In which there are eight notes
Tue, Apr. 26th, 2011 23:14![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gominokouhaiA post about the new Doctor Who is coming, I promise. In the meantime I'd like to talk about some old Doctor Who. And the Beach Boys. And the Archbishop of Canterbury. But mostly I'll be focusing on Doctor Who. All will become clear. I hope.
Some time ago a good friend left me a copy of some music by a band known as The Pixies, a Boston-based alt-rock ensemble, to which I've only just now got around to listening. They sound like this. They produced this in the distant past year 1990:
Listen ye and be amazed. (It's quite good.) Specif, listen and note ye how similar it is to this, of which it is a direct cover version:
I don't know anything about the Surftones other than that they're a popular beat combo, m'lud, who produced the above track in 1964. All I gots to say is this: wow, someone wishes they were the Beach Boys. (‘Surf rock’ was apparently a thing back then. So were rotary-dial telephones and casual racism. Doesn't necessarily mean I'm impressed.)
Now, those of you who have been Whofans for at least the minimum acceptable amount of time will recognize this (and if you haven't, then you should):
I remember 2005. Chris Ecclestone and Billie Piper joined hands and ran across Westminster Bridge, and it was fantastic. (Remember the handporn?) It seems fitting to know that Murray scored that by blatantly ripping off a piece of music from the distant past year 1964, when, as you'll recall, Daleks menaced that exact same bridge.
A short while ago I visited London, and was privileged to walk along Westminster Bridge. Most notably, I was privileged to walk along it while not being kettled for no good reason. On the stanchions they've got brass plaques with engraved quotations from Wordsworth, who once walked along here and admired the view, presumably without being kettled either. Personally, I was remembering those historic occasions when Billie and Nine ran along here, and when the Daleks were the Masters of Earth, the Masters of Earth, the Masters of Earth; and also those times when there was a helicopter shot of the same bridge accompanied by the House of Cards theme, or when the scenery was drawn by Gerald Scarfe. None of those people ever worried about being kettled for no good reason (including the rebels suffering under Dalek rule in subjugated London AD 2167). It was a kinder, gentler time then.
Now I'd like to draw your attention to the theme from Return of the Saint. Not the 1960s series with Roger Moore in it, but the 1970s series with Ian holy shit quick let's find somebody who looks a bit like Roger Moore
Ogilvy in it. Their theme tune went like this. It is amazing.
While you're thinking about that, I'd like to remind you what Doctor Who sounded like in the distant past year 2007:
Bear with me and try, if you can, to ignore the brass line from All the Strange, Strange Creatures. The bassline is identical. I only noticed when Murray provided a version without the brass line in it during the first episode of Season 5. It's right after Eleven tells Patrick Moore to pay attention, when Rory and Amy are driving the Mini to the Hospital (00:40:15). I once wrote fanmail to Murray Gold and asked him if this was an unconscious ripoff or a deliberate homage. I'm beginning to realise why he never replied.
I understand that there are eight notes and that, as a result, there are a finite number of permutations to which one can subject those eight notes. But I must be forgiven if I am occasionally suspicious.
While we're on the subject of cultural homages—because I'm sure that's what these are—let's just observe that Paradise Towers was a total ripoff of J. G. Ballard's High-Rise. I'm not judging. I'm just saying.
Apparently this weekend was the anniversary of some fictional (and highly unlikely) thing that didn't happen to a bloke who probably never existed, involving a story during which he was crucified and then entombed in a chocolate egg from which he escaped on the third day, or something. Apparently on these occasions the Archbishop of Canterbury is obliged to give a speech of some kind. Apparently, according to what I can tell from BBC news (about 01:07 in), the Archbish makes reference to popular culture.
It's probably unseemly to involuntarily shout woo!
from the congregation while the Archbish is giving his address. So it's probably a good thing that I was only watching the BBC stream. Nonetheless it's good to know that the cultural information flow goes both ways.
Frankly, we've always known that Rowan Williams was a leftie Who-fancying nerd. His problem is that, as chief spokesperson for a monolithic, regressive, medieval, omnipervasive, misogynistic, homophobic, repressive, anachronistic, capricious, conservative, disingenuous, perfidious organization, he's never been allowed to say so.
Since at least the 1970s, the Doctor has been swanning out of police boxen and teaching people that they were actually lefties all along. It's good to know that he's managed it with the Archbish. of Cantab. as well. As always: the Doctor shows the way.
(no subject)
Date: Wed, Apr. 27th, 2011 01:28 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Fri, Apr. 29th, 2011 08:14 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Sat, Apr. 30th, 2011 02:12 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Sat, Apr. 30th, 2011 12:08 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Sat, Apr. 30th, 2011 16:39 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Sat, Apr. 30th, 2011 16:41 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Sat, Apr. 30th, 2011 18:15 (UTC)The other possibility was that it's an issue with authentication through a Yahoo account rather than directly with Delicious---which is something that the change of ownership might fix, maybe.
(no subject)
Date: Sat, Apr. 30th, 2011 18:24 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Sat, Apr. 30th, 2011 19:08 (UTC)I would owe you several pints.
(no subject)
Date: Sat, Apr. 30th, 2011 20:55 (UTC)http://php.net/manual/en/timezones.php
and I'll have you set up momentarily.
(no subject)
Date: Sat, Apr. 30th, 2011 22:55 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Sun, May. 1st, 2011 09:34 (UTC)http://www.notzen.com/dw.php
You should just be able to go to https://secure.delicious.com/settings/blogging/posting and set yourself up.
Just stick in your DW username/password,
a url of http://www.notzen.com/dw.php
blog id and cat id should both be "1"
and then whatever time you fancy :->
Let me know if it works!
(no subject)
Date: Tue, May. 3rd, 2011 12:05 (UTC)Testing it on my own hosting worked yesterday (threw up an error but did it anyway) but not today---odd.
I'd hate to waste your cycles and I have my own hosting which ought, dammit, ought to be able to handle this. At the moment I'm at a loss.
(no subject)
Date: Tue, May. 3rd, 2011 21:24 (UTC)And don't worry about my hosting - it's shared space on a server that sits idle 98% of the time.
No article with Pixies
Date: Wed, Apr. 27th, 2011 08:41 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Fri, Apr. 29th, 2011 18:57 (UTC)I have spent the last twenty-odd years convinced that it was —thanks for clarifying that one for me—so, I hope, my aberrant Pixie-related article may be excused, or at least understood.
Besides, I like articles.