What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
(and remember, you can always e-mail me if you love or loathe anything you're about to read)...


   Wednesday, March 07, 2007

   DECONSTRUCTION

After all the boosting I did for the premiere of Torchwood last fall, it would seem a bit odd that I never brought it up again, no? Well, picking on it would be like hitting a puppy that's just peed on the carpet. It just didn't know any better.

It's not that Torchwood was bad, per se -- the first two episodes were fine, the last two terrific, but there were nine in the middle that ran the gamut from interesting to dreadful. It's as though the show that was billed as 'Doctor Who for adults' was so bent on matching its parent's incredibly-flexible storytelling format that it forgot to establish any kind of identity first.

Episodes included a police investigation into a decades-old rape/murder case, a Texas Chainsaw Massacre gorefest, a quirky mystery involving the ghost of a bumbling loser, a Fight Club with aliens, and a couple of doomed love affairs -- one straight, one gay. The writers were so busy showing how Torchwood could do anything that it didn't always do it well.

All of this would be forgivable if the characters weren't having the same problem. 51st-century omnisexual con man Captain Jack Harkness had made a great foil for the upright and asexual Doctor, mainly due to the great charm of John Barrowman, who turned a character that could've been smug and smutty (especially on a children's show!) into someone heroic, endearing and fascinating. Giving Jack his own show, turning him loose on modern times, was a saucy and hilarious idea but, as leader of Torchwood, Captain Jack was suddenly solemn and angst-ridden. Being trapped on Earth had apparently given him a joy-ectomy.

As for the rest of the gang, this group of super-secret alien hunters working "outside the government, beyond the United Nations" displayed some maddeningly-stupid behaviour. These five nitwits are responsible for the fate of mankind? That was the scariest thing on the show! Burn Gorman's character was staggeringly unlikable yet dominated the screentime, while Naoko Mori was given nowhere near enough to do. Ditto for cute Welsh actor Gareth David-Lloyd whose character proved most frustrating. He blames Jack (in part) for the death of his girlfriend in episode four and is seen mourning her in the next three episodes. Then, in episode eight, there's a last scene with some heavy innuendo that he and Jack are having sex. Their romance seems to carry on from there. Normally, I'd be pleased but I just can't stop thinking, where did THAT come from?

I suppose it was inevitable that a show that promised to fill the TV void left by The X-Files, Angel AND Queer as Folk could only disappoint, but it's painful to watch a show you want to love but can't quite (I'm having a similar issue with Battlestar Galactica this year). I think a lot of Torchwood's problems come from the fact that it was rushed onto our screens in a fit of enthusiasm following the massive success of Doctor Who. Despite everything I've said, the spin-off was a ratings hit of its own, thankfully, so there will be a second season in January 2008. I'm hoping the extra time will allow the writers to tighten up the scripts. Sure, it's just TV but, with shows like BSG and Heroes raising the bar on this kind of stuff (and, in the latter case, in a big way), we fanboys just want Torchwood to work. Right now, the 'show for adults' is more of a show for 15-year-olds -- I suppose there's nothing wrong with that but, with the talent Torchwood has behind it, they really should aim higher.

But just to show there's no hard feelings, to prove that I really do love the strange little show, I edited together another one of my YouTube bits -- consider it the sports highlight reel:



Now here's a silly postscript: I edited that to one of those angst-rock songs by The Calling that somehow seemed to fit perfectly with the theme of the show but, after doing so, I played around with iTunes and found other songs of a similar length. Since your average pop song format is pretty strict -- verse-chorus-verse with a 4/4 beat -- I turns out that a disturbing number of songs fit my little trailer quite well! I tried out Queen, AC/DC (ha ha) and Franz Ferdinand, before getting loopy with Ella Fitzgerald, the Sex Pistols, a James Bond song and, of course, the requisite Big Gay Version.

After all that, I got frightened and had to stop. It's fun to see how a different tune can completely alter the mood and pace of the imagery but more than a little depressing to see how Lego-like all this video and music have become. One more reason to hope a Welsh sci-fi bisexual cop show can break the mold!

Labels: Doctor Who, MeTube, music, TV

Since I posted my little "Cybermen/Pet Shop Boys" creation on YouTube, I've received a couple dozen positive comments and nearly 150 people have added it to their 'favourites' list, but nothing compares to yesterday's 'Pet Text' on the official Pet Shop Boys site:

20 February 2007
A friend has drawn our attention to two unofficial videos on YouTube for "Integral" and "I made my excuses and left". We quite like them.

I think that's the highest possible praise you can get from the British. I'm thrilled! I got my Nightlife CD signed by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe in 1999, amidst the usual throng of other people, but Neil took a minute to chat with me. This mention on their site is almost as exciting.

Labels: Doctor Who, England, MeTube, Pet Shop Boys, TV

Congrats!

-- Reply posted by  The Guy in DKNY at February 21, 2007

 

What a coup! Nicely done, Scott.

-- Reply posted by  Whisky Prajer at February 22, 2007

 

Heee heeee! Wondrous!
Good to see increasing public recognition of your lively personal genius. Haul out the tea!

-- Reply posted by  James at February 24, 2007

 

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Now that cheap editing software has made it simple for even Luddites like me to tinker with songs and movies, while the Internet has made it simple to broadcast the results, the "mash-up" is becoming a great source of fun and fascination. There are legal issues, financial issues, ethical issues and artistic issues, all wrapped up in one clever little mp3 or YouTube.

As always, first comes the silly: I once heard a track that put Tom Jones' vocals from "Kiss" over "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. It was literally better than both songs put together. Then the track that used the Dandy Warhols' guitar riffs to turn the cheesy dance song "Horny" into something joyous. Then the mash-ups got smarter. In 2004, The Grey Album's controversial-but-brilliant blend of the Beatles' White Album and Jay-Z's The Black Album (duh!) by DJ Danger Mouse was banned, while American Edit from 'Dean Gray' performed a public service by revealing exactly where the chord changes in Green Day's American Idiot came from (Oasis, the Doctor Who theme and, whoa, Glen Campbell -- who knew?).

A San Francisco DJ calling himself Earworm has practically conquered the bastard genre, with songs comprised of over a dozen others. My favourite is "Stairway to Bootleg Heaven" which puts (get ready) Laurie Anderson, the Art of Noise, Eurythmics, the Beatles, Pet Benatar, the Beastie Boys and Dolly Parton(!) through the wringer. As Truman Capote famously said of Jack Kerouac, "That's not writing, that's typing." In true open-source tradition, Earworm has published a mash-up how-to guide so others can play in the sandbox as well. But will he share the profits from his book? That's what artists and the record companies would like to know.

Assuming their opposition is more than merely financial (I'm generous that way), I assume record companies are upset at how easily these kind of remixes reveal the limitations of pop music. Let's face it -- most rock and pop tracks really DO sound the same and are easily blended. But didn't the mighty Ramones teach us that back in the late '70s? They took their parents' classic pop-rock style, sped it up and spit it back at them. They recorded an album with girl-group guru Phil Spector, for Joey's sake! Mash-ups are just the latest way of showing that pop culture is just a stack of Lego bricks. There's lot of colours and shapes but they can all fit together. Every kid has played with Lego, I think every kid should play with Lego, and some of them turn out to be architects because of it.

And if not? Well at least they're having fun. There's a UK outfit called Thriftshop XL that does great tweaks of music videos. They've sent Justin Timberlake back to 1992 and made a strong case for the Knack suing Franz Ferdinand, with Run-DMC as the lawyers. And then there's this -- a track so gloriously silly, I can't get enough of it:



Is a track like this an act of destruction or creation? Perhaps the best recent example was the now-legendary re-edited trailer for The Shining that stripped away the horror elements and added happy audio to make Stanley Kubrick's film seem like a family comedy. I discovered a pair of YouTube bits that hilariously pit Doctor Who against his most terrifying foe -- the French -- and make the high-seas hero Horatio Hornblower campier than Liberace. What was once some of my favourite TV is now something I'll have a hard time watching without snickering. Again, are these edits acts of vandalism -- or creativity?

I ask these questions because I'm now as guilty as anyone. Since discovering video editing software, I've been playing with the Lego bricks, too. The results have been quite cute (a jolly tribute to the original and still best Queer as Folk), rather peculiar (a Cyberman video for the Pet Shop Boys' sinister track "Integral") and now somewhat unsettling. Where the notion came from, I simply have no idea, but I felt compelled to combine Terry Gilliam's dark masterpiece on bureaucracy and terrorism with the bombastic giddiness of (God help and forgive me) the Electric Light Orchestra -- it's "Mr. Blue Sky Goes To Brazil":



And this is where the debates came in. Did I just ruin a brilliant film with musical cheese? Or did I taint a beloved '70s pop tune with creepy imagery? Or both? Could I be sued for this? Don't I deserve to be? Or will anyone just appreciate it for the peculiar and silly trifle it is?
Questions, questions...

Labels: MeTube, music, technology

In all my TV-party glee yesterday, I never stopped to consider the lives of those without high-speed Internet. For them, YouTube is a torture. Hell, even my "ultra high-speed" service chokes up on them from time to time.

With that in mind, here's the links to the stuff I've posted lately:

Videos I've created

Thursday, September 22, 2006
Me and my little dog hit the streets

Doctor Who: 43 years, 10 Doctors, 5-and-a-half minutes
The greatest TV show ever, in a nutshell

Integral: Pet Shop Boys vs. Cybermen
The British government's ID scheme gets a sci-fi disco takedown

Videos I've posted

Pet Shop Boys: It's a Sin
live from the Hummingbird Centre, October 11

Nina Simone: Feeling Good
The way-cool promo for Six Feet Under season four

Nina Simone: If You Knew
A beautiful little gem

Stephen Colbert: The Word
Republican scandals explained with Russian dolls

Lily Allen: LDN
A delightful-yet-grim ode to London

Dane Cook: What men really want
It makes a kind of sense

Dancing
Where the hell is Matt?

D'Agostino supermarkets
Move closer!

Russell T. Davies on Torchwood
Starts Sunday! Can't wait!

Torchwood BBC 3 promo
Have I mentioned this?

Philip Olivier on Hollyoaks: In the City
It's not a crush, it's true love!

South Park: Trapped in the Closet
The boys take down Tom Cruise and the 'Church'

Jesus Camp
This lady keeps me up at night

The Daily Show: Tangled Up in Bleu
Jason Jones discusses gays in the military

Scissor Sisters: I Don't Feel Like Dancing
The '70s in a blender -- gorgeous!

Keith Olbermann: September 11th commentary
The man's on fire, and so very necessary

Labels: Doctor Who, England, MeTube, music, Pet Shop Boys, silliness, TV

Now if there was just some way to mash-up Tegan footage with the good Doctor...

BTW, I think I recognize the look on your face as you answer the phone (heh heh).

-- Reply posted by  Darrell Reimer at October 20, 2006

 

Cybermen and Pet Shop Boys! Simply delicious, Scott!

-- Reply posted by  Christos Tsirbas at October 20, 2006

 

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I fear YouTube is making me soft.

For a man who calls himself a writer, there's been precious little writing lately! While I love my new job, I also worry that most of my energy has been going into improving the work of others rather than my own. I get home and there's nothing left. Plus, like I said, making these little YouTube clips has been great fun, a terrific distraction. It had to stop. So I decided to hold a little TV party here, showing you the stuff I've loved lately, before I hunker down and start working on the next article.

First up, I was blue for a day because a perfect storm of work, schedule and money conflicts kept me from catching the Pet Shop Boys' visit to Toronto last week. Having seen them twice now soothed the sting, but along comes a YouTuber named uccbob who apparently recorded the entire show in little 2:57 bursts. Shame about the sound but hey, look at that stage set...



The link I'd posted to a Six Feet Under promo a couple years back is long gone, so coming across it again feels like a little present. It's the only ad not included on the DVDs but, more importantly, it's a cool blast of Nina Simone...



This of course left me wanting more, and this one's a tiny gem...



I adored Stephen Colbert's brilliant visual aid explaining the media's coverage of Republican political scandals (Josh Marshall has been keeping a list of indictments and wow, it's even bigger than I thought!)...



Pixieish singer Lily Allen's new ode to London is utterly delightful and completely depressing at the same time -- just like the city itself...



There are smarter, funnier comics than fratboy Dane Cook but do they fight monkeys? I didn't think so...



I think everyone on Earth has now seen Matt dancing everywhere on it but, in case you haven't, give the guy a cheer...



I'll never travel that much, sadly, but my name is well-known in New York City, thanks to the D'Agostino supermarket chain. Move closer!



In a follow-up to my last post, here's Russell T. Davies talking about Torchwood -- I love that a guy writing a sci-fi show is so set on telling stories about ordinary people. I find his enthusiasm endearing and infectious...



And finally, my own little creation. I actually got an e-mail from someone who loved my Doctor Who video and asked me to make more! Flattered, I began thinking of a stream of Who videos I could craft but reason thankfully kicked in. While I would've absolutely adored and exhausted all this YouTube video editing stuff when I was a repressed and dorky teen, these days, I do have a life (okay, sort of). I just don't have the time.

So I decided to take everything I love about Doctor Who -- the character, the show, the institution -- and cram it all into one clip. Whether you love it, laugh at it or don't have a clue, consider this a tribute, a warning or a primer. I called it 43 years, 10 Doctors, 5-and-a-half minutes and it does what it says on the tin:



That's it! I'm spent! No more TV!
Well, except for Heroes, which Josh tells me I should be watching.
Oh, and Dexter, which looks nastily funny.
Oh, and Lost Of course.

Sigh.

Stephen King says that people are always asking him where he gets his ideas. I want to know how he writes 1400-word novels every month and still finds time to write essays on Veronica Mars!

Labels: Doctor Who, England, MeTube, music, Pet Shop Boys, Trawna, tributes, TV, writing

Since discovering the joys of YouTube, I've edited together a Doctor Who Pet Shop Boys video and slapped up a Daily Show clip of Jason Jones. Playing around with other people's videos just left me wanting to make my own, however, so I decided to bring along the camera on my last day working for the architects. Thursday, September 22 also happened to be the last day of summer, giving the whole thing a bittersweet quality, so I decided to jazz it up a little with some Shirley Bassey. Oh, enough explaining -- just watch!

Labels: introspective, MeTube, music, Tegan the Jack Russell Terrorist, working girl

That was fantastic!

-- Reply posted by  The Guy in DKNY at October 12, 2006

 

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