Ex Libris
I think the book meme is evolving – I could swear that this is a different list than I saw earlier this week.
Bold those books you have read.
Italicize those books you intend to read.
Underline those books you love.
Post the list in your own LJ. Behind a cut for good manners.
We’ve got work to do
Meme from lemonlye:
When you read this, quote Doctor Who in your LiveJournal.
The Doctor: I don’t suppose you’ve completely ignored my instructions and secretly prepared any Nitro-9, have you?
Ace: What if I had?
The Doctor: And naturally, you wouldn’t do anything so insanely dangerous as to carry it around with you, would you?
Ace: Of course not. I’m a good girl and do what I’m told.
The Doctor: Excellent. Blow up that vehicle.
– “Silver Nemesis”
(I resisted the urge to quote my own fanfic. Aren’t I well-behaved?)
Radio KPAST
As I listened to The Thomas Jefferson Hour yesterday, the following thought crossed my mind:
Imagine that suddenly, you’re motivated to thoroughly research a famous historical figure, and present a weekly podcast in character as that person. You have to play it straight – no parodies or sitcoms. Who do you choose?
“I’ve found interesting correspondences in your DNA.”
The other day, I finally broke out my subtitled, un-cut copy of My Youth In Arcadia. I’ve owned the cut, dubbed release for a long time, to the point that I know the script pretty well, and I looked forward to seeing what had been removed from the original.
I only made it to the end of the World War II sequence, but I was still pretty surprised. While this version is clearly a slightly better translation, so far the only new material I’ve seen is the World War I-era prologue. Plot points that I’d assumed would be better explained in an uncut version remain murky.
Of course, this is a common condition with anime films, which have a habit of stringing together cool sequences with a minimum of narrative linkage, and letting the viewers fill in the gaps from their own imaginations. I’m not saying that it’s an invalid technique – there are some American SF / Fantasy movies that would have been better had they explained less – but I was hoping for more.
In which a writer avenges himself upon his fans
“Midnight”: the most excruciatingly painful 43 minutes of Doctor Who I can remember watching.
I’ll be kinder to the science flubs from now on. This episode had no science issues, no overt plot stupidity, no unreasonable characterizations, no bad acting… and yet I can assure you I’ll never watch it again if I can help it.
The episode is a cheap “bottle” show, intended to save money (I’m sure) for the Library two-parter and what I suspect will be another three-part finale. One set, and few actors: a futuristic tour bus with a small group of tourists aboard. The episode may have been a bargain for the writing budget as well, because very little happens.
Visited By An Old Friend
My old Trek fanfic character, the one in this usericon, started as Chief Navigator on the USS Heimdal, and eventually worked his way up the ranks to Captain of the USS Yeager. “Grin’elle Kriet” was half-human, half-alien, and spent most of his Starfleet career as a Chief Engineer.
Grin’s dark secret? He was also an exiled quasi-Time Lord from the Doctor Who universe. (The concept worked better in the fic than it does in this paragraph.) He and I haven’t spoken as author and character for many years; I wrapped up all the important bits of his story arc back in the Nineties. Grin helped me begin working out some personal issues, for which I’ll always appreciate him.
Without warning, Grin’elle woke up last night, after I’d wrapped up watching “Forest of the Dead”. The conversation, expanded into English sentences, went something like this:
Hey… hey, I just heard something I don’t know if I believe. Are all the Time Lords dead? Is Gallifrey gone?
“What? Oh… er, yes, apparently so. They were all destroyed in a Time War with the Daleks… The Doctor was the only survivor. Except a few Daleks, and the Master. But he’s dead now too, as near as we can tell.”
Holy… are you kidding? I lived there for decades… I had roots there.
“You hated them. They were embarrassed by you.”
Not all of them.
“You left their universe, left it for good. Heck, you’ve set up shop in a third one for the time being.”
I know. They show Who here. Just like Trek, I make sure never to catch an episode.
“So, what do you care?”
… I’m not really sure. I’ll have to get back to you on that.
… and then he was gone, and I was left wondering where the hell all that had come from.
Stay Cool
Wow. I was sick yesterday, and Starr’s sick today. Awesome. It might very well have been dehydration on both our parts, though I drink more water these days than I have in years.
I need to watch the latest Doctor Who very soon, it is apparently most excellent, and the net is bursting with spoilers that I am carefully avoiding. Stephen Moffat may be the best Who writer on the new show, responsible for The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, The Girl In the Fireplace, and Blink; I’m not displeased at all that he’s in charge of 2010’s Series Five. The “Everybody lives!!” line still gets me right ‘there’.
And now, this year’s zombie meme:
You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:
1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you.
* Weapon can be real or fictional; you may assume endless ammo if applicable. Person can be real or fictional.
1) Phaser II, set to “vaporise”. With endless ammo, I can just hold down the trigger and sweep.
2) Queen, “Flight of the Hawkmen” (starts at about 1:08 in the video)
3) Tim the Enchanter (I think his skills would be well matched to the situation.)
Starr’s list:
1) Sonic Screwdriver (“I’m sure it has a ‘defeat zombies’ setting.”)
2) Meredith Brooks, “Bitch”
3) Kal-El
Words On the Run
Dang, I just had a pretty good idea for a vampire story. Weird, because I don’t generally like vampire stories. It must be an interesting job right now, being a graphic artist for the fantasy section of the bookstore: once, you were collecting Vallejo paintings of mostly-naked barbarians; now, you’re taking mood-lit photos of women in leather, vinyl, and pointy dental appliances.
Anyway, this is the third or fourth fairly decent story idea I’ve had in a month. Maybe I could pull a McCartney and mash them all into one finished project. I certainly hope it’s a sign that my creativity is fighting free from the coma it’s keeps slipping into.
Speaking of comas, I felt like the walking undead this morning. Suddenly, I’m kinda feeling better. Creativity: my anti-drug.
‘Twas caviar
This weekend was good. I got to chill a little bit, which I’d long needed. Had caviar for the first time ever; it tasted mostly of salt, and slightly fishy. I’ve heard it’s served on buttered toast, and I think that would improve it quite a bit.
I also tried the Lord of the Rings online role-playing game. The first thing I noticed is that it’s certainly prettier than WoW (and therefore needs more video processing power than, say, my desktop can handle). I enjoyed the Minstrel class I tried – there’s something entertaining about whipping out a lute in the middle of a melee and dealing damage with a few bars of a song.
But, when all’s said and done, I enjoy the slightly surrealistic graphics of WoW – they seem to fit with a world which has so many fantastic shorthands for everyday actions – and the LotR game takes itself fairly seriously, which also isn’t really what I’m here for. I might play it if there were a Mac version and no other competitors, but my subscription will stay with Blizzard for now.
This week’s Doctor Who episode brings the Series 4 average down to .667. Even discounting the goofy, thoughtless science – which is hard, since one element is a major plot point – there wasn’t much special about it. Donna was great; her emotional arc about the future of humanity and our ethics, and the conditions of the Ood provided a welcome touch of development.
But overall, the episode was fairly formulaic, including at least one completely gratuitous CGI death, and someone trying viciously to kill the Doctor for no reason at all. One touch I did like: minor spoiler
Brief updates
- 16:17 A Sherlock Holmes story by the staff writers at “Lost”: tinyurl.com/2nq86b – heh. #
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