[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@whisht

As with Brexit, people have voted for ‘change’.

Older white people have voted for change; but turnout was the worst since 2000. Trump got fewer votes that Obama x 2, Bush x 2, Romney, McCain …. and Clinton.

There is no groundswell of support for him, just a very, very broken electoral (and political) system – much as over here.

Just as, over here, the Labour Party needs to reconnect with its base (something it is failing miserably to do), so must the Democratic Party.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@miapatrick

 ‘anti-establishment’ (in brackets, people like Farage and Trump with their massive fortunes and connections are all talk about being anti-establishment)

That is because they need something to hide that they are playing the race card, the oldest and most disgusting trick in the political book.

There will be blood.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@whisht

Oh, that is splendid! When the BBC still had some balls.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@tardigrade

not a slightly peeved folk-musician.

I dunno. Have you met and angry folk musician?

@Thane15

Are they too much like Mordoe or not enough?

Watered down Mordor.

Good point re Hopkins – the edit may not be doing her any favours.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

I like this and think it is heading in an interesting direction and quite liked the mum blundering in on the illicit rumpy pumpy –  it was well handled in a “sometimes there are things you can’t talk your way out of” way.

My slight concern (and would love to be proved wrong) is that I’m not sure Sophie Hopkins quite has the chops for a part needing such emotional range. She’s not bad, but she ain’t Sarah Michelle Gellar and I think her role really needs her to step up.

Very intrigued by the new head. Unit black ops in a school, @juniperfish. That would be a nice twist.

Agree with the general view that the Shadow-kin are a bit Mordor-lite. We’ve learned that even the Daleks have a culture, so surely this lot need one too.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@Thane15

Away with your relativism, young man.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@missrori

 could make at the end of “Hell Bent” was to keep traveling the universe, but stop caring

No. He knows that a person called Clara, who meant a great deal to him, but who he can now not recognised when she is in front of him, told him to go and “be a Doctor”. And that means caring.

why was it wrong for him to want Clara back?

Because it put her in extreme danger, and he knew this. This was quite clearly explained in  the series.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@ichabod

The initial “Upstairs, Downstairs” series was created by a woman (Atkins?) whose mother was in fact a domestic servant, and very similar attitudes showed up there.

Atkins was (and remains) a firebrand left winger and her Upstairs Downstairs reflected that.

Fellowes is (and has ever been) a Tory toff and his Downton Abbey reflects that.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@thane15

I’m warming to your Uncle already ;).

 

PS Science is GOOD.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@thane15

Mac as in Macintosh, as in Apple Macintosh (see also iPhone, iPad etc).

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@all

If you haven’t caught up with the new Netflix season of Black Mirror, do so post haste.

All the episodes are excellent, but the 4th, San Junipero, is simply magnificent. Sad and beautiful. (it also features Gugu M’batha-Raw, aka Martha’s sister, Tish)

 

OK. That’s a bit of a post splurge so I’ll stop now.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@thane15 @missrori

You realise that new handle is going to get really confusing on your 16th right? 😉

We actually know – because we have been shown in text, many times – that he is both appreciated and loved. The ordinary people of Gallifrey stood between him and many guns; and many other worlds have legends of The Doctor (a Gallifreyan word).

But that isn’t why he does what he does.

 

 

Oh! How awesome is this: the Mac dictionary has Gallifrey in it!

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@mudlark

Tricky, I concur. But it will reward you when you get there (in grim determination to beat Sky viewers to it, I watched the whole of Season 7 over one bank holiday weekend, courtesy of totallylegitimatedownloads.com).

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@miapatrick

OK, fair enough – I get that and wouldn’t argue with it.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@miapatrick

Ram’s relatively easy escape is interesting.

I don’t think it was an ‘easy escape’. He just saw through the bullshit and never gave the seduction a chance. After all, he saw Rachel die in the most brutal way. He was heading straight to anger from last week’s denial (where Tanya was very much in the bargaining stage, while handling it like a poker player). But the episode was very much about bargaining, and not letting yourself get sucked into a fool’s bargain, even at your most vulnerable point.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@missrori

In any case…after he gives up his chance at happiness and lets Clara go….why does he choose to keep being the Doctor in the end?  What he goes through in this story arc goes to show that nobody appreciates his work.  Nobody gives him a miracle when he needs it.

The thing with good people is that they are good whether they are appreciated or not. It is part of the definition. Being ‘good’ for the prize of a pat on the back is just expedience, a mere business transaction.

Being good when nobody even notices? That’s heroic.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@mudlark

And now you can catch up 😉

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

Oh, forgot – handy message for the target demo: resisting being talked into something that is against your best interest by smooth-talking liars.

If only it had been shown before the brexit vote.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@jimthefish

Coalies

Scuttlers.

On another note, has anyone been able to make out who the sponsors of CHA are (in the big sign out front)? I think that might be significant

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

In Ram we had, last week, the denial stage of grief.

Here, in Tanya we, bargaining followed by anger. Lan Kin/Lankin failed to spot the threat of fury because the 5 stages do not always manifest consciously – and also, Tanya is one cool customer under the most intense pressure.

In Ram it is full-on bargaining, of which the snog was perhaps a played card. He knew instantly that Rachel was a fake and what better way to show contempt than snog the first cute girl along. Rebound grief, so to speak. That might not end well.

And of course, poor Matheus being chucked out for being who he is. Metaphor, much?

Poor Quill is, perhaps, doomed to be stuck in anger, but demonstrates that anger can be focused to useful end.

Contemplative in a way the teen-oriented storytelling is not often allowed to be. I liked it.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@severusoswald

It’s a reference to a popular culinary ingredient.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@mudlark

Poe’s Law in action.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@mudlark

Why Sheffield?  I’ve heard posher accents than Charlie’s, but if they wanted to be convincing, couldn’t he and Miss Quill have managed at least a faint approximation of a south Yorkshire accent?

Especially when lots of planets have a north.

(But seriously: I think that is what writers call “a joke” 😉 )

 

PS My 6th form was smart dress, but not uniforms.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@ichabod

Remember when the Doctor held up a cookie pretending it was a button in Victory of the Daleks?

Jammy Dodger.

By the way: the assault on cleverness? Unworthy and unseemly. Never apologise for being clever and never allow anyone to be criticised for being clever. That way Brexit lies.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@tardigrade

Bechdel Test actually. It’s only applied to a work of fiction though, so a character saying that is 4th wall breaking.

Used as it was, it could be construed as a comment on the conversation from Tanya- at a minimum it’s a “meta” comment,

Nope. Being meta is nothing to do with breaking the 4th wall, which specifically refers to directly addressing the audience (the 4th wall in question being the TV screen).

You can have an many meta, knowing and nod-to references to real world issues and fan debate as you like without once breaking the 4th wall.

@puroandson

I found that a tad over textualised:

The area of London where Coal Hill is set is one of the most diverse parts of the UK. Just about any migrant group, from Huguenots on, has passed through and the most recent is a coterie of small technology enterprises doing the whole external economies of scale thing in cheap workspace (except it’s not cheap any more, but that is a whole ‘nother story).

Thus spake an economic geographer.

(Before it got a bit poshed-up, I lived in Shoreditch for a while and was once stood at a bus stop (Hackney, where Shoreditch is, was until very recently the only inner London borough without a Tube station) and was looking at a huge poster listing all the newsagents where I could by a daily or weekly Travelcard. About 90% of them were run by people called Patel. Most of those would have been Ugandan Asian thrown out by Idi Amin).

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

(I see my name has been used in vain above so I shall ignore that)

*Innocent face*

I have a policy with new shows, unless they are obviously bad, to give them at least 4 episodes to see if they find their feet. Not everything grabs you at the first scene, a la Buffy,  but even that had a few wobbles before it got its full groove on.  Often shows have to fight with network tinkering before they get room to breath.

But Ness is a fine writer (and thoroughly decent man who did this amazing thing). I found this, about his book The Rest of Us Just Live Here very telling (from this interview):

 It’s the story of the kids whose story wouldn’t normally be told, and as he reveals in this interview, part of his inspiration for this book is to celebrate the extraordinary things that happen within people’s everyday lives

Sometimes trusting the writer gets rewarded and I reckon Ness has earned the right to that trust.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

Yes, I think this week was “denial”. So a bit of bargaining, followed by some anger, then depression and finally acceptance.

That was the show, not Spawn…

I think Quill has the potential to be one the great characters of the Whoniverse.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

FOREMAN, S

*thud thud thud*

Take more meds 😉

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

Blame the meds.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@craig @puroandson

I reckon that is a good shout from Craig.

Did nobody else notice FOREMAN, S on the memorial board?

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@mystery-is-my-middle-name

The *Governors*

Alluded to by the head earlier in the episode, with a hint of darkness about ’em.

Pretty sure it’s not Clara.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

Does he need a slap?

Yes.

The sin of prejudice needs to be beaten out of the young.

Schools have nerds (the idea that they can’t be pretty is, when you think about it, pretty offensive), bullies, sports and teachers. And in London they have all sorts of accents. (Also, the second episode sets up what I suspect will be a seasonal arc.) And corridors. Seriously, that was a complaint? To write a school-set show that omitted these would be, to put it mildly, odd.

Slap him again.

Also, no Australian is qualified to talk about posh accents.

Slap him again for that. Obviously your medical status means the slaps will be as of a slightly irked butterfly, but it is the symbolism that counts.

(Aside: Watching as Aussie show called Glitch, courtesy of Netflix. )

My (really quite major) issue with YA is that it ghettoises writing about young people. But Ness is one of the best.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

The Barbara Wright Wing….

Am liking this.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

Couple of very nice touches here, and not just the ones at the end:

Coal Hill Roll of Honour

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

The entire Canata is available on iTunes in the UK. Worth checking the Oz store.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/cantata-memoria-for-children/id1145390917

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@arbutus @puroandson

Catfish and the Bottlemen are getting a lot of buzz here now. Name sounds American, is actually derived from an Aussie street performer, so naturally they are Welsh.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@arbutus

Yeah – I was slightly stymied by the attack of the bots. Again.

@puroandson

Go tilt at those windmills!

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

That’s brilliant news – Aussie soccer gets shown over here on BT Sport.

(@arbutus is in full finger-chewing mode as the Blue Jays kick open the door of Last Chance Saloon)

 

(EDIT: Ooh, sorry – even as I typed, the door slammed shut.)

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

: lessening of govt “control” indicative of the so-called “Big Government is Bad”

Yes, but an Academy hasn’t become a private school – it has just had its operation contracted out to a company, rather than the local education authority (ie the council).

So Coal Hill Academy will still be very much and inner city school for inner city people (although I wouldn’t be surprised at some sly digs as the Academy system). Just not run by the London Borough of Gawdblimeyluvaduck.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@blenkinsopthebrave

 I notice that Coal Hill Secondary School has become Coal Hill Academy.

This just means it is a school that has opted out of local authority control. All part of our rancid excuse for a government’s cunning plan, where “cunning” means unable to get out of the 19th Century.

Turns out that multi-school academy operators have no better (or worse) achievement rates than local authorities. Who would have thought that running multiple schools is actually quite hard?

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@tardigrade @puroandson

As the Twitter feed explicitly states (not to mention the choice of author), Class is a YA show. And the references to Hellmouths, Storybrooke and Vampire Diaries in the trailer also indicate its target demographic. But, like Buffy, I would not be too surprised is it manages to break out of its nominal genre.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@rob

Yeah the old brute forcers have been right tiresome of lat.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@craig

*sniffs* I smell a bot in the house….

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@jimthefish

Yep – it gets very hard to maintain ignore that the press (written and broadcast) is now a playground for hugely motivated billionaires, rather than a bastion of freedom.  Private press != free press.

@puroandson

This is the Karl Jenkins piece mentioned in the article link by Jim:

The unmistakable Welsh accent in the hymn; the horror – and the use of silence. Oh my.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@mudlark

Ah, the winter of 1962-63, the coldest of the 20th century in the UK, and one of the coldest on record a

It like to say I remember it, but I was

a) Two;

and

b) Shitfaced.

 

(ooh – soz all – unintended post splurge).

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

It used to be claimed the 2 out of 3 British women wear Marks & Spencers’ knickers.

No clue if there was an equivalent stat for men, but it is still my preferred undercrackers depot.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@arbutus

The Indians appear to be doing to the Jays what they did to the Red Sox. Still, at least the Sox’ll get Encarnation next year…

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

It’s the brewing method and the way the yeasts are used (top or bottom fermenting). VB is a lager (so bottom fermenting)  – a method that comes from Germany,  but it also uses cane sugar to take the edge off, which is a bit naughty. Still nice beer though.

It is not only lagers that aren’t bitter – Porter, stout (eg Guinness), India Pale Ale are all good beers that are not bitter,  but are ale (as opposed to lager).

The point with draught beer is that the only gas (ie fizz) in it is a natural product of fermentation, which does not produce enough pressure to push it out, hence the need to pull it. But that means they need expertise to keep. So brewers try to get away with using injected CO2 in ‘dead’ pasteurised beer served from pressure kegs

Then the most successful consumer campaign in British history stepped in.

(Alive-ness is nowt to do with fermentation style – good German, Czech, Belgian and French beers are also very much alive. But top fermentation is peculiar to the UK.)

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@mudlark

from which is pumped up to the bars

A pedant writes: pulled up to the bars, ie drawn – hence draught.

The stuff that pumped up under pressure is keg beer and, to quote Roger Protz, gnats piss.

PS @puroandson – I quite like VB, even though it is clearly not bitter.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @replies]

@puroandson

Not in August!

[Author]

Posts