Tag Archive for 'Doctor Who'

Holy Crap! I’m 38…

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on July 6, 2008
in Larks, Movies and TV
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Birthday Cake

…How did that happen? Well, having celebrated more than plenty on Friday night, I opted for a quiet night in on the day itself. “Let’s stop in with a DVD” says I, “Something light and fluffy. Nothing too heavy. A romantic comedy perhaps…” But instead I ended up watching “Reign Over Me” which is a movie about friendship, and about loss and it does have a lot of light humour in it but also what you might call a deep sea of sadness. I recommend it. Don Cheadle is always good but Adam Sandler’s performance was outstanding. Rent it! Here’s the trailer:

That was a really good movie. The chocolate cake and champagne I had after was nice too… AND・・・Thanks very much to my sister Sheila for the You Must Celebrate! Dalek birthday card. That made me laugh out loud! Oh, and I just watched the last episode of Doctor Who tonight (glad to see that I’m not alone in that), and I’m glad (yet sad) at how all those loose ends got tied up. Davros was supramegalomaniacally excellent. The bit with Rose choked me up. Donna’s exit from the show did my head in totally… I’m glad David Tennant is still the Doctor. And I’m gutted there won’t be a full series next year… Saturday’s just aren’t the same without him, eh? I’ll definitely be home with the family for the Xmas Special.

Here are a couple of pictures from Nakano-kun’s second Takoyaki party last Wednesday, that I haven’t had a chance to post till now. Below are left to right: Miyazaki-san, China-san, Miyabe-san, some daft git in glasses and Nakano-kun.

Takoyaki

And here is the same bunch but with Yamamoto-san on the far left. We had a good time!

Takoyaki 2

Sentiment

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on June 30, 2008
in Movies, Music, TV and Whales
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Here’s a nice story I spotted on Japan Probe today: Elementary schoolers watch whalemeat processing.

Clutching a notebook and a pencil, Yuna and her classmates occupied the front row of the crowd Wednesday, bending forward to watch a 10-metre (33-foot) animal — the town’s first catch of the three-month season — be dismembered.

“Look! That’s her heart!” Yuna said to her friends with her face half covered by her hand. “Oh no, so much blood is gushing out.” LINK

Which totally reminded me of this old strip from the Perry Bible Fellowship: The Golden Ticket.

I went to see Indiana Jones at the weekend. “I’ll probably cry at the end - it being the last one.” I joked, just before going in. And then right at the end, as the stirring strains of the Indiana Jones theme started up for the last time and Harrison Ford seized his hat from “Junior”’s hands before striding out the church, and because you know there is, and can only be, one Indy Jones to wear that hat or crack that whip, I felt little pin-pricks of moisture spring to my eyes and trickle down my cheeks. I enjoyed the movie (although it did have some incredibly silly moments). I don’t think it’s as good as the earlier Indiana Jones movies but it’s still a good addition to the series and I enjoyed it.

Then last night I was watching the penultimate Doctor Who of this series and it does look an awful lot like the Doctor is regenerating. But then, there’s no word on the net (nothing I can find anyway) about David Tennant quitting or anyone else taking over the role so… is he? A shame if Tennant does quit, because he’s a good Doctor. That and as the last two Doctors have been really good, I’m afraid the next one will be a Colin Baker type or even worse… a Sylvester McCoy. Eek. By the way, never watch Doctor Who just before going to sleep. I had the Doctor and Indiana Jones running through some very vivid dreams last night and woke up completely exhausted this morning.

Here’s the latest song from Michael Franti. Not one of his best but still Michael Franti, so who cares?

Doctor Who

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on May 21, 2008
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There’s a fresh post up on Deep Kyoto tonight of Nest; a wan-chan cafe for dogs and dog-walkers.

The big news for Doctor Who nerds is that Russell T. Davies is stepping down from the helm and handing over the reigns of power to Steven Moffat. A wise move as pretty much everything Steven Moffat writes for the series seems to win some kind of major prize or award (scares the crap out of the kiddies too). LINK

I’ve been watching the current series over the last few weeks and I am very happy with it. Since the demise of Eccleston’s 9th Doctor, the writing has been quite patchy, but with the exception of last week’s episode it has all been top-notch; they’ve brought back UNIT, travelled to distant planets and ancient Pompei, reaquainted us with the Sontarans (old enemies from the classic series)… and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble has (surprisingly) proven to be an excellent companion, bringing the Doctor right down to earth (so to speak). However, last week’s episode seemed a bit crowded to me. We had Agatha Christie and a real murder mystery for the Doctor to solve - did we really need a giant (and rather silly) wasp from a far distant galaxy to be the perpetrator? Regardless, I remain a loyal Doctor Who otaku and shall watch Mr. Moffat’s next scripted episode in one week’s time with eagerness and glee (and possibly a bottle of sweet summery ramune). LINK TO TRAILER.

Monday’s Bit’s and Pieces

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on June 11, 2007
in Music and TV
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Just a few bits and bobs tonight:

There’s a fresh (very fresh) restaurant review up on Deep Kyoto now, for all ye who are interested in falafel (those golden balls of goodness).

And…have you heard of Tv Links? Some time ago my good friend Philippe introduced me to TV Links. It’s a curse. I’m watching TV all the time now. I’ve gotten through all of Black Books (which I love), revisited the entire Father Ted (brilliant!), and am now wading my way through Firefly and Casanova (both of which I heartily recommend). Basically, I’m catching up on all the good stuff I never got to see because I’m out HERE - adrift in Asia…

Now, I was watching Casanova last night and I was thinking: “that’s funny”. What’s funny is that the actor who played Casanova (David Tennant) now plays Doctor Who and both series also had the same writer. No, actually that’s not especially funny, what’s funny is that David Tennant seems to be playing both Casanova and Doctor Who as exactly the same person complete with all the same verbal ticks: “Ah! - Erm… Yes! - Sorry! Nice to meet you! I’m Giacomo Casanova/The Doctor. ” (Invariably folowed by inane grin). But whereas, Casanova was well-written and had Peter O’Toole in it, Doctor Who has pretty much gone to the dogs (in the writing department) ever since Eccleston left. The only thing holding it up really is David Tennant’s boyish charm… and big Scottish eyes. And well yes, the occasional good episode, because the last one “Blink” was actually quite a nice wee tale and those weeping angels were well spooky.

Anyway, enough of geekery.　Here are my all-time rock-n-roll heroes performing a classic (albeit not as good as Beretta):

St. Piran

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on March 4, 2007
in Ireland and Religion
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Happy Saint Piran’s Day! Way back in the Dark Ages, when Ireland was overrun with saints working miracles, raising the dead, and generally showing off and making nuisances of themselves, the High King at Tara decided saintly standards were slipping and set up some quality controls. Saint Piran, was thrown (literally “thrown” mind you) out of Ireland for not having impressive enough miracles. “Change water into wine my Royal Irish Arse! You couldn’t even make a daycent cup of tay!” Ironically, however, having been tied to a massive block of stone and cast amongst the fishes, poor Piran finally cracked the whole miracle thing and proceeded to float like a cork all the way to Cornwall where he set up home amongst the pixies and and was warmly welcomed by the pasty-munching Cornish folk. He then discovered tin, invented the Cornish flag, became drinking buddies with King Arthur and lived to be 200 years old, SO WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF HIM?

And no, I’m not making this up.

Click on this next link to see David Tennant’s video diary and a trailer for the next series of Doctor Who. Looks exciting!

July Already

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on July 2, 2006
in Teaching
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It’s July already, and England are out of the World Cup in true English style: partly by being the victim of crap refereeing and partly by being crap at penalties. “Please!” I prayed, “Don’t let it go to penalties!” but, agonisingly, it did.

Last week was mostly taken up with test preparation, and re-preparation after being informed that one of my tests was no good. Hopefully this week, being test week will be relatively easy, as I don’t have to teach so many lessons (though I have four hours in a row tomorrow morning).

And I just watched the latest Doctor Who episode. I’m very excited to see the Daleks back (Daleks AND Cybermen - that does show promise!). It looks like the Rose Tyler character is finally going to bite it as well, which is probably a good thing. Her character isn’t bad it’s just the rather cloying relationship she has with the Doctor that I can no longer bear. This constant weighty emphasis on how special their relationship is, reached it’s zenith with the Impossible Planet/Satan Pit two-parter that started so promisingly but then ended with the Doctor’s vomit inducing “If there’s one thing in the universe I believe in, it’s Rose Tyler!”. There’s just no need for it really. Overall, the second series has been a bit disappointing. The werewolf story, “School Reunion” and “Fear Her” pleased me but other than that, the writing has been a bit slack and “The Idiot’s Lantern” was written by one. Hopefully, the Daleks and Cybermen will go on a big purge and clean things up a bit. Anyway, Doctor Who is finally coming to Japan this autumn, so my friends here can finally see what I’ve been jabbering on about all this time. Here are the katakana titles http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/images/japan_logo.jpg Mind you, you have to have cable as it’s only on BS-2 (as owned by that loathsome government mouthpiece NHK) so I recommend other sources. Heh heh heh heh heh…

Recent Larks

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on May 6, 2006
in Bars and Larks
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More pictures are posted on Flickr for your perusal. Also I’ve gained my first Flickr contact (well the first one who isn’t Rik anyway). I was all excited about it for all of five minutes, especially when I realised she’s a comics artist (www.fartparty.org) but then I realised she has over 5,000 contacts already, so whoop-de-doo.

I’m pleased to report that Chris Cotter has managed to write me an email without any errors in spelling or punctuation: “Just watched the most recent Dr. Who, the one with Sarah Jane & K9. My that was a great, great, great episode. And Sarah Jane didn’t scream and get herself into trouble, like the stupid ninny she used to be.” Yes indeed, Chris. I was actually quite moved myself. Sarah-Jane Smith got all deep and growed-up: “The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it’s a world or a relationship, everything has it’s time and everything ends.” Wow. Bit of a contrast from: “Aaaaaaaaaaaaarggh! Doctor! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrghhhhh!” The writing really does seem to be getting better and better on that series. How did K9 get out of the car, though?

Last Wednesday, I went to Eiga-mura with Philippe and Hyon Ju. Eiga-mura is basically, a bunch of shabby old film-sets you can visit and watch some actors dressed up in Edo period outfits, running around having pretend fights. It’s a bit crap to be honest but I can’t complain as the tickets were free and I did get some good pics.

Philippe and I, finishing our ice-creams.
The actor 福本清三 gives it what-for.
Philippe and Hyon-Ju centre with two actors at Eiga-mura. The guy on the right is 福本清三 who played the “Silent Samurai” in the movie “Last Samurai”… So that’ll be me taking the picture then.
This lady was kind enough to supply myself, Philippe and Hyon Ju with free tickets. Ta.
Secrets…
There’s also a big Kamen Rider section for the kids. This next one’s for Kumar…
I posted some more pictures of a similar ilk on Flickr, which you can see by clicking “My Pictures” on the right of this page.

On Thursday, Hyon Ju and I went round to Suwa-san’s Temple to see if he really is a monk, and, strangely, he is. His family lives in and runs this little temple tucked away in one of the side streets right in the centre of town. One minute you’re in a busy shopping district, the next - sanctuary. There’s something very odd about sitting in a temple drinking beer and nibbling snacks. The lady behind me is called Keiko and she’s completely insane.

Thursday evening: a long promised visit to The Flying Keg with Hyon Ju, Sun Hyon, Takeshi and friends. The Flying Keg (http://keg.boo.jp/) is a superb beer emporium on the crossroads of Mikage Dori and Higashioji Dori. Here’s a picture of myself, pre-imbibification of beverages. Sadly, all post-imbibification images are somewhat blurred. This beer is a Tripel Karmeliet from Belgium. Lovely.
Just look at the range. Ah, tis a beautiful thing:
After that we went on to karaoke but I don’t remember much about that except for singing something by James Blunt and that’s just wrong.

Working at the mental clinic on Saturday morning one of the questions that came up in conversation was “If you could be the same age forever, what age would you choose?” Most people chose 21. But I’d pick my age now. In my twenties I was a bit of a daft bugger. But now I have a small measure of common sense, good friends, enough work to keep me and a very nice life thank you.

School / Doctor / Links

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on April 26, 2006
in TV and Teaching
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School
Good day today. I’ve had a bit of trouble here and there with some students seeing what they can get away with, with the new teacher, so this morning I adopted Leilani’s “give ‘em a good bollocking” approach, and changed the seating plan around too. I’m happy to report the 3rd years are under the thumb. What a relief!

Brown Sheets Up and Down the Land
I have words to say on the new series of Doctor Who (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/). The first episode, “New Earth”, was total pants. The conclusion of the story where the Doctor says “I know a bit about medicine” and produces a miracle cure by mixing up a bunch of vari-colored intravenous drips in a bucket – what’s that?

However, last Saturday’s second episode “Tooth and Claw” was back on form. You can’t beat a good werewolf story and the humor worked better this time too. Although I’m still not sure why 19th century Scottish monks would be so proficient in kung fu, I am sure that the wonderfully grisly sounds of fangs grinding meat, gristle and bone as the wolf mauled and devoured one victim after another gave lots of tiny tots up and down the British Isles horrible nightmares. Hurrah! That’s what we want!

Now for some reason in the next episode they are bringing back the Doctor’s erstwhile companion Sarah Jane Smith and the robot “dog” K9. Why would they bother? I can clearly remember watching Doctor Who in the 70’s and thoroughly despising Sarah Jane Smith. All she ever did was get into trouble and scream and wail and whine and then scream a bit more. Maybe she and Rose Tyler could have a fight. That would be good. Rose could wipe the floor with her. But then she could wipe the floor with me too.

And I’d probably like it.

And K9. Yes lovable K9. K9 was lovable in the seventies but we were young then and it was the seventies. K9 is a robot who can’t climb stairs. Click here to see how far we’ve come: http://asimo.honda.com/inside_asimo_movies.asp

By the way, if you click on this next link and then scroll down the page to where it says “ Watch a clip from the Genesis Of A Classic documentary.” and then click on that, you can see a great clip of Tom Baker being brilliant. Click here first:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2006/03/17/30405.shtml Tom Baker, by the way, hated K9. Great man.

More Links
Now, onto more important things: here are some links to blogs more interesting than mine:

This chap’s in Osaka: http://anenglishmaninosaka.blogspot.com/
This chap’s in Tokyo: http://tokyoblog.livejournal.com/

And here’s a site I thought was kind of dumb at first but after reading a bit I soon found myself hooked: http://www.unphotographable.com/

He sometimes takes actual photographs, which are quite nice too:
http://www.michaeldavidmurphy.com/port/7.shtml

And for those of you who STILL haven’t seen it, here’s that sushi video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4946101556303618610&q=sushi