Friday Fun Times

Want to be suspicious of music forever? Want to live in perpetual terror of a fey imp leaping from your closet? Always thought your high school band was a little too strange? Watch on, my friends, watch on!

Friday Fun Times

Young woman goes squishy over electric kitchen devices.

I apologise for the sound quality.

Friday Fun Times

You're welcome for the earworm. :)

And this is the movie they're talking about, by the way: Outlaw of Gor. I'm sure it's a classic somewhere.

"Let me tell you about some girls I know very well..." "And why I'm being fired!"

We're a little low on content this week, folks. It's my last week at the job I'm quitting and my schedule as all kerblooey (technical term there). So enjoy some short(-ish) videos and return next week for thoughts on Torchwood: Children of Earth (yeah, I know I'm the last person on the freakin' planet to watch it!) and the end of DW Season 5 and assorted other things, including some thoughts on a recent article in Yoga Journal -- novel, yes?

 Since people seem to enjoy my DW posts so much, I'm pondering doing a couple of "retro" reviews from the original series. We'll see what happens.

In case you decide you want a job as a maid at the Abbey...





and Part 2:

friday fun times

this is a long one, but worth it! 'cause who doesn't value conformity, right?

"don't ever link those two things again..." (3 of 4)

a quick review from last week saturday: in the spirit of "don't complain about something if you're not prepared to do it better," i noticed over the past couple of weeks two lists -- one from wired and one from a blog i know not of called ink-stained amazon which i have to say is beautiful to look at it -- that both purport to be 'essential lists' of 'geek culture' quotes.

ahem.

okay, so the wired list starts off with monty python and the holy grail and the amazon list includes the sarah jane adventures -- but i'm still not wildly impressed with either one.

i figured i could do better.

then i thought about it and realised that, on my own, i didn't have the time to do better so i roped in my ever-patient girlfriend to help me do better. :)

first off, a couple of notes:

1. this is for fun. if you're not amused, go read something else. i won't be offended, promise. that being said, suggestions and additions (politely phrased!) are welcome in the comments. but keep in mind this is installation 1 of 4! not everything will fit in here.

2. these are probably mostly going to be dredged out of my memory, anna's memory, imdb, or official show/movie sites. inaccuracy is, therefore, almost inevitable. not to mention repetition of shows or characters. if this annoys you-- well, make your own list. :)

3. i'm not aiming for some kind of "worst to best" or "best to worst" list. they're here because the two people making the list think they're fun or because one of us was able to strong-arm the other into including them. brief context is provided where anna or i thought it was necessary.

5. i am aiming for 4 posts of 25 quotes each over the next 4 weeks. tune in each friday/saturday for your new installment! and here's the link to the first post and to the second...

okay, and that being said...

1. Madame Klara Goteborg: "I may have been a distraction to men -- never a burden!" Journey to the Center of the Earth.

2. The Doctor: "What's wrong with this jumper?!" Doctor Who, several episodes from Christopher Eccleston's sole (bastard) season.

3. Eddie Izzard: "I grew up in Europe...where the history comes from." Dress to Kill.

4. Pennywise: "Everything floats down here." It.

5. Ianto Jones: "Lots of things you can do with a stopwatch." Torchwood, "They Keep Killing Suzie."

6. Peasant: "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!" Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

7. Nanami Kiryuu: "Oneeeee-samaaaaaaaaaaa...." Shoujo Kakumei Utena, more episodes than I like to remember.

8. Jake of New York: "Go, then. There are other worlds than these." The Gunslinger.

9. Bernard Woolley: "It used to be said that there were two types of chairs for two types of ministers. One sort folded up instantly; the other went round and round in circles." Yes, Minister, "Election Night."

10. Dave Lister: "Look out, Earth! The slime's comin' home!" Red Dwarf, "The End."

11. Sarah: "You have no power over me." Labyrinth.

12. The Ood: "Your song is coming to an end." Doctor Who, "The Planet of the Ood."

13. Sally: "I feel there's something in the wind / That feels like tragedy's at hand..." The Nightmare Before Christmas.

14. Tom Servo: "If you get near a song, play it!" Mystery Science Theatre 3000, "Mr. B Natural."

15. Jeff Slater: "We're entering a weird area, here." Tootsie.

16. Bernadette: "I've said it before and I'll say it again -- no more fuckin' Abba!" Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.

17. Leia Organa: "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" Star Wars: A New Hope.

18. Don Logan: "You've got lovely eyes, Deedee. They real?" Sexy Beast.

19. Mau: "Does not happen!" Nation.

20. Granny Weatherwax: "I can't be havin' with this." More or less any of the Witches books in the Discworld series: Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, etc.

21. Kyle Broflowski: "I learned something today..." Any episode of South Park between the 1st and 8th seasons...'cause that's as far as I've seen!

22. Ray: "One gay beer for my gay friend and one normal beer for me 'cause I'm normal." In Bruges.

23. The It Man: "It's...." Monty Python's Flying Circus.

24. Captain Jack Harkness: "Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, 'That could be more sonic?'" Doctor Who, "The Empty Child."

25. Sullah and Indiana Jones: "What are you going to do?" "I don't know -- I'm makin' this up as I go." Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

"my eyes! my eyes!"

after 17 combined hours this week straining to discern over 100-year old handwritten french, my eyes are a wee bit tired this thursday evening, so go enjoy some youtube clips:

i know, i know, all good doctor who fans have seen this about 90, 000 times already but, hey -- it is so worth watching another time!

and so is this:

and this:

"people don't understand about time."

i had some things i thought i was going to be prepared to blog about by this weekend but, between being unwell and...well, being unwell, it didn't happen. i've got a whole stack of books to read -- not for the edification of whoever's reading this blog necessarily but just for the hell of it -- and some movies backed up on my netflix queue, but it's hard to feel enthused about speculative fiction when you can't breathe through your nose. at least, it is for me.

so for this sunday, we just have some random links of things that came across my feed reader this week which i think are interesting.

first off, there's a link from jo walton over at tor.com of "neglected books." if you're looking for something to read the next time you're at the library, this might help!

also from tor.com, some stories available online from the year's best fantasy 9. there's some awesome stuff in here: kage baker (two stories!), cathrynne m. valente (if you haven't read the girl who circumnavigated fairyland..., you also might want to look into that -- y'know, if you've got a couple of days to kill), kij johnson.

more from tor about the new companion in the yet-to-be-seen 5th season of doctor who. personally, when it comes to the use of the companion as a bit of eye-candy to make the show's ratings jump a bit, i always remember an interview with louise jameson (leela over there at the left) when she was talking about her experience on the show and all the fanmail she found she got from fathers rather than children: "but i guess when you wear a leather bikini and you're on right after the pools results, that's what you're going to get." she was massively good-tempered about it and seemed to look on the whole thing more as a good joke than as anything offensive or troubling.

a distressing (for me anyway) snippet of news via the scifiwire: fox may be developing a u.s. version of torchwood. since the bbc hasn't said anything about a 4th season of the show post-children of earth (and, really, who'd be left to be in it?!), you'd think i'd be more enthusiastic about news that the show could have a new home. i'm not. fox is a show-killer. beyond that, they are ratings-hogs show-killers. one of the things i adore about torchwood is the subtlety of the inter-personal relationships (shall we say); i can't see fox preserving that. what'd be a grand way to get ratings? sell it as gay scifi. please, mr. barrowman sir, refuse.

and still on the scifiwire/torchwood kick, another film version of sherlock holmes with the odd familiar face or two in it...

from the more academic side of things, a speech from the most recent american historical society meeting in san diego earlier this month: "is google good for history?"

and there's ten ton of stuff i have marked about the recent kerfluffle in northern ireland about the robinsons and mrs. robinson's affair and the dust-up about the devolution of police powers to northern ireland -- but that's a whole 'nother post and so i will leave you with a mstk3 clip for the day:

"don't ever link those two things again..." (1 of 4)

okay, so in the spirit of "don't complain about something if you're not prepared to do it better," i noticed over the past couple of weeks two lists -- one from wired and one from a blog i know not of called ink-stained amazon which i have to say is beautiful to look at it -- that both purport to be 'essential lists' of 'geek culture' quotes.

ahem.

okay, so the wired list starts off with monty python and the holy grail and the amazon list includes the sarah jane adventures -- but i'm still not wildly impressed with either one.

i figured i could do better.

then i thought about it and realised that, on my own, i didn't have the time to do better so i roped in my ever-patient girlfriend to help me do better. :)

first off, a couple of notes:

1. this is for fun. if you're not amused, go read something else. i won't be offended, promise. that being said, suggestions and additions (politely phrased!) are welcome in the comments. but keep in mind this is installation 1 of 4! not everything will fit in here.

2. these are probably mostly going to be dredged out of my memory, anna's memory, imdb, or official show/movie sites. inaccuracy is, therefore, almost inevitable. not to mention repetition of shows or characters. if this annoys you-- well, make your own list. :)

3. i'm not aiming for some kind of "worst to best" or "best to worst" list. they're here because the two people making the list think they're fun or because one of us was able to strong-arm the other into including them. brief context is provided where anna or i thought it was necessary. i also tried to find links for character images that were from the episode/scene/moment where the quoted line was spoken. this isn't always possible but i'm fairly pleased with myself for getting as close as i did! fair warning: links may contain spoilers, particularly links to doctor who or torchwood episodes.

5. i am aiming for 4 posts of 25 quotes each over the next 4 weeks. tune in each friday/saturday for your new installment!

okay, and that being said...

1. Tim Latimer [talking about the Doctor]: "He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and can see the turn of the universe...and... he's wonderful." Doctor Who, "The Family of Blood."

2. Captain Jack Harkness: "Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, arming the human race against the future. The twenty-first century is when everything changes. And you gotta be ready." Torchwood, Season 1 opener on all episodes.

3. Brother Justin Crowe [talking about his upcoming radio broadcast]: "In a single coast-to-coast broadcast, I will speak to more souls than our Lord did in his entire lifetime. It's going to be breathtaking." Carnivale, "Ingram, TX."

4. Dominic Toretto: "I retract my previous statement." The Fast and the Furious.

5. Murtagh [in reference to a stone wall he and Eragon have run up against in their attempt to join the rebels]: "Tell me your vision looked something like this." Eragon.

6. The Guide: "Don't Panic." The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

7. The Doctor: "Don't blink." Doctor Who, "Blink."

8. M [to James Bond as he almost says her real name]: "Finish that sentence and I'll have you killed." Casino Royale.

9. Captain Jack Sparrow [in reference to almost anything]: "Not good -- not good!" Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

10. Alice [before killing the monster that used to be her work partner and "husband"]: "I'm missing you already." Resident Evil.

11. Riddick: "If you can't keep up, don't step up. You'll only die." Chronicles of Riddick.

12. "I'm going to curl up in his sock drawer and sleep for days." MST3K riff in MST3K: The Movie: This Island Earth.

13. Dean Winchester: "Well, that's healthy." Supernatural, Pilot.

14. C-3PO: "Shutting up, sir." Star Wars: A New Hope.

15. Dr. Frank N. Furter: "What ever happened to Fay Wray? That delicate satin-draped frame...how it clung to her thigh as I started to cry... 'cause I wanted to be dressed just the same..." The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

16. Jim [wandering in an empty London]: "Hello! Hello -- hello! Hello!" 28 Days Later.

17. Temperance Brennan: "I don't know what that means." Bones, multiple episodes.

18. Plankton: "Well, goodbye, everyone. I'll remember you all in therapy!" Spongebob Squarepants, "The Algae is Always Greener."

19. Wesley Gibson [talking to Sloan who may, or may not, be trying to induct him into a secret brotherhood of assassins]: "So do you make sweaters or do you kill people?" Wanted.

20. Toshiko Sato: "Because you're breaking my heart." Torchwood, "Exit Wounds."

21. The Doctor: "Well, progress is a very flexible word. It can mean just about anything you want it to mean." Doctor Who, "The Power of Kroll."

22. Michael Corvin: "Are you fucking kidding me!" Underworld.

23. Mme. de Pompadour [talking to/about the Doctor]: "Such a lonely little boy. Lonely then and lonelier now." Doctor Who, "The Girl in the Fireplace."

24. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker: "We're smarter than this!" "Apparently not." Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

25. Marvin the Paranoid Android [about life in general...]: "I have this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side..." The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

"murderer."

my aim this month -- more or less because i can -- has been to post every 2-3 days. so far, i haven't quite hit that. but i have found time -- mostly on the t -- to read some really good books i can tell you about! more five-minute book reviews: everyone's favorite, right?

so today we have philippe claudel's brodeck.

i read this in one sitting; it took about 3-4 hours; and it was entirely motivated by shame. i picked the book up at the brookline public library about -- a month and a half ago, renewed it something like four times and was finally faced with having to return it the next day without ever having read it. like the man said, "not good! not good!"

so i read it and i returned it and so i don't have a copy on hand from which i can quote excerpts that might convince you without me having to go on about it that reading this book is a really good idea.

be warned, though: it isn't fun, but it is deceptively easy. i don't know what claudel is like to read in french -- i could do it, but it would take me way the hell longer than 4 hours! -- but in english he reads something like a cross between primo levi and aleksander solzhenitsyn, and...something i can't quite put my finger on. if i track it down, i'll get back to you.

without spoilering anything too badly for you -- and you really don't want me to do that because claudel has spent a lot of time putting together some really delicate rakes in some really long grass and it would be a disservice to his effort for me to point them out -- the story centers around and is told by brodeck, a returned prisoner from 'the camps' which were set up during 'the war' who has come back to his home village somewhere in what is probably eastern europe and is now faced with a demand from his fellow villagers: tell the story of their interaction with a stranger who came to town and is no now longer in town and do it right. what 'right' might be, brodeck isn't exactly sure, but he's pretty sure he knows and he's even more sure he doesn't like it, but he's not sure what to do about it.

brodeck isn't always a sympathetic narrator; sometimes he's quite frustrating, doubling back on his own story, revising it, continually apologising to us for not being a real writer, for doubting himself, for repeating himself, for not being a stronger, cleverer, better writer or man. but despite his evasions and his own stated desire not to return to his own past, he ends up telling his story and the stranger's inasmuch as he knows them. he's not entirely sure of large sections of either one, having to make them up out of what other people have told him -- voluntarily or inadvertently or through omission -- or what he can guess for himself.

the thing this felt most like to me -- apart from levi and maus -- was deadwood. there's a scene with pigs at the end of the second or third chapter that just shrieked al swearengen to me. not that brodeck himself is in anyway like everyone's favorite saloonkeeper; if he was going to be compared to anyone in the town, it would have to be doc, still continually caught in the aftermath of civil war battles.

and then for no particularly good reason except that it's friday and i can, here's another mst3k short i found resurrected on google videos:

"we're smarter than this!"

having had a somewhat frustrating day which involved a): waking up from a lovely dream in which i had found this great job that wanted to hire me on sight; b) waking up from said dream; c) realizing that it was, in fact, just a dream; d) having to work on an assignment where i'm basically guessing at what the professor wants because he isn't the greatest at instructions; and e) coming home from work -- after lovely walk home -- to find a letter from doctor's office saying, "gosh, we're sorry but the lab was unable to process your test results. please call our office to find a convenient time for you to return so you can undergo time-consuming, painful, and humiliating processes all over again."

gee, really? me? thanks ever so!

*headdesk*

but i only threw my socks across the room, not anything else, so i'm counting that as a minor victory and now, having been duly calmed (at least a little bit) by a hot shower and girlfriend-provided tea and chips, i decided what i really should do is put up an amusing post here because that way i could feel at least that i was making someone else's day more fun.

so here you go.

one of my all-time favorite pixar shorts, "for the birds:"

and from the mst3k crew, a charming short about always being yourself:

and a couple of my all-time favorite fan videos.

first off, evanescence and "bring me to life" used as background for shoujo kakumei utena:

same band, "going under," same anime:

same band, "hello," doctor who -- elegy for donna noble:

and, finally, a fantastic 10th doctor video: