Buys
A couple more films to add to my Asian cinema collection. There's Dragon Tiger Gate. Because Donnie Yen, that's why. It's all I ever need, really. And "The Godfather with a Hing Kong flavor!" (oh quotes from critics about Asian films, will you never learn?) Triad Election. Replace Donnie Yen with Simon Yam in the previous reasoning and you've got an accurate idea of my frame of mind.
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: Fell sick in the middle of Murder Week (PURRRR-FECT! GRRRR!), so I crashed on the couch, slept some, but also got through Hustle Series 3. If the quality of stories went up between 1 and 2, it stayed more or less the same from 2 to 3. Which isn't a bad thing. 2 and3 might as well be the same "season". Perhaps a little less kick in its series premiere than 2 or even 1, but the rest is quite good. More fantasy bits - silent film, Bollywood - and that's welcome. The DVD also includes 18 minutes of bubbly interviews with the cast. Fun, if largely insubstantial. I do wish these DVDs had more to offer in the way of extras (or as I said last week, subtitles).
Big Finish Doctor Who audios: Robert Ross' Pier Pressure is an odd little audio play that, I suppose, is more interesting to those who Max Miller is. The Brighton comedy legend is no one to a North American like me (Roy Hudd is apparently famous for impersonating him). Wiki further informs me that the young actor called Billy who gets a scene in the play is meant to be William Hartnell. Again, lost on me. But the reason I find it odd is that it's initially far more concerned with the 1930s entertainment scene than it is with its evil god possession plot, so much so that I kept expecting the whole thing to be a hoax. Though the audios let you imagine practically any visual, Pier Pressure is the equivalent of a cheap episode. Everything seems hokey and melodramatic, so my imagination couldn't conjure up more than cheap sets and effects. Enjoyable, with some clever dialogue, but I doubt I'll remember it in a few weeks time.
Time Works by Steve Lyons has a great idea behind it - a world where time is a religion, and the clockwork men work between seconds to keep everyone in check. There's a fun bit about Charley and C'rizz trying to prevent the 8th Doctor from being killed while they're trapped in a moment in time, and the clock vocabulary of the citizenry is quite clever. One of the best 8th Doc audios in a while, I dare say.
Books: The first book I ever edited just came out last Friday. It's not gonna be of any interest to readers of this blog, of course, but I'm extremely proud of the author, the oft-named Carolynn, and her History of the student federation I work for. I had first edit on this 150-page page turner (no really, it's extremely compelling to people who've studied in Moncton over the last 40 years, the history really does come alive, I'm not just spouting clichés), and the cover is based on a quick design I did, though a professional graphic designer put it together better than I could for the final. The first of many publications for Carolynn, but as for me, it kinda gave me the "bug". I wanted to be an editor at one point, but never really pursued it. But I think it's something I'd like to do some day. Or write. The experience certainly taught me about the process, from research to finished product, and that it's doable. Soon as I quit my job, soon as I quit my job...
Hyperion to a Satyr entries this week include:
Act I Scene 3 according to the BBC (Derek Jacobi)
A couple more films to add to my Asian cinema collection. There's Dragon Tiger Gate. Because Donnie Yen, that's why. It's all I ever need, really. And "The Godfather with a Hing Kong flavor!" (oh quotes from critics about Asian films, will you never learn?) Triad Election. Replace Donnie Yen with Simon Yam in the previous reasoning and you've got an accurate idea of my frame of mind.
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: Fell sick in the middle of Murder Week (PURRRR-FECT! GRRRR!), so I crashed on the couch, slept some, but also got through Hustle Series 3. If the quality of stories went up between 1 and 2, it stayed more or less the same from 2 to 3. Which isn't a bad thing. 2 and3 might as well be the same "season". Perhaps a little less kick in its series premiere than 2 or even 1, but the rest is quite good. More fantasy bits - silent film, Bollywood - and that's welcome. The DVD also includes 18 minutes of bubbly interviews with the cast. Fun, if largely insubstantial. I do wish these DVDs had more to offer in the way of extras (or as I said last week, subtitles).
Big Finish Doctor Who audios: Robert Ross' Pier Pressure is an odd little audio play that, I suppose, is more interesting to those who Max Miller is. The Brighton comedy legend is no one to a North American like me (Roy Hudd is apparently famous for impersonating him). Wiki further informs me that the young actor called Billy who gets a scene in the play is meant to be William Hartnell. Again, lost on me. But the reason I find it odd is that it's initially far more concerned with the 1930s entertainment scene than it is with its evil god possession plot, so much so that I kept expecting the whole thing to be a hoax. Though the audios let you imagine practically any visual, Pier Pressure is the equivalent of a cheap episode. Everything seems hokey and melodramatic, so my imagination couldn't conjure up more than cheap sets and effects. Enjoyable, with some clever dialogue, but I doubt I'll remember it in a few weeks time.
Time Works by Steve Lyons has a great idea behind it - a world where time is a religion, and the clockwork men work between seconds to keep everyone in check. There's a fun bit about Charley and C'rizz trying to prevent the 8th Doctor from being killed while they're trapped in a moment in time, and the clock vocabulary of the citizenry is quite clever. One of the best 8th Doc audios in a while, I dare say.
Books: The first book I ever edited just came out last Friday. It's not gonna be of any interest to readers of this blog, of course, but I'm extremely proud of the author, the oft-named Carolynn, and her History of the student federation I work for. I had first edit on this 150-page page turner (no really, it's extremely compelling to people who've studied in Moncton over the last 40 years, the history really does come alive, I'm not just spouting clichés), and the cover is based on a quick design I did, though a professional graphic designer put it together better than I could for the final. The first of many publications for Carolynn, but as for me, it kinda gave me the "bug". I wanted to be an editor at one point, but never really pursued it. But I think it's something I'd like to do some day. Or write. The experience certainly taught me about the process, from research to finished product, and that it's doable. Soon as I quit my job, soon as I quit my job...Hyperion to a Satyr entries this week include:
Act I Scene 3 according to the BBC (Derek Jacobi)
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