certain doom at the end of The Gallifrey Chronicles in a story which was purposefully left open ended.  As you know, my personal version of his continuity roughly expects the comics to fit after the books before leading into the audios mainly because it’s less fiddly than trying to put one lot of one thing between a bunch of something else.  Some fans see major discontinuities between the versions of stuff like his home world between the various runs which often appeared simultaneously and created to purposefully contradict each other (often, frustratingly, by writers who worked on all of them), but as we’ve seen in the television series recently, decades and centuries full of unseen narrative can occur between stories and runs of episodes which can later be enunciated or retconned where necessary.

Since there has to be a Gallifrey in existence at least so that it can be part of the Time War, there’s nothing to say (unless I’ve missed this story somewhere along the line) that between The Gallifrey Chronicles and End Game, that the Doctor hasn’t used the knowledge in his head to somehow recreate his home world, but that it’s the version which appears in the comics rather than the one it became in the books.  In The Final Chapter (see below) there’s even a suggestion that Doctor is a myth, and the stories could perhaps have derived from his memories having become part of the planet’s lore.  Having all of that removed could have helped his memory somewhat which was also flooded with everything which happened during the earlier runs of the comic strip to become foremost in his mind which is why he decides to pay Stockbridge a visit.

End Game

What’s primarily notable about Eighth’s first comic strip is how it follows many of the tropes of most other post-regenerative stories (even though it isn’t quite that) whilst being simultaneous very assured. The Doctor returns to old strip location Stockbridge, where he bumps into the Celestial Toymaker who puts him through the usual games. As writer Alan Barnes admits in his commentary, they were still hedging on who this new Doctor was and he is fairly generic. Not so Izzy, who’s immediately defined as the contemporary companion in the mould of Polly, Ace and latterly Sam, Lucie and Rose. Her look is apparently based on Louise Wenner, he says. I wonder if she knows. I definitely disagree with his assessment of Sleeper (“utterly rubbish”). No they’re not.

The Keep

Empirically, not a lot happens to the Doctor here. He and Izzy land on Earth in the future during some T-Mat wars, are menaced by the pirate lackeys of Magnus Greel, before being beamed into the eponymous Keep where Eighth is forced into doing a thing (because he’s “a good man” no less) which then results in another thing and then it ends, his lack of real agency neatly hidden below some glorious artwork penciled by Martin Geraghty and inked by Robin Smith (with biblical connotations in places) and epic exposition. But it’s clear we’re world building already, setting material up for later in the series which shows a real confidence from the editors and the magazine that both they and the comic strip had a future in the wilderness years. The final page is as mature and robust as anything I remember seeing in 2000AD underscoring the strips position in the UK comics ecosystem.

A Matter of Life and Death

The Eighth Doctor’s first one shot which and a continuity fest apparently designed to demonstrate that this version of the character is still very much part of the comics mythology in a way that it wouldn’t really be when the show returned to television in 2005. The dream sequences allow for all kinds of sight gags and cameos most of which I don’t understand (having not read many of the earlier strips yet), but none of that stopped my enjoyment (which is as it should be). The Doctor and Izzy are already comfortable in each other's company in despite this being only their third story and seventh issue taking into account how these were originally published and also how the series was originally broadcast. Often a TARDIS team would be firm friends as though they’d dozens of adventures even though they’d really only just met (cf, Fifth and Peri pre-Big Finish).

Fire & Brimstone

Daleks! Russell T Davies! How different nuWho must have seemed to fans who’d read Fire and Brimstone, which mirrors the final stories of the first series in structure with The Long Game (as per The Keep) setting up events for the finale, with an extermination which is actually a teleport and the action taking place on a space station which ultimate resembles in form and capability the Reality Bomb in Journey’s End. Moffat was also influenced by the Dalek zombie creating nanites. But we’re also sequelising previous DWM comics with the return of Threshold, whose existence is helpfully explained in a text prologue in this graphic novel edition. Eighth’s more clearly developing to reflect how he’d become in the other media too, though it’s Izzy who is first to say “Stupid, stupid, stupid…”

By Hook or By Crook

To spoil the ending, Scott Gray’s first Eighth strip is resolved using what’s now often described as a Moffat loop, a piece of foreknowledge utilised to get the hero out of a jam creating a paradox, in this case in a way which isn’t that dissimilar to The Big Bang with Izzy simply reading a book published in the future which has information which proves that the Doctor is innocent of a series of kidnappings by explaining who the real culprit is and releasing him from jail. There’s also a perennial scene in which the Doctor assuming all is lost says his final goodbyes to his companion explaining how the TARDIS will take her home when necessary. It’s about this time the way Izzy’s being drawn. Out with Louise Wenner and in with Luisa Bradshaw-White who played Kira in This Life. Welcome to 1997.

Tooth & Claw

A tribute to the Hinchcliffe era, we’re in gothic horror territory but as is always the case in Doctor Who what seem like vampires, or at least Bram Stoker’s variety, are nothing of the sort. There’s also Christie and Connell references in there too. What’s notable is how on some occasions a returning Barnes is taking full advantage of the monthly nature of the strip to create cliffhangers with real impact but on others it’s as though he’s assuming the stories will eventually become graphic novels so the scenes run on easily across the chapters to point its easy to miss that we’re into another part (which could be a homage to the how the tv series was originally released on video?). Features the first appearance of Fey Truscott-Sade who it seems had an adventure with the Doctor we’ve not seen ala the Paternoster Gang in A Good Man Goes To War.

The Final Chapter

Gallifrey! And, oh boy, that ending! The fakegeneration is of course now a legendary piece of trolling from Doctor Who Magazine and gloriously bizarre now that Nick Briggs is such a public figure in relation to the franchise rather than simply known within close fan circles for the Audio-Visual productions. That readers genuinely believed in the change prefigures the conclusion of The Stolen Earth though in this case there was a whole month to speculate. In his notes, Barnes describes the messy gestation of the story, pages being written in a rush around his other work for the magazine simply so that the artist would have something to draw but with hindsight this isn't too obvious. These are all stories bursting with ideas with a sense of experimentation that typifies the Eighth Doctor in all his media.

Wormwood

Or three months until the reveal. Reading this in graphic novel form it’s difficult to quite fix on what the fuss was about but you can well imagine a readership quietly dividing across three months as to whether regenerating the Doctor in the strip was a good thing or not (especially since the post-regen is so authentic). The reveal itself is reminiscent of The Dying Days, the Eighth Doctor’s triumphant re-emergence though it’s notable that Izzy’s aware of it before the rest of us given the companion’s usual spot as our POV. The overall story is the usual cosmic, universe-threatening bursts of energy with massive awe-inspiring artwork by Geraghty and Smith again presenting images that could never exist on screen or even in a reader’s imagination. Scott Gray assumes the writers chair full time now and the shift is seamless.

My Favourite Film of 2014.

Film After Doctor Who in 2013 and surfaces at home through 2014, my title bar theme this year is favourite films going backwards in time, one per year.

Since there's over a century of them, this should keep me busy through the blog's fifteenth birthday and beyond (he says optimistically).

Of course release dates are going to end up being pretty fluid so if, as in the case of Stories We Tell, it seems like I'm a bit out, it's because I don't see the point in not choosing the best film I saw in a given year just because its initial release date was a few years in the past and it say on the shelf.

Why this choice?

Because at its at the epicentre of film, of the interstitial space between fact and fiction, documentary and drama and while Boyhood is technically brave, Polley's film is emotionally heroic.

To say much more would be to ruin some of its virtues, so instead I'll simply link to it on Netflix, Amazon and the NFB (which is where I saw it) and suggest you avoid the synopsis and trailer.

"the distracting tomfoolery"

Film As you will have noted during my wrap up of last year's filmapalooza, I only sat inside an actual auditorium about five times last year and on all occasions only when I had to.

 To be fair they were all very good experiences with decent audiences who shut up during the film and mostly didn't sit anywhere near me, largely because I was on the front row so I wasn't sitting anywhere near them.

Good old Picturehouse at FACT.

If only modern cinema pricing was cheaper.

I really can't afford £9 an afternoon screening too often if I can also get as many films as I like at home for £10 a month (Netflix + Lovefilm-by-post) to watch on my decent sized screen.

Either way I didn't have to deal with the horrors that a correspondent at Little White Lies had to contend with:

"... when some gentleman in the row in front started tooling around on his mobile during the opening chimp sequence, we felt more than usually justified in politely asking him to terminate the distracting tomfoolery.

He turned around in clear possession of thoughts to share. I readied myself for abuse.

"Part of the cinema's service is that you can text the bar for a drink."

They then go on to describe how throughout a rare screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, every now and then a screen would light up and within minutes an usher would wander in to deliver drinks.

As the below the liners suggest, name and shame, name and indeed shame.

Awful, awful, awful.  Is this prevalent?  Does this happen a lot?

Quite a contrast to the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin which also serves food but has a zero tolerance for phone use. Must we watch this again?

"What's the meaning of this?"

Film As we've discussed before, one of the elements which streaming and by-post can't really replace in relation to the video shop experience is bumping into a straight-to-video work which doesn't seem to make sense. In other words, the cast is of the kind you'd expect to find in a major release and the box looks authentic enough but you've never heard of it before.

Step forward The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box which has finally been given a withering capsule review in this month's Empire Magazine (not online yet) despite being released on dvd at the end of last October. There they all are Sheen, Headey, Neill, Hawes, Gruffudd and Aneurin Barnard (who played Bobby in ITV's Cilla).  It's based on a popular novel.

Looks like a major film release, except, oh 15% at Rotten Tomatoes.  Oh. $4,756 opening weekend across eighty-two theatres with a screen average of $58 in the US according to Box Office Mojo. Dear. It did receive a cinematic release in United Arab Emirates with a total gross of $49,674 though so that's something.

Nevertheless, numbers is numbers.  Plus there's the trailer which is really, really poor and probably doesn't do it many favours.  There's also this interview with Neill in which neither he or the journalist talk much about the film he's promoting.

As one of the below the line YouTube commenters puts it succinctly:

"Downton Indiana Holmes: The Mcguffin Box"

Needless to say I've added it to my Lovefilm-By-Post list...

The Death of the Opinion.

About Editorial note: I've just written then deleted a rather long blog post with the same title about deliberately not having opinions because I realised that even writing about deliberately not having opinions about some things included too many opinions about those things or at least opened the door to indicating what the things I wasn't deliberately voice opinions about were or rather are. Rather than leave the post empty, I thought I'd note the irony instead.

Ten Links and a Video.

Dudeln: Vienna's own indoor yodelling:
"For many, yodelling is the sound of the Alps. Farmers used the warbling singing technique to communicate between mountain peaks. But the Austrian capital Vienna has its own special version of yodelling, known as Dudeln. It has been recognised by UNESCO as part of Austria's intangible cultural heritage. Bethany Bell met the dudler singer Agnes Palmisano."

A Night Out With Scarlett Johansson:
"It's so freezing in New York that I usually wear trousers for formal parties, though this year I want to wear more dresses with tights. I'm going to make some serious investments at Wolford. I don't know why New Yorkers don't wear tights as much as British people, I guess it's a cultural thing? But why wouldn't you when it's so cold?"

Florida HOA Issues Violation Letter On Fan Made TARDIS:
"This just might be the one problem in space and time itself the good Doctor can’t talk his way out of, or fix with the quick use of his sonic screwdriver. A couple in Florida built a replica TARDIS, because: (A.) They are huge fans of the show, and (B.) They wanted to use it in their wedding photos. Their themed wedding pictures went off without a hitch and the happy couple found a spot, temporary most likely, for the TARDIS in the driveway. Then the one power in the universe that even the Doctor wisely fears reared its ugly head, the dreaded Lexington Home Owners Association of Tampa Florida."

How Does The Proper ‘Doctor Who’ Fan Respond To An HOA Violation Letter? Throw A Viewing Party!
"Last week we brought you the story of the Moder family in Florida that received a HOA (Home Owners Association) letter about the big blue call box in their driveway. That’s right Doctor Who‘s TARDIS was minding its own business, trying to fix its Chameleon circuits while parked in the Moder’s driveway and the neighborhood HOA took offense. What’s a Doctor Who fan to do when your TARDIS doesn’t get the usual love its grown accustomed to receiving from fans around the world? Throw a huge Doctor Who viewing party!"

Emily Blunt: 'Nobody goes through life unscathed':
"Emily Blunt’s first professional acting job was at the age of 18, in a West End play called The Royal Family, directed by Peter Hall. It was 2001 and she had, until then, been labouring under the delusion she’d go to university and study languages. (Blunt wanted to be a simultaneous translator at the UN.) Instead, she found herself in a makeup chair backstage at the Haymarket theatre, being crept up on by Judi Dench, her co-star. “I just heard that voice in the room behind me,” Blunt says, “and I remember feeling the air go out of me. And she said, ‘Hello, darling. If anyone gives you any trouble in this, you come straight to me.’”"

Why Sweden Has the World's Safest Roads:
"Sweden is on its way to reaching zero road deaths per year. It’s an incredible feat, coming from a peak in road deaths in the 1970s. In 1997, Sweden implemented its now-famed “Vision Zero” plan in hopes of eradicating all road deaths and injuries, and it has already cut the deaths by half since 2000. In 2012, just one child under seven years old was killed on a road, compared with 58 in 1970."

Russia Is Building a Train That Will Zip From Moscow to Beijing In Just 48 Hours:
"Russia plans to build a new high speed railway, with trains that would speed from Moscow to Beijing in just 48 hours. At the moment, it takes about seven days to commute between the two cities and the route requires changes. According to Romanian website Glasul, the Kremlin has awarded the project to China Railway High-speed (CRH), a subsidiary of the state-controlled China Railway (CR), which is working in a joint-venture with the local firm Uralvagonzavod. CR is famous in the train industry for operating the world's only magnetic levitation train in an urban area, the Shangai monorail."

A Writer’s Worst Moment.
"I asked a large number of my writer friends and colleagues to tell me about the worst moments of their writing lives. I thought this might make other writers, particularly new ones, feel a bit better about their own situations, knowing that these guys have been through tough times and come out the other side. Of course, in a lot of cases, and this is something several of the respondents have pointed out to me, the worst thing that’s happened to a particular writer is a story that can’t be told in public, because other people are implicated, some of them innocent, some of them people one might want to work for again. Even this collection of third or fourth worse things will make your toes curl." -- Paul Cornell.

Nobody Else Knows Either; Or, Why Comics Continuity Does and Doesn’t Matter:
"So Asgard is in Oklahoma now. Or it was in Oklahoma, but now it’s on the moon? Who knows what’s going on with those crazy Asgardians."

Archeologists discover mythical Tomb of Osiris in Egypt:
"Archeologists have discovered an ancient tomb modeled after the mythical Tomb of Osiris as described by Egyptian lore in the necropolis of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, on the West Bank at Thebes. The complex includes a shaft that connects to multiple chambers, including one with demons holding knives."