Let’s Not Do the Time Warp Again
MTV is planning to remake the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
What a complete and utter waste of time and money. Something as bizarre as RHPS happens once. You can’t make it better; after all we don’t keep going to see it because it’s good. We go to see it specifically because it scrambles one’s brain, rinses it, and hangs it up to dry; all the while supported by Richard O’Brien’s catchy songs, Tim Curry’s matchless hamming, and a theater full of fellow weirdos who, for 100 minutes, are in the same headspace with us.
I wish them good fortune – they’ll need quite a lot of it.
Music of the Spheres
The British Broadcasting Corporation puts on yearly classical music concerts known as The Proms. This year, they’ve added a Doctor Who Prom to the lineup, and you can hear it online at the BBC iPlayer site until August 3rd.
The concerts are audio broadcasts presented by Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), and include performances of soundtrack music from the new series as well as classical music that “you might find on the Doctor’s MP3 player”. There will also be a special short TV episode on the BBC website called “Music of the Spheres” which, if it’s like the other online trailers and specials, can technically only be watched from computers in Great Britain. (I’m quite sure that my fellow Whovian geeks are working on that as I type this.)
There’s a program online listing the included compositions. If you’re interested in orchestral music, enjoy!
EDIT: Aaaaand the online player just locked up on me. I am having a day of Internet servers crashing repeatedly. With luck, they’ll get it fixed.
EDIT 2: ‘Tis back. Clearly, the server couldn’t handle the Doctor spamming Moonfire.
One Small Step
Thirty-nine years ago today…
“Houston… Tranquility Base here… the Eagle has landed.”
From that day on, mankind could only be limited to one fragile world if they chose to be. For the most part, we have chosen that, but I don’t think that state of affairs is permanent. I don’t believe we can afford to let it be so.
A-one, and a-two…
So who was I listening to in the car on the way to work today?
The Dresden Dolls and OreSkaBand. I would have liked to see OreSkaBand when they were here this week, but I couldn’t exaclty take Tuesday off 🙁
I blame my musical taste on my mother, who tricked me into liking classical and folk in addition to the rock I got off the radio; and Tom Monaghan, who ate little more than ramen through his college years in order to acquire a huge and supremely eclectic CD collection.
When someone asks me what they’re likely to find on my iPod, I answer “almost anything from a Bach symphony to Japanese bubblegum punk.”
Walked a mile-and-a-half today. I really need to do this earlier in the morning before the mercury tops 80.
Brief updates
- 09:09 Not physically ill this morning, but brain processes are still thick and slow-moving. #
Sent subspace radio by LoudTwitter
Brief updates
- 08:03 Wachovia appears to have decided that my zip code has changed without telling me. #
- 08:17 Obviously, Wachovia is trying to protect me from Internet purchases they feel I don’t really need to be making. #
- 11:06 Realizing that yesterday’s food intake consisted of one strip of bacon and a turkey sandwich. No wonder I felt off this morning. #
Sent subspace radio by LoudTwitter
Back to the World of Two Moons
Richard Pini reports on the ElfQuest website that the latest movie deal has gone through, and it’s in the lap of Warner Bros. now.
While Pini is optimistic, so I too shall be, EQ fans have heard this song before. OTOH, fantasy movies are much hotter these days, so who knows?
He links to a story in the Hollywood Reporter as well. Cross your fingers, fans!
Grown-ups of Time
I recently finished Series 4 of the revived Doctor Who. In many ways, the finale wrapped up and tied together the last four years of programming, as Russell Davies is moving on to other projects. The finale was a slam-bang affair, one comparable to ST:TNG’s “The Best of Both Worlds” in breathtaking moments and an edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger. However, the finale underscored certain themes of Davies that I hope to see put to rest.
Originally, the Doctor was a political fugitive from his people, but he eventually evolved into a crusader of Time and Space, saving individuals and entire planets from oncoming disaster. His fourth incarnation sacrificed himself to save the existence of the universe from one man’s foolishness. The Doctor was clearly fulfilled by his never-ending quest.
When the Doctor returned to television, he was in some ways a broken man. He had been at least partially responsible for the destruction of his race in an attempt to prevent an apocalypse (a futile attempt, as it turned out). Other characters made much about the Doctor as the bringer of Death. Of course, he repeatedly staves off even greater death and destruction, but apparently one gets minimal points for that.
Rose Tyler’s love healed the Doctor, and in fact he began to return the emotion openly for the first time in the 40-year history of the show. But he then regenerated into a new body and personality, and Rose was forced to leave him, and he sank into depression and despair. The crusader of Time and Space was replaced by a sad, lonely immortal who kept on keeping on mainly because he didn’t have anything better to do.
When the villain of the finale mocks the Doctor for creating a band of “Children of Time”, willing tools who will aid our immortal in the destruction of lives and worlds, it’s completely unfair, and yet the Doctor shows hurt and shame. What he’s really done, of course, is give a succession of companions a broader perspective, the skills and the confidence to defend themselves and their loved ones, and the ability to make the awful decisions at times when the Doctor isn’t around. They are “Grown-ups of Time” now, but the Doctor is too busy wallowing in failure to deal with that.
The new helmsman, Steven Moffat, has written episodes that temporarily bring back the crusader. While Moffat’s Doctor in these tales retains a vulnerability that the older series did not give him, he remembers his role as the defender of Life, and revels in the challenge. I absolutely hope that future seasons return to that philosophy, as the worn-out, depressed Doctor is a shadow of the beings he once were, and I become sadder with every episode in which he flails about desperately.
Why have I gone on at length about this? Because the older Doctors, the Fourth especially, represent in many ways the person I’ve always wanted to be. Assertive, cheerful, full of wonder, and up to the challenges of life. Frankly, the Doctor these days has a far emptier life than I do, and it’s hard to see the fictional hero I’ve felt so connected to suffer so. I guess this is something of a “Get Well” card to my old hero.
Further points, with spoilers, below
Thinned blood
My Mom’s back in the hospital. The blood thinner she had been prescribed caused some internal bleeding; it seems to have stopped, and she’ll probably be out again by the weekend. But… oy.
We found a Jamaican cafe / grocery less than two blocks from us last night, and I tried curry chicken for the first time ever. Extremely yummy, though I’m not used to eating anything that shade of yellow; nor am I used to picking that many tiny sharp chicken bones from my teeth. Oh, and an hour later, my stomach was not pleased with these new spices at all. Still, yum.
The apartment building I live in is very nice, but it’s still an apartment building. One of the tenants on my floor has had multiple summonses taped to their door in recent months; this last weekend, they moved out in a flurry of activity (mysteriously bringing a mattress into the place in the process). Well, police showed up a couple of days later to pound on their door, and there’s an eviction notice taped there now (which doesn’t exactly change much at this point). I’m actually sad. They seemed nice enough, and it’s a shame when people’s mistakes land on them so hard.
At this moment, I am rather physically and emotionally weary. I’ll be fine, it’s hardly life-threatening. But the assertiveness I have been trying to encourage in myself in recent months is eluding me a bit just now. Of course, now is when I really need it.
Oh, and the smoke’s back in Portsmouth this morning. Koff.
