I’ve had this post, about the Doctor Who series four finale, sitting on the server as a draft for a while now, but I didn’t get around to fully forming and posting it until now. I held off on finishing it until well after the US air date for the episode in question, which would have been very nice of me if I had done that on purpose. (I saw it on the UK air date through other means.)

I’m pretty new to the show–I only started watching this spring when the past season of Battlestar Galactica was winding down, and AJ and I sat down early to watch, catching the tail end of the 2007 Christmas special, which I found great fun despite the presence of Kylie Minogue and some really stupid robot villains.

On even the shallowest, least geeky level, you’ve got a British dude with artfully ruffled hair wearing a tuxedo and Chucks and saving the Earth by piloting a flaming nuclear spaceship–oh, sit me down every Friday night for that, my friend.

I was hooked, and mainlined the first three seasons in under a week. It was a really amazing feat of pop culture gluttony rivaled only by my “Sports Night” phase or maybe the time in grad school when I had to watch a “Wallace and Gromit” short every night before going to bed.

Anyway, I enjoyed “The Stolen Earth”/”Journey’s End.” It made me think about storytelling and fanservice, how Russell T. Davies writes wonderful television but terrible sci-fi, and how the current incarnation of the Doctor is an angst-addicted outer space jackass.

Real spoilers, for those who care, behind the cut.

Read the rest of this entry »

The casting notes are really what makes this article.

Soderbergh In The Park To Stage Production Of ‘Ocean’s Twelve’

According to Kline, even the most seasoned Soderberghian actors were nervous about tackling Ocean’s Twelve.

“Soderbergh is never easy,” Kline said. “I remember when I first saw Ocean’s Twelve. I didn’t get why the jokes were funny, it was way too long, and the plot was so incomprehensible that I nearly walked out of the theater.”

“But since then, I have come to appreciate the scope of the piece,” he added. “Though I admit that even after extensive study, the ending still remains a mystery to me.”

At the corner of Wolf and Sand Creek Roads in Colonie, an empty store in a strip mall. Used to be a weight loss business, now closed. What’s going in its place?

There’s nothing I can really add to this.

My car is just old enough to not have keyless entry. (Or a CD player, but I like it that way.)

So I probably wouldn’t find this so funny if I didn’t find myself saying, “uh, it’s open” so often to passengers who stare at me expectantly with their hands on the door handle, waiting for the chirp.

When I moved here in 2006, I claimed the part of the backyard under the fire escape as my vegetable garden, with varying levels of success each year.

But I’m not just growing tomatoes in my tiny backyard. I’m growing tomatoes with cleavage. You shouldn’t expect any less from me.

Are there any words in that title that are not awesome? (Hint: there are not.)

The New York Hamster House is having a baby boom of epic proportions. I thought I had a hard time finding homes for seven pups. Thirty is a nice big pile of cute, but a lot of adoptions!

I wish I lived closer so I could help by adopting or fostering or whatnot.

I think my mail carrier has it in for me, but in a weird and passive-aggressive way.

Every time it rains, I come home to discover that my mailbox, which opens from the top, has been left open and my mail is soaked.

When it is not raining, the mailbox is closed.

I really am posting a lot today, but I had to share these.  Webcam photos of Zach from tonight.

This is Teddy the bear. He is not very creatively named. I’ve had him since before I was born. I think he came from the baby shower that my dad’s office had for him. Well, for me. The bear is here with me in Albany now.

On my last trip home before the Big Garage Sale that emptied out the house, we were putting things in piles as fast as we could, and trying to figure out how much I could fit in my car. Teddy, along with almost all of my stuffed animals, went in the garage sale pile….

Somehow Teddy made it from that pile to the trunk of my car. Personally, I think he stowed away.