Requisite *Best Non-Holiday Ever* Post

right. Halloween. too busy to make a truly sensible post (which i never do anyway), but, thanks to the wonders of blogger, not too busy to play around with the blog itself.

so, to celebrate Halloween, the one 'regular' day of the year i don't mind getting into something that isn't black (which i failed to do today, so sue me), and i get the chance to put on me loverly Headwear Formerly Known As Me Halloween Hat (an Alice Cooperish felt 'top hat', which i'm pretty sure isn't really a top hat, but i haven't a clue what it ought to be called--and which i get to put on whenever i write back home anyway, hence Mabel having renamed it me 'Writing Hat'), for this day only (and maybe tomorrow. and thursday. and friday. depending on when i remember to change it back), enjoy Zen in Darkness in UBER-PERKY PINK!!!?!

that's right, complete with exxtrreeeme exclamation marks!!! and interrrrobbbanggggs!?!

right. back to work.

Nine versus Ten

the more i see of David Tennant as Doctor Number Ten, the more i miss Christopher Eccleston's Doctor Number Nine. sure, Tennant is incredibly expressive, and 'unpredictable', but Eccleston has class. here's an unaired clip of Rose meeting the Tenth Doctor, shown only on BBC's Children in Need 2005, and posted on youtube:



(or, as usual, here.)

the clip serves as a kind of prologue, and directly connects 2005's The Parting of Ways with The Christmas Invasion.

Eccleston, by comparison, is far more subtle, switching from dark to manic in a blink without being quite as hysterical as Tennant.



(or here.)

compare that with the Tennant bits in the Series 2 trailer i put up a few posts ago, or see him in the Christmas Invasion. Eccleston is just so much cooler. imho.

i'm tempted to make a comment on the British apparently being impressed by 'unsubtlety' as a by-product of the repressive 'stiff-upper-lip' culture, as a lot of Brits seem to dig Billie Piper's annoying hystrionics, and, now, seem to prefer Tennant's acting to Eccleston's...oh, well, there you go, i just did.

here are a few more Eccleston goodies c/o youtube:

a bit where he's interviewed by a kid who went on BBC's Mastermind as a Doctor Who expert:



(here)

and a Dead Ringers sketch on why Christopher Eccleston quit after only one season (series) of Doctor Who, riffing off SF culture cliches:



(and here.)

ah, the fruits of 'working' on a Saturday. right. i'm off to do some writing.

Saturday, ennit?

right. Saturday. office. work. groan.

racing against all sorts of deadlines now.

'And you still have time to post on yer blog?'

touche.

hang on, was that some sort of Evil Monkey just now?

good grief, now this blog is starting to hear voices. and after all the youtube videos and the 'closing tabs' rip-off, may be coming dangerously close to copyright infringement or something.

right. Saturday. office. work. groan.

Closure

picking-up (i.e., stealing an idea) from Neil Gaiman's tab closing posts, i thought it would be a good way to 'bookmark' some interesting things for the weekend.

first is an interview with Chuck Palahniuk over at strangehorizons, with bits about his upcoming SF novel, Rant:

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2006/20061016/palahniuk-int-a.shtml

the first details of the book went-up on The Cult:

http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/community/showthread.php?threadid=26460

a not-exactly-news bit on string theory i'm not sure i've posted before:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1890340,00.html

got around to watching The Christmas Invasion through youtube during my lunchbreak, and i have to say, it was ok, had some uber cinematic pretty-if-cliched SF moments, but watching the Doctor pick-up a sword and duel with an alien doesn't quite sit well with me. however, the trailer for series 2 on the BBC site looks promising:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/doctorwho/ram/trail2006?size=16x9&bgc=CC0000&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1

so yeah, i'll still be waiting for the DVDs to come out hereabouts.

and finally (no links, as i've really got to fly), i may have found my personal pick for best CD release for this year in The Mars Volta's Amputechture. the first two full albums didn't really catch my fancy, as i wasn't particularly drawn by the radio releases of those albums, and i had no other exposure to the band. but after hearing Viscera Eyes on the radio, i just knew i had to check the album out, and boy, i'm utterly sold.

more on the CD when i have more time, or when i feel like saying more.

ah, what the hell. here's the band's official site:

http://www.themarsvolta.com/

anyway, that's it for this week, unless i decide to pull overtime tomorrow. not an idea i exactly relish, but may be necessary given that i haven't exactly been at my most productive this week.

right. time to fly.

*Something* Rising

a quick one before i tuck into work (possibly, and to indulge myself in the theme of this post, with some fava beans and a light chianti)...

Ain't It Cool News has posted this review of the up-coming Hannibal Rising (there's also a prerelease wiki over on wikipedia:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30447

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Rising

possibly to my discredit, i actually liked Hannibal, *both* the book and the Ridley Scott film. i see the book as a Gothic Romance more than anything, and an extreme departure from the previous books in the 'Lecter Canon'. and though i utterly hate it when writers try to create sympathy for characters who neither particularly deserve or require it (whether for moral or aesthetic reasons, both of which apply to Hannibal Lecter) by providing a cliched backstory (typically involving a disturbed childhood), and Harris did fall into that trap with the book, Harris thankfully dips relatively lightly into it.

Scott's film, the sweet but undeniably wuss-out ending notwithstanding, was, to my mind, a well done adaptation, translating its dark essence, the feel of the book, into something that is both visually pleasing and downright nasty-to-behold.

true, it's difficult to feel any sort of sympathy for any of the characters, but to me, that just goes with the whole 'seen from the perspective of the uber-sociopath' thing that Hannibal is all about.

Hannibal Rising's basic premise leaves me cold, (falling even deeper into the trap and virtually beating us over the head with the disturbed childhood thing) but i will be seeing this film, as it promises to be, at the very least, a dark piece of cinematic entertainment.

but what is up with that 'way of the samurai' shit? i almost expect Liam Neeson to do a cameo on this one. but i guess we'll have to wait and see.

youtube (i <3 style="font-style: italic;">Hannibal:



whoops, not that one. here:



(or click here and here, respectively)

and surfing youtube some more, i find myself regretting that i never got a copy of the Taymor cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's ultraviolent Titus Andronicus when it was still relatively easy to find hereabouts, given the sheer majesty of the movie's trailer:



(and here)

right. as a few snarks over at AICN have said of Lecter, enough of Sir Anthony Hopkins.

ta ta.
c

The Inhibitors are Coming

this is uber-geeky, but i just had to drop by with this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061017/sc_nm/space_galaxy_dc

and here's the image, which you can find here:




i know, the more vigilant among you will say it isn't anything new, but i, admittedly, haven't been paying as much attention to current events as i should.

also, found out that there is, in fact, a full version of The Christmas Invasion on youtube, but i haven't been able to download the video despite our being on broadband, so i'm posting the link so as not to tax me blog. i still recommend the 10 min bits (i've already gone through 3 of 'em during me lunch break), but the adamant can go ahead and click the link below. good luck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXzN-moFy_A

right. back to work.

Guignol

Harry Knowles' interview with Tim Burton over at Ain't It Cool News finally got me maximizing YouTube's potential. something i've always been meaning to look up on the net was Sweeney Todd, and there's about a ton of videos you can find over there. including the opening scene:



you can find and read the script and libretto for the Stephen Sondheim musical here, or click on the links below:

http://libretto.musicals.ru/text.php?textid=516&language=1

http://libretto.musicals.ru/text.php?textid=334&language=1

youtube also provided me with a much needed Doctor Who fix (as the DVD collection of series 2 isn't due until Jan 2007). it seems you can find The Christmas Invasion (technically still part of 2005 schedule, methinks, a cross-over between series 1 and 2 and the first adventure with Doctor Number Ten--David Tennant--having just regenerated from the Christopher Eccleston incarnation in The Parting of the Ways) in its entirety, albeit in ten minute bits. here's bit one:



i seem to be coming too late to these things, as Outpost Gallifrey is apparently about to undergo a Time-Lord-style 'regeneration'. well, maybe not quite Time-Lord-style: while it isn't quite going the way of Emerald City (leaving behind the Forum, the Conventions, Episode and Canon Keeper's Guides and their Convention and Events Calendar), one can't help but draw parallels between what Gallifrey's Shaun Lyon and EC's Cheryl Morgan are saying.

more sadly still, i really must get work out of the way before i can fully enjoy any of the fruits of my trawling.

right. on with the motley.

*

whoops. turns out there's a full version of The Christmas Invasion over on youtube. so as not to tax me blog, click on the link to see it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXzN-moFy_A

The Great Gonzo Will Rule The World

anything with the Muppets is cool. in my mind, the Muppets are the uber cultural subversives. rebels to reason and unreason both. the antihumanity of the modern world. scathingly opinionated and yet jarringly apolitical, adhering to their own drug-addled logic and SFX-altered perceptions of reality, and yet the fucked-in-the-headness of them so artfully subtle that they can pass themselves off as 'good, clean family fun'.

nah, that's all just made-up-to-sound-pretentious drivel. i am by no means trying to warn anybody of an impending threat to the world, especially not specifically one to the human race. pretend i didn't say anything after 'anything with the Muppets is cool'.

Pia has posted something with Muppets over on her blog.

not exactly scathingly opinionated or jarringly apolitical, nor drug-addled or SFX-altered, and certainly not fucked-in-the-head. but i'm sure you see my point.

on rotation with Elvis Costello on the spinner: Muse's Black Holes and Revelations and The Mars Volta's Amputechture.

i really had meant to say more, mainly about the progged-up-Led-Zeppishness of The Mars Volta on Amputechture, and how you absolutely must listen to the CD with cranked-up headphones, but have lost my motivation in all that Muppetness. and though i had more to say about The Mars Volta than Muse, here's something you must see, the Knights of Cydonia:



(also here, on youtube, and there's a cool contest with the video somewhere, but our connection is being annoyingly turtlish and i'm too lazy to dredge it up at the moment, and, anyway, i really ought to be working. but i'm sure google will help you out.)

(ah, what the hell. found it for you, anyway. here it is.)

right. to work.

The End...again

Mabel found, and, yes, far more importantly, got me the last copy, possibly anywhere, except for the ones in those 'Complete Wreck' box sets, and excluding the uber-expensive audio versions, and not counting the ones we haven't found, of Lemony Snicket's The End.

it now sits in a stack in my apartment in all its shrink-wrapped glory.

i've decided to keep it in its wraps for the moment so i wouldn't get (/unless Mabel decides to read it first, which would be alright since if she were reading it, even though the book would no longer be sealed, i wouldn't get) conflicted, as i'm finally reading again, with my nose, prodigious as it is, completely buried nightly in the words, words, words of Alan Moore's Voice of the Fire. (of which i'm currently doing an embarrassingly badly-written real-time review.)

mixed feelings about the reading. i'm enjoying Voice immensely, and the sooner i get through it, the sooner i get to The End, so to speak, and reading, reading, reading is, in theory, good for my writing. in general. but it usually means i won't be writing as much, and with five stories i was hoping to finish by the end of the year (well, four--one of them may turn into a novella/novel that will take much longer to write), and the uber-non-holiday Halloween already at our doorstep...

true, it's a pointless, self-imposed deadline, but i would rather get them down while they're hot, or at least, a few degrees over lukewarm, in my head.

and here i am rambling, instead. ah well. i'm supposed to be working, anyway, so no writing at the moment. ha.

on the spinner: Elvis Costello, live with the Metropole Orkest, My Flame Burns Blue. ah, yes. jazz.

The End has come…and gone: or, 10/13, after the fact

To Whom It Is Of No Concern,

The 13th of October is a positively lovely date. The very idea (and, now, the memory) of the date falling on a Friday fills me with an indescribable joy that simply can not be described.

My head was so filled with the concerns of the day that it was not until long after the fact (and therefore, as it turns out, too late) that I realized i’d neglected something important.

Fortunately, it wasn’t Mabel’s birthday I had forgotten. (At the very least, I suspect, this shows that I still have some of my priorities straight, or, perhaps, not as obviously deviated as the rest of them.)

Rather, it was the fate of the Baudelaires I’d neglected to attend to. While it fills me with joy that so many have decided to partake in The End of their misery (or, perhaps, only the beginning…), it positively rankles in my blood that no one thought to leave me a copy.

Ah, well. Revenge, after all, is a dish best served cold. And it is very cold…

-an Open Letter to the Public and Other Things At Large from a Mysterious Figure In The Shadows Who May Or May Not Have A Tattoo Of An Eye On His Ankle

pick my self up

(credits, titles, other jazz from youtube, here and here. or google it, damnit.)

weird kingdom

i saw a few eps of Kingdom Hospital over the weekend. not everything about the show works for me. the title sequence, and the theme by Ivy, are a few of the things that do:



(or here, on youtube.)

the series works best when it's being utterly weird, which, ironically, is mostly during the scenes involving the living rather than the dead. except for the Underground Kingdom and a few elements such as the old driverless ambulance, the treatment of the supernatural (i.e., ghosts) is tedious, humdrum and oh so very conventional (and i just can't get over century-and-a-half year old ghosts using phrases like "butt-out"--that could just be me; it could be a valid expression in America at the time, but still). i have a particular aversion to the good/evil polarization that characterizes the Western take on supernatural horror.

plus, the talking animals, though weird in their own right, don't quite work, and good god Peter Rickman's wife is annoying.

the Underground Kingdom is actually still pretty conventional, but it has a pretty, right-out-of-the-Cabinet (of Dr. Caligari) look to it that i totally dig.

perhaps the worst thing i can say about the show is i don't find it scary at all, but, again, that could just be me, having been desensitized by the Eastern take (i.e., Hideo Nakata, Takashi Shimizu, et al.) on this kind of weird horror. i haven't seen the Lars von Trier original, but i've seen trailers online (again on youtube), and while the production for the US version is definitely slicker and visually darker, i get the feeling the sober, relatively unstylized and mundane look of the original ups the scare factor considerably.

the US version is, however, aptly atmospheric, and atmosphere is what the show is all about for me. and is probably why, despite all the things about it that i simply do not care for, i can't seem to stop watching it.

Quick one...

...to say Ella will, barring unforseen acts-of-god/gods type things, most definitely be debuting at SPIT tonight at Mag:Net Cafe in Katipunan.

see? i can do quick posts, too.