tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19916493533787416182023-11-16T07:52:44.237-08:00Chronicles of an Old CheeserGreetings groove kittens. Welcome to the world of the Old Cheeser...Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-3513343849062600722011-07-20T06:58:00.000-07:002011-07-20T07:13:41.720-07:00Not many new posts.......from moi, as you can see.<br /><br />Ho hum!<br /><br />Sorry, peeps!<br /><br />And they're probably aren't going to be any for the next few weeks, either. Tomorrow I am heading off on my hols to Cornwall. I must admit I am rather excited, having never visited that neck of the woods before (even though I was actually born in Falmouth but was, erm, far too young to remember). We're staying in Newquay, which I've heard lots of good things about, not to mention Cornwall itself - we're planning on visiting lots of other places in the county too - St Ives, Tintagel, etc. The gay scene there looks pretty non-existent but then, that's not the be-all and end-all is it?! After that I'm back home for a few days but have scarcely time to rest before setting off on another trip, this time to visit folks/friends up North - and I'm going to be journeying from place to place - a Yorkshire/Lancashire/Leicestershire road trip no less: my family in York; a mate in Newcastle; a place in the Pennines called Haltwhistle; then Morecambe, Lancs, where one of my oldest friends resides (looks gloriously tacky but don't tell him that...) and finally Loughborough near Leicester. Should be good!<br /><br />Not been many "cheesy" posts of late, I know, and still nothing on the last series of Dr Who!! You want the truth? I can't be bothered to watch all the episodes from Season Six again, in order to write some reviews! What has happened to me?! When I started my original blog, one of my main aims was to write a lot of posts on Dr Who-related things but over time my interest has really waned...am I turning into a boring old fart? Nah. I just wasn't that crazy about the latest series, that's all (and I agree with what you said, Amanda! And Tim, yes, perhaps I should dust out some old series DVDs and write about those instead!)<br /><br />Anyways, enough of that. Have a fab Summer whatever you're doing everyone and I will be back...<br /><br />OC xOld Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-69108457017718247592011-07-01T14:22:00.000-07:002011-07-01T14:43:51.807-07:00The heart is a very resilient muscleI realise I haven't blogged for f*ck knows how long...<br /><br />...so what's new??<br /><br />Sorry, everyone.<br /><br />But I'm still here!! And not intending on going away! Just bear with these hiatuses...<br /><br />As the Summer hols are up and coming, perhaps I'll be able to manage more frequent posts...one hopes.<br /><br />There are a few fairly valid reasons for my absence, though.<br /><br />1. I did my usual stint of Summer exam marking, which is always time-consuming (but good for the coffers).<br /><br />2. A few weeks ago, I went into hospital with a heart condition. It started off with a virus, swollen glands and then chest pains which wouldn't go away and which I'd never experienced before. After a few days, I thought "f*ck this" and took myself off to my local A&E. I was told I may have had a mini heart attack! After having an inordinate number of needles shoved into my arm, blood pressure taken etc, they shipped me off to another hospital with a good cardio dept, and kept me in for a few days whilst they conducted more tests etc...it transpired I had a condition called Myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle that had stopped my ticker from working as efficiently as it should have been and consequently lead to the pain I'd been experiencing. Not blocked arteries or cholestrol, I'm pleased to add, as they shoved a stem into one of my arteries and then sent this dye up there so they could take a look and everything proved okay...thankfully. I've never been a massively unhealthy person, so that kind of figured.<br /><br />Anyway after a few days of antibiotics and being checked up on I was discharged and sent home, but ordered to rest before going back to work. (I've got to say I take back all my previous gripes about the NHS. Apart from the school dinner-like food, which was, admittedly, cr*p, the attention and care I received was great. It's also a massive cliche, but you really do start reflecting on your own mortality when you're somewhere like that. For a couple of days I stayed in a ward with a lot of men who were much older and physically weaker than me, some awaiting triple by-passes and other more serious operations...one dear old guy in the bed across from me looked at death's door, but was so nice and kind to me even though we'd barely met/spoken: "Hello Simon, it's so nice to see a friendly face; so nice". I wanted to cry. I'm very, very lucky.)<br /><br />3. Erm, that's it.<br /><br />But I'm alive! Hoorah! And will be back!!<br /><br />(And I can't be a*sed to write about the latest series of Dr Who. I just felt so disappointed with the whole thing! Doh!)<br /><br />OC xxxOld Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-1957546874492302412011-06-03T10:11:00.000-07:002011-06-03T10:44:42.600-07:00I'm into sci-fi UFOWent to a <a href="http://www.bl.uk/sciencefiction">rather good science fiction exhibition at the British Library</a> with my Dad last Bank Holiday weekend. We both really enjoyed it. I'd urge you to do the same if you're in the vicinity of Kings Cross/St Pancras, or even just contemplating a London visit. It's free and there's lots of literary works by sci-fi authors on display plus various exhibits etc...for instance, you can draw your own alien and listen to clips of Marvin the Paranoid android * and HG Wells.<br /><br />Talking of sci-fi you'll have no doubt observed that I have written/posted precisely nothing re: the brand new series of Doctor Who. I'm behind again, yes, I know. Work busyness and all has precluded it...story of my life. Anyway once this Saturday's final-cliffhanging-episode-until-the-show-comes-back-in-the-Autumn is over, I shall endeavour to write something. What I can admit to already though is an overarching feeling of disappointment with the series so far. The fact is, I'm becoming more and more hard to please, but the quality of the stories seems to be declining. Or is just my old age? (I actually whacked on my DVD of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hand_of_Fear">The Hand of Fear</a>" recently, partly to commemorate Lis Sladen's passing but it also to fulfil my yearning for old style "Who"...and I preferred it!) However I do have fairly high hopes about tomorrow's episode - apparently there's a mega-revelation in store regarding River Song's identity and we also get to find out about Amy's "baby". <span style="font-style: italic;">And</span> the Cybermen are back. <span style="font-style: italic;">And</span> the Silurians. <span style="font-style: italic;">And</span> the "eye-patch" lady, aka Francis Barber, gets a starring role. Mmmm not too much to fit into one episode is it? Let's pray those hopes aren't dashed to dust...<br /><br />Meanwhile to keep you going through the hiatus, I present you with this gem from .... Sir Clifford of Richard....yes his ode to Sci-fi...listen to the lyrics, they're actually rather witty/good! ** Just forgive the fact that the video seems to bear absolutely no relation to the song, but then it was the only clip on You Tube I could find....<br /><br />Trust y'all are doing well....<br /><br />OC xxx<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9CD7P0GLUaQ" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />* First prize to the first blogger who can explain who he is.<br />** Well, in my befuddled mind, any road.Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-91648486661857121622011-05-14T16:22:00.000-07:002011-05-15T02:41:23.449-07:00The Eurovision Pong ContestWell I couldn't resist tuning into Eurovision tonight to take in all the wondrous acts from all over Europe...except "wondrous" wasn't really the operative word. A right bunch of old tat and some seriously weird acts up there...examples included a bizarre jazz number with a singer who had an incredibly caterwauling voice, then a band from Moldova wearing pointy witchy type hats and some crazy bird on a unicycle, with an oompah brass section...weeeeeird. The winners, Azerbaijan, were no great shakes ...not a terrible song, but there were some worthier acts who deserved to claim the "Eurovision" crown such as Austria.<br /><br />As for our lot, boyband Blue...well the song wasn't terrible either but obviously the judges thought otherwise. Irish act Jedward were their usual typically tacky selves, an act who send themselves up so much they didn't stand any serious chance of winning. As usual it's all tactical voting with neigbouring countries giving one another loads of points, as opposed to "nil points"...<br /><br />I <a href="http://trashcheesevision.blogspot.com/2007/05/youve-got-to-speed-it-up-1.html">once blogged about Eurovision</a>, and <a href="http://trashcheesevision.blogspot.com/2007/05/youve-got-to-speed-it-up-3.html">here too</a> but the less than brilliant acts on show tonight have just inspired me to do some more Cheeser-ish harking back to the good old days of Euro-pop (okay not all of these are strictly Eurovision acts but who cares...)<br /><br />Ladies and gents, I give you...<br /><br />Brother Louie, Louie, Louie!! Remember Modern Talking? The bouffed up hair! The jackets!! The glamour!!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Lp2qcCrdBLA" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /></span><br />And what about...<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/355Fk8drgZE" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br /></span>And who's this Tarzan Boy...?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/afIQNM_gItI" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br /></span>However, I demand that you CALL ME...<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IRDqtdSpmLQ" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br /></span>Oooh la la...it' s Ryan Paris...<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/weMrzt6W8V8" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br /></span>You could have taken one step further and I would have been there...<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SuGPWE1UifI" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /></span><br />And is it true that you were only playing Love Games....?<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/j5tvhtymRFQ" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /></span><br />But perhaps I'm just your Jack in a Box...<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7IadDY3-sOM" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br /></span>Will you parlez vous francais?<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/U3y-oo5rpIs" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /></span><br />And last but not least...<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/boEph_ic-NM" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /></span>Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-25374865560922025642011-04-28T13:32:00.000-07:002011-04-30T13:12:13.269-07:00Stuff the weddingIn case you hadn't guessed, the title of this post pretty much sums up my opinion of the Royal Nuptials occurring tomorrow. Apologies to all royalists and William and Kate lovers - I suppose. We just can't get away from it though, can we?<br /><br />Maybe it's my age. Maybe I'm getting cynical. Maybe I don't like the fact that our taxes are paying for the extraordinarily expensive extravagance that is the Royal Wedding.<br /><br />I am however very pleased to be having the day off work tomorrow. There's been an awful lot of Bank Holidays recently, hence lots of time off from one's job. A four day weekend now beckons. Yaaaay! Not bad atall.<br /><br />When I was a nipper I distinctly remember getting all in a tizzy about Charles and Diana getting spliced. I had a Charles and Di mug, a Charles and Di wedding brochure, even a Charles and Di plastic bag if memory serves me correctly. But it was 1981 and I was a mere 12 years old...things have changed somewhat. I'm really not bovvered, as Lauren might say...(I am also rather surprised to see that none of my fellow bloggers have commented on the forthcoming wedding! Can it be that none of you are "bothered" either??)<br /><br />Don't get me wrong. I can appreciate the "fairy tale" element and I'm sure Kate Middleton will look ravishing. William isn't too bad himself, come to that - well, more than certain other gawky and geeky looking male members of the Royal Family. He's turned out quite a handsome fella...And on that particular note, I thought it might be nice to present y'all with a completely gratuitous picture of the aforementioned Prince in a pair of speedos (to hell with Kate Middleton, she's not important.) Good bod, eh? I do wonder what the ball is covering up, though...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV_pMKQjTHw3NxMuLo3L75p2NrPXNqm5_y_nRcOohgWPABYZTNI4IPjDiN2eVJLm6RM9lramhuGf75qVWyGkaFy4shO9HPG6o46y_F4n7jPviZ4UMpimApscTPI7ZBmvEQUrScFn5Zrzi0/s1600/cover.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 293px; height: 338px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV_pMKQjTHw3NxMuLo3L75p2NrPXNqm5_y_nRcOohgWPABYZTNI4IPjDiN2eVJLm6RM9lramhuGf75qVWyGkaFy4shO9HPG6o46y_F4n7jPviZ4UMpimApscTPI7ZBmvEQUrScFn5Zrzi0/s400/cover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5600758108590263778" border="0" /></a>Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-3405996701018550202011-04-15T08:47:00.000-07:002011-04-15T09:34:15.830-07:00Kissing ain't no crimeA friend has just alerted me to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/14/gay-claim-ejected-pub-kissing">this story</a>. Read it and grimace. One might have hoped that we'd moved on in these enlightened times. Granted, doing this in some pub in the ghettos of Hackney or some other equally rough and homophobic pocket of the UK might not have been such a good idea, but Soho....?!<br /><br />Oddly enough I am probably heading there tonight and am tempted to go and join in the kissathon!! Wooohooo!! Power to the Homos!!!Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-68605532621241546292011-04-13T12:02:00.000-07:002011-04-13T12:23:00.250-07:00Let me hear your body talkI am now the proud owner of a new exercise bike. And I started my regime today. I burnt over 400 calories. A good start...<br /><br />I'm not quite sure if I will end up looking as trim and slim as the fine (if somewhat plastic) specimen of manhood below, but one must have something to aspire towards...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ZAKwoVDqF8RiJ3brUyHgyL_w7-Lq9W86N5E2juxofCq9FBbjckROJ00p-ASsRzeJ61zFaE8l1xifb0BkBpfIvO0qZ8yblkwOdTGaGduEH-fG8v_q6fWx5F6zh0GGj58joB-w0zQxj0Fh/s1600/exercise-bike.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 370px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ZAKwoVDqF8RiJ3brUyHgyL_w7-Lq9W86N5E2juxofCq9FBbjckROJ00p-ASsRzeJ61zFaE8l1xifb0BkBpfIvO0qZ8yblkwOdTGaGduEH-fG8v_q6fWx5F6zh0GGj58joB-w0zQxj0Fh/s400/exercise-bike.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595146125839415858" border="0" /></a>Give me a year or so and I might just get there...Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-65498239496557990832011-04-05T00:41:00.000-07:002011-04-05T01:23:52.155-07:00The Bush is back (so to speak)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoTWyLG7aO_JOF3Z1vD4Y8l7iB7lGGxwXi-sfamQwg1i91G39FC6BqiVpGJctc1UgA9syeG7diKjvJ4TgLoaTtQPdg8ccmQlfrOU6epAf3J-AN8EL-GKWzxnitQ49_40f2ezRbCukFGQo0/s1600/kate-directors.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoTWyLG7aO_JOF3Z1vD4Y8l7iB7lGGxwXi-sfamQwg1i91G39FC6BqiVpGJctc1UgA9syeG7diKjvJ4TgLoaTtQPdg8ccmQlfrOU6epAf3J-AN8EL-GKWzxnitQ49_40f2ezRbCukFGQo0/s400/kate-directors.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592011755877891330" border="0" /></a>Hooray!! It's only been 6 years since the last Kate Bush album (a comparatively short hiatus given the 12 year mega-gap that ensued between "The Red Shoes" and "Aerial"). And now La Bush is about to unleash a new one on the music-listening public. Yaaaay!! (In case you didn't know, I'm a big KB fan).<br /><br />At least, <span style="font-style: italic;">a sort-of</span> new album. To be precise, it's going to be a reworking of some of her old tracks, taken from her "Sensual World" and "Red Shoes" albums. Here's the blurb:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">On "Director's Cut" Kate revisits a selection of tracks from her albums, </span><em style="font-style: italic;">The Sensual World</em><span style="font-style: italic;"> and </span><em style="font-style: italic;">The Red Shoes</em><span style="font-style: italic;">, a process that presents a fascinating portrait of an artist in a constant state of evolution. She has re-recorded some elements whilst keeping the best musical performances of each song – making it something of a director’s cut but in sound, not vision.</span><br /><br />Sounds interesting. And a single, "Deeper Understanding", is due for release in May. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5UsjqXXcZ4">Here it is!</a><br /><br />Actually I have to say, I'm not entirely crazy about this re-interpretation - the chorus in particular, which is way too vocodery-robot - presumably in a bid to fit in with the virtual communication theme of the song and give it a more contemporary feel. I preferred the "straight singing" of the original, which was more soulful. But I think it still might grow on me...<br /><br />As for the other tracks on the forthcoming long-player, they be as follows, me hearties:<br /><br /><p style="font-style: italic;">Flower of the Mountain (previously ‘The Sensual World’)</p><p style="font-style: italic;">Song of Solomon</p><p style="font-style: italic;">Lily</p><p style="font-style: italic;">Red Shoes</p><p style="font-style: italic;">This Woman’s Work</p><p style="font-style: italic;">Moments of Pleasure</p><p style="font-style: italic;">Never Be Mine</p><p style="font-style: italic;">Top of The City</p><p style="font-style: italic;">And So Is Love</p><br />...Which all sounds promising stuff! Due out on May 11th....and apparently Kate is working on some "real" new material too!<br /><br />PS Don't you just love the "Kate as mad director splicing up the film" piccie?!Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-64527004254769354492011-04-01T13:48:00.001-07:002011-04-01T13:53:17.541-07:00More more more....how do you like your Whoooooo??Admittedly the new series <span style="font-weight: bold;">is</span> looking rather good...<br /><br />Mmm I wonder why they shoved in so many clips of Utah and the US desert in an advert for BBC America??<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bVAgyBOe84w" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe>Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-55961242381552349832011-03-31T12:40:00.000-07:002011-03-31T12:44:42.039-07:00The sixth comingIt's coming back!!<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9vIsQ25Krq8" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />I've got to say, I am slightly apprehensive cos hyper-critical me was rather disappointed by the last series...<br /><br />Time will tell.Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-21262567698584528482011-03-24T15:18:00.001-07:002011-03-24T15:21:51.407-07:00Strike!!Today I went on strike from my job. For the first time ever.<br /><br />All because of <a href="http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/5/1/tps_whywerestrikingleaflet.pdf">this</a>...Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-20064857068585962312011-03-24T05:18:00.000-07:002011-03-24T05:21:06.476-07:00Goodbye Elizabeth Taylor<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoaYaxyqqu-4MqINT63iLgTwtfSbDDxVSIN31HBHJvamyS3cAQEsWB1HJGhCb6DT-WhG3gzvZ1GLMh7wlCmVV4WwC5R8ZkgsWwqXktdVoA9_BOJxZ05zwbl13vRYIu4fJN0vkx7yRJKUUK/s1600/elizabeth-taylor.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 378px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoaYaxyqqu-4MqINT63iLgTwtfSbDDxVSIN31HBHJvamyS3cAQEsWB1HJGhCb6DT-WhG3gzvZ1GLMh7wlCmVV4WwC5R8ZkgsWwqXktdVoA9_BOJxZ05zwbl13vRYIu4fJN0vkx7yRJKUUK/s400/elizabeth-taylor.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587620049698490498" border="0" /></a>So sad to hear about the loss of Elizabeth Taylor. Sure she was a drama queen, she was OTT, she was camp as hell and that voice of hers sometimes resembled one of those screeching, caterwauling cats that keeps you awake in the middle of the night and irritates the hell out of you ... but she was also a lady with integrity, emotion and guts (and before you say anything that <span style="font-style: italic;">isn't</span> a reference to her weight problem, even though I acknowledge that <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> a problem for her). She also was also a strong advocate of gay rights and was <span style="font-style: italic;">majorly</span> involved in the fight against AIDS and lent her support (and money) to many charities. At the 8th International Aids Conference in 1991, she said of the first President Bush: "I'm not even sure if he knows how to spell AIDS." Classic!! She raised millions.<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Oh. </span></span></span>And </span>she was a pretty good actress. I concede, not everything Liz did was good, particularly her output in her latter years, but who can forget "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof"? "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"? I've got "Cat" on DVD and another movie she did based on a Tennessee Williams play, "Suddenly Last Summer", and I love 'em (I'm a big fan of Mr Williams' writing too, and have recently been teaching "Streetcar Named Desire" to my A Level students - I adored it, and they do too). In fact I'm gonna rewatch these films in a day or two, to celebrate the life of this special lady.<br /><br />And here's a few clips to remember her by...<br /><br />"Aaaah feel....like....like a cat on a hot tin rroof!!" Doesn't she look stunning here?<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/l0ViPCmr318" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />Hilarious trailer for "Suddenly Last Summer" (this film is as camp as knickers - and it's not just Liz's presence that guarantees that):<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HBPwPIqYXtg" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />Taylor and Burton getting nasty in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (art very much imitating life). Couldn't resist putting up a couple of clips here. Love Liz's line in the first one ("I swear if you existed, I'd divorce you".) Then doing the "public display of our bad marriage" thing in front of friends - soooo embarrassing. Liz seems to hit the booze with remarkable...conviction.<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oxQAWQKVCRg" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nInE5TITzE8" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />RIP Elizabeth!Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-72121963500440775122011-03-22T13:24:00.000-07:002011-03-22T13:37:18.321-07:00No longer the apple of my eyeRead <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1368152/Apple-gay-rights-groups-approving-iPhone-app-cure-homosexuality.html">this</a> and disapprove of what Apple approves. I did!<br /><br />The ultimate irony is, I bought a new iPod today. Kind of wish I hadn't now...<br /><br />Thanks to my blogging pal <a href="http://patsykingthegoddess.blogspot.com/">Eva</a> for bringing this to our attention...Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-73716792101281914482011-03-01T04:03:00.000-08:002011-03-01T04:21:29.920-08:00Remembering the BrigI'm back from Brazil now. Had a lovely time, even if I didn't get as much of a tan as I'd hoped...! Always a shock coming back to cold Blightey, though fortunately it wasn't snowing...never very pleasant having to get back into work mode though. I just want to crawl into bed and stay there instead of facing hordes of marauding students!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxPPuTizFUyNYdyOP9E46Du-rL08j20b3rvf4b5ni5__Fn5YhS21n_42fUZKYXumzd6ZWYIlDflJfjC3YBrYZnKQLEAXoPvtlblBFKhpQl94lMBoOAlqwWJNP5BTotOyBzDzkWIVUCKeRZ/s1600/Nicholas_Courtney_Feb23newsnea.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 290px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxPPuTizFUyNYdyOP9E46Du-rL08j20b3rvf4b5ni5__Fn5YhS21n_42fUZKYXumzd6ZWYIlDflJfjC3YBrYZnKQLEAXoPvtlblBFKhpQl94lMBoOAlqwWJNP5BTotOyBzDzkWIVUCKeRZ/s400/Nicholas_Courtney_Feb23newsnea.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579082491129828226" border="0" /></a>Anyway just a quick note to mark the sad passing of actor Nicholas Courtney, best known for playing long-running character/companion Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in "Dr Who". Nick C appeared alongside several incarnations of the Doc in the role of the Brig (Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy) and prior to that, made his Who debut as space agent Bret Vyon in an epic William Hartnell adventure, "The Dalek Masterplan"! He also popped up again in "The Sarah Jane Adventures" very recently, reunited with Liz Sladen.<br /><br />I couldn't quite believe it when I heard he'd gone...you sometimes think these people will be around for ever. RIP Mr Courtney / Brigadier.Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-7874683287081752962011-02-17T09:37:00.001-08:002011-02-17T09:41:39.017-08:00Tomorrow.......I'm going on holiday to the country wot has this as their flag...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ARo82f4o2WSyed4OSOhlCGAW1_Pnur3ChqtUfa3uPInZ4x9XPVfGtPnpca_CizQDTmC-i-gF5FixQGtXG05f5S6GoinH0ECmMVxoU7ZH95h8Qpq8AP0auoQqh_t0Mtu2mXOAJqqZzI_b/s1600/720px-Flag_of_Brazil.svg.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ARo82f4o2WSyed4OSOhlCGAW1_Pnur3ChqtUfa3uPInZ4x9XPVfGtPnpca_CizQDTmC-i-gF5FixQGtXG05f5S6GoinH0ECmMVxoU7ZH95h8Qpq8AP0auoQqh_t0Mtu2mXOAJqqZzI_b/s400/720px-Flag_of_Brazil.svg.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574714323409418066" border="0" /></a><br />.... and I can't bloody wait!!<br /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Simon/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-4.png" alt="" /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Simon/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-5.png" alt="" />Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-52388039086172122482011-02-13T05:05:00.000-08:002011-02-13T12:34:15.271-08:00Disco DarthAnd - what about this??<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Osz15Poa25E" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />Oddly enough, I'm actually planning a sci-fi themed fancy dress party for my birthday this March. I'm sure that comes as a <span style="font-style: italic;">great</span> surprise to all of you...Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-15142162581996601522011-02-13T04:43:00.001-08:002011-02-13T05:09:49.046-08:00He is the Disco DoctorI was at <a href="http://www.duckie.co.uk/">Duckie</a> last night and the first thing I heard as I walked through the door was this:<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OI5B4kYzwSM" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />Ring any bells with any of you?? Fab!!Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-2631954347277493602011-02-06T11:50:00.000-08:002011-02-07T16:13:35.926-08:00Rip off merchants and cheating b*stardsI feel compelled to write a post today, even though I hadn't planned on doing so this weekend (sorry folks, again you will have gathered I'm very much a part time blogger at present....but still here though!!)<br /><br />Today Gustavo and his cousin were out shopping in Camden whilst I stayed at home doing my usual Sunday college work. Whilst they were looking round the market, Gustavo's cousin had her bag - containing purse, credit cards, mobile and brand new digital camera - stolen. One minute she was walking round the stalls and shops with Gustavo enjoying herself, the next it had totally vanished. Some thieving personage obviously whipped it off her shoulder when she wasn't looking. I don't think she was being particularly inattentive, but it still happened. Naturally she was majorly upset and in floods of tears afterwards. An awful thing to happen and her weekend has now been ruined. What kind of ar*eholes get a kick out of doing this kind of thing?<br /><br />I mentioned on a previous post that I've bought a brand new car and sold my old model. What I didn't mention was the rigmarole I went through in flogging it (but after what happened to Gu's cousin today I feel extremely angry and the need to do some serious venting, all of which is related to the above). I eventually ended up getting a pretty good deal from a buyer who paid me cash up front for the car; this was only after I'd received a number of scam emails from "buyers" who said they wanted to purchase the car through PayPal (an online payment merchant) without even coming to view it and giving me various "explanations" as to why they preferred this method. One such "buyer" nearly got the better of me.<br /><br />Now, I'm definitely not what you'd call naive, but I'm not always wise to every one's tricks...well, who is in this life? The "buyer", who called themselves Maria, emailed me to say that they had seen my ad on Autotrader and wanted to purchase the car for their son as a surprise birthday present - they claimed they were at an industry exhibition and didn't have the time to come and view it. I guess I thought that was odd, and given the amount I was asking for the car, an awful lot of money to pay without even wanting to check it out! I said as much to the "buyer" in my reply, but they then came back saying they were happy to buy the car, were very keen etc and just wanted me to email my PayPal details so they could send through the payment asap. This was when slight alarm bells went off in my head...I'd heard stories that you should never send your personal/financial details to strangers.<br /><br />So, instead I emailed the buyer back to say I would send them an invoice from my Paypal account asking for the payment to be made; that way I could safely wait for the money to be sent to me and if they were genuine then I would receive the payment. I completed the invoice with the amount owed and emailed it to the buyer.<br /><br />The next day, I received a message from "Maria" saying she had sent the money through to my PayPal account, however, when I checked there was nothing there. 0.00. "Maria" then emailed me again to say that for the funds to be released to my Paypal account, I needed to make a payment of £500 to Western Union <span style="font-weight: bold;">first</span>, as the car was going to be shipped to them - they were not currently living in London. They assured me that the shipping fee would be refunded in the amount that had been sent through to my PayPal account, once I had sent the money to Western Union. This was the alarm bells started to ring even louder. There had been absolutely no mention of shipping and additional costs before and things were now becoming far too complicated. I emailed the buyer back to say thank you, but no, I no longer wished to proceed with the purchase as a) Nothing about shipping fees had been discussed before and this hadn't been part of the deal b) I hadn't even received payment from the buyer.<br /><br />"Maria" then came back again, then saying that they had sent through the payment already from their account and what were they supposed to do now, as the money couldn't be "recalled". They said I was reneging on the deal, this was unfair, etc and they wanted to discuss the matter with me, or ... they would take legal action. They left a phone number.<br /><br />If I'd stopped to think about this properly I would have realised the contradiction - that the money had been apparently sent to my account yet couldn't be released until I made the shipping fee payment - this was really just a load of baloney. However by this stage I still had the very positive feeling that I was dealing with someone dishonest and dodgy.<br /><br />Being the fair person I am, I actually rang them up. The person that answered the phone was definitely not "Maria", but a foreign-sounding man who said his wife Maria was away at present and he was speaking on her behalf. He kept insisting that the money had been sent to me and so I couldn't pull out of the deal. I kept saying that I was sorry but nothing to do with shipping costs had been mentioned before and I wanted to sell the car in a straightforward transaction, rather than this method. They kept talking and talking and ignoring what I was saying and insisting I pay Western Union or they would take legal action. Whatever I said would not dissuade them. In the end I had to say goodbye and hung up.<br /><br />Cut to a few hours later. I'd gone into work and was sitting at my desk checking my emails. Suddenly I receive a "legal action" email from PayPal saying I had two hours to make payment to the client or I would be reported to the FBI. I admit, a horrible chill went through me when I read this. Oh my God. I actually felt incredibly nervous and frightened at this point. Was it for real?<br /><br />I then thought, I have to get this all properly checked out. I rang up Paypal and explained about the email that I'd just received. They almost immediately verified that no such email had been sent by them and it was very likely a scam. The relief I felt was immense. I forwarded the email to their "spoof" dept and they were able to back this up - the email had been sent by a fake buyer who was trying to embezzle funds and I should ignore any further communication from them. Again, massive relief.<br /><br />Nevertheless, I was also left feeling extremely angry and incensed by what I'd been put through, wasting my time dealing with someone who wasn't remotely interested in buying my car but just wanted to take my money. And judging by the other emails I'd received from "buyers" similar to "Maria", there were a hell of a lot of people out there doing similar things.<br /><br />I guess I shouldn't have done it but I couldn't resist emailing "Maria" back again and telling her: "I now know that you are a fake buyer and you have no intention of buying my car. I think you are disgusting. Now go away." They replied saying: "Don't hang that "checked with PayPal stuff" on me, that won't work. We are sending the FBI to your address tomorrow afternoon, so you will be sorry, swear down". Unbelievable. Of course nothing happened the next day, but it just proves that there are no limits to the depths to which some desperate people will go...I felt sorely tempted to send another response, but this would of course have added further fuel to the fire, and probably have made me as bad as them. So I left it at that.<br /><br />The point I'm getting to here is just how terrible it is to know that there are so many rotten, cheating b*stards out there that will willingly and knowingly try to rip people off, one way or another, whether it be through stealing people's bags or embezzling their money over the internet. What kind of sad existences do these people live? How can they actually live with themselves? It's very obvious and cliched, but I honestly think this planet we live on is getting worse and the people who inhabit it more and more unpleasant, selfish and acquisitive. <span style="font-style: italic;">Some</span> people, anyway.<br /><br />I hope you have all had a better weekend!<br /><br />OC xOld Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-86977463629767857842011-01-29T10:16:00.000-08:002011-01-30T06:46:52.163-08:00Go into the garden, go under the ivy...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhswbb5MSCM21ghOpYLRfsIPDj1msjw50M-pVMWPuEZgK0MFNIefSIfYxGldmDIf3ya7JKhyl_ILMmfqzCoHYKFr65JbQj3hCydlvAei4tBNLwMd6n4-xRhU6x0eXIyciXADqG7au0NEOF1/s1600/kate-bush-under-the-ivy-under-the-ivy.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhswbb5MSCM21ghOpYLRfsIPDj1msjw50M-pVMWPuEZgK0MFNIefSIfYxGldmDIf3ya7JKhyl_ILMmfqzCoHYKFr65JbQj3hCydlvAei4tBNLwMd6n4-xRhU6x0eXIyciXADqG7au0NEOF1/s400/kate-bush-under-the-ivy-under-the-ivy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567699728449793970" border="0" /></a>I'm a<span style="font-weight: bold;"> big</span> Kate Bush fan. And one of my Crimbo pressies was a brand new biography of Ms Bush, "Under The Ivy, by Graeme Thomson. I've only just finished it, but it's recommended reading, especially for KB fans. There've been several past attempts at cataloguing the events of Kate's life but generally these literary endeavours were deemed duds - Thomson's offering, however, is far more extensive and provides a wealth of information regarding the weird but wonderful songstress (especially the periods when she's working on her latest albums...) Okay, it does go a little overboard with certain details but you get lots of insights into a) Kate's wonderfully bohemian and hippy-dippy family and their influence on her (I wish I could think of a better term than "hippy", it's so....reductive. Anyone care to help out?) b) The painstaking process by which she produces her music (demanding that musicians perform 20+ takes of a particular instrument "bit", for instance) c) Her growing demand for privacy as the years go on d) The paradox of having to do the whole publicity thing at the expense of c). I kind of wished the book had lifted the lid a little more on the "inner Kate" but this is probably as close as we're going to get.<br /><br />And reading all about Kate and her music made me want to dig out all my old KB CDs again and give them a (long delayed) play. "The Dreaming" in particular, an album that never makes an easy listen, surprised me with its craziness and creativity (it was, in many ways, a landmark album that marked a breakaway from the "old style" Kate). But "Hounds of Love" will always be, for me, Kate's complete and utter opus, when her voice and songwriting powers were at their zenith. Sheer brilliance.<br /><br />And...stop the press! There's rumours of <a href="http://www.nme.com/news/kate-bush/54595">some new Kate stuff</a> this year!Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-17961660325797787512011-01-23T02:01:00.000-08:002011-01-23T06:45:02.563-08:00Nina, schizo ballerinaA belated Happy New Year, everybody. I'm back!<br /><br />Boy, am I finding this month hard to get through financially. I'm willing to bet a lot of you are in exactly the same situation. Xmas shopping did drain the old cofffers although not as much as I thought it would; nevertheless it's still been a bit tight until pay day. Ho hum. Not as bad as all that. I guess the brand new car I purchased just before Crimbo <span style="font-style: italic;">might</span> have had something to do with it...I figured it was time I traded in my old model for a new one and it was money well spent (I sold my Ford Focus and bought a Ford Fiesta Zetec, in case you're wondering....it's in hot magenta and has ambient lighting!! Ooer. I love it).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhcv9rrYOUAyHM6DClSNEkOHbRxEVGwNwKwDyD6FApfH7GonUN0uZgUT8piqV4HywnvFtNyuH-jFtn2tX-so0PYFR-z3JnlwC-Ood_i6XG7gcLuZp3kuwO_ALPSVTCe1JNw8PRkomjPgQJ/s1600/220px-Black_Swan_poster.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 326px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhcv9rrYOUAyHM6DClSNEkOHbRxEVGwNwKwDyD6FApfH7GonUN0uZgUT8piqV4HywnvFtNyuH-jFtn2tX-so0PYFR-z3JnlwC-Ood_i6XG7gcLuZp3kuwO_ALPSVTCe1JNw8PRkomjPgQJ/s400/220px-Black_Swan_poster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565321334980559426" border="0" /></a>Anyhow, even though spending has had to be reigned in, I managed to go to the pictures last night to see "Black Swan". I wanted to see what all the hype was about.<br /><br />Very good and very creepy would be my summation. Admittedly it does take a while to get going and the real "horror" aspect doesn't kick in until about 2/3 of the way through....but worth seeing. For those of you not in the know, the movie concerns a production of "Swan Lake" by New York City ballet company. The production requires a ballerina to play both the innocent White Swan and the sensual Black Swan. One dancer, Nina (Portman), is a perfect fit for the White Swan, while Lily (Mila Kunis) has a personality that matches the Black Swan. When the two compete for the parts, Nina finds a dark side to herself and starts to experience elaborate hallucinations and delusions about other people and their behaviour. From thereon, things spiral drastically downwards...<br /><br />Natalie Portman was excellent as Nina, doing the whole "driven but repressed ballet dancer" bit convincingly, hardly surprising, given the presence of her overbearing and controlling mother, played by Barbara Hershey (an actress you don't see much of these days but who I used to love in films like "Hannah and Her Sisters". Good to see her back, but <span style="font-style: italic;">what</span> has she done to her teeth? Huge overbite or what...) Kunis, an actress I haven't seen in anything else, made a good foil for Portman's uptight Nina as her sassy ballet dancing colleague and the scenes where she takes her out to get her p*ssed, then drugs her drink, are entertaining (and then there's the raunchy shenanigans that follow...)<br /><br />The horror aspect was well conveyed with several genuinely disturbing and unsettling moments e.g. the part when Nina's mothers' paintings all start talking to and mocking her and her eyes turn swan red. Not to mention the strange barbed black things that start poking up out of Nina's skin. Ugggh! I won't say any more otherwise there won't be any surprising nasty bits left, for those of you that are planning on seeing it. The psychological angle - are all of these things genuinely happening or are they in Nina's mind? - made the film gripping for me, and put me in mind of old movies like "Repulsion", "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Stepford Wives", even if the final revelation was kind of obvious.<br /><br />My criticisms would be that the film has a rather unrelentingly "dour" feel about it and there's not much humour in evidence. The muted visuals/cinematography (there's little colour in there) reinforce this atmosphere but that's kind of deliberate I think - emphasising the harshness and claustrophobia of Nina's world. Every now and then colour breaks through e.g. the scene when a drugged-up/p*ssed Nina goes to the club and is bathed in red whilst a strobed light flashes - all very symbolic.<br /><br />The dance sequences, in particular the final realisation of "Swan Lake" at the end - are pretty amazing and it's clear that Portman <span style="font-style: italic;">can</span> do ballet (although apparently she's replaced in some long shots - still not as bad as Jennifer Beales in "Flashdance" who didn't dance properly atall. Pah!).<br /><br />It really creeped me out and I want to see it again!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And</span> it's made me want to go out and buy the soundtrack to the real "Swan Lake". Truly moving and beautiful music. Erm...oh yeah. <span style="font-style: italic;">When</span> I've got some money.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4 out of 5. </span>Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-67069129670433419622010-12-31T10:47:00.000-08:002010-12-31T10:53:31.702-08:00No more champagne....Well <span style="font-style: italic;">actually</span>, I expect there'll be more than a few bottles of champers being uncorked tonight as I write this ... it<span style="font-style: italic;"> is </span>still a few hours from midnight, after all....<br /><br />But Agnetha says it best ... (thanks <a href="http://brandnewwoo.blogspot.com/">Alan</a> for letting me nick this from your blog!!) (And I've always dug ABBA's pronunciation of "champagne"....)<br /><br />So on that note, I'd like to wish all of you dear people a DELIRIOUS, DELIGHTFUL AND DELOVELY NEW YEAR!!<br /><br /><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3Uo0JAUWijM?fs=1&hl=en_GB"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3Uo0JAUWijM?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></embed></object><br /><br />I WILL be back next year...Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-34099432029098785682010-12-25T09:33:00.000-08:002010-12-25T09:37:19.581-08:00I wish you a Cheesy Christmas...I may still be in a state of hiatus...<br /><br />...But I'm thinking of y'all...<br /><br />Hope you're all having a Fabulous Yuletide whatever you are doing at this current moment!!<br /><br />Me: up North, in York, enjoying my pressies, food, booze, being around family and the like!!<br /><br />And Dr Who is on shortly...although I'm not holding my breath....(!)<br /><br />Hopefully catch up with all of you in the New Year; in the meantime, have a fab one...<br /><br />OC xxOld Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-17392627577491529712010-11-26T13:49:00.000-08:002010-11-26T13:51:43.636-08:00I'm so sorry......that I don't blog much these days.<br /><br />I feel crap about it.Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-7712761086042631882010-10-27T05:31:00.000-07:002010-11-06T13:09:06.238-07:00Dr Who - a quick(ish) spin through the remainder of Season FiveBlimey oh riley. It's taken me enough time to get round to tackling this one hasn't it? (DW S5 that is, to use the abbreviated version). By now most of you will be way familiar with my busy life and how quite often I am forced to relegate blogging to the back burner. But it's better to be here sometimes than not atall; I hope you will all agree??<br /><br />Anyhow, it's half term now (hoorah!!) and I for one am feeling pretty damn happy....Mums and Dads of kiddies may not be feeling quite so gleeful. I've got a few nice things lined up this week too which gives me something to look forward to!<br /><br />Anyway (have you noticed that "anyhow" and "anyway" are two of the most overused words in this Cheeser's vocabulary? Time to consult that thesaurus, something I am always recommending that my students do...) I digress...(oooh that's better, isn't it?) Here goes nothing, following on from where I left off last time...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Vampires of Venice</span><br /><br />Not actually filmed in Venice, but Croatia, but still looked suitably Venetian. All about a race of fishy aliens disguised as humans who were planning to breed and take over the Earth - hence a watery setting was an ideal place for them to hatch their plans...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2t1eW6gAfswFQcEIKsHm3jesJ5PTvouYN6sGjNUVFs-tCSEsS_WYW45autdOFmCa0VhQkaa4QaGaIB6gcXYArN7P1WNSa2HEf_S7JRflGksWXFyj_hF-Vai-SBVoh056kINJv3sN_uf2H/s1600/vampires+1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2t1eW6gAfswFQcEIKsHm3jesJ5PTvouYN6sGjNUVFs-tCSEsS_WYW45autdOFmCa0VhQkaa4QaGaIB6gcXYArN7P1WNSa2HEf_S7JRflGksWXFyj_hF-Vai-SBVoh056kINJv3sN_uf2H/s400/vampires+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532770162799937298" border="0" /></a>...Oh and I forget to mention the aliens were also vampires....the ones disguised as schoolgirls in nighties were bound to appeal to the fantasies of Hammer House of Horror fans/pervy old dads.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXPqngIFgMe20-yWeNEcK0QT6Ftu2ChukGQwIv2YvrAwnZUvtDvhyphenhyphenqFoaGOmK7yxUIirH3PI2F7y6j4kbzaivfl8Ze37VP3kc53XsGJR7MlgyeUQ9JTA195rIGkm_vY45N6mO5WbX1IgAG/s1600/vampires+3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXPqngIFgMe20-yWeNEcK0QT6Ftu2ChukGQwIv2YvrAwnZUvtDvhyphenhyphenqFoaGOmK7yxUIirH3PI2F7y6j4kbzaivfl8Ze37VP3kc53XsGJR7MlgyeUQ9JTA195rIGkm_vY45N6mO5WbX1IgAG/s400/vampires+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532770184998092226" border="0" /></a>The pre-titles sequence, in which the Dr burst out of a wedding cake unexpectedly at Rory's stag party, ready to whisk the huband-to-be off on a TARDIS trip and reunite him with Amy, was funny stuff. The bemused look on Matt Smith's face was hilarious - there really is something adorable about this guy. Unfortunately, the comedy element ended up subsuming much of the rest of the story - what should have been an altogether darker tale, given the setting and theme, became something rather too farcical.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt_s_ZjTQl_uu0v7GkWjlaXYHHeusne59Xku4ZPjvJdWg3tMCnPG6FP17YKT9j_uQrnQxdrUjjEHlElJEoJ7mI5P8-y7fG-0pI_CUlpIoyejyB39k6CtoMtS9tgif-JeZEgwUItsR0eT06/s1600/Vampires+2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 218px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt_s_ZjTQl_uu0v7GkWjlaXYHHeusne59Xku4ZPjvJdWg3tMCnPG6FP17YKT9j_uQrnQxdrUjjEHlElJEoJ7mI5P8-y7fG-0pI_CUlpIoyejyB39k6CtoMtS9tgif-JeZEgwUItsR0eT06/s400/Vampires+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532770166582813554" border="0" /></a>Helen McCrory, as lead vamp Signora Rosanna Calvierri, put in a decent performance; an imperious presence and a decent actress to boot. However there was also quite a lot of running around in the episode and Rory's "comic" fight Rosanna's son Francesco was pretty silly (attempting to beat him off with a broom). There was one good scene in which the Dr faced off with Rosanna and told her that he won't help because she didn't know the name of one of the human victims, classic Time Lord vs Villain confrontational stuff. The ending, in which the Doc had to ascend a bell tower to deactivate a device that threatened to sink Venice, smacked of Logopolis/The Idiot's Lantern/Evolution of the Daleks though i.e. a method that has been used way too many times before. And what happened to all the fishy aliens that were still in the water at the end of the story?<br /><br />Venice has been used as a scary dramatic backdrop many times before - Don't Look Now, Comfort of Strangers etc- but the tone of this story felt much more lightweight than heavy, which left moi feeling rather short-changed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">2.5 out of 5</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Amy's Choice</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh44yi3RVg_P03VwWtdyF0W5bcuZRcfKP0Aa_WVGn4zoOyYUic1gnEdBEhT3f1apSoObop_J7SXzpqC0Y73HTFbsShCzn3eetbaYV3I6I2KXqmRMqlsBN-caiubk2hUnMZNt8zgAeeodrXO/s1600/amys2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh44yi3RVg_P03VwWtdyF0W5bcuZRcfKP0Aa_WVGn4zoOyYUic1gnEdBEhT3f1apSoObop_J7SXzpqC0Y73HTFbsShCzn3eetbaYV3I6I2KXqmRMqlsBN-caiubk2hUnMZNt8zgAeeodrXO/s400/amys2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532805140846536690" border="0" /></a>Much more interesting. In which the Dr, Amy and Rory become trapped in two "realities" - one in which Rory and Amy are living a happily married in Leadworth and the ginger Scots one is also up the duff with the Doc as reluctant visitor; the other in which the two companions and Time Lord are stuck in a rapidly deteriorating TARDIS control room. In both of these worlds they are constantly taunted by a "Dream Lord" - an evil cosmic trickster who seems determined to put the time travelling threesome through their paces and who keeps them guessing which of the two worlds is the "real" one. Oh and they need to make up their minds about this, cos they stand to die in both places.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzFC3TFkL3eoYxZhKz8d9mx2RL-OZqBnSdqt-V76o4l5iYGflCUbAu-cXbvj7dpSO-gc9Pr7hLsnM7RojF1OVoSaznrRcLYEDXFPv3xs6BIUyUOAgQM5r4DdfffD7IkKeWA0Z5C1waIWwA/s1600/amys+1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzFC3TFkL3eoYxZhKz8d9mx2RL-OZqBnSdqt-V76o4l5iYGflCUbAu-cXbvj7dpSO-gc9Pr7hLsnM7RojF1OVoSaznrRcLYEDXFPv3xs6BIUyUOAgQM5r4DdfffD7IkKeWA0Z5C1waIWwA/s400/amys+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532770136331607314" border="0" /></a>The village setting worked well again as in the season's debut story, this time playing on the "eccentric villagers" angle even more - it transpires that the local OAPs are actually all aliens and they're out to get the Dr, Amy and Rory - the siege scenes e.g. in Amy's house, the children's' playground, were quite sinister and the tension was cranked up quite nicely. The worm-like things that came out of the old fogies' mouths were pretty horrid too, and the stuff of classic DW. The part when they vaporised Rory was also sad..<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7UmzBF7ORGIYRxA-raY6E4B7gCUPKEQEitsbAx2diS566pS8nfftbKud8pJBmniy-Hl9-E3XrotjZwxqyz5Ko9a91BkI3qXgbL6sYw4z_8hZUf96PtbbMVw_xdG1awIz8sOS4Jy_GD9T/s1600/amys3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7UmzBF7ORGIYRxA-raY6E4B7gCUPKEQEitsbAx2diS566pS8nfftbKud8pJBmniy-Hl9-E3XrotjZwxqyz5Ko9a91BkI3qXgbL6sYw4z_8hZUf96PtbbMVw_xdG1awIz8sOS4Jy_GD9T/s400/amys3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532805148499528562" border="0" /></a>Toby Jones put in a sly performance as the Dream Lord (though I felt he could have been even more nasty at times) and had some good lines, especially his taunting of the Dr: "If you show any more tawdry quirks you could open a tawdry quirks shop...." It turns out that the Dream Lord was actually a manifestation of the Dr's "dark side" (rather like the Valeyard?) brought about by psychic pollen falling into the time rotor causing the Dr and his companions to hallucinate (aaah I see...) I liked the moment when the Dr sees the Dream Lord reflected back at him in the TARDIS console near the end (creepy) and Amy's question to the Doc, "Were those things about you true?" remained unanswered, suggesting it may not all be over yet...<br /><br />Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan continued to demonstrate their decent acting abilities - streets ahead of Freema Agyeman for instance - in what was essentially an Amy and Rory focused story...although I must say the title "Amy's Choice" is a bit of a misnomer, as in the end it isn't really her who makes the choice. I still find Amy's sarcastic and up-herself persona too much to take at times however.<br /><br />Not an out-and-out classic but definitely one of the best of the season.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">3.5 out of 5</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood</span><br /><br />The one in which the Silurians came back! Yay! Except by the end of the two-parter I was left with the distinct feeling that they needn't have bothered....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh63-v9Pf1geSarZHemwZpZuTZM0Z3A59VRY5z0-D-uK43qSOfEklB5s_KIBESAsqyaAwd5QpzHGx3RoJ-j3WqxZoKvdj-XH-AHAq8UEebORVSRfMkKonl0eIfyKPExZWt8vdq4Zor7FZo9/s1600/col+1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh63-v9Pf1geSarZHemwZpZuTZM0Z3A59VRY5z0-D-uK43qSOfEklB5s_KIBESAsqyaAwd5QpzHGx3RoJ-j3WqxZoKvdj-XH-AHAq8UEebORVSRfMkKonl0eIfyKPExZWt8vdq4Zor7FZo9/s400/col+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532770898316531282" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>In terms of the eagerly-awaited resurrection of the Eocene creatures, their new look was definitely more convincing than in "Warriors of the Deep" (plus there was no Myrka)...however I actually thought they looked better with their masks on, than off! The "bug-eyed" look of the masks looked rather good and I'd assumed this was what they'd be like from the Season 5 pre-broadcast trailer...<br /></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9sl0StJDohtTy-uRDp4Ky1vjLB1AKeVT6S5d27-wrkt2yR6SAyxzkaR9gM_vIdKJ6CWupEJ1dbgPlbSfjb1nM230iHdJ-pzBRPLxMIP-fiW_Me5riAIgYahFuO2L9nFoA1Fy-AbRjAMV5/s1600/hungry+2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9sl0StJDohtTy-uRDp4Ky1vjLB1AKeVT6S5d27-wrkt2yR6SAyxzkaR9gM_vIdKJ6CWupEJ1dbgPlbSfjb1nM230iHdJ-pzBRPLxMIP-fiW_Me5riAIgYahFuO2L9nFoA1Fy-AbRjAMV5/s400/hungry+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532770880644311666" border="0" /></a>...however when the masks were off, the Silurians had very human-looking peepers indeed. And what happened to the third "eye" that could zap people? Their voices were decidedly human-sounding too i.e. no voice modulation, no vocal effects...which, for me, detracted from their menace to quite a large degree. Okay, so Alaya/Restac, played by the rather good Neve McIntosh, had a suitably sibilant, hissing delivery, but the utterances of the other Silurian folk sounded way too normal. In fact one of them sounded like he had a Yorkshire accent!<br /><br />The Silurians' subterranean base was impressive though, in large part down to the far better special / visual effects of the Noughties...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0U5nK6nQy8S17uqzx2XVaN_WV6lrMIQa6OCsPuOaeouTTVpLxpcGSPN-82c9jytWznrhzLHgQgHoCN_zqWSypm9Ltbqc00z6eqhtb7pDRnEa6JvZnKUuvEdziMJfejNePM10BKa7Ilpcf/s1600/hungry+3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0U5nK6nQy8S17uqzx2XVaN_WV6lrMIQa6OCsPuOaeouTTVpLxpcGSPN-82c9jytWznrhzLHgQgHoCN_zqWSypm9Ltbqc00z6eqhtb7pDRnEa6JvZnKUuvEdziMJfejNePM10BKa7Ilpcf/s400/hungry+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532805604513554082" border="0" /></a>However, as a vehicle for bringing the reptilian ones back, I felt this could have been handled better. The action for the first half of the story centred around a small Welsh community and a local drilling project, supervised by Dr Nasreen Chaudhry, boring down into the earth and disturbing...guess who? The reasons for the project could have been better fleshed out and I felt kind of disappointed with the "smallscale" focus here - an "every family" group of characters - father Mo, wife Ambrose, son Eliot and grandfather - who were all affected by the arrival of the Silurians on the earth's surface. Probably trying to give the story a more intimate feel but I was hoping for a more "grand scale" invasion scenario as in The Silurians or The Sea Devils, with more of humankind affected, but this never happened. Even the drilling project itself felt very "smallscale" and I yearned for some big "Nuclear powerbase" sets with loads of computers and important-looking white-coated technicians with clipboards striding around, as in in "The Silurians". Could the budget not stretch to all of this having blown it all on the underground Silurian base? More on this in a mo...<br /><br />Admittedly opening episode "The Hungry Earth" did build up the suspense very nicely - scenes of the project workers, then Amy, getting pulled down into the ground and the fleeting glimpses of Silurian Alaya running around the churchyard were some of the scariest moments in the whole of this series (the churchyard bits in particular). However once we progressed onto episode two "Cold Blood", things started to nose-dive. The "exchange of the hostages" plot line took up too much time - even though there was a nice sense of impending, inevitable doom once the grandfather accidentally shot Alaya - and the "let's discuss sharing the Earth" scenes later on with Nasreen and the old Silurian scientist were, well, discussions that precluded anything more exciting from occurring. The only real action came towards the end when the Silurian warriors, led by the vengeful sister of Alaya, Restac, chased the Doc and co down corridors but that was virtually the conclusion of the story. As a whole the two parter was obviously trying to go for the "cerebral" approach but going back to what I said before, this meant that the potential for a cracking "invasion of the earth" story was lost. It never felt like the threat progressed beyond a small bunch of characters, because, well, it didn't. However the Silurian troops are still stacked up in their millions down below, so perhaps there's potential for a sequel...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xNuyNUg4ogR30kIr4RE_vJNzy5JamGZJxFad3Y1KZjwTn2pwT31aztmmna7iJsIxrDzlW89bW6yomxfVcKE8Rs1mQHgosTkdWj7l6Crx7JOvtjmGWKfdnszfFlHBH5Z2JYvkRnGioUd9/s1600/hungry+1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xNuyNUg4ogR30kIr4RE_vJNzy5JamGZJxFad3Y1KZjwTn2pwT31aztmmna7iJsIxrDzlW89bW6yomxfVcKE8Rs1mQHgosTkdWj7l6Crx7JOvtjmGWKfdnszfFlHBH5Z2JYvkRnGioUd9/s400/hungry+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532770873144712722" border="0" /></a>A few other observations...Meera Syall, decent actress / comedian / writer though she is, was really kind of wasted as Nasreen. It was neither here nor there that she was a scientist as she just seemed to be playing....herself. Not much authority to the character and it was hard to credit that she'd just let the Dr and Amy walk into the drilling complex like that!<br /><br />Matt Smith continued to impress though; nice little exchange with the boy Eliot (incidentally another instance of decent child acting, after the rather good little girl who played young Amy earlier on):<br /><br />Eliot (asking the Dr about escaping the destruction of Gallifrey): Did you get away?<br />Dr: Yeah.<br />Eliot: Do you miss it?<br />Dr (pause): So much.<br /><br />The final scenes, in which a dying Restac shoots Rory and he then dissolves, claimed by the crack in time, suddenly upped the ante and resulted in a nice "I wasn't expecting that atall" cliffhanger.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN5HDnY0OoGSFjazdtGDuMZ2zNwQFu8hyh91k0kLu8qN-UULw7csjj3HuxiZvkbYqdHa_cTrOj4X4-5ltpuUpYVkXizHfL8TI-fn7ViVB01GspQ-xyhAbz7zmPLrMJeBEuza7rE6fJUGzv/s1600/cold+2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN5HDnY0OoGSFjazdtGDuMZ2zNwQFu8hyh91k0kLu8qN-UULw7csjj3HuxiZvkbYqdHa_cTrOj4X4-5ltpuUpYVkXizHfL8TI-fn7ViVB01GspQ-xyhAbz7zmPLrMJeBEuza7rE6fJUGzv/s400/cold+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532770910897145746" border="0" /></a>Moreover, Karen Gillan was very convincing in conveying Amy's grief at Rory's "death" and demonstrated some of her best acting in the show thus far - I almost forgot how smug she can sometimes be. Shame the rest of the story wasn't really up to par though. It made me want to dig out my DVD of "The Silurians" and watch it all over again, which in fact I have already started doing as I write this. Jon Pertwee, Liz Shaw, the Brig and UNIT did it so much better. As did Geoffey Palmer and commuters dying all over the place in London, in suitably apocalyptic style. Now that's what an invasion can <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> do to you.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3 out of 5</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Vincent and the Doctor</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghribKzUE9QxwB4aB6tGFdI1s-6A4K6tyNbasOc91GlFF1Jhz9l8DN3DY1XU1KQNIQ8TjY0cIuqY_jZEzdrBc8uXPdhaYoCOgQCmMBD1njkw-O3HcWqFN4m5uhttW9aVhkJHBq8Pcjsuuz/s1600/vin5.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghribKzUE9QxwB4aB6tGFdI1s-6A4K6tyNbasOc91GlFF1Jhz9l8DN3DY1XU1KQNIQ8TjY0cIuqY_jZEzdrBc8uXPdhaYoCOgQCmMBD1njkw-O3HcWqFN4m5uhttW9aVhkJHBq8Pcjsuuz/s400/vin5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532772011396469234" border="0" /></a>Another of those perennial "The Dr meets famous historical figure" story of which we get at least one per season...in this case centred around the Doc and Amy's encounter with the painter Vincent Van Gogh. With Rory now "dead" and off the scene, this was essentially a three-hander - with the Doc, Amy and the mad Dutch painter occupying centre stage. And a charming episode this was (if somewhat meandering and thin on the ground in terms of plot).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9N4ULhkDL8issmh2MrV4tk4E9RnaWgqFApSh0Q_b6Ao88YdcQCKJ85ix7uy933geoLhTtK-ZkVrtCfrA2fNv3Z6-XzrD33F_LtQ4cPX4uC4a1aCg8OTqk19MtNREl4_IGxYZEZ4QC2qcP/s1600/vin3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9N4ULhkDL8issmh2MrV4tk4E9RnaWgqFApSh0Q_b6Ao88YdcQCKJ85ix7uy933geoLhTtK-ZkVrtCfrA2fNv3Z6-XzrD33F_LtQ4cPX4uC4a1aCg8OTqk19MtNREl4_IGxYZEZ4QC2qcP/s400/vin3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532772003300696898" border="0" /></a>Firstly Tony Curran did a very passable job of portraying the ginger genius painter - although I wasn't sure why they let him have a Scottish accent? Was he incapable of "doing Dutch"? Vincent's so-called "madness" was also dealt with by means of a clever metaphor - Van Gogh was able to see the Krafayis monster, a pack predator alien abandoned on Earth, whereas no-one else could (to the Doc, Amy and everyone else it was invisible). Vincent's unique "second sight" thus allowed him to assist the Dr and Amy in their defeat of the monster. Neat device there.<br /><br />As said, there wasn't much else to the story in terms of plot - this was essentially a much more character-driven tale. But you know what? There's no harm in having a diversion from the norm every once in a while.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO1GHxOxPNf58D-BeY0ob8mkugl65ABdv3GHAETyTnQRICtYt2bqSBHIQTfg6-2CPiCA9sgDrTIRL4bBFEGsPi01F_TOS-D-TN5PU82VzCou8HZ7UkM7_6HN1x1-T3iNjcF6cJbkIEnlUN/s1600/vin1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO1GHxOxPNf58D-BeY0ob8mkugl65ABdv3GHAETyTnQRICtYt2bqSBHIQTfg6-2CPiCA9sgDrTIRL4bBFEGsPi01F_TOS-D-TN5PU82VzCou8HZ7UkM7_6HN1x1-T3iNjcF6cJbkIEnlUN/s400/vin1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532771973689708610" border="0" /></a>I loved the recreation of Van Gogh's paintings and their incorporation into the narrative - e.g. the cafe scene - so clever!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpS58w9to4bT7I-AKrfPN02tuEeANvW5lzHtB-aEaFiHtS_CrUiAMlH94w8fyMbA83I7ReKPwxnhZjANjHRO-Cp745-GiMHslPn7z-8Fuz-9Ia734DSM6CnrY8tQyAJn9KVauUYiUvN2m/s1600/vin4.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpS58w9to4bT7I-AKrfPN02tuEeANvW5lzHtB-aEaFiHtS_CrUiAMlH94w8fyMbA83I7ReKPwxnhZjANjHRO-Cp745-GiMHslPn7z-8Fuz-9Ia734DSM6CnrY8tQyAJn9KVauUYiUvN2m/s400/vin4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532772005104279186" border="0" /></a>Best scene of all (and in fact one of my favourite in the entire season) occurred towards the end of the episode, when the Doc takes Van Gogh to the Louvre in modern day Paris to prove exactly how much of an impact the Dutch artists has made on world culture. The Doc asks the gallery guide (a lovely cameo from the ever-droll Bill Nighy) to espouse the virtues of Van Gogh, whilst the man himself watchs and listens, undetected and moved to tears at the revelations he hears...Vincent then goes up to Bill N and hugs him, thanking him...he and the Doc walk off...and Bill N does a great double take...<span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> that <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span>....no....it couldn't be...This scene was so lovely and virtually reduced me to tears too. It also epitomised - I'm trying to put this into words and finding it really hard - one of the essential ideas of Dr Who: that time travel can be used as a force for good; a way of looking into the future with positive consequences; of showing an individual that their memory and legacy can endure, long after their physical death. And it was just so lovely that we saw the Dr allowing someone such a privilege.<br /><br />I never rated episode writer Richard Curtis very highly before (I'm not a fan of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" - everything that is quintessentially cliched and stereotyped about representations of English culture) but he proved his worth here as a penner of DW episodes and I for one wouldn't mind a second outing from him.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3.75 out of 5 (okay I'm cheating on the ratings but it's as near as damnit...)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Lodger</span><br /><br />Mmmm. I thought this was going to be the "Doctor-lite" story of the seaon but it seems that's all been scrapped under the new reign of Steven Moffat. In fact it was more of an "Amy-lite" tale, with the sarcy Scots one stuck in the TARDIS for the majority of the story. Meanwhile separated from his beloved time machine by some freak cosmic disturbance, the Dr is stranded on Earth and tracks down the source of the trouble to the second floor of a house. In order to get closer to the problem, he is forced to infiltrate the house and pose as the lodger of Craig Owens, the tenant occuping the downstairs flat...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgraqRii5BibhoVm8e_QJwNAFSUmDaVChZJax0VoH8TQR8Ye8iXVJm1Aq1qFm3XhDDRY-l-4GiF4mQk9Q7hqiyKUB5HrOm7O-9DcgetRIgzqFTV3uqTlL38CbbWEpk8Tgy66OlKJ_Z8m2Cd/s1600/The+Lodger.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgraqRii5BibhoVm8e_QJwNAFSUmDaVChZJax0VoH8TQR8Ye8iXVJm1Aq1qFm3XhDDRY-l-4GiF4mQk9Q7hqiyKUB5HrOm7O-9DcgetRIgzqFTV3uqTlL38CbbWEpk8Tgy66OlKJ_Z8m2Cd/s400/The+Lodger.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532793566979489394" border="0" /></a>A reasonable enough idea for a story, but it was all a bit lame for my liking. This was a very "human-interest" story, with a lot of the focus taking place on Craig, played by current fave actor James Corden, and his blossoming relationship with co-worker Sophie. Corden is a decent enough actor I guess and with his down to earth manner I can see why people find him endearing. However all of this domestic, lovey-dovey stuff reminded me more of a Russell T Davies story and I was half expecting the Tyler family to pop up at some stage.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcQ078V_ZOqHyTc0ZHWHqk3siDljEa-AREsgeIz1ui3CYJtzv21ihgNW1cJ1y11gXtAOCwBrAqjIgFwTb63BSockNVn0YXr-Ig_xM86VSGN2NjtMp-_mC8SRwoagqkqlDyC8sKybzqAm2/s1600/lodger+2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcQ078V_ZOqHyTc0ZHWHqk3siDljEa-AREsgeIz1ui3CYJtzv21ihgNW1cJ1y11gXtAOCwBrAqjIgFwTb63BSockNVn0YXr-Ig_xM86VSGN2NjtMp-_mC8SRwoagqkqlDyC8sKybzqAm2/s400/lodger+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532791695311483138" border="0" /></a>We also got "comedy Dr" with the Time Lord (gasp!) walking around half naked in a towel, which got me all in a tizzy some time back....<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN0eW2Ex1kt_n4ckkMRouF_XyTtsTAV8UxM_PHzqqmconWDziMclXHGYgAOk2dA-80BQ-jKgPSK_BoL2WiMRnvl6lyohyUObiN8XleJNdG2XZagSEANZjCvOKgkS77z3nwBZfcBqkUURtm/s1600/lodger.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN0eW2Ex1kt_n4ckkMRouF_XyTtsTAV8UxM_PHzqqmconWDziMclXHGYgAOk2dA-80BQ-jKgPSK_BoL2WiMRnvl6lyohyUObiN8XleJNdG2XZagSEANZjCvOKgkS77z3nwBZfcBqkUURtm/s400/lodger.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532791705536035650" border="0" /></a>...and joining Craig and his laddie mates for some footballing shenanigans (a chance for Matt Smith to demonstrate his real life football skills - he nearly became a professional player, but due to a back injury had to forget that one and opt for an acting career instead - all I can say is, good thing, although Mr Smith may not agree...) All mildly amusing and diverting but not exactly rivetting drama. Oh, am I become boring in my old age...?<br /><br />The denouement - that there was an alien spaceship occupying the top floor (which wasn't really a top floor after all) and that the deaths of the human passersby were caused by the aliens in their desire to escape - wasn't very ground-breaking and also felt kind of rushed. The "solution" - Craig admits his love for Sophie, that he doesn't want to leave and then touches the controls - was corny.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikDkryvdOt-6i6js1iOEYwkoZJyLEvKlrxLz-bpDmlndile5TCVEyeJxIqSObviPAcAFIQ-La0SDAxeKqZVdjc_VtFDjEhUNHUP6uhlbKn61tQ6UijsYGvOKGwbRa77OHye8z_vBvwuzPh/s1600/Lodger+4.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikDkryvdOt-6i6js1iOEYwkoZJyLEvKlrxLz-bpDmlndile5TCVEyeJxIqSObviPAcAFIQ-La0SDAxeKqZVdjc_VtFDjEhUNHUP6uhlbKn61tQ6UijsYGvOKGwbRa77OHye8z_vBvwuzPh/s400/Lodger+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532791698105924802" border="0" /></a>James Corden was generally fine as Craig as was Daisy Haggard as Sophie but I couldn't help all thinking of this rom-com stuff was better suited to some 9.30pm show on BBC2. A very average story for me.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2.5 out of 5</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang</span><br /><br />And so we reach yet another season finale. Once more, the concluding two-parter had been hyped up to the max weeks before actual transmission, not least through the recurrent "cracks in time" motif we'd been hammered with in every episode thus far this season. I can honestly say I'd be quite happy to see a concluding story which didn't bear any relation to its preceding ones - for me, (the only ones which I really liked were Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways in Season One and Army of Ghosts/Doomsday in Season Two).<br /><br />The first episode set up things intriguingly: River Song summons the Dr to Stonehenge, Roman Britain, 102 AD, where the fabled Pandorica is found, hidden in a vault beneath the stone circle...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlVtcDL53xNkYyx761HC7vN-8X7ewWgY62ge9jNIPR0QeCs6Ahz8w4YBXTKntvW2X5gZx8JiqB4d4ETAJ70Lrduu_kr77AYiV2spO_EOrjnlE62PYPjjA7LVhE3eiDSzgUQYFXKPYs0XzC/s1600/pando3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlVtcDL53xNkYyx761HC7vN-8X7ewWgY62ge9jNIPR0QeCs6Ahz8w4YBXTKntvW2X5gZx8JiqB4d4ETAJ70Lrduu_kr77AYiV2spO_EOrjnlE62PYPjjA7LVhE3eiDSzgUQYFXKPYs0XzC/s400/pando3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532791061975261266" border="0" /></a>...it transpires that the giant device (which rather reminded me of one of the Borg's ships from Star Trek/that cube thing from the Hellraiser movies all those years back) is opening from inside and transmitting a message across time and space using the rocks of Stonehenge, a signal drawing "everything that ever hated the Doctor" to Earth that night.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2uQLgLpOuU2Z8eT7Y5gxwuVbsT-Rnd526K4M1LHJPb2C67-Jrb1OgCKkx5JyYLSVwlAaX6R4V6_EoU2zNr4rcevtLbAh3oSXGC4RZ9ff4Kf5PGWhI0RYL3Vmt9TfMdTjaI3euKYMpgkvP/s1600/pandorica.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 314px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2uQLgLpOuU2Z8eT7Y5gxwuVbsT-Rnd526K4M1LHJPb2C67-Jrb1OgCKkx5JyYLSVwlAaX6R4V6_EoU2zNr4rcevtLbAh3oSXGC4RZ9ff4Kf5PGWhI0RYL3Vmt9TfMdTjaI3euKYMpgkvP/s400/pandorica.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532791048576027570" border="0" /></a>And lo and behold, just about every baddy from the Doc's past suddenly materialises - Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans etc - orbitting the stone circle. I loved the revelation that the whole Roman world was an imaginary construct/trap devised by the Dr's enemies - ideas that they had taken ideas from books Amy had read as a child, representing Pandora's box and Roman soldiers...<br /><br />And yikes - Rory suddenly reappears, reincarnated as a Roman soldier, with no knowledge of how he ended up there...until it turns out that he, along with the other soldiers, is a now an Auton (an interesting idea which never got sufficiently explained) and he then shoots Amy!<br /><br />The cliffhanger - another revelation that the Pandorica has <span style="font-style: italic;">actually been built to imprison the Dr </span>and does not in fact contain "all the evils of the universe" made for a good twist and set things up promisingly for the next episode...<br /><br />...which is where things all got incredibly complicated for me, with some convuluted techno-speak and plot developments. I found it a bit of a let-down really. The exploding TARDIS in which River was trapped was triggering the end of the Universe. I can't actually be bothered to go into masses of detail here (as you might have realised, my "quick spin" has turned into anything but and one grows tired - <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> probably are by now!!). Except to say:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-eTBnxRrgBdQMVC8aY8GFH2hgOQJESo5zYX0ao_zllcubYdq3DBgSHxP2-whikYrynUD5MvDMYgUD3iNXMJVpa62okY16GPUdBkKe4_Qk6-MW93tEN5nrkGyMvLy_B9uR_vVK3oRnGZiJ/s1600/big2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-eTBnxRrgBdQMVC8aY8GFH2hgOQJESo5zYX0ao_zllcubYdq3DBgSHxP2-whikYrynUD5MvDMYgUD3iNXMJVpa62okY16GPUdBkKe4_Qk6-MW93tEN5nrkGyMvLy_B9uR_vVK3oRnGZiJ/s400/big2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532792295783804194" border="0" /></a>- Nice to say the little girl actress back as young Amy.<br />- The idea of Centurion Rory guarding the Pandorica through the centuries, thus creating a mythology, was a good un - but how did he make sure that he was always there? Oh, he was an Auton and they never die, do they?<br />- All that "Amy's dead except she's not" stuff got too bewildering.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCrPhzv8iE7CtW1R9lmLBP8BSdG2Ile6PzuNTzImRW5IfJcZMLboGdUfF1exZwfh0u5Xc8DaREP6nKIeDBMfzg_8Iq7dqINPhCxivEqydJo2IInt66Bjh76-2uqWVZAesftluTL1TPgfc/s1600/pando5.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCrPhzv8iE7CtW1R9lmLBP8BSdG2Ile6PzuNTzImRW5IfJcZMLboGdUfF1exZwfh0u5Xc8DaREP6nKIeDBMfzg_8Iq7dqINPhCxivEqydJo2IInt66Bjh76-2uqWVZAesftluTL1TPgfc/s400/pando5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532791074772941218" border="0" /></a>- Setting up such an effective cliffhanger with all the Doc's enemies finally getting one over on the Time Lord boded well for the next episode - then when we get there and the Doc manages to escape the Pandorica, they've all been frozen to death!! Threat quickly and too conveniently disposed of, except for a stray, fossilised Dalek that kept getting reactivated and was frankly, annoying...<br />- This leads to my next point - having got rid of the Dr's adversaries so quickly, there was no "real enemy" for the Time Lord in this story. Just a load of techno-gubbins about the TARDIS being at the heart of the Big Bang and the Dr having to pilot the TARDIS back into the explosion to create a second explosion...? I confess I got lost here.<br />- The Dr coming back "from the void/death" at Amy's wedding just because Amy was able to wish it - phew! How convenient!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkYQNQ-uhqf5N3tGe_HUagfLhbHiN5I0Mrc4WOdgCmMP16d-Yc7clqaRqFbpgrJubmOKSGPi-FXK_NQ1r5AhFUo2JO6a9gYVABYrORESDf7nymi27azxAzkksuKadFN1XdQX4luOhCAbv5/s1600/big1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkYQNQ-uhqf5N3tGe_HUagfLhbHiN5I0Mrc4WOdgCmMP16d-Yc7clqaRqFbpgrJubmOKSGPi-FXK_NQ1r5AhFUo2JO6a9gYVABYrORESDf7nymi27azxAzkksuKadFN1XdQX4luOhCAbv5/s400/big1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532792293640135906" border="0" /></a>- The "soapy" focus on Amy and Rory's relationship - again. In some respects their getting spliced felt more important than the so-called universal threat of the Big Bang itself. It's ironic, cos I thought we were moving away from the soap opera theatrics of RTD when Steven M took over as lead writer - but we haven't exactly....<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigoDpnhly2CMv2fFc4RzxYN55CmHzRVps4eq6xJyUIdHdTOxLG-m3AJ7KQr6C83wB62KnN8_Ks8n9-yZLS2TQF1ji7g90krNjj0WxujPZmw9n3rpzjsBKRvqvtNNFZWUJUALnEzt79Ohpp/s1600/pando4.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigoDpnhly2CMv2fFc4RzxYN55CmHzRVps4eq6xJyUIdHdTOxLG-m3AJ7KQr6C83wB62KnN8_Ks8n9-yZLS2TQF1ji7g90krNjj0WxujPZmw9n3rpzjsBKRvqvtNNFZWUJUALnEzt79Ohpp/s400/pando4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532791071224760674" border="0" /></a>- River Song. Alex Kingston really is very good and the presence of her character was one of the saving graces of the story. We were given more tantalising clues about her real identity at the end - who is she? Apparently we find out more next season.<br /><br />Anyway, my overall rating would be:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3 out of 5 - just.</span><br /><br />And that's it for my reviews of Season 5. As I said, so much for the quick spin...but hey guys and gals, I got there eventually!<br /><br />Now I've looked at the series as a whole, I can honestly say that S5 unfortunately left me feeling quite short-changed. The best stories for me were The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below and The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone; most of the rest I rated 3 stars or below and some didn't even make that. There's no doubt that Steven Moffat has a different style of writing to Russell TD, but I'm not entirely sold on his style - in spite of the fact that he penned some of the best stories in previous seasons e.g. The Empty Child/The Dr Dances etc. One aspect of Moffat's new reign that has surprised me has been the sacrificing of "hardcore" sci-fi ideas at the expense of the human interest/relationships stuff. As said, I thought we were moving away from this...I've got to say I've lost a bit of my enthusiasm for the prog and am actually not feeling all that excited about the forthcoming Season 6. (One interesting development about the up and coming next series, in case you didn't know, it's that it's going to be split down the middle on broadcast: the first half of the series will start around March/April 2011 and continue until episode 7 is aired - apparently there's a big mid-season cliffhanger at that point - episode 8 and the remainder of the run will then recommence in the Autumn. At least that way we won't have to wait so long inbetween series, I guess...)<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr1araLyEtKWpcFmHbj7-Dlr5NyG3nSTbf0_rgw2CRdFJEJU3r8vy_g8p-U6ka-KRbm2sjSAddER79IdKYAWyx5N5RElrx5wpMy2BDdU3o1iDfwYiZGhorlYwkIwx3wxOJKGZfyDnhl5C2/s1600/d11-214.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 312px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr1araLyEtKWpcFmHbj7-Dlr5NyG3nSTbf0_rgw2CRdFJEJU3r8vy_g8p-U6ka-KRbm2sjSAddER79IdKYAWyx5N5RElrx5wpMy2BDdU3o1iDfwYiZGhorlYwkIwx3wxOJKGZfyDnhl5C2/s400/d11-214.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532806719361648610" border="0" /></a>One large positive which I won't deny has been the arrival of Matt Smith - a decent actor and he's brought many of the right qualities to the role of the Doctor - quirkiness, eccentricity, intelligence, humour, whackiness and more besides. I really am quite fond of him and prefer him to David Tennant.<br /><br />I feel bad that I have spent a lot of this post whinging, but as I think I've mentioned before, as a pretty big DW fan I am even more critical of the show than some...ho hum! I just can't help the way I feel....But I'm not at the point where I'm giving up on my favourite show quite yet...! Anyway thanks for reading.Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991649353378741618.post-52934748155113701902010-10-26T12:28:00.000-07:002010-10-29T11:32:56.837-07:00What's your poison?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2o4wsYKsEhT35slEwiZmmcmjCC-52DPnwkJlgyOSTsp1HK9qf15jLrN9HDLvg9_v7G2HqfSA_RE7M3YXtzH3pqMKVGwbRRBsRRf7V1vz9JBcillnmBUCX1XWvNELEEnLP6JmQgrhfuVW/s1600/vodka-764418.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 349px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2o4wsYKsEhT35slEwiZmmcmjCC-52DPnwkJlgyOSTsp1HK9qf15jLrN9HDLvg9_v7G2HqfSA_RE7M3YXtzH3pqMKVGwbRRBsRRf7V1vz9JBcillnmBUCX1XWvNELEEnLP6JmQgrhfuVW/s400/vodka-764418.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532445331529498850" border="0" /></a>The other night, a friend introduced me to the delights of birthday cake vodka. Mmmmm mmmm!!!! Sweet and delicious, it slipped down all too easily...<br /><br />Oddly enough I couldn't find much about it on the net, although I did find <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_5224070_create-birthday-cake-shot.html">this recipe</a>. I sampled it in <a href="http://www.revolution-bars.co.uk/">Revolution</a> bar btw...<br /><br />My other favourite tipples are:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm5XMQzUkgabk7Kql-fLYD8YiO7-LfKHpUaqDcQqM_DbKJXBswwzEqPyK1pKvHXuPQgQtiQWlIWfURe7lk4gnGspnjjUHt_bt3MmwjbeSOToX8KFXM19_HuQyuQdVp_Fl_nQRSQdJescJS/s1600/caipirinha.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 234px; height: 338px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm5XMQzUkgabk7Kql-fLYD8YiO7-LfKHpUaqDcQqM_DbKJXBswwzEqPyK1pKvHXuPQgQtiQWlIWfURe7lk4gnGspnjjUHt_bt3MmwjbeSOToX8KFXM19_HuQyuQdVp_Fl_nQRSQdJescJS/s400/caipirinha.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532445348061541730" border="0" /></a>- Caipirinha - my hubbie's influence, it's cool, refreshing and delicious, a perfect Summer drink. The more crushed the ice, the better.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdI-C6jM6Oid52xHm02fkqsKXMPAelSWTZokz-jA0SM70W14jgqoSFSpt77rvQ_fO841s4xfQdF-bz2CAbi979vEQVEBaoB23E1kbIyXKRcBl-RYOGrlJqkbha8J1K3arguZP97Pg-Yj2Q/s1600/pi%C3%B1a_colada.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 338px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdI-C6jM6Oid52xHm02fkqsKXMPAelSWTZokz-jA0SM70W14jgqoSFSpt77rvQ_fO841s4xfQdF-bz2CAbi979vEQVEBaoB23E1kbIyXKRcBl-RYOGrlJqkbha8J1K3arguZP97Pg-Yj2Q/s400/pi%C3%B1a_colada.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532445339700112354" border="0" /></a>- Pina Colada - creamy and lush, I consumed many on these on the beach in Brazil last December. The kind I had there was made with condensed milk, which might sound disgusting but in fact made it taste even more heavenly. And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_%28Rupert_Holmes_song%29">Rupert Holmes</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_%28Rupert_Holmes_song%29"> got it right</a>. So much so that I insist you give this a listen/view <span style="font-weight: bold;">now!!</span> (Slightly odd video, it has to be said...)<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7hf8BJVwdnY?fs=1&hl=en_GB"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7hf8BJVwdnY?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />What else? There's...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_T6L0UZWnVJwLKSPbx58_jDVUvTA8nEEcqFUjRTReOXHL29_Sh3tUWVtkVfVKP8EixywRh24m1snpmKGWjRe4FtXyzs_nBCZc4GYb0XRSCALsqt7SUqXSf9N-KOhmaPnat1a89GYdRFy/s1600/amaretto.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_T6L0UZWnVJwLKSPbx58_jDVUvTA8nEEcqFUjRTReOXHL29_Sh3tUWVtkVfVKP8EixywRh24m1snpmKGWjRe4FtXyzs_nBCZc4GYb0XRSCALsqt7SUqXSf9N-KOhmaPnat1a89GYdRFy/s400/amaretto.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532445320927743042" border="0" /></a>- Amaretto - totally gorge, j'adore most almond-tasting things and this little liqueur tastes good on a lot of other things like ice cream (I also love Amaretti biscuits and gateau!! Anyone want to send me some??)<br /><br />Mmm, are any of you detecting a slightly kitsch-camp drinks theme here? Look, you trying to suggest I may not be into real men's drink?!?! Wanna make something of it?? Shocking as it might seem, I'm also quite partial to...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLqwmqWLicgO5qwBSm9IysPCBpnyCo2u1p_DWwdDwca6iMnWtj6mLACAwYQOIe7aK55uOU89kfO2HvS-RYYStwKZRGp-XGU7Syrvpd0yPKuM33lbyc63pnKzQfkeKGQxO100TP5vdZG4jm/s1600/lager-beer.s600x600.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 312px; height: 385px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLqwmqWLicgO5qwBSm9IysPCBpnyCo2u1p_DWwdDwca6iMnWtj6mLACAwYQOIe7aK55uOU89kfO2HvS-RYYStwKZRGp-XGU7Syrvpd0yPKuM33lbyc63pnKzQfkeKGQxO100TP5vdZG4jm/s400/lager-beer.s600x600.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532445343528415938" border="0" /></a>- good old-fashioned Beer. I was a relatively late convert. In my student days I starting drinking it for the street cred, but now I'm partial to a nice chilled lager...Grolsch be one of my favourites. Stella is good for getting hammered but kind of gives you a headache the next day...<br /><br />So then. Slightly obvious topic but after my vodka experience I wanted to share the boozy <span style="font-style: italic;">lurve</span>. What are <span style="font-style: italic;">your</span> favourite tipples, ladies and gents? This Cheeser wants to hear about it, including all those guilty drinking pleasures of yours....*<br /><br />Now, I do happen to know that <a href="http://morecanterburytales.blogspot.com/">the lovely Amanda</a> has a tipple every Tuesday so she's probably got too many to choose from...<br /><br />* And you know what? I LOVE my kitsch/camp drinks...and anyone who's got a problem with that, well...I'll strap you to a chair, blindfold you, force open your gob and then subject you to 37 screaming orgasms...**<br /><br />** No, you idiots!! I'm talking about the <a href="http://www.in-the-spirit.co.uk/cocktails/view_cocktail.php?id=229">cocktail</a> (another one to add to my list then...)Old Cheeserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17871751335676050949noreply@blogger.com6