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Multiple multitudes of cool geeky stuff
It’s safe to say that if you don’t feel like getting your geek on just a little bit, this is not the post for you. … Read more
Tag: Doctor Who
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A little bit of Doctor Who toy lust I’m working out of my system
Okay, let’s just get right down to it: the figures of the first and second Doctors. I was beginning to think, with Character Options reporting major losses and planned cutbacks in new product, that we’d never see these.
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Exterminate the ice trays!
Don’t ask for them in your grocer’s freezer aisle: That’s right. There are Daleks in my freezer. (There’s a real and logical reason for this…which you’ll have to wait until the end of the post to see. In the meantime, my wife’s going to be pissed, looking in the freezer for some manner of foodstuff and finding evil armored mutants and stuff.)
They really like the moon: check out this link for a really cool project – a small NASA team has set up shop in, of all places, a disused McDonald’s, and they’re restoring and reprocessing raw data and pictures from NASA’s 1960s unmanned lunar missions with jaw-droppingly spectacular results. Apparently the data gathered by such probes as the Lunar Orbiters circa 1966 could be beneficial to the next generation of lunar mission planners, but hey, I’m okay with it if all we get out of it is more of these great pictures. That’s a perfectly good thing for my tax money to be going to. Be sure to check out their series of pictures showing where these open-reel data tapes have been for the past four decades or so, too! That information makes the restored data and pictures all the more remarkable, and makes me feel a little better about my own housekeeping practices. (Not that I couldn’t use some improvement…)
MobileProWoes: fifteen bucks later, I have a new wi-fi card to replace my horrendously abused one for my handheld PC…and it turns out that the wi-fi card may not, in fact, be the problem at all. It’s the port inside the machine. I’ve had all sorts of advice about what to replace the MobilePro with, but in the end I’m fond enough of the machine that I’m going to be happy to replace it with an only slightly newer MobilePro. There are fully capable laptops out there, but I’m on too tight a budget to even get into the $300 range. I don’t need this to play movies or MP3s – I just need something extremely portable for writing purposes that isn’t a Crackberry or anything of that nature. I’ll let you know how the hunt goes. In the meantime, the fact that the MobilePro won’t fire up a perfectly good new card raises the interesting possibility that I might just have two working wi-fi cards – one slightly battered and one backup.
Electric cattle pod: still working on the year’s-end best-of podcast thing, which is now looking like…ready for it?…five hours, split pretty evenly between soundtrack and non-soundtrack stuff. The frightening thing is, every time I think I’m ready to finish writing my material and start recording, some other really cool release pops up and I’m all “ooh, got to work that in somewhere!” So by the time Christmas actually rolls around and I unleash this puppy, it’ll probably be two days long. And yeah, I’m writing a script for myself; it’s bad enough that I’m going to have to listen to my own voice while putting this thing together, so I’d like to at least have the benefit of the illusion of sounding like I know what the hell I’m talking about.
Okay, okay, here’s why: I just got the Doctor Who Stolen Earth figure set, which has two Daleks, Davros and yet another Doctor (if anyone needs the spare tenth Doctor I wound up with here, give me a shout – if you can cover shipping and maybe lunch, he and his sonic screwdriver are all yours). Apparently, many of the Daleks manufactured this year by Character Options had some issues with the plastic of the ball joints behind both the “sucker arm” and “gun” swelling up; freezing them for a few hours gets things back to normal. It also works wonders for Davros’ head/neck joint, apparently. You learn something new every day, huh? Look for them wherever your grocer carries frozen genetically engineered mutants in bonded polycarbide armor. (If I was less tired, I’d totally geek out on you and regale you with the fact that freezing both the Daleks and Davros have actually been major plot points, but…….naaaahhhh.) I picked up this and the classic series Dalek 3-pack, along with the new wi-fi card, in a recent round of eBaying which is pretty much my early Christmas for this year. I picked up one other fun thing, but I got it for Evan…and you’ll see a photo of it soon enough. 😉… Read more
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Time Crash. Awesomeness.
David Tennant + Peter Davison? Sign me the heck up. Already got a DVD cover on hot standby:
Grab your own copy of the cover here if you’re so inclined (or just want to gawk at my insomnia-and-E.S.-Posthumus-fueled Paint Shop Pro dabblings). I literally used the only still photo the BBC has provided so far (and then that one from the Sun too), so design greatness it ain’t, but it’s just a tad more epic than the original “two guys standing there” publicity shot. 😆 I’m really looking forward to this. If they’d managed to shoehorn Sylvester McCoy into the same little special, I’d be happy beyond belief. But this’ll do nicely. Davison and McCoy were my favorites among the original Doctors, and I don’t care if he has put on a bit of weight, Davison looks great. (I wish that when people looked at me and said “you’ve put on a bit of weight,” I was looking like that guy instead of the fella in the mirror.)
It’s official: despite the glut of CDs I’ve played for him, from Scott Joplin to Vangelis to Moody Blues, Evan’s officially approved darn-near-guaranteed-to-work sleepytime CD is a “baby mix” I assembled for him, whose playlist goes thusly:
- “Lullaby” – Raymond Scott
- “Radio Sheffield” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
- “Popcorn” – Hot Butter
- “Sleepy Time” – Raymond Scott
- “Sea Sports” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
- “Apache” – Hot Butter
- “The Music Box” – Raymond Scott
- “Milky Way” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
- “Telstar” – Hot Butter
- “Nursery Rhyme” – Raymond Scott
- “P.I.G.S.” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
- “Syncopated Clock” – Hot Butter
- “Tic Toc” – Raymond Scott
- “Wheels” – Hot Butter
- “Summer Intro” – Neil Finn
(The Raymond Scott tracks are basically the entirety of Soothing Sounds For Baby Volume 1, the Hot Butter tracks are all from Popcorn, and the Radiophonic Workshop stuff is all from BBC Radiophonic Music. The Neil Finn track is from the Rain soundtrack.)
So…in other words…Evan’s got a thing for kinda trippy experimental electronic music from the 1960s and ’70s. But man, does that mix knock him out like a tranquilizer dart. Now, I know that he’s not gonna remember any of this stuff, and that these early “preferences” of his will wind up in my memory only, but that music is now inextricably linked with my son in my mind. I also donated the little light apparatus to his room that once powered my glowin’ Dalek; it simply projects its patterns straight onto the ceiling above his crib now. And he seems to dig it – until the colors shifting and the music lull him to sleep.
If he was older than, say, a month, I’d say it’s time to break out some Floyd.… Read more
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Random soundtrack notes
As noted in the site’s news section today, a new CD of music from the third season of Doctor Who is due in about a month. Now, as much as I’m looking forward to that, I had to fess up that the music was yet another aspect of season 3 that just underwhelmed me a bit. It seemed to me like about 3 pieces of action music were written, and a few variations on Martha’s theme, and some other bits…and then all of the above were recycled relentlessly throughout the season. I’ll still be happy to pick up the CD, because at least all of this stuff was decent music, but on the tenth reiteration, it loses a little something. At this point, it’s almost like the more recognizable music from the original Star Trek – it’s kinda like “cue the Corbomite Maneuver cube music, there’s something sinister out there!” I love that they’ve got a whole orchestra on this show, but I am starting to wonder if perhaps Murray Gold shouldn’t rotate with someone else to do the writing. Even Dudley Simpson took a break once in a blue moon.
Speaking of TV composers who did a Ton Of Stuff, just got these the other day from the fine folks at Dennismccarthy.com:
Nifty stuff on each one. I’m still hoping that maybe we’ll actually see some real live Trek TV music sneak out the door this way, but I’m not holding my breath. Speaking of Trek music, I’ve finally reposted the Dennis McCarthy interview in the news archives here, and as a treat – well, I don’t know if you’ll think it’s much of a treat – I’ve included the original telephone recording of the interview from 1993. Some things to keep in mind about that interview include: (A) the fact that I was 20, and (B) I was at the height of my Trek geekdom. If I had the chance to redo that interview – and don’t think that I haven’t approached him about doing a new one – I’d be a little more even-handed about it. There are some somewhat insinuating questions in there on my part – oh, so the producers tell you when to wipe your butt, do they? – that come across as someone who’d read a few Film Score Monthly editorials too many. And, call it perverse, I know so much more about the other, non-soundtrack music he’s done that I would broaden the line of questioning, though I still chuckle at catching him off guard with that Tommy Flander thing and still getting a pretty in-depth response about it. (I think that’s actually my favorite part of the whole thing, actually!) And of course, these days, there’d be questions to ask like his feelings on only getting to do one of the Trek movies (which I think was, musically, one of the best ones of the whole series, though I’m not sure anyone else will ever give it that due), the Enterprise budget cuts that forced him to “go synth” for much of the final season, and stuff like Sliders and Stargate SG-1, among others. When I first got a CD burner – the stereo component kind, mind you, not the computer drive – that interview, which I’d kept on cassette for about 6 years at the time, was one of the very first things I burned to CD-R, and that CD-R turned up during housecleaning not so long ago. So there it is, an interesting little time capsule from my past. (At the time, the interview originally appeared in a text file called “the LogBook Master Index of Soundtracks” which was bundled up with a distribution ZIP file and sent across the pre-internet BBS file-forwarding networks.)
I really wish I had the chance to do more interviews for the site. Maybe someday – for right now, the only podcasts you’re likely to get out of me anytime real soon will probably be diaper changes, which technically should really be poocasts. 😆… Read more
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A Tale of Two TARDISes
Okay, Doctor Who fans, here’s somethin’ you don’t see every day.
… Read more
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A bit too spazzy to be an effective paperweight
It’s been a while since I did a whole thread of kitty pix for the heck of it, and today Olivia provided me with a perfect opportunity. … Read more
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Album anticipation – fall ’06
It doesn’t happen too often anymore, but maybe once a year there’s a confluence of musical talent, old favorites, and stuff I’m Just Curious About all hitting at roughly the same time. (There was a time, long ago, when this was more of a quarterly thing.) Some stuff I’ve already ordered, some stuff I’m still slobbering over, and other stuff I’m just thinking about. Here’s a rough rundown of this fall’s candidates for curing my mystery melody malady. … Read more
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This is what the Super Adventure Club actually believes!
It’s been hard to escape the news that Isaac Hayes quit South Park in the wake of last fall’s controversial episode lampooning Scientology, or that in the wake of that news, how Comedy Central scheduled and then suddenly pulled a repeat of said episode. Tonight, on the show’s season premiere, Matt and Trey struck back with both a brilliant white-hot anger and compassion, attempting to draw fire away from Hayes and toward Scientology itself instead. Throughout the episode, Chef spoke in disjointed, cut-and-pasted phrases pieced together from the nine years worth of dialogue he has recorded for previous episodes, leading the boys to realize – gasp! – Chef has been brainwashed by that “fruity little club.” Their attempts to rescue him only lead to tragedy for Chef himself, though he is resurrected at the end of the episode in a less-than-subtle (and yet knee-slappingly funny) homage to the closing scenes of Star Wars Episode III. At several points during the episode, the folks responsible for brainwashing Chef threaten to take drastic action – namely, asking Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Kenny to leave – a clear indication that it’s not over by a long shot, and Matt and Trey don’t intend to let this drop.
Again, not South Park’s finest hour, but one of its most heartfelt. I almost hope we get a running thread about this throughout the season. Heck, I even hope that Isaac Hayes might come around and show up to redeem Chef again (and that way, we can get a Return Of The Jedi spoof outta the deal too!).
In other news, I’m still almost speechless about the phrase that’s been running through my head all day: “Doctor Who has been nominated for multiple Hugo Awards.” I’ll be quite honest, I’ve loved the show for most of my life, and I never envisioned it being nominated for a Hugo Award either on TV or in print. The episodes Dalek, Father’s Day, and the combined two-parter of The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances were all nominated for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form), up against a Galactica episode (Pegasus), a Pixar short, and one or two other things I don’t recall haven’t heard of before. I’m torn between wanting Dalek and Father’s Day to win – from my own fleeting correspondences with them, writers Rob Shearman and Paul Cornell, respectively, are just damned nice guys. However, I’ve got to root for Cornell’s script hear; Dalek was a watered-down version of Shearman’s 2003 Doctor Who audio story Jubilee, but Father’s Day was pure Cornell, thought-provoking and heart-tuggingly emotional. My best wishes go to all the nominees – because from the ones I have seen, they’re all A-list stuff. (Truthfully, I’m surprised that [A] more Galactica episodes weren’t nominated, and [B] that Pegasus was the one that did get the nod; it’s worth remembering that multiple episodes of Babylon 5 were on the ballot for the ’96 Hugos, but JMS asked to have all but The Coming Of Shadows removed from consideration so there wouldn’t be a split of votes that would actually keep B5 from winning at all.)
As much as I love Doctor Who, I’m still reeling at the thought that it might soon share the same Hugo-winning stratosphere as some of the finest episodes of Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and The Twilight Zone. Wow. Promote the hell out of that, Sci-Fi. You’re showing two Hugo-nominated shows. (Granted, Galactica’s already a Hugo winner, but still…)… Read more
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Joining the pod people.
I’ve been sidelined by a bit of mild food poisoning for a couple of days, so when I wasn’t stuck in the bathroom for hours, I’ve tried my hand at podcasting for the first time. (Don’t worry, none of this was done in the bathroom itself – that would be a poocast. Not that I might not do one of those in the future…) My first podcasting experiments will be revealed on Friday the 17th, as I launch a series – or maybe I should say a tentative series – of Doctor Who podcasts to accompany Sci-Fi Channel’s broadcasts of the new series in the U.S.; the idea here is to help draw continuity connections between the old series and the new for casual fans or new fans. (If you’re a longtime dedicated fan, well, probably nothing new for you here.)
I wound up talking almost non-stop through Rose, though there were a couple of significant pauses for The End Of The World. I quickly discovered the value of keeping an ample supply of beverages on hand for this activity, and lived in fear of the weather alert radio behind me going off during yet another stormy day. (Not long after I finished End Of The World, I was getting things set up to record The Unquiet Dead when the first alarm sounded, followed about ten minutes later by the second one, and I figured “well, that’s about it for today.”)
I also discovered that I’m really not too well equipped for this whole endeavour of casting from my particular pod. I still don’t have a microphone (which certainly would’ve helped when I was trying to record the Voice of Odyssey a few weeks ago), so it’s currently a convoluted process of recording my voice with my camcorder (with the lens cover closed) for 45-odd minutes, and then spending another 45-odd minutes dumping that audio to CD, and then more time to finalize that disc, rip it to my hard drive, and edit the top and tails (I’m assuming you don’t want to hear me do a TV-style 3-2-1 count-in here.) A microphone would let me just do my damage straight to the CD-RW and cut something like an hour out of the process.
Ah well. It’s really strange how multimedia this whole thing is becoming. Oh, to quit my day job and do this all day. Assuming anyone likes these, I’ll be looking for other podcasting opportunities in the future…I just have no idea what they’d be. If anyone’s got any ideas, I’m all ears.… Read more
