The Voice Of Reason

Work's going ok. Cracked a problem yesterday with some help. It wasn't anything I was doing wrong, it was a problem with a connection from one server to another and it had to be done using a direct IP address instead of a server name. Have got quite a lot of requests on the board which is good plus a fwe other ongling projects. Training on Mondays to learn html5, css3 and PHP programming, also going well.

Mom's birthday was the 17th and we had a family party for her. We went together and bought her  Keurig coffee maker, similar to the popular Tassimo that uses a little pod or cup and makes one cup of beverage at a time. Everyone seems to be getting them and she wanted one. They're best for coffee though they do make tea and other things but for tea, I still find boiling the kettle is the best. I don't expect I'll get one until G. and i are living in the same apartment since he's a coffee drinker. My nephew's birthday was yesterday and we had another family get together on Sunday for that. Gave him the reusable filter for his Keurig that he got at Christmas. My birthday is this weekend and yet another family get together for that. My aunt's is the day after and we will have a joint party which is nice. My cousin, the one that lost his wife recently is coming over to my place on Friday to help me put my birthday bookcase together. I have to stop off and get some groceries because i promised to cook!

Also this weekend, my friend and i are going to a movie, possibly Quartet which looks wonderful. It's about a senior citizen's home for retired musicians. The ex-wife of one of them arrives and there's all sorts of friction while they are trying to put on a recital. Great ensemble cast including Pauline Collins, Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon and Andrew Sachs (That's the guy that played Manuel in Fawlty Towers!)

This is the first year i watched none of the Oscars. Usually I watch the first hour or so but i just didn't bother for some reason. I did record it and i might FF through some of it over the weekend just to see some of the musical performances and the dresses, of course! I didn't see any of the nominated best movies this year. I'm not sure what it says when I can only say I've seen four of the five nominated animated movies! Pretty much everything else that was nominated for anything I also didn't see. Last year was not a year that i managed to get to see that much in the theatres though i did download a number of films.

I've been struggling to keep up with various tv series that i've been following, mostly British things including Utopia, Being Human, Mr. Selfridge, Ripper Street, US Shameless, Big Bang Theory, and soon Grimm will be back, also Game of Thrones. On top of that is my daily Corrie and Young and Restless as well as UK Corrie. Something has to give!

Now to catch up on 2013 books below the cut
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Gosh, again no posting over a weekend. I don't often do a whole lot other than maybe get out to the grocery store or hang out with mom so there's not a lot to write about. I did finally get my curtains up this weekend and they look nice though mom pointed out that, in the photo i posted on FB, one side seems fuller than the other. Not sure if it's because one side is pushed open further or if one set is actually not as wide as the other set. I don't have the packages anymore to check. I'm going to measure them and if one set is indeed narrower, i'll have to rehang them so that i have one wide and one short panel on each side of the center. They'll balance out that way. Doh. It could just be an optical illusion.

True Blood finished the season this weekend. and HOLY CLIFFHANGER, BATMAN! That's all i'll say in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. If you don't watch it, it won't make any difference what it is anyway but if you watch and have seen it, add comments! G. and I are both gobsmacked. He's the one that persuaded me into watching the show in the first place a couple of years ago. I caught up on the first season or two that were already out at the time and now record it when each season is on.

As one show ends, another starts. Doctor Who begins on the weekend! Yay! They're showing half a season in the fall, a Christmas special, and then the rest of the season in the spring which celebrates the show's 50th anniversary but to me, it's only techincally the 50th, as there was a great gap of 15 years that it wasn't on until it was revived in 2005. It hasn't aired *continually* for 50 years like Coronation Street has, for instance ;)

Dexter starts the end of September so those two will hold me for awhile. Then Game of Thrones will start up in the spring, I think. The problem with these premium cable series is they they're only 12 episodes for a season and it's such a long wait for the next one!

The fall network television season will soon be on us, where all the American networks start their seasons, new and returning shows although Grimm has already aired two new episodes. I picked that one up last year and Once Upon a Time (i think that's what it was called) which i sort of liked and sort of didn't but kept it up to the end. Not sure if i'll go back to it. I also got hooked on Fringe which was recommended to me by girfan I think so i downloaded the earlier seasons to catch up. I'll be looking for that to come back too.

I don't watch a lot of network evening shows these days, sticking with the HBO and paytv series, and things like Doctor Who which is airing on Space, and movies of course. Sometimes i may try a couple of different shows and often the first season is good but then it just loses the plot. Glee was like that. I liked it particularly for the Sue character, the cheerleader teacher who was so mean and sarcastic and was just brilliant but they cut her part back after the first season and put way more musical numbers in and i didn't like it as well.

I might have a look at what is new coming out this fall and see if anything grabs me. The only comedy I've been watching is Big Bang Theory. Comedies tend to all run together for me. Every few years a really brilliant one starts up like BBT and it runs for quite awhile but after awhile, it kind of fizzles out. Great comedies of the past were Frasier, Cheers, Third Rock from the Sun and yes, even Friends and Seinfeld. They all had good characters and a good ensemble cast. I never got into Two and a half men though i've seen a few eps and it wasn't bad. Now that the half man is nearly a full man, though, and Charlie Sheen is off having his midlife crisis, it's not going to interest me much. I really never liked comedies with smart ass kids in them who ran the parents in circles. Which is why i used to like Roseanne. Those kids were snotty but the parents were always one step ahead of them. Oh and Will and Grace was also a really good series. One drama series recently ended that i really did enjoy was Brothers and Sisters. soapy, yes, but i liked all the characters on it. It was a good ensemble cast, i thought.

I also like British tv and between what i already like and new series that people tell me about, I can usually get my fix downloading that. Often, those series are even shorter, with just 6 or 8 episodes. Scott and Bailey is a good female-cop-detective series that's going to come back for a third season. Sometimes in Canada, Showcase will carry some of these shows a couple of years after they're on in the UK. They did that with Life on Mars which i caught a couple of times, enough to be interested to download it all. Another good series is Being Human which is about a werewolf, vampire and ghost living together. It's a bit violent and brutal but quite good. They've changed over all the characters now though, so i'm not quite sure i'll like it as much next season. We'll see.

What you also don't want is an American attempt at remaking a successful British series. It rarely works as well. I did hear that the cable series Queer as Folk ran quite awhile but I tried watching the early episodes and it just didn't quite have that edge that the original British series had. There was an American remake of Being Human too but again, that was a bit flat. They seem to want to cast the shows with beautiful magazine cover model types for one thing, and i don't know why, but even using an almost identical script, things like humour just doesn't seem to work the same way. Perhaps the way the acting styles are makes the difference. The American remake of Life on Mars started off terrible using the similar storylines but once they started on their own original stories, it wasn't too bad though mostly the casting really wasn't that good. Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt would have been a great choice 20 years ago. Unfortunately it was cancelled though they were allowed to wrap things up and finish the season. Unfortunate because they ending they chose to write was really stupid.

Canadian television has not really done much for me at all. Some of the political humour shows like This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Rick Mercer are both good. I've tried Republic of Doyle and it's ok. It's a generic detective series filmed in St. John's, Newfoundland and there are some quirky characters in it. Most new seasons of Canadian series don't start until January. I think too if you don't start watching a series from the start, often you just don't end up "getting it", starting after a season or two into it.

American network tv drama is also on the bland side when you compare it with the cable series that aren't restricted by language or nudity and can be more graphic (i.e. bloody vampire violence) and when you get used to that sort of thing, it's hard to go back unless it's top quality, not just a copy of something else that's already on.

Snow!
Mind you, i hope it doesn't last too long or it will be a pain getting home later today. I've also made plans to go to a movie tonight. Some friends are going to see the TinTin movie and I thought, why not? A nice relaxing movie on "cheap" night. It's in 3D which is a bit of a bore but oh well. I really don't find the 3D adds anything to a movie. It's a trend and a fad and I hope it passes. I reckon so many are made because the tv industry is trying to sell the 3D tvs and the dvds of this 3D movies will sell better.

Have any of you Canadians ever watched CBC's Republic of Doyle? I often though i'd try it but never got round to it. This week's season opener has Russel Crowe on as a guest star as he's friends with the producer whom he knows through Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle. I figure there will be a surge of new viewers watching because he's on it and I will probably watch too. I may even stick with it if i like it and find the back episodes. Thoughts?

( 2012 books )

2011 Books
21. Being Human: Unofficial and Unauthorised by Joanne Black
For those of you that are fans of the U.K. series, Being Human, you will probably really enjoy this as much as I did. It covers seasons 1 and 2 of the series, which has now finished season 3. I'd love to get her take on this season. Maybe she'll do another one if it goes to, as i expect, season 4! She describes the origins of the show, how they cast it and all about the pilot and the recasting for the series itself. Then she goes through each episode with a summary and her own observations and comments, including things like continuity misses, "cheers and jeers" typesof things, and background on any guest actors in that episode ("where have you seen xx before") At the end of the book, she lists various locations used for filming, what they were previously and she mentions the Being Human blog as well. It's a chatty book, and well written. Definitely a good read for fans.

I've seen some of the new U.S. version of it and it's not bad but not nearly as bloody and visceral, and the actors, especially for the Vampire and Werewolf, while again, not bad, are a tad too "boy next door", clean cut. Joanne Black describes Russell Tovey (George) as having a face that's made for worrying (which makes me laugh, because it's so true!) but the werewolf character in the US series whose name is Josh has a face that just looks a bit more bewildered. He does look like a Josh though. The vampire's name is Aidan, a node to the UK actor that plays Mitchell, Aidan Turner, and the ghost's name is Sally instead of Annie. The Herrick character in the American version is called Bishop and doesn't have nearly the insanity undertones as the original. He feels much less menacing as does the main vampire character. With Aidan Turner's Mitchell, you most definitely know that he's not a nice guy that happens to be a vampire but can be very cold and nasty when pushed.

As i said, though, the American series isn't too bad. I've only got through about 5 episodes so far, there will be a total of 13 though i think we're only up to 10 as of this week. As usual, though this isn't a bad recreation, the U.K. version is still better, darker, more violent so far.

eta....
I"ve read up on the episode summaries on the SYFY website and i'm getting the distinct impression that the US series has been cleaned up some and doesn't sound nearly so scary as the UK one could be. It's got a whiff of PC and Mitchell seems to come across and a bit more sancitmonious. I'll still watch the rest of the episodes to see if my hunch is right. Probably if you've never seen the British series, you might like it but apparently it has shown on BBC America. Why on earth do they bother recreating a good series if the original was already shown there. If it was popular enough to warrant redoing, would people even want to watch the more or less same storylines over again with different actors? Yes, ok, that's exactly what i'm doing but mainly for comparison's purpose and so i can be sanctimonious and say it's not a patch on the original ;)))

I've recorded the debut of the American version of Shameless and downloaded the first of the new season of UK Shameless. I may have to have a Shameless marathon later tonight. A UK tv writer, Ian Wylie, someone who's opinion i do respect, thinks the US version is pretty good. I remain doubtful but i'll watch it anyway. Willliam H. Macy just doesn't seem to me to be "Frank" from the show. Apparently they're using the scripts or mostly from the UK shows. I reckon the kids will be ok and i actually think Emmy Rossum as Fiona will be good too. Frank is what really makes the show, though. I think Joan Cusak is cast as the nutjob that Frank eventually (in the UK at least) gets together with, Sheila. I usually like her so hoping she'll be as full out as the UK Sheila was. Time will tell. Expect more of a review once i've watched it.

2011 books
2. Fall of Giants - Ken Follett (ebook)
This is the first of a trilogy. As such, it doesn't really "end". It feels more like the end of another chapter and you could easily turn the page for more. Having said that, it doesn't end on a "cliffhanger" either so you aren't going to sit in suspense waiting for the next of the three books.

Fall of Giants follows the ups and downs of a number of characters from various classes and countries and will, I expect, follow them and the subsquent generations through the next 100 years since this is the "Century Trilogy". It opens in the years before World War I and most of the book covers the war, it's events and it's politics as seen by officers, regular soldiers, women and traces the rise of the Soviets and the Russian Revolution.

We see life from the viewpoints of the poor in Russia and a mining village in Wales where an Earl and his family also live. We see the lives of the upper class British, a middle class man from the USA and another from Germany. All of the people that start the book off as struggling working poor work themselves up a bit by the end in various ways, mainly through politics, some by luck and the seat of their pants.

The book is heavy on politics from the "inside" (Britain, Germany, Russia and military) which might be a bit dull for some people who aren't into history, and light on romance though there is a bit of that, too. The characters seem very well thought out and drawn out and you get a very good feel for life in the various locations at that time. I have to admit that i skimmed through some of the war and battle scenes but thought that my father would have enjoyed it all. I did find the politics behind the Russian Revolution quite interesting and learned a few things about how WWI really started.

I did like the book, but it won't be to everyone's taste. If you like politics and/or history, you will enjoy it. If you like historical romance with a little bit of the above, you probably won't

Oh crap. It's happening again. The American's are remaking another British tv series. They butchered Life on Mars and let's not even discuss Coupling. This time? It's Shameless which is a brilliant UK series about a large family in a run down part of Salford, what we would call  public housing or projects. The father, Frank, is an alcholic who is pretty much useless and there are 6 kids, pretty much dragging themselves up. The first seaon had the oldest daughter, Fiona, as the mother figure since their mother had left them. Frank eventually gets involved with an agoraphobic woman, Sheila, who is mad as a box of hammers and quite a brilliant character. In the American series, being made by a cable station, Showtime, William H. Macy is playing Frank and he might be able to pull it off. He's a really good actor, low key, not flashy and with a sad-sack kind of demeanor often times. Apparently Joan Cusak is going to play Sheila as a recast. I do think she'll do the character justice as well.

The real problem comes with the child actors and the fact that American tv tends to sanitize things. Also, though there are very good actors here, i do find they don't have the same methods of delivering lines and the same subtlety as the British actors. The British sense of humour doesn't seem to translate as well either. I'm sure there are many North Americans that "get" British humour but the majority don't. I think it's probably a bit higher on average in Canada where we have a stronger connection to the U.K.  Casting is so important. Anyone that saw the US version of Life on Mars probably shuddered at the original pilot with Colm Meany as Gene Hunt. They recast most of the roles and relocated it to New York which helped a tiny bit but as good as Harvey Keitel is, he was far too old for Gene Hunt or even Gene Hunt's dad! I think if you hadn't seen the UK version, you might not have minded it so much, i suppose. The US series was cancelled and i think they may have scrambled to write an ending. It showed. It was appalling!

So ... Shameless... Having said that, i think even the UK version isn't as good as it was in the first few seasons. The focus has shifted to the Maguire family and a number of the Gallagers have grown up and left the nest. There can't be too many more seasons left. I doubt the US version will make it past one or two. Having it on a cable station might give it a bit of a chance as they can get away with a lot more profanity, nudity and political incorrectness. Time will tell.

Wouldn't you just know it? I finally get a dvr, something *everyone* says i'll absolutely *love* and i won't know how i got along with out it.... and the fucking thing seems to be a dud! It was installed on Saturday. It seemed to be ok, i recorded something, i set up a couple of series schedules. Then Saturday evening i had the sound muted for awhile and then it wouldn't un-mute. I thought i just had the wrong button pressed on the universal remote and changed that, even tried to power off and no joy. I actually had to unplug the thing to reset it. I may still have got my buttons all mixed up, i can't remember now so i'm tentatively putting that down to user error.

But Sunday evening i was working on something on the computer with the television on low. I realized it was awfully quiet and looked around to see a blank screen. Hmmm... I changed the channel.. oh good, there's picture and sound.. but wait... 30 seconds in and the screen went blank again. And continued to do that. Again i unplugged the machine and it reset itself. No more problems like that but now the dvr functionality seemed to be unavailable or disabled or something. I couldn't get through to the cable company, just sat on hold for so long that i gave up. First thing Monday morning, i tried the box again, and couldn't get into any dvr functions. I got through to the cable people straight away and she sent a reset signal to the box which usually takes 10 - 20 minutes to rebuilt the menus and things. by the time i went to work a half hour later, still no dvr functionality and no hd channels either. Rats....

I got home from work and tried it again. Same thing. After Corrie, i called up and first they restored the HD. Probably the morning reset didn't include that i guess. She sent another signal that resends the software down. Still no good. I called back an hour later and now they've set up a service call for me. Rather than wait days for an evening appointment or nearly 2 weeks for a saturday, i'll have to take this afternoon off and wait for the cable guy. Again.

This just pisses me off! Get a new "toy" and it doesn't work and it's so disappointing! Not a very good first impression, that's for sure. I'm sure i will love it once it's all sorted out. I hope they just put in a new box altogether rather than see if the current one needs adjusting because i don't really trust it now. I guess that's the beauty of renting it though, they have to fix it and i don't have to be worried about waranties or anything.

2010 Books:
19: Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
In preparation for a tv series of the book, i reread it. I haven't read it for years and there was a lot in it i had forgotten. It's the story of Tom Builder and his step son Jack, of Prior Philip and Bishop Waleran Bigod and the other villain is William Hamleigh who is a right nasty piece of work who, as you would expect, will come to a sticky end but it's almost an afterthought. It chronicles the building of a cathedral in the town of Kingsbridge during the 12th century, much of the time during the civil war between King Stephen and Queen Maud. This causes political power shifting and setbacks at various times. Also thrown in there is the downfall of Thomas Beckett as witnessed by Prior Philip which almost seems just thrown in there. The book is long and maybe it's a bit too long and puffed up by that point. I did love the story up to the last part which then just kind of drags its feet to the end.

It will be interesting to see how it comes out on the telly, what they put in and what they leave out. It seems like some decent casting for the 8 episode series. Ian McShane plays Bishop Waleran and in the trailer i saw last night I think he'll be spot on. Rufus Sewell is Tom Builder and Andrew MacFadyen is Prior Philip. He's got the right look though not so sure about a middle aged Philip, same with the person playing the villain, David Oakes so perhaps it's not going to cover quite as many years. Anyway I think it might be good and is on the Movie Network here in Canada starting July 23 with two episodes and the rest in August i think.

Provincial election day today. I forgot my voter card but i have ID so that'll be ok. Poll station is convenient, on the way home from work. I'm going to vote, are you? I don't even care how you vote (well, yes i do but it's none of my business!) but make the effort!  I overheard a young woman on the bus this morning saying she wasn't going to bother, it didn't mean anything to her. It does though. People don't realize how much that a government does that affects your daily life. Our bus fares are going up. One of the reasons is the higher cost of fuel, and aside from the world price of oil, one of the other reasons fuel is so high is the amount of taxes on it, taxes the government sets.

I haven't posted too much, not a lot to say really. We had a family birthday for my nephew on Sunday and this weekend there's a flat warming party for one of my cousins that i may go to and a graduation party for another relative. I don't know him really but it's a good reason go get together and see family that i don't see too often. A former coworker is visiting Halifax in a couple of weeks so there will be an after work drinks do to catch up with her for those of us that knew her when. She decamped to the balmy breezes of Florida and loves it there.

Season 2 of Ashes to Ashes finished last night in the UK. ( here be spoilers and speculation )

Was it very wrong of me to have a grilled cheese sandwich on cheese bread for breakfast this morning? Nah, didn't think so. It was yummy.

I've been immersed in the Halifax Explosion today, converting a tape to digital containing documentaries and a two part fictionalized mini series called The Shattered City. Not all of it was based on truth, of course, such as the German sabotage conspiracy and a few other over-dramatic exaggerations and plot devices that they yonked into it for the storytelling but the basics are true. Two ships, one containing explosives, collide in the harbour. Munitions ship catches fire and blows sky high. Pretty good special effects in the mini series and it's fun to see which real locations they used for filming. I rather think they used the waterfront area of a town like Lunenburg for the waterfront of Halifax, because it's still got wooden buildings and warehouses. (looked it up. Yep. they used Lunenburg) They incorporated some of the true stories such as the baby found in an ashcan. She was nicknamed Ashcan Annie and she grew to the advanced age of 90. Funny, too, while googling to find out about her, it turns out comedienne Joan Rivers blogged about it (third post down) after she was here a year and a bit ago. She toured around the city and found out a lot about the history and wrote about it! That's quite interesting! I think the documentaries are both quite good, one called Legacy and one called City in Ruins. I might even put them on a dvd for gramie_dee's dad for Christmas. I think he'd enjoy it.

Nice and mild out today, a bit rainy which is ok, to get rid of some of the snow, make room for more! I went out to get a few groceries and am going to make Singapore Noodles later on.

Pretty much everything is booked for the trip now, i booked the rental car the other day so there's only two train journeys to worry about. The one between Amsterdam and Brussels i think we'll just get when we get to Amsterdam. I've got an alert set up so i'll know when the tickets for London to Manchester are released (thanks zoo_music_girl). We'll be in London from Friday eveing, May 8 and on Saturday all day as well. I do hope it works out that we can see some of you!