"The train is coming / The train is coming / So get on board / Get on board / Get on board"
I haven't posted anything lately, but I've been writing the newest fic in the And Yet, Hayama Hayato Can Still Surprise series and it's going long.
+++
For the most part I enjoyed "World Enough and Time" and "The Doctor Falls," with their many nods to old-school Doctor Who, some of which I didn't even catch until I read the comments left on the episode reviews at the AV Club. Ancient-style Cyberman, with the body horror amped up to eleven. With my own medical history, I was especially creeped out by the "Pain! Pain! Pain!" and medical patient aspect of them. Poor Bill. The different time zones on the ship due to the black hole. Two incarnations of the Master interacting... and killing each other! (Reading the AV comments that the Simm Master was so manic to be a reflection of the Tenth Doctor makes me feel better about some of his past behavior, which hadn't worked for me as being truly Master-like; Missy was so obviously a mirror reflection of the Capaldi Doctor that I didn't need the help to see it.) Simm with a goatee at last! Of course the Simm Master befriends Bill and betrays her horribly, is in disguise, and is helping a plot that involves turning organic beings into twisted metal monstrosities. Two incarnations of the Doctor, both of them old cranky ones! I can't wait for the Christmas episode to see more of them together.
Fan talk led me to expect the deus ex machina solution to Bill's state but it still didn't sit right with me. Maybe it would've worked better if Bill and Heather had more of a relationship before Heather was turned into the Pilot but they barely knew each other. Heather was more of an idea to Bill than a person she actually knew.
I'm going to miss Capaldi so much. He deserved better writing throughout his tenure.
+++
I've been trying to bring my physical condition up by walking a lot more, adding miles to my weekly tally, and using finding and gaining stuff in PoGO as an excuse. With the heat, which gets worse in my bedroom at night and into early morning, my head has been hurting enough, sometimes even with air conditioning on, that I haven't been sleeping so I go out for walks at night. Window displays in Manhattan have been sad so I've just been walking my own neighborhood instead of putting more mileage on my fragile car as much. (Though I had such an enjoyable ride before and after a visit to Flushing Meadows Corona Park Friday evening with the windows and moon roof open and Depeche Mode's Spirit blasting from my stereo.) My neighborhood is suburban enough and has a large park several blocks away, so I enjoy and meditate with nature, enjoying the cool breeze, the perfumey/sweet/nearly fruity scent of linden tree flowers, the *shush* of wind through the leaves, the deeper-toned *shush* of cars driving the local roads and the LIE, and sometimes watching the sun rise. The world can be a beautiful place.
My body being my body, all this walking has hurt my right knee. My body hates exercise so much. I've gotten an exercise high maybe five times in my entire life, and three of them were from playing court hockey so hard and exuberantly in gym classes in high school that my face went magenta. I don't feel better or stronger no matter how much I work at it.
I'm not appreciating all the many itchy insect bites my long outdoor walks have gotten me either. Apparently I'm delicious.
+++
Speaking of Spirit, I'm enjoying it a lot, though it took a few listens to really register with me, something that's happened with the last few Depeche Mode albums. In fact, my favorite song on it is one that made no impression on me in the first listen, "Cover Me." (I enjoy the sound of it but also, strangely, how specific the starting words are: "I've felt better / I've been up all night / I can feel it coming / The morning light / The air is so cold here / It's so hard to breathe / We better take cover / Will you cover me?...") The songs kind of... bloom over repetitions. The album is a great listen on headphones, when all the complexities in the soundscape are more obvious. Their repertoire here includes old rock and roll, some country guitars, and some stuff that sounds like old movie backgrounds. I wonder if the return of the "Personal Jesus"-style guitars on "Where's the Revolution" is meant as a deliberate link for lyrical content.
Reviewers on Amazon.com are fairly split on Spirit, some for reasons I sneer at. Some of the haters are angry at how political some of the songs are--a few might as well be Brexit (and Possibly Trump Fans): the Album--as if the band hasn't always put out a political song now and then. There are complaints that it's dark and not really fast and bright; dudes, this is Depeche Mode! And the thing that makes me sneer the hardest: Depeche Mode isn't putting out exactly the same music it did in the 1980s.
But Spirit has a better overall rating than Linkin Park's newest album, One More Light, which I'm less surprised by since OML is very pop and barely rock at all. Also, LP fans hating on the new direction of their latest album over at Amazon is a long-running show, one I enjoy in a sadistic way. I'm not thrilled by how Top 40 the album sounds either, especially since the... caramel of Chester Bennington's singing voice stands out best to me over harsh music while pop sounds with his voice is just too much caramel. Plus, there's a Chipmunk voice effect that briefly shows up in a few songs that wears on my nerves. But Linkin Park still makes music I love to sing along to. By this point, fans should no longer be surprised that Linkin Park isn't putting out nu metal songs since it's been about ten years of that now.
But considering the number of people who keep saying Depeche Mode should put out the same music as they did 30 years ago, Linkin Park probably shouldn't expect their fans' complaints to end either.
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost.
comments at Dreamwidth.
+++
For the most part I enjoyed "World Enough and Time" and "The Doctor Falls," with their many nods to old-school Doctor Who, some of which I didn't even catch until I read the comments left on the episode reviews at the AV Club. Ancient-style Cyberman, with the body horror amped up to eleven. With my own medical history, I was especially creeped out by the "Pain! Pain! Pain!" and medical patient aspect of them. Poor Bill. The different time zones on the ship due to the black hole. Two incarnations of the Master interacting... and killing each other! (Reading the AV comments that the Simm Master was so manic to be a reflection of the Tenth Doctor makes me feel better about some of his past behavior, which hadn't worked for me as being truly Master-like; Missy was so obviously a mirror reflection of the Capaldi Doctor that I didn't need the help to see it.) Simm with a goatee at last! Of course the Simm Master befriends Bill and betrays her horribly, is in disguise, and is helping a plot that involves turning organic beings into twisted metal monstrosities. Two incarnations of the Doctor, both of them old cranky ones! I can't wait for the Christmas episode to see more of them together.
Fan talk led me to expect the deus ex machina solution to Bill's state but it still didn't sit right with me. Maybe it would've worked better if Bill and Heather had more of a relationship before Heather was turned into the Pilot but they barely knew each other. Heather was more of an idea to Bill than a person she actually knew.
I'm going to miss Capaldi so much. He deserved better writing throughout his tenure.
+++
I've been trying to bring my physical condition up by walking a lot more, adding miles to my weekly tally, and using finding and gaining stuff in PoGO as an excuse. With the heat, which gets worse in my bedroom at night and into early morning, my head has been hurting enough, sometimes even with air conditioning on, that I haven't been sleeping so I go out for walks at night. Window displays in Manhattan have been sad so I've just been walking my own neighborhood instead of putting more mileage on my fragile car as much. (Though I had such an enjoyable ride before and after a visit to Flushing Meadows Corona Park Friday evening with the windows and moon roof open and Depeche Mode's Spirit blasting from my stereo.) My neighborhood is suburban enough and has a large park several blocks away, so I enjoy and meditate with nature, enjoying the cool breeze, the perfumey/sweet/nearly fruity scent of linden tree flowers, the *shush* of wind through the leaves, the deeper-toned *shush* of cars driving the local roads and the LIE, and sometimes watching the sun rise. The world can be a beautiful place.
My body being my body, all this walking has hurt my right knee. My body hates exercise so much. I've gotten an exercise high maybe five times in my entire life, and three of them were from playing court hockey so hard and exuberantly in gym classes in high school that my face went magenta. I don't feel better or stronger no matter how much I work at it.
I'm not appreciating all the many itchy insect bites my long outdoor walks have gotten me either. Apparently I'm delicious.
+++
Speaking of Spirit, I'm enjoying it a lot, though it took a few listens to really register with me, something that's happened with the last few Depeche Mode albums. In fact, my favorite song on it is one that made no impression on me in the first listen, "Cover Me." (I enjoy the sound of it but also, strangely, how specific the starting words are: "I've felt better / I've been up all night / I can feel it coming / The morning light / The air is so cold here / It's so hard to breathe / We better take cover / Will you cover me?...") The songs kind of... bloom over repetitions. The album is a great listen on headphones, when all the complexities in the soundscape are more obvious. Their repertoire here includes old rock and roll, some country guitars, and some stuff that sounds like old movie backgrounds. I wonder if the return of the "Personal Jesus"-style guitars on "Where's the Revolution" is meant as a deliberate link for lyrical content.
Reviewers on Amazon.com are fairly split on Spirit, some for reasons I sneer at. Some of the haters are angry at how political some of the songs are--a few might as well be Brexit (and Possibly Trump Fans): the Album--as if the band hasn't always put out a political song now and then. There are complaints that it's dark and not really fast and bright; dudes, this is Depeche Mode! And the thing that makes me sneer the hardest: Depeche Mode isn't putting out exactly the same music it did in the 1980s.
But Spirit has a better overall rating than Linkin Park's newest album, One More Light, which I'm less surprised by since OML is very pop and barely rock at all. Also, LP fans hating on the new direction of their latest album over at Amazon is a long-running show, one I enjoy in a sadistic way. I'm not thrilled by how Top 40 the album sounds either, especially since the... caramel of Chester Bennington's singing voice stands out best to me over harsh music while pop sounds with his voice is just too much caramel. Plus, there's a Chipmunk voice effect that briefly shows up in a few songs that wears on my nerves. But Linkin Park still makes music I love to sing along to. By this point, fans should no longer be surprised that Linkin Park isn't putting out nu metal songs since it's been about ten years of that now.
But considering the number of people who keep saying Depeche Mode should put out the same music as they did 30 years ago, Linkin Park probably shouldn't expect their fans' complaints to end either.
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost.
comments at Dreamwidth.