Part One:
The Ice Warriors are back! Yay! It was confirmed a little while ago that everyone's favourite Martian marauders would appear in Season 7b of Doctor Who and now, courtesy of the ever-wonderful SFX magazine, we've had our first glimpse of their updated look. As with the Daleks and the Cybermen, the production team have realised what an iconic design the original monster had, and have only slightly tweaked it, making it more modern and convincingly real. Well, as real as Martian lizard-warriors get, anyway. Please click on the picture to see larger-scale scales :-)
I wonder what Madam Vastra would think of them...?
Part Two:
I know I keep dribbling on about Bowie's return, but I am getting pretty excited about his forthcoming new album. New single The Stars ( Are Out Tonight ) is a cracking rocker, of the sort I never would have thought The Dame would produce again. OK, it may be a whinge about celebrity stalkers and paparazzi but who's more qualified to sing about such things than Bowie? A man whose every move is scrutinised and obsessed over? Just like I'm doing now? Oh, and the video stars Tilda Swinton, which is cool.
Part Three:
Spring has sprung! It's been a beautiful day here in the Shire and has certainly been a tonic for this ol' blogger who has been feeling a bit down just lately. Being the stereotypical suburbanite that I am, at the first hint of sunshine I sprinted outside to mow the lawn. ( Well, maybe not "sprinted " ) That was about as much as I could manage in my present "delicate" condition ( I sound like a Jane Austen heroine... ) so, the next thing I knew, I was falling asleep in the sunshine, listening to a robin singing. Perfect :-)
I'm cheating slightly here - this pic of Hero ( with Sarah gardening in the background and Jasper looking on from the sidelines ) is from last Spring. But you get the general idea...
Soundtrack: Dance Yrself Clean by LCD Soundsystem
The Stars ( Are Out Tonight ) by that Bowie bloke
I didn't take the Bowie song as complaining about stalkers or paparazzi so much as looking at the broader issue of celebrity worship and holding people up as a kind of royalty or even divinity because they've been in movies or whatever. But we could both be right! Just yesterday I was talking with someone about the video and mentioned that I'd seen one person say it was about retirement and another person say it was about growing old. I think the video is about forgetting who you are and trying to conform, only to have the suppressed side haunt you. Wouldn't it be great if we're all wrong and the video is actually about what it's like to have really annoying neighbors?
ReplyDeleteAnd is it just me or is Tilda Swinton made up to look like Angie Bowie?
Richard, you're probably right about the "meaning" of the video - mine was only a very superficial take on it. But then, I'm a superficial kind of guy :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd, no, it's not just you: I instantly thought of Angie when I saw Tilda in that curly wig...
I do love the two Bowie songs that have been released so far. He'll always hold a very curious place in my heart, having played Jareth, the Goblin King in Labyrinth. It was one of my favourite films as a kid!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter, Sophie, has a bit of a "thing" for Bowie in that film - Tina Turner wig, tights and all :-)
ReplyDeleteBowie does come in for some stick over his acting but, given the right role, he is capable of some pretty good performances. I'm thinking of his version of Nikola Tesla in The Prestige and, especially, his Thomas Jerome Newton in Nic Roeg's haunting The Man Who Fell To Earth. A coked-out, paranoid, reclusive Bowie was ideal for the part of the lonely alien...