Tuesday, October 19, 2010

In Other News

1. Can’t wait for the UK to go off daylight savings.

2. We will be getting the Doctor Who Christmas Special on Boxing Day, and not weeks/months later as before. Big cheer for the ABC!

3. Sherlock* finally premiered here on Sunday. Despite being on Nine and subject to a ginormous amount of ad breaks, I think it did quite well. People on Twitter seemed to like it at any rate (and somewhere it was given 45 out of 5 stars.) But that’s not the point. The best thing about it being on air is that they’re doing tons of advertising for it, including radio ads. This is brilliant because it means I can be confronted with unexpected Cumberbatch at any time. And because it’s snippets of dialogue, I have the added fangirl thrill of then picturing the complete scenes. It brightens up being stuck in traffic, ok? Don’t give me that look.

* My love for this show has of course been detailed previously – I think it’s insanely clever, well-written, well-acted and the production is mesmerizing…and I’m writing an essay on it, so never mind that.

4. Here are three things I have gone off completely – Glee (granted I wasn’t a big fan but I can’t stand it now), Vampire Weekend, Donna (and I don’t mean my phone).

5. After I got home from my riding lesson on Sunday, I got hooked watching the Phillip Island MotoGP. While I have been known to watch Formula 1 and I absolutely love the Dakar rally, I’ve never gotten into bike racing. The only reason this held my interest was the fact that Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi were having an epic battle for third and the intensity of it roped me in almost straight away. I was backing Hayden so much because I think Rossi is an arrogant prat, but even thinking that I can acknowledge that he is so damn good at what he does. Just…wow.

I've tried to find footage of it but with no luck. A snippet is here from the 0.58min mark but it doesn't do it justice.

6. Ok so - Na Na Na. Hmm. I am reserving judgement on the latest incarnation of MCR mainly because I find their singles often have greater power in context to the whole (I heard the whole of The Black Parade before I knew what the first single would be). At the moment, I’m sadly of the opinion that this is about three years too late. I mean it’s catchy and fun and, you know, My Chem…but it just Muse and The Killers have already been there, done that.

7. I have been watching a lot of Fringe. I am really enjoying it. It reminds me a lot of Torchwood, but only the way I keep going ‘they tried this in TW, but they’re doing it better here.’ It doesn’t matter because they have completely different tones – except for COE. The exchange between Olivia and Walter in the first ep of season 1 greatly mirrors that of Gwen and Clem, except Fringe predates COE. I strongly suspect Fringe is what the next season of TW will be. But seeing as Fringe already exists, and exists brilliantly, I don’t know why they’re bothering. Overall, Olivia > Gwen. To infinity and beyond.

8. I am outraged by how incredibly convoluted getting a motorbike licence in this state is. You have to go for pre-courses before you sit the tests before you get the various licences. Six things before you get your full licence. And you have to pay for all of it. I might as well just save that money and buy a bike. See I don’t actually want to be licenced, cause I’m not going to drive it on the road, but as we no longer have a motorcycle, I have nothing to learn on. I could go for lessons, but then I need a learners licence (1 seven hour training course, 1 test). I can’t rent a bike and get dad to teach me because again, I need a licence and I’m fairly confident I’m going to fall over so I don’t think renting is really the way to go. So it’s back to the original plan of just buying a cheap second hand (dirt) bike. But I don’t have spare cash to throw around so it won’t happen. Le sigh.

9. Life on Mars. Omg I completely forgot about this. I finally, finally, finally, finally got round to watching the final ep of this the other day. Hmfgh. Love. Just love! It’s such a clever concept this show, I adore it.

10. The other day in class I had another moment where Torchwood made me look more knowledgeable than I actually am. My lecturer is a Chris Isherwood fan and the first time he mentioned him, he asked if anyone knew who he was clearly expecting to be met with blank stares. Not I! I know all about Chris Isherwood, even read some Chris Isherwood and went to see A Single Man precisely because of Chris Isherwood (ok and Colin Firth and Matthew Good). And why? Simply because he happened to be mentioned in ‘Reset’, TW season 2.

Martha: Oh, I'm a camera!
Jack: As Chris Isherwood once said to me when we were cruising the Kurfurstendamm.
In Jen world that translates into ‘oooh I wonder what that’s about, let’s research!’ The first time TW came in useful at uni was in cultural studies when no one knew who Philoctetes was (‘Greeks Bearing Gifts’, season 1).

And then people say watching lots of television doesn’t teach you anything. Ha.

Music: Knights of Cydonia - Muse
Mood: Confused
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