Last night I watched the first episode of Zooey Deschanel’s new television series, New Girl. I’ve been captivated by Zooey since I saw her in Almost Famous a decade ago where she portrayed Patrick Fugit’s rebellious older sister. While she is a fine musician (see the She & Him albums) and an actress capable ofContinue reading “On Zooey Deschanel’s “New Girl””
On New Doctor Who Christmas Special Announcements
The BBC has made some announcements about this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special, starring Matt Smith. Filming began last week. The story will be set during World War II and its guest cast includes Claire Skinner, Bill Bailey, Alexander Armstrong, and Arabella Weir. Weir, by the way, played the Doctor in Big Finish’s audio playContinue reading “On New Doctor Who Christmas Special Announcements”
On George Harrison and “The Pirate Song”
It’s another International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and while I normally post a bootleg video of George Harrison’s performance of “The Pirate Song” on Eric Idle’s Rutland Weekend Television, this morning I found something far more interesting. A ukulele cover of “The Pirate Song”! Yes, the things that amuse me… This cover is byContinue reading “On George Harrison and “The Pirate Song””
More on Doctor Who Spin-Off Thinking
A couple of weeks ago, I mused on potential Doctor Who spin-offs. I’m not the only one. SyFy’s Blastr website yesterday posted an article on the five modern Who characters who deserve spin-off series: River Song Liz X Canton Everett Delaware III Sally Sparrow Martha Jones Let’s set aside the fact that the last twoContinue reading “More on Doctor Who Spin-Off Thinking”
On Student Loan Relief and the Potential for the American Economy
This morning, while checking some of the news and pundit websites I follow, I found a link to a chart at Mother Jones on student loan debt. To describe the charts in words, over the last decade, student loan debt in the United States has quintupled. Americans now owe more in student loans than theyContinue reading “On Student Loan Relief and the Potential for the American Economy”
On Peanuts Coffee Mugs and Rerun
I went to Big Lots today, not because I needed anything but because it was a lovely afternoon and I wanted to get out of the house and go for a drive. So across the reservoir I drove, and to Big Lots I went. I found myself looking at coffee pots. I had a veryContinue reading “On Peanuts Coffee Mugs and Rerun”
On Completing LEGO Star Wars
On April 6, 2005, I bought LEGO Star Wars for the Xbox. (I also blogged about the death of Pope John Paul II and Tartan Day). Today, September 9, 2011, I finished LEGO Star Wars 100%. I built all seventeen minikit starship models. I scored True Jedi on all seventeen levels and built the TantiveContinue reading “On Completing LEGO Star Wars”
On Songs by Queen That I Like
Was it yesterday that would have been Freddie Mercury’s sixty-fifth birthday? Or the day before? I thought I saw something about it on NPR’s website in the last two or three days. Sometime over the weekend, surely. You can tell how much I care. I actually had to Google to see how to spell “Freddie”Continue reading “On Songs by Queen That I Like”
On Contemplating Philcon
Yesterday evening I received a surprising e-mail — it was a pre-invite to Philcon. Well, it was surprising to me; things like this are always surprising to me. Philcon is, obviously, a science-fiction convention held every November in Philadelphia. I knew of it it when I lived outside Philly about a decade ago, but workingContinue reading “On Contemplating Philcon”
On Revisiting Paul McGann’s Doctor Who Movie
For the first time in a decade, I watched Paul McGann’s single televised outing as the Doctor. The Doctor Who television movie, aired on Fox in 1996, has been unavailable in North America on video or DVD since, well, forever, due largely to the rights issues between the BBC, Vivendi-Universal, and Fox itself, over howContinue reading “On Revisiting Paul McGann’s Doctor Who Movie”