Jack's back (and front)
TV Excellent transcript of a Q&A with John Barrowman in which he says he can't talk too much about Torchwood and whatnot then somehow manages to reveal some very telling things. There is the odd spoiler depending on what you consider a spoiler to be. [via]
I'm bound to call this post 'Happy Gilmore'
I'm afraid you're pretty much being ignored again this evening because a new love has entered my life.
I've discovered The Gilmore Girls.
I know. It's only taken about six years to try it, but after getting advice from people whose advice I tend to agree (thanks Keris) I waited patiently for the rental dvds to start flowing.
The premise about the relationship between this single mother and her daughter -- the daughter having reached the age the mother was when she gave birth. They live in a small town. The daughter goes through her angsty problems whilst her mom is the manager of a hotel and has her own problems dealing with her own mother. Sounds really sappy doesn't it. I thought so too which is why it's taken me this long to indulge.
I was hooked after the second minute of the first episode.
A woman, who we later discover has the brilliant name Lorelai Gilmore, walks across the street and on the soundtrack is There She Goes by The Las plays.
Ok I think. Already losing points for using a very overused (but great) pop song in a very, very cliched manner. This isn't a good start.
The woman walks into a coffee shop and approaches the counter. The barista won't serve her coffee. He's cutting her off. She pleads with him and eventually he relents. Somewhere in there I realise that it's being played as though she's a junkie and he's her dealer.
Then I remember that one of the few things that the really cloth headed producers (and Sixpence None The Richer when the covered the song) who use the song never understood is that There She Goes by The Las is reputed to be about heroin. 'The racing through my veins' lyric being a dead giveaway. This show is intertextual. It selects music and then plays a scene based on the audience being able to understand a really, really zetgeisty pop culture references.
Then the real dialogue begins between the woman and her daughter and it's funny. But not in a Friendsian punchliny kind of way (wait for the joke) but in quite a natural, yet smart way. I'll say it again. It's really, really funny. This is one of those occasions when the premise of a show and its potential plotlines are transcended by the script, the performances, the direction, the editing and the production. It doesn't treat the audience like idiots, yet manages to be accessible. Just look at this mile long memorable quotes page at the imdb.
It feels authentic. It has realism. People pay for taxis. They have snappy arguments that don't mean anything in the long term. People have to catch a bus to get places. But there's a wierd undercurrent of darkness too I feel. Something that isn't being said. It's Capraesque that way. Everything seems sweetness and light but ...
It's set in a Bedford Fallsian town and you really get the sense of a community. One of the (very) few problems I always had with Dawson's Creek was that you never got a sense that there was anyone living in the place outside the main cast. Stars Hollow is teeming with people, people saying hello to each other even if (and this is important) they're not a massively important element of the plot of the week).
I'm currently on episode seven of the first season which was made in 2000 -- there's something comforting in knowing that I have six seasons worth to catch up on. It's the kind of show you'd imagine would be cancelled for being too good. Does it continue to be fabulous? I hope so because both Rebecca Kirshner and Jane Espenson, both Buffy alumni are writing for the show in what will for me be a few years.
Dark clouds on the reviews I've skimmed suggest that it goes a bit wonkey when Rory goes to college -- which if they actually split up the central pairing with her mother to accomplish I can see -- it always kills every show stone dead when the central characters are split up -- and the original creators have gone for the sixth season, something that The West Wing never recovered from.
But for now I'll love. I mean any show with dialogue that likens the fact that the mother hasn't told the daughter that she might be dating her teacher to the Iran-Contra Affair has got to be worth staying with. Best get back to it.
I've discovered The Gilmore Girls.
I know. It's only taken about six years to try it, but after getting advice from people whose advice I tend to agree (thanks Keris) I waited patiently for the rental dvds to start flowing.
The premise about the relationship between this single mother and her daughter -- the daughter having reached the age the mother was when she gave birth. They live in a small town. The daughter goes through her angsty problems whilst her mom is the manager of a hotel and has her own problems dealing with her own mother. Sounds really sappy doesn't it. I thought so too which is why it's taken me this long to indulge.
I was hooked after the second minute of the first episode.
A woman, who we later discover has the brilliant name Lorelai Gilmore, walks across the street and on the soundtrack is There She Goes by The Las plays.
Ok I think. Already losing points for using a very overused (but great) pop song in a very, very cliched manner. This isn't a good start.
The woman walks into a coffee shop and approaches the counter. The barista won't serve her coffee. He's cutting her off. She pleads with him and eventually he relents. Somewhere in there I realise that it's being played as though she's a junkie and he's her dealer.
Then I remember that one of the few things that the really cloth headed producers (and Sixpence None The Richer when the covered the song) who use the song never understood is that There She Goes by The Las is reputed to be about heroin. 'The racing through my veins' lyric being a dead giveaway. This show is intertextual. It selects music and then plays a scene based on the audience being able to understand a really, really zetgeisty pop culture references.
Then the real dialogue begins between the woman and her daughter and it's funny. But not in a Friendsian punchliny kind of way (wait for the joke) but in quite a natural, yet smart way. I'll say it again. It's really, really funny. This is one of those occasions when the premise of a show and its potential plotlines are transcended by the script, the performances, the direction, the editing and the production. It doesn't treat the audience like idiots, yet manages to be accessible. Just look at this mile long memorable quotes page at the imdb.
It feels authentic. It has realism. People pay for taxis. They have snappy arguments that don't mean anything in the long term. People have to catch a bus to get places. But there's a wierd undercurrent of darkness too I feel. Something that isn't being said. It's Capraesque that way. Everything seems sweetness and light but ...
It's set in a Bedford Fallsian town and you really get the sense of a community. One of the (very) few problems I always had with Dawson's Creek was that you never got a sense that there was anyone living in the place outside the main cast. Stars Hollow is teeming with people, people saying hello to each other even if (and this is important) they're not a massively important element of the plot of the week).
I'm currently on episode seven of the first season which was made in 2000 -- there's something comforting in knowing that I have six seasons worth to catch up on. It's the kind of show you'd imagine would be cancelled for being too good. Does it continue to be fabulous? I hope so because both Rebecca Kirshner and Jane Espenson, both Buffy alumni are writing for the show in what will for me be a few years.
Dark clouds on the reviews I've skimmed suggest that it goes a bit wonkey when Rory goes to college -- which if they actually split up the central pairing with her mother to accomplish I can see -- it always kills every show stone dead when the central characters are split up -- and the original creators have gone for the sixth season, something that The West Wing never recovered from.
But for now I'll love. I mean any show with dialogue that likens the fact that the mother hasn't told the daughter that she might be dating her teacher to the Iran-Contra Affair has got to be worth staying with. Best get back to it.
Behind Bars
TV "But, I post here not to lambast this aspect of the show, or say all that much about it, really. Instead, I just want to record the fact that on this edition, all hell suddenly broke loose when a prisoner assaulted a guard. As alarms rang out, Nick and Nadia clearly wished they could be anywhere else, but pressed on regardless with their cheery links to camera." -- Graham on a current daytime tv classic.
Like I ...
Music A brief interview with the Violent Femmes including:
'Q: What was more thrilling: Seeing Claire Danes dance to "Blister in the Sun" on "My So-Called Life" or hearing that song in the John Cusack movie "Grosse Point Blank?"'Let me go oooout ....'
A: My biggest thrill was hearing Leonard Nimoy sing "Good Feeling" in "Star Trek 3." '
Synchronicity
Life At the beginning of February I made an offer here for anyone who'd like a personalised blog entry posted to them to send me their address and a subject for me to write about. In the end I recieved two requests, from Annette (which you can read about here) and Alex who asked me about the BBC Design quiz and what I would have selected. I eventually got around to posting both and that was that. Unless someone else would like one.
A couple of weeks ago I was travelling home from Manchester one night and as we passed through the new Garston South Park (Way) station I caught the eye of the random commuter sitting opposite me and then verbalised what we were both thinking -- that it was wierd that a main line train didn't stop at this brand spanking new station serving the airport and we agreed that it seemed really desolate and unwelcoming. We chatted all the way back to Liverpool and did my usual and talked about my course and films and my dissertation. I'm not too much of a bore I don't think.
Last night I received an email from Alex thanking me for the letter, apologising for being slow in replying and saying some nice things which I agreed with about the clarity of the London tube map. Then she said ... "By the way I think I met you. I was on a train returning from Stockport, I think you sat opposite me and we spoke about the new but desolate South Parkway station. Was that you?"
I stepped away from the keyboard, I screamed and I ran away to tell someone.
As the narrator says in Magnolia:
'There are stories of coincidence and chance, and intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows? And we generally say, "Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn't believe it." Someone's so-and-so met someone else's so-and-so and so on. And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that strange things happen all the time. And so it goes, and so it goes. And the book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." '
Ain't that the truth?
A couple of weeks ago I was travelling home from Manchester one night and as we passed through the new Garston South Park (Way) station I caught the eye of the random commuter sitting opposite me and then verbalised what we were both thinking -- that it was wierd that a main line train didn't stop at this brand spanking new station serving the airport and we agreed that it seemed really desolate and unwelcoming. We chatted all the way back to Liverpool and did my usual and talked about my course and films and my dissertation. I'm not too much of a bore I don't think.
Last night I received an email from Alex thanking me for the letter, apologising for being slow in replying and saying some nice things which I agreed with about the clarity of the London tube map. Then she said ... "By the way I think I met you. I was on a train returning from Stockport, I think you sat opposite me and we spoke about the new but desolate South Parkway station. Was that you?"
I stepped away from the keyboard, I screamed and I ran away to tell someone.
As the narrator says in Magnolia:
'There are stories of coincidence and chance, and intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows? And we generally say, "Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn't believe it." Someone's so-and-so met someone else's so-and-so and so on. And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that strange things happen all the time. And so it goes, and so it goes. And the book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." '
Ain't that the truth?
Edge of Outside
Film I don't think there's anything more exciting than discovering a great film that you'd never heard of but which can change your expectations of what is possible in celluloid. In TCM's excellent new documentary, Edge of Outside, director Darren Aronofsky describes the process of finding Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It after the showing of a Rocky film he wanted to attend had sold out and realising that there was another way of making film with a different aesthetic leading to his own production of the ambitious Pi. This new documentary that surveys the independent spirit over the past century is replete with such stories as filmmakers repay the debt they have to their antecedants.
All of the major independents are covered (Cassavettes, Corman, Welles) but cleverly the definition is widened to include directors who have worked within the studio system but have still been able to keep their independence. Alfred Hitchock for example only shot and printed the footage that he knew he'd want in the film so that when it reached post-production the editor was left with few choices. Martin Scorsese acknowledges Sam Fuller as another example of a maverick working in the studio system and there is a surprising moment in which similar shots from both directors films are intercut to demonstrate the influence Fuller had on the look of Scorsese's films. The documentary is rich with images as the often jerky look of an independent motion picture, with not a camera track or crane available is revealed; it's a shame that none of the many clips are captioned to show which films they're from, although this may have been an artistic choice to allow the cinematography some room to breath.
The programme is particular good in describing the compromises that independent film makers have to make to get their vision on screen on a tiny budget - Stanley Tucci noting how the same five or six cars tend to appear in ever street scene of his own low budget period drama hiding contemporary features. Good archive interview footage too of Sam Fuller and particularly Orson Welles who looks like he could charm money out of anyone - as is revealed this wasn't the case as his producer described how he'd be very close to a deal only to have the rug pulled out when Welles took a dislike to possible financier. A longer documentary might have been able to give more space to international cinema although it does quite rightly list the Italian neo-realists and the French New Wave; understandably auteur theory is mentioned briefly but without the jargon - the importance of the director's vision being paramount in the independent scene.
It's probably really difficult to decide what needs to be left into such a short survey and the director Shannon Davies has quite rightly decided to concentrate on those directors whose work is being featured in the month long season which is appearing on the channel, covering only briefly those subjects such as the new Hollywood directors of the seventies which have been served in documentaries elsewhere. That section does provide one of the best quotes of the programme which also seems like an apt description of the whole piece. From Bonnie and Clyde director Arthur Penn, on the short period when the studios were literally throwing money at any twenty-something with long hair to make features:
'Didn't last but it was fun!'
Edge of Outside is on Turner Classic Movies in the US on the 19th July and a season of films continues every Wednesday night throughout July. Full listing of movies and more details available here.
It's a godawful small affair
Quiz! Keris suggests a cunning meme or quiz which should stand in well tonight in the absense of inspiration anything exciting happening my life (spent the day dissertation writing -- well I suppose there are degrees of excitement). Here goes:
(1)It's a godawful small affair David Bowie - Life On Mars Monkey & Poly_Gianniba magic.
(2) Love to your mother, your brother, I kept thinking of her
(3) You don't know, when love is
(4)Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister All Saints -- Lady Marmalade I'm not at all embarassed to say. Another one for & Poly_Gianniba and the Monkey.
(5) Genius to fall to asleep
(6) Well, you got me shaking through my head to the bottom of my toes
(7) What am I to you?
(8) Even on a day like, when calling on the phone
(9) There is nothing that
(10) Do you have the time?
(11) Say Goodnight, not goodbye, you will never leave my heart behind
(12) I never jumped in and rescued you but I wanted to
(13) Just you, just me, let's find a cozy spot where no one can see
(14)If, if you choose, that we will always loose Sail this ship alone - The Beautiful South -- spotted by Adrian.
(15) Ghost's speaking out from under the stairway, calling your name that's lighter than air
(16)I recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone It is Alanis, Rasputin, You Learn.
(17)First I was afraid I was petrified I Will Survive - I'm guessing Gloria Gaynor Another one from Adrian.
(18) Everyone around the world will find themselves
(19) Mick came home late last night
(20)It's your thing, do what you wanna do The Isley Brothers -- It's Your Thing Monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey!
(21) I can't help feeling they've made a fool of me rather
(22) In the shade of every moment, I played
(23) Why you trying to second guess me?
(24) God is a man
(25)Little field mice living under the house Eels -- Flyswatter. Ra, ra Rasputin!
(26) Sometimes it's hard to make things clear
(27) Leave my lying here because I don't wanna go
(28) I'm waiting for a friend to help me off the ground
(29) When you look at me tell me what you see
(30) Are we on? We're recording now?
... remember no googling -- it's just not fun that way. Some will be bleeding obvious, although you wouldn't believe how many I had to disqualify on the grounds that I couldn't understand the lyric. Gosh, I'm getting old.
So what you do is you put your iPod (or whatever) on shuffle and write down the first line of the first 25 songs that come up ("no repeat artists, no foreign muck, no songs where the title is in the first line, and nothing that even you with the title in front of you have no clue what it is" - Marie). Then you put it on your blog and everybody has to identify the songs and artists, and you post the answers as people get them. Or rather no one bothers to guess and in a couple of weeks I post the answers myself and go off in a huff.Well, here are thirty. Some of them are easypeasy and some not so. Given that WinAmp had almost my entire music collection to play with it's surprisingly Sunday newspaper freebee compilation friendly although there are still some truly ecclectic choices ...
(1)
(2) Love to your mother, your brother, I kept thinking of her
(3) You don't know, when love is
(4)
(5) Genius to fall to asleep
(6) Well, you got me shaking through my head to the bottom of my toes
(7) What am I to you?
(8) Even on a day like, when calling on the phone
(9) There is nothing that
(10) Do you have the time?
(11) Say Goodnight, not goodbye, you will never leave my heart behind
(12) I never jumped in and rescued you but I wanted to
(13) Just you, just me, let's find a cozy spot where no one can see
(14)
(15) Ghost's speaking out from under the stairway, calling your name that's lighter than air
(16)
(17)
(18) Everyone around the world will find themselves
(19) Mick came home late last night
(20)
(21) I can't help feeling they've made a fool of me rather
(22) In the shade of every moment, I played
(23) Why you trying to second guess me?
(24) God is a man
(25)
(26) Sometimes it's hard to make things clear
(27) Leave my lying here because I don't wanna go
(28) I'm waiting for a friend to help me off the ground
(29) When you look at me tell me what you see
(30) Are we on? We're recording now?
... remember no googling -- it's just not fun that way. Some will be bleeding obvious, although you wouldn't believe how many I had to disqualify on the grounds that I couldn't understand the lyric. Gosh, I'm getting old.
Soap survivors.
TV In recent years there haven’t been any truly innovative soap formats.
The failure of Night and Day and Family Affairs can probably be traced to the fact that they simply re-iterated the old, worn formats of a central locale and group of families in a contemporary settings. Whilst I wouldn’t for a minute suggest that the space station of Jupiter Moon would be the place to go, the success of Bleak House suggests that the audience is capable of enjoying something “a bit different”.
Perhaps Chris’s post suggests another option – why not rearrange the premise of Survivors into a twice weekly half-hour soap format? A post apocalyptic world has the EastEnders grim factor built in, and there is still the potentiality for the usual comings and goings from the make-shift village, as new survivors are found and the existing characters die of radiation poisoning or starvation. Suddenly the original becomes innovative within a new format, which seems to be how most television works anyway.
The failure of Night and Day and Family Affairs can probably be traced to the fact that they simply re-iterated the old, worn formats of a central locale and group of families in a contemporary settings. Whilst I wouldn’t for a minute suggest that the space station of Jupiter Moon would be the place to go, the success of Bleak House suggests that the audience is capable of enjoying something “a bit different”.
Perhaps Chris’s post suggests another option – why not rearrange the premise of Survivors into a twice weekly half-hour soap format? A post apocalyptic world has the EastEnders grim factor built in, and there is still the potentiality for the usual comings and goings from the make-shift village, as new survivors are found and the existing characters die of radiation poisoning or starvation. Suddenly the original becomes innovative within a new format, which seems to be how most television works anyway.
Wet
Film "As for poor old Orlando Bloom, where does one start to document the tidal wave of wetness which he brings to these proceedings? No matter how much sea water Verbinski throws at the set, nothing gets as damp as Mr Bland, whose expressions run the gamut from perky to peeved with occasional interludes of petulance." -- Mark Kermode reviews Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Truly the man is a legend. You can hear the vitriol in what amounts to an audio version of this review on Five Live. He appeared on three different programmes last Friday and seemed to get increasingly annoyed as the day went on, so that by the time he was on Late Review he was simply manic. God knows what'll happen when the third film comes out...
Truly the man is a legend. You can hear the vitriol in what amounts to an audio version of this review on Five Live. He appeared on three different programmes last Friday and seemed to get increasingly annoyed as the day went on, so that by the time he was on Late Review he was simply manic. God knows what'll happen when the third film comes out...
Slings and Arrows
Film Just blubbed my way through Nick Cassavette's The Notebook which is about the saddest bit of drama I've seen since Saturday. I didn't really know what the expect -- I'd rented it to see quite what the pre-Red Eye Rachel McAdams was doing the same year she made Mean Girls. I'd expected a chick flick with people running around in the rain pledging love for one another and men fighting each other over the woman they love -- well alright, Titanic on a farm. Certainly there are some of those moments, actually some of those beats are repeated, but this is actually one of those occasions when the direction, writing and performances transform what could have been predictable television movie fare into a real statement about the human capacity for loyalty and love despite the knocks that life can give you. It's a love story told Princess Bride-style by James Garner to Gina Rowlands in a convalescent home of two lovers many years before. In many ways it's classic Hollywood melodrama, but it's strong and clever enough not to present anything sugarcoated or too far outside the expected norms for human behaviour -- it has the capacity to not present the scenes you're predicting but something much truer to life instead.
[I had wondered what Rachel McAdams had been up to since The Family Stone. Turns out she's been in television as a regular on a show called Slings and Arrows which (according to Amazon):
"is based in the fictional town of New Burbage where legendary theatrical madman Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) returns to the New Burbage Theatre Festival, the site of his greatest triumph and most humiliating failure, to assume the Artistic Directorship after the sudden death of his mentor, Oliver Welles. When Geoffrey arrives he finds that Oliver is still there, in spirit anyway, and with his guidance (and often in spite of it) Geoffrey attempts to reconcile with his past while wrestling the Festival back from the marketing department. Despite a bitter leading lady, a clueless leading man, and a scheming General Manager, he manages to stage a remarkable production of Hamlet; the play that drove him mad."Whch sounds like In The Bleak Midwinter crashing into Northern Exposure with Mr.S along for the ride. Bites lips. How can one tv show push so many buttons? Must not order ... must not order ... oh what the hell ...]
Yadsmood Rof Srebmun
Drum roll, please Mr. Gold.
7.7m (43% share)
1.52m (63% share) for the under-16s
Thoughts? Ideas? Should dip over 8 million in the official figures which is pretty stupendous. I'm interested that we haven't had a recommission announcement yet but with a share like that on a summer Saturday can we expect adventures in time and space for years to come?
7.7m (43% share)
1.52m (63% share) for the under-16s
Thoughts? Ideas? Should dip over 8 million in the official figures which is pretty stupendous. I'm interested that we haven't had a recommission announcement yet but with a share like that on a summer Saturday can we expect adventures in time and space for years to come?
Doomsday.
TV Fuck me, Catherine Tate.
In a wedding dress. With a promise that the Christmas episode will be called The Runaway Bride.
This isn't the show it once was.
It's the perfect set up for a new companion of course - the number of times the Doctor's dropped one off only to find another one hiding in a cupboard ready for the adventure. I suspect much of the special will be about him trying to go on alone but with Ms. Tate tantalizingly close. Perhaps he'll spend his time assuming that she'll be just like Rose before realizing that she's not the companion he's looking for and dropping her back off in the arms of her would-be husband before convincing them that they're made for each other.
Seriously, this isn't the show it once was.
It's been a bumpy year. When I've got the time to sit down for the inevitable marathon, I know that I'm going to find that as the momentum builds, the episodes I didn't love will seem much better than they did the first time round and all of the subliminal plot points leading up to Doomsday will be clearer. But really, if you compare pretty much all the episodes with each other this year, they all look like they could have come from a different programme. As the generic barriers all crash in on one another, does it seem possible that the writer of the languid New Earth would so many weeks later drop in something as ludicrously brilliant as this season ender? As the infrequent Big Finish audios with Paul McGann drop into a disappointingly esoteric tailspin it's comforting to know that the television version can still knock out thrill, chills and excitement, with big explosions and thousands of Daleks and Cybermen battling each other on screen.
But still at the centre of it all was David Tennant. He's been getting a few knocks this series but for my money he was as good as if not better than Eccleston in this episode. Although he still lacks that visceral quality and deep seated anger he managed to pass the Dalek test with flying colours - just watch his face too as he helplessly watched Rose save the world again and risk loosing herself. If we didn't quite see the big moment when some of the personality excesses of the past twelve episodes came home to roost there was still a convincing feeling of loss. So what if in the story ended up basically being Torchwood under siege, with the Doctor saving the world from an office and a few corridors again. That's tradition.
You can see why Tracy-Ann Oberman had been so cagey in interviews about whether she was going to be in the Torchwood series. She had a perfect exit and resurrection, although it is a shame that she wasn't retained - she looked and sounded amazing through to the end. For the first time ever, I think, I loved Murray Gold's score with all the choruses and big dramatic booms. Even the returning themes seemed appropriate. Nick Briggs must have had a ball voicing two alien races at the same time - I'd imagine it was rather like Roy Skelton on Rainbow voicing George and Zippy, but with a finger poised on the ring-modulator for the tonal shifts. Graeme Harper's direction felt slightly less old-school this time around and actually quite close to Euros Lynn with his funny camera angles.
But you know, as usual, despite the fantechnoporn, the most effective moments were between the human characters. As other shows have found out to their cost, robots killing robots is not all that exciting because unless you care about one of the sides it's just computer generated stuff crashing into stuff. This series absolutely understood this yet again, so whilst the war happened on the outside, the inner world of relationships and humanity was all the more touching. I loved that it took some time to resolve the Pete and Jackie story, give them one final moment. And that Mickey got to be the idiot again one last time and start the Dalek prison break leading to the death of a tens of people. Saved the sun at least.
I like that Rose died that way. The killing off a major character in a series is a tricky escapade. Get it wrong and you've got an oil slick of the week glooping all over a security officer. Get it right and you've got a few million Firefly fans actually shouting at a cinema screen. In this case there wasn't a way in hell that Rose was going into that void. She was going to be saved in the nick of time. I hadn't expected it be her Dad, but it seemed right some how, demonstrating that parallel Pete could be just as courageous as his whoniverse counterpart. Still some cruelty - no final hug from the Doctor. I didn't cry but I'm glad that he did - it seemed consistent with this incarnation that he cares that much. Even recalled that moment in Neverland when he told Charlie that he loved her. Except then he could get the words out and you weren't sure if he meant it in a passionate way. Here, you knew differently somehow. If the show has some meta-character arc across i's forty-odd year history, it's about the Doctor learning to feel.
Actually a great send off with the driving to Norway and the Bad Wolf Beach. Reminded me somewhat of the BBC adaptation of The Day of the Triffids with a crusty van driving through a wilderness As The Lord of the Rings film trilogy demonstrated, sometimes you have to take your time over endings to let the viewer say goodbye and extricate themselves from a story or characters that they've invested so much of their time with. I thought the ending of The Age of Steel, seemed slightly forced. This didn't, probably because you knew this was the final walk on the beach. The last time we'd probably see Jackie and Mickey and Pete and Rose. Probably. After just two years it feels like the end of an era and actually the title of last year's finale The Parting of the Ways would have been just as appropriate here.
How many other shows have lost all but their main character and still have the power to go from strength to strength? All the excitement about what the new companion is going to be like. Will they hit it off? What will the Doctor see in her? Still those unanswered questions. Just what does The Face of Boe have to say for himself? What did happen at the battle of Arcadia? If the Daleks managed to grab this bit of timelord technology, what else is bouncing around the universe? Possible escape pods? You mark my words there'll be more than one known timelord in the universe by the end of the next series.
And good lord I've just thought - if there is another Pudsey Cutaway this year, what's that going to look like?
Kidnapped
Film The problem with Secuestro Express, is that despite some possible aims to present the underbelly of the Venezualan crime scene, it is far too generic, and tonally misjudged to be entirely convincing. The story of Carla and Martin, a young middle class couple being hijacked by a group of street hood and driven around Caracas by a group of street hoods until their father's pony up the ransom is infected with a Tarantino influence that detracts from the earthy digital video shooting and quick-shot editing. Unfortunately, every kidnap drama cliche is dripped out, from the kind captor to the escape and recapture. Too often in the moments when the criminals should be presenting a necessary menace, the screenplay injects humour, and just as the drama feels as though it should be escalating, the pacing dip, unbalancing any possible jeopardy. Director Jonathan Jakubowicz seems more certain in his presentation of the city, a sprawling mass of people and uncertain industry and in his treatment of actors; a pre-Alias Mia Maestro is especially good as the kidnapee. This is a film that promises far more than it delivers, lacking a depthfulness and thematic punch.
Explotation
Film Cinematical interviews David Michael Latt of The Asylum, a film company that gets by knocking out knock-offs of upcoming feature films on dvd. So King of the Lost World with Bruce Boxleitner the day before King Kong. But they're not proud. How about a exploitation movie of something that's already an exploitation movie? Ladies and Gentlemen. Snakes on a Train:
"Scott: Oh, and there's so much more. Pre-release mega-buzz has been extra loud for New Line's Snakes on a Plane (Aug. 18th), which gave you guys ample opportunity to bang out, that's right, Snakes on a Train (Aug. 15th). Did you ever consider for going with slugs or spiders or maybe bees on a train? What would your response be if I just said "Dude, what's UP with these movies?"The plot:
David: Our film has snakes. On a train. Very different. Train. See?"
"Under a powerful Mayan curse, snakes are hatched inside a young woman, slowly devouring her from within. Her only chance for survival is a powerful shaman who lives across the border. With only hours to live, she jumps on a train headed for Los Angeles. Unfortunately for the passengers aboard, they are now trapped, soon to be victims of these flesh-eating vipers."Very different.
Boom
Blog! Funny how I discover that the excellent Amanda Congdon from Rocketboom has a blog on the day(ish) that she leaves Rocketboom. I've been out of this story but it's good to see that she's using the free media to rebutt the claims of her former boss and is not going quietly:
"In fact, it saddens me that you have not had the time and/or willingness to significantly participate creatively in Rocketboom for some months now. We've sent you things during the production process, and what we've received back is criticism after the show has already been produced or after it is too late to make changes. Statements like "I'll continue to check my blackberry but please dont wait on me if it starts to slow you down" and "I will have my phone so I can still chime in but dont feel ever wait on me for any answers if I cant respond in time" really don't cut it."I haven't watched the show for a while with everything. I hope they keep those previous eps up so that I can catch up. Otherwise this may be last I see ...
Lunacy
Music I'd only heard snatches of the Lily Allen single Smile before I bought it today (a twisted logic I'll explain in a moment) and you know, I actually agree with the hype (for a change). It's not going to change the course of musical history, but she's got a lovely vocality and although I'm not versed enough in the terminology, it's a good beat and I could probably dance to it in the unlikely event that I get a life some time soon and end up in places were people do that kind of thing. Good God, my life at the moment. You wouldn't believe. Although I know some of you would.
I actually bought the single on the strength of the zeitgeisty b-side entitled Cheryl Tweedy which I heard previewed online and as always seems to be the inevitability in cases such as this appears for my money a better record than the 'a'. The chorus is far catchier, even if actually I don't want to 'look just like Cheryl Tweedy'. It's a shame it didn't get bumped further up the track listing, if only because of the possibility that in its death throws, Ferne Cotton on Top of the Pops would have needed to announce that Lily Allen was in at number three this week with Cheryl Tweedy. That being the end of that sentence. Perhaps Girls Aloud will release an answer called Lily Allen. I'm guessing not. Pity that the c-side Absolutely Nothing isn't very good at all. Always dangerous to title things with titles like that.
I actually bought the single on the strength of the zeitgeisty b-side entitled Cheryl Tweedy which I heard previewed online and as always seems to be the inevitability in cases such as this appears for my money a better record than the 'a'. The chorus is far catchier, even if actually I don't want to 'look just like Cheryl Tweedy'. It's a shame it didn't get bumped further up the track listing, if only because of the possibility that in its death throws, Ferne Cotton on Top of the Pops would have needed to announce that Lily Allen was in at number three this week with Cheryl Tweedy. That being the end of that sentence. Perhaps Girls Aloud will release an answer called Lily Allen. I'm guessing not. Pity that the c-side Absolutely Nothing isn't very good at all. Always dangerous to title things with titles like that.
Geography
Life The visit to the museum should be a hint that I've had a day away from college work today. Except for watching Ron Howard's film Parenthood this morning. Confusingly. It's actually the first time I've been to Liverpool city centre in a while -- it's a mess isn't it. They've carved whole chunks from Church and Lord Street in the name of new paving and whole familiar sections of the area are gone ready for the erection of the Paradise project, including a street I tripped down just a week or so ago. The place is going to have a whole new geography by 2008.
Cleverer
TV That didn't take long. After a while, when it was becoming clear that Doctor Who would never return the the screens, fans began to make sell-thru licensed video drama featuring original cast members sometimes playing the original parts. Now the Star Trek fans are doing it too...
"A feature-length Star Trek film for Internet distribution is going to be shot next month in the village of Port Henry on Lake Champlain.Of course the difference was that the Who fans actually managed to get people to pay money for theirs. Clever. And then some of them went into the industry and got to make the programme for real. Even cleverer. [via]
The production will star actors from four Star Trek television series. It's the brainchild of Ticonderoga resident James Cawley, whose New Voyages series of short Star Trek fan films have exceeded 30 million downloads on the Internet.
"The film will be directed by Tim Russ, who played the Vulcan Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager. It will be shot on high-definition digital video on sets built in a cavernous former garage building in downtown Port Henry.
"Russ will also recreate his role of Tuvok in the production. Joining him from Voyager will be Garrett Wang, who played Ensign Harry Kim. From the original Star Trek will be Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, and Walter Koenig, who was Ensign Chekov."
Offline posting
Offline I finally managed to blog something offline, in the visitor book at the Street Life: Liverpool in Fashion exhibition at the Conservation Centre in Liverpool. Nothing life changing, just a review of the exhibition. Though it did stretch across two pages. So if you're in the area you can see an amazing little exhibition and find out what I wrote.
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