Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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| Image by Tumisu from Pixabay |
Long are the nights now. And short are the days.
Cold are the mornings and biting are the evenings.
Thus it is the wise man takes refuge in his home, surrounds himself with the spectre-banishing miracle of electric light, and allows himself to be warmed by the feverish activities of the internet.
But just what feverish activities are to be visited upon us, this Tuesday twilight?
That, even Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce and Old Mother Shipton between them could not predict. For, hearken, it is that time once more when the reader himself must make that decision.
Therefore, pick up your pen and scribble, within the comments section below, the topic you wish to see discussed by those who enter the dread portals of this website and we shall see what drama unfolds.
Posts
45 comments:
Yesterday I received a 1939 Lincoln Penny in change. I put it in my box dedicated to “old coins I get in change.”
So any of you collect - accumulate random things? If so, what?
Charlie Horse 47
If Charlie doesn't mind, as it's Doctor Who's 60th anniversary on Thursday...
Which is the best Who period: the original one (1963-89) or the modern one from 2005 onwards?
I'm not a big Dr Who fan Colin but I watched it pretty regularly as a kid ( up until Tom Baker ) but I much prefer the few modern versions I have seen especially Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant's Doctor.
Charlie, I seem to have accumulated my old prescription and over the counter reading spectacles. I only recently passed around 11 old specs (4 prescription, 7 readers) to charity shops last week when I read they were looking for folks old specs
To answer Charlie's question: just before Easter I found a half-pint beer glass just sitting in the middle of the pavement while on my way to my local Tesco. The glass had the CARLING logo on it and an engraving of some buildings which, upon investigation, turned out to be landmarks from Burton-On-Trent where Carling (a Canadian company) produces its' beer in the UK (the glass also had BURTON-ON-TRENT GREAT BRITAIN written on it). Anyway finders keepers so I took the glass home with me and three months later in July I found an identical beer glass, this time a full pint, in a waste-paper bin so now I have two matching CARLING beer glasses which I acquired by accident without paying a penny for them (and both glasses feature the short-lived and now-abandoned UKCA safety mark so perhaps they'll be collectibles in the future).
Charlie, and Colin, thanks for the topics.
Charlie, I must confess that I don't collect anything, these days.
Having said that, I have a healthy stash of adaptors and cables that I refuse to throw away, out of the fear that I might need them someday.
Colin, I would put them on a par. They're different but both have their strengths and weaknesses and their highs and lows.
Having said that, the big advantage of Nu-Who is that, if you don't like a story, at least you usually only have to sit through 45 minutes of it, and not six 25-minute episodes.
Then again, in modern Doctor Who, you're never going to get a story brave enough to supply us with 250 minutes of relentless entertainment like the 2nd Doctor's The War Games did.
I'm not a big Who fan either, Paul, but I find the modern era difficult to like.
Charlie - I once found an old half penny, with a ship engraved on it, in the top of my drive (it wasn't that old, though!)
I don't collect randoms things, unless photos(of interesting random insects, birds, etc), taken via digital camera, count!
Colin - Early Dr.Who for me, by a country mile. That being said, Eccleston's portrayal was interesting, but ended almost before it started. David Tennant just overacts.
Most annoying about modern Dr.Who are the "contrived running" scenes, heralded by a sudden change in music, perhaps to convince the audience something exciting's happening.
Phillip
I've watched the trailer for the upcoming anniversary episodes of Doctor Who and bringing back David Tennant and Catherine Tate seems like a total gimmick to me. I haven't decided yet whether or not to watch those new episodes.
Next week on Channel 5, there's a special Dr.Who show, entitled something like "Secrets of Dr.Who" (but don't quote me on that!)
Phillip
Phillip, I too own a half-penny with a ship on it! Mine is dated 1967 which I think was the final year those particular coins were produced. 1967 is also especially interesting to me because my family moved from Islington (where I was born) to the highlands of Scotland near Inverness (but not for long - in 1968 we moved to South Wales where I've lived ever since).
I went totally cashless two years ago so the only other coin I've got is a penny dated 2012 from the Bailiwick of Jersey but I didn't actually go to Jersey to acquire it - like Charlie I received it in my change.
Great question Colin! Charlie was a huge Who fan! Who’s Next is clearly one of rocks Top10 albums ever!
In 1992 I moved into a flat which was totally empty except for a Transformers lampshade and a folding chair - nowadays I live in a house but I still have that Transformers lampshade (stored in the attic) and that folding chair!
In my kitchen I've got a stool with chrome-metal legs and back-support and a wooden seat but I didn't buy it, I found it. In 2020 during the pandemic I discovered the stool lying on its' side next to some bags of rubbish so I assumed it was being thrown out and, finders keepers, I took the stool home with me. It's perfect for sitting on while using my laptop in the kitchen!
I like the song about Bruce Wayne on Who's Next, Charlie.
"No-one knows what it's like to be the Batman..."
Steve, you're right modern Dr Who generally seems too fast paced. But, on the other hand, the old stuff is waaay too slow. 'Relentless' is one way of putting it I suppose, but I couldn't believe just how much it dragged stuff out when I finally saw a repeat in the '90s... and that was 'Genesis of the Daleks', which was one of the best ones.
Don't misunderstand, I liked it a lot as a kid, but anything other than old clips is too much for me now. Like, this 70s cliffhanger ending with the Silurians is great -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoMxA37x3VE
But I don't need to see anymore really (I hope that isn't going to get me blocked from Steve Does Comics).
-sean
Actually, one of the best things about that clip is the incidental music, which reminds me that while I'm not really that interested in seeing old Dr Who, I do like listening to the Radiophonic Workshop stuff on record.
In fact, back in the day Dr Who was more than the tv programme, and I still find the old comics appealing. If you ask me about my fave Dalek or Cyberman stories I'd come up with something from TV21, or Steve Parkhouse & Mike McMahon's 'Junkyard Demon'.
There was a good piece by Russell T Davies about his love of Dr Who in the Grauniad recently, and it was nice to see him mention the 70s Gerry Haylock strips.
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/17/russell-t-davies-doctor-who-david-tennant-new-series-bbc-ncuti-gatwa
I'll be checking out the upcoming new episodes because apparently one of the villains is Beep the Meep! I shall be disappointed if John Wagner, Pat Mills, and Dave Gibbons don't get a credit.
-sean
I don’t actually collect any random things. My house is too full of non-random things that I’ve obsessively collected to start messing with that.
I do however like to keep track of charity shop trends. I noticed when I was a student in 1991 that every single charity shop had a copy of the book Jaws. Every single one. It must have sold truckloads in the 70s. I wish I’d picked one or two up as they’re quite rare now. Then a few years later it was the first Adrian Mole book.
More recently it’s been DVDs of ‘Superman Returns’ and the Thomas Harris books ‘Hannibal’ and ‘Hannibal Rising’. Rather than buy them I would photograph them and keep a Facebook album updated.
My favourite Dr Who was the consensus pick Tom Baker, though I’m now very interested in his predecessors. I find the slow pace part of the charm. By coincidence I’ve just re-read Kim Newman’s excellent BFI book on the series.
I find the new Who unwatchable. It repels me on an almost chemical level. Everything about it just screams ‘panto’. I’ve tried an episode every few years and it’s been the same each time.
Don't forget that Nu-Who is also woke political correctness gone mad, Matthew.
Seriously though, slagging the revived Dr Who is a bit like complaining about modern popular music - even if you can make a reasonable argument, its just not a good look for a middle aged man imo. I (mostly) liked what I saw of the first season, but after that... well, it obviously wasn't for me. Which is fine because there's no reason it should be.
Just to be clear, I prefer the slower pacing of old Who too, at least in theory. When you actually watch it though, an awful lot feels like padding to fill out the run time.
But it didn't seem like that when I was 10, so maybe thats not really a criticism?
-sean
Like Matthew, I've already overloaded my house with collectibles; my wife can testify to that. But in the spirit of Charlie's question, I do have a collection of oddities I call my 'virtual flea market'. Whenever i go to a yard sale or flea market, I'm always looking for comics and cds. However I often find interesting or strange things which, while not tempting enough for actual purchase, do provoke a bit of interest. So I take a photo of them on my phone and add them to my tablet "Flea market" album. There are some pretty odd things out there; anyone who has been to one (or a boot sale, for you UK folks- is that correct?) will know. These 'finds' range from such valued items as a 1962 Topps baseball card featuring home run champs Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, to true wierdness (one truly horrifying doll with a painfully grimacing face, impossible to describe).
As for Dr. Who, I've never really gotten into it. Watched a few, but just didn't fall into it.
I'll get my coat...
Red, we say a "car boot sale* (a boot on a British car is a trunk on an American car).
Of course today is the 60th anniversary of JFK's assassination AND of the deaths of Aldous Huxley and CS Lewis!!
COLIN - i was just going to post about JFK. I listen to WGN radio Chicago, a bit every day, and they are recounting where they were 60 years ago on 11/22/63.
Im more amazed that WGN still has employees working now who were working then at WGN.
JFK didnt have a clue that after his “give us your poor, tired, hungry masses” referring to immigrants that those words would apply to many of the citizens 60 years on.
Anyhow tomorrow is Roasted Turkey, potatoes with gravy, green beans (often cooked with canned mushroom soup and dried onions on top), cranberry sauce (cue John Lennon and Strawberry Fields lol), and pumpkin pie for the Thanksgiving meal. And family and friends.
So Redartz, these photos you take for your virtual 'flea market' - have you made them non-fungible tokens?
You never know...
-sean
Charlie, I thought the "give us your poor..." line was written on the base of the Statue of Liberty? For me the two most famous JFK quotes are "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what YOU can do for your country" and "We choose to go to the moon not because it is easy but because it is hard".
Oops, I forgot about "Ich bin ein Berliner".
Charlie - I knew those words related to Ellis Island/immigrants arriving for the first time, and looked it up! It's from 'The New Colossus' - a sonnet written by Emma Lazarus, to raise funds for a pedestal for Lady Liberty. Reminiscent of that story with the Avengers repairing Lady L! You probably know all this already!
Phillip
Colin - You've just beaten me to the punch! "Ich bin ein Berliner!" is supposed to be funny, as Kennedy's describing himself as a donut. Other sources say that's apocryphal!
Phillip
Ich bin ein Berliner would have worked if a Berliner was not also a jelly-stuffed roll/donut. The “er” meaning of / from in the genitive case. But then you get all these weird things in English like Chicagoan vs. New Yorker vs. Texan….
Charlie collects useles info in addition to odd coins.
Interesting: it was not unusual and some folks still do it to go to the banks and ask for coin rolls. E.g. , a roll of $10 of quarters and seek out the silver ones. Then, either collect the rarer silver ones or sell to a dealer. Of course one can do that to the never-were-silver pennies and nickels too if one is a coin collector.
Sean -
The politically correct aspects of Nu-Who don't bother me in the least. Diversity is excellent. It's one of the things I like about modern culture, as an old man who grew up in a whitewashed world.
But you could do any of those things without making the tone of the show so bloody low-brow and camp. It's just shit TV, there's no way around it.
Nope, the Dr Who of old doesn't feel padded to me. And if it is, I'm not sure it's something period-specific. Have you watched any of the new Star Wars TV shows? They're terribly paced, as flabby as f***.
Yeah, monoculture is pretty boring, Matthew - that was a bit of a joke (not saying it was a good one).
Fwiw, I reckon the new version of Who casts the Doctor badly, and from what I've seen of it the only actor who was really good in the part - aside from John Hurt - was Jo Martin. And I think she was only in it once?
Anyhow, I haven't seen any of the Star Wars tv shows. Or, for that matter, any of the films since Empire Strikes Back (apart from the first half hour or so of Phantom Menace on tv, to see if it really could be that bad). Not sure Star Wars is really the standard we want to be judging anything by...
I think in general there IS a faster pace to tv and film these days - or at least, much quicker cutting and more edits - to create the illusion of excitement. Not something I'm in favour of.
If you enjoy C20 Dr Who, thats great. I wish I did. I liked it a lot in the mid-70s, in its time, but whenever I've seen it since the flaws seem painfully obvious (and not in a good way).
Each to their own. Hey, I'm listening to an early 70s Hawkwind record while typing, so I'm hardly in a position to be critical of anyone else's taste in old stuff.
-sean
Btw, Matthew, have you read the Dr Who book by Michael Moorcock?
Has anyone here? Phillip maybe...?Anyone know if its any good?
-sean
Sean - No, I haven't read it. And, considering Moorcock's later ventures, it would take a lot to convince me. I've had my fingers burned several times, hoping for a return to form, which never happened!
Phillip
I think Kennedy was supposed to say "Ich bin Berliner" which means I am from Berlin rather than "Ich bin EIN Berliner" which means I am a donut (I also recall reading that a Berliner was a type of German sausage so JFK might have been saying I am a sausage).
Some years ago there was a fascinating Channel 4 documentary about the Kennedy assassination which examined the events in great detail including a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the assassination using computer graphics with contributions from firearms experts, medical professionals, Kennedy historians, you name it plus an in-depth study of the life and motivations of Lee Harvey Oswald. Anyway, after watching this exhaustive documentary (around two hours long as I recall) I became 100% convinced that Kennedy was NOT killed by a sinister conspiracy. The documentary made it crystal clear that Oswald was a lone nut who had both the expertise and the motivation to carry out the assassination himself. So that's another famous conspiracy theory binned.
Plus Oswald tried to assasinate General Walker in Texas, who’d been fired by Kennedy for his hard-right, anti-cuban views. Same ballistics as the bullet that just missed the general’s head.
The Soviets had to be glad Oswald left Russia and moved back to the USA. Lol.
I did have have hope Trump would keep one promise and that was to release the Kennedy files.
Maybe he's got the Kennedy files at home somewhere in Mar-a-Lago?
Not sure why anyone would expect Trump to do anything he promised - he didn't even build his border wall! Isn't Joe Biden doing it now instead? What a mad country you have, Charlie (I assume thats you?)
-sean
Getting madder every day. Supposedly US life expectancy is now at 73?
Charles
Sean -
No, I wouldn’t go near that Moorcock Dr Who book if you paid me. It came out around the time of The Whispering Swarm, which put me off his later works for life.
Counter-question: has anyone here read his 1980s ‘serious’ book ‘Mother London’? I read it about 25 years ago and remember it being a masterpiece. I need to have another look at that one.
Matthew - No, I haven't read 'Mother London' ( I don't think....) A terrible story, involving the Moorcock character's fantasy relationship with a highwaywoman sticks in my mind - for all the wrong reasons - but I don't think that's 'Mother London' - is it?
Phillip
Mother London is a really good one, Matthew. I read it a bit longer ago than you did, but based on when it was written and that its very much a standalone book I think its unlikely to seriously disappoint on a re-read.
Unless theres a revised new edition out there these days, in which case all bets are off.
Here's a heads up: Moorcock's other 'London novel' King Of The City is not good. I suppose you could probably figure that out for yourself from the millenial publication date (its nice that he obviously hated New Labour, but he definitely wasn't as in touch with what was happening in the city as a couple of decades earlier).
-sean
Phillip, the highwaywoman stuff is in Whispering Swarm, no?
-sean
"That afternoon I wrote five books, edited a magazine, and then went to the pub with Jimi Hendrix"
www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/07/the-whispering-swarm-by-michael-moorcock-digested-read
-sean
Sean - My not even remembering which title goes with that story, is a testament to how bad it is!
Phillip
Please pass the Cranberry Sauce. Cheers!
Charlie - Here's wishing you a happy Black Friday, tomorrow!
Phillip
Sean -
I think I tried King Of The City. Is that the one told from the POV of a coked-up gutter journalist? I gave up on that one.
Photographer rather than journo iirc, but that sounds like the one, Matthew.
I actually made it to the end of the book, unfortunately.
-sean
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