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In my opinion, fabulous. I loved the tone. I loved the Master/Missy interplay. I remember feeling hints of what the Simm master could have been, if he hadn’t been written so over-the-top. This was it, just really good. The Master as the ultimate narcissist. Of course, the Doctor’s wonderful speech “explaining himself” to the Master. Pearl Mackie’s performance. Nardole was written and played to perfection. The scene in the TARDIS. For the first time, I felt that I really that I understood why the Doctor would be resistant to regeneration, that after so many, many changes, he would just have had enough. Particularly as the adjustment this last time was so difficult.

I loved the resolution of the bad Master/good Missy conundrum. This was exactly what I had hoped for, something that doesn’t completely erase the development we have seen over this series, but doesn’t mess too much with the mythology. We were left with the impression that Missy is permanently dead, but that can’t be right, can it? I guess we shall see, in the fullness of time. I hope that before the end, Capaldi Doc knows that Missy tried to stand with him, that his work with her was not for nothing. I guess they both had their “without hope, without witness” moments, in the end.  🙂

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Oh, and Michelle Gomez just kicked a** in this. I’ve never loved her more!

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Holy… crap.

I was enjoying this to pieces, and with the line “It took me awhile to work out who you were…”, well, I lost it. I felt like I was the one with the exploding cyber-heart. So beautifully put together, balance of suspense and humour, the visuals, the soundtrack. The reveal was so fabulously done that even knowing what was coming, it was still out of this world. Oh, Peter, I will miss you.

“Don’t change the channel.” “A week raising his eyebrow. Why would I change?”  🙂

I can’t even imagine what is coming. Tragedy and hope, I suppose.

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@thane15   @janetteb   I was poised to pop in last evening, cocktail in hand, and then realized that everyone was talking about the latest episode which I hadn’t yet seen! So I fled the area, trying desperately to avoid spoilers.

Thanks on Arbutus Jr.’s behalf and my own for your wishes (and for Puro’s delightful track on the music thread). I don’t think he realized quite what a milestone it is until it happened. I managed not to cry as he walked across the stage, but for some reason, I kept tearing up every time the words “Class of 2017” were mentioned!

Things are settling down a bit now, and I can see I have a load of catching up to do around here. My thoughts have been with the people of London, they seem to have been hit hard by the vagaries of life lately. Just a lot of astonishing things going on in the world in general, too much to keep up with. Hugs to everyone everywhere.

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It’s worse than jazz.

 

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This has to be my favourite of the series. The setting, the setup, the soundtrack, the return of the “uniting against a common enemy” theme. And then the last ten minutes nailed it for me. I’ll have to watch it again before I can be more coherent, but I loved this.

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Hi, @Thane15/Puro.   Very far behind indeed on responding to your thoughts here. Arbutus Jr. graduated high school this week and it’s been all-absorbing. I had a chance to watch Lie of the Land last week but no more than that, so I’m just getting caught up now.

My thoughts about the soundtrack were that it was beautifully understated and therefore, for me, very effective. Other than a brief appearance of the 11th Doctor theme, I didn’t pick up specific references so much as a lovely mixture of musical styles. I particularly noted the music used during the lab scenes, and the way it subtly changed in intensity as the situation became more ominous. It was punctuated by sounds that reminded me of the cloister bell of the TARDIS.

There was also a lovely violin theme when the Doctor was explaining what asking for the Monks’ help would ultimately mean. This came back as the Doctor finally admitted his blindness to Bill.

I see a note that I made remarking on Nardole’s answer to the question, “What do you depend on?”: “Air, water, food, beer.”  🙂

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I enjoyed this. We’re now right back to the feeling that we were getting pre the Monk trilogy, that lovely old-school-Who feel. Partly due to the presence of the Ice Warriors, but also the straightforward, simple, but emotive characterizations of the supporting characters— our “cowardly” leader who redeemed himself, our blustering, militaristic second-in-command who you knew was going to create problems, and who proved to be even less admirable in the end.

Wondering of course about the ending, and what Missy sees that we don’t. I’m also wondering whether she did in fact demand something of Nardole in return for her help, and if so, what that might have been. Has Nardole been compromised? My guess is that if/when Missy “reverts to type”, there will be tragedy involved, possibly as much for her as for the Doctor. I don’t think it will be straightforward.

I’m picking up a theme of alliances, standing together, the bundle of sticks being stronger than single sticks. I wonder if that foretells anything for the coming events?

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@whisht    Holy crap.  🙂

The question was certainly tongue-in-cheek; I hardly expected such a nuanced response! My son has taken to asking this question whenever he meets an Arsenal supporter (he isn’t one himself, so his interest is more academic, but he follows the sport pretty closely). But at this point, after having won the FA Cup, I’d have thought it would have become a tiny bit moot. However, sports fans can be rabid beasts. They are always screaming for heads! I think your comparison to DW “fandom” is an interesting one.

Anyway, congratulations! (Although, wine and Radiohead—a dangerous combination?)

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@whisht     Arbutus Jr. follows the British and European football fairly closely, so I hear a fair amount more than I would have in times past. Having interpreted your words and extrapolated things from them, I think Arbutus Jr. would ask you this question: “Are you Wenger-in or Wenger-out?”  🙂

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Before I get going, can I beg people not to keep referring to the “next time” clips which not everyone has seen? I believe those are considered spoilers on the episode forums (I certainly consider them as such).

@ichabod @tardigrade (and anyone else who mentioned this)  Agree about the aliens’ notion of love and consent. It occurred to me on second viewing that they keep saying consent must be offered in love (rather than fear or strategy), and they made it clear that this is because they themselves must be loved. Bill’s consent is given (at least partly) out of love for the Doctor . So there maybe be a basic communication/comprehension problem here.

I sympathize with those who felt underwhelmed by the episode. I will admit to some plot hole/logic issues here and there. For instance, I couldn’t believe that Bill never picked up on the Doctor’s blindness as she stood next to Nardole giving him a play-by-play of what he ought to have been able to see for himself.

I agree with @thane15 (Puro) that the realization of the monsters is never an issue for me personally. I also like the idea that “consent to power” is a theme that will hopefully be relevant in the next episode. (Also, @thane15, good call out on the connection to the Doctor’s lecture in the opening episode!)

Also, Puro, I enjoyed reading your thoughts about Bill and fully agree! Further, I’m not sure why anyone would feel that her depth of love for the Doctor hangs on the number of off-world trips she has taken with him. If he saw potential in her that others didn’t, and undertook to help her reach it, wouldn’t that be enough?

@brewski   Did anyone else think: “a ship disguised to look like a pyramid?  You mean like a TARDIS?!   Yes! So much so that I was very surprised it wasn’t referenced in the script.

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@fatmaninabox (aka FatVanWinkleInASofa) In our sofa, you could have lived for a year on the corn chip crumbs and beer nuts left behind by Arbutus Jr. Good to see you you survived.

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I liked the soundtrack. On my next watch, I’ll be paying closer attention to it because the bits I noticed were very effective.

In the relationship between this episode and “Extremis”, it seems to me that because of those events, the Doctor, before we meet the aliens or even hear about the pyramid, is familiar with the level of the threat. He knows what these guys are capable of. Also, I think there is a lot to be taken from the theme, rather than the events. Truth. Without hope, without witness, and so on. Goodness “in extremis”. I’m getting those quotes wrong, but you get the idea. I think the whole world is about to be “in extremis”. As some have said, I’m holding off on a complete point of view until I see what is to come.

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@thane15    I agree that the “without reward” etc. is fairly key. I wonder if it will apply to Missy.

On the subject of exposition, I don’t think that the decision to ask for help would be considered exposition, it’s still an action as far as I can see. Exposition sets up action, but action can also set up action (if that makes sense!). The mistake the trio made, in my view, was not realizing that there could be other reasons than fear that might render their surrender “impure”. My mistake was in thinking, “No way will they ever get anyone to surrender to their dominion out of love”, because I was thinking that the love had to be directed toward the aliens. I didn’t consider that the surrender might be out of love for someone else, as happened with Bill.

I can’t believe these aliens are Cybermen, as their rules of engagement seem diametrically opposed. The Cybermen never needed an invitation!

I was never a Dallas watcher, but in those days you couldn’t pick up a newspaper in these parts without reading about the show. It was UGE.  🙂

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Random replies to some of your excellent comments:

@miapatrick     I imagine the sight restorers are either in his office or in the TARDIS, probably not in his pocket.

@wolfweed  To be fair, it wasn’t world peace, only a temporary agreement between three people. It’s hard to imagine it would have survived for long. The Fenric situation was similar.

@phaseshift   I like your thoughts about the Veritas.

@thane15    Good point about Bill being much less self-confident than Clara.

@countscarlioni   I can only imagine that the three military leaders saw it as a temporary surrender, and couldn’t conceive of the aliens being too powerful to be overthrown. I suppose a certain kind of military mind might not be able imagine ultimate defeat! And this:  Cheap parts always lead to trouble.  Ha!

@geoffers    Nice thought about the Loom of Life.

@winston   If he didn’t catch anything, what the heck was there to talk about?  🙂  I thought of The Stand, too. Best of Stephen King in my view, for the absolutely devastating opening chapters detailing the escape of the virus and its unstoppable march over the world.)

@pedant   It was the central Capaldi-Doctor dilemma – how do you choose when all the choices are bad?     Agreed, I think this is very key to the current incarnation.

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Okay. This completely exceeded my expectations. Plenty of suspense, just enough plot twists, and the ending wasn’t what I expected at all. Brilliant.

I’m looking forward to reading all of your thoughts on what we saw and what might be coming next!  🙂

 

 

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@blenkinsopthebrave    Thanks for the tip. I should have thought to check that, as I know they are doing a lot more of that 21st-century stuff on the CBC nowadays.  🙂

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@winston @thane15     Real Doctor, at the beginning of the episode, said to Missy-in-the-vault, “They mustn’t know I’m blind.” So he hasn’t done anything to them yet at least. I wonder if he will get the idea from Digital Doctor? I think that goes beyond timey-wimey.   🙂

Yes to “a good deal of fun”. I don’t think any other AG Doctor has been quite as good as the off-beat little asides that turn a serious situation humorous. Capaldi has such a quiet, dry delivery, it’s a delight.

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@craig    You absolutely did. It wasn’t specifically your comment that triggered the thought, there were a few people who said something similar. I love your multi-Doctor Christmas episode idea!

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@pedant    Apparently you have hidden depths!  🙂

I haven’t seen any of it, but I’ve heard good things. I missed it when it aired on the CBC, so will have to wait because, ironically, it isn’t currently available on Netflix Canada. Don’t get me started.

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I just got through rewatching this and loved it even more the second time around. Just a quick comment to those who have suggested that the episode is merely window dressing for a small bit of arc exposition. In a reductionist sense, I suppose this is true. Some here will be familiar with Schenkerian analysis in music, in which the entire contents of something like Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is reduced to a single dominant-tonic cadence. I have never had much time for this thinking. An extended cadence isn’t why we love Beethoven 9. We love it for the orchestral colour and brilliant vocal writing, and the inspired use of thematic material to express emotions. We love it because it moves us.

This episode was more than just the dominant-tonic of Missy and the invasion. This used compositional tools to convey fear, horror, despair, and hope. The amazing moment of introspection when digital Doctor realizes that belief is all he is. Something that was created from the Doctor’s beliefs, which are strong enough to allow digital Doctor the understanding that he truly is the Doctor, that we all can be the Doctor.

Without hope, witness, or reward. I wonder how that idea is going to return in the upcoming episodes?

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@thane15   Puro, you have written some interesting things here, but I really will need to get in my re-watch before I can engage with them sensibly!

@blenkinsopthebrave     I personally find that no matter how familiar the tropes, if they are wrapped up in sufficiently interesting paper and shiny bows and ribbons, I don’t recognize them until the unwrapping/viewing is done. Which is great, because it doesn’t inhibit my fun.  🙂

 

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@tardigrade     The CERN scientist, when asked what they were doing, said, “Saving the world”. That suggests that it wasn’t escape, but foiling the plans of the simulators, that was the goal. Presumably also true for the clerics, as that goal might be viewed of being worth going to hell for, and a president who thought he was helping his people.

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@thane15     It’s true about Moffat’s book/story themes, even as far back as the Silence in the Library two-parter. And I love this: The book can be a TARDIS of its own, in my opinion, and can appear in several places at different times.

Puro, I love your post 57766, about the expectation of genuineness and truth from others. This is a theme I’ve thought a lot about recently in the course of my writing. And this: CERN -a bastion of scientific hope with a panoply of energetic ideas.

And one more: Because what are the monsters really in Doctor Who?  This has definitely been a theme this series, monsters that aren’t really monsters, so you might be on to something!  🙂

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@wolfweed @whisht

I was terribly excited about the Doctor’s reference to the female pope, because of the mythology of Pope Joan in the 9th century, possibly intersecting with the Benedict of that time. Until I saw @wolfweed‘s post and realized that the Doctor’s pope was Pope Benedict the 9th, not Pope Benedict in the 9th century.  🙁   I said I needed a rewatch, serves me right. But, like Robin Hood, I think different versions of the legend move her around a bit. So maybe the Doctor knows that Pope Ben the 9th and Pope Joan were one and the same?   🙂

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Great comments! Some thoughts back:

@miapatrick     Yes. No new stories. Only new, interesting versions of the old ones. And what is good to one person is boring to another, and so on. We’ve had this discussion around here many times. Science vs. fantasy, action vs. emotion, plot vs. character, and all the positions along the spectrum between those extremes.

@craig   I didn’t mind “it was all a dream” in this case. Because it wasn’t clear (to me, at least) until just about the end. It was for me a slow reveal and very much fun to watch, with a lot of interesting ideas packed in.

@ blenkinsopthebrave     I think Nardole has been getting stronger and stronger. “Are you secretly a badass?”   🙂

@pedant   I loved the Doctor’s comment about “those things you shoot at” thinking they’re real. I took that as a brief commentary on first person shooter games.

@mudlark   Love your post!

@jimthefish   Perhaps the computer simulation couldn’t predict Trump. No one else did! 🙂

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I think I’ll need to watch this again before I can comment coherently. Mind-blowing. On first look, it seems to me to be a complete right-turn from the themes we’ve been seeing up to now. We’ve gone from home, family, care straight to the heart of things—veritas.

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Well, everyone has about covered my reactions to this. I am really loving Capaldi in this series. Everything somehow feels less “over-the-top” than it has often felt. I suppose, as we make our way toward the finale, that this will change, which is okay. But the energy, passion, and wit of this Doctor continue!

One thing of note for me: the opening sequence was almost too effective! I have a particular issue with scenes built around breathlessness, when my own lungs tend to stop working in sympathy. This scene was so physically uncomfortable that I almost didn’t think I could keep watching. Then it did a complete about face, and I realized that the immediate threat wasn’t asphyxiation, but zombies! It did make me laugh.

I loved the Doctor’s lecture, and the quick skyward glance when Nardole accused him of “missing space”. I thought Nardole was used very effectively throughout. And after an inspiring speech, the sudden lightening of the Doctor’s tone when he said, “We’re fighting the suits.”  🙂 There were a lot of lines and moments throughout. I’m hoping to make time for a rewatch this week, so I can catch some of them.

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@thane15   Love that ragtime Beethoven! When I was in high school, our musical one year was Gay 90’s musical review, complete with singers, stand up comedy, and staged melodrama. I was the pianist, and I got to dress up in a long pink dress and floppy hat, and accompany the entire thing on a piano that had been retuned to that style. It was some of the best fun I had in high school!

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I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on this thread, but I just wanted to post this link for @thane15 (Puro):

good morning pic.twitter.com/Ut6RYpyVAH

— Igor Levit (@igorpianist) May 8, 2017

(@pedant, don’t trample on my dreams. When I was 12 or so, Tony Orlando was my idea of perfection! 🙂 )

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@missrori    Interesting. I confess I’ve stayed away as much as possible from any information about what’s to come. However, based on even the little we know about the vault, that doesn’t seem surprising.

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@mudlark   If you accept the premise of alien woodlice, then it doesn’t require a great deal more effort to suspend disbelief as regards their alien powers.    In my view, a lot of DW watchers need to be told this a lot more often!  🙂

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Who is in the vault? So far, I’m leaning toward the Master, except that it seems too obvious to be a fun reveal. @blenkinsopthebrave, I thought all through Series 8 that “Missy as Master” was way too obvious for Moffat!  🙂   But I suppose the surprise could be more in the line of “how/why” rather than “who”. The Doctor doesn’t fear whomever it is, but Nardole definitey does!

@thane15  i’m currently holding to the belief that the music choices were made for reasons of mood. The emotive Bohemian feeling of the Bach sonata, the contemplative melancholy of Fur Elise.“The typical annoying opening is like a ‘stutter’ for children who often play the first bar repeatedly!” One of my current students is a bright little autistic girl, who never plays a piece the same way twice (meaning different mistakes every time!). The number of repeats on that stutter varies from only a couple extra to multitudes!

Am I imagining things, or did Roger Delgado’s master once play the organ?

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Very much enjoying the feel of all these episodes. I’m thinking that emotionally, this is the lowest key doctor since Tom Baker. Like @countscarlioni, I like the scope of the threats as well. We’re definitely seeing a thread of villains who aren’t really villains. I confess it’s a theme that resonates with me. Increasingly in the world as it has become, I’m finding myself wanting to believe that most people really don’t mean any harm. (@Redlemons, even before the “reveal” at the end, I wasn’t thinking of the lice as the villains, rather the landlord who was using them.) I also agree with @blenkinsopthebrave about the parent/child references. I feel as though there as a theme of “care” running through the series, which would tie in with the vault. I’ve only watched each episode once, though, so I’ll have to go back and look at them all again.

Loved this line: “I was never in with a chance! Awesome!”

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@thane15      Actually, I think that would be very cool.  🙂

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I’m just loving this series so far. As others have pointed out, the plot of this episode wasn’t exactly ground-breaking, but was interesting and effectively done. Nice visuals. As with last week’s, I’m enjoying the calmer pace. @jimthefish mentioned Tom Baker. I felt that connection in many ways from the start of Capaldi’s run (despite the wardrobe referencing Pertwee), and I agree that it feels even stronger this series.

I found the opening scenes disturbing enough that I actually thought, “I don’t know if I’m going to enjoy this one!” But using those scenes to establish the threat actually allowed the story to breathe a lot more. We knew the danger facing Bill and the Doctor, so we didn’t have to be reminded constantly, and thus were allowed more time with the characters—essential in this case, as we are just getting to know Bill, and Bill is just getting to know the Doctor. But this is always my favourite approach to fiction. I like to see moments of normality, and humour, and in recent years, the stories haven’t always allowed for that. I expect that as the series ramps up, so will the action, but for now, I’m really enjoying the pace.

Absolutely agree with @blenkinsopthebrave regarding language and communication as themes. It’s interesting to see ideas that have been explored by writers of previous generations being looked at again using today’s currency. In that light, I had no problem with the resolution. Mr. Arbutus works in IT, and his first questions when anyone experiences glitchy tech are “Did you try rebooting it? Did you try unplugging and replugging?” Oddly enough, this does frequently work.

I’m not a big user of emojis, although a fair number of hearts and smiley faces go back and forth between myself and the other Arbutuses (probably because we text one another pretty frequently). I have been known to send out beer/wine/cocktail emojis near the end of a tough day!

Noted: For someone so sci-fi savvy (“I know a mind wipe when I see one”), I thought Bill was a little slow in understanding the nature of the pods. Oh well, maybe she and I haven’t read the same books! 🙂

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🙂  🙂  🙂   That was real old-school stuff, I loved it to pieces. The university setting, the relaxed pace, the emphasis on suspense rather than a lot of shouting and shooting. And the best soundtrack I have heard in awhile. I didn’t pick up all the references that others mentioned, but I got some of them. I will pay attention to that aspect when I watch it again. I appreciated the reference to a series arc without it being too heavy-handed, as I’ve always preferred less of an emphasis on the arc.

It reminds me too of a thought I have occasionally had, that I miss the days when we changed companions more frequently, not due to any particular like/dislike, but simply the chance to create a new dynamic, and keep seeing the Doctor through new eyes.

Bill is fantastic, I love the concept of the fry-cook attending lectures, and the Doctor picking her out of the crowd. She’s gutsy without being unbelievable, clever without being annoying. (Did anyone else notice her question about if the Doctor is from another planet, how is it that TARDIS can stand for “time and relative dimension in space”? I did a little fist pump when she came out with that!) I hadn’t been pumped one way or the other about the inclusion of Nardole, but I thought it actually worked very well, to have him as a bit of a bridge between the Doctor, who is even more alien even than your average alien, and the new companion. And he definitely wasn’t overdone on the silly side. (I did love him commenting to the Doctor that “you can be a little silly sometimes”.)

I haven’t read all of the comments yet, but I look forward to doing that, and hearing all of people’s wise and interesting thoughts. Nice to see lots of familiar “faces”!

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@mudlark   Your cats in the hot cross buns story was wonderful. Just the thought of cats eating raw dough had me laughing. Sundance is a lovely name for a cat! I had a Siamese many years ago, named Starbuck, who spent one memorable summer going from neighbour to neighbour, being fed by them all, because he was so goodnatured and gentle that they couldn’t resist- it took me quite awhile to figure out why he was getting so heavy! Kramer the rescue cat has learned to let us sleep through the night, but he does get terribly lonely around 6am, so heaven help us if we roll over or stretch. But when he really goes to town is when the alarm comes on at 6:45. He is a very vocal kitty, and he just starts letting us have it the minute the music starts. Forget about an extra 5 minutes! 🙂

@thane15/Puro   As always, your story reduced me to hysterical laughter (fortunately, I had finished my tea!).

@janetteb   Back in the day, all this off-topic stuff would have been modded all the way to outer space. It’s anarchy these days (but fascinating!). Interesting your comment about the dry goods. Lately, most of our grocery stores here have “bulk” sections, where you can scoop your dry goods from bins. We are going backwards apparently.

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And now I will have to go back and read the lengthy posts which look very interesting, but I will just say @winston, how extremely cool! I love that kind of history, how exciting finding your very own. What have you done with all the swag?

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Just found this interview on the NY Times (apologies for their maddeningly long URLs, not my fault!).

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/arts/television/peter-capaldi-prepares-for-his-final-season-of-doctor-who.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=4&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F04%2F10%2Farts%2Ftelevision%2Fpeter-capaldi-prepares-for-his-final-season-of-doctor-who.html&eventName=Watching-article-click&_r=0

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@mudlark    Your research sounds interesting. What allure can modern weeds hold in the face of 15th-century fields?  🙂  Temperatures are just starting to creep up into double digits here, so I haven’t done much yet. This will come. My alternate reality this past few months has circled between the world of the writing and the world of the 17-year-old son. Graduation approaches and with it a seminal realignment of the world as we know it.

@thane15      Hello, Hybrid! Ha. Thane would not be wrong. Writing these days is definitely a black hole, although it shoots me out just in time to prepare dinner, or make it to teaching on time, but certainly not soon enough to iron the shirts or clean the bathroom. Sorry, guys, I promise I’ll get that done tomorrow! 🙂

I gather you all are not drowned. Thank goodness. I saw some horrifying footage, but I think the worst of it was to the north of you? Why is it with water, that so often there is either not enough or too much? You all sound as if you’re holding your own with remarkable fortitude! I trust no serious damage has been done to the home, and so fortunate that you didn’t lose power.

Arbutus Jr. would envy you your “Flood Day”; this past winter was actually the coldest of his entire life, and still no Snow Days for the public schools. They just don’t close them here, most kids just don’t live far enough from the schools for it to be necessary. The private schools tend to close up, but they have a wider-spread population. He was in New York for a week on a music tour, and they had a big blizzard the second day which shut down the city. He sent me an unnatural photo of empty streets in lower Manhattan. So their performance in New Jersey was cancelled, and they all slept in and spent the afternoon shopping instead. It’s been some kind of year everywhere, hasn’t it?

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Lost in the (well-deserved) uproar of Chuck Berry’s passing, was the loss of James Cotton. I saw him here, sometime during the early eighties, what a performer. Magical sounds, exhausting to watch.

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That was an interesting list altogether. A surprising amount of older music on there. Mind you, we gave our son’s girlfriend a gift certificate to a local classical/jazz store that carries a lot of records as well as CD’s. Retro girl that she is, she asked them if they had “In the Mood” on vinyl!

One imagines that, had Delia been male and, say, German, she wouldn’t have been forgotten. Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, when I was studying music, we had to listen to a considerable body of work by people like Stockhausen, Varèse, and Berio. Even at a time when the textbooks were making an attempt to include works by women (including some rather second-rate repertoire), Delia didn’t come up. We learned about Hugh Le Caine, a pioneer of the synthesizer, because he was Canadian, but I’ll bet he isn’t referenced much in other countries.

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Many things return in the spring. Ospreys, pollen, my energy, etc. Is the return of the ospreys the first sign of spring in Wales? I like to say that the first sign of spring in Vancouver is when Bellagio’s Gelato reopens on Main Street (this hasn’t happened yet). Spring has been a little slow arriving this year, as we actually had winter for once. No cherry blossoms yet. But daffodils are starting to open! I’ve spent much of the winter with my head in alternate realities, but I’m pulling myself out now to get out into the garden as soon as it stops raining.

I hope everyone has made it successfully through the winter (or summer, as the case may be), surviving blizzards, floods, droughts, and political upheaval of all sorts. Love to all, especially the lurkers!

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@whisht @Thane15    I was actually listening to Giant Steps just the other day. I have to be in the right mood for it as I find it a bit chaotic at times. Coltrane is actually playing on Kind of Blue, and I love him there. Isn’t that the best pickup band ever? Cannonball Adderley on the alto. I love this track (Miles Davis and Art Blakey are on it as well!)

Anything by Oscar Peterson makes me happy. Oddly, I have all the tracks you linked to except the Peterson one, and I have a lot of Oscar! 🙂 I especially like his classic trio, with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown.

As for the cantina music, I think Williams might have been channelling the Benny Goodman Quartet, rather than the orchestra. Lionel Hampton on the vibes.
Is this the most epic version of I Got Rhythm ever?

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Apparently 2016 has not finished kicking us yet.  🙁   I’ve just learned that we’ve lost Leonard Cohen.

 

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@thane15      Canadians, by and large, share your views about that kind of patriotism. The former Harper government tried to tell us differently, but it didn’t go so well in the end. Love to your mom!

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@pedant     The maps are fascinating. I followed last night on the New York Times website, which had the interactive map front and centre, and yes, it was very clear very quickly that most urban areas were going Democratic. We have a similar disconnect in Canada. Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal have rarely supported Conservative governments (although the suburbs are a different matter). I am pleased to note that all the places in the States for which I have an affection went pretty much blue, and my husband, having grown up in Massachusetts, was proud of the result there. The wonderful Garrison Keillor had a piece in the Washington Post this morning in which he said that Trump had won the uneducated vote.

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@lisa      Re Hillary Clinton. Speaking from a Canadian point of view, here she would actually be considered a centre-right politician, with a progressive streak in some areas. Before the Harper years, this type of right-wing party was as right as it usually got in Canada! But many Canadians understand why support for Sanders never really translated into support for Clinton, she’s too hawkish, and too pro-business, for a lot of people here. (Not everyone, obviously!) It seems to me now that where the Democratic Party made their mistake was in not ensuring a robust primary where it could truly be determined if Clinton would have the necessary support. Too many potential candidates chose to stay out of it and leave the path clear for Clinton, presumably out of some notion that it was “her turn”. Coronations are rarely a good idea in political parties.

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@whisht       Great choices.  🙂  Stan Rogers died far too young in a plane crash, so his career was cut short after only a few recordings, but he is much loved as his songs really reflect traditional Canadian culture, from sea to sea to sea (although he was an easterner himself). Barrett’s Privateers doesn’t actually reference a specific historical event, although I understand that it’s very descriptive of the era of the privateers sailing out of Halifax. I’ve always loved the power of the refrain as a kind of anti-war voice, the anger of someone who was lied to, used, and discarded. I think it was that emotion that put the song into my head today!

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