TV

Broken Saints
Chapter 4 Epiphany
Chapter 5 Awakening
With such short early episodes, Chapter 1 can only provide a brief overview of the four main characters, while the four chapters that follow successively introduce the start of their journey. It's still a bit slow and pretentious, but there's also promise. And 19 chapters to go...

Little Dorrit
Part 13 (of 14)
Part 14 (of 14)
A feature-length dose of Little Boring -- sorry, I mean, Little Dorrit -- as it finally reaches its conclusion. The (very literal) fall of the house of Clenham was perhaps the most entertaining bit yet, and certainly the most ludicrous in a story filled with ludicrous elements. Nothing like as good as Bleak House. Most of its audience understandably dropped off before the end, which is a shame because the format works so well (as proved by Bleak House) and this may've killed off hope of any more done in a similar style.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
22x11 (11/12/08 edition) [season finale]
Josh Groban: surprisingly likable and willing to take the mick out of himself. Grant From Feeder: shouldn't really have bothered going.
Odd length series too. I rather suspect it would've been 12, were it not for the Brand episode.

Fiction

Jonah Hex: Face Full of Violence by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray & Luke Ross
(collecting Jonah Hex Vol.2 #1-6)
Issue 6 [the end]
A good set of standalone Western tales. Now, where's book two...

Poem of the Day: The Trust Territory IV

IV. Waking in Manhattan
by Andy Brown

This week and next, Poem of the Day is presenting Andy Brown's 10-part poem, The Trust Territory. I think there's much to enjoy in each individual segment, and even more so when all ten pieces are put together. Also, at least some parts of it are especially suited to this time of year.

Please see after today's piece for information on where to find the poem in print.

The night that raised my hopes now whittles down
our options. The morning's heavy snowfall
consumes the blue masses of skyscrapers
and builds on our distance. I open the grille;
imagine us both -- exiles on far shores --
staring past the smuts on our windows.
There are patterns in the bird tracks on the ledge.
I fill my eyes with their secret language:
the text of our future; the novel of our love.
All I ask today is you & I rise above
this interval in the theatre of weather,
but I am restless beneath a drift of lies,
blocking light from the glass. I retrieve the dull
hammer of my self and nail the window shut.

The Trust Territory was originally published as a poetry chapbook, now out of print. It's currently available in Fall of the Rebel Angels: Poems 1996-2006 (find the best prices online here). The versions posted here are taken from the latter. From the author's acknowledgements for that volume: "Many [poems in this collection] appear as they were first published in individual volumes, others have been edited over the years and it is these final versions I wish to preserve."

Andy Brown's latest book is Goose Music, co-authored with John Burnside.

Please see here for information on Poem of the Day and copyright.