Fiction

Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert & Richard Isanove
Part Eight [the end]
Well, that's certainly... the end... The problem with the final part is it deals almost exclusively with the bits of the plot I didn't like in the first place, and in trying to wrap up so many disparate strands -- and, apparently, throw some new ones into the mix at the last minute -- it ends up as a bit of a muddle, with an inconclusive finale. A disappointing end then, but not surprisingly so.

At the back of the book, there's an Afterword by Neil Gaiman that does a good job of explaining his thinking behind the series. Doesn't excuse the ties to normal Marvel continuity, if you ask me. There's also an interesting piece of the series' unique covers by artist Scott McKowen and a selection of pages showing the 'enhanced pencils' technique Andy Kubert used to illustrate the story -- comparing these to the final art shows how much impact the oft-ignored inkers & colourists have on finished comics! Rounding things off, there's the complete script for part one, an inclusion that's always great for anyone interested in writing comics, accompanied by early character sketches.

Magazines

As has become almost as much of a tradition as the Doctor Who Christmas special, here's the pre-Christmas Radio Times with the Doctor Who cover -- even though the episode itself won't be on til two weeks after this edition ends!

Anyway, this is -- rather appropriately -- Doctor Who's 45th RT cover, just weeks after the programme's 45th anniversary. It's also the series' 23rd RT cover since it returned in 2005, and the 8th this year. Yep, Doctor Who sells.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats
7x13 (27/11/08 edition) [season finale]

Russell Brand's Ponderland
2x05 Class [season finale]

Films

Enchanted (2007)
[#80 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]

Mamma Mia! (2008)
[#81 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]

Poem of the Day: Haiku Achoo

by Jack W. Staton

Last week I posted my poem Haiku Achoo, noting that it was surely a title that had been used before. Indeed, a quick search of the web revealed at least one other example, courtesy of poetry.com. For the sake of comparison and what have you, I'm sharing it with you this week:

Achoo! A-achoo!
Sneezing, I write my Haiku
And wipe my red nose.

So, dear reader, whose is better -- Mr Staton's, or mine? As with all good writers, I appreciate your honest feedback.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
4x08 (20/11/08 edition, uncut repeat)

Little Dorrit
Part 10 (of 14)
Today, it's the turn of Mr Meagles to receive a "go --!" cry, and the accompanying "hurrah!"

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
22x09 (27/11/08 edition)
It's the 198th episode special! Only on Buzzcocks, eh.

Three Apparitionses, two Sarah Jane Adventureses, two Survivorses, two Heroeses, and a single Spooks. Yes, I'm shockingly behind on any TV show whose name ends in "S". (Plus Lead Balloon, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Ponderland (just tonight's in each case), and Heroes Unmasked -- of which there are four.)

Fiction

Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert & Richard Isanove
Part Seven
After all the action, the pace slows a tad, moving pieces into place for the final bumper-length part. There's some added plot twists for good measure, though it must be said that most aren't all that surprising.

Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine: Special Edition #21
In Their Own Words - Volume Five: 1987-96
I'm always buying these things and not really getting round to reading them, but I did have a proper flick through this for once and read some bits, so there, including the very up-to-date (it references Tom Baker's Have I Got News...) Introduction by Benjamin Cook, and a rather good Afterword by Paul Cornell.

Articles

Don't dismiss Heat. It's a very superior product by Philip Hensher
(from Philip Hensher's column at The Independent)
Hensher is an interesting beast -- one minute he'll seem like a literary snob, slating the likes of Harry Potter and Alexander McCall Smith, but then merrily defend Heat magazine. Agree or not, at least he can make a reasonable argument.

What scandal lurks behind The Wire? by Philip Hensher
(from Philip Hensher's column at The Independent)
Everyone loves The Wire. Except, no one watches it. I really must get round to it myself...

Poem of the Day: To the Dead in the Graveyard Underneath My Window

by Adelaide Crapsey

How can you resist a title like that? Especially when it was written by a woman in 1914.

As for the poem itself, in my estimation it starts off well but begins to meander and go on a bit, getting a little too dense for its own good toward the end. Nonetheless, it's an interesting one.

Written in A Moment of Exasperation

How can you lie so still? All day I watch
And never a blade of all the green sod moves
To show where restlessly you toss and turn,
And fling a desperate arm or draw up knees
Stiffened and aching from their long disuse;
I watch all night and not one ghost comes forth
To take its freedom of the midnight hour.
Oh, have you no rebellion in your bones?
The very worms must scorn you where you lie,
A pallid mouldering acquiescent folk,
Meek habitants of unresented graves.
Why are you there in your straight row on row
Where I must ever see you from my bed
That in your mere dumb presence iterate
The text so weary in my ears: "Lie still
And rest; be patient and lie still and rest."
I'll not be patient! I will not lie still!
There is a brown road runs between the pines,
And further on the purple woodlands lie,
And still beyond blue mountains lift and loom;
And I would walk the road and I would be
Deep in the wooded shade and I would reach
The windy mountain tops that touch the clouds.
My eyes may follow but my feet are held.
Recumbent as you others must I too
Submit? Be mimic of your movelessness
With pillow and counterpane for stone and sod?
And if the many sayings of the wise
Teach of submission I will not submit
But with a spirit all unreconciled
Flash an unquenched defiance to the stars.
Better it is to walk, to run, to dance,
Better it is to laugh and leap and sing,
To know the open skies of dawn and night,
To move untrammeled down the flaming noon,
And I will clamour it through weary days
Keeping the edge of deprivation sharp,
Nor with the pliant speaking on my lips
Of resignation, sister to defeat.
I'll not be patient. I will not lie still.

And in ironic quietude who is
The despot of our days and lord of dust
Needs but, scarce heeding, wait to drop
Grim casual comment on rebellion's end;
"Yes, yes . . Wilful and petulant but now
As dead and quiet as the others are."
And this each body and ghost of you hath heard
That in your graves do therefore lie so still.

And after all that talk of death, remember: tomorrow's Funny Friday.

TV

Argumental
1x05 (24/11/08 edition)

The Devil's Whore
Part 2 (of 4)
Political, swashbuckling, sexy -- everything The Tudors always aims at but doesn't quite pull off.

Little Dorrit
Part 9 (of 14)
Go Frederick Dorrit! Hurrah! Elsewhere, things plod along at a snail's pace -- from my experience of Dickens, this has to be one of his scrappiest, made-up-as-it-goes, light-on-incident tales. Ho hum.

Merlin
1x10 The Moment of Truth

Articles

BBC signs up for more of Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures by Ben Dowell
(from guardian.co.uk)
I bet all those people who moan that new Who isn't like classic Who don't watch SJA because it's a silly kid's spin-off, or something, whereas if they got off their high horses and gave it a go they'd discover it's often quite a lot like old Who was. Only more grown-up. Oh the irony, eh? Anyway, news of a third series is good news indeed.

A Different Approach To Action In Quantum of Solace by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
An interview with Dan Bradley, the man responsible for writing and directing some/all of QoS' major action sequences, specifically including the opening car chase and the Siena rooftop chase. So, he's the guy to blame then. Interestingly, he also worked on both The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum -- explains a lot, no?

The Doctor Who spin-offs that will never be filmed by David Brown
(from "In My Opinion..." at RadioTimes)
This is entirely dependent on you understanding which shows/films are being spoofed (I knew most of them), but also includes some rather cruel comments about Freema Agyeman's acting ability. Which, to be honest, I'm often inclined to agree with, but it makes a change to hear it (rather than the usual "oh, she's so much more intelligent than Rose, isn't it great!")

John Simm on The Devil's Whore by Amy Raphael
(from Times Online)
A nice interview with Simm, covering why he won't be watching the film remake of State of Play, why he won't be aiming at a Hollywood career, and why he won't be the 11th Doctor ("I'm the Master. Simple as that. I don't want to be Doctor Who. I might be the Master again...").

Movie Reviews: Australia
(from Studio Briefing)
"Like his previous film, Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann's Australia is receiving wildly mixed reviews. The $130-million epic has had some writers describing it as Australia's Gone With the Wind, and that film is the benchmark critics are using to assess it... Luhrman has been able to recreate much of GWTW's "lush epic beauty... a gorgeous film, what strong performances, what exhilarating images and -- yes, what sweeping romantic melodrama. The kind of movie that is a movie, with all that the word promises and implies." But [another critic says] the movie "tries to be a sprawling, romantic epic. Instead, it's a melodramatic exercise in tedium. Rather than being old-fashioned or classic, it's old-school and conventional.""
I like Gone With the Wind and I like Moulin Rouge, so personally I'm liking the sound of it. Australia arrives in the UK on Boxing Day... so I'll probably catch it on DVD.

And finally, here's an "and finally..." story if ever there was one:

Bequeathed skull stars in Hamlet
(from BBC News)
"The skull held aloft by actor David Tennant in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet was a real one, it has been revealed. Pianist Andre Tchaikowsky left his skull to the RSC when he died in 1982 in the hope it would be used on stage. But since his death at the age of 46, it had only been used in rehearsals. Tennant held it on stage during the famous "Alas, poor Yorick" scene in 22 performances at the Courtyard Theatre, in Stratford-upon-Avon."

Websites

The Criterion Collection: Online Cinematique
and
The Auteurs

The famous Criterion Collection have relaunched their site, and now it's so much more than just a lot of info on their laserdisc/DVD/Blu-ray releases. Having teamed up with a venture known as The Auteurs (see further down), Criterion now make some of their movies available to view online, with the hope of expanding this to include most/all of them in the future. It currently costs $5 to rent them to stream, but you then get a $5 discount off that film's DVD or Blu-ray should you decide to purchase. I don't know if this rental applies worldwide (it certainly doesn't for all films, but might for some), but I do know they only sell to US addresses through their store.

The new site's also worth checking out just for the amusingly illustrated "guide to the new site" video, currently showing on the main page.

The Auteurs, on the other hand, is a sort of film club online -- there's a lot of info on movies, but also, and more importantly, many that can be watched -- some for free, some for a small fee. As with Criterion, they're US based and so focused on providing these films for US viewing, but some are also available worldwide. It's an intelligent site, so only movies that are actually viewable in your region will be offered for viewing -- if you go here (you may need to be registered & logged in) you should get a list of what you're allowed to watch -- though you can view the information and forums for every movie, and many of these have trailers or clips too.

It's a great idea, and one that will work a lot better when they get more movies online with international viewing rights -- as it stands (and, I should point out, it's currently at beta stage anyway), it's probably a lot better for Americans than anyone else. As I say, though, it's a great idea, and so I hope that such international expansion can be achieved.

Poem of the Day: Block City

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Children tend to get all the best things, it seems to me, and that goes for poetry too. While adults have to suffer Deep Thoughts and Complex Metaphors and all those other literary whatsits, kids get to enjoy poems like this.

What are you able to build with your blocks?
Castles and palaces, temples and docks.
Rain may keep raining, and others go roam,
But I can be happy and building at home.

Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea,
There I’ll establish a city for me:
A kirk and a mill and a palace beside,
And a harbour as well where my vessels may ride.

Great is the palace with pillar and wall,
A sort of a tower on the top of it all,
And steps coming down in an orderly way
To where my toy vessels lie safe in the bay.

This one is sailing and that one is moored:
Hark to the song of the sailors on board!
And see on the steps of my palace, the kings
Coming and going with presents and things.

Now I have done with it, down let it go!
All in a moment the town is laid low.
Block upon block lying scattered and free,
What is there left of my town by the sea?

Yet as I saw it, I see it again,
The kirk and the palace, the ships and the men,
And as long as I live and where’er I may be,
I’ll always remember my town by the sea.

Rhythm, rhyme, and some fun. Why does growing up have to be so depressing?

Poetry

Fall of the Rebel Angels: Poems 1996-2006 by Andy Brown
Part I (pages 21-27)

Articles

Daniel Craig On Shaking And Stirring James Bond by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
"I love those lines and I think they are absolutely valid but... if you drop them in just because a member of the audience thinks that it is not a Bond movie without them, they are bad gags."
A slightly different interview about what they were trying to achieve with Quantum of Solace, and what lies ahead for Bond 23. Hopefully, it'll be reassuring to both those who disliked QoS ("I do think Quantum of Solace is the end of this sort of intensity. The next... won't be so balls to the wall... Also, there will be a lot more gags.") and those, like me, who thought it was still pretty good ("If I start judging him or taking the piss out of him, which would be the worst thing to do, then it is all over and there is no room to go.").

Poem of the Day: Written in Her French Psalter

by Queen Elizabeth I

No, really.

No crooked leg, no bleared eye,
No part deformed out of kind,
Nor yet so ugly half can be
As is the inward suspicious mind.

Too true, Queenie, too true.

TV

Argumental
1x04 (17/11/08 edition)
Yes, last week's.

Clone
1x02 Albert
Most of it's of dubious quality still, although Mark Gatiss frequently gets some good lines. And some lines that were good til they were over written -- "I killed them with my bare hand. And this gun. Which I held in my bare hand." No need for that final sentence, chaps, especially not when he's holding said gun in said hand.

Lead Balloon
3x02 Panda

Poetry

Fall of the Rebel Angels: Poems 1996-2006 by Andy Brown
Part I (pages 14-20)

Poem of the Day: The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

by Edward Lear

Let's kick off the week with a bit of loveliness; and who doesn't love this poem? It's made for a brilliant children's picture book too.

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
   In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money
   Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
   And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
   What a beautiful Pussy you are,
            You are,
            You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
   How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
   But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
   To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
   With a ring at the end of his nose,
            His nose,
            His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
   Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
   By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
   They danced by the light of the moon,
            The moon,
            The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Written December 1867, published in 1871. Not much more to add really.