archy's autobiography by Don Marquis

From one of the archy and mehitabel books by Don Marquis (American, 1878-1937):

archy's autobiography

if all the verse what I have penned
were boiled together in a kettle
twould make a meal for every goat
from nome to popocatapetl
mexico

and all the prose what I have penned
if laid together end to end
would reach from russia to south bend
indiana

but all the money what I saved
from all them works at which i slaved
is not enough to get me shaved
every morning

and all the dams which I care
if heaped together in the air
wouldn't not reach much of anywhere
they wouldnt

because i dont shave every day
and i write for arts sake anyway
and always hate to take my pay
i loathe it

and all of you who credit that
could sit down on an opera hat
and never crush the darn thing flat
you skeptics

archy

Law and Order UK...

I watched Law and Order UK, the first two episodes, with commodorified and auriaephiala. And enjoyed both stories very much. It was depressing - both episodes where about murdered children - but each was extremely interesting, not formulaic, and each made intelligent points. Despite what I always see as the dryness of police-case stories, there was matter here for heart and head.

Also a whollop of attractive leads. Not just Jamie Bamber, the glamour-boy of the bunch, not much different from his strong-and-stoic role as Lee Adama. All of them. Including particularly Ben Daniels as James Steel.

And I liked it that Martha... I mean, Freema Agyeman... I mean, Alesha Phillips, saved the day. Again.

I also really liked Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks, the rumbled old guy that these shows like to have. It's a stereotype, but it's one I usually like.

Since I was so impressed by the writing in the show, I looked up the credits. The show is created by Dick Wolf - he's new to me, but it seems he's the writer/creator of the American version, too. But then... the other writers listed are so very familiar names: Chris Chibnall, head writer for Torchwood. James Moran, who wrote Torchwood's "Sleeper" and the wonderful Captain's Blog. Catherine Tregenna - my favourite Torchwood writer, responsible for Out of Time and Captain Jack Harkness.

My impression was that Law and Order UK is better written than Torchwood, perhaps because Torchwood presents particular writing problems, possibly because it's more complex in concept. No, that's not it. And when Torchwood is well written, it's very well written indeed. It's just... variable.

Word use question...

When I read Torchwood: Almost Perfect by James Goss, I noticed that he had a way of using the verb 'to sit' that was new to me. Instead of saying "he sat" or "he was sitting" or even "he sat down", he'd say, "he was sat". Sounds passive to me, but clearly wasn't meant to be. There was no agent but the subject doing the sitting.

I've noticed this several times since, always in a British context. Just now I heard someone say, "you must have been sat in the row behind me" instead of (as I would say) "you must have sat".

Could someone explain to me how this works? Is it a new British expression?

The Story of Doctor Who...

I just finished listening to The Story of Doctor Who on BBC radio, done at Caernarvon Castle, one of my favourite places in Wales. (Or at least, to be honest, one of the few places in Wales I've been to.)

I enjoyed it thoroughly, though it advertised Russell T. Davies as being one of the people on the show, which he wasn't. We got to hear producer Julie Gardner and director Euros Lyn be interesting, though. Too bad Steven Moffat wasn't there - but then, all the attention would be on him. His time will come. He has other things to do right now.

I found it interesting that they said they worked it out way in advance how they would use different colours each episode.

Loved it that they talked about the first series episode "Dalek", one of my favourites.

As usual, I was alert to mentions of Captain Jack. Julie Gardner said at one point that "we can get the young kids in to watching The Sarah Jane Adventures, then they can watch Doctor Who, and then they can get naughty and go on to Torchwood." A person asked why all the companions were from the 21st century, and they explained (while noting Kylie Minogue as an exception), and I wanted to ask, "What about Jack?" He did get mentioned as a companion a little later, when someone asked why the companions were all female. Jack, along with Adam and Mickey - "lots of male companions", said Julie Gardner, though her comment on Jack was, "He's a bit naughty, but he's kind of a companion." I like to think he is a companion, and that the Doctor enjoys his naughtiness.

Someone asked whether Captain Jack would help out the eleventh Doctor. "He has to survive five episodes of Torchwood first." They assured us that they wanted to do more Torchwood series.

More comments about Matt Smith's hair. I think his hair is more discussed than anything else about him.

There was a lovely anecdote about how Euros Lyn and the set people were agonizing over how to portray the "spaceship in a field" owned by the Family of Blood. They finally had to go to Russell T. Davies and explain that they didn't have the budget for a spaceship in a field. "No problem," he said. "Just make it invisible."

Buffy 3x22 - Graduation Day, Part 2

My comments on part 1 of "Graduation Day" are here.

So, part 2... such a powerful beginning.( Love the way... )

Torchwood: Gwen and Toshiko...

beccaelizabeth has been counting speaking roles in Torchwood with interesting results - her table for series 1 is here. And she puts it all to the Bechdel test. And notes how surprisingly few conversations Gwen and Tosh have.

Since I've been dabbling with Gwen/Tosh slash, I've been thinking about that. I wanted to make a Gwen/Tosh icon. I went over a lot of screencaps, and scenes, and publicity photos, and I was gobsmacked at how remarkably few times Gwen and Tosh are in the same frame at the same time. When the team splits up to do something, Tosh and Gwen are not in the same grouping. When they are in the same scene, they are almost invariably in different parts of the room. Even when talking to each other, we usually only see one at a time, or see the back of the head of one of them and the face of the other. The men are more commonly shown together in profile during conversations.

When the team is walking in its variable formation, Gwen and Tosh are often flanking the two ends, or at least separated, even though the make-up of the formation is said to 'vary'. More often, in publicity photos and stills, we see Jack with Gwen on one side of him and Tosh on the other. Or the central grouping is Ianto, Jack and Owen, with Gwen and Tosh on the outside.

I'm thinking of pictures like this and this (which further separates Tosh and Gwen by adding Suzie between them), or this. I didn't pay much attention to this until I tried to find pictures of Gwen and Tosh in proximity. Or even vicinity!

An exception: some of the books (see this photo) show Tosh and Gwen side by side. The cover of the second DVD set shows Gwen and Tosh side by side laterally, but Tosh is much further back, so they still aren't side by side.

An exception: in the SUV at the beginning of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", Gwen and Tosh are sitting together in the back seat.

No conclusion here, except to think that they must have some reason for doing the blocking and composition like this. And that if I want to put Gwen and Tosh together, I'm going to have to do it myself.