I apologize that I’ve been quiet recently. There hasn’t been much posting because every time I sit at my computer and start to write, I have an overwhelming urge to repeatedly slam my face into my keyboard, and frankly ten pages of:
Fkghckugchgo$E&^UCYJhupoji’pads’hoia0J
IPW’EAP/KFNGOAS;DF;KMAA’0HUERW8U098[QGER/LNA
utfidtbjgiudysvxzFjj
does not make compelling reading (even if it is more coherent, incisive and factually-based than anything Megan McArdle has managed to write in the last ten years).
I’m going to try and get my mojo back with a post about things that have enabled me to survive a month in which it seemed like everyone in the world had turned into a raging dickhead except you and me (and honestly I was a little bit dubious about you and me).
First – geekery! A new Doctor Who trailer with lots of recycled stuff, but a few intriguing new glimpses of pyramiddy goodness.
I think I might be a little old for Matt Smith, but it would be nice to add a fourth Doctor’s notch to my bedpost. Anyway, you never know, he might be interested in a woman who’s almost as old as his character.
Sticking with Doctor Who for a moment, I have very much enjoyed reading two websites whose authors have been taking two very different approaches to watching Doctor Who in order from the start. At Adventures with the Wife in Space, Neil Perryman has convinced his non-geek wife to watch with him, and is charting their progress. Mrs Perryman is simply a hoot.
Meanwhile, Philip Sandifer’s writing at TARDIS Eruditorum: A Psychochronography in Blue is not a tenth as po-faced as the name might suggest, and he provides some wildly entertaining analysis of each episode for those hardcore Who geeks amongst us.
Next, this article about Dutch railway maintenance company ProRail’s new “transfer acceleration system” at Overvecht station. I love the Dutch, and not only because when they talk they sound like they are saying rude things in English. (h/t B3ta)
Finally, 7×7 has a quite wonderful mash up by Stein-Vidar called Like a Virgin At The Y.M.C.A. via Bootie blog. For some reason, I imagine Krugman and Frum engaging in a little bit of frottage to it, nice and gentle with lots of kissing and soulful glances.
So kiddies, share… What is it that you have been using this week to distract you from the overwhelming urge to kidnap David Brooks, torment him with a chopstick for a few hours and then chain him naked to a pole in Times Square with “I am more stupid than Megan McArdle” tattooed on his forehead?
[Cross-posted at Sarah, Proud and Tall.]
MeDrewNotYou
I just started watching Dr. Who this season, but I already love it. Other than The Science Channel and Cartoon Network, I spend most of my TV watching time on BBC America now (ST:TNG! Dr. Who! The comedies!) Another preview clip has Hitler thanking someone for saving his life and the creepy angel statues; I’m looking forward to those episodes.
TooManyJens
@MeDrewNotYou: Also Rory punching Hitler, which is always a good time.
Joseph Nobles
I’ve been given to understand by Fox Nation that Obama had a Hip-Hop BBQ Birthday yesterday and it didn’t create any jobs.
MeDrewNotYou
I nearly forgot! Early Friday mornings on TBN (You know, the channel with the pink haired lady, the 4 hour “Praise-a-thons,” and all the various crappy fundy Christian movies.), there’s Creation in the 21st Century. I usually DVR it since it airs at 4:30am. It features the distinguished Dr. Carl Baugh, curator of the Creation Evidence Museum in Glenrose, Texas and educates viewers on how dumb science is. Lulz are to be had, and I suspect anyone reading BJ with the slightest interest in science will love the show.
jwest
Here’s an open thread feature I hope will catch on as a daily event. It’s titled “Things I learned from Ann Coulter that I didn’t hear of on MSNBC”.
Remember Jamie Leigh Jones? She’s the girl who said she was raped by KBR (Halliburton) employees in Iraq then held in a shipping container by armed guards. Al Franken thought it was so outrageous that she was prevented from suing KBR that he held hearings and had a new law passed to restrict arbitration clauses in contracts.
For some reason, the fact that her story was pure bullshit didn’t seem like as big a news item as when Dick Cheney’s old company was the villain.
Thanks Ann, for making everyone less ignorant.
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2011-08-03.html
jnfr
Oh man, that trailer looks fantastic. We’re huge Doctor fans here. Can’t wait for the rest of the season.
TooManyJens
@jwest:
Best laugh I’ve had in a week.
cleek
why is that flame elemental flipping her off?
cyntax
Pretty much this from drinksimadelastnight [thanks Cole]:
midsummer afternoon’s dream
1 1/2 oz vodka
1/2 oz simple syrup
1/2 oz lime juice
2 thin slices cucumber
1/2 oz averno
soda water
muddle cucumber. top with ice.
add vodka, simple, and lime juice.
shake. strain over fresh ice in a tall glass.
top with soda. sink averno.
garnish with lime.
cleek
@Joseph Nobles:
Obama is keeping the wingnut outrage industry employed. ungrateful fucks.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Grrr. FYWP is not letting me post links to kitten pictures.
Jules
Love me some Doctor Who.
Movie/TV trailers are a great distraction. The new one for Tinker Tailor Solider Spy looks great and I was very entertained by the one for the new season of Spartacus.
But the thing that distracts me the most is stalking Benedict Cumberbatch via the intertubes. nnnngggghhhhh. It’s a good thing I don’t live in London or that man would have no peace.
;-)
TooManyJens
BBC is delaying the next series of Sherlock until 2012. Fuckers.
Though on the bright side, at least we’ll have something to entertain us when the election nonsense really starts ramping up.
Villago Delenda Est
@jwest:
If you heard it from Ann Coulter, it’s highly unlikely that it has the slightest thing to do with reality.
But you knew that already, fuckwit.
JGabriel
Sarah:
WHO TOLD YOU ABOUT MY WEEKEND PLANS?!?
Goddammit, it was supposed to be surprise! I was gonna take pictures and everything.
Guess I’ll just have to find something else to do — NOW THAT SOMEONE TOLD THE WHOLE FRICKIN’ INTERNET AND INADVERTENTLY WARNED BROOKS!
[Grumble, grumble.]
.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Kitten Picture #1: Harry Learns to Like Soccer
Kitten Picture #2: Dirk Loses His Favorite Hang Out Spot
MeDrewNotYou
@TooManyJens: Rory is a hell of a catch. Any guy that’ll wait around for 2000 years for his lady to come back will probably put the toilet seat down too.
scav
Apart from the inevitable Dr Who (I’ve been hanging out more with the God Complex clip in part because I love the clown and the goldfish) I’m also buoyed by Cabin Pressure (today’s St. Petersburg is a keeper if you like that kind of stuff).
Jewish Steel
Football season is right around the corner. Bear Down!
TooManyJens
@Jewish Steel: As a woman who’s been through labor, the last thing that slogan does is get me fired up.
jwest
Villago Delenda Est,
The right-wing propaganda machine “Wikipedia” agrees with Coulter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Leigh_Jones
I would check the NY Times, but apparently the article is buried pretty deep.
Amir_Khalid
A question: If I take the underscore out of my name, will the change get my next comment moderated?
themanintheguyfawkesmask
Truth in advertising. It is not possible to be more stupid than Megan McArdle. Unless you’re JWest.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
Probably, but some nice front pager can release it for you for a price.
KyCole
Love Dr. Who, but love Torchwood more (Captain Jack Harkness- sigh). Also watching lots of Netflix and knitting. Cheers, Top Gear, Parks and Recreation, and whatever else I come across. No news for me these days.
Amir_Khalid
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
How much? I have no firstborn child from whom I can draw blood.
JGabriel
@Amir_Khalid:
It should, but it’s only once and the pain goes away within a few weeks.
.
Jewish Steel
@TooManyJens: Hmm. I see your point. How about:
Breathe and push/Chicago Bears/Make every play clear the way to victory!
Tuffy
I wish you’d be more quiet. You’re a shitty blogger and all your posts are pointless.
You are bad and should feel bad. More John Cole, DougJ, and mistermix and less of you, Anne, and Angry Black Retard.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
My weekend plans now involve throwing up everything I have ever eaten, including things injested in past lives. Thanks. Really.
Chyron HR
@jwest:
A noted legal scholar has this to say on the subject of “not guilty” verdicts:
Tone In DC
@JGabriel:
Best laughs I have had in days.
Thanks, Sarah and JGabriel.
jwest
I don’t understand the aversion to facts from some of the commenters.
The proper response would be to thank Coulter (and me) for bringing this information to you in a concise, entertaining fashion. Imagine how embarrassed you would be if you engaged in a discussion at one of your Upper East Side dinner parties and still thought Jamie Leigh Jones was actually raped? Why, everyone in at the table would look down on you as some mid-America liberal wannabe.
Embrace knowledge. Although it’s easier to maintain your political ideology by running from it, in the end you’ll find that actually knowing the facts will benefit you.
Constance
Ann Coulter? She probably has more contempt for women than Camille Paglia. I bet derf loves Camille and Ann.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Amir_Khalid:
1 unit from any relation who is still a virgin will do, dear. This isn’t the eighteenth century, you know.
Tone In DC
@Tuffy:
This guy has the nerve to call someone else a retard.
What’s that phrase the kids use in this situation…? Oh, yeah.
DIAF. Preferably soon.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Tuffy:
It’s very nice of you to say so, dear. Your complaints are like the finest ambrosia.
Villago Delenda Est
@jwest:
Buried pretty deep, huh?
Incredibly lame.
demz taters
@jwest: You’re right … one jury verdict changes EVERYTHING that we’ve come to know about the right wing after watching it in action for three decades.
And we owe it all to you and Ann Coulter.
Constance
I just read Coulter’s column and noticed there wasn’t a single link in it. Learned her craft from Karl Rove, did she?
scav
@KyCole: Uh oh, one of my scheduled joys was sharpening up the chopstick for Jeremy Clarkson over Top Gears’s deliberate sabotage jobs on electric car performance. But of course it’s all just light entertainment so no foul he insists. Don’t like his friends either. Are you very very fond of him?
Amir Khalid
So I’m biting the bullet on that nym change …
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Goodness, Harry’s growing up fast. Do you know if Ron and Hermione got adopted too?
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Tuffy:
You know, there’s a funny thing about the names you chose and who you determined was a worthy blogger and who didn’t deserve a keyboard. Just what could that be though, I’m sure there’s some kind of common link there somewhere.
Hrm….
TooManyJens
@Tuffy: Shorter Tuffy: Sit down and shut up, wimminz!
Linda Featheringill
@Tuffy:
You sound like Doug.
shortstop
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: with tzatziki!
Omnes Omnibus
@Constance: Why would you do that to yourself? Have you considers seeking professional help, counseling or something like that?
shortstop
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, good MORNING, sunshine! How we feeling today?
Wait, maybe it was night before last you were hammered. Well, joke’s on me! Stone sober and unable to notice time passing.
@Amir Khalid: There you are, Stanley, all bathed and powdered and looking like a brand-new human being.
Martin
So, the Dutch clip makes me wonder if Rule 34 applies. Is there a porn category for women going down slides?
Villago Delenda Est
@Tuffy:
Fire. Go stand in it. And die.
shortstop
If I look up Rule 34 is it gonna be like the time you guys made me look up “two girls, one cup”? I can take it; just warn a girl is all I ask.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@TooManyJens:
Even fictional ones, apparently.
@Tuffy:
Would it make a difference if I told you that mistermix is actually a short, bespectacled lesbian from Chicago, Anne Laurie is Levenson’s (as he puts it) “little flirtation with leather drag”, and John Cole is the performance art project of a post-menopausal African author from Queens with writer’s block?
Jules
Funny, funny radio show.
I’m sad this may be the last season…
John Finnemore is a genius comedy writer, the cast is perfect and I have really enjoyed the addition of Anthony Stewart Head (Giles ya’ll) this season.
If you are interested in the creative process he posts looks at his notebooks on his blog:
http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.com/
Amir Khalid
@scav:
One thing that put me off watching Top Gear is that Jeremy Clarkson takes great delight in being a dick. He was also like that in his smug and reactionary Times of London columns; I stopped reading them years before Uncle Ruperts’s henchmen put up the firewall.
Martin
@shortstop: Rule 34 is pretty safe xkcd fare:
http://xkcd.com/305/
MeDrewNotYou
@TooManyJens:
From the 1st letter of John Cole to the Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 34.
shortstop
@Martin: That was disappointingly vanilla.
I’m never happy.
KyCole
I’ve only watched 7 episodes of Top Gear so far, and now I’m going to feel guilty about it. My son-in-law is a car nut and turned me on to the show. Oh well, there are already too many things to watch on Netflix. Sons of Anarchy- here I come!
MeDrewNotYou
@shortstop: Rule 34 just ruins childhood memories. Simply put, if it exists, there is porn of it. So if you were a fan of, say, The Flintstones growing up, you’ll find pictures of Fred banging Betty, Dino banging Wilma, and occasionally Bam Bam and Pebbles getting in on things.
Rule 34 is fun.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Remember the heated thread last week about the awful beating death in Orange County? Lot’s of talk that cops NEVER EVER were help responsible for what they do:
“New Orleans police officers found guilty of civil rights violations in post-Katrina bridge shootings, WWL-TV reports ”
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/08/danziger_bridge_verdict_do_not.html
Tuttle
Yea, it’s only being covered well by right-wing rags… like Mother Jones.
Joseph Nobles
Personally I found out about the problems with Jamie Leigh Jones’ case, not from Ann Coulter, but that remarkably hardcore RWNJ magazine Mother Jones back on July 7.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/kbr-could-win-jamie-leigh-jones-rape-trial?page=1
ETA: Tuttle, you bastard.
Martin
@Amir Khalid:
Well, being a libertarian, that’s something of a feature. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the rule is ‘I cannot help being a dick, so I should also embrace libertarianism as a ruleset to justify my dickishness’.
But yeah, you’re not supposed to like Jeremy. You’re supposed to like the other two because they have to put up with Jeremy.
themanintheguyfawkesmask
@Joseph Nobles:
fucking trial by jury, how does it work?
I would think, after OJ, Casey Anthony and assorted other cases, we’d be over the concept that not guilty = innocent.
Martin
@shortstop:
Ah, but for something more interesting, you could report back to us on whether there is indeed such a category and whether it exists in isolation (only slides) or whether it’s part of a larger genus of adults on childhood play equipment porn – teeter-totter porn, merry-go-round porn, swing set porn (which I’m thinking simply has got to exist), etc.
Paul in KY
@jwest: There’s a better chance of me cutting off my dick with a pencil than me giving that harradin a page click.
I’m sure I speak for others in this regard.
Omnes Omnibus
@shortstop: It was a couple nights ago and I felt fine in the morning. So there.
scav
@Jules: I was hoping not to hear that about CP. I’ll go haunt John Finnemore’s blog and either live in the past or in hope (John can get going in The Now Show too another I hope temporary absence my life).
In return, I’m assuming / hoping you managed to catch Benedict in The Rattigan Enigma being a very well brought up boy.
jwest
Joseph,
As this information was available back in July, I wonder why Chris Mathews, Rachel Maddow and the rest of the MSNBC crew that spent countless hours on this story haven’t reported the results.
Even Al Franken hasn’t taken to the Senate floor to say “Never mind”.
It makes one wonder what else is being swept under the rug.
Amir Khalid
@Martin:
I know Top Gear viewers who actually like Clarkson’s dickishness.Maybe they recognize a kindred spirit.
I did like Captain Slow and the Hamster. In fact, I found the former’s eccentricities and “Christian motoring” (i.e. letting the other guy go first) attitude quite endearing. But Clarkson was just too obnoxious for me.
Dennis SGMM
My TV viewing is completely behind the times. I recently purchased the first season of “Carnivale,” the complete “Brisco County, Jr,” “Only Angels Have WIngs” (Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, 1939) and “Curse of the Golden Flower.”
As a dedicated gearhead, I tried a couple of episodes of “Top Gear.” A couple. It struck me as a bunch of guys I didn’t like driving cars I could never afford.
Paul in KY
@Tuffy: And much less of you.
jwest
Paul,
Remember that Coulter went to the Ivy League Cornell, not the cow college like Olbermann, so she does have the credentials to relay information.
You might want to explain the genesis of idea of cutting off a penis with a pencil. That one doesn’t really compute.
Jules
Yes, yes I did.
Though his face was a bit distracting ;-) had to watch it twice to learn anything about Rattigan. Well done doc on someone I knew pretty much nothing about.
And I have no idea if CP is coming back (I truly hope so, but I get a feeling not), but Finnemore is working on some new sketch show for BBC Radio 4.
Kristine
@Jules: “The new one for Tinker Tailor Solider Spy looks great.”
I am sooooo looking forward to that one. There are trailers! Must find.
And b-quotes aren’t working. Why aren’t b-quotes working? Anyone else having issues?
themanintheguyfawkesmask
@jwest:
You know who went to Harvard AND Yale? Not Hitler, dumbass.
Omnes Omnibus
@themanintheguyfawkesmask: McGeorge Bundy.
jwest
Themanintheguyfawkesmask,
Harvard AND Yale? Gee, that’s a tough question.
I don’t know right off the bat, but I can imagine that if a president was a graduate of both of those esteemed institutions, he would be one America’s greatest leaders. Can someone actually be that brilliant to have graduated both?
Joseph Nobles
@themanintheguyfawkesmask: I didn’t say she wasn’t raped. I said there were problems with her case.
@jwest: Why did it take a month for Ann Coulter to catch up? That was your original point, wasn’t it? How Ann Coulter scooped MSNBC? Yet Mother Jones scooped Ann Coulter by a month, and here you are defending the harpy.
themanintheguyfawkesmask
@jwest:
And you would be wrong as usual.
Liberty60
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
Didn’t we establish he was a lesbian writer from Syria?
themanintheguyfawkesmask
@Joseph Nobles: Yeah. I think we’re on the same page here. I just wanted to put that in the record – the not guilty =/= innocent thing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Liberty60: Why can’t he be both like the late Earl Warren?
Flashman
Wow, if there was going to be a flamewar in this thread I would have expected it to be about the downright sympathetic portrayal of Richard Nixon in Doctor Who a few months back.
sfHeath
@jwest: I wonder what else has been happening since mid-July? It’s summer, so there must not be anything at all more important than intricate shadings of a years-old rape trial to cover. I mean, it’s not like the Speaker of the House wasn’t able to get enough of his own caucus together to vote for a bill that would keep the global economy from going down the toilet.
I wonder if you are remembering the 24-7 FOX News coverage of the unedited ACORN videos. When it came out that whats-his-name had spliced his “undercover video” to hell and gone to make it appear ACORN staffers were eager to comply with crime, I’m sure you saw the weeks of coverage that FOX News devoted to the proven fraudulent videos. Yes, I completely agree with you, since FOX News was so ready to correct the record on that issue, MSNBC should absolutely ignore everything else going on the world to bring Jamie Leigh Jones back to light. Anything else would not be equivalent.
Thank you so much for bringing this to light.
jacy
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Yeah, but they’ve been found not guilty on murder charges, and manslaughter was not advised to the jury. On the bright side, they’re going to prison, but, really, not guilty of murder?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Dennis SGMM: All those bullshit shows with the phony deadline drama suck. Give me a youtube on HOW to do something (or Odie Hugh Manatee to walk me through a rear wheel bearing job on a BJ open thread) any dya.
jwest
Joseph,
The point was that those on the left (except for you) were still under the impression that the original reporting on this story was true. Coulter’s point in her article was the lack of reporting the outcome in the outlets that pushed the KBR/Halliburton/Cheney/Rape story relentlessly.
Speaking of double standards and hypocrisy, did you notice that Huffington Post has put up a comparison of Rick Perry’s grades with Obama’s?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/05/rick-perry-college-transcript_n_919357.html?1312559872
Oh, my mistake. It’s only Perry’s transcript. Apparently we still don’t have any information about Obama.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@jacy: It may not be what you or I wanted but it damn sure isn’t nothing. Want to take their place in Angola?
themanintheguyfawkesmask
@jwest: still waiting for those whitey tapes, eh?
Liberty60
Found this and figured it would amuse the crowd-
Tea Party leader demands stimulus spending:
Judson Phillips, president of Tea Party Express:
If we decided to build a couple of new carriers, thousands of workers would be hired for the shipyards. Thousands of employees would be hired for the steel mills that would provide the steel for the hull and various sub contractors would hire thousands. Do you know what that means?
It means they would receive paychecks and go out and spend that money. That would help a recovery. That is a shovel ready project!
Increasing spending for the military does a couple of things. It not only not only stimulates the economy, it protects our nation. That is a better investment than say spending money on teaching Chinese prostitutes how to drink responsibly.
If Mr. Phillips didn’t exist, The Onion would have to invent him.
jacy
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Yeah, I agree with you. It’s just weird to feel that justice was done without really feeling justice was done. But don’t get me wrong, I’ll take what I can get.
Liberty60
@jwest:
You are so right- the world is so unfair.
Here this woman’s story gets endlessly hyped, while the child rape scandal of Dyncorp in Bosnia went virtually unnoticed.
burnspbesq
@jwest:
“Pure bullshit” doesn’t survive a motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgment and get to a jury, asshole. And Frankenstein was right: mandatory arbitration clauses in employment agreements with government contractors are outrageous.
Southern Beale
I love this new feel-good comment spam! Flattery gets you … nowhere. Look what I just had to delete. And I get TONS of this stuff. Ah well:
Ah yes. If only everyone were just like me the entire WORLD, not just the ‘net, would be so much better!
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@jacy: I hear ya
ed drone
@MeDrewNotYou:
Is that book bound in Corinthian Leather?
Just askin’!
Ed
Gravenstone
@jwest: Hey dude, thanks for reminding me to update the pie filter. Now, kindly go self immolate.
Omnes Omnibus
@jacy:
The Justice Department used civil rights violations to go after segregationists when southern courts could not or would not convict people of other crimes.
Joseph Nobles
@themanintheguyfawkesmask: Yep. And Ms. Coulter was happy to declare Jones a liar through and through, in the same article that she called Dick Cheney’s connection to Halliburton “tertiary” and “six-degrees-of-separation.” Has his deferred compensation for being CEO and Chairman of the Board for over five years finally paid out?
Amir Khalid
@jwest:
Even if Jones’ story is “pure bullshit”, rather than merely being very hard to prove, it doesn’t mean that the legislation Senator Franken promoted was a bad idea. People in America have a right to report crimes against them to law enforcement. What justifies allowing a defense contractor — or for that matter, any employer — to make a person sign away that right, as a condition of employment?
burnspbesq
Michael O’Hare is a smart man.
http://www.samefacts.com/2011/08/uncategorized/family-values-2/
Joseph Nobles
@ed drone: Yes, with the words of Tunch printed in red letters.
BobS
@jwest: There’s been very little mainstream media coverage of the war crimes trial in Guatemala and the complicity of the Reagan administration in the murders and cover-up of tens of thousands of civilians in that country as well as Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. That story seems to be getting swept under the rug.
jwest
Burnspbesq,
“Pure bullshit” doesn’t survive a motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgment and get to a jury…”
After you graduate and spend a few years in the real world, we’ll both look back on this statement of yours and laugh.
burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
He said, she said. Physical evidence was inconclusive. She had some baggage. Jury believed him. Welcome to America.
burnspbesq
@jwest:
How many cases have you tried again? Citations, please.
TooManyJens
@jwest: ::pops popcorn::
themanintheguyfawkesmask
@jwest:
bwahahaha
Omnes Omnibus
@jwest: I’ll laugh now. At you. [Nelson Muntz voice] Ha ha! [/Nelson Muntz voice]
Tony J
Clarkson is the perfect distillation of all the ‘qualities’ that makes we want to punch right-wing Dad/Lad cockbotherers like him right in the nuts. He’s boorish, deliberately ignorant, and his macho-for-TV persona just.. by the FSM I want to punch him right now.
Dr Who, OTOH, makes me happy. Matt Smith has won me over (after what I thought was a pretty uneven first season) and Karen Gillen continues to have very nice legs and all that. They even made Rory convincing as a guy who could stare down a Cyberman Legion while wearing a skirt. What’s not to like?
Glad to see ‘Torchwood’ spreading its wings and laying the sci-fi smack down on American soil. How’s it doing over there popularity-wise? They’re certainly not toning-down Captain Jack’s voracious omnisexuality much, and it must be a bit of a head-on-the-side moment when new American viewers realise that, in this world, the Brits have all the good ideas and cool hardware.
As does ‘Sherlock’. Didn’t they do well updating the character without losing any of the madness? Round of applause for Mr Cumberbatch, who, BTW, also plays a very creepy paedophile rapist in ‘Attonement’, and a shockingly -real – Steven Hawking in ‘Hawking’.
Apparently Liam Neeson is playing the Commander of a UN Naval Fleet that finds itself trapped under a colossal force-field and fighting alien battleships in the waters around Hawai’i for two hours of quality big-screen boomage. Don’t believe me? Just this once, it’s true. Google Battleship Trailer and go “WTF.. Kewl!”
And trolls are trolly. But you all knew that.
demz taters
Poor KBR, such a model contractor in Iraq and so unfairly maligned.
Arm The Homeless (formerly Third Eye Open)
Damnit, who keeps ordering these cheaply-made Chinese trolls? Seriously, whichever one of you FP writers was the brains behind BIRDZILLA needs to get back on the ball. jwest and corner stone just won’t cut it in these trying times. I demand better trolls!
ETA: Since everyone is going to fiddle with their ‘nyms, I don’t want to be left out. Fiddlers Unite!
Ruckus
@Dennis SGMM:
It’s OK that you don’t like the TV guys driving cars you can’t afford. Cause most of the guys I’ve met who drive cars I could never afford?
Dicks. I wonder if it’s a money thing.
something fabulous
@Liberty60: No, (s)he’s already outed… him/her self!
Amir Khalid
@Tony J:
Meh. I’m waiting for Tic-Tac-Toe: The Motion Picture, to be produced by James Cameron and directed by Michael Bay.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: They are finally making a sequel to War Games? Will they bring Matthew Broderick back?
Jess
Sarah,
Don’t have time to read all the comments and join the discussion, but just wanted to say Welcome Back! Love your stuff–always cheers me up (especially since I did actually see the movie SP&T–not voluntarily, I swear). Thanks for sharing the Utrecht “glijbaan”–I love the Dutch as well. Lived there (in A’dam) for a couple of years and was constantly entertained by their wonderful blend of pragmatism and fun. Wish we had more of that here. Have a lovely weekend, everyone!
Paul in KY
@jwest: It would be sorta like using a butter knife, only worse. I don’t care where she went, and she probably cheated her way through school.
Jess
@Tony J:
Re: Battleship
I’ll watch just about anything with Alexander Skarsgard in it. Here’s hoping he takes his shirt off in this one as well…
Dennis SGMM
@Ruckus:
Heh! the show just cracked me up because it seemed an endless refrain of “The Ferrari/Koenigsegg/Lamborghini/etc. goes really fast.” Well, no shit, for $400,000+ it certainly should. I can drop a Chevy crate motor into an old Gremlin and burn more rubber in ten minutes than they do in a month – all for under ten grand.
pete
Sarah, you are such a tease. Which were the three Doctors represented by carved notches on your bedpost? This is, I believe, the eleventh …
Enquiring minds need to know. Ratings are optional, but welcome.
Cassidy
I remember when I was a young geek and reading GI Joe comics, they broke away from the action and adventure as one of the Joe’s was ETSing. He got his discharge papers, a “good luck”, and walked out the door. It struck me as a lonely moment as all the other Joe’s were out on missions. It was the first time in my comics something real happened and it always stuck with me.
I did my final out this morning, got my discharge paperwork, dd 214, a certificate with an honorable discharge and “good luck”. Art imitates life.
Amir Khalid
@Dennis SGMM:
Top Gear went into absolute bloody rapture over the Bugatti Veyron, which has twin V8 engines (yielding an impressive gallons-per-mile number, I’d guess) and on which Volkswagen loses money despite its seven-figure price tag. Why? Because it’s the deluxest, most fastest sports car ever, that’s why!
Tony J
@Amir Khalid:
Which was my reaction, until I saw the trailer and realised this was really happening. There is hope yet for your 2014 Cinema viewing schedule.
Tony J
@Jess:
Is he the buffed and tanned one in the trailer who really loves the Commander’s daughter, and not just in a sexual way, but is just so much of a maverick that he can’t earn her hidebound Dad’s respect until alien battleships turn up and he’s the one who saves the day with his maverickiness?
Oh yeah, then he totally gets his shirt off.
Ruckus
@Dennis SGMM:
They do go on about stuff that we worry much less about here. Brakes, handling, and actual fun/skill driving a car. And a little less about how impressed others should be that you spent the money just to spend the money.
But overall? Speed, speed, speed. A 200mph car? Who the fuck cares? How many roads are there that even if closed for a top speed run could these cars do that? And otherwise? Clarkson does strike me as a 12yr old bit of a bully at heart. The only redeeming thing is he gets his hat handed to him once in a while. I like that a number of guests have beaten his time in the econobox.
Three-nineteen
I am also trying to watch Doctor Who from the beginning, at least all the ones available from Netflix. I just read the first entry, and Susan and I had the same reaction to the pilot episode. Maybe this blog will get me through the rough spots.
metricpenny
@Jewish Steel:
Let every play, clear the way, for victoreeeeey (and Coney)!
modulegirl
@TooManyJens: not entirely BBC’s fault, TMJ. Martin Freeman is in NZ playing Bilbo in The Hobbit and Benedict Cumberbatch has just lately been cast as the voice and motion-capture for Smaug. I always liked Smaug despite his being, y’know, a genocidal wyrm from the North, but he should be really great with BC squaring off with his very own Doctor Watson. Sherlock will return when they can both be back and film.
David Brooks (not that one, but still nonlinear)
Pretty impressive that SPaT can bang her head on the keyboard and still come up with the letters F, k, c and u in the first 7. Clearly the keyboard knows who it belongs to.
I can still remember the impact An Unearthly Child had on me at the time. But this was before the 70’s, so Susan never took her kit off onscreen, sadly.
John Puma
Sorry to dickhead number 873 BUT:
“I’m going to try and get my mojo back … ”
should be
“I’m going to try TO get my mojo back … “
Phil Sandifer
Thanks for the link. Glad you’re enjoying the blog. :)
TooManyJens
@modulegirl: But I thought they’d already filmed. I’ve been seeing photos from shoots for weeks.
RonzoniRigatoni
Dah-limg:
Dear Ol’ Mom hit 93 in March and insists she knows better’n my 68. I know I have much to atone for, but, Dear FSM, must she be my penance? I suspect she’ll make 106 before I am saved LOL.
Draylon Hogg
This week I have been mostly reading LOEG Century 1969.
It’s got Jack “eyes like pissholes in the snow” Carter killing an Aleister Crowley analogue who transfers his astral form into Tom Riddle. Patrick Troughton pops up in a panel. Gotta love meta-fiction.
No one of Importance
I don’t know about that but I’d like suggestions on how I stop thinking about tying a naked Tony Abbott head to toe with an equally nude Andrew Bolt and throwing them both into Fred Phelp’s hot tub before taking compromising pictures and flogging them to the Fairfax media.
It wouldn’t be pretty but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
No one of Importance
@No one of Importance:
Oops, Freudian slip. I mean to say ‘Fred Nile’, but hey, cut from the same cloth and all.