Two weekends ago, while going through some boxes from my move two years ago, I found my Age of Empires III collector’s edition. When I moved, I neatly repacked that collector’s edition box, and therein were my game discs. Since I didn’t have them, I couldn’t play the game (which meant that, when I feltContinue reading “Dispatches from the Front”
Downton Abbey: The Bad Decisions of Robert Crawley
Throughout the day, I tried to think of something to say about last night’s Downton Abbey. I really can’t. Stuff happened. I watched it. None of it really stands out in my mind. Let me think… Robert is a blundering and incompetant dolt. There’s an offer for a business deal which he rejects out ofContinue reading “Downton Abbey: The Bad Decisions of Robert Crawley”
Downton Abbey, Season Five: Thoughts
Last Sunday, Downton Abbey returned to PBS for its fifth season on Masterpiece Theater. I feel that, at this point, I’m watching the series to snark at it. Withnail is on #DowntonAbbey tonight! I demand some booze! I want the finest wines known to man! We've gone on holiday by mistake! — Allyn Gibson (@allyngibson)Continue reading “Downton Abbey, Season Five: Thoughts”
The History of Titus Groan
In recent weeks I’ve been listening to audio dramas on BBC Radio 4. Besides The Once and Future King (which I blogged about at length), there was also Good Omens, based on the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel about the childhood of the Antichrist, and War and Peace, based on the Tolstoy novel. (MyContinue reading “The History of Titus Groan”
War and Peace
I have finished War and Peace. The BBC audio drama, that is, not the novel. Which I have read; I read it in high school a long time ago. It was a bit flat. No, more than a bit. It was a lot flat. A decade after Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, the Rostov family andContinue reading “War and Peace”
The Once and Future King: The Candle in the Wind
At long last, we return to the series on Brian Sibley’s adaptation of T.H. White’s The Once and Future King for BBC Radio 4. Deadlines, Christmas, and deadlines compressed by Christmas conspired against me to write this on a timelier basis, and by this point I suspect that most listener’s attentions have turned to BBCContinue reading “The Once and Future King: The Candle in the Wind”
The Once and Future King: The Lengthening Shadow
Enter Mordred. For the first four hours of Brian Sibley’s adaptation of T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, Mordred, Arthur’s bastard and incestuous son, has loomed over the proceedings as, on the night before the battle of Camlann, Arthur reminisces with Merlyn about his reign. He has always been an off-stage presence while ArthurContinue reading “The Once and Future King: The Lengthening Shadow”
The Once and Future King: The Ill-Made Knight
ARTHUR So… you’re saying you can’t escape what’s going to happen to you when you meet Nimue. MERLYN There’s a thing about time and space which the philosopher Einstein is going to find out about. Some people call it destiny. ARTHUR Then if everything that happens is preordained, what is the point in trying toContinue reading “The Once and Future King: The Ill-Made Knight”
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Arwen Stories
With the final Hobbit film in theaters in a week, it’s natural for one’s thoughts to turn to Middle-earth. A few weeks ago I watched the first two Hobbit films back-to-back. A few weeks before that I watched the Rankin-Bass Return of the King. And something else, too. I read Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Arwen stories,Continue reading “Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Arwen Stories”
The Senate Intelligence Committee and Its Torture Report
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA’s torture of prisoners in the “war on terror” was released today. We’re far past the euphemisms that have been used for years — we didn’t subject people to “enhanced interrogation techniques.” No, we tortured people. Torturing people didn’t produce the results that we wanted. Torturing people didn’t produceContinue reading “The Senate Intelligence Committee and Its Torture Report”