Dear "Auntie", I'm happy to pay the license fee right now.
Last week's Dr Who was awesome on any number of levels. Bill Nighy was amazing in his cameo and his speech at the end was moving in any number of ways. First the whole wish-fulfillment thing for Vincent and yes we were pretty much all leaky around the edges here (and damn that's twice in one season. Good heavens!) Second, his comments about how Van Gogh had turned his depression into an astonishing outpouring of art.
I'd never looked at it that way before. I'd always seen van Gogh's paintings as somehow kind of messy and undisciplined. Having suffered from depression myself (twice as Post-natal and once not) I find that quite astonishing.I have no idea if an artistic temperament is linked to depressive tendencies (see sheafrotherdon's post on Megan Lindholm's blog on this) but the notion at least has some currency when you look at all the poets/artists/authors and comedians whose lives have been blighted by unshakably dark days.
Anyway considering my own experience; where getting through the minimum required tasks just to keep the household and children afloat alone seemed to consume my entire wretched existence, doing all this art is simply stunning. So I shall go and look at Vincent's works again with a perhaps more sympathetic eye.
Also the night time scene where the producers segued the night sky into one of Vincent's paintings was visually stunning. "Starry, starry night" indeed. The recreation of turn of the century Provence was blinding too.
And a monster that wasn't. Never mind the oblique references to the Tardis-as-Universal-translator, or as lil_shepherd put it so aptly "Tardis-as-Babelfish."
All this originality in one programme.
Take that together with the wondrous "How the Earth made us" (go see the Crystal caves segment, it's up on YouTube and watch as a breathless Geologist walks along a translucent Gypsum crystal here
and the BBC just earned it's keep as far as I'm concerned.
The Chelsea flower show coverage wasn't bad either...
And in that spirit, here's some garden shots to lift the spirits:
Some bumblies happily foraging on Chive flowers in my herb bed.
My Hostas of Doooom...
Blue Moon
I'd never looked at it that way before. I'd always seen van Gogh's paintings as somehow kind of messy and undisciplined. Having suffered from depression myself (twice as Post-natal and once not) I find that quite astonishing.I have no idea if an artistic temperament is linked to depressive tendencies (see sheafrotherdon's post on Megan Lindholm's blog on this) but the notion at least has some currency when you look at all the poets/artists/authors and comedians whose lives have been blighted by unshakably dark days.
Anyway considering my own experience; where getting through the minimum required tasks just to keep the household and children afloat alone seemed to consume my entire wretched existence, doing all this art is simply stunning. So I shall go and look at Vincent's works again with a perhaps more sympathetic eye.
Also the night time scene where the producers segued the night sky into one of Vincent's paintings was visually stunning. "Starry, starry night" indeed. The recreation of turn of the century Provence was blinding too.
And a monster that wasn't. Never mind the oblique references to the Tardis-as-Universal-translator, or as lil_shepherd put it so aptly "Tardis-as-Babelfish."
All this originality in one programme.
Take that together with the wondrous "How the Earth made us" (go see the Crystal caves segment, it's up on YouTube and watch as a breathless Geologist walks along a translucent Gypsum crystal here
and the BBC just earned it's keep as far as I'm concerned.
The Chelsea flower show coverage wasn't bad either...
And in that spirit, here's some garden shots to lift the spirits:
Some bumblies happily foraging on Chive flowers in my herb bed.
My Hostas of Doooom...
Blue Moon