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Daily Archives: December 21, 2006
Doctor Who: Sometimes, He’s Out
Television Without Pity » Doctor Who » Fear Her
Rose and the Doctor head to London 2012 for the Olympics, only to find themselves on a suburban street where the children are disappearing. After a bunch of herrings both red and anvilicious, it is discovered that one lonely little girl named Chloe is responsible: she pulls her neighbors into her art by drawing them. Shes also got her mean scary demonic dad locked up in a very scary picture in her closet. After a billion years of gumshoe and lots of sardonic twitticisms, it is discovered that the girl is actually
possessed by a colony of tiny aliens called the “Isolus,” whose separation from their mothership drink has caused them to go shit nuts. Chloe draws the Doctor and TARDIS in as well, leaving Rose to save the day. She does this, and meanwhile Chloe and her mum sing “Kookaburra” at Mean Dad until he goes away. Then the Doctor reappears, grabs the Olympic torch, and things get stupid. Considering that next weeks double-header is the season finale, this is a shit way to go out. But most of the episode is pretty awesome,
even for all the cheese at the end — the effects are neat-looking, and the performances — especially those of Chloe, her mom, and Rose — are fun to watch. The fun of being Doctor and Companion again after last week is infectious, if claustrophobic, and its nice to see Rose react to the Doctors absence with something other than total meltdown. And theres a happy ending, which is getting rarer all the time. Not recommended, but a good close to the story before the final denouement.
The TWoP reviewer didn’t much like this episode, and neither did we. Okay at first, creepy in an interesting way, and then about the time Rose thinks she’s worked it out and saved the Doctor (I do like how our Rose is capable of saving herself, not to mention the Timelord) the episode goes badly downhill. Yes, it’s a good twist that the evil demonic daddy drawing has been freed, but it’s a bad twist when it turns out that you can defeat him by huddling together and singing the kookaburra song, because laughter
and happiness always beat evil bad demonic daddies.
Meh.
Although we thought it was funny that the Isolus hitched a ride and a warm-up in the Olympic Torch, it was groan-inducing when the Doctor stepped in as a last-second replacement.
Meh.
I suppose “final denouement” means we can look forward to more Big Badness to come. I’m only vaguely aware of upcoming personnel changes, so we’ll tune in next time to see how the finale plays out. We only just started liking David Tennant in the role, though. It took several episodes – actually, most of the season – to get where we accepted him as “the Doctor” and not just as “the new guy that replaced the totally awesome Christopher Eccleston.”
Imagery: Sumo
In November of 1993, I visited Japan for 2 weeks. It was a big adventure; my friend Debbie was living in Nagoya then and the original plan was that we’d take off for a few days together and then I’d be on my own. The plan changed when Debbie had a family emergency, and she left me in the hands of some friends of hers.
I spent a lot of time at first getting used to living in a Japanese apartment, exploring Nagoya via subway, and watching a lot of Japanese TV. Then after a few days of culture shock and visiting temples and viewing autumn leaves with some of Debbie’s friends, I headed off to a couple of the other islands. I had to, because if I hadn’t, I would have spent the entire 2 weeks watching the sumo tournament that was then taking place.
I got into it because although I couldn’t understand what was going on, I could understand victory and defeat, formality and spectacle, juggernaut and underdog. And also, the English-language daily Japan Times explained what had gone on the night before, and I was pretty well hooked on the sport. Also, I had attended a party at someone’s home where sumo was on the TV, and everyone cheered wildly when a hotly favored, huge American champion named Konishiki was
taken down by a much smaller man. The tournament was eventually won by another American, Akebono.
There are a lot of stats and pictures here.
The other day, I was looking at a website that featured caganer, the pooping peasant figurine that people in Catalan love to put in their Nativity scenes, and there was a sumo one.
The crouching stance really lends itself to the, uh, imagery.
I went looking on YouTube for sumo videos, and it seems that unless you want to look at teenage girls hopping around in inflatable suits running into each other, you won’t find real bouts or other authentic sumo events unless you use a specific wrestler’s name in the tag search. Once you find them, there’s all kinds of stuff, but not organized by date or tournament.
That’s when I remembered my little mobile phone photo of the sumo bike accessory – we were in Aspen for the day, looking around, and it caught my eye. I think it’s a horn, or makes some kind of incredibly rude farting-go-very-fast sound.
It must be funny as hell to ride around looking up its backside.
Still, I have a lot of respect for Sumo and may even try to watch the upcoming January tournament, if it comes up on TiVo.
Traffic Refugees
Last night at about the time when people log out and go home, we got word that there was a big accident at the intersection at the far end of the parking lot. Supposedly, the intersection was closed and they were re-routing cars around it; it's been listed as one of the most dangerous intersections in this part of the suburbs because of the high number of serious accidents that occur there.
Fair enough, I made mental note to possibly hook around and take the tollway in the direction of home. As I left the building, a long, long string of cars was going along the edge of our lot, headed toward the access road that leads toward another major intersection. It was clear that the police had allowed some traffic to detour through our lot in order to clear the area. So, I avoided them as well, and hooked around to a nearby on-ramp. The line of cars stretched back, back, back, for all the world like refugees fleeing some catastrophe.
This morning, the word went around just before lunch… another major accident at the same intersection, which again cut off my access westward. As I had a half-day today, there I was again, hooking around to the tollway, this time in daylight. It was a dark, grim, foggy day here, so flights at O'Hare were backed up in their own right, not just because of Denver's blizzardly woes.
Weird.
Salt Lake Trib’s Mullen Moving On
Salt Lake Tribune – Mullen: Farewell, and thanks for reading
This is my final column for The Tribune.
Every action in life has a trigger. Last weekend, a good friend and editor pulled my Sunday column. I got mad. We had a serious discussion. The column did not run.
I fear he blames himself for my decision to quit. But it goes beyond one dispute. In context, this event served me well. I needed a jolt. I need to reboot. I'm leaving the best job and newspaper in Utah.
Damn! I've enjoyed reading Holly Mullen's columns. I've even emailed her once or twice to follow up on them. The issue seems to be the massive change the Trib has undergone recently in adapting to a more online-focused approach to news reportage. Also, they seemed to want short and snappy as opposed to meaty and analytical. Which is a shame, of course.
She may start a blog… which would be well worth reading if the makes good on her threat.
Xmas Wrapping Paper Flickrtoy!1!
For those stuck at home with no wrapping paper… create your own using images from Flickr!
[tags]Flickr, Christmas, Xmas, funny, creative[/tags]