Links 03/10/2014

On the disappearing dark American sky.

The seminal Friday Night Lights SI piece by Buzz Bissinger.


How Fincher constructs scenes.

October 2nd, 2014 at 1:57 pm • Add Comment • Filed in Links


Links 02/10/2014

Jim muses on what the government really thinks of the Arts and Culture brief.

Of Japan and ramen.

On nuclear and the Presidential football.

Silence of Sibelius.

 

{Long reads really are the new short reads…}

October 2nd, 2014 at 10:22 am • Add Comment • Filed in Links


Now Reading (Again)

James Gleick Chaos

September 16th, 2014 at 9:50 pm • Add Comment • Filed in Culture


Dr Who Season 8 Musings

[Installs Who Filter]

I’ve been a very bad Whovian the last few years. I lost track of Who mid-way in Season 6, having skipped Ninth and a Tenth/Eleventh watcher. Breaks do not become a boxsettian like me. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve cajoled K to watch seven seasons of Who with me. Who while baking. Who while knitting. Who while playing with code. And it was a glorious couple of weeks.

Now, I know the serious fans have strong opinions on the repetitive nature of some of the plots over the years. And sometimes Moffet gets stick for some of the magical realism he exhibits, but hey, at least we’re not closing our eyes and thinking of a word/name/prayer together!

Okay, if you aren’t up to date (Season 8, Ep. 4 “Listen”) – please stop now.

After watching so much Who, these things came to mind:-

Twelfth is the Valeyard. Or at least will get as close to a state of becoming him as we’ve seen in the reboot. Dear God, I want Capaldi to wrestle with this on screen. Twelfth may, or may not have pushed the Half-Faced Man in Deep Breath. It doesn’t really matter. He’s in a constant state of confusion about what sort of man he is. What he values. If he’s really good. Despite being called a “Good Dalek” by Rusty in “Into The Dalek” and Clara telling him that he “tries” to be, being the most important thing. Does a really bad man even worry about being good? Let’s have more shades of grey, please Steven.

After seeing the Fiftieth Special, it’s obvious that the Clara – the Impossible Girl – is a facet of the Moment, or rather a machination of the Doctor’s . Bad Wolf herself, congratulated the Doctor – “You Clever Boy” –  as K reminds me. Clara’s timeline is inextricably linked to the Doctor as she jumped into his timeline at Trenzalore. But what if the push for her to jump into his timeline came more from the Moment’s promise that the payment for destroying Gallifrey in the Time Wars. As we know, Gallifrey is sealed in stasis. But as Listen last Saturday night demonstrated, the Doctor just like any of us is a slave to his Id. Clara serves as the perfect foil to it. Telling what’s what. Saving when he needs it.

Whether or not Clara is that heavy metaphorical leaf we’ve been shown again and again, she’s executing on the promise from the Moment, that the Doctor’s curse will be live on. Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Why wouldn’t the Doctor want to be saved, especially after centuries of being the Madman peace sentry on Trenzalore?

Leaving Clara, I find it interesting that Danny Pink arrives just at the right time for Clara in Season 8. Twelfth inquires on her dating life again and again, offering to check out Pink’s prospects. The mirroring of Pink and the Doctor’s childhoods is suspicious? Orson Pink seems to know about Clara, despite denying knowing her to Twelfth, and giving her Soldier Dan right before she needed to drop it at the Doctor’s childhood bedside. How many times have we been told, that because we know something exists in the future, that a character makes a point of doing something of engineering that thing – think River Song and the hard-boiled private dick novel written under the pen-name of Melody Malone? What if Orson is just a projection like the blanket covered kid in the children’s home. More and more, I’m thinking that we’re seeing the inside of Twelfth’s head. And it’s wonderful.

Cannot wait for Season 8 to come to a head. And damn, if Moffet doesn’t go this way, I’ll be disappointed.

September 16th, 2014 at 9:13 pm • Add Comment • Filed in Culture


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