Note to self: watching excessive enjoyable quantities of TV with Scottish actors has a distinct impact on my vocal manners

Shite.

Spent a fair bit of time over the last two days watching the six glorious episodes of "Takin' Over the Asylum". I had not forgotten how bloody wonderful this programme was and re-acquainting myself with its narratives and characters was just a delight.

Unfortunately, by the time Cloud came home I ended up having to virtually gag myself for an hour after he mercilessly pointed out that I sounded as if I was newly arrived from the fair city I spent several hours watching.

As I said: shite.

"Blink": Moffat Rocks - a NewWho review

Should there be an exclamation mark there? Or should I have said "Moffat* statues"? (doesn't pun quite as well does it?)

It may have been the Doctor-lite episode of the season, but frankly it still worked and it was still riddled with Who-ness. Cloud loved it so much that this morning he thought it would be 'hilarious' to stand at the top of the stairs, stock still, with his hands over his eyes. Once I had woken up enough to realise what he was doing, I instantly shrieked "argh: don't DO that", fully knowing that like Moffat's equally effective little boy line [you know the one] with which Cloud still haunts me for the fun of freaking the bejeesus out of me, this will become a motif he will enjoy using against me.

What worked about this episode for me was that whilst I thought I would long for the Doctor to be on screen more, psychologically he was always there - so I didn't actually feel like he was missing, or that the episode was 'lite'. Sure, these episodes have a different feel to them, but then I really enjoyed "Love and Monsters", so perhaps I approach them in a different spirit.

Certainly "Blink" had a very different tone to last year's 'lite' episode: whereas last year's liteness was light (comedic), with touching edges (the demise of LINDA's members, Elton's family tragedy), this year's was more touchingly tragic with a mix of both dark edges and a charmingly light centre. Step forward the stunning Carey Mulligan for carrying so much of that: a truly captivating beauty. There is just something inherently poignant about her face, her eyes.

So for me it was a definite thumbs up and my witchy crew were equally captivated (HLW and Chrissie). I doubt it divided people quite as much as last year's lite-episode was intentionally designed to do; though with Moffat at the helm that wasn't so likely. Still, it is a brave move to take the central character out of a show once per season and though one might ask 'what's the point? - why not just have one episode less per year?', one could also consider 'why not?' After 40 years, surely a programme is big enough to cope with a whallop of subverting its priorities? [For some, of course, the NewWho series have done way too much of that just by existing and operating according to different TV criteria than in the days of old: that perverse sense of 'we'd prefer not to have it back at all as this 'travesty' of what we treasure'.] Well, as a product of Classic Who memories and NewWho delight, I have little objection to it doing strange things to itself once in a while: especially when they work as well as "Blink" clearly did for our house.

Funnily, I thought made an interesting companion piece to this week's UK terrestrial screening of CSI beardy, where Hodges and the lab techs took centre stage over Grissom and the usual crew. Echoes, echoes everywhere...



* btw is now a good time to spot that Moffat's talents may have something to do with where he was born...?

Musical joys

Just been listening to the wonderful Momus collection of his Creation Recordings, "Forbidden Timemachine". I had thought it had been deleted as everywhere I tried earlier in the year had blank expressions and information indicating it had gone the way of back catalogue 'not-being-re-pressed'. So imagine my delight when I spotted it and now have got it in my sticky hands. "A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17-24)" is worth the price of entry alone.

Then again he is a boy from Paisley...

;)

That issue is almost becoming spooky...

I never knew that: from BBC's Coast

Caught the end of tonight's repeated episode of "Coast" from last week - well, there's a Scottish accent presenting and I'll take my kicks where I can - but was fascinated by the tale of the munitions factory that spawned the towns of Gretna and Eastriggs.

I have to admit I never knew that Gretna only dates back to World War One, and - along with the neighbouring town of Eastriggs - was especially built to support a newly constructed munitions factory designed to relieve the government's shortage of cordite for the WWI mililtary campaign:

Their solution was to create one of the worlds largest munitions factory's in 1915. Codenamed Moorside, the scale of the project was enormous. Not only was it nine miles long and two miles wide, but it brought a massive influx of people to this quiet stretch of coast on the Solway, creating two new towns to house them, Eastriggs and Gretna.

Along with the detail that, of course, it was largely a female workforce that kept the factory running, it was a particularly interesting narrative in a programme full of visual delights and unfamilar stories. Even if the tales of Galloway and 'The Wicker Man' were of course highly familiar, that tale of Gretna and Eastriggs was something very new to me.

Some notes and queries

Anna may have had hers answered (but without the obvious joke), but inevitably this caught my eye:

Why are people from Paisley called Buddies, my mate was born there, and he doesn't know the origin of it.

Now currently this has no answers, but we can only hope that someone good may answer it...

Obscure Song No. 2: "As You Turn to Go"

My second in this occasional series is another soft ballad: "As You Turn to Go."

It comes from a record called Hyacinths and Thistles produced by The Sixths, but in truth this is Stephin Merritt gathering together a collection of artistes to deliver yet more of his poignant analyses of love and life. This particular track - the first on the H&T album - is sung by Momus (from Paisley ... what is it about me and Paisley?!) and has one of the most heartbreaking vocals imaginable.

Musically --- well, how many times do you get a zither in modern music? It's also short - less than 2 minutes. But it's brevity enhances its beauty. And lyrically... well, always a sucker for good poetry, for a well-expressed sentiment, I was struck by the words as much as the arrangement of this track.

I know you've had more lovers than Mata Hari,
but you know you're the star of my life story
...and I'm so sorry

I got hold of this track completely on a whim. I had been hearing some random tracks by Stephin Merritt and at the time was struggling to get a copy of 69 Love Songs. So when I found this in my beloved Selectadisc, and saw the magic name of SM, I immediately purchased it: unheard and unheard of before I found it in the Magnetic Fields section of the store. Of course, those who know the H&T album will know the CD booklet features the lyrics in coloured writing, so I'm afraid I did break the cardinal rule of reading song lyrics in advance. When I rushed home and put it on, the track just blew me away and Cloud and I listened to it with eyes glistening and throat drying. The whole album feels like a collection of modern-day torch songs, and if you've ever loved at a distance or saw a loved one walk away, then this will touch your soul.