No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on November 3, 2014

We are coming to the end of another season of Dr. Who. I hadn’t realized it had been that long. It seems that we just started this wacky journey with the new Doctor and it is concluding.

Most of this review is going to be behind a cut due to it is very hard to talk about it without spoilers since the whole thing was a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows.

Many many kudos to the actors especially Mr. Capaldi and Ms. Coleman. I thought this was some of the best work Ms. Coleman has done this whole season. The scene with the Doctor and the Volcano was intense. Mr. Anderson was in the difficult position of having to act without much action. Believe me it is harder to do that than pretend you are fighting Daleks.

Michelle Gomez was fun. Nothing felt out of place considering what we had seen of her before. More on her character in the spoiler section.

Nice start to the conclusion. Awaiting what happens next.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 2, 2014

Woke up at what I thought was 7:10 according to my clock. Went downstairs to find Caroline up and about. Looked at the clock on the cable box and remembered that I hadn’t reset my alarm clock so it was 6:10 not 7:10.

But that’s fine by me. I work better on standard time anyway. If daylight saving time went bye-bye tomorrow, I would not shed one tear. In fact it makes me happy that there will be light when Caroline gets up. She was happy because she thought her internal clock had reset since she tends to get up at first light and she had been getting up later due to lack of it. She is still happy because it is light outside earlier which is really isn’t since this is standard time.

I will discuss Dr. Who tomorrow. I will say that I am hoping that the second part lives up to the set up. I ask for no spoilers in comments for those who haven’t had a chance to see it for themselves.

I am stepping away from one of my current favorite fandoms because of just sheer meanness and fan entitlement. It is bad enough when it is just within the fandom, but they are taking it to the writers and the actors and that’s not really cricket. Especially the actors who say the lines that the writers write and are not, in fact, the characters they portray. Fans think that they know better and if they get exactly what they want, they tend to not be happy with the results. I think why this one is annoying me more than others is that I know people working on it in various capacities and some of the stories I have heard including fans trying to break into the sets really sets my teeth on edge. There are lines folks and a few fans seem to think they don’t exist for them.

Oh and just for the record, fandom was this screwed up BEFORE the internet allowed fans such access to the objects of their affections. It was just harder to get things in front of the people creating the material. Some of the Doctor Who discussions about John Nathan Turner makes what is said about RTD and Steven Moffat look like a child’s tea party.

I got justification that I can write and write well. I know what I am good at and where I really need to improve. Honestly I think I just need to stop being scared of showing what I am working on to others. That and find some anthologies that will allow for new(er) writers to write for. Funny thing is that I do have a number of professional sales under my belt. I also have avenues that other new(er) writers don’t have. Yes, I have connections but I don’t really use them for my advantage like I should.

Peter is doing fine at Comikaze. He has signed a lot of autographs and talked to a lot of fans. He likes the hotel he is staying at because they have a channel that shows Casablanca 24 hours a day.

Not much else going on here at Casa David. Caroline and I stayed around the house yesterday due to the wind and rain. This morning it seems to be just wind which is annoying but not wet.

Today we have a few errands to run and some laundry that needs doing. But I think we are going to keep it pretty quiet. Caroline has Tuesday off for Election Day and Peter is traveling to Mexico.

I am grateful for kitty détente.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 1, 2014

Instead I plan to write an entry to my web log once a day for a month.

I haven’t done that in a while. There was a time that I managed to make an entry every day for three months but life and other things got in the way.

So this is a month of random head clearing for me. Some of this I will make public and some of private.

I figure if I get some work done on a few writing projects, bonus for me.

I do find that writing out a blog entry sets me up for writing other things. It clears my head and gets the writing flowing.

Halloween went well.

I got the graveyard up. While I was doing it, one of our neighbors was jogging by and she told me how happy she was to see that I was putting it up. She had been taken pictures of her kids in front of it for the past 8 years.

Caroline’s make-up went well. I let her dictate how she wanted it and applied it. She was a werewolf wearing a red hood. She got together with a gaggle of her school friends and ran around the neighborhood getting lots of candy. “Best Haul Every!” was the declaration when she got home.

We gave out comic books. I love it when I hear the children leaving and being excited that they got a comic book. For some kids, I think this is their first comic that they own. I think I have extra teenagers because they have been getting comics from us for years and they like it.

If I had taken a shot every time I saw an Elsa or Anna, I would have been soused within the first hour. Best had to be the family where the dad was dressed as Christoff carrying Anna and Elsa up the steps. The girls were twins. Lots of Ninjas this year too.

Rain curtailed the flow later in the evening but we had a good turn out.

One thing I like to do is sit on the steps and watch all the groups walk by. The neighborhood is filled with the sounds of excited children and parents. It is a rather comforting sound. Helps one believe a little more in humanity.

Today I am taking a day to regroup from the whirlwind that was last week.

Tomorrow I move onto the next set of projects I need/want to do.

Dr. Who is on tonight and is the first part of the end of the season. I am looking forward to where this is all going.

I am grateful for the sounds of Halloween.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 27, 2014

This one had its good parts, its bad parts and a few WFT parts.

Part of my problem with this episode is that that there was a very interesting idea that kind of got lost in the story only to show up at the end and make things a bit confusing.

Give credit to Abigail Eames (Maebh), she managed to pull off a brilliant performance all the way through. She showed a range that most kids her age just couldn’t pull off including the reveal of the forest.

The other kids were well cast too. Seeing Danny and Clara deal with a school trip and then with a school trip with the Doctor was fun. I like how they are playing the relationship and I think Danny is cutting Clara a lot of slack.

I am grateful for the ability to pack.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 23, 2014

I have chronicled our first meeting with Mr. James Monroe Iglehart at New York Comic Con previous on this web log.

We arrange for tickets this past Sunday to finally go see Aladdin. We arranged for Caroline’s best friend to come along on the adventure as well. Caroline was over the moon that she could share this adventure with her friend.

We found out later good thing we picked this weekend since, as of next week, they are rotating actors in and out on their vacations before the holiday season and a couple of the original cast were taking next week off.

House seats are always good. We got the girls in a position so they could see the stage without a large human head blocking them. To my left was a young girl who was seeing her first Broadway show so I had both her happy reactions as well as Caroline and Friend to see.

The show is very good. It is closer to the original ideas of Aladdin. There are a number of characters and one or two songs that were scrapped from the film for various reasons that are back here. No monkeys or parrots but they are represented in their own ways.

The show flows well and James is amazing as the Genie. He looks like he is having the time of his life out there on the boards. Peter even got a shout out from the Genie from on stage.

Afterwards we were allowed backstage and I am looking around having some serious flashbacks to theaters I have worked in. The girls got to wander around and look at all the stuff and how they get that much stuff packed into a relatively small stage area and backstage area.

James joined us and we went out to dinner. A fun time was had by all. Conversation went all over the place as good conversations do. At the end of dinner the table next to us told James how much they had enjoyed his performance the night before. He took a picture with the kids and the father said that this was the perfect ending to their New York vacation.

It is nice meeting someone who is just so happy that he is performing in a role that means so much to so many. He was gracious to everyone who came up and spoke to him. You can’t help but to find yourself smiling when you are around him. We need more people like him on the planet.

We parted ways but promises to get together again.

Caroline got to tell her friends at school about her adventure the next day. They were impressed. Caroline’s friend had a good time too as did Peter and I.

I am grateful that a chance meeting at NYCC has lead where it did.

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