Showing posts with label Doctor Who. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doctor Who. Show all posts

Saturday 25 May 2019

Still The Same and Ghostbusters is Great


I wasn't going to write a post today, intended to give it a rest as I am absolutely shattered, and want to go to bed, but also want to be sure that I will go to sleep. This afternoon I finished watching series two of "Black Books" which is consistently anarchically funny and tonight watched the reboot of "Ghostbusters". I was surprised and the remarkably low score it gets on IMDB but that is the power of white men scared of women with the ability to cast a digital vote. I mean women can't do what men can do can they? The answer is a resounding YES THEY CAN. There is no place for misogyny full stop.

I suppose the complaints about the final series of Game of Thrones is similar but is probably more triggered by the fact that Game of Thrones has now ended, so pedants can pick over plot holes rather than enjoying the amount of brilliant moments throughout the final series. You had two amazing battles , with buildups and then the fallout from those battle, and an anything but expected ending. At least it didn't go on for an hour like "The Return of the King".

The original "Ghostbusters"  is great , the reboot is brilliant and funny and I love it. The complainants are the same numpties , gammons and male "supremacists" who went mad over Jodie Whittaker becoming Doctor Who. We would probably get a similar reaction for a non white Doctor Who , but let's face it, Whoopi Goldberg and Samuel L. Jackson would be fine to fill those boots. Anyway, I'll say it again, "Ghostbusters" is great.

This post was just to note that I am still getting  over 1.2K hits per day, and there are still five recent posts in my top ten all time posts. The only problem sort of being is that posts over the last month are still getting hits, the last one that is not get hits is the one about the Facebook Ban here.

So because I have always loved the theme to the original "Ghostbusters" I will go with that, because the Ray Parker Jnr song is still cool and fun.

Monday 17 December 2018

Time Split


My mind is all over the place at times and I am very good at lateral thinking, or as most people see it, going off on a tangent. This morning my alarm went off just after 5:30 although I really wanted it to go off at 5:45 but I had set the time fifteen minutes too fast, so I switched the alarm off, then made the effort to set the time so it was just five minutes fast, which meant that I had another ten minutes before the alarm went off.

That meant I had sort of split time getting two lie ins for the proce of one, also meaning that in future I will be actually hearing the alarm at roughly the time it should do. I almost feel like Doctor Who.

It is Monday and the beginning of the final week before Christmas, I've managed to catch up on all my TV, and also added the "Riverworld" books by Philip Jose Farmer to my to reread list. It is an excellent concept but the only downside is that it stops me, or puts off reading new books, and I have a lot of those to get through.

My walking in December has been attrocious, but over the weekend I have got ahead of my required target, so I do stand a chance of actually stay on track. I have done this for nineteen months running now so I want to keep that up. The big wall is the fact that it is dark and cold in a morning so it's not that inviting to walk to work.

The winter solstice is coming up so after that day, 23rd December I think, the days will start getting longer.

So what song should I drag in today. Following "Riverworld" I'll go for Billy Joel's "River of Dreams".

Have a great day everyone.

Sunday 7 October 2018

Them Big Oak Trees


One of things I noticed on the walks in the Lake District was the number of big oak trees that we saw along the routes. It's not surprising that one of the pubs we frequent is The Royal Oak in Ambleside, which I discovered as it was featured on the cover of Half Man Half Biscuit's excellent "CSI Ambleside" album.

While there are lots of different tree species, Oaks are fairly distinctive and are striking and obvious in any landscape and there are a few examples on this slide show instagram link here.

I was wondering whether to combine this post with the last post, but it does give you the opportunity to just listen to one song to accompany my mindwanderings, but it's always good to see Oak Trees as I don't think there are too many round the Newcastle area.  I certainly haven't noticed on my walks to work, although tomorrow morning I will keep an eye out to see if I can see any.

So I going to include the excellent "Them Big Oak Trees" by The Wonderstuff from their album "Hup", and I only recently discovered that Miles Hunt of the band was married to Mary Ann Hobbs the 6Music DJ.

So I am just about to have tea, an Aloo Chol from Rajnagar after enjoying the first episode of Doctor Who with the wonderful Jodie Whittaker, looking forward to the rest of the series.

Tuesday 26 December 2017

Almost A Ghost Town


Went out for a walk today and was surprised that I never had to wait to cross a road, the traffic was so sparse. Yesterday there was far more traffic, but today it's very sparse. Shops are open as was the chemist I had to visit (just, I got there as they were opening the shutters).

Yesterday was spent watching a few recording of MR James Ghost Stories , one a dramatisation the other two read by Christopher Lee, plus a dramatisation of Charles Dickens' "The Signalman".

I also watched the new Doctor Who and cannot get over the small minded irritati who's minds are so small that they can't grasp the concept of a two hearted metamorphosing alien transforming into a woman, although it's not really a woman it's an alien assuming the form of a women. It's really like these complainants are throwbacks to the seventies, sad people.

I am going to enjoy the last day of the break (where did those four days go?) before going back to work for three days, I mean I could live with a three day week permanently.

I leave you with my slideshow of Christopher Lee's definitive metal take on "My Way".  . Enjoy your day my friends.


Sunday 24 December 2017

Merry Christmas Everybody


It's Christmas Eve and I am trying to have a relaxing break although part of me is saying "Ah but you only did 7K steps today", but it is good to think of yourself to make sure you are 100% there for others. I've donated to various charitable endeavours and tried to be there for friends, seen and spoke to family and wrapped presents and sent cards and I'm sure we've all done similar things.

Had a gang knock on my door tonight looking for someone who'd stolen a bike. They seemed good natured and Isaid I was 60 and to lazy to ride a bike but I'd keep an eye out and they were complimentary saying I didn't look my age (maybe they thought I looked 70!!).

Today has been Christmas films and overindulging on the Christmas food, so I think I will soon be in bed. I am feeling very physically tired, although my mind is wide awake. I hate that feeling, but I will get some rest tonight I'm sure.

Tomorrow will be more festive frivolities, including checking my neighbours' new pet fish and looking forward to the new Doctor Who.

Anyway for #SuddenlyItsChristmas I'm going to choose Greg Lake's "I Believe In Father Christmas" lifting it's instrumental motif from Prokofiev's "Lieutentant Kije" suite ("Troika") also featuring unuasually restrained lyrics from Pete Sinfield with only one "Veil of Tears". While it's not the greatest Christmas song (we all know what that is), it is a great Christmas song.

Now enjoy the song and get ready to wake early and open your presents, I'm looking forward to mine.


Saturday 22 July 2017

An End Is In Sight


It seems a very long time since I woke up and thought "Bloody hell, It's Twelve O' Clock (Noon)". I am not sure why this is , but it probably stems from when I started back doing 10K steps a day. Weekends are usually days when you can do more, although more steps take more time. I am now 35K steps away from hitting the target of my Million Step Challenge. I was wondering how I would continue exercising after the target had been hit, and was worried I would maybe fall back into becoming more sedentary and therefore lose the benefits that I have gained from doing the walking. We all need goals, if we don't have them then we vegetate and ossify. So I have simply decided to aim for 34K steps a month which should ensure that in any three month meriod I should walk a million steps.

Life is affected by continual change and the need to deal with those changes , which is why so many people railed against Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor Who. This is the thirteenth regeneration of the Doctor, and every one has caused people to complain that the new Doctor is not The Old Doctor (here's a list and as long ago as 1989 Dawn French , Joanna Lumley and Frances De La Tour were in the running) , though the worst complaints are sexist and misogynistic. The term Doctor is not gender specific, and in the last series Peter Capaldi was guarding a rogue female timelord , they swapped bodies and several times talked about their past and whether they were male or female. Further back there ws the River Song / Amy Pond thread , so you can't say that you were'nt prepared for this by plot developments.

Continuing through "Electric Eden" (40 pages to go so another ending nearing) I also came across more things I was unaware of. Until Kate Bush hit Number One with "Wuthering Heights" in 1978 no woman had topped the singles chart in the UK with a self penned song, so thirty years that took. Then, talking about the video to one of the songs from my favourite album of hers "Hounds of Love" , it was conceived in connivance with Terry Gilliam (my favourite director, incidentally Kate performed the theme song to my favourite Gilliam film "Brazil" which I've included at the end of this post) and featured Donald Sutherland who had been angling to work with Kate, that was "Cloudbusting" often mis spelt as "Cloudbursting". The story behind the song is absorbing to and can be read here.

This is the thing, reading can tell you new things and remingd you of things you have forgotten.

I know it's grey but today I am looking forward to seeing my friend Julie with Fiona and possibly doing an unfeasible amount of steps, or maybe I will just get the bus.

Have a great Saturday my friends.

Sunday 14 May 2017

Catching Up


Due to one thing and another , rain and Andrew and Glen's wonderful wedding , I didn't even hit 6K steps yesterday, although I am still 1K steps past the required target, so today I need to catch up.

As a start I thought I would walk down Two Ball Lonnen to Westgate Road, then back all the way up Wingrove Road to the Central Motorway , then along the Motorway to Morrisons, pick up a few essentials and walk back down Two Ball Lonnen then eventually home. That clocks in at 10.5 K steps which puts me just ahead of the required number but I need to do another few thousand. We shall see.

Yesterday I ran out of data on my EE phone plan. Because of EE's grabbing top up policy (like every mobile phone company) I am going to try not to buy a day add on. They put a time limit of a week on the data you buy, 1Gb would last me a fortnight, but there's not much one can do if you want to stay on the same number.

It's a bit weird not having information at your fingertips but if you walk along Westgate Road there is free on street wifi provided by the shops via XLN and it works (unlike As You Like It when I was at Andrew and Glen's wedding, which spent an age before timing out, like several bus companies I could mention), a sensible concept but mobile phone companies like EE won't like it.

Without data the step monitoring app doesn't update (but it records steps) , so having done 10.5K I wanted to hit 12K, but had to just guess and when I got home I found I'd done another 5.5K so that's 16K for today and I am back to 6K over my required target.

I wrote this in two parts as I was incredibly tired after my first walk, and still feel awfully tired and achey, almost as though I have the physical aches of 'flu' without the cold symptoms , I should have really had a bath , but it's too late so I will probably just go to bed.

I haven't really done much today apart from catch up on some TV (Broadchurch, The Fall, The Aliens, Doctor Who) and am enjoying Darwin's Armada although Charles Darwin liked a fight and hunting animals, odd as he wanted to be a clergyman.

So #ATuneaDayinMay, , what's it to be, it's just come to me , as my may walk today to catch up on my walking was a big rectangle we'll have Dave Brubeck's "Unsquare Dance", which all based on the handclap rhythm then everything hangs of that. The piano is almost superfluous.

There's a load of  other things I was going to write about but they will keep for another day.




Tuesday 9 May 2017

Doctor Who?


I wasn't going to write anything this morning, but I have a friend, Richard, who does a lot of walking and running and it's his birthday today, so I thought I'd post The Proclaimers' "500 Miles", a bit obvious I know, but  you know.

Then I saw this Doctor Who Cast version and it is brilliant, it's soundtracked by The Proclaimers version but it it a truly brilliant video, watch it and have your spirits lifted.

Also listening to 6Music I heard a great song by The RPMs called "Oh My God" which you can listen to here , and that led to "Satellite" by  Bouncing Souls (listen here) . The RPMs feature among their number Jack Valero , Billy Bragg's son.

Anyway it's time for work now, so have a great Tuesday everyone.

Thursday 27 April 2017

Who Knows Where The Time Goes?


I was going to write this a couple of days back, but time seems to be running away from me all through the day. Actually that's not completely true, what it is is that my time is being taken up by stuff. Instead of leaving the house at 7:30 and being in work before 8 AM , I am leaving the house at 7 AM and walking into work most days , maintaining my step challenge of 10K steps a day , which at walking pace takes me around a hundred minutes. That's over an hour and a half ... a day! If you then factor in that most days I do more than that, all of a sudden I have a two hour chuck removed from my day.

Add to that catching up on Doctor Who from 2015 and another chunk of time goes out the window. It's not that I am not enjoying doing this and it's definitely a far more interesting form of exercise than going to a gym. At a gym you are directed but this walking needs my own direction, and I always try and find another way to walk in.

I have discovered a lot of places I didn't know about, realised that some places are closer together than I though, I mean I never knew there was an Asda down Westgate Road. The other thing is I am getting a lot more music listening in, today I was reminded how great the title track of "Aladdin Sane" is , drenched with Mike Garson's off kilter piano, I also got "Helden" as well from the soundtrack of "Christiane F" with Bob Fripp's luscious everlasting guitar lines, so two slices of David Bowie on my way in this morning.

Which song should I choose?  There are three songs mentioned here and I decided to hit "Christiane F"

Have a lovely evening

Friday 26 December 2014

The Day After Christmas Day



Edge
Well it's the day after Christmas , and I'm "Still Ill" to quote The Smiths, although it's essentially nose cold , running into my throat causing and tickly cough which then can go on for quite a bit. Dealing with it with , paracetamol . drink and chocolate.

Seen and talked with family over Christmas , exchanged presents, great to see people getting perfume they want , no chocolate , I got some clothes including a Kelly's Heroes T-Shirt, a totally not over the top Christmas.




Manage a few films and the Christmas Doctor Who and even caught a bit of the Queen's Speech which focused on the 1914 Truce when the French and German soldiers stopped fighting and played football in a brief interlude before going back to slaughtering each other and the behest of the paymasters safely enjoying a drink and mince pie back in London or Berlin. These days David Cameron, Ian Duncan Smith and George Osborne would have had them shot while Nick Clegg, Ed Milliband and Nigel Farage gave their backing. Remember it was your "working man" who called that truce, not the officers and it does make me sick to hear it romanticised as it is now. We should remember for the right reasons, as a beacon for peace , not a glorification of war.

Oops don't know where that came from, but it's how I feel.

Anyway, I've had and am still having a brilliant Christmas, and I hope you all are too. This Christmas we have four days of being off before having to go to work and clear up the mess on Monday. Have another brilliant day my friends.

Saturday 23 August 2014

Still Ill



Well not ill, but my arm is hurting and there's still a week before I go back to sort the bandages. I've also been extremely busy with work, finishing at 6 tonight, and found time to squeeze in a gig and watch the return of Dr Who with Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor. There were elements of Malcom Tucker in the performance which made it even more enjoyable. I always loved the Thick of It Doctor Who Mash Ups they did.

Complete Smiths
Anyway this is just a short post, my arm is improving , life is good and there's still two days of the Bank Holiday weekend to go, with lots of options of good things to do.

The title gives me an excuse to namecheck The Smiths which
I know are not some peoples favourites, but I do like them.

Sunday 4 August 2013

Impatience and Doctor WHo

Why is it that people can't wait for anything these days. I'm made up that we have Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor , but couldn't they have kept it under wraps until the next generation. I've loved Peter Capaldi  from his role in the funnily atrocious Lair Of The White Worm , a Ken Russel excess fest full of single entendres , then Local Hero , and his probably crowning character as the swearily inventive spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It.

So we now know robbing Matt Smith's exit of a huge chuck of suspense. If I were to choose some music to play it could be the Theme from Local Hero but instead I'm going to post Brian Eno#s "This" where the word this is repeated as the rhythm to the song. Has no bearing to what I'm talking about but I dont really care,