Ready for the New Doctor

I finally caught up with Doctor Who, viewing the last David Tennant episode which was broadcast on BBC America over New Years weekend with a marathon of Tenant. I DVRed them and just watched the second installment of The End of Time. I am now ready for the new 11th Doctor and have seen almost every episode available in this country. My relationship with the Doctor is a long and twisted one with a major break-up, but now we are back together.

My first exposure to Doctor Who was via the Philadelphia public television station WHYY which showed Tom Baker episodes on Saturday afternoons. Howard Da Silva did voice-overs explaining what had happened in the previous segments. I was in high school and was immediately intrigued by the humor and infinite possibilties of a series which could go anywhere in time or space and a hero who could regenerate whenever the lead actor was tired of playing him. Baker was dryly funny and not your typical action hero--the Doctor used his brains rather than his muscles or martial arts.

I have met several of the doctors. There was a Baker-Baker event at Brooklyn College when I was living not far from there. Tom Baker and Colin Baker, the sixth doctor, appeared and signed autographs. I also attended a massive Doctor Who convention in Valley Forge, Pa. in the mid-80s which featured Jon Pertwee (second Doctor), and several companions. Continual episodes were shown all day. I got the closest to Peter Davison (fifth Doctor) and Patrick Troughton (second Doctor) at the convention in which I was a guest escort for George Takei of Star Trek (See previous blog where I encountered him again on the subway). I remember asking Troughton what it was like to act with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh--he played in their productions of Antony and Cleopatra and Caesar and Cleopatra.

I blush to admit it but at one time I was actually a member of the UNYT, the NYC-based Doctor Who fan club.

Tom Baker was always my favorite, perhaps because he was my first doctor. But dreamboat David Tenant has taken his place in my nerdy heart. I look forward to seeing his Hamlet on TV.

I lost interest in the show when Slyvester McCoy took over. Nothing against McCoy who is a fine actor--I recently saw him play the fool opposite Sir Ian McKellen's King Lear at BAM. The scripts lacked tension and the whole series seemed tired. There was an attempt to bring it back with a pretty lame TV movie which I couldn't even watch all the way through. Then Russel T. Davis rejuvenated the series several years later and here we are.

Beck Speaks for God Now

I hope Glenn Beck has finally gone too far. But I fear he'll just dial it back a bit and keep his show with its seed and gold advertisers. This guy is like a cockroach, you just can't kill the bastard. I am speaking, of course, about his call for all Christians to leave their church if the words "social justice" are mentioned on the church website. Glenda claims this is code for Communism or Nazism--and they're basically the same thing, right? Do you believe this, America? And if you do, I've got a some loan derivatives, a bridge and some swamp land to sell you. I recall that Joe McCarthy finally crossed a line when he accused Eisenhower's church of being filled with commies. That tore it!

Christian bloggers and media figures began voicing their protests and some even called for a boycott by Christians of Beck's shows on TV and radio. The next day Beck amended his statements--just as he did with the climate change thing--saying he was talking about churches which were for big government programs to help the poor.

It's all so offensive and meaningless. He attacks the very core of Christian faith and Christ's teachings--that you should help those less fortunate than yourself, not be primarily concerned with material wealth, and work to stop the defects in society which make people poor--and then backs away and none of his zombie followers are outraged.

My feeling is charity and compassion are the only things organized religion are good for. I think a lot of religion is about fear of death--one of Beck's biggest bargaining chips for viewers and their money. The selling point of most churches is: If you go to my church every Sunday and drop a few bills in the collection plate, you'll go to heaven, float on a cloud, and play a harp all day. The really imporant thing is to be kind to others while you're alive and I don't think you should be forced into it by the threat of hellfire. You should because it's the right thing to do. I hate the idea that if you don't have Christian values then you have no moral values at all because God the policeman is not there to keep you in line.

But back to Beck, his whole message is--I overcame my alcoholism and crawled out of the dungheap to become this raving success, so you should never lend a hand to anyone who's in trouble. You should be afraid that Obama and the commies and the lefties are going to take away every penny you've spent your life earning and give it to lazy undeserving black and Hispanic people. And you'd better be ready for the Apocalypse because it's coming any minute, so buy up these seeds and gold my advertisers are selling you.

What sort of church does Beck want? One where you worship at the altar of the almighty dollar, keep out those who are different, and praise the mighty bomb which protects us all--kind of like the one in Beneath the Planet of the Apes where the mutated humans including Victor Buono worshipped in the subway system. At least that would be somewhat entertaining.

Project Runway--Season 7--Episode 8--Big Bowl o' Hair

I thought my DVR was going to record this week's Project Runway from the beginning but for some reason it didn't. So when I came home at about 10:30PM after a hard night of reviewing plays like Jennifer Jason Leigh in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, I was looking forward to watching the show from the top. When I discovered it wasn't recording I thought, OK, I'll watch the runway show now and catch up with the repeat at 11:30. As a result, I was totally unprepared for Amy's horrifying big-bowl-of-hair. It scared me out of three years' growth. The model turned the corner and I said "What the fuck is that? It looks like she's balancing a bowl of hair on her breasts. Why doesn't she throw in some chips and pretzels and make herself useful by serving them to the judges?"

Amy described her objective as "controlled chaos." Well, she got the second part right. She screwed up last week too, so I don't know why she stayed. Her work was far worse than Ben's shark suit. But I guess the judges are thinking out-of-box crazy shit beats out ho-hum bad stitching. Jay's twister-sister look from the tornado ballet in The Wiz induced jaw-dropping stares from the judges, but he couldn't be eliminated. Mila couldn't color-block the pain and got a tongue lashing from Nina. Jonathan's laughter in the air dream was reminscent of his toilet paper in a windstorm, but this time it worked, plus Irish Carrie looked beautiful. Seth Aaron's leather outfit was fierce, but what was the extra piece on her ass? Nina was really hard on Maya and that French guy seemed like he was a little too relaxed, maybe he was drunk and could have used some peanuts and pretzels from hair-bowl girl.

After the runway show, I caught up with the first half during the repeat. This would have tipped me off that Ben would have been on his way to the gallows because he was talking with his boyfriend, or husband since they got married, on that little keyboard-iphone doohickey--always the kiss of death. BTW, why does Ben always look like he's on his way to Rawhide (a leather bar for you non-New Yorkers) and do the contestants all get those cute little phone things? What's her name who cried all the time had one too.

Ben and Jonathan had a really interesting talk about being safe and staying in the middle. You'll recall I spoke about this very topic in my blog last week and that the middle pack would have have to drop out or rise to the top. Ben did the former and Jonathan the latter.

And how many times did they mention Garnier? I should keep track of the product placements.

Oscarcasts Past

This year was the first Oscar show in a while where I've actually been home. Last year we were in Rincon in Puerto Rico on the big night. The American family who were renting the house next door--I think they were from Boston--were all leaving the next day so they were having a big-ass loud farewell party. Long after the Oscars were over and the Slumdog Millionaire people had all flown back to India, these bastards were still partying hardy. My partner and I did not get to sleep till just before the local guy who lived across the street woke up to go to work and his roosters started crowing. If you are reading this, you sons of bitches, thanks a lot.

The year before in 2008, we were in Cancun at a Palace resort. The entire broadcast was dubbed in Spanish except for Javier Bardem's acceptance speech for No Country for Old Men. They had two local celebrities offer commentary while sitting in front of a movie theatre in Mexico City. These two would occasionally cut away to a Mexican lady correspondent was actually there at the Oscars, standing with the parking valets!

Before I met my partner I would run the office Oscar pool and hang out in bars to watch the show. Then I would mark the ballots like a teacher grading papers. I would sometimes be accused of cheating because I won sometimes. But to insure impartiality, I would give my ballot to a friend who would be at another party and have them grade mine. Everytime I won, people in the office would yell "The fix is in" the morning after the Oscars. The pot would sometimes get up to $150 so we are talking serious money. After a few years, it got to be too much trouble.

The Amazing Race 16-- Episode 4--The Fix Is in in Hamburg

Not only have they cut the budget on TAR, but they've also put the fix in to keep Team Big Brother and Team Such As on for as long as possible. They've made all the tasks super-easy as Joel McHale on The Soup and several anti-Jeff and Jordan bloggers have pointed out. This week all the teams had to do was bungy-jump, eat a small plate of sauerkraut before a five-minute song ended, drink some beer, and find a bar in the middle of some strip clubs. If you will recall previous eating challenges included consuming an entire HUGE bowl of caviar, an omelet made from ostrich eggs, and that Hungarian soup that made more than one racer sick. A little plate of sauerkraut was nothing.

To get to the particulars of this episode--I am probably the only person in America who watched the first half-hour instead of the Red Carpet arrivals at the Oscars, then switched to the Oscars at 8:30 EST, and caught up with the final half-hour on Monday night.

There were several pluses to this leg despite the disappointing finish. There was no time spent at the airport. I find watching teams standing in line and getting tickets so exciting--NOT! And those close-ups of the tickets being printed--such drama! This time they went right from Jet and Cord opening their envelope to everyone getting on a plane for Europe. I marvel at how no one seemed to be jet-lagged after what had to at least a 12-hour flight from Bariloche, with some layovers in Buenos Aires and San Paolo. Incidentally how did the direct flight which carried Team Lesbian and gay/straight brothers manage to fall behind the flight with the cowboys and the cops which had a layover in Buenos Aires?

The intersection idea was a good one. They did have something similar on the race with Mary and Dave where teams had to team together to deliver bedding--was it in India? Anyway, I thought it was weird when Heidi said she and hubby overlord and the father-daughter team all came from good families and therefore got along. Huh? What does that mean--good families? Does she mean if somebody had gotten a divorce or didn't go to tailgate parties, they wouldn't bungee jump as good? Anyway, I loved it when Caite and Jordan teamed up and got lost on the subway. I guess they couldn't figure out that the train usually has the name of the last station it's going to on the front and that's how you tell which direction it's going in.

Brent proved himself to be a real wuss, not being able to kick a soccer ball or hold his beer. I could see it if he had done the bungee jump and/or ate the sauerkraut, but he did neither. So this guy can't drive a car, read a map, kick a soccer ball, is scared of heights and can't drink a boot of beer. The cowboys proved they're pretty adaptable by kicking their soccer balls quickly even though they'd never played soccer before (I guess it's considered too European and sissyfied in Oklahoma) But then they wussed out at the beer challenge and let Joe-and-Heidi-from-the good-family kick their asses at chugging brewskis.

Jeff and Jordan made one stupid mistake after another, they couldn't even eat that little plate of sauerkraut. But I can't stay mad at them, they've kinda grown on me. I guess it's cause they're never mean or arrogant like some past teams. Stupid and arrogant are a lethal combination. And they openly admit how dumb they are. "We are so stupid," Jeff keeps saying. I'd rather see them stay rather than Team Such As. So of course they come in last and it's a non-elimination which leads me--and my friend Lydia--to think it's a fix to keep them on as long as possible.

I liked it better when you came in last and were not eliminated, they took all your money, your clothes and all your possessions. Now all you have to do is some lame-ass Speed Bump like taking a pot of tea across the street and serving it some old guy or finding a bar and drinking a shot of vodka or sitting in a sauna. It's rigged to keep the stupid people on. The previews say there will be both a speed bump and a U-Turn in the next episode. Also they have to dress up in WWI outfits which I hope doesn't mean they get stuck in Germany for another episode. Maybe it's France.

Summary:
Day 5--Leave ranch at 10:57 PM, getting to airport at Bariloche, waiting 11 hours til planes leave

Day 6--Flights leave Bariloche at about 11:10 AM

Day 7--Flights arrive in Frankfurt from 2:35-3:40 PM the following day. Train to Hamburg, getting there early evening. Bungee jump intersection challenge, soccer or sauerkraut, drink a boot of beer at the shark bar, find Indra in red light district.

Leaderboard:
Jet and Cord--two wins; Loot: two sailboats, trip to Patagonia
Jeff and Jordan--one win; Loot: trip to Vancouver
Louie and Michael--one win; Loot: two Discover cards worth $5,000 each

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (14)--Lois Lane Fights the Death Penalty

The most recent comic haul (see earlier post) has yielded a fascinating insight into the mindset of the comic-book industry. Evidently it was quite liberal. In Lois Lane #44, published in 1963, the first story "The Murder of Lana Lang," features Lois being sent to the gas chamber for killing her red-haired rival for Superman's affections, Lana Lang. But it turns out the whole scheme is a stunt cooked up by Lois and Lana to prove the death penalty is cruel and unusual and an innocent person could be sent to their maker because of circumstantial evidence. Lois pretends to fight with Lana then takes her to a desserted island and leaves clues pointing to Lois as the culprit in Lana's supposed demise. Lana will return at the last minute and prove she hasn't been killed and Lois would have been executed for a crime she didn't commit.

But Lana runs into a storm at sea and is knocked unconscious. Lori the mermaid rescues her and Superman manages to straighten everything out. The governor pushes for an end to the death penalty. But strangely, Lois and Lana are not persecuted for attempting to pull over a balloon-boy-type hoax.

An other interesting comic is Prez: First Teen President, a short lived series from the early 1970s in response to the voting age being lowered to 18. In this four-issue series, not only is the voting age lowered but so is the eligibility for president and members of Congress, flooding in an 18-year-old named Prez for President. He appoints his mother as his secretary and an Indian companion named Eagle Free as head of the FBI. Kooky, huh?

In a prescient plot in Prez number 3, a rag-tag army of isolationists not unlike the current Tea Party movement attempts to assassinate the Prez when he pushes for a law banning all hand guns! The rebel army pays its men with phony confederate-like money and their camp is called--wait for it--Valley Forgery. (Knew you'd love that one!) This was in 1972 and that gun-control issue is still with us. The Tea Party-like army, lead by a descendent of George Washington advances on the capital. The forces clash right outside of the White House. Prez proposes he and the leader of the insurrectionist fight hand to hand to decide the outcome. The Washington descendant cheats and substitutes a huge wrestler-type for himself, but the Prez has been trained in Indian combat by Eagle Free and he bests the big bruiser who turns out to be agovernment counterspy. BTW, I bet none of the Tea Party people actually drink tea, they probably think it's all sissy and elitist. Coffee is good enough for them.

And speaking of sissy stuff, one of the newly purchased comics contained a one-page public service announcement called Touchdown for Picasso. In many comics, there would be the equivalent of PSAs offering advice on the right way to study, how to behave on a bus, not dropping out, starting a hobby, having a productive summer rather than just goofing off and reading comics, etc. This one features two kids after school. One says to the other "Hey, my parents have an extra ticket to a Beethoven concert tonight. Wanna go?" Rather than pounding the little poindexter to a pulp, his companion simply says "That's sissy stuff. I wanna be a football player." The miniature barbarian later learns his football hero is not only a classical music lover, but also an amateur painter (horrors!) I doubt this little vignette resulted in an increase in concert attendance among the small fry, but it may have shown an uptick in tolerance for those of us who enjoyed movies like "Gay Purree." That picture deserves an entire column of its own. You could see it as a litmus test for future gayness. Show it to a kid and if he asked "Where can I get the original soundtrack?" you could measure him for his interior-decorator sash right then and there.

Project Runway Season 7: Episode 7: Slutty Stripper Outfit Beats Jiffy-Pop Skirt

I thought for sure Emilio was going to buy the farm this week because he had sooo much screen time. There was that long explanation of how he didn't have enough cord and washers for his mini-skirt, which would have looked like a curtain in a gypsy's house except not as shiny. Or maybe Jay because starting with a garbage bag is always a bad sign if you'll recall from past seasons. I think Stella (the Leatha Queen from season 4, or was it 3?) used garbage bags on her very first challenge and almost got eliminated right out of the gate. But Jay managed to pull it off and made something pretty. The blue piping was a nice touch.

It looked bad for everyone, particularly when Jonathan predicted "You ten have the worst scores." And speaking of the number 10, what was all that shit about being in the top ten at the top of the episode? They never did that before. Did they want to refresh our memories as to how many contestants there were because they skipped a week? They still haven't explained why they were pre-empted last week. Was it fear of competing with the Olympics? And why did Ben wear pink shorts this week?

I also loved it when Tim said , "Alright designers, this....is....it!" just before they had to go down to the runway as if he knew disaster awaited them all. I laughed at that cymbals-crashing sound before each model made her entrance. It was like a cartoon scene and everyone looked like they had stepped out of a bad musical version of "Metropolis."

Jesse's outfit was indeed bizaarely awful. In addition to the epithets thrown by the judges--giant Hershey's kiss, dirty vacuum bag, ballerina in tin foil--I will add my own: Jiffy-pop popcorn bag. Maya's key necklace was indeed stylish and striking but what was that Spiderwoman web-net jacket? She looked like a villainess in a comic book, not even a Marvel comic book, but a Charleton or Dell or Gold Key comic book (For you non-geeks, those are real cheap comics.)

Emilio's bikini was really slutty and cheesey. He was sweating bullets when he was trying to talk his way out of it. I couldn't believe Nina actually said "It wasn't that bad." Oh come on, Nina, it was right out of the Badda Bing Club on the Sopranos. They really should have eliminated Emilio and not Jesse. I suspect the reason was that Emilio is the stronger designer plus they kept the pretty white straight boy too long last season and didn't want to make the same mistake.

Did you see Milla's face when she didn't win? She was pissed even though Heidi paid her a big compliment by saying it was another fine job.

With the numbers getting smaller the middle crowd (Jonathan, Ben, sometimes Seth Aaron) is going to get pushed up or to the bottom. Anthony is hanging by a thread--wasn't that hiliarous when he just shut up and walked off when he was told he was safe? He probably said to himself "Girl, you better not say a word cause your ass is just lucky to be still alive." I think Milla, Maya, and Amy may be the final three. Jay might squeak in.