Amy: “Ever fancied someone you knew you shouldn’t? Hurts, doesn’t it? But kind of a good hurt.” This was by far my least favorite of the three new episodes we’ve seen so far this season. I’ll skip going into detail about the plot this week because basically it revolves around the Daleks coming back (yet again) and the Doctor being forced to choose between saving humans or destroying his oldest enemies. Was there really any doubt about what he would do? More discussion after the jump. I continue to find the relationship between Amy and the Doctor...
Continue reading...Arts
Doctor Who, "The Beast Below"
Amy: So there are other Time Lords, yeah? Doctor: No. There were, but there aren’t… Just me now. Long story. It was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what, I’d love to forget it all, every last bit of it. But I don’t. Not ever. We got a strong introduction to both the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond last week, and this week we got to see more of the Doctor from Amy’s point of view. By now, the audience basically knows the Doctor’s history, and we see bits of Eleven’s personality taking over...
Continue reading...Poem of the Week
It’s gray and rainy and chilly in DC today, the kind of day that calls for the following lunch: a hot cup of lentil soup, a few wheat crackers, and some seasonal springtime poetry. That’s what I’m having, anyway. This poem is one of my all-time favorites, and it appears in Tony Hoagland’s excellent and often quite funny collection What Narcissism Means to Me. A Color of the Sky by Tony Hoagland Windy today and I feel less than brilliant, driving over the hills from work. There are the dark parts on the road when you pass...
Continue reading...Doctor Who, "The Eleventh Hour"
“I’m the Doctor. I’m worse than everybody’s aunt…and that’s not how I’m introducing myself.” It took almost the full hour for me to adjust to the new Doctor Who, but it did happen. The episode opened with Eleven crashing to Earth in the TARDIS, and while it was an exciting opening shot, I wish they had backed up a few minutes to cover what happened during the final moments of “The End of Time,” because I am forgetful and easily confused, apparently. We also get new opening credits, theme song, title logo, and, as we see later,...
Continue reading...New Ways to Hate on Glenn Beck
Continuing on my poetry theme, I wanted to share this delightful recent discovery. As the friend who forwarded the website wrote, “poems, jewish stuff, making fun of glenn beck…I assume you were already aware?” I was not! According to their email blast, “Jewish Funds for Justice staged the Internet’s first “Twitterstorm” last week, flooding Glenn Beck’s Twitter account with some 3,000 haiku – Tweeted one by one, minute by minute – in support of social justice.” This was in response to Bleck’s (that was originally a typo, but on second thought seems apropos) tirade on churches that...
Continue reading...Poem of the Week
As we all now know, April is being celebrated in some parts of the country as Confederate History Month. Luckily for those of us who enjoy four-week-long observances but prefer not to glorify the losers of the Civil War, April is also host to a number of other holidays. A quick Google search revealed that April is: National Volunteer Month, Jazz Appreciation Month, Facial Protection Month (what? yes. “Facial Protection Month can target anyone from construction workers to families to professional athletes.”), and the ever-important National Car Care Month. However, my favorite April occasion, aside from my...
Continue reading...Romeo, Juliet, and Twitter. Wait…what?
Mudlark and the Royal Shakespeare Company have joined forces to present Such Tweet Sorrow, a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that takes place in real time on Twitter. Actors are given a scripted outline and character diaries, and they generate original tweets based on what the character would be thinking or feeling at any given moment. I assume that the goal of this project is to use social media to attract younger audiences, and I applaud them for that. If students become interested in Shakespeare after seeing these tweets and pick up a copy of Romeo...
Continue reading..."This is my timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff."
In honor of the upcoming premiere of Doctor Who‘s fifth season (Saturday, April 17 @ 9PM on BBC America), I thought I’d up the nerd quotient on this blog with my first Arts & Culture post. I’m a fairly new fan of the show, and I must admit, I haven’t seen a single episode of the classic series, which ran from 1963 to 1989. What I’ve seen from the new series, however, is unlike any TV show we have in America. The story follows the Doctor, who is the only survivor of a race called the Time...
Continue reading...Why are novels so long?
Charles Stross has a really interesting explanation for why novels are the length they are: Once a trend like that becomes established, it’s hard to stop. Put yourself in the position of a bored browser in front of a supermarket wire-rack, contemplating novels by two authors you’ve never read. They both cost the same, and you have enough pocket money to buy one. The year is 1980; LibraryThing or other internet resources aren’t available. How do you make your mind up? Well, you remember what you’ve heard about the authors, and you look at the cover painting,...
Continue reading...Crack Rock or a Jump Shot
In the school where I work, there’s a fifth grader who wears a Notorious B.I.G. jacket. There are a few staff who covet it. Though I don’t say anything, I’m one of them. The boy is 11. Biggie Smalls died 13 years ago, today. He doesn’t know anything about Biggie. Couldn’t name an album or even a track, couldn’t give me any 16 bars, let alone 16 Bars. I want to talk about it with him, to school him on Biggie, to get on his level in a way I can’t with their hip-hop idols. God knows...
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