southerlywind

You know, I'm sure there's a thread for this, but:

MARK: I had a dream last night where you said I could crash on your couch for some unknown reason, Oslo presumably being easy commuting distance from upstate New York, but then you had in an army of cleaners who dumped laundry on every surface. It was awful. I couldn't get any sleep in my dream. I consider this an unforgivable breach of hospitality, sir.

It means "academic subject", basically.

Not quite, it also means (and that's why it's so much used) "vocational skill". So a skilled worker is a "fagarbeider". For instance, cooking is a "fag", as is carpentry. You'd be pleased to know that the labour union movement in Norwegian is called "fagbevegelsen" ("bevegelsen" = "the movement", so it's the fag movement).

I am much pleased by this!

Howdy, BHG! How many couples are there on this forum anyway? And has anybody ever met a partner through STH? I can't think of anybody (unless there's something Mark and Pal aren't telling us) but I've only been around for three years so what do I know?

Oh, and Pal, Whitney says she'd love to. She's never been abroad and very much enjoyed my pictures of naked statues. :) What does 'fag' mean in Norwegian, anyway?

Congratulations Dave! That's exciting news. :)

It looks great, Mark--really crisp ink. You should turn that into a music sleeve in case you are ever hanging out with itinerant musicians whose sheet music has been stolen by tramps.

Or not.

Also, pale looks good on you.

she might think your online friends are not terribly cool

 

I assume that the fact that we've actually met means that, for the purposes of this sentence, I totally don't count as one of your "online" friends, right?

 

...Right?

Mark--

I would never, ever, ever call you pedantic.

Rogan: just spend several years awkwardly saying "you know, you could join the forum sometime, if you felt like it," and then, when pressed to speak further, confess that you're afraid she might think your online friends are not terribly cool--it's like, you like them a lot, but sometimes they can be a little pedantic--so if she wants to join, she totally should, but you're not, like, pressuring her or anything. That softens 'em up, I find.

Congratulations, Rogan! That sounds like a big deal to me.

Rogan, love that Rory animation--he's my favorite.

Overall I'm generally pleased with

, but don't have much to say about it. What I DO have to say is that I've been rewatching the third series and being unpleasantly reminded of everything I'm missing in Moffat's Who. The word that comes to mind is 'heart,' vague and squishy as it is--I feel a level of emotional accountability in even the sort-of-crap Davies episodes that I just don't get from the last couple of series at all. I've probably said this before, but I prefer Davies over Moffat (using the showrunners as shorthand of course) because when the Davies episodes were bad, they were silly; but when the Moffat episodes are bad, they're hollow.

Anyway, I'm largely unexcited about the second half of this series, but I'll give it a chance when it airs. There are things I'm enjoying quite a bit and River Song is chief among them. We'll see how it goes from here, I guess.

^ No. Kinda.

 

Also, I'm pretty sure now.

How are you handling it?

At the base with not too firm a grip.

http://instantrimshot.com/

I think the intern has a crush on me. Also, is a guy.

Con...gratulations?

Is he cute?

Also, did anybody else watch the Confidential for this episode, a.k.a. Neil Gaiman's Hair Has a Life of Its Own? If not, you should know that A) they padded it out with porn-music montages of the Doctor feeling up the TARDIS, B) Steven Moffat had a really strong creeper vibe every time he started talking about how the TARDIS is every man's sex fantasy, C) the on-set catering looks delicious, and D) Arthur Darvill dresses like a gay nineteen-year-old theater arts major.

Even the gratuitous fake-out Death Of Rory (a trope which was irritating last year, and has become downright laughable by now - worked better than it has most of the other times they've tried it.

True. It probably worked because it was infused with a good measure of real horror. The graffitti, especially, worked like a charm.

I had to watch that part through my fingers. I thought the corridor scenes were a brilliant way of taking an incomplete Moffat characterization from last season--Amy always abandoning and forgetting Rory--and turning it inside out to show us the horror of it. It made me appreciate how subtle and effective the writing on this show can be.

Another thing I loved: that Gaiman didn't waste time on details we don't need. Sentient asteroid? I bought it. Don't need to know how it works. He has to rip the matrix out of the TARDIS so he can digest it, and is somehow able to transplant it into a lady body where her soul would normally be, and also is capable of not just eating a TARDIS but inhabiting it? Awesome!

I think I bought all this stuff (things I would have questioned in a lesser episode) because the human story was so clearly drawn, and the emotional stakes for the characters so high, that the episode wasn't leaning as hard on its plot mechanics as so many others do. Moffat, for instance, tends to write episodes that are almost entirely supported by their mechanics and treat the character stakes as incidental (i.e. The Beast Below), which is why they have that irritating, overly clever feeling, I think. The Doctor's loneliness, Rory's abandonment issues, the Doctor's relationship to the TARDIS (both a story about love and about exile)--these things don't just hang around the edges of the plot, the story is quite clearly hung on them, and that's what makes it so successful for me.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESS

Loved it loved it loved it. The plot, the Lady TARDIS (do I get one of those if I wish hard enough?), the emotionally compelling treatment of Amy's fears and insecurities about Rory, the shit-scary corridor scenes, the brilliantly funny patchwork people, the old control room, everything.

Love love love happy love love happy love. :)

I enjoyed it too--it was reasonably solid if you didn't look too hard, and nothing actively upset me, which is all I'm really looking for in Who. The Doctor abandoning ship was completely out of character, though, I didn't buy that at all. I was mostly pleased to see more evidence of my favorite improvements of this season: more character-building conversations that aren't witty one-liners, and Amy actually getting to do something and have a personality.

Although whoever made the point about becalmed pirates being a dumb pitch is completely right. They're swashbucklers! On a tiny, tiny set! And there are only like five of them at this point! And there's nobody to rob because the ship can't move! Clearly very exciting stuff.

Yes, I know that I am a freak for not being a Fey fan.

 

Can I dislike your dislike of my dislike?

 

 

 

 

my head hurts

No freakishness implied! I'm just sorry you don't appreciate someone I find very funny, that's all.

And no, I think three dislikes is approaching the point at which dislikes collapse in on themselves and become meaningless.

Tina Fey. I find her insufferably arrogant, pretentious and unfunny.

Dislike dislike dislike! I dislike this comment. :(

Cat hair. Between my sister's two cats they shed enough hair to produce a third cat! The hair is everywhere.

...actually I'm with you on that.

"Too long; didn't read".

Oh THAT'S WHAT THAT MEANS

You've just cleared up six or eight years of internet confusion on my part. Well done.

Also I can totally understand why people would have differing levels of satisfaction with the Big Bang ending, because when you drop the consequences and limitations of time travel (as Moffat did briefly with the 'collapsing universe = different rules' thing), you have to make up for the loss of narrative weight. While it's great fun in the moment, when you look back later some of the narrative movements can seem arbitrary--which is a trust killer for the audience. Ideally, I think, a Doctor Who story has a progression of events that build logically and inextricably toward a conclusion which involves sacrifice, on some level, for the Doctor or his companions; which doesn't mean the events have to make concrete scientific sense or anything, but they should build on one another in an integrated way.

I'd have to watch the finale again to be sure, but as I remember it trades some of that narrative satisfaction for the wacky timey wimey Doctor-in-a-fez-with-a-mop fun stuff--which I was fine with at the time, and, I think, am still fine with. Still, the Doctor's ability to use closed-loop jumps felt just a little bit arbitrary, and as if it didn't come with an appropriate level of sacrifice; so it would be nice to see that dealt with somewhere.

He's a fairly talented actor who did some shit comedy, let's say. Much like Catherine Tate.

Que? Donna? Clearly the best companion since the reboot?

Oh Dooooooooonna I miss ye. I'm glad we got the specials in between seasons four and five; I don't know if I could have handled "whoops, Donna just got brainwashed, now meet her flirtatious twenty-year-old replacement! who is also ginger! and half her age! and boring!"

Re: Malin, I love Rory too, but I'm not sure how much of that is A) just being really fond of Arthur Darvill (but not the character as written so much) and B) sympathy for a thoughtful young man who really, really should have dumped his girlfriend ages ago and found someone who wouldn't totally forget about him at the promise of adventure. Moffat's "women are capricious bitches but hey, that's why we love them" thing definitely affects the characterization of his male characters too...

I may be feeling extra cranky because I can't help being excited for the new season, but am afraid to get my hopes up in case the stuff that bugged me about the last one is back in full force. Such is television, I guess.

Unless he gives Amy more of a personality than bitchy/saucy shrew in a short skirt, she can even stay dead at the end of the season, for all I care.

Agreed.

Thirded fourthed fifthed y'all.

When's the UK premiere?

 

If she offers to pay half, then politely decline. If she insists, then suggest she pays next time.

 

This! Alternating paying for dates is usually a pretty good strategy. There's no need to choose between equitable-but-awkward dutch and the gallant-but-potentially-condescending "a lady never pays" tactic. If you ask somebody out and suggest an activity, assume you're paying unless you get clear signals from your date otherwise--and even then, err on the side of generosity. Also, suggesting you alternate makes it clear that you want more dates. :)

 

 

I've been off the forum for so long, but I just wanted to thank you, Lou, for this reminder to check my local beer selection for Bell's. I've been missing Kalamazoo Stout ever since I left Michigan.

 

No sweat. Where in the world are you?

In upstate NY, getting my master's in creative writing at Syracuse University. Also one reason why I'm not on the forum as much these days--I no longer have a job with lots of idle computer time. I sort of miss it actually. It's a lot of pressure, making art for a paycheck.

I don't really agree with that - their strengths lie in very different areas, but I think both Moffat and Davies are both excellent writers of dialogue. Moffat's generally superb at comedic banter and quotable one-liners, but when it comes to simply having two characters talking to each other, I much prefer Davies. Looking back, in fact, it's striking how many of my favourite moments from RTD's episodes are simple conversation scenes - Jackie and alternaPete's sort-of-reunion in 'Doomsday', the Doctor explaining why he left Jack behind in the radiation chamber in 'Utopia', Wilf and the Doctor in the cafe in 'End Of Time Part I', almost all of 'Midnight'...he doesn't have as many memorable, quotable lines as Moffat, but I find his attempts at pseudo-natural conversation far more convincing.

Seconded, thirded, fourthed and fifthed. RTD's people are written in a much less mannered way than Moffat's, which makes the human moments much more touching. I would also add Rose and Mickey having their heart-to-heart in Boomtown to that list, although I may be the only one with a ridiculous amount of love for that scene. Conversely, Moffat does crisp, funny, efficient dialogue quite well--but I never find myself remembering it fondly the way I remember Davies's character moments.

Part of my problems with Moffat's work and gender might come down to the mannerisms of his writing, actually. I will have to think about this more.

Awesome, glad you enjoyed the stout, Dave, that really is my favorite beer of all time. Better yet you can get it in your neck of the woods.

I've been off the forum for so long, but I just wanted to thank you, Lou, for this reminder to check my local beer selection for Bell's. I've been missing Kalamazoo Stout ever since I left Michigan.

My parents love to feed Whitney authentic southern food, so we had gumbo, grilled shrimp, hush puppies, black eye pea stew, barbecue pork, etc. ...

Holy crap! Can I be your next girlfriend?

Sadly no.

And hush puppies are delicious--cornmeal and flour with a little milk, chopped onions, and spices mixed in, deep fried in vegetable oil. They're crunchy on the outside and kind of sweet on the inside. We usually eat them with shrimp on Christmas Eve.