Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Well it's been a while

I don't post for a few months and they change everything around. No me gusta. Also, the site seems slow, but my new(ish) computer should be able to handle stuff. Whine whine complain complain for a blog I don't even update. Well Doctor Who seems to have gone into hibernation, so I haven't had anything to say. Perhaps I should watch some classic Who and review it here. I dunno.

Crossposted at my Typepad blog "A Case of the Mondays," which I also have neglected dreadfully.

And now for something completely horrendous

I watched the video.
 
I didn't want to. I'd read enough about it that I had a pretty good idea of what it contained, and after watching it, I knew that I had not been misinformed. It is thoroughly as vile as everyone is saying. Now I'm not going to go into the pros and cons of carbon footprint amelioration, though I will mention that rendering live human bodies into dead splattered gobbets isn't exactly a good way to rid the earth of excess carbon; after all, that splattered flesh will decay and give off nasty gasses, and cleaning up dead bodies from indoor environments usually involves harsh chemical cleaners. Well, it does in a sensible, normal world anyway, and the world depicted in this moment of vile film is by no means a normal one. Perhaps the world the 10:10 group wants to bring about will be one where classrooms and offices begored with the rotting remains of dissenters from consensus are considered normal.
 
But the hypocritical "green" propaganda (even the making of a small promotional commercial like this one has a bigger carbon footprint than, say, that of a kid who gets driven to his school instead of taking the bus or walking) and the gorey special effects don't bother me as much as the fact that the dissenters were blown up after everyone else had cheerfully acquiesced to getting involved in the carbon-footprint-lowering efforts. So you see, this was not so much a threat to those of us who may look at all this carbon-footpring AGW green nonsense as, well, nonsense -- or if it was, it was merely as an afterthought. No, the main targets of this propaganda piece were the new joiners to the anti-carbon-life-forms movement themselves. And that message was: don't even think of backing out now. In other words, it's the same treatment totalitarian groups throughout history have meted out to their minions. I don't know about the entire environmental movement, but this 10:10 group (many internet commenters have pointed out, BTW, that the "reduce everyone's carbon footprint by 10%" is sure easily taken care of by the Roman practice of decimation) is yet another leftist, Marxist in method if not in philosophy, totalitarian organization.
 
But that's not what worries me. What worries me is the large amount of money behind these people, and the influence their members and supporters have -- which comes from the large amount of money. And they are partially subsidized by the British government too, yay -- more money. And Richard Curtis is a popular, even beloved movie director and scriptwriter (among other things he wrote the Vincent and the Doctor episode for the most recent season of Doctor Who, an episode I have not yet seen and now may never see because how could I enjoy it now?). And there also many popular celebrities signed on with this and seem to think its message is a-okay, though how they plan to have a career once the New Green Regime takes over I have no idea. So we have a combination of money and popularity being used to promote conformity enforced by fear of bloody death. I have been asking myself what were they thinking and but I'm not really sure I want to know.
 
By the way -- no, it's not satire in the great British tradition of Monty Python or even in Curtis' own Blackadder; those shows poked fun at authority, conformity, and stupidity. This video celebrates authority (the ones who get the red button are 1) a teacher, 2) a member of upper management if not the CEO of a company, 3) a group of footballers against one lone man, and 4) a soundman at the control booth of a studio where Gillian Andersen's character is behind glass, vulnerable to seat rigged with explosives. Where is the authority and the conformity being mocked? Some might say that the piece mocks the stupidity of going against such an "obvious" problem as climate change, but how is killing the supposedly "stupid" people supposed to bring them around to the "correct" viewpoint? The answer is that it isn't; the 10:10 group isn't interested in changing anyone's mind, only eliminating those who aren't on board, and if you aren't already on board that means you have already been placed in the ranks of the unredeemable. In a way this goes beyond conventional totalitarian movements, who at least seek to bring dissenters into the fold instead of just killing them at the first sign of dissent.
 
(Posted everywhere because I am that appalled.)

30 Days of Who -- all the rest of the days

Yep, I've sadly neglected the 30 Days of Who. I know, I know -- you've been hitting this site every day, wondering when I'd post something. Well I've decided to take care of the rest of the list (items 8 - 30) and just get it over with. Life goes on, etc. Let's just start:

Day 08 – A Who-Related Photo That Makes You Happy

Gosh, that's a bit much to hang on a photo. Let's just say this means "a photo I like" and that is quite a few. I'll pick one I happen to have on my hard drive:

Amfqyb

Look at that GQMF. Rowr.

Day 09 – A Who-Related Photo That Makes You Angry/Sad

No Who photo makes me really sad (well, maybe old ones of Two as Patrick Troughton is NO MOAR), so let's go with angry. I saw a LiveJournal avatar (those little images LJ users have in their profiles and show up in their comments and so on) that was a fanart of Ten and ROES cuddling a little blond baby between them. It made me want to set things on fire. Okay, that wasn't exactly a photo -- how about any photo collage made from the OH NOES END OF TRAGIC LOVE AFFAIR scene at the end of Doomsday. Bonus kill! points for having sentimental lines from a mushy pop song in a fancy font in the image. I'm not sullying my site with any of the above images, by the way. You'll have to look them out for yourself.


Day 10 – A Who-Related Photo That You Took

I... haven't taken any that I can think of. Since I don't live in England/Wales I don't have access to film sets or police phone boxes. I could take a picture of my dvds of seasons 2 and 3, but why?


Day 11 – Your Favorite Season (Classic or New)

Well let's see. Whatever season it was that Four and Romana were travelling about together, and the ones before that where Four and Sarah Jane Smith were the Tardis team. I'd like to say this current (just past) season is also a favorite, but I've only seen the first five episodes! (Or four if you count Flesh and Stone/Time of Angels as one episode.) But it will probably be in there once I see the rest.


Day 12 – Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

It tickled my fancy to create a Tumblr blog dedicated to bringing back Gallifrey.


Day 13 – Your Favorite Villain

The Master. He started out as a standard moustache-twirling, evil-laugh-uttering, do-evil-just-for-the-LULZ megalomaniac, but there is the possibility of a much more complex character under all that.


Day 14 – The Villain Who Scared You the Most

Hm. I can't say any of the villains in Who have ever "scared" me -- a few of them have been sort of unnerving. Many of them have turned out simply to be misunderstood or misguided more than evil. I suppose I'd have to say the worst one would be Borusa. In the two (I think) previous episodes he was in, he was the Doctor's ally and somewhat of a mentor, and though the usual crusty old Time Lord he was generally supposed to be a good guy. Then in The Five Doctors he goes psycho. Good turned to evil to me is scarier than any standard cackling evil villain, or even your plain old criminal villain.


Day 15 – Favorite Who-Related Tumblr

Mine. And soon to be another favorite, this other one of mine. So it's a little egotistical -- so what? All the other blogs seem to have a ROES infestation.


Oh, okay, if I have to pick one that isn't mine, here are two whose entries I like seeing in my dash: Moff Tiem Nao and Enmity of the Ages.

 

Day 16 – Your Favorite Who-Related FanFic

I don't read a lot of it because most fan-fic, well... but this one is very well done. (Warning: possibly NSFW slash though not explicit.)


Day 17 – A Piece of Who-Related FanArt

Heh heh. There's one I really like but it's definitely NSFW.Pink dress. Bondage. That's all I'm saying.

Ahem. Anyway, to keep things decent around here, I love this Edward Goreyesque (not "Tim Burton-esque) drawing of the First Doctor and either Susan or later companion Dodo Chaplet hanging out with non-canon Peter Cushing Doctor and non-canon Susan.


Day 18 – Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

It tickles my fancy to allow people to submit to my new Bring Back Gallifrey Tumblr blog.


Day 20 – The Character Who Is Most Like You

Um... none of them, really. I haven't the slightest bit of courage or adventuresomeness in my body. I think at minimum you need that to be in the Doctor's universe. I suppose, though, that some aspects of my personality are like the Doctor's. I am often cranky; opinionated; think well of my own intelligence (whether justified or not); am secretly not as secure as I seem to be, but I can bluff it. Also I have the attention span of a gnat, and can't stand fitting myself into others' routines.


Day 21 – Your Doctor Who OTP

Doctor + Tardis = 4evah. And don't you forget it.


Day 22 – A Who-Related Fan-Site

Why I have one right here.


Day 23 – A Who-Related YouTube Video

Uh... look one up yourselves, children; I'm not advertising Youtube today.


Day 24 – Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

 

As a break from the constant advertising of my site, here's a picture I like:

Vlcsnap-2010-04-04-00h34m56s203
Yeah, I'm getting kind of tired.


Day 25 – Favorite Who Actor

Gosh that's difficult. There are a lot of them. In no particular order: Matt Smith, David Tennant, Bernard Cribbins, Tom Baker, Noel Clarke (who I will remind you played the excellent and underappreciated Mickey).


Day 26 – Favorite Who Actress

Liz Sladen! Also Lalla Ward and Mary Tamm (the two Romanas). Classic Who actresses seem to have something the current ones lack, though Karen Gillan is the best of the NuWho girl companions.


Day 27 – An Episode You Wish Hadn’t Been Made

Oh God. The list. Let's see... of what I've seen so far of NuWho, the world would be a better place if Journey's End had never been made. So much fail was embedded therein... The Stolen Earth might as well come along for the ride. We have ROES IS BACK, a romantic meadow run in the middle of a Dalek invasion (really, the Doctor deserved to be shot), a fake regeneration, clone Doctor from Donna and a hand (it's a good thing the Doctor never "mated" with her -- his DNA is apparently so easily reproduced that he'd have gotten octuplets on her), the Doctor throughout JE acting totally out of character (taking Davros' Hannibal Lecture like he agreed with it, mind-wiping Donna, depositing ROES and Clone Doctor in another universe like he couldn't wait to get rid of them-- wait, that is in character). Anyway, I'd have been happy if most of that season was never made.

Then from earlier in NuWho, that weird "Doctor Lite" episode Love & Monsters. What the fuck was that, a failed Torchwood script? Yo, Who writers -- this is a kid's show, not a place for you to play with your Unreliable Narrator fetish.


Day 28 – An Episode Idea You Created Yourself

Er, none really, but I have this whole scenario in my head about how they need to bring back Gallifrey.


Day 29 – Who You Think Should Be the Next Doctor

I have no idea. I'm still settling into Matt Smith (or I wish I was, fnarr fnarr). Otherwise I don't follow British actors so I don't know who could possibly qualify.


Day 30 – Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

There's this campaign I've heard about, to bring back Gallifrey...

Okay folks, I'm done!

Kafkatrapping

A very long essay that is nevertheless worth reading. It pretty much demolishes the whole "you are guilty of [some bad thing] simply by what you are" argument. You know, that whole "you hate (trendy victim group) because you aren't one of them" thing. It's not really a tactic for anything but shutting up the opponent; once you use that you've basically said "you have no right to speak or even exist." It's the tactic of a loser, that nevertheless "wins" because there really is no comeback to someone who has basically told you that not only are you better off not existing, the universe would be better off if you never had existed.

It is interesting how many people who are “fighting for their rights” (and are usually self-proclaimed Kafka fans) are still willing to engage in the sort of emotional abuse they often claim they themselves have suffered from. If it’s for revenge, it’s not a valid argument. Anyway, read the whole thing.

Rose Tyler

fezzesaresocoollike:

top five female characters of all time | o2. rose tyler

“I made my decision a long time ago, and I’m never going to leave you.”

Where do I begin about this girl? Rose is by far my favourite companion of the Doctor ever. She’s kind, selfless, brilliant, sweet, isn’t afraid to speak her mind, knows what she wants, and is all around fantastic. I love everything about her character, from her relationship with Mickey, to the subtle glances shared with the Doctor, to the tragic love the two shared, to her reappearing in later seasons even though the Doctor told her they could never see each other again…and just everything else. I have no words for how much I adore her, for how much I wish I could be like her, and for the impact she’s had upon my life. I just love her.

via fyeahrosetyler.tumblr.com

Which Rose is this? I don't remember this Rose. I remember a Rose that could occasionally be kind and concerned, depending upon who was writing the episode (generally her best moments were in Stephen Moffat's eps The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, and Girl In The Fireplace, and her worst ones were in the ones written by Russell T. Davies) but was more often jealous, selfish, and unhealthily possessive of the Doctor. There is so much fail here I don't know where to begin. Let's just start.

One: "She's kind" -- sometimes; "selfless" -- as long as that "selflessness" didn't mean she'd have to give up her happy fun time and space travel with the Doctor, maybe; "brilliant" -- um, no; "sweet" -- occasionally; "isn't afraid to speak her mind" -- not that I can recall her ever saying anything that interesting or insightful despite what we were always being told -- not shown -- by the writers; "knows what she wants" -- well that much is clear, but just wanting something is not usually considered a positive characteristic -- it's what you want and why you want it that counts. Whatever it started out as, her desire to stay with the Doctor "forever" was finally not at all a good thing, for either of them.

Then it goes on, getting worse. Her relationship with Mickey was something this fan found wonderful? That just makes me worry about said fan's significant others. Rose treated Mickey like dirt when she was with him, taking him for granted and generally making it clear that he had been replaced by the Doctor. Nice, after all his devotion to her. About the "subtle glances shared with the Doctor" to their "tragic love affair" I am not going to say anything because I can't type and vomit at the same time.

Let's get one thing straight: at first I liked Rose, and her character had promise. But her character arc took a nose dive when for some reason the show's writers (well, writer -- I'm pretty sure the only other writer for the show that RTD didn't basically use like a puppet was the Moff, probably because would you try to tell the guy who wrote The Empty Child what to write?) decided that Rose was going to transform from a feisty yet sensible kid who was still a full-fledge Tardis crew member into a kind of kid sister figure whose only function when she was with the Doctor seemed to be as his combination muse and cheer squad. By Journey's End the constant reiterating of Rose's shade and then her reappearance in the flesh had become bizarre. Even the Doctor seemed truly tired of her. And notice how she treated Xerox Doctor -- the same way she used to treat Mickey. Yeah, that's healthy. Why would anyone want to be like Rose?

Torchwood fail continued

Here's an update to my previous post on the new Torchwood characters:

I commented on lizbee's Dreamwidth site that "I find it interesting that the non-white minority female character is also going to be a "devout Christian." A devout Christian in "unrequited" love with someone who seems to be a thoroughgoing bastard. Has Rusty ever met any devout Christian women? He certainly doesn't seem to have met any Americans." Then I thought that maybe that needed some clarification. By that I don't mean that Christian women are superior and wouldn't even think of being attracted to what a previous generation called "cads," but these days when a woman calls herself a "devout Christian" it means she has taken on certain behavioral tasks, and one of them is disciplining herself against her own low impulses -- such as being attacted to "alpha males," or as more sensible people call them, "jerks." The character of Rex Matheson (God, that name!) is obviously meant to be a stereotypical alpha male. Christian women aren't supposed to go after men like that. If the new show plays up this conflict that would be one thing, and might be interesting, but I get the feeling that her character's religion will just be used as a stick to beat her with (it will make her prudish, uptight, and intolerant) or as just another "cute" and "colorful" part of her minority shtick. Since the idea of minorities being intolerant makes the average teevee writer's head explode, I'm thinking it will be the latter. Now if the character of the woman were white I have no doubts it would be prudish and intolerant all the way until she got some sort of comeuppance (maybe make her fall in sudden love with a lesbian alien that eats hearts...) that loosened her up in approved Hollywoodian matter. God I'm glad I quit watching tv but I fear I'm scarred forever.

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