au weekend

[usuallyhats]

This weekend I went to Bath to see some school friends; didn't actually see much of Bath as we spent the whole time playing Trivial Pursuits and Articulate, and also we watched Stardust. I was very pleased to find I loved this film as much this time as last time, it's very traditional in some ways with the whole fantasy quest/romance plotness, but the humour and the inventiveness of the things and people they meet on the way, and how real the characters all feel gives it an extra layer of yay! right from the first bit of dialogue: "Do you want to cross the Wall?"/"Yes. Because, let's face it, it's a field."

Listened to the beginning of the Classic Serial on Radio 4, it was The Mayor of Casterbridge and I was happy giggling away at how all the characters were Marked For Sorrow etc but then we got to the scene where yer man is selling his wife and child (which I did know about in advance) and it just made me really uncomfortable and I had to switch it off. Has anyone read it? Should I have persevered? Given that I only enjoy Hardy when he's being ridiculously ridiculously overdramatic and I am mocking him?

On Sunday I made lemon cake with extra lemon and a lemon glaze in an attempt to recreate the lovely bit of cake I had last weekend on the South Bristol Art Trail, rather successfully. I also made rhubarb crumble last Thursday so my kitchen is full of yummy stuff. My brain associates rhubarb with the 1920s so this was the right time to make it. I watched The Unicorn and the Wasp on Sunday night; briefly, I thought it was funny (though most of the jokes seemed to be references to/nicked from previous episodes), the antidote sequence had me in stitches, DONNA DONNA DONNA, Fenella Woolgar needs to be in more stuff, the deaths were a bit too silly, and I guessed about yer woman's secret child and even entertained the possibility that the wasp might be it, but then went "no, that's too mad, she can't have given birth to a giant wasp". I am fairly convinced that when they got Agatha Christie into the TARDIS she woke up and didn't have amnesia at all and then they had adventures, like how H.G. Wells had many adventures with Peri and Six that time, yes? Yes. And she never told anyone because if she'd said "oh I was travelling through time and space in a police box with a woman from the future and an alien inna suit" everyone would've accused her of being mad in the brain. Then I watched the rest of the Black Orchid extras. I really wasn't expecting them to feature a Blue Peter presenter in his pants, but there you go.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

The Mayor of Caster Sugar (as it's inappropriately known to me and my sibs thanks to my brother) is a very gloomy tale (like many Hardy novels actually!) - and far from being one of my favourite Hardy tales, though I'm currently hard-pressed to think which (if any!) IS my fave. Possibly none as I prefer his depressiveness in the smaller doses that is his poetry !

Yes to Ten and Donna having moar advenchures with Agatha in those ten days (I said the exact same thing in my reaction post !)... I agree with you re. Fenella - and can understand DT's major glee at having got Andy Prior and co to finally take note of one of his casting suggestions ! And did you spot DT's dad playing the non-speaking, white-haired butler who was also handing out drinks on the lawn? Apparently he'd popped down to visit David and got co-opted... :P

[usuallyhats]

Yeah, I think Hardy's a better poet than he is a novellist - I actually enjoy his poems, whereas I tend to read his novels out in silly voices to amuse myself!

DT got them to cast Fenella? And his dad? Heeee. I do love DT, whatever my thoughts on Ten.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Hardy's a better poet than he is a novellist - I actually enjoy his poems, whereas I tend to read his novels out in silly voices to amuse myself!

*nods* It's probably the most sensible way to read Hardy's novels TBH !

DT got them to cast Fenella?

Well he suggested Fenella (having worked with her in both He Knew He Was Right (which I must find time to watch sometime soonish) and Bright Young Things) - and was completely gleeful about the fact they cast her...

And his dad? Heeee. I do love DT, whatever my thoughts on Ten.

Yeah - that was unplanned - as I said, his dad was visiting and so the production team nabbed him, which amuses me to death...

I think Ten is a lot less shattered and more whole this year, thankfully. He's still not the Doctor I'd like him to be, but he's more Doctorish...

[usuallyhats]

He is a bit more Doctorish this year, I agree. I am warming to him a little more, but I still find him a bit annoying!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I'm just wondering whether DT will be staying on after RTD leaves, now we know when RTD is going to go - I think he might be a bit lighter in Steven's hands - but then I guess that rather depends on how S4 ends...

[usuallyhats]

I hope he does stay on, actually - I'd like to see what difference a new exec producer would make. I do want to like him!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I'm the same with wanting to see how Ten works with a different exec producer in charge.

[tigerpixie.livejournal.com]

I admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the last DW, much more so than "oh, hai, this is my daughter, watch her get shot and come back to life". But then, the 1920s hold a special little place in my heart. Cream teas on the lawn in summer, croquet etc. Just seems idyllic to me. Plus, it was fun playing "Spot the Agetha Christie book title" in the various conversations!

Oh, and I can't cope with Hardy myself.

[usuallyhats]

The 1920s setting worked really well, I thought. (You might like the Fifth Doctor story Black Orchid, which is also 1920s and basically consists of our heroes playing cricket, wearing fancy dress and doing the Charleston...)

[runtling.livejournal.com]

Hardy's novels are not somethign I actually enjoy reading, myself. I adored the poetry of his I read in my Literature class in highschool, so when I found a couple of his novels on sale I bought them. Now I'm wishing I bought only one. I can't not read the books I have bought, you see. It drives me right up the wall. So if I buy a book, I will finish it, no matter how awful it is. D:

I am terribly envious of your baking ability! All I can make is chocolate haystacks, and that's becuase you don't actually bake those. x3

DW was rather a lot of fun this week, even if the end was one giant 'wtf'.
And yes, Agatha TOTALLY travelled with them, just as H.G. Wells did. <3
I am terribly fond of Timelash for a reason that is still unknown to me. xD

[usuallyhats]

I studied the novels fist, so the poetry was a nice surprise! Which books did you get? Mostly I got through them by reading them in an overdramatic voice and mocking them a bit.

I am quite fond of Timelash too! I'd heard lots about how bad it was, and then it turned out to be rather fun. The H.G. Wells bits were great.

[runtling.livejournal.com]

I got Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure.
I think I may have to read it out with mocking voices. XD That sounds like fun. XDDD

Yes, same! I expected it to be as bad as Evolution of the Daleks, but it was fun. x3 H.G. Wells literally made me squee. :D He was terribly adorable, wasn't he? :D

[usuallyhats]

Oh, Tess is great for silly voices! It's particularly overdramatic. Jude is typical Hardy "first things were bad. Then they got EVEN WORSE. Doom, gloom, chaos and despondancy" fare.

He was terribly adorable, wasn't he? :D

He was so earnest! It was lovely.

[runtling.livejournal.com]

Tess is SO over dramatic, omg. I really appreciated what Hardy was trying to say with the novel, but gah. His writing just kills me.
LMAO.
Oh, god, the way you describe that reminds me of this thing that I read in one of Kurt Vonnegut's books. He was saying that you could plot most books out on a graph. At the left side, the beginning of the story, on the right the end. There would be a line between the two points. The top part of the line would indicate good fortune on the main character's behalf, and the bottom would indicate bad fortune.
He showed how this worked with a couple stories. With Cinderella, the story starts out in the bad fortune category, and slowly goes up, as she finds her fairy godmother and all that rot. Close to the end of the graph, there was a sudden drop into 'bad fortune' (the stroke of midnight). It stays low, until the Prince comes, and the line goes upwards quickly, with an infinity symbol at the top.
Anyway, he also did one for Franz Kafka's book "The Metamorphosis", in which a rather unhappy man turns into a cockroach.
Here (http://homepage.mac.com/languageismycopilot/gerry/vonnegut.jpg) is the graph.
... And yeah, your description of Jude reminded me of it. XD.
And I rambled on a lot. Sorry! XD

I want to rewatch Timelash now. :D :D :D

[usuallyhats]

Heh, yeah, that graph would about sum Jude up! Which Vonnegut book is that from?
Oh, Tess. "We were alll born under a blighted star" and so on. Luckily I was studying it with like minded people...

[runtling.livejournal.com]

XDDD
It's from one of his collections of essays. Palm Sunday, I think. :3

Lucky, haha. X3

At least now I'm prepared to read Jude! x3

[usuallyhats]

Ah, I'll have to check that one out...

At least now I'm prepared to read Jude! x3
Forewarned is forearmed!